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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A35430 Some questions resolved concerning Episcopal and Presbyterian government in Scotland Cunningham, Alexander.; Cunningham, Gabriel. 1690 (1690) Wing C7592; ESTC R11553 19,224 36

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importing That every Person having an Inheritance should pay the fourth part of his yearly Estate every Yeoman Tenant or Farmer the fourth part of his free moveables after the payment of their Dues to their Master and that every Burgess should lose all the Priviledges within the Borough and the fourth part of his moveables 12. But notwithstanding this Penal Law the contagion of those Books and Sermons which poisoned so many with Principles of Separation from the established Church produced the renovation of the Covenant contrary to the Authority of the King and Parliament and that again was followed by an open Rebellion of the Western parts known by the name of Pentlin Hills in the Year 1666 defeated by the King's Army so that they were out of capacity of resisting However the King in his Royal Clemency at the Address of some States-men gave them indulgence to convene in Meeting-Houses for Divine Worship and they made this good use of his Mercy as that by them the incumbent Ministers whose Characters would have secured them any where but in the West of Scotland had their Houses in the night time invaded their Persons assaulted wounded and pursued for their Lives Then indeed that merciful Prince with advice of his Estates in Parliament having a just indignation of such horrid and unchristian Villanies thought fit to brand the same with a signal mark of displeasure And this Act of the Date Aug. 1670. is the first that punisheth with Death and confiscation of Goods 13. It is true indeed the King and his Estates of Parliament filled with indignation at the scandalous sin which procured this former Penal Law and understanding from thence that the specious pretences of Religion were altogether false and taken up by seditious Persons They immediately pass'd another Act against Conventicles the Preamble of which last Act declares That such Meetings were the ordinary Seminaries of Rebellion as well as Separation that they tended to the alienating the Hearts of the Subjects from their Duty and Obedience they owe to his Majesty and the Publick Laws and by consequence to the reproach of the Authority of the King and Parliament as well as the prejudice of Gods publick Worship and the scandal of the Reformed Rel●gion And therefore they were obliged in reason of State as well as for the Peace of the Church to make the Penalty of this Law fall heavy upon the Transgressors thereof 14 And the Penalties therein contained as nigh as I can value Scottish Mony by the current Coin in England are these following That every Minister preaching at a Conventicle should be imprisoned till he find surety for 275 l. that he should not do the like thereafter or else oblige himself by Bond to remove out of the Kingdom and never to return without his Majesties leave that every one of any Inheritance should pay the fourth part of his yearly Estate that every Servant should pay the fourth part of his yearly Wages that every Farmer should pay Forty Shillings and every Tenant under them Twenty 12. Further His Majesty understanding that divers disaffected Persons had been so maliciously wicked and disloyal as to convocate his Subjects to open Meetings in the Fields and considering that those Meetings were the rendezvous of Rebellion and tending in a high measure to the disturbance of the publick Peace declares that those who in Arms did convocate in Field Conventicles should be punishable by Death and confiscation of Goods and that those present at them should be punished in double the respective Fines appointed against House-Meetings This Act is dated Aug. the 30th 1670. 13. These acts against Separation in Meeting-houses or in the Fields were appointed to endure only for the space of three years unless his Majesty should think fit to continue them longer wherefore his Majesty considering that they had not received due Obedience and that the execution thereof had not been so prosecuted as by the Tenor of the same is prescribed found it necessary with the advise of his Estates in Parliament in Sept. 1672. that they should remain in force for other three Years to come 14. These are the Penal Laws in Scotland against the Presbyterians made by divers free Parliaments against their sinful Separation from the Church to frequent Meeting-houses or Field-Conventicles upon mature consideration of the inconsistency of it with Religion towards God Affection to the Laws Loyalty to the King or Study of the publick Peace of the State And three Rebellions in 23 years from the year 1663 to the year 1686 have justifyed the Justice and Wisdom of these Parliaments But none ever suffered for meer Separation but in purse and never any was punished that way but such as came to Church to save their Money notwithstanding all their pretended scruples of Conscience Wherefore unless we derogate from the Authority of King and Parliament justify Rebellion and prefer private Humour to publick Peace the impartial Resolution of the present Question is this That the Penal Laws against the Scotch Presbyterians had nothing of Persecution in them QUESTION VI. Whether the Episcopal Clergy in Scotland from the Year 1662 to the Year 1686 shewed any thing of the Spirit of Persecution against Presbyterians 1. NOtwithstanding that the Presbyterians are pleas'd to say they were dragoon'd by the Bishops and Episcopal Clergy alluding to that way of Conversion in France which indeed was procur'd by an Address of the Assembly of the Clergy of that Kingdom yet this is a palpable Injustice and Calumny For certain it is that all these twenty four years never produced one Address of the Presbyterial Diocesan Provincial or National Assembly of the Established Church of Scotland either beseeching the High Court of Parliament or the Lords of the Privy Council to make or execute Laws against Protestant Dissenters Wherefore notwithstanding all the passionate Exhortations in private and the publick Sermons in the Church concerning the guiltiness of Schism and the necessity of Union among Protestants against their common Adversaries the Inferiour Clergy there cannot be possibly charged with the Spirit of Persecution against Presbyterians Nay upon the contrary our Clergy were so averse from giving obedience to the Act that enjoyned them to present written Lists of the Dissenters in their respective Parishes and so very inflexible to the Publick Order for their Judicial informing upon Oath against Separatists that the Judges competent and Officers of State chid them in Publick for disaffection to the Royal Government so that under that Imputation they had nothing but their Innocency to support them in the Spirit of Meekness and Charity to their sworn Enemies 2. Again it were a great Injustice to the Lords Spiritual the Bishops to charge any of them as having been the first movers of those Penal Laws against Separation but since the repeated Rebellions of Forty Years past convinced all Mankind of the necessity of those Laws for the security of Religion and the Peace of