of Jealousie no man did question but all who were to have the managing of that war should be free of all just causes of Jealousie which could be made appear not to half a dozen of Ministers but to any competent judicatory according to the laws of the Kingdom The Warner hath not been careful to inform himself where the knot of the difference lay and so gives out his own groundless conjectures for true Historical narrations which he might easily have helped by a more attentive reading of our publick Declarations The second fault he finds with our Church is that they proclaim in print their dis-satisfaction with that ingagement It is one of the liberties of the Church of Scotland to publish declarations as favourable to the malignant Party c. Ans The Warner knows not that it is one of the liberties of the Church of Scotland established by law and long custom to keep the people by publick Declarations in their duty to God when men are like to draw them away to sin according to that of Esay 8. v. 12 13. What in great humility piety and wisdom was spoken to the world in the declaration of the Church concerning that undertaking was visible enough for the time to any who were not peremptory to follow their own ways and the lamentable event since hath opened the eyes of many who before would not see to acknowledge their former erors but if God should speak never so loud from heaven the Warner and his Party will stop their ears for they are men of such gallant Spirits as scorn to submit either to God or men but in a Roman constancy they will be ever the same though their counsels and ways be found never so palpably pernicious The third thing the Warner lays to the charge of our Church is The leavy was never off red to be stopped by the Church that they retarded the leavies Ans In this also the Warner shews his ignorance or malice for how sore soever the leavy as then stated and mannaged was against the hearts of the Church yet their opposition to it was so cold-rife and smal that no complaint needs be made of any retardment from them So soon as the Commanders thought it expedient there was an Army gotten up so numerous and strong that with the ordinary blessing of God was abundantly able to have done all the professed service but where the aversion of the hearts of the Church and the want of their prayers is superciliously contemned what marvell that the strongest arm of flesh be quickly broken in pieces The Church was not the cause of the gathering at Mauchlin-Moor The fourth Charge is most calumnious That the Church gathered the Country together in Arms at Mauchlin-Moor to expose the Expedition Ans No Church-man was the cause of that meeting a number of Yeomen being frighted from their houses did fly away to that corner of the Land that they might not be forced against their conscience to go as Souldiers to England while their number did grow and they did abide in a Body for the security of their persons upon a sudden a part of the Army came upon them some Ministers being near by occasion of the Communion at Mauchlin the day before were good Instruments with the people to go away in peace And when the matter was tryed to the bottom by the most Eagle-eyed of the Parliament nothing could be found contrary to the Ministers Protestation that they were no ways the cause of the peoples convening or fighting at Mauchlin The Assembly is helpful and not hurtful to the Parliament The paralel that the Warner makes betwixt the general Assembly and Parliament is malicious in all its parts For the first though the one Court be Civil and the other Spiritual yet the Presbyterians lay the Authority of both upon a divine Foundation that for conscience sake the Courts Civil must be obeyed in all their lawful Commands as well as the Assemblies of the Church God being the Author of the politick Order as well as the Ecclesiastick and the revenger of the contempt of the one as well as the other But what doth the Warner mean to mock at Ministers for carrying themselves as the Embassadors of Christ for judging according to the rule of Scripture for caring for life eternal Is he become so shamefully impious as to perswade Ministers to give over the care of life eternal to lay aside the holy Scripture and deny their embassage from Jesus Christ Behold what Spirit leads our Prelates while they jeer the World out of all Relâ—gion and chase away Ministers from Christ from Scripture from eternal Life Of the second part of the Paralel That people are more ready to obey their Ministers then their Magistrates what shall be made All the power which Ministers have with the people is builded on their love to God and Religion how much soever it is a good Statesman will not envy it for he knows that God and Conscience constrain Ministers to employ all the power they have with the people to the good of the Magistrate as the Deputy and Servant of God for the peoples true good The Warner here understands best his own meaning while he scoffs at Ministers for their threatning of men with hells fire Are our Prelates come to such open Proclamations of their Atheism as to print their desires to banish out of the hearts of people all fear not only of Church-Censures but even of hell it self Whither may not Satan drive at last the Instruments of his Kingdom The third part of the Paralel consists of a number of unjust and false Imputations before particularly refuted What he subjoyns of the power of the general Assembly to name Committees to sit in the Intervals of Assemblies The appointment of Committees is a right of every Court as well Ecclesiastick as Civil it is but a poor Charge Is it not the dayly practise of the Parliaments of Scotland to nominate their Committees of State for the Intervals of Parliament Is it not one inherent right to every Court to name some of their number to cognosce upon things within their own sphere at what ever times the Court it self finds expedient however the Judicatories of the Church by the Laws of the Kingdom being authorized to meet when themselves think fit both ordinarily and pro renata their power of appointing Committees for their own Affairs was never questioned and truly these Committees in the times of our late troubles when many were lying in wait to disturb both Church and State have been forced to meet oftner then otherwise any of their Members did desire whose diversion from their particular Charges though for attendance on the publick is joyned with so great fashery and expence that with all their heart they could be glad to decline it if fear of detriment to the Church made not these meetings very necessary CHAP. XI The Presbytery is no burden to
entry from tendering their propositions and before they were ever heard to stop his Majesties eares with grievous prejudice against all that possibly they could speak though the world sees that the onely apparent fountain of hope upon earth for the recovery of the wofully confounded affaires of the King is in the hands of that Anti-prelaticall Nation but it is the hope of these who love the welfare of the KING and the people of the Churches and Kingdomes of Britain that the hand of God which hath broken all the former devices of the Prelats shall crush this their engine also Our warner undertaketh to oppugne the Scots discipline in a way of his own none of the most rationall The irationall way of the Warners writing He does not so much as pretend to state a question nor in his whole Book to bring against any main position of his opposites either Scripture Father or reason nor so much as assay to answer any one of their arguments against Episcopacy only he culs out some of their by-tenets belonging little or nothing to the main questions and from them takes occasion to gather together in a heap all the calumnies which of old or of late their known enemies out of the forge of their malice and fraud did obtrude on the credulity of simple people also some decorted passages from the books of their friends to bring the way of that Church into detestation without any just reason The most of his stuffe is borrowed and â—ong ago confuted These practises in our Warner are the less pardonable that though he knows the chief of his allegations to bee but borrowed from his late much beloved Comrades Master Corbet in his Lysimachus Nicanor and Master Maxwel in his Issachart Burden yet he was neither deterred by the strange punishments which God from heaven inflicted visibly on both these Calumniators of their Mother Church nor was pleased in his repeating of their calumnious arguments to releeve any of them from the exceptions under the which they stand publickly confuted I suppose to his own distinct knowledge I know certainly to the open view of thousands in Scotland England and Ireland but it makes for the Warners design to dissemble here in Holland that ever he heard of such Books as Lysimachus Nicanor Issachars Burden much lesse of Master Baylies Answer to both Printed some years agoe at London Edenburg and Amsterdam without a rejoynder from any of that faction to this day The contumelions bitternes of the Warners spirit However let our Warner be heard In the very first page of his first chapter we may tast the sweetnesse of his meek Spirit at the very entry he concludeth but without any pretence to an argument there or else where the discipline of the Church of Scotland to be their own invention whereon they dote the Diana which themselves have canonized their own dreams the counterfeit image which they faine hath fallen down from Jupiter which they so much adore the very quintessence of refined Popery not only most injurious to the civil Magistrate most oppressive to the Subject most pernicious to both but also incensistent with all forms of civil Government destructive to all sorts of Policy a rack to the conscience the heaviest pressure that can fall on a people So much truth and sobernesse doth the Warner breath out in his very first page Though he had no regard at all to the cleer passages of Holy Scripture whereupon the Scots do build their Anti-Episcopall tenets nor any reference to the harmony of the reformed Churches which unanimously joyn with the Scots in the main of their Discipline especially in that which the Doctor hates most therein the rejection of Episcopacy yet methinks some little respect might have appeared in the man to the Authority of the Magistrate and civill Laws which are much more ingeminated by this worthy Divine over all his book then the holy Scriptures Can be so soon forget that the whole discipline of the Church of Scotland as it is there taught and practised The Warner stricks at the Scots Discipline through the Kings sides is established by Acts of Parliament and hath all the strength which the King and State can give to a civill Law the Warner may well be grieved but hardly can he be ignorant that the Kings Majesty at this day does not at all question the justice of these sanctions what ever therefore be the Doctors thoughts yet so long as he pretends to keep upon his face the mask of loyalty he must be content to eat his former words yea to burn his whole book otherwise he layes against his own professions a slander upon the King and His Royal Father of great ignorance or huge injustice the one having established the other offring to establish by their civil laws a Church Discipline for the whole Nation of Scotland which truly is the quintessence of Popery pernicious and destructive to all formes of civil Government and the heaviest pressures that can fall upon a people All the cause of of this choler which the Warner is pleased to speak out is the attempt of the Scots In the thresshold he stumbles on the Kings conscience to obtrude their Discipline upon the King contrary to the dictats of his own conscience and to compell forraign Churches to embrace the same Ans Is it not presumption in our warner so soon to tell the world in print what are the dictats of the Kings conscience as yet he is not his Majesties confessor and if the Clerk of the Closet had whispered somewhat in his care what he heard in secret he ought not to have proclaimed it without a warrant but we do altogether mistrust his reports of the Kings conscience for who will beleeve him that a knowing and a just King will ever be content to command and impose on a whole Nation by his laws a discipline contrary to the dictats of his own conscience This great stumble upon the Kings conscience in the first page must be an ominous cespitation on the threshold The other imputation hath no just ground The Scots never offered to impose any thing upon England the Scots did never meddle to impose upon forraign Churches there is question of none but the English and the Scots were never so presumptuous as to impose any thing of theirs upon that Church It was the Assembly of Divines at Westminster convocat by the Parliament of England which after long deliberation and much debate unanimously concluded the Presbyterian Discipline in all the parts therof to be agreable to the word of God it was the two Houses of the Parliament of England without a contrary voice who did ordaine the abolition of Episcopacy and the setting up of Presbyteries and the â—ynods in England and Ireland Can here the Scots be said to compell the English to dance after their pipe when their own Assembly of Divines begins the song when the Lords and Commons
assembled in Parliament of England concurre without a disordering opinion when the King himself for perfecting the harmony offers to add his voice for three whole years together In the remainder of the Chapter the warner layes upon the Scots three other crimes First That they count it Erastianisme to put the Government of the Church in the hand of the Magistate Aâ—s The Doctors knowledg is greater then to be ignorant that all these goe under the name of tne Erastians The elder prelats of Englaâ—d were Erastians and more but the younger are as much anti-Erastian as the most rigid of the Presbytery who walking in Erastus ways of flattering the Magistrate to the prejudice of the just rights of the Church run yet out beyond Erastus personall tenets I doubt if that man went so far as the Doctor here and elsewhere to make all Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction but a part of the Magistrats civill power which for its Execution the supreme Governours of any state may derive out of the fountain of their supremacy to what ever hands civill or ecclesiastick themselves think fit to commit it Let the Doctor adde to this much knowledge but a little ingenuity and he shall confesse that his brethren the latter Bishops who claim Episcopacy by Divine Right are all as much against this Erastian Cesaro-papisme as any Presbyterian in Scotland The Elder Bishops indeed of England and all the Laws there for Episcopacy seem to be point blank according to the Erastian errors for they make the Crown and Royall Supremacy the originall root and fountain whence all the iscipline of the Church did flow as before the days of Henry the Eight it did out of the Popes headship of the Church â—under Christ However let the Doctor ingeniously speak out his sence and I am deceived if he shall not acknowledge that how grosse an Erastian so ever himself and the eldest Bishops of England might have been yet that long agoe the most of his prelaticall friends have become as much opposite to Erastianisme as the most rigid of the Presbyterians The other crime he layes to the charge of the * The Scots first and greatest crime is irreconciliablenesse with Rome Scots is that they admit no latitude in Religion but will have every opinion a fundamentall Article of Faith and are averse from the reconcialition of the Protestant Churches Ans If the Warner had found it seasonable to vent a little more of his true sense in this point he had charged this great crime far more home upon the head of the Scots for indeed though they were ever far from denying the true degrees of importance which do cleerly appear among the multitude of Christian truths yet the great quarrel here of the Warner and his friends against them is that they spoyled the Canterburian designe of reconciling the Protestant Churches not among themselves but with the Church of Rome When these good men were with all earnestness proclaiming the greatest controversies of Papists and Protestants to be upon no fundamentals but onely disputable opinions wherein belief 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 needless belief of problematick truths in piety charity and zeal to make up the breach and take away the schism should be at all the pains to make the journey to Rome While this designe is far advanced and furiously driven on in all the three Kingdoms and by none more in Ireland then the Bishop of Derry behold the rude and plain Blue-caps step in to the play and mar all the Game By no art by no terrour can these be gotten along to such a reconciliation This was the first and greatest crime of the Scots which the Doctor here glances at but is so wise and modest a man as not to bring it above board The last charge of the chapter is that the Scots The Scots were ever anti-episcopal keep not still that respect to the Bishops of England which they were wont of old in the beginning of Q. Elizabeth's Reign Ans In that Letter cited by the Warner from the general Assembly of Scotland 1566. Sess 3. there is no word of approbation to the Office of Episcopacy they speak 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 moderate Episcopacy the troubling of the best and most zealous servants of Christ for idle and fruitless Ceremonies How great a reverence the Church of Scotland at that time carried to Prelacy may be seen in their Supplication to the secret Councel of Scotland in that same Assembly the very day and Session wherein they writ the Letter in hand to the Bishops of England The Arch-bishp 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 ancient 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 Councel in distinct terms that they would never be more subject unto that usurped Tyranny then they would be to the Divel himself So reverend an opinion had the Church of Scotland at that time of Episcopal Jurisdiction The Prelates lately were found in the act of introducing Popery into the Church and Tyranny into the Kingdom But suppone that some fourscore yeers ago the Scots before they had tasted the fruits of Protestant Bishops had judged them tolerable in England yet since that time by the long tract of mischiefs which constantly have accompanied the order of Prelacy they have been put upon a more accurate inspection of its nature and have found it not onely a needlesse but a noxious and poysonous weed necessary to be plucked up by the root and cast over the hedge Beside all its former malefices it hath been deprehended of late in the very act of everting the foundations both of Religion and Government of bringing in Popery and Tyranny in the Churches and States of all the three Kingdoms 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 ago with great wisdom it had been cast out of all the rest of the reformed Churches had not the Scots all the reason in the world to applaud such pious just and
it for in that assembly where unanimously the subscription of the second book of disciplin by all the ministers of the Kingdom was decryed his Majestie some time in person always by the Chancelor his Commissioner was present and in the act for subscription Sess 10 Augusti 8. it is expresly said that not only all the Ministers but also all the Commissioners present did consent among which Commissioners the chancelor his Majesties Commissioner was chief But neither the King nor the Church could get it to passe the Parliament in regard of the opposition which some States-men did make unto these parts thereof which touched on their own interest of unjust advantage this was the only stick The Warners hypocrisy calling that a crime which himself counts a vertue The next instance of the Churches encroachment is their usurpation of all the old rents of the clergy as the Churches patrimony and their decerning in an assembly that nothing in the next Parliament should passe before the Church were fully restored to her rents Ans Consider here the Warners hypocrisie and unjustice he challenges the Presbyterians for that which no Prelate in the world did ever esteem a fault a meer declaration of their judgment that the Church had a just right to such rents as by Law and long possession were theirs and not taken away from them by any lawfull means What if here they had gone on with the most of the prelatical party to advance that right to a jus divinum what if they had put themselves by a command from Court into the possession of that right without a processe as divers of the Warners friends were begun lately to do in all the three Kingdoms But all that he can here challenge the Scots for is a meer declaration of their simple right with a supplication to the Regent his Grace that he would indeavour in the next Parliament to procure a ninth part of the Churches patrimony for the maintenance of the ministry and the poor of the Country for all the rent that the Churches then could obtain or did petition was but a third of the Thirds of the Benefices or Tithes That ever any Assembly in Scotland did make any other addresse to the Parliament for stipends then by way of humble supplication it is a great untruth The last instance is the erecting of Presbyteries through all the Kingdom by an Act of the Church alone Answ I have shewn already the untruth of this Allegation the proof here brought for it is grounded only upon an ambiguous word which the Warners ignorance in the Scotish Discipline and Presbytery though the main subject of his Book permits him not to understand The Presbyteries were set up by the King after the Assembly 1580 but the second Book of Discipline of which alone the citation speaks how-ever injoyned by many Assemblies yet it could never be gotten ratified in any parliament only because of those parts of it which did speak for the patrimony of the Church and oppugne the right of patronage How well the Warner hath proved the Presbyterian practices to be injurious to the Magistrate we have considered The Warner a gross Erastian possibly he will be more happy in his next undertaking in his demonstrations that their doctrinal principles do trample on the Magistrates Supremacy and Laws Their first principle he takes out of the second book of Discipline Chap. 7. That no Magistrate nor any but Ecclesiastick persons may vote in Synods Ans Though I finde nothing of this in the place cited yet there is nothing in it that crosseth either the Laws or the Kings Supremacy for according to the Acts of Parliament of Scotland both old and late and the constant practice of that Church the onely members of Presbyteries are Ministers and ruling Elders Is it the Warners minde to vent here his super-Erastianism that all Ecclesiastick Assemblies Classical Provincial National are but the arbitrary courts of the Magistrate for to advise him in the execution of his inherent power about matters Ecclesiastical and for this cause that it is in his arbitrement to give a decisive voice in all Church Assembles to whom and how many soever he will Though this may be the Warners minde as it hath been some of his friends yet the most of the prelatical party will not maintain him herein How-ever such principles are contrary to the Laws of Scotland to the professions also and practices of all the Princes and Magistrates that ever have lived there Prelaticall principles impossibilitate all solid peace betwixt the King and his Kingdoms But the Warner here may possibly glance at another principle of his good friends who have been willing lately to vent before all Brittain in print their elevating the supremacy of Soveraigns so far above Laws that whatever people have obtained to be established by never so many Assemblies and Parliaments and confirmed with never so many great seals of ratification and peaceably enjoyed by never so long a possession yet it is nothing but commendable wisdom and justice for the same Prince who made the first Concessions or any of his successors whenever they find themselves strong enough to cancel all and make void what ever Parliaments Assemblies Royall ratifications and the longest possession made foolish people beleeve to be most firm and unquestionable To this purpose Bishop Maxwel from whom much of this VVarning is borrowed doth speak in his Sacro-Sancta regum Majestas Though this had bin the Cabin-divinity of our Prelats yet what can be their intentions in speaking of it out in these times of confusion themselves must declare for the clear consequent of such doctrine seems to be a necessity either of such Warners perpetuall banishment from the Courts and ears of Soveraigns or else that subjects be kept up for ever in a strong jealousie and fear that they can never be secure of their Liberties though never so well ratified by Lawes and promises of Princes any longer then the sword and power remains in their own hand to preserve what they have obtained Such Warners so long as they are possessed with such maximes of state are clear everters of the first fundations of trust betwixt Soveraigne and Subjects they take away any possibility of any solid peace of any confident settlement in any troubled State before both parties be totally ruined or one become so strong that they need no more to feare the others malecontentment in any time to come Our second challenged principle is that we teach the whole power of convocating assemblies to be in the Church Erastian Prelats evert the legal foundations of all Government Ans The Warners citations prove not that we maintain any such assertion our doctrin and constant practise hath been to ascribe to the King a power of calling Synods when and wheresoever he thought fit but that which the Warner seems to point at is our tenet of an intrinsicall power in the Church to meet as
for the Word and Sacraments so for discipline in this all who are Christians old and late the Prelaticall and Popish party as well as others go along with us to maintain in doctrin and practise a necessity even in times of persecution that the Church must meet for the worship of God and execution of Ecclesiastick discipline among their own Members In this the doctrine and practise of the Scots is according to their setled laws uncontroverted by his Majestie If the VVarner will maintain that in reason and conscience all the Churches of the world are obliged to dissolve and never more to meet when an erroneous Magistrate by his Tyrannous Edict commands them to do so let him call up Erastus from the dead to be disciplined in this new doctrine of the Prelats impious loyalty The third Principle is that the judgment of true and false doctrine The finall determination of all Ecclesiastick causes by the Laws of Scotland is in the generall Assembly of suspension and deprivation of Ministers belongeth to the Church Ans If this be a great heresie it is to be charged as much upon the State as upon the Church for the Acts of Parliament give all this power to the Church neither did the Laws of England or of any Christian State Popish or Protestant refuse to the Church the determination of such Eccclesiastick causes some indeed do debate upon the power of appeals from the Church but in Scotland by the Law as no appeal in things civil goes higher then the Parliament so in matters Ecclesiastick none goes above the Generall Assembly Complaints indeed may go to the King and Parliament for redresse of any wrong has been done in Ecclesiastick Courts who being Custodes Religionis may by their coercive power command Ecclesiastick Courts to rectifie any wrong done by them contary to Scripture or if they persist take order with them But that two or three Pâ—aelates should become a Court of delegates to receive appeals from a general assembly neither Law nor practice in Scotland did ever admit nor doth the word of God or any Equity require it In the Scots assemblies no causes are agitat but such as the Parliament hath agreed to be Ecclesiastick and of the Churches cognisance no process about any Church rent was ever cognosced upon in Scotland but in a civill Court it s very false that ever any Church censure much lesse the highest of excommunication did fall upon any for robbing the Church of its patrimony The divine right of discipline is the tenet of the most of Praelats Our fourth challenged principle is that we maintain Ecclesiastick jurisdiction by a divine right Ans Is this a huge crime is there divine right in the world either Papist or Protestant except a few praelatical Erastians but they doe so If the Warner will profess as it seems he must the contradiction of that which he ascribes to us his avowed tenet must be that all Ecclesiastick power flowes from the Magistrate that the Magistrate himself may execute all Church censures that all the Officers appointed by Christ for the government of his Church may be laid aside and such a kind of governors be put in their place as the Magistrate shall be pleased to appoint that the spiritual sword and Keyes of heaven belong to the Magistrate by vertue of his supremacy as wel as the temporal sword and Keyes of his earthly Kingdom our difference herefrom the Warner will not I hope be found the greatest heresie All the power of the Church in Scotland is legal and with the Magistrates consent Our last challenged principle is that we will have all our power against the Magistrate that is although he dissent Ans It is an evil commentary that all must be against the Magistrate which is done against his consent but in Scotland there is no such case for all jurisdiction which the Church there doth enjoy they have it with the consent of the Magistrate all is ratified to them by such acts of Parliament as his Majâ—stie doth not at all controvert Concerning that odious case the Warner intimates whither in time of persecution when the Magistrate classheth with the Church any Ecclesiastick discipline be then to be exercised himself can better answer it then we who with the ancient Christians do think that on all hazards even of life the Church may not be dissolved but meet in dens and in the caves and in the wilderness for the word and Sacraments and keeping it self pure by the divine ordinance of Discipline Having cleered all the pernicious practises and all the wicked Dâ—ctrines which the Warner layes upon us The Prelats rather then to lay aside their own interest will keep the King and his people in misery for ever I think it needless to insist upon these defences which he in his abundant charity brings for us but in his own way that he may with the greater advantage impugne them only I touch one passage whereupon he makes injurious exclamations that which Mr. Gilespie in his theoremes writes when the Magistrate abuses his power unto Tyranny and makes havock of all it is lawful to resist him by some extraordinary wayes and means which are not ordinarily to be allowed see the principles from which all our miseries and the loss of our Gratious Master hath flowed Ans We must here yeeld to the Warner the great equity and necessity that every doctrine of a Presbyter should be charged on the Presbytery it self and that any Presbyter teaching the lawfulness of a Parliaments defensive arms is tantamont to the Churches taking of armes against the King These smal inconsequences we must permit the Warner to swallow down without a stick however we do deny that the maxime in hand was the fountain of any of our miseries or the cause at all of the loss of our late Soveraign Did ever his Majesty or any of his advised Councellors declare it simply unlawful for a Parliament to take arms for defence in some extraordinary cases however the unhappiness of the Canterburian Praelats did put his Majesty upon these courses which did begin and promote all our miserie and to the very last these men were so wicked as to refuse the loosing of the bands which their hands had tyed about his misinformed conscience yea to this day they will not give their consent that his Majestie who now is should lay aside Episcopacy were it for the gaining of the peaceable possession of all his three Kingdoms but are urgers of him night and day to adhere to their errours upon the hazard of all the miseries that may come on his person on his family and all his people yet few of them to this day durst be so bold as to print with this Warner the unlawfulness of a Parliaments armes against the Tyranny of a Prince in any imaginable case how extraordinary soever CHAP. III. The Lawes and customes of Scotland admit of no appeal from the
general assembly IN this Chapter the challenge is that there are no appeals from the general Assembly to the King as in England from the Bishops Courts to the King in Chauncery Appeales in Scotland from a generall Assemâ—ly were no lesse irrational then illegall where a Commission uses to be given to delegats who discusse the appeals 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 general assembly is in the Church of Scotland both are the highest Courts in their own kinde There is no appeal any where in moderate Monarchies to the Kings person but to the King in certain legall Courts as the Warner here confesseth the appeal from Bishops lies not to the King in his person but to the King in his Court of Chancery As no man in Scotland is permitted to appeal in a civill cause from the Lords of Session much lesse from the Parliament so no man in an ecclesiastick cause is permitted by the very civil Law of Scotland to appeal from the general Assembly According to the Scots order and practice the King in person or else by his high Commissioner sits as usually in the generall Assembly as in Parliament But though it were not so yet an appeal 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 Kingdom the other but of two or three often of very small either abilities or integrity who yet may be more fit to discern in an Ecclesiastick cause then a single Bishop or his Official the ordinary Trustee in all acts of Jurisdiction for the whole Dioces But the Scots way of managing Ecclesiastick causes is a great deal more just safe and Satisfactory to any rational 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 relief from his Sentence except by an appeal as of old to the Pope and his Delegats so thereafter to the King though never to be cognosced upon by himself but as it was of old by two or three Delegats the weakest of all Courts often for the quality and ever for the number of the Judges The Churches â—â—st severity aâ—â—inst Montâ—â—mery Aâ—â—mson was â—proven by â—â—e King and â—â—e parties â—â—mselves 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 well known to the Warner as he made this chapter disproportionably short so readily be might have deleted it altogether But these men were infamous not onely in their Ministeriall charges but in their life and conversation both became so insolent that contrary to the established order of the Church and Kingdom being suborned by wicked Statesmen who in that day of darkness had well neer brought ruine both to King and Countrey would needs take upon them the Office of Arch-Bishops While the Assembly was in Process with them for their manifold and high misdeameanors the King was moved by them and their evil Patrons to shew his high displeasure against the Assemblies of the Church they for his Majâ—sties 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 therewith both these unhappy men were brought to a humble confession of their crimes and such signs of repentance that both after a renunciation of their titulary Bishopricks were re-admitted to the function of the Ministry which they had deserted Never any other before or after in Scotland did appeal from the generall Assembly to the King the late Excommunicate Prelate in their declinator against the Assembly of Glasgow did not appeal as I remember to the King but to another Generall Assembly to be constitute according to their own Popish and Tyrannicall principles CHAP. IV. Faulty Ministers in Scotland are lesse exempted from punishment then any other men THe Warner in his fourth Chapter The pride of Prelats lately but never the Presbytery did exempt their fellows from punishment for their civill faults offers to prove that the Scotish Discipline doth exempt Ministers from punishment for any treason or sedition they can act in their Pulpits Answ This challenge is like the rest very false The rules of the Church Discipline in Scotland obliges Churchmen to be subject to punishment not only for every fault for which any other man is lyable to censure but ordains them to be punished for sundry things which in other men are not at all questionable and whatever is consuâ—able in any they appoint it to be much more so in a Minister It is very untruâ— 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 Chaire or a Canonicall Coâ—t did priviledge in England and Ireland from all censure either of Church or State great numbers who were notoriously known to be guilty of the foulest crimes Was ever the Warâ—â—â—â— companion Bishop Aderton challenged for his Sodomy so long as their common Patron of Canterbury did rule the Court did the Warner never hear of a Prelate very sibb to Dâ—ctor 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 Clergy exempting themselves from civill punishments no where in the world are Churchmen more free of crimes deserving civill 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 Prelaâ—icall Divines in England and Ireland lately were for many grossâ— misdemeanors The Warner is injurious to the Ministers of Holland But why does the Warners anger run out so far as to the Preachers in Holland is it because he knoweth the Church D scipline in Holland to be really the same with that he oppugnes in the Scots and that all the Reformed Churches doe joyn 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 Orators and that they saucily controll the Magistrates in their Pulpits Their crime seems to be that for the love of Christ their Master they are
as the Court required against his Majesties countenancing of treacherous Papists and favouring the enemies of Religion a severe Sentence was pronounced not only against Master Black but also all the Ministers of Edinburgh In the mean time The Tumult of the seventeenth day of December was harmless and no Minister guilty of it malcontented States-men did adde oyl to the flame and at the very instant while the Ministers and their friends are offering a Petition to his Majesty they suborn a villane to cry in one part of the Streets That the Ministers are slain and in another part of the Streets That the King was killed whereupon the People rush all out to the Streets in their Armes and for half an hour at most were in a tumult upon meer ignorance what the fray might be but without the hurt of any one man so soon as it was found that both the King and Ministers were safe the people went all peaceably to their houses This is the very truth of that innocent commotion whereupon the Warner here and his fellowes elsewhere make all their Tragedies None of the Ministry were the Authors or approvers thereof though divers of them suffered sore troubles for it CHAP. V. No Presbyterian ever intended to Excommunicate any Supream Magistrate THe Warner in his fifth Chapter The Prelats ordinarily but the Presbytery never were for rash Excommunications charges the Scots for subjecting the King to the censure of Excommunication and bringing upon Princes all the miseries which the Popes Excommunications of oâ—d were wont to bring upon Anathematised Emperours Ans It does not become the Warner and his fellowes to object to any the abuse of the dreadfull sentence of Excommunication no Church in the world was ever more guilty of that fault then the Prelats of England and Ireland did they ever censure their own Officials for the pronouncing of that terrible sentence most profanly against any they would had it been for the non-payment of the smallest sums of money As for the Scots their doctrine and practice in the point of Excommunication is as considerate as any other Church in the world that censure in Scotland is most rare and only in the case of obstinacy in a great sin what ever be their doctrine in generall with all other Christians and as I think with the P elaticall party themselves that the object of Christian doctrine Sacraments and Discipline is one and the same and that no member of Christ no son of the Church may plead a highness above admonitions and Church Censures yet I know they never thought it expedient so much as to intend any Processe of Câ—uâ—â—h aâ—â—â—â—dversion against their Soveraign To the worlds end I hope they shall not have again greater grievances and truer causes of â—â—ritation from their Princes th n they have had already It may be confidently believed that they who upon so pregnant occasioâ—s dâ—d never so much as intend the beginning of a Process against their King can never be supâ—osed in danger of any such proceeding for time to come The Prelates flatter Princes to their ruine However we love not the abused ground of the Warners flattering of Princes to their own great hur is it so indeed that all the sins of the Princes are only against God that all Kings are not only above all Laws of Church and State but when they fall into the greatest crimes that the worst of men have ever committed that even then their sins must not be against any man or against any Law such Episcopall Doctrine spurs on Princes to these unhappy precipices and oppressed people unto these out-rages that both fall into inextricable calamities CHAP. VI. It grieves the Prelates that Presbyterians are faithfull Watchmen to admonish Princes of their duty The Scots Ministers Preaching for Justice was just and necessary THE sixth Chapter is spent on an other crime of Presbytery it makes the Presbyters cry to the Magistrate for Justice upon capitall Offenders Ans What has Presbytery to doe with this matter were it never so great an offence will the Warner have all the faults of the Prelaticall Faction flow from the fountain of Episcopacy this unconsequentiall reasoning will not be permitted to men below the degrees of Doctors But was it a very great crime indeed for Ministers to plead the cause of the fatherlesse and widowes yea the cause of God their Maker and to preach unto Magistrates that according to Scriptures murtherers ought to die and the Land bee purged from the staine of innocent blood when the shamefull impunity of murther made Scotland by deadly feuds in time of peace a field of war and blood was it not time for the faithful servants of God to exhort the King to execute justice and to declare the danger of most frequent pardons drawn from his hand often against his heart by the opportunity and deceitfull information of powerful solicitors to the great offence of God against the whole Land to the unexpressible grief and wrong of the suffering party to the opening also of a new floodgate of more blood which by a legall revenge in time easily might have been stopped Too much pity in sparing the wilfull shedders of innocent blood ordinarily proves a great cruelty not only towards the disconsolate oppressed who cry to the vicegerents of God the avenger for justice in vain but also towards the soul of him who is spared and the life of many more who are friends either to the oppressor or oppressed As for the named case of Huntly let the world judge Huntleys notorious crymes whether the Ministers had reason often to give Warning against that wicked man and his complices Beside his apostasie and after-seeming repentance his frequent relapses into avowed Popery in Eighty eight he banded with the King of Spaine to overthrow the religion and government of the whole Island and after pardon from time to time did renew his treasonable plots for the ruine of Britain he did commit many murders he did invade under the nose of the King the house of his Cousin the Earl of Murray and most cruelly murdered that gallant Nobleman he appeared with displayed Banner against the King in person he killed thereafter many hundreds of the Kings good people when these multiplyed outrages did cry up to the God of heaven was it not time for the men of God to cry to the Judges of the earth to doe their duty according to the warrant of many Scriptures What a dangerous humor of flattery is this in our Prelates not onely to lull a sleep a Prince in a most sinful neglect of his charge but also to cry out upon others more faithful then themselves for assaying to break off their slumber Never any question in Scotland betwixt the King the Church for Tythes and Patronages by their wholsom and seasonable admonitions from the Word of God The next challenge of the Scots Presbyters is that they spoile the
for daring by their preachings and Assemblies to change these things which by Acts of Parliaments had been approved before new Parliaments had allowed of their reformation Nevertheless this plea is foolishly intended against us for the Ministers protestation against the Acts of Parliament 1584 establishing in that houre of darkness iniquity by a Law and against the Acts of the Assembly of Glasgow declaring the unlawfulness of Bishops and Ceremonies which some Parliaments upon Episcopal mis-information had approved both these actions of the Church were according to former Laws and were ratified afterward by Acts of Parliament yet standing in force which for the Warner a private man and a stranger to challenge is to contemn much more grosly the Law then they do whom here he is accusing of that crime The Church part in the road of Ruthven cleâ—red By the next Story the Warner wil gain nothing when the true case of it is known In K. Jame's minority one Capt. James Stuart did so far prevail upon the tender and unexperienced years of the Prince as to steal his countenance unto Acts of the greatest oppression so far that James Hamelton Earl of Arran the next to the King in blood in his health a most gallant Prince and a most zealous Professor of the true Religion in time of his sickness when he was not capable to commit any crime against the State was notwithstanding spoyled of all his livelihood and liberty his Lands and honor with the dignity of high Chancelor of Scotland were conferred on that very wicked Tyrant Captain James a number of the best affected and prime nobility impatient of such unheard-of oppressions with meer boasts and no violence at the road of Ruthven chased away that unhappy Chancelor from the Kings person this his Majesty for the time professed to take in so good part that under his hand he did allow it for good service in his letters to the most of the Neighbor Princes he dealt also with the secret Counsel and the chief Judicatories of the Land and obtained from them the approbation of that act of the Lord as convenient and laudable pormising likewise to ratifie it in the next ensuing Parliament When the Lords for their more aboundant cleering required the Assembles declaration thereupon the Ministers declined to meddle at all with the case but the Kings Majesty sent his Commissioners to the Assembly entreating them withall earnestness to declare their good liking of that action which he assured them was for his good and the good both of Church and Kingdom for their obedience to the Kings importunity they are here railed upon by the wise Warner It is true Cap. James shortly after crept in again into Court and obtained a severe revenge against the authors of that action before a Parliament could sit to approve it but within a few months the same Lords with some more did at Striveling chase again that evill man from the Court whither he never more returned and this their action was ratified in the next Parliament and so stands to this day unquestioned by any but such as the Warner either out of ignorance or malice I am weary to follow the Warner in all his wandrings The interest of the general assembly of Scotland in the reformation of England at the next leap he jumps from the 1584 to the 1648 skipping over in a moment 64 years The Articles of Stiveling mentions that the promoving of the work of Reformation in England and Ireland be referred to the general Assembly upon this our friend doth discharge a flood of his choller all the matter of his impatience here is That Scotland when by fraude they had been long allured and at last by open violence invaded by the English Prelates that they might take on the yoke of all their corruptiones they were contented at the earnest desire of both the houses of Parliament and all the wel-affected in England to assist their Brethren to purge out the leaven of Episcopacy and the Service Book with all the rest of the old corruptions of the Engish Irish Churches with the mannaging of this so great and good an Ecclesiastique work the Parliament of Scotland did intrust the general assembly No marvail that Dr. Bramble a zealous lover of all the Arminianisme Popery and Tyranny of which his great Patron Dr. Lade stands convicted yet without an answer to have been bringing in upon the three nations should be angry at the discoverers and dis-appointers of that most pious work as they wont to style it What here the Warner repeats it is answered before as for the 2 Stories in his conclusion The violent apprehenâ—â—â— of Masse-Priests in their act of Idolatry râ—proved by the Warner which he takes out of his false Author Spots-wood adding his own large amplifications I conceive there needs no more to be said to the first but that some of John Knocks zealous hearers understanding of a Masse-Priest at their very side committing Idolatry contrary to the Laws did with violence break in upon him and sease upon his person and Masse-cloathes that they might present him to the ordinary Magistrate to receive justice according to the Law This act the Warner wil have to be a huge Rebellion not only in the actors but also in Iohn Knocks who was not so much as present thereat What first he speaks of the Assemblies convocating the people in arms to be present at the tryall of the Popish Lords and their avowing of that their deed to the King in his face we must be pardoned to mistrust the Warner herein upon his bare word without the relief of some witness and that a more faithfull one then his Brother in evill Mr. Spots-wood whom yet here he doth not profess to cite Against these Popish Lords after their many treasons and bloody murders of the Lieges the King himself at last was forced to arme the people but that the generall Assembly did call any unto Arms we require the Warners proof that we may give it an answer CHAP. VIII The chief of the Prelates agree with the Presbyterians about the Divine right of Church-iscipline THe Warners challenge in this Chapter is That we maintaine our discipline by a Iure divino and for this he spews out upon us a Sea of such Rhetorick as much better beseemed Mercurius Aulicus then either a Warner or a Prelate In this challenge he is as unhappy as in the rest it is for a matter wherein the most of his own Brethren though our Adversaries yet fully agree with us that the discipline of the Church is truly by divine right and that Jesus Christ holds out in Scripture the substantials of that Government whereby he will have his house to be ruled to the worlds end leaving the circumstantials to be determined by the Judicatories of the Church according to the general rules which are clear also in the word for matters of that nature In this neither Papists nor the
agoe bin put from such impudence It was the late labour of the Prelats by all their skill to disgrace Preaching and Praying without booke to cry up the Liturgy at the only service of God and to idolize it as a most Heavenly and Divine peece of write which yet is nought but a Transcript of the superstitious breviary and idolatrous missall of Rome The Warner would doe well to consider and answer after seven years advisement Mr Bailie his pararell of the Service Booke with the Missall and Breviary before he present the world with new paralells of the English liturgy with the directories of the Rerormed Churches It is so indeed that all Preaching and Praying without Booke is but a pratting of non-sence everlastingly why then continues the King and many well minded men to be deceived by our Doctors while they affirme that they are as much for Preaching in their practise and opinion as the Presbyterians and for Prayer without book also before and after Sermon and in many other occasions it seemes these affi mations are nothing but grosse dissimulation in this time of their lownesse and affliction to decline the envy of people against them for their profane contempt of Dâ—vine ordinances for we may see here their tenet to remaine what it wâ—s and themselves ready enough when their seaâ—on shall be fitter to ring it out loud in the eares of the World that for Divine Service people needs no more but the reading of the Liturgy that Sermons on week dayes and Sundayes afternoon must all be laid aside Vide ladensium cap. 7. that on the Sabbath before noone Sermon is needlesse and from the mouths of the most Preachers very noxious that when so â—e leaâ—ned Schollars are pleased on soâ—e festivall dayes to have an Oration it woâ—ld be short and according to the Court paterne without all Spâ—rit and life for edification but by all meanes it must be provided that no word of prayer either before or after be spoken except only a bidding to pray for many things even for the welfare of the soules departed and all this alone in the words of the Lords Prayer If any shall dare to expresse the desi es of his heart to God in privat or publick in any words of his oâ—n framing he is a grosse Puritan who is bold to offe to God his own nonsence rather then the ancient and well advised prayers of the holy Church The Waâ—ner is here also mistaken in his beliefe that ever the Church of Scotland had any Liturgy they had and have still some formes for helpe and direction but notice eâ—er in any of them by Law or practise they do not condemne the use of set formes for Rules yeâ— nâ—t for use in â—ee nâ—eâ—s who are thereby endeavouring to attaine a readinesse to pray in their family our of their own heart in the words which Gods Spirit dytes to them but for Ministers to suppresse their most comfortable and usefull gift of prayer by tying their mouth unto such formes which themselves or others have composed we count it a wrong to the giver and to him who has received the gift and to the Church for whose use that was bestowed Episcopall Warrants for clandestin marriages rob Parents of their childdren In the next place the Warner makes the Presbytry injurious to parents by marying their children contrary to their consent and forcing them to give to the d sobedient as large a portion as to any other of their obedient children and than it is no marvail the Scots should doe these things who have stripped the King the father of their Country of his just rights Ans By the Warners Rule all the actions of a Nation where a Presbyteâ—y lodges must be charged on the back of the Presbytery II. The Parliament of Scotland denyes that they have stripped the King of his just Rights while he was stirred up and keeped on by the prelaticall faction to courses destructive to himselfe and all his people after their shedding of much bloud before the exercise of all parts of his Royall government they onely required for all satisfaction and security to Religion and Liberties the grant of some few most equitable demands The unhappy Prelats from the beginning of our troubles to this day finding our great demande to runne upon the abolition of their Office did ever presse His Majesty to deny us that satisfaction and rather then Bishops should be laid aside they have concluded that the King himselfe and all his family and all his three Kingdomes shall perish yet with all patience the Scots continâ—e to supplicate and to offer not onely their Kingdome but their lives and estates and all they have for His Mâ—je â—es seâ—vice upon the grant of their few and easy demands but no misery eâ—ther of King or people can overcome the desperate obstinacy of Prelaticall hearts As for parents coâ—seâ—t to the mariage of their childreâ— how tenderly it is provided for in England it may be seen at length in the very place cited It was the Bishops who by their warrants for clandestine mariages and dispensations with mariages without warrant have spoyled many parents of their deare children with such abhominations the Presbytery was never acquainted all that is alleadged out of that place of our discipline is when a cruel parent or tutor abuses their authority over their Children and against all reason for their owne evill ends perversely will crosse their Children in their lawfull and every way honest desires of mariage that in that case the Magistrates and Ministers may be intreated by the grieved childe to deale with the unjust parent or tutor that by their meditation reason may be done I beleeve this advice is so full of equity that no Church nor State in the world will complaine of it but how ever it be this case is so rare in Scotland that I professe I never in my life did know nor did hear of any childe before my dayes who did assay by the authoritative sentence of a Magistrate or Minister to force their parents consent to their marriage As for the Warners addition of the Ministers compelling parents to give portions to their children that the Church of Scotland hath any such cannon or practise it s an impudent lye but in the place alledged is a passage against the sparing of the life of adulterers contrary to the Law of God and for the excommunication of Adulterers when by the negligence of the Magistrate their life is spared this possibly may be the thorne in the side of some which makes them bite and spurne with the heele so furioâ—sly against the Authors and lovers of so severe a discipline The Presbyteries next injury is done to the Lawyers Synods and other Ecclesiastick Courts revoke their Sentences Ans No such matter ever was attempted in Scotland frequent prohibitions have beene obtained by curtisan Bishops against the highest civill judicatories in England but that ever a Presbytery
or Synode in Scotland did so much as assay to impede or repeale the proceedings of any the meanest civill Court I did never heare it so much as alledged by our adversaries Serious catechising is no Episcpall crimeâ— The next injurie is against all Masters and â—istresses of families whom the Presbytery will have to be personally examined in their knowledge once a yeare and to be excommunicate if grosly and willfully ignorant Answ If it be a crime for a Minister to call together parcels of his congregation to be instructed in the grounds of Religion that servants and children and where ignorance is suspected others also may be tryed in their knowledge of the Catechisme or if it be a crime that in family-visitations oftener then once a yeare the conversation of every member of the Church may be looked upon we confesse the Ministers of Scotland were guilty thereof and so farre as we know the generality of the Episcopall faction may purge themselves by oath of any such imputâ—tion for they had somewhat else to doe then to be at the paines of instructing or trying the Spirituall State of every sheep in their flocks we confesse likewise that it is both our order and practise to keepe off from the holy table whom we finde grosly and wilfully ignorant but that ever any for simple ignorance was excommunicate in Scotland Church sessions are not high commissiones none who knowes us will affirme it The last whom he will have to be wronged by the Presbyte y are the common people who must groane under a high commission in every parish where ignorant governors rule all without Law medling even in domesticall jarres betwixt man and wife Master and Servant Answ This is but a gybe of revenge for the overthrow of their Tyrannous high Commission-Court where they were wont to play the Rex at their pleasure above the highest subjects of the three Kingdomes and would never give over that their insolent domineering court till the King and Parliaments of both Kingdomes did agree to throw it downe about their eares The thing he jeâ—â—es at is the congregationall Eldership a jâ—dicatory which all the Reformed doen joy to their great comfort as much as Sâ—otland They are farre from all arbitrary judications their Lawes are the holy Scripture and acts of superior Church jâ—dicatories which rule so clearely the cases of their câ—gnisance that rarely any difficulty remaines therein or if it doe immediately by refâ—rence or appeale it is transmitted to the Classes or Synode The judges in the lowest Eldersâ—â—â— as we have said before are a dozen at least of the most able and pious who can be had in a whole congregation to joyne with the Pastors one or more as they fall to be but the Episcopall way is to have no discipline at all in any congregation only where there is hope of a fine the Bishops officiall will summon before his own learned and conscientious wisedome who ever within the whole dioces have fallen into such a fault as he pleaseth to take notice of as for domistick infirmities Presbyterians are most tender to meddle therein they come never before any judicatory but both where the fault is great and the scandal thereof flagrant and broken out beyond the wals of the family These are the great iniuries and hurts which the Church discipline has procured to all orders of men in the whole reformed world when Episcopacy has been such an innocent lambe or rather so holy an Angell upon earth that no harme at all has ever come by it to any mortall creature a misbeleeving Jew will nothing misdoubt this so evident a truth CHAP. ULT. The Warners exceptions against the Covenant are full of confidence but exceeding frivolous THough in the former Châ—pters the Warner has spewed out more venome and gall then the bagge of any one mans stomack could have beene supposed capable of yet as if he were but beginning to vomite in this last Chapter of the covenant a new flood of blackes poyson rusheth out of his penne His undertaking is great to demonstrate cleerâ—y that the covenant is meerly void wicked and impious His fiâ—st clear demonstration is that it was devised by strangers imposed by subjects who wanted requisite power and was extorted by just feare of unjust suffering so that many that tooke it with their lips never consented with their hearts Ans This cleer demonstration is but a poore and evill argument the Major if it were put in forme would hardly be granted but I stand on the minor as weake and false for the Covenant was not devised by strangers The Covenant was not dishonourable to union the Commissioners of the Parliament of England together with the Commissioers of the Parliament and generall assembly of Scotland were the first and onely framers thereof but they who gave the life and being to it in England were the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament at Westminster by the Kings call and at that time acknowledged by his Majestie without any question about the lawfulnesse of their constitution and authority these men and that Court were not I hope great strangers in England The Covenant was not imposed upon the King but the Parliament of both Kingdomes made it their earnest desire unto his Majestie that he would be pleased to joyne with them in that Covenant which they did judge to be a â—aine peece of their security for their Religion and liberties in all the three Kingdomes As for their imposing of it upon the subjects of England an ordinance of Parliament though the King consent not by the uncontroverted lawes of England is a sufficient authority to crave obedience of all the subjects of England during the continuance of that Parliament The last part of the demonstration is dishonourable indeed to the English Nation if it were true it was no dishonour to England to joyne with their brethren of Scâ—tland in a Covenant for maintainance of their Religion and Liberties but for many of the English to sweare a Covenant with their lippes from which their heart did dissent and upon this difference of heart and mouth to plead the nullity of the Oath and to advance this plea so high as to cleer demonstration this is such a dishonour and dishonesty that a greater cannot fall upon a man of reputed integrity especically when the ground of the lye and pe ju y is n evident falshood for the Covenant was not extorted from any flesh in England by feare of any unjust suffering so far wâ—s it from this that to this day it could never be obtained from the Parliament of England to enjoyne that Covenant upon any by the penalty of a two pence The Warners second demonstration is no better then the first the ground of it is Covenanters were not deceived but understood what they sware â—hat all oathes are void which have deceipt and errour of the substantiall conditions incident to them This ground had