A Hind Let Loose Part 2

For, let it be adverted, what Mr. Gillespie declares of the case, who put the pen in his hand when he subscribed that declaration: he, perceiving there was sufficient ground to jealouse his reality, and seeing evidently that the courtiers prevailed with the king on a sudden to offer to subscribe the declaration (when they observed that the commissioners of church and state were resolute, and ready to go away in a fixedness, to leave out the putting of his interest in the state of the quarrel) and being afraid of the said consequences of it, spoke his mind plainly to the king: 'That if he was not satisfied in his soul and conscience, beyond all hesitation of the righteousness of the subscription, he was so far from over-driving him to run upon that, for which he had no light, as he obtested him, yea, he charged him in his master's name, and in the name of these who sent him, not to subscribe this declararation, no not for the three kingdoms.' Whereupon the king answered,--Mr. Gillespie, Mr. Gillespie, I am satisfied, I am satisfied with the declaration, and therefore will subscribe it. Upon which some of the courtiers swore that Mr. Gillespie intended simply to dissuade the king from subscribing it, that so church and state might professedly lay aside his interest; which would have defeat their hopes to make up themselves, as now they have done, upon the then designed ruin of the interest of truth. Then at his coronation, we have his again reiterated confirmations of that covenant; first, he is desired in name of the people to accept the crown, and maintain religion according to the national and solemn league and covenant; whereunto he gave his apparently cordial consent (the words are in the form and order of the coronation with the whole action.) Then next, a sermon being preached upon 2 Kings xi. 12 and 17. the action commenceth, with his most solemn renewing of the national and solemn league and covenant, by oath. Then, he is presented to the people, and their willingness demanded to have him for their king on these terms. At the same time, in the next place, he took the coronation oath. Then on these terms he accepted the sword.

And after the crown is set upon his head, the people's obligatory oath is proclaimed on the terms foresaid, otherwise he is not that king to whom they swore subjection. Then being set upon the throne, he was by the minister put in mind of his engagements, from 1 Chron. xxix. 33. And then the n.o.bles of the land came one by one kneeling, and lifting up their hands between his hands, swore the same oath. These things done, the whole action was closed with a most solid and severe exhortation from several instances, Neh. v. 13. Jer. x.x.xiv. 18, 19, 20. &c.

Thereafter in the year 1651, followed the ratification of all these preceeding treaties, transactions, and engagements, concluded and enacted by the king, and the parliament then fully and freely conveened; whereby the same did pa.s.s into a perpetual law. And this covenant, which from the beginning was and is the most sure and indispensible oath of G.o.d, became at length the very fundamental law of the kingdom, whereon all the rights or privileges, either of king or people, are princ.i.p.ally bottomed and secured. This might seem security sufficient, but considering the former discoveries and experiences they had of his treachery, and the visible appearances (in the mean time) of his refusals, visible reluctances, manifest refilings, open counter actings, and continued prejudices against the covenant, and his following unprecedented avowed perjury, every thing doth indelibly fasten upon them the weakness at least of an overweening credulity, and upon him the wickedness of a perfidious policy, in all these condescensions. After this it came to pa.s.s, that zeal for the cause rightly stated was suddenly contracted to a few, and the flame thereof extinguished in many, and court wild-fire subst.i.tute in its place: whereby a plain defection was violently carried on by the public resolutioners, who relapsing into that most sinful conjunction with the people of these abominations, so solemnly repented for and resolved against, did notwithstanding bring in notorious malignants, into places of power and trust, in judicatories and armies, in a more politic than pious way of requiring of them a constrained and dissembled repentance, to the mocking of the G.o.d of truth, and scorn of all our holy engagements.

Which defection did not only cause for a long time an incurable division; the first of that kind, and most permanent of any that ever was in the church of Scotland, by reason of the surcease of general a.s.semblies, stopped and hindered by the yoke of the sectarian usurpation; but also was the spring and source of all our defections since, all flowing from and fomented by that same spirit that fostered that: and for that, since that time, the Lord hath been contending with this church and nation, bringing us under the bondage of these malignant enemies, whom we suffered them then to encourage and introduce. And both at that time, and since that time, the Lord never countenanced an expedition where that malignant interest was taken in unto the state of that quarrel. Upon this our land was invaded by Oliver Cromwel, who defeated our army at Dunbar, where the anger of the Lord was evidently seen to smoke against us, for espousing that interest. And remarkable it is, how in that very day wherein the public resolutions were concluded in the a.s.sembly at St. Andrew's, the Lord then shed the blood of his people at Inverkeithing; so as that the a.s.sembly, having in great haste hurried through this approbation, were all made to run for it, and adjourn themselves to Dundee, where they met and completed that step of defection. And afterwards it is known, what a peculiar vengeance fell upon that city, where this deed was done, beyond all other cities of the nation. Next, an army being raised, according to these unhallowed resolutions, and the Lord putting remarkable discountenance upon them in their attemptings at home, as was manifest in their attemptings at Torwood, &c. They march into England, and there did the Lord continue, by his leaving our army to the sword, to preach that doctrine to the world, Josh. vii. 10, 11, 12. ('Israel hath sinned and transgressed the covenant--have taken the accursed thing--and dissembled also, and have put it even amongst their own stuff, therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: Neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed thing from among you.') An army of near 30,000 was totally routed at Worcester, and the Achan, the cause of the overthrow, was forced to hide himself in the oak, and thence to transport himself beyond sea, where he continued a wandering fugitive in exile, till the year 1660. In the mean time the sectarian army here prevailed, till, after the usurper Cromwel's death, the false Monk then general, with a combination of malignants and public resolutioners, did machinate our misery, and effectuated it by bringing home the king to England from his banishment: Wherein he was habituate into an implacable hatred against the work of G.o.d. Yet, though since the king's first reception into Scotland, our declensions were still growing, until they produced this dreadful revolt from G.o.d, wherein the nation is now involved; there was still a faithful remnant of ministers and professors, zealous for the cause, keeping their integrity; who in their remonstrances and testimonies witnessed against both their malignant enemies, and their backsliding brethren the revolutioners, and also against the sectarians their invaders; whose vast toleration and liberty of conscience, which they brought in to invade our religion as they had invaded our land, and infected it with their multifarious errors, was particularly by the synod of Fife, and other brethren in the ministry that joined themselves to them, testified against, and demonstrated to be wicked and intolerable. Now to see how far the present testimony is confirmed by the witnesses of this period, we may resume some reflections on it.

I. They impartially carried on the testimony against prelacy, and the popish, prelatical and malignant factions on the one hand, and the sectarians on the other, without ever waving the testimony against either, or at the least, winking at the one to weaken the other: both which testimonies they thought of so great importance, that they could not dispense with but faithfully maintain both, in their witnessings and warnings. In that seasonable and necessary warning and declaration, concerning present and imminent dangers, given at Edinburgh July 27.

sess. 27. they first say of the sectaries, 'That prevailing party of sectaries in England, who have broken the covenant, and despised the oath of G.o.d, corrupted the truth, subverted the fundamental government, look upon us with an evil eye, as upon these who stand in the way of their monstrous and new fangled devices in religion and government; and though there were no cause to fear any thing from that party, but the gangrene and infection of those many d.a.m.nable and abominable errors which have taken hold on them; yet our vicinity unto and daily commerce with that nation, may justly make us afraid, that the Lord may give up many in this land into a spirit of delusion to believe lies, because they have not received the love of the truth. In that same warning they say, We are not so to have the one of our eyes upon the sectarians, as not to have the other upon malignants, they being an enemy more numerous and more dangerous than the other; not only because experience hath proven, that there is a greater apt.i.tude and inclination in these of our land to comply with malignants, than sectaries, in that they carry on their wicked design, under a pretext of being for the king, but also because there be many of them in our own bowels.' By which we may see how impartially they opposed both; and that this cannot be condemned in the testimonies of the present sufferers, except the a.s.sembly be condemned. And because many now a-days have extenuating notions of those debates, against prelacy and sectarianism, about the government of the church, &c. and condemn these that would adhere to and suffer for the punctilios of it, as rigid nicety: I shall, for seeing what account the a.s.sembly had of them, cite their words in a letter to the a.s.sembly of divines at Westiminster, dated Edinburgh, June 18, 1646. The 'smallest (say they) of Christ's truths (if it be lawful to call any of them small) is of greater moment than all the other businesses, that ever have been debated since the beginning of the world to this day: but the highest of honours and heaviest of burdens is put upon you; to declare out of the sacred records of divine truth, what is the prerogative of the crown and extent of the sceptre of Jesus Christ; what bounds are to be set between him ruling in his house, and powers established by G.o.d on earth; how and by whom his house is to be governed; and by what ways a restraint is to be put on these who would pervert his truth and subvert the faith of many.'

II. In the manner of maintaining this testimony, these famous fathers, while faithful for G.o.d, gave us a perfect pattern of purity and strictness, in opposition to all degrees of conformity and compliance with the corruptions of the time; and laid down such rules and const.i.tutions, as might regulate us in our contendings about present defections, and teach us what account to make of them, and how to carry towards them: which if adverted unto, would evince how manifest and manifold the declinings of many have been from the late reformation, that yet pretend to adhere unto it, and how justifiable the aversation and abstraction of the present reproaching suffering party is, from all these defections and the daubings of them, because so much deviating and declining from the attained reformation. I need not repeat how prelacy, and all the parts and pendicles of that antichristian hierarchy, were abjured in the national covenant, and condemned in the acts of a.s.semblies, and re-abjured in the solemn league and covenant, and in the solemn acknowledgement of sins and engagement to duties, where also we came under sacred and inviolable engagements, to endeavour the extirpation thereof: Which doth clearly file the present countenancing and submitting to the prelatic curates, in receiving ordinances from them, among the grossest of defections; being altogether inconsistent with these acts and const.i.tutions, and covenant obligations to extirpate them, as much as the countenancing of popish priests were inconsistent therewith, being both equally covenanted to be extirpated. Next, though in this period, tyranny being in its retrograde motion, erastian supremacy was not so much contended for, and therefore not so much questioned as formerly, being held exploded with execration out of doors and out of doubt; yet the testimony was still continued against it, in the uninterrupted maintaining of the church's privileges and freedom of a.s.semblies, against all encroachings of adversaries. And therefore the embracing of the late detestable indulgences, were as contrary to the actings of this as to the testimonies of the former period, against the supremacy from which they flow. Yea many particulars, might be instanced, wherein the accepters had declined from the covenanted reformation then prosecuted; not only in their confederating with malignant usurpers, for the pretended benefit of them (by which, if there had been no more, they are obnoxious to the censure of the church, standing registered in an act of a.s.sembly, ordaining all persons in ecclesiastic office, for the like or lesser degrees of compliance, yea even for procuring protections from malignant enemies, to be suspended from their office and all exercise thereof at Edin. 1646. sess. 14.) Nor only in their taking sinful instructions from them, restricting them in the exercise of their ministry; but in admitting themselves, by their patronage, to be by them presented to their prelimited and pre-imposed congregations: which involves them in the iniquity of the abolished patronages, condemned by the a.s.sembly; for that ministry of such so presented, is made too much to depend upon the will and pleasure of man, and such an imposition is destructive of the church and people's liberties, obstructive of the gospel's freedom and faithful plainness, and occasion of much base flattery and partiality; and in subjecting to, h.o.m.ologating, and fortifying a sacrilegious supremacy, overturning the intrinsic power of the church, contrary to the covenant obliging to the preservation of the government, as well as to the doctrine of the church, in the first article thereof; and in their suffering themselves, either directly or indirectly, either by combination, persuasion, or terror, to be divided and withdrawn from that blessed union and conjunction, which they were obliged to maintain and promove, according to the sixth article of the solemn league and covenant; and in their strengthening the erastian usurpations of enemies encroaching upon the church's liberties and Christ's prerogatives, against which we are engaged expressly in the solemn acknowledgment of sins and engagement to duties, where also we have these words article 2. Because many have of late laboured to supplant the liberties of the church, we shall maintain and defend the church of Scotland, in all her liberties and privileges, against all who shall oppose or undermine the same, or encroach thereupon under any pretext whatsomever. Next, we have many demonstrations of the zeal and strictness of these servants of Christ, in their synodical determinations of censures, to be past upon many ministerial corruptions; which will condemn the present course of covering and countenancing them, and commend the contendings of a poor reproached party against them, in their conscientious abstracting from them. Of which determinations, I shall rehea.r.s.e some. Among the enormities and corruptions of the ministry, in their callings, this is one, sect. 4, 5. Silence in the public cause--some accounting it a point of wisdom to speak, ambiguously--whereof the remedy is sect. 15. 'That beside all other scandals, silence or ambiguous speaking in the public cause--be seasonably censured, general a.s.sembly, at Edinburgh, June 13.

1646.' There is indeed an act against withdrawers from ministers: but in the self same act they are charged to be diligent in fulfilling their ministry, 'to be faithful in preaching, declaring the whole counsel of G.o.d, and as they have occasion from the text of scripture to reprove the sins and errors, and press the duties of the time, and in all these to observe the rules prescribed by the acts of a.s.sembly, wherein if they be negligent, they are to be censured, general a.s.sembly Edinburgh, Aug.

24. 1647. sess. 19.' Then there is that act, Aug. 3. 1648. sess. 26. for censuring ministers for their silence, and not speaking to the corruptions of the time; 'calling it, a great scandal, through some ministers their reserving and not declaring themselves against the prevalent sins of the times; appointing, that all that do not apply their doctrine to these corruptions, which is the pastoral gift, and that are cold or wanting of spiritual zeal, dissembling of public sins, that all such be censured even to deprivation; for forbearing or pa.s.sing in silence the errors and exorbitancies of sectaries in England, or the defections current at home, the plots and practices of malignants, the principles and tenets of erastianism; and if they be found too sparing, general, or ambiguous in their applications and reproofs, and continuing so, they are to be deposed, for being pleasers of men rather than servers of Christ, for giving themselves to a detestable indifferency or neutrality in the cause of G.o.d for defrauding the souls of people, yea for being highly guilty of the blood of souls, in not giving them warning.' And in that seasonable and necessary warning of the general a.s.sembly, Edinbugh July 27. 1649. sess. 27. we are taught how they resented the unfaithfulness of ministers continuing in defections, and how we are to look upon them and carry to them: where they say, it is undeniably true, that many of the evils, 'wherewith this church and kingdom hath been afflicted in our age, have come to pa.s.s because of the negligence of some and corruptions of others of the ministry; and the course of backsliding was carried on, until it pleased G.o.d to stir up the spirits of these few, who stood in the gap, to oppose and resist the fame, and to begin the work of reformation in the land; since which time, the silence of some ministers, and the compliance of others, hath had great influence upon the backslidings of many amongst the people, who, upon the discovery of the evil of their way, complain that they got no warning, or that if they were warned by some, others held their peace, or did justify them in the course of their backsliding: we can look upon such ministers no otherwise, than upon these that are guilty of the blood of the Lord's people, and with whom the Lord will reckon, for all the breach of covenant and defection that hath been in the land; the priest's lips should preserve knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts, but such as are departed out of the way, and have caused many to stumble at the law, therefore hath the Lord made them contemptible before all the people, according as they have not kept his ways, but have been partial in his law, because they have lost their favour, he hath cast out many of them as unsavoury salt.' Furthermore, to evidence the purity and power of zeal burning and blazing in these days in their contendings against public enemies on all hands, I shall instance some of their acts and testimonies, clearly condemning the manifold compliances of this generation and which may contribute somewhat to justify the reproached preciseness of a remnant, standing at the furthest distance from them.

There is an act for censuring the compliars with the public enemies of this church and kingdom, general a.s.sembly, June 17. 1646, sess. 14.

'where, they judge it a great and scandalous provocation, and grievous defection from the public cause, to comply with those malignants (such as James Graham then was) in any degree, even to procure protections from them, or to have invited them to their houses, or to have drunk James Graham's health, or to be guilty of any other such gross degrees of compliance; censured to be suspended from the communions, ay and while they acknowledge their offence.' And yet now, for refusing these degrees of compliance, for not having the protection of a pa.s.s from the wicked courts of malignant enemies, by taking a wicked oath, and for refusing to drink the king's health, a greater enemy then ever James Graham was, some poor conscientious people have not only been murdered by enemies, but mocked and condemned by professors. There is an act likewise, and declaration against all new oaths or bonds in the common cause imposed without consent of the church general a.s.sembly, Edinburgh July 28. 1648. sess. 18. 'Enjoining all the members of the church to fearbear the swearing or subscribing any new oaths, or bonds, in this cause without advice and concurrence of the church, especially any negative oaths or bonds, which may any way limit or restrain them in the duties whereunto they are obliged, by national or solemn league or covenant.' Yet now, for refusing oaths, not only limiting in covenanted duties, but contradicting and condemning many material principles of the covenanted reformation, many have not only lost their lives, but also have been condemned, by them that are at ease, having a wider conscience to swallow such baits. It is known how pertinacious the most faithful in those days were, in their contendings against a.s.sociations, in any undertaking for the cause, with persons disaffected to the true state thereof. I need not give any account of this, were it not that now that principle is quite inverted; and poor adherers to it, for their abstracting and substracting their concurrence with such promiscuous a.s.sociations, are much hated and flouted; therefore I shall give some hints of their sentiments of them. In their answer to the committee of estates, July 25, 1648, sess. 14. the general a.s.sembly says, 'It was represented to the parliament, that for securing of religion it was necessary, that the popish, prelatical, and malignant party, be declared enemies to the cause upon the one hand, as well as sectaries upon the other, and that all a.s.sociations either in forces or counsels, with the former as well as with the latter, be avoided.' And in their declaration concerning the present dangers of religion, especially the unlawful engagement in war, July ult. 1648. sess. 21. they say, 'Suppose the ends of that engagement be good (as they are not) yet the means and ways of prosecution are unlawful; because there is not an equal avoiding of rocks on both hands, but a joining with malignants to suppress sectaries, a joining hands with a black devil to beat a white devil; they are bad physicians who would so cure one disease, as to breed another as evil or worse--we find in the scriptures condemned, all confederacies and a.s.sociations with the enemies of true religion, whether Canaanites, Exod. xxiii. 32 and 24. xii. 15. Deut. vii. 2. or other heathens, 1 Kings xi. 1, 2.' More arguments against a.s.sociations may be seen in that excellent discussion of this useful case, concerning a.s.sociations and confederacies with idolaters, infidels, hereticks, or any other known enemy of truth or G.o.dliness, by famous Mr. G. Gillespie, published at that same time: whereunto is appended his letter to the commission of the general a.s.sembly, having these golden words in it, words fitly spoken in that season, when he was a-dying, at the beginning of the public resolutions: 'Having heard of some motions and beginnings of compliance, with these who have been so deeply engaged in a war destructive to religion and the kingdom's liberties, I cannot but discharge my conscience, in giving a testimony against all such compliance. I know and am persuaded, that all the faithful witnesses that gave testimony to the thesis, that the late engagement was contrary and destructive to the covenant, will also give testimony to the appendix, that compliance with any who have been active in that engagement is most sinful and unlawful. I am not able to express all the evils of that compliance, they are so many--But above all, that which would heighten this sin even to the heavens is, that it were not only a horrid backsliding, but a backsliding into that very sin, which was specially pointed at and punished by the prevalency of the malignant party, G.o.d justly making them thorns and scourges who were taken in as friends. Alas! shall we split twice upon the same rock? yea run upon it, when G.o.d hath set a beacon on it? yea I may say, shall we thus outface and outdare the Almighty, by protecting his and our enemies, by making peace and friends.h.i.+p with them, when the anger of the Lord is burning against them. I must here apply to our present condition, the words of Ezrah, ix. 14.--O happy Scotland, if thou canst now improve and not abuse this golden opportunity! but if thou help the unG.o.dly, and love them that hate the Lord, wrath upon wrath, and wo upon wo, shall be upon thee from the Lord.' Whereunto is subjoined his dying testimony to the same purpose; wherein are these words: 'But if there shall be falling back, to the sin of compliance with malignant unG.o.dly men, then I look for the breaking out of the wrath of the Lord, till there be no remedy.'

This was the warning of a worthy dying man. Notwithstanding of which and many other warnings and witnessings, a course of compliance was commenced by the public resolutioners, and continued in to this day; wherein that faithful warning of a dying servant of Christ is verified.

But before I leave this purpose, I must obviate an objection that some make use of for strengthening themselves in their incorporations and joining at least in wors.h.i.+p, with the corruptions of the time, and for condemning conscientious withdrawers; that the G.o.dly in those days did not separate from the men of these compliances and defections, as many do now, viz. the protesting party did not withdraw from the public resolutioners and a.s.sociators with malignants. I answer, first, many and these the most G.o.dly and tender did withdraw, even from their own ministers, and would have gone forty or fifty miles to hear a faithful minister at that time: yea ministers themselves, in the case of intrusion of the unfaithful, would have supplied the paroch, as if the church had been vacant, and when they could not get access to the pulpit, they preached in the fields, on purpose to witness against, and professedly to withdraw the people from such an unfaithful intruder; as might be instanced particularly for time and place, if need were. But next, the church then, though broken by division, and under the subjection of strangers deprived of her general a.s.semblies, yet was in a const.i.tute case, enjoying the privilege, power and order of synods and presbyteries, to whom the people offended with their ministers might address themselves, for an orderly redress, and removal of these scandals in an ordinary way; and so they needed not a.s.sume to themselves that power to regulate their communion, that in a broken state, as now is, must be allowed to them. And besides, both the ministers at that time who were faithful, though they might have proceeded to censure and silence the corrupt party as they were obliged, yet not only found it difficult by reason of the injury of the times; but also thought it best to spare them, and the people to bear them, as burdens; until, as they were still in hopes, they should obtain a general a.s.sembly to take order with them, but now it is not so. And then the defection was but beginning, and people did not know and could not expect it would go such a length, and therefore could not fall upon the rigour of that duty, which such disorders call for at first: but if they had seen where these beginnings would land them at length, I doubt not but they would have resisted those beginnings, in such a way as would have precluded this imputation of novelty upon our necessitated withdrawings.

III. We have in this period, not only an ill.u.s.trious testimony for the principle, but a continued and unintermitted putting into practice the duty of defensive arms, in resisting the sovereign power, maleversing and abusing authority to the destruction of the ends of it; which resistance was avowed, encouraged, and furthered by the general a.s.sembly, both for the defence of themselves, and for the help of their brethren in England. Take one expression in their solemn and seasonable warning to all ranks, Feb. 12, 1645, sess. 18.--'Unless men will blot out of their hearts the love of religion and cause of G.o.d, and cast off all care of their country, laws, liberties, &c. (all being in visible danger of present ruin and destruction) they must now or never appear actively, each one stretching himself to, yea beyond his power. It is not time to dally, or go about the business by halves, nor be almost, but altogether zealous: Cursed is he that doeth the work of the Lord negligently. If we have been forward to a.s.sist our neighbour kingdoms, shall we neglect to defend our own? Or shall the enemies of G.o.d be more active against his cause than his people for it? G.o.d forbid.' In another seasonable and necessary warning, July 27, 1649, sess. 27. they say, 'But if his majesty, or any having or pretending power and commission from him, shall invade this kingdom, upon pretext of establis.h.i.+ng him in the exercise of his royal power; as it will be an high provocation against G.o.d, to be accessory or a.s.sisting thereto, so it will be a necessary duty to resist and oppose the same.' These fathers could well distinguish, between authority and the person abusing it: and were not so loyal, as now their degenerate children are ambitious to shew themselves, stupidly stooping to the shadow thereof, and yet will be called the only a.s.serters of presbyterian principles. But we find, they put it among the characters of malignants, to confound the king's honour and authority with the abuse and pretence thereof, and with commissions, warrants, and letters, procured from the king by the enemies of the cause and covenant, as if we could not oppose the latter, without incroaching upon the former. But here an objection or two must be removed out of the way before we go forward. One is, from the third article of the covenant; where there seems to be a great deal of loyalty, obliging to defend the king's majesty, his person and authority, in the preservation and defence of the true religion and liberties of the kingdoms, 'that the world may bear witness with our consciences of our loyalty, and that we have no thoughts or intentions to diminish his majesty's just power and greatness.' I answer, there is indeed a deal of loyalty there, and true loyalty, because lawfully limited, being qualified with, and subordinate unto the preservation and defence of the true religion and liberties of the kingdom (as the makers of the covenant do expound it, in the a.s.sembly's declaration against the unlawful engagement, July _ult._ 1648, sess. 21.) not that reverse loyalty, which makes duties to G.o.d conditional and limited, and duties to the king absolute and unlimited, as our loyalists do now. And I wish others were free of it, who have sworn oaths of unlimited allegiances to maintain the king in any power unto which his force aspires; and to justify this their loyalty, will bring in this article of the covenant with a distorted sense, reading it backward, 'that we in the preservation and defence of religion must preserve and defend the king:'

As if religion obliged to defend him, do what he will. It were better such pretended covenanters denied the covenant, than to be such a reproach to it, in wresting its genuine sense. But I have adduced the sense of the best interpreters of it, the general a.s.sembly. Next when they entered under the bond of this covenant, they did it with a purpose to oppose all his invasions upon religion and the liberties of the people, and to vindicate these precious interests from his usurpings, into a state of liberty: And shall we imagine, that that very oath of G.o.d did lay upon them or us an obligation to defend the person who is a destroyer of all these, contrary to the very nature of the oath, contrary to the hope of the covenanters, and contrary to their subsequent practice? But then it will be urged, why then was that clause cast into the covenant? I answer we have not the same cause to keep it, as they had some cause to put it in, with accommodation to the present possessor of the sovereignty. The owning of it in our circ.u.mstances would be as great a reproach to us, as the want of it was to them in theirs. They put in the words to prevent the world's mistake, and to remove that odium industriously heaped upon the heads of whose hearts were a.s.sociate in the defence of religion and liberty, therefore they would profess they would not be disloyal while he was for G.o.d. And a defiance may be given to clamour, and calumny itself, to give one instance of the defect of performance hereof, while he went not about to ruin those things, incomparably more precious than his person or authority, and in ruining whereof no person can retain authority.

IV. But now two things will chiefly be desiderated, which now we own in our testimony, for which many have died, that seem not to be confirmed by or consistent with the testimony of this period. One is, that we not only maintain defensive resistance, but in some cases vindictive and punitive force, to be executed upon men that are b.l.o.o.d.y beasts of prey, and burdens to the earth, in cases of necessity, when there is no living among them. This principle of reason and natural justice, was not much inquired into in this time; when the sun was up, whose warmth and light made these beasts creep into their dens, and when they, being brought under subjection, could not force people into such extraordinary violent courses when the ordinary and orderly course of law was running in its right channel. Yet from the ground of their ordinary procedure, military and civil, against such monsters, we may gather the lawfulness of an ordinary procedure in a pinch of necessity, conform to their grounds: I hope to make this evident, when I come _ex proposito_ to vindicate this head. But there is another thing that we own, which seems not to have been known in these days, viz. That when we are required to own the authority of the present dominator, we hold sinful to own it. Yet we find these reverend and renowned fathers owned King Charles I. and did not refuse the succession of Charles II. I shall answer in order. First, As to King Charles I. there was a great difference betwixt him and his sons that succeeded; he never declared parliamentarily that neither promises, contracts, nor oaths should bind him, as the first of his perfidious sons did; it might have been then presumed, if he had engaged so far for promoving the work of G.o.d, he would have been a man of his word (for to say a king of his word, is antiquitate in a good sense, except that it means he is as absolute in his word as in his sword, and scorns to be a slave to it.) Neither professed he himself a papist, as the second son hath done: Again it must be granted, that more might have been comported with in the beginning, when there were some hopes of redress, than after such process of time; whereby now we see and feel beyond all debate, that the throne stands and is stated, not only in opposition to, but upon the ruins of the rights and privileges both of religion and liberty. But was not the equivalent done by the church, anno 1648, when they refused to concur with that unlawful engagement, for restoring of the king, 'till security be had, by solemn oath under his hand and seal, that he shall for himself and successors, give his a.s.sent to all acts and bills for enjoining presbyterial government, and never make opposition to it, nor endeavour any change thereof? July _ult._ 1648. sess. 21.' But it will be laid, that in their renewing the covenant that year, they did not leave out that article. True, thereby they stopped the mouths of their adversaries; and then they were not without hopes, but that in his straits he might have proved a Mana.s.seh taken among the thorns. And the covenanters at that time, not being clear that he had done that which _ipso jure_ made him no magistrate, chused rather, while matters stood so, to engage to maintain him, than simply to disown him (which yet our forefathers did upon smaller grounds many times) in the hopes of being prevailed with at last. But when they saw that this proved ineffectual, therefore at the coronation of the new king they made the covenanted interest the sole basis upon which alone authority was conferred upon him. For the second, though they did not refuse the succession of Charles the Second (which was their blame and our bane, of which we may blush this day) yet we find many things in that transaction which justify our disowning of him, and condemn the owning of the present possessor. (1.) In that seasonable and necessary warning, July 27, sess. 27. 'whereas many would have admitted his majesty to the exercise of his royal power, upon any terms whatsoever: the a.s.sembly declares first; that a boundless and unlimited power is to be acknowledged in no king nor magistrate; neither is our king to be admitted to the exercise of his power, as long as he refuses to walk in the administration of the same, according to this rule. Secondly, that there is a mutual stipulation and obligation between the king and the people, as both of them are tied to G.o.d, so each of them are tied to one another, for the performance of mutual and reciprocal duties; accordingly kings are to take the oath of coronation, to abolish popery and maintain the protestant religion: As long therefore as the king refuses to engage and oblige himself for security of religion and safety of his people, it is consonant to scripture and reason and laws of the kingdom, that he should be refused. Thirdly, in the league and covenant the duty of defending and preserving the king, is subordinate to the duty of preserving religion and liberty: And therefore, he standing in opposition to the public desires of the people for their security, it were a manifest breach of covenant, and a preferring the king's interest to the interest of Jesus Christ, to bring him to the exercise of his power. Fourthly, That it was for restraint of arbitrary government, and for their just defence against tyranny, that the Lord's people did join in covenant, and have been at the expence of so much blood these years past; and if he should be admitted to the government before satisfaction, it were to put in his hand that arbitrary power, and so to abandon their former principles, and betray the cause.

Fifthly, That he, being admitted before satisfaction, would soon endeavour an overturning of the things which G.o.d hath wrought, and labour to draw public administrations, concerning religion and liberty, into that course and channel in which they did run under prelacy, and before the work of reformation. Whence they warn that every one take heed of such a snare, that they be not accessory to any such design, as they would not bring upon themselves and their families, the guilt of all the detriment that will undoubtedly follow thereupon, of all the miseries it will bring upon the kingdoms--And therefore whosoever attempt the same, oppose themselves to the cause of G.o.d, and will at last dash against the rock of the Lord's power, which hath broken in pieces many high and lofty ones, since the beginning of the work in the kingdoms.' 2. I shall here insert the act of the West-kirk, declaring their mind very manifestly.

'_West Kirk, August 13, 1650._ The commission of the general a.s.sembly, considering that there may be just ground of stumbling, from the king's majesty refusing to subscribe and emit the declaration, offered to him by the committee of estates and the commission of the general a.s.sembly, concerning his former carriage and resolutions for the future, in reference to the cause of G.o.d and the enemies and friends thereof; doth therefore declare, That this kirk and kingdom doth not own or espouse any malignant party, or quarrel, or interest, but that they fight merely upon their former grounds and principles, and in the defence of the cause of G.o.d and of the kingdom, as they have done these twelve years past: And therefore, as they disclaim all the sin and guilt of the king and of his house, so they will not own him nor his interest, otherwise than with a subordination to G.o.d, and so far as he owns and prosecutes the cause of G.o.d, and disclaims his and his father's opposition to the work of G.o.d, and to the covenant, and likewise all the enemies thereof; and that they will with convenient speed take unto consideration the papers, lately sent unto them by Oliliver Cromwel, and vindicate themselves from all the falshoods contained therein; especially in these things wherein the quarrel betwixt us and that party is mistated, as we owned the late king's proceedings, and were resolved to prosecute and maintain his present majesty's interest, before and without acknowledgement of the sin of his house and former ways, and satisfaction to G.o.d's people in both kingdoms.'

'A. KER.'

'_August 13, 1650._ The committee of estates, having seen and considered a declaration of the commission of the general a.s.sembly, anent the stating of the quarrel wherein the army is to fight, do approve the same, and heartily concur therein.'

'THO. HENDERSON.'

In the third place: It is specified in the Causes of Wrath, as one of the steps of defection, Art. 9. Step. 5. 'That a treaty should have been closed with him, upon his subscribing demands, after he had given many clear evidences of his disaffection and enmity to the work and people of G.o.d: That these demands, which he was required to subscribe, did not contain a real security, a real abandoning of former malignant courses and principles, and cleaving to the work of G.o.d; it was not a paper or verbal security which we were bound to demand of him, but a real one; and to entrust him without this, was but to mock G.o.d, and to deceive the world, and to betray and destroy ourselves, by giving up all the precious interests of religion and liberty unto the hands of one, who was in a course of enmity to them: That both before, and in the mean time of the treaty, he had given evidences of his enmity in many instances there condescended upon particularly; that he authorized James Graham to invade this kingdom, and encouraged him by letters to go on in that invasion, even whilst he was in terms of a treaty with us, as appeared by bringing into our hands the authentic commission itself, and sundry letters under his own hand.' Next, in the same Causes of Wrath, among the sins of the ministry, in relation to the public, sect. 10, 11, 12, 13. 'That they agreed to receive the king to the covenant, barely upon writing, without any apparent evidences of a real change of principle: That they did not use freedom, in showing what was sinful in reference to that treaty, but went on therein when they were not satisfied in their consciences, for fear of reproach, and of being mistaken: That they were silent in public, and did not give testimony, after a discovery of the king's commission to James Graham for invading the kingdom: That they pressed the king to make a declaration to the world, whilst they knew by clear evidences that he had no real conviction of the things contained therein.'

PERIOD VI.

_Containing the Testimony through the continued tract of the present deformation from the year 1660 to this day._

Now comes the last catastrophe of the deformation of the church of Scotland, which now renders her to all nations as infamously despicable, as her reformation formerly made her admired and envied; which in a retrograde motion hath gradually been growing these 27 years, going back through all the steps by which the reformation ascended, till now she is returned to the very border of that Babylon, from whence she took her departure, and reduced through defection, and division, and persecutious to a confused chaos of almost irreparable dissolution, and unavoidable desolation. Through all which steps notwithstanding, to this day, Scotland hath never wanted a witness for Christ, against all the various steps of the enemy's advancings, and of professed friends declinings: though the testimony hath had some singularities, some way discriminating it from that of former periods; in that it hath been more difficult by reason of more desperate and dreadful a.s.saults of more enraged enemies, more expert and experienced in the accursed art of overturning than any formerly; in that it hath been attended with more disadvantages, by reason of the enemies greater prevalency, and friends deficency, and greater want of significant a.s.serters, than any formerly; in that it hath been intangled in more multifarious intricacies of questions, and debates, and divisions among the a.s.sertors themselves, making it more dark, and yet in the end contributing to clear it more than any formerly; in that it hath been intended and extended to a greater measure, both as to matter and manner of contendings against the adversaries, and stated upon nicer points; more enixly prosecuted and tenaciously maintained, and sealed with more sufferings, than any formerly; in that it hath had more opposition and contradiction, and less countenance from professed friends to the reformation, either at home or abroad, than any formerly. And yet it hath had all these several speciallties together, which were peculiar to the former testimonies, in their respective periods: being both active and pa.s.sive, both against enemies and friends; and _in c.u.mulis_ stated against atheism, popery, prelacy, and erastian supremacy, which were the successive heads of the former testimonies, and also now extended in a particular manner against tyranny. And not only against the substance and circ.u.mstance, abstract and concret root and branch, head and tail of them, and all complying with them, conforming to them, or deduced from them, any manner of way, directly or indirectly, formally or interpretatively. This is that extensive and very comprehensive testimony of the present period, as it is now stated and sealed with the blood of many: which in all its parts, points and pendicles is most directly relative, and dilucidly reducible, to a complex witness for the declarative glory of Christ's kings.h.i.+p and heads.h.i.+p over all, as he is Mediator, which is the greatest concern that creatures have to contend for, either as men or as Christians. The matter of this testimony, I shall give a short manuduction to the progress and result of its management.

During the exile of the royal brothers, it is undeniably known that they were, by their mothers caresses and the jesuits allurements, seduced to abjure the reformed religion (which was easy to induce persons to, that never had the sense of any religion) and to be reconciled to the church of Rome: and that, not only they wrote to the pope many promises of promoting his projects, if ever they should recover the power into their hands again, and often frequented the ma.s.s themselves; but also, by their example and the influence of their future hopes, prevailed with many of their dependents and attendants abroad, to do the like. Yet it is unquestionably known, that in the mean time of his exile, he renewed and confirmed, by private letters to presbyterians, his many reiterated engagements to adhere to the covenant, and declared that he was and would continue the same man, that he had declared himself to be in Scotland, (wherein doubtless, as he was an expert artist, he equivocated, and meant in his heart he would continue as treacherous as ever) which helped to keep a loyal impression of his interest in the hearts of too many, and an expectation of some good of him, of which they were ashamed afterwards. And immediately before his return, it is known what promises are contained in that declaration from Breda (from whence he came also the second time, with greater treachery than at the first) to all protestants that would live peaceably under his government; beginning now to weigh out his perfidy, and perjury, and breach of covenant, in offering to tolerate that in an indulgence, which he swore to maintain as a duty. But in all this he purposed nothing, but to ingere and ingratiate himself into the peoples over credulous affections, that they might not obstruct his return, which a jealousy of his intended tyranny would have awakened them to withstand. And so having seated himself, and strengthened his power against the attemptings of any, whom his conscience might suggest an apprehension that they ought to resist him, he thought himself discharged from all obligations of covenants, oaths, or promises, for which his faith had been pledged. And from the first hour of his arrival, he did in a manner set himself to affront and defy the authority of G.o.d, and to be revenged upon his kingdoms for inviting him so unanimously to sway their sceptre; in polluting and infecting the people with all debaucheries and monstrous villanies; and commencing his incestous wh.o.r.edoms that very first night he came to his palace, wherein he continued to his dying day outvying all for vileness. Yet he went on deluding our church with his dissimulations, and would not discover all his wickedness hatched in his heart at first, till his designs should be riper; but directed a letter to the presbytery of Edinburgh, declaring he was resolved to protect and preserve the government of the church of Scotland, as it is settled by law without violation: wherein it was observed he altered the stile, and spake never a word of the covenant, our _Magna Charta_ of religion and righteousness, our greatest security for all interests intrusted to him, but only of law; by which, as his practice expounded it afterwards, he meant the prelatical church, as it was settled by the law of his father, since which time he reckoned there was no law but rebellion. This was a piece and prelude of our base defection, and degeneration into blind blockish, and brutish stupidity; that after he had discovered so much perfidy, we not only at first tempted him to perjury, in admitting him to the crown, upon his mock-engagement in the covenant, whereby G.o.d was mocked, his Spirit was grieved, his covenant prost.i.tuted, the church cheated, and the state betrayed; but after the Lord had broken his yoke from off our necks, by sending him to exile ten years, where he was discovered to be imbibing all that venom and tyrannical violence, which he afterward vented in revenge upon the nation; and after we had long smarted for our first transaction with him; yet notwithstanding of all this, we believed him again, and Issachar-like couched under his burdens and were so far from withstanding, that we did not so much as witness against the re-admission and restoration of the head and tail of malignants, but let them come in peaceably to the throne, without any security to the covenanted cause, or for our civil or religious interests, and by meal, at their own ease, leisure and pleasure, to overturn all the work of G.o.d, and reintroduce the old antichristian yoke of absurd prelacy, and blasphemous sacreligious, supremacy, and absolute arbitrary tyranny with all their abominations: which he, and with him the generality of our n.o.bility, gentry, clergy, and commonality by him corrupted, without regard to faith, or fear of G.o.d or man, did promote and propogate, the nation was involved in the greatest revolt from, and rebellion against G.o.d, that ever could be recorded in any age or generation; nay attended with greater and grosser aggravations, than ever any could be capable of before us, who have had the greatest privileges that ever any church had, since the national church of the Jews, the greatest light, the greatest effects of matchless magnified love, the greatest convictions of sin, the greatest resolutions and solemn engagements against it, and the greatest reformation from it, that ever any had to abuse and affront. O heavens be astonished at this, and horribly afraid! for Scotland hath changed her glory, and the crown hath fallen from off her head, by an unparalelled apostasy, a free and voluntary, wilful and deliberate apostasy, an avowed and declared and authorized apostasy, tyrannically carried on by military violence and cruelty, a most universal and every way unprecedented apostasy! I must a little change my method, in deducing the narration of this catastrophe, and subdistinguish this unhappy period into several steps; shewing how the enemies opposition to Christ advanced, and the testimony of his witnesses did gradually ascend, to the pitch it is now arrived at.

I. These enemies of G.o.d, having once got footing again, with the favour and the fawnings of the foolish nation, went on fervently to further and promote their wicked design: and meeting with no opposition at first, did encourage themselves to begin boldly. Wherefore, hearing of some ministers peaceably a.s.sembled, to draw up a monitory letter to the king, minding him of his covenant engagements and promises (which was though weak, yet the first witness and warning against that heaven-daring wickedness then begun) they cruelly incarcerate them. Having hereby much daunted the ministry from their duty in that day, for fear of the like unusual and outrageous usage. The parliament convenes January 1, 1661, without so much as a protestation for religion and liberty given in to them. And there, in the first place, they frame and take the oath of supremacy, exauctorating Christ, and investing his usurping enemy with the spoils of his robbed prerogative, acknowledging the king 'only supreme governor over all persons and in all causes, and that his power and jurisdiction must not be declined.' Whereby under all persons and all causes, all church officers, in their most properly ecclesiastic affairs and concerns of Christ, are comprehended: And if the king shall take upon him to judge their doctrine, wors.h.i.+p, discipline, or government, he must not be declined as an incompetent judge. Which did at once enervate all the testimony of the 4th period above declared, and laid the foundation for all this Babel they have built since, and of all this war that hath been waged against the Son of G.o.d, and did introduce all this tyranny and absolute power, which hath been since carried to its complement, and made the king's throne the foundation of all the succeeding perjury and apostacy. Yet, though then our synods and presbyteries were not discharged, but might have had access in some concurrence to witness against this horrid invasion upon Christ's prerogative and the church's privilege, no joint testimony was given against it, except that some were found witnessing against it in their singular capacity by themselves. As faithful Mr. James Guthrie, for declining this usurped authority in prejudice of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus, suffered death, and got the martyr's crown upon his head: And some others, for refuting that oath arbitrarily imposed, were banished or confined, when they had gained this bulwark of Christ's kingdom; then they waxed more insolent, and set up their ensigns for signs, and broke down the carved work of reformation with axes and hammers. In this parliament, 1661, they past an _act rescissory_ whereby they annulled and declared void the national covenant, the solemn league and covenant, presbyterial government, and all laws made in favour of the work of reformation since the year 1643. O horrid wickedness! both in its nature so atrocious, to condemn and rescind what G.o.d did so signally seal as his own work, to the conviction of the world, and for which he will rescind the rescinders, and overturn these overturners of his work, and make the curse of that broken covenant bind them to the punishment, whom its bond could not oblige to the duty covenanted; and in its design and end so base and detestable, for nothing but to flatter the king in making way for prelacy, tyranny, and popery, and to indulge the licentiousness of some debauched n.o.bles, who could not endure the yoke of Christ's government, and to suppress religion and righteousness under the ruins of that reformation. But O holy and astonis.h.i.+ng justice, thus to recompence our way upon our own head! to suffer this work and cause to be ruined under our unhappy hands, who suffered this destroyer to come in before it was so effectually secured, as it should not have been in the power of his hand (whatever had been in his heart, swelled with enmity against Christ) to have razed and ruined that work as now most wickedly he did, and drew in so many into the guilt of the same deed, that almost the whole land not only consented unto it but applauded it; by approving and countenancing another wicked act framed at the same time, by that same perfidious parliament for an anniversary thanksgiving, commemorating every 29th of May, that blasphemy against the Spirit and work of G.o.d, and celebrating that unhappy restoration of the rescinder of the reformation; which had not only the concurrence of the universality of the nation, but (alas for shame that it should be told in Gath, &c!) even of some ministers who afterwards accepted of the indulgence (one of which, a pillar among them, was seen scandalously dancing about the bonefires.) And others, who should have alarmed the whole nation _quasi pro aris & focis_, to rise for religion and liberty, to resist such wickedness, did wink at it. O how righteous is the Lord now in turning our harps into mourning! Though alas! we will not suffer ourselves to this day, to see the s.h.i.+ning righteousness of this retribution: And though we be scourged with scorpions, and brayed in a mortar, our madness, our folly in these irreligious frolics, is not yet acknowledged, let be lamented. Yet albeit, neither in this day when then the covenant was not only broken, but ca.s.sed and declared of no obligation, nor afterward when it was burnt (for which Turks and Pagans would have been ashamed and afraid at such a terrible sight, and for which the Lord's anger is burning against these bold burners, and against them who suffered it, and did not witness against it) was there any public testimony by protestation or remonstrance, or any public witness? though the Lord had some then, and some who came out afterward with the trumpet at their mouth, whole heart then sorrowed at the sight; and some suffered for the sense they shewed of that anniversary abomination, for not keeping which they lost both church and liberty. It is true the ordinary meetings of presbyteries and synods were about that time discharged, to make way for the exercise of the new power conferred on the four prelates who were at court, re-ordained and consecrated thereby renouncing their former t.i.tle to the ministry. But this could not give a discharge from a necessary testimony, then called for from faithful watchmen. However the reformation being thus rescinded and razed, and the house of the Lord pulled down, then they begin to build their Babel. In the parliament 1662, by their first act they restore and re-establish prelacy, upon such a foundation as they might by the same law bring in popery, which was then designed; and so settled its harbinger diocesan and erastian prelacy, by fuller enlargement of the supremacy. The very act begins thus: 'For as much as the ordering and disposal of the external government of the church, doth properly belong to his majesty as an inherent right of the crown, by virtue of his royal prerogative, and supremacy in causes ecclesiastic--whatever shall be determined by his majesty, with advice of the archbishops, and such of the clergy as he shall nominate, in the external government of the church (the same consisting with the standing laws of the kingdom) shall be valid and effectual. And in the same act all laws are rescinded, by which the sole power and jurisdiction within the church doth stand in the church a.s.semblies, and all which may be interpreted, to have given any church power, jurisdiction, or government to the office-bearers of the church, other than that which acknowledgeth a dependence upon, and subordination to the sovereign power of the king as supreme.' By which, prelates are redintegrated to all their privileges and pre-eminencies, that they possessed 1637. And all their church power (robbed from the officers of Christ) is made to be derived from, to depend upon, and to be subordinate to the crown prerogative of the king: whereby the king is made the only fountain of church power, and that exclusive even of Christ, of whom there is no mentioned exception: And his va.s.sals the bishops, as his clerks in ecclesiastics, are accountable to him for all their administrations; a greater usurpation upon the kingdom of Christ, than ever the papacy itself aspired unto. Yet, albeit here was another display of a banner of defiance against Christ, in altering the church government of Christ's inst.i.tution into the human invention of lordly prelacy, in a.s.suming a power by prerogative to dispose then of the external government of the church, and in giving his creatures patents for this effect, to be his administrators for that usurped government; there was no public, ministerial, at least united testimony against this neither. Therefore the Lord punished this sinful and shameful silence of ministers, in his holy justice, though by men's horrid wickedness; when by another wicked act of the council at Glasgow, above 300 ministers were put from their charges; and afterwards, for their non-conformity in not countenancing their diocesan meeting, and not keeping the anniversary day, May 29, the rest were violently thrust from their labours in the Lord's vineyard, and banished from their parishes, and adjudged unto a nice and strange confinement, twenty miles from their own parishes, six miles from a cathedral church, as they called it, and three miles from a burgh; whereby they were reduced into many inconveniencies. Yet in this fatal convulsion of the church, generally all were struck with blindness and baseness, that a paper proclamation made them all run from their posts, and obey the king's orders for their ejection. Thus were they given up, because of their forbearing to sound an alarm, charging the people of G.o.d, in point of loyalty to Christ, and under the pain of the curse of the covenant, to awake and aquit themselves like men, and not to suffer the enemy to rob them of that treasure of reformation, which they were put in possession of, by the tears, prayers, and blood of such as went before them; instead of those prudential fumblings and firstlings then and since so much followed.

Wherefore the Lord in his holy righteousness, left that enemy (against whom they should have cried and contended, and to whose eye they should have held the curse of the covenant, as having held it first to their own, in case of unfaithful silence in not holding it to his) to call them out of the house of the Lord, and dissolve their a.s.semblies, and deprive them of their privileges, because of their not being so valiant for the truth, as that a full and faithful testimony against that encroachment might be found upon record. Nevertheless some were found faithful in that hour and power of darkness, who kept the word of the Lord's patience, and who were therefore kept in and from that temptation (which carried many away into sad and shameful defections) though not from suffering hard things from the hands of men; and only these who felt most of their violence, found grace helping them to acquit themselves suitably to that day's testimony, being thereby prevented from an active yielding to their impositions, when they were made pa.s.sively to suffer force. However that season of a public testimony was lost, and as to the most part never recovered to this day. The prelates being settled, and re-admitted to voice in parliament, they procure an act, dogmatically condemning several material parts and points of our covenanted reformation, to wit, these positions, 'That it was lawful for subjects, for reformation or necessary self-defence, to enter into leagues, or take up arms against the king