Review of Brambles Warning Against the Scots Discipline, Chapter 1
CHAP. I.
The praelaticall faction continue reſolute, that the King and all his people shall perish, rather then the praelats, be not reſtored to their former places of power, for to ſet up Popery, Profanity, and Tirranny, in all the three Kingdomes.
WHile the Comiſſioners of the Church and Kingdome of Scotland, The unſeaſonablenes of Doctor Brambles warning.were on their way to make their firſt addreſſes to his Majeſtie, 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 diſtreſſe; it was the wiſedome and charity of the praelaticall party, to ſend out Doctor Bramble, to meet them with his Faire 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 Majeſties eares with grievous praejudice, againſt all that poſſibly they could ſpeake; though the world ſees that the only apparent fountaine of hope upon earth, for recovery of the wofully confounded affaires 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 Kingdomes of Britain, that the hand of God, which hath broken all the former devices of the Praelats, shall crush this their engine alſo.The irrational way of the warners writing.
Our warner undertaketh to oppugne the Scotes diſcipline in a way of his owne, none of the moſt rational. He does not duplicate page duplicate page ſo much as pretend to ſtate a queſtion, nor in his whole book to bring againſt any maine poſition of his oppoſites, either Scripture, father or reaſon, nor ſo much as aſſay to anſwer any one of their arguments againſt Epiſcopacy; onelyonly hee culs out ſome of their by-tenets, belonging little or nothing to the maine queſtions, and from them takes occaſion to gather together in a heape all the calumnies which of old, or of late their knowne enemies out of the forge of their malice and fraud, did obtrude on the credulity of ſimple people: alſo ſome detorted paſſages from the bookes of their friends, to bring the way of that Church in deteſtation without any juſt reaſon.
Theſe practiſes in our warner, The moſt of his ſtuffe is borrowed and long agoe confuted.are the leſs pardonable, that though he knowes the chiefe of his allegations, to bee 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 releeve any of them from the exceptions under the which they ſtand publickly confuted, I ſuppoſe to his own diſtinct knowledge, I know certainly, to the open view of thouſands in Scotland, England and Ireland; but it makes for the warners deſigne to diſſemble here in Holland, that ever he heard of ſuch books as Lyſimachus Nicanor, and Iſſachars Burden, much leſſe of Maſter Baylies anſwer to both, printed ſome yeares agoe at London, Edinburgh and Amſterdam, without a rejoinder from any of that faction to this day.The contumelious bitternes of the warners ſpirit.
How ever let our warner be heard. In the very firſt page of his firſt chapter, wee may taſt the ſweetnes of his meek Spirit: at the verie entrie, he concludeth but without any pretence to an argument there or elſe where, the diſcipline of the Church of Scotland to be their owne invention, whereon they dote, the Diana, which themſelves have canonized, their own dreams, the counterfeyt image which they faine hath fallen down from Iupiter, which they ſo much adore, the very quinteſſence of refined popery, not only moſt injurious to the civill Magiſtrat, moſt oppreſſive to the ſubject, moſt pernicious to both; but alſo inconſiſtent with all formes of civill governement, deſtructive to all ſorts of Policy, a rack to the conſcience, the heavieſt preſſure that can fall on a people. So much truth and ſobernes doth the warner breath out in his very firſt page.
Though he had no regard at all to the cleare paſſages of Holy Scripture, whereupon the Scotes doe build their Anti-Epiſcopall tenets; nor any reverence to the harmony of the reformed Churches, which unanimouſly joyne with the Scotes in the maine of their diſcipline, eſpecially in that which the Doctor hates moſt therein, the rejection of Fpiſcopacy: yet me thinks ſome little reſpect might have appeared in the man to the authority of the Magiſtrat, and civil Lawes, which are much more ingeminated by this worthy divine over all his book, then the holy Scriptures.
Can hee ſo ſoon forget that the whole diſcipline of the Church of Scotland, as it is there taught and practiſed, The warner ſtricks at the Scotes diſcipline through the Kings ſides.is eſtablished by acts of Parliament, and hath all the ſtrength which the King and State can give to a civil Law? the warner may wel be grieved, but hardly can he be ignorant, that the Kings Majeſtie this day does not at all queſtion the juſtice of theſe ſanctions: what ever therefore be the Doctors thoughts, yet ſo long as hee pretends to keep upon his face the maſke of loyalty, he muſt be content to eat his former words, yea, to burne his whole book: otherwiſe hee layes, 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 offring to eſtablish by their civill lawes, a Church diſcipline for the whole nation of Scotland, which truly is the quinteſſence of Popery, pernicious and deſtructive to all formes of civill governement, and the heavieſt preſſure that can fall on a people.
All the cauſe of this choler which the warner is pleaſed to ſpeake out; In the threshold hee ſtumbles on the Kings conſcience.is the attempt of the Scotes, to obtrude their diſcipline upon the King, contrary to the dictars of his own conſcience, and to compell forraigne Churches to embrace the ſame. Anſ. Is it not preſumption in our warner, ſo ſoone to tell the world in print what are the dictats of the Kings conſcience, as yet he is not his Majeſties confeſſor, and if the Clerk of the Cloſet had whiſpered ſome what in his eare, what he heard in ſecret, hee ought not to have proclaimed it without a warrant; but we doe altogether miſtruſt his reports of the Kings conſcience: for who will beleeve him, that a knowing and a juſt King will ever be content, to command and impoſe on a whole Nation by his Lawes, a diſcipline contrary to the dictats of his owne conſcience. This great ſtumble upon the Kings conſcience in the firſt page, muſt be an ominous ceſpitation on the threshold.
The other imputation had no juſt ground: The Scots never offered to impoſe any thing upon England.the Scotes did never medle, to impoſe any thing upon forraigne 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, unanimouſly concluded the Preſbiterian diſcipline in all the parts thereof, to be agreable to the word of God: it was the two Houſes of the Parliament of England without a contrary voice, who did ordaine the abolition of Epiſcopacy, and the ſetting up of Presbyteryes and Synods in England and Ireland. Can heere the Scotes be ſaid to compell the English to dance after their pype, when their own aſſembly of divines begins the ſong, when the Lords and Commons aſſembled in the Parliament of England concurre without a diſcording opinion, when the King himſelfe for perfecting the harmony offers, to adde his voice for three whole yeares together?
In the remainder of the chapter the warner layes upon the Scotes three other crimes: firſt, The elder praelats of England were Eraſtians, and more, but the younger are as much anti-Eraſtian as the moſt riged of the Preſbytery.That they count it Eraſtianiſme to put the governement of the Church in the hand of the Magiſtrat. Anſw. The Doctors knowledge is greater then to bee ignorant, that all theſe goe under the name of Eraſtians, who walking in Eraſtus ways of flattering the Magiſtrat, to the prejudice of the juſt rights of the Church, run yet out much beyond Eraſtus perſonall tenets; I doubt if that man went ſo far as the Doctor heere and elſe where, to make all Eccleſiaſticall juriſdiction, but a part of the Magiſtrats civill power, which for its execution, the ſupreame Governours of any ſtate may derive out of the fountaine of their ſupremacy to what ever hands civill or Eccleſiaſtick themſelfes think fit to commit it. Let the Doctor adde to this much knowledge, but a little ingenuity, and he shall confes that his Brethren the Later Bishops, who claime 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 Lawes there for Epiſcopacy ſeeme to be point blank according to the Eraſtian errours: for they make the crowne and royall ſupremacy the originall, root and fountaine whence all the diſcipline of the Church doth flow: as before the days of Henry the eight it did out of the Popes head-ship of the Church under Chriſt. How ever let the Doctor ingenuouſly ſpeake out his ſence, and I am deceived, if he shall not acknowledge, that how groſſe an Eraſtian ſo ever himſelfe and the elder Bishops of England might have been, yet that long agoe, the moſt of his praelatical friends have become as much oppoſit to Eraſtianiſme, as the moſt rigid of the Presbiterians.
The other crime he layes 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 ſence in this point, he had charged this great crime far more home upon the heade of the Scotes: for indeed though they were ever far from denying the true degrees of importance which doe cleerly appeare among the multitude of Chriſtian truthes, yet the great quarrell heer of the warner and his freinds againſt them, is that they ſpoiled the Canterburian deſigne of reconcealing the Proteſtant Churches not among themſelfes, but with the Church of Rome. When theſe good men were with all earneſtnes proclaming the greateſt controverſies of Papiſts and Proteſtants, to be upon no fundamentalls but only diſputable opinions, wherein beleefe 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 needleſſe beleefe of problematick truths, in piety, charity and zeale, to make up the breach and take away the shiſme, should be at all the paines to make the journey to Rome. While this deſigne is far advanced and furiouſly driven on in all the three Kingdomes, and by none more in Yreland then the Bishop of Derry, behold the rude and plaine blewcapes ſtep in to the play and marre all the game: by no arte, by no terrour 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 wyſe and modeſt a man as not to bring it above board.
The laſt charge of the chapter is, The Scotes were ever anti episcopall.that the Scotes keep not ſtill that reſpect to the Bishops of England, which they were wont of old in the beginning of Queen Elizabeths reigne. Anſ. In that letter cited by the warner from the generall aſſembly of Scotland. 1566. Seſſ. 3. there is no word of approbation to the office of Epiſcopacy: they ſpeake to the Bishops of England in no other quality or relation, but as Miniſters of the word, the higheſt ſtile they give them is, reverend Paſtors and Brethren; the tenour of the whole Epiſtle is a grave and brotherly admonition to beware of that fatall concomitant of the moſt moderat Epiſcopacy, the troubling of the beſt and moſt zealous ſervants of Chriſt for idle & fruitles Ceremonies. How great a reverence the Church of Scotland at that time carried to praelacy, may be ſeen in their ſupplication to the ſecret counſell of Scotland, in that ſame aſſembly the very day and Seſſion wherein they write the letter in hand to the Bishops of England. The Arch-Bishop 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 auncient 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 tearmes, that they would never be more ſubject unto that uſurped tiranny thē they would be to the devill himſelfe: So reverend an opinion had the Church of Scotland at that time of Epiſcopall juriſdiction.
But ſuppone that ſome fourſcore yeares agoe, the Scotes before they had taſted the fruits of Proteſtant Bishops, The Praelates lately were found in the act of introducing Popery, into the Church, and Tiranny into the Kingdom.had judged them tolerable in England, yet ſince that time by the long tract of miſchiefes, which conſtantly has accompanied the order of praelacy, they have been put upon a more accurat inſpection of its nature, and have found it not only a needles, but a noxious and poyſonous weed, neceſſare to be plucked up by the root, and caſt over the hedge. Beſide al its former malefices, it hath been deprehēded of late in the very act of everting the foundations, both of Religion and governement, of bringing in Popery and Tiranny, in the Churches and States of all the three Kingdomes, (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 agoe with great wiſedome, 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?