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power_n	king_n	law_n	supremacy_n	3,288	5	10.6148	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67467	The life of Dr. Sanderson, late Bishop of Lincoln written by Izaak Walton ; to which is added, some short tracts or cases of conscience written by the said Bishop.	Walton, Izaak, 1593-1683.; Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663. Judgment concerning submission to usurpers.; Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663. Pax ecclesiae.; Hooker, Richard, 1553 or 4-1600. Sermon of Richard Hooker, author of those learned books of Ecclesiastical politie.; Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663. Judgment in one view for the settlement of the church.; Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663. Judicium Universitatis Oxoniensis. English.	1678 (1678)	Wing W667; ESTC R8226	137,878	542

his Separation 4. By an implied Confession That the Laws formerly made against Papists in this Kingdom and all punishments by virtue thereof inflicted upon them were unjust in punishing them for refusing to joyn with us in that form of Worship which our selves as well as they do not approve of 2. Without manifest wrong unto our selves our Consciences Reputation and Estates in bearing false witness against our selves and sundry other ways by swearing to endeavour to reform that as corrupt and vicious 1. Which we have formerly by our Personal Subscriptions approved as agreeable to God's Word and have not been since either condemned by our own hearts for so doing or convinced in our Judgements by any of our Brethren that therein we did amiss 2. Which in our Consciences we are perswaded not to be in any of the four specified Particulars as it standeth by Law established much less in the whole four against the Word of God 3. Which we verily believe and as we think upon good grounds to be in sundry respects much better and more agreeable to the Word of God and the practice of the Catholick Church than that which we should by the former words of this Article swear to preserve 4. Whereunto the Laws yet in force require of all such Clerks as shall be admitted to any Benefice the signification of their hearty assent to be attested openly in the time of Divine Service before the whole Congregation there present within a limited time and that un-under pain upon default made of the loss of every such Benefice 3. Without manifest danger of Perjury This branch of the Article to our best understandings seeming directly contrary 1. To our former solemn Protestation which we have bound our selves neither for hope fear or other respect ever to relinquish Wherein the Doctrine which we have vowed to maintain by the name of the true Protestant Religion expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England we take to be the same which now we are required to endeavour to reform and alter 2. To the Oath of Supremacy by us also taken according to the Laws of the Realm and the Statutes of our University in that behalf Wherein having first testified and declared in our Consciences That the King's Highness is the only Supreme Governour of this Realm we do after swear to our power to assist and defend all Iurisdictions Priviledges Preheminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the King's Highness his Heirs and Successors or united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm One of the which Priviledges and Preheminences by an express Statute so annexed and that even interminis in the self-same words in a manner with those used in the Oath is the whole power of Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction for the correction and reformation of all manner of errors and abuses in matters Ecclesiastical as by the words of the said Statute more at large appeareth The Oath affording the Proposition and the Statute the Assumption we find no way how to avoid the Conclusion § IV. Of the second Article of the Covenant FIrst It cannot but affect us with some grief and amazement to see that ancient form of Church Government which we heartily and as we hope worthily honour as under which our Religion was at first so orderly without violence or tumult and so happily reformed and hath since so long flourished with Truth and Peace to the honour and happiness of our own and the envy and admiration of other Nations not only 1. Endeavoured to be extirpated without any reason offered to our Understandings for which it should be thought necessary or but so much as expedient so to do But also 2. Ranked with Popery Superstion Heresie Schism and Prophaneness which we unfeignedly profess our selves to detest as much as any others whatsoever 3. And that with some intimation also as if that Government were some way or other so contrary to sound Doctrine or the power of godliness that whosoever should not endeavour the extirpation thereof must of necessity partake in other mens sins which we cannot yet be perswaded to believe 4. And we desire it may be considered in case a Covenant of like form should be tender'd to the Citizens of London wherein they should be required to swear they would sincerely really and constantly without respect of persons endeavour the extirpation of Treason the City Government by a Lord Mayor Aldermen Sheriffs Common Council and other Officers depending thereon Murther Adultery Theft Cosenage and whatsoever shall be c. lest they should partake in other mens sins whether such a tendry could be looked upon by any Citizen that had the least spirit of freedome in him as an act of Justice Meekness and Reason Secondly for Episcopal Government we are not satisfied how we can with a good Conscience swear to endeavour the extirpation thereof 1. In respect of the thing it self Concerning which Government we think we have reason to believe 1. That it is if not Iure Divino in the strictest sense that is to say expresly commanded by God in his Word yet of Apostolical Institution that is to say was established in the Churches by the Apostles according to the mind and after the Example of their Master Iesus Christ and that by virtue of their ordinary Power and Authority derived from him as deputed by him Governours of his Church 2. Or at least that Episcopal Aristocracy hath a fairer pretension and may lay a juster title and claim to a Divine Institution than any of the other Forms of Church Government can do all which yet do pretend thereunto viz. that of the Papal Monarchy that of the Presbyterian Democracy and that of the Independents by particular Congregations or gathered Churches 2. But we are assured by the undoubted Testimony of ancient Records and later Histories that this Form of Government hath been continued with such an universal uninterrupted unquestioned succession in all the Churches of God and in all Kingdoms that have been called Christian throughout the whole world for fifteen hundred years together that there never was in all that time any considerable opposition made there against That of Aerius was the greatest wherein yet there was little of consideration beside these two things That it grew at the first but out of discontent and gained him at the last but the reputation of an Heretick From which antiquity and continuance we have just cause to fear that to endeavour the extirpation thereof 1. Would give such advantage to the Papists who usually object against us and our Religion the contempt of Antiquity and the love of Novelty that we should not be able to wipe off the aspersion 2. Would so diminish the just Authority due to the consentient judgment and practice of the Universal Church the best Interpreter of Scripture in things not clearly exprest for Lex currit cum praxi that without it we should be at a loss in sundry points both of

Faith and Manners at this day firmly believed and securely practiced by us when by the Socinians Anabaptists and other Sectaries we should be called upon for our proofs As namely sundry Orthodoxal Explications concerning the Trinity and Co-equality of the Persons in the Godhead against the Arians and other Hereticks the number use and efficacy of Sacraments the Baptizing of Infants National Churches the observation of the Lord's Day and even the Canon of Scripture it self Thirdly In respect of our selves we are not satisfied how it can stand with the Principles of Iustice Ingenuity and Humanity to require the extirpation of Episcopal Government unless it had been first clearly demonstrated to be unlawful to be sincerely and really endeavoured by us 1. Who have all of us who have taken any Degree by subscribing the 39 Articles testified our approbation of that Government one of those Articles affirming the very Book containing the Form of their Consecration to contain in it nothing contrary to the Word of God 2. Who have most of us viz. as many as have entred into the Ministery received Orders from their hands whom we should very ill requite for laying their hands upon us if we should now lay to our hands to root them up and cannot tell for what 3. Who have sundry of us since the beginning of this Parliament subscribed our Names to Petitions exhibited or intended to be exhibited to that High Court for the continuance of that Government which as we then did sincerely and really so we should with like sincerity and reality still not having met with any thing since to shew us our errour be ready to do the same again if we had the same hopes we then had the reception of such Petitions 4. Who hold some of us our livelyhood either in whole or part by those Titles of Deans Deans and Chapters c. mentioned in the Articles being Members of some Collegiate or Cathedral Churches And our memories will not readily serve us with any Example in this kind since the world began wherein any state or profession of men though convicted as we are not of a Crime that might deserve Deprivation were required to bind themselves by Oath sincerely and really to endeavour the rooting out of that in it self not unlawful together wherewith they must also root out themselves their Estates and Livelyhoods 5. Especially it being usual in most of the said Churches that such persons as are admitted Members thereof have a personal Oath administred unto them to maintain the Honour Immunities Liberties and Profits of the same and whilst they live to seek the good and not to do any thing to the hurt hindrance or prejudice thereof or in other words to the like effect Fourthly In respect of the Church of England we are not satisfied how we can swear to endeavour the extirpation of the established Government no necessity or just cause for so doing either offering it self or being offered to our Understandings 1. Since all Change of Government unavoidably bringeth with it besides those that are present and evident sundry other inconveniences which no wit of man can possibly foresee to provide against till late experience discover them We cannot be sure that the evils which may ensue upon the Change of this Government which hath been of so long continuance in this Kingdom is so deeply rooted in the Laws thereof and hath so near a conjunction with and so strong an influence upon the Civil Sate and Government as that the Change thereof must infer the necessity of a great alteration to be made in the other also may not be greater than the supposed evils whatsoever they are which by this Change are sought to be remedied For there are not yet any come to our knowledge of that desperate nature as not to be capable of other remedy than the utter extirpation of the whole Government it self 2. Whereas the House of Commons have remonstrated That it was far from their purpose or desire to abolish the Church Government but rather that all the Members of the Church of England should be regulated by such Rules of Order and Discipline as are established by Parliament and that it was Malignancy to infuse into the people that they had any oother meaning We are loth by consenting to the second Article to become guilty of such Infusion as may bring us within the compass and danger of the fourth Article of this Covenant 3. Since it hath been declared by sundry Acts of Parliament That the holy Church of England was founded in the state of Prelacy within the Realm of England we dare not by endeavouring the extirpation of Prelacy strike at the very foundation and thereby as much as in us lieth co-operate towards the ruine of this famous Church which in all conscience and duty we are bound with our utmost lawful power to uphold Lastly In respect of our Obligations to his Majesty by our Duty and Oaths we are not satisfied how we can swear to endeavour the extirpation of the Church Government by Law established without forfeiture of those Obligations 1. Having in the Oath of Supremacy acknowledged the King to be the only Supreme Governour in all Ecclesiastical Causes and over all Ecclesiastical Persons having bound our selves both in that Oath and by our Protestation To maintain the King's Honour Estate Iurisdictions and all manner of Rights it is clear to our Understandings that we cannot without disloyalty and injury to him and double Perjury to our selves take upon us without his consent to make any alteration in the Ecclesiastical Laws or Government much less to endeavour the extirpation thereof unless the imposers of this Covenant had a power and meaning which they have openly disclaimed to absolve us of that Obedience which under God we owe unto his Majesty whom they know to be intrusted with the Ecclesiastical Law 2. We cannot sincerely and really endeavour the extirpation of this Government without a sincere desire and real endeavour that his Majesty would grant his Royal Assent to such extirpation Which we are so far from desiring and endeavouring that we hold it our bounden duty by our daily prayers to beg at the hands of Almighty God that he would not for our sins suffer the King to do an act so prejudicial to his Honour and Conscience as to consent to the rooting out of that estate which by so many branches of his Coronation Oath he hath in such a solemn manner sworn by the assistance of God to his power to maintain and preserve 3. By the Laws of this Land the Collation of Bishopricks and Deanaries the fruits and profits of their Lands and Revenues during their vacancies the first fruits and yearly tenths out of all Ecclesiastical Promotions and sundry other Priviledges Profits and Emoluments arising out of the State Ecclesiastical are established in the Crown and are a considerable part of the Revenues thereof which by the

Ecclesiastical Hierarchy we shall have sufficiently discharged our whole promise in that particular without any prejudice done to Episcopacy But 1. Neither the Composers of the Covenant by their words nor the Imposers of it by their actions have given us the least signification that they meant no more 2. Yea rather if we may judge either by the cause or the effects we may well think there was a meaning to extirpate the whole Government and every part thereof in the Article expressed For 1. The Covenant being as we have no cause to doubt framed at the instance of the Scots and for the easier procuring of their assistance in the late War was therefore in all reason so to be framed and understood as to give them satisfaction and considering what themselves have declared against Episcopacy we have little reason to believe the taking away Apparitors or any thing less than the rooting out of Episcopacy it self would have satisfied them 2. The proceedings also since the entring of this Covenant in endeavouring by Ordinance of Parliament to take away the Name Power and Revenues of Bishops do sadly give us to understand what was their meaning therein Fourthly As to the Scruples that arise from the Sovereignty of the King and the Duty of Allegiance as Subjects we find two several ways of answering but little satisfaction in either 1. The former by saying which seemeth to us a piece of unreasonable and strange Divinity that Protection and Subjection standing in relation either to other the King being now disabled to give us protection we are thereby freed from our bond of Subjection Whereas 1. The Subjects Obligation Ius subjectionis doth not spring from nor relate unto the actual exercise of Kingly protection but from and unto the Prince's obligation to protect Ius protectionis Which obligation lying upon him as a duty which he is bound in Conscience to perform when it is in his power so to do the relative Obligation thereunto lieth upon us as a duty which we are bound in Conscience to perform when it is in our power so to do His inability therefore to perform his duty doth not discharge us from the necessity of performing ours so long as we are able to do it 2. If the King should not protect us but neglect his part though having power and ability to perform it his voluntary neglect ought not to free us from the faithful performance of what is to be done on our part How much less then ought we to think our selves disobliged from our subjection when the Non-protection on his part is not from the want of will but of power 2. The later wherein yet some have triumphed by saying that the Parliament being the Supreme Judicatory of the Kingdom the King wheresoever in person is ever present there in his power as in all other Courts of Justice and that therefore whatsoever is done by them is not done without the King but by him But craving pardon first if in things without our proper sphere we hap to speak unproperly or amiss We must next crave leave to be still of the same mind we were till it shall be made evident to our understandings that the King is there in his power as it is evident to our senses that he is not there in his Person Which so far as our natural reason and small experience will serve us to judge all that hath been said to that purpose can never do For first to the point of presence 1. We have been brought up in a belief that for the making of Laws the actual Royal assent was simply necessary and not only a virtual assent supposed to be included in the Votes of the two Houses otherwise what use can be made of his Negative voice or what need to desire his Royal assent to that which may be done as well without it 2. The Statute providing that the King's assent to any Bill signified under his Great Seal shall be to all intents of Law as valid and effectual as if he were personally present doth clearly import that as to the effect of making a Law the Kings Power is not otherwise really present with the two Houses than it appeareth either in his Person or under his Seal Any other real presence is to us a riddle not much unlike to that of Transubstantion an imaginary thing rather devised to serve turns than believed by those that are content to make use of it 3. Such presence of the King there when it shall be made appear to us either from the Writs whereby the Members of both Houses are called together or by the standing Laws of the Land or by the acknowledged judgment and continued practice of former and later Ages or by any express from the King himself clearly declaring his mind to that purpose we shall then as becometh us acknowledge the same and willingly submit thereunto And as for the Argument drawn from the Analogy of other Courts wherein the King's Power is always supposed to be virtually present under submission we conceive it is of no consequence 1. The Arguments à minore and à majore are subject to many fallacies and unless there be a parity of reason in every requisite respect between the things compared will not hold good A petty Constable they say may do something which a Justice of Peace cannot do And the Steward of a petty Mannor hath power to administer an Oath which as we are told the House of Commons it self hath no power to do 2. That the High Court of Parliament is the Supream Judicatory we have been told it is by virtue of the King 's right of presiding there he being the Supream Iudge and the Members of both Houses his Council which being so the reason of difference is plain between that and other Judicatories in sundry respects 1. The Judges in other Courts are deputed by him and do all in his Name and by his Authority and therefore the presence of his power in those Courts of Ministerial Jurisdiction is sufficient his Personal presence not necessary neither hath he any Personal vote therein at all But in the high Court of Parliament where the King himself is the Supream Judge judging in his own Name and by his own Authority his Power cannot be presumed to be really present without either the actual presence of his person or some virtual representation thereof signified under his Great Seal 2. The Judges in Inferiour Courts because they are to act all in his Name and by his Authority do therefore take Oaths of fidelity for the right exercising of Judicature in their several places sitting there not by any proper interest of their own but only in right of the King whose Judges they are and therefore they are called the King's Judges and his Ministers But in the high Court of Parliament the Lords and Commons sit there in Council with the King as Supream Judge for the good of the whole Realm

and therefore they are not called the King's Judges but the King's Council and they have their several proper rights and interests peculiar and distinct both between themselves and from that of the Kings by reason whereof they become distinct Orders or as of late times they have been styled in this sense we conceive three distinct Estates Each of which being supposed to be the best Conservators of their own proper interest if the power of any one Estate should be presumed to be virtually present in the other two that Estate must needs be inevitably liable to suffer in the proper interests thereof which might quickly prove destructive to the whole Kingdom the safety and prospetity of the whole consisting in the conservation of the just rights and proper interests of the main parts viz. The King Lords and Commons inviolate and entire 3. The Judges of other Courts forasmuch as their power is but Ministerial and meerly Judicial are bounded by the present Laws and limited also by their own Acts so as they may neither swerve from the Laws in giving Judgment nor reverse their own Judgments after they are given But the high Court of Parliament having by reason of the King 's Supream Power presiding therein a Power Legislative as well as Judicial are not so limited by any earthly Power but that they may change and over-rule the Laws and their own Acts at their pleasure The King 's Personal assent therefore is not needful in those other Courts which are bounded by those Laws whereunto the King hath already given his personal assent but unto any Act of Power beside beyond above or against the Laws already established we have been informed it seems to us very agreeable to reason that the King 's Personal Assent should be absolutely necessary Forasmuch as every such Act is the exercise of a Legislative rather than of a Judicial power and no Act of Legislative power in any Community by consent of all Nations can be valid unless it be confirmed by such person or persons as the Sovereignty of that Community resideth in Which Sovereignty with us so undoubtedly resideth in the person of the King that his ordinary style runneth Our Sovereign Lord the King And he is in the Oath of Supremacy expresly acknowledged to be the only Supream Governour within his Realms And we leave it to the wisdom of others to consider what misery and mischief might come to the Kingdom if the power of any of these three Estates should be swallowed up by any one or both the other and if then under the name of a Judicial there should be yet really exercised a Legislative power 4. Since all Judicial Power is radically and originally in the King who is for that cause styled by the Laws The Fountain of Iustice and not in any other Person or Persons but by derivation from him it seemeth to us evident that neither the Judges of Inferiour Courts of Ministerial Justice nor the Lords and Commons assembled in the High Court of Parliament may of right exercise any other Power over the Subjects of this Realm than such as by their respective Patents and Writs issued from the King or by the known established Laws of the Land formerly assented unto by the Kings of this Realm doth appear to have been from him derived unto them Which Laws Patents and Writs being the exact boundary of their several Powers it hath not yet been made appear to our understandings either from the Laws of the Realm or from the tenour of those Writs by which the Parliament is called that the two Houses of Parliament have any power without the King to order command or transact but with him to treat consult and advise concerning the great affairs of the Kingdom In which respect they have sundry times in their Declarations to his Majesty called themselves by the Name of his Great Council And those Laws and Writs are as we conceive the proper Topick from which the just power of the Honourable Houses can be convincingly deduced and not such frail Collections as the wits of men may raise from seeming Analogies and Proportions §. VIII Of the Negative Oath WE are not satisfied how we can submit to the taking of the Negative Oath 1. Without forseiture of that liberty which we have sworn and are bound to preserve With which liberty we conceive it to be inconsistent that any Obligation should be laid upon the Subject by an Oath not established by Act of Parliament 2. Without abjuring our natural Allegiance and violating the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance by us formerly taken By all which being bound to our power to assist the King we are by this Negative Oath required to swear from our heart not to assist him 3. Without diminution of his Majesties just Power and Greatness contrary to the third Article of the Covenant by acknowledging a Power in the two Houses of Parliament in opposition to the King's Power Whereas we profess our selves unable to understand how there can be any lawful power exercised within this Realm which is not subordinate to the power of the King §. IX Of the Ordinances concerning the Discipline and Directory 1. First Concerning them altogether we are not satisfied how we can submit to such Ordinances of the two Houses of Parliament not having the Royal Assent 1. As are contrary to the established Laws of this Realm contained in such Acts of Parliament as were made by the joint consent of King Lords and Commons 2. Nor so only but also pretend by Repeal to abrogate such Act of Acts. For since Ejusdem est potestatis destruere cujus est constituere it will not sink with us that a letter power can have a just right to cancel and annul the Act of a greater 3. Especially the whole power of ordering all matters Ecclesiastical being by the Laws in express words for ever annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm And upon what head that Crown ought to stand none can be ignorant As to the particular Ordinances those that concern the Discipline first 1. If under that Title be comprehended the Government also we cannot submit thereunto without consenting to the eradiction of a Government of reverend Antiquity in the Church Which notwithstanding the several changes of Religion within this Realm hath yet from time to time been continued and confirmed by the publick Laws and great Charters of the Kingdom than which there cannot be a more ample testimony that it was ever held agreeable to the Civil Government and the Subjects Liberty Which also the successive Kings of this Realm at their several Coronations have solemnly sworn to preserve And the continuance whereof for sundry Reasons before upon the second Article of the Covenant specified we heartily wish and desire 2. But if the word Discipline be taken as it is in the first Article of the Covenant as contra-distinguished unto the Government there is something even

the use of indifferent things The Romans Corinthians and others to whom St. Paul wrote about these matters being not limited any way in the exercise of their liberty therein by any over-ruling Authority But where the Magistrates have interposed and thought good upon mature advice to impose Laws upon those that are under them whereby their liberty is not infringed as some unjustly complain in the inward judgment but only limited in the outward exercise of it there the Apostolical directions will not hold in the same absolute manner as they were delivered to those whom they then concerned but only in the equity of them so far forth as the cases are alike and with such meet qualifications and mitigations as the difference of the cases otherwise doth require So that a man ought not out of private fancy or meerly because he would not be observed for not doing as others do or for any the like weak respects to do that thing of the lawfulness whereof he is not competently perswaded where it is free for him to do otherwise which was the case of these weak ones among the Romans for whose sakes principally the Apostle gave these directions But the Authority of the Magistrates intervening so alters the case that such a forbearance as to them was necessary is to as many of us as are commanded to do this or that altogether unlawful in regard they were free and we are bound for the Reasons already shewn which I now rehearse not But you will yet say for in point of obedience men are very loath to yield so long as they can find any thing to plead those that lay these burdens upon us at leastwise should do well to satisfie our doubts and to inform our Consciences concerning the lawfulness of what they enjoyn that so we might render them obedience with better chearfulness How willing are we sinful men to leave the blame of our miscarriages any where rather than upon our selves But how is it not incongruous the while that those men should prescribe rules to their Governours who can scarcely brook their Governours should prescribe Laws to them It were good we should first learn how to obey ere we take upon us to teach our betters how to govern However what Governours are bound to do or what is fit for them to do in the point of information that is not now the question If they fail in any part of their bounden duty they shall be sure to reckon for it one day but their Iailing cannot in the mean time excuse thy disobedience Although I think it would prove a hard task for whosoever should undertake it to shew that Superiours are always bound to inform the Consciences of their Inferiours concerning the lawfulness of every thing they shall command If sometimes they do it where they see it expedient or needful sometimes again and that perhaps oftner it may be thought more expedient for them and more conducible for the publick peace and safety only to make known to the people what their pleasures are reserving to themselves the Reasons thereof I am sure in the point of Ecclesiastical Ceremonies and Constitutions in which case the aforesaid Allegations are usually most stood upon this hath been abundantly done in our Church not only in the learned writings of sundry private men but by the publick declaration also of Authority as is to be seen at large in the Preface commonly printed before the Book of Common Prayer concerning that Argument enough to satisfie those that are peaceable and not disposed to stretch their wits to cavil at things established And thus much of the second Question touching a doubting Conscience whereon I have insisted the longer because it is a point both so proper to the Text and whereat so many have stumbled There remaineth but one other Question and that of far smaller difficulty What is to be done when the Conscience is scrupulous I call that a scruple when a man is reasonably well perswaded of the lawfulness of a thing yet hath withal some jealousies and fears lest perhaps it should prove unlawful Such scruples are most incident to men of melancholy dispositions or of timorous Spirits especially if they be tender conscienced withal and they are much encreased by the false suggestions of Satan by reading the Books or hearing the Sermons or frequenting the company of men more strict precise and austere in sundry points than they need or ought to be and by sundry other means which I now mention not Of which scruples it behooveth every man first to be wary that he doth not at all admit them if he can choose Or if he cannot wholly avoid them that secondly he endeavour so far as may be to eject them speedily out of his thoughts as Satan's snares and things that may breed him worfer inconveniencies Or if he cannot be so rid of them that then thirdly he resolve to go on according to the more profitable perswasion of his mind and despise those scruples And this he may do with a good Conscience not only in things commanded him by lawful Authority but even in things indifferent and arbitrary and wherein he is left to his own liberty REASONS Of the present JUDGMENT OF THE University of OXFORD Concerning The Solemn League and Covenant The Negative Oath The Ordinances concerning Discipline and Worship Approved by general consent in a full Convocation Iune 1. 1647. And presented to Consideration LONDON Printed for Richard Marriott 1678. A Solemn League and Covenant for Reformation and Defence of Religion the honour and happiness of the King and the Peace and Safety of the three Kingdoms England Scotland and Ireland WE Noblemen Barons Knights Gentlemen Citizens Burgesses Ministers of the Gospel and Commmons of all sorts in the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland by the Providence of God living under one King and being of one Reformed Religion having before our eyes the glory of God and the advancement of the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ the honour and happiness of the King's Majesty and his Posterity and the true publick Liberty Safety and Peace of the Kingdoms wherein every ones private Devotion is included and calling to mind the treacherous and bloody Plots Conspiracies Attempts and Practices of the Enemies of God against the true Religion and how much their rage power and presumption are of late and at this time increased and exercised whereof the deplorable estate of the Church and Kingdom of Ireland the distressed estate of the Church and Kingdom of England and the dangerous estate of the Church and Kingdom of Scotland are present and publick Testimonies We have now at last after other means of Supplication Remonstrance Protestations and Sufferings for the preservation of our selves and our Religion from utter ruine and destruction according to the commendable practice of these Kingdoms in former times and the Example of God's People in other Nations after mature deliberation resolved and determined to

enter into a mutual and solemn League and Covenant wherein we all subscribe and each one of us for himself with our hands lifted up to the most high God do swear I. THat we shall sincerely really and constantly through the Grace of God endeavour in our several places and callings the preservation of the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government against our common Enemies The Reformation of Religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God and the example of the best Reformed Churches And shall endeavour to bring the Churches of God in the three Kingdoms to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in Religion Confession of Faith Form of Church Government Directory for Worship and Catechizing That we and our Posterity after us may as Brethren live in Faith and Love and the Lord may delight to dwell in the midst of us II. That we shall in like manner without respect of persons endeavour the extirpation of Popery Prelacy that is Church Government by Archbishops Bishops their Chancellours and Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons and all other Ecclesiastical Officers depending on that Hierarchy Superstition Heresie Schism Profaneness and whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of Godliness lest we partake in other mens sins and thereby be in danger to receive of their plagues and that the Lord may be one and his Name one in the three Kingdoms III. We shall with the same sincerity reality and constancy in our several Vocations endeavour with our Estates and Lives mutually to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of the Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdoms and to preserve and defend the King's Majesties person and authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms that the world may bear witness with our Consciences of our Loyalty and that we have no thoughts or intentions to diminish his Majestie 's just power and greatness IV. We shall also with all faithfulness endeavour the discovery of all such as have been or shall be Incendiaries Malignants or evil Instruments by hindring the Reformation of Religion dividing the King from his people or one of the Kingdoms from another or making any faction or parties amongst the people contrary to this League and Covenant that they may be brought to publick Trial and receive condign punishment as the degree of their offences shall require or deserve or the Supream Judicatories of both Kingdoms respectively or others having power from them for that effect shall judge convenient V. And whereas the happiness of a blessed Peace between these Kingdoms denied in former times to our Progenitours is by the good Providence of God granted unto us and hath been lately concluded and settled by both Parliaments we shall each one of us according to our place and interest endeavour that they may remain conjoyned in a firm Peace and union to all Posterity And that Justice may be done upon the wilfull opposers thereof in manner expressed in the precedent Articles VI. We shall also according to our places and callings in this common cause of Religion Liberty and Peace of the Kingdoms assist and defend all those that enter into this League and Covenant in the maintaining and pursuing thereof and shall not suffer our selves directly or indirectly by whatsoever combination perswasion or terrour to be divided and withdrawn from this blessed Union and Conjunction whether to make defection to the contrary part or to give our selves to a detestable indifferency or neutrality in this cause which so much concerneth the glory of God the good of the Kingdoms and the honour of the King but shall all the days of our lives zealously and constantly continue therein against all opposition and promote the same according to our power against all lets and impediments whatsoever and what we are not able our selves to suppress or overcome we shall reveal and make known that it may be timely prevented or removed All which we shall do as in the sight of God And because these Kingdoms are guilty of many sins and provocations against God and his Son Iesus Christ as is too manifest by our present distresses and dangers the fruits thereof We profess and declare before God and the world our unfeigned desire to be humbled for our own sins and for the sins of these Kingdoms especially that we have not as we ought valued the inestimable benefit of the Gospel that we have not laboured for the purity and power thereof and that we have not endeavoured to receive Christ in our hearts nor to walk worthy of him in our lives which are the causes of our sins and transgressions so much abounding amongst us And our true and unfeigned purpose desire and endeavour for our selves and all others under our power and charge both in publick and in private in all duties we owe to God and man to amend our lives and each one to go before another in the example of a real Reformation that the Lord may turn away his wrath and heavy indignation and establish these Churches and Kingdoms in truth and peace And this Covenant we make in the presence of Almighty God the searcher of all hearts with a true intention to perform the same as we shall answer at that great day when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed most humbly beseeching the Lord to strengthen us by his holy Spirit for this end and to bless our desires and proceedings with such success as may be deliverance and safety to his people and encouragement to other Christian Churches groaning under or in danger of the yoke of Antichristian tyranny to joyn in the same or like Association and Covenant to the glory of God the enlargement of the Kingdom of Iesus Christ and the peace and tranquillity of Christian Kingdoms and Commonwealths The Negatie Oath I A. B. do swear from my heart That I will not directly nor indirectly adhere unto or willingly assist the King in this War or in this Cause against the Parliament nor any Forces raised without the consent of the two Houses of Parliament in this Cause or War And I do likewise swear That my coming and submitting my self under the Power and Protection of the Parliament is without any manner of Design whatsoever to the prejudice of the proceedings of this present Parliament and without the direction privity or advice of the King or any of his Council or Officers other than what I have now made known So help me God and the Contents of this Book Reasons why the Vniversity of Oxford cannot submit to the Covenant the Negative Oath the Ordinance concerning Discipline and Directory mentioned in the late Ordinance of Parliament for the Visitation of that place WHereas by an Ordinance of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament for the Visitation and Reformation of the University

extirpation of Prelacy as it is in the Article expounded or by subsequent practice evidenced will be fevered and cut off from the Crown to the great prejudice and damage thereof Whereunto as we ought not in common reason and in order to our Allegiance as Subjects yield our consent so having sworn expressly to maintain the King's Honour and Estate and to our power to assist and defend all Jurisdictions c. belonging to his Highness or united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of the Realm we cannot without manifest Perjury as we conceive consent thereunto 4. The Government of this Realm being confessedly an Empire or Monarchy and that of a most excellent temper and constitution we understand not how it can become us to desire or endeavour the extirpation of that Government in the Church which we conceive to be incomparably of all other the most agreeable and no way prejudicial to the state of so well a constituted Monarchy Insomuch as King Iames would often say what his long Experience had taught him No Bishop no King Which Aphorism though we find in sundry Pamphlets of late years to have been exploded with much confidence and scorn yet we must profess to have met with very little in the proceedings of the late times to weaken our belief of it And we hope we shall be the less blamed for our unwillingness to have any actual concurrence in the extirpating of Episcopal Government seeing of such extirpation there is no other use imaginable but either the alienation of their Revenues and Inheritances which how it can be severed from Sacriledge and Injustice we leave others to find out or to make way for the introducing of some other form of Church Government which whatsoever it shall be will as we think prove either destructive of and inconsistent with Monarchical Government or at leastwise more prejudicial to the peaceable orderly and effectual exercise thereof than a well-regulated Episcopacy can possibly be §. V. Of the other parts of the Covenant HAving insisted the more upon the two first Articles that concern Religion and the Church and wherein our selves have a more proper concernment we shall need to insist the less upon those that follow contenting our selves with a few the most obvious of those many great and as we conceive just exceptions that lie there against In the third Article we are not satisfied that our endeavour to preserve and defend the Kings Majestie 's Person and Authority is so limited as there it is by that addition In the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdom Forasmuch as 1. No such limitation of our duty in that behalf is to be found either in the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance which no Papist would refuse to take with such a limitation nor in the Protestation nor in the Word of God 2. Our endeavour to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdoms is required to be sworn of us in the same Article without the like or any other limitation added thereunto 3. Such limitation leaveth the duty of the Subject at so much loosness and the safety of the King at so great uncertainty that whensoever the people shall have a mind to withdraw their obedience they cannot want a pretence from the same for so doing 4. After we should by the very last thing we did viz. swearing with such a limitation have made our selves guilty of an actual and real diminution as we conceive of his Majesties just power and greatness the obtestation would seem very unseasonable at the least with the same breath to call the world to bear witness with our Consciences that we had no thoughts or intentions to diminish the same 5. The swearing with such a limitation is a Testimony of the Subjects Loyalty to our seeming of a very strange nature which the Principles of their several Religions salved the Conscience of a most resolute Papist or Sectary may securely swallow and the Conscience of a good Protestant cannot but strain at In the fourth Article 1. We desire it may be considered whether the imposing of the Covenant in this Article do not lay a necessity upon the Son of accusing his own Father and pursuing him to destruction in case he should be an Incendiary Malignant or other evil Instrument such as in the Article is described A course which we conceive to be contrary to Religion Nature and Humanity 2. Whether the swearing according to this Article doth not rather open a ready way to Children that are sick of the Father Husbands that are weary of their Wives c. by appealing such as stand between them and their desires of Malignancy the better to effectuate their unlawful intentions and designs 3. Our selves having solemnly protested to maintain the Liberty of the Subject and the House of Commons having publickly declared against the exercise of an Arbitrary Power with Order that their said Declaration should be printed and published in all the Parish Churches and Chappels of the Kingdom there to stand and remain as a testimony of the clearness of their intentions whether the subjecting of our selves and brethren by Oath unto such punishments as shall be inflicted upon us without Law of Merit at the sole pleasure of such uncertain Judges as shall be upon any particular occasion deputed for that effect of what mean quality or abilities soever they be even to the taking away of our lives if they shall think it convenient so to do though the degree of our offences shall not require or deserve the same be not the betraying of our Liberty in the lowest and the setting up of an Arbitrary Power in the highest degree that can be imagined The Substance of the fifth Article being the settling and continuance of a firm peace and union between the three Kingdoms since it is our bounden duty to desire and according to our several places and interests by all lawful means to endeavour the same we should make no scruple at all to enter into a Covenant to that purpose were it not 1. That we do not see nor therefore can acknowledge the happiness of such a blessed Peace between the three Kingdoms for we hope Ireland is not forgotten as in the Article is mentioned so long as Ireland is at War within it self and both the other Kingdoms engaged in that War 2. That since no peace can be firm and well-grounded that is not bottom'd upon Justice the most proper and adequate act whereof is Ius suum cuique to let every one have that which of right belongeth unto him we cannot conceive how a firm and lasting Peace can be established in these Kingdoms unless the respective Authority Power and Liberty of King Parliament and Subject as well every one as other be preserved full and entire according to the known Laws and continued unquestioned customes of the several Kingdoms in former times and before the beginning of these