deny but the defenders of this pernicious Doctrine were the chief of their New Reformation and the Authors of the war people whose Counsels were applauded as Oracles and who drew after them their party by the repetition of their sanctified strength of zeal those who dared to contradict them did it very fearfully and kissing their hands before they spake but they themselves carried all before them acting with a prophetick liberty and boldness also after all they only were the men to be trusted and who were put upon all great designs and employments for they feared that they who are less governed by Enthusiasms might at last so far forget themselves as to be faithful to their Sovereign and yield to a peaceable accomodation Behold here then wherefore we would not joyn our selves with these Reformers because we see that even they themselves have the greatest need of Reformation being far gone from the Doctrine of the reformed Churches erring in the Faith but yet more in Charity It 's they would sweep the Church as God swept Babylon with the Beesom of destruction They speak not of reforming neither Doctrines nor Manners but to ruine the Persons They account the most part of the Clergy of the Kingdom unworthy to be corrected but altogether to be rooted out that one part of the Reformation was to ruine the King and to take the sword from his side to cut off his head the favourers of tumults were the only persons that were caressed they lent their ears to the populâ—r tumults whilst they shut the mouths and bound the hands of the Magistrates It was they taught that the people were above the King and that the Command of Saint Paul that every one should be subject to the higher Powers obligeth the King for to obey the People it was they that upheld yea favoured and courted all sorts of pernicious Sects provided that they would bandy with them against their King It was they that suffered to go unpunished the Blasphemies in the Pulpits the Insolencies Sacriledges and horrible profanations of the Service of God and permitted all things to those who were of the zealous party We beheld on the other side that the King took knowledge of the grievances of his people as well for the spiritual as temporal and laboured sincerely to remedy them that he consented to the alteration of offensive things in Religion and to the punishment of those who were accused as troublers of the Church provided that the things and persons were examined by regular and lawful waies of a general Synod which he offered to assemble he also was pleased to yield of his own right to augment the rights of his Subjects and daily multiplied acts of favour capable to convert the most alienated spirits passed by the many and great affronts that were done to his authority and endeavoured by all waies possible to overcome evil with good But the more the King yielded the more insolent were the factious against him he offered to reform both the State and Church but they would not permit him they themselves would do that work without him The King sent divers messages to know of them what things they would reform but to this they answered only with complaints Neither could he obtain any declaration of that which they desired until that his Forts Magazines Ships and Revenues were taken from him the reason of which hath since been given by one of their principal Champions Having to sow the Lords Field they had need to make a fence about it before they begin that the work-men might labour without interruption and that to lance the Apostume of a sick State they must first bind the Patient Our Conscience could not accomodate it self to this prudence neither ever expect any good from such a way of Reformation which would bind the Royal hands and feet of Majesty before they would declare what they desired of his Favour and cut asunder the Nerves of his Authority and subsistance under colour to establish the Kingdom of Jesus Christ A strange proceeding to us that have learned of St Paul that a Prince beareth not the sword in vain Rom. 13.4 But in that is the Minister of God to execute wrath and that to resist him yea when he should make use of the sword to commit injustice is to resist the Ordinance of God But if he use it well or ill that ought to be left to him who gave it him and to whom only he ought to render account his Subjects ought to counsel him if he did ill and refuse to assist him in evil doing and not repress him by Arms That if this Command of St Paul obliged the Romans to obey a cruel vicious Prince and enemy to God we should account our selves much more bound to obey a just merciful religious Prince whose life was a rare example of piety and sanctity and his Government so just and peaceable that he might well be called the Father of his Subjects who wanted nothing to make them happy but to know their happiness CHAP. II. That the Covenanters are destitute of all Proofs from Holy Scripture for their War made against the King THese violent beginnings of the Covenanters and their Progress also which overthrows all humane Authority had great need to strengthen it self by Divine Authority to satisfie the Conscience whence is it that they made a great noise of it in their Pulpits but not in their Disputes for those that exhorted the people in Scripture-term to War against the King hang down the head when in conference their Proofs are demanded saying that It is not for Divines but Lawyers to decide the present quarrel Whence it appears that there is a great difference betwixt the terms and proofs of Scripture and that many that have the voice of the Lamb speak as the Dragon But fearing lest they should accuse us that we suppress their proofs behold here all that they make use of both in their Books and Sermons part borrowed from the writings of the Jesuites and part from two Books which are Printed with Machiavels Prince and not without great reason for there are three wicked Books together and its a wonder how that in threescore years their Books have not been burnt for company by the hands of the common Executioner They alledge the example of David who had six hundred men for his guard when he was pursued by Saul 1 Sam. 22.2 The example of the Army of Israel which saved Jonathan when Saul would have put him to death 1 Sam. 14.45 Of Ehud who slew Eglon King of Moab an Oppressor of the Israelites Judg. 3.21 The example of the Town of Libnah which revolted from the obedience of Jehoram because he had forsaken the Lord God of his Fathers 2 Chr. 21.10 Of Jehu that cut off the House of Ahab 2 Kings 9. The example of Jehojadah the High Priest who commanded Athaliah the Queen to be put to death 2 Kings 11.15 Of the Priests
from Whom they take the use of their holy prayers have great cause to fear they will also take from them their Religion whereupon some have Fallen into a desperate Melancholy if they deal thus with us because they have a greater measure of light then we it is much to be desired that they had a little more that they fall not into the offence condemned by S. Paul and through thy knowledge shall thy weak brother perish for whom Christ died but when ye sin against the Brethren and wound their weak conscience ye sin against Christ 1 Cor. 8.11 12. Heretofore this faction would be spar'd in their disobedience to the Ecclesiastical Laws pretending tenderness and weakness of Conscience but now that they are become Masters of the Laws they regard not our weakness but force us to follow their fantasies without considering our doubts and scruples The King by the Articles of Uxbridge offered them liberty of Conscience but they will not give neither the King nor his subjects the like liberty Either take the Covenant or leave your Benefice was the choice they gave many Ministers Alledge to them the great and deep affliction of the people because they had taken from them their Common Prayers their Forms for the celebration of the Sacraments and of Marriage their customs of receiving the Sacrament at Christmas Easter and Pentecost and the decent manner of burying their dead with some Prayers and Texts of Scripture which put the living in mind of their mortality and raised up in them an assurance of their resurrection They will answer you that these observations are not necessary and mock at the affliction of the ignorant people But we hold that it is necessary to obey God who hath commanded us to do nothing whereby thy weak brother stumbleth is offended or made weak but be such as give none offence neither to the Jew nor to the Gentiles nor to the Church of God Rom. 14.21 Also the imaginary danger which they fear of things that may come to passe is a thousand times less then the present scandal and offence done to pious souls to behold all Ecclesiastical order overthrown and Liberty given to prophane and fanatique spirits to whom any thing is permitted unless to obey the King and the orders established by Lawfull Authority But let us pass to other offences There are many more besides the violation of Orders the very substance of Religion is endamaged What care do many people take to Baptize their children How do they reprove them that Baptize no more in the Name of the Father the Son and the holy Ghost Is it notpermitted to every one to Baptize or not Baptize their children and Baptism is it not refused to many Infants which are presented to be Baptized These new Reformers find so many difficulties in the capacity of their Parents that they are constrained many times to carry their children far from their dwellings to be received into the Christian Church for 't is one of the Errors of the Times that if the Father hath not Faith that is to say a Faith after their mode the Infant must not be Baptized In stead whereof the Reformed Churches in Baptizing Infants consider not the Faith of the Parents but of the Church in which they are born and the Doctrine not according as it is believed but according as it is taught Fidem non subjectivam sed objectivam For if they must be certain whether the Father hath Faith they should also be certain that he is the Father of the Infant which the Charity of the Church questioneth not Also it is an ordinary custom amongst them to rebaptize aged persons and to plunge women naked into the Water untill they say they feel faith The abuse of the blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper is yet worse because it is more universal and maintained by the body of their Divines We beseech all lovers of the Christian Religion to enquire themselves of these Ministers how long time they have forborn to receive or administer this holy Sacrament when was it that the heads of the Covenanters received it when is it that their Souldiers were partakers of it those zealous murtherers whose assassinations and plunderings are steeped in piety Is it because they dare not receive the body and blood of our Lord with hands defiled with rapine and innocent blood But this reason cannot serve for the Churches where the Ministers are laid hold on and forbidden to administer the Sacrament where they are Ministers How many Churches are there where there hath been no speaking of a Sacrament these fifteen or sixteen years And is it not for them to mock God to make a Directory of the manner of receiving the Lords Supper and not to make use of it yea by force to hinder execution and performance of it Our Lord Jesus hath commanded us To do this in remembrance of him 1 Cor. 11.26 But behold here persons who impose a necessity not to do because they know not those who are worthy and therefore they hinder others to obey Jesus Christ taking by force the Bread and Wine from the people who were assembled to communicate and carried away the Minister out of the Church for fear he should administer the Sacrament These actions cry to heaven and will one day draw down a just vengeance These proceedings make us fear least they rank the Lords Supper amongst the superannuated ceremonies which must be abolished for in many Churches where the Covenanters are it 's not used which is a horrible thing to hear the Church of God since Christs time never before brought forth such examples Certainly since Jesus Christ would that we should do this in remembrance of him until his coming again if he should come now he would find it very strange that they had left before his coming this celebration of the memory of his death which he had so expresly commanded and it is to be presumed that he will receive no reason against his Command for the coming of Jesus Christ is the only reason which ought to make this holy Ordinance cease By this scruple that they dare not administer the holy Supper but to those alone whom they know to be worthy which is the general pretext of their party for their total abstinence they condemn not only the Reformed Churches who exclude none from the holy Communion unless they be ignorant and scandalous persons but also Jesus Christ who administred to the Disciple that betrayed him even then when he was plotting his treason in his heart By this also they even bind themselves not to celebrate the Supper of the Lord until they be inspectors and lookers into Conscience that is to say Gods For otherwise they cannot be fully satisfied of the worthiness of persons and all those who have a holy desire to partake of the Lords Table shall not be admitted until these principal Clerks of the Councel-Chamber of God have formed a Church which consists
some the affection some the desire of the flesh is not subject to the Law of God And although there is no condemnation for them that beléeve and are baptized yet the Apostle doth confesse that concupâ—scence and lust hath of it self the nature of sinne X. THe condition of man after the fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and good works to faith and calling upon God Wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God without the grace of God by Christ preventing us that we maâ— have a good will and working with us when we have that good will XI WE are accounted righteous before God only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ by faith and not for our own works or deservings Wherefore that we are notified by faith onely is a most wholesome Doctrine and very full of comfort as more largely is expressed in the Homily of Iustification XII ALbeit that good works which are the fruits of faith and follow after Iustification cannot put away our sinnes and endure the severity of Gods â—udgement yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ and do â—pring out necessarily of a truâ— and â— holy faith in so much that by them a lively â—aith may be as evidently knowen as a â—ree discerned by the â—â—utt XIII WOrks done before the grace of Christ and the inspiration of his Spirit are not pleasant to God forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Iesu Christ neither do they make men meet to receive grace or as the School-Authors say deserve grace of congruity yea rather for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done we doubt not but they have the nature of sinne XIV VOluntary Works besides over and above Gods Commandments which they call works of Supâ—rerâ—gation cannot be taught without arrogancy and impiety For by them men do declare that they do not onely render unto God as much as they are bound to do but that they do more for his sake then of bounden duty is required Wheras Christ saith plainly When ye have done all that are commanded to you say We are unprofitable servants XV. CHrist in the truth of our nature was made like unto us in all things sinne onely except from which he was clearly void both in his flesh and in his Spirit He came to be a Lamb without spot who by sacrifice of himself once made should take away the sinnes of the world and sinne as Saint Iohn saith was not in him But all we the rest although baptized and born again in Christ yet offend in many things and if we say we have no sinne we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us XVI NOt every deadly sinne willingly committed after Baptisme is sinne against the holy Ghost and impardonable Wherefore the grant of repentance is not to be denied to such as fall into sinne after Baptisme After we have received the holy Ghost we may depart from grace given and fall into sinne and by the grace of God we may arise again and amend our lives And therefore they are to be condemned which say they can no more sinne as long as they live here to deny the place of forgivenesse to such as truly repent XVII PRedestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God whereby before the foundations of the world were laid he hath constanâ—ly â—ecâ—éed by his counsel secret to us to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation as vessels made to honour Wherefore they which be indued with so excellent a benefit of God be called according to Gods purpose by his Spirit working in due season they through grace obey the calling they be iustified freely they be made Sons of God by adoption they be made like the Image of his onely begotten Sonne Iesus Christ they walk relâ—giously in good works and at lengâ—h by Gods mercy they attain to everlasting felicity As the godly consideration of Predestination and our Election in Christ is full of sweet pleasant and unspeakable comfort to godly persons and such as feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ mortifying the works of the flesh and their earthly members and drawing up their mind to high and heavenly things as well because it doth greatly establish and confirm their faith of eternall salvation to be enjoyed through Christ as because it doth fervently kindle their love towards God So for curious and carnall persons lacking the Spirit of Christ to have continually before their eyes the sentence of Gods predestination is a most dangerous down fall whereby the devil doth thrust them either into desparation or into retchlessenesse of most unclean living no lesse perilous then desparation Furthermore we must receive Gods promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in holy Scripture and in our doings that will of God is to be followed which we have expresly declared unto us in the Word of God XVIII THey also are to be had accursed that presume to say that every man shall be saved by the Law or sect which he professeth so that he be diligent to frame his life according to that law and the light of nature For holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the Name of Iesus Christ whereby men must be saved XIX THe visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithfull men in the which the pure Word of God is preached and the Sacraments be duely minister according to Christs Ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same As the Church of Hierusalem Alexandria and Antioch have erred So also the Church of Rome hath erred not onely in their living and manner of ceremonies but also in matters of faith XX. THe Church hath power to decrâ—e Rites or Ceremonies and authority in controversies of faith And yet it is not lawfull for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to Gods Word written neither may it so expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another Wherefore although the Church be a witnesse and a keeper of holy Writ yet as it ought not to decree any thing against the same so besides the same ought it not to inforce any thing to be beléeved for necessity of salvation XXI GEnerall Councels may not be gathered together without the commandment and will of Princes And when they be gathered together forasmuch as they be an assembly of men whereof all be not governed with the Spirit and Word of God they may erre and sometime have erred even in things pertaining unto God Wherefore things ordained by them as necessary to salvation have neither strength nor authority unlesse it may be declared that they be taken out of holy Scripture XXII THe Romish doctrine concerning Purgatory Pardons worshiping
and adoration as well of Images as of Relicks and also invocation of Saints is a â—ond thing vainly invented and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture but rather repugnant to the Word of God XXIII IT is not lawfull for any man to take upon him the office of publick preaching or ministring the Sacraments in the Congregation before he be lawfully called and sent to execute the same And those we ought to judge lawfully called sent which be chosen called to this work by men who have publick authority given unto them in the Congregation to call and send Ministers into the Lords vineyard XXIV IT is a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God and the custome of the Primitive Church to have publick prayer in the Church or to minister the Sacraments in a tongue not understanded of the people XXV SAcraments ordained of Christ be not onely badges or tokens of Christian mens profession but rather they be certain sure witnesses and effectuall signes of grace and Gods good will towards us by the which he doth work invisibly in us and doth not onely quicken but also strengthen and confirm our faith in him There are two Sacraments ordained of Christ our Lord in the Gospel that is to say Baptisme and the Supper of the Lord. Those five commonly called Sacraments that is to say Confirmation Penance Orders Matrimony and extream Vnction are not to be counted for Sacraments of the Gospel being such as have grown partly of the corrupt following of the Apostles partly are states of life allowed in the Scriptures but yet have not like nature of Sacraments with Baptisme and the Lords Supper for that they have not any visible sign or ceremony ordained of God The Sacraments were not ordained of Christ to be gazed upon or to be carried about but that we should duely use them And in such onely as worthily receive the same they have a wholsome effect or operation But they that receive them unworthily purchase to themselves damnation as S. Paul saith XXVI ALthough in the visible Church the evil be ever mingled with the good and sometime the evil have chief authority in the ministration of the Word and Sacraments yet forasmuch as they do not the same in their own name but in Christs and doe minister by his commission and authority we may use their ministry both in hearing the Word of God and in the receiving of the Sacraments Neither is the effect of Chriâ—â— ordinance taken away by their wickednesse noâ— the grace of Gods gifts diminished from such as by faith and rightly do receive the Sacraments ministred unto them which be effectuall because of Christâ— institution and promise although they be ministred by evil men Neverthelesse it appertaineth to the discipline of the Church that inquiry be made of evil Ministers and that they be accused by those that have knowledge of their offences and finally being found guilty by just judgement be deposed XXVII BAptisme is not onely a sign of profession and mark of difference whereby Christian men are discerned from others that be not Christned but it is also a sign of Regeneration or new birth whereby as by an instrument they that receive Baptisme rightly are grafted into the Church the promises of the forgivenesse of sinne and of our adoption to be the Sonnes of God by the holy Ghost are visibly signed and sealed faith is confirmed and grace increased by virtue of prayer unto God The Baptisme of young children is in any wise to be retained in the Church as most agreeable with the institution of Christ XXVIII THe Supper of the Lord is not onely a sign of the love that Christians ought to have among themselves one to another but rather it is a Sacrament of our redemption by Christs death Insomuch that to such as rightly worthily and with faith receive the same the bread which we break is a partaking of the Body of Christ and likewise the Cup of blessing is a partaking of the blood of Christ Transubstantiation or the change of the substance of Bread and Wine in the Supper of the Lord cannot be prooved by holy Writ but it is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture overthroweth the nature of a Sacrament and hath given occasion to many superstitions The body of Christ is given taken and eaten in the Supper onely after an heavenly and spirituall manner And the mean whereby the Body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is Faith The Sacrament of the Lords Supper was not by Christs ordinance reserved caried about lifâ—ed up or worshipped XXIX THe wicked and such as be void of a lively faith although they do carnally and visibly presse with their téeth as S. Augustine saith the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ yet in no wise are they partakers of Christ but rather to their condemnation do eat and drink the signe or Sacrament of so great a thing XXX THe Cup of the Lord is not to be denied to the Lay people For both the parts of the Lords Sacrament by Christs ordinance and commandement ought to be ministred to all Christian men alike XXXI THe offering of Christ once made is that perfect redemption propitiation and satisfaction for all the sins of the whole world both originall and actuall and there is none other satisfaction for sin but that alone Wherefore the sacrifices of Masses in the which it was commonly said that the Priests did offer Christ for the quick and the dead to have remission of pain or guilt were blasphemous fables and dangerous deceits XXXII BIshops Priests and Deacons are not commanded by Gods Law either to vow the estate of single life or to abstain from marriage Therefore it is lawfull also for them as for all other Christian men to marry at their own discretion as they shall judge the same to serve better to Godlinesse XXXIII THat person which by open denunciation of the Church is rightly cut off from the unity of the Church and excommunicated ought to be taken of the whole multitude of the faithfull as an heathen Publican untill he be openly reconciled by Penance and received into the Church by a Iudge that hath authority thereunto XXXIV IT is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places one or utterly like for at all times they have been divers and may be changed according to the diversitie of Countries times and mens manners so that nothing be ordained against Gods Word Whosoever through his private judgement willingly and purposely doth openly break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church which be not repugnant to the Word of God and be ordained and approved by common authority ought to be rebuked openly that other may fear to do the like as he that offendeth against the common Order of the Church and hurteth the authority of the Magistrate and woundeth the Consciences of the weak brethren Every particular or nationall Church hath authoritie to ordaine
them from the outward communion of the visible Church and in this as in other things Buchanan hath shewed himself to be less skilled in Divinity then in Poetry The best excuse which can be alledged in his Defence is that which Mr. Du Moulin lends him which may also serve for Mr. Knox That if he hath written any thing which passeth moderation we must 〈◊〉 attribute it to his Religion but nature for its most certain both these were hot headed men and had a great Antipathy against Monarchy As for the doctrine of King killing which is a familiar doctrine amongst the Jesuits and is oft their shame and reproach they to render us as odious as themselves and by way of exchange alledge and quote in their writings the passages of Buchanan Knox and Goodman who together with them teach the same Doctrine That cunning Jesuite Petra Sancta is very curious in searching into their writings whom that excellent person Mr River answers and tels him that none amongst us approve or allow those wicked Maximes and imputes the cause to their supposed persecution which had exasperated their spirits and to the hot heads of the Nations of this Iland After this so wise and charitable a reprehension coming from a person of such eminency men of learning amongst them ought at least to have learned modesty since they refused to learn obedience of their Parliaments which condemned these Doctrines of Knox and Buchanan by their publike Acts or by the determinations of their principal Divines who have learnedly refuted them and also by considering what great pains Mr. Bloudil Mr. Valade and other judicious and learned men of Forraign Churches have taken to wash off the filth of their doctrines and behaviours which have exceedingly scandalized the Evangelical profession after so many Iterated saving advertisements one would have thought they should have preserved themselves from falling into the same offences and from giving new occasions of rejoycing to their enemies and of shame to their brethren but behold of late worse then ever their hot heads have produced such new effects of violence as gives a challenge of defiance to the very Jesuits themselves The Author of Sions Plea animates the people to war and to pull down the Bishops speaking thus Smite neither small nor great but the troublers of Israel wound that Hazael in the fifth Rib Yea if your father and mother stand in your way to prevent you dispatch them suddenly pull down the ensign of the Dragon set up the standard of Jesus Christ What If the father of the State stand in your way now when ye are busie in this holy cause must he be dispatched no doubt but they would tread upon him to make way and would serve the Son as they had done the Father 't is a point resolved on by the same Author They must strike the Basilike vein none but that can heal the Pluresie of State which is as much as to say in good English that they must cut the throat of the King for the publike good This Author were a good Scholler of the two Jesuites Guignard and Scribanius had he not too grossly borrowed their Terms for say they France was sick and they must cut the Basilike vein to heal her and Scribanius that they committed a great error on S. Bartholomews even that they cut not that vein That is that those of the Guisian Faction spared the lives of the King of Navar and the Prince of Condie Oh rare Flowers of Diabolical Rhetorick Oh the shame of Christian Religion Is this the simplicity and meekness of the Gospel Is this the way to guide Conscience into the way of peace and to set up the Kingdom of Jesus Christ or Christ on his Throne If S. Paul were alive doubtless these men would even maintain to his face that he understood not the nature of the spiritual Kingdome when he said Rom. 14.7 That the Kingdome of God is righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost And when he read this lesson to the Christians Let the peace of God rule in your hearts to which peace ye are called in one body They would have taught him that the Kingdome of Jesus Christ ought to be set up by the murthering of Kings the destruction of the people and the oâ—erthrow of States and would have sent him to their Catechise to be instructed That the Parliament Souldiers at the present ought not to consider us as their Fellow-Citizens or their Parents or their companions in Religion but as Enemies of God upholders of Anti-Christ and therefore their eye should not pity us nor their sword spare us These are the words of that abominable Catechism published by Authority for the use of the Covenanters Army Oh behold the principles of Faith wherewith these dull souls are instructed Behold the Bread of Life wherewith their Divines feed the consciences of the poor people Jer. 23.4 I have seen in the Prophets of Hierusalem an horrible thing they commit adultery and walk in lies they strengthen also the hands of evil doers Israel the daies of thy visitation are come thy Prophets are fools and thy men of Revelations are mad To these prodigious Doctrines we will joyn that Aphorism in the book entituled Altare Damascenum That all Kings have a natural hatred against Christ If ye would believe this man every one that loves Christ must bear an irreconcileable hatred to all Kings was there ever a more seditious and execrable Maxime after such a Doctrine pronounced by an Author of such account should we ask who hath put weapons into the hands of this superstitious people against their Soveraign for these poor miserable people hate the King for the love of God yea many account him an Enemy of Jesus Christ even because he is a King That we may the better discover by what spirit this man is led observe how he deals with his natural Prince he calls King James of most happy and glorious memory Infestissimus Ecclesia Hostes the most mortal enemy of the Church without doubt these who read this will question what Religion this man is of who so qualifies the incomparable Defender of the Faith who hath so vigorously and sincerely maintained the truth that if there were a Christian in the world who knew not thar great Prince neither by his admirable writings nor by the Renown of his Piety and Wisdome and should hear him call'd the most spiteful and mortal Enemy of the Church he might well imagine that King James had turned Turk and changed the Churches of his Kingdome into Mosques and sold his Christian Subjects for slaves to the Moors It were to do wrong to the testimony that himself hath given by the Immortal Monuments of his Religious Wisdome and by his truly Christian and Fatherly Government to undertake here to defend him against so unequal an Adversary wherein the injuries spoken of this excellent King turns to the ruine and perdition of
us these scourges for our sins by this our impatience will be bridled by Humility Moreover le ts remember that it is not for us to remedy these evils and that all that we have to do is to beg help of God in whose hands the hearts of Kings and motions in Kingdoms are He said a little before That the Word of God bound us not only to be subject to Princes that are worthy of our duty but to all Princes whatsoever and howsoever they came to the Soveraignty and although they do nothing less then perform the duties of good Soveraigns In his Commentary upon Daniel Let us learn saith he by the example of the Prophet to beseech God for Tirants if it shall please him to subject us to their inordinate pleasure for what though they be unworthy of all Offices of Humanity yet neverthelesse because it is by the will of God that he commands it s our duty to bear the yoke patiently not only because of wrath as Saint Paul admonisheth but also for Conscience sake otherwise we are not only Rebels against them but against God This Lesson is of the same Authors Let this be ever in our memory that the same Divine Authority that gives Authority to Kings establisheth also the most wicked Kings Oh let never these seditious thoughts enter into our spirits that we should deal with the King as he deserves and that it is not reasonable to yield the duty of Subjects to him who will not perform the duty of King to us Which is notwithstanding the arguing of the Covenanters Peter Martyr an Italian but a Minister in those Churches our enemies invite to associate with them is not less contrary to them Expounding that place of the Proverbs By me Kings reign saith That under the name of Kings the Text understands also Tyrants Whence he collects this consequence Therefore learning hence that thy K. is established by God beware thou never conspirest any seditious thing in the State all that thou must do when thou art oppressed is to appeal to the Tribunal of God there being no other superiour power to whom a Tyrant ought to obey He saith also very pertinently worthy our best observation That then when God Would chastise the Kings of Judah for their sins he did not do it by the Jews but by the Babylonians Assyrians and Egyptians shewing by the conduct of his justice and providence that it is not for subjects to take knowledge of the faults of their soveraigns but that they ought to leave them wholly to God who hath other means in his hand to punish them and reduce them to their duty Surely if Calvin and Martyr had lived in these days and were benificed in England they would eject them out of their benefices for this troublesom doctrine which hinders the progress of the holy Covenant and fils their consciences full of scruples whom they instruct to rebel against their Soveraign for the Lords sake And above all Monsieur Deodatâ— would be very ill dealt with by them for being Author of that excellent Epistle sent from the Church of Genevah to the Ecclesiastical Assembly at London in which your good King is highly prais'd for the justice and clemency of his proceedings in this present quarrel the popular tumults condemned which forced him to retire from his Parliament and these Gentlemen earnestly entreated to dispossess their spirits of all factious inclinations and to wash off this foul spot by which they have and do defame the pure profession of the Gospel giving occasion for the world to believe that the reformed Religion hath a secret hatred and antipathy against the Majesty of Kings and soveraign authority against this Epistle our enemies vomited out many outragious words in their books maintaining that it was supposititious and invented by some prophane Atheist Behold here the thanks that this great and learned person and the reverend Ministers his brethren received for their charitable and truly Christian counsel And this is further to be observed that the Assembly at London having sent their Epistle and Oath of their Covenant to seventeen forraign Churches whereof the Churches of France made but one they make no noise of the Answers they received which doth evidently testifie they did not satisfie them and that they durst not produce them for fear of making it appear that the generality of the reformed Churches were ashamed of their actions and condemned the insurrections of Subjects against their Soveraign under pretence of reformation This Divinity of Rebellion being founded upon one only Maxime that the power of Kings is of humane and not divine right and that their right to the Kingdom is but a paction between them and the people It s much to purpose to produce here what the Churches of France hold hereupon and how they refuse the reasons of the Jesuits which are the same with the Covenanters Behold the last Chapter of the Buckler of Faith which is a garment so fit for the size of both parties that after the one hath made use of it the other may put it on they need change nothing but the persons Thomas the Prince of the School Divines saith that the power of Princes and Lords is but of humane institution and comes not from God to whom we may joyn Cardinal Bellarmine in his Book against Barkley and Monsieur Arnoux who upon the second Article of our confession cals the power of the Magistrate a humane law conformable to the Apothegme of reverend Father Binet the Jesuit who told Mr. Casaubon that it were better all Kings were killed than a confession should be revealed because the power of Kings is but an humane right but confession is of Divine right The Reasons they bring for this opinion are 1. That the first King that was raised in the world namely Nimrod was raised by violence and not by the ordinance of God 2. That the most part of the Empires and Kingdoms that ever have been came by conquest one Nation overcoming the other or by some Prince whose ambition moved him to pick an unjust quarrel with his Neighbour 3. That Emperors and Kings are established by humane ways whether they come to the Crown by hereditary succession or by election since there is no extraordinary revelation nor no rule in the Word of God that a Nation are bound to follow rather Succession which is hereditary than that which is by Election 4. That there is no express command of God to obey Henry rather than Lewis or to acknowledge this man rather than that for King 5. That for these considerations the Apostle St. Peter calls our obedience to Kings an Ordinance of man saying Submit your selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as supream or unto Governours c. 1 Pet. 2.15 These are the ordinary reasons of the Covenanters if they should disavow them their Books would witness
take a reciprocal Oath and in a paction of such importance there should also pass some publick contract things which are not practised so that hereby it evidently appears that this imagination of the enemies of Monarchy have not any foundation neither in Law nor Custome Some persons think they speak very finely in saying that the Authority of the King is an Usurpation of the Sword confirmed by Custome that if they could gain their liberty by the sword and confirm it by custome their Right would be as good as his and upon this they Phylosophy upon the Resolutions of States which are in the hand of God and teach us to follow the course of his Providence But by speaking thus they commit a double errour against conscience and against prudence As for conscience the antient constitution of the State confirmed by so many ages Statutes Oaths of Allegiance do suffice to learn all Christians that live under this Monarchy that it was God that established it and that by the command of God they are bound to defend the State under which they are born and whom the Body of the Kingdome hath sworn to maintain These discourses of following the Providence of God in matters of Revolutions of States are then only seasonable when the Royal Blood is extinguished or when Usurpation hath gained prescription through length of years but not when they are neer to overthrow the Estate and ruine the King these considerations are good when the evil is done and out of remedy but not when they are acting ill and when the obedience and loyalty of the subjects may remedy all The providence of God will never serve for excuse of the wickedness of men let us do that which we ought to do and leave God to do what he pleaseth and above all these moralities of revolution of States are worst in their mouths who labour to make this revolution in the State for it 's their duty to prevent this revolution with all their power posterity may excuse themselves by the providence of God in following a new form of State whilst those that introduced it shall be condemned by his Justice Besides all this there is a great want of prudence in this reasoning for in quarrelling the Rights of the King as usurpations of violence and custome they teach the King to quarrel at their liberties and priviledges for the same reason yea and by one much greater for the Priviledges of Parliament are much newer then the Royal Authority and the King may say they were obtained by force after many long and bloody wars he might cast off all prescription gained upon the unlimited power of the first Norman Kings and put himself into all the rights of their Conquests by another Wise subjects who would keep their priviledges ought by all means to preserve peace for there is nothing renders Kings more absolute then war Under a Royal Estate the principal means to preserve the peoples liberty is to maintain the only authority of the King dividing it amongst many they do but multiply their Masters For it s better to have one evil Master then many good ones CHAP. XIV How the Covenanters have no reason to invite the Reformed Churches to their Allyance since they differ from them in many things of great importance WE wonder exceedingly how our Enemies dare solicite the Reformed Churches to Covenant with them From whence comes this great familiarity Is it because of their great resemblance one with another It s that we cannot find As for obedience due to the King which is the principal point of the Covenanters we have made it already appear that the Divines of the Reformed Religion are as contrary to the Covenanters as they are to the Jesuiâ—es their Brethren and Companions in blood and war This point being denied them they care not much for the society of any Church in other points of Doctrine This is the first and great Commandment of the Covenant to obey the people against their King maintain but this their fundamental maxime and they will give you leave to chuse your Religion but in many other things this faction differ from the Reformed Churches Concerning the Doctrine of the Lords Day they have a great quarrel against Calvin who is so far from constraining the Church to a Jewish observation of the Sabbath that he accounts that the Church is not subjected to the keeping of the seventh day a passage which Learned Rivet alledgeth and approâ—â—s and to both these doth Doctor Prideaux since Bishop of Worcester joyn who in a discourse of the Sabbath complains that the English Sabbatarians lean towards Judaisme and go against the common received Doctrine of Divines never considering into what captivity they cast themselves in establishing the observation of the seventh day under Christianity by the authority of a Mosaical Precept Master Primrose Minister of Rohan hath writ a very Learned Book full of profound knowledge upon this Subject wheâ—e amongst other things he proves at large how all the Reformed Churches are contrary to this opinion Although God hath no need of the errour of men to establish his service we so much love the reverence due to that holy day that we would not lightly quarrel at any thing thereupon Let every one enjoy his Opinion so that God may be served and the day which is dedicated to him be not violated neither by prophaneness nor superstition But since the Covenanteâ— in this point are so contrary to the Reformed Churches and have so often condemned it by their writings the Assembly at London did very ill to plead conformity with these Churches in this Article and complain to them of the Liberty the King gave to poor servants to sport on Sunday after Divine Service So also for the Festivals although Mr. Rivet declares his desire that those daies which carry the Names of Saints should be abolished in England because of the abuses of these Festivals in the Church of Rome nevertheless he acknowledgeth and commends the Protestation of the English Church hereupon that they observe them not for the Service of Saints but for to glorifie God in imitation of the Primitive Church by the memory of those whom God was pleased to serve himself by to build up his Church and exceedingly blames those who accuse them of Idolatry for this observation King James of happy and glorious memory speaks thus in his Confession of Faith As for the Saints departed I reverence their memory in honour of whom our Church hath established so many daies of Solemnity as there are Saints enrolled by the Authority of the Scripture The Festivals of Saints scarce exceed the number of the Apostles and Evangelists Monsieur du Moulin his Champion defends this Confession of his Majesty Indeed saith he we condemn not this celebration of the memory of Martyrs and Saints we find the custome good of the English Church who have daies set apart for the commemoration of the Apostles
France nor the Low Countries we never knew or understood the least trace of dissention hereupon and if the fashion of some Particulars amongst us displease other Churches they do not less displease ours The Reformed Churches are better instructed than lightly to quarrel at the exteriour circumstance of Divine Service where the substance is whole and sound they have learned to speak after Calvin in the Confession presented in the Name of the Churches of France to the Emperour and Princes of Germany We acknowledg that all and every Church have this right to make Laws and Statutes and for to establish a common Policy amongst them provided that all things be done in the House of God decently and in order and they owe obedience to these Statutes so that they do not inthrall the Conscience nor impose Superstition and those that refuse this are accounted by us seditious and wilful Beza goes yet a little further and maintains that in the outward of Religion Many things may yea ought to be born notwithstanding they are not justly commanded St. Augustin hath an Epistle upon this Subject which is a Golden Epistle wherein he instructs Januarius of the indifferency of Ecclesiastical Observations as of the times of Fasting and the divers customs of receiving the Blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper All things of this kind saith he have their Observations free and for this there is no better of Discipline for a grave and prudent Christian then to do as he seeth them do in all the Churches whither he goes for that which is neither against faith and good manners ought to be held indifferent and ought to be observed according to the company with whom we live and converse and hereupon he reports how his Mother being come to Millan found her self in great perplexity because they did not fast on the Saturday as they did in the Church from whence she came and he to resolve he went to ask counsel of St. Ambrose Archbishop of Millan who answered him When I saith he go to Rome I fast on the Saturday when I am here I fast not on that day do ye the same Into whatsoever Church ye go observe their customes if you your self will not give offence to persons and will that no person should give you offence All Protestants of Europe except the Faction of the Covenant govern themselves thus in whatsoever place they are they joyn with the Reformed Church whatsoever their form of Discipline be which as some say is divers in all Nations To this grave counsel of S. Ambr. S. Austin adds a Character to the life of the imperious and scrupulous humour of our melancholy zealots whom one would think had an intention to paint them out I have oft perceived saith he with much grief and sorrow that many weak and infirm persons have been much troubled through their Contentions wilfulness and superstitious fearfulness at some of their Brethren for doing some things which could not be certainly defined by the Authority of the Holy Scriptures nor by the tradition of the universal Church nor by the utility that might thereby come for the bettering and amendment of our lives only because there is some matter for their conceptions to reason and discourse upon or because they think the farther they go or are able to separate themselves from the Customs received is the most exquisite and nearest to perfection moving such litigious and idle Questions that they make appear to all that they will never allow of any thing well done unless they do it themselves The Reformed Churches take and give this Liberty that every one form an outward Order of Divine Service according to their prudence and its more to be wished than expected that there should be one and the same order throughout all Churches But I know not any Church that reject and cast off all certain Forms as the Covenanters The Declaration following made some few years since by persons of account in the Churches of France is notable As for the Ceremonies and Customs of Ecclesiastical Service and Discipline no judge convenient to leave to every Church his own without altering or changing any thing One day when it shall please God to perfect and confirm amity amongst these Churches we may be able by an universal councel and consent to form a certain Liturgy which may be as a Symbole and Bond of Concord The Churches of the Covenanters ought to be exempted out of this Number for the Liturgy is become to them an Apple of Discord which hath made them quarrel with all Churches of the world being in this point like unto Esau whose hands were against every one and every ones hands against him Therefore the Directors refute themselves by a manifest contradiction then when by their publike Declaration they tell the people that it is to conform themselves to the Reformed Churches that they prescribe not an ordinary form of publike Prayers and Administration of the Sacraments Seeing that it is a thing most notoriously known that all the Reformed Churches have certain Forms of Prayers But they do as if they should apparrel themselves with Green and Yellow because the Ministers of France apparel themselveâ— with black 'T is the Doctrine of the Brownists which now predominate in England that for to have a Liturgie or Form of Prayers is to have another Gospel Now after all this Do they not well think you to court the Churches of France and to make a great noise of their conformity with them having so openly condemned them and their phanatical Phrensie in this point is proceeded so far that neither the Lords Prayer nor the Ten Commandements nor the Apostles Creed are repeated in their Churches nor are taught their Children in their Houses much less any Form of Catechism Behold here a Faction who reject the Books of Christian Religion An horrible and unheard of thing in all ages and in all Churches since Christianity entred the world And dare these people speak of Reformation and Conformity with the Reformed Churches CHAP. XVI Of the great prudence and wisdome of the first English Reformers and of the fool-hardiness of these at present IF these directors who boast themselves of a new Light had had at least the light of Prudence they would have considered that they had to deal with popular Spirits who were accustomed to a good and holy Liturgie but since on a sudden interdicted the use they could not but think they were suddenly transported into another Gospel for the people are dull and fastned upon the exterior and that if they be once fastened to a form of devotion which is good although below perfection there is occasion to praise God that the people have any tast of devotion even in any Form and it should be cherished and encouraged And if there be any thing in this Form to be amended it should be done so mildly and dexterously that the people be not exasperated and the
purely of Elect. It s great pity when men will be too wise and introduce Laws of Severity into the Church which God hath not required at our hands These men should meditate on the Text of Solomon Eccles 7.16 Be not righteous over-much neither make thy self over-wise why shouldest thou destroy thy self Or otherwise Why shouldest thou draw desolation on thy self Thus the Pharisees by an impertinent wisdome and affected Authority and a sublime Divinity of Chymeras were confounded in the vanity of their understandings and drew desolation upon themselves and their Church But yet there is a mystery of Iniquity under this scruple which doth deeply stain the Divines of the Covenant for their Masters foment them for to advance their affairs and it is easie to see that if they once become the strongest they will exclude from the Sacrament of the Lords Supper all those who cannot banish from their heart the love of their King and the Church wherein they were born and brought up In a Sermon preached before the House of Commons and printed by command we learn that their Party will no more communicate with the Antichristian Faction the Preacher explains himself and tells us he means all those that adhere to the King in this quarrel They have many times preached that none should receive the Lords Supper but those who had taken the Covenant yea they have spoke aloud that the Oath of the Covenant and the Lords Supper should be administred together so that the Communicants must swear upon the Body Blood of our Lord and upon the hope of their Salvation that they would be Rebels to their King as long as they live and the Blood of Jesus Christ must be imployed for the same use the cup of mans blood which the confederates with Cataline drunk round one to another in taking the Oath of Conjuration to murder their Superiours and ruine their country But this design is not yet ripe for execution they defer it for a time In the mean time these Gentlemen and the Spiritual Fathers deny themselves the Seal of their Union with Jesus Christ and hereafter they will dispose of this Sacrament according as the necessity of the Covenanters do require They forgot to put down this Article of their reservation in the Epistle they sent to forreign Churches but in inviting them in general to conform themselves unto them they exhort them to this amongst the rest What Must the Reformed Churches then abstain from the Lords Supper and chuse to interdict the Ordinance of Jesus Christ rather then put themselves in danger of administring to the unworthy Must the Universal Christian Church be gulled by their scruples composed of the folly of some and the malice of others Must all believers in the World hold their Faith in suspence and deprive themselves of the Sacrament of their Union with Jesus Christ until the Covenanters of England have found a proper time to make use of the Body and Blood of Christ to bind together a wicked faction and have made the mysteries of Salvation their footstool for ambition Rather then suffer by a criminal complacency that Religion should be so destroyed and that these horrible things should pass for Doctrines of the Reformed Churches let all those who bear this title defend the honour of the Gospel and thereby a publick detestation of so great a corruption Let all those who love God testifie by a just anger they hate the evil It matters not what fraternity these Innovators pretend with other Churches if they corrupt the Christian Religion and invite them to do the like Familiaris accipere haud familiariter let them manifest they have no fraternity with heresie and impiety repulse boldly the temptation of those who invite so basely to do ill that they may have no more courage to return But there is one consideration which should mitigate your indignation against them That amongst this most impious extravagansie there is a malady and disease of the spirit for many of this party have their brains dislocated and displaced Some whereof have taken their children and gone and sacrificed them pretending a particular command like that God gave to Abraham others have shut themselves up with a Bible and resolved to eat nothing because it is written That man shall not live by bread alone but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God Some have killed their cat because she had taken a mouse on Sunday but defer'd the execution until Munday And there are women and tradesmen amongst them who preach by the spirit without call knowledge or premeditation others who account the receiving of the Sacrament on their knees is to communicate at Mass and that the Surplice is the Smock of the Whore of Babylon the Publick Prayers Mass refined the sound of the Organs the Hoboyes of Antichrist ye need not wonder the Covenanters have so great a party since fools and Ideots are on their side The like weakness is seen in the Epistle of the Assembly to the Reformed Churches they highly aggravate the persecutions prepared for all those who would not bear the mark of the beast meaning by this mark their obedience to the order of Episcopacy and the use of the Publick Service for the King required no other thing of them but as beasts which being cast into the river ordinarily swim against the stream so many of these brutish spirits think they can never be saved but in going against the ancient received customes how good soever they be and make all their piety and honesty to consist in a sullen and dogged devotion fantastical and turbulent which will give no rest to themselves nor others This scrupulous humour hath produced strange effects witness he that killed his mother and brother in cold blood having no other quarrel against them but that they loved the Liturgy This was a preamble of the devil who the year after began this war for the same subject in which he made use of the melancholy humour of the people to cut the throats of their brethren for devotion according to the instructions before alledged out of Sions Plea and the Souldiers Catechisme In effect their spirit of contradiction and their bloody inclination which hath formed this maxime of the times that the Reformation must be made by blood are the productions of a sharp choler predominant in the Hipocondres or bowels whose vapours besiege the animal spirits which carries them into a savage rage which hath something of the nature of the Licanthropy There is alwayes in the worst parties excellent natures which are carried away with the stream and we know amongst the party of the Covenant some very brave men but the churlish zealots whose fierceness and number govern even the Governours themselves are of weak and malignant spirits whose temper is like that of Tiberius that is of dung kneaded and wrought together with blood these are men of sad sordid and reserved natures
which a wild melancholy renders fearful superstitious suspitious and cruel and when all these ingredients meet together ignorance superstition presumption and wilfulness and a flitting and imperious humour all steeped in a black and hot melancholy they make the most malignant composition of the world pernicious to Church and State to families and all societies causing every where ruine and combustion like a Granado fired that makes all fly a pieces that is near it CHAP. XVII How the Covenanters labour in vain to sow dissention between the Churches of England and France upon the point of discipline Of the Christian prudence of the French Reformers and of the nature of discipline in general HItherto we have found no such conformity as might induce the Covenanters of England to invite the Reformed Churches to espouse their quarrel for they every where carefully administer the Lords Supper they take order that Infants be baptized they suffer none to be re-baptized they suppress heresies scandals the liberty of fanatique spirits they repeat to the people the ten Commandments of God the Articles of the Christian Faith they make use of certain forms of prayer in administring the Sacraments and other parts of the Divine Service They teach the people to submit to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake and not to resist Supreme Powers but to suffer for righteousness sake they are free from a capricious weakness in matters of indifferency which are peculiar to our enemies also these Churches approve of the English Liturgy and without scruple joyn with it in prayer when occasion serves what is there then which should oblige them to associate together The Reformed Churches say they have no Bishops but we demand of them whether all those Churches which have Bishops are not Reformed They incline doubtless to this opinion for in the title of their Epistle to the Reformed Churches they name but those of France the Low Countries and Switzerland they let the other pass under an c. If that be their opinion they have much forgot themselves in their Copies which they sent to particular States for they writ to the Churches of Hesse and those of Anhalt which are governed by Superintendents that is to say in our Language Bishops In all those Countries subject to the Crowns of Denmark and Sweden The Episcopal degree is kept so almost through all Germany this degree is preserved under the name of Superintendent and in some places as in Brene the name of Bishops remain although part of these Churches be Lutherans we will not refuse them the name of Reformed there wanting but a little charity in them to make both them and us to accord So likewise in the large Territories of Bohemia Polonia and Transylvania the Evangelical Churches are governed by Seniors as they call them who have Episcopal power They should not then boast of the consent of the Reformed Churches nor complain to them that the King would not admit a Reformation which pretends to abolish the Episcopal degree as an appurtenance of Antichrist which is in effect to condemn all Churches where there is any preheminence amongst the Clergy I forbear to speak of the Churches of Russia Grecia and India and of the rest of the world whose Doctrine is less known to us then the point of their Discipline which are all governed by Bishops But the Covenanters Magisterially prescribe their Discipline to all the World although they themselves have none vaunting themselves of a piety without pair and yet will not leave to other Churches any liberty Therefore their Declarations give all to understand that after they have planted it in England they will go and do as much beyond the Seas The Donatists shut up the Church within the confines of Africa which then was a small thing unfitly applying that Text of the Canticles Tell us where thou feedest where thou makest thy flocks to rest at noon Cant. 1.7 but the French translation reâ—deth to rest towards the south At present the Kingdom of Jesus Christ is in danger to be confined within England whither other Nations must come and search it saying Tell us where thou feedest where thou makest thy flocks to rest towards the North. It 's easie to make the consent of the Churches named in the title of the Epistle to sound high because they have no Bishops but to prove their agreement with the Covenanters in this point they should do well to make these two things to appear the one that these Churches condemn the Episcopal Order as unlawful and Antichristian the other that these Churches do conform to the discipline of the Covenanters things which they will find false As for the first we see not that the other Churches quarrel at the Church of England hereupon but pray God to bless them in the order against this it matters not to alledge the thirtieth Article of the Churches of France confession of Faith We believe that all true Pastors in what place soever they be have the same authority and equal power under one head Jesus Christ and that for this cause no Church ought to pretend any dominion or Lordship over the other He that speaks for the General expounds this Article Ye must know saith he that the equality of Pastors in that which is of Authority to declare the Gospel and administer the Sacraments and for the use of the keyes is held necessary amongst all for Baptism the Lords Supper and the declaring of the remission of sins is of equal dignity in the mouth of Pastors whether they be of great or little Authority But as for Ecclesiastical policy we do not hold the equality of Pastors absolutely necessary we do not account this Order a point of faith nor a Doctrine of salvation we live God be thanked in brotherly concord with our neighbour-Churches which follow another form and where the Bishops have superiority In his disputations of Divinity in the University of Sedam this is one of his Theses We maintain that the Bishops of England after their conversion to the faith and their abjuration of Papistry were faithful servants of God and ought not to forsake neither the name nor title of Bishops Calvin himself spake as much before in his Epistle to Cardinal Sadâ—let speaking of the Church of Rome Let them saith he establish such an Hierarchy where the Bishops having the dignity refuse not to submit themselves to Christ and depend of him as their onely Head and refer themselves to him and let them maintain amongst them such a brotherly society which is not entertained but by the bond of truth Then if there be found any persons who refuse to respect such an Hierarchy with reverence and Soveraign obedience I acknowledge and confess him worthy of al sorts of Anathema's This passage serves for the Episcopal degree in general This other of Jacobus Lectius Professor at Geneva hath a singular regard to the Bishops of England He saith That those Bishops only were
of their evil opinions amongst men blame and praise take their force from him that gives them Those who accuse us of corruption in Religion should do well to tell us first amongst the scores of Religions that are what their Religion is for there are many Religions which are together with the Covenanters and live together as so many wilde beasts in the Ark who when they are gone out thence will devour one another or flee one from another but at present they all agree to tear us a pieces Now to these accusers of Corruption we present the thirty nine Articles of our Confession which they and we have sworn and subscribed and let their Consciences judge between them and us which of the two Parties have violated and falsified their Oath How have they observed the thirty sixt Article in which they acknowledged that the consecration of Arch-Bishops and Bishops used in England and confirmed by Act of Parliament contains nothing in it that is either Superstitious or Impious and yet now thunder out against this Order as a mark and branch of Antichrist Is this to want memory or conscience Can they upbraid us with any thing like unto this to have opposed in a Body and condemned an Article of our Confession The corruptions which they alledge against us are falsely so named or at the worst they are but faults of particulars But the Body of the Church hath kept and doth keep the Confession of their Faith inviolable If they produce any we would have brought in any new Doctrines or Customes who can produce others that have opposed them and that the Religion subsisted entire whilst they subsisted Let them not rob those Divines of their due praise who in the beginning of the Parliament laboured sincerely to confirm the Doctrine and to stifle the difference about Discipline We have before represented with what Wisdom Piety and Vigor many Bishops and Divines chosen by his Majesty had lead the two Parties to accord upon a certain number of Propositions which contained the Body of Religion and what great hope there was that the point of Discipline would be amiably composed and how a Faction enemies to the peace of the Church and jealous least any good should come by the means of the Bishops broke off that excellent accord which could never since be renewed persecuting the Prelates with all rigor never giving them rest until they had imprisoned them as Criminals although they were not guilty of any other crime then because they would have terminated the differences of Religion But this was to stifle the Covenant in the cradle and take away all pretext from this holy Rebellion It 's not then a wonder if this sin be not pardoned them it appears by the testimony of the Reverend Pastors of the Church of Geneva in what esteem our Religion was amongst our Neighbours for in their Epistle to the Assembly at London They beseech God that he would restore our Church and Kingdome to such a high degree of holiness and glory as it had shined in until that present By this they acquit us of the corruption which they impute to us and do obliquely accuse this Assembly and those that imploy them that by their means the Kingdom hath lost his glory and the Church her holiness Now put the case that the Corruption were as great amongst us as they make it yea put the case also that even in our Liturgie composed with so much piety and wisdome that there were something to mend as a Freckle in a fair Face and that the Discipline ought to be over-looked what could there be more expected of the King and the Clergy then to submit the Persons and things to be Reformed How often had the King offered to joyn his Authority to the Advice of Parliament and a National Synod to examine and punish the faulty and correct disorders yea and even the Laws themselves if there were need To these so reasonable commands behold here what obedience they yielded A part of the House of Commons having driven away the other by violence and popular tumults and put to flight nine parts of ten of the House of Lords besides the Bishops who represented the Body of the Clergy this small rest in lieu of a National Synod by lawful deputation of the Church chose some Ministers of their Faction for to make use of their Advice so far as it should please them These Ministers who had no Deputation nor Representation nor Authority from the Body of the English Church and having divers Lay persons joyned with them who wholly govern them mould a Religion all new defame the reputation of the Church and Confession to which they had sworn Obedience invite to their aid Forreign Churches as their brethren and ordain that which serves the intention of their Masters We know that amongst these Divines there were some men of Merit Persons which we know had it been in their power would have overcome evill with good but amongst pieces of gold there is many times a great deal of small money like unto our clipped half Testors they are the little heads without learning If the two Houses had assembled the body of the Clergy as was proposed to them by his Majesty they had found themselves filled with Orthodox Persons and they cannot complain if those persons whom they had most desire to received not the publike censure of the Clergy since they would not permit the Clergy to assemble themselves neither can they complain that any guilty hath gone unpunished for they have taken a sure course for by the universal ruine of the Deans and Chapiters they have involved the innocent with the guilty Hearken what the King said hereupon I was content to accord and render to the Presbyter that is to say to the Body of Pastors all the right which with reason and discretion they could pretend in their conjunction with the Episcopal degree but to suffer them wholly to invade the Ecclesiastical Power and to cut off altogether with the sword the Authority of this ancient Order for to invest themselves in it it was that which I accounted neither just in regard of the Bishops nor sure nor profitable in regard of the Presbyter himself neither any way convenient for the Church or State A right and good Reformation might have been easily produced by moderate Councils and I am perswaded such Councils would have given more contentment even to those very Divines who have been perswaded with much gravity and formality to serve the designs of others which without doubt many of them now acknowledge although they dare not make their discontent appear for finding themselves frustrated of their intentions I am very well assured that the true method to reform the Church cannot subsist with the perturbation of the Civil State and that Religion cannot justly be advanced in depressing Loyalty which is one of the principal ingredients and ornaments of true Religion for after the Precept
had promised was most expedient for his glory he presently forgot all his Promises Therefore when he had the K. in his power at Hampt Court and often conferred with him his Majesty expressed his perplexity to persons of Honour telling them I cannot saith he treat with these people upon any foundation who refer me to their inspirations for that which they promise me to day they contradict too morrow if the Spirit dictate to them but you must note that the Spirit never dictates any thing to them but for their profit The wrath of God is great against us in suffering us to be ruined and destroyed by fraud and hypocrisie but verily his indignation is yet greater against those who are seduced for it is a lesser evil to be persecuted by the Devil then to mistake him for the Spirit of God But let us consider other Acts of the evil faith of the Covenanters How have the Members of Parliament answered the intentions of those that sent them Was it the desire of those Countries and places for which they served that the Divine Service so much loved by the people should be taken away and their Ministers driven from their Benefices and Anabaptists and such like without knowledge and call established in their places Did they give them Commission to levy and make War against their King to cut off his head And were they not sent and departed to councel and advise the King and to succour their Counties â—nd have not they done the contrary When their fellow Citizens chose them did they chuse them to be their Soveraigns Was it their intentions that they should â—it in Parliament to perpetuity and place in their children to perpetuate their Raign in their Families whereby they have gained more in a few years then the house of Austria which hardly in two hundred years of an Elective Empire have made one Successive for these people have in a few years turned into succession an Empire in which they have no Election And it would be very hard to tell who gave them the power to dispose of the goods and lives of the people and to govern the Kingdome by an Army of which England hath never hope to be delivered but by an absolute victory obtained by the King Of these high actions of Presumption and Tyranny warranted by no Authority and upheld onely by the strength of Arms they must render account to God and since they maintain that the Soveraignty resides in the people they must also one day give an account to the people of their administration They made an Ordinance That no Member of Parliament should exercise any Office in the State but how well did they keep it Did they not make amongst themselves a Monopoly of all the gainful Offices They gave out they would give an account of the Treasure expended of the State but in the mean while they followed the Councel of Pericles which was to studie how never to give any They invited the people to present their plaints against their own Members but those who dared to do it were ruined in the prosecution and served as a sad example to all others to beware and keep themselves from so dangerous an enterprise for the future They have also forced the Consciences of men to break their Faith witness the breach of Articles subscribed in the Counties of York and Chester whereby the Gentlemen engaged on both parties were mutually obliged to lay down their Arms and live in peace but the Gentlemen at Westminster frighted with this Hideous name of Peace declared this accord Null as destructive to their affairs for both the Devil and the Covenanters maintain themselves by dissention They forced the Londoners taken and released by the King at the Battel of Brainsford to take up Arms against him the second time against their Faith sworn to his Majesty who most graciously gave them both their Lives and Liberty releasing them without any ransome But as for them they wickedly massacred those who yielded themselves upon their promise of life and liberty as Duke Hamilton the Earl of Holland and the gallant and noble Lord Capel Sir Charles Lucas Sir George Lisle and many others They being thus habituated in disloyalty and unfaithfulness their great quarrel against the late King of blessed and glorious memory was That he would not break his Faith nor falsifie his Oath he took at his Coronation to maintain the Rights and Priviledges of the Church and to defend the Laws of the Land And as they were perfidious to us so were they also to one another they falsified their faith to their Army which had too well fought for them under the Command of the Earl of Essex and disbanded them without their pay But another Army paid them for this perfidiousness by another The Independent Troops were those which professed to them fidelity with the greatest zeal And these were they which unroosted them at Westminster and pull the Gentlemen out of their Thrones leaving there only such as pleased them And in passing let us mark another seat of activity of Cromwel he perswaded the House of Commons to casheer this Army promising them that he would lay down his Arms at their feet but he gave them this counsel only for to provoke and irritate the Army against them and to ruine them as indeed it did Then when the Army began to present criminal informations against the King they sent an Embassie of six Collonels to the House of Lords to keep them quiet promising to maintain their priviledge of Peerage but as soon as the King was beheaded they casheered the House of Lords and those Lords having basely abandoned their Head to the slaughter presently lost the Life of Honour which flowed from thence upon them and were most justly laid aside as dead and unprofitable members The Scots also for having been too faithful to their Brethren in Rebellion were paid with the like treachery for all that power and interest which they ought to have had in the affairs of both Kingdoms according to the Articles of their League was denied them with scorn and insultation Amongst our miseries this is a recreative spectacle to us to behold the Thieves who pillaged us to pillage and rob one another and to deal treacherously amongst themselves after they betray'd us To their disloyalty let us joyn their falshood wherein consisted the Foundation and Building of all their Fabrick This appeared singularly in the beginnings of the Covenant Then the Gentlemen discovered daily some Treason or other with as much facility as the Labourer finds his work News of England written from Spain France Italy Denmark Politick Discourses of a Dutch Mariner to an English Hostler of Armies kept under ground by the King to cut the Throats of all the Protestants in a night and the greatest danger of all which caused the chiefest fear to the subtle spirits of London was a design laid for a mine of Powder under the Thames
disobedient Ministers and to put those in their places who condemned their vocation these are the terms of the instruction given the Committee this horrible menace should give to all faithful Pastors cause rather of hope then fear for he that said to his Disciples He that refuseth you refuseth me finds himself refused and rejected in the persons of his servants and yet more in their Ministry without doubt he is provoked to jealousie and will take upon him the cause of the Ministry of his Word Whosoever shall seriously consider all that hideous spectacle of devastation of the Church the abolition of Government the ruine of the Pastors the corruption of Religion the profanation of the service of God and shall compare this persecution with that the Greek Churches suffer at this day shall find that all the ravages of the Turks since the taking of Constantinople have not so disfigured the Church in two hundred years as these Reformers did in six or seven years in their own country and amongst their brethren in the faith But pass we from the Ecclesiastical to the Civil the new Courts erected to hear complaints and to receive the compositions of Delinquents were as so many Butchers Shambles and Flaying-houses where they tore off the skin and pulled out the bowels and where they dismembred and cut in pieces many antient and good houses our miserable party had to do with worser Judges then he spoken of in the eighteenth of S. Luke which feared not God neither regarded man and yet he suffered himself to be overcome by the importunity of the afflicted Widdow and said I will avenge her or I will do her Justice We propose him for an example to these cruel souls and say after our Saviour Hear what the unjust Judge saith And shall not God avenge his own Elect which cry day and night unto him though he bear long with them I tell you that he will avenge them speedily There could be expected no juster sequel of iniquity from their beginnings then when it was commanded for every person through the Kingdom to bring in their Plate and Jewels which the seditious Zealots contributed as freely as the idolatrous Israelites to make a Golden Calf but those who did not bring their Plate they plundred their houses and took it away by force at the same time they commanded the people to take up arms under the penalty of being hanged and this sentence was executed in the Counties of Essex Suffolk and Cambridge the principal actor of this tyranny was the Earl of Manchester who caused some to be hanged who not being well learned in the Catechisme of sedition refused openly to take up arms against the King others for the same reason were tyed neck and heels unreasonably misused and cast into prisons until they had learned Rebellion and the rest of the people affrighted hereby went peaceably to commit treason against his Majesty Therefore the greatest cruelty of the Covenanters was not in rendring their country miserable but in having rendred it wicked and forced so many simple people to be instruments of their ambition and partakers of their crimes How will they answer for the blood and the consciences of their Souldiers killed in the act of paracide then when they discharged their Muskets against the Squadron where the person of the King was How will they answer for them who were actually imployed in the massacre of the King and who have since felt a hell in their consciences we must confess that they have been more cruel towards their own party then towards ours since they have only made us to suffer evil but they have forced their adherents both to suffer and do evil which are the two principal things wherein all the work of the devil consists After this execrable murther of their excellent Soveraign how many murthers did they heap upon this Duke Hamilton the Earl of Holland the truly Noble and loyal Lord Capel many others killed in their armies in divers places many in every County condemned to death by partial Judges who received all accusations against those who had served their King and many thousands good subjects murthered in Ireland by these Sanguinary Zealots It would be infinite to reckon up all their crimes against God their Religion their Church their King and their Country and all that can be spoken is nothing in comparison to that prodigious mass of iniquity which stricks heaven with its height and makes even the earth to sink with the weight which draws from the bottom of our wounded souls these ardent sighs Oh our good God art thou so wrathfully displeased against these Nations as to give them over to a rebrobate sense and abandoned to do the will of the devil and establish his Kingdome Oh Religion Conscience King Church State Order Peace Justice Laws all are violated defaced disfigured and melted into a horrible Chaos of obscurity and confusion Alas how can it be that this people enlightened with the knowledge of God abounding with the riches of heaven and earth should fall into such a diabolical frenzy as to trample under their feet their Religion cut off the head of their King pluck out the throat of their Mother the Church and deal with their Fellow-countrymen and Brethren in Jesus Christ more cruelly then the Mahumetans deal with the Christians who drives them not from their houses and patrimonies in Turky nor reduce them to the fift part of their Revenues How is the faithful City become an Harlot it was full of Judgement righteousness lodged in it but now murtherers Isa 1.21 Certainly although the evil they do unto us should not force us to go out of our Country and leave it yet the evil that we behold in it is capable to make us forsake it and to imbrace the Prophet Jeremies choice Jer. 9.2 3. Oâ— that I had in the wilderness a lodging place for way-faring men that I might leave my people and go from them for they be adulterers an assembly of treacherous men and they bend their tongues like their bow for lies but are not valiant for the truth for they proceed from evil to evil and they know not me saith the Lord. Ha people frantick whose eyes the God of this world have darkned and exasperated your passions with a seditious rage cruelly and bloodily to persecute your Church and Soveraign Miserable people who do the work of their enemies and execute upon themselves the malediction pronounced to Hierusalem in Rebellion Sion shall tear her self with her own hands ridding and casting their crown and glory upon the ground cutting their own sinews and breaking their bones and by their weakness and disunion invite the enemy to come and make an end of them Blind Zealots who stirred you up so disorderly to pull down Antichrist you will find in doing thus you have contributed to raise him up and having drawn an horrible scandal upon our most Holy Religion by your impious actions and infamous
Doctrines have healed the mortal wound of the beast and hardned the consciences of men against the Sword of the Gospel which rarely penetrates with efficacy when it s welded with wicked hands That which comforts us in beholding you to 〈…〉 to make faith cease from being in the earth is that hereby 〈◊〉 advance the desired coming of Jesus Christ who hath marked that time for his return when he will deliver his Church from the bondage of seduction vanity blindness and misery for to invest her with liberty holiness and glory which he hath purchased for her by his blood In waiting for this happy deliverance if we must still behold Rebellion proudly domineer over the Supreme Powers ordained by God and sacriledge make havock in the Church and crimes turned into Laws and Doctrines of Religion we shall preserve our selves by the grace of God from murmuring at his Justice and the conduct of his Providence remembring that God punisheth us justly by instruments which are unjust and that he will assuredly manifest his just judgements upon them when he shall see it most expedient for his glory which â—e is used to advance by wayes contrary in appearance and makes as in the Creation light to shine out of darkness we will endeavour to learn in our calamity this divine wisdome of Solomon Eccles 5.8 If thou sâ—est the oppression of the poor and violent perverting of Judgement and Justice in a Province marvel not at the matter for he that is higher then the highest regardeth and there be higher thâ—n they Being persecuted by a people who in destroying us pretend they do God service and who palliate their cruelty with zeal of his glory we comfort our selves in this holy promise as made expresly for our condition Isa 66.5 Hear the word of the Lord ye that tremble at his word your brethren that hated you that cast you â—ut for my name sake said let the Lord be glorified but he shall appear to your joy and they shall be ashamed O our God we beseech thee forgive our enemies confound their pernicious designs and convert their erring consciences repair the hedge broken down of thy vine whereby the Wildbâ—ar out of the woods break down the branches and root up the tender plants wherefore shall they say amongst the heathen where is now their God Soli Deo Gloria El poder malamante adquirido no suale ser duradera FINIS ☜ Fuller Ans p. 7. * Vindiciae contra Tirannos De jure Magistratus * Accentus Athuach Goodman of Obedience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Buchanan de Jure Reg. p. 56 57. Observator defended p. 8. Bellar. de Poâ—t l. 5. Cap. 7. It was declared by the two Houses that the Kings coming to the House of Commons was Treason Caligula parum abfuit quin Speciem Principatus in Regnum converteret capiti diadema circumponeret Melchior Golodast Tom. 3. p. 124. Fuller Ans p. 21. Buchanan de Jure Reg. p. 57. Fullers Answer Full. Ans p. 6. l. 12. In his Oration before the Three Estates Jan. 15. 160â— Observations upon the Answers of his Majesty Dec. Aug. 12. 1642. Bodin de Repub. lib. 1. cap. 8. Bodin de Repub. lâ—b 1. cap. 8. De Repub. lib. 2. cap. 5. 2 Hen. 5. Ola. magna charta Diar Hen. 4. 3 Edw. 3. 7 Edw. 1. Ut igitur in naturalibus Capite de truncato residuum non Corpus sed Truncum appellamus sic in politicis sine Capite Communitus nulla tenus corporatur Fortescue cap. 13. Judge of Controversie cap. 5 p. 103. Anno 1641. This Story is related in the Kings declaration of August 12 Anno 1642. Bel. de Con. l. 2. c. 19 Gilby lib. de obedientia p. 25. 105. Bellarm. l. 3. De Pontif. cap. 7. Goodman p. 144. and 149. Charron in his Christian Discourse about the end of his Book of Wisdom Emanuel Sa in voce Tyranaus Knox to Engl. and Scotl. 78. Papa Urban causa 23. Qu. 5. Can. Excommunicatorum Buchanan de jure Regni p. 70. Hyparaspishes l. 3. cap. 10. Jesuita vapulans cap. 13. Sions Plea page 240. Anticorum Amphithâ—atrum Honoris The Souldiers Catechism composed for the Parliaments Army by Robert Ram Minister published by Authority page 14 15. of the seventh Edition Vindiciae Philadel Usurpations des Papes c. 5. pag. 81. The Epistle of the venerable Assembly of English Divines and the Deputies of Scotland to the Reformed Churches of France the Low-Countries and Switzerland c. Mulus Mulum fricat Liceat interim apud Fratres quos salutat haec Epistola dilectissimos innocentiae nostrae testimonium in sacris eorum coetibus quandocunque opus fuerit Apologiam obtinere The Scots Declaration in the year 1644. The Scots now feel it Usurpation des papes Jesuita vapulans cap. 26. Art 2. An Answer for the Churches of France A rare pattern for a Conquerour Buckler of Faith Sect 182. Vindication of the Royal Commission of Jesus Christ Buckler of Faith Sect. 182. Institut l. 4. C. 20. Art 29. Art 25. Com. upon Dan. c. 4. v. 19. Instit l. 4. c. 20. Sâ—ct ult Pet. Martyr Clas 4. loc 20. En fundum fundamentum totius paracidialis doctrinae Potestas à populo Regi data est fiduciaria Section 183. Tho. 22. qu. 10. Art 10. DominiuÌ„ praelatio introducta sunt ex jure humano Qu. 12. Art 2. Dominium introductuÌ„ est de jure gentium quod est jus humanum Casabon in epist. ad frontenem ductum Jesuitam Hunc ordinem Regendi inturbavit Nimrodus qui novo Titulo principatum acquisivit scit Jure Bello Nimrod arripuit insuetam primus in populo Tyrannidem Regnavitque in Babylone Hier. in Trad. Hebraic ad Gen. 10. v. 10. Neque unquam libertas gratior extat quam sub Reg. Pio. Calvin Institut l. 2. c. 8. Rivet Explicatione Decalogi precep 4. Rivet about the end of his Exposition of the 4 Command Disput 1. Thes 3. Senatus-Consulius scelera paâ—rantur Charenton the name of the Protestant Church at Paris In the Preface to the Directory Epistola ad Protectorem Anglia Bucer Scripta Anglâ—eana p. 455. Beza ad quosdom Anglicarum Ecclestarum fratres Confessio Ecclesiarum Gallicarum inter opusâ—ula Calvin In his Epistle before alledged Tom. 2. Epist ad Januarium Sententia Quorundam Ecclesiae id Gallin pastorum eximiorum edita à D. Johanne Duraeo Londini An. 1638. Barrow Refut 224 The Book called Christ upon his Throne p. 23. By Mr. Francis Cheynall A woman at Dover cut off her childs head and alledged this Scripture The Quaker that fasted and died at Colchester Enoch ap Evan neer to Shrewsbury 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suet. Tiber. Buckler of Faith Sect. 124. Jacobus Lectius praescriptionum Theologicarum lib. 2. March 1591. In his Treatise of Episcopacy The Serpent Salve 111. Serpent salve p. 219. Reply to Whitgift page 181. Cartwright 247. Bodin Method Histor de Repub. Geneva Sermon 1. of Duells to the Templers August lib. 21. Contra Faustum Cap. 75. Husbands in his book of Declarations p. 557. and 663. This was written during the â—itting of the long Parliament in Anno 1650. Note that this book in the French was printed in the year 1650.