A Protestation of the Kings Supremacy

TO THE CIVILL STATES of this Kingdom.

WE beseech your H. and W. that you would by this true light that we shall give unto you, look into our innocence. His Excelent Majesty, yourselves, and your Sacreed Thrones are exceedingly abused, with Foggs and Mists, which (breathed out of the mouths of the Prelates) are cast between your eyes, and the Integrity of our cause: through the darkness whereof you are led to give many heavy Sentaunces against the most harmless Subiectes in the Kingdom, as Enimies to the Supremacy and State. Whereas it shall appear that no Christians in the world give more unto the same then we and that in very truth, the cause that we maintain is for the King and Civil State, against an Ecclesiastical State, that secretly, and in a Mystery (as we may hereafter have occasion to prove) opposeth it self against the same. If this protestation shall in any measure satisfy you. Then we desire your Honorable Mediations for us to the Highest. If not. That then we may know wherein it is defective and we shall be found ready to give all Satisfaction.

A PROTESTATION OF the Kings Supremacy.

WE hold and maintain, the same Authority & Supremacy in all causes and over all persons Civil and Ecclesiastical, granted by Statute to Queen Elizabeth, and expressed and declared in the book of Aduertisements & Injunctions, and in M. Bilson against the Jesuits, to be due in full and ample manner (without any limitation or qualification) to the King and his Heirs and Successors forever. Neither is their (to our knowledge) any one of us, but is and ever hath been most willing to subscrib and swear unto the same, according to form of statute, And we desire that those that shall refuse the same may bear their own iniqutie.

2 We are so far from Iudgeing the said Supremacy to be unlawful: that we are persuaded that the Kinge should sin highly against God, • s he should not assume the same unto himself, & that the Churches within his Dominiōs should sine dānablie, if they should deny to yield the same unto him. yea though the statutes of the kingdom should deny it unto him.

3 we hold it plain Antichristianism for any Church or Church officers whatsoever, either to arrogate or assume unto themselves any part or parcel thereof, and utterly unlawful for the king to give away or alienate the same from his own Crown and dignity to any spiritual potentates or rulers whatsoever within or without his dominions.

4 We hold that though the Kings of this Realm wear no members of the Church but very Infidels, ye and persecutors of the truth, that yet those Churches that shall be gathered together within thes dominions ought to acknowledge & yield the said supremacy unto them And that the same is not tied to their faith and Christianity but to their very Crown from which no subject or subjects have power to separate or disjoin it.

5 We hold that nether King nor Civil state are bound in matter of Religion to be subject and obedient to any Ecclesiastical Person or Persons whatsoever no further then they shall be able to Conuince their consciences of the truth thereof out of the word of God. Yea we think they should sin against God, if they should ground their Religion, or any part or parcel thereof upon the bare Testimony or Judgment of any man, or of all the men in the world.

6 We hold that no Churches or Church officers have power for any crime whatsoever to deprive the king of the least of his Royal prerogatius whatsoever, much less to deprive him of his supremacy wherein the height of his Royal dignity Consists.

7 We hold that in all things Concerning this life whatsoever, the Civil Jurisdiction of Kings and Civil States excelleth & ought to have preeminence over the Ecclesiastical, and that the Ecclesiastical nether hath nor ought to have any power in the least degree over the bodies, lives, goods, or liberty of any person whatsoever, much less of the Kings and Rulers of the Earth.

8 We hold that Kings by virtue of their Supremacy have power: yea also that they stand bound by the law of God to make Laws Ecclesiastical such as shall tend to the good ordering of the Churches in their Dominions, And that the Churches ought not to be dissobedient to any of their Laws, so far as in obedience unto them, they do not that which is contrary to the word of God.

9 We hold that though the King shall Command anything contrary to the Word unto the Churches, that yet they ought not to resist him therein, but only peaceablie to forbear obedience, and sue unto him for grace and mercy, and where that cannot be obtained, meekly to submit themselves to the punishment.

10 We hold that the King hath power by virtue of his Supremacy, to remove out of the Churches, whatsoever he shall discern to be practiced therein, not a greable to the word of God. And if he shall see any defect either in the worship of God or in the Ecclesiastical Discipline, he ought by his royal authority & power to procure and force the redress thereof, yea, though it be without the consent and a gainst the will of the Ecclesiastical Gouerners themselves.

11 We hold that the King hath as much author itie over the body, goods, & affairs, of Ecclesiastical persons, as of any other of his Subjects whosoever. And that by his authority, he may force them not only to all ciuyll duties belonging unto them, but also unto all Ecclesiastical: afflictyng as great punishment upon them for the neglect thereof, as upon any other of his Subjects.

12 We hold that he hath power, to remove out of the Churches, all Scandolous, Scismaticall & Heretical Teachers, and by all due severity of Laws to repress them.

13 We hold that all Ecclesiastical Laws made by the King (not repugnant to the word of God) do in some sort bind the consciences of his subjects: and that no subject ought to refuse obedience to any such law.

14 We hold that the King only hath power within his Dominions, to Couvene Synods or general Assemblies of Ministers, And by his authority Royal, to ratisie and give life and strength, to their Canons and Conslitutions, without whose ratification, no man can force any subject to yield any obedience unto the same.

15 We hold that though the King may force the Churches to be subject and obedient unto him: and to be Members of the Commō wealth, ye • that the Churches severally or jointly, have no power to force him: or any subject, against their will to any service unto them, or to any religious 〈◊〉 whatsoever. No, nor to be so much as a member of any Church.

16 We hold that the King ought not to be subject to the Ecclesiastical Censures of any Churches, Church officers or Synods whatsoever, but only to that Church and those Officers of his own Court and Houshould, unto whom (in reverence of their Religion and of the spiritual Graces of God he sees shinynge in them) he shall of his own freewill, subject and commit the Regiment of his soul, in whom their can be, no suspicion nor fear of any partiality: or unjust or rigorous dealing against him.

17 We hold that if any Ecclsiasticall Gouerners (call them by what name you will) shall abuse their Ecclesiastical authority in the execution of their Censures, upon any man whosoever. That the King and Civil States under him, have power to punish them severely for it, much more if they shall abuse it upon the Supreame Majesty himself.

18 If the King subjecting himself: to Spiritual Guides and Governers, shall afterwards refuse to be guided and governed by them according to the word of God, and living in notorious sin without repentannce shall willfully contemn and despise all their holy & religious Censures, that thē thes Governors are to refuse to administer the holy things of God vn to him, and to leave him to himself and to the secret Judgment of God, and wholly to resign and give over that spiritual charge & tuition over him, which by calling from God and the King they did undertake. And more then this they may not do. And after all this, We hold that he yet still retaineth, and ought to retain, in tierly & solidly, all that aforesaid supreāe power and authority over the Churches of this Dominion in as ample a manner as if he were the most Christian prince in the world.

19 We acknowledge King James to be our only lawful Sovereign and unto him to be due all the aforesaid Supremacy & we renounce & abjure allopinions doctrines practicies whatsoever repugnant or contrary to the same, as Anabaptistical & Antichristian. And wish they may be severely punished.

20 We never refused obedience to any Laws or commandments of the King: or State whatsoever, but only to such as we have proved or are ready to prove, (if we might be heard with indifferency) to be contrary to the word of God. And we are ready to take our Solemn Oaths, before the Throne of Justice, that the only cause of our refusal of Obedience to those Canons of the Prelates for which we are in present so extremely afflicted, is mere conscience, and a fear to sin against God: And that if by due form of reasonnyng we may be convinced in our consciences of the contrary, we are as willing as any Subjects in the Realm to Obey and Conforme.

21 We refuse Obedience only to such Canons as require the performaunce of such Acts, & Rites of Religion, as are rejected and abandoned of all other reformed Churches, as Superstitious disorders, Such, as are special mysteries of the Romish Antichristian Idolatry, Such as have been controverted in the Church ever since the last breaking forth of the light of the gospel, out of the cloud of Popery in Luther's time. Such as all Protestant writers & defendors of our Faith beyond the Seaes, and most of our own Countrimē have either in general or par ticular condemned as vain, idle, and vn profitable, Such as all the faithful, and painful Pastors of this Realm: and in a manner all States & degrees of the same, would be content were removed: and sweept out of the Church, and for which few or none are zealous but the Prelates, and their adherents.

22 We deny no authority to the King, in matters Ecclesiastical, but only that which Christ Jesus the only Head of the Church hath directly, and precisly appropriated unto himself, and hath denied to communicate to any other creature or creatures in the world. For we hold, That Christ a lone is the Doctor of the Church in matters of Religion, and that the word of Christ which he hath given unto his Church, is of absolute parfection containyng in it all parts of the true religion, both for substance and ceremony, & a perfect direction in all Ecclesiastical matters whatsoever. Unto & from which it is not lawful for any Man or Angel, to add or detract.

23 We are so far from making claim of any supremacy unto our selves (and thos eccliasticall officers which we desire) that we exclude from our selves & them (as that of which we are utterly incapable) all Princely & Lordlie state pomp & power whatsoever, holding it a sin for any whosoever to excercise (no not by conmission from the magistrate) any authority over the body, Goods, lives, liberty of any man whosoever for any crime or offense whatsoever. So that any one of the basest and most inferior Civil officers in a Kingdom hath and ought to have (in our judgment) more authority and power over men then any or all the Ecclesiastical Officers in the same kingdom or in the whole world. Yea we hold that the highest Ecclesiastical Officer in the Church ought to be as subject unto the basest Civil officers in the Kingdom, as the meanest Subject in the Kingdom, And that they ought not by virtue of their office, to challenge any freedom or immunity at all from any Ciuyll Subjection whatsoever, belonging to any common Subject,.

24 We consine and bound all Ecclesiastical power within the limitts only of one particular Congregation, houldinge that the greatest Ecclesiastical power: ought not to strech beyond the same, And that it is an arrogating of Princly Supremacy, for any Ecclesiastical Person, or Persons whosoever, to take upon thenselves Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction over many Churches, much more over whole Kingdoms and Provinces of Christians.

25 We hold it utterly unlawful for any one Minister to take upon himself, or accept of a sole Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction over so much as one Congregation. And therefore we hold that some of the sufficientest and most honest and godly men in the Congregation, ought to be chosen by the Heades of Families, to be adioynded in Comissiō as Asistants to the Minister, in the Spiritual Regiment of the souls of that Congregation, of which he is the Pastor.

26 We hold that these Ecclesiastical Officers being so chosen by the Church or Congregation, are to exercise over the said Congregation only a Spiritual Jurisdiction and power, consistyng in a careful oversight of the outward behavior of the Members of their Church, That it be not scandalous, offenciue, and vnbeseemynge Christians. And if any Member shall be delinquent, they are brotherly to admonish him, showing him the nature of his crime by the word of God, And if after two or three admonitions, he sheew no tokens of sorrow and penitency, then are they to deny unto him the pledges and seals of of the Church, to wit the Sacraments. If this cannot humble him but that he continue obstinate in that sin, then they are by the mouth of the Minister in Congregation (the whole Church consentinge freely thereto) denounce him to be no Mēber of the Kingdom of Heaven, and so forbear to have any further charge over him, until God shall work the grace of Repentannce, in him? in this manner they are to proceed against all apparent and Euident crimes only, as Murder Adultery Theft Blasphemy, Ribaldery Lying, Slandering, Profanation of the Sabothes contempt of Divine Worship. Disobedience to the Ciuil Magistrate &c. Nether ought the Extreamest of the Ecclesiastical Censures any whit hinder the course of justice that the Civil Magistrate is to excercise against the same crimes for if a Traitor himself should be penitent, the church ought to forgive him and lovingly to embrace him as a Son, but the Magistrate ought to execute him, If he should be obstinate in that crime: As the Magistrate ought to cut him off from the Civil communion of men, so ought the Congregation (of which he is a Member) cut him of from all spiritual Communiō with them. If any one of the Ecclesiastical Officers themselves shall sin, he is as subject to the Censures of the rest as any other member of the congregation. If they shall all sin scandolously either in the execution of their Office, or in any other ordinary manner: Then the Congregation that chose them freely, hath as free power to depose them, and to place others in their room. If the Congregation shall err, either in choosinge or deposinge of her spiritual Officers, Then hath the • uill Magistrate alone power and authority to punish them for their fault, to compel them to make better choice, or to defend against them those Officers that without just causes they shall depose or deprive.

27 We hold that those Ecclesiastical Persons that make claim to greater power and authority then this, Especially they that make claim Iure Divino of power and Jurisdiction to medle with other Churches then that one Congregation of which they are or ought to be Members. Do usurp upon the Supremacy of the Civil Magistrate, Who alone hath and ought to have (as we hold and maintain) a power over the several Congregations in his Dominions, And who alone ought by his authority not only to prescribe common Laws and Canons of Vniformitie and consent, in Religion and worship of God unto them all, But also to punish the offenses of the several Congregations, that they shall cōmitt against the laws of God, the policy of the Realm, And the Ecclesiastical Constitutions enacted by his authority.

28 We hold that the Kinge ought not to give this authority away or to commit it to any Ecclesiastical Person or Persons whatsoever, But ought himself to be as it were, Archbishop and general Overseer of all the Churches within his Dominions, And ought to employ under him, his Honorable Counsel, his Judges, Leiftenaunts, Justices, Cunstables & such like to oversee the Churches, in the several divisions of their civil Regiments, visiting them and punishing by their civil power whatsoever they shall see amiss in any of them: Especially in the Rulers and Gouerners.

29 For as much as no people are more hated persecuted and wronged of the wicked world then the true Churches of Christ, We hold that no people in the Earth stand in more need of the civil magistrate, then they. And that it is the greatest outward blessing they can inioye in this life, to live under the Protection of their Swords and Scepters, and the greatest cause of mourning when the same shall be bent against them. And we hold those churches to be no true churches of Jesus Christ That livinge in any country, shall refuse Subjection to the civil Regents and Gouerners of the same, be they (in respect of Religion) never such Paganish Infidels.

30 We hold it utterly unlawful, For any Christian Churches whatsoever, by any armed force or power, against the will of the civil magistracy and State under which they live, To erect and set up in public, the true worship and service of God, Or to beat down or Suppresse any superstition or Idolatry that shall be countenaunced and maintained by the same. Only, Every man is to look to himself, that he communicate not with the Euills of the times, induringe what it shall please the State to inflict, and seekinge by all honest and peaceable means all reformation of public abuses, Only at the hands of Civil public Persons, And all practices contrary to these, we condemn as Seditious and sinful.

31 All that we crave of his Majesty & the State, is, that by his and their permission and under their protection, and approbation, It may be lawful for us, To serve and worship God in all things according to his revealed will, and the manner of all other reformed Protestant Churches, that have made separation from Rome, That we may not be forced against our consciences to stain and pollute the simple and synere worship of God prescribed in his word, with any human Traditions and Rites whatsoever, but that in Divine worship we may be actors only of those things that may for matter or manner either ingenerall or special be concluded out of the word of God. Also to this end that it may be lawefall for us to exhibit unto them and unto their Censure a true and Syncere Confession of our faith, containyng the main Grounds of our Religion, unto which all other doctrines are to be consonant: as also a Form of Divīe worship and Ecclesiastical Gouerment, in like manner warranted by the word, and to be observed of us all under any Civil punishment that it shall please the said Majesty, & State to inflict, under whose authority alone, we desire to exercise the same: and unto whose punishment alone we desire to be subject if we shall offend against any of those Laws and Canons that themselves shall approve in manner aforesaid, And our desire is, Not to worship God in dark corners, but in such public places and at such convenient times as it shall please them to assign, to the intent, that they & their officers may the better take notice of Our offenses (if any such shall be committed in our Congregations, and assemblies) that they may punish the same accordingly. And we desire we may be subject to no other Spiritual Lord's but unto Christ, nor unto any other Temporal Lord's but unto themselves, whom alone in this Earth we desier to makeour Judges & Supreame Gouerners & Overseers in all causes Ecclesiastical whatsoever renoūcyng as Antichristian, all such Ecclesiastical powers as arrogate and assume unto themselves under any pretence of the Law of God or man, the said power which we acknowledge to be due only to the Civil Magistrate.

32 So long as it shall please the King and Civil State (though to the great derogation of their own authority as we may have occasion hereafter to prove) to maintain in this Kingdom, the State of the Hierachie or Prelacie: We can (in Honor to his Majesty and the State, and in desire of peace) be content without envy to suffer them to inioye their State & dignity, & to live as brethren, amongst thos ministers that shall acknowledge spiritual homage unto their spiritual Lordships, paying unto them all temporal duties, of Tenthes & such like: yea and joining with them in the service and worship of God so far as we may do it without our own particular communicating with them in those human Traditions and Rites, that in our consciences we judge to be unlawful. Only we crave in all dutiful manner that which the very Law of Nature yieldeth unto us, that for as much as they are most malicious Enimies unto us and do apparently thirst either after our blood, or the Shipwracke of our faith and consciences, that they may not henceforth be our judges in these causes, but that we may both of us stand as parties at the bar of the civil Magistrate to be tried in those differences that are between us, and that when they shall publicly malign or flander us or our cause, it may be lauful for us in a dutiful, sober, peaceable & modest manner without personal reproach or disgrace: in as public manner justify our selves, & then instead of that silly mockseruice to the King of wearing a linen rag upon our backs or making a Christ's Cross upon a babies face we shall be ready to perform and yield triple homage service, & tribute unto him, & shall think our lives & all that we have to vile to spend in the service of him and the Civil state under him.