Union and Communion until those that remain should be Reformed and the former Condemned but rather thought it expedient to Unite that they may be the soonner Reformed as it is more probable we may sooner obtain a Reformation of the present and a Condemnations of past Corruptions in an United way then in a Divided way It s foolish to expect the Church can be settled without Corruptions all at once in one Day or one Year but must crave time as the building of Solomons Temple and the second Temple after the Babylonish Captivity which was not accomplished in several years Nor can it be planted over again all at once no more then in Joshuas dayes or the Judges or in the time of the Reforming Kings of Judah untill the Canaanites other Enemies be subdued Nor can it be purged totally altogether but gradually lest it be in hazard of a Superpurgation 3. It was ever our Judgement that Division was a great Misery and when Unnecessary and Unseasonable a great Sin And even when we could not avoid it we were weary of it and Longed and Prayed for a time of healing and an opportunity of bringing it to a Close But if ever there was a time when Division was a Misery and a Sin because Unnecessary and Unseasonable now it is And if ever there was an opportunity of healing now there is When the Causes and Occasions of our Divisions are removed and antiquated When the Object of them is so far altered that the providences of this day call and encourage all Divided Parties among Presbyterians to contend together for the common Reformation against the Common Adversarie When the sad effects of them have made all the Godly weary of them And the future effects of their Continuance at this time more to be feared then ever when the wicked Contrivances of Enemies to Divide and Destroy the Church and hinder its Reformation are so many and mighty When Errors and Ignorance making the People a prey are so abounding When also the proper Remedy of them is now in our offer having a Nail granted to us in the holy place to set up the House of our God and to repair the Desolations thereof by access to Assemblies And when things are now come so such a Chock and Crisis that if there be not present application of the Remedy and some Endeavours used for Union now in the tide of it the breach in all probability will grow wider and more incurable When we considered both the Mercies of the times the Maters of praise bringing forth so many considerable Advantages to the Cause and our selvs we could not but think our selves called to another Work than breaking what God is healing and retarding the Work by our Divisions And when we considered the Miseries of the times and matters of Mourning the Past and Present Causes and Effects of the Lords anger burning up like to consume this Church and Kingdom we could not but see other work shapen out to us than this byting and devouring one another when the Lord in his holy Judgements the Antichristian Party in their wicked designs are threatening to devout us all 4. We were alwayes of the opinion that Holy Vnion was a necessary duty and comfortable Blessing being so frequently Commanded Commended Promised and Prayed for as a Blessing and the want of it threatned and lamented as a Misery in Scripture And as we alwayes prayed for it and longed for it and bemoaned the miss of it so we alwayes desired that it should be and waited until we obtained access to get it qualified as the Scripture requires it that it might be both happy holy and as Aarons precious Oyntment that ran down to the skirts of his Garments composed according to Divine Art made up not of carnal and corrupt politicks in a sinful Confederacy or Conspiracy for Defection but composed of Gospel Simples by the wisdom which is from above first pure then peaceable that it might be in the Lord and for the Lord in Truth and Holiness having pure Love for its motive Bond and Beauty Christ for its Foundation and His Word for its Rule But thô we could not get every thing in this present Vnion that might make it Comfortable and Acceptable to all nor every thing removed that is Gravaminous and impairs its Comfort Yet we know nothing in the matter of it which is offensive upon the account of its sinfulness For it will abide the trial of these repuired Qualifications It is not an Vnion of Confederacy in Complyance with wicked Usurpations but in subjection to the Churches Intrinsick Power and in the use and enjoyment of the Churches Liberties It is not an Vnion of Conspiracy in Deformation but in Endeavours to promote Reformation It is not an Vnion in or with or under Prelacy Supremacy or Tyranny Indulgence or Toleration c. but in and with and under Presbyterial Government which is an holy ordinance of Christ It is not an Vnion that obstructs any Duty foregoes any Truth or involves us in any sin It is not an Vnion with sin thô it be of Sinners with Sinners now mutually returned to their Common Duties All the Common Rules of approven Union agree in this There is no ground of Division standing which could warrant a breach if there had been none before and therefore there is no ground to continue it in the present circumstances There is nothing in it to involve us in the guilt of past or present sins of the time There is nothing in it obliging us to condemn Duty or justify sin or restraining us from any Duty we are called to We were neither required to justify defections nor to Condemn our Testimonies against them Nor to subscribe to any sinful Imposition in the termes of Communion putting us in hazard of partaking with any sin On the Contrare we were allowed to exhibite our Remonstrance and Testimony against all the past or present Corruptions stumbling to us And no other Basis is stated whereupon we Vnite but the Word of God Confessions of faith Books of Discipline Acts of General Assemblies National and Solemn Covenants and the whole Contexture of the ancient Order of this Church 5. We alwayes thought indeed a Testimony was needful against all the defections of the time and that this was not to be receded from nor buried in oblivion We are of the same mind still And if Vnion could not have been obtained on any other terms than such as imposed the receding from or condemning of our former Testimony against Defections we would neither have sought it nor embraced it But as the particular Testimony of every time in several respects must change with the times according as the Enemies of Truth change their assaults Weapons against it and defections from it perversions of it and contradictions to it do vary And as it can never be buried so long as all Truths and Duties are witnessed for and errors and sins are witnessed against by us in our respective stations And nothing is condemned by us that was approved before nor approved that was Condemned before and there is no Engagement to forebear any Duty So having been allowed to exhibite our Testimony to an Assembly in a more publick manner than ever we had access before and being not required nor resolved to alter the matter of our Testimony only the manner of it by Separation We think our present Vnion and Submission is so far from burying our Testimony against defections that it tends much for its honour to give occasion of recording it that such a People continued it alwayes under all discouragements and difficulties while deffections stood But as soon as ever they found themselves in any Capacity to joyne with the Ministrie without sin they had such respect to the Ordinances and the peace of the Church that they would no longer Separate notwithstanding all former provocations On the other hand we think to continue Division and Separtion at the time would tend rather to the Scandal and Reproach of all our former witnessings than to the strengthening of the same for it might verifie what used to be alleged against us that we maintained such principles as would dissolve all Union Order in the world The best Confutation of which reproach is now to make the contrare appear by Union as soon as ever we have gor a fond for it Which now there is when we have all one common Testimony against Papery Prelacy Erastianisme Tyrannie and Schism and every thing contrary to sound Doctrine and the Power of Godliness PEACE be within JERVSALEMS WALLS and PROSPERITY within her PALLACES FINIS
Government as it stood Reformed and Covenanted to be preserved Nor did we gather or set up formed separate Churches or Societies under another Government or Ministrie distinct from and independent upon the Presbyterial Church of Scotland nor did we ever maintain but alwayes abhorred that Sectarian notion that the Personal Sins and Scandalls of Fellow-worshippers Ministers or Professors did pollute the Ordinances nor did we ever owne but alwayes disowned a positive or active total or stated Separation from all the Ministry or from any for any Offence in any case where either the Offence could be then legally removed or was in it self a thing to be condescended upon or forborn or did not hazard our Involvement in the sin of it And only for the time owned a Negative Passive and Conditional Abstraction from some refusing to follow the Backsliding part of the Ministry in their courses of Defection and choosing to abide by that Part that persevered in their Integrity But now that Tyranny that chased us from one another being through Mercy removed and these Snares and Stumbling-blocks which scared us from Communion with many being so far taken out of the way that they cease to be Tentations involving us in sin and bones of Contention engaging us in continual janglings about them Church Judicatories being now in capacity to give some remedy to these Evils since Providence also hath so far altered the case and matter of our Contendings for the Faith delivered to the Saints that it calls all dissentient Parties among Presbyterians to concenter in one common Testimony for the common Reformation against the common Adversaries We hope this much desired and long looked for Union is and shall be more accessable and attainable Therefore to the end that this happy and desireable Union may be Holy and Comfortable in a way that may procure and secure our Union and Communion with the LORD And as the famous Voetius sayes Ut nihil de veritate professione nostra remittamus atque ad eo à perfectione ad quam cum DEO pervenimus non relabamur ad imperfectionem Considering in all the Periods of this Church from her first Reformation a Witness hath never been wanting against the same or equivalent Corruptions that have offended us And no method can be more adapted for recovering and restoring Union than that which was used for preserving it And that having aimed hitherto to offer keep up our Mite of a Testimony thô weak insignificant against the same if now under the convictions of its remaining righteousness we shall pass from it so seem to condemn what we approved before approve what we condemned before it will leave an indeleble reproach not only on our selves but on our Contendings and Sufferings Because likewise in a Conference with some Reverend Brethren and Members of this Assembly about these things it was proposed and conceded as an expedient for easing our Consciences that we should have liberty to remonstrate and represent to the Assembly what was offensive to us We earnestly desire Right Reverend you would be pleased to condescend to us in some things that we humbly conceive are very needful just to be sought and easie to be granted We know and are confident your Zeal for Truth and Peace will suggest the same means and measures for obtaining this end and will urge you to take notice of the same things we desire without our advertisement Nor do we take upon us to preseribe the Methods Terms or Conditions necessary for Composing these unhappy Differences and restoring the holy and happy Union in the Lord But we think the Word and Works of God this day points at these which we crave leave in the Bowels of Christ to remonstrate unto your serious Consideration That to the end the causes of our Divisions the Anger of the Lord as the Holy Cause and our Mutual offences as the sinful Cause May be removed that the effect may cease a Mutual impartial and accurate search and trial may be made into our wayes to find out and remember from whence we are fallen and discover our manifold and manifest defections from the right wayes of the Lord That the great wrongs and indignities done to our Great Head and King by Enemies Encroachments on his Prerogatives and his Kingdoms Liberties and our Complyances therewith on the one hand and one the other may not be past in oblivion but diligently inquired into and what accession to them or Participation with them all of us have been involved in these 30. years bygone Particularly that it be laid to Heart what Indignity to the Lord Jesus and Injury to his Church was done by the introduction of abjured Diocesan and Erastian Prelacy and the several degrees of Complyance therewith As Ministers leaving their Pastoral Charge at the Command of the Magistrate and laying aside the Exercise of their Ministrie giving way unto and not testifying against the Intrusions of Prelatick Curats Particularly owning submitting to their Ministry receiving ordinances dispensed by them and by Counsel and Example Encouraging others to do the like Which we cannot but Plead and Protest against as sinful and Scandalous 1. Because they were and are inanifest Intruders not entering in at the door in the way and order of Christ not having yea despising and renouncing a Call from the People and Ordination by the Presbytrie and having no other external Call Authority or Right to officiate in this Church as its proper Pastors but the Collation of Bishops and Presentation of Patrons who are none of Christs Officers and forefaulting and foregoing any other Right that any of them formerly could pretend to by palpable defection to the Enemies of this Church 2. Because both in Principle and Profession and in the way af their Entry unto their Pastoral Charge they were and are Erastians deriving their Power from and subjecting it in its exercise to another Head then Christ the Magistrats Supremacy by which only they were Authorized without Christs warrant or the Churches consent 3. Because they were and are Schismaticks who caused Divisions and Offences contrary to the Doctrine of this Church breaking her Union and Order going out themselves from the fellowship of this Church and leading People away from her vowed Reformation yea who violently thrust out and persecuted her faithful Pastors and Children for adhering to that Reformation which they designed to raze and ruine 4. Because they were and are perjured Covenant breakers avowedly disowning our Covenants and stated in opposition to that Reformation which is therein sworn to be maintained 5. Because they were are in several Points Erroneous in their Doctrine many of them tainted with the Leaven of Popery Arminianism and Socinianism all of them Heteradox in the point of the Magistrates power in Church matters in the matter of Oaths and in condemning the Work of our Reformation and Covenants seducing thereby their Hearers and both positively by these Doctrines
by force and fraud and by the yeeldings of these that should have ventured their All in withstanding its Introduction the Introducers of it were enabled and encouraged at their own leasure and pleasure without control to break down the Carved work of our Reformation and the Walls and Hedges and Legal Bul warks of Righteous Laws and Solemn Covenants that fenced it with the Axe of an Act Rescissory Some gave all the Countenance and Submission then required by Law to the Intrusion of Prelats and their Curats by frequenting their Churches Others thought it their duty to stand at a distance and venture upon the hazard of disobedience in a Testimony against that sin When again they advanced the blasphemous Supremacy to its hight exauctorating Christ Jesus of being only Head King and Lawgiver to His Church and declaring it to be a mortal Kings inherent right to be Co-partner with Christ in that His incommunicable Prerogative And by the usurped Power thereof presuming they had now totally finally overcome Christs Ministers and intending to flatter whom they could not hector out of their duty of contending against their Usurpations Obtruded a sort of a Liberty to some of them to Preach under the Notion of an Indulgence but such as flowed from stood upon and was modified by the Supremacy Some embraced this others opposed and witnessed against it Lastly when by wicked Oaths Tests and Bonds imposed to debauch Consciences which some inclined to comply with or connive at Others thought it necessary to testify against a passage was prepared for the introduction of Popery And a gap was opened for it by the late Popish Toleration Some thought it fit to purchase the opportunity and Liberty of Preaching by addressing for and embracing of it Others durst not have any thing to do with it Nor forbear a Testimony against it These Usurpations with the defections flowing therefrom in Complyance therewith while they stood as stumbling blocks and snares and as we conceived as Idoles of jealousie in the entry of the House of the Lord So that we thought we could not have access unto the Sanctuary without being interprered to give some respect or acknowledgement or subjection directly or indirectly to those Idols and Incroachments so dishonourable to the LORD and offensive to our Consciences did scar and deter us from Communion with many Godly Reverend and Honoured Ministers of this Church so Indulged and Tolerated in these Circumstances and obliged us to continue our Testimony against them in an abstracted way when the Church was in that broken state deprived of the remedy of Church Judicatories whereunto we might apply in which case we alwayes held there should be no separation without previous Application to them and before their Judicial Sentence And ween the case was so circumstantiate that we judged their Ministry in the then exercise thereof at that time in the place where they Preached under the Authority of the Indulgence and Toleration could not be countenanced or concurred with by us without participating of the guilt of submitting to and symbolizing with Mens sinful Encroachments Yet we never owned a Positive or Active Total or Stated Separation from the Church of Scotland Or the Ministry thereof Nor did we form separate Churches under another Government or Ministry distinct from or independent upon the Presbyterial Church of Scotland thô with this we were branded Only for the time we avouched a Negative Passive Conditional Abstraction from these Ministers in the circumstances above specified Not because only we thought these were the Personal Sins of the Ministers for we alwayes declared our abhorrrance of that notion so deservedly exploded by the learned Divines of this Church that the Personal Sins of Fellow Worshippers Ministers or Professors did pollute the Ordinances or made Communion with them therein sinful but because we had reason to fear they should be our Sins as well as theirs if as they had given the submission to these foresaid Usurpations required of them by Law so we should give the submission to them required of us by Law by joyning This was the case and cause of our Divisions until the Lord was pleased in our greatest extremity by sending over King William as a renowned Instrument in His Hand to rescue us from Popery and Slavery to remember this broken and bruised Church and to give us a reviving in our Bondage with a high Hand and in a surprizing manner and to remove our Yokes under which we groaned in a measure surpassing our expectations By which Emergencies of Providence in such a manner removing causes of our Divisions we could not but encourage our selves in the Hope that the effects should also be in time removed And that He that healed our bruises from the yokes of long oppressing Enemies might also lend His Hand and Help to heal our Breaches of Divisions with our dissentient Friends and Brethren which we expected to obtain if ever Presbyterian Government and Ecclesiastick Assemblies in that beautiful Order should be established again in this Land which we longed for even for the recovery of Vnion as well as for other Advantages In this Encouragement and Expectation after some litle endeavours used in the opportunity of that Interregnum to demolish and destroy the Popish Monuments of Idolatry and to purge the Churches of the West-Country of the Episcopal Curats we emitted an Apology at Douglas The Tenour whereof here follows An Apology of the General Meeting of the United Societies of some Presbyterians Dissenting from and Protesting against the Toleration for their Rising and Continuing in Armes in the present Juncture THE various Clamours and Constructions made of our Rising in Armes at the time and the reproaches of Disorders fastned thereupon thô in it self innocent and never intended by us for the offence of any but such as all Zealous Protestants and good Patriots will owne to be Enemies of GOD and of all Mankind and such as we are under indispensible obligations in our Places and Stations to endeavour to suppress and extirpate Yet because it is our present unhappiness to have all our Actions misconstrued and censured under the most odious and invidious Character that the Malice of some can put upon them Do seem to require for the vindication of our Testimony for the Cause of Christ Exoneration of our selves and removing any Jealousies or Suspicions which through misinformation or prejudice any may conceive of us That before we dismiss We Declare to all concerned That it is not by any Contrivance of ours that we have either gathered or continued in defensive Armes hitherto but have been drawn and called to it by a special surprise of astonishing Providence For thô indeed in the sense of the indispensible and indisputable necessity and expediency of giving some active Testimony against Popery and of the duty of throwing down the Monuments of Idolatry formerly erected and lately more and more encouraged under the Patrociny Protection of this Popish
Toleration we have been several times consulting about some endeavours in our poor Capacity to discharge that duty with the least tumult or trouble to the Country that was possible not being able any longer to endure to see this purely Reformed and Covenanted Land polluted again with Idolatry and impunity of the Entycers thereunto and thereby exposed to the ineluctable Wrath of the Most High without some witness of our indignation at the same and thereupon had appointed this same concurrence of our Brethren at this present Meeting this same day to conclude upon some Course to effectuate it Yet as many of our Brethren in several corners of the Land without any Corespondence or Communication with one another were animated and encouraged at one and the same time to set about this work with others that the Lord stirred up to Zeal against Popish Idolatry So the extraordinar Emergent alarming the Country with fears and many reports of the Papists intending and Attempting to raise fire and Sword through the Land did prevent our appoyntments and provoked us to go to Armes for the preservation of our Religion Lives and Liberties defence of the Country and Relief of our Brethren that lay nearest the hazard then threatened and feared In which posture some of our Number that were furthest remote from the sure intelligence of the truth of these Allarms have continued hitherto not being willing to disperse until by this Meeting formerly appointed somewhat should be concluded with common consent as expedient for the present juncture and emitted for their vindication from some disorders falsly imputed and most grievous to us We do therefore further doclare That whereas Reports have come to us that some have robbed Gentlemen and some Episcopal Curats of their Horse and Armes Money or Houshold stuff As for Horse and Armes taken in these Tumultuary Confusions if any be amongst us as we have endeavoured so we shall endeavour Restitution But as for money or any other thing robbed from these we neither know the guilty persons nor are partakers with them but do disowne Disclaim and Detest all such disorderly and abominable practises And further the we owne and avouch it as our duty bound upon us from the Word of God Solemn Covenants and Constitutions of this Church to endeavour by all approven meanes the Extirpation of Prelacy as well as Popery And therefore do resolve through the Lords help and as He shall give us Call and Capacity to contribute our outmost assistance for the removing and dispossessing the Prelatical Curats from the Churches upon which they are intruded Yet we do not approve nor shall we attempt the taking of any thing that belongs to them Moreover we mean not now nor whensoever we may be constrained or called to rise in Armes defensive to wrong or encroach upon the Priviledges of any City Burgh or Town whatsomever or disturb the Peace of the Country either by Tumults or continuing together in Armes unnecessarly to oppress either one or other But as now we intend so at any other time when we are together we shall dismiss and go hame and live in quiet so long as either Duty or Safety will permit us For thô we be through Grace as ready as ever to suffer Persecution upon the same Heads of Truth that we have hitherto contended for and resolve rather to loss our dearest blood then to part with one hoof of them And are as resolute as ever to defend our selves all our Covenanted Bretheren in the common Cause Testimony against all Assaults of our Malignant Enemies so far as we can resist Yet if they will forhear to persist in their Persecuting and Murdering us for the time we intend not to take or seek revenge of them until we see what access the Lord our Avenger will give to a Legal Prosecution of them Only this much opposition they must expect that we will not embodie with them in any association for the Cause which they have betrayed destroyed nor with any other known avowed Enemies of Truth and Godliness Religion and Liberty But since the Lord hath in His wonderful Providence which we adore raised up helped and honoured the Illustrious Prince of Orange to be an Instrument in His Hand of breaking in a great measure the unsupportable Yoke of that Absolute Tyranny under which we have been long howling As we pray the Lord so to incline his Heart to favour the Lords righteous Cause and that he may pity and not permit the yet remaining Ireacherous and Truculent Promotters Abettors and Executioners of that Tyranny to devour and destroy us any more So we mind in due season to remonstrate to his Highness the unparalelled Grievances and Severities we have sustained from them And in the mean time do our best in dependence on the Lords strength to defend our selves against their Insults Finally we conclude declaring our cordial and constant Adherence to the good Old Way and Cause of Scotlands Covenanted Reformation in all it s received and established Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God Confession of Faith Catechisms National Covenant Solemn League Solemn Acknowledgement of Sins and Engagement to Duties Causes of Wrath Acts of General Assemblies both the ancient unrepealled Acts and those from 1638. to 1650. And all the Testomonies Protestations Remonstrances and Declarations of old and of late founded upon and consonant to the same against Popery Prelacy Erastianism Sectarianism Tyranny and all the Encroachments of Absolute Power over Laws and Liberties of Church and State either by Persecution or Toleration This in short is the State of our Testimony transmitted to us from our renowned Ancestors sealed by the Martyrs and Confessors of CHRIST in our day Which we hope the Lord will more and more Vindicate and Propogate to Posterity Published at Douglass the 4 th of January 1689. THereafter beginning to get more Converse with some of our Brethren which the violence of Persecution precluded all access to before And this Converse begetting more desires of Unity and Amity with them We intertained the first Motion from some of the Reverend Ministers of Glasgow to confer with them about Points of Difference and Methods of Composing them The Conferences at that time produced only some janglings and at length some Overtures tendered on both sides wherein we could not agree These Reverend Brethren proposing after some premitted Considerations pressing the necessity of Union That an Act of Oblivion be agreed upon for all Faillings about points or Practises controverted among Presbyterians since the year 1650 to this day And that the Basis of our Union be the Holy Scriptures sensed and applied for the Resolution of all controverted practises amongst us according to the laudable Constitutions Customs Practises Acts of our National Assemblies Books of Discipline Gonfession of Faith Covenants c. That caution be observed from all Reflections c. That after sighting and approving their Ordinations and Licenses