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
those Ministers and Preachers who have formerly acted Independently upon their Brethren preach Collegiatly with some Minister settled in a Presbytry for removing of former Stumblings And finally that such Failings be laid to heart by all sorts of Ministers and Preachers as they are convinced of that they be set down in order and pitched on as Causes of a Publick Fast and Humiliation upon some week day through all the Meetings of Presbyterians within this Kingdom and that the Sins of the People be intermixed among these Causes c This was the sum of the Overtures offered by these Reverend Ministers only in their own name but they promised to meditate with the rest of the Ministers for according thereunto In Answer to these we proposed these Overtures premitting also some Motives together with the qualifications of the Union we desired That the Basis of our Union be the Word of GOD Confessions of Faith Covenants Books of Discipline Acts of General Assemblies and the whole Contexture of the Order of this Church before the Publick Resolutions in the purest Periods of this Church which we may with one mind seek to have redintegrated That we might search and try our wayes and Unite first in Confessing Sins in keeping days of Humiliation for the same Wherein we offered to Confess our Offences so far as we could be convinced any manner of way that Church Judicatories should appoint And desired the Ministers from whom we differed to Confess Doctrinally their Offences that have been most stumbling viz. Hearing the Prelatical Curats the Late Indulgence Addressing for and Accepting of the Toleration c And concur in procuring the Condemnation of these things in Ecclesiastick Assemblies That the Covenants might be Renewed with accommodation to our times-and a Solemn Acknowledgement of the publick Breaches and Engagement to the Duties thereof applied to the present day That to prevent all future Divisions the former Offences might never hereafter be complied with under pain of Church Censures nor any other Mould or Model of Presbyterian Government than what was established between the years 1638 and 1650. Nor any State Contrivance or Constitution whatsoever be admitted or submitted unto which may infer a recognizance of any Erastian Usurpation That in the mean time the Ministers settled in Paroches under the late Indulgences and Toleration might declare that now they have another Holding than either of these And that they now officiate in places where they are fixed according to the old Presbyterian Order And finally that endeavours should be used to check and suppress the Foments that nourish and encrease Division on either hand as heart Animosities Alienations of Affection Passion Prejudice Jealousies receiving and reporting Misinformations and all other things of that nature tending thereunto These Mutual Overtures being refered to farther Consideration we thought it a good Expedient both to promot and direct a desirable Union with our Brethren to Renew the Covenants with a publick Accknowledgment both of their and our breaches thereof and Engagement to the Duties of the Covenants with accommodation to our present Circumstances which we Solemnly Accomplished at Lesmabego March 3. 1689. In the Acknowledgement we confess with relation to bygone differences Art 2. Page 56. That as many by defection both in Complyance with Prelacy and Erastianisme hath broken the Churches beauty and Bands Order and Union in making a faction repugnant to her established Order and censurable by her standing Acts in bringing in Novations in the Government and making a rent in the bowels of the Church by causing Divisions and Offences contrare to the Doctrine of this Church have made themselves guiltie of Schism So others on the other hand have upon slender and unsufficient Grounds separate both from Ministers even the most Faithful and Zealous and such as were not chargeable with Complyances and from Christian Societies and Families because of Differences in judgement in incident debates not necessary nor material nor wherein the Testimony of Christ was much concerned or because of personal Offences easily removed not observing the Rules of Christ for removing them nor having respect to His great Commands of Charity forbearance forgiving one another or condescendency And between divided Parties which in our day have long been byting and devouring one another there hath been too much both of sinful Union and Confederacy in terms prejudicial to Truth and Duty on the one hand and of sinful Heats Animosities Jealousies Pride Passion and Prejudices on the other hand Grieving the Spirit of GOD eating up the Power and much hindering the holy Practice and spiritual Exercise of Religion And too much also of sowing discords among Brethren and promotting our Contentions by too credulous and sedulous taking up spreading reports reproaches one of another And in our Renewed Engagement to Covenant Duties with relation to present differences and Union with our Brethren we declared our resolved Endeavours and Vowes On the one hand to labour to recover and preserve the Liberty and Purity of the Worship of God from all Corruptions Novations and Inventions of Men Popish Prelatical Erastian or any other And if we could not gett those Corruptions reformed or removed to study to keep our selves free of Communion and Participation with the same according to Artic. 1. § 2. Pag. 68. And to refuse withstand and witness against all Encroachments on the Liberties of this Church in all time coming And withdraw our selves from Communion with all such Meetings and Congregations that hold their Freedom from are modified by such Usurpations as Indulgences and Tolerations according to Artic. 2. § 3. ibid. And on the other hand That we shall guard against all Schism and sinful Separation or unjust rash and disorderly withdrawing from Congregations Societie c or any part of the Communion of the true Reformed Covenanted Church of Scotland holding purely and intirely the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government of the same in Principle and Exercise according to the Rules of Christ and standing Acts and Constitutions of this Church And that we shall neither gather nor set up formed separate Churches or Societies under other Ordinances Government or Ministry distinct from the Presbyterian Church of Scotland Nor withdraw from Minister or Member of that Body for any offence in any Case where either the Offence may be Legally removed without our withdrawing or is a thing to be condescended on forborn or forgiven But shal study to maintain Vnion Communion in Truth Duty with all the Ministers and Members of the said Church that do and in so far as they do follow the Institutions of Christ As in Artic. 2. § 4. Pag. 69. And in Artic. 6. Pag. 71. We engage that we shall likewise desire design and endeavour to get the defections unworthy Neutralities and unhappy divisions that have long and Lamentably wounded and wrecked the Church removed Differences settled and breaches healed in such a way and upon such termes as may be Honourable and
Advantageous for the Cause And if our Brethren and we between whom such Differences have fallen in and have been sadly Fomented on all hands will search and try our ways respectively how far they and we have receded from the good old way of the Church of Scotland And in our impartial search shall find out our respective defections and breaches of Covenant on the one hand and on the other and unite in confessing these by joyning in this or the like Acknowledgement of publick Sins and keeping dayes of humiliation and mourning for the same And as we offer and promise to confess our Sins here acknowledged or any other so far as we can be convinced any manner os way that they shall desyre or appoint So if they at least will confess theirs Doctrinally and they and we both forsake them mutually and forsaking concur in procuring the Condemnation of them in Ecclesiastick Synods or Assemblies and so return unto and fix our ground on the old Established foundations according to the Word of God and Constitutions of this Church settled before the Covenanted Reformation stopped We will then embrace and maintain Union and Communion with them and submission to them in the Lord And shall not suffer our selves Directly or undirectly by whatsoever Combination perswasion or terror to be divided or withdrawn from this blessed Union and Conjunction Thus far we advanced in these steps with one accord Thereafter in the remembrance of these Resolutions and Engagements which we looked upon as at last inferring an obligation lying upon us to make some Endeavours in pursuite of this Union which is a Duty Materially Morally and Antecedently obliging in it self Being invited also by some reverend Ministers in Edinburgh we had once again Conferences with them Wherein at length after we had still insisted on the necessity of confessing and condemning these Defections and Corruptions which caused us to stand so long at a distance from them proposed the Difficulties we had in our Conscience to return to Communion with them before these were removed as is said They condescended upon some Expedients for our satisfaction that it should be allowed to us to exhibite to the next Assembly our Testimony against all these courses and practises in Ministers that did offend us and to plead for recording of it in the Books of Assembly which might exoner our Consciences and absolve us from all participation with or Communion in the guilt that we conceived to be in any of these things Whereupon taking this Condescension to further consideration which indeed gave us more clearness than we had before and declining any further procedure in it until we consulted the mind of the People whom we desired to be tender of and guard against all appearance of imposing upon them or overdriving them unto things they could not be suddenly clear in We had a Meeting with them to deliberate upon this matter at Dowglas wherein we proposed the Case and offered several Considerations to bring things to a temper endeavouring to satisfie and solve several Scruples and Objections adduced by tender zealous and serious People Alleaging they could not have freedom or clearness to joyn with these Ministers from whom they had formerly withdrawn until they should acknowledge their defection for without that they could never be counted faithful would never faithfully urge others to confess their Sins when they would not acknowledge their own And that Union without this would bury the Testimony against these defections And several other difficulties of this nature very weighty to them and affecting to us To all which we endeavoured to give solution by shewing That the not confessing of Sins not in present practise was never and can never be owned by us to be a ground of Separation And that we found in Scripture the Godly had Communion in Churches where there were several Corruptions not confessed nor reformed And that if the Church came to recover Her Authority and Assemblies we must submit and unite in Reformation and would not be required to unite in defection telling them also of the forementioned Condescension and of our purpose to give in Papers to the first Assembly And perswading them thô we would not urge them against their Conscience to hear all or any of the Ministers against whom there were greatest exceptions to try and search through all the Country where such might be had that were most free of these offences or most faithful in confessing them and joyn with these in the first place In the mean time because it was a grave and greatly important matter not rashly to be determined we agreed that a day of Humiliation should be set a part for praying for Light in the case And that the business should be suspended to another Meeting Thus the Matter was kept in suspence for a considerable time And in the mean while we were now and then upon occasion in conference and sometimes in preaching pleading for endeavours of Union wherein perhaps our weakness sometimes hath vented it self in expressions of too great fervor to the offence of tender People as formerly it might have its Eruptions to the offence of others in the prosecution of our differences with them And in seems thô the manner of managing a business should not prejudge People against the matter it self yet several have been stumbled upon this For at the next Meeting at the forsaid place some did move in the debate with more fervour than before against Union except the foresaid defections were confessed And other Objections and Scruples were adduced both verbally and in Papers sent from several Societies bearing they could not return to a declining party until they should return from their declinings And that confession and forsaking of Sin is so frequently inculcate in the Scriptures that without this they could not expect the blessing of God upon the Ministry of those who retained and defended causes of wrath And that the Church was not yet settled and the Government not yet established so they could not tell but their might be Corruptions in the very constitution of it Whereunto we offered several Answers and at the close of that Meeting it was earnestly desired by the People promised by us that some thing should be write and spread amongst them that might inform them and clear from the Scriptures the difficulties of this controversie the necessity of Vnion Communion with the Church in the present circumstances Which accordingly so soon as was possible was prepared and may be hereafter published Afterwards the business was more remisly followed both sides being more abstract and kept in suspence waiting to see the constitution of the Church established and a free General Assembly unto which they might make application whence all expected more light and resolution would accrue At length the General Assembly indicted by Authority approaching we had another Meeting in which after some litle debates we came to a more sedate
Counsellors against them to frustrate their purpose yet being Furnished and Spirited of the Lord for that Generation work they never studied to please men but to acquit themselves as faithful Servants of their Princely Master Jesus Christ in witnessing against all Sins and Corruptions of great and small impartially and in Acts of Assembly ordaining and recommending to all Ministers this faithfulness in applying their Doctrine to the Sins of the time under pain of Censure But now thô there was never greater freedom and encouragement for and necessitie of faithfulness when the Adversaries of Judah are seeking to Build but on design to marr the Work and many are too much inclining to joyn in affinity with the People of these abominations Yet it is sadly wanting and much Desiderated among many Ministers who being long accastomed to fears and constrained silence under former hazards and tentations have not yet recovered their Confidence and Courage to cry a loud against and not spare the iniquities of the time We desire also to joyne in that common regrate that thô informer Reformations this Church was not only for Order and Authority beautiful as Tirzah comely as Jerusalem and terrible as an army with banners but for Vnion got the Name of Philadelphia being then as much admired for Vnitie which is the fruit of Presbyterian Government wherever it hath place as for any other Priviledge which rendered her the Envy of all the Nations about Yet now alas The Crown hath fallen from our heads wo unto us that we have sinned This Holy and Beautiful Fabrick hath been burnt up with the fire of Enemies fury with the fire of our Divisions and with the fire of the Lords indignation burning against us for our defections whereby the Lord was provoked to forsake his House and since his departure there hath been nothing but disorder among his Children and Servants The Popish Prelatical and Malignant Party have come in by Force and Fraud and by the Cedings of those that should have stood in the Gap and broke down the Carved Work of our Covenanted Reformation as with Axes and Hammers Rescinding all the Legal Bul-warks of Ecclesiastical Constitutions Civil Sanctions and National Covenants wherewith it was fenced Wherein alas They were too much encouraged by our faint resistance and too universal involvement in the sin of submitting to Countenancing of the intrusions of the Prelatical Party At length having set up these their Ensignes for Signs in Sign of compleate Victory obtained over the Servants and Subjects of our exalted Prince after they have invaded His Kingdom and Palace and made Havock and Sloughter of such as would not yield they offered some tempting terms whereupon they would suffer them to live in subjection to these Vsurpations painted indeed with pretences of Favours but really at least indirectly requiring a recognizance of the Vsurpers power and a Cessation from opposing the peaceable possession of their Robberies These and the like defections on the one hand together with many Extravagances on the other have brought the Godly into many confusions stumbled them into many tontations racked rent and almost ruined them with many Divisions promoted too much an every hand by Passion Pride Prejudice Jealousie too credulous and sedulous taking up and spreading reports and reproaches one of another whereby the Spirit of GOD hath been grieved the Power Practice and Spiritual Exercise of Religion obstructed the Gospels success marred the Ministrie and all Ordinances brought into contempt ungodliness encouraged the mouths of the ungodly opened their hearts hardned and their hands strengthned against us And as the effect of all these we may lament another sad and very sensible want the Lords Power and Glory not seen in the Sanctuary as sometimes in the former House it was with a speciality of brightness And the Spirit of Grace and Supplication Repentance and Reformation publick Zeal for the Interest of Christ and the Gospel Spirit of Love and Tendernsss towards Brethren is not yet poured from on high But it may be if the Tabernacle were once reared up that the cloud of the LORDS Presence would cover it and the Glorie of the LORD would fill it And if we were ashamed of our iniquities we might then measure the Pattern and see the form of the House and the fashion thereof and the goings out thereof and the comings in thereof and all the Ordinances thereof and the whole limit thereof should be holy which is the Law of the House Then the glorie of this latter House should be greater than of the former Nevertheless We are so far from despising the day of small things that in weakness and humilitie we would desire to say it is our highest ambition to enjoy the Communion of this Sanctuary of the LORD in this Land if it were but to be Door-keepers in the House of our GOD And it is the matter of our greatest longing to see the day when all the Dissintient and long Dissevered Children of Zion shal together with one heart take their Mother by the Hand and with one Lip praise their Father in the Beautie of Holiness For when the Courts of the LORD are amiable in Order it cannot but be pleasant and desireable for Brethren to dwell together in Vnitie And so much the more that we have felt the sad effects of our unhappie Divisions which not onlie now but even in their greatest heat made us with much longing desire and pray for a comfortable Vnion and to bemoan the Causes and Effects of the delayes of it upon all occasions declaring our dread and detestation of Schism as a very heinious hurtful and hateful sin We did indeed demure to concure with and follow and did think it our dutie pro tempore to withdraw from these Ministers thô still we owned and esteemed them as godlie Ministers of this Church who promoted courses of defection after specified and to adhere to those thô but few who were more stedfast and faithful in that time of Divisions Gonfusions and abounding snares when the Church was in a broken state deprived of the Remedie of Church Judicatories whereunto we might recurr with Complaints and Supplications for removing these Offences And when the Government was so Tyrannical that if there had been Church Judicatories neither durst they have corresponded with us nor we make Application to them for hazard of our Lives When also the case was so stated that we thought communion could not be kept by us with them from whom we withdrew without sin while the very exercise of their Ministrie in the then circumstances was so far depending upon subordinate unto complying with modified and authorised by unlawful Usurpations that our joining would have inferred at least in our conscience a submission to symbolizing with and approving of their offensive yieldings to these encroachments Yet we never thought this a Schism We never judged it to be a separation from the Church of Scotland either in Her Doctrine Worship Discipline or
the Land So the Right Reverend the Members of this Venerable Assembly may find and declare these wicked establishments and Complyances Supporting them and defections flowing therefrom to be sins against the Laws of Christ And so far as they can find Iniquity in the foresaid offences may provide by Ecclesiastick Constitutions for the future that the like Complyances with the like Contrivances of usurping Enemies may never again be allowed under pain of Church Censures to prevent and peeclude all fears of divisions to be occasioned by the like defections in time coming And as we offer and Promise so far as we are or may be convinced to confess our offences any manner of way that Church Judicatories shall appoint So for the satisfaction of all concerned in the late Differences and removal of Offenses given or taken we desire and expect that such Failings in the above specified particulars or others be laid to Heart by all sorts of Ministers and Preachers as they are convinced of or after search may be discovered to them by this Reverend Assembly And that these among the Sins of the Land be set down in order as causes of a publick Fast upon some week day through all the Meetings of Presbyterians within this Kingdom and that the Sins of the People be intermixed among these Causes Further As we humbly conceive it would prove a very proper and promising expedient for promoving preserving and propagating Reformation for settling and keeping Order and Vnion for preventing and precluding innovations or corruptions for discovering and discouraging Apostates or Schismaticks Malignants or Sectaries and excluding them from access to do further hurt so we hope we shall be approven and seconded by many in this Reverend Assembly in craving the Renewing of the Covenants either both the National and Solemn League with accommodations to our Times or one made up of both with Additions or Explications suiting our present Case and Day with a Solemn Acknowledgement of the publick Breaches and Engagement to the Duties of the Covenants Humbly moving that none be forced to Swear or Subscribe the same or so much as admitted to it except they be such as may be judged in Charity to have a competent knowledge and sense of the Sins and Duties thereof In Fine thô we will not take upon us to propose the time or the way of purging out the Episcopal Clergy yet we cannot and dare not forbear to Plead and Obtest that they may not be continued nor kept in the Churches whereunto they have intruded nor re-admitted that are or may be laid aside until they give approvable evidence of their Repentance for their sinful Conformity 1 Vpon all these Grounds exhibited above against hearing of them 2 Because former experience of the hurt received by the entertainment of the Episcopal Clergy anno 1638 does now plead for their care to prevent it in time coming 3 Because the People under their Ministry have hitherto been and are perishing in Ignorance and Irreligion being either starved for want of Faithful and Spiritual Instruction or poysoned with false Instruction and therefore Pity to them and Zeal to propagate the Gospel should prompt to all endeavours to purge them out 4 Because the Settlement Purgation and Plantation of the Church will be exceedingly obstructed by the continuance of them that unsettled it corrupted it and pestered the Lords Vineyard with Plants not of His planting and whose Leaven will be alwayes in hazard to leaven the whole Lump 5 Because all of them are among these whom the Laws of Christ do oblige the Constitutions of this Church do ordain and the present Civil Sanctions for establishing Church Government do allow the Church Representative to try and purge out being all of them either insufficient or negligent or erroneous or scandalous if these Characters may be applied or interpreted according to Scripture Rules or as the Church hath extended them heretofore We are content that none of the Curats be put out but the unsufficient Ignorant if this be one part of the trial of their knowledge to inquire not only unto their Gifts but their Graces if ignorance of Conversion Regeneration Sanctification and Communion with God both as to the Doctrine of these Benefits and as to their own Experience of them so far as may be discovered by humane Judgement be reputed unsufficiency We are content none by put away but the negligent if so be they that do not warn the Wicked of their destroying Sins that feed themselves and not the Flock that do not strengthen the Diseased nor heal the Sick c. That omitt the pressing of necessary Duties impartially on Persons and Families and the censuring of Scandals without respect of Persons be comprehended in that Character We are satisfied none be removed but the Erroneous if they be judged to be such who not only owne Points of Popery Arminianism and Socinianism but are unsound in their Explanation of the Kingly Office of Christ of the Perfection of the Scriptures in the point of Church Officers and Government in the matter of Oaths of the Magistrates Power and do maintain Erastianism an exploded and abjured Error in this Church And we seek no more but that all be removed who are Scandalous and none but they if Intruders Covenant-breakers perjured Subscribers of Scandalous Oaths and Tests Schismaticks and Persecuters be counted among the Scandalous It were perhaps Right Reverend more suitable for us who make so mean a Figure among either Preachers or Professors to lay our Hand on our Mouth in submissive silence waiting what your own Wisdom and Zeal will produce by the good Hand of GOD upon you for our satisfaction But conceiving a chief Let and Impediment of our desired comfort of Union to consist in the want of opportunity of laying open our Hearts to you and longing with much impatience for it we could not forbear any longer giving you the trouble of hearing us wherein we request for the favour of laying aside all preconceived Prejudices and begg rather your charitable construction of our ingenuous Freedom and deprecate your critical scanning the Infirmities that may be obivous therein Some things are indeed extraordinary which we here urge but as extraordinary Exigences do force us to move without a Precedent so they furnish you a Power to make a Precedent for the like cases thereafter We confess also it may seem precipitant to press all these things so hard so soon in a bruckle time before things be better settled but we fear if new delayes be procured till all things be fully settled that the observing of Wind and Clouds shall hinder both Sowing and Reaping-But if laying aside the Plaisters wherewith the Wounds of our Backslidings have been slightly covered rather than cured you put to your Hand to the healing of our Breaches in condescending to these our humble Desires you shall win the Blessing of many Souls rent and racked with these Divisions You shall disburden the