THE Address And Petition OF M R GEORGE SETON The Delegate of the Jurant Episcopal Clergy in the North with some Reflection on the same By a Person qualified according to Law and sincerely weell affected to this Church Unto His Grace John Earl of Tullibardine His Majesties High Commissioner The Humble Address and Petition of Mr. George Seton Minister of the Gospel for himself and in Name of his Brethreen and Constituents qualified according to Law and well affected to this Church THE Thoughts of those Desolations and Divisions with which this poor Church is harassed are very grievous to Us and to all Good Men Because thereby the common Enemies of our Religion and of Europes Peace have their Mouths opened to Blaspheme Many Thousands of Souls are become as Sheep without a Sheepherd Atheism and Irreligion lift up their heads The Flood-gates of Wickedness are set wide open and a deludge of Sin menaces Ruine to a wretched Nation a Ferment of dangerous and discontented Humours grows a pace and a Fire kindled in our Bowels is like to Consume us and the Noise and Billows of our Contentions swell so high that the calm Voice of Charity cannot be heard and the sounding of her Bowels seems to be gone and angry Zeal to have usurped the place of that Wisdom which is from Above That Wisdom whose endearing Character it is to be Pure and Peaceable Gentle and Easie to be Entreated Yet amidst all the Pressures that deject our Minds We count our selves Happy in this That we have a King whom GOD hath Eminently Blessed with Pity to Compassionate and Wisdom to heal our Maladies And that as a signal Instance of his Religious Care to put an end to our Lamentable Confusions He hath well and wisely Chosen Your Grace to Represent His own Person and Authority in this Current Session of Parliament The Evils we bewail and complain of The Animosities and Heats which divide Us Church-Men and the Jarrs which form Parties and contending Factions in this Kingdom are not to be composed by the Authority of Publick Sanctions or the imperious Language of Armed Force or the Rude Clamours of the unskilful Multitude or the perplexing debates of the most Learned Disputants These have been often weighed in the Ballance of Experience and all of them found light and unsufficient Remedies Charity alone can heal our Breaches Were Pride and Malice and Self-love expelled from our Breasts to make room for the Benigne Inspirations of that Heavenly Grace which thinketh no Evil which though it suffer long yet is still kind and Complaisant which becometh all things to all Men that by all means it may gain some and which shall not fail to Flourish and Triumph when there shall be no use either for Faith or Hope Did we hearken to its soft Whispers were our Opinions and our Conduct regulated by its Charming Influences This disconsolated Church should put on a Gladsome Countenance we should have Beauty for Ashes and the Oyle of Joy for Mourning and the Garment of Praise in stead of that Spirit of Heaviness and Reproach which now sits fast to us Such Peace on Earth and good will amongst us Fellow Christians and Fellow Protestants would excite to new Anthems those kind and Blessed Ministers of Heavens Court who rejoice at the Conversion though but of one Sinner Then and not till then may we hope that Satan shall fall as Lightning before our feet that Atheism and Prophanity and irreligious Boldness shall not dare to show their Faces but that the Gospel shall run prosperously and be Glorified Whereas whilst we stand fighting for little Matters whilst we place the Summ of Religion in those things which do not at all concern its Substance whilst Procrustes like we will agree with none but such as are commensurat to the Bed of our own Opinions whilst we pay no regard to the Doctor of the Gentiles his most Christian Exhortation whereunto we have attainned let us be of the same mind whilst so much shrewdness of disposition Reigns in us let us Preach and Pray our very Bowels out let us dress the Threatnings of the Law with the most frightful Rhetroick let our Pulpits be surrounded with Flame and Terrour let us Thunder against Rebellious Siners all the Curses that were once pronounced on Mount Ebal or let us study to allure out Hearers unto Obedience with the most liberal Promises of the Gospel All the Charms and Powers of our most commending Eloquence will be damped and foiled by the Blemishes of our own Lives by the rugged and unchristian temper by the Malice and Vain Glory the Pride and partiality the Bigotry and Self-Love to which people cannot but descry that we are Slaves and Votaries Your Grace has already by His Sacred Majestie 's Order recommended in open Parliament Charity and Moderation and the ending of unkindly and unseasonable Controversies amongst us Church-Men and we have much Encouragement to believe That Your Grace has therein acted a part most suitable to the Attractive Mildness of Your own Pious and Peaceable Temper By the same Royal Order Your Grace has owned a Power and special Commission to pass such Acts as may tend effectually to curb all kinds of Vice and Prophanity And with Joy we behold in Your Graces Person and Conversation a Noble Patern of Solid Virtue a Compassionate Goodness an unaffected Air of Humility a Generous Candour an Unbyassed Mind and a warm Zeal to do some signal Service both to King and Country in the High Character You are now Cloathed with When the Almighty Ruler of the World the Infinitly Wise and Just Disposer of all Events thus Graciously Calls on us and excites us to show our selves good Men and good Ministers by the Light and Authority of so great Examples by Duty we owe to GOD and to our own Souls by the Dishonour Religion suffers through our Scandalous and Uncharitable Strifes by the Desolations of an once flourishing Church by the awful sense we ought to have of these Spiritual Dangers to which weak Christians are Exposed whilst they see us ready to bite and devour one another and by many other concurring circumstances if passion and prejudice keep such an Ascendent over us as that the wayes of peace be still hid from our Eyes and we will not hearken to sober Counsels GOD cannot but be highly displeased with us Shame and Guilt and the fears of a future Reckoning must at once Confound us the present Age will Condemn our obdurate Stiffness and after Generations will Curse our reproachful Memories May it please Your Grace to appoint a Conference betwixt an equal Number of us and our Presbyterian Brethereen And as we have always hitherto showed our selves Lovers of Peace and Vnion upon Terms that in Conscience we could agree to so we hope it shall further appear that others and not we are to be blamed if a desireable Period be not put to those Schisms which distract and divide this Church IF
Mr. Seton had not in the Title told us that he was a Minister of the Gospel the gaudy Affectation and Froath in the Stile and Dress of his Paper would never have given any Wise and Good Man ground to imagine it the same looking more like the Stage and Romance than the Form of sound Words which should discover a Divine How much soever he may fancy the Doctor of the Gentiles to favour his Design I am sure Paul called to be an Apostle of Jesus Christ his Speech was not with inticeing Words of mans Wisdom If we look to the Narrative of his Petition one might expect that we had got a Person so fully in Love with Charity which he says alone can heal our Breaches as that he had a good share thereof himself and that while others did not regard its calm voice yet he himself would hearken to its soft whispers but if you look to the import and Insinuations thereof without any breach of the Apostle Paul's Charity we will find neither Wisdom Truth nor Charity He may have something of Jacob's Voice but Esau's Hands for these wordy Complaints of the want of Charity either have a meaning and hint at Persons and Things which are real or else all is only a flowrish of his Pen to let the World see how passionately he would complain of the want of Charity if she were a Stranger in the World and if he have no other design than this last neither Wisdom Truth nor Charitie do appear But I have the charity to him to believe his Complaints have a meaning and that he thinks some People or other are so uncharitable as that he hath sufficient Ground to open the Flood-gates of his Rhetorick against them who they are he intends to wound though he gives us an account under the Envelop of such general Words as when he shall have occasion for the same may charitably extend themselves to bring in others under the Character than such he doth really design thereby to furnish himself a Back door yet it s very sure the present Government both in State and Church and those entrusted with the same are the Objects of his Complaint You may indeed think him sometimes pritty square in taking in himself and these he doth represent while he wishes Pride Malice and Self love expelled from our breasts And you would think him very self-convict of many grievous things while he says that People cannot but descry that we are slaves and votaries to a rugged and unchristian Temper to Malice and Vain-glory to pride and Partiality to Bigotry and Self-love but this is only the Gentlemans Complysance you must not with an angry Zeal be so uncharitable to think him and his Constituents so full of Pride and Partiality for the Title that they are qualified according to Law and well affected to this Church and the Epilogue as we have always hitherto shewed our selves lovers of Peace and Vnion upon Terms that in Conscience we can agree to and Charity will seek no other so we hope it shall further appear that others and not We are to be blamed if a desireable period be not put to these Schisms doth hold forth the Innocence of the Gentlemen so neither he nor any of his gang are the men nor ought these of the late Episcopal Clergy who are turned out for their disloyalty by the State and censured for their Immoralities by the Church be thought to be the Authors of these things he complains of for it s their removal which makes the desolation of an once flourishing Church In a word the men who have made these desolations by turning out his old Brethren are these whom he would reach and since King William came to the Throne and Presbytrie got up there has been nothing but barassing this poor Church with Desolations and Divisions and because Presbyterians have caused all this Ruine on the Church therefore so peaceable a man as Mr. Seton may expect that at least they will allow a Conference seing he calls them his Brethren but yet such Brethren as he desires no more of them than an equal number at most Now that Mr. Seton should have in this Petition so loaded the Government in Church and State is as far from that Charity and Wisdom which he so recommends as it is from that Truth which the Character of a Minister should in a peculiar manner mind him of is it Charity by calumnious Insinuations to wound a Church he pretends to be wellaffected unto and to traduce those Ministers whom he calls Brethren by representing them to be the Authors and Fomenters of Division and Schismes and that publickly not only by a Petition to His Majesties High Commissioner but printing the same to the World when neither Mr. Seton nor any of his Constituents since they were qualified according to Law did ever apply to any of the Judicatories of this Church or to any Minister thereof either to be United themselves unto the Church and received into the Government to which they are now Schismatick or yet so much as to confer with any Presbyterian Minister upon any terms of Union or to do or offer any thing which might tend either to the propagating of the Gospel curbing of Prophanity or more full settling of the Church Doth not the tendency of this Petition give ground to believe that the Presbyterian Ministers are so implacable that they would not all this time confer with those Episcopal Brethren and that on the other hand these charitable and peaceable Episcopal Brethren were following all Methods of Peace when he says We have always shewed our selves lovers of Peace and Vnion I am sure no Stranger will read this Address but must conclude if all he says be good Coin that the Presbyterians have been disturbers of the peace of the Church and that all the Atheism Prophanity Ignorance and Irreligion which doth lamentably abound is to be laid at their door But though he could make this heavy Charge good which he will never be able to do yet where is this Charity in him towards these his Presbyterian Brethren to insinuat such shrewd things of them without ever complaining to themselves without ever with the calm Voice of Charity bespeaking and intreating to lay afide their angry Zeal How frequent soever Charity be in his Words I think I do him Justice when I say there is no true Charity in all his Paper and that there is more of calumnious censoriousness and shrewdness of disposition discovered by him in the strain of his Discourse than there hath of angry Zeal been seen in the present Judicatories of the Church against Mr. Seton and his Constituants But to come more closs to Mr. Seton How will he vindicate himself and his Partie from being the Authors and Fomenters of the Divisions of the Church and also uncharitable and unjust Calumniators of the State when the World knows that Our Pious and Wise King and the present Parliament to
Presbyterian Brethren desired to discourse of Church-affairs as private Persons with Mr. Seton and his equal number His Grace's being taken up with the weighty Affairs of the King and Parliament might have pleaded with Mr. Seton not to give him the trouble to do that which would at all time be an unsuitably mean employ for him and which might with more ease and charity on Mr. Seton's part been sought of his Presbyterian Brethreen who had he asked the same of them would not have refused him none of them yet have and I am confident of many of them at least never shall But Mr. Seton it may be doth think he and his Constituents will have greater Advantage by making a braving offer of a Conference which he concludeth will not be granted him by the thing it self It 's somewhere else than either with his Grace or the Honourable Estates of Parliament that he expects his Petition will have charming Influences he hopes the Charms and Powers of his most commanding Eloquence will take where a just and true Representation of the Practices and temper of his Partie will not be so diligently communicate and ushered in with such Pomp and Fast of Words I doubt Mr. Seton's design when he so unequally demands a Conference betwixt an equal number of us and our Presbyterian Brethreen seing the Government of the Church is settled in the Hands of Presbyterian Brethreen by Law and they in a fixed Possession of the same and acting therein with that success as is the envy of Mr. Seton and his Constituents and such as with the blessing of God will in a smal time fill these Vacancies which the disloyaltie and prophanity of these who were Mr. Seton's old Friends and Allays have made in his Countrey with men I hope of another stamp Mr. Seton knoweth the Parliament as well as the Church hath laid down another way of Application than the demand of a Conference of an equal number as if his gang and the Church were on equal Terms But he hath in some measure gained his Point if he make some in another Countrey believe that the Episcopal Party are still so considerable in Scotland as that notwithstanding the Government of the Church hath for several years been settled in the hands of Presbyterians and been countenanced and cherished by the State yet they think it their due due to their greater numbers better cause and most commanding Eloquence to demand of a High Commissioner and in the view of a Parliament who have so much Favoured Presbytrie such a Conference He knoweth that in this Countrey it will not take The Parliament and Church have determined concerning the goodness of his cause and he speaks sad truth when he says their commanaing Eloquence will be damped and foild by the Blemishes of their own lives and when the Numbers of his Constituents shall be enquired into he cannot let see so many Duzons of them qualified according to Law even with the Civil part of Qualifications as there are Hundreds of his Presbyterian Brethereen And some of his Constituents lying under the just Censures of the Church whom after they had not the confidence to defend themselves at the Bar he now brings in as his Brethreen to confer as recti in curia I will not alledge that some others of his Constituents are persons who doe like ways well deserve the highest Censures of the Church but some of these few of his Brethereen who go under that Character of being Qualified according to Law stood accused of the grossest 〈◊〉 of Drunkenness Swearing and Uncleanness before a Judicatory of this Church which their tender Consciences thought it not fit to appear befor eand owne as a Judicatory and there appeared little difficulty to prove the same And if Mr. Seton have not these Men to make up his Constituents he hath but a very small Number I doubt still that a Conference is really designed because if it be something then must be proposed by Mr. Seton to put a desireable period to these Schisms Now it s easier for Mr. Seton to soare in the Clouds and keep in the Generals then come to particulars It seems that the Wisdom and Compassion of our King and Parliament hath not yet found out the true Remedies to heal our Wounds Mr. Seton hath not confidence that the Authority of publick sanctions will be effectual though I am of the opinion that a just and Charitable Execution of them would mightily contribute to our Peace you 'l find the Parliament must alter their Terms and yet that would not do to satisfy Mr. Seton and his Men but this I dare say would effectually quiet and excite him to new Anthems the change of the present Government the Re-establishing of Bishops and all the old Clergy would recover an once Flourishing Church from its Desolations then a a pure and peaceable gentle and easy Government would possess the Throne but as yet the King and Parliament seem not thereto enclin'd Mr. Seton must propose some other thing What if peaceble Mr. Seton desire to put a period to the Schisms by this means That every Man and every Minister might have the Liberty to follow their own Inclination and these who desired Bishops and Episcopal Clergy might not be deprived of so great a Blessing and Mr. Seaton would be so Charitable at least for this Session of Parliament as to allow some Angry zealous Bigots a gentle touch of Presbytry providing it offended no body and then when every body got their will all would be pleased But I am of the opinion more peace then that would produce may be had at an easier rate In short So many difficulties arise in any particular Grounds for a Conference and Mr. Seton will be in such a strait to get his Charity to his own Constituents on the one hand so largely extended as to secure them be their Immoralities what they will from the cloutches of angry Zeal and his Complisance on the other hand is such as not directly to spit in the face of Authority Civil and Eclesiastick tho he be ready enough to spurn at them with his Heels that I believe if you 'l let the peaceable man alone he will not much press a Conference he hath made the offer printed his Petition sent it up last Post to London he hath waited as long as he thought fit and the care of the Church will call him home But before he go I would let him and his gang see that all Presbyterians are not so full of angry Zeal as not in some measure to be Easie and Gentle and therefore I would charitably advise him and his Friends to lay aside their Illegal as well as Unchristian combinations to Re-establish Episcopacy in Scotland which Tyranny now called Jacobitism and Prophanity will always attend Let them by their practices and temper shew some of that Charity and Peaceableness his words pretend to let them strive and endeavour in Preaching of the Gospel to come to their Flock in the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power rather then with the Charms and Powers of most commanding Eloquence let a Gospel-adorning conversation manifest that there is some thing of the Life of Religion amonst them and for my part they shall be dear to me and honoured by me though they should never come to be of the same judgment as to the Government of the Church And if any of them by the Grace of God working in their Hearts manifest such a Disposition what ever their former Actions and Opinions have been and desire to be sharers of the Government of the Church thereby only designing to be in a better capacity to propagate the Gospel destroy Atheism curb Prophanity Banish Irreligion and heal the Wounds of this Church if they then be not welcomed by Church-Judicatories it will be time for them to complain of the want of Charity But if after all the Experiences both Mr. Seton and his Constituents and his Presbyterian Brethereen have got that the present Church Government hath made the most vigorous opposition to Atheism Profanity been the most faithful Asserters of the Truth and strongest Bulwarks against Popery Socinianism Arminianism and all other Errors and is founded on the most lasting 〈…〉 of Union and Peace Men will 〈◊〉 refuse to embrace these just and reasonable Terms settled by the State and Church and oppose this poor Churches wrestling out of the Ashes to which Religions Enemies had reduced Her and delay Her Triumphing over all the Works of Darkness I appeal to God the Searcher of all Hearts to Angels and Men to our Gracious King to His Grace His high Commissioner to the Estates of Parliament and to the Consciences of our Enemies if the Presbyterian Ministers and the Church-Judicatories ought in Charity to bear the Burthen of the Blame
put an end to all that Persecution Blood-shed Barbaritie Prophanity Atheism and Irreligion which did so much abound in the late Reigns and was chiefly occasioned by the late Bishops and their Accomplices and to stop these Flood-gates of Wickedness which were set open and to prevent that deludge of sin which menaced Ruine to a then wretched Nation did therefore send these Bishops and their Government a packing and did settle the Church on its ancient Foundation it having been often weighed in the Ballance of Experience that where the present Church Government hath been justly and duely Exerced Saton hath fallen as Lightning Atheism and Prophanitie have not dared to shew their faces It s likeways undenyably true That neither our King Parliament nor Church did let angry Zeal so usurp the place of Wisdom as to find all those who had complyed with and submitted unto Prelacy equally guilty with their Ring-leading Bishops and therefore they not only did not spew them out with them but to deserve the Character of Wisdom were so gentle and easie to be entreated as both to continue them in their Charges and give them Opportunities and Invitations to be united unto and sharers in the Government of the Church and it might have been expected that when both State and Church has fixed and accorded on these terms of Communion and Union that either so peaceable charitable and condescending Men as Mr. Seton and his Brethren would have come in to the Church on these Terms or at least been quiet without complaining Many in the World and even the greatest and I am sure the best Bishops in England thought these Terms setled by the King Parliament and Assembly so Christian just rational and condescending on the Government and Churches part as might have satisfied all true Lovers of Peace and Religion and such as consciencious Men might accept of and thereby in some measure put an end to the Divisions of the Church yet peaceable Mr. Seton and his Constituents will not only despise and neglect these Means of the Churches peace but will still complain that others kindle and keep up the Fire But farther our King did with Pity compassionate those whom his Wisdom could not heal of their Maladies and found out a way how these who had neglected to render themselves useful to the Church should not be altogether Ruined themselves unless they did it with their own hands and therefore makeeth a Charitable offer unto them that who ever like Mr. Seton and his Constituents would own the Government of the state should enjoy in the Church the Charges they possest tho they did neglect to capacitate themselves to be sharers in the Government of the same The Church Judicatories likewise have exerced that temper in their procedures as to give many demonstrations of a readiness in them to have as many of these who had submitted to Prelacy keeped useful as they could find to be Men of Probity Sinceritie and Worth and after all this for Mr. Seton to raise this Clamour and Dust argueth neither Charity nor Probity I will not call it Irreligious Boldness but Impudent and Imprudent It is for Mr. Seton to make this Clutter who himself was personally desired and invited to unite with the Church by the Committee of the General Assembly for the North anno 1694. and both refused these Terms which the Law and the Church required and entred and combind with others in that Illegal Protestation against and Declinature of the Authority of that Judicatory settled by the Law and Authority of that same King whom he would make us believe he thinks himself happy in having and which Protestation Mr. Seton knoweth was by the same Parliament after a full hearing found to be seditious unpeaceable and illegal and for which some of Mr. Seton's fellow Protestators were justly censured by it And for Mr. Seton conscious of his own guilt to address his Majesties High Commissioner this same Parliament sitting in such a strain as doth reflect upon both Church and State Is such a piece of Charity and Wisdom as some desire not to imitate But what is the Conclusion Mr. Seton draweth after he hath given the Government and Church so many indirect Thrusts he humbly desires his Grace to appoint a Conference betwixt an equal number of us and our Presbyterian Brethreen Now any man would think the honest man is indeed in earnest for a Conference and for what end even to put a desireable Period to these Schisms which distract and divide this Church and no doubt he is for the immediate ending of unkindly and unseasonable Controversies amongst Vs Church men and His Grace to be the Umpire If I had not heard of a Protestation drawn and ready to be presented in March 1691 to the Commission of the Church which was to have met at Aberdeen at that time had it not been impeded by some charitable and peaceable Men wherein they declare that their Consciences scrupled to owne Presbyterian Government and particularly Lay-elders as they are pleased to call them and that Mr. Seton and some of his Constituents were of that Number and that he and the same gang did solemnly Address the General Assembly in January 1692 and then acknowledge that Assembly consisting of the same Presbyterian Ministers and Lay-elders to be a lawful Assembly and lawful Government and offered to join and concur therewith as such without any scruple of Conscience and that constant and conscientious Mr. Seton was with the rump of his Party one of fourteen who delivered in the same Protestation drawn 1691 to the Committe of the General Assembly for the North at Aberdeen in anno 1694 as if it had been fresh and new wherein Mr. Seton and the rest have the old scruples at the Government and cannot in Conscience comply with their 1692 years Consciences If I had not had the misfortune to have heard these things of him and such an uncharitable Memory as to remember them I might have been more ready to believe Mr. Seton in earnest Before I hearken to the soft Whispers of Charity towards him and be convinced of his sincerity it will be necessary to satisfy my Reason of these doubts I doubt he designs a Conference thereby to put a Period to these Schisms in the Church when he knoweth very well that none of the Presbyterian Brethreen can confer with him in name of the Church and as thereto authorized by the Government thereof He is not ignorant that a General Assembly only can delegate such a Power as to confer in the Name of the Church and to confer as private Persons will never end the Controversies so I demur that his design is any Conference at all and how discreet hath he been to his Grace let the World judge for if these Conferrees are to confer with a publick Character he desires of his Grace a thing impossible for him to grant and therefore impertinent to be sought If there be only two or three