It was certainly as unreasonable that
Charles should submit his judgment to Henderson, as that Henderson should
submit his to that of Charles. The king, therefore, asked who was to be
judge between them. The divine replied, that Scripture could only be
explained by Scripture, which, in the opinion of the monarch, was leaving
the matter undecided. He maintained that antiquity was the judge. The
church government established by the apostles must have been consonant to
the meaning of the Scripture. Now, as far as we can go back in history, we
find episcopacy established: whence it is fair to infer that episcopacy
was the form established by the apostles. Henderson did not allow the
inference. The church of the Jews had fallen into idolatry during the short
absence of Moses on the mount, the church of Christ might have fallen into
error in a short time after the death of the apostles. Here the controversy
ended with the sickness and death of the divine.--See Charles's Works,
75-90.]
leaders, however, came with political arguments to the aid of their
champion. They assured[a] the king that his restoration to the royal
authority, or his perpetual exclusion from the throne, depended on his
present choice. Let him take the covenant, and concur in the establishment
of the Directory, and the Scottish nation to a man, the English, with
the sole exception of the Independents, would declare in his favour.
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