finke themselves silentlie in the deep playd you not the malignant Archimede though no such exact Mathematical Divine to reflect them into a flame that may set the ship of the Church on fire about our eares some coales of this fire I shall heape on your head cast backe into your bosome which if you meane not to quench you may blow up to what farther mischief you thinke good The Apostles were Bishops who did undoubtedlie delegate the power of ordination to none but such as were constituted Bishops by them to that purpose This power appeares not undoubtedlie to have been exerciz'd by any but Bishops in the Historie of the Scripture This power was exerciz'd canonicallie by none but Bishops in the Historie of the Primitive Church According to the second canon of the Apostles Presbyter ab uno Episcopo ordinetur Diaconâ—…s reliqui Cleriâ—…i The laying on of hands of the Presbyterie both in Scripture and Ecclesiastike storie was onelie for external forme no intrinsecal power the efficacie of the act being in the Bishops benediction which I never finde attributed to the Priest As in the third Canon of the fourth Councel of Carthage Episcopo eum benedicente nowhere benedicente Presbytero Therefore your friend Didoclave is faine to acknowledge a great difference Magnum discrimen between St. Pauls imposition of hands and that at the same time of his Presbyterie whatsoever is mean'd by it Nam per impositionem mannum Apostolorum Deus conserebat charismata non autem per impositionem mannum Presbyterorum distinguishing in the ordination of Timothie between dia meta the former relating to Saint Paul the later to the assistent Priests Which is another interpretation of the text then you were pleas'd to make of it chapt 8. So that I see the brethren agree not upon the point Succession through the lineal descent of Bispops from the Apostles and ordination by the hands of Apostolical Bishops have been ever used as strong arguments to uphold Catholike Christians in a comfortable assurance of their Ministric as lawfull And haeretikes have been pressed by the ancient Fathers with the want of nothing more then these to justifie their profession Hoc enim modo Ecclesiae Apostolicae census suos deferunt sayth Tertullian And Irenaeus before him joines the gifts of God required in the Ministrie if he meanes not the sacraments with the Apostolical cession of the Church Vbi igitur charisâ—…ata Domini posiâ—… sunt ibi discere oportet veritatem apud quos est ca quae est ab Apostolis Ecclesiae successis c. The Presbyterians praetending divine institution must likewise prove such an uninterrupted succession or evidence their new extraordinarie mission otherwise they can minister litle comfort lesse assurance of their calling to be lawfull The former they can not doe for Saint Hierom's time at least who makes ordination a proprietie of the Bishops Quid facit excepta ordinatione Episcopus quod Presbyter not facit where a friend of theirs failes them when he sayth ad morem jusque suae aetatis respexit That he had respect to the custome canon of his time Nor can they doe it for above 200. yeares uncertaine storie after Christ in which they have as litle light to shew their Presbyterie was in as that Episcopacie was out which they would faine perswade us to take upon their word dispensing with themselves for the use of unwritten tradition to so good a purpose If they will pleade an extraordinarie mission they should doe well to name the first messenger that brought the newes of their Euangel and what miracle he wrought which might serve him for a leter of credence to us who it may be otherwise shall be no such superstitious admirers of his gifts or person That therefore the orthodoxe Ministerimust want the comfortable assurance of their undoubted ordination in the Ministrie which words yet beare a much more moderate sense then that you give them viz. That they may very well know and be assured that their calling and ministrie is null the distance being as I take it not so indivisibâ—…e between the negation of one assurance to the position of the other Such a malicious interpreter beares the image may stand in Constantines opinion for the statue of him who is the father of calumnies cares not what pâ—…yson he casts to spot other mens names cracke their credits ta tes 〈◊〉 ita motetos 〈◊〉 apheidos proballon as true of an Aâ—…rian as Aâ—…ian Your divination about the deleted words will succeâ—…d in some strange disoverie by and by In the interim you set too sharpe an edge upon the doctrine of the Bishops friends and doe act violence where it may be they intended not so much injurie as the ut most extremitie of justice allthough they held the axe in their hand in Christian charitie disputing the sentence not so hastie to execute it or beyond it in the rigour and cut off at one stroke the Clergie from their calling and so many lay societies of Christians from the Church Vntill I meet with some particular more forward instances then I know of I shall answer for them to the Churches of France Holland Zwitzerland and Germanie as Pope Innocent writ to the first Councel at Toledo about the ill custome of the Bishops ordination in Spaine That it 's very requisite somewhat should be peremptorilie determin'd according to the true primitive tradition might it be without the disturbance of so many Churches For what is done ita reprehendimus ut propter numeruâ—… corrigendorâ—… ca quâ—… quoquo modo facta sâ—…nt non in dubium vocemus sed Dei potius dimittâ—…nus judicio We so dislike it as not to startle so great a number of delinquents with our doubt but referre the judgement to God who standeth in the congregation as well of Presbyters as Princes and is a Iudge aswell among Ministers as Gods The Sophisme of the Iesuits because so popular should have been refuted or else not recited allthough the similitude it brings runnes not upon all foure even with the doctrine of the Bishops prime friends Some of whom I beleeve will acknowledge there may be resident many Members of the true Church where are no true Sacraments being well praepared to receive them when they may have a true Ministrie to dispense them That one of the two Sacraments is true though not dulie administred when in case of necesstie by lay hands where is no true Ministrie to doe it which may consist with that of B. Ignatius if applied to this purpose Ouk exon esti choris toâ—… episcopâ—… oute baptizein oute prospherein Exon at most but illegitimating the outward visible act not nulling the inward invisible grace That the other 's effectual when had but in voto if it can not in signo through want of any or which is as bad a lawfull true Ministrie to make it In the
great flame in the Burningbush which your zealous friend Iohn Vicars hath kindled You will hardlie perswade any your judicious comparers of this your preface with the many treacherous practices you had used that His Majestie in the greatest necessitie would not have chosen rather to have cast himselfe into the mercilesse yet more mercifull armes of the sea then without the strongest deliberate engagement into the perfidious more fluctuating armie of the Scots Nor yet had all your underhand oathes promises prevaild for the unhappie credulitie of a most pious prudent King if some Better credit in all likelihood had not interposed it selfe which it may be was more deceiv'd then it deceived Therefore your storie about London Lin Holland France is a greater circuit then his Majestie toke in his designed journey to Newarke The promise of satiâ—…faction that caried him thence to New Castle might have long before been his conduct to London if Religion Reason might have been permitted to goe along which him That he gave not what you expected that is to say his Royal soul to the Divel his old oathes might very well hinder him for I pray tell me why a King as well as a Rebell may not feare the oath of God It is not unlikelie that the prime leaders of the English armie were at that time wearie of your companie who fill'd the best of their quarters did least of your service Nor that you were out of heart as wel as reputation by the signal victories to a miracle all most obteined against you by not your companion good Sir James Grahame but the Thrice renowned Marquesse Montrosse whose proceeding had been most successefull happie may they still be for His Majesties affaires If there were such divisions in Scotland what could better compose thém then the personal presence of the King but this was not according to the Kingdomes libertie meant in the third article of the covenant In the preservation of which that is so farre as you thought fit â—…o make consistent with which in the defense of what they call the trâ—…c Religion which you tooke for granted he never intended to complie with you had sworne to defend the Kings Majesties person that is one of the forenam'd expresse arâ—…icles to that purpose The hazard of a warre weighed heavier in the balance of your counsels then the hazard of his Royal person in the hands of his irreconcileable enemies forgeting that the worke of righteousnesse in performance of your promises would have been a more lasting peace the effect of that righteousnesse quietnesse assurance for ever The sectarian Armie which you scarce durst have call'd so at that time had otherworke then to goe into Scotland but that your hollow-hearted professions to the King who was in no very indifferent case to make sure conditions of advantage to himselfe made him order the surrender of his garrisons into their hands So you sav'd His Majestie from the racke to bring him to the scaffold And you with your brother-Brother-Presbyters escap'd the like torture then but if you goe on to stretch your conscience till it cracke we shall see as well the punishment as the guilt of that murder glowing at your heart After two such accidental confessions wherein your Armie demonstrativelie shew'd themselves either false foolishlie credulous or cowards at best you reckon up several conveniences of His Majesties being in one of his houses neare London when it had been ever before pretended to the poor deluded people that he was to be brought to his Parliament in London And this you did upon the fayth of that Parliament which you say kept up a sectarian Armie against you A very good argument to prevaile with you for their credit Vpon such termes as should be satisfactorie to the King particularlie mentioned in the paper deliverd to the King by the Committe of Estates upon the 15 of May 1646. noted in that of Iune 8. to the speaker of the House of Peers subscribed By his affectionate friends humble servants Lauderdail Iohnston Henrie Kennedie your owne potent good Lord c. That if His Majestie should delay to goe about the readiest wayes meanes to satisfie both his Kingdomes they would be necessitated for their owne exoneration to acquaint the Committee of both Kingdomes at London that a course might be taken by joint advicâ—… of both Kingdomes for attempting the just ends expressed in the solemne league Covenant By which His Majestie was to bring satisfaction to them you not as you say to receive termes satisfactorie to himselfe Wherein because he made not what hast was required you exonerated your selfe of all the malice you had unto his person made an end of his dayes which was just the end you aim'd at in the Covenant This being the true case you aske Whether it were any injustice Yes to imprison his person by confining him to an house to weaken his power by robbing him of his garrisons Whether any unkindnesse Yes to give up your native King who you confesse cast himselfe on your protection to them who were so far from affording him any of his palaces neare London that it was death for any man to harbour him in his house What imprudence it was let the best politician of you all speake because ablest to judge Or the worst who by this time can evidence how besotted you were to your utter disrepute destruction What advantage at that time you had to lay the fairest colour upon the foulest fact that ever you committed win the world by an after-game into an high opinion of your trust What to gaine the length of your line in the libertie of Religion or lawes And as for wealth honour you might upon such a merit in all likelihood have had what the vastest ambitious Helluo could aske or three luxuriant Kingdomes could yeild you Whereas now you have ript up your false hearts throw'n your guilt in the face of the sun so that the sound of your rebellion is gone into all lands your treacherie travailes in a poverbâ—… even to the ends of the earth Your Religion hath many times since struggled for life which the mercie or temporizing subtilitie of your sectarian enemie hath preserv'd your lawes have taken their libertie from his sword He deteines at this time the wages of your wickednesse in his house your honour not long since kissed his foot by fower Commissioners humblie waited on him to his doores But you come to a closer question Whether the deliverie of the Kings person were a selling of him to his enemies Ans It may be such for all that you say against it Your Masters are not allwayes wont to pay your arreares upon single service I hinted even now that your miscariages of late have cut you off a good sume that is behind which by Ordinance of
His Lordship brings nnto your doore As fine as here you make your selfe for the triumph out of every wing you plucke you will by by be at a losse for your victorie must then weare your blew cap without a feather For that you may know my meaning His Lordship can afford you no such pretie thing as the antichronisme you lay hold on He sayth not That statute of treason was in being in the yeare 1580. And his Printer you might see had done him so much right as to set a number 4. yeares older directlie against the place where it is mention'd His Lordships words are these Which ridiculous ordinance was maintain'd stiffelie by the succeeding Synods notwithstanding the statute That it should be treason to impugne the authoritie of the three Estates The plaine sense whereof is this The succeeding Synods to the yeare 1584. maintain'd it stiffelie And not onelie they but likewise the succeeding Synods afterward notwithstanding the statute then made That c. Yet not to be too literal That there should be three Estates to whom your brethren presented their Assemblie Acts as they did by the King them to be confirmed even before the yeare 1580. yet That to impugne the authoritie of the three estates or to procure the innovation or diminution of any of them should have no statute nor law to make it at least interpretative treason is a peice of politikes that Iapan nor Vtâ—…pia will never owne nor any man that is civiliz'd in submission to government beleeve The businesse of appeales we are to meet with in the chapter following so farre you shall have leave to travaile with the counterfeit credit of that untruth What you make here such a positive consent of Lundie the Kings Commissioner in that Assemblie even now went no farther then a suspense in silence where all you found was That it appear'd not he apposed And how that might be I there gave you my conjecture In the next Assemblie 1581. the Kings Commissioner Caprington was not so hastie to erect in His Majesties name Presbyteries in all the land The businesse was this The King sends him Cuningham with letters to the Assemblie at Glasgow to signifie That the thirds of the Ecclesiastical revenues upon the conference had between his Commissioners those which they had before sent from Dundee were not found to be the safest maintenance for the Ministrie they having been so impair'd in twentie yeares before that nothing of certaintie could appeare That thereupon had been drawn a diagrame of several Presbyteries whereby a division of the greatest parishes was to be made a uniting of the lesse to the end that the Ministers might be with more aequalitie maintained and the people more convenientlie assemble'd That His Maâ—…estie had determined to sent letters to several of his Nobilitie in the Countrey to command their meetings and counsel here about This he did not till the next summer nor was any thing effected diverse yeares after The conventions of the Ministrie were to be moderated by every Bishop in his Dioecesse who was by agreement to praeside in the Presbyteries with in his limits So that the modelling Presbyteries was onelie for setling a convenient revenue upon the Ministers so farre was it from abolishing Episcopacie that the Bishops were to have the managing the affaire It would not have cost you nor your printer much paines to have put in what hapened before the yeare 1584 The opposition against your abuse hereof by the Bishops Montgoinerie Adamson His Majesties discharging by proclamation the Ministers conventions Assemblies under paine to be punished as Rebeils publishing them to be unnatural subjects seditious persons troublesome unquiet spirits members of Satan enemies to the King the Commonwealth of their native Countrey charging them to desist from preaching in such sort as they did viz. against the authoritie in Church causes against the calling of Bishops c. removing imprisoning inditing them c. Which put you upon the desperate attempts of surprizing and restraining His Majestie 's person whereof otherwhere So that the King you see had very good preparatives to purge his Kingdome of such turbulent humours before Captain Stuart put him in minde to make use of that physike Which Captaine Iames was no such wicked Courtier when the saints in behalve of the Discipline set him up to justle with Esme Stuart Lord Aubignie for the nearest approach unto Royal favour This Parliament 1584. was summon'd with as loud a voyce as any other was as open as the sun at Edenburgh could make it Nor was Captain Stuarts crime about it such as to denominate his exile the vengeance of God which was wrought in the eyes of the world by your rebellion Nor his death by Dowglasse's high way murder aveng'd afterward in alike terrible destruction that in Edenburgh high street where sanguis sanguinem tetigit bloud touched bloud though I dare not as you doe judge for reward nor divine such ambiguous cruelties for money being no Priest nor Prophet as you are to the heires of those bloudie soulders in Micah chapt 3. I dare not say that it either was the fingar of God though he imploy not the hand of his power to restraine them Rev. ........... these acts of his Parliament the very next yeare were disclaimed by the King c. Ans. They were not disclaimed the 21 of December the next yeare when James Gibson being question'd for disloyal speaches about them before His Majestie his Councel very impudentlie told the King he was a persecutour for maintaining them and compar'd him to Ieroboam threatned he should be rooted out conclude that race His confidence was in the returne of the banish'd Rebel-Nobles who forced all honest men from the Court possessed themselves of His Majesties person acted all disorder in his name This was the regular restoring of Presbyterie Which to say was never more removed to this day in that sense you must speake it is to abuse the ignorance of some new convert you have got in the Indies who it may be at that distance know not that Bishops had the visible Church government in Scotland for about theirtie yeares together since that time Rev. The Warners digression to the the perpetuitie of Bishops in Scotland c. Ans. The perpetuitie of their order in that Kingdome is no disgression in this place where His Lordship shewes your practical contradiction in pulling downe Episcopacie with one hand yet seting it up though under the name of Superintendencie with the other The sequestring their revenue altering their names pruning off some part of their power he takes to be no root branch ordinance for the deposition of their office or utter extirpation of their order This he asserts to be the greatest injurie your malice could ever hitherto bring about therefore goes not one step
honestie throughout 30. yeares trading The saints after that rate will not be readie at Doomesday to give up their account of compassing the earth getting in their inheritance annex'd to their dominion which they will have founded in grace If the Presbyteries wherein all that time you were conversant were no merchant adventurers tooke no share â—…f the purchase they have kept some Jubilee to lease out their indulgence Or it was not unlikelie a piece of your Kirke-policie to connive a long time at all petie larcenie knowing who at length would be catch'd in the great cheate the 200000. pound sale of damnation to their brethren yet keeping backe whole viols of vengeance and wrath unto themselves For the many causes of Ministers deprivation cognosced upon in your Presbyteries you have the good liking of neither Papists nor Praelates who finde no canon that gives commission to such a mungrel socitie of lay-Clerical Presbyters to take away what they have no power to conferre If I give but not grant your usurped tyrannie a priviledge by many yeares rebellious praecedent to cognosce of such cases I must except against clipping of canons the coyne that beares the Majestike image of the Primitive Church such as is the 67. in the fourth Councel of Charthage Seditionarios nunquam ordinandos Clericos sicut nec usurarios nec injuriarum ultores The first of the three had met with your vertous Fore-Father Knox in the Castle of St. Andrewes sav'd all the mischiefe we have reap'd by his call from abetting the murder of Cardinals to rebelling against Princes renting the Church the Commonwealth into Congregational Covenanting parties The last which was your injust praetense if not in your banners at least in the Remonstrances which you brought in your hands when you invaded England Canons holding aswell for depriving as ordaining had rid us of all the rable of Rebellious revengefull Presbyters without a stroke For the businesse of usurie I shal not draw up my charge till I discover the Scottish Presbyterian Cantores Yet you were best have care whatsoever becomes of the ancient Canons that you be not too severe in depriving for that lest you get a rebuke from your brethren abroad who it may be desire not to shake hands with you in that point of the Discipline The Bishop neither tooke out nor put in any causes of Church-mens deprivation but merelie transcrib'd what he thought more concern'd a Civile Court then a Synod If he had been at the charge of reprinting all whereof your booke of Discipline makes mention he must have left an c. to bring up a reserve though yov will not owne it of preaching penning practizing schisme sedition Rebellion against moderate just pious Kings aswell as what your Assemblies were solicitous to prohibite under the terme of Schisme or Rebellion against the Kirke For the first last of the three sinnes you draw out because you will have the pleasure at least of licking your lips at the naming His Lordship knowes no Bishop nor Doctour but may finde a namelesse Scottish Presbyter to give place to If he should be mistaken which he hath not so much reason to hope as charitie to wish he sees in St. Iames the guilt of murder aequivalent to adulterie made as great a transgression of the law He heares of Isaiah's triel in Scotland which deserves the same wonder crie of the Prophets Ye are drunken though not with wine ye stagger though not with strong drinke c. And since your last returne ouâ—… of England beholds sitting at Edenburgh aswell as London the great whore instead of her blew arrayed in purple scarlet colour decked with gold pretious stones pearles having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations filthnesse of her fornication And upon the forhead of the woman drunken with the bloud of the Saints with the bloud of the Martyrs of Iesus a name written with a beame of the sunne Mysterie Babylon the Great The Mother of harlots abominations of the earth For the third sinne of gluttonie which you will have produc'd because in your canon though not much for your credit that your excessive gossiping comes to be cognosced by your Church all Bishops Doctours may freelie bid defiance to your sect of whom so manie are so often known to be as fed horses in the morning though you flatter yourselves into a conceit that the noyse is not heard are neighing as much as those in Isai. So that you may in due time have what you better deserve the same curse with the Priests in the Prophet Malach. which will spoyle your reviewing singling out other menâ—… errours or secret sinnes to the shame of Christianitie among the Nations when your selves are spiloi kai momoi the principal spots blemishes that are in it God may corrupt your seed spread dung upon your faces solâ—…nitatum stâ—…rcus even the dung of your solemne feastes you more likelie then they may be taken away with it The Bishops third chalenge mounts somewhat higher then your answer which pleades onelie for preaching upon texts concerning the Magistrates dutie resolving from scripture their doubts both which reach up onelie to a judgement of direction but his Lordship cites the clause in your theorem which makes difficult cases between King people subjects of cognizance judgement before the Assemblies of the Kirke And this he sayth riseth to a judgement of jurisdiction Your second booke of Discipline is more modest in language though as mischievous in meaning The Ministers exerce not the Civile jurisdiction but teach the Magistrate how it should be exerciz'd according to the word whereas if you take cognizance of pronounce judgement in these difficult cases Or call before you such as may be more easie but should be heard otherwhere this is no other but exercing civile jurisdiction as spiritual as you make it If you with the terrour of your excommunicating Maozin overaw the Magistrate into a servile submission to what you praescribe this I take to be no teaching but commanding instead of resolving by deliberate advice Christian moderation cutting in sunder with this sword of your spirit no word of Gods the knots perplexities of his conscience What doubt-resolvers you are commonlie between Master servant husband wife your licentious demeanour in many families may informe us where it is too well know'n you have made your selves judges of the trivial oeconomical causes in the hall dispensers of or with more private duties in the chamber So that they say the good man hath many times met with a consistorian censure at his table if not with a Presbyter a Presbyterian prohibition in his bed I beleeve you mistake preaching Praelates Doctours for some babling Puritanical Pastours Lecturers in England who have made these things
their care gone about them as the uncontrâ—…verted parts of their Ministerial function The Bishops negligence herein was the silent reverence he payd which you owe to Majestie at a distance And His Lordships modest declining domestike curiosities a civile diversion from that wherein the word is so cleare as to need no interpreter the Husband or Masters authoritie so absolute aâ—… admits no superintendencie to praedominate Your license to preach personallie against Princes I finde given to your Fore-fathers in an answer to the Queenes proclamation 1559 Your tradition still continues the same touching which for brevities sake I must againe send you as I can not too often to the famous Grotius De Imper. Sum. Pot cap. 9. What the Parliament propon'd to you about the late engagement included no such great scruple of conscience as to long for the comfort of your resolution nor was that when they had it the starre by which they steer'd their course in the businesse They knew your violence call'd zeale to be such as would force an entrance into the hearts of many poore people which when it findes emptie swepâ—… garnished for better ghests would call in 7 wicked rebellious spirits to possesse them This epidemical mischiefe they endeavour'd to praevent by acquainting you with the plausibilitie of their enterprize if they could have praevailed for either your consent or silence they should have the lesse need they thought to looke backe in the prosecution of their designe What conjunction soever you found to be at that time driven on I can assure you there was a clearlie malignant partie on this side that found themselves separated who trembled at the hazard of their religion the persons of them that were to be most eminent instruments of its praeservation when they saw such a solemne outward compliance with oathes Covenants with a Committee of Estates that declar'd so at large for the former joint-interest with England against the Liturgie established religion in our Church Yet their warning against it made no other noyse then sounding of their bowels in compassion to the King whom they desired to have by any meanes delivered out of the hands of the mercilesse Independent and a tendernesse toward their sweeâ—… ingenuous Prince who with his loyal generous Nobilitie they feard might be deluded fall into the hands of the darke mercenarie Presbyter the orthodoxe untainted partie being not intermix'd in such a visible number as seem'd likelie to secure them from that danger The Congregational supplications were naught but your Consistorian jugglings Your selves sow'd the winde in some whispering Assemblie instructions then reap'd the whirlewind in tumultuous petitions from the people So that your own spirit first rais'd the storme then wrapt it selfe in a mistie multitude for concealment That the States of the Kingdome sent several expresse messages for that end viz. to receive an Assemblies replie in a Magisterial Declaration against their proceedings in pulpit banning cursing in Clamourous seditions as you could make militairie opposition I can not get within the compasse of my faith take it to be such a salving of conscience as none but a Scottish Classical Casuist will professe beyond what any Jesuite in ordine ad spiritualia will challenge with all the rebellious circumstances that accompanie it For that filthie conclusion you cast upon the Bishop we know aswell as if we had seen it drop that it came from the corrupt praemises in your head In the case you produce His Lordship ties not up the tongues of Gods servants but concludes the counsel of the wicked to be deceit Gods law not to be taken from your preaching nor his Covenant any more from then in your mouth To applie your general to the particular in hand The warre you thought unlawfull because it proclaim'd libertie to the captive the opening of the prison to His Majestie that was bound And the law in St Iames you had no reason to submit to who may not uncharitablie be thought to have resolved upon a connivance at or collusive neutralitie in the murder that was otherwise visiblie to follow The greatest impietie injustice I know was in it as exquisite as you are in casting the fashion of uncertain evils was the advancement of your Covenant in the Van. And if for that the Engagers were to expect nothing but the curse of God I am sure they deserv'd no anathema from your Kirke If your doubting Nation be put in the scales with your resolving Nation that engaged I beleeve we must give you at least a graine or two to make it aequiponderate They that stated their soules by the councel of your Assemblie stay'd behinde to praevent all recruit oppose the retreat of their more loyal Countrey men upon a possible misfortune For the lawfulnesse whereof they had somewhat worse then silence from the miscalled servants of God though I am sure no authoritie from his word When Religion Royaltie lay panting under the talents of most cruel Rebells the Civile businesse of warre was by the other birds of prey unseasonablie disputed What concern'd the soul in it had the cleare sunshine from the law the testimonie to warme quicken it That the Assemblie spake not according to this word was because there was then no light in them the lampe of the wicked was put out What the Church declared in their publike papers to the Parliament had very litlie of modestie or truth It bound up your engagement in so many knottie conditions as had made it sure enough for vindicating the wrongs the sectarians had done when the onelie injur'd persons were excluded out of their share in the promised successe To expect reason by Christian friendlie treaties from them that you acknowledge had bid adieâ—… to Religion Covenant when your zealous selves praetenders to both never offered any heretofore was like the fine-spun thread or Covent garden paper you put in afterward between the axe the Royal head it cut off If the good people in Scotland were so willing to hazard their lives estates what good Pastours were you that held their hands forc'd then to sit still By whose cunning misperswasion the engagement was spoyled or impeded in the stating we require no farther evidence then from your pamphlets By whose rash praecipitancie or somewhat else in the managing if it may not be ascribed to the fortune of the warre is a mysterie yet not perfectlie revealed The number was large enough though the most religious as you call them were absent the armies courage I thinke had not been much greater by their companie The lies spoken in hypocrisie did but cauterize the conscience of the wretched people that stayd at home The lethargie call'd peace which they slumber in for the time may hereafter breake out into an active warre to the ruine of the
divine right to the general rules to which you reduce them need not here to be numberd being scatered every where in this discourse and very obvious to the Reades in your storie But in answer to what the Bishop objects of geting both swords spiritual and temporal into your hands the one ordinarilie by common right the other extraordinarilie the one belonging directlie to the Church the other indirectlie the one of the Kingdome of Christ the other for his Kingdome in order to the propagation of religion and to let the Papist a lone whom out of what mysterie I know not you very often me thinkes call to your assistance I pray name one of his Lp's learned brethren that ever writ for 't what concessions have pass'd from the elder Edward and Elizabeth Praelates of England or what from the later Erastianâ—… as you style them in diminution of the jus divinum of Episcopacie desends not to the jus humanum in your sense there being a midle Apostolical right participant of both enough to constitute an immutabilitie in their order whatsoever change their jurisdiction may admit of at least such as they finde aequivalent to the communicating of women baptizing of infants observation of Sunday which when you bring arguments to unfixe you may with greater confidence treate against Bishops wherein those friends His Lo. hath about the King are so perfectlie instructed that they laugh at your sillie stratagems to pervert them being such as if at any time they repraesent to His Majestie as you earnestlie desire will thereby no quaestion confirme his pious resolution in the continuance of that holie order especiallie since the maxime you build upon That conscience is bottom'd onelie upon a divine right they finde ruind by Saint Paul in his doctrine and practice who convinceth the heathen upon the right or principles of nature and argues from the testimonie of conscience they had sufficientlie bottom'd upon the worke of the law written in their hearts Nor had he ever converted any of the nations without divine revelation antecedent I meane in them aswell as in himselfe which had made lesse effectual and pertinent the ministrie of the Gospell if no moral arguments had obliged their consent How farre this is applicable to Episcopacie though were it not it is to your argument against it I am not here to discusse onelie intimate I may that in proportion it is possible as much to a sacred as civile Monarchie I meane not coordinate the later had it not the law of God hath the language of nature importunate to commend it I will trifle with you no farther in this matter but lay downe this conclusion which you may take up to what advantage you can That in a thing ambiguous such as you here seem to give if not grant Episcopacie to be since no command of God nor warrant from scripture enjoynes or tolerates the change since no Apostolical nor Christian Church for so many hundred yeares before that single citie of Geneva began it since neither that nor any other besides ever acted or at least publikelie avowed what change you demand in the many particulars that have been and shall be inserted in this dispute to the inevitable subversion of Regal government to the confusion of Christian subjection in the enjoyment of just libertie to the plaine praejudice of Parliament priviledge in three dominions to the seting up of much spiritual and carnal wickednesse some grave reverend Divine might modestlie speake a word in season and say His Majesties conscience can not at the best but doubt and doubting ought not by the law of God and rule of reason to resolve on it Which indeed is the substance of his Royal Fathers printed profession That he found it impossible for a Prince to praeserve the state inquies unlesse he had such influence upon Church men and they such a dependance on him as might best restraine the seditious exorbitances of Ministers tongues c. And this is onelie to be had in that government which was one bottome for his conscience ..... That since the first age for 1500. yeares not one example can be produc'd of any setled Church wherein were many Ministers Congregations which had not some Bishop above them under whose jurisdiction and government they were This was another bottome for his conscience To which such a divine as I spake of might adde with a due reserve of all humblie revence to and most unshaken confidence in that Holiâ—… Martyr and his most pious hopefull successour our gracious soveraigne now living That he who for any politike end suggested or necessitie most fond'le praetended of the subtilest presbyterian of you all shall adventure to take himselfe off from this bottome when Iudaisme or Turcisme some part of your mixture shall be alike plausible praetended as more advantageous to his purpose may be fear'd to be found not well setled upon Christianitie it selfe but fall from it throw away one or both Testaments of Scripture which upon the universal tradition of the Church as the other upon the Catholike practice of the same he first rationallie received as the word of God though afterward he found other motives prompting a beliefe of it to be such which at last be had superinduc'd by what too many vainlie praetend to the instinct or plerophorie of the spirit His Majestie likewise found most agreeable both to reason and religion that frame of government because paternal not magisterial c. Which was a third bottome for his conscience Nor did he thinke it any point of wisdome or charitie where Christians differ ..... there to widen the differences and at once to give all the Christian world except a handfull of some Protestants so great a scandal in point of Church government c. of which wisdome and charitie the gifts of the spirit of God he made another very good botome for his conscience Let Mr. Baylie reade the rest of that most excellent divine chapter and answer it if he can The maine ground of the Bishops discourse being wilfullie mistaken by the Reviewer his structure is weake about the Warners conscience And the Kings advantage His cordial beliefe of the divine right of Synodâ—… and Presbyteries together with that of the Reformed Churches which the Bishop shewes to be different may come from a private spirit that misinformes them then is no good interpreter of Scripture nor any sure praecedent for Christianitie throughout Their strict and inseparable adhaerence to his errour beside that it antidates all treaties null without an effectual complinance against conscience and honour excommunicates all the world but themselves excludes them from all hope of fellow ship with this new select societie of Saints who could they multiplie into a number large enough to fill the circle of their ambition and had they every one a drop of Scotish rebellious bloud in their veines would no longer labour the
conversion of Kings but take Gods angrie worke out of his hands to bring their Princes to nothing .... and be the whirlewind themselves to take them away as stâ—…bble He that lookes not through Mr. Baylies glasse of vanitie and lies can never be able to view the Bishop clasped so close with the elder Praelates impairing the divine right nor then with the consequence he makes about the legal or expedient mobilitie of Bishops Therefore as the ambition greed revenge so the dissimulation in conscience is his who can not but know what texts himselfe â—…se thâ—… to câ—…te for the divine right of Presbyterie and what the Bishop expresselie sayth that the same may with 〈◊〉 more reason be alleged for Episcopacit and more consonable to the analogie of â—…ayth The agreement of sundrie Praelatical divines with Erastus is here impertinentlie mention'd What correspondence the Bishop holds with them hath been too often all-readie acknowledg'd and maintaind Mr. Baylies urgent illogical inference obligeth the Bishop neither in ingeâ—…itie nor reason to untie the hands of the Kings conscience which his own assures him God hath bound if not by the hands of his sonne by those of his Apostles and their successours through all Christian ages and Churches Nor can his Lp from the principle you presse demonstrate any securitie to His Majestie from offending God in the change Nor yeild satisfaction to his doubts If Erastus's Royal right which you so often have â—…nveighd against may be usâ—…d as a sophisme to delude the King into your presbyterie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I pray by your favour let it stand as it is a better argument to confirme him if he needs it in Episcopacie Yet that either here or other where this Royal right is induc'd by His Lordship to ratifie the order I say not to actuate the jurisdiction of Bishops I can not finde upon my reviewing and must therefore desire a point by your ocular fingar to direct me Were not the Presbyterians more obstinate in resuming their errours then the Bishop forward to recapitulate his proofes his Lp. had spar'd a good part of this chapter though the receiud rules of method requir'd it Weake and naughtie are hackney answers which if spurrd too often and reason holds not up by the head are likelie to lay Presbyterie in the dirt Your Iudgement of his revenge is according to your practice who poore impotent creatures like wormes or flies by corruption filth support an uselesse corps to defile that hand that cruâ—…heth you to the death The praelatical integritie makes good the praesent disadvantage of their fortune their evidence in proofe before any aequitable comparers will praeserve still the principate in dispute Major est si non fortunâ—… ratio quam ut tali solatio egeat minifestiorque vis quà m at alienâ—… malo opinionem sibi virium quaerat Your Canterburian challenges were but Scottish â—…igges made onelie for mirth to a rude multitude in confusion the one very inconsiderable in musike the other flat if any thing in the harmonie of truth If the principles of Praelacie unavoydablie bring backe the Pope the practice of Presbyterie unquaestionablie gâ—…er before him makes his Papacie hold it by the traine The Patriarchate of the west and primacie of Rome flowes never out of the fountaine of Episcopacie but when some ignorant Presbyter is turning the cocke or tampering with the spring Those English Praelates that so freelie gave away the Patrimonie of Saint Peter c. were some singular Executours of Constantinus Donation yet in that nothing so liberal to the Pope as the Presbyters are covetous and griping the common inheritance to themselves who since his refusal that had the profer in possession take the mocke spirit at his word fall downe and worship and then under the counterfeit of dominion in grace intitle them selves not to Italie alone but to all the Kingdomes of the earth What difference there is in number or nature between the ceremonies they us'd those in Rome will appeare best by comparing their ritual with our rubrike Canons The ornament of sacred historical pictures the name of altars and the adoration of God in uniformitie before them have the ancient Christians innocent praecedent to commend them when commanded or Countenanc'd by our superiours in the Church and to vindicate them inus from the superstition and idolâ—…rie you impute so liberallie to Rome When the Praelates Papists cope in the controversie there are several other ceremonies they sticke at That these are the worst as religiouslie put in practice by the Bishops friends requires more then your old see saw to confirme it Adoration of or to the altaris that which I never heard professd by their mouth nor read yet dropt from their pen. For me lâ—…t them that owne it recant it and if none such befound Let the mouth of him that speaketh lies be stopped and the froward tongue be cut out The real prâ—…cence of Christ in the Eucharist on the altar as I take it was never denied by our Church a corporal never asserted by her noâ—… any of the Bishops friends that I have heard of though the 21. objection against our Liturgie in your historie of the Synod of Glasgow implies it The â—…ustification they held was fetchd farre beyond Trent and if they that went for it were not able to distinguish between Saint Pauls workes and Saint Iames's they were very unfit to trade for that pearle bad merchants for the Kingdome of heaven Their free will was held no paragon of nature but a priviledge by grace which deliver'd them from the fatalitie of the curse restoring them in some measure to a libertie of choyce And unlesse you will fetch backe Tatians errour make one God for the law another for the Gospel so long as the ten Commandements oblige us we have aswell as the Israelites of old heaven and earth for our record that life and death are to this day set before â—…s and by the merits of Christ the grace of having them in the free election of our will Their final apostacie was seldome or never intitled to Saints or if so with caution enough ro praevent calumnie They asscribed ever an infallible praescence to God an immutabilitie in his knowledge But to make him so peremtorilie antecedentlie spontaneouslie irrespectivelie praedestinate a certaine number of men call'd Sainâ—… before their resurrection from sinne so irresistiblie operate by his power as to praevent all possibilitie of backsliding offending or being fallen forceablie raise them reenstate them in native innocencie and his favour they found consonant to none dissonant from diverse positive texts in or inferences from Scripture such as these Let him that standeth take heed left he fall which excepts no more the last houre or moment of life then the first in the exercise of reason ...... Worke out your Salvation with feare and trembling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
very hardlie bestowed upon an hungrie beggar but pro pane lapidem without out saviours censure a stone instead of that bread which was never ordaind to stuffe the insataite stomach of every gaping Rebell that call'd for 't Yet whatsoever you had was you know but for a triennal experiment which being exspired in the yeare of libertie that was to succeed according to Gods paterne in Ezekiel if you could then praetend no better title then you had done it was to returne to your Prince and the inheritance of such an inseparable right to be his sonnes who of your adversaries gave this unseasonable advice I know not nor who have acknowledg'd and recanted for errours those divine truths ordained for peace but encountred with troubles and their abettours expos'd to susteime the envie and obloquie of the world Therefore alasse its in vaine for you to invite them to come nearer to hang out like a dead cat in her skin unlesse you meane to have every one of them moral the rest of the fable with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But to leave off speaking in parables I desire the reader in plaine English to marke the base ingratitude of an unworthie Presbyter In that when a most ingenuous peace-desiring Prince for him he meanes when he speakes of his Praelatical adversaries invaded by audacious importunitie encompassed with all external visible necessitie placing himselfe upon the very pinacle of Christi-an charitie shall yeild all that the softest gentlest Casuist can indulge and that upon such conditions as how easie soever the perfidious contractours litle thinke to make good he must be argued with upon the ominous advantage of his owne gratuitie praetended from his adventurous kindnesse to be demonstrativelie convinc'd to give up the rest of that which rebellious license schismatical singularitie and degenerate malice have now so devested into a new creature as neither law custome nor honour can call that English Bishop which religion instituded and reformation confirmed But a crou'd of guiltie conjured malefactours presseth shame and the proverbe to nothing so that ingratum si dixeris nihil dixeris Seneca knew it who had studied the point and experienc'd the practice Pâ—…dorem tollit multitudo peccantium definet esse probri loco commune maledictum But to send you backe some of your owne logike and language If this naked bird which you so pleasantlie play with be a new creature because the feathers are pluckt then you must confesse that old creature revested with those Euaugelical beauties and Royal graces which once it possessed to be that know'n true English Bishop that in honour law custome if not in conscience which I need not suppose is to be inviolablie maintain'd when it shall be made to appeare as it may very easilie and hath been very frequentlie that such an order not much differentlie fashion'd and habited ever was and ever is to be in the Christian Church To make good the mutual toleration indented for between your sectarian brethren and your alltogether as sectarian selves you closelie decline the warners confidence which avowes those texts of Scripture you wrest against Bishops with as much colour of reason and more truth the Independents may urge against Presbyters being resolv'd since you finde they can make you their province at pleasure if not command a transmigration of your Euangel to argue no more against them then to fight The triumph you make in two painted Syllogismes is very improperlie plac'd before the victorie where though you â—…ide like a George on horsebacke in a pageant you will passe for no beter then a dumbe shew and with your wooden launce be mistaken by none but children and fooles for that primitive armed Saint that kill'd the dragon If you cast not your texts in a couple of better molds your workemanship will beare as litle the image of Gods word as your selves doe of the reasonable men that he created Were His Lp. at better leisure his great promises would reengage him in more necessarie imployments then answering every silie Presbyter in his follie but his Acolythus servant if not because he hath taken up so much of the similitude allreadie will for once and it may be oftner follow Solomons advice in the next verse seeing you so very wise in your owne conceit The first text you are medling with is Ephes 4. 11. whence your imaginarie argument not to be denied adoration is this Maj All the officers that Christ has appointed in his Church for the ministrie of the word are either Apostles Euangelists Prophets Pastours or Doctours Mi But Bishops are none of these five Ergo. You pleade custome for the free unquaestionable passage of your major which you must give me leave to obstruct first excepting against the improprietie of your termes being such as may evacuate your argument the Ministrie of the word when the Bishops discourse is about the regiment of the persons to whom the word allreadie is ministred Secondlie demanding to have it under Saint Pauls hand whether the offices he mentions of Apostolate prophecie c were by Christs institution for the personal perfecting of Saints in a Church established and not as the word seemes rather to signific Pros ton Catartismon toon hagioon for jointing or knitting new Saints to the Church new membres to the bodie of Christ in the propagation of his gospel so aedisying the bodie of Christ by the worke of the Ministrie which in the next verse seemes to end in the unitie of â—…ayth that is the general conversion of nations to Christianitie Thirdlie whether this enumeration of the Apostle's be universal to which J finde more particulars addèd 1. Co. 12. 28. among them dynamâ—…is Kyberneseis Powers governments the former of which that you may not cavill about superinfused gifts he makes as much personal or persons as that of Apostle prophet Teacher vers 29. Besides that he expresselie calleth the Elders of the Church of Ephesus Bishops tells them they were instituted by the holie spirit which we know came downe to fulfill the promise by the mission of the sonne so they must passe upon account as officers appointed by Christ. Three fifths of your Minor thus you prove Bishops are not Apostles Euangelists nor prophets because they are confessed extraordinarie temporarie Bishops ordinarie perpetual To which I answer First That Bishops are Apostles in their ordinarie power of ordination jurisdiction though not in their extraordinarie of working miracles speaking with diverse tongues c. And this Tertullian hath sayd above 1300. yeares since who arguing with the haeretikes about succession bids them turne over their records shew that their first Bishop was an Apostle or Apostolical because personallie ordained by one of them This the Apostolical Churches could doe as that of Smyrna shewes Polycarp because placed there by Saint Iohn That of Rome Clement because ordained by St. Peter And such Bishops as
observations which you cannot denie and yet dare not acknowledge and therefore say nothing but worke in a whimzie of his excursions upon his owne friends not any of whom approve the injustice the irrationalitie much lesse imitate the cueltie of your practice The Popish Praelates are not so neare allied unto the Doctour nor doe they need to be taken into his protection The English are and can vindicate themselves against you for admitting to the holie tubâ—… with signes of repentance without Ecclesiastike publike satisfaction murtherere that are either quit by their jurie or have their pardon sealed by the King whoreâ—… that either are spared out of hopeâ—… of amendment or have had the whip at Bridewell and theeves burn'd in the hand at Newgate or sau'd by the benefit of their Clergie And this upon beter grounds then the Presbyters denie them communion with those who as much as they make up their mouthes dare not take up a stone to cast at them The Doctoâ—…r knowes his owne meaning and plainelie speakes it And they must be very ignorant or worse that are not of his minde or rather of St. Pauls which I take to be this That when a man shall without visible hypocrisie say be hath examin'd himselfe he is not to be againe examin'd by the Classe but may eate of that bread and drinke of that cup That when he hath judged himselfe he should not be judged That when he is judg'd he is chastened of the Lord not condemn'd and executed by the Kirke Your interrogatorie or argument a minore ad majus in case of Scandal is defective untill you render a just definition of scandal applicable to all where in your discipline doth instance After which having made your scale of degrees your antecedent requires your proofe viz. That small scandals are to be purg'd away by that repentance that here is in quaestion between us Had I ever read of any Presbyter in Scotland what I have of â—…abian once Bishop of Rome That he was chosen by the extraordinarie descent of a dove upon his head I might charitablie hope sor some spirit of meekenesse among the brethren of the Discipline and have some litle credulitie that the want of gall in any one of the number might qualifie the exuberance and overflowing biternesse in the rest But when I meet with such tragike Histories of their implacable furie and see every where their unjust judgement running downe like a torrenâ—… and their unrighteous rigour like a mightie streame I can put litle trust in the slender banke of Master Baylies professions in behalfe of his Presbyterie from whom expect as litle mercie as truth and as litle Christian righteousnesse as peace The Warner can not be ignorant of your Scotish wayes while his eyes are open to reade them in your bookes or his eares to heare them in very credible reports He that lives in Scotland and never seeth the execution of that censure must betake himselfe to the mountaines converse in some corner with those creatures who know as litle of excommunicating by as they ever did of communicating with a Church For the 47. yeares halcion dayes that you have seen of which from your birth which you so superstitiouslie mention you must give us leave to abate at least one or two as praegnant in knowledge and as quicke an Intelligencer as you could be in your cradle and about 30. of 40. more wherein the curst blacke cowes had short hornes the Presbyterian severitie being regulated by the Bishops who caried the badge of clemencie aswell as innocencie on their armes the great citie you liv'd in must be taken for the onelie bright Mercie seate in your Countrey while the sun of righteousnesse did never arise otherwhere but turn'd his face away from it as a land of darkenesse full of cruel hibitations As touching the two censures you acknowledge had the profanesse in the papist and the horrible scandâ—…t in the Prâ—…lates been priviledg'd as much in the punishment with a proxie as they say the more true and more horrible scandal in a brâ—…her of the Commission the rod of that furie had passed upon the backes of the fooles in your Citie as for the lustie Presbyters delinquencie I have heard your excommunication was executed upon the Nodie-Innocents in his parish If you goe no farther then Saint Pauls câ—…and 2. Thes. 3. 14. You should denounce no publike excommunication in the Church but diates epistoles semeiouâ—…thai by private leters signifie his fault You should have no companie nor familiaritie with him that he may be ashamed not forbid every man to sell him bread that he may be sterved You should admonish him as a brother not count him as an enemie commanding him to be reputed as accursed delivered to the devil Much lesse should you arrogate the praerogative of God if not a greater in visiting the sinne of the father upon the children such it may be as hate you not denying them baptisme till they come to be of age c. And to shew what good Angels you are after sentence pronounced you dismisse not the Congregation before they have sung with you the 100. Psalme a Psalme of exultation whereby as much as may be you rejoyce at the confusion of a sinner Nor is your reserve of litle kindnesse very constant in permitting the excommunicate the companie of them that are â—…ied by natural bonds unto him when the sharpenesse of your censure cut ' these bonds with-held this indulgence from Master Iohn Guthrie Bishop of Murray to whom when he lived in Angus you denied the comfort and conversation of his brother though a preacher of a parish thereabout For the inconveniences that follow how powerfull hath been the influence of the Church upon the State in such Acts of Parliament as are made consequential to their Acts of Assemblies may be guessed by the frequent servile submission to the tyrannie of their papers In the Parliaments where your Princes were ever praedominant it can not be thought they would ratifie an Act so destructive to their owne strength in the diminution of their subjects as to set the heads of wolves upon the shoulders of men and for such trivial faults as the Bishop mentions antecedent to your censure with leters of horning expose them to be worried by dogges For this crueltie may your Church be deservedly challenged and that by Proelates who gave no such customarie allowance to thier officials to excommunicate as appeares by the caution in the Canon 1571. Nullus horum nec Cancellarius nec Commissarius nec Officialis in cognitione causarum procedes usque ad serendam sententiam excommunicationis nisi tantum in causis instantiarum And in the Canon 1604. If the delinquent made his appearance and after processe was to be censured the official was not to pronounce the sentence but the Bishop nullam ejusmodi sententiam pronunciari volumâ—…s praeterquam per Episcopum c. Nor were
themselves their Prince's displeasure for a Rethorical libertie used in their behalfe shall be pay'd for their paines with the honourable essay of men sold unto sin enemies to God and all godlinesse the L. Sempils reward which he had from Iohn Knox as this gratefull Presbyter hath registred in his storie They that bridle the rage of their Princes the phrase usd as occasion serves will not sticke to halter the heads of their Nobles if they will neither leade nor drive but molest the progresse of their Presbyterian designes Your Historical Vindication I hope is no new nam'd Logike to prove negatives of fact your detraction from the credit of many irrefragable authours that Historize that insolent speach uttered by Bruce lookes more like a calumnie then their relation to a fâ—…ble And yet such a superstitious reverence is payd by your fond brother Didoclave to the memorie of his name that he could be content to pin his fayth on his sleeve and hang his soul at his girdle Anima mâ—…a cum anima tua Bruci si ex aliena fide esset pendendum and were there to be but one priviledge of aeternal residence in heaven he thinkes neither Patriach nor Prophet Apostle nor Martyr no nor the Virgin Mary her selfe were likelie to carie it from Bruce Which compar'd with King Iames's opinion of him as a perfidious madman that had a whirligigge in his head delivered after to many experiments of his rebellious zeale and frantike restivenesse is enough to condemne both saine and votarie to some bedlam purgatorie before imposture can fixe or facilitie of fancie finde these new imaginarie lights among the starres Your following invective is writ with Arrius's quill and by such scribling you gaine the title that Constantine gave him patroctonoâ—… epieiceias discovering your selfe to be a parricide of aequitie murdering truth in your relation and justice in your parallel His Lordship takes himselfe not concern'd in this case to recollect 800. yeares Historie of Europe to picke out of the pietie humilitie of many Reverend Bishops the pride and passionate errours of some few Noâ—… hath he malice enough with you to make that the nature of their office which hath been some litle monstrositie of minde by ill habits accidental to their persons Beside what among the Papists the nobilitie by birth of many Bishops concurring with the received dominion and large revenve of their Spiritual praeferment may elevate their thoughts and enhaunce their owne opinion of themselves if impardonable addes litle to the condemnation of ours which partake in litle with them but their titles The universal supremacie which the Pope arrogates aswell over Kings as Bishops may puffe up a litle Cardinal that is neare him in his purple possesse him with a conceit that he may Write himselfe companion to a King whom he thinkes but is mistaken oblig'd in Spiritual humilitie to lie prostrate at his holinesse foot and kisse his slipper But the same Kings soveraigntie in Ecclesiasticis at home secur'd him from all such contestation with his Bishops Though had it not the argument from a Cardinal in Rome to a Praelate in England will hardlie finde a topike Those in Scotland take themselves as capable of honour conferr'd upon their order as their Popish praedecâ—…ssours Nor are such legal establishments if not of right of Princelie favour to becast away in complement Nor were they to make an unnecessarie distance out of forme when the material meaning of their vicinitie to the throne was the neare concernment of their counsel to the King Orthodoxe Monarchs as well as Papists having doubting consciences and orthodoxe Bishops as good abilities to resolve them I have not heard they crowded much or quickened their pace to get the doore of the Earles c. Their Provincial that with much humilitie and respect unto their H. H. tookeit was lead to it by the hand that had exalted them or their progernitours But for the reason of praecedence which I guesse to be your meaning you were best review the Heralds office and reforme it Poorpâ—…dants are not to be reproached for making a litle diocese of their Schooles Priests being charged to make such of their houses and from the experimental regiment of boyes raising their abilities by honest endeavours to the meriting an higher Episcopate of men Nor their conscientious demeanour in that office to be aesteemed the arrogancie of their order if it move Kings to commit the white staves to the crosiar and great seales to be under the keyes of the Church The most capricioâ—…s of them all and most contentious for the honour which I thinke were none but such as did you too much service when they had it were many straines below your Presbyterie of Knoxes Bruces c. Who have contested with Kings for their Scepters which with white staves and seales they brought under the pedantike jurisdiction of their rod. Never have Bishops so ruffled it as many base borne Presbyters with the secret Counsel To whose Consistories all Courts of Iustice were faine to doe homage the greatest Lords of the land become subordinate Elders to the parson of their parish It 's not so long that yet it can be forgoten since a most violent and malicious man call'd the Goodman of Earlstounne aclient of the E. Argile for interrupting of divine service forceable overturning the Communion Table in his Parish Kirke thâ—…eatning and abusing the Minister with many other such enormous crimes was fined but the fine never exacted by the High Commission and confined for a season The E. Argile complain'd of his hard usâ—…ge to the Lords of Counsell and enformed against the Bishop of Galloway that he promised to him somewhat which he had not perfâ—…rmed The Bishop denied the promise gainsayd what the Earle alledged whereupon sayd the Earle If you say so 't is as much as if I lie The Bishop modestlie replied I doe not say so but I beseech your Lp. to call your selfe beter to minde you will finde it as I say This is giving the lie because he would not take it on himselfe and ruffling with a great Lord because he would not be ruffled out of a just vindication of the truth yeild his consent that a Counsel Table should approve turning the communion table out of the Church The Reviewers should doe well to bring in his accounts fuller when he reckons with Bishops for braving of Noblemen All Presbyterians are heterodoxe to all good Catholike Christians with whom Episcopacie is so necessarie a truth as next to the divine institution Vniversalitie Vbiquitie and perpetuitie can render it Confingant tale aliquid haeretici nihil promovebunt Could your invention feigne such authoritie to Presbyterie yet your doctrine would diversifie you into a sect What the Bishops following words cleare shall not one whit be clouded by any obscuritie in my replie though the strongest eradiations that come from them would
communication though advised by the Church they were put to purge themselves from the imputation of Poperie in practizing auricular confession and injunction of penance Your order and practice is to keep off from the holie Table not such onelie as conjunctive are grosselie and willfullie but divisivé intoo strict aÌ„ sense grosselie or willfullie ignorant Touching which allthough their negligence is inexcusable and their dulnesse pitiable yet that your act of cruel jurisdiction is justified by no divine command nor Catholike example If never any for simple ignorance were excommunicated in Scotland You must be rebuk'd for transgressing your rule and failing in your dutie as your Kirke pleaseth thus to declare it In sufferable we judge it that men be permitted to live and continue in ignorance as Members of the Kirke Whether greater tyrannie were exerciz'd in the High Commission Courts or your Consistories your aequitable comparers by this time are not to seeke What excesse on your side hath been evidenc'd is here resumed onelie to aggravate your floud of boundlesse crueltie by the many heads from which it issues and the cataracts it powres upon the poor people in every parish The Bishops playd indeed the Râ—…x in that their Court because they acted in it by authoritie and deputation from the King But you and your Brethren playd the Rebells to the purpose when you first rioted then rebell'd and covenanted before er you supplicated to suppresse it K. Ch. 1. by his grace and too fluent charitie praevented the violence intended by your Parliament though he found no thankes nor yet acceptance at your hands His proclamation being rudelie encountred with a rebellious protestation read by Iohnston The King Anticlerical Parliament in England that alasse joind hands in a maner yet scarce agreed to throw downe the other about their eares without which the Praelates had no power lesse then no reason if it might be to let it fall have not onelie covered the poor Bishops with the ruine of that Court but since hands and hearts were divided the laborious Lords and Commons without him have pull'd the Fabrike of both Houses and of Monarchie upon themselves The Congregational Eldership a thing wheresoever more to be jeerd at and lesse endured then a Commission is enjoy'd with so much more comfort among other of the Reformed then in Scotland as we are eye witnesses of lesse authoritie rigour in it And while I am writing this Replie one of the Reformed Presbyters your Countreyman ingenuouslie confesseth to me that he thinkes in his conscience the praesent Kirke tyrannie in Scotland he speakes it indeed rather of the practice then rule is farre beyond what ever could be alledged against our Bishops or the Pope And that if he others of his minde tooke the constitution of that government every where to be the same as it is executed in Scotland they would not continue a day longer in that communion The lawes of these Scotish Elderships taken out of Holie scripture can not be very particular in many cases Their Acts of superiour judicatories doe not can not so specifie interpretative Scandals nor in all occurring possibilities proportion corporal punishments or pecuniarie mulcts in the arbitrement of which lies the tyrannie of this petie Aristocratie and most ridiculouslie many times used in cutting halfe the haire shaving beards c. as before now hath been objected by others that having I beleeve seen it better know it In the abuses by such censures and difficultie of some cases when appeale is made to a Synod the Bishop tells you which you observe not that the shortnesse of its continuance can afford the condition of the persons will afford litle reliefe Your dozen of the most able pious plowmen in many parishes with an unexperienc'd illiterate Pastour praesiding in their Councel are no very reverend Iudges in many cases And what pitifull creatures they must be of necessitie in some places may be guessed untill this quaestion be answer'd which is sent you from another Countreyman of yours an honest able Divine Whether you have not heard of Countrey Churches in Scotland especiallie amongst the Saints of Argile where not three hapilie not one in the whole parish could reade Amphictyonum consessus A very honourable bench A Senate that no doubt would strike greater amazement but upon other reasons then the Romane if any foraigner should behold them In that you say the Episcopal way is to have no discipline at all in any congregation you are somewhat more hard hearted then your brethren Who acknowledge some of the functional rubbish of your Temple building Elders and Deacons upon the shoulders of our Church wardens Sidemen and Collectours part of whose charge is to observe maners inquire out ilâ—… livers admonish the scandalous and praesent them to the ordinarie To direct them in this dutie the Bishops articles are disspersed and an Audit held of their account at every visitation The officials pleasure regulates not their information which is to be as impartial as an oath can make it His conscience commonlie is not to large though his learning and wisdome be of greater extension then the Elders What power he exerciseth is by law and custome In correctionis negotijs alia quidem facient omnia excommunication is more â—…iselie and conscientiouslie excepted quae de jure possunt solent fieri Constit. 1571 To the Presbyterian tendernesse of medling with domestike infirmities somewhat is sayd allreadie which the Answerer by leter thus avoucheth It is certaine that a foolish man revealing foolishlie his faults to his wife the zealous wife upon some quarelling betwixt her and her husband hath gone to a good Minister revealed what was told her and the honest impertial Minister hath convented the man charged him with his sinne and made him confesse satisfie and doe penance publikelie Here the flagrant scandal was onelie the fire or furie that broke out of a weake womans breast into a pragmatical Presbyters eares whose heade is no sanctuarie for spiritual secrecies but his curiositie the mine that under workes the foundation of private families and palaces too whereof that of Mary Queen of Scots may be a formidable and lamentable example and when jealousies faile of materiall truth in the discoverie to blow them up with malicious calumnies what they can For suits and differences incident between Pastour and flocke Lay Elder and his neighbour the passion upon which perverts blindes the eyes of the wisest men that are your Congregational or Classical Iudges you passe quietlie by it as having nothing to say for it These are the great injuries and hurts which make the Scotish Discipline Scandalous to all the Reformed world being prov'd destructive to the just praerogative of Kings the power of Parliaments the libertie of subjects enslaving all orders of men where it takes place to the arbitrarie jurisdiction of a corrupt Synod and that commonlie moderated by the usurped
time to enjoy your owne puritie peace which had cost you so deare The Bishops following grounds which he makes good to be de monstrative doe not therefore betray the weaknesse of because they adde strength to the praeceding What wind is in them you fâ—…llow too fast after and feed as greedilie upon as Ephraim on the East which turnes to the same bad nourishment in you both increasing lies and somewhat else which you may reade Hose 12. 1. And were the softest hand insensible of their substance they would praeponderate your answers which are as deceitfull upon the weights as he that made them and alltogether lighter then vanitie it selfe For not a proposition is there in prosyllogisme or syllogisme that is seemes you can denie though you scarce any where shew ingenuitie to grant For the second which you thinke so hard to prove let it be adventur'd thus He that by covenant disposeth of himselfe and armes contrarie to the established lawes which by the Kings right in him he is obliged to maintaine disposeth of them against that right But every Covenanter disposeth c. For the established lawes enjoine him to defend the Kings person without limitation or reference to religion at least not to fight against it which the Covenant by your practiâ—…e interpretation doth oblige to Where the power of the Militia refides His Majesties unanswerable Declaration for the Commission of array will best satisfie you And himselfe tells you trulie it is no lesse his undoubted right then is the crowne In the exercise of it though the Parliament be not excluded yet their power is never legallie considerable but when they are as the bodie with the â—…oul in statu conjunctâ—… with the King Defense of liberties hath no law to arme them against prâ—…rogative nor is there a cause imaginable impowering them to take up armes against a partic countenanced by the Kings praesence which can be according to no law but what is call'd such by rebellious people that offer violence to Royal right If any such there be let us have but one impraegnable instance and we 'll shake hands I beleeve you are not much in love with that old custome of the Frisians long before they became Presbyters who chose their Earle carying him upon their bucklers and crying alowd Haec est potestas Frisiae You can now adayes beter indoctrinate them according to the custome of your faction when praevalent which is to admit no new King but at the swords point and there to keepe him crying after this maner or somewhat like it in your proclamational libells Haec est libertas Presbyteriales Scotiae Yet your Commissioners when in the mood can praesent the hilt to his hand and argue with both houses as they did upon the new propositions why the power of the militia should be in the crowne asking How Kings otherwise can be able to resist their enemies and the enemies of the Kingdome protect their subjects keep friendship or correspondence with their allies asserting that the depriving them of this power rootes up the strongest foundations of honour and safetie which the crowne affords will be interpreted in the eyes of the world to be a wresting of the scepter and sword out of their hands So that the Bishops friends may take from yours aswell as from him the same demonstrable conclusion he layd downe And this for all the Kings acknowledgement which was never any of the Parliaments joint interest in his authoritie against his person which is the true case though you shamefullie conceale it Nor did His Majestie so put the whole Militia in their hands as to part with his right when he bound his owne from the exercise Nor was he sure he was not or might not seeme to be perjur'd for his courtesie which all Kings will not hazard though he layd the guilt or dishonour at their doores whither God hath brought allreadie a portion of their just punishment that constraind him saying I conceive those men are guiltie of the enforced perjurie if so it may seem who compell me to take this new and strange way of discharging my trust by seeming to desert it of protecting my subjects by exposing my selfe to danger or dishonour for their safetie and quiet Therefore what thoughts he had of your parties medling with the Militia may be best judg'd by his words How great invasion in that kinde will state rebellion in a Parliament when there 's any as there was none at that time nor since shall be told you when the Bishop gives you occasion to demand it Or if you can not stay so long I must send you againe to the judicious Digges to satiate your too curious and greedie appetite of such fare as will noâ—… well be digested in many stomackes To the nulling your Covenant by His Majesties proclamation you say nothing because it separates him from the partie to which you attribute all malignance and you know you can not securelie medle with him but in a croud In the Bishops second demonstration we must be beholding to you for giving what you can not keep with any credit which more awes you then conscience That where the mater is evidentlie unlawfull the oâ—…th is not binding The application of which up to your covenant will be justified when brought to the touch by Gods lawe or the Kingdome 's But you first summon it before reason which helpes you with no rule To lay aside what might be otherwise rectified were there cause for 't Nor any evidence that the burden of Bishops and ceremonies was so heavie as to presse you into the necessitie of a Covenant This his Lordship need not offer to dispute since the King ever offerd a regulation of that order and those rites by the primitive paterne wherein it otherwise differed then in a necessarie innocent compliance with the politike constitution of his Kingdome And the Church had render'd all rational satisfaction as well for the ceremonies reteined as those abolish'd And both by particular men most eminent in learning and judgement had been unanswerablie maintained in every graine or scruple that could be quaestion'd or complaind of Yet the praesent government how light soever is burdensome especiallie to men that looke for advantages by the change And the worst of men can seeme as serious in complaint as if their vertues had been the onelie martyrs to crueltie and the very common hackneyes for oppression Quid reliqui habemus praeter miseram animam came out which a sad sigh from Catiline before his bankrupt Comrades who had left no such subject for rebellion to rhetoricate on if their lives had been as good pawnes in the midst of their prodigalitie as their lands This your method of reformation whereof the Bishop complaines for which you plead custome failes not onelie in the maner but of the power the most material requisite to effect it And the high path way is noâ—… so
hearts of the most understanding shall if they will be satisfied withall moral and fiducial assurance to have that Religion praeserved which shall by reason and authoritie aswell divine as humane in every particular justifie it selfe against all right or left handed sects and factions guiltie of superstition or profanesse those lawes observed which appeare now to have constituted the most indifferent innocuous government in the world Whereas if the conscience of the Court be deluded once into Presbyters hands it will need none of our angrie wishes to be made sensible of the change when to be sure it must take religion like a desperate patient from a sullen physician in doses of Covenants and propositions not to be disputed and like a bedlam have lawes given it with a whip The Bishop drawing toward the end of his discourse puts all the controversie upon trial by that quaestion which if once categoricallie answered would spare much oyle and inke for the future giving the Magistrate to know that it is not the pen but his sword whereby this difference must be decided But these spiders of Presbyterie will aswell be spinning webs as spitting poyson though so thin as can't conceale the uglie shape of their soules nor that bay which contines the intrinsecal venome of their cause Though had they the reputation of no better Artists then Master Baylie the Pallas of Praelacie need not enter on the encounter but that of Magistracie might in scorne more then envie teare such wicked worke in peices before their face and in justice mixed with some litle mercie to beget repentance execute Arachne's condemnation in the fable upon the authours Of the multitude of untruths which the Reviewer here recriminates upon the Bishop that we may be one take a judgement of the rest the want of charitie is very unjustlie made the first which he should have done well to have supplied in himselfe and not so senselesselie to intimate a non realitic of religion in those reverend Fathers who beside the visibilitie in their practice heretofore and of their Christian patience in being Martyrs and Confessours for it of late ever made a profession of that fayth which was consonant to Scripture as interpreted in the primitive purest times of Holie Church Whereas the censure his Lordship makes of the Presbyterian phantasme is principallie because in their very covenant appeares no reformation intended but according to the word of God without mentioning any rule or authoritie for the interpretation of that word beside their owne humours conceits And the example of the best Reformed Churches which best must be that which seemes so unto them whether the rest yeild to it as such or no if indeed they meane any as it may be wel thought they doe not but themselves who are so superciliouslie singular from them all as they disdaine to heare of a inclioration to be had from their example and such Tyrants over us as they give us no other law nor reason but their pleasure for the reformation they impose speaking to us in the language of the Pelagians to the Catholikes Nobis authoribus nobis principibus nobis expositoribus damnate quae tenebatis tenete quae damnabatis reijcitâ—… antiquam fidem paterna instituta Majorum deposita recipite quaenam illâ—… tandem Horreo decere sunt enim â—…m superba ut mihi non modo adfirmari sed ne refell quidem sine aliquo piaculo posse videantur The second untruth he sayth is That Covenanters beare no allegeance to the King but onelie in order to Religion which notwithstanding is the particular limitation in the Covenant and when all was granted them but a particle of that by Charles I. they denied to returne to their allegeance without it And the Crowne of his successour our gracious Soveraigne still hangs out of his reach by that thred which their proclamation tells him in effect shall for ever keep it off till he consent To the third I replie That the Rebell Parliaments verbal denial makes the Bishop speake uo untruth who will tell them as the King himselfe did That his person was in vaine excepted by a parenthesiâ—… of words when so many hands were armed against him with swords the Canon knew no respect of persons The praetenses of a Popish Praelatical and malignant faction are wip'd away by His Majestie in that chapter to which I require a Scotich replie The fourth is grounded upon a very false supposition which sometimes they will not grant us nor sâ—…ould we though too many have out of mistake too often grant it them viz. That saving Bishops and ceremonies the religion of Scotizing Presbyterians and Catholike English Christians is the same whereas there is neare if not fullie fundamental difference in the acception of several articles in our Creed so that though we say the same words we can not trulie be sayd to be of the same beleife in these at least Christs descent into hell The Holie Catholike Church The communion of Saints The forgivenesse of sâ—…nnes Besides several other accessorie tenets wherein we thinke they detract from the mercie if not the justice of God reveled in Christ and the ordinarie use of his graces restored by our redemption without respect of persons unto men But if here for their pleasure they will have the true Church counterfeit Kirke be the same otherwise then as they are differenced by the corruptions of Bishops and ceremonies why tried they not the experiment of puâ—…ging these with the alteration of the rubrike and their persons without change of the Liturgie for a Directorie and the abolition of their office As their great Pope Henderson once confessed in the Earle of Arundel's tent when General in the North. That Bishops might have been tolerated in Scotland if their persons had been such as they ought And the Reviewer himselfe when he wondred why the Doctours of Aberdene would not subscribe the covenant being asked by a friend of his if he thought Episcopacie and the articles of Perth unlawfull made this answer He never thought nor ever would thinke them so Whence may be conjectur'd their modest meaning to be this That had the Episcopate in Scotland been seasonablie entailed to their tribe so farre as they could have hindred what they pretie well promoted their covenanting tables at Edenburgh had been taken downe and no armie raised to purgâ—… Mâ—…lignants out of the Kirke 5. The Reviewer sayth their â—…rmes were tâ—…ken for defense of just liberties whereof religion was but one But then it waâ—… one and thâ—…t the 〈◊〉 or eâ—…e when â—…hey had the Militia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to defend 〈◊〉 why stood â—…hey upon that which is an argument that merelie for that wâ—…re there nothing else in controversie they might aswell take as keâ—…pe up armes But what shuffling was in this businesse hath been discovered by another That about liberties Mâ—…ster Digges 〈◊〉 learnedâ—…ie confuteâ—… Nâ—…r will the Reviewâ—… and all
ae comfortlesse discourse about the flockes we once had which now alas are got into other pastures Invite strangers to fight for our Churches while our owne Congregations are instituted to forget the holinesse in the separation of such places the sacred distance of the meanest from worke-or ware-houses and the fairest from Piatz'as of pleasure or Exchanges for their bargaines If what I speake My Lord be truth I shall not hearken to them that may tell me it is misse placed my conscience suggesting that the climate season hath too often been heretofore neglected If false I have a spunge as readie as ever I had a pinne to wipe out all but my shame which shall be set forth at your Lordships pleasure in an English sheet though it never will be brought unto the Scotish stoole to do its penance In attendance on which sentence if neither your Lordships approbation nor pardon must be expected I stoup downe to acknowledge my selfe aswell in submission to your censure as execution of your commands MY LORD Your Lordships Most humblie devoted servant RI WATSON D. Hieron Praefat. in Lib. Esdr. Legant qui volunt qâ—…i nolunt abjiciant Horat. quae nivali pascitur Algidâ—… Devota quercus inter ilices Aut crescit Albanis in herbis Victima Pontificum secures Cervice tinget Dr. Creighton ' s Letter My dear Friend Brother and Fellow-sufferer Mr. Watson I Thank you for the confidence you reposed in my integrity and affection to your self and your cause that you would permit me to read your Treatise in â—…heets before it went to the press which I found so well digested in method so full of ingenuity 〈◊〉 variety of Learning so perspicuous acute and elegant that I should seem to derogate from your worth if I added ought to the commendations of your writing I may boldly say you have laid your Adversary flat on his back you have drest him to the purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek proverb runs in Suidas When they have caught the Polypus they ply him with bastinadoes cudgel his dissembling coat lustily to make him taâ—…e feed and grow fat Yet I am afraid your Noble Instructions will produce no great effect upon that man Parce labori Nicopompe non ignorant se errare nec moniti emendationem promittunt saith Antenorius to the Author of Argenis in that Book You might have spared your pains good Mr. Watson they know they are wrong as well as you can tell them but all the earth shall never make them confess an errour or amend it And you 'le pardon me that I quote Argenis in so weighty a cause Similes labra lactucas they are more fabulous and greater liars then Argenis and some sleight prating finical Nicopompus I hold a far more proper Antagonist to deal with these men then you or any learned grave Divine For they will say what they please and maintain what they say not by strength of reason but by wilfulness hate malice revenge and blood Crede aut jugâ—…lum dabis is their motto Believe or I 'le cut thy throat And were those holy aud primitive Saints now alive and did read the practises of those men compared with the innocent passages of Argenis that draw no bloud they would infinitely far prefer that airy well-penn'd Fancy before the Acts of their Assemblies nay even in point of truth And perhaps posterity after a while may be brought to the same degree of understanding and judgement They are a perverse generation and you have took a Wolf by the ears which you must make account to hold till dooms-day you must never hope to be free from Bailey's replies and janglings They are like the Indian Dogs in Strabo presented to Alexander the Great so fierce and pertinacious that when they once catch hold Archimedes's Instrument will hardly pull them off 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they will stick and tear till their eyes turn round in their eye-holes or sockets and drop out of their heads And I never yet knew any man go beyond your Adversary Bailey in stiâ—…ness pride and arrogance It is much about a dozen years since he first published his Canterburian self-conviction The man had seen some Visions in Trophonius's Den raptures and embryo's of his own addled brain and out he comes to vent them like Aesop's Ass jetting in purple He was now high set in pursuit of same and like a valiant Combatant he enters the field brandishes his sword and looks about whom he may dare to take up the bucklers against him and scorning to cope with a Pigmee he challenges no less men then my Lord's Grace of Canterbury and all the Learned Divines of England and much grieved he was in mind that my Lord's Grace himself would not vouchsafe him the honour to confute him as if a skie-towring Eagle or Gyre-falcon should have stoopt to a Kite or Carrion I dare say the least line of that incomparable profound Conference with Fisher written by that peerless glorious Martyr for the Church of England is of more weight and worth then all that ever Bailey did or shall compose to the worlds end could he live Methusalem's age over and over and spew out yearly whole Vaticans of Books And you may see Sir to your comfort he is no changeling He is Crimson died in grain Hyaena follicat non mutat pellem the Hyaena will double and falter this way and that yet still continue an Hyaena He had done with my Lord's Grace of Canterbury long ago and it was time when he and his complices had brought him to a scaffold But no sooner had my Lord of London-Derry appeared in publick though with some short avisoes to beware their villanies but Bailey will have at him Who but Baily the great Kill-cow of the North that unappall'd Champion that Goliath of brass that confounder of Bishops in England Scotland and Ireland He startles and stares about at the very name of a Bishop reels frets and fumes it is more odious to him then a Turkish Mufti it rides him like an Incubus or Night-mare he cannot rest or sleep for it I could not choose but smile though with much indignation to mark his saucy impertinent haughtiness In the very Frontispice of his Book how unreverently he calls my Lord Bishop Dr. Bramble Late Bishop as if his Lordship were not now what before he was as if his Order could be cancelled by popular suffrages â—…s the waspish Puritan thinks fit to rise in Arms and teach their mis-led rabble to cry No Bishops no Bishops as if they could be pulled down and set up at mens pleasure as in King Iames's minority like a Weather-cock in the wind to wave on the loose hinges of State-Interests to rise and fall with ebbs and tides of popular insurrections Dr. Bramble late Bishop How late Bailey What hath the Bramble scratcht you by the face that you so wilfully mistake his name You impudence And who made you Priest
good Nehemiah Had you imposition of hands Episcopal benediction And when I pray began his Lordship to be no Bishop from the General Assembly at Glasgow Novemb. 38 Indeed from Christ to the holy Vigils of that Assembly the whole Christian world held it a sacred Order the next day after that Assembly they proclaimed it Antichristian and annull'd it And who gave you or them that Authority Mercy God! in one night to blast that Order and turn it Antichristian which over all the world had stood Christian 1600 years before O nox quam longaes It is madness to imagine it I am persuaded in my Conscience and will live and die in that Faith let all the Puritans in Christendome prate and preach and scribble what they please to the contrary That all the Kings and Princes and Parliaments and Assemblies in the world have no jusâ—… power to abrogate that Order Bishops are the Apostles immediate Successors have a Divine Right in Christ's Church from Christ's Apostles as great as Christ's Apostles could give them or Christ give his Apostles or God the Father give Christ Sicut me miâ—…it Pater sic ego mitto vos And where had Priests been all this while how had they appeared how been distinguished how known from Hereticks and Schismaticks down through so many ages if they had wanted Bishops in a clear Succession still to regulate and ordain them But things are turned topsie-turvie in these barbarous tumults and combustions the Son hath supplanted the Father who begat him the Priest unthroned the Bishop who made him and mounting his saddle like a proud Usurper furiously spurs on to make good that Proverb Set a Beggar on Horseback and he 'l ride to the Devil What blood and murder what treasons and rebellions have overflowed the World since these tenets were first broached Instit. 4. cap. 2. 5. 2. No succession from the Apostles No succession of Bishops Instit. 4. cap. 3. 5. 4. Onely 5 Orders in the Church Prophets Apostles Evangelists Pastours and Doctours whereof the three first moment any and for their own times Instit. 4. ch 3. 5. 8. Bishops Priests and Pastours all one Instit. 4. cap. 4. 5. 2. Bishops chosen by the Priests themselves upon humane consent and for occasion Instit. 4. cap. 4. 5. 15. Bishops gave no Ordination onely because they sat first among the Priests Ordination was falsly understood to be the Bishops Instit. 4. cap. 11. 5. 1. That the power of the Keys and Spiritual Iurisdiction rests in a mixt Company of Lay-Elders and Priests Instit. 4. ch 10. 5. 3. That no external Law made by the Magistrate can bind the Conscience Instit. 4. ch 20. 5. 31. That the Inferiour Magistrate ought by vertue of his place to call the Supreme Magistrate to account and punish him severely cut his head off if the inferiour â—…onnive or spare him he must be held as a perfidious traytour for betraying the Peoples Rights and Liberties These these Sir have been the bane of Christianity and ruine of the Church of England And though to our great grief these have took fire in our times and produced more sad an desperate effects then heretofore because the Prince of the Air is more powerfull and vigilant to increase his Kingdome now toward the near approaching consummation of the World yet formerly extravagancies have been maintained as pernicious as these Iohn Wickliff was a far more dangerous and sturdy Traytour then he Many have raised paradoxes of diâ—…efull consequence but never did any attempt by an universal defection to dissolve all bond of Loyalty and Obedience to God and Man as Wickliff did That God was bound to obey the Devil That Churches adorned were Synagogues for Satan That Bishops Deans and Doctours were the Hierarchy of Antichrist That there was no Sacriledge That Kings were bound on pain of damnation to take away all means of livelihood from a Clergy that mis-spent it That any Tyrant might be slain lawfully and meritoriously by any man or any Subject notwithstanding any former Oath and uncondemned of any Iudge That God could give no Hereditary Succession to any King for Him and his Heirs A King was no King that committed mortal sin nor any sinner a just possessour of any thing These Assertions Wickliff boldly preached not in close Conventicles but publickly and printed them in Edward the Third's declining dotage I may say upheld by the greatness of Iohn of Gant and Piercy Earl Marshall of England against the Prelates and Clergy of those times whom the Duke infinitely hated And for these Wickliffs bones were burned 30 years after his death by a General Council held at Constance 245 years ago And would God his Doctrines had burned with him and been buried in utter darkness for then we had not now wandered like forlorn Pilgrims upon the desolation of the most glorious Church that ever shone in Christendome we had not seen what the Sun yet never saw our Kings scaffolded the Crown of England trampled under foot the Royal Race undone and scattered our Reverend Bishops and Learned Men abused and baffled by every insolent stinking peasant For though at that time those hollow-hearted Lollards and their abettours fell short of their aim and expectation by the matchless sword of Henry the 5th England's undanted Mars and the learned Pen of Thomas of Walden his Confessour into whose bosome that mirrour of valiant Monarchs breath'd out his innocent soul yet now they have hit us home to the quick A torrent stopt will make way through hidden channels buâ—…st out at another time in another place unlooked for We feel it now Bohemia felt it then by means of some Gentlemen of that Countrey Students in Oxford who conveyed Wickliffs Books home with them to Prague which Iohn Huss published in High Dutch another jovial John of the same stamp and race burned alive for Wickliffs Doctrine the next year after Wickliffs bones by the same Council And what Wars that caused what inundations of blood by Zisca and his Taborites through the whole Reigns of Wencesâ—…aus and the renowned Sigismund no age shall ever forget or parallel but ours whose impiety will transcend as far the belief of posterity as now it surmounts all by-past Examples God keep my soul from these muckle mawn Iohns and their ways these Iohns of all Iohns I protest I never read their Books or think of their devices and stratagems without horrour and amazement Obnubilo animam as that African spake sto ut fulguritus aut sacrum bidental And therefore Mr. Watson I pity you above all men who since you have undertook this business against Bailey have been forced to lay aside your Noble Studies the Holy Fathers and History of the Church to rake in mud and dunghils to plunge in quagmires full of croaking Toads and hissing Setpents Covenants Oaths Perjuries Assemblies Reformations by blood Knox and Buchanan Consarcinations of trayterous plots masses of untruths and lies But you have play'd