Watch-Tower are laid aside from all opposition to the invasions of the Enemy and lulled asleep by this bewitching Charm and intoxicating Opium Ministers and Professours are generally settling on their Lees and languishing in a fatal security Considering the Extent of it they cannot class themselves among the number of them that are Indulged thereby Whereby the Professours of Christ come in as Partners in the same Bargain with Antichrists Vassals and the Lords Ark hath a place with Dagon and its Priests and Followers consent to it and the Builders of Babel and Ierusalem are made to build together under the same Protection and a Sluce is opened to let the Enemy come in like a Flood which to oppose the Accepters cannot stand in a Gap nor lift up a Standard against them All which is contrary to the Confession of Faith Ch. 20. § 4. And therefore to accept of this Toleration is inconsistent with the Principles of the Church of Scotland with the National and Solemn League and Covenant and Solemn Acknowledgment of Sins and Engagement to Duties in all which we are bound to extirpate Popery With the whole Tract of Contendings between the years 1638 and 1660. and particularly by the Testimony of the Synod of Fife and other Brethren in the Ministry against Cromwels vast Toleration and Liberty of Conscience above related For it is plain if it be not to be suffered then it is not to be accepted Considering the Terms wherein it is offered they cannot make such a shameful bargain For by it the Matter of Preaching is so restricted and limited that nothing must be Preached or Taught which may any way tend to alienate the Hearts of the People from him or his Government Here is a Price at which they are to purchase their Freedom which yet hardly can be so exactly paid but he may find a pretence for retrenching it when he pleases For if a Minister shall Preach against the Kings Religion as Idolatry and the Church of Rome as Babylon c. This shall be interpreted to be an alienation of the Peoples Hearts from the King and his Government But who can be faithful and Preach in Season and out of Season now but he must think it his Duty to endeavour thus to alienate the Hearts of the People Sure if any Preach the whole Counsel of God he must Preach against Popery And if he think that this Indulgence granted and accepted on these Terms can supersede him from this Faithfulness then he is no more the Servant of Christ but a pleaser of Men. Considering the Scandal of it they dare not so offend the Generation of the Righteous by the Acceptance and dishonour God disgrace the Protestant Profession wrong the Interest thereof and betray their Native-Country as thus to comply with the design of Antichrist And it cannot but be very stumbling to see the Ministers of Scotland whose Testimony used to be terrible to the Popish and renowned through all the Protestant-Churches purchasing a Liberty to themselves at the rate of burying and betraying the Cause into Bondage and restraint and thus to be laid by from all active and open opposition to Antichrists Designs in such a Season The World will be tempted to think they are not governed by Principles but their own Interest in this Juncture seeking their own things more than the things of Christ And that it was not the late Usurpation upon and overturning of Religion and Liberty that offended them so much as the Persecution they sustained thereby but that if Arbitrary Power had been exerted in their favours tho' with the same prejudice of the Cause of Christ they would have complyed with it as they do now Alas Sad and dolorous have been the Scandals given and taken by and from the Declining Ministers of Scotland heretofore but none so stumbling as this Lastly considering the Addresses made thereupon with such a strain of fulsom and Blasphemous Flatteries to the dishonour of God the reproach of the Cause the betraying of the Church and detriment oâ— the Nation and exposing themselves to the Contempt of all the poor Persecuted Party dare not so much as seem to incorporate with them I shall set down the first of their Addresses and let the Reader judge whether there be not Cause of standing also off from every appearance of being of their number It is Dated at Edinburgh Iuly 21 1687. Of this Tenor. To the King 's most Excellent Majesty The Humble Address of the Presyterian Ministers of his Majesties Kingdom of Scotland WE Your Majesties most Loyal Subjects the Ministers of the Presbyterian Perswasion in your Ancient Kingdom of Scotland from the due Sense we have of Your Majesties Gracious and surprising favour in not only putting a stop to our long sad Sufferings for Non-Conformity but granting the Liberty of the Publick and Peaceable Exercise of our Ministerial Function without any hazard As we bless the Great God who hath put this in your Royal Heart we do withal find our selves bound in Duty to offer our most Humble and Hearty thanks to Your Sacred Majesty the Favour bestowed being to us and all the People of our Perswasion valuable above all our Earthly comfort especially since we have ground from Your Majesty to believe that our Loyalty is not to be questioned upon the account of our being Presbyterians who as we have amidst all former tentations endeavoured so we are firmly resolved still to preserve an entire Loyalty in our Doctrin and Practice consonant to our known Principles which according to the Holy Scriptures are contained in the Confession of Faith generally owned by Presbyterians in all Your Majesties Dominions and by the help of God so to demean our selves as Your Majesty may find Cause rather to enlarge than diminish your Favours towards us throughly perswading our selves from Your Majesties Iustice and Goodness that if we shall at any time be otherwise represented Your Majesty will not give credit to such Information until you have due cognition thereof And Humbly beseeching that those who promote any Disloyal Principles and Practices as we disown them may be looked upon as none of ours whatsoever name they assume to themselves May it please Your most Excellent Majesty Gracioâ—sly to accept of this ouâ— most Humble Address as proceeding from the plainness and sincerity of Loyal and Thankful Hearts much engaged by Your Royal Favour to continue our Fervent Prayers to the King of King's for Divine Illumination and Conduct with all other Blessings Spiritual and Temporal ever to attend Your Royal Person and Government which is the greatest Duty can be rendred to Your Majesty by Your Majesties most Humble most Faithful and most Obedient Subjects Subscribed in our Names and in the Name of the rest of our Brethren of our Perswasion at theiâ— Desire The King's Letter to the Presbyterians in his Ancient Kingdom of Scotland WE Love you well and we heartily thank you for your Address We resolve to protect you
acknowledging of the Sin of his House and former ways and satisfaction to Gods People in both Kingdoms A. Ker. And that same day The Committee of Estates having seen and considered a Declaration of the Commission of the General Assembly anent the stating the Quarrel wherein the Army is to fight do approve the same and heartily concur therein Tho. Henderson Whereupon thereafter he encites that Declaration at Drumfermling Wherein Professing and appearing in the full perswasion and Love of the Truth he repenteth as having to do with and in the sight of God his Fathers opposition to the Covenant and Work of God and his own Reluctances against the same hoping for Mercy through the Blood of Iesus Christ and obtesting the Prayers of the Faithful to God for his stedfastness and then Protesting his Truth and Sincerity in entring into the Oath of God resolving to prosecute the Ends of the Covenant to his utmost and to have with it the same common Friends and Enemies exhorting all to lay down their Enmity against the Cause of God and not to prefer Mans Interest to Gods which will prove an Idol of Iealousie to Provoke the Lord and he himself accounteth to be but selfish Flatteries Then at his Coronation the Action commenceth with his most solemn renewing of the National and Solemn League and Covenant Thereafter in the Year 1651. followed the Ratification of all these preceding Treaties Transactions and Engagements concluded and enacted by the King and the Parliament whereby the same did Pass into a Perpetual Law And this Covenant which from the beginning was and is the most sure and indispensible Oath of God became at length the very Fundamental Law of the Kingdom whereon all the Rights or Priviledges either of King or People are principally bottomed and secured After this it came to pass that zeal for the cause rightly stated was suddenly contracted to a few whereby a plain defection was violently carried on by the Publick Resolutioners who relapsing into that most Sinful Conjunction with the Malignants did bring them into places of Power and Trust in Judicatories and Armies in a more Politick than Pious way requiring of them a constrained and dissembled Repentance which Reflection did cause the first Division of that kind and most permanent of any that ever was in the Church of Scotland by reason of the surcease of General Assemblies stopped and hindered by the Yoke of the Sectarian Usurpers And it has been the spring and source of all our Reflections since Upon this our Land was invaded by Oliver Cromwell who defeated our Army at Dunbar Next an Army being raised according to these unhallowed Resolutions was totally routed at Worcester And the King forced to hide himself in the Oak and thence to transport himself beyond Sea where he continued in Exile till the Year 1660. Yet there was still a faithful Remnant of Ministers and Professors zealous for the Cause keeping their Integrity who in their Remonstrances and Testimonies witnessed against both their Malignant Enemies and their backsliding Brethren the Resolutioners And also against the Sectarians their Invaders whose vast Toleration and Liberty of Conscience which they brought in to invade our Religion as they invaded our Land and infect it with their Multifarious Errors was particularly by the Synod of Fife and other Brethren in the Ministry that joyned themselves to them testified against and demonstrated to be wicked and intollerable But in the mean time the Sectarian Army here prevailed till after the Usurper Cromwell his Death Monk then General with a Combination of Malignants and publick Resolutioners did bring home the King to England from his Banishment Now comes the last Catastrophe of the Deformation of the Church of Scotland which in a retrograde motion hath gradually been growing these 27 Years going back through all the steps by which the Reformation ascended till now she is reduced to the very Border of that Babilon from whence she took her departure Through all which steps notwithstanding to this day Scotland hath never wanted a Witness for Christ against all the various steps of the Enemies advancings and of professed Friends declinings Though the Testimony hath had some Singularities in that it hath been attended with more disadvantages by reason of the Enemies greater prevalency and Friends deficiency and greater want of significant Assertors than any formerly in that it hath been intangled in more multifarious Intricacies of questions and debates and Divisions among the Assertors themselves In that it hath been intended and extended to a greater measure both as to matter and manner of contendings against the Adversaries and stated upon nicer points more earnestly Prosecuted and tenaciously maintain'd than any formerly to that it hath had more opposition and contradiction and less Countenance from professed Friends to the Reformation either at home or abroad than any formerly And yet it hath been both Active and Passive both against Enemies and Friends and in Cumulo stated against Atheism Popery Prelacy and Erastian Supremacy and extended in a particular manner against Tyranny And not only against the substance and essence of these in the Abstract but against Substance and Circumstance Abstract and Concrete Root and Branch Head and Tail of them and all complying with them conforming to them or countenancing of them or any thing conductive for them or deduced from them any manner of way directly or indirectly formally or interpretatively This is that extensive and very comprehensive Testimony which in all its parts points and particles is most directly relative and dilucidly reducible to a complex Witness for the Declarative Glory of Christs Kingship and Headship over All as he is God and as he is Mediator The management of this Testimony was thus King Charles the Second upon his Return directed a Letter to the Presbytery of Edinburgh declaring he was resolved to protect and preserve the Government of the Church of Scotland as it is settled by Law without Violation Wherein it was observed he spake never 8 word of the Covenant our Magna Charta of Religion and Righteousness but only of Law by which he meant the Prelatical Church as it was settled by the Law of his Father since which time he reckoned there was no Law but Rebellion This was a piece and prelude of our base Defection that we were so far from withstanding that we did not so much as witness against the Readmission and Restauration of the Head and Tail of Malignants but let them come in peaceably to the Throne without any Security to the Covenanted Cause and by piece-meal at their own ease leisure and pleasure to overturn all the Work of God and reintroduce the Old Antichristian Yoke of abjured Prelacy and Blasphemous Sacrilegious Supremacy and absolute Arbitrary Tyranny with all their abominations Which he and with him the Generality of our Nobility Gentry Clergy and Commonality did promote and propagate untill the Nation was involved in the greatest Revolt from and
they lost both Church and Liberty It 's true the ordinary Meetings of Presbyteries and Synods were about that time discharged to make way for the Exercise of the new power conferred on the four Prelates who were at Court But this could not give a discharge from a necessary Testimony then called from faithful Watchmen However the Reformation being thus rescinded and razed and the House of the Lord pulled down then they begin to build their Bable In the Parliament Anno 1662. by their first Act they restore and re-establish Prelacy upon such a Foundation as they might by the same Law bring in Popery and setled its Harbinger Diocesan and Erastian Prelacy by fuller enlargement of the Supremacy The very Act beginning thus Forasmuch as the ordering and disposal of the external Government of the Church doth properly belong to his Majesty as an inherent Right of the Crown by Virtue of his Royal Prerogative and Supremacy in Causes Ecclesiastick whatever shall be determined by his Majesty with advice of the Archbishops and such of the Clergy as he shall nominate in the External Government of the Church the same consisting with the standing Laws of the Kingdom shall be valid and effectual And in the same Act all Laws are rescinded by which the sole Power and Jurisdiction within the Church doth stand in the Church-Assemblies and all which may be interpreted to have given any Church-power Jurisdiction or Government to the Office-Bearers of the Church other than that which acknowledgeth a dependence upon and Subordination to the Soveraign Power of the King as Supream By which Prelates are redintegrated â—o all their Priviledges and Preheminences that they possessed Anno 1687. And all their Church-Power robbed from the Officers of Christ is made to be derived from to depend upon and to be Subordinate to â—he Crown-Prerogative of the King Whereby the King is made the only Fountain of Church-Power and that exclusive even of Christ of whom there is no mentioned Exception And his Vassals the Bishops as his Clerks in Ecclesiasticks are accountable to him for all their Administrations a greater Usurpation upon the Kingdom of Christ than ever the Papacy it self aspired unto Yet albeit here was another display of a Banner of defiance against Christ in altering the Church-Government of Christs Institution into the humane Invention of Lordly Prelacy there was no publick Ministerial at least united Testimony against this neither Therefore the Lord punished this sinful and shameful silence of Ministers when by another wicked Act of the Council at Glasgow above 300 Ministers were put from their Charges and afterwards for their Non-conformity in not countenancing their Diocesan Meeting and not keeping the Anniversary Day May 29. the rest were violenâ—ly thrust from their Labours in the Lords Vineyard and Banished from their Parishes and adjudged unto a strange and nice Confinement twenty Miles from their own Parishes six Miles from a Cathedral Church as they called it and three Miles from a Burgh Yet in this fatal Convulsion of the Church generally all were struck with Blindness and Baseness that a Paper-Proclamation made them all run from their Posts and obey the Kings Orders for their ejection Thus were they given up because of their forbearing to sound an Allarm charging the People of God in point of Loyalty to Christ and under the pain of the Curse of the Covenant to awake and acquit themselves like Men and not to suffer the Enemy to rob them of that Treasure of Reformation which they were put in possession of by the Tears Prayers and Blood of such as went before them instead of those prudential fumblings and fistlings then and since so much followed Wherefore the Lord in his Holy Righteousness left that Enemy to cast them out of the House of the Lord and dissolve their Assemblies and deprive them of their Priviledges because of their not being so valiant for the Truth as that a full and faithful Testimony against that Encroachment might be found upon Record Nevertheless some were found faithful in that Hour and Power of Darkness who kept the Word of the Lords Patience and who therefore were kept in and from Tentation which carried away many into sad and shameful Defections tho' not from suffering hard things from the hands of Men and only these who felt most of their violence found Grace helping them to acquit themselves suitably to that days Testimony being thereby prevented from an active yeilding to their impositions when they were made passively to suffer force However that season of a publick Testimony was lost and as to the most part never recovered to this day The Prelates being setled and readmitted to voice in Parliament they procure an Act Dogmatically condemning several Material parts and points of our Covenanted Reformation to wit these Positions That it was Lawful for Subjects for Reformation or necessary self-defence to enter into Leagues or take up Arms against the King And particularly declaring that the National Covenant as explained in the Year 1688. and the solemn League and Covenant were and are in themselves unlawful Oaths and were taken by and imposed upon the Subjects of this Kingdom against the Fundamental Laws and Liberties thereof That all such Gatherings and Petitions that were used in the beginning of the late Troubles were unlawful and seditious And whereas People were then led into these things by having disseminated among them such Principles as these That it was lawful for People to come with Petitions and Representations to the King That it was lawful for People to restrict their Allegiance under such and such Limitations and suspend it until he should give security for Religion c. It was therefore enacted that all such Positions and Practices founded thereupon were Treasonable And furder did enact that no Person by Writing Praying Preaching or malicious or advised speaking express or publish any Words or Sentences to stir up the People to the dislike of the Kings Prerogative and Supremacy or of the Government of the Church by Bishops or justifie any of the Deeds Actings or things declared against by that Act. Yet notwithstanding of all this Subversion of Religion and Liberty and restraint of asserting these Truths here trampled upon either before Men by Testimony or before God in Mourning over these Indignities done unto him in everting these and all the parts of Reformation even when it came to Daniel's Case of confâ—ssion Preaching and Praying Truths interdicted by Law few had their Eyes open let be their Windows in an open avouching them to see the duty of the day calling for a Testimony Tho' afterwards the Lord spirited some to assert and demonstrate the Glory of these Truths and Duties to the World As that judicious Author of the Apologetical Relation But this is not all For these Men having now as they thought subverted the Work of God they provided also against the fears of its revival making Acts declaring that if outed Ministers dare to continue to
proved successful for several Years their Enemies either turning their backs without disturbance when they observed them resolve Defence or in their Assaultings repulsed so that there was never a Meeting which stood to their Defence got any considerable harm thereby Thus the Lord was with us while we were with him but when we forsook him he forsook us and left us in the hands of our Enemies However while Meetings for Gospel-Ordinances did continue the Wicked Rulers did not cease from time to time to encrease their numerous Bands of Barbarous Souldiers for suppressing the Gospel in these Field-meetings But all this is nothing to what followed when thinking these Blood-Hounds were too favourable they brought down from the wild Highlands a Host of Salvages upon the Western Shires more terrible than Turks or Tartars Men who feared not God nor regarded Man to wast and destroy a plentiful Country which they resolved before they left it to make as bare as their own This Hellish Crew was adduced to work a Reformation like the French Conversions to press a Bond of Conformity wherein every one Subscribed was bound for himself and all under him Wife Children Servants Tenants to frequent their Parish Churches and never to go to these Meetings nor reset nor entertain any that went but to Inform against Pursue and Deliver up all vagrant Preachers as they called them to Tryal and Judgment Then for the maintenance of the Souldiers there were imposed new wicked and arbitrary Cesses and Taxations professedly required for suppressing Religion and Liberty banishing the Gospel out of the Land and preserving and promoting the King's Absoluteness over all Matters and Persons Sacred and Civil which under that tentation of great Sufferings threatned to Refusers and under the disadvantage of the silence and unfaithfulness of many Ministers who either did not condemn it or pleaded for the peaceable payment of it many did comply with it then and far more since Yet at that time there were far more Recusants in some places especially in the Western shires than Complyers And there were many of the Ministers that did faithfully declare to the People the Sin of it not only from the illegality of its Imposition by a Convention of over-awed and prelimited States but from the nature of that imposed Compliance that it was a sinful Transaction with Christ's declared Enemies a strengthning the hands of the wicked an obedience to a wicked Law a consenting to Christ's expulsion out of the Land and not only that but far worse than the Sin of the Gadarens a formal Concurrence to assist his Expellers by maintaining their force a hiring our Oppressors to destroy Religion and Liberty and from the declared end of it expressed in the very Narrative of the Act viz. To Levy and Maintain Forces for suppressing and dispersing Meetings of the Lord's People and to shew unanimous affections for maintaining the King's Supremacy as now Established by Law Yet all this time Ministers and Professors were unite and with one Soul and Shoulder followed the work of the Lord 'till the Indulged being dissatisfied with the Meetings in the Fields whose Glory was like to over-cloud and obscure their Beds of ease and especially being offended at the freedom and faithfulness of some who set the Trumpet to their Mouth and shewed Iacob his Sins and Israel his Transgressions impartially without Cloak or Cover they began to make a Faction among the Ministers and to devise how to quench the fervour of their Zeal who were faithful for God But the more they sought to extinguish it the more it brake out and blazed into a flame For several of Christ's Ambassadours touched and affected with the affronts done to their Princely Master by the Supremacy and the Indulgence of its Bastard-Brood and Brat began after long silence to discover its iniquity and to acquaint the People how the Usurper had invaded the Mediator's Chair in taking upon him to Depose Suspend Silence Plant and Transplant his Ministers where and when and how he pleased c. Yet others and the greater number of Dissenting Ministers were not only deficient herein but defended them joyned with them and pretending Prudence and prevention of Schism in effect homologated that deed and the Practice of these Priests Ezek 22. 26. teaching and advising the People to hear them both by Precept and going along with them in their Erastian Course And not only so but Condemned and Censured such who Preached against the sinfulness thereof especially in the first place worthy Mr. Walwood who was among the first Witnesses against that Defection and Mr. Kid Mr. King Mr. Cameron Mr. Donald Cargil c. who Sealed their Testimony afterwards by their blood yet then even by their Brethren were loaden with the reproachful Nick-names of Schismaticks Blind Zealots Jesuites c. But it was always observed as long as Ministers were faithful in following the Lord in the way of their Duty Professors were fervent and under all their Conflicts with Persecutors the Courage and Zeal of the Lovers of Christ was blazing and never outbraved by all the Enemies boastings to undertake brisk Exploits which from time to time they were now and then essaying 'till defection destroyed and division diverted their Zeal against the Enemies of God who before were always the Object against which they whetted the edge of their jusâ— indignation Especially the Arch-Prelate Sharp was judged intollerable by ingenuous Spirits Therefore in Iuly 1668. Mr Iames Mitchel thought it his duty to save himself deliver his Brethren and attempted to cut him off which failing he then escaped but afterwards was Apprehended Tortured Condemned and Executed But Justice would not suffer the Arch-Prelate to escape Remarkable Punishment the severity whereof did sufficiently compensate sate its delay after Ten Years respite For upon the 3 d of May 167 several worthy Gentlemen with some other Men of Courage and Zeal for the Cause of God executed Righteous Judgment upon him in Magus Moore near St. Andrews And that same Month on the Anniversary Day May 29th the Testimony at Rutherglen was Published against that Abomination Celebrating an Anniversary-Day kept every year for giving thanks for the setting up an Vsurped Power destroying the interest of Christ in the Land and against all sinful and unlawful Acts emitted and executed published and prosecuted against our Covenanted Reformation Where also they burnâ— the Acts of Supremacy the Declaration the Act Recissory c. in way of retalition for the burning of the Covenants On the Sabbath following Iune 1. A Field-Meeting near to Lowden-Hill was assaulted by Claverhouse and with him three Troops of Horse and Dragoons who had that Morning taken an honest Minster and about 14 Countrymen out of their Beds and carried them along with them but they were repulsed at Drumclogg and put to flight the Prisoners relieved about 30 of the Souldiers killed on the place and three of the Meeting and several wounded on both sides Thereafter the People