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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57049	The representation, propositions, and protestation of divers ministers, elders and professors, for themselves, and in name of many others, well-affected ministers, elders, and people in Scotland presented by the Lord Wareston, Mr. Andrew Cant, Mr. John Livingston, Mr. Samuel Rutherford and diverse others, to the ministers and elders met at Edinburgh, July 21, 1652.	Warriston, Archibald Johnston, Lord, 1611-1663.	1652 (1652)	Wing R1109; ESTC R10184	12,034	20

unto us no small matter of grief and trouble that the testimonies given the last year against the Publick Resolutions of the Commission of the General Assembly 1650 and against the Meeting at S. Andrewes and Dundee and their proceedings was looked upon by many of whom we desire to judge charitably as not proceeding from principles of conscience but as a Compliance with the Invaders of the Land Blessed be the Lord our God who knowing our Innocencie and integritie hath made that cloud of reproach so clear to evanish as we trust we are now freed from that calumnie in the judgments and consciences of all judicious and charitable men There is another advantage on your path that you are now free from the temptations which reduced many to act and co●cur●e in these Resolutions for necessity was mainly pretended for what was done which now these temptations being removed can have no place for a ground to renew and re-act the same proceedings We may also adde that time hath fully discovered and clearly determined how ●●●●ground there was on our 〈◊〉 to oppose the ●●●●itting of these men concerning whom the contest was the last year into places of power and trust over the Work and People of God An Overture was made to us at our Meeting in Winter last That we would desist from making use of any power derived from the Generall Assembly 1650. And we conce●ved we had ground to expect on the other hand that no use should have been made of any power by vertue of the Meeting at S. Andrews and Dundee And that in the mean time endeavour should have been used for agreement which was assayed by us once and again but the advantages of the time having setled on another quarter then that season wherein the Overture was made did seem to promise to such who did not well consider principles and parties It is now fallen out other wise and by power from them without any agreement you are now conveened In the Meeting at S. Andrews it was earnestly desi●ed that there might have been an Adjournment which through the Lords blessing might have prevented much of the division that hath since fallen out and the differences that were amongst us might have been more easily removed The breach is now wider and only the strong hand of the Lord can help us If you should now again proceed to assume unto your selves the power and constitute your selves into a Generall Assembly we look upon it as a very great obstruction in the way of our agreement and as that which for ought we can yet see may highten the difference The Lord is calling to Holinesse and to return to the Work of Reformation and purging the Church according to the Word of God and approven rules of this Kirk and not to confirm the last years proceedings which were the chief ground of our Divisions It is a thing beyond all question in reason that all doubts and objections proponed concerning the constitution of an Assembly ought to proceed the constitution and not to follow after it When the question is determined sad experience may teach us from former times what influence an Assembly hath according to its constitution right or wrong for which cause the Generall Assembly 1639. 〈◊〉 determine the keeping and authorizing corrupt Generall Assemblies to be one of the chief causes of the many evils which had befallen this Church in time of defection We do therefore with all tendernesse and due respect earnestly beseech That you will ●●●eo●sly consider how inconvenient and unwarrantable it is for you to constitute your selves into a Generall Assembly and to assume the Power and Authority thereof not only when the Authority by which you are conveened is so much questioned and such prelimitations are upon the elections of Commissioners but when you also want the concurrence of so many Presbyteries who are not clear in their consciences to concur with you And when you want the concurrence of Commissioners from burrows who by reason of their present in capacity cannot send Commissioners to sit in any Assembly And when the far greater part of Commissions from Presbytries and Universities are questioned and contraverted by Dissents and Protestations in their meetings for Election and some by reason of usurpation of them who are no Presbyteries So that we know not how few can be admitted unquestioned Members and besides we beseech you consider how great a snare your former actings which were not to Edification have been to some people to tempt them to the way of separation and to the shaking of the Government of this Church from which as we desire to be keeped free as from a course highly displeasing to God and impedimentall to Reformation So we desire you may not tempt them further and lay new snares in the way of any by your not right using of so precious an Ordinance of Christ as are the Assemblies of this Church Upon these and other grounds we are constrained to make this Application to you That without assuming any such power unto your selves you would be pleased to appoint a Conference with us wherein we may with the Lords Assista●ce search out the causes of his wrath against us and freely and friendly debate concerning our Differences and propone Overtures and Remedies for removing both the one and the other In order thereunto we offer these Propositions herewith communicated for the Subject of our Conference it being our earnest desire that an agreement being made we may through the Lords blessing have a free and lawfull well constituted Generall Assembly And now having laid these our thoughts and desires before you we do solemnly obtest you by the Meeknesse and Gentlesse of Christ by his Consolations and the comfort of his Love and by the fellowship of the Spirit If there be any bowels and mercies by the affection which you bear to the Word of Truth to the Peace and Order of this Church to the Lords precious Ordinances and to his people in this generation and to the posterity that you will take these things into your serious consideration and hearken to our Request Who knoweth but the Lord may have compassion on our condition and bring the blinde by a way they know not lead them in paths they have not known make darknesse light before us and crooked things straight Even do all these things unto us and not forsake us Propositions offered to the meeting of Ministers and others At Edinb. July the 21. 1652. WHereas we and many of the Godly in the Land have been really scandalized and stumbled at the late Acts and proceedings relating to publick resolutions conceiving the same in the nature and intention of the Work to have obstructed and shaken the Work of Reformation although we think honourably of divers Godly and learned men who have been concurring in the same and dare not judge their intentions to be such as we think their work hath been and do allow charity to others

diverse worthy and gracious men of whom we shall ever esteem honourable and love them dearly upon consideration of the straits and pressures of the time concurring also with them in the Publick Resolutions that Party perceiving that they were not able to endure tryall in a time of Reformation and purging began the last year to lift up their heads and speak the language of their own being much encouraged by the Constitution Acts and Censures of the pretended Assembly at S. Andrews and Dundee they have so strengthened themselves by their practices since in the Judicatories of the Kirk as they now carry the determinations therof to their own ends And may we not with sad hearts say what can be expected from such of whom we have experience how forward they are to favour wicked men and every evill course to persecute such as make conscience to seek the Lord in sincerity of heart and suppresse the power of godlinesse and to open the door of the Ministery to such as for insufficiencie scandals or dis-affection have been justly deposed and to bring in the like In regard whereof we wish there were not too great cause to make use of the words of the Prophet I have seen also in the Prophets of Jerusalem saith the Lord a herrid thing they strengthen the hands of evil doers that none doth return from his wickednes therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts concerning the Prophets Behold I will feed them with wormwood and make them drink the water of gall for from the Prophets of Jerusalem is prophaneness gone forth into all the land These things we speak not to reflect upon the Ordinances of Jesus Christ in this Land it shall be our stedfast purpose as the Lord shall enable us to maintain the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government of this Kirk and particularly the Nationall Assemblies which we look upon as a rich priviledge and speciall blessing from Heaven for suppressing errour on the one hand and prophanenesse on the other so long as they are preserved from corruption in the constitution thereof And we trust all who are acquainted with the principles and practices of our worthy Predecessors and of the learned and godly non-Conformists in England wil easily see how far we are from their judgments who follow the wayes of separation We hold it our duty firmly to adhere to the Church of Scotland wherein through the Lords goodnes we do this day enjoy the purity of Doctrine and Worship and the Government which Christ hath appointed in his House though there be corruptions in the Constitution of a pretended Assembly Whereby we are deprived of the benefit of a free lawfull and well constitute Assembly for the present where we meet with corruptions we shall the Lord assisting disclaime and oppose them And herein we have the approbation of the first and second Assembly of this Kirk in the beginning of this last Reformation the one annulling and declaring void six severall Assemblies upon many of the same grounds for which we do protest against the present corrupt Assemblies And the other having clearly determined the keeping and Authorizing corrupt Generall Assemblies to have been one of the chief causes of the many evills which have befallen this Church We trust in the Lord our God that our Actions shall abundantly witnesse for us in this respect and so we shall not further insist upon it We have clear grounds in Scripture to warrand us to plead and testific against Corruption and therefore being sensible that there is a course of defection carried on in the Church we have endeavoured first to prevent the same in the beginnings thereof and afterward to give Testimony against it as it comes to be discovered to us We have since studied in a Christian and brotherly way to reclaime the Authors thereof and these that have concurred with them and now when still we perceive our labours and endeavours to be without successe as we professe our adherence to former Testimonies against the late Defection so we are necessitated to adde this upon the grounds before mentioned and for all or some of the Reasons following I. This meeting hath dependance upon and the power and authority to which it can lay claime for the indiction thereof is derived from the pretended Assembly which met at St. Andrews and adjourned to Dundee which being unfree unlawfull and corrupt cannot derive or communicate to another that which it had not in it self II. It is constitute after the same manner for the most part of the Members constituted as the former pretended Assembly of Persons which were Authors and Abettors of and have carried on a course of defection in this Church contrary to the VVord of God the solemn League and Covenant the solemn Engagement and the expresse Acts and Declarations of the Kirk which Persons being under so great a scandall are by the Acts of the Kirk incapable to be Members of Generall Assemblies III. Because of the pre-limitation of Election by the Acts made at Dundee injoyning Provinciall Synods and Presbyteries to proceed with the Censures of the Kirk against Ministers Students Expectants Professors who altogether opposed the Publick Resolutions or shall not acquiesce to the Acts made at Dundee and so excludes all who are not involved in the course of defection as incapable of election which is a corrupt rule for election and constituting Assemblies and in pursuance thereof there were several pre-limitations made since by severall Synods and Ptesbyteries in their Acts Ratifying the Proceedings of the pretended Assembly at Dundee IV. There are many Presbyteries who have expresly refused to send Commissioners to this meeting as an Assembly and who do concur in Protesting against the same and where Presbyteries have sent Commissioners the Elections are generally contraverted there being Protestations made or at least dissents entred against most of their Elections upon good grounds conform to the Acts of the Kirk also there be wanting Commissioners from Burrows who in regard of their present incapacity cannot send Commissioners The generality of the godly in the Land go along with us and approve our protesting against this meeting as an unlawfull and corrupt Assembly Therefore from the zeal we owe to the glory of God to this Cause and Truth the Duty of our Callings as set for the defence of the Gospel and according to our Covenant wherein we are bound to prevent and reveal all parties and courses contrary thereunto from the sense of the awful judgements of an angry God both felt and feared for these begun and continued in-defections that we may according to the example of our forefathers acquit our selves as guiltlesse of this growing Apostacie to the present age and transmit to our posterity the right Constitution of free and lawfull Generall Assemblies and to prevent the Lords giving a Bill of divorce to the Land We do hereby solemnly Declare and Protest against the Constitution Authority Acts and Proceedings of this pretended Assembly

THE REPRESENTATION PROPOSITIONS AND PROTESTATION Of divers MINISTERS ELDERS AND PROFESSORS For themselves and in name of many others well-affected Ministers Elders and People in SCOTLAND PRESENTED By the Lord WARESTON Mr. ANDREW CANT Mr. JOHN LIVINGSTON Mr. SAMUEL RUTHERFORD and diverse others To the Ministers and Elders met at EDINBURGH July 21. 1652. Printed at Leith by Evan Tyler 1652. Unto the Reverend the Ministers and Elders met at Edinburgh July 21. 1652. It is represented by the Ministers Elders and Professors under subscribing for them selves and in the name of many others well-affected Ministers Elders and People It is matter of unspeakable grief and sorrow to consider how great Indignation the Lord hath let forth against us heaping wrath upon wrath and making one Judgment to follow another as the waves of the Sea and for the most part the fruits thereof through the Land have bin no other then further departing from his wayes and dividing one from another in judgment and affection Our breach is wide as the Sea and who can heal it Spirituall Judgments especially are multiplied upon us Temptations abound and Divine Influences are restrained He hath poured upon us the fury of his anger and the strength of battell and it hath set us on fire round about yet we knew it not and it burneth us yet we lay it not to heart There is no returning to the Lord his hand is stretched out still and is there not great cause to fear lest the glory of the Lord should depart from amongst us It were good for us if we could with Jerusalem remember all our desireable things which we had in the dayes of old and compare them with the days of our misery and affiction If we look back to that which we have already attained of the Work of Reformation notwithstanding our short coming in the power and practice of godlinesse what purity was there of worship What soundnesse of Doctrine Unity of faithfull Pastors order and authoritie of Assemblies What endeavours for promoving the power of godlinesse for purging of the Ministery Judicatories and Armies and for employing such in places of power and trust as were of constant integritie and good affection to the Cause and of blamelesse conversation And again if we consider how in place of these within these two years have succeeded for unity division for order confusion for purity of worship outward contempt for the power of godlinesse Atheisme and profanenesse for purging of the Ministery Judicatories and Armies sinfull mixtures for zeal lukewarmnesse and tolleration It is too palpable that we are far gone on in the way of declining having lost much of that which we had attained and that which remains being ready to die If we look before us it seems now there is a wide door open for conjunction with all parties in case of straits and necessities How subtile are the devices of Sathan to make use of the same bad principle for contrary ends and may we not make use of what was said in former times to the declining children of this Church How will posterity blame us that we have not resisted the beginnings of evils Shall not their hearts mourn when they shall behold so fair a Fabrick so dearly conquest so firmly grounded to be so pittifully ruined be their fathers If we look inward to our own hearts whether we have had most of the Lords Spirit with us in the old ways or the late and whether our spirits were then more with the Lord or now It is easie to judge If we look about us on every hand what hardening is there of Adversaries of all sorts what offence given to the weak who see changes of parties and fear change of Principles and Interests when they perceive conjunction with those against whom the Covenant was made and deserting of these for whom it was made and see mens interests preferred to the Lords sinfull mixtures make way for sinfull separations and the preferring of mans interest to Gods makes our Adversaries to be exalted over us Thus he writes our sin upon our judgment and because we trusted his Interests to his Adversaries therefore he gives up our interests to the power of our Adversaries and Judgment hath entered by the door which Policy had locked fastest It was the complaint of the non-Conformists of old that Conformitie was preferred to the duties of the first and second Table for if a Minister were conform grosse faults were passed over in silence and if he were not conform though an able painfull and gracious Pastor and blamelesse in his conversation yet he was the object of persecution This was held by the non-Conformists a sure sign of defection in the Church We wish there were nothing like this amongst us and that insufficient and scandalous Ministers made not a Sanctuary of the Publick Resolutions What Acts are made against Expectants Students and Profedors which are not of this judgment we desire may be remembred And we have it to regrate That too many make it their practice upon this ground to debar such as would be usefull in the Lords Vineyard How great influence this hath also had and may farther have in all Elections we need not mention How much precious time have the publick resolutions caused to be spent in debates and thereby many diversions from most necessary duties c. is matter of great stumbling both to the weak and to strangers which are amongst us that grosse ignorance and scandals are not onely to be found in Professours uncensured but also amongst Elders and that many Ministers are not onely carelesse to instruct the ignorant and to endeavour that scandals may be censured but some are openly given to the same themselves and not onely no course taken to censure them but some who have been justly censured for prophaneness and malignancie are readmitted and unqualified Expectants in some places put in the Ministery The approbation of the publick Resolutions being made a main part of qualification We hope it will be easily acknowledged on all hands that there hath been a great backsliding of heart from the Lord for the which we are filled with our own wayes We trust also that there be few that will deny that the Lords quarrell against us is for his broken Covenant and therefore it is that he hath threatned against us as against Israel not only that we shall not be a Kingdom but that we shall not be a Nation nor a Church but put away by a Bill of divorce It is high-time for us then to search and try our wayes and turn again to the Lord Let us examine by what way we have departed from him that by the same steps we may return wherein the Land hath declined from their sworn Covenant with the Lord and known principles before this ruine came upon us and wherein they have sithence further departed by staying upon those that smote them and forsaking the Lord the Covenanted God of this Nation It was