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A75876 The address and petition of Mr. George Seton the delegate of the jurant Episcopal clergy in the north with some reflection on the same, by a person qualified according to law, and sincerely weell [sic] affected to this church. Unto His Grace John Earl of Tullibardine, His Majesties High Commissioner. Seaton, George, d. 1704. 1695 (1695) Wing A538A; ESTC R230065 10,337 8

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put an end to all that Persecution Blood-shed Barbaritie Prophanity Atheism and Irreligion which did so much abound in the late Reigns and was chiefly occasioned by the late Bishops and their Accomplices and to stop these Flood-gates of Wickedness which were set open and to prevent that deludge of sin which menaced Ruine to a then wretched Nation did therefore send these Bishops and their Government a packing and did settle the Church on its ancient Foundation it having been often weighed in the Ballance of Experience that where the present Church Government hath been justly and duely Exerced Saton hath fallen as Lightning Atheism and Prophanitie have not dared to shew their faces It s likeways undenyably true That neither our King Parliament nor Church did let angry Zeal so usurp the place of Wisdom as to find all those who had complyed with and submitted unto Prelacy equally guilty with their Ring-leading Bishops and therefore they not only did not spew them out with them but to deserve the Character of Wisdom were so gentle and easie to be entreated as both to continue them in their Charges and give them Opportunities and Invitations to be united unto and sharers in the Government of the Church and it might have been expected that when both State and Church has fixed and accorded on these terms of Communion and Union that either so peaceable charitable and condescending Men as Mr. Seton and his Brethren would have come in to the Church on these Terms or at least been quiet without complaining Many in the World and even the greatest and I am sure the best Bishops in England thought these Terms setled by the King Parliament and Assembly so Christian just rational and condescending on the Government and Churches part as might have satisfied all true Lovers of Peace and Religion and such as consciencious Men might accept of and thereby in some measure put an end to the Divisions of the Church yet peaceable Mr. Seton and his Constituents will not only despise and neglect these Means of the Churches peace but will still complain that others kindle and keep up the Fire But farther our King did with Pity compassionate those whom his Wisdom could not heal of their Maladies and found out a way how these who had neglected to render themselves useful to the Church should not be altogether Ruined themselves unless they did it with their own hands and therefore makeeth a Charitable offer unto them that who ever like Mr. Seton and his Constituents would own the Government of the state should enjoy in the Church the Charges they possest tho they did neglect to capacitate themselves to be sharers in the Government of the same The Church Judicatories likewise have exerced that temper in their procedures as to give many demonstrations of a readiness in them to have as many of these who had submitted to Prelacy keeped useful as they could find to be Men of Probity Sinceritie and Worth and after all this for Mr. Seton to raise this Clamour and Dust argueth neither Charity nor Probity I will not call it Irreligious Boldness but Impudent and Imprudent It is for Mr. Seton to make this Clutter who himself was personally desired and invited to unite with the Church by the Committee of the General Assembly for the North anno 1694. and both refused these Terms which the Law and the Church required and entred and combind with others in that Illegal Protestation against and Declinature of the Authority of that Judicatory settled by the Law and Authority of that same King whom he would make us believe he thinks himself happy in having and which Protestation Mr. Seton knoweth was by the same Parliament after a full hearing found to be seditious unpeaceable and illegal and for which some of Mr. Seton's fellow Protestators were justly censured by it And for Mr. Seton conscious of his own guilt to address his Majesties High Commissioner this same Parliament sitting in such a strain as doth reflect upon both Church and State Is such a piece of Charity and Wisdom as some desire not to imitate But what is the Conclusion Mr. Seton draweth after he hath given the Government and Church so many indirect Thrusts he humbly desires his Grace to appoint a Conference betwixt an equal number of us and our Presbyterian Brethreen Now any man would think the honest man is indeed in earnest for a Conference and for what end even to put a desireable Period to these Schisms which distract and divide this Church and no doubt he is for the immediate ending of unkindly and unseasonable Controversies amongst Vs Church men and His Grace to be the Umpire If I had not heard of a Protestation drawn and ready to be presented in March 1691 to the Commission of the Church which was to have met at Aberdeen at that time had it not been impeded by some charitable and peaceable Men wherein they declare that their Consciences scrupled to owne Presbyterian Government and particularly Lay-elders as they are pleased to call them and that Mr. Seton and some of his Constituents were of that Number and that he and the same gang did solemnly Address the General Assembly in January 1692 and then acknowledge that Assembly consisting of the same Presbyterian Ministers and Lay-elders to be a lawful Assembly and lawful Government and offered to join and concur therewith as such without any scruple of Conscience and that constant and conscientious Mr. Seton was with the rump of his Party one of fourteen who delivered in the same Protestation drawn 1691 to the Committe of the General Assembly for the North at Aberdeen in anno 1694 as if it had been fresh and new wherein Mr. Seton and the rest have the old scruples at the Government and cannot in Conscience comply with their 1692 years Consciences If I had not had the misfortune to have heard these things of him and such an uncharitable Memory as to remember them I might have been more ready to believe Mr. Seton in earnest Before I hearken to the soft Whispers of Charity towards him and be convinced of his sincerity it will be necessary to satisfy my Reason of these doubts I doubt he designs a Conference thereby to put a Period to these Schisms in the Church when he knoweth very well that none of the Presbyterian Brethreen can confer with him in name of the Church and as thereto authorized by the Government thereof He is not ignorant that a General Assembly only can delegate such a Power as to confer in the Name of the Church and to confer as private Persons will never end the Controversies so I demur that his design is any Conference at all and how discreet hath he been to his Grace let the World judge for if these Conferrees are to confer with a publick Character he desires of his Grace a thing impossible for him to grant and therefore impertinent to be sought If there be only two or three