in the end bring forth a Covenant as the onely meane after all other have been assayed for the deliverance of England and Ireland out of the deeps of affliction preservation of the Church and Kingdome of Scotland from the extremity of miserie and the safety of our Native King and Kingdomes from destruction and desolation This is the manifold necessity which Nature Religion Loyaltie and Love hath laid upon them Nor is it unknown in this Honourable Reverend and wise Audience what errours and heresies in doctrine what Superstition and idolatrie in Worshippe what Usurpation and Tyrannie in Government what cruelty against the soules and bodies of the saints have been set on foot exercised and executed for many Generations and now of late by the Romane Church all which we hope through the blessing of God upon this work shal be brought to an end Had the Pope at Rome the knowledge of what is doing this day in England and were this Covenant written on the Plaster of the wall over against him where he sitteth Belshazzar-like in his sacralegious pomp it would make his heart to tremble his countenance to change his head and Miter to shake his joynts to loose and all his Cardinals and Prelates to be astonished When the Reformed Churches which by their Letters have been exciting us to Christian Communion and Sympathie in this time of the danger of Religion and distresse of the Godly shall heare of this blessed conjunction for uniformity in Religion according to the word of God and the defence thereof it shall quicken their hearts against the heavinesse of oppressing sorrows and feare and be no other than a beginning of a Jubilee and joyfull deliverance unto them from the Antichristian yoke and tyrannie Upon these and the like considerations wee are verie confident that the Church and Kingdome of Scotland will most chearfully joyne in this Covenant at the first motion whereof their bowels were moved within them And to give testimony of this our confidence we who are Commissioners from the Generall Assembly although we have no particular and expresse Commission for that end not from want of willingnesse but of foresight offer to joyn our hearts and hands unto it being assured that the Lord in his own time wil against all opposition even against the gates of Hell crown it with a blessing from Heaven The word of God is for it as you have been now resolved by the consent and testimonie of a Reverend Assembly of so many godly learned and great Divines In your own sense and experience you will find that although while you are assaulted or exercised with worldly cares and fears your 〈…〉 other times when upon seeking of God in private or publike as in the evening of a wel spent Sabbath or day of Fast and Humiliation your disposition is more spiritual and leaving the world behind you you have found accesse unto God through Jesus Christ the bent and inclinations of your hearts will be strongest to go throgh with this work It is a good testimony that our designes and wayes are agreeable to the will of God if we affect them most when our hearts are furthest from the world and our temper is most spirituall and heavenly and least carnall and earthly As the Word of God so the prayers of the people of God in all the Reformed Churches are for us and on our side It were more terrible then an Army to hear that there were any fervent supplications to God against us blasphemies curses and horrid imprecations there be proceeding from another spirit and that is all That Divine Providence also which hath maintained this Cause and supported his Servants in a marvellous manner unto this day and which this time past hath kept things in an equall ballance and vicissitud of successe will we trust from this day-forth through the weight of this Covenant cast the ballance and make Religion and Righteousnesse to prevail to the glory of God the honour of our King the confusion of our common enemies and the comfort and safety of the people of God Which he grant who is able to doe above any thing that we can ask or think FINIS
〈◊〉 SPEECHES delivered before the Subscribing of the Covenant the 25. of September at St. MARGARETS in WESTMINSTER THE ONE By Mr. PHILIP NYE THE OTHER By Mr. ALEXANDER HENDERSON Published by speciall order of the House of Commons Edinburgh Printed by Robert Bryson Anno Dom. 1643. An exhortation made to the Honourable House of Commons and Reverend Divines of the Assembly By Mr. NYE before hee read the COVENANT A Great and solemn work honourable and Reverend this day is put into our hands let us stir up and awaken our hearts unto it Wee deal with God as well as with men and with God in his greatnesse and excellency for by him wee swear and at the same time we have to do with God and his goodnesse who now reacheth out unto us a strong and seasonable arme of assistance The goodnesse of God procuring succour and help to a sinfull and afflicted people such are we ought to bee matter of fear and trembling even to all that hear of it Ier. 33. 9. We are to exalt and acknowledge him this day who is fearfull in praises sweare by that Name which is Holy and Reverent enter into a Covenant and League that is never to be forgotten by us nor our posterity and the fruit I hope of it shall be so great as both we and they shall have cause to remember it with joy and such in Oath as for matter persons and other circumstances the like hath not been in any age or Oath we read of in sacred or humane Stories yet sufficiently warranted in both The parties ingaging in this league are three Kingdomes famous for the knowledge acknowledgment of Christ above all the kingdomes in the world to swear before such a presence should mould the spirit of man into a great deal of reverence what then to be engaged to be incorporated and that by sacred Oath with such an high and honourable Fraternity An Oath is to be esteemed so much the more solemne by how much greater the persons are that sweare each to other as in heaven when God sweares to his Son on earth when Kings swear each to other so in this businesse where Kingdomes sweare mutually And as the solemnity of an Oath is to bee measured by the persons swearing so by the matter also that is to be sworn to God would not swear to the Covenant of works hee intended not to honour it so much it was not to continue it was not worthy of an Oath of his but to the Covenant of grace which is the Gospell he swears and repents not of it God swears for the salvation of men and of Kingdomes And if Kingdomes swear what Subject of an Oath becommeth them better then the preservation and salvation of Kingdomes by establishing the kingdome of a Saviour amongst them even our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who is a Mediator and Saviour for Nations as well as particular persons The end also is great and honourable as either of the former two is better then one saith he who best knoweth what is best and from whom alone every thing hath the goodnesse it hath Association is of divine Off-spring not only the beginning of Creatures but the putting of them together the cluster as well as the grape is the work of God consort and harmony amongst men especially amongst saints is very pleasing unto the Lord If when but two or three agree assent upon any thing on earth It shall be confirmed in heaven and for this because they gather together in his name much more when two or three Kingdomes shall meet and consent together in his name and for his name that God may bee one and his name one amongst them and his presence amidst them That prayer of Christ seemeth to proceed from a feeling sense of his own blessednesse Father that they may be one as thou in me c. Unity amongst his Churches and children must needs therefore be very acceptable unto him For out of the more deep sense desires are fetcht from within us the more pleasing will be the answer of them unto us Churches and Kingdomes are dear to God his patience towards them his compassion over them more then particular persons sheweth it plainly But Kingdomes willingly engaging themselves for his Kingdome his Christ his Saints the purity of religion his worship and Government in all particulars and in all humility sitting down at his feet to receive the law and the rule from his mouth what a price doth hee set upon such Especially when as we this day sensible of our infirmity of an unfaithfull heart not steddy with our God but apt to start from the cause if we feel the knife or the fire who binde our selves with cords as a sacrifice to the hornes of the Altar We invocate the name of the great God that his vowes yea his curse may bee upon us if we do not this yea though we suffer for so doing that is if we endeavour not so farre as the Lord shall assist us by his grace to advance the Kingdome of the Lord Jesus Christ here upon earth and make Jerusalem once more the praise of the whole world not withstanding all the contradictions of men What is this but the contents and matter of our Oath What doe we covenant What do we vow Is it not the preservation of Religion where it is reformed and the Reformation of Religion where it needs Is it not the Reformation of three Kingdomes and a Reformation universall Doctrine Discipline and Worship in whatsoever the Word shall discover unto us To practise is a fruit of love to reforme a fruit of zeale but so to reforme will bee a taken of great prudence and circumspection in each of these Churches And all this to be done according to Gods Word the best rule and according to the best reformed Churches the best interpreters of this Rule If England hath obtained to any greater perfection in so handling the word of righteousnesse and truths that are according to godlinesse as to make men more godly more righteous And if in the Churches of Scotland any more light and beauty in matters of Order and Discipline by which their Assemblies are more orderly or if to any other Church or person it hath been given better to have learned Christ in any of his wayes then any of us wee shall humbly bow and kisse their lips that can speak right words unto us in this matter and help us into the nearest uniformity with the word and minde of Christ in this great work of Reformation Honourable and Reverend Brethren there cannot be a more direct effectuall way to exhort and perswade the wise and men of sad and serious spirits and such are you to whom I am commanded to speak this day then to let into their understandings the weight and worth and great importance of the work they are perswaded unto This oath is such and in the matter and consequence of it of such
concernment as I can truly say it is worthy of us yea of all these Kingdomes yea of all the Kingdomes of the world for it is swearing fealty and allegeance unto Christ the King of Kings and a giving up of all these Kingdomes which are his inheritance to be subdued more to his thron and ruled more by his Scepter upon whose shoulders the government is laid and in the increase of whose Government and peace there shall be no end Esay 9. Yea we finde this very thing in the utmost accomplishment of it to have been the Oath of the greatest Angel that ever was who setting his feet upon two of Gods Kingdomes the one upon the Sea the other upon the Earth lifting up his hand to heaven as you are to doe this day and so swearing Rev. 10 The effect of that oath you shall finde to be this that the Kingdomes of the world become the Kingdomes of the Lord and his Christ and hee shall reigne for ever Rev. 11 His Oath was for the full and finall accomplishment this of yours for a graduall yet a great performance towards it That which the apostles and primitive times did so much and so long pray for though never long with much quietnesse enjoyed that which our Fathers in these latter times have fasted prayed and mourned after yet attained not even the cause which many dear Saints now with God have furthered by extreamest sufferings poverty imprisonment banishment death ever since the first dawning of Reformation That and the very same is the very cause and work that wee are come now through the mercy of Jesus Christ not only to pray for but swear to And surely it can be no other but the result and answer of such prayers and teares of such sincerity sufferings that three Kingdomes should be thus born or rather new born in a day that these Kingdomes should be wrought about to so great an engagement then which nothing is higher for to this end Kings raigne Kingdomes stand and States are upheld It is a speciall grace and favour of God unto you Brethren Reverend and Honourable to vouchsafe you the opportunity and to put into your hearts as this day to engage your lives and estates in matters so much concerning him and his glory And if thou should doe no more but lay a foundation stone in this great work and by so doing engage posterity after you to finish it it were honour enough But there may yet further use be made of you who now are to take this oath you are designed as chief master Builders and choice instruments for the effecting of this setled Peace and Reformation which if the Lord shall please to finish in your hands a greater happinesse on earth nor a greater means to augment your glory and crown in heaven you are not capable of And this let me further adde for your encouragement of what extensive good and fruit in the successe of it this very oath may prove to be we know not God hath set his Covenant like the Heavens not onely for duration but like also for extension The Heavens move and roule about and so communicate their light and heat and vertue to all places and parts of the earth so doth the Covenant of God so may this gift bee given to other Covenants that are framed to that pattern How much this solemne League and oath may provoke other reformed Churches to a further Reformation of themselves what light and heat it may communicate abroad to other parts of the world it is only in Him to define to whom is given the utmost ends of the earth for his inheritance and worketh by his exceeding great power great things out of as small beginnings But howsoever this I am sure of it is a way in all probability most likely to enable us to preserve defend our religion against our common enemies and possible a more sure fundation this day will be laid for ruining Popery and Prelacy the chief of them then as yet we have been led unto in any age For Popery it hath been a Religion ever dexterous in fencing and muniting it self by association and joynt strength all sorts of Professors amongst them are cast into Fraternities and Brother hoods and these Orders carefully united by Vow one with another and under some more generall notion of common dependancie Such States also Kingdomes as they have thus made theirs they endeavour to improve and secure by strict combinations and leagues each to other witnesse of late yeares that La Sainte ligue the holy league It will not bee unworthy your consideration whether seeing the preservation of Popery hath been by Leagues and Covenants God may not make a League or Covenant to be the destruction of it Nay the very rise of Popery seemeth to bee after such a manner by Kings that is Kingdomes assenting and agreeing perhaps by some joynt Covenant the text saith with one minde why not then with one mouth to give their power and strength unto the Beast and make war against the Lamb Rev. 17. where you read the Lamb shall overcome the Beast and possibly with the same weapons hee is the Lord of Lords and King of Kings hee can unite Kings and Kingdoms and give them one minde also to destroy the Whore and bee her utter ruine And may not this dayes work be a happy beginning of such a blessed expedition Prelacie another common enemy that we Covenant and swear against what hath it been or what hath the strength of it been but a subtile combination of Clergy men formed into a policy or body of their own invention framing themselves into Subordination and Dependencie one upon another so that the interest of each is improved by all a great power by this means acquired to themselves as by sad experience we have lately found The joynts and members of this body you know were knit together by the sacred engagement of an Oath the Oath of Canonicall obedience as they called it You remember also with what cunning and industrie they endeavoured lately to make this Oath and Covenant more sure for themselves and their posterity And intended a more publike solemn and universal engagement then since Popery this cause of theirs was ever maintained or supported by And questionlesse Ireland and Scotland also must at last have been brought into this holy league with England But blessed be the Lord and blessed be his good hand the Parliament that from the indignation of their spirits against so horrid a yoke have dashed out the very brains of this project and are now this day present before the Lord to take and give possession of this blessed Ordinance even an Oath and Covenant as solemne and of as large extent as they intended theirs uniting these three Kingdoms into such a League and happy combination as will doubtlesse preserve us and our Reformation against them though their iniquity in the misteries of it should still be working
in Covenant with God the best work of love and Christian Communion to joyn in Covenant with the people of God the best work of the best zeal to joyn in Covenant for Reformation against the enemies of God and Religion the best work of true loyaltie to joyn in Covenant for the preservation of our King and Superiours and the best proof of naturall affection and to be without naturall affection is one of the great sinnes of the Gentiles to joyn in Covenant for defence of our Native Countrey Liberties and Lawes Such as for these necessary ends to withdraw and are not willing to enter into Covenant have reason to enter into their own hearts and to look into their Faith love zeal loyalty and naturall affection As it is acceptable to God so have we for it the precedent and example not onely of the people of God of old of the Reformed Churches of Germany and the Low Countreyes but of our owne Noble and Christian Progenitors in the time of the danger of Religion which is expressed in the Covenant it self The defect was They went not on throughly to enter in a solemne Covenant an happinesse reserved for this time which had they done the corruptions and calamities of these dayes might have been prevented And if the Lord shal bee pleased to move loose and enlarge the hearts of his people in his Majesties Dominions to take this Covenant not in simulation nor in luke warmnesse as those that are almost perswaded to bee Christians but as becommeth the people of God it shall bee the prevention of many evils and miseries and a meane of many and rich blessings spirituall and temporall to our selves our little ones and the Posterity that shall come after us for many Generations The neere and neighbouring example of the Church and Kingdome of Scotland is in this case worthy of our best observation When the Prelates there were grown by their rents and Lordly Dignities by their exorbitant power over all sorts of his Majesties subjects Ministers and others by their places in Parliament Councel Colledge of Justice Exchequer and High Commission to a monstrous dominion and greatnesse and like Gyants setting their one foot on the neck of the Church and the other on the neck of the State were become intolerable insolent and when the people of God through their oppression in Religion Liberties and Lawes and what was dearest unto them were brought so low that they chused rather to die then to live in such slavery or to live in any other place rather then in their own native Countrey Then did the Lord say I have seen I have seen the affliction of my people and I have heard their groaning and am come downe to deliver them The beginnings were small and contemptible in the eyes of the presumptuous enemies such as use to be the beginnings of the greatest works of God but were so seconded and continually followed by the undeniable evidences of Divine Providence leading them forward from one step to another that their Mountain became strong in the end No tongue can tell what motions filled the hearts what teares were poured forth from the eyes and what cryes came from the mouthes of many thousands in that Land when they found an unwonted flame warming their breastes and perceived the power of God raising them from the dead and creating for them a new world wherein should dwell Religion and Righteousnes When they were destitute both of moneys and munition which next unto the spirits and armes of men are the sinews of Warre the Lord brought them forth out of his hid treasures which was wonderfull in their eyes and matter of astonishment to their hearts When they were many times at a pause in their deliberations and brought to such perplexity that they knew not what to chuse or to do for prosecuting the work of God onely their eyes were toward him not onely the feares and furies but the plots also and policies of the Adversaries opened the way unto them their devices were turned upon their own heads and served for the promoting of the work of God The purity of their intentions elevated above base and earthly respects and the constant peace of their hearts in the midst of many dangers did bear them out against the malicious accusations and aspersions put upon their actions all which were sensible impressions of the good providence oâ— God and â—egâ—â—e characters of his work which as the Church and Kingdom of England exercised at this time with greater difficulties then theirs have in part already found so shall the Parallel be perfected to their greater comfort in the faithful pursuing of the work unto the end Necessity which hath in it a kind of Soveraignty is a Law above all Laws and therfore is said to have no Law doth mightily presse the Church and Kingdom of Scotland at this time It is no small comfort unto them that they have not beene idle and at ease but have used all good and lawfull means of Supplications Declarations and Remonstrances to his Majestie for quenching the combustion in this Kingdome And after all these that they sent Commissioners to his Majestie humblie to mediate for a reconcilement and Pacification But the offer of their humble service was rejected from no other reason but that they had no warrant nor capacity for such a Mediation And that the intermixture of the Government of the Church of England with the Civill government of the kingdom was such a mistery as could not be understood by them Althoug it be true which was at that time often replyed that the eighth demand of the Treatie and the answer given thereunto concerning the Uniformity of Religion was a sufficient ground of capacity and the proceedings of the Houses of Parliament against Episcopal Government as a stumbling block hindering Reformation and as a prejudice to the Civil State was ground enough for their information The Commissioners having returned from his Majestie without successe and the miseries of Ireland the distresses of England and the dangers and pressures of the kingdom of Scotland growing to greater extremity such as were intrusted with the publick affairs of the Kingdome 〈…〉 according to the practise of former times his Majesty having denyed a Parliament to call a Convention of the Estates for considering of the present affairs and for providing the best remedies which immediatly upon their meeting by the speciall providence of God did receive information of diverse treacherous attempts of Papists in all the three Kingdomes as if they had been called for that effect And by the same providence Commissioners were sent from both Houses of Parliament to consider with the Estates of the Kingdome of Scotland of such Articles and Propositions as might make the conjunction betwixt the two Nations more beneficiall and effectuall for the securing of Religion and Libertie against Papists and Prelates with their adherents Their Consultations with the Commissioners of the Generall Assembly did