"If the party offending be a civil superior, they are to behave towards him with all that reverence and civil sub'jection that his honour or high office in the state may require. They are not to presume to convene him before them, but are themselves to go to him in all civil and humble manner, to stand bare-headed, to bow, to give him 'all his civil titles; and if it be a supreme governor or 'king, to kneel, and in most humble manner to acquaint 'him with his faults; and if such, or any other offenders 'will voluntarily withdraw from the communion, they have 'no farther concern with them..

"They hold the oath ex officio on the imposer's part to 'be most damnable and tyrannous, against the very law of 'nature, devised by antichrist, through the inspiration of 'the devil, to tempt weak christians to perjure themselves, or be drawn in to reveal to the enemies of christianity 'those secret religious acts, which, though done for the ad'vancement of the gospel, may bring on themselves and their dearest friends heavy sentences of condemnation 'from the court."

CHAP. VI.

Concerning the Civil Magistrate.

1.THEY hold that the civil magistrate ought to have supreme civil* power over all the Churches within his do'minions; but that, as he is a christian, he ought to be a 'member of some one of them; which is not in the least derogatory to his civil supremacy.

2. "That all ecclesiastical officers are punishable by the 'civil magistrate, for the abuse of their ecclesiastical offi❝ces; and much more if they intrude upon the rights and 'prerogatives of the civil authority.

3. "They hold the pope to be Antichrist, because he 'usurps the supremacy over kings and princes; and there'fore all that defend the popish faith, and that are for tol-`

*Dr. Grey says, that the word, civil, is added by Mr. Neal, and that he has omitted, after "dominions," the clause "in all cases whatso"ever." Ed.

erating that religion, are secret enemies of the king's

supremacy.

4. "That all archbishops, bishops, deans, officials, &c. 'hold their offices and functions at the king's will and 'pleasure, merely jure humano; and whosoever holdeth 'that the king may not remove them, and dispose of them at his pleasure, is an enemy to his supremacy."

Let the reader now judge, whether there was sufficient ground for the calumny and reproach that was cast upon the puritans of these times but their adversaries having often charged them with denying the supremacy, and with claiming a sort of jurisdiction over the king himself, they published another pamphlet this summer, entitled, a protestation of the king's supremacy, made in the name of the afflicted ministers, and opposed to the shameful calumniations of the prelates. To which was annexed, an humble petition for liberty of conscience. In their protestation they declare,

1. "We hold and maintain the king's supremacy in all 'causes, and over all persons civil and ecclesiastical, as it was granted to queen Elizabeth, and explained in the book of injunctions; nor have any of us been unwilling to 'subscribe and swear to it. We believe it to be the king's natural right without a statute law, and that the churches within his dominions would sin damnably if they did not 'yield it to him. Nay, we believe that the king cannot alienate it from his crown, or transfer it to any spiritual 'potentates or rulers; and that it is not tied to his faith or christianity, but to his very crown; so that if he were an infidel, the supremacy is his due.

2. "We hold, that no church officers have power to de'prive the king of any branch of his royal prerogative, much less of his supremacy, which is inseparable from

' him.

3. "That no ecclesiastical officers have power over the bodies, lives, goods, or liberties, of any persons within the king's dominions.

4. "That the king may make laws for the good ordering of the churches within his dominions; and that the

churches ought not to be disobedient, unless they apprehend them contrary to the word of God; and even in such 'case they are not to resist, but peaceably to forbear obedience, and submit to the punishment, if mercy cannot be obtained.

5. "That the king only hath power, within his domin❝ions, to convene synods or general assemblies of ministers, 'and by his authority royal to ratify and give life to their 'canons and constitutions, without whose ratification no ́ man can force any subject to yield obedience to the same. 6. "That the king ought not to be subject to the cen'sures of any churches, church-officers, or synods whatsoev'er; but only to that church, and those officers of his own court and household, with whom he shall voluntarily join ' in communion, where there can be no fear of unjust usage. 7. "If a king, after he has held communion with a 'Christian church, should turn apostate, or live in a course 'of open defiance to the laws of God and religion, the 'church governors are to give over their spiritual charge and tuition of him, which by calling from God and the 'king, they did undertake; and more than this they may 'not do, for the king still retains his supreme authority over the churches as entirely, and in as ample a manner, as if he were the most Christian prince in the world.

8. "We refuse no obedience to the king, nor to any of 'the canons required by the prelates, but such as we are 'willing to take upon our consciences, and to swear (if re'quired) that we believe contrary to the word of God. We deny no ecclesiastical jurisdiction to the king, but that which Christ has appropriated to himself, who is 'the sole doctor and legislator of his church.

9. "We are so far from claiming any supremacy to our'selves, that we exclude from ourselves all secular pomp ' and power, holding it a sin to punish men in their bodies, ' goods, liberties or lives, for any merely spiritual offence.

10. "We confine all ecclesiastical jurisdiction within 'one congregation, and that jurisdiction is not alone in the ́ ministers, but also in the elders of the church; and their ́jurisdiction is merely spiritual.

"THEREFORE all that we crave of his majesty and the state is, that, with his and their permission, it may be 'lawful for us to worship GoD according to his revealed 'will; and that we may not be forced to the observance of "any human rites and ceremonies. We are ready to make ' an open confession of our faith, and form of worship, and desire that we may not be obliged to worship GoD in cor'ners; but that our religious and civil behavior may be open to the observation and censure of the civil government, to whom we profess all due subjection. So long as it shall please the king and parliament to maintain the hierarchy or prelacy in this kingdom, we are content that they enjoy their state and dignity; and we will live as ❝ brethren among those ministers that acknowledge spirit'ual homage to their spiritual lordships, paying to them all temporal duties of tithes, &c. and joining with them in the service and worship of God, so far as we may, without 'our own particular communicating in those human tradi, tions which we judge unlawful. Only we pray, that the prelates and their ecclesiastical officers may not be our 'judges, but that we may both of us stand at the bar of the 'civil magistrate, and that if we shall be openly vilified ' and slandered, it may be lawful for us, without fear of punishment, to justify ourselves to the world; and then 'we shall think our lives, and all that we have, too little 'to spend in the service of our king and country."

Though the principles of submission are here laid down with great latitude, and though the practice of the puritans was agreeable to them, yet their enemies did not fail to charge them with disloyalty, with sedition, and with disturbing the peace of the state. Upon which the ministers of Devon and Cornwall published another small treatise, entitledA removal of certain imputations laid upon the ministers &c. in which they say (p. 21) "Let them [the bishops] sift 'well our courses since his majesty's happy entrance in "among us, and let them name wherein we have done ought that may justly be said ill to become the ministers of Jesus Christ. Have we drawn any sword? Have we raised a

ny tumult? Have we used any threats? Hath the state 'been put into any fear or hazard through us? Manifold 'disgraces have been east upon us, and we have endured them; the liberty of our ministry hath been taken from us, and (though with bleeding hearts) we have sustained it. We have been cast out of our houses, and deprived of our 'ordinary maintenance, yet have we blown no trumpet of se'dition. These things have gone very near us, and yet did 'we never so much as entertain a thought of violence. The 'truth is, we have petitioned the king and state; and who 'hath reason to deny us that liberty? We have craved of 'the prelates to deal with us according to law; and is not 'this the common benefit of every subject? We have be'sought them to convince our consciences by scripture:'Alas! what would they have us to do? Will they have us content ourselves with this only, that they are bishops, and therefore for their greatness ought to be yielded to? The weight of episcopal power may oppress us, but cannot convince us."*

It appears from hence, that the puritans were the king's faithful subjects; that they complied to the utmost limit of their consciences, and that when they could not obey, they were content to suffer. Here are no principles inconsistent with the public safety; no marks of heresy, impiety or sedition; no charges of ignorance, or neglect of duty; how unreasonable then must it be, to silence and deprive such men? to shut them up in prison, or send them with their families a begging, while their pulpit doors were to be shut up, and there was a famine in many parts of the country, not of bread, but of the word of the Lord; yet these honest men were not only persecuted at home, but restrained from retiring into his majesty's dominions abroad; for when the ecclesiastical courts had driven them from their habitations and livelihoods, and were still hunting them by their informers from one end of the land to the other, several families crossed the ocean to Virginia, and invited their friends to

Episcoporum auctoritas opprimere nos potest, docere non potest. Ed. +Rapin, vol. ii. p. 176, 185, folie edit.