contempt preceeded the citation Lastly they charge the Commissioners to the generall Assembly their consciences in the sight of God as they must answer before his great and fearfull tribunall if they suspect or know not certainly according to the judgement of charitie these whom they thus accuse to be free of these crimes where with they were charged A bold and shamelesse out-cry for the Commissioners are so farre from suspecting them to be free that they rather beleeve them to be guiltie of the crimes layed to their charge respectivè some of moe some of fewer and some of the most odious Their cariage is so prophane men of credit and account are reporters sometime their own familiars some of the offences laid to their charge are committed in the very sight of the people They ground the charge of their conscience upon this That having lybelled the generall they had to seek the specification theirof as appeareth by their articles and instructions sent abroad The most and great offences were notorious and common to them all For other personall faults there was loud slander and fama clamosa For these in respect of legall proceeding witnesses behoved to bee cited and inquisition to be made which the Assembly since hath found sufficiently proven in sundrie and would have found more if time had served for there was as loud slander for other crimes not yet brought in judgement They ask If any man will think that the Commissioners at this Assembly can be judge in their own cause They alledge a reason out of the Canon law that if the Pope be at variance with any man he ought not to be judge himself but choose arbitratours and some examples to wit of Ludovicus Bavarus and all the estates of Germanie with him pleading this nullitie against the sentence and proceeding of Iohn 22. and his Councel and of the Archbishop of Cullen who in the year 1546. did plead the nullitie of Pope Paul the third his Bull of excommunication because he protested so soone as a lawfull Councel was opened he would emplead the Pope as partie being guiltie of many things censurable in the Councel Would not any man think our decliners to be great Readers and well versed in histories And yet they have borrowed all this stuffe out of the review of the Councel of Trent concealing the book and chapter from whence Wee know that inferiour judges cannot be judges in their own cause And therefore Gregorie upon this ground reproved justly Ianuarius Bishop because hee excommunicated a nobleman Isidorus for some injurie done to him 23. quest 4. inter querelas And yet cap. Guillisarius Silverius anathematized Guilisarius because hee desired him to come peaceably to his Palace to deal with him pro ecclesiasticis quibusdam dispositionibus for things disponed to the Kirk but took him captive and banished him And 2. quest 7. Si quis erga If any was to complaine upon a Bishop he is ordained to deal friendly with himself before he complaine to the Primat or any other judge or else to bee excommunicat The glosse upon this last chapter distinguisheth thus If the injurie concerne the Prelate only or specially he may not excommunicat for that injurie but if it concerne the Kirk hee may And the glosse upon dist 63. cap. Salonitanae maketh this cleare If injury concerne principally the Prelate then he must forbear But the generall Assembly is the supreme judge in causes ecclesiasticall neither doth the Assembly judge in their own cause but Christ and his Churches and concerning themselves as members and persons representing the collective bodie But of this wee have treated sufficiently before It maketh nothing for them then that if the Pope bee at variance with any man he must not be judge himself Is there no more but variance betwixt them and the Assembly and they a party some difference standing betwixt them and our Kirk which must be taken up by arbitrators intolerable presumption Are the liberties of Christs Kingdome but the subject of some variance betwixt us and these usurpers The glosse meaneth that the Pope himself may not take mens possessions or goods upon a light opinion that they belong to the Kirk till the matter be decided Non debet ipse esse judex rem occupare Glosse in Can. Consuetudo 16. q. 6. Neither are their examples to the purpose For the Emperour Ludovicus Bavarus pleaded that nullity against the sentence and proceeding of Iohn 22. and of his Councel upon this ground that the said Iohn pretended to have a plenitude of power over him and his Empyre even in temporall matters and did actually conspire against him and the lawes of the Empyre and caused him to be pursued as an enemie as the Reader may see in the review of the councel of Trent Hermannus Arch-bishop of Cullen being excommunicat by pope Paul the third because he was upon the work of reformation of his Kirks appealed from his sentence by writ wherein he setteth down his reasons why hee did not acknowledge him as judge because he had been a long time accused of heresie and idolatrie Hee appealed from his sentence to a lawfull Councel of Germanie wherein he would prosecute his plea against him as partie Our decliners make our nationall Councel their partie Non credo quod à sententia Concilij appelletur quia concilium est loco senatus 16. quest 1. c. eccles habet Senatum A quorum Senatorum sententia non appellatur ita nec a sententia Concilii saith Antonius de Rosellis par 3. cap. 21. The nationall Councel is the supreme Senat of the Kirk from which as we may not appeal in a cause competent so we may not cast or refuse the same They complaine that the Authours of the late Protestation were injurious to their place and authoritie in the Assembly because they will grant neither Primat Archbishop nor Bishop voice deliberative nor decisive in the generall Assembly unlesse they be elected by the Presbyteries The act above-mentioned made Anno 1597. by their own procurement ordained that Ministers Barrons should be directed with commission from presbyteries We have had no other act since for the choise of Commissioners to the generall Assembly In the Assembly holden at Montrose anno 1600 when the cautions were concluded It was statute and ordained that none of them that shall have vote in Parliament shall come as Commissioners to the Generall Assembly or have vote in the same in any time coming unlesse he be authorized with commission from his own Presbyterie to that effect This act was not annulled by their own pretended Assembly holden at Glasgow nor if it had should it have been of any force seeing it was a null and pretended Assembly As for Councels of old where Primats Archbishops and Bishops had place and voice they are not the right paterne to be followed by us as we have already answered Nor yet do they make any thing for them For these of old
our Kirk They relaxe excommunicate Papists when they please They have interdyted morning and evening prayers when they thought they were injured by the people They have falsified the acts of their own pretended Synods They have vitiated interlyned or deleted acts and sentences of Presbyteries Synods and Assemblies Incest and Adultery hath fallen forth by their licence for privat marriages They have refused to admit Ministers unlesse they first take on the order of deacons They exacted unlawfull oathes of intrants and thereupon debarred the most qualified and obtruded the most scandalous upon congregations They have taught Popery and Arminianisme and advanced such to the Ministerie as were infected with the same Hereticall and erroneous doctrine They brought in novations in the worship of God by a pretended Assembly and now at last intends to alter the whole frame of Religion of doctrine with errour or worship with superstition or discipline with tyrannie by the service book book of canons book of ordination without so much as the colour of any pretended Assembly Beside they have detained or interverted sowms of money dedicat to pious uses as colledges relief of captives Beside all these offences notorious of themselves or proven before the Assemblie the lousenesse and prophanity of their lives was made known how they have been given to excessive drinking filthy dancing prophane speaches open prophanation of the Sabbath by their journeys abroad or drinking carding or diceing at home usuall playing at cards and dice excessive gaining contempt of all publick ordinances and family exercises briberie simonie unhonest dealing abusing of their vassals sclandering of the Kirk and stirring up authority against the subjects with their lies and calumnies They are slandered also for other grosser crimes but time served not for sufficient triall Because they were not able to abide the triall they have declined and protested against the last Assembly For which offence only they deserve excommunication according to the act of the generall Assembly holden in April 1582. Because they complaine in their declinator that obedient and worthy Ministers have been removed from their places by the usurped authority of the table and Presbyteries notwithstanding they had declined and appealed from their judgement you shall see good Reader what worth was in these Ministers and what just reason there was for removing of them It hath been sufficientlie proven and made good against some of these deposed Ministers to wit Mr. David Mitchell Minister in Edinburgh Mr Alexander Gladstones Minister in St. Andrews commonlie called the Archdean of St. Andrews Mr. William Wishart Minister at Leeth Mr. Iohn Crightoun Minister at Pasley Mr. Thomas Foster Minister at Melrose Mr. Roberts Hammiltouns Ministers at Lesmahago Glasfurd and others of their sort that they have taught points of Poperie and Arminianisme conditionall election the power of free-will resistibility to effectuall grace the extent of Christs death and merite to the damned in hell as well as to the blessed in heaven Christ comming into the world clauso virginis utero auricular confession papall absolution That the Pope is not the Antichrist That the Kirk of Rome is the true Kirk That reconciliation with the Kirk of Rome is easie That the Kirk of Rome erres not in fundamentalibus nor differeth from reformed Kirks in the same That there is no more difference betwixt us and them then betwixt the green and blew colours of Iustinians armie or that it was a mouthfull of moon-shine that the formall cause of our justification standeth in our inherent righteousnesse That Christs body is present in the sacrament circumscriptivè and change the sacrament of the supper into a sacrifice the table into an altar and Ministers into Priests That GOD was the cause of Isacks lie for not punishing his father Abraham That there was possibility to fulfill the law That predestination was a doctrine newly hatched in hell justly to be deleted out of Gods word That the excrements of the Romish religion and Iesuits learning was better then the quintessence of our Religion although it were squeesed in a limbeck That absolute active obedience is to be given to all the commandments just or unjust of Princes That they have railed against our reformers and reformation and affirmed that the cheif reformers of our Religion were but deformers and had thrown out better things then they had brought in diminished the necessity and utility of preaching commended the service book and book of canons and affirmed that by the faith of the Kirk of Scotland divers parts of Gods true worship were abjured That they have cursed their own congregation and threatned to concurre to their destruction They have called their people Iackanapes Babbouns perjured Bitches madde Dogges and that it were more lawfull to pray for such as had lyen 500. years in hell then for them That they neglected the exercise of discipline hindered the delating or punishment of offenders baptized children of notorious Papists defrauded the poore of their right and mantenance allowed unto them received bribes for saving scandalous persons from publick censure baptized children in their beds without prayer before or after interverted and applyed to their own use moneys collected for relief of some Ministers in the Palatinat or some captives under the Turk That they deserted their flocks prophaned the Sabbath-day by all sorts of loose carriage That they were given to drinking prophane speaches and pastimes swearing fighting brawling with their Parishoners that some of them went so drunke to the Pulpet that they forgote their Text That some of them swore they would rather renounce God than bee Puritans They judged the authour of the practise of piety to be damned in hell because by his book he had made many Puritane Ladies That when they were delated for such offences they contemned the authority of the Presbyteries relying upon the favour of the Prelats and have declined this last Assembly Because in their Declinatour they alledge that too many of the Commissioners members of the last Assembly are guiltie of many personall faults and enormities which in charity they forebeare to expresse in this their Declinatour you have here subjoyned good Reader a Catalogue of the Commissioners members of the last Assembly whereby you may perceive how frequent the Assembly was and of what sort of persons it did consist We have not read nor remembred a more solemne Assembly of our Kirk since the entry of Christian Religion let be since the reformation nor moe more able to cleare themselves of any faults or enormities can be laide to their charge Commissioner for the Kings MAIESTIE Iames Marques of Hamiltoun Commissioners from the Presbyteries of Scotland both of the Ministrie and of the ruling Elders and of Burgesses as they are within the Presbyteries Presbyterie of Dunce MAister Alexander Carse minister at Polwart M. Iohn Hume Min. at Eccles. M. Thomas Suintoun min. at Saint Borthanes Sir David Hume of Werderburne Knight Elder Presb. of Chirnside M. George Roul minister
spring up faithfull Pastours did timeously oppose both by word and writ least it should spread and infect the whole body and yet did not therefore forefault their right in giving their voices in the Synods where these errours were condemned The Divins of Hassa defyed the Ariminians to give one example of a lawfull Synod that ever did the like Next suppose they had all precondemned episcopall government and the five articles of Perth they had condemned but that which was condemned before by our Kirk and never retreated by any lawfull Synod Thirdly the acknowledgement of episcopall government and practise of the five articles were not absolutely condemned by the Covenant But the acknowledgement of the one and practise of the other was suspended till the tryall of a free and lawfull generall Assembly whither they were contrar to the confession of Faith and abjured by it for the satisfaction of some who in other respects did not allow of them and being found to be abjured by the confession of Faith as they are found and cleared to be at the last Assembly they are bound by oath to stand to the confession of Faith in all the points of it Fourthly the Commissioners conveened did not judicially condemne before but according to their severall places and stations they gave warning of the novations entered in which hindered them not to alter their minde if they had heard any thing to convince them of the contrar at meeting with others in the Assembly The examples alledged are to small purpose Our reformers protested against the Councel of Trent not only because Pope Leo the tenth had precondemned Luthers doctrine by his Bull dated the eight of Iune 1520. and Paul the third his successor likewise by his Bull dated in August 1535. but also declared the intention of their appointing to convocat that councel was to root out that new sprung up heresie And as it was answered to the Arminians that councel was not a free councel The Prelats and other members of that councel were sworne slaves to the Pope and had power to determine nothing but what pleased him to approve by his Nuncioe Our first reformers would not be acknowledged for Doctours of the popish Kirk and had made separation from them before Maximus patriarch of Constantinople refused to goe to the councel of Antioch because he foresaw he would be constrained to the deposition of Athanasius Hosius of Corduba feared likewise their determinations but it is one thing to refuse presence where they feare ungodly determinations another thing to decline the authoritie of a lawfull councel when they are cited to answere a foule libell It becommeth them to side with persecutours rather then Hosius with Pope Leo rather then Luther and other reformers of whom some of them have spoken disdainfully Next there is difference between an inferiour Synod and the supreme The councel of Antioch was not an oecumenicall councel which was the supreme The generall Assembly whereunto our Prelates were cited is with us the supreme of which more in the answere to the next section Next they alledge That all if not the greatest part of the pretended Commissioners have declared themselves partie to the Arch-bishops and Bishops of this Kirk for in that they declined the Bishops to be their judges as their partie as their declinatours petitions declarations and protestations doe beare have they not simul semel ipso facto declared themselves to be their parties partie that is the Bishops And have not only declined but persecuted them by calumnies and reproaches invaded their persons opposed and oppressed them by unlawfull combination for the subscribing and swearing wherof they have by their own authoritie indicted fasts have by the aid of the multitude entered in the Kirks of worthy men usurped upon their charges caused read the unlawfull Covenant threatned or compelled some otherwise unwilling to set their hand to it processed suspended removed obedient and worthie Ministers by the usurped authorite of their Table Presbyteries notwithstanding the defence of declinator appellation was used by not a few in their Presbyteries intending by this means to disable them from being Commissioners and directly or indirectly caused their stipends to be keeped back by which means not the least part of the subscribing Ministers hands hath been obtained to their Covenant Seeing they have declared themselves partie it can subsist with no law or reason that the same persons shall be both parties and Iudges We answer they declined them as party when they supplicated and complained upon them before the Lords of secret Councel Was it reason that they should judge upon the complainers or complaints made upon themselves When they covenanted they suspended only acknowledgement of their authority till the tryall of a free generall Assembly Calumnies and unjust reproaches we deny None of the Commissioners have hithertils invaded their persons nor have any of them been invaded by any other so farre as we know But Master David Lyndsay by Boyes and servant women when hee was come from his new Mattins and evensong and as we use to say flagranti crimine Their conbination against them was with reservation to triall What fault was there in fasting and seeking Gods blessing to the actions were in hands all tending to reformation where fore should people be hindred from striking Covenant with God and amongst themselves for the defence of Religion by the refusall of a perverse Minister These worthie Ministers processed suspended or removed were worthily censured by their Presbyteries for their Arminian and Popish doctrine vented both in privat and publick to the endangering of many souls or for their scandalous lives Were these men fit to be Commissioners to the generall Assembly To decline the Presbyterie as competent judges could not be admitted nor to appeall to any but to a free generall Assembly These men who declined the Presbyteries have declined the Assembly whereby we may see upon what intent they did decline That not the least part of the subscribing Ministers put to their hand to the Covenant for feare of keeping back their stipends is a meer calumnie Others were postponed not for not subscribing but for neglecting their charge and wandering from their flocks For all then that is here aledged the Commissioners to this Assembly might lawfully sit as judges to the complaint or lybell given in against them seeing they were chosen and authorized by their Presbyteries with commission to deliberate and voice in this Assembly Next they were not judges in any particular or proper cause of their owne but in a cause concerned the whole Kirk Therefore in making the Commissioners their partie they make the whole Kirk of Scotland their party For they had a free commission from all the Presbyteries according to the order of our Kirk to make up the representative of the whole body How shall discipline be exerced if such as are guilty shall reject Sessions Presbyteries and Synods as party but because there
may be some time partiality in inferior judicatories they may be appealed from but the supreme judicatory of the Kirk the generall Assembly can not be declined in a cause Ecclesiasticall and competent as party without making the Kirk of Scotland party The Arminians excepted against the Synod of Dort that they were both judge and party and therefore would not submit to their tryall Our decliners have borrowed this buckler from them But the answer made to them by the Divines at Dort may serve for answer to our decliners to wit that the Synod did not consist of persons lying under any Ecclesiasticall censure that they cannot be called a partie unlesse all the Belgick Kirks from whom the Commissioners were directed be taken for party Repraesentant enim illis Ecclesias quarum credentialibus instructi in hac Synodo comparuerunt And if the Belgick Kirks be their party they can not be reputed members of their Kirk but must confesse they have made separation from them say the Divines of Hassia There can be no lawfull exception taken against a Synod by the members of these Kirks which do constitute the Synod Pars minor pars nova debent stare judicio corporis repraesentati per Synodum loquentem mandato ore ex sensutotius corporis say the Divines of Geneve Consideration is to be had of times to come least that such as are guilty shift the ordinary judicatories of Presbyteries and Synods and a doore be opened to the entry of sects and heresies say the Divines of Breme In their own proper and peculiar cause no man can be both party and judge but in a common and publick cause it may be say the Divines of Emden In a word all the Divines at the Synod of Dort agreed upon these answers We answer in the same manner And the decliners know very well that the body of this Kirk which directed the Commissioners was sensible of their usurpation and oppression They make a tragicall outcry that under pretence of summonds the like whereof was never used nor in the like manner against the most haynous malefactor in the kingdome they have devised forged invented and published a most infamous and scurrill libell full of impudent lies and malicious calumnies against the Archbishops and Bishops of this Kirk Truely we hold them the greatest malefactors among us As for the lybell the most part may be gathered out of their own declinatour and is as evidently known to all sorts of people within the countrey as that they are Bishops So that it was questioned at the last Assembly whither it was needfull to lead witnesses in points notorious and as well known as that the Sun shineth at noon-tide Some personall offences were so well proven that Commissioners of all ranks were ashamed of their prophanity and lewdnesse Time served not to stay upon the triall of the rest but if they be not silent more will bee verified to their greater shame If they had been innocent no doubt they had compeared and adhearing to their declinatour insulted but howbeit none more impudent they durst not face the Assembly They complaine that the table prescribed in certaine articles the order to be keeped in the citation and publick reading of the lybell according to which directions the lybell was read in sundry Kirks and in Edinburgh in all the Kirks notwithstanding of my Lord Commissioners command given to the Provest and Bailies to the contraire None took upon them to prescribe but only to advise and informe what course should be keeped for citation in the surest and most legall manner Seeing we have been these many years out of use of ordinar Assemblies the course to be keeped could not be found out by every one till they were informed Neither were there informations sent from the meetings at Edinburgh to any man to the knowledge of the Assembly but were private directions sent from hand to hand Publick reading of the lybell was needfull not to make their enormities known to the people for they were too well known before but for the surest way of citation seeing my Lord Commissioner refused to take any sure course for citing them which if he had done they had not been cited in so publick a manner Not but that they deserved citation per proclama to be summoned by Proclamation yet that manner was not resolved upon till other means were thought more difficile and not so sure As for my Lord Commissioners discharge to read the summonds in the Kirk of Edinburgh they were read in sundry Kirks before the discharge was presented to the Magistrates And what reason was there to stay citation of so haynous offenders to compeare before their ordinary judge His Majesty had declared before that no Subject should be exeemed from censure But how shall they be censured if they be not cited Nor did the Commissioner offer to take another course So it was evidently seen their intent was to frustrat all citation They challenge them for their proceedings in the citation First because they proceeded against all charitie which delighteth not in the discovery of mens nakednesse backbiteth not with the tongue much lesse writeth a book against a brother Iustice requireth that publick sins be rebuked publickly they themselves laboured to frustrat all other manner of citation Should usurpers oppressors prophane and lewd men passe uncensured through want of citation The welfare of the Kirk should be dearer to us then the reputation of seducers and undermyners Sould not the house of God be purged of filth and dirt Next for breaking of order in breaking the Apostles rule and act of Parliament The apostle it is true directeth young Timothy not to rebuke sharply an Elder but to intreat him as a Father meaning an elder in years as appeareth by the opposition of young men The direction is for privat reprehensions but these that sin publickly or scandalously should be rebuked openly whether they be elder or younger The dregs of prophannesse are more sowre and stinking in old men then in young But they have both elder younger among them So are there of the complainers some younger some elder Their third estate is not impugned in all the lybell howbeit their persons be made lyabell to publick citation and censure and so the act of Parliament not violated thereby But of that act we have spoken sufficiently alreadie Thirdly for not proceeding according to any lawfull forme but specially against the order prescribed by acts of the generall Assemblies March 1596. and April 1592. For the first it is not transgressed For the lybell containeth speciall crimes sufficiently instructed and notorious ut nulla tergi versatione celari possunt Other crimes are subjoyned wherewith they were slandered which were to be verified by informations from the parts where the slander did first arise of which some were proven the rest lay over for lake of time wherein if they please an other Assembly will insist It seemeth rather they think the