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truth_n	word_n	world_n	worship_n	425	4	6.6052	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42357	Protesters no subverters, and presbyterie no papacie; or, A vindication of the protesting brethren, and of the government of the kirk of Scotland from the aspersions unjustly cast upon them, in a late pamphlet of some of the resolution-party, entituled, A declaration, &c. With a discovery of the insufficiency, inequality and iniquity of the things propounded in that pamphlet, as overtures of union and peace. Especially, of the iniquity of that absolute and unlimited submission to the sentences of church-judicatories that is holden forth therein, and most unjustly pleaded to belong to the being and essence of presbyterial government. By some witnesses to the way of the protestation.	Guthrie, James, 1612?-1661, attributed name.	1658 (1658)	Wing G2264; ESTC R221886	66,607	126

though we cannot say that they are or ought to be so self-denied that they would not have wished it to have been so yet did they never expect such a Commission as should wholly consist of men according to their mind nor was that ever any of their Propositions to his Highness directly or indirectly Yea their Propositions did not contain that qualification as to any of them And we can also say That though they had been mostly or wholly of that mind there would have been room and encouragement for men of our Brethrens judgement both to continue and enter into the Ministrie Thus now have we answered that first and great prejudice wherewith our Brethrens Paper and it seemeth their spirits are fraughted against the protesting Brethren to wit That they do not only dissent from but also that they have it in their thoughts and design to subvert and destroy the established Government of the Kirk of Scotland by Presbyteries and Synods and that their practices do manifestly tend thereunto And in this we have been the larger not only because we have more then probable ground to look upon it as the great scope of our Brethrens Paper to fill and possess this Church and the Churches abroad with this opinion of these Brethren that they are indeed such a shrewd party as they describe them to be that so they may acquit and justifie the resolution Brethren in all that they have hitherto done or shall hereafter do against them but also because if there be any remnants of real inclinations in our Brethrens bosoms to a Peace approven of God and tending to edification we did conceive it necessary to endeavor though with much weaknesse to roll out of their way that great rock of offence which they have by their own mistakes so long and so much stumbled upon unto the making of them halt more and more day by day in their affections towards the protesting Brethren There be yet two prejudices more which we find in their Declaration that we shall more briefly speak unto one is That they have begun a needlesse rent in the Church upon a question so extrinseck to our Doctrine Worship and Government so they speak in the fourth page of their Declaration and in the third page they call it a tossing about a debate now so far removed out of our way To which we answer first Whatever be the nature of the Question about the publick Resolutions it is certain and manifest that the Rent thereupon was begun by the resolution Brethren because they did in a surreptitious meeting of some of the Commissioners of the General Assembly without giving timous and due warning to others in the year 1651. suddenly take these Resolutions when the whole Church of Scotland was in possession of and by solemn Covenants and Vows engaged to the Truths to which these Resolutions are contrary and destructive 2. This Question is not so extrinsick to our Doctrine Worship and Government as our Brethren would make the world believe it doth involve a portion of the precious Truth of God which he hath been pleased to reveal and hold forth in His Word for the edification of His Church and People that they may know what they ought to do and what they ought not to do in the case of intrusting of known wicked malignant men enemies to Truth and Godlinesse with the interests of the Lords Work and People And this Truth as it hath all along since the Reformation from Popery been taught and holden forth by the Kirk of Scotland so hath the preservation and practice thereof been judged necessary for preserving the rest of the Doctrine and the Worship and Government in their purity and from the pollutions and corruptions which evil men use to bring in or give way unto yea this very thing as our Brethren do well know was no small part of the controversie all along from the year 1638. betwixt the wel-affected and the Popish and Prelaticall and Malignant party they may take One instance of many to wit the desires of the Commission of the General Assembly in Anno 1648. concerning the unlawfull Engagement amongst which that about the qualification of instruments was one of the chief We desire them to remember what spirit that man would have beenjudged of who in the Assembly Anno 1650. should have pleaded that to be a question much extrinsick to our Doctrine Worship and Government and that it would furnish just ground of complaint against the Assembly if they should because thereof divide from the Parliament which carried on that unlawfull Engagement in war against England 3. If our Brethren do indeed judge this question to be so extrinsick to our Doctrine Worship and Government How cometh it to passe that they are so tenacious of the determinations of their Assemblies about it If Doctrine and Worship and Government may be preserved intire without it may they not for the Peace of the Church condescend to take course that these Determinations shall not be looked upon as the definitive judgement of this Kirk or any of the Judicatories thereof in these matters And how cometh it to passe that upon a question so extrinsick they did make and still keep up against Ministers Elders Expectants and Professours Acts imporrting so severe censures against those who do not submit to the Determinations of their Assemblies concerning these things Next If the question be so extrinsick how cometh it that they sometime place the standing or falling of this Church therein and now again they would make it of no moment But further we say The subject matter of these debates is not so far removed out of the way as our Brethren do talk but do still continue in many respects 1. In regard of the sin and guilt thereof which hath not been taken-with nor repented-of till this day And as the resolution Brethren judge it hard for the protesting Brethren to be satisfied with nothing unlesse they do repent of that as a sin which in their consciences they judge to be a duty So they must give leave to the protesting Brethren to judge it hard that the Church of which they are Members and Ministers should lye under the guilt of a publick transgression and under great and sore wrath because thereof and they in the mean while not be permitted to discover her iniquity therein that her captivity may be turned away especially when they are engaged by Covenant so to do 2. These Resolutions do continue in regard of the Synodicall approbation and tye thereof upon all the Members of this Kirk 3. They do continue in regard of the Acts which were made for carrying on thereof to wit those which appoint censures against all the Members of this Kirk who do not approve of the Authority of that Assembly at Saint Andrews and Dundee and submit to the Acts and Constitutions thereof 4. They do continue in regard of the publick Warnings Remonstrances and Declarations of the Commission

thou preach not the Gospel and hath commanded him to eat of His body and drink of His bloud and not to forsake the assembling himself with the Saints of God yet because men pro arbitratu imperio yea because of his adhering to the Truth of God which they have rejected and condemned hath forbidden him so to do That be shall not obey God this is a hard saying who can receive it It is also contary to clear Scripture precedents Ieremiah was often commanded by the Authority both Ecclesiastick and Civil to forbear speaking of the Word of the Lord yet did he give no subjection to the sentence either of the one or of the other but went on in his Ministrie notwithstanding of all the Inhibitions and Censures past against him Chap. 26. ch. 32. ch. 37. and ch. 38. Amos was commanded by Amaziah the Priest to prophesie no more at Bethel because it was the Kings Chappell and the Kings Court yet he did not submit but did counteract that commandment and did continue to prophesie in the Name of the Lord Amos 5. 13 14 15 16. Daniel was commanded to make no petition to any God or Man for thirtie dayes save to King Darius yet did he not submit but counteract by going into his house and opening his Chamber-window towards Ierusalem and kneeling on his knees three times a day and praying and giving thanks before His God as he did aforetime Dan. 6 6 7 8 9 10. The Iews did agree that if any man did confesse that Jesus was the Christ he should be put out of the Synagogue yet did the poor man whose eyes He had opened confesse Him openly and though he was actually cast out for doing of it yet did he not submit but went on to confesse Him still Joh. 9. 22 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38. The Apostles were commanded once and again by the Council at Ierusalem not to speak nor teach any more in the Name of JESUS but they told them that they could not but speak the things which they had seen and heard and that they ought to obey God rather then men and notwithstanding they were first threatened and afterwards imprisoned and thirdly beaten by them for so doing yet did they not submit nor forbear but daily in the Temple and from house to house they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ Act. 4. 19 20 21. Act. 5. 17 18 29 40 42. Paul being accused first before Festus and afterwards before Felix the Roman Deputies That he was a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition amongst the Iews throughout the world and a ring-leader of the Sect of the Nazarens who also had gone about to profane the Temple Did not only appeal to Cesar but went on in his course and preached the Gospel and preached that the Iews killed the Lord Jesus and their own Prophets and persecuted the Apostles and pleased not God and were contrary to all men Act. 24. 5 6. Act. 25. 7 8 9 10. 1 Thess. 2. 15. 3. This submission dethroneth Jesus Christ who only hath power over the consciences of men to bind them by His Authority by attributing such a Power and Authority to Church-Judicatorics as doth bind mens consciences upon their meer arbitrement and pleasure for we must be subject because they will have it so though the reason why they command this subjection to wit our supposed delinquencie be a meer non ens and such as hath no foundation in truth and equity If it be told us that the conscience is not bound because the judgement is still left free and the outward acts only restrained We would have our Brethren to remember that some of themselves and others who did oppose conformity to the Ceremonies did tell the Prelats and their party when they used this defence against the argument taken from binding the conscience to wit That if the bare Authority of an Ecclesiasticall Law without any other reason then the will and pleasure of men be made to restrain us in the use of things which are in themselves indifferent then is Christian liberty taken away and if so in things indifferent how much more is it so in things necessary such as keeping fellowship with the Assembly of the Saints in publick Prayers and Praises and eating and drinking at the Table of the Lord and preaching the Gospel c the practice whereof are things commanded of God unto persons duely qualified and instructed thereunto If it be said That these things cease to be obliging duties to such a person hic nunc and that the sentence of the Church commanding him to abstain looseth him from the obedience that he doth otherwise owe unto the Commandment of God we desire a warrant from the Scripture of Truth for such Doctrine as that which preferreth the Commandments of men unto the Commandments of God and say That it is better to obey men than God Shall the sole will and meer pleasures of men loose a man from the obligation he oweth unto the Commandments of God If so let us no more blame the Pope for dispensing with divine Laws I cannot abstain from taking Christ's body and bloud or from preaching the Gospel saith the innocent man unjustly sentenced because I am thereunto called and commanded of God But saith the Synod or Kirk-judicatory We have commanded you to abstain and therefore you should abstain and may be satisfied in your conscience so to do because our Command looseth you from the Commandment of God Hence a fourth Argument 4. This submission concludeth a man under a necessity of sinning against God by omitting those necessary duties that are commanded him of God upon a non-relevant reason to wit the meer will and pleasure of men to whom God hath given no power against the Truth but for the Truth no power to destruction but to edification 5. If such a submission be due to the Judicatories of the Kirk in matters of Discipline and Government We do not see how it is not also due unto them in matters of Doctrine and Worship The authoritative and juridical power belonging to Classes and Synods is threefold Dogmatick Diatactick and Critick Dogmatick in reference to matters of Faith and Rules of Worship which God hath laid down and prescribed to us in His Word and the inconsistency of heresies errors and corruptions therewith Diatactick in reference to external order and policy in matters circumstantial relating to time place and persons the conveniency whereof is determinable by the light of Nature and Christian prudence and the general Rules of the Word such as these That we should do all to the glory of God to the edification of the Church and in order and decency c. Critick in reference to the repressing of Scandal Error Heresie Schism Obstinacie and Contempt and preserving of the Purity of the Truth and Holinesse of Conversation and Unity of Judgment and Affection in the Church of God by exercising the spiritual

PROTESTERS no Subverters AND Presbyterie no Papacie OR A VINDICATION of the Protesting Brethren and of the Government of the Kirk of Scotland from the Aspersions unjustly cast upon them in a late Pamphlet of some of the Resolution-party Entituled A DECLARATION c. With a Discovery of the insufficiency inequality and iniquity of the Things propounded in that Pamphlet as Overtures of Union and Peace Especially Of the iniquity of that absolute and unlimited submission to the Sentences of Church-Judicatories that is holden forth therein and most unjustly pleaded to belong to the Being and Essence of Presbyterial Government To the Law and to the Testimony Isa. 8. 20. We can do nothing against the Truth but for the Truth 2 Cor. 13. 8. By some Witnesses to the way of the Protestation EDINBURGH Printed Anno Domini 1658. Protesters no Subverters AND Presbyterie no Papacie OR A Vindication of the Protesting Brethren and of the Government of the Kirk of Scotland c. THough the Brethren for the Protestation are not unsensible of the manifold injuries done unto them by a Pamphlet bearing the title but little more of A true Representation of the rise progresse and state of the present Divisions of the Church of Scotland And diligently spread at home and abroad and industriously put into the hands of publick persons in both Nations for making them take up such thoughts and entertain such impressions of these Brethren and their principles and cause as are with more animosity than candor or truth represented therein Yet hath as we conceive the conscience of their own innocency and the testimony which they have therof in the hearts of most of the Godly in the Land with the small delight they have to spend their spirits and their time and to trouble the world with a frequent reiterating and multiplying of Answers to groundlesse and unjust imputations perswaded them hithertills to be silent and to rest satisfied with what was by them formerly published in the defence of their cause and persons Neither would we have any to wonder that they do not return an Answer to that Paper lately published bearing title A Declaration of the Brethren who are for the established Government and Judicatories of this Kirk expressing their earnest desires of Union and Peace with their dissenting Brethren Though we do not as the authors of this Paper in order to the Publickresolution party take upon us to speak in their name Yet may we as not being altogether strangers to their mind in these matters say that they are silent also at this Paper 1. because though it do in some part of the Title and Contents thereof professe for and pretend unto peace Yet is it upon the matter and for the body of it but crambe recocta with the former a bundle of the same calumnies where with the former was fraughted a little more closely knit and published to the world in a nevv dresse and set off with a profession and pretext of desires to union and peace And why should so many put themselves to the pains to assemble together for answering things that have been often answered already And is not indeed an overture of peace but in effect a heap of bitter invectives and reproaches If the authors of it had not set the words of Union and Peace in the frontispiece of it we doubt that ever any should have owned it or known it by that name for it doth every-where breath discord and war that we may truly say with the Prophet Micah ch. 3. 5. whilest they cry Peace peace they bite with their teeth and with the Psalmist Psal. 55. 21. that whilest the words of their mouth are smoother then butter yet wa●… is in their heart that whilest some of their words are soft as oyl yet most of them are like drawn swords or if there were any real inclinations to peace upon the spirits of the authors of this Paper we may fitly compare them to the first Painters in some Countries of old whose draughts were so rude that unlesse they had written above the head thereof This is a Horse This is an Oxe c. the beholders would never have discovered their aim therein Or we may say of them as Georgius major writeth of the fathers of Berge who were authors of the book called Formula concordiae Bergensis Aut mens Vulcanum aut forceps indocta fefellit {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} voluit cudere cudit {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The Smith's unskilfull mind or tongs have sure deceiv'd him far When as he would have forg'd a Peace he hammereth out a War Union and peace when stated upon the right basis and carried-on by lawfull means and in order to right ends are things precious and excellent How seasonable and strengthning and refreshing a blessing would such an union be unto the Church of Scotland in this day of her trial Would God that these Resolution-Brethren who do in this Paper testifie so highly of themselves as to their making consci●…nce to lament our divisions before the Lord and of afflicting their souls because of them and for the sins procuring the same and of their peaceable disposition and patience to bear and readines●…e to forgive injuries had been so happy therein as to tread the paths of peace and to speak the words of sobernesse and truth we are hopefull it had found answerable entertainment from their Brethren for the Protestation who from no disrespect to them but from the conscience of their duty and zeal of the Lord's Cause have in some things witnessed against their way but when they do thus use them or rather abuse them as seeming to speak them for union and peace and yet not only hold fast most of what hath been the ground of their grievance and complaint but operously labour and industriously endeavour by a congestion of groundlesse alleagences and grosse misrepresentations of matters of fact with ill-knit consequences deduced therefrom and from some other things true and honest in themselves to prove them and proclaim them to the world to be a party of ambitious turbulent subdolous men who have been all this while affecting domination in the Church and designedly projecting the subversion and overthrow of its Government yea that their leading men have of late attempted the utter ruin of this Church and of those who differ from them We hope that no man of an impartial judgment will think that the protesting Brethren can otherwise entertain such a treaty of union and peace that is the eslux of so bitter and unpeaceable a spirit than with deep silence and just contempt unlesse they would betray their own innocency and the justnesse of the cause which they do maintain by treating a Peace upon such perswasives and foundations as do all-along heighten division and build up war 2. Though this Paper bearing the name of A Declaration of the Brethren who are for the established Government and Judicatories of

all sentences whether just or unjust or agreeable or repugnant to the Word of God should be asserted to be at all of kin or alliance to the divine Ordinance of Presbyterial Government which is a part of the sweet and gentle yoke of Jesus Christ that is far from tyranny and oppression The man who in a raving fit of a notional spirit first preached and afterward printed those shrewd comparisons betwixt the Northern Pr●…sbyterie and the Roman Papacie may haply think himself now justified when he heareth so great pretenders to that Government minister by this new doctrine of theirs such ground for some parts of that comparison If Presbyterial Government hath as we do believe and assert it to have its foundation in the Testament of Jesus Christ upon whose shoulder the Government is then whatsoever is of the essence and being thereof must derive it self from the fountain of Christ's revealed Will about the Constitution and Essentials of that Government But we know no tittle in his Book that saith as our Brethren say or from which what they say in this matter can be deduced by good and necessary consequence to wit that it is essential to the Government which He hath appointed His House to be ruled by that all the Children of the House should submit unto and acquiesce in the Determination of the Governors without any counteracting though their Sentence be contrary to the Law and the Testimony and therefore till our Brethren prove thi●… they will give us leave to deny it We acknowledge that power and authority and subjection and submission are co-relatives and that the power and authority of the superiour can no more actually subsist without the subjection and submission of the inferiour than one relative can subsist withou●… its co-relative But all Church-power and authority is bounded by the Word of God and is for edification only And therefore all the subjection that is due thereunto is in the Lord only And when we are thus subject the power and authority is sufficiently acknowledged and preserved But say our Brethren without this submission which they plead for our established Judicatories would be nothing but consultative meetings But this we also deny because what is resolved and determined by Kirk-Judicatories in a right way doth not only bind by vertue of the intrinsecal lawfulnesse thereof ●…t being for matter God's Word and by vertue o●… the reverence that is due to the gifts and endowments of brethren and friends counselling right things which is all that can be attributed to a consultative meeting but also by vertue of a positive Law of God by which He hath commanded us to hear the Church and those that sit in Moses Chair and to be subject in the Lord to Church-Governours to whom He hath given a Ministerial and Official Authority and Power to assemble in His Name in the respective Courts appointed by Himself for governing His House according to the rule of His Word And therefore as they have Authority or a superiority of Jurisdiction which no consultative meeting hath So whosoever resisteth their power when put forth to edification and not to destruction doth not only sin by despising that Word of God which is the matter of their Decree and by despising the gifts and graces of their Brethren that are exercised in holding forth light unto them but doth also sin by resisting the Ordinance of God A Kirk-judicatory modelled according to the patern shewed in the Mount and cloathed with Authority from Jesus Christ and proceeding according to the Law and to the Testimony to which they ought to be subject God having commanded us so to do Their second Reason is That without this submission and subordination they do not see how Unity and Order can be continued in the Kirk It being in vain to think of a remedy by superiour Iudicatories without this the refusing thereof being the way to make all Union void So in their Answer to the Queries propounded upon their Overtures Novemb. 16 1655. And in their Represent pag. 39. sect. 4. and pag. 47. sect. 3. Answ. This is the very argument and language of the Advocates of the Sea of Rome whilst they plead the Popes visible headship and irrefragable authority and jurisdiction over the Church to which all ought to submit without gainsaying or counteracting the very thing that hath set up the Man of sin to sit a●… God in the Temple of God unto the enslaving both of the Word of God and the consciences of men by requiring of them subjection and blind obedience to his dictates without examining the same according to the light of the Word If according to the revealed Will of God there ought to be such a submission in all cases without counteracting What shall we say of the practices of the Prophets and Apostles and others of the Servants of God who have lived before us in corrupt times must all their preachings and other actings though most agreeable to the Word of God be condemned because they were contrary to the 〈◊〉 of the Church wherein they lived 〈◊〉 were indeed to set up a power over the Word 〈◊〉 God a power for destruction and not for 〈◊〉 That would indeed make a sinfull unity a●… order and teach a way to avoid persecution an readily to obtain peace with men but with 〈◊〉 losse of Truth and a good conscience The wa●… to preserve Unity and Order in the House of Go●… is not to hearken to the counsels of flesh an●… bloud by setting up the will of man for a La●… and establishing an arbitrary and tyrannica●… power over consciences to which they shall b●… tyed to submit to iniquity and injustice for Go●… hath said that the 〈◊〉 of iniquity that framet●… mischief into a law shall have no fellowship wit●… Him And therefore that may destroy Unity an●… Order it will not preserve it But to let the Wor●… of God which is both the rule and bond of Unit●… and Order have place Gal. 6. 16. and Judicatories proceeding according to this is an effectua remedy actu primo and objective as in every Ordinance of Christ albeit actu secundo there is n●… efficacious remedy in either Word Sacraments Admonitions Suspension Deposition Excommunications Presbyteries Synods or any Ordinance the Church doth injoy or can exercise without the effectual blessing and influence of the Spirit of God who is the author and appointer o●… these and concurreth therewith upon the consciences of men according to the pleasure of His own will Shall persons sentenced unjustly submit Yes say our Brethren for preserving Unity and Order What remedy then say we for preserving the Truth They may appeal say they But say we they have appealed and have therein succumbed What remedy now No remedy but that at one stroke the precious Truths of God and interests of Jesus Christ must be born down and buried in oblivion And the Saints and Ministers of the Gospel be buried under the rubbish thereof

appear from the passages before cited If our Brethren will not admit this glosse then surely the meaning must be this Whatsoever Minister justly or unjustly and contrary to the rule of the Word of God suspended or deposed from his Ministery shall continue to preach the Gospel or to intromet with his stipend We the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland do appoint that because of his disobedience to our Sentence whether just or unjust he shall be excommunicated and cast out of the Church But as we abhorr to fasten such a meaning upon that reverend and grave Assembly So we desire to think that our Brethren upon sober and serious thoughts will abhorr it also and will acknowledge with us that it is to be understood of just Sentences only and if so we do willingly acknowledge and professe that who so being justly suspended or deposed from the function of the Ministery doth continue in the exercise thereof doth deserve to be processed with Excommunication What was practised by the General Assembly 1646. in the case of Mr. Iames Morison because we have not the Records of that Assembly concerning that matter we will not take upon us to speak positively to their Determination what it was or to the reasons thereof in that particular it being a matter of fact done long ago and cloathed with many circumstances some of which have haply escaped our memorie but as we remember and can collect from the printed Index of the Acts of that Assembly not printed the case was this Mr. Iames Morison being sentenced with suspension from the exercise of his Ministery by the Presbyterie of Kirkwall did appeal to the General Assembly and go on in his Ministeriall function for which the Presbyterie did pronounce against him the sentence of Deposition The process coming before the Assembly they did sustean his appeal and rebuking both him and the Presbyterie for their contentious and litigious carriage one towards another in that businesse did without so far as we remember any ratification of the Presbyteries sentence of Deposition or appointing of Mr. Iames Morison to make any acknowledgement of his offence for violating the just submission and subordination due to the Judicatories of the Kirk which doubtless they would have done before his reposition if they had been of our Brethrens judgment did appoint him to be reponed again to his Ministery If the case was this our Brethren have no advantage but rather disadvantage in alleaging of it because the Assembly were so far from proceeding to a further sentence against Mr. Iames Morison for counteracting the Sentence of the Presbyterie that they did appoint him to be again reponed to his Ministery When our Brethren shall make it appear from the Registers to have been otherwise we shall lay the weight upon it that it doth deserve Our Brethren overshoot when they say That thus to submit hath been the constant practice of all the members and Judicatories of this Kirk ever since the late Reformation If they mean of the Reformation of this Church from Popery they cannot but know that there was nothing more ordinary for the members and Judicatories of this Kirk than not to submit unto but to counteract the Determinations and Sentences of the Prelates and their Synods and Assemblies not only in matters of Doctrine and Worship but also of Discipline and Government It was ordinary for godly men who were deposed by them and their Courts to preach and continue in the exercise of their Ministry notwithstanding of their Sentences Some of our Brethren themselves did it It 's true that the Prelates were not a lawfull Authority nor Church-Officers agreeable to the Word of God but our Brethren do very well know that as the Prelates according to the Act of their Assembly at Glasgow did sometimes in the suspension and deposition of Ministers associate to themselves the Ministery of those bounds where the supposed Delinquent served that is the Presbytery wherof he was a member which was a lawfully Authority and that as they did plead for such a submission to their Decrees and Sentences as these Brethren do now plead for and upon the same grounds of its being essentiall to Government and preserving of Unity and Order and shunning of Confusion c. so also that those who did refuse and decline that submission did it not only upon the ground of their want of lawfull Authority but also upon this ground That no obedience nor subjection is due to Ecclesiastick Laws thatare unjust and contrary to the Word of God as will appear to any that shall read the Treatises that were published by the defenders of the Truth in that hour of temptation concerning the binding power of Ecclesiasticall Laws And for the practice of the Members and Judicatories of this Kirk since the Reformation begun in Anno 1638. untill these differences did arise when our Brethren shall bring instances of unjust sentences pronounced in that time by the Judicatories of the Kirk it will be time for the protesting Brethren to bring instances of not submitting thereto or counteracting the same If the sentences were just submission was due unto them and they do but trifle to make that submission a precedent to that unlimited submission which they do now plead-for Their citation from the Act of the General Assembly in Anno 1647. concerning the hundred and eleven Propositions and the seventh head of Doctrine therein contained doth make against our Brethren and not for them 1. Because the foregoing words of that Act do clear that the Assembly speaketh of Ecclesiasticall Government committed and intrusted by Christ to the Assemblies of the Kirk but Christ hath committed no power to any Assembly to tyrannize nor hath He commanded any Church-member or any inferiour Church-judicatorie to subject themselves to Ecclesiasticall tyrannie 2. Because the Propositions themselves to which that Act do relate do confine the obedience and subjection that is to be given to the Ordinances and Decrees of Classes and Synods to lawfull Ordinances and Decrees It is not lawfull say they to particular Churches or as commonly they are called Parochiall eitherto decline the Authority of Classes or Synods where they are lawfully setled or may be had much lesse to withdraw themselves from that Authority if they have once acknowledged it or to refuse such lawfull Ordinances and Decrees of the Classes or Synods as being agreeable to the Word of God are with Authority imposed upon them Act. 15. 2 6 22 23 24 28 29. Act. 16. 4. Prop. 32. It seemeth it came not into the minds of our Brethren who were appointed to prepare these Articles and Propositions though they did well understand the nature of Presbyteriall Goverment and tendered them unto the Assembly nor into the Assemblies mind who after hearing of them publickly read did unanimously vote and agree to the eight generall heads of Doctrine therein contained and asserted that men should submit to unlawfull Ordinances and Decrees of

censures of Admonition Suspension from the Sacrament of the Lord's-Supper Excommunication and Suspension and Deposition from the Ministery Now all these Powers being authoritative and in their determinations and exercise confined unto and circumscribed within the bounds of the Word of God for their rule and being given to the Church for edification and not for destruction We would desire from our Brethren a Reason why the Critick-power should be more binding than the other or why submission is due to an unjust sentence proceeding from the Critick-power whilest it is not due to any erroneous or corrupt Decree proceeding from the Dogmatick or Diatactick power Hath God put more honour and respect upon the last than upon the two first Or hath He given greater latitude in the exercise of the last nor of the two first or is the last binding by th●… meer will and arbitrement of men whil●…st the two fi●…st bind only when agreeable to the Word of God If our Brethren do so judge We desire to know where these foundations of difference betwixt these powers are written or what they do bring for them from the Book of God or how in reason they can consist when the last shall be contrary to the two first And if this submission be equally due to the judicatories of the Kirk in all the three then if they shall determine that Justification by Faith alone is an error That Communion under both kinds is not necessary That kneeling is a necessary gesture at the Sacrament That it is necessary to forbear working on Yuleday and to keep it holy and such like We are bound not to professe nor preach nor act con●…rary to these their determinations which were to be ashamed of and to deny the Lord Jesus and His Word before men and to bring upon our souls the dreadfull Gospel-curse of His denying and being ashamed of us before His Father and the Angels which are in Heaven Matth. 10. 33. Mark 8. 38. Luke 26. 6. But upon supposal that this submission were not due to the Decrees of the Church in matters of Doctrine Worship and external Order by vertue of the Dogmatick and Diatactick power in themselves yet the asserting of it in matters of Discipline shall also necessarily infer the asserting of it in matters of Doctrine and Worship and external Order The Commissioners of the Gen. Assembly 1650. did declare That a great company and faction of wicked men sons of Belial being subjects may and ought in the case of necessity be imployed in a Christian Army and Covenanted Nation for the defence of Religion and the Country And the Assembly at St. Andrews and Dundee in anno 1651. do by vertue of their Dogmatick-power approve of and ratifie this Doctrine and Declaration and do withall by their Critick-power appoint and ordain That whosoever will not submit to this Determination but shall oppose by professing or preaching otherwise shall be proceeded against with the censures of the Kirk We ask whether these censures being put in execution by suspension from the Sacrament against these who professe otherwise or by Suspension or Deposition from the Ministery against those who preach otherwise if this submission which is required being given to these censures will not necessarily infer that they must not continue to profess or preach any more so And if this by necessary consequence be not an absolute submission to the Dogmatick-power aswell as to the Critick Or let us take it in the case of Athanasius who was deposed and excommunicated for professing and preaching and pleading Jesus Christ to be the consubstantial Son of God or in the case of a person suspended from the Sacrament or deposed from the Ministery because of their professing and preaching against kneeling at the Communion Will not such submission to these sentences as excludes all counteracting unlesse it be to appeal necessarily infer submission to the Decrees themselves so as the person censured must be silenced and not professe nor preach nor plead any more for the one Truth nor against the other Error 7. To wave a little that which concerneth private and particular persons We offer it to consideration whether inferiour Kirk-judicatories are subordinate to the greater and superiour simply and absolutely because they are greater and superiour or because the inferiour have no intrinsical power given them by Jesus Christ but in and wi●…h subordination to the greater because greater If so it would seem that all the inferiour Judicatories of the Kirk Congregational-Elderships Presbyteries and Provincial Synods must befenced and act in the name and by vertue of the authority derived from the General Assembly as all those Civil Courts that have no intrinsick power in themselves but in and with subordination to the supream Civil Magistrate are fenced in his Name and act by vertue of his Authority Inferiour Kirk-judicatories being Ordinances of Jesus Christ have the promise made to them when they meet in His Name and do adhere to His Truth Mat. 18 18 19. And if so shall the sentence of the superiour Judicatory when wrong upon the matter oblige them to submission If a Presbyterie or a Synod with the consent of the Presbyterie do in an orderly way of procedure cast-out an heterodox and scandalous Minister Must they because the Synod or General Assembly doth sustain his unjust appeal be obliged in conscience again to receive him as a member of the Presbyterie or Synod and acknowledge him for a lawfull Minister of the Gospel or if they have in an orderly way of procedure admitted an able orthodoxe godly man to the Ministrie Must they because the superiour Judicatory commands them so to do cease to acknowledge him or own him for one of their number or as a Minister of the Gospel if so it seemeth to be an ill-grounded Truth that is commonly delivered by some Divines writing of Synods That the power of Synods is not corruptive privative or destructive to the power of Classical Presbyteries or single Congregations but perfective acumulative and conservative thereunto 8. What is denyed jure to oecomenick Councels and so lawfully called Prophets and Ministers of the Gospel to Nathan to David to Paul to an Angel from heaven Gal. 1. 8. cannot warrantably be given to General Assemblies If oecomenick Counsels lawfully called Ministers if Nathan if Samuel if Paul if an Angel teach or decree but according to the Word of the Lord we are to counteract and to contradict Gal. 1. 8. But though we or an Angel from heaven preach to you {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} beside what we have preached let him be accursed Gal. 1. 8. Therefore c. 9. What is proprium quarto modo to the Scripture of Truth it cannot warrantably be given to the Judicatories of the Kirk but not to be counteracted nor contradicted is proprium quarto modo to the Scriptures of Truth these being the only infallible rule in matters of Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government Isa. 8.