Glasgow But before they went to it a written citation of the Bishops was ordered to be read through all the Churches of Scotland wherein they were chaâ—ged as guilty of all the crimes imaginable which as an Agape after the Lords Supper was first read after a Communion at Edinburgh and upon it orders were sent every where for bringing in the privatest of their escapes And you may judge how consonant this was to that Royal Law of charity which covers a multitude of sins nor was the Kings Authority any whit regarded all this while Was ever greater contempt put on the largest offers of grace and favor And when at Glasgow His Majesty offered by his Commissioner to consent to the limiting of Bishops nothing would satisfie their zeal without condemning the order as unlawful and abjured But when many illegalities of the constitution and procedure of that Assembly were discovered their partiality appeared for being both Judg and Party they justified all their own disorders Upon which His Majesties Commissioner was forced to discharge their further sitting or procedure under pain of Treason but withal published His Majesties Royal intentions to them for satisfying all their legal desires and securing their fears But their stomachs were too great to yield obedience and so they sate still pretending their authority was from CHRIST and condemned Episcopacy excommunicated the Bishops with a great many other illegal and unjustifiable Acts. And when His Majesty came with an Army to do himself right by the Sword GOD had put in his hands they took the start of him and seised on his Castles and on the houses and persons of his good Subjects and went in a great body against him Now in this His Majesty had the Law clearly of his side For Episcopacy stood established by Act of Parliament And if this was a cause of Religion or a defence of it much less such as deserved all that bloud and confusion which it drew on let all the World judg It is true His Majesty was willing to settle things and receive them again into his grace and upon the matter granted all their desires but they were unsatisfiable upon which they again armed But of this I shall not recount the particulars because I hope to see a clear and unbyassed narration of these things ere long Only one Villany I will not conceal at the pacification at Berwick seven Articles of Treaty were signed But the Covenanters got a paper among them which passed for the conditions of the agreement though neither signed by his Majesty nor attested by Secretary or Clerk and this being every where spread his Majesty challenged it as a Forgery and all the English Lords who were of the Treaty having declared upon Oath that no such paper was agreed on it was burnt at London by the hand of the Hangman as a scandalous paper But this was from the Pulpits in Scotland represented as a violation of the Treaty and that the Articles of it were burnt These and such were the Arts the men of that time used to inflame that blessed King 's native Subjects against him But all these were small matters to the following invasion of England An. 1643. For his Majesty did An. 1641. come to Scotland and give them full satisfaction to all even their most unreasonable demands which he consented to pass into Acts of Parliaments But upon his return into England the woful rupture betwixt him and the two Houses following was our Church-party satisfied with the trouble they occasioned him No they were not for they did all they could to cherish and foment the Houses in their insolent Demands chiefly about Religion and were as forward in pressing England's uniformity with Scotland as they were formerly in condemning the design of bringing Scotland to an uniformity with England I shall not engage further in the differences betwixt the King and the two Houses than to shew that His Majesty had the Law clearly of his side since he not only consented to the redress of all grievances for which the least color of Law was alledged but had also yielded to larger concessions for securing the fears of his Subjects than had been granted by all the Kings of England since the Conquest Yet their demands were unsatisfiable without His Majesty had consented to the abolishing of Episcopacy and discharge of the Liturgy which neither his Conscience nor the Laws of England allowed of so that the following War cannot be said to have gone on the principles of defending Religion since His Majesty was invading no part of the established Religion And thus you see that the War in England was for advancing a pretence of Religion And for Scotlands part in it no Sophistry will prove it defensive for His Majesty had setled all matters to their hearts desire and by many frequent and solemn protestations declared his resolutions of observing inviolably that agreement neither did he so much as require their assistance in that just defence of his Authority and the Laws invaded by the two Houses though in the explication of the Covenant An. 1039. it was agreed to and sworn That they should in quiet manner or in Arms defend His Majesties Authority within or without the Kingdom as they should be required by His Majesty or any having his Authority But all the King desired was that Scotland might lie neutral in the quarrel enjoying their happy tranquillity yet this was not enough for your Churches zeal but they remonstrated that Prelacy was the great Mountain stood in the way of Reformation which must be removed and they sent their Commissioners to the King with these desires which His Majesty answered by a Writing yet extant under his own Royal hand shewing That the present settlement of the Church of England was so rooted in the Law that he could not consent to a change till a new form were agreed to and presented to him to which these at Westminster had no mind but he offered all ease to tender Consciences and to call a Synod to judg of these differences to which he was willing to call some Divines from Scotland for bearing their opinions and reasons At that time Petitions came in from several Presbyteries in Scotland to the Conservators of the Peace inciting them to own the Parliaments quarrel upon which many of the Nobility and others signed a Cross Petition which had no other design but the diverting these Lords from interrupting the Peace of Scotland by medling in the English quarrel upon which Thunders were given out against these Petitioners both from the Pulpits and the Remonstrances of the Commission of the General Assembly and they led Processes against all who subscribed it But His Majesty still desired a neutrality from Scotland and tho highly provoked by them yet continued to bear with more than humane patience the affronts were put on his Authority Yet for animating the people of Scotland into the designed War the Leaders of that Party did every where
that were betwixt him and Zisca the resistance was not made to the King of Bohemia and therefore all that time was an Interregnum and is so marked by their Historian who tells that the Bohemians could not be induced to receive him to be their King he indeed invaded the Kingdom and crowned himself but was not chosen by the States till fifteen years after that a Peace was concluded and he with great difficulty prevailed upon the States to ratifie his Coâ—onation and acknowledge him their King See Dub. lib. 24. lib. 26. And by all this I doubt not but you are convinced that the Wars of Zasca were not of the nature of Subjects resisting their Sovereign And for the late Bohemian War besides what was already alledged of the Power of the States their War against Ferdinand and the reason why by a solemn decree they rejected him was because he invaded the Crown without an Election contrary to the fundamental Laws of the Kingdom hereupon they choosed the Prince Elector Palatine to be their King It is true they rose also in Arms while Matthias lived though he did not long survive these Tumults but in all their Apologies they founded their plea on the Liberties of the Kingdom of Bohemia And yet though this say much for their defence I am none of the Patrons of that War which had very few defenders among the Protestants Isot. At length you must yield there was War for defence of Religion but if without the inclosure of Bohemia we examine the History of Germany there we meet with that famous Smalcaldick War in opposition to Charles V. who was designing the overthrow of the Protestant Doctrine which the Elector of Saxony with the Landgrave of Hâ—ssen and other free Cities managed against him See p. 427. Poly. If any of the Passions of men have mingled in the actions of Protestants must these therefore be fasten'd on them as their Doctrine especially when they went not upon Principles of Religion but of Provincial Lawâ— As for Germany let me first tell you how far the Protestants were against Rebellion upon pâ—etence of Religion At first the Rustick War had almost kindled all Germany which indeed began upon very unjust Causes but Sleydan lib. 5. tells That some troublesome Preachers had been the cauâ—ers of that great and formidable War Now it is to little purpose to say they were in many errors and so fought not for the true Religion since it was befoâ—e made out that if Religion be to be fought for every man believing his own Religion to be true is bound to take Arms in its defence since even an erring Conscience binds Bâ—t as these Tumults did â—pâ—ead through Germany Luther published a Writing desiring all to abstain fâ—om Sedition though with â—l hâ— told he apprehended some strange â—udgment was hanging over the Church-men but that was to be lâ—ft to God After which he explains the duty of the Magistrates And adds That the People should be severely charged not to stir without the command of their Magistrates and that nâ—thing was to be attempted by private Persons that all Sedition was against the command of God and that Sedition was nothing but private Revenge and therefore hated by God Adding That the Seditions then stirring were raised by the Devil who stirred up these who professed the Gospel to them that thereby the truth might be brought under hatred and reproach as if that could not be of God which gave occasion to so great evils Then he tells what means were to be used for advancing of the Gospel That they were to repent of their sins for which God had permitted that tyranny of the Church-men Next That they should pray for the Divine aid and publickly assert the truth of the Gospel and discover the Impostures of the Popes And he adds That this had been his method which had been much blessed of God In a word the whole strain of that first Paper shews that the great bait used to train all into that Rebellion was the pretence of the liberty of Religion and the tyrannical oppression they were kept under by the Ecclesiasticks But upon this the Beures published a Writing containing their Grievances The first whereof was That they might have liberty to choose Ministers who might preach the Word of God purely to them without the mixture of mens devises The other particulars related to their Civil Liberties And upon these Pretensions they appealed to Luther who wrote again Acknowledging the great Guilt of these Princes who received not the purity of the Gospel but he warns the People to consider what they did lest they lost both Body and Soul in what they attempted That they were neither to consider their own strength nor the faultiness of their Adversaries but the justice and lawfulness of the Cause and to be careful not to believe all Mens preachings for the Devil had raised up many Seditions and bloody Teachers at that time Wherefore he forbids them to take God ' s Name in vain and pretend that they desired in all things to follow his Laws But minds them who threatned that they who took the Sword should perish by the Sword and of the Apostle who commands all to be obedient to Magistrates charging on them that though they pretended the Laws of God yet they took the Sword and resisted the Magistrate But he adds You say the Magistrates become intolerable for they take the Doctrine of the Gospel from us and oppress us to the highest degree But be it so stars and seditions are not therefore to be raised neither must every one coërce crimes that belongs to him to whom the power of the Sword is given as is express in Scripture And besides this is not only according to the Laws but is by the light of Nature impressed on all mens minds which shews that no man can cognosce and judge in his own Cause since all men are blinded with self-love And it cannot be denied but this Tumult and Sedition of yours is a private Revenge But if you have any warrant for this from God you must make it out by some signal Miracle The Magistrate indeed doth unjustly but you much more so who contemning the Command of God invade anothers Iurisdiction And he tells them That if these things take place there will be no more Magistracy nor Courts of Iustice if every man exercise private Revenge And if this be unlawful in a private Person much more is it so in a multitude gathered together Wheâ—efore he counts them unworthy of the name of Christians nay worse than Turks who thus violate the Laws of Nature Then for proof of his opinion he adduceth that of our Lord's resist not evil as also his râ—proving of S. Peter for smiting with the Sword These steps were to be fâ—llowed by you saith he or this glorious Title must be laid down And if you followed his Example God ' s power would appear and he would undoubtedly
of an oath upon their consciences and not being able to examine thâ—ngs to the bottom were entangled thus and engaged which way the leading Church-men pleaâ—ed and the guilt of this as it was great in those who without due consideration engaged in those oaths so it was most fearful in them who against the clear convictions of conscience were prevailed upon by the thunders of the Church or the threats of the State to swear what they judged sinful I confess their crime was of a high and crying nature who did thus for the love of this present world not only make shipwreck of a good conscience but persisted long in a tract of dissembling with GOD and juggling with men But the wickedness of this comes mainly to their door who tempted them to prevarication by their severities against all refused a concurrence in these courses And the sin of all this was the greater that it was carried on with such pretences as if it had been the cause and work of GOD with fasting prayers tears and shews of devotion For these things the Land mourns and GOD continues his controversie against us To which I must add the great impenitence of those who being once engaged in that course of Rebellion have not yet repented of the works of their hands For even such as own a conviction for it do not express that horror and remorse at their by-past crimes which become penitents But think if by rioting drinking and swearing they declare themselves now of another mind than formerly they were of that they are washed free of that defilement In a word none seem deeply humbled in the presence of GOD for the sinfulness of these practices into which they entered themselves and engaged others And till I see an ingenuous spirit of confessing and repenting for these great evils for all that rebellion that bloud oppreson and vastation which these courses drew on I shall never expect a National pardon for that National guilt For when on the one hand many are still justifying these black Arts and not humbled for them nor owning their penitence as openly as they committed their sins And on the other hand these who confess the faultiness of their courses do it in a spirit of traducing others of railing and reviling perhaps not without Atheistical scoffings at true Religion but not in a spirit of ingenuous horror and sorror for their own accession to these courses it appears we are still hardened either into a judicial blindness of the one hand or of obduration of heart on the other That profanity doth much abound I must with sorrow confess it in the presence of my GOD And I know there are many who roll themselves in the dust daily before GOD and mourn bitterly for it But when I enter in a deeper inquiry what may be the true causes of it those that occur to me are first a judicial stroke from GOD upon us for our by-past abominations and chiefly for our hypocritical mocking of GOD fastning the designs or humors of a Party on him as if they had been his Ordinances interests and truths And therefore because we held the truth of GOD in unrighteousness his wrath hath been revealed against us Next the frequent involving the Land in reiterated Oaths subscriptions and professions of repentance under severe Censures which prevailed with many to swallow them over implicitly and made others yield to them against their Conscience hath so debauched and prostituted the Souls of people that it is no wonder they be now as seared with a hot Iron and incapable of reproofs or convictions Besides is it any wonder that these whose hearts naturally led them to Atheism when they see what juggling was used about some pretences of Religion and how the whole Land was involved in so much bloud about such trifling matters come thereupon to have a jealousie of Preachers and preaching as if all they said was but to maintain and advance their own interests and greatness and thereupon turn Scoffers at all Religion because of the base and irreligious practices of some who yet vouched GOD and CHRIST for all they did And on remark I shall offer on the way that the sin of your Church was legible in your judgment their sin was the animating the people to Rebellion upon colors of Religion and their judgment was not only to be subdued and oppressed by another rebellious Army who were not wanting to pretend highly to the cause of GOD in all their actings but that they brake in pieces among themselves about a decision who might be imployed to serve in the Army which at first disjointed and afterwards destroyed your Church and the schism is still among us which is like to eat up the power of Religion is but the dreg and genuin effect of these courses and so all the prejudice it produceth to Religion and the true interests of Souls is to be charged upon that same score Isot. Really I am much scandalized with this Discourse which if it were heard abroad I know would much offend the hearts of the LORD's people And indeed I think it ought not to be answered no more than Rabshaketh's railings were by Eliakim I wish I could with good Hezekiah spread it out before the LORD and mourn over it and for you who do so blaspheme GOD and his Cause But whatever you may say in the point of Resistance yet you cannot deny but we are all from the highest to the lowest bound in our stations at least to withstand Prelacy against which we did so formally swear in that Oath of GOD which most of you are not only content to break but must needs despise and mock at Phil. GOD is my witness how little pleasure I have in this severe Discourse into which the petulancy of these Writers hath engaged me but examine what I said from Religion and Reason and you will perhaps change your verdict of it For my part I say none of these things in a corner neither do I expect that they shall not fly abroad and if they do I will look for all the severities which the censures and malice of many can amount to But I will chearfully bear that cross and will be content to be yet more vile for declaring freely what I judg to be GOD's Controversie with the Land I live in If for this love to Souls many be my Adversaries I will betake my self to prayer and shall only add this that few who know me suspect my temper guilty either of flattery or bitterness And the searcher of hearts knows that I neither design by this freedom to commend my self to any nor to disgrace others but meerly to propose things as they are If this produce any good effect I have my design if not I have discharged my conscience and leave the issue of it with GOD who can out of the mouths of babes and sucklings ordain strength and perfect praise As for any obligation you may suppose the
not deeper in the knowledge of Affairs than any of us however since you expect News from me I was just now reading some Books lately printed at Holland and particularly an accurate and learned Confutation of these virulent Dialogues you were wont to magnifie so much and it doth my heart good to see how he baffles the writer of them on every occasion for he hath answered every word of them so well and so home that I believe we shall not see a reply in haste Philarcheus I suppose we have all seen the Book but it is like you are singular in your opinion of it I shall not deny its Author his deserved praises he hath been faithful in setting down most of the Arguments used in the Dialogues and no less careful to gather together all the vulgar answers to them and truly hath said as much as can be said for his Cause Neither writes he without art for when he is pinched he drives off the Reader with a great many preliminary things to make him forget the purpose and to gain a more easie assent to what he asserts I confess his Stile is rugged and harsh so that it was not without pain I wrestled through it but of all I have seen he hath fallen on the surest way to gain an Applause from the Vulgar for he acts the greatest Confidence imaginable and rails at his Adversary with so much contempt and malice that he is sure to be thought well of by these who judge of a man more by his voice and the impresses of earnestness and passion he discovers than by the weight of what he saith Eud. These things may well take with the ignorant Rabble with whom it is like he designs to triumph but truly such as understand either the civilities of good Nature or the meekness of a Christian will be little edified with them Indeed I am amazed to see so much indiscretion and bitterness fall from any mans Pen who hath read S. Paul condemning railings evil surmisings and perverse disputings Isot. Who begun the scolding The truth is there are some who think they may rail with a priviledge and if any in soberness tell them of their faults they accuse them of bitterness but was there ever any thing seen more waspish than these Dialogues whose design seems to have been the disgracing of a whole Party and all their actions for many years If then the Atheism the blasphemy the mockery the enmity to GOD and Religion the ignorance the malice the folly and arrogance of such a confident Babler be discovered you are so tender der hooffed forsooth as to complain of railings Eud. It seems these writings have made a deep Impression on you you have got so exactly into their stile bâ—t this is a place where Passion is seldom cherished therefore we will expect no more of that strain from you But to deal freely with you there were some Expressions in these Dialogues with which I was not well satisfied but the whole of them had such a visage of Serenity that I wonder how they are so accused It is true the Conformijt deals very plainly and yet ere we part I can perhaps satisfie you he said but a little of what he might have said But withal remember how severely he that was meekness it self treated the Scribes and the Pharisees and he having charged his Followers to beware of their leaven it is obedience to his Command to search out that leaven that it may leaven us no more And when any of a Party are so exalted in their own conceit as to despise and disparage all others the love Ministers of the Gospel owe the Souls of their Flocks obligeth them to unmask them As to these poor simple Reproaches that are cast on the Person of that Author as they are known to be false and unjust so they are done in a strain that seems equally void of Wit and Goodness But we shall meddle no more in these â—â—â—sonal differenceâ— afteâ— I have told you what I heard the Author of that Conference say upon this subject he said He was so far from being displeased with the Author of this Answer that he was only sorry he knew not who he was that he might seek an opportunity of obliging him For the things charged on him if he was guilty of them he needed very many prayers but if innocent the other needed no fewer who so unjustly accused him but a day comes wherein a righteous judge will judge betwixt them and this was the utmost displeasure he expressed adding That he had another sense of the account he must give for his hours than to engage in a Counter scuffle or to play at such small game as a particular examen of that Book would amount to And he judged it unworthy of him to turn Executioner on that man's Reputation by enquiring into all the escapes of his Book which are too obvious But he is willing to stand or fall by the decision of rational and impartial Minds only where he was either too short or where the Answerer hath raised so much Mist as might obscure a less discerning Reader he will when he gets out of the throng wherein his Employment doth at present engage him offer a clearer account of the matters in question without tracing of that pâ—or Creature who it is like expects to be recorded among the Learned Writers of the Age and the Champions of Truth Bas. We have nothing to do with what is personal among these Writers But since so many of us have met so happily and seem a little acquainted with these Questions let us according to our wonted freedom toss these debates among us without heat or reflections which signifie nothing but to express the strength of his Passions and the weakness of his Reasons who makes use of them And indeed the matter of the greatest Importance is the point of Subjects resisting their Sovereigns in the defence of Religion which deserves to be the better cleared since it is not a nicety of the School or a speculation of Philosophers but a matter of Practice and that which if received seems to threaten endless Wars and Confusions Crit. I am no great Disputer but shall be gladly a witness to your debate and upon occasions shall presume to offer what I have gleaned among the Critical Writers on Scripture and I hope Ijâ—timus's Memory is so good that he will carefully suggest the Arguments used by the Patrons of defensive Arms. Isot. I will not undertake too much but shall take care not to betray this good Cause yet I will not have the Verdict passed upon my defence of it however I shall not sneak so shamefully as the Nonconformist did in the Dialogues Eud. I hope I shall not need to caution you any more against reflections but as for the alledged treachery of your friend the Nonconformist it may be referred to all Scotland if what he saith be not what is put in the mouths
them some Towns for their security to be kept by them for twenty years at the end whereof the late King remanding them the Protestants were instant to keep them longer to which he yielded for three or four years in the end he wisely determined saith that Gentleman to take them out of their hands Upon which they met in an Assembly at Rochel and most imprudently he adds and against their duty both to God and the King they resolved to keep them still by force But at that time there was a National Synod at Alais where M. du Moulin presided who searching into the posture of Affairs in that Country where many of these places of strength lay he found the greater and better part inclined to yield them up to the King upon which he wrote an excellent Letter to the Assembly at Rochel disswading them from pursuing the Courses they were ingaging in where he shews it was the general desire of their Churches that it might please God to continue peace by their giving Obedience to the King and since his Majesty was resolved to have these Places in his own hands that they would not on that account ingage in a War But that if Persecution was intended against them all who feared God desired it might be for the Profession of the Gospel and so be truly the cross of Christ and therefore assured them the greater and better part of their Churches desired they would dissolve their meeting if it could be with security to their Persons And presses their parting from that Assembly with many Arguments and obviates what might be objected against it And craves pardon to tell them They would not find inclinations in those of the Religion to obey their resolutions which many of the best quality and greatest capacity avowedly condemned judging that to suffer on that account was not to suffer for the Cause of God And therefore exhorts them to depend on God and not precipitate themselves into Ruin by their Impatience And he ends his Letter with the warmest and serventest language imaginable for gaining them into his opinion It is true his Letter wrought not the desired Effect yet many upon it deserted the meeting Upon the which that Gentleman shews that what was then done ought not to be charged on the Protestant Churches of France since it was condemned by the National Synod of their Divines and three parts of four who were of the Religion continued in their dutiful Obedience to the King without ingaging in Arms with those of their Party Amirald also in his incomparable Apology for those of the Reformed Religion Sect. 2. vindicates them from the imputations of disloyalty to their Prince and after he hath asserted his own opinion that Prayers and Tears ought to be the only weapons of the Church as agreeing best with the nature of the Gospel and the practice of the first Christians he adds his regrates that their Fathers did not crown their other Virtues with invincible Patience in suffering all the Cruelty of their Persecutors without resistance after the Example of the Primitive Church by which all color of reproaching the Reformation had been removed Yet he shews how they held out during the Reign of Francis I. and Henry II. notwithstanding all the Cruelty of the Persecution though their Numbers were great What fell out after that he justifies or rather excuses for he saith he cannot praise but blame it on the Grounds we have already mentioned of the minority of their Kings and of the Interest of the Princes of the Blood And for the business of Renaudy in Francis II. his time he tells how Calvin disapproved it and observes from Thuan that he who first discovered it was of the Reformed Religion and did it purely from the Dictate of his Conscience He also shews that the Protestants never made War with a common Consent till they had the Edicts on their side so that they defended the King's Authority which others were violating But adds withal that the true cause of the Wars was reason of State and a Faction betwixt the Houses of Bourbon and Guise and the defence of the Protestants was pretended to draw them into it And for the late Wars he charges the blame of them on the ambition of some of their Grandees and the factious Inclinations of the Town of Rochel And vindicates the rest of their Church from accession to them whatever good wishes the common Interest of their Religion might have drawn from them for these whose danger they so much apprehended And for the Affaus of our Britain which was then in a great Combustion for which the Protestants were generally blamed as if the Genius of their Religion led to an opposition of Monarchy he saith strangers could not well judge of matters so remore from them but if the King of England was by the constitutions of that Kingdom a Sovereign Prince which is a thing in which he cannot well offer a dicision then he simply condemns their raising a War against him even though that report which was so much spread of his design to change the Reformed Religion settled there were true Neither are these opinions of Amirald to be look'd on as his private thoughts but that Apology being published by the approbation of these appointed to license the Books of the Religion is to be received as the more common and received Doctrine of that Church And what ever approbation or assistance the neighboring Princes might have given the Protestants in the latter or former Wars it will not infer their allowing the Precedent of Subjects resisting their Sovereign though persecuted by him since it is not to be imagined many Princes could be guilty of that But the Maxims of Princes running too commonly upon grounds very different from the Rules of Conscience and tending chiefly to strengthen themselves and weaken their Neighbors we are not to make any great account of their approving or abetting of these Wars And thus far you have drawn from me a great deal of Discourse for justifying the Confâ—rmists design of vindicating the Reformed Churches from the Doctrine and Practice of Subjects resisting their Sovereign upon pretexts of Religion Isot. A little time may produce an Answer to all this which I will not now attempt but study these accounts more accurately But let us now come home to Scotland and examine whether the King be an accountable Prince or not You know well enough how Fergus was first called over by the Scots how many instances there are of the States their coercing the King how the King must swear at his Coronation to observe the Laws of the Kingdom upon which Allegiance is sworn to him so that if he break his part why are not the Subjects also free since the Compact seems mutual I need not add to this that the King can neither make nor abrogate Laws without the consent of the Estates of Parliament that he can impose no Tax without them And from