the Exercile of his Ministrie And that the Presbytrie of Dalkeith And others havers of the Lybels given in against him and Depositions of the Witnesses may make the same patent to him as Law appoints That he may know what is lybelled or may seem to be proven to the effect he may the better clear himself of the samen which is nothing but false lyes and calumnies And whereof several of the Presbyterian Ministers who have seen the Lybels and Depositions Affirm that there is nothing proven But the dancing about the Bon-Fire which is not only clearly redargued to be false as said is there being no Bonfires either on the foresaid day nor for several moneths either before or after But likewise if the persons who have deponed it were known and re-examined it will be found they have deponed falsly And that they have been dealt with so to Depone And that this Falshood may not be discovered not only are the Depositions kept up contrary to express Law and Act of Parliament But likewise no notice can be gotten who were the persons who have deponed it that they may be insisted against Whereas it is pretended That the Lords of their Majesties Privy Council are not Judges competent to the sentences of Ecclesiastick Courts and that as they cannot put in Ministers in Churches so they cannot meddle with sentences of Depositions It is answered 1 mo That be the 1 Act 8 Parl Ja 6 It is Statute and Ordained That his Majestie and Council shall be Judges competent To all persons Spiritual and Temporal in all matters And to pretend that the Council is not Judge competent to sentences of Ecclesiastick Courts is no other then to affirm That these Courts have an Arbitrary power and may do wrong at their pleasure without Remeed or control For it is evident That Mr. Heriot is most unjustly pursued and Deposed And it is also evident that if it be not Redressed be the Council he will never be Restored be those Ministers who have dealt so unjustly with him And whereas it is alledged That as the Council cannot put in Ministers so they cannot meddle with sentences of Deposition It is answered That the Council has not the power of Admission and Ordination of Ministers But if a Minister having a lawful Call the Presbyterie should refuse to Admit and Ordain him albeit they have nothing to object against him upon Application to the Council or Session Letters will be direct to Charge the Presbyterie to Admit and Ordain him but multo magis in this case where a Minister is Deposed from his Ministrie as likewise from his Benefice which is his Livelyhood and Maintenance And yet most unjustly and without Ground or Reason The Council is most proper Judge for Restoring him against the foresaid Oppression Injurie and Unjust Sentence And for a further evidence of this unjust Sentence it is Humbly desired that the Lords of Their Majesties Privy Council will be pleased to take notice That in the first Lybel there are many Articles which are not Relevant And it is said that there is none of them proven but the Dancing about the Bonfire And yet the Presbytery by their Sentence found the Lybel Relevant and Proven which must be understood as to the hail Articles of the Lybel complexlie then which there is nothing more false as will appear by the Lybels and Depositions if they were produced And yet thereupon Mr Heriot is first suspended be the Presbytery and referred be them to the General Assembly for further Censure as if great Immorralities in Life and Errours in Doctine had been proven against him And the Synod to which the Assembly remitted him following the steps of the Presbytery deposed him Now when Presbytery and Synod have acted thus contrary to express Law and have done open and manifest Unjustice and whereof all that heard of it are convinced and sensible And having stated themselves Parties against him there can be no Remedie expected from the said Unjustice Injury and Oppression unless the Lords of Their Majesties Privy Council interpose their Authority If it be alledged That be the late Act of Parliament The Act of Supremacy in Church matters is Rescinded It is Answered That the Act of Parliament 1669 is Rescinded which extended the Supremacy to the Ordering and Disposal of the External Government and Policy of the Church and to the Enacting of Constitutions Acts and Orders in the Church But the foresaid Act of K Ja 6 his 8 Parliament is not Rescinded which is only as to the Judging of Ecclesiastick Persons in matters complained upon And which power is inherent to the Crown otherwayes there should be Regnum in Regno And Church Judicatories should have Arbitrary power without Redress or Control as said is In Regard whereof The Lords of Their MAJESTIES Privy Council are Judge Competent to this Injurie Vnjustice and Oppression And the Desire of the Petitions ought to be Granted A short Relation of the Presbytery of Dalkeith their procedure in Reference to the Sentencing of Mr. Alexander Heriot and their planting of the Congregation of Dalkeith IT is not to be doubted but that a late Pamphlet called An Information for Mr. Alexander Heriot Designed Minister at Dalkeith hath spread through a great part of this Kingdom and it may perhaps be thought strange that none of the Members either of the Presbytery of Dalkeith or Synod of Louthian and Tweddale have appeared to vindicate the Innocency of these Judicatories and to wipe off the soul Aspersions cast upon them by that defamatory Paper But the truth is an Answer to that Paper was prepared about four Moneths ago and the Reason why the publication thereof was at that time delayed was because it was judged convenient to know the mind of the Synod whose integrity was also questioned and reproached by the Informer before any Answer to that Paper should be emitted But the Synod sitting in May last and judging the Calumnies of that Paper obvious enough declined to trouble themselves with any review thereof as a thing not worthy of their time But some of the Synod put it in the hands of a Person whose acquaintance with the process of Mr. Heriot qualified him to descry the Informers lies thereanent And again this Person being diverted with a throng of business till the Plantation of the Kirk of Dalkeith was near an Issue it was thought expedient still to forebear the Answer of that Paper till the Answerer might be able to give a joynt view of the process of Mr. Heriot and of the method taken for the settlement of the Paroch of Dalkeith with a qualifyed Minister Which being now brought to an happy Period it seems high time after so long forbearance to undeceive all that are willing to know the truth and to give in the first place a compendious but distinct account of the Process and then refell the Informers mis-representation of the same only let this be premitted that the reason why
Court Arbitrary and yet this is the Informers only Argument why no Ecclesiastick Court can be Soveraign in the matter of Censures Because then it would be Arbitrary 2 The highest Asserters of the Supremacy before the Act of Parliament 1669 Which is now rescinded did never affirm that the King or Council might by themselves reverse or redress Censures purely Ecclesiastick but the outmost by them acclaimed was and is that all remedy by Church Judicatures failing the King or Council might with advice of the sanior pars put a stop to the procedure for some competent time and recommend a review till better order might be re-established But 3 ly The Informer might have found the Act of Parliament that he cites thereafter plainly interpreted and restricted viz. By the first Act of Parliament 12. Ja. 6. Intituled Ratification of the Liberty of the true Kirk whereby it is expresly declared that the Act cited by the Informer shall no wayes be prejudicial to nor derogate any thing from the priviledge that God has given to the spititual Office-bearers in the Church concerning the collation or deprivation of Ministers c. But this last Act the Informer did not or would not think on And certainly to understand the former Act so laxly as he doth and to apply it to a case so plain and obvious as Mr. Heriot's Deposition were no less then to overturn the Church and introduce confusion 2. But in Answer to what is said viz. That the Council cannot put in Ministers and therefore cannot meddle with Sentences deposing them the Informer tells us that though the Council has not the power of Admission and Ordination yet if a Presbyrery should refuse without cause to admitt and ordain a Minister having a lawfull Call Letters may be direct to charge them to do it multo magis in the case of Deposition is the Council the most proper Judge to restore against the oppression of an unjust Sentence Ans But 1. The Informer forgets that the Council Power to charge in the case he supposes was allowed to fortify the presentation of the Patrons when in use and so to maintain that mixed Right partly Civil and partly Ecclesiastical which they pretended to But now that presentations are abolished and that the matter of Calling and of Entering Ministers is by the late Act of Parliament referred to the Determination of the Presbytery of the bounds to be by them concluded the remedy in case of difference upon a Call must no longer be by Letters of Horning but by Appeals to the Synod and from the Synod to the Assembly to be there ultimatly determined And 2 ly There is besides this mistake in the case supposed a great disparity and inconsequence in the Argument thereon founded For Esto that the Lords of Council may put the Presbyteries to do their duty it doth not therefore follow that in case they refuse the Council may do it for them which yet must be the Informers inference or otherwise he concludes nothing But all the Magistrate doth in such a case is to bring the matter before some Superior Ecclesiastick Court that may supply the fault of the Inferior which without the Magistrate's interposing hath through Mr. Heriots importunity been done in this case once and again much more than was necessary 3. But why in the matter of an ordinary Sentence of Deposition judged and rejudged by the judicatories of the Church should the Informer bring things to these extremes as if we were in the case of some great and important matter about which the Church it self was divided and the Magistrat oblidged to interpose for preventing some ruining prejudice Certainly if such clamours be allowed on every occasion of this kind the excellent Establishment which we have lately by Law obtained is of little or no use and both King and People must be in perpetual disquiet For can the Informer upon the smallest reflection think that his clamour should preponderate with the Magistrat to the Sentence of the Presbytery ratified over and again by the Synod and the Assembly whom God and the Law have intrusted with the final Judgment of such matters So that were the Sentence even doubtful as it is not yet it s very Authority should oblidge to an acquiescence How much more is the Informer to be blamed who notwithstanding of Mr. Heriot's undenyable contumacy and several gross Immoralities proven against him whereof almost any one is sufficient for Deposition doth upon some ill applyed notions of form and other bold falshoods and calumnies in point of Fact ofter to make such a stirr and noise which yet no wise man regards Finally To what is said I add a few words more 1. This Juridico-Theologaster might have remembered if he had not forgotten his Logicks that two Powers as well as other things may be so far distinct as to be neither Co-ordinata nor Subordinata but Disparata And I take it neither to be Heterodoxical nor Paradoxical to say so of the Civil and Ecclesiastical Power for it hath been asserted by no mean men yea sometimes before the Supreme Judicatory of this Kingdom and that upon the highest peril So that Mr. Heriot might very well have spared his idle and ignorant Story of a Regnum in Regno 2. Mr. Heriot by his heterogeneous Appeal has made way for farther extravagancy of this kind For some of his sort I have sâ—umbâ—ed upon a rare kind of Appealing from the Presbytery to the Synod Commission of the Church General Assembly Council of State and the King all at once simul semel and thereby if this sort of saltus come in fashion do enervate and render all Judicatories both Civil and Ecclesiastical in a great measure useless and would bring all to the Kings personal and immediate determination when ever any party finds or but fancies that he is wronged by any Judicatory and what the consequences of this ridiculous sort of Appealing would be some men will not have the fear and cannot have the wit to foresee 3. As to the particular case in hand What ever the Civil power or Supremacy may be or is according to Law I thought it had been reserved for greater and better uses and ends than the sheltering of a Scandalous Curate from the moderate just Legal and deserved Censure and Sentence of Judicatories acting according to the established Laws and if either Civil or Ecclesiastical Judicatories suffer themselves and their legally settled order to be disturbed by such groundless bold and false clamours and alledgeances as these of Mr. Heriot they may be sure of disturbance enough for this and the following Generations But they are wise enough to foresee and prevent this and other evils designed by the common Adversaries POSTSCIRPT SInce the preceeding Answer to Mr. Heriots Information was drawn I have had a sight of a second Edition of that Paper which has these words in the close added to the former And whereas some persons have strongly asserted to
Hereditary Traitor another Rebel and Disturbers of our Israel and other stuff to this purpose 5. His rejoycing and shewing evidences of cheerfulness at the News of the Defeat of the Kings Army at Gillicrankie Three Witnesses being examined concurred in this that Mr. Alexander Heriot at the News of the Defeat of the Kings Forces at Gillicrankie shewed signal evidences of his Joy and Satisfaction and caused give the Reporter thereof a Drink And shall he that is Glad at Calamities pass unpunished 6. That in his seeming Observance of the late publick Thanksgiving for the Preservation of their Majesties Persons and Government the Defeat of the Irish Armie and discovery of the late Plot he made no mention of any of them either in Praying or Preaching whereby there was plain dissembling with God and Man Three Witnesses having deponed concurr in this that on the late publick Thanksgiving enjoyned by Authority Mr. Alexander Heriot did neither by any preliminary Discourse nor in Sermon or Prayer make any mention of the Defeat of the Irish Armie the preservation of their Majesties Persons and Government nor of the discovery of the late Bloody Plot. 7. His perscuting of Sober People in his paroch for their Presbyterian Principles Four Witnesses agree in this that by Mr. Aelxander Heriots Instigation and influence upon the Magistrates some were Fyned and forced to fly the place for Baptizing their Children with Presbyterian Ministers 8. Negligence of Discipline in the case of gross Scandals And particularlie in the case of Thomas Finlaw and Janet Somervell who lived together as married Persons Notwithstanding it was notourly known that the said Janets first Husband was alive Three Witnesses concurr that William Gardiner William Sadler and John Dicksone were guilty of Fornication and yet had from Mr. Alexander Heriot the benifite of a sealing Ordinance without satisfaction previously required And as to the particular instance above mentioned four or five Witnesses deponed that they saw Janet Somervels first Husband after she was Married to Thomas Finlaw It was also deponed not only that this was notourly known but also came to Mr. Heriots Ears and one at least of his Elders deponed that he knew no diligence done for censuring either of them The same was declared by the parties themselves There were other two Articles proven in the process which being of lesser weight for Brevities sake shall be omitted When the Presbytery and assistants had seriously and a long time deliberated upon this whole process that they might not proceed rashly in a matter of moment they delayed to pass any Sentence till another day Upon the twelvth day of September The Presbytery and assistants did again revise cognosce and judge upon the whole process and first they judged Mr. Alexander Heriot upon the account of his declinator and rest of his conduct to be contumacious and then having deliberately advised the articles of the Lybel with the depositions adduced to instruct the same they concluded him to be censurable and therefore did Suspend him from all Ministerial function and referred him for further Censure to the next enshewing General Assembly or next Synod of Louthian and Tweddal if either of these should judge him farther Censurable And so tender were they of Mr. Alexander Heriot that notwithstanding of his declinator yet before sentence past they called him and also sent to his House to hear if he had ought to alledge why sentence should not be pronounced But he did not Compear And therefore after Sentence an Extract thereof was presently sent to him And upon the whole I darre appeal to any Person whom prejudice hath not Blinded whither or not the Presbytery of Dalkeith and Assistants joyned with them have not proceeded upon a relevant Lybel and plenary Probation And also with that Candor Singleness and deliberation as becomes in a Case of such Weight But to proceed Mr. Alexander Heriot being cited after six free Dayes to compeare before the General Assembly and accordingly upon the 3 d of November 1690. He compeared and declared he past from his Declinature and submitted his Case intirely to the General Assembly Who thereupon did referr the same to the cognition and decision of the Synod of Lothian and Tweddale as their Act Dated the said third of Novâ—mber bears Upon _____ the day of December immediatly following Mr. Alexander Heriot being called compeared before the Synod and not only before Sentence past but even before the process was considered made an appeal from the Synod to the next General Assembly But notwithstanding thereof according to the trust committed unto them by the Assembly the Synod considered and revised the whole process and pronounced Sentence of Deposition against Mr. Alexander Heriot and appointed one of the Members of the Presbytery of Dalketth to intimate the said Sentence the next Lords day and to declare the Church of Dalkeith Vacant After this the Presbytery of Dalkeith finding the Church of Dalkeith Vacant in order to the legal settlement thereof proceeded to the Election of a Session after this manner They appointed one of their own number to Preach there upon a Lords day and after the Sermon publickly to desire the Heritors and heads of Families to meet upon a convenient day which was also specially condescended upon to make a list of Persons fit to be Elders and Deacons in that Paroch Which list being brought to the Presbytery and the Persons Nominate being tryed an edict for them was publickly served in the Church of Dalkeith and being returned to the Presbytery no objection was alledged against any Person named in the list only a Protestation was made in behalf of Mr Alexander Heriot against the Election of any Eldership there upon pretence of his standing Relation to that Congregation But the ground of that Protestation being null the Presbytery did forthwith appoint one of their number upon a Lords day following to preach in the Church of Dalkeith and with the usual Solemnities to ordain the Persons named in the List to be Elders and Deacons there Which was accordingly done upon the Eight of February of this present year of God 1691. This it seems did alarum Mr Alexander Heriot For shortly after some Person I shall not say ex foece Populi But who seems to be neither Divine nor Lawyer hath had the imprudence or rather the impudence to cause Print Reasons of Mr. Heriots appeal from the Synod and some Notes in Relation to the Presbyteries procedure against him whereby his case is most grosly misrepresented Yet thereupon does he Petition their Majesties privy Council as the Judges competent to repone him to the exercise of his Ministry and to interpose their Authority in discharging to call any Minister to the Church of Dalkeith But the Right Honourable the Lords of their Majesties Privy Council knowing their duty better then Mr. Heriot or his Advocates can inform them And considering the extent of the power belonging to the civil Magistrate in such cases did
Copy of it and exclaimes wickedly against the Presbytery for this and their procedure thereupon and in the bitterness of his Spirit dictates to the World his Censure of it in these Words than all which saith he there can be nothing in Judicial procedures more partial pernicious and unjust Ans Herein he shews more ignorance and malice than either wit or honesty And if he would be sober and calmly compose himself to hear truth and reason I would tell him that he was still under citation to the Presbytery till he declined them and after that to what purpose should he have been cited to appear before them whose Authority he had simply declined Besides he may know if he please that there was no Addition made to the Lybel after that Diet of the Presbytery unto which he was cited apud Acta by the Moderator in face of the Presbytery And if he had appeared at that Diet to which he was cited he had got the Copy of that Additional Lybel as well as he got of the former and time also to prepare and give in his Answers to it So that he has no reason to complain of the want of a Copy of any Addition that then was made for he would no more bear from nor meddle with the Presbytery but declined them before they did any thing in his affair that he could or did complain of as appears by the Declinature it self 10. He saith with an admirable either ignorance or impudence that he appealed from the Presbytery to the General Assembly Doubtless the mans own Conscience cannot but tell him that there was not the least hint of any such thing There was indeed a pretended Factory to one Mr. James Hamiltoun presented to the Presbytery a true Copy whereof is herewith Printed supra in the Narrative which bears a Declinature of the Presbyteries Jurisdiction but not the least shew of an Appeal So that both malice and weakness appear in his thus making lies his refuge In this his Declinature he would not so much as call them the Presbytery but in contempt the Ministers met at Dalkeith and disclaimed their Authority as incompetent Judges of him forsooth yea expresly denies them to be the Presbytery of Dalkeith And thus he did stubbornly and proudly trample upon both the constitution and Government of this Church and also the Civil Authority of King and Parliament establishing it And for this his Contumacy the Presbytery might well have forthwith deposed him and that by Law and according to their duty but to evite the shew or appearance and Clamours of Rigidity they proceeded to the process It may also here be observed that in this his declinature he declines the Ministers he should have added and Elders if his memory had been good as no Presbytery and that because they could have no Power to Act as a Presbytery till they received it from the General Assembly Which is such a piece of Non-sense as needs no confutation For who knows not that Presbyteries are established by the Law and General Assemblies made up of Delegates from them Besides that by this sort of rare reasoning Mr Heriot bewrayes both Ignorance and infidelity in the Protestant Doctrine about the Jus Divinum of Church Government and the intrinsick power of Ministers and Elders as the judicious Reader will easiely perceive at the first hearing of his Argument And after all this and much more of arrogant stubborn and obstinate carriage towards the Presbytery was it any wonder that the Presbytery declared him contumacious had they not great and Just cause so to do Could they do less Nay let the most bigot Prelatists upon a supposition of the Presbyteries Authority but consider Mr. Alexander Heriots conduct towards them and if he be a Person of any Ingenuity and Candor we might refer this unto his Determination whether or not the Presbytery had reason to declare the said Mr. Alexander contumacious Was he not evidently and eminently such And doth he not still continue and shew himself more and more such even to the Superlative degree Has he not Treated the Synod as Insolently in his Language as the Presbytery as appears from his printed Information doth he not appear to be a scornful and Stout hearted Person that is far from righteousness Doth he not utter vain knowledge and fill his Belly with the East Wind 11. But this vain man proceeds to lye also upon the late General Assembly and boldly saith that they found no contumacy in his Appeal But for Answ 1. Doth he not know that there was no such thing as an Appeal of his from the Presbytery to the General Assembly and that his appearing before the Assembly was upon the Summonds raised at the Instance of the Presbytery of Dalkeith to which Assembly they had referred him Hath he forgot that he appeared not there to prosecute any appeal which never was but to answer the Summonds 2. If there had been any such thing as an appeal of his from the Presbytery to the General Assembly yet it would have been Illegal and Unformal and also unjust and unreasonable because of these Rules of the Cannon Laws 1. Appellaridebet ab Inferiore Judiâ—â— gradatim non per Saltum ad Superiorem 2. Prohibetur Appellatio 1. A regularis Disciplinae correctione 2. A gravamine futuro 3. He speaks as if the Assembly had cognosced upon the Cause whereas it is well known that the Assembly did not at all enter upon the Cause but leaving it intacta integra referred it to the Synod of Louthian and Tweddale giving them full power to determine therein as they should find meet 4. Is it not pleasant here to remember that Mr. Heriot when before the General Assembly called his Paper which he sent in to the Presbytery his Declinature and passed from it yet now in this Information be again and again calls it an Appeal and owns and pleads it as such in his plea against the Presbytery and Synods How shall we understand these contradictions Must he to save others the labour of it give himself the lye It would seem that Mr. Heriot has had some more ingenuity before the General Assembly than he has elsewhere and at other times for that Paper was indeed only a Declinature and he then gave it its true name neither could he have passed from an Appeal if any such thing had been for his so doing would have imported his approbation of the Presbyteries procedure in his affair and even his passing from his Declinature imported little less However he should have remembered the known Proverb that a Lyer has need of a good Memory 12. He injuriously and falsly alledges that the Presbytery founded his contumacy upon his Appeal from them For it s referred to his own Conscience 1. If ever he appeared before the said Presbytery but once 2. If he offered directly or indirectly to make any Appeal from the Presbytery at his then compearance 3. If he did not
and depositions of the Witnesses Read And the Presbytery were not bound to follow him close at the Heels except his steps had been better ordered 3. There was no reason why the Presbytery of Dalkeith should be removed as soon as he Why should they not be suffered to speake for their own Vindication as well as he for his Is their Reputation nothing worth in comparison of his And why might not their Brethren detain them a little after Mr. Heriot had removed to get some further Information from them about the matter of Fact and it was but a very little time they stayed after his Removal 4. Hath not every Judicatory power to examine and question the several parties contending before them either together or apart as they see Cause And is it not very needful and necessary often times that the parties be questioned and heard apart What need then of this vain Clamour about the Presbyteries staying a little behind Mr. Heriot in the Synod If he must needs dictate Church-Policy and Law he has need first to learn them better himself 5. Seing Mr. Heriot in his Paper talks so big about Law and Justice and so often charges both Presbytery and Synod with partiality walking contrary to Law and Reason Unjustice Oppression and many other hard words which he heaps up against them upon very weake and false pretences I would fain know of him what kind and measure of Justice this is that he metts out unto the Presbytery of Dalkeith For in one and the same Reason of his Appeal he storms and exclaims against them for presuming to speake in his presence and debate in his Affair while he was before the Synod and calls it Interrupting him and again in the same Reason he Storms and Quarrels with the Synod for letting them sit and speake when he is removed And if they may not speake for themselves neither when he is present nor when he is not present then let him inform them by his next Information when they shall speak For till Mr. Heriot reconcile these contradictions I cannot guess at the Season of their speaking but can guess pretty well by the Language of this his fourth Reason what Justice they might expect from him if he were their Judge 18. His 5 th Reason of Appeal is that several members of the Synod did interrupt him while he was Vindicating himself c. And here again he makes a great noise and Clamour about this as a thing without example in any Judicatory and as an open discovering of their prejudice design and resolution to proceed against him although without just cause And alledges that when he was craving a sight of the Additional Lybel and Depositions of the Witnesses some of them cryed out that the same should not be granted to him as if every one of them had had a decisive Voice Ans 1. He talks here as if he were reproving a Company of School-Boys and like and Infallible Doctor able to dictate to all the members of Church Judicatories how they should behave in Judgment But withal he shewes gross Ignorance of the Constitution of Church Judicatories for really every member has a decisive voice protanto when it comes to a Vote and all have equal power both to consult and determine in the free Courts of Christ And the Decision of matters is not referred to a Prelate or his deputy which yet Mr. Heriot would like best for he speaks of every members having a decisive voice as a great absurdity So that by this and other things he shewes that he understands very little or nothing of Church-power 2. As to the few words dropt in his presence by two of the Members of the Presbytery of Dalkeith I have answered already 3. If any other of the Synod presumed to speak a word while he was speaking or that any of them cried or yet spake these words It should not be granted to him I do not remember but doubt it much and I dare not now take it upon Mr. Heriots Printed word after such proof of its fallibility even in matters of Fact and Memory And though the matter alledged be but small yet I must have another Witness which hitherto I have not found before I believe it 4. Giving but not granting that some one or other Member of the Synod contradicted him or spake something that was not smooth and soft enough for his tender Ears then upon this supposition I Answer 1. As it is no great Crime so I will not Justify it altogether It may be passed as a piece of easily pardonable and tolerable precipitancy And Mr. Hertot ought not to have exclaimed against it at an intollerable rate as if it were a thing without example in any Judicatory and to make such a Sputter about it as he does I can tell him where and when there were far worse examples in the most eminent of the Prelatick Judicatories and far greater disorder and confusion amongst them notwithstanding of all the power of the Prelate to keep them in order 2. However it can be but a very weak Reason of Appealing from the Synod because one or two of its Members spake a word not to his minde while he was there must he therefore Appeal from the whole Synod because one or two of them spake something that did not please him Is not this to be a delicate Man indeed 3. If he had spoken and behaved as it became a Man in his Coat and Circumstances it is like no Man would have so far transgressed the good order and form of Judicatories as to have given him any disturbance but when a Man comes before such a Judicatory with a mouth full of Lyes and utters them with confidence it s a hundered to one but one or other of such a company of knowing Men will in a plain and clear Case drop a word before its full season 4. If any contradicted him the Reasons by them at that time given for their so doing should have been set down by Mr. Heriot and answered before he had made this a Reason of an Appeal from the whole Synod 5. In short this Reason amounts to this That he Appealed from the Synod because while he was before them he got not all the talk and discourse himself alone and thus videas quantum valere potest 19. His 6 th Reason of Appeal from the Synod is because several Members of the Synod did speak and deal with him to dimitt or that otherwise they would depose him and hence he confidently but rashly and causelesly concludes that the Synod saw weakness in the grounds they had for deposing him and here again pro more suo he exclaims and rails Answer 1. This if true yet is not at all a ground of Appeal from the Synod for if any of its Members did without Commission from or knowledge of the Synod give him such a friendly advice why should he blame the Synod for it and that so highly as to
disowned in the Prelatick Government which owns no other Officers than these Patriarchs Primates Metropolitans Arch-Bishops Bishops Arch-Deans Deans Prebends Rectors Vicars Priests Deacons Curats Church-Wardens Sides-Men Sextons and the rest of the Apocriphal Tribe of Mr. Heriots Regular Clergy which he again and again talks of in his Information And I needed not to have omitted the Pope for he belongs to the same Tribe and diverse of the Prelatick Protestants do own him as the first Bishop that is to say the Head of the Clan And for my part I am content that all go together as birds of the same Feather 3 As to the alledged inconsiderableness of these Elders chosen by the more regular party in Dalkeith they are nothing inferior to Mr. Heriots nominal Elders in any thing that is good and considerable And for their number they exceed not what they were wont to be in times of Reformation 4. As for their design to obtrude a Minister upon the Parish contrary to the profession of Presbyterians c. Ans 1· Is it not pleasant to see Mr. Heriot teaching Presbyterians their own Principles and pleading for them Who can but laugh at it especially if they consider how ill he has learned either his own or theirs as we have seen Supra 2. The Prelatick principles and practices are in this thing too well know to be so soon forgotten And Mr. Heriot seeming to plead for the power of Ruling Elders and the liberty of the Parish in choosing and calling a Minister shews him to be no true Prelatist and consequently neither good Fish nor Flesh. It may be he will say that this was but his Argumentum ad Hominem But then let him take the Answer here given both ad hominem ad rem that his Argument is really ad neutrum 3. It is also well known that Presbyterians deny no member of the Congregation liberty to object against the Intrant and if their objections bear weight and be found just and relevant they are regarded if not rejected And if this course had been observed all alongst it may be questioned whether Mr. Heriot would have got entrance there 4. It may very easily and rationally be supposed that the present Eldership of Dalkeith with the advice and concurrence of the Presbytery when needed and desired may have as good skill of choosing a fit Minister as Mr Heriot and his Party 22. Mr. Heriot not being content with all the insolent Language and usage he has given to the Church Judicatories goes yet farther and ventures upon an untroden Path that he may rid himself of all Church Judicatories and by a Salius quite extra oleas betakes himself to the Lords of their Majesties most Honourable privy Council and supplicates them upon the matter utterly to overthrowthe Government of the Church and the Laws establishing it and to take upon them to judge and pass definitive Sentences in causes meerly Ecclesiastick For he and his Party have petitioned their Lordships to discharge the calling of a Minister while the Appeal be discust and that in the mean time he may be restored to the exercise of his Ministry c. Answer 1. By this trick of Mr. Heriot's if it pass into an approven example and precedent he has cut out abundance of new work for the Honourable Lords of Council I may say for all the dayes of the year not excepting even these dayes which Mr. Heriot calls Sundayes But their Lordships are wise enough to foresee what a vast deal of their precious time it would require to concert and adjust all these differences that arise through the Kingdome about the settling and unsettling of Ministers I suppose their Lordships would soon wearie of it and truly Mr. Heriot in his betaking himself unto their Lordships seems not to have been sufficiently sensible of the greatness of their work otherwise but it is like Mr. Heriot thinks himself and his concern so considerable that it deserves time and place amongst the most weighty affairs of the Kingdom and therefore he puts their Lordships in minde that he is not only deposed from his Ministry but likwise from his Benefice which is his Livelyhood and Maintenance and herein tandem aliquando he speaks ingenuously and brings forth the great Gravamen and quarrel which has occasioned all the clamour and noise we have heard Oh it is the grand lose of his Benefice Livleyhood and Maintinence Quis taliu fando temperet a Lachrymis But who lamented the case when several hundreds of a better character were for smaller faults turned out of their Livelyhoods Surely none of his party 3. This device of Mr. Heriots seems to aim at and tend unto nothing less in some mens apprehension at least than the overthrow of the Civil Government it self for upon the matter he supplicates the Council to invade the late Claim of Right and bring back again that Supremacy which the Convention of Estates claimed to be abrogated as one the grievances of the Nation And in prosecution of this wicked design he cites an antiquated and abrogated Act of Parliament of which more anon and suggests falsly and ignorantly that by the Churches enjoying her wonted and just liberties and priviledges there would be Regnum in Regno and a liberty for the Church to do wrong at her pleasure without controle But we may easily know whose heifer he plougheth with here this is but a new towt in an old horn our worthy Ancestors have solidly and learnedly answered and anticipated these suggestions and because their Testimony and judgment may perhaps have but little weight with Mr. Heriot I would minde him of the Judgement and practice of some of his more sound and honest Brethren and Fathers viz. Those seven Prelates who were put in the Tower of London in the time of the late King James for their Legal adherence unto and asserting of the Churches power and priviledge and that in a strain far contrary to this of Mr. Heriots and it were easie to adduce other instances of more learned and sound men of the prelatical way than Mr. Heriot as to this head of Church-power But I suppose it is needless neither are the Honourable Lords of their Majesties Council so easily imposed upon as to be cheated by such a silly Cavil as this which Mr. Heriot here suggests for they know that Church-Officers do not deny nor refuse the Allegiance of Subjects nor does their power reach mens persons further than what is necessary for suppressing of wickedness and Scandal which Mr. Heriot and his Advocats seem to reckon a doing of wrong without controle nor does the Ecclesiastick power claimed and exerced by Presbyterians reach mens properties any way at all 4 What if there be the hand of some Joab in this contrivance of disturbing the Honourable Privy Council with a business of this nature What if some greater Head-piece than Mr. Heriot has hood-winked him and put him upon this desperate Course and that on purpose