those Ministers and Preachers who have formerly acted Independently upon their Brethren preach Collegiatly with some Minister settled in a Presbytry for removing of former Stumblings And finally that such Failings be laid to heart by all sorts of Ministers and Preachers as they are convinced of that they be set down in order and pitched on as Causes of a Publick Fast and Humiliation upon some week day through all the Meetings of Presbyterians within this Kingdom and that the Sins of the People be intermixed among these Causes c This was the sum of the Overtures offered by these Reverend Ministers only in their own name but they promised to meditate with the rest of the Ministers for according thereunto In Answer to these we proposed these Overtures premitting also some Motives together with the qualifications of the Union we desired That the Basis of our Union be the Word of GOD Confessions of Faith Covenants Books of Discipline Acts of General Assemblies and the whole Contexture of the Order of this Church before the Publick Resolutions in the purest Periods of this Church which we may with one mind seek to have redintegrated That we might search and try our wayes and Unite first in Confessing Sins in keeping days of Humiliation for the same Wherein we offered to Confess our Offences so far as we could be convinced any manner of way that Church Judicatories should appoint And desired the Ministers from whom we differed to Confess Doctrinally their Offences that have been most stumbling viz. Hearing the Prelatical Curats the Late Indulgence Addressing for and Accepting of the Toleration c And concur in procuring the Condemnation of these things in Ecclesiastick Assemblies That the Covenants might be Renewed with accommodation to our times-and a Solemn Acknowledgement of the publick Breaches and Engagement to the Duties thereof applied to the present day That to prevent all future Divisions the former Offences might never hereafter be complied with under pain of Church Censures nor any other Mould or Model of Presbyterian Government than what was established between the years 1638 and 1650. Nor any State Contrivance or Constitution whatsoever be admitted or submitted unto which may infer a recognizance of any Erastian Usurpation That in the mean time the Ministers settled in Paroches under the late Indulgences and Toleration might declare that now they have another Holding than either of these And that they now officiate in places where they are fixed according to the old Presbyterian Order And finally that endeavours should be used to check and suppress the Foments that nourish and encrease Division on either hand as heart Animosities Alienations of Affection Passion Prejudice Jealousies receiving and reporting Misinformations and all other things of that nature tending thereunto These Mutual Overtures being refered to farther Consideration we thought it a good Expedient both to promot and direct a desirable Union with our Brethren to Renew the Covenants with a publick Accknowledgment both of their and our breaches thereof and Engagement to the Duties of the Covenants with accommodation to our present Circumstances which we Solemnly Accomplished at Lesmabego March 3. 1689. In the Acknowledgement we confess with relation to bygone differences Art 2. Page 56. That as many by defection both in Complyance with Prelacy and Erastianisme hath broken the Churches beauty and Bands Order and Union in making a faction repugnant to her established Order and censurable by her standing Acts in bringing in Novations in the Government and making a rent in the bowels of the Church by causing Divisions and Offences contrare to the Doctrine of this Church have made themselves guiltie of Schism So others on the other hand have upon slender and unsufficient Grounds separate both from Ministers even the most Faithful and Zealous and such as were not chargeable with Complyances and from Christian Societies and Families because of Differences in judgement in incident debates not necessary nor material nor wherein the Testimony of Christ was much concerned or because of personal Offences easily removed not observing the Rules of Christ for removing them nor having respect to His great Commands of Charity forbearance forgiving one another or condescendency And between divided Parties which in our day have long been byting and devouring one another there hath been too much both of sinful Union and Confederacy in terms prejudicial to Truth and Duty on the one hand and of sinful Heats Animosities Jealousies Pride Passion and Prejudices on the other hand Grieving the Spirit of GOD eating up the Power and much hindering the holy Practice and spiritual Exercise of Religion And too much also of sowing discords among Brethren and promotting our Contentions by too credulous and sedulous taking up spreading reports reproaches one of another And in our Renewed Engagement to Covenant Duties with relation to present differences and Union with our Brethren we declared our resolved Endeavours and Vowes On the one hand to labour to recover and preserve the Liberty and Purity of the Worship of God from all Corruptions Novations and Inventions of Men Popish Prelatical Erastian or any other And if we could not gett those Corruptions reformed or removed to study to keep our selves free of Communion and Participation with the same according to Artic. 1. § 2. Pag. 68. And to refuse withstand and witness against all Encroachments on the Liberties of this Church in all time coming And withdraw our selves from Communion with all such Meetings and Congregations that hold their Freedom from are modified by such Usurpations as Indulgences and Tolerations according to Artic. 2. § 3. ibid. And on the other hand That we shall guard against all Schism and sinful Separation or unjust rash and disorderly withdrawing from Congregations Societie c or any part of the Communion of the true Reformed Covenanted Church of Scotland holding purely and intirely the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government of the same in Principle and Exercise according to the Rules of Christ and standing Acts and Constitutions of this Church And that we shall neither gather nor set up formed separate Churches or Societies under other Ordinances Government or Ministry distinct from the Presbyterian Church of Scotland Nor withdraw from Minister or Member of that Body for any offence in any Case where either the Offence may be Legally removed without our withdrawing or is a thing to be condescended on forborn or forgiven But shal study to maintain Vnion Communion in Truth Duty with all the Ministers and Members of the said Church that do and in so far as they do follow the Institutions of Christ As in Artic. 2. § 4. Pag. 69. And in Artic. 6. Pag. 71. We engage that we shall likewise desire design and endeavour to get the defections unworthy Neutralities and unhappy divisions that have long and Lamentably wounded and wrecked the Church removed Differences settled and breaches healed in such a way and upon such termes as may be Honourable and
Our Sentiments are shallow and changeable as other Mens having the imperfection of Mutability as well as Fallibility common to all in this side of time nevertheless it was not any change of Sentiments but only change of providential Circumstances that made us now submit and not before For as we adhere to our Testimony exhibited to the Venerable Assembly and to the substance of all our former Testimouies so we know no Truth or Duty that ever we asserted or contended for but what we think we could Seal with our Blood if we were called to it And we know no Corruption Defection or Sin that ever we witnessed against or withdrew from but what we would yet contend against and withdraw from in the same manner if we were in the same Circumstances and yet think our selves obliged to contend and witness against but not in a divided way but in a way of Order and Vnion according to the Apostles way of the Spirits of the Prophets being subject to the Prophets Our True and Sincere Motives then inducing us to Vnion and Submission which in these Circumstances had such force on our Consciences that we durst not resist for a World were these I. It was ever our Judgement that Vnion and Communion is necessary among the People of GOD when ever it can be attained or intertained without Sin In that Case at all times Opinionum varietas opinantium Vnitas may well consist Which Truth is founded upon Scripture Precepts Promises and Precedents Commanding Confirming and Commending the Duties of mutual Love Reconciliation Peace Union and Communion among the People of GOD even when there were several Dissentions Faintings Faillings Offences Corruptions and Defections among them in several circumstances nowayes involving the Joyners in sin But so it is in the present circumstances We may have such Union and Communion without partaking of their guilt with whom we joyn For the sins and scandals that scarred us from this benefite in times of defection and division are so far happily removed and antiquated that they are neither established in the Constitution of the Church nor ratified and approven in Acts of Assembly nor persisted in by present Administrations nor any way affecting Ministerial Exercises nor do they continue to be our Snares and Stumbling-blocks either to involve us in the guilt of them or to keep us still jangling about them and consequently must cease to be grounds of Separation There is now no part of the Presbyterian Ministry that in Ministerial Exercises is hampered with or has any dependence on Exotick Erastian Usurpations None of their Meetings do now hold their Freedom from nor are modified by the Supremacy or any encroaching power And therefore in our present Communion we keep our selves free of all Participation with these Corruptions now removed And our Joyning can not so much as be interpreted a Submitting to or Complying with any Defection directly or indirectly It s true the guilt of these Defections remains as long as they are not acknowledged but the establishment of them the practise of them the present offence and tentation of them does not remain It remains to be their guilt that will not acknowledge them and they that are convinced of the guilt of them and will not confess so far as they are convinced from searching the Scriptures and their own Conciences shew themselves no Friends to the Churches peace But if because they will not hear our Soul shall weep in secret places as we are called we do not omit a witness against these Defections the want of that Confession through want of Conviction of the sinfulness of these Courses offending us can neither be a Sin to us nor a ground of Separation being only a difference of judgement which we alwayes disclaimed to be a ground of withdrawing 2 It was alwayes our Judgement and Intention that when ever Presbyterial Government in its Courts Power Order and Freedom were established we should submit to it Nay it was not only our resolution but our Engagement at the Renewing of the Covenants that we should not Separate From any part of the Communion of the true Reformed Covenanted Church of Scotland holding purely and intirely the Doctoine Worship Discipline and Government of the same in Principle and Exercise according to the Rules of Christ and standing Acts and Constitutions of this Churth And that then we should study to maintain Vnion and Communion in Truth and Duty with all the Ministers and Members of this Church that do And in so far as they do follow the Institutions of Christ And that when they return unto and fix their ground on the old established Foundations according to the Word of God Constitutions of this Church settled before the Covenanted Reformation stopped we should then embrace and maintaine Union and Communion with them and Submission to them in the LORD But so it is that all the Ordinances of Christ are established in Purity and Freedom The Doctrine is asserted in the Confession of Faith now ratified in Parliament and several controverted Truths formerly obscured by Calumnies are now victoriously vindicated The Worship now not Tolerated but Established and Authorized and Administred in Purity Plenty and Peace and the Lights of the Church are no more hide under Beds or Bushells but set and shinning on the Candlestick to give light to all that are in the House And the Discipline and Government Presbyterial is now restored to what it was anno 1592. Wherefore we must needs return to our Ancient Union Communion and Order when the Church is now returned to the enjoyment and establishment of her Ancient Constitutions when the Prelatick Erastian Antichristian and Tyrannical Usurpations on the Churches Rights and the Defections and Corruptions flowing therefrom and introduced thereby are removed And the Churches intrinsick Power and Capacity to remove legally all remaining Offences is restored and redintegrated we could not but submit our selves pay that deference to Ecclesiastick Judicatories fenced in the Name of our only Head and King Jesus Christ as to subject our selves to them We never owned a division from the Church but only from a party carrying on defection in a broken and declining State of the Church and therefore when the Church is not now in that State but recovering her freedom from these breaches backslidings we could not now maintain such a division As long as they were involved in and promoting courses of Deformation we stood aloof but now when they are promoting Reformation in asserting the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government and opposing Popery Prelacy Erastianism Sectarianism and what is contrare to sound Doctrine and the power of Godliness we could not but joyn with them It s true several Corruptions yet remain unreformed as some of the former are not condemned But as all those Corruptions on which we founded our Separation because of the hazard of our partaking of the guilt of them are removed So we could not suspend our
Advantageous for the Cause And if our Brethren and we between whom such Differences have fallen in and have been sadly Fomented on all hands will search and try our ways respectively how far they and we have receded from the good old way of the Church of Scotland And in our impartial search shall find out our respective defections and breaches of Covenant on the one hand and on the other and unite in confessing these by joyning in this or the like Acknowledgement of publick Sins and keeping dayes of humiliation and mourning for the same And as we offer and promise to confess our Sins here acknowledged or any other so far as we can be convinced any manner os way that they shall desyre or appoint So if they at least will confess theirs Doctrinally and they and we both forsake them mutually and forsaking concur in procuring the Condemnation of them in Ecclesiastick Synods or Assemblies and so return unto and fix our ground on the old Established foundations according to the Word of God and Constitutions of this Church settled before the Covenanted Reformation stopped We will then embrace and maintain Union and Communion with them and submission to them in the Lord And shall not suffer our selves Directly or undirectly by whatsoever Combination perswasion or terror to be divided or withdrawn from this blessed Union and Conjunction Thus far we advanced in these steps with one accord Thereafter in the remembrance of these Resolutions and Engagements which we looked upon as at last inferring an obligation lying upon us to make some Endeavours in pursuite of this Union which is a Duty Materially Morally and Antecedently obliging in it self Being invited also by some reverend Ministers in Edinburgh we had once again Conferences with them Wherein at length after we had still insisted on the necessity of confessing and condemning these Defections and Corruptions which caused us to stand so long at a distance from them proposed the Difficulties we had in our Conscience to return to Communion with them before these were removed as is said They condescended upon some Expedients for our satisfaction that it should be allowed to us to exhibite to the next Assembly our Testimony against all these courses and practises in Ministers that did offend us and to plead for recording of it in the Books of Assembly which might exoner our Consciences and absolve us from all participation with or Communion in the guilt that we conceived to be in any of these things Whereupon taking this Condescension to further consideration which indeed gave us more clearness than we had before and declining any further procedure in it until we consulted the mind of the People whom we desired to be tender of and guard against all appearance of imposing upon them or overdriving them unto things they could not be suddenly clear in We had a Meeting with them to deliberate upon this matter at Dowglas wherein we proposed the Case and offered several Considerations to bring things to a temper endeavouring to satisfie and solve several Scruples and Objections adduced by tender zealous and serious People Alleaging they could not have freedom or clearness to joyn with these Ministers from whom they had formerly withdrawn until they should acknowledge their defection for without that they could never be counted faithful would never faithfully urge others to confess their Sins when they would not acknowledge their own And that Union without this would bury the Testimony against these defections And several other difficulties of this nature very weighty to them and affecting to us To all which we endeavoured to give solution by shewing That the not confessing of Sins not in present practise was never and can never be owned by us to be a ground of Separation And that we found in Scripture the Godly had Communion in Churches where there were several Corruptions not confessed nor reformed And that if the Church came to recover Her Authority and Assemblies we must submit and unite in Reformation and would not be required to unite in defection telling them also of the forementioned Condescension and of our purpose to give in Papers to the first Assembly And perswading them thô we would not urge them against their Conscience to hear all or any of the Ministers against whom there were greatest exceptions to try and search through all the Country where such might be had that were most free of these offences or most faithful in confessing them and joyn with these in the first place In the mean time because it was a grave and greatly important matter not rashly to be determined we agreed that a day of Humiliation should be set a part for praying for Light in the case And that the business should be suspended to another Meeting Thus the Matter was kept in suspence for a considerable time And in the mean while we were now and then upon occasion in conference and sometimes in preaching pleading for endeavours of Union wherein perhaps our weakness sometimes hath vented it self in expressions of too great fervor to the offence of tender People as formerly it might have its Eruptions to the offence of others in the prosecution of our differences with them And in seems thô the manner of managing a business should not prejudge People against the matter it self yet several have been stumbled upon this For at the next Meeting at the forsaid place some did move in the debate with more fervour than before against Union except the foresaid defections were confessed And other Objections and Scruples were adduced both verbally and in Papers sent from several Societies bearing they could not return to a declining party until they should return from their declinings And that confession and forsaking of Sin is so frequently inculcate in the Scriptures that without this they could not expect the blessing of God upon the Ministry of those who retained and defended causes of wrath And that the Church was not yet settled and the Government not yet established so they could not tell but their might be Corruptions in the very constitution of it Whereunto we offered several Answers and at the close of that Meeting it was earnestly desired by the People promised by us that some thing should be write and spread amongst them that might inform them and clear from the Scriptures the difficulties of this controversie the necessity of Vnion Communion with the Church in the present circumstances Which accordingly so soon as was possible was prepared and may be hereafter published Afterwards the business was more remisly followed both sides being more abstract and kept in suspence waiting to see the constitution of the Church established and a free General Assembly unto which they might make application whence all expected more light and resolution would accrue At length the General Assembly indicted by Authority approaching we had another Meeting in which after some litle debates we came to a more sedate
the LORD because the foundation of the House of the LORD was laid Tet some of them that had seen the first House wept with a loud voice so that the People could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of weeping So at this time we are called to rejoice with thanksgiving for we should indeed be very ungrate and unworthy if we did not acknowledge with Praise and Admiration the Mercy of God which endureth for ever manifested magnified in the progress of this Work hitherto That at the time appointed of God the least expected by us at the time of our greatest extremity and our Enemies greatest insolency the Lord hath been pleased in Sovereign Mercy instead of overtaking us with judgements threatned for our sins and without waiting on our Repentance and Preparations by turning unto Him to prevent and surprize us not only with an outward enlargement of Rest and Peace without prejudice to Truth in a way wherein we are not beholden to the ensnaring favours of his Enemies but with such a reviving in our bondage in the midst of Wrath remembering Mercy brought about by the repression of Tyranny suppression of Popery and depression of Prelacy as that we have yet a Nail in His Holy Place to set up the House of our GOD Yea the Altar also is set again upon His Bases and the daily burnt Offerings are offered by number according to the custom and the foundation of the Temple is laid again When the Doctrine of this Church is asserted and the Confession of Faith formerly received is read voted approven and established by Parliament and even several controverted Truths formerly much condemned and obscured under a load of many Calumnies are now justified and vindicated The Worship and Ordinances of Christ are administred in great Purity Plenty and Peace The Government of Christs Institution by Kirk Sessions Presbiteries Synods and General Assemblies so long born down is at length restored to what it was Anno 1592. And all Acts Laws contrary or prejudicial unto inconsistent with or derrogatory from Presbyterial Government are rescinded with this honour that it is declared by Act of Parliament that this is the Government most agreeable to the Word of GOD and most conducible to the advancement of true Piety and Godliness and establishment of Peace and Tranquillity within this Realm And the Discipline retrieved to such a fond of Freedom that all Ecclesiastick Courts may without restraint or being accountable to any Exotick Vsurped Power in the Magistrate assert all the Authority and exerce the Power wherewith Christ hath entrusted them Which power if duely and diligently improved and put in execution may through the Blessing of GOD contribute very much to the reducing Order the redress of many Disorders in this Church And now also the causes of our Disunion Division in times of defection being in a great measure removed when ErastianVsurpations are abrogated the Churches intrinsick Power redintegrated and the Corruptions introduced by Complyances so far abdicated and antiquated that they are not in the constitution of the Church and do not continue to be the scandal and snare of the times We hope and expect a Remedy may be found for the Breaches and Divisions that we thought incurable and Vnion and communion in the Lord may be attained But thô for these things we be called to rejoice yet we are no less obliged to mourn when we observe this House of the Lord so unlike the former wanting many things the former had and pestered with many things the former wanted As at the building of the second House after the Captivity of Babylon they that had seen the first House wept with a loud voice when they observed its Constitution and Structure so far short of the former for Order and Beauty and wanting some glorious Prerogatives the other had as the Urim and Thummim the Fire from Heaven the Ark of the Testimony c. So they that have seen our former Reformation in its Integrity before the late Deformation can hardly refrain from weeping at the sight of the sad disproportion between this and the former In the former as the constitution was calculate in the nearest conformity to the Divine Pattern so the Builders had always a care to pull down what was to be demolished before they established what was to stand and to purge away the rubbish from the Foundation before they promoved the Superstructure Accordingly when Prelacy was reintroduced at several times the first thing they did when they recovered their power was alwayes to exert it in condemnation of that Corruption and of these Assemblies and Meetings that promoved abetted favoured or complied And when the Erastran Supremacy began to encroach upon the Churches Liberties and to bring the Ministry into Bondage they did not think it enough to wrestle against it by Personal witnessings but by the good Hand of GOD upon their Endeavours never ceased until it was condemned by Acts of Assembly They proceeded also with great earnestness and vigilance to purge the Church of corrupt and scandalous Ministers sadly regrateing afterwards when they saw the effects of the continuance of some of that Character in the Ministrie that they had not done more in that purging work But now after all the Rubbish and Filth brought into the House of GOD by the Invasions and Vsurpations of the Enemies and Defections of Friends when now Opportunity and Capacity is given to Rebuild and Beautifie the House of the LORD and to Repair the Desolations thereof the present building is so far advanced without pulling down and purging away the Rubbish and condemning these corruptions and defections in complyance with them or confessing and forsaking them as our Fathers used to do Now these courses have 〈◊〉 rather left us than we have foresaken And the Lords returning in Providence without our returning to Him by Repentance hath made any Reformation yet attained while these Defections are neither confessed in humiliations nor condemned in Judicatories And the Prelatical Clergy after all the evil they have done and bitter fruits they have produced are yet kept in many places and like to continue as a Seminary and Nurserie of a corrupt Ministrie As long as all this Rubbish stands there can be little hope either of Purity or Stability in the Superstructure In former Reformations also the Advancement used to be Progressive beginning where the former Reformation stopt and going forward after they had got removed what obstructed it But now the motion is Retrograde going as far back as that in 1592. missing many Excellent steps of Reformation attained after that to 1649. In former Reformations our worthy Ancestors used to begin with Renovation of the National Covenants Acknowledgements of the Breaches thereof which hitherto hath been neglected to the great grief of many It is also matter of Lamentation to reflect that in former Reformations tho the Adversaries troubled the Builders and hired
privatively by withholding other necessary Instructions and Warnings Murdering their Souls 6. Because they were and are upon all these Accounts Scandalous and the Objects of the Churches Censure And thô through the iniquity of the times their deserved Censure hitherto hath not been inflicted yet they stand upon the matter convict by clear Scripture Grounds and by the standing Acts and judicial Decision of this Church in her Supreme Judicatories 7. Because this hearing and sumitting to them was required as a Badge Test and Evidence of Due Acknowledgement of and hearty Compylance with Erastianism and Prelacy or His Majesties Government Ecclesiastick Act. Parl. 1. Char. 2. July 10. 1663. which made it a case of Confession to withstand it 8. Because by our Covenants we are obliged to stand at a distance from such courses of Defection and to extirpate them yet in contradiction hereunto we were commanded by the Rescinders of the Covenants to bear the Prelatick Curats as a Badge of our yeilding to the rescinding of the Govenants 9. Because this Course was Offensive and Stumbling both in hardening those that complyed with Prelacy and weakening the Hands of those that opposed it and inferred a condemning of their Sufferings upon this Head Especially 10. When Communion with them was so stated that therein was not only a Case of Controversie among the Godly in which alwayes Abstinence is the surest side nor only in the judgement of many a Case of Confession which is alwayes dangerous to contradict and condemn but undenyably a Case of Competition between the true Church of Scotland her Ministers and Professors owning and adhering to her Holy Establishments claiming a Divine Right to their Offices and Priviledges contending for the Churches Reformation and a Schismatical Party setting up a new Church in a new Order under a new Head robbing them of their Offices and Priviledges and overturning the Reformation We must presume to Plead also That Enquiry be made unto the Heinous and Heaven-daring Affront done to the Holiness of GOD in the horrid Violations of our Holy Covenants National and Solemn League not only how the Popish Prelatical and Malignant Party have broken them enacted the Breaches of them by Law Burnt them and endeavoured to Bury them by making it a Capital Crime to owne their Obligation and by bringing in and substituting in their room Conscience ensnaring Anti-covenants Oaths Bonds and Engagements renouncing the former and obliging to Courses contradictory thereunto But that it may be considered how many wayes Ministers and Professors in this time of tentation and tribulation have been guilty of breach of these holy Covenants particularly by consenting unto subscribing swearing and taking any of the new multiplied mischievously contrived captiously conceived and Tyrannically imposed Oaths Tests or Bonds in matters of Religion since the overturning of the Covenanted Reformation and establishment of Prelacy and by perswading People to take them and forbearing a necessary warning of the danger of them and leaving People in the dark to determine themselves in the midst of these snares All which we Plead and Protest against as sinful and scandalous 1 Because all of them did infer import and imply a sinful unitive conjunction Incorporation Association and Confederacy with the People of these Abominations that were promoting a course of Apostasie from GOD. 2 Because all of them were incapable of the Qualifications required in Sacred Engagements to be taken in Truth Righteousness and Judgement 3 Because all of them in the sense of the Imposers interpreted by their Acts and Actings were condemnatory of and contradictory unto the Covenants some part of the Covenanted Reformation 4 Because by the Ancient Acts of Assembly all publick Oaths imposed by the Malignant Party without consent of the Church are condemned July 28. 1648. Ante merid Sess 18. And Those Ministers are Ordained to be Censured who subscribe any Bonds or take any Oaths not approven by the General Assembly or by their Counsel Countenance or Approbation make themselves accessary to the taking of such Bonds and Oaths In like manner we dare not forbear to Cry and Crave that it may be considered what wrongs Christ hath received from the Erastian and Antichristian Usurpation of the Supremacy encroaching upon the Prerogative of the Lord Jesus Christ his incommunicable Headship and Kingship as Mediator giving to a Man a Magisterial and Architectonick power to alter and innovate Authorise and Exauctorate allow or restrain and dispose of the Government and Governours of the Church according to his pleasure invading the liberties of the Gospel Church introducing a civil Dominion upon her Government contrare to its nature being only a Ministerial-Stewardship distinct from the Civil Government in its Nature Causes Ends Officers and Actings and giving to the Magistrate the power of the keyes without and against Christs Donation and Authority even the Dogmatick Critick and Diatactick Decisive Suffrage and Power in Causes Ecclesiastick which Christ hath intrusted to the Church Representatives and denying to the Church the Exercise of these Keyes and Powers without the Magistrates warrand and Indulgence We crave also that it may be inquired into how far this encroachment hath been connived at submitted unto complyed with homologate strengthened and established by receiving and accepting without consent of the Church yea against the express dissent and testimony of some faithfull Ministers to the contrare the Indulgences anno 1669 and 1679 And by the silence of others not witnessing against the same and others censuring the Faithful for discovering the sinfulness thereof Which we Remonstrate upon these grounds complexly considered 1 Because as the contrivance and end of the grant thereof was to advance and establish the Supremacy to engage Presbyterians either to co-operate towards the settling and strengthening thereof or to surcease from opposing the peaceable possession of the Granters Vsurpation and to extort from them at least an indirect Recognizance of acknowledged Subordination in Ministerial Exercises to his usurped power in a way which would he best acquiesced in To suppress the Preaching and Propagation of the Gospel in persecuted Meetins in houses and fields so necessary at that time and to divide and increase differences and animosities among Presbyterians by insinuating upon these called the more Moderate to commend the Indulger his Clemency while other Non-Conformists adhering to interdicted duties were justly complaining of the Effects of his Severity And as the woful effects of it strengthening the Supremacy weakening the hands of these that witnessed against it extinguishing Zeal and increasing many divisions did correspond with these wretched designs So these could not be counteracted but very much strengthened and promotted by the Acceptance of the Indulgence which in its own nature was so palpably subservient thereto even thô there had been a Testimonie against these designs and ends yet when the means adapted to these ends were complied with it was rendered irrite and contra factam 2 Because as the Supremacie received
sometimes admired and envied Scotlands Establishments now to see her so dispirited and deceived as to Accept and Address for a Toleration without a Testimony whereby instead of all the Laws and Covenants securing her Reformation the only Tenure and Security for it she had now remaining was the Arbitrary Word of an Absolute Prince whose Principles obliged him to break it What occasion of disdainful Insulting did it give to the Prelatical Party then Pleading for the Nations Laws to observe Presbyterians acquiescing in that which suspended and stopped the Penal Statutes Yea what matter of Gloriation and Boasting was it to Papists to see Presbyterians sleeping and succumbing and not opposing when at this opened Gap they were bringing in the Trojan Horse of Poperty and Slavery Moreover with respect to some things at present which we account Corruptions and are offensive to many we cannot forbear to Remonstrate and Plead that Consideration may be taken of the sinfulness of the too universal Defect and Neglect of Zeal and Faithfulness in reviving the buried National Covenants when now they seem to be laid aside and many Ministers forbear to Preach plainly the obligation of them and discover particularly the Breaches of them and to mention them in Engagements which they require of Parents when they present their Children to Baptisme according to the continved Custom of faithful Ministers these many years bygone And it is stumbling to many that in all Addresses to King and Parliament the Renewing of them hath not been desired This we think very grievous 1 Because in the Scriptures as we have many Precepts Promises and Precedents for Renewing them and Demonstrations of their Perpetual indissoluble obligation being in their matter and forme aggreable with the Word of God So we have many Denunciations and Certifications of unavoidable threatnings of all evils National Personal Temporal Spiritual and Eternal against forsaking or forgetting them 2 Because as there is no other way to prevent the Curse of the Covenants and this threatned wrath iminent upon the Land for breach of Covenants but to acknowledge the breaches of them and engage again to the Duties of them So these omissions cannot consist with that faithfulness required of Ministers in such a Case 3 Because it is a plain defection from first love and former Attainments of our Fathers who commenced all Reformations with Renovations of the Covenants And in their Ecclesiastick Constitutions enjoyned to all Ministers to Preach up the Covenants Witness against all defections from them and indifferency or Luke-warmness in them which also is a breach of Covenant in it self Hence more Particularly we cannot but siguify how much we and many others are offended at the too general keeping silenee at or very ambigvous speaking against and omitting the plain and Impartial Doctrinal Rebuking of such Crying sins and scandalls of the times as cannot be Controverted among Presbyterians Such as the impossing and taking many Bonds and Oaths repugnant to the Covenants and work of Reformation which many Complied with to shift Persecution and many others to Purchase preferments unto places of Trust The accession of Nobles Rulers to the wicked establishments and framing mischiefs into Laws in former times The manifold involvements of great and small in the guilt of Persecution by delating and informing against honest suffering People Riding with Armed Foree to pursue and Apprehend them appearing under displayed Banners for the defence of Tyranny on Expeditions against them at Pentland Bothwel-Bridge c. Sitting in Courts Juries and Assyses to condemn them putting them out of Houses Tenements under them because they would not Comply with sinful impositions And especially the defyling of the Land with Blood which hath yet a Cry in the Ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth All which the Servants of the Lord are obliged by the Word of God and the Constitutions of this Church to Cry against and not to spare and to reprove and rebuke in Season and out of Season Finally we must presume to lay open our own and the general Complaints through several corners of the Land of the sad Slackness and Remisness of Discipline The Report and Fama Clomosa whereof at least doth wound our Ears aad pierce our Hearts To wit That some who had gone a great length in the above-mentioned Complyances even to the Swearing the Test it self besides other wicked Oaths and to the persecuting of the Godly sundry wayes are admitted to the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and to present their Children to Baptism And that others are admitted to the Charge of Elders who had not only habitually complyed with Prelacy and had born the Name of that Office under that Government but had taken these scandalous forementioned Oaths yea and that of late some are admitted to the Ministry that constantly followed Episcopacy and were trained up to be Curats and were deeply involved in the foresaid Complyances without due Trial of their past Conversation and requiring of their publick Profession of Repentance and Resentment of these respective Scandals whereby the Precious are not taken from the Vile and a litle of that old Leaven may quickly leaven the whole Lump and Offenders are not like thereby to be gained to Repentance but rather hardened in and tempted to think litle of these destroying Sins We plead not here that every one of the defects or every degree of these offences should be in the case of this Epidemick Involvement proceeded against by disciplinary Censure nor do we urge that all chargable with these offences above taxed especially such as are in Controversie should be either Personally rebuked in publick or obliged publickly to confess their own degree of the guilt of them thô it would give glory to God and Comfort to the Church and peace to their own Consciences for all to confess their offences that have been most stumbling to the Godly so far as from the Word of God and known Principles of this Reformed Church they may be convinced Nor do we propose that the condemnation of every one of these steps of defection that are questioned should be so far stretched quoad momentum rei as either to be stated by us as a ground of Separation formerly or now required as a necessary condition of Communion Thô still we conceive the complication of them together when they stood was a ground that necessitated our withdrawing from many in the then Circumstances We only desire they may be so far inquired into that what guilt is in them before the Lord may be in some measure discovered and the wrongs done to Christ thereby may not be passed over in an Act of oblivion But as the Right honourable the Estates of Parliament have found declared these Acts Actings of the Overturners of our Reformation and the mischiefs of Prelacy Supremacy Tyranny established by wicked Laws which were the Foundations and Fountains of all the Offencesive Complyances abovementioned to be Grievances against the Laws of
the Land So the Right Reverend the Members of this Venerable Assembly may find and declare these wicked establishments and Complyances Supporting them and defections flowing therefrom to be sins against the Laws of Christ And so far as they can find Iniquity in the foresaid offences may provide by Ecclesiastick Constitutions for the future that the like Complyances with the like Contrivances of usurping Enemies may never again be allowed under pain of Church Censures to prevent and peeclude all fears of divisions to be occasioned by the like defections in time coming And as we offer and Promise so far as we are or may be convinced to confess our offences any manner of way that Church Judicatories shall appoint So for the satisfaction of all concerned in the late Differences and removal of Offenses given or taken we desire and expect that such Failings in the above specified particulars or others be laid to Heart by all sorts of Ministers and Preachers as they are convinced of or after search may be discovered to them by this Reverend Assembly And that these among the Sins of the Land be set down in order as causes of a publick Fast upon some week day through all the Meetings of Presbyterians within this Kingdom and that the Sins of the People be intermixed among these Causes Further As we humbly conceive it would prove a very proper and promising expedient for promoving preserving and propagating Reformation for settling and keeping Order and Vnion for preventing and precluding innovations or corruptions for discovering and discouraging Apostates or Schismaticks Malignants or Sectaries and excluding them from access to do further hurt so we hope we shall be approven and seconded by many in this Reverend Assembly in craving the Renewing of the Covenants either both the National and Solemn League with accommodations to our Times or one made up of both with Additions or Explications suiting our present Case and Day with a Solemn Acknowledgement of the publick Breaches and Engagement to the Duties of the Covenants Humbly moving that none be forced to Swear or Subscribe the same or so much as admitted to it except they be such as may be judged in Charity to have a competent knowledge and sense of the Sins and Duties thereof In Fine thô we will not take upon us to propose the time or the way of purging out the Episcopal Clergy yet we cannot and dare not forbear to Plead and Obtest that they may not be continued nor kept in the Churches whereunto they have intruded nor re-admitted that are or may be laid aside until they give approvable evidence of their Repentance for their sinful Conformity 1 Vpon all these Grounds exhibited above against hearing of them 2 Because former experience of the hurt received by the entertainment of the Episcopal Clergy anno 1638 does now plead for their care to prevent it in time coming 3 Because the People under their Ministry have hitherto been and are perishing in Ignorance and Irreligion being either starved for want of Faithful and Spiritual Instruction or poysoned with false Instruction and therefore Pity to them and Zeal to propagate the Gospel should prompt to all endeavours to purge them out 4 Because the Settlement Purgation and Plantation of the Church will be exceedingly obstructed by the continuance of them that unsettled it corrupted it and pestered the Lords Vineyard with Plants not of His planting and whose Leaven will be alwayes in hazard to leaven the whole Lump 5 Because all of them are among these whom the Laws of Christ do oblige the Constitutions of this Church do ordain and the present Civil Sanctions for establishing Church Government do allow the Church Representative to try and purge out being all of them either insufficient or negligent or erroneous or scandalous if these Characters may be applied or interpreted according to Scripture Rules or as the Church hath extended them heretofore We are content that none of the Curats be put out but the unsufficient Ignorant if this be one part of the trial of their knowledge to inquire not only unto their Gifts but their Graces if ignorance of Conversion Regeneration Sanctification and Communion with God both as to the Doctrine of these Benefits and as to their own Experience of them so far as may be discovered by humane Judgement be reputed unsufficiency We are content none by put away but the negligent if so be they that do not warn the Wicked of their destroying Sins that feed themselves and not the Flock that do not strengthen the Diseased nor heal the Sick c. That omitt the pressing of necessary Duties impartially on Persons and Families and the censuring of Scandals without respect of Persons be comprehended in that Character We are satisfied none be removed but the Erroneous if they be judged to be such who not only owne Points of Popery Arminianism and Socinianism but are unsound in their Explanation of the Kingly Office of Christ of the Perfection of the Scriptures in the point of Church Officers and Government in the matter of Oaths of the Magistrates Power and do maintain Erastianism an exploded and abjured Error in this Church And we seek no more but that all be removed who are Scandalous and none but they if Intruders Covenant-breakers perjured Subscribers of Scandalous Oaths and Tests Schismaticks and Persecuters be counted among the Scandalous It were perhaps Right Reverend more suitable for us who make so mean a Figure among either Preachers or Professors to lay our Hand on our Mouth in submissive silence waiting what your own Wisdom and Zeal will produce by the good Hand of GOD upon you for our satisfaction But conceiving a chief Let and Impediment of our desired comfort of Union to consist in the want of opportunity of laying open our Hearts to you and longing with much impatience for it we could not forbear any longer giving you the trouble of hearing us wherein we request for the favour of laying aside all preconceived Prejudices and begg rather your charitable construction of our ingenuous Freedom and deprecate your critical scanning the Infirmities that may be obivous therein Some things are indeed extraordinary which we here urge but as extraordinary Exigences do force us to move without a Precedent so they furnish you a Power to make a Precedent for the like cases thereafter We confess also it may seem precipitant to press all these things so hard so soon in a bruckle time before things be better settled but we fear if new delayes be procured till all things be fully settled that the observing of Wind and Clouds shall hinder both Sowing and Reaping-But if laying aside the Plaisters wherewith the Wounds of our Backslidings have been slightly covered rather than cured you put to your Hand to the healing of our Breaches in condescending to these our humble Desires you shall win the Blessing of many Souls rent and racked with these Divisions You shall disburden the
much Strength and Increment from the Indulgence so reciprocally it had its Rise Spring Conveyance and subsistence from the Supremacy from which it flowed upon which it stood and by which at length it was removed And in the grant and conveyance of the Indulgence all the power of the Supremacy was arrogate asserted and exerted in first taking away the power of the Keyes from CHRISTS Stewards and then restoring only one of them to some few with Restrictions bounding and Instructions regulating them in the exercise of that The Acceptance whereof so clogged with these complex Circumstances without a clear distinct Testimony in that case of confession hath at least a great appearance which should have been abstained from of a conniving at submitting unto complying with and homologating of that ErastianVsurpation 3 Because as it was interpreted to be accepted in the same Terms wherein it was granted without a Testimony against the Supremacy so the Entry of those Ministers to their Churches by this Indulgence was prejudicial to the Churches Priviledge Some of them being fixed in particular Churches whereunto they had no peculiar Pastoral Relation before and some transplanted from one Church to another without the interposure of any Ecclesiastick Presbyterial Authority without the free and orderly Call of the People being in many respects prelimited and in the way of Patronages at the Councils Pleasure and Order and those that were Restored to their own Churches being there admitted not by vertue of their Old Right and claim of an undissolved Relation but by vertue of a New Holding on the Indulgence 4 Because the embracing thereof and the continuing therein was a faint yielding to prevailing Erastianism a course of Defection from former Integrity of Ministerial Freedom and Faithfulness in which the Servants and Witnesses of Jesus Christ were Famous and Eminent in former times who for writing Preaching and protesting against the Ecclesiastick Supremacy in the Magistrate and all Erastian courses did bear the cross of Christ with much stedfastness Yea a receding from and foregoing of a very matterial part of the Cause and Testimonie of the Church of Scotland which till then did constantlie wrestle against such encroachments And in this respect scandalous because hardening to Erastian Enemies stumbling to many Friends and offensive to Posteritie 5 Because it is contradictorie to our Covenants to receive Indulgences contrived and conferred on purpose to divide by the terror of persecution on the one hand and the perswasion of this pretended Libertie taking off the Legal restraint on the other Ministers People from the Cause and Testimony of the Church of Scotland against the Supremacy from their former blessed Conjunction therein and to induce them to make Defection to that Party that were Advancing Erastianism And it is expresly contradictory to the Engagement to Duties Anno 1649 where the Obligation bears Because many have of late laboured to supplant the Liberties of the Kirk we shall Maintain and Defend the Kirk of Scotland in all her Liberties and Priviledges against all who shall oppose or undermine the same or encroach thereupon under any pretext whatsomever Likewise we Plead and Obtest that a Search may be made into and a review taken of the late Toleration the Addressing for it and Acceptance of it complexely considered The sinfulness whereof we could not and now cannot forbear to Witness against 1 Because as the Design of the Granter and Tendency of the Grant it self in its own nature being the Introduction of Popery and Slavery could not in any probability be counteracted but rather corroborated by this Addressing for it and Accepting of it even thô there had been a Testimony against the design thereof as there was none and could be none consistent with the continuance thereof so being conveyed from Absolute Power which all were required to obey without reserve Stopping Suspending and Disabling all the Penal Statutes against Papists thereby undermining all the Legal Bulwarks of our Religion The Addressing for and Accepting of it so conveyed without a witness against this Despotical Encroachment yea the very condition of enjoying the benefit of it being exclusive of such a Testimony which might any way tend to the alienating of the People from such a despotical Government in all its Encroachments did indirectly at least imply Complyance with if not the Recognizance and Acknowledgement of that Vsurped Power and the Arbitrary Exercise and Effect of it in suspending the Penal Statutes 2 Because it was extended not only to Prelacy but to Popery Quakerism and all Idolatry Blasphemie and Heresie which was highly provoking to the Lord Jesus and prejudical to the Peace and Purity of His Church contrary to the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament contrary to our Confession of Faith and Gatechisms Chap. 20. § 4. and Chap. 23. § 3. Being placed also among the sins of the second Command in the Larger Catechism contrare to the Principles of the Church of Scotland being condemned warned of and witnessed against by Acts of Assembly anno 1649. And by her faithful Pastors Preaching Writing and Protesting against such Tolerations and sometimes even when Papists were exccluded as that against which the Ministers of Fife and Perth did testifie And contrary to our Covenants wherein we are bound to preserve Reformation and Vniformity in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government to extirpate Popery c. to free our Souls from the guilt of other Mens Sins defend our Liberties and consequently never to comply with a Toleration eversive of all these Interests we are sworn to maintain and introductive of these things we are sworn to endeavour the Extirpation of 3 Because it was clogged with such Conditions and Limitations as did exceedingly hamper the Freedom of the Ministry being Offered in Proclamations and Accepted in Addresses and Obedeince with Restrictions to Persons who might Preach allowing some and discharging others who had as good Authority as they to exercise their Ministry To Places where they should preach only where Intimation was given of the Name of the Place and of the Preacher to some of the Lords of the Council c. And to the matter What or at least what they might not preach to wit nothing that might have any tendency to alienate the Hearts of the People from a Popish and Tyranical Government and consequently nothing against the wickedness or of the Misery of Tyranny nothing against the Toleration and the open Sins proclaimed therein and wicked Ends designed thereby nothing against disabling the Penal Statutes or for the Obligation of them and Ties of National Covenants strengthning them 4 Because of the manifold Scandal of it we cannot but witness against it being so disgraceful to the Protestant Religion and prejudicial to the Interest thereof It was reproachful to our Religion sometimes established by Law then only Tolerate under the Notion of an Evil to be suffered How Confounding and Consternating was this to all the Reformed Churches that