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
AN ACCOUNT OF THE METHODS AND MOTIVES Of the late UNION AND SUBMISSION to the ASSEMBLY Offered and Subscribed BY Mr. THOMAS LINING Mr. ALL EXANDER SHEILDS Mr. WILLIAM BOYD. Philip. 3.15.16 Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded And if in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you Nevertheless whereto we have already attained let us walk by the same rule let us mind the same thing Printed in the Year MDCXCI An Account of the Methods and Motives of the late Union and Submission to the Assembly offered and Subscribed by Mr. Thomas Lining Mr. Alexander Sheilds and Mr. William Boyd AMONG other Characters that Commend Presbyterial Government as the only Order and Plat form of Government which Christ Jesus the only Head and Lawgiver hath instituted in His Church above all other Forms introduced by the Inventions and Usurpations of Men This is one that it is the best Antidote for Schism that ever was found And where ever it is erected and exerted in its full Freedom and Power it brings all that acknowledge Subjection to it unto Vnion and Harmony keeps them in it and reduces them into it when it hath been broken The Impression of its Divine Authority being so Authentick that it enforces a Conviction upon all that have regard To the Law and the Testimony and extorts a Confession from all that have a Conscience that there is nothing in it when established in its due Dimensions which may not and must not be subjected unto nay the greatest of its Enemies even the Papists and Prelatists themselves thô they plead for many Additions are forced to acknowledge that there is little or nothing in Presbytery which is not of Divine Institution and which is not also admitted in their own Government thô depraved and corrupted by their audacious Additaments And a challenge may be given to all of them to instance any thing in its whole Nature Tenour Order Power Rules or Administrations that is not founded upon deduced from consonant unto the New Testament Oracles whereas there are several things in all other Forms of Government which the more consciencious a Man be he will readily be found the more hesitant to submit to The Eutaxie comely Order and Beauty of this Ordinance of Christ making the Church both Comely and Terrible and as Jerusalem compactly built having likewise an attractive Vertue to allure all its Subjects and Members to an amicable Amity and to constrain to Concord as well as an Awful Majesty thô no way Magisterial to restrain from divisive disorders And its course of Administration being in such a Gradation of Subordinations of Inferiour Judicatories to Superior that hardly can any Schism have footing ere it be crushed or rooting ere it be suppressed when the Government is in its Integrity Which was the reason rendered by K. Ja. the 6th why in Scotland there was so litle Heresie or Schism known Hence whatsoever the Patrons of the Prelatick Hierarchy Papists and Prelatists who in this Symbolize say to the contrary in favours of Episcopacy as if it were the best expedient to prevent and remove Schism And to the reproach of Presbytry as if it were a Government that did engender and encrease Division and Schismatick Courses It is so well known in Scotland that Prelacy is the Mother of Schism and Presbytry the Medicine of it that it needs not a laborious Probation The Probatum est of 130 years experience may serve instead of many Proofs Let it be instanced since the Reformation When was there ever Vnion when Prelacy was established When was there ever Schism when Presbytry was redintegrated When was there ever Concord when Presbytry declined When was there ever any thing but Discord when Prelacy was on its ascendant Where or when was there ever a Division which had not Prelacy or the Projects or Practises of those that inclined and declined to it for its cause and occasion rise and spring And how or when was it ever removed and remedied and Vnion restored but by and under Presbytry All the Divisions and Breaches of this Church from the Reformation to the year 1650 were occasioned by stated for and continued only under Prelacy And even that from thence to 1660 about the Publick Resolutions was stated upon and occasioned abetted and continued by the Projects and Practises of Malignants striving to ingyre themselves into places of Power and Trust on design to re-introduce Prelacy Which Division then commenced and at that time not cured because Presbyterial Government then declined and the Authority of General Assemblies was then enervated hath continued to this day as the wretched Rise of all our woful Rents which hath racked and almost ruined the Remnant that adhered to the Reformation who before that were as much feared and envied for Union as since that they have been flouted at and despised for Division and yet want nothing to make them as much admired and respected as before but to recover their former Union by returning to their former Order and repenting for their Deviations from it But since the year 1660 the Rise and Continuance of all our Divisions either with the professed Enemies of the Covenanted Reformation or among the professed Friends thereof hath only flowed from the Usurpations and Impositions of the Popish Prelatical and Malignant Party which some imposed upon complied with and others opposed And the only reason of their incureableness hitherto hath been the want of Presbyterial Government in its full Force and Freedom The happy Restitution whereof in the measure it hath already arrived to since the Arrival and Advancement of King William to the Government of these Nations under whose Patrociny and in whose fight the Lord hath extended this Mercy to give the Church this reviving to set up the House of our God and to repair the Desolations thereof and to give us a Wall in our Judah hath already reduced some who had continued in an abstracted and separate way for several years unto Union and Communion with the rest of their Brethren in the Ministry and hath engaged them into an orderly Submission to the Authority of this Church in all Her respective Judicatories Which may gave ground of hope that as this hath been the fruit of the first Assembly after the Restoration of Presbyterial Government So the re-din tegration thereof is its full Vigor and Authority and recovery of its former Faithfulness and Zeal in Administration in following Assemblies will through the Mercy of GOD heal all remaining Breaches But designing here to give a short Relation of our Methods in prosecuting and our Motives that induced us to endeavour this Vnion It will not be amiss for the better understanding of the same to hint a little more particularly at the Causes Means and Measures of our Divisions They all proceeded as was said before from the Usurpation and impositions of the Popish Prelatical and Malignant faction For when Prelacy came in
exhibited in open Assembly The short Paper was read with the Overtures of the Committee concerning the Large one The matter coming to a vote Some proposed the State of it thus Read the Large Paper or not Others thus Approve the Overtures concerning it or not It s commonly believed the Vote went so which hath stumbled many we being removed knew not how it was expressed but when some of us challenged it afterwards as being very illegal to vote a Paper should not be read for reasons giving a Character and Condemning the Paper when the Assembly knew not what was in the Paper a Reverend Minister and Member of the Assembly assured us that the vote did not go so but that it was proposed in the last place and Condescended to that it should be voted thus Approve the first Overture touching our being received and the other that the Paper should not be read or not without mentioning of the reasons The whole Assemblie voted Approve Nemine contradicente We being again called before them the Moderator exhorted us to Order and Vnion To which one of our number made a short Reply wishing the Venerable Assembly had thought it fit to read the Paper but seeing it could not be obtained such was our love to Peace and Vnion that we would submit but as to the reasons given for the not reading it because of the Mistakes and Reflections in it we were not conscious of any such thing And desiring that it might be on Record that such a Paper was exhibited which accordingly was Minuted There was only one more of us then present who after his Brother had concluded in a few words offered to speak and at greater length to enlarge his Reply to some things expressed by the Reverend Moderator in his Exhortation But it seems that some of the Assembly had a suspition that possibly he might in his accustomed fervor bring forth something that might have been irritating which yet he was so far from designing that he had resolved and premeditate to say nothing but what might corroborate justifie the Vnion and to shew what were his Inducements to it and how consistent it was with his former Principles and Practises For when he offered to speak the Moderator and others also requested him to forbear Whereunto he yeilded not at all suspecting or foreseing that any would stumble at this ordinary piece of Discretion at which we understand since that some Friends have been offended interpreting this Silence to have been a receeding from our Testimony But Truly as he had intended not to have been silent and if he had thought this could have been stumbling to any would rather have ventured upon the censure of his Discourse then to be so misconstructed for his silence So considering the Assemblies reiterate urging him to forbear by way of Request not of Command and how necessarie Condescention is in these Circumstantials of Vnion what his Brother also had said before him and how there was no other Testimony ever designed by us but that in the Larger Paper exhibited in write he did not think he was called to contend for speaking any more at that time This is the true short and yet full Narrative of the whole Transaction which we thought needful to publish in all the particulars of it to discover the falshood of the various misreports industriously spread of it by those that envy the Vnion of Presbyterians reflecting upon the Assembly as well as reproaching us and imposing upon the People who are informed sometimes that the Assembly carried very imperiously in imposing upon us as the condition of our being received to confess on our knees many Errors and Extravagances in witnessing against these Courses we called Corruptions and to condemn and renounce all our Testimonies And that we resiled and receded from every point for which we could contend with a great deal of clamor on the Hills but had nothing to say when we came before the Assembly And sometimes again that we carried very insolently before them and in our Paper upbraided the whole Assembly And yet others interpret our condescending to the Assemblies disposing of the Paper as abovesaid to be a betraying and burying of it and the Testimony that 's in it against the sins of the Land To confute all which Calumnies and to submit our Papers to the censure of all that will take notice of them as we have offered them to the censure of the Church Representative we shall here subjoin the Papers themselves The SHORT PAPER To the Moderator and Remanent Members of the General Assembly of this CHVRCH WIth the greatest earnestness of longing we have desired and yet with a patience perhaps to excess we have waited for an Opportunity to bring our unhappy Differences of which all Parties concerned are wearie to a happy and holy close And for this end to have access to apply our selves to a full and free General Assembly of this Church invested with Authority and Power in foro Divino Humano to determine and cognose upon them The want of which an Assembly constitute in that Vigor to which through the Mercy of GOD this Venerable National Synod hath arrived hath been the great let and impediment of our composing the said Differences in a way wherein not only we but all of the same Sentiments would Acquiesce Now having obtained this much longed and long prayed for Priviledge We cannot forbear any longer humbly to Accost and Address this Venerable Assembly with a free and ingenuous Representation of our Minds and Desires The scope of which is to Represent those things which have been most stumbling to us for the Exoneration of our Consciences And to declare our Design after we have exhibited our Testimony against these Courses which we understand to have been Corruptions and Defections in this Church and laid it down at the Assemblies feet to be disposed of as their wisdom shall think fit That we shall in all required Submission subject our Selves our Lives and Doctrine to the Cognizance of the Judicatories of this Church and shall equally oppose Schism and Defection in any Capacity that we shall be found capable of And here by these Presents we bind and obliege our Selves faithfully to live in Vnion and Communion intire subjection and due Obedience in the LORD to the Authority of this Church in her Respective Judicatories As witness our hands at Edinburgh Tho. Lining Al. Sheilds Will. Boyd The LARGER PAPER To the Moderator and Remanent Members of the General Assembly now Conveened at EDINBURGH The Humble Proposals of Mr. Thomas Lining Mr. Alexander Sheilds and Mr. William Boyd IF our Eye could sutably affect our Hearts this day Right Reverend we might find much matter both of Rejoycing and Mourning in the wounderful Commencement and Advancement of this Work of Reformation As at the Jews return from Babylon to Jerusalem the Priests and Levites and all the People shouted with a great shout when they praised
Land of many weights and woes whereof it is weary you shall send to all the Neighbouring Churches a Pattern transmit to the Posterity an Example and Erect to all Ages a Monument of self-denying Zeal and Wisdom a work to be paralelled with the Glories of former times If herein our hopes shall fail us we shall not know whether to wish we had died with our Brethren by the Enemies hand and had never seen this Reviving in our Bondage for it will be a death to us and not a reviving if there be not a returning together to the LORD searching and trying and discovering the iniquities of our wayes But however we intend not to separat from the Church but to Union and Communion in Truth and Duty with all the Ministers and Members of this Church that do and in so far as they do follow the Institutions of Christ and to approve our selves GOD assisting as much for Peace and Concord as ever we were suspected to be Men of divisive Principles hoping it shall appear we are seeking where He feedeth and where He makes His Flock to rest at noon and are not as such who turn aside by the flocks of his Companions but going forth by the footsteps of the Flocks besides the Shepherds Tents Yet with this protested Dissent from and Testimony against all the above mentioned corruptions defections and offensive Courses which oblieged us to stand at a distance in times of Deformation that our present joyning in these circumstances when these are removed may not infer or be interpreted an Approving of what we formerly Condemned and be free from all partaking in these Defections by Consent Connivance Complyance or Communion therein For which we bumbly Supplicate That these our Humble Proposals may be Recorded in the Books of Assembly Tho. Lining Al. Sheilds Will. Boyd The Act of Assemblie hereanent which the Reverend Ministers that were appointed to draw it were Pleased first to let us see and upon our objecting against some Expressions of the first Draught did Condescend to amend it is here annexed Edinburgh 25. Octob. 1690. Ante Merid. Sess 9. WHereas Mr. Thomas Lining Mr. Allexander Sheilds and Mr. Wil-Boyd have presented to this Assembly two Papers One containing the expressions of their Purpose and Promise of being subject to the Authority of this Church as formerly Constituted and now Restored in its several Judicatories The other offered for the exoneration of their Consciences Which Paper containing their Submission and Subjection did after the exhibition of the other to the Assembly become binding upon them according to the promise therein made Like as after that other and longer Paper had been read before the Committee of Overtures it was exhibite to and Received by the Assembly together with the Reasons from the said Committee why it should not be publickly read in full Assembly Which Reasons being duely considered And the said other Paper of Submission and Subjection publickly Read and Judicially owned by the forenamed Persons in presence of the Assembly The Assembly did conclude by one single Vote that the foresaid longer Paper should not be read And that the above named Persons should be Received into the fellowship of this Church on the terms of Submission and Subjection contained in the said Paper And after passing of the said Vote and that they were gravely Admonished by the Moderator to walk Orderly in time coming in opposition to all Schisme Division it was Declared to them by the Moderator in the name of the Assembly that the Assembly did receive them into the Fellowship of this Church to enjoy the Priviledges thereof and perform the Duties therein whereof they are or shall be found Capable Whereupon and at their Desire it was Ordained that the Act should be made and an Extract thereof given to them in good Forme Extracted out of the Records of the Assembly JO. SPALDING Cls. Syn. Gen. From which Act we shall only take notice of two things One is That our Paper of Proposals was neither refused or rejected but Received by the Assembly Nor was it canvassed or cognosced upon because judged inconvenient to be Read Nor was it condemned without Cognizance or Decision by the Character given of it in the Overtures since it is plain the Vote of the Assembly was not whether the Reasons or Character given in the Overtures should be approven or not But it was concluded by one single Vote only That the foresaid longer Paper should not be Read And that the abovenamed Persons should be Received c. As the Act Declares There is a great Difference betwixt the Voting that it should not be Read and Voting that it should not be Read for these Reasons of the Overtures A second is That it appears we are received into the Communion of this Church upon no Terms condemnatory of or contradictory unto our former Testimony But only on the Terms of Submission and Subjection contained in the Shorter Paper Which shorter Paper did introduce our Testimony and oblieged us to Submission and Subjection after the Exhibition of it And therefore the Submission could not be contrary to it But now to conclude with a hint at our Motives that induced us to this Vnion which may be as variously misconstructed and misrepresented as our design was in applying to the Assembly for it and as the manner and effect of that application was the mistakes whereof are touched above We can with some singleness of Heart say as far as Infirmity or Corruption may allow that we were not induced to it from any Carnal motive or for any selfish end It was not any lucrative prospect of outward Profits or Emoluments in Settlements or Anxiety for provision that prompted us to it Neither was it the alluring Pleasures of Peace and Ease and the expectation of better Accomodations then we could have in an unsetled Lot or Impatience under the inconveniencies thereof that persuaded us to it Nor was it the hope of airy honour and popular Applause which we had in greater measure and with greater noise as we stood before and which we could not well expect by Svbmission but rather the contrare Thô to get the honour of being Peaceable and Faithful and the Blessing of Peace-makers was truely the matter of our Ambition Nor was it any provocation from or dissatisfaction with that part of the Lords People with whom we had sweet fellowship that tempted us to joyn with these from whom they and we were disjoyned before Nor was it any Levity of Mind Inconstancy of Judgement or change of Principles that moved us to this Vnion and Submission For thô there had been such a change of Thoughts about these thornie Points upon which our Differences and Divisions were stated yet as in that case we who require such plainness of Confession in others could not but think our selves obliged to declare such a Change in some open Recantation So it would not have been our shame to Confess our Errors
by force and fraud and by the yeeldings of these that should have ventured their All in withstanding its Introduction the Introducers of it were enabled and encouraged at their own leasure and pleasure without control to break down the Carved work of our Reformation and the Walls and Hedges and Legal Bul warks of Righteous Laws and Solemn Covenants that fenced it with the Axe of an Act Rescissory Some gave all the Countenance and Submission then required by Law to the Intrusion of Prelats and their Curats by frequenting their Churches Others thought it their duty to stand at a distance and venture upon the hazard of disobedience in a Testimony against that sin When again they advanced the blasphemous Supremacy to its hight exauctorating Christ Jesus of being only Head King and Lawgiver to His Church and declaring it to be a mortal Kings inherent right to be Co-partner with Christ in that His incommunicable Prerogative And by the usurped Power thereof presuming they had now totally finally overcome Christs Ministers and intending to flatter whom they could not hector out of their duty of contending against their Usurpations Obtruded a sort of a Liberty to some of them to Preach under the Notion of an Indulgence but such as flowed from stood upon and was modified by the Supremacy Some embraced this others opposed and witnessed against it Lastly when by wicked Oaths Tests and Bonds imposed to debauch Consciences which some inclined to comply with or connive at Others thought it necessary to testify against a passage was prepared for the introduction of Popery And a gap was opened for it by the late Popish Toleration Some thought it fit to purchase the opportunity and Liberty of Preaching by addressing for and embracing of it Others durst not have any thing to do with it Nor forbear a Testimony against it These Usurpations with the defections flowing therefrom in Complyance therewith while they stood as stumbling blocks and snares and as we conceived as Idoles of jealousie in the entry of the House of the Lord So that we thought we could not have access unto the Sanctuary without being interprered to give some respect or acknowledgement or subjection directly or indirectly to those Idols and Incroachments so dishonourable to the LORD and offensive to our Consciences did scar and deter us from Communion with many Godly Reverend and Honoured Ministers of this Church so Indulged and Tolerated in these Circumstances and obliged us to continue our Testimony against them in an abstracted way when the Church was in that broken state deprived of the remedy of Church Judicatories whereunto we might apply in which case we alwayes held there should be no separation without previous Application to them and before their Judicial Sentence And ween the case was so circumstantiate that we judged their Ministry in the then exercise thereof at that time in the place where they Preached under the Authority of the Indulgence and Toleration could not be countenanced or concurred with by us without participating of the guilt of submitting to and symbolizing with Mens sinful Encroachments Yet we never owned a Positive or Active Total or Stated Separation from the Church of Scotland Or the Ministry thereof Nor did we form separate Churches under another Government or Ministry distinct from or independent upon the Presbyterial Church of Scotland thô with this we were branded Only for the time we avouched a Negative Passive Conditional Abstraction from these Ministers in the circumstances above specified Not because only we thought these were the Personal Sins of the Ministers for we alwayes declared our abhorrrance of that notion so deservedly exploded by the learned Divines of this Church that the Personal Sins of Fellow Worshippers Ministers or Professors did pollute the Ordinances or made Communion with them therein sinful but because we had reason to fear they should be our Sins as well as theirs if as they had given the submission to these foresaid Usurpations required of them by Law so we should give the submission to them required of us by Law by joyning This was the case and cause of our Divisions until the Lord was pleased in our greatest extremity by sending over King William as a renowned Instrument in His Hand to rescue us from Popery and Slavery to remember this broken and bruised Church and to give us a reviving in our Bondage with a high Hand and in a surprizing manner and to remove our Yokes under which we groaned in a measure surpassing our expectations By which Emergencies of Providence in such a manner removing causes of our Divisions we could not but encourage our selves in the Hope that the effects should also be in time removed And that He that healed our bruises from the yokes of long oppressing Enemies might also lend His Hand and Help to heal our Breaches of Divisions with our dissentient Friends and Brethren which we expected to obtain if ever Presbyterian Government and Ecclesiastick Assemblies in that beautiful Order should be established again in this Land which we longed for even for the recovery of Vnion as well as for other Advantages In this Encouragement and Expectation after some litle endeavours used in the opportunity of that Interregnum to demolish and destroy the Popish Monuments of Idolatry and to purge the Churches of the West-Country of the Episcopal Curats we emitted an Apology at Douglas The Tenour whereof here follows An Apology of the General Meeting of the United Societies of some Presbyterians Dissenting from and Protesting against the Toleration for their Rising and Continuing in Armes in the present Juncture THE various Clamours and Constructions made of our Rising in Armes at the time and the reproaches of Disorders fastned thereupon thô in it self innocent and never intended by us for the offence of any but such as all Zealous Protestants and good Patriots will owne to be Enemies of GOD and of all Mankind and such as we are under indispensible obligations in our Places and Stations to endeavour to suppress and extirpate Yet because it is our present unhappiness to have all our Actions misconstrued and censured under the most odious and invidious Character that the Malice of some can put upon them Do seem to require for the vindication of our Testimony for the Cause of Christ Exoneration of our selves and removing any Jealousies or Suspicions which through misinformation or prejudice any may conceive of us That before we dismiss We Declare to all concerned That it is not by any Contrivance of ours that we have either gathered or continued in defensive Armes hitherto but have been drawn and called to it by a special surprise of astonishing Providence For thô indeed in the sense of the indispensible and indisputable necessity and expediency of giving some active Testimony against Popery and of the duty of throwing down the Monuments of Idolatry formerly erected and lately more and more encouraged under the Patrociny Protection of this Popish
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
agreement to apply to the Assembly and that we should give in Papers to them We told them that we had a mind after exhibition of our Testimony protesting against the Defections that offended us to Submit and Unite per-swaded them to do the like But they were resolute to suspend offering Submission and Union untill they should understand what notice the Assembly would take and what use they would make of our Papers Upon this we concluded to give in our Papers and agreed to set a part a day before the sitting of the Assembly to pray for Counsel and Conduct from the Lord in prosecution of this affair Before this time thô we had in several places and at several times given a Specimen of our inclinableness to Vnion and intense and impatient desire of Communion with our Brethren in joyning with some both in the North and South to shew that we did not scruple now to incorporate with them when the grounds of Separation were taken away Yet hitherto we suspended Submission and fixed Union until the Metting of the General Assembly both because this was a matter proper for an Assembly the differences concerned the whole Church and could only be cognosced upon and composed by an Assembly and all the parties concerned in them dispersed through a great part of the Church could apply or answer to no Judicatory inferiour to an Assembly representing the whole Therefore we thought it proper and expedient to depositate our Testimony there and so take occasion to make our Vnion as publick as our division was And indeed our intention to Address the Assembly was almost as universally known at least through the West and South as our differences were thô our design in the Address was unknown to many For both in travelling through the Countrey towards Edinburgh and when we came there we found very many and multifarious opinions and reports of it Some of a Malignant temper telling that we were come to fire the Assembly and create confusion among them Others that we had a mind to give in Papers declining their Authority and protesting against their Constitution and Proceedings Some alleaging litle less then we had got Gold from the Jacobites and Prelatists to sow discord among them Others expressing their wishes and hopes that for our former Practises and present Purposes and Papers they should see us well paid home and made to confess on our knees our scandalous Schism and to subject to the severity of Censure when we had done all Yea even among the best affected towards us both Ministers and others whom we consulted in the Affair we found thô they had Charity for the design of the Workers yet they had a great jealousie of the end of the work it self The Assembly having sat several Sessions our Paper and the purpose of it was motioned in the Committee of Overtures before it was fully prepared And the Motion favourably intertained by that Reverend Committee they were pleased to appoint a Subcommittie of their Number to see it and confer with us about the contents of it who after hearing it read did object little against the matter of it but did urge the smoothing of it and that we should take out some particulars that might irritate and offend some that would look upon themselves as injuriously reflected upon by them which might provoke heats and stop all other business whence the Church might sustain great disadvantages and our selves have litle peace We answered we could not yeeld to the expunging of any particulars in it which were matters of offence and understood by us to be Corruptions which our purpose was to witness against without any design to irritate any by Reflections And if any should be provoked to raise heats we should be sorry for it but we could not foresee how any could rise to that hight as to brake the Assemblyes Harmony since we were resolved to seek concord and not Contention And what ever they should do with the paper if we might once have access to table it our Contention would be at an end for then our Testimony would be given in and lye at their door to be considered as they should think fit which would exoner our Conscience and declare to them as the Representatives of the Church that our Communion with the Church at present could not infer an approving of what we condemned before nor a condemning of what we approved before These things being favourably represented to the Cōmittee of Overtures they added some Reverend Brethren to the Subcommittee to whom it was read a second time They told us they feared it would not be well received and that it might have bad effects if it should be read but desired to know further what we resolved to do if it should be rejected We answered we would still adhere to it and could not change our Sentiments about the things contained therein Yet because the things in Controversy testified against in the paper were not in the present Constitution of the Church and therefore our Submission at present could not be looked upon to be an Homologation of the things therein witnessed against Therefore if we be allowed to exhibite our Paper to this venerable Assembly we would stand to the Vnion and Submission therein offered let them dispose of it as they will They further desired there might be a short Paper drawn to introduce the larger shewing the scope of it and out design in it which we did and therein made an offer and promise of Union and Submission after the Exhibition of our foresaid Testimony These Papers both larger and shorter being presented to the Committee of Overtures After some Debate they condescended to hear both Read which done after our removal a little The Moderator told us the Opinion of the Committee That they were sensible the large paper contained many sad Truths in it but upon several weighty Considerations did judge it in convenient to present it to the Assembly because of some Mistakes Reflections and Vnseasonable and Vnpracticable Overtures it it To this we could accord but urged the giving of it in whereupon it was recommitted to the Subcommittee with an addition of more Members instructed to labour to perswade us to sist and move no more in it Their Endeavours and Arguments not prevailing with us we were again called before the Committee of Overtures And pressed to condescend and rest content that the Papers were exhibite to them and read before them We answered we could not except the Reverend Committee would assume to themselves or get devolved upon them the power of the Assembly to cognosce on the matter then we would sist Otherwise our business was with the Assembly and therefore we pleaded that the Papers might be tabled before them Hereupon they Condescended to transmit them with Overtures prepared concerning them that we should be received that the Large Paper should not be read for several reasons c. Next day both Papers were
Government as it stood Reformed and Covenanted to be preserved Nor did we gather or set up formed separate Churches or Societies under another Government or Ministrie distinct from and independent upon the Presbyterial Church of Scotland nor did we ever maintain but alwayes abhorred that Sectarian notion that the Personal Sins and Scandalls of Fellow-worshippers Ministers or Professors did pollute the Ordinances nor did we ever owne but alwayes disowned a positive or active total or stated Separation from all the Ministry or from any for any Offence in any case where either the Offence could be then legally removed or was in it self a thing to be condescended upon or forborn or did not hazard our Involvement in the sin of it And only for the time owned a Negative Passive and Conditional Abstraction from some refusing to follow the Backsliding part of the Ministry in their courses of Defection and choosing to abide by that Part that persevered in their Integrity But now that Tyranny that chased us from one another being through Mercy removed and these Snares and Stumbling-blocks which scared us from Communion with many being so far taken out of the way that they cease to be Tentations involving us in sin and bones of Contention engaging us in continual janglings about them Church Judicatories being now in capacity to give some remedy to these Evils since Providence also hath so far altered the case and matter of our Contendings for the Faith delivered to the Saints that it calls all dissentient Parties among Presbyterians to concenter in one common Testimony for the common Reformation against the common Adversaries We hope this much desired and long looked for Union is and shall be more accessable and attainable Therefore to the end that this happy and desireable Union may be Holy and Comfortable in a way that may procure and secure our Union and Communion with the LORD And as the famous Voetius sayes Ut nihil de veritate professione nostra remittamus atque ad eo à perfectione ad quam cum DEO pervenimus non relabamur ad imperfectionem Considering in all the Periods of this Church from her first Reformation a Witness hath never been wanting against the same or equivalent Corruptions that have offended us And no method can be more adapted for recovering and restoring Union than that which was used for preserving it And that having aimed hitherto to offer keep up our Mite of a Testimony thô weak insignificant against the same if now under the convictions of its remaining righteousness we shall pass from it so seem to condemn what we approved before approve what we condemned before it will leave an indeleble reproach not only on our selves but on our Contendings and Sufferings Because likewise in a Conference with some Reverend Brethren and Members of this Assembly about these things it was proposed and conceded as an expedient for easing our Consciences that we should have liberty to remonstrate and represent to the Assembly what was offensive to us We earnestly desire Right Reverend you would be pleased to condescend to us in some things that we humbly conceive are very needful just to be sought and easie to be granted We know and are confident your Zeal for Truth and Peace will suggest the same means and measures for obtaining this end and will urge you to take notice of the same things we desire without our advertisement Nor do we take upon us to preseribe the Methods Terms or Conditions necessary for Composing these unhappy Differences and restoring the holy and happy Union in the Lord But we think the Word and Works of God this day points at these which we crave leave in the Bowels of Christ to remonstrate unto your serious Consideration That to the end the causes of our Divisions the Anger of the Lord as the Holy Cause and our Mutual offences as the sinful Cause May be removed that the effect may cease a Mutual impartial and accurate search and trial may be made into our wayes to find out and remember from whence we are fallen and discover our manifold and manifest defections from the right wayes of the Lord That the great wrongs and indignities done to our Great Head and King by Enemies Encroachments on his Prerogatives and his Kingdoms Liberties and our Complyances therewith on the one hand and one the other may not be past in oblivion but diligently inquired into and what accession to them or Participation with them all of us have been involved in these 30. years bygone Particularly that it be laid to Heart what Indignity to the Lord Jesus and Injury to his Church was done by the introduction of abjured Diocesan and Erastian Prelacy and the several degrees of Complyance therewith As Ministers leaving their Pastoral Charge at the Command of the Magistrate and laying aside the Exercise of their Ministrie giving way unto and not testifying against the Intrusions of Prelatick Curats Particularly owning submitting to their Ministry receiving ordinances dispensed by them and by Counsel and Example Encouraging others to do the like Which we cannot but Plead and Protest against as sinful and Scandalous 1. Because they were and are inanifest Intruders not entering in at the door in the way and order of Christ not having yea despising and renouncing a Call from the People and Ordination by the Presbytrie and having no other external Call Authority or Right to officiate in this Church as its proper Pastors but the Collation of Bishops and Presentation of Patrons who are none of Christs Officers and forefaulting and foregoing any other Right that any of them formerly could pretend to by palpable defection to the Enemies of this Church 2. Because both in Principle and Profession and in the way af their Entry unto their Pastoral Charge they were and are Erastians deriving their Power from and subjecting it in its exercise to another Head then Christ the Magistrats Supremacy by which only they were Authorized without Christs warrant or the Churches consent 3. Because they were and are Schismaticks who caused Divisions and Offences contrary to the Doctrine of this Church breaking her Union and Order going out themselves from the fellowship of this Church and leading People away from her vowed Reformation yea who violently thrust out and persecuted her faithful Pastors and Children for adhering to that Reformation which they designed to raze and ruine 4. Because they were and are perjured Covenant breakers avowedly disowning our Covenants and stated in opposition to that Reformation which is therein sworn to be maintained 5. Because they were are in several Points Erroneous in their Doctrine many of them tainted with the Leaven of Popery Arminianism and Socinianism all of them Heteradox in the point of the Magistrates power in Church matters in the matter of Oaths and in condemning the Work of our Reformation and Covenants seducing thereby their Hearers and both positively by these Doctrines
Our Sentiments are shallow and changeable as other Mens having the imperfection of Mutability as well as Fallibility common to all in this side of time nevertheless it was not any change of Sentiments but only change of providential Circumstances that made us now submit and not before For as we adhere to our Testimony exhibited to the Venerable Assembly and to the substance of all our former Testimouies so we know no Truth or Duty that ever we asserted or contended for but what we think we could Seal with our Blood if we were called to it And we know no Corruption Defection or Sin that ever we witnessed against or withdrew from but what we would yet contend against and withdraw from in the same manner if we were in the same Circumstances and yet think our selves obliged to contend and witness against but not in a divided way but in a way of Order and Vnion according to the Apostles way of the Spirits of the Prophets being subject to the Prophets Our True and Sincere Motives then inducing us to Vnion and Submission which in these Circumstances had such force on our Consciences that we durst not resist for a World were these I. It was ever our Judgement that Vnion and Communion is necessary among the People of GOD when ever it can be attained or intertained without Sin In that Case at all times Opinionum varietas opinantium Vnitas may well consist Which Truth is founded upon Scripture Precepts Promises and Precedents Commanding Confirming and Commending the Duties of mutual Love Reconciliation Peace Union and Communion among the People of GOD even when there were several Dissentions Faintings Faillings Offences Corruptions and Defections among them in several circumstances nowayes involving the Joyners in sin But so it is in the present circumstances We may have such Union and Communion without partaking of their guilt with whom we joyn For the sins and scandals that scarred us from this benefite in times of defection and division are so far happily removed and antiquated that they are neither established in the Constitution of the Church nor ratified and approven in Acts of Assembly nor persisted in by present Administrations nor any way affecting Ministerial Exercises nor do they continue to be our Snares and Stumbling-blocks either to involve us in the guilt of them or to keep us still jangling about them and consequently must cease to be grounds of Separation There is now no part of the Presbyterian Ministry that in Ministerial Exercises is hampered with or has any dependence on Exotick Erastian Usurpations None of their Meetings do now hold their Freedom from nor are modified by the Supremacy or any encroaching power And therefore in our present Communion we keep our selves free of all Participation with these Corruptions now removed And our Joyning can not so much as be interpreted a Submitting to or Complying with any Defection directly or indirectly It s true the guilt of these Defections remains as long as they are not acknowledged but the establishment of them the practise of them the present offence and tentation of them does not remain It remains to be their guilt that will not acknowledge them and they that are convinced of the guilt of them and will not confess so far as they are convinced from searching the Scriptures and their own Conciences shew themselves no Friends to the Churches peace But if because they will not hear our Soul shall weep in secret places as we are called we do not omit a witness against these Defections the want of that Confession through want of Conviction of the sinfulness of these Courses offending us can neither be a Sin to us nor a ground of Separation being only a difference of judgement which we alwayes disclaimed to be a ground of withdrawing 2 It was alwayes our Judgement and Intention that when ever Presbyterial Government in its Courts Power Order and Freedom were established we should submit to it Nay it was not only our resolution but our Engagement at the Renewing of the Covenants that we should not Separate From any part of the Communion of the true Reformed Covenanted Church of Scotland holding purely and intirely the Doctoine Worship Discipline and Government of the same in Principle and Exercise according to the Rules of Christ and standing Acts and Constitutions of this Churth And that then we should study to maintain Vnion and Communion in Truth and Duty with all the Ministers and Members of this Church that do And in so far as they do follow the Institutions of Christ And that when they return unto and fix their ground on the old established Foundations according to the Word of God Constitutions of this Church settled before the Covenanted Reformation stopped we should then embrace and maintaine Union and Communion with them and Submission to them in the LORD But so it is that all the Ordinances of Christ are established in Purity and Freedom The Doctrine is asserted in the Confession of Faith now ratified in Parliament and several controverted Truths formerly obscured by Calumnies are now victoriously vindicated The Worship now not Tolerated but Established and Authorized and Administred in Purity Plenty and Peace and the Lights of the Church are no more hide under Beds or Bushells but set and shinning on the Candlestick to give light to all that are in the House And the Discipline and Government Presbyterial is now restored to what it was anno 1592. Wherefore we must needs return to our Ancient Union Communion and Order when the Church is now returned to the enjoyment and establishment of her Ancient Constitutions when the Prelatick Erastian Antichristian and Tyrannical Usurpations on the Churches Rights and the Defections and Corruptions flowing therefrom and introduced thereby are removed And the Churches intrinsick Power and Capacity to remove legally all remaining Offences is restored and redintegrated we could not but submit our selves pay that deference to Ecclesiastick Judicatories fenced in the Name of our only Head and King Jesus Christ as to subject our selves to them We never owned a division from the Church but only from a party carrying on defection in a broken and declining State of the Church and therefore when the Church is not now in that State but recovering her freedom from these breaches backslidings we could not now maintain such a division As long as they were involved in and promoting courses of Deformation we stood aloof but now when they are promoting Reformation in asserting the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government and opposing Popery Prelacy Erastianism Sectarianism and what is contrare to sound Doctrine and the power of Godliness we could not but joyn with them It s true several Corruptions yet remain unreformed as some of the former are not condemned But as all those Corruptions on which we founded our Separation because of the hazard of our partaking of the guilt of them are removed So we could not suspend our