Ministry in their own Churches yet had adventured to preach in Neighbouring Churches And for this they pretended they were only deprived of the exercise of their Ministry at such a Place The Council though it had deprived them had not unminister'd them it was still lawful for them to preach the Gospel when they had occasion And as they thought they had but too much of that considering how many Vacancies were made and how few of these Churches were planted So very few that in many Corners of the Country you should have found six eight ten Churches all empty in one Neighbourhood Besides as they still pretend they preached nothing but the solid and substantial Points of Christianity Faith and Repentance c. They did not meddle with Crowns and Scepters and Government but made it their work to persuade People to a sober righteous and godly Life However this irritated the Government or at least the Presbyterian Party in the Government exceedingly and therefore upon the 22 of Iuly 1690. this Act mas wade about them THE Estates of Parliament taking into their Consideration That several Ministers deprived for not praying publickly for King William and Queen Mary as King and Queen of this Realm and not Reading the Proclamation of the Estates Emitted upon the 13th of April 1689. for that effect are vp their Sentence of Deprivation expresly prohibited to exercise any part of their Ministerial Function within the Parishes from which they were Deprived do nevertheless now far more perniciously and dangerously diffuse the poison of their Disaffection by taking the liberty to preach and pray at other Churches and elsewhere where they neglect to pray for King William and Queen Mary in manner enjoined by the said Proclamation to the manifest Contempt of publick Authority and the stirrrng up and fomenting the disaffection of the People to their Majesties and the present Government and the encouragement of all their Enemies Therefore our Sovereign Lord and Lady the King and Queen's Majesties with Advice and Consent of the said Estates of Parliament do hereby prohibit and discharge the whole foresaid Ministers deprived as said is to preach or exercise any part of the Ministerial Function either in Churches or elsewhere upon any pretext whatsoever until first they present themselves before the Lords of their Majesties secret Council and there in presence of the Lords thereof cake swear and subscribe the Oath of Allegiance and also engage themselves under their Hands to pray for King William and Queen Mary as King and Queen of this Realm and not to own or acknowledge the late K. Iames the 7th for their King in any sort conform to the Tenour of the said Proclamation Certifying such Ministers as shall do in the contrary That they shall be proceeded against as Persons disaffected Enemies to their Majesties Government with all Rigour And further their Majesties with advice and consent foresaid ordain the said Proclamation and Act of the Estates of the Kingdom to be put to further Execution against all such Ministers who have not as yet given Obedience thereto by praying for their Majesties in manner foresaid And that the Lords of their Majesties Privy Council proceed therein or impower the Sheriffs or Magistrates of Burghs to do the same within their respective Bounds as they shall see cause Neither was this thought enough for within a few days after another Act was made against the Distinction of De Iure and De Facto and appointing a certain Declaration which they call the Assurance to be taken by every person in publick Employment And amongst the rest the Deprived Ministers for it is an express Clause in the Act That all shall take it who are obliged by Law to Swear the Oath of Allegiance to their Majesties I am now almost wearied and therefore I cannot be at pains to Transcribe that Act of Parliament but I am afraid you may be angry if you get not a Copy of the Assurance and therefore take it as follows IAB Do in the Sincerity of my Heart Assent Acknowledge and Declare That their Majesties King William and Queen Mary are the only lawful undoubted Sovereigns King and Queen of Scotland as well de Iure as de facto and in the exercise of the Government And therefore I do sincerely and faithfully promise and engage That I will with Heart and Hand Life and Goods maintain and defend their Majesties Title and Government against the late King Iames His Adherents and all other Enemies who either by open or secret Attempts shall disturb or disquiet their Majesties in the exercise thereof Thus the Parliament thought fit to seeure their Majesties Government by exploding that pitiful Distinction of de Iure and de Facto Rationally sure and Consequentially For in a Kingdom where the Government is incontrovertibly Monarchical and Hereditary such as Scotland is How is it possible that one can be King de facto if he be not first such de Iure An Usurper he may be but can never be a King a King in such a Constitution being necessarily Nomen Iuris But to let this pass because it is no part of my present Concern Were not our Non-Complyers our Non-Readers and Non-Prayers our Clergymen who were deprived Anno 1689 pretty well taken notice of by these two Acts of Parliament I believe you will not readily imagine that many of them would incline to qualifie themselves according to these Laws for the further exercise of their Ministry Neither indeed so far as I can learn has one of them done it in all the Kingdom They were forced therefore to chuse the other side of the Alternative and cease from the publick Exercise of their Ministry either in Churches or elsewhere and did so for a certain time That they look'd about them and considered a little better And then in several places they adventured to have Divine Worship somewhat publickly in their own Houses that is they prayed and sung Psalms according to the Scottish Fashion And also gave their Families a Sermon but so as they did not shut their Gates but left them open that whosoever pleased might meet with them This gave mighty provocation to the Presbyterian Preachers For wherever this was done it emptyed their Convinticles of a great many of the Common Sort And besides the Gentry generally flocked to these private Meetings of the deprived Men Which was an unsupportable Grievance and Trouble to the Brethren for so long as that was the Guise they concluded it would be impossible their Interest what ever pretences of Law they might have on their side could be secured But what Remedy was proper for such a dangerous Disease Should they cite them before their Presbyteries or Synods and enter in Ecclesiastical Process against them But that would be to no purpose For they would be sure not to appear and if the pursuit should proceed to the outmost if they should Excommunicate them nothing would be gain'd for the Sting was
Ministry thrust them all out that the whole Kirk may be planted with true Presbyterians Further yet ye have under your care and tutory Christ's own Bride she is a tender Virgin and hath yet but little breasts she hath been wounded in the house of her friends that must needs be either by the Cameronians or the Politick Presbyterians if I may so call them for sure in our Preachers Opinion all the Prelatists come under the next denomination as well as by her Enemies and she is not yet heal Her wounds are yet bleeding For the Lords sake prove to her as the Compassionate Samaritan Luke 10. 24. Bind up her wounds pour oyl into them and take care of her she is nobly born she is a Kings daughter Psal. 45. 13. New come from her banishment For Christ you must know had no Spouse in Scotland while Prelacy was in it She had been banished the Kingdom And for her Fathers blessing for her Bridgroom's blessing and for her own blessing who is ready to perish deal kindly with her and be faithful Tutors to her Yea ye have Christs Crown his Glory among your hands that is Presbyterian Government and if you take away or suffer one Iewel of it to be lost or robb'd not only your Estates and Lives but your Souls may go for it c. Once more yet What will ye say when ye shall be sisted at the great Assise before the Tribunal of Christ to that Question What Iustice and Vote gave you to me and my afflicted Church in the first Parliament of King William and Queen Mary in Scotland Was you for me or against me And then he concludes telling them for their encouragement to Vote right for Presbytery That as the eyes of the Lord his Holy Angels and all his People in this Land yea of all the Protestant Churches are upon them for who dares doubt but all the Protestant Churches were extremely concerned to have Presbytery set up in Scotland so they are upon the wings of the Prayers of the flower of the Godly in Scotland And who would not be animated by such a flight as this Here was Preaching for a Parliament A Third Sermon which was Printed was Preached by the Learned Mr. Rule whom I mentioned before on Sunday the 25th of May the Sunday next before the Wednesday on which the Act was Voted and so it was time then or never to speak which forsooth the man did accordingly For after he had insinuated enough of dislike to the Club as none of them omitted to do and had particularly chastised Sir Iames Montgomery of Skelmurly though he did not name him for Sir Iames had made a long Speech in the House some days before wherein he had pleaded zealously for setting up true Fourty-Nine Presbytery in all its dimensions and had made use of this as one of his principal Arguments That Presbytery thus Established would prove the best and most effectual mean could be devised for curbing and restraining the extravagancies and excesses of Princes which was Interpreted by those of the Gang as intended of design to screw up Presbytery to the highest peg that so it might turn the sooner intollerable and by consequence be the sooner turned down again For though Sir Iames the year before had shewed a singular Zeal for the Good Cause yet he was now one of the leading Men of the Club And it was confidently talked that he kept a Correspondence with King Iames and so he was look'd upon by the Party as a false Friend as they term it After our Preacher I say had fairly chastised Sir Iames for this he comes to his purpose by cunning and smooth advances For first he tells them what a Glorious Nation they would make Scotland by erecting Presbytery in it The warlike Philistines the rich trading Tyre the ancient Ethiopia wou'd be nothing to it Make poor Scotland a well Reformed Church set up Presbyterian Government in it and you shall please God and do him better service than if you could make her richer and more potent and splendid than any of her Neighbour Nations This was a good beginning But what was the next step Why a necessary fling at Prelacy We plead not for a Papacy to be Cardinals or Prelates c. As if it were unquestionable that Prelacy hath an essential connection with Papacy or Cardinalism After this again another very courteous humble one for Presbytery We pretend not to make Church Laws but declare those Christ hath made and to impose them not what we think fit by his Authority and to censure such as will not obey his Laws not as we will but as he hath appointed We set up no Imperium in Imperio but a Ministerium c. Wonderful fine Cant Alamode Then another fling yet not so much at the Scottish as the English Prelatists Neither is the Church preferred nor Religion promoted by setting up a Pompous Gaudy Theatrical kind of Worship by pretending to adorn it by Modes and Religious Rites that Christ hath not instituted c. Our Preacher was owing the Church of England this because one of her Bishops Dr. Cousins Bishop of Durham I think it was had excommunicated him from which Sentence I believe to this very hour he was never released having thus made his Address he comes home at length to his business Let Christ's Church enjoy all the Prvileges that he has granted her If any man withhold any one of them they do not advance the mountain of the house of the Lord as they should Sound Doctrine pure Ordinances a godly Ministry a Government drawn from Christ's Institution and Apostolical Practice and that tendeth to advance Holiness for Prelacy no doubt tendeth to advance nothing but Atheism and Irreligion that it be managed by its Friends by the known sound Presbyterians and not by them that would supplant it not by these juggling Prelatists who would now be content to call themselves Presbyterians so that they may be permitted to keep their Benefices That they assemble as oft as is needful for this end i. e. have the power of calling ordering and disolving General Assembles independent on the Crown c. That Church-Officers be look'd out and chosen by the People of God and not imposed upon them by mens will That the Fountains out of which a Godly Seed for the Church may issue be kept pure i. e. that no Prelatist be permitted to stay in the Universities that Discipline may be duly exercised and whatever Letts to Religion and Snares to the serious godly Men have framed into Laws i. e. all the Penal Statutes against the Presbyterians may be removed This would conduce much to the advancement of the Church and N. B. and if any of these be neglected she is not set upon the top of the Mountains but somewhat else is preferred to her At this rate dogmatized Mr. Gilbert The Fourth whose Sermon was published was that able Man Mr. David Williamson 'T is true
concerned was under consideration Cardross said He did not know but all these Men were Enemies to the Government and why then should the House be troubled with their Petitions But he knew as little but they were all Friends to the Government for as hath been said they had never had opportunity to shew how they were affected to it At last after a great deal of such impertinent stuff Sir Patrick Hume now Lord Polwart Moved that the House might first go on in the Act and after that was voted they might hear the Petition A judicious Overture to shut the Stable door as we say when the Steed is stollen For the great purpose of the Petition was that no such thing might be voted However this motion because it seems they could stumble on none better was greedily entertained by the Party And so it was carried that the reading of the Petition should be delay'd till the Article was first voted Which what was it else but downright to reject it without an hearing Then the Duke of Hamilton was at the point again and renewed his endeavours but to no purpose For the Cry immediately arose That there was no need of further Debate in the Case it had been Disputed enough already put it to a Vote c. So there was no help for it The Vote came to be stated The Duke of Hamilton craved it might be stated thus Approve or not approve the Deed of the Rabble and this twice or thrice over he pressed But though that was the true state of the Case it was too bare faced And therefore it was put in these smoother Terms Approve or not approve the Article I need not tell you which carried you may see that by the Act How Almighty is a Vote what can it not do Yet I must acknowledge there were some Fifteen or Sixteen Negative Voices and which is remarkable some of these by Persons who in the hight of their Zeal the year before had been amongst the most forward for refusing these poor Men the Protection of the Government such as the Lord Ross Sir Iames Montgomery c. After this Article was thus Voted and Approved The Duke of Hamilton not able to bridle his Indignation told the House plainly he was sorry he should ever have sat in a Scottish Parliament where such naked Iniquity was established into a Law That it was impossible Presbyterian Government could stand being built on such a Foundation and it grieved him to the Heart to consider what a Reflection this Act would bring upon the Government and Justice of the Nation While the Duke was thus insisting a certain Member stood up and said The Duke would do wisely to temper his Language For what was this but to reflect on the House and flee in the face of an Act of Parliament The Duke instantly replied It was a mistake it was but a Vote of the House and had not yet got the Royal Assent so it was no Act of Parliament But seeing matters went so though he was very much afraid the Reflection would go further than the House were aware of for his part he should say no more but put his Hand upon his Mouth And with this he left his Seat and went out of the House a good number of Members folowing him Well What was my Lord Melvil's behaviour all this while Why His Grace sat upon the Throne heard all that the Duke of Hamilton had said for the Rabled Clergy and all that passed concerning their Petition and yet never so much as once opened his Mouth in the Matter but perhaps Prelatical People are not Men and though they were is not Dominion founded upon Grace And so what pretensions can Conformists make that Justice should be done them But enough of this There was now only one thing more to be done and that was to Vote the whole Act in cumulo which before had only been voted by parcels This was immediately proposed upon the Dukes departure Now it must not be forgotten that as soon as this began to be talk'd of a Little Presbyterian Preacher who had got into the House cried out to the Members who were next him Fie make haste dispatch now that He is gone lest he return again and create more trouble This He meant of the Duke Whether it was in obedience to this seasonable warning or not 't is no great matter but so it was that instantly the thing was done The whole Act was Approved and so prepared for the Royal Assent And indeed it was no wonder considering what Members were in the House even few or none who were not frank for the Good Old Cause except some four or five who stayed to Vote against Presbyterian Government that it might not be said that it carried Nemine contradicente and some few others who would not Vote for that Establishment of Presbytery because as they pretended it was not Established in its proper plentitude of Power and Independency Except such I say there were none in the House but those of the Gang For a great many Noblemen and Gentlemen Such as the Duke of Queensberry the Earls Linlithgow and Balcarras c. would not be present on that occasion And as I have said the Duke of Hamilton and a Good many Members had left the House before that Great Vote was moved Thus was this Act prepared for the Royal Assent on Wednesday the 28th of May but it got it not till the 7th of Iune For that same Night that it was Vored an Express was sent to the King to give him an Account what was done and his Majesties answer and allowance was necessary before the Act could be touched And now that I have mentioned his Majesties granting his Allowance to his Commissioner to touch the Act and give it the form of a Law I cannot forbear to tell you that I am fully persuaded he did not get a just and impartial Information about the nature of the several Articles in it which had he got it was impossible that he should ever have approved or ratified the Act For why That Article concerning the Rabled Ministers is plainly inconsistent with the express words of the Coronation Oath Now who can believe that the King would have consented to such notorious Oppression as more than three hundred Protestant Ministers met with him from this Act if that matter had been duly represented to him But I cannot find what can be said for my Lord Melvil who knowing very well the whole matter abused his Master by not fairly representing it to him Thus I have given you a brief account how this Act was made I shall make no more reflections on it knowing very well how the Writers of former accounts of this nature have been lash'd for making so bold with the Government and intituling it to the Persecution of the Clergy For my part I shall leave it to you Sir or any to whom you shall communicate this Paper first to consider
matter of Fact which I have plainly and freely told you and then to make your own Reflections And so I cometo the Third thing which I promised concerning this Act which was to tell you what Consequences it produced And that which deserves to be put in the front was The Pious Gratitude of the Presbyterian Ministers to the Parliament for making so gracious an Act How they thanked the Commissioner and Crawford and Sutherland and such others of their good Friends in private I am not able to tell But in their Sermons they were extremely careful to express a deep sense of the wonderful Favour was done them I shall only take notice of two that were published viz. Mr. Gilbert Rules and Mr. David Williamson's Mr. Gilbert's Sermon as I told you was preached before the Act was voted and therefore he was at the pains to Embelish it with a Preface to the Reader when it was a printing wherein he Harangues Thus As the Interest of Religion was our Solicitude when these thoughts were conceived and delivered So now we are filled with joy while we behold the Religious Regard which the High and Honourable Court of Parliament have shewed to the Mountain of the Lords House above other Mountains which they truly are and ought to be concern'd about in the Great Step towards the establishing thereof that they made by their Vote of the 28th instant And then he concludes That the Lord may help them to go on as they have begun and hitherto acted and reward them for their Good Deeds towards his House is the earnest Prayer of c. But was worthy Mr. David inferiour to Him That 's not to be thought neither indeed was He for Thus he bespeaks them in His Sermon preached Iune 15. which I cited before Honourable Worthies I incline not by Panegyricks to offend your modest Ears whose Praise will be in the Church But we bless God we have such a King and Queen to Rule over us and such a Representative of their Majesties in this Honourable Court and so many Noble and worthy Patriots in this Assembly who befriend the Interest of our Lord We bless the Lord and we bless you from the Lord with our Hearts for what you have done for the House of the Lord c. I believe He never Complemented Lady more Zealously Thus these two Eminent Lights And it is not to be doubted but the rest were as forward But to this very hour I never so much as heard of one of them who either publickly or privately condemned that Article concerning the Rabbled Ministers And now when I think on it who can blame a Commissioner or a Parliament for making such an Act when they were thus not only Authorized and justified but prais'd and magnified by such Infallible Casuists And indeed laying aside all Notions of Right and Wrong and Heaven and Hell and Judgment The Brethren had all the Reason in the World to be thus thankful For Not only were they secured of all these Benefices where they had set up at their own hands after the Rabbling Trade begun for the year 1689 which they had still in their prospect And in order to which that Act of Council dated December 24. 1689. whereof I have spoken sufficiently already was made But they had also another fair Opportunity of gaining considerably by it For they had not so many Preachers of their Gang as filled the half of these Churches from which the Conformists had been forced so that there were some Hundreds of Vacancies whereby they had an Excellent occasion to petition the the Council for the vacant Benefices to make up their pretended losses This was a Blessed Providence and with them it had been to resist a divine Call to have neglected it And therefore it was their great Business in the Months of August September and October c. to make Hay while the Sun shined that is to petition the Council for vacant Stipends Thus Mr. William Veitch had been a Great sufferer for why He had been forced to appear actually in Rebellion against K. Charles II. at Pictland Hills for which he was not Hang'd indeed but declared Rebel and Fugitive But now that the Fields were fair and he had endured so much undeserved Persecution would He not have been to blame if he had not studied his own Interest And therefore he petitioned for no less than Five Vacancies viz. Creiland Eckfurd Yettam Marbottle and Oxnam 'T is true the Council were so hard-Hearted as to grant him only Three of them viz. Creiland Eckfurd and Yettam This was hard enough but alas tho he had confidently affirmed in his Petition the contrary it was afterwards found that the Minister of Creiland had not been deprived before Michaelmas 1689. So that Mr. Veitch could not get that Benefice which was certainly a very disappointing Persecution to him No doubt you have heard of this Mr. Veitch before for he is the same who had the inward Call to be Minister at Peebles because the Benefice was far better rather than at several other places where he was far more earnestly desired Thus also One Mr. Iohn Dickson who had sometime preached at Rutherglen but as I am told was never admitted to the Ministery there before the Restitution of Episcopacy 1662. petitioned not only for that but other Four Benefices And a great many more I could instance if my design'd brevity would allow me In short if they had preached but one or two Sermons in a Parish casually or upon an Invitation from one or two of the Parishioners in a whole years time it was sure to be put into the Bosom of the Petition that they had served the Cure in such a Parish and that was enough Thus did that Act of Parliament caress the Presbyterians While in the mean time it behoved the poor deprived Rabbled Clergy who had an undoubted Title in all Justice and Equity patiently to endure want and see their Estates disposed of to other People without daring to say that any wrong was done them Until at last the Duke of Hamilton and some other Councillors who were not entirely of the fashionable Metal began to encourage some of them to petition the Council and promised them their assistance And so indeed some of them got Gifts of their own Benefices But then two or three things are observable For 1. If there was a Presbyterian Preacher who pretended to have exercised his Ministery in such or such a Parish it was in vain for the Rabbled Man to petition for it The CÃ se was clear it belong'd to the Presbyterian by the Act of Parliament So that there was no place for any Man to petition for his own Benefice but where no Presbyterian could pretend that he had served in that Parish 2. Whoever petitioned was carefully to forbear pleading any thing like Right or Title for that was downright to flee in the face of the Act of Parliament which Crawford who was seldom or
to their Nature to Preach little Stories to the People and since most of the Churches of the Southern Shires of Scotland were vacant they might plant themselves in the most plentiful Livings and so leave the Aberdonians for a while in Possession of the Northern University whether for the Reasons lately mentioned or because perhaps the present Professors of Aberdeen are of a more yielding Temper than their inflexible Predecessors Dr. Baron and Dr. Forbes c. they continue still in their Places They are all of them very deserving Men and it is good for that part of the Nation that they have been more gently treated than their Neighbours I have given you this short touch of the Visiting our Universities and Colleges but no doubt you have the Acquaintance of some in all of them to whom you may write as freely as to me and from whom you may expect greater satisfaction than I am able to give you And now I hope you will allow me to draw to a Conclusion for this time And Pardon all the failings in Language and Method I am c. A Proclamation against the owning of the late King Iames and appointing publick Prayers for VVilliam and Mary King and Queen of Scotland April 13. 1689. THE Estates of the Kingdom of Scotland having Proclamed and Declared William and Mary King and Queen of England France and Ireland to be King and Queen of Scotland They have thought fit by publick Proclamation to Certifie the Leidges that none presume to own or acknowledge the late King James the Seventh for their King nor obey nor accept or assist any Commissions or Orders that may be emitted by him or any way to Correspond with him and that none presume upon their highest Peril by Word Writing in Sermons or any other manner of way to impugn or disown the Royal Authority of William and Mary King and Queen of Scotland But that all the Leidges tender their dutiful Obedience to Their Majesties And that none presume to misconstrue the proceeding of the Estates or to create Iealousies or Misapprehensions of the Actings of the Government but that all the Ministers of the Gospel within the Kingdom publickly Pray for King William and Queen Mary as King and Queen of this Realm And the Estates do require the Ministers within the City of Edenburgh under the pain of being deprived and losing their Benefices to read this Proclamation publickly from their Pulpits upon Sunday next being the 14th Instant at the end of their Forenoons Sermons and all the Ministers on this side of the River of Tay to read the same upon Sunday thereafter the 21st Instant and those benorth Tay upon the 28th Instant under the pain foresaid Discharging hereby the Proclamation of the Council dated the 16th of September 1686. to be Read hereafter in Churches And the Estates do Prohibit and Discharge any Injury to be offered by any Person whatsomever to any Ministers of the Gospel either in Churches or Meeting-houses who are presently in the Possession and Exercise of their Ministry therein they behaving themselves as becomes under the present Government and Ordains this Proclamation to be Publisht at the Mercat-Cross of Edenburgh with all ordinary Solemnity that none may pretend Ignorance And that the same may be Printed The SPEECH of WILLIAM Earl of CRAWFURD President to the Parliament of Scotland the 22d of April 1690. My Lords and Gentlemen I May say with Nehemiah to the Nobles Rulers and rest of this Honourable Assembly The Work before us is great Let us not be separated upon the Wall one far from another and our God will do for us Our Religion Church-Government Publick Safety Laws and Liberties are all at stake and the Enemy is watching for our halting in our endeavours for every one of them Yet if God countenance us so that Duty be made plain and we be helped to follow it we are under the Protection of a Prince who is a great Iudge where our true Interest lies and I am convinced will frankly deal to us whatever upon a just Claim we shall apply for His Majesties Printed Instructions for last Session are plain evidences of His tender Regard of His People and contain greater Condescensions than we have seen or read of in the Reigns of any of our Kings for many Ages But I trust this new Dyet will compleat that Tranquillity which we so impatiently wish and wait for And that we shall be engaged to say of his Majesty as the Queen of Sheba did of Solomon Blessed be the Lord thy God which delighted in thee to set thee on the Throne because the Lord loved us therefore made he thee King to do Judgment and Justice It were a suitable Return to his Majesty for the great things He hath done for us to repose an intire Trust in Him and evidence a true Zeal for His Service which in this Critical time as it would be most satisfying and engaging to so generous a Prince So it would be of notable advantage to His and our Affairs Were it not a seasonable part to guard against Prejudices towards one another and when all is at Stake to part with trivial Differences our Enemies only reaping advantage by them and to employ our selves to the outmost for the Settlement of our Church the Defence of the Kingdom and the Enacting of other good Laws now under our Consideration That we may comfortably and fully partake of the wonderful Deliverance God hath wrought for us If in our last Session we had begun at the House of God other things might have framed better in our hands hath not the Church suffered sadly by our Differences And have not our delays made the Work more difficult The Opposition at home and Clamour abroad had certainly been less and many honest suffering Ministers ere now had been relieved of their Pinches if a greater Dispatch had been made But what if any remaining Obstacle should prove a real Disappointment in the Establishing of our Church would not the blame be lodged at our own Door Some are at the same Language that was spoken in Haggai ' s days The time is not come that the Lord's House should be built To such I shall give the Prophets Answer Is it time for you to dwell in your Cieled Houses and this House lie wast We have occasion with Ezra to bless the Lord God of our Fathers that the stop is not at the King's Door but that he hath put such a thing as this in his Heart to Beautifie his House with that Model which shall be suited to the Inclinations of the People which I trust will be squared to the Pattern that was shewed in the Mount and not meerly regulated by humane Policy We are threatned by a Foreign Enemy our Country is infested at home and the Kingdom sadly exposed to many great Inconveniencies What should become of us if His Majesty withdrew His special Protection and we were left to the rage of our Enemies