Review of Brambles Warning Against the Scots Discipline, Chapter 6
CHAP. VI.
It grieves the Praelats that Presbyterians are faithfull Watchmen, to admonish Princes of their duty.
THE ſixth Chapter is ſpent on an other crime of the Presbytery; The Scots Miniſters preaching for juſtice, was juſt and neceſſary.it makes the Presbiters cry to the Magiſtrat for juſtice upon capitall offenders. Anſ. What hes Presbytery to doe with this matter were it never ſo great an offence: will the Warner have all the faults of the praelaticall faction, flow from the fountaine of Epiſcopacy? this unconſequentiall reaſoning will not be permitted to men below the degrees of Doctors. But was it a very great crime indeed for Miniſters to plead the cauſe of the fatherleſſe and widowes, yea the cauſe of God their Maſter and to preach unto Magiſtrats, that according to Scriptures murtherers ought to die, and the Land bee purged from the ſtaine of innocent blood? when the shamefull impunity of murther made Scotland by deadly fends, in time of peace a feild of warre and blood, was it not time for the faithfull ſervants of God to exhort the King toexecute juſtice, and to declare the danger of moſt frequent pardons drawne from his hand often againſt his heart by the importunity and deceitfull information of powerfull ſolicitors, to the great offence of God againſt the whole land, to the unexpreſſible griefe and wrong of the ſuffering party, to the opening alſo of a new floodgate of more blood which by a legall revenge in time eaſily might have been ſtopped? Too much pitty in ſparing the wilfull shedders of innocent blood ordinarlie proves a great cruelty, not only to wards the diſconſolat oppreſſed who cry to the vicegerents of God the avenger, for juſtice in vaine, but alſo towards the ſoule 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 crymes.whether the Miniſters had reaſon often to give Warning againſt that wicked man and his complices. Beſide his apoſtacy and after-ſeeming-repentance his frequent relapſes into avowed popery, in the eighty eight he banded with the King of Spaine to overthrow the religion and government of the whole Iland and after pardon, from time to time did renew his treaſonable plots for the ruine of Britain: hee did commit many murders, he did invade under the noſe of the King, the houſe of his Couſin the Earle of Murray, and moſt cruelly murdered that gallant Nobleman, hee appeared with diſplayed Banner againſt the King in perſon, he killed thereafter many hundreds of the Kings good people, when theſe multiplyed outrages did cry up to the God of heaven, was is not time for the men of God to cry to the judges of the earth to doe their duty, according to the warrant of many Scriptures? what a dangerous humour of flattery is this in our Praelats, not only to lull aſleep a Prince in a moſt ſinfull neglect of his charge, but alſo to cry out upon others more faithfull then themſelves for aſſaying to breake of their ſlumber by their wholeſome and ſeaſonable admonitions from the word of God?
The nixt challenge of the Scotes Presbyters is that they ſpoile the King of his Tythes, Never any queſtion in Scotland betwixt the King and the Church, for Tythes and patronages.firſt fruits, patronage and dependence of his ſubjects. Anſ. The Warner underſtands not what he writes, the Kings Majeſtie in Scotland never had, never craved any firſt fruits: the Church never ſpoiled the King of any Tythes, ſome other men indeed, by the wickedneſſe moſt of Praelats and their followers, did couſin both the King and the Church of many Tythes: but his Majeſtie and the Church had never any controverſie in Scotland about the Tythes: for the King, ſo far as concerned himſelfe, was ever willing that the Church should enjoy that which the very act of Parliament acknowledgeth to bee her patrimony. Nor for the patronages had the Church any plea with the King: the Church declared often their minde of the iniquity of patronages, wherein they never had from the King any conſiderable oppoſition, but from the Nobility and gentry the oppoſition was ſo great, that for peaceſake the Church was content to let patronages alone, till God should make a Parliament lay to heart what was incumbent for gracious men to doe, for liberating congregations from their ſlavery of having Miniſters intruded upon them by the violence of Patrones. Which now at laſt (bleſſed be God) according to our mind is performed. As for the dependence of any vaſſals upon the King, King Iames avowes himſelfe a hater of Eraſtianiſme.it was never queſtioned by any Presbyterian in Scotland.
What is added in the reſt of the Chapter, is but a repetition of that which went before, to wit, the Presbyters denying to the King the ſpirituall government of the Church, and the power of the keyes of the Kingdome of heaven: ſuch an uſurpation upon the Church, King James declared under his hand (as at length may be ſeen in the Hiſtoricall vindication) to be a ſinne againſt the Father, Son, and Holy Ghoſt, which puts in the hand of the Magiſtrat the power of preaching and celebrating the Sacraments: a power which ſince that time no Magiſtrat in Britaine did aſſume, and if any would have claimed it, none would have more oppoſed, then the moſt zealous patrones of Epiſcopacy. The injurious invectives, which the Warner builds upon this his Eraſtian aſſertion, wee paſſe them as Caſtles in their aire, which muſt fall and evanish for want of a foundation. Only before I leave this Chapter, let the Warner take a good Sentence out of the mouth of that wyſe Prince King James, to teſtifie yet farther his minde againſt Eraſtianiſme. His Majeſtie in the yeare 1617 having come in progreſſe to viſit his auncient Kingdome of Scotland, and being preſent in perſone at a publick diſputation in Theologie in the Univerſitie of St. Andrews, whereof alſo many both Nobles and Church-men of both Kingdomes were auditors; when one of thoſe that acted a part in the diſputation, had affirmed and went about to maintaine this aſſertion that the King had power to depoſe Miniſters from their Miniſteriall function. The King himſelf as abhorring ſuch flatterie, cried out with a loud voice, Ego poſſum deponere Miniſtri caput, ſed non poſſum deponere ejus officium.