A DECLARATION OF THE COMMISSIONERS For Visitation of UNIVERSITIES and for placing and displacing of MINISTERS in SCOTLAND Against Praying or Preaching for the pretended King of SCOTLAND With some REASONS Given by some of the MINISTERS of Edinburgh why they cannot in Conscience omit to pray for Him Together with an ANSVVER to the said REASONS Wherein the unwarrantablenesse of that practice is proved from the Word of GOD And the equity and necessity of the present proceedings of the COMMISSIONERS in order to the publick Peace is cleared and justified to the Consciences of rationall and peaceable men By a Friend to the Commonwealth Printed at Leith in the Year 1653. BY THE COMMISSIONERS For Visiting UNIVERSITIES in SCOTLAND and placing and displacing MINISTERS BY vertue of an Order to Us directed from the Right Honourable the Councell of State impowering Us to punish all such in the Ministery or Universities as shall be found reviling the present Government or shall endeavour to debauch or keep the People dis-affected by praying for the pretended King of Scots or his late Fathers Family or by praying or preaching for a Monarchicall Government by which they labour to weaken the just Interest of the Commonwealth of England in this Nation and to affix and fasten the Common-People in their late enmity and oppositions who are caused to erre by following such sowers of sedition all which being contrary to the aforesaid Order and also expressely forbidden by the Word of GOD which injoyns a peaceable subjection to Civill Powers and much more to those that the Lord hath now appointed over this Nation to the Justice of whose Cause his hand hath given a Divine and immediate Testimony in most memorable and many signal Consequences Wherein not onely not to see and acknowledge the finger of GOD But on the contrary maliciously to oppose the wayes of his Providence must needs argue a very high degree of Ignorance or wilfulnesse Therefore in conscience of our Duty to GOD as also in reference to a faithfull discharge of that Trust and Authority committed to Us and for preventing the great Inconveniences by such Enormous Practices in Ministers and others for the future We do by these presents Declare to all Persons whom these shall or may concern That whosoever shall be duely convicted to offend in any of the aforesaid Particulars after Publication of this Our Declaration shall be severely punished and proceeded against as an Enemy to and a Disturber of the Peace of the Commonwealth And to the intent that due notice may be given We do Order that these Presents be Printed and Publickly Proclaimed at the Mercat Cross at Edinburgh and also that Copies thereof be sent to the severall Sheriffs in the respective Counties and Shires in this Nation to be by their appointment Proclaimed in the Chief Mercat Towns or Burghs within their Jurisdictions and to be affixed on the Mercat Crosses or most Publick Places whereby full obedience may be given to the abovementioned Orders and none concerned may pretend ignorance At Edinburgh the second day of August 1653. SOME REASONS Why the Ministers of Christ in Scotland ought not to be troubled for praying for the KING And wherefore we cannot in Conscience omit that Duty HAving seriously pondered as in his sight whose servants we are the practise of this duty now prohibited We find that we may not omit publick Prayer for our King notwithstanding of the said Prohibition And least our practice be misconstrued as flowing from ignorance or wilfulnes We shall first offer to wipe away that aspersion of pertinacy and next shew the grounds which do fix us to this necessary duty As for the first Our witness is in heaven and our record on high that it is not out of any carnal design or stubborness of spirit that we continue performing this dâ—ty It were extream folly needlesly to provoke the Power under whose hand the Almighty hath put us If we durst advise with flesh and blood spare thy self would sound loud in our ears and quickly present Overtures of yeelding but the terrour of the Almighty and his Oatâ— lying on our consciences hold us on to this duty 2. We conceive that our peaceable and quiet deportment in our respective charges doth vindicate us from the imputation of stubborness and sedition in this our practice We have been no hinderance to people under our charge to hear the burthens in quietness that are laid upon them Neither have we anywise stirred them up to tumults and commotions 3. The way wherein we have formerly walked speaks herein for us unless constancy in conscientious principles be misconstructed and nicknamed Pertinacy 4. The point is also manifest to every one who will soberly be pleased to consider the Petition or Petitions which we present to God for him which usually are for a sanctified use of the sad afflictions that lie on him and preservation from snares his condition calling for this much at our hands Shall others in distress captivity and exile be remembred to God in our publick Prayers and this be accounted a commendable duty And ought it to be accounted Pertinacy not to cast out from the Prayers of Gods Church and People the distressed King compassed with so great difficulties 5. When we call to mind our publick Prayers for our late King in the midst of his hostility against us We marvel if any who profess respect to tender consciences will offer to put the Messengers of Christ to trouble for a duty bound on their consciences and so little hurtful to any Finally they who do or forbear doing out of pertinacy and stubborness of spirit can shew no just and weighty grounds of their acting or forbearance But we offer these ensuing grounds and warrants of conscience whereupon we walk in this practice First We look upon this performance as a duty not only enjoyned in the Word of God and established by the Law of the Land in the Directory for Worship confirmed by Acts of Parliament but also as bound upon our Consciences with our own consent both in the National and Solemn League and Covenant wherein He also hath entred with us and therein not only our own consciences but also the whole world are called on to witness with God to whom the Oath is made to our reallity sincerity and constancy in performing our duty Secondly This Obligation hath a new tie on our consciences to this individual Person by the Oath sworn by the Representative of the Land in our Names when the Civil Securities unto Religion and the Interests of Christ in his Ordinances were likewise confirmed unto us by his Oath aswel as by Law Thirdly As it is a great sin in any to countermand that which God hath commanded And to give order that a precept which God hath appointed to oblige us alwaies though not to all times shall never oblige And that we shall never give obedience thereto So when such a command is given out it is then
casus confessionis Then to adhere to the Authority of Divine Precepts is a necessary testimony to the truth and doth oblige them more than ever unless we would obey men rather than God Fourthly Ministers of the Gospel are the Ambassadors and Servants of Jesus Christ from whom they have their Commission which may not be lâ—mited nor altered by any power on earth For if in one duty earthly powers can alter or limit they may aswel do it in moe And if they may prohibit a duty they may also command that which is no duty and so render us the servants of men in matters of God An ANSWER to a PAPER Intituled Some REASONS why the Ministers of Christ in Scotland ought not to be troubled for praying for the King and wherefore we cannot in conscience omit that duty THat Concession in the beginning of your Paper That the Almighty hath put you under the hand of another Power is remarkable But how well this acknowledgment doth accord with that practice of adhering to the Power which the same Almighty hand hath removed is not apparent The Question is not Whether you may pray concerning him either for or against him in a Christian way as that GOD would shew mercy to his Soul and give him pardon of sin and repentance under that stupendious guilt of innocent blood which lyes both upon him and upon his Fathers house and that in the judgment of your very selves and that GOD would humble him under those dreadfull appearances of God against him in rejecting him from reigning over his people But whether you may pray for him as King of Scotland and put up those favourable requests on his behalf which tend to preserve a precious and religious remembrance and observance of Him in the Peoples minds This is the manifest scope and sense of the Declaration which he that runs may read Now for this you say We shall first offer to wipe away that aspersion of pertinacy and next shew the grounds which do fix us to this necessary duty For answer whereto we shal first remove the grounds whereby you labour to prove that this is your duty and then leave you to wipe off that aspersion of pertinacy if any lay it on you as well as you can For if the course be warrantable to persist therein is constancy but if it be not warrantable it must needs be called by some other name Now for the grounds and warrants of Conscience whereupon you walk in this practice you offer four whereof indeed only the two first are arguments to prove the conclusion that you ought to pray for the man whom you call King but the two last seem rather to be inferences from it if they be any thing The two first are these which we joyn together because the same answer fits them both 1. We look upon this performance as a duty not onely injoyned in the Word of GOD and established by the Law of the Land in the Directory for Worship confirmed by Acts of Parliament but also as bound upon our own consciences with our own consent both in the Nationall and Solemn League and Covenant wherein he also hath entred with us and therein not onely our own consciences but also the whole world are called on to witnesse with GOD to whom the Oath is made to our reality sincerity and constancy in performing our duty 2. This obligation hath a new tie on our consciences to this individual person by the oath sworn by the representative of the land in our name when the civil securities unto Religion and the Interests of Christ in his Ordinances were confirmed to us by his Oath as well as by Law To these in four words 1. Whereas you alledge the Word of God we are most intirely willing to submit this whole Controversie to the alone determination thereof judging it most unmeet that things of mans making should stand cheek by jowl with the Word of God But because you point us to no place thereof we wil point you to one or two wherein that word commandeth subjection to and prayers for the powers that are in being Rom. 13 1. Let every soul be subject to the higher powers for there is no power but of God 1. Tim. 2. 2. Let prayers be made for Kings and for all that are in authority Wherein he seems directly to obviate prevent any scruple that might arise about the justnesse of their Titie by pointing them so plainly to the actuall existence of powers For they all knew that the power which then ruled the world was set up by a world of blood and Nero the present Emperour as wicked a Tyrant as ever lived but yet to submit to him and to pray for him being under his power was not in the Apostles judgement any justification of the unwarrantable acquisition of his power And the Jewes are commanded to pray for the peace of Babylon when they were in the hand of the Babylonians Jer. 29 7. But you are in the hand and under the power of the Parliament and therefore you ought to pray for them for in their peace you shall have peace But he whom you call King is not King He never exercised any kingly power on this side the water and now he exerciseth none in the other part of Scotland therefore he is not King If it be said that by the Word of God he ought to be King let it be shewed where the Word of God hath intayled the Kingdom of England or Scotland upon the Family of the Stuarts 2. For the Law of the Land and Acts of Parliament for him we wonder you should speak of these having been long since annulled by the Authority of the Commonwealth And how an Act of any authority can bind and be in force when there is no authority that wil maintain it is to us a riddle Your Countreyman Mr. Knox who was as zealous against Tyrants as you are for them and did help the Grandmothers head to the same block upon which the late King lost his He tels Queen Elizabeth that she had no warrant of conscience to rule the Nation of England neither from her birth nor from any consuetude Laws and Ordinances of men and that if she stood upon that the Almighty would cut her off but from the providence of GOD calling her to that place of power who ruleth in the Kingdoms of the Earth and giveth them to whomsoever he will 3. For your Oaths and Covenants to him or to his fathers house for there is the same reason of both they were either absolute that he should be King whether GOD would continue him or no or else conditionall that you would submit to him unlesse and untill the over-ruling wisdom of God should pul him down and set up another power in his place If they were conditionall the obligation is void because the providence of God hath actually dispossessed him But if they were absolute what warrant is there in the
Word of God for such Covenants Can you promise that any man shall have power whether God will or no All your Oaths and Covenants were conditionall For such Covenants for the maintaining of any power upon earth wherein there is no condition neither exprest nor understood concerning giving way to the all-disposing power and providence of God are no better then confederacies against God and therefore horrible snares and not to be defended but repented of lest you be found fighters against and resisters of the mighty Hand of God Suppose a quarrell arise between me and my neighbor which of us shal be master and he saith and swears that I shall never be his master and I say that he shall never be mine If hereupon we fight till that I have laid him fâ—at upon his back and bound him hand and foot if now when my sword is upon his brest and his life is at my mercy if I shall ask him whether he will yeeld now and he shall refuse is it not an unparaleld piece of pride and stubborness But suppose he shal say that his conscience is so tender that he cannot yeeld to me because of his oath will not every one say that his oath binds no longer but whilst he was in a capacity to resist but by my prevailing over him the obligation ceaseth For now God puts him under me so determins the case on my side Therefore though you have made a Covenant and bound it with an oath for your King and against the Commonwealth yet now God hath cut that knot in pieces by putting you in another capacity from what you were then And you may remember what solemn appeals were made to Heaven both by you and us when we came first amongst you for our most just and necessary defence wherein the Lord hath been pleased to give a gracious and favourable testimony to the sincerity of the desires of his poor servants and will you not rest in his arbitriment to whom you have so often referred the cause to whose determination both you and we did with joynt consent refer it And the Lord that righteous Judge hath been pleased to judge between us Though much may be argued against the works of God when considered singly and alone yet when the works of God are superadded testimonies to the truths revealed in his Word and when they are answers of the prayers and appeals of all his people on both sides and favourable smiles upon the actings of some of them following him in untroden paths of difficulty and danger the same dispensations being also distinguishing rebukes and frowns upon others under these and the like circumstances they will argue very much And though it is hard for man and it may be too hard for us to manage this argument to the compleat conviction of opposers and gainsayers and to improve it to the utmost in all the conclusions which it will reach unto yet to those who observe the Name of God in his works are not byassed with the guilt of former actings to this or that interest it will reach to conclude the present question and abundantly praeponderate to the purposes and resolutions of men if laid in the ballance with them 4. Whereas you are pleased to mention The securities which the King gave you for the Interest of Christ and Religion It will be hard to demonstrate to any rationall understanding how there could be any reall safety to Religion in receiving him to reigne with his former principles and with his unchanged heart amongst you The World took notice in your treaties with him at the Hague here too how litle trust you had in him and how you held him off at first but how you could afterwards unless a mouthful or two of Court air wil make wise men mad dispense with your consciences to soder with him when you saw no reall change of heart and self-abhorrence in him for his former wicked ways how the emitting of a feigned forced Declaration upon minatory importunities could be just incouragement for the admitting of a blood-thirsty and blood-guilty man for so in that Declaration you have made him to confesse to reign over you you will find a time to consider all these things Your 3. ground is this As it is a great sin to countermand that which God hath commanded and to give order that a precept of God shall not oblige so when such a command is given out it is then casus confessionis then to adhere to the authority of divine precepts is a necessary restimony to the truth But if ever these words afford a Ground and Warrant of conscience to walk in that practice of praying for the King your assumption which you seem to understand and beg must be proved viz. That God hath given you such a command to pray for him which the Declaration countermands but till then this Proposition will not reach the Conclusion aimed at If you be Confessors what truth of Christ do you suffer for name it Is it not this that Charles Stuart ought to be King and will you indeed stop your own mouths from preaching the blessed Gospel of Christ rather then be silent about that mans interest Wil you not preach Christ unless you may preach up Charles Stuart also Now the Lord lay not this sin to your charge You wil suffer upon the lowest and most uncomfortable account that ever men did For you suffer clearly upon the Royall interest not for the testimony of JESUS not for any truth of Religion but as witnesses to the Kings Interest Your 4. ground is this That Ministers of the Gospel receive their Commission from Jesus Christ which earthly powers cannot alter nor limit For if in one duty then in more and if they may prohibite a duty they may command that which is no duty And here still you take it for granted That it is a duty to pray for that Titular King but you should have proved that when you were made Ministers Christ did put this into your Commission and then you had said somthing Surely a Popish exemption of the Clergy from under the arm of the secular power is not that which you drive at For then you would never have alledged Statutes and Acts of Parliament as oblieging you in conscience to the King But this is certain that that which formerly was or which now is a duty may cease to be a duty not through any humane prohibition but through a providentiall alteration of the state of things The woman saith the Apostle is bound by the Law to her husband so long as he liveth but if her husband be dead she is freed from that Law Rom. 7. 2 3. And therfore your selves also upon this account of the revolutions of providence do find a present freedom of conscience to desist from some former actings to which you thought your selves formerly obliged by the Covenant And this may suffice for the removall of the grounds and