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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85826	The Covenanters plea against absolvers. Or, A modest discourse, shewing why those who in England & Scotland took the Solemn League and Covenant, cannot judge their consciences discharged from the obligation of it, by any thing heretofore said by the Oxford men; or lately by Dr Featly, Dr. Gauden, or any others. In which also several cases relating to promisory oathes, and to the said Covenant in special, are spoken to, and determined by Scripture, reason, and the joynt suffrages of casuists. Contrary to the indigested notions of some late writers; yet much to the sense of the Reverend Dr. Sanderson. Written by Theophilus Timorcus a well-wisher to students in casuistical divinity.	Timorcus, Theophilus.; Gataker, Thomas, 1574-1654, attributed name.; Vines, Richard, 1600?-1656, attributed name.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691, attributed name.	1660 (1660)	Wing G314; Thomason E1053_13; ESTC R202125	85,431	115

it be so or no. So that he is under a necessity of sinning contracted by his own fault and upon supposition that he retains this conscience which he is bound to acquit himself of § 10. We presume this is the case of very few in truth If it be the case of any we are afraid that at the Great day they will find their Oath obliging notwithstanding the errour of their conscience If any onely pretend such a thing to get quit of their Oath Let not our soul enter into their secrets unto their Assemblies Let not our honour be united CHAP X. The Absolvers Plea against the Covenant as Impeditivum boni false and if true not conclusive according to Casuists § 1. VVE are now come to the last pretence for the unlawfulness of the Covenant as to the matter from which some would inferre the non-obligation of it Some late Absolvers have confidently told the world That none are bound to the Observance of Oaths further than till they see that their Observance would hinder some good which might accrue from the violation of them which being once laid down for a Principle it is but telling their Proselytes That their persisting in endeavours to extirpate the Government of the Church by Archbishops Bishops Deans Deans and Chapters Prebends Chancellours Commissaries Archdeacons will hinder the great good settlement order Communion with the Catholick Church c. and they have presently discharged all mens Soules as they think from the Obligation of the Covenant § 2. It were no dangerous matter we think to grant their Principle and to challenge all of them to instance in any one particular piece of good which the restoring of this Government would put us in possession of more than any other Government would do Is it conformity to the Apostolical or Primitive Church We challenge them all to prove any such Form of Government either in the Apostles times or for some hundred of years after Is it conformity with the Reformed Churches Are there any Bishops in the Churches of God in Scotland Holland France Are there any Archbishops or any single Persons challenging sole power in Ordination or Jurisdiction in any other Reformed Church whatsoever Are there any Deans Prebends Chancellours Commissaries Archdeacons c. to be found amongst them Indeed in the Popish Church there are no where else we think Is the good they talk of order suppression of Schism and errour Will not Presbytery do the same think we If not what hinders Certainly with the help of the civil powers it will without it Prelacy can do nothing § 3. If we may judge by what is past we have no great reason to promise our selves any such eminent Good by Prelacy Under that Government it was that so many godly learned and able Ministers were silenced suspended imprisoned banished so many thousands of godly people forced to leave their Countreys imprisoned hunted from one place to another they and their Families undone and all because they could not allow humane impositions in the worship of that God who is a Spirit and will be worshipped in spirit and truth who requires to be sanctified of them that draw nigh unto him Lev. 10.3 and hath revealed his wrath of old against the Jews for doing or allowing that in his Sanctuary which he commanded not This is the good England hath formerly had by them For Deans and Prebends all the good they did was to eat up the Fruits of the Land enjoying profits and great Revenues for no considerable Service at all § 4. But it must not be granted That our apprehending the observance of an Oath as hindring some good which might accrue by the violation will discharge us of our Obligation to observe it Indeed Gregor Sayrus resolves that every private person hath a power to commute an Oath for somthing better but Sylvester and others Greg. Sayri clavis reg l. 5. ca. 8. n. 15. oppose him and think the Pope must first determine the good to be better Soto Sanches Cajetan Panormitane Arragon and others do allow some cases wherein they say an Oath hindering some other good is void But they are all agreed in several limitations 1. It must be a greater good which is hindred 2. This greater good must be no otherwise attaineable than by the violation of the Oath For if we can keep our Oath and obtain the good too unquestionably we ought to do it 3. That melius bonum that greater good must be certain not doubtful and disputable and only possible 4. They all agree That the Oath thus irritated and made void must be only made to God For say they if it be made to our Brother also for his advantage much more if it be a Covenant made with him upon a valuable consideration his consent is necessary to the commutation before the Oath can be made void Now when our Absolvers shall have shewed us a good certainly greater than the peace of Conscience which may be had from the keeping of a lawful Oath and make it appear to us that this good can no other way be attained than by breaking our Covenant and that if we break it we may certainly be put into possession of it and lastly that all the people of Scotland and England mutually engaged in this Covenant have consented to the violation they shall have said somthing and till that time this Plea consists of nothing but aëry non-significant words § 5. To return to our eminent Dr. Sanderson He determines this case more like a Divine than some others Thus Juramentum non esse illicitum aut obligandi vim amittere praecisè ob hoc quod videatur esse impeditivum majoris boni De juram prom prael 3. §. 12. i. e. An Oath is not unlawful nor doth it lose its obligatory vertue precisely for this because it seems an obstacle to a greater good unless saith he other circumstances also concur as usually there do which either evince it unlawful or non-obliging He gives this reason because in all cases it is not true that every one is obliged to do what is best So that our Brethren must desert this Plea and find out somthing else to prove the Oath unlawful or non-obligatory And indeed to grant that the Prospect of a greater Good to be obtained by the violation of an Oath would discharge us from its observance is to open such a gap for all manner of perjury as all might creep out at and to take away all manner of security which either God could have of his Creatures or man of his Brother by any verbal obligation whatsoever But we have said enough to prove that nothing hath been said against the matter of the Covenant sufficient to prove it either unlawful or void and not obligatory CHAP. XI The Covenant cleared from any faults as to the Efficient Causes whether external or internal sufficient to make it void being once taken The Plea from the supposed unlawfulnesse of

several indeed supposed it that an Oath so directed and imposed doth not oblige against such a pretended imperfect legal establishment is we confess a piece of divinity the depth of which we cannot fathom nor yet believe that there is any truth in it If any of our Brethren in earnest think otherwise they should do well to bring forth their strong Reasons or to tell us what one Divine Ancient or Modern is of their minds till that time it is sufficient for us out of a reverence to the sacred Name of God to dissent from them in this notion proved as yet by no Scripture no reason nor any creditable authority § 39. For what some tell us that this Covenant was against Magna Charta the Petition of Right c. they appear to us scarce to have read either The latter saith not a word of the Government of the Church In the former there is only this general Article We have granted to God Magna Charta cap. 1. and by this our present Charter have confirmed for us and our heirs for ever That the Church of England shall be free and have all her whole Rights and Liberties inviolable And may she not be so though Prelacy by extirpated Are Archbishops and Bishops c. more concerned in Magna Charta than Abbots and Priors Yet what are become of their Liberties Was not the priviledge of Sanctuary of making Canons c. some of those Rights Yet are they not taken away by Act of Parliament Surely so may the Church-Governours mentioned in the Covenant CHAP. VII The Absolvers Plea from Schisme considered The nature of Schisme No guilt of Schisme by endeavouring to extirpate Prelacy Their Plea also from the supposed contradiction in the matter of the Covenant to the matter of former Oaths particularly the Coronation Oath the Oaths of Allegiance Supremacy and Canonical Obedience answered and found vain § 1. OUR Absolvers foreseeing these easie Answers to their afore-mentioned Pleas or at least being aware that if Prelacy be left to stand only upon a Parliamentary Foundation it will be liable to extirpation by succeeding Parliaments have not rested here but raised their Plea higher telling us That Episcopacy hath no Original but from the Apostles and looks very like an immediate institution of Christ's either preceptive and explicit or tacit and exemplary so that to abjure it runs us upon a Rock of Schism and dasheth us both in Opinion and practise against the judgment and custom of the Catholick Church in all places and ages till of later daies from the Apostles daies with whom we ought to keep communion in all things of so ancient tradition and universal observation In these words or to this sense they speak all § 2. It is very observable that if there were any truth in this Plea it would not only conclude all our Brethren of the Reformed Churches in France Holland Geneva Scotland N. England most parts of Germany Schismaticks For that is nothing with those with whom we have to do but it would also supersede all civil power 's thoughts for ever medling with the Government of the Church for fear of violating an Institution of Christ and the order of the whole Catholick Church and being posted up for Schismaticks § 3. But is it so indeed Or is this the noise of those who thunder thus because they cannot hope with any solid Arguments to do much let us a little consider these big phrases and see what they signifie The Papists have so enured us to this suffering under the reproach of Schismaticks for breaking off from the order of their Catholick Church that we begin not so much to regard the Charge or at least not to believe every one who calls out Schism and Schismaticks when they have nothing else to say § 4. Schism properly signifies a Rent or Breach which when it is from or in the community of a Church is very sinful both because against the Command of God directly and interpretatively but it must be from the Communion of a Church walking according to the Divine Rule otherwise if the Churches deviation especially be great there 's no great fear of any guilt by Schism in departing from it § 5. If indeed God by his Word hath any where appointed that the Government of his Universal Church shall be by Archbishops Bishops Archdeacons Chancellours Commissaries c. and the Church hath alwaies walked in that order we confess then that out Oath against it is Schismatical But we desire our Brethren to prove this § 6. Nay if God hath left the Church to its liberty to set up what Form of Government she pleases and the Universal Church hath at any time met in a perfect General Council and determined this inalterable Form or by an universal practise hath kept to such a Form there may be some colour to charge us but neither shall our Brethren prove this to us § 7. We challenge all the friends of Prelacy to make it good from any authentick Record that for three hundred years after Christ there were any such Creatures known in the Church of God as Archbishops Archdeacons Prebends Commissaries Chancellors Pope Stephen indeed in the 3 Century is called the chief Bishop of Rome in the fabulous decretal Epistles but Cyprian writing to him cals him no more than his Colleague In the 4 Century we read of Bishops Elders and Deacons Ambrose mentions them Dionisius and Optatus mention no more in this age Hierom in his Epistle to Nepotianus tels us l. de Dign Sacerdot that Bishops and Presbyters were the same only the latter were the younger men Ambrose tels us they had one and the same Ordination Indeed towards the end of the 4 Century which was 400 years after Christ they began to multiply Ecclesiastical Officers then came in Readers and Exorcists Subdeacons Archdeacons and Archbishops c. But we have already forsook the Order of the Church at that time when it was wofully declined from its Primitive Purity and shall be no more guilty of Schism in going a little further § 7. We said before that we find in Ecclesiastical story early mention of Bishops but not of such as ours were in England Our Bishops 1. Lay claim to a sole and single power in Ordination and Jurisdiction 2. They are not chosen by the People nor Clergy 3. They are attended with Deans and Prebends Archdeacons c. 4. They execute their power by Lay Chancellours Commissaries c. 5. They have used to exercise a power in depriving Ministers suspending silencing excommunicating for trivial cases not paying a Tythe Goose or Pig c. Let our Brethren shew us such an Episcopacy before Antichrist was up in his Throne if they can if not they vainly charge us with Schism in swearing to endeavour the extirpation of such a Prelacy for which is no foundation in the practise either of the Primitive or any Reformed Church § 8. We are further told how truly