they were by this Protestation so far from having drawn people into their Combination that in truth all Men conceived that they were even engaged by it against their main Design by promising to defend the true Reformed Protestant Religion expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England c. And thereupon some persons of that Faction prevailed that after the Members of the Houses had taken it a Declaration was set forth by the House of Commons That by those words The Doctrine of the Church of England was intended only so far as it was opposite to Popery and Popish Innovations and that the words were not to be extended to the maintainance of the Discipline and Government c. And so under this Explication and Declaration published only by the House of Commons and never assented to by the House of Peers this Protestation was directed to be generally taken throughout England And to that purpose a Bill is drawn passed the House of Commons and sent up to the Lords who at the second reading finding many particulars in it unfit to be so severely imposed upon the Subject absolutely rejected it Upon this ensued a new and unheard-of distemper in the House of Commons as if it had been great presumption in the House of Peers to refuse any Bill sent from them and thereupon a Vote passed in the House of Commons That that House did conceive that the Protestation made by them is fit to be taken by every person that is well-affected in Religion and to the good of the Commonwealth and therefore doth declare That what person soever shall not take the Protestation is unfit to bear Office in the Church or Commonwealth and ordered That the Knights Citizens and Burgesses should send down to the several places for which they serve Copies of that Vote of the House concerning the Protestation and that those Votes should be printed Let all Men judge whether before that time from the beginning of Parliaments the House of Commons had ever presumed to trench so far upon Our Priviledge to make a Declaration so like Law without Us or upon the Priviledge of the Lords to make and publish such a Declaration after they had rejected the Bill and some of them refused to take the Protestation or upon the Liberty of the Subject so far to impose any such thing upon them without consent of Parliament Yet of this We took no notice but pressed still the disbanding of the Armies and interposed and quickned them in nothing else which was again with all earnestness desired by the Scots at Newcastle and pressed by their Commissioners at London But a new Fright was found to startle the People and to bring Us into Hatred or Jealousie with them the general Rumors of Treasons and Conspiracies began to lose credit with all Men who began to consider what they felt more than what others feared and therefore they had now found out a Treason indeed even ready to be put in execution upon the whole Kingdom the Representative body thereof a Plot to bring up the whole Army out of the Northern parts to London A strange Plot indeed which considering the constitution of that time no Man can believe Us guilty of and though they made great use of it to the filling the minds of Our People with fears and apprehensions they seemed not then to charge Us with any knowledge of or privity to it What they have done since all the world knows notwithstanding Our many Protestations in that point And We cannot but say that by those Examinations of Colonel Goring Sir Jacob Ashly and Sir John Conyers and Master Piercy's Letter which is all the Evidence We have seen and by which they seem principally to be guided We cannot satisfie Our own private Conscience that there was ever a resolution of bringing up the Army to London and upon the strictest examination We can make of that business We can find it to be no other than this Observation being made of the great Tumults about Westminster which seemed to threaten the safety of the Members of both Houses at least of those who were known not to agree with the designs of that Faction We have before spoken of and the manner of delivering Petitions by multitudes of people attested or pretended to be so by the hands of many thousands against the known Laws and established Government of the Kingdom which yet seemed to receive some countenance and to carry some Authority as instances of the Affections of so many persons it fell into the thoughts of some Officers of the Army of known and publick Affections to their Country That a Petition of a modest and dutiful nature from the whole Army for the composing and settling all Grievances in the Church and State by Law might for the reason of it prevail with the whole House and coming from such a Body might confirm those who might be shaken with any fears of Power or Force by the Tumults and with this Proposition We being made acquainted gave Our full approbation to it taking great care that no Circumstances in the framing it or delivering it might be any blemish to the matter of it This We call God to witness as We have done before was all We gave Our Consent unto or which We believe was ever intended to be put in practice What attempts other men made to seduce the Affections of the Army from Us is known to many If in the managery of this debate any rash discourses happened of bringing up the Army it is evident whether they were proposed in earnest or no they were never entertained and the whole matter laid aside above two months before any discovery so that that Danger was never prevented by the Power or Wisdom of Parliament And for the Petition it self which hath been so often pressed against Us as a special Argument of Our privity to the bringing up the Army after We have so fully and particularly answered every particular circumstance of that Petition signed with C. R. We have herewith published a true Copy of that Petition that all Our good Subjects may see how justly We have been traduced and judge when Petitions of all natures were so frequently and so willingly received whether such a Petition might not with modesty and duty enough have been presented unto them And if in truth that design of bringing up the Army had been then believed when it was first pretended to be discovered which was about the middle of May they would surely have thought it necessary to have disbanded that Army sooner than August which no pressing of Ours nor of Our Scots Subjects could perswade them to do And We are sure Our Innocence in that matter would soon have appeared if the large time to bring this business to a judicial tryal had been made use of if contrary to all Custom it had not been thought fit to publish Depositions before the parties concerned had been heard to make their Defence or
not given full and satisfactory Answers concerning Religion the Militia and Ireland you cannot for the Reasons above mentioned expect an addition of time neither have we received any Instructions to continue this Treaty longer than the twenty days of which this is the last And as for your Lordships Safe-Conduct we conceive the Three Sundays last past being not accounted any days of the Treaty so this next Sunday is not to be esteemed one of the two days allowed after the Treaty in your Lordships Safe-Conduct but your Lordships are to have two days besides this next Lords day The King's Commissioners Reply 22. February WE cannot express the great sadness of our hearts that all our earnest endeavours to give your Lordships satisfaction in all particulars of this Treaty have produced no better effects towards a blessed Peace which his Majesty and we who are trusted by him do so heartily pray for and that so many and great Offers made by us to your Lordships in the particulars we have Treated upon should not be thought a good progress on our part in the said Treaty as we find by your Lordships last Paper to our great grief they are not and therefore that this must be the last day of the Treaty We desire your Lordships to consider that we being intrusted by his Majesty to Treat with your Lordships for a safe and well grounded Peace have upon the matter of your Lordships Propositions consented to so many particulars and alterations of very great importance and that your Lordships who were to Treat with us have not abated one tittle of the most severe and rigorous of your Propositions saving what you were pleased the last Night to propose in the point of Time concerning the Militia which though it seems to be limited to seven years in truth leaves it as unlimited as it was before in your-Propositions for at the end of seven years it must not be exercised otherwise than shall be settled by his Majesty and the two Houses of Parliament so that all the Legal Power now in his Majesty is taken away and not restored after the seven years expired Neither is there a full consent to that limitation offered by your Lordships the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland Nor have your Lordships offered to us any prospect towards Peace other than by submitting totally to those Propositions the which if we should do we should consent to such Alterations as by Constructions and Consequences may dissolve the whole frame of the present Government both Ecclesiastical and Civil in this Kingdom And though the particulars proposed by your Lordships have by Debate appeared not only evidently unreasonable but literally considered to comprehend things to be extended to Powers not intended by your selves yet your Lordships have not been pleased either to restrain or interpret any particular in any other manner than as is set forth in the said Propositions In the matter of Religion we have offered all such Alterations as we conceive may give satisfaction to any Objections that have been or can be made against that Government and have given your Lordships Reasons not onely why we cannot consent to your Lordships Propositions but that even those Propositions if consented to could not be in order to a Reformation or to the procuring the publick Peace And we must desire your Lordships to remember that though you do not onely in your Covenant which you require may be taken by his Majesty and enjoyned to be taken by all his Subjects undertake the Reformation in point of Government but even in point of Doctrine too thereby laying an imputation upon the Religion it self so long professed in this Kingdom with the general approbation of all Reformed Churches yet your Lordship have not given us the least Argument nor so much as intimated in your Debate the least Prejudice to the Doctrine of the Church of England against which we presume you cannot make any colourable Objection nor have you given us the view in particular of the Government you desire should be submitted to in the place of that you propose to be abolished and therefore we propose to your Lordships if the Alterations proposed by us do not give your Lordships satisfaction that so great an Alteration as the total Abolition of a Government established by Law may for the Importance of it and any Reformation in Doctrine for the Scandal of it be suspended till after the Disbanding of all Armies his Majesty may be present with the Two Houses of Parliament and calling a National Synod may receive such Advice both from the one and the other as in a matter of so high concernment is necessary and we are most confident that his Majesty will then follow the Advice which shall be given him And as any Reformation thus regularly and calmly made must needs prove for the singular Benefit and Honour of the Kingdom so we must appeal to your Lordships whether the contrary that is an Alteration even to things though in themselves good can by the Principles of Christian Religion be enforced upon the King or Kingdom In the business of the Militia though your Lordships do not deny that the Jealousies and apprehensions of Danger are mutual and that the chief end of depositing the Militia in the hands of certain Persons is for security against those Jealousies and possible Dangers yet your Lordships insist That all those Persons to be entrusted shall be nominated by the Two Houses of Parliament in England and the Estates of the Parliament in Scotland and that the time for that great general and unheard-of Trust shall be in such manner that though it seem to be limited to seven years yet in truth by declaring that after those seven years it shall not be otherwise exercised than His Majesty and the Two Houses of Parliament shall agree His Majesty may thereby be totally and for ever devested of the power of the Sword without which He can neither defend Himself against Foreign Invasions nor Domestick Insurrections nor execute His Kingly Office in the behalf of His Subjects to whom He is sworn to give protection And to both these your Lordships add the introducing a Neighbour-Nation governed by distinct and different Laws though united under one Sovereign to a great share in the Government of this Kingdom In stead of consenting to these Changes we have offered and proposed to your Lordships That the Persons to be trusted with the Militia of the Kingdom may be nominated between us or if that were refused that an equal number shall be named by you and the other number by his Majesty and that half the Forts and places of Strength within the Kingdom shall be in the Custody of those whom you think fit to be trusted therewith and the other half in such hands as his Majesty pleases to commit the same to and all persons as well those nominated by your Lordships as by his Majesty to take an Oath for the due discharge
their known Rule and wonted Practice to comply with the Humours of those men who aim to subdue all to their own Will and Power under the disguises of Holy Combinations Which cords and withes will hold mens Consciences no longer than Force attends and twists them For every man soon grows his own Pope and easily absolves himself of those ties which not the commands of God's Word or the Laws of the Land but only the subtilty and terror of a Party casts upon him either superfluous and vain when they were sufficiently tied before or fraudulent and injurious if by such after-ligaments they find the Imposers really aiming to dissolve or suspend their former just and necessary Obligations Indeed such Illegal ways seldom or never intend the engaging men more to Duties but only to Parties therefore it is not regarded how they keep their Covenants in point of Piety pretended provided they adhere firmly to the Party and Design intended I see the Imposers of it are content to make their Covenant like Manna not that it came from Heaven as this did agreeable to every mans palate and relish who will but swallow it They admit any mens senses of it tho divers or contrary with any Salvo's Cautions and Reservations so as they cross not their chief Design which is laid against the Church and Me. It is enough if they get but the reputation of a seeming encrease to their Party So little do men remember that God is not mocked In such latitudes of sense I believe many that love Me and the Church well may have taken the Covenant who yet are not so fondly and superstitiously taken by it as now to act clearly against both all Piety and Loyalty who first yielded to it more to prevent that imminent Violence and Ruine which hung over their heads in case they wholy refused it than for any value of it or devotion to it Wherein the latitude of some general clauses may perhaps serve somewhat to relieve them as of Doing and endeavouring what lawfully they may in their Places and Callings and according to the Word of God For these indeed carry no man beyond those bounds of good Conscience which are certain and fixed either in Gods Laws as to the general or the Laws of the State and Kingdom as to the particular regulation and exercise of mens duties I would to God such as glory most in the name of Covenanters would keep themselves within those lawful bounds to which God hath called them surely it were the best way to expiate the rashness of taking it which must needs then appear when besides the want of a full and lawful Authority at first to enjoyn it it shall actually be carried on beyond and against those Ends which were in it specified and pretended I willingly forgive such mens taking the Covenant who keep it within such bounds of Piety Law and Loyalty as can never hurt either the Church My self or the Publick Peace against which no mans lawful Calling can engage him As for that Reformation of the Church which the Covenant pretends I cannot think it just or comely that by the partial Advice of a few Divines of so soft and servile tempers as disposed them to so sudden acting and compliance contrary to their former Judgments Profession and Practice such foul Scandals and Suspicions should be cast upon the Doctrine and Government of the Church of England as was never done that I have heard by any that deserved the name of Reformed Churches abroad nor by any men of Learning and Candor at home all whose Judgments I cannot but prefer before any mens now factiously engaged No man can be more forward than My self to carry on all due Reformations with mature Judgment and a good Conscience in what things I shall after impartial advice be by God's Word and right Reason convinced to be amiss I have offered more than ever the fullest freest and wisest Parliaments did desire But the sequel of some mens Actions makes it evident that the main Reformation intended is The abasing of Episcopacy into Presbytery and the robbing the Church of its Lands and Revenues For no men have been more injuriously used as to their legal Rights than the Bishops and Church-men These as the fattest Deer must be destroyed the other Rascal-herd of Schisms Heresies c. being lean may enjoy the benefit of a Toleration Thus Naboth's Vineyard made him the only Blasphemer of his City and fit to dye Still I see while the breath of Religion fills the Sails Profit is the Compass by which Factious men steer their course in all seditious Commotions I thank God as no man lay more open to the Sacrilegious temptations of usurping the Churches Lands and Revenues which issuing chiefly from the Crown are held of it and legally can revert only to the Crown with My Consent so I have always had such a perfect abhorrence of it in my Soul that I never found the least inclination to such Sacrilegious Reformings yet no man hath a greater desire to have Bishops and all Church-men so reformed that they may best deserve and use not only what the pious Munificence of My Predecessors hath given to God and the Church but all other additions of Christian Bounty But no necessity shall ever I hope drive Me or Mine to invade or sell the Priests Lands which both Pharaoh's divinity and Joseph's true Piety abhorred to do So unjust I think it both in the eye of Reason and Religion to deprive the most Sacred Employment of all due encouragements and like that other hard-hearted Pharaoh to withdraw the Straw and encrease the Task so pursuing the oppressed Church as some have done to the Red sea of a Civil War where nothing but a Miracle can save either It or Him who esteems it his greatest Title to be called and his chiefest glory to be The Desender of the Church both in its true Faith and its just Fruitions equally abhorring Sacriledg and Apostasy I had rather live as My Predecessor Henry the Third sometime did on the Churches Alms than violently to take the bread out of Bishops and Ministers mouths The next work will be Jeroboam's Reformation consecrating the meanest of the People to be Priests in Israel to serve those Golden Calves who have enriched themselves with the Churches Patrimony and Dowry which how it thrived both with Prince Priests and People is well enough known And so it will be here when from the tuition of Kings and Queens which have been nursing Fathers and Mothers of this Church it shall be at their allowance who have already discovered what hard Fathers and Stepmothers they will be If the Poverty of Scotland might yet the Plenty of England cannot excuse the Envy and Rapine of the Churches Rights and Revenues I cannot so much as pray God to prevent those sad Consequences which will inevitably follow the Parity and Poverty of Ministers both in Church and State since I think it no less
my reproach and my dishonour my Adversaries are all before Thee My Soul is among Lions among them that are set on fire even the sons of men whose teeth are spears and arrows their tongue a sharp sword Mine Enemies reproach Me all the day long and those that are mad against Me are sworn together O my God how long shall the sons of men turn my glory into shame how long shall they love vanity and seek after lies Thou hast heard the reproaches of wicked men on every side Hold not thy peace lest my Enemies prevail against Me and lay mine honour in the dust Thou O Lord shalt destroy them that speak lies the Lord will abhor both the Blood-thirsty and Deceitful men Make my Righteousness to appear as the light and mine Innocency to shine forth as the Sun at noon-day Suffer not my silence to betray mine Innocency nor my displeasure my Patience That after my Saviours example being reviled I may not revile again and being cursed by them I may bless them Thou that wouldst not suffer Shimei's tongue to go unpunished when by thy Judgments on David he might seem to justifie his disdainful reproaches give Me grace to intercede with thy Mercy for these my Enemies that the reward of false and lying tongues even hot burning coals of eternal fire may not be brought upon them Let my Prayers and Patience be as water to cool and quench their tongues who are already set on fire with the fire of Hell and tormented with those malicious flames Let Me be happy to refute and put to silence their evil-speaking by well-doing and let them enjoy not the fruit of their lips but of my Prayer for their Repentance and thy Pardon Teach Me David's Patience and Hezekiah's Devotion that I may look to thy Mercy through mans Malice and see thy Justice in their Sin Let Sheba's Seditious speeches Rabshekah's Railing and Shimei's Cursing provoke as my humble Prayer to Thee so thy renewed Blessing toward Me. Though they curse do Thou bless and I shall be blessed and made a Blessing to my People That the stone which some builders refuse may become the head-stone of the corner Look down from Heaven and save Me from the reproach of them that would swallow Me up Hide Me in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man and keep Me from the strife of tongues XVI Vpon the Ordinance against the Common-Prayer-Book IT is no news to have all Innovations ushered in with the name of Reformations in Church and State by those who seeking to gain reputation with the Vulgar for their extraordinary Parts and Piety must needs undo whatever was formerly setled never so well and wisely So hardly can the Pride of those that study Novelties allow former times any share or degree of Wisdom or Godliness And because matter of Prayer and Devotion to God justly bears a great part in Religion being the Souls more immediate converse with the Divine Majesty nothing could be more plausible to the People than to tell them they served God amiss in that point Hence our publick Liturgy or Forms of constant Prayers must be not amended in what upon free and publick advice might seem to sober men inconvenient for matter or manner to which I should easily consent but wholly cashiered and abolished and after many Popular contempts offered to the Book and those that used it according to their Consciences and the Laws in force it must be crucified by an Ordinance the better to please either those men who gloried in their extemporary vein and fluency or others who conscious to their own formality in the use of it thought they fully expiated their sin of not using it aright by laying all the blame upon it and a total rejecting of it as a dead letter thereby to excuse the deadness of their hearts As for the matter contained in the Book sober and Learned men have sufficiently vindicated it against the Cavils and exceptions of those who thought it a part of Piety to make what profane objections they could against it especially for Popery and Superstition whereas no doubt the Liturgy was exactly conformed to the Doctrine of the Church of England and this by all Reformed Churches is confessed to be most sound and Orthodox For the manner of using Set and Prescribed Forms there is no doubt but that wholesom words being known and fitted to mens Understandings are soonest received into their Hearts and aptest to excite and carry along with them judicious and fervent Affections Nor do I see any reason why Christians should be weary of a well-composed Liturgy as I hold this to be more than of all other things wherein the constancy abates nothing of the Excellency and Usefulness I could never see any Reason why any Christian should abhor or be forbidden to use the same Forms of Prayer since he prays to the same God believes in the same Saviour professeth the same Truths reads the same Scriptures hath the same Duties upon him and feels the same daily wants for the most part both inward and outward which are common to the whole Church Sure we may as well beforehand know what we pray as to whom we pray and in what words as to what sense when we desire the same things what hinders we may not use the same Words our appetite and digestion too may be good when we use as we pray for our daily bread Some men I hear are so impatient not to use in all their Devotions their own invention and gifts that they not only disuse as too many but wholly cast away and contemn the Lords Prayer whose great guilt is that it is the warrant and original Pattern of all set Liturgies in the Christian Church I ever thought that the proud ostentation of mens abilities for invention and the vain affectations of variety for expressions in Publick Prayer or any sacred administrations merits a greater brand of sin than that which they call Coldness and Barrenness Nor are men in those Novelties less subject to formal and superficial tempers as to their hearts than in the use of constant Forms where not the words but mens hearts are to blame I make no doubt but a man may be very Formal in the most extemporary variety and very fervently Devout in the most wonted expressions nor is God more a God of variety than of constancy nor are constant Forms of Prayers more likely to flat and hinder the Spirit of Prayer and Devotion than unpremeditated and confused variety to distract and lose it Tho I am not against a grave modest discreet and humble use of Ministers gifts even in publick the better to fit and excite their own and the Peoples affections to the present occasions yet I know no necessity why private and single abilities should quite justle out and deprive the Church of the joynt abilities and concurrent gifts of many Learned and Godly men such as the Composers of the Service-Book were who
as well as say it else you say little But that the conforming of the Church Discipline to the Civil Policy should be a depraving of it I absolutely deny for I aver that without it the Church can neither flourish nor be happy And for your last instance you shall do well to shew the prohibition of our Saviour against addition of more Officers in the Church than he named and yet in one sense I do not conceive that the Church of England hath added any for an Archbishop is only a distinction for Order of Government not a new Officer and so of the rest and of this kind I believe there are divers now in Scotland which you will not condemn as the Moderators of Assemblies and others 4. Where you find a Bishop and Presbyter in Scripture to be one and the same which I deny to be alwaies so it is in the Apostles time now I think to prove the Order of Bishops succeeded that of the Apostles and that the name was chiefly altered in reverence to those who were immediately chosen by our Saviour albeit in their time they caused divers to be called so as Barnabas and others so that I believe this Argument makes little for you As for your proof of the antiquity of Presbyterian Government it is well that the Assembly of Divines at Westminster can do more than Eusebius could and I shall believe when I see it for your former Paper affirms that those times were very dark for matter of fact and will be so still for Me if there be no clearer Arguments to prove it than those you mention for because there were divers Congregations in Jerusalem Ergo what are there not divers Parishes in one Diocess your two first I answer but as one Argument and because the Apostles met with those of the inferiour Orders for Acts of Government what then even so in these times do the Deans and Chapters and many times those of the inferiour Clergy assist the Bishops But I hope you will not pretend to say that there was an equality between the Apostles and other Presbyters which not being doth in My judgment quite invalidate these Arguments And if you can say no more for the Churches of Corinth Ephesus Thessalonica c. than you have for Jerusalem it will gain no ground on Me. As for Saint Jerome it is well known that he was no great Friend to Bishops as being none himself yet take him altogether and you will find that he makes a clear distinction between a Bishop and a Presbyter as your self confesses but the truth is he was angry with those who maintained Deacons to be equal to Presbyters 5. I am well satisfied with the explanation of your meaning concerning the word Fallacy though I think to have had reason for saying what I did but by your favour I do not conceive that you have answered the strength of my Argument for when you and I differ upon the interpretation of Scripture and I appeal to the practice of the Primitive Church and the universal consent of the Fathers to be Judge between us Methinks you should either find a fitter or submit to what I offer neither of which to My understanding you have yet done nor have you shewn how waving those Judges I appeal unto the mischief of the interpretation by private Spirits can be prevented Indeed if I cannot prove by Antiquity that Ordination and Jurisdiction belong to Bishops thereby clearly distinguishing them from other Presbyters I shall then begin to misdoubt many of my former Foundations as for Bishop Davenant he is none of those to whom I have appealed or will submit unto But for the exception you take to Fathers I take it to be a begging of the Question as likewise those great discoveries of secrets not known to former Ages I shall call new-invented fancies until particularly you shall prove the contrary and for your Roman Authors it is no great wonder for them to seek shifts whereby to maintain Novelties as well as the Puritans As for Church-ambition it doth not at all terminate in seeking to be Pope for I take it to be no point of humility to indeavour to be independent of Kings it being possible that Papacy in a multitude may be as dangerous as in one 6. As I am no Judge over the Reformed Churches so neither do I censure them for many things may be avowable upon necessity which otherwayes are unlawful but know once for all that I esteem nothing the better because it is done by such a particular Church though it were by the Church of England which I avow most to reverence but I esteem that Church most which comes nearest to the purity of the Primitive Doctrine and Discipline as I believe this doth Now concerning Ordination I bad you prove that Presbyters without a Bishop might lawfully ordain which yet I conceive you have not done for 2 Tim. 1. 6. it is evident that Saint Paul was at Timothie's ordination and albeit that all the Seventy had their power immediately from Christ yet it is as evident that our Saviour made a clear distinction between the twelve Apostles and the rest of the Disciples which is set down by three of the Evangelists whereof Saint Mark calls it an Ordination Mark 3. 15. and Saint Luke sayes And of them he chose Twelve c. Luk. 6. 13. only Saint Matthew doth but barely enumerate them by their name of distinction Mat. 10. 1. I suppose out of modesty himself being one and the other two being none are more particular For the Administration of Baptism giving but not granting what you say it makes more for Me than you but I will not engage upon new Questions not necessary for My purpose 7. For my Oath you do well not to enter upon those Questions you mention and you had done as well to have omitted your instance but out of discretion I desire you to collect your Answer out of the last Section and for your Argument though the intention of my Oath be for the good of the Church collective therefore can I be dispensed withal by others than the representative Body certainly no more than the People can dispense with Me for any Oaths I took in their favours without the two Houses of Parliament As for future Reformations I will only tell you that incommodum non solvit Argumentum 8. For the King my Father's opinion if it were not to spend time as I believe needlesly I could prove by living and written testimonies all and more than I have said of Him for His perswasion in these points which I now maintain and for your defensive War as I do acknowledge it a great sin for any King to oppress the Church so I hold it absolutely unlawful for Subjects upon any pretence whatsoever to make War though defensive against their lawful Sovereign against which no less proofs will make Me yield but God's Word and let Me tell you that upon such points
unto the Kingdom of England by the Kingdom of Scotland upon the first Monthly allowance which shall grow due to the Scotish Army from the time they shall make their first entrance into the Kingdom of England 7. That the Kingdom of Scotland to manifest their willingness to their utmost ability to be helpful to their Brethren of England in this common Cause will give the Publick Faith of the Kingdom of Scotland to be joyntly made use of with the Publick Faith of the Kingdom of England for the present taking up of Two hundred thousand Pounds sterling in the Kingdom of England or elsewhere for the speedy procuring of the said Hundred thousand Pounds sterling as aforesaid as also a considerable sum for the satisfying in good proportion the Arrears of the Scotish Army in Ireland 8. That no Cessation nor any Pacification or Agreement for Peace whatsoever shall be made by either Kingdom or the Armies of either Kingdom without the mutual Advice and Consent of both Kingdoms or their Committees in that behalf appointed who are to have full Power for the same in case the Houses of the Parliament of England or the Parliament or Convention of Estates of Scotland shall not sit 9. That the Publick Faith of the Kingdom of Scotland shall be given to their Brethren of England that neither their entrance into nor their continuance in the Kingdom of England shall be made use of to any other ends then are expressed in the Covenant and in the Articles of this Treaty and that all matters of difference that shall happen to arise between the Subjects of the two Nations shall be resolved and determined by the mutual Advice and Consent of both Kingdoms or by such Committees as for this purpose shall be by them appointed with the same Power as in the precedent Article 10. That in the same manner and upon the same conditions as the Kingdom of Scotland is now willing to aid and assist their Brethren of England the Kingdom of England doth oblige themselves to aid and assist the Kingdom of Scotland in the same or like cases of streights and extremities 11. Lastly it is agreed and concluded that during the time that the Scotish Army shall be imployed as aforesaid for the defence of the Kingdom of England there shall be fitted out as Men of War eight Ships whereof six shall be of Burthen betwixt One hundred and Twenty and two hundred Tun the other between three and four hundred Tun whereof two shall be in lieu of the two Ships appointed by the Irish Treaty all which shall be maintained at the charge of the Kingdom of England to be imployed for the defence of the Coast of Scotland under such Commanders as the Earl of Warwick for the time of his being Admiral shall nominate with the approbation of the Committees of both Kingdoms which Commanders shall receive from the said Earl general Instructions that they do from time to time observe the Directions of the Committees of both Kingdoms The Ordinance for calling the Assembly of Divines An Ordinance of the Lords and Commons in Parliament for the calling of an Assembly of Learned and Godly Divines and others to be consulted with by the Parliament for the settling of the Government and Liturgy of the Church of England and for vindicating and clearing of the Doctrine of the said Church from false Aspersions and Interpretations WHereas amongst the infinite Blessings of Almighty God upon this Nation none is or can be more dear unto us than the purity of our Religion and for that as yet many things remain in the Liturgy Discipline and Government of the Church which do necessarily require a further and more perfect Reformation than as yet hath been attained and whereas it hath been declared and resolved by the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament that the present Church-government by Arch-bishops Bishops their Chancellours Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-deacons and other Ecclesiastical Officers depending upon the Hierarchy is evil and justly offensive and burthensom to the Kingdom a great impediment to Reformation and growth of Religion and very prejudicial to the State and Government of this Kingdom and that therefore they are resolved that the same shall be taken away and that such a Government shall be settled in the Church as may be most agreeable to Gods Holy Word and most apt to procure and preserve the Peace of the Church at home and nearer agreement with the Church of Scotland and other reformed Churches abroad and for the better effecting hereof and for the vindicating and clearing of the Doctrine of the Church of England from all false Calumnies and Aspersions it is thought fit and necessary to call an Assembly of Learned Godly and Judicious Divines who together with some Members of both the Houses of Parliament are to consult and advise of such matters and things touching the Premisses as shall be proposed unto them by both or either of the Houses of Parliament and to give their Advice and Counsel therein to both or either of the said Houses when and as often as they shall be thereunto required Be it therefore ordained by the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled That all and every the Persons hereafter in this present Ordinance named that is to say Algernon Earl of Northumberland William Earl of Bedford Philip Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery William Earl of Salisbury Henry Earl of Holland Edward Earl of Manchester William Lord Viscount Say and Seal Edward Lord Viscount Conway Philip Lord VVharton Edward Lord Howard of Escr John Selden Esquire Francis Rous Esquire Edmund Prideaux Esquire Sir Henry Vane Knight senior John Glyn Esquire Recorder of London John VVhite Esquire Bulstrode VVhitelock Esquire Humphry Salway Esquire Mr. Serjeant VVild Oliver Saint-John Esquire His Majesties Sollicitor Sir Benjamin Rudyard Knight John Pym Esquire Sir John Clotworthy Knight John Maynard Esquire Sir Henry Vane Knight junior VVilliam Pierrepont Esquire William VVheeler Esquire Sir Thomas Barrington Knight VValter Young Esquire Sir John Evelin Knight Herbert Palmer of Ashwel Batchelor in Divinity Oliver Bowles of Sutton Batchelor in Divinity Henry VVilkinson of VVaddesdon Batchelor in Divinity Thomas Valentine of Chalfont-Giles Batchelor in Divinity Doctor VVilliam Twisse of Newbury VVilliam Raynor of Egham Master Hannibal Gammon of Maugan Mr. Jasper Hicks of Lawrick D. Joshua Hoyle late of Dublin in Ireland VVilliam Bridges of Yarmouth Thomas VVincop of Ellesworth Doctor in Divinity Thomas Goodwin of London Batchelor in Divinity John Ley of Budworth in Cheshire Thomas Case of London John Pyne of Bereferrers Master VVhidden of Mooreton D. Richard Love of Ekington D. VVilliam Gouge of Blackfriers London D. Ralph Brownrigge Bishop of Exceter D. Samuel Ward Master of Sidney Colledge John White of Dorchester Edward Peal of Compton Stephen Marshall of Finchingfield Batchelor in Divinity Obadiah Sedgewick of Cogshall Batchelor in Divinity M. Carter Peter Clark of Carnaby William Mew of Estington Batchelor in Divinity
Richard Capel of Pitchcomb Theophilus Bathurst of Overton Watervile Philip Nye of Kimbolton D. Brocket Smith of Barkway D. Cornelius Burges of VVatford John Green of Pencomb Stanley Gower of Brampton-Bryan Francis Taylor of Yalding Tho. VVilson of Otham Antho. Tuckney of Boston Batchelor in Divinity Thomas Coleman of Bliton Charles-Herle of VVinwick Richard Herrick of Manchester Richard Cleyton of Showel George Gibbs of Ayleston D. Calibut Downing of Hackney Jeremy Boroughs of Stepney Edmund Calamy Batchelor in Divinity George VValker Batchelor in Divinity Joseph Caryll of Lincolns-Inn Lazarus Seaman of London D. John Harris Warden of VVinchester-Colledge George Morley of Milden-hall Edward Reynolds of Branston Thomas Hill of Tichmarsh Batchelor in Divinity D. Robert Saunderson of Boothby-Pannell John Foxcroft of Gotham John Jackson of Marsk VVilliam Carter of London Thomas Thoroughgood of Massingham John Arrowsmith of Lynne Robert Harris of Hanwel Batchelor in Divinity Robert Cross of Lincoln-Colledge Batchelor in Divinity James Archbishop of Armagh D. Matthias Styles of Saint George Eastcheap London Samuel Gibson of Burley Jeremiah VVhitaker of Stretton D. Edmund Stanton of Kingston D. Daniel Featly of Lambeth Francis Coke of Yoxhal John Lightfoot of Ashley Edward Corbet of Merton Colledge Oxon Samuel Hildersham of Felton John Langley of VVestuderley Christopher Tisdale of Vphusborn Thomas Young of Stow-market John Phillips of VVrentham Humphrey Chambers of Claverton Batchelor in Divinity John Conant of Lymington Batchelor in Divinity Henry Hall of Norwich Batchelor in Divinity Henry Hutton Henry Scuddir of Colingborne Thomas Baylie of Manningford-Bruce Benjamin Pickering of East-Hoateley Henry Nye of Clapham Arthur Sallaway of Seavernestoake Sydrach Simpson of London Anthony Burgess of Sutton-Coldfield Richard Vines of Calcot VVilliam Greenhill of Stepney VVilliam Moreton of Newcastle Richard Buckley D. Thomas Temple of Battersey Simeon Ashe of Saint Brides M. Nicholson Thomas Gataker of Rotherhithe Batchelor in Divinity James VVeldy of Sylatten D. Christopher Pashley of Hawarden Henry Tozer Batchelor in Divinity VVilliam Spurstow of Hampden in Com. Bucks Francis Cheynel of Oxon Edward Ellis of Gilsfield Batchelor in Divinity D. John Hacket of Saint Andrews Holborne Samuel de la Place John de la March Matthew Newcomen of Dedham William Lyford of Sherborn in Com. Dorset M. Carter of Dynton in Com. Bucks William Lance of Harrow in Middlesex Thomas Hodges of Kensington in Com. Middlesex Andreas Porne of VVilby in Com. Northampton D. Thomas VVestfield of St. Bartholomew le great London Bishop of Bristol D. Henry Hammond of Penshurst in Kent Nicholas Prophet of Marlborough in Com. VVilts Peter Sterry of London John Erle of Bishopston in Com. Wilts M. Gibbon of Waltham Henry Painter of Exceter Batchelor in Divinity M. Michelthwaite of Cherry-burton D. John Wincop of St. Martins in the Fields M. Price of Paul's Church in Covent-Garden Henry Wilkinson junior Batchelor in Divinity D. Richard Holdsworth Master of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge M. William Duning of Coldaston and such other Person and Persons as shall be nominated and appointed by both Houses of Parliament or so many of them as shall not be letted by sickness or other necessary impediment shall meet and assemble and are hereby required and enjoyned upon summons signed by the Clerks of both Houses of Parliament left at their several respective dwellings to meet and assemble themselves at Westminster in the Chappel called King Henry the Seventh's Chappel on the first day of July in the year of our Lord One thousand six hundred forty three and after the first meetting being at least of the number of forty shall from time to time sit and be removed from place to place and also that the said Assembly shall be dissolved in such manner as by both Houses of Parliament shall be directed and the said Persons or so many of them as shall be so assembled or sit shall have Power and Authority and are hereby likewise enjoyned from time to time during this present Parliament or until further order be taken by both the said Houses to confer and treat amongst themselves of such matters and things touching and concerning the Liturgy Discipline and Government of the Church of England or the vindicating and clearing of the Doctrine of the same from all false Aspersions and Misconstructions as shall be proposed unto them by both or either of the said Houses of Parliament and no other and to deliver their Opinions and Advices of or touching the matters aforesaid as shall be most agreeable to the Word of God to both or either of the said Houses from time to time in such manner and sort as by both or either of the said Houses of Parliament shall be required and the same not to divulge by Printing writing or otherwise without the consent of both or either House of Parliament And be it further Ordained by the Authority aforesaid that William Twisse Doctor in Divinity shall sit in the Chair as Prolocutor of the said Assembly and if he happen to die or be letted by sickness or other necessary impediment then such other Person to be appointed in his place as shall be agreed on by both the said Houses of Parliament And in case any difference of Opinion shall happen among the said Persons so assembled touching any the matters that shall be proposed to them as aforesaid that then they shall represent the same together with the Reasons thereof to both or either of the said Houses respectively to the end such further direction may be given therein as shall be requisite in that behalf And be it further Ordained by the Authority aforesaid that for the charges and expences of the said Divines and every of them in attending the said service there shall be allowed unto every of them that shall so attend during the time of their said attendance and for ten days before and ten days after the sum of four Shillings for every day at the charges of the Commonwealth at such time and in such manner as by both Houses of Parliament shall be appointed And be it further Ordained that all and every the said Divines so as aforesaid required and enjoyned to meet and assemble shall be freed and acquitted of and from every offence forfeiture penalty loss or damage which shall or may arise or grow by reason of any non-residence or absence of them or any of them from his or their or any of their Church Churches or Cures for or in respect of their said attendance upon the said Service any Law or Statute of Non-residence or other Law or Statute enjoyning their attendance upon their respective Ministers or Charges to the contrary thereof notwithstanding And if any of the Persons before named shall happen to dye before the said Assembly shall be dissolved by Order of both Houses of Parliament then such other Person or Persons shall be nominated and placed in the room and stead of such Person and Persons so dying as by both the said Houses shall be thought fit and
agreed upon and every such Person or Persons so to be named shall have the like Power and Authority Freedom and acquital to all intents and purposes and also all such Wages and Allowances for the said service during the time of his or their Attendance as to any other of the said Persons in this Ordinance is by this Ordinance limited and appointed Provided always that this Ordinance or any thing therein contained shall not give unto the Persons aforesaid or any of them nor shall they in this Assembly assume to exercise any Jurisdiction Power or Authority Ecclesiastical whatsoever or any other Power than is herein particularly expressed The Votes or Orders delivered with it Die Mercurii 5. Julii 1643. ORdered by the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled That it shall be propounded to the Assembly to morrow at their meeting to take into their Consideration the Ten first Articles of the 39. Articles of the Church of England to free and vindicate the Doctrine of them from all Aspersions and false Interpretations Jovis 6. Julii 1643. Some general Rules for the Assembly directed by the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled 1. THat two Assessors be joyned to the Prolocutor to supply his place in case of Absence or Infirmity 2. Two Scribes to be appointed to set down all Proceedings and these to be Divines who are not Members of the Assembly viz. Mr. Henry Robrough and Mr. Adoniram Bifield 3. Every Member at his first entrance into the Assembly shall make a serious and solemn Protestation not to maintain any thing but what he believes to be Truth and to embrace Truth in sincerity when discovered to him 4. No Resolution to be given upon any Question on the same day wherein it is first Propounded 5. What any Man undertakes to prove as necessary he shall make good out of the Scriptures 6. No Man to proceed in any dispute after the Prolocutor hath enjoyned him silence unless the Assembly desire he may go on 7. No Man to be denied to enter his Dissent from the Assembly and his Reasons for it in any point after it hath first been debated in the Assembly and thence if the dissenting Party desire it to be sent to the Houses of Parliament by the Assembly not by any particular Man or Men in a private way when either House shall require it 8. All things agreed on and prepared for the Parliament to be openly read and allowed in the Assembly and then offered as the Judgement of the Assembly if the major part assent Provided that the Opinion of any Persons dissenting and the Reasons urged for it be annexed thereunto if the Dissenters require it together with the Solution if any were given in the Assembly to those Reasons Jovis 6. Julii 1643. I A. B. do seriously and solemnly in the presence of Almighty God that in this Assembly whereof I am a Member I will not maintain any thing in matters of Doctrine but what I think in my Conscience to be Truth or in point of Discipline but what I shall conceive to conduce most to the Glory of God and the good and Peace of his Church Veneris 15. Sept. 1643. ORdered by the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled That it be referred to the Assembly of Divines to set forth a Declaration of the Reasons and Grounds that have induced the Assembly to give their Opinions that this Covenant may be taken in point of Conscience Eodem Die ORdered by the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled That it be referred to the Committee formerly appointed to Treat with the Scotch Commissioners to Treat with them about the manner of taking the Covenant in both Kingdoms Mercurii 22. August 1643. ORdered by the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled That it be propounded to the Assembly of Divines to consider of the Doctrine of the Nine next Articles of the 39 Articles of the Church of England to clear and vindicate the same from all Aspersions and false Interpretations The Articles of the sixth of August 1642. Articles of the Treaty concerning the Reducing of the Kingdom of Ireland to the Obedience of the Kings Majesty and Crown of England agreed upon between the Commissioners for Scotland authorized by his Majesty and the Parliament of that Kingdom and the Commissioners for England authorized by his Majesty and the Parliament of that Kingdom at Westminster the sixth day of August 1642. FIrst The Scotish Commissioners out of the sense of that Duty which the Kingdom of Scotland owes to His Majesty and the true Affection they bear towards the Kingdom of England being willing to contribute their best assistance for the speedy relief of those distressed parts in Ireland which lye nearest the Kingdom of Scotland have in the name of that Kingdom made offer of ten thousand Men to be imployed in that Service and for a further Testimony of their Zeal to His Majesties Service and Brotherly respect to the Kingdom of England have declared that the Kingdom of Scotland will upon their own Charge levy and transport these Men. Secondly Because the Kingdom of Scotland are to send over with their Army the number of Six thousand Muskets and Four thousand Pikes with such Cannon and Ammunition as shall be fitting for the service it is agreed that Four thousand Muskets and Two thousand Pikes shall be presently sent by the Kingdom of England into the Kingdom of Scotland and delivered at Leith as also that the residue of the said Ten thousand Arms and Ten thousand Swords and Belts shall be delivered there at the first of August next and that as many Cannon and Field-Pieces of the same Bore Weight and Metal shall be carried into Scotland upon their demand as they shall transport into Ireland for the service of that Kingdom and that the said whole Arms and Ammunition shall remain in Scotland until the return of the Scotish Army from Ireland at which time the same shall be restored to the Kingdom of England the Kingdom of Scotland receiving satisfaction for such of their Arms and Ammunition as shall be spent or lost in the service of Ireland As also that there shall be presently sent over from England and delivered to the Scotish Army in Ireland for the defence of the Province of Vlster six pieces of Demy-Cannon of the Ball of four and twenty pound weight with their Equipage Thirdly it is agreed That there shall be two Ships of War presently sent by the Kingdom of England to Lochryan Lamalach Port-Patrick or Air to guard and waft over the Scotish Soldiers and that the said Ships shall attend at the Ports in Ireland for serving the Scotish Army in going and returning betwixt the Coasts and keeping the Passages clear as they shall receive Orders from the chief Commanders of the Scotish Army for the time being according to Instructions received or to be received by the Master of these Ships from the Lord Admiral or Commissioners of the Admiralty for the time
motives to Repentance and earnest desires to make some reparations for their former defects As Your quality sets you beyond any Duel with any Subject so the Nobleness of Your Mind must raise You above the meditating any Revenge or executing Your Anger upon the many The more conscious You shall be to Your own Merits upon Your People the more prone You will be to expect all Love and Loyalty from them and to inflict no Punishment upon them for former Miscarriages You will have more inward complacency in Pardoning one than in Punishing a thousand This I write to You not despairing of God's Mercy and My Subjects affections towards You both which I hope You will study to deserve yet we cannot merit of God but by his own Mercy If God shall see fit to restore Me and You after Me to those enjoyments which the Laws have assigned to Us and no Subjects without an high degree of Guilt and Sin can divest Us of then may I have better opportunity when I shall be so happy to see You in Peace to let You more fully understand the things that belong to God's Glory Your own Honour and the Kingdoms Peace But if You never see My face again and God will have Me buried in such a barbarous Imprisonment and Obscurity which the perfecting some mens Designs requires wherein few hearts that love Me are permitted to exchange a word or a look with Me I do require and entreat You as Your Father and Your KING that You never suffer Your Heart to receive the least check against or disaffection from the true Religion established in the Church of England I tell You I have tried it and after much search and many Disputes have concluded it to be the best in the world not only in the Community as Christian but also in the special notion as Reformed keeping the middle way between the pomp of Superstitious Tyranny and the meanness of Fantastick Anarchy Not but that the draught being excellent as to the main both for Doctrine and Government in the Church of England some lines as in very good Figures may haply need some sweetning or polishing which might here have easily been done by a safe and gentle hand if some mens Precipitancy had not violently demanded such rude Alterations as would have quite destroyed all the Beauty and Proportions of the whole The scandal of the late Troubles which some may object and urge to You against the Protestant Religion established in England is easily answered to them or Your own thoughts in this That scarce any one who hath been a Beginner or an active Prosecutor of this late War against the Church the Laws and Me either was or is a true Lover Embracer or Practiser of the Protestant Religion established in England which neither gives such Rules nor ever before set such Examples 'T is true some heretofore had the boldness to present threatning Petitions to their Princes and Parliaments which others of the same Faction but of worse Spirits have now put in execution But let not counterfeit and disorderly Zeal abate your value and esteem of true Piety both of them are to be known by their fruits The sweetness of the Vine and Fig-tree is not to be despised tho the Brambles and Thorns should pretend to bear Figs and Grapes thereby to rule over the Trees Nor would I have you to entertain any aversation or dislike of Parliaments which in their right constitution with Freedom and Honour will never injure or diminish your Greatness but will rather be as interchangings of Love Loyalty and Confidence between a Prince and his People Nor would the events of this Black Parliament have been other than such however much biassed by Factions in the Elections if it had been preserved from the Insolencies of Popular dictates and Tumultuary impressions The sad effects of which will no doubt make all Parliaments after this more cautious to preserve that Freedom and Honour which belongs to such Assemblies when once they have fully shaken off this yoke of Vulgar encroachment since the Publick Interest consists in the mutual and common good both of Prince and People Nothing can be more happy for all than in fair grave and honourable ways to contribute their Counsels in common enacting all things by publick consent without Tyranny or Tumults We must not starve our selves because some men have surfeited of wholsom food And if neither I nor You be ever restored to Our Rights but God in his severest Justice will punish My Subjects with continuance in their Sin and suffer them to be deluded with the prosperity of their Wickedness I hope God will give Me and You that Grace which will teach and enable Us to want as well as to wear a Crown which is not worth taking up or enjoying upon sordid dishonourable and irreligious terms Keep You to true Principles of Piety Virtue and Honour You shall never want a Kingdom A Principal point of Your Honour will consist in Your conferring all Respect Love and Protection on Your Mother My Wife who hath many ways deserved well of Me and chiefly in this that having been a means to bless Me with so many hopeful Children all which with their Mother I recommend to your Love and Care She hath been content with incomparable Magnanimity and Patience to suffer both for and with Me and You. My Prayer to God Almighty is whatever becomes of Me who am I thank God wrapt up and fortified in My own Innocency and his Grace that he would be pleased to make You an Anchor or Harbour rather to these tossed and weather-beaten Kingdoms a Repairer by Your Wisdom Justice Piety and Valour of what the Folly and Wickedness of some men have so far ruined as to leave nothing intire in Church or State to the Crown the Nobility the Clergy or the Commons either as to Laws Liberties Estates Order Honour Conscience or Lives When they have destroyed Me for I know not how far God may permit the Malice and Cruelty of My Enemies to proceed and such apprehensions some mens words and actions have already given Me as I doubt not but My Blood will cry aloud for Vengeance to Heaven so I beseech God not to pour out his Wrath upon the generality of the People who have either deserted Me or engaged against Me through the Artifice and hypocrifie of their Leaders whose inward Horror will be their first Tormentor nor will they escape exemplary Judgments For those that loved Me I pray God they may have no miss of Me when I am gone so much I wish and hope that all good Subjects may be satisfied with the Blessings of Your Presence and Virtues For those that repent of any defects in their Duty toward Me as I freely forgive them in the word of a Christian King so I believe You will find them truly zealous to repay with interest that Loyalty and Love to You which was due to Me. In sum what Good I
my humble Opinion would be that they should draw the Minds Tongues and Pens of the Learned to dispute about other matter than the Power or Prerogative of Kings and Princes and in this kind Your Majesty hath suffered and lost more than will easily be restored to Your self or Your Posterity for a long time It is not denied but the prime Reforming power is in Kings and Princes quibus deficientibus it comes to the inferior Magistrate quibus deficientibus it descendeth to the Body of the People supposing that there is a necessity of Reformation and that by no means it can be obtained of their Superiors It is true that such a Reformation is more imperfect in respect of the Instruments and manner of Procedure yet for the most part more pure and perfect in relation to the effect and product And for this end did I cite the Examples of old of Reformation by Regal Authority of which none was perfect in the second way of perfection except that of Josiah Concerning the saying of Grosthed whom the Cardinals at Rome confest to be a more Godly man than any of themselves it was his Complaint and Prediction of what was likely to ensue not his desire or election if Reformation could have been obtained in the ordinary way I might bring two unpartial Witnesses Juel and Bilson both famous English Bishops to prove that the Tumults and Troubles raised in Scotland at the time of Reformation were to be imputed to the Papists opposing of the Reformation both of Doctrine and Discipline as an Heretical Innovation and not to be ascribed to the Nobility or People who under God were the Instruments of it intending and seeking nothing but the purging out of Errour and setling of the Truth 2. Concerning the Reformation of the Church of England I conceive whether it was begun or not in K. Henry the Eighth's time it was not finished by Q. Elizabeth the Father stirred the Humors of the diseased Church but neither the Son nor the Daughter although we have great reason to bless God for both did purge them out perfectly This Perfection is yet reserved for Your Majesty Where it is said that all this time I bring no Reasons for a further Change the fourth Section of my last Paper hath many hints of Reasons against Episcopal Government with an offer of more or clearing of those which Your Majesty hath not thought fit to take notice of And Learned men have observed many Defects in that Reformation As That the Government of the Church of England for about this is the Question now is not builded upon the foundation of Christ and the Apostles which they at least cannot deny who profess Church-Government to be mutable and ambulatory and such were the greater part of Archbishops and Bishops in England contenting themselves with the Constitutions of the Church and the authority and munificence of Princes till of late that some few have pleaded it to be Jure Divino That the English Reformation hath not perfectly purged out the Roman Leaven which is one of the reasons that have given ground to the comparing of this Church to the Church of Laodicea as being neither hot nor cold neither Popish nor Reformed but of a lukewarm temper betwixt the two That it hath depraved the Discipline of the Church by conforming of it to the Civil Policy That it hath added many Church-Offices higher and lower unto those instituted by the Son of God which is as unlawful as to take away Offices warranted by the Divine Institution and other the like which have moved some to apply this saying to the Church of England Multi ad perfectionem pervenirent nisi jam se pervenisse crederent 4. In my Answer to the first of Your Majesty 's many Arguments I brought a Breviate of some Reasons to prove that a Bishop and Presbyter are one and the same in Scripture from which by necessary Consequence I did infer the negative Therefore no difference in Scripture between a Bishop and a Presbyter the one name signifying Industriam Curiae Pastoralis the other Sapientiae Maturitatem saith Beda And whereas Your Majesty averrs the Presbyterian Government was never practised before Calvin's time Your Majesty knows the common Objection of the Papists against the Reformed Churches Where was your Church your Reformation your Doctrine before Luther's time One part of the common Answer is that it was from the beginning and is to be found in Scripture The same I affirm of Presbyterian Government And for the proving of this the Assembly of Divines at Westminster have made manifest that the Primitive Christian Church at Jerusalem was governed by a Presbytery while they shew 1. That the Church of Jerusalem consisted of more Congregations than one from the multitude of Believers from the many Apostles and other Preachers in that Church and from the diversity of Languages among the Believers 2. That all these Congregations were under one Presbyterial Government because they were for Government one Church Acts 11. 22 26. and because that Church was governed by Elders Acts 11. 30. which were Elders of that Church and did meet together for acts of Government And the Apostles themselves in that meeting Acts 15. acted not as Apostles but as Elders stating the Question debating it in the ordinary way of disputation and having by search of Scripture found the will of God they conclude It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and us which in the judgment of the learned may be spoken by any Assembly upon like evidence of Scripture The like Presbyterian Government had place in the Churches of Corinth Ephesus Thessalonica c. in the times of the Apostles and after them for many years when one of the Presbytery was made Episcopus Praeses even then Communi Presbyterorum Consilio Ecclesiae gubernabantur saith Jerome and Episcopos magis consuetudine quam Dispositionis Divinae veritate Presbyteris esse majores in commune debere Ecclesiam regere 5. Far be it from me to think such a thought as that Your Majesty did intend any Fallacy in Your other main Argument from Antiquity As we are to distinguish between Intentio operantis and Conditio operis so may we in this case consider the difference between Intentio Argumentantis and Conditio Argumenti And where Your Majesty argues That if Your opinion be not admitted we will be forced to give place to the Interpretation of private spirits which is contrary to the Doctrine of the Apostle Peter and will prove to be of dangerous consequence I humbly offer to be considered by Your Majesty what some of chief note among the Papists themselves have taught us That the Interpretation of Scriptures and the Spirits whence they proceed may be called private in a threefold sense 1. Ratione Personae if the Interpreter be of a private condition 2. Ratione Modi Medii when Persons although not private use not the publick means which are necessary for finding out the
no question but there are always some flattering fools that can commend nothing but with hyperbolick expressions and you know that supposito quolibet sequitur quidlibet besides do you think that albeit some ignorant Fellows should attribute more power to Presbyters than is really due unto them that thereby their Just reverence and Authority is diminished So I see no reason why I may not safely maintain that the Interpretation of Fathers is a most excellent strengthning to My Opinion though others should attribute the Cause and Reason of their Faith unto it 2. As there is no question but that Scripture is far the best Interpreter of it self so I see nothing in this negatively proved to exclude any other notwithstanding your positive affirmation 3. Nor in the next for I hope you will not be the first to condemn your self Me and innumerable others who yet unblameably have not tied themselves to this Rule 4. If this you only intend to prove that Errours were always breeding in the Church I shall not deny it yet that makes little as I conceive to your purpose But if your meaning be to accuse the Universal practice of the Church with Errour I must say it is a very bold undertaking and if you cannot justifie your self by clear places in Scripture much to be blamed wherein you must not alledge that to be universally received which was not as I dare say that the Controversie about Free-will was never yet decided by Oecumenical or General Council nor must you presume to call that an Errour which really the Catholick Church maintained as in Rites of Baptism Forms of Prayer Observation of Feasts Fasts c. except you can prove it so by the Word of God and it is not enough to say that such a thing was not warranted by the Apostles but you must prove by their Doctrine that such a thing was unlawful or else the Practice of the Church is warrant enough for Me to follow and obey that Custom whatsoever it be and think it good and I shall believe that the Apostles Creed was made by them such Reverence I bear to the Churches Tradition untill other Authors be certainly found out 5. I was taught that de posse ad esse was no good Argument and indeed to Me it is incredible that any custom of the Catholick Church was erroneous which was not contradicted by Orthodox learned Men in the times of their first Practice as is easily perceived that all those Defections were some of them may be justly called Rebellions which you mention 6. I deny it is impossible though I confess it difficult to come to the knowledge of the Universal Consent and Practice of the Primitive Church therefore I confess a man ought to be careful how to believe things of this nature wherefore I conceive this to be only an Argument for Caution My conclusion is that albeit I never esteemed any Authority equal to the Scriptures yet I do think the Unanimous Consent of the Fathers and the Universal Practice of the Primitive Church to be the best and most Authentical Interpreters of God's Word and consequently the fittest Judges between Me and you when we differ until you shall find Me better For example I think you for the present the best Preacher in Newcastle yet I believe you may err and possibly a better Preacher may come but till then I must retain my Opinion Newcastle July 16. 1646. C. R. His MAJESTY's Quaere concerning Easter propounded to the Parliaments Commissioners at Holdenby April 23. 1647. I desire to be resolved of this Question Why the new Reformers discharge the keeping of Easter The Reason for this Quaere is I Conceive the Celebration of this Feast was instituted by the same Authority which changed the Jewish Sabbath into the Lord's Day or Sunday for it will not be found in Scripture where Saturday is discharged to be kept or turned into the Sunday wherefore it must be the Churches Authority that changed the one and instituted the other Therefore My Opinion is that those who will not keep this Feast may as well return to the observation of Saturday and refuse the weekly Sunday When any body can shew Me that herein I am in an errour I shall not be ashamed to confess and amend it till when you know my mind C. R. His MAJESTY's First Paper concerning Episcopacy At the Treaty at NEWPORT October 2. 1648. CHARLES R. I Conceive that Episcopal Government is most consonant to the Word of God and of an Apostolical institution as it appears by the Scripture to have been practised by the Apostles themselves and by them committed and derived to particular persons as their Substitutes or Successors therein as for ordaining Presbyters and Deacons giving Rules concerning Christian Discipline and exercising Censures over Presbyters and others and hath ever since to these last times been exercised by Bishops in all the Churches of Christ and therefore I cannot in Conscience consent to abolish the said Government Notwithstanding this my perswasion I shall be glad to be informed if our Saviour and the Apostles did so leave the Church at liberty as they might totally alter or change the Church-Government at their pleasure Which if you can make appear to Me then I will confess that one of my great Scruples is clean taken away And then there only remains That being by my Coronation-Oath obliged to maintain Episcopal Government as I found it setled to my hands Whether I may consent to the abolishing thereof until the same shall be evidenced to Me to be contrary to the Word of God Newport October 2. 1648. PRAYERS Used by His MAJESTY in the time of His Troubles and Restraint I. A Prayer used by His MAJESTY at His entrance in state into the Cathedral Church of Excester after the defeat of the Earl of Essex in Cornwal O Most glorious Lord God Father Son and Holy Ghost I here humbly adore thy most Sacred Majesty and I bless and magnifie thy Name for that Thou hast been pleased so often and so strangely to deliver Me from the strivings of my People Father forgive them who have thus risen up against Me and do Thou yet turn their hearts both unto Thee and to Me that I being firmly established in the Throne Thou hast placed Me in I may defend Thy Church committed to My care and keep all this Thine and My People in Truth and Peace through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen II. A Prayer drawn by His MAJESTY's special direction and dictates for a Blessing on the Treaty at Uxbridge O Most merciful Father Lord God of Peace and Truth we a People sorely afflicted by the scourge of an unnatural War do here earnestly beseech Thee to command a Blessing from Heaven upon this present Treaty begun for the establishment of an happy Peace Soften the most obdurate hearts with a true Christian desire of saving those mens blood for whom Christ himself
the eleventh of this month by which they will have understood the reasons which enforced Him to go from thence as likewise His constant endeavours for the setling of a safe and well-grounded Peace wheresoever He should be And being now in a place where He conceives Himself to be at much more Freedom and Security than formerly He thinks it necessary not only for making good of His Own professions but also for the speedy procuring of a Peace in these languishing and distressed Kingdoms at this time to offer such grounds to His two Houses for that effect which upon due examination of all Interests may best conduce thereunto And because Religion is the best and chiefest foundation of Peace His Majesty will begin with that particular That for the abolishing Archbishops Bishops c. His Majesty clearly professeth that He cannot give His Consent thereunto both in relation as He is a Christian and a King For the first He avows that He is satisfied in His Judgment that this Order was placed in the Church by the Apostles themselves and ever since their time hath continued in all Christian Churches throughout the world until this last Century of years and in this Church in all times of Change and Reformation it hath been upheld by the wisdom of His Ancestors as the great preserver of Doctrine Discipline and Order in the service of God As a King at His Coronation He hath not only taken a solemn Oath to maintain this Order but His Majesty and His Predecessours in their confirmations of the Great Charter have inseparably woven the Right of the Church into the Liberties of the rest of the Subjects And yet He is willing it be provided that the particular Bishops perform the several duties of their Callings both by their personal Residence and frequent Preachings in their Dioceses as also that they exercise no Act of Jurisdiction or Ordination without the consent of their Presbyters and will consent that their powers in all things be so limited that they be not grievous to tender Consciences Wherefore since His Majesty is willing to give ease to the Consciences of others He sees no reason why He alone and those of His Judgment should be pressed to a violation of theirs Nor can His Majesty consent to the alienation of Church-Lands because it cannot be denied to be a sin of the highest Sacrilege as also that it subverts the intentions of so many pious Donors who have laid a heavy Curse upon all such profane violations which His Majesty is very unwilling to undergo And besides the matter of Conscience His Majesty believes it to be a prejudice to the publick good many of His Subjects having the benefit of renewing Leases at much easier Rates than if those possessions were in the hands of private men not omitting the discouragement which it will be to all Learning and industry when such eminent rewards shall be taken away which now lye open to the Children of meanest persons Yet His Majesty considering the great present distempers concerning Church-discipline and that the Presbyterian Government is now in practice His Majesty to eschew Confusion as much as may be and for the satisfaction of His two Houses is content that the said Government be legally permitted to stand in the same condition it now is for three years provided that His Majesty and those of His Judgment or any other who cannot in Conscience submit thereunto be not obliged to comply with the Presbyterian Government but have free practice of their own profession without receiving any prejudice thereby and that a free Consultation and Debate be had with the Divines at Westminster twenty of His Majesties nomination being added unto them whereby it may be determined by His Majesty and the two Houses how the Church-government after the said time shall be setled or sooner if differences may be agreed as is most agreeable to the Word of God with full liberty to all those who shall differ upon Conscientious grounds from that settlement Always provided that nothing aforesaid be understood to tolerate those of the Romish profession nor exempting of any Popish Recusant from the penalties of the Laws or to tolerate the publick profession of Atheism or Blasphemy contrary to the Doctrine of the Apostles Nicene and Athanasian Creeds they having been received by and had in reverence of all the Christian Churches and more particularly by this of England ever since the Reformation Next the Militia being that Right which is inseparably and undoubtedly inherent in the Crown by the Laws of this Nation and that which former Parliaments as likewise this have acknowledged so to be His Majesty cannot so much wrong that trust which the Laws of God and this Land have annexed to the Crown for the protection and security of His People as to devest Himself and Successors of the power of the Sword Yet to give an infallible evidence of His desire to secure the performance of such agreements as shall be made in order to a Peace His Majesty will consent to an Act of Parliament that the whole power of the Militia both by Sea and Land for and during His whole Reign shall be ordered and disposed by His two Houses of Parliament or by such persons as they shall appoint with powers limited for suppressing of Forces within this Kingdom to the disturbance of the publick Peace and against foreign invasions and that they shall have power during His said Reign to raise Monies for the purposes aforesaid and that neither His Majesty that now is or any other by any Authority derived only from Him shall execute any of the said powers during His Majesties said Reign but such as shall act by the consent and Approbation of the two Houses of Parliament Nevertheless His Majesty intends that all Patents Commissions and other Acts concerning the Militia be made and acted as formerly and that after His Majesties Reign all the power of the Militia shall return entirely to the Crown as it was in the times of Queen Elizabeth and King James of blessed memory After this head of the Militia the consideration of the Arrears due to the Army is not improper to follow for the payment whereof and the ease of His People His Majesty is willing to concur in any thing that can be done without the violation of His Conscience and Honour Wherefore if His two Houses shall consent to remit unto Him such benefit out of Sequestrations from Michaelmas last and out of Compositions that shall be made before the concluding of the Peace and the Arrears of such as have been already made the assistance of the Clergy and the Arrears of such Rents of His own Revenue as His two Houses shall not have received before the concluding of the Peace His Majesty will undertake within the space of eighteen months the payment of four hundred thousand pounds for the satisfaction of the Army and if those means shall not be sufficient His Majesty intends to
and still must pursue those ends and undergo that Charge for which it was first granted to the Crown it having been so long and constantly continued to Our Predecessors as that in four several Acts of Parliament for the granting thereof to King Edward the Sixth Queen Mary Queen Elizabeth and Our blessed Father it is in express terms mentioned to have been had and enjoyed by the several Kings named in those Acts time out of mind by authority of Parliament And therefore upon these reasons We held it agreeable to Our Kingly Honour and necessary for the safety and good of Our Kingdom to continue the receipt thereof as so many of Our Predecessors had done Wherefore when a few Merchants being at first but one or two fomented as it is well known by those evil Spirits that would have hatched that undutiful Remonstance began to oppose the payment of Our accustomed duties in the Custom-house We gave order to the Officers of Our Customs to go on notwithstanding that opposition in the receiving of the usual duties and caused those that refused to be warned to attend at the Council-board that by the wisdom and authority of Our Council they might be reduced to obedience and duty where some of them without reverence or respect to the honour and dignity of that presence behaved themselves with such boldness and insolency of speech as was not to be endured by a far meaner Assembly much less to be countenanced by a House of Parliament against the body of Our Privy Council And as in this We did what in honour and reason was fit for the present so Our thoughts were daily intentive upon the re-assembling of Our Parliament with full intention on Our part to take away all ill understanding between Us and Our people whose loves as We desired to continue and preserve so We used Our best endeavours to prepare and facilitate the way to it And to this end having taken a strict and exact survey of Our Government both in the Church and Commonwealth and what things were most fit and necessary to be reformed We found in the first place that much exception had been taken at a book intituled Appello Caesarem or An Appeal to Caesar and published in the year 1625. by Richard Mountague then Batchelour of Divinity and now Bishop of Chichester and because it did open the way to those Schisms and Divisions which have since ensued in the Church We did for remedy and redress thereof and for satisfaction of the Consciences of Our good people not only by Our publick Proclamation call in that Book which ministred matter of offence but to prevent the like danger for hereafter reprinted the Articles of Religion established in the time of Queen Elizabeth of famous memory and by a Declaration before those Articles We did tie and restrain all Opinions to the sense of those Articles that nothing might be left for private fancies and innovation For We call God to record before whom We stand that it is and always hath been Our hearts desire to be found worthy of that Title which We accompt the most glorious in all Our Crown Defender of the Faith neither shall We ever give way to the authorizing of any thing whereby any Innovation may steal or creep into the Church but preserve that unity of Doctrine and Discipline established in the time of Queen Elizabeth whereby the Church of England hath stood and flourished ever since And as We were careful to make up all breaches and rents in Religion at home so did We by Our Proclamation and Commandment for the execution of Laws against Priests and Popish Recusants fortifie all ways and approaches against that foreign Enemy which if it have not succeeded according to Our intention We must lay the fault where it is in the subordinate Officers and Ministers in the Country by whose remissness Jesuites and Priests escape without apprehension and Recusants from those convictions and penalties which the Laws and Our Commandment would have inflicted on them For We do profess that as it is Our duty so it shall be our care to command and direct well but it is the part of others to perform the Ministerial Office And when We have done Our Office We shall account Our Self and all charitable men will accompt Us innocent both to God and Men and those that are negligent We will esteem as culpable both to God and Us and therefore will expect that hereafter they give Us a better accompt And as We have been careful for the setling of Religion and quieting the Church so were We not unmindful of the preservation of the just and ancient Liberties of Our Subjects which We secured to them by Our gracious Answer to the Petition in Parliament having not since that time done any Act whereby to infringe them but Our care is and hereafter shall be to keep them intire and inviolable as We would do Our own Right and Sovereignty having for that purpose enrolled the Petition and Answer in Our Courts of Justice Next to the care of Religion and of Our Subjects Rights We did Our best for the provident and well ordering of that aid and supply which was granted Us the last Session whereof no part hath been wastfully spent nor put to any other use than those for which it was desired and granted as upon payment of Our Fleet and Army wherein Our care hath been such as We chose rather to discontent Our dearest Friends and Allies and Our nearest Servants than to leave Our Souldiers and Mariners unsatisfied whereby any vexation or disquiet might arise to Our people We have also with part of those Moneys begun to supply Our Magazines and stores of Munition and to put Our Navy into a constant form and order Our Fleet likewise is fitting and almost in a readiness whereby the Narrow Seas may be guarded Commerce maintained and Our Kingdom secured from all forein attempts These Acts of Ours might have made this impression in all good minds that We were careful to direct Our counsels and dispose Our actions so as might most conduce to the maintenance of Religion honour of Our Government and safety of Our People But with mischievous men once ill-affected Seu bene seu malè facta premunt and whatsoever once seemed amiss is ever remembred but good endeavours are never regarded Now all these things that were the chief complaints the last Session being by Our Princely care so seriously reformed the Parliament re assembled the twentieth of January last We expecting according to the candor and sincerity of Our own thoughts that men would have framed themselves for the effecting a right understanding between Us and Our people But some few malevolent persons like Empiricks and lewd Artists did strive to make new work and to have some Disease on foot to keep themselves in request and to be imployed and entertained in the Cure And yet to manifest how much offences have been diminished the Committees
to it But much against our expectation finding the contrary that the said Declaration is already abroad in Print by directions from your House as appears by the printed Copy We are very sensible of the disrespect Notwithstanding it is Our Intention that no failing on your part shall make Us fail in Ours of giving all due satisfaction to the desires of Our People in a Parliamenatry way and therefore We send you this Answer to your Petition reserving Our self in point of the Declaration which We think unparliamentary and shall take a course to do that which We shall think fit in Prudence and Honour To the Petition We say That although there are divers things in the Preamble of it which We are so far from admitting that We profess We cannot at all understand them as Of a wicked and malignant party prevalent in the Government of some of that party admitted to Our Privy Council and to other Imployments of trust and nearest to Vs and Our Children of endeavours to sow among the People false Scandals and Imputations to blemish and disgrace the Proceedings of the Parliament all or any of which did We know of We should be as ready to remedy and punish as you to complain of that the Prayers of your Petition are grounded upon such Premises as we must in no wise admit Yet notwithstanding We are pleased to give this Answer to you To the first concerning Religion consisting of several branches We say That for the preserving the Peace and Safety of the Kingdom from the designs of the Popish party We have and will still concur with all the just desires of Our People in a Parliamentary way That for the depriving of the Bishops of their Votes in Parliament We would have you consider that their Right is grounded upon the Fundamental Law of the Kingdom and constitution of Parliament This We would have you consider but since you desire Our concurrence herein in a Parliamentary way We will give no farther answer at this time As for the abridging of the inordinate power of the Clergy We conceive that the taking away the High-Commission Court hath well moderated that but if there continue any Usurpations or Excesses in their Jurisdictions We therein neither have nor will protect them Unto that Clause which concerneth Corruptions as you style them in Religion in Church-Government and in Discipline and the removing of such unnecessary Ceremonies as weak Consciences might check at That for any illegal Innovations which may have crept in We shall willingly concurr in the removal of them That if Our Parliament shall advise Us to call a National Synod which may duely examin such Ceremonies as give just cause of offence to any We shall take it into consideration and apply Our self to give due satisfaction therein But We are very sorry to hear in such general terms Corruption in Religion objected since We are perswaded in Our Conscience that no Church can be found upon the earth that professeth the true Religion with more purity of Doctrine than the Church of England doth nor where the Government and Discipline are jointly more beautified and free from Superstition then as they are here established by Law which by the grace of God We will with Constancy maintain while We live in their Purity and Glory not only against all invasions of Popery but also from the irreverence of those many Schismaticks and Separatists wherewith of late this Kingdom and this City abounds to the great dishonour and hazard both of Church and State for the suppressing of whom We require your timely and active assistance To the second prayer of the Petition concerning the removal and choice of Counsellours We know not any of Our Council to whom the Character set forth in the Petition can belong That by those whom We had exposed to Trial We have already given you sufficient testimony that there is no man so near unto Us in place or affection whom We will not leave to the Justice of the Law if you shall bring a particular charge and sufficient proofs against him and of this We do again assure you but in the mean time We wish you to forbear such general aspersions as may reflect upon all Our Council since you name none in particular That for the choice of Our Counsellours and Ministers of State it were to debarr Us that natural liberty all Free-men have and as it is the undoubted right of the Crown of England to call such persons to Our secret Counsels to publick employment and Our particular service as We shall think fit so We are and ever shall be very careful to make election of such persons in those places of trust as shall have given good testimonies of their abilities and integrity and against whom there can be no just cause of exception whereon reasonably to ground a diffidence and to choices of this nature We assure you that the mediation of the nearest unto Us hath always concurred To the third prayer of your Petition concerning Ireland We understand your desire of not alienating the forfeited lands thereof to proceed from your much care and love and likewise that it may be a Resolution very fit for Us to take but whether it be seasonable to declare Resolutions of that nature before the Events of a War be seen that We much doubt of Howsoever We cannot but thank you for this care and your chearful ingagement for the suppression of that Rebellion upon the speedy effecting whereof the Glory of God in the Protestant Profession the safety of the British there Our Honour and that of the Nation so much depends All the Interests of this Kingdom being so involved in that business We cannot but quicken your affections therein and shall desire you to frame your Counsels and to give such expedition to the Work as the nature thereof and the pressures in point of Time require and whereof you are put in mind by the daily insolence and increase of those Rebels For Conclusion your promise to apply your selves to such courses as may support Our Royal Estate with Honour and Plenty at home and with Power and Reputation abroad is that which We have ever promised Our self both from your Loyalties and Affections and also for what We have already done and shall daily goe adding unto for the comfort and happiness of Our People His MAJESTIES Declaration to all His loving Subjects Published with the Advice of his Privy Council ALthough We do not believe that Our House of Commons intended by their Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom to put Us to any Apology either for Our past or present Actions notwithstanding since they have thought it so very necessary upon their observation of the present Distemper to publish the same for the satisfaction of all Our loving Subjects We have thought it very sutable to the duty of Our place with which God hath trusted Us to do Our part to so good a Work in which we
the Education of the Children of Papists by Protestants in the Protestant Profession many about Us can witness with Us that we have often delivered Our Opinion that such a course with God's blessing upon it would be the most effectual for the rooting out of Popery out of this Kingdom We shall therefore thank you for it and encourage you in it and when it comes unto Us do Our Duty And We heartily wish for the publick good that the time you have spent in making Ordinances without Us had been imployed in preparing this and other good Bills for Us. For the Eighth touching the Reformation to be made of the Church-Government and Liturgy We had hoped that what We had formerly declared concerning the same had been so sufficiently understood by you and all good Subjects that We should not need to have expressed Our Self further in it We told you in Our Answers to your Petition presented to Us at Hampton-Court the first of December That for any illegal Innovations which may have crept in We should willingly concurre in the removal of them that if Our Parliament should advise Vs to call a National Synod which may duely examine such Ceremonies as give just cause of Offence to any We should take it into Consideration and apply Our Self to give due satisfaction therein that We were perswaded in Our Conscience that no Church could be found upon the Earth that professeth the true Religion with more Purity of Doctrine then the Church of England doth nor where the Government and Discipline are jointly more beautified and free from Superstition then as they are here established by Law which by the Grace of God We will with Constancy maintain while We live in their Purity and Glory not only against all Invasions of Popery but also from the Irreverence of those many Schismaticks and Separatists wherewith of late this Kingdom and Our City of London abounds to the great dishonour and hazard both of Church and State for the suppression of whom We required your timely and active assistance We told you in Our first Declaration printed by the Advice of Our Privy Council That for differences amongst our selves for matters indifferent in their own nature concerning Religion We should in tenderness to any number of Our loving Subjects very willingly comply with the Advice of Our Parliament that some Law might be made for the exemption of tender Consciences from punishment or prosecution for such Ceremonies and in such Cases which by the judgment of most men are held to be matters indifferent and of some to be absolutely unlawful Provided that this ease should be attempted and pursued with that modesty temper and submission that in the mean time the Peace and Quiet of the Kingdom be not disturbed the Decency and Comeliness of God's Service discountenanced nor the Pious Sober Devout actions of those Reverend Persons who were the first Labourers in the blessed Reformation or of that time be scandaled and defamed And we heartily wish that others whom it concerned had been as ready as their Duty bound them though they had not received it from Us to have pursued this Caution as We were and still are willing and ready to make good every particular of that Promise Nor did we onely appear willing to joyn in so good a Work when it should be brought Us but prest and urged you to it by Our Message of the fourteenth of February in these words And because His Majesty observes great and different troubles to arise in the hearts of His People concerning the Government and Liturgy of the Church His Majesty is willing to declare That He will refer the whole consideration to the wisdom of His Parliament which he desires them to enter into speedily that the present Distractions about the same may be composed but desires not to be pressed to any single Act on His part till the whole be so digested and settled by both Houses that His Majesty may clearly see what is fit to be left as well as what is fit to be taken away Of which We the more hoped of a good success to the general satisfaction of Our People because you seem in this Proposition to desire but a Reformation and not as is daily preached for as necessary in those many Conventicles which have within these nineteen months begun to swarm and which though their Leaders differ from you in this opinion yet appear to many as countenanced by you by not being punished by you few else by reason of the Order of the House of Commons of the 9th of September daring to do it a destruction of the present Discipline and Liturgy And We shall most chearfully give Our best assistance for raising a sufficient maintenance for Preaching Ministers in such course as shall be most for the encouragement and advancement of Piety and Learning For the Bills you mention and the Consultation you intimate knowing nothing of the particular matters of the one though We like the Titles well nor of the manner of the other but from an Informer to whom We give little credit and We wish no man did more common Fame We can say nothing till We see them For the Eleventh We would not have the Oath of all Privy Counsellors and Judges streightned to particular Statutes of one or two particular Parliaments but extend to all Statutes of all Parliaments and the whole Law of the Land and shall willingly consent that an enquiry of all the breaches and violations of the Law may be given in charge by the Justices of the Kings Bench every Term and by the Judges of Assize in their Circuits and Justices of Peace at the Sessions to be presented and punished according to Law For the Seventeenth We shall ever be most ready and We are sorry it should be thought needful to move Us to it not only to join with any particularly with the States of the United Provinces of which We have given a late proof in the Match of Our Daughter for the defence and maintenance of the Protestant Religion against all designs and attempts of the Pope and his Adherents but singly if need were to oppose with Our Life and Fortune all such Designs in all other Nations were they joyned And that for Considerations of Conscience far more then any temporal end of obtaining access of Strength and Reputation or any natural end of restoring Our Royal Sister and her Princely Issue to their Dignities and Dominions though these be likewise much considered by Us. For the Eighteenth It was not Our fault that an Act was not passed to clear the Lord Kimbolton and the Five Members of the House of Commons but yours who inserted such Clauses into both the Preamble and Act perhaps perswaded to it by some who wish not that you should in any thing receive satisfaction from Us as by passing the Preamble We must have wounded Our Honour against Our Conscience and by another Clause have admitted a Consequence
taken all possible pains to destroy King and People or such whom they shall recommend to succeed that the same Faction may be carried through the whole Kingdom which these Men have raised in both Houses of Parliament that all Affairs of the Kingdom be managed not only by their Advice but their absolute Direction and Command lest any Man should think himself Our Servant that the Education and Marriage of Our Children be committed to them lest any Christian Prince should make addresses to Us in such Treaties in a word that in gratitude to their Modesty and Duty for not deposing Us We will not now depose Our Self and suffer the People and Kingdom which God and the Law hath committed to Our Government and Protection and for which We must make an account to be devoured by them Sure these Men think 't is no affront to ask any thing But can Our good Subjects be longer kept in this Trance Can the Nobility Gentry Clergy Commonalty of England sacrifice their Honour Interest Religion Liberty to Terms and the meer sound of Parliament and Privilege Can their Experience Reason and Understanding be captivated by words and assumptions contradictory to all Principles What one thing have We denied that with reference to the publick Peace and Happiness were to be bought with the loss of the meanest Subject And yet into what a Sea of blood is the rage and fury of these Men launching out to wrest that from Us which We are bound if We had a thousand lives to lose in the contention to defend Nay what one thing is there that makes life precious to good Men which We do not defend and these Men oppose and would evidently destroy What Grievance or Pressure have Our People complained of and been eased by Us whch is not now brought upon them in an unlimited degree Is the true Reformed Protestant Religion sealed by the blood of so many Reverend Martyrs and established by the Wisdom and Piety of former blessed Parliaments dear to them We must appeal to all the world being called upon by the Reproaches of these men whether Our own practice the best evidence of Religion and all the assistance and offers We can give have been wanting to the Advancement of that Religion And what can be more done by Us to satisfie and secure Our People in that point On the other side let all Our good Subjects consider and weigh what pregnant Arguments they have to fear Innovation in Religion if these desperate persons prevail when the principal Men to whose care and authority they have committed the managery of that part refuse Communion with the Church of England as much as the Papists do and have not only with that freedom they think fit to use reproached the Book of Common-Prayer and the Government of the Church in their Speeches but have published those Speeches in the view of all Men in Print that the World might see by what Measure and Rule the Reformation they so much talk of is to be made when such Petitions have been contrived by them and accepted with publick thanks which revile the Book of Common-Prayer calling it a Mass-book in scorn and contempt of the Law whilest other Petitions for the Government established by Law have been rejected discountenanced and the Petitioners punished and when two Armies were kept in the bowels of the Kingdom ten weeks at the charge of fourscore thousand pounds a Month for the countenance of a Bill to eradicate Episcopacy Root and Branch when such licence is given to Brownists Anabaptists and Sectaries and whilst Coachmen Felt-makers and such Mechanick persons are allowed and entertained to preach by those who think themselves the principal Members of either House when such barbarous Outrages in Churches and heathenish Irreverence and Uproars even in the time of Divine Service and the Administration of the blessed Sacrament are practised without control when the blessed means of advancing Religion the Preaching of the Word of God is turned into a licence of Libelling and Reviling both Church and State and venting such Seditious Positions as by the Laws of the Land are no less than Treason and scarce a Man in Reputation and Credit with these grand Reformers who is not notoriously guilty of this whilest those Learned Reverend Painful and Pious Preachers who have been and are the most eminent and able Assertors of the Protestant Religion are to the unspeakable joy of the Adversaries to Our Religion disregarded and oppressed lastly when for the settling and composing all these Distractions and Distempers instead of a free and general Synod of Grave and Learned Divines which hath been so much talked of and to whose deliberations We were and are willing to commit the Consideration of those Affairs a Conference is desired with particular Men nominated by themselves contrary to the Rights and Practice of the Church the major part of whom though We confess there are many Reverend Learned and Pious persons amongst them are not of Learning nor Understanding sutable to so great a Work or are of known avowed Disaffection to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church and of those who have preached Seditiously and Treasonably against Our Person and Authority as Doctor Downing and others Whoever from his Soul desires a true Examination and Reformation in Religion cannot expect it from the results of these Mens Counsels nor think the true service of God is like to be advanced or preserved by such practices And all sober Men must look with strange Horrour and Indignation upon the last Declaration of the Lords and Commons which after such unprecedented Outrages and Violences against Us publishes the ground of their taking up defensive Arms as they call them to be for the maintetenance of the true Religion the taking and keeping of Hull Our Navy Our Money and Goods the exercising of the Militia and all the other Injuries We complain of to be for the maintenance of Religion But whosoever believes them to be for the preservation of Our Person may believe the other too Would Men enjoy the Laws they were born to the Liberty and Property which makes the Subjection of this Nation famous and honourable with all neighbouring Kingdoms We have done Our part to make a Wall of Brass for the perpetual defence of them whilest these ill Men usurp a Power to undermine that Wall and to shake those Foundations which cannot be pulled down but to the confusion of Law Liberty Property and the very Life and Being of Our Subjects Is the Dignity Privilege and Freedom of Parliament Parliaments whose Wisdom and Gravity have prepared so many wholsome Laws and whose Freedom distinguishes the Condition of Our Subjects from those of any Monarchy in Europe precious unto Our People Where was that Freedom and that Privilege when the House of Commons presumed to make Laws without the House of Peers as they did in their Vote upon the Protestation and of the 9th of September when the House
well-affected to rise as one man and to come to the House of Commons next Morning for that 20000 Irish Rebels were landed which direction and information was likewise that day given in Pulpits by their Seditious Preachers and in some of those Papers were subscribed That the Malignant Party had over-voted the good and if not prevented there would be Peace the Propositions for Peace being the day before carried by nine and twenty Voices A Common-council was called late at night though Sunday and a Petition there framed against Peace which was the next morning brought to the House countenanc'd by Alderman Pennington a known Promoter and Governour of those Tumults and attended with a multitude of mean Persons who used Threats Menaces and Reproaches to the Members of both Houses Their Petition took notice of Propositions passed by the Lords for Peace which if allowed would be destructive to Religion Laws and Liberties and therefore desired an Ordinance according to the Tenor of an Act of their Common-council the night before Thanks was given them by the Commons whilst the Lords complained of the Tumults and desired a concurrence to suppress them and to prevent the like many of the People telling the Members of both Houses That if they had not a good Answer they would be there the next day with double the number By these Threats and Violence the Propositions formerly received were rejected and all thoughts of Peace laid aside Shortly after great numbers of Women resort to the House where the Commons sate with a Petition for Peace Troops of Horse were hereupon sent for who wound and kill several of the Women and disperse the rest Then special notice was taken of those Members who seemed most importunate and desirous of Peace and thereupon the late Covenant eagerly and severely pressed upon them By reason whereof and the other miscarriages whereby their freedom was absolutely taken from them divers of both Houses withdrew themselves And we must now appeal to all our fellow-Subjects of this Kingdom who have taken the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy who have any knowledge of the Rights Customs and Privileges of Parliament or of the Frame and Constitution of this Realm whether we or they have failed in our Duty to our King or Country and whether we have not in discharge of a good Conscience undergone the evils we have born And then we doubt not we shall not be thought less Members of Parliament though we are not at Westminster than if that City were in the possession of a Foreign Enemy Yet we confess the Place to be so material that if there were that Liberty and Freedom which is due to the Members and indeed is the life of Parliament the Act of those in the House being a lawful Act is the Act of the House though there were a greater number absent all who were of another opinion but in our case when we are by force driven away and by force kept away and when nothing can be said to justifie the Actions which are done but the Reputation and Number of the Actors we rely so much upon the understanding and honesty of our Country-men that they will believe when they see our concurrence and unanimity in Resolutions and Counsel for their Peace welfare and security as we are confident the number of those who concur in this Declaration is greater than hath concurred in most if not in any of those things of which we complain that it will be better for them to be advised by us at Oxford than by those at Westminster from whence we are absent only by reason of those Outrages and Violence offered to our Persons or our Consciences which takes away all Freedom and consequently all Authority from those Councils and where indeed these men ought not to undertake to act any thing till that Freedom and Liberty be restored to us who as long as this Parliament shall continue notwithstanding all the Votes of those who are guilty of Treason and Rebellion mustaccount our selves and shall be accounted by our Country the true and lawful Members of Parliament Having said thus much to undeceive our Brethren and that our fellow-Subjects may be no longer seduced to unlawful actions by colour and pretence of Parliament we shall briefly present to their view and consideration the danger and condition of His Majesty's Person His Honour and Rights the Religion and Liberty of the Kingdom the defence and maintenance of which those Persons with whom we cannot agree seem and pretend to undertake For their Care of the Honour and Safety of His Majesty's Person to the which we are so absolutely obliged and so solemnly sworn we shall need only to mention which we mention with great sadness of Heart and Horrour the taking by force His Majesty's Forts Towns Navy the assuming a power over the Militia of the Kingdom the denying his Majesty's Negative Voice the uncomely insolent and disloyal mentioning of His Majesty's Person the neglect contempt and violation of Leagues made by His Majesty with Foreign Princes in the Injuries and Affronts done to their publick Ministers and otherwise the transcendent presumption of sending Agents to Foreign Princes and in the Name of the States of England the traytourcus distinction between the Person of the King and His Office and declaring that an attempt upon His Life is not High-Treason which Doctrine is so much countenanced that Persons who have threatned to Kill the King having been complained of have been left unpunished and the Witnesses and Prosecutors threatned or discountenanced the raising an Army against Him and therewith giving Battle to His Person All which are known to be very unagreeable with the Affection Duty and Loyalty of Subjects and English-men Concerning Religion we cannot but with bleeding Hearts and trembling Souls consider the unheard-of Impieties and Prophanations exercised in Churches and Consecrated places the Countenance and licence given to scandalous debosh ignorant Lay-persons to Preach and exercise the Office of the Ministry the suppressing and cruel using and imprisoning in Gaols and on Ship-board Godly Learned Orthodox Divines famous and exemplary in their Lives and Doctrine the most eminent Assertors of the Protestant Religion against Popery and Innovations the scurrilous and scandalous reviling scoffing and suppressing the Book of Common-Prayer compiled by glorious Martyrs for the Protestant Religion established by Law and so long and so publickly used and acknowledged as an excellent and unparallel'd form of Devotion and Divine Service the suspending the execution of the Act of Parliament made in the first year of Queen Elizabeth of famous memory for Uniformity of Common-Prayer by an Order under the hand of a private Member of the House of Commons and that during the recess of both Houses the stirring up and inciting the People to Rebellion in Pulpits and which is the greatest Scandal and Reproach to the Protestant Religion that can be imagined the making Religion it self the ground and cause of Rebellion
lastly after having lived so many years in the most glorious and most unblemished Church of Christendom the total defacing and pulling down the whole Fabrick of it censuring and reproaching the Doctrine and destroying the Discipline and as if we were cast ashore in some uninhabited Climate where the Elements of Christianity were not known the calling without the least shadow or colour of Law or Lawful Authority against His Majesty's express Consent manifestly against the Statute of 25 th year of King Henry the Eighth an assembly of Divines composed of some Noblemen Gentlemen and Ministers all under the style of Godly and Learned Divines most of which are not otherwise known than by their Schism and Separation from that Church in which they were born and to which they have subscribed and these Men now must new-make and mould the Religion by which we must all be saved God in his good time we hope will vindicate his own Cause and repair the breaches which have been lately made For the Laws of the Land and the Liberty of the Subject so speciously urged and pretended to be the end of those who have disturbed our Peace we need say little every place and every person is an ample evidence and testimony of the bold and avowed violation of either The Charter of our Liberties Magna Charta so industriously and Religiously preserved by our Ancestors and above Thirty several times confirmed in Parliament that Rampire and Bulwark of all the precious Privileges and Immunities which the Subjects of this Kingdom could boast of and which distinguishes them from all the Subjects of Christendom is levelled and trampled under foot scorned despised and superseded by Votes and Orders Men of all sorts Clergy and Laity imprisoned without the least charge that by the Law is called a Crime and their Estates are sequestred by Persons of whom the Law can take no notice Committees made by Committees Rob Banish and Imprison the Lords and Commons of England Men committed by Persons of no Authority for no cause to Prison have by Habeas Corpus the good old Remedy and Security for our Liberty been brought to the Kings Bench and by command of those who first committed them remanded and Commands given to the Judges that they should grant no Habeas Corpus which they were sworn to grant to any Persons committed by them or by those to whom they grant Authority to commit which themselves have not Power to do Neither can we pass over the motion made by Mr. Rigby a Member of the House of Commons to transport those Lords and Gentlemen who were Prisoners and by them accounted Malignants to be sold as Slaves to Argiers or sent to the new Plantation in the West Indies urged the second time with much earnestness because the Proposer had contracted with two Merchants to that purpose the which though it took no effect at that time may awaken those who have observed so many things to pass and be ordered long after they have been once or twice denied and rejected And who sees the new and inhumane way of imprisoning Persons of Quality under Decks on Ship-board by which cruel usage many of our Country-men have been murthered may have reason to fear they may be hereafter carried a longer voyage than is yet avowed The twentieth part of our Estates is at once taken and if we are not willing to obey that Order the other Nineteen are taken from us as Malignants a term unknown and undefined and yet crime enough to forfeit our Lives and all that we have Our fellow-Subjects have been executed in cold blood for doing that which by the Laws of God and Man they were bound to do and after their Murther their Estates seized and their Wives and Children exposed to Misery and Famine Laws made and Penalties imposed by Laws this Parliament are suspended dispensed withal and those things done by Order against which those Laws were made And that there may be no face of Justice over the Land the Judges are prohibited to ride their Circuits for the administration of that Justice which the King owes His People and they are bound to execute And after all this and after the merciless shedding so much English Blood after the expending so much Money much of which was given for relief of our poor Protestant Brethren of Ireland and diverted for the improving the Distractions at home after the transportation of such vast sums of Money and great Treasure into Foreign parts to the unspeakable impoverishing this Poor Kingdom to make our Misery lasting and our Confusion compleat a Foreign Enemy is invited and brought into the Bowels of this Kingdom to drink our blood to divide our Possession to give us new Laws and to Rule over us And the better to make way to those horrid Impositions by confounding and making void all civil Rights and Proprieties and the better preparing the Kingdom to be shared by Strangers a New Great Seal the special Ensign of Monarchy and the only way by which Justice is derived and distributed to the People is counterfeited and used albeit it be by the express letter of the Statute of the 25 th year of King Edward the Third declared to be High Treason Having now made this clear plain Narration to the Kingdom the truth and particulars whereof are known to most Men that when Posterity shall find our names in the Records of these times as Members trusted by our Country in that great Council by whose Authority and Power the present Alteration and Distraction seems to be wrought it may likewise see how far we have been and are from consenting to these desperate and fatal Innovations we cannot rest satisfied without Declaring and Publishing to all our fellow-Subjects and to the whole World that all our Intentions and Actions have been are and shall be directed to the defence of His Majesty's Person and just Rights the preservation of the true Protestant Religion and Liberties of the Kingdom established by Law That as we do with all humility to God Almighty and as a great Blessing from him acknowledge His Majesty's happy and Religious Reign and Government over this Kingdom and especially the excellent Laws and Statutes made in His time and particularly those in this Parliament so we do with all duty and submission Declare That His Majesty is the only Supream Governour of this Realm in all Causes Ecclesiastical and Temporal That His Natural Person is not to be divided from His Kingly Office but that our natural Allegiance and the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy do bind us and all His other Subjects to Loyalty and Allegiance to His Natural Person That His Majesty's Negative Voice without which Monarchy is dissolved is an inherent Right of His Crown and that no Orders of one or both Houses of Parliament without His Majesty's express Consent can make a Law to bind the Subjects either in their Property or Liberty That we do from our Souls abhor
Table at Hampton-Court Nov. 11. 1647. CHALLES R. LIberty being that which in all Times hath been but especially now is the common Theme and Desire of all men common Reason shews That Kings less then any should endure Captivity And yet I call God and the World to Witness with what Patience I have endured a tedious Restraint which so long as I had any hopes that this sort of My Suffering might conduce to the Peace of My Kingdoms or the hindring of more effusion of Blood I did willingly undergoe But now finding by two certain proofs that this My continued Patience would not only turn to My Personal Ruine but likewise be of much more prejudice then furtherance to the Publick Good I thought I was bound as well by Natural as Political Obligations to seek my Safety by Retiring My self for some time from the publick View both of My Friends and Enemies And I appeal to all indifferent men to judge if I have not just cause to free My self from the hands of those who change their Principles with their Condition and who are not ashamed openly to intend the Destruction of the Nobility by taking away their Negative Voice and with whom the Levellers Doctrine is rather countenanced then punished and as for their intentions to My Person their changing and putting more strict Guards upon Me with the discharging most of all those Servants of Mine who formerly they willingly admitetd to wait upon Me does sufficiently declare Nor would I have this My Retirement misinterpreted for I shall earnestly and uncessantly endeavour the setling of a safe and well-grounded Peace where-ever I am or shall be and that as much as may be without the effusion of more Christian Blood for which how many times have I desired prest to be heard and yet no ear given to Me and can any Reasonable man think that according to the ordinary course of affairs there can be a setled Peace without it or that God will bless those who refuse to hear their own King Surely no. Nay I must further add that besides what concerns My self unless all other chief Interests have not only a hearing but likewise just satisfaction given unto them to wit the Presbyterians Independants Army those who have adhered to Me and even the Scots I say there cannot I speak not of Miracles it being in My Opinion a sinful presumption in such cases to expect or trust to them be a safe or lasting Peace Now as I cannot deny but My Personal Security is the urgent cause of this My Retirement so I take God to witness that the Publick Peace is no less before My Eyes and I can find no better way to express this My Profession I know not what a wiser man may do then by desiring and urging that all chief Interests may be heard to the end each may have just Satisfaction As for example the Army for the rest though necessary yet I suppose are not difficult to content ought in My Judgment to enjoy the Liberty of their Consciences have an Act of Oblivion or Indemnity which should extend to all the rest of My Subjects and that all their Arrears should be speedily and duly paid which I will undertake to do so I may be heard and that I be not hindred from using such Lawful and honest means as I shall chuse To conclude let Me be heard with Freedom Honour and Safety and I shall instantly break through this Cloud of Retirement and shew My self really to be Pater Patriae Hampton-Court 11. Novemb. 1647. His MAJESTIES Message to both Houses with Propositions Novemb. 17. 1647. For the Speaker of the Lords House pro tempore to be communicated to the Lords and Commons in the Parliament of England at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland CHARLES R. HIS Majesty is confident that before this time his two Houses of Parliament have received the Message which he left behind him at Hampton-Court the eleventh of this Month by which they will have understood the Reasons which enforced him to go from thence as likewise his constant endeavours for the setling of a safe and well-grounded Peace wheresoever he should be And being now in a place where he conceives himself to be at much more Freedom and Security then formerly he thinks it necessary not only for making good of his own Professions but also for the speedy procuring of a Peace in these languishing and distressed Kingdoms at this time to offer such grounds to his two Houses for that effect which upon due examination of all Interests may best conduce thereunto And because Religion is the best and chiefest foundation of Peace His Majesty will begin with that particular That for the abolishing Arch-bishops Bishops c. His Majesty cleary professeth that he cannot give his consent thereunto both in relation as he is a Christian and a King For the first he avows that he is satisfied in his Judgment that this Order was placed in the Church by the Apostles themselves and ever since their time hath continued in all Christian Churches throughout the World until this last Century of years and in this Church in all times of Change and Reformation it hath been upheld by the Wisdom of his Ancestors as the great preserver of Doctrine Discipline and Order in the Service of God As a King at his Coronation he hath not only taken a solemn Oath to maintain this Order but his Majesty and his Predecessors in their confirmations of the Great Charter have inseparably woven the Right of the Church into the Liberties of the rest of their Subjects And yet he is willing it be provided that the particular Bishops perform the several Duties of their Callings both by their personal Residence and frequent Preachings in their Dioceses as also that they exercise no Act of Jurisdiction or Ordination without the consent of their Presbyters and will consent that their Powers in all things be so limited that they be not grievous to tender Consciences Wherefore since his Majesty is willing to give ease to the Consciences of others he sees no reason why he alone and those of his Judgment should be pressed to a violation of theirs Nor can his Majesty consent to the Alienation of Church-Lands because it cannot be denied to be a sin of the highest Sacriledge as also that it subverts the intentions of so many pious Donors who have laid a heavy Curse upon all such profane violations which his Majesty is very unwilling to undergoe and besides the matter of Conscience His Majesty believes it to be a prejudice to the Publick good many of his Subjects having the benefit of renewing Leases at much easier Rates then if those Possessions were in the hands of private men not omitting the discouragement which it will be to all Learning and Industry when such eminent rewards shall be taken away which now lye open to the Children of meanest Persons Yet his Majesty considering the great present
call upon us to be particular though we cannot name the Angels nor are satisfied in our judgment that those whom some do undertake to name were intended by the name of Angels in those Epistles yet we say First that these Epistles were sent unto the Churches and that under the expression of this thou dost or this thou hast and the like the Churches are respectively intended for the Sins reproved the Repentance commanded the Punishments threatned ate to be referred to the Churches and not to the singular Angels only and yet we do not think that Salmasius did intend nor do we that in formal denomination the Angels and Candlesticks were the same Secondly The Angels of these Churches or Rulers were a Collective body which we endeavoured to prove by such probabilities as Your Majesty takes no notice of namely the instance of the Church of Ephesus where there were many Bishops to whom the charge of that Church was by St. Paul at his final departure from them committed as also by that expression Rev. xi 24. To you and to the rest in Thyatira Which distinction makes it very probable that the Angel is explained under that plurality to you The like to which many expressions may be found in these Epistles which to interpret according to the consentient Evidence of other Scriptures of the New Testament is not Safe only but Solid and Evidential Thirdly These Writings are directed as Epistolary Letters to Collective Bodies usually are that is to One but intended to the Body which Your Majesty illustrateth by Your sending a Message to Your Two Houses and directing it to the Speaker of the House of Peers which as it doth not hinder we confess but that the Speaker is one single Person so it doth not prove at all that the Speaker is always the same person or if he were that therefore because Your Message is directed to him he is the Governour or Ruler of the two Houses in the least And so Your Majesty hath given clear instance that tho these Letters be directed to the Angels yet that notwithstanding they might neither be Bishops nor yet perpetual Moderators For the several opinions specified in Your Majesties Paper three of them by easy and fair accommodation as we declared before are soon reduced and united amongst themselves and may be holden without recess from the received Judgment of the Christian Church by such as are far from meriting that Aspersion which is cast upon the Reformed Divines by Popish Writers that they have divided themselves from the Common and received Judgment of the Christian Church which Imputation we hope was not in Your Majesties intention to lay upon us until it be made clear that it is the common and received Judgment of the Christian Church that now is or of that in former Ages that the Angels of the Churches were Bishops having Prelacy as well over Pastors as People within their Churches In the following Discourse we did deny that the Apostles were to have any Successors in their Office and affirmed only Two Orders of ordinary and standing Officers in the Church viz. Presbyters and Deacons Concerning the former of which Your Majesty refers to what you had in part already declared That in those things which were extraordinary in the Apostles as namely the Measure of their Gifts c. They had no Successors in eundem gradum but in those things which were not extraordinary as the Office of Teaching and Power of Governing which are necessary for the Service of the Church in all times they were to have and had Successors Where Your Majesty delivers a Doctrine new to us namely that the Apostles had Successors into their Offices not into their Abilities For besides that Succession is not properly into Abilities but into Office we cannot say that one succeeds another in his Learning or Wit or Parts but into his Room and Function we conceive that the Office Apostolical was extraordinary in whole because their Mission and Commission was so and the service or work of Teaching and Governing being to continue in all times doth not render their Office Ordinary as the Office of Moses was not rendered Ordinary because many works of Government exercised by him were re-committed to the standing Elders of Israel And if they have Successors it must be either into their whole Office or into some parts Their Successors into the whole however differing from them in measure of Gifts and peculiar Qualifications must be called Apostles the same Office gives the same Denomination and then we shall confess that Bishops if they be their Successors in Office are of Divine Institution because the Apostolical Office was so If their Successors come into part of their Office only the Presbyters may as well be called their Successors as the Bishops and so indeed they are called by some of the ancient Fathers Irenoeus Origen Hierome and others Whereas in truth the Apostles have not properly Successors into Office but the ordinary Power of Teaching and Governing which is setled in the Church for continuance is instituted and settled in the hands of ordinary Officers by a New Warrant and Commission according to the rules of Ordination and Calling in the Word which the Bishop hath not yet produced for himself and without which he cannot challenge it upon the general allusive Speeches used by the Fathers without scruple And whereas Your Majesty numbers the extent of their work amongst those things which were extraordinary in the Apostles we could wish that You had declared whether it belong to their Mission or Vnction for we humbly conceive that their Authoritative Power to do their Work in all places of the World did properly belong to their Mission and consequently that their Office as well as their Abilities was extraordinary and so by Your Majesties own Concession not to be succeeded into by the Bishops As to the Orders of standing Officers of the Church Your Majesty doth reply That although in the places cited Phil. i. 1. i Tim. iii. 8. there be no mention but of the two Orders only of Bishops or Presbyters and Deacons yet it is not thereby proved that there is no other standing Office in the Church besides Which we humbly conceive is justly proved not only because there are no other named but because there is no rule of Ordaining any third no Warrant or way of Mission and so Argument is as good as can be made a non causa ad non effectum for we do not yet apprehend that the Bishops pretending to the Apostolick Office do also pretend to the same manner of Mission nor do we know that those very many Divines that have asserted two Orders only have concluded it from any other grounds than the Scriptures cited There appear as your Majesty saith two other manifest Reasons why the Office of Bishops might not be so proper to be mentioned in those places And we humbly conceive there is a third more manifest than those two