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A29750 The history of the indulgence shewing its rise, conveyance, progress, and acceptance : together with a demonstration of the unlawfulness thereof and an answere to contrary objections : as also, a vindication of such as scruple to hear the indulged / by a Presbyterian. Brown, John, 1610?-1679. 1678 (1678) Wing B5029; ESTC R12562 180,971 159

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Spiritual Institutions 3. That it was not a full and plaine Vindication of the Doctrine of the Church of Scotland Nor an Assertion thereof according to former Vowes Covenants and Solemne Engagments 4. That it was not candide and ingenuous nor pertinent to the purpose in hand as it should have been by holding forth the Iniquity of such Impositions 5. That it was conceived in such General and Scholastick termes that neither they to whom it was spoken could well understand what was the drift thereof nor others conceive what was yeelded or denied in the then present case yea did not some of the Council say plainly they did not understand it 6. That it contained desingenuous Insinuations and unfaire Reflections on honest and worthy Mr A. B. and a tacite Condemning at least in part of his Plaine and Honest Testimony as if it had contained something either as to the matter or expression unjustifiable or at least liable to exceptions 7. That it contained at least as worded a designe too obvious of humoring and pleasing the Magistrates while actually stated in and prosecuting an opposition to Christs Supremacie and to the Right and Power granted to the Church-Office-Bearers 8. That as it speaketh not home to the point so it is not clear in it self opposing unto Giving and Imposing of Rules Intrinsecally and Formally Ecclesiastical a power only Objectively Ecclesiastical whereby the Magistrate judgeth of the matters of Religion in order to his own Act of approving or disapproving of such a way and nothing else And so either accounting all things to be Rules Intrinsecally and Formally Ecclesiastical which is not a meer judging in order to the Magistrates own Act or on the other hand accounting all things in and about Religion to belong to that power which is Objectively only Ecclesiastical and so to be no less competent to the Magistrate than is that Judgment of discretion whereby he judgeth in reference to his own act of Countenancing or Discountenancing such a way which are not real prescribing of Rules Intrinsecally and Formally Ecclesiastical And thus either giving the Magistrate too little or else too much He tels us of another that spoke before it came to Mr H's turn and that this Person told He could not receive Ecclesiastical Canones from their L L. but as for civil significations of their pleasure under the hazard of civil penalties he could say nothing to that that another did homologate this speech But under favoure this is secundum artem violatilizare densa densare volatilia a pretty whim wham good for nothing On a serious solid zealous Minister should have been ashamed to have substitute such Whity Whaties in the place of a plain Testimony clearly called for in the case But these two Persons not onely brake their own Order and might have occasioned some Consternation to the rest as well as Mr B 's speaking did but also spoke indeed nothing to the purpose and might as well have been silent For 1. By this Distinction little better than a mental reservation they might have scrupled at nothing that theMagistrate might attempt to prescribe in Church-Matters no nor at his giving Rules Intrinsecally and Formally Ecclesiastical for these might also passe under the Notion of Civil Significations of their pleasure c. and thus contradict Mr H. their Common Mouth and the Paper also to which they had unanimously agreed For can they say that the Magistrate giveth or can give a Civll Signification of his will onely when he judgeth in order to his own Act of Approving or Disapproving such a way and so exerteth that Power of his which is only Objectivly Ecclesiastical and not also in many other Acts meerly Ecclesiastical even Formally and Intrinsecally Or can they say that all the Intrinsecalness and Formality in Matters Ecclesiastical consisteth in their being done by Church-Officers acting in a Church-Judicatory and that ●here is no Act which in it self can be called Intrinsecally and Formally Ecclesiastical but that the sole ground of that Denomination is their being performed by Men in Church-office and so the very Act of Preaching and of Administrating of Sacraments might be done by the Magistrate as Civil Significations of his pleasure being not Intrinsecally and Formally Ecclesiastick but when done by Church-O●ficers And thus all the Ecclesiastickness of Actions which are Intrinsecally and Formally such floweth from and dependeth upon the Ecclesiasticalness of the Agents Whence it will follow that all which such Ecclesiastical Persons do must be Intrinsecally and Formally Ecclesiastick and so their judging Civil matters condemning Malefactors c. not to speak of other actions should be actions Formally and Intrinsecally Ecclesiastical Ergo it is competent only to Church-Officers And on the contrary this should be a good Argument This man is an Ecclesiastick Person therefore the Action which he doth must be Formally and Intrinsecally Ecclesiastick And as by this meanes there should be no Cause or Action Formally and Intrinsecally Ecclesiastical in it self so there should be no Cause or Action Intrinsecally and Formally Civil in it self but that onely which is done by the Civil Magistrate And this consequence were good This is done by a Civil Magistrate Ergo it is Formally and Intrinsecally Civil and this should be a bad consequence This is an action Formally and Intrinsecally Civil Ergo it is to be done by the Civil Magistrate onely 2. This answere of these two Brethren must either Homologate what Mr H. said or be dissonant therefrom If Dissonant then they did not keep to the Paper which they had owned as Mr H. did Then also Mr H. in his discourse spoke not truth for I suppose these two will think they spoke right and then either the Paper that was agreed on was not right or Mr H. spoke not according to it for I also suppose that these two will say they spoke nothing disagreeing with their Paper If their answere did Homologate Mr. H's discourse then what necessitie was there for it And why used they other expressions if they had a mind to speak And it would seem that all that Mr H. said was this and no more Mr B. and we must be excused if we look not upon the Council as a Church-Judicatory making Ecclesiastical Canons but only as a Civil Court emitting Civil significations of their pleasure under the hazard of Civil penalties 3. This answer seemeth to me a more plaine giving up of the Cause than all which Mr H. said for it is no other in effect than this Let the Magistrates enjoine what they please we need not scruple upon the account of any encroachment made upon the Prerogatives of Christ or Privileges of his Church for this distinction will salve all Let us receive all not as Ecclesiastical Canons but as Civil significations of their pleasure c. and so there is no danger though they should use both a Dogmatick Critick and Diatactick power determine Controversies of faith Appoint Rules of Ordination
the Supremacy and the Erastian Designe as hath been shown above And what a preparative this was let any judge I know the Indulged themselves will say they are free of all compacting And I shall not accuse them further than I know or have ground Yet this is certaine that the Kings Letter mentioned such and such Instructions to be given to all the Indulged it is also certaine that this Letter was not altogether unknown to them And when the Instructions which the Council in plain Expressions calleth termes on which they granted the Indulgence the samine was accepted were tendered unto and put in the hand of each of these in particular who were called before the Councel Anno 1673. I heard not of their expressing their Dissatisfaction with these Termes so as to quite the benefite or as we say to cast the bargane thereupon And if all the Ministers that shall ever hereafter be admitted to preach the Gospel in Scotland must follow this example and give but an implicite consent unto these or the like termes imposed by the Council where shall then our Gospel Liberty be And what shall then become of the Liberty of our Church And how shall the Ministers then be called the Servants of Christ and not the Servants of Men 10. By the very subjecting to the Councils Instructions to regulat them in the exercise of their Ministrie they become thereby as formally subject unto them in Matters Ecclesiastick as any inferiour Civil-Officers such as Sheriffs Justices of Peace Baylies c. who yet it may be shall as little observe all their Instructions as the Indulged haue observed theirs this subjecting of the Ministrie in its exercise unto the Magistrate is a manifest enslaving of the same to the unspeakable prejudice of the Gospel and hurt of the Church 11. What prejudice it is to the Church to want the free and full exercise of Discipline that in the lawful Courts of Christ needeth not here to be told And yet in this Indulgence there was an accepting of the exercise of the Ministrie without the full exercise of Discipline save what was to be had in a sinful way by compliance with Prelacie and so a tacite at least consent given unto this want It will not be of advantage here to say that the Field-Preachers or Non-indulged Ministers have no Discipline yet preach For all their preaching is sub cru●e not having so much as fr●edome to exerce any part of their Ministrie and so are allowed of God to do all they can when they cannot do all they would and beside it is alledged without ground for with no lesse signal countenance they exercise some Acts of Discipline such as receiving of penitents than they preach and in both are countenanced as His ●mbassadours But the indulged are under the lee sheet of the Supremacie having full peace countenance and protection as much as in our best times and when our Church was most flourishing and yet dispense calmely with the want of Church-Discipline in Presbyteries and Synods and how some of their Sessions guide and are constitute is none of our Glory 12. Nor needeth it be told what prejudice will inevitably follow upon the want of Ordination whereby a Succession of the Ministrie is keeped up and the word committed to faithful men according to Christs Appointment who may serve the Lord in the Work of the Gospel in their Generation How quickly upon the want of this a faithful Ministri● shall of necessitie cease every one may see And yet the Indulged have accepted of the exercise of their Ministrie on such termes or in such a way as doth utterly incapacitate them for going about the Necessary Work of Ordination Their Transgressing their Bounds and violating the Injunctions upon their peril if so be they do so that they may ordaine some in order to the keeping up of this Ordinance is in so far commendable but is not sufficient to expiat the guilt of accepting the Indulgence which was thus clogged as their whole relinquishing of the Indulgence betaking themselves to the Fields with the rest of their Brethren would prove a commendable after-wit but would not say that there was no evil in their accepting of the Indulgence but the contrary rather VII How hereby our Cause and Ground of Suffering is vvronged THE Lords good hand of Providence having so ordered it that once a considerable Company were willing to endure Hardshipe Want Tribulation for the Truths sake and therefore choosed suffering rather than sin which howbeit it was upon some accounts sad and afflicting yet upon the account that the Cause of Christ was owned the Work of Reformation not condemned but accounted still the Work of the Lord was no small matter of Joy Though it might have been expected that few or none of all the Ministers that had seen the great Works of the Lord should have so relinquished the Interest of Christ and embraced what once they had abjured yet we ought to bless the Lord that so many abode steadfast in the day of Temptation But how joyful so ever it was to see such a goodly Company adhering to their Principles and fully following the Lord it cannot but be as sad and afflicting upon the other hand to see this goodly Bulk wretchedly broken and to see men stepping off and that such Men and so many such and that after such a way as cannot but be accounted a falling off from formerly received Principles and from the Cause and Ground of our Sufferings Now that the Embracers of this Indulgence are justly chargable herewith may appear from these Particulars 1. It was a part of the Reformation which through the special goodness of God our Church at length after long wrestling attained to that the people should be restored to their Right and Privilege of Calling and making a free Choise of their own Pastors according to the example of the pure and primitive Church And it was because they would not renounce this way of entrie that so many Ministers were thrust out from their Congregations by the Act of Councel at Glalgow But in the Indulgence there was an entering into the Pastoral Charge of a people upon the Act and Call or Order of Council without this Free and Full Election of the people The Nominal Call that was precariously had thereafter as to some was but a mock-call and no foundation of their Relation unto these places as hath been seen And how the Councils Act and Order was exclusive thereof is manifest and confirmed by the Instance of Mr Weer's Process Sure as the Election here was null there being none to choose upon and the Call prelimited because the Councils Order did set such an indulged Man over them whether they would or not so the making a shew of seeking or of getting a Call from the people after the Ground of the Relation was already laid was the exposeing of that Order of Christs to ludibrie 2.