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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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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 peti●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 sen●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