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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34990	A description of the Church of Scotland with a word of reproofe to the priests, and teachers, and officers therein, for their many corrupt doctrines and practices, also a warning and a gentle invitation to all people, that lives under their tyrannicall government, to come to the truth ... : herein is their church made manifest ... : with an exhortation to all people to come out from amongst them ... / written in love to the simple-hearted in that nation ... by one who desires that people might be brought to the truth ... who am known among men by the name Stephen Crisp.	Crisp, Stephen, 1628-1692.	1660 (1660)	Wing C6928; ESTC R40352	17,808	15

A DESCRIPTION of the CHVRCH OF SCOTLAND WITH A Word of Reproofe to the Priests and Teachers and Officers therein for their many corrupt Doctrines and Practises also a warning and gentle invitation to all People that lives under their Tyrannicall Government to come to the Truth which will free them from the Bondage they have long laine under and to the light which will shew them the way to escape being longer Partakers of their sins and so they shall escape being Partakers of the Plagues which shall shortly be poured forth without mixture upon them which continue in their ungodly Deedes and Workes of darknesse in Rebellions against the light that makes them manifest Herein is their Church made manifest 1 In its Foundation 2 In its Members wherewith it is builded 3 In its Officers 4 In its Doctrines of God of Gods Word of Faith and of Election 5 In its Ordinances of Baptisme and the Lords Supper as they call them 6 In its Discipline With an Exhortation to all People to come out from amongst them to that which makes them manifest which is the true Light that lighteth every Man that cometh into the World Written in love to the simple-hearted in that Nation and in witnesse of the T●uth and in Testimony against the false Teachers and their false Doctrines Way●s and Worships by One who desires that people might be brought to the Truth in their inward parts to worship God in that by the leading of his own spirit that so they might be accepted _____ who am known among Men by the name Stephen Crisp. Printed for M. W. in the first Moneth 1660. A Description of the Church of Scotland c. TO the severall Presbetryes in Scotland and to every Member of them and to the Scottish Church in generall is this directed and sent as a word of reproofe and warning from him who is the head of the true Church which is pure and underfiled and sent by and given thorough his Servant who being a Member of that Church and participating of the power and wisedome of the Head according to the proportion of 〈◊〉 Member doe thereby comprehend your Church of which I am not a Member and in obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ the true Head doe hereby reprove you of your adultery and hypocrisie and severall other spots and wrinckles that are in and upon your Church which now with the light are made manifest And in the feare and name of the Lord doe warne you to returne and come to that which maketh manifest and maketh cleane before yee be cast upon the bed of misery and perpetuall sorrow with Babilon your Mother and Jezebell your Prophetesse by the power of whose sorceries and inchantments in and among her Merchants and Disciples many p or people in thi● Nation are seduced and deceived and kept from the anoynting which teacheth freely the truth which no lye is of nor springs from and they whom you keep from this which teacheth freely that so they might buy or hire teaching of you among whom they are ever learning and never learned nor brought to know the truth which makes them fre● that abides in it These I say can never know the true Church which is the ground o● truth in which none can be Pillars but such as overcome sin and transgression and death which entred thereby and came over all Men in which state Gods Church is not and there is but two states namely the state of sin and transgression the wages whereof i● death and the state of redemption from sin which is thorow the power of the resurrection from the dead which is the state of the Church between which two states is an absolute antipathy for they that are in the transgression are not in the Church for then i● would be spotted and they that are in the Church are not in the transgression because the Church is in God where transgression cannot be and they that are holden in sin and death are not risen from the dead and they who are made partakers of the resurrection and life which is Christ they are not holden in sin but the same power that raised 〈◊〉 Jesus from the dead raised them from the power of sin and death and being thus raised makes them Members of the Church which is pure and undefiled which is separate from the sinners and from the sin by the mighty operation of the crosse which is th● power of God by which we are translated from death to life from sin to righteousnesse from being Members of the Harlot and her Church to be Members of Christ and h●● Church and this is the Church which we owne and witnesse Now as concerning your Church I have not a few things against it but even many where in you are to be reprooved and must be amended or rather changed before you can justly b● called and accounted the Church of Christ or any part thereof Therefore listen a while and give attention ye Priests and Presbetryes of Scotland who hath a long time beene talking of reforming and amending and purging and making cleane your Church and I will declare unto you your way which ye ought to take to accomplish that which you so much pretend for and cannot yet accomplish nor indeed never can till that be removed which hath and doth hinder a right and thorow reformation Now the first thing in your Church that is presented to my understanding to be repoved is the foundation thereof upon which it is builded it not being the same which the Church of Christ was and is builded upon as will thus appeare The foundation of your Church is that which stands in the fleshly part of man namely formes and names of the things the Saints wrought off without the power which are attainable by the fleshly wisedome of this world by which God is not known nor the body which is the Church discerned but he that can get the Saints words to speake although he be out of their life yet such are accounted fit members of your Church and of such members and upon this foundation is your Church builded the Saints words being the chiefe corner stone therof but Christ said be would build his Church upon that which the knowledge of came not by flesh nor blood but revelation from God his Father which is in heaven as you may read in the 16. Math. 17.18 And this is the rock which is now made manifest by revelation thorow the spirit which thing you deny to be in these dayes and so are not builded upon what comes to be known so but upon that which the knowledge of comes by flesh and blood and you that have laid another foundation for your Church then what is by revelation your foundation must be raised and your Church must fall the Pillars whereof are already shaken and shall shortly be removed Therefore come all to the true foundation which was and is the foundation of the true Church which is

Christ the Son of the living God who is the light of the world and lighteth every man that commeth into the world with the true light and let that be the beginning and foundation of your building and that will stand for ever this was before transgression was and before will worship was against this the gates of hell cannot prevaile This is the corner-stone which ye builders have rejected and doe still reject the light and so refecting it are building Babylon as it were which is now confounding and yee are put to a stop and can proceed no farther for the people sees your confusion in many parts of the Nation and begins to love and imbrace them whom you have cast out of your Church who have the light for their foundation which answereth the witnesse of God in all and who soever builds and not on this their building shall come to naught and the builders shall be ashamed for that which should uphold them will come a top of them and breake them to peices The next thing reprovable in your Scottish Church is the matter whereof it is composed and in this also are you contrary to the true Church the Spouse of Christ for your Church is composed of evill and ungodly men and women whose hearts is delighting in ungocly practices as wearing and lying and cousening and dissembling and scoffing and scorning yea in striking and beating the innocent such is your Church made up of dead stones whose h●arts are as an Adamant their mouths filled with cursing and their tongues filled with venome and their hands filled with violence these is your materialls with which ye have builded but the Lord God of light and power is making you bare and manifest and by his power is throwing you down where shame shall cover your Church where the scorner shall be scorned in the day of their calamity and the strikers shall be st ucken with a rod that will breake them to peices the sword of the almighty is drawn and shall wound them in their inward parts that have wounded his Children in their outward bodyes and greived his holy spirit and then shall howling and lamentation come upon your Church but there shall be none to pitty for the double reward of your doings to Gods Children shall shortly come upon you and that is the word of the Lord to you But if you demand how is all this proved that our Church is compassed and made up of such persons as these I answer I prove it thus not only by the hearing of the ear nor by what I have seen of you in the eternall light of the Son of God before my comming among you but also being an eye witnesse of your behaviour fowards me who when I have in obedience to God and love to your souls but proclarmed the fear of God amongst you in one of your Masse-houses or Markets what an offence hath it been counted by you who are of the Scottish Fresbiterian Church some crying kick him kick him knock him down and such like language and usage have I and many of my brethren and sist rs found amongst you as in particular the behaviour of the people of Dalkieth on the 13th of the 9th month 59. may witness where had not the Soldiers appeared as a stop to your murderous purposes against me your works of mischief had more appeared but your spirit is seen and known to be of one nature with the scarlet colored where whothirsteth after and is drunk with the blood of the Saints besides there needs no greater proofe of this charge against your Church but what hath and doth proceed out of your own mouths who are dayly confessing your selves to be such kind of people and so are judged out of your own mouths as all such slothful servants ever was doth not your Priest say that ye are all going astray every one after the lusts of his own heart and have forsaken God the fountaine of living waters and digged to your selves Cysterns that can hold no water and that your hearts are estranged from God regarding lying vanityes and many such like things might be mentioned from your owne mouths the breath whereof as fire shall devoure you now if it benot so why do you say so lying against your own souls and if it be so how can your Church be the Church of God pure and undefiled unspotted and without wrinkle or any such thing answer for your selves or cease from deceiving your selves and others with the name Church of God for with him dwelleth no iniquity Now if the light were the foundation then would none be counted fit members of your Church but such as walked in it and so your fellowship would stand in the light as the true Church-fellowship did and doth but evill doers as Scoffers Lyers Proud Covetous Persons Strikers fierce D spisers Railers and Persecutors such hates the light and denyes and rejects it and so may be continued in your Church-fellowship which is in sin for terme of your lives and shall be continued in the inheritance of utter darknesse in the end where shall-weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth for ever Another thing reprovable in your Church is the officers thereof they being in all thing contrary to the qualifications signified by the scripture of truth as ye might well see if t●● God of this world the Prince of darknesse had not blinded your eyes a little of the disproportion betweene them and the officers spoken of in the Scriptures for the simples sake wh● desires to be informed I shall instance and first of all concerning your Presbitries for th● Presbitry which the Scriptures speaks of who laid their hands on Timothy 1 Tim. 4.14 We such with whom was the power of God as was manifest by Timothyes receiving a gift by th● laying on of their hands who had rec●ived the gift of God themselves and had also receive power to communicate the same but you who are proud men and covetous men who usurp Authority and presumes to be called by the name and deny that power to be extant with you or any else or that any can be immediately called or gifted for the ministry you are of th●● sort mentioned in the 1 Titus 16. Who professe yee know God but in wo ks deny him b●ing abominable and disobedient and to every good work reprobates for these qualificatio● doth belong to such men as yee professe your selves to be which I shall set down and then let 〈◊〉 sober people judge whether yee be reprobate unto them yea or nay 1 They ought to be blamelesse and whether yee be so or nay be your own Judges who 〈◊〉 none can live without sin and so consequently not without blame for all sin is blameabl● 〈…〉 this particular yee have excluded your selves then watchfull but what doe yee watch fo●●●cept it be opportunity to promote your corrupt honour or to augment and exact your 〈◊〉 gaine then of good behaviour that is not

Christ was as your answers would doe if yee were asked but your Idolls shall be broken and their names shall you be ashamed off as they were ashamed of the Groves and the greene Trees under which they had worshipped their Idolls whom God confounded before you and then your Water and Wine and Cakes and such like things which you call Sacraments and your Masse-houses which you call Churches signed with the Popes Grosse your predecessors these things will but all adde to your shame and sorrow Therefore whilst you have time lay aside these carnall and foolish traditions and come to the light which lets people see over them all to the one Baptisme it selfe and to the Supper and Table of the Lord it selfe and to the Church it selfe which is in God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as you may read 1 Thess 1.2 And lastly the Discipline of your Church doth appeare contrary to the Discipline of the true Church and in this particular yee have so far proceeded already within these few yeares that yee have thereby much manifested your selves even to many who did not before see you for this many hath looked upon as a taile of a Scorpion with which yee have sought to bend that sting and venome which lodged in your hearts against the true Church which yee could not vent with your tongue nor hands but this also will the Lord cut off that the Scorpions shall hurt no more your sting begins to decay and your force to faile you and people begins to walke safely in the path of peace and in the way of righteousnesse notwithstanding your taile or your tongue to the greife of your hearts which is filled with mischeife against the righteous in the Land But the Lord is their deliverer and according to the evil of your desires against the innocent even so shall your reward be Now the true Church they did observe that if any that was called a Brother should be a Fornicator a Railer and Extortioner a Covetous person an Idolater or a Drunkard with such a one not to eat now if you would observe this in your brother-hood yee would quickly be scattered one from another your Preists suspended for their Coveteousnesse and Drunkennesse and Railing the people suspended for their Fornication and Idolatry and Extortion and Railing and Fighting and many other misdemeanors your Communion would soone fall but you who are a body or Church so called made up of such as these yee take another course to uphold your fellowship for if any who hath beene one with you in these things before mentioned doth come to see with the light wherewith Christ hath lighted them that these things are displeasing to God and so dares not goe on with you any longer in them but declares against your Idolatry your covetousnesse your railing and it is with such a one that you will not eat nor drinke nor buy nor sell Oh abominable depth of Satan this is the way you have found out to keep people from believing in the truth and from departing from your corrupt and cursed practices In short this is as your Fathers the Jewes did who were the crucifiers of the Lord of life if any then did confesse him to be the Christ that said I am the light of the world who lighteth every man that cometh into the world they must be cast out of their Synagogue marke out of the Synagogues of the unbelievers and crucifiers such as yee who cannot nor will not have any fellowship with them that beleives in the light that they may be made Children of the light your latter end shall not be like unto theirs Furthermore the Apostle exhorted the Corinthians to deliver the incesteous persons to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that his soule might be saved in the day of the Lord but he did not intend the destruction of his body as yee wickedly doe who thirsts after blood to asswage the flame of your envy but the Lord will quench that flame and yee that desires blood yee shall have blood to drinke but the Apostle fought not with flesh and blood but against spirituall wickednesse and against incestion and fornication and Idolatry but yee make war against the flesh and blood and seekes the destruction of the outward bodyes as much as in you lyes but those who believes in the light and trusts in the Lord the God of our salvation the power that saveth out of sin and unrighteousnesse them will he deliver out of your bloody hands and from your cruell teeth and from the reach and venome of your hurtfull taile but it may be you will say although we have no criminall fact to lay to their charge whom we have cast out of our Church of whom you speake yet they are Heretickes and it was Pauls councell that one that is an Heretick after the first and second admonition Reject I answer if this were observed among you there would be none found to reject for all would be found to be rejected and this is the reason that whosoever comes to be members of the true Church doth reject you because of your Heresie in doctrine and corruption in conversation but after that way which you call Heresie worship we the God of our Fathers who wrought the holy Scriptures by inspiration of the holy spirit and according thereunto we believe in the true light that lighteth every man that commeth into the world which our beleife you call Heresie and we beleive that this light wherewith every man is enlightened is a sufficient light to lead all that follow and obey it to eternall life and this you call Heresie and that this light is the perfect and beavenly gift of God and whosoever yeilds himselfe into the obedience of it shall thereby be translated from darknesse and the workes thereof which is sin and be brought to live righteously and holyly in this life and this also you call Heresie and many more things which in the Scriptures are declared and by us believed and witnessed doe you call Heresie as may appeare in a booke lately published by the Presbitery at Edenborough to their shame called a testimony against the petition for tolleration wherein your envious and bloody spirit is sufficiently set forth to every judicious Reader against the life of the Scriptures and whomsoever into it is come But your cainish spirit is seene and your end is at hand and your reward shall be according to your workes And now all yee people of Scotland in whom is sincerity and simplicity unto whom this shall come consider in the feare of the Lord where you are and who you are joyned with and against whom yee take part while yee abide in this Church and search the Scriptures your selves and see whether these things be so or nay and come out from amongst them and partake no longer of their sins least you partake also of their plagues which is neare comming upon them and praise the Lord who hath spared you untill now and caused his light to breake forth to discover their wayes and workes of darknesse before yee are overwhelmed by his judgements and as in sincerity yee come to try these things with the light in it yee will see more light and by it an understanding will be opened in you to see into their abominations and deceits beyond what is heare declared but if yee reject this the day of your visitation then shall yee be shut up in darknesse and your ignorance shall increase and your hearts shall be heardened and yee made fit for the indignation and wrath of God to be powered forth upon when the measure of your iniquityes shall be fulfilled While you have time prise it and while you have light love it and beleive in it that you may be made Children of it S. C.

saved in their sins and then you shall know that the way of salvation was set open to you in that the light shined in your hearts but yee rejecting that way and seeking to establish a way of your owne so yee became excluded and shut out of the Kingdome after long talking of it And therefore all yee people of Scotland and to whomsoever this shall come of wh●● people or country soever yee be consider in the feare of God whether yee be lighted 〈◊〉 a light that doth make manifest your evill deeds and words and purposes in the secret 〈◊〉 your hearts yea or nay and if yee find such a thing then mind diligently its working in you for in it is reproofes of instruction which the Scriptures saith is the way of life and the way of life is but one and having found it every one in your owne particulars then no longer follow nor harken to the deceivers who for a long time hath beguiled you leading you from the light the way the truth and the life of men and so kept you in death and darknesse where salvation is not to be found and these have told you that they have preached the Gospell to you for the salvation of your soules and yet tells you also that as many of you as ever shall be saved were saved before you were borne then to what purpose is all their preaching to you if they cannot convert a reprobate nor an elect person cannot sin unto condemnation where then is the use of their ministry which they have so many thousands of marks and hundreds of pounds a yeare for if they answer and say this is the meanes to gather in them that are elected I answer God will not loose any for want of meanes and therefore he hath afforded the meanes freely without mony or prise to all the sons of men who bath so loved the world that he hath given his onely begotten Son a meanes and a way of salvation for as many as believe on him and he is the grace by which the Saints were and are saved which appeareth to all men and bringeth salvation nere unto all without respect of person who are taught by him to deny ungodlynesse and wordly lusts and to live soberly and righteously in this present World but if yee still continue to be taught by them that turne the grace of God into wantonnesse and despise that which shines in the heart to lead out of sin which it makes manifest then shall you perish in your gainsaying and in the day of your calamity and misery yee shall know and confesse to your unspeakable sorrow and torment that a prise was put into your hands and a way of life was declared and made manifest but yee loving your sins and iniquitys your delights and pleasures which the light and way of life appeared against were unworthy of this free salvation and so your condemnation yee shall confesse to be of your selves in that day when God the righteous Judge will be cleare of all your blood and then saying God is partly too blame and man is partly too blame that Men goe to Hell will not serve turne which one of the chiefe Priests of your Scottish Church affirmed Henry Foreside Priest of Lingich but his folly and many such blinde guides is now made manifest with the light which they are risen up against but they shall not proceed much farther for their skirts are discovered to their shame Many more of the Doctrines of your Church are reprovable and for condemnation with the light which light as the diligent Readers comes to mind in its working and breaking forth they shall see and be able to measure and to trye your Doctrines therewith and will be able to comprehend your deceipt in many other of your Doctrines which now I am not free to insist upon As of sanctification in which yee allow an 〈◊〉 sanctified part to remaine and so never brings people to know nor to hope for the ●●●row cleansing which the Saints witnessed except it be after death when no such ●●rke can be wrought and also your Doctrine of justification in sin will be seene ●nd Gods righteousnesse will be cleared against your lying and deceipt and so of Adoption and Resurrection and Glorification and what else is preached amongst you will be seen with the light by them that loves it to which I commend them in whom is sincerity of heart and shall proceed a little further to your Ordinances 1st And first concerning that rotten tradition which you call an Ordinance or Baptisme namely your casting a few drops of water upon the face of an Infant of about eight dayes old this you call an Ordinance but could never yet finde out the institution thereof by Christ nor his Disciples for any signe or signification whatsoever much lesse can you prove it to be the one Baptisme neither can you prove that ever any such thing was done by any of them so yee have neither precident nor precept from the holy men of God and therefore well may I call it a rotten tradition that hath not so much as a president to support it except it be a Popish one from whence it was derived from the Whorish Church of Rome your Mother whome you raile against in words and obey in her unwarrantable practises and with her shall you have your portion now this conceited charme or tricke of casting a few drops of water upon Childrens faces you call Baptisme wherein you have proclaimed to all understanding people that from the greatest of you to the least you are all ignorant of the Baptismes the Scriptures speakes of which had a time and service and ended it that which abides for euer and so being ignorant of them have in their roome set up a conceit and tradition which hath not so much as the least ground in the Scriptures of truth neither is mentioned therein nor was it invented many yeares after and th●● was it instituted by the Pope obeyed by the Papists and since continued and observed in your Scottish Church which from thence is sprung but the true Baptisme is that which was instituted by Christ and is owned and witnessed by the Saints and denyed by the Romish and Scottish which Baptisme is into the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit which name is a strong Tower and all that are baptised into it find strength in it and help against temptations and in the time of trouble findes deliverance by it and this the Saints witnessed who witnessed the one Baptisme by one spirit into one body for saith the Apostle in the 6 Rom. 3 4. for so many of us as were Baptised into Jesus Christ were baptised into his death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walke in newnesse of life now in that he dyed he dyed unto s●n and they that are baptised with the one Baptisme they are