Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	article_n	church_n	faith_n	2,831	5	5.2602	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70609	Presbyterian inquisition as it was lately practised against the professors of the Colledge of Edinburgh, August and September, 1690 in which the spirit of Presbytery and their present method of procedure is plainly discovered, matter of fact by undeniable instances cleared, and libels against particular persons discussed.	Monro, Alexander, d. 1715?	1691 (1691)	Wing M2443; ESTC R5724	77,713	110

three several times in the Book viz. at two Publick Laureations and a private one and the Doctor having laid the blame on the Bibliothecarius his negligence and craving the Bibliothecarius might be Examined thereupon He being accordingly Sworn and Examined Depones that what he wrote in the Magistrand Books was either by direction of the Primar or of one of the Regents and in Presence of a Faculty or of a Quorum of them and that what he did write was alwaies Read over in the Presence of the Masters and the Scholars and particularly the alteration of the Promise made at the Graduation in the year 1687 as also the Committee considering that at the two last Laureations in the year 1689 and 1690 neither Oath nor Promise was required at the Graduation It is therefore the Opinion of the Committee That Doctor Alexander MONRO Principal of the Colledge of Edinburgh be Deprived of his Office as Primar there and that the said Office be Declared vacant There is a Letter Written by the said Doctor and Directed to the late Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews Dated Jan. 5. 1689. owned and acknowledged by the Doctor to be his hand write the Consideration whereof is Remitted to the Commission The Sentence of Deprivation against Dr. Monro At Edinburgh September 25 1690. THE Lords and others of the Commission appointed by Act of Parliament for Visitation of Universities Colledges and Schools having this day heard and considered the above written Report of the Committee of the Colledge of Edinburgh anent Doctor Monro Primar of the Colledge of Edinburgh Deposition and other Instructions produced and also Doctor Monro being ask'd if he was presently willing to Swear the Oath of Allegiance to Their Majesties King William and Queen Mary and to Sign the same with the Assurance and the Confession of Faith which formerly he had offered to Sign before the said Committee and if he would Declare his willingness to submit himself to the present Church Government as now Establish'd The said Doctor Monro did Judicially in Presence of the said Commission refuse to Sign the said Confession of Faith and to take the said other Engagements required to be done by the said Act of Parliament And also did Judicially acknowledge his written Answers produced before the Committee and did Confess he caused remove the Pictures of the Reformers out of the Library Therefore the said Commission approves of the foresaid Committees Report and finds the same sufficiently Verified and Proven And hereby Deprives the said Doctor Alexander Monro of his Place as Primar of the said Colledge of Edinburgh and Declares the said place Vacant Sic Subscribitur Crafurd P. A Review of the above-mentioned Report of the Committee appointed to Visit the Colledge of Edinburgh concerning Doctor Monro The Report THE Committee Considering that Doctor Monro Principal of the Colledge of Edinburgh did Judicially Refuse to comply with the Qualifications Required by the Act appointing the Visitation of Colledges except as to the Subscribing the Confession of Faith Review First It cannot be denied but that the Doctor did once and again deliberately plainly and openly refuse to comply with the New Test appointed by the late Act of Parliament for Masters of Universities but then it is necessary for Strangers to know what this Test is and then they will see upon what Design it was invented and why it was Imposed upon Masters of Universities and not upon the whole Clergy of the Nation First All Masters of Universities were required to Sign the Westminster Confession of Faith in every Article and to hold every Article de fide without any Limitation Explication Restriction or Latitude When the Doctor gave in his Answers to the Committee he was that Afternoon asked if he would comply with the Act of Parliament he told them he had considered the Act of Parliament and he could not comply with it For said he it is needless to insist on particulars though I should agree to it in some Instances I cannot comply with it in its full Extent and in our Language this is molum ex quolibet defectu bonum ex integra causa thus he answered once so he had Reason to expect they would never give him any trouble about this Question But the Committee upon the 〈…〉 day of August would needs ask him again whether he would Sign the Westminister Confession of Faith The Doctor thought this question was asked to satisfie their private Curiosity not at all with regard to the Report they were to make to the General Commission since he positively told them before that he would not comply with the New Test therefore he yielded so far to their importunity as to tell them he had no great scruples against the Confession of Faith and that if the Westminster Confession of Faith was imposed as Vinculum Unitatis Ecclesiasticae and nothing else required he might be induced to comply with it very chearfully he was then removed and in the Interval of his absence before he was called again one of the Ministers desired that no more Questions should be asked for in Case said he He should comply with the other particulars of the Test where are we then I had this from a Person of Honour who was present a Member of the Visitation But as long as the Test stood as now it stands Mr. Kennedy if he be the Man needed not be so much afraid of the Doctor 's Compliance This Confession as to the Confession of Faith is by their Sentence made to contradict his publick refusal to Sign it before the Commission as if every Article of that Book should be received as Infallible Truth was it not enough that he was content to Sign the Confession of Faith with that Freedome and latitude the Protestant Churches used to impose Confessions upon their Members But the Earl of Crawford Praeses of the General Commission asked the Doctor when he was sisted before them whether he would Sign the Westminister Confession of Faith without Restriction Limitation Explication or any Reserve whatsoever To this the Doctor Answered plainly and resolutely he would not nor are Confessions thus imposed in any Protestant Church upon Earth they look upon them as Secondary Rules and consequently to be Examined by the Word of God And the most Accurate Humane Composures may afterwards be found in some one Instance or other to have swerved from the Infallible and Original Rule of Faith but the Presbyterian Severity may appear in this that they Read the Scriptures with design to defend their own Dictates whereas others Read all Dictates with an Eye to the Holy Scriptures The Doctor was content to Defend and Assert upon all occasions all these Articles in that Book that were Uniformly Received in all Protestant Churches Nay more he was content never openly and contentiously to Dispute against any of the Doctrines contained in that Book so as to advance Faction or Parties But to Sign the Confession of Faith in all

set in the front to make up the Muster and for no other end since he dares no more appear to make good this than the other triffling particulars Was it my Swearing the Oath of the Test once and again or my recommending to the Scholars the first Year I came here such Books as I judged most proper to Discover and confute the Superstitions of the Roman Church Had it not been far easier for the Libeller who hath no regard to Truth or Probability to have cast into this Paper more odious Crimes But I was in France and therefore behoved to be a Papist and this is enough for this triffling Lybeller I am very sure none of the Papists ever thought me one The second Article is a Confirmation of the first Mr. Burnet was suspect of Popery when he came here and I did all I could to get Scholars to his Class particularly I spoke to Bailey Grahame for his Son and the Chancellour thanked me for the Care I took of Mr. Burnets Concern and such as he was The then Magistrates of Edinburgh several of the Learned Colledge of Physicians and all the Professors of this University will bear me Witness that I left no stone unturned to keep Mr. Burnet out of this Colledge And yet the Libeller hath the Honesty to accuse me that Mr. Burnet was suspect of Popery Was this my fault or was it truly a fault in Mr. Burnet that he was Suspect of Popery The Lord Archbishop of Glascow and Sir Thomas Kennedy then Protest will vindicate me in this particular For it is very well known how much I opposed Mr. Burnet's entry here a Gentleman of known Parts and Integrety one of the Professors of Philosophy in the old Colledge of St. Andrews was the Man I wished to fill up the vacance that happened by the Death of Mr. Lidderdale but Mr. Burnet being once thrust in upon us more by the Duke of Gordon than the Earl of Perth what could I do with him My care of this House obliged me to make him as useful as I could He lay under the Suspicion of being Popish but I knew this to be a Calumny and if I had not endeavoured to get him some Scholars we should have wanted one entire Class in the Colledge This is the true Reason why I spoke to Bailzie Grahame to send his Son to Mr. Burnet and procured an Act of the Faculty for I could make none as the Libeller impertinently suggests that such as were Mr. Lidderdale's Scholars the preceeding Year should be taught for that Year in no other Class but Mr. Burnet's who succeeded to his charge This was no Arbitrary stretch of mine but a just defence of the Current and usual Customes of the House for Mr. Burnet having the second Class could expect none else but the Students that were taught in Mr. Lidderdale's Class the preceeding year but it is added I did all this because I favoured Popery and the Chancellour thanked me for it But this is a down right Lye for I never Entertain'd the Chancellour with Discourses of Mr. Burnet besides for any thing I know the Chancellour had no value for him III. The next is that formidable one of Reading the English Service in my Family in that Interval when there was no National Church Government here But the Libeller forgets that this quite frustrates his first attempt They must be odd kind of Papists that Read the Service of the Church of England upon the 5th of November But the Libeller adds that the Book of Common Prayer was never allowed here since the Reformation does he mean that the Service of the Protestant Church of England was used here before the Reformation but to let this go the Book of Common Prayer was Read in many Families in Scotland ever since the Restitution of King Charles II. and Publickly Read in the Abbey of Hollyrood-house in the Reign of King Charles the First and I hope the Tolleration by King James did not Exclude the English Prayers But upon Enquiry it will be found that they were the first Prayers that were Read in Scotland after the Reformation for Buchannan tells us expresly as you see in the Margin And Buchanans Testimony is the more Remarkable that the Confession of Faith was Ratified in Parliament that very year so that we have not only the private Practice of a few great Reformers Wisheart and several others to justifie the English Liturgy but also the Solemn Concession of the whole Nation who thought their Confession then Ratified had in it nothing contradictory to or inconsistent with the Book of Common Prayer Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England And such as plead for their Separation from the Church of England from the Practices of the first Reformers here go upon an unpardonable Mistake in our History But the plain Matter of Fact is this when I left off Preaching in the High Church I advised with some of my Brethren and the Result was that we should Read the Book of Common Prayer and Preach within our Familes per vices since most of them were acquainted somewhat with the Liturgy of the Church of England Neither did we think when Quakers and all Sects were Tolerated that we should be blamed for Reading those Prayers within our private Families which we prefer to all other Forms now used in the Christian Church Neither had we any design to Proselite the People to any thing they had no mind to else I might have Read the Liturgy in one of the Publick Schools within the Colledge And it must not be said we were afraid to venture upon the Publick Exercise of it because of the Rabble for during the Session of the Colledge it is very well known in the City that the Mobile durst not presume to give us the least Disturbance However the Matter succeeded beyond what we proposed or looked for we Preached to the People upon the Sundays they came by hundreds more than we had room for and very many became acquainted with the Liturgy of the Church of England and perceived by their own Experience there was neither Popery nor Superstition in it and when the Libeller knows it better he will forbear his Violence and Foolish Cavilling But your Lordships will not think I make all this Apology as if I were diffident of the intrinsick Excellency of Common Prayer or that I had done something that needs an Excuse for I look upon the Church of England as the true Pillar and Centre of the Reformation and if Her Enemies should lay Her in the Dust which God forbid there is no other Bulwark in Britain to stop or retard the Progress of either Popery or Enthusiasme And I wonder Men should retain so much bitterness against the Church of England valued and Admired by all Foreign Churches and whose Liturgie as it is the most Serious and Comprehensive so it is the most agreeable to the Primitive Forms

Articles and to hold every one of them to be de fide he thought not consistent with the Freedome of Universities and Schools They might have Learned to be a little more Modest from the Practice of the United Dissenters in and about London who allow any Man to be an Orthodox Christian and fit to be Received into their own Refined Communion if he hold the Doctrinal part of the 39 Articles of the Church of England But the Presbyterians tho' they have no Standard of Unity yet they are mightily Rigorous in their Impositions and it is a little odd that they should have mentioned this concerning the Confession of Faith in their Report since the Doctor once and again told them before the Committee that the Condition that Qualified Men by Law for their places in Universities was a complex thing which he could not comply with such a Rigorous Imposition was never intended by the Parliament They thought it necessary for Masters of Universities to Sign it as vinculum pacis Ecclesiasticae but the Ministers were to Comment upon the Act and extend it as was most subservient to their Design The Presbyterians are against Infallibility in the Theory but will not allow their own Dictates to be Disputed yet when this Confession first appeared they themselves did not Receive it without Restrictions and Explications But if there be so much Mischief in Impositions as sometimes they would make us believe It is in those of this kind where our Understandings are Captivate to believe the lesser Niceties and Decisions of Dogmatick Men to be de fide which with leave of the Presbyterians I reckon a far greater and more Spiritual Bondage than Bowing of my Knees when I Receive the Holy Eucharist If Men were so Wise after our endless and Foolish Disputes as not needlesly to multiply the Articles of our Faith how quickly might the Christian Church be United on its Apostolical Center of Unity and Simplicity The Papists will not part with one Barbarous word nor the Presbyterians with the least Iota of their Orthodox Stuff though they plead the Tenderness of their Consciences very loudly when they are only bid do things in their Nature indifferent to preseve External Peace and Uniformity The next Branch of this Test was The Oath of Allegiance to King William and Queen Mary One great piece of Policy which the Presbyterians manage against the Episcopal Party is never to require Obedience to the Civil Authority without the mixture of some Presbyterian Test when this Severity is complained of they Clamourously Alledge that the Episcopal Party are Enemies to King William and Queen Mary and openly in the Coffee-Houses at London vent that there was none of the Clergy of Scotland met with any ill usage but merely upon the account of their Disloyalty to King William and Queen Mary upon the whole Matter I have no more at present to say but that the Presbyterians are never so much out of Humour as when they know their Opposites heartily complie with the Civil Government Then they find it a little more difficult to turn them out tho' this trouble amounts to no more than the forming of a Libel of Scandals and judging them that are Libelled by the same Men that Accuse them But the Presbyterian Hypothesis when its Consequences are duely considered allows no true Allegiance to any King upon Earth if after all there lies no Appeal from the Ecclesiastical Court to him to whom I Swear Allegiance for two Co-ordinate Supreme Powers in one State is a Contradiction and therefore whenever I am required to Swear Allegiance to the King The first thing I humbly crave is to be delivered from that Presbytery which will supersede that Allegiance upon occasion for it is not enough to tell me that the Power of the Presbyterians is Spiritual and the other is Secular for I feel their Spiritual Power meddles with all my Temporals that tho' I hear the Voice of Jacob I am oppressed by the hands of Esau And tho' it is an easie thing for them to tell me they only meddle in Ordine ad Spiritualia yet that is but a word and but a Foolish one too for by the same Logick they may cut my Throat as well as turn me out of my House and Living and both may be said to be in Ordine ad Spiritualia But every Man knows how inconsistent the Presbyterian Principles are with the Royal Prerogative of Kings And it is very hard to leave the Episcopal Clergy to their Mercy who by their Hopes of Heaven are Sworn to destroy them in the Solemn League and Covenant which is still the Standard and tho' they think it not time all of them again to Renew it yet they magnifie it on all occasions and Act exactly conform to it The next Branch of the New Test is the Certificate or Assurance which you may Read in the Act of Parliament If Allegiance Naturally imply an Affectionate and Sincere Resolution to serve the King against all others upon all occasions then some will say this additional tye of Fidelity is superfluous I am sure that many in England who will endeavour to serve the Government with all Chearfulness and Zeal could not be made to Subscribe any such Declaration as this is But let it be Remembred that when this Act passed in Parliament very few either of the Nobility or Gentry were present The Fourth Article of the Test Requires that they should submit to the Presbyterian Kirk Government for if they had complyed with the former three this was a sufficient reserve for the Presbyterian Interest every thing the Masters did or said good or bad might be turned into a Libel and they were Judges of what every Libel deserved Their Discipline is a bottomless Abyss the Masters behoved to be Tenants at will if once they submitted to their Government It was an easie thing for the Presbyterians to From Libels Nay rather it is impossible for them not to form them for so many of them desiring to be thrust into these places it was folly to expect any peaceable Possession And if there were no other reason to refuse the Test now appointed but that it required Submission to Presbytery I think any knowing and ingenuous Man might be excused for his non-compliance Now you have seen the Test in all its Branches and Strangers will be surprized to hear that there are no Oaths at present required in Scotland of any Clergy Man but only of the Masters of Universities The reason is this the Presbyterians intended speedily to plant themselves in these places and for the rest of the Clergy they doubt not quickly to dispossess them of their Livings by the Power of their Government upon such pretences as they can easily devise and suggest against them Such of the Presbyterians as entered into the Universities took the Oaths but it was thought sit to impose no Oaths upon the whole Body of the Presbyterians that the Kirk