This limitation is against the Discipline of the Kirke, which Booke 2. chap. 7. declareth this to be one of her liberties, That the Assembly hath power to abrogate and abolish all Statutes and ordinances concerning Ecclesiasticall matters that are found noysome and unprofitable, and agree not with the time, or are abused by the people, and against the acts of the generall assembly. Like as the pretended Assembly 1610 declareth for the common affaires of the Kirk (without exception or limitation) it is necessary that there bee yearely generall Assemblies, And what order can bee hoped for hereafter, if this assembly indicted after so long intermission, and so many grosse corruptions be limited, and that more than ever any lawfull Assembly of the Kirk was, when it was yearly observed.
5. It is ordained in Parl. 11. act 40. K. James 6. anent the necessary and lawfull forme of all Parliaments that nothing shall be done or commanded to be done, which may directly or indirectly pre-judge the liberty of free voicing or reasoning of the Estates, or any of them in time coming. It is also appointed in Parl. 6. act 92. K. James 6. that the Lords of Counsell and Session proceed in all civill causes intended or depending before them, or to be intended, to cause execute their decrees notwithstanding any private writing, charge, or command in the contrary, and generally by the acts of Parliament appointing every matter for its owne judicatorie, and to all judicatories their owne freedome. And therefore much more doth this liberty belong to the supreame judicatory ecclesiastick in matters so important as concerneth Gods honour and worship immediately, the salvation of the peoples Soules, and right constitution of the Kirk whose liberties and priviledges are confirmed Parl. 12. K. James 6. Parl. 1. K. Charles, for if it be carefully provided by diverse Acts of Parliament, especially Parl. 12. act 148. King James 6. That there be no forstalling or regrating of things pertaining to this naturall life: What shall be thought of this spirituall forstalling and regrating which tendeth to the famishing or poysoning of the soules of the people both now and in the generations afterward.
6. It were contrary to our Protestations, proceedings and complaints against the late innovations. And it might bee accounted an innovation and usurpation as grosse & dangerous to us, & the posterity, and as prejudiciall to Religion as any complained upon by us, to admit limitations, and secret or open determinations, which belongeth to no person or judicatory, but to an Assembly, Or to consent to, and approve by our silence the same predeterminations, It were to be guilty of that our selves, which we condemn in others. We may easily judge how the Apostles before the Councell of Jerusalem, the Fathers before the Nicene Councell, and our Predecessors before the assembly holden at the Reformation, and afterwards, would have taken such dealing.
That this Proclamation commandeth all his Ma jesties Subjects for maintenance of the Religion already established to subscribe and renew the Confession of Faith subscribed before in the yeare 1580 and afterward. And requireth the Lords of privy Counsell to take such course anent the same, and the generall Band of Maintenance of the true Religion, and the Kings person, that it may be subscribed, and renewed throughout the whole Kingdome with all possible diligence, which cannot now be performed by us. For although of late we would have been glad that our selves and other his Majesties Subjects had been commanded by authority to sweare, and subscribe the generall Confession of Faith against Popish errours, and superstitions: and now would be glad that all others should ioyne with us in our late Covenant & Confession, descending more especially to the novations and errors of the time, and obliging us to the defence of Religion; and of the Kings Maiesties person, and authority, and for these ends to the mutuall defence every one of us of another, Yet can we not now after so necessary, and so solemne a specification returne to the generall for the reasons following.
1. No means have been left unassayed against our late Confession of Faith and Covenant so solemnly sworn and subscribed. For first we were prest with the rendering and rescinding of our Covenant. Next an alteration in some substantiall points was urged. 3. A Declaration was motioned, which tended to the enervation thereof, and now we finde in the same strain, that we are put to a new triall, and the last mean is used more subtile than the former: That by this new subscription our late Covenant, and Confession may be quite absorbed and buried in oblivion, that where it was intended & sworn to be an everlasting Covenant never to be forgotten, it shall be never more remembered, the one shall be cryed up, and the other drowned in the noise thereof, And thus the new subscription now urged (although in a different way) shall prove equivalent to the rendering of the Covenant, or what of that kinde hath before been assayed. Like as the reasons against the rendring of the Covenant, doe militate directly against this new motion.
2. If we should now enter upon this new Subscription, we would think our selves guilty of mocking God, & taking his Name in vain, for the tears that began to be powred forth at the solemnizing of the Covenant are not yet dryed up and wiped away, and the joyfull noise which then began to sound hath not yet ceased, and there can bee no new necessity from us, and upon our part pretended for a ground of urging this new subscription, at first intended to be an abjuration of Popery upon us who are knowne to hate Popery with an unfained hatred, and have all this yeare bygone given large testimony of our zeale against it. As we are not to multiply miracles on God’s part, so ought we not to multiply solemne oathes and Covenants upon our part, and thus to play with oathes, as children doe with their toyes, without necessity.
3. Neither would we in giving way to this new subscription think our selves free of perjury: for as we were driven by an undeclinable necessity to enter into a mutuall Covenant, so are we bound, not only by the law of God and nature, but by our solemn oath and subscription, against all divisive motions to promove and observe the same without violation: and it is most manifest, that having already refused to render, alter, or destroy our Covenant, nothing can bee more contrary and adverse to our pious intentions and sincere resolutions, than to consent to such a subscription and oath, as both in the intention of the urgers, and in the nature and condition of the matter urged, is the ready way to extinguish, and to drowne in oblivion the Band of our union and conjunction that they be no more remembred. In this case we are called to lay seriously to our hearts, 1, That we have sworne that we shall neither directly, nor indirectly suffer our selves to be divided and withdrawne from this blessed and loyall conjunction, which consisteth not only in the generall Confession, but also in our explanation, & application thereof, but on the contrary, shal by all lawfull means, labour to further and promove the same. 2. That our union and conjunction may be observed without violation, (and so without mutilation of our application) we call the living LORD to witnesse, as we shall answer to Christ in the great Day, &c.
4. This new subscription, instead of performing our vows, would be a reall testimony and confession before the World, That we have been transgressours, in making rash vows, that we repent our selves of former zeal and forwardnesse against the particulars exprest first in our Supplications, Complaints, and Protestations, and next abjured in our Covenant, that we in our judgement prefer the generall Confession unto this, which necessarily was now made more speciall; and that we are now under the faire pretext and honest cover of a new oath, recanting & undoing that, which upon so mature deliberation we have been doing before. This beside all other evils, were to make way and open a door to the re-entry of the particulars abjured, and to repent our selves of our chiefest consolations, and to lie both against God and our owne soules.
5. It hath been often objected, that our Confession of Faith, & Covenant was unlawfull, because it wanted the warrants of publick authority, and it hath been answered by us, that we were not destitute of the warrant civill and ecclesiasticall which authorized the former Covenant. And although we could have wished that his Maᵗʸ had added both his subscription & authority unto it, yet the lesse constraint from authority and the more liberty, the lesse hypocrisie, and more sincerity hath appeared: But by this new subscription urged by authority we both condemn our former subscription as unlawfull, because alleadged to be done without authority, and precondemn also the like laudable course in the like necessity to be taken by the posterity.
6. What is the use of merch-stones upon borders of Lands, the like use hath Confessions of Faith in the Kirk, to disterminate and divide betwixt Truth and errour: and the renewing and applying of Confessions of Faith to the present errors and corruptions, are not unlike ryding of merches. And therefore to content our selves with the generall, and to return to it, from the particular application of the Confession necessarily made upon the invasion or creeping in of errors within the borders of the Kirk, if it be not a removing of the merch stone from its own place, it is at least the hiding of the merch in the ground that it be not seen, which at this time were very unseasonable for two causes. One is, because Popery is so pregnant, and powerful in this land, as we have learned of late. The other, because the Papists who upon the urging of the Service book & Canons, have presumed of our return to Rome, will upon this our subscription arise from their dispareing of us, unto their wonted presumption. None of us will deny, but the large Confession of Faith registrated in the Acts of Parliament, doth by consequence contain this short confession and abjuration: Yet were it not sufficient against Popery to subscribe the one without the other: how then shall we think that the more generall Confession & abjuration at this time, when the urging of such Popish books hath extorted from us so necessary an application, and doth still call for a testimony, to be compleat enough without it.