THREE TREATISES Concerning the Scotish Discipline. 

1. A Fair Warning to take heed of the same: By the Right Reverend Dr. Bramhall, Bishop of Derrie.  
2. A Review of Dr. Bramble, late Bishop of London-Derry, his Fair Warning, etc. By R. B. G.  
3. A Second Fair Warning, in Vindication of the First, against the Seditious Reviewer: By Ri. Watson, Chaplain to the Right Honourable the Lord Hopton.    
To which is prefixed, A Letter written by the Reverend Dean of St. Burien, Dr. Creyghton.  
HAGH: Printed by Samuel Broun, English Bookseller. 1661.   

A FAIR WARNING, To take heed of the SCOTISH DISCIPLINE, As being of all others most Injurious to the Civil Magistrate, most Oppressive to the Subject, most Pernicious to both.  
By Dr JOHN BROMWELL Lord Bishop of London-Derie in Ireland.  LUKE 9 35. 
No man having drunk old wine straightway desireth new, for he saith, the old is better.  HOSEA 2. 7. 
I will go and return to my first husband, for than was it better with me than now.  
Printed in the Year 1649.   

A FAIR WARNING, To take heed of the Scotish Discipline, as being of all others most Injurious to the Civil Magistrate, most Oppressive to the Subject, most Pernicious to both.  
CHAP. I.  
The Occasion and Subject of this Treatise.  
IF the Disciplinarians in Scotland could rest contented to 
1  dote upon their own inventions and magnify at home that Diana which themselves have canonised, I should leave them to the best School-Mastresse, that is, Experience, to feel where their shoe wrings them, and to purchase Repentance. What have I to do with the regulation of foreign Churches to burn mine own fingers with snuffing other m●…ns Candles? Let them stand or fall to their own Master: It is charity to judge well of others, and piety to look well to ourselves.  
But to see those very men who plead so vehemently against all kinds of tyranny, attempt to obtrude their own dreams not only upon their fellow-Subjects, but upon their Sovereign himself, contrary to the dictates of his own conscience, contrary to all Laws of God and Man, yea to compel foreign Churches to dance after their pipe, to worship that counterfeit image which they feign to have fallen down from J●…piter, and by force of arms to turn their neighbours out of a possession of above 1400 years, to make room for their Trojan horse of Ecclesiastical Discipline, (A practice never justified in the world but either by the Turk or by the Pope) This put us upon the defensive part, They must not think that other men are so cowed or grown so tame, as to stand still blowing of their noses, whilst they bridle them and ride them at their pleasure. It is time to let the world see that this Discipline which they so much adore, is the very quintessence of refined Popery, or a greater Tyranny than ever Rome brou●…he forth, Incon●…t with all forms of civil Government, destructive to all sorts of Policy a rack to the conscience, the heaviest pressure that can fall upon a people, and so much more dangerous, because by the specious pretence of Divine Institution, it takes a way the sight, but not the burden of slavery. Have patience Reader and I shall discover unto thee more pride and arrogancy through the holes of a threadbare coat, than was ever found under a Cardinal's Cap or a triple Crown. All this I undertake to demonstrate not by some extraordinary practices justified only by the pretence of invincible necessity (a weak patrociny for general Doctrine) nor by the single opinions of some Capricious fellows but by ●…heir books of Discipline, by the acts of their general and provincial Assemblies by the concurrent votes and writings of their Commissioners.  
I foresee that they will suggest that through their sides I seek to wound foreign Churches. No, there is nothing which I shall convict them of here, but I hope will be disavowed, though not by all Protestant auctou●…s, yet by all the Protestant Churches in the world. But I must take leave to demand of our Disciplinarians, who it is they brand with the odious name of Erastians' in the Acts of their Parliaments and Assemblies, 
S●…n. G●…r. 16. 7. D●…ar. Parl. 1648. etc.  and in the writings of their Commissioners and reckon them with Papists, Anabaptists, and Independents; Is it those Churches who disarm their Presbyteries of the Sword of Excommunication which they are not able to wield? so did Erastus; or is it those who attribute a much greater power to the Christian Magistrate in the managery of Ecclesiastical affairs than themselves? So did Erastus, and so do all Protestant Churches. The Disciplinarians will sooner endure a Bishop or a Superintendent to govern them, than the Civil Magistrate. And when the Magistrate shall be rightly informed what a dangerous edg'd-tool their Discipline is, he will ten times sooner admit of a moderate Episcopacy, than fall into the hands of such hucksters.  
If it were not for this Disciplinarian humour, which will admit no latitude in Religion, but makes each nicety a fundamental, and every private opinion an Article of faith, which prefers particular errors before general truths. I doubt not but all reformed Churches might easily be reconciled. Before these unhappy troubles in England, all Protestants both Lutherans and Calvinists did give unto the English Church the right hand of fellowship; the Disciplinarians themselves though they preferred their own Church as more pure, (else they were hardhearted) yet they did not, they durst not condemn the Church of England, either as defective in any necessary point of Christian Piety, or redundant in any thing that might virtually or by consequence overthrow the foundation.  
Witness that letter which their General Assembly of Superintendents, 
Assemb. G●… A●…no 1556.  Pastors and Elders sent by Mr. John Knox to the English Bishops, wherein they style them Reverend Pastors, fellow-preachers, and joint opposers of the Roman Antichrist. They themselves were then far from a party, or from making the calling of Bishops to be Antichristian.  
But to leave these velitations and come home to the point. I will show first how this Discipline entrencheth most extremely upon the right of the civil Magistrate, secondly that it is as grievous and intolerable to the Subject.   

CHAP. II.  
That this new Discipline doth utterly overthrow the Rights of Magistrates, to convocate Synods, to confirm their Acts, to order Ecclesiastical affairs, and reform the Church within their Dominions.  
ALl Princes and States invested with Sovereignty of power do justly challenge to themselves the right of Convocating National Synods of their own subjects, and ratifying their constitution.  
And although pious Princes may tolerate or privilege the Church to convene within their territories annually or triennially, for the exercise of discipline, and execution of constitutions already confirmed, (nevertheless we see how wary the Synod of Dort was in this particular,) yet he is a Magistrate of straw, that will permit the Church to convene 
Can. 50.  within his territories, whensoever, wheresoever they list, to convocate before them whomsoever they please, all the Nobles, all the Subjects of the Kingdom, to change the whole Ecclesiastical policy of a Commonwealth, to alter the Doctrine and Religion established, to take away the legal rights and privileges of the Subjects, to erect new tribunals and courts of Justice, to which Sovereign's themselves must submit, and all this of their own heads, ●…ue of a pretended power given them from heaven, contrary to k●…own laws and lawful customs, the Supreme Magistrate dissenting & disclaiming. Synods ought to be called by the supreme 
Ench. cand. S. min. ex decr●…o sal. The Edit. Gron. 1645. pag. 161.  Magistrate if he be a Christian, etc. And either by himself, or by such as he shall please to choose for that purpose, he ought to preside over them. This power the Emperors of old did challenge over General Counsels, Christian Monarches in the blindness of Popery over National Synods, the Kings of England over their great Counsels of old, and their Convocation of later times, The Estates of the united Provinces in the Synod of Dort, this power neither Roman Catholic or Protestant in France dare deny to his King. None have been more punctual in this case then the State of Geneva, where it is expressly provided, that no Synod or 
Los ordiu●… Eccles. printed at Geneva 1562. pag. 66.  Presbytery shall alter the Ecclesiastical policy, or add any thing to it, without the consent of the civil Magistrate. Their elders do not challenge an uncontrollable power as the Commissioners of Christ, but ate still called 
pag. 20.  the Commissioners of the Signiory. The lesser Council names them with 
Pagin. 20.  the advice of the Ministry, (their consent is not necessary) The great Council of 200 doth approve them or reject them. At the end of the year they are presented to the Signiory, who continue them or discharge them as they see cause. At their admission they take an oath, to ke●…p the Ecclesiastical Ordinances of the civil Magist●…ate. The final determination 
Pag 9  of doctrinal differences in Religion, (after conference of, and with the ecclesiastics,) is referred to the Magistrate. The proclamations published 
Pag 11.  with the sound of trumpet registered in the same book, do plainly show that the ordering of all Ecclesiastical affairs is assumed by the Signiory.  
But in Scotland all things are quite contrary, the civil Magistrate hath no more to do with the placing or displacing of Ecclesiastical Elders, than he hath in the Electoral College, about the Election of an Emperor. The King hath no more legislative Power in Ecclesiastical causes than a Cobbler, that is a single Vote in case he be chosen an Elder, other wi●…e none at all. In Scotland Ecclesiastical persons make repeal, alter their Sanctions eyery day, without consent of King or Council King Jon●…s proclaimed a Parliament to be held at Edinburgh, and a little before by his letter required the Assembly to abstain from making any Innovatio●…s 
Octob. 20. 1597.  in the Policy of the Church, and from prejudging the decisions of the States by their conclusions, and to suffer all things to continue in the condition they were until the approc●…ing Parliam●…nt. What did they hereupon? They neglected the King's letter, by their own Authority they determined all things positively, questioned the Archbishop of St. Andrews upon their own Canons, For collating to benefices, and Voting in Parliament, according to the undoubted Laws of the Land. Yea to that deg●…ee of sauciness they arrived, and into that contempt they reduced Sovereign power, that twenty Presbyters (no more at the highest sometimes but thirteen, 
Ass●…. Abberd. 1600  sometimes but seven or eight) dared to hold and maintain a General Assembly, (as they miscalled it,) after it was discharged by the King, against his Authority, an Insolence which never any Parliament durst yet attempt.  
By their own Authority, long before there was any Statute made to 
1 Book dise. 1. held.  that purpose, they abolished all the Festivals of the Church, even those which were observed in memory of the Birth, Circumcision, Resurrection and Ascension of our Saviour.  
By their own Authority they decreed the abolition of Bishops, requiring them to resign their offices, as not having any calling from God's word, under pain of Excommunication. And to desist from preacbing until they had a new admission from the General Assembly. And to complete their own 
Ass Dun. 1580.  folly, added further, that they would dispose of their possessions as the Church's Patrimony in the next Assembly, which ridiculous Ordinance was maintained stiffly by the succeeding Synods, notwithstanding the Statute, that it should be Treason to impugn the Authority of the three Estates, or to 
Patl. 1584.  procure the innovation or diminution of any of them. Which was made on purpose to control their vain presumption. Notwithstanding that themselves had formerly approved, and as much as in them lay established Superintendents, to endure for term of life with their numbers, bounds, 
1 Book discip. 4. and 6. head.  salaries larger than those of other Ministers, endued with Episcopal power, to plant Churches, ordain Ministers, assign Stipends, preside in Synods, direct the censures of the Church, without whom there was no Excommunication. The world is much mistaken concerning Episcopacy in Scotland: for though the King and Parliament were compelled by the clamours and impetuous violence of the Presbyters to annex the temporalities of Bishops to the crown, yet the Function itself was never taken away in Scotland, from their first conversion to 
Anno 203.  Christianity, until these unhappy troubles. And these very temporalities were restored by the Act of restitution, and their full power was first 
1606. Ass. Glasg. 1610. Parl. Edenb. 1612.  established Synodically, and afterwards confirmed by the three Estates of the Kingdom in Parliament.  
By their own Authority when they saw they could not prevail with all their iterated endeavours and attempts to have their book of discipline ratified, they obtruded it upon the Church themselves, ordaining that all those who had born or did then bear any office in the Church should 
Ass. Edenb. 1590.  subscribe it, under pain of Excommuication.  
By their own Authority or rather by the like unwarrantable boldness they adopted themselves to be heirs of the Prelates and other dignities and orders of the Church suppressed by their tumultuous violence, and decreed that all tithes, rents, lands, oblations, yea whatsoever had been given in former times, or should be given in future times to the service of God, was the patrimony of the Church; and aught to be collected and distributed 
2 Book disc. Chap. 9  by the Deasons as the Word of God appoints. That to convert any of this to their particular or profane use of any person, is detestable Sacrilege before God. And elsewhere, Gentlemen, Barons, Earls, Lords, and others 
1 Book disc. 6. head.  must be content to live upon their just rents, and suffer the Kirk to be restored to her liberty. What this liberty is follows in the same place, all 
Ibidem.  things given in hospitality, all rents pertaining to Priests, Chanteries, Colleges, Chappelries, Friaries of all orders, the Sisters of the Seens all 
Ibidem.  which ought to be retained still in the use of the Ki●…k. Give them but leave to take their breath and expect the rest. The whole revenues of the temporalities of Bishops, Deans, and Arch-Deans lands, and all rents pertaining to Cathedral Kirks. Then supposing an objection, that the Possessors had Leases and Estates, they answer, That those who made them were thiefs & murderers & had no power so to alienate the common Good of the Kirk. They desire that all such Estates may be annulled and 
Ibidem.  avoided, that all Collectors appointed by the King or others, may be discharged from intermeddling therewith, and the Deacons permitted to collect the same: yea to that height of madness were they come, as to define and determine in their Assembly, (judge whether it be not a modest constitution for a Synod.) That the next Parliament the 
Ass. Edenb. 1 6 4 7.  Church should be fully restored to its Patrimony, and that nothing should be passed in Parliament until that was first considered and approved. Let all Estates take notice of the●…e pretensions and designs If their project have not yet taken effect, it is only becau●…e they wanted sufficient strength hitherto to accomplish it.  
Lastly by their own Authority, under the specious title of Jesus Christ, King of kings, and Lord of lords, the only Monarch of his Churc●…, and under pretence of his Prerogative Royal, they erected their own Courts and Presbyteries in the most parts of Scotland, long before they were legally approved or received, as appeareth by their own Act, alleging that many suits had been made to the Magistrate for approbation of the Policy of the Kirk, which had not taken that happy effect which good men would crave: 
Ass. Glasg 1 5 8 1 Ass. Edenb. 1 5 9 0 Ass. Edenb. 1 5 9 1.  And by another act acknowledging that Presbytertes were then established (Synodically) in most parts of the Kingdom. And lastly by the Act of another General Assembly at Edenburg, ordaining that the Discipline contained in the acts of the General Assembly should be kept, as well in Angus and Mernis as in the rest of the Kingdom.  
You see sufficiently in point of practice how the Disciplinarians have trampled upon the Laws, and justled the civil Magistrate out of his Supremacy in Ecclesiastical affairs. My next task shall be to show that this proceeds not from Inanimadvertence or Passion, but from their Doctrine and Principles.  
First, they teach that no persons, Magistrates nor others, have power to Vote in their Synods, but only Eccl si●…tical. 
1 〈◊〉 Book disc. Chap. 7. 2   
Secondly, they teach that Ecclesiastical persons have the sole power of convening and convocating such Assemblies, All Ecclesiastical assemblies have power to convene lawfully together, for treating of things concerning the Kirk. They have power to appoint times and places. Again, National Assemblies of this Country ought always to be retained in their own liberties, 
Chap. 12.  with power to the Kirk to appoint times & places. Thus they make it a Liberty, that is a Privilege of the Church, a part of its Patrimony not only to convene, but to convocate, whomsoever, whensoever, wheresoever.  
Thirdly for point of Power, they teach, that Synods have the judgement 
3 Ass. Edenb. 1 7 0.  of true & false Religion, of Doctrine, Heresies, etc. the election, admission, suspension, deprivation of Ministers, the determination of all things that pertain to the Discipline of the Church. The judgement of Ecclesiastical matters, causes beneficiary, matrimonial and others. Jurisdiction to proceed to excommunication against those that rob the Church of its patrimony. They have legislative 
a Book disc. Chap. 7.  Power to make rules and constitutions for keeping good order in the Kirk. They have power to abrogate and abolish all Statutes and Ordinances concerning Ecclesiastical matters, that are found noisome and unprofitable, and agree not with the time, or are abused by the people. And all this without 
Chap. 12.  any reclamation, or appellation to any J●…dge, Civil or Ecclesiastical  
Fourthly, they teach that they have these privileges not from the Magistrate 
2 Book disc. Chap. 1.  or People, or particular Laws of any other Country. The Magist●…ate can not execute the censares of the Church, nor prescribe any rule how it should be done, but Ecclesiastical power floweth immediately from God, & from the Mediator Jesus Christ And yet further, The Church cannot be governed 
Theorema●… III. imp. Edenb. 1 6 4 7. decreto Synodi Theor. 4 Theor. 8.  by others, than those Ministers and Stewards set over it by Christ, nor otherwise than by his Laws. And therefore there is no power in earth that can challenge to itself a Command or Dominion upon the Church. And again, It is prohibited by the Law of God and of Christ, for though Christian Magistrate to invade the Government of the Church, and consequently to challenge to himself the right of both Swords spiritual and temporal. And if any Magistrate do arrogate so much to himself, the Church shall have cause to complain and exclaim, that the Pope is changed, but the Papacy remains. So if Kings and Magistrates stand in their way, they are Political Popes as well as Bishops are Ecclesiastical. Whatsoever these men do, is in the Name 
The●…r. ●…2.  of our Lord Jesus, and by Authority delegated from him alone.  
Lastly, they teach that they have all this Power, not only without the Magistrate, but against the Magistrate, that is, although he descent, & send out his prohibitions to the contrary, Parliamentary ratifications can 
Information from. S●…t. ●…nd p. 19  no way alter Church canons concerning the worship of God. For Ecclesiastical Discipline ought to be exercised, whether it be ratified by the civil Magistrate or not. The want of a civil Sanction to the Church, 
Theor 98.  is but like Lucrum cessans, non damnum emergens. As it adds nothing to it, so it takes nothing away from it. If there be any clashing of Jurisdictions or defect in this kind, they lay the fault at the Magistrate's door. It is a great sin or wickedness, for the Magistrate to hinder the 
Theor. 82.  exercise, or execution of Ecclesiastical Discipline.  
Now we have seen the pernicious practices of their Synods, with the Doctrines from which they flow; it remains to dispel umbrages wherewith they seek to hide the ugliness of their proceedings & principles from the eyes of the world. We (say they) do give the Christian Magistrate a political Power to convocate Synods, to preside in Synods, to ratify the Acts of Synods to reform the Church. We make him the keeper of both tables. Take nothing and hold it fast, here are good words, but they signify nothing. Trust me whatsoever the Disciplinarians do give to the Magistrate, it is always with a saving of their own stakes, not giving for his advantage but their own. For they teach that this power of the Christian Magistrate is not private and destructive to the power 
Theor. 96.  of the Church but cumulative, and only auxiliary or assisting.  
Besides the power which they call abusively authoritative, but is indeed ministerial, of executing their decrees, & contributing to their setlement, they ascribe to the Magistrate concerning the Acts of Synods that which every private man hath, a judgement of discretion, but they retain to themselves the judgement of Jurisdiction. And if he judge not as they would have him, but suspend out of conscience the influence of his political power, where they would have him exercise it, they will either teach him another point of Popery, that is an implicit faith, or he may perchance feel the weight of their Church censures, and find quickly what manner of men they be, as our late gracious King Charles, and before him his Father, his Grandmother, & his great Grandmother did all to their cost.  
Then in plain English what is this political Power to call Synods, to preside in Synods, and to ratify Synods, which these good men give to the Magistrate, and magnify so much? I shall tell the truth. It is a duty which the Magistrate owes to the Kirk, when they think necessary to have a Synod convocated, to strengthen their summous by a civil Sanction, to secure them in coming to the Synod, & returning from 
T●…r. 50. 5●….  the Synod, to provide them good accommodation, to protect them from dangers, to defend their Rights and Privileges. To compel obstinate persons by civil Laws and punishments to submit to their censures and decrees. What gets the Magistrate by all this to himself? He may put it all in his eye, and see never a whit the worse. For they 
Ibid.  declare expressly that neither all the power, nor any part of the power, which Synods have to deliberate of, or to define Ecclesiastical things, (though it be in relation to their own Subjects) doth flow from the Magistrate, but because in those things which belong to the outward man, (mark the reason) the Church stands in need of the help of the Magistrate. Fair fall an ingenuous confession, they attribute nothing to the Magistrate, but only what may render him able to serve their own turns, and supply their needs. I wish these men would think a little more of the distinction, between habitual and actual Jurisdiction. After a Schoolmaster hath his licence to teach, yet his actual Jurisdiction doth proceed from the Parents of his Scholars. And though he enjoy a kind of Supremacy among them, he must not think that this extinguisheth, either his own filial duty, or theirs.  
Like this power of presiding politically in Synods is the other power which they give him of reforming the Church, that is when the State of the Church is corrupted, but not when it is pure, as they take it for granted, that it is, when the Jurisdiction is in their own hands. Although godly Kings and Princes, sometime by their own Authority, when the Kirk is corrupted, and all things out of order, place Ministers, and 
2 Book of disc. ch●…. 10.  restore the true service of the Lord, after the example of some godly Kings of Judah, and divers godly Emperors and Kings also in the light of the New Testament; yet where the Ministry of the Kirk is once lawfully constituted, and they that are placed, do their office faithfully, all godly Princes and Magistrates ought to hear and obey their voice, and reverence the Majesty of the Son of God speaking in them. Leave ●…his juggling; who shall judge, when the Church is corrupted; the Magistrates or Churchmen? if the Magistrates, why not over you, as well as others? If the Churchmen, why not others as well as you? here is nothing to be answered, but to beg the question, that they only are the true Church. Hear another witness, in evil and troublesome times, and in a lap ed state of affairs; when the order instituted by God in the Church, is degenerated to Tyranny, to the trampling 
Theor. 84. and 85.  upon the true Religion, and oppressing the Professors of it, when nothing is sound the godly Magistrate may do some things, which ordinarily are not lawful etc. But ordinarily and of common right, in Churches already constituted, if a man fly to the Magistrate complaining that he is injured, by the abuse of Ecclesiastical Discipline, or if the Sentence of the Presbyteries displease the Magistrate, either in point of Discipline or of Faith, he must not therefore draw such causes to a civil trib●…nal, nor introduce a Political Papacy. And as the Magistrate 
Ibid●….  hath power in extraordinary causes, when the Church is wholly corrupted, to reform Ecclesiastical abuses; so if the Magistrate shall Tyrannize, over the Church, it is lawful to oppose him, by certain ways and means, extraordinary; how ever ordinarily not to be allowed. This is plain dealing, the Magistrate cannot lawfully reform them but in cases extraordinary; and in cases extraordinary they may lawfully ●…eform the Magistrate, by means not to be ordinarily allowed, that is by force of arms. See the principles from whence all our miseries; and the loss of our gracious Master, hath flowed; and learn to detest them; They give the Magistrate the custody of both tables, so they do give the same to themselves, they keep the second table, by admonishing him; 
Theor. 43.  he keeps the first table by assisting them: they reform the abuses, of the first table by ordinary right, of the second table extraordinarily. He reforms the abuses against the second table; by ordinary right: and the abuses against the first table extraordinarily.  
But can the Magistrate according to their learning call the Synod to an account for any thing they do, can he remedy the errors of a Synod either in Doctrine or Discipline? No, if Magistrates had power to change, 
Theor. 97.  or diminish, or restrain the Rights of the Church; the Condition of the Church, should be worse, and their liberties less, under a Christian Magistrate, than under an Heathen. For (say they) Parliaments and supreme Senates, are no more infallible than Synods, and in matters of Faith and Discipline more 
Theor. 88  apt to err●…; And again, the Magistrate is not judge of Spiritual causes controverted in the Church. And if he decr●…e any thing in such businesses, according 
Theor. 82.  to the wisdom of the flesh, and not according to the rule of God's Word, and the wisdom which is from above, he must give an account of it unto God.  
Or may the supreme Magistrate oppose the execution of their discipline 
2.  practised in their Presbyteries, or Synods, by Laws or prohibitions? No it is wickedness, If he do so far abuse his authority, good Christians 
Theor. 82.  must rather suffer extremities, than obey him.  
Then what remedy hath the Magistrate, if he find himself grieved in 
3.  this case? He may desire and procure a review in another National Synod, that the matter may be lawfully determined by Ecclesiastical judgement. Yet upon this condition, that not withstanding the future review, the first sentence 
Theor. 91. 92.  of the Synod be executed without delay, This is one main branch of Popery, and a gross incrochment upon the right of the Magistrate.   

CHAP. III.  
That this Discipline robs the Magistrate of the last appeal of his Subjects.  
The second flows from this. The last appeal aught to be the Supreme 
2.  Magistrate, or Magistrates, within his or their Dominions, as to the highest Power under God. And where it is not so ordered, the Commonwealth can enjoy no tranquillity, as we shall see in the second part of this discourse. By the Laws of England, if any man find himself grieved with the sentence or consistorial proceedings of a Bishop, or of his officers, he may appeal from the highest judicatory of the Church to the King in Chancery, who useth in that case to grant Commissions under the great Seal to Delegates expert in the Laws of the Realm, who have power to give him remedy, and to see Justice done. In Scotland this would be taken in great scorn, as an high indignity upon the Commissioners of Christ, to appeal from his Tribunal, to the judgement of a mortal man. In the year 1582, King James by his letter, by his messenger, 
1582.  the Master of Requests, and by an Herald at Arms prohibited the Assembly at Saint Andrews to proceed in the case of one Mongomery, 
Ass. Saint Andr●…ws, 1582.  and Mongomery, himself appealed to Cesar, or to King and Council. What did our new Masters upon this? They slighted the King's letter, his Messenger, his Herald, rejected the Appeal, as made to an incompetent Judge, and proceeded most violenlty in the cause. About four years after this another Synod held at Saint Andrews, proceeded in like 
Ass. Saint-Andr●…ws. 1582.  manner against the Bishop of that See, for Voting in Parliament according to his conscience, and for being suspected to have penned a Declaration, published by the King and Parliament at the end of the Statutes, notwithstanding that he declined their judicature, and appealed to the King and Parliament. When did any Bishops dare to do such acts? There need no more instances, their book of Discipline itself being so full in the case, from the Kirk there is no reclamation, or appellation, to any Judge Civil or Ecclsiastical, within the Realm.   

CHAP. IU.  
That it exempts the Ministers from due punishment.  
THirdly, if Ecclesiastic persons in their Pulpits or Assemblies, shall leave their text and proper work to turn incendiaries, trumpeters of 
〈◊〉  sedition, stirring up the people to tumults and disloial attempts, in all well ordered Kingdoms and Commonwealths, they are punishable by the civil Magistrate, whose proper office it is to take cognisa●…ce of treason and sedition. It was well said by a King of France to some such seditious Shebas, that if they would not let him alone in their Pulpits, he would send them to preach in another climate. In the united provinces there want not examples of seditious Orators, who for controlling their Magistrates too saucily in the Pulpit, have been turned both out of their Churches and Cities, without any fear of wresting Christ's Sceptre out of his hand. In Geneva itself, the correction of Ecclesiastical 
Eccl. Ord. pag. 14.  persons (qua tales,) is expressly reserved to the Signiory. So much our Disciplinarians have outdone their pattern, as the passionate writings of heady men outdo the calmer decrees of a stayed Senate.  
But the Ministers of Scotland have exempted themselves in this case from all secular judgement, as King James (who knew them best of 
D●…c. 15●…  any man living) wirnesseth. They said, he was an incompetent judge in such cases, and that matters of the Pulpit ought to be exempted from the judgement and correction of Princes. They themselves speak plain enough. It is an absurd thing, that sundry of them, (Commissaries) having no function of the Kirk, should be judges to Ministers, and depose 
a Book di●…c. ch●…p. 11.  them from their rooms. The reason holds as well against Magistrates, as Commissaries. To pass by the saucy and seditious expressions of Mr. Dury, Mr. Mellvill, Mr. Ballcanquall, and their impunity. Mr. James 
At Ed●…: 1587.  Gibson in his sermon taxed the King for a persecutor, and threatened him with a curse, that he should die childless, and be the last of his race, for which being convented before the Assembly, and not appearing, he was only suspended during the pleasure of his brethren, (he should have been suspended indeed, that is hanged.) But at another Assembly, in August following, upon his allegation, that his not appearing was out of his tender care of the rights of the Church, he was purged from his contumacy, without once so much as acquainting his Majesty.  
The case is famous of Mr. David Blake Minister of St. Andrews, who 
Minster ●…vid B●… 1596.  had said in his sermon, that the King had discovered the treachery of his heart, in admitting the Popish Lords into the country. That all Kings were the devils barus, that the devil was in the Court, and in the guiders of it, And in his prayer for the Queen he used these words, we must pray for her for ●…ashion sake, but we have no cause, she will never do us any good He ●…aid that the Queen of Englan●… (Queen Elisabeth) was an 〈◊〉 eist, that the Lords of the Session were mi●…creants and bribers, that the Nobility were degenerated, godless, dissemblers, and enemies to the Church, that the Council were holly glasses, cormorants, and men of no Religion. I appeal to all the Estates in Europe, what punishment could be e'er enough for such audacious virulence? The ●…ish Ambassador complains of it; Blake is cited before the Council. The Commissione●…s of the Church plead, that it will be ill taken, to bring M●…ers in question upon such trifling delations, as inconsistent with the liberties of the Church. They conclude that a Declinatour should be used, and a Protestation made against those proceedings, saying it was God's cause, whe●…ein they ought to stand to all hazards. Accordingly a Declinatour was framed and presented. Blake desires to be remitted to the Presbytery, as his O●…dinary. The Commissioners send the copy of the Declinatour to all the Presbyteries, requiring them for the greater corroboration of their doings to subscribe the same, and to commend the cause in hand in their private and public prayers to God, using their best credit with their flocks for the maintenance thereof. The King justly incensed herewith, dischargeth the meeting of the Commissioners. Notwithstanding this Injunction they stay still and send Delegates to the King, to represent the inconveniences that might ensue. The King more desirous to decline their envy, than they his judgement, offers peace. The Commissioners refuse it, and present an insolent petition, which the King rejects deservedly, and the cause was heard the very day that the Princ●…sse Elisabeth, (now Queen of Bohemia) was Christened. The witnesses were produced, M●…. Robert Ponte in the name of the Church makes a Protestation. Blake presents a second Decli●…atour. The Council decree that the cause being treasonable, is cognoscible before them. The good King still seeks peace, sends messengers, treats, offers to remit; But it is labour in vain. The Ministers answer peremtorily by Mr. Robert Brace their Prolocutor, that the liberty of Christ's Kingdom had received such a wound, by this usurpation of the rights of the Church, that if the lives of Mr. Blake and twenty others had been taken, it would not have grieved the hearts of good people so much, as these injurious proceedings. The King still woos and confers. At last the matter is concluded that the King shall make a Declaration in favour of the Church, that Mr. Blake shall only make an acknowledgement to the Queen, and be pardoned. But Mr. Blake refuseth to confess any fault, or to acknowledge the King and Council to be any judges of his Sermon. Hereupon he is convicted, and sentenced to be guilty of false and treasonable slanders, and his punishment referred to the King. Still the King treats, makes propositions unbeseeming his Majesty, once, or twice. The Ministers reject them, proclaim a fast, ●…ai e a tumult in Edinburgh, Petition, prefer Articles. The King depa teth from the City, removeth his ●…rts o●… J●…uice the people repent, t●…e Ministers persist, and seek to engage the Subjects in a Covena●…t for ●…utuall defence. One M●…. Wa●…sh in his Sermon tells the people, that the King was possessed with a devil, yea with seven devils, that the subje●…s might lawfully rise and take the sword out of his hands. The Seditious encouraged from the Pulpit, send a letter to the Lord Hamilton, to come and be their General He noblv refuseth, and showeth their letter to the King. Hereupon the Ministers are sought for to be apprehended, and fly into England. The Tumult is declared to be trea on by the Estates of the Kingdom. I have urged this the mo●…e largely (yet as succinctly as I could) to let the wo●…ld see, what dangerous Subjects these Di●…ciplinarians are, and how inconsistent their principles be, with all orderly Societies.   

CHAP. V.  
That it subjects the supreme Magistrate to their censures, etc.  
FOurthly, they have not only exempted themselves in their duties of 
4  their own function from the tribunal of the Sovereign Magistrate, or Supreme Senate, but they have subjected him, and them (yea even in the discharge of the Sovereign trust) to their own Consistories, even to the highest censure of Excommunication, which is like the cutting of a member from the body Natural, or the out-lawing of a 
1 Book d●…. 7 he●…d.  Subject in the body politic. Excommunication, that very engine, whereby the Popes of old advanced themselves above Emperors. To discipline m●…st all the Estates within this Rcalm be subject: as well R●…lers, 
2 Book d●…c. Chap. 〈◊〉.  as they that are ruled. And elsewhere, all mea, as well Magistrates as Inferiors, aught to be subject to the judgement of General Assemblies. And yet again, no man that is in the Church, o●…ght to be exempted 
Th●…. 〈◊〉.  from Ecclesiastical censires'. What horrid and pernicious mischiefs do use to attend the Excommunication of Sovereign Magistrates, I leave to every man's memory or imagination. Such cour●…es make great Kings become cyphers, and turn the tenure of a crown copie-hold, ad voluntatem Dominorum. Such Doctrines might better become some of the Roman Alexanders or Bonifaces or Grego●…ius or Plus Quintus than such great Professors of Humility, such great disclaimers of Authority, who have inveighed so bitterly against the Bishops for their usurpations. This was never the practice of any orthodo●… Bishop, St. Ambrose is mistaken, what he did to Theodosius was no act of Ecclesiastical jurisdiction, but of Christian discretion. No, he was better grounded, David said, Against thee only have I sinned, because he was a King. Our Disciplinarians abhor the name of Authority, but hug the thing, their profession of humility, is just like that Cardinals hanging up of a fisher's net in his dining room, to put him in mind of his descent, but so soon as he was made Pope he took it down, saying, the fish was caught now, there was no more need of the net.   

CHAP. VI  
That it robs the Magistrate of his Dispensative power.  
FIfthly, all supreme Magistrates do assume to themselves a power of pardoning offences and offenders, where they judge it to be expedient. 
9  He who believes that the Magistrate cannot with a good conscience dispense with the punishment of a penitent malefactor I wish him no greater censure than that the penal laws might be duly executed upon him, until he recant his error. But our Disciplinarians have restrained this dispensative power, in all such crimes as are made capital by the judicial Law, as in the case of Blood, Adultery Blasphemy, etc. in which cases, they say the offender ought to suffer death, as God hath commanded. And, If the life be spared as it ought not to be 
1 Book disc. ●…d 9  to the offenders, etc. And, the Magistrate ought to prefer Gods express commandment before his own corrupt judgement, especially 
Ibid.  in punishing these crimes which he commandeth to be punished with death. When the then Popish Earls of Angus, Huntley, and Erroll, 
Ass Edenb. 1594. Parl. Ed. 1594.  were excommunicated by the Church, and forfeited for treasonable practices against the King, it is admirable to read with what wisdom and charity and sweetness his Majesty did seek from time to time to reclaim them from their errors, and by their unfeigned conversion to the reformed Religion to prevent their punishment. Wherein he had the concurrence of two Conventions of Estates, the one at Falkland, the other at Dumfermling. And on the other side to see with what bitterness and radicated malice, they were prosecuted by the Presbyterics, and their Commissioners, sometimes petitioning, that they might have no benefit of law, as being excommunicated, Sometimes threatening, that they were resolved to pursue them to the uttermost, though it should be with the loss of all their lives in one day. That if they continued enemies to God and his Truth, the Country should not brook both them and the Lord together. Sometimes pressing to have their est●…es confisea●…d, and their lives taken away. Alleging for their ground, that by God's Law they had deserved death. And when the King urged that the bosom of the Church should be ever open to penitent sinners, they answered, that the Church could not refuse their satisfaction, if it was truly offered, but the King was obliged to do justice. What do you think of those that roar out, Justice, Justice, now a days, whether they be not the right spawn of these Bloodsuckers, Look upon the examples of Cain, Esau, Ishmael, Antiochus, Antichrist, and tell me, if You ever find such supercilious, cruel, bloodthirsty persons, to have been pious towards God, but their Religion is commonly like themselves, stark naught, Cursed be their anger for it was fierce, and their wrath, for 
Gen. 79. 7.  it was cruel.  
These are some of those encroachments which our Disciplinarians have made upon the rights of all supreme Magistrates, there be sundry others, which especially concern the Kings of Great Britain, as the loss of his tenths, first-fruits, and patronages, and which is more than all these, the dependence of his Subjects; by all which we see, that they have thrust out the Pope indeed, but retained the Papacy. The Pope as well as they, and they as well as the Pope, (neither barrel better herrings,) do make Kings but half Kings, Kings of the bodies, not of the souls of their Subjects: They allow them some sort of judgement over Ecclesiastical persons, in their civil capacities, for it is little (according to their rules) which either is not Ecclesiastical, or may not be reduced to Ecclesiastical. But over Ecclesiastic persons, as they are ecclesiastics, or in Ecclesiastical matters, they ascribe unto them no judgement in the world. They say it cannot stand with the word of God, 
Vindication of Commissioners Jun. 6 1648.  that no Christian Prince ever claimed, or can claim to himself such a power, If the Magistrate will be contented to wave his power in Ecclesiastical matters, and over Ecclesiastical persons, (as they are such,) and give them leave to do what they list, and say what they list in their Pulpits, in their Consistories, in their Synods, and permit them to rule the whole Commonwealth, in order to the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ. If he will be contented to become a subordinate Minister to their Assemblies, to see their decrees executed, than it may be they will become his good Masters, and permit him to enjoy a part of his civil power. When Sovereigns are made but accessaries, and inferiors do become principals, when stronger obligations are devised, than those of a subject to his Sovereign, it is time for the Magistrate to look to himself, these are prognostics of ensuing storms, the avant curriers of seditious tumults. When supremacy lights into strange and obscure hands, it can hardly contain itself within any bounds. Before our Disciplinatians be well warmed in their Ecclesiastical Supremacy, they are beginning, or rather they have already made a good progress in the invasion of the temporal Supremacy also.   

CHAP. VII.  
That the Disciplinarians cheat the Magistrate of his Civil Power in order to Religion.  
That is their sixth in croachment upon the Magistrate, and the vertical 
6  point of Je●…uitisine. Consider first how many civil causes thev have drawn directly into their Consistories, and made them of Ecclesiastical cognisance, as tra●… in Bargaining, false w●…ights and measures, opp essing 
1 Book dise. 7. head. 2 Book dise. Chap. 7.  one another, etc. and in the case of Ministers, bribery, perjury, theft, fight, ●…sury, etc.  
Secondly consider that all offences whatsoever are made cognoscible in their Consisto●…ies in case of candal, yea even such as are punishable by the civil sword with death: If the civi sword foolishly spate the life 
1 Book disc. 〈◊〉. head and Th●…r. ●…3.  of the offender, yet may not the Kirk be negligent in their office, which is to excommunicate the wicked  
Thirdly they ascribe unto their Ministers a liberty and power to direct the Magistrate, even in the managery of civil affairs: To govern the Commonwealth, and to establish civil laws is prope, to the Magistrate: To interpret the word of God, and from thence to she v the Magistrate his duty, how he ought to govern the Commonwealth, 
Theor. 47. 4●…  and how he ought to use the Sword, is comprehended in the office of the Minister, for the holy Scripture is profitable to show what is the best government of the Commonwealth. And again all the duties of the second table as well as of the first, between King and Subject, parents and children, husbands and wives, Masters and servants, etc. 
Vindicat. come. p. 6.  are in difficult cases a subject of cognisance and judgement to the Assemblies of the Ki●…k. Thus they are risen up from a judgement of direction to a judgement of Jurisdiction, And if any persons, Magistrares or others dare act contrary to this judgement of the Assembly, (as the Parliament and Committee of Estates did in Scotland in the late expedition) thev make it to be an unlawful engagement, a sinful War, contrary to the Testimonies of God's servants, and dec●…ce the parties 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 knowledge. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 〈◊〉 1648.  so offending to be 〈◊〉 sper●…ed from the communion, and from their offices in the Kirk. I confess Ministers do well to exhort Christians to be careful honest, indust ious in their special callings: but foe them to meddle pragmatically with themysteries of particular trades and much more with the mysteries of State, which never came within the compass of their shallow capacities, is a most audacious insolence, and an insufferable pre umption. They may as well teach the Pilot how to steer his course in a tempest, or the Physician how to cure the distempers of his patient.  
But their highest cheat is that Jesuitical invention, (in ordine ad spiritualia,) they assume a power in worldly affairs indirectly, and in order to the advancement of the kingdom of Christ. The Ecclesiastical Ministry is conversant spiritually about civil things. Again must not duties to 
Theor. 63. vindication. p. 5.  God whereof the securing of religion is a main one, have the Supreme and first place, duties to the King a subordinate and second place? The case was this. The Parliament levied forces to free their King out of prison. A mere civil duty. But the commissioners of the Assembly declare against it, unless the King will first give assurance under hand and seal by solemn oath, that he will establish the Covenant, the Presbyterian discipline, etc. in all his Dominions, and never endeavour any change thereof, lest otherwise his liberty might bring their bygone proceedings 
Humble advice Edchb. june. 10. 2●…48.  about the League & Covenant into question, there is their power in ordine ad spiritualia. The Parliament will restore to the King his negative voice. A mere civil thing. The commissioners of the Church oppose it, because of the great dangers that may thereby come to Religion. The Parliament name Officers and Commanders for the Army. 
vindication. p. 8.  A mere civil thing. The Church will not allow them because they want such qualifications as God's word requires, that is to say in plain terms, because they were not their confidents. Was there ever Church challenged such an omnipotence as this? Nothing in this world is so civil or political, wherein they do not interest themselves, in order to the advancement of the kingdom of Christ.  
Upon this ground their Synod enacted, that no Scotish merchants 
Ass. Dund. 1593.  should from thenceforth traffic in any of the dominions of the King of Spain, until his Majesty had procured from that King some relaxation of the rigour of the inquisition, upon pain of excommunication. As likewise that the Monday market at Edinburgh should be abolished, It seems they thought it ministered some occasion to the breach of the Sabbath. The Merchants petitioned the king to maintain the liberty of their trade, He grants their request but could not protect them, for the Church prosecuted the poor merchants with their censures, until they promised to give over the Spanish trade, so soon as they had perfected their accounts, and paid their Creditors in those parts.  
But the Shoemakers who were most interested in the Monday markets with their tumults and threaten compelled the Ministers to retract, whereupon it became a jest in the City, that the Souters could obtain more at the Ministers hands, than the King. So they may meddle with the Spanish trade or Monday markets, or any thing in order to Religion.  
Upon this ground they assume to themselves a power to ratify Acts of Parliament, So the assembly at Edinburgh enacted, That the Acts made in the Parliament at Edinburgh the 24 of August. 1560, (without either Commission or Proxy from their Sovereign,) touching 
Ass. Fd●…b 1567.  Religion, etc. should have the force of a public Law. And that the said Parliament, so far as concerned Religion, should be maintained by them, etc. and be ratified by the first Parliament that should happen to be kept within that Realm. See how bold they make with Kings and Parliaments, in order to Religion. I cannot omit that famous summons which this assembly sent out, not only to entreat, but to admonish all persons truly professing the Lord Jesus within the Realm, as well Noblemen as Barons and those of other estates to meet and give their personal appearance at Edinburgh the 20 of july ensuing, for giving their advice and concurrence in matters then to be proponed, especially for purging the Realm of Popery, establishing the policy of the Church, and restoring the patrimony thereof to the just possessors. Assuring such as did absent themselves that they should be esteemed dissimulate professors, unworthy of the fellowship of Christ's flock, who thinks your Scotish Disciplinarians know not how to ruffle it?  
Upon this ground they assume a power to abrogate and invalidate Laws and Acts of Parliament, if they seem disadvantageous to the Church. Church Assemblies have power to abrogate and abolish all 
〈◊〉 Book dise. ●…h. 7.  statutes and ordinances concerning Ecclesiastical matters, that are found noisome and unprofitable, and agree not with the times, or are abused by the people. So the Acts of Parliament 1584. at the very same time that they were proclaimed, were protested against at the market cross of Edinburgh by the Ministers, in the name of the 
Vindication p●…g. 11. 〈◊〉 10.  Kirk of Scotland. And a little before, whatsoever be the Treason of impugning the authority of Parliament, it can be no Treason to obey God rather than man. Neither did the General assembly of Glasgow 1638, etc. commit any treason, when they impugned Episcopacy, and Perth-Articles, although ratified by Acts of Parliament, and standing laws then unrepealed. He saith so far true, that we ought rather to obey God than man, that is, to suffer when we cannot act; but to impugn the authority of a lawful Magistrate, is neither to obey God nor man. God commands us to die innocent rather than live nocent, they teach us rather to live nocent, than die innocent Away with these seeds of sedition, these rebellious principles, Our Master Christ hath left us no such warrant, and the unsound practice of an obscure Conventicle is no safe pattern. The King was surprised at Ruthen by a company of Lords and 
1582.  other conspirators; this fact was as plain Treason as could be imagined, and so it was declared; (I say declared, not made) in Parliament. 
1583.  Yet an Assembly General (no man gainsaying) did justify that Treason 
Ass. Edenb. 1582.  in order to Religion as good and acceptable service to God, their Sovereign, and native Country, requiring the Ministers in all their Churches to commend it to the people, and exhort all men to concur with the actors, as they tendered the glory of God, the full deliverance of the Church, and perfect reformation of the Commonwealth, threatening all those who subscribed not to their judgement with Excommunication. We see this is not the first time that Disciplinarian Spectacles have made abominable Treason to seem Religion, if it serve for the advancement of the good Cause. And it were well if they could rest here, or their zeal to advance their Ecclesiastical Sovereignty, by force of Arms, and effusion of Christian blood, would confine itself within the limits of Scotland: No, those bounds are too narrow for their pragmatical spirits: And for busy Bishops in other men's Dioceses, see the Articles of Sterling, That the securing and 
Sept. 27. 1648. Ar. 3  settling Religion at home, and promoting the work of Reformation abroad, in England and Ireland, be referred to the determination of the General Assembly (of the Kirk) or their Commissioners. What, is old Edinburgh turned new Rome and the old Presbyters young Cardinals, and their Consistory a Conclave, and their Committees a Juncto for propagating the faith? Themselves stand most in need of Reformation; If there be a more in the eye of our Church, there is a beam in theirs. Neither want we at home God be praised, those who are a thousand times fitter for learning, for piety, for discretion, to be reformers, than a few giddy innovators. This I am sure, since they undertook our cure against our wills, they have made many fat Churchyards in England. Nothing is more civil, or essential to the Crown, than the Militia, or power of raising Arms: Yet we have seen in the attempt at Ruthen, in their Letter to the Lord Hamilton, in their Sermons, what is their opinion. They insinuate as much in their Theorems, It is lawful to resist the Magistrate by certain extraordinary 
Theor. 84.  ways or means, not to be ordinarily allowed. It were no difficult task out of their private Authors, to justify the barbarous acts that have been committed in England. But I shall hold myself to their public actions and records. A mutinous company of Citizens forced the gates of Halyrood-house, to search for a Priest, and plund●…r at their pleasure. Mr. Knox was charged by the Council to have been the 
Ann. 1562.  author of the sedition; and further, to have convocated his Majesty's Subjects by Letters missive when he pleased. He answered, that he was no preacher of Rebellion, but taught people to obey their Princes in the Lord; [I fear he taught them likewise, that he and they were the competent judges what is obedience in the lord] He confessed his convocating of the Subjects by virtue of a command from the Church, to advertise the brethren when he saw a necessity of their meeting, especially if he perceived Religion to be in peril. Take another instance, The Assembly having received an answer from the King, about the trial 
Ass. Edenburg. 1593.  of the Popish Lords, not to their contentment, resolve all to convene in Arms at the place appointed for the trial; whereupon some were left at Edinburgh to give timely advertisement to the rest. The King at his return gets notioe of it, calls the Ministers before him, shows them what an undutiful part it was in them to levy Forces, and draw his Subjects into Arms without his Warrant. The Ministers pleaded, That it was the cause of God, in defence whereof they could not be defieient. This is the Presbyterian wont, to subject all causes and persons to their Consistories, to ratify and abolish civil Laws, to confirm and pull down Parliaments, to levy Forces, to invade other Kingdoms, to do any thing respectively to the advancement of the good cause, and in order to Religion.   

CHAP. VIII.  
That the Disciplinarians challenge this exorbitant Power by Divine Right.  
BEhold both Swords spiritual and temporal in the hands of the Presbytery, the one ordinarily by common right, the other extraordinarily; the one belonging directly to the Church, the other indirectly; the one of the Kingdom of Christ, the other for his Kingdom, in order to the propagation of Religion. See how these hocas p●…cases with stripping up their sleeves and professions of plaindealing, with declaiming against the tyranny of Prelates, under the pretence of humility and Ministerial duty, have wrested the Sceptre out of the hand of Majesty, and juggled themselves into as absolute a Papacy, as ever was within the walls of Rome. O Saviour, behold thy Vicars, and see whither the pride of the servants of thy servants is ascended. Now their Consistories are become the Tribunals of Christ That were strange indeed! Christ hath but one Tribunal, his Kingdom is not of this world. Their determinations pass for the Sentences of Christ Alas there is too much faction, and passion, and ignorance in their Presbyteries. Their Synodall Acts go for the Laws of Christ His Laws are immutable, mortal man may not presume to alter them, or to add to them; but these men are chopping and changing their constitutions every day. Their Elders must be looked upon as the Commissioners of Christ It is impossible! Geneva was the first City where this discipline was hatched, though since it hath lighted into huckster's hands. In those days they magnified the platform of Geneva, for the pattern sbewed in the mount. But there, the Presbyters at their admission take an oath, to observe the Ecclesiastical Ordinances of the small, great, and general Counsels of that City. Can any man be so stupid, as to think, that the high Commissioners of Christ swear fealty to the Burghers of Geneva? Now forsooth their Discipline is become the Sceptre of Christ, the Eternal Gospel. (See how success exalts men's desires and demands.) In good time, where did this Sceptre lie hid for 1500. years, that we cannot find the least footsteps of it in the meanest village of Christendom? This world draws towards an end; was this discipline fitted and contrived for the world to come? Or how should it be the Eternal Gospel? When every man sees how different it is from itself, in all Presbyterian Churches, adapted and accommodated to the civil policy of each particular place where it is admitted, except only Scotland, where it comes in like a Conqueror, and makes the Civil Power stoop and strike topsail to it. Certainly, if it be the Gospel, it is the fifth Gospel, for it hath no kindred with the other four. There is not a Text which they wrest against Episcopacy, but the Independants may with as much colour of reason, and truth, urge it against their Presbyteries. Where doth the Gospel distinguish between temporary and perpetual Rulers? Between the Government of a person, and of a corporation? There is not a Text which they produce for their Presbytery, but may with much more reason be alleged for Episcopacy, and more agreeable to the analogy of faith, to the perpetual practice and belief of the Catholic Church, to the concurrent Expositions of all Interpreters, and to the other Texts of holy Scripture; for until this new model was yesterday devised none of those Texts were ever so understood. When the practice ushers in the doctrine, it is very suspicious, or rather evident, that the Scripture was not the rule of their reformation, but their subsequent excuse. This (jure divine) is that which makes their sore incurable, themselves incorrigible, that they father their own brat upon God Almighty, and make this Mushroom which sprung but up the other night, to be of heavenly descent. It is just like the doctrine of the Popet infallibility, which shuts the door against all hope of remedy. How should they be brought to reform their errors, who believe they cannot err, or they be brought to renounce their drowsy dreams, who take it for granted, that they are divine revelations!  
And yet when that wise Prince, King james, a little before the 
An. 1596.  national Assembly at Perth, published in print 55. Articles or Questions, concerning the uncertainty of this Discipline, and the vanity of their pretended plea of divine right, and concerning the errors and abuses crept into it, for the better preparation of all men to the ensuing Synod, that Ministers might study the point beforehand, and speak to the purpose; they who stood affected to that way were extremely perplexed. To give a particular account, they knew well it was impossible; but their chiefest trouble was, that their foundation of divine right, which they had given out all this while to be a solid rock, should come now to be questioned for a shaking quagmire. And so without any opposition they yielded the bucklers. Thus it continued until these unhappy troubles, when they started aside again like broken bows. This plant thrives better in the midst of tumults, then in the times of peace and tranquillity. The Elm which supports it, is a factious multitude, but a prudent and courageous Magistrate nips it in the bud.   

CHAP. IX.  
That this Discipline makes a monster of the Commonwealth.  
WE have seen how pernicious this Discipline (as it is maintained in Scotland, and endeavoured to be introduced into England by the Covenant,) is to the supreme Magistrate, how it rob●… him of his Supremacy in Ecclesiastical affairs, and of the last appeals of his own Subjects, that it exempts the Presbyters from the power of the Magistrate, and subjects the Magistrate to the Presbyters, that it restrains his dispensative power of pardoning, deprives him of the dependence of his Subjects, that it doth challenge and usurp a power paramount both of the Word and of the Sword, both of Peace and War, over all Courts and Estates, over all Laws Civil and Ecclesiastical, in order to the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ, whereof the Presbyters alone are constituted rulers by God, and all this by a pretended divine right, which takes away all hope of remedy, until it be hissed out of the world; in a word, that it is the top-branch of Popery, a greater tyranny, than ever Rome was guilty of. It remains to show how disadvantageous it is also to the Subject.  
First, to the Commonwealth in general, which it makes a Monster, like an Amphis●…baina, or a Serpent with two heads, one at either end. It makes a coordination of Sovereignty in the same Society, two supremes in the same Kingdom or State, the one Civil, the other Ecclesiastical, than which nothing can be more pernicious, either to the consciences, or the estates of Subjects, when it falls out (as it often doth) that from these two heads issue contrary commands, If the Trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? 
1 Cor. 1●…. 1.  Much more when there are two Trumpets, and the one sounds an Alarm, the other a Retreat. What should the poor Soldier do in such a case? or the poor Subject in the other case? If he obey the Civil Magistrate, he is sure to be excommunicated by the Church; if he obey the Church, he is sure to be imprisoned by the Civil Magistrate; What shall become of him? I know no remedy, but according to Solomon's sentence, the living Subject must be divided into two, and 
1 Kin. 3. 25.  the one half given to the one, and the other half to the other. For the Oracle of Truth hath said, that one man cannot serve two Masters. But in Scotland every man must serve two Masters, and (which is worse) many times disagreeing Masters. At the same time the Civil Magistrate hath commanded the Feast of the Nativity of our Saviour to be observed, and the Church hath forbidden it. At the same time the King hath summoned the Bishops to sit and Vote in Parliament, and the Church hath forbidden them.  
In the year 1582. Monsieur-le-mot, a Knight of the Order of the 
1582.  Holy Ghost, with an associate, were sent Ambassadors from France into Scotland: The Ministers of Edinburgh approving not his Message, (though merely Civil,) inveigh in their Pulpits bitterly against him, calling his White Cross the badge of Antichrist, and himself the Ambassador of a Murderer. The King was ashamed, but did not know how to help it; The Ambassadors were discontented and desired to be gone: The King willing to preserve the ancient Amity between the two Crowns, and to dismiss the Ambassadors with content, requires the Magistrates of Edinburgh to feast them at their departure; so they did; But to hinder this feast, upon the Sunday 
Febr. 16.  preceding, the Ministers proclaim a Fast to be kept the same day the Feast was appointed; and to detain the people all day at Church; the 
At Saint Giles Church.  three Preachers make three Sermons, one after another without intermission, thundering out curses against the Magistrates and Noblemen which waited upon the Ambassadors by the King's appointment. Neither stayed they here, but pursued the Magistrates with the censures of the Church, for not observing the Fast by them proclaimed; and with much difficulty were wrought to abstain from Excommunicating of them; which censure, how heavy it falls in Scotland, you shall see by and by. To come yet nearer, the late Parliament in Scotland enjoined men to take up Arms for delivery of their King out of prison; The Commissioners for the Assembly disallowed it; and at this present how many are chased out of their Country? How many are put to public repentance in sackeloth? how many are excommunicated, for being obedient to the Supreme Ludicatory of the Kingdom, that is, King and Parliament? Miserable is the condition of that people where there is such clashing and interfereing of Suprem Judicatories and Authorities. If they shall pretend that this was no free Parliament: First, they affirm that which is not true; either that Parliament was free, or what will become of the rest? Secondly, this plea will advantage them nothing; for (which is all one with the former) thus they make themselves Judges of the validity or invalidity of Parliaments.   

CHAP. X.  
That this Discipline is most prejudicial to the Parliament.  
FRom the Essentiallbody of the Kingdom we are to proceed to the repraesentative body, which is the Parliament. We have already seen, how it attributes a power to national Synods to restrain Parliaments, and to abrogate their Acts, if they shall judge them prejudicial to the Church. We need no other instance, to show what small account Presbyteries do make of Parliaments, than the late Parliament in Scotland. Notwithstanding that the Parliament had declared their resolution to levy forces vigorously, a●…d that they did expect as well from the Synods and Presbyteries, as from all other his Majesty's good Subjects, already obedience to the commands of Parliament, and Committee of Estates. The Commissioners of the Assembly not satisfied herewith, do not only make their proposals, that the grounds of the War and the breaches of the Peace might be 
March, 22.  cleared, that the union of the Kingdoms might be preserved, that the popish and prelatical party might be suppressed, that his Majesty's offers concerning Religion might be declared unsatisfactory, that before his Majesty's restitution to the exercise of his Royal power, he shall first engage himself by folemn Oath under his hand and Seal, to pass Acts for the settlement of the Covenant and Presbyterian Government in all his Dominions, etc. And never to oppose them, or endeavour the Change of them, (An usurer will trust a bankrupt upon easier terms, than they will do their Sovereign,) and last, that such persons only might be entrusted, as had given them no cause of jealousy, (which had been too much, and more than any estates in Europe will take in good part from half a dozen Ministers,) But afterwards by their public Declaration to the whole Kirk and Kingdom, set forth that not being satisfied 
Declar.  in these particulars, they do plainly descent and disagree, and declare that they are clearly persuaded in their consciences, that the Engagement is of dangerous consequence to true Religion, prejudicial to the Liberty of the Kirk, favourable to the Malignant party, inconsistent with the union of the Kingdom; Contrary to the word of God and the Covenant, wherefore they cannot allow either Ministers or any other whatsoever to concu●… and cooperate in it, and trust that they will keep themselves free in this business, and choose affliction rather than iniquity. And to say the Truth, they made their word good. For by their power over the Churchmen, and by their influence upon the people, and by threatening all those who engaged in that action with the censures of the Church, they retarded the Levies, they deterred all preachers from accompanying the Army to do divine offices. And when Saint Peter's keys would not serve the turn, they made use of Saint Paul's sword, and gathered the country together in arms at Machleene-Moore to oppose the expedition.  
So if the high court of Parliament will set up Presbytery, they must resolve to introduce an higher court than themselves, which will overtop them for eminency of authority, for extent of power, and greatness of privileges, that is, a national Synod.  
First for authority, the one being acknowledged to be but an human convention, the other affirmed confidently to be a divine instistution. The one sitting by virtue of the Kings writ, the other by virtue of Gods writ. The one as Councillors of the Prince, the other as Ambassadors and Vicars of the son of God. The one as Burgesses of Corporations, the other as Commissioners of jesus Christ. The one judging by the law of the land, the other by the holy Scriptures. The one taking care for this temporal life, the other for eternal life.  
Secondly for power, as Curtius saith, ubi multitudo vana religione capta est, melius vatibus suit quam ducibus paret, where the multitude is led with superstition, they do more readily obey their Prophets then their Magistrates. Have they not reason? Pardon us O Magistrate, thou threatenst us with prison, they threaten us with hell fire. Thy sentence deprives us of civil prorection, and the benefit of the law, so doth theirs indirectly, and withal makes us strangers to the commonwealth of Israel. Thou canst outlaw us, or horn us, and confiscate our estates, their keys do the same also by consequence, and moreover deprive us of the prayers of the Church, and the comfortable use of the blessed Sacraments. Thou canst deliver us to a Pursuivant, or commit us to the Black Rod, they can deliver u●… over to Satan, and commit us to the prince of darkness.  
Thirdly for privileges, the privileges of Parliament extend not to treason selony, or breach of peace, but they may talk treason, and act treason, in their pulpits and Synods without controlment. They may securely commit not only petilarciny but Burglary, and force the doors of the palace Royal. They may not only break the peace, but convocate the Subjects in arms, yea give warrant to a particular person, to ●…onveen them by his letters missives, according to his discretion, in order to religion. Of all which we have seen instances in this discourse. The privileges of Parliaments are the Graces and Concessions of man, and may be taken away by humane Authority, but the privileges of Synods they say are from God, and cannot without Sactiledge be taken away by mortal man. The two Houses of Parliament can not name Commissioners to sit in the intervalles, and take care ne quid detrimenti capiat respublica, that the Commonwealth receive no prejudice; But Synods have power to name vicar's General, or Commissioners, to sit in the intervalles of Synods, and take order that neither King nor Parliament nor people do encroach upon the Liberties of the Church. If there be any thing to do, they are (like the fox in Aesop's fables,) sure to be in at one end of it.   

CHAP. XI.  
That this Discipline is oppressive to particular persons.  
TOwards particular persons this Discipline is too full of rigour, like Dracoes laws that were written in blood. First in lesser faults, inflicting Church censures upon sl ight grounds, As for an uncomely 
Scot Leit. p. 57 58.  gesture, for a vain word, for suspicion of covetousness or pride, for superfluity in raiment, either for cost or fashion, for keeping a table above a man's calling or means, for dancing at a wedding, 
1 Book dis. 7. head.  or of servants in the streets, for wearing a man's hair a●…la mode, for not paying of debts, for using the least recreation upon the Sabbath, though void of scandal, and consistent with the duties of the day. I wish they were acquainted with the practice of all other Protestant Countries. But if they did but see one of those kirmesses which are observed in some places, the pulpit, the consistory, the whole Kingdom would not be able to hold them. What digladiations have there been among some of their sect about starch and cuffs, etc. just like those grave debates which were sometimes among the Franciscans, about the colour and fashion of their gowns? They do not allow men a latitude of discretion in any thing. All men, even their Superiors must be their slaves or pupils. It is true they begin their censures with admonition, And if a man will confess himself a delinquent, be sorry for giving the Presbyters any offence, and conform himself in his hair, apparel, diet, every thing, to what these rough hewn Catoes shall prescribe, he may escape the stool of repentance, otherwise they will proceed against him for contumacy, to Excommunication.  
Secondly, this discipline is oppressive in greater faults. The same man is punished twice for the same crime first by the Magistrate according to the laws of God and the land, for the offence: then by the censures of the Church for the scandal. To this agrees their Synod, Nothing forbids the same fault in the same man to be punished one 
Theor. 63.  way by the political power, another way by the Ecclesiastical; by that under the formality of a crime with Corporall or pecuniary punishment, by this under the formality of scandal with spiritual censures. And their book of Discipline, If the civil sword foolishly spare the life of the offender, yet may not the Kirk be negligent in their office. Thus their 
1 Book. 9 head p. 44.  Liturgy in express terms, All crimes which by the law of God deserve death, deserve also Excommunication. Yea, though an offender abide an assize, and be absolved by the same, yet may the Church enjoin him public satisfaction. Or if the Magistrate shall not think sit in his judgement, or cannot in conscience prosecute the party 
Scot lit. 48  upon the Church's intimation, the Church may admonish the Magistrate publicly. And if no remedy be found, excommunicate the 
47.  offender, first for his crime, and then for being suspected to have corrupted the judge. Observe first that by hook or crook they will bring all crimes whatsoever, great and small, within their jurisdiction. Secondly, observe that a delinquents trial for his life is no sufficient satisfaction to these third Cato's. Lastly, observe that to satisfy their own humour, they care not how they blemish publicly the reputation of the Magistrate upon frivolous conjectures.  
Thirdly, add to this which hath been said, the severity and extreme rigour of their Excommunication, after which sentence no person (his wife and family only excepted) may have any kind of conversation with him that is excommunicate, they may not eat with him, nor drink with him, nor buy with him, nor sell with him, 
1 Book dis. 7. h a●….  they may not salute him, nor speak to him, [except it be by the licence of the Presbytery,] His children begotten and born after that sentence, and before his reconciliation to the Church, may not be admitted to baptism, until they be of age to require it, or the mother or some special friend being a member of the Church present the child, abhorring and damning the iniquity and obstinate contempt of the Father. Add further that upon this sentence letters of horning (as they use to call them in Scotland) do follow of course, that is an out-lawing of the party, a confiscation of his goods, a putting him out of the King's protection, so as any man may kill him, and be unpunished; yea, the party excommunicate is not so much as cited to hear those fatal Letters granted. Had not David reason to pray, Let me fall into the hands of the Lord, not into the hands of men, for their mercies are cruel. Cruel indeed, that 
55. Articl. 1596.  when a man is prosecuted for his life, perhaps justly, perhap●… unjustly, so as appearing and hanging are to him in effect the same thing; yet if he appear not, this pitiful Church will Excommunicate him for contumacy: Whether the offender be convict in judgement, or b●… fugitiv●… from the Law, the Church ought to proceed to the sentence of Excommunication; as if the just and evident fear of death did not purge 
Scot Li●… 49  away contumacy.   

CHAP. XII.  
That this Discipline is hurtful to all orders of men.  
LAstly, this Discipline is burdensome and disadvantageous to all orders of men. The Nobility and Gentry must expect to follow the fortune of their Prince. Upon the abatement of Monarchy in Rome, remember what dismal controversies did presently spring up between the Patricii and Plebci. They shall be subjected to the censures of a raw heady novice, & a few ignorant Artificers; they shall lose all their advowsons of such Benefices as have cure of souls, as they have lately found in Scotland) for every Congregation ought to choose their own Pastor. They shall hazard their Appropriations and Abbey-lands: A Sacrilege which their national Synod cannot in conscience tolerate, longer than they have strength sufficient to overthrow it. And if they proceed as they begin, the Presbyters will in a short time either accomplish their design, or change their soil. They shall be bearded and maited by every ordinary Presbyter, witness that insolent speech of Mr. Robert Bruce to King james, Sir, I see your resolution is to take Huntley in favour; if you do, I will oppose; You shall choose whether you will lose Huntly or me; for us both you cannot keep. It is nothing with them for a pedant to put himself into the balance with one of the prime and most powerful Peers of the Realm.  
The poor Orthodox Clergy in the mean time shall be undone, their straw shall be taken from them, and the number of their bricks be doubled: They shall lose the comfortable assurance of an undoubted succession by Episcopal Ordination, and put it to a dangerous question, whether they be within the pale of the Church: They shall be reduced to ignorance, contempt, and beggary; They shall lose an ancient Liturgy, (warranted in the most parts of it by all, in all parts of it by the most public forms of the Protestant Churches, whereof a short time may produce a parallel to the view of the world,) and be enjoined to prate and pray nonsense everlastingly. For howsoever formerly they have had a Liturgy of their own, as all other Christian Churches have at this day; yet now it seems they allow no prayers, but extemporary. So faith the information from Scotland, 
Motus Brtanici. 171  It is not lawful for a man to tie himself, or be tied by others, to a prescript form of words in prayer and exhortation.  
Parents shall lose the free disposition of their own children in marriage if the child desire an husband or a wife, and the parent 
1 Book. dis: 9 head.  'gainst and their request, and have no other cause then the common of men have, to wit lack of goods, or because the other party is not of birth high enough, upon the child's desire, the Minister is to travail with the parents, and if he find no just cause to the contrary, may admit them to maerriage. For the work of God ought not to be hindered by the corrupt affections of worldly men. They who have stripped the father of their Country of his just right, may make bold with fathers of families, and will not stick to exclude all other fathers, but themselves out of the fifth commandment. The doctrine is very high, but their practice is yet much more high, The Presbyteries will compel the wronged parent to give that child as great a portion as any of his other children.  
It will be ill news to the Lawyerrs to have the moulter taken away from their Mills upon pretence of scandal, or in order to Religion, to have their sentences repealed by a Synod of Presbyters, and to receive more prohibitions from Ecclesiastical Courts, than ever they sent thither.  
All Masters and mistresses of families, of what age or condition soever, must come once a year before the Presbyter, wish their households, to be examined 
1 Book dis. 9 head.  personally whether they be fit to receive the Sacrament, in respect of their knowledge, and otherwise. And if they suffer their children or servants to continue in wilful ignorance (What if they cannot help it?) they must be excommunicated. It is probable, the persons catechised could often better instruct their Catechists.  
The common people shall have an High-Commission in every parish, and groan under the Arbitrary dec●…ees of ignorant unexperienced Governors, who know no Law but their own wills, who observe no order but what they list; from whom lies no appeal but to a Synod, which for the shortness of its continuance can afford which for the condition of the persons will afford them little relief. If there arise a private jar between the parent and the child, or the husband and the wife, these domestical judges must know it, and censure it.  Scire volunt secreta do●…us, atque inde timeri. 
And if there have been any suit or difference between the Pastor and any of high flock, or between Neighbour and Neighbour, be sure it will not be forgotten in the sentence. The practice of our Law hath been, that a judge was rarely permitted to ride a circuit in his own country, least private interest or respects might make him partial. Yet a Country is much larger than a Parish and a grave learned judge is presumed to have more temper than such homebred fellows. Thus we see what a Pandora's box this pretended holy Discipline is, full of manifold mischiefs, and to all orders of men most pernicious.   

CHAP. XIII.  
That the Covenant to introduce this Discipline is void and wicked, with a short Conclusion.  
But yet the conscience of an Oath sticks deep. Some will plead, that they have made a Covenant with God, for the introduction of this Discipline, Oaths and Vows ought to be made with great judgement, and broken with greater. My next task therefore must be to demonstrate this clearly, that this Covenenant is not binding, but merely void, and not only void but wicked; so as it is necessary to break it, and impious to observe it.  
The first thing that cracks the credit of this new Covenant is, that it was devised by strangers, to the dishonour of cur Nation, imposed by Subjects, who wanted requisite power upon their Sovereign and fellow-subjects, extorted by just fear of unjust sufferings. So as a may truly say of many who took this Covenant, that they sinned in pronouncing the words with their lips, but never consented with their hearts to make any vow to God.  
Again, error and deceit make those things voluntary to which they are incident, especially when the errour●…s nor merely negative by way of concealment of truth, when a man knows not what he doth, but positive, when he believes he doth one thing, and doth the clean contrary, and that not about some inconsiderable accidents, but about the substantial conditions. As if a Physician, either out of ignorance or malice, should give his Patient a deadly poison under the name of a cordial, and bind him by a solemn oath to take it, the Oath is void, necessary to be broken, unlawful to be kept; if the patient had known the truth, that it was no cordial, that it was poison, he would not have swom to take it. Such an error there is in the Covenant with a witness, to gull men with a strange, unknown, lately devised platform of Discipline, most pernicious to the King and Kingdom, as if it were the very institution of Christ, of high advantage to the King and Kingdom, to gull them with that Covenant which King James did sometimes take, as if that and this were all one, whereas that Covenant issued out by the King's Authority, this Covenant without his Authority, against his Authority; that Covenant was for the Laws of the Realm, this is against the Laws of the Realm; that was to maintain the Religion established, this to overthrow the Religion established: But because I will not ground my Discourse upon any thing that is disputable, either in matter of Right, or Fact; And in truth, because I have no need of them, I sorgive them these advantages, only with this gentle memento, That when other foreign Churches, and the Church of Scotland itself (as appears by their public Liturgy used in those days) did sue for aid and assistance from the Crown and Kingdom of England, they did not go about to obtrude their own Discipline upon them, but left them free to choose for themselves.  
The grounds which follow are demonstrative; First, no man can dispose that by vow, or otherwise, either to God or man, which is the right of a third person without his consent: Neither can the●…nferiour oblige himself to the prejudice of his Superior, contrary to his duty, without his Superiors allowance: God accepts no such pretences, to seem obsequious to him, out of the undoubted right of another person. Now the power of Arms, and the defence of the Laws, and protection of the Subjects by those Arms, is by the Law of England clearly invested in the Crown. And where the King is bound in conscience to protect, the Subject is bound in conscience to assist. Therefore every English Subject owes his Arms and his Obedience to his King, and cannot dispose them as a free gift of his own; nor by any act of his whatsoever diminish his Sovereign's right over him, but in those things wherein by Law he owes subjection to his Prince, he remaineth still obliged, notwithstanding any Vow or Covenant to the contrary; especially when the subject and scope of the Covenant is against the known Laws of the Realm. So as without all manner of doubt, no Divine or Learned Casuist in the world dissenting, This Covenant is either void in itself, or at least voided by his Majesty's Proclamation, prohibiting the takirg of it, and nullifying its obligation.  
Secondly, It is confessed by all men that, that an Oath ought not to be the bond of iniquity, nor doth oblige a man to be a transgressor. The golden rule is, in malis promissis rescinde fidem, in turpi voto muta decretum, To observe a wicked engagement doubles the sin: Nothing can be the matter of a Vow or Covenant, which is evidently unlawful. But it is evidently unlawful for a Subject or Subjects to alter the Laws established by force, without the concurrence, and against the commands of the Supreme Legislator, for the introduction of a foreign Discipline. This is the very matter and subject of the Covenant. Subjects vow to God, and swear one to another, to change the Laws of the Realm, to abolish the Discipline of the Church, and the Liturgy lawfully established, by the Sword, (which was never committed to their hands by God or man,) without the King, against the King, which no man can deny in earnest to be plain rebellion, And it is yet the worse, that it is to the main prejudice of a third order of the Kingdom, the taking away whose rights without their consents, without making them satisfaction, cannot be justified in point of conscience. (Yea though it were for the greater convenience of the Kingdom, as is most falsely pretended,) And is harder measure than the Abbots and Friars received from Henry the eight, or then either Christians or Turks do offer to their conquered enemies.  
Lastly a supervenient oath or covenant either with God or man, cannot take away the obligation of a just oath precedent. But such is the Covenant, a subsequent oath, inconsistent with, and destructive to a precedent oath, that is the oath of Supremacy, which all the Church men throughout the Kingdom, all the Parliament men at their admission to the house, all persons of quality throughout England have taken. The former oath acknowledgeth the King to be the only supreme h●…ad, (that is civil head to see that every man do his duty in his calling,) and Governor of the Church of England, The second oath or covenant, to set up the Presbyterian Government as it is in Scotland, denieth all this virtually, makes it a political papacy, acknowledgeth no governor's but only the Presbyters. The former oath gives the King the supreme power over all persons in all causes, The second oath gives him a power over all persons, (as they are subjects,) but none at all in Ecclesiastical causes, This they make to be sacrilege.  
By all whi●…h it is most apparent, that this Covenant was neither free nor deliberate, nor valide, nor lawful, nor consistent with our former oaths, but insorced, d●…ceitfull, invalide, impious, rebellious, and contradictory to our former engagements, and consequently obligeth no man to performance, but all men to repentance. For the greater certainty whereof I appe●…le, upon this stating of the case, to all the learned Casuists and Divines in Europe, touching the point of common right; And that this is the true state of the case, I appeal to our adversaries themselves. No man that hath any spark of ingenuity will deny it. No Englishman who hath any tolerable degree of judgement, or knowledge in the laws of his country, can deny it, but at the same instant his conscience must give him the lie.  
They who plead for this rebellion, dare not put it to a trial at law, they do not ground their defence upon the laws, But either upon their own groundless jealousies and fears, of the King's intention to introduce Popery, to subvert the laws, and to enslave the people. This is to run into a certain crime, for fear of an uncertain.  
They who intent to pick quarrels, know how to feign suspicions. Or they ground it upon the success of their arms, or upon the Sovereign right of the people, over all laws and Magistrates, whose Representatives they create themselves, whilst the poor people sigh in corners, and dare not say their soul is their own, lamenting their former folly, to have contributed so much to their own undoing.  
Or lastly upon Religion, the cause of God, the worst plea of all the rest to make God accessary to their treasons, murders, covetousness, ambition. Christ did never authorize Subjects to plant Christian Religion, much less their own fan●…ticall dreams, or fantastical deviles, in the blood of their Sovereign, and fellow subjects.  
Speak out, is it lawful for Subjects to take up arms against their Prince merely for Religion? or is it not lawful? It ye say it is not lawful, ye condemn yourselves, for your Covenant testifieth to the world, that ye have taken up arms, merely to alter Religion, and that ye bear no Allegiance to your King, but only in order to Religion, that is in plain terms, to your own humours and conceits. If ye say it is lawful, ye justify the Independents in England, for supplanting yourselves, ye justify the Anabaptists in Germany, john of Leyden and his c●…ue. Ye break down the banks of Order, and make way for an inundation of blood and confusion in all Country's. Ye render yourselves justly odious to all Christian Magistrates, when they see, that they owe their safety not to your good wills, but to your weakness, that ye want sufficient strength to cut their throats. This is fine doctrine for Europe, wherein there is scarce that King or State, which hath not Subjects of different opinions and communions in Religion. Or lastly if ye say, it is lawful for you to plant that which ye apprehend to be true Religion by force of arms, but it is not lawful for others to plant that which they apprehend to be true Religion by source, because yours is the Gospel, theirs is not. Ye beg the question, and make yourselves ridiculously partial by your overweening opinion, worse than that of the men of China, as if ye only had two eyes, and all the rest of the world were stark blind. There more hope of a fool, then of him that is wise in his own eyes.  
I would to God we might be so happy as to fee a General Council of Christians, at least a General Synod of all Proteftants, and that the first Act might be to denounce an Anathema Maranatha, against all brochers and maintainers of seditious principles, to take way the scandal which lies upon Christian Religion, and to show that in the search of piety, we have not lost the principles of humanity. In the mean time, let all Christian Magistrates, who are principally concerned, beware how they suffer this Cockatrice egg to be hatched in their Dominions. Much more how they plead for Baal, or Baal-Berith, the baalim's of the Covenant. It were worth the enquiring, whether the marks of Antichrist do not agree as eminently to the Assembly General of Scotland, as either to the Pope, or to the Turk: This we see plainly, that they spring out of the ruins of the Civil Magstrate, they sit upon the Temple of God, and they advance themselves above those whom holy Scripture calleth Gods.   
FINIS.  

A REVIEW OF DOCTOR BRAMBLE, Late Bishop of LONDENDERRY, HIS FAIR WARNING Against the Scotes Discipline.  
By R. B. G.  
Printed at DELF, By Michiel Stael, dwelling at the Turf-Market 1649.   

For the right Honourable the Noble and potent Lord JOHN Earl of Cassils', Lord KENNEDY, etc. one of his MAJESTY'S privy counsel, and Lord justice general of Scotland.  
RIGHT HONOURABLE.  
MY long experience ofyour Lordships sincere zeal to the truth of God, and affection to the liberties of the Church and Kingdom of Scotland, against all enemies whomsoever; hath emboldened me to offer by your Lordship's hand to the view of the public, my following answer to a very bitter enemy of that Church and Kingdom for their adhaerence to the sacred truth of God and their own just liberties.  
At my first sight of his Book and many days thereafter I had no purpose at 
The Author●… reasons of his writing.  all to meddle with him: your Lordship knows how unprovided men of my present condition must be, either with leisure, or accommodations, or a mind suitable for writing of books. Also Doctor Bramble was so well known on the other side of the Sea, the justice of the Parliament of England and Scotland having unanimously condemned him to stand upon the highest pinnacle of infamy, among the first of the unpardonable incendiaries, and inthe head of the most pernicious instruments of the late miseries in Britain and Ireland: and the evident falsehood of his calumnies were so clearly confuted long ago in printed answers to the infamons Authors whence he had borrowed them; I saw lastly the man's Spirit so extreme saucy, and his pen so wespish and full of gall, that I judged him unworthy of any answer. But understanding his malions boldness to put his Book in the hand of his Majesty, of the Prince of Orange, and all the eminent personages of this place who can read English; yea to send it abroad unto all the Universities of these Provinces, with very high and insinuating commendations, from the prime favourers of the Episcopal cause: hearing also the threats of that faction to put this their Excellent and unanswerable piece, both in Dutch, French, and Latin; that in the whole neighbouring World the reputation of the Scotes might thereby be wounded, killed, and buried, without hope of recovery; I found it necessary, at the desire of divers friends, to send this my review after it, hoping that all who shall be pleased to be at the pains of comparing the reply with the challenge, may be induced to pronounce him not only a rash, untimous, malicious, but also a very false accuser. This much justice do I expect from every judicious and aequitable comparer of our writeth, upon the hazard of their censure to fall upon my side. 
The Praelats are unable by reason to defend Episco pacy.   
His invectives against us are chiefly for three things; our Discipline, our Covenant, our alleged unkindness to our late Sovereign. My apology for the first is that in discipline we maintain no considerable conclusion, but what is avowed by all the Reformed Churches, especially our Brethren of Holland and France, as by the approbatory suffrages of the Universities of Leyden, Vtrecht and others, to the theorems whereupon our adversary doth build his chief accusations, may appear. If our practice had aberred from the common rule, the crookedness of the one ought not to praejudge the straightness of the other: though what our adversary allegeth of these aberrations is nothing, but his own calumnious imputations: the chief quarrel is our rule itself, which all the reformed harmoniously defend with us, to be according to Scripture; and the Episcopal declinations, to be beside and against the line or the word, yea Antichristian.  
If our Praelats had found the humour of disputing this main cause to stir in their veins, why did they not vent it in replies to Didoclavius and Gersome Bucerus, who for long thirty years have stood unanswered? or if fresher meats had more pleased their taste, why did not their stomaches venture on Salmasius or Blondels books against Episcopacy? If verbal debates had liked them better than writing, why had none of them the courage to accept the conference, with that incomparably most learned of all knights now living or in any bygone age Sir Claud Somayis; who by a person of honour about the King, did signify his rendines to prove before his Majesty, against any one or all his praelaticall divines, that their Episcopacy had no warrant at all in the word of God, or any good reason?  
But our friends are much wiser than to be at the trouble and hazard of any such exercise; the artifices of the court are their old trade, they know better 
Cheir stronge●… 〈◊〉 are 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉.  how to watch the seasons, and to distribute amongst themselves the hours of the King's opportunities, when privately without contradiction they may instill in his tender mind their corrupt principles, and instruct him in his cabin, how safe it is for his conscience, and how much for his honour rather to ruin himself, his family and all his Kingdoms with his own hands, then to desert the holy Church, that is the Bishops and their followers; then to join with the rebellious Covenanters, enemies to God, to his Father, to to Monarchy that the embracing of the Barbarous Irish, the pardoning of all their monstruous murders, the rewarding of their expected merits with a free liberty of Popery, and access to all places of the highest trust, though contrary to all the Laws which England and Ireland has known this hundred years; all this without and before any Parliament, must be very consistent, with conscience, honour and all good reason. Yea to bind up the soul of the most sweet and ingenuous of Princes, in their chains of their slavery for ever, they have fallen upon a most rare trick, which hardly the inventions of all their praedecessors can pararel. They rest not satisfied, that for the upholding of their ambition and greed, they did harden our late Sovereign 
The 〈…〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  to his very last in their Errors, and without compassion did dryve him on to his satal precipice, unless they make him continue after his death to cry loud every day in the ears of his Son in his later will and testament, to follow him in that same way of ruin; rather then to give over to serve 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  the lu●…ts of the praelaticall clergy. They have gathered together his Majesty's last papers, and out of them have made a book, whereupon their best pens have dropped the greatest eloqution, reason and devotion was among them; by way of essays; as it were to frame the heart of the Son by the fingers of the dying Father to piety, wisdom, patience, and every virtue, but ever & anon to let fall so much of their own ungracious dew, as may irrigat the seeds of their praelaticall Errors and Church interest; so far as to charge him to perseveer in the maintenance of Episcopal government 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 repent of their Covenant; and that till then never less loyalty justice or humanity may be expected from any, then from them; that if he stand in need of them he is undone, for they will devour him as the Serpent does the dove.  
These and the like pernicious maxims framed by an Episcopal hand, of purpose to separat for ever the King from all his covenanted subjects, how far they were from the heart, language and write of our late Sovereign, all who were acquainted with his carriage and most intime affections at Newcastle, in the Isle of Wight and thereafter, can testify, But it is reason when the Praelats do frame an image of a King that they should have liberty to place their own image in its forehead, as the statuary of old did his, in the Boss of Pallas targe, with such arti●…ice that all her worshippers were necessitat to worship him and that no hand was able to destroy the one without the dissolution and breaking in pieces of the other; yet our Praelats would know, that in this age there be many excellent Engyneers, whose witty practics transcend the most skilful experiments of our Ancestors: and what ever may be the ignorance or weakness of men, we trust the breath of our Lord's mouth will not fail to blow out the Bishop from the King's arms, without any detriment at all to royalty, Always the wicked and impious cunning of these craftsemen is much to be blamed who dare be bold to insert and engrave themselves so deeply in the images of the Gods as the one cannot be intended to be picked out of the other more than the Apple from the eye, unless the subsistence of both be put in hazard.  
The other matter of his railing against us is the solemn league and covenant; 
The only crane 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; we find his most demonstrative proofs to be so poor and silly that they infere nothing of his conclusion. To this day no man has showed any error in the mater of that covenant; as for our framing and taking of it, our adversaries drove us thereunto, with a great deal of necessity; and now being in it, neither their fraud nor force may bring us from it again, for we fear the oath of God. After much deliberation we found that covenant the sovereign means to join and keep together the whole orthodox party in the three Kingdoms, for the defence of their Religion and Liberties which a popish, praelaticall and malignant faction with all their might were overtarning who still to this day are going on in the same design, 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 Majesty might be pleased to enter therein; but by all means such a mischief must be averted, for so the root of Episcopacy would quickly wither without any hope of repullulation; an evil far greater in the thoughts of them who now manage the conscience of the Court them the extirpation of Monarchy the eversion of all the three Kingdoms or any other earthly misery.  
As for the third subject of the Warners fury against us, our unkindness to 
The Bishops are most justly cast out of England.  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 mischief, than what they occasioned to our late Sovereign, his person, family and Dominions this last dozn of years, there is abundant reason of burying that their praeter and anti-scriptural order in the grave of perpetual infamy. But the truth is, beside more ancient quarrels, since the days 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 perpetual trouble of that land, till now at last it hath well near kicked down to the ground there, both Church and Kingdom. As for the point in hand we deny 
The Scots were never injurious to their King.  all unkindness 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 Kingdoms. When his Majesty was so ill advised as to bring down upon our borders an English army for to punish our refusing of a world of novations in our Religion contrary to the laws of God and of our country, what could our land do less than lie down in their arms upon Dunce law for their just and necessary defence? when it was in their power with ease to have dissipat the opposite army, they show themselves most ready upon very easy conditions to go home in peace, and gladly would have rested there, had not the furious Bishops moved his Majesty without all provocation, to break 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 arm again? when they had defeat the Episcopal 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 mean tearnes to return 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 near subdued the Parliament and their followers and did almost accomplish their first designs upon the whole Isle. The Scots then with most earnest and pitiful entreaties were called upon by their Brethren of England for help, where unwilling that their brethren should perish in their sight and a bridge should be made over their carcases for a third war upon Scotland, when after long trial they had found all their intercessions with the King for a moderate and reasonable accommodation slighted and rejected they suffered themselves to be persuaded to enter in covenant with their oppressed and fainting brethren, for the mantainance of the common cause of Religion and liberty, but with express Articles for the preservation of royalty in all its just rights in his Majesty and his posterity; what unkindness was here in the Scots to their King?  
When by God's blessing on the Scotes help the opposite faction was fully subdued, his Majesty left Oxford with a purpose for London, but by the severity 
The Scotes selling of the King is a most false calumny.  of the ordinances against his receivers, he diverted towards Linn, to ship for Holland or France; where by the way fearing a discovery and surprise, he was necessitate to cast himself upon the Scotes army at Newwark; upon his promise to give satisfaction to the propositions of both Kingdoms, he was received there and to Newcastle: here his old oaths to adhaere unto Episcopacy hindered him to give the expected satisfaction. At that time the prime leaders of the English army were seeking with all earnestness occasion to fall upon the Scots, much out of heart and reputation by james Grahame and his Irishes incursions, most unhappy for the King's affairs: Scotland at that time was so full of divisions that if the King had gone thither they were in an evident hazard of a present war both within among themselves, and without from England: our friends in the English Parliament whom we did, and had reason to trust, assured us that our taking the King with us to Scotland, was the keeping of the Sectarian Army on foot, for the wrack of the King, of Scorland, of the Presbyterian party in England; as the sending of his Majesty to one of his houses near London,, upon the faith of the Parliament of England, was the only way to get the Sectaryes disarmed, the King and the people settled in a peace, upon such terms as should be satisfactory both to the King and the Scots and all the well-affected in England. This being the true case was it any, either unjustice, unkindness or imprudence in the Scots to leave the King with his Parliament of England? was this a selling of him to his enemies? the monies the Scots received at their departure out of England had no relation at all to the King, they were scarce the sixth part of the arrears due to them for bygon service; they were but the one half of the sum capitulat for, not only without any reference to the King, but by an act of the English Parliament excluding expressly from that Treaty of the army's departure all consideration of the disposal of the King's person. The unexpected evils that followed in the Army's rebellion, in their seizing on London, destroying the Parliament, murdering the King, no mortal eye could have foreseen. The Scots were ever ready to the utmost of their power to have prevented all these mischiefs with the hazard of what was dearest to them; notwithstanding of all the hard measure they had often received both from the King and the most of their friends in England. That they did not in time and unanimously stir to purpose for these ends they are to answer it to God, who were the true Authors; the innocency of the Church is cleared in the following treatise. Among the many causes of these miseries the prime fountain was the venom of Episcopal principles which some serpents constantly did infuse by their speeches and letters in the ears and heart of the King to keep him of from giving that satisfaction to his good subjects which they found most necessary and due; the very same cause which ties up this day the hands of covenanters from redressing all present misorders could they have the King to join with them in their covenant, to quit his unhappy Bishops, to lay aside his formal and dead Liturgy, to cast himself upon the counsels of his Parliaments it were easy to prophesy what quickly would become of all his enemies: but so long as Episcopal and malignant agents compasseth him about (though all that comes near may see him as lovely hopfull, and promising a prince for all natural endowments as this day breathes in Europe or for a long time has swayed a Sceptre in Britain) yet while such unlucky birds nest in his Cabin and men so ungraciously principled do daily besiege him, what can his good people do but sit down with mournful eyes and bleeding hear●…s, till the Lord amend these otherwise remediless and insuperable evils? but I hold here lest I transgress to far the bounds of an Epistle?  
I account it an advantage to have your Lordship my judge in what 
The reason of the dedi●…ation.  here and in my following treatise, I spoke of Religion, the liberties of our country and the Royal Family: I know non fitter than your Lordship, both to discern and decern in all these matters. Me thinks I may say it without flattery (which I never much loved either in myself or others) that among all our Nobles for constancy in a zealous profession, for exemplary practice in public and private duties; the mercy of God has given to your Lordship a reputation second to none. And for a rigid adhaerence to the Rights and Privileges of your Country, according to that ancient disposition of your most Noble Family, noted in our Historians, especially that Prince of them Georg Buchanan, the Tutor of your Grandfather, I know none in our Land who will pretend to go before you, and for the affairs of the King, your interest of blood in the Royal Family is so well known, that it would be a strange impudence in me, if in your audience I durst be bold wittingly to give sinistrous information. Praying to God that what in the candid ingenuity & true zeal of my spirit, I present under your Lordship's patrociny unto the eye of the World, for the vindication of my mother Church and Country, from the Sicophantick accusations of a Stigmatised incendiary may produce the intended effects,  
Hague this 28 May 7 junie. 1649. I rest your Lordships in all Christian duty, R. B. G.   

CHAP. I.  
The proelaticall faction continue resolute, that the King and all his people shall perish, rather than the praelats, be not restored to their former places of power, for to set up Popery, Profanity, and Tyranny, in all the three Kingdoms.  
WHile the Commissioners of the Church 
The unseasonableness of Doctor Brambles warning.  and Kingdom of Scotland, were on their way to make their first addresses to his Majesty, for to condole his most lamentable afflictions, and to make offer of their best affections and services for his comfort, in this time of his great distress; it was the wisdom and charity of the praelaticall party, to send out Doctor Bramble, to meet them with his Fair Warning. For what else? but to discourage them in the very entry from tendering their propositions, and before ever they were heard, to stop his Majesty's ears with grievous praejudice, against all that possibly they could speak; though the world sees that the only apparent fountain of hope upon earth, for recovery of the woefully confounded affairs of the King, is in the hands of that Antipraelaticall nation: but it is the hope of these who love the welfaire of the King and his people, of the Churches and Kingdoms of Britain, that the hand of God, which hath broken all the former devices of the Praelats, shall crush this their engine also.  
Our warner undertaketh to oppugn the Scotes discipline 
The irrational way of the warners writing.  in a way of his own, none of the most rational. 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 culls 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 detorted passages from the books of their friends, to bring the way of that Church in detestation without any just reason.  
These practices in our warner, are the less pardonable, that though he knows the chief of his allegations, to be 
The most of his stuff is borrowed and long ago confuted.  but borrowed from his late much beloved Comerads Master Corbet in his Lysimachus Nicanor, and Master Maxewell in his Issachars' Burden, yet he was neither deterred by the strange punishments, which God from heaven inflicted visibly on both these calumniatores of their mother Church, nor was pleased in his repeating of their calumnious arguments, to relieve any of them from the exceptions under the which they stand publicly confuted, I suppose to his own distinct knowledge, I know certainly, to the open view ofthousands 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, and issachar's Burden, much less of Master Baylies answer to both, printed some years ago at London, Edinburgh and Amsterdam, without a rejoinder from any of that faction to this day. 
The con●… bitterness of the warners spirit.   
How everlet our warner be heard. In the very first page of his first chapter, we may taste the sweetness 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 canonised, their own dreams, the counterfeit image which they fain 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 inconsistent 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 soberness doth the warner breath out in his very first page.  
Though he had no regard at all to the clear passages of Holy Scripture, whereupon the Scotes do build their anti-episcopal tenets; nor any reverence to the harmony of the reformed Churches, which unanimously join with the Scotes in the main of their discipline, especially in that which the Doctor hates most therein, the rejection of Episcopacy: yet me thinks some little respect might have appeared in the man to the authority of the Magistrate, and civil Laws, which are much more ingeminated by this worthy divine over all his book, than the holy Scriptures.  
Can he so soon forget that the whole discipline of the 
The warner strikes at the Scotes discipline through the King's sides.  Church of Scotland, as it is there taught and practised, is established by acts of Parliament, and hath all the strength which the King and State can give to a civil Law? the warner may well be grieved, but hardly can he be ignorant, that the King's Majesty this day does not at all question the justice of these sanctions: what ever therefore be the Doctor's 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 lays, against his own professions, a slander upon the King, and His Royal Father, of great ignorance, or huge unjustice, the one having established, the other offering 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 forms of civil government, and the heaviest pressure that can fall on a people.  
All the cause of this choler which the warner is pleased to speak out, is the attempt of the Scotes, to obtrude their 
In the threshold he stumbles on the King's conscience.  discipline upon the King, contrary to the dictates of his own conscience, and to compel foreign Churches to embrace the same. Ans. Is it not presumption in our warner, so soon to tell the world in print what are the dictates of the King's conscience, as yet he is not his Majesty's confessor, and if the Clerk of the Closet had whispered some what in his ear●…, what he heard in secret, he ought not to have proclaimed it without a warrant; but we do altogether mistrust his reports of the King's conscience: for who will believe 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 dictates of his own conscience. This great stumble up on the King's conscience in the first page, must be an ominous cespitation on the threshold.  
The other imputation had no just ground: the Scotes did 
The Scots never offered to impose any thing u●… on England.  never meddle, to impose any thing upon foreign Churches, there is question of none, but the English; and the Scotes 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 King and Parliament of England, which after long deliberation, and much debate, upanimously concluded the Presbiterian discipline in all the parts thereof, to be agreeable to the word of God: it was the two Houses of the Parliament of England without a contrary voice, who did ordain the abolition of Episcopacy, and the setting up of Presbyteryes and Synods in England and Ireland. Can here the Scotes be said to compel the English to dance after their pipe, when their own assembly of divines begins the song, when the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England concur without a discording 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 lays upon the 
The elder praelats of England were Erastians', and more, but the younger are as much an i-Erastian as the most riged of the Presbytery.  Scotes three other crimes: first, That they count it Erastianisme to put the government of the Church in the hand of the Magistrate. Answ. The Doctor's knowledge is greater than to be ignorant, that all these go under the name of Erastians', who walking in Erastus' ways of flattering the Magistrate, to the prejudice of the just rights of the Church, run yet out much beyond Erastus' personal tenets; I doubt if that man went so far as the Doctor here and else where, to make all Ecclesiastical jurisdiction, but a part of the Magistrates civil power, which for its execution, the supreme Governors of any state may derive out of the fountain of their supremacy to what ever hands civil or Ecclesiastic themselves think fit to commit it. Let the Doctor add to this much knowledge, but a little ingenuity, and he shall confess that his Brethren the Later Bishops, who claim 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 Laws there for Episcopacy seem to be point blank according to the Erastian errors: for they make the crown and royal supremacy the original, root and fountain whence all the discipline of the Church doth flow: as before the days of Henry the eight it did out of the Pope's head-ship of the Church under Christ. How ever let the Doctor ingenuously speak out his sense, and I am deceived, if he shall not acknowledge, that how gross an Erastian so ever himself and the elder Bishops of England might have been, yet that long ago, the most of his praelatical friends have become as much opposite to Erastianisme, as the most rigid of the Presbiterians.  
The other crime he lays 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 sense in this point, he had charged this great crime far more home upon the head of the Scotes: for indeed though they were ever far from denying the true degrees of importance which do clearly appear among the multitude of Christian truths, yet the great quarrel here of the warner and his friends against them, is that they spoilt the Canterburian design of reconcealing 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 only 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 shisme, should be at all the pains to make the journey to Rome. While this design is far advanced and furiously driven on in all the three Kingdoms, and by none more in Yreland then the Bishop of Derry, behold the rude and plain blewcapes step in to the play and mar all the game: by no art, by no terror 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 wise and modest a man as not to bring it above board.  
The last charge of the Chapter is, that the Scotes keep not 
The Scotes were ever anti episcopal.  still that respect to the Bishops of England, which they were wont of old in the beginning of Queen 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 tenor of the whole Epistle is a grave and brotherly admonition to beware of that fatal concomitant of the most moderate Episcopacy, the troubling of the best and most zealous servants of Christ for idle & fruitless Ceremonies. How great a reverence the Church of Scotland at that time carried to praelacy, may be seen in their supplication to the secret counsel of Scotland, in that same assembly the very day and Session wherein they write the letter in hand to the Bishops of England. The Archbishop 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 counsel in distinct terms, that they would never be more subject unto that usurped tyranny the they would be to the devil himself: So reverend an opinion had the Church of Scotland at that time of Episcopal jurisdiction.  
But suppone that some fourscore years ago, the Scotes before they had tasted the fruits of Protestant Bishops, had 
The Praelates lately were found in the act of introducing Popery, into the Church, and Tyranny into the Kingdom.  judged them tolerable in England, yet since that time by the long tract of mischiefs, which constantly has accompanied the order of praelacy, they have been put upon a more accurate inspection of its nature, and have found it not only a needles, but a noxious and poisonous weed, necessare 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 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.  
The Presbiterians assert positively, the Magistrates right to convocat 
No controversy in Scotland betwixt the King and the Church, about the convocating of Synods.  Synods, to confirm their acts, to reform the Churches within their dominions.  
IN the second Chapter the warner charges the Scotes presbytery, with the overthrowing the Magistrates right in convocating of Synods. When he comes to prove this, he forgets his challenge: and digresses from it to the Magistrates power of choysing elders and making Ecclesiastic laws, avowing that these things are done in Scotland by Ecclesiastic persons alone, without consent of the king or his counsel. Ans. It seems our Warner is very ignorant of the way of the Scotes discipline, the ordinary and set meetings of all assemblies both national and provincionall since the first reformation are determined by acts of Parliament, with the King's consent, so betwixt the King and the Church of Scotland, there is no question for the convocating of ordinary assemblies, for extraordinary, no man in Scotland did ever controvert the King's power to call them when and where he pleased: as for the inhaerent power of the Church to meet for discipline, alswell as for worship, the Warner falls on it hereafter, we must therefore pass it in this place.  
What he means to speak of the King's power in choysing 
The warners Erastian and Tirannick principles, hated by the King.  elders or making Ecclesiastic Laws, himself knows: his Majesty in Scotland did never require any such privilege, as the election of elders, or Commissioners to Parliament, or members of any incorporation, civil or Ecclesiastic, where the Laws did not expressly provide the nomination to be in the crown. The making of Ecclesiastic Laws in England, alswell as in Scotland, was ever with the King's good contentment, referred to Ecclesiastic assemblies: but the Warner seems to be in the mind of these his companions, who put the power of preaching, of administering the Sacraments and discipline in the supreme Magistrate alone, and derives it out of him as the head of the Church to what members he thinks expedient to communicate it: also that the legislative power alswell in Ecclesiastic as civil affairs, is the property of the King alone. That the Parliaments and general assemblies are but his arbitrary counsels, the one for matters of the state, the other for matters of the Church, with whom or without whom he makes acts of Parliament and Church cannons, according to his good pleasure, that all the offices of the Kingdom, both of Church and State are from him, as he gives a Commission to whom he will to be a sheriff or justice of peace, so he sends out whom he pleaseth to preach & celebrate Sacraments by virtue of his regal mission. The Warner and his Erastian friends may well extend the royal supremacy to this largeness, but no King of Scotland was ever willing to accept of such a power though by erroneous flatterers, sometimes obtruded upon him, (see Canterburian self conviction. cap. ult.)  
The Warner will not leave this matter in general, he descends 
The Warners ignorant and false report of the Scotes proceedings.  to instance a number of particular incroatchments of the Scots Presbyters upon the royal authority: we must dispense in all his discourse with a small peckadillo in reasoning, he must be permitted to lay all the faults of the Presbiterians in Scotland upon the back of the Presbytery itself, as if the failings of officers were natural to, and inseparable from their office: mis-kenning this little more of unconsequentiall argumenting, we will go through his particular charges, the first is, that King James anno 1579, required the general assembly, to make no alteration in the Church-Policy, till the next Parliament, but they contemning their King's command, determined positively all their discipline without delay, and questioned the Arch-Bischop of Saint Andrews for voting in Parliament according to the undoubted Laws of the Land, yea twenty Presbyters did hold the general assembly at Aberdeen after it was discharged by the King. Ans. The Warner possibly may know, yet certainly he doth not care what he writes in these things to which he is a mere stranger: the authentic registers of the Church of Scotland convinces him heir of falsehood. His Majesty did write 
Bishops were abolished and Presbyteries set up in Scotland with King james consent.  from Stirling to the general assembly at Edinburgh 1579, that they should cease from concluding any thing in the discipline of the Church, during the time of his minority; upon this desire the assembly did abstain from all conclusions, only they named a committee to go to Striveling for conference which his Majesty upon that subject. What followeth thereupon? I. Immediately a Parliament is called in October 1579, and in the first act declares and grants jurisdiction unto the Kirk, whilk consists in the true preaching of the word of Jesus Christ, correction of manners, and administration of the true Sacraments, and declares that there is no other face of Kirk, nor other face of Religion than is presently by the favour of God established within this realm, and that there be no other jurisdiction Ecclesiastical acknowledged within this realm then that whilk is, and shallbe within the samen Kirk, or that which flows therfra, concerning the premises. II. In april 1580. Proclamation was made ex deliberatione Dominorum Consilii in name of the King, charging all Superintendentes and Commissioners and Ministers serving at Kirkes'. To note the names of all the subject's alsweel men as women suspected to be Papists or— and to admonish them— to give Confession of their faith according to the Form approved by the Parliament, and to submit unto the discipline of the true Kirk within a reasonable space—: and if they fail— that the Superintendents or Commissioners present a role or catalogue of their names unto the King and Lords of Secret Counsel whereby they shallbe for the time, between and the 15 day of julie nixt to come, to the end that the acts of Parliament made against such people may be execute. III. The short Confession wes drawn up at the King's command, which was first subscrived by his royal hand, and an act of Secret Counsel commanding all subjects to subscrive the same; as is to be seen by the Act printed with the Confession, wherein Hierarchy is abjured, that is (as hath been since declared by national assemblies and Parliamentes both called and held by the King) episcopacy is abjured. IV. In the assemblies 1580 and 1581. that Confession of faith and the second book of discipline (after debating many preceding years) were approved (except one chapter de diaconatu) by the Assembly, the King's Commissioner being always present, not find we any thing opposed then by him: yea then at his Majesty's special direction about fifty classical Presbyteries were set up over all Scotland which remain unto this day, Was there here any contempt of the royal authority?  
About that time some noble men had goat the revenues of the Bisshop-rickes for their private use; and because they could not enjoy them by any legal right, therefore for eluding the Law, they did effectuate that some Ministers should have the title of this or that Bishopric; and the revenues were gathered in the name of this titulare or tulchan Bishop, albeit he had but little part: e. g. Robert Montgomerie Minister at Sterline was called Archbishop of Glasgow: and so it can be instanced in other Bishoprickes and abbacies. Now this kind of praelats pretended no right to any part of the Episcopal 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 general assembly discharged them, being Ministers, to practise any more such illegal insolences, with this ordinance of the Church, after a little debate, King James at that time did show his good satisfaction.  
But the Warner here jumps over noless then twenty seven 
The innocency of the much maligned assembly of Aberdeen.  years' time from the assembly at Edinburgh 1579, to that at Aberdeen 1605, than was King James by the English Bishops persuasion resolved to put down the general assemblies of Scotland, contrary to the Laws and constant practice of that Church, from the first reformation to that day. The act of Parliament did bear that once at least a year the assembly should meet, and after their business was ended they should name time & place for the next assembly. When they had met in the year 1602, they were moved to adjourn without doing any thing for two whole years to 1604, when then they were convened at the time and place agreed to by his Majesty, they were content upon his Majesty's desire without doing any thing again to adjourn to the nixt year 1605, at Aberdeen, when that diet came his Majesty's Commissioner offered them a Letter: To the end they might be an Assembly and so in a Capacity to receive his Majesty's Letter, with the Commissioners good pleasure they sat down, they named their Moderator and Clerk they received and read the King's letter commanding them to rise, which they obeyed without any farther action at all but naming a diet for the nixt meeting according to the Laws and constant practice of Scotland, hereupon by the pernicious counsel of Archbishop Banckroft at London, the King was stirred up to bring sore trouble upon a number of gracious Ministers. This is the whole matter which to the Warner heir is so tragic an insolence, that never any Parliament 
Christmas and other superstitious festivals abolished in Scotland, both by Church and State.  durst attempt the like. See more of this in the Historical vindication.  
The nixt instance of our Presbiteryes usurpation upon the Magistrate is their abolition, (before any statute of Parliament thereupon) of the Church festivals in their first book of discipline. Ans. Consider the grievousness of this crime, in the interval of Parliaments, the great counsel of Scotland in the minority of the Prince entrusted by Parliament to rule the Kingdom, did charge the Church to give them in write their judgement about matters Ecclesiastical: in obedience to this charge the Church did present the counsel with a write named since the first book of discipline: which the Lords of counsel did approve, subscribe and ratify by an Act of State: a part of the first head in that write was that Christmas, Epiphany, purification, and other fond feasts of the virgin Mary, as not warranted by the holy Scriptures, should be laid aside. Was it any encroachment upon the Magistrate for the Church to give this advice to the privy counsel when earnestly they did crave it? the people of Scotland ever since have showed 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 Scotland's usurpation 
The friends of Episcopacy thryves not in Scotland.  upon the Magistrate is, their abolition of Episcopacy in the assembly 1580, when the Law made it treason to impugn the authority of Bishops, being the third estate of the Kingdom. Ans. The Warner seems to have no more knowledge of the affairs of Scotland, then of Japan or Utopia, the Law he speaks of was not in being some years after 1580, how ever all the general assemblies of Scotland are authorised by act of Parliament, to determine finally without an appeal in all Ecclesiastic affairs: in the named assembly Lundie the King's Commissioner did sit and consent in his Majesty's name to that act of abolition, as in the nixt assembly 1581., the King's Comissioner Caprinton did erect in his Majesty's name the Presbiteryes in all the Land; it is true, three years thereafter a wicked Courtier Captain James Stuart, in a shadow of a close 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 evil man was quickly rewarded by God before the world, in a terrible destruction: these acts of his Parliament the very nixt year were disclaimed by the King, the Bishops were put down, 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 show his ignorance in the Scotes story: what ever be the Episcopal boastings of other Nations, yet it is evident that from the first entrance of Christian Religion into Scotland, Presbyters alone without Bishops for some hundred years did govern that Church: and after the reformation their was no Bishop in that Land, but in tittle and benefice till the year 1610; when Bancroft did consecrat three Scotes Ministers, all of them men of evil report, whom that violent Commissioner the Earl of Dunbar in the corrupt and null assembly of Glasgow, got authorised in some pairt of a Bishop's office; which part only and no more was ratified in a posterior Parliament. Superintendents are no where the same with Bishops much less 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 unsettled congregations.  
The fourth instance is the Church's obtruding the second 
The second book of discipline why not all ratified in Parliament.  book of discipline, without the ratification of the State. Ans. For the Ecclesiastic enjoining of a general assemblies decrees a particular ratification of Parliament is unnecessary; general acts of Parliament commanding obedience to the acts of the Church, are a sufficient warrant from the State, beside, that second book of discipline was much debated with the King, and at last in the general assembly 1590., his consent was obtained unto it: for in that assembly where unanimously the subscription of the second book of discipline by all the ministers of the Kingdom was decried, his Majesty some time in person and always by the chancellor his Commissioner was present, and in the act for subscription Sess. 10. Augusti 8. it is expressly said that not only all the Ministers but also all the Commissioners present did consent, among which Commissioners the chancellor, his Majesty's Commissioner was chief. But neither the King nor the Church could get it to pass the Parliament in regaird of the opposition, which some Statesmen did make unto these parts thereof, which touched on their own interest of unjust advantage, this was the only stick.  
The next instance of the Church's encroachement is their usurpation of all the old rents of the clergy, as the Church's 
The Warners hypocrisy, calling that a crime, which himself counts a virtue.  patrimony, and their decerning in anassembly that nothing in the nixt Parliament should pass before the Church were fully restored to her rents. Ans. Consider here the Warners hypocrisy and unjustice, he challenges the Presbiterians for that which no praelate in the world did ever esteem a fault, a mere declaration of their judgement 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 lawful means. What if here they had gone on with the most of the praelaticall 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 process, as divers of the Warners friends were begun lately to do in all the three Kingdoms? but all that he can here challenge the Scotes for, is a mere declaration of their simple right, with a supplication to the Regent his grace, that he would endeavour in the nixt Parliament, to procure a ninth part of the Church's patrimony, for the mantainance of the ministry, and the poor of the country: for all the rent that the Churches than 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 address 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. Ans. I have shown already the untruth of this alleadgeance; 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 enjoind by many assemblies, yet it could never be gotten ratified in any Parliament, only because of these parts of it which did speak for the patrimony of the Church, and oppugn the right of patronages.  
How well the Warner hath proven the Presbiterian practices 
The Warner a gross Erastian.  to be injurious to the Magistrate we have considered, possibly he will be more happy in his nixt 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. Cap. 7. That no Magistrate nor any but Ecclesiastic persons may vote in Synods. Ans. Though I find nothing of this in the place cited, yet there is nothing in it that crosseth either the Laws or the King's supremacy: for according to the acts of Parliament of Scotland both old and late and the constant practice of that Church, the only members of Presbyteries are Ministers and ruling elders. Is it the Warners mind to vent here his super-Erastianisme, that all Ecclesiastic assemblies Classical, Provincial, national are but the arbitrary Courts of the Magistrate for to advise him in the execution of his inhaerent power about matters Ecclesiastical; and for this cause, that it is in his arbitrement to give a decisive voice in all Church assemblies, to whom and how many so ever he will? Though this may be the Warners mind, as it hath been some of his friends, yet the most of the praelaticall 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.  
But the Warner here may possibily glance at another 
Praelatical principles impossibilitate alsolid peace, betwixt the King and his Kingdoms  principle of his good friends, who have been willing lately to vent before all Britain in print their Elevating the supremacy of Sovereigns so far above Laws, that what ever 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 when ever they find themselves strong enough, to cancel all and make void what ever Parliaments, Assemblies, royal ratifications, and the longest possession made foolish people believe to be most firm and unquestionable. To this purpose Bishop Maxwel (from whom much of this warning is borrowed) doth speak in his Sacro-Sancta regum Majestas. Though this had been the Cabin divinity of our praelats, 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 perpetual banishment from the Courts and ears of Sovereigns, or else that subjects be kept up for ever in a strong jealousy, and fear that they can never be secure of their liberties, though never so well ratified by Laws and promises of Princes any longer than 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 maxims of state, are clear everters of the first fundations of trust betwixt Sovereigns and subjects, they take away all possibility of any solid peace of any confident setlement in any troubled state, before both parties be totally ruined or one become so strong that they need no more to fear the others malcontentment 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 praelats evert the legal foundations of all government.  Ans. The Warners citations prove not that we maintain any such assertion, our doctrine and constant practice 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 intrinsical 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 praelaticall and Popish party as well as others, go along with us to maintain in doctrine and practice, a necessity even in times of persecution, that the Church must meet for the worship of God and execution of Ecclesiastic discipline among their own members. In this the doctrine and practice of the Scots is according to their settled laws, uncontroverted by his Majesty. If the Warner 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 praelats impious loyalty.  
The third principle is that the judgement of true and false doctrine of suspension and deprivation of Ministers belongeth to the Church. Ans. If this be a great heresy it is to be 
The final determination of all Ecclesiastic causes by the Laws of Scotland, is in the general assembly.  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 Ecclesiastic 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 than the Parliament so in matters Ecclesiastic none goes above the general assembly. Complaints indeed may go to the King and Parliament for redress of any wrong has been done in Ecclesiastic Courts, who being custodes religionis may by their coercive power command Ecclesiastic Courts to rectify any wrong done by them contraire to Scripture, or if they persist take order with them. But that two or three praelats should become a Court of delegates, to receive appeals from a general assembly, neither Law nor practice in Scotland did ever admit, nor can the word of God or any Equity require it. In the Scotes assemblies no causes are agitat but such as the Parliament hath agreed to be Ecclesiastic and of the Church's cognisance: no Process about any Church rend was ever cognosced upon in Scotland but in a civil Court: it's very false that ever any Church censure, much less 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 Ecclesiastic jurisdiction by a divine right. Ans. Is this a huge crime? is there divine in the world, either Papist or Potestant, except a few praelaticall Erastians', but they do 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 Ecclesiastic power flows 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 shallbe pleased to appoint: that the spiritual sword and Keys of heaven belong to the Magistrate by virtue of his supremacy, als well as the temporal sword and the Keys of his earthly Kingdom: our difference here from the Warner will not (I hope) be found the greatest heresy.  
Our last challenged principle is, that we will have all our 
All the power of the Church in Scotland is legal, and with the Magistrates consent.  power against the Magistrate, that is, although he descent. Ans. It is an evil comentare that all must be against the Magistrate, which is done against his consent: but in Scotland their is no such case: for all the jurisdiction which the church there does enjoy, they have it with the consent of the Magistrate: all is ratified to them by such acts of Parliament as his Majesty doth not at all controvert. Concerning that odious case the Warner intimats, whither in time of persecution, when the Magistrate classheth with the Church, any Ecclesiastic 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 must meet in dens and caves and in the wilderness for the word and Sacraments and keeping itself pure by the divine ordinance of discipline.  
Having cleared all the pernicious practices and all the 
The prelates rather than to lay aside their own interest, will keep the King and his people in misery for ever.  wicked Doctrines, which the Warner lays upon us, I think it needles 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 impugn them: only I touch one passage whereupon he make injurious exclamations: that which Mr. Gilespie in his theorems writs; when the Magistrate abuses his power unto Tyranny and makes havoc of all, it is lawful to resist him by some extraordinary ways and means, which are not ordinarily to be allowed: see the principles from which all our miseries and the loss of our gracious Master have flowed. Ans. We must here yield to the Warner the great equity and necessity that every doctrine of a Presbyter, should be charged on the Presbytery itself, and that any Presbyter teaching the lawfulness of a Parliaments defensive arms is tantamont to the Churches taking of arms against the king. These small unconsequences we must permit the Warner to swallow down without any stick, however we do deny that the maxim in hand was the fountain of any our miseries, or the cause at all of the loss of our late Sovereign. Did ever his Majesty or any of his advised counsellors declare it simply unlawful for a Parliament, to take arms for defence in some extraordinary cases, however the unhappiness of the Canterburian Prelates did put his Majesty on these courses, which did begin and promote all our misery, and to the very last these men were so wicked as to refuse the losing of these bands which their hands had tied about his misinformed conscience, yea to this day they will not give their consent; that his Majesty, who now is, should say aside Episcopacy, were it for the gaining the peaceable possession of all his three Kingdoms, but are urgers of him night and day to adhaere to their errors, 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 arms against the Tyranny of a Prince in any imaginable case, how extraordinary soever.   

CHAP. III.  
The Laws and customs of Scotland admit of no appeal from the general assembly.  
IN this chapter the challenge is, that there are no appeals 
Appeals in Scotland from a general assembly were no less irrational than illegal  from the general Assembly to the King, as in England from the Bishop's Courts to the King in Chancery, where a Commission uses to be given to delegates, who discuss 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 kind. There is no appeal any where in moderate Monarchies to the King's person, but to the King in certain legal 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 civil cause from the Lords of Session; much less from the Parliament; so no man in an Ecclesiastic cause is permitted by the very civil Law of Scotland to appeal from the general assembly. According to the Scots order & practise, the King in person or else by his high Commissioner sits als usually in the general assembly, as in Parliament. But though it were not so, yet an appeal from a general assembly to be discussed in a Court of delegates, 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 decern in an Ecclesiastic cause then a single Bishop over his official, the ordinary trusted in all acts of jurisdiction for the whole dioces. But the Scots way of managing Ecclesiastic 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 spiritual jurisdiction of the whole diocese was in the hand of one mercenary official without all relief from his sentence, except by an appeal, as of old to the pope and his delegates, so thereafter to the King, though never to be cognosced-upon by himself, but as it was of old by two or three delegates, the weakest of 
The Churches just severity against Montgomery and Adamson was approven by the King and the parties themselves.  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 Scotland's stopping of appeals from the general 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 disproportionally short, so readily he might have deleted it all together. Both these men were infamous not only in their Ministerial charges but in their life & conversation; both became so insolent that contrary to the established order of the Church & Kingdom, being suborned by wicked statesmen, who in that day of darkness had well near brought ruin both to King and country, 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 show his high displeasure against the assemblies of the Church. they for his Majesty's satisfaction sent their Commissioners and had many conferences; whereby the pride and contempt of these prelates did so increase, 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 signs 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 appeal from the general assembly to the King: the late excommunicate praelats in their declinatour against the assembly of Glasgow, did not appeal as (I remember) to the King, but to another general assembly to be constitute, according to their own Popish and Tyrannical principles.   

CHAP. IU.  
Faulty Ministers in Scotland are less exempted from punishment, than any other men. 
The pride of prelates lately, but never the Presbytery 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 be subject to punishment, not only for every fault for which any other man is liable to censure, but ordains them to be punished for sundry 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 less for the grievous crimes of sedition and treason. Let the Warner remember, how short a time it is, since an Episcopal chair or a canonical coat did privilege 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 Warners 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 Doctor 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 civil 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 Spain are not so challengeable, as the praelaticall divines in England and Ireland lately were for many gross misdemeanours.  
But why does the Warners anger run out so far as to the preachers in Holland? is it because he knoweth the Church 
The Warner is injurious to the Ministers of Holland.  discipline in Holland to be really the same with that he oppugnes in the Scots, and that all the reformed Churches doejoyne 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 control the Magistrates in their pulpits? Their crime seems to be, that for the love of Christ their master, they are zealous in their doctrine, to press upon the Magistrate as well as upon the people the true practice 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 shameful silence and flattery was one of the great causes of all the sins and calamities that have wracked the three Kingdoms: the stream of their sermons while the enjoyed the pulpit, was to encourage to superstition and contempt of piety, to sing asleep by their ungracious way all, that gave ear unto them. The man is impatien, t to see the Pastors of Holland or any where, to walk in another path than his own, and for this cause would stir up their Magistrates against them: as it was his and his brethren's custom to stir up the Magistrates 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 errors. The Warner (I hope) has not yet forgotten, how Doctor Bramble and his neighbour Lesly of Down did cast out of the Ministry, and made flee out of the Kingdom, men most eminent for zeal, piety and learning, who in a short time had done more good in the house of God, than all the Bishops that ever were in Ireland, I mean 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 ecclesiastics, quâ tales, are punishable by the Magistrates for civil crimes; for we 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 scar the most of Magistrates from medeling with a canonical coat though defiled with drunckenesse, adultery, scolding, fight, and other evils, which were too common oflate to that order.  
But how does he prove, that the Scots Ministers exempt 
The pretended declaration of King james, was Bishop Adamsons lying libel.  themselves from civil jurisdiction? first (saith he) by the declaration of King James 1584. Ans. That declaration was not from King James, as himself did testify the year thereafter under his hand, but from Master Patrick Adamson, who did acknowledge it to be his own upon his death bed, and professed his repentance for the lies and slanders, wherewith against his conscience he had fraughted that infamous libel.  
His second proof is from the second book of discipline 
Though always in England yet never in Scotland had Commissarie any jurisdiction over Ministers.  Chapter TWO, It is absurd that Commissaties having no function in the Church, should be judges to Ministers to depose them from their charges. Ans. Though in England the Commissary and official was the ordinary judge to depose and excommunicate all the Ministers of the diocese, yet by the Laws of Scotland no Commissaries had ever any jurisdiction over Ministers. But though the officials 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 proof is the case of James Gibson, who had railed 
james Gibson was never absolved by the Church from his Process.  in pulpit against the King, and was only suspended, yea thereafter was absolved from that fault. Ans. Upon the complaint of the Chancellor the alleged words were condemned by the general assembly: but before the man's guiltiness of these words could be tried, he did absent himself: for which absence he was presently suspended from his Ministry: in the nixt assembly he did appear and cleared the reason of his absence to have been just fear and no contumacy, this he made appear to the assemblies satisfaction, but before his process could be brought to any issue, he fled away to England, where he died a fugitive never restored to his charge, though no tryell of his fault was perfected.  
The fourth proof is Mr. Black his case: hereupon the 
Master Blacks appeal from the counsel cleared.  Warner makes a long and odious narration. If we interrogat him about his ground of all these Stories, he can produce no warrant but Spotswoods unprinted book: this is no authentic register whereupon any understanding man can rely, the writer was a professed enemy, to his death, of the Scottish discipline, 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 belief upon his words. This whole narration is abundantly confuted in the historical vindication, when the Warner is pleased to repeat the challenge from Issachars' burden he ought to have replied something after three years' advisement to the printed answer.  
The matter (as our registers bear) was shortly thus, in the year 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 fears 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 Enemy's delated him at Court for words injurious to the King and Queen: the words he did deny and all his honest hearers did absolve him by their testimony from these calumnies: of himself he was most willing to be tried to the uttermost before all the world, but his Brethren finding the libelled calumnies to be only a pretence and the true intention of the Courtiers therein was, to stop the mouths of Ministers, that the crying sins of the time should no more be reproved in pulpits, they advised him to decline the judgement of the counsel, and appeal to the general assembly, as the competent judge according to the word of God and the Laws of Scotland, in the cause of doctrine; for the first instance they did never question, but if any thing truly seditious had been preached by a Minister that he for this might be called before the civil Magistrate 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 reclaiming, should be brought before a civil court at the first instance, they thought it unreasonable and desired the King in the nixt assembly might cognosce upon the equity of such a proceeding. The Ministers had many a conference with his Majesty upon that subject, often the matter was brought very near to an amicable conclusion, but because the Ministers refused to subscribe a band for so great a silence as the Court required against his Majesty's countenancing of treacherous Papists, and favouring the enemies of religion, a seveer Sentence was pronounced not only against Master Black, but also all the Ministers of Edinburgh.  
In the mean time malcontented Statesmen did add oil to the flame, and at the very instant while the Ministers and 
The tumult of the seventeenth day of December was harmless and no Minister guilty of it.  their friends are offering a petition to his Majesty, they suborn a villain to cry in one part of the streets 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 arms, and for half an hour at most were in a tumult, upon mere ignorance what the fray might be, burr 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 fellows elsewhere make all their tragedies. None of the Ministry were either the authors or approvers thereof, though divers of them suffered sore troubles for it.   

CHAP. V.  
No Presbyterian ever intended to excommunicate any supreme Magistrate.  
THE Warner in his fifth chapter charges the Scotes for 
The praelats ordinarily, but the Presbytery never were for rash excommunications.  subjecting the King to the censure of excommunication and bringing upon princes all the miseries which the pope's excommunications of old wont to bring upon Anathematised Emperors. Ans. It does not become the Warner and his fellows to object to any the abuse of the dreadful sentence of excommunication, no Church in the world was ever more guilty of that fault than the praelats 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 nonpayment of the smallest sums of money. As for the Scotes, 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 general with all other Christians and as I think with the praelaticall party themselves, that the object of Christian doctrine Sacraments and discipline is one and the same, and that no member of Christ, no soon 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 process of Church animadversion against their Sovereign. To the world's end I hope they shall not have again greater grievances and truer causes of citation from their Princes than they have had already. It may be confidently believed that they who upon so pregnant occasions did never so much as intend the beginning of a process against their King, can never be supposed in danger of any such proceeding for time to come. How ever, we love not the abused ground of the Warners flattering of Princes to their own great hurt: is it so indeed 
The Praelats flatter Princes to their ruin.  that all the sins of 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 Episcopal doctrine spurs on princes to these unhappy praecipies, and oppressed people unto these outrages that both fall into inextricable calamities.   

CHAP. VI  
It grieves the Praelats that Presbyterians are faithful Watchmen, to admonish Princes of their duty.  
THE sixth Chapter is spent on an other crime of the Presbytery; it makes the Presbyters cry to the Magistrate for justice 
The Scots Ministers preaching for justice, was just and necessary.  upon capital offenders. Ans. What hes Presbytery to do with this matter were it never so great an offence: will the Warner have all the faults of the praelaticall 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 fatherless and widows, yea the cause of God their Master and to preach unto Magistrates, that according to Scriptures murderers ought to die, and the Land be purged from the stain of innocent blood? when the shameful impunity of murder 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 importunity and deceitful 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 legal revenge in time easily might have been stopped? Too much pity in sparing the wilful shedders of innocent blood ordinarily proves a great cruelty, not only towards the disconsolat 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, 
Huntlyes' notorious crimes.  whether the Ministers had reason often to give Warning against that wicked man and his complices. Beside his apostasy and after-seeming-repentance his frequent relapses into avowed popery, in the eighty eight he banded with the King of Spain to overthrow the religion and government of the whole Island and after pardon, from time to time did renew his treasonable plots for the ruin 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 King's good people, when these multiplied outrages did cry up to the God of heaven, was is not time for the men of God to cry to the judges of the earth to do their duty, according to the warrant of many Scriptures? what a dangerous humour of flattery is this in our Praelats, not only to lull asleep a Prince in a most sinful neglect of his charge, but also to cry out upon others more faithful than themselves for assaying to break of their slumber by their wholesome and seasonable admonitions from the word of God?  
The nixt challenge of the Scotes Presbyters is that they 
Never any question in Scotland betwixt the King and the Church, for Tithes and patronages.  spoil the King of his Tithes, first fruits, patronage and dependence of his subjects. Ans. The Warner understands not what he writes, the King's Majesty in Scotland never had, never craved any first fruits: the Church never spoilt the King of any Tithes, some other men indeed, by the wickedness most of Praelats and their followers, did cousin both the King and the Church of many Tithes: but his Majesty and the Church had never any controversy in Scotland about the Tithes: for the King, so far as concerned himself, was ever willing that the Church should enjoy that which the very act of Parliament acknowledgeth to be her patrimony. Nor for the patronages had the Church any plea with the King: the Church declared often their mind 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 do, for liberating congregations from their slavery of having Ministers intruded upon them by the violence of Patroness. Which now at last (blessed be God) according to our mind is performed. As for the dependence of any vassals upon the King, it was never questioned 
King James avows himself a ●…ater of Erastianisme.  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 spiritual government of the Church, and the power of the keys of the Kingdom of heaven: such an usurpation upon the Church, King James declared under his hand (as at length may be seen in the Historical vindication) to be a sin against the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, which puts in the hand of the Magistrate the power of preaching and celebrating the Sacraments: a power which since that time no Magistrate in Britain did assume, and if any would have claimed it, none would have more opposed, than the most zealous patroness of Episcopacy. The injurious invectives, which the Warner builds upon this his Erastian assertion, we pass them as Castles in their air, which must fall and vanish for want of a foundation. Only before I leave this Chapter, let the Warner take a good Sentence out of the mouth of that wise Prince King James, to testify yet farther his mind against Erastianisme. His Majesty in the year 1617. having come in progress to visit his ancient Kingdom of Scotland, and being present in person at a public disputation in Theology in the University of St. Andrews, whereof also many both Nobles and Churchmen of both Kingdoms were auditors; when one of those that acted a part in the disputation, had affirmed and went about to maintain this assertion that the King had power to depose Ministers from their Ministerial function. The King himself as abhorring such flattery, cried out with a loud voice, Ego possum deponere Ministri caput, sed non possum deponere ejus officium.   

CHAP. VII.  
The Presbytery does not draw from the Magistrate any parity of his power by the cheat of any relation.  
IN the seventh chapter the Warner would cause men believe many more of the Presbyteries usurpations upon the civil Magistrate. The first is that all offences whatsoever 
The Presbytery cognosceth only upon scandals, and that in fewer civil things than the Bishopscourts were wont to meddle with.  are cognoscible in the consistory upon the case of scandals. Ans. First the Presbytery makes no offence at all to come before the consistory, but scandal alone. Secondly these civil offences (the scandal whereof comes before the Presbytery) are but very few, and a great deal fewer than the Bishops official takes notice of in his consistorial court. That capital crimes passed over by the Magistrate should be censured by the Church, no society of Christians who have any discipline, did ever call in question. When the sword of the Magistrate hes spared a murderer, an adulterer, a Blasphemer; will any ingenuous, either praelaticall or popish divine, admit of such to the holy table without signs of repentance?  
The Warners second usurpation is but a branch of the first, that the Presbytery draws directly before itself the cognisance of fraud in bargaining, false measures, oppression and in the case of Ministers, bribing, usury, fight, perjury, etc. Ans. Is it then the Warners mind, that the notorious slander of such gross sins does not deserve so much, as an Ecclesiastic rebooke? Shall such persons without admonition be admitted to the holy communion? Secondly the named cases of fraud in bargaining, false measures, oppression, come so rarely before our Church-judicatories that though these thirty years I have been much conversant in Presbyteries, yet did I never see, nor do I remember that ever I heard any of these three cases brought before any church assembly. In the person 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 papifts and praelats, who themselves are free of such vices. And why did not the Warner put in among the causes of church men's deprivation from office and benefit, adultery, gluttonny and drunkenness? are these in his, etc. 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 speak of the Magistrates duty in his office, or dare offer to resolve from scripture any doubt, which perplexeth the conscience of Magistrates 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 go about these uncontroverted parts of their ministerial function, and yet without meddling with the Mysteries of State, or the depths of any man's particular vocation; much less with the judgement of jurisdiction in political or aeconomical causes.  
As for the Church's declaration against the Late engagement; 
The Church's proceedings in the late engagement cleared 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 clearly malignant party, contrary to solemn oaths and covenants, unto the evident hazard of Religione and them who had been most eminent instruments of its preservation; was it not the church's duty to give warning against that sin, 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 civil affairs to the Church's bar in ordine ad Spiritualia, for an assembly to give their advice in a most eminent and important case of conscience, when earnestly called upon in a multitude of supplications from the most of the Congregations under their charge; yea when required by the States of the Kingdom in several express messages for that end? It seems, it's our Warners conclusion, if the Magistrate would draw all the Churches in his jurisdiction to a most unlawful war, for the advancement of the greatest impiety and unjustice possible, wherein nothing could be expected by all who were engaged therein but the curse of God; if in this case a doubting Natione should desire the assemblies counsel for the state of their souls, or if the Magistrate would put the Church to declare what were lawful or unlawful according to the word of God, that it were necessary here for the servants of God to be altogether silent, because indeed war is so civil a business, that nothing in it concerns the soul, and nothing about it may be cleared by any light from the word of God.  
The truth is, the Church in their public papers to the Parliament, declared oftener than once, that they were not against, but for an engagement, if so that Christian and friendly treaties could not have obtained reason, and all the good people in Scotland were willing enough to have hazarded their lives and estates, for vindicating the wrongs done, not by the Kingdom of England, but by the sectarian party there, against God the King, covenant and both Kingdoms: but to the great grief of their hearts, their hands were bound and they forced to sit still, and by the over great cunning of some, the erroneous mispersuasions of others and the rash praecipitancy of it, that engagement was so spoiled in the stating and managing, that the most religious with peace of conscience could not go along nor encourage any other to take part therein. The Warner touches on three of their reasons: but who will look upon their public declarations, shall find many more, which with all faithfulness were then propounded by the Church, for the rectifying of that action, which, as it stood in the state and management, was clearly foretold to be exceeding like to destroy the King and his friends of all sorts in all the three Kingdoms. The irreparable losses and unutterable calamities which quickly did follow at the heels, the misbelief and contempt of the Lords servants and the great danger religion is now brought unto in all these Kingdoms, hes, I suppose, long ago brought grief enough to the heart of them whose unadvised rashness and intemperate fervour did contribute most for the spoiling of that design.  
The first desire about that engagement which the Warner gives to us, concerns the security of religion. In all the debate of that matter, it was agreed (without question upon all hands, that the Sectarian party deserved punishment for their wicked attempts upon the King's person, contrary to the directions of the Parliamentes of both Kingdoms, and that the King ought to be rescued out of their hands, and brought to one of his houses for perfecting the treaty of peace which often had been begun: but here was the question; Whither the Parliament and Army of Scotland ought to declare their resolutiones to bring his Majesty to London with honour, freedom and safety, before he did promise any security for establishing Religion; The Parliaments of both Kingdoms in all their former treaties had ever pressed upon the King a number of propositions to be signed by his Majesty before at all he came to London: was it then any fault in the Church of Scotland to desire the granting but of one of these propositions concerning Religion and the covenant, before the King were brought (by the new hazard of the lives and estates of all the Scottish nation) to sit in his Parliament in that honour and freedom which himself did desire? There was no complaint, when many of thirty propositions were pressed to be signed by his Majesty for satisfaction and security to his people, after so great and long desolations: how then is an outcry made, when all other propositions are postponed, and only one for Religion is stuck upon, and that not before his Majesty's rescue and deliverance from the hands of the sectaries, but only before his bringing to London in honour freedom and safety? This demand, to the Warner, is a crime, and may be so to all of his belief, who takes it for a high unjustice, to restrain in any King the absolute power by any condition: for they do maintain that the administration of all things both of Church and state does reside so freely and absolutely in the mere will of a Sovereign, that no case at any time can fall out, which ought to bond that absoluteness with any limitation.  
The second particular the Warner pitches upon, is the King's negative voice; behold how criminous we were in the point; When some (most needlessly) would needs bring into debate the King's negative voice in the Parliament of England, as one of the royal praerogatives to be maintained by our engagement: it was said, that all discourse of that kind might be laid aside as impertinent for us: if any debate should chance to fall upon it, the proper place of it was, in a free Parliament of England; that our Laws did not admit of a negative voice to the King in a Parliament of Scotland; and to press it now as a prerogative of all Kings, (besides the reflection it might have upon the rights of our Kingdom,) it might put in the hand of the King a power to deny all and every one of these things, which the Parliaments of both Kingdoms had found necessary for the settling the peace in all the three dominions. We marvel not, that the Warner here should tax us of a great error, seeing it is the belief of his faction, that every King hath not only a negative but an absolute affirmative voice in all their Parliaments, as if they were nothing but their arbitrary counsels for to persuade by their reasons but not to conclude nor impede any thing by their votes; the whole and entire power of making or refusing Laws being in the Prince alone, and no part of it in the Parliament.  
The Warners third challenge against us about the engagement is, as if the Church had taken upon it to nominate the officers of the army; and upon this he makes his invectives. Ans. The Church was far from seeking power to nominate any one officer: but the matter was thus; when the State did require of them, what in their judgement would give satisfaction to the people, and what would encourage them to go along in the engagement? one and the last part of their answer was, that they conceived if a War shallbe found necessary, much of the people's encouragement would depend upon the qualification of the commanders, to whom the managing of that great trust should be committed: for after the right stating of the War, the nixt would be the carrying on of it by such men who had given constant proof of their integrity. To put all the power of the Kingdom in their hand, whose by past miscariadges had given just occasion to suspect their designs and firmness to the interest of God before their own or any other man's, would fill the hearts of the people with jealousies and fears, and how wholesome an advice this was, experience hath now too clearly demonstrate.  
To make the world know our further resolutiones to meddle with civil affairs, the Warner is pleased to bring out against us above 80 years old stories, and all the stuff which our malicious enemy Spotsewood can furnish to him: from this good author he alleges that our Church discharged merchants to traffic with Spain, and commanded the change of the mercat days in Edinburgh. Ans. Both these calumnies are taken of at length in the Historical Vindication. After the Spanish invasion of the year eighty eight, many in Scotland kept correspondence with Spain for treacherous designs: the Inquisitors did seduce some, and persecute others of our merchants in their traffic, the Church did deal with his Majesty to interceded with the Spanish King for more liberty to our country men in their trading: and in the mean time while an answer was returned from Madrile, they advertised the people to be marry, how they hazarded their souls for any worldly gain which they could find about the inquisitors feet.  
As for the mercat days, I grant, it was a great grief to the Church, to see the sabbath day profaned by handy labour 
The Church meddled not with the manday mercat but by way of supplication to Parliament.  and journeying, by occasion of the munday-mercats in the most of the great towns: for remedy hereof, many supplications have been made by the Assembly to the Parliament: but so long as our Bishops sat there, these petitiones of the Church were always eluded: for the praelats labour in the whole Island was to have the sunday no Sabbath, and to procure by their Doctrine and example the profanation of that day by all sorts of plays, to the end people might be brought back to their old licentiousness and ignorance, by which the Episcopal Kingdom was advanced. It was visible in Scotland, that the most eminent Bishops were usual players on the Sabbath, even in time of divine service. And so soon as they were cast out of the Parliament, the Church's supplications were granted, and acts obtained for the careful sanctification of the Lords day, and removing of the mercats in all the land from the Monday to other days of the week.  
The Warners nixt challenge of our usurpation is, the assembly at Edinburgh 1567. their ratifying of acts of Parliament, and summoning of all the country to appear at the 
The Church once for safety of the infant King's life, with the concurrence of the secret counsel did call an extraordinary meeting.  nixt assembly. Ans. If the Warner had known the history of that time, he would have choysed rather to have omitted this challenge, then to have proclaimed to the world the great rottenness of his own heart; at that time the condition of the Church and Kingdom of Scotland was lamentable, the Queen was declared for popery, King James' Father was cruelly without any cause murdered by the Earl of Bothwell; King James himself in his infancy was very near to have been destroyed by the murderer of his Father, there was no other way conceivable of safety for Religion for the infant King, for the Kingdom, but that the Protestants should join together for the defence of King James against these popish murderers. For this end the general assembly did crave conference of the secret counsel: and they with mutual advice did call for a meeting of the whole Protestant party: which did conveen at the time appointed most frequently in an extraordinary and mixed assembly of all the considerable persons of the Religion, Earls, Lords, Barons, Gentlemen, Burgesses and Ministers, and subscribed a bond for the revenge of King Henry's death, and the defence of King james his life: This mixed and extraordinary assembly made it one of the chief articles in their bond to defend these Acts of the Parliament 1560 concerning religion, and to endeavour the ratification of them in the nixt ensuing Parliament. As for the assemblies letter to their Brethren for so frequent a meeting at the nixt extraordinary assembly, it had the authority of the secret counsel; it was in a time of the greatest necessity, when the Religion and liberties of the land were in evident hazard from the potent and wicked counsels of the popish party, both at home and abroad; when the life of the young King was daily in visible danger from the hands of them who had murdered his Father, and ravished his Mother. Less could not have been done in such a juncture of time by men of wisdom and courage, who had any love to their Religion, King and country: but the resolution of our praelats is to the contrary, when a most wicked villain had obtained the connivance of a Queen to kill her husband, and to make way for the kill of her Son in his Cradle, and after these murders to draw a nation & Church from the true Religion, established by Law, into popery; and a free Kingdom to an illegal Tyranny; in this case there may be no meeting, either of Church or State, to provide remedies against such extraordinary mischiefs. Believe it, the Scotes were never of this opinion.  
What is subjoined in the nixt paragraph of our Church's 
By the laws and customs of Scotland the Assembly praecieds the Parliament in the reformation of Ecclesias-tical abuses.  presumption to abolish acts of Parliament; is but a repetition of what is spoken before. Not only the laws of Scotland but equity and necessity refers the ordinary reformation of errors and abuses in Religion to the Ecclesiastical assemblies: what they find wrong in the Church, though ratified by acts of Parliament, they rectify it from the word of God, and thereafter by petition obtains their rectification to be ratifyed in a following Parliament, and all former acts to the contrary to be annulled. This is the ordinary Method of proceeding in Scotland and (as I take it) in all other States and Kingdoms. Were Christians of old hindered to leave paganism and embrace the Gospel, till the imperial laws for paganism and against Christianity were revoked? did the ecumenical and National Synods of the ancients stay their reformation of heresies and corruptions in religion, till the laws of State (which did countenance these errors) were canceled? Was not popery in Germany France and Britain so firmly established, as civil laws could do it? It seems, the Warner here does join with his Brother Issachar, to proclaim all our Reformers in Britain France and Germany, to be Rebels for daring by their preachings and Assemblies to change these things, which by acts of Parliaments had been approven, before new Parliaments had allowed of their reformation. Nevertheless this plea is foolishly intended against us, for the Minister's protestation against the acts of Parliament 1584., establishing (in that hour 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 misinformation had approven: 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 privatman, and a stranger) to challenge, is to contemn much more grossly the law, than they do, whom here he is accusing of that crime.  
By the nixt Story the Warner will gain nothing, when 
The Church part in the road of Ruthven clecred.  the true case of it is known. In King james minority, one Captain 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 nixt 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 spoiled of all his lively hood and liberty: his Lands and honour with the dignity of high Chancellor 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 oppressiones, with mere boasts and no violence at the road of Ruthven chased away that unhappy chancellor from the King's 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 Neighbour 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 Lords as convenient and laudable, promising likewise to ratify it in the nixt ensuing Parliament. When the Lords for their more abundante clearing required the Assemblies declaration there upon, the Ministers declined to meddle at all with the case; but the King's Majesty sent his Commissioners to the Assembly, entreating them withal earnestness to declare their good liking of that action, which he assured them was for his good, and the good both of the Church and Kingdom: for their obedience to the King's importunity they are here railed upon by the wise Warner. It is true, Captain james shortly after crept in again into Court, and obtained a sever 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 evil man from the Court: whither he never more returned, and this their action was ratified in the nixt 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 wander; at the nixt loupe he jumps from the 1584. to the 1648, skipping 
The interest of the general assembly of Scotland, in the reformation of England.  over in a moment 64 years. The articles of Striveling mentions that the promoving of the work of Reformation in England and Ireland, be referred to the general assembly, upon this our friend does discharge a flood of his choler: all the matter of his impatience here is, that Scotland when by fraud they had been long alured, and at last by open violence invaded by the English Praelats, that they might take on the yock of all their corruptions, they were contented at the earnest desire of both the houses of Parliament, and all the well-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 English and Irish Churches; with the managing of this so great and good an Ecclesiastic work, the Parliament of Scotland did intrust the general assembly. No marvel that Doctor Bramble a zealous lover of all the Arminianism, Popery and Tyranny, of which his great patron Doctor Lade stands convicted yet without an answer to have been bringing in upon the three nations, should be angry at the discoverers and disappointers of that most pious work as they want to style it?  
What here the Warner repeats, it is answered before, 
The violent apprehension of Masspriests in their act of idolatry reproved by the Warner.  as for the two Stories in his conclusion, 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 seize 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 will have to be a huge rebellion, not only in the actors, but also in john 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 trial 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 heerin upon his bare word without the relief of some witness, and that a more faithful one then his Brother in evil, Mr. Spotswood, whom yet here he does not profess to cite. Against these popish Lords after their many treasons and bloody murders of the liege's, the King himself at last was forced to arm the people; but that the general assembly did call any unto arms we require the Warners proof that we may give it an answer.   

CHAP. VIII.  
The chief of the Praelats agree with the Presbyterians about the divine right of Church discipline.  
THE Warners challenge in this chapter is that we maintain our discipline by a jure divino, and for this he spews out upon us a sea of such rhetoric, as much better beseemed. Ans. Mercurius Aulicus then either a Warner or a praelate. 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 
The Warner and his Praelatical Erastian brethren are obliged by their own principles to advise the King to lay aside Episcopacy and set up the Praesbytery in all his dominions.  Jesus Christ holds out in scripture the substantials of that Government whereby he will have his house to be ruled to the world's 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 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 Edward's & Elizabeth's days, as the Erastians' now, did maintain that no particular Government of the Church was jure divino, and if this be the Warners mind, it were ingenuity in him to speak it out loud, and to endeavour to persuade his friends about the King of the truth of this tenet, he was never employed 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 concerns conscience since no command of God nor warrant from scripture ties him to keep it up. This truly seems to be the main ground whereupon the whole discourse of this Chapter is builded. Is it tolerable that such truths should be concealed by our Warners against their conscience, when the speaking of them out might be so advantageous to the King and all his Kingdoms, how ever we with all the reformed Churches do believe in our heart the divine right of Synods and Presbyteries, and for no possible inconvenient can be forced to deny or pass from this part of truth, yet the Warner here joins 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 movable, and so lawful to be laid aside by princes, when so ever they found it expedient for their affairs to be quite of it, why does not the warner and his Brethren speak plainly their thoughts in his Majesty's ears? 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 join fully with Erastus in denying not only Episcopacy and all other particular forms of Church government to be of divine institution, but in avowing that no government in the Church at all is to be imagined, but such as is a part of the civil power of the Magistrate. The Warner in the Chapter and in divers other parts of his book seems to agree with this judgement: and upon this ground if he had ingenuity he would offer his helping hand to untie the bonds of the King's conscience, if here it were straightened, by demonstrating from this his principle, that very safely without any offence to God and nothing doubting for conscience sake, his Majesty 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 believe, yet upon Erastus' royal right which the Warner here and elsewhere avouches.  
What the Warner puts here again upon the Presbytery, the usurpation of the temporal sword in what indirect relation 
The praelaticall party were lately bend for Popery.  so ever, its probation in the former chapter was found so weak and naughty, that the repetition of it is for no use: only we mark that the Warner will have the Presbytery 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 hour an answer; that their principles unavoidably did bring back the pope. For a Patriarch over all the western Churches, and among all the patriarchs of the whole Catholic Church a primacy in the Roman, flows clearly out of the fountain of Episcopacy, according to the avowed doctrine of the English praelats: who yet are more liberal to the pope in granting him beside his spiritual superinspection of the whole Catholic Church, all his temporal jurisdictions also in the patrimony of St. Peter, and all his other fair 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 itself. As for the doctrines of Rome what points are worse than these which that party have avowed in express terms, a corporal presence of Christ's body upon the Altar the Tridentine justification, freewill, final apostasy 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 Presbytery is as absolute papacy as ever was in Rome.  
The Presbyterian position which the Warner here offers not to dispute but to laugh at, that Christ as King of his Church according to his royal office and Sceptre hes appointed the office-bearers and laws of the house, is accorded to by the most and sharpest of our adversaries, whether English or Romish, as their own tenet: howbeit such foolish consequences, that all acts of Synods must be Christ's Laws, etc. neither they nor we do acknowledge.  
His declamations against the novelty of the Presbytery in 
The Praelats profess now a willingness to abolish at least three parts of the former Episcopacy.  the ordinary stile of the Jesuits against Protestants, and of the pagan Philosophers against the Christians of old, who will regard: our plea for the Praesbyterie is, that it is scriptural; if so; it is ancient enough: if not; let it be abolished. But it were good, that here also the Warner and his friends would be ingenuous, to speak out their minds of Episcopacy. Why have they all so long deceived the King, in assuring him that English Episcopacy was well 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 affirm, that an English Bishop in his very flesh and blood, in his substantial limbs was ever known in the World till the pope was become Antichrist? A Bishop by virtue of his office a Lord in Parliament, voicing in all acts of State, and exercising the place of a high Thesaurer, of a Chancellor, or what ever civil 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 himself in any part of his diocese, but devolving the exercise of that power wholly upon his officials & Commissaries; a Bishop ordaining Presbyters himself alone, or with the fashionall assistance of any two Presbyters, who chance to be near; a Bishop the only Pastor of the whole diocese, and yet not bound to feed any flock, either by word or Sacrament, or government, but having a free liberty to devolve all that service upon others, and himself to wait at court so many years as he shall think fit. This is our English Bishop not only in practice but in law, and so was he defended by the great disputants for praelacy in England.  
But now let the Warner speak out, if any such treasure can more be defended or was ever known in scripture, or 
The portion of Episcopacy, which yet is stuck to, cannot be kept up upon any principle either of honour or conscience.  seen in any Christian Church for 800. years and above, after the death of Christ. I take it indeed, to be conscience, that forces now at last the best of our Court-divines to divest their Bishop of all civil employment in Parliament court or Kingdom, in denying his solitariness in ordination, in removing his official and Commissary courts, in taking away all his arches, Arch- Bishops, Arch- Deacons, deane and Chapter and all the, etc. in erecting Presbyteries for all ordinations and spiritual jurisdiction. It is good that conscience moves our adversaries at last to come this far towards us: but why will they not yet come nearer, to acknowledge that by these their to lately recanted errors they did to long trouble the world; and that the little which yet they desire to keep of a Bishop is nothing less than that English Bishop but a new creature of their own devising never known in England which his Majesty in no honour is obliged to maintain for any respect either to the laws or customs of England, and least of all, for conscience?  
While the Warner with such confidence avows, that no 
The smallest portion of the most moderate Episcopacy is contrary to scripture.  text of Scripture can be alleged against Episcopacy, which may not with more reason be applied against the Presbytery; behold I offer him here some few, casting them in a couple of arguments, which according to his great promises, I wish, he would answer at his leisure.  
First I do reason from Ephesians 4. 11: all the officers that Christ has appointed in his Church for the Ministry of the word, are either Apostles, Evangelists, Prophets, Pastors or Doctors: but Bishops are none of these fyve: Ergo they are none of the officers appointed by Christ for the Ministry of the word. The Major is not wont to be questioned: the minor thus I prove; Bishops are not Apostles, Evangelists, nor prophets: for it's confessed, all these were extraordinary and temporary officers: but Bishops (say you) are ordinary and perpetual: our adversaries pitch upon the fourth, alleging the Episcopal office to be pastoral; but I prove the Bishop no Pastor thus; no Pastor is superior to other Pastors in any spiritual power: but according to our adversary, a Bishop is superior to all the Pastors of his diocese in the power of ordination and jurisdiction. Ergo. The doubt here is only of the Major, which I prove Argumento à paribus: no Apostle is superior to an Apostle, nor an Evangelists to an Evangelist, nor prophet to a prophet nor a Doctor to a Doctor in any spiritual power according to scripture. Ergo no Pastor to a Pastor. Again I reason from 1. Tim. 4. 14. Math: 18. 15. 1. Cor. 5. 4. 12. 13, What takes the power of ordination and jurisdiction from Bishops, destroys Bishops: as the removal of the soul kills the man, and the denial of the form takes away the subject; so the power of ordination and jurisdiction the essential form, whereby the Bishop is constitute and distinguished from the Presbyter and every other Church officer, being removed from him, he must perish: but the quoted places take away clearly these powers from the Bishop: for the first puts the power of ordination in the Presbytery, and a Bishop is not a Presbytery; the second puts the power of jurisdiction in the Church; and the third in a company of men which meet together: but the Bishop is not the Church nor a company of men met together: for these be many, and he is but one person.  
When the Doctor's learning hes satisfied us in these two, he shall receive more scriptural arguments against Episcopacy. 
The Praelats unable to answer their opposites.  But why do we expect answers from these men, when after so long time (for all their boasts of learning and their visible leisure) none of their party hes hade the courage, to offer one word of answer to the Scriptures and Fathers, which in great plenty Mr. Parker and Mr. Didoclave of old, and of late that miracle of learning most noble Somais, and that Magazine of antiquity Mr. Blondel have printed against them?  
What in the end of the Chapter the Warner adds of our trouble at King James his fifty and five questions 1596, and of our yielding the bucklers without any opposition till the late unhappy troubles; we answer that in this as every where else the Warner proclaines his great and certain knowledge of our Ecclesiastic story: the troubles of the Scots divines at that time were very small, for the matter of these questions, all which they did answer so roundly, that there was no more speech of them thereafter by the propounders: but the manner and time of these questions did indeed perplex good men, to see Erastian and Prelatical counsellors so far to prevail with our King, as to make him by captious questions carp at these parts of Church-discipline, which by statutes of Parliament and acts of Assemblies were fully established.  
Our Church at that time was far from yielding to Episcopacy: 
Prelacy was ever grievous to Scotland.  great trouble indeed by some wicked Statesmen was then brought upon the people of the most able and faithful Ministers, but our land was so far from receiving of Bishops at that time, that the question was not so much as proposed to them for many years thereafter, it was in Ann. 1606 that the English Praelats did move the King by great violence to cast many of the best and most learned Preachers of Scotland out of their charges, and in Ann. 1610, that a kind of Episcopacy was set up in the corrupt assembly of Glasgow; under which the Church of Scotland did heavily groan till the year 1637, when their burdens was so much increased by the English praelaticall Tax-masters, that all was shaken of together, and divine justice did so closely follow at the heels, that oppressing praelacy of England as to the great joy of the long oppressed Scotes, that evil root and all its branches was cast out of Britain, where we trust, no shadow of it shall ever again be seen.   

CHAP. IX.  
The Commonwealth is no monster, when God is made Sovereign, and their commands of men are subordinated to the clear will of God.  
HAving cleared the vanity of these calumnious challenges, wherewith the Warner did animate the King and all Magistrates against the Presbyterians, let us try if his skill be any greater, to inflame the people against it. He would make the World believe that the Presbyterians are great transsubstantiators of whole Commonwealths into beasts, and Metamorphosers of whole Kingdoms of men, into Serpents with two heads; how great and monstrous a Serpent must the Presbytery be, when she is the Mother of a Dragon with two heads. But it is good, that she has nothing to do with the procreation of the Dragon with seven heads, the great Antichrist, the Pope of Rome: this honour must be left to Episcopacy: the Presbytery must not pretend to any share in it.  
The Warners ground for his pretty fimilitude is, that the 
There is no Lordship but a mere service and ministry in the Pastors of the Church  Presbyterians make two Soveraignities in every Christian State, whose commands are contrary. Ans. All the evil lieth in the contrariety of the commands: as for the double Sovereignty, there is no show of truth in it: for the Presbyterians cannot be guilty of coordinating two Soveraignities in one State, though the Praelats may well be guilty of that fault; since they with there Masters of Rome maintain a true hierarchy, a Spiritual Lordship, a domination and principality in their Bishops above all the members of the Church, but the Presbyterians know no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, no dominion, no Soveranity in Church officers, but a mere ministry under Christ. As for the contrariety of commands, its true: Christ's Ministers must publish all the commands oftheir Sovereign Lord, whereunto no command of any temporal Prince needs or aught to be contrary; but if it fall out to be so, it is not the Presbytery; but the holy Scriptures, which command rather to obey God then man. Dare the Warner here oppose the Presbyterians? dare he maintain a subordination of the Church to the State in such a fashion, that the clear commands of God published by the Church ought to give place to the contrary commands of the State? if the Warner must needs invert and contradict Christ ruling of this case, let him go on to preach doctrine point blank to the Apostles, that it is better to obey men then God. It falls out as rarely in Scotland as any where in the world, that the Church and State run contrary ways; but if so it happen, the common rules of humane direction towards right and wrong judgement must be followed: if a man find either the Church or the State or both command what he knows to be wrong (for neither the one nor the other hath any infallibility) their is no doubt but either or both may be disobeyed, yet with this difference, that for disobedience to the Churches most just commands, a man can not fall under the smallest temporal inconvenient without the States good pleasure, but for his disobedience to the most unjust commands of the State he must suffer what ever punishment the law does inflict without any relief from the Church.  
Two instances are brought by the Warner, of the Church and States contrary commands: the first the King commanded Edinburgh to feast the french Ambassadors, but the Church commanded Edinburgh to fast that day when the King desired them to feast. Ans. Here were no so contrary commands, but both were obeyed, the people did keep the humiliation, and some of the Magistrates that same day did give the banquet to the french Ambassadors as the King commanded; that for this any Church censure was intended against them it is a malicious calumny, according to the author of this fable his own confession, as at length may be seen in the unloading of Issachars' burden.  
As for his second instance, the difference of the Church 
The Warner is full of calumnious untruths.  and State about the late engagement we have spoken to it in the former chapter at length: the furthest the Church went was by humble petitions and remonstrances to set before the Parliament the great danger, which that engagement (as it was stated and managed) did portent to religion, the King's Person & whole Kingdom, when contrary to their whole some advices the engagement went on, they meddled not to oppose the act of State further than to declare their judgement of its unlawfulness, according to the duty of faithful watchmen Ezek. 33. It is very false that the Church has chased any man out of the country, or excommunicated any for following that engagement, or have put any man to sackcloth for it, unto his day. Neither did ever any man call the freedom of the late Parliament in question, how unsatisfied soever many were with its proceedings.  
When the Warner heaps up so many untruths in a few lines, in things done but yesterday before the eyes of thousands, we shall not wonder of his venturing to lie confidently in things past long before any now living were borne: but there are a generation of men who are bold to speak what makes for their end upon the hope that few will be at the pains, to bring back what hes flown from their teeth to the touchstone of any solid trial.   

CHAP. X.  
The Nature of the presbytery is very concordant with Parliaments.  
IN the tenth chapter the Warner undertakes to show the antipathy of Presbyteries to Parliaments; albeit there be no greater harmony possible betwixt any two bodies, then betwixt a general assembly and Parliament, a Presbytery and an inferior civil court, if either the constitution or end or daily practise of these judicatories be looked upon: but the praelaticall learning is of so high a flight, that it dare undertake to prove any conclusion: yet these men are not the first, that have offered to force men to believe upon unanswerable arguments though contrary to common sense and and reason that snow is black and the fire cold and the light dark.  
For the proof of his conclusion he brings back yet again 
The eight desires of the Church about the engagement were just and necessary.  the late engagement: how often shall this insipid colwort be set upon our table? Will the Warner never be filled with this unsavoury dish? The first crime that here the Warner marks in our Church against the late Parliament in the matter of the engagement is, their paper of the eight desires: upon this he unpoureth out all his good pleasure, not willing to know that all these desires were drawn from the Church by the Parliaments own messages, and that well near all these desires were counted by the Parliament itself to be very just and necessary: Especially these two which the wise Warner pitches upon as most absurd for the first a security to religion from the King upon oath under his hand and seal: where the question among us was not for the thing itself, but only about the time, the order and some part of the matter of that security. And for the second, the qualification of the persons to be employed, that all should be such who had given no just cause of Jealousy; no man did question, but all who were to have the managing of that war should be free of all just causes of Jealousy, 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 has 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 public declarations.  
The second fault he finds with our Church is, that they proclaim in print their dissatisfaction with that engagement as favourable to the malignant party, etc. 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 
It is one of the liberties of the Church of Scotland to publish declarations.  people by public 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 peremptor to follow their own ways: and the lamentable event since has opened the eyes of many, who before would not see, to acknowledge their former errors: but if God should speak never so loud from Heaven, the Warner and his party will stop their cares: 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 & ways be found never so palpably pernicious.  
The third thing the Warner lays to the charge of our 
The levy was never offered to be stopped by the Church.  Church is, that they retarded the levies. Ans. In this also the Warner shows his ignorance or malice: for how sore soever the Levy (as then stated & managed) was against the hearts of the Church, yet their opposition to it, was so cold-rife and small, 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 marvel, that the strongest arm of flesh be quickly broken 
The Church was not the cause of the gathering at Mauchlin Moor.  in pieces?  
The fourth charge is most calumnious, that the Church gathered the country together in arms at Mauchline moor to oppose the expedition. Ans. No Church man was the cause of that meeting a number of yeomen being frighted from their houses, did flee away to that corner of the Land, that they might not be forced against their conscience to go as soldiers 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 tried 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 people's convening or fight at Mauchlin.  
The parallel that the Warner makes betwixt the general 
The assembly is helpful and not hurtful to the Parliament.  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, alsewell as the assemblies of the Church; God being the author of the politic order as well as the Ecclesiastic, and the revenger of the contempt of the one alswell as of the other. But what doth the Warner mean, to mock at Ministers for carrying themselves as the Ambassadors of Christ, for judging according to the rule of Scripture, for caring for life eternal? is he become so shamefully impious, as to persuade Ministers to give over the care of life eternal, to lay aside the holy Scripture, and deny their ambassage from Jesus Christ? behold what Spirit leads our praelats, while they jeer the World out of all Religion, and chase away Ministers from Christ, from Scripture, from eternal life.  
Of the second part of the parallel, 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 so ever it is, a good Statseman 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 people's true good. The Warner here understands best his own meaning, while he scoffs at Ministers for their threatening of men with hell's fire. Are our Praelats 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 itself? whither may not Satan dryve at last the instruments of his Kingdom?  
The third part of the parallel consists of a number of unjust and false imputations before particularly refuted.  
What he subjoines of the power of the general Assembly 
The appointment of committees is a right of every court as well Ecclesiastic as civil.  to name Committees to sit in the intervals of Assemblies, it is but a pcore charge: is it not the daily practice of the Parliaments of Scotland to nominat their Committees of State for the intervals of Parliament? Is it not ane inhaerent right to every Court to name some of their number to cognosce upon things within their own sphere at what ever times the court itself finds expedient; how ever 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 oftener than otherwise any of their members did desire: whose diversion from their particular charges (though for attendance on the public) is joined with so great fashery and expense, that with all their heart they could be glade to decline it, if fear of detriment to the Church made not these meetings very necessary.   

CHAP. XI.  
The Presbytery is no burden to any honest man.  
THE bounds and compass of the Warners rage against 
There is no rigour at all in the Presbytery.  the Presbytery is very large; not being content to have incensed the King and Parliament against it, he comes down to the body of the people, and will have them believe the special enimity of the Scots discipline against them, first because it inflicts Church censures upon every one for the smallest faults. Ans. The faults which the Warner mentions may well be ane occasion of a private advice in the ear, but that any of them did ever procure the smallest censure of the Church, it is a great untruth: no man who knows us, will complain of our rigour, here we wish we were able to refute upon as good reason the charge of our laxenes in the mouth of sectaries as we are that of our strictness in the mouth of Erastianes'. We would know of the Warner, what are these Sabbath recreations, which he saith are void of scandal, and consistent with the duties of the day; are they not the stage plays and the other honest pastimes, wherewith his friends were wont to sanctify the Lords day, as no more a Sabbath then any other day in the year, and much less than divers popish festivals? An Aposteme in the lowest gut will show itself by the unsavoury vapours, which now and then are eructat from it. That ever in Scotland there was one word of debate about starch and cuffs, is more than the Warner can prove.  
The second oppression, whereby the Presbytery trods 
Crimes till repent of aught to keep from the holy table.  the people under foot is a rare cruelty; that persons, for grievous crimes whereof the Magistrate takes notice, are called to Ecclesiastic repentance. Will the Doctor in his fury against us, run out upon all his own friends for no appearance of a fault? Will either the English or popish praelats admit murderers, whores or thiefs to the holy table without any signs of repentance? Is not the greatest crime the ground of the greatest scandal? Shall small scandals be purged away by repentance, and the greatest be totally passed by? The Warner here may know his own meaning but others will confess their ignorance of his mind.  
The third grievance he would have the people conceive 
Excommunication in Scotland is not injurious to any.  against the Presbytery is, the rigour of their excommunication; in this also the Warner seems to know little of the Scots way, let excommunication be so seveer in Scotland as is possible, yet the hurt of it is but small: it is so rare an accident, men may live long in Scotland, and all their life never see that censure execute; I have lived in one of the greatest Cities of that land and for forty seven years even from my birth to this day, that censure to my knowledge or hearing was never execute there in my days but twice; first upon ane obstinate and very profane Papist; and nixt on some horrible scandalous praelats. Again when any is excommunicated by the Church, we go no further with them than Paul's command: 2. Thes. 3. 14. only they who are not tied to them by natural bonds, abstain from familiar and unnecessary conversation, to bring them by the sense of this shame to repentance for their sins.  
Thirdly the civil inconvenientes which follow that censure come along from the State and the acts of Parliament, for which the Church ought not to be challenged; especially by praelats who want to allow their officials to excommunicate whole incorporations of people for a small debt of money, and to press the contemners of that frivolous and profane sentence, with all the civil inconvenientes they could. Fourthly what ever be the laws in Scotland against them who continues long in the contempt of Excommunication, (which are not inflicted but for great sins and after a long process) yet certainly their execution is very far from all cruelty, as they who know the proceedings of that land, will bear witness.  
What he objects about fugitives; it is true, when a process is begun, a fugitive may have it concluded, and sent after him; but we count not that man a fugitive from discipline or contumacious as the Warner quarrels us, who upon just fear to hazard his life does not compear.   

CHAP. XII.  
The Presbytery is hurtful to no order of men.  
PRaelaticall malice is exorbitant beyond the bounds of all 
The Warners outrage against the Presbytery▪  show of moderation: was it not enough to have calumniat the Presbytery to Kings, Princes and Sovereigns, to Parliaments and all Courts of Justice, to people and all particular persons, but yet a new chapter must be made to show in it the hurtfullnes of Presbytery to all orders of men: we must have patience to stand a little in the unsavoury air of this vomit also. 
The Praelats were constant oppressors of the Nobility and gentry.   
Unto the nobility and gentry the Presbytery must be hurtful, because it subjecteth them to the censures of a raw heady novice and a few ignorant artificers. Ans. It's good that our praelats are now turned pleaders against the oppression of the Nobility and gentry: it's not long since the praelatical clergy were accustomed to set their foul feet on the necks of the greatest peers of the three Kingdoms with to high a pride and pressure; that to shake of their yock, no suffering, no hazard has been refused by the best of the Nobility and gentry of Britain: but natures and principles are so easy to be changed, that no man now needs fear any more oppression from the praelats, though they were set down again and well warned in their repaired throns.  
But to the challenge we answer, that the meanest Eldership 
The way of the Scotes Presbytery is incomparably better than that of the English Episcopacy.  of a small Congregation in Scotland consists of the Pastor, and a dozen (at least) of the most wise pious and learned that are to be found in the whole flock; which yet the Warner here makes to be judges but of the common people in matters of smallest moment. But for the classical Presbytery, to which he refers the Ecclesiastical causes of the Nobility and gentry, and before whom indeed every Church process of any considerable weight or difficulty does come, though it concern the persons of the meanest of the people, this Presbytery does consist ordinarily of fifeteen Ministers (at least) and fifeteen of the most qualified noblemen, gentlemen and Burgesses, which the circuit of fifteen parishes can afford, these (I hope) may make up a judicatory of a great deal more worth than any official court, which consists but of one judge, a petty mercenary lawyer, to whose care alone the whole Ecclesiastic jurisdiction over all the Nobility and gentry of divers shires is committed, and that without appeal as the Warner has told us, except it be to a Court of delegates; a miserable relief that all the Nobility, gentry and Commons of a Kingdom, who are oppressed by Episcopal officials, have no other remedy but to go attend a Committee of two or three civilians at London deputed for the discussing of such appeals.  
The Presbyterian course is much more ready, solid and equitable: if any grievance arise from the sentence of a Presbytery, a Synod twice a year doth sit in the bounds, and attends for a week, or if need be, longer, to determine all appeals, and redress all grievances: now the Synod does consist of all the Ministers within the bounds, which ordinarily are of divers whole shires as that of Glasgow, of the upper and nether ward of Clidsedaile, Baerranfrow, Lennox, Kile, Carrick and Cunninghame; also beside Ministers, the constant members who have decisive voice in Synods, are the chief Noblemen, Gentlemen and Burgesses of all these shires, among whom their be such parts for judgement as are not to be found nor expected in any inferior civil Court of the Kingdom, yet if it fall out so, that any party be grieved with the sentence of a Synod, there is then a farther and final appeal in a General assembly, which consists of as many Burgesses and more Gentlemen from every shire of the Kingdom then come to any Parliament: beside the prime Nobility and choicest Ministry of the land; having the King's Majesty in person, or in his absence, his high Commissioner to be their president. This meeting yearly (or oftener, if need be) sits ordinarily a month; and if they think fit, longer: the number, the wisdom, the eminency of the members of this Court is so great, that beside the unjustice, it were a very needless labour to appeal from it to the Parliament, for (as we have said) the King or his high Commissioner, sits in both meetings albeit in a different capacity: the number and qualification of knights and Burgesses is ever large as great in the assembly as in the Parliament: only the difference is, that in the Parliament all the Nobility in the Kingdom sit without any election and by virtue of their birth, but in the Assembly only who for age, wisdom and piety are chosen by the Presbyteries as fittest to judge in Ecclesiastic affairs but to make up this odds of the absence of some Noblemen, the Assembly is always adorned with above ane hundred of the choicest Pastors of the whole land, none where of may sit in Parliament: nothing that can conciliate authority to a Court, or can be found in the Nation, is wanting to the general assembly; how basely so ever our praelats are pleased to trample upon it.  
The second alleged hurt which the Nobility have from 
All questions about patronages in Scotland are now ended.  the Presbytery, is the loss of their patronages by congregations electing their Pastors. Ans. Howsoever the judgement of our Church about patronages is no other than that of the Reformed divines abroad, yet have our Presbyteries always with patience endured patrons to present unto vacant Churches, till the Parliament now at last hath taken away that grievance.  
The Nobilities last hurt by the Presbytry is their loss of 
The possessors of Church lands were ever feared for Bishops, but never for the Presbytery.  all their impropriations and Abey-lands. Ans. How Sycophantick an accusation is this? for who knows not, how far the whole generation of the praelaticke faction do exceed the highest of the Presbyterians in zeal against that which they call Sacrilege? never any of the Presbyterians did attempt either by violence, or a course of Law, to put out any of the Nobility or gentry from their possessions of the Church-lands, but very lately the threats and vigorous activity of the praelats, and their followers were so vehement in this kind, that all the Nobility and gentry who had any interest, were wackned (to purpose) to take heed of their rights. In the last Parliament of Scotland when the power of the Church was as great as they expect to see it again, though they obtained the abolition of patronages, yet were the possessors of the Church-lands and tithes so little harmed that their rights thereto were more clearly and strongly confirmed, then by any preceding Parliament.  
The fourth hurt is that every ordinary Presbyter will make himself a Nobleman's fellow. Ans. No where in the World does gracious Ministers (though mean borne men) receive more respect from the Nobility then in Scotland: neither any where does the Nobility and gentry receive more duly their honour then from the Ministers there. That insolent speech fathered on Mr. Robert Bruce is demonstrat to be a fabulous calumny in the historical vindication.  
How ever the Warner may know that in all Europe where Bishops have place, it hes ever, (at least these 800 years) been their nature to trample under foot the highest of the Nobility. As the Pope must be above the Emperor, so a little Cardinal Bellarmin can tell to King james, that he may well be counted a companion of any Islander King: were the Bishops in Scotland ever content, till they got in Parliament the right hand and the nearest seats to the throne, and the door of the greatest Earls, Marquesses and dukes? was it not Episcopacy, that did advance poor and capricious pedants to strive for the white staves & great Seals of both Kingdoms, with the prime Nobility; and often overcome them in that strife? In Scotland I know, and the Warner will assure for England and Ireland, that the basest borne of his brethren hes ruffled it in the secret counsel, in the royal Exchequer, in the highest courts of justice, with the greatest Lords of the Land: it's not so long, that yet it can be forgotten, since a Bishop of Galloway had the modesty to give unto a Marquis of Argile, tanta mont to a broadly 
The praelats continue to annul the being of all the reformed Churches for their want of Episcopacy.  in his face at the counsel table. The Warner shall do well to reckon no more with Presbyters for braving of Noblemen.  
The nixt he will have to be wronged by the Presbytery are the orthodox clergy. Ans. All the Presbyterians to him (it seems) are heterodoxe; Episcopacy is so necessary a truth that who denies it, must be stamped as for a grievous error with the character of heterodox. The following words clear this to be his mind, they loss (saith he) the comfortable assurance of undoubted succession by Episcopal ordination: what sense can be made of these words, but that all Ministers who are not ordained by Bishops, must lie under the comfortless uncertainty of any lawful succession in their ministerial charge, for want of this succession through the lineal descent of Bishops from the Apostles; at least for want of ordination by the hands of Bishops, as if unto them only the power of mission and ordination to the Ministry were committed by Christ: because of this defect the Presbyterian Ministers must not only want the comfort of an assured and undoubted calling to the Ministry, but may very well know and be assured that their calling and Ministry is null. The words immediately following are scraped out after their printing: for what cause the author lest knoweth: but the purpose in hand makes it probable, that the deletted words did express more of his mind, than it was safe in this time and place to speak out: it was the late doctrine of Doctor Brambles prime friends, that the want of Episcopal ordination did not only annual the calling of all the Ministers of France, Holland, Switzerland, and Germany, but also did hinder all these societies to be true Churches: for that popular Sophism of the Jesuits our praelats did greedily swallow; where are no true Sacraments, there is no true Church; and where is no true Ministry, there are no true Sacraments; and where no true ordination, there is no true ministry; and where no Bishops, there is no true ordination: and so in no reformed country but in England and Ireland where were true Bishops, is any true Church. When Episcopacy comes to this height of elevation, that the want of it must annul the Ministry, yea null the Church and all the Reformed at one struck, is it any mervaill, that all of them do concur together for their own preservation, to abolish this insolent abaddon and destroyer? and notwithstanding all its ruin have yet no disconfort at all, nor any the least doubt of their most lawful ordination by the hands of the Presbytry.  
After all this was written, as here it stands, another copy 
The Praelats are so basely injurious to all the reformed Churches that their selses are ashamed of it.  of the Warners book was brought to my hand wherein I found the deleted line stand printed in these distinct terms, and put it to a dangerous question whither it be within the pail of the Church, the deciphering of these words puts it beyond all peradventure that what I did conjecture of the Warner and his brethren's mind, of the state of all the reformed Churches, was no mistake, but that they do truly judge the want of Episcopal ordination to exclude all the Ministers of other Reformed Churches, and their flocks also from the lines of the true Church. This indeed is a most dangerous question: for it strikes at the root of all. If the Warner out of remorse of conscience had blotted out of his book that error, the repentance had been commendable: But he hes left so much yet behind unscraped out, as does show his mind to continue what it was, so that fear alone to provoke the reformed here at this unseasonable time, seems to have been the cause of deleting these too clear expressions of the praelaticall tenet against the very being and subsistence of all the Protestant Churches, which want Episcopacy, when these men do still stand upon the extreme pinnacle of impudence and arrogance, denying the Reformed to be true Churches, and without scuple averring Rome as she stands this day, under the counsel of Trent, to be a Church most true, wherein there is an easy way of salvation, from which all separation is needless, and with which are-union were much to be desired? That gracious faction this day is willing enough to persuade, or at least to rest content without any opposition that the King should of himself without and before a Parliament, (though contrary to many standing Laws) grant under his hand and seal a full liberty of Religion to the bloody Irish, and to put in their hands, both arms, Castles and prime Places of trust in the State; that the King should give assurance of his endeavour, to get all these ratified in the nixt Parliament of England, these men can hear with all moderation and patience: but behold their furious impatience, their whole art and industry is wakened, when they hear of any appearance of the King's inclination towards covenanting Protestants: night and day they beat in his Majesty's head, that all the mischiefs of the world does lurk in that miserable covenant, that death and any misfortune, that the ruin of all the Kingdoms ought much rather to be embraced by his Majesty, than that prodigious Monster, that very hell of the Covenant, because forsooth it doth oblige in plane terms the taker to endeavour (in his station) the abolition of their great Goddess, praelacy.  
The nixt hurt of Ministers from the Presbytry, is, that by it they are brought to ignorance, contempt and beggary. 
The generality of the Episcopal clergy have ever been covered with ignorance, beggary, and contempt.  Ans. Whither Episcopacy or Presbytry is the fittest instrument to avert these evils, let reason or experience teach men to judge. The Presbyterial discipline doth oblige to a great deal of severer trials in all sort of learning requisite in a divine before ordination then doth the Episcopal: let either the rule or practise of Presbyterian and Episcopal ordination be compared or the weekly Exercises and monthly disputations in Latin upon the controverted heads be looked upon which the Presbytry exacts of every Minister after his ordination all the days of his life: for experience let the French, Dutch and Scots divines who have been or yet are, be compared with the ordinary generation of the English Clergy, and it will be found, that the praelats have not great reason so superciliously to look down with contempt upon their brethren's learning. I hope, Cartwright, Whitaker, Perkins, Reynolds, Parker, Ames, and other Presbyterian English were inferior in learning to none of their opposites: some of the English Bishops has not wanted good store of learning, but the most of them (I believe) willbe content to leave of boasting in this subject, what does the Warner speak to us of ignorance, contempt and Beggary? does not all the world know, that albeit some few, scarce one of twenty, did brook good benefices, yea plurality of them whereby to live in splendour at Court, or where they listed in their nonresidency, nevertheless it hath been much complained, that the greatest part of the priests, who had the cure of souls thorough all the Kingdom of England, were incomparably the most ignorant, beggarly and contemptible clergy, that ever have been seen in any of the reformed Churches? neither did we ever hear of any great study in the Praelats to remeed these evils, albeit some of them be provident enough for their own families. Doctor Bramble knows who had the skill before they had sitten seven year in their charge to purchase above fifeteen hundred pounds a year for themselves and their heirs what somever.  
The third evil which the Ptesbytery brings upon Ministers is that it makes them prat and pray nonsense everlastingly. 
The Praelats continue to hate preaching and prayer but to idolise a popish service.  Ans. It is indeed a great heartbrake unto ignorant, lazy and unconsciencious Ministers to be put to the pains of preaching and prayer, when a read service was wont to be all their exercise: but we thought that all indifferently ingenuous men had long ago been put from such impudence. It was the late labour of the praelats by all their skill to disgrace preaching and praying without book, to cry up the Liturgy as the only service of God, and to idolise it as a most heavenly and divine piece of write, which yet is nought but a transcript of the superstitious breviary and idolatrous missal of Rome. The Warner would do well to consider and answer after seven years' advisement Mr. Bailie his parallel of the service with the missal and breviary, before he present the world with new parallels of the English liturgy, with the directories of the Reformed Churches. Is it so indeed, that all preaching and praying without book is but a pratting of nonsense everlastingly, why then continues the King and many well minded men to be deceived by our Doctors, while they affirm that they are as much for preaching in their practice and opinion as the Presbyterians, and for prayer without book also, before and after sermon, and in many other occasions? it seems these affirmations are nothing but gross dissimulation in this time of their lowness and affliction, to decline the envy of people against them for their profane contempt of divine ordinances; for we may see here their tenet to remain what it was, and themselves ready enough, when their season shall be fitter, to ring it out loud in the ears of the World, that for divine service people needs no more but the reading of the liturgy, 
Vide lad●…nsium. cap. 7.  that sermons on week days and Sundays afternoon must all be laid aside, that on the Sabbath before noon Sermon is needless, and from the mouths of the most Preachers very noxious; that when some learned Scholars are pleased on some festival days to have an oration, it would be short and and according to the Court pattern, without all Spirit and life for edification; but by all means 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 souls departed; and all this alone in the words of the Lords prayer. If any shall dare to express the desires of his heart to God in private or public in any words of his own framing he is a gross Puritan, who is bold to offer to God his own nonsense rather than the ancient, and well advised prayers of the holy Church.  
The Warner is here also mistaken in his belief, that ever the Church of Scotland had any Liturgy, they had and have still some forms for help and direction, but no tie ever in any of them by law or practice: they do not condemn the use of set forms for rules, yea nor for use in beginners, who are thereby endeavouring to attain a readiness to pray in their family out of their own heart in the words which Gods spirit dytes to them; but for Ministers to suppress their most comfortable and useful gift of prayer by tying their mouth unto such forms 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 gift, and to the Church for whose use that was bestowed.  
In the nixt place the Warner makes the Presbytry injurious 
Episcopal warrants for clandestine marriages, rob Parents of their children.  to parents, by marrying their children contrary to their consent, and forcing them to give to the disobedient as large a portion as to any other of their obedient children, and that it is no marvel the Scots should do 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 Presbytry lodges must be charged on the back of the Presbytry. II. The Parliament of Scotland denies, that they have stripped the King of his just rights; while he was stirred up and keeped on by the praelaticall faction to courses destructive to himself and all his people; after the shedding of much blood, before the exercise of all parts of his royal government, they only required for all satisfaction and security to religion and liberties, the grant of some few most equitable demands. The unhappy Praelats from the beginning of our troubles to this day finding our great demand to run upon the abolition of their office, did everpresse his Majesty to deny us that satisfaction, and rather than Bishops should be laid aside they have concluded that the King himself, and all his family and all his three Kingdoms shall perish: yet with all patience the Scotes continue to supplicat and to offer not only their Kingdom, but their lives and estates and all they have for his Majesty's service upon the grant of their few and easy demands; but no misery either of King or people can overcome the desperate obstinacy ofPraelaticall hearts.  
As for parents consent to the marriage of their children, how tenderly it is provided for in Scotland it may be seen at length in the very place cited. It was the Bishops, who by their warrants for clandestine marriages, and dispensations with marriages without warrant have spoiled many parents of their dear children: with such abominations the Presbytery was never acquainted; all that is alleged 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 own evil ends perversely will cross their children in their lawful and every way honest desires of marriage; that in that case the Magistrates and Ministers may be entreated by the grieved child to deal with the unjust parent or tutor, that by their mediation reason may be done. I believe this advice is so full of equity, that no Church nor State in the world will complain of it: but how ever it be, this case is so rare in Scotland that I profess, I never in my life did know, nor did hear of any child before my days, 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 haths any such canon or practise its an impudent lie, but in the place alleged 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 thorn in the side of some which makes them bite and spurn with the heel so furiously against the Authors and lovers of so severe a discipline.  
The Presbyteries nixt injury is done to the Lawyers, Synods & other Ecclesiastic Courts revoke their Sentences. Ans. No such matter ever was attempted in Scotland; frequent prohibitions have been obtained by courtesan Bishops, against the highest civil judicatories in England, but that ever a Presbitry or Synod in Scotland did so much as assay to impede or repeal the proceedings of any the meanest civil court, I did never hear it so much as alleged by our adversaries.  
The nixt injury is against all Masters, and Mistresses of families, 
Serious catechising is no Episcopal crime.  whom the Presbytery will have to be personally examined in their knowledge once a year, and to be excommunicate, if grossly and wilfully ignorant. Ans. 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 tried in their knowledge of the Catechism; or if it be a crime that in family-visitations oftener than once a year the conversation of every member of the Church may be looked upon; we confess the Ministers of Scotland were guilty thereof, and so far as we know the generality of the Episcopal faction may purge themselves by oath of any such imputation: for they had somewhat else to do, then to be at the pains of instructing or trying the Spiritual State of every sheep in their flocks: we confess likewise, that it is both our order and practise to keep off from the holy table, whom we find groslly and wilfully ignorant: but that ever any for simple ignorance was excommunicate in Scotland, none who knows us will affirm it.  
The last whom he will have to be wronged by the Presbytery 
Church sessions are not high commissiones.  are the common people, who must groan under a high commission in every parish, where ignorant governors rule all without Law, meddling even in domestical jars be 'twixt man and wife, Master and Servant. Ans. This is but a gibe 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 Kingdoms, and would never give over that their insolent domeneering court, till the King and Parliaments of both Kingdoms did agree to throw it down about their ears. The thing he jeers at, is the congregational Eldership, a judicatory which all the Reformed do enjoy to their great comfort as much as Scotland. They are far from all arbitrary judications; their Laws are the holy Scripture and acts of superior Church-judicatories, which rule so clearly the cases of their cognisance, that rarely any difficulty remains therein: or if it do, immediately by reference or appeal it is transmitted to the Classes or Synod. The judges in the lowest Eldership (as we have said before) are a doszen at least, of the most able and pious who can be hade in a whole congregation to join with the Pastors one or more as they fall to be: but the Episcopal way is to have no discipline at all in any congregation: only where there is hope of a fine, the Bishop's official will summon before his own learned and conscientious wisdom, who ever within the whole dioceses have fallen into such a fault as he pleaseth to take notice of: as for domestic 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 walls of the family.  
These are the great injuries 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 lamb, or rather so holy an angel upon earth, that no harm at all has ever come by it to any mortal creature: a misbelieving 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 Chapters the Warner has showed out more venom and gall then the bag of any one man's stomach could have been supposed capable of, yet as if he were but beginning to vomit, in this last Chapter of the covenant a new flood of blacker poison rusheth out of his pen. His undertaking is great, to demonstrat clearly that the covenant is merely void wicked and impious. His first clear demonstration is, that it was devised by strangers, imposed by subjects, who wanted requisite power, and was extorted by just fear of unjust suffering, so that many that took it with their lips, never consented with their hearts. Ans. This clear demonstration is but a poor and evil argument: the Major, if it were put in form, would hardly be granted, but I stand on the minor as weak and false for the covenant was not devised by strangers, the Commissioners 
The Covenant was not dishonourable to union.  of the Parliament of England together with the Commissioners of the Parlia meant and general assembly of Scotland were the first and only framers thereof, but they who gave the life and being to it in England were the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament at West-Minster by the Kings call, and at that time acknowledged by his Majesty without any question about the lawfulness 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 Parliaments of both Kingdoms made it their earnest desire unto his Majesty, that he would be pleased to join with them in that Covenant, which they did judge to be a main piece of their security for their Religion and liberties in all the three Kingdoms. As for their imposing of it upon the subjects of England, an ordinance of Parliament (though the King consent not) by the uncontroverted laws 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 join with their brethren of Scotland in a Covenant for mantainance of their Religion and Liberties: but for many of the English to swear a covenant with their lips, from which their heart did descent and upon this difference of heart and mouth to plead the nullity of the oath, and to advance this plea so high as to a clear demonstration, this is such a dishonour and dishonesty, that a greater cannot fall upon a man of reputed integrity, Especially when the ground of the lie and perjury is an evident falsehood: for the covenant was not extorted from any flesh in England by fear of any unjust suffering; so far was it from this, that to this day it could never be obtained from the Parliament of England, to enjoin that covenant upon any by the penulty of a two pence.  
The Warners second demonstration is no better than the 
Covenanters were not deceived, but understood what they swear.  first, the ground of it is, that all oaths are void which have deceit and error of the substantial conditions incident to them. This ground had need to be much better cautioned, then here it is, before it can stand for a major of a clear demonstration: but how is the minor proved? behold how much short the Warners proofs are of his great boastings. His first argument is grounded upon an evident falsehood, that in the Covenant we swear the lately devised discipline to be Christ's institution. Ans. There is no such word nor any such matter in all the Covenant: was the Warners hatred so great against that piece of write, that being to make clear demonstrations against it, he would not so much as cast his eye upon that which he was to oppugn, Covenanters swear to endeavour the reformation of England, according to the word of God and the best reformed Churches, but not a word of the Scotes Presbytery, nor of any thing in any Church even the best reform, unless it be found according to the pattern of God's holy word.  
The second ground of his demonstration is also an evident error, that the covenant in hand is one and the same 
The Warner unwittingly commends the Covenant.  with that of King james. Ans. Such a fancy came never in the head of any man, I know; much less was it ever written or spoken by any: that the Covenant of King james in Scotland 1580, should be one and the same with the Covenant of all the three Kingdoms 1643, whatsoever identities may appear in the matter and similitude, in the ends of both; but the grossest errors are solid enough grounds for praelaticall clear demonstrations. Yet here the Warner understands not how he is cutting his own vines; his friends in Scotland will give him small thanks for attributing unto the national Covenant of Scotland, (that Covenant of King james) these three properties, that it was issued out by the King's authority, that it was for the maintenance of the Laws of the realm, and for the maintenance of the established Religion: time brings adversaries to confess of their own accord long denied truths. But the Characters, which the Warner inprints upon the solemn league and Covenant of the three Kingdoms, we must be pardoned to controvert, till he have taken some leisure to try his wild assertions. First that the league is against the authority of the King, secondly that it is against the Law; and thirdly that it is for the overthrow of Religion. The man cannot think, that any should believe his dictates of this kind without proof, since the express words of that league do flatly contradict him in all these three positions.  
His gentle memento, that Scotland, when they sued for aid from the crown of England, had not the English discipline obtruded upon their Church, might here have been spaired: was not the English discipline and liturgy obtruded upon us by the praelats of England with all craft and force? did we ever obtrude our discipline upon the English? but when they of their own free and long deliberate choice had abolished Bishops and promised to set up Presbytery, so far as they had found it agreeable to the word of Cod, were we not in all reason obliged to encourage and assist them in so pious a work?  
In the nixt words the Warner for all his great boasts finding the weakness of all the former grounds of his seconde 
The King did not claim the sole and absolute possession of the militia.  demonstration, he offers three new ones: which doubtless will do the died: for he avows positively that his following grounds are demonstrative, yet whosoever shallbe pleased to grip them with never so soft an hand shall find them all to be but vanity and wind. The first, after a number of prosyllogismes rests upon these two foundations, first that the right of the militia resides in the King alone: secondly that by the covenant the militia is taken out of the King's hands; and that every covenanter by his covenant disposes of himself and of his arms, against the right which the King hath into him. Ans. The Warner will have much ado to prove this second so, that it may be a ground of a clear demonstration: but for the first that the power of the militia of England doth reside in the King alone, that the two houses of Parliament have nothing at all to do with it, and that their taking of arms for the defence of the liberties of England or any other imaginable cause against any party countenanced by the King's presence against his laws must be altogether unlawful; if his demonstration be no clearer, than the ground where upon he builds it, I am sure, it will not be visible to any of his opposites: who are not like to be convinced of open rebellion by his naked assertion, upon which alone he lays this his mighty ground. Believe it, he had need to assay its relief with some colour of ane argument; for none of his own friends will now take it of his hand for ane indemonstrable principle, since the King for a long time was willing to acknowledge the Parliaments jointe interest in the militia, yea to put the whole militia in their hands alone for a good number of years to come: so far was his Majesty from the thoughts, that the Parliaments meddling with a part of the militia, in the time of evident dangers, should be so certainly and clearly the crime of rebellion.  
The Warners second demonstrative ground we admit without question in the major, that where the matter is evidently unlawful, the oath is not binding; but the application of this in the minor is very false. All that he brings to make it appear to be true, is that the King is the supreme Legislator, that it is unlawful for the subjects of England to change any thing established by Law, especially to the prejudice of the Praelats without their own consent, they being a third order of the Kingdom; otherwise it would be a harder measure than the Friars and Abbots received from Henry the eight. Ans. May the Warner be pleased to consider 
The change of laws in England ordinarily begin by the two houses without the King.  how far his dictates here are from all reason, much more from evident demonstrations. That the burden of Bishops and ceremonies was become so heavy to all the three Kingdoms, that there was reason to endeavour their laying aside, he does not offer to dispute; but all his complanit runs against the manner of their removal: this (say I) was done in no other than the ordinary and high pathway, whereby all burdensome Laws and customs use to be removed. Doth not the Houses of Parliament first begin with their ordinance before the King's consent be sought to a Law? is not an ordinance of the Lords and Commons a good warrant to change a former Law during the sitting of the Parliament? The Laws and customs of England permit not the King by his dissent to stop that change. I grant for the turning 
The King did really consent to the abolition of Bishops.  an ordinance to a standing Law, the King's consent is required, but with what qualifications and exceptions we need not here to debate, since his Majesty's consent to the present case of abolishing Bishops was obtained well near as far as was desired; and what is yet lacking, we are in a fair way to obtain it: for the King's Majesty long ago 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 join with them Presbyteries for ordination and spiritual jurisdiction; yea to abolish them totally name and thing, not only for three years but ever till he and his Parliament should agree upon some settled order for the Church. was not this Tantamont to a perpetual abolition for all and every one in both houses having abjured Episcopacy by solemn oath and Covenant, the Parliament was in no hazard of agreeing with the King to re-erect the fallen chairs of the Bishops: so there remained no other, but that either his Majesty should come over to their judgement, or by his not agreeing with them, yet really to agree with them in the perpetual abolition of Episcopacy, since the concession was for the laying Bishops aside ever, till he and his houses had agreed upon a settled order for the Church. If this be not a full and formal enough consent to the ordinance of changing the former Laws anent praelats, his Majesty, who now is, easily may and readily would supply all such defects: if some of the faction did not continually, for their own evil interests, whisper in his ears pernicious counsel, as our Warner in this place also doth 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 Episcopal maxims. First that the legislative power is sollie in the King, that is according to his brethren's 
The Praelats would flatter the King into a Tyranny.  Commentary, that the Parliament is but the King's great counsel of free choice, without or against whose votes he may make or unmake what Laws 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 legal right and custom (time out of mind) against the arms of the Malignant party, no man may deny it to be plain rebellion.  
II. That the King and Parliament both together cannot 
The praelats takes to themselves a negative voice in Parliament.  make a Law, to the praejudice of Bishops without their own consent, they being the third order of the Kingdom: for albeit it be sacrilege in the Lords and Commons, to claim any the smallest share of the legislative power, (this i●… them were to pyck the chiefest jewel out of the King's Crown) yet this must be the due privilege of the Bishops, they must be the third order of the Kingdom, yea the first and most high of the three, far above the other two temporal States of Lords and Commons; their share in the Legislative power must be so great, that neither King nor Parliament can pass any Law without their consent, so that according to their humble protestation, all the Laws and acts, which have been made by King and Parliament, since they were expelled the house of Lords, are clearly void and null.  
That the King and Parliament in divesting Bishops of 
The Praelats grieve that Monks and Friars, the Pope and Cardinals were casten out of England by Henry the eight.  their temporal honour and estates, in abolishing their places in the Church, do sin more against conscience than did Henry the eight and his Parliament, when they put down the Abbots and the Friars. We must believe that Henry the eight his abolishing the order of Monks was one of the acts of his greatest Tyranny and greed: we 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 again, 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 Catholic Church in all reason doth belong. Though all this be here glanced at by the Warner, and elsewhere he prove it to be the declared mind of his Brethren, yet we must be pardoned not to accept them as undeniable principles of clear demonstrations. 
The just supremacy of Kings is not prejudged by the Covenant.   
The last ground of the Doctor's 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 ●…o the oath of Supremacy; for the oath of Supremacy makes the King the only supreme head and governor of the Church of England, that is, the civil head to see that every man do his duty in his calling; also it gives the King a supreme power over all persons in all causes: but the Presbytery is a political papacy, acknowledging no governor's but only the Presbyters: it gives the King power over all persons as subjects, but none at all in Ecclesiastic causes. Ans. Is there in all this reasoning any thing sound? First what article of the covenant bears the setting up of the Presbyterian government in England as it is in Scotland? II. If the oath of supremacy import no more than what the Warners express words are here, that the King is a civil head, to see every man do 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 political one, the Warner knows it ought not to be granted upon his bare word. IV. That in Scotland no other governors are acknowledged then Presbyters, himself 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 sacrilege to give the King any power at all in any Ecclesiastic cause; it is a senseless untruth.  
The Warners arguments are not more idle and weak, 
The Warners insolent vanity.  than his triumphing upon them is insolent: for he concludes from these wise and strong demonstrations, that the poor covenant is apparently deceitful, unvalide, impious, rebellious, and what not? yea that all the learned divines in Europe will conclude it so, & that all the covenanters themselves who have any ingenuity, must grant this much; and that no knowing English man can deny it, but his own conscience will give him the lie. Ans. If the Warner with any seriousness hath weighed this part of his own write, and if his mind go along with his pen, I may without great presumption pronounce his judgement to be none of the most solid.  
His following vapours being full of air we let them vanish, only while he mentioneth our charging the King with intentions of changing the Religion and government, we answer, that we have been most willing always to ascribe to the King good intentions but withal we have long avowed that the praelaticall party have gone beyond intentions to manifest by printed declarations and public actions their former design to bring Tyranny upon the States, and popery upon the Churches of all the three Kingdoms: and that this very write of the Warners makes it evident, that this same mind yet remains within them without the least show of repentance. So long as the conscience of the court is managed by men of such principles, it is not possible to free the hearts of the most understanding, from a great deal of Jealousy and fear to have Religion and laws still overturned by that factione.  
But the Warner commands us, to speak to his Dilemma, whither we think it lawful or unlawful for subjects to take 
The covenant is not for propagating os Religion by arms.  arms against their prince merely for Religion. We answer, that the reasons whereby he thinks to conclude against us, on both sides are very poor, if we shall say, it is unlawful; then he makes us to condemn ourselves, because our covenant testifies to the world, that we have taken up arms merely to alter Religion, and that we bear no alleadgance to our King but in order to Religion, which in plain terms is to our own humours and conceits. Ans. There be many untruths here in few words, first how much reality and truth the Warner and some of his fellows believes to be in that thing which they call Religion, their own heart knows; but it can be no great charity in him to make the Religion of all covenanters to be nothing but their own humours and conceits. Secondly it is not true that Covenanters bear no alleadgance to the King but only in order to religion. III. The Parliament of England denied that they took up arms against their King, though to defend themselves against the popish praelaticall and malignant faction, who were about to destroy them with arms. IV. They have declared, that their purpose was not at all, to alter Religion but to purge it from the corruptions of Bishops and ceremonies that to long had been noxious unto them. V. They have oft professed that their arms were taken for the defence of their just liberties, whereof the preservation and reformation of Religion was but one.  
The other horn of his Dilemma is as blunt in pushing as the former. If we make it lawful (saith he) to take up arms for Religion, we then justify the independents and Anabaptists; we make way for any that will plant what ever they apprehend to be true Religion by force, and to cut the throat of all Magistrates, who are in a contrary opinion to them; that it is a ridiculous partiality for any to privilege their own Religion as truth and Gospel. Ans. Whether 
The Warners black Atheism.  will these men go at last, the strength of this reason is black atheism, that their is no realty of truth in any Religion, that no man may be permitted to take his Religion for any thing more but his own apprehension, which without ridiculous folly he must not praeferre to any other man's apprehension of a contrary Religion: this is much worse than the pagan Scepticism, which turned all reality of truth into a mere apprehension of truth, wherein their was no certainty at all: this not only turns the most certain truths, even these divine ones of Religion, into mere uncertain conceptions; but which is worse, it will have the most orthodox believer so to think, speak and act, as if the opinions of Independents, Anabaptists, Turks, Jews, Pagans or gross Atheists were as good, true and solid as the belief of Moses or Paul, were of the truths revealed to them from heaven. Secondly we say that subjects defence of their Religion and liberties established by Law, against the violent usurpation of Papists, Praelats or Malignants, is not the planting of Religion by arms; much less is it the cutting of the throats of all Magistrates, who differ in any point of Religion. 
a The Praelats condemn the defensive arms of the Dutch & French Protestants.  III. In the judgement of the praelaticall party, the defensive arms of the Protestants in France, Holland, and Germany, must be als much condemned as the offensive arms of the Anabaptists in Munster, or of the sectaries this day in England. Can these men dream that the World for their pleasure will so far divest themselves of all Religion and reason, as to take from their hands so brutish and Atheistical maxims.  

b The Praelats decline the judgement of counsels.  He concludes with a wish of a general counsel, at least of all protestant Churches for to condemn all broatchers of seditious principles. Ans. All true covenanters go before him in that desire, being confident that he and his fellows as they have declined all ready the most solemn assemblies of their own countries, upon assurance of their condemnation; so their tergiversation would be als great, if they were to answer to an oecumenick Synod. 
c The Praelats overthrow the foundations of Protestant Religion.  What (I pray) would the Warner say in a counsel of protestants for the practice of his party pointed at in his last words? I mean their purging the Pope of Antichristianisme, of purpose to make way for a reconciliation, yea for a return to Rome, as this day it lies under the wings of the Pope and Cardinals. 
d The Praelats are still peremptory to destroy the King and all his Kingdoms if they may not be restored.  Also what could they answer in a Christian counsel unto this charge, which is the drift of this whole Book, that they are so far from any remorse for all the blood and misery, which their wickedness (most) has brought on the former King and all his Kingdoms these eleven years, that rather than they had not as the Covenant and general assembly in Scotland destroyed as an Idol and Antichrist, they will choose yet still to embroil all in new calamities? This King also and his whole Family, the remainder of the blood and Estates in all the three Kingdoms, must be hazarded for the sowing together of the torn mytres, and the reerecting of the fallen chairs of Praelats. If Bishops must lie still in their deserved ruins, they perseveer in their peremptory resolution, to have their burials sprinkled with the ashes of the royal Family and all the three Kingdoms.  
FINIS.   

ERRATA.  
GOod Reader, the Author's absence from the Press the whole time of the impression, and the Printers unacquaintance with the English language, has occasioned not only many mispunctations and literal faults, but also divers grosser Errata such as the following which thou art entreated to mend with thy Pen:  
PAg. 4. lin. 23. for had read hath. pag. 9 lin. 8. for Provincionall read Provincial. p. 11. l. 30. for whereby r. where. p. 15. l. 19 for pairt r. part. p. 20. l. 19, for can r. doth. l. 30. for potestant r. Profestant. pag. 22. l. 19 for these r. the. p. 23. l. ult. for over r. or. for trusted r. trustee. p. 27. l. 4. for impatien, t r. impatient. l. 18. deal, and. p. 28. in marg. for commissary r. commissaries. l. 14. for and r. or. l. 29. for charge r. charge. p. 31. l. 1. for charges r. charges. l. 25. for citation r. irritation. p. 32. l. 10. for praecipies r. praecipices. p. 35. in tit. of chap. 7. for parity r. part. p. 36. l. 2. for scandals r. scandal. p. 37. l. 2. for benefiter. benesice. p. 38. l. 10. for nation r. soldier. l. 11. for their souls r. his soul. p. 48. c. 8. l. 4. deal Ans. p. 49. l. 18. for Warner r. Doctor. p. 51. l. 13. for the r. his. p. 52. l. 16. for treasure r. Bishop. p. 55. in tit. of chap. 9 for their r. the. p, 56. l. 31. for Christ r. Christ his. l. 32. for point blank to r. point blank. contrare to. p. 59 l. 1. deal and. l. 1. for unpoureth r. vapoureth l. 17. for where r. here. p. 65. l. 5. for continueth r. continue. l. 6. for are r. is. p. 66. l. 3. for to r. so. l. 9 for warned. r. warmed. p. 67. l. 16. for in. r. to. p. 68 l. 5. for or. r. which. l. 16. for last. r. nixt. p. 70. l. 18. for least. r. best. l. ult. for null the Church and r. the very being of. p. 71. l. 1. for Reform r. Reform Churches. p. 73. l. 23. for charge r. chair. p. 74. l. 6. for service r. service book. l. 28. deal, and. p. 75. l. 16. deal, and to the gift. p. 76. l. ult. for haths. r. hath. p. 78. l. 24. for doszen r. dozen. p. 82. l. 5. for inprints. r. imprints. p. 84. l. 9 for complanit r. complaint. p. 85. l. 7. for aside ever r. aside for ever. l. 16. for sinshews r. sinews.   

ΑΚΟΛΟΥΘΟΣ OR A SECOND FAIR WARNING To take heed of the SCOTISH DISCIPLINE, In vindication of THE FIRST, (Which the Rt. Reverend Father in God, THE Ld. BISHOP OF LONDON DERRIE Published A. 1649.) Against a schismatical & seditious REVIEWER R. B. G. One of the bold Commissioners from the REBELLIOUS KIRKE IN SCOTLAND To His Sacred MAJESTY K. CHARLES the SECOND when at the HAGE, BY RI. WATSON Chaplane to the Rt. honble. THE LORD HOPTON.  
HAGH, Printed by SAMUEL BROUN, English Bookeseller. 1651.   

To the R Honorable. the LORD HOPTON Baron of Straton, etc. One of the Lords of His Ma.tie most honourable Privy Council.  
Mr LORD:  
Upon discovery of a late motion in some sheets, I found my book to have been hitherto but in a trance, which receiving as I thought, (but knew not from whence) a mortal wound before it appeared in the encounter, I gave over long since for down right dead & buried in the press. When it recovered spirits enough to crave my hand, I could not deny it so small a courtesy as to help it up. In that it looks not so vivide and fresh complexioned as heretofore it might, it shares but in the ordinary effects of such misse-fortune. If resuming what it was speaking a twelvemonth since, be censured for impertinency to these times, & (it may be) laughed at by some for prophesying of things past the possibility of their success, the fault may be theirs that disordered the leaves when well suited, and the failing not mine, who undertoke not against all changes of minds, or alterations of counsels, or preventions of causes running on then visibly to the same issues I assigned them in my conjecture. But these exceptions, My Lord, though they clip the fringe, neither unshape, nor shorten the garment I intended as the proper guise for Scotish Presbyteric to be seen in the very same with that wherein the Rt. Reverend Bishop of London Derrie had well clad her, soon afterward not onelic undecentlie discomposed, but rend in pieces by the rudeness of an angry fury, one of those sixc evil spirits that haunted (in the night of sorrow) with both tempting and torrisying apparitions, His Royal Majesty and your H. H. at the Hage. From whose praevailing violence no rescue could be offered but by repelling the tempest of his language, wherewith he thought to keep all Antagonists at a distance, and by blowing in his face the fire & stinking sulphur of his breath. If your Lordship please to pass a little through the smoke, and take no offence at the smell which in a near approach will be found to be little of my making, Truth & reason will be better discerned in a readiness to entertain you, as some longer train of Authoritic had likewise if Fathers & Counsels in this pilgrimage of ours had been, to a just number, within my reach, and some later Writers at the pleasure of my call. The stand, or at least some impediment in the march, of these Bloody Presbyters, which this forlorn hope will, in some likelihood cause for a time may by your Lordship, unpraejudiced, be taken for an happy augury of the absolute defeat unquaestionablie to follow, if occasion require, by a greater strength, and that under the conduct of better experience in these polemical affairs. In the interim though I humblic crave the honour and power of your patronage (whereof from your integrity and constancy in God's cause & the Kings, I praesume), I assume not the boldness to constitute your Lordship any partic in the liberty I take, beyond forward expressions, to declare what may be thought some singularity in my sense. If any small Politician, whose conscience is squared by no religion at all but what plainly lies in the image-worship of his temporal designs, will be (which I must look for to be) quaestioning the prudence of my speeches, I thank God he hath no privilege to give judgement against the sincerity of my thoughts. I can no longer conceal, My Lord, how much I am troubled to see our Churches diffusive charity mistaken, the precious balm, which she ever liberally poured into the wounds of her neighbours, cast by some of their hands like common oil upon her domestic flames purposely to consume her; And the skirt, she often spread over their nakedness, cut of, with an unhandsome intent to laugh at her shame, had she not an under garment of innocence to prevent them. To behold, after so many years cantonizing our Religion amongst Protestant Congregations of different opinions, (reconciled in nothing but, or nothing more then, in a negative to the Papist) ourselves, in the end, at a sad loss for protection (or indeed free permission) from any, now neceslitated to seek it. This makes me so many times in this discourse turn her away from all new names and professions arising whether from protestations or Covenants, to the unconsoederate Catholic Christianity among the Ancients where she is sure to have the safest sanctuary of truth for her doctrine & practice, though she can expect no armed assistance from the dead to maintain the distressed Members of her communion. If this must be interpreted a schismatical inclination, let me be left in my hold upon the horns of this altar, while others rise from their knees to sit down, out of good fellowship, at the Tables; and drink of all waters they care not what, so drawn from a cistern of the Reformed, forsaking or vilifying, for the time, that clearer Crystal fountain of their own. Whereas would they enter, as they are quaestionlesse obliged, an unanimous resolution to demand every where the public exercise of their canonical devotion, they would either, upon the grant, reap more comfort in continuing the worship of their Fathers, or, upon unworthy denial, more reason to scruple at such a facile conjunction with them, who disclaiming their prayers can not be thought serious when they praetend an harmony in that faith by which they are exhibited unto God. And (to put your Lordship in mind of a late instance delivered on good credit) who maligning our persons, & mocking at our calamities in their Schools, are very unlikely so to alter their minds as to turn their Barbarous reproach into any brotherly kiss or Christian welcome, when they step but the next door into their Temples. I confess, My good Lord, this Magisterial advice may better become the mouth of some Elder Pastor, who is likely to have more sheep wand'ring from his fold than he who can scarce properly be said to have had any in his charge yet none such, I hope, hath reason to take amiss my modest endeavour, while he is otherwise employed, to recover those I find straggling within my call. It being upon due consideration to be feared, that after some few years (if there must be yet more of our miserable dispersion) with out an universal industrious circumspection of young and old, as we have broken our pipes, we may throw away our whistels, and fold up our time with our arms in a comfortless discourse about the flocks we once had which now alas are got into other pastures; Invite strangers to fight for our Churches while our own Congregations are instituted to forget the holiness in the separation of such places, the sacred distance of the meanest from worke-or warehouses, and the fairest from Piatz'as of pleasure or Exchanges for their bargains. If what I speak, My Lord, be truth, I shall not hearken to them that may tell me it is miss placed, my conscience suggesting that the climate & season hath too often been heretofore neglected; If false, I have a sponge as ready as ever I had a pin to wipe out all but my shame, which shall be set forth, at your Lordship's pleasure, in an English sheet, though it never will be brought unto the Scotish stool to do its penance. In attendance on which sentence, if neither your Lordship's approbation nor pardon must be expected, I stoop down to acknowledge myself, aswell in submission to your censure as execution of your commands:  
MY LORD, Your Lordship's Most humbly devoted servant RI: WATSON.   
D. Hieron. Praefat. in Lib. Esdr. 
Legant qui volunt; qui nolunt, abjiciant.  Horat. 

— quae nivali pascitur Algido  
Devota quercus inter & ilices;  
Aut crescit Albanis in herbis  
Victimae, Pontisicum secures  
Cervice tinget—   
AN ANSWER TO THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY  
HAd Mr. Bailiff contained himself within the limits 
My reason for refuting his Epistle.  of an Epistle, I had there left him to canonize his Living Lord & all his family, & with what dexteritic he pleased to rub his honourable head piece into a good conceit of his Review. But since the great Diana in his book, so gloriously bespangled with the counterfeit Alchemy of the late Scotish Story, is lead hither to be magnified by any superstitious inadvertent reader, & his Lordship's hand made use of only to hold the candle, by the false light of his name & pretended virtues the better to commend Her Godesse-ship to public view; I can not pass by without looking in to see the sight, & spend my verdict upon the motions that attend it.  
And that His Lordship may not be mistaken to stand altogether for a shadow, I first cast my eye upon the potent Lord john, & must plainly tell his admirer 
The Rewiewers vanity in giving titles inconsistent with the present condition & practice of his Lord.  Mr. Bailiff, he had better deserved the honour of this title, if he had employed his power, as he was in duty & by oath obliged, in the vindication of His Majesty, & His Royal Father, of ever blessed memory, as he hath most dishonourably & impotentlie against them both. Nor is it much for his credit in the head of this Epistle to be styled one of His Majesty's Privy Council, & in the heart of His Kingdom to be one of the public conspiracy against him, of a Lord justice general to become a special Injusticiarie in his country.  
The Reviewers long experience of his sincere zeal, etc. argues him to be none of the late illuminates, & gives us some hopes the he hath proceeded upon the dictates of his conscience, though unhappily erroneous: long habits 
The Earl of Cassils' no late Illuminate.  though at first contracted by the perverseness of the will, by perpetuity becoming very essicacious in imposing fallacies upon the understanding, so that he which doth ill may hereby be aswell persuaded that what he doth is good, as he that often tells a lie hath at length himself believ'dit to be a truth.  
His rigid adhaerence to the pretended rights & privileges of his Country being professed hereditary, takes off some what from the personal imputation, 
No credit for his samilie to be commended by Buchanan.  yet with all demonstrates that it is not all blood Royal which runs in His Lordship's veins, nor it may be all blood Noble, having so ample testimony from him, who had always some dregs of the Common thoare in his ink & whose power is cankered with envious invectives against them, that have not laid their honour in the vulgar dust, & levelled Majesty as well as Nobility with the people. Whose Ghost will not thank the Reviewer for calling him, Prince of Historians, being so little enamoured with titles of that nature, 
Very Improper to style Buchanan Prince.  that he accounted them, where they were more properly due, 
a Legitimi regni gravissima pestis. Praet. ad Dial. de jur. Reg.  the filth of flattery, & the plague of all legitimate prerogative.  
His exemplary practice in publike-private duties is indeed some what singular, my self having seen him very zcalouslic penning down such slender (to omit what I might call in the Reviewers language praeter 
b The Reviewers sermon divinttie.  & anti-scriptural divinity, as was not fitting for any Novice or Catechumen in Religion to own, much less for so grave a Theologue to preach, & so well exercised an adultist to register for his use. I commend better the exemplary practice of the Reviewers brother Presbyter, who seemed to take a sound nap in the mean time, hoping, it may be, to be better inspired in his dream.  
This 
c He may well count it an advantage to have the E. Cassils' his judge.  potent Lord, thus qualified & brought up to his hand, I can not blame Mr. Bailiff for choosing him to be his patron, (who discerns with his eyes & decernes by his dictates) who being judge & party, both will quaestionlesse do right like a Lord Justice in the business.  
The 
d An honour for the Bp. to be called by the Rev: unpardonable incendiaire.  praejudice the Reviewer would here at first cast upon the person of the Bishop will advance his own reputation but a little in high way Rhetoric, not advantage him one whit with any of those judicious & aequitable comparers he expects; who being able to instruct themselves, upon these many late years experience, that what Mr. Bailiff calls that Church & Kingdom is only a praevalent party of Schismatics & Rebels, what adhaerence to the sacred truth of God an obstinate perseverance in an execrable covenant, which hath tied up the hands of many a poor subject from the enjoyment of all the just liberties the established laws of Scotland hold out to him; will look upon the Bishop as a courageous affertour of God's truth, the Church's purity, the King's supremacy, the subjects liberty, & if for that condemned by an unanimous faction in both Kingdoms, will commend his zeal, reverence his name, and rank him with the prime Fathers of the Church, who so soon endeavoured to stop that deluge of misery wherewith Brittany & Ireland have been most unhappily overwhelmed.  
For the dirty language he useth here & otherwhere extreme saucy spirit, stigmatised incendiary, etc. I desire the Reader to take notice I shall sweep it 
The Rev's uncleanlie language.  out of his & my way, yet if he thinks it may serve his turn, as well as the garlic heads did Cairo & his master in the Comedy, the Printers boy shall throw 
Aristoph. Plut.  it by itself at the back side of my reply in a piece of white paper, that he may not soul his fingers.  
What the Reviewer calls Boldness was prudence & seasonable caution in 
The active boldness of the Scotish Presbyterians in Holland, &c,  the Bishop to present his book to the eminent personages & in this place, observing the indesatigable industry of Mr. Bailiff & his brethren of the mission, very frequently in their persons, perpetually by many subtle & active instruments they employed before & after their coming hither, insinuating into the hearts & affections of all people here, of what sex or condition soever, in Courts, Towns, Universities, Country, praepossessing them with the Justice of their cause, the innocence of their proceedings, the moderation of their demands, the conformity of their practice & design to the present discipline & Government of the Church & presbytery in these Provinces. And great pity it is that all people, nations & languages have it not translated into their own dialect, that a discovery of this grand imposture may be made to them who are so insolently summoned to fall down & worship this wooden idol of the discipline, & threatened the aeternal fiery furnace if they refuse it.  
In the next Paragraph the Reviewer draws Cerberus like his threeheaded monster out of hell, 
a The three headed monster in controversy  Discipline, Covenant, & unkindne's to our late sovereign.  
— [
b Sen. Her. Fur.  Novos  
Resumit animos victus, & vastas furens  
Quassat catenas.]—  
His 
c The Scotish Discipline urey different from that in Holland & France.  Apology for the first, being the conformity I mentioned principally with the Brethren of Holland & France, whom he would very feign flater into his party, & make the Bishop whether he will or no fall foul upon them, whom His Lordship hath scarce mentioned in all his tract: And I having no reason not desire to enlarge the breach shall say no more than this, (because some what he will have said) That if their discipline harmoniouslie be the same particularly in those extravagancies His Lordship mentions, (which to my knowledge they deny) & for alleging which, they are little beholding to Mr. Bailiff, they are all alike concerned, yet having as learned Apologists of their own, when they find themselves aggrieved, will in their own case very likely speak their pleasure. 
d No Reformed Church calls regular Episcopacy Antichristian.  In the interim I must require his instance where any Reformed Church hath declared regular Episcopacy which we call Apostolical, Antichristian.  
What particular persons of Mr. Baylie's temper may have published must not pass for an Ecclesiastical decrce. And if all, even in those Churches he mentions, might freely speak their mind, I believe that order would have their Christian approbation as it is in any reformed Countries established. 
e Many emincnt persons in those Churches have approved of it Vindic: of K. Ch. p. 125.  some such relation was made not long since about certain Divines of the Religion in France, & some that came from other parts to the Synod of Dust. And 
Apost. Instit. of Episcopacy.  I can acquaint the Reviewer with the like piece of charity bestowed by P. Melin in the letters, that passed from him to Bishop Andrew's, beside what Mr. Chillingworth (as I take it) hath collected out of him & Beza in favour both of name & thing, though not to the same latitude we extend them. And (which will not be altogether impertinent to add) I do not remember I have heard that Causabon & Vossius, no obscure men in the French & Dutch Churches, were at any time by their presbytery excommunicate for becoming limbs of the English Antichrist, Praebendaries of the archiepiscopal Church of Canterbury with us. But if the Reviewer here begin to cant, & distinguish 
Episcopal declinations different from Episcopacy.  between Episcopacy & Episcopal declinations, (for that indeed is the expression that he useth) I must ingenuously acknowledge that there may be some practical declinations in Episcopacy which may be Antiapostolical & Antichristian, beside & against the line of the Word, the institution of Christ & his Apostles; but I know none such in the Churches of England, Scotland, or Ireland, if there have been any they are not our rule, & by his own then must not be stated to be the controversy between us. The Presbyterian aberrations which 
Presbyteria aberrations. the same with Presbytery.  the Bishop hath observed, are for the most part taken from the crookenesse of the Discipline itself, which in the very Acts of their Assemblies, he finds not so strait as to run parallel with the word of God, or practice of the true Catholic Church, & whether what His Lordship citys to that purpose be calumnious imputations or no will best appear in the procedure of our discourse.  
But the Reviewer takes it ill that Didoclave, Gerson, Bucer, Salmasius & 
The present concernment greater to reveal the Scotish Discipline, the refute old adversaries of Episcopacy.  Blondel were not rather replied to, than the mysteries of the Kirke Discipline revealed. This poor trick of diversion will not take. If what hath been writ in the behalf of Episcopacy stand firm notwithstanding these or any other storms that pass over, it requires no such frequent reparations. The holy cause indeed will shortly need such auxiliaries as these. He doth well therefore to call for them in time. 
a Sr. Claud Somays likely to be no great friend to the Discipline.  And yet it may be the imcomparable knight will not be charmed by a little mercenary breath into the rear of a distressed beggarly engagement. He hath been since better informed of many fraudulent practices in the Kirke, & so well satisfied about the state of our affairs, that Mr. Bailiff is little pleased (for all his sugar candied commendations) with the earnest he hath already given to employ his pen & pains about a better subject for the future. And 'tis a mere fiction, what he so confidently avers, of 
b He offered no dispute with the King's Chaplains about Episcopacy.  Sr. Claud Somayi's offering to dispute with the Divines by a Person of honour about the King, a person of reverence, than not far from him having told me that His Majesty knows not any thing of the business, nor did the Divines about him hear of any thing to that purpose. Therefore let his person of honour come out from behind the curtain, & vouch his credit to be such as quolibet contradicente we must believe him: when he appears in his colours & makes good any such offer as is mentioned, I presume I may say that no apprehensions of trouble & hazard will deter such judicious and learned Champions from entering upon any just & reasonable vindication of truth. In the mean time they do but the duty of their places in their Royal attendance 
They transgress not the duty of their place by informing the King's conscience about.  (which the Reviewer calls the Court artifice & their trade) if they watch the seasons & distribute the hours of the King's opportunities, wherein privately (to avoid the importune intervention of other civil business, not to decline I know not what contradiction, which they are not in that case reasonably to expect from their modest fellow servants of the laity, & I hope there are no Clerical Disciplinarians there about) to instill into His Majesty's tender mind how unsafe it is for his soul, & how little for his honour, to desert the Holy Church, that is the Episcopal doctrine & government which came into the world with Christianity itself, hath for 1500 years enjoyed a joint hereditary succession, 
The Primitive Doctrine & Discipline.  & aequi-universall diffusion with the same, to join with a crew in a Northern corner of rebellious Covenanters, if you will have it so, for aught hitherto can be judged enemies to God, to his Father, & to Monarchy itself, if he will take it upon his Father or Grandfather's word. To put him sarther 
Eikôn Basiliké cap. 14. Preservation of the Church.  in mind that his Martyred Father said, There are ways enough to repair the breaches of the state without the ruin of the Church, (it is the Episcopal Church that he means) To instruct him that he may as conscientiouslie pardon the Irish as the 
a Pardoning the Irish & tolerating their Religion.  Scots, & reward with a limited liberty of their Religion; & what other gracious encouragements he pleaseth, the first fruits of their voluntary submission to his government, without imposing the slaveric of any covenant, or conditioning for a toleration in his other Kingdoms. And this to be (as it is) in reference to a Parliament to be convened so soon as the state of that Kingdom will admit. To assure him that this is very consistent with conscience, honour, 
b Eikôn. Basilikè. conscience, honour, reason, law.  & all Good reason, & for aught they know, repugnant to no law, yea, to link the soul of the most sweet & ingenuous of Princes (too sweet, too ingenuous indeed to have to deal with the rough-heved Covenanters of the mission) with those 
c Inclining his mind to the Counsels of his Father.  Golden chains let down from heaven, & reached out by the hand of a tender hearted father to his son, in those peerless Counsels which the most prudent advice in the last Testaments of all his praedecessours can not parallel. To tell him then, That his neck 
d Cant. 4 4.  is like the tower of David, builded for an armoury, whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men.  
The Bishop's 
e Eikôn Basilikè penned wholly by K. Ch. 1. not a syllable of it by the Bishops.  unl●…ckie foot, as he calls it, is visible only in Mr. Baylie's margin, As close as he & others follow upon the sent, not the least track in e'ikôn Basilikè will in the end be found by them, nor by the whole pack of bloodhounds other where.  
But to be sure here as well as in 100 Pamphlets beside is the foul Scotish Presbyterian paw, which besmeared His Royal Majesty while he lived, & would now spoil that precious ointment, & cast as ill a savour as it can upon his sacred memory being dead. Not the Bishops, 
f God not they the supporter of the Matyred King.  but God, it may be sometime by their subordinate Ministry, strengthened our Royal Sovereign to his last, in that which the lamp of natural reason, the leading star of Catholic Antiquity, the bright sun in the firmament of the Word & above all, that inexpressible light streaming from the spirit of God revealed to him to be the safe sanctuary of truth. Not the Bishops, but the 
a The hardhearted Scotish Presbyterians.  Presbyterian Scots hardened their hearts to thrust their native King out of their protection, & with out any compassion did drive him from Newcastle to 
b Holmebie the fatal precipice to K. Ch. 1.  Holmebie, which appears to be the fatal precipice where he fell. And these same men continue after his 
c Endeavours to make it such to K Ch. 2.  death to cry loud in the cares of his son to take that direct path to his ruin, rather than root or branch, or slip shall be left of the Praelatical Clergy, whom they would fain have lie like dung upon the face of the earth, & make a fat soil to pamper the Presbyterian in his lusts.  
Their 
d His best way to prevent it is consorting with his Father's book.  gathering together His Majesty's papers, (if they must needs have the honour of causing them to be presented in a book, with out a page or syllable of their own) was but binding up that bundle of myrrh which should lie all night in the Virgin breast of his Royal son, who maugre all the malice of his enemies, hath that beloved for his comfort. That fall 
e Wherein is divine wisdom & Counsel.  of ungracious dew, as the Reviewer Diabolically calls it, came from an higher region than the Bishops. It was the judgement of God given to the King, & by him his righteousness to the King's son. It is he that here comes down like rain into this fleece of wool, this most soft, sweet, & ingenuous of Princes, & in gentle drops waters that precious piece of red earth by his precepts. And may this dew so prosper with him, that the 
f Ps. 72.  following words may have their accomplishment in his reign. In his time may the righteous flourish, & abundance of peace then & afterward, even so long as the Moon endureth. May his dominion be (as it ought) from the one sea to the other, & from the flood to the end of that alter orbis, that little world of his Kingdoms divided by the flood from the greater. May they that dwell in the Wilderness of error contest no longer, but kneel before him & his enemies lick the dust of his feet.  
But by the way 'tis worth 
g God's providence in ordering his commendations of this book to proceed out of the mouth of the Revicwer.  the readers observing, & however causelesslic praejudiced, may invite him to be conversant in that most excellent book, which in the midst of that gall that drops from his pen, whose heart & hand were bend to blot it out of the opinion of men, hath by the providence of God such a Crystal stream of commendation to the world, for Elo●…ution, Reason, Devotion, for Imitable essays of piety, wisdom, patience, & every virtue confessed; And he that will not be swayed with one word without reason, hath his Majesty's sense from the mouth of his enemy, about the danger of the Covenant & the faction that stands for it, And may take it for the timous burning of a dying martyr, & have a care that among too many serpents & so few doves, his innocence be not swallowed with the rest.  
What follows may be worth His Majesty's notice, 
h The Reviewers scaesonable advertishment to the King.  being the assertion of no other man then Mr. Bailiff, not long since a pretended commissioner for the Covenant. That the same hand that penned the 27 th'. Chapter in the book entitled Eikôn Basilike, (which he calls Episcopal, but His Majesty knows very well to be Regal) did it on purpose to separate him for ever from all his covenant subjects. And how 
a K. Ch. 1. no Presbyterian in heart nor tongue at Newcastle & the Isle of Wight.  near that came to the heart, language, & writings of our late Sovereign, let them who were best acquainted with his carriage & most intime affections at Newcastie & in the Isle of Wight speak their conscience. For the two former we have more authentic ear testimonies then the Reviewer, & the last is demonstrative out of all the papers that passed from him. To lay aside for the time those against which Mr. Bailiff is, more maliciously, then ignorantly, praejudiced. His several 
b His papers to Mr. Henderson against it.  printed letters to Mr. Henderson speak his sense about Presbytery at Newcastle, & some what more at large may in due time, what he thought of it at the Isle of Wight. These, with other undeniable evidences, may render the Reviewer a mere Sceptike, if not rather a knight of the post unto the world.  
How it concerns Kings when they take in hand Pallas target to have the face of 
c No Bishop No King.  Episcopacy on the boss, King james that had most of her wisdom, could best tell. The experience whereof being too dear bought by his Martyr-sonne, & commended in his Testament to our Sovereign, the Praelates need not take up the old statuaries cunning to contrive it. To be sure 
d Ovid. Met. lib. 5. fab. 1.  this both Perseus, or Presbyter, here paints a Gorgon's head, on every page of his book, & twists every line with a serpent, hoping to make stones & stocks of his readers, who must submit to his authority in silence, & stand fixed in what antic postures he assigns them. What ever some may do out of ignorance & weakness, we hope the providence of God will keep the King out of the Scotish Presbyters hands, & the breath of his mouth blow all such flies & lice out of his quarters.  
And thus much shall serve by way of answer or paraphrase upon what the Reviewer hath brought in apology for the Discipline of the Kirke.  
In the next place he becomes a nimble 
e The Reviewers false profession in public contrary to conscience & vulgar knowledge.  advocate for the idol worship of the Covenant. Where I am glad to find him acknowledging any such thing as reason framed by the University of Oxford against it, having, not long since, heard this confident aver, (without a blush as I take it) in his chamber-conventicle at the Hague (where not any one that was present but knew what he said to be most notoriously false, except a poor ' silly creature or two that might be decoyed in upon design) That not any thing hitherto had been objected against the Covenant, whereas he could not be ignorant then, more than now, that this, with many other learned & rational tracts, had been long since published against it, & for aught I know must stand unanswered to this day. Which affected falsity so amused me & others at that time, that had not some prudential motives restrained us, we must have offered him some affront in the place. And at this it so praejudiceth me against his credit, as I believe not a line in his book for which he brings me no better authority than his word. What he spoke than he hath much ado to refrain from printing now, only mollisies 
f The same speech now printed in effect.  it with his canting about the mater. To this day, he saith, no man hath showed any error in the matter of the Covenant. I am sure not any clause in its literal or mystical sense hath escaped the discussion of those acute Antagonists it hath found: & what this chemical matter should be, that is of so subtle an extraction, I can not guess. For the forming & taking it he praetends a necessity their adversaries imposed which necessity was nothing else but 
No necessity for the Scots to enter into a Covenant which is.  their own just jealousies & fears that an uncertain multitude, the necessary instruments, & indeed sole slaves to do the work, could not be kept constant to the cause with out the awful superstition of an oath. Which false fire is pursued with a thunderclap from the pulpit, whence damnation's daily threatened to the infringers. And being thus driven into an airy castle which these engineers have fortified by the Mathematical subtlety of their words, he saith, neither fraud nor force shall reduce them, for they fear forsooth 
No oath of God but the Devil.  the oath of God. Which God is no other than that Baal Berith, that Jupiter Foederatus, to whom the Israelites made a shameful desection after Gidcons' death, Judg. 8. 33. ‛ Ethekan e'autoîs tòn Báal diathéken, so the septuagint renders it. They set up to themselves Baal the Covenant that is the false God or Devil of the Covenant. And yet this Mirio puts it to the quaestion, & seems to wonder Why any that love the King should hate the Covenant, the whole 
No wonder why the lovers of the King are no Covenanters.  design & practice of which hath been so apparently destructive to his Royal Father & all the loyal subjects that he hath. Nay with all it is too well known, how many true 
a The Cheat of the Covenant.  lovers of the King, but too deceitful lovers of themselves, who, through fear or covetousness, hoping to praeserve their estates & liberties, have been consigned into this courteous Covenant, & then by their jealous or wanton masters, have been stripped naked, turned out to beg their bread, & regain their souls & credit as they could. So that this strait tie can in some cases we see play fast & loose, & the strictness of it, whereof we have had so sad an experiment, will be found only by the hands of the holy leaguers (for such we know were the newnamed Independents at first) to bind Religion, Majesty, & Loyalty to the block, & then lay the axe to the root of them all, & stifle them from repullulating if they can. Therefore they that manage the conscience whether of Court, or City, or Country, do well if they possess their Religious votaries with a particular full sense of the inevitable misery that will follow them if they be catched in this noose & advise them to whip all such saucy beggars, such Whying Covenanters from their gates.  
The next task of the Reviewers Engineership is to draw an out work about the open 
b The Scot-Presbytirian open unkindness that is treason against the late King.  unkindness (treason prettily qualisied in the term) against the (observe he saith not our) late King, which he makes of so large a compass, that all the Presbyterian credit he can raise will never be able to maintain it for an hour: which this skilful officer foreseeing, despair puts him first upon a salie, where the Ghosts of Wicklisfe, & hus, & Luther, & with a brazen piece of falsehood, his Disciples are drawn out to assault his dangerous enemy in his trench. For (which he knows 
c Bishops in other Reformed Churches.  as well as I can tell him) there are other parts of the Reformed world beside England, & those of Luther's Disciples, that keep up Episcopacy 
d The Reviewers in constancy.  to this day. And forgetting in part what he hath said already & minding less, what he shall babble otherwhere about the business, he tells us here 'tis the violence of ill advised Princes, which when he pleaseth, he makes the Policy of the Bishops themselves that hath kept up this limb of Antichrist, he means the Episcopal order in England. Since the first Reformation whence hath come the perpetual trouble in our land the History of the Schismatical Puritan●… will sufficiently satisfy any man that will search. And how the Church & Kingdom are now at last come so near the ground the Disciplinarian practices will evidence. But the Scotish Presbytery that gave the first kick at the mitre, & hath since lift up the other leg against the Crown, may chance to catch the fall in the end, having now much ado to light upon its feet.  
Having 
a K. Ch. 1 never justified the Scotish contests.  made his retreat he begins to endeavour the maintaining of his masterpiece by degrees, & tell us, Their first contests stand justified this day by King & Parliament in both Kingdoms Ans: And must so stand, I say not jufied, till King & Parliament meet once again in either to consider, whether with out a new ratification by their favour, your after contests make not a just forfeiture of their gracious condescension to your first. His Majesty of ever blessed memory hath told you His charity & Act of Pacification forbids him to reflect on 
b Eikôn Basilikè Ch. 13.  former passages. Which argues some such passages to have been as were not very meritorious of his favour. And though his Royal charity may silence, it doth not justify your contests by that Act.  
The borders of Scotland being as well His Majestics as yours (though you keep to your Presbyterian 
c The King may bring an army to the Scotish borders.  style, which affords no propriety to others than themselves, & yields very little community to Kings, the King, our borders) I hope it was free for him to move toward them as he pleased. If your resistance to the Magistrates he deputed made him for the security of his person come attended with an army for his guard; or if the rod & axe could inflict no penal justice by virtue of the judge's word upon a banded company of miscreants at home, & therefore sent abroad to crave the regular assistance of the sword; no laws of God nor your Country dictates any just or necessary defence, which is nothing but an unjustifiable rebellion: Nor can Dunce law 
d Alawe above Dunce law.  so justify your meek lying down in your arms, but that, if the King would have made his passage to you with his sword, you might have justly been by a more learned law helped up with a halter about your neck.  
The novations in 
e Liturgy & Canons contrary neither to the laws of God nor Scotland.  Religion were not such a world, but that two words, Liturgy & Canons may compass it. What was in them contrary to the laws of God hath a blank margin still that requires your proof, & that any were to the laws of your Country will never be made good, having the King & Lords of the Counsel, I mean those of your Kingdom that did approve them.  
The power in 
f The Reviewers brag K. Ch. 1. gave the Scots too easy conditions.  your army to dissipate the Kings is but a little of Pyrgopolynices' breath. The easy conditions given you to retreat may be attributed to His Majesty's mercy & averseness from blood, not to his apprehension of your power.  
The King's second coming toward you with an army 
a He had good reason to raise a second army against them.  was upon no furious motion of the Bishops, who had no stroke in his Council for war, but upon the fiery trial you put him to by that many flagrant provocations, wherewith you & other incendiaries nearer home daily environed him, who fearing the precedent accommodation by peace might afford respite for a farther more particular discovery of the principal actors in & contributers toward the late war, & expose many considerable brethren to a legal trial, notwithstanding the agreement contracted; impatient ambition having already been too much impeded by observing the easy conditions you mention made the first breach, & according to the right account first raised a military power, which His Majesty had very good reason to suppress. The success you had by your first impression upon part of His Majesty's Army at New-bourne, & your easy purchase of the Town of Newcastle was not such as cleared the passage to London, 
b The Scots success at New bourn opened not a passage for them to London.  without the farther hazard of which you were too well paid for your stay in Northumberland, & instead of a rod that was due, you carried too honourable a badge at your backs of His Majesty's meekncsse, when the second time you returned in peace.  
What passed after your packing away 
c The Pr. Scotish Rebellion copied by the English.  to the raising of the new army you speak of you may read & blush, if you have any grace, in the former part of His martyred Majesty's book, if you have none, you may, as I believe you do, laugh in your slovenlie slecve to see your prompt scholars come to so good perfection, & copy your own rebellion to the life. The Bishops than were little at leisure to look abroad to any such purpose, being happy if they could get an house for their shelter from the threats & stones that flew very thick about their cares, the rabble rout at London by that time being well informed what effectual weapons stones & stools, & such like as furie on a sudden could furnish, had been against black gowns & white sleeves at Edinburgh before.  
That any army could at that time be raised, when the King's 
d K. Ch. 1 his raising an army a sign of divine providence.  Forts, Magazines, Militia, Navy, were seized into the hands of your Rebel brethren, was a special mark of divine providence clear in so happy success, as he that ran might then have read their ruin writ by the fingar of God had not the black cloud of our sins eclipsed that light, blotted out that handwriting, & shoured down vengeance upon our heads.  
That such earnest & pitiful entreatics 
e The Rebels faint in their faith notwithstanding the revelations they pretend to.  should be made to strengthen the arm of flesh, by God's people, in God's cause, after such divine revelation that this was the appointed time wherein Christ's Kingdom was to be exalted on earth, that the Saints should flourish, laugh, & sing at the downfall of that man of sin, etc. Is a note me thinks that spoils all the harmony of the rest.  
That upon such earnest entreaties the Scots 
f The Prerb. Scots coming in no condition of the peace  were obliged to come in is not to be found among all those easy conditions made & their double former returning in peace.  
Their fear of a third 
a Their guilt made them fear a third war.  war to pass over their brethren's carcases to themselves is a strong argument of their guilt, that their advice & some other assistance had passed over the late agreement made between His Majesty & them to promote that horrid rebellion against him.  
That so many intercessions 
b Their work of supererogation in interceding.  with the King for a moderate & reasonable accommodation had been used by them, was a relic of Popery they kept notwithstanding the roformation they had made, & they did truly supercrogate in that work, no law of the three Kingdoms (I take it) making them umpires between the King & his subjects, nor is i●… yet revealed to the world what divine authority they had (as was pretended in their Remonstrance) to come in the name of our Lord & Master 
c Their Remonstrance.  jesus Christ, to warn the King that the guilt which cleaved so fast to his throne & soul was such, as if not timely repent would involve him & his postcritie under the wrath of the everliving God.  
For how moderate, how reasonable 
d They mediate for no reasonable accommodation.  accommodation they mediated appears in the 19 propositions, to the substance of every one of which their unreasonable brethren adhaered to the end.  
That they were at any 
e Were never slighted nor rejected.  time slighted & rejected is a mere calumny of the Reviewer ', he would have told us when, & where, if he could. That all they asked was not granted, 
f Were justly denjed.  was upon unanswerable reasons, which His Majesty rendered in his public Declarations about the Treaties, etc.  
That they & their fainting 
g Covenants the common road for faections.  brethren were so easily persuaded to enter into a Covenant together is no great marvel, His Majesty tells them. Solemn leagues & Covenants… are the common road used in all factions & powerful perturbations of state or Church… by such as aim to subdue all to their own will & power, under the disguizes of holic combinations.  
The express articles in the Covenant, for the preservation of Royalty, etc. are spun so fine, & woven so thin, as that white veil can not hide the face of that black rebellious devil that is under it.  
Whereof they being conscious that had been very well acquainted with the mystery, no less than an whole 
h Remonst. about the Treaty in the Isle of wight.  army together, conduct us to the perfect beholding the sweet countenance of this late Baal Berith as he lies. We crave (say they) leave to believe that an accommodation with the King, in the way & terms you are upon, or any as all, as the case now stands, that shall imply his restitution; or shall not provide for his subjection to trial & judgement, would first not be just before God or man, but many ways evil. secondly, would not be safe. 1. The Covenant engaging to the matters of religion, & public interests primarily & absolutely (mark that) with out any limitation, & after that to the preservation of the King's person & authority, but with this restriction, (mark this too) viz. In the preservation of the true religion & liberties of the Kingdoms. In this case, though a Cavalier might make it a question, yet who will not rationally resolve it, That the preceding matters of religion & the public interest, are to be understood as the principal & supreme matters engaged for, & that of the King's person & authority as inferior & subordinate to the other. 2. That where persons joining to make a mutual covenant, if the absent parties shall oppose it & the matters contained in it, surely that person excludes himself from any claim to any benefit therefrom while he continues so refusing & opposing. So that you see notwithstanding the express articles for 
The Covenant destructive to all the Royal line.  the preservation of Royalty. His Majesty may be brought to his trial, & all his posterity too, when the holy brethren can catch them, be murdered at their own gates according to the express sense of several articles in the Covenant for maintenance of religion, & liberty. And what unkindness was here in the Scots to their King? Besides, whosoever will take the pains to compare the particulars in the Scotish Remonstrance which they brought in their 
The charge Against K. Ch. 1. taken out of the Pr. Scots Remonstrance.  hands when they came in upon the Covenant, with those in the accursed Court proceeding against His late Royal Majesty may be able to do Dorislaw, Steel, Cook, etc. some little courtesy in their credit & plead for them that they drew not up, but only transscribed a charge brought long since from Edinburgh to London. And yet what unkindness was here in the Scots to their King?  
There is yet one thing more whereof upon this mention of Remonstrance & Covenant I can not but advertise my reader having but lightly touched 
The Presb. Scots wicked Impostors, no messeangers of Christ.  upon it before. That whereas the Scots in their Covenant confess before God & the world many sins whereof they were guilty, & for which they desire to be humbled. Viz. That they had not as they ought valued the in aestimable benefit of the Gospel. That they had not laboured for the purity & power thereof; That they had not endeavoured to receive Christ in their hearts (mark that) nor to walk worthy of him in ' their lives; These men tell the King in their remonstrance, That they come in the name of their Lord & Master jesus Christ, to warn him about the guilt of I know not what sins they there heap together upon his soul. A very likely story to believe, That Christ had sent them into England with this covenanting paper in their hands; who had shut him out of doors very lately, & would not receive him into their hearts.  
Notwithstanding all the pretended glorious success, obtained more by 
The King's party not subdued when His Majesty left Oxford.  the name then exploits of the Scotish army, the opposite party was not so fully subdued, but that the multitude of garrisons, (beside Newarke which might have cost them dear) surrendered after His Majesty's leaving Oxford make a great flame in the Burning bush which your zealous friend john Vicars hath kindled.  
You will hardly persuade any your judicious comparers of this your preface with the many treacherous practices you had used, that His Majesty in the 
The King not necessitated to cast himself upon the Scots.  greatest necessity would not have chosen rather to have cast himself into the merciless yet more merciful arms of the sea, then without the strongest deliberate engagement into the perfidious & more fluctuating army of the Scots. Nor yet had all your underhand oaths & promises prevailed for the unhappy credulity of a most pious & prudent King, if some better credit in all likelihood, had not interposed itself, which it may be was more deceived than it deceived. Therefore your story about London, Lin, Holland & France is a greater circuit than his Majesty took in his designed journey to Newarke. 
He had promised all reasonable satisfaction before.  The promise of satisfaction that carried him thence to Newcastle might have long before been his conduct to London if Religion & Reason might have been permitted to go along which him.  
That he gave not what you expected, that is to say his Royal soul to the Devil, his old oaths might very well hinder him, for I pray tell me why a King 
His Religious adhe rinse to his old oaths.  as well as a Rebel may not fear the oath of God.  
It is not unlikely that the prime leaders of the English army were at that time weary of your company, who filled the best of their quarters, & did least of your service, Nor that you were out of heart as well as reputation by the signal victories to a mitacle all most obtained against you, by, not your companion good Sir James Grahame, but the Thrice renowned marquis Montrosse, whose proceeding had been most successful & happy, & may they still be for His Majesty's affairs.  
If there were such divisions in Scotland, what could better compose thém then the personal presence of the King? but this was not according to the 
The King's presence might best have composed the divisions in Scotland.  Kingdom's liberty meant in the third article of the covenant, In the preservation of which, that is, so far as you thought fit to make consistent with which, & in the defence of what they call the true Religion, which you took for granted he never intended to comply with, you had fworne to defend the King's Majesty's person, & that is one of the forenamed express articles to that purpose. The hazard of a war weighed heavier in the balance of your counsels then the hazard of his Royal person in the hands of his irrecoucileable enemies, forgetting that the ●…orke of righteousness in performance of your promises would have been a more lasting peace, & the effect of 
Isai. 32. 17.  that righteousness, quietness & assurance for ever.  
The sectarian Army which you scarce durst have called so at that time, had otherworke then to go into Scotland but that your hollow-hearted professions 
His garrisons surrendered upon the counter.feit professions of the Pr. Scots.  to the King, who was in no very indifferent case to make sure conditions of advantage to himself, made him order the surrender of his garrisons into their hands. So you saved His Majesty from the rack to bring him to the scaffold, And you with your Brother-Presbyters escaped the like torture then, but if you go on to stretch your conscience till it crack, we shall see as well the punishment as the guilt of that murder glowing at your heart.  
After two such accidental confessions wherein your Army demonstrativelie showed themselves either false foolishly credulous or cowards at best 
They obtain no terms satisfactory to the King.  you reckon up several conveniences of His Majesty's being in one of his houses near London, when it had been ever before pretended to the poor deluded people that he was to be brought to his Parliament in London. And this you did upon the faith of that Parliament, which you say kept up a sectarian Army against you. A very good argument to prevail with you for their credit. Upon such terms as should be satisfactory to the King, particularly mentioned in the paper delivered to the King by the committee of Estates upon the 15 of May 1646. & noted in that of june 8. to the speaker of the House of Peers, subscribed By his affectionate friends & humble servants, Lauderdail, johnston, Henry kennedy (your own potent good Lord, etc.) That if His Majesty should delay to go about the readiest ways, & means to satisfy both his Kingdoms, they would be necessitated for their own exoneration to acquaint the Committee of both Kingdoms at London that a course might be taken by joint advice of both Kingdoms, for attempting the just ends expressed in the solemn league & Covenant By which His Majesty was to bring satisfaction to them & you, not (as you say) to receive terms satisfactory to himself. Wherein because he made not what haste was required, you exonerated yourself of all the malice you had unto his person & made an end of his days, which was just the end you aimed at in the Covenant.  
This being the true case, you ask, Whether it were any injustice? Yes, to imprison his person by confining him to an house, & to weaken his power 
Their injustice, unkindness imprudence  by robbing him of his garrisons, Whether any unkindness? Yes, to give up your native King, who you confess cast himself on your protection, to them who were so far from affording him any of his palaces near London, that it was death for any man to harbour him in his house. What imprudence it was, let the best politician of you all speak, because ablest to judge; Or the worst, who by this time can evidence, how besotted you were to your utter disrepute & destruction; What advantage at that time you had to lay the fairest colour upon the foulest fact that ever you committed & win the world, by an aftergame, into an high opinion of your trust; What, to gain the length of your line in the liberty of Religion or laws; And, as for wealth & honour, you might, upon such a merit, in all likelihood, have had, what the vastest ambitious Helluo could ask, or three luxuriant Kingdoms could yield you. Whereas now you have ripped up your false hearts, & thrown your guilt in the face of the sun; so that the sound of your rebellion is gone into all lands, & your treachery travails in a poverbe even to the ends of the earth; Your Religion hath many times since struggled for life, which the mercy, or temporising subtility of your sectarian enemy hath preserved, & your laws have taken their liberty from his sword; He detains at this time the wages of your wickedness in his house, & your honour not long since kissed his foot, & by four Commissioners humbly waited on him to his doors.  
But you come to a closer question, Whether the delivery of the King's person were a selling of him to his enemies? Ans: It may be such for all that you 
Their delivery of the King's person was a selling him to his Enemies.  say against it. Your Masters are not always wont to pay your arrears upon single service, I hinted even now that your miscarriages of late have cut you off a good sum that is behind, which by Ordinance of Parliament is to be disposed otherways.  
Let the capitulation have been in reference to what it will, & the Act of what you call the English Parliament exclude the disposal of the King; we know that was the subject of many papers that passed between you, which were penned with so much collusion & cunning, that any broker might see a bargain was driving between crafty merchants, till, having clapped hands, the one brought his rich commodity to Holmebie, & the other paid his money at Newcastle.  
The unexpected evil (for I must alter the number & admit of none but the 
They might have prevented the murder tha●… followed.  murder of the King) that followed, which no mortal eye could foresee any mortal heart might fore scare, & the well affected brethren have prevented, if they pleased. The Army's rebellion is very nonsignificant language from your pen, unless figuratively expressing the vengeance of God upon that rebellious city, which with her golden cup had made the Land drunk, & the Nations mad with the abundance of her wine. 
jer. 51. 7.   
What you call destroying the Parliament was but the plucking up & throwing out of the way that rotten root, the stock & fairest branches whereof had been cut down by the keen axe of a violent vote long before.  
How ready these Scots (which the Reviewer must vindicate) were to the 
They were not ready to the utmost of their power.  utmost of their power to have prevented the mischief in the murder of the King, & what hazard they ran of what was dearest to them appears by their haste to come in to Duke Hamiltons' party, & the large contributions they gave toward the raising an army to that purpose. To make good the proverb. Murder will out, the next words imply the Reviewers confession. The hard measure they had often received from the King stuck then in their stomaches, & 
An old grudge the reason why they were not.  would not out till now, with their malice impostumated in his blood. That they did not in time, & unanimously stir to purpose for that end, they are indeed to answer it to God, who were the true authors thereof. And who they were let the Scotish pulpits (I mean not their Presbyters) speak out. The innocence of the Church is not cleared in the following treatise to be so much as pilate's, they can not wash their hands in it, nor their mouth. They made the 
S. Matth. 27. 24.  tumults they never asked what evil he had done, & this Royal bloudwill be upon them & upon their children.  
But here comes up a second part of their venomous vomit (for though 
The Kings not granting all demands.  they cast the temptation upon the serpent, they charge the original sin upon the King) The King gave not his good subjects satisfaction by granting all their demands which they found most necessary & due, This they say [by the mouth of the Reviewer] was the cause of the many miseries, & if there be any connexion, was the cause why they stirred not in time, & what's the meaning of this but Caiphas' expedit? It is very expedient very necessary he die for these people, & (thanks good Presbyter Scot) pay this debt of satisfaction in his blood Which conclusion is no sooner dispatched, but like very logical Rebels, they fall presently on making a new syllogism, & prepare a second argument of the axe. The very same cause ties up this day the hands of Covenanters— could 
They bear the like grudge against K. Ch. 2.  they have (that is they can not have) the young King to join with them in their covenant, to quit his unhappy Bishops, to lay aside his formal & dead liturgy & the satisfaction to his good subjects which they find necessary & due; He hath drawn some what beside his limbs from the loins of his father; though the serpent hath not reached him the fruit of the forbidden tree, he hath transmitted as much malignance in 
* In libro Cap. 1▪  the bark. Ergo when they get him into their hands (which God forbid) 'tis but talking a little with the Pharisees & Priests, taking the money according to the covenant, They have made the premises & may then, sit at home with their hands in their pockets, being well assured the conclusion must follow, quia expedit, It is very expedient another man, because another King (which the hand of heaven powerfully prevent.)  
To draw him into the net, this decoy duck courts His Majesty with more 
The Reviewers politic staterie.  truth than good meaning; for he puts it into a parenthesis I'observe, that when hereafter it shall be left out, the Scotish Reviewer & Remonstrances may not jar in their expressions. [A lovely, hopeful, & promising Prince, for all natural endowments, as this day breathes in Europe, or for a long time has swayed a Sceptre in Britain] And yet this lovely Prince without taking the Covenans etc. shall not breathe nor sway the sceptre in Scotland.  
With which & some other ungracious principles a nest of these unlucky Northern birds did lately besiege him, not in his cabin, [for his father's work lay upon their hands, when he was there they wanting then the iron instrument to cut the silver cord of his life] but in his Royal bedchamber at 
Ecclesiast. 12. 6.  the Hague. And going home, it should seem by the weeping cross, they & the good people, because they can do no more, sit down with mournsull eyes, till occasion be administered that by Dunce law (which holds as well against the son as the Father) they can do no less than lie down in their arms for their just & necessary defence. But they hold here & 'tis time I think●…, for they have transgressed too far the bounds of an epistle.   

CHAPTER I.  
The Scots bold address with the Covenant to K. Ch. 2 Their party inconsiderable. The Bishop's method, language, & matter asserted. The quaestion in controversy unawares granted by the Reviewer.  
WHile Six walking Images, the pretended Commissioners 
The unseasonableness of the Scots coming to the King at the Hague.  of the Church & Kingdom of Scotland, that is to say, a selected pack of the most zealous disciplinarian faction, which had fairly wrought the destruction of both, were, with the greatest impudence that ever was heard of, pressing into His Majesty's sad & most disconsolate retirement at the Hague, when he held back the face of his throne, & had spread his cloud upon it, When his face was foul with weeping, 
job 26. 9 job 16. 16.  & on his eyelids the shadow of death; While, with the highest cruelty that could be, instead of condoling his most lamentable afflictions, beyond the tyranny of Jobs comforters, they were going about not only to lay open in his sight, but to thrust violently that bloody axe (the Covenant I mean) which had cut off his Royal Father's head, into his hands; This reverend & resolute Prelate steps in between them & the Court, throws in their eyes the guilt not only of their late actions, but of their old Antimonarchical as well as antiprelatical government itself, not so much hoping to amuse them, or stop them in their progress to the King (whose adamantine face, & elephantine feet, he knew would break through all the briers & thorns that the hand of truth could cut out of that Northern wilderness of error, & lay, though ne'er so thick, in their way) as to set the mark of that beast in their forehead, which destroys root & branch of Religion & Laws, of Regal & Apostolical government, yea & of the liberty of the people, that all well affected to any of these or themselves might have seasonable warning to get out of their way, or gather strength to hunt this wild monster out of the world.  
Which accurate Remonstrance of the Bishops carrying with it the highest authority of their Assembly acts provincial & general, of 
The seasonable success of the Bishops Warning.  the concurrent sense in the writings of many their deified Divines prevailed with all impartial & advertend persons to bring this glittering Goddess of the Scotch discipline to the touch, to discover all the dirt & dross whereof every limb of her is made, & reduced many, her before incautious worshippers, to a better practice of their duty, & opinion of the Catholic truth. So that the shrine trade being very likely to go down, & the craftsmen's gain to fail, this Demetrius, as it hapens, at a distance from the great company of his brethren, adviseth only with one of his tribe & 3. or 4. the idolatrous worshippers of his imaginations, & cries aloud in print Magna est Diana, Great is Diana of the Scots. yea, so great he makes her in the very first page of his book as if she were Queen of heaven & earth, no other divine providence but hers able to recover, as he speaks, the woefully confounded affairs of the King, & no other nations hands upon the earth but the Antiprelatical be the instruments to effect it.  
Whereas they are at this time the most inconsiderable faction in His Majesty's Dominions, being kept at a bay by the present tyranny in England, having such distractions & divisions among themselves, 
The Scotish Presbyterians an inconsiderable partic.  so intermingled with a Royal & Independent party, that let them talk or write what they will; they can make no muster roll of their own strength, & durst they speak out their desires, or could their guilt permit them an assurance of security & protection, they would with all their hearts take sanctuary in the person, aswell as hitherto they have done an abused authority from the name, of their King, & cast themselves with their covenant, & their claims, to all former concessions, even touching their discipline, at his foot. But desperatione ultima in furorem animus convertitur, instead of that they turn despair into madness, hoping only for some miracle to be wrought by the hand of God, that they may have company in their ruin. Naturali quodam deploratae mentis affectiu morientibus, gratissimum 
Sen Con●…rov. job 8.  est commori. But we are told the hopes of such hypocrites shall perish, That they shall be cut of, & their trust be but a spider's web.  
Having done his cry, he begins to chop logic with the Bishop, complains of his method, though most apposite to the purpose, 
The Bishop's method apposite to his matter.  calls for Scripture, Fathers, Reason, as if disciplinarian practical instances required the strength of any of the three, unless the virtuous precedents of Father john of Leyden, or Kniperdolin should come in, as they may in judgement against the Scots. He admits of the 
His prose ●…o by tenets  Bishop's proofs (& I am very glad he doth) but as by tenets, belonging little or nothing to the main question: Whereas if The overthrowing the rights of Magistrates to convocate Synods, etc. Chapt. 2. Subjecting the supreme to their censures. chap. 5. Chcating him of his civil power in order to religion. ch. 7. be but by tenets; Their challenging this exorbitant power by divine right. ch. 8. That the exercise of it is hurtful to all orders of men. chap. 12. Belong little or nothing to the main questions about the discipline, it should seem we must climb heaven for the height of the controversy, & see whether it will suffer God any more than the King, to sit sure in his throne, & have the supreme government of the world. The heap of calumnics he mentions is a faithful collection of historical narrations, which requires not the credulity of the simple, but the search of sedulous people, if disinherited, who may take the other books in their way, & satisfy themselves about what passages he pretends to be detorted.  
If any of the Bishop's allegations are coincident with them in Lysimachus 
His allegations confirmed by others.  Nicanor & Isachars' burden, they have two witnesses at least to quit them at the bar, & need not stand to the mercy of judge Bailiff for their pardon. Whatsoever were the sufferings of the authors Mr. Corbet & Mr. Maxwell the Reverend Archbishop of Towmond, truth & integrity ought not to be daunted, The hand 
The Reviewers rash & uncharitable judgement about the ends of Mr. Corbe●… & Archbishop Maxwell.  of heaven is not always guided by the mouth, nor God's judgements discerned by the eye of the Disciplinarian brethren, though most commonly we hear of no less than the murder of the best men, when they make themselves dispensers of his punishments. I am credibly informed that Mr. Corbet was murdered by the Irish, the Archbishop, stripped naked & left desperately wounded, but by God's mercy recovered & since died a natural death. What spirit it is that hath cozened Mr. Bailiff into this uncharitable belief of God's strange punishments in their ends, or rather framed contrary to his conscience this rash judgement in his mouth I leave to the Christian reader to conjecture. Had the like befallen any couple of his brethren, he would have writ with their blood some red letters in the Calendar, & made them currentlie pass for two Martyrs of the discipline. If what the Bishop & they have jointly published be fully aswered by Mr. Bailiff in his book printed at London, Edinburgh & 
His vanity in mentioning the frequent impressions of his book.  Amsterdam, because the weight of the press adds every time more strength to his arguments, for I know not else to what purpose he mentions the several impressions) he might have saved this labour of Reviewing, & published a fourth editon of it at Delfe.  
After so much praejudice the Bishop is beholding to you for his hearing, & since you have tasted the sweetness of his spirit, & sobernesso 
His language more bitter than the Bishops & his haste greater to vent it.  of his language in his first page, you do well to spit out the bitterness of your own in a mad epistle before your book.  
If any regard had been wanting in his Lordship to the passages of Scripture whereupon you build your Antiepiscopal tenets, the quotations would have been some what more numerous in your Review. That no reverence should be required to the harmonic of the Reformed he takes care 
No regard wanting in the Bishop to Scripture nor reverence to th' Reformed Churches.  in the third paragraph of his book where he saith, he hopes there is nothing whereof he convicteth you but will be disavowed… by all the Protestant Churches in the world, which it should seem they may do & yet agree with you in the main of your discipline, for you called all those but by-tenets even now. That they do so beyond a non admission, to a rejection of our Episcopacy as Antichristian (between which as I take it there is some difference) I desire you to tell us where.  
What respect the Bishop bears to the civil Magistrate & laws, appears best by his vindication of just authority to them both against 
Nor respect to the Magistrate and laws.  your disciplinarian encroachments. His Lordship doth not forget by what authority your discipline is established though the extravagance of your practices stands not justified by that which you pretend to. If your rule doth, it doth not quit itself of censure, in reference to its reception otherwhere, because vested with the power of a civil law in Scotland; nor is that law unalterable when a future Parliament may take into consideration the inconveniencies that accompany it. The Bishop need not be grieved▪ being as ignorant as yourself (& you are enough, as King knowing as you would seem) that His Majesty doth not at all question the justice, because he doth not the legality of these sanctions. Therefore his Lordship may think on, & speak on when he pleaseth more about this business, & yet vouch with out a mask loyalty in his face, nor (for aught you draw from him) need his veins be so empty, nor his stomach so sharp set as to eat his former words, much less be so desperate as to burn his whole book, the consistence of it with his thoughts, & professions laying no slander upon the King, & his Royal Father of ignorance, & injustice, the one having 
The Bishop no slanderer of the King nor his Royal Father.  established, the other offering to establish by your civil laws such a Church discipline as is mentioned, both having done it upon most unreasonable importunity, without any known inclination to, or approbation of the same, Farther, what a slander this would prove, upon your grounds (beyond the irreverence toward any actions of a King) which is haled hither in a forced consequence by the cords of your malice may be guessed by the Royal Father's confession in his solitude. If any shall impute my yielding to them [the Scots] as my failing, & 
Eikôn Basilikôn ch. 17.  sin, I can easily acknowledge it; but that is no argument to do so agai●…e, or much more For the Royal son, His Majesty now being. you say, he hath not yet gone beyond an offer, therefore His Martyred Fathers 
The Reviewers seasonable advertissement abou●… the King's late offer, to the Scots.  penitential acknowledgement of his failing, & sin joined to your seasonable admonition, That there can be no such actual concession, but upon the peril of ignorance, or budge injustice, except he owns it aswell to be the religious dictate of his conscience, as a poltike indulgence upon necessity of state, may probably move him at leisure to deliberate, & whatsoever he shall determine to do in this, (wherein God direct him for the best) aswell for his own sake, as the safety of his Kingdoms make him cautious hereafter how the importunity of the mission gets ground upon his goodness, when all his grants shall be so publicly registered as conscientious acts, &, by such barbarious pens, delivered to posterity as sealed with his soul.  
The Bishop's presumption in that which follows is none but what 
No r●…sb presumption in the Bishop.  from the grounds of modest Christian charity may be raised, viz. That a knowing & a just King (such as your own character renders him) will acknowledge that contrary to the dictates of his conscience, which is proved contrary to the laws of God, & man, And this may be proclaimed, if not prohibited without being his Confessor or taking it from the Clerk of the closet in any whisper. Nor doth your mist●…ust of reports bear authority enough, to make His Majesty's conscience pass for Presbyterian, no more than that for a command, or imposition by law which was by your petitionary violence ravished from his passive innocence into a grant. So that you see in the very beginning you stumble at a straw, & being to find somewhat worse in your way, you were best life your legs higher in your progress.  
How much the Disciplinarian Scots have contributed from the 
The Scots endeavours to impose their discipline upon England.  beginning toward the alteration of Religion in England, is too large a story to be inserted in this dispute. Their old account the Rt Reverend Archbishop Bancroft cast up in his Dangerous positions, & English Scotizing Discipline. their later arrears ruu very high in the history of our times, beginning with his religious & learned successor, The loss of whose head is not more to be imputed to the people's clamours, than the Scotish papers. Whatsoever they did before, I hope they can not deny themselves to be one of the horned beasts, which together with their English brethren make the supporters of the Presbyterian Rebel's scutcheon in the Covenant. This in their remonstrance upon their last inroad into England, when their fainting brethren with the cause were giving up the ghost, they tell the King plainly they shall zealously & constantly in their several vocations endeavour with their estates & lives to pursue & advance. This pursuance was against the King & Bishops, which with the Convocation of divines are the true & full representatives of the Church of England. The assembly of Divines were but locusts & caterpillars brought together at Westminster by a Northern wind. The laws of England convocate no such creatures nor in such a manner. King & Parliament were mere names, had then, & there, no real being, & so no breath to such a purpose, nor those in the two Houses afterward more than the heads on the top of them in any politic capacity to ordain the abolition of Episcopacy. Beside, what the Assembly did deliberate & debate, poor mechanike people 'tis very well known they did as daily labourers, & sacrilegious hirelings, spend the thread of their time in your service, & paid the price of their souls for a sequestration or two the Covenanting brethren's pillage of the Church. So that if they began the song, you know by whom they were paid for their pains, & if they danced not after your pipe, poor scraping wretches they came at your call, & how soever you were in a medley together, to be sure your Covenanting Devil had got you all into a circle, & will better distinguish you when he calls to you for his re●…koning. But, by your favour good Sir, His Majesty kept out, 
K. Ch. 1. in no barmonie with the Prc●…byterians.  & for the very three years you mention told you plainly he would make one in the practic harmony of the Catholic Church. That permission (for it was no more) necessity extorted, & though he could not at that time get you all into Bedlam, he thought in thrce years you would pipe & dance yourselves weary & then be content to give way to a better solemnity of the Cathedral music to come in. In the mean time estates & lives engaged in the advancement of the Covenant by the sword, the end thereof being to settle discipline, was meddling with & imposing upon our Church. Quod erat demonstrandum.  
The Bishop you see gives a shrewd guests who they are you endeavour 
All Protestants implied to be Erastians' as well as the Episcopal by Mr. Baylic.  to brand with the name of Erastians', & how all Protestans Churches, even such as are not Episcopal, must be beholding to you for that title because they come not up to the rigour of your Discipline. Wherein Erasttus slaterd the Magistrate to the prejudice of the just rights of the Church, concerned you aswell to prove as to mention, & then to have drawn a parallel of the like flattery in the Bishop. Your doubting argues you ignorant or negligent, & confirms my belief that you have travailed as little in Erastus' doctrines as his ways, & gone no farther than the title of his book. What His Lordship asserts about the supremacy of the civil Magistrate, & ecclesiastic jurisdiction derived from thence is but what he & all his brethren have sworneto, & not one of the late Bishops retracted who claimed Episcopacy by divine right, nor were they at daggers drawing with that horrible word Erastian Caefaro-papisme, having a far more monstrous creature, called Scoto-Presbytero-Papisme, to encounter. Our laws are the same aswell to the latter as the elder Bishops, & if their subjection to them must be accounted such an error, the next pedlars pack that you open we may look to find Christianity bundelied up into a sect. The Bishop hath more charity in him then to become an accuser of his friends, & so much ingenuity as to hear your sense, not only speak his own about their writings, which when you bring in any particular instance showing them to join with the most rigid Presbyterians in opposing Erastus about the Magistrates power, you may look for your answer  
Here the Reviewer, I can not say for want of a pare of spectacles 
The Reviewer not acquainted with the late controversy between us & the Papists.  (for who is more blind than he that will not see) is pleased to over look the whole body of the Bishop's charge against them, & instead of quiting himself to any purpose, recriminates only upon other men's scores, having, as it seems, been very slenderly acquainted with the late controversies between the Papists & us, & not sounded the depth of the question, as it was stated by our later most learned writers, particularly that most glorious martyr the Right Reverend Archbishop of Canterbury with the rational & subtle Mr. Chillingworth, who between them having cleared the well of that dirt which defiled commonly the fingers of them that went to draw water at it before, made the face of truth appear at the bottom to any that came impartially to behold it. But the Bishop mentioning nothing hearebout, I have no authority farther to enlarge, being obliged only to put Mr. Bailiff in mind that in his next Review he give account to the world. Why the Scotish Presbytery comes not into the harmony of all Protestants both Lutharans & Calvinists, who give unto the English Episcopal Church the right hand of fellowship & why he & his later Brethren out do etheir forefathers, who durst not condemn her either as defective in any necessary point of Christian piety, or redundant in any thing that might virtuallic or by consequence overthrow the foundation. The 
No Canter-burian design but what was forged at Edenburg.  Canterburian design was forged at Edinburgh into a pass for the Scots to come over the borders. The Prelatical party might charitably wish, but never rationally hope to see all Christian Churches united in truth & love, so long as the perverse Presbytery confines all Religion to itself. For whatsoever the blue caps came in, we know when they went out they carried many wainloades of somewhat clse beside the spoil of the blacke-caps reconciliation with Rome, & so long as such booty is to be had, they want more power, then will, to set up a new controversy in England. But while they are thinking of that, I must put them in mind of what we have in hand, & notwithstanding Mr. Baylies pretence assure him King James, who had trouble enough with them, makes good upon his own experience, that every nicety is a fundamental among them, & every toy takes up as great a dispute, as if the Holy Trinity were questioned …De 
Basilik. dor.  minimis Politiae Ecclesiasticae quaestiunculis tantum excitant turbarum ac si de sacrosancta Trinitate ageretur.  
As touching your answer to the last charge, you cunningly omit 
The Scots heretofore gave no so bad language to the English Bishops.  what is found in the letter, a word at least of approbation to the office of Episcopacy, in that Bishops are called guides, or leaders of Christ's flock, wherein a superintendence, Prelacy, or precedence is own, they being Pastorum pastors, for by the flock there is meant the inferior Ministry, not Laity, otherwise that text of St. Peter is unfitly applied, Feed the flock of Christ, which is committed to your charge, caring 
1. Pet. 5. 2  for it not by constraint e'piscopôuntes mi a'nagkastôs [e'piscopôuntes is being Bishops over it] where a'nagkastôs must relate to the Ministers who were constrained to wear the cap, surplice, & tippet, or else be deprived of all Ecclesiastical function as your Assembly complains at the very beginning of the letter. Yet had they writ no more than you produce, & had been of the same mind with you now, it would follow necessarily that you acknowledge several members of Antichrist Ministers of the word, reverend Pastors & brethren of the Kircke. Which give me but under your hand in your next. My Lord of Derrie I presume will use you, as his professed brother very kindly, & trouble you no more about that business. I must add this; Mr. Knox, as futious otherwise as he was, before Queen Elizabeth's time when as your Historian relates in his life, K. Edward VI offered him a Bishopric, he refused it with a grave severe [yet not so severe] speech saying the title of Lordship & great state had quid commune cum Antichristo, somewhat common with Antichrist, he said not the office of an English Bishop was Antichristian, nor his person a limb of Antichrist himself.  
What the same Assembly said or did about the Archbishop of 
Though they acted enough against their Bishops at h●….  St. Andrew's was in the midst of their freanzie, when, as by their actions may be judged, they had already made good what they threatened, & were become subjects or slaves to the tyranny of the Devil. Whose title their successors, have these last ten years renewed, & paid a greater homage than ever, to that Lord.  
What you suppone is a grant of the question, That some 80. years ago the Scots might admit the Protestant Bishops tolerable in England, the law being still the same upon which they are founded, & if their practice be not, which is more than you prove, whatsoever it may detract from their persons, it derogates no thing from the continuance of their office. Neither hath your inspection been so accurate of its nature, but that like unskilful physicians, ye have cast away that balm of Gilead whereby the health of the daughter of God's people must be recovered, 
jerr. 8. 22.  & like ignorant simplers, have thrown over the hedge for a noxious ●…eed that Sovereign plant which God ordained for the perpetual service & sanity of his Church.  
As for those crimes which you mention, though you will never be 
The crime●… alleged not the grounds of K, Ch. 1. his concessions against Episcopacle in Scotland  able to make them good against the Reverend Prelates of any the three Kingdoms, yet for shame say not for those you got the consent of the King to condemn, kill & bury in your country the sacred order of Episcopacy in that Church. His Majesty having not expressed the least word or syllable to that purpose. The most that ever he yielded was this. For it should be considered that Episcopacy was not so rooted, & settled there [in Scotland] as 'tis here [in England] nor I (in that respect) so strictly bound to continue it in that Kingdom as this: for what I think in my judgement best, I may not think so absolutely necessary for all places, & at all times. Not so rooted & settled, not so absolutely necessary implies no act of everting the foundations both of Religion & Government etc. nor can such an act be so pleasing to Kings, nor that order, which is wholly employed therein, win so much upon their affections & judgements as to make them profess to the world they think it best, as you see our King of blessed memory hath done.  
When England thereafter, as you term it, did root out that unhappy plant, they danced after the Scotish pipe, though England was neither in that 
Episcopacy in England not put down by a legal Assembly, & Parliament  thing, called an assembly, nor in any full & free Parliament that did it. They were but a few rotten members, that had strength enough then to articulate their malice in a vote, but have since given up the ghost being cut down by the independency of the sword, & their presbytery with them, for a Stinking weed thrown over the hedge, or Severu's wall, into Scotland, where they, & their blue-bottle brethren are left to lie unpitied on the dunghill together. The rest of the ReformedChurches otherwhere did never cast out, what they never had, such an happy plant as regular Episcopacy in their grounds, those that have (as some such I have told you there are) carefully keep it. The one part hath been more wise in their actions, the other more charitable to us in their words. Let the Scots applaud, or clap their hands when they please, there is an act behind, the plays ' not yet done.   

CHAPTER II.  
The Scottish Discipline overthrows the right of Magistrates to convocate Synods, & otherwise to order Ecclesiastical affairs.  
THe Bishop doth not forget his challenge about the Magistrates right in 
The Reviewer knows not good logic when he meets with it.  convocating Synods. But if Mr. Baylie's eyes be too old to see a good, argument in an enthymem, let him take it out of an explicit syllogism, which may fairly be drawn out of His Lordship's first & second paragraph in this Chapter.  
MAJ. That Discipline which doth countenance the Church to convene within the Magistrates territories, whensoever, wheresoever they list: To call before them whomsoever they please, etc. doth overthrow the Magistrates right to convocate Synods. to confirm their Acts, etc. MIN. But this new Discipline doth countenance the Church to convene within the Magistrates territories, whensoever, wheresoever they list, etc. Ergo, CONCL. This new Discipline doth overthrow the Magistrates right to convocate Synods, etc.  
The Major his Lordship proves from that known Soveraignite of power wherewith all Princes, & States are endued; From the wariness of the Synod of Dort, Can. 50. From that decree out of Ench. Cand s. min. Synods ought to be called by the supreme Magistrate, if he be a Christian, etc. From the power the Emperors of old did challenge over General Counsels; Christian monarchs in the time of Popery over National Synods; The Kings of England over their Convocations: The Estates of the United Provinces. From the professions of all Catholics & Protestants in France, very particularly & liberally the State of Geneva, where the ordering of all ecclesiastic affairs is assumed by the Signiory.  
The Minor, he takes for granted, is known out of all the proceedings in the Presbytery; which from time to time have thus convened, & convocated themselves, & therefore His Lordship only intimates it in his first paragraph, yet afterward proves it in part by an Assembly, meeting when it had been prohibited, & sitting after it was discharged by the King, which the 20. Presbyters did at Aberdene Anno 1600. And all this with the Reviewer, is to forget the challenge, because he hath forgot his logic, & the new light hath dazzled the eye of his old intellectual faculty to discern. The truth of it is, this was a little too hot for Mr. Baylie's fingers, because it makes such clear instances about the Synod of Dort & Geneva, wherein they differ from the Scotish Presbytery, which he will not own because he every where denies, & therefore takes no notice of it as he goes.  
Nor can any ignorance of the way of the Scotish Discipline be imputed to the 
The Bishop not ignorant of the way of the Scotish Discipline.  Bishop, who produceth, so numerouslie, the practical enormities thereof, & strikes at the very foundation as infirm, because contrary to the known laws & lawful custom:, the supreme Magistrate dissenting & disclaiming. For what he pretends to have been unquestionablie authentic by virtue of Parliament Acts & the King's consent since the first reformation, I have otherwhere successively evidenced, up as far as the unhappy beheading of Marie Queen of Scots in England, (to which the rest may be hereafter annexed) to have no other strength then what rage & violence could afford it. The power which he saith 
The Reviewers sophistry.  every man in Scotland gives the King, without controversy, to call extraordinary Assemblies when he pleaseth, takes not away, in its haste, the main part, of the Bishop's objection, implying no negative to this. That the Presbyteric, hath often extraordinarily assembled without the King's leave, nay against his command, nor will they be checked in that rebellious licence by his power.  
What the Bishop means to speak of the King's power in choosing Elders, etc. 
The Bishop's meaning about the King's power in choosing Elders.  Mr. Bailiff might know, but that still he hath no mind to take notice, That in the former paragraph His Lordship spoke of a signiory, a civil Magistrate at Geneva, to which at the end of the year are presented the Elders, & by that continued or discharged. The civil Magistrate in Scotland hath no more power in placing or displacing, (which before was called continuing or discharging) the Elders, then in the election of the Emperor, whose inhaerent right he conceives to be as good there as at Geneva, therefore if the laws do not expressly provide it, they are such, he thinks, as tend to the overthrowing of that right. This His Lordship means as part of that he was to prove, being a clause in the title of this Chapter.  
Your closing with the Parliament, which the Bishop hath not mentioned, 
ecclesiastic laws.  is but to beget a wonder by making an hermaphroditc of the question which before was but single in your sex. You are not so united, but that I can untwist you, &, though against your will, consider, in this case, the Presbytery by itself. The making of ecclesiastic laws in Scotland (as for England it shall not be here disputed, as desirous as you are to be wand'ring from home) was never, in justice, nor with any King's content, referred, so absolutely, to ecclesiastic Assemblies, as not to ask a ratification from the crown. What the 
The head of the Church.  Bishop's mind is about the head of the Church will be clearly rendered when just Authority demands it, but His Lordship thinks not good to be catechised by every ignorant Scotish Presbyter, nor give answer to every impertinent question he puts in.  
If your fingers itch to be handling the extrinsccal power in the Minister derivative from the supremacy of the King you were best turn over Erastus & the learned Grotius, after which I guess we shall hear of you no more. Your Assemblies are arbitrary but at 
Assembies are the King's arbitrary Counsels.  Royal pleasure otherwise then as by your covenanting sword you cut of their relation to the King & his great Counsels. So that your Kings were willing to accept, & had good reason to assume, more than ever you would give them.  
How you robbed them of their right by your multiplied rebellions see Scotish-Presbyterian self conviction in my Epitome of your story. 
The Bishop had reason to instance in particulars.   
If the Bishop had left this matter in general, your hue & cry to be sure, had gone after him for particulars. His reasoning stands not to the courtesy of your indulgence, being grounded upon the Acts of your Assemblies, whose backs had been long since broke with the weight, of no peckadilloes in disputing, but high & mighty villainies in rebelling, had it not the strength of the whole lay Presbytery to support it. Though by the way I must tell you, The failings of your officers may be taken as natural to, & inseparable from your office, when, having been so noto riouslie public, they pass without your censure, or dislike. So that this mote, as much as you miskenne it, will prove a beam in your eye, & of such consequence in this argument, as you will scarce find the way through the most heinous particulars that follow.  
The first of which lays such a block in your way, as you can 
The Assembly contest with the King about his command.  not step over, till you have as good as acknowledged one of the principal articles in that charge. You confess His Majesty did write from Stirling to the General Assembly at Edinburgh 1579. that they should cease from concluding any thing in the discipline of the Church, during the time of his minoritis. And how well you obeyed it, we may collect by what follows. Upon this desire [dutiful subjects would have taken it for a command] the Assembly did abstain from all conclusions [that we shall see presently] only they named a Committee to go to Striveling for conference with His Majesty upon that subject. Any man that is acquainted with your Assembly logic will know that this clause with the only, if it pass not for a conclusion, caries the force of two praemises with it; And he must be very ignorant in your story that hath not found all your conferences with your Kings to have been contests. Whether this was so or no, I leave to the discretion of the reader, when he sees what you say followed thereupon. Immediately a Parliament is called in Octob. 1579. And in the first Act declares & grants jurisdiction unto the Kirke…. And declares that there is no other face of a Kirke, nor other face of Religion, then is presently, by the favour of God established within this Realm, And that there be no other jurisdiction Ecclesiastical acknowledged within this Realm, then that whilk is & shall be within the samen Kirke, or that which follows therefra concerning the praemises. Now let us lay all this together. The young King is resolved to have no meddling with the discipline, yet no sooner doth he see your Commissioners sweet faces, but immediately a Parliament is called And in that Parliament your Discipline must have the primacy In the Acts; And that leading Act must not only establish what you have at hand, but, upon the engagement of Regal & Parliamentary power, purchase all future possibilities of your pleasure, & give your invention a patent to play the wanton. There must be some witch craft sure in your Committee, & (by your relation) a magic spell to retrieve on such a sudden, the King's wand'ring affections to the Discipline.  
But when I find His Majesty professing, that after ten years of age 
Conf. as Happed. Court. And. Melvin Epist. ad Th. Bez. 1579. K. I. & his Nobility against the Discipline. Vindic. Epist. Hieron. Philadelph The Reviewer & his brethren agree not in their story. Duo folia dilac erata & in ignem conjecta.  you never had his heart. A brother of yours lamcnting that for five years before this you had had a perpetual conflict with the Bishops, & ever got the worst. That most of the Nobility, upon several interests, were at this time bend against you, I am at a loss for the King's liberty, as much as for some other concurrent due authority, in this Act, & read nothing but your violence in these proceedings. But let us see how you & a nameless friend of yours agree. He tells us the letter that Dunkenson brought to this Assembly had otherguede contents.  
That the King only quickened your dispatch in consultation a. 'bout some head of the discipline, & preparing your unanimous result for the consent of the Parliament that follows.  
The King's jealousy of your meddling with these affairs he seems to anticipate by two years of your account & if there were any such thing, whereof he doubts, he saith the King was better informed of the truth. He farther complains of two whole leaves about this business that were rend out of your public records. that ever since left posterity in a cloud this was done in the year 1584. which he calls the hour of darkness. You say the authentic Registers are extant, & ●…onvince the Bishop to be heir of falsehood. Error cau●… quâ coepit eat All the truth that I can pick out of this confusion is, That the King was disaffected to the Discipline; That the Assembly did not obey his command nor answer his desire with their silence; And that what consent you say, he gave in Parliament soon after, was either forged, or procured by constraint. What follows concerning your rigour to the Papists, & many orthodox Christians comprehended in that title, is easily credited. But you should have done well to have set down the names Dominorum Consilii ex quornm deliberatione proclamation ●…as made, & then we should have known how near they were of kin to your faction. Some body tells us, That the Ministers did deliberate, & Buchanan did act [according to 
G●…or. Con. De duplic. stat. Relig. apud Scot lib. 2. … ministri cu omnia ex suo suorumque arbitrio pendere, savente & annitente imprimis Buchanano, cerncrent, etc.  the maxims of loyalty he published.] That the King's name was to it, & what else you pleased, is not much to be doubted, when you had got his person in your power. For how short a time you could keep his inclination to the Discipline, which was proclaimed, ap pears out of your story of an Assembly man's penning. How cordiallie peremptory the king was in his command, & how forward in subscribing whatsoever is in the Act for the short Confession of faith; And what good effects it wrought among the people, you may take notice out of His Majesty speech in the Conference at Hampton Court, wherein he shows how ridiculous the thing was, & the person that drew it up. I think it unfit to thrust into the book every position negative…according to the example of Mr. Craige in Scotland, who with his I renounce & abhor, his detestations & abrenunciations, did so amaze the simple people, that they not able to conceive all those things, utterly gave over all, falling back to Popery, or remaining still in their former ignorance. These are the King's words about Mr. Craige the Author, & his Confession, 
K. 1. his dislike of the short Confession. Many unjustisiable praciices about it. Vindic. Epist Hieron. Philadelph. Archiepis. Fan, S. Andr. Pa. 1 77  which you may compare with the Act, you pretend to at your leisure. The approbation of the Assembly was but the harmony of a faction, such being excluded as were not prejudged approvers or, if present, overawed by a praevalent party in their vote, as much as other Ministers abroad, by Philadelphi Vindicatours confession, in their consent. Quis credat quenquam, qui rem sacram administrabat…ausum fuisse calculo suo non probare. Or if they were free & did approve it, they did it in that sense that many Orthodox persons did swear or subscribe it …in eam confessionem jurâsse neminem Presbyteriorum regimini alligat. Which King Ch. 1. in his large Declaration tells you to be consistent with Episcopa●…ie, it unquestionablie true. Or it may be the register of your approvers was handled as the roll of subscribers, wherein were a great many more names than had been hands … add Episcopos nunc sedentes & magnam partem 
Archiepis. Fan. S. Adr.  Ministrorum subscriptiones illas inficiari. The opposition Of the King's Commissioner it may be was engrossed in the two leaves torn out of your public records, if not left out as impertinent to the proceedings of that Assembly. If he gave a passive consent by his silence, it was in conformity to his Master's subscription & command which you mentioned. The direction of His Majesty for the 50. Classical Assemblies was specialized by your power which did direct him. The erecting of them was with no intent to pull down Episcopacy, as may be, in effect gathered from your words. For if they remain to this day, the same stood while the Bishops were in power as subordinate chapters or consistories unto them.  
These some Noble men, you speak of, were most of the Nobility, 
Epist. ad Theod. Bez. The reason upon which the Nobility maintained Bishops. Pseudo-Episcopatu.  as your Brother Andr. Melvin doth acknowledge … reluctantibus nobilium plerisque. And these did not now erect, of new, a titular Episcopacy, but maintained that which had been legally established. And this they did, not only to hold fast their Ecclesiastical revenue, but upon other more conscientious grounds, as he ingenuously confesseth. Viz. To keep the state of the Kingdom entire from being rend in pieces; sublato enim Episcopatu [I'll leave the lie for his heirs to lick up] regni statum convelli. To praeserve Majesty due to the King, constitutis Presbyteriis regiam Majestatem imminui And, by asserting his right to some Church revenues, to prevent the utter exhausting of his exchequer … bonis Ecclesiasticis … restitutis Regis aerarium exhauriri causantur.  
That the Nobility enjoyed so much of the revenue, beside what 
The Presbytery the Cause of the Nobilities kceping the revenue of the Church.  was paid in to the King, came upon the perpetual divisions raised by the Presbytery in the Kingdom, which perturbing ever the establishment of the Episcopal order, & voting them to have no more right to the means than they had to the office, the learned at least & prudent Nobility having better assurance that neither power nor means belonged de jure to the brethren of the discipline, it is not unlikely, till the controversy should be ended, they framed a kind of plausible argument to continue the steward ship in themselves. Yet in the mean time, by your leave, they 
Episcopacy more than titular by the Covenanters acknowledgement.  did effectuate more than a title to this & tul●…han Bishop: And this kind of Prelates pretended right to every part of the Episcopal office, & exercised much more than you mentioned. Which having been made good against you in several volumes, I shall only bring an undeniable argument, by producing confitentes reos, the whole pack of Covenanters of all orders & qualities, aswell Ministers, as others, Who in their public bill or Complaint, upon which an Act of the Presbytery of Edinburgh passed Octob. 24. 1638. have these Words. Whereas the office of a Bishop (as it is now used within this Realm) was condemned by the book of policy, & by the Act of the Assembly holden at Dundee, Anno 1580. Whereof these are the words; For as much as the office of a Bishop (as it is now used, & commonly taken within this Realm) hath no sure warrant from Authority, etc. Hence I argue thus. The office of a Bishop now used in the year 1580. & the office of a Bishop, now used in the year 1638. is ex confesso the same. But the office of a Bishop 1638. consisted in the power of ordination & jurisdiction: Ergo so did the office of a Bishop 1580. And as much is implied by the Act of that Synod which condemns expressly the power as well as the title of Bishops, & that with reference to the persons of the Bishops then living, that had executed this power, & were to lay it down or become excommunicate. Therefore you show us but the half face in your discourse about their voting in Parliament, Into which employment they crept not, but came upon confidence of better authority than any general Assembly could give them, as shall be proved hereafter, particularly in the case of Rob. Montgomerie Archbishop of Glasgow whom you name. That there was some debate takes of somewhat from the King's forwardness in commanding, subscribing & directing in special. That he showed his good satisfaction, I believe not, when you publish it with a blank Reviewer. But the Warner 
The Bishop too courteous in passing over 27. years' story mean, base, & abject persons, who were never any way remarkable as ●…en of great gifts Decl. of His Majesty's Counc. Imperfect policy alterable at the King's pleasure.  here jumps over no less than 27. years' time, etc. Ans. The Bishop undertook no continued history of your Disciplinarian rebellions. Therefore in passing over 27. years he saved himself a trouble, but hath done too great a courtesy for you, unless you were more thankful for his silence. Though indeed this signal rebellious Convention of a few stubborn ignaroes at Aberdener shows to what an height & maturity of mischief your other sucking Conspiracies had come to; if Royal presence had not been at hand to suppress their growth & nip these black boutefeus in the bud. That King james at that time was by his English Bishops persuasions resolved to pu●… down the general Assemblies of Scotland, is disavowed in words by public proclamation, bearing date the 26. Septemb. & in act by appointing one to be holden at Dundee the last Tuesday of Julie. Yet if he had, with the grave advice & consent of his three Estates, your Church lanes & constant practice must have struck sail, as it afterward did, unto the supremacy of that power. Himself telling you, That no Monarchy either in Civillor Ecclesiastical policy, had then attained to that perfection that it needed no reformation; Nor that infinite occasions might not arise, whereupon wise Princes might foresee, for the benefit of their St●…es, just cause of alteration. For what immediately follows, take His majesties answer out of a Declaration penned with his own hand.  
As to the nature of their particular privilege in holding of Assemblies, they 
The Privilege of Assemblies limited.  have in this their last pretended Assembly broken the limitations of that privilege that is clearly set down in the first Act of the Parliament in the 92 year, which is the latest & clearest warrant for their Assembly. For there it is specially provided. That as We give them licence for holding of their Assemblies once in the year or oftener as occasion shall require (which proves that all their power only proceeds from us) so must it not be convened without our own prasence, or then of our Commissioner, nor no day, nor place set down for the next Assembly, but by Our, or our Commissioners appointment, except we be not pleased neither to go in our own person, neither to send any for assisting the said Assembly. And how these limitations have been observed by them at this time, let the world judge, first in not only refusing the presence of our Commissioner, but most contemptuously & injuriously barring the door upon him, & next in setting down the dies of the next Assembly without either his privity, or consent.  
The letter which His Majesty's Commissioner Sr. Alex: Strayton of Lowrenston 
The Legal proceedings against the Aberdene Assemblers  offered you know was a missive from the Lords of the Council, not addressed to them as to an Assembly, & therefore no such capacity required to their receiving it. His Majesty's letter to the Commissioners of the general Assembly signifying his pleasure to have the appointment of this meeting deferred, & no new indiction to be made without his consent, having been long before delivered, & the substance of it by them communicated to the several Presbyteries of the Kingdom. In contempt whereof these persons assembled at Aberdene, where, the day before they sat down, was a publication at the market Cross of a charge to the contrary from the Lords of the Council. Beside, they had not, His Majesty tells them. any warrant to hold a new Assembly, without the presence either of the Moderator of the last, or of the ordinary Clerk of the Assembly. As for their dutiful demeanour afterward, That they rise immediately after the reading of the Missive, Mr. Bailiff knows to be absolutely false, Howsoever, the naming a diet for the next meeting Was against an express clause in His Majesty's letter, which by the Council is called a Rebellious, & traitorous misbehaviour.  
For the trouble that followed hereupon, if by the counsel of Archbishop Bancroft, that could not be pernicious, because the proceeding against them was legal. They were called before the Lords of His Majesty's Council; had liberty given them to entertain lawyers, & make their defence, which proved a Declinatour disclaiming all subjection to His Majesty, & His Council; This Declinatour was repelled, & they were found to have unlawfullie convened; His Majesty commanded that the ordinary course of justice should proceed. Whereupon Six of them were presented upon panel at Lynlithgow before His Highness' Justice being the ordinary Judge, who had joined to him a great number of Noblemen, etc. Their indictment grounded upon the first statute in May 1584. Two of 
Their obstinacy.  their Procuratours, & Counsellors at law, not being able to persuade them to a course of humility, did upon their obstinacy refuse to plead for them, Indeed Six, or seven of them, touched with the open discovery made by the King's Declaratour upon humble submission were dismissed, & sent home to their charge. See more particularly of all these in the Declarations of K. James, & his Council 1606.  
The next instance of the Bishops, Viz. Their abolishing the chief festivals of the Church, the Reviewer can not justify to any purpose 
The Church festivals abolished in Scotland by no just Authority.  either from the authority, or the time. For first this great Council of Scotland were but a parsel of the rebel Nobility that had of late deposed, & persecuted the poor Queen Dowager to the death, And now having the young King & Queen at as great a distance as France, at the same rate order the affairs of the Church as they had the policy of the State. The charge they gave the Assembly brethren dated the 29. day of April 1590. (the sum whereof is so formally placed in the front of the Discipline) was upon procurement by themselves, It being ordinairie with them, when they had any new device on foot, to extort some pretended authority by their letters. Therefore it is but a mock obedience by service not only offered, but obtruded. Nor was it so pleasing to them, whom they here own for their masters, but that after many day's perusal, it was with dislike, & scorn rejected by divers. Those that signed it had no power to ratify it, no more then just before, the Confession of faith, which they were fain to send over into France. And how their Act, or promise in secret Council, dated the 27. of januarie, was illuded from time to time, Knox relates, & very much laments in his story. For the time, there was no such Parliament interval as required the diligence of the Council of State: for what they called a Parliament, though none, was but new lie dissolved, when presently consultation was had how the Church might be established in a good, & Godly policy. The reason of which haste was lest, the young Queen should come over, & interpose her Royal authority in this great Council of State, as she did afterward, & rejected the Discipline, for all the Act of State that had passed on it, demanding How many of those that had subscribed would be subject unto it, & her Secretary telling them. That many subscribed in fide parentum, as children are baptised.  
Those days which Mr. Bailiff calls here fond seasts, out of the 
The primitive Christians observed thom  book of Discipline & that farther abominations, were not thought such by the Primitive Christians, who were strict in the solemnity of such times. And if the writings of the ancient Fathers, & the Godly, & approved laws of justinian the Emperor might be admitted, as once they were offered, to decide the controversy betvixt us, we know what Would become of this part of the Discipline. The authority of the 
Orat: of the Protest. of Scotl. to the Q. Reg. 1558.  Church, warranted by the holy Scriptures is sufficient to justify them & us in this observance. Nor were the Scots so fallen out with these abominations, but that they let them stand in the Calendar before their Liturgy, etc. And there were a people in Scotland which, in the Bishop's days, did celebrate those feasts, Therefore ever since they have not showed such ready obedience to that direction of the Discipline. See the Bishop of Brechen's defence of the Perth Articles.  
Your farre-fetecht comparison accidentally improves the Bishop's knowledge by a seasonable experiment, Who finds the Disciplinarian barbarismes in Scotland as monstrous as any he ever read of in japan, & your nullities in religion as many as Utopia hath in policy, or nature. If your thoughts had not been rambling so far for recruits to your malice, you might have been furnished with truth nearer home, which His Lordship brings unto your door. As fine as here you make yourself for the triumph, out of every wing you pluck, you will by & by be at a loss for your victory, & must then wear your blue cap without a feather. For (that you may know 
The Bishop not mistaken in the Scottish Chronologic.  my meaning) His Lordship can afford you no such pretty thing as the antichronisme you lay hold on. He saith not, That statute of treason wa●… in being in the year 1580. And his Printer you might see, had done him so much right as to set a number 4. years older directly, against the place where it is mentioned. His Lordship's words are these Which ridiculous ordinance was maintained stiffly by the succeeding Synods, notwithstanding the statute, That it should be treason to impugn the authority of the thrce Estates.  
The plain sense whereof is this, The succeeding Synods to the year 1584. maintained it stisfclie. And not only they but likewise the succeeding Synods afterward, notwithstanding the statute then made, That etc. Yet, not to be too literal, That there should be three Estates, to whom your brethren presented their Assembly Acts as they did, by the King & them to be confirmed, even before the year 1580. & yet, That to impugn the authority of the three, estates or to procure the innovation, or diminution of any of them, should have no statute nor law to make it, at least interpretative, treason, is a piece of politikes that japan nor Utopia, will never own, nor any man that is civilised in submission to government believe.  
The business of appeals we are to meet with in the chapter following, & so far you shall have leave to travail with the counterfeit credit of that untruth.  
What you make here such a positive consent of Lundie the King's Commissioner in that Assembly, even now went no farther than a suspense in silence, where all you found was, That it appeared not he opposed. And how that might be I there gave you my conjecture. In the next 
What kind of Presbyteries were erected by K. james & his Commissioners, & to what purpose.  Assembly 1581. the King's Commissioner Caprington was not so hasty to erect in His Majesty's name Presbyteries in all the land. The business was this, The King sends him, & Cuningham with letters to the Assembly at Glasgow, to signify, That the thirds of the Ecclesiastical revenues, upon the conference had between his Commissioners, & those which they had before sent from Dundee, were not found to be the safest maintenance for the Ministry, they having been so impaired in twenty years before, that nothing of certainty could appear; That thereupon had been drawn a diagrame of several Presbyteries, whereby a division of the greatest parishes was to be made, & a uniting of the less to the end that the Ministers might be with more equality maintained, and the people more conveniently assembleed, That His Majesty had determined to sent letters to several of his Nobility in the Country to command their meetings, and counsel here about. This he did not till the next summer, nor was any thing effected divers years after. The conventions of the Ministry were 
Bishops to praeside in them.  to be moderated by every Bishop in his Dioecesse, who was, by agreement, to praeside in the Presbyteries with in his limits. So that the modelling Presbyteries was only for settling a convenient revenue upon the Ministers, & so far was it from abolishing Episcopacy, that the Bishops were to have the managing the affair.  
It would not have cost you, nor your printer, much pains to have put in what happened before the year 1584. The opposition against 
Declar. 15●…2. The abuse of the King's indulgence by the Presbyters.  your abuse hereof by the Bishop's Montgoinerie & Adamson; His Majesty's discharging by proclamation the Ministers conventions, & Assemblies under pain to be punished as Rebels, publishing them to be unnatural subjects, seditious persons, troublesome & unquiet spirits, members of Satan, enemies to the King & the Commonwealth of their native Country, charging them to desist from preaching in such sort as they did viz. against the authority in Church causes, against the calling of Bishops, etc. removing, imprisoning, inditing them, etc. Which put you upon the desperate attempts of surprising and restraining His majesty's person, whereof otherwhere. So that the King, you see, had very good preparatives to purge his Kingdom of such turbulent humours, before Captain Stuart put him in mind to make use of that physic. Which Captain james 
The E: of Arran no wicked Courtier.  was no such wicked Courtier, when the saints in behalve of the Discipline, set him up to justle with Esme Stuart Lord Aubignie for the nearest approach unto Royal favour.  
This Parliament 1584. was summoned with as loud a voice as any other, & was as open as the sun at Edinburgh could make it. Nor was Captain Stuarts crime about it such as to denominate his exile the vengeance of God, which was wrought in the eyes of the world by your rebellion. Nor his death by Dowglasse's high way murder, avenged 
His blood revenged.  afterward in alike terrible destruction & that in Edinburgh high street, where sanguis sanguinem tetigit: blood touched blood, though I dare not, as you do, judge for reward, nor divine such ambiguous cruelties for money, being no Priest nor Prophet, as you are to the heirs of those bloody soldiers in Micah [chapt 3.] I dare not say that it either was the fingar of God, though he employ not the hand of his power to restrain them.  
Rev. rev. these acts of his Parliament the very next year were disclaimed 
Bishop Bancroft Dang. Posi●… b. 1. gibson's bold speeches to the King.  by the King, etc. Ans. They were not disclaimed the 21 of December the next year, when James Gibson being questioned for does loyal speeches about them before His Majesty & his Council, very impudently told the King, he was a persecutor for maintaining them, and compared him to jeroboam, & threatened he should be rooted out, & conclude that race. His confidence was in the return of the banished Rebel-Nobles, who forced all honest men from the Court, possessed themselves of His Majesty's person, & acted all disorder in his name. This was the regular restoring of Presbytery, Which to say was never more removed to this day, in that sense, you must speak it, is to abuse the ignorance of some new convert you have got in the Indies, who it may be, at that distance, know not that Bishops had the visible Church government in Scotland, for about theirtie years together, since that time.  
Rev. The Warners digression to the the perpetuity of Bishops in Scotland, etc. Ans. The perpetuity of their order in that Kingdom is no disgression 
Perpetuity the Bishops in Scotland.  in this place, where His Lordship shows your practical contradiction in pulling down Episcopacy with one hand, & yet setting it up, though under the name of superintendency, with the other.  
The sequestering their revenue, & altering their names, & pruning off some part of their power, he takes to be no root & branch ordinance, for the deposition of their office, or utter extirpation of their order. This he asserts to be the greatest injury your malice could ever hitherto bring about, & therefore goes not one step out of his way to let you know. That Bishops have been perpetual in your Church, Nor do you out of yours (but keep the same path of truth you began 
The Reviewers long reach for the antiquitic of Presbyters.  in) in acquainting us with the antiquity of Presbyters, who, it should seem are terrae filii that sprung up in Scotland, like so many mushrooms, the next night after Christianity came in: Though he that is read in your opinions & actions, will take it for granted that you must pay the acknowledgement of your Presbytery to the Sanhedrin, & your sects conversion to the Iewes.  
If you will impudently crowd it into the company of the first 
… facile est credere Victorem Pontisicem …in Scotia reperisse multos quos salutaribus undis expiaret alios quos Judaizantium in fe●…erat error. G. Con. De dupl. stat. Rel. apud Scot lib. 1. Multi ex Britonibus Christiani savitiam Diocletiani tiementes add eos [Scotos] confugerant è quibus complures doctrina, & vitae integritate clari in Scotia substiterunt, vitamque solitariam tanta sanctitutis opinione apud omnes vixerunt, ut vita sanctorun cellae in templa commutareniur. Ex eoque consuetuao mansit apud posteros, ut prisci Scoti templa cellas vocent. Hoc genue Mona●…horum Chaldeos appellabant mansitque nomen, & institutum donec Monachorum genus rocentius in plures divisum ectas eos expulit Buchan. Hist. lib. 4  Christians that came into Scotland, you can not deny but that for some part of the Centuries you speak of, it was confined to the monks colls, never came to clamour at the Court, & the poor Culdiis, with a great deal more humility & piety, than the Covenanters, carried it in their cowls.  
Rev. rev. & after the reformation there was no Bishop in that land. Ans. The reformation you mean, began the day before, or after the Greek Calends, & if you will help me to an account of the one, I shall know how to order the aera of the other. Many years confusion there was of Popery, Presbytery & superintendency. The reformed Episcopacy could never get ground till King James set it forward, & then it went not far before it met with your violent encounter by Sword, & Covenant, which never suffered the crown nor Mitre to stand long unshaken, till both were held up by the Arms of England, & the King's person secure at a distance to command you. That ever such a thing as reformed Presbytery according to the Canon in your Discipline, had the free positive consent of King, & Parliament (without which it can not legally pass for the Religion of your Kingdom) I deny to be visible any where in your story.  
Rev. rev. till the year 1610. Ans. That year did indeed complete the Episcopal power, which King James had by degrees piously, & industriously promoted many years before.  
Rev. rev. When Bancrost did consecrate three Scots Ministers, etc. Ans. A brother of yours tells us they were consecrated by Bishop Abbot: As evil as their report was the men were not so bad, as their names need be in charity concealed. They were john Spotswood, Andrew Lamb, & Gavin Hamilton, Bishops of Glasgow, Brechen, & Galloway. Who enjoy now their reward in heaven for the r●…viling they had on earth, it being for God's sake & his Church] according to our Saviour's promise, St. Matth. 5. 11. The first was a man for zeal to the Church, fidelity to the King, prudence in Government, & constancy under affliction singular, & inimitable, & indeed for his excellent gifts onelic hateful to the Disciplinarians, though especially because he through long experienec was of all Scotish men best acquainted with & ablest to detect their cross ways to the King & all Sovereign Magistracy. He died piously, & peaceably at Westminster in the second year of this rebellion, & was buried in the Abbey Church. The second was a great & assiduous preacher, even when he was blind through extreme age, He also died in peace, & with the good report of all, except these calumniatores, who hold that no Bishop can be an honest man, & whose invention is so rich of nothing as reproaches against better men than themselves. The third was a reverend Praelate of great parts, & singular learning, a most constant preacher who lived in peace, & died in his bed.  
Rev. rev. that violent Commissioner the Earl of Dunbar. Ans. His violence did not carry him beyond his Commission, & because he executed that upon the rebellious Aberdene Assemblers, & would not take off some of his kindred or acquaintance who were in the jury, that deliberately cast them in their verdict, nor intercede for their stay in Scotland, being desired; you here meet with him at the Synod of Glasgow. Which being at large proved legitimate in every circumstance required by law, is in vain condemned as null by your faction. Nor was it corrupt in any more than three members of about 140. who being rotten drop of from the close union & harmonious suffrage of the rest.  
Rev: … got authorized in some part of the Bishop's office. Ans. I hope 
Episcopacy entirely authorized in the Synod of Glasgow Vind. Epist Hitr. Philadelph.  you will not deny that Bishops were authorized to ordain in this Synod. And into how many particulars their power of jurisdiction was branched your brother very pitifully complaines… jurisdictio in omnibus offendiculis, sive in doctrina, sive in moribus … Armantur … potestate exauctorandi ministros, suspensionis censuram irrogandi, excommunicationem decernendi, etc. you may read the rest, & then tell us what part of their office was left out.  
Rev. Superintendents are no where the same with Bishops, much less in Scotland. Ans. That they are equivalent to Bishops is evident by the 
Superintendents equivalent to Bishops.  conformity in their offices, & power. The particulars whereof His Lordship recites out of the fourth & sixth heads of your 1. Book Discipl. To which upon my Review I could add some more, if those were not enough. Their ambulatory commission, was no other than our Bishop's ambulatory visitation. If your onclic in the time before have any influence here, & exempt them from all duties in their visitation, but preaching the word, etc. you cut of three parts of their injunction in the Discipline. If they were only, as you say, for a time, it concerne●… you to tell us where they ceased, & deny there were any since, or ever shall be more but upon some future new plantation in your Churches  
Being pressed about obtruding your Discipline, you tell us. For the E●…clesiastike 
Presbyters not to have Synods as often as they list, nor do in them what they please.  enjoining of a general Assemblies decrees a particular ratisication of Parliament is unnecessary. Which holds not where the particular decrees of your Assembly transgress the general intent of that Act whereby you are authorised to meet. That relates to the times and matters to be treated of. In the former you are limited to custom, or praescription. In the later to the doctrine, & discipline received. Which are therefore ratified in such Acts together with your Assemblies, Presbytery & Sessions, that obedience might be rendered upon the visible conformity of your decrees, & injunctions to that rule. But to make any Act of Parliament so general as to ratify at adventure all possible arbitrary commamds of your Assembly to the altering of the doctrine or discipline established, were to precontract affinity with all sects, & heresies, & to enter into an implicit league, or Covenant with the Devil about his worship, so it may be de futuro ad placitum Synodi generalis. Let me put this case, suppose a general Assembly should, by an Ecclesiastical decree, enjoin the canons of that Antichristian government against which you praetend your discipline is framed. Whether or no is that injunction authentic upon the general A & of Parliament for their Assembling without a particular ratification thereof? I might add how ridiculous it is for you to make the power of your Assemblies so absolute, & yet trouble King, & Parliament so often with your importunate petitions to pass what is fully ratified before, & that by their own General Acts including that very particular for which you supplicate.  
The debates about the second book of Discipline I believe: But that in 
The King consented not to the second book of Discipline.  the Assembly 1590. the King's consent to it was obtained, I can sooner admit upon undeniable authority, than your Logic, you pretend not to the perpetuity of His Majesty's personal presence which was but some times, & it should seem, not at that time of general consent. Nor is your Act for subscription so clear in the assurance you give us that His Majesty's Commissioner was there, you only take it for granted he was among the herd. Nor so explicit in his positive consent, you only collect it from a cloudy universal, & to serve your turn, honour him with a primacy in suffrage. Wherein you are a little redundant in courtesy, there having been a time when if His Majesty, 
K. Ch. 1. Larg. Declare 1633. pag. 411.  or His Commissioner sitting in Assembly should deny his voice to any thing which appeared unjust, & repugnant to his laws, yet it that were concluded by most voices, you would tell him he was bound jure divino to enforce obedience to your Act. The case, for aught I know, stood no otherwise here in this Assembly. Where, to discountenance the testimony you bring, you have been told long before now, That the superintendents of Angus, Lothian Fife, etc. George Hayes Commissioner from the North. Arbuthnoth of Aberdene, & others were 
Refutat. libel. De Regim. Eccl. S●…ot.  dissenters from this Act about the discipline, whereby His Majesties, or His Commissioners consent becomes somewhat improbable, to the authority whereof such men as they had in prudence submitted, if not in duty by their silence.  
That Statesmen in Parliament opposed it is evident. That the King ever endeavourd to get it pass, is your single assertion. Neque usquam sictum, neque pictum, neque scriptum. If your Church did, it was for want of work, for you told us even now, To this a particular ratisication of Parliament was unnecessary.  
What the Bishop's opinion is about the patrimony of the Church, how far, & by whom, & what part of it may be law fully alienated, 
The Bishop no hypocrite in his challenge about the patrimony of the Church.  when just occasion is given, I praesume His Lordship freelic, & faithfully will declare. In the mean time his challenge against the Scotish Presbyterians is without hippocras, & injustice, Himself & many other good Prelates having ever aesteemed it a fault, to call the annexing some part of the Church revenues unto the crown a detestable sacrilege before God. Nor can Mr. Bailiff instance in any indefinite disputes, including all that hath been, or shall be given to the Church, that have happened since the first reformation between the Kings, of England & their Bishops. Who had they found their Princes rapacious sequestratours, would not have failed in their duty modestly to admonish them of the danger, yet had it, may be, abstained from calling them. thiefs & murderers, peculiar terms characteristical of the Discipline-To 
1. Book Disc. 6. head which be longs not, by haereditaire right to the Presbyters.  which I think I shall do no injustice, if I assert that the revenues of Bishops, Dcanes, & Arch-deacous, of Chapellries, Friaries of all orders, together with the sisters of the seenes, (abstracting from the favour of Princes) no more belong to the Scotish Presbyters, than they do to the Muftis of the Turk. The intention of the doners having never been that such strange cattles should feed in their pastures. Nor can M. Bailiff show me any law that makes him heir to Antichrist, or a just inheriter of his lands. Beside, methinks the weak stomached brethren should take check at the meat offered unto idols, & any silken sold Presbyter be too nice to array himself in the rags of Rome, or be clothed at that cost that belonged to the idolatrous Priesthood of 
Let. of K. Ph. & Q. Mar. Ann. 1559.  Baal. But, it may be in the heat of Reformation, they went to work with the coining irons, which they more than once got into their possession, & with them altered the impression of the beast. And the mattokes & shoucls. Which other arms being wanting, they very often took in their hands, were, possibly, only to turn up the Church land, & wherever crop had been reaped by Antichrist, that abominable glebe went down to the centre of the earth.  
What he talks about the Praelatical jus divinum, & their taking possessions by commands from Court without a process, requires his instance, & 
The Reviewer is the hypocrite.  then he shall have his answer. In the interim he plays the hypoctite in a question: What if then, [the Disciplinarians] had gone to advance that right to all jusdivinum, when the Assembly at Edinburgh did so April 24. 1576. 
Mainten. of the sanstatie.   
But he saith, all the Scots can be challenged for, is a mere declaration of their judgement & simple right in a supplication to the Regent's Grace.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 
pag. 10. The Disciplinarians declaration of their judgements in their impudent & imperious supplicats.  
These Scots judgement was not always in righteousness, and their simplicity in supplicates had many times more of the Lion then the Lamb. Witness that to the Queen Regent 1559. where they declare their judgements freely as true & faithful subjects, they tell her, yet this is the style of that declaration …Except this cruelty be stayed by your wisdom, We shall be compelled to take the sword of just defence, etc. …If ye give ear to their pestilent counsel…neither ye, neither yet your posterity shall at any time after this find that obedience & faithful service within this Realm which at all times ye have found in us. In the assemblies supplications to the Lords of secret Council, May 28. 1561. the second article annexed to, which was for the maintenance of the ministry, this. Before ever these tyrants & dumb dogs Empire above us…we…are fully determined to hazard life, & whatsoever we have received of God in temporal things…And let these enemies of God assure themselves, That if your Honours put not order unto them, That we shall shortly take such order, That they shall neither be able to do what they list, neither yet to live upon the sweat of the brow. December 25. 1566. They order requiring instead of Supplicating & Church censures to the disobedient. Their sixth head of Church rends in the first book of Discipline runs very imperiously upon the must. The Gentlemen, Barons, etc. must be content to live upon their just rents, & suffer the Kirke to be restored to her liberty. And Jul. 21. 1567. They tell them they shall do it, & shall pass nothing in Parliament until it be done. That ever any assembly in Scotland did make any other address to the Parliament for stipend, then by way of such humble supplication, I grant, is a great untruth. Nor were only the birds thus petitioned for, but time after time all tithes, rents, & whats●…ever could be comprised under the patrimony of the Church, were demanded as insolently as could be, which meets me every where in their story, as frequently as Mr. Baylies dissembling, & falsifying in his Review.  
In the last instance the Bishop denies not but there was a time when a kind of Presbyteries was legally approved & received, And this I 
They anticipate the law in the exercise, of the Discipline.  presume he will admit to be after the Assembly 1580. About which already you have indeed alleged more untruth than you had authority to show for it. I have given you as much as that you brought will bear. What His Lordship brings here is another discovery. That you did erect them in your Assembly Acts, & put them in execution, as far as you durst before any Parliament had passed them. And Synodicallie established such, as no Parliament had passed. For this he citys your Acts of several Assemblies, which you must either disavow, 
Hieron. Philadelph. de Regim. Eccles. Scot Epist. Iren. Philaleth. Narrat. mot. Scotic.  or unriddle what the mistake is you impute. Unless you think good to save that labour, & confess aswel as other your Brethren, what is so manifest in your story. The particulars of your proceedings herein, Archbishop Bancroft long since collected in his book of Dangerous Positions: Where he shows how you not only acted your selves at home, but sent your emissaries into England to see the like practice there in the very face of Episcopal Government. What other reasons, beside the recalling the Church patrimony, caused the refusal of your second book of Discipline, I told you before. Which with the rest may suffice to the vindication of what the Bishop premiseth in proof of the conclusion he makes That the Dissiplinarians by their practies 
Their doctrine as destructive as their practice.  have trampled upon the laws, & justled the civil Magistrate out of his Supremacy in Ecclesiastical affairs. His Lordship proceeds to his scrutiny of your doctrine, wherein if he yet be more happy, as you courteously tell us possibly he will, I shall take you to have the spirit of Tirestas, & having justly lost your eyesight for rash judging, to be now better at prophesying then reviewing. Which immediately appears, by your 
Ovid. Met. lib. 3. sub. 4  wand'ring at noonday, & being at a loss for that which every man may find in the very place cited by the Bishop. None are subject to repair to this [the National] Assembly to vote, but Ecclesiastical persons, etc. 
2. Book of Disc. ch. 7. 2.  This His Lordship conceives to cross the King's supremacy, which being aswell Ecclesiastical as civil, gives him a power of voting & presiding in Assemblies. Nor was there ever act of free Parliament in Scotland, old or late, nor any regular justifiable practice of that Church, but reserved this power to the King, & his deputed Commissioner, without being chosen member of any Presbytery, or made a ruling elder in a National Assembly, which your book of Discipline calls 
The Bishop's Super-Erastianisme the doctrine of the Reformed Churches  the general Eldership of the Kirke. Your hypercriticizing upon his thoughts (while the spirit of divination comes upon you) makes his Lordship no Super-Erastian in his doctrines. Though what transscendent heresy there is in a moderate answer to the malice in your question, any of your aequitable comparers may read in what Vedelius, and Paraeus (no herctikes I hope) have published to that purpose, as the doctrine of all 
Ad Dissert. De Epise. Constant. M.  reformed Churches; the one quoting Bellarmine the other Stapleton as proper patrons of the Sub-Erastian principles in the Discipline, & Vedelius, in his preface giving the world a caveat of the danger by the mischief it had brought upon England & Scotland in the year 1638. How opposite they were to the Disciplinarian language, & sense in that particular which the Bishop remonstrates, these single propositions can evidence. Multo magu est Christiani Magistratus non solùm apprehensiuè, & discretiuè, sed & definitiuè de religione judicare, Here a definitive vote is asserted to the Magistrate …ad Magistratum pertinet judicium de religione, seu rebus fidei, & causis Ecclesiasticis…tum formaliter, 
Ph. Par. Vindic. propos. 8. D. Par. N. Vedel. De Epise. Const M. q. 5.  tum objectiuè. Hereby a formal judgement in religion is attributed. And this Doctor Rivet, who, I am told, is called, & reverenced in the French, & Dutch Churches as the Calvin of these times hath vouched under his hand to be the Catholic doctrine of the Reformed. If he had not, we are sure it was the primitive practice of the good Christian Emperors to assume it, to whom our conformity is requisite. Of Constantine the great, who was personally present in the Council of Nice; & is sometimes called koinonos épiscopoumenon for his communite 
The practice of the good primitive Emperors.  of suffrage with the Bishops. Of the Emperor Theodosius, who in the Council of Constantinople sifted the several Confessions of the Arians, Macedonians, Eunomians, & as Brentius relates it, cast himself upon his knees, craving the assistance of God's spirit to direct him in the choice of what was most consonant to the doctrine of the Apostles. Which epicrisis, or completive judgement, submitted unto by the Ancient Synods, had these authoritative terms to express it. Bebaioun, épipscphizesthai épisphragizesthai, cratinein, cratioun, epikyroun, tàpepragmena, To the exercise hereof the Discipline of your Reformed Brethren in these Countries not only admits, but craves the presence, & suffrage of Delegates from the supreme Magistrate; without which their Synodical Acts are not established. Quin etiam summi Magistratus delegati sunt postulandi, ut in ipsorum praesentia eorumque suffragio Synodi Acta 
Har. Syn. Belgic. c. 10.  concludantur. Nor did K. James any more in the Conference at Hampton Court, then when in freedom. He would have done in any Scotish Presbyterian Assembly, though he hated the name & thought of the thing, when somewhat was propounded that did not like him, put it of with Le Roy Pavisera.  
Rev. Yet the most of the prelatical party will not maintain him heerin. Ans. Bishop Andrew's will in his Tortura Torti & Bishop Field (whom your friend Didoclave calls Hierambicorum eruditissimum) in his volume of the Church, beside many others. And possibly those that seem to be 
Altar. Damasc. pag. 15.  opposite may be reconciled, if you have the manners to let them state the question among themselves. The chief case wherein they [not you] instance of Leontius Bishop of Tripoli in his answer to Constantius the Emperor may be attended with circumstances which may terminate the dispute, if not, we must not take it on their word, that, for that, as well as his other more regular demeanour he is owned by Antiquity to be kánon ecclesias, as Suidas records, The rule of the Church. However, it behoves you to cite your laws to which the Bishop's assertion is contrary, And I shall cut you short of that pompous train which your vanity holds up in the universal of all the Princes that have lived in Scotland, & confine you to two, (the rest being by their Religion unconcerned in voting (though not in permitting) any Disciplinarian decrees) King james, & the holy martyr King Charles the first, 
Renounced by none of the Scotish King.  who I hope you have not the impudence to say ever made profession so derogatory to their right.  
In what follows you practise over the fisherman in the fable, from whom you know, that unless you trouble the water it is in 
The Reviewers malice not any Prelatical principles doth impossibilitate (as he speaks) the peace betwixt the Kiag & his Kingdoms.  vain for you to cast in your net, & if you catch nothing for the Discipline you must starve. The whole paragraph is naught but a malicious seditious inference of your own, whereby you affix an odious sense to the dutiful attributes of Royal prerogative, & your own guilt causing a trembling in your joyuts at the thought of a sceptre, you buselie creep under the protection of the club. The name of Parliament you make but a pandar to countenance the wanton licence of your Assemblies, & the great seal you would have set to, nothing but an indenture of the Crowns perpetual servitude to your Synods. The Prelate's Cabin divinity (which sea language you're in love with since your voyage into Holland) came often above deck with very innocent loyal intentions long before these times of confusion, which your Consistorian divinity hath wrought, And though you take yourself to appear as ominous as Caster without his brother in the shrowds, it fears no shipwra●…ke by any storm you can raise, nor looks through your clear prediction upon its ruin. You have not hitherto found such a fate in your words as to produce a consequential necessity of the banishment of Marquess' & Bishop's from Court, though divine justice may hereafter inspire our Sovereign to return this judgement upon your heads, who are ever breathing murder, & exile into his ears. For while such popular Sycophants, as you, are suffered to live in any Monarch's dominions, neither can the People be secure of their peace, nor Princes of their lives. K. james spoke it plainly, when he said, A Scotch Presbytery as well agreeth with Monarchy, as God & the Devil. Such Reviewers who look but half way home into the original of crowns, are clear everters of the first foundation of Kingdoms, 
Conf. at Hampt. Court.  which made Kings some what more than siduciaries of the people, whose solid peace consisted in an hur●…ble active submission to their just commands, & a Christian quiet passive obedience if tyrannically imperious. This to be sure would keep the best part, if not the best party, from ruin, till the high hand of heaven over balance their temporal sufferings with an eternity of reward, where no malecontentment can be to come.  
To the second challenged principle your answer is very slight, & impertinent. And would I undertake a far more unpleasing employment than Photion had in chiping Demosthenes, for which he was called kópis tun lógon, I should make a slender instrument of your review, there being beside the extravagancy of your railing language, your malicious enlargements in false commentaries, diverting your Reader from the genuine orthodox meaning of the text, drawing him into an intricable labyrinth of jealousies & fears, the chimaerical brats of your own brain; which you would fain lay at other men's doors, scare six pages in your book that are a direct answer to the Bishop, which I can not impute to your ignorance, but your cunning, who feeling yourself held close by the neck in the letter of your laws & Assembly Acts, would very fame wind yourself out of the controversy, or run away with it into any Church, or Country but your own. In this paragraph the Bishop's citations prove what he intends (nor dare you, I see, deny what you are too conscious 
The Disciplinarian doctrine & practice against the King's power to convocate Synods.  you maintain) It having never been your practice, but when you could not do otherwise, to wait the Kings, or Queens call for your Synods. In the year 1561. Knox writes expressly, That gladly would the Queen & her secret Counsel have had all the Assemblies of the Godly, (that is the Rebellious Disciplinarian) discharged. They notwithstanding make a convention, the business comes to dispute, Mr. Secretary Leshington makes a doubt whether the Queen allowed it or no, to whom was this answer returned. If the liberty of the Church should stand upon the Queen's allowance, they were assured not only to lack Assemblies, but also to lack the public preaching of the evangel In the beginning of your late commotions the Historian that so officioussie styles himself the Parliaments Secretary mentions a writing published by you, wherein 
Pag. 41.  you affirm. That the power of calling a Synod, in case the Prince be an enemy to the truth, or negligent in promoting the Churches good, is in the Church itself. And that the state of the Church of Scotland at that time was necessitated to such a course. Nor doth your Disciplinarian doctrine make the Christian Magistrate any more than your Baylisse to take up your rents, or the Captain of your guard to defend you (Vedelius renders it in more harsh language… faciunt ex iis [Magistratibus] mancipia, imò lictores 
DeEpiscop. Constanstin M.  & curnisices Episcoporum seu Ministrorum Ecclesiae) To advance the Kingdom of jesus Christ. …To defend it against all that would procure its hurt… To ●…ssist & fortify the Godly proceedings of the Kirke in all behalfes… To see 
2. B. of Disc. ch. 10  that the Kirke be not invaded… To hold hand as well to the saving of the Ministers persons from injury & openviolence, as to their rents & possessions. Finally, not a word is there in all that chapter or book that asscribes to him a syllable of this power, So that the King may call a Synod when, & whersoever he think sit, & if the toy take you in the head to anticipate, or procrastinate his time, you will assemble when, & wheresoever you please for you tell him he ought to hear, & obey your voice. And your friend Didoclave avers this to be a business that hath no absolute dependence upon him, Non absolute, & simpliciter pendere a Christiano Magistrat●…. If when you have a mind to meet 
Cap. De primate. Reg.  he prohibits, that must make no demur, non cunctandum est, non cessandum ab officio … For this you pretend an intrinsecal power touching which I demand what it is, when, where, & how far to be exercised. What old or late dutiful Christians did use it when any Christian King did forbid it. Who of the Praelatical party they be that maintain it in their writings or practice, for I know none that in either extend it to a like latitude with you. And how many soever you have of the Papists, all the Popes are not of your side. Leo confessing that 
Epist. 43.  he had not power to call a Counsel but the Emperor, nor durst Liberius call one against Constantius pleasure. The necessity you frame of meeting for the execution of the Discipline even in times of persecution may have reference to an heathen Magistrate or Christian. If to the former, you do it either in confidence of your power to resist him, in that rebellion, wherein how are you justified? Or else you run desperately upon your ruin, which is self murder no martyrdom, for Quis requisivit? by what precept, or counsel is it required at your hands? If to the later, there may be at least a sallibilitie in your judgements, if not an obstinate perverseness in your will. Et quis vos judices constituit? who made you, that are parties, Arbitratours? If at any time the ancient Christians assembled, it was where no Imperial edict restrained them. And then the learned Grotius tells you, Non opus fuisse venia, ubinulla obsturent Imperatorum edicta. What private conferences 
De Imper, sum Pot. cap. 8.  they had in the times of heathenish persecution, you know by their apologies were void of suspicion, which yours never were, but anomia ergapiria the very shops or Laboratories of rebellion. The Church is not dissolved where dissiplines not executed: if it were, it should 
Constantin. De Ario.  be, where it is, at the pleasure of the Magistrate, suspended. To imagine a final ineapacitie of meeting, by perpetual succession of Tyrants hath little either of reason or conscience, it assaults the certitude of faith in God's promises, & advanceth infidelity in his providence. But to give you at length your pass from this paragraph. Such as you, in a schismatical Assembly, may, & have frequently in Scotland pinned the character of erroneous upon an upright Magistrate, & a Disciplinarian rebel to save his credit called a Royal moderate proclamation a tyrdnous edist.  
The Bishop's third allegation you find too heavy, & therefore let fall half of it by the way. You have too good a conceit of your 
The ultimate determination of ecclesiastic causes by the laws of Scotland is not in the general Assembly.  Parliaments bounty, though had they been as prodigal as you make them, it little becomes you to proclaim them bankrupts by their favour: Their Acts were always ratified by your Princes any which, & whom tell me one wherein this right Royal was renounced of suspending seditious Ministers from their office, or if cause were, depriving them of their places. It were a senseless thing to suppose that the Bishop would deny to the Church a propriety to consult & determine about religion, doctrine, heresy, etc. Yet its likely His Lordship allows it not in that mode which makes her power so absolute as to define, consummate, authorise the whole business by herself. He hath heard the King to be somewhere accounted a mixed person, & thinks it may be that the holy oil of his unction is not only to swim on the top, & be sleeted off at the pleasure of a peevish Disciplinarian Assembly, but to incorporate with their power. The laws of England have not been hitherto so indulgent of liberty to our Convocation, but that the 
No more than in the Convocations of England.  King in the cases alleged did ever praedominate by his supremacy. And the Parliament hath stood so much upon privilege, that if Religion fetched not her billet from West-minster, the could have but a cold lodging at St. Paul's The book of Statutes is no portable manual for us whom your good brethren have sent to wander in the world, yet I can help you to one An. 1. Eliz. that restored the title of supreme to the Queen, & withal provided, that none should have authority newly to judge any thing to be heresy, not formerly so judged, but the High Court of Parliament, with the assent of the Clergy in their Convocation. Where the Convocations assent, by the sound, should not be so determinative as the Parliaments judgement, which (right or wrong) here it assumes.  
As touching appeals (because you will have somewhat here said, 
Appeals to the King in Scotland.  though it must be otherwhere handled) No law of Scotland denies an appeal in things civil or ecclesiastic to the King. One yet in force enjoines subjection unto them, the Act of Parliament in May 1584. which was, That any persons, either spiritual or Temporal, praesuming to decline the judgement of His Majesty, & His Council, shall incur the pain of treason. What you, call a complaint is in our case an appeal, what taking order, is executing a definitive judgement, without traversing back the business to ecclesiastic Courts, or holding over the rod of a coercive power to awe them into due regular proceedings. I confess this the Presbyters in Scotland never made good by their practice. Their appeals were still retrograde from the supreme Magistrate, & his Council to a faction of Nobles, or a seditious party of the people. Such is that of Knox, printed at large. Or which in effect is the same. The Scotish Assemblies, when they had no power, appealed to providence, when they had whereupon they might rely, unto the sword.  
In case of Religion, or doctrine, if the General Assembly, which 
Court of Delegates against neither word of God, nor equity.  is not infallible, err in judgement, & determîne any thing contrary to the word of God, & the sense of Catholic Antiquity, the King may by a court, of Orthodox Delegates, consisting of no more than two or three (Prelates if he please) receive better information of truth, & establish that in his Church. Or, which often hapens in Scotland, If the Presbyters frame Assembly Acts derogatory to the rights of his Crown, & prejudicial to the peace of his people, the King may personally justify his own prerogative and keep the mischief they invented from becoming a praecedent in law. This doth not the word of God, nor any equity prohibit.  
The judgement of causes concerning deprivations of Ministers in the year 1584. you would have had come, by way of appellation, to the General Assembly, & there take final end; but this you could not make good within yourselves, nor do I find, upon your proponing & craving, it was then, or at any time, granted you by the King. Two years before, you adventured not only for your privilege in that … but against the Magistrates putting preachers to silence…hindering, staying, or disannulling the censures of the Church in examining any offender.  
Rev. In the Scotes Assemblies no causes are agitated but such as the Parliament 
All causes agitated in Scotish Assemblies.  hath agreed to be ecclesiastic, etc. Ans: If any Parliament have agreed all causes of what nature soever, to be ecclesiastic by reduction, & so of the Church cognizance, you have that colour for your pragmatical Assemblies: but if you admit of any exception, you have for certain transgressed yourlimits, there being no crime, nor pretended irregularity whatsoever, that stood in view, or came to the knowledge of the world, that hath escaped your discussion, & censure, & not been served up in your supplicates to be punished.  
Rev. rev. No process about any Church rend was ever cognosced upon in Scotland 
Process about Church rend.  but in a civil Court, Ans. Your imperious, though supplicatory, prohibition 1576. I already mentioned. In the Assembly at Edinburgh, April 24. 1576. You concluded…That you might proceed against unjust possessors of the patrimony of the Church…by doctrine, & admonition, & last of all, if no remedy be, with the censures of the Church. In that at Montrosse June 24. 1595. About setting Benefices with diminution of the rental, etc. you appointed Commissioners with power to take oaths, call an-inquest of men of best knowledge in the Country about, to proceed against the Ministry with sentence of deposition. Master Tho. Craig & the Solicitor for the Church, to pursue the Pensiionars in Caitnes for reduction of their pensions. If in no particular you actually proceeded to Church censures, It was because you foresaw they would not restrain the corruption no more of the laity, than the Clergy, & then your menacing petitions sometime obtained strength from some partial, or pusillanimous Parliament; or when you praevailed not, you wrapped this up with the rest of your discipline, & put all to the process of a war. And this was, you know, the mysterious sense of Knox's 
Letter to the Gen. Assembli at Sterling Aug. 3. 1571.  method, upon good experience, praescribed on his death bed: First protest, then denounce vengeance, & then to the execution thereof seek redress of God & man. Of God by fasting as you did order for this very cause (wasting of the Church rends without remedy) in the Assembly at St. Andrew's 1582. Of man, by rebelling, which you practised not long afterward. With which godly advice that saint shut his teeth, & departed if not (after a minute's repentance as I hope) in little better peace, than he had lived.  
To what follows in the Bishop's charge, the legislative power they 
Reviewer declines answering about the legislative power.  praetend to, To make rules, & constitutions for keeping good order in the Kirkc. To abrogate, & abolish all statutes & ordinances concearning Ecclesiastical matters that are found noisome, & unprofitable, & agree not with the time, or are abused by the people. And all this without any reclamation, or appellation to any judge civil, or Ecclestastical, we have not one word in answer from Mr. Bailiff. Andindeed being taken up so much with his seem, & fallacious apparences, he may sometimes overlook the realities of what allegations he dislikes; for this indeed he had very good reason, knowing the natural, & inseparable connexion to be such between it & the power of jurisdiction, that to whomsoever belongs the supremacy of the one, upon him necessarily descends the prerogative of the other.  
For the fourth objection. If the Reviewer had minded the ill consequences 
Danger in asserting the divine right of ecclesiastic jurisdiction  upon the antecedent of ecclesiastic jurisdiction by divine right, he would not have held that conclusion at large without professing an infallible assurance that it is hereditary to the Presbytery. Some danger there may be of drawing after it an adequate right in that ominous Episcopal order, which with no great difficulty may be proved from time, to time to have executed this jurisdiction he means. How soever this inconvenience he gains by it, That, if it be such, it is indispensable, & turns all the confessed indulgence of the Scotish Assemblies into sin for Nulli homini licet cuiquam juris aivini gratiam facere. What divines there have been in the world of another 
Hug. Groti. De Imper. Sum. Pot.  mind (which are all except Donatus the haeretikes disciples among the rigid Papists, Anabaptists Scotish & Scotizing Presbyterians, who demand as boldly as their Master) (Quidest Imperatori cum Ecclesia?) he may read (though I look not that he, nor all his brethren should 
Scotish Donatist.  muster up abilities to answer) in the nineth chapter of the forecited famous Grotius' book. Under the safe conduct of whom the Bishop may travail with the truth of these contradictions about him through all the Assemblies highway men of the Scots. That all ecclesiastic power flows from the Magistrate…penes Ecclesiasticos judices per Archiepiscopos & Episcopos derivata a Regia potestate Jurisdictio Ecclesiastica consistit. That 
Polit. Anglic. Ad Reg. jac.  the Magistrate may prescribe a rule how ecclesiastic censures should be regulated, & in case of resistance, see them executed by his power. Constitutum fuit eis ergon ●…d krinomena para ton episcopon again tous archontas kai tous diaconoumenous autois stratiotas. That all the ofsicers pretended to be appointed by Christ for 
Sozomen.  the Government of his Church, if they govern it not according to his, & Apostolic example, may be laid aside, & such a kind of Governors be put in their place as the Magistrate shall be pleased to appoint, as more just, & upright stewards in that trust. Non frustra gladium gerit potestas, sed vindex est in omnes male agentes, ergo etiam in eos qui circa sacra delinquunt…Iurisdictionis enim est relegare 
aliens.  〈◊〉 loco sive in locum…That it is not yet universally, & unquaestionablie defined that the spiritual sword, & Keys are in any other than the hand of Christ. Nor that ever his Apostles, & Priests laid claim to an absolutely intrinse●…al right to execute the power of either utinam exscindantur qui vos perturbant. Videtur non imperantis sed optantis Apostoli, That for the sword. Sacerdos quidem officium exhibet sed nullius potcstatis jura exercet. That he citys out of St. Ambrose for the Keys, him I cite, but do not, being not obliged, assert any thing. Your difference herein (I mean the power of the Magistrate) from the Warner is Donatism an haecesie so great as deserved, it seems, to be anathematised by the Catholic Church your practice schism, whereby you rend yourselves from the Congregations of all the Reformed, as Vedelius hath showed you, And whether it be not rebellion by your laws, I leave to the verdict of your 15. Godfathers, 
De Episcopat. Constant. M.  who gave it in to be such against your differing brethren at Aberdene.  
Had Mr. Bailiff in his answer, to what he calls the last challenged principle, took upon him to alter that axiom in ethics, & make it, 
Disciplinariam call resistance against the person obedience to the office of the Magistrate  Nolenti non fit injuria, the dispute had been only whether his authority, or Aristotle's; should have carried it, But when he deletes the commentary upon it, he conjures the sense into a circle of his own by such language as none but himself, & his spirits understand, Indeed for a madman to have his hands bound, who, were they at liberty, would do himself mischief, For a sick man to have physic forced into his stomach, which may work his recovery, otherwise desperate, if his aversion be countenanced, may be courteous violence improved to their good; But to contervene a Magistrates commands praetending punctual obedience thereby, if not an advancement of his power: To wrest the sword out of his hands, & disarm him for the security of his person; is a piece of invisible justice, & a favour left by all law and reason to be wholly at the disposal of the Discipline. But in Scotland, you say, there is no such case, etc. Which must relate to mater of fact, or right: If to the former, I must crave liberty to aver, That scarce any one of your Synods proceedings was ever freely justified by the consent of the Magistrate for the time. That most were not, I have, & shall sufficiently prove here, & otherwhere. If to the latter, yourself confess that your book of Discipline (which includes the jurisdiction you have) could not pass the Parliament 1590. Nor can you make appear where ever after it did with an exception only against the chapter D●… Diaconatu.  
In what follows, you pretend too much acquaintance with the 
The Reviewer too bold with his Majesty.  King, to know what His Majesty controverts in his thoughts, with whom, I have hear, your late treaty was not so particular & close as to make what discovery you wished, & aimed at, And what you did is not so authorised as to strengthen your proof, His Royal, & too gracious concessions having met with such unworthy, imprudent, refusal by persons, through habitual rebellion, not yet disposed to their good. As touching the case which the Bishop intimates, I can not wonder the account of it so odious as not to be met with by your answer, since it sets in your sight the horror of your many years sin, with the guilt of which you would gladly run into dens, & caves, or move the hills, & mountains to cover you. In the mean time in vain you hope to have any the an●…nt Christians company, 
The Disciplinarians no compartie for the Primitive Christian.  Who in times of their persecution never held public Assemblies in their Edenburghs Imperial Cities, never armed themselves to maintain the divine ordinance of the Discipline, Though, had they done it, little would their praecedent avail you, the just imposition of a Christian King being very unlike the heathen Emperors persecution. Nor was the Presbytery, that divine ordinance of Discipline, practised by the persecuted in the wilderness.  
Mr. Bailiff in this time, by his affected diversions, & devious mazes, having run himself half out of breath, begins to think on 
The Reviewers cunning in passing over what he dares not, can not answer.  the shortest way home, to find which he takes a large leap over the hedge (& by virtue of some Disciplinarian privilege passeth, two whole pages of consequence unanswered. Perit libertas nis●…tlla contemnis, quae jugem imponunt) yet not so clear, but that one bramble hath catched him by the sleeve, &, if the truth were known, I believe, many more have pricked him to the heart, for one of most danger I advise him to seek out a timely remedy, & stand to the charity of his aequitable comparers for the rest. 'tis that sharp quaestion which the Bishope propounds. Who shall judge when the Church is corrupted? the Magistrates or Churchmen? If the Magistrates, why not over you aswell as others? If the Churchmen. why not others aswell as you?  
Mr. Gilespies Theorem. because pressing such downright rebellion he, without any brotherly love, leaves on the shoulders of a single Presbyter, 
His unkindness to his brother Gilespie whose theorems are the doctrine of the whole Presbytery  & will not afford one fingar of the Presbytery to ease him, though the tantamout be not so unconsequential as to need a stake to help it down in a swallow, It being very well known that if Mr. Bailiff should not tantamont in this business, the Assembly brethren would give him a drench in the Scotish horn, & send him to grass with the long-eard creatures, as being no fit company for the late more rational rebels in a Synod. The consequence, if it must need be such, from one particular, denied by none, to a universal affirmative, as strange as it looks, may be made good by the new Disciplinarian logic, Mr. Bailiff himselve having more than once professed an identity in the Scotish with the Reformed disciplines abroad, in the harmony of which I find such a canon as this. Si Minister donum habet aliquid ad aedificationem conscribendi, illud typis non 
Harm. Syn. Belg. cap. 1  mandabit, quin prius a class examinetur, & probetur. From the Class he knows it takes a remove to the provincial Synod, & thence to the national Assembly. Now if the Reviewer will not tell us in what Assembly, Mr. Gilespie was censured, or this theorem of his disavowed, because it will be such a singular case as never was heard of, Rebellion disclaimed in a Scotish Presbyterian Assembly, otherwise then in a Catholic mist which never drops in any particulars, he shall have the reputation of catching this unconsequence for once. But as the Bishops saith, Take nothing, & hold it fast if he can. Beside he knows there are many other such theorems of Mr. Gilespies upon which the Bishop hath built many high accusations, which the Discipline must acknowledge, & must be meant to be of that number which had the approbatorie suffrages of the Universities in Holland viz. Leyden, & Vtrecht, or else he spoke little truth, and as little to the purpose in his Epistle. Yet to help him to somewhat of better authority. He is desired to take notice, That the substance of this theorem was not declined in a protestation made (he knows by whom) in Edinburgh Parliament 1558. In the dutiful letter to the Queen Regent from the faithful Congregation of Christ jesus in Scotland 22. May 1549. In another from the Lords of the Congregation, 2. Jul. 1559: In an answer to the Queen's proclamation by the Lords, Barons, & other brethren of the Congregation 1559. In a declaration of the Lords against another proclamation of the Queen's 1559. To all thesé 'tis undeniable that the Assemblies adhaer'd, or indeed rather the Lords &c, to them. In the Church Assemblie's supplication 28. May 1561. In the vote of the whole Assembly 1563. In the Superintendents, Ministers & Commissioners letter to the Bishops, and Pastors in England they write, If authority urge you farther ye ought to oppose yourselves boldly, not onclie to all power that dare extol itself against God. but also against all such as dare burden the consciences of the faithful (they meant the same opposition themselves made in Scotland) In the seventh article framed by the Assembly 1567. Beside what was very particularly pressed by Knox in Sermons, Conferences, letters, &c all acknowledge the sense of several Assemblies. But all these authorities are absolet, the several ends of such speeches, & actions being long since accomplished in Scotland. However, M. Bailiff denies that the maxim in hand was the fountain of any our late miseries, or the cause at all of the loss of our Sovereign.  Fati ista culpa est, nemo fit fato nocens. 
If he had but in kindness delivered his meaning at large, & quitted aswell his independent brethren of their bloody performance 
Gilespie's theorem the rule of the late Disciplinarian practice.  in the fifth act, as he doth the Presbyterian properties that carried on the rebellion in the four first of the Tragedy they might have masked merrily together in their antic disguises of innocence, & pointed out to some silly credulous spectators the guilt of this horrid murder in the stars. But I shall reach him a ladder, where by he may ascend to the top of this truth, (not aninch higher than Edinburgh Cross) & what else he wants when he comes there, to do justice accordingly as he shall be enlightened upon his own self for his share in this maxim, & unpardonable mischief, The first step hereof begins near the ground with the mean, & base sort of the people, who on the 23. Jul. 1637. when by his Blessed Majesty's command, the service book was to be read in Edinburgh Great Church, fell into the extraordinary ways of clapping hands, cursing, & outcries, throwing stones at the windows, & aiming at the Bishop with a stool, Continuing this hubbub in the streets, besetting the counsel house, whether the reverend learned, & worthy Bishop of Galloway was forced to fly for his refuge. Their outcries being commonly such as this. God defend all those who will defend God's cause, & God confound the service book, & all the maintainers of it, of whom the King must needs be meant to be one, who had expressclie authorised it. Upon this follow two extraordinary petitions, one in the names of the Noblemen, Gentry, Ministers, Burgesses against the service book, & book of Canons, which being not answered to their mind at Sterlin, & otherwhere, themselves in protesting did the same thing which they had called the uproar of rascals at Edinburgh. From protesting they mount up to covenanting, & by that engage multitudes of people to attend them at pleasure in affronting His Majesty's Commissioner. With whom when they came to capitulate they gave this extraordinary answer, That they would rather renounce their baptism then Covenant (good Christians) or abate one word or syllable of the literal rigour of it. If Mr. Bailiff hath any mind to go farther, I shall desire him to step up beyond the preachers persuading the people to arm themselves & to meet in the streets (dutifully) to enter●…aine His Majesty's proclamation. Their protestations against that & the rest, with such loyal expressions as this. That if the King will not call a general Assemblic, which shall allow of their proceedings, they themselves will. Their branding the subscription of their own confession of faith with the most hideous, & horrible name of the very depth, & policy of Satan. Their pulpit imprecations, God scatter them in Israel, & divide them in jacob, who where the authors of this scattering, & divisive counsel, of whom (as ●…range as it seem) the King again must be principal. Their grand imposture in Michelson a maid, about whom their Ministers cozened the people into an implicit faith that she was inspired by God, & while the vented their devilish rebellion in her fits Rollokes blasphemous praetense for his silence, That he durst not speak while his Master was speaking in her. Another having these words in his Sermon. Let us never give over till we have the King in our power. Another, That the sharpest war was rather to be endured then the least error in doctrine or discispline. Their maintaining this position among the rest. That 
a Nec enim dissimulabant foederati, nimis diu apud Scotos regnatum esse Monarchis, nec recte cum illis agi posse Stuarto vel uno superstite Hist. M. Montisros.  it is lawful for subjects to make a Covenant & combination without the King, & to enter into a band of mutual defence against the King & all persons whatsoever. Their laying open the true meaning of their protesting, Covenanting, Arming, etc. That Scotland had been too long a Monarchy & that they could never do well so long as one of the Stuarts was alive. Their raising an army for their extirpation, & meeting K. Ch. 1. to that purpose in the field. Their renewing & continuing, the war when their first design had been obstructed by His Majesty's unexpected, unwelcome grant of their demands. Their reasonable dealing with the King when he unhappily made their Army his refuge, by cheating his pious facility of his strength, & delivering up his naked person to their fellow Rebels, upon conditions little coulorable in words, not at all justifiable in substance, & sense, Their laying chains upon His Majesty, when a prisoner, & linking his crown with iron propositions. Beside what was acted at Derbie house & otherwhere in the dark, & not improbablie agreed on at C●…nthia's midnight Revels, when Cromwell was in Scotland. And all this under the fallacy of exstraordinarie resisting, reforming.  
And now let Mr. Bailiff look not up to the stars, but down into the depth of hell, where that maxim was hammered before ever Gilespie filled it over, & see whether it were not the fountain of all our miseries, & the cause of the loss of our late Sovereign.  
The quaestion that follows about defensive arms (though there 
No defensive arms for subjects.  hath been no such thing as a free Parliament, & without freedom 'tis none) I return on himselve, & demand Did ever his Majesty, or any of his advised Counsellors, I add, Did ever loyal Parliament in England, or Scotland, declare, or intimate in what cases, how extraordinary so ever, they thought it lawful? I retort this. The unhappiness of the Disciplinarian Presbyters did put the seditious part of the Parliament on these courses, which did begin, & promote all our misery And were so wicked as to the very last to endeavour to break the bands asunder of reason, justice, honour & a well informed conscience, wherein His Majesty professed to the world the hand of God, & the laws of the land had bound him. The peaceable possession of His Majesty's Kingdoms 
Episcopacy no obstruction to His Majestics peace.  depends not upon his Clergies conditionate consent to have Episcopacy laid aside. A handful of Scots, with an hypocritical Assemblies be●…ediction in their knapsacks, could they hold their wind when they got over Tweed, & swell up to the picture of Boreas in the face, would not be mistaken for probable umpires or overruling Elders, in the quarrel. Nor can Mr. Bailiff possess any prudent men of the loyallay party, that, that order obstructs the King from his happiness. Why it may not be laid aside the unanswerable reasons in the 9 & 17. chapters of Eik. Basil. His Royal father's book will abundantly satisfy any man, that will rest in what he can not deny. Where he will find enough of such devout Rhetoric, & Religious logic as this I must now in charity be thought desirous to praeserve that Government in its right constitution, as a mater of Religion, wherein both my judgement is sully satisfied, that it hath of all other the fullest Scriptures grounds, & also the constant practice of all Christian Churches, till of late years the tumultuarinesse of people, or the factio●…siresse, & pride of Presbyters [Reviewe that Mr. Bailiff] or the covetousness of some States, & Princes gave occasion to some men●… wits to invent new models, & propose them under specious titles of Christ's Government, Sceptre, & Kingdom (which are the Scotish titles as I take it) the better to serve their turns, to whom the change was beneficial. The reasons that convinced the Royal Father have so confirmed the Royal Son His Majesty now being, that Mr. Bailiff dares not say (what he so praesumptuouslie intimates) that he ever asked the consent of his Canterburian Praelates to the alteration of that government. If, without ask they spontaneouslie spoke their conscience in due, season, there was little boldness in it, & as little in printing, which hath been often as much, & more at large, in volumes about the unlawfulness of 
See the le●…rned & judicious Digges upon this subjects.  subjects taking up of arms, where Parliaments have unanswerablie been proved to be such, though the name of tyranny is very unhandsomelie, unjustie, maliciously used in this case, & let him speak out if he means to attribute it to the King.   

CHAPTER III.  
The last appeal to the supreme Magistrate justifiable in Scotland.  
THe Bishop considered that the King's supremacy is the same in 
Appeal in Scotland from a General Assembly neither irrational, nor illegal.  Scotland, as in England, & upon that grounds the equity of ultimate appeal. The altissimò either of the Parliament, or Assembly puts them not above the capacity of Courts, & so makes them not coordinate with the King. What allays you have for government I know not, & therefore can not close with you in the term, till you give me an undisputable definition of the thing, which you call a moderate Monarchy, & tell me in what part of the world I may find it, I know of none any where yet that inhibites appeals to the King's person, If the Empire may be the standard to the rest, the learned Grotius, that had better skill in the laws, than you, or I, saith. That in causes of Delegacie semper appellasio conscssa fuit ad Imperatorem, si ex Imperiali jussione judicatum esset, aut ad judicum quemcunque, si ex judiciali praecepto, which holds good against your general Assembly, if that judgeth earegali jussione, & that it doth so is clear from your Assembly Act, April 24. 1578. wherein it petitioneth the King to set, & establish your policy, a part whereof is your Assembly judication. That it is, for the most part, ordered to the King in his Courts, is not any way to confine his power, but to free him from frequent impertinencies, & unseasonable importnnities of trouble, or, it may be, a voluntary, but no obligatory, Royal condescension, to avoid your querulous imputation of arbitrary partiality, & tyranny in judicature. Therefore you injure the Bishop by converting his assertion into a negative confession, As if when he saith it is to the King in Chancery, he must needs acknowledge. It can be neither to the King out of Chancery, nor to him there but with collateral aequipotential ●…ssistants. Whereas your friend Didoclave complains that our appeals are ever progressus 
Altar. Damascen.  ●…b unico ad unicum, wherein, whether he meant an aggregate, or personal unity, I leave you to interpret. That an appeal is not permitted from your Lords of session, or Parliament in Scotland, is because whatsoever is regularly determined there receives its ratification from the King. But if one, or other in their session without him, should determine a case evidently, undeniably, destructive to the rights of his crown, or liberties of his people, whether His Majesty may not admit an appeal, & assume his coercive power to restrain their licence, I think no loyal subject in Scotland will controvert, As touching your Assemblies, King james tells you, It is to be generally observed that no privilege, that any King gives to one particular body, or state within the Kingdom of convening, & consulting among themselves (which includes whatsoever they do when they are convened, & consulting) is to be understood to be privative given unto them, & so the King thereby depriving himself of his own power, & prerogative, but only to be given cumulative unto them (as the lawyers call it) without any way denuding the King of his own power, & authority. This His Majesty alleged against the Ministers at Aberdene, whom he accuseth not only of convening, but acting after they were convened, He particularly mentions their setting down the dies of the next Assembly, & His Council adds their end●…vour to reverse, & overthrow all those good orders, & godly constitutions formerly concluded for keeping of good order in their Church. If you allege that His Majesty's Commissioner was not there, than you grant me their acts are not justifiable without him, And that all are not necessarily with him, I argue from the language of the Commission, whereby they meet, which limits them thus secundum legem, & pra●…im, against which if any thing be acted, upon appeal the King's prerogative may rectify it at pleasure, if not, any judge may praetend to be absolute, & then the King must be absolutely nothing, having committed, or delegated all power from himself. What civil law of Scotland it is, that prohibits appeals from the General Assembly, you should do well to mention in your next, I know none, nor did King james think of any when he cited his distinction from the Scottish Lawyers, aswell as any other.  
Where an Assembly proceeds contrary to the laws of God, & man, Which is not impossible, while it may consist of a multitude, men neither the best, nor most able of the Kingdom, the Bishop thinks an appeal to a legal Court of delegates constituted, by a superior power, might be neither unseeming, nor unreasonable. The law of old never intended they should be the weakest of all Court; Where it hath so happened, by your own rule, pag. 22. The Delegates, not Delegacie, are to be charged. Such heretofore in England as employed mercenary officials, for the most part, were mercenary Bishops, & if they had been cut to the core, would have been found, I doubt, Disciplinarian in heart, though Episcopal in title. The Scots way of managing Ecclesiastical causes is not more just, because more derogatory to the right of the King, And the late Martyred King found it not more safe, & therefore told Mr. Henderson plainly the papacy in a multitude 
3. Paper An. 1574  might be as dangerous as in one, & how that might be Gualther writ to Count Vnit-glupten in a letter. Emergent hinc novae tyrannidis cornua, paulatim cristas attollent ambitiosi Ecclesiarum pastors, quibus facile fuerit suos assessores in suas partes attrahere, cum ipsii inter hos primatum teneant. He might have found the experiment of it in Scotland. Nor can it be more satisfactory to those rational men, with whom the Bishop's arguments are prevalent, beside what else may be effectually alleged against it.  
Although the two instances, the Bishop brings, for stopping appeals were accompanied with so many treasonable circumstances, as might have enlarged his chapter into a volume, & deleted the credit of a Scotish Disciplinarian Assembly out of the opinion of all the Cristians in the world; Yet His Lordship thought good to furnish his reader with better authority from the second Book of Discip. ch 12. which shall here meet you again to crave your acquaintance. From the Kirke there is no reclamation, or appellation to any judge civil, or Ecclesiastical within the Realm.  
The reputation of the two Reverend Arch-Bishops Montgomerie, 
The Rebellious, & insolent disciplinarian proceedings against the too Rt. Reverend Arch-Bishops Montgomerie, & Adamson.  & Adamson depends not upon the sentence of a turbulent, & envious Synod, much less any single malicious Presbyter in a pamphlet, with whom we know 'tis crime heinous enough to be a Bishop, & shall not want his vote to make them excommunicate. Their manifold high misdemeanours are mentioned in the censure of the Presbytery of Striveling, for admitting Montgomerie to the temporality of the Bishopric of Glasgow, & his own for aspiring thereto. Assembly 1587. And of the other for taking the King's commission to sit in Parliament 1584. In the last Act of which his commission is printed to register ●…his guilt. The principal of their evil patrons among the wicked Statesmen (I mean next under the King, to whom you yield that prerogative at least) is said to be the Earl of Arran, 
Answ. to the Procession & Declare. made by Marq. Hamilt. 1638.  who deserves that character for being second, at that time, in His Majesty's favour, & he is said by your brethren to have taken them into the Parliament. So that, lay their commission, & Earl arran's courtesy together (which without the other had implied the pleasure of the King,) they took not, without authority, upon themselves as you said) the Episcopal office, nor place in that Parliament.  
Whether the pride, & contempt of the Prelates, or Presbyters were greater may be judged in the case of Archbishop Montgomerie, by the Assemblies 
Vindic. Epist. Hier. Philad.  slighting not only His Majesty's letters, but Messengers such as were two Heralds at Arms, His Master of Requests, who in the King's name inhibiting their proceedings they send him word by Macgil 
Supplicum libellorum Magister. Se posse salvo Regis imperio de causa tota cognoscere.  they can salve their obedience, & yet go through with the business, Setting up Durie, & Belcanqual, two Edinburgh Ministers, to rail against the E: Lenox, & when they are accused, quitting them by their ecclesiastic prerogative. Putting their scholars at Glasgow in Arms, & occasioning bloodshed in resistance of the Principal Magistrates of that place, against whom they afterward proceeded His Majesty summous them to his judicature at St. Andrew's, they send their orators instead of coming themselves. The King exchangeth a promise of security, for theirs of suspending the censure. They admit the condition, but collude with His Majesty, leaving an underhand power with some select brethren, to give sentence, as occasion should serve. When they get lose they contest with his Majesty by a serpent-supplicate, which when it creeps at the foot, wounds to the heart. Tell him boldly he plays the Pope●… takes a sword in his hand, more than belongs to him. The Earl of Arran demanding who dares subscribe such a paper; Andrew Melvin answers undauntedlie for himself, & some others, for haste snatcheth the pen out of a scribes hand that was near him, writes his name, & exhorts his complices ro do the like. By letter to His Majesty they show how far His Majesty had been uninformed, & upon mi●…nformation pr●…judg'd the prerogative of jesus Christ, & the liberties of his Church (what becomes of the Kings, when this is pleaded?) They enact, & ordain, that none should procure any such warrant, or charge, under the pain of excommunication. Where K. james did acknowledge the equity of the Church proceedings in these cases I desire to be informed, I am sure K. Charles 1. many years since 
●…arg D clar. pag. 308.  hath writ, That they did wickedly, & that which they could not do. And that it is a very reprovable instance. Which to have been ever his father's opinion, I have under the hand of one of the most learned, knowing men, & eminent historians in your Kingdom, As likewise 
Marg. not upon Potest. of the Gen. Assemb. at Edenb. Cross Decemb. 18. 1638.  that they did never confess their crimes, nor renounce their Bishoprikes &c, but that they were most cruelly persecuted by that firebrand of schism in the Kirke, & sedition in the state, Andrew Melvin & his subscribing Associates, & made so odious to the people by their excommunication, that they suffered most grievous penury, & in the end were sterved to death, which did not quench the malice of their merciless enemies, who after their death continued persecuting their names, & memories, making them infamous by false supposititious recantations, whereof they themselves were the authors, & publishers. Others, that acknowledge a word, or two to this purpose, that drops from Archbishop Adamson, say he did it, when set on the rack by his hunger, being fain to beg bread of his enemies, who, glad of the occasion, sold their charity by weight, for his self seeming-conviction, & when they had it, being too greedy to 
Quioccasione laeti palinodiam ●…i per vim expressam, sed in- numeris a se locis inter-polatam typis publicarunt.  gain damnation to themselves, did sophisticate every syllable with a lie.  
The Bishops in their Declinatour against the Assembly of Glasgow, (if you remember well) appeal to no general Assembly, otherwise then as it shall please His Majesty to constitute it, & personally be present, or by his Commissioner, without whom, they acknowledge no authority it hath. They refer it to His Majesty to call one to repair their injury, by way of humble desire, or direction, no way derogating from; nor impairing his separate, absolute prerogative, 
The Bishops Appeal not derogatory to the King's personal Pr●…rogative.  to redress all personally, if he please. Their expressions relating to Royal power in this particular are such as follow … So that they praeventing, & not proceeding by warrant of Royal authority … May we not therefore entreat my Lord Commissioner His Grace, in the words of the Fathers of the fourth General Council at Chal●…don, Mitte foras superfluos. For discharge of our duty to God, to his Church, & to our sacred Sovereign, lest by our silence we betray the Church is right, His Majestics authority, & our own consciences … And we most humbly entreat His Grace to intercede with the King's Majesty, that he may appoint a sree, & lawful General Assemblie… to whom [Dr. Rob. Hamilton] by these praesents we give our full power, & express mandate to present the same in, or at the said Assembly, or where else it shall be necessary to be used, (where's that Mr. Bailiff?) with all submission, & obedience due to our gracious Sovereign, & His Majesty's High Commissioner. All which are clauses assertive of His Majesty's supremacy over General 
The Reviewer mistakes the scope of the Bishop's warning.  Assemblies, & imply his power to take cognizance of their demeanour. Though, after all this compliance with your method, & countenancing a seeming pertinency in your arguments; I must seasonably put you in mind that you are very much mistaken in the Bishop's meaning, & here, as otherwhere, maintain a blindeconflict which yourself. For although His Lordship often take advantage of your Assembly proceedings, as contrary to your laws, & justifiable establishment of the ecclesiastic power in your Kingdom; yet, where there is a concordance of your practice, with your rule, if accompanied with inconvenience of state, encroachment upon that just prerogative, which Monarches otherwhere do, or may, assume, if destructive to that liberty of the people, which is given them by the Gospel, & Christian freedom sealed to them in their baptism; if disagreeing with the primitive practice for the first five, or six hundred years after Christ you lie open to the force of his arguments, though you ward the blow from falling upon your Church in its own peculiar, as constituded in your Country. For his Lordship's endeavour is not only (though in part) to show how tyrannical your discipline is to yourselves, but how praejudicial, & destructive it may prove to us in England, if (through want of caution, or a facile yielding to your insolent attempts,) way should be made for you to propagate what you call the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, but is indeed the tyranny of Satan, & the second practice of Lucifer's ambition, (To banish Gods Anointed from the earth, since he failed in his project of turning God himself out of heaven) & we be ensnared in the like Presbyterian slavery with the Scots. Therefore you see he entitled his book, A Warning to take heed of the Scotish Discipline, etc. And were it not, that you would clamour in your next pamphlet, you were unanswered, this advertisement might pass, with any rational reader, for a refutation of, at least, half your book.  
If I should prosecute you with the many appeals that have been made before the Bishop's declinatour of the Assembly at Glasgow I know you would run to your cover of complaints pag. 20. of your book. What others have been since will be brought to yourremembrance in such a flying roll as the Prophet Zacharie, mentions (unless a 
Ch. 5. v. 1.  gracious pardon be given you upon your knees) when His Majesty shall by God's assistance have power to chastise your rebelling, cursing, covenanting, excommunicating, imprisoning, murdering, decreeing, the confusion of his Royal family, & three flourishing Kingdoms in your Assemblies.   

CHAPTER IU.  
Seditious, & Rebellious Ministers in Scotland seldom, or never censured by the Assembly.  
HEre Mr. Bailiff lays faster hold upon the title, than the Bishop's evidences in the Chapter, & because sedition, & rebellion 
Sedition, & rebellion not censured by the Discipline.  are charged home to the conscience of the Presbyters, & their usual indemnity imputed to the Discipline, he would fain step over these public enormities, to personal vices; against which (by his leave) the ecclesiastic rigour is not such, but it can admit of very frequent indulgences, & many times convert the guilt, or shame of such heinous transgresions, to the glory of their Gospel, & a more certain sign of the sinner's election by grace, according to John Knox's divinity after proof made against Paul Meffane. The treason of 
Hift. of Reform. 4. book.  judas, the adultery of David, & abnegation of Peter, did derogate nothing from the glory of Christ's Evangel, nor yet the doctrine which before they had taught, but declared the one to be a reprobate, & the other to be an instrument, in whom mercy must surmount judgement. Nay, if they find it advantageous to their discipline, these declamers against adultery, & blood, will make religious applications to any, as they did to Murray their Regent-bastard & murderer (to say no more of him) whom they made the greatest saint upon the earth, & the most eminent patron of their Church. That your pulpits have been perduellionis plaustra, the common stages for sedition, & treason. I have made appear upon an old item somewhere else. And because you had not enough of them for the last old Comedy you were to act, how you did mount it in halls, schools, & other 
Scotish Presbyters mounting in halls schools etc.  profane places, is delivered unto us upon Royal authority in his late Maejsties' large Declaration 16●…9. Where is to be found such loyal doctrine as this. One in Edinburgh, upon his Majesty's urging subscription to your own Confession of faith, said It was an Italian, & a devellish device, first to make them renounce God, & perjure themselves, & then afterward there was an intention to destroy their bodies; & so that this subscription imported no less, than the destruction both of their bodies, & souls. Rollocke did as much upon a seaffold in publishing a wicked, & rebellious protestation, Another, That though there were never so many Acts of Parliament against the Covenant, yet it ought to be maintained against them all. And Andrew Cant since charged His Majesty thus to his face, Awake thou lump of clay, thou wast not sleeping, when thou gavest cut the blondie commissione to james Graham. Of all which I desire Mr. Bailiff to name one that suffered any censured from a Synod. what privilege these, or any other scandalous crimes had in England, or Ireland, the High Commission, & civil censures can clear. But the Reviewers conscience can tell how many such took shelter under the wings of the Covenant, who were threatened process, if they subscribed not, &, having done it, passed for very zealous, pious brethren in the cause. Their names, & infirmities, if Mr. Bay●…lie hath not, I have charity to conceal, Or, if I had not (could their ordination be justified, & they accounted of our brotherhood) I should think myself obliged to it under the penalty of the 55. Canon of the Council of Carthage. Episcopus accusatores sratrum 
An. 436. Ancient Canons against Ministers accusers of their brethren.  excommunices & si em●…ndaverine vitium, recipiat eos ad communionem, non ad Clerum. If he beard the like reverence to Antiquity when he speaks so broadlie of the Bishop of Derric, he might bethink himself of the 57 Canon. Clericus maledicus, maxim in sacerdotibus cogatur ad post●…andum veviam, si noluerit, degradetur, nec unquam ad officium, absque satisfactione, revocetur. And to give His Lordship his due interest in the prudent provision of the Church, I direct the reader to that in the Council of Constantinople, De accasatoribus Orthodoxorum Epis●…oporum non admittendis, which is to be found in the edition of Chr. justell, where he shall see by how many clauses Mr. Bailiff is excluded from being admitted to enter any accusation 
Reviewer no competent witnsse against Bishops.  against him, first, by the Religion he professeth, adjudged as bad as heresy by the ancient Canons for decreeing in conventicles against the authority of Bishops, antisynagontas tois kanonikois hemin episcopois … And whether upon the several grounds that follow, an Oecumentical may not reject him, hoos kathybrisanta tous kanonas, kaiten ecclesiastiken lymenamenon eutaxian, as a reproachful despiser of Canons, & a bane to the eutaxie of the Church; let any of his aequitable compare●… consider. Yet, I think, I shall break no canon by retorting his quaestion, his acts being so public, & himself autocatacritoes, convinced under his hand in his book, Did the Reviewer never hear of a Presbyterian, sibb to Mr. Bailiff, who to this day was never (but may be in good time) called to any account for flagrant scandals of such crimes (even the same the Bishop mentions) sedition, & treason, which (aswell in Scotland, as in any other Kingdom) are punishable by the Gallows? These crimes, above any, deserve civil cognizance, from which as free as the Scotish Churchmen have been, I dare undertake to prove out of their story, That there was hardly ever Synod in Scotland (Presbyterian I mean) but was guilty of Rebellion, or blood, having ever made their covenants with death, & their agreement with hell having made liet their refuge, & under salshood bid themselves as they did Isai. 28. 15. So that Mariana, & his diseiples, whether in Italy, or Spain, or all the world over, can not in equity have laid such devilish doctrines, such public murders of Princes, & Nobles to their charge.  
Foedus umbrarum perit. As constant a Covenanter as you are with 
He will not be at peace & charity with the dead.  the living, I see the holiest league can not chain up your furious malice against the dead. Your naming Bishop Aderton, For his sin, & that blessed Martyr the L. of Canterbury for his patron, speaks you a son of neither Christian charity, nor truth, If Presbytery had been as old as the Council of Nice, I perceive your saucy fingers would have snatched the libels out of Constantine's breast, & your zealous tongues, that are made seven times hotter otherwhere, would have run the hazard to lick the Bishop's faults out of the fire. I wish you had helped me to a better bargain of your silence, & not forced me to give you this, which I am ●…oth to part with, in exchange for your blabbing That if all be true that is in print (which for your credit I hope is not) Your Discipline had no other than a Sodomite for its patron, some think you may take your choice of French, or Scot  
How this abomination hath been propagated with your Discipline, (though by it no Disciple) I leave them to relate, who, to shame you into some speechless civility, have had reason to be your Domestic observers, if they can frame it by chaste language in a riddle. Yet because your Presbytery shall gain no credit, if I can help it, by any counterfeit innocence, I will return you a line or two●… in Latin, which may inform you that such an ill weed hath grown even where the sharp sickle of the Eldership hath pretended to cut down all wickedness before it. Hoetamen dissimulare non possum, 
Gualth. Epist. Erast. Aug. 3. 1570.  in Palatinatu nulla prius seandala tam atrocia incidisse quam ed sint quae seniorum illic constitutorum culpa acciderunt. Et quis, obsecro, eos postea feret correptores, qui sceleratissimum hominem Siculum Sodomitam, & cundem pestilentissimum calumniatorem (you inherit at least the upper half of his qualities) impune elabi passi sunt, ne ad judices legitimos traheretur. If you name Bishop Aderton in your next, you will force me to break the bond of modesty with my Readers, & make me lay this horrid scene nearer home. If you will show yourself a better Christian, or Scholar, & strengthen your arguments with the ruins of Bishop's doctrines, where you find them, & not rake up the rubbish out of some few sins, or lapses in their lives, you may write your pleasure, & without a blush expect the like ingenuity on this side.  
Pseudon syncolletes…leptotaton leron hiereus, Excuse me sir, if Aristophanes 
Nor speak any truth of the living.  at present furnish me with no more honourable titles to salute you by, for your ingenuous meritorious demeanour in the next paragraph. Wherein you are pleased to pervert all that the Bishop meant innocently, & writ temperately, & sacrifice your soul to the Father of lies to gain the countenance of your ‛ brethren in Holland. Historical ●…ruth I hope is no slander. Nor can it be their shame to keep peace in their Churches, & turn seditious incendiaries out of doors. But while you plead for these your own brethren among them, (the rest holding not that point of your discipline) what respect you bear to their vigilant Magistrates, whom you tax for putting out of their cities men zealous in their doctrine, pressing the true practice of piety, etc. I leave to some interpreter to tell them. But myself shall tell you, by the way, that they join not with you in rejecting our Episcopacy, as Anti-christian Name you what book of theirs, or person of any note that hath done it. I am sure since you, & your English mates fell to work with root, & branch Spanheim, their great divinity professor in Leyden, held up his hands, & wished that all had been such as Archbishop Usher, & Bishop Morton, & then the order with such 
Spanheims speech about English Bishops  men he acknowledged would pass here well enough. So that it should seem in the rest there wanted only a conformity in some such thing, as calvin's opinions to qualify them for a tolerable communion with the Dutch. What their zealous Ministers have preached for practice of piety, suppression of heresy, & schism, the Bishop is far from 
The King's book of recreations far short of what other Reformed Churches tolerate on the Lord's day.  calling, or accounting any crime. But because you crowd into their zealous preachments, the sanctification of the Sabbath-day in your Judaical sense, If, they pressed it in the rigour of your discipline, their auditors use a large practical licence to confute them. To pass by their weekly Sabbath mercates, & many public fairs, one of which you, & I met with at the Hague, I could have showed you there the dancing on the ropes (if not a dutch stageplay for a need) & many other pretty sights, to which you were invited with sounding of trumpets, & beating of drums, which is their business at this instant in another part of the reformed Provinces: where I am I can tell you of several recreations I have observed (beside playing on the ice 
Vindic. Chr. Philaed.  objected against the Ministers of St. Andrew's that were spectators) which I little thought on when the poor praelatical Clergy, not many years since, were cursed with Presbyterian bell, book, & candle, for approving a narrower toleration in our Country. Our persecutions have helped us to this, & some other experience, whereby we shall be hereafter enabled to unmask your adventurous impudency to the world. Whether the stream of Presbyterian, o●… Praelatical ermons have run clearer from contempt of pictie from silence, flattery, etc. may be seen by him, that will look into these last 12 years' current of the times. If the vigilant Bishops, such as their Lordships of Derrie & Downe, purged their channels from the filthy doctrines, & rebellious 
Blaire & his companions justly banished.  obstructions of Blaire, Leving stone, Hamilton, Cuningham & others, they did it for the more even passage of pure Primitive reformation. The zeal of these men was eating out the foundation of God's house, & their swelling waters did overflow the banks of government, where they came. Their impious doctrines made them first be turned out of Scotland, where Blaire had been before expelled the University of Glasgow by the Professors for teaching his scholars, 
K. Ch. 1. large. Dec. 1639. pag. 324.  in his lectures upon Aristotle, that Monarchical government was unlawful, (the lawfulness whereof Mr. Bailiff accounts part of the Prelate's profanity, & errors.) Upon the like misdemeanour the same justice overtoke them in Ireland, but at a time, as it happened, when Christ's Covenanting, Antimonarchical Kingdom began to be re-edified in Scotland which wanting such bold pieces to supportit, & their blasphemous treasonables sermons to cement it, they were very heartlie welcomed, & praeferred to places of greatest eminency in that Church.  
What a singular difference there is in the point of exemption from secular jurisdict on between the Geneva Discipline, & yours the proceedings 
The Discipline. in Scotland different from Geneva.  in the next paragraph will show. And what person convict of, or notorious for those crimes, that you reckon was ever privileged by the spiritual Court, you are to mention. Your generals are air, the Bishop craves no favour of your extraordinary charity to conceal.  
The Declaration 1584. might be penned by Mr. Patrick Adamson & yet be King James', If his Majesty declined the acknowledgement thereof the year after, when your Rebels had seized upon his person 
King james Declaration 1584.  at Sterlin, that may very well be imputed to his fear. Nor was that the only negative subscription, you extorted from your prisoner that year, who, when at liberty, afterward, with the same hand, blotted out that which, when you had the guidance of his pen, you had forced him to write against his own inclination, & sense. If Mr. Adamson processed upon his death his repentance for lies, & slanders (to which we have a contrary tradition from some that were present) he did no more than your great Declaratour Buchanan for his that were opposite to the other, And how both these sort of, lies that carried contradictions could proceed from the same spirit, or their repentance have the same grace, & truth to reform it. I leave to your discerning spirit to reconcile, or, if you find them different, to distinguish. What the Bishop asserts, Mr. Camden's faithful register will justify. Ministri nonnulli in Scotia è pulpitis, & per circulos Reginam indignissi●…is 
Part. 3. An. 1684  calumnus insectati ipsi, Regi, & Consiliariis asperrimè obtrectárunt, & coram comparere jussi fastidioso quodam contemptu abnuerunt, quas●… pulpisa à Regnm authrritate essent exempta, & Ecclesiastici non Principi●…i mperio, sed Presbyterio subessent. Your Ministers rail against, Queen, King, Council with contempt, & seorne, deny appearance upon summons, stand upon ecclesiastic privilege, are not censured by the Assembly, & what is that but protected? & what both but as much as the Bishop out of the Declaration praetends to?  
What nullity in the law of your country you plead, can be taken 
The Bishop's consequence good from Commissaries to Civite Magistrates.  for no answer to the Bishop's second proof, who tells you, the same reason may exclude aswell Magistrates, as Commissaries, because they have no function in the Kirke, & they are so excluded out of the 11. chapter of your 2. book of Discipline, which providing that all abuses may be removed, & dependences of the Papistical jurisdiction abblished, regulates all by the Eldership of the Church, & in silence robs the civil Magistrate of his power. The strength of which argument you wave, as you do the 3. instances that follow, & scour up an old rusty piece of Logic of your own to fight with your shadow; The Bishop's consequence holding good. That it those, which have no function in the Kirke, are not to be judges to ministers, no jurisdiction remaineth in the civil state whereby Ministers may be punished. In England the Commissari●…, & official were no ordinary judges to depose, & excommunicate at their pleasure: what reservations there were, & how limited was their power, your friend 
Fucus ad fallendum simpliciores, vel potius illudendum Ecclesiis pag. 404. Altar. Damase.  Didoclave will acquaint you. Which integrity, & prudence he calls a fucus, & fallaei●…, because he had found no such native beauty of holiness in his Church, no such downright dealing in the discipline. The jurisdiction of Commissaries was reestablished in Scotland in ecclesiastic causes, to as great a latitude as formerly, by act of Parliament at Edinburgh June 4. 1609.  
Presbyterian Assemblies are easily satisfied about any delinquency against Kings. And had not K. james at this time been absolute, & the brethren in fear what should become of their evangel, they had not proceeded so far as they did in gibson's case. That many passed 
The Assembly juggling in gibson's case.  at other times with less notice, nay with their authority to maintain them, I have showed frequent enough out of their stories. Delinquents of the Episcopal party could get no such opportunities for absence. When Gibson came about, he pretended not only his fear for an excuse, but his tender care of the rights of the Church. This, because more pertinent to the quaestion, Mr. Bailiff overlookes, as he doth their purging him of his contumacy without acquainting his Majesty, which the Bishop urgeth. He were better betake himself to some other trade then that of reviewing. Two, or three such surveys will lose the Discipline more ground, than Didoclave, & any other his unanswered Champions ever gained them. That no trial of Gibsom fault was perfected though a fugitive was a testimony of their forward duty to the King. Others (beside the Bishops by the Synod of Glasgow) have been excommunicated at as great a distance for their loyal expressions, & actions.  
The Bishop's fourth proof I perceive hath much troubled the Reviewers eyes, osper tà suk epi tous ophalmous. Mr. Blacks case may very 
The Bishop's relation of Mr. Blacks case vindicated & enlarged.  well seem odious, Odit, quod metuit, It turns his stomach so much that he finds not confidence enough to wipe of that filth, which was spit upon the reputation of the Discipline by his speeches. He is better employed with his sieve, & his scissours about divining how his Lordship came by so many particulars of the story; but the guilt of his conscience makes his hand shake, & so all his witchcraft falls to ground. For the Bishop, to my knowledge, may have his warrant for that relation somewhere else, &, for aught he knows, recourse to some vocal oracles of that time, beside some such registers as have not been razed by the sword of the Disciplinarian spirit, nor cancelled by the Clerk of the Assembly in the dark. Though that large, most excellent volume compiled by the Rt. Reverend Arch Bishop having, not long since, happily escaped the Scotish ' Inquisition, may hereafter be a printed monument of the Disciplines shame, an aeternal disgrace to the Rebellious Presbytery, & his credit, for all the Reviewers calumnies, a lasting pillar to support the faith of all posterity, that shall read it. Yet to take Mr. Blacks story from his hand, out of the register of truth, the Doomsday book of the Discipline as it lies.  
— Veniat invisum scelus,  
Errorque, & in se semper armatus suror.  
If the King's countenance were changed, his conscience was not, which, by his own confession, so soon as ever his judgement was in the bloom, took check at the Religion, as well as at the Rebellion in 
Hamp. Court. Conf.  the Assembly, professing with our faviour that though he lived among you, he was not of you.  
That you make no medium between Presbyterian, & Popish, is a piece of old Synodical malignancy, which the trial of the orthodox party in these times hath made out of date, since being rejected, & banished by the one, they neither find, nor sue for reception with the other, (saving into a toleration of their asyle) but by the hand of the almighty are held up in their constancy between you both: Yet your fears were not groundless, when the Religious King went about to establish such public worship, as would have informed ignorance in a discovery of your error, & drawn of all your conscientious, & rational disciples. His Majesty's civil favours to some Papists, were not so strong evidences of his change as to wind up your Ministers to such a free warning, nor gave them licence to make such rebellious applications. If that be the use 'tis time for Kings to search better into your doctrine, & see whether the toleration of that have not been the great sin of our age, which hath pulled down such judgements upon their heads.  
This grace inyour pastor is that, which abounds by continuance in sin. 
Rom. 6. 1. Ephes. 6. 16.  And this faith is nothing like St. Paul's shield, being beaten by the Assembly into a sword, whereby they endeavour to subdue Kingdoms, but have no such commission as had Samuel, & the Prophets. Mr. Blacks denial was too faint to absolve him, & his honest hearers, if conform 
Hebr. 11. 33.  to their English brethren, might perchance be so wrapped in their night caps, as their negative testimony could not be very currant. When he showed himself so willing to be tried by all the world, he little thought who might pass upon the verdict. All the heathen had condemned him for the murder of morality, & he had met with a scurvy pack of hardhearted Godfather among the Papists. A brother of yours confesseth that somewhat Black had said, though he hath no great 
Nescio quid nec quando, sed multo ante Vind. ep. Philad.  mind to take notice, what, nor when. He complains of Rutherfort his accuser because obliged for private courtesies, who deserves to be commended for praeferring public duty, & in that appears to have been one of the most honest hearers there. The Courtiers can not be blamed for intending to stop the mouths of such Ministers, as laid the Devil with his bairnes at their doors, & put them in affright that they should afterward be charged with keeping all the black brats of the Assembly. The advice of the Brethren was adjudged treason by the law of Scotland produced against the Aberdene Ministers, & your Edinburgh Bibles have not one text to justify that appeal. The words laid to Mr. Blacks charge I hope will be confessed to be truly seditious. All the quaestion you make is whether he spoke them or no, which though doubtful (as it is not, being proved before the Assembly who gave this reason for his exemption from punishment, They knew not with what spirit he was overruled) must be acknowledged a mater of 
L. 1. c. The odd. de Relig.  civil cognizance (because no point of religious) aswell as the punishment, if proved. Constat Episcopos & Presoyteros forum legibus non habere, nec de aliis causis … pr●…eter religionem posse cognoscere; The brethren's reason, or rather misapprehension must not be made the measure of the laws. If the King yeided so much toward an amicable conclusion, what can justify the Presbyters in continuing the breach? who, say what you will, were bound to subscribe a band for that silence which was required, Pessimus est mos suggestum in scenam vertere, & dulcis●…imam Euangelii vocem in Comaediam veterem. What the learned Grotius 
De Impersum. Potestcirc. sacr. cap. 9  enlargeth upon this subject, I will not transcribe, but call upon you to answer, being that which I assume to make good upon the same texts & proofs he produceth. The truth was you durst neither have advised Black to appeal, nor yourselves have showed such contumacy to the King, but that you had felt the pulse of the people, & made it beat high in your behalf. This your brother confesseth 
Nam co repore summam fuit Ecclae concordia & authoditas ut aulici ab ea, tametsi Regia gratia niterentur, timerent, Vindic. Ep. Chr. Philad.  though in Gipsy language, calling it the great concord, & authority in the Church, such as made the Courtiers to tremble, though never so much in favour with the King. Which concord, when so magnified in your story, we know, was ever a covenant to rebel, & awe the King aswell as the Court by your usurped authority of the sword. Yet whatsoever is your practice, & profession, by sits; sometimes you are more serious (though seldom more loyal) & the result of your council apparels itself in such a sentence as this Our obedience bindeth us not only reverently to speak, & write of our Sovereign, but also to judge, & think. Which if the Edinburgh Ministers had practised, they had not come under that severe sentence pronounced against them for raising a dangerous mutiny among the people.  
If I would, like you, turn diviner, I might easily guess out of what 
Let to the Q. of Engl. jul. 16. 1561.  un printed register you have that pretty legend, that follows, which yet is not so decently dressed as to make good the chaste credit of the discipline. Who was this villain? By whom was he Suborned? Avillaine. They suborn, without particular instance of either, will not pass upon public faith. If the Commotion was innocent, why not approved? If not approved, how appears it to be innocent. The best way to have quit the Ministry from being authors, or approvers, had been to be censurers, but here they could keep silence without a band.  
I can not yet let go this singular story, my duty forbids my charity any where to favour you with my silence. And because you are so praejudiced against unprinted traditions, I will give it you for the most part out of some printed registers I have met with.  
King james, desirous to set off his Court with what lustre he could to foreign Ambassadeurs, had, in a provident magnificence, retrenched 
The Ministers guilty of the tumult. Decemb. 17. 1596.  some allowance formerly issued for his Courtier's attendants, & contracted their tables to enlarge his own entertainments. For the managing of this, & somewhat else concerning his revenue he had appointed eight officers of State, where of some were Papists, but of known integrity. The Resormado Courtiers, by way of scorn called these Octavians, & made an easy impression into their Ministry by suggesting, that they had a design to introduce Popery, & subvert the whole discipline of the Church. After private conference, a fast, for the smiting with the fist of wickedness, soon after was kept at Edinburgh. Balcanqual preacheth, & spares neither, King nor Council in his virulence, infuseth all the unpleasing particulars, he could think of, to embitter his satire, humbly beseecheth the Edinburgh Citizens at a certain hour to meet in the New Church, tells them how much it concerned their reformed, Euaugel. His reservedness sharpend their expectation, & caused their punctual assembling almost to a man, where they found their Ministers in a formal Synod, having chosen a violent Presbyter, Mr. Robert Bruce, their Moderator. Here Mr. Blacks sufferings were aggravated: & the Kings violating the prerogative of the Church. One Watson comes in, & adds oil to the flame, remonstrates his late repulse at Court, & denial of access to the King, being sent with some Rebell-supplicate from the Brethren. The Moderator, with as much malice as my be, comments at large upon every instance in a speech; Makes it God's cause, & engageth the people to assert the liberty of his Gospel, if not by petition: by power. Some Commissioners are sent to the King, then in the Tolbuiths, who, receiving some check for their unjustifiable proceedings, come back with their angry account to the Assembly. One Alexander 
* Vasius  Vaux being (as the Presbyters had praedesigned) mounted up above the congregation by a pillar, with stretched out arm cries, The sword of God &, of Gideon, bid them to follow him in the vinaication of God, & his Church. They take it out of his mouth, & in confusion clamour, Arm Arm, for God, & the Church. They do accordingly, & rush violently into the streets beguirting the place where His Majesty was. Mr. Thomas Hamilton afterwards Earke of Haddington takes an halberd in his hand, & with some of his friends keeps the multitude from entering. Alexander Hume of Northborvick, for the time Provest of Edinburgh, & Roger Mackmath (whom the King ordinarily called his Baylisse) raise what power they can upon a sudden, the honest Hammermen come in to their assistance, They demand first whether the King's person be in safety, & then by a mixture of fair words, & menaces make the rout quit the place, but not their riot, for they by, & by rally in the market place. The Captain of the Castle turns some canon upon the Town, & by that military argument praevailes with them to disband. The King is safely guarded to his palace at Halyrud House. For all this Brucc sends abroad his writs, to call●…in the Nobility to their succour, some of whom had in zeal abetted the late tumult. The Lord Forbes paid his sine for going into the street, The Lord Hamilton hath an invitation to be General, & should have had his commission (from the Synod no quaestion) if he had signified his acceptance. He very nobly, & loyally delivers up his letter to the King, & detects the Rebellious project of the Discipline. Some of the Ministers are sent for, & convicted, obtain pardon of the King, but no actual oblivion from any his good subjects, who ever after detested that disloyal sect, & branded the 17. day of December with the indelible infamy of that prodigious attempt.  
How like this looks to an half hour's tumult or petty fray, How Ignorant were the People, how innocent the commotion, How free the Ministry from being authors, or approvers; Let the Reviewers aequitabl●… tomparers determine.   

CHAPTER V.  
The Discipline exempts not the supreme Magistrate from being excommunicate.  
TVatim agis. The Bishop argues about excommunicating Kings, & you answer about censuring officials, that pronounce sentence for 
The Rev. impertinency or cunning in altering of the state of the quaestion.  nonpayment of money, wherein yet you are not more impertinent, then malicious: For you know well enough that sentence was not executed for that, but for obstinacy against the power, & commands of the Church, Wherein if any officials inconsiderately proceeded, it must not bring in quaestion the more deliberate prudence of them, that made the constitution to that purpose. The rash praecipitancie of the Scotish Presbyterian rule, & practice, though many times very reprovable in the later, I finde not here in the Bishop's allegation, nor of what magnitude the sins are, for which they excommunicate, though we have known a desertion of the Brethren in conspiracy against their Prince, or a glance through 
Let: of the Congreg. to the Nobles of Scotland 1559.  their fingers, an interpretative neutrality, hath been made the great sin, & threatened with this censure. Neither the Praelatical party, nor any orthodox Christians in the world come into your communion in the point of excommunicating their Kings, nor comprehend them within the object of their Discipline, by which, though they have kept the sons of the Church in a filial awe, yet ever reserved a paternal privilege for their Kings, the Nursing Fathers of the same Imperatoria unctione to●…stur poenitentia. And the learned 
De Imper sum. Po●…, cap. 9  Grotius assures us that the Kings of France for many ages have expressly challenged this exemption for themselves, No po●…sint excommunicat●…i.  
Rev … did never so much as intend the beginning of a process against their King, etc. Ans. Christian prudence admits no such charitable glosses 
Disciplinarian intentions never better than their words  upon the Scotish intentions, where is no colour of ambiguity in their words. In which if the King be a man, or a Magistrate, he must be necessarily included, & made subject aswell to Church animadversion, as admonition. If Mr. Bailiff hath a perspective for the thoughts of all his praedecessours, he may enjoy the pleasure of such spiritual reviewes, or revelations to himself, but can have no demonstrative evidence to propagate the like confidence among others.  
True causes of citation of Princes to an Assembly is the peculiar language of the Discipline, no such truth is implied in this truer text of Scripture, Where the word of a King is, there is power, & who may say unto 
Eccles. 8. 4.  him what dost thou? The beginning of the next verse is not the Scotish Assembly, in answer to that quaestion. What these true causes have been, I have partly manifested out of their story, their own Registers justifying 
No thanks due to them for not excommunicating their Kings.  their successive meekness, & indulgence; wherein though no King may be found excommunicate●…, (because their spiritual sword wanted lustre, and brightness to strike such amazement into Princes, as to make them let fall the temporal one out of their hands) yet not any one of them hath there been since the Assemblies were possessed of their infernal commission, but have been personally threatened, imprisoned, deposed, or murdered, & they should have tasted the meekness of the Discipline in them all, if the season had served, & they could have catched, or kept them in their power; Against which universal experience whether Mr. Baylie's single word may be taken for the future security of His Majesty, & his successors, I submit with silent reverence to be debated in their Council.  
Rev. We love not the abused ground, etc. Ans. We are as little in love with the Reviewers affronting of Kings, as they with, what he calls the Warners 
The Ancient Fathers quit peccant Kings of all humane censure,  flattering of Princes. To the quaestion he so magisteriallie propounds. St. Ambrose, notwithstanding his Act to Theodosius, makes answer upon that speech of David cited by the Bishop, & adds the reason in such language as Mr. Bailiff will not hear from any Canterburion-Praelate, Quod nullis ipsi [Reges] legibus tenebantur, quia liberi sunt Reges a vinclis delictorum. The same is to be found in Isiodore Pelus: And Tertulian to this purpose many hundred years before Presbytery was hatched. Sciunt [Imperatores] quis illis dederit imperium … sentiunt Deum esse solum, 
Apos. Gent. adv.  in cujus solius potestate sunt, a quo sunt secundi, post quem primi, ante omnes, & super omnes Deos, homines. And because the Reviewer calls this doctrine Episcopal, let him take St. Hieroms note too by the way. Rex ipse [David] & alium non timebat. This Catholic doctrine praeserves the Majesty of Princes, de jure, inviolable from the insolencle of Assemblies. Where the abuse of it spurs them on to any dangerous praecipi●…es, they are to stand, or fall unto themselves. The poor oppressed people would many times work out their deliverance by prayers, & patience, if the outrageous Presbyters did not thrust them down, & with the hazard, if not destruction of their persons, dash all civil government in pieces.   

CHAPTER VI.  
King's may sometime pardon capital offenders, which the Disciplinarians deny. As they do their Royal right to any part of the ecclesiastic revenue.  
WEre your reasoning as methodical as the Bishops, I should not be so in every Chapter at a loss to find out more to what, than 
The Bishops reasonning not unconsequential.  what to answer, having hitherto met with none, but Socrates' three dark principles in your book, tò chaos touti, kai tas nephelas, kai ten glottan, confusion, clouds, & tongue: which among them have made such a mist in your own eyes, & such a clatering in your ears, as you 
Aristoph●… Nubes.  can neither see, nor hear a good logical argument brought before you. We, that are above this disturbance, & at a distance, observe his Lordship laying out the doctrine of your Discipline (for so I'll speak for once) received by you all, & then illustrates it by your practice, wherein if he had room enough, he would muster up so many particulars as with an, etc. might conclude an inductive universal. Though the other way of acconsequential arguing hath been thought tolerable in Mr. Bailiff (no Doctor as I take it) as not long since in his uncharitable mention made of Bishop Aderton, & his slander against the two reverend Bishops of Down, & London Derric.  
The Minister's rigour, & vindictive pleading hath ever multiplied 
Blood the seed of the Discipline.  in Scotland the widows, & fatherless, the deadly feuds having been ever continued, & received by them, when they saw it tend to their advantage, so that the blood shed by murderers of their making may be truly aesteemed, the seed of their Church. Which duly considered, demonstrable in their story, should deter any cautelouc Christian from their communion, who, by that partaking in their guilt, can expect from heaven no benefit of his prayers, Gods curse in the Prophet concerning them nearer, than any ministry in the world, When ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you, yea 
Esai. 1. 15.  when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: Your hands are full of blood.  
The history of that time, though very partially, & falsely related 
Mercy God's attribute, & so the Kings.  by the Reviener, were it not, can not justify the insolence in their discipline, wherein they do not occur to the inconvenience pretended, the impunity of murder procured then by some importunate & powerful solicitours, but despightfullie scratch out the image of God in his Anointed, & pull down his prerogative attribute of mercy, which hath a season of privilege above justice, if that pass with Mr. Bailiff, for any of his works. What I mean I collect from this clause. In the fear of God we signify unto your Honours, that whosoever 
〈◊〉. Book Discipl. 9 head.  persuades you that ye may pardon, where God commandeth death, deceives your souls. & provokes you to offend God's Majesty. where not only the act of impunity is condemned, but all power to pardon in any case denied. Which God never practised himself, nor exacted in the rigour from his Kings. Beside, the case hath been known, when the Presbyters 
Presbyters solicit pardon for murder.  themselves became the powerful solicitors to the King, & drew a pardon for murder from his hand against his heart, as they did from K. Ch. 1. for Mr. Thomas Lamb, a preaching brother, who stabbed a young man of Leith with a poniard betwixt Leith, & the Abbey of Haliryd House upon the Lord's day in the afternoon, in the time of the Assembly, & Parliaments sitting. To whom the King, used this speech Ministers must be pardoned though slaughterors. 〈◊〉 other men must suffer for a words speaking, reflecting upon one Mr. john Stuart, who suffered for saying that Argile had spoken about deposing the King. How they professed their Church to be reform by the murder of David Rizio, & the King called a weak man because he would not vouch it, I have showed more particularly in their story. Yet I hope Mr. Bailiff (who is too rigid) when he comes next in the Rebell-Commission, will be no solicitor for any act of oblivion. That if the King gives not what satisfaction they find necessary, & due, he, & the other bloodhounds will articulate their cry into justice, justice, or lie down in their arms to execute it themselves even upon His Majesty himself (for he hath already encircled him, within the object of the Discipline) may be fairly collected from hence, as from what he told us in his Epistle.  
That you may preach unto 
* Rigour to be preached &c. under non●… but implous or n●…ligent Magistrates; so ex●…ommunication for impunity.  Magistrates, that according to Scriptures murderers ●…ught to die even Erastus will grant you, Yea that in some cases you may rebuke, exhort, admonish, threaten, denounce judgements, aswell as preach promises according to the examples of the Prophets. But he puts you in mind that this they did only under impious Kings, no david's, no Salomon's, no more must you assume this liberty, under Iame's, & Charle's, pious, prudent, & just Kings. If you should have an unhappy occasion to exercise it under other, you must go no fa●…ther, no excommunication which is ordered in your Discipline. He calls for your texts, he answers your arguments, he helps you to instances of joab, whose murder could not safely be punished, of Absalon, whose, for some reason, was neglected. He demands whether these men, went not into the Temple nor communicated in the Sacraments with this impunity about them. I have no way to be rid of you, but as Mr. Selden, they say was of the whole pack of your clamouring brethren at London, who laid Erastus' book open before them, & bid them answer him. Which dismounted their tails, & put a gag in their mouths, so that I hear he was never troubled with them afterward.  
E. Huntley's case hath been carried to the mint, & comes now out with a new stamp of the Assembly at a loss till their Father behind 
E. Huntleys' case wholly minted in the Assembii●…  them scatters his kindness among his prodigal sons, & bids them lavish out his inexhaustible stock of calumnies, as they please. What the Bishop hath granted you about the guilt of the three Lords, I have no commission to retract. What you aggravate about E. Huntley's apostasy, &, after seeming repentance, frequent relapses, doth at the worst, but argue his adhaerence in heart to the Romish religion. This added to his banding with the King of Spain (which you prick into some blank papers subseribed with his hand, & the rest taken out of Dr. Kerre's pocket, as he was shipping over, upon your excommunicating, & banning; & pick out of some other, such as little could be made of at that time, when it should have been most advantageous) is not enough to justify that rigour alleged by the Bishop. The truth of what follows shall be left to the ingenuity of your judicious & aequitable comparers, by laying your relation to that of more authentic historians, whose record is this  
Bothwell, after many murders, & misdemeanours, having broke prison, endeavours to get the King, & Chancellar Maitland into his power, to which end he sets fire to both their chambers, & by violence makes his entrance into the Queens. For this, some of his complices were hanged, the King's proclamation, published against him, prohibits any man to harbour him. The Earl Huntley, upon the Chancellars entreaty, raiseth some power to surprice him, with which he besets Earl Murray's house, where Bothwell was entertained, & Murray in defence of him slain. For this soon after was E. Huntley 
Bothwells notorious crimes.  imprisoned till having put in caution to appear at a public trial, he had his liberty given him to go home. Murray's friends had not patience to wait the leisure of the law, but work revenge upon all advantages they could get. Bothwell having been this while concealed in England, enters Scotland in arms, & assaults the King in his palace at Fawlkland, but, being beaten off, makes another escape. The Assembly, failing of the success they hoped for in Bothwells' attempt, praevaile for the banishing of Papists, & confiscation of their goods, Bothwell, finding no good welcome in England, gets away, & gains a private opportunity by his friends to be secretly conveyed into the King's chamber, where he begs his pardon upon his knees, & obtains it, yet the next day makes a tumult in the Court, & caries away divers of the King's servants; The King (which may seem strange) for the safety of his person, was fain to put away his friends of greatest trust, the Chancellor, Treasurer, Baron Humes, etc. but within a month reputes him, appeals to his Nobles, & by their advice, recalls them, yet permits Bothwell to depart. The Ministers are angry that the Papists are not persecuted by fire, & sword. They assemble without the King's order, & call together the Barons & Burghers. Bothwell enters again with 400. Horse as far as Leith; makes proclamation, summons all in to defened religion, & put away evil Counsellors; sends it to the Synod at Dunbar, which favoured it; The same day he marcheth against 3000. of the King's forces near Edinburgh, fainteth in his business, and gets away to the borders; Queen Elizabeth sets out a proclamation against him, yet presseth the King for proscription of Papists; The Lords are but few that meet, & express some reluctance at it. The Ministers, & Burghers are many, which vote it, take their arms down out of the windows, etc. Argile is sent against them, & beaten; The King draws toword them, & permits three of Huntley's houses to be pulled down, Huntley escapes to his Aunt in Sutherland, thence into France.  
These were Huntley's notorious crimes, & multiplied outrages which cried up to the God of heaven; Out of which let the world judge what reason the Ministers, those merciful men of God, had to give such warning & cry to the judges of the earth, to shed his blood. That appearance with displayed banner against the King in person, should be made an article against him by Mr. Bailiff, a loyal peaceable assertour of ten years armed rebellion in three Kingdoms: I dare not adventure my spleen to discourse on but in Mr. Baylies language, hope by his good advice, the Prelates will no more Lull' Princes asleep in such a sinful neglect of their charge, but break off their slumber by wholesome, & seasonable admonitions from the word of God, such as that Prov. 10. A wise King seatercth the wicked, & bringeth the wheel over them. Or what other texts, their Lordship's better know applicable to the most just, necessary chastisement of schismatics, & Rebels.  
About E. Angus, & Errol, you think yourself not concerned to make answer because your brother Presbyter Mr. Rob. Bruce, gave 
R Bruce's speech against E. Huntley  King james leave to recall them, but with this considerable sentence, against E. Huntley. Well Sir, you may do as you list, But choose you, you shall not have me, & the E. Huntley both for you. Pretty humble souls, who can weigh down the chiefest Earls in the balancing of a state.  
In the next paragraph, you daub with untempered mortar, such 
First fruits etc. witheld from the King as much by the Presbyters as Pope.  as can never keep the King's right to any ecclesiastic revenue, & the claim of the Discipline together. For having comprehended in the patrimony of the Kirke all things [without exception] given or to be given to that, & the service of God; All such things as by law, or custom or use of Country's have been applied to the use, & utility, of the Kirke. 2. book Disc. ch. 9 And called them thiefs, & murderers [without exception of persons] that alienate any part of this patrimony. 1. books Disc 6. head you are the innocent dove that, here bring us news, That the Church never spoilt the King of any tithes, while those birds of spoil, your forefathers, have left him, neither ear nor straw to possess. But to deal with you at your own weapon in your words. If the King never had any first fruits, then, as the Bishop saith, you are the Popes, that withheld it, & by you, that were the Reformers, was that point of papacy maintained; If he neither had, nor demanded, to what purpose took you, such pains to obtain in favour of the Church to have it declared in Parliament, That all benesices of cure under Praelacies shall in all time coming be fee of the first years fruits, & fifth penny, & the Ministers 
An. 1587.  have their significations of presentation past, at the Privy seal upon His Majesties own subscription, & his secretaries only, without any payment or caution to his Treasurer for the said first fruits, & fifth penny?  
About tithes, you say, His Majesty, & the Church had never any controversy 
Contradiction about tithes. pag. 57  in Scotland. How agrees this with your Declaratour in his appendix to the maintenance of your sanctuary? When the minor-age of a good King had been abused to the making of a law, whereby the most of these rents, first fruits, Tithes, & the lands belonging to Bishoprikes were annexed to the crown, the Church very earnestly do labour for restitution, & never gave over till these laws were repealed.  
If you review your records, you will find in the year 1588. 
Patronages.  that you had a plea with, which you call an earnest suit to, His Majesty about patronages, & such considerable opposition, as put you upon inhibiting all commissioners, & Presbyteries to give collation, or admission to any person presented by authority from the King. And [to omit many] a greater you had before with the Queen. Anno 1565  
The Nobility, & Gentry were more beholding to your impotency, than patience for peace. What gracious men yond have showed 
Presbyterian rebellion, & tyranny.  yourselves, since your Rebell-Parliament got that incumbent power into your hands, your congregations would speak if they durst, whom you feed with the bread of violence, & with that you cover them as a garment. So that whether the Presbytery be not as good patrons of the people, as they are vassals to the King, need never more be quaestioned in Scotland.  
Whether by the wickedness of Praelates, or Presbyters the King, & 
Rejoicing at the sequestering the Church patrimony.  Church were cousin'd of the tither, will appear by them, that bragged most when they were most endangered by the sequestering the other patrimony from the Church, which I find to be the Presbyters that could not keep council but boasted they had given a seasonable blow unto the Bishops. 
Qui jactare non dubitârunt se Episc. plygin kairian inflixisse.   
That legitimate power in the Magistrate the Bishop pleads for King James never declared to be a sin against Father, Son, or Holy Ghost, nor did ever the patrons of Episcopac●…e oppose it. That changeling you here substitute in the room calls you Father by the ridiculous posture in which it stands, your friend Didoclave 
Aitar. Damasc. p. 3.  had more ingenuity then to infer a claim to the power of preaching, & celebrating 
K. james anti-presbyterie.  the Sacraments upon the power of jurisdiction over Ecclesiastical persons derived upon the King from his praedecessours in England, & given them by a statute. Verba statuti de jurisdictione, non de simplici functionum sacrarum administratione intelligenda esse quis dubitat. The well grounded consequences, which you call Castles in the air, will hereafter batter your Presbytery to the ground, when Princes shall retract their too liberal indulgence, take a courageous resolution to claim their own, & rely upon God's providence to maintain it. King james had given you the practical meaning of his wise sentence, seven years before he spoke it at St. Andrews. For, as you may very well remember, when His Majesty had put down your Presbytery by the head, your Ministerial office was with the exercise of your halls, having, to the time of your late rebellion, no other, than an ambulatory evangel, no Disciplinarian legally tolerated to officiate, but such as would conform to the canons of the Church. If the King had said, Egonon possum erigere Ministri caput, the heads of the Aberdene, & Edinburgh Ministers might have confuted him upon the gates, but that his mercy [without the Synodical censure of impunity] interposed in that dispute. As great an enemy as His Majesty was to such Erastians', as the Bishop, I am sure he was no friend to such Donat●…sts as you, unless infestissimus 
No Dona●…ist.  host●… be significant to that purpose. He said, you were the perfidious, bedlam knaves among the preachers, my dictionary 
Ep. lector. Aitar. Damascen.  will help me to no fiter English for his Latin, persidi, & sanatici nebulones inter concionatores; And you, or your profession he 
Georg. Con. De Dupl. Stat. Relig. apud Scot lib. 2.  often styled Calvinistarum Satanismum, a sect of lapsed spirits among the Calvinists, whose malice had metamorphozed them into Devils.   

CHAPTER VII.  
The Presbytery cheats the Magistrate of his Civil power in ordine ad spiritualia.  
THe Bishop begs no belief of his Readers, beyond what he 
Their latitude of scandal. 8. 9  brings proof out of your Discipline to prevail for. When you have made all offences, more, or less scandalous, like the Prophet in Hosee, you become the snare of a fowler, & with this counterfeit call catch all the unclean birds in your net. If the Bishop's Official takes notice of more civil causes then your Presbytery, the quality, & number had been Worth your noting for your Readers satisfaction. To strengthen your evidence, I consulted with Didoclave your brother Scout, whom I find to have made no such numerous discovery, & I take him to be altogether as strict, & able an inquisitor, as yourself. That capital offenders, whom the Magistrate hath spared, should be excommunicated, is disciplinarian 
Malefactors pardoned not to be excommunicated.  censure, which no society of regular Christians ever inflicted; Nor can any ingenuous Divine deny such, access to the holy table, if otherwise qualified then by their impunity. He must distrust either the prudence or piety of the Magistrate, conceiving him either too liberal of his pardon to a person showing no remorse for his fault; or impious in countenancing instead of cutting off, an obstinate malefactor with his sword. Erastus himself (whom you rail at so often) puts in this caution (which Beza approves of) for whatsoever he hath asserted in his book. Quod meminisse te velim etiamsi non semper adjeccro. That the person you admit be supposed to understand, approve, embrace the doctrine of the the Church, with which he desires to communicate; That he profess an acknowledgement, & hatred of his sins (he adds not from your stool of repentance (That a murderer, adulterer, blasphemer, thus pardoned, thus penitent, thus supplicant for the seal of the Sacrament, should be, to fill up the amphitheatre of any proved hypocritical, popular presbyter, made the sundays sport, or spectacle to the people, No Scripture commands it, no orthodox Church ever practised it, no law of Scotland imports it. If you suspect his repentance to be but counterfeit, & his humble address, a religious imposture; you may discourse with him in private, lay open before him the heinousness of his fact, deter him by the extremity of the danger, tell him if he disccrnes not the Lords body (which he can not through the black unrepented guilt of that sin) he eats judgement, he drinks damnation; But all this pertains ad Consilium, a term used among the ancients in cases somewhat conterminate with ours, to ghostly council, no spiritual execution, ad legis annunciationem, non jurisdictionem, to the terrible declaration of the law, to no jurisdiction or legal exercise of your power. Beside, here I must put you in mind of what I otherwhere prove, and is undeniable. That your excommunicating faculty is not originally in your Assembly, but derived to you from the supreme Magistrate, with an implicit reservation of his own privilege, to remit it at pleasure, it being no ●…ure divino discipline, I hope (for if such, what becomes of those Churches that use it not?) The malefactors' exemption from this, without quaestion, accompanies his largesse of civil mercy, & he stands acquitted from all spiritual, aswell as temporal, punishment: For to suppose the Magistrate takes him from the gaoler, to deliver him to Satan. exchangeth his shakles for chains of darkness, his prison for hell, is inconsistent with reason, or charity, & gets no more faith, than such a cruel sentence hath the face to ask my opinion of its justice. The learned Grotius tells you, how John a Bishop of Rome became intercessor to Justinian the Emperor in the behalf of penitent delinquents, that were separated from the union of the Church, asscribing to him the authority, & honour of their restitution to the communion thereof. Which argues him, & his Presbyters, (if you admit him not to be single in his jurisdiction) at that time to have had no independent Discipine, to cross the Emperor's power, to have been no countermanders of his pardons. That the Magistrates in Holland have very often commanded the Pastors to their duty in these cases. And that, by an old law in England, the King's pleasure was craved before any of his servants could be excommunicated.  
Fraud in bargaining, false measures, etc. the Bishop takes to be matters 
False measures, etc. matters of civil cognizance.  of civil cognizance; He finds them called abomination to the Lord, not any where such scandals to the Church, as to require public satisfaction. What ecclesiastic rebukes are due, he thinks may be given by particular Ministers in their several charges; without a summons before a Consistorian judicatory. Die Ecclesiae was no precept of speed; There were two or three errands to be done by the way; The offended brother hath, after conference, a private arbitration praescribed him: Nor doth it appear that, in cases of this nature, our Saviour singed him a warrant to fetch his adversary to the Church, not a word is there that doth authorise the Church to command him out of the Court, to anticipate, or aggravate the civil censure by the Reviewers ecclesiastic Rebukes.  
The Bishop speaks of Presbytery in the institution, makes no 
The Reviewers 30. years' experience no argument of Presbyterian henestie.  instance of it in the practice; I'll take no man's word for disciplinarian honesty throughout 30. years trading. The saints, after that rate; will not be readieat Doomsday to give up their account of compassing the earth, & getting in their inheritance annexed to their dominion, which they will have founded in grace; If the Presbyteries, wherein all that time you were conversant, were no merchant adventurers, took no share of the purchase, they have kept some Jubilee to lease out their indulgence; Or it was, not unlikely, a piece of your Kirke-policie to connive a long time at all petty larceny, knowing who at length would be catched in the great cheat, the 200000. pound sale of damnation to their brethren, & yet keeping back whole viols of vengeance, and wrath unto themselves.  
For the many causes of Ministers deprivation, cognosced upon in your Presbyteries, you have the good liking of neither Papists, nor Prae 
Their Canons not the same with those of the ancient Church.  lates, who find no canon, that gives commission to such a mongrel society of lay-Clerical Presbyters to take away, what they have no power to confer. If I give, but not grant, your usurped tyranny a privilege, by many years rebellious precedent, to cognosce of such cases, I must except against clipping of canons; the coin that bears the Majestic image of the Primitive Church, such as is the 67. in the fourth Council of Charthage, Seditionarios nunquam ordinandos Cl●…ricos, sicut nec usurarios, nec injuriarum ultores. The first of the three 
Victorem Romanum Epum circa annum Dui 200. legimus Coenae usu●… interdixisse injurias condonare nolentibus Th. Erast. thes. 7.  had met with your virtuous Forefather Knox in the Castle of St. Andrew's, & saved all the mischief we have reaped by his call from abetting the murder of Cardinals, to rebelling against Princes, renting the Church, & the Commonwealth into Congregational, & Covenanting parties. The last, which was your injust praetense, if not in your banners, at least in the Remonstrances, which you brought in your hands when you invaded England (Canons holding aswell for depriving, as ordaining) had rid us of all the rabble of Rebellious revengeful Presbyters without a stroke. For the business of usury, I shall not draw up my charge till I discover the Scottish Presbyterian Cantores; Yet you were best have care (whatsoever becomes of the ancient Canons) that you be not too severe in depriving for that, lest you get a rebuke from your brethren abroad, who, it may be, desire not to shake hands with you in that point of the Discipline.  
The Bishop neither took out, nor put in any causes of Church-mens deprivation, but merely transcribed, what he thought more 
No canon against rebellion, nor deprivation of rebellious Ministers.  concerned a civil Court, than a Synod. If he had been at the charge of reprinting all whereof your book of Discipline makes mention, he must have left an &c. to bring up a reserve (though you will not own it) of preaching, penning, practising, schism, sedition, Rebellion against moderate, just, & pious Kings, aswell as what your Assemblies were solicitous to prohibit, under the term of Schism, or Rebellion against the Kirke. For the first, & last of the three sins you draw out (because you will have the pleasure, at least, of licking your lips at the naming) His Lordship knows no Bishop, nor Doctor 
Presbyters as peccant as Bishops.  but may find a nameless Scottish Presbyter to give place to. If he should be mistaken (which he hath not so much reason to hope, as charity to wish) he sees in St. james the guilt of murder equivalent 
Ch. 2. 11.  to adultery, & made as great a transgression of the law; He hears of Isaiah's triel in Scotland, which deserves the same wonder, 
29. 9  & cry of the Prophets. Ye are drunken, though not with wine, ye stagger, though not with strong drink, etc. And, since your last return out of England beholds sitting at Edinburgh, aswell as London, the great whore [instead of her blue] arrayed in purple, & scarlet colour, & decked 
Revel 17.  with gold, & precious stones, & pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations, & filthnesse of her sornication; And upon the forehead of the woman drunken with the blood of the Saints, & with the blood of the Martyrs of jesus, a name written with a beam of the sun, Mystery, Babylon the Great, The Mother of harlots, & abominations of the earth. For the third sin of gluttony [which you will have produced, because in your canon, though not much for your credit that your excessive gossipping comes to be cognosced by your Church] all Bishops, & Doctors may freely bid desiance to your sect, of whom so many are so often known to be as fed horses in the morning, & though you flatter your selves into a conceit that the noise is not heard, are neighing as much as those in Isai. So that you may in due time have, what you better 
5. 9  deserve, the same curse with the Priests in the Prophet Malach which will spoil your reviewing & singling out other men's 
2. 3.  crrours, or secret sins to the shame of Christianity among the Nations, when yourselves are spiloi, kai momoi, the principal spots, & 
2 S. Pet. 2. 13.  blemishes that are in it. God may corrupt your seed, & spread dung upon your saces, soleunitatum stercus, even the dung of your solemn feasts, & you, more likely than they, may be taken away with it.  
The Bishop's third challenge mounts somewhat higher than your answer, which pleads only for preaching upon texts, concerning 
Their exercing civil jurisdiction  the Magistrate's duty, & resolving, from Scripture, their doubts, both which reach up only to a judgement of direction: but his Lord●…hip citys the clause in your theorem, which makes difficult cases between King, & people subjects of cognizance, & judgement before the Assemblies of the Kirke, And this, he saith, riseth to a judgement of jurisdiction. Your second book of Discipline is more modest in language, though as mischievous in meaning. The Ministers exerce not the civil jurisdiction, but teach the Magistrate how it should be exercised according to the word; whereas if you take cognizance of, & pronounce judgement in, these difficult cases, Or call before you such as may be more easy, but should be heard otherwhere; this is no other but exercing civil jurisdiction, as spiritual as you make it. If you, with the terror of your excommunicating Maozin, overaw the Magistrate into a servile submission to what you prescribe, this I take to be no teaching, but commanding, & instead of resolving by deliberate advice, & Christian moderation, cutting in sunder with this sword of your spirit (no word of Gods) the knots, & perplexities of his conscience.  
What doubt-resolvers you are commonly between Master, & servant, 
Their eoconomical superintendency.  husband, & wife, your licentious demeanour in many families may inform us, where (it is too well known) you have made yourselves judges of the trivial oeconomical causes in the hall, & dispensers of, or with, more private duties in the chamber; So that, they say, the good man hath many times met with a consistorian censure at his table, &, if not with a Presbyter a Presbyterian prohibition in his bed: I believe you mistake preaching Praelates, & Doctors for some babbling Puritanical Pastors, & Lecturers in England, who have made these things, their care, & gone about them, as the uncontroverted parts of their Ministerial function. The Bishop's negligence herein was the silent reverence he paid, which you owe, to Majesty at a distance; And His Lordship's modest declining domestic curiosities, a civil diversion from that, wherein the word is so clear, as to need no interpreter, & the Husband or Master's authority so absolute, as admits no superintendency to praedominate.  
Your licence to preach personally against Princes, I find given to your Forefathers in an answer to the Queen's proclamation 1559 
Preaching personally against Princes. Knox: Hist. Lib. 2.  Your tradition still continues the same, touching which (for brevity's sake) I must again send you (as I can not too often) to the famous Grotius. De Imper. Sum. Pot, cap. 9  
What the Parliament proponed to you about the late engagement, 
Their proceedings in the late engagement.  included no such great scruple of conscience as to long for the comfort of your resolution, nor was that, when they had it, the star by which they steered their course, in the business. They knew your violence [called zeal] to be such, as would force an entrance into the hearts of many poor people, which, when it sindes emptic, swept, & garnished for better guests, would call in 7 wicked rebellious spirits 
St. Matth. 12. 43.  to possess them. This epidemical mischief they endeavoured to prevent by acquainting you with the plausibility of their enterprise, & if they could have praevailed for either your consent, or silence, they should have the less need, they thought, to look back in the prosecution of their design. What conjunction soever you found to be at that time driven on, I can assure, you there was a clearly malignant party on this side, that found themselves separated, & who trembled at the hazard of their religion, & the persons of them, that were to be most eminent instruments of its preservation, when they saw such a solemn outward compliance with oaths, & Covenants, & with a Committee of Estates, that declared so at large for the former joint-interest with England, against the Liturgy, & established 
Declar. jul. 21. 1649.  religion in our Church. Yet their warning against it made no other noise then sounding of their bowels in compassion to the King, whom they desired to have by any means, delivered out of the hands 
Isai. 63. 15.  of the merciless Independent, and a tenderness toward their sweet, & ingenuous Prince, who with his loyal & generous Nobilitie●…, they feared might be deluded, & fall into the hands of the dark mercenary Presbyter, the orthodox, untainted party being not intermixed in such a visible number, as seemed likely to secure them from that danger.  
The Congregational supplications were naught, but your Consistorian juggle: Yourselves sowed the wind in some whispering Assembly instructions, & then reaped the whirlwind. in tumultuous petitions from the people. So that your own spirit first raised the storm, & then wrapped itself in a misty multitude for concealment. That the States of the Kingdom sent several express messages for that end, viz. to receive an Assemblies replic in a Magisterial Declaration against their proceedings; in pulpit banning, & cursing; in Clamourous seditions, &, as you could make, militairie opposition, I can not get within the compass of my faith, & take it to be such a salving of conscience as none but a Scottish Classical Casuist will profess, beyond what any Jesuit in ordine ad spiritualia will challenge with all the rebellious circumstances, that accompany it. For that filthy conclusion you cast upon the Bishop, we know aswell as if we had seen it drop, that it came from the corrupt praemises in your head. In the case you produce His Lordship ties not up the tongues of God's servants, but concludes the counsel of the wicked to be deceit, God's law not to be taken from your preaching, nor his Covenant 
Prov. 12. 5. Ps. 50. 16.  any more from, then in your mouth. To apply your general to the particular in hand, The war you thought unlawful, because it proclaimed liberty to the captive, & the opening of the prison to His 
Isai. 61.  Majesty that was bound; And the law in St james, you had no reason to submit to, who may, not uncharitably, be thought to have 
2. 11.  resolved upon a connivance at, or collusive neutrality in the murder, that was otherwise visibly to follow. The greatest impiety, & injustice, I know, was in it (as exquisite as you are in casting the fashion of uncertain evils) was the advancement of your Covenant in the Van. And, if for that, the Engagers were to expect nothing but the curse of God, I am sure they deserved no anathema from your Kirke. If your doubting Nation be put in the scales with your resolving Nation that engaged, I believe we must give you at least a grain or two to make it aequiponderate. They, that stated their souls by the council of your Assembly, stayed behind to prevent all recruit, & oppose the retreat of their more loyal Country men upon a possible misfortune. For the lawfulness whereof they had somewhat, worse than silence, from the (miscalled) servants of God, though, I am sure, no authority from his word. When Religion, & Royalty lay panting under the talents of most cruel Rebels, the civil business of war was by the other birds of prey unseasonablie disputed. What concerned the soul in it, had the clear sunshine from 
Isai. 8. 20.  the law, & the testimony to warm, & quicken it, That the Assembly spoke not according to this word, was because there was then no light in them, the lamp of the wicked was put out.  
What the Church declared in their public papers to the Parliament 
Prov. 13.  had very litlie of modesty, or truth. It bound up your engagement in so many knotty conditions, as had made it sure enough for vindicating the wrongs the sectarians had done, when the only injured persons were excluded out of their share in the promised success. To expect reason by Christian, & friendly t●…eaties from them that you acknowledge had bid adieu to Religion, & Covenant, when your zealous selves, praetenders to both, never offered any heretofore, was like the finespun thread, or Covent garden paper 
januar. 6. & 29. 1649.  you put in afterward between the axe & the Royal head it cut off: If the good people in Scotland were so willing to hazard their lives, & estates; what good Pastors were you that held their hands, & forced then to sit still. By whose cunning, & misperswasion the engagement was spouled, or impeded in the stating, we require no farther evidence then from your pamphlets, By whose rash praecipitancie, or somewhat else in the managing (if it may not be ascribed to the fortune of the war) is a mystery yet not perfectly revealed. The number was large enough, though the most religious, as you call them, were absent, & the army's courage. I think had not been much greater by their company. The lies spoken in hypocrisy 
1. Tim. 4. 2.  did but cauterize the conference of the wretched people that stayed at home. The lethargy, called peace, which they slumber in for the time, may hereafter break out into an active war, to the ruin of the Assembly spirits that seduced them. The three reasons the Bishop toucheth upon, as the principal, may be the test for the many more that went with them. So that we shall not need to rake in your dunghills for the jewel that you promise, which, when we have found, will not yield one grain of faythfullnesse in your Church. They, that foretold the destruction that followed, were not unlikely the instruments to effect it. If the King's friends should not march till the Assembly Zedekiahs' put on their horns, though his person be more righteous, we look his success should be little 
1. Kings. 22.  better than Ahabs, & the Independent Syrians pushed no otherwise then in mockery and sport, while his loyal subjects should be too seriously scattered on the hills as sheep that have no shepherd to enfold them. If the misbelief, & contempt of whom you call the Lords servants, & the great danger, unto which you make religion be brought, were the only losses sustained in the last army's misfortune; let those workers of iniquity perish, that to the ruin of souls, endeavour to repair them. What grief of heart, or repentance, hath showed itself in those persons, you say, contributed to the spoiling but must mean, unless you condemn yourselves, such as were forward in promoting that design, whether in a politic hypocrisy, or (which can hardly be rationally afforded then) a misguided sincerity, will find it to be poenitenda poenitentia, & a hard retreat from the guilt, & shame of that bottomless penance you praescribed them; unless their judgement be, as their sin, the same with his who sold his birthright, as they theirs to their liberty, for a morsel of bread, a poor inconsiderable temporal subsistence, & may find no place of repentance, 
Heb. 12. 16.  though they seek it carefully with tears. Should all the Disciplinarian hands be cut off, that were not held up to the agreement of bringing, by a warlike engagement, the Sectarian party ●…in England to punishment, David Lesley would have but a lefthanded army, & His Majesty might rely upon half his security aswell for his crown, as his religion. They who, to gain their arrears, so easily, I must say traitourouslie, parted with that Royal person, are not to be credited as men so unanimously resolved, with hazard of lives, & estates upon his rescue. Nor can any man, whose faith as not resolved into air, & so, ready to engender with the faint breath of every dissembler, believe that they would with such hazard make a long march to the Isle of Wight, who would not, with less, conduct His Majesty, a day, or two from Holmebie. But had you been at that trouble, & had Victory strewed roses in your way, when you should have with pleasure regained the rich purchase you went for, I preceive you had been at a loss for a chapman, & a great uncertainty where to dispose it until you had got one. For first you talk of bringing the King to one of his houses to perfect the treatit, Then of bringing His Majesty to London with honour, freedom, & safety, Next of bringing him to sit in his Parliament with what honour, & freedom himself should desire; And all these with in the extent of a few lines, which make three degrees of doubt in the Saints, even after their debate of that matter, & universal agreement, not to be quaestioned. But let us suppose the last, & best of the three in your purpose, & your avaunt Curriers on horseback to hasten it: I see you are pleased to call them back with a quaestion, to which I pray tell me where the Lords servants, or loyal subjects of Christ's Kingdom e'er made a like. Yet you shall have your answer by & by, though you show not the like civility to the Bishop, who seems to state his quaestion thus. Whether when the Parliament, & Army of Scotland had declared their resolutions to bring His Majesty to London, etc. without conditioning for a promise of security, for establishing (at best a controverted) religion, any legitimate full Church Assembly ought, an illegitimate imperfect Clerical combination or Conventicle, could in ordine ad spiritualia, declare against the engagement; call for the King's hand, seal, oath, to establisp a cut throat covenant to the ruin of his person, & posterity, Religion, Laws, Liberty, Monarchy, & whatsoever His Majesty was, by a solemn oath, & indispensable peswasion of conscience obliged, with the hazard of life & Kingdoms, to maintain.  
In answer to yours take this. The Parliament, & army of Scotland in declaring their resolutions, etc. did what they ought, & that according to your own principles, for you had the security of His Majesty's Royal word [more then once] for establishing your Religion in Scotland, according to the treaties that had been perfected between the two Kingdoms; If you intended the like courtesy to England, your Parliament, & Army, had it consisted of none but the Saints, were in no capacity to take it, being no part of the principals concered in the benefit, nor deputed by England to capitulate for it, Therefore their rescuing His Majesty's person out of the Sectaries hands, had been the untying of his, & putting him in a posture to give; The bringing him to his Parliament in London, where likewise your own Commissioners resided, had been the setting him in sight of such as were to ask, & receive. Which is the same kind of Logic you used in your answer to both Houses of Parliament upon the new propositions of peace, & the 4. bills to be sent 1647. Where I find your opinion, & judgement to be this, That the most equal, fairest, & just way to obtain a well-grounded peace is by a personal treaty with the King: & that his Majesty for that end be invited to come to London with honour, freedom, & safety. For which you offer 6. reasons. 1. The sending of your propositions without a treaty hath been often essayed without successe… Of those propositions this ever was one, To promise security for establishing religion, And what better success could now be expected? 2… His Majesty's proesence with his Parliament must be the best, ●…if not the only ●…remedie to remove our troubles. This remedy the Parliament, & Army intended to help you to. 3… Without a treaty or giving reasons for asserting the lawfulness, & expedience of the propositions to be presented, they may be aesteemed impositions. This proposition was to be sent without a treaty, being neither lawful nor expedient for the many reasons His Majesty had formerly rendered. I remit the Reader to your paper for the rest, & a great deal more of self contradiction (with somewhat worse,) which one of the new English Lights hath discovered in his answer. But 
Scot Mist. dispelled.  you shake of that like an old servingman which had done your drudgery in his youth, & bestow your livery on the Parliaments praecedent, which providence, believe me, will save you but little. Your argument's this: The Parliaments of both Kingdoms in all their former treaties ever pressed upon the King a number of propositions, Ergo, The Church may desire the granting of one. I should be too courteous in casting up the numerous account of their rebellions equal to their propositions, & keep out but a single unity for you. I shall choose rather to tell you (cautioning first for the falsehood in the fundamental hypothesis) That in cases of treaty the Church of Scotland is subordinate to one, & therefore hath no adequate conditioning privilege with the Parliaments of both, Kingdoms, especially in her peevith state of opposition to both secondly, This proposition desired, is the Trojan horse into which all the rest of your treason's contrived, there being no fraudulent possibility, Eccles●…astike, nor Politic, which your Sinon Assembly hath not cunningly lodged in the belly, the winding entrails, the maeanders, of the Covenant. Your clause in the parenthesis, when the bolts are off, & set at liberty, tells us your meaning is this.  
Let the King's person, & children continue imprisoned, His Queen, Prince, etc. banished, His revenue sequestered, his life be irrecoverablie endangered, rather than those of the Scottish Presbyterian party (for the rest you can not excommunicate out of your nation, though not in your covenant) should run the hazard of their lives, & estates; Which was the true result of your debate, & agreement. That you heard no complaint, when many of the thirty propositions were pressed, was, because your ears were stopped against the lamentations of every English Jeremic that wept for the slain of the 
I crem. 9●…1.  daughter of his people, being such an Assembly as the next●…verse describes you. That an out cry, as you call it is made when only one proposition is stuck upon, is because that one streightneth the bands of your wickedness, lays heavier burdens upon the shoulders 
Isai. 58.  of innocence, & will not let the oppressed go free; And then God's Prophets are called upon to cry aloud, not to spare, to lift up their voice like a trumpet, etc. This one was that, the yielding to which would most of all have violated His Majesty's conscience, & in reference to which he tells you 'tis strange there can be no method of peace, but by making war upon his soul. Yet let the case be disputable, & your tender excusable, at least in respect of the time, which you say was not to be before His Majesty's rescue, but only before his bringing to London, etc. If so, why was not His Majesty first rescued, & delivered out of the hands of the Sectaries, & then your proposition insisted on? The Bishop tells you the reason out of Humble advice, Edenb. Jun. 10. 1648. viz. lest his liberty might bring your by gone proceedings about the league, & Covenant into quaestion. All honest Christians, & loyal subject's [though heathen] are of the same belief with his Lordship, & whatsoever is their opinion in general, expect that you prove the innocence, or justice of conditioning in this particular with your confessed captive King. Concerning the absolute sovereignty of Kings you are other where answered, & if not satisfied, may find more work made you by the famous Grotius, whose book was manifestly penned against you, & your usurping brother-Rebells of England, & bids defiance to all your Didoclaves, buchanan's, & Brutus' of both nations, till replied to. But away with your counterfeit inclination to treaties, which you ever abhorred like death, fearing in that peace, there could be no peace for your wicked selves, & therefore gave public thanks to God for delaying your torments in the disappointment of that at the Isle of 
Edenb. 12. May. 1649 postser.  Wight, aswell by your plots, & devices, as by the Sectaries armed-force. The holiness of this religious proposition was but the blind under favour of which you stalked, & made safer approaches to His Majesty's murder, by another, never hitherto repealed, immutably designed; Nor are there many of your public papers but forespoke the destruction of his Royal Person, and Family unless he submitted to the tyranny of your terms, and whether that had quitted him as much from your judgement, as it assuredly had from his supremacy, and crowns, may be guessed by the experiment he made in his first too full, fatal concessions, which your own Parliament Acts have registered completelie satisfactory to the demands or desires of all sorts of people in Scotland, which too indulgent paternal, goodness having turned into poison, you regorged in his face by a foreign invasion, and a base mercenary rebellion till, like evening wolves, you rend in pieces, and preyed upon his person in the dark. The proposition I mean is that, for which one of your sectarian 
Scotti●…h mist Dispelled  brethren calls God, Angels, and Men to judge of your dissembling in pressing a personal treaty, when His Majesty formerly desiring one, you told him, There having been so much innocent blood of his good subjects shed in this war by His Majesty's commands and commissions, … you conceive that until satisfaction, and security be first given to both his Kingdoms. His Majesty's coming to London could not be convenient, nor by you assented to. What satisfaction you mean, we know by your Discipline, which makes murder unpardonable, and then I pray, what security could be taken, but his life? If the granting this one proposition you stand upon, concerning Religion, and the Covenant, had drawn after it (as it seems by your silence) the satisfaction for blood, and security for your peace. We may clearly conclude your Religion was 
henderson's Prophesy Pap. to K. Ch. 1. jun. 3. 1646. Esih. 4. 12.  murder, and no resting Canaan for your Covenant but in His Majesty's death. Which in effect was thus foretold him by that bold Henderson. My soul trembleth to think, and to foresee what may be the event, if this opportunity be neglested. He would not use, he said, the words of Mordecai to Esther, because he hoped better things. Whereas if his hopes failed him, we may well argue he had used them, as you do, that survive him, in your endeavour that he, and his father's house should be destroyed.  
But that you take confession to be the Doctrine of Antichrist, you 
Pre●…yters De●…aring against Parliament debates.  m●…ght, without an irony, put an ●…ce to your own being criminous, to the purpose, in declaring against the Parliaments debates, which if therefore needless, and impertinent, because you think, or will have them thought to be so, the Great Council you make but a subordinate Eldership, or Class to the supreme Assembly of your Ki●…ke. You are not always so modest as to keep your distance from your English Parliaments affairs; We have for many years found you like loving beagles, upon either's concernment, so closely coupled in the slip of your Covenant, as if, when the game should be lost upon either's default, you meant to be trussed up together for company. If it be proper to have any King in Scotland, the proper place of debate about his negative voice is as well a free 
The King's negative voice proper to be debated in a Scottish Parliament.  Parliament there as in England. If your laws admit not of that, they admit of no King, whose Regality consisteth in that, nor hath he any legislative authority without it. It is the argument of your own Commissioners, who use to fetch their Syllogisms from the Assembly, therefore you that made it are best able to solve it. Their, or your, words are these. The quaestion is where in his [the Kings] Royal authority, and just power doth consist. And we affirm, and hope it can 
Ans: to both Houses upon the new propositions and the 4. bills 1647.  not be denied, That Regal power, and authority is chief in making, and enaciing laws, and in protecting, and descending their subjects, which are of the very essence, and being of all Kings. And the exercise of that power are the chief parts, and duties of their Royal office and function. And the sceptre, and sword are the badges of that power. Yet the new preface compared with other parts of these new propositions takes away the Kings negative voice, and cuts off all Royal power, and right in the making of laws, contrary to the constant practice of this, and all other Kingdoms. For the legislative power in some Monarchies is penes Principem solum … in other … by compact between the Prince, and the People … In the last the power of the King is least, but best regulated, where neither the King alone without his Parliament, nor the Parliament without the King can make laws … which likewise is clear by the expressions of the King's answers, Le roil vent, and Le Roys ' avisera; So as it is clear from the words of assent when Statutes are made; and from the words of dissent, that the King's power in the making of laws is one of the chiefest jewels of the cronne, and an essential part of sovereignty … somet mes the Kings denial had been better than his assent to the desires of the Houses of Parliament … If I had transscribed all, the Reader had found the argument more full. Out of this, compared with what you write, he may rest assured, that in declaring at that time against the Parliaments debate (which in truth was vindicating the King's negative voice) you were resolved against Regal Government. And whatsoever since you have published in a mock proclamation, had your Covenanting brethren kept their station in England, the Crown and Sceptre, if not condemned to the coining house, had been kept perpetual prisoners in Edinburgh Castle, whither with funeral solemnity you have carried them; nor had there been any Royal head, or hand kept above ground for their investment, while your Rebels could catch them, and procure sword, or axe to cut them off. But to follow you in your track. If your laws admitted not absolute reprobation, by a negative voice, they did preterition by a privative silence, which was all together as damnable to your Parliament bills, they being made Acts by His Majesty's touch with the top of his Sceptre, and those irrefragablie nulled which he passed by.  
In what follows, you show more ingenuity, than prudence, by acknowledging the ground whereupon you built your censure of 
Why opposed by the Presbyters.  this debate in Parliament as needless and impertinent, because of the power it might put in the hand of the King, to deny your covenanted propositions. But alas you grasp the wind in your fist, and embrace an any cloud within your arms, and, like some fond Platonike, are jealous over that jewel you never had. The King of blessed memory told you, when he spoke it to your brethren, He would never forego his reason as man, his Royalty as King. Though with Samson 
Eic. Bas. Ch. 11.  he consented to bind his hands, and cut off his hair, he would not put out his eyet himself to make you sport, much less cut out his tongue, to give you the legislative privilege of this voice. That you, at best, sit in Parliament as his subjects, not superiors, were called to be his Counsellors, not Dictatours; summoned to recommend your advice, not to command his duty. And what pretty puppets, think you, have you made yourselves for so many years together to the scorn of all nations, when you so formally propounded to His Majesty to grant, what you profess he had never any power to deny.  
What comes next is one of the many springs you set to catch cocks, but your luck is bad, or you mistaken in your sport. I see 
The King's affirmative voice.  if you were to make an harmony of confessions, you would be as liberal of other men's faith, as of your own. What the belief is of the warner, and his faction about the absolute affirmative voice of any King, you had heard more at large if you had fetched your authority from any line in His Ld. book for that demand. Yet to keep up your credit (that you may not mount to no purpose). I will bring one who, in spiritualibus at least, shall take off this sublimate from your hands, and pay you with more mystery of reason than you have, it may be, found in any other of the faction. Nulla in re magis ciucescit vis summi Imperii, quam quod in ejus sit arbitrio quaenam religio publicè exerceatur, 
Hug. Grot. De Imper. Pot. cap. 8.  idque praecipuum inter Majestatis jura ponunt omnes qui politica scripserunt. Docet idem experientia, Si enim quaeras cur in Anglia, Maria regnante, Romanae Religio, Elizabetha verò Im●…rante Evangelica viguerit, causa proxima reddi non poterit nisi ex arbitrio Reginarum. Going on in the Religion of the Spaniard, Dane, Swede, he tells you ad voluntatem dominantium recurretur. Though I shall only give you this quaestion in exchange for your language of concluding, and impeding. If Parliaments have power ad placitum to conclude, or impede any thing by their votes, what part of making, or refusing laws is to the King?  
If the Bishop had challenged you for nominating officers of the army, you are not without some such parrot-praters abroad as 
No such vicitie need be used about mominating ofsicers. Ch. 4.  can tattle more truth than that out of your Assemblies. Nor need you be so nice in a mater so often exemplified in Knox, & his spiritual brethren, who, as appears manifestly by their leters, etc. Were the chiefe modellers of all the militia in their time, and His Ldp. having showed you when your pulpit Ardelios encouraged the seditious to send for (though in vain) L. Hamilton by name (and Robert Bruce dispatched an Express for him) to be their head. You are here charged only with not allowing such as the Parliament had named, because not so qualified as you pretended. That the State ever sent the officers they had chosen, to do over all the postures of their souls, to discipline either their men or affections before you, and to have your Consistorian judgement of their several qualifications and abilities, is more I confess then hitherto I have heard of, That you put it to the last part of your answer (relating to no part of the quaeltion) was but to show what you bear in your arms; That, as plain as you look, the cross on the top of the crown is the proper emblem of your Assembly, whom no civil mater can escape, having a birthright from Christ (or deputation at least) to overrule both his Kingdoms upon the earth. Your Ifs & Ands about the necessity of a war, in that moment of time, when the British Monarchy Lay gasping for life, demonstrates 
The Presbyters destructive demurs.  what good meaning you had to praeserve the Person, or Government of Kings. The constant proof of that integrity you required in the officers, must have been the covenant-proofe of their rebellion, and wickedness, which, if blemished from the beginning of the wars with no religious, nor loyal impression, no sincere piety toward God, nor real duty to the King, had marked them out for your Mammon Champions and Goliahs, men most likely to make good the interest, you aimed at. This you were before practising in England, where your Sectarian Masters, that had set you on horseback, meant not to take your bridle in their mouths, and be rid by your ambition to their ruin. Though you advised them fair for't in your Papers March 3. 1644. requiring to have the officers in their army qualified to your purpose… men known to be zealous of the reformation of religion, and of that uniformity. Which both Kingdoms are obiiged to promote, and maintain, etc. As in September, the year before, you told them you could not conside in such persons to have, or execute place, and authority in the army raised by them, who did not approve, and consent to the Covenant. Which I finde by one, well acquanted with your meaning, 
Scot Mist. disp.  interpreted thus. You desired to have zeaious hardic men out of the North, whose judgement about the Covenant, and treaty had concurred so as to introduce your Nation to be one of the Estates of England, to have a negative voice in all things, who would have pleaded your cointerest with the Parliament of England, in the Militia of the Kingdom, disposal of places and offices of trust, etc. Having failed there of your cointerest with the Parliament, you strain here for your cointerest with the King, and would have the commanding power of his militant Kingdom in their hands, that should have held His Majesty like a bird in a string, which if he once stretched for recovering his own just liberties, or his peoples, they could have plucked him in to clip his troublesome wings, or cage him at their pleasure. The firmness of your Covenanting Commanders to the interest of God, the Dispeller reveals in his experience of their striking hands with hell, in cursing, and swearing, plundering, and slealing, which might have filled the hearts of the people (had your poison not been administered under the guilt of wholesome advice) with more rational jelausies, and fears then any by past miscarriages, of them whose design at that time was very hopeful, and honourable, otherwise then as it carried the fatal pretext of your Covenant before it.  
To let the world know how long your mystery of iniquity hath been working in the bowels of the State, the Bishop allegeth ancient 
The Reviewers impertinency in the success of the Spanish Merchants.  praecedents of So. years standing, from more impartial, more credible relations than those in yourRomance, falsely entitled, An Historical Vindication. What you shovel in here about treacherous correspondence with Spain, is but an handful of sand without lime, adhaeres not at all to the Inquisitours troubling the Merchants in their religion, nor that to your admonishing the people to be wary in their trade; nor all at all to the truth which the Bishop tells you was a Synodical Act prohibiting their traffic under the rigid poenaltie 
As. Dund. 1493.  of excommunication, which, all the art you have, can not melt into a friendly advertisement. Those of the Merchants, whom (you say) the Inquisitours seduced, required no relaxation; Nor were the rest so persecuted as to be discouraged in their trade, when they petitioned the King to maintain that liberty, where of your spiritual chains had deprived them. Therefore all your courteous mediation was but a disguised Imperious prohibition, whereby you checked the King, and in ordine ad spiritualia took it for granted, you mated him, by the Merchant's weak submission, to your Censure.  
Could we but once take it your Church in agrieving fit for her 
The Presbyterian zeal for the 4. Commandment bypocritical cover for their breach of the rest. Prov. 11. 9  own so public profaneness in the daily breach of the 5, 6, & other commandaments that follow, we would tolerate her zeal though not commend her discretion, in her will worship, & superstitious nicety touching the violation of the fourth. But when we find her enlarging her conscience to laugh at rebellion, murder etc. We guess her crocodiles tears to be more out of design then compastion, & her mouth open for the destruction of them, that are not, through knowledge [of her hypocrity] delivered. The profanation of the Sabbath is not so in conjunction with à Monday market, but that à Saterdays, journey, with some sixpeenie loss, or à Sunday night's watch, and labour might separate them. Your holy supplications were leven'd with judaism, which had not the Bishops in Christian liberty eluded, as your advantage might lie, the Parliament might have next been importuned to Dositheus' folly, to erect à ridiculous statuary Sabbath in your Country. Though I hear all were not so hard hearted as you make them, but that Patrick Forbes Bishop of Aberdene did translate the mercates (which are none of the least) in his diocese to wednesday, as the provincial records of that place will testify, From the obstruction made 
Recreations resections to fit us for spiritual duties.  by the rest to your petitions, you cannot infer, what you have formed in a calumny about their doctrine, & example on that day. What sorts of plays (which were not all if you reckon right) the most eminent Bishops either used, or tolerated, were such as consisted with, and spirited, the Dominical duty of public and private devotion, wherein they had the authority and praecedent of otherguesse Christians, than any scotish Assembly praecisians, and seconded with reason, such as hitherto, you never seriously, and solidelie answered. If they endeavoured to make the Sunday no Sabbath; they did it in a far better sense, and on better grounds then Rob. 
Rob. Bruc'es' motion to alter the Sabbath.  Bruce could have changed it, as you know he endeavoured, to Wednesday or Friday, and Lent from spring, to Autumn, on purpose to privilege the pure brethren brethren in the singularity of their worship, and free them from a profane communion (though not in the time) with Papists, and Praelates. If the Bishops had a design to advance their Kingdom by such old licentiousness, and ignorance as this innocent liberty might be feared to reduce; We know to whom the Presbyters somewhere are beholding, at least for their Sabbath policy, though 
The Bruc'es Sunday toleration not so large as the Reformed Church's abroad.  they think good to enlarge it, beyond Episcopal sports, and plays, to public mercates, to brewing, fulling, grinding, carrying beer, corn, dung, and indeed what not? except opening whole shops, and wearing old clothes; For redressing which I do not find your compassionate prayers to god, or advice to them, (which I remember you used) so effectual as to make any amendment, or gain any proselytes to your circumcised severity. Therefore, till you praevaile I pray let the Bishops be troubled no more with what all your flinty faced malice can not appropriate to the times, or places of their government. What hath been granted since you cast them out of the Parliament, was by them; that had no more power in one sense to give then in another to deny. Yet had all your demands meant no worse, than you spoke in that about the due sanctification of the day, you might have let them sit still, have had the Souters your friends reconciled, and made a better market of those Royal concessions, which met too far (unless your gratitude had been greater) your unlimited reguests.  
For the challenge that follows, The Bishop knows so well the history 
The monsirous impiety of the Presbyterians in prosecusion of their ends.  of that time, that he is fain to leave a mass of horror unstampt in his thoughts, conceiving it uncapable of any due impression by his words. And whosoever shall look upon Scotland at that time, shall find it to be nefandi conscium monstri locum, a place that had bred such an hideous monster, as neither Hyrcania, Seythia; nor any of her Northern sisterhood would foster. Not long before, when the Queen was great with child of that Prince, to whom you profess so much tenderness soon after, not valuing the hazard, of that Royal Embryo, you hale her Secretary, her principal servant of trust from her side and murder him at her door; Because the King would not take upon him the prerogative guilt of that cruel murder, according to the instructions you had given him, you find him useless must have him too dispatched out of the way, which was done, though not by the hands, by the known contrivance of Murray in his bed, his corpse thrown out of doors, and the house blown up with gunpowder where he lay. To get a praetense for seizing upon the young Prince, you make the Queen and E. Bothwell (because her favourite) principals in the murder of his father, possess the people with jealousy; of the like unnatural cruelty intended to him. Having got the Royal infant in your hands, you not only null the Regency of his mother, vou work all the villainy you could think on against her person in his name, and make him, before he knew that he was borne, act, in your black or bloody habits, the praevious parts of a matricide in his cradle. In order hereunto the Queen (as you say,) was declared for Popery, which requires some Presbyterian Rebel glossary to explain it, there being no such expression to be found in the language of any orthodox, loyal Christians in the world. In this conjuncture of wickedness, that no other way of safety was conceivable for your Protesting, and Banding religion, but a continued rebellion, no other to make sure of the infant King for your prisoner, the Kingdom your vassal, but by such a grand combination in treason, may be granted at sight of your several preceding desperate exploits. For this end your General Assembly might crave conference with such of the secret Council who were as public Kebells as yourselves. That your advice was mutual whose end and interest was the same, is not to be doubted, saving that we may observe such godly motions to spring first from the virtuous Assembly, as you confess touching this. Your call was in much more hast then good speed, and your considerable persons convened a great deal more frequently than they covenanted. Argile, that did, slept not well the next night, nor was he well at ease the day after, till he had revealed your treason to the Queen Knox tells you, That the people did not join to the lords, and divers of the 
Lib. 5.  Nobles were adversaries to the business. Others stood Neuters, The slender party that subscribed your bond began to distrust, were thinking to dissolve, and leave off the enterprise a confessed casualty gave up the Victory, with the Queen's person, unhappily into your hands. This mixed, & extraordinary Assembly had little sincere, 
1560.  or ordinary manners to call that a Parliament, which was none, having no commission nor proxy from their Sovereign and to make it one chief article in their bond, to defend, or endeavour to ratify those Acts, which their Sovereign would not, when the lord St. john carried them into France. But they persisted in the same rebellious principle, professing in terminis that tender to have been but a show of their dutiful obedience And that they begged of them (their King and Queen) not any strength to their Religion, which from God had full power, and needed not the suffrage of man etc. They are Knox's words, which, were there no 
Lib. 3.  other evidence, are enough to convince any your aequitable comparers. That the just authority of Kings, and Parliaments in making Acts, or laws is in consistent with the Presbyterian government. Which is the sum of the controversy in hand.  
No secret Council, especially, if in open rebellion, can empower an Assembly to issue letters of summons when their Prince's public 
Assemblies have no power to summ●…n contrary to the King's proclamation.  proclamation disclaims it. The greatest necessity can be no colour to that purpose, Though, what srivoulous ideas of great necessities the Presbytery can frame, we may judge by their late proceedings in our time. Your religion, and liberties seem then to have been in no such evident hazard, as you talk of; if they were, you may thank yourselves, who had the Royal offer of security to both, the Queen only conditioning, & craving, with tears the like liberty of conscience to herself The life of the young King was daily, indeed, in visible danger from the hands of them, who had murdered his father, and ravished the crown, or Regency from his mother, but who they were I have told you. In such an ambiguous time men of any wisdom, other than that which is carnal, and worldly, and so folly before God, would have betaken themselves to their prayers, & tears; men of courage, and piety would have waited the effects of providence, and not so distrust fully, deceitfully pieced it with their own strength. From such lovers of Religion, as contest, covenant, depose, murder; as rage, ruin, proscribe, excommunicate, Libra Reges, & Regiones Domme 
Cantic. 8. 6. 7.  Good Lord deliver Kings, & countries from them all; Fortis est, ut 〈◊〉, dilectio; jura sicut infernus amulatio, Their love is strong as death, in the letter: their jealousy is cruel as the grave; The coals thereof, are coals of fire, which have a most vehement flame; No waters of widows or orphans tears canquench it; No floods of innocent blood can drown it. It's not unlikely the Praelates' resolution may be, That when a most wicked company of villains had deposed two Queens and killed one King; endeavourd to smother the spotless Majesty of a Royal Son with the fowl guilt of their injury done to his Gracious Mother, which they cast enviouslie upon his name: And after these to draw a Nation, and Church, under the airy notion of a true Religion, never establishd by Law of God norman, into a Covenanting Rebellion: And a free kingdom under a legal Monarchy into an illegal oppressive tyranny. That in this case there ough to be a general meeting of Church and state, to vindicate Majesty, laws, liberty, and provide remedies against such extraordinary mischiefs. That the Presbyterian Scots never were, nor will be of this opinion, I take your word, and believe it. Take this supplement with you That E. Bothewell 
Contradi●…iion.  should kill the King to make way for Popery, and Murray before endeavour to hinder his marriage with the Queen, under a praetense of a design by that then to bring it in (which history relates) will cost some pains to reconcile Errors and abuses in Religion, the 
The Assemblies can reform only according to canon, not the canon.  ordinary reformation whereof is referred to your Ecclesiastical Assemblies, are such only as appear to be peccant against the ordinary rule or canon by just authority established; But that the Canon itself should be alterable at the pleasure of subjects in a combined Assemblies declining their subordination to a superior power in King, and Parliament; and making themselves not only absolute to act, but supreme to prescribe, is contradictory to all law, and equity nor can any necessity countenance it. What you find wrong in the Church, according to your method, must be no other, then that, which had been formerly decreed in some of your Assemblies, which must imply a fallibility in their application of the rule; This error when you go about to rectify from the word of God, you may chance to have no clearer evidence than your praedecessours, nor the people assurance, that your eyesight is better. So that, for aught they know, one blind Assemblle may lead another by the hand and both with their followers fall into the ditch. Beside It may so happen, that religious Acts, answerable to the word, may be offensive to some wicked Assembly, that have not the fear of God before their eyes, These if they have the power, to be sure they want not perverseness to abolish, for which I find no cautionary restraint in your discipline. For, after you have pretended to rectify if upon your dissembling petition a following Parliament refuseth to ratify that you have power to abolish, and establish what you please, I find every where confessed by your faction. And this indeed, as you say, is your ordinary method of proceeding in Scotland, but in no other Reformed Country, who every where attribute to the Magistrate an Architectonike power in the Church, and but a ministerical, or instrumental to any Synod or Assembly, Videlius, and other your brethren of note on this subject making you Bellarmine's papists, though when your Kings, stand publicly in opposition against you for the maintenance of their right, 'tis quaestionable whether his most plausible reasons will as well privilege you in his doctrine. The legal method of England you know well enough is otherwise, and therefore can not add mit of your Discipline without altering the fundamental laws, the most essential part of gouverment in our kingdom.  
The three foolish, & unlearned quaestions that follow tell us you 
2. Tim. 2. 23. 24.  are in the mind to gender strises, rather than according to Saint Paul's counsel, follow righteousness, faith, charity, or peace. To the first I answer. Christians of old, before the Imperial laws for paganism were revoked, 
Ancient Assemblies reversed no civil laws. Euseb.  were more or less hindered from embracing the Gospel, according to the zeal, rigour, remissness or clemency of the Emperors that reigned. Those that obeyed not their commands, suffered their punishments, resisted no powers, reversed no laws. Nay, it's as high a trial as can well be instanced, when Maximilian, & Diocletian publishd an edict to demolish their Churches, and burn their Bibles, because one was found that in great in dignation tore the paper in pieces, being condemned to die, all Christians that heard it approved the sentence, and commended the justice of the pagan Magistrate in his execution. To the second thus. The ecumenical and National S●…nods of the ancients 
Reformed no haresies ●…ith out the Emperor.  had ever the presence or authority of the Emperor, without which they reform no heresies nor corruptions in religion. Who by ratifying their canons did cancel all the laws of state, which did protect those errors When this could not behad but with praejudice to religion, the Emperors themselves being drawn in by the haeretikes to their party, they only declared their different opinion, submitted to censure, were disspersed in exile, nor did they countermand by the terror of excommunication, and cursing, but when summoned by the Emperor to rectify any abuses in the Church. This may be seen in the time of Constantius addicted to the Arians. To your third I answer thus. The civil laws in Brittany, I mean for our part in it, whereby Popery was established, were annulled by the King, whom we make absolute in that power. If the reformation begun by Hen: 8. be thought clogged with any seeming violence, sacrilege, or schism (which some ties on his conscience 
Henry the eight's reformation the occasion not the original of ours.  that required a more deliberate solution, and some indirect passionate proceedings give the Papists a kind of coloural argument to object) I see not how you are justified that imitate it, nor we bound to sustain the inconveniences that attend it, who may fairly make the reign of K. Edward our epoch, and from him, in his first Parliament, fetch our authority for the change. On your side of Britain, I find naught but a continued rebellion in the reforming party 
Scotish Presbyterians from the beginning s●…hisme.  (as you mean it) till K. james grew up to a judgement of discerning and some resolution of restraining: Nor till that time (though I hope well of many thousand persons under a Presbyterian persecution) can I in reason quit the praevalent part of your Church from a succession in schism. For Germany and France I have no more to do at this time to be their judge then their advocate, seeing no where His Lp. joining with his brother Issachar in impleading then for rebellion. All you can logicallie collect is such a major as this. They who reform according to the Presbyterian Scotish met●…od by abolishing Acts of Parliament in a surreptious or violent Synod, by framing Assembly Acts for religion, and giving them the authority of Ecclesiastical laws, without or against the consent of the Magistrate cheat the Magistrate of his civil power in order to religion. If you will needs be assuming in behalf of your brethren in Germany and France, they must put you to prove it, or quit themselves of your conclusion as they can. In the mean time I see your pasture is bad that you turn your cattles so often grazing abroad. For the fool in the next line you send to the Bishop, I guess it may be his mind to have him returned by the creature that caries 
None but they have declared Bishops & ceremonies unlawful.  his brother Issacha●… burden, expecting a wiser answer by the next paper Mercury you employ; which can not be without bringing to light that law that praeauthorized the Minister's protestation against the Acts of Parliament 1584. And that Act of Parliament since the nats' Assembly of Glasgow yet standing in force that made Bishops and ceremonies vnlaw full; The former, beside the contradiction it caries with it, devolving the legislative power upon the Kirke, which according to you can keep the Parliament in awe not by petitioning but protesting, and so ratify or null all laws declared at her pleasure; The latter, beside the long perseverance in sin it imputes to the Latin and Greek Churches, as well before as after the corruption in either, the late warmness to all Reformed Churches abroad, which never hitherto in any National Assembly declared regular Episcopacy and ceremonies unlawful, outdoing the very Act of abolishing which his Majesty in Parliament ratified with reference to no unlawfulness, but inconvenience, & retracted that too in his too late, yet seasonable, repentance afterward. Though for what His Lp. objects, were there too after Acts of Parliament to ratify the substance of what the Kirke repraesents, no one of them thereby justifies the circumstance of Ministers mutinous protesting against laws made in hours of darkness, upon what misinformation soever, which is treason against man and excusable by no formal obedience toward God. This for the Bishop to publish, being one of the Governors of that Church which strangers plot what they can to seduce into the same rebellion, with their own, is no contemning of law, but discharging his conscience and duty in his place.  
By the next story the Bishop will gain a more perfect discovery of your resembling those grievous revoiters in Jeremy, who walk with slanders, being brass & iron; Who bend your tongue like a bow for lies, and 
Ch. 6. 28. Ch. 9 3.  yet, when the true case is known be accounted by Solomon but a fool for your labour. In King James' minority who stole his name (though they ne'er had his heart) to act by it the most unnatural oppresion of that most gallant Queen his virtuous and gracious mother, 
Capt: I. Sivart vindicated.  to murder and banish many noble assertors of the reformed orthodox religion, & laws, appears upon public record in your story. This one Capt. james Stuart very nobly with standing your devilish temptations to have him maintain a destructive dissension at Court with Esme Stuart. E Lenox, a faithful subject & most deserving favourite of the Kings, & improving that little interest you helped him to, to a more Christian conjunction in love and loyalty, and a double vigilancy over the King's person exposed too often to your treacherous designs, is unlikely to have any better character at your hands then what you commonly give to persons of such fidelity and honour. His advancement to the titles & estate of E. Arran & Chancellar of Scotland, was partly in reward of his guardian care over him whom somewhat else beside sickness had made unfit for the management of either. Yet were not these taken by force But on free session, then desperate; to whom if the King were nearest in blood (not to mention a third which your zealous professors commonly find him) his Majesty had a double title to his lands, & a power undisputable to dispose of the Chancellars office at his pleasure. What beside Capt. James' unheard of oppressto is (which dirt his zeal for religion contracts when it passeth through the unclean channel of any Presbyters mouth) troubled the Nobilities Patience the reader may find somewhat more truly and impartially related not only in the Apocryphal histories of the two Rt. Reverend Arch-Bishops of Canterbury and Saint Andrew's; but even in the Canonical tradition of Philadelphs Vindicatour, who praemiseth some repulse your Church Delegates had about their querulous petitions; A difference that fell out between E. Lenox & Gowrie about some point of honour, to revenge which he calls Murr, Glame and divers other disquiet discontented spirits into a confederacy, whom you call a number of the prime best affected nobiiitie, which improper title he more ingenouslie declines in a piece of Rethorical ignorance, putting his hand more modestly before his eyes, as loath to look 
The treason at Ruthuer.  on their sinful rebellious demeanour. Qualcscunque fuerint plerique eorum non multum laberabo … qualis quisque corum suerit nescio: applies the blind man's speech ' in the 9 of Saint john. to the authors of the miracle in this change; And beside the mere boast & no violence you rejoice 
Saint jam: 4. 16.  in, confesseth divers of the King's servants were wounded among the rest William Stuart, the news whereof brought Capt. james thither. Who was not chased away by their strong breath, but clapped up into a castle by their power, the King's guard being before removed from him, and His Majesty taken by Gowrie and his conspirators into custody; The E. Lenox banished into France, where with in a short time he died, whether by grief principally, or his sickness, he defines not, He adds, That the Heads of this faction sent the Abbot of Paslet to your Assembly at Edaenburgh for their approbation, who what soever they did afterward, at that time only thanked God for deliverance (viz from the imminent justice of the law to which most of their Members were liable) durst not approve the business, or appear to do it at least; put up a non'sense petition to God, praying him it were well done after it was done, and whether well or ill then unalterable by their prayers, or indeed by divine power, whose omnipotency is not limited when denied to make good moral contradictions, to pleasure an hypoeritical Assembly; He speaks nothing of the Kings sending to his Council or judicatories to declare the act of the Lords convenient and laudable, for which he expected no reasonable man's credulity nor patience, unless so far as to spit it back into his face: Nor yet of His Majestics entreating the Assembly, but of their sending Delegates to him. The answer he gave them, if any, or such as the Vindicator hath helped us to, is much different from yours, and though not extorted by the terror of death, which may well be suspected by the successive treasonable attempts of the same Gowrie and his son afterward, gives little approbation of the fact, being only his acknowledgement of a blessing from God for delivering his person and the Commonwealth from mischief, by which doubtless he meant the happy preservation of his life. So that I again appeal to your aquitable comparers, what historical truth we are likely to have of your penning; when setting one Disciplinarian brother against another, without consulting unprinted records, we can confute you line by line among yourselves. The letter His Majesty sent to Q. Elizabeth was forced. Regem invitum compulerunt, saith Camden, where by he allowed no more that act for good service, than he would have done a thief for taking but his purse, when he might likewise have had his life, But to proceed. Capt: I'ames shortly after crept not in, but was called, Revocatur Aranius saith your brother. Therevenge (whether obtained by him or no) was but the justice of the law, executed with little severity upon any, but moderated by the mercy of a gracious King, and tendered to all upon submission. But traitorous Assemblies giving universal allowance for possible misfortunes, had ever an aftergaime of treachery in reserve. Therefore the Ministers running at this time into a voluntary exile was upon the apprehension of their guilt, & diffidence, even in the word of a King for their impunity if not rather a design to make His Majesty secure, and so to praepare for the treason at Striveling that followed few months after, where not only Capt: I ames was chased away, but the King's life endangered, for which Gowrie very justly paid his own. These their actions were ratified by no Parliament but a party, nor stand they justified by any butsuch as were the actors. The action at Ruthuen being with the advice of the three Estates Assembled in Council judge and published to be treason in December 1583. And not only M. Bailiff declared a Traitor, but all they that disclaim not his book which justifies that treasonable attempt, by Act of Parliament 1584. cap. 7.  
If the Bishop had traced your Assembly rebellions by their annual succession, and not jumped from the year 84. to 48, he might have made it 58. before he got up to your Articles of Striveling. You have not hitherto kept such even pace with His Lp. as that you can with credit say yourself weary. If you speak in good earnest (as I observe you in some journey's short wound) I despair of your company in the 64. years' travel still behind, for which I thought to call upon you hereafter. In the mean time, since I meet with you at Striveling, I will take you by the hand, till I bring you in sight (supposed you are not peevishlie bend to walk blind fold) of the precipice you tend to in your entrance upon the justification of that article which refers the work of Reformation abroad in England and Ireland to the determination of the General Assembly of your Kirke. If you wet your foot by the way you may thank yourself, the Bishop opens no sluice, only turns that stream of choler upon you, which you on the least occasion let go like a torrent upon the Pope and his Conclave of Cardinals at Rome. The sraud used to allure you, if any, was pia sraus, a devout slight to bring you into the consent of the primitive Christians, and the violence offered by the English praelates was only with the sufferance of heaven, which they 
S. Macth: 11. 12.  thought peradventure to take by the force and fervency of their prayers, which they often put up for your conversion from schism, and for your communion in religion with themselves. If a god'lie 
The King can not be said to invade the Presbyter: Consistory.  Kings conscientious command, with the mature advice and free subordination of the Reverend Fathers of your Church, be no less than invading your Consistory, the Bishop's flood of choler ran somewhat too gently in as king you whether old Edinburgh were turned new Rome, whereas he might have, in reason, demanded whether your Presbyterships be not so absolute as to barracadoe your brazen gates, and not suffer him that hath the keys of hell and death to come in. Whatsoever 
Rev: 1. 18.  was the yoke and by whomsoever imposed, between that and your contented compliance (without any violence or invasion no quaestion) with the earnest desires of the well affected in England, you should in honesty have left some vacant room for a more ingenuous impartial hand to insert the time of taking of this yoke from your hard necks, with the several Acts of Pacification that followed it; And that clause in the public Act of Parliament wherein the well affected in Scotland professed His Majesty parted a contended King from a contended people; And then have put it to your ae suitable comparers what travail and pains it concerned you to take in purging one the leaven of Episcopacy & in the English & Irish Churches, when you should have been purging the leaven of malice out of the Scuts. The managing of which great & good work became such a Parliament to instruct, & such an Assembly to undertake, who study that destruction which, 
Prov: 24. 2. c. 27. 20 Tert: De Praeser: aduraeser haeret. c: 42.  like hell is never full; and so the eyes of such men are never satisfied…have magis gloriam Captant si stantibus ruinam, non st jacentibus elevationem operenjur, quoniam & ipsum opus corum non de suo proprio adificio venit, sed de veritatis destructione. The Arminianism and Popery whereof Doctor Laud 
Archbp. laud's Armenianisme & P●…perie the doctrine. of scripture and the Fathers.  stands convicted, hath had several appeals to Scripture and Fathers, which is as much as you can show us for your Creed; his Tyranny, to the laws and highest authority in our Church, equivalent with the most your discipline can praetend to A conviction of these I dare promise you will not stand long with out an answer. In the interim, while your Northwind is set to drive away the first and the latter rain dropped down from those clouds of heaven, the Apostles, and Prophets, & successors to them both, to make good Solomon's similitude, the Bishop's angry countenance is seasonably, though ineffectu ally bend against your backbiting tongue. Your discoveries are your unskilful 
Prov. 25. 23.  mistakes of rocks for firm land; your disappointment delays of God's work, who will in his own time accomplish it, And though too great a number in the Christian flock follow such as you for their bell-wether or leading ram, they will fly as fast from you when they espy you in your proper shape to be a wolf. Photinus was served so who had a great deal more wit, learning, & eloquence to seduce them. Nam erat & ingenij viribus valens, & doctrinae opibus excellens, & eloquio praepotens, saith Vincentius; yet this doom befell 
Advers: hares: cap: 16.  him soon after; quem antea quast arietem gregis sequebantur, cundem deinceps veluti lupum fugere coeperunt.  
What is answered by you before, is replied to and aggrovated. The two stories that follow have those authors whose truth is more currant with you then spotswood's, though his hereafter will show itself more valide then yours or any others whatsoever. The former is penned at large by john Knox, enough in conscience to render him the author of that sedition here mentioned. Hesayth not 
Ariote under praetense of taking Priest at Mass.  his zealous hearers understood of a Priest at Mass and immediately broke in, but consulted how to redress that enormity, and by agreement appointed those to wait on the Abbey who, you say, with violence broke in and sezed upon his person and Mass clothes. That Madam Bailiff, your Namesake, Mistress to the Qucenes Dountibures as he scoffinlie calls her posted out with diligence to the controller the Lard of Pittarrow…cried for his assistance to save her life and the Queen's Palace; That he took with him the Provost & Baylies; That Armstrong and Cranston were summoned to finde surety to underlie the law the. 24 Octob. for a fore thought felony, pretended murder, and for invading the Queen's Majesty's Palace of Halyrud house, and spoliation of the same. That he writ to the brethren in all quarters, requiring their assistance 
Abetted by Kno●… & improid to a rebellion.  on the day of their trial. That his letter was intercepted and sent to the Queen, whereupon he was summoned before the Queen and Council; That when he made his appearance. His clients the Brethren of the Town followed in such number, 〈◊〉 the inner Close was full and all the stairs even to the chamber door where they sat; That he confessed his v●…cation of the Queen's lieges &c. That if in that he had been gniltie, he had oft offended since he came last in Scotland, demanding (Saucily) what vocation of Brethren had ever been to that day unto which his pen had not served, That he told the Queen, If her Majesty complained that this was done without her Majesty's commandment, so had all that God had blessed within the Realm from the beginning of this action, meaning the Presbyterian Reformation; That he was a watchman both over the Realm and over the Church of God gathered within the same; by reason whereof he was bound in conscience to blow trumpet publicly so oft as ever he saw any appearance of danger either of the one or of the other. This Act, thus related, the Bishop will have (what you can not disprove) to be a huge rebellion, not only in the Actors, but also in john Knox, who was present, if not in person, by full consent and approbation. To break open the Royal Palace to bring any delinquent to trial is according to no law but what your Rebellious Assembly hath framed. That this Priest saying Mass within the Liberties of the Court did contrary to law (the Queen having ever reserved that privilege to her family) remains yet to be proved. You 
Vit: Eliz. 〈◊〉. ●…563  did the like to the Archbishop of Saint Andrew's, which Camden tells you was permitted by law, and, though you had Murrays authority for it, accounts you no better than Rebels for your paines… Servidi Ecclesiae Ministri, Moravij authoritate suffulti, vim facerent impune sacerdoti, qui missam in aula (quod lege permissi●…m erat) (do you mark it) celebrârat.  
john Knox's confession (which I gave you under his hand) may be the harbinger to lodge credit enough to the next story that follows in any man that knows what superstitious observers your Assemblies have been of all the principles and praecedents he gave them; Nor need you be so coy in taking upon you here the defence of their Convocating the people in arms, which you are forced to do other where (as well as you mince it into god'lie directions and conscientious advertisement) and upon less colourable occasions approve it every where when done. Though Mr. Spotswood's testimony can not be refused in the particular evidence he gives in, yet I'll be confined for once to your own brother in Evil that confutes him. When 
Assemblie's summoning the people in Arms upon the trial of Popish Lords.  his Grace relates the Ministers commanding the people to arms. Your brother plays the Critike upon the word, but grants the matter in controversy between them, and justifies it from the danger that was at hand from the Popish Lords whom he makes Conspirators with Spain. Hortate sunt (nam jubere aut imperare non poterant) quod ●…um in tanto periculo constitutae essent & respublica, & Ecclesia, illus, vitio vertendum non est. When his Grace saith planilie, The King prefixed a day for their trial, the menacing libels put up in the name of a national Synod, the tumultuary meeting of the faithful deferred it, and made the only remedy a necessity of his remitting their exile. Your brother denies not one clause of all this, but only moderates the terms, and enlargeth in some particular circumstances that aggravate the fact, viz. That they appointed a fast this I hope was done by the Assembly) That they moved the King to appoint a day for their trial, & the Barons those of Perth not to admit them, which advice or injunction they followed till they had received letters from the King, which because they obeyed the brethren took pet & arms for the defence of religion (by whose advice let any man judge) That the King commanded the Conspirators to submit themselves in a small number to a judical proceeding. That upon the 12. of November they met at Edinburgh; The Conspirators plead by their lawyers etc. Propound their conditions; The King declares in a speech the inconveniences very likely to follow if the Lords were not restored, That an Ast of oblivion was voted, which offended the brethren. What Seditious Sermons and actions ensued appears undeniably in your story. Let this be compared with the Bp of Derries' relation. That the King was forced to take arms, come upon a fatal necessity by your rebelling when your importunity praevaild not. How far he pursued them. What acts of grace he afterward vouchsafed them you there fore conceal because it confutes what your imperfect history imports.   

CHAPTER VIII.  
The divine right of Episcopacy better grounded then that pretended in behalf of Presbytery.  
HAd I any hopes to keep you in your wits when you were revived, I would here sprinkle a little cold water & pity upon your fainting spirits, who any man may see are giving up the ghost by your grasping and catching at what you find within reach, and not liking the looks of that spirit which appears ready at hand to conduct you, would have, you care not whether, Antichristian Bishop or Papist to secure you. His Lp. having remonstrated at large your exorbitand power, here summarily shows how by the divine right you praetend to, this sore is incurable, yourselves incorrigible, and how Princes must necessarily despair of recovering or keeping theirs, while Christ's Kingdom is yours, and you have Christ's Sceptre in your hand. The stream of divine rhetoric and reason he brings for it, you and your Company, whom the prophet Isai. Describes to be a troubled sea that can not rest, whose waters cast up mire 
Isai. 57 20  and dirt, hope invisibly to swallow. To which if Mercurius Aulicus must be initled Let Britannicus be more properly to yours, whom I have often heard to be a Common lawyer, but must now take him for some classical divine, since you have graced him so much as to serive most of his mater & language into your book. How unhappy soever you make the Bishop in this challenge, as in the rest, he caries fortune enough in his argument to confute you.  
— Misero cui plura supersunt.  
Quam tibi faelici: post tot quoque funera vin●…et.  
Those of his brethren who stand for the divine right of the Discipline of the Church, do it chieflic in reference to that power of order and the distinction they find of Bishop from inferior Presbyters in the 
Power of order and jurisdiction.  text. They that draw in the other power of jurisdiction, relate only to what they find practised by the Apostles, or by God in them, going under the name of excommunication and the keys How many circumstancials must pass for substancials, when determined by the judicatories of your Church, and be made adequate in divine right to the general rules to which you reduce them need not here to be numbered, being scattered every where in this discourse, and very obvious to the Reader in your story. But in answer to what the Bishop objects of getting both swords spiritual and temporal into your hands, the one ordinarily by common right, the other extraordinarily; the one belonging directly to the Church, the other indirectlic; the one of the Kingdom of Christ, the other for his Kingdom in order to the propagation of religion and (to let the Papist a loan whom, out of what mystery I know not, you very often, me thinks call to your assistance) I pray name one of his Lp's learned brethren that ever writ for't what concessions have passed from the elder Edward and Elizabeth Praelates of England, or what from the later Erastians', as you style them, in diminution of the jus divinun●… of Episcopacy desends not to the jus humanum in your sense, there 
The mid, le Apostolical right of Episcopacy.  being●… middle Apostolical right participant of both, enough to constitute an immutability in their order, whatsoever change their jurisdiction may admit of at least such as they find equivalent to the communicating of women, baeptizing of infants, observation of Sunday; which when you bring arguments to unfixe, you may with greater confidence treat against Bishops wherein those friends His Lo. hath about the King are so perfectly instructed that they laugh at your silly stra●…agems to pervert them being such as, if at any time they repraesent to His Majesty as you earnestly desire, will thereby, no quaestion confirm his pious resolution in the continuance of that holy order especially since the maxim you build upon, That conscience is bottomed only upon a divine right, they find ruind by Saint Paul in his doctrine 
Conscience not bottomed only upon a divine Right. Rom. 1. v. 2. ch.  and practice, who convinceth the heathen upon the right or principles of nature, and argues from the testimony of conscience they had sufficiently bottomed upon the work of the law written in their hearts; Nor had he ever converted any of the nations without divine revelation antecedent, I mean in them aswell as in himself (which had made less effectual and pertinent the ministry of the Gospel) if no moral arguments had obliged their consent. How far this is applicable to Episcopacy (though were it not, it is to your argument against it) I am not here to discuss only intimate I may that in proportion it is possible as much to a sacred, as civil, Monarchy (I mean not coordinate) & the later, had it not the law of God hath the language of nature importunate to commend it I will trifle with you no farther in this matter, but lay down this conclusion which you may take up to what advantage you can. That in a thing 
Alterations unsate and sinful while conscience is doubtful.  ambiguous, such as you here seem to give, if not grant, Episcopacy to be, since no command of God nor warrant from scripture enjoins or tolerates the change: since no Apostolical nor Christian Church for so many hundred years before that single city of Geneva began it, since neither that nor any other besides ever acted or at least publicly avowed what change you demand in the many particulars that have been, and shall be, inserted in this dispute, to the inevitable subversion of Regal government; to the confusion of Christian subjection in the enjoyment of just liberty; to the plain praejudice of Parliament privilege in three dominions; to the setting up of much spiritual and carnal wickedness; some grave reverend Divine might modestly speak a word in season and say, His Majesty's conscience can not at the best but doubt, and doubting ought not by the law of God and rule of reason to resolve on it. Which indeed is the substance of his Royal Father's printed profession. That he found it impossible for a Prince to praeserve the state inquiet, unless he had such influence upon Church men and they such a dependence on him 
The reasons of K. Changed 1. against a change. Peace.  as might best restrain the seditious exorbitances of Ministers tongues etc. And this is only to be had in that government, which was one bottom for his conscience… That since the first age sor 1500, rears not one example can be produced of any sotled Church, wherein were many Ministers & Congregations 
Antiquiti●…. Universality.  which had not some Bishop above them, under whose jurisdiction and government they were. This was another bottom for his conscience. To which such a divine, as I spoke of might add (with a due reserve of all humbly revence to, and most unshaken confidence in that Holy Martyr, and his most pious hopeful successor our gracious sovereign now living.) That he who for any politic end suggested, or necessity most fond'le pretended of the subtlest presbyterian of you all, shall adventure to take himself off from this bottom, when judaism or Turkism (some part of your mixture) shall be alike plausible pretended as more advantageous to his purpose, may be feared to befound not well settled upon Christianity itself, but fall from it & throw away one or both Testaments of Scripture, which upon the universal 
The considerable approach of Church discipline to doctrine. Paternal government.  tradition of the Church (as the other upon the Cathoike practice of the same) he first rationally received as the word of God, though afterward he found other motives prompting a belief of it to be such, which at last be had superinduced by (what too many vainly praetend to) the instinct or plerophory of the spirit, His Majesty likewise found most agreeable both to reason and religion that frame of government, because paternal not magisterial etc. Which was a third bottom for his conscience. Nor did he think it any point of wisdom or charity, where Christians differ; …there to widen the differences, and at once to give all the 
Communion with Christians.  Christian world (except a handful of some Protestants) so great a seandal in point of Church government etc. of which wisdom and charity, the gifts of the spirit of God, he made another very good bottom for his conscience; Let Mr. Bailiff read the rest of that most excellent divine chapter, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. ch. 17.  and answer it if he can.  
The main ground of the Bishop's discourse being wilfully mistaken by the Reviewer, his structure is weak about the Warners conscience. And the King's advantage. His cordial beli●…e of the divine right of Synod●… 
Ius divinum of Presbytery srustrates all treaties, excommunicates all Christians threatens all Princes.  and Presbyteries, together with that of the Reformed Churches, which the Bishop shows to be different, may come from a private spirit that misinformes them, & then is no good interpreter of Scripture, nor any sure praecedent for Christianity throughout. Their strict and inseparable adhaerence to his error (beside that it antidates all treaties null, without an effectual complinance against conscience and honour) excommunicates all the world but themselves, & excludes them from all hope of fellow ship with this new select society of Saints, who, could they multiply into a number large enough to fill the circle of their ambition, and had they every one a drop 
Isai. 40. 23. 24. The Reviewers perverting the Bis●…ops doctrine.  of Scotish rebellious blood in their veins, would no longer labour the conversion of Kings, but take Gods angry work out of his hands to bring their Princes to nothing… and be the whirlwind themselves to take them away as stubble.  
He that looks not through Mr. Baylies glass of vanity and lies, can never be able to view the Bishop clasped so close with the elder Praelates impairing the divine right, nor then, with the consequence he makes, about the legal, or expedient mobility of Bishops. Therefore as the ambition, greed, revenge; so the dissimulation in conscience is his, who can not but know what texts himself useth to c●…te for the divine right of Presbytery, and what the Bishop expressly saith, that the same may with much more reason be alleged for Episcopacy, and more consonable to the analogy of faith. The agreement of sundry Praelatical divines with Era●…us is here impertinent●… mentioned. What correspondence the Bishop holds, with them hath been too often all-readie acknowledged, and maintained. Mr. Baylies urgent, illogical inference obligeth the Bishop neither in ingenuity, nor reason to untie the bonds of the King's conscience, which his own assures him God hath bound, if not by the hands of his son, by those of his Apostles and their successors through all Christian, ages and Churches. Nor can his Lp, from the principle you press, demonstrate any security to His Majesty from offending God in the change. Nor yield satisfaction to his doubts. If Erastus' Royal right (which you so often have inveighd 
Erastus' Royal right abused in a Sophism.  against) may be used as a sophism to delude the King into your presbytery, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. I pray, by your favour, let it stand as it is, a better argument to confirm him, if he needs it, in Episcopacy. Yet that either here, or otherwhere this Royal right is induced by His Lordship to ratify the order, I say not to actuate the Jurisdiction of Bishops, I can not find upon my reviewing, and must therefore desire a point by your oculat fingar to direct me.  
Were not the Presbyterians more obstinate in resuming their errors, than the Bishop forward to recapitulate his proofs, his Lp. had spared a good part of this chapter, though the received rules of method required it. Weak, and naughty are hackney answers, which, if spurred too often, and reason holds not up by the head, are likely to lay Presbytery in the dirt. Your judgement of his revenge is according to your practice, who, poor, impotent creatures, like worms, or flies, by corruption, & filth support an useless corpse to defile that hand, that crusheth you to the death. The praelatical integrity makes good the present disadvantage of their fortune, & their evidence in proof, before any aequitable comparers, will praeserve still the principate in, dispute. Major est [sinon fortunae] ratio, quam 
Sen: De Clem: l. 1. c. 20.  ut tali solatio egeat, minifestiorque vis quam ut alieno malo opinionem sibi virium querat. Your Canterburian challenges were but Scottish jigs made only for mirth to a rude multitude in confusion, the one very inconsiderable in music, the other flat, if any thing, in the harmomie of truth. If the principles of prelacy unavoydablie bring back the Pope, the practice of Presbytery unquaestionablie goes before him, & makes 
The consequences from Episcopal principles not such as pretended  his Papacy hold it by the train. The Patriarchate of the ●…est, and primacy of Rome flows never out of the fountain of Episcopacy, but when some ignorant Presbyter is turning the cock, or tampering with the spring.  
Those English Praelates, that so freely gave away the Patrimony of Saint Peter etc. were some singular Executours of Constantinus Donation; yet in that nothing so liberal to the Pope, as the Presbyters are covetous, and gripping the common inheritance to themselves who, since his refusal that had the proffer in possession, take the mock spirit at his word, fall down and worship, and then under the 
S. Matth. 4. 9;  counterfeit of dominion in grace, entitle themselves not to Italy al●…ne, but to all the Kingdoms of the earth.  
What difference there is in number, or nature between the ceremonies 
Difference between us and Rome 'bout ceremonies.  they us d, & those in Rome will appear best by comparing their ritual with our rubric, & Canons. The ornament of sacred historical pictures, the name of altars, and the adoration of God in uniformity before them, have the ancient Christians innocent praecedent to commend them, when commanded, or Countenanced by our superiors in the Church, and to vindicate them inus from the superstition, and idolatry you impute so liberally to Rome. When the Praelates, & Papists cope in the controversy there are several other ceremonies they stick at. That these are the worst, as religiously put in practice by the Bishop's friends, requires more than your old see saw to confirm it. Adoration of, or to the altaris that, which I never heard professd by their mouth, nor read yet dropped from their pen. For me, let them that own it recant it, and if none such befound. Let the mouth of him 
Prov. 10, 31. Real presence & corporal disserent. Hist. Mot.  that speaketh lies be stopped, and the sroward tongue be cut out.  
The real praecence of Christ in the Eucharist on the altar, as I take it, was never denied by our Church, a corporal never asserted by her, nor any of the Bishop's friends, that I have heard of (though the 21. objection against our Liturgy in your history of the Synod os Glasgow implies it.) The justification they held was fetched far beyond Tren●…, and if they that went for it were not able to distinguish between 
justification. S. Matth. 13●…45 Free will.  Saint Paul's works and Saint James', they were very unfit to trade forthat pearl, bad merchants for the Kingdom of heaven.  
Their free will was held no paragon of nature, but a privilege by grace, which delivered them from the fatality of the curse, restoring them in some measure to a liberty of choice; And, unless you will fetch back Tatians' error, make one God for the law, another for the Gospel, so long as the ten Commandments oblige us, we have 
Deut. 30 19  aswell as the Israelites of old, heaven, and earth for our record, that life and death are to this day set before us, and, by the merits of Christ, the grace of having them in the free election of our will.  
Their final apostasy was seldom, or never entitled to Saints, or, if 
Final Apostasice.  so, with caution enough ro prevent calumny. They asscribed ever an infallible praescence to God, an immutability in his knowledge; But to make him so peremptorily, antecedentlie, spontaneouslie, irrespectivelie praedestinate a certain number of men, called Saints before their resurrection from sin; so irresistiblie operate by his power, as to prevent all possibility of backsliding, offending, or, being fallen, forceably raise them, reenstate them in native innocence, and his favour; they found consonant to none, dissonant from divers positive texts, in, or inferences from Scripture. such as these. Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall, which excepts 
1. Cor. 10. 12. Phil. 2. 12.  no more the last hour or moment of life, than the first in the exercise of reason… Work out your Salvation with fear, and trembling. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 importing an earnest endeavour unto the last against final apostacio, not impossible; And the reason in the next verse 
A quaestion about David's case.  implying an hazard of the energy of grace, which only supports a Saint from his fall. I demand yea, or no, a direct answer to this. Whether if a Phineas had come and taken David 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the act with Bathsheba, the point of his spear had been assuredly blunted, or his hand held by an Angel from heaven. Whether, if so, this extraordmarie miracle had not been wrought in order to the accomplishment of somewhat prefixed to the economy of God's Royalty upon earth in his person? Whether the like case or capacity can in such be reasonably supposed incident to all that you call Saints, and what security they have from all casualties, all attempts in the very moment of sin to destroy them? The general promises can be no protection in such cases, & some it may be, are not so general as to be made applicable to all, which, well scanned, incline to the peculiar concernment of them, to whom they were made, and of whom only they seem to be ●…ean'd. But in points of this nature whatsoever the Warners friends have avowed, your exception against them is the same with that against the express words of the Church, in the Assembly at Glasgow 1638 drawn from what she professd. That infants baptised have all things necessary to salvation. This you may 
rubric in the consirmation.  take as the sum of that which the Bishop knew to have been with much moderation, & reason often answered to your sore challenge. Your slight replies thereunto being indeed but squibs, and crackers for children to sport with, had not the arms of sinful men, & the King's artillery been rebelliously used, as a more unanswerable argument to force them.  
The following position His Lp. nowhere will dispute, nor doth laugh a●…. That Christ, as King of his Church, hath appointed laws for, & governors of the same. Who, and what these are, in the general Saint Paul hath left 
Christ as King of his Church appoints laws &c.  in his letters to the first Christians, which they, and their successors have kept for us that come after. He takes you for usurpers, & tyrants, who cross to these laws, for pride, & filthy lucre, make yourselves not only Lords over God's heritage, but commanders of subjection from Kings 2. b. Disc, ch 1. Pro Rege Regum, & Domino Dominantium 
H. Grot.  presbyteria nobis, & Synodos supponentes. The consequence hereupon, That Acts of Synods must be Christ's laws, where Synods make themselves Dictatours of his pleasure, and repraesentatives of his person, is no other folly, than what the Logical rules of Relatives prescribe us, which, if your Sophistry decline, I must refer the Reader to the like expressions so frequently used in your public papers, in the several contests that Knox had with your Queens & their Counsels in defence of your discipline; And; to come somewhat nearer in your very preface before the book itself, where your Reformed Kirke is called the spouse of Icsus Christ, the rules of her discipline in the language of Scripture The Lords laws and commandements…the heavenly proportion of divine discipline; And at last compared to the book of God's covenant, that lay hid in the Temple. Under the name of which Discipline, we are admonished, is to be understood. Beside the two books, the Acts, Constitutions, and practices agreed upon, and recorded in the Registers of the General, and provincial Assemblics etc. And a brother plainly asserts, That your Discipline in the general (which we deny to have any other authority than your votes) is as immutable, as the Scripture.  
I find you now here such a Master of rhetoric, and language as 
Hane none magis licet Ecclae mutare quam mutare licet ipsam scripturam V indic: Eplae Philad.  to take your judgement in comparing of styles. If the Bishop hath borrowed the Jesuits invectives, or any from the Pagan philosophers, he could not better bestow them then on you, that are neither good Protestants, nor Christians. His declamations against your novelty will be regarded by such as take universality, and perpetuity for two discretive marks of Christ's Kingdom, & government, which must not be limited to a rebellious schismatical Centurie in one Country. The antiquity, you boast of, is founded upon as great a mistake of the Gospel, as was the sadduces of the law, you both err not knowing the Scriptures. Yet, that being your plea, I will urge the Bishop's argument no 
By whom his Seepters is to be swayed.  farther concerning the change, and difformity of your discipline (which may be proved in particulars not twice romoved from your essentials themselves) but appeal with you to Caesar, who calling to his Council the Primitive Fathers the most public spirits, most unbiased Interpreters, may, by the tributary assistance, if his Majesty please, of as many B●…hops, or Doctou●…s, as sectarian Presbyters, after a fair schelastike discussion, discern the truth, decide the controversy, and, according as he finds Christ's sceptre was swayed among Catholic Christians, by deputation of one part, or other, 
Vincent. Lyrin: advers: haeres cap. 14.  abolish the Rebel Usurper at his pleasure. But Annuneiare [or imperare] aliqued Christianis, Chatholicis praeter id quod acceperunt, nunquam licuit, nusquam licet, nunquam licebit. To declare, or command a belief of divine right, in that which hath not been received in God's Church, never was, no where is nor, will it at any time be law full.  
Your dearth of matter renders you tedious in the rest of the paragraph, 
English Episcopacy out done by the more for ward Presbytery.  and the course fair wherewith you entertain your reader, flesh, blood, and limbs of an English Bishop, makes you suspected here to have been at a stand, to have laid your spiritual scribbling aside, till you went to market, and fetched these carnal expressions from the ●…ambles. My Lord of Derrie, and his friends, in citing authority, and pressing reason for their order have dealt so farilie, & wrought so effectually, as for all the stripping your sleeves and the other hocas pocas tricks that he tells you of, you will find no cleanly conveyance of your Presbytery into the heads of any your judicious comparers, nor will their ears be chained by your brazen hypocrisy to maintain it. Your too curious anatomy of English Episcopacy, touching which you interrogate, will only countenance them in a demand, not otherwise intended of a Scripture warrant for Scottish Presbytery, as such, disciplining, excommunicating, deposing, I shall do no wrong if I add what I prove, justifying & praising God for the death, if not the murder of Kings, renouncing the name, but acting every one a double part of a lord in Parliament; not only voicing in, but imperiously overruling all Acts of State, all elections of principal officers, in order to conscience, for praevention of scandal, & keeping a lower Commission Court in every Town, & parish; forcing every Bailiff, and provest to be your creature; A Presbytery bold'lie ordaining without a Bishop, and gulling the people into a foolish conceit of Gods call in them, when 'tis their lying spirit that hath praeposlessed them, For let the people call, or present whom they will, if the learned (the privilege of 
B. Discips. 4. head.  which title every covey of Dunces challenge to themselves) judge the person unable of the regiment, he is set aside, and they forced to take (without violent intrusion they tell them) whom the superintended Council offereth to instruct them: A Presbytery exercing all jurisdiction without any appeal from themselves; A Presbytery feeding their flocks like swine with grain, and hu●…kes, such divinity, as every brewer, or hogheard can help them to, never leading them through the g●…een pastures of the ancient, learned, and devout Fathers, nor to any other waters of comfort, but such as the very fountain whereof the foot of schism, or rebellion hath troubled. This is Scottish Presbytery in practice and such they would have it in law too, if they could with all their Scripture collusions but once corrupt. His Majesty's judgement, or by their sharpe-pointed swords, & two edged tongues affright him from a well grounded resolution, into what his Royal Father esteemed it, a faint servile, ungodly, and unkinglie consent.  
The treasure you call, for hath hitherto had God for its defence, who hath made known, and distributed those talents in Scripture, 
The treasure thereof to be found as well before as after the years 800.  which maintained the little family of the Church, and discharged the itinerant Gospel of that time. The greater mine hath been often discovered by them whose divina virgula hath stooped, and put them upon the search of the vein that carried the Episcopal government through the 800. years of your account. Your soon-shot bolts in many frivolous quaestions have been better feathered with many wise men's answers, and for all the horned impudence you hold out, returned very often upon your heads, one of whom I shall send you 
Dr. jerm. Taylor.  to, who (not to derogate from the happy endeavours of many others aswell of the learned Laity, as Reverend Clergy) hath alone anticipated, and fully with much acuteness, and judgement answered almost every particular you object. Showing that Christ himself hath made the office of Apostle or Bishop distinct from Presbyters; Given them power to do some offices perpetually necessary, which to others he gave not: Asof Ordination, and confirmation; And superiority of jurisdiction; Bishops, by virtue of their office, more than called, observed as Lords, in a more sublime sense, than you mention; And commended to the service of Kings; Saint Chrysostom, & others employed in Embassies; Saint Ambrose a Praefect, and Dorotheus a Chamberlain to the Emperor; Many of them Councillors to Princes, and judges aswell in ordinary secular affairs, as Chanellors in extraordinary by appeal; Treasurers at least of the Church revenue, and undergoing what ever civil charge the conscientious favour of Princes put upon them, which was not in gradu impedimenti ●…lericalis; Bishops with sole power of ordination, and jurisdiction, otherwise then as they thought good to call into their subordinate assistance, or deputed Presbyters in their Dioceses. Of officials, and Commissaries I think he makes little mention, because he bends his discourse against all interest of Lay elders; yet I do not think he would deny that Civilians, such as are our Officials, and Commissaries, might be instrumental to the Bishops, especially having some learned Presbyter authorized in cases, to which the others lay property extends not; Bishops, when necessity may require, using solitary ordination, which is good in nature 
Can. 2.  rci, as may be taken for granted by that Canon of the Apostles, which as it enjoines no more than one Bishop, so makes no mention of any Presbyter, which it had quaestionlesse done, if of absolute necessity to the business; Bishops ordaining not with the fashional, but canonical assistance of any two Presbyters that they please, by choice of their, own chaplains or others, where are many, or taking any two that chance otherwise to be near; Bishops principal pastors of their whole Dioceses, & when commanded, or countenanced by the King to wait at Court, not obliged to feed their flocks in their persons, which they do by many learned, and religious proxies, themselves in the mean time feeding by word, or sacrament, or ghostly counsel, the great shepherd, whose Royal soul is worth 10000 of the peoples. All this in effect, & a great deal more than your Parkers, or Didoclaves could have answered, hath this one learned Doctor defended, as known long before the Pope gave over to say his creed, which he did surely, when he became the Antichrist you call him.  
I could go up yet once again, & help you to a third turn from the top of your demands, Show you that the Warner, and his friends give 
The Praelates still of the same mind they were.  the King the same assurance, that erthey did, that what they stand upon as unalterable in their order hath Scripture, and Antiquity for its warrant▪ That upon the conversion of England to Christianity, the ecclesiastic government there constituted, was not Antichristian; That a Bishop there is not a Lord in Parliament by virtue of his office (as it may be to resolve spiritual doubts he ought to be) but by 
Declar. B. 2. Dang. Posit.  the Barony & call which the favour of Kings hath annexed unto it; That in Scotland, when it was decreed that Bishops should have no voices in Parliament, these your selfe-denying men desired of the King that such Commissioners as they should send to the Parliament and council, might from thence forth be authorized in the Bishop's places for the Estate; That not many protestant English Bishops have been High Treasurers, not many Chancellars, some that have you have little reason to find faultwith; That they are not bound in law to devolve all jurisdiction &c. That all which in practice did it, are not to be condemned, where they found able & honest men to exercise it in their names; That those, which err must not praejudice the care and diligence in government of the rest; That solitary ordinations were very rare, & therefore not to be objected as so common; Nor did half the Bishops live at Court, nor most that did half their time. All these particulars could I enlarge on, but that I believe the Reader satisfied with the execution done before, and hath some what else to do, then to stay to see you stripped.  
In what follows you take a great deaie more, then is given you, naming that a donation from the Court divines conscience, for which 
Not the Court but City Divines divest Bishops.  the City Divines, chiefly of Edinburgh, & London, forced the temple of God by such sacrilege to furnish the two tabernacles of robbers, that then prospered too well in England, and Scotland. That Royal Saint that, upon, this most impious violence, yielded, up so great a portion of his ecclesiastic inheritance, the Bishop's avile employment, Arch-Bishops, Arch-deacons, with the &c (which might have been better spared) did it in angusto comprchensus, not upon any compunction of conscience. Sed difficulter, sed subductis supercilijs…& vix exeuntibus verbis, And had not his paternal affection prompted him, to what your unnatural disobedience little deserved, he had given you not only panem lapidosum, as Fabius was wont to call a gift very hardly bestowed upon an hungry beggar, but pro pane lapidem, without 
Sen: De Benef. lib. 2 cap. 7. S. Matth. 7. 9 46. 17.  our saviours censure, a stone instead of that bread, which was never ordained to stuff the insataite stomach of every gaping Rebel that called for't. Yet, whatsoever you had, was, you know, but for a triennal experiment, which being exspired, in the year of liberty, that was to succeed, according to God's pattern in Ezekiel, if you could then praetend no better title than you had done, it was to return to your Prince, and the inheritance of such an inseparable right to be his sons, who of your adversaries gave this unseasonable advice I know not, nor who have acknowledged, and recanted for errors those divine truths ordained for peace, but encountered with troubles, and their abettors exposed to susteime the envy, and obloquy of the world. Therefore alas its in vain for you to invite them to come nearer, to hang out like a dead cat in her skin, unless you mean to have every one of them moral the rest of the fable with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. But to leave off speaking 
The Reviewers detestable ingratitude.  in parables, I desire the reader in plain English to mark the base ingratitude of an unworthy Presbyter. In that, when a most ingenuous peace-desiring Prince (for him he means when he speaks of his Praelatical adversaries) invaded by audacious importunity, encompassed with all external visible necessity, placing himself upon the very pinnacle of Christian charity, shall yield all that the softest, gentlest Casuist can indulge (and that upon such conditions as, how easy soever, the perfidious contractours little think to make good) he must be argued with upon the ominous advantage of hi●… own gratuity, & pretended from his adventurous kindness to be demonstrativelie convinced to give up the rest of that which rebellious licence, schismatical singularity, and degenerate malice have now so devested into a new creature, as neither law, custom, nor honour can call that English Bishop which religion instituded and reformation confirmed. But a croued of guilty conjured malefactors presseth shame and the proverb to nothing, so that ingratum si dixeris nihil dixeris. Seneca knew it who had studied the point and experienced the practice. Pudorum tollit multitudo peccantium, 
De Ben. lib: 3. cap. 16.  & desinet esse probri loco commune maledictum. But to send you back some of your own logic and language; If this naked bird which you so pleasantly play with, be a new creature because the feathers are plucked, than you must confess that old creature revested with those Euaugelical beauties and Royal graces which once it possessed, to be that known true English Bishop that in honour, law, custom, if not in conscience (which I need not suppose) is to be inviolably maintained, when it shall be made to appear, as it may very easily, and hath been very frequently, that such an order not much differently fashioned and habited, ever was and ever is to be in the Christian Church,  
To make good the mutual toleration indented for between your sectarian brethren and your alltogetheras sectarian selves, you closely decline the warners confidence which avows those texts of Scripture you wrest against Bishops, with as much colour of reason and more truth the Independents may urge against Presbyters, being resolved, since you find they can make you their province at pleasure (if not command a transmigration of your evangel) to argue no more against them then to fight. The triumph you make in two painted Syllogisms is very improperly placed before the victory, where though you ride like a George on horseback in a pageant, you will pass for no better than a dumb show, and with your wooden lance be mistaken by none, but children and fools, for that primitive armed Saint that killed the dragon. If you cast not your texts in a couple of better moulds, your workmanship will bear as 
The texts of scripture against Episcopacy discussed.  little the image of God's word, as yourselves do of the reasonable men that he created. Were His Lp. at better leisure his great promises would reengage him in more necessary employments then answering every silly Presbyter in his folly; but his Acolythus & servant (if not because he hath taken up so much of the similitude already) will for once, and it may be oftener, follow Solomon's advice 
Prov. 26. 4. & 5.  in the next verse, seeing you so very wise in your own conceit.  
The first text you are meddling with is Ephes: 4. 11. whence your imaginary argument, not to be denied adoration, is this.  
Maj: All the officers that Christ has appointed in his Church, for the ministry of the word, are either Apostles, Evangelists, Prophets, Pastors or Doctors;  
There But Bishops are none of these five, Ergo.  
You plead custom for the free unquaestionable passage of your major, which you must give me leave to obstruct, first excepting against the impropriety of your terms (being such as may evacuate your argument) the Ministry of the word, when the Bishop's discourse is about the regiment of the persons to whom the word already is ministered, secondly, demanding to have it under Saint Paul's hand, whether the offices he mentions of Apostolate, prophesy &c were by Christ's institution for the personal perfecting of Saints in a Church established, and not as the word seems rather to signify. Pros ton Catartismon toon hagioon for jointing or knitting new Saints to the Church, new membres to the body of Christ in the propagation of his gospel, so aedisying the body of Christ by the work of the Ministry, which in the next verse seems to end in the unity of faith, that is the general conversion of nations to Christianity. thirdly, whether this enumeration of the Apostles be universal, to which 〈◊〉 find more particulars added 1. Co. 12. 28. & among them dynameiss & Kyberneseis. Powers & governments, the former of which (that you may not cavil about superinfused gifts) he makes as much personal, or persons, as that of Apostle, prophet, Teacher, vers: 29. Besides that he expressly calleth the Elders of the 
Act. 20.  Church of Ephesus Bishops, & tells them they were instituted by the holy spirit, which we know came down to fulfil the promise by the mission of the son, & so they must pass upon account as officers appointed by Christ.  
Three fifths of your Minor thus you prove. Bishops are not Apostles, Evangelists, nor prophets, because they are confessed extraordinary & temporary, Bishops ordinary & perpetual. To which I answer. First, That Bishops 
Beshosp are. Apostles. Lib. advers. haeres. cap. 32.  are Apostles in their ordinary power of ordination & jurisdiction, though not in their extraordinary of working miracles, speaking with divers tongues etc. And this Tertullian hath said above 1300. years since, who, arguing with the haeretikes about succession, bids them turn over their records, & show that their first Bishop was an Apostle, or Apostolical, because personally ordained by one of them. This the Apostolical Churches could do, as that of Smyrna shows Polycarp, because placed there by Saint john. That of Rome Clement, because ordained by St. Peter. And such Bishops as these he calls Apostolici seminis traduces. If they be Apostolical grafts, good Mr. Bailiff, from what tree think you were they taken, and of what may they, without arrogancy, bear the name? Other of the Ancients called Timothy Bishop of Ephesus an Apostle, among whom what enterfeering there was of these two terms you may read in Theodoret upon 1. Tim.  
In the like sense may they be said to be Euangclists, (aswell as in 
May be called Evangelists.  the Revelation they are called Angelo) who praeside over the preaching of the Gospel, and publication of it to them that have not heard, Euangelion & Kerygma being the same. 
H. Grot. Proleg. ad Matth.   
And they either are, or should be, Prophets, in one kind according to Saint Ambrose, Scripturas, revelantes, the ablest interpreters of Scripture, or speakers of mysteries in the spirit to aedification, 
Should be prophets.  exhortation and comfort, though not foretellers of things to come. Nam quicquid latet, sive id futurum est, sive praesens mysterium di●…itur. 
In 1. Cor. 12.   
The reason why your adversaries pitch upon the fourth is, to decline your trivial objections against the other three. 
H. Grot. Why Pastors.   
Your syllogism that labours to prove Bishops no Pastors hath no doubt but a certainty of falsehood in the major which your argumentum a paribus comes some what improperly to make good, you having spoke of a confessed imparity but just before. But for once a bargain no bargain pactum non pactum sit, non pactum pactum quod vobis lubet. It would be a rare invention, surpassing Aristoles Logic, if, without a reserve, you could get a conclusion to creep out of a single proposition, for take it on my word your luck is bad in majours, which whether you play at even or odd are all pariter falsae sick of a disease, and this here left desperate without any remedy to recover it.  
No Apostle, you say, is superior to an Apostle. This is contrary to what one Walo Messalinus (whom under another name you mistake to 
Apostles superior to Apostles.  be your friend) hath frequently asserted. That they were primi & secundi, majores & minores, The second and less subordinate in spiritual power to the first and greater. This he gathers out of Theodoret and others. The greater he explains to be the twelve, the less, those deputed by them for teaching and governing. Nay, he discovers a third order inferior to them both, of which was Epaphroditus, subordinate to Saint Paul, who himself was but minor Apostolus, being none of the twelve. So that here being three degrees, I tell you from him what I might from others, or with them rather collect from the text, That an Apostle is superior to an Apostle.  
As much might besaid for Evangelists, whereof four were principal, or, if not, it is because they were by their office of the lower 
Evangelists Coadjutours.  class, or Coadiutours to the Apostles. Such were Titus, Timothy, Apollo's &c. Saint Hierom saith all Apostles were Evangelists, but not all Evangelists Apostles. And so likewise that all pastors were Doctors, but not vice verse. The learned Grotius, That Doctors, were Bishops or Arch-Bishops rather, the same with 
Doctors Bishops. haeres. 75.  those called Metropolitans afterward. Pateres Kai didascaloi are Epiphanius titles for them. To prove majour & minor prophets under the new Testament is needless till you answer what I have brought about Apostles, or strengthened the majour in your argument which I absolutely deny. And besides remit you to a learned Doctor 
Dr. Tailor Episcop: assert.  who proves the word Pastor to be the Bishop's peculiar among the Ancients, and frustrates that imparity from which you argue.  
Your second reason out of Saint Matthew and Saint Paul hath a little Philosophical Soul and form in the majour, but no divine one in in the minour, and so, according to your similitude in the moment 
No power of Ordination in the Presbytery,  of removal or separation must perish. The first text 1. Tim. 4. 14. puts no power more than approbant or assistant of ordination in the Eldership, & a Bishop is as much a Presbytery and no more a Presbyter (I mean in your sense of diminution) than Saint Paul, who seems to make that act of ordination solitary and personally his own 2. Tim. 1. 6. And the Greek Scholiasts say the Elders here were Bishops, excluding interminis all presbyters from that power o●… gar hoi Presbyteroi echeirotonoun ton Episcopon say both Theophylact and Oecomenius. For the word which you will needs have to be classical not personal, perchance somewill say it may denote the order, or office, the Episcopate they mean, and be put figuratively here for the single person, of the Apostle, comparing these words, together meta Epitheseoos toon cheiroon tou Presbyterion, & dia tes epithescoos toon 
2 Tim. 1. 6.  chciroon mou. But let it be what it will, the power of ordination must continue in the Bishop, so long as Christians keep to the New Testament and Fathers, and fetch us not a fifth Gospel, or some newer Apostle from Geneva. 
No power of jurisdiction in the Church.   
That the second Saint Matth. 18. puts the power of jurisdiction in the Church is gratis dictum, & your authority not so great as that your autos ephen. will be able to carry it. First therefore you are required to prove, that excommunication, the act of jurisdiction you mean, is here at all intended; and not rather no more than the three degrees of fraternal correption, the highest whereof is that elegsis enoopion pantoon, a rebuke before all. 1. Tim. 5. 20. Vt qui non potuit pudore Salvari, Salvetur opprobrijs saith Saint Hierom, he saith not damnetur or eijciatur censuris. That he which could not be saved by private shame might by more public reproach. secondly, That the Church here was a judicial Assembly called to that purpose, or if met to other, that a formal process was brought before it; And that they were not rather some greater number than the two or three witnesses, upon what occasion soever met together, which may very well be called Ecclesiae with out the signal meaning of the word. Coram multis Lib. Musar. keta Koinon Justin: & tunc multis dicendum est in Saint Hierom. Nor is it likely a deliberate judgement in Court (into which a Christian Congregation, converted) should be after process in hazard to be slighted or neglected by one Member delinquent ean paracouse. Nor that to be such which relates rather to the person of the plaintiff than judges estoo soi. Let him be unto thee… thirdly, If it be such a Congregation or Church as you would have it, whether the complaint were to be repraesented to them in general, and not rather in their hearing to their superintendents or president above them. Epi toon tes Ecclesias proedroon demosiseoson to ptaisma saith Theophylact. fourthly, That sit sicut Ethnicus & publicanus, Let him be unto thee as an heathenman and a publican is undoubtedlie a sentence commanded to be pronounced by those superintendents or that Church; or an injunction, rather than permission, to the party injured to have no farther familiarity or friendship, to have no more to do with him then with heathen and publicans, a voluntary declination of whose company was no scandal to the charity Christians professed, & any civil office out of common humanity left arbitrary, and not censured if tendered. fively, whether binding and losing vers. 18. Be asserted 
Confirma. Thes. lib. 4. c. 5.  with reference to this Church, and not rather to the Apostles, as your friend Erastus will have it, or more probably to any party against whom the trespass was committed. Potestatem tribuit Apostolis saith Saint Hierom. Vu garmonon hosa lyousin boi hiereiss eisi Celymena, 
De Verb. Dom. hom. 15.  all' hosa kai hemets hoi adiketentes and Theophylact. And si Fratrem habes pro Ethnico & publicano ligasti illum in terra: si correxeris fratrem, solvisti eum in terra Sainr Austin, which seems to be the 
john morel excommunicated for this doctrine.  proper meaning of the place. After all which I expect you should make some apology for your brethren abroad that in the year 1563. Sept. 6. excommunicated john morel the Frenchman for writing this doctrine, burned his book, and interdicted under a great poenaltie the reading any copy of it that might escape them.  
The third 1. Cor 5. appears not evidently to put the power 
No power of jurisdiction in a Company met together  of jurisdiction in a company of men met together, Theophylact taking it for a modest condescension in Saint Paul to join the Corinthians with himself, whose solitary power was absolute. Hiname doxe autades, Kai autous proslambanei Koinoonous And the context importing the sentence, such as it was, to be but declarative in them them by the virtual presence of the Apostles spirit; and judicial in Saint Paul, who had passed it before ede Kekrika saith he vers. 3. Though it will trouble you to prove that here was any jurisdiction 
Delivering to Satan what.  exercised, delivering to Satan being probably but a desertion of the party peccant, using no intercession in his behalf, but leaving him naked for Satan to assault him with corporal torments, which prodigious punishment was usual in those times. Excommunication it can not be, because it limits his censure to the destruction of the flesh, deprives him not of the Sacraments, the want whereof is destructive to the spirit. The twelfth verse adds no strength to your argument, the sense seeming to be only this. I have nothing to doc to judge them that are without, but leave them to God: I have to doc to judge them that are within worthy of deliverance up to Satan. And ye judge them that is deliver them up when ye are gathered together, & my spirit. As he, had said vers. 4. So it is Saint Paul's spirit that is principal in this jurisdiction, and the company of men met together but his delegates or assistants, convocated at his pleasure.  
To Your assumption I likewise answer. That the Bishop is as much the Church as Saint Paul in this case, and hath as much of the ordinary power transmitted to him.  
So that you see it requires not the Doctors learning, but the search of his Acolythus and servant to satisfy you, if you will be, with antiquity & reason. Which being done you may send more scirptural arguments against Episcopacy by your brethren of the next Commission. Touching those you have brought already, you need not be so confident in calling for their answer unless they were somewhat better. The visible leisure is, in none but such as you & your 
Why Blondel &c. are not answered.  courteous Disciples in England have procured to be imprisoned in several goals of both Kingdoms; others having business enough by shifting from one place to another to secure their persons and save their lives, from your cruelty. The poor prisoners have few visible helps to that purpose. If you will find courage or conscience enough to undertake their free access to the Fathers and other authors that are visibly necessary to that purpose. I have enough left still to assure you in the name of them that have more learning than they boast of, that whatsoever becomes of your puny Clerk's Master Parker and Didoclave, (who may be easily turned of with some careful quotations and references to a multitude of books already printed) Master Blondels magazine of antiquity shall be seized on, and what in it is upsy Scotch (which is not all) for the presbytery 
Somais fare well to the Presbytery.  you brag of, shall in spite of your power be rescued for the true owners, that is, the Bishops. For your meracle of learning, the most noble Somais, we wish he may work more such wonders as he hath of late, and send his petty advocate a new blue bonnet at parting trimmed with a distich, beginning if he pleaseth Ille ego qui quondam— for his fee.  
Were public masters of fact as mysterious as the intrigues in your 
The Scottish presb. may be contracted out of their own story. Revel. 20. 12.  spiritual junto; and Consistorian Cabals, some Endor oracle must perchance have been consulted and one of your black guardant Angels been superstitiously worshipped, or ceremoniouslie waited upon for revelation. But when the books of the dead are before their day opened by your hands, and their works of darkness registered by your pens, the warner may every where, without an irony, proclaim his knowledge in your story as great as his strictest search, and as certain as your rash confession could create. King James' 55. 
K. I.'s 55. quaestions non plused them.  quaestions so troubled the Scotish divines, that they finding their plea of divine right and immutability of their discipline to be disputed, the Perth Assembly indicted principally for that purpose: to divert the King, if not otherwise to prevent his multiplying such problems (to which David Blacks process & the business about the banished Lords may be annexed) they raised a desperate sedition on the 17. of December, which already is discoursed on. Their (if you mean the Synods) answer was not so round but that they first protested & parleyed about their privilege at the conference with His Majesty and the Estates; required time to return, reason, vote & resolve in all points. If thereafter the propounders were speechless in the business, it might be because the Synod carried it for the King, and determined the problems in his sense, which (for aught I know) is that the Bishop means by yielding the bucklers without any opposition. The manner and time might very well perplex them being in a free Synod, and meeting with their bold contestation for David Black. Nor were they troubled only at the Erastian & Praelatical Counsellors about the King, but at Patrick Galloway and james Nicolson, of late Saints but now it should seem become Apostate presbyters in the Synod. The quaestions put by the King were not captious and carping at the parts of Church discipline, but a just controversy raised about the whole, fairly propounded, freely discussed, deliberately resolved, to the satisfying his conscience, and silencing schismatical scruples for the future. I have often told you no statutes of Parliament nor Acts of any but factious Assemblies authorised your Discipline, though were it ratified (as you would have had it) by any other, set your jusdininum 
Episcopacy recovered ground in Scotland.  aside, and fetch not your praecedent from the Medes and Per●…ans, a power equivalent to that which did it might reverse it.  
The visible Church in your country at that time was not so far from yeildino to Episcopacy, but that your brother confesseth the cranny was then made by which it afterward crept in, though I am at a loss for so much day light in your story, as to see the year when legally it was thrust out. Perhanerimam (saith he) ad essentialia ipsa externi regiminis impetendum, 
Vindic. Epist: Philadelph.  & extruendum Episcopatum aditum sibi patefecerunt. You can not deny but that it brought them thus far on their way, to the title of Praelates and voting in Parliaments. Wicked states men at that time bears the same signifiancie with Court Diusnes and evil Counsellors at this, and so doth the most able and faithful Ministers with the Men of God that are Covenanters in this age, of whom every man's experience can frame a character enough to scare away his credit to the reputation you would give them. There need no question be preposed when the Bishops were by full authoritier einstated in part of their unquaestionable right; To a great deal more in the year 1606. When by Act of Parliament their government was styled the ancient and fundamental policie… Declared that they being the Third Estate had been indirectly 
Whence they had not been legally ejected.  abolished… That it never had been meant by His Majesty and His Estates that they should any ways be suppressed: That they had been only brought into contempt and povertie… That His Majesty with express advice and consent of the said whole Estates in Parliament do repone, restore and redintegrate the said Estate of Bishops (it saith not to their order) to their ancient and accustomed honour, dignities, praerogatives, privileges etc. This was completed in the year 1610. when a kind of Episcopacy was set up as near the primitive pattern as the growing reformation would bear in the Assembly of Glasgow excepting the two Members I told you of, no otherwise corrupt then as it may be flie-blow'n by your breath, and tainted by your naming; under which not the Church but the Kirke of Scotland did heavilic groan, as it always doth when it hath not liberty to vent sedition in the pulpit, and act rebeilion in the field which the best and most learned of your preachers, the Aberdene Assemblers, practised in part, and wished well to the rest Anno 1606 till the year 1637. when if they had met with an English Pharach for rigour as they did with a Moses the meeker man of the two, he would have appointed ●…e masters that should have took away the straw, and spoiled their design of firing the house: set them making of bricks and building him treasure ●…ties, while they were pulling down temples & r●…uning Palaces; he had kept them from soaking of the yoke of ecclesiastic and Civilegovernment, & brought divine justice to their doors while they brought him to bear the burden of a most inhuman, most unjust judgement at his own; praesaerved his Children & subjects from sighing and hanging their harps upon willows in a strange 
Psalm 137.  land, while they sat, under our vines, and kept us out of the shadow of our own fig trees; cut up the root, while he lopped the branches, strake off the head while he clipped the ear; cast out of Britain, what with regreet of conscience he tolerated in Scotland, himself then & his Church had continued like a treeplanted by the water side 
Psalm. 1.  and had brought forth more fruit in due season His leaf had not withered, & whatsoever he had done had in all likelihood prospered. But he hath overcome them if not in doing, in suffering being more than conqueror, & when those briers & thorns are bundled up for the fire he shall have given 
Revel. 2. 7.  him to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.   

CHAPTER IX.  
The Commonwealth is a monster when God's sovereignty in the Presbytery contradicts the Kings.  
THe Reviewer all this while having made a poor shift to save the credit of the Kirke, and spent his time in sewing a few figleaves 
The Reviewers slender shiss.  together to cover the shame of a sinful disobedience against God's command in the civil Magistrate, which every puff of wind rends in pieces and scaters before the face of innocence and truth; he here tries his skill to patch contradictions together … pergit pugnantia secum Frontibus adversis componere… and makes a parti coloured coat for his two headed monster which may aswell, in time, out do the sevenheaded dragon, if more crowns & sceptres can befound wherewith to invest it, as it hath already the hundred-handed Giant, in pulling down as many powers and dominions as it could reach; metamorphozing the Paradise of Kingdoms into the forest of Commonwealths; and changing men that should be good subjects into scorpions, or in serpents Regulos, such serpents & cocketrices 
Icr. 8. 17.  as will not be charmed into any obedience.  
The Presbyterians ministry under Christ, being a tyranny over Christians, 
The presbyterians, not Praelates coordinate two Soveraignaties in one state.  quits them not of coordinating two Soveraignies in a state, Nor doth the Praelates maintaining an hierarchy in the Church make them at all guilty of that fault since the former acknowledge no superieur in Ecclesiasticis but God; & the later attribute aswell a spiritual as Temporal supremacy to their King. The spiritual Lordspip, Domination &c the Bishop's exercise over his subjects in his name but the Presbyterians theirs in the name of the Prince of all Kings, whose Minister he is aswell as they, and call all opposition against them a war against jesus 
Two Kings in Scotland.  Christ. Nay, rather than fail, when they can catch His Majesty in a closet, Andrew Melvin shall tell him he must know he lies at their mercy, Publice Rex, nos parcimus tibi, That there are two Kings in Scotland, fac. memineris duosesse in Scotia Reges, one of the Church (which must have the praecedence too) and another of the Commonwealth. That by his leave (which is, to say, without it) they must meet at their pleasure, & have a care of the Church, whereof he is no head but a Member, no nursing Father, as the Scripture vainly calls him, but the elder son or at most brother of the Kirke: And that this is spoken with good authority too, summa cum authoritate, shall the Vindicatour publicly print that all may know it. The contrariety of commands, when issuing from Masters equally to be observed, can not but breed distraction in the servant, and where janus hath not a twoo-faced generation, must needs much unfixe him in his advertence. Christ's particular and extraordinary commands, if all, 
Not God only but his Anointed likewise to be obeyed.  to all, and at all times to be published with out special commission, oblige not his Ministers publicly, imperiously to prohibit others of his anointed, which may be mistaken to contradict them If they unhappily fall out contrary one to other, the holy Scriptures no where command so to obey God, as activelie to disobey, that is, to rebel against the man that is their King. The Reverend Warners opposition here to the Presbyterians maintains no such subordination of the Church unto the state as makes her servile in performance of unjust commands. And where Christ is found ruling in this case. He 
St. Matth. 26. 25. St. Luke 9 23.  bids Saint Peter put up his sword, & all his Disciples to deny themselves, take up their cross daily and follow him, When the Presbyterians have as clear a Commission to prohibit festivals, to assront Ambassadous, proclaim fasts at such times when their Kings solemnize feasts, as the Apostles had for the publication of the Gospel, and teaching in the name of their Master that sent them: Let them apply the text in the 5. of the Acts, and (I hope the Reader makes, the incongruity none of mine) disregard the High Priests commands of a disterent Religion, and obey God rather then man. The contrary ways taken in Scotland by Church and state (so King or Queen may he accounted head 
Contrariety of Commands very frequent in Scotland.  or Member of the later) have not been so rare, if the History of your four last Princes be reviewed. Against three of whom Pope Knox personally and in his Synod made very frequent opposition, which he brags of in print. I shall not need to number your rebellious Acts and papers against the fourth.  
In the possibility of such cases, which you tenderly admit, your modesty being great to acknowledge the fallibility of Assemblies, the common rule of humane direction's very good, had it been not only known by you, but followed. The difference upon disobedience to either is not fairly repraesented temporal inconveniences in seditious tumults, to the hazard of life, often befalling men by the displeasure of the Church, And by terror or force a rescue from punishment legally to be inflicted, contrary to the good pleasure of the state.  
Your interdiction of festivals viz. Our Saviour's Nativity to be observed, and Bishops to sit in Parliament, when summoned by the King, seems in your sense to imply no contrariety of command, and are therefore slighted as impertinent objections The other two you 
The Revicwers fallacy  speak to, but not answer. Not the former but in a fallacy somewhat like that which Logicians call of composition and division. The Magistrates that were to attend the French Ambassadors being not excepted in your indiction of the fast, but included with the people, and yet (as excusable) divided by you in the observance. The truth of Church ce●…sure intended can be no calumny, the Major and Aldermen being cited and convented for their feasting, nor had the process fallen to ground but through the prudent delays interposed by the King, I must here put you in mind that your Brethren in Holland indict no fasts but by the Magistrate's consent, and your discipline being pretended to be the same, you could not do it at this time, when the King commanded feasting without coordinating Soveraignities, or which is worse, abolishing his, to ordain your own.  
In your answer to the later instance, you must cut the tails of 
Humble petitions &c full of threats.  your humble petitions and remonstrances, which were tipped and turned up with defiances and threats, under the notion of portents to the King's person & his family; And throw your covenant into the fire which engaged the takers in pursuance of your contrary commands by opposing Acts, and Persons of state too, beyond a declaration of their dislike. The watchman in Ezekiel (whose example you sergeant, and whose authority you abuse) was to warn when God brought the sword upon a land: not to arm nor remonstrate when he sent it out. The falsehood 
The Church-chasing and exeommuniting for the late engagement.  of your Church-chasing and excommunicating persons in the late engagement, were it any, could at most be fayd but to be antedated by the Bishop, we since daily conversing with such persons who live not very comfortably in these parts, yet dare not return home; And your public papers ranking them in 4. classes or divisions, excluding them out of places of trust or power, censuring them to sackcloth, banishing, excommunicating all that repent not for their active loyalty as a sin. The Bishop chargeth no man with detracting from the freedom of the Parliament that engaged them, He only anticipates by his answer such a probable praetense. In the place whereof since you frankly give us the advantage of your confession, in your next you must show upon what sure grounds you protest, preach, warn, declare against the power of the Kingdom in a sree Parliament, in public judicatories, and armies, which you confess you did in your paper May 11. (as I take it) 1649. As likewise how your declaring of, became censuring in judgement, and your dissatisfaction transformed into a sentence.  
The heapesof untruths, when your spectators wipe their eyes will 
The untruths are the Reviewers.  be easily discerned cast on your side of the way. So that they will not wonder at your falsifying Histories of old times, when the relation of your latest known practices, is by your fiery tongue branded with the ignominy of a lie. The generation you speak of, who keep up their credit according to the rate of too many men's idleness or in advertence, can draw no clearer pedigree then from your Synod, whose words can no more weigh with truth in the balance, than their teeth whence they are lightly flown can with the Silesian boys endure the touch.   

CHAPTER. X.  
No concord between Parliament and Presbytery.  
THe harmony betwixt your Presbytery and Parliament, when any, is discors concordia, and but still music at best, such as once was made between Parma and Placentia by the concurrent identity of the capital leters in their names. So that when their Duke writ himself Dux P. P. and no more their ambition was silenced about priority in his title. And if we look any farther into yours, we are encountered caninâ literâ, wish that mastiff letter, which it may be, mystically snarls as much against the name, as your power assaults the authoritié of the other. And when you take upon you the writing both at large, your humility and Courtship is such as here, ever to give praecedence unto yourselves. Your constitution must be looked upon as no other than a celestial quintessence. Your end known to be compassing a temporal aswell as a spiritual tyranny, & your daily practice, subduing, swaying both sceptres of Jesus Christ's. The Praelatical learning, you see, takes no higher flight than the next instance to prove the conclusion in hand. And he whose faith must be forced to credit such unanswerable arguments hath indeed little or no common sense or reason in him, but mistakes snow to be black because he lives in a dungeon, goes upon hot coals, and feels not his benumbed feet to 
Prov. 6. 28.  be burnt: the light in him is darkness because of his evil eye, & quantae tencbrae: how great is that darkness. S. Matth. 6. 23. What perpetual jarrings hath been between you I have otherwhere showed, which never failed but when you tampered with the strings & tuned both instruments to your ear.  
I see the late engagement often served up is enough a loan to take off 
The Rev. ears not for hearing of the late engagement. Ps. 69: 23. The 8. desires of the Church neither just nor necessary.  your stomach; yet that insipid colewort must be set upon your table, while your table contimues a snare to each yourselves withal, and that bill of fare, though but one dish repeated till it choke the rebellious guerts of the Assemblies your paper of eight desires contained 8. very insolent demands, in place of that submission which the Parliament sent for, I can not say expected. What justice and necessity may be in them was not at any time by you, nor by any at that time to be expostulated to the retarding that more just and necessary design. If the Parliament counted upon any, it reckoned withal the satisfaction it had rendered, Wherein it had been rather too lavish then close handed, and promised more upon the necessity than thought on, than some conceived in justice or conscience could he performed. Security upon oath under hand and seal the Bishop tells you were harder terms than an Usurers to a Bankrupt, and it may be you took His Majesty for no other, having gotten (though by no mortgage) his kingdome●… in your possession. And knowing what he had contracted with God before, you would not part with them but upon the surest interest of his soul. If the quaestion were not for the thing, that it should seem you taken for granted. And then what methodical, and scrupulous traitors do you blazon yourselves to be, to leave him languishing in a gaol, while the order and some particle of the security must be thought an. The qualification of the persons to have the managing of the war being approved by the Parliament, the highest Court in the Kingdom, no law intimates an Assembly or Indicatorie competent to reverseit. So that the Bishop hath sufficiently informed himself that the knot of the differtnce lies only in some bulrush, which you 
The Ch. of Scotland hath no liberty to declare against King and Parliament.  look for to little purpose; And having attentivelie read your public declarations, draws out of them no groundless conjecture, but an infallible assurance that no History mentions such Pharisaical Rebels upon the earth.  
The Warner knows very well that what you call the liberty of the Church is in truer language the licence of the many schismatical hypocrites that disturb it; who by long custom of blaspheming God in guilded rhetoric, and a spiritual figure, translating his holy word, but perverting the sense to sinful ends in public declarations, have withdraw'n poor people from their duty to their King into such fears & confoederacies as the prophet Esai had in the place that you cite warning from the Lord with a strong hand, & instructions not to walk in. The three Graces you brag of had too many snakes dangling about their ears to be mistaken for other than the three infernalfuries which they were Your humility was pride and arrogancy to the height, attributing more to your private fancies, then to the public counsels of a free parliament, the undenied repraesentative of the Kingdom. Your piety was but the will worship of your own imaginations that you chailenged: And your wisdom craftiness; wherein you will be taken in the end, & by your froward counsel 
Job. 5. 13.  carried headlong to your destruction. The visibility of this might encourage the Engagers to run any adventure, rather than to follow you in your ways. Such of them as since the disaster have crouched to an acknowledgement of their loyalty for an error, are poor Spirited fools that have their eyes only in the ends of the earth; are never likely to be in the number of them who obtained a good report through faith in 
Prov. 17. 24.  their sufferings, nor receive the promise, of some better thing that God had pro vided for them. Did an Angel from heaven blow his trumpet, and proclaim 
Heb. 11. 39  God speaking in your declarations, the Warner and his party were bound to stop their ears. Or if the Prince of the power of the air should 
Ephes. 2. 2.  cloth such wicked language in lightning, or pervert some Boanerges to speak it in thunder, by terror to work in children of disobedience, we have Saint Paul's prescript to pronounce a double anathema against him, Accursed, Accursed let him be and in submission 
Gal. 1. 8. 9  to God in his messenger the Apostle such men of gallant spirits should we be, as in a Christian constancy or Roman if you will have it, rather to perish with this last breath in our mouths, then by harkening to counsels or walking in ways so palpably pernicious to Church and state, with the ruin of both let the breath of our nostrils, the 
Lament. 4. 20.  Anointed of the Lord, be taken in their pits. If the margin and text of your following paragraph were not so near neighbours, in my haste I 
Contradiction between the Revic. margin and text.  might chance to have made no comparison, and so escaped the contradiction between them. No offer to stopthe leavic in the one, and opposition so coldrife and small in the other, will I think be reconciled by no logic but that which makes degrees vary species, or argues from 
The levy was offered to be stopped.  the third to the second adjectand according to the vulgar proverb, makes that not to be at all which is little or nothing to the purpose. To the substance of your answer. By enquiry I find your oppsition as hot as your fervent zeal and abilities could make it, and if your actions drew in the same yoke with your words, you that sweated it out in earnest beseechments, exhortations, and threats, sat not still to see the effects of your papers, but armed yourselves to the work of retardment, if not to the retracting the design. Some few lines in a Declaration and warning from the Commission of your General Assembly, are enough to keep the Bishop from ignorance, & a transscript of them as they lie to discharge him from the malice you impute… We do earnestly beseech and exhort all who live in this land, that as they tender their solemn obligation and oath both by the National Covenant, 
May 11. 1649.  and by the solemn league & Covenant, & as they love the honour of jesus Christ and the Gospell…Nay, as they wish to eschew the heavy wrath and indignation of the Lord, That they do not give any countenance, nor connivance to these wicked men in their wicked way, much less to join with them in counsel or in arms. And because it lies upon us to be faithful in our station, therefore as we have already given warning unto these men that unless they do speedily destst from their evil way and repent, that we will proceed against them with the dreadful sentence of excommunication…if any shall hereafter join with them, we will be necessitated impartially to proceed against them with the highest censures of the Kirke… If this be coldrife and small opposition, what tall fellows are you when you are warm? I Know nothing you could well do beyond it, unless with C. Caesar you would be so mad as in Homer's language challenge jupiter to an encounter 'em ' anaeir ', e ego se, which you are likely enough to do, if it succeeded with him as Seneca Supposed. Non puto parum momenti haue ejus vocem ad incitandum conjuratorum anlmos 
Lib. De Ir. cap. ulr.  addidisse. The Army gotten up so numerous and strong, (which the Commanders thought sooner expedient, and had sooner levied but for you,) was probably able to have done what service they professed; but the aversion of the hearts of the Church declaring itself in diabolical curses and supercilious discouragement, divided the hearts and enfeebled the hands of a faint people.  
It was a strange sympathy in the hearts of your yeomen that in the midst of their fright made them flee to the same corner of the land. Their consciences are not commonly of such a tender touch, but when scarified by their Clergy. So that it will be no calumny to conjecture what spirit gave them wings, and directed their flight to the rebellious meeting at Mauchlin moor. Their growing number, and abiding there in a body for the security of their persons, made no party for, nothing toward the deliverance of the Kings; and their danger being only to be forced by the Parliament to go soldiers into England for that purpose, the quaestion is what violence was therein offered to their conscience, and, if any, by what law or precept, divine or humane, the Assembliecan countenance them in arms, though but in a defensive posture to withstand it? In which had that part of the Army that suddenly came upon them cut them off, it might have stood for an act of civil justice, more than military fury, kept the rest in peace, and much conduced toward an after security to themselves The communion at Mauchlin laid to the public. Fast appointed in termivis for the apostasy of the Parliament, might occasion some of your Ministers coming thither to as good a purpose as his to the Kirke of St. Andro, who prayed to almighty God, that he would carry through the good cause against all his enemies, especially against Kings, Devils and Parliaments. Coloured clothes and pistols were no proper accoutrement for your 
Ministers ●…in arms.  Kirkemen wherein to celebrate the Sacrament of Christian charity and peace. Nor were they the good instruments with the people to go away to run away they might be afterward) that had lead them in bands and troops into the battle. For Presbyterian Scotish Ministers to protest against any rebellion wherein they act, needs no eagle eyed Parliament man to discover it at the bottom as a piece of effrontery very 
Not cens. by the Commissioners of the Kirke.  common among them and proper to their profession, which is very ridiculously diss mbled in this case, when divers of them were taken prisoners, fight desperately for the cause, complained of to the Commissioners of the Kirke, who were so far from inflicting any censure; or giving them admonition, that they approved what they had done, and justified them in the fact. Which I see here you dare not ex professo, but fawlter in your judgement about the meeting, pleading the security of their persons as a fair apology for the yeoman's a biding in a body, and yet mentioning the Minister's protestation, which is little better than a condemnation of their convening & fight in the field.  
The Bishop's parallel betwixt the General Assembly and Parliament casts 
S. Pet. 2. 16. v. 13. Presbytery makes Parliaments subject to the Assemblies.  the cloak of maliciousness upon your own shoulders in the abuse of your liberty, whereby you refuse to submit yourself to the ordinance of man●… sor the Lordssake, otherwise then as it is ratified in your Synods for when the Presbyterians lay the authority of both Courts upon a divine foundation, they make themselves the chief corner stone, usurping the proper place of Jesus Christ in the one, and of his anointed in the other, telling him and all Magistrates (among whom Parliaments are to be numbered) he ought to be subject to the Kirke spiritually and in Ecclesiastical government… that be aught to submit himself to the discipline of the Kirke if he transgress 
2. Book. discipl. 1. ch.  in matters of conscience and Religion. So that when they talk of obedience for conscience sake to their lawful commands, they take cognizance what is conscience and law, and at their own arbitrement many times oblige subjects on the same principles to rebel, calling this the justifiable revenge of the Magistrates contempt against the authority of God resident in them. The Bishop mocks not at Ministers that carry themselves at the Ambassadors of Christ, that deliver not more than is in the Commission or instructions they received; but thinks they have no privilege above the Angels, who are not dominantes but ministrantes spiritus. That they are a flame rather to warm indiscreet zeal and 
Heb. 1. 14. Ps. 104. 4.  devotion, then consume in the fervour of violence and passion. That God rarely tempers brimstone with the breath of his messengers, That he sets the time, & names the extraordinary case, when 
jer. 14.  his words shall be fire in the mouths of his prophets, & his people woe d that it should devour them. He likes you should judge according to the rule of Scripture, so you follow that rule, and keep in subjection to good laws. He commends your caring for life aeternal, not your leaguing and covenanting in order to that for the death temporal of your brethren. He judgeth you according to the rule of Scripture to be shamelcsselie impious that counterfeit a care of life aeternal, whither bloodthirsty Presbyters are never likely to enter, but have a portion with their fellow hypocrites otherwhere. That make holy Sripture not only of private but perverse interpretation, and God the author of all the wickedness you act by the authority of his word who boast of an Embassy from Christ, when who so blind as these servants, who so 
Isai. 42. 19  dease as these messengers (you say) he sent? who are lead by a Spirit that doth the works of the flesh from top to bottom mentioned by St. Paul Galat. 4. Who would gull the world out of all but a form or property of religion; who make yourselves not Ministers but Masters of Christ, commanding imperiously the spirit he sends down; who make a trade of Scripture, and for wordlie gain parsel out eternal life to whom you please.  
The second part of the Bishop's parallel, I see, puts you to a stand, and 
Minister's power with the people dangerous if seditiously bend.  the quaestion What shall be made? … argues you some what suspended in your thoughts whether as much should be made of it as you mean, and the people commended for obeying their Ministers (how seditious soever) more than their Magistrates that command them. If all the power such Ministers have with the people be built on their love to God, what pity is it that rebellious structure should have such a religious foundation? When it riseth high he is no good states man that doth not demolish it, knowing that what God and conscience constrain not, but persuade, to employ to his good, the Devil without any or with one that's erroneous may tempt them to edify to his ruin. It is not amiss 
Th. Cap●…nel. eap. 18.  said & applied by him that writ of the spanish Monarchy Pri●…um instrumentum bone imperandi, lingua est; secundum vero gladius. The sword is but the left hand instrument in the governing Kingdoms: The tongue, of the preacher is dextra terribilis, that of the right hand that teacheth terrible things, that by the menace of death, which the sword 
Ps. 45. 5.  can not reach to, keeps subjects in obedience to their Sovereigns. Therefore when once it hath a power with the people such as that of St. 
●…psis Cardinalibus and P. P. maxformidabilis fuit, diremita aut unyt principes & subditos suos arbytratu.  Bernard it had need be endued with the spirit of Saint Bernard, sor there is a tongue. Quae conterit spiritum, the perverseness wherein is a breach in the spirit Prov. 1. 5. 4. And the proud men in the Psalmist, promise themselves a victory over Princes by the tongue, We will praevaile Who because they are the men that ought to speak, just like you, deny all supremacy. Their first language is this. Quis dominus, Who is Lord over use. The Politician I spoke of hath a discourse worth your reading, wherein he shows you how Maliomet stirred up the people against Heraclius the Emperor. He saith as much for Calvin your protoplast, which whatsoever may be apologized for him, I 
Ps. 12. 4.  am sure is inexcusable in Knox and you that are the workmanship of his hands.  
This made Charles the good so prudent and resolute, who being become too unhapie in nothing more than in suffering your Babel building to be finished in Scotland, when he beheld the like work of your fellow Rebel Architects in England, would not exclude himself 
Eik: Bas: cap. 17.  out of doors, nor part with that power whereby he might best restrain the seditious exorbitances of Ministers tongues, who with the keys of heaven have so far the keys of the people's hearts as they praevaile much by their oratory to shut in and let out both peace and loyalty. While the Warner scosfes at your threats his meaning is to have deluded people to scorn them and know in your words that the thunderings of (the Scotish aswell as) that Roman Antichrist are but vanity and ●…inde. To tell them in a figure that hell and 
St. Liturg. p. 87.  death are no more in your keeping then the gaol in the prisoners that walks abroad in the streets with his shakels about him, but must render himself at the end of his covenant: The Praelates' proclamation of such Atheism as this is a printed copy out of the original writ by the 
V. 18.  fingar of God in the 10. S. Matth. Whereby is to be banished out of the hearts of the people all fear of them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul, for all their kirke-bulls and censures that threaten it. To the quaestion you close with I answer, That Satan hath driven already the first instruments of his Republic in Britain into a very narrow room in the North, where Cromwell and other his more useful instruments at present, are likely to keep them, till, if God neither convert nor by a miracle otherwise confound them his work being done he may lash them with whips of their own making, topt' with Serpents heads, and Scorpions tails, and at last deliver them to the worm that shall not die, cast them into the fire that shall not be quenched, 
Isai. 66. 24  and make their stinking memory an abhorring unto all flesh.  
The third part of the parallel hath been in every particular justified, and were more instances requisite to evidence the truth, they might be a numberless number of such imputations as you are never able to refute.  
The charge which the Bishop subjoines is not so poor but that it enricheth 
No in haerent right in Courts to nominate Commissioners for intervals.  his proof with the best argument of your spiritual supremacy. The daily practice of the Parliaments of Scotland, such as have been of late and heretofore when your Reformation took place, constitutes no right, confirms no power os nominating committees for intervals. Nor is there any inhaerent right in Courts to nominate interreigning Commissioners but by Royal favour in such as (except their intertearming vacations) are perpetual and standing, not called by fits ad placitum Domini Regis, no not in the Parliament itself. Which (to omit other proofs) was the ground of this clause in their Act of oblivion 1641. That the peace to be now established may be inviolably observed in all time to come, It is agreed that some shall be appointed by His Majesty and the Parliaments of both Kingdoms, who in the interim betwixt the sitting of the Par●…ments may be careful that the peace now happily concluded may be tontinued etc. … And it is declared that the power of the Commission shall be restrained to the articles of peace in this treaty; As likewise of that fatal Act for perpetuating the last black Parliament in England, which had probably ne●…r been required if it might have nominated a committee of state (that idol to which it now sacrificeth, in blood) to sit till the next summons upon any inhaerent right in that Court. For the judicatories of your Church. I am tired with telling you that no law of the Kingdom doth privatiué authorise them to meet, their Assembly being illegal without the King or his Commissioner, neither of which are to come upon course or at call. And their power of appointing Committees hath as often been quaestioned (and how often is that?) as it ever was executed without or against the positive consent or command of the King or Queen for the time. And truly the committees in the times, os your late troubles were the Ambuscado wherein you lay closely in wait to disturb both Church and state, while your armed body in Parliament retired. Whose frequent meetings were forced no otherwse then by the incessant zeal in their Members to persecute Religion and loyalty. Whose diversion from their particular charges (for attendance on the public rebellion) was joined with so great fascherie and expense to fulfil their lusts at other men's cost, Which with all their heart they will in Sempiternum continue, if fear of their necks make them not at length slip out of the collar: or their grey hairs and withered carcases (after many a surfeit) call them not to some other account, or their Chief in whose service they made these necessary meetings pay them not their necessary wages in pertusum sactulum, into a bag full of holes, which 
Haggai 1. 6.  shall never be filled, no more than was the measure of the iniquity they acted.   

CHAPTER XI.  
The Presbytery cruel to particular persons.  
IF King and Parliament be (as they may very well) incensed against the 
The Presbytery a tyranny over the consciencies of thepeople.  Presbytery at sight of the Bishop's reason, more than out of sympathy with him in his anger, his warning hath taken in part the effect that he wished and aimed at. Yet in vain shall they vindicate all just authority to themselves, if the people be kept in a servile observance of a tyrannous discipline, & pay their blind obedience to the Kirke. Therefore the Warner exceeds no bounds in his rage, but en largeth his bowels of pity to them, who for the most part having disarmed their souls of that judgement which should dictate their freedom from Church censures upon acts indifferent, or sinful in an inferior degree, their due submission to an arraignment of thoughts only in the Court of a penitent conscience, or hereafter before the tribunal of heaven, where sits the only judge of hearts, the discerner of perverse inclinations; expose themselves naked to the boundless fury of merciless Reviewers; to the sharp scrutiny of malicious Inquisitours; to the arbitrary sentence of most sinful judges, and therefore most suspicious surmisers. The Bishop mentions 
Censures upon slight grounds.  no faults but such as toward which your Discipline mentions no favour limited to the privacy of the care. Nor yet do all those give occasion for that which you take to show the infinite extent, the interminate divisibility of your power. In the book that he citys is the greatest 
Scot Lit.  censure of the Church prescribed, and more methodically then mercifully showed how a small offence or slander may justly deserve excommunication by reason of the contempt and disobedience of the offender. Pag. 60. And lest any should think that the osfenses named are not so heinous as that of the Corinthians incest (whence you take your pattern and Saint Paul's authority for your process) you give such to understand that mercy and favour may rather be granted to any other sin then to the contempt of wholesome admonitions, and of the just and law full ordinances of the Church. Pag. 80. Which if (as you say) it never procured the smallest censure, you have been a great deal too profuse of your pardons, Where you profess your obligations so great to the performance of the commandment of God. Or, if you think it not such may be justly required by any Erastian to render a reason, why that ignis fatuus, that foolish spirit 
Rom. 8. 15.  of bondage walks in your Discipline from generation to generation, while they laugh at the calamitic you threaten, and mo●…ke when your fear cometh 
Prov 1. 26.  upon the people. But he that knows you will never mistake you for such meek lambs in this mimike disguise of lions, when he finds you aswell preying as roaring. And how any, the most charitable man will have just cause to complain of your rigour, let your aequitable comparers judge observing with me but one passage of multitudes in your form, that one which speaks you the most savage petitioners that ever invocated the name of 
Spiritual cruelty in the prayers of Presbyters.  Christ, whom you humbly beseech (for fear his mercy that is written to be above all his own works, should be above that of yours, the inhumanity you are about) that whatsoever in his name you pronounce in earth (meaning the sentence of excommunication, though but for susspitions and jealousies, if not confessed to be as real faults as any 
Sc. Lit. p. 196.  peevish brother shall construe them) he Would ratify the same in heaven. Which can not be paralleled in the Turkish Aicaron, nor among all the superstitions rites and cruel offices of the heathen per form to the most bloody, most insatiate of devils, who doth nothing else but go about seeking whom he may devour. Where as if this be your slackness 
1. Pet. 5. 8,  wherewith sectaries charge you, which you are soric you are not able to refute. it should seem you are sorry there are no more hells than one, no plurality of souls in your single Impaenitents, no imaginable protraction of punishment beyond eternity for the execution of your censures. The Sabbath recreations, which the Bishop saith are void of 
Our Sabbath recreations shorst of those in other Reformed Curches.  scandal, are likely to be, at most but those mentioned in the book of toleration so much decried by the brethren of your faction; among which were no stage plays, nor, in my memory, any allowed to be acted on Sundays, and so not frequented by his friends.  
The greater licence on the Sabbath Kirmasses you slide over without any of that zeal, which His Lordship prophesieth, though yourself have been a spectator of it in these Country's, So that in your own words (which I am a frayed will too often be mistaken for mine, and bring upon me the imputation of a sloven) If the Aposteme in your lowest gut had not changed places with your brains your words had been wiser and your unsavoury breath (which you too often eructate) somewhat sweeter. The debate among some of your sect. Whether in Scotland or no, which is not expressed, about starch and cuffs, may very well pass upon the credit of the Warner that asserts it, & your putting him upon the poofe makes me guess you are not in a readiness to deny it. Howsoever we know the curses of the Laundry have been through two or three descents a traditional legacy to the brethren 
Trivial debates, and; articling against habiss.  of your order in England for the counterscuffles they made about the former. And the debate on the later hath produced an injunction to your Society somewhere else to cast away those little idolatrove rags, which could scarce be taken for any relics of Rome, & their gloves too, it may be upon better reason, lest the cleanliness of their hands might beget a jealousy of some superstition in washing them before their public officiating, on their unhandsome distributing of the word. What little latitude of discretion you allow & how your superiors must be your slaves or pupils in the attire aswell of their bodies as sules is evident by your preaching and articling against the apparel even of the Ladies of Honour & that waited upon your Queen's 
Knox Hist.  Majesty three sundry days when she road in great state and solemnity to the Tolbuiths in Parliament time Ao. 1563.  
Of the second oppression, which the Bishop objects you give up a very imperfect account, leaving the greatest weight to he as heavy as it 
The same fault under a different formality not to betwice punished.  can upon the head of your Synods in calling the Magistrate fool for his mercy, and knave for his bribery, which you only suspect because he is not as rigid as yourselves; In enjoining public satisfaction after the Defendant hath given it at an assize etc. What you bring is little to the purpose, and, if it were, hath been packed away with its answer long a go Wherewith yet if gone will not be satisfied, you must be set to reviewe Erastus and answer him. When he tells you, of old no notice was taken of your double formality viz of crime and scandal, so as to subject the delinquent, for the same fact, to the censure of two distinct Courts, civil and spiritual. He calls 
Lib. De Fid. & Op. cap. 2.  ad raucedinem usque for one text or example in Scripture to justify it; He proves out of St. Austin etc. That the Church used the spiritual sword only when the temporal was not in Christian hands. He puts you to make good your main consequence. That if the Magistrate doth not his duty, an Assembly, Court is required to constrain him, or as yove Liturgy speaks, to admonish him, and that too, as the Bishop urgeth when he hath discharged it according to his judgement 
Offenders quitted to be admitted to the H. Sacrament without public satisfaction in the Church.  and conscience. From your proceedings of this kind His Lordship draws 3. observations, which you cannot deny, and yet dare not acknowledge, and therefore say nothing; but work in a whimzie of his excursions upon his own friends, not any of whom approve the injustice, the irrationalitie, much less imitate the cueltie of your practice. The Popish Praelates are not so near allied unto the Doctor, nor do they need to be taken into his protection: The English are, and can vindicate themselves against you for admitting to the holy table with signs of repentance, without ecclesiastic public satisfaction, murderers that are either quit by their jury, or have their pardon sealed by the King, whores that either are spared out of hopes of amendment, or have had the whip at Bridewell, and thiefs burned in the hand at Newgate or saved by the benefit of their Clergy; And this upon better grounds than the Presbyters deny them communion with those, who as much as they make up their mouths, dare not take up a stone to cast at them. The Doctor knows his own meaning, and plainly speaks it. And they must be very ignorant or worse that are not of his mind, or rather of St. Paul's which I take to be this. That when a man shall without visible hypocrisy say, be hath examined himself, he is not to be again examined by the 
1. Cor. 11.  Class, but may eat of that bread, and drink of that cup, That when he hath judged himself, he should not be judged; That when he is judged, he is chastened of the Lord, not condemned and executed by the Kirke. Your interrogatory or argument a minore ad majus in case of Scandal is defective until you render a just definition of scandal applicable to all where in your discipline doth instance; After which having made your scale of degrees, your antecedent requires your proof viz. That small, scandals are to be purged away by that repentance that here is in quaestion between us. Had I ever read of any Presbyter in 
The Scotish practice touching Excommunication little less rigid than their Canon.  Scotland what I have of Fabian once Bishop of Rome. That he was chosen by the extraordinary descent of a dove upon his head. I might charitably hope sor some spirit of meekness among the brethren of the Discipline, and have some little credulity that the want of gall in any one of the number might qualify the exuberance and overflowing biterness in the rest; But when I meet with such tragic Histories of their implacable fury, and see every where their unjust judgement running down like a torrent, and their unrighteous rigour like a mighty stream; I can put little trust in the slender bank of Master Baylies professions in behalf of his Presbytery, from whom expect as little mercy as truth, and as little Christian righteousness as peace. The Warner can not be ignorant of your Scotish ways, while his eyes are open to read them in your books, or his ears to hear them in very credible reports. He that lives in Scotland, and never seeth the execution of that censure, must betake himself to the mountains, & converse in some corner with those creatures, who know as little of excommunicating by, as they ever did of communicating with a Church. For the 47. years' halcion days that you have seen (of which from your birth which you so superstitiously mention you must give us leave to abate at least one or two, as pregnant in knowledge and as quick an Intelligencer as you could be in your cradle, and about 30. of 40. more, wherein the cursed black cows had short horns, the Presbyterian severity being regulated by the Bishops, who carried the badge of clemency aswell as innocence on their arms the great city you lived in must be taken for the only bright Mercy seat in your Country, while the sun of righteousness did never arise otherwhere, but turned his face away from it as a land of darkness, full 
Ps. 74. 21.  of cruel habitations. As touching the two censures you acknowledge, had the profaneness in the papist, and the horrible scandal in the Praelates been privileged as much in the punishment with a proxy, as, they say, the more true and more horrible scandal in a brother of the Commission, the rod of that fury had passed upon the backs of the fools in your City; as for the luftie Presbyters delinquency (I have heard your excommunication was executed upon the Nodie-Innocents in his parish. If you go no farther than Saint Paul's command 2. Thes. 3. 14. You should denounce no public excommunication in the Church, but diates epistles scmeiousthai, by private leters signify his fault. You should have no company nor familiarity with him that he may be ashamed, not forbid every man to sell him bread, that he may be sterved. You should admonish him as a brother, not count him as 
Sc. Lit. p. ●…00.  an enemy, commanding him to be reputed as accursed & delivered to the devil. Much less should you arrogate the prerogative of God, 
Master john Guthrie Bishop of Mur●…ay.  if not a greater, in visiting the sin of the father upon the children, such it may be as hate you not, denying them baptism till they come to be of age etc. And, to show what good Angels you are, after sentence pronounced, you dismiss not the Congregation before they have 
The following in convenients to be charged rather upon the Church than state.  sung with you the 100 Psalm, a Psalm of exultation whereby as much as may be, you rejoice at the confusion of a sinner. Nor is your reserve of little kindness very constant in permitting the excommunicate the company of them that are tied by natural bonds unto him, when the sharpness of your censure cut ' these bonds, withheld this indulgence from Master john Guthrie Bishop of Murray, to whom, when he lived in Angus you denied the comfort and conversation of his brother though a preacher of a parish thereabout.  
For the inconveniences that follow, how powerful hath been the influence of the Church upon the State in such Acts of Parliament as are made consequential to their Acts of Assemblies may be guessed by the frequent servile submission to the tyranny of their papers. In the Parliaments where your Princes were ever predominant it can not be thought they would ratify an Act so destructive to their own strength in the diminution of their subjects, as to set the 
* Quia a ●…empore quo us lagatus est capnt gerit lupinum, ita quod abomnibus inter fici possit & impuné Bracton.  heads of wolves upon the shoulders of men, and for such trivial faults as the Bishop mentions antecedent to your censure, with leters of horning expose them to be worried by dogs. For this cruelty may your Church be deservedly challenged, and that by Proelates, who gave no such customary allowance to their officials to excommunicate as appears by the caution in the Canon 1571. Nullus horum, nec Cancellarius, nec Commissarius, nec Officialis in cognition causarum proced●…t usque ad serendam sententiam excommunicationis, nisi tantum in causis instantiarum. And in the Canon 1604. If the delinquent made his appearance, and after process was to be censured the official was nor to pronounce the sentence but the Bishop nullam ejusmodi sententiam pronunciari volumus praeterquam per Episcopum etc. Nor were the civil inconvenients like those after leters of horning. And how easily all for great crimes was commuted for, your brother Didoclave complaineth at large. Where as you run again from the severity in your laws to the clemency in your practice (though that be no answer to the Bishop who presseth upon your Canon) your divers late years cruelty, which still is continued confutes you in the face of the world. In which if your sentence took place in heaven as it doth to their confusion on earth, so many have paid the price of their souls for observance of the first & fifth Commandments, their duty to God & obedience to their King. Your parenthesis that hooks in the greatness of sins is convict by the slight pecoadilloe forementioned. And the length of your process shall be cut short by one instance in the forenamd Bishop Guthrie, who was never so much as admonished by a brother, nor summoned by a messenger unless to yield up his house to Rob. Monroe, being carried to Edinburgh not to have trial, but to hear that sentence had passed upon him before he came.  
In the case of fugitives your Discipline makes no distinction not arbitrary between the contumacious and timorous. And he that stands to 
Cruelty toward fugitives.  your account shall come short of his reckoning on mercy, if your flying roll can reach his soul at a distance aswell as to be sure it shall consume the timber and stones of his house that's at hand.   

CHAPTER XII.  
The Presbytery a burden to the Nobility, Ministry, and all Orders whatsoever.  
You know what Constantine said concerning the Arians… 
The Presbyterians as outrageous as the Arians.  Christ, Christ, Kyrie, Kyrie, ti depote hemas to lesterion hosemeran titroskes He complained that when their heinous crimes whereof they were accused had wounded their heads, and the deformity of Shame spread over their faces, their violent boldness stood fiercely in opposition to the truth, They wept not in Sorrow, but roared in madness 
Brychatai epipriusa ten odonta Rescript ad Arium & Arian.  with a grinding of their teeth. The Presbyterians I see by many passages in this chapter want neither impudence nor rage to outface and rail as much as any haeretikes whatsoever, when once their discipline is touched to the quick. The Praelatical malice seems no way exorbitant by this supplement of the Bishops, wherein his just indignation chaseth all the remaining eccentric motions of these planets, these ftaires that wander from the fixed beauties in the firmament of the Church. If you can but find patience, or your stomach will serve you to return to your own vomit and lick up your language the air will be cleansed which was become unsavoury only by the uncomeliness of your speech. The nobility and Gentry in all 
Presbyserie more oppressive to the Nobility and Gentry the Praelaccc.  parts of Britain have had too long and unhapie experience of the difference between the fatherly counsels or friendly correction of Bishops (whom Religious Princes in honour of their function have dignified with the title of Barons, and privilege of Peers) and the unsufferable insolences of Presbyters, whose peacocks tails that train it daily in the vulgar dust, and sweep together the rascality of the people, are poudlie spread and fanned in their faces. Those in England, (which were none of the best) that refused no hazard to shake off that easy yoke which was laid upon them by the hands and institution of Christ, have broke their necks in their haste, & you see their honour buried in the grave. The Scotish Nobility that lead them the way, having served almost a double apprenticeship at the trade, alas groan for their freedom yet dare not ask it from him, whose mercy they fear must not be so injurious to justice, as after so many rebellions and murders especially that unpardonable parricide) to redeem them from bondage and to quit the forfeit of their lives and estates. Therefore they choose rather (unhapie choice between necessity and nothing) to renew their slavery, Were the British Bishops set down again and (which they may be in better earnest than you mean it) well warmed in their repaired sees, as they would look to receive a filial respect so they would doubtless repay a paternal Christian care of the Nobility and Gentry in their charge; Those that heretofore did not (if any did not) had no natures nor principles befitting their dignities, and till they have changed what they had for such 'tis pity, if they survive, they should be reenstated. You should do well to name those that set their feet on the necks of the greatest Peers, but withal to set down how long they could keep their footing there when a just appeal had been made to the capital power that was above them. If the public ●…oo scandalous licence of any peer, how great soever, received at their mouths a friendly rebuke; If after that his untractable confidence in sin some legal restraint or fatherly chastisement at their hands; when Gods impartial and irrespective commandments are altered; when Christian laws that are consonant repealed, they may be then, & not till then discharged of this duty, and visited by Master Bailiff (when he shows his commission) for their arrogance in the exercise of any oppression or tyranny in their Courts.  
In the pretty piece that follows Master Bailiff hath played the 
The Reviewers counterfeit of Presbytery inverted.  part of Pauson the painter in Plutarch, and artificially drawn the Presbyterian horse in his full career, giving as he thinks every limb its due proportion to grace him in that posture; But when, with Pausons' customer, we turn the table and lay the beast on his back, his design is spoiled, and that ugly spectacle of a foundered jade draws contempt and laughter from all judicious passengers that behold it.  
That every small Congregation in Scotland can furnish your Elderships 
Wisdom piety, and learning not so common in Elderships.  with wise, pious, and learned men by the dozen, will never be credited till we get some Historical assurance that when all good parts, piety, and prudence were divorced from Canaan Athens & Lacedaemon they made a voyage to Scotland to court the wild affections of the Presbyters in the North.  
For the double portion of discretion and learning in your Classical 
The Nobility & Gentry abused when chosen Elders.  Presbytery, which draws in by fifteen the Nobility & Gentry you run the adventure of losing a better inheritance, if you take St. Paul's to mean that in the letter (as you sometimes tell us when you are angry with Court and our Academical Clergy) Not many wisemen… not many noble 1. Cor. 1. 26. But it is in truth your own carnal wisdom not so much to add worth, as to arrogate power to, and make absolute the authority of your Consistory, that in other men's names you may Lord it over not only the Common people but the Senate as he told some of your kindred that had searched every secret corner in your spiritual house. Consistorium ut dominari 
Schulting Steinwich Hierarch Anacris: Lib. 2.  possit Senatui asciscit pro senioribus Consutes, Senatores & Optimates… Where if persons of quality be wanting to complete your number, you go●… to plow with an ox and an ass, yoke a Count and a Cobbler together, while your prick-eared Pastor keeps the goad in his hand to quicken their dull pace and drive them into Rebellious Covenants and so to their 
D●…ut. 22. 10.  shame and destruction. The judge in our Officials Court is to be no petty mercenary lawyer, but a Doctor that hath approved his skill in our 
Doctors at law more sit judges then unstudied Nobles or Gentlemen.  civil laws before one of our learned universities, & thereby supposed to have better abilities to judge then any Nobleman, Gentleman, Burgess, one or more, except some select persons who by study may have attained to some excellence in that faculty, wherewith neither by birth nor education they are known to be ordinarily qualified, unless Dame nature in Scotland hath some feminine moulds in every parish for your Elders, or some Seraphical fathers to breed their children by the rod or institution of the Spirit. But to return to our Doctor. From his single sentence appeal may be made to a Court of Delegates consisting of a number the most learned, and in humane opinion the most upright lawyers in the land. Which can be taken for no miserable relief, being the highest Court constituted by the authority of the King where if not His Majesty in person, his immediate Commissioners are judges.  
Your twice a year Synods seem somewhat unnecessary if intended 
Synods not to besummoned to receive lay appeals.  principally for receiving appeals, your Classical Presbyteries consisting of persons (as you praetend) of such sincerity & honour, & somewhere (as I remember) Didoclave tells us they have little work which, if well examined, hapeneth not so much by reason of the aequitable proceedings in inferior judicatures, as from the assurance which persons oppressed have to meet with the same measure from the same men that are the Members of your Synods, who know well enough how to gratify one another in the mutual ratification of the particular sentences passed before. The Primitive Synods found other work, praeserving in their Provinces the purity of doctrine & uniformity in practice, trusting Bishops in their Dioceses except in singular cases with the censures of persons & redress of grievances. Yet whatsoever convenience may be in it our Episcopal twice a year visitation may parallel. If the chief Noblemen &c have decisive voices in your Synods, they gain that privilege by their birth or estates to neither of which is inseparably annexed wisdom, pietis & learning, the three gifts or spirits you require in your judges. How far private instructions and interests praevaile with your Presbyteries in their elections to exauctorate all the good qualifications in the competition of Candidates, the records of your Edinburgh Tables at the beginning of this Rebellion can justify: Though were their Honourable heads gauged and concluded capacious to hold no less than a tunn of wisdom & learning, and their arms clasped upon the embrace of the whole sisterhood of zeal, virtue, and grace, with all other abilities requisite to your Elders, your Presbyteries full approbation and choice could not authorise them to suffrage in a Synod, whereto of old they had no admission, but as in the Second Council of Orange, when sent thither by the King. I shall not insist upon the comparison or disparity between them & inferior civil Court Judges, in whom no parts are wanting to the execution of their place in whose choice the Canon of their institution is observed All hopes of redress by appeal from your Synods to a General 
Collusion & violence in the choice of Members for the Assembly.  Assembly are crushed in the shell by your underhand violence in election of Members, and praelimitation of them that are chosen in their votes. You remember the seven private directions sent to your Presbyteries before the Assembly at Glasgow 1638. the fourth of which was. That such as are erroneous in doctrine or scandalous in life, be presently processed that they be not chosen Commissioners, and if they shall happen to be chosen by the greater part, that all the best affected both Minicters and Elders protest, and come to the Assembly to trstisic the same. By this trick you not only prae●…udg'd or praecondemned the legal freedom in choice, but caused to be processed all suspected to be of a different sense from that which you praedesigned or praescribed to the Assembly. Thus the Presbytery of Edinburgh put very many of their Ministers under process, beginning with Master David Michael, their proceeding 
Master David Michael. Laird of Dun.  against whom His Majesty's Commissioner could not get deferred until the meeting of the Assembly. Thus the Laird of Dun chosen Lay Elder for the Presbytery of Brechen by the voice but of one Minister and a few Lay Elders, was accepted, & the Lord Carnaegie 
L. Carnaegie.  a Covenanter too, but somewhat more moderate, more lawfully chosen by the voices of all the rest was rejected. There was another paper of instructions dated August 27. 1638. which is mors in olla, the Collaquintada that spoils all the pottage you bring us in this parapraph, the Second of which is this, Order must be taken that none be chosen ruling Elders but Covenanters and those well affected to the business, so that parts for judgement, wisdom, piety &c are no considerable qualities in your Members of Assemblies, when the Covenant and good inclinations to the bus●…nesse (of rebellion) can be found though but in Idiots & Atheists. The multitude of Burgesses & Gentlemen is so great 
Why so many Burgesses & Gentlemen.  to some such good intent as this, that you may praeponderate the Parliament in your laike votes, and anticipate any just exception they can make against your Acts. The ground of their admission in your first reformation was a defect of Clergy, which, when once supplied, had for 40. years possessed all the places till exchange was made at your Glasgow null Assembly to do the work in hand. The prime Nobility are not always the men, but such among them as are first in popular opinion, and for that in your favour. Your choice 
The laity to have no decisive voice.  of them is many times illegal, when to serve your turns you call them from one Presbytery to another. Yet when all is done, you can plead no praecendent from antiquity for any more than a declarative consent, no definitive sentence no decisive voice, the subscriptions in the Ancient Counsels, distinguishing the Clergy and Laity in this manner. Ego N. definiens subscripst. Ego N. consentiens subscripst. Those that at any time had greater privilege, (if the words cited by your Bishop of Brechen must needs give it them) Gloriosissimi edicunt & Gloriesissimi judicos dixreunt, were special Commissioners sent from the emperor's 
Perth Proceed.  not from any Presbyteries, as he tells you, and more to this purpose which you may answer, as likewise what the Reverend Bishops objected in their Declinatour, about Theodosius the younger, Pulcheria the Empress, & Martinius in the fourth General Council of Chalcedon. Master Andrew! Ramsey undertoke an hard task upon the top of his stool offering to prove the lawfulness of Lay Elders 
Master Andrew. Ramsey.  by Scripture, Antiquity, Fathers, Counsels, & the judgement of all the Reformed Churches. And therefore, when His Majesty's Commissioners offered to bring one into the pit that should encounter him, the cock crowed no more, and, with the brethren's good liking the controversy ceased. Till afterward, on good occasion, a Member offering to prove there was no such thing in the Christian world before calvin's days, the Moderator learnedly confuted him, saying, His father while he lived was of another mind. The E. Argile, 
E. Argile. The King or his Commissioner hath little power in Assemblies Protest of Gen. Ass. Nou. 28. & 29. 1638.  who was surprised, as he said, at the sudden rupture of this Assembly, held the Members a little while by the ears with his argument of convenience, telling them. He held it sit the Assembly should consist of Laymen aswell as Churchmen; Take this with you. Your Assembly Ministers are chosen by the lay Elders your Moderatours some times are laymen, a course not justifiable by law, praecedent, or reason. The King's Majesty's person, or in his absence his high Commissioner is there only (you tell him) to countenance, not vote in, your meetings, and proesides in them for exernal order, not for any intrinsical power. So that when you go on calmelie in your business he finds little to do without Domitian's flie-flap, of more use by far in a summer Synod then a Sceptre among you which you often times wrest out of his hand, and continue your meetings after he hath dissolved them. You can deny him or his commissioner the sight of public papers brought into the Court (which liberty the meanest subject may challenge.) And twhen he hath any thing to object against suppositions, or, at 
Nou. 28. sess. 7.  best suspicious Registers, the E. Rothes can tell him boldly in your names he must speak it presently if at all, and because he doth not you 
E Rothes.  wait no longer; but, proimperio, vote them to be authentic. Beside, to diminish as well the King's state as authority, you send Assessors, or Assistants to your Elders, and invest them with power equivalent to his Council This meeting thus disordered sits too long by a mon●…th when no more, and Assembles, too often when but once in a year. The number of such Members no more hindereth an appeal, 
Necessity of appeal.  than a multitude of Malefactors can sentence a necessity of becoming their followers in doing evil. Their wisdom is such as his 
Exod. 23. 2.  to whom, a wiser man tells us, it is a sport to do mischief.  
Their eminency like Saul's, head and shoulders higher than the common 
Prov. 10.  people in Rebellion, And their honour somewhat like Absoloms' mule, bears them up to the privilege of the great oak in the wood 
2. Sam. 18. 9  for their hanging in better equipage than their fellows. So that beside the justice there's an absolute necessity of appeal to the Parliament, or in that to the King from himself to himself, who sits there as supreme, here in no other capacity but of your servant. Which is 
Pap. of 10. prop. before M. Hamilt arri●….  far more justifiable and necessary then your appeal from both Parliament and Assembly to the body of the people, which I tell you again is the final appeal you make when Assemblies are not modelled to your mind. 
1638. Why Knigts and Burgesses so numerous.   
The number and qualification of Knights and Burgesses is therefore large and as great in your Assembly as Parliament, that your power may be as large and great in the State as the Church, and the Nobility sit in one by election, because they sit in the other by birth, and so in a condition to unite the counsels of both according to the instructions of some few Presbyters that by Sycophantike infinuations have got possession of their souls and by their Spiritual Sceptre dominion of their suffrages. Heady zeal, craft, and hypocrisy got in commission or Covenant together, we find by experience can fit them to judge in ecclesiastic affairs, when age, wisdom and piety are sentenced. If ●…he hundred choice unparliamentarie pastors make up the odds of some absent Noblemen, it should seem you and the Nobility are even pares cum paribus, Peers alike in your honourable Assembly. Which they must not disdain, since Christ himself, I mean not his Anointed, (that you take to be out of quaestion) goes but for a single Elder or Moderator at most. So Cartwright and his Demonstratour cajoles them together, when he saith, If they (the Princes and 
Lib. 3. demonst. c. 14.  Nobles) should disdain to join in consultation with poor men, they should disdain not men but Christ himself. So that Christ being in his name made your Assembly President or Prolocutor, the King in his Commissioner your protector, the Nobility your awe full subvoters or suffragans, I see nothing wanting can conciliate a tyranny to your Presbytery, nor keep your foot of pride from trampling as basely as may be upon the people. But not to forget at last what you set in the front as first to be answered. The Presbyterian course, as you, or I more truly, have described it, is not much more ready than the Praelatical, because the benefit of appeal is to be had ordinarily but once or twice in a year; not much more solid, because most of your judges can reasonably be thought neither good Civilians nor Casuists, not much more aequitable, because, as you order them, many more of the laity than Clergy.  
In the second hurt your Nobility sustain, the Bishop looks, not upon the judgement of foreign Reformed Divines (you do not say of Churches) nor yet on their practice, which I have known some time a great deal too saucy with Princely Patrons, but upon the equity of the thing, upon the privilege our Nobles in England enjoy, & the right yours have to the same by many years' praescription and the laws of your land.  
The first will be found if the original be searched. The right of patronage being by the due gratitude or favour of Kings & Bishops 
The original of patronage.  reserved to such as either built Churches or, endowed them with some considerable revenue, as likewise for the encouragement of others to propagate means and multiply decent distinct places for Christian conventions. Hoc singulari favore sustinetur, ut allectentur, La●…ci, invitentur, & ind●…antur ad constructionem Ecclesiarum. The exercise hereof 
Coras. Glas.  in justinian is expressed by the terms, Epilegein or onomazein, which signifies an addiction or simple nomination, to stand good or be nulled at the just pleasure of the Bishop, and therefore accounted no spiritual act in the Patron, but a temporal annexed to that which is 
Temporale spiritualli annexum. Altar. Da●…asc:  spiritual in the Bishop, and therefore not simonaical as your brother Didoclave would have it. Nor is there that absurd●…ie he mentions of arrogating to one what belong to all the Members of the Church, as is pretended, but can never be proved, Nor that danger in transmitting this right from one to another, if the care of the first patron des●…end not with it, which defect the care of the present Bishop must supply. Nor is it requisite he should be a Member of the same parish to which he praesents, since the Bishop is head of the same diocese to whom, That this is contrary to the liberty of the Primitive and Apostolic Kirke, to the order which Gods 
2. B. Disc. ch. 12.  word craves, and good order, is only said but not argued in your Discipline, no more then by you when and to whom it became a grievance. Your patience in enduring it goes for no heroical virtue, being peevish enough soon after the Act of annexation had passed, as appears by your carriage in the Assembly at Edinburgh 1588. and turned into a Rebellious Conspiracy, although painted with the name of a Parliam●…nt that now at last (because it could not at first) hath taken it away.  
The Nobilities loss of their Impropriations and Abbey lands is very considerable, when they bethink themselves upon what false pleas, and to what unconcerned persons they must part with them. Touching which as Sycophantike as is the Bishop's accusation, he'll not abate a sig of his right for the Presbyters answer, nor I a letter (take which he will) in exchange for his name.  

* Pl. in Carcu●… A. 5. sc.  Aedepol nugatorem lepidum lepidé hunc pactu'st…  

* Calophanta est qui honeste quidem loquitur, sed ●…ujus facto ab oratione discrepant.  Calophantam an sycophantam hunc magis esse dicam nescio.  
That the whole generation of the praelatike faction (as your style it) did hyperbolise in zeal against that which they call sacrilege, is an argument they were all true bred, no bastard children of the Church, not so mean conditioned as to sell their spiritual birthright for pottage. Were your title as good, (which can appear to be nothing but your rough hands, and red souls with the blood of the Martyrs of your own making,) 
* Gen. 25. 25.  we should commend so far as we act ourselves your struggling aswell for the inheritance as primogeniture. But when we compare our professions or evidences, & find our brethren to say that the benefactors and founders of these ecclesiastic possessions were true Christians, though mistaken, we think, in 
Par. Alciat etc.  many matters of doctrine and worship; yours that that they were Members of Antichrist undoubted Idolaters and haeretikes; Ours 
The Praelates' title to Impropriations and Abbey lands better than the Pre●…byters.  that the Churches which they endowed were Episcopal, such as we continue them or to our utmost endeavour it. From which you degenerate, schismaticallie separating, and arming yourselves with all resolution & rage to demolish, (beside what other advantage we may use of a nearer union & uniformity in religion, more consonant to the mind of the doners, at least if such as your malice doth render it, little thinking it may be to have it so unhappily retorted in that which is the chief drift of all your rebelling and covenanting) when we think of no other restitution but by the possessors consent, when it may be transferred to us by the same supreme hand that conferr'd it on them, out of which you no sooner get opportunity and power but you violently ravish it; calling Princes & nobles sacrilegious robbers while they overpower you and detain it; I believe all our Religious and prudent Nobility will unanimously grant our plea more just, our proceedings more moderate, & when God shall if ever, touch their consciences (not we the skirt of their estates and livelihoods) with an humble fear that such an inheritance withheld from such a Church, may be sacrilegious indeed; with assurance that if it be so 'tis sinful; they will not value their lands at so dear a rate, as to pay their souls for the purchase, but with courage & confidence in a blessing from God to be multiplied on their undevoted temporal possessions return them to him (the King I mean) from whom they received them, and be better content that Episcopal Christians then Presbyterian counterfeits should repossess them. But if such of them as are not persuaded in conscience they are obliged to restore them upon the arguments we bring (which would ne'er be convictive if our plea were no better than yours) shall adventure to leave the suit depending till the Court of heaven give final sentence upon it; at their peril be it, the Praelates & their followers use no violence nor course of law here below to put them out of these their possessions, no threats but those against sacrilege in Scripture, fearing this may be such, no activitic but that of a swift charity to catch. hold of their souls and snatch them out of the snare when they find them devouring the bate, and to put them ante vota, before vows upon making enquiry, or if post vota to retract them. Therefore such of the 
Pro. 20. 25.  Nobility and Gentry as were wakened hereby to take heed of their rights, were best have a care they slumber not in the wrong, and take Solomon's counsel intended Prov. 16. 8. better is a little with righteousness, then great revenues without right. But (which requires the Readers advertence) for you here to call those the rights of the Nobilitce and Gentry, 
The Reviewers prevarication. 6, head. Ch. 9  which so many Assemblies have declared to belong jure divino to the Church, which in your first book of Discipline you tell them they had from thiefs and murderers, and hold as unjust possessions, or indeed no possession before God; which in your second you hold a detesiable sacrilege before God; For you to twit the Praelates with violence & threats, who are bound in john Knox's bond not only to withstand the merciless devourers of the Church patrimonie… but to seek redress at the hands of God & man; 
April 24. 1576.  That declare the same obligation upon you to root out of the Kingdom 
S●…. Decl. 1642. Append.  aswell the monster of sacrilege as that of Episcopacy, and so aswell the persons of most your Nobles as the Bishops; For you to object a ●…ourse of law and activity, who by incessant demands and praeter legal devices never gave over till the laws that annexed lands to the crown were repealed. For you to brag of your last Parliament's con●…irmation of titles, because your last Assembly power could not reach beyond the destruction of patronages; What is this but apertly Sucophantein & calophantein, to fawn & accuse, dissemble & destroy, 
Prov. 26. 28. 129. 5  flater your with mouth, while you spread a net for their feet and work the ruin of their persons and estates?  
If Noblemen once abase themselves to be Elders of every ordinary 
Noble Elde●…s ●…lighted by the Clergic.  Presbytery, it's not to be doubted but every ordinary Presbyter takes himself for their fellow if not their superior, which they find to their grief, Therefore all or most respect that they give to their gracious Ministers, is alas a little Court holy water cast on the flame of their zeal, a sacrifice made for their own security from your ton●…ues and pens, and from the arms of the people that serve you●… warrants oft times in tumults upon their persons, For the hon●…ur, on pay them they are fain, like wretches to mortgage their conscience, 
See 〈◊〉 of the Congreg. to the Nobil. of Sc. 1559.  those that do not, gain the honourable titles of Traitors of G●…d, are cashiered your company, and then pass for no 〈◊〉 honourable heathen, publicans and sinners. If they becom●… 〈◊〉 hmen between a single Presbyter and a Prince, when he 〈◊〉 with his I require you in my name etc. Before every charge, (no very humble form as I take it) they ●…all be called abusers of the world, neutral livers a●… their pleasure, if not shedders of Scotch blood. And some that draw on themselves their Prince's displeasure for a Rethorical liberty used in their behalf, shall be paid for their pains with the honourable essay of men sold unto sin, enemies to God and all godliness, the L. Sempils' 
L. Sempil. Lib: 2.  reward which he had from john Knox as this grateful Presbyter hath registered in his story. They that bridle the rage of their Princes, (the phrase used) as occasion serves, will not stick to halter the heads of their Nobles, if they will neither lead nor drive, but molest the progress of their Presbyterian designs. Your Historical Vindication I hope is no new named Logic, to prove negatives of fact; your detraction from the credit of many irrefragable authors 
Calderwoods' ridiculous reverence of Bruce's ghost Cuj●…s anima, si ullius mortalium, sedet in coelestibus. Ep. Ded. ad Aitar. Dam.  that Historize that insolent speech uttered by Bruce, looks more like a calumny than their relation to a fable. And yet such a superstitious reverence is paid by your fond brother Didoclave to the memory of his name, that he could be content to pin his faith on his sleeve, and hang his soul at his girdle. Anima me●… cumanima tua Bruci, si ex aliena ●…ide esset pendendum, and were there to be but one privilege of aeternal residence in heaven he thinks neither Patriach nor Prophet Apostle nor Martyr, no, nor the Virgin Mary herself were likely to carry it from Bruce. Which compared with King James' opinion of him as a perfidious madman that had a whirligig in his head, delivered after to many experiments of his rebellious zeal, and frantic restiveness, is enough to condemn both saint and votary to some bedlam purgatory, before imposture can fix, or facility of fancy find these new imaginary lights among the stars.  
Your following invective is writ with Arrius' quill, and by such 
Manias Calamo Constant: in Rescript  scribbling you gain the title that Constantine gave him, patroctonos epi●…iceias, discovering yourself to be a parricide of equity, murdering truth in your relation, and justice in your parallel. His Lordship takes himself not concerned in this case to recollect 800. years' History of Europe, to pick out of the piety & humility of many Reverend Bishops the pride and passionate errors of some few; No●… hath he malice enough, with you; to make that the nature of 
Our Bishops contest not with King & Nobles.  their office which hath been some little monstrosity of mind, by ill habits accidental to their persons. Beside, what among the Papists the nobiliti●… by birth of many Bishops concurring with the received dominion and large revenve of their Spiritual p●…aeferment; may elevate their thoughts, and enhance their own opinion of themselves, if impa●…donable, adds little to the condemnation of ours, which partake in little with them but their titles. The universal supremacy, which the Pope arrogates aswell over Kings as Bishops, may puff up a little Cardinal, that is near him, in his purple, & possess him with a conceit that he may Write himself companion to a King, whom he thinks (but is mistaken) obliged, in Spiritual humility, to lie prostrate at his holiness' foot, and kiss his slippe●…. But the same King's sovereignty in Ecclesiastici●… at home secured him from all such con●…estation with his Bishops, Though, had it not, the argument from a Cardinal in Rome to a Praelate in England will hardli●… find a topike. Those in Scotland take themselves as capable of honour 
Their prae●…dence, & place near the Throne.  conferred upon their order as their Popish praedecessours; Nor are such legal establishments (if not of right) of Princely favour to becast away in compliment, Nor were they to make an unnecessary distance out of form, when the material meaning of their vicinity to the throne, was the near concernment of their counsel to the King. Orthodox Monarches, as well as Papists, having doubting consciences, and orthodox Bishops as good abilities to resolve them. I have not heard they crowded much; or quickened their pace to get the door of the Earls etc. Their Provincial that with much humility and respect unto their H. H. took it, was lead to it by the hand that had exalted them or their progernitours. But for the reason of praecedence, which I guess to be your meaning, you were best review the Herald's office and reform it. Poor podants are not to be reproached for making a little diocese of their Schools (Priests being charged to make such of their houses) and from the experimental regiment of boys raising their abilities, by honest endeavours, 
1. Tim. 3. 4. & 5.  to the meriting an higher Episcopate of men; Nor their conscientious demeanour in that office to be aesteemed the arroganci●… of their order, if it move Kings to commit the white staves to the crosiar, and great seals to be under the keys of the Church. The most 
Offices of state.  capricious of them all, and most contentious for the honour, (which I think were none but such as did you too much service when they had it) were many strains below your Presbytery of Knox's, Bruces&c. Who have contested with Kings for their Sceptres, which with white staves and seals they brought under the pedantike jurisdiction of their rod. Never have Bishops so ru●…led it as many base borno Presbyters with the secret Counsel. To whose Consistories all Courts of justice were fain to do homage & the greatest Lords of the land, become subordinate Elders to the parson of their parish. It's not so long that yet it can be forgotten, since a most violent and malicious man 
How the difference happened between the E. Argile and Bishop Galloway.  called the Goodman of Earlstounne, a client of the E. Argile for interrupting of divine service, forceable overturning the Communion Table in his Parish Kirke, th●…eatning and abusing the Minister with many other such enormous crimes, was fined (but the fine never exacted) by the High Commission and confined for a season. The E. Argile complained of his hard us●…ge to the Lords of Counsel, and informed against the Bishop of Galloway that he promised to him somewhat, which he had not perf●…rmed; The Bishop denied the promise, & gainsaid what the Earl alleged, whereupon said the Earl, If you say so 'tis as much as if I li●…. The Bishop modestly replied, I do not say so, but I beseech your Lp. to call yourself better too mind, & you will find it as I say. This is giving the lie because he would not take it on himself, and ru●…ling with a great Lord, because he would not be ru●…led out of a just vindication of the truth, & yield his consent that a Counsel Table should approve turning the communion table out of the Church. The Reviewers should do well to bring in his accounts fuller, when he reckons with Bishops for braving of Noblemen.  
All Presbyterians are heterodoxe to all good Catholic Christians, with whom Episcopacy is so necessary a truth, as next to the divine institution, 
Presbyterians heterodoxe.  Universality, Ubiquity and perpetuity can render it. Confingant tale aliquid haeretici … nihil promovebunt, Could your invention seigne such authority to Presbytery, yet your doctrine would 
Tert. De Praeser, cap. 32.  diversify you into a sect. What the Bishops following words clear, shall not one whit be clouded by any obscurity in my reply, though the strongest eradiations that come from them would sink themselves silently in the deep, played you not the malignant Archimede (though no such exact Mathematical Divine) to reflect them into a flame that may set the ship of the Church on fire about our ear●…s some coals of this fire I shall heap on your head & cast back into your bosom, which if you mean not to quench, you may blow up to what fa●…ther mischief you think good.  
The Apostles were Bishops, who did, undoubtedlie delegate the 
1. No Ordination but by Bishops.  power of ordination to none but such as were constituted Bishops by them to that purpose.  
This power appears not undoubtedlie to have been exercised by 
2.  any but Bishops in the History of the Scripture.  
This power was exercised canonically by none but Bishops in the 
3.  History of the Primitive Church According to the second canon of the Apostles. Presbyter ab uno Episcopo ordinetur, & Diaconus, & reliqui Cleri●…i.  
The laying on of hands of the Presbytery, both in Scripture and 
4.  ecclesiastic story was only for external form, no intr●…secal power, the efficacy of the act being in the Bishop's benediction, which I never find attributed to the Priest. As in the third Canon of the fourth Council of Carthage, Episcopo eum benedicente, nowhere benedicente Presbytero. Therefore your friend Didoclave is fain to acknowledge 
Aitar: Dam. cap. 4  a great difference, Magnum discrimen, between St. Paul's imposition of hands and that, at the same time, of his Presbytery; whatsoever is meant by it. Nam per impos●…tionem mannum Apostolorum Deus conferebat charismata, non autem per impos●…ionem mannum Presbyterorum, distinguishing in the ordination of Timothy between dia & meta, the former relating to Saint Paul, the later to the assistant Priests. Which is another interpretation of the tex●… than you were pleased to make of it chapt. 8. So that I see the b●…ethren agree not upon the point.  
Succession through the lineal descent of Bispops from the Apostles, a●…d ordination 
5. No comfortable assurance but from Apostolical succession and Epis●…opal ordination. De Praeser. cap. 32.  by the hands of Apostolical Bishops have been ever used as strong arguments to uphold Catholic Christians in a comfortable assurance of their Ministry as lawful. And haeretikes have been p●…essed by the ancient 
Reliquos verò qui absistunt a principali successione, & quocunque loco colligunter s●…cspectos ha●…ere etc.  Fathers with the want of nothing more than these to justify their profession. H●…c enim modo Eccl●…siae Apostolicae census suos deferunt, saith Tertullian And Irenaeus before him joins the gifts of God required in the Ministry, if he meanesnot the sacraments with the Apostolical session of the Church. Vbi igitur charismata Domini posita sunt, ibi discere oportes veritatem, ●…pud qu●…s esi ea quae est ab Apostolis Ecclesiae successis etc. The Presbyterians praetending divine institution, must likewise prove such an uninterrupted succession, or evidence their new extraordinary mission, otherwise they can minister little comfort less assurance of their calling to be lawful. The former they can not do for Saint Hierom's time at least, who makes ordination a propriety of the Bishops. Quid facit excepta ordinatione Episcopus quod Presbyter not facit? where a friend of theirs fails them when he saith, ad morem jusque si●…ae aetatis respexit. That he had respect to the custom & 
Walo Messal.  canon of his time. Nor can they do it for above 200. years uncertain story after Christ, in which they have as little light to show their Presbytery was in, as that Episcopacy was out, which they would fain persuade us to take upon their word dispensing with themselves for the use of unwritten tradition to so good a purpose. If they will plead an extraordinary mission, they should do well to name the first messenger that brought the news of their evangel, and what miracle he wrought which might serve him for a letter of credence to us, who it may be otherwise, shall be no such superstitious admirers of his gifts or person. 
6.   
That therefore the orthodox Ministers must want the comfortable assurance of their undoubted ordination in the Ministry, which words yet bear a much more moderate sense then that you give them viz. That they may very 
Kakos hermeneus antochrema eikon te kai andrias esti tou diabolou. Reser: ad Ar.  well know and be assured that their calling and ministry is null, the distance being (as I take it) not so indivisible between the negation of one assurance to the position of the other. Such a malicious interpreter bears the image & may stand in Constantine's opinion for the statue of him who is the father of calumnies, & cares not what p●…yson he casts to spot other men's names, & crack their credits ta tesoiceias ita motetos deleteria apheidos proballon, as true of an Aërian as Arian.  
Your divination about the deleted words will succeed in some 
The Praelates do no●… annul the being of all Reformed Churches.  strange disoverie by and by. In the interim you set too sharp an edge upon the doctrine of the Bishop's friends, and do act violence where it may be they intended not so much injury as the ut most extremity of justice, although they held the axe in their hand in Christian charity disputing the sentence, not so hasty to execute it, (or beyond it) in the rigour, and cut off at one stroke the Clergy from their calling, and so many, ●…ay societies of Christians from the Church. Until 〈◊〉 meet with some particular more forward instances than I know of, I shall answer for them to the Churches of France, Holland, Switzerland and Germany, as Pope Innocent writ to the first Council at Toledo, about the ill custom of the Bishop's ordination in Spain That it's very requisite somewhat should be peremptorily determined according to the true primitive tradition might it be without the disturbance of so many Churches. For what is done, ita reprehendimus, ut propter numerum corrigendorum ea quae quoquo modo sacta●… sunt non in dubium vocemus, sed Dei potius dimittamus judicio. We so dislike it as not to startle so great a number of delinquents with our doubt, but refer the judgement to God who standeth in the congregation 
Ps. 82. 1.  as well of Presbyters as Princes, and is a judge aswell among Ministers as Gods. The Sophism of the jesuits, because so popular, should 
They use not the Sophism of the jesuits.  have been refuted, or else not recited. although the ●…imilitude it brings runs not upon all four even with the doctrine of the Bishop's prime friends. Some of whom I believe will acknowledge there may be resident many Members of the true Church, where are no true Sacraments, being well praepared to receive them when they may have a true Ministry to dispense them. That one of the two Sacraments is true, though not 
* This word duly was left out by Henderson in his recit●…l of K. Ch. 1. words to this purpose Answ: to 1. pap. Ep. 7. Ad. Symrn. 1. Pap. ●…o Henders.  duly administered, when, in case of necesstie, by lay hands, where is no true Minist●…e to do it, which may consist with that of B. Ignatius if applied, to this purpose, Ouk exon esti choris tou episcopou out baptizein, out prospherein. Exon at most but illegitimating the outward visible act; not nulling the inward invisible grace, That the other's effectual, when had but in voto, if it can not in signo, through want of any or (which is as bad) a lawful true Ministry to make it. In the third clause I hope you will shake hands with the jesuits and them. Where is no true ordination, there is no true ordinary Ministry, or lawful Priesthood as His late Majesty called it. As for the fourth the Bishop's friends, whatsoever they may, do allay it thus. Where are no Bishops can be no comfortable assurance of a true ordination, And so in whatsoever reformed Country are no Bishops, being no true Apostolic ordination, no comfortable assurance is had of a true visible Church in the public administration of the Sacraments, though 
Heb. 7. 25. 26.  they hope well the invisible Members have an invisible true Priesthood among them, or such an high Priest as being himself hol●…e, harmelessc &c is able to supply what their Presbyters want, able to save them eye 
Rom. 14. 23.  to panteles very completelie, and make intercession for them who sin in submission (out of more good meaning than faith) to their discipline, who can give no comfortable assurance that Saint Paul's rod or St. Peter's keys everwere committed to their charge. Those of the Reformed, which I hope are not all, i●… any, that concur, if you mean covenant, like yourselves, under praetense of self preservation (being endangered by nothing beyond the frequent ineffectual power of good advice, and plea of Apostolic example) with ●…eigned words to make merchandise aswell of Bishops as Kings, and like the insolent abaddon's at Edinburgh and London, to assault their persons and then abolish their order, declare themselves such as Saint Peter's false teachers or worse because more public in bringing in damnable heresies, denying the Lord (at least in his Ministry, which they call Antichristian) and (what they have already in part) bringing swift destruction upon themselves.  
Your officious informer that drew the curtain & made the discovery 
The Reviewers malic●… in publithing what the Bishop had deleted & perverting it,  of what the Bishop deleted, had little good manners, though, it may be, not so much malice as you in your uncharitable (not so fortunate) conjecture. A dangerous question being mistaken when called a true judgement, and doubting whether it be within the pale, not actually excluding all Reformed Ministers etc. out of the line of the Church. Remorse of conscience hath commonly antecedent evidence of science, putting all out of question & doubt, without which the vanity or pusillanimity of repenting had been little commendable, how condemnable soever had been the iniquity of erring. What His Lordship left behind unscraped out, doth not show his mind only, but the mind of all good Catholic, orthodox Christians. And why his fear to provoke should incline him more to delete the following expressions, than his care for their comfortable satisfaction had moved him to pen them, I know not. Nor need I be curious to inquire the reason of a line blotted in his book more than if I had seen it expunged in his papers being not concerned to give account for more than was his pleasure to have published. Though, were all the Protestant Churches (what they are not) 
They may be doubted to be un-Christian that call us Anti-christian.  as unconscionablie cruel to us as the Presbyterian Conventicle of the Scots, I see not why, in reference to the Religion we profess, it should be more unsafe why more unseasonable (since they give, I hope, the same liberty they take] out of a pious solicitude to have a union of both, some what ambiguously to unchristen them, than they out of malice, to make an aeternal separation, very affirmativelie antichristen us in all the peevish pamphlets they put out. So that whether stands upon the more extreme pinnacle of impudence & arrogance, the Praelate that doubts your being in a Church visible true for succession & Apostolic ordination, or the Presbyter that denie●… our being in any but what is visible false by a Satanical Priesthood & Antiapostolical investiture, let your aequitable comparers impartially decide. The 
The Church of Rome not most true.  Praelatical tenet is not to aver the Church of Rome, as she stands this day &c to be a Church most true, who praeferre that of their own for a truer, and condemn many Canons in the Counsel of Trent. That they hold she is true in respect of undoubted succession and Apostolic ordination (our business now in dispute) so much concerns them, as the truth of their own derived from that Nor can you deny, what you so shamefully dissemble, that in the retrograde line your last Priest (for a last there must be, unless you have been Autóchthones or Autoráni ●…i rather, coaeternal with tho Priest that's in heaven) had his ordination, and you thereby succession from them; and so both prove as Antichristian as ours. An easy way of salvation in the Romish Church, is no second tenet of the Praelates, who meet with her stumbling upon 
Nor hath she the most easy way of salvation.  many errors in doctrine and worship, going somewhat about by Lymbus Patrum & Purgatory, whereas we think if she walked with us, she might have a more easy & shorter journey to heaven. Yet withal knowing that the ways of God are anexichniastoi not to be tracked 
Rom. 11. 33.  and his judgements anexcreuneta not to be searched; we dare not damn at adventure all that go with her, (no more than you can assure a ship to be sunk so soon as ever you lose sight of her sail,) but leave the issue to him who is great in Counsel, and mighty in work, 
jer. 32. 19  whose eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men, to give every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. The separation from 
Separation from her in many things needless.  her, Which they hold to be needless is such as that which you fondly make about copes and surplices, Church Music and festivals & that came not in with the Counsel of Trent. That which is made upon higher points, (though not yet, God be praised, in the highest of having one Lord, saying one Creed, using one baptism in substance however different in ceremonic) they impute to them who kept not their station in conformite to the Primitive Christians of the 5. or 6. first Centuries, with whom a reunion not only may, but aught to be much desired on just conditions, and that which is, continued, rather than the division made greater by our fruitless compliance with morose and humourous Reformers, whose preaching being not with enticing words of man's wisdom, they tell us of aspirit, which can not be the same 
En apodeixei pneumatos ●…ai dynam●…os. 1. Cor. 2. 4.  with Saint Paul's, because thereof they never gave us any demonstration, nor of any power but the sword.  
Could your bold praecedent privilege or excuse me in comparing, judging, censuring or approving, the public transactions of our Royal Sovereign, I should with much modest & innocent freedom profess more justifiable, according to Christian Religion & prudence, His Majesty's late graces and securities granted unto the returningconfederated Irish; then any like future concession unto the persisting, covenanting Scots: They gratefully accepting a limited toleration of their public worshp to those of their own division in that Country; you endeavouring to extort an absolute injunction of yours in all His Majesty's dominions, denying liberty of conscience, so little as to his family or person. They only 
A●…tic. 1.  craving in much humility, a freedom from being bound or obliged by oath to acknowledge the ecclesiastic supremacy in the King, you arrogantly binding by solemn league and covenant (wherein so much is implied) Him and us to attribute it to the Kirke. They renewing in the oath of allegiance their recognition of Royal right; and swearing, without restriction, their defence of his person &c to the uttermost of their power, you by proclamation admitting 
Febr. 〈◊〉 16. 9 Artic. 3.  him to the exercise of his power, but in order to the Covenant, And covenanting his defence no otherwise then in the desense of (what you call) the true religion & liberties of the Kingdoms. They subjoining in that oath their best endeavour to disclose to His Majesty &c all treasons and traitorous conspiracies etc. You having not a syllable to that effect in your covenant, lest you should be obliged to betray yourselves, who are resolved to continue principals in such practices against him and his Royal family to the last, They charitably forgetting all revenge against any of His Majesty's party that had fought against their confoederacie; you cruelly combining, expressly to bring to public trial all such as had been any way instrumental opposers of your Covenant. They embracing in the arms of Christian communion, their quondam enemies, now fellow subjects of a different religion, you basely butchering them with unexemplified cruelty 1. with your material sword, axe, or halter in their bodies, your civil in their estates, your spiritual (what may be by your excommunication) in 
The Presbyterian Scots more bloody than the Irish.  their souls. The aggravations you bring against His Majesty's agreementare, First, That it was with persons so bloody which as it can not be wholly excused in them, so ought it of all men lest to be objected by you, whose religion hath passed from the Castle of Saint Andrew's to the House at Westminster in a red sea path, made for you neither by Moses' rod, nor Eliah's mantle: under the conduct of no civil, no prophetical power, fenced on both sides with blood of different complexions, the blood of Popish and orthodox Praelates, the blood of Princes addicted to several Religions, So that 
Chapt. 4.  God doubtless will have a controversic with you, who as the Prophet Hose speaks, by swearing and lying have broke out into rebellim, and blood toucheth blood. The blood of the Cardinal hath touched the blood of the Archbishop. The blood of Queen Mary the blood of King Charles, and more than that, which you may hear of otherwhere Touching the cruelty of the Irish I remit you to what our Royal Martyr hath writ with much Christian indifference. Ch. 12. of E●…: Buo●…. where you may take notice principally of these clauses. I would to God the I●…ish had nothing to allege for their imitation against those whose blame must neede●… be the greater by how much protestant principles are more against all rebellimagainst Princes than those of Papists … I believe it will at last appear that they who first began to embroil my other Kingdoms (and who, 〈◊〉 pray you were they) are in great part guilty, if not of the first letting out. Yet, of the not timely stopping those horrid, essusions of blood in Irland. To omit what ●…is Majesty intimated before, That their oppressive fears rather than their malice engaged them, and you know how profuse you are of blood when you treat of the doctrine of self preservation. secondly, you are 
Whose Liberty of religion was limited.  troubled at the full liberty of Religion he granted them, which if you ere saw the articles, extended no farther them the remission of penal statutes. not to the restitution of Churches & Church Livings, but what they had then in possession, not to any jurisdiction but what they exercised at that time, for which an express caution was taken in the very first article of the treaty. And in the last but one their Regular Clergy were restrained to their pensions, and confined to the praecincts of their Abb●…ys and Monasteries, which are explained to be within the Walls Mures, and ancient fences of the same. No charitable benefactor having liberty to exercise one main point of their Religion, by laying a foot of land unto their Convents. But had it been as full as you f●…ncie i●… (because you make your own case many times the same with that of your brethren abroad) I pray directly answer me, Why a Papist may not have as free liberty as a jew? And Whether, according to your conscience be more Anti●…Christian a Cloister or a Synagogue? thirdly, You object the Arms, Castles, and 
Places of trust safer in the hands of Papists then Presbyterians.  prime places of trust in the state he put in their hands. Whereas if the case were politicallie disputed, Whether the Militia were safer in the hands of Papists or Presbyterians. I believe the former would carry it upon the greater security (though not generally the greatest) they give in their principles, and the greater experimental assurance in many places of trust they have often rendered Princes in their discharge. And had the prime Castle and place of Trust in that Kingdom been theirs, and no arms nor command in the Army been the others (a tolerablee freedom of religion being granted them) it is not improbable that Noble marquis last year had either not been forced to hazard a siege for his reentrance, or at least not betrayed into an inevitable unhapie necessity of retreat, What they demanded, or had the 9 Article of agreement will inform you. That upon the distribution, conferring, and disposing of the places of command honour profit! and trust … no difference should be made between them and other his Majesty subjects. (Here's no exception against Malignants nor persons disafected to the cause) but that such distribution should be made with equal indifferency, according to their respective merits and abilives. By which qualification all disloyal demeriting persons are made obnoxious to a just exception at any time. Those that continued in possession of His Majesty's Cities, Garrisons 
Arti●…. 29.  & within their quarters are to be commanded, ruled and governed in chief upon occasion of necessity, as to the Martial and militaire affairs, by such as His Majesty or his chief Governor, or Governors of that Kingdom for the time being should appoint. And where any garrison etc. might be endangered by restoring to their possessions & estates the Litizens, freemen, Burgesses, & former inhabitans, they were not to be admitted, but allowed a valuable, annual rent for the same, as in the 7. Article was provided touching those of Cork, Youghall, and Dungarvan. Finally in all that ag●…eement no condition is found, That His Majesty or His Lieutenant should be governed by a Popish Parliament at Dublin when it might be in civil, nor by a Clerical council or Assembly at Kilkennie in Ecclesiastical affairs. fourthly, That the King gave 
King's cannot ratify too well what they promise, if just… Sed qui juramentis sudunt sicut pueri astragatus Pet. ad. Alter. Dam.  assurance, of his endeavour to get the articles ratisied in the next Parliament of England, was to ratify at present their confidence in him, for which he can not be blamed, unless you would have King's sport like boys with changeable knots in their treaties or (what you scornfully charge them all with when you think on't) like children play at checkstone with their promises and oaths. That His Majesty did this of himself, is false, if meant exclusive of his Council. That he did it without a Parliament, which he could not have, and before it, which his urgent necessities could not stay for, is justifiable by that law which will never plead for your pardon. Salus populi suprema lex. Nor is that currant law contraire to any standing law in such an exigence as his unless there be one (as there is none) that injoines him to follow the misfortune of his father, to let the Presbyterians 
Parliaments not be stayed for in extremities if they can not be called at present.  bind his hands from laying hold upon any advantageous assistance from the Papists, till his head be cut off by your bloody Executioners the Independents. Therefore whatsoever passed in this agreement, if persuaded by the gracious party, no faction, of the Praelates, they exonerated their conscience, if opposed by them, they were no antagonists to their duty; if with moderation and patience heard, their passionate zeal did not so transport them as to reject salvation from God, when he gives it by the hand of Papists unto their-King. Who think it neither loyalty nor prudence rather to deliver him up to the hazard, if not assurance, of the axe, than he should by such means be delivered from the peril of the sword. The King's inclination toward covenanting protestants hath never hithe●…to made such an ugly appearance 
The King never expressed his inclination to Covenanters.  as to scare them in a dream or a waken their art & industry in a furi●…. Nor have you heard, I believe, His Majesty complain that his sleep was broke by their midnight dissuasions. If in sermons by daylight they laid before him the mischiefs that lurk in your Covenant they did but bring him a message from his Father's Ghost who it, may be heard the lowed cries of those tongues that had took it, as he passed from the scaffold to Ahrahan●…s bosom. Or were sent from some other Ancients that were dead to tell him more truth than he ever will hear from the Scotish Interpreters of Moses and the Prophets. That temporal death with any misfortune ought much rather to be embraced 
His Kingdom's ruin rather to be embraced then his souls.  then the loss of his soul in the hell of the Covenant they could not beat too often in His Majesty's head, unless they infallibly knew his Martyred Father's instructions to be engraven with the point of a diamoned, or unchangeablie set as a seal on his heart. And where as our Saviour assures him the whole world can be no proportionable profit for that damage mentioned in the 16. S. Matth. the ruin of his three Kingdoms need never be grudged in so good an exchange as he 
Vers. 26.  afterward speaks of. Though His Majesty's conscience (or such of his Council as looked well about them) could not hitherto tell him he hath been by any necessity tempted to one of those two immediate extremities, between which providence ever maintained a visible pass (it may be none of the easiest) nor aught is it but sloth and Athiesme (except some treason may be in the composition) that would scare him with fancies of prodigious monsters, worse than Solomon's lion in that way. Your forsooth, with a feigned lisp and a courtesy, will win your Mistress (the Covenant) no favour in 
Prov. 26. 13.  wiseman's eyes, who can not be catched with such red and white painting and patches as where with you so often present her. Since their dear bought experience hath taught them that her crown of pride can as little brook a society with the Goddess Regality, as Prelacy. Nor doth she oblige in sense, how fair soever she speaks, her takers to less in their station, then to the abolition of them both.  
If I conceived myself in danger, instead of answering, I would cut out your next paragraph and wear it for an amulet or special 
More learning under Episcopacy than Presbytery.  guard against magical enchantments, having read that things most ridiculous or filthy are the best security that can be in such cases. That you should appeal to Reason & Experience for your judges of Presbyteries praeeminence before Episcopacy in learning, honour & wealth, who stand self condemned by the frequent invectives you with your partisans make against the vain philosophy, which is the sciential learning, of Prelatical preachers, against the dignities of Praebendaries, Archdeacon's &c. Against plurality of their livings, which doubles their revenues, is as if you were practising with your pencil upon the first verse in Horace; Poetry, rather than disputing by your pen in divinity or Logic with the Bishop. The Severest of your 
H●…mano capiti cervicem pictor quinum.  Trial before ordination is about cutting to the root some Hebrew word, and corrupting it in the sense; graffing some young vowel upon an hopeful stock, or in oculating with a prick to make it bring forth fruit pleasing to your taste, though, in all likelihooed, never intended by the Holy Spirit that planted it in the Bible. Your all sort of learning here, called gifts utterance and knowledge in your first book of discipline, were it not reduced, as it is in your liturgy, to tattling 
The Bishop's trial before he ordaineth more serious than the Presbyters 4-head pag 14. they propose him a theme or text to be treated privately, whereby his ability may the more manifestly appear unto them.  half an hour beside a text, would put his Lay, if not his Clerical, judges to a nonplus when they were to give their verdut of his parts: And though here you talk of disputations upon controverted heads, and there of the chief points of controversy betwixt you and the Papists, Anabaptists, Arrians &c. We know what discouragements you give your young students about looking into School Divinity, the most authentic Ecclesiastical History, and Fathers, without which they are proper champions for such an encounter. It is not David's sling, but in David's hand, and with David's God to guide the stone which goes out of't that, without other weapons, can make these Goliaths fall upon their saces to the earth. Our trial is personnallie by the Bishop or his Archdeacon, unless in his absence some other learned Minister be appointed. We have nothing to do with lay Elders nor people in the examen, who have no interest by the Catholic canon in the election. Peri tou me tois ocklois epitrepein tas eclogas poiersthai toon mellontoon Cathisasthai cis hierattion is the 117. by justells' account. Our practice is seldom so remiss as yours, if our rule be more, it may be imputed to the necessity of that time, when learned men, I mean reform, did not swarm in a number equal to the cures to be served. Against which what you argue in your own case 1. Book: Discipl. may be replied to as in ours. 1. That the Bishop His Dean, and Canons, 
4. Head.  or Cathedral Clergy, may supply the imperfections of others in his Diocese (for if the lack of ablemen be real, your straight and sharp examination may disparage by discovering the infirmities, not one whit enable your Proponents or expectants for their duties) 2. The raritc among the Gentiles in the beginning of the Gospel was recompensed with the extraordinaire diversity of gifts. 3. Unpreaching Ministers are no idols, having ears to hear what the Church prescribes 
Neither judge we that the Sacraments can be rightly Mistred by him in whose mouth God hath put no Scrmon of exhortation. 1. B. Disc. 4. head.  and mouths to utter, as her prayers for, so her wholesome doctrine unto the people. But what, I can not pass by since it meets me in the way. That efficacy of the Sacraments, aswell as power of the word, which you call of exhortation, should be limited to the abilities of the Minister. And as the Papists directly, so we by inference, be disabled in both, I think will help you to a share in the jesuits Sophism, whereof we latclie discoursed, and set you upon the pinnacle of arrogance and impudence, who hereby unchurch the greatest part of Christians, and contract this Sovereign excellency to yourselves. Your Latin disputations when they come by course among the ignorant or younger fry of your Ministry, do but multiply heresies, & make them now and then, in their heat, blaspheme God more learnedly then in their weekly exercizes and Sermons. As occasion shall serve, I may help you hereafter to more instances than one 
The Papis●…ical Priests have neither power nor authoriti●… to Minister the Sacraments of christ I●…sus, because that in their mouth is not the serm●…n of exhortation Ib. 9 head.  of the like practice among some of your brethren abroad, where every beardless boy (for with such your Presbytery every where abounds) hath liberty to talk (for I can not call't disputing) upon the highest mysteries the Trinity, Praedestination etc. As considentlie, to the shame of your religion, as the gravest Doctor can determine in the chair. What of this may be tolerable among the learned, super rotam materiam, Is little better than a form, and little decency in that, which approves not much, improves less the abilities of the longest liver among you all. Our equivalent to this (let it be what it will) in our Archdeacon's Visitation, your friend Didoclaves turns off with a jeer, making as if the abilities of our Ministry were enquired into after they were constituted leaders of the flock. Primum cre●…tur du●…ores gregis, deinde siunt discipuli, where as it is principally to discern the advancement by study of what abilities they had at their ordination, whereby the election of rural Deans may be regulated, & persons known that are enriched by gifts befitting 
Alter. Damasc. Schot●… hetcr●…doxe divines not comparable to the Orthodox English.  them to be Bishops. Your experience shall not draw me into an unnecessary comparison between our English Clergy and the French or Dutch Divines, whose ordination, you are not ignorant, hath been impeached by their adversaries (whether deservedly or no they are to look to) and their abilities resolved just like yours, into an effusive readiness of words. But I bid defiance to you and your Countrymen of the Discipline, to show me among you all, a Lawed, an Andrewee, a Montague, a White, to whom the English you name must give the guerdon of learning (which I bele●…ve Reynolds carried 
Admittunt ad Ministrium indignis●…emos sartores, subulcos. & infimad●… faece homines, modo sint togodaedali etc.  not at Hampton Court Conference) unless Perkins had more in his Chain of p●…aedestination, or Parker in his silly Arraignment of the Crosse. But how solid and singular soever was their learning, their defection from the doctrines and practical praecedents of so many years standing among Catholic Christians makes their faith in many things, and their good parts comparitivelie in all, but as chaff to be blown away with the wind, and the memoire of them to be winnowed by our breath that the truer grain may be visible in God's Church. Avolent quantum volent pallea levis fidei quo●…unque. Assltu tentationum, eopurio●… mass a frumenti in horrea Domini reponetur. It's well your 
C. Schulting. Hier. Ana●…ris. Lib. 1.  conscience can be enlarged in some little charity towards any of our Bishops, though we may be justly jealous of this kindness, & fear (if we heard their names) it may be placed upon persons inclined to your interest, rather than commended to your good opinion by 
Tert. De Praescr. c●…p. 1. Quod non ideo scandalizarioport●…at, quod qui prudentissimi odificen●… in 〈◊〉.  their m●…rit. But whoso'er they be you mean, we know you never prike any in the list of the learned but the best read men in Synopis' and systems in Common place books, and Centurists, or general lie in your select Reformed Fathers, whom, in a fallacy, often times you persuade your Disciples to be the more proper men because standing (you tell them) upon the shoulders of the ancients, when, if set on even ground, the longest arm they can make in true learning and eloquence, will not reach half way up to their girdles. But to proceed in some answer to your quaestion. The Warner therefore speaks to you of ignorance, because your Presbyteri●… parts with the greatest incentives and encouragements of study; Therefore 
●…shops ●…ded by the Reviewer to be suspected.  of contempt, because it quits those dignities which give praecedence to their persons, and draw reverence to their function; Therefore of beggary, because it diverts the Ecclestastical revenue, and makes you but stipendiaries of the people. Of this very conciselie, yet fully hath his late Majesty admonished you Chapt. 17. of E●…x: Bu●…. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how the cause of ignorance, contempt and begge●…y.   
He that surveys impartially the multitude of good Livings and other Clerical praeferments in England which might serve as a supplement to the bad, will find little reason for any, none at all for the greatest part of our Priests I mean those that had a title, that were eidi●… cheirotonoumenoi (as it is Can. 6. Concil. Chalced) to be begarlie & contemptible for their want, especially since those Pluralists, you confess were searce one of twenty that lived in splendour at Court●… or were Nonresident 
Provision under Epi●… in England against the beggary &c of the Priests.  in the Country. Such as were apolelymenoos ordinat, ordained at large, without title to any benefice or cure, the Bishop was charged with them till provided for. And they that complained of their poverty had no cause, there being as you tell us, such plenty in his palace. The ignorance of our Clergy (which it may be was not incomparable if we bring yours into the light) was never greater than when Calvin and Knox had some heirs and successors that crept into the prelacy, 
Puritanical Bis●…ops make an ignorant ●…lergie.  degenerating from the austerity of their Fathers, who because they loved not the office, never meant to discharge it. Yet could dispense in their conscience with the title & lawn sleeves into the bargain, that under them they might take the revenues of our Bishops●… But when and where we had Augustine's and Chriso●…, Lawds and Andrews' never cloud was dispelld with the rising sun, so as ignorance at their assent in the Ep●…scopate of our Church. And they that heard not of the great study in these Pr●…lates to remedy the evils, brought in by the other, are such as Zecharie speaks of that imagine evil against their brother 
Cho. 7. v. 10. 11. 12.  their heart, refusing to hear●…en, and pulling away the shoulder, and stopping the ear that they should not hear, and making their hearts as an adam●… that they may not &c. Those some that were most provident, you mean (I think) most penurious in their families, were those I told you of that made a trade of ●…ieir proeferinents, and would dispense with any thing among the putitans but their purfes. Such as those soms other that I named, as they were apt to teach, so were they known to be of 
Our Bishop no Pur●…haser by his parsimony.  better behaviour and given to hosp●…a litie, the requifites of a Bishop and accomplishments of ours, whose parsimony or providence for hu samilie was not that which advanced him a sumine to make a purchase. If the su●…plusage of his ●…evenue could do it in a cheap and plentiful Country, I know not who have better title to it then his heir. Though as I am informed, where I may trust (meeting with a professed enmity against his office, whatsoever reserve of kindness was for his person.) This great purchase, you mean, was the recovery of lands sacrilegiously taken and detained from the Church, in the purs●… whereof, as he spared no endeavour, so it should seem he was well rewarded with success.  
Although prating and praying none sense in the Church may well pass for a paraphrase on that which the preacher calls the sacrifice of fools, Yet 
〈◊〉 nowledgelabour or conscien●… s●…wed in Presbyterian preaching.  I wish that were the worst which Presbytery brings when she sets her foot in the House of God, and not another * of bewitching rebell●… mentioned by Samuel, or treacherous. K. K, which the prophet Habakkuk calls Sacrisicium sagenae, the sacrifice to the net or drag, making men as the fisher of the sea, as the creeping things that have no ●…uler over them 1. Habak. 14. In whose praying or preaching (whereof doubtless 
●…les 5. 1. 1. Sam. 15. 22.  we had the quintessence sent us by the Reviewer and his brethren ●…f the m●…ssion) what knowledge there is beside that cunning of texts of the Concordance helped them to; What labour but of the lips and the lungs, neither mater nor method requiring their studi●…; What conscience, when no doctrine was proved but by Scripture wrested, I am sure not to the salvation of the hearer, & I fear to somewhat worse of the speaker, I leave to the testimony of any knowing, attentive, ingenuous person that at any time was there. And for myself, that was sometime setting aside all animosity and praejudice, I will in the word of P●…iest profess that I found none. But what else in the place of it is best known to God and my conscience, and letit be to the world to be that which makes me tremble to think of their danger that shall adventure their souls in the bottom of such hypocrisy and ●…gnorance. To the calumnies which this railing Rabshekal casts on our Church, I answer 1. That a read service was all the 
Reading Ministers useful and justifiable in our Church.  exerciz●… of few, and why it may not be of some, aswell as a read chapter & Psalm is of many where the Discipline takes place I know not. Since care is taken that where they read no necessity preaching is wanting. Since none that are not in orders may read it the office of prayer in the Congregation being as much a Clerical p●…oprietie as the ordinance of preaching. Since all that are have thereby no commission to go preach in your sense; and why they may not go p●…ay & administer the Sacrements, con●…erring with and catechising the ignorant according to their talon I see no reason. Ite & praedicate sending not all the Disciple●… up into a pulp it to make an hour or two's continued discourse. Nor had Nations ever been converted, nor Christians improved and confirmed, if predicate had been no otherwise ordered, not one of an hundred having abilities to draw arguments out of sermons convictive of their judgements, nor all Presbyterians so good Logicians as to frame them. And he that yields himself up to be carried with the stream of their words & wind of their fancies, may ●…ave as many changes in faith as their are points different in Christianity's compass, being like a child Clydoni●…omenos & peripheromenos, as St. Paul speaks, tossed to and sro, and carried about …, by 
Eph. 4 14,  the sl●…ight of men … who are many that lie in wait to deceive him. secondly, Your first Reformers made the same use of Readers as we do of un preaching Ministers, and continued them as long as necessity required, nor shall we any longer, if you can furnish us with as many learned preachers as we have pulpits, & them with stipends where are not tithes but impropriate proportionable to their abilities and pains. To the Churches where no Ministers can be had presently must be appointed the most apt men that distinctly can read the Common prayers and the Scripture●… saith your first Book. Disc. It was the late labour of no Praelates of ours 
4. Head. for Readers. Preaching without book approved by our Praelates.  〈◊〉 disgrace prca●…hing without book, who ever respected and cherished men whose presence of mind and memoire served them to deliver gravely and readily what they had at leisure deliberated on, and for the true benefit of their hearers digested into the clearest method, and a dorned with selected significant language before they came into the pulpit. Those who having taken that pains yet wanted the other ability not in their power, or some little confidence 
That within book ●…ot to be disparaged.  to command it in public, they were at least to excuse, and condemn such itching ears as would hearken unto no sound doctrine but when taught after their lusts and luxurious desires, more for their pleasure then their use. That they disparaged those of your tribe was no wonder, who like yourself (that go for one of the best) consulted little before hand with their books or thoughts, only wh●…t their tongues like their knives for a meal, with which so they cut out bread for themselves, they cared not what contemptible fragments they cast among the people. Of their best kind of speaking We may say as Seneca of one not much unlike it. Hae●… popularis [oratio] 
Ep●…st. 4. Lib. 1.  〈◊〉 veri, movere ●…bam, & inconsultas aures impe●… rapcre, tractanda●…se non praebet auser●…ur … multum haebet manitate●… & vani plus sonat quam vales. It hath a great deal os vanity and emptiness in it, more sound than substance, you may read the whole epistle, and learn I'll warrant you to preach better by it if you afslect it. For praying 
The Liturgy why read.  without book (all though without a command it may be indifferent, & you can bring no more for it then for praising and you sing not all without book as I remember) they thought best a conformity with Catholic Christians, whose liturgies were ever read in thei●… Churches, and that I guess (besides some decency it seems to carry with it) because they had great variety of prayers in the exhibition of which a constant order was to be observed, between and in them some variety of gesture and ceremonious worship, for direction in which they thought humane infirmity, subject to mistakes, might have cause some times to consult by a glance the rubrikes every where inserted. As for you that have naught else to do but to turn over the tip of your tongue what comes next in your head and up the white of your eyes, as if the balls were run in to look after the extravagant conceptions of your brains a book's of no use, though I wish we had one of all the profane and vain babbling amongst you, that we might make such unskilful workmen asnamed; 
2. Tim. 2. 15. 16.  and show ourselves approved aswell to the world as to God. The Praelates never cried up our Li●…urgie as the only service of God. Who think him served in some other Churches that have it not. Their opinion of it as a most heavenly and divine piece of writ, doth those holy men that comp●…ld it but the same justice which a better comparison will then yours of it with the breviary and Missal of Rome. Your pains had 
A parallel of it with primiti●…e 〈◊〉 better than with the 〈◊〉.  not been lost in a parallel of it with the solemn services disspersed in many parts of the Bible; with the Greek and Latin Liturgies where they are not interlined or corrupted with any superstition or idolatry of Rome. That you have made doth but magnify her and oblige you, had you any Christian charity or justice, to thank God for praeserving so much of his word & worship in her service what the Bishop intends when effected, will warrant our Church, upon your principles, in most parts of her L●…turgie; when showed consonant to the most public sormes of Protestant Churches, though 'tis hard for Fathers to ask advice or borrow authority of their children, & for Ancients to hear wherein job was mistaken. That with the young men is wisdom and with the shortness of day's understanding. The 
Praelati●…al Dociours not yet so much for pr●…aching a●… Presbyterians. 9 head.  King and the many well minded men, I believe were never deceived by our Doctors, who I can not think ever affirmed they were as much f●…r preaching in their practice and opinion as the Presbyterians. So much as to set aside praying for sermonizing as your 〈◊〉. Book Discipline doth, telling us. That what day the public sermon is they could neither require nor greatly approve that the Common prayers be publikeli●… used. I require the name of any that said the life and soul of the Liturgy was preaching, without 
Verbi praedicatio de bet esse quasi anima li●…urgiae. Alter. 〈◊〉 Dam. 〈◊〉. 10. Ibid. 1 sa. 56. 7.  which it could not be entire in its parts: That he must never go in and out of the, House of God without ringing his bells (a fit alussion) the nord of exhortation Interpratation and praeferring the nams' given the Temple by some of the ●…ewes Domus expositionis, before that by God Domus Orationis. Though it may have been the fruitless practice of some, to quit themselves, as they hoped, of the disreputation you brought them as ignorant and lazi●…, to preach somewhat more often then formerly, till they found their ringing the bells was to scare the people from Church, and doubling their pains reformed not their opinions nor reduced them to their duties. They that prayed without book before 
Pucrile est ut mi●…i vid●…ur aliter fa●…ere Ibid.  and after their sermons came not up to the Presbyterians opinion, that it is a childish thing to do otherwise. Nor to their practice, To bawlke the first and second service of the Church. What they either affirmed or did in this kind might bemore to show your gr●…sse ●…ifsimulation at all times; in making if such a difficult business to talk then to personate their own in this of their affliction, which, when you have brought them to the lowest, shall never seduce them so to decline the en●…ie of the people, as by profaning the House of God, soothe them 
Gal. 5. 10.  in their e●…rour, styling those aivine ordinances which in your manner or frequency of use (being both without precept) are but humane Canons and Acts, and for most part in the mater consist of strife, s●…ditions, and heresies, the works of the ●…lesh, or the Devil that dictates them. So that you may see, if your eyes be not full of somewhat else while you are sp●…rting yourselves with your own deceive, their tenet remains the same that it w●…, and themselves ready enough in this season, as unfi●… as you think it, to ring as lowed a●… you will in the ears of the world, That for Divine service in public, people need no more but the r●…oding of the Liturgy. 
Divine Service.  Which is better furnished with pious petitions, occurring to all visible necessiti●…s (and for others emergent the Church keeps a reserve, and in due time ever affords a recruit) than any set or extemporary prayer that ere came out of Presbyters mouth. 2. Sermons 
Careful Chris●…ians will find little l●…isur e on week days to hear sermons.  on week days (if not festivals, whereon a commemoration of Saints d●…parted is necessary for Historical instruction, and for imitation exemplary) ma●… belayed aside by Christians that have no more time to spare from their honest callings than they ought to spend in the application and practice of what they heard on the Sunday; in meditation upon God, his attributes and works &c in the serious examination of their lives, and very particular s●…rutinie of their actions, secret, public, good, bad, indifferent or mixed, in sorting or parselling their sins of mission, commission, weakness presumption and in private repenting, weeping, praying, praising, In conferring closely with holy men, chiefly their Priest and pastor of their souls, laying open before him their doubts, distractions 
Quantum ad crimina quae su●… declarata Ministris abillis ' qui petunt con●… aut consolationem, relinquimus conscient●…s Ministr●…rum etc. Disc. Eccl. Reformat. Regni Franc. Can. 25.  infirmities & perverse inclinations & Invisiting the sick, strengthening the weak; considering the poor and placing charity with prudence; condoling with and comforting the afflicted; Composing controversies, reconciling differences, designing and enterprising Heroic exploits for the just advancement and honour of the King, and public advantage of Country, City or Parish whereof they are Members Finally, acting all (of which these are not half) that concerns them in their public and private capacity. And when all is done, not before, in what leisures redundand, let them in God's name, call for a weekly or daily sermon, and (where the Priest hath discharged as much more of his duty, and finds in himself abilities to compose such an one as with confidence or rather conscience he can speak it) let them have it. 3. That Sundays afternoon Sermon is well exchanged for catechising children, instructing them in their principles of Religion and acquainting them with the doctrine and discipline of the Church, to which they ought to adhaere when they come to their choice at years of discretion which is the custom of some Presbyterian Churches abroad and either hath or should have been tongue since of the Scots. 1. Book: Disc: Before 
Catechising better than preaching in the afternoon found.  noon must the word be preached and Sacraments ministered, and afternoon must the young children be publicly examined in their Catechism in the audience of the people. 4. That on the Sunday before noon sermon is very convenient (abuses being redressed) and must be while and where enjoined. Yet in Nations converted to Christianity by the preaching of the Apostles 
9 Head.  or Apostolical men, and so fully confirmed as no reasonable fear may be of their apostasy, since the infallible spirit is not 
Forenoon sermon con venient but not absolutely necessary See Hook. Eccles. Pol. 5. Book.  cooperative with all, if with any, and where, as among the Presbyterians, the noxious spirit of delusion in the mouths of very many preachers, it's far from being necessaire to salvation, that care must be had lest it bring damnation to the hearers. 5. That where some learned Scholars, or honest industrious Ministers, not at pleasure, but public appointment, on festivals days make a sermon, or have an oration (for little difference need be about the name, and it may be't were better to have less in the thing) it would be short, not 
Sermons not to exceed an hour.  exceeding an hour, according to the Court pattern, which is likely to be the best in the Kingdom, and for the most part hath come nearest the most approved example of the primitive Fathers, as may be seen by their sermons and homilies that are exstant. And it should seem Presbytery, aswell as Episcopacy, hath found some inconvenience in Sermons that were longer which produced the 34. Canon in the Provincial Synod at Do●…t 1574. Ministri 〈◊〉 anim●… lo●…gis conci●…, quas ultra horam non extendent. 6. That spirit and life for adification, 
As little li●…e and adifaction in Scripture ill interpreted a●… in Rhetoric without it.  since extraordinary super infusions were rare, have been heretofore attributed to such discourses principally wherein the Canon of Scripture hath been interpreted by no private enthusiasm, no partial addiction to one man's opinion how eminent soever for his gifts or good life, but by the Catholic tradition of the Church, that is the consent of most holy men in it throughout all ages and places as much danger having been from the jews (& may be now from judaizing Scots) by bad gloffes, as from haeretical 
Vin●…, Lit, adv. hare●…. cap 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  Christians by Rhetorical discourses on Scripture euglo●…ttias…But what spirit or life hath been found in flat lectures consisting of noncohaerencies, 
5. Ciril. Hicrosol. catech. 2.  haesitancies, tautologies &c (notwithstanding all the gapings and groans or other aretifices used to put them ofs for divine ex●…tasies and raptures) let them speak that were edified, which I was not, I assure you, by What I heard from you and the brethren that brought the Scotish evangel to us in this Country. 7. Though 
Reason of bidding prayer before Sermon. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. cap. 16.  the Canon bestrict, the practice was not, so much as at Court, for bidding prayer before (for after Sermon that for Christ's holy Catholic Church and the Collects appointed, are not such, if you remember) some it may be knowing his Majesty's mind, which now i●… published, That he was not against a grave, modest, discrect and humble use of Ministers gifts even in publike…the better to fit and excite their own and the people's affections to the present occasions. Those that took themselves obliged to keep to the letter of the rule were satisfied aswell in the reason as lawfulness of the command. Being therefore well assured that the Lords prayer is, as the Fathers call it, oratis legitima, a complete prayer comprehending the sum of what petitions soever were fit to be presented to the Father, (which none knew better than the Son) That the people might be informed what at such a time they are to ask, and what, ask in faith, they might hope to receive,! the Minister commands them in the name of that particular Church to which they are to submit in all public duties or so renounce her communion, to pray for her after Christ's holic Catholic Church, for the King and his Royal famili●… His Council, all inserious Magistrates etc. And because after the L●…tanie and so many several prayers relating differently to those particulars he mentions, it is neither necessary, nor convenient at all, to doubt the time in repeating or paralleling the forms 〈◊〉 he calls upon them to join with him in that short prayer which very effectually compriseth all can be asked, saying Our Father etc. But as touching the Church; limitation of us to the Pater 
V●…t non inveniamur discordes in ingressu ad preces ante concionem faciendas, visum ●…uit utile uni●…ormibus verbis uti…Concio etiam ●…etur uniformiter verbis Marc. c. 6. No prayer for the dead in our Can●…n.  noster before, & her approving the Gloria patri &c after the sermon, I see no more in it, then in the 33. Canon of that Council of Dort which I even now mentioned Praying for the welfare of souls departed (a controversy yet depending between Protestants and Papists) hath ever impudently and falsely been attributed to that Canon on purpose to delude poor people so rashly opinionated of their Presbyters that told them so, as they thought it derogatory to their credit to search the truth; Or so grossly ignorant as unable to distinguish between praying God for the welfare of, and praising him for the exemplary lives of and the heavenly reward conferred on the souls of the Saints departed. Wherein nothing need be argued when those of a seeptical conscience will not be convinced, and those that are praejudiced will not be reformed, & to such no more is to be said, but si decipi volunt decipiantur. For private prayer, if personal, the Praelates never hitherto prescribed any form, leaving people to themselves who are private to their own wants, and to the direction, not injunction, of their Priest. But if congregational, though but in Parlour or Closet, no colour can be brought why an house should confute a Cathedral, or extemporary non sense take place of the ancient and well advised prayers of Holy Church.  
You can not be more loath to confess than I am hard to believe 
The Church of Scotland hath had a liturgy not only for help but practice.  that you ever were guilty of more conformity to ancient Christians in your public worship then opinions; Yet when I consider what establishment our Religion received in Queen Elizabeth's reign, & what advancement your schism unhappily had by her miss placed assistance, I can not satisfy myself how in policy or conscience a Princess so famed for devotion and wisdom could profess and prosecute such seeming contradictions, and without some humane assurance of your conjunction with her so liberally contribute toward your pretended reformation to the utter demolition of her own. Therefore upon good enquiry, I am feign to lay my dissidence aside, and have where withal to confirm the Warner in his belief, discovering first your negative Remonstrances and renunciations 
Knox Hist. 1. B.  of Rome coincident with (though more violent and particular then) ours; Your superintendents equivalent to our Bishops; And which as all in all, upon buchanan's record, your subscription to a community with us aswell in ecclesiastic as civil affairs. This your Maintainer of the Sanctuary tells us was done in the year 1●…60. in the infancy, or before it rather, in the first conception of your Discipline. Yea, two years before that not long after your Lords and Barons professing Christ jesus had subscribed your first Covenant in Scotland, they convene in Counsel, conclude on several heads whereof this is the first. ●…t is thought expedient, advised and ordained, That in all pari●…hes of this Realm the Common prayer be read weeklie on 
Ib. B. 2.  Sunday, and other Festival days publicly in the parish Churches etc. In the first oration & petition of the Protestants of Scotland to their Queen Regent this was the first demand… That they might meet publicly or privately to their Common prayers in their vulgar tongue. And that this may not be set to the account of your Temporal Lords, or some imperfect Members of your Clergy, because I. Knox your Holy head was 
1. B. 9 head.  at this time disjointed from that sanctified body, the same care is afterward taken for Kirkes' in your book of Discipline itself without any intimation of your purpose to tolerate it onclie for help and direction, being a form prescribed, as liable to the people's superstition as ours, otherwise then as you approved the omission of it 
Decl. Ch. Sc: Prae●…. The hypocritical use, of the Common prayer book in Scotland.  on public sermon days. And your Maintainer saith, without doubt it was the very book of England. Your Church having none of her own a long time. I would not have you mistaken, no more than you would have the Bishop, whom you so carefully inform (I fear against your conscience) as if I imputed this to you for any more than a politic compliance, to effect your own ends by Q. Elizabeth's arms, which being in a good part accomplished you altered your Liturgy both in substance and use, changed our prayers for worse, and those you neither enjoined by law, nor supported by the generality of your practice. Thus from petitioning forCommon prayer to your Queen you came about at length to condemning it among yourselves. This for the History of your hypocritical conformity with us to work your own design, and inexcusable defection from us when that was done. Touching your feigned approbation of set forms for rules, and for use in beginners, I am to ask you 1. What institutions their can 
Set forms of no use to beginners that pray by the spirit.  before improvement of supernatural gifts. What forms for progress in extraordinary graces 2. If there be such why they serve not aswell for the benefit of tongues as utterance, and whether the Apostles before the day of Pentecost had any praeparative to that descent of the spirit upon them, if they had not (the difference of persons not diversifying the donation where or to whomsoeverGod intends it) why we are to look about for helps unto this purpose? 3. Whether this sword of the spirit can not aswell cut the tongue as pierce the heart? Whether God can not without helps aswell indite words as mater, and make the tongue become the pen o●… a readi●… writer. That 
The gift of prayer in the Pater No●…ter.  your set forms were published only for Ministers that are beginners thereby endeavouring to attain a readiness to pray in their family, not in the Church. I take for an evasion scarce thought upon before now. The gift of prayer which you take gratis without a proof, I can afford you to be ●…rdinarilie no other than the form which Christ bestowed upon his disciples. The use of that hath ever hitherto been continued by their successors in the frequent repetition of the words, and analogy of all their enlargements unto the sense. The greatest comfort that can be had by this is in a cheerful submission to the judgement of that Church in whose communion I adventure my salvation, & the greatest liberty in the exercise of her words, which in Christian humility and common reason I am to conceive more apposite than mine own. Herein I rest the better satisfied, when I see my common 
5. jud. v. 13.  adversaries in this duty so to fluctuate in their senses, and like raging waves in a conspiracy to shipwreck others, breaking mutually 
Presbyterians divided about pra●…er. Hist. 4. B.  themselves by the uncertain violence of their motion, and so in the end forming out nothing but their shame. Master Bailiff renouncing aswell forms composed by themselves, as prescribed by others. Master Knox praescribing such a se●… prayer unto himself, and so praemeditating the words he was to speak, that when quaestioned he could repeat what ere he said. Their brethren abroad sometime strictly enjoining a form compiled by others Omnes Ministri unans formam publicam in Ecclesia precandi tenebunt…ideoqu●… alia forma brevi●…r post 
Synod Holland. & Zoland 1574 Artic. 38. Herm. Synod. Belgic. cap. 11.  concionem recitanda composita est. At other times leaving their Ministers to a liberty of a set prayer composed by themselves, or one depending on the dictate of the spirit. Minister pr●…ces vel dictante spiritu, vel certa sibi proposita formula concipiet The 4. wrongs that are pretended from our Liturgy to redound upon A Giver, A Receiver, A Gift, and A Church, being Relatives in this business are inseparable by nature, and must fall to ground with the falsitic of the supposition upon which they hang: But what injuries are multiplied upon all by the extemporary licence of Presbyters in their prayers. Our Blessed Sovereign. 
The injuries by extemporie prayer; F●…x. B●… cap. 16.  K. Ch. 1. hath enumerated, the affectation, ●…mptinesse, impertinence, rudeness, con●…usions, flatness, levity, obscurity, vain and ridiculous repetitions, the senclesse and oft times blasphemous expressions, all these burdened with a most tedious and intolerable length…Wherein men must be strangely impudem and flatterers of themselves, not to have an iusinite shame of what they so do and say, in things of so sacred a nature before God and the Church, after so ridiculous & indeed profane a manner. Nec potest tibi ('tis Master Bailiff I mean, 
S●…n. Ep. 40 〈◊〉. 1.  who hath been guilty of most in my hearing) istares contingere aliter quam si tepudere desieris: perfrices fron●…em oportet, & ipsete non audias. But I refer him to the rest of what K. Ch. 1. Briestie but solidelie hath 
5. ●…, of Ec●…l. Pol.  writ, and what more at large Master Hooker, to whom I may challenge all the Scotish Presbytery for an answer.  
So great a cloud of witnesses encompassing the Scotish Presbytery, and giving in evidence against her as the mother of mischief too many years in three Kingdoms, your arm is too weak to lay aside the 
Heb. 12. 1.  weight of those wicked actions that must be charged on her back, and the sin of sacrilege Royal that so easily b●…sets her. The Parliament of Scotland, sure 
The Parliament of Scotl. in no c●…pacitie to demand after then urder of K. Ch. 〈◊〉.  ●…quivocates in denying that they have stripped the King of his justrights (I speak to His Majesty now reigning His ●…ather having unanswerablie argued for himself) because they never hitherto acknowledged him invested with any but the name, to which bare inheritance they knew him borne without the charity of their breath, & which he must have had without their sounding trumpet, proclaiming this for their alms as hypocrites in their markets. But to come close to you. This Parliament of Scotland, had it been such, as it was not, upon the murder of the ●…ather ought to have been stripped of all itself, than no just rights, (no more but such as a deadman hath to his robes) and being a breathless carcase could require nothing at the hands of the Son. The courses to which he was stirred up and keeped on, out of natural duty, by no factious advice, were (howsoever they succeeded) preservative of his Fathers and himself, and destructive to no people but the workers of iniquity that with their own hands plucked down misery upon their heads. The bloodshed brings 
Ps. 51.  bloudguiltinesse upon them that first opened the vein, from which he had no need to be purged with hyssop that was clean, nor washed, whose conscience, in that particular, was whiter than the snow. Yet 
Ha●…ak. 1. 13.  being by your scarlet Parliament imputed to him, (whose impure eyes can b●…hold nothing but iniquity in others, and whose wicked mouths are wide open to devour the man that is more righteous than themselves) the satisfaction they required could be in order to no exercise of his Royal government, nor dare they take any by the rules of your Discipline, which must have blood for blood, but a slavish subjection of his life and erowne to sentence without mercy, which had been, though fewer in number, yet as full in your meaning, and as effectual aequitable, demands. Although this be a reply unanswerable to your praetense. Yet I must not leave you without discovering your diminutive 
Review changeth the words of the Procl. The original of the oath for security of disscipline.  forgery in Parliament Proclamations, putting parts of his Royal Government where they the whole without exception. His name portrait & seal being not his, when new stamped, and set to public writings by your hands then in actual rebellion against his person. The security to your Religion and Liberties required, were first enacted for an aequitable demand onclie by a Convention of Rebels at Edinburgh 1567. who had been partly solicited, partly scared into a dubious consent with, andby a Tra●…terous Assembly, (who had in vain posted away four Caitiffe-Cursitours, miscalled Commissioners, to the more loyal Lords delated for the hamilton's, as likewise to the Neuters, to depose their Queen, and clog their future Princes' succession with this 
K●…. Do●… Row. Craig. 〈◊〉. Hist. B. 5.  impious condition. That all Princes and Kings herea●…ter in this Realm, before their Coronation shall take oath to maintain the true Religion now processed in the Church of Scotland, and suppress all things (even their souls & consciences) contrary to it, and that are not agreeing with it. This I take to be the fundamental law your Proclamation reflects upon, foralas the other foundation of your solemn league and covenant lies not fathom deep, a stripling of twelve years old can reach to the bottom; and evert, both, when he calls for that invisible law of God, which approves much less enjoines this praerequiring satisfaction from a King, For it 
Dial. D ᵉ Iur: Reg●… ap. Scot The choice of a King originallic not justifiable in any perpl.  is not Maitlands' idle concession to Buchanan in his cursed dialogue upon Homer's authority, That there was a time when men lived law less in Cottages and caves, and at length by consent took a justisiable course of creating a King unto themselves that will reduce Royaltic to popular restrictions. Such stuff as this may be put off among Pagans that will hearken to the fable of Cadmus, & be won into a belief that the serpent's teeth were sowed in so good a soil as that they all sprung up proper men of whose race we might have had some at this day, if they had betook themselves to the election of a King, when for want of one they fell to civil dissensions & destruction of themselves. I demand as a Christian, and as much mighta ●…ew. Who was the first King! Whether he was not instituted by God? Whether not with a decree touching primogeniture in th●… right of succession, by the first borne to propagate his authority and office? Whether any people in the world, more or less in a body lawsullie assembled, have been at a loss for a King to command them? & what law beside that of nature which if such as Saint Paul describes it, is somewhat hard to distinguish from an original law of God, (and yet shall be sequestered from our praes●…nt dispute) constituted them in a full capacity to choose one? Who? When? Where? 
Cum sit & ordini naturae conscnta●…eum, & ●…bus propé omnium gentium Historijs tes●…sicatum.  Open buchanan's pack, as big as it is, begirt with no less than the cingle of the world, and with out Ambiguons peradventures, or ass●…mations involved in quaestionable circumstances, lay me out one clear instance to this purpose and when you have, purchase a parallel among yourselves. Transmigration of Nations, Navigations of discovery, designed or contingent, New plantations upon necessity or pleasure, Spontaneous secessions, though by supreme authority approved; Relegations and exiles, Extinctions of lines. Finally whatsoever to be thought on that can separate a medley of men from a set●…ed society, or make an Anarchy among People, will when 
De jur Reg.  all are combined, I believe, little disorder me in my hold. So that to use the words of that valiant General, or take the Kings from his mouth. You declared him to be your King, but with such conditions and proviso●…s 
M. M●…ntr. De●…. 1650  as robbe●… him of all right and power. For while you pr●…ctend to give him a little, which he must actept of as from you, you spoil 〈◊〉 of all that power and authority which the law of God, of Nature, and of the Land hath invested him with by so long continued de●…cent from his famous praedeccssours. For the nature of your 
Abolition of Episcopacy will not give the scott satisfaction  demand, the abolition of Episcopacy, which you confess to be a great one (so great indeed as not to be granted but with a devastation of his conscience, the Praelates were very unworthy of their mitres, if they pressed not his Majesty (were it necessary where is so free an inclination) to deny you, though they know well enough, were your great demand yielded, you have one no less behind, security of liberties, and when both were had (which God forbid they ever should be) your cruelty and guilt would admit of no less after-satisfaction from him for England, then from his Father for Scotland, nor your raging Devil be otherwise satiated then with his blood. Therefore the advantage you take of his denial (though you confess upon other men's importunate instance) makes your Praedestinarian Godships no less peremptory in the immutability of your decree, to form Commonwealths of Kingdoms, and according to you Divinity the means being as unalterablie destined as the end, you resolve what you can (and do well to tell us so) that he and all his family shall perish.  
— Levia sed nimium queror 
Sen. He●…, fur.   
Coclotimendumest, regna ne summa occupet  
Qui vicit ima…  
For you that thus capitulate with Kings, have nothing next to do but to article with God. Presbytery admitting no Rival Regent, much less any superior, will make way to its solitary supremacy by ruin.  
I terruina quaeret, & vacuo volc●…  
Regnare mundo.—  
Your patient surplicate●… were your Hage papers, which most inquisitive men have heard or seen before this time. Wherein you tell His 
P. jun. 1. may 22  Majesty his denial will constrain your people… to ●…oe what is incumbent unto them, we know what you mean, that fatal word being scarce to be met with but having Rebellion and Murder at its heels. Your 
Henders. 1. Pap. to K. Ch, 〈◊〉  Evangelist of the Covenant did not cant it to his Father, but said plainly Reformation may be (though he wished it not) left to the mul●…de whom God ●…rreth up [to kill and slay without quaestion] when Princes are negligent, as they are when they yield not their aequitable demand●…, grant their patient supplicates, lay their heads on the block, and (not do but) suffer as they would have them. Laesa patientia fit furor, Even in such meek men as you, patience upon denial can become fury and supplicates after some continuances commands.. And then he may have an offer of his or their Kingdom, as you think fiter to style it, but it must be with a resignation of his crown, their Lives and estates shall be Oretenus for his service, when aurium tenus they are up to the ●…ares in a good bargain, taking money with one hand, and delivering him up with the other; which is the issue to be expected upon the grant, and nothing worse can be feared (nor that if well thought on) from the denial of your demands. Therefore, to conclude, no misery of King nor people should be so impolitikelie declined as to be desperately embraced. And till the essentials of Scotish Presbytery be changed, which are undisputablie destructive to all Monarches that come among them, true Praelatical hearts can not be truly considerate or loyal, if they be not obstinat●… in this persuasion and belief. 
1. B. Disc. 9 head.   
The place cited, to which you send us for a view of your tender care in providing the parents consent to the marriage of their children, gives us a 
Nature robbed of her Prerogative by Prosbyterie  full prospect of your tyranny over Nature, whose throne is usurped, whose prerogative trampled down, and her Paternal Princes enthralled to the dominion of your spirit. For your public inhibition of private mariage●… there mentioned, is not so much to carry the stream of children's obedience to their Parents and Curatours, as to make sure that the water go no●… by your mill, that due homage be paid to the consistorian powers that are above them. Therefore in some cases (and we know not which you except) 'tis said. The Minister or Magistrate to whom, (though not you, your Discipline gives the praecedence and predominance) may enter in the place of parents … may admit them to marriage. For the work of God ought not to be hindered etc. This 
Inclinations to marry not all ways divine motions.  work of God is there called the touch of the heart with desire of marriage, As if all hearts so touched had God's hand laid upon them, and the Scotch climate were so cold as all natural or carnal inclinations were frozen until fire came down from heaven to dissolve them. As if then, good souls, they were melted in a minute, and had outrun the bounds of all self moderation, all rational persw●…sion, all love martyrdom in a passive submission to the just rigour orunjust wilfulness of cruel parents contradicting their sudden affections and amorous violence, For if these Flames warm by degrees at a distance 
Consent of parents.  (and some danger draws on of being scorched without screening) their duty should prompt them to withdraw in due season, and repraesent to their parents the first sense they find of that heat, the increase of content or comfort they take in it, and with their approbation farther cherish these desires, or upon their dislike in gratitude and justice to their sufferance of many infant troubles, & elder petulancies, endu●…e a little hardship for their pleasures. For to change the allegory, if children first set sail of themselves, & then call to their parents at ●…hoare for leave to take shipping, this mock respect would relish more of scorn then good nature or duty. And as well may they bid adieu to relations, as when before a strong gale of wind look for anod or waving hand to encourage that course wherein they themselves are steering, and necessity carrying then not to be resisted. Yet no other is that honour which your Discipline saith they are bound to give to their parents, the parts whereof you make these. To open their affection. To ask their counsel and assistance how that motion … may be performed, it speaks not of ask pardon for entertaning it before approved. 
† 〈◊〉 in Scriptures determinatum sit & jure Civili de consensu parentum; In Ecclesiastic●… tamen curijs obtinet jus Papale Canonicum qu●… definitur consensus parentum dehovestate non de necessitate Et quod Matrimonia debent esse libera, & non p●…ndere exali●… no arbitrio Assert: Pol. Christ.  You know the civil and Canon law are divided, that standing much upon the necessity, this only on the decency or honesty of having the parent's consent. A friend of yours, that îs hugged for his pains in opposing our Church, presseth hard the coincidence of the former with the determination in Scripture, and objects her concurrent practice with the later To tell you how 
* Lib. 2. De Regn, Christ.  Bucer plays the strict Civilian in this business, whose authority is very oracular when for you, would it may be render him but a private opinionator now against you. And as little might it avail to produce the Acts of your Brethren in Holland, who seem to declare for a necessity in their provincial Synod. Nemo proclamabitur de contrahendo nisi priu●… attulerit testimonium de consensu parentum, No more than a convenience in their National, and that determinable by their Presbytery when controverted … Siquis autem irrationabiliter in his causis & refractory se gesscrit, sic quod nullo modo vellet consentir●… … presbyterium constituit quid in talibu●… casibus sit saciendum. In this division you do well to quit your self of all wont interest, and appeal even from Scripture itself to the Tribunal of reasen and a quitie. Where yet you will scarce get your hearing before you prove that the authority of Parents is to be restrained by the many times unreasonable (though lawful and honest) desires or motions in their children. As if a King's daughter should be taken with a beggar borne under an hedge. With which instance your presbytery is scarce to be trusted, who it may be, are ready enough to justify the match by the eminency of his virtues, to which they may better dispose daughters then distribute crowns, saying Regna virtuti, non generi deberi. Epictetus that was a very good Master of his reason, gave this general rule unto his disciples. That all obligatory offices are measured by the relative habits 
Dordorac. 1574. artic. 81. 1578.  of the persons. He begins with the Father as most absolute in his power, all whose injunctions and actions are to have an active or passive obedience from his children. Pater estin; hypagorevetai epimeleisthai, para●…horein hapantoon, aneches●…hai loidorountos, paientoes If you talk to him, as 
The injury done to Parents by Presbytery not justisiable in reason. Buc●…an.  Bishop, to the of a cruel ●…arent, abusing his autgoritie etc. He will tell you Nature hath not tied you to a good father, but a father, & your duty must bepayd him in his natural capacity, not moral ●…ete oun pros agathon patera physei okeiothes, alla pros patera. There is indeed some what in humanity itself, which may be called the ●…ice of a father to his son. To moderate sometimes his autocratical power by affection, & run his iron heart into the same moulds with the softer metal of his children's at lest not t make it the hammer and anvil whereby to 
Ta catheconta hoos epipantais schesesi parametreitai.  fashion youth to the humourous morose sevetitie of age. It was upon some such advantage that Pamphilus argued in the Comedy. Hoccine est humanum factum aut in●…oeptum? Hoccine officium Patris? … Pro ●…eum atquchominum, quid est, si non baee contumeli●… est? Vxorem decreverat dare seize mihi hoaie, nun oportuit praes●…isse me ante? nun prius communica●…um oportuit. Yet afterward Simo contrapones his improper choice of a match 
Enchir. c. 37  misbeseeming him, against custom, law, and his duty as a s●…nne. Adeon impotenti ●…sse anime ut praeter ●…ivium M●…rem atque legem, & sui voluntatem 
Terent Andr. act. 1. Sc. 5.  patris. Tamen hanc habere cupiat cum summo probro? ●…n sine Pamphilus convinced in likelihood by his reason, made a filial exemplary submission in our Case. Ego me amare han●… fateor, si id peccare est, fateor id 
Act. 5. Sc. 3.  quoque. Tibi Pater me dedo. quidvis oneris impone, impera. Vis me uxorem ducere? han●… amittere? ut potero feram. Yet among Christians, when such submission's not found from a frenzy of love which will take no advice from Nature or Reason, I confess the Magistrates and Ministers shall do an act of charity in their mediation with his father by complying with to cure him of his madness, and restore him to his senses. But when their Discipline makes it an act of power and jurisdiction, 
1. B. 9 head,  and that as much, if not more, concerning the Minister as Magistrate, I take it to be very emp●…ie of oequitie, as full as the Reviewer thinks it, and see not where, after the Scotish mode, any Church or State doth practice or approve it. In the behalf of them that do, he is to repair the breach of the 5. Commandment by the disobedient child, or show us where in 〈◊〉 is particular it was dispensed with. 
No obedience due to parents requiring a injust mar●…,  In case of sin I confess a just apology may be made. As if the Father would admit of none but an incestuous marriage, or, to save his estate, with one in open rebellion against the King; The child must not obey, nor yet is bound where is fear of incontinency, to live single. The supreme Magistrate ought here to take the place, & do the office of the parent. And the Minister must execute all lawful commands of this Kind in his function. But if the case be so rare of the child's complaint? and not heard of in an age, the Dawbers of the Discipline might have saved this patch; and need not have fouled their fingers with such untempered stuff, as having neither Scripture nor reason in its mixture, was never intended to cement any building of Gods, nor the corrupt a●…ections of wilful children to be called his work. Yet that the R●…ader may neither be unsatisfied nor deluded (as he will be very often if he observes not your fraud in mistating the case) I must admonish him that the Bishop's may be frequent though yours be rare. His Lordship objecting your admission to marriage the parent gainstanding. And you reponing an authoritative Sentence to enforce consent. His addition about compelling the parents to give portions was fastened upon your practice not your canon. Your railing 
Ep. S. I●…d. v. 9  ac●…usation, an impudent lie which Micha●…l would not bring when disputing with the Devil, will as little grace, as strengthen, your controversy with a better Angel of the Church. In such matters of fact truth can be justified no otherwise then upon enquiry, whereby will best be discovered he●… faithful witness; and the false one too that will ●…tter lies. Yet in the place alleged your canon ordering out of the text, 
Prov. 14. 5. 2. Cor. 12. 14. 1. Tim. 4. 8.  without quaestion a dowry to a daughter that is deflowered, he that at a distance hath any good opinion of your conscience will praesume your care can be in justice no less of her who you say, hath committed no such filthiness before, but kept the Virgin-ornament that commends her to your super-paternal powers to be made a bride. The passage against sparing of the life of Adulterers (which you here substitute in the 
Poenitent Adulterers not to be put to death. S. john. 8. 2. Cor. 12 7.  room of a better answer to the other) is not so consonant to the law of God, as dissonant from the milder Gospel of Christ, who neither as K●…ong commanded stones to be cast at the penitent brought before him nor as Priest retracted by excommunication his signal mercy showed in her dismission. A Presbyter may have a thorn in the flesh aswell as a Praelate, although for want of Saint Paul's spirit he will abate no measure of his pride in revelations And if he take it out to no better purpose then to thrust it in othermen's sides, (if he look not to it) will prick his own fingar, in his haste. The falsely pretended authors and lovers of so severe discipline make it as little consistent with Christian liberty hypotaxein & doulagogein, to discipline their bodies and subdue them by Apostolical correction, as to subject their spirits, according to Apostolical doctrine, to just powers ordained by God, And a piece of tyranny they count it to chasten and mortify (which by praecedent they turn into reproose) ever since David did it that was a King. For want of which (whatsoever they fancy of I know not whose biting and spurning) the Presbyterian jesuruns have kicked as much as before, nor since this great severity was threatened, could they have the face to expunge the clause that by their own confession occasioned it, & still stands thus in their book.. Whoredom, sornication, adultery are sinne●… most common in this realm. 
1. Book. Disopl. 9 I Head.   
The Bishop's warrants for clandestine marriages were not without this particular caution against spoiling parents of their dear children. Quod parentum, modo sint in vivis, vel alias Tutorum sive gubernatorum suorum expressum 
The Bishop's cautelous in their warrants for clandestine marriages.  consensum in hac parte obtinuerint. And how abundantly otherwise was provided let your brother Didoclave bear witness. If their mercenary officers prostituted to their profit this indulgence granted upon very good reasons to noble personages, whose praecontracts, or impediments if any, were not very likely, and it may be not so fitting to be discovered, upon publishing their bannes) this 
In nuperis constitndinibus anni 1603. videntur praesules Anglicane abunde cavise Alter. Dam. c. 70 Ao. 1588. Schulting Reprehends. Synod. Middelb. The Revieners s●…amelesse denial of aknow'n truth about impeding civil proceedings. Contr. E. pilam Philadelph.  can fairly be charged neither upon the Bishop's order, nor their persons, unless you would have them ubiquitary in their Courts, & omni-praescient in the actions of their instruments. Their after-dispensations with marriages without warrant I hope are not culpable, except you would drive them to a necessity of divorce. Among them whom you call brethren heretofore those of Middleburgh did invalidate all private marriage. About which their adversaries, though consenting in the substance, call upon them for a text of Scripture, which I never heard was hitherto produced.  
If he that fixeth his eyes upon the sun, till the strength of the beams and lustre put them out, should declare before the witnesses of his misfortune that he never saw the least glimpse or brightness of that luminary, he were more to be credited then Master Bailiff in his gross selfe-confounding denial, that ever any such mater was attempted in Scotland as drawing civil causes upon praetense of Scandal unto a Synod of Presbyters, or that he ever heard alleged by their adversaries their impeding or repealing any civil proceedings. Whereas the first hath been proved already by the Bishop out of the very words in their discipline; And the two other objected in numerous instances by most, if not all the adversaries that have published any thing against them. By Archbishop Spotswood in the different cases of the Bishops Montgomerie and Adamson, A Melvin, Black, the spanish Merchants etc. So that in general he is fain, to allege against them in this language… Ministrorum eo crevit insolentia, ut non contenti sua functione, lights & reo●…omnes (what and who is here excepted?) a●… suum tribunal revo●…are niterentur, concilii publici (which is more than the meanest civil Court) placita reseindere, Ordinum decretis (which riseth high (qu●…e ad slomachum non sacerent intercedere, etc. Which is worse than Synodical impeding or repealing, populum cmnem contra hostem in armis paratum esse jubere. And which includeth all in all. Nibil denique erat quod islos fam severos censores essugeret. The Answerer by leter… How inconsistent Presb. Government is with Monarchy objectts their interposing in a case of debt between J. T. and P. T, determined by the Lords of Session; Their discharging Monday mercates against leters Patents under the Great Seal, professeth that like infinite instances might be produced, and one more of them he brings with the several circumstances about a decree and judgement obtined by Master john Grahum. In general your judicial Usurpations are censured by the Author of Episcopacy and Presbytery considered. Whereof he brings no particulars because he saith no body can be ignorant that hath looked into the known stories of this last age. Some what to this purpose is in him that writ the Trojan Horse… unboweled. K. James' Declaration against you in the case of the Aberdene Ministers is in print. Beside many other of this nature that I have not seen, or do not think on. Where Master Bailiff hath slept out all this noise, I can not guess, if above ground. So that a lass the Courtesan Bishops may paste away unquaestioned with a few innocent prohibitions in their pockets, when the Traverse is drawn and the Palliard Presbyters discovered in multitudes at the business, heaping up such loads of repeals and protestations, as crush all iniquity into scandal, & make civil Courts, Parliaments Council and King responsable for their sentences to the Synods.  
The next injury against Masters and Mistresses of families as it stands in 
Public ca techizing of Masters & Mistresses indecent.  your discipline (not as you subtly, yet vainly, advantage it) is criminal, at least so far as it is a transgression of Saint Paul's rule, which requires all things to be done euschemonoos & cata taxin, decently and in order, 1. Cor. 14. 50. Whereas for them to be brought to such a public account, who at all other times, without personal exception, are constituted instructours of their children and servants, is not eushemonoot; it caries little decency with it, it too much discountenanceth their authority, it levels their natural and politic Dominion for the time. nor have those different lines as they are drawn in your Discipline, such a just symmetry, as to produce an handsome feature of one person: It is not cata taxin, ta●…e it in what sense you will, no man will say there is a due order observed, nor any such praescription in Christ's Holy Catholic Church. The same Apostle that gave particular directions in the case made no canon for this. An antecedent examination he appointed, but the Ancients 
1. Cor 11. 28. Lit. Ch. c. p. 215.  interpret it more of the will and affection then the understanding & mind. Or ●…f he meant it of both, he made every man judge of himself (as you do when he is present at the ministration of baptism) that had before rendered a reason of his saith to the Church, neither Presbyter and inquisitor of course nor parishoner a witness of his unworthiness and ignorance. Ourh heteros ton hetecon…all' a●…tos beauton saith Oecumenius which put Cajetan upon the thought that confession was not at this time required, for which he is taken up by Catharinus. And Chrysostom refers us to a text in St. Paul's 
13. 5.  second epistle which tells us what discovery may put the examination to an end. Examine yourselves whether ye be in the saith. Omnem prolationem quaerendi & inveniendi credendo fixisti, hunc tibi modum statuit sructusipse quaerendi, is intended, I believe, as a gloss upon it by Tertullian. So that the knowledge how to pray was no praerequisite of St. Paul's. Nor 
De Praeser. c. 10.  can we hear from him that the ignorance of other your disciplinarian articles exclude a man more from the Sacrament of the Lords 
If they know not how to pray neithern berein their righteousness sands or consists, they ought not to be admitted to the Lords table.  supper then from the communion of Saints & Christianity he professeth in his Creed. Beside 'tis easy to conceive what discouragement it brings upon such good Christians as hunger and thirst after this spiritual nourishment of their souls, and how much it derogates from that reverence Antiquity rendered to this Sacrament and the high degree of necessity they held often to participate hereof by such clauses as this. All Ministers must be admonished to be more careful to instruct the ignorant then ready to serve their appetite, and to use more sharp examination than indulgence in admitting etc. Which hath a different sound from the earnest cry of the Euangelical Prophet Isai 55. 1. and the free invitation made by the High Priest of our profession in the Gospel S. Luk. 14 you accounting profanelie the loss hereof no more than the miss of a meal, and the disappointment no other 
1. Book Disc. 9 head. Ibid. Excommunication of the ignorant without warrant. Ibid.  than depriving an hungry appetite of a dinner. Our Fathers of old were otherwise minded, and excommunicated those that were peevishlie averse, not those that (being engaged in no penance) humbly desired the benefit hereof. Aposlrephomenous ten metalephin tes cucharistias cata fina ataxian toutous apobletons ginesthaites ecclestas. was part of a canen at the Council of Antioch A. 341. I could add, That you declare not what may pass among you in the Master and Mistress' answers for the sum of the law, what for the knowledge wherein their righteousness stands, without which you say they ought not to be admitted. So that the sharpness of your examen and acceptance of their answer being arbitrary, much room is left for private spleen, antipathy and passion no justifiable causes of separation from this community of Christians, and therefore made the ground of enquiry and cognizance 
Exetaues●…ho de me micropsyc●…a e philoneikia e fini toiause aedia tou episcopou aposynagogo egegenentas.  in every half years Synod by the Nicene Father, that such partiality might not be tolerated in the Bishops, But whereas you excommunicate the parent and Masters for negligence when their children and servants are suffered to continue in wilfultignorance. Why not aswell the God Fathers and Pastors whose subsidiary care should not only be restaurative but praeventive? Why not such aged women as are not teachers of goodthings, That the young women be sober, love their husbands and children etc. Tit. 2, 3? Why not all those in whom the word of Christ should dwell richly in all wisdom, and they teach and admonish one another Col. 3. 16. Which being a like duties of the Text alike require your inspection, nor doth it appear any more that you are left to a liberty 
Can. I. Chr. justel. Familievisitations commendable aswell in orthodox Priests as Presbyters.  of discrimination in your censure, then that for any of these defaults you may exercise it at all. Your family visitations, if sincerely intended for the inspection of manners and conversations is commendable, if done with the spirit of discretion, moderation & meekness. When this was practised by the most conscientious Priests of the Episcopal party (your knowledge whereof to deny by oath would look little better than perjury) it was calumniated by many of your brood for gadding and gossipping, defamed by some for more sinful conversing. And when the generality of them (the Episcopal Clergy) remitted the frequency of preaching, the study for which they found inconsistent with this more necessary more beneficial catechising the people, it was nicknamed suppressing the word. And when at such times as the sacramental solemnities they entered into any private spiritual communication (though advised by the Church) they were put to purge themselves from the imputation of Popery in practising auricular confession and injunction of penance. Your order and practice is to keep off from the holy Table not such only as conjunctive are grosselic and willfulle, but divisive (intoo strict a sense) grossly or willfully ignorant. Touching which although their negligence is inexcusable, and their dulness pitiable, yet that your act of cruel jurisdiction is justified by no divine command nor Catholic example. If never any for simple ignorance were excommunicated in Scotland. You must be rebuked for transgressing your rule and failing in your duty as your Kirke pleaseth thus to declare it. In sufferable we judge 
Ib. Disc, 9 Head.  it that men be permitted to live and continue in ignorance as Members of the Kirke.  
Whether greater tyranny were exercised in the High Commission Courts 
Riot in Scotland to get down the High Commission.  or your Consistories, your aequitable comparers by this time, are not to seek. What excess on your side hath been evidenced is here resumed only to aggravate your flood of boundless cruelty by the many heads from which it issues, and the cataracts it powers upon the poor people in every parish. The Bishops played indeed the Rex in that their Court, because they acted in it by authority and deputation from the King. But you and your Brethren played the Rebels to the purpose, when you first rioted, then rebelled and covenanted before, ere you supplicated to suppress it. K. Ch. 1. by his grace and too fluent charity prevented the violence intended by your Parliament, though he found no thanks nor yet acceptance at your hands His proclamation being rudely encountered with a rebellious protestation read 
jarg. Decl. The King's palace and Parliament fallen with that in England.  by johnston. The King & Anticlerical Parliament in England that alas joined hands in a manner, yet searce agreed, to throw down the other about their ears (without which the Praelates had no power, less than no reason (if it might be) to let it fall) have not only covered the poor Bishops with the ruin of that Court, but since hands and hearts were divided, the laborious Lords and Commons, without him, have pulled the Fabric of both Houses, and of Monarchy upon themselves. The Congregational Eldership, a thing wheresoever 
More comfort because less rigiour in the reformed Elderships abroad.  more to be jeered at and less endured than a Commission, is enjoyed with so much more comfort among other of the Reformed then in Scotland, as we are eye witnesses of less authority & rigour in it. And while I am writing this Reply one of the Reformed Presbyters, your Countryman ingenuously confesseth to me that he thinks in his conscience the present Kirke tyranniem Scotland (he speaks it indeed rather of the practice then rule) of●…se ●…se Scotish Elderships taken out of Holy scripture can not be very Partic●… 〈◊〉 many cases. Their Acts of superior judicatories do not, can n●… 〈◊〉 ●…pecific interpretative Scandals, nor in all occurring pofsibi●… proportion corporal punishments, or pecuniary mulcts, in the arbitrement of which lies the tyranny of this petty aristocraty, and most ridiculously many times used in cutting haifethe hair, shaving beards &c. as before now hath been objected by others that having I believe seen it, better know it. In the abuses by such censures, and difficulty 
Answer by Letter.  of some cases, when appeal is made to a Synod, the Bi●…op tells you (which you observe not) that the shortness of its continuance can afford, the condition of the persons will afford little relief. Your dozen of the most able pious plough men in many parishes, with an unexperienced illiterate Pastor praesiding in their Council are no very reverend judges in many cases. And what pitiful creatures they must be of necessity 
Many of those in Scotland have very unfit, unable judges.  in some places may be guessed until this quaestion be answered which is sent you from another Countryman of yours an honest able Divine. Whether you have not heard of C●…untres Churches in Scotland, especially amongst the Saints of Argi●…e, where not three, hap●…e not one in the whole parish could read. Amphictyonum consessus. A very honourable bench. A Senate that no doubt would strike greater amazement (but upon other reasons) than the Roman if any foraigner should behold them. In that you say the Episcopal way is to have no discipline at all 
Episcopacio want no equivalent in Discipline.  in any congregation, you are somewhat more hard hearted then your brethren, Who acknowledge some of the functional rubbish of your Temple building, Elders and Deacons, upon the shoulders of our Church wardens, Sidemen and Collectors, part of whose charge is to observe manners, inquire out ill livers, admonish the scandalous, 
Oeconomis testibus Synodalibus & Collectoribus in Ecclesiastcke paroeciana rudera quaedam functionum diaconorum & seniorum relicta vel potius imposita sunt. Alter. Dam c. 12.  and present them to the ordinary. To direct them in this duty the Bishop's articles are disspersed, and an Audit held of their account at every visitation. The officials pleasure regulates not their information, which is to be as impartial as an oath can make it. His conscience commonly is not to large, though his learning and wisdom be of greater extension than the Elders. What power he exerciseth is by law and custom. In correctionis negotijs alia quidem sacient omnia (excommunication is more niselie and conscientiouslie excepted) quae de jure possunt & solent fieri. Constit. 1571 To the Presbyterian tenderness of meddling with domestic infirmities some what is said already which the Answerer by letter thus avoucheth. It is certain that a foolish man revealing foolishlic his faults to his wise, the zealous wife upon some quarrelling betwixt her and her husband, hath gone to a good Minister, revealed what was told her, and the honest impertial Minister hath convented the man, charged him with his sin, and made him confess satisfy, and do penance publicly. Here the flagrant scandal was only the fire or fury that broke out of a weak woman's breast 
Synodales' aestes, quos sidem eavocant, qui in inquestionibus morum & visitationibus adjungumur Oeconomis Oeconomi five Gardianis Ecclesiastikae quorum minus est pro eo anno … inordinateviventes inquirere, monere scandalosoes, ordinario praesentare etc. Ibid. Ex. Aagl. Pol. Isai 53 7.  into a pragmatical Presbyters ears, whose head is no sanctuary for spiritual secrecies, but his curiosity the mine that under works the foundation of private families, and palaces too (where of that of Mary Queen of Scots may be a formidable, and lamentable example) and when jealousies fail of material truth in the discovery, to blow them up with malicious calumnies what they can. For suits and differences incident between Pastor and flock, Lay Elder and his neighbour, the passion upon which perverts, & blinds the eyes of the wisest men that are your Congregational or Classical judges you pass quietly by it, as having nothing to say for it.  
These are the great injuries and hurts which make the Scotish Discipline, Scandalous to all the Reformed world being proved destructive to the just prerogative of Kings, the power of Parliaments, the liberty of subjects: enslaving all orders of men, where it takes place, to the arbitrary jurisdiction of a corrupt Synod, and that commonly moderated by the usurped Papacy of a Knox a Buchanan, a Melvin, an Henderson, such meek lambs as no misbelieving jew can misdoubt, them to be fore runners of his Messias who hath prae-inspired this good principle into their heads. To bring their Kings rather than go themselves to the slaughter. And wheresoe'er they get power, to tear out the throat of the thearers, and make them dumb, never more able to open their mouths against the known Deity of their Presbytery.   

CHAPTER XIII.  
The Bishop's exceptions against the Covenant made good, and this proved That no man is obliged to keep it who hath taken it.  
IF I had not found the Reviewer a pretty round and plump Gentleman in black, I might have misse-thought the habit of his 
Reason's why the Reviewer is so much indined to the metaphor op a vomit Tous ischnous kai evemeas ano pharmacevein… tous de dysemeas kai mcsoos eusarcous ca 10. 4. Aph. 6. & 7. G. moching Compend. Insti●… Med disc. 5.  body and conformation of his parts, facilitating with some pleasure the operation of his physic, to have enamoured him with the otherwise undecent, metaphor of a vomit; But Hypocrates praescribing to his constitution (as I take it) the other method for dejection of his humours, I recollect with myself a triple cause that might at this time create his distemper, & in his penning force out this flood of gall upon his paper 1. His late fruitless voyage by sea might still stick in his stomach, having before been for many years accustomed to none but land waves of his raising, the raging tumults and madness of the people. 2. A violentagitation of his body, the six Scotish Iehu's in zeal to the cause coaching it much too furiously about the Country. 3. The abominable sight of his Majesty's hand to divers papers, denying the very subject of this chapter, the taking, injoining, or tolerating of the Covenant. So a Doctor in the faculty nearest hand instructs me… vomituns vulgò concitare traduntur… violenta & vehemens corporis agitatio, insueta per mare navigatio… imaginatio & intuitus rerum abominabilium. Beside the pleasing sent of an Irish design then in hand might offend him, which is a fourth cause he adds and I end with, Odour rerum saetidarum etc.  
As to the substance of the chapter, wherein his Lordship hath taken the Palladium of Presbytery, (without which the success of his other attempts had been nothing) the Reviewers stratagems (for strength of reason he brings none) are unlikely to rescue it, The Bishop 
Vn lawful Covenants not to be keept-Ouc epiorkein phobo●… menous tent para ●…on theoontimovian, kai ten paratois anthropots aischynta.  is very sensible how deep the conscience of an oath sticks in men whose hearts are not hardened against religious impressions. And how perjury is abhorred among heathen, who have conscientious fear of punishment from their God, and a politic one too of shame before men. To undeceive therefore such as fondly fancy because their hands were lift up, that their covenants with heaven: And because their eyelids are open, that they walk not in darkness and the shadow of death. He brings them first the relief of several propositions, which when drawn out, will appear to be these. All oaths, vowcs & ●…ovenants are not binding, it being customary among men to make the same bonds serve for iniquity as justice & tie up secret conspiracies with the public liguments of community & peace. 2. Those that are not obligatoric may be broken, viz where a greater judgement solveth the fallacy of a less or a better conscience seeks to reduce & rectify a worse. With what other false knots men are foolishly 
Eager one omeitai, e hotan omnysin evorkesei.  entangled he demonstrates by the slight where in the Covenant hath catched them. Their deliverance is this, if they will accept it from the hands of unquaestionable truth, That Covenant which is devised by strangers to the dishonour of a Nation, imposed by subjects wanting requisue power, and that as well upon their Sovereign at aequals extorted by just scare of unjust sufferings, is not binding. But this is that Covenant. Ergo. The majour thus put in form the Reviewer will hardly grant, and yet dares 
Per hoc juramentum spirationes & conjurationes & pleraque in iqua & aequa consirmari solent Cardan. Terein autou ten chreian on tois anagcaiois hama kai timioir. Hiorocl in Carm. Pythag. Prov. 30. 19 Covenants ordinarily n●…inted in Scotland not in England.  not deny, but sets his foot upon I know not what weakness and falsity of the Minour, the Commissioners of the Parliament of England, as he calls them) being among the number of the first and only framers thereof. He must be wiser than Solomon that can know the way of a Serpent upon a rock. Yet the Presbyterian Scotish subtility is not such, but that we may see whence, if not by what gires and uncertain sinuations, it came about, and he that meets it at Westminster may welcome it from Edinburgh, if he likes it. Leagues and Covenants are no usual abasement of English allegiance, such copper coin hath been no where so currant as since Knox was Mintmaster in Scotland, whose original inscription With the image of his rebellion is propagated in this counterfeit, as he that delights in such medals may see if he compares them. This for the thing. For the persons I deny them to be Commissioners on either side, no King, nor Clergy legally assembled deputing them to that purpose nor indeed any of the Laity but Rebels. They that gave life to it, Lords, Commons, or what you will, or wheresoe'er assemblad, were in the very act Traitors against the King and so no part of a Parliament in the Kingdom Whither they are called by His Majesty's writ to consult about the defence not to covenant the destruction of the Kingdom and Church. The lawfulness of whose constitution and authority was no farther ●…cknowledged than it was lawfully used, and in that act absolutely disclaimed, the King sending for them only to discourse and treat with himself, not to dispose and ordain, or enact any thing without him. Therefore these men, thus acting upon the praecedent advice and praescription of strangers, foisted a Covenant devised by strangers, how soever factiouslie denizened in that Court. But how strange 
Nor can such afterco●…tracts devised & imposed by a fewmeni●… a declared party without my consent and without any like power or praecedent from Gods or man's laws etc. Eix. Ba●…. Ch. 14. proque bus arduis & urgen●… nego●… slatum & defensionem Regni ●…stri Angl. & Eccles.  the advice was will appear better by true story then probable divination, which being sent me in a letter from one well acquainted with these affairs of his own country. I will faithfully communicate as it came unto my hands.  
When the Commissioners came down from the Parliament with their letter subscrived be some Ministers showing that their blood was shed like water upon the ground for defence of the protestant relligione and the letter being red in the Assembly had no uther answer bot this. Gentlemen we are sorry for your case, bot there is one thing in your letter, Ye say ye sight for defence of the reformed relligione, ye must not think us blind that we see not your fight to be for civil disputes of the law, wherewhith we are not acquame. Go home and reconcile with the King, he is a gracious Prince, be will receive you in his favour; You can not say it is for the reform relligione, since ye have not begun to reform your Church, ye had thryven better, if ye had done as we did, begun at the Church, and thereafter striven to have gotten the civil sanction to what ye had done in the Church, we can not meddle bet wixt his Majesty and you.] Few days after, Sir W. Ermine, 
Anglie concernentibus … Cum Praelatis Maguatib. etc. colloquium habere & tractatum. The extract of a letter-shewing by whom the Covenant was devised.  Master Hamden with the rest were invited by some of their friends to make a new address to the Assembly, their friends in the Assembly (after a second desire of a more gracious answer) propounded this. [Will ye join in covenant with us to reform doctrine and discipline conform to this of Scotland and ye shall have a better answer,] Sir W. Ermine & the rest answered (that they had not that in their instructions, bot thanked the Assembly & said they would represent it to the Parliament of England) the friends in the Assembly told them [there would be much time loosed ere they could go to the Parliament for their resolutione and thereafter to return to Scotland and draw up a solemn league and covenant the danger was great and they were not able with all their forces to stand two months before the King's army bot we shall draw it up here and send up with you some noblemen gentlemen & Ministers that shall see it subscribed,] which was done.  
To proceed your Rebel - Parliaments desires, beside what may be 
The Rebel's desires were impositions.  gathered from your papers, were not, as I have heard, very humbly presented by the persons many times that brought them, And when your smoothest language is glossed upon (as best it may be by your rude military Interpreters at more distance your negative will not hinder them of being impositions rather than supplications. Religion and liberties in all the three Kingdoms were very sufficiently secured by the laws. Scotish Presbytery is no religion but rebellion in the principles, and the libertic taken by it is licence befitting no subjects, and therefore not to be desired of a King. For which if such a covenant or oath is but one malne piece of security (as you confess) I leave to be judged if any judgement can comprehend the other main pieces of vassalage, for your safety, you yet farther expected from the crown. An authority to crave many leaves a liberty to refuse, and be of no sufficience 
Nullum privilegium Parlamenti concedi potest propr●…ditione felonia aut ruptura pacis. 17. Ed. 4. Rot. Par●…um. 39  to impose upon the subject so long as during the contenuance of the Parliament. Nor can you show that uncontroverted law which gives validity to an ordinance controverted by the King, who assumes no power of politic impossible concessions, such as treason, felony & breach of peace are by name with us, & covenanting is such when against the King's consent.  
The last part of the demonstration is too true, and so far dishonourable as it blazons the cowardice of men well principled in their religion to God and loyalty to their King, who for the benefit of a little fresh air out of prison, and a titular interest in an estate, the revenues whereof must be excised, contributed, fifth parted, twentieth parted and particulated into nothing at the pleasure of the blew-aproned 
The Covenant dishonourable to the English.  men in the City, and Committee plowmen in the Country, would desperately cast their souls into the guilt and curse of a covenant which they utterly detested, and their persons into the slavery of proud, sinful unreasonable men, whom before it may be they fed with their charity and commanded. The nullity of this oath upon 
The nullity of it.  the difference of heart and mouth, is demonstrable, The very taking it being so far from obliging to be kept, as it subjects them to the judgement of God, because not done in truth nor in righteousness. Isai 48. Nec vero ultra quam conse●…sum est juramentum operatur secundum ipsum, quae tunc actul deficit in substantia, desiciente consensu, quem defectum juramentum minime supplet Say the lawyers. And he that swears to commit sacrilege 
joan. Gutierrez De juram: ●…onfirm. part. 2. cap. 2. ex Alciat. The Reviewers. Abominable falsehood.  and murder is as much bound by his oath, which I would fain hear Master Bailiff dictate from his chair against them when they tell him, juramentum non est vinculum iniquitatis. The especial aggravation which he draws from the Bishop's ground is as especial a lie, and as evident a falsehood, as ever came out of the mouth of man, & an irrecoverable shame to the whole Presbytery. That a Minister, Professor, their great champion & commissioner should utter it, when not only the penalty of two pence hath been threatened, but of sequestration and imprisonment hath been executed upon thousands, and beside these, (because some particular must be instanced) upon near 100 fellows of Colleges in one week banishment out of the University of Cambridge, this I can best justify being one of the number. Which was a leading case to Oxford, when in their power, and the 
judic. Oxon De sol. lig. seci. 2.  fear of unjust suffering they threatened, her first argument against their covenant. Therefore let us leave the dishonour we were speaking of where we found it, upon the head of our Nation in part, who degenerated so far as to take a covenant from the hand of strange rebels no otherwise their brethren then in the in quitie of maintaining hypocrisy and licence, both which they see with their selves now in thraldom to Atheism and a mercenary sword, And bear about them the mark of God's vengeance in the sight of us who survive to magnify him in his justice, saying, justus Dominus in omnibus vijs suis & 
Ps. 145. 1. 7.  sanctus in omnibus operibus suis.  
The Bishop's second demonstration need be no better than the first whereby 
Covenanters take the Discipline for Christ's institution.  you are convicted, as bad as it is, you dare not venture upon half of it, but like a cunning old rat that hath before been catched by the ta●…le in a trap, will be nibbling at the bait, but not enter too far with his teeth for fear his head go for't next. This makes you so tender of dealing with the majour, which if not well cautioned why doc not you deny it or attacke it on that side which you guess weakly guarded? You pervert the minour, though little to your advantage. The Bishop saith not that in the Covenant you swear the lately devised discipline to be Christ's institution, but that you gull men with it, as if it were so imposing upon them the strictest oath to engage their estates and lives in the preservation and propagation of it, which is as much as can be required for Christ's institution or evangel, a title as strange as you make it, often given your Discipline which already I have touched at. Yet because here you so confidently put us upon the words of the Covenant, somewhat not much unlike what the Bishop imputes I find in the praeface… having before our eyes the glory of God, and the advancement of the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour jesus Christ… whereby I charge your meaning to be the Presbyterial Government of your Kirke, if not, I require you plainly to deny it, and to send me this proposition subscribed by your hand. The plat form of Discipline to which we swear in the Covenant, is not Christ's institution. Especially since your General Assembly 1642. hath said. That the Reformed Kirkes' do●… hold without doubting their Kirke officers and Kirke Government by Assembles higher and lower &c to be jure divino and perpetual. Your brother-Presbyters 
Ans. to the Declar. by the Parl. angl. Aug. 25. Let. to the Gen. Assemb. S. jul. 22. it. 4. Vindic. Ep. Philadelph. Protest of the Noblemen, Barons etc. 1638.  in England. That Presbyterian Government hath just and evident foundation both in the word of God & religious reason. And the preface to the English Directory telling you, That their care hath been to hold forth such things as are of divine institution in every ordinance. Were it not to tyre out my Reader, I could show this to be your language ever since your Discipline was framed, & thought so necessary a truth that your denial must make Christ not so wise as Solon or Lycurgus, if he left it as a thing mutable by men, or now after so many ages of his Church to be put to the vote in their Parliaments and Synods. So saith a friend of yours in these words. Equidem non novi, neque credam Christum, qui Dei sapientia suit, remp. suam que omnium est perfectissima, arbitrio stultorum hominura religuisse agitandam… quod ne Solon quidem aut Lycurgus aljusve quis pium Legislator pateretur. For that and the rest of your religion your Confession of faith saith. That you are throughly resolved by the ●…ord & spirit of God, that only is the true Christian saith & Religion pleasing God & c… Gods aeternal truth & ground of your salvation… God's undoubted truth and 
According to the word of God, a more dubious & frivolous limitationing the Covenant then heretofore in the oath for Episc●…pacie.  verity grounded only upon his written word. Nay afterwards you protest and promise with your hearts under the same oath &c that you will defend the King's person and authority in the deferse of Christ's evangel and liberties of your Country, which is (or if it be no speak) the same with Religion and liberties in your league. Besides all which otherwhere you blasphemously compare both your confessions with the old Testament and the New. That which follows wherein you moderate the first article of your Covenant, imposing an endeavour to reform only according to the word of God, with out introducing Scotes Presbytery or any other of the best reform, unless it be found according to that pattern, though it served to palliate all blemi●…hes and deformities that were in it; To invite possibly, some well meaning people into your fraternity, who like harmless bees relishing that sweetness, little thought what poison they left behind for other venomous insectiles to suck out; To furnish others withan excuse (a petiful one) for using so bad means to so good an end and when it undeniably proves the contrary (the same it may be they intended) cry they were mistaken though now they can not help it; Yet it may be sh●…wed to be a dubious 
1548. Ministri Regia authoritate compulsi aut subscribere Epali tyrannidi, aut in carceres aut ex●…lia abire. Multarum ministrorum tuncse prodidit imbecillitas instauratae Ecclae tyrannidi homonymus subscribentiam adjecta limitatione anbigua vel potius futi●…i nempe secundum verbum Dei etc. Ep. Phil. Vind. ●…o. Gutiervez De Iu●…am. Con●…mpar.. 1. ●…p. 71. Su●…. 5.  & frivolous limitation, the same commendation your friends gave it when translated into an oath tendered in behalf of Episcopacy by the King, First infirming that member, and so far disinabling it from bearing part in the mater of an oath, as subjection is required unto the reforming power in a Church. secondly, Quitting all that swore it of their engagement every moment, if they see clearly, or judge erroneously, your reforming Principals to digress from that path. thirdly, either supposing your reformed religion in Scotland to be already conformed to that pattern, or else enjoining to swear contradictions. Lastlie, If leaving every man to judge what is according to the word, and to endeavour according to that judgement, imposing an oath productive of confusion there being as many minds as men, scarce two united in one touching Doctrine, Worship, Discipline and government. The first might be illustrated & argued from the fallibility and uncertainty in the Reforming power, a maimed Parliament & an illegitimate Assembly then si●…ng, whom I could not be assured to have the spirit of God so illuminating their minds, as whereby jointly to judge the same reformation according to God's word. secondly as uncertain should I be, setting aside all partiality and passion, that they would declare what they so judged, against many of whom, if not the most having a well grounded praejudice, whether just or no matters not if not known to me) I could not swear de futuro a conformity to their acts. In which cases wisemen advise us to abstain …Ten apochen tou omnynai prostattei peri toon endcchomenoon, kai aoriston tes ecbaseoos echontoon to peras. Hierocl. in Carm. Pythag. and jurant presumitur certioratus & deliberatus accedere ad actum super quo jurat, saith the Lawyer. The second is strengthened s●…fficientlie by your words which oblige the Covenanter no farther than he finds your great work proceeding according to God's word. The success whereof if no better than in your Discipline and the Directory, will keep no man in his Covenant, God's word praescribing many parts of neither. The Third is evident from the very clauses in the article, where first an oath must be taken to praeserve the reformed religion in Scotland, which if not according to God's word, is contradicted in the next that enjoines reformation only according to the word. And if it be then that is it wherewith a uniformity must be made, and yet you tell us there is no such word, nor any such mater in the Covenant, About the last let every man speak his mind as freely as I shall mine. That I 
See Suru. of the praet. holy Disc.  hold no Presbyterian government, Scotish or other, according to God's word That I have read of much dissension among yourselves in former times, and heard of some in later. That all Papists; all orthodox persons in the Church of England are jointly for Episcopacy in the order, as according to God's word and separatelie for it in the jurisdiction and discipline, neither holding all parts of it exemplified in the word, & so not applicable unto it, & both not the same extensive particulars in the ordinance and exercise of the Church. Besides such as you call Socinians, Sectaries, & separatists, whether 
Vid. Discus. Eccles. Disc. Rupel. edit. 1584.  individual or congregational. All which having distinct opinions of Doctrine, Worship, Discipline and Government according to the word, if not concentred in the sense of the House or Assembly but left to their several endeavours, are sworn among them to delineate a pretty implicated diagramme of a Church. But for a farther answer to this article of your covenant. I remit you to the solid judgement of the University of Oxford. As likewise to that of several learned men in the University of Cambridge, who joined in one mind, & publîshed their refutation of the whole treacherous league A. 1644. Only I must add what persons of knowledge & integrity say they will make good. That your Covenant came into England with some such cl●…use as this. We shall reform our Church in doctrine and Discipline conform to the Church of Scotland. Whereof Master Nye & his Independent friends fairhe cheated you, making that be razed out and this inserted which we treat of. By which trick they have packed Presbytery away, and yet plead with you in public, That they still keep the Covenant and go on to reform according to God's word.  
The second ground of the Bishop's demonstration is no evident error, it being 
The Covenant how the same with that of K. 1. 1580.  an evident truth, That the principal Covenanters, Noblemen, Gentlemen and Ministers in Scotland protested to Marq. Hamilton His Majesty's Commissioner 1638. when it was objected that their Covenant with their new explication was different from the sense of that 1580. because it portended the abolition of Episcopacy. That it was not their meaning quite to abolish it, but to limit it, holding out in the most material point an identity between them. That they assured many who made 
K. Changed 〈◊〉, Larg: decl●…. 1639: pag: 177:  the scruple, and would not have come into their covenant, unless they had so resolved them. That they might swearc the same confession, and yet not abjure Episcopal government, which the three Ministers in their first answer to the Divines of Aberdene positivelie affirmea. That thus they abused many, with an appearance of identity in the mater and similitude in the end. And themselves frequently confessed that this Covenant was nothing but that general one applied to the particular occasions at that time. It is as certain that the Covenant of the Rebels in all the three Kingdoms 1643. was held out at least to them in Scotland that took it, to be the same with that they took before, otherwise then as it must be again applied to a conjunction with their brethren of the other two Kingdoms. Nor was there any other new emergent cause, nor was that one for any new Covenant (and you are not to multiply solemn oaths and 
Protest. ag. King's Proclam. 1638  Covenants, you said, without necessitic) Nor is there in this the sense of any one clause that is not in the other as it concerned your own Nation. And the enemies with their practices, against whom and which you framed it, you profess to be the same, though now increased, in your preface. All which have elements enough, beside an airy sancie, to make up your gross error or affected falsehood in denying so demonstrable a truth. Yet that notwithstanding this imposture 
How it differs from it.  there is a real difference in the triplie respect which the Bishop speaks of was never hitherto denied (as I know) by any Episcopal writer which are many that occasionally have mentioned it. So that his Lordship cuts not his own vine but your fingers that will be meddling with his work, for which he may expect and will have due thanks from his friends that rightly understand him. For how soever indeed that short confession was at first not only drawn up by the King's command, nor freely subscribed with his hand, but obtruded violently upon him being devised by a party of seditious male-contented Noblemen and Courtiers (made such by the Clergy that were worse) against Esme Earl of Lenox, who they hoped by this test would be discovered to be a Papist, Yet the King made a very good virtue of necessity, and since he must impose it fi●…st upon his familieand afterward upon his subjects, being supreme could and did it in his own sense, though it may be, oppositie to theirs that made it, the ambiguity of the words tolerating both. To which, in that sense, he prefixed his Royal authority, whereas your later Covenant in yours was absolutely against his sons. That in his sense was for the laws of the Realm, the preservation of Episcopacy, This against them for its utter extirpation. That to maintain the religion established, which he did to the uttermost of his power. This to its destruction which it is in effecting, though it spoils in the casting that golden calf you intended to set up. So that the words themselves which do not more flatly contradict the Bishop, than they are contradict by your works, are not so express for the King's authority, the law of the realm and religion established, and wherein they are, such an abstruse meaning have they, as he that takes your league is ovos agoon mysteria. the dull creature that ignorantly caries all the mysteries of your iniquity on his back.  
In the next paragraph is nothing but a branch or two of your former 
Epiphyllides taut csti kai stomylmata chelidonoon momseia.  wild discourse, & therein a nest of small birds chattering what we often hear to no purpose, or never to less than here having no significancy at all in answer to the Bishop's Memento, which recognizeth Q. Elizabeth's indulgence, to whom your praedecessours scraped and whined for military assistance & (to say no worse) undeservedlie had it without imposing the Discipline os England. Whereas you to use the words of K. Ch. 1.) are not to be hired at the ordinary rate of auxiliari●…s 
E●…x. Bu●…. Ch. 14.  [much lesfe borrowed or bestowed] nothing will induce you to engage till ●…hose that call you in have pawned their souls to you. The Discipline & Liturgic (which you quarrel with some times because different from the English) was obtruded upon you by no other craft and force then a plain legal injunction, Deliberated on from the time of K. James' investiture 
K. Ch. 1. Larg. dec●…. p. 15. etc. The English Discipline long since settled by law in Scotland, and the Liturgy there used  in the crown of England, approved in a general Assembly at Aberdene 1616. (the Liturgy I mean, the Discipline having been received long before) read publicly in the King's chapel at Haly-rud-house ever since the year 1617. not only without dislike but with frequent assemblies of the Council, Nobility, Bishops and other Clergy, judges, Gentry, Burgesses, women of all ranks. In several other places in the time of K, Ch. 1. The alterations (which were not of such moment as to be met with opposition, were partly made generally approved by the Bishops and principal Clergy in Scotland, who in the exercise of it were enjoined to proceed with all moderation, and dispense with such for the practice of some things contained in the book, as they should find either not well persuaded of them, or willing to be informed concerning them, or did hope that time and reason might gain a better belief of them. How 
The Pr. Scotish never so in England, but obtruded. Mot. Brit.  otherwise your Discipline was obtruded upon the English, what free long and deliberate choice they used (beside the sighs and groans of many pious souls hurried into prisons or disspersed in a miserable exile) your own Scots Cushi shall bear witness. Who, out of no ill meaning to your cause, reveals the truth of your tyranny from the beginning… That upon your second coming in it was, when some of our Nobles took occasion to supplicate for a Parliament, which the King scarce durst deny for the Scotch army, nor the 
Vix audebat rex eis de postula●…o abnucre prop●…r Scotos etc. p. 28.  perpetuity of it afterward for no other reason… That when it came to arms the Scotes could not sit still in conscience & honesty whereupon they sent a Commissioner from their Synod to the English Parliament 1642. to move them to cast out Bishops, Then others to the King at Oxford to sign all propositions, which because he would not do, they resolve to assist their brethren against him, whom they call the common enemy. The formality of an invitation was used to this purpose, but their inclination and resolution had passed before. And indeed your Assembly 1642. confessed an obligation 
Vocatio●…em lubenti animo amplectuntur ut pote adidem prius proclives. pag. 4.  lay upon them to encourage and assist so pious a work, but not as you do here only out of brotherly concernment, but for security of yourselves, because without it you could not hope for any long time to enjoy your own purity & peace, which had cost you so dear.  
The Bishops following grounds, which he makes good to be the monstrative, do not therefore betray the weakness of because they 
Answ. to the let. sent by the Ministers of Engl; Aug. 5. Ps. 62. 9  add strength to the preceding. What wind is in them you follow too fast after, and feed as greedily upon as Ephraim on the East, which turns to the same bad nourishment in you both, increasing lies and somewhat else which you may read Hose 12. 1. And were the softest hand insensible of their substance, they would praeponderate your answers which are as deceitful upon the weights as he that made them, and allsogether lighter than vanity itself. For not a proposition is there in prosyllogisme or syllogism that is seems you can deny, though you scarce any where show ingenuity to grant. For the second, which you think so hard to prove let it be adventured thus. He that by covenant disposeth 
The power of the Militia is the Kings.  of himself and arms contrary to the established laws, which by the King's right in him he is obliged to maintain, disposeth of them against that rights. But every Covenanter disposeth etc. For the established laws enjoin him to defend the King's person without limitation or reference to religion, at least not to fight against it, which the Covenant by your practic interpretation doth oblige to. Where the power of the Militia resides His Ma●…esties unanswerable Declaration for the Commission of array will best satisfy you. And himself tells you truly it is no less his undoubted 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Ch. 10.  right than is the crown. In the exercise of it though the Parliament be not excluded, yet their power is never legally considerable but when they are, as the body with the soul, in stain conjunct●… with the King. Defense of liberties hath no law to arm them against prerogative, nor is there a cause imaginable impowering them to take up arms against a partic countenanced by the King's presence which can be according to no law but what is called such by rebellious people that offer violence to Royal right. If any such there be, let us have but one impraegnable instance and we'll shake hands. I believe you are not much in love with that old custom of the Frisians, long before they became Presbyters, who chose their Earl carrying him upon their bucklers, and crying aloud, Haecest potestas Frisiae. You can now adays 
H. Grot. lib. DeAnciq. Reip. ●…atav.  better indoctrinate them according to the custom of yourfaction, when praevalent, which is to admit no new King but at the swords point and there to keep him, crying after this manner, or somewhat like it, in your proclamational libels, Haec est libertas Presbyteriales Scotiae. Yet your Commissioners when in the mood can present 
Answ: to both Houses 1647.  the hilt to his hand, and argue with both houses, as they did upon the new propositions, why the power of the militia should be in the crown ask. How King●… otherwise can be able to resist their enemies and the enemies of the Kingdom, protect their subjects, keep friendship or correspondence with their allies … asserting that the depriving them of this power roots up the strongest foundations of honour and sasctie which the crown affords, & will be interpreted in the eyes of the world to be a wresting of the sceptre and sword out of their hands. So that the Bishop's friends may take from yours aswell as from him the same demonstrable conclusion he laid down, And this for all the King's acknowledgement, which was never any of the Parliaments joint interest in his authority against his person, which is the true case though you shamefully conceal it. Nor did His Majesty so put the whole Militia in their hands as to part with his right when he bound his own from the exercise, Nor was he sure he was not or might not seem to be perjured for his courtesy (which all Kings will not hazard) though he laid the guilt or dishonour at their doors, whither God hath brought already a portion of their just punishment that constrained him, saying. I conceive those men are guiltic of the enforced 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Ch. 10.  persurie (if so it may seem) who compel me to take this new and strange way of discharging my trust by seeming to desert it, of protecting my subjects by exposing myself to danger or dishonour for their safety and quiet. Therefore what thoughts he had of your parties meddling with the Militia may be best judged by his words. How great invasion in that kind will state rebellion in a Parliament, when there's any (as there was none, at that time nor since) shall be told you when the Bishop gives you occasion to demand it. Or if you can not stay so long, I must send you again to the judicious Digges to satiate your too curious and greedy appetite of such fare as will not well be digested in many stomaches. To the nulling yourCovenant by His Majesty's proclamation you say nothing because it separates him from the party to which you attribute all malignance, and you know you can not securely meddle with him but in a crowd.  
In the Bishop's second demonstration we must be beholding to you for giving what you can not keep with any credit which more awes you then conscience. That where the mater is evidentlic unlawful the oath is not binding. The application of which up to your covenant will be justified when brought to the touch by God's law or the kingdom's. But you first summon it before reason, which helps you with no rule. To lay aside what might be otherwise rectified, were there cause for't. Nor any evidence that the burden of Bishops and ceremonies was so heavy as to press you into the necessity of a Covenant. This his 
Bishops and ceremonies no burden.  Lordship need not offer to dispute, since the King ever offered a regulation of that order and those rites by the primitive pattern wherein it otherwise differed then in a necessary, innocent compliance with the politic constitution of his Kingdom. And the Church had rendered 
See Treat. of Cerem. before Com. prayer book hooker's E●…l. Polit. Dr. tail of Episc.  all rational satisfaction aswell for the ceremonies retained as those abolished. And both by particular men most eminent in learning and judgement had been unanswerablie maintained in every grain or scruple that could be quaestioned or complained of. Yet the present government, how light soever, is burdensome especially to men that look for advantages by the change, And the worst of men can seem as serious in complaint as if their virtues had been the only martyrs to cruelty, and the very common hackneys for oppression. 
Bishop Andr. let. to M●…lin. etc.  Quid reliqui habemus praeter miseram animam came out which a sad sigh from Catiline before his bankrupt Comrades, who had left no such subject for rebellion to thetoricate on, if their lives had been as good pawns in the midst of their prodigality as their lands. This your 

To parona●…i bari tois h●…pecoois. Th●…c. Salusi. Bell Catil.  
Parliament can not reform without the King.   method of reformation, whereof the Bishop complains for which you plead custom, fails not only in the manner but of the power, the most material requisite to effect it. And the high path way is not so ordinary as you can name the Parliament that ever trod in it before, We in England having no such custom, nor indeed any where the true Churches of God as to alter religion and government without the King. To your quaestion which ever shelters fraud in universals, I particularly answer and to our purpose 1. That the Houses of Parliament are not to begin with an ordinance for a covenant or oath,. to change the laws of the Realm to abolish the Discipline of the Church and the Liturgy lawfully established, by the sword (which are the Bishop's words) before the King's consent be sought to that beginning, much less when his dissent is foreknow'n of that and all proceedings in that kind 2. An ordinance of the Lords and Commons (without and against the King) is no good narrant to change such laws during the fitting os the Parliament. 3. No law nor lawful custom of England debars the King by dissenting to stop that change. Until which three assertions be refuted in law, it will be needless to debate the qualifications and exceptions, which can be none of moment in this case against the King's consent requisite to turn an ordinance into a law. But you take His Majesty's concessions to have prevented all can be said in the present case. Behold you that kindled the sire in his breast here compass yourselves 
Isai. 50 11 The concess●…ons of Ch. 〈◊〉. not so ●…arge 〈◊〉 pretended.  with the sparks of his consent which charity would have suffered to exspire with the breath that brought them forth, or buried in his ashes which they made▪ Yet can not you walk by the light of this fire unto the full accomplishment of your ends, His successor being not yet conveyed into any such place as Holmebye or Carisbrooke Castle 
K. Ch. 2. not obliged to confirm●… them.  where you would ●…ave him, some such fatal hereditary confinement being the fairest apology (if any) when he should subscribe so many of your unc●…nscionable desires, and write after his Father in the extremity of misfortune, who as little intended what himself accounted his failings for his copy, as he desired his undeserved miseries should be a patrimony transmitted to him by your hands. As to the obtaining of what is lacking, your way is not so fair, in which visibly lies the same Scripture, Antiquity, law, reason, conscience and honour, which heretofore hindered your journey to the end of your hopes, the obtaining His Majesty's plenary consent. Who did not agree to, if you mean approve of the rooting out Episcopacy in Scotland. That he gave so much way to such wild boars as were in your Presbytery to do it, he afterward repent, and you rewarded him not so well, as that his Royal son should be encouraged to purchase sorrow at so dear a rate. 2. He was not willing although he yielded to have them put out 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Ch. 17.  of the House of P●…ercs in England and Ireland, out of a generous scorn of your uncharitable susspition that he would have them there only because he was to make use of their votes in State affairs. 3 He divested them of civil power, hoping to persuade such as your Lay Presbyters, by the objections ma●…e against them, out of the Ecclesiastical which they more irrationallie usurped. 4. He joined Presbyters with them for ordination, 
Ibid.  because he found it before seldom administered without them. But he never made them coordinate in, nor aequiparticipant of that power. He joined them sor spiritual jurisdiction; as being a fit means to avoyd… partialities incident to one man. And tyranny which becomes no Christians, left of all Churchmen. And thirdly to take away from them the burden and Odium of afsaires, which was a courteous diminution in such times. How sacrilegiously you roh the Temple of Memory of the pillar he set up in the period of your Treaty, and erect in the place an impious calumny of his abolish●…ng Episcopacy totally, name and thing will be seen by part of his inscription or ultimate answer to the Rebel Commissioners paper about the Church. The words are these… His Majesty 
Nou. 18. 1648. at Newport. K. Ch. 1. Immov●…able from Primitive Episcopa●….  doth again clearly professle, That he can not with a good conscience consent to the total abolition of the function, and power of Bishops, nor to the entire and abf●…lute alienation of their lands, as is desired, because he is yet persuaded in his judgement that the former is os Apostolical institution, and that to take away the later is sacriledge… And if his two Houses shall not think fit to recede from the strictness of their aemanas in these particular●…, His Majesty can with more comfort cast himself upon his Saviour's goodness to support him and descend him from all afflictions, how great soever, that may besal him, then sor any politic consideration, which may seems to be a means to restore him, deprive himself of the inward tranquillity of a quiet mind. And some of his last words were. I am firm to primitive Episcopacy, not to have it extirpated, (if I can hinder it) He said indeed 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Ch. 17. Answ. Nou. 18. 1648 Newport. Nou. 20.  that by his former answer he had totally suspended Episcopal government for three years, & after the said time limited the same in the power of ordination and jurisdiction. Which the Commissioners he dealt with so little thought Tantamont to a perpetual abolition, that they said it met not with their fears, nor could prevent the inconveniences which must necessarily follow upon the return of Bishops, and the power which he reserved to them after that time. For that a Bishop so qualified as qualificd as ●…is Majesty expressed should rise again then they declared wholly in his choice unavoy dabble by Parliament, if they agreed not. But behold a pretty piece of aequivocation (called Anti-christian jesuitism by these Rabbi Presbyters of old) to draw their dull Commissioners out of the mire and as good as ink for ivory to wash them clean. His Majesty suspended it till he and 
una opera ebur atramento candefacere postules. Pl. Mostel. The Reviewers sophistry.  his Parliament should agree. All and every one in both Houses had abjured Episcopacy by solemn oath and Covenant and so in no hazard ever to agree with him. Ergo He must either agree with them, that is like wise abjure, which is abolition, or coutinue perpetuallte his suspension which is Tantamont unto it. This is very well ordered, especially if you call to mind somewhat else that was conditioned for viz. That twenty Divines of His Majesties, nomination being added unto the Assembly were to have a free consultation & debate, whence it might be determined by His Majesty and his two Houses how Church government &c should be settled after the said time or sooner if differences might be agreed. A very free debate when all demonstrative reasons should be forespoken to be silenced by an oath. And a very conscionable treaty, That a faction in both Houses should be (without the restitution of the rest that were better tempered) the men that should continue sitting not only 3. years but 300. if they could live so long, because sworn not to yield a syllable of their own terms. Yet because you think yourself so witie in your sophistry letme ask you. What assurance these all and every one in both Houses had to be immortal, If they were not, what you have that the new elected would be Covenanters and if they were not, by what law they could have been excluded the Houses whither they should be sent as Repraesentatives of their Electours. If admitted and so reasonable as to hearken to a possible result of the Divines debate in condemnation of Presbytery, and vote according to it, what then were likely to become of your perpetual abolition, or the Tantamont unto it. Such measure may you have if ever it come to treaty between you and your sectarian brethren now sitting in one House, who having a●… much abjured Presbytery that praetends for Royalty by the engagement that hath renounced it, as you Episcopacy by the Covenant, may they condition for their own confused Jndependencie three years and as much longer as till you and they agree, & may they tell you that can never be because they are engaged and in no hazard to reerect the rotten stools of English Scotizing repentance, & the corrupt classes of your Presbyters, which the same sword hath ten times more justly cut down then it set them up. But I see your full and formal consent finds no such good footing in your fallacy, and therefore falls at length to a possibility of defect, which you praesume with much facility to have supplied His Majesty that now is hath much to thank you 
K. Ch. 2▪ much beholding to the Reviewer.  for, that at the first you will make him as glorious a King as you made not his Royal father but after so many years' experience of his reign. That being at liberty not only in his person from your prisons, but in his reputation from the clogs of those calumnies you cast upon the guiltness innocence of his Praedecessour you will advance him beyond all those sufferances that were Solemn preparations to his murder, and in primo imperij momento, as in ultimo you did before, hold him by the hair, only not as yet permit the Independent hand to cut his throat, until forsooth he hath taken breath to supply that wherein his too scrupulous too pusillanimous father fainted, And then crown him with ribbons and flowers for the fater sacrifice of the two by the giving up his honour and salvation beyond a life, the only lean oblation of Charles the first.  
But may His Majesty say you, easily supply what his father travailed for, 
He can no●… so easily, will not so readily grant what his Father denied.  without satisfaction to the uttermost limits of reason and conscience, beyond the farthest excusable adventures of any Praedecessours in his three Kingdoms or out of them, hazarding, almost to despair, his memory with pious posterity, especially at that distance as shall not repraesent distinctly every angle of the necessity he was driven to, and his soul to no other assurance of pardon then what the integrity of his repentance (not so infallibly hereditary as his miseries) and his glorious martyrdom afterwards helped him to? Would he think you so readily but for a whisper of pernicious counsel in his ears, pass by unregarded his father's charge to persevere in the orthodox religion of England, and hearken to the Devil of Rebellion whom he knows 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Ch. 27.  well enough though turned into a Angel of Reformation? Can he so easily, after three or four week's conference at the Hague with two ignorant Presbyters, and but twice as many leaden headed Laikes, have his reason convinced, & his conscience satisfied, which is Royal Father could not in so many years' conversation with the ablest Divin●…s, & devout consultations had with the Living God himself by his prayers, and his dead, Yet lively oracles of the Holy Word in his watches? Or would he so readily, without it, give up his Father's invincible reserve to the irrcparable injury of the Church, his people, & his heir or successor in his Kingdoms? Was he required and entreated by 
Ibid. Ib ib.  Charles the first as his Father and his King (in case he should never see his face again) not to suffer his heart to receive the least check against or disaffection from, the true Religion established in the Church of England. And can he so easily, even while that precious blood hath died his garments in purple, and being the Defender's of the faith speaks the same language and calls every morning he puts them on for the same vengeance as 
Ibid.  once did the firstborn, of the faithful cast such requests and requisites behind him, quit the true Christian guard he is charged with, and desert all his constant subjects that must persevere in their religious profession according to the purity of our canon? Will he, rather than want, wear a crown which is not wortb taking up or enjoining upon such dishonourable 
Ibid. Ch. 17.  unconscionable terms? And will he so readily bear the infamous brand to all posterity of being the first Christian King in his Kingdom who consented to the oppression of God's Church and the Fathers of it, exposing their persons to penury, and their sacred functions, to vulgar contempt? Will he 
Ch. 14.  so easily because his treasure exhausted, his reven●…e deteind, be tempted to use such prosane reparations, if not acting, consenting to perjurious and sacrilegious rapines? Or will he so readily instead of huckes give holy things 
Ibid.  unto sivine, and the Church's bread, not only the crumbs of it, unto dogs? This his Royal Father durst not for fear a coal from Gods alter should set such a sire on his throne and his conscience as could hardly be quenched; Nor, in all likelihood, will this ever obsequious son (whom you call I hope in expectation of no such concessions, the most sweet and ingenious of Princes) unless such furies as you fright his conscience away, while his tongue doubleth in an uncertain consent, having from your pens & practices nothing but insuperable horror and inevitable destruction in his sight. Where in if ever you unhappily praevaile, may the same Royal tongue be seasonably touched with a coal of a better temper before the unquenchable fire of despair catch hold of his soul, or that of vengeance of his throne. May it call for the fountain of living waters to 
●…r. 19 1.  wash away the blood of his slaine subjects whose souls lie under the altar crying aloud for judgement, and quaestioning its delay. May that ountaine derive it self into the head and heart of this otherwise innocent King, and day and night flow out at his eyes in torrents of tears for himself (in no soloecisine) the Virgin Father of his people. 
Rev. 〈◊〉. 14. 17.  And may at last his robes be washed white in the blood of the Lamb, and God wipe away all tears from his eyes.  
Having paid, in duty, this conditional devotion, which I wish as frivolous and needless, as your presumption is malicious & unlikely. I proceed to vindicate the Bishop's discourse, which I can not see how in sense may be said to fright the King's conscience by asserting his right and undeniable prerogative the sinews whereof you would shrink up into nothing. The Legislative power is not here stated 
The King supreme Legislatour  or determined by his Lordship only the King called supreme Legislatour, which he is, What comment tries have been made of it, to the praejudice of the right and custom of Parliaments, shall be spoken to when you tell us which of his brethren, and what in their writings it is you mean. No right nor custom can be adjusted to them in your case, which is vowing to God, and sweeting one unto another to change the laws of the Realm etc. by the sword, without and against the King, different 
Answ. to both Houses 1647.  from the sense of your Commissioners, who would have the Legislative power, aswell as the Militia to be the Kings. For that power that can not constitute can abrogate no laws, But they will tell you in constituting the King can not be excluded, And we infer that no more he can be in repealing. If your mind serve you to engage farther in this dispute you were best answer the learned Grotius 8. chap. De Imper. Sum. Pot. to which I promise you my reply. 
The Bishop's pro●… not injurious to King's Lords nor Commons.   
In the next place, as if you were moderating a matachin dance, from setting the King and Parliament atoddes, you turn both their faces and powers aga●…nst the Praelates, whom I do not find His Lordship putting in competition with the King about the right of making laws, but aggravating the injury done them by your party in the Parliament, and appealing to their conjcience with what justice they could covenant against the rights of a third order of the Kingdom without either their satisfaction or consent. If the whole Repraesentative of the Kingdom have thus privileged the Bishops, one lame part can not deprive them of it. Their priority and superiority hath been so ancient 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Ch. 9  that no Lords no Commons would scruple at it, but such as likewise at the original supremacy of their King; And therefore you may know the bill against their privileges was five times rejected in the upper House the better Court of honour of the two, and when the sixth time it was carried by a few voices, it was when the most honourable persons were forced to be absent. Their share in the Legislative power hath been so great, that since any was allotted them your forefathers never heard of a law made in Parliament without them. The King may pass what he pleaseth, and what he doth so is a ●…an. The two Temporal States with his ba●…e name without his power, can make none, nor yet having it as they account it derived from his Regality, not his person. Ius enim serendarum legum, sive generalium, sive sp●…ciaiium, samma 
H. Grot.  poteslas communicare alteri potest, a se abdicare non potest. What one orth ' other pass to the injury of persons fundamentallie concerned, be it law, can not be justified in conscience, which is all I take to be urged by the Bishop. But what would you have said if there had been such a law in behalf of Episcopacy in England as there hath been in spain. That no King could reigne●… (which is more than a Parliament sit and vote) without the suffrage of the Bishops? Which made Ervigius upon the resignation of Bamba, that turned Monk call a Council of 
Ano. 681.  them at Toledo, to have a confirmation of his crown. And the time hath been in England when a difference fell between Edward and Ethelred about succession to K. Edgar & a devolution of it unto 
Lnd. Aur. Peras.  the arbitrement of the Bishops. The humble protestation of the twelve Bishops rudely menaced and affronted did not pronounce the laws & acts after their recess null and of none effect in derogation to the prerogative of the King either solitary or in conjunction with what persons soever he pleased to make his Legislative Council; but in saving to themselves their rights and interests of sitting and voting in the House of Peers, the violation of which they conceived to invalidate a Parliament at least without the Kings passing a rescissory Act and an Act of new constitution. Because in law and practice it is usual to any who conceive themselves praejudged (even in those things where Acts of Parliament pass against them) to protest, Which, if you remember, were the 
See True Repraesent of the Proceed of the Kingd. of Scoth. since the late Pa●…is. etc. pag. 31. 2. Book Dis●…ipl. 7. Ch.  words, and part of a long plea to another purpose (though upon the same advantage of the Bishop's right in Scotland) used by those your Countrymen that alike intended their ruin, but could not colourably offer at it without the Act anext the constitution of the Parliament. Whether the Bishops being a third order of the Kingdom, and by that craving their share in the Legislative power, be more humble than the Presbyters who take themselves to be absolute without King and two states in making all Ecclestastike laws, and against King & two states in abrogating all civil statutes & Ordinances concerning Ecclestastical matters that are sound noisome and unprofitable, and agree not with the time … And censuring, punishing all persons, King and Parliament not excepted, I file up with the other references to your aequitable comparers, let them be the Lords and Commons you here plead for.  
You may choose whether you will grant what the Bishop takes as demonstrable. That his brethren had harder measure from the thing called King and Parliament, than the Abbots and Friars from Henry 8. When 
The Reviewers bei●…fe is no confes●…n of the Bi●…hops.  he devested them of their estates, Your consecutorie Beleese hath no article made up out of any of the Bishop's words, Who though he could not keep intruder, out of his palace and possessions, means to have no such troublesome inmates in his mind. And since you have sequestered him from his gardens, keeps out of your reach a Tarasse to exspatiate in his thoughts. He commends your eyes that can see so distinctly such Platonical Ideas as never had existence, yet when you draw too near commands you to your distance with the same answer that Bacchus did Hercules in the Comedy for all his club. Meton ●…mon oikei noun, echeiss gar oikeian.  
The Bishop's last reasoning is as sound as those before, and in all is 
Aristoph. Ran.  there a connexion of those parts which any demonstrative integral 
Scotish Presbyt●…rie is that meant in the Covenant though dissembled.  can require, To your first impeachment by quaestion I answer. That article of the Covenant bears the setting up of the Scotish Presbyterian government in England which is for a uniformity in both Kingdoms, if taken with the next that extirpates prelacy viz. Church government by Bishops. For when prelacy is down, I pray what remains, according to your principles, but Presbytery to set up? As for Scotish Presbytery, you have often told us 'tis the same with that of all Reformed Churches. And if altogether be not according to the Word of God, after so many years' Synods, Conferences, and Letters, what blind Covenanters you are to swear a league of life & death upon the like or more uncertanitie of future discovery by a few unskilful persons whose petty fantastic lights put together must be made a new imaginary milky way surpassing in a fermed singularity of splendour any among the greater & truer luminaries in the firmament of the Church. But I have already showed how in vain you aequivocate about that clause, which hath cost your friend Rutherford and others so much pains. What the oath of supremacy imports is evident by the words in it. (The 
Which detracts from the King's suprema●…ie.  variety of senses to catch advantages like side winds in paper sails which are subject to rend in pieces being the poor policy of Presbyters that dare not stand to the adventure of plain dealing) supreme Governor of this Realm etc. Aswell in all spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or causes as temporal. Which the Bishops you see concealed not, though you grat●…e yourself with the observation only of the other title supreme head, and accept his explication of it, which yielding you in your contracted sense (that might securetie afford him more capital privileges without encroachment upon Christ or his Holy Curch) supreme Governer takes in what your Presbytery will never grant him, all power imperative, Legislative, judicial, coactive, all but functional, immediate and proper to the ordination or office of the Minister, which, for aught I know, if he find an internal call 〈◊〉 a supposition drawing near a possibility then likelihood and assurance to have a double portion of God's gracious power and assistance in both administrations, he not only may, but must exercise as did Moses and Melchisedech, saving that without a divine institution in this spiritual function his supremacy exempts him not from submitting his head under the hands of holy Church and taking our Saviour's commission with the benediction from her month. That Scotish Presbytery is a Papacy the Bishop requires not to be granted upon his word, but to be taken before Public notaries upon your own the political part whereof consists in the civil primacy which (at least by reduction) you very considentlie assume. The Bishop's contradiction, which is searce so much as verbal, will be easily reconciled by the words of the oath which he reflects on, and his argument good against you, until without reserves, limitations, or distinctions, you simply acknowledge the King supreme over all persons in all causes, which would be a contradiction to this clause in your book of Discipline. The po●…er Ecclesiastical stoweth immediately from God and the Mediator 
2. B Dise. 1. Ch.  jesus Christ and is spiritual, not having a temporal head in the earth, but only Christ, the only spiritual King and Governer of his Kirke.  
Lasthe, No Presb●…terian is there in Scotland but counts it sacrilege to give the King what belongeth unto the Church. And whatsoeu'rit is 
Statutum Parliamen●…●…sse solum quida●…, & cvilem appr●…●…sse tantum Christiani Prin●…pis ofsicium subjectionem suam Christ●… & Ecclesiae debitam tesianus Phil. Eplae ●…ind.  they quit in ecclesiastic causes is not unto the King, but to King, and Parliament, and the power in both when it informs an Act or statute called but accessory by the Aderdene Assemblers, and (that we may no longer doubt whom they account supreme) duty and subjection from the Prime) which though spoken by them but of their meeting, must be meant of all causes consultable in their Synods, and is as sensibie a truth as words without ambiguity can render it.  
Our of all which hath been said it must necessarily follow, that your Covenant hath all the good qualities computed which needs no arithmetical proof by weight or measure, the praemises over being coextended, with, and counterpoised by, the conclusion. What you rathlie, if not praesumtuouslie, pronounce of the Bishop's judgement doth but vilify your own. Qui citò deliberant sacile pronun●…iant. Had you brought a judgement to the contrary of any learned Casuist to whom his Lordship appeals, or any Divine of note in Europe, which he calls for, your answer had been somewhat more serious and solid, But here your oracles of learning are all silent. We finde it not avowed by your especial brethren of Holland and France, by no approbatorie suftrages of Leyden and ●…trecht…Omnium flagitiosorum a●…que facinorosorum circum se tanquant stipatorum catev●… habet. A guard is hath, but a black one, such as Catiline's 
Foraigae Presbyterian●…ashemed to justify the Scotish Covenant, The Scotish Pr. never seriously ass●…rib'd any good intention to the King.  league, and how can it have better, wherein is sworn a conspiracy as bad?  
The Bishops following vapours meeting with no suneshine of law or reason to dissipate them, will not so vanish upon a little blast of your breath but that they'll return in showers of confusion upon your head. Your secret will to asteribe good intentions to the King hath by some of your pack been very stra●…gelie revealed in their expressions touching Kings, whoss very nature they have declared originally antipathetical to Christ This Didoclave avows as planilie as he can, And when objected by His Grace of Saint Andrew's with your proverbial, yet mystical appendix of their obligation to the Creatuor, not to Christ the Redecmer for their crowns, is so slovenlie answered by Philadelphs Vindicatour, as any man may read your good will 
Natur●… insitum est omnibus Regibus in Christum odium Altar. Dam. praet…Cosque Deo Creatori non Redemptori imperium accepnm debere non obseure praedicârunt. Refut Epilogue. 〈◊〉. Siquis non obscure praedicavit…Non long aberavit Vindic cjustd…Non solume longinquo non impediens, connivens, vel plenariam potestatem…concedens…sed ●…oram intuens & talis facinoris asspectu delectatus.  in his words, & measure the sense of your Synods by his lines, your good opini●…n of the intentions of K. Charles 1. (Beside what you imputed to his Praelates) may be guested by what, sometimes in print you have assirib●… unto his person. An unworthy fellow, your Country man that comes running in haste with the message of your good meaning in his mouth, saith; His infamous & Barbarous intentions were executed by ●…eathing his sword in the bowels of his people; And this not onctic himselve not impeding, conniving at, and giving full Commission for, in Scotland and Ireland, but in England looking upon with much delight while it was done. And that so fair were negotiations and treaties from retracting him, that it was in public declared he saith not byany Praelatical party) that he would never defist from this enterprise of persecuting Church and Commonwealthso long as he had power to pursue it. Concerning the good intentions of Charles the second, beside what jealousies you express by the scrupulous conditions in your proclaemation, your Hague papers are instancies of your willing asseriptions, which call his answer strange whereby the distance is made greater than before, and far less offered for religion, the Covenant, and the laws and liberties of your Kingdom then was by his Royal Father even at that time when the difference between him and you was greatest…So that it will constrain you in such an extremity to do what is incumbent to you. I have already told you the usual consequences of that cursed word, and what good intentions you are in hand with when you utter it. Tyranny and popery are twins engendered between your jealousy & malice, to which Independenc●…e is more likely to be the midwife than prelacy, and if by that hand they get delivery at last, will besure to pay Presbytesie their duty when they can speak. The painted declarations caries better sense to them that rightly understand them, which I am sure is not prajudic●…d by any paraphrase of the Bishops. Though agere pocniuntiam. Be good council where well placed ' yet egisse non paniundum requires it not. If the con●…ience of the Court continue to be managed by the principles of the Pr●…lates, the hearts of the mist understanding shall, if they will be satisfied withal moral and siducial assurance to have that Religion praeserved which shall by reason and authority, aswell divine as humane, in every particular justify it self against all right or left handed sects and factions guilty of superstition or prosan●…sse, & those laws observed which appear now to have constituted the most indifferent mno●…uous government in the world. Whereas if the conscience of the Court be deluded once into Presbyters hands it will need none of our angry wishes to be made sensible of the change, when to be sure, it must take religion, like a desperate patient, from a sullen physician in doses of Covenants and propositions not to be disputed, and like a bedlam have laws given it with a whip.  
The Bishop drawing toward the end of his discourse puts all the 
The Reviewer dares not speak out to the Bishop's quaestion about taking arms for religion.  controversy upon trial by that quaestion which if once categoricallie answered would spare much oil and ink for the future, giving the Magistrate to know that it is not the pen but his sword whereby this difference must be decided. But these spiders of Presbytery will aswell be spinning webs as spitting poison, though so thin as can't conceal the ugly shape of their souls, nor that bay which contines the intrinsical venom of their cause. Though had they the reputation of no better Artists than Master Bailiff, the Pallas of prelacy need not enter on the encounter, but that of Magistracy might in scorn more than envy, tear such wicked work in pieces before their face, and in justice mixed with some little mercy to beget repentance 
— Vide quidem. penned tamen improba, dixit Mot. 6. fab. 3. The ambiguity in the Covenanters words leaves religion to the liberty of their conceits.  execute Arachne's condemnation in the fable upon the authors. Of the multitude of untruths which the Reviewer, here recriminates upon the Bishop, (that we may by one take a judgement of the rest) the want of charity is very unjustly made the first, which he should have done well to have supplied in himself, and not so senselesselie to intimate a non reality of religion in those reverend Fathers, who, beside the visibility in their practice hereto fore, and of their Christian patience in being Martyrs and Confessors for it of late, ever made a profession of that faith which was consonant to Scripture as interpreted in the primitive purest times of Holy Church. Whereas the censure his Lordship makes of the Presbyterian phantasm is principally because in their very covenant appears no reformation intended but according to the word of God, without mentioning any rule or authority for the interpretation of that word, beside their own humours & conceits. And the example of the best Reformed Churches, which 
See short Causes. begin.  best must be that which seems so unto them, whether the rest yield to it as such or no, if indeed they mean any, as it may be well thought they do not, but themselves, who are so superciliouslie 
Nulla unquam gens in quovis seculo… Opus Resormationis feliciore prudentia animo & suecessu administravit, quam Scoti in sua patria Mot. Brit. Ver. Custin.  singular from them all, as they disdain to hear of a inclioration to be had from their example, and such Tyrants over us as they give us no other law nor reason but their pleasure for the reformation they impose, speaking to us in the language of the Pelagians to the Catholics. Nobis authoribus, nobis principibus, nobis expositoribus, dam●…ate quae tenebatis, tenete quae damnabatis, reijeite antiquam fidem, paterna instituta, Majorum deposita, & recipite, quaenam illa tandem? Horreo decere sunt enim tam superba, ut mihi non modo adfirmari, sed ne reselli quidem sine aliquo piaculo posse videantur. The second untruth he saith is. That Covenanters bear no ailegeance to the King but only in order to Religion, which notwithstanding is the particular limitation in the Covenant, and when all was granted them but a particle of that by Charles I. they denied to return to their allegiance without it. And the Crown of his successor, our gracious Sovereign, still hangs out of his reach by that thread, which their proclamation tells him in effect shall for ever keep it off till he consent. To the third I reply. That the Rebel Parliaments 
Vincent, advers. haeres. c. 14. Their allegiance conditional.  verbal denial makes the Bishop speak no untruth, who will tell them as the King himself did, That his person was invaine excepted by a parenthesis of words, when so many hands were armed against him with swords, & the Canon knew no respect of persons. The praetenses of a Popish Praelatical, and matignant faction are wiped away by His Majesty in that chapter, to which I require a Scotich reply. The fourth is grounded upon a very 
They fight against.  false supposition, which sometimes they will not grant us, nor should 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Ch. 9 Their Creed in words the same with ours but not in sense.  we (though too many have out of mistake too often) grant it them, viz. That saving Bishops and ceremonies, the religion of Scotizing Presbyterians and Catholic English Christians is the same, where as there is near, if not fully, fundamental difference in the acception of several articles in our Creed, (so that though we say the same words, we can not truly be said to be of the same belief) in these at least, Christ's descent into hell; The Holy Catholic Church; The communion of Saints; The forgiveness of sins, Besides several other accessory tenets, where in we think they detract from the mercy, if not the justice, of God, reveled in Christ and the ordinary use of his graces restored by our reden●…ption, without respect of persons, unto men. But if here, for their pleasure, they will have the true Church & counterfeit Kirke be the same otherwise then as they are differenced by the corruptions of Bishops and ceremonies, why tried they not the experiment of purging these with the alteration of the rubric and their persons, without change of the Liturgy for a Directory, and the abolition of their office, As their great Pope Henderson once confessed in the Earl of 
Henderson and the Reviewers speeches about Bishops.  Arundel's tent, when General in the North. That Bishops might have been tolerated in Scotland if their persons had been such as they ought. And the Reviewer himself. when he wondered why the Doctors of Aberdene would not subscribe the covenant, being asked by a friend of his if he thought Episcopacy and the articles of Perth unlawful made this answer, He never thought, nor ever would think them so. Whence may be conjectured their modest meaning to be this. That had the Episcopate in Scotland been seasonably entailed to their tribe, so far as they could have hindered what they pretty well promoted, their covenanting tables at Edinburgh had been taken down, and no army raised to purge Malignants out of the Kirke 5. The Reviewer saith, 
Religion & liberty no good pretences for taking arms.  their arms were taken for defence of just liberties, whereof religion was but one. But than it was one, and that the principal, or else when they had the Militia granted them to defend the rest, why stood they upon that, which is an argument that merely for that, were there nothing else in controversy, they might aswell take, as keep up arms But what shuffsing was in this business hath been discovered by another. 
Simons' Vindicat p. 30.  That about liberties Master Digges hath learnedly confuted. Nor will the Reviewer and all his complices be able to instance in any one law of the three Kingdoms that justifieth the subjects against the supreme power in defece of any liberties by their arms. Saint Austin and all good Christians were of another mind. Ita a plebibus Prin●…ipes, & a servis domini serendi sunt, ut sub exercitationc tolerantiae sus●…ineantur temporalia & sperentur eterna. Which I therefore cite not, as if I took it to be the Covenanters case, who did, and might have continued to enjoy all just liberties without any such defence, Yet had they not, they should have pondered many better politic maxims among the heathen such as this in Plutarch cheironeinai monarchias paranomou polemon emphylion 
In Brut.  and that of Pliny in his Panegyric. Quanto libertate dis●…ordi servientibu●… s●…tilius, unum esse cui serviant.  
The other horn of the Bishop's dilemma is as sharp, and it need be no sharper than the former, The danger whereof makes the Reviewer keep his distance, first not daring positavelie to assert the lan fullness of taking up arms for religion. And then muffling himself in his cloak, invaine hoping he shall not by this argument de gored unto the quick. His spitting Atheism in the face of Reason the native image we bear of God, will set no wisemen on gaping for extraordinary revelat ●…s nor his false translating the Bishop's sense into mere apprehensions and uncertain conceptions make him, or theirs of his mind, worse than Pagan Secptikes in Religion. His Lordship I believe, grants no such postulate as the 
The Scotish Presbyterians as enthusiastike as the Anabaptists & no more excusable by their religion for taking ar●…es  Reviewer seems to look for. That every Scotish Ma●… is a Moses, & every persecuting Presbyter, before Gods ju●…gemen's have humbled him to his conversion, a Saint Paul. He conceives their Cat●…chisme or Directory can pass for no Pentateuch nor Ap●…al Epissles and say●…h they beg the qu●… that take it to be the Gosp●…. He argues, That in asserting the lawfu●…lenes of taking arms, they justify the Ird●…pendents that supplanted themselves, whose new light s●…ines as much like that from Moses' face as they Presbyterians new doctrine sounds like the oracles he received in the mount. That the Anabaptists in Germany were no more Enthusiasts than the Anabaptists in Scotland, who null the powerful operation of the sacrament, and for aught we know, may be nulls in the missionarie power to administer it. That john of Leyden & his crew could not be more mad than john Knox and his, nor could they have less reason for their military proceedings. His Lordship is so far from placing the sum of Religion in every simple apprehension, that he desires the authority of the Church should take place of his conceptions until the truth, if different from that doctrine, which is unlikely were sealed to him by some internal impression of God's spirit. What every man is persuaded in his conscience to be divine truth he would have him praeferre before other men's apprehensions of a contrary religion. Yet if that persuasion be dissonant from what was generally among the primitive Christians, he would not that he should mistake himself to have a singular infallibility, nor a transscendent commission, above that of Christ and his Apostles, to take arms & force all men to his belief. The most certain truths, even these divine ones 
faith no●… so common, if such as commonly defined.  in religion, if His Lordship doth not, which I did not ask him, I do think to be in many men that praetend to that supernatural grace called faith, were uncertain conceptions, or inadvertent praesumptions, finding few so considerate of their very principles in Religion as to build them upon any so much as that subordinatie moral certanitie they might do with good endeavour, fewer live so devoutly as without it can reasonably suppose God miraculously infuseth his revelatious to assure them. Therefore though all the truths of Christian Religion, wherein controverted, are revealed from heaven. Yet I think we are to look a great way back for the persons by and unto whom, immediate inspirations being now adays very rare, nor do we live much like the holy mortified men that were wont to have them of old. You know what Saint Ma●…tin told the Devil when he appeared 
Sulpit. Sever in vita.  arrayed like a King, and would be taken for Christ come in triumph upon the earth. Ego Christum, nisi in eo habitu formaque qua passus est, nisi or●… stigmata proforensem venisse non credam. He would not believe him to be come till he saw him in the habit of his sufferings. So when we see you qualified 
S. Mat●…h. 10. 16.  like his disciples, wise as Serpents not crafty as foxes, harmless as doves, not rapacious as harpies, patient like sheep, not ravening like 
The Pr. Scots must bring better marks than ●…eir ba●…t words for revelations  wolves. Delivered up to Counsels, not excommunicating in Synods, scourged in Synagogues not disciplining without mercy in your Churches. Brought before Governors and Kings for Christ's sake, not bringing Governors and Kings to mooke-tribunals for your own. Then tell us of Divine truths, the belief of Moses and Saint Paul's revelation from heaven, and we will hearken to you as Angels, whom now we take to be no better than the haereti●…es who Vincet saith are ran●…quaedam & cyniphes, & muscae 
Advers. haeres. cap. 14.  moriturae, such contemptible creatures as croaking frogs, gnats, and dying flies that would buzz what mischief you can before you leave us, and make the ointment of the Apothecary stink with the corruption of your writings when you are dead; The second part of your apology is most false both thesei kai hypothesei 1. Because subjects have no arms, while the Magistrate is in being to hold the sword, put into their hands to defend their religion and liberties how legally soever established, They have only pleas by that law to claim them, and petitions of right or equity to put up unto the Magistrate to maintain them. 2. If they go beyond defending themselves in their religion 
They are cut throats of Magistrates & planters of Religion by arms.  and force others to enter into their league & covenant though contrary to their conscience, this is no other than planting of religion by arms. And if the difference in any point of religion be such as to state the Magistrate in a condition to be put to death by his subjects, as it doth, in your sense, when he joins in worship with Papists & Praelates, whom you make idolaters, and idolatry death unpardonable; this is cutting the throats of all Magistartes. And this is maintained to be just and to have the ground of God's ordinary judgement by your Patriarch Knox. And to be imitated of all those that praeferre the true honour of the true worship and glory of God to the affection of flesh and wicked Princes. Your hypothesis 
Hist. Lib. 4.  is false, because the religion and liberties of your Covenant in England were never established by law, and what was so established was never usurped by Papists Praelates and Malignants, And if it had been, from so good a King redress had probably been procured upon just complaint without taking arms. To your third I reply, That the Bishop gives no judgement, makes no mention of the Protestants Arms in France 
We say nothing to foreign protestants taking arms. till they justific yours & & theirs by yours  Holland and jermanie, compares them not with the Anabaptists in Munster or Sectaries in England. If you can once persuade them to espouse your quarrel, (for which you have begged long enough at their gates by this time) or publish a parallel between your taking up arms and their own, the praelatical party will make no difference between you, but give alike judgement against you all. In the mean time the maxims they give are rational and divine, & they are brutes or Atheists, divested already of all religion and reason, who praeferre them not to the Presbyterian enthusiasms, who give out for Michael the Archangels revelations what counterfeit impostures Morpheus puts of to them in their dreams.  
Touching a general Council, with a wish for which His Lordship piously concludes, No Covenanters go before him, nor will set one step after 
The Praelates decline not the judgement of Counsels.  him in that desire, who most uncharitably make three parts of four in the Christian world Antichristian, and so no constitutive members of such a meeting. An occumenicke Synod of Protestants would un doubtedlie condemn them, which is most shamefully praejuged to approve of the rebellion and murder in their Covenant. Nor can their Principals, in honour, be silent at such an horrid impious presumption publicly printed & imputed to them. The Bishops ae his brethren have declined no solemn assemblies of their own countries. those so called were factious schismatical conventicles illegallie gathe●…ed & composed of such mushrooms as how numerous soever, durst no admit of twenty Praelatical Divines into debate, lest they should be squeezed into a little spongy earth & wind (their originals) having no substantial worth or abilities to support them. You need not pray the Warner to speak unto the question you put, since you have his answer before hand without ask, viz. That its worth the enquiring (even in such an Oecumenicke synod) whether the marks of Antichrist do not agree as eminently to the Assembly General of Scotland as to the Pope. He mentions some that plainly do, & means, it may be as much of all the rest. To the charge in a Christian Council they would answer. That they are able to evidence before God & the World, That all blood & misery drawn from, & brought upon, the former King & his Kingdoms must be cast upon the Covenant & General Assembly in Scotland, who will never cease to embroil all in new calamities untile they be destroyed. That if this King & his whole family resolve not to prosecute God's cause, which the former did with much Christian courage unto the death, they hazard the tearing their crowns into more pieces than the mitres, & the demolition of their thrones beneath that of the Praelates chairs, To conclude all. The Reviewers 
Presbyterian cruelty, may by God's providence be restrained.  breath, though violent enough, becomes in vain so definitive, as to perpetuate persecutions against the providence of God, whom the Bishops look upon as a potent Protector of Kings, & a merciful repairer of the breach made in his Church by their own ruins. Their resoluti●…, may be justly peremptore to persevere in their opinion of the Scotish Presbyterian cruelty to be such That as they, have burjed their Bishop's alive, connived at, & if, not countenancd, the Massacring their Kings; so their endeavour will not be wanting to scatter the ashes of t●…e Royal family & three Kingdoms on their graves, Though their consistorian forms, & repenting stools with other luggage be next cast into the flames first kindled by themselves. The mysteries of their religion being murder & dead monuments such as never made those heathen the sum of whose devotion Clemens of Alexandria 
Admon. ad Gent.  comprehended in two words. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
FINIS.   

Errors to be amended.  
Epist. Ded. pag. 3. line 18. Read, she or her Ancients. Ans. to Ep'Ded. p. 2. l. 8. for common shore, r. come. fewer. Ibid. l. 9 for power, r. paper. p. 3. l. 6. for and, r. etc. p. 6. l. 16. for comfort, r. comfort. l. 38. for burning. r. warning. p. 7. l. 18. for both, r bold. l. 36. for must. r. most. p. 8. l. 20. r. deceitful lovers of themselves there are. p. 9 l. 35. r. two or three such words as. p. 11. l. 32. for late, r. babe. p. 16. l. 13. for Reviewer, r. Reviewes. Acolut. p. 8 l. 13. for own, r. owned. p. 13. l. 30. for otherguede, r. otherguesse. p. 19 l. 37. for literal, r. liberal p. 20. l. 8. for opposed. r. opposed. p. 21. l. 15. it delcatur. p. 22. margin, for Chaldaeos', r. Culdaeos. p. 26. l. 10. for then, r. they. l. 11. for all r. a. p. 29. l. 1. for Hierambieorum, r. Hierarchicorum. l. 25. for buselie, r. basilie. p. 31. l. 30. for in that, r. & that is. l. 41. for anomia ergapiria, r. anomias ergasteria. p. 37. l. 17. for stake, r. stick. p. 38. l. 19 for acknowledge, r. acknowledged. p. 40. l. 2. for reasonable, r. treasonable. p. 45. l. 19 for Vnitglupteu, r. Vuygeastein. p. 48. l. 36. After Ecumenical, add Council. p. 53. l. 37. for asgle r. air. p. 59 l. 24. for acconsequential, r. unconsequential. p. 60. marg. for to excom. r. no excom. p. 60. l. 29. for too rigid. r. to rigid. p. 64. l. 32. for halls r. heels. p. 68 l. 20. for triel, r. Ariel. p. 72. l. 11. for then, r. them. p 73. l. 3. for as, r. is. p. 78. marg. for vicitie, r. nicety. p. 80. marg. for 493. r. 1593. p. 81. l. 34. r. (though but in the time) Ibid. marg. r. The Bishops Sunday toleration. p. 48. l. 10. pro libra, r. litera. Ibid. l. 12. for jura r. dura. p. 85. l. 19 for papists, r. pupils. l. 33. for its. r. in. p. 86. l. 14. for coloural, r. colourable. Ibid. marg. r. Scotish Presbyterian reformation from etc. p. 87. l. 7. for latewarmnesse. r. lukewarmness. l. 13. for too. r. 100 p. 88 l. 1. for session, r. session. l. 14. for Murr, r. Marre. marg. for Ruthuer, r. Ruthuen. p, 92. l. 21. for servidi, r. fervidi. p. 94. l. 9 for scrive. r. transscribe. p. 57 l. 1. for then, r. them. p. 101. l. 39 for superintended, r. superintendent. p. 11. for masters, r, matters. marg, for contracted, r. confuted. p. 117. l. 14. guerts. r. Masters. p. 121. l. 6. for indiscreet, r. in discreet. p. 122. marg. fuos, r. suo. p. 126. l. 9 for on, r. or. p. 127. l. 31. r. from whom I expect etc. p. 142. l. ●…9. for session, r. succession. l. 40. for successis, r. successio, p. 145. l. 40. for Autoraniei, r. Autouranici. p. 148. l. 39 for & r. etc. p. 149. marg. for sudunt…astragatus, r. sudunt astragalis. p. 152. l. 35. for pallea, r. paleae. for Affltu, r. Afflatu [with no point before it] p. 127. marg. for togodaedali, r. logodaedali. p. 153. marg. for odificentur in rumam, r. aedificentur in ruinam. p. 155. l. 41. for manitates, r. inanitatis. p. 157. l. 16. for if, r. it. l. 41. for mission, r. omission. p. 159. l. 40. for doubt, r. double. p. 162. l. 14, for forming, r. foaming. p. 163. l. 1. for too, r. so. p. 165. l. 13. susplicates, r. supplicates. pag. 169. l. 6. r. to the Bishop. pag. 175. l. 83. for to, r. so large. Ibid. marg. for a estes quos sidem ea vocant, r. testes quos sidemen vocant. for minus, r. munus, p. 177. marg●…for spirationes, r. conspirationes. p. 175. for many leaves, r. may leave. p 180. l. 5. for quae, r, quia p. 181. l. 26. for quis pium, r. quispiam. p. 182. marg. for homonymus subscribentiam. r. homonymoos suscribentium. p. 185. for momfeia, r. monscia Aristoph. p. 187. l. 38. for up to, r. unto. p. 188. l. 14. for which, r. with. p. 191. l. 14. for guittnesse, r. guildesse. p. 155. l. 15. for fermed, r. feigned. l. 34. for near, r. nearer a possibility then likelihood, p. 157. l. 13. for fair. r. fairy. marg. for Cosque, r. Eosque. p. 198. l. 11. for bay, r. bag. l. 35. for inclioration, r. melioration. marg. for vide, r. vive. for see short causes, r. see short conses. p. 200. l. 40. for Anabaptists, r. Abaptists. p. 201. l. 16. for were, r. mere.   

TO THE READER.  
I Am necessarisie to advertise you, That if you be notvery conversant in the Rd Bishops Warning and his adversaries Review before you enter upon my reply, you will in the end be as unsatisfied about the true state of the controversy, as all the way offended at the incohaerence of the paragraphs or periods in the book, there being, to ease the Printer, not much to advantage me, very little inserted that mine relates to, which notwithstanding is penned as if you had the other perpetually in your sight. The credit I claim to have given to several historical circumstances of a Country, which I yet never saw, wherewith I could not be furnished from printed books, is upon the sufficient assurance I have of the fidelity and ability in such persons as are natives, whom I consulted as oracles in many cases, and received their answer in no dark ambiguity of words; But laid down positivelie in their papers, which if their indifference had been the same with mine: I should have published with their names, whereby to put out the envious man's eye and keep curiosity from a troublesome impertinency in enquiry. I shall make no apology at all to you for my engagement in the dispute, having already done it where more due. I shall briefly this for some tautology, much indecency and levitic in my language, Desiring the first may be imputed to some necessity I was cast upon by the Reviewers frequent repetitions, and some difficulty to recollect what expressions had passed from me with the sheets, most of which I was to part with successivelie as I pennd them at several distances of time and place retaining no perfect copy in my hands. The second is that dirt which did stick like pitch unto my fingers while I was handling the fowl Review, and so hath defiled my book. The third came from no affectation to be facetious, for which I am little fitted, yet thought I might as well sport it as a Divinity Professor in his chair, who having it seems, made haste to the second infancy of his age, or reassumd his first, would never, it may be, have been at quiet, unless I had rocked him in his cradle, or played a little with his rattle. The strange mistakes many times introduced by his ignorance of our tongue that in my absence praepared all for the press are rectified with references to the pages where. Which amendments in favour of yourself aswell as justice unto me should be at first transplanted to their several colonies by your pen. The Greek leters that have lost their grace by the Latin habits wherein they are constrained to appear, being crowded here and there out of all significancy and order, & so left at large, have their authority made good to the full sense of the commission they brought with them, every where by the English Interpreter or Paraphrast when you meet them. Which intimated, I have no greater courtesy to crave from you, if one the Revievers impartial and aequitable comparers, then to hearken to truth and reason, and to signify what you find here dissonant from either, which I promise you shall be acknowledged or amended Adieu.  
Your R. W.   

A Table of the Chapters.  

CHAPT. I. THe Scots bold address with the Covenant to K. Ch. 2. Their party inconsiderable. The Bishop's method, language, and matter asserted. The quaestion in controversy unawares granted by the Reviewer. Page 1.  
II. The Scotish Discipline overthrows the right of Magistrates to convocate Synods, and otherwise to order Ecclesiastical affairs. 10.  
III. The last appeal to the Supreme Magistrate justisiable in Scotland. 41.  
IU. Seditious & Rebellious Ministers in Scotland seldom or never censured by the Assembly. 47.  
V. The Discipline exempts not the supreme Magistrate from being excommunicate. 57  
VI Kings may sometime pardon capital offenders, which the Disciplinarians donie. As they do their Royal right to any part of the ecclesiastic revenue. 59  
VII. The Presbytery cheats the Magistrate of his civil power in ordine ad spiritualia. 65.  
VIII. The divine right of Episcopacy better grounded the●… that pratended in behalf of Presbytery. 93.  
IX. The Commonwealth is a monster when God's Soveraignite in the Presbytery contradicts the Kings. 113.  
X. No concord between Parliament and Presbytery. 116.  
XI. The Presbytery cruel to particular persons. 124.  
XII. The Presbytery a burden to the Nobility, Ministry, and all Orders whatsoever. 130.  
XIII. The Bishop's exceptions against the Covenant made good, & this proved. That no man is obliged to keep it who hath taken it. 176.    

An Alphabetical Principal Table of the Contens.  

A.  
THe Disclplinarians rebellious proceedings in their persecution of Archippus Bp. Adamson. Pag. 43  
Penitent adulterers not necessarily to be put to death. 169  
Little equity in the Reviewers debates & treaties. 190  
Alteration in Religion or Church Government unsave & sinful while conscience is doubtful. 95  
They may be feared to be unchristian that call us Antichristian. 145  
Trivial debates among Scotish Presbyters about apparel. 125  
The Reviewer dares not speak out to the Bishop's quaestion about taking arms for religion. 198  
That & Liberty no justifiabie praetenses for taking arms. 201  
The Pr: Scots that did, no more excusable than the Anabaptist in Germany. ●…00  
They are planters of their misse-named Religion by arms. 202  
K. Ch. 1. had just cause to march with an army toward Scotland Ans. to Ep. Ded. 9  
The Pr. Scots had none for their invading England. Ibid. 11  
Their General Assemblies Disobedience to the King's command, 1●…79. 12  
The incohaerent excuses thereof. 13  
The rebellious Assemblers at Aberdene 1605. 16  
Appeals in Scotland to the King. 32  
And so the ultimate of them every where else. 41  
The proceedings against them no other than legal. 17  
Wherein the E. Dunbar carried himself impartially and nobly. 23  
Assemblies summoning the people in arms upon the trial of Popish Lords. 92  
Collusion and violence in the election of Members for Assemblies. 133  
Why so many Burgesses and Gentlemen in them. 134. 135   

B.  
TReason by statute to impugn the authority of Bishops, being one of the three Estates. 19  
Bishops perpetual in Scotland. 21  
The calumny against the three Bishops consectated by the Archbishop of Canterbury refuted. 22  
How the Difference happened between the E. Argile & the Bishop of Galloway. 141  
Our Bishops contest not with King and Nobles. 140  
Their praecedence and place near the throne. Ibid.  
offices of State. 141  
The Antiquity, etc. Of Bishops justified very judiciouslie by Dr jer. Tailor, Whose book is an antidote against the poison of all the Reviewers objections. 102  
Bishops Apostles. 106  
Evangelists, Prophets, Pastors. 107  
Doctors. 108  
Bishops & Ceremonies no burden. 187  
The Bishop of Derrie's prudence, no boldness in the publication of his book Anf. to Ep. Ded. 2  
Very seasonable. 1  
In it His Lordship is no slanderer of the King. 4  
Blacks rebellious case. 53  
Baleanqual, Bruce & other Ministers guilty of raising the tumult. 56  
Blaire and his complices justly banished out of Ireland. 51  
Bothwells notorious crimes. 61  
Bruce's bold speech to the King about E. Huntley. 63  
The Bishops appeal in the Assembly at Glasgow not derogatory to the King's personal prerogative. 45   

C.  
CAlderwood's ridiculous reverence of Bruce's ghost. 139  
E. Cassils' demeanour Ans. to Ep. Ded. 1  
Canons infirming the Reviewer to be an aceuser of the Bishop. 48  
Public catechising of Masters and Mistresses indecent. 171  
Not very necessary before their receiving the Sacrament. Ibid.  
The King's Chaplanes use no Court artifice, but what becomes such reverend worthy persons in their places Ans. to Ep. Ded. 4  
A proposition of trial to be made whether Christ's sceptre must be swayed by Bishops or Presbyters. 100  
The difference between us & the Church of Rome about ceremonies. 98  
jurisdiction of Commissaries. 52  
The King's Commissioner how off ronted in Pr Sc. Synods. 134  
Riot in Scotland to get down the High Commission Court. Which was not so tyra●…nical as the Pr. Consistory. 173  
Wherein is more rigour than other where among the reformed Churches, 174  
The adventurous concessions of K. Ch. I. extorded by the necessity or difficulty he was brought to. 104  
K. James' dislike of the Scotish short confession. Many unjustificable praetices about it. 14  
Conscience not bottomed only up on divine right. 95  
Contrariety of commands at the same time ordinary under Scotish Presbytery. 114  
The Reviewers fallacy to salve it in the case of the French Ambassadors. 115  
His ignorance of the true stated controversy between us and the Church of Rome. 8  
His cunning in altering the true state of that between the Bishop and himself as in many places so. 30  
K. Ch. 1. invaded not the Scotish Consistory, his condescensions leaving them contended. 190  
The Reviewers uncharitable interpreting Mr. Corbets's end a punishment from God. 3  
Particulars about framing the English-Scotish Covenant. The persons by whom &c. 177  
How dishonourable it is to the English that approved it. 179  
The Reviewes' abominable affected falsehood in defence of it. 180  
His impudence in preaching at the Hage that nothing at all had been objected against it. Ans. to Ep. Ded. 7  
How destructive it is to the Royal line. Ibid. 12  
How the same with that of K. james 1580. 183  
How it divers from it. 184  
Foreign Presbyterians ashamed to countenance it. 196  
The ambiguity of the words in it leaves religion to the liberty of their conceits, that take it. 198  
Covenants unlawfullie taken are more unlawfullie kept. 177  
The Praelates docline not the judgement of Counsels. 202  
No inhaerent right in Courts to nominate Commissioners for intervals. 123  
Spiritual cruelty in the prayers of Scotish Presbyters. 125  
Their temporal cruelty, as much as they praesume, may by God's providence be restrained. 203  
The Court conscience will, if the experiment be tried, soon find the difference between the Episcopal and Presbyterian Clergy. 197   

D.  
NO defensive arms for subjects. 40 Court of Delegates neither unbeseeming, not unreasonable. 43  
K. James' Declaration 1584. How by His Majesty subscribed. 51  
The Pr. Scots imprudence as well as injustice etc. in delivering up K. Ch. 1. to his murderers. Ans. to Ep. Ded. 14  
The old grudge that mor'd them to it. Ibid. 15  
The same newly conceived against K. Ch. II. Ibid. 15  
The difference between Us and Scotish Presbyterians is more than in Bishops and ceremonies. 199  
The Sc. Discipline omits what the ancient Canons had among the cases of Ministers deprivation. What it hath conconcernes more Presbyters than Praelates. 67  
It plays the tyrant over the consciences of the people. 124  
Divine attributes profaned in asscribing them to the Discipline and Assembly Acts. 100  
Covenanters mistake the Discipline for Christ's institution. 180  
No legal establishment in Scotland of the first book of Discipline. 18  
K. James' consent to the second book of Discipline how improbable. 24  
They anticipate the law in the exercise thereof. 27  
The English Discipline long since setle●… by law in Scotland and our Liturg there used. 16  
That of the Pr. Scots obtruded upon England. Ibid.  
Divine right pleaded for Presbytere frustrates all treaties. 96  
Episcopacy wants no Discipline equivalent to that in the Scotish Presbytery. 175  
Our doctrines about real presence, justification, free will, final apostasy, praedestinatîon, breissie touched. And a quaestion propounded about David's case. 98. 99  
Douglas that murdered Capt. I. Stuart killed in Edinburgh high street. 21   

E.  
OUr Episcopacy not reputed Antichristian by other Reformed Churches. Ans. to Ep. Ded. 3. 50  
K. Ch. I. suspended the jurisciction of Episcopacy in Scotland for no crimes. No full and free Parliament that voted in down in England. 9  
Episcopacy no obstruction to the King's peace. Why it may not be laid aside. 40  
What right it hath to become unalterable. 94  
The reasons of K. Ch. I. well bottomed. 95  
Some particulars about the history of Scotish Episcopacy. 111  
Abolition of Episcopacy is not that which will ever give the Pr. Scots satisfaction. 165  
K. Ch. I. in his largest concessions yielded not unto it. 188  
The asserrours of the Magistrates just power miss called Era●…ans by the Reviewer. 6  
Erastus' Royal right of Church government can not untie the King's conscience if straightened. Nor is that only it the Bishops praetend to. 97  
The Sc. Discipline exempts not Kings from being excommunicate. 57  
Excommunication not meant by delivering up to Satan. 110  
Ignorance no ground for the execution of it. 172  
The Scotish Presbyters practice touching excommunication little less rigid than their canon. 227  
The inconveniences that follow to be imputed rather to the Kircke then State. 128  
Impunity no good ground for excommunication. 61  
The Kings pardon quitting penitent malefactors. 65   

F.  
SCotish Presbyters much too busy in private families. 175  
Faith not so common, if such a grace as ordinarily it is defined. 201  
Church Festivals not legally abolished in Scotland. 18  
Cruelty toward fugitives. 129   

G.  
GIbson's insolent speeches unto the King. 21  
The Assemblie's juggling in his case. 52  
Gilespie's theorem for resisting Magistrates disclaimed by no Assemblies. The substance of it the sense of many. 37  
The King why concerned to be cautelous in his grants to the Presbyterian Scots. 5  
The Bishop's Office entirely authorized in the Assembly at Glasgow 1610. 23   

H.  
THe proceedings against D. Hamilton's late engagement discussed. 70. 71. &c 115. 117. etc.  
Mr. Henderson's speech of Bishops. 199  
E Huntley's case truly related. 61   

I.  
K. james a greater Anti-Presbyterian than Anti-Erastian. 64  
The Praelates title to Impropriations and Abbey lands better than that of Presbyters. 137  
Presbyterian indulgence in cases of sedition and rebellion. 47  
Their monstrous ingratitude for the too liberal graces of K. Ch. I. 104  
The King's concessions to the Irish more justifiable than the other could be to the Scotish Presbyterian demands. 146  
The Pr. Scots endeavours to impose their Discipline upon England. 5  
The Assembly at Westminster having no power to authorise it. 6  
Many of the Presbyteries in Scotland have very unfit & unable judges. 174  
jurisdiction Ecclesiastical sloweth from the Magistrate. 34  
Sc. Presbyters usurp civil jurisdiction. 69  
No power of jurisdiction in what the Reviwer miss interprets the Church. 108  
Nor in a companic mot together. 109   

K.  
THe election of a King not originally justifiable in any people. 164  
K. Ch. I. not inclinable, though by counterfeit promises praevailed with to cast himself upon the Presbyterian Scots Ans. to Ep. Ded. 12  
His writings not interlined by the Bishops. The Reviewers commendation of them unawares Ibid. 〈◊〉  
K. Ch. II. hath expressed no inelination to the Covenant. If any praeventive dissuasion of His Majesties from it hath been used by the Praelatical pattie, it was a dutiful act of conscience and prudence. 149  
His Majesty can not so easily, will not so readily grant what his Royal Father denied. 191  
Scots Presbyterians never seriously ascribed any good intentions to K. Ch, I. nor. 2. 197   

L.  
MOre learning under Episcopacy than Presbytery. 150  
The King supreme Legislatour. 193  
The Bishops share in making laws as great as any one of the three Estates. Ibid.  
Our Liturgy why read. A parallel of it with primitive forms fiter then with the breviary. 156  
The Church of Scotland hath had a liturgy not only for help but practice. 160  
The Presbyterians hypocritical use of it. 161   

M.  
THe Magistrates definitive judgement in Synods owned by the Reformed Divines both Praelatical and Presbyterian. 28  
Sc. Presbytetie will have Magistrates subject to the Kirke. 120  
Presbyters why against clandestine marriages. 166  
Consent of Parents how to be required. Ibid.  
No obedience due to them commanding an unjust marriage. 169  
The Bishops cautelous in giving licence for clandestine marriages. 170  
Gods mercy in praeserving Archbishop Maxwel falsified by the Reviewer. 3  
The business about the Spanish Merchants sophisticated. 80  
Sc. Presbyters controllers in the Militia. 79  
The power of it in the King. 186  
Pr. Ministers rebellious meeting at Mauchlin moor. 119  
They exceed their commission. 121  
Their power with the people dangerous to the government. 122  
Their rebellious proceeding in the persecution of Archbishop Montgomerie and Archbishop Adamson. 43  
The murders & other prodigious impieties acted by the Sc. Presbyterians in prosecution of their ends. 82  
The scale of degrees whereby they asscended to the murder of K. Ch. I. 38  
Which might have been foreseen by their propositions, never repealed. 76  
Murder may be pardoned by the King who hath been petitioned in that case by the Disciplinarians themselves. 60   

N.  
THe King's negative voice justified as well in Scotland as England. 77  
What is the power of his affirmative. 78  
The Sc. Presbyters gave the occasion and opportunity for the Nobles to get the ecclesiastic revenue. The Episcopacy more than titular they kept up. 15  
Presbytery more oppressive to the Nobility & Gentry then prelacy. 130  
Noblemen why chosen Elders. 〈◊〉 131  
Where such, how slighted by the Presbyters. 139   

O.  
SC. Presbyters assume the arbitration of oeconomical differences. 68  
The Officers appointed by Christ in his Church need not be restrained to the number of five. Nor those taken to be the same the Presbyterians would have them. 106  
The Officials Court a more competent judicatoric than the Classical Presbytery. 132  
No power of ordination in the Presbybyterie. 108. 142  
No comfortable assurance but from Apostolical succession & Episcopal ordination which Presbyterians want. Ibi.  
The Sc. Presbyterians trial before ordination more formal then truly experimental of ability in the persons. 150  
The qualification different from that required by the Bishops. 152  
The original of the pretended oath taken by the King for security of the Sc. Discipline. 163   

P.  
THe Sc. Assemblies decrees to be ratified by Parliament. 24  
As those of our Convocations. 32  
Presbytery makes Parliaments subject to Assemblies. 120  
The Parliament of Scotland in no capacity to make demands after the murder of the King. 163  
Presbytery hath no claim to the Church patrimony given by Episcopal founders and benefactors. 25  
Their disputes with Princes about Church revenue. 63  
The original right of patronage in Lay persons. 136  
Peirth Assembly 1596. 111  
Provision under Episcopacy against the poverty of such as are ordained. 153  
The Praelats still of the same mind they were about the rights and privileges of Bishops. 103  
Reason of bidding prayer before sermon. 159  
In the Canon form is no prayer for the dead. 160  
Set forms of no use to beginers that pray by the spirit. 161  
The gift of prayer in the Pater Noster. Ibid.  
Presbyterians divided about prayer. 162  
The injuries by extemporary prayer. Ibi.  
Presbyteries when, and how, erected in Scotland Bishops to praeside in them. 20  
Christianity at its first entrance into Scotland brought not Presbytery with it. 22  
Fallacy in the immediate division of religion into Presbyterian & Popish. 53  
No authority of Scripture for the many practices of Scotish Presbytery. 101  
Little knowledge, labour, or conscience showed in Presbyterian preaching. 154  
Scotish Presbyterians better conceited of themselves then of any other Reformed Church to which yet they praetend a conformity in their new model. 198  
K. James' speech concerning Scotish Presbytery. 30  
How a King may, and when, exercise the office of a Priest. 195  
Sc. Presbyteries process for Church rends. 33  
The same fault under a different formality not to be twice punished. 126   

Q.  
K. James' 55. Quaestions. 111   

R.  
REading Ministers useful and justifiable in our Church. 154  
The Praelats do not annul the being of all Reformed Churches. 143  
Though they have no full assurance. 144  
The Reviewers speech of Bishops and Peirth articles. 199  
The Church of Rome true, though not most true. 145  
A rigid separation from her in many things needless. 146  
Assemblies can reform only according to canon, not the canon. 84  
The Primitive Christians reformation different from that of Sc. Presbyterians. 85  
That of the Church of England began rather at K. Edw. VI then Henr. VIII. 86  
The Parliament can no●… reform without the King. 188  
Resistance against the person of the Magistrate can not be made inobedience to his office. 35  
Reviewer willfully missetakes the scope of the Bishop's book. 45  
His barbarous implacable malice against the dead. 49  
A riot under praetense of taking a Priest at Mass. 91  
Abetted by Knox with his confessed interest in many more. 92  
The Pr. Scots must bring better marks than their bare words for revelations. 201   

S.  
Foreign Presbyterians tolerate more liberty on their Sabbath then the Bishops on our Sunday. 50. 125  
The hypocritical superstition of the Sc. Presbyters in the sanctification of their Sabbath. 81  
Offenders quitted to be admitted to the H. Sacrament without public satisfaction in the Church. 126  
False measures &c under colour of scandal not to be brought into the cognizance of the Church. 66  
All civil causes are brought before the Presbytery under the pretence of scandal. 170  
The Pr. Scotish party inconsiderable. 2  
They gave better language to our Bishops heretofore then of late. 8  
Careful Christians will find little leisure on week days to hear many sermons. 157  
Sermons not to exceed an hour. 158  
Those that are Rhetorical may be as useful as many mere Textuarie. 159  
St. Claud Somais no Countenancer of the late Kirke proceedings Ans. too Ep. Ded. 4. 111  
The Sc. Presbyterians coordinate two Soveraignities in one State. 113  
Two Scotish Kings at one time avouched by A Melvin. 114  
Capt. james Stuart vindicated at large. 87  
Superintendents equivalent to Bishops 23  
Imperious supplicates from the Presbytery. 26  
Rebellion the subject of most. 165. 179  
The King's supremacy impaired by Presbytery. 27. 195  
Placed upon the People. 29  
Scotish Presbytery overthrows the right of the Magistrates convocating Synods. 10. 30  
Synods where the Magistrate prohibited them. 31. 36  
Receiving appeals not the principal end of calling Synods. 132  
Noblemen to have no suffrages in them but when sent thither by the King. 134   

T.  
THe by-tenets of the Discipline. 3 The Texts of Scripture urged against Episcopacy, for Presbytery, answered. 105. &c.  
The Presbyterians treason at Ruthuen. 88  
At Striveling. 89   

V.  
Family visitations commendable aswell in orthodox Priest as Presbyters. 173  
The Reviewer much in love with the uncleanlie metaphor of a vomit. 176   

W.  
ACcording to the Word of God a more dubious and frivolous limitation in the Covenant them heretosore in the oath for Episcopacy. 181   
FINIS.