taken from that Sentence by Act of Parliament No man being now by Law in Scotland to suffer in his Temporal Interest by vertue of his being Excommunicated And it was manifest enough these Episcopalians would not value a Presbyterian Excommunication upon Spiritual accounts What then should be done Why There was no choice There was no other way imaginable but to importune the Privy Council that their Lordships would take some Course with such a Criminal Enormity But then even this required Prudence and due Season for if such a matter should be proposed when the Duke of Hamilton was present he might breed Difficulties and make Opposition So it was fit to take the opportunity of his absence when he was at Court in May and Iune 1692. And then it was that the rebellious and intollerable Practices of the deprived Men came to be considered in Council There was a long List of such given in to their Lordships but I know not how it happened it seems it was thought fit to cite only Two at first viz. Dr. Richard Waddel Archdeacon of St. Andrews and Dr. Iohn Nicolson Parson of Errol The first had been deprived for not reading the Proclamation enacted by the States against the owning King Iames and not Praying for William and Mary as King and Queen of Scotland before Whitsunday 1689. and by consequence before the Accounts came to Scotland that William and Mary had sworn the Coronation-Oath without which according to our Claim of Right they could not be King and Queen The other for the same Crime had been afterwards deprived by the Council Dr. Waddel's late Crime was that in his own Dwelling House at St. Andrews he had Preached some Sundays without qualifying himself according to Law that is without swearing the Oath of Allegiance and giving it under his Hand that he should Pray for William and Mary as King and Queen and taking the Assurance But Dr. Nicolson's Transgression had many different Circumstances Which that you may apprehend the better I will give you this view of his Case Errol is a considerable Parish It lies in one of the most Fertile places in Scotland commonly called the Carse of Gowrie and so there are a great many Gentlemen who have Estates in it But all generally Malignants or Antipresbyterians except two or three So that it was very difficult to get it planted with a fashionable Preacher But Zeal for the Good Cause must surmount all Difficulties And therefore these two or three Presbyterian Lairds with a small number of inferiour People whom they had cajoll'd into their own Temper resolve they will have a Presbyterian Preacher once possess'd of the Pulpit of Errol and accordingly upon a Sunday morning I think it was on the Tenth of May 1691 they bring along one Tullidaff a young forward Man to preach to them in the Church but it seems besides those in the Village of Errol all the Commons in the Parish generally had got notice of the design and therefore they convened in a considerable number and met Tullidaff and his Guards as he was entring and ask'd what the matter meant c. One of those Presbyterian Lairds who were in his Company began to harangue to them how Presbytery was now Established by the Law of the Land that here was a Presbyterian come to preach in the Church that it would be dangerous to make any opposition and a great deal more of such stuff But the resolute Clowns were not to be wrought upon by such whining Rhetorick and therefore they told that Gentleman briskly that that Preacher would do best to be gone without further noise for that day he should not enter the Church of Errol The Laird began to expostulate further with them but in vain for one of them told him they were not to reason Matters But they would have nothing to do with that Preacher he should not come there Upon this one of that Gentlemans Servants more couragious it seems though not more zealous than his Master offers a stroke at that Fellow and then it came to earnest in short Tullidaff the Preacher found it convenient to try if his Horse could ride and his Guards got sufficient Pay for that days Muster All this time Dr. Nicolson was in the Parsonage-house for by the forbearance of a Worthy young Nobleman the Earl of Northesk his Patron he had still continued to to inhabit it notwithstanding his deprivation no ways concerned in the Tumult but as he used to do going about Divine Worship in his own Family Methinks it needs be no hard task to persuade you that this opposition would be warmly resented by those of the Party and indeed so it was for within a few days after the Matter was brought before the Privy Council and Summons were issued out charging those who had made that Tumult to appear before their Lordships and among the rest Doctor Nicolson as one who had instigated and encouraged the Rabble The Privy Council banished Doctor Waddel out of the Town of St. Andrews and Doctor Nicolson out of the Parish of Errol But it is not much my present business to insist on this that which I have had in mine eye all a long is the Libel that was given in against Doctor Nicolson or which is all one upon the Matter the Charge that was given him to appear before the Council It was a very large one no less than three full Sheets of Paper so that it would be both a tedious and a needless work to Transcribe it all And therefore I will only give you the Narrative of it which was this word for word WILLIAM and MARY by the Grace of God c. FOrasmuch as it is humbly meant and shown by our Lovit Sir William Lockhart our Sollicitour and John Blair Agent for the Kirk that where albeit by the Common Law the Laws and Acts of Parliament and daily practique of this and all well governed Nations the Sacred Function of the Ministry is to be holden in great Respect or Esteem and Ministers should be secured in their Persons and Goods against all Assaults Outrages and Violences and the perturbers of Divine Service and those that shall hinder the performance thereof are severely punishable and particularly it is provided by Act 4. Parl. 3. Jac. II. That the Hally Kirk be kept in freedom and that nay Person vex Kirkmen in their Persons and Goods c. And by many subsequent Laws the liberty and freedom of the Hally Kirk is to be observed and the Persons of Ministers and Church-men in the Sacred Function are to be had in special reverence and no ways to be assaulted hurted or affronted especially when they are about going to Divine Service and in the execution of their Office And by the 27. Act Parl. 11. Jac. VI. 'T is statuted that whatever Person or Persons shall happen to perturb the Order of the Kirk or make any Tumult or raise any Fray where through the People convened shall
generally forbore the exercise of their Ministry and deserted their Flocks whether they did so from a mistaken Conceit That the Church could not be served without them and that ere long the Government would find it self obliged to give them their Will and court them to return to their Charges as many then judged I shall not now affirm but that they actually did so is so very notorious that to this very day they themselves dare not deny it And there is nothing better known than that they have more than once condemned themselves and been condemned by the most judicious of their Parry for parting so tamely with their Churches And now Sir Considering all I have said where was the necessity of either Accusation or Citation How ordinary is it in all Kingdoms and Commonwealths to prescribe such terms by Law as whosoever shall not perform shall be deprived of such and such publick encouragements without further process of Law Need I rub up your Memory for Example or have you not one fresh before your Eyes in the Kingdom of England Besides it had been absolutely improper in their case for the Parliament was not to punish them as indeed it did not but only it did declare that they had no Title as it was evident they had none I will only add one thing more upon this Head suppose nothing could have been said in vindication of their deprivation or rather dispossession but it had been truly unjust yet methinks it will very ill become the Presbyterian Party ever after the years 1688. and 1689. to open their Mouths about it considering how many Ministers who had without Controversie entered to their charges according to Law were most barbarously turn'd out of their Churches by pure force and Rabble and all this was justified and their Churches thereupon declar'd vacant by I need not tell you whom but of this more afterwards And so much at present about the dispossession of the Presbyterian Ministers Anno 1662. But I have not yet done with our Act of Parliament which restored them For Besides the good Office it did them we must try if it did any bad Offices to any other and here I think we may make short work of it For you can no sooner set your Eye upon it than you may see that where the Churches were not vacant i. e. where at the date of the Act viz. the 25 of April 1690. they were possessed by the Episcopal Clergy from which the Presbyterians had been thrust out their restitution to them is declar'd to be to the half of the Benefice and Stipend due and payable at Michaelmas Anno 1689. for the half year immediately preceding betwixt Whitsunday and Michaelmas and the present Prelatical Incumbent shall have right only to the other half payable at Whitsunday And withal to the effect the Presbyterian Ministers may meet with no stop or hinderance in entering immediately to their Charges the present Incumbents in such Churches are appointed upon intimation of this Act to desist from their Ministry in these Parishes and to remove themselves from the Mauses and Glebes thereto belonging betwixt and Whitsunday next to come that is in six weeks time or perhaps six days just as the intimation shall be made Now Not to insist on their case who had made no Compliance with the Civil Government because I know not what severities their sin may merit I would only ask you what may be thought of the case of those who had complied with the present Civil Government and had still continued in the exercise of their Ministry at their respective Churches many of them till near Whitsunday 1690. and some of them after it whether was it equitable or not thus to deprive them of a whole years Benefice for which they had served and notwithstanding they were as good Subjects as their Majesties could desire to turn them out of their Churches to which they had entered according to Law without the least ground of hope to be provided of other Churches or Livings Are they protected and encouraged according to the merit of their compliance Will this usage they have met with be a good Motive for prevailing with the scrupulous to bring them into a dutiful submission to the Government Well the good Old Cause is a wonderful thing what can it not justifie But enough of this And so I have done with the second Act of the last Session of Parliament which concerned the Church or the Clergy Only Before I proceed to the next it will not be amiss I think to hint at some of its effects I think you will not be very unwilling to believe that those known sound Gentlemen in whose favour it was made would be forward enough to have it put in execution and indeed there was no want of zeal that way but whether according to the strictest Rules of Christian simplicity and self denial in all instances you may judge by these two at the present The first shall be the famous Mr. Iames Kirtoun one of the most noted Presbyterian Preachers in the whole Kingdom This known sound Man had entered by the thing called the Popular Call to the Church of Martin in the last times of Presbytery and had been deprived with the rest in the year 1662. When K. Iames gave his toleration Anno 1687. he was preferred to a Meeting-house in Edinburgh where it seems he found better encouragement than he expected to meet with if he should return to his own Country-parish of Martin And in this Meeting-house he continued till after this Act of Parliament passed Mr. Meldrum the Episcopal Minister at Martin had complied with the Civil Government and done all Duty and so continued still in the exercise of his Ministry there till toward the end of August 1690. that is ten or twelve weeks after Whitsunday and not till then it was that good Mr. Kirkton went to visit his poor old Parish But then he went indeed with Energy sutable to his Party for no sooner arrived he there but presently he turned peremptory demanded the benefit of the Act of Parliament thrust Meldrum from the Parsonage-house and the Church preached two Sundays there and secured thereby his Title to the whole Benefice from Whitsunday 1689. and then returned to Edinburgh where as I hear he has still resided since without ever more minding his old Flock at Martin and who can blame him For every one who knows them both knows that Edinburgh is a much better place and now he has left his Meeting house and possessed himself of a Church in that City after a certain sort of providential manner but I will not trouble you with an account of it at present hoping that you may learn it shortly from another hand In the mean time Martin continues still vacant Kirkton is wiser as I have said than to put it in the ballance with Edinburgh The rest of the Presbyterian Divines think it reasonable to take the best Benefices so long
told that the Book was written half a year before and endured an Examen Rigorosum of the most Judicious of the Party which was News indeed for no body would have known that by reading the Book It is truly a marvellous Work for in it you have not only the Divine Right of Parity among Churchmen and Kirk-Sessions and Presbyteries and Provincial Synods and National Assemblies and Ruling Elders and popular Elections c. most doughtily asserted it was no part of his task to prove but also Presbytery and Monarchy reconciled to an ace and the putting the Government intirely in the hands of the known sound Men most mysteriously justified Doubtless it has been an unaccountable negligence in some body that it has not been before this time Reprinted in England and carefully dispersed all over that Kingdom For who knows what light it might have diffused and what Reformations it might have wrought among you But that which I am concerned to take notice of in it at present is only this That though the Author is content that by the bye it should advance Gods Glory and do good to Souls yet he confesses neither of these was his principal end for publishing it at that time For that was especially that Presbyterian Government might stand right in the opinion of the King and Parliament c. And as Presbytery was thus represented and recommended so the like care was taken to disgrace and defame Prelacy in Pamphlets and Pasquils as the very vilest of all vile things And to all such Dirt Trash c. the Press was open but a Prelatist might as well expect to subvert the Government as to get one Sheet Published in defence of his Cause But this was not all It was not fit that the fate of the good old Cause should stand on nothing else but Paper supporters The influence of two or three principal States-men and if you please you may joyn with them States-women commonly carries on a Cause more effectually than a thousand Printed Volumes and therefore it was necessary that tool should be tried also as vigorously as was possible And therefore the great Lord Melvill a constant Friend to the good Cause and now Their Majesties Comissioner must give vent to his Zeal in his Speech he made to the Parliament they say with very little assurance the first day they met But whatever his Influence or Zeal might be his Rhetorick was no doubt infinitely short of the florid and genuine Eloquence of that Learned as well as Potent Lord W. E. of C. who the next meeting which was April 22. delivered a Sermon to the House wherein it was easie to discern no less Zeal than Art and no less Art than Wisdom It was forthwith Published so that I cannot think but you have seen it already However to make all sure I have herewith sent you a Copy of it It 's true blue all over and you may be much enlightened by it His Lordship was President of the Parliament and that gave him the precious opportunity to open his Mouth and speak Thus were the Commissioners place and the Chair filled and the Press imployed And who can imagine that upon such an exigence the Pulpit would be silent That sure is not to be supposed And indeed it was never exercised more warmly For not only had they been still making it their work to promote their Interest by Melancholy Declamations against Prelacy Prelates and Prelatical Church-men after they had got footing in the Churches A Theme they are generally better skilled in than in the substantial things of Christianity but especially at that time their Fears quickening their Zeal they were extremely eager and every one as he had the fortune to Preach before the Parliament was sure to signalize his fervour as much as any other of his good qualities in behalf of Christ's Kingdom as they call their Yesterdays Parity I must confess indeed I had neither the opportunity nor inclination to hear their Sermons but as I was told by some who did and as I learned by such of them as were published no man needed condemn them of Coldness or Indifferency Thus Mr. George Meldrum of whom you have a sufficient Account in the History of our late General Assembly in his Sermon preached before the Parliament April 27 exhorts them to go on zealously in settling the Government of the Church of Christ according to his own appointment recommends unto them that Word of Artaxerxes Ezra 7. 23. this Text was scarce ever missed by any of them Whatsoever is commanded by the God of Heaven let it be done diligently for the house of the God of Heaven c. commends them and blesses the Lord that with so much Unity and Harmony for the party had been infinitly afraid of the Club that it should have marred all their designs but by that time it was found too weak they had gone some footsteps already that is had abolished Prelacy and the Supremacy and restored the Presbyterian Ministers exhorts them to go on and prays that God may be with them c. Was not this pretty fair for an old Conformist But Good Mr. Spalding Clerk to the late General Assembly who had sat many a day in a little Shop in the Town of Irwin and measured out in retail many a Noggan of Brandy was a man of much finer metal for in his Sermon which he preached before the House upon the Eleventh of May the second that was published he tells them in truer stile that now God was making way for the utter ruine and fall of Antichrist and Popery in all the formes of it two of which to be sure are Episcopacy wherever it is and the Liturgy of England that not so much as a Rag of the Whore may remain and his Church may sing in triumph Babylon the Great is fallen is fallen For why God is now carrying on the establishment of Zion upon her right basis and foundation And to shew that he was not a flattering Gospeller who respected Persons He tells them in a parallel betwixt King Saul and King David on the one hand and King Iames and King William on the other at least I protest I can make no other sense of it that King William is not yet absolutely right because he has Carnal Fears to bring the Ark Presbytery into his own City the Church of England and again labour to perfect the Reformation which ye have begun happily and is greedily expected and that speedily and in the first place command as in Ezra 7. 23. That whatsoever is commanded c. Let Reformation I say be perfect and throw to the door all that belongs to the Whore even the Rags which she left behind her for an errand to return again all Prelacy and Ceremonies and set Forms and let none of Babels cursed timber and stone be taken to build the Lords house with Let not so much as one Prelatist continue in the exercise of his
concerned was under consideration Cardross said He did not know but all these Men were Enemies to the Government and why then should the House be troubled with their Petitions But he knew as little but they were all Friends to the Government for as hath been said they had never had opportunity to shew how they were affected to it At last after a great deal of such impertinent stuff Sir Patrick Hume now Lord Polwart Moved that the House might first go on in the Act and after that was voted they might hear the Petition A judicious Overture to shut the Stable door as we say when the Steed is stollen For the great purpose of the Petition was that no such thing might be voted However this motion because it seems they could stumble on none better was greedily entertained by the Party And so it was carried that the reading of the Petition should be delay'd till the Article was first voted Which what was it else but downright to reject it without an hearing Then the Duke of Hamilton was at the point again and renewed his endeavours but to no purpose For the Cry immediately arose That there was no need of further Debate in the Case it had been Disputed enough already put it to a Vote c. So there was no help for it The Vote came to be stated The Duke of Hamilton craved it might be stated thus Approve or not approve the Deed of the Rabble and this twice or thrice over he pressed But though that was the true state of the Case it was too bare faced And therefore it was put in these smoother Terms Approve or not approve the Article I need not tell you which carried you may see that by the Act How Almighty is a Vote what can it not do Yet I must acknowledge there were some Fifteen or Sixteen Negative Voices and which is remarkable some of these by Persons who in the hight of their Zeal the year before had been amongst the most forward for refusing these poor Men the Protection of the Government such as the Lord Ross Sir Iames Montgomery c. After this Article was thus Voted and Approved The Duke of Hamilton not able to bridle his Indignation told the House plainly he was sorry he should ever have sat in a Scottish Parliament where such naked Iniquity was established into a Law That it was impossible Presbyterian Government could stand being built on such a Foundation and it grieved him to the Heart to consider what a Reflection this Act would bring upon the Government and Justice of the Nation While the Duke was thus insisting a certain Member stood up and said The Duke would do wisely to temper his Language For what was this but to reflect on the House and flee in the face of an Act of Parliament The Duke instantly replied It was a mistake it was but a Vote of the House and had not yet got the Royal Assent so it was no Act of Parliament But seeing matters went so though he was very much afraid the Reflection would go further than the House were aware of for his part he should say no more but put his Hand upon his Mouth And with this he left his Seat and went out of the House a good number of Members folowing him Well What was my Lord Melvil's behaviour all this while Why His Grace sat upon the Throne heard all that the Duke of Hamilton had said for the Rabled Clergy and all that passed concerning their Petition and yet never so much as once opened his Mouth in the Matter but perhaps Prelatical People are not Men and though they were is not Dominion founded upon Grace And so what pretensions can Conformists make that Justice should be done them But enough of this There was now only one thing more to be done and that was to Vote the whole Act in cumulo which before had only been voted by parcels This was immediately proposed upon the Dukes departure Now it must not be forgotten that as soon as this began to be talk'd of a Little Presbyterian Preacher who had got into the House cried out to the Members who were next him Fie make haste dispatch now that He is gone lest he return again and create more trouble This He meant of the Duke Whether it was in obedience to this seasonable warning or not 't is no great matter but so it was that instantly the thing was done The whole Act was Approved and so prepared for the Royal Assent And indeed it was no wonder considering what Members were in the House even few or none who were not frank for the Good Old Cause except some four or five who stayed to Vote against Presbyterian Government that it might not be said that it carried Nemine contradicente and some few others who would not Vote for that Establishment of Presbytery because as they pretended it was not Established in its proper plentitude of Power and Independency Except such I say there were none in the House but those of the Gang For a great many Noblemen and Gentlemen Such as the Duke of Queensberry the Earls Linlithgow and Balcarras c. would not be present on that occasion And as I have said the Duke of Hamilton and a Good many Members had left the House before that Great Vote was moved Thus was this Act prepared for the Royal Assent on Wednesday the 28th of May but it got it not till the 7th of Iune For that same Night that it was Vored an Express was sent to the King to give him an Account what was done and his Majesties answer and allowance was necessary before the Act could be touched And now that I have mentioned his Majesties granting his Allowance to his Commissioner to touch the Act and give it the form of a Law I cannot forbear to tell you that I am fully persuaded he did not get a just and impartial Information about the nature of the several Articles in it which had he got it was impossible that he should ever have approved or ratified the Act For why That Article concerning the Rabled Ministers is plainly inconsistent with the express words of the Coronation Oath Now who can believe that the King would have consented to such notorious Oppression as more than three hundred Protestant Ministers met with him from this Act if that matter had been duly represented to him But I cannot find what can be said for my Lord Melvil who knowing very well the whole matter abused his Master by not fairly representing it to him Thus I have given you a brief account how this Act was made I shall make no more reflections on it knowing very well how the Writers of former accounts of this nature have been lash'd for making so bold with the Government and intituling it to the Persecution of the Clergy For my part I shall leave it to you Sir or any to whom you shall communicate this Paper first to consider
AN ACCOUNT OF THE Late ESTABLISHMENT OF Presbyterian-Government BY THE Parliament of SCOTLAND Anno 1690. Together with the Methods by which it was Settled and the Consequences of it As also several publick Acts Speeches Pleadings and other matters of Importance relating to the Church in that Kingdom To which is added a Summary of the Visitation of the Universities there in a fifth Letter from a Gentleman at Edinburgh to his Friend at London Si tibi vitae nostrae vera imago sucourret videberis tibi videre captae cum maximè civitatis faciem in quâ omisso pudoris rectique respectu vires in consilio sunt velut signo ad permiscenda omnia dato Non igni non ferro abstinetur Soluta legibus scelera sunt Nec Religio quidem quae inter arma hostilia supplices texit ullum impedimentum est ruentium in praedam c. Seneca de Benef. Lib. 7. Cap. 27. Quid nos dura refugimus Aetas Quid intactum Nefasti Liquimus Unde manus Iuventus Metu Deorum continuit Quibus Pepercit aris Horat. Carm. Lib. 1. Od. 35. LONDON Printed for Ios. Hindmarsh at the Golden Ball over-against the Royal-Exchange in Cornhil M DC XCIII ADVERTISEMENT By the PUBLISHER TO THE READER I Have ever thought that Justice and Candor require not only that we should not utter any thing against our Adversaries which we know to be false but also that we should suppress nothing which we know would vindicate them or extenuate that whereof they are accused and therefore having come to the knowledge of a Particular which escap'd the Author's Diligence at the writing of this Relation I am satisfied it will be as grateful to him as fair to our Adversaries to acquaint the Reader with it here The thing is concerning Mr. James Kirton's taking the benefit of the Act of Parliament made in favour of the old Presbyterian Ministers as is related p. 24 of this Book and after a diligent Enquiry made by my self and others I find that that Account is true to a tittle from the beginning to the end of it But that which I will not conceal is that Mr. Kirton having preached two Sundays in August 1690 at Martin and thereby secured to himself the Benefice from Whitsunday 1689 was persuaded by Friends to give Mr. Meldrum the Episcopal Minister one half year of the Benefice of Martin I designed to have told this in its proper place p. 24 but this was prevented that Sheet being printed off sooner than I expected THE CONTENTS A Short Introduction Pag. 1 Act of the Privy Council at Edinburgh December the 24th 1689. Prohibiting all inferiour Iudges to give or Execute any Decrees in favour of such of the Episcopal Clergy as had been thrust from their Charges by the Rabble before the 13th of April 1689. ibid. This Act furnishes a pretext to these especially of the Western Shires where Rabbling had most prèvailed to refuse Payment for what was due of the year 1688 and preceding years p. 2 The misery this Act reduced the Clergy to induced them to endeavour to have it Repealed or favourably Explained but their endeavours are in vain p. 3 The Parliament meets April 25 1690. Their first Act rescinds the first of the second Parliament of King Charles the Second 1669. Entituled Act asserting His Majesties Supremacy over all Persons and in all Causes Ecclesiastical and Civil p. 4 5 The thorough pac'd Presbyterians nickt for this rescissory Act does not reach many other Acts which assert the Supremacy to a degree inconsistent with their Pretensions yet it encourages the Presbyterians to go on and ask an intire settlement of their whole Scheme ibid. The Address they presented to the Commissioner and the Estates of Parliament p. 6 7 8 9 Remarks upon this Address p. 10 11 The Case of the Presbyterian Ministers who after the first of January 1661 were turned out of the Churches they then possessed and the Act restoring them p. 12 13 The Account upon which these Presbyterian Ministers were by Act of Parliament 1662 put from the Churches which they possest was their refusing to give obedience to the Law requiring them to take Presentations to their Churches from their lawful Patrons p. 14 15 16 17 The Act Entituled an Act concerning such Benefices and Stipends as have been possest without Presentation from the lawful Patrons For Non-compliance with which the Presbyterian Ministers were outed 1662. p. 18 19 That Act justified p. 20 An Account of the Act of the Privy Council at Glasgow in pursuance of the foresaid Act of Parliament p. 21 The severity of the Act restoring the old Presbyterian Ministers by it the Episcopal Incumbents were not only ejected out of their Benefices but deprived of a whole years Rent for which they had served the cure without any ground of hope to be provided of other Churches and this notwithstanding their Compliance with the Government p. 22 23 The rigorous Execution of this Act Instances of this p. 24 25 An Account of the Act Ratifying the Confession of Faith and settling the Presbyterian Government p. 26 The Arts used to prepare the Parliament for this Act For this end the Press employed and Pamphlets published recommending Presbytery and disgracing and defaming Prelacy Speeches made by the High Commissioner and President of the Parliament p. 27 28 29 The Pulpit tun'd to serve their design with an Account of such Sermons as were Printed p. 30 to 36 Endeavours of the Zealots for promoting the Good old Cause and of their Agents and Pensioners p. 36 An Account how the Act was prepared debated voted List and Account of the Committee nominated for Church Affairs to whom this Act was recommended p. 37 38 The Act as it was made a Law p. 39 40 41 The Confession of Faith read in the House and ratified the Ratification of the Directory and Catechism required in the Presbyterian Address and yet these not mentioned in the Act. 42 43 44 Act 2. Parl. 2. Car. II. Entituled Act acknowledging and asserting the Right of Sucession to the Imperial Crown of Scotland repealed in this Act establishing Presbytery Sir James Montgomery of Skelmurly reasons for repealing the Act. The Duke of Hamilton and Lord Staires reason against repealing it Reflections made out of the House upon the repealing the Act about Succession 45 46 That Article of the Act establishing Presbytery which puts the Government of the Church entirely in the hands of the known sound Presbyterians considered 47 Those Episcopal Ministers who had given obedience to the Civil Government petition the Parliament against that Article and beg to be allowed a share in the Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction ibid. 48 Their Petition presented and back'd by the Duke of Hamilton and yet rejected with Scorn ibid. Mr. Ross a Member of the House proposes that those Presbyterian Ministers who had been deposed by their own Ecclesiastical Iudicatories before the Re establishment of Episcopacy An. 1662. might not be
Ministry thrust them all out that the whole Kirk may be planted with true Presbyterians Further yet ye have under your care and tutory Christ's own Bride she is a tender Virgin and hath yet but little breasts she hath been wounded in the house of her friends that must needs be either by the Cameronians or the Politick Presbyterians if I may so call them for sure in our Preachers Opinion all the Prelatists come under the next denomination as well as by her Enemies and she is not yet heal Her wounds are yet bleeding For the Lords sake prove to her as the Compassionate Samaritan Luke 10. 24. Bind up her wounds pour oyl into them and take care of her she is nobly born she is a Kings daughter Psal. 45. 13. New come from her banishment For Christ you must know had no Spouse in Scotland while Prelacy was in it She had been banished the Kingdom And for her Fathers blessing for her Bridgroom's blessing and for her own blessing who is ready to perish deal kindly with her and be faithful Tutors to her Yea ye have Christs Crown his Glory among your hands that is Presbyterian Government and if you take away or suffer one Iewel of it to be lost or robb'd not only your Estates and Lives but your Souls may go for it c. Once more yet What will ye say when ye shall be sisted at the great Assise before the Tribunal of Christ to that Question What Iustice and Vote gave you to me and my afflicted Church in the first Parliament of King William and Queen Mary in Scotland Was you for me or against me And then he concludes telling them for their encouragement to Vote right for Presbytery That as the eyes of the Lord his Holy Angels and all his People in this Land yea of all the Protestant Churches are upon them for who dares doubt but all the Protestant Churches were extremely concerned to have Presbytery set up in Scotland so they are upon the wings of the Prayers of the flower of the Godly in Scotland And who would not be animated by such a flight as this Here was Preaching for a Parliament A Third Sermon which was Printed was Preached by the Learned Mr. Rule whom I mentioned before on Sunday the 25th of May the Sunday next before the Wednesday on which the Act was Voted and so it was time then or never to speak which forsooth the man did accordingly For after he had insinuated enough of dislike to the Club as none of them omitted to do and had particularly chastised Sir Iames Montgomery of Skelmurly though he did not name him for Sir Iames had made a long Speech in the House some days before wherein he had pleaded zealously for setting up true Fourty-Nine Presbytery in all its dimensions and had made use of this as one of his principal Arguments That Presbytery thus Established would prove the best and most effectual mean could be devised for curbing and restraining the extravagancies and excesses of Princes which was Interpreted by those of the Gang as intended of design to screw up Presbytery to the highest peg that so it might turn the sooner intollerable and by consequence be the sooner turned down again For though Sir Iames the year before had shewed a singular Zeal for the Good Cause yet he was now one of the leading Men of the Club And it was confidently talked that he kept a Correspondence with King Iames and so he was look'd upon by the Party as a false Friend as they term it After our Preacher I say had fairly chastised Sir Iames for this he comes to his purpose by cunning and smooth advances For first he tells them what a Glorious Nation they would make Scotland by erecting Presbytery in it The warlike Philistines the rich trading Tyre the ancient Ethiopia wou'd be nothing to it Make poor Scotland a well Reformed Church set up Presbyterian Government in it and you shall please God and do him better service than if you could make her richer and more potent and splendid than any of her Neighbour Nations This was a good beginning But what was the next step Why a necessary fling at Prelacy We plead not for a Papacy to be Cardinals or Prelates c. As if it were unquestionable that Prelacy hath an essential connection with Papacy or Cardinalism After this again another very courteous humble one for Presbytery We pretend not to make Church Laws but declare those Christ hath made and to impose them not what we think fit by his Authority and to censure such as will not obey his Laws not as we will but as he hath appointed We set up no Imperium in Imperio but a Ministerium c. Wonderful fine Cant Alamode Then another fling yet not so much at the Scottish as the English Prelatists Neither is the Church preferred nor Religion promoted by setting up a Pompous Gaudy Theatrical kind of Worship by pretending to adorn it by Modes and Religious Rites that Christ hath not instituted c. Our Preacher was owing the Church of England this because one of her Bishops Dr. Cousins Bishop of Durham I think it was had excommunicated him from which Sentence I believe to this very hour he was never released having thus made his Address he comes home at length to his business Let Christ's Church enjoy all the Prvileges that he has granted her If any man withhold any one of them they do not advance the mountain of the house of the Lord as they should Sound Doctrine pure Ordinances a godly Ministry a Government drawn from Christ's Institution and Apostolical Practice and that tendeth to advance Holiness for Prelacy no doubt tendeth to advance nothing but Atheism and Irreligion that it be managed by its Friends by the known sound Presbyterians and not by them that would supplant it not by these juggling Prelatists who would now be content to call themselves Presbyterians so that they may be permitted to keep their Benefices That they assemble as oft as is needful for this end i. e. have the power of calling ordering and disolving General Assembles independent on the Crown c. That Church-Officers be look'd out and chosen by the People of God and not imposed upon them by mens will That the Fountains out of which a Godly Seed for the Church may issue be kept pure i. e. that no Prelatist be permitted to stay in the Universities that Discipline may be duly exercised and whatever Letts to Religion and Snares to the serious godly Men have framed into Laws i. e. all the Penal Statutes against the Presbyterians may be removed This would conduce much to the advancement of the Church and N. B. and if any of these be neglected she is not set upon the top of the Mountains but somewhat else is preferred to her At this rate dogmatized Mr. Gilbert The Fourth whose Sermon was published was that able Man Mr. David Williamson 'T is true