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A75377 An account of the methods and motives of the late union and submission to the assembly offered and subscribed by Mr. Thomas Lining, Mr. Allexander Sheilds, Mr. William Boyd 1691 (1691) Wing A324B; ESTC R229748 40,969 47

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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