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england_n	draw_v	embrace_v	great_a	21	3	2.1077	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59964	The history of Scotch-presbytery being an epitome of The hind let loose / by Mr. Shields ; with a preface by a presbyter of the Church of Scotland.	Shields, Alexander, 1660?-1700.; Shields, Alexander, 1660?-1700. Hind let loose.	1692 (1692)	Wing S3432; ESTC R3536	61,532	66

All other Authority is so entrenched within the Marches of Divine Command that the least overpassing of the Bounds set by God himself bring Men under the fearful expectation of Temporal and Eternal Iudgements c. Yet notwithstanding of all opposition Prelacy was again restored in Parliament And to bring all to a complyance with the same Presbyteries and Synods universally charged under highest pains to admit a Constant Moderator without change which many refused resolutely as being the first step of Prelacy Upon this followed a great Persecution of the faithful for their Nonconformity managed by that Mongrel and Monstrous kind of Court made up of Clergy-men and States-men called the High Commission Court erected anno 1570. whereby many honest Men were put violently from their Charges and Habitations the Generality were involved in a great and fearful Defection But the Copestone of the wickedness of that Period was the Ratification of the five Articles of Perth kneeling at the Communion private Communion to be given to the Sick private Baptism and Confirmation of Children by the Bishop and Observation of Festival Days Which were much opposed and testified against by the faithful from their first hatching Anno 1618. to the Year 1621. when they were ratified in Parliament And against this the Testimony of the faithful continued till the Revolution Anno 1638. The following Period from the Year 1638 to 1660 continues and advances the Testimony to the greatest heighth of purity and power that either this Church or any other did ever arrive unto We shall give a short deduction of the rise progress and end of the Contendings of that Period In the midst of the forementioned Miseries and Mischiefs that the Pride of Prelacy and Tyrannical Supremacy had multiplied beyond measure upon this Church and Nation and at the heighth of all their haughtiness when they were setting up their Dagon and erecting Altars for him imposing the Service Book and Book of Cannons c. The Lords People were surprized with a sudden unexpected Deliverance by very despicable means even the opposition of a few weak Women which afterwards was followed out with more Masculine fervor accosting King and Council with Pititions Remonstrances Protestations and Testimonies against the Innovations and resolving upon a mutual Conjunction to defend Religion Lives and Liberties against all that would innovate or invade them To fortifie which all the Friends to the Liberty of the Nation did solemnly renew the National Covenant which though in it self obligeing to the Condemnation of Prelatical Hierarchy and clearly enough confirming Presbyterial Government yet they engaged unto it with an enlargement to suspend the Practice of Novations already introduced and the approbation of the Corruptions of the present Government with the late places and Power of Church Men till they be tryed in a free General Assembly Which was obtained that same Year and indicted at Glasgow And there notwithstanding all the opposition that the King's Commissioner could make by Protestations and Proclamations to dissolve it the six preceding Assemblies establishing Prelacy were annulled the Service Book and High Commission were condemned all the Bishops were deposed and their Government declared to be abjured in that National Covenant tho' many had through the Commissioners perswasions subscribed it in another Sense without that application As also the five Articles of Perth were there discovered to have been inconsistent with that Covenant and Confession and the Civil places and power of Church Men were disproved and rejected On the other hand Presbyterial Government was justified and approved and an Act was passed for keeping Yearly General Assemblies This was a bold beginning out-braving all difficulties Which in the following Year were much encreased by the Prelates and their partakers Rendezvouzing their Forces under the Kings personal Standard and menacing nothing but Misery to the zealous Covenanters Yet when they found them prepared to resist were forced to yield to a Ratification concluding that an Assembly and Parliament should be held for healing all Grievances of Church and State In which Assembly at Edinburgh the Covenant is ratified and subscribed by the Earl of Traquaire Commissioner and enjoyned to be subscribed by the Body of the whole Land with an explication expresly concerning the five Articles of Perth the Government of Bishops the Civil places and power of Church Men. But the Year following King and Prelates with their Abettors go to Arms again but were fain to accommodate the matter by a new Pacification whereby all Civil and Religious Rights were ratified And in the following Year 1641 by Laws Oaths Promises Subscriptions of King and Parliament fully confirmed the King Charles the First being present and consenting to all But the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus being thus advanced the Glory of the Lord did shine upon us with such Splendor that it awaked England and animated the Lords People there to aspire to the like Reformation For advice in which because tho' all agreed to cast off Prelacy yet sundry Forms of Church Government were projected to be set up in the room thereof chiefly the Independent Order Therefore the Brethren in England wrote to the Assembly then sitting at Edinburgh who gave them answer in behalf of the Presbyterial Government So from henceforth the Assembly did incessantly urge Vniformity in Reformation with their Brethren in England as the chiefest of their Desires Prayers and Cares And in the Year 1643 prevailed so far that the English Parliament did first desire that the two Nations might be strictly united for their mutual defence against the Prelatical Faction and their Adherents in both Kingdoms and not to lay down Arms till these implacable Enemies should be brought in Subjection and did instantly urge for help and assistance from Scotland Which being sent did return with an Olive-branch of Peace and not without some beginning of a Reformation in England And afterwards a Bloody War beginning between the King and Parliament with great success on the Kings side Commissioners were sent from both Houses to Scotland earnestly inviting to a nearer Union of the Kingdoms and desiring assistance from this Nation to their Brethren in that their great distress And this produced the Solemn League and Covenant of the three Kingdoms first drawn up in Scotland and approved in the Assembly at Edinburgh and afterward embraced in England This is that Covenant comprehending the purpose of all Prior and the Pattern of all Posterior Covenants which the Representative of Church and State in the three Nations did solemnly Subscribe and Swear for themselves and Posterity and of which the Obligation cannot be Disannull'd Disabled or Dispensed by any Power on Earth And this Covenant was rigorously imposed upon all Recusants who were wicked Enemies to God and Church and Nation and for their Malignancy were then to be Prosecuted not for their Scrupling at a Covenant but for their contumacious contempt of a Law This was no violence done to their Conscience for as they had

none and could not pretend to any so they were never troubled for that but for their opposition and conspiracy against the common Cause However it went through at that time And that the Covenanted Reformation in a nearer Conjunction betwixt the united Churches might be promoted the Parliament of England called an Assembly of Divines at Westminster And desired the Assembly of Scotland to send thither their Commissioners and they accordingly nominated and elected Mr. Alexander Henderson Mr. Robert Douglas Mr. Samuel Rutherford Mr. Robert Baille Mr. George Gillespie Ministers and Iohn Earl of Capils Iohn Lord Maitland and Sir Archbald Iohnstone of Warristown Ruling Elder● to Propone Consult Treat and Conclude in all such things as might conduce to the extirpation of Prelacy c. and for the settling of the so much desired Union of the whole Island in one Form of Church Government one Confession of Faith one common Catechism and one Directory for the Worship of God Forces were also sent to assist the Parliament of England Which were favoured with great success in their Enterprizes till that War was ended by the total overthrow of the King and all his upholders But that Prelatical and Malignant Faction being brought much under in England attempted to try the Fortune of War in Scotland under the Conduct of Montrose Who tho' he prevailed for a time yet at length was defeat at Philliphaugh in the Year 1645. yet certain it is that they had Commission and Warrant from the King as the Assembly that Year Feb. 13. remonstrates it to himself Warning him in the Name of their Master the Lord Iesus Christ that the Guilt which cleaved to his Throne was such as if not timely repented could not but involve himself and his Posterity under the Wrath of the Everliving God for his being Guilty of the shedding of the Blood of many Thousands of his best Subjects c. At the same time also the Assembly did zealously incite the Parliament to a speedy Course of Justice against these Incendiaries and Murderers as the only mean of cleansing the Land from that deluge of Blood then Current and of appeasing the Wrath of God And solemnly and seasonably warned all Ranks to search to understand the Language of that Dispensation wherein many publick Sins and Breaches of Covenant are pointed at and the Covenant it self is there very Encomiastically vindicated We are so far from repenting of it say they that we cannot mention it without great joy for no sooner was the Covenant begun to be taken in England but sensibly the condition of affairs there was changed to the better and our Forces sent into that Kingdom in pursuance of that Covenant have been so manifestly and mercifully assisted from Heaven that we have what to answer the Enemy that reproacheth us concerning that business These following Acts were made thus Feb. 14. 1645. Sess. 18. Vnless Men will blot out of their Hearts the fear of Religion and Cause of God they must now or never appear actively each one stretching himself to yea beyond his power It is no time to dally or to go about the business by halves nor be almost but altogether zealous Cursed is he that doth the work of the Lord negligently If we have been forward to assist our Neighbour Kingdoms shall we neglect to defend our own Or shall the Enemies of God be more active against his Cause than his People for it God forbid And among the Enormities and Corruptions of the Ministry in their Callings this is one § 4. 5. Silence in the publick Cause some accounting it a point of Wisdom to speak ambiguously whereof the remedy is § 15. That beside all other scandals silence and ambiguous speaking in the publick Cause be seasonably Censured Gen. Ass. Edin June 13. 1646. Act for Censuring the Complyers with the publick Enemies of this Church and Kingdom Gen. Ass. Edin Jun. 17. 1646. Sess. 4. Where they judge it a great and scandalous Provocation and grievous defection from the publick Cause to comply with these Malignants in any degree even to procure Protections from them or to have invited them to their Houses or to be Guilty of any such Gross degrees of Complyance Censured to be suspended from the Communion and while they acknowledge their Offence And Gen. Ass. Aug. 24. 1647. Sess. 19. Ministers are charged us they have occasion from the Text of Scripture to reprove the Sins and Errors and press the Duties of the Time and in all these to observe the Rules prescribed by the Acts of Assembly wherein if they be negligent they are to be Censured And July ult 1648. Sess. 2. in their Declaration concerning the unlawful Engagement they say Suppose the Ends of that Engagement be good as they are not yet the means and ways of Prosecution are unlawful because there is not an equal avoiding of Rocks on both hands but a joyning with Malignants to suppress Sectaries a joining hands with a black Devil to beat a white Devil And Aug. 3. 1648. All Ministers that do not apply their Doctrine to the Corruptions of the Time which is the Pastoral Gift and that are cold or wanting of Spiritual zeal Dissembling of Publick Sins are appointed to be Censured even to Deprivation for forbearing or passing in silence the Errors and Exorbitances of Sectaries in England or the Defections current at home the Plots and Practices of Malignants the Principles and Tenets of Erastianism And if they be found too sparing General or Ambiguous in their Applications or Reproofs they are to be deposed for being pleasers of Men rather than servers of Christ for giving themselves to a detestable indifferency or neutrality in the Cause of God for defrauding the South of People yea for being Gu●lty of the Blood of Souls in not giving them warning See also their seasonable and necessary Warning Iuly 27. 1649. Thus did these famous Fathers give us a perfect Pattern of purity and strictness in opposition to all degrees of Co●formity and Complyance with the Corruptions of the Time In the mean while the Malignants in England being crushed in all their Projects the King renders himself to the Scots in Newcastle By whom because by Covenant they were not obliged to defend him but only in defence of Religion and Liberty which he had been destroying and they defending because in this War he did directly oppose and oppugn these Conditions under which they were only to defend him and therefore they had all along carried towards him as an Enemy as he to them And because by the same Covenant they were obliged to discover and render to condign Punishment all Malignants of whom he was the chief and to assist mutually all entred into that Covenant he was delivered up unto the English and kept under restraint in the Isle of Wight until he was Condemned and Executed Ian 30 164●● Which Fact tho' it was protested against both before and after by the Assembly of the Church of Scotland