unto the people It is too farre for you to go up to Ierusalem These are the gods that brought you up out of the land of the land of Egypt So those men intending to draw away the Kings Subjects from their Obedience and perceiving that if they should joyne with his Majesties good Subjects in the true and orderly worship of God that their heart would returne againe unto their Lord the King They have devised an Idol of their owne brain like Ioroboams Calves even their Presbyteriall discipline and cry that up as the only true worship of God And yet I hold not them all to be alike guilty but that many of them yea the farre greatest part have not as yet learned the deepnesse of Sathan We may distinguish them into three degrees The first sort are they who have contrived the plot are the ring-leaders of the faction the seducers of others and so dogmatizing heretiques For these I can make no excuse but leave them as wilde Asses to be spoken within the moneth of their affliction The second sort and the far greatest number 2. Sam 15.11 are those who have been seduced by them like those Two Hundered who followed Absolon out of Jerusalem knowing nothing of his Treason They have been drawne to dance after their pipe though they understood not the Spring and have been carried head-long with it before they knew well what they did And all under Godly pretences For they were made to beleeve that the very state of Religion Church and Kingdome did depend upon this New Covenant and that all men were bound in conscience to defend the Nationall confession of faith and the Oath sworne by their forefathers Besides it is a plausible matter with the people to heare them depraved that are in authority but especially to understand of any liberty or power which may appertaine unto themselves Furthermore also it is not unknowne to any of Judgement how much the profession of extraordinary zeale and as it were contempt of the world doth worke with the multitude When they see men goe simply in the streets and bow down their heads like a bull-rush though their inward parts burne altogether with deceit wringing their necks awry shaking their heads as though they were in some present griefe lifting up the white of their eyes sometimes at the sight of some vanity as they walke when they heare them give great groanes Cry out against this sinne and that sinne not in them their hearers but in their Superiors and finally make long prayers under colour whereof they devoure not onely the houses of Widdowes but of married folkes too When I say the multitude to heare and see such kind of men They are by and by carried away with a marvellous great conceit and opinion of them and with such shewes have these Pharisaicall teachers drawne the multitude after them who have not their sences exercised to discerne between good and evill but judge onely by the outward appearance If they should judge them by their fruits they should find them to be very farre from the true Religion S. Iames hath given us a most full description of the true religion Iam. 3.17 The wisdome that is from above is first pure then peaceable Gentle and easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without judging and without hypocrisie Whereas Solomon describes wisedome to have built her a house with seven pillars So the Apostle describes this heavenly wisedome which is the true Religion by seaven properties neither of which will agree with their religion It is not Pure For therfore is the true religion called pure because it alloweth of nothing which is not in it selfe just lawfull and honest And hereby Lactantius proveth against the Gentiles the verity of the Christian religion But their Religion alloweth of many things which in themselves are neither Just lawfull nor honest as namely Vsury Sacriledge disobedience to lawfull authority and rebellion against Princes Againe is not peaceable for these men are the incendiaries of Christendome as if they had come to set fire upon the Earth Not gentle For they are more austere in their carriage then ever was Cato Not Easie to bee intreated for they will neither be perswaded by their friends nor commanded by their superiors to doe any thing but what they will squaring themselves by that old rule of the Donatists Quod volumus sanctum est Not full of mercy and good fruits For they are all for sacrifice nothing for mercy All for the duties of the first Table neglecting the duties of the second Their faith hath drowned their charity For we have knowne them pull downe many Churches and yet build but a few Hospitalls Not without Judging For of all men living they are known to be the most rigid censurers of others And consequently they are not without Hypocrisie For that is the true note of an hypocrite when one as our Saviour saith can spy the mote that is in his brothers eye and not discerne the beame that is in his own And yet with their pretence of piety they have deceived a number of simple people But there is yet a third sort who have subscribed the Covenant against their conscience onely for fear of a Massacre which they had just cause to suspect when a Catalogue was taken up of the names what in every Parish of those who refused to subscribe And now I pray you what is become of their plea of Christian liberty For when we did presse them to conforme themselves unto the Orders of our Church they alleaged that it was contrary to Christian liberty to inforce men to the doing of any thing against their conscience and that a man should be fully resolved in his owne mind of the lawfulnesse of that which hee doth And yet we did urge men onely under payne of suspension and Excommunication and that after much patience and forbearance using withall all fair meanes to perswade them But they compell men to subscribe with them against their Conscience by Pike and Pistoll threatning no lesse unto the refusers then losse of life goods and lands By this ye may judge of the sincerity of their actions and what they would doe in other places if they should once gaine the power into their own hands All this paines have I taken to detect these men and their proceedings to the end that I might draw you off from their faction For who would be in love with that Religion whose bond is Perjury whose badge is Rebellion Therefore come out from amongst them and separate your selves Be not partaker with them in their sins lest you receive also of their plagues Manifest your dislike of them their proceedings by conforming your selves absolutely unto the Orders of this Church in all things and think not to halt any longer between God and Baal Neither be afraid of their power for howsoever they prosper for a time It is but a Summer storme Nubecula est cito pertransibit You may assure your selves that in end they will not prevaile 1 Sam. 2.10 For that God by whom Kings reigne will give strength unto his King and exalt the horne of his anoynted He will scatter the people that delight in Warre even make the hearts of the Canaanites to melt and their joynts to tremble Psal 91.16 But will satisfie the King with long life and shew him his salvation And now I have wearied both you and my self with a long Speech I know there are many here who thinke I have spoke too much But I could not have said lesse and manifest my fidelity to God and the King And if it be true which is grown unto a Proverb that Leves loquuntur curae ingentes stupent No man can expect that my Speech should be eloquent For I protest before God that I have spoken out of the grief of my heart and the very anguish of my Soul When I consider the fearfull afterclaps that are likely to ensue It fears me that our sinnes are come unto a full Maturity and that we are ripe for Gods Sickle to reap us I dare not say with St. Paul that I could wish my selfe Anathema or separated from Christ for my Country-men But I can say with a sincere heart that I could be content my life were given in a Sacrifice so that could procure the peace of the Church redeem his Majesties honor which is so deeply wounded and preserve my native Country from destruction And therefore I beseech all you who bear good will unto Sion that you would apply all your indeavours for quenching of this fire especially labouring to reclaim them who are committed to your charge And of some have Compassion Iudâ— vers 22.23 making a difference and others save with fear Pulling them out of the Fire And let all of us be instant with God in Prayer lifting up our hearts and our hands to the heavens and beseeching him who is the Author of peace and lover of Concord that he would be pleased to open the eyes of that people and turne their hearts that they may acknowledge their duty to God and to his Vice-gerent Amen FINIS
word hath made his promise good for never were there so great Instruments for the propagation of the Gospel the inlargement of Christs kingdom and the procuring of the peace of the Church as Christian Kings have been and amongst them all never any more then our most gracious King that now is and his most renowned Father whom those men did so much oppose and traduce But what do I need to remember matters of old for the Children are worse then the fathers and their present practise now in Scotland doth surpasse all the iniquities of their Fathers and will make them to bee forgotten Now Bishops and conformable Ministers whose persons had wont to be esteemed sacred are stoned beaten wounded and drag'd out of their Pulpits a thing which was never used by the Heathens against their Priests of what lewd condition or quality whatsoever And yet those are they who sweare to be good examples to others of all godlynesse sobernesse and of every duty they owe to God and man Now what Godlynesse Sobernesse or righteousnesse hath been in such proceedings the like whereof hath not been heard amongst the heathen Let all the world judge Before they had wont to assault us onely with their tongues which are sharper then arrowes and with their pens which are as light as Ceâ—se-quils But now they are come as Tertullian sayes A stilo ad machaeram from words to blowes That we may say with Bernard Leones evasimus sed incidimus in Dracones We escapd the mouthes of Lyons but have fallen into a den of Dragons for these sure are Cerastes Fiery flying Dragons But would to God their madnesse had stayed here They have not onely done wrong unto Gods Prophets but also touched his annointed entring into a mutuall league and covenant against him arming his Subjects taking Oathes of them to maintain their cause blocking up his Castles refusing all his Majesties most gracious offers for peace and indeed proclaiming a plain defiance unto him Good Goâ— Can they be Christians that do these things Or have they any warrant for this out of Gods word which commands us to be subject to Superiour powers and that for conscience sake even then when all Kings were enemies unto Christian Religion Or have they any example for those proceedings out of Pious antiquity The Christians in the Primitive Church when they were led as sheep to the slaughter all the day long and suffered the most exquisite torments that could be devised Yet would never take Armes for to resist the Prince but put on this resolution Arma nostra preces Lachrymae Yea when these persecuting Emperors had occasion of warre against the barbarous nations the Christians were the Emperours best and most faithfull Souldiers so terrible unto their enemies that they were called the thundering Legions And S. Austin doth highly commend them for their faithfull service unto the heathen Emperours who did most cruelly spill their blood onely for their profession of Christ And let no man say it was for want of power that they did not defend themselves by armes for it is well known that if they had thought it lawfull to resist the Emperour by Armes they were of that number power and resolution that they had been able to have shaken the foundations of the Empire But now it seemes that these men of whom I speak have learned another Divinity and think that they are bound to stand to the defence of their dread Soveraigne the Kings Majesty his person and authority in the defence and preservation of the true religion as they have expressed in their late Printed confession of faith wherunto they have sworn so that they do plainly insinuate that they are no further bound to defend the Kings person and authority then he doth stand in the defence of the true Religion And that onely must be accounted the true Religion which they themselves do best like of If the King will not maintain that then for all this last Oath they are freed from their Alleigance wherein they have more then justified the Iesuites in all their rebellious practises and the Iesuites can well tell how to take advantage thereof for it is not long since a Iesuite wrote a Book in the defence of the Loyalty of their Order alledging that Protestants had allowed the rebellion of Subjects against Princes as much as any of their Order had done and gives instance in Buchanan Knox and Goodman But Andreas Rivetus a Professor of Leiden answering the Iesuite doth professe that all Protestants do condemne that doctrine and ascribes the rashnesse of Buchanan and Knox Praeferbido Scotorum ingenio ad audendum promptoâ— And now it feares me that ere it be long another Iesuite shall publish a Book to prove that the present insurrection in Scotland is a greater rebellion then was the Papists Gun-powder-plot in regard that the Gun-powder-Treason was but the act of a few discontented Gentlemen and the thousand Papist in England not guilty of it but in the present Rebellion of the Puritanes they have ingaged a great part of that Kingdome and many who indeed know not what the matter meanes and so that this may be called the common sinne of that Sect whereas the other cannot be charged upon the Religion of the Papists But you will say it is Religion that moveth them What did ever the true Religion allow of rebellion Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum I know they pretend the defence of the nationall confession of their Church and the Oath received by their forefathers in the Yeere 1581 by the Kings example and commandement But if it be so I will subscribe their Covenant also which is the greatest curse I can lay upon my mortall enemy Therfore to take away that vaine pretence wherewith they blind you and many other simple people I will here make it evidently appeare First that that negative Confession wherunto they did swear in the yeere 81 is not the nationall Confession of the Church of Scotland and Secondly that the Oath which they have now administred is not the same which the King his Family States and Subjects did sweare at that time But Substantially different from it in many points And first that Negative Confession is not the nationall Confession of the Church of Scotland But the nationall Confession is that which twenty yeeres before being penned by Mr. Knox and his fellow-ministers and contayning the positive grounds of Divinity was approved by the Parliament held in the yeere 1560 and afterwards was ratified by a Parliament in the yeere 1567 and registred in the body of that Act of Parliament and so confirmed by a number of Parliaments since that time The same is likewise received into the body of the Confessions of all the reformed Churches and acknowledged for the Confession of the Church of Scotland But as for that Negative Confession consisting in the abjuring of Popish errors and penned by Mr. Craig for the detecting of some disguised
Church unchangeable were to confound matters of Doctrine and matters of Discipline matters of Faith and matters of Order The rule therefore of Tertullian is infallible Regula fidei immobilis irrefragabilis Caetera disciplinae admittunt novitatem correctionis 5 If they had sworne as these men would have it to maintaine their discipline which they then used without alteration or addition like the Laws of the Medes and Persians Then had they ascribed unto themselves an absolute perfection more then ever did the Pharisees in Christs dayes or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after or the Popes of late since they established their own infallibility Surely the contrivers of the first Confession did manifest a great deal of more modesty in their Preface Protesting that if any man shall note in this our Confession any Article or Sentence repugnant to Gods holy Word and do admonish of the same in Writing we by Gods grace do promise unto him satisfaction from the mouth of God that is from his holy Scriptures or else reformation of that which he shall prove to be amisse And are these men become wiser then their Fathers to think that nothing which they did could be amended 6 That could not be the meaning of the first Oath to maintain their discipline in all points without alteration For they themselves during the days of the Presbytery did change many things and that as I beleeve without violation of their Oath Sometimes their Lay-elders had voyce in the Presbytery afâ—erwards the Ministers perceiving the inconvenience restrained them to their Parish-sessions Sometimes it was made altogether unlawfull to bury in Churches afterwards they did permit it And if I had the inspection of the Book of the Acts of the generall Assembly which I have not seen these four and twenty yeers I would make it appear that every Assembly did either alter or adde something in matters of discipline Finally How could they Swear to maintain that discipline in all points when there are many things in their new found discipline whereof they were not agreed nor are to this day as namely Whether Pastors and Doctors be one office or distinct And if distinct Whether Doctors have any voyce in government What is the Office of Deacons and whether they may give a voyce in the consistory with the rest Whether their ruling Eldermen be Ecclesisticall persons or Lay-men Whether their Office should be only annuall or during life Whether those Elders should have a voice in the election Ordination deprivation of ministers and in weilding of the keyes for Excommunication and Absolution By all which it is more then manifest that the meaning of these words in the former Oath We will continue in the obedience of the discipline of this Kirk is not that they would observe the same discipline then used in all particulars without alteration or addition for so their Oath must be contrary to their Confession of faith contrary to right reason to the practise of the Primitive Church to the opinion of all Divines yea contrary to their owne practice and indeed such an Oath as were both unlawfull and impossible to be observed And unlesse that Interpretation be allowed them that Oath makes nothing either against Episcopacy or the five Articles of Perth we must therefore finde out some other meaning of these words of the Covenant It is a rule in the civill Law Semper in dubijs benigniora sunt praeferendae And again Non sunt rejiciendae leges quae interpretatione aliquâ possunt convenire If any thing Fact writing or Law may in reasonable construction admit two interpretations the best and mildest is ever to be received But the words in the former Oath may admit a good interpretation namely they did sweare to continue in the discipline of that Kirk in regard of all substantials viz. for administration of the Sacraments and weilding of the Keyes for binding and loosing of sinners and that for the particular determination of person time place and outward forme of administration They would observe the discipline of that Kirk which should be from time to time lawfuâ—ly established And therefore it is as I observed before that they did not say The present discipline of this Kirk And by this Interpretation which is the only reasonable sense of these words that can be given they are all bound by their nationall Oath as they terme it to submit themselves to Episcopall government and the Articles of Perth which were lawfully established and are now a part of the Discipline of that Church Thus have I shewed that this late Oath is substantially different from the former in that now they doe not sweare with the King but against him It containes a bond of mutuall defence of one another It inables Subjects to take Armes without lawfull Authority and containes such an interpretation of the Old covenant as is manifestly false In all which respects the Oath is unlawfull But yet to convince them further of perjury I will shew unto you that they have not observed any of these conditions which God himselfe requireth in an Oath In the fourth of Ieremy and second verse Thou shalt sweare the Lord liveth in trueth in iudgement and in righteousnesse In trueth and therefore not falsly In judgement and therefore not rashly In righteousnesse and therefore not lewdly nor to a bad end We must sweare in trueth and not falsly for the Lord himselfe saith Yee shall not sweare by my name falsly Levit. 19.12 The onely true matter of an Oath is trueth but all the grounds of this last Oath are notoriously false as namely that the Negative Confession is the Nationall confession of the church of Scotland And I have shewed that to be otherwise That this Oath is the very same that King Iames and his Family did sweare And I have proved that not to be so That Episcopacie and the five Articles of Perth are innovations abjured in the former Oath and I have manifested that to be evidently false Finally That what they doe is to avert The danger of the true reformed religion of the Kings honor and of the publick peace of the Kingdome When as indeed they could not have taken a course more to indanger the true Religion wound the Kings honour and disturbe the publick peace So that in this late Oath there is no trueth Againe We must sweare in judgement that is out of a certain knowledge of the thing which we sweare We finde in the fifth of Leviticus that when a man did sweare that which was hid from him It was a sin for which a Trespasse-offering was to be offered And now they have sworn unto many things which are hid from them and whereof they could have no certaine knowledge for they could not know that the Negative Confession is the National Confession of that Church nor that this Oath is the same with that which the King did sweare nor that Episcopacy and the five Articles of Perths Assembly were
abjured in the former Oath For I have evidently proved all these to be false Besides in the Catalogue of errors renounced there are many things wich common people cannot understand as namely I would gladly know how many amongst that multitude who have sworn this late Covenant doe know what is Opus operatum abjured in the Oath It is wisely provided in the civill Law that none should be admitted to sweare who are not of some reasonable understanding and therfore no Idiots nor mad men nor children are admitted to be witnesses But in this last Oath they have sworn many thousands who have not so much knowledge of an Oath of Religion or of the confession of Faith as a child of seven yeere old And therefore they doe not sweare in Iudicio Lastly as we must sweare in trueth and in judgement so also in righteousnesse As the matter of our Oath must be true and our knowledge of it certaine So we must sweare unto a good and lawfull end For to make the name of God a bond to doe evill is a sinne out of measure sinfull But the end of this last Oath is most unlawfull even to arme Subjects against their Prince and pull downe Orders established by Lawes wherby they make that which should be Sacramentum pietatis to be Vinculum iniquitatis These Oaths vve call Juramenta latronum such as theeves and robbers take to be true one to another For they doe not only joyne hand in hand as Solomon tells us but doe even also by Oath bind themselves to doe mischiefe Prov. 11.2 Nehem. 6.18 Tobiah the greatest hinderer of the Temple had many in Judah his sworne men Further as they have not sworne neither in trueth in judgement nor in righteousnesse So there are many who have sworne this Oath who before did receive the Oath of the Kings Supremacie and of Canonicall obedience and conformity to the Articles of Perth So that here is Oath against Oath Belike these men doe challenge a Papall power to dispence with Oathes All these things being considered I have discovered as much perjurie in their Oath as can be committed in a promissorie Oath And then wee know that the rule in Divinity is Paenitenda promissio non perâ—icienda praesumptio And surely since this is a swearing age with them they may doe well to sweare once more that they will never sweare so againe When David had made a rash Oath to destroy Nabal in cold blood he did choose rather to breake his Oath then to keepe it And I think there is no Divine who will not say that Herod had better broken his rash oath then cut off Iohn Baptists head And yet I must tell you it is not altogether so haynous a crime to take a head from a Prophet as to pull a Crowne from a Kings head And now have I taken from them all pretence of Religion which is not sit to make a cloake for such knavery by shewing that the Negative confession is not the Nationall Confession of the Church of Scotland and that this Oath is not the same which was sworne An. 81. but an Oath in many respects altogether unlawfull And finally that Episcopall government and the Articles of Perth are not abjured in the Negative Confession I will now guesse what are the true causes that set them on work not using light conjectures but building upon more then probable grounds 1. That which sets the Clergie on work is Selfe-love De civit Dei Lib. 14. cap. 28. which as S. Austin sayes did build the Citie of the devill It is pride singularity ambition and the desire of popular applause They cannot endure to be subject to a Bishop esteeming themselves men of greater gifts and perfections then those who are appointed to be their Bishops and so They perish in the gaine-saying of Core You know that Core's sinne was disobedience he would not be subject unto Aaron appointed his Superiour by God nor to Moses either who swayed the Scepter So they by their good will will not be subject either to Bishop or King This pride hath beene the occasion of many heresies in the Church as will evidently appeare unto those who read the Histories of Arius coveting the Bishoprick of Alexandria of Donatus labouring to have beene Bishop of Carthage of Novatus desiring a Bishoprick in Italy and of Aerius contending with Eustathius for a Bishoprick in Pontus These men affecting these honorable places and receiving their severall foyles when through ambition they could not get the places they sought for in the Church they laboured to gaine honour another way in their severall Synagogues So I could tell you of a man who is now a ring-leader of the faction in Edenburgh and hath publickly preached the King to be a Papist and when his Majestie desired them to renounce their Covenant promising them all reasonable satisfaction in other things he in a Sermon compared his Majestie unto an Italian who promised mercy to his vanquished enemie upon a condition that he would renounce Christ which when the Caitiff had done presently stabb'd him to the heart saying I hope now I have killed you both soule and body Yet this man within these two yeeres was an earnest suter for the Bishoprick of Argyle M. Henry Rollocke and was recommended for it by many of the Bishops of that Kingdome but missing thereof the same humor which possessed Arius Donatus and the rest doth now also work in him 2 That which sets the Lay-men on work is covetousnesse amongst whom not a few would gladly prey upon the Bishopricks as their Fathers did upon the Abbeyes This was observed by M. Cartwright and the Author of the Ecclesiasticall discipline of their Lay-followers in England And I must needs think that they of Scotland as they are of the same religion so they are of the same mind Whilest they heare us speak against Bishops and Cathedrall Churches Discip Eccles saith the Author of the Ecclesiasticall discipline it tickleth their eares looking for the like prey they had before of Monasteries Yea they have in their hearts devoured already the Churches inheritance They care not for Religion so they may get the spoile They could be content to crucifie Christ so they might have his garments Our age is full of spoiling Souldiers and of wicked Dyonisians who will rob Christ of his golden coat as neither fit for him in Winter nor Summer They are Cormorants and seek to fill the bottomlesse sacks of their greedy appetites They doe yawne after a prey and would thereby to their perpetuall shame purchase to themselves a field of blood 3 I may more then probably conjecture that they have another ayme even such as was Ieroboams ayme When he had drawne away the ten Tribes from the house of David he said in his heart If the people goe up to Ierusalem to worship their heart will returne againe unto their Lord Rehoboam And therefore he erected two golden Calves and said
so much as mentioned If any man shall say That Episcopacy is included under the Popes wicked Hierarchy which there is denied he will prove himself ridiculous for it is well known unto all that ever looked into the Ecclesiasticall history that the Church was governed by Bishops 600 yeers before the Popes wicked Hierarchy began And as that government was not abjured so neither is it any innovation at all for it is evident that in the yeere 81. they had Bishops and it is yet to be seen registrate in the Books of Councell and subscribed by the Commissioners for the time how that but a little time before the publishing of that Confession Kings declaration the generall Assembly did agree with his Majesties Regents in his minority that the estate of Bishops which is one of the estates of Parliament should be maintained and authorized But about foure or five yeeres after about the yeere 83. the generall Assembly tooke upon them contrary to their own subscriptions to discharge the estate of Bishops and to declare the same to be unlawfull commanding all the Bishops in the kingdome to dimit their places and Jurisdictions under paine of Excommunication and in like manner commanding the King and his Councell under the like payne not to choose any others in their place But when that wise King saw their proceedings and how they took more upon them then ever the Bishops had done and under the pretence of their new discipline trod upon his Scepter labouring to establish an Ecclesiasticall tyranny of infinite Jurisdiction and perceiving withall that their new erected government was the mother of all faction confusion and rebellion And that it tended to Anabaptisme and popularity and to the overthrow of his State Crowne and kingdome 1584 he called a Parliament and by the consent of all his States hee overthrew their Presbytries and restored againe the Bishops to their places But indeed at that time the Sonnes of Zerviah were too strong for him that hee could never invest the Bishops with their full power and authority untill that happy time that his Majesty came unto the Crowne of England And then not long after by a free General assembly held at Glasgow he did not erect but ratify and confirme the estate of Bishops The acts of which Assembly were immediately after confirmed by Act of Parliament So that Episcopacy is no Innovation as is pretended in this last Oath And as for the 5. Acts of Perth Assembly they were never intended to be abjured in the Negative confession for there is no mention of any of them neither can they be comprehended under popish rites Kneeling at the Communion is no popish rite for I have upon another occasion proved it to be the gesture used in the Primitive Church at the receiving of the Sacrament And that the first that ever did sit after their fashion was the Pope to expresse his state So that we may justly charge them that the gesture which they use is abjured in that confession amongst the rest of popish rits The Five Holy-dayes established by the Assembly of Perth are not Popish rites but such as were observed in the Church since the dayes of the Apostles as may appeare by that bitter contention between the Easterne and Westerne Churches about the observation of Easter And as for the other three Articles for private Baptisme the Communion of the sick and Confirmation of Children There is no man in his right wits who will not acknowledge that they were in use many hundred yeeres before Popery was hatched and are in themselves things not onely lawfull and expedient but in some cases necessary But yet they will say that these things are abjured in generall termes when they sweare to continue in the obedience of the doctrine and discipline of that Kirk For answer wherunto I shall desire you to consider First that they say not they will continue in the present discipline of this Kirk as these new men doe interpret it but indefinitely that they will continue in the discipline of this Kirk Secondly albeit they had said so yet by the discipline we must understand that discipline which was established by authority and Law And not that which was violently brought in by some factious Ministers and their adherents Now I have shewed that Episcopall government was ratified and confirmed by divers Acts of Parliament but never dissolved by any and that their Presbyteriall government was put down by act of Parliament but never established by any Thirdly say that by discipline we should yeeld to understand that discipline which then was used though brought in by private authority Yet certainly it was never their intent to sweare to maintaine that discipline in all particulars without alteration or addition for such an oath had been simply unlawfull because that thereby they should have made a perpetuall Law concerning ceremonies and rites which are themselves and must be changeable according to the Exigency of the times And so if that interpretation which is now given of the words were true it would follow 1 That their negative Confession were directly contrary unto their positive Confession which is the only true Nationall confession of the Church of Scotland For in that confession in the 20th Article touching matters of Policy and order they say Not that we think that one policy and one order in Ceremonies can be appointed for all ages times and places For as Ceremonies such as men have devised are but temporall so may and ought they to be changed when they rather suffer Superstition then that they edifie the Church using the same So that by these mens Interpretation here is Confession against Confession The positive Confession declares matters of Policy and order to be alterable and such as upon occasion both may and ought to be changed But these men do so interpret the negative Confession and Covenant as if they were bound by an oath to preserve the same Orders that were used in the yeer 81. inviolably for ever 2 Such an Interpretation is against all right reason For the condition of the Church being changeable the same Orders cannot be convenient for her at all times As the same policy is not fit for the Church in all places so neither for one and the same Church at all times 3 Such an Interpretation shall condemne the practice of the ancient Church which did upon occasion often change her rites as namely dipping in Baptisme which she changed from once into thrice and again from thrice into once 4 It is contrary to the Judgement of all Divines Mr. Calvin tells us that In externall discipline and Ceremonies Christ would not particularly prescribe what we shoâ—la fellow Quod istud pendere a temporum varietate pravideret And again he saith That sometimes it profiteth and is expedient that there be a difference in these things lest men should think that Religion were tyed unto outward Ceremonies And indeed to make the Rites of the