complaint of the Scottish Ambassadour were able easily to get an affront put upon a Presbiterian fugitive but if ye will beleeve Spotswood Mr. Lawson was a man so eminent both for piety and prudence that it can hardly be supposed any thing could escape him in preaching which might deserve the Queenes displeasure how ever that excellent man did dye at that time in London as it seemes martyred by the injuries of the Scottish and English Prelates which doubtles did helpe to bring downe that vengeance upon the Prelaticall State in England which our eyes now doe behold For the further evincing of the intollerable miscarriages of the General Assemby P. 39. The case of Iames Gibson you bring three other stories p. 39.40 all are faults alleadged against single Mininisters which were they never so great and true ought not to be laid upon the Assembly but see how all are misreported the first concernes Iames Gibson a zealous Country Minister who Preaching in a very troublesome time spoke more rashly of the King then became him the words that you ascribe to him we may not take them at your hand for in the same matter by Spotswoods owne Testimony you are guiâ—ty of a great untruth you avow that the King caused complaint to be made to the Assembly of this man But by no intreaty could obtaine any punishment to be inflicted upon him Spotswood says the contrary that the Assembly did proâ—ounce the mans words to be slanderous and therefore suspended him from his Ministry and while they were in further agitation of his cause that he fled into England doubtles for feare of his life what became of him thereafter I know not only I have read in a good Author that what here you insinuate of his favouring Hacket and Copinger is a very false calumny The next you speak of is Mr. Master David Black his case David Blacke Minister of St. Andrews a man of great piety and prudence his name is yet very savoury in that Towne though there be in it some three or foure thousand people yet so great was the zeale wisdome and diligence of Mr. Blacke that during all the time of his Ministry there no person was seen either to beg or prophane the Sabbath day in all that Congregation This man being delated to the secret counsell by a very naughty person that in a Sermon he had spoken disgracefully of the King was willing to have appeared and cleered himselfe of that calumny but finding that it was not his person which was aimed at but a quarrell with the whole Church in him sought for by the misleaders of the Court he thought meet to appeale not simply from the King but from the King and secret counsell to the King and Generall Assembly as to the proper and competent Judge appointed by the Law for matters of Doctrine While this question is in agitation a great storme did fall upon the Church from the seventeenth day of December which made Mr. Blacks cause be laid aside yet a little thereafter for to please the King the Commissioners of the generall Assembly did passe upon that gracious man a sentence severe enough removing him from St. Andrews to some obscure corner where he passed the rest of his dayes P. 40. A cleaâ—e vindication of the assembly at Aberdeen in the yeare 1605. Your third story is of the Ministers who went to Aberdeen the year 1605. upon them you make a tragick Narration a guâ—â—ty of the most treasonable rebellion Your rashnes is great at these times to bring up to the sight these things which for the honour of many did lye long buried but since it is your wisdom to make the world know whereof with your friends advantage they might have been ignorant the matter was this It was the custom of Scotland ever from the Reformation to keep generall Assemblies twice or at least once every yeare After some debates in the yeare 1592. it became a Law and an Act of Parliament agreed to unanimously by the King and States and accordingly it was practised without any interruption that the Generall Assembly should meet at least once a yeare and appoint when all other actions were ended the day and place for the next yeares meeting In the yeare 1602. the Assembly in the Kings presence and with his advice did appoint the day and place of their next meeting in the yeare 1603. His Majestie at that time going to England tooke upon him to prorogat the Assembly till the same day and place of the yeare following 1604. of this prorogation there could be no necessity but his Majesties meere pleasure When the Dyet of the yeare 1604. did come the affaires of the Church did greatly call for an Assembly yet it was his Majesties will to make a second prorogation 〈◊〉 the fifth of July 1605. This was much to the hurt griefe and feare of all the godly yet they indured it but when the Dyet of the yeare 1605. was come His Majestie did not only prorogate the third time but also made the day of the next meeting â—â—tertaine and inderinite This gave an allarme to the whole Kingdome all the world did see the Kings designe to bring the English Eâ—iscopacie and all their Ceremonies upon the Church of Scotland also the mistery of popery was then working vehemently a mighty faction of popish Lords were still countenanced among us immediate correspondence with the Pope by the chiefe States-men was much surmised and afterward was found to be too true Scotland had no considerable Bâ— warke either against English or Romish corruptions but their generall Assemblies if these were removed the poore Church lay open to the inundation of what ever Antichristianisme the Court was pleased to send in The generall Assembly besides its divine right was grounded upon so good Lawes as Scotlanâ couâ—d afford but â—o that at the end of the present Assembly the Dyet of the next should alwayes be appointed however his Majesties designe to put downe the generall Assembly was evidently seen by aâ— intelligent men yet so long as he prorogate it to a certaine day men were quiet but so soon as he commanded the third dyet to be deserted and that to an uncertaine and infinite time they to whom the welfare of the Church was deare did awaken and found it necessary to keepe the Dyet appointed in the second prorogation at Aberdeen Iuly 2. or 5. 1605. The Commissioners of the Presbiteries in their way to Aberdeen advised with Chancellor Seaton the prime Magistrate of the Kingdome in the Kings absence and were incouraged by him to goe on yet so soon as any of them came to the place A Gentleman the Lord of Lauristone came to them with a warrant from the King and privy Counsell and discharged them to keepe any Assembly there yet the will of the King and Counsell was not intimated to them in convenient time for when the King and Counsells Letter was presented they shew
reformer of a Country without a lawfull calling For the ninth all the Covenants of our Land are warranted by Acts of Parliament and how ever by the misinformation of Prelats the King for a time judged them illegall yet at last he found them just and necessary according to the Laws and Customes of the Kingdome wee indeed doe maintaine when a handfull of wicked Prelats doe seduce a Prince to destroy himselfe and whole Kingdomes that in that case it is lawfull for the Nobles and States of a Land to stand upon their guard and wee cannot subscribe to these prime fundamentall Articles of your faith That the Supremacie of Britaine is so farre exalted above all Law divine and humane that the Parliaments of both Kingdomes for their most necessary defensive Armes are to be condemned by God and all men for Traitors and Rebels yet your good friends the Idolatrous murtherers of Ireland must be registred to posterity for good Catholick subjects No marvell you beleeve all this when you professe your advice to all Princes rather to admit of the worst whordomes of Rome the very Jesuitisme of Raviliack and Faux then of the Presbiteriall government Behold whither despite may carry the spirit of an excommunicate Prelate For the tenth our Assemblies meddle not with questions of State if the originall of royalty be so from heaven that men on earth had never any hand in making of a King if in any immaginable case a King be censurable such questions were never proposed so much as for debate in any Assembly of Scotland unhappy Bishops who must needs prophane the Crowns of Kings by making their Soveraignty and mysterious Prerogatives their ordinary quodlibets to be tossed as Tennis balls in their common discourse Sermons and Pamphets It was a very unhappy day for the Kings of Britaine when the feet of Prelats got first leave to touch the threshold of the Court and their evill eyes to behold the Jewels of the Crown or their soule hands to touch the hemme of the royall Robes such infaust harppies polute all things though most sacred to which they approach For the eleventh though it never came to be scanned in any Assembly yet I know no honest man of Scotland that makes question of the thing The King and Parliament has inacted the lawfulnesse of our late defensive Armes but the Acts of that Parliament are not much to your mind for they cast you out of your native Country as a prime incendiary unfit to breath more in that Aire The twelfth is but to make up the number being the same with the former The conclusion of your Articles is but a malicious railing invective very sutable to your mouth it 's contrary to reason and experience as oft wee have said before but you cannot spare Tauttologies The second part of your Appendix is your Postscript P. 55.56 No shadow of Episcopacie remaines in any well reformed Church wherein you make a large muster of your Episcopall Territories and tell us that the major part of the reformed Churches in Christendome doe retaine Episcopacie also that the removall thereof from England is the fountaine of all our present Sects you may know that all our Heresies and Sects did breed under the wings of Episcopacie the reason why now they appeare so thick in publick is not the removall of Episcopacie but the retarding of Presbiteriall government and the plague of our too too long annarchie That your Episcopacie is to be found in any reformed Church is a great untruth we grant it is to be seen in your Easterne and Westerne Churches the first of your Catalogue but you would speake a little more plainly that people may understand your mind what Westerne Church is this that you propone unto us for a patterne of Episcopacy is it any other then the good old Mother Church of Rome which many of you cry up for so true a Church that all Protestants are Shismaticks for their needlesse separation-there-from and that among Princes those are most happy who shall heale that breach and once againe make us all to be one under our holy Father the Pope the first Bishop of Christendome whom all the Bishops in Britaine and in the whole world ought by a good Ecclesiastick right to reverence as the first Patriarch the constant moderator of all Oecumenick Counsells Your Easterne Churches are those of Greece and Asia whose corruptions albeit not like to these of Rome yet are so many and grosse as none but such as you will propone them for patternes of imitation In the rest of youâ— Catalogue you are pleased to play the Herauld and Cosmographer of purpose to terrifie simple people by the many names of your large territories You know the world scornes the Rodomontades of Spain their King must not be stiled as his neighbours of France and great Britaine but he will be called the King of Castile the King of Arragon the King of Portugall the King of Leon and a large caetera of many Kingdomes yet all in Spaine Might you not have said that Episcopacie was continued in all the Lutheran Churches of Germany which will not make the third part of that Country deducing the Calvinists and Papists In your great vanity you reckon up the Earldome of Henneberg Lenning and these that follow to the number of Thirteene as if they were all great and considerable Provinces and yet put them all together they will scarce make up one fifth part of some English shires But for the matter are the Lutheran Churches esteemed by any well advised Protestants the best reformed whereof our Covenant speaks It seems the worse Churches be reformed you like them the better for they are so much neerer to your best beloved in Rome but true Covenanters are not of your mind Further what you speake of the Lutheran Churches is altogether false That in Germany or any where else among Protestants any thing which you call Episcopacie is to be sound I marvell if you should beleeve it for I pray where-ever except in England did any Protestants spoile all Pastors of all power both of Ordination and Jurisdiction to put it in the hand of one Prelat to be exercised either by himselfe or by any depute Ecclesiastick or civill as he thought fittest The Dutch Superintendens are as like to English Bishops as an Emperour in the dayes of Fabius Maximus The Dutch Superintendents are very farre from the English Bishops when the Senate ruled all to an Emperour in the dayes of Tiberius or Nero when an absolute Prince I will not say a Tirant did governe all at his pleasure The name is one but the things are essentially different and so farre distant as the East is from the West While you cast your selfe upon the Smectymnians and will still raile upon our Covenant we desiderate your piety but while you appeale to Calvin and Beza for your Episcopacie we misse your Common sence All the Episcopacie which ever you had or
forenamed Masters of the Court did much adde for the allaying whereof this Declaration was penned but to no purpose as Spotswood himself tels us m Spotswoods Story lib. 6. p. 177. This Declaration gave not much satisfaction so great was the discontent For no satisfaction was ever taken till both the Duke Chancellour Secretary and Archbishop Adamson were banished the Court and the acts of Parliament of their invention abolished as noxious and evill There was never any Warrant for Printing of this Writ What is here said of King James his command to publish this Declaration I do not find it verified in any Register either of the Church or Kingdome of Scotland that hath fallen in my hand but if any such command did come from him at that time of his minority and great tentation through the continuall evill offices of them that then managed his Counsels it were a case no more strange then these which often since we have seen in both Kingdomes many Proclamations and Declarations by false and wicked informations have been drawne from King James and King Charles and many other Princes which upon better advisement have been called in and buried the Proclamation concerning sports and playes upon the Sabbath the Service-Book and Book of Canons the Declarations of the Rebellion of the Parliaments of both Kingdomes we all know For my part I love not to rake out â—f the grave the carcases of these buried Writs for the infamy of the Prince or the prejudice of the Subject We shall sâ—y no more to the preface Pag 2. come to the interpretation of these offensive Acts of that Parliament at Edenburgh 1584. As for the first Act the explanation here made upon it did no way remove its offence for both the Act and its explanation attribute to the Ministers only the administation of the Word and Sacraments without any mention at all of any discipline this seems to have been one chiefe cause why the worshipfull Licenser was pressed with so much importunity to give his Imprimatur to this Writ as if this passage had been a demonstration of King James his Erastianisme but let the world take notice of the grossenesse of this mistake by this short information The Commissioners of the generall Assembly King James was far from Erastianisme were required by his Majesty at the Parliament of Lithgou 1585. to give him in the grounds of their grievances against the Acts of the Parliament at Edenbrugh 1584. here explained n Collection Master Andrew Melvill had been plaine with the King divers dayes at length the King desired the Ministers to exhibit in writ what exceptions they had against the Parliament held in Anno 1584. whereupon they exhibit to the King these animadversions following In their Animadversion upon the Act now in hand they did shew his Majesty that the power of Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction and Church-Censures did belong to them by divine right no lesse then the power of preaching the Word and Celebrating the Sacraments o Animadversions The power of the Keyes of the Kingdome of Heaven consisteth not onely in preaching and administration of the Sacraments but also in jurisdiction and removing of offences out of the Kirk of God and excommunication of the disobedient to be pronounced by these that are officers of the Church our warrants out of the Word of God for this part of the liberty of the Church we are to bring forth when your Majesty pleaseth Also that the Lawes of the Kingdome ever fince the Reformation did ratifie that their right p Ibid. This Act restricted the liberty granted byother Acts of Parliament of before concerning discipline and correction of manners which were established by a Law in the first yeer of your Majesties Reigne and that hitherto they had bin in peaceable possessioÌ„ thereof q Ibid. There is a spirituall jurisdiction where of the Office-bearers within the Kirk in this Realm have been in peaceable possession and use these twenty four yeer by past whereof followed no trouble but great quietnesse in the Kirke and Common-wealth The King in his Reply to this animadversion does not deny any of these Alleageances yea he declares under his hand that he did not intend to take from Church Officers any part of the Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction but onely so to regulate the execution of Discipline that some part thereof might be put in the hand of Prelates this was the onely point in controversie r The Kings Declaration the first Act maketh onely mention of the preaching of the Word Sacraments not thereby to abrogate any good further policy and jurisdiction in the Kirke but allanerly to remit a part thereof to the Acts ensuing and the most which as yet are not agreed upon nor concluded I intend God willing to cause to be perfected by a godly generall Assembly Whence it appeares how far his Majesty was from all Erastianisme though his affection to prelacy at that time was too great which yet he changed quickly thereafter as we shall see anon The explanation of the second Act The sum of the next Paragraph consists of a Narrative and Ordinance builded thereupon the Narrative has the alledged misbehaviours of some Ministers Master Andrew Melvile alone is named as joyning in conspiracies with Rebels against the King as Preaching seditious Doctrine and disclaining the King and Counsell of State for his Judges The Ordinance is concerning the Kings Supremacy divers things are here jumbled together confusedly and odiously to these two purposes by the Abbot of Dunfermeling Secretary for the time the Penner of this passage as Adamson the writer of the rest confesseth Å¿ Adamsons recantation The Secretary himselfe penned the second Act of Parliament concerning the power of Judicatories to be absolutely in the King and that it should not be lawfull for any Subject to reclame from the same under the penalty of the Act which I suppose was treason Concerning the first Master Melvill his worth Master Andrew Melvils case the Narrative is most untrue as I shall make good by undeniable evidence Master Melvil was an excellent Divine the principall professour of Divinity in the University first of Glasgow and then of S. Andrewes full of piety eloquence and learning of all sorts so eminent in zeale for the truth that his remembrance is yet very precious not in Scotland alone but in other reformed Churches his heroicke courage made him an eye-sore to the Masters of the Court whose wickednesse he and his Schollars according to their place and duty did masculously oppose From this it was and nothing else that an Accusation was invented against him as for seditious and treasonable words against the Kings Mother Queen Mary then prisoner in England When he came to his Answer upon his solemne Oath Cleer grounds for his justification he denied his Charge t The Collection I Master Andrew Melvill protest before God and his elect
in pieces and the whole royall Prerogative devolved upon the head of the Parliament yet the aforementioned supremacy is so high an injustice that no gracious member of either House would ever be perswaded to touch it though it were put in their fingers for beside the everting of all the Lawes whereupon Monarchy since the first foundation has stood it would so shake the groundstones of all the Lawes of the Kingdome as would hazard the overthrow no lesse of the Parliament then of the King and with them all the Judicatories and rights of the Land our unhappy Brovilons fit for nothing so much as to confound all things would be in a faire way to bring the whole Church and State to such a Chaos and hodge podge as no creature without Gods extraordinary assistance should ever againe be able to bring their confusions to any tolerable order Secondly The Supremacy here mentioned favours Episcopacy but not Erastianisme they should doe well to consider that whatever supremacy is aimed at in the Writ yet the Erastian designe will not be much helped thereby for it is expresly provided therein that the ordinary Ecclesiastick Judicatories shall cognosce all Ecclesiasticke causes g Printed Declaration p. 3. Neiis it his Majesties intention to take away the lawfull and ordinary judgment of the Church but rather to preserve encrease and maintaine the same and as there is in the Realme Justices Constables Sheriffes Provosts Bailiffes and other Judges in temporall matters so his Majesty alloweth that all things may be done in order and a godly order may be preserved in the whole Estate the Synodall Assemblies by the Bishops or Commissioners for the places vacand to be convened twice in the yeere to have the Ordering of matters belonging to the Ministry and their estate no word at all to import that any civil Commissioners may determine upon any affaires meerly Ecclesiasticall it is true that the ordinary Judicatories here named are put under the foule feet of the Prelats and this seems to have been the maine aime both of the Act and of its interpretation yet hereby the Erastian principles are nothing furthered for as by the Covenant and Laws of both Kingdomes the roots of Episcopacy are now pluked up so it s well knowne that neither Presbiterians nor Independents were ever more zealous for the establishing of Ecclesiastick jurisdiction by a divine right in the hand of Church Officers then the Episcopall party at least those of them who understood and minded their owne principles Thirdly King James against the Erastians if all this will not satisfie we desire those who hold out this passage as advantageous for the Ecclesiastick power of the Magistrate in prejudice of the Presbytery to know that when the Ministers did complaine to King James of this seeming prejudice he gave them his owne Declaration which he promised should be as authentick as that Act of Parliament hh Kings Declaration Now I say and declare which Declaration shall be as authentick as the Act it selfe that I for my part shall never neither my Posterity ought ever cite summon or apprehend any Pastor or Preacher for matters of Doctrine in Religion salvation beresies or true interpretation of the Scriptures but according to my first Act which confirmeth the liberty of Preaching the Word Ministration of the Sacraments I avow the same to be a matter meere Ecclesiasticall and altogether impertinent to my calling therefore never shall I nor never ought they I meane my Posterity to acclaime any power of jurisdiction of the foresaid which caused their griefe and much more authentick then Adamsons Interpretation of that Act assuring them that neither himselfe nor any of his successors should ever claime the Cognizance nor the power to determine in any cause meerly Ecclesiasticall ii Vide sapra hh avowing that Ecclesiastick Jurisdiction did belong onely to the Church officers which neither himselfe nor any of his heires should ever crave nor ever ought to crave as belonging to them King James revoked what here is published Finally we desire them to know if Princes promises and Declarations under their hands seeme not to them sufficient security that whatever in the present passage does appeare to spoile the Church Assemblies of a full and plenary Jurisdiction was all recalled and past from by King James the very next yeer for he did consent unto that transaction of Archbishop Adamsons whereby the Arch-prelate devests himselfe of all jurisdiction and submits himselfe to the authority of the Assembly renouncing all liberty of appeale to any other person or Judicatory in the earth kk Spotswoods History lib. 6. p. 184. yeer 1586. A transaction was made in this sort That the Bishop by his hand writing should labour to carry himselfe as a moderate Pastor ought labouring to be the Bishop described by Saint Paul submitting his life and Doctrine to the Judgement and censure of the generall Assembly without any reclamation provocation or appellation from the same in any time comming what should have moved the King to hearken to a mediation so prejudiciall both to his owne authority and the Episcopall jurisdiction cannot well be conjectured whatsoever the reason was the Bishop did set his hand to the things proposed by the Assembly But to stop all mouths which from Scotland would bring any colour of warrant King Charles also for an Erastian Supremacy in the last Parliament of Scotland which was ratified by King Charles with the hearty consent of his good Subjects of England the finall determination of all Ecclesiasticke Causes whatsoever is referred to the Nationall Assembly as to the onely proper and competent Judge ll Second Parliament of K. Charles Act 4. p. 6. 8. The Kings Majesty having graciously declared that it is his royall will and pleasure that all questions about Religion and matters Ecclesiasticall be determined by the Assemblies of the Church and that for preservation of Religion generall Assemblies rightly constitute as the proper and competent judge of all matters Ecclesiasticall hereafter be kept yeerly and oftner pro renata as also that Kirk Sessions Presbyteries and Synodall Assemblies be constitute and observed according to the order of this Kirk which Act the estates now convened by his Majesties indiction raâ—ifies approves and confirmes in all points and gives thereunto the strength of a Law and Act of Parliament whoever will call this Act of Parliament into question must be content to have the King and his Parliaments of both Kingdoms for their first and chiefe opposites The explanation of the next Act is also large and confused The sum of the next Paragraph it contains a discharge of all Church Assemblies and meetings not authorized by Law particularly it discharges the Nationall Assemblie and Classicall Presbytery upon the allegeance of some enormous practises of these two meetings Consider first the discharge and then its reasons Church-assemblies established in Scotland on a
Divine Right with the allowance of King James and K. Charles in divers Parliaments Concerning the discharge of Church meetings not authorized by Law the Commissioners did shew the King that Church meetings were necessary to be kept being mm Animadversions we offer Vs to prove by good Warrants of the Word of God that it is lawfull to the Ecclesiastiall Estate to Convocate Assemblies and to hold the same and to appoint and order place and time for convening of the same to troat upon such matters as concerne the Kirk affaires which no wayes impaireth your Majesties civill and royall jurisdiction but rather fortifieth and decoreth the fame cōmanded of God and being such means without which the Churches and societies of the Saints could not subsist in their necessary purity and order in the time of the greatest persecutions Christians did meet in their Assemblies both for worship and discipline though the imperiall Lawes did discharge such conventions In France and Poland where the Princes are enemies to Religion yet the Protestants are permitted to keep their Assemblies for Discipline greater and smaller of all sorts as they have occasion no lesse then their meetings for the Word and Sacraments His Majesty in his reply does not deny the Commissioners allegeance onely he required a intermission of the named meetings for a short time till the whole plat-forme of Church government according to the Word of God might be finished hereby nn The Kings Declaration My meaning and Declaration is that they shall cease while a setled Policie and Jurisdiction be established according to the Commission and line of Gods Word yeelding that he beleeved the Church ought to have its owne government according to the prescription of the holy Scripture to which he purposed to submit and agree as indeed he did the yeer following agreeing to that course which the Assembly at Saint Andrewes tooke with Bishop Adamson without all contradiction and ever thereafter permitting the Ministers without any interruption to enjoy all their Ecclesiastick meetings in peace yea some few yeeres after as oft I have said he did establish by Act of Parliament the whole plat-forme of government according to their mind which abode untouched till the evill advice of the English Prelats moved him to make some breaches in that wall which thanks be to God are now fully repaired King Charles in person having lately ratified in Parliament the meeting of all our Assemblies from the lowest to the highest so fully as our hearts could wish Beside the divine right of our Church meetings for Discipline the Commishoners did demonstrate to the King the good humane right thereof in Scotland producing to him an Act of his owne first Parliament for the nationall Assembly and finall determination of all Ecclesiasticall appeales therein oo Anamadversions concerning the generall Assembly of the Kirke there is an Act the first year of your highnesse reigne ratifying the authority thereof and decerning appellations to be devolved thereto as to the last judgement of matters concerning the Kirk his Majesty likewise could not but well remember that the whole modell of Presbyteries and their proceedings had been oft in debate before him and the Counsell Table also that some few yeeres before he had sent to the generall Assembly at Clasgow his expresse order for the erection of Presbyteries in all the Shires of the Kingdome pp The Acts of the generall Assembly Instructions to our trusty and welbeloved William Cunningham of Caprinton directed by us with the advice of the Lords of our secret Counsell to the generall Assembly conveend at Gasgow April 20. 1581. followes the List of 50. Presbiteries 12. Parishes or thereabouts making up one Presbitry whence the Church came to be in a very peaceable possession of all her Assemblies nationall provincial classicall and congregationall without any controlment onely in that houre of darknesse as generally then it was called there was a short eclipse but that did quickly passe over neither did any interruption of these Church meetings come thereupon However The reprinters of this Declaration seem to be contemners of Oaths Lawes and al rights divine and humane we cannot but observe the disposition of those who with so great care and zeale set out in this paper to the world for imitation the example of a Prince although in the hour of tentation out of the which he was immediately delivered for pulling down and discharging of Presbyteries and Assemblies when established by Law and quietly possessed by a cleere Right both divine and humane We trust the honourable Houses of Parliament are farre from their mind else we should have but small comfort though we should see the Ghurch government here setled both by Law and possession for it seems that the publishers of this Writ would have us to despaire of any security to keep whatever now may be gotten Oaths Covenants Lawes Possessions must be no stronger then bonds of flax and ropes of straw which the fire of these mens wrath when ever it comes upon them will easily burne and burst asunder but it is well that Princes and Parliaments are not capable to be miscarried by the private passions of so unconstant and perfidious persons The reasons of the Act doe follow for the putting downe of the Classicall Presbytery a great misbehaviour is alledged The Presbytery of Edinburgh took upon them to diswade the Feasting of the French Embassadour and did enter in Processe with the Magistrates who at the Kings desire contrary to their advice did keepe that Feast a long and odious story of that matter is here deduced and borrowed from hence both by Spotswood in his History and Maxwell in his Issachars burthen but the truth is this A full account of the French Banquet as I finde it extracted out of the Records of the Church of Scotland by a very reverend and faithfull hand That time was one of the most sad and dangerous seasons that this Isse hath seene it was but a little after the Massacres of France and a little before the Spanish Armada about the very instant when the Catholicke League was hatched for the rooting out of Protestant Religion and all Protestant Princes especially Queene Elizabeth At this time it was when two or three French Embassadours one after another came over from France to Scotland with Instructions from the chief contrivers of that unholy League qq Vide supra Also Spotswoods history lib. 6. fo 180. year 1585. then came that holy League as they called it to be discovered which the Pope the Spanish King with the Guises and others had made to extirpate reformed Religion the Queene of England understanding her selfe to be principally aymed at c. Also the Collection Monsieur de la Motfenellon and Maningvill were sent from the King of France to strengthen the Kings faction to procure Lenox his returne to withdraw the King from the Lords The Court was then very corrupt exceeding tyrannous
Common-Counsell of London the Houses of Parliament the Kings Majesty himselfe and whosoever else lyes crosse in their way large as uncivilly as they have done us the companions we have in our sufferings make our other wayes insupportable injuries the more tolerable But of all the kinds of injustice whereby they have been pleased to deal against us this now in hand seems to be most strange they rest not satisfied with all they are able of themselves to speak write or print for the disgrace of our Church unlesse they scrape together and with their owne hands cast upon our face the falsest of the most wicked calumnies which our common enemies the Prelats either of old or of late have invented against us We esteemed our selves secure of this kind of dealing from those whom we knew to have solemnly sworne the defence of our Church-Government against the common enemy I professe I cannot deny myamazement to see men who pretend to more then ordinary piety fall upon their wel-deserving Brethren so openly before the Sun in contempt of God and his solemn Oath to enforce upon them old rotten calumnies which cannot but fall back upon the head not onely of the first Authors but also with encrease of shame upon the face of the malicious repeaters so much against all piety charity and wisdome You know that one of the most false and wicked pieces that of old was written against the Church of Scotland was Adamsons Declaration in the yeer 1584. it was so vile that the Author was brought to an ingenuous confession of the shamefull and wicked lyes whereof it was full King James at that very time did disclaime it under his hand divers of our Parliaments did condemne the matter of it as erroneous and wrong That pestiferous carcasse which with all possible infamy was buried so soon as borne and did lye quiet in its grave of shame till a full Climaterick of three score and three yeers our good friends have been so wise for themselves and kind to us as to dig up its stinking bones and to carry it from house to house from shire to shire over all England and where over else a printed pamphlet can goe serving their Brethren of Scotland with this curtesie according to their Covenant And least the antick face of so long buried a body should not have been looked upon by the multitude with any contentment they did choice to be at the cost of putting it in a fine new English dresse and setting upon its head the Cape of a royall title All to draw the eyes of the vulgar upon it who otherwise might have passed by it wiâ—h neglect and disdaine In this they have put themselves to a peece of pains which I never knew or heard used with any other book they do print it first in Master Adamsons owne old Scottish language and thereafter translated it in good moderne English setting before both the Title of A Declaration made by King James in Scotland concerning Church-government and Presbyters When all this was told us we made our addresse to the worshipfull Lycenser intreating that a Pamphlet so extreamly injurious to our whol Church and Nation might be smothered upon the Presse and returned to its pit where so long it had lyen in infamy we were told by him that divers persons of eminency at least for their place and present Station had strongly moved him with great importunity to give his License for its reprinting Yet that upon our so just and reasonable desires he would doe his best to stop it hereupon we rested satisfied being assured of its suppression notwithstanding within two dayes after this promise it came abroad the importunity and eminency of the persons who had drawne from the Licenser his Imprimatur with greater ease did draw from the Presse some thousands of the printed Copies and made them to be sold publikely to our small contentment While this not very pleasant morsell is lying in our stomack scarce halfe digested behold a second dish is presented to us for to helpe our concoction of the first Master Jo. Maxwell late Bishop of Rosse Excommunicate by our generall Assembly declared Incendiary by our Parliament and made unpardonable in the Propositions of Peace did write in the gall of his bitternesse a wicked Satyre against all the parts of the Government of our Church This some three yeeres agoe the Author did print at Oxford under the Title of an Answer by Letter shewing how inconsistent Presbyteriall government is with Monarchy The Cavaliers there received it with great joy being extreamly satisfactory to their spight and revengefull humour against Scotland which they did ordinarily damne and curse as the first and greatest Fountaine of all their woes In this the Lord gave testimony for us against them for by a sudden and unexpected fire almost all the Copies of that wicked Booke were destroyed before they were brought from the Printers Shoppe by the strange and remarkable accident the mouth of the Author and of his malignant friends at Oxford were so stopped that we heard very little more of that Booke from them But behold our Covenanting Brethren at London I meane some of our Antipresbyterian friends tooke the courage and charity to plucke out of the fire the remainder of the Prelats labours and misregarding not onely the sentence of men the Acts of the generall Assembly of Scotland and of the Parliaments of both Kingdomes making the man an excommunicate and unpardonable Incendiary but also the judgement of God from Heaven who to their knowledge had burnt the most of that Impression to ashes notwithstanding they will gather what was left out of the fire as a holy relict and hug it in their bosome till by a new Impression at London of some thousand copies they be enabled to make it run over all the Kingdome and so much farther as a Pamphlet hugely cryed up by their voices could flee Our diligence to search and find out the Presse the Licenser and if we had pleased the Solicitors of their former Writ made them a little more cautious in the reprinting and publishing of this but for all their warinesse it was visible enough by whose industry the Books were dispersed to the Members of Parliament and over all the City it was knowne by whose serious recommendations wings were set to the sides of that Fowle that it might flee with all diligence much farther and more quickly then the art and malice of the Malignants at Oxford were able to have carried it For my part all the revenge I wish of so grievous a wrong all the penance I would put upon the Authors and Actors therein beside the weight of that sin and shame which they have drawne upon themselves by spreading so false and so wicked lyes of them who by solemne oath they were obliged to have defended against such injuries shall be onely to collation at their conveniency my subsequent Answer with their owne beloved Writs when they have
not in any Congregation of Scotland which I doe know a yearly election of Elders but in populous Cities where the Elders are many and diverse of them unable to attend that charge without the hurt of their estate the most of them being Merchants and Tradesmen who must travell for their livelyhood they have a liberty to be free from that service every two yeere if so they be content to attend upon a call every third yeere the Levites attended the service of the Temple but a few months in the yeare What is right or wrong in this custome of some few of our Congregations we are willing to debate it and as it shall be found just or unjust to keep or change that practise for in such things we love not to be contentious In your three last Sections yee do cast upon the Eldership in hand a rabble of incongruous practises Page 3. No Eldership inflicts any civill punishment although the Magistrate in the Eldership doth so sometimes what you bring of pecuniary mulcts imprisonments banishments jogges cutting of haire and such like it becomes neither you to charge nor us to be charged with any such matters No Church-assembly in Scotland assumes the least degree of power to inflict the smallest civill punishment upon any person the Generall Assembly it selfe bath no power to fine any creature so much as in one groat It is true the Lawes of the Land appoint â—ecuniary mulcts imprisonment joggs pillories and banishment for some odious crimes and the power of putting these Laws in execution is placed by the Parliament in the hands of the inâ—eriour Magistrates in Burroughs or Shires or of others to whom the Counsel Table gives a speciall Commission for that end ordinarily some of these civill persons are ruling Elders and sit with the Eldership So when the Eldership have cognosced upon the scandall alone of criminall persons and have used their spirituall censures only to bring the party to Repentance some of the Ruling Elders by vertue of their civill office or commission will impose a Mulct or send to Prison or stocks or banish out of the bounds of some little circuit according as the Acts of Parliament or counsell do appoint it But that the Eldership should imploy its Eccclesiastick and Spirituall power for any such end none of us doe defend That either in Scotland or any where else in the world the haire of any person is commanded to be cut by any Church judicatory for disgrace and punishment is as I take it but a foolish fable That any person truely penitent is threatned in Scotland with Church censures for non-payment of Monies is in the former Category of calumnies But suppose that all your alleagations were true Bishops confound miserably the spirituall and civill office yet how congruously does a challenge of this kind come from your mouth do you think that all civill imployments are incompatible with spirituall offices How many Ministers did you get to be Iustices of Peace you your selfe were a judge of Common-pleas your colleague S. Andrewes was Chancellor of the Kingdom you know the Treasurers white staffe was very neer to your hands and for the missing of it what stir you made Many of you were Lords of Councel and all of you Lords both of Parliament and temporall Lordships and Regalities where your Baylies kept Court in your names diverse of your Coat with your good liking have been Secretaries of State Keepers of the Privy Seale Leger Ambassadors with forraign Princes your brethren over Sea in France and Spaine Germany and Italy are Admirals of Royall Navies are Generals of Land forces are Princes of Temporall Estates according to these principles that I thinke you doe approve according to your Cannons in Scotland and your ordinary practise in England Great summes of mony were exacted in your spirituall Courts and pocketed up for private uses how many have been excommunicate there for non-payment of a shilling and refused absolution till their fine was payed with increase what do you speak to us of a pecuniary mulct of a very small and unconsiderable value taken up by the Magistrate and imployed only in pious uses Why doe you speak to us of cutting of Beards when your Prelates doe burne the cheeks how many gracious soules have been starved to death in your Episcopall dungeous how many thousands have you banished out of Bricaine out of Europe for no fault at all but their zeale to the truth of God how many hundred thousand hath your pride and obstinacy in error caused to be slaine within these seven yeares in the next age ignorant men may be pardoned to deny these things but it were great impudence this day to deny them when yet we do sticke in the Pit of these troubles wherein the madnesse of you Prelates hath cast us Your objection about the Baptisme of Bastards is vain We refuse Baptism to no insant where either of the Parents will undertake for Christian education for we refuse not that Sacrament to any of them if either of the Parents profesie Repentance and undertake for the Christian education of their child but the ground of your quarrelling in this Point is that we cannot follow your Popish Doctrine that we refute to professe the actuall regeneration of all baptized Infants and that we dare not put all unbaptized persons in the state of unregeneration and damnation Your next head concerns the Classicall Presbytery Page 4 5. No Prince pleads for any exemption from Ecclesiastick jurisdiction your first Objection against it which a little thereafter and oft elsewhere you do ingeminate is That the King and his family are subject to its Jurisdiction I would gladly know if among the rest of the Prelaticall absurd ties this were one That Christian Princes and Magistrates are fully exempted from all Ecclesiastick jurisdiction sometimes your party would seem to speake so as if every Magistrate at least every Prince were such a God upon earth that none might say to any of them Sir what are you doing though they were running to hell themselves and drawing at their heels all they were able This is so grosse a flattery that all advised Princes abhorre it and confesse themselves to be subject to Ecclesiasticall Discipline as well as others for they know if they should exempt themselves from this part of Christian religion they should presently be in hazard or loosing the benefit of all the rest for Christianity is a body of Articles so straitly joyned that either all must be received or none You your selfe though among the absurdest of all your faction do confesse so much as any Presbyterian in the world did ever thinke of you say that the Crowne and Scepter is subject not only to the directive power of the Church expound the Church as you will for a Congregationall Classicall or Nationall Eldership it is alike for the present Question but also to the authoritative power of the same whereby the
in the Assemblies as the Lawes allow albeit not such a Tyranny as Prelats would flatter him into it is true it was ever our wish and oft our happinesse to have the King or his Commissioner amongst us at these meetings we never did dispute their capacity no more was craved then the place of a civil President and this no man did ever deny either to him or them nor a power to propound what ever they thought expedient but some of your flattering Prelates doe ascribe to the Prince a power which neither we nor our Laws may owne You give him a power to call so many as he will without all Commission from any Church to voice in all Assemblies and by the multitude of their voices to carry all You give him also a power to hinder the Assembly to debate any matter which he mislikes were it never so necessary for the very being of the Church You give him a Negative Vote to stop any conclusion were it never so consonant to the Word of God yea an affirmative Vote to carry all things in the Assembly absolutely according to his owne minde The Assembly being but his Arbitrary Court in things spirituall by whose advice the Prince who is the supream judge in all causes does determine as he findes it expedient sometimes according sometimes contrary to their judgement Such a power no ordinary either Erastian or Prelate will willingly grant to any Prince upon earth but this was one of the late Canterburian extravagancies wherein your singular zeale did much help you to your Bishoprick What you adde of our pressing the King to execute all our Acts under the paine of Excommunication we have oft told you it is a great untruth for all Scotland knowes that the furthest we went ever with any Prince in our Assembly Acts was humbly to supplicate for their civill Sanction iâ— we obtain it we blesse God and them if we cannot by any prayers perswade we sit down in grief and wait patiently upon their good pleasure Our taking in of all things temporall upon some spirituall relation The Assembly alters no Laws but only supplicates the King and Parliament to alter such â—aws as confirm evident errors and forcing the King to change his Laws though never so prejudiciall to the State your report in this will be beleeved when you have gotten grace to forsake in some measure the Spirit that now leads you The matter here you aime at but keeps it in the clouds is the proceeding of the Assembly at Glasgow against your offices and persons According to the Lawes of Popiâ—â— times The Bishops were Lords of Parliament of Councell of Exchequer of Session The Assembly did finde all this contrary to the Word of God and therefore did discharge under the paine of the censures of the Church any Minister of the Word to take upon him these civill imployments I hope the hindering of persons meerly Ecclesiastick to drowne themselves in a sea of temporall affaires is not to take cognisance of all things temporall in ordine ad spiritualia The Assembly did supplicate the King and Parliament for the abolition of the Popish and corrupt Lawes which did countenance the ambition of the Clergy the Parliament finding the Assemblies supplication just joyned with them to deale with the King to passe it his Majesty for a time misled by the flattery of Prelates refused but at last seeing the earnestnesse and cleer equity of the Assembly and Parliament their desires he was perswaded to consent to these Acts wherein all Churchmen are forbidden to take upon them civill places This is it that you call the forcing of the King and Parliament to change the Laws for the great trouble of the State this is all the Assemblies tyranizing over the King and Parliament a meer supplication to alter Popish and corrupt Lawes which both the King and the State after a little debate did finde necessary to be done To the absurdities which you call monstrously grosse Your oftrepeated quarrell against ruling Eâ—ders is absurd p. 21.22 we have spoken already you are impatient that any ruling Elder that any Commissioner from Burroughs or Vniversities should voice in Church Assemblies your expresse reason is because concilium est Episcoporum see the mans absurdity no Minister more then a ruling Elder must voice at any Assembly the decisive voice there belongs only to Bishops yet any Lay men vested with the Bishops commission may very lawfully exercise all Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction over the whole Clergy of the Diocesse neither is there any Gentleman of the Shire not any Burgesse of the City nor any Student in the Vniversity to whom a Prelate can purchase a Letter from the King but he may sit and voice decisively in all spirituall causes as a constituent Member of the Generall Assembly as well as the Bishop himself this is the doctrine and was the practise of our Prelates in Scotland You are angry p. 22. Page 22 23 24 25 26. The Assembly and Parliament with us use not to differ that the acts of our Assemblies should get so ready obedience but the matters themselves are so clear that none uses to refuse them and it is the Law of the kingdome that the Assemblies determination in matters proper to its cognisance should be obeyed if any thing new be acted which requires a civill sanction the Commissioners of the Assembly supplicate the next ensuing Parliament for their ratification which for common is easily obtained the cleer equity of the matter purchases a ready grant If there happen to be cause why the Parliament should not be satisfied the Aslembly by their reasons is perswaded to be of the Parliaments minde no such unanimous Courts in the Universe as the Parliament and Generall Assembly of Scotland they never had any difference but what bad Courtiers and Prelates procured for their owne interests put these pests of the Church and State to a corner the King Parliament and Assembly shall never differ but alwayes concurre for the strengthening and comforting one another From your 22. page to 31. Your invectives against our first Reformation are wicked you heap together what ever extream malice can invent to bring disgrace upon the first and cheife resormers of Religion from Popery you openly avow your dislike of the first Reformation in Scotland you are not ashamed to proclaim all the Reformation both of Scotland France Holland and Germany and wheresoever the work was not done by the hand of the Soveraign Prince to have been Sedition and Rebellion The first thing you undertake to prove is That we give our Assemblies power to depose and kill Kings The Vindication of Iohn Knoâ— and the first Reformers of Scotland from base calumnies for this you alledge Martin mar Prelate whoyet says no such thing and though hedid what is that to us then you cite a number of passages out of Iohn Knox his writings but is it just that John Knox Assertions long
there was no controversie in the year 1580 betwixt the Church and the Court The privie counsell had subscribed all that book with some reservation about Church rents the Generall Assemblies oft did agree to it without any exception his Majestie himselfe in the fore named year did send to the Assembly with an expresse commissioner the platform of all the Presbiteries which therafter were erected over all Scotland which against all the Prelats assaults have ever stood firme to this day so your alleagencies are exceeding false that the Presbiteries were erected without the Kings authority and that in the yeare 1580 the Government of our Church was Episcopall these are putide thredbare lyes The Generall Assembly did never allow of Abbots and Priors as Churchmen and though they pressed the great unjustice that Popish Bishops and lay Abbots should 〈◊〉 in Parliament in name of the Church to vote as the third estate The Generall Assembly did never approve of Abbots and Priors Estate without any Commission from the Church yet it was never their intention to have any of their owne number appointed by themselves to vote in Parliament in name of the Church of Scotland For when King Iames a little before his going to England was very earnest with the generall Assembly to accept of that as a favour they forseeing the snare did resolutely reject it ever til his Maje by very great dealing did draw a plurality of an unadvised Assembly to embrace that power of voting in Parliament but with a nuÌ„ber of Caveats which wise men foresaw would never be kept That Master Melvil or any Presbitery of that Land had ever any hand in impropriating or disapidating any part of the Church Rent is farre from truth But that your good Colleagues the Prelats in the Parliament 1606. made a bargaine for alienating from the Church for ever no fewer then 16. Abbays at one time I declared before About that time what the practises of the disciplinarians aâ— London might be I doe not know but this is certaine that Mr. Cartwright and all the old nonconformists in England were our deare Brethren and made a waies the Government of the Church of Scotland the measure of their desires that betwixt us and the Antiepiscopall party here was never any difference till the unhappy Separatists and their Children the Independents did make it Your invenomed invective against the present Reformation of both Kingdomes as a monstrous deformation we let it lye in your owne bosome to keep you warme till you be pâ—eased to bring all of it abroad in that Anatomie which here you promise but we expect no performance till you first have had leasure as likewise you stand engaged by your word to put the foure Limbes unto that Gorgons head of your Turkish Monarchy which some yeares agoe you set up at Oxford P. 36. The Ministers in Scotland were wont to give the King seasonable Counsell but in all wisdome and humility In your 36. p. you run upon our Assemblies for appointing Ministers to Preach pertinent doctrine and advising them who did Preach to the King and State to speake a word in season for the wee ll of Sion at that time as I shew before their was a mighty designe to advance the Catholick League for the overthrow of Queene Elizabeth and all Protestants the prime Courtiers were diligent Agents herein the men who were trusted to be watchmen to the Kings person and Family if at such a time they should have beene silent they could not have answered it either to God or man You and your gracious companions who never had a mouth to divert a Prince from any evill course were yet loud trumpets of fury in the most of your Sermons and Prayers to inflame him against his two Puritan Parliaments of Britaine but to calme him towards his innocent and Catholick trusty Subjects of Ireland That any Assembly in Scotland ever challenged the sole power of indicting fasts is in the ordinary predicament of your assertions under the spece of palpable untruths P. 37.38 No affront was offered to the King by the fast at Edinburgh Of the feast at Edinburgh p. 37. I have given in the other Treatise a full accompt only I add here that in this your relation you makeit more false then any other of your friends who write thereof the King was neither invited nor present the originall of the motion was not from the King but the French Merchants for their owne ends the Magistrates of Edinburgh did not countenance the feast for of their foure Bailies three kept the fast the appointers of that abstinence were not the Ministers but the Magistrates and the Congregationall Eldership not the supreame but the lowest judicatory of the Church the Processe against the Magistrates and the Kings great Solicitation that it might be Superceeded ar meerly fabulous I have also given a large account of your next calumnie in the other Treatis If any should Preach Treason with us he is censurable both by Church and state no man in Scotland did ever maintaine that a Minister Preaching Treason might not be conveened and punished by the Magistrate according to the Lawes All Mr. Melvils plea was that a Minister of the Church of Scotland and a member of the University of St. Andrews being priviledged by the antient and late Lawes of the Kingdome was not necessitate at the first instance to answer before the privy counsell for a passage of his Sermon which most falsly was said to be treasonable The whole case I have opened at large else where The acts of Parliament you speake of warranting an unreasonable Supremacy were procured in the yeare 1584. by that insolent Tyrant Captain Iames and the Declaration upon them was penned by Bishop Adamson also both the Acts and the Declaration were recalled by the King and Parliament That any invectives against his Majesties person for these acts were spread abroad we doe deny it we think it very possible that much might both have been spoken and written against the matter of these acts but that any man was so unmannerly as to fall upon the King himselfe before we beleeve it we must have a greater evidence then a Prelates Testimony What you say of the fugitive Ministers The Erastian and Prelaticall principles brought great trouble on the Ministers of Scotland as Spotswood relates it was thus The acts of that Parliament 1584. were so bitter and grievous to all the gracious Ministers of Scotland that many of them fled out of the Kingdome and diverse of the prime laid downe their life as it seemes of meere greife Mr. Smeeton Principall Mr. of the Uniuersity of Glasgow and Mr. Arbuthnot of the University of Aberdeen both dyed that yeare all the Ministers of Edinburgh fled to England and the cheife of them Mr. Lawson went to London Adamson Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews at that time kept great correspondence with the Bishops of England who without any
meanest guiltlesse The guilt of our blood shall not onely lie upon the Prince but also upon our own Brethren Bishops Counsellours and Commissioners it is they even they that have stirred our Prince against us we must therefore lay the blame and burden of our blood upon them especially however the rest above written be also partakers of their fins with them And as to the rest of our Brethen who either by silence approve or by crying Peace Peace strengthen the arme of the wicked that they cannot returne in the meane time make the hearts of the righteous sad they shall all in like manner be guilty of our blood and of high treason against the King of Kings the Lord Jesus Christ his Crowne and Kingdome Next unto them all Counsellours Chancellour President Comptroller Advocate and next unto them all that first or last sate in Counsell and did not beare plaine testimony of Jesus Christ and his Kingdome for which we doe suffer and next unto them all these who should have been present and supplied who should at such times have come and made open testimony of Christ faithfully although it had been contrary to plaine Law and hazard of their lives when the poor Jewes were in such danger that nothing was expected but utter destruction Queen Ester after three days fasting concluded thus with her selfe Ester 9.16 I will said she goe in to the King though it be not according to Law and if I perish I perish with this resolution such as are borne Counsellours should have said Christs Kingdome is now in my hand and I am bound also and sworne by a speciall Covenant to maintaine the Doctrine and Discipline thereof according to my vocation and power all the dayes of my life under all the paines contained in the Book of God and danger both of body and soule in the day of Gods fearfull judgement and therefore though I should perish in the cause yet will I speak for it and to my power defend it according to my vocation Finally all those that counsels commands consents and allowes are guilty in the sight of God but the mourners for these evils and the faithfull of the Land and they who are unfainedly grieved in heart for all the abominations these are marked as not being guilty Ezek. 9. I know not whether I shall ever have occasion to write againe and therefore by this Leteer as my latter will and testament I give testimony and warning and knowledge of those things to all men according to the Lords direction to the Prophet Son of man I have made c. therefore I give warning to all men hereby Ezek. 33.7 that no mans blood be required at my hand Thus desiring the help of your prayers with my humble commendations and service in Christ to my Lord your Husband and to all the Saints there the Messenger of peace be with you all for evermore Amen Yours to my full power for the time Christs Prisoner JOHN WELSCH From Blacknesse Jan. 16. 1606. This second Letter was written before the first to Sir William Levinstone of Kilsyth one of the Lords of the Colledge of Iustice RIght honorable Sir after my hearty salutations Your love and care towards us uttered many wayes hath certainly comforted me and having no other thing to requite as I am able I shall desire the Lord who is mighty and hath taken upon him so to doe to meet you and yours with consolations in his good time As for the matter it selfe the bearer will shew you that what is required is such a thing as in the sight of our Lord we may not doe without both the hazard of our consciences and liberty of Christs Kingdome which should be deerer to us then any thing else What a slavery were it for us to binde our consciences in the service of our God in the meanest point of our callings to the will of man or Angels And we are fully resolved that which we did was acceptable service to our God who hath put it up as service done to him and has allowed and sealed it to us by many tokens so that it were more then high impiety and apostacy to testifie the ruine or undoing of any thing which our God hath ordained to be done and has accepted of us being done a This Letter is an Answer of Master Welsh to Kilsyth it seemes Spotswood then Archbishop of Glasgow had moved Kilsyth to tempt the prisoners after their condemnation to acknowledge a fault and crave pardon for their actions at Aberdeen upon assurance of libertie this overture Master Welsh rejects as unlawfull and withall denounces the judgement of God against Spotswood the chiefe instrument of the gracious Ministers oppression in a mervailous and altogether Propheticall manner Wee Sir if the Lord will are yet ready to doe more in our callings and to suffer more for the same if so be it wil please our God to call us to it and strengthen us in it for in our selves we dare promise nothing but in our God all things As for that instrument Spotswood we are sure the Lord will never blesse that man but a malediction lyes upon him and shall accompany all his doings and it may be Sir your eyes shall see as great confusion covering him ere he goe to the grave as did his predecessours Now surely Sir I am farre from bitternesse but here I denounce the wrath of an everlasting God against him which assuredly shall fall except it be prevented Sir Dagon shall not stand before the Arke of the Lord and those names of blasphemy that he weares of Lord Bishop and Archbishop will have a fearfull end a This Prophesie of the abolishing of Episcopacy is now accomplished in our eyes Not one beck is to be given to Haman suppose he were as great a Courtier as ever he was suppose the Decree were given out and sealed with the Kings Ring Deliverance will come to us elsewhere and not by him that hath been so sore an instrument not against our persons that were nothing and I protest to you Sir in the fight of my God I forgive him all the evill that ever he hath done or can doe to me but unto Christs poore Kirk in stamping underfoot so glorious a Kingdome and beauty as was once in this Land he has helped to cut Sampsons haire and to expose him to mocks but the Lord will not be mocked he shall be cast away as out of a sling-stone his name shall rot and a malediction shall fall upon his posterity after he is gone c Not a word of this is fallen to the ground Spotswood in the top of all his honours when he had come up to be Archbishop of St. Andrewes and Chancellour of the Kingdome he was cast out of Scotland and dyed a poore miserable man at London having not a sixpence of his own to buy Bread or to put him in his grave but as it was begged at Court the evident hand of God lighted on his posterity his Lands of Darsie all the conquesse he was able to make to his eldest Son Sir Jo. Spotswood is ready to be sold and that branch of his posterity to goe a begging his second Son Sir Robert Spotswood President of the Colledge of Justice for his treason against Scotland did dye miserably on a scaffold at St. Andrews an obdured impenitent man his brother the Bishop of Clogher was cast out of his great estates in Ireland and here in extreame old age was put as he told us to teach children for his Bread and being unfit for that imployment he was long a suitor here at London for the meanest place in the Ministry that he might be kept from starving but could not obtaine it Let this Letter Sir be a Monument of it that it was told before that whē it shall come to passe it may be seene there was warning given him and therfore Sir seeing I have not the accesse my selfe if it would please God to move you I wish you did deliver this hard Message unto him not as from me I assure you but as from the Lord that except he repent he shall be made a fearfull spectacle of Gods wrath in this Land d These things were Prophesied in the yeer 1605. forty yeers before their full performance contrary to al worldly appearance for then and many yeeres after Master Welsh his death it was more improbable that the Episcopall thrones in the King of Britains Dominions could ever have been overthrown by any humane force then that the See of the Pope at Rome and the Seats of all the Antichristian Prelates in Italy France and Spain or any where this day in the Earth should be overturned in despight of all their Defenders I have kept the matter onely to my selfe as our Brother will shew you Now the grace of God be multiplyed upon you Yours from my heart to be commanded in the Lord. JOHN WELSH From Blacknesse Oct. 9. 1605.