steps of Defection and that the same may be Faithfully Transmitted to the succeeding Generations That they may know what the Lord hath done for our Land and may not be like their Fathers a race not right in â—â—eart with God Unsteadfast and Perfidious in his Covenant Upon these CONDITIONS and Upon Removal of Just Exceptions wâ—â— Promise our hearty Concurrence with them in hearing them and to doe every other thing that Precept or former Practise to Ministers in the like Case can oblidge Persons in our Circumstances to doe to or for their Faithfull Leaders to whom they may safely without scruple Commit the Charge of their souls Withall Protesting that this our Declaration may be a standing Answer to all the Lies Reproaches Misinformations or Misrepresentations whatsoever that shall be brought in against us in time coming by whatsoever Party or Persons upon the Account of our Non-confederating with them Seing what we here Require is both Religious Reasonable And seing what we oun is of no new Extraction But was esteemed Truth before we had a tongue to speak for it and we hope shall be so when its Enemies betrayers shall want a mouth to speak against it And now having thus Declared our Testimony in as Compendious and Innocent a way as the Nature and Circumstances of it will Allow As we are not altogether Ignorant what Acceptation it shall find from Persons of all tempers to whose hands it may come So especially from those Ministers Master ALEXANDER SCHIELDS Master THOMAS LINNING Master WILLIAM BOYD and others their Accomplices who have lately gone from us and left us after the Lord in his mercy to us had frustrate their designe of Precipitating us into a Confederacy with all those to whom the Nations are saying A CONFE DE RACY by Regimenting and Uniting with the destroyers and betrayers of the Cause and that both in Church and State and casting in our Lots and Interweaving our Interests with theirs As they had done with many of our Brethren before and also with many of our selves which this day we desire to mourn for And longs for that day wherein we may Confesse the same before a Competent Faithfull Judicatory But if we durst say that what we have here done was not intended to please our selves so neither to give Just ground of Irritation or Stumbling to any of the Lords People And as for the wicked who know not at what they Stumble we may warrantably say It was not designed to Please them be the Event what it will Only this To let the Indifferent and Lukwarm Party on the one hand know that the Lord is keeping up a handfull to witnesse for him against their past and Present Rotten Courses of Defection Notwithstanding their cutting off the Hair and putting out the eyes of these three Ministers before-mentioned and carying them in their Printed Acts and Letters through the Nations as Trophees of their victory over them as men whose former Lives Doctrine had been Contrary to the former Rules and Principles of this Church nourishing and encouraging Schisme Division Defection and their former Testimonies made up in many things of severall Peremptory gross mistakes uncharitable and Injurious Reflections tending rather to kindle Contentions than remove Divisions All which are plainly Insinuated in their Act Called The Proceedings of the Assembly annent Master Linning and others Thereby labouring through them to reach a blow to the Cause of God and to all the faithfull Witnesses and Witnessings of the poor Remnant with whom they were once embarked And that the Malignant Party may likewise know that we look upon them as the Murtherers of our dear brethren whose blood as it is precious in Gods sight so no humane power can Indemnifie for though it be Gods glory to pardon yet mans duty and glory is to Administer Justice Impartially We are not changed from our former Principles and Intentions but our Cause is the same whatever those who have fallen off from us may plead for And Finally we desire all Persons of whatsoever new Party they be Minister or other that would appear more Refined than the rest and Pretending to Act separately from our Enemies and Antagonists whilst yet really Incorporate with them and carrying on their designes more effectually though more smoothly and Instrumentall to break and Divide us more than any as if purposely sent forth by the Rest for that effect Not to mistake us as if what we have said in order to the Rest were not applicable to them But on the Contrary that we look upon their Course as Accompanyed with many Aggravations that others are not Capable of And so as more loathsome to God ought to be the more Detestable to us And as for Neutralists who account it wisdom to Condemn all and Pretend to side with none we referr them to the last Article of the Solemne League and Covenant without forgetting the rest Namely That we shall Assist and Defend all that enter into this League and Covenant in the mentaining and Pursuing thereof and shall not suffer our selves Directly nor Indirectly by whatsoever Combination Perswasion or Terrour to be Divided or withdrawn from this blessed Union Conjunction Whether to make Defection to the Contrary Part or to give our selves to a Detestable Indifferency and Neutrality in this Cause According to which Article mens Reality and Integrity in the Covenant will be Manifest and Demonstrable as well by their Ommissions as by their Commissions as well by their not doing good as by their doing of evil He that is not with us is against us and he that gathereth not with us Scattereth And whatever our Complaints be this day tossed with Tempests and not Comforted Yet we hope he hath thoughts of Peace and Purpose of mercy towards us We do not mourn as those without hope But we will bear the Indignation of the Lord because we have sinned against him Untill he plead our Cause and Execute Judgment for us He hath lifted Up our Enemies that their fall may be the greater and that He may cast them down into desolation for ever He will make his Cause to Triumph at last over all Opposition and the Enemies foot to slyde in due time And so put a new song of Praise in the mouths of all the faithfull friends and Followers of the LAMB Therefore we Appoint and Ordain that Incontinently ye our Emissaries pass upon the tenth day of August 1692 years unto the Mercat Cross of SANQHAIR and there by open Proclamation make Intimation of this our Declaration leaving Coppies of the samen Affixed upon the forsaid Mercat Crosse and other patent places of the Kingdom necessary Given at ....... upon the tenth day of August 1692 Years LET KING JESUS REIGNE AND LET ALL HIS ENEMIES BE SCATTERED FINIS
A True Coppie of the DECLARATION Published at SANQHAIR Upon the tenth day of August 1692. Sic enim omninò statuo Non ideo interire in Ecclesia veritatem etiamsi ab uno Concilio opprimatur Sed mirabiliter à Domino servari ut iterum suo tempore emergat superet Calvin Printed in the Year M.DC.XCIII THE DECLARATION Of a Poor wasted misrepresented Remnant of the suffering Anti-Popish Anti-Prelatick Anti-Erastian Anti-Sectarian True Presbyterian Church of Christ IN SCOTLAND United together in a Generall Correspondence Published at SANQHAIR IT will no doubt be reputed by many a work both superfluous and Unseasonable at this time to publish any thing of this Nature Superfluous in regard that our Principles and practises are already abundantly manifest to the world particularly in our Informatory Vindication The Testimony against the Toleration and the Contendings and sufferings of many of our dear brethren in their adhering to the same And unseasonable by reason of our present Circumstances being this day as sheep scattered upon the mountains without a sheep-herd to gather or lead us No man taking care for our souls But in stead thereof all or most part waiting for our halting Looking for and Lying in wait to catch Advantage against the Cause through the least misbehaviour of any of those who oun it And would we doubt not be glad of any thing whereby they might get the least shaddow of ground to reproach Now when we are as signes and wonders and have for moe to Criticize upon our words and actions than to kyth any Sympathy with the scope and designe of what we intend by the same Upon these and the like considerations it may be a question whether at this time it be our duty to appear in this manner Seing much of the Beauty and Lustre of a Testimony yea and much of its weight depends upon its being both seasonably exhibited and by men of understanding that have knowledge of the times and what Israel ought to doe These and many other things relative to the same as they have in some measure been pondered by us so have not altogether wanted their oun weight to deterr us from any thing of this nature in such a Juncture But yet upon the other hand When we consider that ever since the Lords Outstretched Arm brought redemption to this Land from Anti-Christian Darkness and in ane eminent way made it his oun by bringing us under these Sacred and Inviolable Bonds of holy Covenants As Enemies to that Covenanted work of Reformation have not been neither at this day are wanting for their part in carrying on their Malignant Designes in Opposition to and for destruction of the Covenant and Cause of God and have been not a litle helped thereto by the faintings and Dastardly yeeldings of Unfaithfull and Declyning Ministers and Professors of the same So Likewise the Lord hath glorifyed his Name and hath so far Dignified this Church as to have the honour to the honour of his Name be it spoken of having still a Party in her who notwithstanding the Hellish Cruelty of open and avowed Enemies in their persecution on the one hand and the base and treacherous Dealings of backslyding Ministers and Professors in their Reproaches and Misrepresentations of that poor Party on the other hand Yet over all these Difficulties accounted it their glory to be faithfull for him in their places and stations And esteemed the least hoof of the attained unto Reformation preferrable to their Dearest Interests Laid hold upon all opportunities that were offered for giving a Testimony of their Love to himself and zeal for his Publick Glory although seldome or never thought seasonable by the wise and Learned Rabbies of the time Considering how they were helped to resist unto blood in striving to keep the word of his patience and contend for the faith once Delivered to the Saints How the Lord smiled upon their honest Designes and received them with good-will at their hands And Likwise considering what God-provocking soul-ensnaring and Land-Desolating Courses are now on foot in these Lands as if all we have done these years bypast were not sufficient to Draw doun the Lords deserved wrath upon us without putting on the Capestone on all our other defections by Joyning once more in Affinity with the people of these Abominations and carrying it on under the Name of Protestant Interest and New Reformation And then what strange Apprehensions the Land hath conceived of us upon the account of our non-concurrence with the same looking upon us as men misled drinking in and mentaining strange and pernicious principles Despisers of Government and Rejecters of the Gospell We say upon these and other weighty Considerations we Judge our selves some way obliged if we can do no more at least to kyth our desire to follow that Noble cloud of Witnesses and to go forth by their footsteps in contending for Truth by adding our mite of a Testimony to all the Truths that are this day Practicallie Controverted and against all defections either on right or Left hand whatsoever plausible pretences they may be covered with Although we judge our selves at this time Incapable of Publishing any thing that can either make Truth more clear than it is or yet escape the sneaking Censure of those whose station if they were faithfull in it Leads them to be far more forward in this work than we We therefore Declare to the world our hearty desire to embrace and adhere to the written Word of God contained in the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament as the only and compleat Rule of Faith and Manners And whatsoever is founded thereupon or aggreeable thereunto such as Our Confession of Faith Larger and shorter Catechisms Directory for Worship Our Covenants National and Solemne League The Acknowledgment of Sins and Engadgment to Duties Causes of Gods Wrath The Ordinary and Perpetuall Officers of the Church by Christs oun appointment as Pastors Doctors Elders and Deacons and the Form of Church Government Commonlie called Presbyterial We Declare our Adherence to all the faithfull Contendings for Truth whether of old or of Late by Ministers or Professors against whatsoever sinfull Courses whether more refined or more grosse And particularly against the Publick Resolutions Cromuels Usurpation the Toleration of Heresies and Sects in his time Against the Sacrilegious Usurpations and Tyranny of Char. 2d The Unfaithfullness of Ministers and Professors in complying with him by accepting his Indulgences first or last And in a word to every thing aggreeable to the Matter of our Testimony as it is Declared pag. 25. and 26. of our Informatory Vindication printed Anno 1687. Likewise our adherence to he Testimony against the abominable Toleration granted by the Duke of York given in to the Ministers at Edinburgh by that faithfull Minister and now glorifyed Martyr Mr. James Renuick Janr 17. 1688. And to whatever faithfull contendings have been made or Testimonies given against the endeavours of any in their
nor Renewing them Neither discovering particularly the breaches thereof Yea many not once mentioning them in the Engadgments which they Require of parents when they present their Children to Baptisme or in their Licencing and Ordaining of persons to that Holy Function of the Ministery Oh! How Astonishing The like not to be heard among the Heathen That these Solemn Vows and Covenants should not only be Scorned derided and openly burnt and made a Capital Cryme to oun them by Open Avowed Adversaries But also cast by and buried by the Ministers of the Church of Scotland called Presbyterians A Covenant without the Swearing of which none was capable of the meanest Employment either in Church or State A Covenant to which Christs witnesses did alwayes Adhere and for which they did Suffer Contend That Covenant which the Representatives of Church State in the three Kingdoms Did Solemnly Swear and Subscribe for themselves and Posterity Of which the Obligation either to the Duty or Punishment continues Indispensible upon the Generation which for the Moral Equity of its Matter the Formality of its Manner the Importance of its Purpose the Holinesse of its Solemn Engadgment and the Glory of its Ends No power on Earth can disannull Disable or dispense That Covenant which was justly thought a fitt and excellent Mean not only to strengthen and fortifie the Kingdoms against the Common Enemy of the True Reformed Religion Publick peace and. prosperity But also to acquire the favour of Almighty God towards the three Kingdoms of Scotland England and Ireland as is exprest in the Ordinance of the Lords and Commons for taking of the Covenant Dated February 20. 1643. Surely then the Authors and Chief Instruments of the breaches of that Covenant are to be looked upon as those that strengthen the hands of the Common Enemy and provoke the wrath of Almighty God against these Kingdoms And if by the Declaration of both Kingdoms Joyned in Arms Anno 1643. Such as would not take the Covenant are declared to be Publick Enemies to their Religion and Countrey and to be Censured punished as Publick Adversaries Malignants Who seeth not now a strange falling away from these first Principles Professions among those who either Magnify Cry up or at the least Connive at and Comply with such as have not taken the Covenant Yea are known Enemies to it Yet notwithstanding These same Enemies have been Complyed with and Connived at by many Ministers in their taking Oaths Imposed by them Repugnant we say to the Oath of our Covenants And others of them having gone on in sundry other steps of Defection and to no small Contradiction of Christs more faithfull Sufferers and Witnesses Most part having Addressed for and accepted of the late Anti-christian Toleration And to this day are treading the same paths that lead to Defection and to a detestable Indifferencie and Neutrality in the Lords Matters without any shaddow of their Cordial Abandoning such Wofull Courses But on the Contrary a wyping of the mouth and saying We have done no Evil A Fasting praying and Giving Thanks for successe and Prosperity to those who have devoured Jacob and laid his habitation desolate Under whose shaddow they Enjoy this unhallowed ease as if they were delivered to retain and mentain all these Abominations Can such a work be of God Can tender Zealous souls Concurr with it in Faith Or Can it stand Which hath its foundation laid upon the Ruines of TRUTH Such a Superstructure as building up ZION with blood and Jerusalem with Iniquitie Such measures being bounded by the decrees of Gods Enemies And such Workers who by the word of God decrees of our Church would be suspended if not deposed from their Office and brought in as delinquents to undergo Censure and not as Constituent Members of a Judicatorie In regard they have yeelded up the Liberties of the Church into the hands and will of her Enemies and in regard they carry on a Course of defection contrary to the Scriptures our Covenants and the Acts and Constitutions of this Church We say again upon these grounds We in our places stations Testify against all that they may Conclude or Determine in these their Ecclesiastick Courts by Acts Ratifications Declarations Sentences Censures or Commissions c. that shall be made or Given out by them And protests that the samen may be voyd and null and not Interpreted as binding to the Church of Scotland But let none think that what we have here said can be Interpreted to be a vilipending or Rejecting of the Free Lawfull and Rightly Constitute Courts of Christ For we do Acknowledge such to have been among the first and most effectuall Means Appointed of God for preserving the purity and Advancing the Power of Reformation in the Church The sweet fruits and blessed effects wherof this Church hath somtyme Enjoyed which we have been endeavouring after and are this day longing for We Detest and Abhorr that principle of Casting off the Ministrie wherewith we are maliciously Calumniated by those who Labour to fasten upon us the Odious Names of Schismaticks and Separatists Despisers of the Gospel and the like But as herein they bewray their enmity to the Cause we oun So till they bring their oun Principles and Practises and ours both and try them by the Law and the Testimony the measuring Line of the Sanctuary The Word of God and the Practise of this Church when the Lord kept house with her and rejoyced over her as a Brydgroom over the Bryde They can never prove us Schismaticks or Separatists from the Kirk of Scotland upon the Account of our Non-Union with the Backslyding Multitude therein And herein we may have a sure and well grounded hope that when the Lord shall decide the Controversy in the favours of Truth In that Day Union in Truth Duty and Separation sinfully considered will be otherwise applyed than now they are Besides we may say without boasting we suppose it may be gathered from what we have done for the faithfully preached Gospell and what Love and Respect we have kyâ—â—ed towards faithfull Ministers whilst such what our Carriage to them would yet be if we had them Yea we are so far from having any stated Prejudice as some foolishly think at any of them for whatever their strayings have been either as Ministers or Christians That we Declare by these Presents whenever the Lord shall send us such as out of Love to God zeal for his Publick Concernments and Conscience of their Duty will kyth their Resentment of their former Backslydings and Defections by Condemning and forsaking the same and satisfy the offended Consciences of the Lords People by their Publick Declaring the miâ—â— of God Faithfully Freely and the Peoples Duty in order to the past and Present Courses of the time Keeping nothing back that may be profitable for our building up in Holinesse our manadging a Testimony for Christ against all the forementioned or the like