to order Ecclesiasticall Affairs and reforme the Church within their Dominions ALl Princes and States invested with Sovereignty of power do justly challenge to themselves the right of Convocating Nationall Synods of their own Subjects and ratifying their constitution And although pious Princes may tollerate or priviledge the Church to convene within their territories annually or triennially for the exercise of Discipline and execution of constitutions already confirmed neverthelesse we see how wary the Synod of Dort was in this particular yet he is a Magistrate of straw that will permit the Church to convene within his territories whensoever wheresoever they list to convocate before them whomsoever they please all the Nobles all the Subjects of the Kingdome to change the whole Ecclesiasticall pollicy of a Commonwealth to alter the Doctrine and Religion established to take away the legall Rights and Priviledges of the Subjects to erect new Tribunals and Courts of Justice to which Sovereigns themselves must submit and all this of their own heads by virtue of a pretended power given them from Heaven contrary to known Laws and lawfull Customs the Supreame Magistrate dissenting and disclaiming Synods ought to be called by the Supreame Magistrate if he be a Christian c. And either by himself or by such as he shall please to choose for that purpose he ought to preside over them This power the Emperours of old did challenge over Generall Councels Christian Monarchs in the blindnesse of Popery over Nationall Synods the Kings of England over their great Councels of old and their Convocation of later times The Estates of the united Provinces in the Synod of Dort this power neither Roman Catholick or Protestant in France dare deny to his King None have been more punctuall in this case then the State of Geneva where it is expresly provided that no Synod or Presbytery shall alter the Ecclesiasticall pollicy or adde any thing to it without the consent of the civil Magistrate Their Elders do not challenge an uncontrolable power as the Commissioners of Christ but are still called the Commissioners of the Signiory The lesser Councel names them with the advise of the Ministery their consent is not necessary The great Councel of 200. doth approve them or reject them At the end of the year they are presented to the Signiory who continue them or discharge them as they see cause At their admission they take an Oath to keep the Eccesiasticall Ordinances of the civil Magistrate The finall determination of doctrinall differences in Religion after conference of and with the Ecclesiasticks is referred to the Magistrate The Proclamations published with the sound of Trumpet registered in the same Book do plainly shew that the ordering of all Ecclesiasticall affairs is assumed by the Signiory But in Scotland all things are quite contrary the civil Magistrate hath no more to do with the placing or displacing of Ecclesiasticall Elders than he hath in the Electoral Colledge about the Election of an Emperour The King hath no more legislative Power in Ecclesiasticall causes than a Cobler that is a single Vote in case he be chosen an Elder otherwise none at all In Scotland Ecclesiasticall persons make repeal alter their Sanctions every day without consent of King or Councel King Iames proclaimed a Parliament to be held at Edenburgh and a little before by his Letter required the Assembly to abstain from making any Innovations in the Policy of the Church and from prejudging the decisions of the States by their conclusions and to suffer all thâ—ngs to contiâ—ue in the condition they were untill the approaching Parliament What did they hereupon They neglected the Kings Letter by their own Authority they determined all things positively questioned the Arch-Bishop of St Andrews upon their own Canons For collating to benefices and Voting in Parliament according to the â—ndoubted Laws of the Land Yea to that degree of sawcinesse they arrived and into that contempt they reduced Sovereigne Power that twenty Presbyters no more at the highest sometimes but thirteen sometimes but seven or eight dared to hold and maintaine a General Assembly as they miscalled it after it was discharged by the King against his Authority an Insolence which never any Parliament durst yet attempt By their own Authority long before there was any Statute made to that purpose they abolished all the Festivals of the Church even those which were observed in memory of the Birth Circumcision Resurrection and Ascension of our Saviour By their own Authority they decreed the abolition of Bishops requiring them to resigne their offices as not having any calling from Gods Word under pain of Excommunication And to desâ—st from Preaching untill they had a new Admission from the Generall Assembly And to compleate their own folly added further that they would dispose of their possessions as the Churches Patrimony in the next Assembly which ridiculous Ordinance was maintained stifly by the succeeding Synods notwithstanding the Statute that it should be Treason to impugn the Authority of the three Estates or to procure the innovation or diminution of â—â—y of them Which was made on purpose to controll their vain presumption Notwithstanding that themselves had formerly approved and as much as in them lay established Superintendents to endure for terme of life with their numbers bounds salaries larger than those of other Ministers indewed with Episcopall power to plant Churches ordaine Ministers assign Stipends preside in Synods direct the censures of the Church without whom there was no Excommunication The world is much mistaken concerning Episcopacy in Scotland for though the King and Parliament were compelled by the clamours and impetuous violence of the Presbyters to annex the temporalities of Bishops to the Crown yet the Function it self was never taken away in Scotland from their first conversion to Christianity untill these unhappy troubles And these very temporalities were restored by the Ad of restitution and their full power was first established Synodically and afterwards confirmed by the three Estates of the Kingdome in Parliament By their own Authority when they saw they could not prevaile with all their iterated indeavours and attempts to have their book of discipline ratified they obtruded it upon the Church themselves ordaining that all those who had born or did then beaâ—â— any office in the Church should subscribe it under pain of Excommunication By their own Authority or rather by the like unwarrantable boldness they adopted themselves to be heirs of the Prelates and and other dignities and orders of the Church suppressed by their tumultuous violence and decreed that all tythes rents lands oblations yea whatsoever had been given in former times a should be given in future times to the service of God was thâ— Patrimony of the Church and ought to be collected and distributed by the Deacons as the Word of God appoints That to convert any of this to their particular or
robs the Magistrate of the last appeale of â—iâ— Subjects THe second flows from this The last appeal ought to be the Supreame Magistrate or Magistrates within his or their Dominions as to the highest Power under God And where it is not so ordered the Common-wealth can injoy no tranquility â—s we shall see in the second part of this discourse By the Laws of England if any man find himself grieved with the sentence oâ— consistoriall proceedings of a Bishop or of his Officers he may appeal from the highest judicatory of the Church to the King iâ— Chancery who useth in that case to grant Commissions under the great Seal to Delegates expert in the Laws of the Realme whâ— have power to give him remedy and to see Justice done In Scotland this would be taken in great scorn as an high indignity upon the Commissioners of Christ to appeal from his Tribunal to the judgement of a mortal man In the year 1582. King Iames by his Letter by his Messenger the Master of Requests and by an Herald at Arms prohibited the Assembly at Saint Andrews to proceed in the case of one Mongomery and Mongomery himsâ—lf appealed to Caesar or to King and Councel What did our new Matters upon this They sleighted the Kings Letter his Messenger his Herald rejectâ—d the Appeal as made to an incompetent Judge and proceeded most violently in the cause About four years after this another Synod held at Saint Andrews proceeded in like manner against the Bishop of that Seâ— for Voting in Parliament according to his conscience and for being suspected to have penned a Declaration published by the King and Parliament at the end of the Statutes notwithstanding that he declined their judicature and appealed to the King and Parliament When did any Bishops dare to doe such acts There need no more instances their Book of Discipline it sâ—lf being so full in the case From the Kirk there is no reclamation or appellation to any Judge Civil or Ecclesiastical within the Realm CHAP. IV. That it exempts the Ministers from due Punishment THirdly If Ecclesiastick Persons in their Pulpits or Assemblies shall leave their Text and proper work to turn Incendiaries Trumpeters of sedition stirring up the people to tumults and disloyal attempts in all well-ordered Kingdoms and Commonwealths they are punishable by the Civil Magistrate whose proper office it is to take cognizance of Treason and Sedition It was well said by a King of France to some such seditious Sheba's That if they would not let him alone in their Pulpits he would send them to preach in another climate In the Vnited Provinces there want not examples of seditious Oratours who for controlling their Magistrates too sawcily in the Pulpit have been turned both out of their Churches and Cities without any fear of wresting Christs Scepter out of his hand In Geneva it self the correction of Ecclesiastical persons qua tales is expresly reserved to the Signiory So much our Disciplinarians have ouâ—-done their pattern as the passionate writings of heady men out-do the calmer decrees of a stayed Senate But the Ministers of Scotland have exempted themselves in this case from all secular judgement as King Iames who knew them best of any man living witnesseth They said He was an incompetent Iudge in such cases and that matters of the Pulpit ought to be exempted from the judgement and correction of Princes They themselves speak plain enough It is an absurd thing that sundry of them Commissaries having no function of the Kirk should be Iudges to Ministers and depose them from their rooms The reason holds as well against Magistrates as Commissaries To passe by the sawcy and seditious expressions of Mr Dury Mr Mellvill Mr Bâ—lcanquâ—ll and their impunity Mr Iames Gibson in his Sermon taxed the King for a Persecutor and threatned him with a curse that he should die childless and be the last of his race for which being convented before the Assembly and not appearing he was onely suspended during the pleasure of his brethren he should have been suspended indeed that is hanged But at another Assembly in August following upon his allâ—gation that his not appearing was out of his tender care of the Rights of the Church he was purged from his contumacy without once so much as acquainting his Majesty The case is famous of Mr David Blake Minister of St Andrews who had said in his Sermon That the King had discovered the treachery of his heart in admitting the Popish Lords into the Countrey That all Kings were the Devils barns that the Devil was in the Court and in the guiders of it And in his prayer for the Queen he used these words We must pray for her for fashion sake but we have no cause she will never do us any good He said that the Queen of England Queen Elizabeth was an Atheist that the Lords of the Session were miscreants and bribers that the Nobility were degenerated godless dissemblers and enemies to the Church that the Councel were holly glasses Cormorants and men of no Religion I appeal to all the Estates in Europe what punishment could be severe enough for such audacious virulence The English Ambassadour complains of it Blake is cited before the Councel The Commissioners of the Church plead That it will be ill taken to bring Ministers in question upon such trifling delations as inconsistent with the liberties of the Church They conclude that a Declinatour should be used and a Protestation made against those proceedings saying It was Gods cause wherein they ought to stand to all hazâ—rds Accordingly a Declinatour was framed and presented Blake desires to be remitted to the Presbytery as his Ordinary The Commissioners send the Copie of the Declinatour to all the Presbyteries requiring them for the greater corroboration of their doings to subscribe the same and to commend the cause in hand in their private and publick prayers to God using their best credit with their flocks for the maintenance thereof The King justly incensed herewith dischargeth the Commissioners Notwithstanding this Injunction they stay still and send Delegates to the King to represent the inconveniences that might ensue The King more desirous to decline their envy than they his judgement offers peace The Commissioners refuse it and present an insoâ—ent Petition which the King rejects deservedly and the cause was heard thâ— very day that the Princes Elizabeth now Queen of Bohemia wâ—s Christened The witnesses were produced Mr Robert Ponte in the name of the Church makes a Pretestation Blake presents a second Dâ—clinatour The Councel decree that the cause being treasonable is cognoscible before them The good King still seeks peace sends Messengers treats offers to remit but it is labour in vain The Ministers answer peremptorily by Mr Robert Bruce their Prolocutor That the liberty of Christs Kingdom had received such a wound by this usurpation of the Rights of the Church that if the lives of Mr Blake
Covenant issued out by the Kings Authority this Covenant without his Authority against his Authority that Covenant was for the Lawes of the Realm this is against the Lawes of the Realm that was to maintain the Religion established this to overthrow the Religion established But because I will not ground my Discourse upon any thing that is disputable either in matter of Right or Fact And in truth because I have no need of them I forgive them these advantages onely with this gentle memento That when other forraign Churches and the Church of Soctland it selfe as appeares by their publike Liturgy used in those dayes did sue for aid and assistance from the Crown and Kingdom of England they did not go about to obtrude their owne Discipline upon them but left them free to choose for themselves The grounds which follow are demonstrative First no man can dispose that by vow or otherwise either to God or man which is the right of a third person without his consent Neither can the inferiour oblige himself to the prejudice of his Superiour contrary to his duty without his Superiours allowance God accepts no such pretences to seem obsequious to him out of the undoubted right of another person Now the power of Armes and the defence of the Lawes and portection of the Subjects by those Armes is by the Law of England clearly invested in the Crowne And where the King is bound in conscience to protect the Subject is bound in conscience to assist Therefore every English Subject owes his Armes and his Obedience to his King and cannot dispose them as a free gift of his owne nor by any act of his whatsoever diminish his Soveraignes right over him but in those things wherein by Law he owes subjection to his Prince he remaineth still obliged notwithstanding any Vow or Covenant to the contrary especially when the subject and scope of the Covenant is against the konwn Lawes of the Realm So as without all manner of doubt no Divine or Learned Casuist in the world dissenting This Covenant is either void in it self or at least voided by his Majesties Proclamation prohibiting the taking of it and nullifying its obligation Secondly It is confessed by all men that that an Oath ought not to be the bound of iniquity nor doth oblige a transgressour The golden rule is in malis prâ—missis rescinde fidem in turpi voto muta decretum To observe a wicked engagement doubles the sinne Nothing can be the matter of a Vow or Covenant which is evidently unlawfull But it is evidently unlawfull for a Subject or Subjects to alter the Lawes established by force without the concurrence and against the commands of the Supreme Legislator for the introduction of a forraign Discipline This is the very matter and subject of the Covenant Subjects vow to God and swear one to another to change the Lawes of the Realm to abolish the Discipline of the Church and the Liturgy lawfully established by the Sword which was never committed to their hands by God or man without the King against the King which no man can deny in earnest to be plain rebelâ—ion And it is yet the worse that it is to the main prejudice of a third order of the Kingdom the taking away whose rights without their consents without making them satisfaction cannot be justified in point of conscience Yea though it were for the greater convenience of the Kingdom as is most falsely pretended And is harder measure than the Abbots and Friers received from Hanry the eight or than either Christians or Turkes do offer to their conquered enemies Lastly a supervenient oath or covenant either with God or man cannot take away the obligation of a just oath precedent But such is the Covenant a subsequent oath inconsistent with and destuructive to a precedent oath that is the oath of Supremacy which all the Church-men throughout the Kingdome all the Parliament men at their admission to the house all persons of quality throughout England have taken The former oath acknowledgeth the King to be the onely supreame head that is civill head to see that every man do his duty in his calling and Governour of the Church of England The second aoth or covenant to set up the Presbyterian Gouernment as it is in Scotland denieth all this virtually maks it a politicall papacy acknowledgeth no governors but onely the Presbyters The former oath gives the King the supream power over all persons in all causes The second oath gives him a power over all persons as they are subjects but none at all in Ecclesiasticall causes This they make to be sacriledge By all which it is most apparent that this Covenant was neither free nor deliberate nor valide nor lawfull nor consistent with our former oathes but inforced deceitfull invalid impious rebellious and contradictory to our former ingagements and consequently obligeth no man to performance but all men to repentance For the greater certainty whereof I appeale upon this stating of the case to all the learned Casuists and Divines in Europe touching the point of common right And that this is the true state of the case I appeal to our adversaries themselves No man that hath any spark of ingenuity will denie it No English-man who hath any tolerable degree of judgement or knowledge in the laws of his countrey can denie it but at the same instant his conscience must give him the lie They who plead for this rebellion dare not put it to a triall at law they doe not ground their defence upon the lawes but either upon their own groundlesse jealosie and fears of the Kings intention to introduce Popery to subvert the lawes and to enslaâ—e the people This is to run into a certain crime for fear of an uncertain They who intend to pick quarrels know how to feign suspicions Or they ground it upon the succâ—sse of their arms or upon the Soveraigne right of the people over all lawes and Magistrates whose Representatives they create themselves whilest the poor people sigh in corners and dare not say their soul is their own lamenting their former folly to have contributed so much to their own undoing Or lastly upon Religion the cause of God the worst plea of all the rest to make God accessary to their treasons murthers covetousnesse ambition Christ did never authorise Subjects to plant Christian Religion much lesse their own fancticall dreames or fantasticall devises in the blood of their Soveraigne and fellow subjects Speak out is it lawfull for Subjects to take up arms against their Prince meerly for Religion or is it not lawfull If ye say it is not lawfull ye condemn your selves for your Covenant testifieth to the world that ye have taken up armes meerly to alter Religion and that ye bear no Allegiance to your King but onely in order to Religion that is in plain terms to to your own humours and conceits If ye say it is lawfull ye justifie the Independents in England for