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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64939	A review and examination of a book bearing the title of The history of the indulgence wherein the lawfulness of the acceptance of the peaceable exercise of the ministry granted by the Acts of the magistrates indulgence is demonstrated, contrary objections answered, and the vindication of such as withdraw from hearing indulged ministers is confuted : to which is added a survey of the mischievous absurdities of the late bond and Sanquhair declaration.	Vilant, William.	1681 (1681)	Wing V383; ESTC R23580	356,028	660

hath ever been in the Church is made a sort of Martyrdom This Doctrine was first whispered to the People in private Conferences then it was dropped now and then in the Sermons of one or two then some rash youths made it a great part of their discourse in publick then we had Letters and Questions from Holland with Advertisement that the Press was travelling with the History of the Indulgence which is now brought forth And although any thing to the purpose in it hath either been answered or grounds laid down from which it may be answered in the Answers which were given to the Authors Letters and Questions yet because some have alledged that this Book is so irrafragible in its reason that the many who are against it shall never be able to answer its Reason and a friend of this Historian threatned that he would make all the Indulged Ministers run before him and because the People who withdraw from the Indulged Ministers are confident that this Book will never be answered and so are hardened in their Separation and because there are many dangerous and destructive Tenets in this Book and the Epistle prefixed to it which if reduced to practice would fill the World with Confusion I shall for Vindication of the Truth and out of Love and Compassion to the People who are deceived by this Book and for the just Vindication of the reputation of the Indulged Ministes who are very injuriously reproached in this History examine all that looks like reason in this Book And though I be of their Opinion that all that hath any shadow of Reason in this Book might be answered fully in a few Pages yet seeing many are so possessed with a conceit of the Unanswerableness of this Book that if any part of it were left unanswered it would be alledged that it could not be answered and this might be a snare to the poor people who lay so great stress upon this Book I hope the judicious Reader will forgive me that I put my self to so much labour which to him seemeth needless for though it will not only seem but be really needless to the Judicious Reader yet it is necessary for the weak for whose sake I especially put my self to this trouble The Historian gives his Book the Title of The History of the Indulgence shewing its Rise Conveyance Acceptance together with a Demonstration of the Vnlawfulness thereof If under the name of Indulgence he comprehend all the Acts of the Magistrate which he records in this History he abuses the word Indulgence and he abuses his Reader for there are several of the Acts which he relates as for Example the Act of Instructions and the Act of Fining the Ministers who kept not the Twenty ninth of May which were not Acts of Indulgence The Acts of Indulgence were only those Acts which granted the peaceable Exercise of the Ministry to some Presbyterian Ministers notwithstanding of the Laws which established Prelacy and enjoyned Conformity But this Confusion runs through his whole Book in which he would have his Reader believe that the Indulged Ministers accepted of all these Acts which he calls or rather miscalls by the name of Indulgence and this confusion is one main foundation upon which his confused Babel is found Whether he hath demonstrated the unlawfulness of the Magistrates Acts in which these Ministers are permitted and allowed to preach the Gospel or the unlawfulness of the acceptance of the peaceable exercise of the Ministry we will see when we come to his Demonstrations and his answers to contrary Objections As for his Vindication of such as scruple to hear the indulged it is a rare undertaking and looks liker the attempt of a Knight errant than of a solid and peaceable Divine for a scruple as he might have learned from Amesius in his Cases of Conscience 1 Book and sixth Chapter is a rash and groundless fear and therefore he hath been very ill advised to undertake to maintain those who scruple to hear Indulged Ministers this was a rash and frantick act of Casuistick Chivalry his prowess would have been better proved and approved of all sober persons in setting these people free from these rash and groundless fears for that would have been a right Vindication of those Scrupulous people to have delivered them from their rash and groundless fears which scare them from their mercies and the means of their Salvation and was an injurious cruelty to their souls The Historian designs himself a Presbyterian in great Letters and yet this Book is a History of warring against Presbyterians and if it were fair War it were more tollerable but as the War is groundless and unjust so it is very foully managed non amice factum ab amico And though he be a Presbyterian in great Letters in uberiore forma and the Indulged stand before him in the frontispiece of his Book in a very small Character yet he should have remembred that he was but one and they were many and it is not a Presbyterian practice but a Popish Prank for one to stigmatize censure and condemn many his Designation should have put him in minde of Presbyterian Practice and that among Presbyterians matters are carried by the Plurality of voices and not by the will of one how great soever he imagine himself to be but there are so many things in this History which are inconsistent with Presbyterian Principles and which overturns the very foundation of Presbyterian Government and of all Government and there is so much Satyrick insolent insulting over his Presbyterian Brethren that he had some reason to fear that he would be taken for some other sort of Creature than a Presbyterian and therefore he hath done as the Painters they say were wont to do when the Art of Painting was rude and it was not easie to know where a Horse were a Horse or an Ox what was defective in their Painting they helped it by writing and in good great Letters wrote down this is an Horse and this an Ox that none might mistake I cannot but resent the injury which he hath done to Presbyterians and to their cause in calling himself a Presbyterian and then acting the part sometimes of a Pope and sometimes of a Separatist and venting extravagant wild conceits which are contrary to the received Tenets of Presbyterians but I am hopeful that no ●ngenious Person will impute all this Authors conceits to Presbyterians because he calls himself a Presbyterian Before I come to the History I find an Epistle to the Christian Reader written by the Historians Friend who was like-minded with him in these matters relating to the Indulgence This Epistle is particularly directed to the suffering Ministers and Professors of the Church of Scotland To these Christian Readers he says he need not tell them that the knowledge of the Times and what the Israel of God ought to do should be their Ornament and Cognizance distinguishing them from others who are brutish in