the Law they did effectuate that some Ministers should have the title of this or that Bishopricke and the revenues were gathered in the name of this titulare or tulchan Bishop albeit hee had but little part e. g. Robert Montgomerie Minister at Sterline was called Arch-Bishop of Glasgow and so it can bee instanced in other Bishop-rickes and abbacies Now this kind of praelats pretended no right to any part of the Episcopall office either in ordination or jurisdiction when some of these men began to creep in to vote for the Church in Parliament without any Law of the State without any commission from the Church the generall assembly discharged them being Ministers to practise any more such illegall insolencies with this ordinance of the Church after a little debate King James at that time did shew his good satisfaction But the Warner heere jumps over nolesse then twenty seven years time from the assembly at Edinburgh 1579 The innocency of the much maligned assembly of Aberdeen to that at Aberdeen 1605 then was King James by the English Bishops perswasion resolved to put down the generall assemblies of Scotland contrary to the Lawes and constant practise of that Church from the first reformation to that day The act of Parliament did bear that once at least a yeare the assembly should meet and after their busines was ended they should name time place for the next assembly When they had met in the yeare 1602 they were moved to adjourne without doing any thing for two whole yeares to 1604 when then they were conveened at the time and place agreed to by his Majestie they were content upon his Majesties desire without doing any thing againe to adjourne to the nixt yeare 1605 at Aberdeen when that dyet came his Majesties Commissioner offered them a Letter To the end they might be an Assembly and so in a Capacity to receave his Majesties Letter with the Commissioners good pleasure they sate downe they named their Moderator and Clark they received and read the Kings letter commanding them to rise which they obeyed without any farther action at all but naming a dyet for the nixt meeting according to the Lawes and constant practise of Scotland hereupon by the pernicious counsel of Arch-Bishop Banckroft at London the King was stirred up to bring sore trouble upon a number of gracious Ministers Christmas and other superstitious festivals abolished in Scotland both by Church and State This is the whole matter which to the Warner heir is so tragick an insolence that never any Parliament durst attempt the like See more of this in the Historicall vindication The nixt instance of our Presbiteryes usurpation upon the Magistrat is their abolition before any statute of Parliament thereupon of the Church festivals in their first book of discipline Ans Consider the grievousnesse of this crime in the intervall of Parliaments the great counsel of Scotland in the minority of the Prince entrusted by Parliament to rule the Kingdome did charge the Church to give them in wryte their judgement about matters Ecclesiasticall in obedience to this charge the Church did present the counsel with a wryte named since the first book of disciplin which the Lords of counsel did approve subscribe and ratify by an Act of State a part of the first head in that wryte was that Christmas Epiphany purification and other fond feasts of the virgin Mary as not warranted by the holy Scriptures should bee laid aside Was it any encroachment upon the Magistrate for the Church to give this advice to the privy counsell when earnestly they did crave it the people of Scotland ever since have shewed their ready obedience to that direction of the Church founded upon Scripture and backed from the beginning with an injunction of the state His third instance of the Church of Scotlands usurpation upon the Magistrat is The friends of Episcopacy thryves not in Scotland their abolition of Episcopacy in the assembly 1580 when the Law made it treason to impugne the authority of Bishops being the third estate of the Kingdome Ans The Warner seemes to have no more knowledge of the affairs of Scotland then of Japan or Utopia the Law hee speakes of was not in being some yeares after 1580 how ever all the generall assemblyes of Scotland are authorised by act of Parliament to determine finally without an appeale in all Ecclesiastick affaires in the named assembly Lundie the Kings Commissioner did sit and consent in his Majesties name to that act of abolition as in the nixt assembly 1581 the Kings Commissioner Caprinton did erect in his Majesties name the Presbiteryes in all the Land it is true three yeares thereafter a wicked Courtier Captaine James Stuart in a shadow of a closse and not summoned Parliament did procure an act to abolish Presbiteries and erect Bishops but for this and all the rest of his crimes that evill man was quickly rewarded by God before the world in a terrible destruction these acts of his Parliament the very nixt yeare were disclaimed by the King the Bishops were put downe and the Presbitry was set up again and never more removed to this day The Warners digression to the perpetuity of Bishops in Scotland to the acts of the Church and State for their restitution is but to shew his ignorance in the Scotes story what ever be the Episcopall boastings of other Nations yet it is evident that from the first entrance of Christian Religion into Scotland Presbiters alone without Bishops for some hundred yeares did governe that Church and after the reformation their was no Bishop in that Land but in tittle and benefice till the yeare 1610 when Bancroft did consecrat three Scotes Ministers all of them men of evill report whom that violent Commissioner the Earle of Dunbar in the corrupt and null assembly of Glasgow got authorised in some pairt of a Bishops office which part only and no more was ratified in a posterior Parliament Superintendents are no where the same with Bishops much lesse in Scotland where for a time only till the Churches were planted they were used as ambulatory Commissioners and visitors to preach the word and administer the Sacraments for the supply of vacant and unsetled congregations The fourth instance is the Churches obtruding the second book of discipline without the ratification of the State Ans The second book of disciplin why not al ratified in Parliament For the Ecclesiastick enjoining of a generall assemblyes decrees a particular ratification of Parliament is unnecessary generall acts of Parliament commanding obedience to the acts of the Church are a sufficient warrant from the State beside that second book of disciplin was much debated with the King and at last in the generall assembly 1590 his consent was obtained unto it for in that assembly where unanimously the subscription of the second book of disciplin by all the ministers of the Kingdome was decried his Majestie some time in person and
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
there are no appeales from the generall Assembly to the King as in England from the Bishops Courts to the King in Chauncery where a Commission uses to be given to delegats who discusse the appeales Ans The warner considers not the difference of the Government of the Church of Scotland from that which was in England what the Parliament is in the State that the generall assembly is in the Church of Scotland both are the highest courts in their owne kind There is no appeale any where in moderat Monarchies to the Kings person but to the King in certaine legall courts as the Warner here confesseth the appeale from Bishops lyes not to the King in his person but to the King in his court of Chauncery As no man in Scotland is permitted to appeale in a civil cause from the Lords of Session much lesse from the Parliament so no man in an Ecclesiastick cause is permitted by the verie civil Law of Scotland to appeale from the general assembly According to the Scots order practise the King in person or else by his high Commissioner sits al 's usually in the generall assembly as in Parliament But though it were not so yet an appeale from a generall assembly to be discussed in a Court of delegats were unbeseeming and unreasonable the one Court consisting of above two hundred all chosen men the best and most able of the Kingdome the other but of two or three often of very small either abilities or integrity who yet may be more fitt to decerne in an Ecclesiastick cause then a single Bishop over his officiall the ordinary trusted in all acts of jurisdiction for the whole dioces But the Scots way of managing Ecclesiastick causes is a great deale more just safe and Satisfactory to any rationall man then that old popish order of the English where all the spirituall jurisdiction of the whole dioces was in the hand of one mercenary officiall without all reliefe from his sentence except by an appeale as of old to the pope and his delegats so therafter to the King though never to be cognosced-upon by himselfe but as it was of old by two or three delegats The Churches just severity against Montgomery and Adamson was approven by the King and the parties themselfe the weakest of all courts often for the quality and ever for the number of the judges Two instances are brought by the Warner to prove the Church of Scotlands stopping of appeals from the generall Assembly to the King the cases of Montgomery and Adamson if the causes and events of the named cases had been wel knowne to the Warner as he made this chapter disproportionally short so readily he might have deleted it al together Both these men were infamous not only in their Ministeriall charges but in their life conversation both became so insolent that contrary to the established order of the Church Kingdome being suborned by wicked statesmen who in that day of darknes had wel neer brought ruine both to King and country would needs take upon them the office of Arch-Bishops While the assembly was in proces with them for their manifold and high misdeameanors the King was moved by them and their evill patrons to shew his high displeasure against the assemblyes of the Church they for his Majesties satisfaction sent their Commissioners and had many conferences whereby the pride and contempt of these prelats did so encrease that at last they drew the sentence of excommunication upon their own heads the King after some time did acknowledge the equity of the Church proceedings and professed his contentment their with both these unhappy men were brought to a humble confession of their crimes and such signes of repentance that both after a renunciation of their titulare Bishopriks were readmitted to the function of the ministry which they had deserted Never any other before or after in Scotland did appeale from the generall assembly to the King the late excommunicat praelats in their declinatour against the assembly of Glasgow did not appeale as I remember to the King but to another generall assembly to bee constitute according to their own Popish and Tyrannical principles CHAP. IV. Faulty Ministers in Scotland are lesse exempted from punishment then any other men The pride of prelats lately but never the Presbitery did exempt their fellows from punishment for their civil faults THE Warner in his fourth Chapter offers to prove that the Scottish discipline doth exempt Ministers from punishment for any treason or sedition they can act in their pulpits Ans This challenge is like the rest very false The rules of the Church discipline in Scotland obliges Churchmen to bee subject to punishment not only for every fault for which any other man is lyable to censure but ordaines them to bee punished for sundrie things which in other men are not at all questionable and what ever is censurable in any they appoint it to be much more so in a Minister It is very untrue that the pulpits in Scotland are Sanctuaries for any crime much lesse for the grievous crimes of sedition and treason Let the Warner remember how short a time it is since an Episcopall chayre or a canonicall coate did priviledge in England and Ireland from all censure either of Church or State great numbers who were notoriously knowne to be guilty of the foulest crimes Was ever the Warners companion Bishop Aderton challenged for his Sodomy so long as their commune patrone of Canterbury did rule the court did the warner never heare of a prelate very sibb to Doctour Bramble who to this day was never called to any account for flagrant scandals of such crimes as in Scotland are punishable by the gallows the Warner doth not well to insist upon the Scots Clergie exempting themselfe from civill punishments no where in the world are Churchmen more free of crimes deserving civil cognisance then in Scotland and if the ears and eyes of the world may be trusted the popish clergy this day in Italy and Spaine are not so challengeable as the praelaticall divines in England and Ireland lately were for many grosse misdemeanors But why does the Warners anger run out so farre as to the preachers in Holland The Warner is injurious to the Ministers of Holland is it because he knoweth the Church disciplin in Holland to be really the same with that he oppugnes in the Scots and that all the reformed Churches doe joyne cordially with Scotland in their rejection of Episcopacy is this a ground for him to slander our Brethren of Holland Is it charity for him a stranger to publish to the world in print that the ministers in Holland are seditious oratours and that they saucily controll the Magistrats in their pulpits Their crime seemes to be that for the love of Christ their master they are zealous in their doctrin to presse upon the Magistrat as well as upon the people the true practise of piety the sanctification
of the sabbath day the suppression of heresy and shisme and repentance for the sins of the time place wherein they live This is a crime whereof few of the Warners friends were wont to be guilty of their shamefull silence and flattery was one of the great causes of all the sins and calamities that have wracked the three Kingdomes the streame of their sermons while the enjoyed the pulpit was to encourage to superstition and contempt of piety to sing asleepe by their ungracious way all that gave eare unto them The man is impatien t to see the Pastors of Holland or any where to walk in another path then his own and for this cause would stirre up their Magistrats against them as it was his and his Brethrens custome to stirre up the Magistrats of Britan and Ireland to imprison banish and heavily vex the most zealous servants of God only for their opposition to the praelats profanity and errours The Warner I hope has not yet forgotten how Doctor Bramble and his neighbour Lefly of Down did cast out of the Ministry and made flee out of the Kingdome men most eminent for zeale piety and learning who in a short time had done more good in the house of God then all the Bishops that ever were in Ireland I meane Master Blaire Master Levingston Master Hamilton and Master Cuningham and others The Warner needed not to have marked as a singularity of Geneva that there all the Ecclesiasticks quâ tales are punishable by the Magistrats for civil crimes for wee know none of the reformed Churches who were ever following Rome in exeeming the Clergy from saecular jurisdiction except it were the Canterburian Praelats who indeed did skarre the most of Magistrats from medeling with a canonical coat though defiled with drunckenesse adultery scolding fighting and other evils which were too common of late to that order But how does hee prove The pretended declaration of King Iames was Bishop Adamsons lying libel that the Scots Ministers exempt themselves from civill jurisdiction first saith he by the declaration of King James 1584. Ans That declaration was not from King James as himselfe did testify the yeare thereafter under his hand but from Master Patrike Adamson who did acknowledge it to bee his owne upon his death bed and professed his repentance for the lyes and slaunders wherewith against his conscience hee had fraughted that infamous libell His second proofe is from the second booke of discipline Chapter II Though alwayes in England yet never in Scotland had Commissarie any jurisdiction over Ministers It is absurd that Commissaries haveing no function in the Church should be judges to Ministers to depose them from their charges Ans Though in England the Commissary and officiall was the ordinary judge to depose and excommunicat all the Ministers of the diocese yet by the Lawes of Scotland no Commissaries had ever any jurisdiction over Ministers But though the officialls jurisdiction together with their Lords the Bishops were abolished yet doth it follow from this that no other jurisdiction remaineth whereby Ministers might be punished either by Church and State according to their demerits is not this strongly reasoned by the Warner His third proofe is the case of James Gibson Iames Gibson was never absolved by the Church from his Proces who had railed in pulpit against the King and was only suspended yea thereafter was absolved from that fault Ans Upon the complaint of the Chancelor the alleadged words were condemned by the generall assembly but before the mans guiltines of these words could bee tryed hee did absent himselfe for which absence he was presently suspended from his Ministry in the nixt assembly he did appeare and cleared the reason of his absence to have been just feare and no contumacy this hee made appeare to the assemblyes satisfaction but before his processe could be brought to any issue he fled away to England where he died a fugitive never restored to his chardge though no tryell of his fault was perfected Master Blacks appeale from the counsel cleered The fourth proofe is Mr. Blacke his case heereupon the Warner makes a long and odious narration If wee interrogat him about his ground of all these Stories he can produce no warrant but Spots-woods unprinted book this is no authentick register whereupon any understanding man can rely the writer was a profest enemy to his death of the Scottish disciplin he spent his life upon a Story for the disgrace of the Presbytery and the honour of Bishops no man who is acquainted with the life or death of that Author will build his beleefe upon his words This whole narration is abundantly confuted in the historicall vindication when the Warner is pleased to repeat the challenge from Issachars burden hee ought to have replyed something after three yeares advisement to the printed answer The matter as our registers beare was shortly thus in the yeare 1596 the Popish and malignant faction in King James his court grew so strong that the countenance of the King towards the Church was much changed and over all the Land great feares did daily increase of the overthrow of the Church discipline established by Law The Ministers in their pulpits gave free warning thereof among others Mr. Black of Saint Andrews a most gracious and faithful Pastor did apply his doctrine to the sins of the time some of his Enemies delated him at Court for words injurious to the King and Queen the words hee did deny and all his honest hearers did absolve him by their testimony from these calumnies of himselfe hee was most willing to be tryed to the uttermost before all the world but his Brethren finding the libelled calumnies to bee only a pretence and the true intention of the Courtiers therein was to stop the mouthes of Ministers that the crying sins of the time should no more bee reproved in pulpits they advised him to decline the judgement of the counsel and appeale to the generall assembly as the competent judge according to the word of God and the Lawes of Scotland in the cause of doctrin for the first instance they did never question but if any thing truely seditious had been preached by a Minister that he for this might be called before the civill Magistrat and accordingly punished but that every Minister for the application of his doctrine according to the rules of scripture to the sins of his hearers for their reclaming should be brought before a civill court at the first instance they thought it unreasonable and defired the King in the nixt assembly might cognosce upon the equity of such a proceding The Ministers had many a conference with his Majestie upon that subject often the matter was brought very neare to an amicable conclusion but because the Ministers refused to subscribe a band for so great a silence as the Court required against his Majesties countenancing of treacherous Papists and favouring the enemies of religion a
elder praelats of England were Erastians and more but the younger are as much anti-Erastian as the most riged of the Presbytery That they count it Erastianisme to put the governement of the Church in the hand of the Magistrat Answ The Doctors knowledge is greater then to bee ignorant that all these goe under the name of Erastians who walking in Erastus ways of flattering the Magistrat to the prejudice of the just rights of the Church run yet out much beyond Erastus personall tenets I doubt if that man went so far as the Doctor heere and else where to make all Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction but a part of the Magistrats civill power which for its execution the supreame Governours of any state may derive out of the fountaine of their supremacy to what ever hands civill or Ecclesiastick themselfes think fit to commit it Let the Doctor adde to this much knowledge but a little ingenuity and he shall confes that his Brethren the Later Bishops who claime Episcopacy by divine right are all as much against this Erastian Caesaro-papisme as any Presbiterian in Scotland The elder Bishops indeed of England and all the Lawes there for Episcopacy seeme to be point blank according to the Erastian errours for they make the crowne and royall supremacy the originall root and fountaine whence all the discipline of the Church doth flow as before the days of Henry the eight it did out of the Popes head-ship of the Church under Christ How ever let the Doctor ingenuously speake out his sence and I am deceived if he shall not acknowledge that how grosse an Erastian so ever himselfe and the elder Bishops of England might have been yet that long agoe the most of his praelatical friends have become as much opposit to Erastianisme as the most rigid of the Presbiterians The other crime he layes to the charge of the Scotes is The Scotes first and greatest crime is irreconciliablenes with Rome that they admit no latitude in Religion but will have every opinion afundamentall article of faith and are averse from the reconciliation of the Protestant Churches Ans If the warner had found it seasonable to vent a little more of his true sence in this point he had charged this great crime far more home upon the heade of the Scotes for indeed though they were ever far from denying the true degrees of importance which doe cleerly appeare among the multitude of Christian truthes yet the great quarrell heer of the warner and his freinds against them is that they spoiled the Canterburian designe of reconcealing the Protestant Churches not among themselfes but with the Church of Rome When these good men were with all earnestnes proclaming the greatest controversies of Papists and Protestants to be upon no fundamentalls but only disputable opinions wherein beleefe on either side was safe enough and when they found that the Papists did stand punctually to the Tenets of the Church of Rome and were obstinately unwilling to come over to England their great labour was that the English and the rest of the Protestants casting aside their needlesse beleefe of problematick truths in piety charity and zeale to make up the breach and take away the shisme should be at all the paines to make the journey to Rome While this designe is far advanced and furiously driven on in all the three Kingdomes and by none more in Yreland then the Bishop of Derry behold the rude and plaine blewcapes step in to the play and marre all the game by no arte by no terrour can these be gotten alongs to such a reconciliation This was the first and greatest crime of the Scotes which the Doctor here glances at but is so wyse and modest a man as not to bring it above board The last charge of the chapter is The Scotes were ever anti episcopall that the Scotes keep not still that respect to the Bishops of England which they were wont of old in the beginning of Queen Elizabeths reigne Ans In that letter cited by the warner from the generall assembly of Scotland 1566. Sess 3. there is no word of approbation to the office of Episcopacy they speake to the Bishops of England in no other quality or relation but as Ministers of the word the highest stile they give them is reverend Pastors and Brethren the tenour of the whole Epistle is a grave and brotherly admonition to beware of that fatall concomitant of the most moderat Episcopacy the troubling of the best and most zealous servants of Christ for idle fruitles Ceremonies How great a reverence the Church of Scotland at that time carried to praelacy may be seen in their supplication to the secret counsell of Scotland in that same assembly the very day and Session wherein they write the letter in hand to the Bishops of England The Arch-Bishop of S. Andrews being then usurping jurisdiction over the ministry by some warrant from the state the Assembly was grieved not only with the popery of that Bishop but with his auncient jurisdiction which in all Bishops Popish and protestant is one and the same That jurisdiction was the only matter of their present complaint and in relation thereto they assure the counsel in distinct tearmes that they would never be more subject unto that usurped tiranny thē they would be to the devill himselfe So reverend an opinion had the Church of Scotland at that time of Episcopall jurisdiction But suppone that some fourscore yeares agoe the Scotes before they had tasted the fruits of Protestant Bishops The Praelates lately were found in the act of introducing Popery into the Church and Tiranny into the Kingdom had judged them tolerable in England yet since that time by the long tract of mischiefes which constantly has accompanied the order of praelacy they have been put upon a more accurat inspection of its nature and have found it not only a needles but a noxious and poysonous weed necessare to be plucked up by the root and cast over the hedge Beside al its former malefices it hath been deprehēded of late in the very act of everting the foundations both of Religion and governement of bringing in Popery and Tiranny in the Churches and States of all the three Kingdomes Canterburian self conviction cap. 1. And for these crimes it was condemned killed and buried in Scotland by the unanimous consent of King Church and Kingdom when England thereafter both in their Assembly and Parliament without a discording voice had found it necessary to root out that unhappy plant as long agoe with great wisedome it had been cast out of all the rest of the reformed Churches had not the Scotes all the reason in the World to applaud such pious just and necessary resolutions of their English Brethren though the warner should call it the greatest crime CHAP. II. No controver sie in Scotland betwixt the King and the Church about the convocating of Synods The Presbiterians assert positively the Magistrats right
the Kings Majestie in Scotland never had never craved any first fruits the Church never spoiled the King of any Tythes some other men indeed by the wickednesse most of Praelats and their followers did cousin both the King and the Church of many Tythes but his Majestie and the Church had never any controversie in Scotland about the Tythes for the King so far as concerned himselfe was ever willing that the Church should enjoy that which the very act of Parliament acknowledgeth to bee her patrimony Nor for the patronages had the Church any plea with the King the Church declared often their minde of the iniquity of patronages wherein they never had from the King any considerable opposition but from the Nobility and gentry the opposition was so great that for peace-sake the Church was content to let patronages alone till God should make a Parliament lay to heart what was incumbent for gracious men to doe for liberating congregations from their slavery of having Ministers intruded upon them by the violence of Patrones Which now at last blessed be God according to our mind is performed As for the dependence of any vassals upon the King King Iames avowes himselfe a hater of Erastianisme it was never questioned by any Presbyterian in Scotland What is added in the rest of the Chapter is but a repetition of that which went before to wit the Presbyters denying to the King the spirituall government of the Church and the power of the keyes of the Kingdome of heaven such an usurpation upon the Church King James declared under his hand as at length may be seen in the Historicall vindication to be a sinne against the Father Son and Holy Ghost which puts in the hand of the Magistrat the power of preaching and celebrating the Sacraments a power which since that time no Magistrat in Britaine did assume and if any would have claimed it none would have more opposed then the most zealous patrones of Episcopacy The injurious invectives which the Warner builds upon this his Erastian assertion wee passe them as Castles in their aire which must fall and evanish for want of a foundation Only before I leave this Chapter let the Warner take a good Sentence out of the mouth of that wyse Prince King James to testifie yet farther his minde against Erastianisme His Majestie in the yeare 1617 having come in progresse to visit his auncient Kingdome of Scotland and being present in persone at a publick disputation in Theologie in the Universitie of St. Andrews whereof also many both Nobles and Church-men of both Kingdomes were auditors when one of those that acted a part in the disputation had affirmed and went about to maintaine this assertion that the King had power to depose Ministers from their Ministeriall function The King himself as abhorring such flatterie cried out with a loud voice Ego possum deponere Ministri caput sed non possum deponere ejus officium CHAP. VII The Presbyterie does not draw from the Magistrat any paritie of his power by the cheate of any relation IN the seventh chapter the Warner would cause men believe many more of the Presbyteries usurpations upon the civill Magistrate The Presbytery cognosceth only upon scandals and that in sewer civil things then the Bishopscourts were wont to meddle with The first is that all offences whatsoever are cognoscible in the consistory upon the case of scandals Ans First the Presbyterie makes no offence at all to come before the consistory but scandall alone Secondly these civill offences the scandall whereof comes before the Presbytery are but very few and a great deale fewer than the Bishops officiall takes notice of in his consistoriall court That capitall crimes past over by the Magistrate should bee censured by the Church no society of Christians who have any discipline did ever call in question When the sword of the Magistrat hes spared a murderer an adulterer a Blasphemer will any ingenuous either praelaticall or popish divine admitte of such to the holy table without signes of repentance The Warners second usurpation is but a branch of the first that the Presbyterie drawes directly before it selfe the cognisance of fraud in barganing false measures oppression and in the case of Ministers brybing usury fighting perjury c. Ans Is it then the Warners minde that the notorious slander of such grosse sins does not deserve so much as an Ecclesiastick rebooke Shall such persons without admonition be admitted to the holy communion Secondly the named cases of fraud in barganing false measures oppression come so rarely before our Church-judicatories that though these thirty yeares I have been much conversant in Presbyteries yet did I never see nor doe I remember that ever I heard any of these three cases brought before any church assembly In the persone of Ministers I grant these faults which the canons of the Church in all times and places make the causes of deprivation are cognosced upon in Presbyteries but with the good liking I am sure of all both papists and praelats who themselves are free of such vices And why did not the Warner put in among the causes of church mens deprivation from office and benefite adultery gluttonny and drunkennes are these in his c. which he will not have cognoscible by the Church in the persons of Bishops and Doctors The Warners third challenge amounts to an high crime that Presbyterian Ministers are bold to preach upon these scriptures which speake of the Magistrats duty in his office or dare offer to resolve from scripture any doubt which perplexeth the conscience of Magistrats or people of Husband or Wife of Master or Servant in the discharge of their Christian duty one to another What ever hath been the negligence of the Bishop of Derry yet I am sure all the preaching Praelats and Doctors of England pretended a great care to goe about these uncontroverted parts of their ministerial function and yet without medling with the Mysteries of State or the depths of any mans particulare vocation much lesse with thejudgement of jurisdiction in politicall or aeconomicall causes As for the Churches declaration against the Late engagement The Churches proceedings in the late engagement cleered from mistakes did it not well become them to signify their judgement in so great a case of conscience especially when the Parliament did propone it to them for resolution and when they found a conjunction driven on with a cleerly malignant partie contrary to solemne oathes and covenants unto the evident hazard of Religione and them who had been most eminent instruments of its preservation was it not the churches duty to give warning against that sinne and to exhort the ring leaders therein to repentance But our Warner must needs insist upon that unhappy engagement and fasten great blame upon the Church for giving any advice about it Ans Must it be Jesuisitisme and a drawing of all the civill affaires to the Churches barre in
the judicatories of the Church according to the generall rules which are clear also in the word for matters of that nature In this neither Papists nor the learndest of the Praelats find any fault with us yet our Warner must spend a whole Chapter upon it It is true as we observed before the elder Praelats of England in Edwards Elizabeths dayes as the Erastians now did mantaine that no particular Governement of the Church was jure divino and if this be the Warners mind it were ingenuity in him to speake it out loud and to endeavour to perswade his friends about the King of the truth of this tenet he was never imployed about a better and more seasonable service for if the discipline of the Church be but humano jure then Episcopacy is keeped up upon no conscience conscience being bottomed only upon a divine right so Episcopacy wanting that bottom may well be laid aside at this time by the King for any thing that concernes conscience since no command of God nor warrant from scripture tyes him to keep it up This truely seemes to be the maine ground whereupon the whole discourse of this Chapter is builded Is it tolerable that such truthes should be concealed by our Warners against their conscience when the speaking of them out might be so advantagious to the King and all his Kingdomes how ever wee with all the reformed Churches doe beleeve in our heart the divine right of Synods and Presbyteries and for no possible inconvenient can be forced to deny or passe from this part of truth yet the Warner heere joynes with the elder Praelats who till Warner Banckrofts advancement to the sea of Canterburry did unanimously deny Episcopacy to be of divine right and by consequent affirmed it to be moveable and so lawfull to be laid aside by princes when so ever they found it expedient for their affaires to be quyte of it why does not the warner and his Brethren speake plainly their thoughts in his Majesties eares why do they longer dissemble their conscience only for the satisfaction of their ambition greed and revenge sundry of the Praelaticall divines come yet further to joyne fully with Erastus in denying not only Episcopacy and all other particular formes of Church government to be of divine institution but in avowing that no governement in the Church at all is to be imagined but such as is a part of the civill power of the Magistrat The Warner in the Chapter and in diverse other parts of his booke seemes to agree with this judgment and upon this ground if he had ingenuity he would offer his helping hand to untie the bonds of the Kings conscience if heere it were straytened by demonstrating from this his principle that very safely without any offence to God and nothing doubting for conscience sake his Majestie might lay aside Episcopacy and set up the Presbytery so fully as is required in all his dominions though not upon a divine right which the Presbyterians beleeve yet upon Erastus royall right which the Warner here and elsewhere avouches What the Warner puts heere again upon the Presbyterie The praelaticall party were lately bent for Popery the usurpation of the temporall sword in what indirect relation so ever its probation in the former chapter was found so weake and naughty that the repetition of it is for no use only wee marke that the Warner will have the Presbitery to be an absolute papacy for no other purpose but to vent his desire of revenge against the Presbyterians who gave in a challenge against the Praelats especially the late Canterburians among whom Doctor Bramble was one of some note to which none of them have returned to this howre an answer that their principles unavoidably did bring backe the pope For a Patriarch over all the westerne Churches and among all the Patriarches of the whole Catholick Church a primacy in the Roman flowes cleerly out of the fountaine of Episcopacy according to the avowed doctrine of the English praelats who yet are more liberall to the pope in granting him beside his spirituall super-inspection of the whole Catholick Church all his temporall jurisdictions also in the patrimony of St. Peter and all his other faire principalities within and without Italy There is no ceremony in Rome that these men stick upon for of all the superstitious and idolatrous ceremonies of Rome their images and altars and adorations before them are incomparably the worst yet the Warners friends without any recantation we have heard of avow them all even an adoration of and to the altar it selfe As for the doctrines of Rome what points are worse then these which that party have avowed in expresse tearmes a corporall presence of Christs body upon the Altar the Tridentine justification free-will finall apostacy of the Saints when no other thing can be answered to this our sore challenge it is good to put us off with a Squib that the Presbyterie is as absolute papacy as ever was in Rome The Presbyterian position which the Warner heere offers not to dispute but to laugh at that Christ as King of his Church according to his royall office and Scepter hes appointed the office bearers and lawes of the house is accorded to by the most and sharpest of our adversaries whether English or Romish as their owne tenet howbeit such foolish consequences that all acts of Synods must be Christs Lawes c. neither they nor wee doe acknowledge His declamations against the novelty of the Presbyterie in the ordinary stile of the Jesuites against Protestants The Praelats professe now a willingnes to abolish at least three parts of the former Episcopacy and of the pagan Philosophers against the Christians of old who will regarde our plea for the Praesbyterie is that it is scripturall if so it is auncient enough if not let it be abolished But it were good that heer also the Warner and his friends would be ingenuous to speake out their minds of Episcopacy Why have they all so long deceived the King in assuring him that English Episcopacy was wel warranted both by Scripture and antiquity Be it so which yet is very false that something of a Bishop distinct from a Presbyter had any footing in Scripture yet can they be so impudent as to affirme that an English Bishop in his very flesh and blood in his substantiall limbs was ever knowne in the World till the pope was become Antichrist A Bishop by virtue of his office a Lord in Parliament voycing in all acts of State and exercising the place of a high Thesaurer of a Chancelor or what ever civill charge the favour of a Prince did put upon him a Bishop with sole power of ordination and jurisdiction with out any Presbytery a Bishop exercising no jurisdiction himselfe in any part of his dioces but devolving the exercise of that power wholly upon his officials Commissaries a Bishop ordaining Presbyters himselfe alone or with the fashionall
King did really consent to the abolition of Bishops I grant for the turning an ordinance to a standing Law the Kings consent is required but with what qualifications and exceptions wee need not heere to debate since his Majesties consent to the present case of abolishing Bishops was obtained well neere as farre as was desired and what is yet lacking wee are in a faire way to obtaine it for the Kings Majestie long agoe did agree to the rooting out of Episcopacy in Scotland he was willing also in England and Ireland to put them out of the Parliament and all civil courts and to divest them of all civil power and to joyne with them Presbyteries for ordination and spirituall jurisdiction yea to abolish them totally name and thing not only for three yeares but ever till he and his Parliament should agree upon some setled order for the Church was not this Tantamont to a perpetuall abolition for all and every one in both houses having abjured Episcopacy by solemne oath and Covenant the Parliament was in no hazard of agreing with the King to re-erect the fallen chaires of the Bishops so there remained no other but that either his Majestie should come over to their judgement or by his not agreing with them yet really to agree with them in the perpetuall abolition of Episcopacy since the concession was for the laying Bishops aside ever till hee and his houses had agreed upon a settled order for the Church If this be not a full and formall enough consent to the ordinance of changing the former Lawes anent praelat◠his Majestie who now is easily may and readily would supply all such defects if some of the faction did not continually for their own evill interests whisper in his eares pernicious counsel as our Warner in this place also doeth by frighting the King in conscience from any such consent for this end he casts out a discourse the sinshews whereof are in these three Episcopall maximes The Praelats would flatter the King into a Tyranny First that the legislative power is sollie in the King that is according to his Brethrens Cōmentary that the Parliament is but the Kings great counsel of free choyce without or against whose votes hee may make or unmake what Lawes he thinks expedient but for them to make any ordinance for changing without his consent of any thing that has been or instituting any new thing or for them to defend this their legall right and custome time out of mind against the armes of the Malignant party no 〈◊〉 may deny it to be plaine rebellion II. The praelats takes to themselves a negative voice in Parliament That the King and Parliament both together cannot make a Law to the praejudice of Bishops without their own consent they being the third order of the Kingdome for albeit it be sacriledge in the Lords and Commons to clame any the smallest share of the legislative power this in them were to pyck the chiefest jewel out of the Kings Crowne yet this must be the due priviledge of the Bishops they must be the third order of the Kingdome yea the first and most high of the three far above the other two temporall States of Lords and Commons their share in the Legislative power must be so great that neither King nor Parliament can passe any Law without their consent so that according to their humble protestation all the Lawes and acts which have been made by King and Parliament since they were expelled the house of Lords are cleerly voide and null That the King and Parliament in divesting Bishops of their temporall honour and estats The Praelats grieve that Monks and Friers the Pope and Cardinals were easten out of England by Henry the eight in abolishing their places in the Church doe sin more against conscience then did Henry the eight and his Parliament when they put down the Abbots and the Fryers Wee must beleeve that Henry the eight his abolishing the order of Monks was one of the acts of his greatest Tyranny and greed wee must not doubt but according to Law and reason Abbots and priours ought to have kept still their vote in Parliament that the Monasteryes and Nunryes should have stood in their integrity that the King and Parliament did wrong in casting them down and that now they ought in conscience to be set up againe yea that Henry the eight against all reason and conscience did renounce his due obedience to the Pope the Patriarch of the West the first Bishop of the universe to whom the superinspection and government of the whole Catholick Church in all reason doth belong Though all this be heere glaunced at by the Warner and elsewhere 〈◊〉 prove it to be the declared mind of his Brethren yet we must be pardoned not to accept them as undenyable principles of cleare demonstrations 〈…〉 supremacy of Kings is not prejudged by the Covenant The last ground of the Doctors demonstration is that the covenant is ane oath to set up the Presbyterian government in England at it is in Scotland and that this is contrary to the oath of Supremacy for the oath of Supremacy makes the King the only supreame head and governour of the Church of England that is the civil head to see that every man doe his duty in his calling also it gives the King a supreame power over all persons in all causes but the Presbytery is a politicall papacie acknowledging no governours but only the Presbyters it gives the King power over all persons as subjects but none at all in Ecclesiastick causes Ans Is there in all this reasoning any thing sound First what article of the covenant beares the setting up of the Presbyterian government in England as it is in Scotland II. If the oath of supremacy import no more then what the Warners expresse words are here that the King is a civil head to see every man doe his duty in his calling let him be assured that no Presbyterian in Scotland was ever contrary to that supremacy III. That the Presbytery is a papacy and that a politicall one the Warner knowes it ought not to be graunted upon his bare word IV. That in Scotland no other governors are acknowledged then Presbyters himselfe contradicts in the very nixt words where he tells that the Scots Presbytery ascribes to the King a power over all persons as subjects V. That any Presbyterian in Scotland makes it sacriledge to give the King any power at all in any Ecclesiastick cause it is a senselesse untruth The Warners arguments are not more idle and weake The Warners insolent vanity then his triumphing upon them is insolent for he concludes from these wise and strong demonstrations that the poor covenant is apparently deceitfull unvalide impious rebellious and what not yea that all the learned divines in Europe wil conclude it so that all the covenanters themselfes who have any ingenuity must grant this much and that no knowing