Christian Faith agreeable to the Word of God and amiently received in the Churches of Christ This their acknowledgment of its Antiquity and Scripture Purity must force any Scotch Presbyterian to grant that there is no more sin in saying the Apostles Creed publickly in the Church tho' there be no precept for saying it than there is in sprinkling water upon the Baptized Infant 6. Now laying all these considerations together that the purity in Doctrine which Presbyterian Synods confess and the purity of Publick Worship doing nothing which the Directory forbids could be as well retained in the Episcopal Church of Scotland these 27 years as in any Presbyterian Kirk or Meeting-House And that no Confession of any Reformed Church asserts the Divine Right of their Presbytery as before defined And that the Covevenant abjures not the Epis opacy likewise defin'd but on the contrary it was petiâ—ioned for by the English Covenanters I say laying all these things together the impartial Resolution of the present Question is this That between the year 1662 and the year 1689 Presbyterian Separatists were guilty of sinful Separation QUESTION V. Whether the Penal Laws against Scotch Presbyterians had any thing of Persecution in them 1. IT cannot be denied but there may be a party in a Kingdom of well meaning men truly Pious and Peaceable who yet for some Non-Conformity to the Church-Establishment may have too severe Laws Enacted against them by the Execution of which they may suffer for Conscience Sake so that the question here proposed plainly resolves into this Whether the Penal Laws against Scotch Presbyterians had any thing in them which cannot be justified in Christian Policy as necessary at those times in which they were Enacted for the Preservation of true Religion and Publick Peace in the Church and State Or whether they were the uncharitable effects of a peevish resentment inconsistent with good Nature or Christianity 2. Forasmuch as it had pleased Almighty God to compassionate the Troubles and Confusions of Scotland by returning King Charles the 2d to the exercise of that Royal Government under which and its excellent Constitution that Kingdom had for many Ages enjoyed so much Happiness Peace and Plenty The Noble Lord the Earl of Middleton being for his unshaken Loyalty honoured with his Majesties High Commission the Administration of the Oath of Allegiance to all the Members of Parliament was the first thing enacted by the States thereof 3. In Conscience of their Oaths of Allegiance to maintain and defend the Sovereign Power and Authority of the Kings Majesty and in consideration of the sad consequences that do accompany any encroachments upon or diminution thereof they from their senâ—e of humble Duty wholy applyed themselves in this Session to Establish such wholesome Laws as might by acknowledgment of his Majesties Prerogatives prove Salves to cure the State from the Diseases of Anarchy and Confusion which had before in the Usurpation seized her Vitals 4. But all this time of the Parliaments sole application to matters of State in this first Session the Presbyterian Clergy did not neglect to do all they could for a Parliamentary Confirmation of their Ecclesiastical Government 5. First the Synod of Edenburgh applyed themselves to a Person of great Interest with his Majesties Commissioner that his Grace might be intreated to procure from his Royal Master instructions to give them Presbytery without Bishops and they promised that they should themselves Enact never to meet without his Majesties Commissioner who should call and dissolve them at his pleasure Which Act of theirs they promised to get ratified by the first General Assembly 6. And when they found this Address of theirs to be without any success they sall upon another method and send a Clergyman whose name because of his Memory for his Piety and School Learning I shall not mention with this threatning that if the Estates in Parliament consirm'd not their Presbytery they should have the People let loose upon them 7. In that first Session of the Parliament already mentioned the King with the Advice of the Estates therein Convened had before forbid the renewing of the Solemn League and Covenant and by several Acts annulled all the pretended Conventions of the preceeding Rebellion but this imperious Address from the Ministers gave them a new sensible occasion to be perswaded that all the late Disorders and Exorbitances in the Church incroachments upon the Prerogative and Right of the Crown and Usurpations upon the Authority of Parliaments and the prejudice done to the Liberty of the Subject were the Natural Effects of the Invasion made upon the Episcopal Government and therefore upon deliberation of twenty Months they past an Act of its Restitution in the beginning of the second Session of that Parliament 8. This Act of Restitution of Bishops had this effect in reference to the Scottish Clergy Whoever among them were disappointed in their hopes of Preferment or were Lovers of Ease from the burthensome Service in the Church or else impatient to be made subordinate to those with whom they so lately had been upon a Level forsook their Ministry but they lived quietly at their respective habitations and in Personal Conformity to the Church Establisht Others again and of them not a few were sensible that the Established Episcopacy being obliged to exercise their Jurisdiction in a Synod with the ballance of Assisting Presbyters was the only Church Government which could be obtained of the State and which was not abjur'd in the Solemn League and therefore did keep their Charges and were willing to own Canonical Obedience to their Diocesan Bishops 9. This Example of Christian submission to Authority given by the generality of Presbyterian Ministers of both sorts gain'd the Laity of that Perswasion to a Pious and Sober observance of the Publick Worship so that at that time nothing was wanting to render that National Church happy without Protestant Dissenters but a competent number of Godly Learned and Grave Men to fill up the vacant places of those who for any of the Motives before mentioned had left their charges and till that deplorable want especially in the West the Separation from the regular Meetings for Divine Service was so little observable that before June 1663 the wisdom of that Nation had by no Act provided against it 10. It is true that the libellous Sermons and Books of some wicked Men which were written to justify the Murder of Charles the I. and the Banishment of Charles the II. the renovation of the Covenant the necessity of taking up Arms to promote its Ends and the sinfulness of complyance with the legal Settlement in Church or State did now alarm that Parliament 11. They considered how seditious and of how dangerous example and consequence Seperation from the rugular Church might prove for the future And therefore for security of the State from the confusions they had so lately smarted under they were forced to enact a Penal Law against it
Conscience And thereafter describing their Church Politie and Discipline calls it that Parity which can never stand with the Order of the Church nor the Peace of a Commonweal and well Ruled Monarchy Now when these are the Characters which the British Solomon gives Presbyterians and Presbytery and with a Protestation before God that he lies not Who can with any shadow of Reason or grain of Charity think that he either was so Unwise or Irreligious as by Act of Parliament to Establish Presbytery in the Church out of his own free choice and not out of some kind of Compulsion Nay when that Government and its Admirers have these Characters from him can any thinking man read over the Act of Restitution of Bishops An. 1606 and not believe that according to its Preamble the former Act An. 1592 impairing that first Estate of his Kingdom was purely owing to his young years and the unsetled Condition of Affairs How he was forced to it we may learn from his own Book wherein he says that God Almighty was pleased that the Blessed Reformation of Scotland should begin with Unordinate and Popular Tumults of men clogg'd with their own Passion and particular Respects that some fiery spirited Ministers got such a guiding of the People at that time of Confusion as finding the gust of Government sweet they began to fancy a Democracy to themselves that having been over well baited upon the wrack first of his Royal Grandmother and next of his own Mother and usurping the liberty of time in his own long Minority there never rose any Faction among Statesmen but they that were of that Factious part were careful to perswade and allure the Church-Men to espouse that quarrel as their own Wherefore in the year 1592 the pernicious Feuds between the Earls of Huntley and Murray and those Contests between the Assembly Men of the Clergy and the Lords of the Session Together with repeated Treasonable Plots carried on against his Royal Person by Bothwel and his Associates of the greatest Power and best Quality forced that young King to settle Presbytery in the Church that thereby he might bring off Presbyterians from joyning with the Acts of their Kirk to unsettle his Throne 3. Charles the First of ever Blessed Memory he pleads that in Charity he may be thought desirous to preserve the English Church Government by Bishops in its right Constitution as a Matter of Religion wherein both his Iudgment was justly satisfied that it hath of all others the fullest Scripture Grounds and also the constant practice of all Christian Churches And after he had written this Confession with Ink and then Sealed it with his Royal Blood who can imagine that his once giving some way to Presbytery in Scotland was his voluntary Act especially when his Majesties Commissioner the Earl of Traquair according to instructions gave in his Declaration to the contrary But here there is no need to declare the unhappy State of Affairs that forced him to it Since there are Volumes written concerning that Religious Rebellion which produced the most horrid Murder of the best King that ever was in these Kingdoms 4. Wherefore the Impartial Resolution to the question proposed is in short this that K. Iames the 6th and K. Charles I. setled Presbytery in the Kingdom of Scotland being constrained thereunto by troublesome and tumultuous times QUESTION III. Whether the Principles of Scottish Presbytery grant any Toleration to Dissenters 1. SINCE the solemn League and Covenant is the Canon and the Acts of the general Assembly the Comment of the Principles of Scotch Presbytery this Question in reference to their Toleration of Dissenters plainly resolves in this Whether Covenanters and Assembly-men according to their Principles are for Liberty of Conscience or against it 2. In the first Article of the Solemn League they swear That they shall sincerely really and constantly endeavour the preservation of the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland in Discipline and Government against their common Enemies 3. To preserve this part of the Reformation they swear again in the second Article against Popish Prelacy that is the Church Government by Arch-Bishops Bishops their Chancelors and Commissiaries Dean and Chapters Arch-Deacons and all other Ecclesiastical Officers depending on that Hierarchy Superstition and Heresie 4. What is meant by their Sincere Real and constant endeavour against their common Enemies King or Parliament for preserving that Reformation in Church-Government by extirpating such an Episcopacy is manifest in the last Article in which they swear to assist and defâ—nd all those that enter into the League and Covenant in the maintaining and persuing thereof and that they shall not suffer themselves directly or indirectly by whatsoever Combination Perswasion or Terror to be divided from their Blessed Union and Conjunction whether to make defection to the contrary part or to give themselves to a detestable indifferency or neutrality in the Cause which so much concerneth the Glory of God 5. But if after all these parts of the first second fourth and sixth Articles of the Covenant compared together any Seruple yet remains whether those Men who make Conscience of the Oath they have taken against any Indifferency or Neutrality in this Cause against Episcopacy which in Charity I believe they think the Cause of Christ can allow any Toleration to Dissenters let us in the next place consider some Acts of their General Assemblies which are the Infallible Interpreters of this Rule of their Faith about Ecclesiastical Polity Now although the Episcopal Clergy in the times before the year 1639 when they saw that destruction of the Church Government neither themselves appear'd in Tumults nor in Sermons or Books exhorted others to Tumultuate for to preserve it yet the Presbyterians were so far from taking pains to gain them unto a Conformity or in case they conform'd from letting them continue in their Cures as the Presbyterians were dealt with after the year 1662 that on the contrary they pass these following Acts. 6. The General Assembly ordaineth the subscription of the Covevant to all the Members of that Kirk and Kingdom 7. And whereas the former Act Aug. 1630. hadnot been obeyed it was again ordain'd by another Assembly That all Ministers make intimation of the said Act in their Kirks and thereafter proceed with the Censures of the Kirk against such as shall refuse to subscribe the Covenant and that exact account be taken of every Ministers diligence herein by their Presbyteries and Synods as they will answer to the General Assembly 8. Neither was this last Act inflicting Ecclesiastical Censures only to fall heavy upon those who were hinderers of their blessed Reformation whom they called Anticovenanters but in the Assembly it 's appointed that all Ministers take special notice when any secret disaffecters of the Covenant shall come within their Parishes that so soon as they shall know the same they may without delay cause warn them to appear
the State the Bishops consenting or even advising to those Laws is so far from inferring their having a Persecuting Spirit that on the contrary their doing otherwise had demonstrated them to be Enemies to the Commonwealth in all its concerns both Sacred and Civil 3. But withal it cannot but be acknowledged by any one that considers things calmly that none of those Bishops had it ever in their power to shew acts of Compassion towards deluded Separatists of whatever quality but he chearfully did it in relieving their Necessities or mitigating the execution of the Penalties by Law enjoin'd To make a proof of this by enumerating particular Acts of Charity which Presbyterians to this day alive will acknowledge would make the Resolution of this Question swell Four times bigger than all the Four Letters concerning the present Persecution of their Clergy therefore I shall forbear it 4. Now since Private Exhortations and Publick Sermons against Schism and recommending Union were all the appearances made by that Inferiour Clergy against Separatists and since all the Bishops in Parliament advis'd to no Penal Laws against Separation but such as were justified to the World by a Threefold Rebellion to be necessary in Policy as well as Religion for the common good of the State as well as Church I say after all the impartial Resolution of the present Question is this That the Episcopal Clergy in Scotland from the year 1662 to the year 1686 shewed nothing of the Spirit of Persecution against Presbyterians QUESTION VII Whether the Episcopal Church of Scotland were Compliers with the Designs for taking away the Penal Laws against the Papists 1. FOr the clearer resolution of this Question let us distinguish betwixt the Scottish Episcopal Church diffused through all the Laity of that Kingdom and that Church again under the more restrained notion of Representative comprehending the Clergy and let us likewise distinguish the Clergy unto the Lords Spiritual the Bishops and the subordinate Ministers and Pastors that so without partiality every one of these Societies of Protestants may be considered in reference to the matter of fact in question 2. And to begin with their Episcopal Church Diffusive The Two Estates of Barons great and less and Burgesses fully represent them in Parliamentary Assemblies the free and full Parliament convened An. 1685. consisted of such Men as had all of them sworn in the Test against the Covenant-Principles of Presbytery This Episcopal Parliament so resolutely own'd themselves to be averse from taking away these Legal Restraints upon Papists that the Vote about repealing those Penal Laws came never further than the Lords of the Articles All this the Episcopal Church Diffusive did with the apparent hazard of displeasing the Prince who was then so zealous for an extensive Liberty to Papists that for the disappointment which he found therein from that Parliament he chose to turn out of his Service some who had been the most faithful to him both in Civil and Military Affairs 3. Again for the Church Representative of Scotland the most malicious Enemies to the Episcopal Order asperse but two of fourteen Bishops for their complyance to these designs and it is as well known that two of the twelve were depriv'd 4. Then as for the inferior Clergy they were constantly faithful in Preaching against the Doctrines of the Roman Church notwithstanding the necessity they were under of reading the Law against LEESING MAKING every quarter of the year to affright them into silence they as often as they preached remembred in their Publick Prayers the persecuted Protestants in France notwithstanding all that was done to stifle and disparage the belief of the Persecution nay in none of their Synodical Sermons was the eminent danger from the busie Jesuites and other Papists forgotten nor in any Sermon the miserable Fopperies of Popery omitted even before his Majesties own Commissioner whether in the Cathedral Church at Edenborough or the Chappel Royal at Holy-Rood-House And in the Synod of April 1685 when the Bishops could not be with them by reason of the approaching Parliament they drew up their Remonstrances against Popery and like dutiful Sons and Zealous Protestants shewed their ready concurrence with the Bishops in that day of Tryal And it 's certain that to their Interest with the Country it is chiefly to be attributed that the Penal Laws against Papists were not then repealed 5. All this they did not with connivance of the Court but with apparent hazard of its heaviest displeasure executed in the censuring of some suspension of others and deposition of others who were all patient and chearful Confessors for that Holy Religion which they Professed and Taught in season and out of season Wherefore the impartial Resolution to the present Question is this That neither the Episcopal Church Diffusive nor Representative the Clergy whether Superior or Inferior were Compliers with the Designs for taking away the Penal Laws against Papists QUESTION VIII Whether the Scottish Presbyterians were Complyers with the Designs for taking away the Penal Laws against Papists IN satisfying this Question let us take the same method which we took to satisfie the former And to begin with the Laity of the Presbyterian Perswasion none of these were ignorant that the Convening of the Parliament in 1685 was to obtain of them a free admission of Papists into all places of Trust King Iames his Principles for Liberty of Conscience fill'd up all his Declarations for Indulgence within his Kingdoms none of the Presbyterians were unacquainted that he had sent an Ambassador to the Pope and that the Pope had his Nuncio at Whitehall none of them believed that the English Court in those circumstances would do any thing relating to Religion but what was agreeable to the measures of the Conclave none of them were ignorant that Papists call all Protestants Hereticks and that they damn all Hereticks to Hell and that King Iames oft declared that Presbyterians could not be Loyal and that he could never so much forget the Murder of his Royal Father of ever Blessed Memory as to trust them himself There was none of them but knew that every Zealous Papist believes the Roman Church Infallible and that Infallibility is inconsistent with Liberty of Conscience And therefore all the Presbyterian Laity were doubtless conscious that the Indulgence given to them by a Popish King assented unto by the Pope's Nuncio conformable to the Sense of the Roman Conclave could never be intended for the Ease of Protestant Dissenters but with design of making Papists share in the Blessing and that by this step Papists got into Power might apply it to the overthrow of the Reformation was doubtless obvious to every Presbyterian And therefore the acceptance of and thanksgiving for such an Indulgence was a gross complyance with the designs for Popery tending to the destruction of the Protestant Religion 2. All this Charge lies equally heavy upon the Ministers of that Perswasion with these aggravating circumstances that whereas
Counsellours and Iudges qualified by Law to Call and Dissolve Parliaments by himself and make Laws with their Advice to make Leagues and Conventions of the Subjects and to make Peace and War being all Prerogatives Royal of the Crown of Scotland asserted by Acts of Parliament unrepealed and all these being so notoriously Usurped upon by the Presbyterian Kirk the impartial Resolution of the Question is this That this Scottish Presbytery in the Church is Not Consistent with legal Monarchy in that Kingdom QUESTION X. Whether Scottish Presbytery be agreeable to the general Inclination of that People 1. AFter it hath been Demonstrated that the Principles of Scotch Presbytery are inconsistent with that Monarchy to say that Presbyterian Church-Government were agreeable to the mind of the Representatives of that People in the current Parliament might be constructed the capital Crime of LEISING MAKING to his Majesty against his Supreme Judicature And therefore this Question hath Reference to the People whom they represent and resolveth into this Whether the generality of the Scottish Nation would be glad to accept of Presbytery instead of the Episcopacy lately abolished 2. For the clearer resolution of the Question thus stated that Kingdom may be distinguished into the Laity and Clergy and the Laity distinguished into the Nobility Gentry and Commons And the Clergy again into the Bishops and subordinate Pastors after whom we may consider the Universities and Colledges of Learning 3. As for the Nobility Since that Honourable Estate of the Kingdom have by birth their Peerage in Parliament beside that it were Scandalum magnatum to say that they inclin'd to that Church Government which is not consistent with their Monarchy it were also a Scandalum Christianorum to say that those Men of Honour and Conscience who a very few excepted swore in the Test against all Fanatical Principles and renounced all Covenant-Obligations do incline to Presbytery And it 's well known that there never were in Scotland above a dozen of Peers so much Presbyterian as to refuse the Declaration against the Covenant-Principles the taking of which qualified them to sit in Parliament 4. Again for the Scottish Gentry it 's certain that not One of Forty in all Scotland but has taken the Test and Four years ago not Fifty in all Scotland out of the West did upon the Indulgence forsake their Churches to frequent Meeting-Houses And it cannot be supposed of any who have so generous Blood in their Veins that they should have so little Honour or Conscience as to Incline to that Church Government which usurps the Priviledge of entring into Covenants and Leagues and Convening in Assemblies for Treating Consulting and Determining in matters Ecclesiastical without the Royal Command or express License Which is a Practice contradicting the Promissory part of that Oath of the Test. 5. Then for the Commons it is certain that the generality of them as well as the richest and most sensible part live in Cities and Market Towns now all such Burgesses who were either worthy to be of the Common Council of the Towns they lived in or were able to follow any ingenuous Trade were obliged to take the Test before they could be qualified to elect Burgesses for Parliament and therefore according to their Sense and Conscience of an Oath they cannot but have an aversion against Presbytery yea their loud Cries and Rivers of Tears at the Farewel-Sermons of their Episcopal-Pastors for whom they would have pluckt out their right Eyes in all other parts of Scotland but the Western Shires heighteneth the probability that they are not in love with Presbytery 6. Then for the Clergy since they all have owned Episcopal Ordination sworn the Oaths of Allegiance Supremacy and the Test it cannot be suspected of any of them without a blemish of their Integrity or Constancy that they should be inclin'd to Presbyterian Government And if Twenty of a Thousand are Trimmers betwixt the Bishop and the Presbyterian Moderator yet sure those Twenty added to all the Field-Preachers and Meeting-housekeepers will not make up the number of a fifth part of the Episcopal Clergy No doubt they will say that what they want in the number they have in the worth of their Ministers But how far we may believe them in their setting value upon themselves may partly appear from the consideration of their late Commissioners to this Court for doubtless for the managing of their Cause they made choice of the fittest Men they had as for all other Abilities so especially for soundness in the Principles of Presbytery also of the greatest moderation and yet one of the Three Mr. W son before he got his First Wife was a malignant Lecturer under Bishops and so continued till his first disappointment of getting his Rectors Place made him desert his own with Indignation and that made him an enemy to Episcopacy Another of them Mr. K dy was before the restitution of Bishops deprived by his Presbyterian Brethren to use their own Words as near as I can remember as a Firebrand of Hell to inflame the Church on Earth The Third is so famous that I never heard of him till he came in this Character 7. Then in all the Four Universities it is certain that not Four Masters Head or Fellow incline to Presbytery and the Colledges of Justice and Physick at Edenborough were so averse from it that the generality of them were ready last Summer to take Arms in defence of their Episcopal Ministers Wherefore since neither the most part of the Scotch Noblemen Gentry or Commons Clergy Universities or Colleges are for Presbytery or in Honour or Conscience can be we conclude That Scottish Presbytery is not agreeable to the mind of that People FINIS The CONTENTS Quest. 1. Concerning the time of the first settlement of Presbytery in Scotland pag. â— Quest. 2. Concerning the manner of the settlement 〈◊〉 Presbytery in Scotland in the Reigns of K. Ja. Vâ— and Charles I. pag. â— Quest. 3. Concerning the Principles of Scottish Presbytery in reference to Dissenters pag. â— Quest. 4. Concerning the Separation of Scotch Presbyterians from the Episcopal Church since the Year 1662. p. â— Quest. 5. Concerning the Penal Laws against Scotch Presbyterians since the Year 1663. pag. â—â— Quest. 6. Concerning the Carriage of the Episcopal Clergy of Scotland towards Dissenters pag. â—â— Quest. 7. Concerning the Carriage of the Episcopal Church of Scotland in reference to the Penal Law against Papists pag. â—â— Quest. 8. Concerning the Carriage of Scotch Presbyterians in reference to the Penal Laws against Papists pag. 23. Quest. 9. Concerning the Principles of Scottish Presbytry in referenee to the power of the King pag. 25. Quest. 10. Concerning the mind of the people in Scotland in reference to the Presbyterian Government in the Church pag. 28. FINIS K. Iames 6. Parl. 1. Act. 2 3 8. Spotswood's 3 Book Spotswood Book 3. p. 152. Book 6. p. 289. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 2. p. â—8 Lond. Ed. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 2. Spotswood 6 Book K. Charles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 17 Chap. August 30. 1639. Aug 1639. Aug. 1643. May 1644. Aâ—g 164◠〈…〉 An. 1661. Aug. 1647. Feb. 1645. K. Ch. 2. Parl. 1. Act. 7 9 10. K. Ch. 2. Parl. 1. Sess. 2. Act. 1. K. Ch. 2. Parl. 1. Sess. 3. Act. 2. K. Ch. 2 Parl. 2. Ses. 2. Act. 4. K. Ch. 2. Parl. 2. Ses. 2. Act. 5. K. Ch. 2. Parl. 1. Act. 2. Aug. 1648. K. Ch. II. Part. 1. Act. 3. Iuly 1648. Iuly 28. 1648. Iune 3. 1644. K. Ch. 2. Part. 1. Act. 5. Feb. 12. 1645.