privatively by withholding other necessary Instructions and Warnings Murdering their Souls 6. Because they were and are upon all these Accounts Scandalous and the Objects of the Churches Censure And thô through the iniquity of the times their deserved Censure hitherto hath not been inflicted yet they stand upon the matter convict by clear Scripture Grounds and by the standing Acts and judicial Decision of this Church in her Supreme Judicatories 7. Because this hearing and sumitting to them was required as a Badge Test and Evidence of Due Acknowledgement of and hearty Compylance with Erastianism and Prelacy or His Majesties Government Ecclesiastick Act. Parl. 1. Char. 2. July 10. 1663. which made it a case of Confession to withstand it 8. Because by our Covenants we are obliged to stand at a distance from such courses of Defection and to extirpate them yet in contradiction hereunto we were commanded by the Rescinders of the Covenants to bear the Prelatick Curats as a Badge of our yeilding to the rescinding of the Govenants 9. Because this Course was Offensive and Stumbling both in hardening those that complyed with Prelacy and weakening the Hands of those that opposed it and inferred a condemning of their Sufferings upon this Head Especially 10. When Communion with them was so stated that therein was not only a Case of Controversie among the Godly in which alwayes Abstinence is the surest side nor only in the judgement of many a Case of Confession which is alwayes dangerous to contradict and condemn but undenyably a Case of Competition between the true Church of Scotland her Ministers and Professors owning and adhering to her Holy Establishments claiming a Divine Right to their Offices and Priviledges contending for the Churches Reformation and a Schismatical Party setting up a new Church in a new Order under a new Head robbing them of their Offices and Priviledges and overturning the Reformation We must presume to Plead also That Enquiry be made unto the Heinous and Heaven-daring Affront done to the Holiness of GOD in the horrid Violations of our Holy Covenants National and Solemn League not only how the Popish Prelatical and Malignant Party have broken them enacted the Breaches of them by Law Burnt them and endeavoured to Bury them by making it a Capital Crime to owne their Obligation and by bringing in and substituting in their room Conscience ensnaring Anti-covenants Oaths Bonds and Engagements renouncing the former and obliging to Courses contradictory thereunto But that it may be considered how many wayes Ministers and Professors in this time of tentation and tribulation have been guilty of breach of these holy Covenants particularly by consenting unto subscribing swearing and taking any of the new multiplied mischievously contrived captiously conceived and Tyrannically imposed Oaths Tests or Bonds in matters of Religion since the overturning of the Covenanted Reformation and establishment of Prelacy and by perswading People to take them and forbearing a necessary warning of the danger of them and leaving People in the dark to determine themselves in the midst of these snares All which we Plead and Protest against as sinful and scandalous 1 Because all of them did infer import and imply a sinful unitive conjunction Incorporation Association and Confederacy with the People of these Abominations that were promoting a course of Apostasie from GOD. 2 Because all of them were incapable of the Qualifications required in Sacred Engagements to be taken in Truth Righteousness and Judgement 3 Because all of them in the sense of the Imposers interpreted by their Acts and Actings were condemnatory of and contradictory unto the Covenants some part of the Covenanted Reformation 4 Because by the Ancient Acts of Assembly all publick Oaths imposed by the Malignant Party without consent of the Church are condemned July 28. 1648. Ante merid Sess 18. And Those Ministers are Ordained to be Censured who subscribe any Bonds or take any Oaths not approven by the General Assembly or by their Counsel Countenance or Approbation make themselves accessary to the taking of such Bonds and Oaths In like manner we dare not forbear to Cry and Crave that it may be considered what wrongs Christ hath received from the Erastian and Antichristian Usurpation of the Supremacy encroaching upon the Prerogative of the Lord Jesus Christ his incommunicable Headship and Kingship as Mediator giving to a Man a Magisterial and Architectonick power to alter and innovate Authorise and Exauctorate allow or restrain and dispose of the Government and Governours of the Church according to his pleasure invading the liberties of the Gospel Church introducing a civil Dominion upon her Government contrare to its nature being only a Ministerial-Stewardship distinct from the Civil Government in its Nature Causes Ends Officers and Actings and giving to the Magistrate the power of the keyes without and against Christs Donation and Authority even the Dogmatick Critick and Diatactick Decisive Suffrage and Power in Causes Ecclesiastick which Christ hath intrusted to the Church Representatives and denying to the Church the Exercise of these Keyes and Powers without the Magistrates warrand and Indulgence We crave also that it may be inquired into how far this encroachment hath been connived at submitted unto complyed with homologate strengthened and established by receiving and accepting without consent of the Church yea against the express dissent and testimony of some faithfull Ministers to the contrare the Indulgences anno 1669 and 1679 And by the silence of others not witnessing against the same and others censuring the Faithful for discovering the sinfulness thereof Which we Remonstrate upon these grounds complexly considered 1 Because as the contrivance and end of the grant thereof was to advance and establish the Supremacy to engage Presbyterians either to co-operate towards the settling and strengthening thereof or to surcease from opposing the peaceable possession of the Granters Vsurpation and to extort from them at least an indirect Recognizance of acknowledged Subordination in Ministerial Exercises to his usurped power in a way which would he best acquiesced in To suppress the Preaching and Propagation of the Gospel in persecuted Meetins in houses and fields so necessary at that time and to divide and increase differences and animosities among Presbyterians by insinuating upon these called the more Moderate to commend the Indulger his Clemency while other Non-Conformists adhering to interdicted duties were justly complaining of the Effects of his Severity And as the woful effects of it strengthening the Supremacy weakening the hands of these that witnessed against it extinguishing Zeal and increasing many divisions did correspond with these wretched designs So these could not be counteracted but very much strengthened and promotted by the Acceptance of the Indulgence which in its own nature was so palpably subservient thereto even thô there had been a Testimonie against these designs and ends yet when the means adapted to these ends were complied with it was rendered irrite and contra factam 2 Because as the Supremacie received
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
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
much Strength and Increment from the Indulgence so reciprocally it had its Rise Spring Conveyance and subsistence from the Supremacy from which it flowed upon which it stood and by which at length it was removed And in the grant and conveyance of the Indulgence all the power of the Supremacy was arrogate asserted and exerted in first taking away the power of the Keyes from CHRISTS Stewards and then restoring only one of them to some few with Restrictions bounding and Instructions regulating them in the exercise of that The Acceptance whereof so clogged with these complex Circumstances without a clear distinct Testimony in that case of confession hath at least a great appearance which should have been abstained from of a conniving at submitting unto complying with and homologating of that ErastianVsurpation 3 Because as it was interpreted to be accepted in the same Terms wherein it was granted without a Testimony against the Supremacy so the Entry of those Ministers to their Churches by this Indulgence was prejudicial to the Churches Priviledge Some of them being fixed in particular Churches whereunto they had no peculiar Pastoral Relation before and some transplanted from one Church to another without the interposure of any Ecclesiastick Presbyterial Authority without the free and orderly Call of the People being in many respects prelimited and in the way of Patronages at the Councils Pleasure and Order and those that were Restored to their own Churches being there admitted not by vertue of their Old Right and claim of an undissolved Relation but by vertue of a New Holding on the Indulgence 4 Because the embracing thereof and the continuing therein was a faint yielding to prevailing Erastianism a course of Defection from former Integrity of Ministerial Freedom and Faithfulness in which the Servants and Witnesses of Jesus Christ were Famous and Eminent in former times who for writing Preaching and protesting against the Ecclesiastick Supremacy in the Magistrate and all Erastian courses did bear the cross of Christ with much stedfastness Yea a receding from and foregoing of a very matterial part of the Cause and Testimonie of the Church of Scotland which till then did constantlie wrestle against such encroachments And in this respect scandalous because hardening to Erastian Enemies stumbling to many Friends and offensive to Posteritie 5 Because it is contradictorie to our Covenants to receive Indulgences contrived and conferred on purpose to divide by the terror of persecution on the one hand and the perswasion of this pretended Libertie taking off the Legal restraint on the other Ministers People from the Cause and Testimony of the Church of Scotland against the Supremacy from their former blessed Conjunction therein and to induce them to make Defection to that Party that were Advancing Erastianism And it is expresly contradictory to the Engagement to Duties Anno 1649 where the Obligation bears Because many have of late laboured to supplant the Liberties of the Kirk we shall Maintain and Defend the Kirk of Scotland in all her Liberties and Priviledges against all who shall oppose or undermine the same or encroach thereupon under any pretext whatsomever Likewise we Plead and Obtest that a Search may be made into and a review taken of the late Toleration the Addressing for it and Acceptance of it complexely considered The sinfulness whereof we could not and now cannot forbear to Witness against 1 Because as the Design of the Granter and Tendency of the Grant it self in its own nature being the Introduction of Popery and Slavery could not in any probability be counteracted but rather corroborated by this Addressing for it and Accepting of it even thô there had been a Testimony against the design thereof as there was none and could be none consistent with the continuance thereof so being conveyed from Absolute Power which all were required to obey without reserve Stopping Suspending and Disabling all the Penal Statutes against Papists thereby undermining all the Legal Bulwarks of our Religion The Addressing for and Accepting of it so conveyed without a witness against this Despotical Encroachment yea the very condition of enjoying the benefit of it being exclusive of such a Testimony which might any way tend to the alienating of the People from such a despotical Government in all its Encroachments did indirectly at least imply Complyance with if not the Recognizance and Acknowledgement of that Vsurped Power and the Arbitrary Exercise and Effect of it in suspending the Penal Statutes 2 Because it was extended not only to Prelacy but to Popery Quakerism and all Idolatry Blasphemie and Heresie which was highly provoking to the Lord Jesus and prejudical to the Peace and Purity of His Church contrary to the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament contrary to our Confession of Faith and Gatechisms Chap. 20. § 4. and Chap. 23. § 3. Being placed also among the sins of the second Command in the Larger Catechism contrare to the Principles of the Church of Scotland being condemned warned of and witnessed against by Acts of Assembly anno 1649. And by her faithful Pastors Preaching Writing and Protesting against such Tolerations and sometimes even when Papists were exccluded as that against which the Ministers of Fife and Perth did testifie And contrary to our Covenants wherein we are bound to preserve Reformation and Vniformity in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government to extirpate Popery c. to free our Souls from the guilt of other Mens Sins defend our Liberties and consequently never to comply with a Toleration eversive of all these Interests we are sworn to maintain and introductive of these things we are sworn to endeavour the Extirpation of 3 Because it was clogged with such Conditions and Limitations as did exceedingly hamper the Freedom of the Ministry being Offered in Proclamations and Accepted in Addresses and Obedeince with Restrictions to Persons who might Preach allowing some and discharging others who had as good Authority as they to exercise their Ministry To Places where they should preach only where Intimation was given of the Name of the Place and of the Preacher to some of the Lords of the Council c. And to the matter What or at least what they might not preach to wit nothing that might have any tendency to alienate the Hearts of the People from a Popish and Tyranical Government and consequently nothing against the wickedness or of the Misery of Tyranny nothing against the Toleration and the open Sins proclaimed therein and wicked Ends designed thereby nothing against disabling the Penal Statutes or for the Obligation of them and Ties of National Covenants strengthning them 4 Because of the manifold Scandal of it we cannot but witness against it being so disgraceful to the Protestant Religion and prejudicial to the Interest thereof It was reproachful to our Religion sometimes established by Law then only Tolerate under the Notion of an Evil to be suffered How Confounding and Consternating was this to all the Reformed Churches that