moderation whereof I do not repent and was very much offended with those who would not yeeld in such indifferent things for peace sake It was Calvin with Peter Martyr who by many arguments perswaded Bishop Hooper to conformitie especially to put on the Surplesse which he did I might produce all the rest of those worthy Divines Beza Melancton Bullinger Peter Martyr Gualter Zanchius who all of them condemn your opinion schismaticall practice who had rather rent the body of Christ Jesus then yeeld to any thing that doth not content your turbulent lusts and therefore your praiers are turned into sin while you pray the Lord of heaven truly and fully to inform his Majesty how farre this Booke is full of idolatrous superstitions and popish errors as you affirm in your Protestation against his Majesties Proclamation And it is no marvell that you condemne this Booke of Common Praier seeing you have condemned your owne book of Common Praier made at your Reformation The Ring-leaders of your faction condemne all set Praier whatsoever all set forme of celebration of the Sacraments Marriages The praiers which were read since the Reformation till this rupture are now banished the Church yea your Ring-leaders have banished the Lords Praier and say that those who use it make it an Idoll and therefore in their praiers it is never mentioned to the great scandall grief of many poor souls among you who yet love it because Christs command is when you pray say Our Father which art in heaven c. You Baptize celebrate the Communion not as you were wont to do after the form set downe unto you at the Reformation but every day after a diverse forme and manner being changeable like the wind so do you with Marriage Thus you differ from your selfe like the double-minded man Jam. 1.8 who is unstable in all his waies wavering like the waves of the sea driven with the wind tossed And what pleaseth you to day displeasâ—th you to morrow You do also daily coin new Articles of faith as to beleeve Episcopacie to be Antichristian and the young Lay-elder government to be that which Christ hath appointed in his Church It is an Article of your faith to beleeve that to receive the body and bloud of Jesus Christ in the humble gesture of kneeling is idolatry It is an Article of your faith that it is Popery if the Church set apart a day for the solemn and thankfull commemoration of Gods love to the world who so loved the world Galat 4 4 that when the fulnesse of time was come sent forth his Sonne made of a woman made under the Law to redeem them which were under the Law that wee might receive the adoption of Sons It is an Article of your faith that it is Popery if the Church doth set apart a day for the solemne and publike commemoration of the Passion of Christ Heb. 12.2 that the people may looke unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of their faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the crosse despising the shame It s an Article of your faith that it is Popery to give the Communion on Pasch day It s an Article of your faith that it is Popery if the Church appoint a day for the thankfull remembrance of Christs Ascension into Heaven It s an Article of your faith that its Popery if the Church appoint a day for the thankfull remembrance of the Descension of the Holy Ghost on Whitsunday to give gifts unto men It s an Article of your faith that the Service-book is Popish It s an Article of your faith that the Book of Canons which directly overthrowes the Popish Supremacie and the High Commission are abjured in your Confession of faith It s an Article of your faith that it was the intention of those whom you call blessed Reformers that all the foresaids which you have in your Covenant abjured expresly was abjured by them also as well as if it had bin expresly set downe which is the most ridiculous thing in the world for intentio est actus immanens which is impossible for any man to know except it be revealed And therefore since there is such difference among your selves every day bringing forth new dreames since to you some things are sometimes indifferent sometimes necessary good sometimes necessary evill sometimes a matter of faith sometimes Not I cannot but end this discourse with that of Hilarius in Application to you Hilar. lib. 3. cont Constant Faith is come now to depend rather on the time then on the Gospel our state is dangerous and miserable that we have now as many Faiths as wills as many doctrines as manners Whilst Faiths are either so written as we list or so understood as we will we make every yeer every moneth a faith and still we seek a faith as if there were no faith This I would fain know of you what faith at length you beleeve you have changed so often that now I know not your Faith That is happened unto you which is wont to follow unskilfull builders ever disliking their owne doings that you still put down that which you are still putting up You subvert the old with the new and the new you rent asunder with a new correction and that which was once corrected you condemus with a second correction O wicked men what a mockery do you make of the Church onely dogs returne to their vomit and you compell the Priests to sup up those things which they have spit forth and doe you command them in their confession to allow that which before they condemned What Bishops hand have you left innocent What tongue have you not forced to falshood Whose heart hast thou not brought to the condemning of his former opinion You have subjected all to your will and to your violence Thus Hilarius And therefore of those your new-coyned articles especially of your abjuring Episcopacy and establishing Presbyteriall discipline I may wel say that of Jerom Plantatio vestra non est vetus Jerom. in â—sal 1â—7 sed novella est non est de veterilege non de Prophetis non de Apostolis sed de novis magistris est Your plantation is not old but a novelty for it is not three yeers old it is not taken out of the old Law nor from the Prophets nor from the Apostles but new masters And therefore adulterum est impium est sacrilegum est quicquid humano furere instituitur â—â—pr lib. 1. c. 8. ut dispositio divina violetur Whatsoeuer is established by the fury of man whereby the divine disposition is violated is an adulterate wicked sacrilegious matter And I hold that as an undoubted rule of Augustine Quod universalis tenuit ecclesia August lib. 4. de Bapt. cap. 24. quodque non Conciliis institutum sed semper retentum est non nisi Apostolicâ authoritate traditum rectissimè creditur Whatsoever the
Catholike Church hath holden which was not institute by Councels but ever kept in the Church that is most rightly beleeved to be an Apostolicall tradition and he brings for instances those holy daies which your Covenant abjures which hath ever been retained in the Church from the Apostles daies And albeit we could not prove Episcopacy from Scripture as wee may very wel prove it and is proved by those who defend the same yet this unquestionable rule of Augustine will bee sufficient to prove it to be of Apostolicall institution for you say it is not of Divine institution and I say it is not instituted by Councels and yet all that are but little exercised in antiquitie shall find that Episcopacie was ever in the Church from the Apostles dayes till this present time that it is called in question And beside that rule of Augustine consider that it is the generall tradition of the Catholik Church that Episcopacie hath ever been in it as an Apostolicall institution And by this generall tradition of the Catholike Church we are as certain that it is of Apostolicall institution as we are certaine of the received number of the Canonicall books of Scripture for we receive and take that number upon the continued generall tradition of the Catholike Church of Christ from age to age We reject and detest particular traditions of any present particular Church such as are those of the Church of Rome if they cannot shew those traditions to have been generally received at all times in the Catholike Church But there is no Protestant that doth not receive generall traditions of the Catholike Church such as is this concerning the definite number of the bookes of the Canonical Scripture and if I would assume a schismaticall humor I might with as good warrants deny that there are so many bookes in the Canon as the Catholike Church sayes there be as you deny Episcopacie to be of Apostolicall institution Thus have I briefly showne you the passages betweene the Anticovenanter and Covenanter which I leave to your consideration and returne to my purpose From this sweet harmonie in the preceding points especially of your independent power in Church matters there followeth another parallel by way of consequence viz. that you may excommunicate your King if hee doe not obey the Acts and Constitutions of your Assemblies Thus you threatned King James and his Councell both with excommunication if he would not execute your Acts of your Assemblie and good reason seeing it is the supreme judicatory and the King is a sonne of your Church from whom he ought to take the meaning And if hee bee refractarie why may not the Assembly excommunicate him as Ambrose did Thâ—â—dosius And as I have said already from your Travers of your government Huic disciplinâ— omnes Principes c. There is a necessity that all Princes Monarchs should submit their Scepter and obey this Discipline It s your chief Commander in the Camproyall Thomas Cartwright being asked whether the King himself might be excommunicated answered That excommunication should not bee exercised upon Kings I utterly mislike and so do we also yea albeit they be not Heretickes themselves yet if they doe not punish such as their Pastors commands them they may be excommunicate Potest ac debet Pastor regibus jubere ut puniant Haereticos Bellar. contra Barklaiunâ— c nisi fecerint etiam cogere per excommunicationem The Pastor may and ought to command Kings to punish Hereticks if they do it not even to compell them with excommunication But especially si sit Haereticorum vel Schismaticorum fautor Aâ—or insâ— moral part 2. l. 10. cap. 9. receptor vel defensor if hee be a favourer receiver or defender of Hereticks and Schismaticks If your Bishops be such men is not this your Kings fault your fault is that you use but too much lenity in not ascending from the Myter to the Crown for this may stand very well with your Tenent and Ours though Protestant Divines disclaim it for your Buchanan teacheth you that not only it is lawfull to excommunicate Princes but that they should both depose him Buchan de â—ure reg apud Scot. pag. 70. and destroy him for hee sayes Ministers may excommunicate Princes and he being by excommunication cast into Hell is not worthy to enjoy any life upon earth But truly Knox Buchanan are more rigid then we are herein for howbeit we grant that it 's lawfull to excommunicate Kings yet wee hold it not necessary that upon excommunication either deposition or killing should follow Indeed by our common Tenent it will follow that excommunication is an antecedent to deprivation or killing but we do not hold that deprivation or killing of Princes is a necessary consequent or effect of excommunication For say we quando talis effectus adjungitur Suaâ—ez de censur disp 15. sect 6. non est effect us ipsius excommunicationis sed specialis poena simul cum excommunicatione imposita When such an effect is joyned to excommunication it s not the effect of it but a speciall punishment imposed with it But it s wonderfull to see the wide difference between this our Tenent and yours and that which Protestants hold for they make the power of the supreme Magistrate Architectonicke and subject unto it all power civill Ecclesiasticall So that as in civill affaires they use the counsell and help of Politicians and Jurisconsults for establishing of Lawes according to reason so in Ecclesiasticall businesse they use the help and advice of learned Divines for establishing religion according to Gods Word which ought never to depart from their hands And it s most boldly said by them in the words of Bishop Davenant Reges non it a astringuntur Episcoporum vel Theologorum suorum opinionibus Daven deter quast 19. quin si adversentur legi divina cujus oportet reges studiosissimos peritissimos esse teneantur ex officio regio veram religionem illis omnibus licet reclamantibus tueri subditis suis proponere Kings are not so tyed to the opinions of their Bishops and Theologues but if they bee contrary to the Law of God of the which Kings ought to be great studiers and very well skilled they are bound by their Kingly Office to defend the true religion and set it before their Subjects albeit all those Divines should cry out against it But those men are Court Parasites as your usuall word is or as Beeanus calls those that defend the Kings Supremacie regios adulatores King-flatterers And I admire that Tertullian being under Heathen Emperours should be guilty of those flatteries while hee sayes in a Court-like complement Reges in solius Deipotestate sunt Tersul ad Scap. Ã quo sunt secunds post quem primiâ—ante omnes super omnes deâ—s homines Kings are only in the power of God from whom they are second after whom they are first before all and above all
shall not be such enemies to it in time to come Moreover your pie fraudes have not a little advanced your courses for though the generall cause of all this uproare was pretended to be for defence of religion lawes and liberties yet to speake under the Râ—se it flowed from private causes and respects for not to speak of the contempt of Monarchy nor of private frettinâ— against Soveraignty by malecontents the course his Majesty was taking with the tythes to deliver the ministry and meaner sort of the Laitie from that which was counted bondage and slaverie made many fret to see themselves robbed of that clientely and dependance of the Clâ—rgie and Laitie and of that power command and superiority which by the tye of tythes they did enjoy Some had their private quarrels against the Bishops many could not abide to see them preferred to be on his Majesties ounsell c. And a great hatred was working against them for being the chiefe instruments that the Ministers maintenance was augmented and many of the Tythes restored backe againe which made many thinke that in the end all the tythes and Church-lands would returne to the ancient owner whereby many would be brought to a poore estate if the tythes were taken from them and some who have made Churches their habitation would not have a dwelling place at all and some others being ambitious of preferment both in Church and Policie were no small causes of all this uproare Now howbeit from those and such like other motives this disorder hath come yet it s well dissembled by you in taking this opportunity to work your private intended ends by making the multitude believe that all is for defence of Religion Lawes and liberties which otherwise would be destroyed His Holinesse our Pope did never laugh more heartily than when it was told him that you made the people believe that the book of Common Prayer was penned at Rome and sent to the King and that it was nothing but the masse turned into English and that the King was a Papist and intended to change the Religion That your Bishops were Pensioners to the Pope and that all who would not subscribe your covenant are Papists truly he commended your Policie to catch children with wiles and men with lies The aspersions you have cast upon King Bishops and Anticovenanters will make you noble It 's a good policie still to complaine of Court and State and to prie into great mens lives to picke out some fault and to make faults where we finde none still with Absalom saying The men who have good and right causes 2 Sam. 15.3.4 have no man to heare them Oh that I were made Iudge in the land that every man which hath any sâ—it or cause might come unto me and I would do him justice Thus the silly multitude will lightly apprehend that you are blamelesse who doe so narrowly trie and crie out against the faults of others whom howbeit you do not wound yet in the vulgar opinion you do greatly staine and blot them Finally we have both suffered much of our enemies for our practise against Kings and Princes in cutting them away that are enemies to the religion We need not be ashamed to confesse that the armour wherwith such kings are killed are forged in our shop you know that Hackes and Coppinger who wrote to Scotland to Iames Gibson that he with the advise of the brethren might tell their opinion concerning the spirit that moved them the act that they had in hand to be done for the delivery of T. Cart wright out of prison and killing of all their withstanders That which Ravillack did effectu was no more praise-worthy than that which they did affectu all those our works are not to be accounted points of treason but onely sensible expressions of our Heroicall Zeale to the defence of Religion which ought to be more deare to us than Kings or Princes father or mother brother or sister all those cords must be broke and bonds cast from us when we see them to set themselves to take counsell against the Lords Annointed Such men of courage who put their life in their hand and cut off such wicked men ought to be so farre from being counted traitors that they should be rewarded for doing it as your Buchanan sayes Knox in his history of Scotland commends the privie murdering of the Cardinall of S. Andrewes perpetrated by Norman Lesley sonne to the Earle of Rothsey and Iames Melvin cals it a godly fact and propones it as an example to be followed by the posterity In your Zions plea and other papers you speak excellently of that Heroicall fact of Felton your Martyr Du. Buck. and pathetically exhort the Nobles of the Land to follow his footsteps saying God hath chalked out the way unto you God having offered himself to guide you by the hand in giving this first blow will you not follow home the sprinkling of the blood of the wolf if we can fâ—llow the Lord in it may prove a meanes to save us The counsell of Hushai to Absalom forteth well with this businesse that all Israel should be gathered from Dan to Beersheba as the sand on the sea in number who may with the ropes of their Prayers joyned to the power of your hands draw the city of their Babel into the river of destruction untill there be not one small stone found You have most zealously embraced this profitable exhortation and albeit your intended work tooke but small successe yet let not this interruption bequench your zeale nor cause your heroicall spirits to saile but be forward in this cause and let all your words be spoken by Talents that authority may see that you do not scare it Let our example encourage you and your example encourage us It was to this purpose manfully said by one of you Payne epist to F. Our zeale to Gods glory our love to his Church and the due planting of the same in this horeheaded age should be so warm and stirring in us as not to care what adventure we giâ— and what censure Wee abide c. The Iesuites and Seminaries their diabolicall bolanesse he wrongs us in his epithet seing he followeâ— our way will cover our faces with shame It s true indeed so long as we are not able to resist and make out party good by strength of hand there is a necessity that we must suffer and like the poore man we must use entreaty for it s our wisdome to consider the times when we may be forward and when not Hence it was that in the dayes of Queene Elizabeth when your power was little that your answer was humble for when the State and Clergie of England charged your sort of men with faction sedition and schisme and iudged that if you were curbed betimes you would bring desolation on Church policie your answer was mild though it might seeme to your adversaries mixt with passion pride and
's easie to help that keepe those under who are not zealous in your cause let them not be acquainted with your mysteries nor be chosen Commissioners for assemblies if there be any matter of importance to be commended to the people send either conjunctly or severally some zealous ministers to their pulpits to rouze up the multitude and put the like edge upon such cold-rise ministers and if they become not more zealous put them in feare of Deprivation If you feare any division among the Commons it 's likely that some of them have seene the Kings extraordinary savour toward them but you ought to be carefull that they see not the Kings Proclamations and if any have seen them let them be perswaded that his Majesties Proclamations have this only end to divide them and then to destroy them and that all other faire promises shall have no reall performances Be not you behind the King in your promises to them also and howbeit you have a hundred thousand pound to take of them yet be not suddaine but by delaying put them in hope that you will never exact it For if you goe now to exact it it will make them repine and grumble and say instead of Salâ—mons easie yoke we are oppressed with Rehoboams heavie burdens and so make a rupture and returne every man to his tent and in the end submit themselves to their Salomon againe And especially let the ruling Elders command their ruled Elders or ministers to be diligent in season and out of season to keepe the multitude in their zealous humour for if they doe not uncessantly blow upon them they will be like mare mortuum and never be moved Cease not to possesse them with an evill opinion of all that oppones themselves to your courses either by word or writing make them believe that all that writ against your confederacie are unnaturall enemies to their Countrie and that it is not against your faction which they doe but against Church and Kingdome and suffer no man to deny this to be a Nationall quarrell or to call it a Faction and all that refuse to cast in their lot with you call them the cursed inhabitants of Meroz that will not help you against the mightie And let all that follow their King be called the Kings faction according to the example of your progenitors who called all that followed the Queen a faction which they would punish as Traitors whensoever God should put the sword of justice in their hands Knox. hist of the Church of Scotland pag. 364. that is when they should find themselves able to depose the Queen as they did and represse her Subjects There is another thing which I desire you to remember to try where those ministers that have beene most opposite to our doctrines and practises have had their residence in the ministerie that you may place able and zealous men for our cause in those same places to build up the people which they have destroyed This worke is well begun by you in bringing Henderson from the Countrie to the town of Edinburgh Dikson to Glasgow and Rhetorfort and Blair who could not get libertie to vent our Doctrine elsewhere to S. Andrews and in particular let them bee carefull over the studients in Colledges â—uo semel est imbuta recens servabit odorem testa diu And as for those who like the men of Succoth and the inhabitants of Meroz refused to joyne with you it s well that you did not take the th rnes of the wildernesse and bryers to teach them to beat downe their houses this may content them albeit you restore not their goods which you tooke while you plundered their houses Though they be busie seeking it yet you are not bound according to our rules Nullus tenetur cum vitae periâ—ulo Tolet. lb. 5. cap. 37. aut famae rem alterius restituere sunt enim vita fama nobili oris ordinis quam res No man is bound 01 with the danger of his life or good name to restore another man his goods againe for life and a good name are of a more noble order then goods are for albeit there be no danger of your life to restore every man his owne yet your name is not safe for if you restore to each man his goods againe at least it will be a tacite acknowledging of your robberie and that is hurt some to a good name But some say that it is a matter of conscience to restore a mans goods againe which is better then a good name yea the way to recover a good name but I refer this to the schooles I have some matter of expostulation with you but I will be loth to do it now who have begun to congratulate with you for that sweet Harmonie both in opinions and reasons which is of late grown up amongst us Rome was not builded in one day we must not look that at the first you can receive all our doctrine though in a short time you have profited much Et vos conversi convertite fratres Master Cant could preach at Glasgow in what need England and Ireland standeth of the Covenant where some have their eares cut for the defence of the truth and are groaning under the tyrannie of the whore of Babel And since so it is you should pitie the blindnesse of those people who have not a learned man in England or Ireland to lead them but the blind leadeth the blind But I perceive you are not negligent herein your Ironicall preterition is most notable while you say Answer to the Mâ—â—quesse of Hamiltons declaration We do not meddle with the Kirks of England or Ireland but recommend to them the patterne showne on the Mount But what patterne of the mount is this I pray you is it the Patterne showne by you on Dunce hill called by your preachers mount Sion with an armie against the face of your King if it be so it s a worthie patterne that requireth imitation But if the Patterne on the mount be the Patterne of your discipline you doe well herein to imitate your progenitors for they were desirous to have Episcopacie throwne downe in England as you are now or as wee are desirous for their pride is so great that the least of them sayes that they have no more dependance from the Pope then he from them that their calling and place is of as great power and authoritie as his is within his diocesse thus limitating the universall Bishop as if hee were onely a Diocesian Yea they are not ashamed to say that all the Popish bishops are but equivocally called Bishops and univocally are the Popes slaves for as they have their power and authority from the Pope so are they tyed to his obedience by oath Romans pentifici veram obedientiam spondeo acjuro Form Iuâ—â— Bulla Pii 4. I promise and sweare to give true obedience to the Pope of Rome So that as the Bishops of Apulia