Review of the Seditious Pamphlet by Dr Bramble, Chapter 1
CHAP. I.
The Prelaticall faction continue reſolute, that the King and all His People ſhall periſh, rather then the Prelats, not reſtored to former places of Power, for to ſet up Popery, Profanity, and Tyranny, in all the three Kingdoms.
WHile the Commiſſioners of the Church and Kingdom of Scotland,The unſeaſonableneſſe of D. Brambles writing. were on their way 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 diſtreſſe; it was the wiſdom and charity of the Prelaticall party, to ſend out Doctor Bramble, to meet them with his Faire Warning. For what elſe? but to diſcourage them in in the very entry from tendering their propoſitions, and before they were ever heard, to ſtop his Majeſties eares with grievous prejudice, againſt all that poſſibly they could ſpeak; though the world ſees that the onelyonly apparent fountain of hope upon earth, for the recovery of the wofully confounded affaires of the King, is in the hands of that Anti-prelaticall Nation: but it is the hope of theſe who love the welfare of the KING and the people, of the Churches and Kingdomes of Britain, that the hand of God which hath broken all the former devices of the Prelats, ſhall cruſh this their engine alſo.
Our warner undertaketh to oppugne the Scots diſcipline in a way of his own, none of the moſt rationall,The irationall way of the Warners writing. He does not ſo much as pretend to ſtate a queſtion, nor in his whole Book to bring againſt any main poſition of his oppoſites, either Scripture, Father or reaſon, nor ſo much as aſſay to anſwer any one of their arguments againſt Epiſcopacy; only he culs out ſome of their by-tenets, belonging little or nothing to the main queſtions, and from them takes occaſion to gather together in a heap all the calumnies which of old, or of late their known enemies out of the forge of their malice and fraud, did obtrude on the credulity of ſimple people: alſo ſome decorted paſſages from the books of their friends, to bring the way of that Church into deteſtation without any juſt reaſon.
The moſt of his ſtuffe is borrowed and …ong ago confuted.Theſe practiſes in our Warner are the leſs pardonable, that though he knows the chief of his allegations, to bee but borrowed from his late much beloved Comrades Maſter Corbet in his Lyſimachus Nicanor, and Maſter Maxwel in his Iſſachart Burden, yet he was neither deterred by the ſtrange puniſhments, which God from heaven inflicted viſibly on both theſe Calumniators of their Mother Church, nor was pleaſed in his repeating of their calumnious arguments, to releeve any of them from the exceptions under the which they ſtand publickly confuted, I ſuppoſe to his own diſtinct knowledge, I know certainly, to the open view of thouſands in Scotland, England and Ireland; but it makes for the Warners deſign to diſſemble here in Holland, that ever he heard of ſuch Books as Lyſimachus Nicanor, & Iſſachars Burden, much leſſe of Maſter Baylies Anſwer to both, Printed ſome years agoe at London, Edenburg and Amſterdam, without a rejoynder from any of that faction to this day.
The contumelions bitternes of the Warners ſpirit.However let our Warner be heard. In the very firſt page of his firſt chapter, we may taſt the ſweetneſſe of his meek Spirit: at the very entry, he concludeth but without any pretence to an argument there or elſe where, the diſcipline of the Church of Scotland to be their own invention, whereon they dote, the Diana, which themſelves have canonized, their own dreams, the counterfeit image which they faine hath fallen down from Jupiter, which they ſo much adore, the very quinteſſence of refined Popery, not only moſt injurious to the civil Magiſtrate, moſt oppreſſive to the Subject, moſt pernicious to both; but alſo incenſiſtent with all forms of civil Government, deſtructive to all ſorts of Policy, a rack to the conſcience, the heavieſt preſſure that can fall on a people. So much truth and ſoberneſſe doth the Warner breath out in his very firſt page.
Though he had no regard at all to the cleer paſſages of Holy Scripture, whereupon the Scots do build their Anti-Epiſcopall tenets; nor any reference to the harmony of the reformed Churches, which unanimouſly joyn with the Scots in the main of their Diſcipline, eſpecially in that which the Doctor hates moſt therein, the rejection of Epiſcopacy: yet methinks ſome little reſpect might have appeared in the man to the Authority of the Magiſtrate, and civill Laws, which are much more ingeminated by this worthy Divine over all his book, then the holy Scriptures.
Can be ſo ſoon forget that the whole diſcipline of the Church of Scotland, as it is there taught and practiſed,The Warner ſtricks at the Scots Diſcipline through the Kings ſides. is eſtabliſhed by Acts of Parliament, and hath all the ſtrength which the King and State can give to a civill Law? the Warner may well be grieved, but hardly can he be ignorant, that the Kings Majeſty at this day does not at all queſtion the juſtice of theſe ſanctions: what ever therefore be the Doctors thoughts, yet ſo long as he pretends to keep upon his face the mask of loyalty, he muſt be content to eat his former words, yea, to burn his whole book: otherwiſe he layes againſt his own profeſſions, a ſlander upon the King, and His Royal Father, of great ignorance, or huge injuſtice, the one having eſtabliſhed, the other offring to eſtabliſh by their civil laws, a Church Diſcipline for the whole Nation of Scotland, which truly is the quinteſſence of Popery, pernicious and deſtructive to all formes of civil Government, and the heavieſt preſſures that can fall upon a people.
All the cauſe of of this choler which the Warner is pleaſed to ſpeak out, is the attempt of the Scots,In the threſſhold he ſtumbles on the Kings conſcience. to obtrude their Diſcipline upon the King, contrary to the dictats of his own conſcience, and to compell forraign Churches to embrace the ſame. Anſ. Is it not preſumption in our warner, ſo ſoon to tell the world in print what are the dictats of the Kings conſcience, as yet he is not his Majeſties confeſſor, and if the Clerk of the Cloſet had whiſpered ſomewhat in his care, what he heard in ſecret, he ought not to have proclaimed it without a warrant; but we do altogether miſtruſt his reports of the Kings conſcience: for who will beleeve him, that a knowing and a juſt King will ever be content, to command and impoſe on a whole Nation by his laws, a diſcipline contrary to the dictats of his own conſcience. This great ſtumble upon the Kings conſcience in the firſt page, muſt be an ominous ceſpitation on the threſhold.
The other imputation hath no juſt ground:The Scots never offered to impoſe any thing upon England. the Scots did never meddle, to impoſe upon forraign Churches, there is queſtion of none, but the Engliſh; and the Scots were never ſo preſumptuous, as to impoſe any thing of theirs upon that Church. It was the Aſſembly of Divines at Weſtminſter, convocat by the Parliament of England, which after long deliberation, and much debate, unanimouſly concluded the Presbyterian. Diſcipline in all the parts therof, to be agreable to the word of God: it was the two Houſes of the Parliament of England without a contrary voice, who did ordaine the abolition of Epiſcopacy, and the ſetting up of Presbyteries and the …ynods in England and Ireland. Can here the Scots be ſaid to compell the Engliſh to dance after their pipe, when their own Aſſembly of Divines begins the ſong, when the Lords and Commons aſſembled in Parliament of England concurre without a diſordering opinion, when the King himſelf for perfecting the harmony offers, to add his voice for three whole years together?
In the remainder of the Chapter the warner layes upon the Scots three other crimes: Firſt, That they count it Eraſtianiſme to put the Government of the Church in the hand of the Magiſtate. A…ſ. The Doctors knowledg is greater then to be ignorant, that all theſe goe under the name of tne Eraſtians,The elder prelats of Engla…d were Eraſtians, and more, but the younger are as much anti-Eraſtian as the moſt rigid of the Presbytery. who walking in Eraſtus ways of flattering the Magiſtrate, to the prejudice of the juſt rights of the Church, run yet out beyond Eraſtus perſonall tenets; I doubt if that man went ſo far as the Doctor here and elſewhere, to make all Eccleſiaſticall Juriſdiction, but a part of the Magiſtrats civill power, which for its Execution, the ſupreme Governours of any ſtate may derive out of the fountain of their ſupremacy to what ever hands civill or eccleſiaſtick themſelves think fit to commit it. Let the Doctor adde to this much knowledge, but a little ingenuity, and he ſhall confeſſe, that his brethren the latter Biſhops, who claim: Epiſcopacy by Divine Right, are all as much againſt this Eraſtian Ceſaro-papiſme, as any Presbyterian in Scotland. The Elder Biſhops indeed of England and all the Laws there for Epiſcopacy ſeem to be point blank according to the Eraſtian errors: for they make the Crown and Royall Supremacy the originall, root and fountain whence all the iſcipline of the Church did flow: as before the days of Henry the Eight it did out of the Popes headſhip of the Church …under Chriſt. However let the Doctor ingeniouſly ſpeak out his ſence, and I am deceived, if he ſhall not acknowledge, that how groſſe an Eraſtian ſo ever himſelf and the eldeſt Biſhops of England might have been, yet that long agoe, the moſt of his prelaticall friends have become as much oppoſite to Eraſtianiſme, as the moſt rigid of the Presbyterians.
The other crime he layes to the charge of the*The Scots firſt and greateſt crime is irreconciliableneſſe with Rome. Scots is, that they admit no latitude in Religion, but will have every opinion a fundamentall Article of Faith, and are averſe from the reconcialition of the Proteſtant Churches. Anſ. If the Warner had found it ſeaſonable to vent a little more of his true ſenſe in this point, he had charged this great crime far more home upon the head of the Scots: for indeed, though they were ever far from denying the true degrees of importance, which do cleerly appear among the multitude of Chriſtian truths, yet the great quarrel here of the Warner and his friends againſt them, is, that they ſpoyled the Canterburian deſigne of reconciling the Proteſtant Churches, not among themſelves, but with the Church of Rome. When theſe good men were with all earneſtneſs proclaiming the greateſt controverſies of Papiſts and Proteſtants to be upon no fundamentals, but onelyonly diſputable opinions, wherein belief on either ſide was ſafe enough, and when they found that the Papiſts did ſtand punctually to the Tenets of the Church of Rome, and were obſtinately unwilling to come over to England, their great labour was, that the Engliſh, and the reſt of the Proteſtants, caſting aſide their needleſs belief of problematick truths, in piety, charity and zeal, to make up the breach, and take away the ſchiſm, ſhould be at all the pains to make the journey to Rome. While this deſigne is far advanced, and furiouſly driven on in all the three Kingdoms, and by none more in Ireland then the Biſhop of Derry, behold, the rude and plain Blue-caps ſtep in to the play, and mar all the Game: By no art, by no terrour can theſe be gotten along to ſuch a reconciliation. This was the firſt and greateſt crime of the Scots, which the Doctor here glances at, but is ſo wiſe and modeſt a man as not to bring it above board.
The laſt charge of the chapter is, that the ScotsThe Scots were ever anti-epiſcopal. keep not ſtill that reſpect to the Biſhops of England, which they were wont of old in the beginning of Q. Elizabeth's Reign. Anſ. In that Letter cited by the Warner from the general Aſſembly of Scotland, 1566. Seſſ. 3. there is no word of approbation to the Office of Epiſcopacy; they ſpeak to the Biſhops of England in no other quality or relation, but as Miniſters of the word, the higheſt ſtile they give them, is, Reverend Paſtors and Brethren; the tenour of the whole Epiſtle is a grave and brotherly admonition to beware of that fatall concomitant of the moſt moderate Epiſcopacy, the troubling of the beſt and moſt zealous ſervants of Chriſt for idle and fruitleſs Ceremonies. How great a reverence the Church of Scotland at that time carried to Prelacy, may be ſeen in their Supplication to the ſecret Councel of Scotland, in that ſame Aſſembly the very day and Seſſion wherein they writ the Letter in hand to the Biſhops of England. The Arch-biſhp of S. Andrews being then uſurping juriſdiction over the Miniſtry by ſome warrant from the State, the Aſſembly was grieved, not only with the Popery of that Biſhop, but with his ancient juriſdiction, which in all Biſhops, popiſh and proteſtant, is one and the ſame: That juriſdiction was the only matter of their preſent complaint; and in relation thereto, they aſſure the Councel in diſtinct terms, that they would never be more ſubject unto that uſurped Tyranny, then they would be to the Divel himſelf. So reverend an opinion had the Church of Scotland at that time of Epiſcopal Juriſdiction.
The Prelates lately were found in the act of introducing Popery into the Church, and Tyranny into the Kingdom.But ſuppone that ſome fourſcore yeers ago, the Scots, before they had taſted the fruits of Proteſtant Biſhops, had judged them tolerable in England; yet ſince that time, by the long tract of miſchiefs which conſtantly have accompanied the order of Prelacy, they have been put upon a more accurate inſpection of its nature, and have found it not onelyonly a needleſſe, but a noxious and poyſonous weed, neceſſary to be plucked up by the root, and caſt over the hedge. Beſide all its former malefices, it hath been deprehended of late in the very act of everting the foundations, both of Religion and Government, of bringing in Popery and Tyranny in the Churches and States of all the three Kingdoms, (Canterburian ſelf-conviction, cap. 1.)
And for theſe crimes it was condemned, killed, and buried in Scotland, by the unanimous conſent of King, Church and Kingdom; when England thereafter both in their Aſſembly and Parliament, without a diſcording voice, had found it neceſſary to root out that unhappy plant, as long ago with great wiſdom it had been caſt out of all the reſt of the reformed Churches; had not the Scots all the reaſon in the world to applaud ſuch pious, juſt and neceſſary reſolutions of their Engliſh Brethren, though the Warner ſhould call it the greateſt crime?