they answer That those who made them were theeves murtherers had no power so to alienate the common Good of the Kirk They desire that all such Estates may be anulled and avoided that all Collectours appointed by the King or others may be discharged from intermedling therewith and the Deacons permitted to collect the same yea to that height of madnesse were they come as to define and determin in their Assembly judge whether it be not a modest constitution for a Synod That the next Parliament the Church should be fully restored to its Patrimony and that nothing should be past in Parliament until that was first considered and approved Let all Estates take notice of theâ—…e pretensions and designs If their project have not yet taken effect it is onely becauâ—…e they wanted sufficient strength hitherto to accomplish it Lastly by their own Authority under the specious title of Jesus Christ King of kings and Lord of lords the onely Monarch of his Churcâ—… and under pretence of his Prerogative Royal they erected their own Courts and Presbyteries in the most parts of Scotland long before they were legally approved or received as appeareth by their own Act alledging that many suites had been made to the Magistrate for approbation of the Policy of the Kirk which had not taken that happy effect which good men would crave And by another act acknowledging that Presbytertes were then established Synodically in most parts of the Kingdom And lastly by the Act of another General Assembly at Edenburg ordaining that the Discipline contained in the acts of the General Assembly should be kept as well in Angus and Mernis as in the rest of the Kingdom You see sufficiently in point of practice how the Disciplinarians have trampled upon the Laws and justled the civil Magistrate out of his Supremacy in Ecclesiastical affairs My next task shall be to shew that this proceeds not from Inanimadvertence or Passion but from their Doctrine and Principles First they teach that no persons Magistrates nor others have power to Vote in their Synods but onely Eccl siâ—…tical Secondly they teach that Ecclesiastical persons have the sole power of convening and convocating such Assemblies All Ecclesiastical assemblies have power to convene lawfully together for treating of things concerning the Kirk They have power to appoint times and places Again National Assemblies of this Countrey ought alwayes to be retained in their own liberties with power to the Kirk to appoint times places Thus they make it a Liberty that is a Priviledge of the Church a part of its Patrimony not onely to convene but to convocate whomsoever whensoever wheresoever Thirdly for point of Power they teach that Synods have the judgement of true false Religion of Doctrine Heresies c. the election admission suspension deprivation of Ministers the determination of all things that pertain to the Discipline of the Church The judgement of Ecclesiastical matters causes beneficiary matrimonial and others Jurisdiction to proceed to excommunication against those that rob the Church of its patrimony They have legislative Power to make rules and constitutions for keeping good order in the Kirk They have power to abrogate and abolish all Statutes and Ordinances concerning Ecclesiastical matters that are found noisom and unprofitable and agree not with the time or are abused by the people And all this without any reclamation or appellation to any Jâ—…dge Civil or Ecclesiastical Fourthly they teach that they have these priviledges not from the Magistrate or People or particular Laws of any other Countrey The Magistâ—…ate can not execute the censares of the Church nor prescribe any rule how it should be done but Ecclesiastical power floweth immediatly from God from the Mediatour Jesus Christ And yet further The Church cannot be governed by others than those Ministers and Stewards set over it by Christ nor otherwise than by his Laws And therefore there is no power in earth that can challenge to it self a Command or Dominion upon the Church And again It is prohibited by the Law of God and of Christ for tho Christian Magistrate to invade the Government of the Church and consequently to challenge to himself the right of both Swords spiritual and temporal And if any Magistrate do arrogate so much to himself the Church shall have cause to complain and exclaim that the Pope is changed but the Papacy remains So if Kings and Magistrates stand in their way they are Political Popes as well as Bishops are Ecclesiastical Whatsoever these men do is in the Name of our Lord Jesus and by Authority delegated from him alone Lastly they teach that they have all this Power not onely without the Magistrate but against the Magistrate that is although he dissent send out his prohibitions to the contrary Parliamentary ratifications can no way alter Church canons concerning the worship of God For Ecclesiastical Discipline ought to be exercised whether it be ratified by the civil Magistrate or not The want of a civil Sanction to the Church is but like Lucrum cessans non damnum emergens As it addes nothing to it so it takes nothing away from it If there be any clashing of Jurisdictions or defect in this kind they lay the fault at the Magistrates door It is a great sin or wickednesse for the Magistrate to hinder the exercise or execution of Ecclesiastical Discipline Now we have seen the pernicious practices of their Synods with the Doctrines from which they flow it remains to dispel umbrages wherewith they seek to hide the uglinesse of their proceedings principles from the eyes of the world We say they do give the Christian Magistrate a political Power to convocate Synods to preside in Synods to ratifie the Acts of Synods to reform the Church We make him the keeper of both tables Take nothing and hold it fast here are good words but they signifie nothing Trust me whatsoever the Disciplinarians do give to the Magistrate it is alwayes with a saving of their own stakes not giving for his advantage but their own For they teach that this power of the Christian Magistrate is not private and destructive to the power of the Church but cumulative and onely auxiliary or assisting Besides the power which they call abusively authoritative but is indeed ministerial of executing their decrees contributing to their setlement they ascribe to the Magistrate concerning the Acts of Synods that which every private man hath a judgement of discretion but they retain to themselves the judgement of Jurisdiction And if he judge not as they would have him but suspend out of conscience the influence of his political power where they would have him exercise it they will either teach him another point of Popery that is an implicite faith or he may perchance feel the weight of their Church censures and find quickly what manner of men they be as our late gracious King Charls
dayes did sue for aid and assistance from the Crown and Kingdom of England they did not go about to obtrude their owne Discipline upon them but left them free to choose for themselves The grounds which follow are demonstrative First no man can dispose that by vow or otherwise either to God or man which is the right of a third person without his consent Neither can theâ—…nferiour oblige himselfe to the prejudice of his Superiour contrary to his duty without his Superiours allowance God accepts no such pretences to seem obsequious to him out of the undoubted right of another person Now the power of Armes and the defence of the Lawes and protection of the Subjects by those Armes is by the Law of England clearly invested in the Crowne And where the King is bound in conscience to protect the Subject is bound in conscience to assist Therefore every English Subject owes his Armes and his Obedience to his King and cannot dispose them as a free gift of his owne nor by any act of his whatsoever diminish his Soveraignes right over him but in those things wherein by Law he owes subjection to his Prince he remaineth still obliged notwithstanding any Vow or Covenant to the contrary especially when the subject and scope of the Covenant is against the known Lawes of the Realm So as without all manner of doubt no Divine or Learned Casuist in the world dissenting This Covenant is either void in it selfe or at least voided by his Majesties Proclamation prohibiting the takirg of it and nullifying its obligation Secondly It is confessed by all men that that an Oath ought not to be the bond of iniquity nor doth oblige a man to be a transgressour The golden rule is in malis promissis rescinde fidem in turpi voto muta decretum To observe a wicked engagement doubles the sinne Nothing can be the matter of a Vow or Covenant which is evidently unlawfull But it is evidently unlawfull for a Subject or Subjects to alter the Lawes established by force without the concurrence and against the commands of the Supreme Legislator for the introduction of a forraign Discipline This is the very matter and subject of the Covenant Subjects vow to God and swear one to another to change the Lawes of the Realm to abolish the Discipline of the Church and the Liturgy lawfully established by the Sword which was never committed to their hands by God or man without the King against the King which no man can deny in earnest to be plain rebellion And it is yet the worse that it is to the main prejudice of a third order of the Kingdom the taking away whose rights without their consents without making them satisfaction cannot be justified in point of conscience Yea though it were for the greater convenience of the Kingdom as is most falsely pretended And is harder measure then the Abbots and Friers received from Henry the eight or then either Christians or Turkes do offer to their conquered enemies Lastly a supervenient oath or covenant either with God or man cannot take away the obligation of a just oath precedent But such is the Covenant a subsequent oath inconsistent with and destructive to a precedent oath that is the oath of Supremacy which all the Church men throughout the Kingdome all the Parliament men at their admission to the house all persons of quality throughout England have taken The former oath acknowledgeth the King to be the onely supreame hâ—…ad that is civill head to see that every man do his duty in his calling and Governour of the Church of England The second oath or covenant to set up the Presbyterian Government as it is in Scotland denieth all this virtually makes it a politicall papacy acknowledgeth no governours but onely the Presbyters The former oath gives the King the supream power over all persons in all causes The second oath gives him a power over all persons as they are subjects but none at all in Ecclesiasticall causes This they make to be sacriledge By all whiâ—…h it is most apparent that this Covenant was neither free nor deliberate nor valide nor lawfull nor consistent with our former oathes but insorced dâ—…ceitfull invalide impious rebellious and contradictory to our former ingagements and consequently obligeth no man to performance but all men to repentance For the greater certainty whereof I appeâ—…le upon this stating of the case to all the learned Casuists and Divines in Europe touching the point of common right And that this is the true state of the case I appeal to our adversaries themselves No man that hath any spark of ingenuity will denie it No English-man who hath any tolerable degree of judgement or knowledge in the laws of his countrey can denie it but at the same instant his conscience must give him the lie They who plead for this rebellion dare not put it to a triall at law they doe not ground their defence upon the lawes But either upon their own groundlesse jealousies and fears of the Kings intention to introduce Popery to subvert the lawes and to enslave the people This is to run into a certain crime for fear of an uncertain They who intend to pick quarrels know how to feign suspicions Or they ground it upon the successe of their arms or upon the Soveraigne right of the people over all lawes and Magistrates whose Representatives they create themselves whilest the poor people sigh in corners and dare not say their soul is their own lamenting their former folly to have contributed so much to their own undoing Or lastly upon Religion the cause of God the worst plea of all the rest to make God accessary to their treasons murthers covetousnesse ambition Christ did never authorise Subjects to plant Christian Religion much lesse their own fanâ—…ticall dreams or fantasticall deviles in the blood of their Soveraigne and fellow subjects Speak out is it lawfull for Subjects to take up arms against their Prince meerly for Religion or is it not lawfull It ye say it is not lawfull ye condemn your selves for your Covenant testifieth to the world that ye have taken up arms meerly to alter Religion and that ye bear no Allegiance to your King but onely in order to Religion that is in plain terms to your own humours and conceits If ye say it is lawfull ye justifie the Independents in England for supplanting your selves ye justifie the Anabaptists in Germany Iohn of Leyden and his câ—…ue Ye break down the banks of Order and make way for an inundation of blood and confusion in all Countreys Ye render your selves justly odious to all Christian Magistrates when they see that they owe their safety not to your good wills but to your weaknesse that ye want sufficient strength to cut their throats This is fine doctrine for Europe wherein there is scarce that King or State which hath not Subjects of different opinions and communions in Religion Or lastly if ye say it is lawfull for
this without and before any Parliament must be very consistent with conscience honor and all good reason Yea to bind up the soule of the most sweet and ingenuous of Princes in their chaines of their slavery for ever they have fallen upon a most rare trick which hardly the inventions of all their praedecessors can pararel They rest not satisfied that for the upholding of their ambition and greed they did harden our late Soveraigne to his very last in their Errours and without compassion did dryve him on to his satal praecipice unles they make him continue after his death to cry loud every day in the eares of his Son in his later will and testament to follow him in that same way of ruine rather then to give over to serve the lu◅ts of the praelaticall clergy They have gathered together his Majesties last papers and out of them have made a book whereupon their best pens have dropped the greatest eloqution reason and devotion was among them by way of essayes as it were to frame the heart of the Son by the fingers of the dying Father to piety wisedome patience and every virtue but ever anone to let fall so much of their own ungracious dew as may irrigat the seeds of their praelaticall Errors and Church interest so farre as to charge him to perseveer in the maintainance of Episcopall governement upon all hazards without the change of any thing except a little p. 278. and to assure that all Covenanters are of a faction engaged into a Religious rebellion who may never be trusted till they have repented of their Covenant and that till then never lesse loyalty justice or humanity may be expected from any then from them that if hee stand in need of them hee is undone for they will devoure him as the Serpent does the dove These and the like pernicious maximes framed by an Episcopall hand of purpose to separat for ever the King from all his covenanted subjects how farr they were from the heart language and wrytings of our late Soveraigne all who were aquainted with his carriage and most intime affections at New-Castle in the Isle of Wight and thereafter can testify But it is reason when the Praelats doe frame an image of a King that they should have liberty to place their owne image in its forheade as the statuary of old did his in the Boss of Pallas targe with such arti◅ice that all her worshipers were necessitat to worship him and that no hand was able to destroy the one without the dissolution and breaking in peeces of the other yet our Praelats would know that in this age there be many excellent Engyneers whose witty practicks transcend the most skilfull experiments of our Auncestors and what ever may be the ignorance or weaknes of men wee trust the breath of our Lords mouth will not faile to blow out the Bishop from the Kings armes without any detriment at all to royalty Allwayes the wicked and impious cunning of these craftsemen is much to be blamed who dare be bold to insert and engrave themselfes so deeply in the images of the Gods as the one cannot be intended to be picked out of the other more then the Aple from the eye unles the subsistance of both be put in hazard The other matter of his rayling against us is the solemne league and covenant when this nimble and quick enough Doctor comes assisted with all the reasons the whole University of Oxford can afford him to demonstrat it as he professes in his last Chapter to be wicked false void and what not wee find his most demonstrative proofes to be so poor and silly that they infere nothing of his conclusion To this day no man has shewed any errour in the mater of that covenant as for our framing and taking of it our adversaries drave us thereunto with a great deale of necessity and now being in it neither their fraud nor force may bring us from it againe for we feare the oath of God After much deliberation we found that covenant the soveraigne meanes to joyne and keep together the whole orthodox party in the three Kingdomes for the defence of their Religion and Liberties which a popish praelaticall and malignant faction with all their might were overtarning who still to this day are going on in the same designe without any visible change in the most of their former principles And why should any who loves the King hate this covenant which is the straytestty the world can devise to knit all to him and his posterity if so be his Majestie might be pleased to enter therein but by all meanes such a mischiefe must be averted for so the roote of Episcopacy would quickly wither without any hope of repullulation an evill farr greater in the thoughts of them who now mannage the conscience of the Court thē the extirpation of Monarchy the eversion of all the three Kingdomes or any other earthly misery As for the third subject of the Warners fury against us our unkindnes to the late King if any truth were in this false challenge no other creature on earth could be supposed the true cause thereof but our unhappy praelats all our grievances both of Church and State first and last came principally from them had they never been authors of any more mischiefe then what they occasioned to our late Soveraigne his person family and Dominions this last dozn of yeares there is abundant reason of burying that their praeter and Antiscripturall order in the grave of perpetuall infamy But the truth is beside more auncient quarrels since the dayes of our fathers the Albigenses this limb of Antichrist has ever been witnessed against Wickleif Huss and their followers were zealous in this charge till Luther and his disciples got it flung out of all the reformed world except England where the violence of the ill advised princes did keep it up for the perpetuall trouble of that land till now at last it hath well neare kicked downe to the ground there both Church and Kingdome As for the point in hand we deny all unkindnes to our King whereof any reasonable complaint can be framed against us Our first contests stand justified this day by King and Parliament in both Kingdomes When his Majestie was so ill advised as to bring downe upon our borders an English army for to punish our refusing of a world of novations in our Religion contrary to the lawes of God and of our country what could our land doe lesse then lie downe in their armes upon Dunce law for their just and necessary defence when it was in their power with ease to haue dissipat the opposit army they shew themselves most ready upon very easy conditions to goe home in peace and gladly would have rested there had not the furious Bishops moved his Majestie without all provocation to breake that first peace and make for a second invasion of Scotland only to
second their unreasonable rage was it not then necessary for the Scots to arme againe when they had defeate the Episcopall Army and taken New-castle though they found nothing considerable to stand in their way to London yet they were content to lie still in Northumberland and upon very meane tearnes to returne the second time in peace For all this the praelats could not give it over but raised a new Army and filled England with fire and sword yea well neere subdued the Parliament and their followers and did almost accomplish their first designes upon the whole Isle The Scots then with most earnest and pitifull entreaties were called upon by their Brethren of England for helpe where unwilling that their brethren should perish in their sight and a bridge should be made over their carcasses for a third warre upon Scotland when after long tryall they had found all their intercessions with the King for a moderat and reasonable accommodation slighted and rejected they suffered themselves to be perswaded to enter in covenant with their oppressed and fainting brethren for the mantainance of the common cause of Religion and liberty but with expresse Articles for the preservation of royalty in all its just rights in his Majestie and his posterity what unkindnes was heer in the Scots to their King When by Gods blessing on the Scotes helpe the opposit faction was fully subdued his Majestie left Oxford with a purpose for London but by the severity of the ordinances against his receivers he diverted towards Linn to ship for Holland or France where by the way fearing a discovery and surprise he was necessitate to cast himselfe upon the Scotes army at New-wark upon his promise to give satisfaction to the propositions of both Kingdomes he was received there and to New-castle here his old oathes to adhaere unto Episcopacy hindred him to give the expected satisfaction At that time the prime leaders of the English army were seeking with all earnestnes occasion to fall upon the Scots much out of heart and reputation by Iames Grahame and his Irishes incursions most unhappy for the Kings affaires Scotland at that time was so full of divisions that if the King had gone thither they were in an evident hazard of a present war both within among themselfes and without from England our friends in the English Parliament whom we did and had reason to trust assured us that our taking the King with us to Scotland was the keeping of the Sectarian Army on foot for the wracke of the King of Scorland of the Presbyterian party in England as the sending of his Majestie to one of his houses neer London upon the faith of the Parliament of England was the only way to get the Sectaryes disarmed the King and the people settled in a peace upon such tearmes as should be satisfactory both to the King and the Scots and all the wel-affected in England This being the true case was it any either unjustice unkindnes or imprudence in the Scots to leave the King with his Parliament of England was this a selling of him to his enemies the monyes the Scots received at their departure out of England had no relation at all to the King they were scarce the sixth parte of the arreares due to them for bygon service they were but the one halfe of the sume capitulat for not only without any reference to the King but by an act of the English Parliament excluding expresly from that Treaty of the armies departure all consideration of the disposall of the Kings person The unexpected evills that followed in the Armies rebellion in their seasing on London destroying the Parliament murthering the King no mortall eye could have forseen The Scots were ever ready to the utmost of their power to have prevented all these mischiefes with the hazard of what was dearest to them notwithstanding of all the hard measure they had often received both from the King and the most of their friends in England That they did not in time and unanimously stur to purpose for these ends they are to answer it to God who were the true Authors the innocency of the Church is cleered in the following treatise Among the many causes of these miseries the prime fountaine was the venome of Episcopall principles which some serpents constantly did infuse by their speaches and letters in the eares and heart of the King to keep him of from giving that satisfaction to his good subjects which they found most necessary and due the very same cause which ties up this day the hands of covenanters from redressing ali present misorders could they have the King to joyne with them in their covenant to quit his unhappy Bishops to lay aside his formall and dead Liturgie to cast himselfe upon the counsels of his Parliaments it were easy to prophecie what quickly would become of all his enemies but so long as Episcopall and malignant agents compasseth him about though all that comes neer may see him as lovely hopfull and promising a prince for all naturall endowments as this day breaths in Europe or for a long time has swayed a Scepter in Britaine yet while such unlucky birds nest in his Cabin and men so ungraciously principled doe daily besiege him what can his good people doe but sit downe with mournfull eyes and bleeding hearâ—…s till the Lord amend these otherwise remediles and insuperable evills but I hold heer least I transgresse to farr the bounds of an Epistle I account it an advantage to have your Lordship my judge in what heere and in my following treatise I spake of Religion the liberties of our country and the Royall Family I know non fitter then your Lordship both to discerne and decerne in all these matters Me thinks I may say it without flattery which I never much loved either in my selfe or others that among all our Nobles for constancy in a zealous profession for exemplary practise in publick and privat duties the mercy of God has given to your Lordship a reputation second to none And for a rigid adhaerence to the Rights and Priviledges of your Country according to that auncient disposition of your most Noble Family noted in our Historians especially that Prince of them Georg Buchanan the Tutor of your Grand-Father I know none in our Land who wil pretend to goe before you and for the affairs of the King your interest of blood in the Royall Family is so well known that it would be a strange impudency in me if in your audience I durst be bold wittingly to give sinistrous information Praying to God that what in the candid ingenuity true zeale of my spirit I present under your Lordships patrociny unto the eye of the World for the vindication of my mother Church and Country from the Sicophantick accusations of a Stigmatised incendiary may produce the intended effects Hague this 28 May 7 Iunie 1649. I rest your Lordships in all Christian duety R. B. G.
of Scotland were the first and only framers thereof but they who gave the life and being to it in England were the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament at West-Minster by the Kings call and at that time acknowledged by his Majestie without any question about the lawfullnes of their constitution and authority these men and that Court were not I hope great strangers in England The covenant was not imposed upon the King but the Parliaments of both Kingdomes made it their earnest desire unto his Majestie that he would be pleased to joyne with them in that Covenant which they did judge to be a maine peece of their security for their Religion and liberties in all the three Kingdomes As for their imposing of it upon the subjects of England an ordinance of Parliament though the King consent not by the uncontroverted lawes of England is a sufficient authority to crave obedience of all the subjects of England during the continuance of that Parliament The last part of the demonstration is dishonorable indeed to the English Nation if it were true it was no dishonour to England to joyne with their brethren of Scotland in a Covenant for mantainance of their Religion and Liberties but for many of the English to sweare a covenant with their lippes from which their heart did dissent and upon this difference of heart and mouth to plead the nullity of the oath and to advance this plea so high as to a cleer demonstration this is such a dishonour and dishonesty that a greater cannot fall upon a man of reputed integrity Especially when the ground of the lie and perjury is an evident falshood for the covenant was not extorted from any flesh in England by feare of any unjust suffering so far was it from this that to this day it could never be obtained from the Parliament of England to enjoyne that covenant upon any by the penulty of a two pence The Warners second demonstration is no better then the first the ground of it is that all oathes are void which have deceipt and errour of the substantiall conditions incident to them This ground had need to be much better cautioned then heere it is before it can stand for a major of a clear demonstration but how is the minor proved behold how much short the Warners proofes are of his great boastings His first argument is grounded upon an evident falshood that in the Covenant we sweare the lately devised discipline to be Christs institution Ans. There is no such word nor any such matter in all the Covenant was the Warners hatred so great against that peece of write that being to make cleare demonstrations against it hee would not so much as cast his eye upon that which he was to oppugne Covenanters sweare to endeavour the reformation of England according to the word of God and the best reformed Churches but not a word of the Scotes Presbytery nor of any thing in any Church even the best reformed unlesse it be found according to the paterne of Gods holy word The second ground of his demonstration is also an evident errour that the covenant in hand is one and the same with that of King Iames. Ans. Such a fancy came never in the head of any man I know much lesse was it ever writen or spoken by any that the Covenant of King Iames in Scotland 1580 should bee one and the same with the Covenant of all the three Kingdomes 1643 whatsoever identities may appeare in the matter and similitude in the ends of both but the grossest errors are solide enough grounds for praelaticall clear demonstrations Yet heere the Warner understands not how hee is cutting his own vines his friends in Scotland will give him small thanks for attributing unto the nationall Covenant of Scotland that Covenant of King Iames these three properties that it was issued out by the Kings authority that it was for the maintenance of the Lawes of the realme and for the maintenance of the established Religion tyme brings adversaries to confesse of their own accord long denyed truthes But the Characters which the Warner inprints upon the solemne league and Covenant of the three Kingdomes wee must bee pardoned to controvert till he have taken some leasure to trie his wilde assertions First that the league is against the authority of the King secondly that it is against the Law and thirdly that it is for the overthrow of Religion The man cannot think that any should beleeve his dictats of this kind without proofe since the expresse words of that league do flatly contradict him in all these three positions His gentle memento that Scotland when they sued for aid from the crowne of England had not the English discipline obtruded upon their Church might heer have been spaired was not the English discipline and liturgy obtruded upon us by the praelats of England with all craft and force did we ever obtrude our disciplin upon the English but when they of their owne free and long deliberate choice had abolished Bishops and promised to set up Presbytery so far as they had found it agreable to the word of Cod were wee not in all reason obliged to encourage and assist them in so pious a work In the nixt words the Warner for all his great boasts finding the weaknes of all the former grounds of his seconde demonstration he offers three new ones which doubtles will doe the deid for he avowes positively that his following grounds are demonstrative yet whosoever shal be pleased to grip them with never so soft an hand shall find them all to be but vanity and wind The first after a number of prosyllogismes rests upon these two foundations first that the right of the militia resides in the King alone secondly that by the covenant the militia is taken out of the Kings hands and that every covenanter by his covenant disposes of himselfe and of his armes against the right which the King hath into him Ans. The Warner will have much adoe to prove this second so that it may be a ground of a clear demonstration but for the first that the power of the militia of England doth reside in the King alone that the two houses of Parliament have nothing at all to doe with it and that their taking of armes for the defence of the liberties of England or any other imaginable cause against any party countenanced by the Kings presence against his lawes must be altogether unlawfull if his demonstration be no clearer then the ground where upon he builds it I am sure it will not be visible to any of his opposits who are not like to be convinced of open rebellion by his naked assertion upon which alone he layes this his mighty ground Beleeve it he had need to assay its releefe with some colour of ane argument for none of his owne friends will now take it of his hand for ane indemonstrable principle since the King for
a long time was willing to acknowledge the Parliaments jointe interest in the militia yea to put the whole militia in their hands alone for a good number of yeares to come so farre was his Majestie from the thoughts that the Parliaments medling with a parte of the militia in the time of evident dangers should be so certainly and clearly the crime of rebellion The Warners second demonstrative ground wee admit without question in the major that where the matter is evidently unlawfull the oath is not binding but the application of this in the minor is very false All that hee brings to make it appeare to be true is that the King is the supreame Legislator that it is unlawfull for the subjects of England to change any thing established by Law especially to the prejudice of the Praelats without their own consent they being a third order of the Kingdom otherwise it would be a harder measure then the Friers and Abbots received from Henry the eight Ans. May the Warner be pleased to consider how farre his dictats heere are from all reason much more from evident demonstrations That the burden of Bishops and ceremonies was become so heavy to all the three Kingdomes that there was reason to endeavour their laying aside he does not offer to dispute but all his complanit runnes against the manner of their removall this say I was done in no other then the ordinary and high path-way whereby all burdensome Lawes and customes use to be removed Doth not the Houses of Parliament first begin with their ordinance before the Kings consent be sought to a Law is not an ordinance of the Lords and Commons a good warrant to change a former Law during the sitting of the Parliament The Lawes and customes of England permit not the King by his dissent to stoppe that change I grant for the turning an ordinance to a standing Law the Kings consent is required but with what qualifications and exceptions wee need not heere to debate since his Majesties consent to the present case of abolishing Bishops was obtained well neere as farre as was desired and what is yet lacking wee are in a faire way to obtaine it for the Kings Majestie long agoe did agree to the rooting out of Episcopacy in Scotland he was willing also in England and Ireland to put them out of the Parliament and all civil courts and to divest them of all civil power and to joyne with them Presbyteries for ordination and spirituall jurisdiction yea to abolish them totally name and thing not only for three yeares but ever till he and his Parliament should agree upon some setled order for the Church was not this Tantamont to a perpetuall abolition for all and every one in both houses having abjured Episcopacy by solemne oath and Covenant the Parliament was in no hazard of agreing with the King to re-erect the fallen chaires of the Bishops so there remained no other but that either his Majestie should come over to their judgement or by his not agreing with them yet really to agree with them in the perpetuall abolition of Episcopacy since the concession was for the laying Bishops aside ever till hee and his houses had agreed upon a settled order for the Church If this be not a full and formall enough consent to the ordinance of changing the former Lawes anent praelats his Majestie who now is easily may and readily would supply all such defects if some of the faction did not continually for their own evill interests whisper in his eares pernicious counsel as our Warner in this place also doeth by frighting the King in conscience from any such consent for this end he casts out a discourse the sinshews whereof are in these three Episcopall maximes First that the legislative power is sollie in the King that is according to his Brethrens Cōmentary that the Parliament is but the Kings great counsel of free choyce without or against whose votes hee may make or unmake what Lawes he thinks expedient but for them to make any ordinance for changing without his consent of any thing that has been or instituting any new thing or for them to defend this their legall right and custome time out of mind against the armes of the Malignant party no man may deny it to be plaine rebellion II. That the King and Parliament both together cannot make a Law to the praejudice of Bishops without their own consent they being the third order of the Kingdome for albeit it be sacriledge in the Lords and Commons to clame any the smallest share of the legislative power this i◅ them were to pyck the chiefest jewel out of the Kings Crowne yet this must be the due priviledge of the Bishops they must be the third order of the Kingdome yea the first and most high of the three far above the other two temporall States of Lords and Commons their share in the Legislative power must be so great that neither King nor Parliament can passe any Law without their consent so that according to their humble protestation all the Lawes and acts which have been made by King and Parliament since they were expelled the house of Lords are cleerly voide and null That the King and Parliament in divesting Bishops of their temporall honour and estats in abolishing their places in the Church doe sin more against conscience then did Henry the eight and his Parliament when they put down the Abbots and the Fryers Wee must beleeve that Henry the eight his abolishing the order of Monks was one of the acts of his greatest Tyranny and greed wee must not doubt but according to Law and reason Abbots and priours ought to have kept still their vote in Parliament that the Monasteryes and Nunryes should have stood in their integrity that the King and Parliament did wrong in casting them down and that now they ought in conscience to be set up againe yea that Henry the eight against all reason and conscience did renounce his due obedience to the Pope the Patriarch of the West the first Bishop of the universe to whom the superinspection and government of the whole Catholick Church in all reason doth belong Though all this be heere glaunced at by the Warner and elsewhere hee prove it to be the declared mind of his Brethren yet we must be pardoned not to accept them as undenyable principles of cleare demonstrations The last ground of the Doctors demonstration is that the covenant is ane oath to set up the Presbyterian government in England at it is in Scotland and that this is contrary ◅o the oath of Supremacy for the oath of Supremacy makes the King the only supreame head and governour of the Church of England that is the civil head to see that every man doe his duty in his calling also it gives the King a supreame power over all persons in all causes but the Presbytery is a politicall papacie acknowledging no governours but
in plures divisum ectas eos expulit Buchan Hist. lib. 4 Episcopacie intirelie authorized in the Synod of Glasgow Vind. Epist Hitr. Philadelph Superintendents aequivalent to Bishops Presbyters not to have Synods as often as they list nor doe in them what they please The King consented not to the second booke of Discipline K. Ch. 1. Larg Declar 1633. pag. 411. Refutat libel De Regim Eccl. Sâ—…ot The Bishop no hypocrite in his chalenge about the patrimonie of the Church 1. Book Disc. 6. head which be longs not by haereditaire right to the Presbyters Let. of K. Ph. Q. Mar. Ann. 1559. The Reviewer is the hypocrite Mainten of the sanstatie pag. 10. The Disciplinarians declaration of their judgements in their impudent imperious supplicats They anticipate the law in the exercise of the Discipline Hieron Philadelph de Regim Eccles. Scot. Epist. Iren. Philaleth Narrat mot Scotic Their doctrine as destructive as their practice Ovid. Met. lib. 3. sub 4 2. Book of Disc. ch 7. 2. The Bishops Super-Erastianisme the doctrine of the Reformed Churches Ad Dissert De Epise Constant. M. Ph. Par. Vindic. propos 8. D. Par. N. Vedel De Epise Const M. q. 5. The practice of the good primitive Emperours Har. Syn. Belgic c. 10. Altar Damasc. pag. 15. Renounced by none of the Scotish King The Reviewers malice not any Prelatical principles doth impossibilitate as he speakes the peace betwixt the Kiag his Kingdomes Conf. at Hampt Court The Disciplinarian doctrine practice against the Kings power to convocate Synods Pag. 41. DeEpiscop Constanstin M. 2. B. of Disc. ch 10 Cap. De primat Reg. Epist. 43. De Imper sum Pot. cap. 8. Constantin De Ario. The ultimate determination of Ecclesiastike causes by the lawes of Scotland is not in the general Assemblie No more then in the Convocations of England Appeales to the King in Scotland Court of Delegates against neither word of God nor aequitie All causes agitated in Scotish Assemblies Processe about Church rent Letter to the Gen. Assembli at Sterling Aug. 3. 1571. Reviewer declines answering about the legislative power Danger in asserting the divine right of Ecclesiastike jurisdiction Hug. Groti De Imper. Sum. Pot. Scotish Donatist Polit. Anglic Ad Reg. Iac. Sozomen Eliens De Episcopat Constant M. Disciplinariam call resistance against the person obedience to the office of the Magistrate The Reviewer too bold with his Majestie The Disciplinarians no compartie for the Primitive Christian The Reviewers cunning in passing over what he dares not can not answer His unkindnesse to his brother Gilespie whose theoremes are the doctrine of the whole Presbyterie Harm Syn. Belg. cap. 1 Gilespie's theoreme the rule of the late Disciplinarian practice a Nec enim dissimulabant foederati nimis diu apud Scotos regnatum esse Monarchis nec recte cum illis agi posse Stuarto vel uno superstite Hist. M. Montisros No defensive armes for subjects Episcopacie no obstruction to His Majestics peace See the leâ—…rned judicious Digges upon this subjects Appeale in Scotland from a General Assemblie neither irrational nor illegal Altar Damascen 3. Paper An. 1574 The Rebellious insolent disciplinarian proceedings against the too Rt. Reverend Arch-Bishops Montgomerie Adamson Answ. to the Prosession Declar made by Marq. Hamilt 1638. Vindic. Epist Hier. Philad Supplicum libellorum Magister Se posse salvo Regis imperio de causa tota cognoscere â—…arg D clar pag. 308. Marg. not upon Potest of the Gen. Assemb at Edenb Crosse Decemb 18. 1638. Quioccasione laeti palinodiam â—…i per vim expressam sed in numeris a se locis inter-polatam typis publicarunt The Bishops Appeale not derogatorie to the Kings personal Prâ—…rogative The Reviewer mistakes the scope of the Bishops warning Ch. 5. v. 1. Sedition rebellion not censur'd by the Discipline Hift. of Reform 4. booke Scotish Presbyters mounting in halls schooles c. An. 436. Ancient Canons against Ministers accusers of their brethren Reviewer no competent witnsse against Bishops He will not be at peace charitie with the dead Gualth Epist. Erast. Aug. 3. 1570. Nor speake any truth of the living Spanheims speach about English Bishops The Kings booke of recreations farre short of what other Reformed Churches tolerate on the Lords day Vindic. Chr. Philaed Blaire his companions justlie banished K. Ch. 1. larg Dec. 1639. pag. 324. The Discipline in Scotland different from Geneva King Iames Declaration 1584. Part. 3. An. 1684 The Bishops consequence good from Commissaries to Civite Magistrates Fucus ad fallendum simpliciores vel potius illudendum Ecclesiis pag. 404. Altar Damase The Assemblie jugling in Gibsons case The Bishops relation of Mr. Blackes case vindicated enlarged Hamp Court Conf. Rom. 6. 1. Ephes. 6. 16. Hebr. 11. 33. Nescio quid nec quando sed multo ante Vind. ep Philad L. 1. c. The od de Relig De Impersum Potestcirc sacr cap. 9 Nam co repore summaÌ„ fuit Ecclae concordia authoditas ut aulici ab ea tametsi Regia gratia niterentur timerent Vindic. Ep. Chr. Philad Let to the Q. of Engl. Iul. 16. 1561. The Ministers guiltie of the tumult Decemb 17. 1596. * Vasius The Rev. impertinencie or cunning in altering of the state of the quaestion Let of the Congreg to the Nobles of Scotland 1559. De Imper sum Poâ—… cap. 9. Disciplinarian intentions never better then their words Eccles. 8. 4. No thankes due to them for not excommunicating their Kings The Ancient Fathers quit peccant Kings of all humane censure Apos Gent. adv The Bishops reasonning not unconsequential Aristophâ—… Nubes Bloud the seed of the Discipline Esai 1. 15. Mercie Gods attribute so the Kings 〈◊〉 Book Discipl 9. head Presbyters sollicite pardon for murder * Rigour to be preached c. under nonâ—… but implous or nâ—…ligent Magistrates so exâ—…ommunication for impunitie E. Huntleys case wholie minted in the Assembiiâ—… Bothwells notorious crimes R Bruce's speach against E. Huntley First fruites c. witheld from the King as much by the Presbyters as Pope An. 1587. Contradiction about tithes pag. 57. Patronages Presbyterian rebellion tyrannie Rejoycing at the sequestring the Church patrimonie Qui jactare non dubitârunt se Episc plygin kairian inflixisse Aitar Damasc. p. 3. K. Iames anti-presbyterie No Donaâ—…ist Ep. lector Aitar Damascen Georg. Con. De Dupl Stat. Relig. apud Scot. lib. 2. Their latitude of scandal 8. 9. Malefactours pardoned not to be excommunicated False measures c. maters of civile cognizance The Reviewers 30. yeares experience no argument of Presbyterian henestie Their Canons not the same with those of the ancient Church Victorem Romanum Epum circa annum Dui 200. legimus Coenae usuâ—… interdixisse injurias condonare nolentibus Th. Erast. thes 7. No canon against rebellion nor deprivation of rebellious Ministers Presbyters as peccant as Bishops Ch. 2. 11. 29. 9. Revel 17. 5. 9. 2. 3. 2 S. Pet. 2. 13. Their exercing civile
to meet when an erroneous Magistrat by his Tyrannous edict commands them to doe so let him call up Erastus from the dead to be disciplined in this new doctrine of the praelats impious loyalty The third principle is that the judgment of true and false doctrine of suspension and deprivation of Ministers belongeth to the Church Ans. If this be a great heresie it is to be charged as much upon the state as upon the Church for the acts of Parliament give all this power to the Church neither did the lawes of England or of any Christian state popish or protestant refuse to the Church the determination of such Ecclesiastick causes some indeed doe debate upon the power of appeales from the Church but in Scotland by the law as no appeale in things civill goes higher then the Parliament so in matters Ecclesiastick none goes above the generall assembly Complaints indeed may goe to the King and Parliament for redresse of any wrong has been done in Ecclesiastick Courts who being custodes religionis may by their coercive power command Ecclesiastick Courts to rectifie any wrong done by them contraire to Scripture or if they persist take order with them But that two or three praelats should become a Court of delegats to receave appeales from a generall assembly neither Law nor practise in Scotland did ever admit nor can the word of God or any Equity require it In the Scotes assemblies no causes are agitat but such as the Parliament hath agreed to bee Ecclesiastick and of the Churches cognisance no Processe about any Church rent was ever cognosced upon in Scotland but in a civill Court it s very false that ever any Church censure much lesse the highest of excommunication did fall upon any for robbing the Church of its patrimony Our fourth challenged principle is that wee maintain Ecclesiastick jurisdiction by a divine right Ans. Is this a huge crime is there divine in the world either Papist or Potestant except a few praelaticall Erastians but they doe so If the Warner will professe as it seemes hee must the contradiction of that which he ascribes to us his avowed tenet must bee that all Ecclesiastick power flowes from the Magistrat that the Magistrat himself may execute all Church censures that all the Officers appointed by Christ for the governement of his Church may bee laid aside and such a kind of governors bee put in their place as the Magistrate shal be pleased to appoint that the spirituall sword and Keies of heaven belong to the Magistrate by vertue of his supremacy al 's wel as the temporall sword and the Keies of his earthly Kingdome our difference heere from the Warner will not I hope be found the greatest heresie Our last challenged principle is that wee will have all our power against the Magistrat that is although hee dissent Ans. It is an evill comentare that al must be against the Magistrate which is done against his consent but in Scotland their is no such case for all the jurisdiction which the church there does enjoy they have it with the consent of the Magistrat all is ratified to them by such acts of Parliament as his Majestie doth not at all controvert Concerning that odious case the Warner intimats whither in time of persecutiō when the Magistrat classheth with the Church any Ecclesiastick disciplin be then to be exercised himselfe can better answer it then we who with the auncient Christians doe think that on all hazards even of life the church may not be dissolved but must meet in dens and caves and in the wildernes for the word and Sacraments and keeping it selfe pure by the divine ordinance of discipline Having cleered all the pernicious practises and all the wicked Doctrines which the Warner layes upon us I think it needles to insist upon these defenses which he in his aboundant charity brings for us but in his owne way that he may with the greater advantage impugne them only I touch one passage whereupon he make injurious exclamations that which Mr. Gilespie in his theoremes wryts when the Magistrate abuses his power unto Tyranny and makes havock of all it is lawfull to resist him by some extraordinary wayes and meanes which are not ordinarily to bee allowed see the principles from which all our miseryes and the losse of our gracious Master have flowed Ans. Wee must heere yeeld to the Warner the great equity and necessity that every doctrine of a Presbyter should be charged on the Presbytery it selfe and that any Presbyter teaching the lawfulnesse of a Parliaments defensive armes is tantamont to the Churches taking of armes against the king These small unconsequences wee must permit the Warner to swallow downe without any stick however wee doe deny that the maxime in hand was the fountaine of any our miseryes or the cause at all of the losse of our late Soveraigne Did ever his Majestie or any of his advised counsellers declare it simply unlawfull for a Parliament to take armes for defence in some extraordinary cases however the unhappines of the Canterburian Prelats did put his Majestie on these courses which did begin and promote all our misery and to the very last these men were so wicked as to refuse the lousing of these bands which their hands had tyed about his misinformed conscience yea to this day they will not give their consent that his Majestie who now is should say aside Episcopacy were it for the gayning the peaceable possession of all his three Kingdomes but are urgers of him night and day to adhaere to their errours upon the hazard of all the miseries that may come on his person on his family and all his people yet few of them to this day durst be so bold as to print with this Warner the unlawfulnes of a Parliaments armes against the Tyranny of a Prince in any imaginable case how extraordinary soever CHAP. III. The Lawes and customes of Scotland admitte of no appeal from the generall assembly IN this chapter the challenge is that there are no appeales from the generall Assembly to the King as in England from the Bishops Courts to the King in Chauncery where a Commission uses to be given to delegats who discusse the appeales Ans. The warner considers not the difference of the Government of the Church of Scotland from that which was in England what the Parliament is in the State that the generall assembly is in the Church of Scotland both are the highest courts in their owne kind There is no appeale any where in moderat Monarchies to the Kings person but to the King in certaine legall courts as the Warner here confesseth the appeale from Bishops lyes not to the King in his person but to the King in his court of Chauncery As no man in Scotland is permitted to appeale in a civil cause from the Lords of Session much lesse from the Parliament so no man in an Ecclesiastick cause is permitted by
claimed it none would have more opposed then the most zealous patrones of Episcopacy The injurious invectives which the Warner builds upon this his Erastian assertion wee passe them as Castles in their aire which must fall and evanish for want of a foundation Only before I leave this Chapter let the Warner take a good Sentence out of the mouth of that wyse Prince King James to testifie yet farther his minde against Erastianisme His Majestie in the yeare 1617 having come in progresse to visit his auncient Kingdome of Scotland and being present in persone at a publick disputation in Theologie in the Universitie of St. Andrews whereof also many both Nobles and Church-men of both Kingdomes were auditors when one of those that acted a part in the disputation had affirmed and went about to maintaine this assertion that the King had power to depose Ministers from their Ministeriall function The King himself as abhorring such flatterie cried out with a loud voice Ego possum deponere Ministri caput sed non possum deponere ejus officium CHAP. VII The Presbyterie does not draw from the Magistrat any paritie of his power by the cheate of any relation IN the seventh chapter the Warner would cause men believe many more of the Presbyteries usurpations upon the civill Magistrate The first is that all offences whatsoever are cognoscible in the consistory upon the case of scandals Ans. First the Presbyterie makes no offence at all to come before the consistory but scandall alone Secondly these civill offences the scandall whereof comes before the Presbytery are but very few and a great deale fewer than the Bishops officiall takes notice of in his consistoriall court That capitall crimes past over by the Magistrate should bee censured by the Church no society of Christians who have any discipline did ever call in question When the sword of the Magistrat hes spared a murderer an adulterer a Blasphemer will any ingenuous either praelaticall or popish divine admitte of such to the holy table without signes of repentance The Warners second usurpation is but a branch of the first that the Presbyterie drawes directly before it selfe the cognisance of fraud in barganing false measures oppression and in the case of Ministers brybing usury fighting perjury c. Ans. Is it then the Warners minde that the notorious slander of such grosse sins does not deserve so much as an Ecclesiastick rebooke Shall such persons without admonition be admitted to the holy communion Secondly the named cases of fraud in barganing false measures oppression come so rarely before our Church-judicatories that though these thirty yeares I have been much conversant in Presbyteries yet did I never see nor doe I remember that ever I heard any of these three cases brought before any church assembly In the persone of Ministers I grant these faults which the canons of the Church in all times and places make the causes of deprivation are cognosced upon in Presbyteries but with the good liking I am sure of all both papifts and praelats who themselves are free of such vices And why did not the Warner put in among the causes of church mens deprivation from office and benefite adultery gluttonny and drunkennes are these in his c. which he will not have cognoscible by the Church in the persons of Bishops and Doctors The Warners third challenge amounts to an high crime that Presbyterian Ministers are bold to preach upon these scriptures which speake of the Magistrats duty in his office or dare offer to resolve from scripture any doubt which perplexeth the conscience of Magistrats or people of Husband or Wife of Master or Servant in the discharge of their Christian duty one to another What ever hath been the negligence of the Bishop of Derry yet I am sure all the preaching Praelats and Doctors of England pretended a great care to goe about these uncontroverted parts of their ministerial function and yet without medling with the Mysteries of State or the depths of any mans particulare vocation much lesse with the judgement of jurisdiction in politicall or aeconomicall causes As for the Churches declaration against the Late engagement did it not well become them to signify their judgement in so great a case of conscience especially when the Parliament did propone it to them for resolution and when they found a conjunction driven on with a cleerly malignant partie contrary to solemne oathes and covenants unto the evident hazard of Religione and them who had been most eminent instruments of its preservation was it not the churches duty to give warning against that sinne and to exhort the ring leaders therein to repentance But our Warner must needs insist upon that unhappy engagement and fasten great blame upon the Church for giving any advice about it Ans. Must it be Jesuisitisme and a drawing of all the civill affaires to the Churches barre in ordine ad Spiritualia for an assembly to give their advice in a most eminent and important case of conscence when earnestly called upon in a multitude of supplications from the most of the Congregations under their charge yea when required by the States of the Kingdome in severall expresse messages for that end It seemes it s our Warners conclusion if the Magistrat would draw all the Churches in his jurisdiction to a most unlawfull warre for the advancement of the greatest impiety and unjustice possible wherein nothing could be expected by all who were engaged therein but the curse of God if in this case a doubting Natione should desire the assemblies counsel for the state of their soules or if the Magistrate would put the Church to declare what were lawfull or unlawfull according to the word of God that it were necessary heer for the servants of God to be altogether silent because indeed warre is so civill a busines that nothing in it concernes the soule and nothing about it may be cleered by any light from the word of God The truth is the Church in their publick papers to the Parliament declared oftner then once that they were not against but for an engagement if so that Christian and friendly treaties could not have obtained reason and all the good people in Scotland were willing enough to have hazarded their lives and estates for vindicating the wrongs done not by the Kingdome of England but by the sectarian party there against God the King covenant and both Kingdomes but to the great griefe of their hearts their hands were bound and they forced to sit still and by the over great cunning of some the erroneous mis-perswasions of others and the rash praecipitancy of it that engagement was so spoiled in the stating and mannaging that the most religious with peace of conscience could not goe along nor encourage any other to take part therein The Warner touches on three of their reasons but who will looke upon their publick declarations shall find many more which with all faithfullnesse were then propounded
reference to its reception otherwhere because vested with the power of a civile law in Scotland nor is that law unalterable when a future Parliament may take into consideration the inconveniencies that accompanie it The Bishop need not be grieved being as ignorant as your selfe you are enough as King knowing as you would seem that His Majestie doth not at all question the justice because he doth not the legalitie of these sanctions Therefore his Lordship may thinke on speake on when he pleaseth more about this bussinesse yet vouch with out a maske loyaltie in his face nor for ought you draw from him need his veines be so emptie nor his stomake so sharpe set as to eate his former words much lesse be so desperate as to burne his whole booke the consistence of it with his toughts professions laying no slander upon the King his Royal Father of ignorance injustice the one having established the other offering to establish by your civile lawes such a Church discipline as is mentiond both having done it upon most unreasonable importunitie without any know'n inclination to or approbation of the same Farther what a slander this would prove upon your grounds beyond the irreverence toward any actions of a King which is haled hither in a forced consequence by the cords of your malice may be guessed by the Royal Father's confession in his solitude If any shall impute my yeilding to them the Scots as my failing sinne I can easilie acknowledge it but that is no argument to doe so agaiâ—…e or much more For the Royal sonne His Majestie now being you say he hath not yet gone beyond an offer therefore His Martyr'd Fathers poenitential acknowledgement of his failing sinne join'd to your seasonable admonition That there can be no such actual concession but upon the peril of ignorance or buge injustice except he ownes it aswell to be the religious dictate of his conscience as a poltike indulgence upon necessitie of state may probablie move him at leisure to deliberate whatsoever he shall determine to doe in this wherein God direct him for the best aswell for his owne sake as the saftie of his Kingdomes make him cautious hereafter how the importunitie of the mission gets ground upon his goodnesse when all his grants shall be so publikelie registred as conscientious acts by such barbarious pens deliver'd to posteritie as sealed with his soule The Bishops presumption in that which followes is none but what from the grounds of modest Christian charitie may be raised viz. That a knowing a just King such as your owne character renders him will acknowledge that contrarie to the dictates of his conscience which is proved contrarie to the lawes of God man And this may be proclaimed if not prohibited without being his Confessour or taking it from the Clerke of the closet in any whisper Nor doth your mistâ—…ust of reports beare authoritie enough to make His Majesties conscience passe for Presbyterian no more then that for a command or imposition by law which was by your petitionarie violence ravish'd from his passive innocencie into a grant So that you see in the very beginning you stumble at a strawe being to finde somewhat worse in your way you were best life your legs higher in your progresse How much the Disciplinarian Scots have contributed from the beginning toward the alteration of Religion in England is too large a storie to be inserted in this dispute Their old account the Rt Reverend Arch-Bishop Bancroft cast up in his Dangerous positions English Scotizing Discipline their later arreares ruu very high in the historie of our times beginning with his religious learned successour The losse of whose head is not more to be imputed to the peoples clamours then the Scotish papers Whatsoever they did before I hope they can not denie themselves to be one of the horned beasts which together with their English brethren make the supporters of the Presbyterian Rebells scutcheon in the Covenant This in their remonstrance upon their last inroad into England when their fainting brethren with the cause were giving up the ghost they tell the King plainlie they shall zealouslie constantlie in their severall vocations endeavour with their estates lives to persue advance This pursuance was against the King Bishops which with the Convocation of divines are the true full representatives of the Church of England The assemblie of Divines were but locusts caterpillars brought together at Westminster by a Northerne wind The lawes of England convocate no such creatures nor in such a maner King Parliament were mere names had then there no real being so no breath to such a purpose nor those in the two Houses afterward more then the heads on the top of them in any politike capacitie to ordaine the abolition of Episcopacie Beside what the Assemblie did deliberate debate poor mechanike people 't is very well know'n they did as daylie labourers sacrilegious hirelings spend the thred of their time in your service payd the price of their souls for a sequestration or two the Covenanting brethren's pillage of the Church So that if they began the song you know by whom they were payd for their paines if they danc'd not after your pipe poor scraping wretches they came at your call how soever you were in a medley together to be sure your Covenanting Divel had got you all into a circle will better distinguish you when he calls to you for his reâ—…koning But by your favour good Sir His Majestie kept out for the very three yeares you mention told you plainlie he would make one in the practike harmonie of the Catholike Church That permission for it was no more necessitie extorted though he could not at that time get you all into Bedlam he thought in thrce yeares you would pipe dance your selves wearie then be content to give way to a better solemnitie of the Cathedral musike to come in In the meane time estates lives engag'd in the advancement of the Covenant by the sword the end thereof being to setle discipline was medling with imposing upon our Church Quod erat demonstrandum The Bishop you see gives a shrewd guesse who they are you endeavour to brand with the name of Erastians how all Protestans Churches even such as are not Episcopal must be beholding to you for that title because they come not up to the rigour of your Discipline Wherein Erasttus slaterd the Magistrate to the prejudice of the just rights of the Church concernd you aswell to prove as to mention then to have draw'n a parallel of the like flaterie in the Bishop Your doubting argues you ignorant or negligent confirmes my beleefe that you have travail'd as litle in Erastus's doctrines as his wayes gone no farther then the title of his booke What His
Grotius that had better skill in the lawes then you or I sayth That in causes of Delegacie semper appellasio conscssa fuit ad Imperatorem si ex Imperiali jussione judicatum esset aut ad Iudicum quemcunque si ex judiciali praecepto which holds good against your general Assemblie if that judgeth earegali jussione that it doth so is cleare from your Assemblie Act April 24. 1578. wherein it petitioneth the King to set establish your policie a part whereof is your Assemblie judication That it is for the most part order'd to the King in his Courts is not any way to confine his power but to free him from frequent impertinencies unseasonable importnnities of trouble or it may be a voluntarie but no obligatorie Royal condescension to avoyd your querulous imputation of arbitrarie partialitie tyrannie in judicature Therefore you injure the Bishop by converting his assertion into a negative confession As if when he sayth it is to the King in Chancerie he must needs acknowledge It can be neither to the King out of Chancerie nor to him there but with collaterall aequipotential â—…ssistants Whereas your friend Didoclave complaines that our appeales are ever progressus â—…b unico ad unicum wherein whether he mean'd an aggregate or personal unitie I leave you to interpret That an appeale is not permitted from your Lords of session or Parliament in Scotland is because whatsoever is regularlie determin'd there receives its ratification from the King But if one or other in their session without him should determine a case evidentlie undeniablie destructive to the rights of his crowne or liberties of his people whether His Majestie may not admit an appeale assume his coercive power to restraine their license I thinke no loyal subject in Scotland will controvert As touching your Assemblies King Iames tells you It is to be generallie observed that no priviledge that any King gives to one particular bodie or state within the Kingdome of convening consulting among themselves which includes whatsoever they doe when they are convened consulting is to be understood to be privative given unto them so the King thereby depriving himselfe of his owne power praerogative but onelie to be given cumulative unto them as the lawyers call it without any way denuding the King of his owne power authoritie This His Majestie alledged against the Ministers at Aberdene whom he accuseth not onelie of convening but acting after they were convened He particularlie mentions their setting downe the dies of the next Assemblie His Councel addes their endâ—…vour to reverse overthrow all those good orders godlie constitutions formerlie concluded for keeping of good order in their Church If you alledge that His Majesties Commissioner was not there then you grant me their acts are not justifiable without him And that all are not necessarilie with him I argue from the language of the Commission whereby they meet which limits them thus secundum legem praâ—…im against which if any thing be acted upon appeale the Kings praerogative may rectifie it at pleasure if not any judge may praetend to be absolute then the King must be absolutelie nothing having committed or delegated all power from himselfe What civile law of Scotland it is that prohibites appeales from the General Assemblie you should doe well to mention in your next I know none nor did King Iames thinke of any when he cited his distinction from the Scottish Lawyers aswell as any other Where an Assemblie proceeds contrarie to the lawes of God man Which is not impossible while it may consist of a multitude men neither the best nor most able of the Kingdome the Bishop thinkes an appeale to a legal Court of delegates constituted by a superiour power might be neither unseeming nor unreasonable The law of old never intended they should be the weakest of all Court Where it hath so happened by your owne rule pag. 22. The Delegates not Delegacie are to be charged Such heretofore in England as imployed mercenarie officials for the most part were mercenarie Bishops if they had been cut to the core would have been found I doubt Disciplinarian in heart though Episcopal in title The Scots way of managing Ecclesiastical causes is not more just because more derogatorie to the right of the King And the late Martyr'd King found it not more safe therefore told Mr. Henderson plainlie the papacie in a multitude might be as dangerous as in one how that might be Gualter writ to Count Vnit-glupten in a letter Emergent hinc novae tyrannidis cornua paulatim cristas attollent ambitiosi Ecclesiarum pastores quibus facile fuerit suos assessores in suas partes attrahere cùm ipsii inter hos primatum teneant He might have found the experiment of it in Scotland Nor can it be more satisfactorie to those rational men with whom the Bishops arguments are prevalent beside what else may be effectuallie alledged against it Allthough the two instances the Bishop brings for stopping appeales were accompanied with so many treasonable circumstances as might have enlarged his chapter into a volume deleted the credit of a Scotish Disciplinarian Assemblie out of the opinion of all the Cristians in the world Yet His Lordship thought good to furnish his reader with better authoritie from the second Booke of Discip. ch 12. which shall here meet you againe to crave your acquaintance From the Kirke there is no reclamation or appellation to any Iudge Civile or Ecclesiasticall within the Realme The reputation of the two Reverend Arch-Bishops Montgomerie Adamson depends not upon the sentence of a turbulent envious Synod much lesse any single malicious Presbyter in a pamphlet with whom we know 't is crime hainous enough to be a Bishop shall not want his vote to make them excommunicate Their manifold high misdemeanours are mention'd in the censure of the Presbyterie of Striveling for admitting Montgomerie to the temporalitie of the Bishoprike of Glasgow his owne for aspiring thereto Assemblie 1587. And of the other for taking the Kings commission to sit in Parliament 1584. In the last Act of which his commission is printed to register â—…his guilt The principal of their evil patrons among the wicked States-men I meane next under the King to whom you yeild that praerogative at least is sayd to be the Earle of Arran who deserves that character for being second at that time in His Majesties favour he is sayd by your brethren to have taken them into the Parliament So that lay their commission Earle Arrans courtesie together which without the other had implied the pleasure of the King they tooke not without authoritie upon themselves as you sayd the Episcopal office nor place in that Parliament Whether the pride contempt of the Prelates or Presbyters were greater may be judg'd in the case of Arch-Bishop Montgomerie by the Assemblies slighting not onelie
be given you upon vour knees when His Majestie shall by Gods assistance have power to chastise your rebelling cursing covenanting excommunicating imprisoning murdering decreeing the confusion of his Royal familie three flourishing Kingdomes in your Assemblies CHAPTER IV. Seditious Rebellious Ministers in Scotland seldome or never censur'd by the Assemblie HEre Mr. Baylie layes faster hold upon the title then the Bishops evidences in the Chapter because sedition rebellion are charg'd home to the conscience of the Presbyters their usual indemnitie imputed to the Discipline he would faine step over these publike enormities to personal vices against which by his leave the Ecclesiastike rigour is not such but it can admit of very frequent indulgences many times convert the guilt or shame of such haynous transgresions to the glorie of their Gospel a more certaine signe of the sinners election by grace according to John Knox's divinitie after proofe made against Paul Meffane The treason of Iudas the adulterie of David abnegation of Peter did derogate nothing from the glorie of Christs Evangel nor yet the doctrine which before they had taught but declared the one to be a reprobate the other to be an instrument in whom mercie must surmount judgement Nay if they find it advantageous to their discipline these declamers against adulterie bloud will make religious applications to any as they did to Murray their Regent-bastard murderer to say no more of him whom they made the greatest saint upon the earth the most eminent patron of their Church That your pulpits have been perduellionis plaustra the common stages for sedition treason I have made appeare upon an old item somewhere else And because you had not enough of them for the last old Comaedie you were to act how you did mount it in halls schooles other profane places is deliver'd unto us upon Royal authoritie in his late Maejsties large Declaration 16â—…9 Where is to be found such loyal doctrine as this One in Edenburgh upon his Majesties urging subscription to your owne Confession of fayth sayd It was an Italian a devellish device first to make them renounce God perjure themselves then afterward there was an intention to destroy their bodies so that this subscription imported no lesse then the destruction both of their bodies soules Rollocke did as much upon a seaffold in publishing a wicked rebellious protestation Another That though there were never so many Acts of Parliament against the Covenant yet it ought to be maintain'd against them all And Andrew Cant since charg'd His Majestie thus to his face Awake thow lumpe of clay thow wast not sleeping when thow gavest cut the blondie commissione to Iames Graham Of all which I desire Mr. Baylie to name one that suffer'd any censured from a Synod what priviledge these or any other scandalous crimes had in England or Ireland the High Commission Civile censures can cleare But the Reviewers conscience can tell how many such tooke shelter under the wings of the Covenant who were threatned processe if they subscrib'd not having done it passed for very zealous pious brethren in the cause Their names infirmities if Mr. Bayâ—…lie hath not I have charitie to conceale Or if I had not could their ordination be justified they accounted of our brotherhood I should thinke my selfe oblig'd to it under the penaltie of the 55. Canon of the Councel of Carthage Episcopus accusatores sratrum excommunices si emâ—…ndaverine vitium recipiat eos ad communionem non ad Clerum If he bear'd the like reverence to Antiquitie when he speakes so broadlie of the Bishop of Derric he might bethinke himselfe of the 57 Canon Clericus maledicus maxime in sacerdotibus cogatur ad postâ—…andum veuiam si noluerit degradetur nec unquam ad officium absque satisfactione revocetur And to give His Lordship his due interest in the prudent provision of the Church I direct the reader to that in the Councel of Constantinople De accasatoribus Orthodoxorum Episâ—…oporum non admittendis which is to be found in the edition of Chr. Iustell where he shall see by how many clauses Mr. Baylie is excluded from being admitted to enter any accusation against him first by the Religion he professeth adjudg'd as bad as heresie by the ancient Canons for decreeing in conventicles against the authoritie of Bishops antisynagontas tois kanonikois hemin episcopois … And whether upon the several grounds that follow an Oecumentical may not reject him hoos kathybrisanta tous kanonas kaiten ecclesiastiken lymenamenon eutaxian as a reproachfull despiser of Canons a bane to the eutaxie of the Church let any of his aequitable compareâ—… consider Yet I thinke I shall breake no canon by retorting his quaestion his acts being so publike himselfe autocatacritos convinc'd under his hand in his booke Did the Reviewer never heare of a Presbyterian sibb to Mr. Baylie who to this day was never but may be in good time called to any account for flagrant scandals of such crimes even the same the Bishop mentions sedition treason which aswell in Scotland as in any other Kingdome are punishable by the Gallowes These crimes above any deserve civile cognizance from which as free as the Scotish Churchmen have been I dare undertake to prove out of their storie That there was hardlie ever Synod in Scotland Presbyterian I meane but was guiltie of Rebellion or bloud having ever made their covenants with death their agreement with hell having made liet their refuge under salshood bid themselves as they did Isai. 28. 15. So that Mariana his diseiples whether in Italie or Spaine or all the world over can not in aequitie have layd such devillish doctrines such publike murders of Princes Nobles to their charge Foedus umbrarum perit As constant a Covenanter as you are with the living I see the holiest league can not chaine up your furious malice against the dead Your naming Bishop Aderton For his sinne that blessed Martyr the L. of Canterburie for his patron speakes you a sonne of neither Christian charitie nor truth If Presbyterie had been as old as the Councel of Nice I perceive your sawcie fingars would have snatch'd the libells out of Constantines breast your zealous tongues that are made seven times hotter otherwhere would have runn the hazard to licke the Bishops faults out of the fire I wish you had help'd me to a better bargain of your silence not forc'd me to give you this which I am â—…oth to part with in exchange for your blabbing That if all be true that is in print which for your credit I hope is not Your Discipline had no other then a Sodomite for its patron some thinke you may take your choyce of French or Scot. How this abomination hath been propagated with your Discipline though by it no Disciple I leave
only the Presbyters it gives the King power over all persons as subjects but none at all in Ecclesiastick causes Ans. Is there in all this reasoning any thing sound First what article of the covenant beares the setting up of the Presbyterian government in England as it is in Scotland II. If the oath of supremacy import no more then what the Warners expresse words are here that the King is a civil head to see every man doe his duty in his calling let him be assured that no Presbyterian in Scotland was ever contrary to that supremacy III. That the Presbytery is a papacy and that a politicall one the Warner knowes it ought not to be graunted upon his bare word IV. That in Scotland no other governors are acknowledged then Presbyters himselfe contradicts in the very nixt words where he tells that the Scots Presbytery ascribes to the King a power over all persons as subjects V. That any Presbyterian in Scotland makes it sacriledge to give the King any power at all in any Ecclesiastick cause it is a senselesse untruth The Warners arguments are not more idle and weake then his triumphing upon them is insolent for he concludes from these wise and strong demonstrations that the poor covenant is apparently deceitfull unvalide impious rebellious and what not yea that all the learned divines in Europe wil conclude it so that all the covenanters themselfes who have any ingenuity must grant this much and that no knowing English man can deny it but his owne conscience will give him the ly Ans. If the Warner with any seriousnesse hath weighed this part of his owne write and if his mind goe along with his pen I may without great presumption pronounce his judgment to be none of the most solide His following vapours being full of aire we let them evanish only while he mentioneth our charging the King with intentions of changing the Religion and government we answer that we have been most willing alwayes to ascribe to the King good intentions but withall we have long avowed that the praelaticall party have gone beyond intentions to manifest by printed declarations and publick actions their former designe to bring Tiranny upon the States and popery upon the Churches of all the three Kingdomes and that this very write of the Warners makes it evident that this same minde yet remaines within them without the least shew of repentance So long as the conscience of the court is mannaged by men of such principles it is not possible to free the hearts of the most understanding from a great deale of Jealousy and feare to have Religion and lawes still overturned by that factione But the Warner commands us to speake to his Dilemma whither we think it lawfull or unlawfull for subjects to take armes against their prince meerly for Religion We answer that the reasons whereby he thinks to conclude against us on both sides are very poor if we shall say it is unlawfull then he makes us to condemne our selfes because our covenant testifies to the world that we have taken up armes meerly to alter Religion and that we beare no alleadgance to our King but in order to Religion which in plaine tearmes is to our owne humours and conceits Ans. There be many untruthes here in few words first how much reality and truth the Warner and some of his fellowes beleeves to be in that thing which they call Religion their owne heart knowes but it can be no great charity in him to make the Religion of all covenanters to be nothing but their owne humours and conceits Secondly it is not true that Covenanters beare no alleadgance to the King but only in order to religion III. The Parliament of England denied that they took up armes against their King though to defend themselves against the popish praelaticall and malignant faction who were about to destroy them with armes IV. They have declared that their purpose was not at all to alter Religion but to purge it from the corruptions of Bishops and ceremonies that to long had been noxious unto them V. They have oft professed that their armes were taken for the defence of their just liberties whereof the preservation and reformation of Religion was but one The other horne of his Dilemma is as blunt in pushing as the former If we make it lawfull saith he to take up armes for Religion we then justify the independents and Anabaptists wee make way for any that will plant what ever they apprehend to be true Religion by force and to cut the throat of all Magistrats who are in a contrary opinion to them that it is a ridiculous partiality for any to priviledge their own Religion as truth and Gospell Ans. Whether will these men goe at last the strength of this reason is blak atheisme that their is no realty of truth in any Religion that no man may be permitted to take his Religion for any thing more but his owne apprehension which without ridiculous folly he must not praeferre to any other mans apprehension of a contrary Religion this is much worse then the pagane Scepticisme which turned all reality of truth into a meer apprehension of truth wherein their was no certainty at all this not only turnes the most certaine truths even these divine ones of Religion into meer uncertaine conceptions but which is worse it wil have the most orthodoxe beleever so to think speake and act as if the opinions of Independents Anabaptists Turks Jews Pagans or grosse Atheists were as good true and solide as the beleefe of Moyses or Paul were of the truths revealed to them from heaven Secondly we say that subjects defence of their Religion and liberties established by Law against the violent usurpation of Papists Praelats or Malignants is not the planting of Religion by arms much lesse is it the cutting of the throats of al Magistrats who differ in any point of Religion III. In the judgement of the praelaticall party the defensive armes of the Protestants in France Holland and Germany must be al 's much condemned as the offensive armes of the Anabaptists in Munster or of the sectaries this day in England Can these men dreame that the World for their pleasure will so farre divest themselves of all Religion and reason as to take from their hands so brutish and Atheisticall maximes He concluds with a wish of a generall counsel at least of all protestant Churches for to condemne all broatchers of seditious principles Ans. All true covenanters goe before him in that desire being confident that he and his fellowes as they have declined al ready the most solemne assemblies of their owne countries upon assurance of their condemnation so their tergiversation would be al 's great if they were to answer to an oecumenick Synod What I pray would the Warner say in a counsel of protestants for the practise of his party pointed at in his last words I meane their