discharged Of these then particularly and in their order And first of the first of them Sectio Prima Proposition The asserting of the Solemn League and Covenant and its obliging force is a duty indispensably incumbent on every man in his place but especially on the Ministers of the Gospel WHilst we consider this Proposition and frame this Link of our Chain we must take the Covenant in its abstracted form as it is a Solemn Compact confirmed by an Oath in which God is witness or party or both And at present take it for granted that the matter of it is true just and lawful which yet will hereafter in its appointed place be discussed And as such I say the asserting of the Covenant and its obliging force unto the exacting of performance and rebuke of negative or positive breach of it in not doing or in doing contrary to what is covenanted is a duty indispensably incumbent on all men in their places viz. in their publick or private capacities wherein they are to express themselves and expect others to be acted as men and Christians by the dictates and directions of conscience in order whereunto the Covenants in which they bind themselves each to other or joyntly to God as well as divine counsel must be their compass to guide their course past dangers and destruction Conform hereunto was the commendable carriage of Gyth the younger brother but faithful Counsellor to Harold King of England who considering the state of the Quarrel between him and William Conqueror gave the King this warning Cambd. Brit p. 149 150. In case you have made promise to William of the Kingdom withdraw thy person out of the Battel for surely all thy forces shall not secure thee against God and thy own conscience who will require punishment for breach of faith and promise Every man is in charity bound to be an Angel to an unmindful Jacob in point of his vow to God and Monitor to his back-sliding brother but it especially belongs to Gospel-Ministers who being Gods Watchmen against sin and his peoples Remembrancers unto duty are not onely by common Charity but also by special Office bound to give warning against approaching evil contracting guilt and impending judgments of God Ezek. 3.16 17 18 19 20 33.7 8 9 and that as they will acquit themselves from the blood of those immortal souls who slip into and perish by their sin On this account the word of the Lord cometh unto his Prophets with a Say unto them Thus saith the Lord I will give the men which have transgressed my Covenant which have not performed my Covenant even the Princes of Judah and the Princes of Jerusalem and Zedekiah the King into the hand of their enâ—mies Jer. 34.18 19 20 21 c. And therefore the censure of being contentious or danger of being cast into prison as seditious and losing all their comforts must not deterre the Ministers of God from coming to the King and crying out in the Name of the Lord Shall he break the Covenant and be delivered shall he do such things and prosper and escape Ezek. 17.15 for in case of silence the sin will be on their heads and the stones in the street will cry out This is a principle so common and clear The duty urged from piety towards God that none professing Reason or Religion dare deny it and the reason of it is written in such legible Characters that all may run and read it viz. The Covenant is an Oath the highest appeal to God who must not will not be mocked or made a witness to His own dishonour but will punish the breach thereof as a most heinous sin Therefore the Ministers of God standing in his stead must with all zeal exact the accomplishment of it as the practice of piety dependant on such a piece of worship Remembring God hath strictly charged That if a man vow a vow and bind his soul he shall not break his word he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth Numbers 30.2 So that in piety to God the Covenant must be kept and its obligation be asserted Loyalty to the King is no little swasive to this duty 2. Loyalty to the King for that leads to all fidelity in discharges and prevention of every thing destructive and dishonourable to his Majesty Perjury most odious to God and man is abominable in any and most conspicuous in a Prince Who can without dread remember the fierceness of Gods fury against Zedekiah for breaking the Oath into which he was forced by the straitest Siege Or observe the Odium that abideth on Albert the Emperor Almerick King of Jerusalem Vladislaus King of Hungary and the Christian-Princes for breaking their Covenants with the Turk and the obloquy indelible which lieth on Eugenius and Silvester Popes and Julian Cardinal of S. Angelo and the Order of Templars for abetting and advising by the same Arguments urged against our Covenant the breach thereof Can any true English-man and Liege Subject without horror call to mind the perjury of King Harold which let in William Conqueror to our Land and how King John was made odious and deserted by this out-cry Withdraw your selves from a perjured King and not in sence thereof be stirred up with zeal to assert the Covenant which broken will load with shame and subject to the displeasure of that God who can destroy both us and our King so happily restored to each other True Loyalty is no less studious to establish the Kings Throne in Righteousness than obsequious to the Royal expressions of His Pleasure Yet to such as center Loyalty in the last I would advise that they would seriously consider That howsoever His late Majesty of Honorable Memory for the conscience of his Oath was acted by the misapprehension of the Covenant to interdict it yet he was more sensible of its obliging force when taken than to attempt the discharge thereof and therefore in His Solitudes He adviseth His Subjects unto the Keeping of the Covenant in all honest and just ways The contemplation on the Covenant as thinking the chief end of the Covenant in many the takers intention was to preserve Religion in purity and the Kingdom in peace And as one under the awe of the Oath of God chargeth His most Sacred Majesty that now is That if God bring Him to His own on hard corditions He should be careful to perform what he should promise And His most Sacred Majesty as a most obedient Son to a Father so piously prudent having Himself sworn the Solemn League and Covenant and the establishment of it in all his Dominions by His Royal Declaration of August 16. 1650. from Dumfirmling professeth Himself deeply humbled for His Fathers opposition to the Covenant and that on full perswasion of the justice and equity of all the Articles thereof He had sworn and subscribed the Solemn Leagne and Covenant of the three Kingdoms and that he was fully resolved
the Act of taking the Covenant yet they be of no force at all to weaken or dissolve its bond Let me therefore say Sir to these who offer to your and my consideration their doubts and scruples against taking the Covenant and scatter abroad papers of this nature that they manifest their malice and profane enmity against the Covenant by subjecting it to vulgar scorn and laying open their own nakednesse as if it were the nakedness of the Covenant and run away railing against the Covenant as of no force or obligation as void and null on a meer Petitio principii base-begging the question and taking it for granted That what makes the act of swearing sinful makes the Oath void And supposing a weight which is very little in their exceptions to words method form order of the Covenant and the imposing it on the people which might have kept some men from swearing to be sufficient to discharge all that are sworn If they will indeed batter the Covenant they should pierce into the body of it and prove the matter of it unlawful and then will I also shake off the Covenant for ever Till then I answer in the Negative to my own enquiry in Saint Peters bonds abide pag. 13. to make the worst of it a tumultuous Assembly come before us with Sword and Scepter say they are a Parliament and have lawful constant and compleat Authority and therefore will put an Oath and Covenant upon us And silly inconsiderate we are not so well-skill'd in Politicks or acquainted with the Constitutions of our Country to detect their fallacy but think all Authority is within those walls and obedience must be yielded to what is there commanded and so we are beguiled into the Oath nor are we so hardy as to endure their violence but by fear are forced into the Covenant is it therefore void for we have opened our mouthes unto the Lord and cannot go back Sectio Tertia Proposition 3. The matter sworn in the Solemn League and Covenant is just and lawful to be maintained and pursued THat we may discover the lawfulness of the matter of this Covenant we must observe that in respect thereof it is partly Assertory and partly Promissory Assertory in the Preface of it viz. We Noblemen Barons The Assertory part of the Covenant Knights Gentlemen Citizens Burgesses Ministers of the Gospel and Commons of all sorts in the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland by the providence of God living under one King and being of one reformed Religion having before our eyes the glory of God and advancement of the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ the honour and happiness of the Kings Majesty and His Posterity and the true publick Liberty Safety and Peace of the Kingdoms wherein every ones private condition is included and calling to mind the treacherous plots conspiracies attempts and practices of the enemies of God against the true religion and professors thereof in all places especially in these three Kingdoms ever since the reformation and how much their rage power and presumption are of late and at this time increased and exercised whereof the deplorable estate of the Church and Kingdom of Ireland the distressed estate of the Church and Kingdom of England and the dangerous estate of the Church and Kingdom of Scotland are present and publick testimonies We have now at last after other means of Supplication Remonstrance Protestation and Sufferings for preservation of our selves and our Religion from utter ruine and destruction according to the commendable practice of these Kingdoms in former times and the example of the people of God in other Nations after mature deliberation resolved and determined to enter into a mutual and Solemn League and Covenant wherein we all subscribe and each one of us for himself with our hands lifted up to the most High God do swear Though this Preface may seem and be said to be no part of the Covenant yet it being a Solemn profession of the grounds and reasons on which the Covenant was made and was declared in the very Act of swearing the Covenant by all that swore it we shall own it as a part thereof The Covenant is further assertory in the Conclusion viz. And because these Kingdoms are guilty of many sins and provocations against God and His Sonne Jesus Christ as 't is manifest by our present distresses and dangers the fruits thereof We professe and declare before God and the world our unfeigned desire to be humbled for our own sin and for the sins of these Kingdoms especially that we have not as we ought valued the inestimable benefit of the Gospel that we have not laboured for the purity and power thereof and that we have not endeavoured to receive Christ in our hearts and to walk worthy of Him in our lives which are the causes of other sinnes and transgressions so much abounding among us And our true and unfeigned purpose desire and endeavour for our selves and all others under our power and charge both in publick and in private in all duties we owe to God and man to amend our lives and each one to go before another in a real Reformation that the Lord may turn away His wrath and heavy indignation and establish these Churches and Kingdoms in truth and peace And this Covenant we make in the presence of Almighty God the searcher of all hearts with a true intention to perform the same as we shall answer at the great day when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed Most humbly beseeching the Lord to strengthen us by His Holy Spirit for this end and to bless our desires and proceedings with such success as may be deliverance and safety to his people and encouragement to other Christian Churches groaning under or in danger of the Yoke of Anti-christian tyranny to joyn in the same or like Association and Covenant to the glory of God and enlargement of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and the peace and tranquillity of Christian Kingdoms and Common-Wealths The Covenant is promissory in the six Articles thereof Concerning the assertory part of the Covenant it must be noted That although it should have been unlawful because untrue in the grounds or reasons pretendedly inducing to it and so hypocritical and fallacious in the humility zeal and resolution in the Conclusion protested whereby the takers in deceiving others may have deceived their own souls and bound themselves under a certain expectation of the wrath of that God of truth and jealousie who hath been called as a Witness of such wickedness Falshood in the Preface bars not the obligation of the promise Yet this fallacy will not discharge the obligation of the Covenant For an Oath binds according to expression not the takers reserved intention And therefore Grotius telleth us That if a man in his assertory Oath do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 swear falsly this will be no warrant for his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for not
of Covenanting The particle Such seems to carry it to the quality of the Covenant in respect of the matter covenanted which afterward is particularly and in its proper place excepted against But the words of the Covenant suggested by this exception to be false do relate unto the act of covenanting as we have now at last for the preservation of our Religion determined to enter into a not such a mutual and Solemn League and Covenant And the place of this exception is in the beginning of their exceptions unto the Preface which may be said to be no part of the Covenant and therefore admits not an exception to the quality of such a Covenant Moreover the next exception puts it out of doubt that these words relate to the act of Covenanting in which they profess they finde not in our Histories any footsteps of a sworn Covenant on any occasion whatsoever So that it seems to be the Act of covenanting by Oath which they cannot conceive to be a lawful proper and probable means to preserve Religion from ruine Surely then Sir the weather was very misty about Oxford and made their minds very muddy that they could not conceive entring into Covenants and Solemn Leagues dictated by the light of nature and directed by the Law of God pursued and practised by all Nations and by Israel in the cases of their Religion as the utmost of humane policy and highest of security to their priviledges endangered as a method detecting concealed enmity debarring fraud expressing affection engaging conscience and animating resolution to be a lawful proper and probable meanes of security If it be good and safe as to our Civil I hope it is no less probable in our Religious concernments If Sir I had been to deale with one single student I must have told him That he started this exception more like a Sophistical Disputant than a conscientious Dubitant Fourthly They could not believe the entring into this Covenant to be according to the commendable practice of these Kingdoms 4th Exception in the Oxford Reasons or the example of Gods people in other Nations for that they found not the least footstep in our Histories of a sworne Covenant ever entred into by the people of this Kingdom upon any occasion whatsoever nor could they readily remember any commendable example of the like done in any other Nation but are rather told by the Defenders of the Covenant that the world never saw the like before Whither Sir Answer will not prejudice carry men I cannot but wonder to finde the Masters Students c. of Oxford so much unacquainted with Histories as neither to finde in our own or other Histories a commendable example of Entring into Covenant I may not mind them of the Covenant made by the Nobles and people of Scotland among themselves and with Queen Elizabeth of England under and against the Papal might executed by the then Queen Regent nor of the Netherlands confederacy and Covenant These will not seem commendable in their sight now though so judged when England became their protection and encouraged nay defended them in them Let me therefore enquire whether they knew Israel to have been Gods people of another Nation and that they entered into Covenant in the time of the Judges in the dayes of Joash Josiah Hezekiak and Nehemiah in times of danger and defection in their Civil and Religious concernments And was their practice commendable 2. Did our Gentlemen of Oxford never finde any footsteps in our Histories concerning the Barons of Stamford Anno 1225. assembled not only without but against the Kings consent and covenanted each with other to demand the restitution of their Liberties whereupon a Parliament was holden at Northampton to give them satisfaction And again did they never finde in our Histories how in Anno 1258. they Assembled at Oxford agreed on Articles viz. The confirmation of the Charter de Foresta 2. The establishing of a Lord Chief Justice who might judge them by Law 3. The driving Aliens and Strangers out of England and the like and that they confederated by Oath and gave their hands and mutual faith one to the other Matth. Paris Hist Aug. p. 940 941 952 653. that they would not desist to prosecute their purpose for loss of money or Lands nor love nor hate no nor yet for life of them or theirs till they had cleared England of Strangers and procured laudable Laws And under this Covenant they brought the Kings Brother Richard King of Romans and Earle of Cornwall and caused him to sweare upon the Holy Gospels this formal Covenant Hear all men that I Richard Earle of Cornwal swear upon the Holy Gosples to be faithful and forward with you to Reforme the Kingdom of England hitherto by the counsel of wicked men so much deformed and I will be an effectual coadjutor to expell the Rebels and troublers out of the same Both these our Histories say were in the time and without the consent of King Henry the 3d. Not to trouble our Reader with the like in the time of King John King Richard the 2d and other Princes I must desire the Gentlemen of Oxford to tell us whether these were not people of England and these be not visible foot-marks of some Covenant of the people of England on some occasion And if they shall question whether they be commendable examples let them please to observe the commendable Epethite our Historian gives upon the last of these Covenanters calling them Angliae Republicae Zelatores But the defenders of the Covenant told them that the world never saw the like before I but they did not tell them that there are no footsteps of any Covenant made on any occasion whatsoever And if they had were the Masters and Students in Oxford resolved into such an implicite Faith as to believe an Enemy But I wonder these Masters of Reason had so little Reason as to conclude a general from the concession of a special Their Margent explaineth the concession of the defenders of the Covenant in these termes Such an Oath for matter persons and other circumstances the like hath not been in any Age or Oath we reade of in Sacred or humane Stories Know they not that there is a vast difference between the general form of an Oath or Covenant and those special Qualifications which may circumstance it and that a dissimilitude in the last will not conclude that there never was a Sworn Covenant on any occasion but sit verbum sat sapienti Thus Sir notwithstanding these learned Suggestions of the falsehood of the Preface and in it of the assertory part of the Covenant it yet continueth lawful because true and is our encouragement and assurance that the promissory part will be answerable For as in rational conclusions so I hope in Religious resolutions we shall find à veris vera sequuntur Subsectio Tertia The promissory part of the Covenant is in these six Articles I. THat we shall sincerely
and Archbishops of the essence and formality of the true Reformed Protestant Religion Will not the assertion thereof tend more to Schism than Scotlands supposed making their Discipline and Government the mark of a true Church As denying the Reformed Churches beyond the Sea to have attained to the true Reformed Protestant Religion which yet they handed over to us But what reason had these Gentlemen of Oxford to understand the Doctrine of the Church of England in such a latitude when the sence of it is limited by them who were then known to be Legislators and a power sufficient to prescribe an Oath unto which themselves subjected and were the best expositors thereof viz. the House of Commons who thus declared Whereas some doubts have been raised concerning the meaning of these words The true Reformed Protestant Religion expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England against all Popery and Popish innovations within this Realm contrary to the same Doctrine This House doth declare that by these words was and is meant only the publick Doctrine professed in the said Church so far as it is opposite to Popery and Popish innovations And that the said words are not to be extended to the maintaining of any form of Worship Discipline and Government nor of any the Rites and Ceremonies of the said Church of England By which these Gentlemen might have understood 1. The Realm and Church of England were two different Subjects the one professing Doctrine in the other wherein also there was Doctrine tending to Popery and Popish Innovation 2. There were in the Doctrines professed by the Church of England some adjuncts of Rites Ceremonies Government or some special order of Worship which might need Reformation and were not view'd to be maintained So that according to this sence of them who prescribed both there is more of consistency than contradiction between the Protestation and Solemn League and Covenant So that the manifest perjury they feared hath not so much as a seeming ground And as for the supposed contradiction of this Branch of the Covenant unto the Oath of Supremacy it will on examination vanish as an apparition a thing which so seemed but cannot be so proved For if they will not hiss me out of their Schools I will grant them their Proposition in the Oath and assumption in the Statute by them quoted and yet find a way to avoid the conclusion because a meer non sequitur on their premises and this if they will have the Argument logically resolved by denying the consequence of their major Proposition for I will grant unto them that the Oath of Supremacy doth bind us to our power to assist and defend all Jurisdictions Priviledges Preheminences and Authorities granted and belonging to the Kings Highness his heirs and successors or united and annexed unto the Imperial Crown of this Realm And assume with them That the King had the whole power and Authority for Reformation Order and Correction of all manner of Errors Heresies Schisms c. and yet deny the sequel viz. That we may not endeavour in our places and callings to reform Religion For the defence of the Kings power is no way repugnant with the duty of our particular capacity I hope a Minister may by his preaching or a Divine by his disputation in the Schools endeavour the correction and Reformation of Error and Heresie Schism or Superstition and yet not intrench on his Majesties Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and so interfer with their Oath of Supremacy Yea in reference to judicial and authoritative Correction and Reformation which we will suppose can only be done by the King mens endeavor may be in their places and callings by Counsel Proposal Remonstrance Petition Supplication and the like to procure His Majesties consent and authority to reform Religion in the Kingdom of England in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government and then Sir where is the Contradiction Yet Sir if I were to dispute with a single though Senior Sophister of Oxford I would deny both Propositions the major as to its sequel or consequence as before and the assumption as that which the Statute doth not prove viz. The whole power of Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction for Correction and Reformation is annexed to the King and Imperial Crown of this Realm For the power by that Statute is special and particular not general and universal as themselves have cited it is viz. such Jurisdictions Priviledges Superiorities and Preheminences Spiritual or Ecclesiastical as by any c. and as the Statute proceeds Spiritual or Ecclesiastical power or authority hath heretofore been or may lawfully be exercised or used for Visitation of any Ecclesiastical State or Persons and for Reformation c. So that the power given to the King is such a powor as Bishops Cardinals or Popes had used not such as Parliaments who ever retained a Jurisdicton in themselves over both Church and Crown enjoyed and exercised This power was purely executive not Legislative over persons and particular Societies not over the Kingdom and whole Realm I presume the Gentlemen of Oxford were not ignoront of the power and Legislative Authority which the Parliaments of England ever held over their Bishops and the Spiritual or Ecclesiastical estate of this Land tying them in all their administrations of Discipline and Government to the Customs and Statutes of this Realme as they may read at large in the Statute of the Submission of the Clergy 25. Hen. 8.19 wherein they confess many of their Canons and Constitutions be repugnant to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm whereby they did not only Restrain the exorbitancies and from time to time Reform the abuses of the Church but also extend the Prerogative and Jurisdiction of the King as in that Statute 1 Elizab. and Limit Restrain and Repeal it as in the case of this individual specifical power granted in the words of the Statute quoted by the Statute 17 Caroli entituled An Act for repeal of a branch of a Statute 10 Elizab. concerning Commissioners for causes Ecclesiastical which clause repealed is part of this very recited Paragraph and immediately annexed unto and dependent on this very grant of power and authority Nor are these Masters and Scholars of Oxford insensible that there is a vast difference between Executive and Legislative power and authority and that as no Ecclesiastical persons did ever enjoy however the Pope and his Bishops did contend for it so no King of England did ever pretend or lay claim unto the Legislative power further than allowed by Act of Parliaments who were ever Dictators of a general Reformation in the Land Church and Kingdom as at this time in the Reformation covenanted Nor can they be ignorant that it is very bad Logick from such Jurisdictions and Specifical Executive Authority to infer that the whole power of Reformation is so in the King that the Parliament may not propose or the people covenant in their places and callings to endeavor a Reformation
unto a Solemn Covenant for their extirpation Zeal courage and constancy suit not any act so well as the asserting the Obligation of a Sacred Oath to which King and Kingdom are the subjects and of which God is Object and Avenger so that in hanc arenam descendere to enter a controversie in defence thereof is pro aris focis certare to fight for God and our Country that the one be not dishonoured or the other destroyed by perjury Dr. Sanderson notes courage as a necessary Bar to the swearing of a forced Oath De juram prael 4. Sect. 14. pag. 123. I am sure it is much more such to the breaking of it when sworn he makes it essential to piety Viro forti id est pio pius enim esse nequit qui non est fortis To him I must needs subscribe whilst Solomon seems to have been his Dictator The righteous are bold as a Lion but the sluggard crieth There is a Lion in the way and fools wait wind and weather to the losing seed-time and harvest I deny not wisdom to watch and wait opportunity of action but that general distaste and dissent direct contradiction or declared inhibition of some luke-warm declention of others danger and difficulty unto an improbability of effect should demurre to a positive duty such as is ministerial exaction of the Oath of God is plain folly and to divert it is praedominate iniquity ob dubia quae se offerunt nemo à bene faciendo cessare debeat is a Divine rule most fit for Divines to practice in religious discharges Cicero de Officiis lib. 3. p. 404 Regulus is no little renouned for his fidelity to his forced Oath Cum vigilando necabatur erat in meliore causa quam si domi senex captivus perjurus consularis remanisset And me-thinks the dying profession of Mr. Christopher Love Speech on the Scaffold in reference to this very Covenant I had rather die a Covenant-keeper than live a Covenant-breaker should yet have some influence on London-Ministers Let men count me fool and firebrand or what they please my record is above and witness is on high I must tell thee as no perswasion of my friends threats of foes losse of estate danger of liberty declension of brethren could constrain my silence in the civil part of the Covenant which concerned Caesar so I cannot but speak unto the religious part of it which concerneth God and his Church the things therein sworn to be extirpated being generally evil and the best viz. Answer to the Remonstrant p. 30 31. Episcopacy which Smectymnus tells us In its best and primitive institution was of diabolical occasion and meer humane not Apostolical prescription a remedy uneffectual to its designed end and only became a stirrup to Antichrist which I hope none of them will be perswaded to hold is onely good in that particular which is common to other Governments and not divine or necessary but within human power to be discharged or continued And in conscience of its obligation I have this once and again put pen to paper whereby if I may do God and his Church the King and Kingdom any service I shall be glad like unto Alexanders souldier to be found in the fashion of a fool being resolved in the discharge of duty to seek dignity according to old Strato's direction by turning my back on the rising Sun and withstand S. Peters temporizing to the stumbling of the weak and strengthning of the wicked unto his very face for he will be found worthy to be blamed Let mens spirits be composed the case of conscience be candidly discussed the bond of the Covenant be by right and religious reason discharged none shall more chearfully submit than my self but if the Covenant be sleighted as of no use by Jesuitical Sophisms made void by violence violated or by false glosses and interpretations evaded faithfulnesse unto it and the zeal of a Minister bound to speak in Gods Name that his anger may be silent and love and loyalty to King and Kingdom studious of what may profit more than please will constrain an out-cry and constant call Oh regard the Covenant the Solemn League and Covenant The degrees of reformation obtained before this Covenant was made were matter of joy to the Church and ground of praise to God but not of content and full satisfaction whilst higher degrees were desirable and to be pursued and though we now should obtain another step to what we then had but yet not only short of but inconsistent with the degree covenanted or sworn I deny it not to be materially good yet cannot but judge it to be a formal evil I fear a breach of the Covenant unless we can find a medium between perjury and non-performance quoad captum of the thing sworn to God I can chearfully embrace every degree of good but not triumph in that good which falls short of engagement unto God Reformation is not more joyous than the retrogradation thereof is grievous to a serious spirit that the child stick in the birth is dangerous but its return into the womb is so apparent an hazard to mother and child it admits no moderation in midwife or assistants but provoketh earnest and utmost diligence for delivery I tremble to think what may yet become of the Reformed Churches if Englands reformation after so long and sad a travel be returned backward and that against the strength of a Solemn League and Covenant I pray God we be not courted into the Cassandrian accommodation into which Englands Prelates could not cudgel us It bodes no good when sacred Oaths are conceived to be Court-complements State-stratagems to be once used to effect a present design so laid aside to be no more regarded or like riders knots with which men at pleasure play fast and lose I am not so rigorous as to extort the sense of an Oath beyond what its genuine construction will bear nor can I allow a signification more laxe than the scope Grammatical exposition and Logical resolution of the words will admit Some wits can find or rather fancy starting-holes in the strictest and plâ—â—â—â—est bonds Proteus-like turning any thing into any shape thereby thinking to speak the weakness of an Oath they shew themselves notoriously wicked Mille adde catenas Effugiet tamen haec sceleratus vincula Proteus Hor. lib. 2. Satyr 3. But the words of this Covenant are plain and clear to every common capacity and in no part more clear than in that under present controversie viz. Refo mation of Religion wherein the Word of God is made the lanthorn to direct our course and best Reformed Churches our lanched boighs to detect our dangers in every time of Doubt In the evils to be removed that which might occasion the greatest doubt is made most plain by the description of the object and denomination of the act The Object is expressed by a term Prelacy though general in its
performing what he promised and concludes Siquis volens jurare obligare se noluerit non eo minus obligatur None but Jesuites will say that a man swearing Grotius de jure belli pacis l. 2. p. 218. and in the act purposing not to bind his soul and thereof make a secret appeal to God is free and not bound by his Oath For this is expresly against the nature of an Oath whose obligation is inseparable from its Act. Saunders de Iuramento lec 5. p. 160. And therefore the same Author saith Siquis deliberato protulerit verba jurantia animo tamen non jurandi obligatur And this is no other than Oxford Divinity Siquis ex aliqua dolosa intentione velit putari jurasse habebit apud ipsum omnem obligandi effectum a man is bound by the action of swearing even beyond and contrary to his own intention And this is evident in Joshua and his Oath with the Gibeonites obtained by fraud and founded in falshood against which they had entred an express Caveat it being far from his intention to make a League with a Canaanite yet he and all Israel were bound by it as in the former Proposition it hath been cleared But why do I stand to establish the obligation of the promissory part of the Covenant against the falshood of the assertory part of it whilst no such falshood appears As for the Conclusive protest it lieth out of human cognizance and is onely obvious to the Searcher of hearts And to me he must be strangely blinded by passion or prejudice that seeth and subscribeth not to every part of the Preface as true yet some there are who though they could not speak out are willing to suggest a lie chargeable on the same and therefore the Covenant must be in this point vindicated against their exceptions pretended doubts and scruples urged against the taking of the Covenant Give me leave a little to weigh them The first I shall take notice of The Assertory part of the Covenant vindicated is the Anonymus Doubts and Scruples recommended to the world by Dr. Gauden and offered Sir to your and my consideration and his Quarrel I should say Scruple is against the Title of the Covenant which is certainly no part of it which he thus frameth I have not met with any Declaration to assure us Exception of Doubts and Scruples that Commissioners of each Kingdom respectively and especially of Ireland have been chosen and assembled together had power or did agree upon this League and Covenant without which or some such equivalent proceedings we cannot possibly know that it was the joynt consent resolution and desires of the three Kingdoms to enter into such a League c. Answer Whoever Sir were the Author of these Scruples he sure was of a very tender conscience that must be satisfied in the very Title and Denomination of the Covenant and cannot do his own duty or a just act enjoyned him by the Superiors of the Kingdom of which he is a member and subject untill he be assured that all to whom it may extend do desire and consent thereunto 2. There might be such a declaration though he met not with it Must private persons suspend required duties untill they meet with Declarations of the regular agitation of State affairs Must all the arcana imperii which relate to other Kingdoms be opened before the Subject give his faith to keep the conditions concluded by their Governors 3. Did he meet with any Declaration which told him Ireland was in a general Rebellion against the Crown of England to which it had been subjugated and was wholly dependent on the English interest for its rescue and reduction And must England stay its Covenant till Irelands Rebells send Commissioners and consent Or may they not without their consent covenant for the good of their vassal Kingdom which they must again recover by force 4. But the Title of the Covenant gives no ground for this Doubt for though it be entituled A Covenant for the peace and safety of the three Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland yet is it not entituled A Solemn League and Covenant of the three Kingdoms And I hope they may be the Objects who are not Authors or Abettors of an Oath And if they be offended for our intention and endeavours of good to them let them bear it Charity will not always stay for the consent or desire of its object His next scruple is like unto this occasioned by those words Second exception out of Doubts and Scruples Of one Religion which he doubts the Irish Papists open Rebels against whom it was made and Popish party in England and Independents may not be of one Religion yet by the seventh Instruction it is to be proffered to all inhabitants Answer But Sir it doth not appear that it is to be proffered to the Irish Papists 2. Because proffered is it therefore taken The words are professed by them that take the Covenant may it not be a test and note of discrimination for discovery of the Popish party which lay lurking among us and none as Papists or indeed as Independents could take the Covenant 3. May not the majority denominate the whole The Protestant Religion is the onely one Religion owned and professed in these Nations nor doth he deny the Independents to be professors of it Sir must not Dr. Gauden commend his discretion in commending to the world such perplexing Scruples as have not a Scruple of Reason in them and shall not I appear as wise to spend time to consider them if of weight after the Covenant hath been taken but he affirms them as agreeable to the Oxford-Reasons which is a just Chius ad Choum Harp and Harrow yet hereby he puts us on the consideration of them which have passed thus long unanswered partly for the dread of their name no private person being a fit Antagonist or proper Casuist to sesolve the Doubts of an University and partly for that they were presented Apologetically as private grounds of dissatisfaction and for excuse from the Act required not as interdictions or condemnation of other mens Act as themselves profess much less as Arguments for absolution from the bond of the Covenant now it hath bin generally taken by Prince and People to which end they are now re-printed and by every foolish Pamphlet are anew urged and therefore necessitate the consideration of their weight which I confess I in reference to their name was willing to decline but by the worth of truth and weight of the Oath of God upon our Land am though a private obscure and unfit person constrained thereunto Subsectio secunda Their exceptions to the Preface of the Covenant maketh no positive charge yet suggesteth sundry falshoods therein asserted which they witness they could not acknowledge As First 1 Exception by Oxford Reason They were not able to say that the rage power and presumption of the enemies
of God in the sense there intended is at this time encreased To which Sir I should have then answered 1. Answer Their ability to say it is of little moment nor could we well judge it for whether they were under any natural wilfull violent or judicial incapacity is not our part to determine Others were able to say it and if these reverend Fathers and Students did know it though they were not able to say it it was for us sufficient And therefore may I be bold further to enquire 2. Whether they were able to read the whole Sentence expressing the sense Of the enemies of God whose rage power and presumption was at this time encreased here intended and calling to mind the treacherous and bloody plots conspiracies attempts and practices of the enemies of God against the true Religion and Professors thereof in all places especially in these three Kingdoms ever sinte the Reformation of Religion and how much their rage power and presumption are of late and at this time encreased whereof the deplorable estate of the Church and Kingdom of Ireland the distressed estate of the Church and Kingdom of England and the dangerous estate of the Church and Kingdom of Scotland are present and publick testimonies Are not these full expressions of the sense in which the enemies of God whose raâ—â— power and presumption were encreased are to be understood And is it rational or religious to enquire after and suspend a duty on jealousie of a sense intended when we have the sense plainly expressed Is not this repugnant to the end of Speech the Interpreter of the mind 3. Were the Masters Scholars and other Members and Officers of the University of Oxford such strangers in the Protestant Israel as not to know the Papists and Popishly affected were enemies of God against true Religion and the Professors thereof in all places Or so unacquainted at home as not to know their plots conspiracies attempts and practices were especially against these three Kingdoms the most publick and potent professors of true Religion ever since the Reformation Had they no notion of the Rebellions against King Edward the sixth Of the Treasons Plots Conspiracies Roaring Bulls and Raging Spanish Armado against Queen Elizabeth Of the Gunpowder-Treason and other plots against King James Of the Colledge of Propagators of the Catholick cause erected in Rome under the Government of Cardinal Barbarin and designed against these Kingdoms Or of the grand Plot agitated by Con or Cuneus the Popes Nuncio in England discovered by Andreas ab Habernefield first to Sir William Boswel His Majesties Resident in Flanders and by him unto Laud late Archbishop of Canterbury and since fully cleared and laid open by Mr. William Prynn in his Romes Master-piece published in 1643. four years before their reasons and might have been profitable to their eye-sight 4. Did not this learned University judge it to be an high encrease of their Rage Power and Presumption to distribute their Jesuits into such several Orders as should be capable in any place or profession to propagate their plots To press upon the late King and Archbishop for a publick profession of union with Rome To boast openly of Englands returning to Popery To tender a Cardinals Hat to the late Archbishop To poison our Fountains the Universities and our very people with Arminian and Popish doctrines publickly preached and printed and Popish pictures publickly sold and bound up with our Testaments and Bibles To provoke the High-Commission cruelties and Puritans discontents To plot a plain Popish Service-book with very little variation oâ— from the Mass-book and procure it to be by force and violence imposed on the Church and Kingdom of Scotland to the raising Mutinies and stirring up the Bellum Episcopale with pretence to yoke them and intention to destroy the King and Protestant cause To rebell openly in Ireland and with rage and cruelty to murder and massacre the Protestants To divide between King and Parliament in England and possess themselves of his Majesties Garrisons and Armies as under their command To abet advise and effect the most barbarous murther of his late Majesty and our since confusions All which and many the like to have been the atchievements and accomplishments of these enemies of God to true Religion He that is in any measure observant of our affairs can run and read And are not these expressions of rage power and presumption let right reason judge 2. Oxford Reasons second exception They cannot truly affirm that they had used or given consent to any supplication or remonstrance to the purposes therein expressed To this Sir consider That although they cannot affirm it yet others can do it in truth and with joy 2. What are the purposes therein expressed not as before intended shall we judge it from the Preface It is the glory of God and the advancement of the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ the honor and happiness of the Kings Majesty and His Posterity the publick liberty peace and safety of the Kingdoms wherein every ones private condition is included For the End is the Argument which is urged to enforce the constancy to the Covenant and in Article the sixth it is expressed to be the glory of God good of the Kingdoms and the honour of the King and these are the onely purposes expressed in these particular acts propounded for the production of them and shall we be so uncharitable as to think the Gentlemen of Oxford to have been so void of piety towards God love to their Country or loyalty toward their King as not to have used or given consent to Supplication or Remonstrance to these purposes therein expressed Must we think them so speechless as not to pray to God nor speak to men for the effecting of these purposes expressed No! I will rather presume them modest and not willing to publish their piety and zeal to good purposes or passionately prejudiced against some one expedient propounded to the effecting of these purposes expressed and thereby acted to confound the purpose and pursuing meanes But 3. Had not the University of Oxford Representees in Parliament If they did not sit were they violently excluded Or did they give their No to the Supplications or Remonstrances to the purposes expressed in the Covenant and if they did were not these Supplications and Remonstrances carried by the Majority of Votes And is not the Negative so swallowed therein that all persons and bodies corporate through the Nation did thereunto consent When we finde Oxford excepted we will say they could not truly affirme they gave consent But 3dly Oxford Reasons third exception they did not conceive the entring into such a League and Covenant to be a lawful proper and probable means to preserve our selves and our Religion from ruine and destruction To this Sir we must enquire into the conceipt of these Gentlemen and desire to know whether it relate unto the quality of the Covenant or the act
Containing exceptions to the first Article of the Covenant really and constantly through the Grace of God endeavor in our several places and callings the preservation of the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government against our common Enemies The Reformation of Religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God and the example of the best reformed Churches And shall endeavor to bring the Churches of God in the three Kingdoms to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in Religion Confession of Faith Form of Church-Government Directory for Worship and Catechizing That we and our posterity after us may as Brethren live in Faith and Love and the Lord may delight to dwell in the midst of us II. That we shall in like manner without respect of persons endeavor the extirpation of Popery Prelacy that is Church-Government by Archbishops Bishops their Chancellors and Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons and all other Ecclesiastical Officers depending on that Hierarchy Superstition Heresie Schisme Profaneness and whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of Godliness lest we pertake in other mens sins and thereby be in danger to receive of their plagues and that the Lord may be one and his Name one in the three Kingdoms III. We shall with the same sincerity reallity and constancy in our several Vocations endeavor with our estates and lives mutually to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of the Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdoms and to preserve and defend the Kings Majesties person and authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms that the world may bear witness with our Consciences of our Loyalty and that we have no thoughts or intentions to diminish His Majesties just power and greatness IV. We shall also with all faithfulness endeavrr the discovery of all such as have been or shall be Incendiaries Malignants or evil Instruments by hindring the Reformation of Religion dividing the King from His people or one of the Kingdoms from another or making any faction or parties amongst the people contrary to this League and Covenant that they may be brought to publick trial and receive condign punishment as the degree of their offences shall require or deserve or the supream Judicatories of both Kingdoms respectively or others having power from them for that effect shall judge convenient V. And whereas the happiness of a blessed Peace between these Kingdoms denied in former times to our progenitors is by the good providence of God granted unto us and hath been lately concluded and setled by both Parliaments we shall each one of us according to our place and interest endeavor that they may remaine conjoyned in a firm Peace and Vnion to all posterity And that Justice may be done upon the wilful opposers thereof in manner expressed in the precedent Articles VI. We shall also according to our places and callings in this common cause of Religion Liberty and Peace of the Kingdom assist and defend all those that enter into this League and Covenant in the maintaining and pursuing thereof and shall not suffer our selves directly or indirectly by whatsoever combination perswasion or terror to be divided and withdrawn from this blessed Vnion and Conjunction whether to make defection to the contrary part or to give our selves to a detestable indifferency or neutrality in this cause which so much concerneth the glory of God the good of the Kingdoms and the honour of the King but shall all the dayes of our lives zealously and constantly continue therein against all lets and impediments whatsoever and what we are not able our selves to suppresse or overcome we shall reveal and make known that it may be timely prevented or removed All which we shall do as in the sight of God When I consider the matter of these several promises to have been propounded by a Parliament on advice had with an Assembly of Grave Learned and Judicions Divines who were to discover sin and make men to discerne between good and evil I cannot but retain a strong conjecture that it is all good and lawful And when I consider His late Majesties dissatisfaction expressed in His Contemplations to be more in respect of the manner than the matter my conjecture is much confirmed And when I observe His most Sacred Majesty at His late Coronation to have by Solemn Oath testified His allowance and approbation of the Solemn League and Covenant and by His Royal Declaration from Dumfirmling to have professed That on mature deliberation and being fully satisfied of the lawfulnesse and equity of the Solemn League and Covenant and every the Articles thereof Himself had sworn it and conjureth all his Subjects to lay aside their opposition to it Loyalty leads my conjecture unto a conclusion For such serious scrutiny by so sage and conscientious persons and that under the afflicting hand of that God who will not be mocked could not but have described the sinfulnesse of the matter if it be found But when I weigh the particulars promised and find them to be the Preservation of Religion and Reformation wherein it is corrupted and removal of what is thereunto obstructive as to the religious part of it and the preservation of the Kings Prerogative and peoples liberty and Nations unity and removal of the enemies thereof as to the civil part of it my conclusion is established and I find it so farre from unlawful that it binds us not to any thing which in the nature of it is not on us a positive duty though not bound by this most Sacred Bond and so farre is this Covenant from a repugnancie to our baptismal Covenant as our Dr. hath suggested in his * Page 12. Analysis that as I have in my * Page 22. Analepsis noted It is no hard matter to resolve it into the three heads of our baptismal promise taught by our Church For if I must believe the Articles of the Creed I must preserve sound Doctrine and reform to my power what is corrupt If I must keep Gods Commandments I must pursue pure worship and Religion towards God and Loyalty Love and unity towards men And if I must renounce the Divel and all his works I must extirpate Popery and Papal Prelacy Superstition Heresie Schisme will all incendiaries and evil instruments hinderers of Reformation And now I shall pray Dr. Gauden will shew us wherein this Covenant is so vastly different from the Covenant made in Baptisme Yet I shall consider once more the matter of the Covenant by those Rules which resolve the matter of an Oath unlawful and if it be therein chargeable I shall consent to the discharge of this Holy Bond. An Oath is in reference to the matter of it determined unlawful when it is unnecessary and about trifles and that is the prophaning of an Oath yet will
Subsectio quarta The Master Scholars and other Officers and Members of the University of Oxford in their Apology for not taking the Covenant urge their Reasons against the same as unlawful not in the matter it self simply considered but by accident in respect of some circumstances attending themselves and discapacitating them unto the Act and they offer their exceptions unto the Articles severally and distinctly Unto the first Article they except against the Preservation of the Reformed Religion of the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Oxford Reasons Sect. 3. pag. 4. and Worship Discipline and Government and then against the Reformation of England in those particulars Unto the first they tell us 1 Except They are not satisfied how they can in judgment swear to endeavour to preserve the Religion of another Kingdom To which I answer in General it is but reason they suspend the Act untill they can swear in judgment though such as have rashly in ignorance prophaned the Oath by swearing it must in sence of its Sacred Obligation inform their judgments that they may performe it and not cast it off but what hindreth their judgment in this required Act They urge four obstructive reasons As First As it did not conc rn them to have very much 1 Reason of this exception so they profess they had very little understanding thereof In which reason it is to be noted 1. They had some understanding of the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government of the Church of Scotland and that little might so farre enlighten their judgment as lawfully to swear the preservation thereof I presume many Citizens have little and but general notion of the Liberties they swear to preserve yet are judged to swear in judgment 2. I wonder an Vniversity and Protestant Vniversity conversing in all Books and I must imagine meeting with the two Books of the Discipline of the Church of Scotland their Confession of Faith and Form of Worship entertaining Schoolmen and Bishops thence fled by reason of the same and openly oppugning and disputing against the same should profess they had thereof little understanding but it may be they minded not to study these things 3. Some understanding in the Religion of another Kingdom was necessary to them as Christians and Protestants by vertue of the Communion of the Church and some as an Vniversity and Protestant School of Learning where the true Religion of the Reformed Churches was to be defended duobts dissolved and errors oppugned and contradicted and some was necessary to them as Subjects required to swear the preservation thereof for the injunction could not but provoke an enquiry after the matter to be preserved I wonder therefore how these men could profess it did not concern them to have much who if I mistake not ought to know as much as all the Nation besides but from what they know they adde the next Reason viz. In three of the four specified particulars viz. Worship 2 Reason of this exception Discipline and Government it is much worse and in the fourth that of Doctrine not at all better than our own to be reformed I wonder Sir what account of the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government of the Church of Scotland was by the occurrences of those unhappy times brought unto the knowledge of the University of Oxford I hope they were more wise and just than to take it from Mr. John Maxwel pretended Bishop of Ross a man excommunicated by the Church and censured by the State of that Kingdom a professed Enemy and enraged Delinquent cursing his very Judges whom I find about that time at Oxford writing his Issachars Burden a most railing reproachful discovery of the Discipline of the Church of Scotland and the rather for that the heat of expectation and ostentation of many in reference to that book was cooled by a providential fire which seiz'd on the Printing-House and burned the Copies ready to be published the next day as Mr. Baylie in his Vindication of the Government of that Church which these Gentlmen might have met with doth testifie Yet Sir had these men of reading regarded what more sober and impartial men have said and written they would have had another Character of this Church I may not mind them of the Apology to the Doctors of Oxford in the time of King James preferring the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government of Scotland before that of England or of their Philadelphian purity Bright man on Apocalyps 3. who did not only keep the Doctrine of Salvation pure and free from corruption but doth also deliver it in writing and exercise in practice that sincere manner of government whereby men are made pertakers of Salvation mentioned by Mr. Brightman our Countreyman they will possibly tell us these were Seperatists to whom Scotland is no friend or Puritans Yet methinks * Magnum hoc Dei munus quod una religionem puram 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doctrinae viz. retinendae vinculum in Scotiam intulistis Sic obsecro obtesto haec duo simul rebinet ut uno amisso alterum diu permanere non posse semper memineritis Beza Epist 79. Beza may call for a little audience and respect from this Learned Assembly and he told us long since This is the great gift of God that you have brought into Scotland together pure Religion and good order which is the bond to hold fast the Doctrine and I heartily pray and beseech you for Gods sake hold fast these two together and alwayes remember that if one be lost the other cannot long remain And no less venerable I presume is the Corpus Confession the Harmony of Confessions of all the reformed Churches and yet therein they have an account of the Church of Scotland which might render it more acceptable and worthy to be preserved For thus it is reported by the Collector who much rejoyced in the providence that brought their Confession into his hand * Est illud ecclesiae Scoticanae privilegium rarum prae multis in quo etiam Nomen apud exteros suit celebre quod circiter aut nos plus minus 54. sine Schismate nedum Haeresi unitatem cum puritate doctrinae prevaverit retinuerit hujus unitatis adminiculum ex Dei misericordia maximum fuit quod paulatim cum doctrina Christi Apostolorum Disciplina sicut ex verbo Dei praescripta est una suit recepta quam proxime fieri potuit secundum eam totum ecclesiae regimen fuit administratum Dâ—t Dominus Deus pro immensa sua bonitate Regiae Majestati omnibusque Ecclesiarum gubernatoribus ut ex Dei verbo illam unitatem Doctrinae puritatem perpetuo conservat Corpus Confess p. 6. It is the rare priviledge of the Church of Scotlaod before many in which respect her name is famous even among strangers that about the space of fifty and four years without Schisme yea or Heresie she hath holden fast unity with
Word of God should say De specie It is the sign of a true that is a pure Church best Reformed because the erecting of the Throne of Christ doth it not tend more to provoke Reformation of Churches truly constituted but not compleated than to stirre up Schism For they do ot nor ever did deny communion with Churches herein defective and under male-administration of Discipline and Government Subsectio quinta We see Sir very little ground to stumble at the preservation of the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government of the Church of Scotland let us try the strength of their exceptions against the endeavor of the Reformation of these in the Kingdom of England And to this they tell us They are not satisfied how they can swear to endeavour the Reformation of Religion in Doctrine Oxford exceptions to Reformation of England Worship Discipline and Government which without making a change therein cannot be done For this they urge three grounds or reasons which seem to be of weight The first whereof 1 Reason for this exception is Without giving manifest scandal to the Papist and Seperatist By Yielding the cause which our godly Bishops and Martyrs and all our learned Divines ever since the Reformation have both by their Writings and Sufferings maintained who have justified against them both the Religion established in the Church of England to be agreeable to the Word of God 2. Justifying the Papists reproach and scorne We know not where to stay what is our Religion and that it is a Parliamentary Religion 3. A tacite acknowledgement that there is something both in Doctrine and Worship whereunto their conformity hath been required not agreeable to the Word of God and so justifying the recusancy of the one and separation of the other 4. An implyed Confession that the laws and punishments of Papists for not joyning in that form of Worship which our selves as well as they do not approve of were unjust A very fair and specious exception To which Sir I say 1. That it is well Scandal is at length become an Argument of any force Had it been regarded when rightly pleaded by the Nonconformists enemies to separation as well as Popery there might not have been a Solemn League and Covenant to constrain its plea in a case wherein under correction it seems to have lost its force For if Sir we have through ignorance practised or wilfulness persisted in any sinful Superstitious course concerning which we have been admonished by some and declined by others and yet being armed with power did constrain a compliance with us so that a Recession from the same must be our shame and their scandal to whom we would not hearken I hope we must not for fear thereof go on in sin and refuse so much as to endeavour a Reformation If in this case scandal had been of any force how or when had Protestant Religion been effected by such who had burned for Hereticks all that were but suspected of inclining to it Were not the Papists then as much and more scandaâ—ized as now Is Scandal of any more force in the following degrees of Reformation than in the first act thereof Though it is a stop to sin and stay of violence in imposing things indifferent must it be of any strength to barre duty in the endeavors of Reformation I believe Sir professors of Physick and Chirurgery will not consent ill humors to go unpurged or festred incurable members uncut off because some will be scandalized that their advice was not sooner minded and others at the past real and now-seeming cruelty acted by the present change 2. It is to me strange to see Papists and Separatists conjoyned as objects of the same scandal I am sure the reason and ground must be directly contrary Continuance of corruption to the one and Removal thereof to the other the Separatist is offended that there were so many Popish Ceremonies retained and that so long when by him too rigidly resisted The Papist that there were so few and likely to be gone so soon But I presume they are supposed in aliquo tertio convenire to agree in some other capacity The things are now to be Reformed for non-observance of which they were both afflicted and then Sir 3. The Scandal seems to be a meer fancy springing from a fallacy in these words The Religion established in the Church of England which these serious Casuists with reverence may I note it do to me seem sophistically to understand in a sence different from the words of the Covenant which are these The Reformation of Religion in the Kingdom of England in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government It must therefore be observed that Religion as it denoteth the matter sabstantial parts and essential form of divine Worship is different from the Circumstances Ord r and Ceremonies annexed thereunto and only as appendants thereof deemed Religious which are conversant about and separable from Religion liable to alteration as the prudence of men doth direct and none but ignorant Idiots will deem the change of them a charge of Religion for these are different in the Reformed Churches whom yet I hope the Universitie of Oxford will own to be of the same Protestant Religion with the Church of England agreeing in the same faith though not subscribing the same formal individual Articles administring the same worship though not in the same order and with the same Ceremonies Again Sir we must distinguish between what is established and what is exercised in the Kingdom of England Though we do not justifie nay believe a necessity of Reformation in many particulars in the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government established yet we know in all these particulars many gross and absurd corruptions brought in and continued by a strong hand were exercised in the Kingdom of England and that in reference to all these particulars 1. For Doctrine as that auricular confession and pennance was necessary and profitable for Christian men and in Christs Church That Christians must have Altars and bow to them as towards Gods mercy-seat and the place of Christ his real presence on earth That Jesus Christ and his passion are offered up as a Sacrifice in the Sacrament of the Altar That Crucifixes Images and Pictures of Christ God and Saints may be lawfully and profitably used and set up in Churches That the Pope or Papacy is not Antichrist That there are Canonical houres of prayer which ought to be observed That Churches Altars Chalices and Church-yards ought to be consecrated That men had free-will of themselves to believe and repent That men might totally and finally fall from grace That Sunday is no Sabbath That Bishops have a Superiority of Order and Jurisdiction above other Ministers and that by Divine Right Nor can there be a true Church where there are not such Bishops These and many such like it is well known were publickly preached by Mountague Cozens Pocklington Shelford Dowe Reeves Adams and others and
Throne of Christ as things tending towards Superstition and Schisme and the worst things in the Church of Scotland which called for Reformation rather than Preservation Lastly the Hazard of their estates doth seem indeed to be their great stumbling block in their way to the Covenant All Clerks are by the Lawes yet in force required to give their assent unto what by this Covenant is required to be reformed and that on pain of losing their Benefice Which Sir we shall admit though it would admit a dispute in reference to many if not all the particulars mentioned yet how should this demurre to the taking of the Covenant Because the Law requires our assent it will not therefore follow they need not reformation nor it is not lawful for us to endeavour their reformation Many men have assented to the Law who could never give the assent required by the Law and by suffering shewed that the Law is their burden binding them to suffer whilst it requireth what they in truth and good Conscience cannot yield But must good men continue under this burden and take no care to ease themselves Is it a sin for men to covenant in their places to endeavour the removal of a burdensom Law Or might not the Reformation covenanted be so endeavoured Nay Sir on the consideration of the whole Reason can such endeavour be any wrong to mens consciences reputation or estate and then there is no strength in this 2d Reason of Oxford against the covenanting such an endeavour But we proceed to their 3d. Reason of this Exception The third Reason on which the Masters 3d. Reason of this exception Scholars c. of Oxford stand dissatisfied concerning the Covenant or Reformation of England in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government is indeed the most weighty and considerable if but clearly proved and it is Their manifest danger of perjury the Covenant in this point seeming directly contrary to the former Solemn Protestation I presume they mean that of May 5. 1641. which they had sworn neither for hope or fear or other respect ever to relinquish or the Oath of Supremacy which according to the Laws of this Realm and the Statutes of this University they had sworn Unto this Reason I easily grant that contradictory Oaths do run the soul on manifest perjury and if the first were lawful the last must needs be sinful neither to be sworn at first nor obliging at last if it be sworn 2. But the contradiction must be manifest and clear not seeming and conjectural which may spring by passion and prejudice to the fancy of such as are willing to suppose it as all things look yellow to Jaundies eyes and is not in reality such to impartial Readers It seems this contradiction between this Covenant and those Oaths was to the men of Oxford but seeming though to their best understandings in their then capacity I presume and it must pass into a certainty before it discharge the bond to such as are under it though seeming so to be might suspend the act of them to whom it so seemed 3. But let us see wherein seems this contradiction It is well if it amount not to as much as the Scotch Notions before specified which seemed to tend to Superstition and Schisme First then of the contradiction to their protestation which I imagine can be no other but that of May 5. 1641. and so far as it concernes Religion runneth thus I A. B. do in the presence of Almighty God vow and protest to maintain and defend as farre as lawfully I may with my life power and estate the true Reformed Protestant Religion expressed in the doctrine of the Church of England against all Popery and Popish Innovations within this Realm contrary to the same Doctrine The Solemn League and Covenant in the Article under consideration runneth thus That we shall sincerely really and constantly through the grace of God endeavor in our several places and callings the Reformation of Religion in the Kingdom of England in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God and example of the best reformed Churches Contraria contrariis juxta opposita magis elucescunt Let any impartial eye reade these two Oaths thus opposed and shew me wherein seeme the contradiction to lie They may indeed seem different in their sound and manner of expression but Oxford well knoweth that all diversa are not opposita all difference amounts not to a contradiction diversa opposita aeque dissentanea sunt sed non aeque dissentiunt they differ indeed but not with the same difference I wish that on second thoughts they will please to tell us whether the difference be Re or Ratione only the same thing being protested in the first though not in the same words and after the manner which was covenanted in the last But they specifie the contradiction viz. The Doctrine they vowed to maintain by the name of the true Protestant Religion expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England they took to be the same now to be reformed and altered But Sir were they not in taking it so to be much mistaken The Covenant binds to Reforme Doctrine in the Kingdom of England was there no such Doctrine openly divulged in the Court Sermons and Printed books of Mountague Reive Heylen Dowe Cozens Pocklington and others before mentioned In Mountague Apello ad Caesarem originum Ecclesiasticorum 2 parts Anti-diatribae Pocklingtons Sunday no Sabbath Altare Christianum Heylens Coal from the Altar History of the Sabbath Sales his introduction to a devout life Shelfords five Treatises Dowe against Mr. Burton Cozens his houres of Prayer and many other licensed books publickly sold in the Kingdom and in the Visitation Articles of Bishop Mountague Bishop Peirce and Bishop Wren on which many good men were vexed which was distinct and different if I may not say expresly contrary to the Protestant Religion expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England And did not these need Reformation And is it not the duty of every good Subject and Protestant in maintenance of this Religion to endeavor a Reformation alteration and total expunction of such Doctrine and so to Covenant And then Sir where is the contradiction In this sense the Protestation and Covenant do plainly coincidere and agree in one and the same thing But Sir let us allow them their sence That the Doctrine protested to be maintained is the same covenanted to be reformed Are Maintenance and Reformation incompetible is there not a possbility of some adjuncts unto the substance of the Doctrine of the Church of England expressing the true Reformed Protestant Religion and seperable without the destruction thereof Or may not the Doctrine of the Church of England be reformed as to the scant general dubious and difficult manner of expression and yet the matter thereof be maintained and defended Are those Articles which concern the Government of the Church and Consecration of the Bishops
these learned men do cite is limited unto the Laws of the Land which the People in Parliament assembled shall choose according to which the King is bound to Rule for otherwise this Coronation Oath will not only bind the perpetuation of this Government by Prelacy but also to the Restitution of the Abbies and Monasteries demolished and the Popes Supremacy expelled all which were granted to the Clergy by the glorious King St. Edward 2. But admit we these learned men the sense they seem to put upon the Kings Supremacy methinks the modest expressions of the Covenant might have anticipated this exception it only binding us within our places and callings which might be by humble advice and supplication to the King by vertue of His Supream Authority to effect it to endeavour the extirpation of this Prelacy that is the Government by Arch-bishops Bishops Deans Deans and Chapters and the like but such was their affection to it that they could not desire nay they could not but beg of God that he would not suffer the King to assent thereunto which affection we must not think to abate untill their judgements be better inform'd 3. As to the benefit which did redound to the Crown by the Collation of Bishopricks and Deanaries by their first fruits and yearly tenths and profits in vacancies though some question the Kings propriety not in respect of the Law of the Land but of the Law of God I shall not insist on that only say That the constant enjoyment of the full possessions of them will make a much greater revenue and maintain to the King a greater Honour and Estate than the first fruits tenths and profits of vacancies although such vacancies as the Kings of England have by vertue of this Argument continued for the space of 5 10 15 20. or sometimes thirty years together taking the profits to themselves or bestowing them on their attendants and undoubtedly there is the same capacity to extirpate the whole Government as some Episcopal Seas and to enlarge the Revenues of the Crown by the Reversion of all the profits of the Government and the abolishment thereof as to continue so long vacancies moreover I would desire to know what is in this Argument more prevalent for Arch-bishops Bishops and their Cathedral Churches than for Abbots and Priors their Monasteries and houses 4. As to the agreeableness of this Government in the Church to the Civil constitution of the Kingdom I only say that I question whether the Lord Christ who declared his Kingdom not to be of this World will allow or do appoint the Governments of the World to be the square of Government in his Church and I confess I can hardly reconcile it to his Regal Power and Faithful Administration in his House and I must have a better Comment on the Text than I have yet met withall if it be not prohibited in these terms The Princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them and they are great and exercise authority upon them but it shall not be so among you but whosoever will be great among you let him be your M nister and whosoever will be Chief among you let him be your servant Matth. 20.25.29 27. Mark 10.42 43 44. Luke 22.23 24. The sense whereof made Pope Gregory write himself Servus Servorum Dei Whitehead and others refuse Coverdalle and many others decline their Bishopricks as having in them aliquid commune eum Antichristo I think the Clown his question to the Bishop of Cullen were worth considering What will become of the Bishops when the Dukes be damned Yet the agreeableness of Prelacy with Englands ill Government hath not been so obvious to others as these Gentlemen suppose the vigilant eye and strong hand wherewith in all Ages it hath been restrained these Petrae and Rupes Winchester and Rivallo in the time of King Henry the 3d. were judged very dangerous when they constrained a Covenant without and against the Kings consent to remove them as evil Counsellours Matthew Paris our old Historian notes Bishops to have ever been the Make-bates between the King and People screwing up the Kings Prerogative beyond thee onstitutions of the Kingdom and liberties yea safety of the Subjects and chargeth all the Wars Broiles Mischiefs and Evils of the Barons Wars to have sprung from and been acted by the Bishops And when ngKi Philip lay on his death-bed He charged His son If He would Rule by his Nobles He must keep his Bishops low The premuniries by which they have ever been awed and their late High Commission authorizing them to act any appellation provocation priviledge exemption proclamation law statute whatsoever notwithstanding and their bold Usurpation in their own name and authorities and under their own seals to issue forth Process Excommunications Censures and other Judgements and their Imperial Canons in 1640. do bespeak them prejudicial to the Civil Government and Constitution of the Kingdom and I think a private society should with very much of modesty affirm the agreeableness of this Government after the Parliament on mature deliberation and debate as most proper Judges Vote of the 10th of June had voted this Government to have been found by long experience very prejudicial to the Civil State of these Kingdoms Now Sir as to the so often Canted Aphorisme of King James No Bishop No King with which the Prelates and their Priests do too much strive to rivet their Government unto the Crown I must be free to say that it is more politick than pious and of no more warrant or authority than the Spaniards one universal Emperour and one Pope or universal Bishop and when the Scots loyal adherence to and advancement of His most Sacred Majesty unto the Ruine of their Kingdom Loss of their lives and Estates Exile and Imprisonment of their Nobles and Conquest of their Land together with the uncessant struglings of the Covenant Interest under Sequestration Imprisonments Banishments and death of many not ceasing till they had by Gods blessing effected the Happy and Honourable Restitution of King and Kingdom be well considered I hope these learned Masters and Scholars of Oxford will see some proceedings that may at least weaken their belief in this political Maxime We have seen Sir the strength of these learned exceptions unto the second Article of the Covenant the great eye-sore of our Age and find little or nothing therein to charge the matter thereof with falshood or injustice but that notwithstanding the grudging of proud and profane men it stands in this respect established they have herein been long and constrained me to stay too long in consideration of what they urge but as they so I shall be more brief and contracted in their following exceptions wherein they suggest many to be great ones but profess to take up with few which we must needs imagine not to be of the least weight Unto the third Article they except nothing as to the matter of the promise Subjectio quinta
serious surveigh of the Solemn League and Covenant I cannot but observe and see clearly that first the matter therein Covenanted is publike and national relating to the Kingdom under its Civil Religious and reformed consideration or capacity being the reformation and defence of Religion under a national profession and the honour and happinesse of the King priviledges of Parliament and liberties of the Subjects and the like concernments no way proper for personal and individual private Oaths 2. These matters and this form of security to them were consul ed agitated debated determined concluded and agreed unto by two distinct Nations agreeing in the general capacities which did relate unto the matter thereof and that in their most publike capacities and by the indisputable most full and formal collective bodies of both Kingdoms the Parliament though defective in that part which was most necessary to establish a Law then indent a Covenant which did most eminently consist in the consent of the people and body of the Nations 3. The termes shewing the capacity in which it was sworn are general and National as in the very words of the Preface We Noblemen Barons Knights Gentlemen Citizens Burgesses Ministers of the Gospel and Commons of all sorts of the Kingdome of England c. by the providence of God living under one King and being of one reformed Religion so that all ranks and orders of men however dignified or distinguished among themselves yet united in this publike capacity the subjects of one King and of one reformed Religion and in that union universally sware the Covenant 4. The end and scope of this Covenant was Real National and Publike and only Personal in relation thereunto as is evident by the professed grounds thereof as having before our eyes the true publique liberty peace and safety of the Kingdoms wherein every ones private condition is included a sence of the deplorable distressed dangerous estate in which the Kingdoms then were and by the ends propounded almost in every Article thereof which relate to the Kingdoms and our Posterity and cannot be secured if the Oath be not National as in Article the First that we and our Posterity after us may as Brethren live in faith and love in Article the Second that the Lord may be one and his Name one in the three Kingdoms In Article the Third that the two Kingdoms of England and Scotland may remain conjoyned in a firme peace and union to all Posterity And by the Sixth Article it is declared to contain in it a cause which much concerned the good of the Kingdoms and in the conclusion thereof is a profession of sence and sorrow for the sin of these Kingdoms distinct from our own sins the which do loudly proclaime the scope and intent thereof to have been Nationall and publique 5. This Covenant was sworn by the Nation or Kingdom 1. Collectively by the body of the Nations regularly assembled and constituted in the most full and compleat Assembly that could and ever did represent the same in all acts and agâ—tations truly Real and National viz. The Parliament consisting of Lords and Commons that in their publique capacity as a Parliament the House of Commons Assembled in their House in the formality of the body of the Nation with their speaker before them went unto St. Margarets Church in Westminster and there with the greatest solemnity imaginable Ordinance of Feb. 5. 1643. did as the representative body of the Kingdom swear this Covenant which as a further testimony that it was a National Covenant they caused to be printed with their names subscribed and to be hanged up in all Churches and in their own House as a compass whereby in conformity to right Reason and Religion to steer their then debates and to dictate to all that should succeed into that place and capacity what obligation did before God lie upon the body of this Nation 2. It was universally sworn by the people of this Kingdom solemnly Assembled in their particular places of convention all over the Kingdom all manner of persons from eighteen years old and upward and that not at their own will and giddy humour but at the Command and by the Authority of Parliament Vid. ordinance enjoyning the taking of the Covenant who in their place and in the behalf of this Nation having judged it a fit and excellent means to acquire the favour of God towards the three Kingdoms did order it to be universally sworne and certainly whosoever will but well weigh the directions given and duly executed in the tendring of the Covenant in all Counties and Parishes by every individual Minister to every individual Congregation and taken by all persons religious military or civil enforced with arguments which might convince conscience in the ingenuous or constraine the act from the peevish or perverse and accompained with the greatest extention concomitant imaginable he cannot but see a much more then the fourth part of the Nation did swear the Covenant If the several Rolls within the several Parishes and Precincts of this Kingdom in which the several Names of such as did swear the Solemn League and Covenant were engrossed may be produced It will be found notwithstanding the many singulars who may now renounce and say they did not take the Covenant it was sworn by the universality of the Nation And I hope we who have ever been judged a free people tied by no bonds but such as we lay upon our selves may be allowed to bind our selves by an Oath De jure bel ex par 256. and so make it Real and National according to that Rule and Reason of Grotius Si quidem populo liberto actum sit dubium non est quin quod promittitur sui natura reale sit 3. The solemn League and Covenant hath been ratified and rendred National by his most sacred Majesty unto all such who apprehend the constitution of this Nation to be merum imperium an absolute Monarchy wherin the King hath supremam protestatem whose professed loyalty leads them to subject themselves to all manner his Majesties concessions and conclusions and that by a series of multiplied acts as his Majesties agreement with the Scots at Breda where he graciously condescended to his Subjects by Solemn Oath to publish testifie his approbation of the solemn League Covenant and at his first arrival into Scotland was pleased to subject unto the same bond in which his Subjects were engaged and to swear the same solemn League and Covenant And again at his royal Coronation at Scoon in Scotland on the first of January 1651. was Graciously pleased over and above the ordinary and solemn Oath peculiarly belonging to him as King of Scotland in his most publique capacity The History of Charles the second 75 76 77. to swear the solemn League and Covenant and this Oath in behalf of himself and his successors I Charles King of great Brittain France and Ireland do
and the exactions of furious Tyrants And I say it cannot avail unto the least voiding of the Covenant the matter whereof is found just lawful and possible for all Casuists have concluded Juramentum metu extortum doth bind And the Heathen have amplified the force of an Oath by Regulus his return to his Enemies to be slain when he had been forced to make it on which Cicero asserteth Temporibus illis jusjurandum valebat Sanderson de juram prael 5. Sect. 15. p. 126. then Oaths were binding And Doctor Sanderson hath concluded that an Oath made not only on light fear but a just and grievous fear Qualis est metus captivitatis amissionis omnium bonorum inmiae cruciatus quod est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ipsius mortis of imprisonment loss of goods yea most dreadful loss of life which all men must confess to be a most strait condition yet it binds unto performance for which he Renders many Reasons among which these two are of weight in our case * Videtur non posse honeste recusari quod fuit prudenter electum he chose what then seemed best and so it was an Act of will and * Quod ob certum finem promissum est a promittente debet praestaripostquam consecutas est suum finem he received the end proposed as the condition of his entring into that Covenant Moreover as I have before noted Zedekiah was besieged into the Oath made with the King of Babylon with the greatest force and fury imaginable yet the Prophet was not afraid to cry to the King Shall he break the Covenant and be delivered and both King and people perished by that breach of Covenant Sir I cannot without sad thoughts reflect on their sin and horrid wickedness by whom his most Sacred Majesty was reduced into those straits of condition nor shall I acquit them of indiscretion and overmuch boldness who being subjects could dare to take the advantage of a strait condition to put such terms on Majesty yet I dare not but adore the providence of God who bringeth good out of evil and maketh the rage of men to work unto his praise and many times by wayes to us preposterous effecteth his own holy purpose that did bring his most Sacred Majesty by these straits into this Sacred Bond which it is more than probable in an estate of liberty he had never subjected to and being now sworn they cannot they must not be slighted or violated but I hope his Majesty shall never want a good Angel to be his Monitor to pay the vows he made to God in the day of his distress Now Sir I say when I have considered the Covenant under these publick considerations and find such palpable engagements made by the people of England as a Kingdom and Political Body professing the Reformed Religion I cannot but adhere to my former conjecture that it looks something like a National Obligation nay the confluence of publick assent and authority by the people collectively and distributively considered and the access of Royal assent and concurrence the defect of which rendered it at first less acceptable to many leads my conjecture unto a full conclusion that it is a publick National Covenant binding all the persons of this Nation that swear or swear not personally and our posterity after us in their particular places and all that shall succeed into the publick places and politick capacities of this Kingdom to preserve and pursue the things therein promised so long as it remains a Kingdom under one King and in the profession of one Reformed Religion which I pray and hope will be till Jesus Christ shall come to judgment Give me leave Sir to enforce this with what I observed to be asserted by the Lord Chief Baron in his learned Speech unto the late condemned Traytors at the Old Baily You were bound to bear Allegiance to your King yea though you may not have taken the Oath of Allegiance your selves yet you were bound by the Recognition of King James and His Posterity made at His first coming to the Crown of this Realm by the whole Parliament being the whole collective body of the Kingdom Certainly they then and their posterities must needs be bound who themselves have universally by the appointment and authority of such who were entrusted for them engaged the Faith of the Nation though it had been sufficient if the Parliament in that publick capacity had only done it for I say still I see not how they can give away our Estates or take pardons in the name and to the security of the Nation if they may not in our name make Oaths Promises and Covenants to bind us and our succeeding Governors and Posterities in sense whereof I cannot but desire all that wish well to England to consider the Covenant the Solemn League and Covenant for Sir as it was no little support and satisfaction to my spirit under the late contempt and horrid violations of the Covenant to observe they were the preposterous Acts of Self-created Powers and Usurpers on the Peoples consent as well as His Majesties Crown and therefore could not involve the Nation in the guilt of their perjury which our eyes have seen to fall upon their own heads so it is now the greatest perplexity in my jealousie that the Covenant is like to be slighted if not contradicted that the Nation is in danger to be plunged under the guilt and made liable to the punishment thereof by that Just God who will certainly avenge the quarrel of the Covenant which God forbid God forbid I say again God forbid To conclude Sir this Section lest you or any others should think this quality of the Solemn League and Covenant as Publick and National to be my own notion and private particular fancy give me leave to tell you and them I can produce more than 600. Ministers most of whom are yet living in the Kingdom of England who under their hands have testified their apprehensions thereof under the same notion Such as will please to take a strict view of this Cloud of Witnesses may at their leasure survey the Publick Testimonies to the Truths of Jesus Christ and to the Solemn League and Covenant and they shall find the same attested by the names of 52 Ministers of London 41 in the County Palatine of Lancaster 59 in the County Palatine of Chester 41 Ministers in the West Riding of the County of York who in their Title-page and throughout their Testimony do denominate it the National Covenant 39 in the County of Norfolk 82 in the County of Wilts 36 in the County of Stafford 69 in the County of Somerset which I presume may make a better Septuagint than Bishop Pierces Certificants of this County for Revels Clerks-ales and Church-ales on the Lords-day though they want three of the number 68 in the County of Northampton 71 in the County of Essex 43 in the County of Warwick 62 in the County of
Gloucester 57 in the County of Salop and 73 in the County of Devon who give their testimony and call it the Solemn League and Covenant of the three Kingdoms and in the sense of the National Obligation they give this testimony and thus plead We find the Covenant is antiquated and banished as intended to be of force during the time of our intestine Warres we confess we are amazed at this quirk we pray the Wars may cease for ever which yet there is fear may too soon be recalled by God Pag. 27. for this treacherous dealing in his Covenant but we believe no honest understanding heart can be perswaded the Covenant was intended as a Truce made with God for three or four years but we shall labour to stop this Gap with some few strong stakes cut out of the Covenant and so passing through the several Articles of the Covenant they advise those terms may be viewed constantly Pag. 28 29. all the dayes of our life our posterity the Lord may dwell in the midst of us and good of the Kingdoms whereupon they conclude these are not for a few years but for ever and affectionately cry out to the Nation Oh England turn not Harlot break not Covenant with thy God and the Lord keep England from this Covenant-breaking and his vengeance from his people Unto this give me leave to add this passage out of the Testimony of the York-shire Ministers It cannot be unknown to the Churches abroad Pag. 8. that all the three Kingdoms stand engaged by vertue of a Solemn League and Covenant sworn with hands lifted up to the most High God sincerely really and constantly by the grace of God to endeavour in our several places the Reformation of Religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God and example of the best Reformed Churches I shall Sir add but one more and it is that in which we have all the rest their 's being little else but a concurrence with this and that is the Testimony of the Ministers of our own City of London and they profess thus Pag. 26. In order to the Reformation and Defence of Religion within these three Kingdoms we shall never forget how solemnly and chearfully the Sacred League and Covenant was sworn with hands lifted up to the most High God wherein the three Kingdoms stand engaged joyntly and severally c. Yet we cannot but observe to the great grief of our heart that this Solemn Covenant of God hath been and is daily neglected slighted vilified reproached and opposed even by too many who have entred into it and endeavours have been used wholly to evade it and render it useless and that it hath been manifestly violated to the dishonour of God to the prejudice of a real Reformation the sadning of the hearts of Gods people and pulling down his dreadful judgments upon us and upon the whole Kingdom Sir I will say no more Pag. 28. but I pray God London Ministers may retain or recover their first love and Englands Watchmen may remember the loud Alarums they have sometimes sounded and the grounds thereof Sectio semptima Prop. 7. The Obligation of the Solemn League and Covenant is permanent and abiding never by any humane act or power to be absolved or discharged SIR By the permanency of the Obligation of the Covenant we mean the continuance of its Bond on the mind and consciences of men so that the Subjects thereof are and for ever will be bound to pursue and perform the things and matters therein promised nor is it in the power of any man or humane authority to release acquit or discharge them from the same but that when and howsoever the Solemn League and Covenant is slighted laid aside or violated by any the Subjects thereof they shall be liable unto the guilt and punishment of perjury in the breach thereof This permanency of obligation and impossibility of discharge doth spring from a double cause 1. The nature of an Oath which is a solemn and serious Appeal to and invocation of God as Witness and Avenger of the thing sworn and sincerity of the Subject swearing so as in case of dissimulation falshood or non-performance of the thing covenanted we shall be liable unto the guilt and punishment of perjury to be inflicted by the God who judgeth righteously And 2ly From the Manner and Form of the Covenant which is absolute and without a condition which might at any time fail and so cause a Cessation of the Bond of the Covenant thereupon dependent and is expressely exclusive to all manner of discharge or release by any humane Act or Power whatsoever by an express protest That this Covenant we make in the presence of Almighty God the Searcher of all hearts with a true intention to perform the same as we shall answer at that great day when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed and by a peculiar provision That we shall never suffer our selves directly or indirectly by whatsoever combination perswasion or terrour to be divided or withdrawn from this blessed union and conjunction whether to make defection to the contrary part or to give up our selves to a detestable neutrality in this cause which so much concerneth the Glory of God Good of the Kingdoms and Honour of the King but shall all the days of our lives zealously and constantly continue therein So that the matter of this Covenant being as I have before asserted good and lawful because just and possible if there were in the World any power or persons entrusted with that divine Prerogative to discharge the Obligation of an Oath we could not receive it because it is actually and expresly disclaimed We Sir live amongst Protestants who by their very profession do protest against all Papal Dispensations and Jesuitical Commutation thereupon dependent and therefore I need not stand to make any defence in this cause against the same which would be to suggest some Protestant Divines to be so Popishly affected as to have recourse to Rome for relief against St. Peters Restraint I presume Sir Englands Bishops would not be reputed Popish and other ways to discharge the Obligation of the Covenant we have none save the release of Superiors which alwayes must be in such cases and manner as are peculiar unto them and proper to their cognizance I am not insensible that some suppose to themselves and suggest to others a nullity or non-obliging force of the Covenant by reason that His late Majesty of glorious Memory did interdict the Act concerning which it is necessary to be enquired Whether by the Light of Nature Law of Nations or Rule of Scripture the Prince the Political Parent have such full compleat Parental Authority over His Kingdom collectively or distributively considered as by His interdict to make void the Oath they put upon themselves 2. Whether the Parliaments of England both or either House
we must be directed how to think of him I would not have you think that I have been studying all this while to attribute a Pope-like power to my superiors to dispence with the bond of an Oath that is already put upon my conscience No indeed I rather think he is studying how to loosen a pair of tyring Irons But hath he no hole to creep out at and evade his Answer but thus expresly overthrow his own design yes When what was sworn is performed we are free-men unlesse the Superiour gets us into a new Bond. That is very true but what doth he infer This is all that I expect that the higher powers will not renew the Oath and Covenant and then that business is at an end But I doubt Sir he reckoned without his Host Hath he performed what he promised in the Covenant it was thought to be work for all the days of his life he is sure a quick Merchant or is he not rather so bad a Pay-master that he will not perform any thing further then he is constrained by being haled to prison like a Bankrupt he dreams forbearance is an acquittance and is ready to begin a new score of Covenants if any man be so mad as to trust him if he can be secured from any new Bond his conscience will never make him pay the old he had need to be quickned or otherwise he is resolved to be discharged But I believe second thoughts will make him to see he had need to pay for the old before he be trusted for new when he dreams the Tryal is ended the Suit is but beginning what though the Higher Power never renew the Covenant will that cancel the Bond given to God if he agree not with his Adversary quickly he will be cast into prison verily he must not come thence till he have paid the utmost Mite nor will it make a Plea to the least mitigation of damages to say Lord My Superiours did never require me to renew the Covenant His Majesty is like to have Loyal Subjects at Chinkeford where they are taught that their Allegiance being once performed if the King do not cause them daily to renew the Oath of Allegiance they are free to turn Rebels and Traytors for any thing they had sworn before This is an Essex much cheaper and more easily to be had than a Popes Bull if I be not by the imposer exacted and required to perform I am ipso facto released he shall never want Clients that can make such Releases yet you must note this he manageth with most earnestness and seriousness as reaching the very mystery and depth of the Covenant But Sir he hath Salvo's for his Distinction and Reasons for his Assertion What is pious good and lawful in the Covenant doth still bind per vim Praecepti but not per vim Juramenti and if he perform not the contents or intents of the same he is guilty of disobedience but not of perjury What a dull Buzzard am I How have I spent my time that never learned this Notion in Divinity before I had once a Tutour commended to me by Dr. Chappel and he makes me believe the soul might at the same time be under a double Bond to the same Act the single tye of the goodness and lawfulness of the Act and the Cords of an Oath or Covenant and that the last was the strictest Bond he tortured my conscience with the thoughts of a complicated sin in not doing a duty sworn to be done and the guilt of both disobedience and perjury I must sure leave him and take unto Mr Russel attested by Dr. Gauden he teacheth a smoother way to Hell for where we are under a Duty and an Oath to do it in not doing it I shall be but damned for the least sin the disobedience not the perjury 2. It was never yet denied that in a promissory Oath between private persons be to whom the promise was made if he will release he may release if he had for never directed us to read ever this had been an intelligent observation for it hath ever been denied that any man could release the Oath Dr. Saunderson denieth it and Grotius denieth it and I deny it and therefore they distinguish between the Ralaxation of the matter of the promise which is to them sui Juris and the Release of the Oath which is Gods proper interest I may remit my profit or benefit and yet not release an Oath by his leave Sir I do again deny That Abraham did release his servant that which he dreames of to be a Release was part of the very Indenture of the Covenant or Oath that the servant might see the matter of it in its Extent but spare me Sir what is all this to the purpose it is to be proved that the Solemn League and Covenant is such a promissory Oath it was indeed agreed concluded and consented unto by two Nations but yet it is not a reciprocal promise each unto other that they may at any time relax each to other the whole or any part of the conditions thereof but is a joynt Oath or Vow to God by mutual Agreement put on the Kingdoms of England and Scotland and then to follow his fancy God and God only is the Plantiff and no Higher Powers of either Kingdom but they as Members of the Kingdoms are Defendants whom God impleads to perform what they are bound to do His promise was to prove the Covenant to be of the nature of a promissory Oath which might be released and this I expected but I would have him take time enough to do it in I will expect his Resolution at Dooms-day when the Tryal shall be undoubtedly ended and the Judge will openly declare his sentence against all who have broken or shall break the Covenant though not renewed at the command of the Higher Powers This Gentleman tells the World That Mr. Crofton wonders at Dr. Gaudens Logick in arguing the evil of it from the unblest effects and consequences of the Covenant And I think Sir he had Reason for Event was never judged a Rule of Equity but the unblest effects reflected on the Covenant did only accompany it not sprung from it as its proper brood and natural issue by it procreated Shall wicked mens reluctancy to piety and order or perfidy and contempt of the Oath of God create evil effects accidental sequels to the Covenant and it be condemned Sir this man is sure half an Arminian and thinks Gods command to Adam to have been the cause of mans Fall Is he not rather half an heathen that in all Tumults Earth-quakes and Plagues of God upon them would cry out Christianos ad Leones as if they were the cause of all Let any of them specifie that evil in the Covenant which hath a natural tendency unto these unblest or let him speak out curst effects and I will damn it as an accursed thing But Sir Mr. Crofton did not so much wonder at the Drs. Logick in this Argument as at his little Reason or Religion in giving his Attestation to such an Irrational Atheological Wild and Wicked Discourse as this is whilst he fears the Covenanter is righteous over-much I would advise him to consider whether the next words do not suit his spirit as proper for his medition Eccles 7.71 Be not over-much wicked neither be thou foolish why shouldest thou dye before thy time For Sir if I can judge his words are the language of a Fool and his Arguments the Reasons of wickedness and such a Release of the Obligation of the Solemn League and Covenant must needs hasten his ruine CONCLUSION Honoured Sir I Will trouble you no further but leave these Positions unto your serious Consideration I have propounded them by way of Antithesis desirous to weigh what could be said against them I am Sir so sensible of the weight of an Oath the dread of Perjury especially on a Kingdom that I could not see this Nations tendency thereunto in silence if Sir I have any judgment in Christian Rules of safety one of the first debates in order to the establishment of this Kingdom and Restoration of this Church should be how far we are under and obliged by the Solemn League and Covenant I would not advance it above nor set it against Scripture but must be bold to say our Oaths being of matter consonant to Scripture are ready Dictators as well as Spurs unto our Duty and in things meerly humane morally good though not necessary the compass which should steer our course I must confess I cannot but be grieved to see some Transactions amongst us unto a contempt nay contradiction of the Covenant might but my poor weak papers provoke more able and serious Casuists in good earnest as before God and in the dread of an Oath to state and by right Religious Reason to resolve this case of conscience though in the Negative I had obtained my desire and if I know my own heart none shall be more ready then my self when convinced to fall down and worship and confess God is in them of a truth I must Sir beg your pardon wherein I appear too tedious the weight of the Argument the number and worth of the Antagonists speak something in Apology for me Sir I commend you to the guidance of Gods Holy Spirit and pray that you may be kept faithful and blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ FINIS
ΑÎΑΛΗΨΙΣ ΑÎΕΛΗΦΘΗ The Fastning of St. PETRRS FETTERS By SEVEN Links or Propositions OR The Efficacy and Extent of the Solemn League and Covenant asserted and vindicated against The Doubts and Scruples of Dr. John Gauden's Anonymous Questionist St. Peters Bonds not only loosed but annihilated by Mr. John Russell Attested by John Gauden D. D. The League Illegal falsly fathered on Dr. Daniel Featley AND THE Reasons of the University of Oxford for not taking now pleaded to discharge the obligation of the Solemn League and Covenant By Zech. Crofton Minister of the Gospel at S. Botolphs Algate LONDON Jer. 34.15 Ye were now turned and had don right in my sight and ye had made a Covenant before me in the House which is called by my Name Ver. 16. But ye turned and polluted my Name Ver. 18 20. I will give the men that have transgressed my Covenant which have not performed the words of the Covenant which they made before me I will even give them into the hand of their enemies Error cui non resistitur approbatur veritas quae non defenditur opprimitur negligere quippe cum possis deturbare perversos nihil est aliud quam fovere nec caret scrupulo societatis occultae qui manifesto facinori cum potest desinit obviate Innocent London Printed for Ralph Smith at the sign of the Bible in Cornhill near the Royal Exchange 1160. The Epistle to the READER Courteous Reader I Am not insensible that the subject matter of these papers and the season of their publication may expose them and their Author to the censure of the Committee of Discretion which if they do I cannot but let thee know this will not be the first time I have fallen under their correction For such was my loyalty to the Kings Majesty in His late unjust exile and the cogency of the Covenant on my conscience that my preached Sermons and printed Papers were very frequently under the examination of this Committee constituted not onely of my envious enemies desirous to discover in me a rashness which might prove my ruine but also my trembling friends and timerous brethren in the Ministry who thought any who stept before them in duty thrust themselves into present danger and yet no judgment could pass against me save onely this The state of affairs might have made him more politick but that it is truth he spake and a Ministers duty to speak it could never be denied I presume men to whom I am in any measure known will not judge me such a fool as not to discern the current of the times countenance of the Court clamors of the Countrey contradictions of rising persons in the Church Commonwealth to what is herein asserted the compliance and connivance of many my brethren in the Ministry under the same Oath herein vindicated and the cooled courage of the first Composers earnest Instigators and zealous Promoters of the Solemn League and Covenant and that in dissenting from them and opposing my private apprehensions to their more prudent affections I must needs expose my self to the reproach of singularity inconsiderate heat peevishness of spirit and contract on my self the frowns of men in power and frettings of my complying brethren and fellow-confederates and fail the expectations of my own preferment which my courage and constancy for His Majesties just interest in the worst of oppressing times and utmost of opposition wherein many who now vilifie the Covenant durst not speak nay did basely comply and promise to be true and faithful to the Common-wealth of England as it was then established without a King and House of Lords had heightned in both my friends and foes against which when I reason with flesh and blood and consult a proud heart within and numerous family without me I find sufficient Arguments according to the dictates of nature to determine folly against my self but I hope I have not so learned Christ True piety doth suggest and convince me that wisdom towards God is folly to the world and the Watchmans prudence is to proclaim an approaching evil whilst at a distance capable of diversion and escape and that the most wise of Gods Ministers in all ages judged it their duty to oppose Gods Word to mens prevailing lust and present propensity unto wickedness Elijah-like to stand alone and speak the mind of God when for so doing they may be branded as the troublers of Israel when indeed their sin not the preachers speach doth cause the commotion with Micaiah to denounce the danger of Ahabs design though 400 Prophets encourage it and King and the Court encline to it and with Jeremiah to say to the King Keep thy Oath and thou shalt be delivered when Princes and Prophets perswade the breach thereof and himself must down into the Dungeon as a preacher of sedition Few men will deny that Roger Bacon in his plain preaching to King Henry 3. that if he did not remove his malignant counsellors Peter Bishop of Winchester and Peter de Rivallis he could never be at quiet played a wiser part than did the Bishop who to please the Kings humor preached up the Kings prerogative to such a pitch as brought himself under an Anathema from which he was forced to appeal to Rome for relief And all good Protestants will conclude Cranmer was much wiser in alone withstanding King Council Parliament Lords temporal spiritual in the case of K. Henry 8. his six Popish Articles than in that Court-compliance which caused that doleful complaint in the midst of the fire This my unworthy right hand Magnanimity is a vertue not the least necessary to a man but most necessary to a Christian and most of all to a Minister who should like his Steeple stand in all storms raised under and by the variations of human affairs and not like the Weather cock turn with every wind I am ashamed to think with what vigour some asserted the Obligation of the Covenant in reference to Religion when the civil part thereof was clouded and broken and now would vindicate the civil part thereof whilst Religion is specially concerned Like wise Archers level at the mark because of spectators observation but resolve to shoot fair and far off whilst others wholly couch it are ready to cast it off or by false glosses and frivolous interpretations evade it and study how to charm others into the same silence I had almost said sin It is worth remembrance that Religion and its Reformation never was nor must now be expected to be the result of an ordinary measure of resolution It is needlesse to recite the boldness of the Apostles and Primitive Fathers against the contradiction of the Pagans Alexander and Athanasius that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against the Arrian Empire in promoting and defending the true Religion or Wickliff Hus and Luther and others in the first reformation and the conflicts of Englands Non-conformists against the remainders of corruption and Romish Reliques in our Church