of their evil opinions amongst men blame and praise take their force from him that gives them Those who accuse us of corruption in Religion should do well to tell us first amongst the scores of Religions that are what their Religion is for there are many Religions which are together with the Covenanters and live together as so many wilde beasts in the Ark who when they are gone out thence will devour one another or flee one from another but at present they all agree to tear us a pieces Now to these accusers of Corruption we present the thirty nine Articles of our Confession which they and we have sworn and subscribed and let their Consciences judge between them and us which of the two Parties have violated and falsified their Oath How have they observed the thirty sixt Article in which they acknowledged that the consecration of Arch-Bishops and Bishops used in England and confirmed by Act of Parliament contains nothing in it that is either Superstitious or Impious and yet now thunder out against this Order as a mark and branch of Antichrist Is this to want memory or conscience Can they upbraid us with any thing like unto this to have opposed in a Body and condemned an Article of our Confession The corruptions which they alledge against us are falsely so named or at the worst they are but faults of particulars But the Body of the Church hath kept and doth keep the Confession of their Faith inviolable If they produce any we would have brought in any new Doctrines or Customes who can produce others that have opposed them and that the Religion subsisted entire whilst they subsisted Let them not rob those Divines of their due praise who in the beginning of the Parliament laboured sincerely to confirm the Doctrine and to stifle the difference about Discipline We have before represented with what Wisdom Piety and Vigor many Bishops and Divines chosen by his Majesty had lead the two Parties to accord upon a certain number of Propositions which contained the Body of Religion and what great hope there was that the point of Discipline would be amiably composed and how a Faction enemies to the peace of the Church and jealous least any good should come by the means of the Bishops broke off that excellent accord which could never since be renewed persecuting the Prelates with all rigor never giving them rest until they had imprisoned them as Criminals although they were not guilty of any other crime then because they would have terminated the differences of Religion But this was to stifle the Covenant in the cradle and take away all pretext from this holy Rebellion It 's not then a wonder if this sin be not pardoned them it appears by the testimony of the Reverend Pastors of the Church of Geneva in what esteem our Religion was amongst our Neighbours for in their Epistle to the Assembly at London They beseech God that he would restore our Church and Kingdome to such a high degree of holiness and glory as it had shined in until that present By this they acquit us of the corruption which they impute to us and do obliquely accuse this Assembly and those that imploy them that by their means the Kingdom hath lost his glory and the Church her holiness Now put the case that the Corruption were as great amongst us as they make it yea put the case also that even in our Liturgie composed with so much piety and wisdome that there were something to mend as a Freckle in a fair Face and that the Discipline ought to be over-looked what could there be more expected of the King and the Clergy then to submit the Persons and things to be Reformed How often had the King offered to joyn his Authority to the Advice of Parliament and a National Synod to examine and punish the faulty and correct disorders yea and even the Laws themselves if there were need To these so reasonable commands behold here what obedience they yielded A part of the House of Commons having driven away the other by violence and popular tumults and put to flight nine parts of ten of the House of Lords besides the Bishops who represented the Body of the Clergy this small rest in lieu of a National Synod by lawful deputation of the Church chose some Ministers of their Faction for to make use of their Advice so far as it should please them These Ministers who had no Deputation nor Representation nor Authority from the Body of the English Church and having divers Lay persons joyned with them who wholly govern them mould a Religion all new defame the reputation of the Church and Confession to which they had sworn Obedience invite to their aid Forreign Churches as their brethren and ordain that which serves the intention of their Masters We know that amongst these Divines there were some men of Merit Persons which we know had it been in their power would have overcome evill with good but amongst pieces of gold there is many times a great deal of small money like unto our clipped half Testors they are the little heads without learning If the two Houses had assembled the body of the Clergy as was proposed to them by his Majesty they had found themselves filled with Orthodox Persons and they cannot complain if those persons whom they had most desire to received not the publike censure of the Clergy since they would not permit the Clergy to assemble themselves neither can they complain that any guilty hath gone unpunished for they have taken a sure course for by the universal ruine of the Deans and Chapiters they have involved the innocent with the guilty Hearken what the King said hereupon I was content to accord and render to the Presbyter that is to say to the Body of Pastors all the right which with reason and discretion they could pretend in their conjunction with the Episcopal degree but to suffer them wholly to invade the Ecclesiastical Power and to cut off altogether with the sword the Authority of this ancient Order for to invest themselves in it it was that which I accounted neither just in regard of the Bishops nor sure nor profitable in regard of the Presbyter himself neither any way convenient for the Church or State A right and good Reformation might have been easily produced by moderate Councils and I am perswaded such Councils would have given more contentment even to those very Divines who have been perswaded with much gravity and formality to serve the designs of others which without doubt many of them now acknowledge although they dare not make their discontent appear for finding themselves frustrated of their intentions I am very well assured that the true method to reform the Church cannot subsist with the perturbation of the Civil State and that Religion cannot justly be advanced in depressing Loyalty which is one of the principal ingredients and ornaments of true Religion for after the Precept
in the Assembly We could wish also that the power of their Consistories and Synods were a little more limitted for these Assemblies being Courts of Conscience which takes cognisance of all the offences of the Church they may enclose in their Jurisdiction all criminal and civil causes of the Kingdom there being no cause which hath not in it a point of Conscience And so hereby it may come that the sentences of Judges may be controuled in the Consistory and the Officers of the Crown questioned about their managing of publick affairs and so the Government of the State become purely arbitrary And the power of the Ecclesiastical Councel being such the most unquiet and ambitious will be ever pressing to be of it whereupon sidings and factions will abound revenge and particular interest will turn the ballance There they will form factions in the State and parties against the King for what is there that they dare not enterprise who have so vast a power which have no other limits than the extent of the flitting and moveable conscience of particulars which give account to none who pretend to have their authority only of Divine right and therefore are not subject to be controuled These are not conjectures nor suppositions but observations of long experience certainly that personal citation which was sent by the National Synod of Scotland to their King when he was in the midst of his Armies in England Feb. 1645. filled Forreign Churches with amazement and scandal And no less is the Authority they exercise even over their Parliaments which having demanded advice of the Synod concerning what they were to do with their King the Ministers concluded that they should not bring the King into Scotland and that the Kingdom of Scotland ought not to espouse his quarrel for to maintain his Rites in England and their advice passed for an Ordinance after this they cannot reprove the Bishops for being Councellours of State Monarchy which can endure neither Master nor Companion can hardly comply with this Court of Conscience which gives Laws but receives none unless themselves make them and limit the King but refuse to be limited by him but the Magistrates of an Aristocratick or popular Common-wealth will shift better with them for this Court pretending an Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction purely Soveraign and Divine yet nevertheless admit lay men to the participation of this power The Lords never fail to be Members of this consistory and to govern there And thus the question touching the Ecclesiastical authority is Eluded Now although above all we desire to enjoy an Apostolical and Episcopal Discipline where the Bishop assisted with the Councel of his Clergy governs the Church and admits other Pastors according to their degree and quality to the participation of the power of ths Keies yet nevertheless if the revolution of the State brings in another Discipline our Ministers submit themselves to it not to be Actors there remembring themselves of their duties and promise made at their reception of Orders but to surfer themselves to be governed remembring that they are call'd to preach the Gospel and whether there be a good or an evil Order in the Church or even none at all the vocation binds them to feed the Flock and to maintain the holy Doctrine But indeed its great pity to be reduced to expect a Discipline of those that have none and yet make the Kingdom of Christ to consist in it for which they made such clamours in their licentiousness and overthrow of all Order and lawful Vocation in the Church The Reformed Churches of France who employ all their Zeal and Industry to maintain the purity of the Gospel without contending with any about the outward Discipline look upon with contempt and compassion the impetuous weakness of our enemies who overthrow the holy Doctrine and ruine Church and State for points of Discipline which is to lose the end for the accessaries yea although these accessaries are not good in this regard there being but two things to reprove in the Covenanters their end and the meanâ— which they employ to attain that end CHAP. XIX That the Covenanters ruine the Ministers of the Gospel under colour of Reformation ONE of the points of Reformation for which they laboured so much with Cannon shot was to abase and pull down the Clergy which is a work already done without proceeding further As for their greatness the only thing wherein it consisted was taken from them in the year 1645. Which was the Bishops sitting and having power to vote in the Lords House the rest is a smal thing As for their Revenues they are confiscated and sequestred and even the Revenues of the Bishops were such as might cause rather pitty then envy except four or five Bishopricks the rest were so poor that for to help them to uphold their Degree and pay their dues to the King Tenths and first Fruits his Majesty ever out of compassion gave them some other Benefices otherwise very few would have hazzarded the taking of them the Bishopricks of England being like the ruined Monasteries in some Countries which have nothing remaining but the wals with nothing in them The children of those parents who had formerly fâ—tted themselves by the Bishopricks have now swallowed the rest and yet labour to begger the inferior Clergy This is that they call Reformation and in truth 't is the Reformation of Scotland where the Tenths of the Clergy are possessed by the Ruling Elders above all by the Lords some of them having the Tenths of whole Provinces Therefore ye need not wonder they fight with such Zeal for a Reformation which is so profitable In England ordinarily the great Towns and rich Parishes are impropriated and in the hands of Lay persons the rest of the Benefices have but to provide in a Mediocrity for Students in Divinity Those who Reform the Clergy are those who possess the Goods of the Church and besides the Tithes that are alienated many of them even make use of the Tithes of the Clergy with which they are lawfully invested terrifyâ—g their poor Ministers with Sequestration too weak to contend against them and force them to injurious and damageable contracts How many Patrons are there who sell their Benefices to them who will give most And by the infamous Simony of these Gentlemen who make a noise of Reformation the door of the Church is shut to the Clergy unless they have a golden key to open it and thus they prefer profit before conscience 'T is well done of them to mend that which they have marred and they of all other have reason to take in hand the Reformation of Ministers because themselves have done what possibly they can to corrupt them Of all Liberal Professions Divinity is the poorest and have most Thorns in her way and therefore Parents find it more profitable to put their children to a Trade than bring them up in the Study of Divinity and yet after all this their very poverty
who have particularly courted and invite◠〈◊〉 to Covenant with them and that your Churches are â—lemished in reputation onely because these men have dared to addresse their infamous complements to you a thing neverthelesse which ye could not prevent how great soever your aversion were from their wicked actions wherefore we beseech you as you love your subsistance and the honour of the Gospel which ought to be dearer to you then your lives that you exhort the general of your Churches to declare readily and vigorously by a publick Act against these false brethren and their pernicious Maximes for fear least the crime of men be imputed to Religion and that the innocent suffer not for the guilty Let it appear to the State under which ye live that the Reformed Religion for conscience sake upheld Kingly Authority and that it is the true Doctrine that maintains subjects in their duty and a Kingdome in peace You may also boldly advise the Gentlemen at Court to beware of them and that they give order to prevent that inundation that is threatned from our Ilands and let them be most assured that the Independent Armies have not lesse ambition to cause all people to rise and overthrow all the Monarchs of Christendom that to this effect Cr have often declared his intentions all the popular tumults in France are the productions of this Artist ever in motion infatigable swoln with successe who hâ—â—h his eyes and hands every where and gains in all places either by the sword or gold now in all changes of the State whosoever gains the Church loseth and the filth in all inundations resteth upon the vallies We are so near neighbours that the contagion of our evils cannot but passe to you therefore ye shall do prudently and Christianly to keep your selves from the contagion of our evils and since those of the Reformed Religion are better instructed then the other it is therefore for them first to begin to do their duty And 〈◊〉 â—his the considerations in this ensuing Treatise will encâ—â—rage you and our adversities will furnish you with better Councels then the prosperity of our persecutors Agrâ—e Fortunae sana Concilia we hope that this true and lively pourtraiture of their Rebellious Covenant that we present unto you will so strike the spectators with horror that they will become good Christians and good subjects by Antiperistisis THE ARTICLES OF RELIGION of the CHURCH OF ENGLAND I. THere is but one living and true God everlasting without body parts or passions of infinite power wisdom and goodnesse the Maker and preserver of all things both visible and invisible And in unity of this Godhead there be three persons of one substance power and eternity the Father the Son and holy Ghost II. THe Sonne which is the Word of the Father begotten from everlasting of the Father the very and eternall God of one substance with the Father took mans nature in the womb of the blessed Virgine of her substance so that two whole and perfect natures that is to say the Godhead and manhood were joyned together in one person never to be divided whereof is one Christ very God and very man who truly suffered was crucified dead and buried to reconcile his Father to us and to be a sacrifice not onely for Originall guilt but also for actuall sinnes of men III. AS Christ died for us and was buried so also is it to be beléeved that he went down into hell IV. CHrist did truly rise again from death and took again his body with flesh bones and all things appertaining to the perfection of mans nature wherewith he ascended into heaven and thâ—re sitteth untill he return to judge all men at the last day V. THe holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Sonne is of one Substance majesty and glory with the Father and the Son very and eternall God VI. HOly Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation so that whatsoever is not read therein nor may be prooved thereby is not to be required of any man that it should be beléeved as an Article of the faith or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation In the name of the holy Scripture we do understand those Canonicall Books of the Old New Testament of whose authority was never any doubt in the Church Of the Names and Number of the Canonical Books GEnesis Exodus Leviticus Numeri Deuteronomium Josue Judges Ruth The 1. Book of Samuel The 2. Book of Samuel The 1. Book of Kings The 2. Book of Kings The 1. Book of Chronicles The 2. Book of Chronicles The 1. Book of Esdras The 2. Book of Esdras The Book of Hester The Book of Job The Psalmes The Proverbs Ecclesiastes or Preacher Cantica or Songs of Solomon 4. Prophets the greater 12. Prophets the lesse And the other Books as Hierome saith the Church doth read for example of life and instruction of manners but yet doth it not apply them to establish any doctrine Such are these following The 3. Book of Esdras The 4. Book of Esdras The Book of Tobias The Book of Judeth The rest of the Book of Hester The Book of Wisdom Jesus the son of Sirach Baruch the Prophet The song of the three Children The Story of Susanna Of Bell and the Dragon The Prayeâ— of Manasses The 1. Book of Maccabees The 2. Book of Maccabees All the Bookes of the New Testament as they are commonly received we do receive and account them Canonicall VII THe Old Testament is not contrary to the New for both in the Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered to mankind by Christ who is the onely Mediator betwéen God and man being both God and man Wherefore they are not to be heard which feign that the old fathers did look only for transitory promises Although the Law given from God by Moses as touching Ceremonies and Rites do not bind Christian men nor the civil precepts thereof ought of necessity to bée received in any Common-wealth yet notwihstanding no Christian man whatsoever is frée from the obedience of the Commandments which are called Morall VIII THe thrée Creeds Nice Creed Athanasius Creed and that which is commonly called the Apostles Créed ought throughly to be received and beléeved for they may be proved by most certain warrants of holy Scripture IX ORiginall sin standeth not in the following of Adam as the Pelagians do vainly talk but it is the fault and corruption of the nature of every man that naturally is ingendred of the off-spring of Adam wheâ— by man is very far gone from originall righteousnesse and is of his own nature inclined to euil so that the flesh lusteth alwaies contrary to the spirit and therefore in every person born into this world it deserveth Gods wrath and damnation And this infection of nature doth remain yea in them that are regenerated whereby the lust of the flesh called in Gréek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some do expound the wisdome some sensuallity
some the affection some the desire of the flesh is not subject to the Law of God And although there is no condemnation for them that beléeve and are baptized yet the Apostle doth confesse that concupâ—scence and lust hath of it self the nature of sinne X. THe condition of man after the fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and good works to faith and calling upon God Wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God without the grace of God by Christ preventing us that we maâ— have a good will and working with us when we have that good will XI WE are accounted righteous before God only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ by faith and not for our own works or deservings Wherefore that we are notified by faith onely is a most wholesome Doctrine and very full of comfort as more largely is expressed in the Homily of Iustification XII ALbeit that good works which are the fruits of faith and follow after Iustification cannot put away our sinnes and endure the severity of Gods â—udgement yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ and do â—pring out necessarily of a truâ— and â— holy faith in so much that by them a lively â—aith may be as evidently knowen as a â—ree discerned by the â—â—utt XIII WOrks done before the grace of Christ and the inspiration of his Spirit are not pleasant to God forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Iesu Christ neither do they make men meet to receive grace or as the School-Authors say deserve grace of congruity yea rather for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done we doubt not but they have the nature of sinne XIV VOluntary Works besides over and above Gods Commandments which they call works of Supâ—rerâ—gation cannot be taught without arrogancy and impiety For by them men do declare that they do not onely render unto God as much as they are bound to do but that they do more for his sake then of bounden duty is required Wheras Christ saith plainly When ye have done all that are commanded to you say We are unprofitable servants XV. CHrist in the truth of our nature was made like unto us in all things sinne onely except from which he was clearly void both in his flesh and in his Spirit He came to be a Lamb without spot who by sacrifice of himself once made should take away the sinnes of the world and sinne as Saint Iohn saith was not in him But all we the rest although baptized and born again in Christ yet offend in many things and if we say we have no sinne we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us XVI NOt every deadly sinne willingly committed after Baptisme is sinne against the holy Ghost and impardonable Wherefore the grant of repentance is not to be denied to such as fall into sinne after Baptisme After we have received the holy Ghost we may depart from grace given and fall into sinne and by the grace of God we may arise again and amend our lives And therefore they are to be condemned which say they can no more sinne as long as they live here to deny the place of forgivenesse to such as truly repent XVII PRedestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God whereby before the foundations of the world were laid he hath constanâ—ly â—ecâ—éed by his counsel secret to us to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation as vessels made to honour Wherefore they which be indued with so excellent a benefit of God be called according to Gods purpose by his Spirit working in due season they through grace obey the calling they be iustified freely they be made Sons of God by adoption they be made like the Image of his onely begotten Sonne Iesus Christ they walk relâ—giously in good works and at lengâ—h by Gods mercy they attain to everlasting felicity As the godly consideration of Predestination and our Election in Christ is full of sweet pleasant and unspeakable comfort to godly persons and such as feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ mortifying the works of the flesh and their earthly members and drawing up their mind to high and heavenly things as well because it doth greatly establish and confirm their faith of eternall salvation to be enjoyed through Christ as because it doth fervently kindle their love towards God So for curious and carnall persons lacking the Spirit of Christ to have continually before their eyes the sentence of Gods predestination is a most dangerous down fall whereby the devil doth thrust them either into desparation or into retchlessenesse of most unclean living no lesse perilous then desparation Furthermore we must receive Gods promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in holy Scripture and in our doings that will of God is to be followed which we have expresly declared unto us in the Word of God XVIII THey also are to be had accursed that presume to say that every man shall be saved by the Law or sect which he professeth so that he be diligent to frame his life according to that law and the light of nature For holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the Name of Iesus Christ whereby men must be saved XIX THe visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithfull men in the which the pure Word of God is preached and the Sacraments be duely minister according to Christs Ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same As the Church of Hierusalem Alexandria and Antioch have erred So also the Church of Rome hath erred not onely in their living and manner of ceremonies but also in matters of faith XX. THe Church hath power to decrâ—e Rites or Ceremonies and authority in controversies of faith And yet it is not lawfull for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to Gods Word written neither may it so expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another Wherefore although the Church be a witnesse and a keeper of holy Writ yet as it ought not to decree any thing against the same so besides the same ought it not to inforce any thing to be beléeved for necessity of salvation XXI GEnerall Councels may not be gathered together without the commandment and will of Princes And when they be gathered together forasmuch as they be an assembly of men whereof all be not governed with the Spirit and Word of God they may erre and sometime have erred even in things pertaining unto God Wherefore things ordained by them as necessary to salvation have neither strength nor authority unlesse it may be declared that they be taken out of holy Scripture XXII THe Romish doctrine concerning Purgatory Pardons worshiping
and adoration as well of Images as of Relicks and also invocation of Saints is a â—ond thing vainly invented and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture but rather repugnant to the Word of God XXIII IT is not lawfull for any man to take upon him the office of publick preaching or ministring the Sacraments in the Congregation before he be lawfully called and sent to execute the same And those we ought to judge lawfully called sent which be chosen called to this work by men who have publick authority given unto them in the Congregation to call and send Ministers into the Lords vineyard XXIV IT is a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God and the custome of the Primitive Church to have publick prayer in the Church or to minister the Sacraments in a tongue not understanded of the people XXV SAcraments ordained of Christ be not onely badges or tokens of Christian mens profession but rather they be certain sure witnesses and effectuall signes of grace and Gods good will towards us by the which he doth work invisibly in us and doth not onely quicken but also strengthen and confirm our faith in him There are two Sacraments ordained of Christ our Lord in the Gospel that is to say Baptisme and the Supper of the Lord. Those five commonly called Sacraments that is to say Confirmation Penance Orders Matrimony and extream Vnction are not to be counted for Sacraments of the Gospel being such as have grown partly of the corrupt following of the Apostles partly are states of life allowed in the Scriptures but yet have not like nature of Sacraments with Baptisme and the Lords Supper for that they have not any visible sign or ceremony ordained of God The Sacraments were not ordained of Christ to be gazed upon or to be carried about but that we should duely use them And in such onely as worthily receive the same they have a wholsome effect or operation But they that receive them unworthily purchase to themselves damnation as S. Paul saith XXVI ALthough in the visible Church the evil be ever mingled with the good and sometime the evil have chief authority in the ministration of the Word and Sacraments yet forasmuch as they do not the same in their own name but in Christs and doe minister by his commission and authority we may use their ministry both in hearing the Word of God and in the receiving of the Sacraments Neither is the effect of Chriâ—â— ordinance taken away by their wickednesse noâ— the grace of Gods gifts diminished from such as by faith and rightly do receive the Sacraments ministred unto them which be effectuall because of Christâ— institution and promise although they be ministred by evil men Neverthelesse it appertaineth to the discipline of the Church that inquiry be made of evil Ministers and that they be accused by those that have knowledge of their offences and finally being found guilty by just judgement be deposed XXVII BAptisme is not onely a sign of profession and mark of difference whereby Christian men are discerned from others that be not Christned but it is also a sign of Regeneration or new birth whereby as by an instrument they that receive Baptisme rightly are grafted into the Church the promises of the forgivenesse of sinne and of our adoption to be the Sonnes of God by the holy Ghost are visibly signed and sealed faith is confirmed and grace increased by virtue of prayer unto God The Baptisme of young children is in any wise to be retained in the Church as most agreeable with the institution of Christ XXVIII THe Supper of the Lord is not onely a sign of the love that Christians ought to have among themselves one to another but rather it is a Sacrament of our redemption by Christs death Insomuch that to such as rightly worthily and with faith receive the same the bread which we break is a partaking of the Body of Christ and likewise the Cup of blessing is a partaking of the blood of Christ Transubstantiation or the change of the substance of Bread and Wine in the Supper of the Lord cannot be prooved by holy Writ but it is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture overthroweth the nature of a Sacrament and hath given occasion to many superstitions The body of Christ is given taken and eaten in the Supper onely after an heavenly and spirituall manner And the mean whereby the Body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is Faith The Sacrament of the Lords Supper was not by Christs ordinance reserved caried about lifâ—ed up or worshipped XXIX THe wicked and such as be void of a lively faith although they do carnally and visibly presse with their téeth as S. Augustine saith the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ yet in no wise are they partakers of Christ but rather to their condemnation do eat and drink the signe or Sacrament of so great a thing XXX THe Cup of the Lord is not to be denied to the Lay people For both the parts of the Lords Sacrament by Christs ordinance and commandement ought to be ministred to all Christian men alike XXXI THe offering of Christ once made is that perfect redemption propitiation and satisfaction for all the sins of the whole world both originall and actuall and there is none other satisfaction for sin but that alone Wherefore the sacrifices of Masses in the which it was commonly said that the Priests did offer Christ for the quick and the dead to have remission of pain or guilt were blasphemous fables and dangerous deceits XXXII BIshops Priests and Deacons are not commanded by Gods Law either to vow the estate of single life or to abstain from marriage Therefore it is lawfull also for them as for all other Christian men to marry at their own discretion as they shall judge the same to serve better to Godlinesse XXXIII THat person which by open denunciation of the Church is rightly cut off from the unity of the Church and excommunicated ought to be taken of the whole multitude of the faithfull as an heathen Publican untill he be openly reconciled by Penance and received into the Church by a Iudge that hath authority thereunto XXXIV IT is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places one or utterly like for at all times they have been divers and may be changed according to the diversitie of Countries times and mens manners so that nothing be ordained against Gods Word Whosoever through his private judgement willingly and purposely doth openly break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church which be not repugnant to the Word of God and be ordained and approved by common authority ought to be rebuked openly that other may fear to do the like as he that offendeth against the common Order of the Church and hurteth the authority of the Magistrate and woundeth the Consciences of the weak brethren Every particular or nationall Church hath authoritie to ordaine
deny but the defenders of this pernicious Doctrine were the chief of their New Reformation and the Authors of the war people whose Counsels were applauded as Oracles and who drew after them their party by the repetition of their sanctified strength of zeal those who dared to contradict them did it very fearfully and kissing their hands before they spake but they themselves carried all before them acting with a prophetick liberty and boldness also after all they only were the men to be trusted and who were put upon all great designs and employments for they feared that they who are less governed by Enthusiasms might at last so far forget themselves as to be faithful to their Sovereign and yield to a peaceable accomodation Behold here then wherefore we would not joyn our selves with these Reformers because we see that even they themselves have the greatest need of Reformation being far gone from the Doctrine of the reformed Churches erring in the Faith but yet more in Charity It 's they would sweep the Church as God swept Babylon with the Beesom of destruction They speak not of reforming neither Doctrines nor Manners but to ruine the Persons They account the most part of the Clergy of the Kingdom unworthy to be corrected but altogether to be rooted out that one part of the Reformation was to ruine the King and to take the sword from his side to cut off his head the favourers of tumults were the only persons that were caressed they lent their ears to the populâ—r tumults whilst they shut the mouths and bound the hands of the Magistrates It was they taught that the people were above the King and that the Command of Saint Paul that every one should be subject to the higher Powers obligeth the King for to obey the People it was they that upheld yea favoured and courted all sorts of pernicious Sects provided that they would bandy with them against their King It was they that suffered to go unpunished the Blasphemies in the Pulpits the Insolencies Sacriledges and horrible profanations of the Service of God and permitted all things to those who were of the zealous party We beheld on the other side that the King took knowledge of the grievances of his people as well for the spiritual as temporal and laboured sincerely to remedy them that he consented to the alteration of offensive things in Religion and to the punishment of those who were accused as troublers of the Church provided that the things and persons were examined by regular and lawful waies of a general Synod which he offered to assemble he also was pleased to yield of his own right to augment the rights of his Subjects and daily multiplied acts of favour capable to convert the most alienated spirits passed by the many and great affronts that were done to his authority and endeavoured by all waies possible to overcome evil with good But the more the King yielded the more insolent were the factious against him he offered to reform both the State and Church but they would not permit him they themselves would do that work without him The King sent divers messages to know of them what things they would reform but to this they answered only with complaints Neither could he obtain any declaration of that which they desired until that his Forts Magazines Ships and Revenues were taken from him the reason of which hath since been given by one of their principal Champions Having to sow the Lords Field they had need to make a fence about it before they begin that the work-men might labour without interruption and that to lance the Apostume of a sick State they must first bind the Patient Our Conscience could not accomodate it self to this prudence neither ever expect any good from such a way of Reformation which would bind the Royal hands and feet of Majesty before they would declare what they desired of his Favour and cut asunder the Nerves of his Authority and subsistance under colour to establish the Kingdom of Jesus Christ A strange proceeding to us that have learned of St Paul that a Prince beareth not the sword in vain Rom. 13.4 But in that is the Minister of God to execute wrath and that to resist him yea when he should make use of the sword to commit injustice is to resist the Ordinance of God But if he use it well or ill that ought to be left to him who gave it him and to whom only he ought to render account his Subjects ought to counsel him if he did ill and refuse to assist him in evil doing and not repress him by Arms That if this Command of St Paul obliged the Romans to obey a cruel vicious Prince and enemy to God we should account our selves much more bound to obey a just merciful religious Prince whose life was a rare example of piety and sanctity and his Government so just and peaceable that he might well be called the Father of his Subjects who wanted nothing to make them happy but to know their happiness CHAP. II. That the Covenanters are destitute of all Proofs from Holy Scripture for their War made against the King THese violent beginnings of the Covenanters and their Progress also which overthrows all humane Authority had great need to strengthen it self by Divine Authority to satisfie the Conscience whence is it that they made a great noise of it in their Pulpits but not in their Disputes for those that exhorted the people in Scripture-term to War against the King hang down the head when in conference their Proofs are demanded saying that It is not for Divines but Lawyers to decide the present quarrel Whence it appears that there is a great difference betwixt the terms and proofs of Scripture and that many that have the voice of the Lamb speak as the Dragon But fearing lest they should accuse us that we suppress their proofs behold here all that they make use of both in their Books and Sermons part borrowed from the writings of the Jesuites and part from two Books which are Printed with Machiavels Prince and not without great reason for there are three wicked Books together and its a wonder how that in threescore years their Books have not been burnt for company by the hands of the common Executioner They alledge the example of David who had six hundred men for his guard when he was pursued by Saul 1 Sam. 22.2 The example of the Army of Israel which saved Jonathan when Saul would have put him to death 1 Sam. 14.45 Of Ehud who slew Eglon King of Moab an Oppressor of the Israelites Judg. 3.21 The example of the Town of Libnah which revolted from the obedience of Jehoram because he had forsaken the Lord God of his Fathers 2 Chr. 21.10 Of Jehu that cut off the House of Ahab 2 Kings 9. The example of Jehojadah the High Priest who commanded Athaliah the Queen to be put to death 2 Kings 11.15 Of the Priests
is very true that ordinarily Lying arms its weaknesse with thorns like Lizards who save themselves by running into Bushes Above all in a point where the Question of Right is founded upon that of Fact as this Question now whether it be lawful for the English to take up Arms against their Prince here to go about to satisfie Reason and Conscience with political and metaphisical Contemplations is not to purpose they should besides Divine Authority which should ever march before enquire whether the Laws and Constitutions of the Country authorize this War The Question being not to dispute which is the best Form of Government but to preserve the Form to which God hath subjected us and to observe the Laws of the Kingdom and after many Moral and Political Discourses for our Adversaries pay us with no other those that have any Honesty or Understanding come always to this that they would shew us by what Law of England it is permitted the Subjects to take up Arms without the Kings permission and against him When did the people ever make this Election Where is it that they have reserved the liberty to resume the Supreme Authority when they shall please Is there any Statute made during the Ages that this Monarchy hath continued that prefers or equals the two Houses to the King or doth authorize them to ratifie any thing without him Where is the Articles of that Capitulation which in some certain cases dissolves the Subjects Oath of Allegiance Is there any Case in the Law in which it should be lawful for Subjects to take from their King or Supreme Magistrate his Forts Navies and Magazines and to take into their hands the sole Administration of Justice and the Militia to confer the great Offices of the Crown to receive Ambassadors to treat with Forreign Nations and to dispose of the Goods and Lives of the Kings Subjects To these so important Questions for the duty and happiness of all the members of an Estate and the eternal salvation of their Souls and Bodies to answer with Platonick considerations and in stead of producing the Laws of the Kingdom to Philosophy upon the Law of Nature and form an appeal from Authentical and known Laws to a Word not written made at pleasure This is to mock God and men this is to insult upon the Brutality of the people and to take a wicked advantage from the wine of Astonishment or Senselessness which God in his just wrath hath poured forth upon this miserable Nation for if they did beleeve there remained any common sense in this blind and mad people durst they so boldly return so ridiculous an Answer to those that demand where are those Fundamental Laws written that now make all other Laws bow to them namely that the Fundamental Laws are not written and that if they were they should be superstructive and not fundamental after this account the command to love God with all our heart and our Neighbour as our self is not fundamental because it is written it were to profane Reason to imploy it to refute a reasoning so unreasonable it must needs be that these people know they have to do with Persons of great credulity since they dare give them for a Fundamental Law a Fantasie which they never heard before spoken of and whereof no Writings nor Histories make mention and this is to fight against their King overthrow the State lose their goods hazard their Lives and Consciences But what should I say There is no reason but is perswasive when the Conclusions are taken and there is strength to maintain them Christendome which have now their eyes upon our Broils will take notice of the open confession of the Troubles of this State That for the War against the King and for the form of Government which they establish in the kingdome a Superiour power that abolisheth the Royal they have no Fundamental Law written Is not this then marvellously to abuse the Justice of God and the patience of reasonable creatures made after his Image and indued with knowledge to constrain them to prostitute their Consciences and Lives in a Quarrel for which they openly confess there is not any Law written and for which there is not the least footing of Approbation in all that hath been established or left authentically written since England hath been a Nation We have let you see before how they decline the Defences of Scripture against the resistance of Soveraigns behold now they confess there is no fundamental Law written for to justifie their Arms and the superiority of the people above the King which they would introduce with the sword and thus they acknowledge they have no authority neither divine nor humane for what they do as Cardinal Perron having maintained the power of the Pope over the Temporal of Kings before the Estates of France in conclusion affirmed that it was an Article which was not decided neither by the Scriptures nor the Ancient Church so that the Pope and our Mutineers agree together to usurp an authority upon Kings without any ground or warrant in the Word of God and contradicted by all humane Constitutions that is to say that hoth God and man are contrary unto them CHAP. VI. What Examples in the Histories of England the Covenanters make use of to authorize their Actions BUt do we not much wrong them to say that there is nothing makes for them in all the ancient Writings and Histories of this Kingdom Do they not alledg the two Parliaments that deposed Edward the second and Richard the second yea truly and to their great shame as the wisest of their party do acknowledg affirming that those Acts of Parliament against Richard the second were not properly the Acts of the two Houses but of Henry the fourth and his victorious Army in which they say true for the Duke of Lancaster who after caused himself to be called Henry the fourth having prevailed with the people to rise against their lawful King assembled a Parliament which he made to do whatsoever he would and having deposed and imprisoned this poor King soon after caused him to be put to death though this action were as just as it is execrable yet it would make nothing to the purpose where the Question is of that which the two Houses may do separate from the King for the deposing of King Richard was by another King sitting in Parliament for until these last States the two Houses never thought that they were able to conclude any thing without the Royal Consent and since the Parliaments held under the House of York declared Henry the fourth Usurper of the Crown and therefore condemned the Parliament which had confirmed his usurpation The other example is no better than this the deposing of Edward the second by the Conspiracy of his Wife and the Favourites of this Queen who served themselves of a Parliament to execute this wickedness and having deposed the King and crowned his Son who
Europe And yet we are herein to praise God that in this their astonishment he hath given them a little interval that they came to their senses to make this acknowledgement They needed not to specifie to us in what they were forgetful of their Duty their comportments justifie their words that they had wholly forgotten it It appears also that they had forgot their duty to God their King their Countrey and to the Church from which they received their Ministry and to which they had sworn Obedience and towards them also to whom they write For if they had born any Brotherly affection they would not have been so forgetful as to write to them and in such a stile and by a publick Declaration They would have taken heed to render them odious and suspected without cause and to draw upon them persecution from which there could proceed no other fruit unlesse to make them Companions in their miseries for to render us Companions in their crimes we hope they shall never obtain But these Divines and their Masters who employ them shall find themselves deceived in their design to induce the Reformed Churches of France to shake off the yoke of their King under colour of shaking off the yoke of Antichrist The fidelity and peaceable conversation of these Churches doth take away even the shadow of such things from their Superiours whose justice is such that they will not condemn the Subjects of their King for the offences of strangers but will be more careful to protect the innocent then their ill neighbours are active to render them blame-worthy and unhappy The King and his Councel need not fear the French of the Reformed Religion will take the Oath of the Covenant to which they are invited with so much earnestness and craft For to speak of them in the terms of one of their beloved Pastors They take no Oaths to others but to their Soveraign Princes they cast not their eyes on a stranger they hold that it is not for a Subject to find occasion of disobedience in the Religion of his Prince making Religion a Match to give fire to Rebellion they are ready to expose their lives for the preservation of their King against whomsoever it be were it one of their own Religion whosoever should do otherwise should not defend Religion but serve his ambition and should draw a great scandal upon the truth of the Gospel This is the Doctrine wherein they are instructed this is the Profession in which all good Frenchmen of the Reformed Religion will live and die But if strangers whose heads run round with the wine of astonishment will force the Churches of France to drink of their Cup they will use the French freedome refuse to pledge them and behold their zeal to press them to do as they do with despite and compassion Let them not think it strange that they run not with them into the same excess of riot they do not offend them for whilst they have this strong wine in their heads they keep their sobriety and are filled beseeching God to shew mercy upon those who would seduce them Now as it is the custome of drunken persons who would draw others into the same excess with themselves and to drink according to their pleasure to make them believe that they have seen them themselves in that condition so the English Covenanters to defend their actions and augment their Party alledge very often to the French Churches their wars for Religion the remembrance whereof is very sad and to use this Argument to seduce them is no other thing then to counsel them to be miserable because they have been so and to go with their eyes shut and run the remains of their broken vessel against the rock where they were shipwrackt Moreover it s very unjust in them to impute to the whole body the actions of a party for in the late wars all the Churches on this side the River Loyre continued in their obedience and very neer the half of the other Churches The people were carefully preserved in their duties by their faithful Pastors This holy Doctrine which condemns the resisting of higher powers and commands to wait patiently deliverance from God and to suffer for righteousness sake was most pressed and urged in their Churches and whilst some of the Religion were in Arms during the minority of the King they preached at Paris Their strength was to sit still Isai 30.7 There fell lately into my hands an Epistle well penn'd which was sent to the State-Assembly of Rochel in the beginning of their sitting to encline them to peace and the obedience of his Majesty Behold here a passage of it I think it very profitable for you to be informed the truth what the opinions and dispositions of our Churches are by persons that have a particular knowledge of them You are now debating Gentlemen of the separation of your Assembly for to obey his Majesty or of its subsistence and to give order to your affairs I am bound to tell you that the general desire of our Churches is that it would please God to continue peace unto us under the obedience of his Majesty and that seeing the King is resolved to employ his Armies to make you obey they promise themselves so much of you that you will do what possibly you can to avoid this tempest and yield rather to necessity then enter into a war wherein the ruine of a great part of our Churches are certain and into a trouble wherein we may behold the entrance but cannot see the issue and that ye will take away the pretext from them who drive on the King to fall upon us Those that fear God desire that if we must be persecuted it should be in bearing the Cross of Christ and for the profession of the Gospel In brief I assure you that the greatest and best part of our people desire you to decline this unjust enterprise Here is not the Authority of a Single Person 't is the testimony of the greatest and best part of the Churches of France 't is a general Declaration of the Churches and of those amongst them who feared God that the duty of Christians persecuted is to bear the Crosse not Arms. It 's then very falsly and injuriously done that the example of the French Churches should be so often and importunately alledged by the Covenanters to justifie the Subjects resisting their Sovereign since that ever in the time of war the greatest and best part were against it A French Divine who loved both his Religion and King found himself so prick'd by this reproach made to the generality of his Party that he prayed us to insert here this expression of his judgement and of the soundest part of the Churches of France The war for Religion in this Kingdome is a wound yet fresh and ye can hardly touch it but ye will hurt it and make it smart and it s very sore against my will that I
take a reciprocal Oath and in a paction of such importance there should also pass some publick contract things which are not practised so that hereby it evidently appears that this imagination of the enemies of Monarchy have not any foundation neither in Law nor Custome Some persons think they speak very finely in saying that the Authority of the King is an Usurpation of the Sword confirmed by Custome that if they could gain their liberty by the sword and confirm it by custome their Right would be as good as his and upon this they Phylosophy upon the Resolutions of States which are in the hand of God and teach us to follow the course of his Providence But by speaking thus they commit a double errour against conscience and against prudence As for conscience the antient constitution of the State confirmed by so many ages Statutes Oaths of Allegiance do suffice to learn all Christians that live under this Monarchy that it was God that established it and that by the command of God they are bound to defend the State under which they are born and whom the Body of the Kingdome hath sworn to maintain These discourses of following the Providence of God in matters of Revolutions of States are then only seasonable when the Royal Blood is extinguished or when Usurpation hath gained prescription through length of years but not when they are neer to overthrow the Estate and ruine the King these considerations are good when the evil is done and out of remedy but not when they are acting ill and when the obedience and loyalty of the subjects may remedy all The providence of God will never serve for excuse of the wickedness of men let us do that which we ought to do and leave God to do what he pleaseth and above all these moralities of revolution of States are worst in their mouths who labour to make this revolution in the State for it 's their duty to prevent this revolution with all their power posterity may excuse themselves by the providence of God in following a new form of State whilst those that introduced it shall be condemned by his Justice Besides all this there is a great want of prudence in this reasoning for in quarrelling the Rights of the King as usurpations of violence and custome they teach the King to quarrel at their liberties and priviledges for the same reason yea and by one much greater for the Priviledges of Parliament are much newer then the Royal Authority and the King may say they were obtained by force after many long and bloody wars he might cast off all prescription gained upon the unlimited power of the first Norman Kings and put himself into all the rights of their Conquests by another Wise subjects who would keep their priviledges ought by all means to preserve peace for there is nothing renders Kings more absolute then war Under a Royal Estate the principal means to preserve the peoples liberty is to maintain the only authority of the King dividing it amongst many they do but multiply their Masters For it s better to have one evil Master then many good ones CHAP. XIV How the Covenanters have no reason to invite the Reformed Churches to their Allyance since they differ from them in many things of great importance WE wonder exceedingly how our Enemies dare solicite the Reformed Churches to Covenant with them From whence comes this great familiarity Is it because of their great resemblance one with another It s that we cannot find As for obedience due to the King which is the principal point of the Covenanters we have made it already appear that the Divines of the Reformed Religion are as contrary to the Covenanters as they are to the Jesuiâ—es their Brethren and Companions in blood and war This point being denied them they care not much for the society of any Church in other points of Doctrine This is the first and great Commandment of the Covenant to obey the people against their King maintain but this their fundamental maxime and they will give you leave to chuse your Religion but in many other things this faction differ from the Reformed Churches Concerning the Doctrine of the Lords Day they have a great quarrel against Calvin who is so far from constraining the Church to a Jewish observation of the Sabbath that he accounts that the Church is not subjected to the keeping of the seventh day a passage which Learned Rivet alledgeth and approâ—â—s and to both these doth Doctor Prideaux since Bishop of Worcester joyn who in a discourse of the Sabbath complains that the English Sabbatarians lean towards Judaisme and go against the common received Doctrine of Divines never considering into what captivity they cast themselves in establishing the observation of the seventh day under Christianity by the authority of a Mosaical Precept Master Primrose Minister of Rohan hath writ a very Learned Book full of profound knowledge upon this Subject wheâ—e amongst other things he proves at large how all the Reformed Churches are contrary to this opinion Although God hath no need of the errour of men to establish his service we so much love the reverence due to that holy day that we would not lightly quarrel at any thing thereupon Let every one enjoy his Opinion so that God may be served and the day which is dedicated to him be not violated neither by prophaneness nor superstition But since the Covenanteâ— in this point are so contrary to the Reformed Churches and have so often condemned it by their writings the Assembly at London did very ill to plead conformity with these Churches in this Article and complain to them of the Liberty the King gave to poor servants to sport on Sunday after Divine Service So also for the Festivals although Mr. Rivet declares his desire that those daies which carry the Names of Saints should be abolished in England because of the abuses of these Festivals in the Church of Rome nevertheless he acknowledgeth and commends the Protestation of the English Church hereupon that they observe them not for the Service of Saints but for to glorifie God in imitation of the Primitive Church by the memory of those whom God was pleased to serve himself by to build up his Church and exceedingly blames those who accuse them of Idolatry for this observation King James of happy and glorious memory speaks thus in his Confession of Faith As for the Saints departed I reverence their memory in honour of whom our Church hath established so many daies of Solemnity as there are Saints enrolled by the Authority of the Scripture The Festivals of Saints scarce exceed the number of the Apostles and Evangelists Monsieur du Moulin his Champion defends this Confession of his Majesty Indeed saith he we condemn not this celebration of the memory of Martyrs and Saints we find the custome good of the English Church who have daies set apart for the commemoration of the Apostles
And a little after he gives the reason why the French Churches do not follow their example Because living in a Country where Superstition abounds the people would be easily drawn to abuse them and be tainted with the common contagion The Prudent and Religious acknowledge with him That in this the Churches have liberty to govern themselves according to the exigencies of time and place and that if in the English Calender there be some festivals which might well be passed by and whereof there might be some fear of the consequence these things ought to have been fairly represented with the humility of subjects and the charity of Christians and not defame the reputation of the English Church as idolatrous and a member of Antichrist nor reform the Church and the King by the Sword since the Reformed Churches in this point acquits them and the example of the Primitive justifies them But although they make a great shew of their agreement with other Churches they make but use of them in some points where they like and approve of and spare not to accuse them of idolatry as well as others when they please 'T is that which they do without naming them then when they reject as gross idolatry the observation of the memory of the daies dedicated to the Nativity Passion Resurrection and Ascension of Christ and the sending of the Holy Ghost into the Church Behold here the Opinion and Practise of the Reformed Churches declared by that Godly and Learned Festus Hominius It s a thing of very great profit to the edification of the Church to commemorate and press solemnly to the people at certain ordinary times the principal manifestations of God and his most signal Benefits to his Church since that the Primitive Church even in the times of the Apostles dedicated certain daies to the Anniversary Celebration of the Nativity Death Resurrection and Ascension of Christ and sending of the Holy Spirit It s very well done to retain the practise of the ancient Church in a thing which is not simply indifferent but singularly profitable to edification provided that none attribute superstitiously any Sanctity to be in the daies and impose not upon the consciences of Christians a yoke of absolute necessity contrary to the Liberty of the Gospel Our new Reformers cannot affirm in sincerity that the Clergy of England attributed any Inherent Sanctity to be in the daies or made use of them to impose a yoke of absolute necessity upon their consciences there was no need then to abolish them with such rigour not to scandalize so many pious souls nor resist a vain fear of superstition by insolence and prophaneness which is a remedy worse then the evil The day of the Nativity in the year 1644 was changed by an express publick Order into a Fast which was the first time since the Apostles that there was any Fast kept that day in the Christian Church and because many would not Fast they sent Souldiers into their houses a little before dinner to visit their Kitchins and Ovens who carried away the meat and eat it though it was a fasting day who were exempted from fasting provided they made others fast such insolencies were ordinary if we may call them insolent actions which were done by Authority And as for Easter day on which and the daies following the people are enjoyned by Act of Parliament to receive the Blessed Sacrament the devotion of the people in many places have been opposed by violence We have heard of a Parish where by main force the Bread and Wine was taken away from the people who were assembled at Church for this holy action Behold their wayes to change the times and to reform abuses which is to resist a supposed superstition with a true and manifest one and to make Sacriledge fight for Religion Le ts pass to other differences The Reformed Churches do not believe as they that all significant ceremonies excepting in the Sacraments are unlawful for then it would follow that to keep off the Hat and kneel at Prayer should be unlawful for these are ceremonies which signifie reverence whence many of the Covenanters for this reason refuse to put off their Hats or kneel at prayer without being taken notice of and reproved by authority Also the Reformed Churches do not believe as they that to be tyed to written prayers or forms of prayers in the Administration of the Sacraments is to binde the Spirit of God many of the Covenanters are come so far as to call the usage of forms of prayer idolatry yea even the use of the Lords Prayer which the most part of this faction refuse to say although by a special priviledge it s permitted the Minister by their Directory to make use of it if he please for it s not commanded him According to this Directory as they call it that is to say an instruction how the Minister should govern himself in the Church The Minister must not say the Apostles Creed nor repeat the ten Commandments of God whereby the people shall be without any form of what they are to believe or what they are to do therefore in the families of most part of this faction they reach noâ— their children neither the Creed the Lords Prayer nor the ten Commandments and as for the children which have learned these holy forms they teach them to forget them Above all things they take a special care that the Minister tyes not himself to any form of words as a thing of dangerous consequence and which hath a taint of Antichrist Henceforward then there will be no uniformity in the Divine Service nor no more help for the infirmity of aged Ministers nor for the understanding and memory of simple and dull Auditors who cannot comprehend at the first aboard what the Minister saith but had need to be well accustomed to him Also there will be no more bounds to devour phantastical spirits which is the principal vice of this Nation Every Church will have a particular Order or rather will have none at all for the Pastor hath liberty to alter it every time he pleases nothing being forbidden but to make use of the long established forms by the Authentical Acts of many Parliaments sanctified by the publick devotion of so many years and composed by the first Reformers persons excellent in piety and wisdome whose books these are not worthy to carry after them If these Directors had had any fear of scandalizing the Churches whom they invited to associate with them they would never have abolished the custome received in all the Reformed Churches and generally in all the Christian Churches of the World who have certain forms for the publick Service of God If they had born any respect to Antiquity and to the universal consent of the Christian Church in all ages and in all places they would not have begun in this age a custome so prodigiously singular as to banish out of the Church all forms
France nor the Low Countries we never knew or understood the least trace of dissention hereupon and if the fashion of some Particulars amongst us displease other Churches they do not less displease ours The Reformed Churches are better instructed than lightly to quarrel at the exteriour circumstance of Divine Service where the substance is whole and sound they have learned to speak after Calvin in the Confession presented in the Name of the Churches of France to the Emperour and Princes of Germany We acknowledg that all and every Church have this right to make Laws and Statutes and for to establish a common Policy amongst them provided that all things be done in the House of God decently and in order and they owe obedience to these Statutes so that they do not inthrall the Conscience nor impose Superstition and those that refuse this are accounted by us seditious and wilful Beza goes yet a little further and maintains that in the outward of Religion Many things may yea ought to be born notwithstanding they are not justly commanded St. Augustin hath an Epistle upon this Subject which is a Golden Epistle wherein he instructs Januarius of the indifferency of Ecclesiastical Observations as of the times of Fasting and the divers customs of receiving the Blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper All things of this kind saith he have their Observations free and for this there is no better of Discipline for a grave and prudent Christian then to do as he seeth them do in all the Churches whither he goes for that which is neither against faith and good manners ought to be held indifferent and ought to be observed according to the company with whom we live and converse and hereupon he reports how his Mother being come to Millan found her self in great perplexity because they did not fast on the Saturday as they did in the Church from whence she came and he to resolve he went to ask counsel of St. Ambrose Archbishop of Millan who answered him When I saith he go to Rome I fast on the Saturday when I am here I fast not on that day do ye the same Into whatsoever Church ye go observe their customes if you your self will not give offence to persons and will that no person should give you offence All Protestants of Europe except the Faction of the Covenant govern themselves thus in whatsoever place they are they joyn with the Reformed Church whatsoever their form of Discipline be which as some say is divers in all Nations To this grave counsel of S. Ambr. S. Austin adds a Character to the life of the imperious and scrupulous humour of our melancholy zealots whom one would think had an intention to paint them out I have oft perceived saith he with much grief and sorrow that many weak and infirm persons have been much troubled through their Contentions wilfulness and superstitious fearfulness at some of their Brethren for doing some things which could not be certainly defined by the Authority of the Holy Scriptures nor by the tradition of the universal Church nor by the utility that might thereby come for the bettering and amendment of our lives only because there is some matter for their conceptions to reason and discourse upon or because they think the farther they go or are able to separate themselves from the Customs received is the most exquisite and nearest to perfection moving such litigious and idle Questions that they make appear to all that they will never allow of any thing well done unless they do it themselves The Reformed Churches take and give this Liberty that every one form an outward Order of Divine Service according to their prudence and its more to be wished than expected that there should be one and the same order throughout all Churches But I know not any Church that reject and cast off all certain Forms as the Covenanters The Declaration following made some few years since by persons of account in the Churches of France is notable As for the Ceremonies and Customs of Ecclesiastical Service and Discipline no judge convenient to leave to every Church his own without altering or changing any thing One day when it shall please God to perfect and confirm amity amongst these Churches we may be able by an universal councel and consent to form a certain Liturgy which may be as a Symbole and Bond of Concord The Churches of the Covenanters ought to be exempted out of this Number for the Liturgy is become to them an Apple of Discord which hath made them quarrel with all Churches of the world being in this point like unto Esau whose hands were against every one and every ones hands against him Therefore the Directors refute themselves by a manifest contradiction then when by their publike Declaration they tell the people that it is to conform themselves to the Reformed Churches that they prescribe not an ordinary form of publike Prayers and Administration of the Sacraments Seeing that it is a thing most notoriously known that all the Reformed Churches have certain Forms of Prayers But they do as if they should apparrel themselves with Green and Yellow because the Ministers of France apparel themselveâ— with black 'T is the Doctrine of the Brownists which now predominate in England that for to have a Liturgie or Form of Prayers is to have another Gospel Now after all this Do they not well think you to court the Churches of France and to make a great noise of their conformity with them having so openly condemned them and their phanatical Phrensie in this point is proceeded so far that neither the Lords Prayer nor the Ten Commandements nor the Apostles Creed are repeated in their Churches nor are taught their Children in their Houses much less any Form of Catechism Behold here a Faction who reject the Books of Christian Religion An horrible and unheard of thing in all ages and in all Churches since Christianity entred the world And dare these people speak of Reformation and Conformity with the Reformed Churches CHAP. XVI Of the great prudence and wisdome of the first English Reformers and of the fool-hardiness of these at present IF these directors who boast themselves of a new Light had had at least the light of Prudence they would have considered that they had to deal with popular Spirits who were accustomed to a good and holy Liturgie but since on a sudden interdicted the use they could not but think they were suddenly transported into another Gospel for the people are dull and fastned upon the exterior and that if they be once fastened to a form of devotion which is good although below perfection there is occasion to praise God that the people have any tast of devotion even in any Form and it should be cherished and encouraged And if there be any thing in this Form to be amended it should be done so mildly and dexterously that the people be not exasperated and the
purely of Elect. It s great pity when men will be too wise and introduce Laws of Severity into the Church which God hath not required at our hands These men should meditate on the Text of Solomon Eccles 7.16 Be not righteous over-much neither make thy self over-wise why shouldest thou destroy thy self Or otherwise Why shouldest thou draw desolation on thy self Thus the Pharisees by an impertinent wisdome and affected Authority and a sublime Divinity of Chymeras were confounded in the vanity of their understandings and drew desolation upon themselves and their Church But yet there is a mystery of Iniquity under this scruple which doth deeply stain the Divines of the Covenant for their Masters foment them for to advance their affairs and it is easie to see that if they once become the strongest they will exclude from the Sacrament of the Lords Supper all those who cannot banish from their heart the love of their King and the Church wherein they were born and brought up In a Sermon preached before the House of Commons and printed by command we learn that their Party will no more communicate with the Antichristian Faction the Preacher explains himself and tells us he means all those that adhere to the King in this quarrel They have many times preached that none should receive the Lords Supper but those who had taken the Covenant yea they have spoke aloud that the Oath of the Covenant and the Lords Supper should be administred together so that the Communicants must swear upon the Body Blood of our Lord and upon the hope of their Salvation that they would be Rebels to their King as long as they live and the Blood of Jesus Christ must be imployed for the same use the cup of mans blood which the confederates with Cataline drunk round one to another in taking the Oath of Conjuration to murder their Superiours and ruine their country But this design is not yet ripe for execution they defer it for a time In the mean time these Gentlemen and the Spiritual Fathers deny themselves the Seal of their Union with Jesus Christ and hereafter they will dispose of this Sacrament according as the necessity of the Covenanters do require They forgot to put down this Article of their reservation in the Epistle they sent to forreign Churches but in inviting them in general to conform themselves unto them they exhort them to this amongst the rest What Must the Reformed Churches then abstain from the Lords Supper and chuse to interdict the Ordinance of Jesus Christ rather then put themselves in danger of administring to the unworthy Must the Universal Christian Church be gulled by their scruples composed of the folly of some and the malice of others Must all believers in the World hold their Faith in suspence and deprive themselves of the Sacrament of their Union with Jesus Christ until the Covenanters of England have found a proper time to make use of the Body and Blood of Christ to bind together a wicked faction and have made the mysteries of Salvation their footstool for ambition Rather then suffer by a criminal complacency that Religion should be so destroyed and that these horrible things should pass for Doctrines of the Reformed Churches let all those who bear this title defend the honour of the Gospel and thereby a publick detestation of so great a corruption Let all those who love God testifie by a just anger they hate the evil It matters not what fraternity these Innovators pretend with other Churches if they corrupt the Christian Religion and invite them to do the like Familiaris accipere haud familiariter let them manifest they have no fraternity with heresie and impiety repulse boldly the temptation of those who invite so basely to do ill that they may have no more courage to return But there is one consideration which should mitigate your indignation against them That amongst this most impious extravagansie there is a malady and disease of the spirit for many of this party have their brains dislocated and displaced Some whereof have taken their children and gone and sacrificed them pretending a particular command like that God gave to Abraham others have shut themselves up with a Bible and resolved to eat nothing because it is written That man shall not live by bread alone but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God Some have killed their cat because she had taken a mouse on Sunday but defer'd the execution until Munday And there are women and tradesmen amongst them who preach by the spirit without call knowledge or premeditation others who account the receiving of the Sacrament on their knees is to communicate at Mass and that the Surplice is the Smock of the Whore of Babylon the Publick Prayers Mass refined the sound of the Organs the Hoboyes of Antichrist ye need not wonder the Covenanters have so great a party since fools and Ideots are on their side The like weakness is seen in the Epistle of the Assembly to the Reformed Churches they highly aggravate the persecutions prepared for all those who would not bear the mark of the beast meaning by this mark their obedience to the order of Episcopacy and the use of the Publick Service for the King required no other thing of them but as beasts which being cast into the river ordinarily swim against the stream so many of these brutish spirits think they can never be saved but in going against the ancient received customes how good soever they be and make all their piety and honesty to consist in a sullen and dogged devotion fantastical and turbulent which will give no rest to themselves nor others This scrupulous humour hath produced strange effects witness he that killed his mother and brother in cold blood having no other quarrel against them but that they loved the Liturgy This was a preamble of the devil who the year after began this war for the same subject in which he made use of the melancholy humour of the people to cut the throats of their brethren for devotion according to the instructions before alledged out of Sions Plea and the Souldiers Catechisme In effect their spirit of contradiction and their bloody inclination which hath formed this maxime of the times that the Reformation must be made by blood are the productions of a sharp choler predominant in the Hipocondres or bowels whose vapours besiege the animal spirits which carries them into a savage rage which hath something of the nature of the Licanthropy There is alwayes in the worst parties excellent natures which are carried away with the stream and we know amongst the party of the Covenant some very brave men but the churlish zealots whose fierceness and number govern even the Governours themselves are of weak and malignant spirits whose temper is like that of Tiberius that is of dung kneaded and wrought together with blood these are men of sad sordid and reserved natures
which a wild melancholy renders fearful superstitious suspitious and cruel and when all these ingredients meet together ignorance superstition presumption and wilfulness and a flitting and imperious humour all steeped in a black and hot melancholy they make the most malignant composition of the world pernicious to Church and State to families and all societies causing every where ruine and combustion like a Granado fired that makes all fly a pieces that is near it CHAP. XVII How the Covenanters labour in vain to sow dissention between the Churches of England and France upon the point of discipline Of the Christian prudence of the French Reformers and of the nature of discipline in general HItherto we have found no such conformity as might induce the Covenanters of England to invite the Reformed Churches to espouse their quarrel for they every where carefully administer the Lords Supper they take order that Infants be baptized they suffer none to be re-baptized they suppress heresies scandals the liberty of fanatique spirits they repeat to the people the ten Commandments of God the Articles of the Christian Faith they make use of certain forms of prayer in administring the Sacraments and other parts of the Divine Service They teach the people to submit to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake and not to resist Supreme Powers but to suffer for righteousness sake they are free from a capricious weakness in matters of indifferency which are peculiar to our enemies also these Churches approve of the English Liturgy and without scruple joyn with it in prayer when occasion serves what is there then which should oblige them to associate together The Reformed Churches say they have no Bishops but we demand of them whether all those Churches which have Bishops are not Reformed They incline doubtless to this opinion for in the title of their Epistle to the Reformed Churches they name but those of France the Low Countries and Switzerland they let the other pass under an c. If that be their opinion they have much forgot themselves in their Copies which they sent to particular States for they writ to the Churches of Hesse and those of Anhalt which are governed by Superintendents that is to say in our Language Bishops In all those Countries subject to the Crowns of Denmark and Sweden The Episcopal degree is kept so almost through all Germany this degree is preserved under the name of Superintendent and in some places as in Brene the name of Bishops remain although part of these Churches be Lutherans we will not refuse them the name of Reformed there wanting but a little charity in them to make both them and us to accord So likewise in the large Territories of Bohemia Polonia and Transylvania the Evangelical Churches are governed by Seniors as they call them who have Episcopal power They should not then boast of the consent of the Reformed Churches nor complain to them that the King would not admit a Reformation which pretends to abolish the Episcopal degree as an appurtenance of Antichrist which is in effect to condemn all Churches where there is any preheminence amongst the Clergy I forbear to speak of the Churches of Russia Grecia and India and of the rest of the world whose Doctrine is less known to us then the point of their Discipline which are all governed by Bishops But the Covenanters Magisterially prescribe their Discipline to all the World although they themselves have none vaunting themselves of a piety without pair and yet will not leave to other Churches any liberty Therefore their Declarations give all to understand that after they have planted it in England they will go and do as much beyond the Seas The Donatists shut up the Church within the confines of Africa which then was a small thing unfitly applying that Text of the Canticles Tell us where thou feedest where thou makest thy flocks to rest at noon Cant. 1.7 but the French translation reâ—deth to rest towards the south At present the Kingdom of Jesus Christ is in danger to be confined within England whither other Nations must come and search it saying Tell us where thou feedest where thou makest thy flocks to rest towards the North. It 's easie to make the consent of the Churches named in the title of the Epistle to sound high because they have no Bishops but to prove their agreement with the Covenanters in this point they should do well to make these two things to appear the one that these Churches condemn the Episcopal Order as unlawful and Antichristian the other that these Churches do conform to the discipline of the Covenanters things which they will find false As for the first we see not that the other Churches quarrel at the Church of England hereupon but pray God to bless them in the order against this it matters not to alledge the thirtieth Article of the Churches of France confession of Faith We believe that all true Pastors in what place soever they be have the same authority and equal power under one head Jesus Christ and that for this cause no Church ought to pretend any dominion or Lordship over the other He that speaks for the General expounds this Article Ye must know saith he that the equality of Pastors in that which is of Authority to declare the Gospel and administer the Sacraments and for the use of the keyes is held necessary amongst all for Baptism the Lords Supper and the declaring of the remission of sins is of equal dignity in the mouth of Pastors whether they be of great or little Authority But as for Ecclesiastical policy we do not hold the equality of Pastors absolutely necessary we do not account this Order a point of faith nor a Doctrine of salvation we live God be thanked in brotherly concord with our neighbour-Churches which follow another form and where the Bishops have superiority In his disputations of Divinity in the University of Sedam this is one of his Theses We maintain that the Bishops of England after their conversion to the faith and their abjuration of Papistry were faithful servants of God and ought not to forsake neither the name nor title of Bishops Calvin himself spake as much before in his Epistle to Cardinal Sadâ—let speaking of the Church of Rome Let them saith he establish such an Hierarchy where the Bishops having the dignity refuse not to submit themselves to Christ and depend of him as their onely Head and refer themselves to him and let them maintain amongst them such a brotherly society which is not entertained but by the bond of truth Then if there be found any persons who refuse to respect such an Hierarchy with reverence and Soveraign obedience I acknowledge and confess him worthy of al sorts of Anathema's This passage serves for the Episcopal degree in general This other of Jacobus Lectius Professor at Geneva hath a singular regard to the Bishops of England He saith That those Bishops only were
to fear God the next following is to honour the King I make no doubt but the Kingdome of Christ may be established without pulling down mine and in a time free from partialities its impossible any should pass for a good Christian who shews not himself a good Subject The Government of Christ serves to confirm mine and not to overthrow it for as I acknowledge I hold my power of him so I desire to exercise it for his glory and the good of his Church If any one had sincerely proposed the Government of Christ or understood in their heart what it required they would never have been so ill governed in their words and actions as well towards me as one towards another As the good ends cannot justifie the evil wayes so also the evil beginnings cannot produce good conclusions unless God by a miracle of mercy make Light to spring out of Darkness Order out of our Confusion and Peace from our unruly Passions This is spoken as a King as a Phylosopher and as a good Christian Our enemies to blind the eyes of their Neighbours made them believe a long time that they desired such a reformation as theirs but the hypocrisie of this profession appeared then when the King offered to assemble a National Synod and to invite the Neighbour Churches to it whom these people would seem to imitate And this the good King would never have named had he not an intention to defer much to their Judgement But of this his Majesty could never obtain an answer for it was that which the Independents feared above all and we see not that the Presbyterians did any way favour this proposition the actions both of the one and the other were such that it was the surest course for them to palliate them with Declarations sent a far off rather then to have them brought to light here at home in a Synod and they were very well content to receive their Neighbours to their Society but not to admit them to their Counsel They have hereby made it appear that it was not reformation but the revenues of the Church they pursued otherwise they would have imbraced the proposition of his Majesty and the request of the Clergy who desired nothing more then to be heard in a lawful Synod and to reform willingly that which was displeasing to some But this had untwisted the designs of their enemies who then should have had no pretext to ruine the Clergy and enrich themselves with their spoils and take from Monarchy the support of the Church if the Ecclesiasticks had been reformed Then let the rage and invective malice of our enemies greaten our faults in quality and number as much as they can let them make small spots imposthumes Let them paint us out in false colours and disfigure us like devils to the eyes of all the world All that the severest Justice can require of us is to amend and freely to submit our selves to the censure of a lawful Assembly and then when a great King who is subject to none but God shall come to them and offer to change that which hath been practised or tolerated and to lend his ear to receive better information O this was a grace capable to molifie hearts of stone and to turn the complaints of his subjects into acclamations of joy and praises But they will neither the grace of the King nor our amendment To these offers of the King so sincere and frequent they answered not but by complaints and blowes and they consulted not of means to correct us but to destroy us they will not take the pains to cleanse the Church they will cut it up by the root root and branch 'T is the Watch-word of the seditious whereby they pretend to know those that are of the godly party and they have also put an unnatural maxime in the mouth of the furious and blind people that the reformation must be made in blood This they call to renew or revive the Church but it 's as the Daughters of Pelias undertook to make their Father young again who to that end cut his throat to let his old blood pass out of his body but after it was not in their power to put in new God keep us from them who come to reform the Church their Mother with a Sword and that would cut our throats to make us young again Certainly beholding Chyrurgeons coming to let us blood with a Sword in both hands we have reason to withdraw into some safe quarter and to fear a healing which will not take away the evil but in taking away our life We dare say for our Clergy that if it should cost them their lives to redeem the peace of their King and State they would account them well imployed and willingly consent to be cast over-board with Jonas that their loss might appease the tempest This is of greatest anguish and affliction to see Murther pass for Piety then to suffer in their persons and they cheerfully wish that a potion of their blood could quench the heat of their bloody zeal This zeal appeared in the title of Sions Plea and in the book called Christ on his Throne The first pleads for the Presbyterian the other for the Independent Both of these books have this Text in the Frontispice Bring those mine enemies that would not that I should raign over them and slay them before me By enemies they understand those who will not imbrace their Discipline And their actions now have and do make a bloudy commentary upon the Text. That if our Lord Jesus Christ who poured forth his most precious bloud to spare ours put not a stop to this flux of bloud these Zealots will reform England as the Anabaptists reformed Munster and as the Spaniards converted the West-Indies Let all Christian Churches of the World then know that the English Church confesseth humbly before God her infirmities and acknowledgeth her self the defaults which peace and the length of time is wont to bring to the best established order and hath done her duty to reform submitting her self to a general Synod and the States of the Kingdome under the Authority and conduct of her good King and that a sacrilegious and murthering faction drunken with the bloud of their Soveraign and the goods of the Church Having oppressed the liberty of the Assembly of States snatched this holy work out of her hands and would hear of no other reformation but her total destruction introducing in the place of ancient and lawful order a Chaos of prophane and licentious Heresies destructive to Religion and State CHAP. XXI An Answer to the Objection That the King made War against the Parliament IT 'S the ordinary complaint of the Covenanters that the King made War against his Parliament a phrase which seems tacitly to imply that the King rebelled against his Superiours and indeed there are many that understood it so in good earnest conceiving the Parliament to be above the King And hereupon
it was they made the people believe a long time that the occasion of their taking up Arms was to bring the King to his Parliament but the hypocrisie of protestation is now clearly manifested for when the King offered to return to his Parliament they utterly refused to receive him telling him plainly if he came he should come at his peril Forbidding all persons whatsoever under pain of death to receive or entertain him in their houses Let all good subjects who have taken this Oath open now at last their eyes and acknowledge that the intentions of their Guides was quite contrary to their professions The Sixth Article required every person to swear That this cause touched the Glory of God the happiness of the three Kingdomes and the Dignity of the King Indeed this cause touched the Glory of God with such fowl hands as have defiled it as much as possible men could and it touched the happiness of the three Kingdomes with such malignant claws as have torn them to pieces But if they will that we take them in their sense namely that their cause defends and advanceth the Glory of God the happiness of the Kingdomes and the Dignity of the King we behold and feel the contrary But grant that this should be true 't is not a thing for which we must swear Oaths are of two sorts the one sort are to affirm the truth of a thing present or past the other for to promise and oblige our will for the future these two sorts of Oaths cannot be taken together The Oath of the Covenant is of the latter and therefore it is very ill done of them to confound it with the first which is altogether of another nature and usage and in a promise for the future to thrust in an affirmation of a thing present yea of a thing false or at least doubtful and whereof they of their party are not accorded But suppose that this Oath were of the first sort the things which we should affirm upon Oath are such as require the testimony of the person who swears Such are all questions of fact But as for questions of right they ought not neither can they be decided by Oath and it is to want common sense to make his neighbour judge to know which is the true Religion and to judge whether the Cause of the Parliament is better then the Kings There the Oath loseth his use for it s made to perswade and give Authority to the thing by the witness of the person If the Cause of the Covenant be the Cause of God there is no need to swear it but to justifie it by reason and practice And although we should even believe that it searcheth and advanceth the Glory of God the happiness of the Kingdome and dignity of the King it were unjust and ridiculous to press us to swear it for moral truths and even also Theological ought to be believed not sworn Civil things only and those amongst them which are matters of fact ought only to be affirmed by oath we have a very firm belief of the truth of many points of Religion and of the honesty of divers persons and yet nevertheless for all the world we would not swear to them all who have any ingenuity or good sense acknowledge that to force us to affirm the goodness of the Covenant by Oath is an extreme tyranny and full of ignorance and absurdities And also seeing we are very ill satisfied of the goodness thereof it s another tyranny to make us swear to defend it and a most barbarous cruelty to confiscate our possessions and sequester our Ministers of their benefices because they refuse to take so unreasonable an Oath and yet all this was practised during the Presbyterian Reign The Articles of the Covenant were assisted with a Religious Prologue and Epilogue full of protestations of zeal and repentance and therefore it was almost impossible but the most part of them that took it should be perjured considering the generality of the people are evil And this should have prevented the Gentlemen to impose the Covenant indifferently upon all under such great penalties For as they will not suffer the Sacrament of the Lords Supper to be administred to the people for fear to encrease their condemnation They should have by the same reason according to their principles have withheld to administer these protestations of zeal and repentance to their consciences whose disposition they were ignorant of Now a great evidence of their depraved and evil Faith consists in their protestations of sanctity and superlative expressions of zeal in which the Independent party who rejected the Covenant without comparison fly higher then their Predecessors All their Ordinances and Declarations yea even their Letters of News were sallies of zeal All their murthers and robberies were to establish the purity of the Gospel to conquer a Kingdome for Jesus Christ and that godliness might reign and flourish If they speak of the abominable parricide committed against their Soveraign they say that God made bare the Arm of his Holiness that the Lord is on their right hand that he hath smote Kings in the day of his wrath and that they may wash their feet in the blood of the ungodly Thus they made their horrible crimes march disguised in terms of Scripture and the devil borrowed the language of the Spirit of God Whosoever shall well consider the use they made of the Scripture and whereto they imployed their great shew of holiness shall find an Answer to the Question in the 50 Psal 16. But to the wicked God saith what hast thou to do to declare my Statutes or that thou shouldest take my Covenant in thy mouth Behold here the work of the Covenanters they declare the Statutes of God and take his Covenant into their mouths to put on rebellion the mask of Religion and to invest themselves without trouble of the Authority and Revenues of the Crown the goods of the Church and without suspition to grope the purses of the people for the outward shew of devotion doth much amuse the assistants and gain their belief for who can fear any evil from those who so piously invite them to repentance and the advancement of the Glory of God who would not confide and trust in them that declare the Statutes of God and take his Covenant in their mouth Satan in all forms is dangerous but he is never so pernicious as when he clothes himself as an Angel of Light and it is ill going Procession when the Devil carries the Cross Moreover by their fruits ye shall know them How often abused they the credulity of the people when they conjured them to help to fetch the King from his evil Councellors and to bring him gloriously to his great and faithful Councel that is to say to themselves but their faithfulness appeared then when he departed from them whom they called his evil Councellors to yeeld himself up to them for then their terrible
Doctrines have healed the mortal wound of the beast and hardned the consciences of men against the Sword of the Gospel which rarely penetrates with efficacy when it s welded with wicked hands That which comforts us in beholding you to 〈…〉 to make faith cease from being in the earth is that hereby 〈◊〉 advance the desired coming of Jesus Christ who hath marked that time for his return when he will deliver his Church from the bondage of seduction vanity blindness and misery for to invest her with liberty holiness and glory which he hath purchased for her by his blood In waiting for this happy deliverance if we must still behold Rebellion proudly domineer over the Supreme Powers ordained by God and sacriledge make havock in the Church and crimes turned into Laws and Doctrines of Religion we shall preserve our selves by the grace of God from murmuring at his Justice and the conduct of his Providence remembring that God punisheth us justly by instruments which are unjust and that he will assuredly manifest his just judgements upon them when he shall see it most expedient for his glory which â—e is used to advance by wayes contrary in appearance and makes as in the Creation light to shine out of darkness we will endeavour to learn in our calamity this divine wisdome of Solomon Eccles 5.8 If thou sâ—est the oppression of the poor and violent perverting of Judgement and Justice in a Province marvel not at the matter for he that is higher then the highest regardeth and there be higher thâ—n they Being persecuted by a people who in destroying us pretend they do God service and who palliate their cruelty with zeal of his glory we comfort our selves in this holy promise as made expresly for our condition Isa 66.5 Hear the word of the Lord ye that tremble at his word your brethren that hated you that cast you â—ut for my name sake said let the Lord be glorified but he shall appear to your joy and they shall be ashamed O our God we beseech thee forgive our enemies confound their pernicious designs and convert their erring consciences repair the hedge broken down of thy vine whereby the Wildbâ—ar out of the woods break down the branches and root up the tender plants wherefore shall they say amongst the heathen where is now their God Soli Deo Gloria El poder malamante adquirido no suale ser duradera FINIS ☜ Fuller Ans p. 7. * Vindiciae contra Tirannos De jure Magistratus * Accentus Athuach Goodman of Obedience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Buchanan de Jure Reg. p. 56 57. Observator defended p. 8. Bellar. de Poâ—t l. 5. Cap. 7. It was declared by the two Houses that the Kings coming to the House of Commons was Treason Caligula parum abfuit quin Speciem Principatus in Regnum converteret capiti diadema circumponeret Melchior Golodast Tom. 3. p. 124. Fuller Ans p. 21. Buchanan de Jure Reg. p. 57. Fullers Answer Full. Ans p. 6. l. 12. In his Oration before the Three Estates Jan. 15. 160â— Observations upon the Answers of his Majesty Dec. Aug. 12. 1642. Bodin de Repub. lib. 1. cap. 8. Bodin de Repub. lâ—b 1. cap. 8. De Repub. lib. 2. cap. 5. 2 Hen. 5. Ola. magna charta Diar Hen. 4. 3 Edw. 3. 7 Edw. 1. Ut igitur in naturalibus Capite de truncato residuum non Corpus sed Truncum appellamus sic in politicis sine Capite Communitus nulla tenus corporatur Fortescue cap. 13. Judge of Controversie cap. 5 p. 103. Anno 1641. This Story is related in the Kings declaration of August 12 Anno 1642. Bel. de Con. l. 2. c. 19 Gilby lib. de obedientia p. 25. 105. Bellarm. l. 3. De Pontif. cap. 7. Goodman p. 144. and 149. Charron in his Christian Discourse about the end of his Book of Wisdom Emanuel Sa in voce Tyranaus Knox to Engl. and Scotl. 78. Papa Urban causa 23. Qu. 5. Can. Excommunicatorum Buchanan de jure Regni p. 70. Hyparaspishes l. 3. cap. 10. Jesuita vapulans cap. 13. Sions Plea page 240. Anticorum Amphithâ—atrum Honoris The Souldiers Catechism composed for the Parliaments Army by Robert Ram Minister published by Authority page 14 15. of the seventh Edition Vindiciae Philadel Usurpations des Papes c. 5. pag. 81. The Epistle of the venerable Assembly of English Divines and the Deputies of Scotland to the Reformed Churches of France the Low-Countries and Switzerland c. Mulus Mulum fricat Liceat interim apud Fratres quos salutat haec Epistola dilectissimos innocentiae nostrae testimonium in sacris eorum coetibus quandocunque opus fuerit Apologiam obtinere The Scots Declaration in the year 1644. The Scots now feel it Usurpation des papes Jesuita vapulans cap. 26. Art 2. An Answer for the Churches of France A rare pattern for a Conquerour Buckler of Faith Sect 182. Vindication of the Royal Commission of Jesus Christ Buckler of Faith Sect. 182. Institut l. 4. C. 20. Art 29. Art 25. Com. upon Dan. c. 4. v. 19. Instit l. 4. c. 20. Sâ—ct ult Pet. Martyr Clas 4. loc 20. En fundum fundamentum totius paracidialis doctrinae Potestas à populo Regi data est fiduciaria Section 183. Tho. 22. qu. 10. Art 10. DominiuÌ„ praelatio introducta sunt ex jure humano Qu. 12. Art 2. Dominium introductuÌ„ est de jure gentium quod est jus humanum Casabon in epist. ad frontenem ductum Jesuitam Hunc ordinem Regendi inturbavit Nimrodus qui novo Titulo principatum acquisivit scit Jure Bello Nimrod arripuit insuetam primus in populo Tyrannidem Regnavitque in Babylone Hier. in Trad. Hebraic ad Gen. 10. v. 10. Neque unquam libertas gratior extat quam sub Reg. Pio. Calvin Institut l. 2. c. 8. Rivet Explicatione Decalogi precep 4. Rivet about the end of his Exposition of the 4 Command Disput 1. Thes 3. Senatus-Consulius scelera paâ—rantur Charenton the name of the Protestant Church at Paris In the Preface to the Directory Epistola ad Protectorem Anglia Bucer Scripta Anglâ—eana p. 455. Beza ad quosdom Anglicarum Ecclestarum fratres Confessio Ecclesiarum Gallicarum inter opusâ—ula Calvin In his Epistle before alledged Tom. 2. Epist ad Januarium Sententia Quorundam Ecclesiae id Gallin pastorum eximiorum edita à D. Johanne Duraeo Londini An. 1638. Barrow Refut 224 The Book called Christ upon his Throne p. 23. By Mr. Francis Cheynall A woman at Dover cut off her childs head and alledged this Scripture The Quaker that fasted and died at Colchester Enoch ap Evan neer to Shrewsbury 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suet. Tiber. Buckler of Faith Sect. 124. Jacobus Lectius praescriptionum Theologicarum lib. 2. March 1591. In his Treatise of Episcopacy The Serpent Salve 111. Serpent salve p. 219. Reply to Whitgift page 181. Cartwright 247. Bodin Method Histor de Repub. Geneva Sermon 1. of Duells to the Templers August lib. 21. Contra Faustum Cap. 75. Husbands in his book of Declarations p. 557. and 663. This was written during the â—itting of the long Parliament in Anno 1650. Note that this book in the French was printed in the year 1650.
change and abolish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained onely by mans authoritie so that all things be done to edifying XXXV THe second Book of Homilies the severall titles whereof we have ioyned under this Article doth contain a godly and wholsome Doctrine and necessary for these times as doth the former book of Homilies which were set forth in the time of Edward the sixth and therefore we judge them to be read in Churches by the Ministers diligently and distinctly that they may be understanded of the people Of the Names of the Homilies 1 OF the right use of the Church 2 Against peril of Idolatry 3 Of repairing and keeping clean of Churches 4 Of good works first of Fasting 5 Against Gluttony and Drunkennesse 6 Against Excesse of Apparel 7 Of Prayer 8 Of the Place and Time of Prayer 9 That Common Prayers and Sacraments ought to be ministred in a known Tongue 10 Of the reverent estimation of Gods Word 11 Of Alms doing 12 Of the Nativity of Christ 13 Of the passion of Christ 14 Of the Resurrection of Christ 15 Of the worthy receiving of the Sacrament of the Body and Bloud of Christ 16 Of the Gifts of the holy Ghost 17 For the Rogation daies 18 Of the State of Matrimony 19 Of Repentance 20 Against Idlenesse 21 Against Rebellion XXXVI THe Book of Consecration of Archbishops and Bishops and ordering of Priests and Deacons lately set forth in the time of Edward the sixth and confirmed at the same time by authority of Parliament doth contain all things necessary to such Consecration and ordering neither hath it any thing that of it selfe is superstitious and ungodly And therefore whosoever are consecrated or ordered according to the Rites of that Book since the second year of the aforenamed King Edward unto this time or hereafter shall be consecrated or ordered according to the same Rites we decree all such to be rightly orderly and lawfully consecrated and ordered XXXVII THe Queens Majestie hath the chief power in this Realm of England and other her Dominions unto whom the chief government of all estates of this Realm whether they be Ecclesiasticall or Civil in all causes doth appertain and is not nor ought to be subject to any forreign Iurisdiction Where wee attribute to the Queenes Majestie the chiefe government by which titles we understand the mindes of some slanderous folkes to be oâ—fended we give not to our Princes the ministring either of Gods word or of the Sacraments the which thing the Injunctions also lately set forth by Elizabeth our Queen do most plainly testifie but that only prerogative which we see to have been given alwaies to all godly Princes in holy Scriptures by God himself that is that they should rule all estates and degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiasticall or Temporall and restraine with the Civil sword the stubborne and evil deers The Bishop of Rome hath no Iurisdiction in this Realm of England The Lawes of the Realm may punish Christian men with death for heinous and grievous offences It is lawful for Christian men at the Commandment of the Magistrate to weare weapons and serve in the warres XXXVIII THe Riches and goods of Christians are not common as touching the right title and possession of the same as certain Anabaptists do falsly boast Notwithstanding every man ought of such things as he possesseth liberally to give almes to the poore according to his ability XXXIX AS we confesse that vaine and rash swearing is forbidden Christian men by our Lord Iesus Christ and Iames his Apostle So we judge that Christian Religion doth not prohibite but that a man may sweare when the Magistrate requireth in a cause of faith and charitie so it be done according to the Prophets teaching in justice judgment and truth The Contents Chap. 1. OF the Seditious Liberty of the new Doctrines which hath been the principal means of the Covenant p. 1. Chap. 2. That the Covenanters are destitute of all Proofs for their war made against the King p. 12. Chap. 3. Express Texts of Scripture which commands Obedience and forbids Resistance to Soverigns p. 23. Chap. 4. The Evasions of the Covenanters upon the Texts of Saint Paul Rom. 13. and how in time they refuse the judgment of Scripture p. 28. Chap. 5. What Constitution of State the Covenanters forge and how they refuse the judgment of the Laws of the Kingdom p. 40. Chap. 6. What Examples in the Histories of England the Covenanters make use of to authorize their actions p. 46. Chap. 7. Declaring wherein the Legislative power of Parliament consists p. 50. Chap. 8. How the Covenanters will be Judges in their own cause p. 63. Chap. 9. That the most noble and best part of the Parliament retired to the King being driven away by the worser p. 65. Chap. 10. A Parallel of the Covenant with the holy League of France under Henry the Third Pag. 71. Chap. 11. The Doctrine of the English Covenanters parallel'd with the Doctrine of the Jesuits p. 72. Chap. 12. How the Covenanters wrong the Reformed Churches in inviting them to joyn with them with an Answer for the Churches of France p. 81. Chap. 13. The preceding Answer confirmed by Divines of the Reformed Religion with an Answer to some Objections of the Covenanters upon this Subject p. 101. Chap. 14. How the Covenanters have no reason to invite the Reformed Churches to their Alliance since they differ from them in many things of great importance p. 115. Chap. 15. Of abolishing the Lyturgy in doing of which the Covenanters oppose the Reformed Churches p. 122. Chap. 16. Of the great prudence and wisdom of the first English Reformers and of the Fool hardinesse of these at present p. 132. Chap. 17. How the Covenanters labour in vain to sow Sedition between the Churches of England and France upon the point of Discipline Of the Christian prudence of the French Reformers and of the nature of Discipline in general p. 145. Chap. 18. How the Discipline of the Covenanters is far from the practise of other Churches p. 156. Chap. 19. That the Covenanters ruine the Ministers of the Gospel under colour of Reformation p. 163. Chap. 20. Of the Corruption of Religion objected to the English Clergy and the waies that the Covenanters took to remedy them Pag. 167. Chap. 21. An Answer to the Objection That the King made War against the Parliament p. 176. Chap. 22. Of the Depraved and Evil Faith of the Covenanters p. 184. Chap. 23. Of the Instruments both Parties made use of and of the Irish Affairs p. 207 Chap. 24. How the different Factions of the Covenant agreed to ruine the King and contributed to put him to death p. 226. Chap. 25. Of the cruelty of the Covenanters towards the good Subjects of the King p. 232. CHAP. I. Of the seditious Liberty of New Doctrines which hath been the principal means of the Covenant A Compleat History of our Affairs since