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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43681	The spirit of popery speaking out of the mouths of phanatical-Protestants, or, The last speeches of Mr. John Kid and Mr. John King, two Presbyterian ministers, who were executed for high-treason and rebellion at Edinburgh, August the 14th, 1679 with animadversions, and the history of the Archbishop of St. Andrews his murder, extracted out of the registers of the Privy-Council, &c. / by an orthodox Protestant.	Hickes, George, 1642-1715.; Kid, John, d. 1679.; King, John, d. 1679.	1680 (1680)	Wing H1874; ESTC R6348	165,592	93

are obliged by our Religion not to Worship Daemons nor approach their Altars which are polluted with Blood Thou hast Commanded us to Sacrifice or every Tenth Man of us shall be put to Death Know assuredly that we are all Christians who as to our Bodies are thy Subjects but not as to our Souls which now look up to the Founder of our Religion Christ. Afterwards Exuperius the Standard-Bearer spoke unto them thus You see Fellow-Soldiers I bear the Eagle the Sign of Secular War but it is not to these Arms that I desire to provoke you nor in War of this nature That I would have you shew your Valour but in another way of Combating by which and not by your Swords you shall win the Kingdom of Heaven He left also this Message to be sent to the Emperor That Desperation which made all other men Valiant in Dangers could not prevail with them to use their Arms against his Majesty who had refused to Resist with their Swords in their hands because they had rather Die than get an unlawful Victory and perish in Innocency than Survive in Sin All which shews First That Passive Obedience is no Chimaera but a real Notion Secondly That it is the indispensible Duty of all Christians when they are Persecuted by Authority and Thirdly That it is so far from justifying Rebellion as the Author of Behem foolishly Asserts That it is the only Doctrine which can keep Subjects who are really Persecuted and Oppressed or phansie themselves to be so from Rebelling against their Sovereign and therefore the Popish and Presbyterian Jesuits who love to have it in their Power to trouble the Government of Christian Monarchs declare it to be as great a Sin as active Obedience to their unlawful Commands And now when all Sects whereof some are not Chistians with great confidence call themselves Protestants upon the account of their Opposition No Orthodon Protestants who deny the Doctrine of Passive Obedience whether real or pretended to Popery I freely declare That none of them are or ought to be esteemed so in a strict and Orthodox sence but such as Profess the Doctrine of Passive Obedience as strictly as it was both Professed and Practised in the Primitive Catholick Church Nay furthermore seeing there are some common Maxims of Christian Divinity which were always professed by the Church Universal for undoubted Truths although they are not set down expressly neither in the Scriptures nor in the Apostles Creed and the truth of which were never questioned but by some few Hereticks who had no proportion to the rest I also assert That no Man nor Society of Men how Antipapistical soever they may be ought to be looked upon as Orthodox Protestants unless they profess these common Notions of Christianity without the Belief and Profession of which none could be counted Orthodox Christians in the Primitive Catholick Church These common Principles wherein all Christian Churches agreed are these That the Scriptures are the Word of God That there are Three distinct Persons in the holy Trinity the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost and that these Three † That Infant are to be Baptized are one God That Christ is both God and Man in the same Person That the Lords-Day or First Day of every Week ought to be kept Holy That a Solemn Yearly Commemoration of the Passion Resurrection and Ascention of our Lord and of the Descent of the Holy Ghost ought to be Observed and that the Church Universal is to be Governed by Bishops above and distinct from Presbyters There never was any Church from the Apostles and downwards for above Fourteen hundred Years which did not consent to the Truth of These and some other Doctrines and look upon them as the common Notions of the Christian Religion delivered down from its first Original with the Articles of Christian Faith And therefore as no Arrian Photinian Sabbatarian or Aerian how Opposite soever they were to the Jews and Heathens the common Enemies of Christianity were admitted for truly Catholick or Orthodox Christians in the Primitive times but were Condemned and Anathematized for Hereticks The true not on of Protestancy so now no Society of Antiscripturists Antitrinitarians Socinians Antidominicans for I will not call them Antisabbatarians Antipaedobaptists Antiepiscoparians of what Denomination soever and likewise no Society of men professing the Observation of the Apostolical Holy-days to be Superstitious and Idolatrous how opposite soever they pretend to be to the common Enemie of the Reformed Churches ought not to be considered as Orthodox Protestants who by that name are understood to Protest against the Errors Innovations Corruptions and Usurpations of the Romish but not against the Common Doctrines of the Primitive Catholick Church the Lord. And that I Preached at Field-Meetings which is the other ground of my Sentence I am so far from acknowledging that the Gospel Preached that way is a Rendezvouzing in Rebellion as it is so termed that I bless the Lord that ever counted me worthy to be Witness of such Meetings which have been wonderfully Countenanced and owned not only to the x The Delusion of many Thousands as their numerous Field-Meetings do shew Conviction but even to the Conversion of many Thousands yea I do y I observed before That the Covenant-Preachers are apt to speak mighty things of their Party So Naphtali speaking of the Covenanted-Army which rebelled at Pentland-Hills 1666. saith That there hath not been in Britain such another Company of men joyned in Arms for the Covenant and Cause of God for sound Judgment true Piety Integrity of Heart Fervent Zeal undaunted Courage c. Whereas they were for the most part Crack-Brained men of broken Fortunes and such as had been processed for Fornications and Adulteries as all those who went to Christs Standard out of the Parishes of Kilmarnock and Phimus were known to be being in all Twenty Persons And if any man will take the pains to enquire into their Morals they will find this Sect to be one of the wickedest People not only for Treason Schism and Rebellion but for Sensual Sins and Abominations that ever professed the name of Christ. They use all manner of Care and Secrecy to Conceal their Wickedness but yet so many undeniable Stories of their Privy Pranks are come to Light as make them the Scandal of the Christian name Lysimach Nicanor First Edition page 79. Tells us of one Andrew Lesly who forsook Ireland to come and take the Covenant after which he immediately left his own Wife to live with a Whore the Daughter of an holy Sister at Edinburgh who Blasphemously said That her Child was fallen into an holy Fornication with a Brother not out of Lust but Love and therefore resolved That she should not Confess it lest the Gospel should be Scandalized and that it was better to fall into the hands of God by False-Swearing than to fall into the hands of men by Confessing the Fact which appeared

Christians forsaking or falling off from Christ or the Christian Religion is Metaphorically called a Scandal a Stone of Stumbling and a Rock of Offence and any man even our blessed Redeemer who spoke did or suffered any thing that accidentally deterred others from believing in Christ or that gave him occasion to desert him or his Doctrine is said to have offended or Scandalized them or given them offence in which sense 1 Cor. 1. 23. Christ is said to be a Scandal or Stumbling-block to the Jews and Luk. 7. 23. saith our Saviour Blessed is he that shall not be offended in me i. e. who shall not take occasion to disert or deny me at the time of my Sufferings see also Matth. 17. 27. 18. 6. 26. 31. 33. Therefore this Basphemer here applyes to himself the very words of the Apostle speaking of Christ crucified nay the very words of Christ himself to induce the poor People to believe that the very cause of the Covenanters is the very cause of Christianity and so deter them upon the Execution of the Rebels from quitting the cursed Rebellious cause Stone of Stumbling or a Rock of Offence and blessed is he that shall not be offended in Christ and his poor Followers and Members because of being Condemned by the World as evildoers As for those things for which Sentence hath passed against me I bless the Lord my p Is not this in effect to assert with the Jesuits That a good intention or meaning doth hallow a bad Action heart doth not Condemn me Rebellious I have not been neither do I judge it to be Rebellion for me to have indeavoured in my capacity what possible I could for the born-down and q He means by Episcopacy and Supremacy with respect to the former of which the Interest of Christ was universally ruined from the time of the Apostles till the French-Reformation and with respect to the latter from the time of Constantine the first Christian Emperour till the time when the Popes under the pretended Vicarship of Christ the King of Sion Subjected the Empire unto the Church And therefore good Christian People is not this a blessed cause which must have obliged Christians to separate from the Catholick Church in the purest times the age of the Apostles for they were Bishops and the age next unto them and to have rebelled under a pretence of Religion and defending the Interest of Christ against the first Christian Emperors to whom the Greek and Latin Churches attributed as much Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Matters and over Ecclesiastical Persons as the English and Scottish do to the King They a 1 Con. Nicen. by Constant. 1 Con. Constantinop by Theodos. Sen. Con. Eph. by Theodos. Junior Con. Chalced by Marcion convocated general Councils fat in them among the Patriarchs Bishops and Presbyters made b Syn. Oecumen Octava Where are the Speeches and Subscriptions of Basilius the Emporor and Leo. Or●tions upon Ecclesiastical matters to them and by their c Syn. Oecumen Octava Where are the Speeches and Subscriptions of Basilius the Emporor and Leo. Subscriptions consented to and confirmed what was determined therein And Councils wherein they did not sit used always to beseech them to d Epist. Concil Constantinop 1. ad Theodosium ratify their Decrees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They had power to e Can. 12. and 16. Concil Chalced. Balsam in 16. can Concil Carthag erect new Bishopricks to abolish old ones to f As Theodosius in the Election of Nectarius dispense with the Ecclesiastical Canons and to order many things in Church-Matters which were not defined therein as is plain out of the Code and Novelles and the Capitularia of the ancient French Kings They were Priviledged to come to the g 69. Can. Concil Sexti in Trullo Altar when all other Laies were forbidden and the Clergy to shew how sacred their Persons were and that the concerns of the Church ought to be their chief care h Grot. de imperio summar potest c. 2. 7. called them Priests and Bishops which in these days would pass for Episcopal tantivies as the traiterous Author of the Appeal thinks he wittily speaks There consent was requisite to the Election of Bishops nay they often nominated the Persons to be Elected and had power to i Novil 3. c. 1. Sancimus igitur The reason which the Emperor Justinian gave for that Law was the excessive number of the Clergy which was disproportionate to the Places and Revenue of the Church The Law and the Preface to it deserves to be considered by the Right Reverend and worthy Fathers of our Church forbid the Bishops to Ordain which by the leave of the Romish and Kirk-Writers I take to be a Privative power Lastly They had a power to suspend † Novil 123. c. 1. Sancimus igitur quoties Episcopum opus fuerit ordinari sed etiam illum qui praeter hoc persumpserit ordinare segregari uno anno a sacro ministerio Bishops and Presbyters and also to k Cod. l. 1 Tit. 1. 6. Anathematizamus Nestorium 2. Eutychetem 3. Apollinarium Anathematize Hereticks which signified a power of pronouncing them rightly and duly Anathematized and of doing many other things with respect to the Church-matters and Church-men and because the two Sister-Churches and their Clergy assert as much power to be due to the King in such Causes as the Kings of Judah and the Christian Emperors had therefore the Kirk-Preachers call them l The Author of the Apology Episcopal-Erastian Churches and their Ministers and Bishops Court-Parasites and when they argue from the example of the best Judaean Kings and the most Pious Christian Emperors m Calder-Woods altare Dam●scenum Naturâ insitum est omnibus regibus odium in Christum The same is to be found in Rutherfords Lex Rex They can tell them by Authority that in all Kings there is a natural enmity against Christ nay they tell the People that the Bishops and their Clergy have ruined the Interest of Christ and that if they will have Christ for their King they must rise up to destroy the Idol of Supremacy and Antichristian Prelacy which supports it and therefore this miserable Wretch being conscious to himself of so good a Cause saith His heart did not condemn him of Rebellion for having endeavoured in his poor capacity to uphold the born-down and ruined Interest of Christ. I once had the diversion to hear a Kirk-Disciple rail at the Rescinding Act and Act of Supremacy which gave me occasion to shew what great power the Greek and Latin Churches granted to be due to the Christian Emperors in Church-matters to which he answered me That it was always natural to Clergy-men to flatter Kings and Emperors and great men just as I have read in one of the Letters which Mr. sent to all the Bishops of Scotland That Pride was always a natural sin to the Clergy which he spoke upon the

but justly punished when they are Prosecuted upon this account Q. E. D. This made my Lord Bacon truly say That they are the men which propagate Religion by Wars force Consciences yet cry out their Consciences are forced that nurse Seditions authorize Conspiracies and Rebellions and put the Swords in the Peoples hand that Sanctifie Tumults Preach off the Heads of Kings and overthrow Constitutions and Government that undermine Laws and Settlement that resist for Conscience-sake and teach others so to die for their Salvation that make Christ a raiser of Sedition and his Religion a Firebrand that despise Dominions and speak evil of Dignities and yet pretend to fear God And therefore the Magistrate is so far from Persecuting the men of such professed Principles that he is bound by that Trust which God hath reposed in him to Prosecute them with severe Punishments as being pernitious not only to his Government but the Souls of his Subjects who by virtue of these damnable Doctrines will be in a constant disposition to Rebellion in this World and in danger of Damnation in the World to come Neither are they Persecuted for remonstrating against false Doctrines For the Doctrines against which they remonstrate are but contradictions of their own Principles which I have already proved to be false It remains then That if they are Persecuted it is in being Prosecuted for Matters of Practice either upon the account of Divine Worship which belongs to the First Table or for Matters of Morality which belong to the Second Upon this latter Score they cry out of Persecution first upon a positive account when they are prosecuted for harbouring hideing and maintaining declared and attainted Traitors who act according to the foresaid Principles contrary to express Law † I say Fallaciously For as Cicoro writes lib. 3. Offic. Patria Praestat omnibus officijs filius patriae Salutem anteponet Saluti patris and lib. 1. Offic. omnium societatum nulla est gravior nulla carior quàm ea quae cum repub est unicuique nostrûm Cari sunt parentes cari liberi propinqui familiares sed omnes omnium Caritates patria una complexa est Sed si contentio quaedam est comparatio fiat quibus plurimum tribuendum sit officii principes sunt Patria Parentes Fallaciously pretending That common humanity and charity obligeth them to relieve and assist such miserable Persons who it may be are their Fathers or Sons or Brothers or Ministers to whom they are related in Christ or for not obeying lawful Authority when they are called in his Majesties name to assist in Seizing of them or Searching for them and for not repairing to the Kings Host according to the most ancient Law of the Kingdom when the Covenanters rise up to destroy the Government of Church and State But if it be a Sin to harbour a Traitor be he who he will or not to assist at his apprehension according to Law and to refuse in a time of Rebellion to repair to the Kings Standard when legally called If these things I say be Sins as every thing must be which is contrary to the Allegiance of Subjects the Laws of the Countrey and the Duty which every Man owes to the Publick-Weal then they are not Persecuted but justly punished when they are prosecuted on this account They also pretend to be Persecuted under this Head upon a Negative account when they are Prosecuted for not † See Note a on the first Speech and the Apology Sect. 2. Where the Author compares this Act to the Oath de super inquirendis used in the Inquisition deponeing in the matter of Field-Meetings according to the Act of Parliament Caroli 2. Session 2. Act. 2. which obligeth them as they object without exception of Persons the Father to inform against the Son the Husband against his Wife c. against Justice Mercy and Equity and for not rendring themselves according to the Kings Proclamations and lastly for not appearing when they are cited before the Courts But if it is the Duty of the nearest † Quod si tyrannidem occupare si patriam prodere conabitur pater silebitne silius imo vero obscerabit patrem ne id faciat si nihil proficiet accusabit minabitur etiam ad extremum si ad perniciem patriae res spectabit patr●ae salutem anteponet saluti patris Relation for example of the Father to depone against the Son when he is required by the Father of the Countrey the King with respect to whom they are both Sons or which is all one by the Law and if it also be the Duty of every 1 For there is no other way left to satisfy the Law criminal Subject to render himself to Justice uncalled much more when he is commanded by his lawful Sovereign to do it and to 2 For not to appear is Contempt and Contumacy appear upon due citation before his competent Judge then these men who are real delinquents upon these Scores are not Persecuted but justly punished when they are Fin'd Imprisoned Transported Banished or Outlaw'd and denounced Rebels upon the aforesaid accounts It remains then That we require whether they are Persecuted for matters of Divine Worship either upon a negative or positive account First Then they pretend not to be Persecuted for not Worshipping a false God because the Church-Congregations worship the same God and Saviour which they themselves do But then they pretend with mighty cragical Exaggerations to be Persecuted for not Worshipping this true God in a false way crying out as often as they speak of the breach of the Covenant † Napht. page 2. Of Rebellion Blasphemy and perfidy against God of Contempt of him of overturning the Work of the Gospel of promoting the Kingdom of darkness and Antichrist nay as if the Church had turned Idolatrous of Apostatizing from God of rejecting Christ and overturning the Work of his Spirit and Arm c. and when all comes to all they are so far from being Persecuted for not Worshipping of God in any false unfitting or unscriptural way their own Consciences being Judge that the way after which the Church-Congregations worship him is the very same with their own without Form in any Office or Ceremony of any sort But if the Church of Scotland Worship'd God by one prescribed Form and had appointed Ceremonies as her Sister-Church according to the example of the Primitive-Churches hath done yet this would not prove their Sufferings upon the account of Separation to be Persecution unless they could prove that Forms and Ceremonies in the general are unlawful which can never be proved or that those particular Forms and Ceremonies which they were bound to observe were unlawful and then indeed their plea would be good Nothing can be replied to this but that though the manner of Worship be the same in Churches and Conventicles yet the Ministery is not but that the Church-Ministery by Bishops and Presbyters

great Blessing of Indulgence but ●●●n after some day of that or the very next Week she killed him when he was Drunk with his own Sword with which he had often threatned to kill her Aunt his late Lady who was a great lover of the English Church She was since Arraigned and Condemn for the horrid Murder and told the Court she was Married to his Lordship who for that purpose she said promised her to get a Dispensation from the Pope Ravil Rediv. also saith That almost all who are Executed for Witchcraft come from this holy People as they call themselves Most certain it is That the Five Witches which bewitched Sir George Maxwell of Nether-Pollock to Death and the Four which bewitched Robert Hamilton of Barnes were all Presbyterians who dyed owning that Party and disowning and bearing Testimony against the Bishops and Curates and against the Belief the Lords Prayer and the Ten Commandments calling them Popish Trash at the Stake when they were ready to be Burnt They were discovered by one Jannet Duglass who pretends to have the Second Sight but is believed to have a Familiar Spirit And it is Observable That both Sir George and the Laird of Barnes both Zealous Covenanters consulted with her for the recovery of their health In the beginning of November last a Discovery was made of a great number of Witches in Burrowstoness a Port on the Forth where the Fanaticks think themselves most Safe and where they usually land the Arms which they buy in Foreign Countreys for the Service of the Cause Five of them all Conventiclers have freely confessed and the chief of them one Vicar was a most Zealous and Celebrate Professor and the greatest Convener of the People to Conventicles that was in all the Countrey I could say a great deal more of their other ungodly Practices but I protest I am weary with Raking in this Dunghill and had not said thus much but for the same reason as some of the Primitive Fathers set forth the Practices of the filthy Gnosticks to let the World see what a wicked Sect they are And therefore I dare assert with as much confidence and more reason than this Rebel and his Brother Kid asserted the contrary That if ever there were a Sect of Christians That were not the People of God and in whom his Soul took no Pleasure then these Rebellious Covenanters are such assert that if the Lord hath any purer Church and People in this Land it has been in and among these Meetings in Fields and z I am glad of this occasion to tell the Reader That they used to meet Armed in the Houses as well as in the Fields Nay it hath been a common Stratagem among them to fill Houses with Armed men and then to give it out That there were Conventicles kept in them That so they might have an opportunity to Murder the Officers Civil or Military that were sent to seize them Thus Mr. George Balfour since one of the Murderers of the Archbishop of St. Andrews having got together a company of Armed Ruffians in an House near St. Andrews served Captain Karstairs and Mr. Garret the latter of which after many Shots and Stabs they left for dead upon the ground Thus likewise about January last they served the Town-Major of Edinburgh as the Papists served Sir Edmondbury Godfrey in London For having filled an House in Edinburgh with Armed men they sent a Messenger to the Major to Advertise him of a Conventicle there who according to his Duty having taken about Three or Four Assistants with him went to the House to seize them according to Law As soon as he knocked at the Door he was let in and was conducted to a Room where he saw no body till he was surprized with Armed men who rushed in upon them at two Doors and Shot at them and then fell upon them with Swords and Durkes one of the Assistants was Shot dead through the Back they Slashed and Stabbed the Major in several places and dragged him out of doors where they left him for dead Houses so much now despised by some and Persecuted by others That I Preached up Rebellion and Rising in Arms against Authority I bless the Lord my Conscience doth not condemn me in this it being never my Design if I could have Preached Christ and Salvation through his name That was my Work and herein have I walked according to the Light and Rule of the Word of God and as it did become though one of the meanest a 1 Not a Minister but an Usurper of the Ministery First As Ordained by Presbyters whom all † See Can. 19. Concil Sard. Can. 4. Cont. Constantinopol 1. Antiquity never believed to have more power to Ordain a Presbyter than for Deacons to Ordain a Deacon or Presbyter or for a College of Laymen to Ordain both This is a certain truth and if any ingenuous man desire to be satisfied in this point which implies the necessity of Episcopal Orders let him read a Book Intituled A brief Account of ancient Church-Government c. It is a full Answer to Blundell and all the Presbyterian Writers and was Printed in 4 o for John Crook at the Ship in St. Pauls Church-Yard 1662. Secondly as being Ordained by Schismatical Presbyters whose Ordinations had they had the same power to Ordain as Bishops have would by the Sacred Canons have been † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 invalid upon the account of Schism and Sedition and the Presbyters Ordained by them in such a Factious and Undutiful manner would have been deposed by the Laws of the Catholick Church And if the Rebellious Presbyters the Fathers and Grandfathers of these now living who undertook to Ordain were not guilty of Schism in the highest manner then the notion of Schism is a Chimaera and there was never such a thing in the Catholick Church For they Assembled together without their Bishops cited them to compear before them and declared their Office to be Antichristian and their Jurisdiction an Usurpation over the Church Lastly They abjured them and brought the People to do the same in the Solemn League and Covenant and Invaded their Office and Jurisdiction and their Successors these Ministers falsly so called still persevere to do the same Thou art not then a Minister Thou blind Guide but as a great Minister of State and the Bulwark of the two Churches told his Majesty when he was petitioned for thy life an Usurper of the Ministery a Rebel a Traitor a Deceiver of the People who must answer for the blood of a Thousand poor Wretches who perished in the Rebellion at Bothwel-Bridge Minister of the Gospel I have been looked on by some and misrepresented by 2 Called the Indulged Ministers See Note u on the first Speech and Section the fifth of the Apology others that I have been of a Divisive and Factious humor and one that stirred up Division in the Church but I am hopeful that

ye will all give me now your Charity being within a little space to stand before my Judge and I pray the Lord That he may forgive them that did so misrepresent me but I thank the Lord whatever men have said of me concerning this that on the contrary I have been often dissuading from such Ways and Practices and of this my Conscience bears me Witness but here I would not have you mistake me as if I did approve of Ways and Practices contrary to the Word of God and that of our Covenanted and Reformed Religion and as I ever abhorred Division and Faction in the Church as that which tends to its utter ruine if the Lord prevent it not so I would in the Bowels of my Lord and Master if such a feckless one as I may presume to exhort and perswade both Ministers Nor in the Faith or Profession of the Apostles who both Taught and Practised the contradictions to the fore-mentioned Doctrines and whereof some for † See Rom. 16. 7. Eph. 4. 11. Gal. 1. 19. Rev. 2. 2. 2 Cor. 8. 23. Phil. 2. 25. there were more Apostles than Barnabas and Paul and the Twenty two especially so called were Bishops fixed to particular Diocesses as St. a Euseb. lib. 3. c. 23. John at Ephesus St. b Hierom. de Script Eccles. in Tit. c. 1. Mark at Alexandria c Euseb. lib. 3. c. 4. Titu● in Cr●te James called the d Compare Matth. 13. 55. 27. 56. Marc. 15. 47. with John 19. 25. Lords Brother Son of Cleopas at e See the Authors quoted in Spalat l. 2. c. 2. 16. Hegesip apud Euseb. l. 2. c. 23. Hierom de Script Eccles. Gal. 2. 18 19. Acts 12. 17. Gal. 2. 12. Acts 21. 18. Acts 15. All which places shew That James was resident in Jerusalem and had some singular Ecclesiastical Authority and Presidency there Jerusalem not to mention f Euseb l. 3. c. 4. Hierom de Script Eccles. Timothy the first Bishop of Ephesus and the Angels of the Seven Churches in the Revelations whom universal Tradition hath delivered for Bishops of the Seven Asiatick Churches and Professors if there be any Fellowship of the Spirit any Consolation in Christ if any comfort in Love if any Bowels of Mercy that ye be like-minded having the same Love being of one accord of one mind in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself Phil. 2. 1. 3. Harmoniousness and Oneness in the things of God can never enough be sought after and Harmony and Unitedness in things that tend to the 3 He means the Presbyterian Government which according to them is Christs Interest Dignity Crown Kingdom Scepter Government and Royal Prerogative by which he Reigns as King in Sion Prejudice of Christs Interest can never enough be avoided and fled from And as I am willing to lay down my Tabernacle so also I Dye in the 4 Not in the Faith of the holy Scriptures which command every Soul to be Subject to the higher Powers and which neither teach directly nor indirectly That the Episcopal Government is an Antichristian or the Presbyterian by Kirk-Sessions Presbyteries and Synods a Divine Institution or that the Magistrate hath no privative Power over Ecclesiastical Persons or in causes Ecclesiastical or that Passive Obedience to an unjust Sentence is as great a Sin as Active Obedience to an unrighteous Command c. Faith of the Holy Scriptures and in the 5 Not in the Faith of the holy Scriptures which command every Soul to be Subject to the higher Powers and which neither teach directly nor indirectly That the Episcopal Government is an Antichristian or the Presbyterian by Kirk-Sessions Presbyteries and Synods a Divine Institution or that the Magistrate hath no privative Power over Ecclesiastical Persons or in causes Ecclesiastical or that Passive Obedience to an unjust Sentence is as great a Sin as Active Obedience to an unrighteous Command c. Nor in the Faith of the Primitive Christians who looked upon the Bishops as the Successors of the Apostles who derived upon them the same Ecclesiastical Authority which they received from Christ. Every one that is but tolerably versed in the Writings of the Primitive Christians must needs confess that this was the belief of the Primitive Catholick Church but to confute the shameful assertion of this ignorant Pseudo-Minister let us descend to particular Primitive The Office of a Bishop proved to be distinct from that of a Priest and of Divine Institution Writers and see what They say upon this Subject Ignatius in his Epistles insists wholly upon the avoiding of Heresie and Schism and the Avoiding of Schism is every where inculcated by him to consist in this That without the Bishop nothing be done and all with the advice of the Presbyters Heretofore some Paraphrastical Copies of this Fathers Epistles have gone abroad in the World in which could not be found the many places which the Fathers quoted out of them at least in the same words but since the Edition of the Medicaean Greek Copy by Is. Vossius and the two old Latin Copies by Bishop Usher which differ from the former Copies and agree with one another and wherein are found all the places quoted out of them by the Fathers and in the same Expressions wherein they are quoted no tolerable reason hath been given why they should not pass for pure and genuine neither by Blundell nor Salmasius who probably had written their Books against Episcopacy before they had seen these latter Copies nor our own † See their two Answers at the Isle of Wight and the Appendix to the Jus Divinum Minist Anglican Prop. 3. pag. 108. men who still cry down these Epistles without mentioning these latter Copies or distinguishing between them and the former This Father who was Bishop of Antioch Anno Dom. 69. and contemporary with St. John in his Epist. ad Magnes saith thus Vos decet non concuti aetate Episcopi sed Secundum virtutem dei patris omnem reverentiam ei tribuere Ad Smyrnens omnes Episcopum Sequimi●i ut Jesus Christus patrem Presbyterium ut Apostolos diaconos autem revereamini ut dei mandatum Nullus sine Episcopo aliquid operetur eorum quae convenit in Ecclesiam illa firma gratiarum actio Eucharistia reputetur quae sub ipso est vel quam utique concesserit Ubi utique apparet Episcopus illic multitudo sit quemadmodum utique ubi est Jesus Christus illic Catholica Ecclesia non licitum est sine Episcopo neque Baptìzare neque Agapen facere sed quod utique ille probaverit hoc est deo beneplacitum ut stabile sit firmum omne quod agitur Honorans Episcopum à deo honoratus qui occultum ab Episcopo aliquid operatur diabolo praestat obsequium Ad Ephes. Concurrite sententia dei etenim Jesus Christus incomparibile nostrum vivere patris sententia ut ipsi

eos quos baptizaverat suos putabat esse non Christi in toto orbe decretum est ut unus de Presbyteris electus super poneretur caeteris ad quem omnis Ecclesiae cura pertinere● schismatum semina tollerentur Having now shewed that the Primitive Christians believed the Function of a Bishop to be distinct from that of a Presbyter and Superior to it and that the Bishops were the Successors of the Apostles and of Christs institution as they were I hope it is plain that this Antiepiscopal Deceiver dyed not in the Faith of the Primitive Christians as he hath the impudence here to profess From what I have here said of the Episcopal Office and Authority I may draw some Corollaries First that the Primitive Catholick Church acted in Conformity to its own Profession in declaring Aerius as an Antiepiscoparian an Heretick Secondly that Church-Government is not indifferent but that the † Episcopos esse in Ecclesiâ debere tanquam institutionem Apostolicam ac ordinationem proinde divinam contra Puritanos contraque Bellàrminum semper sensi qui negat Episcopos à deo immediatè suam jurisdictionem accepisse Sed nihil mirum à Puritanis eum stare quum Jesuitae nihil quàm Puritano-papistae ●int This was the Judgment of King James as is observed by Becanus de Prim. regn Angl. c. 7. Jacobi regis praefat Monar Episcopal is immediately of Apostolical and mediately of Christs institution and by consequence at least as unalterable as the Baptism of Infants and observation of the Lords-Day which the Presbyterians with good reason declare that the Magistrate ought not to change or take away Thirdly that it is Blasphemy to say that Episcopacy is an Antichristian usurpation over the Church Fourthly that to assert with the Covenanters that the Presbyterian-Government is of Divine institution is an Unscriptural Heretical and absurd Doctrine contrary to the Word of God and the practice and profession of the Holy Catholick Church And as this Jesuited Presbyterian died not in the Faith or Profession of the Primitive Christians so he died not in the Faith of the Reformed Churches First not of the Church of England which is Governed by Bishops like the Primitive Churches and after the warrant of their example hath Instituted Ceremonies and worships God by Liturgical Forms Nor secondly of the Reformed Church of France which submits to the regulation of the Edict of Nantes which is a pure and Secular Edict and which hath always worshipped God by a Common-Prayer-Book and observes Holy-days as Christmas Easter and Whitsunday and which reverences Protestant Bishops after the example of Calvin and Beza their first Reformers and owns Ministers Ordained by them and are never without some such in their Church And whos 's † The Kings larger Declaration pag. 75. Pastors especially those of Charenton were offended at the Solemn League and Covenant as an indelible Scandal to the Protestant Cause as also the Professors Ministers and Consistory of Geneva and their neighbour Reformed Churches as was certified to King Charles the First by his Publick Ministers abroad Nor lastly died he in the Faith of the Reformed Church of Scotland which never professed Episcopacy to be an unlawful or Antichristian Constitution c. as may be seen in the Larger and Lesser Scoticane Confession in the Harmony but I suppose he means the Covenanted Reformed Church that Schismatical Military Church which was and is the Reproach of the Protestant or Reformed Name by the mighty 9 So he calls the incurable obstination of the Presbyterian Party in Schism against the Episcopal Church and Faction and Rebellion against the State Power Goodness and Wisdom of God I bear my witness and Testimony to the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government of the Kirk of Scotland by 10 A great * Presbyteries Tryal pag. 50. Apostle of the Covenant said in the Pulpit that the Angels and Saints of heaven if they could leave the sight of God would be glad to come down and see the admirable order of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland by Kirk-Sessions Presbyteries and Synods Which Platform being no where to be found in the Scripture made many that had cryed up the Presbyterian Discipline for a Divine Institution tu●● Independents Quakers and Atheists and condemn it as in truth it is for a meer human invention Which if Mr. Calvin had not hit upon and set up in that exigence in Geneva had never been known to the Western no more than to the Eastern parts of Christendom at least to great Britain where it hath been taught in both Kingdoms without any ground in the Scriptures or Antiquity for the sole indispensable government of the Church † King Charles his larger Declarat pag. 67. The National Covenant is that which in the Harmony is called Generalis Confessio it was first Subscribed by King James of blessed Memory and his Household 1580. and by Persons of all Ranks 1581. by an Ordinance of the Privy-Council and Act of General-Assembly It was Subscribed again by all sorts of Persons 1590. by a new Ordinance of Council at the desire of the General Assembly with a general Bond for maintaining the true Religion and the Kings Person and so far Authority permitting or commanding it all was well But then afterwards in † See the Declaration in w. on the first Speech and the Kings larger Declarat pag. 68 69 70. 1638. without the Kings Authority or Commission from his Council they imposed it again according to a new Interpretation of their own although no Authority can interpret any Oath Law or Rescript but that which made it or those whom they who made it have Constituted Interpreters and Judges thereof The new Interpretation was That this Confession was to be interpreted and understood against all the pretended Innovations as if every one of them had been expressed therein viz. The Five Articles of Perth the Service Book the Book of Canons the High-Commission and Episcopacy it self although these things were neither named nor hinted at in that Confession whereof the first Framers only abjured in it those Romish Corruptions which in their time had infected the Church Besides all this they altered the Bond which was annexed to the former Confession by adding these words without authority A mutual defence of one another against all Persons whatsoever by which what they meant the King by woful experience found The Copy of this Confession may be seen in the forecited larger Declaration of the King Kirk-Sessions Presbyteries Synods and General-Assemblies Also I bear my Witness and Testimony to our Covenants † National and Solemn-League betwixt the three Kingdoms which Sacred and Solemn Oath I believe cannot be dispensed with nor loosed by any person or Party upon earth but are fully binding these Nations and will be so ever hereafter Also I bear my Testimony to our publick Confessions of Sin and engagements to Duty and that either as to what concerns