to convocat Synods to confirme their acts to reforme the Churches within their dominions IN the second Chapter the warner charges the Scotes presbytery with the overthrowing the Magistrats right in convocating of Synods When he comes to prove this he forgets his challenge and digresses from it to the Magistrates power of choysing elders and making Ecclesiastick lawes avowing that these things are done in Scotland by Ecclesiastick persons alone without consent of the king or his counsel Ans It seemes our Warner is very ignorant of the way of the Scotes discipline the ordinary and set meetings of all assemblies both nationall and provincionall since the first reformation are determined by acts of Parliament with the Kings consent so betwixt the King and the Church of Scotland there is no question for the convocating of ordinary assemblies for extraordinary no man in Scotland did ever controvert the Kings power to call them when and where he pleased as for the inhaerent power of the Church to meet for discipline alswell as for worship the Warner fals on it heereafter we must therefore passe it in this place What hee meanes to speake of the Kings power in choysing elders or making Ecclesiastick Lawes himselfe knowes The warners Erastian and Tirannick principles hated by the King his Majestie in Scotland did never require any such priviledge as the election of elders or Commissioners to Parliament or members of any incorporation civill or Ecclesiastick where the Lawes did not expresly provide the nomination to be in the crowne The making of Ecclesiastick Lawes in England alswell as in Scotland was ever with the Kings good contentment referred to Ecclesiastick assemblies but the Warner seemes to be in the mind of these his companions who put the power of preaching of administring the Sacraments and discipline in the supreame Magistrat alone and derives it out of him as the head of the Church to what members he thinks expedient to communicat it also that the legislative power alswell in Ecclesiastick as civill affairs is the property of the King alone That the Parliaments and generall assemblies are but his arbitrary counsels the one for matters of the state the other for matters of the Church with whom or without whom hee makes acts of Parliament and Church cannons according to his good pleasure that all the offices of the Kingdome both of Church and State are from him as he gives a Commission to whom he will to be a sheriffe or justice of peace so he sends out whom he pleaseth to preach celebrate Sacraments by virtue of his regal mission The Warner and his Erastian friends may well extend the royall supremacy to this largenes but no King of Scotland was ever willing to accept of such a power though by erroneous flaterers sometimes obtruded upon him see Canterburian self conviction cap. ult The Warner will not leave this matter in generall The Warners ignorant and false report of the Scotes proceedings he discends to instance a number of particular incroatchments of the Scots Presbiters upon the royall authority wee must dispence in all his discourse with a small peckadillo in reasoning hee must bee permitted to lay all the faults of the Presbiterians in Scotland upon the back of the Presbitery it selfe as if the faylings of officers were naturall to and inseparable from their office mis-kenning this little mote of unconsequentiall argumenting we will goe through his particular charges the first is that King James anno 1579 required the generall assembly to make no alteration in the Church-Policy till the next Parliament but they contemning their Kings command determined positively all their discipline without delay and questioned the Arch-Bischop of Sainct Andrews for voting in Parliament according to the undoubted Lawes of the Land yea twenty Presbiters did hold the generall assembly at Aberdeen after it was discharged by the King Ans The Warner possibly may know yet certainly he doth not care what he writes in these things to which hee is a meere stranger the authentick registers of the Church of Scotland convinces him heire of falshood Bishops were abolished and Presby teries set up in Scotland with King Iames consent His Majestie did write from Stirling to the generall assembly at Edinburgh 1579 that they should ceasse from concluding any thing in the discipline of the Church during the time of his minority upon this desire the assembly did abstaine from all conclusions only they named a committee to goe to Striveling for conference which his Majestie upon that subject What followeth thereupon I. Immediatly a Parliament is called in October 1579 and in the first act declares and grantes jurisdiction unto the Kirk whilk consistes in the true preaching of the word of Jesus Christ correction of manners and administration of the true Sacraments and declares that there is no other face of Kirk nor other face of Religion then is presently by the favour of God established within this realme and that there be no other jurisdiction Ecclesiastical acknowledged within this realme then that whilk is and shal be within the samen Kirk or that which flowes therfra concerning the premisses II. In Aprile 1580. Proclamation was made ex deliberatione Dominorum Consilii in name of the King charging all Superintendentes and Commissioners and Ministers serving at Kirkes To note the names of all the subjectes alsweel men as women suspected to be Papistes or and to admonish them to give Confession of their faith according to the Forme approved by the Parliament and to submitte unto the discipline of the true Kirk within a reasonable space and if they faile that the Superintendents or Commissioners presente a role or catalogue of their names unto the King and Lords of Secret Counsell whereby they shal be for the time between and the 15 day of Iulie nixt to come to the end that the actes of Parliament made against such persones may be execute III. The shorte Confession wes drawen up at the Kings command which was first subscrived by his royall hand and an act of Secret Counsell commanding all subjectes to subscrive the same as is to be seen by the Act printed with the Confession wherein Hierarchie is abjured that is as hath been since declared by Nationall assemblies and Parliamentes both called and held by the King episcopacie is abjured IV. In the assemblies 1580 and 1581 that Confession of faith and the second book of discipline after debating many praeceding years were approved except one chapter de diaconatu by the Assemblie the Kings Commissioner being alwayes presente not finde we any thing opposed then by him yea then at his Majesties speciall direction about fifty classical Presbyteries were set up over all Scotland which remaine unto this day Was there heer any contempt of the roy all authority About that time some noble men had gote the revenues of the Bisshop-rickes for their private use and because they could not enjoy them by any legal right therefore for eluding
as to charge him to perseveer in the maintainance of Episcopall governement upon all hazards without the change of any thing except a little p. 278. and to assure that all Covenanters are of a faction engaged into a Religious rebellion who may never be trusted till they have repented of their Covenant and that till then never lesse loyalty justice or humanity may be expected from any then from them that if hee stand in need of them hee is undone for they will devoure him as the Serpent does the dove These and the like pernicious maximes framed by an Episcopall hand of purpose to separat for ever the King from all his covenanted subjects how farr they were from the heart language and wrytings of our late Soveraigne all who were aquainted with his carriage and most intime affections at New-Castle in the Isle of Wight and thereafter can testify But it is reason when the Praelats doe frame an image of a King that they should have liberty to place their owne image in its forheade as the statuary of old did his in the Boss of Pallas targe with such artifice that all her worshipers were necessitat to worship him and that no hand was able to destroy the one without the disfolution and breaking in peeces of the other yet our Praelats would know that in this age there be many excellent Engyneers whose witty practicks transcend the most skilfull experiments of our Auncestors and what ever may be the ignorance or weaknes of men wee trust the breath of our Lords mouth will not faile to blow out the Bishop from the Kings armes without any detriment at all to royalty Allwayes the wicked and impious cunning of these craftsemen is much to be blamed who dare be bold to insert and engrave themselfes so deeply in the images of the Gods as the one cannot be intended to be picked out of the other more then the Aple from the eye unles the subsistance of both be put in hazard The other matter of his rayling against us is the solemne league and covenant The only crime of the Covenant is that it extirpate praelacy when this nimble and quick enough Doctor comes assisted with all the reasons the whole University of Oxford can afford him to demonstrat it as he professes in his last Chapter to be wicked false void and what not wee find his most demonstrative proofes to be so poor and silly that they infere nothing of his conclusion To this day no man has shewed any errour in the mater of that covenant as for our framing and taking of it our adversaries drave us thereunto with a great deale of necessity and now being in it neither their fraud nor force may bring us from it againe for we feare the oath of God After much deliberation we found that covenant the soveraigne meanes to joyne and keep together the whole orthodox party in the three Kingdomes for the defence of their Religion and Liberties which a popish praelaticall and malignant faction with all their might were overturning who still to this day are going on in the same designe without any visible change in the most of their former principles And why should any who loves the King hate this covenant which is the straytestty the world can devise to knit all to him and his posterity if so be his Majestie might be pleased to enter therein but by all meanes such a mischiefe must be averted for so the roote of Episcopacy would quickly wither without any hope of repullulation an evill farr greater in the thoughts of them who now mannage the conscience of the Court thē the extirpation of Monarchy the eversion of all the three Kingdomes or any other earthly misery As for the third subject of the Warners fury against us The Bishops are most justly cast out of England our unkindnes to the late King if any truth were in this false challenge no other creature on earth could be supposed the true cause thereof but our unhappy praelats all our grievances both of Church and State first and last came principally from them had they never been authors of any more mischiefe then what they occasioned to our late Soveraigne his person family and Dominions this last dozn of yeares there is abundant reason of burying that their praeter and Antiscripturall order in the grave of perpetuall infamy But the truth is beside more auncient quarrels since the dayes of our fathers the Albigenses this limb of Antichrist has ever been witnessed against Wickleif Huss and their followers were zealous in this charge till Luther and his disciples got it flung out of all the reformed world except England where the violence of the ill advised princes did keep it up for the perpetuall trouble of that land till now at last it hath well neare kicked downe to the ground there The Scots were never injurious to their King both Church and Kingdome As for the point in hand we deny all unkindnes to our King whereof any reasonable complaint can be framed against us Our first contests stand justified this day by King and Parliament in both Kingdomes When his Majestie was so ill advised as to bring downe upon our borders an English army for to punish our refusing of a world of novations in our Religion contrary to the lawes of God and of our country what could our land doe lesse then lie downe in their armes upon Dunce law for their just and necessary defence when it was in their power with ease to haue dissipat the opposit army they shew themselves most ready upon very easy conditions to goe home in peace and gladly would have rested there had not the furious Bishops moved his Majestie without all provocation to breake that first peace and make for a second invasion of Scotland only to second their unreasonable rage was it not then necessary for the Scots to arme againe when they had deseate the Episcopall Army and taken Newcastle though they found nothing considerable to stand in their way to London yet they were content to lie still in Northumberland and upon very meane tearnes to returne the second time in peace For all this the praelats could not give it over but raised a new Army and filled England with fire and sword yea well neere subdued the Parliament and their followers and did almost accomplish their first designes upon the whole Isle The Scots then with most earnest and pitifull entreaties were called upon by their Brethren of England for helpe where unwilling that their brethren should perish in their sight and a bridge should be made over their carcasses for a third warre upon Scotland when after long tryall they had found all their intercessions with the King for a moderat and reasonable accommodation slighted and rejected they suffered themselves to be perswaded to enter in covenant with their oppressed and fainting brethren for the mantainance of the common cause of Religion and liberty but with
expresse Articles for the preservation of royalty in all its just rights in his Majestie and his posterity what unkindnes was heer in the Scots to their King When by Gods blessing on the Scotes helpe the opposit faction was fully subdued his Majestie left Oxford with a purpose for London The Scotes selling of the King is a most false calumnie but by the severity of the ordinances against his receivers he diverted towards Linn to ship for Holland or France where by the way fearing a discovery and surprise he was necessitate to cast himselfe upon the Scotes army at New-wark upon his promise to give satisfaction to the propositions of both Kingdomes he was received there and to New-castle here his old oathes to adhaere unto Episcopacy hindred him to give the expected satisfaction AT that time the prime leaders of the English army were seeking with all earnestnes occasion to fall upon the Scots much out of heart and reputation by Iames Grahame and his Irishes incursions most unhappy for the Kings affaires Scotland at that time was so full of divisions that if the King had gone thither they were in an evident hazard of a present war both within among themselfes and without from England our friends in the English Parliament whom we did and had reason to trust assured us that our taking the King with us to Scotland was the keeping of the Sectarian Army on foot for the wracke of the King of Scorland of the Presbyterian party in England as the sending of his Majestie to one of his houses neer London upon the faith of the Parliament of England was the only way to get the Sectaryes disarmed the King and the people settled in a peace upon such tearmes as should be satisfactory both to the King and the Scots and all the wel-affected in England This being the true case was it any either unjustice unkindnes or imprudence in the Scots to leave the King with his Parliament of England was this a selling of him to his enemies the monyes the Scots received at their departure out of England had no relation at all to the King they were scarce the sixth parte of the arreares due to them for bygon service they were but the one halfe of the sume capitulat for not only without any reference to the King but by an act of the English Parliament excluding expresly from that Treaty of the armies departure all consideration of the disposall of the Kings person The unexpected evills that followed in the Armies rebellion in their seasing on London destroying the Parliament murthering the King no mortall eye could have forseen The Scots were ever ready to the utmost of their power to have prevented all these mischiefes with the hazard of what was dearest to them notwithstanding of all the hard measure they had often received both from the King and the most of their friends in England That they did not in time and unanimously stur to purpose for these ends they are to answer it to God who were the true Authors the innocency of the Church is cleered in the following treatise Among the many causes of these miseries the prime fountaine was the venome of Episcopall principles which some serpents constantly did infuse by their speaches and letters in the eares and heart of the King to keep him of from giving that satisfaction to his good subjects which they found most necessary and due the very same cause which ties up this day the hands of covenanters from redressing all present misorders could they have the King to joyne with them in their covenant to quit his unhappy Bishops to lay aside his formall and dead Liturgie to cast himselfe upon the counsels of his Parliaments it were easy to prophecie what quickly would become of all his enemies but so long as Episcopall and malignant agents compasseth him about though all that comes neer may see him as lovely hopfull and promising a prince for all naturall endowments as this day breaths in Europe or for a long time has swayed a Scepter in Britaine yet while such unlucky birds nest in his Cabin and men so ungraciously principled doe daily besiege him what can his good people doe but sit downe with mournfull eyes and bleeding hearts till the Lord amend these otherwise remediles and insuperable evills but I hold heer least I transgresse to farr the bounds of an Epistle I account it an advantage to have your Lordship my judge in what heere and in my following treatise The reason of the dedication I spake of Religion the liberties of our country and the Royall Family I know non fitter then your Lordship both to discerne and decerne in all these matters Me thinks I may say it without flattery which I never much loved either in my selfe or others that among all our Nobles for constancy in a zealous profession for exemplary practise in publick and privat duties the mercy of God has given to your Lordship a reputation second to none And for a rigid adhaerence to the Rights and Priviledges of your Country according to that auncient disposition of your most Noble Family noted in our Historians especially that Prince of them Georg Buchanan the Tutor of your Grand-Father I know none in our Land who wil pretend to goe before you and for the affairs of the King your interest of blood in the Royall Family is so well known that it would be a strange impudency in me if in your audience I durst be bold wittingly to give sinistrous information Praying to God that what in the candid ingenuity true zeale of my spirit I present under your Lordships patrociny unto the eye of the World for the vindication of my mother Church and Country from the Sicophantick accusations of a Stigmatised incendiary may produce the intended effects I rest your Lordships in all Christian duety R. B. G. Hague this 28 May 7 Iunie 1649. CHAP. I. The praelaticall faction continue resolute that the King and all his people shall perish rather then the praelats be not restored to their former places of power for to set up Popery Profanity and Tirranny in all the three Kingdomes WHile the Comissioners of the Church and Kingdome of Scotland The unseasonablenes of Doctor Brambles warning were on their way to make their first addresses to his Majestie for to condole his most lamentable afflictions and to make offer of their best affections and services for his comfort in this time of his great distresse it was the wisedome and charity of the praelaticall party to send out Doctor Bramble to meet them with his Faire Warning For what else but to discourage them in the very entry from tendering their propositions and before ever they were heard to stop his Majesties eares with grievous praejudice against all that possibly they could speake though the world sees that the only apparent fountaine of hope upon earth for recovery of the wofully confounded affaires of the King is in
seveer Sentence was pronounced not only against Master Black but also all the Ministers of Edinburgh In the meane time malcontented States-men did adde oyle to the flame The tumult of the seventeenth day of December was harmelesse and no Minister guilty of it and at the very instant while the Ministers and their friends are offering a petition to his Majestie they subborne a villane to cry in one part of the streets the Ministers are slain and in another part of the streets that the King was killed whereupon the People rush all out to the streets in their armes and for halfe an howr at most were in a tumult upon meere ignorance what the fray might be but without the hurt of any one man so soone as it was found that both the King and Ministers were safe the people went all peaceably to their houses This is the very truth of that innocent commotion whereupon the Warner heere and his fellowes elsewhere make all their tragedies None of the Ministry were either the authors or approvers thereof though diverse of them suffered sore troubles for it CHAP. V. No Presbyterian ever intended to excommunicat any supreame Magistrat THE Warner in his fifth chapter chardges the Scotes for subjecting the King to the censure of excommunication and bringing upon princes all the miseries which the popes excommunications of old wont to bring upon Anathematised Emperours Ans The praelats ordinarly but the Presbytery never were for rash excommunications It does not become the Warner and his fellowes to object to any the abuse of the dreadfull sentence of excommunication no Church in the world was ever more guilty of that fault then the praelats of England and Ireland did they ever censure their own officialls for the pronouncing of that terrible sentence most profanly against any they would had it been for the non-payment of the smallest summes of mony As for the Scotes their doctrine and practise in the point of excommunication is as considerat as any other church in the world that censure in Scotland is most rare and only in the case of obstinacy in a great sin what ever be their doctrine in generall with all other Christians and as I think with the praelaticall party themselves that the object of Christian doctrine Sacraments and disciplin is one and the same and that no member of Christ no sone of the Church may plead a highnes above admonitions and Church censures yet I know they never thought it expedient so much as to intend any processe of Church animadversion against their Soveraigne To the worlds end I hope they shal not have againe greater grievances and truer causes of citation from their Princes then they have had already It may be confidently beleeved that they who upon so pregnant occasions did never so much as intend the beginning of a processe against their King can never be supposed in danger of any such proceeding for time to come How ever The Praelats flatter Princes to their ruine we love not the abused ground of the Warners flattering of Princes to their owne great hurt is it so indeed that all the sins of princes are only against God that all Kings are not only above all lawes of Church and State but when they fall into the greatest crimes that the worst of men have ever committed that even then their sins must not be against any man or against any law such Episcopall doctrin spurrs on princes to these unhappy praecipies and oppressed people unto these outrages that both fall into inextricable calamities CHAP. VI. It grieves the Praelats that Presbyterians are faithfull Watchmen to admonish Princes of their duty THE sixth Chapter is spent on an other crime of the Presbytery The Scots Ministers preaching for justice was just and necessary it makes the Presbiters cry to the Magistrat for justice upon capitall offenders Ans What hes Presbytery to doe with this matter were it never so great an offence will the Warner have all the faults of the praelaticall faction flow from the fountaine of Episcopacy this unconsequentiall reasoning will not be permitted to men below the degrees of Doctors But was it a very great crime indeed for Ministers to plead the cause of the fatherlesse and widowes yea the cause of God their Master and to preach unto Magistrats that according to Scriptures murtherers ought to die and the Land bee purged from the staine of innocent blood when the shamefull impunity of murther made Scotland by deadly fends in time of peace a feild of warre and blood was it not time for the faithfull servants of God to exhort the King toexecute justice and to declare the danger of most frequent pardons drawne from his hand often against his heart by the importunity and deceitfull information of powerfull solicitors to the great offence of God against the whole land to the unexpressible griefe and wrong of the suffering party to the opening also of a new floodgate of more blood which by a legall revenge in time easily might have been stopped Too much pitty in sparing the wilfull shedders of innocent blood ordinarlie proves a great cruelty not only to wards the disconsolat oppressed who cry to the vicegerents of God the avenger for justice in vaine but also towards the soule of him who is spared and the life of many more who are friends either to the oppressor or oppressed As for the named case of Huntly let the world judge Huntlyes notorious crymes whether the Ministers had reason often to give Warning against that wicked man and his complices Beside his apostacy and after-seeming-repentance his frequent relapses into avowed popery in the eighty eight he banded with the King of Spaine to overthrow the religion and government of the whole Iland and after pardon from time to time did renew his treasonable plots for the ruine of Britain hee did commit many murders he did invade under the nose of the King the house of his Cousin the Earle of Murray and most cruelly murdered that gallant Nobleman hee appeared with displayed Banner against the King in person he killed thereafter many hundreds of the Kings good people when these multiplyed outrages did cry up to the God of heaven was is not time for the men of God to cry to the judges of the earth to doe their duty according to the warrant of many Scriptures what a dangerous humour of flattery is this in our Praelats not only to lull asleep a Prince in a most sinfull neglect of his charge but also to cry out upon others more faithfull then themselves for assaying to breake of their slumber by their wholesome and seasonable admonitions from the word of God The nixt challenge of the Scotes Presbyters is that they spoile the King of his Tythes Never any question in Scotland betwixt the King and the Church for Tythes and patronages first fruits patronage and dependence of his subjects Ans The Warner understands not what he writes
the right stating of the Warre the nixt would be the carying on of it by such men who had given constante proofe of their integrity To put all the power of the Kingdome in their hande whose by past miscariadges had given just occasion to suspect their designes and firmenesse to the interest of God before their owne or any other mans would fill the hearts of the people with jealousies and feares and how wholsome an advice this was experience hath now too cleerly demonstrate To make the world know our further resolutiones to medle with civile affaires the Warner is pleased to bring out against us above 80 yeares old stories and all the stuffe which our malicious enemy Spotsewood can furnish to him from this good author he alledges that our Church discharged merchants to traffique with Spaine and commanded the change of the mercat dayes in Edenburgh Ans Both these calumnies are taken of at length in the Historicall Vindication After the Spanish invasion of the yeare eighty eight many in Scotland kept correspondence with Spaine for treacherous designes the Inquisitors did seduce some and persecute others of our merchants in their traffique the Church did deale with his Majestie to interceed with the Spanish King for more liberty to our country men in their trading and in the meane time while an answer was returned from Madrile they advertised the people to be warry how they hazarded their soules for any worldly gaine which they could find about the inquisitors feet As for the mercat dayes The Church medled not with the munday mercat but by way of supplication to Parliament I grante it was a great griefe to the Church to see the fabbath day profaned by handy labour and journeying by occasion of the munday-mercats in the most of the great tounes for remedie heerof many supplications have been made by the Assembly to the Parliament but so long as our Bishops satte there these petitiones of the Church were alwayes eluded for the praelats labour in the whole Iland was to have the sunday no Sabbath and to procure by their Doctrine and example the profanation of that day by all sorts of playes to the end people might be brought back to their old licentiousnes and ignorance by which the Episcopall Kingdome was advanced It was visible in Scotland that the most eminent Bishops were usual players on the Sabbath even in time of divine service And so soone as they were cast out of the Parliament the Churches supplications were granted and acts obtained for the carefull sanctification of the Lords day and removing of the mercats in all the land from the Munday to other dayes of the week The Warners nixt challenge of our usurpation is the assembly at Edinburgh 1567 their ratifying of acts of Parliament and summoning of all the country to appeare at the nixt assembly The Church once for safty of the infant Kings life with the concurrence of the secrete counsel did cal an extraordinary meeting Ans If the Warner had knowne the history of that time he would have choysed rather to have omitted this challenge then to have proclaimed to the world the great rottennesse of his own heart at that time the condition of the Church and Kingdome of Scotland was lamentable the Queen was declared for popery King James's Father was cruelly without any cause murthered by the Earle of Bothwell King James himselfe in his infancy was very neare to have been destroyed by the murtherer of his Father there was no other way conceivable of saftie for Religion for the infant King for the Kingdome but that the Protestantes should joine together for the defence of King James against these popish murtherers For this end the generall assembly did crave conference of the secrete counsel and they with mutual advise did call for a meeting of the whole Protestant party which did conveen at the time appointed most frequently in an extraordinary and mixed assembly of all the considerable persons of the Religion Earles Lords Barrons Gentlemen Burgesses and Ministers and subscribed a bond for the revenge of King Henryes death and the defence of King Iames his life This mixed and extraordinary assembly made it one of the chiefe articles in their bond to defend these Actes of the Parliament 1560 concerning religion and to endeavour the ratification of them in the nixt ensuing Parliament As for the assemblies letter to their Brethren for so frequent a meeting at the nixt extraordinary assembly it had the authority of the secret counsel it was in a time of the greatest necessity when the Religion and liberties of the land were in evident hazard from the potent and wicked counsels of the popish party both at home and abroad when the life of the young King was daily in visible danger from the hands of them who had murthered his Father and ravished his Mother Lesse could not have been done in such a juncture of time by men of wisedom and courage who had any love to their Religion King and country but the resolution of our praelats is to the contrary when a most wicked villaine had obtained the connivance of a Queen to kill her husband and to make way for the killing of her Son in his Cradle and after these murders to draw a nation Church from the true Religion established by Law into popery and a free Kingdome to an illegall Tyranny in this case there may be no meeting either of Church or State to provide remedies against such extraordinary mischiefes Beleeve it the Scotes were never of this opinion What is subjoined in the nixt paragraph of our Churches praesumption to abolish acts of Parliament By the lawes and customes of Scotland the Assembly praecieds the Parliament in the reformation of Ecclesiastical abuses is but a repetition of what is spoken before Not only the lawes of Scotland but equity and necessity referres the ordinary reformation of errours and abuses in Religion to the Ecclesiasticall assemblies what they find wrong in the Church though ratified by acts of Parliament they rectify it from the word of God and thereafter by petition obtaines their rectification to be ratifyed in a following Parliament and all former acts to the contrary to be annulled This is the ordinary Methode of proceeding in Scotland and as I take it in all other States and Kingdomes Were Christians of old hindred to leave paganisme and embrace the Gospell till the emperiall lawes for paganisme and against Christianity were revoked did the oecumenicall and National Synods of the auncients stay their reformation of heresies and corruptions in religion till the lawes of State which did countenance these errors were cancelled Was not popery in Germany France and Britaine so firmely established as civil lawes could doe it It seems the Warner heer does joyne with his Brother Issachar to proclaime all our Reformers in Britaine France and Germany to be Rebells for daring by their preachings and Assemblies to change these things
assistance of any two Presbyters who chaunce to be neare a Bishop the only Pastor of the whole dioces and yet not bound to feed any flock either by word or Sacrament or governement but having a free liberty to devolve all that service upon others and himself to wayte at court so many yeares as he shall think fit This is our English Bishop not only in practise but in law and so was hee defended by the great disputants for praelacy in England But now let the Warner speake out The portion of Episcopacy which yet is stuck to cannot be kept up upon any principle either of honour or conscience if any such treasure can more be defended or was ever knowne in scripture or seen in any Christian Church for 800. yeares and above after the death of Christ I take it indeed to be conscience that forces now at last the best of our Court-divines to devest their Bishop of all civill imployment in Parliament court or Kingdome in denying his solitarines in ordination in removing his officiall and Commissary courts in taking away all his arches Arch-Bishops Arch-Deacons deane and Chapter and all the c. in erecting Presbyteries for all ordinations and spirituall jurisdiction It is good that conscience moves our adversaries at last to come this farre towards us butwhy will they not yet come nearer to acknowledge that by these their to lately recanted errours they did to long trouble the world and that the little which yet they desire to keepe of a Bishop is nothing lesse then that English Bishop but a new creature of their own devising never known in England which his Majestie in no honnour is obliged to mantaine for any respect either to the lawes or customes of England and least of all for conscience While the Warner with such confidence avowes The smallest portion of the most moderat Episcopacy is contrary to scripture that no text of Scripture can be alleadged against Episcopacy which may not with more reason be applyed against the Presbytery behold I offer him here some few casting them in a couple of arguments which according to his great promises I wish he would answer at his leasure First I doe reason from Ephesians 4.11 all the officers that Christ has appointed in his Church for the Ministry of the word are either Apostles Evangelists Prophets Pastors or Doctors but Bishops are none of these fyve Ergo they are none of the officers appointed by Christ for the Ministry of the word The Major is not wonte to be questioned the minor thus I prove Bishops are not Apostles Evangelists nor prophets for it s confessed all these were extraordinary and temporary officers but Bishops say yow are ordinary and perpetuall our adversaries pitch upon the fourth alleadging the Episcopall office to be pastorall but I prove the Bishop no Pastor thus no Pastor is superior to other Pastors in any spirituall power but according to our adversary a Bishop is superior to all the Pastors of his dioces in the power of ordination and jurisdiction Ergo. The doubt heer is only of the Major which I prove Argumento à paribus no Apostle is superior to an Apostle nor an Evangelists to an Evangelist nor prophet to a prophet nor a Doctour to a Doctour in any spirituall power according to scripture Ergo no Pastor to a Pastor Againe I reason from 1. Tim. 4.14 Math 18.15 1. Cor. 5.4.12.13 What taks the power of ordination and jurisdiction from Bishops destroyes Bishops as the removall of the soule kills the man and the denyall of the forme takes away the subject so the power of ordination and jurisdiction the essentiall forme whereby the Bishop is constitute and distinguished from the Presbyter and every other Church officer being removed from him he must perish but the quoted places take away cleerly these powers from the Bishop for the first puts the power of ordination in the Presbytery and a Bishop is not a Presbytery the second puts the power of jurisdiction in the Church and the third in a company of men which meet together but the Bishop is not the Church nor a company of men met together for these be many and he is but one persone When the Doctors learning he satisfied us in these two he shall receave more scripturall arguments against Episcopacy The Praelats unable to answer their opposits But why doe wee expect answers from these men when after so long time for all their boasts of learning and their visible leasure none of their party hes hade the courage to offer one word of answer to the Scriptures and Fathers which in great plenty Mr. Parker and Mr. Didoclave of old and of late that mitacle of learning most noble Somais and that Magazin of antiquity Mr. Blondel have printed against them What in the end of the Chapter the Warner addes of our trouble at King James his fiftie and five questions 1596 and of our yeelding the bucklers without any opposition till the late unhappy troubles we answer that in this as every where else the Warner proclaines his great and certaine knowledge of our Ecclesiastick story the troubles of the Scots divines at that time were very small for the matter of these questions all which they did answer so roundly that ther was no more speach of them therafter by the propounders but the manner and time of these questions did indeed perplex good men to see Erastian and Prelaticall counsellors so farr to prevaile with our King as to make him by captious questions carpe at these parts of Church-discipline which by statuts of Parliament and acts of Assemblyes were fully established Our Church at that time was far from yeelding to Episcopacy Prelacy was ever grievous to Scotland great trouble indeed by some wicked States-men was then brought upon the persones of the most able and faithfull Ministers but our land was so far from receiving of Bishops at that time that the question was not so much as proposed to them for many yeares thereafter it was in Ann. 1606 that the English Praelats did move the King by great violence to cast many of the best and most learned Preachers of Scotland out of their charges and in Ann. 1610 that a kind of Episcopacy was set up in the corrupt assembly of Glasgow under which the Church of Scotland did heavily groane till the yeare 1637 when their burdens was so much increased by the English praelaticall Tax-masters that all was shaken of together and divine justice did so closly follow at the heeles that oppressing praelacy of England as to the great joy of the long oppressed Scotes that evill root and all its branches was cast out of Britaine where wee trust no shadow of it shall ever againe be seen CHAP. IX The Common-wealth is no monster when God is made Soveraigne and their commands of men are subordinated to the clear will of God HAving cleered the vanity of these calumnious challenges where with
us except it be to a Court of delegats a miserable releefe that all the Nobility gentry and Commons of a Kingdome who are oppressed by Episcopall officials have no other remedie but to goe attende a Committee of two or three civilians at London deputed for the discussing of such appeales The Presbyterian course is much more ready solide and equitable if any grievance arise from the sentence of a Presbytery a Synode twice a yeare doth sit in the bounds and attends for a week or if need be longer to determine all appeales and redresse all grievances now the Synode does consist of all the Ministers within the bounds which ordinarly are of diverse whole shyres as that of Glasgow of the upper and neather ward of Clidsedaile Baerranfrow Lennox Kile Carrick and Cunninghame also beside Ministers the constant members who have decisive voice in Synodes are the chiefe Noblemen Gentlemen and Burgesses of all these shyres among whom their be such parts for judgment as are not to be found nor expected in any inferiour civil Court of the Kingdom yet if it fall out so that any party be grieved with the sentence of a Synode there is then a farther and finall appeale in a Generall assembly which consists of as many Burgesses and more Gentlemen from every shire of the Kingdome then come to any Parliament beside the prime Nobility and choisest Ministry of the land having the Kings Majestie in persone or in his absence his high Commissioner to be their praesident This meeting yeerly or oftner if need be sits ordinarly a month and if they think fit longer the number the wisedome the eminency of the members of this Court is so great that beside the unjustice it were a very needlesse labour to appeal from it to the Parliament for as we have said the King or his high Commissioner sits in both meetings albeit in a differēt capacity the number and qualification of knights and Burgesses is ever large as great in the assembly as in the Parliament only the difference is that in the Parliament all the Nobility in the Kingdom sit without any election and by virtue of their birth but in the Assembly only who for age wisedome and piety are chosen by the Presbyteries as fittest to judge in Ecclesiastick affairs but to make up this oddes of the absence of some Noblemen the Assembly is alwayes adorned with above ane hundred of the choifest Pastors of the whole land none whereof may sit in Parliament nothing that can conciliate authority to a Court or can be found in the Nation is wanting to the generall assembly how basely so ever our praelats are pleased to trample upon it The second alledged hurt which the Nobility have from the Presbytery All questions about patronages in Scotland are now ended is the losse of their patronages by congregations electing their Pastors Ans Howsoever the judgment of our Church about patronages is no other then that of the Reformed divines abroad yet have our Presbyteries alwayes with patience endured patrons to present unto vacant Churches till the Parliament now at last hath taken away that grievance The Nobilities last hurt by the Presbytry is their losse of all their impropriations and Abey-lands The possessors of Church lands were ever feared for Bishops but never for the Presbytery Ans How Sycophantick an accusation is this for who knowes not how farre the whole generation of the praelaticke faction doe exceed the highest of the Presbyterians in zeale against that which they call Sacriledge never any of the Presbyterians did attempt either by violence or a course of Law to put out any of the Nobility or gentry from their possessions of the Church-lands but very lately the threats and vigorous activity of the praelats and their followers were so vehement in this kinde that all the Nobility and gentry who had any interest were wackned to purpose to take heed of their rights In the last Parliament of Scotland when the power of the Church was as great as they expect to see it againe though they obtained the abolition of patronages yet were the possessors of the Church-lands and tythes so little harmed that their rights therto were more cleerly and strongly confirmed then by any praeceding Parliament The fourth hurt is that every ordinary Presbyter wil make himselfe a Noblemans fellow Ans No where in the World does gracious Ministers though meane borne men receive more respect from the Nobility then in Scotland neither any where does the Nobility and gentry receive more duely their honour then from the Ministers there That insolent speach fathered on Mr. Robert Bruce is demonstrat to be a fabulous calumny in the historicall vindication However the Warner may know that in all Europe where Bishops have place it hes ever at least these 800 yeares been their nature to trample under foot the highest of the Nobility As the Pope must be above the Emperour so a little Cardinal Bellarmin can tell to King Iames that hee may well be counted a companion of any Ilander King were the Bishops in Scotland ever content till they got in Parliament the right hand and the nearest seates to the throne and the doore of the greatest Earles Marquesses and duks was it not Episcopacy that did advance poore and capricious pedants to strive for the whyte staves great Seales of both Kingdomes with the prime Nobility and often overcome them in that strife In Scotland I know and the Warner will assure for England and Ireland that the basest borne of his brethren hes ruff led it in the secreet counsel in the royall Exchequer in the highest courts of justice with the greatest Lords of the Land it s not so long that yet it can be forgotten The praelats continue to annull the being of al the reformed Churches for their want of Episcopacy since a Bishop of Galloway had the modesty to give unto a Marquise of Argile tanta mont to a broadly in his face at the counsel table The Warner shall doe well to reckon no more with Presbyters for braving of Noblemen The nixt hee will have to bee wronged by the Presbytery are the orthodoxe clergy Ans All the Presbyterians to him it seemes are heterodoxe Episcopacy is so necessary a truth that who denies it must be stamped as for a grievous errour with the character of heterodox The following words cleere this to be his mind they losse saith hee the confortable assurance of undoubted succession by Episcopall ordination what sence can be made of these words but that all Ministers who are not ordained by Bishops must lie under the confortlesse uncertainty of any lawfull succession in their ministeriall charge for want of this succession through the lineall descent of Bishops from the Apostles at least for want of ordination by the hands of Bishops as if unto them only the power of mission and ordination to the Ministry were committed by Christ because of this defect the Presbyterian