Professors thereof have been and are great matter of joy to our hearts and of blessing and magnifying our Lord and Master in your Lordships behalf So they are a door of hope to us and to all that love the true Reformed Protestant Religion in this Land That his Grace His Majesties High Commissioner and this Honourable Court of Parliament will in your Station go on zealously in your work of purging this poor oppressed Church from all Corruptions brought into it by Ambitious and Covetous Church-men who sought their own things but not the things of Iesus Christ and from all the sad Consequences which have followed upon the Erecting of Prelacy such as were the driving several hundreds of Ministers all at one time out of their Churches without either accusation or citation and the filling of their places with Ignorant and Scandalous Persons which His Majesty is Graciously Pleased to Notice in his Declaration for Scotland as an occasion of all this poor Churches Miseries and from which unsupportable Sufferings He declared His Resolution to relieve and rescue us And we may add with many also erroneous and unsound in the Faith Enemies to the Reformation and who have now appeared disaffected to the present Civil Government as also framing of a numerous train of severe Laws severely Executed both on Ministers and People of all degrees so for that even while we were counted and treated as Sheep for the slaughter we might not Petition or Complain without rendring our selves highly Criminal by the Laws and Acts then made All which we hope the Commissioner his Grace and your Lordships in this present Parliament will take to your serious Consideration and will free this poor oppressed Church from such Oppressors and Oppressions and settle it again upon the right Foundations of Government and Discipline agreeable to the Word of God and Established in this Church by Law near an hundred years agoe Which settlement we are confident will prove the best remedy of all our otherways incurable distractions and the mean of quieting and uniting the whole Country in a joynt and firm Opposition against all His Majesties and your Lordships Enemies We therefore His Majesties most Loyal Subjects and your Lordships most humble and dutiful Servants in Christ Humbly beseech the Commissioner his Grace and Honourable Estates of Parliament seeing the Kings Majesty hath Declared and your Lordships with him have Zealously appeared for the Protestant Religion you will be Graciously Pleased by your Civil Sanction to Establish and Ratifie the late Confession of Faith with the larger and shorter Catechisms which contain the sum and substance of the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches The Directory of Worship and Presbyterial Church Government and Discipline all agreeable to the Word of God and formerly received by the general Consent of this Nation And seeing Prelacy and all who have entered under Prelacy have been imposed upon the Church without her Consent in any of her free General Assemblies and that Presbyterial Government cannot be secure in the hands of them who are of contrary Principles Therefore we humbly Petition that the Church-Government may be Established in the hands of such only who by their former Carriage and Sufferings have Evidenced that they are known sound Presbyterians and well affected to His Majesties Government or who hereafter shall be found to be such which are hopeful by the Grace of God shall be managed with such Christian Prudence Moderation and Tenderness as shall leave no just matter of Complaint to any and that not only these Ministers yet alive who were unjustly thrust from their Churches may be restored thereto and these Parishes and Flocks at that time no less violently imposed upon may be freed from Intruders But also all other Presbyterian Ministers who either are already or may be by respective Flocks orderly called hereafter may have access to be settled in Churches after the Presbyterian way as they shall be Ecclesiastically approved and appointed and may have your Lordships Civil Sanction added thereunto And we also Request that the Church thus Established may be allowed by your Lordships Civil Sanction to appoint Visitations for purging out insufficient negligent scandalous and erroneous Ministers And seeing Patronages which had their Rise in the most corrupt and latter times of Antichristianism have always been a great grievance to this Church as the source and fountain of a Corrupt Ministry That these may be Abolished And that the Church may be Established upon its former good Foundations Confirmed by many Acts of Parliament since the year one thousand five hundred and sixty And that all Acts contrary to this Government that ratifie Ceremonies and impose Punishments on Presbyterians for Non-conformity and for Worshiping of God according to their Principles may be Abrogate And as a good and necessary mean for preserving the Purity of the Church your Lorships take care that Learned Sound and Godly Men be put in Universities and Seminaries of Learning humbly submitting to your Lordships Wisdom the method of considering and effecting these our desires Thus all things being done for the House of the God of Heaven according to the Commandment of the God of Heaven by your Lordships pious and wise managing these Affairs of the Church of Christ This poor long oppressed and tossed Church may at length through God's Blessing arrive at a safe and quiet Harbour and the true Honour and Happiness of His Majesty and your Lordships as the signal Nursing Fathers of the Church of Christ in this Land may be advanced and continued to future Generations And so the Blessing of the Church that was ready to perish may remain still upon His Majesty and your Lordships And your Lordships Petitioners shall ever Pray that God may Bless and Protect the Persons of Their Majesties King William and Queen Mary long to rule and govern this Nation and your Lordships under them This Petition word for word unless it was in one or two Sentences had been presented by them to the Parliament the year before for a man may be against set forms in their Petitions to God yet for them in Petitions to Parliaments while the Duke of Hamilton was Commissioner but his Grace was no ways pleased with it for several Reasons but principally that they craved that the Church Government might be Established in the hands of such only who by their former carriage and sufferings had evidenced that they were known sound Presbyterians For what was this said his Grace but to pull down one sort of Prelacy and set up another in its place to abolish one that was consistent and intelligible and establish another that imply'd Contradictions And indeed there was no answering this difficulty For there were but about fifty or sixty such Ministers alive in the whole Nation And it was craved that the Government of the Church should be Established in their hands in the first Instance which what was it else but instead of fourteen Prelatical to give us
Clergy And forthwith a stop was put to the Course of Justice For generally those who were liable to pay the Tythes in the Western Shires where Rabling had most prevailed refused to pay one Farthing of what was due for the year 1688. or any years preceding having for them the pretext of this Act of Council Neither would the Judges grant Sentences in favour of any such Ministers as had the hard fortune to stand in these unlucky Circumstances And indeed it was no wonder if the Judges were shy to meddle with such an Act considering on the one hand how darkly and indistinctly it was worded and on the other how ticklish the Times then were and how natural it was for the Council to have turned them out of their Places if they had chanced to give it an Interpretation however consonant with the Rules of Justice unsuitable to the designs of the Government No man I think needs to doubt but this Treatment seem'd grievous enough to the poor Sufferers They had entered to their respective Churches according to Law They had never been summoned to appear before any Court Ecclesiastical or Civil nor tryed or convict of any Crime or Scandal that might infer a Deprivation Only they had been thrust from their Stations by lawless force and violence a thing so far from being Criminal in them that it rather ought to have engaged the Government to have taken particular care for their Redress and Restitution What then may be thought of this precluding them the benefit of the Common Law for what was uncontrovertibly due to them Especially considering that most of them had numerous Families and not one of twenty any Stock of his own besides his Benefice wherewith to maintain them Hard enough sure Well Necessity you know Sir is a rigorous Taskmaster and puts one upon all imaginable Shifts to be eased of its burthen And so it is not to be doubted but these poor men would bestir themselves as effectually as they could to have that Act if not repealed at least explained and made more favourable as indeed they did but without success For though some Consellors such as the Duke of Hamilton in whose absence the Act was made were inclin'd to do them Justice yet at that time the Earl of Crawford and the Lord Cardrosse two Lords who had some reason to commiserate the needy and their Adherents of the Presbyterian Party made greatest numbers at the Council Board and they had made the Act and so they would not so much as hear of admitting it to a new deliberation This as soon as they knew it made the afflicted Ministers though they had prepared their Petition quite give over the design of addressing to the Council and betake themselves to the last Remedy Patience till the Parliament should meet to which their Case by the Act of Council was refer'd I have hitherto given you but a very slender account of this matter but if you will be pleas'd to read on you shall have what may satisfie you before I have done Now proceed we strait to the Parliament In the mean time I must tell you that it is no part of my present undertaking to meddle with any thing but what concerns the Church or the Clergy And even of that too you are not to expect the most perfect account The Parliament met upon the 15th of April 1690. And the first thing they did in relation to the Church was the Abolition of the Kings Supremacy in Ecclesiastical matters But alas the thorough-pac'd Presbyterians were sadly nick'd in that matter for it was only the Act which was made Anno 1669. that was rescinded and other Acts that asserted the Supremacy to a degree entirely inconsistent with the Prerogatives of the Kirk were kept in force and unrepeal'd At least this I am sure of Mr. Andrew Melvill a great Promoter if not the first Parent of Presbyterian Parity in Scotland and Mr. David Black and such antient Worthies of the Sect reckoned them intolerable when they called them the Bloody Gullies of Arbitrary Power i. e. the Cut-throat Knives But that 's no great matter only one thing let me add further concerning the first Act which is that it founds the Repeal of that Sixty Nine Act upon this reason that That Supremacy was inconsistent with the Establishment of the Church-Government not now in being for Presbytery was not erected till six Weeks after But now desired which what sense it may make in Law or Politicks it is not my purpose to enquire But I remember many thought then that it was a pretty odd fetch in common reason to abolish that Act because the Supremacy as explained in it was inconsistent with what had no real Existence but only an imaginary one in the desires of a Party But however that was The making this Act was an encouraging Step to the Presbyterian Ministers for no sooner had they found by this that their Party was strongest in the Parliament than they presented their Petition to it craving an entire Settlement of all their new and peculiar Scheme which Petition because it was of so considerable consequence and so far as I can learn though twice published here yet never reprinted in England and so perhaps you have not had occasion to consider it I will here set down and give you some short Animadversions upon it To His GRACE His MAJESTIES High-Commissioner and to the Right Honourable the Estates of Parliament The Humble ADDRESS of the Presbyterian Ministers and Professors of the Church of Scotland Sheweth THAT as we cannot but acknowledge and adore the Holy and Righteous Dispensation of the Lord in all the great and long continued Afflictions wherewith he hath afflicted us for our sins so we are not a little filled with admiration at the great and wonderful Providence of our Most Gracious God who alone doth great Wonders for his Mercy endureth for ever That at such a Time when our strength was gone and there was none to deliver He mercifully stirred up that Pious and Magnanimous Prince William then Prince of Orange now by the good hand of God Our Gracious Soveraign to Espouse the Interest of the Protestant Religion and of the afflicted Ministers and Professors thereof in these Kingdoms and hath blessed him in so Heroick and Noble an Undertaking with agreeable success As also hath raised up your Lordships our most Noble and Honourable Patriots to joyn heartily with His Majesty in appearing zealously for securing of the Protestant Religion in this Kingdom and for what may tend to the better establishment thereof in all its concerns and in evidencing your just Indignation against the Corruptions of Church and State in your Lordships Claim of Right And particularly by freeing us of the Yoke of Prelacy and of the undue Powers and Ecclesiastical Supremacy in Church Matters formerly established in the Supreme Magistrate And these your Lordships zealous beginnings for appearing for the interest of the Protestant Religion and
about fifty or sixty Presbyterian Bishops But such was the posture of their Affairs at that time that there was no other way they could see for securing their Interest and so they made Necessity Justifie a little Nonsense and this year they had a more favourable Commissioner to deal with the good Earl of Melvill But then there is a great deal of considerable stuff in it For observe I pray you the charitable judgment they make of the Bishops and Episcopal Clergy All the distractions have been in this Kingdom will continue still incurable unless this poor oppressed Church be purged from all Corruptions brought into it by ambitions and covetous Church-men it is well they are allowed to be Church-men who sought their own things but not the things of Iesus Christ. And with whom were the Churches filled when Prelacy was erected and the Presbyterian Ministers turn'd out With ignorant and scandalous Persons nay with many erroneous and unsound in the Faith and Enemies to the Reformation and till the Church is freed from these Oppressors and Oppressions she can never be right is not all this charitably said Yet this is not the worst of it For consider the whole strain of the Petition and they are the only Protestants of the Nation For if we may believe them God stirred up the Prince of Orange to espouse the Interest of the Protestant Religion and of the afflicted Ministers and Professors thereof And yet I am very sure many will confidently affirm he did not espouse at his first coming to Britain at least the Interest of the afflicted Ministers of their Persuasion in Scotland Further God raised up their Lordships the Members of Parliament their most noble and honourable Patriots to prejoyn heartily with His Majesty in appearing zealously for serving the Protestant Religion in this Kingdom and for what may tend for the better Establishing of it in all its concerns Now what is all this but that though King Iames had given a Toleration to the Presbyterians yet that put them only in a very weak uncertain and arbitrary State and they could not be well enough till they had a legal Establishment Exclusive of all Popish Prelates and their Adherents And not only so but the steps the Parliament have already made have opened a door of hope to them and to all that love the true Reformed Protestant Religion in this Land that they will go on zealously c. Which words are not capable of another sense than this that whosoever is not Zealous against Prelacy and for Presbytery is not a Lover of the true Reformed Protestant Religion There are a great many other things in this Petition which deserve their proper Remarks but I will not take notice of them any more but as they fall in naturally in the progress of this Paper and then they shall be considered The first of which shall be the Case of the Presbyterian Ministers who were turned out of these Churches they possessed after the first of January 1661. Where in this Petition you see the great injury which was done them is mightily aggravated Several hundreds of them all at one time were driven out of their Churches without either Accusation or Citation And this was so palpable a Persecution so manifest an Effort of Oppression and Tyranny That His Majesty was graciously pleased to take notice of it in his Declaration for Scotland 1688. which 't is very true he did for his words are That the Dissenters in Scotland have just cause of distrust when they call to mind how some hundreds of their Ministers were driven out of their Churches without either Accusation or Citation Nay our Petitioners are at it again in another place of the same Petition and Crave That these Ministers who were unjustly thrust from their Churches may be restored thereto and these Parishes and Flocks at that time no less violently imposed upon may be freed from Intruders This case I say I shall in the first place consider because it was the first thing in the Petition which was redressed by the Parliament For within a day or two after this Petition was presented this Act was made which I have transmitted to you ACT restoring the Presbyterian Ministers who were thrust from their Churches since the first of January 1661. April 25. 1690. Forasmuch as by an Act of this present Parliament relative to and in Prosecution of the Claim of Right Prelary and the Superiority of Church-Officers above Presbyters is abolished and that many Ministers of the Presbyterian Persuasion since the first of January 1661. have been deprived of their Churches or banished for not conforming to Prelacy and not complying with the Courses of the Time Therefore their Majesties with the Advice and Consent of the Estates of Parliament Ordain and Appoint that all those Presbyterian Ministers yet alive who were thrust from their Churches since the first day of January 1661. or Banished for not conforming to Prelacy and not complying with the Courses of the Time have forthwith free access to their Churches and that they may presently exercise the Ministry in those Parishes without any New Call thereto and allows them to brook and enjoy the benefits and stipends thereunto belonging and that for the whole Crop 1689. and immediately to enter to the Churches and Manses where the Churches are vacant and where they are not vacant then their entry thereto is declared to be the half of the Benefice and Stipend due and payable at Michaelmass last for the half year immediately preceeding betwixt Whitsunday and Michaelmass Declaring that the present Incumbent shall have right to the other half of the Stipend and Benefice payable for the Whitsunday last bypast And to the effect that these Ministers may meet with no stop or hinderance in entring immediately to their Charges the present Incumbents in such Churches are hereby appointed upon intimation hereof to desist from their Ministry in these Parishes and to remove themselves from the Manses and Glebes thereunto belonging betwixt and Whitsunday next to come and that the Presbyterian Ministers formerly put out may enter peaceably thereto And appoints the Privy Council to see this Act put in Execution Which Act you see uses the same colours for representing the odiousness of the usage these Presbyterian Ministers had receiv'd that the Declaration and the Presbyterian Petition had made use of before especially in the statutory part where it says in express terms that they were thrust from their Charges which can import no less than Force and Violence in opposition to Law and Iustice it calls the Churches from which they had been thus thrust their Churches As if notwithstanding their dispossession they had still continued to have a Title good in Law and it restores them forthwith to the exercise of their Ministry in their Parishes without any New Call thereto Each of which singly much more altogether make it evident that this their restitution was intended by the Parliament not as an
as they have so much scope for choice Neither will they suffer Meldrum the Prelatist to return at any rate And they are in the Right for the first book of Discipline saith It 's better to have no Minister at all than a bad one Now the Subsumption is easie if the Man ever owned Episcopacy The other Instance shall be Mr. William Violent one of the gravest and ablest Men of the Party he had been Minister before the restitution of the Government at East-Ferry in the Shire of Fife and was also dispossessed with the rest Anno 1662. but he wanted a Benefice no longer I think than till K. Charles II. granted his Indulgence for planting some Churches in the West with-Presbyterian Ministers which was in the year 1669. For he was among the first that embraced that Indulgence and was possessed of the Church of Cambus-Netham where he continued till about the year 1684. when that Indulgence was retracted and the Laws were put in execution But after K. Iames his toleration came out in the year 1678 he took the benefit of that too returned to Cambus-Netham got a Meeting-house for the Church was planted with a regular Minister and continued there without ever minding the Ferry where there was no such encouragement till he had this Act of Parliament for him and then about Whitsunday 1690. To the Ferry he comes dispossesses Mr. White a very old Man who by reason of his Age was not able to officiate by himself But his Assistant one Mr. Wood had complied in all points with the Civil Government secures to himself the Benefice according to the Act and then returns to his better Provision at Cambus-Netham where he had the Benefice also by another Act of the same Parliament and where he still continued till he got a Call to be a Professor of Theology in the New College in St. Andrews and so in one year he got the Rents of no less than three Benefices Now this is pretty strange considering that it was wont to be one of the principal Common Places of the Party in their invidious declamations against the pretended Corruptions of the Church of England For none was represented in blacker Dress than the business of Pluralities unless it was her Antichristian Hierarchy and Idolatrous Liturgy But I remember I heard a rare Note of a Sermon which was preached within these three years The Godly may sin but the wicked must not And so I leave that second Act of the late Parliament and all its Appendages Proceed we now to consider the next which concerned the Church and Clergy namely that wonderfully famous one Intituled Act Ratifying the Confession of Faith and setling Presbyterian Church-Government dated at Edinburgh Iune the seventh 1690. This Presbyterian Church government is the great Diana of the Party and the true Parent of all these Tumults Rabbles and Confusions which ruined Religion desolated the Church and oppressed the Clergy And therefore this Act that establishes it deserves a little more fully to be considered which I shall do by these steps 1. I shall briefly deduce the Arts were used and the Methods were taken to work up the Parliament to a suitable temper before this weighty Point came to be debated and voted in the House 2. I shall consider the Treatment it met with in the House And 3. What Consequences it hath produced since To begin with the First Indeed all hands were never more busie at work than on that occasion Prelacy as no doubt you know already had been declared an intolerable grievance and trouble to this Nation and contrary to the inclinations of the generality of the People ever since the Reformation the year before in our new claim of Right This the meeting of Estates had done in an hurry how truly and honestly you may perhaps learn more fully on another occasion after the whole Ecclesiastical State and a great many Members of both the other two had deserted the House in pursuance of the same Article of the Claim of Right The same intolerable Prelacy was abolished by the same meeting of Estates after it was declared a Parliament about the 8th of Iuly the same year But then the House could not agree about a new form of Government to be introduced upon the Church Several Schemes were drawn and presented but none pleased all Parties and so no form at all was established but the Church continued in a state of meer matter without form and void of Government for eleven Months after A strange state sure for a Christian Church I doubt if you shall find its parallel since ever there was one for there was much more in it than a sede vacante But to go on During this state of Anarchy in the Church some People's heads began to settle as indeed they had need after such an universal giddiness and the sudden zeal many had lately taken up for Presbytherian Parity began to cool and relent if not to decay and languish People turned thoughtful and began to reflect and examine whether they had found Prelacy so intolerable a burthen as the meeting of the Estates had declared it to have been and their own sense not telling them any such thing But finding their Necks not so much galled by that Yoke which for some 27 or 28 years had lain upon them and withal calling to mind how many Necks had smarted so very sharply under the former Reign of Presbytery that they were no longer able to bear their Heads They began to compare things and to consider if it was not better to continue at blunt Cudgels with Prelacy than come streight to downright Sharps with Parity In short so far did such reasonings and recollections prevail That the Inclinations of the generality of the people which had been made the Standard in April 1689. were beginning to discover themselves to be very much different from what the Party expected about the end of that year and the beginning of 1690. And there was no little solicitude among them lest they had mistaken their Measures and their dear Parity might chance not to be established according to their wishes And therefore I say all hands were most actively at work and the whole Sect were studying to acquit themselves with a sutable diligence and application about the time the Parliament was a meeting For instance not only had the Preachers their old Petition in readiness to be presented whenever it should be seasonable of which I have discoursed already But also That same week if I remember right the very day before the Parliament met a worthy Piece came hot from the Press Intituled A true Representation of Presbyterian Government c. It was written by one Mr. Gilbert Rule the Pamphleteer General for the Party We had no less than three Editions of it in a very few days and the last the most considerable For besides several Corrections and Enlargements in the Book it had the addition of a Preface wherein we were
Ministry thrust them all out that the whole Kirk may be planted with true Presbyterians Further yet ye have under your care and tutory Christ's own Bride she is a tender Virgin and hath yet but little breasts she hath been wounded in the house of her friends that must needs be either by the Cameronians or the Politick Presbyterians if I may so call them for sure in our Preachers Opinion all the Prelatists come under the next denomination as well as by her Enemies and she is not yet heal Her wounds are yet bleeding For the Lords sake prove to her as the Compassionate Samaritan Luke 10. 24. Bind up her wounds pour oyl into them and take care of her she is nobly born she is a Kings daughter Psal. 45. 13. New come from her banishment For Christ you must know had no Spouse in Scotland while Prelacy was in it She had been banished the Kingdom And for her Fathers blessing for her Bridgroom's blessing and for her own blessing who is ready to perish deal kindly with her and be faithful Tutors to her Yea ye have Christs Crown his Glory among your hands that is Presbyterian Government and if you take away or suffer one Iewel of it to be lost or robb'd not only your Estates and Lives but your Souls may go for it c. Once more yet What will ye say when ye shall be sisted at the great Assise before the Tribunal of Christ to that Question What Iustice and Vote gave you to me and my afflicted Church in the first Parliament of King William and Queen Mary in Scotland Was you for me or against me And then he concludes telling them for their encouragement to Vote right for Presbytery That as the eyes of the Lord his Holy Angels and all his People in this Land yea of all the Protestant Churches are upon them for who dares doubt but all the Protestant Churches were extremely concerned to have Presbytery set up in Scotland so they are upon the wings of the Prayers of the flower of the Godly in Scotland And who would not be animated by such a flight as this Here was Preaching for a Parliament A Third Sermon which was Printed was Preached by the Learned Mr. Rule whom I mentioned before on Sunday the 25th of May the Sunday next before the Wednesday on which the Act was Voted and so it was time then or never to speak which forsooth the man did accordingly For after he had insinuated enough of dislike to the Club as none of them omitted to do and had particularly chastised Sir Iames Montgomery of Skelmurly though he did not name him for Sir Iames had made a long Speech in the House some days before wherein he had pleaded zealously for setting up true Fourty-Nine Presbytery in all its dimensions and had made use of this as one of his principal Arguments That Presbytery thus Established would prove the best and most effectual mean could be devised for curbing and restraining the extravagancies and excesses of Princes which was Interpreted by those of the Gang as intended of design to screw up Presbytery to the highest peg that so it might turn the sooner intollerable and by consequence be the sooner turned down again For though Sir Iames the year before had shewed a singular Zeal for the Good Cause yet he was now one of the leading Men of the Club And it was confidently talked that he kept a Correspondence with King Iames and so he was look'd upon by the Party as a false Friend as they term it After our Preacher I say had fairly chastised Sir Iames for this he comes to his purpose by cunning and smooth advances For first he tells them what a Glorious Nation they would make Scotland by erecting Presbytery in it The warlike Philistines the rich trading Tyre the ancient Ethiopia wou'd be nothing to it Make poor Scotland a well Reformed Church set up Presbyterian Government in it and you shall please God and do him better service than if you could make her richer and more potent and splendid than any of her Neighbour Nations This was a good beginning But what was the next step Why a necessary fling at Prelacy We plead not for a Papacy to be Cardinals or Prelates c. As if it were unquestionable that Prelacy hath an essential connection with Papacy or Cardinalism After this again another very courteous humble one for Presbytery We pretend not to make Church Laws but declare those Christ hath made and to impose them not what we think fit by his Authority and to censure such as will not obey his Laws not as we will but as he hath appointed We set up no Imperium in Imperio but a Ministerium c. Wonderful fine Cant Alamode Then another fling yet not so much at the Scottish as the English Prelatists Neither is the Church preferred nor Religion promoted by setting up a Pompous Gaudy Theatrical kind of Worship by pretending to adorn it by Modes and Religious Rites that Christ hath not instituted c. Our Preacher was owing the Church of England this because one of her Bishops Dr. Cousins Bishop of Durham I think it was had excommunicated him from which Sentence I believe to this very hour he was never released having thus made his Address he comes home at length to his business Let Christ's Church enjoy all the Prvileges that he has granted her If any man withhold any one of them they do not advance the mountain of the house of the Lord as they should Sound Doctrine pure Ordinances a godly Ministry a Government drawn from Christ's Institution and Apostolical Practice and that tendeth to advance Holiness for Prelacy no doubt tendeth to advance nothing but Atheism and Irreligion that it be managed by its Friends by the known sound Presbyterians and not by them that would supplant it not by these juggling Prelatists who would now be content to call themselves Presbyterians so that they may be permitted to keep their Benefices That they assemble as oft as is needful for this end i. e. have the power of calling ordering and disolving General Assembles independent on the Crown c. That Church-Officers be look'd out and chosen by the People of God and not imposed upon them by mens will That the Fountains out of which a Godly Seed for the Church may issue be kept pure i. e. that no Prelatist be permitted to stay in the Universities that Discipline may be duly exercised and whatever Letts to Religion and Snares to the serious godly Men have framed into Laws i. e. all the Penal Statutes against the Presbyterians may be removed This would conduce much to the advancement of the Church and N. B. and if any of these be neglected she is not set upon the top of the Mountains but somewhat else is preferred to her At this rate dogmatized Mr. Gilbert The Fourth whose Sermon was published was that able Man Mr. David Williamson 'T is true
indeed it was not Preached till after Presbytery was established and so you may think it is inartificially done to bring it in here but I had rather take a reproof for transgressing the rules of History than not record the Testimony of such a vigorous Witness especially considering how notable it is for it is in real sense that Christ was a Martyr for Presbyterian Government His very words are these Church-Government is no light matter it is an ordinance of God the Royal Diadem of Christ he was a Martyr on this head it was his Ditty on the Cross. Joh. 19. 19. Iesus of Nazareth King of the Iews A wonderful Sermon this was as ever you read I was once at the pains to number the particulars he had amassed in it And if my memory serves me they were about 180. I have thus given you this tast of their Sermons at once though it is not so exactly agreable to the true order of things that you may have the fuller view of them and I might not be obliged to make so many interruptions as another method would have required And by this sample you may judge both of the parts and zeal of the rest of the Brethren for it is not to be doubted but those whose Sermons were not judged accurate enough for the Press were yet every whit as much heated with the holy fire according to the proportions of their Capacities as these first Rate-men But neither was all this yet enough for securing the precious Interest It was necessary to set other tools also a going One there was which I believe had no inconsiderable influence there was a generation of Female Advocates belike some of them Disciples of such as Mr. David Williamson Ladies and Gentlewomen who came at that time and stay'd at Edinburgh and made it their work by all imaginable ways to influence the Members of Parliament into a zealous disposition to carry on the work There was also great throngs of the Preachers still in Town who could not have any other business but to do what they could for advancing the Cause but I believe the Holy Sisters the Citizens Wives and some of themselves too were as successful in making Proselytes as the Preachers for they had better occasion to traffick with such of the Members as stay'd at their houses or were of their acquaintance And besides they had t'other shilling in greater readiness to give for a pint of Sack and that goes very far with well disposed People After all these there was a certain company of Planets little Luminaries Members of Parliament some of whom I could name if it were needful who made it their trade early and late in season and out of season in all companies and on all occasions to vex the more intelligent and to fright the less discerning and very many were such into a forwardness for Presbytery Nay more yet it was confidently talked that not a few of the meaner sort of Members got Money and were kept upon Pension that they might be servicable By these and other such Arts was the Cause carried on and no Methods were left unessayed till a competent number of Votes were secured for every thing that the Commissioner intended While in the mean time the Club was entirely broken and the generality of the Kingdom who were of other Principles found themselves obliged to live quietly and wait a more proper season for diligence and action And so much for the first part of my undertaking Come we now to the Second Which is to give you a brief Account how this Act was prepared debated voted and at last got the Royal Assent in the House It was introduced according to its quality by the Earl of Sutherland who presented an Act to the House concerning it upon the day of I have seen a Copy of it and thought once upon Transcribing it for your use but it was tediously long and coarsely worded and it contained little more than what you have in the Printed Act and therefore after some more thinking I judged it not worth the pains Although it was believed that it was compiled by some of the Brethren who were best studied in the matter some other schemes were also given in by some other Members but his Lordship 's got the preference It was most regarded and best liked by Melvil and Crawford who probably had seen it before and so it was particularly recommended to the Committee which was nominated for Church Affairs Eighteen were at first named to be of that Committee viz. Noblmen Barons Burgesses Earl of Crawford Sir Iohn Maxwell Sir Tho. Stewart of Coltness E. of Sutherland Sir Patrick Hume Anderson for Glascow V. of Arburthnet Sir Iohn Monro Smith for St. Andrews V. of Stair Laird of Levingston William Heggins L. Cardross Laird of Brodie Iames Kenman L. Carmichael Laird of Dalfoilly Patrick Mordock All of the true stamp except the Laird of Levingston who it was thought was named merely for shew or that it might not be said they were all Presbyterians Besides these first Eighteen I think other two were added afterwards but I have forgot their names This Committee met very often and commonly they had some of the leading Ministers with them for advice At last after many an hour and much pains spent about it it was returned by the Committee to the House on Friday the 23d of May more briefly and distinctly digested indeed and much more smoothly worded and yet without any substantial alteration or difference betwixt it and the E. of Sutherland's Copy Being thus prepared and returned to the House in the first place it was twice read over all the Members composing themselves to a diligent and headful Attention This done not a few points in it were debated and several Amendments were made But before I proceed further I will set it down as it was at last agreed upon and made a Law and then give you a brief account of some particulars in it which may perchance contribute something to your better understanding of it ACT Ratifying the Confession of Faith and settling Presbyterian Church-Government Iune 7. 1690. OUR Soveraign Lord and Lady the King and Queens Majesties and the three Estates of Parliament conceiving it to be their bound Duty after the great deliverance that God hath lately wrought for this Church and Kingdom in the first place to settle and secure therein the true Protestant Religion according to the truth of Gods word as it hath of a long time been Professed within this Land As also the Government of Christ ' s Church within this Nation agreeable to the word of God and most conducive to the advancement of true Piety and Godliness and the establishing of Peace and Tranquillity within this Realm And that by an Article of the Claim of Right it is declared that Prelacy and the Superiority of any Office in the Church above Presbyters is and hath been a great and unsupportable Grte vance and Trouble
much sense as Sir Iames Montgomery so it was conjectured he had some other thing at the bottom On the other hand it seemed as strange to many that the Duke of Hamilton should have pleaded so zealously for the continuation of that Act and for the lineal Succession It 's true indeed said they consider him as Duke of Hamilton and he had good reason to appear for it it being so nearly the concern of his own Family But consider him as a President of the late meeting of Estates and the principal Person who deposed K. Iames and excluded him whom he himself had sometimes acknowledged to be the Prince of Scotland without ever offering at a Reason for it and transferred the Crown upon their present Majesties and they could not see how he was consistent with himself But As for my Lord Stair Few thought it strange that he should have so reasoned It was Treason to move the Rescinding of that Act even in Parliament unless a Man had a good backing which was readily interpreted to be just as much as if he had said That a Man that had a good backing Power and Party enough might say any thing in Parliament or out of Parliament without being guilty of Treason But perhaps you may be apt to say what is all this but Digression For wherein is the Church or the Clergy concerned in this matter To which I shall make no other Reply but Was not all this stir made about this Act in behalf of the Protestant Religion The next thing I would have you to consider is the establishing the whole Government of the Church in the hands of the known sound Presbyterians c. as it was craved in the Petition I have told you already how this Article displeased the year before while the Duke of Hamilton was Commissioner but now you see it was granted yet not without some opposition For On Friday May 23. the first day that the Act was debated in the House a Petition was given in by some of these Episcopal Ministers who had given obedience to the Civil Government I am affraid the Copy I have of it is not Corrected and therefore I will not transcribe it in form but it was this for substance They for themselves and others of the Episcopal persuasion who have submitted to the Government of their present Majesties according to Law do humbly Supplicate That according to the protection promised them they may be secured in the possession of their Offices and Benefices They humbly conceive that to put the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction intirely into the hands of the Presbyterians and establish them the sole Judges of their Life and Doctrine will be in effect to turn them out of that Protection For they shall not only thereby be deprived of all share and Interest in Ecclesiastical Government though they have every way as good a Right to and are as capable of managing that Trust as the Presbyterian Ministers and do very far exceed them in numbers but also shall be subjected to the Arbitriment of a Party who profess it their Duty to purge the Church of all Ministers who have at any time declared for the Lawfulness of Episcopacy Whom therefore though they are not afraid of the strictest impartial Tryal they decline as their Judges which Declinature the Presbyterian Ministers themselves cannot but in reason acknowledge to be just and equitable considering that they have all along refused to submit to the Jurisdiction of the Bishops upon the like Reason That it has been still matter of regret of them that the Differences upon the account of Opinion about Church Government have been so much kept up That therefore it would please the Parliament to appoint a Conference betwixt some Ministers of both Persuasions which they most humbly conceive may prove a good Expedient for curing the Distemper or at least for finding where it lieth They do not take upon them to prescribe to the high and honourable Court but in all humility supplicate for these things to the end that the true Protestant Religion for which they have still declared their Zeal may flourish and they and others for their Opinions about Church-Government which they are ready to maintain and justifie may not be oppressed in their Consciences and Interests The Petitioners did not expect that the Grand point of the Church-Government should have been so soon brought to the House so that this their Petition was penned in such haste that they had not time to wait upon the Commissioner and acquaint him with it before it was presented However while the Duke of Hamilton was disputing the Equity and Reasonableness of that Article in the House one Iames More of Stonywood presented it and craved that it might be read the Duke of Hamilton back'd him warmly so it was read but then it was immediately hissed at The Noise was great and the Cry was loud that it was indiscreer unmannerly arrogant and what not And all this forsooth because they called themselves Ministers of the Episcopal Persuasion compar'd themselves for Abilities with the Presbyterian Ministers declin'd them as their Judges craved a Conference and undertook to maintain the Lawfulness of Episcopacy Extravagant impudence sure This Petition being thus rejected with disdain the Duke thought it not fit at this time to insist any longer so there was no more that day concerning that Article except that one Mr. Ross a Commissioner for some Northern Burgh moved That at least these Presbyterian Ministers who had been Deposed by those of their own Persuasion before the restitution of Episcopacy Anno 1662. might not be included in the number of those known sound Presbyterians in whose hands the Government was to be established in the first instance But his Motion was not regarded And indeed it had been a great oversight if it had for thereby the worthy Master Kennedy who was Moderator of the late General Assembly and some other such zealous Brethren had been excluded which might have been of very sad Consequence to the Kirk But The Duke was at his purpose again on Wednesday the 28. and insisted largely on the iniquity of putting the Government solely in the known sound Presbyterians hands He argued from the Prince of Orange's Declaration for the Kingdom of Scotland from the great purpose of his coming to Britain from his Declaration for keeping the Peace in the Kingdom of Scotland dated February 6. 1688 9 from the Proclamation of the Estates April 13. 1689 from the nature of the thing and from many other Topicks but all to no purpose for when it came to a Vote it carried easily that the Article should stand as you now see it in the Act Thus were some Hundreds of the Episcopal Persuasion by Act of Parliament exposed to the fury of Fifty or Sixty sworn Enemies without any imaginable necessity For had it not been easie for the Parliament if they had had a mind to it to have setled Presbyterian Government so as