Toleration we have been several times consulting about some endeavours in our poor Capacity to discharge that duty with the least tumult or trouble to the Country that was possible not being able any longer to endure to see this purely Reformed and Covenanted Land polluted again with Idolatry and impunity of the Entycers thereunto and thereby exposed to the ineluctable Wrath of the Most High without some witness of our indignation at the same and thereupon had appointed this same concurrence of our Brethren at this present Meeting this same day to conclude upon some Course to effectuate it Yet as many of our Brethren in several corners of the Land without any Corespondence or Communication with one another were animated and encouraged at one and the same time to set about this work with others that the Lord stirred up to Zeal against Popish Idolatry So the extraordinar Emergent alarming the Country with fears and many reports of the Papists intending and Attempting to raise fire and Sword through the Land did prevent our appoyntments and provoked us to go to Armes for the preservation of our Religion Lives and Liberties defence of the Country and Relief of our Brethren that lay nearest the hazard then threatened and feared In which posture some of our Number that were furthest remote from the sure intelligence of the truth of these Allarms have continued hitherto not being willing to disperse until by this Meeting formerly appointed somewhat should be concluded with common consent as expedient for the present juncture and emitted for their vindication from some disorders falsly imputed and most grievous to us We do therefore further doclare That whereas Reports have come to us that some have robbed Gentlemen and some Episcopal Curats of their Horse and Armes Money or Houshold stuff As for Horse and Armes taken in these Tumultuary Confusions if any be amongst us as we have endeavoured so we shall endeavour Restitution But as for money or any other thing robbed from these we neither know the guilty persons nor are partakers with them but do disowne Disclaim and Detest all such disorderly and abominable practises And further the we owne and avouch it as our duty bound upon us from the Word of God Solemn Covenants and Constitutions of this Church to endeavour by all approven meanes the Extirpation of Prelacy as well as Popery And therefore do resolve through the Lords help and as He shall give us Call and Capacity to contribute our outmost assistance for the removing and dispossessing the Prelatical Curats from the Churches upon which they are intruded Yet we do not approve nor shall we attempt the taking of any thing that belongs to them Moreover we mean not now nor whensoever we may be constrained or called to rise in Armes defensive to wrong or encroach upon the Priviledges of any City Burgh or Town whatsomever or disturb the Peace of the Country either by Tumults or continuing together in Armes unnecessarly to oppress either one or other But as now we intend so at any other time when we are together we shall dismiss and go hame and live in quiet so long as either Duty or Safety will permit us For thô we be through Grace as ready as ever to suffer Persecution upon the same Heads of Truth that we have hitherto contended for and resolve rather to loss our dearest blood then to part with one hoof of them And are as resolute as ever to defend our selves all our Covenanted Bretheren in the common Cause Testimony against all Assaults of our Malignant Enemies so far as we can resist Yet if they will forhear to persist in their Persecuting and Murdering us for the time we intend not to take or seek revenge of them until we see what access the Lord our Avenger will give to a Legal Prosecution of them Only this much opposition they must expect that we will not embodie with them in any association for the Cause which they have betrayed destroyed nor with any other known avowed Enemies of Truth and Godliness Religion and Liberty But since the Lord hath in His wonderful Providence which we adore raised up helped and honoured the Illustrious Prince of Orange to be an Instrument in His Hand of breaking in a great measure the unsupportable Yoke of that Absolute Tyranny under which we have been long howling As we pray the Lord so to incline his Heart to favour the Lords righteous Cause and that he may pity and not permit the yet remaining Ireacherous and Truculent Promotters Abettors and Executioners of that Tyranny to devour and destroy us any more So we mind in due season to remonstrate to his Highness the unparalelled Grievances and Severities we have sustained from them And in the mean time do our best in dependence on the Lords strength to defend our selves against their Insults Finally we conclude declaring our cordial and constant Adherence to the good Old Way and Cause of Scotlands Covenanted Reformation in all it s received and established Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God Confession of Faith Catechisms National Covenant Solemn League Solemn Acknowledgement of Sins and Engagement to Duties Causes of Wrath Acts of General Assemblies both the ancient unrepealled Acts and those from 1638. to 1650. And all the Testomonies Protestations Remonstrances and Declarations of old and of late founded upon and consonant to the same against Popery Prelacy Erastianism Sectarianism Tyranny and all the Encroachments of Absolute Power over Laws and Liberties of Church and State either by Persecution or Toleration This in short is the State of our Testimony transmitted to us from our renowned Ancestors sealed by the Martyrs and Confessors of CHRIST in our day Which we hope the Lord will more and more Vindicate and Propogate to Posterity Published at Douglass the 4 th of January 1689. THereafter beginning to get more Converse with some of our Brethren which the violence of Persecution precluded all access to before And this Converse begetting more desires of Unity and Amity with them We intertained the first Motion from some of the Reverend Ministers of Glasgow to confer with them about Points of Difference and Methods of Composing them The Conferences at that time produced only some janglings and at length some Overtures tendered on both sides wherein we could not agree These Reverend Brethren proposing after some premitted Considerations pressing the necessity of Union That an Act of Oblivion be agreed upon for all Faillings about points or Practises controverted among Presbyterians since the year 1650 to this day And that the Basis of our Union be the Holy Scriptures sensed and applied for the Resolution of all controverted practises amongst us according to the laudable Constitutions Customs Practises Acts of our National Assemblies Books of Discipline Gonfession of Faith Covenants c. That caution be observed from all Reflections c. That after sighting and approving their Ordinations and Licenses
Counsellors against them to frustrate their purpose yet being Furnished and Spirited of the Lord for that Generation work they never studied to please men but to acquit themselves as faithful Servants of their Princely Master Jesus Christ in witnessing against all Sins and Corruptions of great and small impartially and in Acts of Assembly ordaining and recommending to all Ministers this faithfulness in applying their Doctrine to the Sins of the time under pain of Censure But now thô there was never greater freedom and encouragement for and necessitie of faithfulness when the Adversaries of Judah are seeking to Build but on design to marr the Work and many are too much inclining to joyn in affinity with the People of these abominations Yet it is sadly wanting and much Desiderated among many Ministers who being long accastomed to fears and constrained silence under former hazards and tentations have not yet recovered their Confidence and Courage to cry a loud against and not spare the iniquities of the time We desire also to joyne in that common regrate that thô informer Reformations this Church was not only for Order and Authority beautiful as Tirzah comely as Jerusalem and terrible as an army with banners but for Vnion got the Name of Philadelphia being then as much admired for Vnitie which is the fruit of Presbyterian Government wherever it hath place as for any other Priviledge which rendered her the Envy of all the Nations about Yet now alas The Crown hath fallen from our heads wo unto us that we have sinned This Holy and Beautiful Fabrick hath been burnt up with the fire of Enemies fury with the fire of our Divisions and with the fire of the Lords indignation burning against us for our defections whereby the Lord was provoked to forsake his House and since his departure there hath been nothing but disorder among his Children and Servants The Popish Prelatical and Malignant Party have come in by Force and Fraud and by the Cedings of those that should have stood in the Gap and broke down the Carved Work of our Covenanted Reformation as with Axes and Hammers Rescinding all the Legal Bul-warks of Ecclesiastical Constitutions Civil Sanctions and National Covenants wherewith it was fenced Wherein alas They were too much encouraged by our faint resistance and too universal involvement in the sin of submitting to Countenancing of the intrusions of the Prelatical Party At length having set up these their Ensignes for Signs in Sign of compleate Victory obtained over the Servants and Subjects of our exalted Prince after they have invaded His Kingdom and Palace and made Havock and Sloughter of such as would not yield they offered some tempting terms whereupon they would suffer them to live in subjection to these Vsurpations painted indeed with pretences of Favours but really at least indirectly requiring a recognizance of the Vsurpers power and a Cessation from opposing the peaceable possession of their Robberies These and the like defections on the one hand together with many Extravagances on the other have brought the Godly into many confusions stumbled them into many tontations racked rent and almost ruined them with many Divisions promoted too much an every hand by Passion Pride Prejudice Jealousie too credulous and sedulous taking up and spreading reports and reproaches one of another whereby the Spirit of GOD hath been grieved the Power Practice and Spiritual Exercise of Religion obstructed the Gospels success marred the Ministrie and all Ordinances brought into contempt ungodliness encouraged the mouths of the ungodly opened their hearts hardned and their hands strengthned against us And as the effect of all these we may lament another sad and very sensible want the Lords Power and Glory not seen in the Sanctuary as sometimes in the former House it was with a speciality of brightness And the Spirit of Grace and Supplication Repentance and Reformation publick Zeal for the Interest of Christ and the Gospel Spirit of Love and Tendernsss towards Brethren is not yet poured from on high But it may be if the Tabernacle were once reared up that the cloud of the LORDS Presence would cover it and the Glorie of the LORD would fill it And if we were ashamed of our iniquities we might then measure the Pattern and see the form of the House and the fashion thereof and the goings out thereof and the comings in thereof and all the Ordinances thereof and the whole limit thereof should be holy which is the Law of the House Then the glorie of this latter House should be greater than of the former Nevertheless We are so far from despising the day of small things that in weakness and humilitie we would desire to say it is our highest ambition to enjoy the Communion of this Sanctuary of the LORD in this Land if it were but to be Door-keepers in the House of our GOD And it is the matter of our greatest longing to see the day when all the Dissintient and long Dissevered Children of Zion shal together with one heart take their Mother by the Hand and with one Lip praise their Father in the Beautie of Holiness For when the Courts of the LORD are amiable in Order it cannot but be pleasant and desireable for Brethren to dwell together in Vnitie And so much the more that we have felt the sad effects of our unhappie Divisions which not onlie now but even in their greatest heat made us with much longing desire and pray for a comfortable Vnion and to bemoan the Causes and Effects of the delayes of it upon all occasions declaring our dread and detestation of Schism as a very heinious hurtful and hateful sin We did indeed demure to concure with and follow and did think it our dutie pro tempore to withdraw from these Ministers thô still we owned and esteemed them as godlie Ministers of this Church who promoted courses of defection after specified and to adhere to those thô but few who were more stedfast and faithful in that time of Divisions Gonfusions and abounding snares when the Church was in a broken state deprived of the Remedie of Church Judicatories whereunto we might recurr with Complaints and Supplications for removing these Offences And when the Government was so Tyrannical that if there had been Church Judicatories neither durst they have corresponded with us nor we make Application to them for hazard of our Lives When also the case was so stated that we thought communion could not be kept by us with them from whom we withdrew without sin while the very exercise of their Ministrie in the then circumstances was so far depending upon subordinate unto complying with modified and authorised by unlawful Usurpations that our joining would have inferred at least in our conscience a submission to symbolizing with and approving of their offensive yieldings to these encroachments Yet we never thought this a Schism We never judged it to be a separation from the Church of Scotland either in Her Doctrine Worship Discipline or
Government as it stood Reformed and Covenanted to be preserved Nor did we gather or set up formed separate Churches or Societies under another Government or Ministrie distinct from and independent upon the Presbyterial Church of Scotland nor did we ever maintain but alwayes abhorred that Sectarian notion that the Personal Sins and Scandalls of Fellow-worshippers Ministers or Professors did pollute the Ordinances nor did we ever owne but alwayes disowned a positive or active total or stated Separation from all the Ministry or from any for any Offence in any case where either the Offence could be then legally removed or was in it self a thing to be condescended upon or forborn or did not hazard our Involvement in the sin of it And only for the time owned a Negative Passive and Conditional Abstraction from some refusing to follow the Backsliding part of the Ministry in their courses of Defection and choosing to abide by that Part that persevered in their Integrity But now that Tyranny that chased us from one another being through Mercy removed and these Snares and Stumbling-blocks which scared us from Communion with many being so far taken out of the way that they cease to be Tentations involving us in sin and bones of Contention engaging us in continual janglings about them Church Judicatories being now in capacity to give some remedy to these Evils since Providence also hath so far altered the case and matter of our Contendings for the Faith delivered to the Saints that it calls all dissentient Parties among Presbyterians to concenter in one common Testimony for the common Reformation against the common Adversaries We hope this much desired and long looked for Union is and shall be more accessable and attainable Therefore to the end that this happy and desireable Union may be Holy and Comfortable in a way that may procure and secure our Union and Communion with the LORD And as the famous Voetius sayes Ut nihil de veritate professione nostra remittamus atque ad eo à perfectione ad quam cum DEO pervenimus non relabamur ad imperfectionem Considering in all the Periods of this Church from her first Reformation a Witness hath never been wanting against the same or equivalent Corruptions that have offended us And no method can be more adapted for recovering and restoring Union than that which was used for preserving it And that having aimed hitherto to offer keep up our Mite of a Testimony thô weak insignificant against the same if now under the convictions of its remaining righteousness we shall pass from it so seem to condemn what we approved before approve what we condemned before it will leave an indeleble reproach not only on our selves but on our Contendings and Sufferings Because likewise in a Conference with some Reverend Brethren and Members of this Assembly about these things it was proposed and conceded as an expedient for easing our Consciences that we should have liberty to remonstrate and represent to the Assembly what was offensive to us We earnestly desire Right Reverend you would be pleased to condescend to us in some things that we humbly conceive are very needful just to be sought and easie to be granted We know and are confident your Zeal for Truth and Peace will suggest the same means and measures for obtaining this end and will urge you to take notice of the same things we desire without our advertisement Nor do we take upon us to preseribe the Methods Terms or Conditions necessary for Composing these unhappy Differences and restoring the holy and happy Union in the Lord But we think the Word and Works of God this day points at these which we crave leave in the Bowels of Christ to remonstrate unto your serious Consideration That to the end the causes of our Divisions the Anger of the Lord as the Holy Cause and our Mutual offences as the sinful Cause May be removed that the effect may cease a Mutual impartial and accurate search and trial may be made into our wayes to find out and remember from whence we are fallen and discover our manifold and manifest defections from the right wayes of the Lord That the great wrongs and indignities done to our Great Head and King by Enemies Encroachments on his Prerogatives and his Kingdoms Liberties and our Complyances therewith on the one hand and one the other may not be past in oblivion but diligently inquired into and what accession to them or Participation with them all of us have been involved in these 30. years bygone Particularly that it be laid to Heart what Indignity to the Lord Jesus and Injury to his Church was done by the introduction of abjured Diocesan and Erastian Prelacy and the several degrees of Complyance therewith As Ministers leaving their Pastoral Charge at the Command of the Magistrate and laying aside the Exercise of their Ministrie giving way unto and not testifying against the Intrusions of Prelatick Curats Particularly owning submitting to their Ministry receiving ordinances dispensed by them and by Counsel and Example Encouraging others to do the like Which we cannot but Plead and Protest against as sinful and Scandalous 1. Because they were and are inanifest Intruders not entering in at the door in the way and order of Christ not having yea despising and renouncing a Call from the People and Ordination by the Presbytrie and having no other external Call Authority or Right to officiate in this Church as its proper Pastors but the Collation of Bishops and Presentation of Patrons who are none of Christs Officers and forefaulting and foregoing any other Right that any of them formerly could pretend to by palpable defection to the Enemies of this Church 2. Because both in Principle and Profession and in the way af their Entry unto their Pastoral Charge they were and are Erastians deriving their Power from and subjecting it in its exercise to another Head then Christ the Magistrats Supremacy by which only they were Authorized without Christs warrant or the Churches consent 3. Because they were and are Schismaticks who caused Divisions and Offences contrary to the Doctrine of this Church breaking her Union and Order going out themselves from the fellowship of this Church and leading People away from her vowed Reformation yea who violently thrust out and persecuted her faithful Pastors and Children for adhering to that Reformation which they designed to raze and ruine 4. Because they were and are perjured Covenant breakers avowedly disowning our Covenants and stated in opposition to that Reformation which is therein sworn to be maintained 5. Because they were are in several Points Erroneous in their Doctrine many of them tainted with the Leaven of Popery Arminianism and Socinianism all of them Heteradox in the point of the Magistrates power in Church matters in the matter of Oaths and in condemning the Work of our Reformation and Covenants seducing thereby their Hearers and both positively by these Doctrines
agreement to apply to the Assembly and that we should give in Papers to them We told them that we had a mind after exhibition of our Testimony protesting against the Defections that offended us to Submit and Unite per-swaded them to do the like But they were resolute to suspend offering Submission and Union untill they should understand what notice the Assembly would take and what use they would make of our Papers Upon this we concluded to give in our Papers and agreed to set a part a day before the sitting of the Assembly to pray for Counsel and Conduct from the Lord in prosecution of this affair Before this time thô we had in several places and at several times given a Specimen of our inclinableness to Vnion and intense and impatient desire of Communion with our Brethren in joyning with some both in the North and South to shew that we did not scruple now to incorporate with them when the grounds of Separation were taken away Yet hitherto we suspended Submission and fixed Union until the Metting of the General Assembly both because this was a matter proper for an Assembly the differences concerned the whole Church and could only be cognosced upon and composed by an Assembly and all the parties concerned in them dispersed through a great part of the Church could apply or answer to no Judicatory inferiour to an Assembly representing the whole Therefore we thought it proper and expedient to depositate our Testimony there and so take occasion to make our Vnion as publick as our division was And indeed our intention to Address the Assembly was almost as universally known at least through the West and South as our differences were thô our design in the Address was unknown to many For both in travelling through the Countrey towards Edinburgh and when we came there we found very many and multifarious opinions and reports of it Some of a Malignant temper telling that we were come to fire the Assembly and create confusion among them Others that we had a mind to give in Papers declining their Authority and protesting against their Constitution and Proceedings Some alleaging litle less then we had got Gold from the Jacobites and Prelatists to sow discord among them Others expressing their wishes and hopes that for our former Practises and present Purposes and Papers they should see us well paid home and made to confess on our knees our scandalous Schism and to subject to the severity of Censure when we had done all Yea even among the best affected towards us both Ministers and others whom we consulted in the Affair we found thô they had Charity for the design of the Workers yet they had a great jealousie of the end of the work it self The Assembly having sat several Sessions our Paper and the purpose of it was motioned in the Committee of Overtures before it was fully prepared And the Motion favourably intertained by that Reverend Committee they were pleased to appoint a Subcommittie of their Number to see it and confer with us about the contents of it who after hearing it read did object little against the matter of it but did urge the smoothing of it and that we should take out some particulars that might irritate and offend some that would look upon themselves as injuriously reflected upon by them which might provoke heats and stop all other business whence the Church might sustain great disadvantages and our selves have litle peace We answered we could not yeeld to the expunging of any particulars in it which were matters of offence and understood by us to be Corruptions which our purpose was to witness against without any design to irritate any by Reflections And if any should be provoked to raise heats we should be sorry for it but we could not foresee how any could rise to that hight as to brake the Assemblyes Harmony since we were resolved to seek concord and not Contention And what ever they should do with the paper if we might once have access to table it our Contention would be at an end for then our Testimony would be given in and lye at their door to be considered as they should think fit which would exoner our Conscience and declare to them as the Representatives of the Church that our Communion with the Church at present could not infer an approving of what we condemned before nor a condemning of what we approved before These things being favourably represented to the Cōmittee of Overtures they added some Reverend Brethren to the Subcommittee to whom it was read a second time They told us they feared it would not be well received and that it might have bad effects if it should be read but desired to know further what we resolved to do if it should be rejected We answered we would still adhere to it and could not change our Sentiments about the things contained therein Yet because the things in Controversy testified against in the paper were not in the present Constitution of the Church and therefore our Submission at present could not be looked upon to be an Homologation of the things therein witnessed against Therefore if we be allowed to exhibite our Paper to this venerable Assembly we would stand to the Vnion and Submission therein offered let them dispose of it as they will They further desired there might be a short Paper drawn to introduce the larger shewing the scope of it and out design in it which we did and therein made an offer and promise of Union and Submission after the Exhibition of our foresaid Testimony These Papers both larger and shorter being presented to the Committee of Overtures After some Debate they condescended to hear both Read which done after our removal a little The Moderator told us the Opinion of the Committee That they were sensible the large paper contained many sad Truths in it but upon several weighty Considerations did judge it in convenient to present it to the Assembly because of some Mistakes Reflections and Vnseasonable and Vnpracticable Overtures it it To this we could accord but urged the giving of it in whereupon it was recommitted to the Subcommittee with an addition of more Members instructed to labour to perswade us to sist and move no more in it Their Endeavours and Arguments not prevailing with us we were again called before the Committee of Overtures And pressed to condescend and rest content that the Papers were exhibite to them and read before them We answered we could not except the Reverend Committee would assume to themselves or get devolved upon them the power of the Assembly to cognosce on the matter then we would sist Otherwise our business was with the Assembly and therefore we pleaded that the Papers might be tabled before them Hereupon they Condescended to transmit them with Overtures prepared concerning them that we should be received that the Large Paper should not be read for several reasons c. Next day both Papers were
Union and Communion until those that remain should be Reformed and the former Condemned but rather thought it expedient to Unite that they may be the soonner Reformed as it is more probable we may sooner obtain a Reformation of the present and a Condemnations of past Corruptions in an United way then in a Divided way It s foolish to expect the Church can be settled without Corruptions all at once in one Day or one Year but must crave time as the building of Solomons Temple and the second Temple after the Babylonish Captivity which was not accomplished in several years Nor can it be planted over again all at once no more then in Joshuas dayes or the Judges or in the time of the Reforming Kings of Judah untill the Canaanites other Enemies be subdued Nor can it be purged totally altogether but gradually lest it be in hazard of a Superpurgation 3. It was ever our Judgement that Division was a great Misery and when Unnecessary and Unseasonable a great Sin And even when we could not avoid it we were weary of it and Longed and Prayed for a time of healing and an opportunity of bringing it to a Close But if ever there was a time when Division was a Misery and a Sin because Unnecessary and Unseasonable now it is And if ever there was an opportunity of healing now there is When the Causes and Occasions of our Divisions are removed and antiquated When the Object of them is so far altered that the providences of this day call and encourage all Divided Parties among Presbyterians to contend together for the common Reformation against the Common Adversarie When the sad effects of them have made all the Godly weary of them And the future effects of their Continuance at this time more to be feared then ever when the wicked Contrivances of Enemies to Divide and Destroy the Church and hinder its Reformation are so many and mighty When Errors and Ignorance making the People a prey are so abounding When also the proper Remedy of them is now in our offer having a Nail granted to us in the holy place to set up the House of our God and to repair the Desolations thereof by access to Assemblies And when things are now come so such a Chock and Crisis that if there be not present application of the Remedy and some Endeavours used for Union now in the tide of it the breach in all probability will grow wider and more incurable When we considered both the Mercies of the times the Maters of praise bringing forth so many considerable Advantages to the Cause and our selvs we could not but think our selves called to another Work than breaking what God is healing and retarding the Work by our Divisions And when we considered the Miseries of the times and matters of Mourning the Past and Present Causes and Effects of the Lords anger burning up like to consume this Church and Kingdom we could not but see other work shapen out to us than this byting and devouring one another when the Lord in his holy Judgements the Antichristian Party in their wicked designs are threatening to devout us all 4. We were alwayes of the opinion that Holy Vnion was a necessary duty and comfortable Blessing being so frequently Commanded Commended Promised and Prayed for as a Blessing and the want of it threatned and lamented as a Misery in Scripture And as we alwayes prayed for it and longed for it and bemoaned the miss of it so we alwayes desired that it should be and waited until we obtained access to get it qualified as the Scripture requires it that it might be both happy holy and as Aarons precious Oyntment that ran down to the skirts of his Garments composed according to Divine Art made up not of carnal and corrupt politicks in a sinful Confederacy or Conspiracy for Defection but composed of Gospel Simples by the wisdom which is from above first pure then peaceable that it might be in the Lord and for the Lord in Truth and Holiness having pure Love for its motive Bond and Beauty Christ for its Foundation and His Word for its Rule But thô we could not get every thing in this present Vnion that might make it Comfortable and Acceptable to all nor every thing removed that is Gravaminous and impairs its Comfort Yet we know nothing in the matter of it which is offensive upon the account of its sinfulness For it will abide the trial of these repuired Qualifications It is not an Vnion of Confederacy in Complyance with wicked Usurpations but in subjection to the Churches Intrinsick Power and in the use and enjoyment of the Churches Liberties It is not an Vnion of Conspiracy in Deformation but in Endeavours to promote Reformation It is not an Vnion in or with or under Prelacy Supremacy or Tyranny Indulgence or Toleration c. but in and with and under Presbyterial Government which is an holy ordinance of Christ It is not an Vnion that obstructs any Duty foregoes any Truth or involves us in any sin It is not an Vnion with sin thô it be of Sinners with Sinners now mutually returned to their Common Duties All the Common Rules of approven Union agree in this There is no ground of Division standing which could warrant a breach if there had been none before and therefore there is no ground to continue it in the present circumstances There is nothing in it to involve us in the guilt of past or present sins of the time There is nothing in it obliging us to condemn Duty or justify sin or restraining us from any Duty we are called to We were neither required to justify defections nor to Condemn our Testimonies against them Nor to subscribe to any sinful Imposition in the termes of Communion putting us in hazard of partaking with any sin On the Contrare we were allowed to exhibite our Remonstrance and Testimony against all the past or present Corruptions stumbling to us And no other Basis is stated whereupon we Vnite but the Word of God Confessions of faith Books of Discipline Acts of General Assemblies National and Solemn Covenants and the whole Contexture of the ancient Order of this Church 5. We alwayes thought indeed a Testimony was needful against all the defections of the time and that this was not to be receded from nor buried in oblivion We are of the same mind still And if Vnion could not have been obtained on any other terms than such as imposed the receding from or condemning of our former Testimony against Defections we would neither have sought it nor embraced it But as the particular Testimony of every time in several respects must change with the times according as the Enemies of Truth change their assaults Weapons against it and defections from it perversions of it and contradictions to it do vary And as it can never be buried so long as all Truths and Duties are witnessed for and errors and sins are witnessed against by us in our respective stations And nothing is condemned by us that was approved before nor approved that was Condemned before and there is no Engagement to forebear any Duty So having been allowed to exhibite our Testimony to an Assembly in a more publick manner than ever we had access before and being not required nor resolved to alter the matter of our Testimony only the manner of it by Separation We think our present Vnion and Submission is so far from burying our Testimony against defections that it tends much for its honour to give occasion of recording it that such a People continued it alwayes under all discouragements and difficulties while deffections stood But as soon as ever they found themselves in any Capacity to joyne with the Ministrie without sin they had such respect to the Ordinances and the peace of the Church that they would no longer Separate notwithstanding all former provocations On the other hand we think to continue Division and Separtion at the time would tend rather to the Scandal and Reproach of all our former witnessings than to the strengthening of the same for it might verifie what used to be alleged against us that we maintained such principles as would dissolve all Union Order in the world The best Confutation of which reproach is now to make the contrare appear by Union as soon as ever we have gor a fond for it Which now there is when we have all one common Testimony against Papery Prelacy Erastianisme Tyrannie and Schism and every thing contrary to sound Doctrine and the Power of Godliness PEACE be within JERVSALEMS WALLS and PROSPERITY within her PALLACES FINIS
exhibited in open Assembly The short Paper was read with the Overtures of the Committee concerning the Large one The matter coming to a vote Some proposed the State of it thus Read the Large Paper or not Others thus Approve the Overtures concerning it or not It s commonly believed the Vote went so which hath stumbled many we being removed knew not how it was expressed but when some of us challenged it afterwards as being very illegal to vote a Paper should not be read for reasons giving a Character and Condemning the Paper when the Assembly knew not what was in the Paper a Reverend Minister and Member of the Assembly assured us that the vote did not go so but that it was proposed in the last place and Condescended to that it should be voted thus Approve the first Overture touching our being received and the other that the Paper should not be read or not without mentioning of the reasons The whole Assemblie voted Approve Nemine contradicente We being again called before them the Moderator exhorted us to Order and Vnion To which one of our number made a short Reply wishing the Venerable Assembly had thought it fit to read the Paper but seeing it could not be obtained such was our love to Peace and Vnion that we would submit but as to the reasons given for the not reading it because of the Mistakes and Reflections in it we were not conscious of any such thing And desiring that it might be on Record that such a Paper was exhibited which accordingly was Minuted There was only one more of us then present who after his Brother had concluded in a few words offered to speak and at greater length to enlarge his Reply to some things expressed by the Reverend Moderator in his Exhortation But it seems that some of the Assembly had a suspition that possibly he might in his accustomed fervor bring forth something that might have been irritating which yet he was so far from designing that he had resolved and premeditate to say nothing but what might corroborate justifie the Vnion and to shew what were his Inducements to it and how consistent it was with his former Principles and Practises For when he offered to speak the Moderator and others also requested him to forbear Whereunto he yeilded not at all suspecting or foreseing that any would stumble at this ordinary piece of Discretion at which we understand since that some Friends have been offended interpreting this Silence to have been a receeding from our Testimony But Truly as he had intended not to have been silent and if he had thought this could have been stumbling to any would rather have ventured upon the censure of his Discourse then to be so misconstructed for his silence So considering the Assemblies reiterate urging him to forbear by way of Request not of Command and how necessarie Condescention is in these Circumstantials of Vnion what his Brother also had said before him and how there was no other Testimony ever designed by us but that in the Larger Paper exhibited in write he did not think he was called to contend for speaking any more at that time This is the true short and yet full Narrative of the whole Transaction which we thought needful to publish in all the particulars of it to discover the falshood of the various misreports industriously spread of it by those that envy the Vnion of Presbyterians reflecting upon the Assembly as well as reproaching us and imposing upon the People who are informed sometimes that the Assembly carried very imperiously in imposing upon us as the condition of our being received to confess on our knees many Errors and Extravagances in witnessing against these Courses we called Corruptions and to condemn and renounce all our Testimonies And that we resiled and receded from every point for which we could contend with a great deal of clamor on the Hills but had nothing to say when we came before the Assembly And sometimes again that we carried very insolently before them and in our Paper upbraided the whole Assembly And yet others interpret our condescending to the Assemblies disposing of the Paper as abovesaid to be a betraying and burying of it and the Testimony that 's in it against the sins of the Land To confute all which Calumnies and to submit our Papers to the censure of all that will take notice of them as we have offered them to the censure of the Church Representative we shall here subjoin the Papers themselves The SHORT PAPER To the Moderator and Remanent Members of the General Assembly of this CHVRCH WIth the greatest earnestness of longing we have desired and yet with a patience perhaps to excess we have waited for an Opportunity to bring our unhappy Differences of which all Parties concerned are wearie to a happy and holy close And for this end to have access to apply our selves to a full and free General Assembly of this Church invested with Authority and Power in foro Divino Humano to determine and cognose upon them The want of which an Assembly constitute in that Vigor to which through the Mercy of GOD this Venerable National Synod hath arrived hath been the great let and impediment of our composing the said Differences in a way wherein not only we but all of the same Sentiments would Acquiesce Now having obtained this much longed and long prayed for Priviledge We cannot forbear any longer humbly to Accost and Address this Venerable Assembly with a free and ingenuous Representation of our Minds and Desires The scope of which is to Represent those things which have been most stumbling to us for the Exoneration of our Consciences And to declare our Design after we have exhibited our Testimony against these Courses which we understand to have been Corruptions and Defections in this Church and laid it down at the Assemblies feet to be disposed of as their wisdom shall think fit That we shall in all required Submission subject our Selves our Lives and Doctrine to the Cognizance of the Judicatories of this Church and shall equally oppose Schism and Defection in any Capacity that we shall be found capable of And here by these Presents we bind and obliege our Selves faithfully to live in Vnion and Communion intire subjection and due Obedience in the LORD to the Authority of this Church in her Respective Judicatories As witness our hands at Edinburgh Tho. Lining Al. Sheilds Will. Boyd The LARGER PAPER To the Moderator and Remanent Members of the General Assembly now Conveened at EDINBURGH The Humble Proposals of Mr. Thomas Lining Mr. Alexander Sheilds and Mr. William Boyd IF our Eye could sutably affect our Hearts this day Right Reverend we might find much matter both of Rejoycing and Mourning in the wounderful Commencement and Advancement of this Work of Reformation As at the Jews return from Babylon to Jerusalem the Priests and Levites and all the People shouted with a great shout when they praised
the LORD because the foundation of the House of the LORD was laid Tet some of them that had seen the first House wept with a loud voice so that the People could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of weeping So at this time we are called to rejoice with thanksgiving for we should indeed be very ungrate and unworthy if we did not acknowledge with Praise and Admiration the Mercy of God which endureth for ever manifested magnified in the progress of this Work hitherto That at the time appointed of God the least expected by us at the time of our greatest extremity and our Enemies greatest insolency the Lord hath been pleased in Sovereign Mercy instead of overtaking us with judgements threatned for our sins and without waiting on our Repentance and Preparations by turning unto Him to prevent and surprize us not only with an outward enlargement of Rest and Peace without prejudice to Truth in a way wherein we are not beholden to the ensnaring favours of his Enemies but with such a reviving in our bondage in the midst of Wrath remembering Mercy brought about by the repression of Tyranny suppression of Popery and depression of Prelacy as that we have yet a Nail in His Holy Place to set up the House of our GOD Yea the Altar also is set again upon His Bases and the daily burnt Offerings are offered by number according to the custom and the foundation of the Temple is laid again When the Doctrine of this Church is asserted and the Confession of Faith formerly received is read voted approven and established by Parliament and even several controverted Truths formerly much condemned and obscured under a load of many Calumnies are now justified and vindicated The Worship and Ordinances of Christ are administred in great Purity Plenty and Peace The Government of Christs Institution by Kirk Sessions Presbiteries Synods and General Assemblies so long born down is at length restored to what it was Anno 1592. And all Acts Laws contrary or prejudicial unto inconsistent with or derrogatory from Presbyterial Government are rescinded with this honour that it is declared by Act of Parliament that this is the Government most agreeable to the Word of GOD and most conducible to the advancement of true Piety and Godliness and establishment of Peace and Tranquillity within this Realm And the Discipline retrieved to such a fond of Freedom that all Ecclesiastick Courts may without restraint or being accountable to any Exotick Vsurped Power in the Magistrate assert all the Authority and exerce the Power wherewith Christ hath entrusted them Which power if duely and diligently improved and put in execution may through the Blessing of GOD contribute very much to the reducing Order the redress of many Disorders in this Church And now also the causes of our Disunion Division in times of defection being in a great measure removed when ErastianVsurpations are abrogated the Churches intrinsick Power redintegrated and the Corruptions introduced by Complyances so far abdicated and antiquated that they are not in the constitution of the Church and do not continue to be the scandal and snare of the times We hope and expect a Remedy may be found for the Breaches and Divisions that we thought incurable and Vnion and communion in the Lord may be attained But thô for these things we be called to rejoice yet we are no less obliged to mourn when we observe this House of the Lord so unlike the former wanting many things the former had and pestered with many things the former wanted As at the building of the second House after the Captivity of Babylon they that had seen the first House wept with a loud voice when they observed its Constitution and Structure so far short of the former for Order and Beauty and wanting some glorious Prerogatives the other had as the Urim and Thummim the Fire from Heaven the Ark of the Testimony c. So they that have seen our former Reformation in its Integrity before the late Deformation can hardly refrain from weeping at the sight of the sad disproportion between this and the former In the former as the constitution was calculate in the nearest conformity to the Divine Pattern so the Builders had always a care to pull down what was to be demolished before they established what was to stand and to purge away the rubbish from the Foundation before they promoved the Superstructure Accordingly when Prelacy was reintroduced at several times the first thing they did when they recovered their power was alwayes to exert it in condemnation of that Corruption and of these Assemblies and Meetings that promoved abetted favoured or complied And when the Erastran Supremacy began to encroach upon the Churches Liberties and to bring the Ministry into Bondage they did not think it enough to wrestle against it by Personal witnessings but by the good Hand of GOD upon their Endeavours never ceased until it was condemned by Acts of Assembly They proceeded also with great earnestness and vigilance to purge the Church of corrupt and scandalous Ministers sadly regrateing afterwards when they saw the effects of the continuance of some of that Character in the Ministrie that they had not done more in that purging work But now after all the Rubbish and Filth brought into the House of GOD by the Invasions and Vsurpations of the Enemies and Defections of Friends when now Opportunity and Capacity is given to Rebuild and Beautifie the House of the LORD and to Repair the Desolations thereof the present building is so far advanced without pulling down and purging away the Rubbish and condemning these corruptions and defections in complyance with them or confessing and forsaking them as our Fathers used to do Now these courses have 〈◊〉 rather left us than we have foresaken And the Lords returning in Providence without our returning to Him by Repentance hath made any Reformation yet attained while these Defections are neither confessed in humiliations nor condemned in Judicatories And the Prelatical Clergy after all the evil they have done and bitter fruits they have produced are yet kept in many places and like to continue as a Seminary and Nurserie of a corrupt Ministrie As long as all this Rubbish stands there can be little hope either of Purity or Stability in the Superstructure In former Reformations also the Advancement used to be Progressive beginning where the former Reformation stopt and going forward after they had got removed what obstructed it But now the motion is Retrograde going as far back as that in 1592. missing many Excellent steps of Reformation attained after that to 1649. In former Reformations our worthy Ancestors used to begin with Renovation of the National Covenants Acknowledgements of the Breaches thereof which hitherto hath been neglected to the great grief of many It is also matter of Lamentation to reflect that in former Reformations tho the Adversaries troubled the Builders and hired