Conscience And thereafter describing their Church Politie and Discipline calls it that Parity which can never stand with the Order of the Church nor the Peace of a Commonweal and well Ruled Monarchy Now when these are the Characters which the British Solomon gives Presbyterians and Presbytery and with a Protestation before God that he lies not Who can with any shadow of Reason or grain of Charity think that he either was so Unwise or Irreligious as by Act of Parliament to Establish Presbytery in the Church out of his own free choice and not out of some kind of Compulsion Nay when that Government and its Admirers have these Characters from him can any thinking man read over the Act of Restitution of Bishops An. 1606 and not believe that according to its Preamble the former Act An. 1592 impairing that first Estate of his Kingdom was purely owing to his young years and the unsetled Condition of Affairs How he was forced to it we may learn from his own Book wherein he says that God Almighty was pleased that the Blessed Reformation of Scotland should begin with Unordinate and Popular Tumults of men clogg'd with their own Passion and particular Respects that some fiery spirited Ministers got such a guiding of the People at that time of Confusion as finding the gust of Government sweet they began to fancy a Democracy to themselves that having been over well baited upon the wrack first of his Royal Grandmother and next of his own Mother and usurping the liberty of time in his own long Minority there never rose any Faction among Statesmen but they that were of that Factious part were careful to perswade and allure the Church-Men to espouse that quarrel as their own Wherefore in the year 1592 the pernicious Feuds between the Earls of Huntley and Murray and those Contests between the Assembly Men of the Clergy and the Lords of the Session Together with repeated Treasonable Plots carried on against his Royal Person by Bothwel and his Associates of the greatest Power and best Quality forced that young King to settle Presbytery in the Church that thereby he might bring off Presbyterians from joyning with the Acts of their Kirk to unsettle his Throne 3. Charles the First of ever Blessed Memory he pleads that in Charity he may be thought desirous to preserve the English Church Government by Bishops in its right Constitution as a Matter of Religion wherein both his Iudgment was justly satisfied that it hath of all others the fullest Scripture Grounds and also the constant practice of all Christian Churches And after he had written this Confession with Ink and then Sealed it with his Royal Blood who can imagine that his once giving some way to Presbytery in Scotland was his voluntary Act especially when his Majesties Commissioner the Earl of Traquair according to instructions gave in his Declaration to the contrary But here there is no need to declare the unhappy State of Affairs that forced him to it Since there are Volumes written concerning that Religious Rebellion which produced the most horrid Murder of the best King that ever was in these Kingdoms 4. Wherefore the Impartial Resolution to the question proposed is in short this that K. Iames the 6th and K. Charles I. setled Presbytery in the Kingdom of Scotland being constrained thereunto by troublesome and tumultuous times QUESTION III. Whether the Principles of Scottish Presbytery grant any Toleration to Dissenters 1. SINCE the solemn League and Covenant is the Canon and the Acts of the general Assembly the Comment of the Principles of Scotch Presbytery this Question in reference to their Toleration of Dissenters plainly resolves in this Whether Covenanters and Assembly-men according to their Principles are for Liberty of Conscience or against it 2. In the first Article of the Solemn League they swear That they shall sincerely really and constantly endeavour the preservation of the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland in Discipline and Government against their common Enemies 3. To preserve this part of the Reformation they swear again in the second Article against Popish Prelacy that is the Church Government by Arch-Bishops Bishops their Chancelors and Commissiaries Dean and Chapters Arch-Deacons and all other Ecclesiastical Officers depending on that Hierarchy Superstition and Heresie 4. What is meant by their Sincere Real and constant endeavour against their common Enemies King or Parliament for preserving that Reformation in Church-Government by extirpating such an Episcopacy is manifest in the last Article in which they swear to assist and defâ—nd all those that enter into the League and Covenant in the maintaining and persuing thereof and that they shall not suffer themselves directly or indirectly by whatsoever Combination Perswasion or Terror to be divided from their Blessed Union and Conjunction whether to make defection to the contrary part or to give themselves to a detestable indifferency or neutrality in the Cause which so much concerneth the Glory of God 5. But if after all these parts of the first second fourth and sixth Articles of the Covenant compared together any Seruple yet remains whether those Men who make Conscience of the Oath they have taken against any Indifferency or Neutrality in this Cause against Episcopacy which in Charity I believe they think the Cause of Christ can allow any Toleration to Dissenters let us in the next place consider some Acts of their General Assemblies which are the Infallible Interpreters of this Rule of their Faith about Ecclesiastical Polity Now although the Episcopal Clergy in the times before the year 1639 when they saw that destruction of the Church Government neither themselves appear'd in Tumults nor in Sermons or Books exhorted others to Tumultuate for to preserve it yet the Presbyterians were so far from taking pains to gain them unto a Conformity or in case they conform'd from letting them continue in their Cures as the Presbyterians were dealt with after the year 1662 that on the contrary they pass these following Acts. 6. The General Assembly ordaineth the subscription of the Covevant to all the Members of that Kirk and Kingdom 7. And whereas the former Act Aug. 1630. hadnot been obeyed it was again ordain'd by another Assembly That all Ministers make intimation of the said Act in their Kirks and thereafter proceed with the Censures of the Kirk against such as shall refuse to subscribe the Covenant and that exact account be taken of every Ministers diligence herein by their Presbyteries and Synods as they will answer to the General Assembly 8. Neither was this last Act inflicting Ecclesiastical Censures only to fall heavy upon those who were hinderers of their blessed Reformation whom they called Anticovenanters but in the Assembly it 's appointed that all Ministers take special notice when any secret disaffecters of the Covenant shall come within their Parishes that so soon as they shall know the same they may without delay cause warn them to appear
Christian Faith agreeable to the Word of God and amiently received in the Churches of Christ This their acknowledgment of its Antiquity and Scripture Purity must force any Scotch Presbyterian to grant that there is no more sin in saying the Apostles Creed publickly in the Church tho' there be no precept for saying it than there is in sprinkling water upon the Baptized Infant 6. Now laying all these considerations together that the purity in Doctrine which Presbyterian Synods confess and the purity of Publick Worship doing nothing which the Directory forbids could be as well retained in the Episcopal Church of Scotland these 27 years as in any Presbyterian Kirk or Meeting-House And that no Confession of any Reformed Church asserts the Divine Right of their Presbytery as before defined And that the Covevenant abjures not the Epis opacy likewise defin'd but on the contrary it was petiâ—ioned for by the English Covenanters I say laying all these things together the impartial Resolution of the present Question is this That between the year 1662 and the year 1689 Presbyterian Separatists were guilty of sinful Separation QUESTION V. Whether the Penal Laws against Scotch Presbyterians had any thing of Persecution in them 1. IT cannot be denied but there may be a party in a Kingdom of well meaning men truly Pious and Peaceable who yet for some Non-Conformity to the Church-Establishment may have too severe Laws Enacted against them by the Execution of which they may suffer for Conscience Sake so that the question here proposed plainly resolves into this Whether the Penal Laws against Scotch Presbyterians had any thing in them which cannot be justified in Christian Policy as necessary at those times in which they were Enacted for the Preservation of true Religion and Publick Peace in the Church and State Or whether they were the uncharitable effects of a peevish resentment inconsistent with good Nature or Christianity 2. Forasmuch as it had pleased Almighty God to compassionate the Troubles and Confusions of Scotland by returning King Charles the 2d to the exercise of that Royal Government under which and its excellent Constitution that Kingdom had for many Ages enjoyed so much Happiness Peace and Plenty The Noble Lord the Earl of Middleton being for his unshaken Loyalty honoured with his Majesties High Commission the Administration of the Oath of Allegiance to all the Members of Parliament was the first thing enacted by the States thereof 3. In Conscience of their Oaths of Allegiance to maintain and defend the Sovereign Power and Authority of the Kings Majesty and in consideration of the sad consequences that do accompany any encroachments upon or diminution thereof they from their senâ—e of humble Duty wholy applyed themselves in this Session to Establish such wholesome Laws as might by acknowledgment of his Majesties Prerogatives prove Salves to cure the State from the Diseases of Anarchy and Confusion which had before in the Usurpation seized her Vitals 4. But all this time of the Parliaments sole application to matters of State in this first Session the Presbyterian Clergy did not neglect to do all they could for a Parliamentary Confirmation of their Ecclesiastical Government 5. First the Synod of Edenburgh applyed themselves to a Person of great Interest with his Majesties Commissioner that his Grace might be intreated to procure from his Royal Master instructions to give them Presbytery without Bishops and they promised that they should themselves Enact never to meet without his Majesties Commissioner who should call and dissolve them at his pleasure Which Act of theirs they promised to get ratified by the first General Assembly 6. And when they found this Address of theirs to be without any success they sall upon another method and send a Clergyman whose name because of his Memory for his Piety and School Learning I shall not mention with this threatning that if the Estates in Parliament consirm'd not their Presbytery they should have the People let loose upon them 7. In that first Session of the Parliament already mentioned the King with the Advice of the Estates therein Convened had before forbid the renewing of the Solemn League and Covenant and by several Acts annulled all the pretended Conventions of the preceeding Rebellion but this imperious Address from the Ministers gave them a new sensible occasion to be perswaded that all the late Disorders and Exorbitances in the Church incroachments upon the Prerogative and Right of the Crown and Usurpations upon the Authority of Parliaments and the prejudice done to the Liberty of the Subject were the Natural Effects of the Invasion made upon the Episcopal Government and therefore upon deliberation of twenty Months they past an Act of its Restitution in the beginning of the second Session of that Parliament 8. This Act of Restitution of Bishops had this effect in reference to the Scottish Clergy Whoever among them were disappointed in their hopes of Preferment or were Lovers of Ease from the burthensome Service in the Church or else impatient to be made subordinate to those with whom they so lately had been upon a Level forsook their Ministry but they lived quietly at their respective habitations and in Personal Conformity to the Church Establisht Others again and of them not a few were sensible that the Established Episcopacy being obliged to exercise their Jurisdiction in a Synod with the ballance of Assisting Presbyters was the only Church Government which could be obtained of the State and which was not abjur'd in the Solemn League and therefore did keep their Charges and were willing to own Canonical Obedience to their Diocesan Bishops 9. This Example of Christian submission to Authority given by the generality of Presbyterian Ministers of both sorts gain'd the Laity of that Perswasion to a Pious and Sober observance of the Publick Worship so that at that time nothing was wanting to render that National Church happy without Protestant Dissenters but a competent number of Godly Learned and Grave Men to fill up the vacant places of those who for any of the Motives before mentioned had left their charges and till that deplorable want especially in the West the Separation from the regular Meetings for Divine Service was so little observable that before June 1663 the wisdom of that Nation had by no Act provided against it 10. It is true that the libellous Sermons and Books of some wicked Men which were written to justify the Murder of Charles the I. and the Banishment of Charles the II. the renovation of the Covenant the necessity of taking up Arms to promote its Ends and the sinfulness of complyance with the legal Settlement in Church or State did now alarm that Parliament 11. They considered how seditious and of how dangerous example and consequence Seperation from the rugular Church might prove for the future And therefore for security of the State from the confusions they had so lately smarted under they were forced to enact a Penal Law against it
in the Reign of a Protestant King they preached against Popery as imminent and at hand they in the Reign of a Popish King were guilty for the most part of shameful silence yea when one of their number more faithful than the rest viz. Doctor Hardy in a Sermon at Edenborough which he preached at their Provincial Assembly had Exhorted them to take heed that the Indulgence to Proustant Dissenters might not be an Engine for bringing Popery into the Kingdom and when for the preaching of this Sermon he was Arraigned for his Life none of all his Brethren nor any of the Laity except the good Mr. R. B d Merchant in Edenborough would shew him any Friendship But on the contrary they did openly condemn his doing his Duty as indiscreet Zeal And certainly he had suffered as the worst of Malefactors had it not been for the Episcopal Advocates that pleaded for him and the Episcopal Judges that acquitted him and took all his danger upon themselves Wherefore the impartial Resolution to the present Question is this That the Scotch Presbyterians were Compliers with the late Designs for taking away the legal Restraints against Papists QUESTION IX Whether Scottish Presbytery in the Church be consistent with the Legal Monarchy in that Kingdom 1. AS the Solemn League is the Canon and the Acts of their General Assemblies the Interpreters of the Principles of Scottish Presbytery so on the other hand the Acts of Parliament of that Kingdom are the only Interpreters of the Rights of their Monarchy Wherefore the Question here proposed resolveth unto this Whether the Scotch Presbyterians in their Assembly Acts which are founded upon the Covenant make any Enchroachment upon the Royal Prerogatives of that Crown which are asserted by their Acts of Parliament unrepealed 2. To chuse Persons qualified by Law to be Officers of State Councellors and Iudges is one Prerogative acknowledged to be inherent in the Kings of Scotland but the Principles of their Presbytery make this to be the Prerogative of the Kirk as appears by the 4th Article of the Covenant wherein they swear to endeavour with all faithfulness the discovery of all such as have been or shall be evil Instruments by making any Parties contrary to that Covenant that they may be brought to publick Tryal and receive condign punishment This is farther declared in their Answer to the pretended Committee of Estates by which Answer they propose as a safe Rule in this case that the Duties of the Second Table as well as of the First namely the Duties between King and Subject Masters and Servants being contained in and to be taught and cleared from the Word of God are a subject of Ministerial Doctrine and in difficult cases a subject of cognizance and judgment to the Assemblies of the Kirk Now what cases are difficult in which King and Subjects are the Parties the Kirk must judge and be as Infallible in Scotland as in Rome 3. Another Perogative of the King of Scotland is declared his power of Calling and Dissolving Parliaments by himself and making of Laws with their Advice and Councel And this Prerogative in all its Branches is usurped upon by the Principles of Presbytery As for his power of calling Parliaments by himself either Presbyterian Kirk-men are not Subjects of the Scottish King or else by their acknowledgement of this Royal Prerogative his Letters Patents directed to them may command their Assembling about Ecclesiastical Affairs as well as the other Estates to convene for Matters Civil But should they once grant that the power of their Assembling flows immediately from the King their Soveraign and not immediately from Christ then should they by Laws of consequence be obliged to confess that Christ gives them no Warrant to Assemble without Warrant from their King But this the Presbyterian Kirk cannot grant to the State because thereby their Covenant should become an unlawful bond of Treason and the most of their Assembly Acts null and void since first that Oath was sworn and thereafter the most of those Acts were pass'd without yea and contrary to the express Will and Pleasure of their King 4. Then the Kings Power to Dissolve Parliaments by himself is another Branch of his Royal Prerogative But this is likewise Usurped upon by the Principles of Presbytery for as much as the Second Article of the Covenant bindeth to preserve the Priviledges of Parliament with the preservation of which Priviledges the General Assembly declares the Kings negative Voice inconsistent Now if the King have no Negative Voice in a Parliament that enjoys its Priviledges then any thing concluded by the Majority of such a Parliament may pass into a formal Act though the King should deny his concurrence and by consequence without the Royal Assent they might make a Law for continuing their Session as long as they please by vertue of which Law the Royal Authority could not Dissolve them according to these Covenanting Principles 5. In the Third place the power of making Laws is Usurped from King and Parliament by the Principles of Presbyterians For in the last Article of their Covenant they swear that they shall all the Days of their lives zealously and constantly continue therein against all opposition letts and impediments whatsoever and in conscience of this part of their Oath the Kirk Assembly Men pass'd an Act declarative against an Act of Parliament and Committee of Estates dated in June the same year and in general against all others made in the common cause without consent of the Church 6. A Third Prerogative Royal in the Crown of Scotland is that of making Leagues and Conventions of the Subjects Now that cannot consist with the Principles which flow from that Covenant which was entred into by the Assembly of the Subjects without the King and more particularly is it Invaded by those Principles by which they emitted an Act declaring against the bond subscribed by the Scotch Lords at Oxford and inflicting the highest Ecclesiastical Censures against any who subscribed or framed or were accessary to the Execution of the same 7. The making Peace and War with Foreign Princes is another Branch of this Prerogative of the Crown of Scotland acknowledged to be in the King But this also according to the Principles of Presbytery is Usurped upon by that Kirk for she in the Explication of the Sixth Article of the Covenant already mention'd in the Fourth number concerning the Third Question declares her self in her solemn and seasonable warning to all her Children of the Covenant after this manner Whosoever he be that will not according to publick Order and Appointment adventure his Person or send out those that are under his power or pay the Contributions imposed for the maintenance of the Forces must be taken for an Enemy Malignant and Covenant-breaker and so involved both into the displeasure of God and censures of the Kirk 8. Now the King's Power to chuse Officers of State