[651] Scobell, 149.
[652] Vindication of the Ordinance against Heresies, &c., 1646.—In which the example of Geneva in putting Servetus to death is cited with approval, and is adduced as an argument in defence of the ordinance.—
The Scottish Dove defends the Ordinance against Heresies, &c., as a great work, very necessary, heresy being of the flesh, and therefore to be punished by the magistrate. A complaint is made in a pamphlet entitled, Oaths unwarrantable, (June, 1647,) that multitudes of men well-affected to the Parliament were indicted and punished for not coming to their parish churches, though there were no statutes to authorize punishment for such neglect, except the act of uniformity, which had been repealed. "Though I stay seven years from church," says the writer, "and constantly meet in private houses, there is by Parliament's principles neither law nor ordinance in force for any judge or justice of the peace to indict me, or any other, or any otherwise to molest or trouble me."
[653] The following prayer for the King was used at Paris, September, 1648:—
"O Almighty and most gracious Lord God, the Ruler of princes when they are on their thrones, and their Protector when they are in peril, look down mercifully from heaven, we most humbly pray Thee, upon the low estate of thine anointed, our King. Comfort him in his troubles, defend him in his danger, strengthen him in his good resolutions, and command thine angels so to pitch their tents round about him, that he may be defended from all those that desire his hurt, and may be speedily re-established in the just rights of his throne, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." Made by Dr. Steward, 1648. MS. copy in Pamphlets, vol. xxxv.
[654] See Short's Sketch of the Church, ii. 154.
[655] Rushworth, vii. 1302, 1321. Godwin, in his History of the Commonwealth, ii. 481, has exposed with unsparing justice the duplicity of Charles at this moment in the treaty which he was then forming with the Scotch.
[656] Rushworth, vii. 1334.
It is unnecessary to do more than indicate that the Commissioners replied to this document, (November the 20th, 1648,) still urging the three points, but explaining the Directory, as setting down the matter of prayer, only leaving words to a minister's discretion. To this Charles gave a final reply, November the 21st, adhering to Episcopacy and the inalienability of church lands. As to the Directory—having observed its latitude according to their explanation—he was willing to waive his objections. The King's final reply is not given in Rushworth, but it may be found in the Parl. Hist., iii. 1130.
[657] Parl. Hist., iii. 1077.