Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	church_n	civil_a	magistrate_n	1,328	5	8.0220	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

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

the reverend Brother upon whom they would cast the blame in this matter and others of both judgements were required by the Lord Protector to go to London where being demanded he gave his opinion That seing there was a Court established in Scotland for disposing of the legall maintenance to such Intrants of the Ministrie as upon certificates should be approved of by the Judges of that Court whereby the Judges were left to an uncertainty whose certificates to receive It was therefore fittest in the present distractions of the Church that those certificate should be granted by a select number of both judgements which being embraced by my Lord Protector and his Council and an Ordinance passed for that effect and sent to Scotland When the reverend Brother did perceive that it was not accepted he laid it aside and did not prosecute i●… any further And we wish the Brethren for the publick Resolutions would follow the example of his condescendencie in the like cases But may i●… not be truely said that our Brethren have done much more themselves for enervating the power of Church-Judicatories and bringing the Ministrie into bondage by clandestine capitulations of theirs about Intrants to the Ministrie the effects whereof are so well known as we need not to mention them But say they in the next place When it pleased the Lord to break that snare their leading men have again of late attempted the utter ruine of this Church and of these who differ from them under the pretext of seeking a Commission for plantation of Churches they projected to have the power of disposing the legall maintenance of Ministers pu●… in the hands of that Commission though they know such a power was never given nor assumed by such a Iudicatorie but that it is contrarie to the order established by the Law of the Land the great design therof being not only to call the Authority of the late Assemblies in question as they expresse in their desire but to have the maintenance put in the hands of men to their mind who were the proposers of the Overture that so they might discourage all who are opposite to them from the Ministrie What poor and weak premisses are he●…r to draw such a conclusion from That the protesting Brethren or their leading men have of late attempted the utter ruine of this Church and of those who differ from them When the civil powers were pleased to put in the hands first of a peculiar Court appointed for that end and afterwards into the hands of the Council the disposing of the legall maintenance of Ministers to such Intrants as upon certificates should be approven by them The protesting Brethren having represented the inconveniencie of this thing unto his Highnesse Council in Scotland and finding that they were not impowered to change that way did afterward by some of their number supplicate his Highnesse That as it is allowed to the Nation to be governed by her own Laws the like freedom may be given to the Church to be governed by her own uncontroverted Acts and Constitutions and that Intrants to the Ministery might have full access to their stipends and maintenance conform to the Laws of the Nation without any bonds or engagements of a civil nature directly or indirectly and that all the Acts of Parliamen●… which do relate to the liberties of the Kirk may be declared to be still in force and that there might be a Commission of able and godly men who know and understand our Church affairs nominated by his Highnesse which might exercise the power which was formerly in the Commission of Plantation of Churches in Scotland and also do the duty of the Civil Magistrate anent Ecclesiastick matters according to the Rules and Acts of uncontroverted Assemblies and Laws of the Land preceding the year 1651. Was there herein any thing faulty much lesse so hainously faulty as an attempt for the utter ruin of the Church and of the resolution Brethren Yes say they there was a project in it to have the power of disposing the legal maintenance of Ministers put into the hands of that Commission though such a power was never given nor assumed by such a Judicatory and is contrary to the order established by the Law of the Land But as the first part of the protesting Brethren their desire which we have already set down doth expresly bear That Ministers might have accesse to their stipends in such a way as i●… conform to the Laws of the Land So doth the last part expresly qualifie the power which they desire to be given to the Commission of Plantation of Kirks in the exercise of it that it might be according to Acts of uncontroverted Assemblies and the Laws of the Land It is neither falshood nor vanity for the protesting Brethren when they are charged as underminers of the Liberties of thi●… Kirk to say that in their essays for preserving and vindicating of these they have been nothing short if not somewhat beyond these men who challenge them And what though upon supposall of the purpose and resolution of the civ●… powers not to alter the former way of disposin●… of the legall maintenance of Ministers they ha●… desired that the disposing of Ministers maintenance might be in the hands of that Commission●… was it a fault when they could not prevail to bring it in conformity to the Laws of the Land to desi●… that there might be a translation of the power in its exercise from one subject to another who being not necessarily diverted with multiplicity of affairs as the Council is might more conveniently attend it But say they the great design of this was to call the Authority of late Assemblies in question Supposing that to be true that the Authoritie of these Assemblies were not only called in question but pronounced null would that bring utter ruine to this Church and to those who plead for them do our Brethren think that the Church and themselves must stand or fall with the Authority of these late Assemblies We wish the Church and them too better foundations then such bowing walls and tottering fences But could not the Commission for plantation of Kirks have exercised that Power and the Authority of these Assemblies have also stood we see no inconsistencie between them Next say they The design was to have the maintenance put in the hands of men to their mind that so they might discourage all from the Ministrie who are opposit to themselves If our Brethren judge such discouragement to be so great a crime why have they so much practized it and framed the mischief thereof into a Law that none shall have liberty to be a Burser in a DivinityCollege or to wait upon a Family much lesse to be admitted to the Ministrie that doth not acknowledge the Constitution and submit to the Acts of these two late Assemblies But as concerning the men into whose hands the protesting Brethren would have had the disposing of the maintenance put

so in the end to make them run quite away from their old friends as men to be scarred at like children really afrighting themselves with the things which they devised to afright others But let us come to that upon which they lay the stresse and weight of all these harsh constructions to wit their actings and irregular practices as they are pleased to call them being such as in their opinion are contrary to all order and do clearly tend to the subversion of the Government Of these they do reckon a great many in their Representation published at London which as to that head which yet taketh up a great part of that Book is so fraughted with groundlesse alleagances and grosse mis-representations we shall abstain from our Brethrens word of foul slanders of matters of fact some of them feigned and others reported with all the distortion that a prejudiced mind can reach that we do profess though proportionable and correspondent assertions and carriages in their Agent and his industrious spreading of it did make us conceive that it might be his yet untill now that they have owned it in a publick Declaration we could hardly be perswaded that it was theirs But we shall leave th●… full answering of these things to its proper place and shall now only speak to those particulars tha●… are shortly repeated in their Declaration And i●… the entry do desire our Brethren seriously to consider whether they have done well by their departing from their former principles in order to the Malignant party and hugging them in their arms and bringing them into the Judicatories of State and Kirk against a publick solemn Vow and Engagement sworn by the whole Land to the Lord to the contrary and by abusing the Government and turning the edge both of Doctrine and of Discipline from off them and against their Brethren and many of the Godly in the Nation to tempt them to cast at the Government and to fall upon means of defence that haply might have been prejudicial thereunto We do professe we do judge it a special mercy to this whole Church that these things have not prevailed upon the protesting Brethren to the designing and doing of that really wherewith they are unjustly charged and if God had not instructed them with a strong hand to the contrary who knows but corruption meeting with great provocations and strong temptations might have turned them aside to such unhappy purposes It shall be our Brethrens wisdom if they desire to preserve the Government to improve it to edification and for the comfort and encouraging of the Godly and purging of the House of God otherwise all their professing and pleading and appearing for it will do but little to commend it to men's consciences and if it have not a root there it is not like long to subsist in outward professions The first particular is as they call it The declining the Authority of the supream Church-Iudicatories of this Nation once and again They mean the Protestations against the two late pretended Assemblies at S. Andrews and Dundee and Edinburgh in both which the Government of the Church by Presbyteries and Synods National and Provincial is clearly asserted and an honourable testimony given thereunto by the protesting Brethren with distinct and full profession of their purpose and resolution to adhere thereunto Nor is there in ●…ny of these Protestations nor in any thing of theirs that hath been w●…itten or published in defence thereof one tittle that strikes against any thing that relateth to the intrinsecal constitution and being of the Government of the Kirk of Scotland but all the reasons of the Protestations against those meetings are upon the undue qualifications of and prelimitations made by persons assuming the exercise of Government with such other things as are altogether extrinseck to the Government it self they have learned to distinguish betwixt the Government of the Church and the male-administrations and Corruptions of the Church-Governors and not to condemn the one when they are necessarily called to give a testimony against the other Yea the duty and care they owe to the preservation of the Government constraineth them to testifie against the abusing and cortupting of it So did our fathers of old whose Protestations against corrupt National Church Assemblies are upon record to this day and so far have they been by men of sound judgments from being judged because thereof to be against the Government that they are honoured amongst the greatest patrons and preservers thereof The protesting Brethren do not acknowledge these two Meetings to be any of the supream Church-Judicatories in this Nation nor to have any Authority belonging unto them but look upon them as unfree and corrupt Assemblies for the reasons long ago published to the world that have not upon them the stamp of any of the Courts of Jesus Christ neither do they think that testifying against the corruptions of many of these that are now in the exercise of the Government of the Church is to dissent from or to do injury to the Government it self And we cannot but say whatever be our Brethren's intentions in studying some way to wrap up the Authority of these two Meetings and of that part of the Ministerial Church which is of their judgment as it were in the very being of the Government for this they seem to hint though it be not directly spoke in that word of the established Government and Iudicatories of this Kirk which they set in the frontispiece and carry along in their Paper as if the Government could not be owned nor subsist the Authority of these two Meetings being denied and the corruptions of men discovered and acknowledged We say whatsoever they do herein to please themselves and to amuse the ignorant yet the protesting Brethren do not so judge and the other by doing so make moe adversaries to the ●…overnment than there is just cause ●…he second particular which they alleage is Their planting of Congregations in a tumultuous and disorderly way without respect to the Iudicatories of the Kirk or to the just interest of the People of the Congregation and counteracting to the resolutions and determinations of the Iudicatories when any of them are pleased to be dissatisfied therewith To carry on the great things of God that do concern the Kingdom of His Son Jesus Christ and the eternal state of souls in a tumultuous and disorderly way though there were no more were a fault great enough but to do it upon no better foundations than meer pleasure and for no better ends but for serving of our own lusts were a very grievous and hatefull sin But let us see what cause there is ●…or this great charge The resolution Brethren did by those Resolutions of theirs taken in an occasional meeting of the Commissioners of the General Assembly many of that number receiving either no advertisement or else such as was out of time to keep the meeting in the year 1651. give their judgment

these Committees without the advice and consent of these Delegates Neither will our Brethren's negative voice prove it because as these Delegates have not a negative voice in all cases as we have already shewed to wit in the case of ratifying of the proceedings of these Committees the Synod being free notwithstanding any thing in the Overture to ratifie albeit the Delegates should not consent but advise otherwise So it is a new device to say that a negative voice inferreth a superiour jurisdiction and power for at most it maketh but a co-ordinate power And that there is any absurdity in this That a Committee of Delegates nominated by the common consent of all the Synods should in this condition of the Church have such a power if yet it be a power of Jurisdiction we do not see 4. This Overture was not propounded as a perpetuall standing way alwayes to be followed and kept up in the Church as our Brethren are pleased to insinuate much lesse was it propounded hereby to lay a way for perpetuating of differences and contentions a prejudice also they are pleased to load it with but as it expresly beareth to continue only till the present differences be healed or till the Lord in providence minister some better way for setling peace amongst us Will the resolution Brethren in this present sickly declining and distracted condition of the Church allow of no remedy for purging thereof and composing differences that is in any circumstance out of the common road of the ordinary procedures of Presbyteries and Synods We know that they will tell us that the Church is sound and healthy and sufficiently able by Presbyteries and Synods to purge her self But why then we pray our Brethren to tell us did the General Assembly before these differences did arise unanimously judge that Presbyteries and Synods were not sufficiently able to do it and did upon conviction hereof appoint extraordinary Commissions and Visitations for doing of it If our Brethren say That the Gen. Assembly is the supream Church-Judicatorie in the Nation and therefore may so do They can easily answer themselves That the question is of the moving cause or the ground or reason upon which they did it it was not to shew their Supremacy and Authority which was not questioned nor controverted by any Synod or Presbyterie but as our Brethren well know because they did conceive and were convinced that Presbyteries and Synods were not so healthy as to do these duties of themselves and if they were not so then when neutral and malignant and disaffected 〈◊〉 were under board how much lesse now when 〈◊〉 of them are got above the hatches and sundry 〈◊〉 them are set to stir the rudder Or if they wil say That Presbyteries and Synods are now sufficiently able and willing of themselves to do th●… work We pray them then to tell us why it is no●… done Have not most of the Godly of the Lan●… been crying upon them these seven years by-gone that they would arise and be doing that good an●… necessary work and yet what have all their 〈◊〉 prevailed are they not heard with deaf ears What wonder is it then though the protesting Brethren do propound such Overtures as being imbraced might probably in some measure satisfi●… somewhat of the lawfull and just desires of th●… Godly in that soul-concerning matter in propounding whereof their design is none of those sinistrous things that are cast upon them by their Brethren but that by some mean or another that is not sinfull the House of God might be purged And therefore that it might appear to their Brethren that it was not domination nor the setting up of themselves and the treading down of the other that they were seeking they were content not to exercise the power given by the Commissions of the Assembly 1650. which in their judgment because no lawful General Assembly hath since interveened is still in force and did propound unto them in that meeting at Edinburgh that for making of the work of purging effectual and in order to other publick affairs of the Church that those persons who were nominated upon the Commission and Visitations by the Assembly 1650. might sit if not by the Authority derived from that Assembly yet by the mutual condescendence and approbation of Presbyteries and by the same mutual condescendence and approbation these persons might have power to compose the particular differences that are now or shall be hereafter in particular Presbyteries and Congregations this was not to assume the particular nomination of any person to themselves or to state businesse upon difference of judgment or to make any thing like a party or a faction or to desire an equality of the number of both judgments or to do any injury unto or make any incroachment upon the due right of Presbyteries and Synods unlesse we will say that the General Assembly wronged them by appointing those Commissions and Visitations yet was this also refused and rejected by our Brethren Whence it appears that nothing will please unlesse the protesting Brethren condescend as Asses to bow down under the burden by an absolute submission to Presbyteries and Synods as now constituted that is upon the matter to the Brethren for the publick Resolutions the protesting Brethren being by their own verdict a few number in comparison of the Body of the Ministery of this Church in their present and future actings how negligent or corrupt soever which themselves make evident in the next thing whereupon they impeach them as projecters against and subverters of the Government of the Church to wit their refusing to engage themselves to an absolute submission to the sentences of the Church-Judicatories They did say they towards the end of the fifth page of their Declaration expresly refuse subordination and submission to the Church-Iudicatories to which they and we were solemnly engaged at our admission to the Ministery and which we were willing to renew for our parts and without which our established Iudicatories shall be nothing else but so many consultative meetings a principle inconsistent with presbyterial Government In speaking to this particular we shall first shortly repeat the sum of the protesting Brethren their Desires and Offers and Answers thereanent in the Conference at Edinburgh Novemb. 1655. And in the next place shall speak somewhat to the matter it self As to the first In so far as concerneth Presbyterial Government and the due subordination of Church-Judicatories that they might testifie their approbation there●… and that they did continue constant in their former solemn publick Professions and Engagements they did propound unto their Brethren That in matters concerning the Doctrine Worship Government and Discipline of this Church and the Enemies of Truth and Godlinesse and the work of Reformation there may be mutual evidence and assurance given for adherence unto these Articles of our Covenants and the solemn publick Confession of Sins and Engagement unto Duties and all the Acts of uncontroverted Assemblies

from bearing charge in the House of God and how many such have been brought-in We do believe that it may be truely asserted that the resolution Brethren in one Synod since that time have brought in moe who were formerly publickly censured for their scandalous and malignant carriage then all the Synods in Scotland of that judgement have purged out There be in one Synod nine or ten such brought into the Ministery besides four or five others whose mouths are opened to preach publickly and likewise some others who are connived at to preach and administer the Ordinances notwithstanding of their being twice deposed formerly because of grosse offences Let them name us if they can so many purged-out by the Resolution-party in all the Synods of their way these seven years past Why then do they speak such big words of their willingnesse to and activity in purging Yea who knoweth not that many of their party oppose Union upon this very accompt and that even good men amongst them who were wont to be of another spirit are too slow and backward in this duty by which it hath come to passe that a few processes that have by importunity been set on foot against some naughty men in some Synods have by the Resolution Brethren their exercising their wits and inventions to find out and cast in legal shews of defence such as variety of exceptions against witnesses and glosses upon their depositions and such like been rendred more tedious and involved in moe notional debates than readily are to be found at the most litigious Civil Bar and after all these things have come but to a poor issue in the end very few if any of these men being deposed from the Ministery notwithstanding of many and gross scandals which they do lye under It is the sad complaint of the Godly that the simplicity of the Gospel and the good old way that was wont to be used in the Church in the trying of insufficient and scandalou●… Ministers is forsaken and such a way taken as rather giveth them ground and encouragement to cover and hold fast their iniquity than doth contribute to the convincing of their consciences and making them acknowledge their sin by which it comes to passe that poor souls who groan under the burden are discouraged to offer the grounds of their grievance as much dispairing to find any remedy thereof But say the Resolution Brethren they are so far from foreslowing or obstructing purging that to delare their readinesse and sincerity in that matter they are content if their Brethren be not satisfied with the Rules of procedure hitherto agreed upon that they condescend upon the strictest Rules can be desired in justice for trial and censure and that they shall be willing to observe them providing they be Rules binding for all and to which all will submit both we and they To which we answer first That they do not adhere unto nor put in practice the Rules already agreed upon to what purpose then should new Rules be agreed upon It was formerly agreed upon That Synods ought in the case of the negligence of Presbyteries to appoint Visitations for trial and censure in their several bounds but in very few of the Synods of the Resolution judgment have there been any such Visitations appointed or kept since these Resolutions had a being albeit Presbyteries be negligent of their duty yea sundry Brethren in sundry of these Synods shew themselves dissatisfied with and speak against such Visitations And as long as the Synods themselves do not practise them there being so much need of them how can we otherwayes judge but that they do dislike them Secondly It was formerly agreed upon That the Kirk-judicatories might in the trial of Ministers proceed by way of Inquisition but now this is dissented from and casten at by many of the Resolution Brethren who will have no trial some of them without a Libel and others of them without a Libel and an Accuser too engaging to prove his Alleageance under pain of being censured as a Slanderer Thirdly Sundry things such as drunkennesse swearing c. which were formerly proceeded against with the censures of Suspension and Deposition are now so ext●…nuated by many of these Brethren that they do refuse to censure them with these Censures unlesse the habits or many continued re-iterated acts of these things can be proven And yet the Authors of this Declaration do so talk as if all the Brethren of that judgment did strictly adhere unto and were unanimous about the former way of procedure in the trial and censure of Ministers but besides this departure from former Rules they do but trifle when they say that they are content that the Protesting Brethren condescend upon the strictest Rules can be desired in justice for trial and censure because it is alwayes with the supposal of this foundation which they have already laid to wit That these Rules shall be applied or executed by men of their own judgment who are the plurality in Presbyteries and Synods And what purging we may expect from them these seven years practice do now sufficiently manifest Thirdly The insufficiency of these Proposals doth appear from this That they do offer and hold forth no remedy for the grievance of the Protesting Brethren and of the Godly throughout the Land in the matter of planting Congregations upon the Call of the plurality in Paroches many of which are ignorant and disaffected and malignant by which it comes to passe that men get into the Ministery that cannot speak a word in season to a weary soul and who discountenance piety and godlinesse which if there be not some effectual remedy provided against it cannot but prove an evil very destructive to the Church and afflicting to all who do unfeignedly desire and seek the advancement of the Gospel and of the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ Fourthly These Proposals do not mention any remedy against such Ministers Expectants and Schoolmasters who were deposed or silenced or removed from their Charges by General Assemblies or Synods or their Commissioners or by Presbyteries before these differences did arise and have again intruded themselves or are reponed into publick stations in the Ministery or Schools or have their mouthes opened by Presbyteries or Synods without confession and acknowledgement of and repentance for all the particulars contained in their sentence and otherwise then is provided in the Acts of uncontroverted General Assemblies Nor do they hold forth any thing as to the way of calling of a General Assembly and the electing of Commissioners thereunto and handling of matters therein all which as also the giving of mutual evidence and assurance in matters concerning the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government of this Church and the enemies of Truth and Godlinesse and the work of Reformation for adhering unto these Articles of our Covenants and the solemn publick Confession of Sins and Engagement unto Duties and all the Acts of uncontroverted Assemblies relating