SOME Questions Resolved CONCERNING EPISCOPAL AND PRESBYTERIAN GOVERNMENT IN SCOTLAND I protest before the great God and since I am here as upon my Testament it is no time for me to lye in that ye shall never find with any High-Land or border Thieves greater Ingratitude and more Lies and vile Perjuries then with these Phanatick Spirits And suffer not the Principles of them to brook your Land if you like to sit at rest Except you keep them for trying your Patience as Socrates did an evil Wife K. J. his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 2. p. 51. Lond. LONDON Printed for the Author and are to be Sold by Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall 1690. IMPRIMATUR Z. Isham R. P. D. Henrico Episc. Lond. à Sacris March 10 1690. THE PREFACE THE Government by Arch-Bishops and Bishops was in Scotland restored An. 1662 as being most agreeable to the Word of God most convenient for the preservation of Truth Order and Unity and most suitable to Monarchy and the peace and quiet of the State Those motives for its Restitution are every way so great that none others can be so worthy of the Wisdom of that Nation which challengeth a more early Profession of Christianity and an Ancienter Race of Kings than any of these parts of Christendom can well pretend to But that Ecclesiastical Government which in its self is most agreeable to the Scriptures and best fitted against Heresie and Schism may to prejudiced Men seem burthensome and by them be Misrepresented to others From this it hath happened that the Episcopacy as Exercised in Scotland these 26 years hath been of late abolished as an unsupportable Grievance to the Nation contrary to the general Inclition of the People and inconsistent with the Legal Establishment of that Church at the Reformation Whoever duly compares the Narratives of these Two Acts the one about its Restitution and the other about its Abolishment may find some of their Reasons why no other Ecclesiastick Politie is yet settled in its place For by this delay every Member of Parliament hath had time to consider what Church Government for Essentials is of Divine Right and may both preserve the Church from Heresie and Schism and the State from Usurpation and Rebellion and which may best conduce to the satisfaction of all Religious Protestants and Loyal Subjects in that Kingdom For this Effect the due consideration of the following Questions is doubtless of great importance and the impartial Resolution of them cannot but be at this time very seasonable Whether they are resolved here with such impartiality as this matter requires is submitted to the unbyassed Iudgment of the Reader Whom I shall desire that if he has any thing to object he will tell the world in Charity and Meekness that are the proper Characters of Christianity and not in that Unchristian way of Evil Speaking and Reviling which sufficiently shews what Spirt he is of that writ The brief and true Account of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland occasioned by the Episcopalians since the year 1660. I wish I had seen that Pamphlet before this was going to the Press It would have Occasion'd me to add some things more tho' I do not find my self obliged by it to alter any thing that I have Written SOME Questions c. QUESTION I. Whether Presbytery as contrary to the Episcopacy restored in Scotland An. 1662. was settled by Law when the Protestant Religion came to have the Legal Establishment in that Kingdom 1. ALL the Dispute here intrinsick to the notion of a Church Governour is purely this Whether he should be nominated by the State or by the Church whether after Nomination the power to Elect him should be entrusted to a Delegated Number or remain in the mixt Synod of Clergy and Laity and whether after the Election is past his Institution unto his Office should be for Life or only during Pleasure and lastly whether in the Exercise of his Function he have a Negative voice over his Synod or they a Conclusive Voice over him Wherefore the Presbyterian Moderator An. 1662. abolished is rightly defined the Church-Moderator Nominated and Elected by the Clergy Lay-Elders and Deacons of the Synod instituted unto his Office during their pleasure invested with no fixed Power of Ordination nor any Negative Voice in the exercise of his Jurisdiction And the Episcopacy which was then restored is by the Rule of contraries a Church-Government of a Moderator Nominated by the King Elected by the Chapter invested with a fixed power of Ordination regulated by Cannons and of Jurisdiction balanced by assisting Presbyters 2. Now although such an Episcopacy was in Scotland taken away April last yet since Presbytery is not yet setl'd by Law this question of Fact propos'd about it may be stated and resolved according to Truth without the crime of LEESING MAKING 3. It is not to be doubted but that the Protestant Religion had the Legal Establishment in Scotland in the year 1567 in which year by Parliamentary Statutes Popery was Abolished a Protestant Confession of Faith Authorized and their Kings by the Coronation Oath obliged to maintain it 4. By the Nature of the Scottish Monarchy neither the King without Advice of his Estates nor they without his Royal Consent touching the Publick Act with his Scepter can make or unmake Laws to govern the People Wherefore the Constitution of Bishops having then the Publick Authority the Popish Bishops sitting in this Parliament which thus setl'd the Reformation must in the construction of the Law be confest to remain firm and valid from the aforesaid year 1567 till the full Legislative Power of the King in Parliament concur'd to shake or destroy it 5. But whatever was done at that time in favour of Mr. Iohn Knox his Book of POLICY proposing a superintendency which is another Model of Episcopacy or Mr. An. Melvil his Book of DISCIPLINE proposing Presbytery An. 1578 by Acts of Privy Council extorted in tumultuous times through the Menacing Applications of Clergy Men Assembling themselves without Warrant yet before the year 1592 there is no Act of Parliament either in Print or Unprinted setling that Presbytery which is contrary to the Episcopacy Established before and remaining in substance at the time of the Reformation 6. Wherefore the impartial Resolution of the Question proposed is in short this That Presbytery as contrary to the Episcopacy restored in Scotland An. 1662 was not by Law setled 35 years after the Protestant Religion had the Legal Establishment in that Kingdom QUESTION II. Whether ever Presbytery was setled in the Church of Scotland without constraint from tumultuous times 1. KING Iames describing the Presbyterians calls them the very Pests in the Church and Commonwealth whom no deserts can oblige neither Oaths nor Promises bind brea thing nothing but Sedition and Calumnies Aspiring without Measure Railing without Reason and making their own Imaginations without any warrant of the Word the square of their
importing That every Person having an Inheritance should pay the fourth part of his yearly Estate every Yeoman Tenant or Farmer the fourth part of his free moveables after the payment of their Dues to their Master and that every Burgess should lose all the Priviledges within the Borough and the fourth part of his moveables 12. But notwithstanding this Penal Law the contagion of those Books and Sermons which poisoned so many with Principles of Separation from the established Church produced the renovation of the Covenant contrary to the Authority of the King and Parliament and that again was followed by an open Rebellion of the Western parts known by the name of Pentlin Hills in the Year 1666 defeated by the King's Army so that they were out of capacity of resisting However the King in his Royal Clemency at the Address of some States-men gave them indulgence to convene in Meeting-Houses for Divine Worship and they made this good use of his Mercy as that by them the incumbent Ministers whose Characters would have secured them any where but in the West of Scotland had their Houses in the night time invaded their Persons assaulted wounded and pursued for their Lives Then indeed that merciful Prince with advice of his Estates in Parliament having a just indignation of such horrid and unchristian Villanies thought fit to brand the same with a signal mark of displeasure And this Act of the Date Aug. 1670. is the first that punisheth with Death and confiscation of Goods 13. It is true indeed the King and his Estates of Parliament filled with indignation at the scandalous sin which procured this former Penal Law and understanding from thence that the specious pretences of Religion were altogether false and taken up by seditious Persons They immediately pass'd another Act against Conventicles the Preamble of which last Act declares That such Meetings were the ordinary Seminaries of Rebellion as well as Separation that they tended to the alienating the Hearts of the Subjects from their Duty and Obedience they owe to his Majesty and the Publick Laws and by consequence to the reproach of the Authority of the King and Parliament as well as the prejudice of Gods publick Worship and the scandal of the Reformed Relâ—gion And therefore they were obliged in reason of State as well as for the Peace of the Church to make the Penalty of this Law fall heavy upon the Transgressors thereof 14 And the Penalties therein contained as nigh as I can value Scottish Mony by the current Coin in England are these following That every Minister preaching at a Conventicle should be imprisoned till he find surety for 275 l. that he should not do the like thereafter or else oblige himself by Bond to remove out of the Kingdom and never to return without his Majesties leave that every one of any Inheritance should pay the fourth part of his yearly Estate that every Servant should pay the fourth part of his yearly Wages that every Farmer should pay Forty Shillings and every Tenant under them Twenty 12. Further His Majesty understanding that divers disaffected Persons had been so maliciously wicked and disloyal as to convocate his Subjects to open Meetings in the Fields and considering that those Meetings were the rendezvous of Rebellion and tending in a high measure to the disturbance of the publick Peace declares that those who in Arms did convocate in Field Conventicles should be punishable by Death and confiscation of Goods and that those present at them should be punished in double the respective Fines appointed against House-Meetings This Act is dated Aug. the 30th 1670. 13. These acts against Separation in Meeting-houses or in the Fields were appointed to endure only for the space of three years unless his Majesty should think fit to continue them longer wherefore his Majesty considering that they had not received due Obedience and that the execution thereof had not been so prosecuted as by the Tenor of the same is prescribed found it necessary with the advise of his Estates in Parliament in Sept. 1672. that they should remain in force for other three Years to come 14. These are the Penal Laws in Scotland against the Presbyterians made by divers free Parliaments against their sinful Separation from the Church to frequent Meeting-houses or Field-Conventicles upon mature consideration of the inconsistency of it with Religion towards God Affection to the Laws Loyalty to the King or Study of the publick Peace of the State And three Rebellions in 23 years from the year 1663 to the year 1686 have justifyed the Justice and Wisdom of these Parliaments But none ever suffered for meer Separation but in purse and never any was punished that way but such as came to Church to save their Money notwithstanding all their pretended scruples of Conscience Wherefore unless we derogate from the Authority of King and Parliament justify Rebellion and prefer private Humour to publick Peace the impartial Resolution of the present Question is this That the Penal Laws against the Scotch Presbyterians had nothing of Persecution in them QUESTION VI. Whether the Episcopal Clergy in Scotland from the Year 1662 to the Year 1686 shewed any thing of the Spirit of Persecution against Presbyterians 1. NOtwithstanding that the Presbyterians are pleas'd to say they were dragoon'd by the Bishops and Episcopal Clergy alluding to that way of Conversion in France which indeed was procur'd by an Address of the Assembly of the Clergy of that Kingdom yet this is a palpable Injustice and Calumny For certain it is that all these twenty four years never produced one Address of the Presbyterial Diocesan Provincial or National Assembly of the Established Church of Scotland either beseeching the High Court of Parliament or the Lords of the Privy Council to make or execute Laws against Protestant Dissenters Wherefore notwithstanding all the passionate Exhortations in private and the publick Sermons in the Church concerning the guiltiness of Schism and the necessity of Union among Protestants against their common Adversaries the Inferiour Clergy there cannot be possibly charged with the Spirit of Persecution against Presbyterians Nay upon the contrary our Clergy were so averse from giving obedience to the Act that enjoyned them to present written Lists of the Dissenters in their respective Parishes and so very inflexible to the Publick Order for their Judicial informing upon Oath against Separatists that the Judges competent and Officers of State chid them in Publick for disaffection to the Royal Government so that under that Imputation they had nothing but their Innocency to support them in the Spirit of Meekness and Charity to their sworn Enemies 2. Again it were a great Injustice to the Lords Spiritual the Bishops to charge any of them as having been the first movers of those Penal Laws against Separation but since the repeated Rebellions of Forty Years past convinced all Mankind of the necessity of those Laws for the security of Religion and the Peace of
Counsellours and Iudges qualified by Law to Call and Dissolve Parliaments by himself and make Laws with their Advice to make Leagues and Conventions of the Subjects and to make Peace and War being all Prerogatives Royal of the Crown of Scotland asserted by Acts of Parliament unrepealed and all these being so notoriously Usurped upon by the Presbyterian Kirk the impartial Resolution of the Question is this That this Scottish Presbytery in the Church is Not Consistent with legal Monarchy in that Kingdom QUESTION X. Whether Scottish Presbytery be agreeable to the general Inclination of that People 1. AFter it hath been Demonstrated that the Principles of Scotch Presbytery are inconsistent with that Monarchy to say that Presbyterian Church-Government were agreeable to the mind of the Representatives of that People in the current Parliament might be constructed the capital Crime of LEISING MAKING to his Majesty against his Supreme Judicature And therefore this Question hath Reference to the People whom they represent and resolveth into this Whether the generality of the Scottish Nation would be glad to accept of Presbytery instead of the Episcopacy lately abolished 2. For the clearer resolution of the Question thus stated that Kingdom may be distinguished into the Laity and Clergy and the Laity distinguished into the Nobility Gentry and Commons And the Clergy again into the Bishops and subordinate Pastors after whom we may consider the Universities and Colledges of Learning 3. As for the Nobility Since that Honourable Estate of the Kingdom have by birth their Peerage in Parliament beside that it were Scandalum magnatum to say that they inclin'd to that Church Government which is not consistent with their Monarchy it were also a Scandalum Christianorum to say that those Men of Honour and Conscience who a very few excepted swore in the Test against all Fanatical Principles and renounced all Covenant-Obligations do incline to Presbytery And it 's well known that there never were in Scotland above a dozen of Peers so much Presbyterian as to refuse the Declaration against the Covenant-Principles the taking of which qualified them to sit in Parliament 4. Again for the Scottish Gentry it 's certain that not One of Forty in all Scotland but has taken the Test and Four years ago not Fifty in all Scotland out of the West did upon the Indulgence forsake their Churches to frequent Meeting-Houses And it cannot be supposed of any who have so generous Blood in their Veins that they should have so little Honour or Conscience as to Incline to that Church Government which usurps the Priviledge of entring into Covenants and Leagues and Convening in Assemblies for Treating Consulting and Determining in matters Ecclesiastical without the Royal Command or express License Which is a Practice contradicting the Promissory part of that Oath of the Test. 5. Then for the Commons it is certain that the generality of them as well as the richest and most sensible part live in Cities and Market Towns now all such Burgesses who were either worthy to be of the Common Council of the Towns they lived in or were able to follow any ingenuous Trade were obliged to take the Test before they could be qualified to elect Burgesses for Parliament and therefore according to their Sense and Conscience of an Oath they cannot but have an aversion against Presbytery yea their loud Cries and Rivers of Tears at the Farewel-Sermons of their Episcopal-Pastors for whom they would have pluckt out their right Eyes in all other parts of Scotland but the Western Shires heighteneth the probability that they are not in love with Presbytery 6. Then for the Clergy since they all have owned Episcopal Ordination sworn the Oaths of Allegiance Supremacy and the Test it cannot be suspected of any of them without a blemish of their Integrity or Constancy that they should be inclin'd to Presbyterian Government And if Twenty of a Thousand are Trimmers betwixt the Bishop and the Presbyterian Moderator yet sure those Twenty added to all the Field-Preachers and Meeting-housekeepers will not make up the number of a fifth part of the Episcopal Clergy No doubt they will say that what they want in the number they have in the worth of their Ministers But how far we may believe them in their setting value upon themselves may partly appear from the consideration of their late Commissioners to this Court for doubtless for the managing of their Cause they made choice of the fittest Men they had as for all other Abilities so especially for soundness in the Principles of Presbytery also of the greatest moderation and yet one of the Three Mr. W son before he got his First Wife was a malignant Lecturer under Bishops and so continued till his first disappointment of getting his Rectors Place made him desert his own with Indignation and that made him an enemy to Episcopacy Another of them Mr. K dy was before the restitution of Bishops deprived by his Presbyterian Brethren to use their own Words as near as I can remember as a Firebrand of Hell to inflame the Church on Earth The Third is so famous that I never heard of him till he came in this Character 7. Then in all the Four Universities it is certain that not Four Masters Head or Fellow incline to Presbytery and the Colledges of Justice and Physick at Edenborough were so averse from it that the generality of them were ready last Summer to take Arms in defence of their Episcopal Ministers Wherefore since neither the most part of the Scotch Noblemen Gentry or Commons Clergy Universities or Colleges are for Presbytery or in Honour or Conscience can be we conclude That Scottish Presbytery is not agreeable to the mind of that People FINIS The CONTENTS Quest. 1. Concerning the time of the first settlement of Presbytery in Scotland pag. â— Quest. 2. Concerning the manner of the settlement 〈◊〉 Presbytery in Scotland in the Reigns of K. Ja. Vâ— and Charles I. pag. â— Quest. 3. Concerning the Principles of Scottish Presbytery in reference to Dissenters pag. â— Quest. 4. Concerning the Separation of Scotch Presbyterians from the Episcopal Church since the Year 1662. p. â— Quest. 5. Concerning the Penal Laws against Scotch Presbyterians since the Year 1663. pag. â—â— Quest. 6. Concerning the Carriage of the Episcopal Clergy of Scotland towards Dissenters pag. â—â— Quest. 7. Concerning the Carriage of the Episcopal Church of Scotland in reference to the Penal Law against Papists pag. â—â— Quest. 8. Concerning the Carriage of Scotch Presbyterians in reference to the Penal Laws against Papists pag. 23. Quest. 9. Concerning the Principles of Scottish Presbytry in referenee to the power of the King pag. 25. Quest. 10. Concerning the mind of the people in Scotland in reference to the Presbyterian Government in the Church pag. 28. FINIS K. Iames 6. Parl. 1. Act. 2 3 8. Spotswood's 3 Book Spotswood Book 3. p. 152. Book 6. p. 289. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 2. p. â—8 Lond. Ed. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 2. Spotswood 6 Book K. Charles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 17 Chap. August 30. 1639. Aug 1639. Aug. 1643. May 1644. Aâ—g 164◠〈…〉 An. 1661. Aug. 1647. Feb. 1645. K. Ch. 2. Parl. 1. Act. 7 9 10. K. Ch. 2. Parl. 1. Sess. 2. Act. 1. K. Ch. 2. Parl. 1. Sess. 3. Act. 2. K. Ch. 2 Parl. 2. Ses. 2. Act. 4. K. Ch. 2. Parl. 2. Ses. 2. Act. 5. K. Ch. 2. Parl. 1. Act. 2. Aug. 1648. K. Ch. II. Part. 1. Act. 3. Iuly 1648. Iuly 28. 1648. Iune 3. 1644. K. Ch. 2. Part. 1. Act. 5. Feb. 12. 1645.