Reformation they were constrained to provide for the safety of their own lives After this there was no more speech of the Agreement in Religion for that would utterly have spoiled their work for it had never been possible to have raised the people against the King if the conclusion of this conference had been made known to the world that the King the Court and the Bishops made profession of the sincere reformed Religion Now because all the Lies and Subtilties of the Devil were not capable to impute unto them another Confession of Faith but that which they maintain which was Holy and Orthodox known every where and confirmed by the Confessions of all the reformed Churches of Europe the Factious perswaded the people both by their Sermons and seditious Libels that the degree of Bishops was an essential Branch and Mark of Antichrist and that to pull them down was to do the work of the Lord and to ruine Antichrist and that if the King would maintain them he would be destroyed with them as being one of those Kings who gave his power to the Beast And besides the destruction of Bishops they openly demanded the Abolition of the Divine Service received in the Church of England condemning the use of all other prayers yea even of the Lords Prayer quarrelling with the Apostles Creed denied the necessity of the Sacraments boasted of a new Light that had appeared to them from Heaven to draw them out of Popish Darkness and all that was not compatible with their extravagant Illuminations they called Popery and the Ministers that disobeyed them Baal's Priests and the supporters of Antichrist By such kind of people were the great multitudes stirred who came crying at the Gates of the King and Parliament for Reformation threatning with fire and sword all those that should oppose it Of these Assemblies we may speak what is spoken of the uproar at Ephesus Acts 19.32 The Assembly was confused and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together for those that called for Reformation understood not one another and their opinions were different in Religion as appears at this day agreeing only in this to pull down the Ecclesiastical Government and what New Government they will build upon the Ruines of the Old we shall know when the sword hath decided the controversie but whilst the Mariners strive the Ship sinks The Lord behold his poor Church in compassion We have great hope now beholding the diversity of Opinions and Inclinations that these evil ingredients will together make a good Temperature and that the disorder yea even the Licentiousness it self will inforce order as commonly evil Manners beget good Laws but to attain this it 's required in this general confusion that those of clear and sound judgments who see the bottom of the evil and know the Remedy of it But having considered them that walk before in the design of Reformation we find that they are such that neither know the Remedy nor the Evil. As for the Evil in stead of having their eyes upon the errors of particulars against the principal points of Faith and Confession of the English Church they grew obstinate against certain small and indifferent Ceremonies which the King had many times offered to change by a Synod lawfully assembled and cast all the Fire of their passion upon the Episcopall preheminence a Surpliss a Festival Forms of Prayer Painted windows and condemning many good things amongst â—he evil And as for the Remedy we have here whereat to admire that striking at so small and light evils they would employ such extream Remedies nothing being able to serve but general destruction as if to heal the pain of the Teeth they would cut off the Head in stead of proceeding by an amiable conference appointing a deputation of the Clergy of the Kingdom to assemble in a Synod to calm the fiery spirits and to keep the people in obedience to their Soveraign and to fasten the building that shaked by the Ciment of Charity they made open profession that the Reformation could not be effected but by blood that they would have no peace with the Bishops and their Clergy that they must destroy before they build raze Babylon as they called our Discipline even to the very foundations overthrow the Altars of Baal and sacrifice all his Priests that now the time was come that the Israel of God ought to pillage the Egyptians And that now the just should wash their footsteps in the blood of the ungodly for such they accounted us and thus they did us the honour to plunder and kill us in Scripture Language And with this Divinity the Pulpits sounded aloud and the people publickly exhorted to take up Arms against the King and to destroy all Ministers both of Church and State that should joyn with him and for this effect these following Texts of Scripture were pressed by their zealous Preachers Luke 19.27 Those mine enemies which would not that I should reign over them bring hither and slay them before me Judg. 5.23 Curse ye Meroz curse ye bitterly the Inhabitants thereof because they came not to the help of the Lord to help the Lord against the mighty Jer. 48.10 Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord deceitfully and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from bloud and these they appropriated to their war against their King and Clergy of England and all that adhered unto them there being no way of Reformation in these mens accounts but to kill us for the Love of God and the Advancement of his Kingdom Now being exceedingly astonished how men of Learning could possibly be so bewitched with a furious and foolish zeal we found at length having sounded the depth of their opinions that their Brains were troubled with Prophesies and Revelations that their principal reading was in Commentaries upon the Revelation which they interpreted according to their fancies and that they had studied more what God would do hereafter than what their Duty was to do for the present that they made no Conscience to transgress the declared Will of God in his Commands to accomplish the secret will of his Decree That they were Millenariâ—s expecting a Temporal Kingdom of Jesus Christ believing that the time of that Kingdom was now come and to establish that Kingdom they were to pluck down that of Antichrist as they understood the ancient Ecclesiastical Order and to dispossess Kings drive away the wicked dash the children of Babel against the stones tread the winepress of the wrath of God till the Blood rose to their Bridle reins that thereby Christ alone may reign in the world and the meek inherit the earth We have since enough tasted of the fruits of their meekness All this is drawn from the model of the Common-wealth of John a Leyden and the Prophets of Munster But if any of the Covenanters shall disavow these opinions they cannot deny but they were preached publickly and ordinarily neither can they
in Parliament that takes not their Oaths at his entrance neither is it in their power to overthrow without and against the King that which is established by the King sitting in Parliament Also this is a thing that never entred into the spirits of the English before the times of this epidemical phrensie that the Kings Writs which makes the Estates to assemble and the deputation of the people that sends them should exempt their Deputies or Parliament men from the duty of Subjects and absolve them of their Oath of Allegiance and St. Pauls Command The Text of St. Paul according to the Greek requires that every Soul should be subjects If so be then that their Deputies or Parliament men have no souls they are not bound to give obedience to the King When we reason thus our adversaries are extraordinarily moved and would take this matter out of the hands of the Clergy saying that the Lawyers not the Divines are to decide where the Supream Power of the State rests whether it be in the person of the King or the people and with what limitations the King ought to be obeyed and that the Apostle requiring an obedience to supream Powers intends an obedience according to the Laws and the Laws are every where different and that one and the same Rule of Scripture cannot serve for all Kingdoms that the Kingdom of England not being formed as the Kingdom of Israel or the Roman Empire the Commands of the Old and New Testament alledged toucheth not the present Quarrel Now are they not ashamed to forbid our Clergy to discourse of Political affairs whilst the Gentlemen of the Bar take upon them to teach Divinity to the Clergy and by infinite Booâ—s as processes stir up the people to Rebellion by Reasons of Religion and to uphold staggering Consciences in the duty of Obedience and Christian Concord and to defend the Truth of God by our sufferances as we have endeavoured to do It 's not to meddle in the affairs of State but to discharge our Consciences and to keep that good thing which God hath committed unto us We cannot be accused to intrude our selves into the Civil Government as their Ministers who serve as Agents and Factors in publick affairs It s henceforth the duty of Divines to handle this point of State for the Lawyers and States-men of the Covenant who having lately built their New Policy upon a New Divinity of their fashion have forced the Divines to become Polititians at leaâ—â—o far as to defend true Divinity from the crime of Disobedience since they press us for Conscience to joyn with them to resist the King they must satisfie our Consciences that the fundamental Laws of the Kingdom require us so to do But if they would that Divines rest themselves upon the faith of the Lawyers in the point of resistance upon which there is no less penalty than damnation it is to press an implicit Faith and blind obedience upon those that preach the contrary Without exceeding then the limits of our vocation we do acknowledg that the Apostle requires an obedience according to the Laws of the State not only of the State of Rome but of every other form of Government and we deny that there may not be found in Scripture a Rule of Obedience which serves for all sorts of Estates for such is that of the present Text That every Soul should be subject to the Higher Powers and that he that resisteth the Powers resisteth the Ordinance of God and thereby shall receive to himself damnation the reason inserted between these two sentences do manifestly regard all forms of States that there are no powers but they be of God and the powers that are are ordained of God therefore the Command that goes before and after appertains to all sorts of Government Let every one be subject to the power and let none resist the power and threatnings also which is the terriblest of all threatnings that those that resist the Powers shall receive to themselves damnation Saint Peter wills us to be subject to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake that is we are to subject our selves to every form of Government lawfully established and to perswade our selves that that Ordinance is of God Generally the Scriptures before alledged oblige all persons of all Estates to yield Obedience to him and those in whom the Supream Power resides and there cannot 〈◊〉 brought any valuable reason why it is more lawful to resist the Supream Power in England than in Israel or in Rome Indeed if they could produce a fundamental Law of the Kingdom that did permit the people of England in certain cases to take up Arms against the King they had some reason then to say that Saint Paul did not forbid the English to resist their Prince beyond the nature of their Laws as the Princes of Germany when they took up Arms against the Emperor produced the Golden Bull of Charles the fourth and the Emperial Capitulation for by it they were expresly permitted to make war against him if he attempted any thing against their ancient composition although I account that this Capitulation could not be made without contradicting the Command of the Apostle for Histories mention that the Emperour was reduced to it by the threatnings and Menaces of the Pope but now by long prescription the Empire is not that it was and it 's a point disputable what is the Supream Power in divers States of Germany 'T is that which but of late hath been put to the Question in England and was never disputed before the year 1642. where the Supream Power of the Kingdom resides unless when the Crown was in dispute between two Princes The Kings enemies employed all their forces to prove that the Soveraign Authority appertained to the people to evade the Text of Saint Paul and other Texts of Scripture which did marvellously incommode their affairs imitating those that alter the Lock of their doors when the Key is in possession of their Adversary for beholding to their great regret that the Scripture is wholly ours commanding obedience and strictly forbidding resistance to Soveraigns yea under pain of damnation they labour with all their might to change the nature of the State that thereby the rules of subjection contained in the Scripture might be of no use One of their Authors of whom they make great account affirms boldly that the passages in Scripture against resisting the Supream Power are of no force but in simple and absolute Monarchies as that of the Jews and Romans and do no waies touch ours This is a clean shaver who cuts the knot that he cannot untie wherein he imitates the ingenuity of Buchanan who having taught Subjects to punish their King and feeling himself pressed by Conscience which suggested to him that the Scripture was wholly contrary to it prevents the Objection that might be made by maintaining that it 's ill inferred to say that the thing
him that spake them like unto the bitings of the weasel who consumes his teeth by gnawing of steel Certainly when the Divines of France defend in their writings the Confession of Faith of his Majesty against the Doctors of the contrary Religion they account not that King a most mortal enemy of the Church That most holy Confession confirmed by the practice of that great Prince will serve as a bright shining light in the Church in after Ages and cover the memory of them who injured and reproached him with perpetual shame But for the present thâ—se rare Adages which curse the best of Kings and Royalty in general are gather'd as choice and golden sentences Witnesse this other which comes from the Authority of his Companion as great a liar as himself who hath this passage He erres not much who saith that there is in all Kings a mortal hatred against the Gospel they will not suffer willingly the King of Kings to govern in their Kingdomes yet God hath some amongst the Kings who pertain to him but very few it may be one in an hundred But since he is upon the number instead of counting a hundred Kings one after another let him account only a hundred years without going out of England and we intreat this good man to consider what Kings have raigned over this Kingdome within this hundred years and let him in good earnest tell us which of them he would leave to God and which he would give to the Devil let them consider the piety of him whom God hath made a Saint and they a Martyr let them find if they can in all his Kingdome a man more just and meek more temperate and religious and let envy and rebellion who finding nothing to bite at in the life of this Monarch burst asunder at his feet and hide themselves in their own confusion Let us say the same to the Observator upon his Majesties Declarations who speaking of all Kings now raigning but with a particular application to his Soveraign saith That to be the delight of mankind as Titus Vespasian is now a sordid thing amongst Princes but to be tormentors and executioners of the Publique to plot and contrive the ruine of their subjects which they ought naturally to protect is now accounted a work worthy of Caesar If reviling and speaking reproachful words against the King were blasphemy according to the stile of the civil Laws of Israel 1 King 21 10. then this impious person is a Blasphemer in the highest degree against the sacred Majesty of Kings and moreover exceeding ridiculous as well as wicked to appropriate this description to his King whose known piety justice and clemency deserved rather the title of the delights of mankind then that Emperour upon whom the love of the people conferred it The like I may speak of the Kings of France within these fifty years all the Lists of the French Kings furnisheth not such excellent Princes wherefore Aphorismes of Rebellion could never have been pronounced in an age more proper to give the Authors the lye The Lord rebuke these black souls who curse God in the person of his Anointed their sentence is written and their qualities painted out to the life by St. Peter 2 Pet. 2.10 11 12. who despise Dominions presumptuous self-willed they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities whereas Angels which are greater in power bring not railing accusations against them before the Lord but these are natural bruit beasts made to be taken and destroy'd speak evil of things which they understand not and shall utterly perish in their own corruption I might heap up many more passages of our enemies which teach murther rebellion and hatred of Kings in which they seem to dispute with the very Jesuites themselves this description of their devotion A seditious piety a factious Religion which would be Judge of the consciences of Princes who abhor their Religion because they hate their Government who make good subjects and good Christians to be things incompatible Whosoever would weary his patience and behold how ingenious the Covenanters have been even to exercise the patience of God and insult over the persons and authority of Kings let them read their Sermons which were daily printed by authority after they had preached them before the House of Commons wherein the filthy Torrent of seditious Eloquence and the fantasticalness of a Bastard Devotion were imploy'd to tear apieces the King to disfigure him in odious colours and stir up the people to all cruel and bloody courses against him out of which books we might collect thousands of Modern Authorities in favour of the wickedness of these times which passed from them as Doctrines of Religion but we esteem our selves worthy of a better imployment then to be poring on Carrion and stirring in sinks and puddles That which we have cited out of known Authors shall suffice to let the world see with whom we have to do and that we are call'd to the condition of S. Paul to fight with beasts CHAP. XII How the Covenanters wrong the Reformed Churches in inviting them to joyn with them with an answer for the Churches of France AS 't is the vice of those who are strucken with the Leprosie to endeavour to infect others so the Covenanters like to them labour by all means possible to spread abroad the poyson of their impiety Those who have preached and published their most infamous Doctrines which renders Christianity hateful both to Turks and Pagans were so bold as to address their publike Declarations to the Reformed Churches of France the Low Countryes and Switzerland as if they made profession of the same Doctrines they had the impudence to invite these so pure Churches to have society with them and to pray them to esteem the Cause of the Covenant that of all the Churches In this the Assembly of Divines at London were imployed by their Masters That which makes this Temptation less dangerous is That the Letter they wrote upon this subject to their Neighbours could very hardly be understood This Venerable Company of Divines of Consummate Knowledge and the Flower of Eloquence of that Party writ a Latine Letter to the French Flemens and Switzers wherein there wants nothing in the Outward but Language and Common sense a most worthy Cover for the Inward for so evil a drogue there needed not a Better Box. This Epistle amongst a ridiculous affectation of Criticismes Greek and Poetical phrases and many Rhetorical Figures is here and there fill'd with Solecismes Barbarismes and the like Grammar Elegancies like a foundred horse that goes up and down and it 's pity to behold hâ—w their Eloquence stumbles in Capriolinge This piece of Latine was much admired and many praises heaped upon the Authors and publick thanks by special command given to them by the House of Commons so much is knowledge valued in this Reformed party It 's likely many hands contributed to the composing of it for
power by certain humane means introduced by custome which notwithstanding hinders not but their power may be founded in the Word of God when they are once established for as we said before the Question is not of the means by which a Prince comes to the Kingdome but what Obedience is due to him after he is once instaled And therefore Saint Peter after he had called this Ordinance an humane Ordinance commands us to subject our selves for the Lords sake and to obey his command Whosoever makes the Authority of Kings depend upon the institution of men and not upon the Ordinance of God lessens their Majesty more then three quarters and takes from them that which secures their lives and Crowns more then their Guards or mighty Armies which plants in the Subjects hearts Fear instead of Love and Reverence Then the fidelity and obedience of Subjects will be firm and lasting when it shall be incorporated with piety and accounted a part of Religion and of the service we owe to God This foundation being over-turned that the Authority of Kings is but an humane Ordinance that which they build upon it must necessarily fall for to reason thus that the people may take away their Authority from the King because they gave it him is to prove one absurdity by another as if one should prove the Moon might be burnt because it s made of wood For to say the people gave the power to the King is to imagine that which never was no not in Kingdomes which are Elective The People give not the King his Authority for they cannot give that they have not but he defers his obedience to Henry or Charles But this Prince being elected receives his Authority from God as the beginning and source from whence all power flowes By me Kings Raign Pro. 8.15 And there is no Power but of God Rom. 13.1 None ought therefore to take this Power which God hath given him Thus the Wife choseth her Husband and gives him a promise of obedience in marriage but it is not she that gives him his Authority that comes from above And there is as great an absurdity to say that the People may depose the King because they chuse him as to affirm that the Woman may put away her Husband or subject him to her when she shall judge expedient because that she made choice of him For the woman loseth the liberty of her choice by the bond of marriage and the People likewise lose the liberty to revoke their choice when the Prince Elected is declared King 'T is a strange consequence to say that the people may take away the Kings Authority because they have sworn obedience to him the Election is no other thing And it 's a reason that overthrows it self to say that the people may take from the King his Authority because they gave it him For put the case that it were true that the people gave Authority to the King whom they Elect since then the people have given away their Authority 't is no more in them This maxime being once admitted that it is lawful for every one to take back again what he hath given it would break the Laws of Society and fill the world with injustice and confusion But let our enemies know that although the Authority of the King had not begun before the Oath of Allegiance which this Parliament took in a Body at the beginning of their sitting yet the Body of the State made thereby an irrevocable gift of their obedience to the King and from this Oath we draw a better consequence then theirs namely that they cannot dispose of their obedience since they have given it to the King So that were their reasons good they would be of no force but in Kingdomes which were Elective and make nothing against King Charles for neither he nor any of the Kings his Ancestors in all ages past ever came to the Crown by Election It 's not to purpose to alledge the Oath the King took at his Coronation as an agreement and paction made with his people equivalent to an Election for the King receives not his Kingdome at his Coronation he is King before his Crown is put on and therefore Watson and Clark who conspired against King James of glorious memory were justly condemned as guilty of High Treason although they alledged that the King was not then Crowned and it was judged by the Court that the Crowning was but a ceremony for to make the King known to his people It 's the like also in France I judge saith Bodin that no man doubts but the King enjoyes before his Anointing the possession and propriety of his Kingdome Before this ceremony the King enjoyes as fully all his Rights as after and according to the Laws of France and England the King never dies whilst there remains any of the Royal Blood for in the same hour that the King expires the lawful Heir is totally invested of the Kingdome Wherefore the Eldest Sonne of Edward the Fourth who was murthered by his Uncle Richard is by general consent numbered amongst the Kings and named Edward the Fifth although he never wore the Crown nor took any Oath nor exercised any Authority Henry the Sixth was not Crowned but in the ninth year of his Reign and yet before his Coronation many were attainted of High Treason which could not have been done if he had not been acknowledged King In the Oaths of the Kings of France and England at their Coronation there is no image of stipulation covenant or agreement betwixt them and their subjects They receive not their Crowns upon any condition and their people owe their obedience whether they perform or violate their promises This Oath is a laudible custome profitable to bear up the Authority of the Prince by the love of his Subjects and to give to the people this satisfaction that the King whom God hath given them hath an intention to govern them with Justice and Clemency and to preserve their Rights and Liberties If the King by his Oath should bind himself to fall from the Right to his Kingdome when he should violate his Promises he would then be lesser after his Oath then before and surely if the Kings did believe they should diminish their propriety by their Oath they would never take it and to shew that their Authority depends not of their Oath but their Oath of their Authority the Kings of England form it at their pleasure Very hardly shall you find three that have taken the same Oath without changing some things That which was presented to Henry the Eighth which is to be seen in the Rolls was corrected by his own hand and interlined And moreover the Oath is made to God and not to the People and binds the Conscience of the Prince but doth not limit his Soveraignty if the intention of this solemnity were to make a stipulation or agreement with the people the people at the same time should also
change made in the outward skin of Religion make not the substance distasted for the most part mens spirits penetrates not much further than the superficies as indeed no further did theirs who came to reform us with the sword It s a very dangerous thing to overthrow an Order wherein the Devotion of the people hath taken root For besides the disorder that follows commonly in the Church and State they shall find that in transplanting Devotion into a new soil they cause it to die some being prophane others desperate and atheistical For an exemplary conduct of Christian prudence in this great point of publick Reformation all after ages will admire the English Reformers under the Reign of Edward the Sixth who intrapt the people as Saint Paul beguiled the Corinthians who confessed that being subtile he caught them by guile for to establish the Doctrine so as it is contained in the Confession of Faith in English Church and agrees with that of other reformed Churches they kept themselves from going openly and suddenly against the inclination of the people above all in the exteriour which although it is of less importance hath notwithstanding a very strong influence upon the common people After the Reformation was concluded upon by the Prelates and Nobles Mattins were said in the Cathedral Churches at their accustomed hours with the same Garments they were wont to wear and the same ordinary singing but the Hymns and Psalms they read in English and their Scriptures were not read in pieces but by whole Chapters and Prayers were put to God only in the Name of Jesus Christ and in a known tongue a thing which did much content the people and much edifie them and being accustomed to these things they passed by the Mass Sermons became more frequent simply instructing the people in the Truth and Holiness without any bitterness or contest whereby they gained the spirits of the people by charity which is the only method for to decide controversies and in a short time that which Superstition had drawn over the Service of God was insensibly abolished and there was a general conversion of the Kingdom wrought without any noise This prudent way wrought better effects than all the combats of Religion whether fought by Armies or Letters which have been since above these hundred years Their enemies of the Church of Rome would much rather the Reformers had disputed concerning the Doctrine and Discipline and that they had set upon them with their utmost strength Our melancholy and peevish Zelots would have done no great good upon them by the waies they now take if this task had fallen into their hands for such a great work there was need of better notions of piety and prudence than the fundamental Maximes of the reformation at present That the purest Religion is that which hath least conformity with the Church of Rome That for to do well they must do quite contrary to that which the Church of Rome doth and hereby they make all that remains of the Institution of the Apostles to become Antichristian because the Papist hath practised them Maximes which are only proper for poor seditious Spirits whose nature is like the Crab-fishes who know not how to go but backward Religion consists not in negation the saving Truths are affirmative and it would be a dangerous rule to believe altogether contrary to that which the Devil believes which would oblige us to deny the Divinity For so high an enterprise which is equally as necessary as dangerous there is required clear seeing judgments firm stable ready charitable who are able to penetrate and dive into the inside of Religion and discern the meat from the shell who without bending the Truth to the times know how to accomodate their work to the nature of men and affairs and who have the discretion recommended by Saint Paul Prove all things hold fast that which is good wisely distinguishing betwixt the Apostolical Institution and the rust that is grown on it through length of time These excellent persons manifest to the world that they well understood this secret that the matter of Religion is a thing rather adored than known by the people but the Form and Ceremony is that their eyes are fixed upon and which fills their spirits and he that pleaseth them in the exteriour shall easily prevail with them for the inward of Doctrine Now it appears that Superstition is alwayes of the same Nature although she changeth her object for the Fanaticall zeal of the people of the Covenant being fleshed and egged on to destroy the exteriour Order perceived not in the mean while that they undermined the foundations of Faith For we find amongst our enemies many different Sects Some denying the Trinity the Incarnation of the Son of God and his Divinity who neverthelesse agree altogether to hate abolish our Lyturgie with the sword without contending amongst themselves for these essential differences neither are they moved for these monstrous errors which directly oppose the glory of God and salvation of men so much are men for the most part children yea brutish in matters of Piety fastening themselves upon appearances and not upon things considering more the garment then the body of Religion The vulgar being every where of this disposition God shewed great favour to the ignorant people in times of our Fathers to put them into so good hands who knew how to lead them mildly to the Truth without exasperating them for the Discipline For to provoke and irritate them was not the means to instruct them Let all the world judge if the Reformers at present follow this example and whether they search to instruct or to provoke the people for after we have made the best and soundest party amongst them to confess that the Doctrine of the Church of England was good and holy and they be demanded hereupon why they persecute the King and his people with such rage They pay us with this miserable reason that the people are affectionate to certain things as necessary which are not necessary and they would wean them from this opinion And must they for this drown three famous Kingdoms in bloud and snatch the Crown from off the Head and the Sword out of the hand of a good King We may well tell them that they undertake an impossible thing for there is no Religion no Nation nor almost person who is not lodged there but they themselves are they not more superstitious in this point than those whom they would correct For what greater superstition for to make a necessity to contradict and oppose things where there is no necessity yea to account the abolishing of things not necessary so necessary that for it they will massacre the King and bathe themselves in the blood of the Church and State Can there be in the world a more pernicious superstition No verily if they consider that this superstition kils the soul as well as the body For those
to all the Reformed Churches how much our good King departed loved his Religion he would not grant peace to his Irish Subjects on the conditions they demanded advantagious to their Religion which if he had accorded he might have had Legions in stead of Regiments and not wanted neither the help of his Subjects nor their neighbours but rather then he would buy their assistance at that price he chose to sink and fall under the oppression of the Covenanters after this piety or humanity ought to have converted the enemies of the King if he had had to do with persons who had either the one or the other But if the Gentlemen at London lost their monies which they advanced upon the Irish affairs they have cause to complain of the Gentlemen at Westminster who made use of this money not to reconquer Ireland but to make war upon the King who had a great desire to terminate that business and would have gone in Person but not to serve the avaritious and barbarous intentions of these Merchants of blood but to recover his Rights and to restore a number of his exiled Subjects to their possessions Those ruined and remaining Families of the general Massacre cried aloud in the ears of the King and Parliament For to help them there was a generall Collection through the Kingdom and the Ministers by Order of Parliament were to excite the charity of the people to a liberal contribution which was done and great sums of money were raised for the Irish War But to what was the charity of many pious souls imployed to make War against the King The Armies which the cries of the poor exiled Irish had raised and were ready at their Port to be shipped were called back and conducted against his sacred Majesty and although many in those Troops had their Interests in Ireland they were constrained to forsake them for unknown Interests and an open Hostillity against their Soveraign 'T is no wonder then if part of those Troops at the battel of Keinton turned to the King and took a bloody revenge of so great injustice For what a most horrible tyranny was this to make them fight against their King in England whilest the throats of their wives and children were cutting in Ireland We earnestly beseech the Covenanters that whensoever they curse the Irish Rebellion they would remember these two things the one that the Scots shewed them the way having before made a Covenant for Religion and levied Arms to maintain it and obtained by this way all that they desired The Irish seeing this was the way to obtain the liberty of their Religion presently followed the example of their Neighbours and as a judicious Writer saith pleasantly That if the Scots had not piped the Irish had never danced Let them remember also that the Irish as wicked as they were had without comparison more reason for their rising then either the English or Scotch for it 's most certain that the Irish were held in with a bridle which had a ruder bit then the other Subjects of the King Many of the Irish for their former Rebellions were dispossessed of their Lands and although the sentence was just the loss nevertheless was sensible moreover they had not the free exercise nor liberty of their Religion the English nor Scotch cannot alledge any thing like these Hardly shall you find in any History a raign of fifteen years more flourishing peaceable and mild then the fifteen first years of the Reign of the late King notwithstanding all the grievances the Covenanters reckon up to his disadvantage There never shined more happy days upon England and Scotland In effect they were Nations sick of too much ease When Subjects undertake to criticise upon mysteries of State and come to quarrel amongst themselves for subtilties of Religion or points of Discipline it s a symptome of an easie yoke and of excess of ease and prosperity Moreover the Irish fought against men of another Religion and of another Nation they fought not against the Person of their King cut not the throats of their Brethren nor ruined those of their profession imposed not necessity of Conscience upon others but only demanded publick Liberty of Conscience for themselves although many amongst them contented themselves with lesse for by the Articles of peace in Septemb. 1646. the King gave them no Toleration for the publike exercise of their Religion Certainly therefore as those of Niniveh shall rise up in judgment against the Scribes and Pharisees so shall the Irish against the English and Scotch Covenanters Further our enemies are very unjust to complain that the King assailed to bring over Irish Armies into England since they in effect a year and half before had brought Armies of Scotch into England to serve them If they take the boldness to entertain the Armies of strangers within the Kingdome of their Soveraign shall it not be lawful for the King to defend his person and Kingdom with his own Subjects which in this quality are not strangers in respect of him but the Scotch are strangers in regard of the English Histories furnish nought parallel to this crime to have brought the Scots into England and to move them to come gave them part of the Kingdom of Ireland but its easie for them to give that which was none of theirs with the same right the Devil offered to Jesus Christ all the Kingdoms of the world for they can produce their Authority no other where This Nation abounding in men living in a barren Countrey will be easily induced to plant Colonies in a more fertile soil and who will believe that having their weapons in their hands and being in England backed with their forces from Scotland they will govern themselves at the devotion of those that sent for them and go no further then they are comanded there is danger least it happen as to the fountain of Lucian which a student in Magick with certain words he had learn'd of his Master sent to fetch water to which the fountain obeyed but the poor apprentise knew not the words to make it stay which in the mean while went and fetched water without ceasing till it filled the house up to the windows Certainly our Mutineers had the wit to make the Scotch come to their help and there needed no great charm to perswade a people which had nothing and had nothing to do to come and fish in troubled waters in their neighbours pond But I have great fear that those which caused them to enter upon their March were ignorant of the charm to stay them that they should go no further and that the Scotch will not have done when the English have done with them It was not then an action of judgment to cause the Scots to enter England without having power to make them return and to hinder their coming again much less an action of piety for God needs not the wickedness of men to advance his Kingdom it was an
is unlawful because there is no such thing or the like found in Scripture These their Confessions are very remarkable and indeed most strange coming from Christians who should rather frame their policy to Scripture than reject the Scripture because it contradicts the policy they would establish They have found out an invention to cast off the yoke of their King which is to cast off that of the Word of God After this so open a profession it 's against all equity they should make use of Scripture for their cause either in their Writings or Sermons They alledg nothing but examples but there is no reason that the examples should be made use of by them who reject the Commands but after they have turned themselves into as many postures as a Fencer to defend themselves against the invincible Text of the Apostle in the end hither they are driven to refuse wholly to debate the difference touching their duty to their King by the Commands of Scripture The last Figure of Proteus is the Natural and after all their tricks of Lying and Hypocrisie at last their Nature shews it self In fine when all is said this is the only answer on which they rest that the Commands of Scripture cannot determine the point of their resistance and that we must have recourse to the Lawyers This speech is commonly in the mouths of all the wisest of their party and let all Christian Churches take notice of this their most shameful Evasion The Covenanters of England who pretend to establish the Kingdom of Christ according to the Word of God refuse to be judged by the Commands of Scripture touching the War made against their Soveraign CHAP. V. What Constitution of State the Covenanters forge and how they refuse the Judgment of the Laws of the Kingdom TO elude the strength of humane Laws as well as divine they forge a primitive and fundamental Constitution of this Estate destitute of all authority both of God or man And here we must distinguish between their doctrine they taught in the beginning of their Covenant and that which they taught afterwards for then when they were to fight with the King in the field and were not yet capable oâ— so high hopes as afterwards they effected they forged a form of State suitable to their possibility then which was to constrain the King by the Terror of their Arms to accord to all that should please them and wholly to put the Government into their hands notwithstanding their Principles then led them to those Conclusions which since followed for they supposed that the Soveraign Power was inherent in the People that the People elected the King and had committed to him the Authority that he exercised reserving to themselves the Power to assume it again when the State should judge it most convenient and to take away the sword of Justice and the Militia to make use of it against him if there were need That the King had not the Supream Power but by Paction which being once broke by him the Subjects were exempted from their Obedience That he was onely Depository of the Supremacy but when the Estates were assembled the Supremacy was joyntly possessed by him and the two Houses so that the King had but the thirds and that but very hardly for they held that the States had a Negative voice and the King could do nothing without their consent and whether the King had the Negative Voice of right they were not agâ—eed but all accorded to take it away from him in effect that is to say after their account That the People might refuse the King what displeased them but if the King denyed what the People propounded to him they esteemed that the two Houses might and ought to do it without him and force him to it by Arms and this Doctrine hath been confirmed by their practise or to speak the truth this their practise hath occasioned this Doctrine Now since God through his secret and incomprehensible Judgments hath suffered the wickedness of this Age to have success above their desires they built upon these principles this Conclusion that the People may judge and execute their King dissolve the Monarchie for ever and turn it into an Aristocracy or Popular Government for yet they cannot agree to which they should hold themselves since then they would perswade us that the Constitution of the English Government exempts us from these two great dangers Disobedience to God and damning our Souls in resisting the King and since they would oblige us for Conscience sake to oppose the King in obedience to God and the higher Powers and that our Clergie are commanded to exhort the people that God hath commanded them to draw their Swords against their Soveraign there is a necessity to satisfie our Reason and resolve our Consciences hereupon to enquire whether the Nature of the State be such as they have painted it out to us And for this we have not referred our selves to those of the Royal party but have consulted with the most Judicious Writers of the Covenanters who pass amongst them as Oracles of the State expecting that for proof of this form of Government they would have produced the old Records of the Kingdom which are now in their Custodie the ancient Statutes of Parliaments and the Testimony of their old Historians but they alledge no such things though much pressed thereunto by their Adversaries onely they make a Discourse in the Air upon the Law of Nature that hath given to every person and by consequent to every Estate a power for his preservation troubling the Ignorant Readers brains with barbarous terms and thorny distinctions and extracting the Quintessence of the State into an invisible substance They tell us that the Parliament was coordinate and not subordinate to the King That the three Estates of Parliament whereof the King made one being fundamental admitted not of the difference of Higher or Lower That the power of the King in Parliament was not Royal but Political That this Fundamental Law of the kingdom was not written for if it were it should be superstructive and therefore Mutable and not Fundamental That the mixture of the three Estates in Government was not Personal but Incorporate Those that understand not these Mystical sentences ought to be nevertheless content it being not reasonable that they should understand them better then the Authors themselves An affected obscurity amongst Ideots passeth for knowledge and ye shall find that the Discourses that have least reason in them are most difficult like Olive stones which are very hard because there is nothing in them Now is it not requisite to subtilize upon the virtuality and actuality of the Peoples power for to inform the Conscience of the Subject touching the Justice of his Arms against his King but for that there is indeed need both of Divine and Humane Authority and such as is easie and to be understood of all But the observation of Mr. du Moulin
is very true that ordinarily Lying arms its weaknesse with thorns like Lizards who save themselves by running into Bushes Above all in a point where the Question of Right is founded upon that of Fact as this Question now whether it be lawful for the English to take up Arms against their Prince here to go about to satisfie Reason and Conscience with political and metaphisical Contemplations is not to purpose they should besides Divine Authority which should ever march before enquire whether the Laws and Constitutions of the Country authorize this War The Question being not to dispute which is the best Form of Government but to preserve the Form to which God hath subjected us and to observe the Laws of the Kingdom and after many Moral and Political Discourses for our Adversaries pay us with no other those that have any Honesty or Understanding come always to this that they would shew us by what Law of England it is permitted the Subjects to take up Arms without the Kings permission and against him When did the people ever make this Election Where is it that they have reserved the liberty to resume the Supreme Authority when they shall please Is there any Statute made during the Ages that this Monarchy hath continued that prefers or equals the two Houses to the King or doth authorize them to ratifie any thing without him Where is the Articles of that Capitulation which in some certain cases dissolves the Subjects Oath of Allegiance Is there any Case in the Law in which it should be lawful for Subjects to take from their King or Supreme Magistrate his Forts Navies and Magazines and to take into their hands the sole Administration of Justice and the Militia to confer the great Offices of the Crown to receive Ambassadors to treat with Forreign Nations and to dispose of the Goods and Lives of the Kings Subjects To these so important Questions for the duty and happiness of all the members of an Estate and the eternal salvation of their Souls and Bodies to answer with Platonick considerations and in stead of producing the Laws of the Kingdom to Philosophy upon the Law of Nature and form an appeal from Authentical and known Laws to a Word not written made at pleasure This is to mock God and men this is to insult upon the Brutality of the people and to take a wicked advantage from the wine of Astonishment or Senselessness which God in his just wrath hath poured forth upon this miserable Nation for if they did beleeve there remained any common sense in this blind and mad people durst they so boldly return so ridiculous an Answer to those that demand where are those Fundamental Laws written that now make all other Laws bow to them namely that the Fundamental Laws are not written and that if they were they should be superstructive and not fundamental after this account the command to love God with all our heart and our Neighbour as our self is not fundamental because it is written it were to profane Reason to imploy it to refute a reasoning so unreasonable it must needs be that these people know they have to do with Persons of great credulity since they dare give them for a Fundamental Law a Fantasie which they never heard before spoken of and whereof no Writings nor Histories make mention and this is to fight against their King overthrow the State lose their goods hazard their Lives and Consciences But what should I say There is no reason but is perswasive when the Conclusions are taken and there is strength to maintain them Christendome which have now their eyes upon our Broils will take notice of the open confession of the Troubles of this State That for the War against the King and for the form of Government which they establish in the kingdome a Superiour power that abolisheth the Royal they have no Fundamental Law written Is not this then marvellously to abuse the Justice of God and the patience of reasonable creatures made after his Image and indued with knowledge to constrain them to prostitute their Consciences and Lives in a Quarrel for which they openly confess there is not any Law written and for which there is not the least footing of Approbation in all that hath been established or left authentically written since England hath been a Nation We have let you see before how they decline the Defences of Scripture against the resistance of Soveraigns behold now they confess there is no fundamental Law written for to justifie their Arms and the superiority of the people above the King which they would introduce with the sword and thus they acknowledge they have no authority neither divine nor humane for what they do as Cardinal Perron having maintained the power of the Pope over the Temporal of Kings before the Estates of France in conclusion affirmed that it was an Article which was not decided neither by the Scriptures nor the Ancient Church so that the Pope and our Mutineers agree together to usurp an authority upon Kings without any ground or warrant in the Word of God and contradicted by all humane Constitutions that is to say that hoth God and man are contrary unto them CHAP. VI. What Examples in the Histories of England the Covenanters make use of to authorize their Actions BUt do we not much wrong them to say that there is nothing makes for them in all the ancient Writings and Histories of this Kingdom Do they not alledg the two Parliaments that deposed Edward the second and Richard the second yea truly and to their great shame as the wisest of their party do acknowledg affirming that those Acts of Parliament against Richard the second were not properly the Acts of the two Houses but of Henry the fourth and his victorious Army in which they say true for the Duke of Lancaster who after caused himself to be called Henry the fourth having prevailed with the people to rise against their lawful King assembled a Parliament which he made to do whatsoever he would and having deposed and imprisoned this poor King soon after caused him to be put to death though this action were as just as it is execrable yet it would make nothing to the purpose where the Question is of that which the two Houses may do separate from the King for the deposing of King Richard was by another King sitting in Parliament for until these last States the two Houses never thought that they were able to conclude any thing without the Royal Consent and since the Parliaments held under the House of York declared Henry the fourth Usurper of the Crown and therefore condemned the Parliament which had confirmed his usurpation The other example is no better than this the deposing of Edward the second by the Conspiracy of his Wife and the Favourites of this Queen who served themselves of a Parliament to execute this wickedness and having deposed the King and crowned his Son who
was under age caused the Father to be most cruelly put to death in prison yet the authority of the young K. must be made use of to make the resolution of the Parliament pass into an Act for without the King the Parliament can no more act than a Body without a Head But when the young King came to age he caused the Authors and Complices of his Fathers death to be executed and caused all the Acts of this Parliament to be broken by another And less than these to the purpose is which they alledg concerning the accord the Barons extorted from King John by which this unhappy and imprudent King being reduced to a straight promised to put himself into the power of twenty five of his Barons and submitted himself to divers other dishonorable Conditions and this accord was not made in Parliament but in the field by force of Arms there being no Parliament then sitting and therefore was of no force nor was ever kept These Articles of the Barons were much like those the two Houses sent the King to Beverly Oxford and New-Castle the Covenanters imitate these Barons in their affectation of Piety for they called their General the Marshal of the Lords Army and of his holy Church and these perswaded their Chiefs that they led the Battels of the Lord of Hoasts but these transferred not the Crown to another Prince as the Barons did but have taken away both his Crown and Life having long before declared by writing to their King that they dealt very favourably with him if they did not depose him and that if they did they should not exceed the Limits of Modesty nor of their Duty This Judgment was pronounced in the House of Commons without contradiction that The King might fall from his Office that the happiness of the Kingdom did not depend upon him nor the Royal Branches of his House and that he did not deserve to be King of England The Authors of these Opinions are declared in a Declaration of his Majesties In one point the Barons and Covenanters are very different for the Lords that remained with the Covenanters were without power all places of Honour and Trust being taken out of their hands by their Inferiours and at last their House abolished by the Commons so that in stead of producing this War of the Barons the Covenanters should rather have alledged the Seditions and Commotions of Watt Tyler and Jack Straw poor Artisans and followed with people of the same rank for these persons and the Cause of the Covenanters are far more alike Behold here with what authorities the Margins of their Books are stuffed Behold the Examples which the polititians of the times present to the Gentlemen of the Parliament for to teach them what they ought to do those infamous actions which were abhorred by the ages following them are become the supporters of ours and despair which makes men snatch up any sorts of weapons forceth our enemies to justifie their actions by the examples of Rebels and Paricides 't is not for nothing then that these Histories are so often alledged though nothing to the purpose and it 's not without cause that they print them apart for not being able to justifie their actions they have declared their intentions and made the King to see what he sholud trust to if he fell into their hands Certainly if there had not been a design laid to come to that both to prepare the people and intimidate the King those incendiaries who by these horrible examples and their Maximes of State grounded thereupon teaching the deposing of Kings should have been hanged long since with their Books about their necks For so many men which are studied in the Laws of the Kingdom and are at the helm of affairs cannot be ignorant of that which King James of happy and glorious memory marks in his Book of the Right of Kings that in the time of Edward the Third there was an Act of Parliament made which declared all them Traytors who imagined it's the word of the Law or conspired the death of the King â—on which Act the Judges grounding themselves have alwaies judged them for Traytors who dared but to speak of deposing the King because they believed that they could not take away the Crown from off the Kings Head without taking away his Life It was heretofore a crime worthy of death to speak yea to think evil against the King and moreover the Word of God which is to be obeyed forbids us to speak evil of the King no not in our thought but now it 's the exercise of devout Souls to write Meditations upon the deposing of their King CHAP. VII Declaring wherein the Legislative Powers of Parliament consists HAving no better Authorities in all the Examples of the Ages past they establish a New one which by the unlimited largeness supplies what it wants of length of time for when we require to be governed by the Laws they answer us that the Parliament is the Oracle of the Laws that it is for that great Court to declare what is Law and what is not to interpret the Laws to dispense with them or to make new ones That themselves are the Parliament excluding all others and that since they have declared that this War is according to Law and that such Maximes as they give us are fundamental Laws of the Kingdom we must remit our selves to them and receive for Law what they ordain But because strangers may read who have no knowledge of the Government of England for to examine this Imperious reason we are obliged to declare here what we know touching the present affairs We have learned to acknowledg the Parliament 〈◊〉 England for the Supream Court of the Kingdom that can make and unmake Laws and from whose Judgment there is no appeal But of this Court the King is the principal part and it 's he that renders it soveraign the two Houses in all their Legislative Acts acknowledg him their true and sole Soveraign the House of Lords only can evert the Judgment of the Courts of Justice but not their own without the consent of the King and the House of Commons the House of Commons is not a Judicial Court having not power to administer an Oath inflict a Fine or imprison any but those of theâ—r own House and these two neither apart nor together cannot make a Law but when they would enact any thing they both together present a Writing to the King in form of a request if the King approves of them the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal answers for the King in these French words Le Roy le veult and then it is made an Act but if the King refuseth it he returns answer Le Roy S'avisera and the business passeth no further Before the consent of the King the proposition of the two Houses contained in the Writing is like unto that which the Romans called Rogatio but when the King grants it
which was the way as he thought most proper for the designs of his ambition then privately to make him away but he durst not proceed thus far whilst the King was so neer the gates of London and in the heart of his Kingdome the hearts whereof he possessed I will not undertake to sound the mysteries of iniquity of this Agent of Satan but shew you a piece of his perfidiousness and profound hypocrisie The night before the King stole from Hampton Court Cromwell came to visit him causing all persons to withdraw out of the Chamber except Major Huntington in whom he only confided and taking the King aside had a long discourse with him which Huntington could not hear but could well behold his passionate gesture which witnessed a singular freedome and affection Cromwell at his departure cast himself upon his knees and took the King by the hand kissing it many times wetting it with his tears and at length lifting up his voice said to him Sir so God bless me and my children as I am resolved to endeavour to place you and your children in your rights and dignities after this approaching to Huntington Major saith he tarry with the King and 〈◊〉 there happen any thing now this night take a good horse and come with all speed and acquaint me This night then the King passed secretly the Thames and taking post cast himself into the trap they had laid for him in that retired place So soon as Huntington knew of the departure of the King and whether he was gone he went in all hast to give advice to Cromwell that the King had escaped into the Isle of Wight who beholding him astonished and amazed at this sudden change laughed at him telling him That the King was there where he desired and that there wanted nothing now to the satisfying of his desires but that all his children were there with him This history is attested by Huntington himself a person of credit and repute whose eyes this action and the like hath opened and turned his heart towards the King his Soveraign Now the King being confined into this little Island where all the avenues might easily be kept by the Creatures of Cromwell and the other Gentlemen of the Covenant the Mask was presently taken off at Westminster and in the Army and all their oaths and protestations to maintain the person and authority of the King were changed into loud cries in calling for Justice against him to which the Gentlemen at Westminster easily condescended and for this effect declared him incapable to govern charged him with all the crimes malice could devise forbidding all persons to make any more addresses to him But in this fair way they had some disturbance by those Parties that in the year 1648. rose for the King but God justly provoked against this sinful Nation suffered injustice to triumph through the disloyaly of persons who having until that time born Arms against the King took part with him expresly to betray and ruine him And thus from the beginning to the end of this Tragedy falshood hath plaid his part and at length this just Prince lost his life by the hand of those his Subjects who had called Heaven and Earth to witness their Loyalty and Affection and this is very admirable and memorable to all ages how the Conscience and constancy of the King took a way altogether contrary to that of the Covenanters for whilst the Covenanters swore themselves to destroy him he would do neither the one nor the other to save his life or Crown for its manifest that there was a time wherein if the King would have promised that which he was resolved not to have kept he had in a short time been put into such a condition according to all humane appearances as would have put him out of the power of all the discontented to constrain him to have kept his promise I cannot pass the last Act of this hideous Treason without letting the world behold another piece of the damnable Hipocrisie of Oliver Cromwel The day assigned for the Execution of the King being come the Councel of War sate which was then the Great Councel of the Kingdom A Letter without Name was addressed to this Councel to represeâ—t to them by Reasons of Conscience and Prudence the formidable consequences of so strange and hateful an Execution Cromwel seemed to be much touched at it which caused some suspicions as though he himself underhand had procured it and proposed it to the consideration of the Councel part of this company began to yeeld to the force of Justice and their duty and to lean towards compassion Cromwel beholding this made a turn to the door and sent one of his confidence to those to whom the Execution was committed to command them to dispatch the business Then returning to the Councel Table made a long Discourse shewing the inconvenience of this execution and advised them so to secure the person of the King for the time to come that he might neither do nor receive hurt This Discouse was seconded by others and then again re-assumed by himself with a great many words to lengthen the Consultation until that one briskly entring into the Chamber told them Gentlemen You may cease to consult the work is done the King is executed Upon this Cromwel suddenly fell upon his knees with signs of great devotion crying out That this was the work of God and a true stroak of heaven the Councel being disposed to save his life but the Divine justice would not suffer so much innocent blood shed by this Tyrant to pass unpunished and hereupon made an eloquent Prayer to give glory to God and acknowledge his providence And from this History I leave the Reader to draw a Character of this Person whose perpetual method was to make his Impostures to pass for miraculous and divine managements When he would make his Inventions pass into publike resolutions he would suborn a Prophet or Prophetess who should come and find him in full Councel or in the head of his Army for to enjoyn him on the behalf of God that which before he had resolved he caused all the Councels he proposed to pass for motions of the blessed Spirit therefore if his Councels and Actions did ill accord with his preceding professions his inspirations from above excused all and he laid all the fault upon God when any minded him of his Protestations made to preserve the person of the King and restore him to his Dignities He would Answer That it was indeed his Intention but that when he sought God to open him a way for the performance God had silenced him and shewed that it would not be acceptable to him His partie seriously give him this commendation That he was so affected with the glory of God that if he had promised any thing with the most solemn and holy adjurations and that afterward God should put it into his spirit That the contrary to what he