Sectio sexta.
James Dodson
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Proposition 6. The Solemn League and Covenant, for its qualities, and in respect of its obligation, is Public and National, as well as Private and Personal.
SIR, Dr. Gauden in his attempt to loosen St. Peter’s bonds, (as he judgeth the Covenant to be) was willing to render the Covenant to be in reference to the matter thereof, a Religious Bond declaring a sense of duty to God, the King, the Church, their Country, and the reformed Religion, to make men more strictly sensible of the sacred, and civil obligations respectively due unto them [page 14.]; and hereby he doth establish the obligation thereof; which, he not finding any way to avoid, doth endeavour to limit and contract into a narrow Room and Compass; supposing the subjects thereof to be few, very few, and those private men in their private capacity, and so denominates it a Religious Bond which private men, and some party only of the Nations spontaneously took upon themselves, in sense whereof he accommodates his solution of the Covenant unto private capacities endeavouring to absolve them by a power which, he saith, is in themselves: or to quiet them with a suggestion of impossibility to accomplish their particular promises against the purpose, and current of the Nation: how judiciously he hath managed the same, I have already shewed in my St. Peter’s bonds Abide, wherein, I did among other things, suggest my apprehension of the Covenant, in respect of the extent of its obligation, to be Public and National; I expected something to have been said by the Dr against that suggestion; and the grounds from which it did arise, but find none; only in the Doubts and Scruples [page 21.] handed into the world by his Epistle, and offered to you, and my consideration, he doth adhere to his own notion of the nature and private personal obligation of the Covenant, not urging one Reason for it, or answering any thing urged against it, how ingenuously this is done by a Casuist, (that presumed to release from the obligation of sacred bonds) let the world judge; I am
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therefore constrained to speak out, and more plainly to assert what I was desirous only to hint, and generally suggest; hoping thereby to have produced some serious discourse, which might have acquitted our Nation, or have affected them with the wrath of God which abides upon them.
When Sir, I say, the Solemn League and Covenant is Public and National, I intend by it that which Civilians and Casuists do ordinarily call Real; and as they oppose it unto private or personal, because it resteth not in any individual persons, or particular private number thereof; who may soon perish, and so the obligation passe away with them; or be over-powered, and so put into an impossibility of doing what they had sworn: (as was Saul in the case of Jonathan’s Rescue; and the men that confederated against Paul) the breach whereof subjects only those individual persons unto the guilt or punishment of perjury, in non-effecting, or endeavouring the thing covenanted: but abideth fixed in things and capacities, which continue and abide under all mutation of persons, and so passe upon all persons whatsoever, in all after ages, ad infinitum (if the Covenant be not limited) who shall succeed into those things, places, or capacities: and so binds all persons therein concerned, whether invested, or represented by, and so involved in the same, unto the sincere, faithful, diligent, and constant performance and pursuit of what is therein promised: and in denial, or defect thereof, subjects them unto the guilt and punishment of perjury: so that the generations who never personally sware the Covenant, succeeding into the capacities of their Progenitors, are bound unto the performance of the Oath, and shall be punished many hundreds of years after it was made, and (it may be) some years after it was violated, in case of the breach of it: for so long as the public capacity continueth, the persons which succeed into it, succeed also into the obligation which lieth upon it, and the variation of persons voideth not the Oath: such is the Oath of any Body of people, whether a City or Nation, wherein the public faith of that body Politick is engaged, and must be maintained.
First, whether it be done by the universality of the people themselves? in which all singulars are supposed to confederate: though some few may not comply, yet those few are included in, and bound by the universality according to that Rule, Ubi universi, ibi & sin-
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* Ubi semel decretum erit omnibus, id etiam quibus ante displicuerit pro bono atque utili fædere defendendum [When once it has been decreed by all, that thing must be defended as a good and useful covenant even by those to whom it had formerly been displeasing]. Liv. lib. 32.]
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guli, nam singuli congregati vel in summam reputati faciunt universos [Where the whole body is, there also are the individuals; for the individuals, gathered together or reckoned as a total, make up the whole]: The universality is made up of the singular persons; so in a Corporation or County, the Universality choose Members of Parliament, or Magistrates confederate, though some singular persons maybe not present nor vote in the Negative, and so personally consent, yet are politically obliged.*
2. Or whether it be done by the collective body of the People who represent them, in their names, and at their appointment, not transacting all affairs as did the Senate of Rome; in reference to which Salust noteth, Senatus uti poterat decrevit, suo atque populi injussu nullum potuisse fædus fieri [The Senate, as it was able, decreed that no treaty could have been made without its own command and that of the people]; the Senate decreed, for if they or the people had gainsaid it, there could be no Covenant; and in this Collective body though there may be many dissent; yet by the Oath and Act of the majority themselves and they whom in that capacity they represent are bound according to that rule, Cæteris quilibet non minus quam persona singularis jus habet se obligandi, per se aut per majorem sui partem [Each of the others, no less than a single person, has the right of binding himself, either by himself or by the greater part of himself]. Thus was Israel bound by the Oath of the Princes passed unto the Gibeonites, so that although the people knowing it, muttered and murmured against the Oath, no one durst offer violence unto a Gibeonite; and when Saul in a well meant zeal did presume to do it, the Faith of Israel was violated and avenged by a Famine in the time of David an innocent person, until expiated by the hanging Sauls sons three hundred years after the Oath was made, and when many generations who consented not unto it, had returned.
3. Or, Whether it be done by any single person, as the King, but in the name and on the account of the Kingdom; so that as King of such a Kingdom, he makes the Oath or Covenant, and so obligeth the faith of the Kingdom, and so the people are included in it; and the Covenant doth not become personal, according to that Rule, At si cum rege contractum sit, non statim personale erit censendum fœdus; plerumque persona pactum inseritur non ut personale pactum fiat sed ut demonstretur cum quo pactum factum est [But if a contract has been made with the king, the covenant is not immediately to be judged personal; for often the person is inserted into the pact, not so that the pact may become personal, but so that it may be shown with whom the pact was made]. If the Covenant be made with the King, it is not therefore personal, for a person may be inferred to shew with whom the Covenant is made; as a Covenant is passed by the King of England, to declare England is bound, as it was in the case of the Roman Empire; Imperator fœdus percussit, videtur populus percussisse Romanus & fœdere continetur [When the emperor made the covenant or treaty, the Roman people is considered to have made it, and is included under its obligation]. The Emperour sware, the people were in
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* Pacta civium publicis consiliis habita eos obligabant qui aliter censuerunt [Compacts of citizens made in public councils bound even those who had judged otherwise]. Grotius de Pa. p. 316.]
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included in the Covenant, and such also was the Oath passed by Zedekiah the King of Israel, unto the King of Babylon, which bound Israel to performance, and brought them under the guilt and punishment of the breach thereof.
Sir, An Oath or Covenant is best discovered by the enquiry and caution made, & given by Justin in the case of the tributary Cities which had obtained terms of the Medes before the Empire was to them transferred, Spectandum an in conventione fidem Medorum elegissent [It must be considered whether, in the agreement, they had chosen the faith/pledge of the Medes]: Whether they had engaged the faith of the Medes, and if the Covenant were so sworn in a public and national capacity, that the faith of the Nation were engaged; all persons and all ages, so long as it continueth a Nation, are obliged by it, and must carefully perform it; or expect to plunge themselves under the guilt, and punishment of perjury: the Oath Real being founded in sua natura, a subjectum permanens [by its nature, from/with respect to a permanent subject], a subject which ceaseth not; however it succeedeth unto, and is administered by different persons, so that in this case, as in the case of the holy wars, it was generally granted: every League with Christians, did bind Christians who did not personally confederate, because the faith of the Christians was engaged; so every Covenant of England, engaging the faith of England, doth bind all present, and future people in England, whilst England abides a Nation, & cannot be avoided, though obtained by fraud, as that of the Gibeonites; or by force, as that of Zedekiah, which we have before noted; nor will it avail any thing, as to their excuse, or apology, for not preserving and pursuing the things promised in the Covenant; to plead I took it not, or my Father indeed took it, but the Generation is dead and gone who sware it, unless they can divide themselves from the Nation, and bury the Nation in the Tombs of their Progenitors; nay, though there should be a mutation of the form of the Government, and Administration thereof; yet if it abide a Nation, its National Oath will bind according to the Reason. Grotius [De jure bel. et pa. lib. 2. cap. 16. pa. 256.] layeth us down, Etiamsi status Civitatis in Regnum mutetur; manebit fœdus quia manet idem Corpus, etsi mutato capite [Even if the state/commonwealth of a city is changed into a kingdom, the covenant will remain, because the same body remains, although the head has been changed], the same body politique doth yet continue; unto such as suppose the death of persons to make void the Covenant, I would tell them what Livy said in the case of the Romans, they sware when P. Valerius was Consul, they would assemble at the command of the Consul he being dead, L. Quinius was made Consul and called the Assembly; they begin to cavil and
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question whether they are bound by their Oath, he being dead, to whom they made it, Et nondum hæc quæ nunc tenet seculum, negligentia Deum venerat; nec interpretandi sibi quisque jusjurandum; & leges aptas faciebant, sed suos potius mores ad ea accommodabant [And this negligence toward God, which now possesses the age, had not yet come; nor did each man, by interpreting them for himself, make the oath and the laws suitable to himself, but rather they accommodated their own manners to them]; This negligence of God hath not long possessed this Christian world, that men should make unto themselves the interpretation, or rules of obligation of an Oath; unto which they should rather square their conversation, whilst if it be a real, public, and National Oath, the persons swearing, and sworn unto, may pass away; and yet (as in the case of the Gibeonites) the obligation passe to all posterity.
Sir, I am sufficiently convinced that if private men, and individual persons who have sworn the Covenant, will make conscience of the Oath of God upon them, there can be no probability of a return, and re-establishment within the compass of this age, of the evils we have sworn to extirpate, they being locked under a moral impossibility of re-admission or continuance, by that public Parliamentary capacity into which many, who have sworn the Covenant, are at this time resolved; and in which they cannot but know themselves bound to endeavour in their places, and callings, with all sincerity, reality, and constancy to extirpate the same, and for that others, and those not a few, as Ministers of the Gospel, are bound to the same in their capacity. I am sure the Ministerial rebukes, and confutations of the one, and public Parliamentary debates of the other, will lay a very great remora unto their return: and his most Sacred Majesty (to speak it with due dread) being in his place bound from his Royal assent thereunto. I presume will not only awe from proposing to him any Laws that may restore any of them, but put an absolute moral impossibility on the present passing of any Law to that purpose.
Yet Sir, when I observe many carnal Politicians, careless Preachers, Court Divines, and temporising Covenanters, suggesting a nullity on the Covenant, and speaking out, that it is void, and non-obliging, by the reason of the paucity, (which they suppose not to be a fourth part of the Nation) who sware it, or at least unto such as never took it, which may not only be many persons now living, but the whole Generation since springing up; or that the Power and Authority of the Nation (whom they do not a little provoke there-
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unto) may by their public edict make it void; I see it to be a plain case of conscience, and necessary to be resolved, whether the solemn League and Covenant be private, and personal only, binding individuals; or really, public and nationally, binding the power, and body politique of the Nation.
And Sir, on second thoughts, and a serious survey of the solemn League and Covenant, I cannot but observe, and see clearly, that
1. The matter therein Covenanted, is public and national, relating to the Kingdom under its Civil, Religious, and reformed consideration, or capacity, being the reformation and defence of Religion under a national profession, and the honour and happiness of the King, privileges of Parliament, and liberties of the Subjects, and the like concernments, no way proper for personal, and individual, private Oaths.
2. These matters, and this form of security to them, were consulted, agitated, debated, determined concluded, and agreed unto, by two distinct Nations; agreeing in the general capacities which did relate unto the matter thereof: and that in their most public capacities, and by the indisputable, most full, and formal collective bodies of both Kingdoms, the Parliament, though defective, in that part which was more necessary to establish a Law, then indent a Covenant, which did most eminently consist in the consent of the people, and body of the Nations.
3. The terms shewing the capacity in which it was sworn, are general and national, as in the very words of the Preface, We Noblemen, Barons, Knights, Gentlemen, Citizens, Burgesses, Ministers of the Gospel, and Commons of all sorts of the Kingdom of England, &c. by the providence of God living under one King, and being of one reformed Religion, so that all ranks and orders of men, however dignified, or distinguished among themselves, yet united in this public capacity, the Subjects of one King and of one reformed Religion, and in that union universally sware the Covenant.
4. The end and scope of this Covenant was Real, National, and Public, and only Personal, in relation thereunto: as is evident by the professed grounds thereof, as having before our eyes the true public liberty, peace, and safety of the Kingdoms (wherein every ones private condition is included) a sense of the deplorable, distressed, and dan-
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dangerous estate in which the Kingdoms then were; and by the ends propounded almost in every Article thereof which relate to the Kingdoms, and our Posterity, and cannot be secured, if the Oath be not National, as in Article the First, that we, and our Posterity after us, may as Brethren, live in faith and love, in Article the Second, that the Lord may be one, and his Name one in the three Kingdoms. In Article the Third, that the two Kingdoms of England and Scotland, may remain conjoined in a firm peace, and union to all Posterity. And by the Sixth Article, it is declared to contain in it a cause which much concerned the good of the Kingdoms; and in the conclusion thereof, is a profession of sense, and sorrow for the sins of these Kingdoms, distinct from our own sins, the which do loudly proclaim the scope, and intent thereof to have been National and Public.
5. This Covenant was sworn by the Nation, or Kingdom.
(1.) Collectively, by the body of the Nations, regularly assembled and constituted; in the most full, and compleat Assembly, that could, and ever did represent the same, in all acts and agitations truly Real and National, viz. The Parliament consisting of Lords and Commons, and that in their public capacity as a Parliament; the House of Commons Assembled in their House, and in the formality of the body of the Nation, with their Speaker before them, went unto St. Margarets Church in Westminster; and there with the greatest solemnity imaginable, did as the representative body of the Kingdom, swear this Covenant [Ordinance of Feb. 5. 1643.]; which as a further testimony that it was a National Covenant, they caused to be printed with their Names subscribed, and to be hanged up in all Churches, and in their own House, as a compass whereby (in conformity to right Reason and Religion) to steer their then debates, and to dictate to all that should succeed into that place, and capacity, what obligation did before God lie upon the body of this Nation.
(2.) It was universally sworn by the people of this Kingdom, solemnly Assembled in their particular places of convention, all over the Kingdom, all manner of persons from eighteen years old and upward, and that, not at their own will and giddy humour [Vid. ordinance enjoining the taking the Cov.]; but at the Command and by the Authority of Parliament, who in their place, and in the behalf of this Nation, having judged it a fit and excellent means to acquire the favour of God towards the three
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Kingdoms, did order it to be universally sworn: and certainly whosoever will but well weigh the directions given, and duly executed in the tendering of the Covenant, in all Counties, and Parishes, by every individual Minister to every individual Congregation, and taken by all persons, religions, military, or civil, enforced with arguments which might convince conscience in the ingenuous, or constrain the act from the peevish or perverse; and accompanied with the greatest extension concomitant imaginable; he cannot but see a much more than the fourth part of the Nation did swear the Covenant. If the several Rolls, within the several Parishes and Precincts of this Kingdom, in which the several Names of such as did swear the solemn League and Covenant were engrossed, may be produced; It will be found notwithstanding the many singulars, who may now renounce and say they did not take the Covenant, it was sworn by the universality of the Nation. And I hope, we who have ever been judged a free people, tied by no bonds, but such as we lay upon our selves, may be allowed to bind our selves by an Oath; and so make it Real and National, according to that Rule, and Reason of Grotius [De jure bel. & pa. 2.56.]: Si quidem populo libero actum sit, dubium non est quin quod promittitur sui natura reale sit [If indeed the act has been done with a free people, there is no doubt that what is promised is, by its own nature, real].
3. The solemn League and Covenant hath been ratified, and rendered National, by his most Sacred Majesty, unto all such who apprehend the constitution of this Nation to be merum imperium [mere/pure command], an absolute Monarchy, wherein the King hath supremam potestatem [the supreme power], and whose professed loyalty leads them to subject themselves to all manner his Majesty’s concessions, and conclusions, and that by a series of multiplied acts, as his Majesty’s agreement with the Scots at Breda, where he Graciously condescended to his Subjects, by solemn Oath to publish and testify his approbation of the solemn League and Covenant; and at his first arrival into Scotland, was pleased to subject unto the same bond in which his Subjects were engaged, and to swear the same solemn League and Covenant: And again at his royal Coronation at Scoon in Scotland, on the first of January 1651. was Graciously pleased over and above the ordinary, and solemn Oath, peculiarly belonging to him as King of Scotland, in his most public capacity, to swear the solemn League and Covenant, and this Oath, in behalf of himself and his Successors.
I Charles King of great Britain,* France and Ireland, do assure and
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* The history of Charles the Second. p. 75, 76, 77.
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and declare by my solemn Oath in the presence of the Almighty God, my allowance and approbation of the national Covenant, and of the solemn League and Covenant above written; and faithfully oblige my self to prosecute the ends thereof; in my station and calling, and that I for my self and successors shall consent and agree to all Acts and Ordinances enjoining the National Covenant, the solemn League and Covenant, and fully establish Presbyterial Government, the directory for worship, Confession of Faith, and Catechism, in the Kingdom of Scotland; as they are approved by the General Assemblies of this Kirk and Kingdom; and that I shall give my Royal assent to Acts and Ordinances of this Parliament, passed or to be passed, enjoining the same in my other dominions, and that I shall observe these in mine own practice and family, and never make opposition to any of those or endeavour any change thereof.
In this Oath, it is worth observation that the Royal assent is given unto the solemn League and Covenant and directory for worship, Confession of Faith and Catechism, and Presbyterial Government, as things done in pursuit thereof.
(2.) That the Royal assent is declared unto, and assured to be given in formality unto Acts and Ordinances of this Parliament (supposed to be then in being) in his other dominions passed by them, for the Covenant and other things, of Religion specified.
(3.) That this he was pleased to do as King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, his most Royal and public capacity and that for himself and his successors: upon these considerations I could be glad to receive the judgment of the learned in the Law, whether the Royal assent any way or by any expressions or Act publicly made known, be not sufficient to make an Act of Parliament a perfect and complete Law; the equity of the statute of 33. Henry the third 21. Rendering the Kings assent under his seal expressed, to be as valid and effectual to all intents in Law as if he had been personally present, doth suggest a ground for this enquiry: for I conceive an assent by solemn Oath, to be a more Real Royal political presence then the transubstantiation or his Real presence under his seal: but that I may keep within my sphere, I presume none will deny this to be jure civili and divino [by civil and divine law] before God and men an establishment of the solemn League and Covenant, to Oblige the subject: and the rather if it be observed that it
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it was done deliberately, and so professed and enforced by a most pious declaration of His Royal pleasure,* conjuring the enmity against the Covenant conceived in any his Subjects in any his dominions to cease: his Majesty’s being resolved to have no friends but the friends of the Covenant: Grotius layeth us down two cases, wherein the Act of the King doth bind his subjects; they both square with this our case in reference to the Covenant, the one Contractus Regentium obligat subditos si probabilem habeant rationem [The contract of rulers binds the subjects, if they have a probable/reasonable ground for it], if the Covenant carry a probable reason let such as plead his Majesty had no probable way to come to his right and be enjoyed by his subjects but by yielding to the Covenant, (which God indeed hath used as the principal means to that effect now graciously accomplished,) tell us whether it was a most probable reason of good to the Nation: The other case [de jur. bel. & pa. lib. 2. cap. 14. p. 235.] was this si adjic, & populus ipse vult obligari quo casu, sui juris esse inceperit, & successores, ut populi capita, obligabuntur: nam quid populus liber contraxisset, obligaretur is qui postea regnum plenissimo jure acciperet [If this be added, that the people itself wills to be bound, in which case it has begun to be of its own right, then the successors, as heads of the people, will be bound; for whatever a free people had contracted, he who afterward received the kingdom by fullest right would be obligated by it], where the people are willing to be bound; of which in our case let the agitations of both Parliaments in both Kingdoms witness.
It will Sir, nothing relieve this Act of his Majesty to plead, It was below his Royal Prerogative to Covenant with his own Subjects; had it been with an enemy, we admit and confess we were bound by his Act, but by his Royal Power he may absolve himself from so vile an Obligation made to his Subjects: In this case I must indeed confess, his Royal Prerogative may privilege his Majesty from a coaction unto performance of what he hath sworn; the state of Subjects leaving them void of power to compel: but jure civili and divino [by civil and divine law], he is bound to performance, and the Subject may by humble supplication pray and demand performance of the Covenant, for the condescension voluntary hath left an obligation on the conscience before God and the world: So Grotius [de jur. belli & pa. l. cap. 14. p. 233.] tells us, Distingue ex promisso & contractu Regis quam cum subditis trahit, nasci veram ac propriam obligationem, quæ jus det ipsis subditis [Distinguish: from the promise and contract of the king, which he enters into with his subjects, there arises a true and proper obligation, which gives right to the subjects themselves]; the Oath of a King covenanting with his Subjects hath God for its witness, and he is more eminently engaged to avenge it, because there is no human power that may do it.
Nor is it of any more force to plead that his Majesty was
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* Declaration from Dumfirling Aug. 16. 1650.
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in an exiled estate, and not in the possession of the Kingdom, and therefore could not as King make any Covenant for or against his people: Unto this Plea the Answer is obvious, and it is and must be acknowledged no case or place can destroy his Royal capacity, for it abideth, and the alteration of his seat of residence will not render his Family an individuum vagum, as Lucan noteth of the Roman Senate; Non unquam perdidit ordo mutato sua jura loco [Order never lost its rights by a change of place]; and Grotius [Lib. 2. cap. 16. p. 257.] hath ruled this case, and concludes the same, Cum rege initum fœdus manet etiamsi Rex idem aut successor a subditis sit pulsus; jus enim regni penes ipsum manet, utcunque possessionem amiserit [A covenant entered into with a king remains, even if that same king, or his successor, has been driven out by the subjects; for the right of the kingdom remains with him, however he may have lost possession]. I hope there is jure civili [by civil law], the same right and power to give, as to receive, and then let the King be where he will, his Covenant binds for or against his Subjects, and to the sworn form of Worship and Discipline in his Family.
Nor is it of any more strength or advantage, to say, His Majesty was under force, and thorough the straits of His condition, did condescend to such unworthy terms, which He cannot with honour make good: The which so much as once to suggest to the World, is an high disservice, and reproach unto His Majesty; lessening His Royal Reputation, and the apprehension of Piety, amongst His Religious Subjects; If Doctour Sanderson’s notion be right Divinity, as certainly it is, Pius esse nequit qui non est fortis [He cannot be godly who is not courageous], He cannot be godly who is cowardly; and his esteem amongst men by the rule of the Heathen Poet.
Justum ac tenacem propositi virum
Non civium ardor prava jubentium,
Non vultus instantis tyranni
Mente quatit solida.
[The just man, firm and tenacious of his purpose,
is not shaken in his steadfast mind by the rage of citizens commanding wicked things,
nor by the face of a threatening tyrant.] [Horace lib. 3. ode, 3.]
Serious men will stoutly withstand the importunities of impudence, and the exactions of furious Tyrants: And I say, it cannot avail unto the least voiding of the Covenant; the matter whereof is found just, lawful, and possible, for all Casuists have concluded Juramentum metu extortum [an oath forced from someone under fear or compulsion]
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doth bind; And the Heathen have amplified the force of an Oath; by Regulus his return to his Enemies to be slain when he had been forced to make it; on which Cicero asserteth Temporibus illis jusjurandum valebat; then Oaths were binding: and Doctour Sanderson [de Juram. prælectio 5. Sect. 15. pag. 126.] hath concluded that an Oath made not only on light fear, but a just and grievous fear Qualis est metus captivitatis, amissionis omnium bonorum, infamiæ, cruciatus, & quod est τῶν φοβερῶν φοβερώτατον ipsius mortis [Such as the fear of captivity, of the loss of all goods, of infamy, of torture, and—what is the most fearful of fearful things—of death itself], of imprisonment, loss of goods, yea most dreadful loss of life (which all men must confess to be a most strait condition) yet it binds unto performance, for which he Renders many reasons; among which these two are of weight in our case:* he chose what then seemed best, and so it was an Act of will, and he received the end proposed as the condition of his entering into that Covenant: Moreover, as I have before noted, Zedekiah was besieged into the Oath made with the King of Babylon, with the greatest force and fury imaginable yet the Prophet was not afraid to cry to the King, shall he break the Covenant and be delivered, and both King and People perished by that breach of Covenant.
Sir, I cannot without sad thoughts reflect on their sin and horrid wickedness, by whom his most sacred Majesty was reduced into those straits of condition, nor shall I acquit them of indiscretions and overmuch boldness, who being subjects could dare to take the advantage of a strait condition to put such terms on Majesty; yet I dare not but adore the providence of God, (who bringeth good out of evil; and maketh the rage of men to work unto his praise, and many times, by ways to us preposterous, effecteth his own holy purpose,) that did bring his most sacred Majesty by these straits into this sacred bond, which, it is more than probable, in an estate of liberty he had never subjected to; and being now sworn they cannot, they must not be slighted or violated: but I hope his Majesty shall never want a good Angel to be his monitor to pay the vows he made to God in the day of his distress.
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* Videtur non posse hæc te recusari quod fuerit prudenter electum; Quod ob certum finem promissum est a promittente debet præstari postquam consecutus est suum finem [It seems that this cannot be refused by you, since it was prudently chosen; for what has been promised for a definite end must be performed by the promiser after he has obtained his end].
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Now Sir I say, when I have considered the Covenant under these public considerations, and find such palpable engagements made by the people of England, as a Kingdom, and Political Body, professing the Reformed Religion; I cannot but adhere to my former conjecture, that it looks something like a National Obligation: nay, the confluence of public assent and authority, by the people collectively and distributively considered; and the access of Royal assent and concurrence (the defect of which rendered it at first less acceptable to many) leads my conjecture unto a full conclusion, that it is a public National Covenant, binding all the persons of this Nation (that swear, or swear not personally) and our posterity after us, in their particular places; and all that shall succeed into the public places, and politick capacities of this Kingdom, to preserve and pursue the things therein promised, so long as it remains a Kingdom, under one King, and in the profession of one Reformed Religion; which I pray and hope will be, till Jesus Christ shall come to judgment. Give me leave Sir to enforce this, with what I observed to be asserted by the Lord Chief Baron in his learned Speech unto the late condemned Traitors at the Old Baily, You were bound to bear Allegiance to your King; yea, though you may not have taken the Oath of Allegiance your selves, yet you were bound by the Recognition of King James and His Posterity, made at His first coming to the Crown of this Realm, by the whole Parliament, being the whole Collective body of the Kingdom. Certainly then they and their Posterities must needs be bound, who themselves have universally by the appointment and authority of such who were entrusted for them, engaged the Faith of the Nation; though it had been sufficient, if the Parliament in that public capacity had only done it; for I say still, I see not how they can give away our Estates; or take pardons in the name, and to the security of the Nation; if they may not in our name make Oaths, Promises, and Covenants to bind us and our succeeding Governours and Posterities; in sense whereof, I cannot but desire all that wish well to England, to consider the Covenant, the Solemn League and Covenant; for Sir, as it was no little support and satisfaction to my spirit, under the late contempt and horrid violations of the Covenant, to observe they were the preposterous Acts of Self-created Powers, and Usurpers on the Peoples consent, as well as His Majesty’s
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Crown; and therefore could not involve the Nation in the guilt of their perjury, which our eyes have seen to fall upon their own heads; so it is now the greatest perplexity in my real use, that the Covenant is like to be slighted, if not contradicted; and that the Nation is in danger to be plunged under the guilt, and made liable to the punishment thereof, by that Just God, who will certainly avenge the quarrel of the Covenant; which God forbid! God forbid! I say again, God forbid!
To conclude Sir this Section, least you or any others should think, this quality of the Solemn League and Covenant, as Public and National, to be my own notion, and private particular fancy; give me leave to tell you and them, I can produce more then 600. Ministers (most of whom are yet living) in the Kingdom of England, who under their hands have testified their apprehensions thereof, under the same notion. Such as will please to take a strict view of this Cloud of Witnesses, may at their leisure survey the public Testimonies to the Truths of Jesus Christ, and to the Solemn League and Covenant; and they shall find the same attested by the names of 52. Ministers of London; 41. in the County Palatine of Lancaster; 39. in the County Palatine of Chester; 41. Ministers in the West Riding of the County of York; who in their Title page, and throughout their Testimony, do denominate it the National covenant; 39. in the County of Norfolk; 82. in the County of Wilts; 36. in the County of Stafford, 69. in the County of Somerset; (which I presume may make a better Septuagint then Bishop Pierce’s Certificates of this County, for Revels, Clerks-ales, and Church-ales on the Lord’s-day, though they want three of the number) 68. in the County of Northampton; 71. in the County of Essex; 43. in the County of Warwick; 62. in the County of Gloucester; 57. in the County of Salop; and 73. in the County of Devon; who give their testimony, and call it the Solemn League and Covenant of the three Kingdoms; and in the sense of the National Obligation, they give this testimony, and thus plead [Pag. 27.], We find the Covenant is antiquated and banished, as intended to be of force, during the time of our intestine Wars; we confess we are amazed at this quirk; we pray the Wars may cease for ever (which yet there is fear may too soon be recalled by God, for this treacherous dealing in his Covenant) but we believe no honest understanding heart can be persuaded the Covenant was intended as a
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Truce made with God for three or four years; but we shall labour to stop this Gap with some few strong stakes, cut out of the Covenant; and so passing through the several Articles of the Covenant, they advise [Pag. 28, 29.], these terms may be viewed constantly, all the days of our life, our posterity, the Lord may dwell in the midst of us, and good of the Kingdoms; whereupon they conclude, these are not for a few years, but for ever, and affectionately cry out to the Nation, Oh England turn not Harlot, break no Covenant with thy God; and the Lord keep England from this Covenant-breaking, and his vengeance from his people: Unto this, give me leave to add this passage out of the Testimony of the York-shire Ministers [Pag. 9.]; It cannot be unknown to the Churches abroad, that all the three Kingdoms stand engaged by virtue of a Solemn League and Covenant, sworn with hands lifted up to the most High God, sincerely, really and constantly by the grace of God, to endeavour in our several places the Reformation of Religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland, in Doctrine, Worship, Discipline and Government, according to the Word of God, and example of the best Reformed Churches. I shall Sir add but one more, and it is that in which we have all the rest (theirs being little else but a concurrence with this) and that is the Testimony of the Ministers of our own City of London, and they profess thus [Pag. 26.], In order to the Reformation and Defence of Religion within these three Kingdoms, we shall never forget how solemnly and cheerfully the Sacred League and Covenant was sworn, with hands lifted up to the most High God; wherein the three Kingdoms stand engaged jointly and severally, &c. Yet we cannot but observe, to the great grief of our hearts, that this Solemn Covenant of God hath been, and is daily neglected, slighted, vilified, reproached and opposed, even by too many who have entered into it; and endeavours have been used wholly to evade it, and render it useless; and that it hath been manifestly violated, to the dishonour of God, to the prejudice of a real Reformation, the saddening of the hearts of God’s people, and pulling down his dreadful judgments upon us, and upon the whole Kingdom. Sir, I will say no more; but I pray God London Ministers may retain, or recover their first love [Pag. 38.]; and England’s Watch-men may remember the loud Alarms they have sometimes sounded, and the grounds thereof.