Gospel of their Salvation establish Religion and Justice in all the Cities of your Kingdom cause the waters of Life to run from the heart of your Kingdom unto the Borders thereof establish Pastors in all your Kingdom strengthen them in their Offices and speak to their hearts And afterward in the next page he saith to the King I have heard your Majestâ— gravely protest before God in two General Assemblies That it was one of your Majesties greatest desires and ye were even as it were ambitious of thâ— work to plant every Parish within your Kingdomâ— with a Pastor that the Posterity to come mighâ— say That King James the sixth had done such notable Work in his days Confirm your self Sir in that purpose for ye know who hath said I will honour them that honour me Thus we see Mr. Welsh makes use of the words sending and establishing Pastors and does not find fault with the Kings using the word of planting Parishes Mr. Welsh by the Kings sending doth not mean a potestative Mission he understood himself better than so He knew the King could not ordain Ministers but the Kings sending is his commanding his appointing Ministers to go and preach throughout the Kingdom but if the Council in the Acts of Indulgence had made use of the word of sending and other words in the Books of Discipline O what out-crying would some folk have made seeing they make the simple words of appointing and permitting to be no less than a potestative Mission which is a manifest abuse and perverting of Words It is well known that the Papists give Magistrates much less than they should in Church-matters yea they make them meer Executioners of Kirkmens Decrees yea some of their Writers have not been ashamed to compare Kings and Emperours to beasts in respect of their Kirkmen Let any read Prin's Preface to his Book called a Quenchcoal and he will see in that Preface which was directed to the late King Pag. 44 45 46. he will find that Becanâ—s calls the Pope a Shepherd and Kings and Emperours Dogs of this Shepherd and Gasper Sâ—iâ—â—pius calls the Bishops the men who are the Mulietiers and Ass-drivers and the Catholicks Asses and the Catholick Kings Asses with Bells and Charles the Great he says was a far greater and wiser Ass than these Kings who cast off the Popes yoak And yet though they make Kings and Emperours meer Servants to the Pope and Bishops implicitely and blindly to execute their Decrees yet they grant that the Magistrate may apply the Church-men to the use and exercise of their Office yea even the Jesuits who are most addicted to the Pope grant this as Becanus the Jesuit in his Manual of Controversies of the Time Book 5. Chap. 19. pag. 746. and withal shews that this is the common use among them hoc passim apud Catholicos in usu est From what hath been cited from the Books of Discipline we may see that the Church of Scotland did not look upon the Magistrates appointing and much less on their permitting Ministers to preach as a potestative mission or as any part of the power of the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven The Author of the History of the Indulgence mentions not that I remember what I have cited out of the first Book of Discipline he only pag. 116. objects in the 3d. objection what is cited out of the the second Book of Discipline Chap. 10. concerning Magistrates placing of Ministers when the Kirk is corrupted and all things are out of order and he answers That in such times Magistrates may do much more than at other times yet saith he I suppose none for shame can make use of such a Concession now I suspect the Author hath been gravelled and picked with this Objection and therefore he would shuffe it off with scorn and disdain but this is a piece of Art in some to seem to make nothing of these objections to which they see they can give no satisfactory answer but when any will without passion consider this passage in the second Book of Discipline they will see that the placing of Ministers implies more than permitting them or appointing them to preach for though the Magistrate appoint a Minister to preach in such a Parish if the Parish do not invite him or if the Invitation be not satisfactory to the Minister he may forbear to go to that Parish to preach but when a Minister is placed he is actually setled in a Parish and therefore the Book of Discipline allows of the Magistrates doing more than permitting and appointing Ministers to preach Again it appears from this That the Magistrates permitting or appointing Ministers to preach in a Parish is not in the Judgment of the Kirk of Scotland contrary to Presbyterian Principles for the Authors of the second Book of Discipline and the General Assembly of Scotland who examined that Book so carefully and appointed all the Ministers of the Church of Scotland to subscribe it understood what were the Principles of Presbyterian Government better than this Author did And these great Seers did see no abomination of desolation in Magistrates placing Ministers and much less did they or could they see it in their permitting them or appointing them to preach when the Church is corrupted and all things out of order but why thinks he that none can for shame make use of that Concession now He gives this Reason Seeing says he our Church was constituted and well ordered and had all her Rights and Privlledges But I wonder that he for shame could make use of this answer If he could have said Seeing our Church is constituted and well ordered and hath all her Rights it had been a pertinent answer if it had been true but when he says only our Church was constituted and well ordered and had all her Rights he grants that the Church now is not constituted nor ordered nor hath not her Rights he clearly yields the cause and acknowledges that our Church is in such a case as that is of which the second Book of Discipline speaks He might have considered that the Readers of his Book would be very sensless if they could not see a difference betwixt what once was and what now is but this was good enough to put off simple people who cannot distinguish betwixt wat is past and what is present But he adds When the Magistrates with their own hands have overturned all shall this Objection be made use of to countenance their after-practises that were indeed to teach Magistrates a way how to usurp and take to themselves all Church-power viz. let them once by Iniquity and Tyranny break the glorious Order of the Church and bring all into Confusion and then forsooth they may warrantably assume to themselves an exercise all Church-power according to their mind Ans He seems to insinuate that the second Book of Discipline yields that the Magistrate may assume all Church-power which is an insinuation very injurious to
their knowledge He hath an eye to that Scripture 1 Chron. 12.32 Among those who were ready armed to the War and came to David to Hebron to turn the Kingdom of Saul to him according to the word of the Lord Ver. 23. There are some of the Children of Issachar v. 32. And of the Children of Issachar which were men that had understanding of the Times to know what Israel ought to do the Heads of them were two hundred and all their Brethren were at their command These men of Issachar spoken of were as â—he Dutch Interpreters expound the place underâ—tanding and expert men which are able to give good Advice and Counsel at what time it were best â—o attempt any thing or desist from it whether in War or civil Affairs as Esther 1.13 or in Husbanâ—ry and Countrey Affairs Some Interpreters reâ—â—r this to the knowledge of Astronomy as Diodate â—ews but others sayes he understand and take it to be only wisdom and sagacity either natural or gotten by long experience to discern and know the very moment of Opportunities a thing very important whence ordinarily depends the good success of Affairs Others shew that these men of Issachar were men eminently skilful and endued with prudence to know what was to be done and when and gave evidence of this sagacity at this time in taking this fit opportunity in turning the Kingdom of Saul to David and they were followed by their Brethren in this matter This Knowledge of the Times was not common to all the Professors in Israel for if so this Knowledge of the Times would not have been noted by the Spirit of God as something remarkable in these men of Issachar And no doubt there were many Israelites who were taught of God and were sufficiently distinguished from those who were brutish in their knowledge who yet had not this Knowledge of the Times to know when it was time to make War and to make alterations in the State in turning the Kingdom from the house of Saul to David This Knowledge of the Times is very desirable but every thing desirable is not a duty Moses wishes that all the Lords People were Prophets but it is not the duty of every one of the Lords People to be a Prophet and to Prophesie Again there are several things which we are oblidged to have and to do which yet are not the Cognizance or the Badges and Marks whereby they who are taught of God are distinguished from them who are brutish in their Knowledge as for example an eminent measure of Knowledge of Prudence of Love of Assurance these indeed are excellent Ornaments but they are not Badges and Marks common to all those who are taught of God and distinguishing them from those who are brutish in their Knowledg for there are many honest Professors who are taught of God who have not attained to these eminent degrees of Knowledge Prudence Love and Assurance Again it 's the duty of all Professors to obey the Law of God perfectly otherways their defects in obedience would not be sins But that perfection is not the Badg or Cognizance to distinguish those who are taught of God from those who are brutish in their Knowledge So that though that knowledge of the times were a thing which all Israelites should be adorned with yet it would not be right to make it their Cognizance or a distinguishing Mark to difference them from those who are brutish in their Knowledge But for any thing that appears from the Text or the Interpreters which I have consulted this Knowledge of the Times was a natural or political sagacity attained by long experience by which these men of Issachar knew what was the fit seasons of making War and alterations in matters of State which concerned all Israel Now for this sort of Knowledge of times I suppose the Author of the Epistle will not say that it is the duty of every Professor in the Church of Scotland to have this politick sagacity to discern the Seasons of making War and making alterations in State matters and much less is this politick sagacity and prudence which is not ordinarily acquired even by men imployed in State-Affairs but by much exercise and long experience to be made a Cognizance distinguishing those who are taught of God from those who have not saving knowledge for this knowledge of the Times is as Interpreters think a natural or politick knowledge and so no evidence or mark of a Spiritual and supernatural estate This is certain from the Scripture that this Knowledge of the Times was a Knowledge which distinguished some of the Tribe of Issachar from the Generality of the people of Israel and therefore this Scripture is misapplyed when this Knowledge of the Times is alledged to be the Mark and Cognizance of all who are taught of God distinguishing them from those who have no true Wisdom but are brutish in their Knowledge and so like the beasts that perish This is an ill token that the Author of this Epistle hath stumbled in the threshold and in the very Entry of his Address and his stumbling is the more dangerous because it may be a stumbling-block to private Professors by putting this conceit in their heads that they must either have the knowledge of the Times that the men of Issachar had concerning the fit seasons of making War and peace and of making State-alterations or else they are brutish in their Knowledge and are not taught of God This were the way to put all Professors Male and Female Lad and Lasse to become Politicians and to take on them to know and determine what Israel should do to determine what the State and Church should do And thus they are diverted from studying to know what they ought to do themselves and how they ought to rule their own Families and set a work to dive into the intrigues of State-policy and to plot alterations of States and conclude when to make Wars and to alledge that all who are taught of God have that Knowledge of the Times which the men of Issachar had is to deceive them and make them imagine that they have that Knowledge which they have not and to tempt them to meddle with things that are too high for them and to crack their brains by racking them to reach those things which are beyond their Capacity and to stretch themselves beyond their line and pass the bounds of their Station and Vocation Such flattering insinuations which either puff up people with a conceit of their Wisdom to manage the greatest and most important Affairs of Kirk and State and that they are fit to guide their Guides and break the Ice to them as the Historian says in his 28 Questions and Vindication hath done much harm to several well-meaning people and put them from minding the duties of their particular Callings and the Duties of their Christian Vocation in the exercise of Faith and Repentance and in giving diligence in the exercise of
by the Holy Ghost 4. They engage in the 2d Art That they shall to the utmost of their Power c. and so have altered a very necessary clause in the League and Covenant viz. We shall endeavour in our several Places and Callings Art 1. And in our several Vocations Art 3. They saw that if they had kept within the bounds of their Callings they could never have had access to make that terrible Confusion in Kirk and Kingdom which they designed Their Places and Vocations did not allow or warrant them to overturn King and Kingdom and bring all Ministers that were not of their way to stand at their Bar. And therefore being resolved to pass the bounds of their Vocation they left out these words of the Covenant which manifestly crossed their Designs 4. They say in that 2d Art We shall to our Power relieve the Church and Subjects of this Kingdom we being called thereto by his giving of us Power Power being Gods call to do good of that oppression c. 1. This is I suppose a new Principle in Christendom that Power or Strength is Gods call The Turk thinks he hath a Call and Right to take all that he hath might to Conquer but this is a part of Turcism which Christians detest It 's good that Malefactors who deserve Death be Executed but every man who hath strength or pith to kill them is not called of God to put them to death It 's good that there be Magistrates to govern a City it 's good that the Gospel be Preached but every man who hath ability to Govern a City or to Preach is not called of God to Govern or to Preach If this Principle were reduced to practice it would turn the World up-side down It 's good that a Master who hath injured his Servant should be punished May therefore a Servant if he be stronger than his Master punish him Is he called of God to do it If ability to do good were Gods call the man who desired Christ to speak to his Brother to divide the Inheritance with him might have answered to our Saviours Question Man who made me a Judge or a Divider over you That seeing Christ had ability to judge and divide that therefore he was called of God to judge and divide 2. Seeing they had not power or strength to effectuate these great things which they undertake in this and the following Articles and seeing there was no probability that a few private Persons could ever be in a capacity to do these things And so seeing according to their own description of Gods câ—ll they neither had nor ever were like to have Gods call to do these great things how could they swear to do these things which they were not yet called to do nor were ever like to be called to do them To swear to do what we are not called to do and which is not in our power and is neveâ— like to be in our power is a rash taking of the Name of God in vain it 's not a swearing in Judgment 5. The Method they take to overturn Pâ—â—â—â—â— and Erâ—stianism by overturning and ruining â—he Civil Government and Governours is meer â—onfusion and tends to havock and desolation Pâ—â—â—byterians think themselves bound in their placâ— and stations to seek the removal of Prelacy anâ— Erastianism but they do not think it their Dâ— overturn Civil Government to erect Presbytâ—â—â— Governmenâ— to destroy Civil Order in the Kingdom to erect Ecclesiastical Order in the Kirk 〈◊〉 do not think it their Duty to break the third Aâ—â—â—cle of the Covenant to keep the preceding â—â—â—â—cles As God hath appointed Order in the Church so he hath appointed Order in the State and the one of these should not be overturned to establish the other It 's the earnest desire of Presbyterians that the removal of all disorders in the Church and the reparation of the Ruines of the Church may be by the hand of their rightful Rulers 6. What confidence can the Subjects have that they who have so easily shaken themselves loose of subjection to Lawful Rulers to whom God hath commanded them to be subject for Conscience-sake will be very tender of the Consciences of others and will not exercise oppression upon the Consciences of these who would be under them No great tenderness can rationally be expected from these who have so lightly loosed themselves from the Obligation of the 3d. Article of the Covenant Or what confidence can they have that their Banders will not dispossess them of their Civil Rights if they find any fault in them seeing they engage themselves to dispossess the King and Subordinate Magistrates of their places to which they have undoubted right Or that they who make not Conscience to attempt the greatest desturbance that can be imagined in the whole Kingdom will regard the quiet or disturbance of private Persons Again the Subjects do not desire to be relieved in the way laid down in this Bond which is indeed the way of Disorder Confusion and Desolation they think the Remedy would prove worse than the Disease And what Right can be expected from these who makes Power and might to be a Call and Warrant for their Actings 7. It may seem strange that they could in the 3d. Article mention the National Covenant and Solemn League and Covenant without terrour and shame Seeing they have so manifestly in many things departed from these Covenants and gone cross to them in this very Bond for although in words they engage to extirpate Popery in all the Articles of it yet they really and effectually plant and establish several Popish Articles It 's a Popish Article that the Ministers of the Reformed Churches should not be owned as Ministers that Communion should not be kept with them nor with these who joyn with them in the publick Worship of God The Authors of this Bond say the same of all the Ministers of the Church of Scotland who are not of their own Opinion and way and for any thing known when this Bond came forth these whom they own for Ministers were but two or three at most and they renounce Communion in the Worship of God with all who joyn not with them in their wild and furious conceits And thus they yield this to Papists that there are no Ministers nor Churches in Scotland with which Christians should joyn in Christian or Church-fellowship It 's a Popish Article that the Pope may depose Kings and Magistrates and free Subjects of their Allegiance to Kings and Rulers and that any private Person may kill these Rulers whom the Pope hath Excommunicated and Deposed The Authors of this Bond in their Deposing the King and Subordinate Rulers and in declaring them no Rulers and in engaging to execute Judgment upon them I shall forbear to speak of their late Excommunication of them because I have not seen it they have confirmed the Papists in these Errors for they will think that the Pope may
wronged Min. If you doubt of the truth of what I have said I desire you may read the History of the Indulgence and you shall find these things which I have said here recorded there Pr. That cannot be denied but that Historian says that upon the matter the Indulged Ministers renounced c. Min. That addition of the words upon the matter is but a meer blind it may beguile simple people but no judicious person will be deceived by it seeing there is nothing either in the matter or form of what these Ministers said or did which doth import any such thing as that Historian alledges and although these Ministers had said nothing of their receiving their Ministry from Christ c. before the Council it had been a very uncharitable construction to have construed their silence to be a renunciation of their dependance on Christ c. but it 's a horrid injury to charge them with the renunciation of that which they expresly own before the Magistrate Pr. But Sir have not they their Ministry and the exercise of their Ministry in these Parishes from the Magistrate Min. They have their Ministerial calling or which is all one Authority to exercise the acts of their Ministerial Office from Jesus Christ as the fountain of their spiritual power and this Ministerial Authority flowing from God was conveyed to them by the Presbyteries by which they were ordained Ministers according to Christ institution But they have the peaceable publick exercise of their Ministry in these places by the Magistrate under God It 's the Magistrates civil Authority by which the penal Statutes which rendered their Preaching hazardous are removed or relaxed by the protection of Civil Authority they have the peaceable exercise of their Ministry or they have freedom from molestation or disturbance while they are exercising their Ministry in these places Before the Act of Indulgence they had their Ministerial Authority and did Preach upon hazard before they were Indulged but by the Indulgence they had this benefit that whereas before it they were exposed to hazard wherever they Preached whether in private or publick after it they might Preach publickly and exercise the other parts of the Ministerial Office in some places without molestation Pr. Their accepting of the Indulgence and the peoples hearing of them who have accepted the Indulgence is an Homologation of the Supremacy Farm Sir I beseech you make use of some other word than that long word with the four O's in it for though I have often heard it I ingeniously profess I do not understand it I always thought that many of our Country people rendered themselves ridiculous by learning to speak words like Parrots which they did not understand Min. That 's not the worst of it for when poor people are once brought to speak confidently they wot not what they may be brought next to do they know not what and to stumble they know not at what As it was indiscreetly done to bring in this long Greek word among unlearned people so this word is miserably misapplyed in the business of the Indulgence for to homologate is to say what was before said in the same or like words as when in a Court one declares his mind in some matter and another rises up after him and says the same which he said in the same or like words this last speaker is said to homologate what the other said before him Now the Indulged Ministers when they accepted the Indulgence were far from saying that the Magistrate had a Spiritual Supremacy or an absolute Supremacy they never said it they never thought it they declare that the Magistrate hath not the power of the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven at all and much less a Supremacy of Spiritual power and they declare that the Magistrate may not do what he pleases in Ecclesiastical matters for all things in the Church of God must be done according to the will of the God of Heaven and not according to the will of man they were so far from saying any thing for the Magistrates Spiritual or absolute Supremacy or any thing that sounded that way that they said much to the contrary as appears in their speeches before the Council and as they said nothing sounding this way so they did nothing in accepting the peaceable exercise of their Ministry which did any way import any approbation of any unlawful Supremacy they grant that the King is Supreme Civil Governour of his Kingdoms and that it belongs to the Magistrate as Magistrate to take off civil restraints which hinder Ministers from the peaceable exercise of their Ministry and that the Magistrate should permit and allow Ministers to exercise their Ministerial Office in his Dominions and when the Magistrate did this in the Indulgence he did not exercise any unlawful Supremacy but did exercise that lawful Authority which he hath from God for good and when they made use of the liberty granted by the exercise of lawful Authority they did not approve of any sinful Supremacy but did approve and make use of that lawful power which the Magistrate hath from God All Orthodox Divines grant that the Magistrate not only may but should permit allow countenance and protect the exercise of the Ministry of the Gospel in his Dominions and when there is need the Magistrate may command and compel Ministers to do the work of their Office as appears from the Books of Discipline of the Church of Scotland Farm Sir I am feared to sin and we are told that there is sin wrapt up in hearing Indulged Ministers Min. We should be feared for sin and for that sin among the rest of adding to the word of God they who make these actions which are not transgressions of the Law to be sins do highly provoke God but they who make these actions which God not only permits but also commands and commends to be sins they set themselves in the Throne of God and annul his Law and countermand the commands of the most high God Sin ye know is the transgression of the Law of God before ye believe that the hearing Ministers of the Gospel Preach the Gospel is sin ye should require that they who say so much shew you what command of God is transgressed by your hearing Indulged Ministers for if ye be so easily driven from the worship of God by strong alledgments the Devil can alledg as strongly and suggest it importunately that it is a sin to pray in your Family in which it may be there are some profane persons and if ye be driven from Family-worship by such alledgances he will alledg that it is a sin for you to believe on the Name of the Lord Jesus and thus drill you from all exercises of Religion publick private and secret Farm But Sir seeing I doubt if it be lawful to hear I would be damned if I did hear for ye know the Apostole says he that doubteth is damned if he eat Min. But if
faithful skilful Physician to exercise his Office the Magistrates ill design would not alter the nature or hinder the Operation of the Physick given by that Physician who did not approve of that ill design but honestly designed the health of his Patients and used the proper means for prescribing or recovering their health And it 's another reasonless conceit to imagine that when a Magistrate assumes to himself some false Title or unlawful power that in that case no use may be made of that lawful Authority which he hath as Magistrate Though Cyrus prefixed a great lie to his Proclamation which granted the Jews liberty to return and build the Temple of the Lord yet the Jews were not such fools as not to make use of the good Decree because the King said that God had given him all the Kingdoms of the earth and so arrogated to himself more power than God had given him But I might have eased my self of all this trouble by referring them to the many solid Vindications of the acceptance of the Indulgence which are in several peoples hands but that is your fault that ye seek only for those Papers which are against the Indulgence Farm I would be content to read those Papers if I had them Minist You might get them if you would seek them I have heard of some short Papers of that nature but I suppose the History of the Indulgence will never be answered Minist These short Papers answered all that is to the purpose in the History of the Indulgence Pr. That 's a pretty device to decline the answering of that unanswerable Book Minist Softly Sir that Book is fully answered I have seen two full Answers of it and there may be more that I have not seen and if you be here on Monday next a sight of one of these Answers will clear you that that book is not unanswerable Pr. I would be glad to see it Farm Sir you have much obliged me by staying with me this night and it will be a double obligation if you come again to my house upon Monday and bring that Answer with you But it is now time to go to the Family-exercise I shall desire of you both that ye would be pleased to forbear to fall upon this question about the Indulgence before my Family Let the subject of your discourse at Table and after Supper be of purposes which may be fitter to prepare us for sanctifying the Lords day than this doubtful disputation I hear also from some of my Neighbours that since their servants did withdraw from hearing Indulged Ministers and from the duty of Catechising they are become more ignorant and careless of learning the grounds of Religion and are taken up with the jangling about the Indulgence as if that were the one thing needful not to go to the Kirk but to the fields to hear Preaching And I hear thâ—ir Masters complaining that they are become more unruly and make less conscience of doing their work which makes me apprehensive that all is not right in this new way they have taken and to be ingenuous with you I find that my own withdrawing hath not been to my advantage and this prejudice against the Indulged Ministers who Preach edifying Doctrine seems not to be to edification I sometimes hear no Preaching upon the Sabbath when there is no Preaching in the Fields in the bounds and I sometimes upon false Advertisements wander seeking Preaching in the Field and find it not and sometimes there comes Preachers along whose doctrine is little to Edification which makes me often think that those of my Family who go to the Kirk and brings away edifying Notes of the Sermon spend the Sabbath much better than I do and when I compare their Notes with the Notes of some others who go to the Field who either bring away nothing except it be a fair general that the Preacher had brave work and it was a wonderful Sermon or some reflection upon the indulged Ministers or some bitter invective against the Magistrate I cannot but think that they who go to the Church have the advantage of these who go to the Fields And therefore I do not desire that these of my Family who go to the Church may be hindred from going for I am edified by the Notes which they bring from the Church Minist There are none of my acquaintance for any thing I can perceive bettered by their deserting of the indulged Ministers and this doctrine that the indulged Ministers should not be heard is a Doctrin from which for any thing I can see no edifying use can be drawn The Lord incline our hearts to follow after the things which make for peace and the things wherewith one may edifie another Farm Sir you are as good as your word in returning Have you brought the answer of the History of the Indulgence with you Minist Here it is There are so many Papers already extant and never yet answered which from the Holy Scripture and from the Writings of Orthodox Divines do clearly demonstrate the lawfulness of the acceptance of the peaceable Exercise of the Ministry granted in the Magistrates Acts of Indulgence that it may seem a needless work to write any more upon that Subject And if the sad Consequences which have followed upon this Question did not render it serious it were almost ridiculous to move the Question whether these of the outed Ministers of the Church of Scotland who after the Magigrates Act of Indulgence did either resume to their own Congregations or not having access to return to their own Congregations did upon the Invitation of vacant Congregations and the Consent of the Ministers concerned come to help these desolate Congregations till they might have access to these Congregations where they were formerly setled Whether these Ministers did right or not and whether these Congregations did right in receiving and countenancing their own Ministers or in inviting and countenancing those Ministers who had no access to their own Congregations but had access to the peaceable Exercise of their Ministry among them They who will make a question if it be lawful for Ministers of the Gospel to preach the Gospel to their own Congregations or when they have not access to their own Congregations if it be lawful to preach to desolate Congregations which earnestly desire them to come and help them they may make a question of any thing And yet some have not only started this question but resolved it in the Negative and not only so but they have raised a horrible Hue-and-Cry after these honest Ministers for going to preach the Gospel in these Congregations as if they had been Thieves or Robbers and have charged them as Traitors Betrayers of the cause and what not and have not only stirred up the People to disown and desert them but have commended their deserting of them as a necessary testimony forsooth against Erastianism and thus one of the vilest and most groundless Schisms that
prescriptions and that they could receive no other prescriptions besides Christs prescriptions to regulate them in the exercise of their Ministry 4. They declare how desirable and refreshing the exercise of this their Ministry was to them 5. They declare what power they acknowledged in the Magistrate it 's not a lawless but lawfuâ— Authority which they acknowledge they acknowledge no other power in the Magistrate but what is the Ordinance of God for so they describe lawful Authority the excellent Ordinance of God They declare it 's the work of Magistrates to protect the Ministers of Christ in the exercise of their Ministry 6. That they purposed and resolved to behave themselves in the discharge of their Ministry with that wisdom and prudence which became faithful Ministers of Jesus Christ 7. They declare that they continued in their known judgment in Church-affairs they did let the Magistrates know that they had not altered their Judgement in Church-affairs that they were still Presbyterians Their judgment is known from the Confession of faith chap. 23. Art 3. ch 25. Art 6. ch 30. Art 1. ch 31. Art 3. and all who have any knowledge of the Judgment of Presbyterians know that they own Christ for the alone head of the Church and fountain of Church-authority and that they are as opposite to Erastianism as they are to Prelacy That they are so far from ascribing a Supremacy of spiritual power to the Magistrate that they profess that the Magistrate hath not any power of the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven committed to him and that it doth not belong to the Magistrate to ordain or depose suspend excommunicate or to exercise any Church-censures and that it doth not belong to him to form Church-Canons or to prescribe Instructions for regulating Ministers in the exercise of their Ministry and that they are of that Judgment that no Magistrate nay nor all the powers on earth though they were united can dispose of Ecclesiastical matters according to their Wisdom or pleasure seeing the things of the house of the God of Heaven must be done according to the wisdom and pleasure of the Lord and not according to the wisdom and pleasure of Creatures These and many other Tenets are known by all who know what Presbyterians are to be their known and professed Judgement Now seeing they declared their continuance in their known Judgement and adherence to their former principles and that to the Magistrate and had declared before their resolutions to behave as faithful Ministers of Christ and that they believed the account they were to give of their Ministry to Jesus Christ They did shew to the Magistrate that they did not nor could not approve of power or acts of the Magistrate which were contrary to their Judgements for that had been so far from becoming the faithfulness of the Ministers of Jesus Christ that it could not consist with common Ingenuity 8. And they clearly enough insinuate that there was an opposition betwixt their known Judgements and the actings of the Magistrate in subverting Presbyterial Government and setting up of Prelacy and other actings contrary to Presbyterial Principles some whereof I mentioned before This opposition is clearly insinuated and imported while they say And to demain our selves towards lawful Authority notwithstanding of our known Judgment in Church-affairs as well becometh Loyal Subjects for if the Affairs of the Church had been then according to their known Judgment that notwithstanding had been impertinent and could have had no sufferable sence But Church-affairs being setled by the Magistrate contrary to the known Judgment of Presbyterians some might have alledged that Presbyterian Ministers would not be Loyal towards lawful Authority to obviate this they say That notwithstanding their known Judgements they would behave as Loyal Subjects 9. And hence they declare to the Magistrate that there was no disloyalty in their Principles or practice of their Principles that their known judgement in Church-affairs and the faithful discharge of their Ministry according to their known Judgement did well consist with loyalty and with that respect which from a principle of Conscience they did owe to lawful Authority though it did not consist with some of the actings of those who were in Authority 10. They modestly declare the low esteem they they had of themselves in saying they were the unworthiest of many of their Brethren and they so far from selfishness in desiring to partake of this liberty alone that they express their desire that others of their Brethren may be sharers of the liberty which they enjoyed It appears from what is said that these Brethren witnessed a good Confession before the Council and the Author of the History of the-Indulgence hath in this respect done right to these Brethren and good service to the Church in Printing the Speech which Mr. Hutcheson spoke in their name before the Council If any object that their Testimony is not good because they do not expresly and in terminis testifie against the Invasions made upon the Church I would desire these to consider that in saying so they condemn the Testimonies of many Martyrs who in their Confessions only expressed the truths which they did believe and some of them only in the general asserted that they were Christians They condemn also our Confession of Faith which doth not so expresly and in so many words refute and reject many dangerous and damnable errors but doth only assert the truths opposite to these errors yea they condemn the Testimony of the Holy Ghost in the Scriptures which is good and perfect and yet doth not in terminis and expresly mention every error which is contrary to the truth but leaves the refutation of many of these errors to be gathered by good consequence from what is said in the Holy Scriptures and they condemn also that good Confession which Christ witnessed before Pontius Pilate in asserting himself to be a King for he doth not expresly mention and reject all the errors which are contrary to his Spiritual Kingdom And seeing I am speaking of Testimonies I shall mention what the Indulged Ministers who were called before the Council for not keeping the 29. of May declared in the face of the Council As they had agreed that Mr. Hutcheson should declare that the Magistrate had not a power formally Ecclesiastical and that they could not receive Rules intrinsecally Ecclesiastical from the Magistrate So Mr. Hutcheson to prevent the Councils giving them any such instructions desired that their Lordships would be pleased not to burden them with impositions in the matter of their Ministry wherein they were the Servants of Christ And after Mr. Alexander Blare who was called before Mr. Hutcheson had shewed that he could not receive such instructions to regulate him in his Ministry Mr. Hutcheson before he was called spoke against their L. L. imposing Rules intrinsecally Ecclesiastical for regulating Ministers in the exercise of their Ministry who were the Servants of Christ in these matters
And after when he was called he shewed that a formal Ecclesiastick power could not be allowed to the Magistrate and several others of them spoke to the same purpose As these Ministers have not received these Instructions so they have declared to the Council that they could not receive them beside what we observed from M. Hutchesons Speech at the first Indulgence there are here other things observable 1. That he designs them Impositions and so he shews that they looked upon them as incroaching and intrenching upon their Ministerial calling 2. In asserting that the Magistrate had not a power formally Ecclesiastical he testified against Erastianism and did further shew That the Magistrates work is not to form Rules or Instructions which are formally Ecclesiastical for all Acts which are intrinsecally and formally Ecclesiastical must be elicite by a power which is formally Ecclesiastical the giving instructions formally Ecclesiastical is the formal effect of an Ecclesiastical Instructor as it is not proper for the Magistrate but for Physitians to give medicinal Receits which must be drawn from the art or faculty of Medicine Nor is it proper for the Magistrate to make a Physical Directory to regulate Physitians in their giving of Physical Receits for this were an intrenching and breaking in upon the Physitians Calling So it is not proper for the Magistrate to make Rules intrinsecally Ecclesiastical for these must be drawn from the Word of God seeing they are for the ordering of the Matters of God and when there is need of forming any such Rules or Instructions it 's the proper Work of those to whom the publick Explication and Application of the Word of God belongs The forming of such Canons hath in all Ages been the work of Ecclesiastical Synods who had not the power of the Sword and consequently the forming of such Rules is not an Act of the power of the Sword 3. In asserting That in their Ministry and these matters which were the exercise of it they were the Servants of Christ they did shew that they could not admit of any Impositions which would prejudice their Masters service and that in these matters they were not at their own disposal and must not act ex proprio arbitrio nor pro hominum imperio but ex Christi obsequio that is That they were neither to be ruled by their own will nor the will of men but by the will of Christ in these Matters They did put in the words formally and intrinsecally Ecclesiastical because the Magistrate may make civil laws about Church-matters as is acknowledged in the second Book of Discipline Chap. 10. where it is said That he may make Civil Laws and Constitutions agreeable to Gods word for the advancement of the Kirk and policy thereof though he may not make Canons intrinsecally Ecclesiastical These were good Confessions made before the Magistrate by the Indulged Ministers and the fullest I know hath been made by any before the Magistrate Although persons while they are under perjudices against these Ministers make nothing of any thing these say or do yet when these humours and perjudices are removed and the carriage of these Ministers is impartially considered ingenuous and unbyassed persons will not only clear them of the unjust aspersions cast upon them but commend them and wonder that that they have been so unjustly abused and that they have so long born so many injuries with so great patience The attempts of the Author of the History of the Indulgence to make nothing of these Testimonies as they discover the strength of humour and prejudice so the vanity of his attemps will appear when we come to examine them I come to the second Question in the Epistle to the Reader Secondly saith he let me ask Are they so very clear and confident in the case that they cannot only in dealing with men hold up their face and affirm without hink or hesitation that this is their rejoycing even the Testimony of their Conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God they have had their Conversation before all men and more abundantly towards these backsliding Rulers before whom they appeared now declared enemies to the work of God and Invaders of his Throne and Prerogative But are they also content to be carried before the Tribunal of Christ with this acceptance from those which have exauctorate their Lord and Master in their hand and to have the quality of their love to the coming of his Kingdom and their Loyalty unto Christ Jesus now opposed and put from the exercise of his Royal Government by the party indulging in this very Indulgence tried by such a test It were fit sure to think on this and lay it to heart for each Receiver may lay his account with it that soon or syne he shall be put to it Ans Before I come to answer this Question I cannot but advertise him that in saying without any limitation or restriction that not only the Magistrate hath exauctorate Christ but also that Christ is put from the exercise of his Royal Government he hath laid a stumbling-block before weak and ignorant people which may occasion them to imagine that Christ is quite vanquished and denied of all Authority and put from all exercise of his Kingly Office There are such loose Rhetorications in the Cup of cold Water which may occasion simple people to think that Christ is quite dispossest of his Crown and Throne If any will read the Answer to that Question in the larger Catechism How doth Christ execute the Office of a King they will see that he exercises his Kingly Office not only by Governing his Church visibly in calling it out of the World in giving Officers Laws and Censures but also in bestowing saving Grace upon the Elect rewarding them for their obedience correcting them for their sins preserving and supporting them under all their temptations and sufferings restraining and overcoming all their enemies and powerfully ordering all things for his own Glory and their own good and also in taking vengeance on the rest who know not God and obey not the Gospel Now I suppose the Author of the Letter will not imagine that the Magistrate intended to put Christ from the exercise of his Royal Government as to many of these Acts of his Kingly Office It 's a sad truth that the Magistrate hath subverted Presbyterial Government which is a part of the visible Kingdom of Christ but it is not the all of Christs Kingdom wherever there is a visible Church called out of the World where the Word of God is preached where the truth is born witness to and the Sacraments Administred there Christ executeth his Kingly Office and there is something of his visible Kingdom I do not think that the Author of the Epistle will say that the Magistrate intended that there should be no Church nor any Preaching of the Word of God in Scotland 2. What ever may be said
that right whom he had wronged before and besides is obliged to make reparation for the wrong done but much less could he be obliged by his silence or could his silence be interpreted to be a consent to it But the Indulged Ministers need not this Answer for they witnessed a good Confession before the Rulers If he had formed his similitude thus A Father restrains his Son from some external duty in Religion which the Son is called to of God and when he takes off the restraint takes upon him to give Rules of worshipping God to his Son which the Lord hath not given the similitude would have been more to the purpose And if the Son had accepted of the freedom from the former restraint and withal had told his Father he had full Prescriptions from God how to worship and that the matters of Divine worship are not to be ordered by the will and pleasure of Parents but by the Will of God none would imagine that the Son had accepted of these Instructions Pag. 90. He undertakes to shew how contrary the acceptance of the Indulgence is to Presbyterian Principles If he would have disputed against what the Indulged Ministers did he should have disputed against their use-making of the relaxation of the civil restraint as was said before But he still mistakes the question and plays in the general confused words of accepting of the Indulgence Veterator ludit in generalibus He hath wasted much time and Paper in vain in fighting against an imaginary accepting of the Indulgence which is a man of straw of his own making and he may use it as he pleaseth We have already spoken of the qualifications which he speaks of in his first Section and are not to weary our selves or the Reader with needless Repetitions In that same pag. Sect. 2. He alledgeth That the Magistrate did all which belongs to Church Judicatories in conveying Ministerially the Office and Power to persons qualified and in granting a potestative mission in sending the Indulged to such and such places and that the Council only clothed them with Authority for that effect An. 1. These are still his own fancies and dictates for he cannot prove from the words that the Council used that they did assume any such thing as a Power of potestative mission In the first Indulgence they appoint Ministers to preach and exercise the other Functions of the Ministry at such and such Kirks as he relates pag. 19. In the second Indulgence they appoint the Ministers to repair to such and such Parishes and to remain therein confined permitting and allowing them to preach and exercise the other parts of their Ministerial Function in the Parishes to which they are confined Now the words of appointing allowing permitting to preach import no potestative mission The Magistrate may in some cases not only permit allow appoint but compel Ministers to preach yea they may place them which is much more than appointing them to preach If any please to read the Book of the Discipline of the Church of Scotland they will find in the first Book of Discipline in the 4th head of that Book concerning Ministers and their lawful Election and under the title of Admission and toward the end of that title these words That their Honours they mean the great Council of Scotland to whom the Book was directed were bound by their Authority to compel such men as had gifts and graces able to edifie the Church of God to bestow them where there was greatest necessity And after we cannot prescribe unto your Honours how that ye shall distribute the Ministers and learned men which God hath already sent unto you And after they say and therefore of your Honours we require in Gods Name that by your Authority ye compel all men to whom God hath given any Talent to perswade by wholesome Doctrine to bestow the same if they be called by the Church to the advancement of Christs Glory And afterward they desire them to assign unto their chief workmen nâ—â— only Towns but Provinces And in the head of Superintendents they think it expedient in that necessity that their Honours by themselves nominate so many as may serve the forewritten Provinces and that the same Ministers being called in your presence shall be by you and such as your Honours pleases to call unto you for consultation in that case appointed to their Provinces And in the last Title of that Section they say Of one thing we must admonish your Lordships that in the appointing of the Superintendents for this present ye disappoint not your chief Towns and where Learning is exercised This first Book of Discipline was approven by the Assembly met at Edenburgh July 30. An. 1562. And in the second Book of Discipline which was often examined in several Assemblies and appointed by the Assembly at Glasgow April 24. 1581. to be registred among the Acts of the Assembly and to remain there ad perpetuam rei memoriam and the Copies thereof taken out by every Presbytery and every Minister was by the Assembly August 4th 1590. appointed to subscribe the said Book of Discipline in the first Chapter of that Book it 's said The Civil Power should command the Spiritual to exercise And Chap. 10. which is the Office of the Christian Magistrate it 's said That it pertains to the Office of the Christian Magistrate to see that the Kirk be not invaded nor hurt by false Teachers nor the rooms thereof occupied by dumb Dogs or idle Bellies and to make Laws and Constitutions agreeable to Gods Word for the Advancement of the Kirk and Polity thereof without usurping any thing that pertains not to the Civil Sword but belongs to the Offices that are meerly Ecclesiastical as is the Ministry of the Word and Sacraments using Ecclesiastick Discipline and the Spiritual Execution thereof or any part of the Power of the Spiritual Keys which our Master gave to the Apostles and their true Successors And although Kings and Princes that be godly sometimes by their own Authority when the Kâ—râ— is corrupted and all things out of order place Mâ—nisters and restore the true Service of the Lord after the example of some godly Kings of Judah and divers godly Kings and Emperours also in the light of the New Testament yet where the Ministry of the Kirk is once lawfully instituted and they that are placed do their Office faithfully all godly Princes and Magistrates ought to hear and obey their voice and reverence the Majesty of the Son of God speaking in them I shall but subjoyn one other Testimony which may be instead of many and that is the Testimony of that man of God Mr. Welsh who was very tender of Church-priviledges in his Epistle Dedicatory to King James prefixed to his Book against Mr. Gilbert Brown Priest he says to the King Follow these examples Sir send Pastors throughout all the Borders of your Kingdom to teach your Subjects the Law of the Lord and the
the Church of Scotland In that same page cited from Chap. 10. of the second Book of Discipline they shew that the Magistrate may not usurp the power of the spiritual Keys 2. He might have learned from Mr. Rutherford that the Magistratical power which capacitates the Magistrate to do good to the Church is the same in ill Magistrates even in a Nero that it is in good Magistrates 3. The more ill the Magistrate hath done to the Church he is more bound to repair the wrong he hath done 4. According to this way of Reasoning if the Magistrate overturn the Church he can do no more good to the Church if the placing of Ministers in the corrupted state of the Church be commendable in godly Magistrates why would he hinder Magistrates which have overrurned all to restore all or a part to do something that is good or why should that be counted Usurpation in them which is commended as good service done to the Church when it is done by godly Emperours and Kings Is not that the duty of these who have overturned the Order of the Church to build what they have destroyed and when they do any thing that way it should not be despised but made use of as far as can be done with a good Conscience But the Indulged Ministers need not anxiously enquire as to the defence of their Practice what Power the Magistrate hath or may have in some cases to command Ministers to exercise their Ministry in such or such particular Parishes for that which they accepted and made use of was the relaxation from the Civil restraint and they were called by these Parishes to preach and do their parts of the Ministry there What he saith pag 91. Sect. 3. concerning planting and transplanting and placing Ministers in particular charges is obviated already If he would have disputed fairly he should have kept the terms of the Councils Acts of appointing allowing permitting Ministers to preach in such and such places and not have thrust in his own words of potestative mission planting and transplanting We heard before what words are used in the first Book of Discipline as nominating compelling appointing assigning And in the second Book of Discipline placing Ministers and Mr. Welsh doth not find fault with King James's using the word of planting every Parish within his Kingdom but as was said the Indulged Ministers needs not have recourse to these defences Any who considers that Presbyterial Government was overturned before these Acts of Indulgence and Prelacy setled by Law may think strange that he blames the Council for not consulting Kirk-judicatories There were no Presbyterial Church-judicatories to consult and the Prelates did not like the Indulgence and the consulting them in the matter would have readily scared Presbyterians from making any use of the Indulgence He saith in that same Section That it was the Councils deed alone which did constitute all the Indulged Ministers in such and such places and so made up that relation Now this is false and a begging of the question for they who returned to their own Congregations had a standing relation to these Congregations and they who had not access to their own did not till they had Invitation from the Parishes to which they went and the consent of Presbyterian Ministers concerned conceive themselves obliged to exercise their Ministry among them far less did they think that the Councils deed did constitute them Ministers of these Congregations and make up that relation for if they had thought so they would have thought themselves obliged to have gone to these Congregations upon the Councils deed Concerning the oversight that they have of these Congregations we spoke before and must not continually weary the Reader with Repetitions He frequently carps at their getting the stipend I know not whom he would have to get these stipends seeing he is against the Indulged Ministers getting of them as for the Councils design of fixing them in other charges than their own the Indulged Ministers are not Masters of the designs of any persons but their own but the design of these Ministers was to return to their own Congregations assoon as they had peaceable access Nor could the Indulged Ministers hinder the Council to have regard to the consent of the Patrons but they had no regard to it He refers us to his second remark on the Kings Letter I find no new thing in it he taxes the Indulged Ministers silence and alledges that by their silence they interpretatively assented to the usurpation but they were not silent as we heard before But I would enquire as to the point now in hand to wit the Council appointing Ministers to preach in such and such places What he would have had these Ministers to say Would he have had these who were appointed to return to those Parishes where they were ordained Ministers to have told the Council they would not go to these Parishes because they had appointed them to go Or would he have had these who were appointed to go to other Parishes than their own to have refused absolutely to go because they appointed them to go They did not promise them to go to preach in those Parishes but it had been rashness and unreasonable rashness to have absolutely refused to go and to go upon that account and therefore as they acknowledged not any relation betwixt them and these Parishes upon the Councils Act and did not oblige themselves before the Council to go to these Parishes so they did not go until they were invited by these Congregations To have absolutely refused to preach in these Congregations before they had heard what was the resolution of these Congregations who were concerned as well as they in that matter had been a preposterous haste and they could not have given any rational account to the Council of such a refusal or protestation for if the Council had inquired Why will ye not go to preach there if they had answered according to this Authors mind they behoved to have said Because your L. L. appoints me to go there and preach and I can preach no where where ye command me to preach for I must preach contrary to your command for so he states the matter pag. 129. had not this been humour and no reason if the Magistrate had been disposed to make themselves sport they might have said Then we discharge you to preach in that Congregation which we appointed you to preach in before and we appoint you to preach any where else if the Minister concerned would have been ruled by this Authors reason or humour rather he would have answered Then I will preach in that Congregation where ye first appointed me to preach in and no other place this had been very ridiculous The Magistrate needs not keep soldiers under pay to hinder any of this humour from preaching in any place for they need do no more but appoint them to preach in any place and they may be sure they
Authority That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all Godliness and Honesty Which shews that the Assembly of Divines at Westminster did not think that the Kingdom of Christ is to be set up by ruining earthly Kings and Kingdoms and that they take not the right way to advance Christs Kingdom who reject the Magistrates countenance and maintenance of the Church Or who by despising and provoking Magistrates to wrath tempts them to discountenance the Church And seeing they look on the Church as Christs Kingdom the Historian hath not taken the right way to advance this Kingdom but hath taken the way to ruine it by dividing it For a Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand And if he had pondered the explication of the third Petition it might have been a mean to have prevented his giving so much place to his own Humour and Will in this History and helped him to more submission unto the Holy Providence of God than doth appear in this History I wish he had ere he began to write this History put up that Petition And lead us not into temptation Or at the close of it put up that Petition And forgive us our sins We have great need ere we begin Debates and Controversies even when they are necessary to pray that we be not led into temptation And great need to close such Debates even when the cause maintained is right with praying Lord forgive us our sins I have examined all that had any appearance of Reason in this History and refuted many things which needed no refutation if it had not been for the sake of simple People who are often deceived by big words where there is no shew or colour of Reason I have often by Reason refuted the unreasonable clamours both of the Author of the Epistle and of the History whereas I might have opposed clamour to clamour for what is founded upon meer clamour may be as easily cried down as it 's cried up Let none because of the Authors errors in this History cast at other useful Books which he hath published nor reject any thing that is true and right in this History Good men have their failings and we may not take our measures of them from their miscarriages under a fit of temptation Job's Friends had a just hatred against Hypocrisie and they mistake Job and falls foul upon him as a Hypocrite and speaks many things that are not right things in the heat of Debate This Author had a just indignation against Erastianism and a Spiritual Supremacy in Magistrates and he apprehended that his brethren had interpretatively homologate this Erastian and Spiritual Supream power in the Magistrate and having mistaken them he hath fallen foully upon them and spoken much evil of them without cause These things which in the Epistle and History are wrong are things for the most part which several people had drunk in and the printing of these errours hath given occasion to rectifie the mistakes of erring people if they will not shut their eyes against the light The Lord who is excellent in working draws good out of evil and maketh all things work together for good to them who love him and are the called according to his purpose he can over-rule the darkness of error so as it shall be subservient to clear the truth In the worst times the Elect hath obtained and shall obtain The Lord reigneth and ruleth in the midst of Enemies he can when men are scattering the dust of Zion be making way for laying a solid foundation in the deep humiliation of his people for building his house The Church hath been before as dry and scattered bones as bones scattered at the graves mouth and yet he who raiseth the dead hath made these bones to come together and live It 's our best to leave the answering of that Question Can these Bones live To the Lord himself to Jehovah who makes things that are not to be who doeth great things and unsearchable marvellous things and without number If we would take shame and confusion of face to our selves and would humble our selves in the sight and sense of our sins our darkness and stumblings and justlings in the dark and justifie the Lord in his judgments that are come upon us and yet ascribe to him the glory of his Mercy and out of our depths and darkness cry to him that he would cause his face to shine and enlighten our darkness and send out his Light and Truth and pour out the Spirit of a sound mind and that he would quicken us by the Spirit of Life that is in Christ Jesus that we might call on his Name and look on him whom we have pierced and mourn that when mens endeavours to gather the scattered sheep are not effectual that he the great Shepherd would seek out his sheep and deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day And if we would wait on him in the way of his Judgments and hope in his Word his Covenant which he uses to remember for his People and to repent according to the multitude of his Mercies and though we have no ground of hope in our selves yet hope against hope on the Lord who is the hope of Israel and the Saviour thereof in the time of trouble and that because with him there is Mercy and plenteous Redemption And so continue humbly praying hoping waiting for him He could soon redeem us from all our Iniquities and all our Troubles and cure all our distractions and distempers and give Light and Life and Unity and Peace Let us take shame to our selves and give him the glory due to his Name that his Name may endure for ever and be continued as long as the Sun that men may be Blessed in him and all Nations call him Blessed Blessed be the Lord God the God of Israel who onely doeth wondrous things And Blessed be his Glorious Name for ever and ever and let the whole Earth be filled with his Glory Amen and Amen The Conference continued Farmer SIR there are many things considerable in this Answer to the History of the Indulgence which I purpose to consider but there is one thing which not a little troubles me That the withdrawing from hearing the Indulged Ministers is called Schism Now I remember we are by Covenant bound to extirpate Schism and if I have been practising Schism in withdrawing from hearing the Indulged Ministers I have been Acting contrary to the Covenant Minister They who deal truly in the matter of the Covenant will study to fulfill their Vows not onely in some things but in all things Schism is a dissolution of that Union which ought to be among Christians and especially it appears in refusing that Church-fellowship or Ecclesiastical Communion which ought to be observed or in an unwillingness to communicate or to have communion with the true Church in Holy Actions Casuists shew that it is a most grievous
claim as much Power over Kings to whom he is not Subject as their own private Subjects claim Again it 's one of the Popes pranks to interdict Countries or Cities that he hath a quarrel at in discharging all publick Worship of God in them these Banders have done the same upon the matter in going about to hinder as far as their Power reaches all publick Worship of God except in these parts where their Preachers come We are by Covenant obliged to extirpate Schism this Bond engages these who take it in one of the vilest Schisms that hath been heard of in the Church as appears Article 6. The Covenant is for the extirpation of Prelacy but these Banders though in words they engage to do so yet they really make these Ministers of theirs who are far from the number of fourteen in effect Prelates and will have all the Ministers of the Church to stand in Judgment before these Judges and to be no Ministers except these Ministers of theirs will And thus they really overturn Presbyterial Government which the Covenant obliges to preserve The Covenant obliges to preserve the Priviledges of Parliament Liberties of the Kingdoms and the Kings Majesties Person and Authority This Bond engageth to destroy the King and his Authority and to alter the very form of Government so that if it should take effect there would be no King nor Parliament nor Kingdom in the Nation And contrary to the 4th Article of the Covenant they make Factions among the People and go about to divide the King from the People by a most destructive Division in destroying the King The Covenant keeps every man in his own place and Calling but all who take this Band bind themselves in this 3d. Article to execute Righteous Judgment impartially according to the Word of God and degree of wickedness upon the committers of Blasphemy c. So that all who take this Band Ministers and People Man and Woman engage themselves to Act the part of Judges in executing Righteous Judgment But who made them Judges They should have staid till they had gotten a call to Judge and had been in a capacity of Judging before they had sworn to execute Righteous Judgment Again if all of them had been Judges executing Righteous Judgment then all would have been Rulers and so there would have been none of them to be Ruled and Judged and thus not onely their Ministers but also all their Men old and young and their Women are engaged to pass the bounds of their Calling and to perform that which would have been impractical and impossible Preacher But Sir are not the Saints to have a sharp Sword in their hand to execute vengeance upon the Heathen and punishment upon the People to bind their Kings with Chains and their Nobles with Fetters of Iron To execute upon them the Judgment written Psal 149.6 7 8 9. And is it not promised to him that overcometh and keepeth the words of Christ unto the end that Christ will give him Power over the Nations and that he shall Rule them with a Rod of Iron Rev. 2.26 27. Minist You might have learned from the Orthodox Interpreters of the Scripture that the word there is not a Carnal Sword but the sharp two-edged Sword of the Word of God which binds and looses Persons of all Ranks according as they Repent or are obstinate and contains in it the Sentence of God which will be in due time executed it 's by the Word by Spiritual Weapons that the Saints overcome the World the Flesh and the Devil And for that place in the 2d of Rev. Mr. Durham sheweth that it is no Earthly Dominion which is there meant for 1. It 's to be performed after the full Victory 2. All overcomers are not capable of Temporal Power over the Nations It imports then these two 1. An excellent Dominion that the Believer may expect 2. A joynt sharing in Christs Conquest over the Nation 1 Cor. 6. They shall judge Angels and all the Wicked in the day of Judgment Though often Believers are now oppressed by the Wicked of the World yet the day is coming when it shall be otherways Believers shall not onely be free from their oppressions but shall be as absolute Kings having Dominion over them in the morning as it is in the 49 Psalm 14. When the condition of the Wicked in Gods Justice shall be most miserable I have heard of late that some of the People are so far deluded as to imagine that the place of Scripture which ye first mentioned warrants every private Saint to take the Sword and execute Judgment upon all evil doers But ye may easily perceive that this is contrary to the Analogy of Faith and the Confessions of Faith of all the Reformed Churches and is the dregs of that Dream that the Saints shall have a Temporal Earthly Monarchy and we who profess our selves to be Teachers of the People should be so far from pleasing People in such Delusions that we should faithfully discover their Errors unto them and reprove them sharply and not suffer sin to be upon their Souls and especially Errors of this nature that tends to the Ruine of all Humane Societies and to utter Confusion and Desolation And you will have little Peace if you see them by their practising these Erroneous Principles brought unto bonds and under the lash of the Civil Sword Preach Proceed in your Observations Min. 8. The formers of this Bond seem to have been unacquainted with the judgment of Presbyterians concerning the National Covenant for in this Band they speak as if Prelacy were not excluded by the National Covenant but onely by the League and Covenant They who engrossed to themselves the Title of the true Presbyterian Party should not have been so ignorant of the sentiments of Presbyterians 9. They who take this Band and adhere to it cannot subscribe the Covenants And I heard of one of this way who said if the subscribing of the Covenant were to do again his hand should rather be cut off than subscribe it This shews that this Band is inconsistent with these Covenants 10. In the 4th Article there are many horrid things vented of the Magistrates as for Example That their Government cannot be called a Government but a lustful rage and that they can be no more called Governours but Publick Grassators that is High-way Robbers and publick Judgments as Sword Famine Pestilence raging among us and for a Conclusion they say that none can judge us bound in Allegiance to them unless they say also we are bound in Allegiance to the Devil they being his Vicegerents and not Gods If this be not an instance of speaking evil of Dignities and of railing accusation against them it will be hard to find an instance of such railing elsewhere 11. It 's very strange that they say that it cannot be thought that there is hope of the Magistrates Repentance Was it not enough to them to exaggerate the Magistrates
sins beyond the bounds of Truth and Soberness But they must also magnifie and multiply them above the multitude of the great Mercies of God Who can limit the Sovereign grace of God who hath Mercy on whom he will have Mercy The example of Manasseh's Repentance might have restrained them from this bold encroaching upon the Sovereignty of Free Grace 12. It 's a terrible stretch that they say they have shewed their enmities against all Righteousness this is a part of the Description of Elimas the Sorcerer Acts 13.10 They cannot but be exceedingly blinded with prejudice against the Magistrate who sees not some Righteousness in the exercise of their Government 13. If Private Persons may take upon them because of the sins of their Superiours to disown their Authority and take Power to themselves and execute Judgment upon these who are their Parents Masters Magistrates this would overturn the Foundations of all Humane Society and fill the World with Confusion Though Saul was an ungodly man and Persecuted David without a cause and drove him out of the Land from the Ordinances and exposed him to the hazard of serving other gods Though he unjustly and very summarily slew eighty five Priests of the Lord and contrary to the manner of the Kingdom which obliged him to maintain Religion and Righteousness did put the Foundations of the Earth out of course yet David did not think himself obliged to disown Saul to be King nor did he think himself obliged to kill Saul when he had Power and Opportunity to do it he will not suffer his Men to do it 1 Sam. 24.6 7. 1 Sam. 26.8 9. He did not think that his killing of Saul was the way to free the Land from Guiltiness yea his heart smote him for cutting off the lap of his Garment He judged Abner worthy of Death because he had not been careful to preserve Saul's Life And though David was appointed of God to be a blessed Instrument of Reformation and Saul stood in his way yet he will not destroy him but waits Gods leisure There were many ill Kings in Judah but the Lord never directs private Persons to disown them and dethrone and kill them Ahaz is frequently called by the Lord King Ahaz notwithstanding of all the ill he had done and was doing Daniel calls Darius King after the Blasphemous Decree which he had Signed Christ directs to give Tribute to Caesar and gives it himself And Paul owns Nero's Judgment-seat and Appeals to Caesar and what Monsters Tiberius and Nero were is known to all who know the Histories of the Roman Emperours If this Device of nullifying the Authority of Rulers because of their faults real or alledged were put in practice it would quickly turn the World upside-down For though Magistrates as Gods Vicegerents be singularly obliged to represent the Holiness and Righteousness of God in the exercise of their Government yet if we consider that they have the same Corruption by nature which others have and that they have greater temptations than others and that there are often with them men who for their own ends will tempt them to sins which they would never have thought upon As for Example That abominable Decree which Daniel's Enemies cheatingly obtruded upon Darius as a great Complement and when they have gotten them to Enact any thing that is not right they will alledge they are in point of Honour bound to maintain their own deed And seeing there are many Flatterers who will praise all that great Persons do as if it were right And seeing faithful Counsellors who singly design the Glory of God and the true Happiness and Interest of Rulers are very rare Dum non vult alter timet alter dicere verum Regibus And considering how many provocations Rulers use to get by bitter invectives and scurrillous Pamphlets which tend to render them contemptible and by slighting and misconstruing their favours and by affronting of their Authority These things being considered I mean their inward Corruption and allurements to sin upon the one hand and irritating Provocations upon the other hand it 's like enough that they who will nullifie their Authority because of their faults will not want pretences and they who are of this humour of Deposing Rulers if they find not faults enough they will make where they want or they will magnifie their faults and make them worse than they are If Men of this disposition made Insurrection against Moses and alledged upon him who was the meekest man upon Earth and whom God had extraordinarily raised up That he lifted up himself above the Congregation of the Lord and that he had brought them out of a Land flowing with Milk and Honey to kill them in the Wilderness and made himself altogether a Prince over them and had not brought them unto a Land flowing with Milk and Honey nor given them Inheritance of Fields and Vineyards And that he would put out or bore out their Eyes If they found or made so many pretences against Moses who was so blameless O! how many faults would they find in the Persons and Government of the generality of Rulers through the World in these last times in which Iniquity does so much abound in Persons of all ranks Preach But if Kings and Rulers do not what they ought to do but do the contrary then the Subjects are free from any Oath of Allegiance and from any Covenant made to preserve their Persons and Authority In the National Covenant we swear to defend the Kings Person and Authority with our Goods Bodies and Lives in the defence of Christ his Evangel Liberties of the Countrey Ministration of Justice and Punishment of Iniquity against all Enemies within this Realm and without as we desire our God to be a strong and merciful defender to us in the day of our Death and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ And in the Solemn League and Covenant we swear to preserve and defend the Kings Majesties Person and Authority in the Preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms And thus our Promise to preserve and defend his Person and Authority is restricted and when he does not what is his part we are not bound to own or defend him and his Authority As when two agrees that the one shall pay so much money upon the others delivering so much Corn or Meal if the Victual be not delivered by the one the other is under no Obligation to pay the Money Min. That comparison may beguile simple People but it 's strange that any Preacher should be deceived with it for this is clear that there is no other ground upon which the one is obliged to pay the Money but the delivering of the Victual by the other according to their agreement But all Inferiours Servants Children Subjects are bound by the Law of God and Nations to honour their Superiours Masters Parents Magistrates although their Superiours be undutiful as appears from 1 Pet. 2.18 19
Honour which Inferiours owe to Superiours is all due Reverence in Heart Word and Behaviour Prayer and Thanksgiving for them imitating their Virtues and Graces willing Obedience to their Lawful Commands and Counsels due Submission to their Corrections Fidelity to defence and maintenance of their Persons and Authority according to their several Ranks and Nature of their places bearing with their Infirmities and covering them in love that so they may be an Honour to them and to their Government And for confirming this Answer beside places cited in the Confession they cite Ephes 6.5 6 7. 1 Pet. 2.18 19 20. Servants be Subject to your Masters with all fear not only to the good but to the froward for this is thank-worthy if a Man for Conscience toward God endure grief suffering wrongfully for what glory is it if when ye be buffetted for your faults ye shall take it patiently But if when ye do well and suffer for it ye take it patiently this is acceptable with God Titus 2.9 10. 1 Sam. 26.15 16. Wherefore hast thou not kept thy Lord the King This thing is not good which thou hast done as the Lord liveth ye are worthy to die because ye have not kept your Master the Lords anointed 2 Sam. 18.3 But now thou art worth ten thousand of us Esther 6.2 Matth. 22.21 Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things which are Gods Rom. 13.6 7. Gen. 9.23 And Shem and Japhet took a Garment and laid it upon their shoulders and went backward and covered the nakedness of their Father and their faces were backward and they saw not their Fathers nakedness If we compare this Band with the Confession of Faith and Catechisms and the Covenants and the Scriptures which are cited in the Confession of Faith and larger Catechism we may see if we will not shut our eyes that this Band cannot be reconciled with these but manifestly clasheth with them and therefore they who adhere to this Band are a party who by their tenets and practices distinguish themselves from these who do adhere to the Confession of Faith Catechisms and Covenants I had forgot that they also design themselves Persons whom the Magistrate hath declared no Lawful Subjects which shews that their number is not great and yet there are many who fall under the lash of these Declarations who think themselves bound by the Covenants to maintain the Kings Person and Authority and who disclaimed Ruglen Declaration and would undergo a thousand Deaths ere they subscribed this Band And it 's hoped that the Magistrates will think it true Policy to put a difference betwixt these who own their Authority and these who disown it This shews how inconsiderable the number of these who own this Band are and how unfit they are to make a Representative of the true Presbyterian Church and Covenanted Nation of Scotland Very ordinarily they who are for destroying Magistrates are no great friends to Ministers Having rejected the Magistrates in the preceding Articles they fall upon the Ministers in the sixth Article at least the greater part of them as being defective in preaching and testifying against the Acts of the Rulers c. and then for hindring others who were willing to have testified c. It was a long time a mystery to many what some people meant by a testimony which they were always calling for because although Ministers plainly preached as their Text led them against Prelacy and Erastianism and did shew the people from the Scripture that God hath given the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to Ministers and not to Magistrates and that the things of the House of God Ecclesiastical matters must be done according to the will of the God of Heaven and not according to the will of the Magistrate And though they with grief regrated the breaches made in the Order and Government of the Church yet these people would still exclaim against them as not bearing testimony against the ills of the time but at length it appeared what was the testimony which they meant for if one instead of preaching the Gospel had made an invective discourse against the Rulers and treated them at the rate that they are treated in this band and so rendred them and their Authority despicable and hateful O! that was a preaching of the whole counsel of God though they brought neither Scripture nor Reason for what they said and they made nothing of what was brought from Scripture and Reason against Prelacy and Erastianism by other Ministers because they also did preach the duty which subjects owed to the Magistrate and maintained their lawful Authority as Gods Ordinance and prayed for the King and subordinate Magistrates The Testimony which some of these people who were upon the secret which hath now broken out were seeking was something which might render the Magistrate hateful and cast him out of the affections of the subjects and so make way for driving on the design which is now discovered in this band and declaration viz. the rejection of the King and Kingly Government and all subordinate Magistrates deriving their Authority from the King They are highly injurious to Presbyterian Ministers in alledging that they have not born testimony to that truth which Christ witnessed before Pontius Pilate viz. That Christ is a King for they declare it privately and publickly in their places and stations That Christ is a King and that he hath a spiritual Kingdom distinct from the Kingdoms of this world but no ways prejudicial to earthly Kingdoms but where it comes into any Kingdom of this world it is if it be received the establishment of that Kingdom Not to repeat what is said in several Papers which do shew the several sorts of testimonies both verbal and real given by Presbyterian Ministers I shall only say That their testimony concerning the Church and the Government thereof and the power of the Magistrate in reference to Church-matters is in the Confession of their Faith and Catechisms Directory for Worship and Government and as it could hardly be expected that these Ministers being so scattered could meet to agree upon new Confessions so though they had met they could not readily have fallen upon a better confession than what is already extant and to which they add here In chap. 25. of the Confession of Faith Art 2. it is asserted That the visible Church is the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ the House and Family of God Art 3. Unto this Catholick visible Church Christ hath given the Ministry Oracles and Ordinances of God for gathering and perfecting of the Saints Art 6. There is no other head of the Church but the Lord Jesus Christ Chap 30. The Lord Jesus as King and Head of his Church hath therein appointed a government in the hand of Church-Officers distinct from the Civil Magistrate Art 2. To these Officers the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven are committed Chap. 31. Art 3. It belongs to Synods and
Councils ministerially to determine controversies of Faith and cases of Conscience to set down Rules and Directions for the better ordering of the publick Worship of God and government of his Church Art 5. Synods and Councils are to conclude nothing but that which is Ecclesiastical and are not to meddle with Civil affairs which concern the Commonwealth unless by way of humble petition in cases extraordinary or by way of advice for satisfaction of conscience if they be thereto required by the Civil Magistrate Chap. 23. Art 3. The Civil Magistrate may not assume to himself the administration of word and Sacraments as the power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven yet he hath authority and it is his duty to take order that unity and peace be preserved in the Church that the truth of God be kept pure and intire that all blasphemies and heresies be suppressed all corruptions and abuses in worship or discipline prevented or reformed and all Ordinances of God duly setled administred and observed for the better effecting whereof he hath power to call Synods to be present at them and to provide that whatsoever is transacted in them be according to the word of God These Articles and the Scripture-proofs do clearly hold out and confirm That Christ not the Magistrate is the Head King Lord of the Church which is the Body House and Kingdom of Christ that Church and not the Magistrate is the Fountain of the Spiritual Power of the keys of the kingdom of Heaven that the Offices in the Church are of divine institution given by Christ and that these Offices which Christ hath given are sufficient for gathering and perfecting the Church seeing he hath given them for that end and that they are Ministerial and not Lordly and hence it follows that the Office of a Prelate who claims a majority of Directive and Coercive power over Ministers who not only takes upon him without election to moderate Synods but also is above the censure of the Synod and who can hinder the Synod from concluding any thing how necessary soever they find it and without whose Authority the Synod is no Synod who imposes Moderators upon the meetings for exercise and to whom these meetings are countable for their actings without whom there can be no ordination deposition excommunication relaxation from it who exacteth an Oath of Canonical obedience from Ministers not being in the Rolls of the Offices and Officers given by Christ and being a Lordly and so more than a Ministerial Office Presbyterians cannot own it nor judg it useful for gathering or perfecting of the Church They shew also that the Magistrate to whom God hath given the Lordly power of the sword is so far from having a spiritual Supreme power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven that he hath not the power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven given to him at all for the power of the keys which Christ hath given is Ministerial and makes those who are invested with it Ministers of the Church but the power of the Sword is Magistratical and a Lordly Dominion and that it belongs to Synods and Councils and not to Magistrates to make Ecclesiastical Rules c. and that none neither Magistrates nor Ministers may order Ecclesiastical matters according to their mind and pleasure but those things must be ordered according to the mind and will of God revealed in his word And all true Presbyterians believe That seeing both the Lordly Power of the Magistrate in general and in special the Kingly Power and the Ministerial Power of Church-Officers are of God and his Ordinances that they are not contrary to one another for the Ordinances of God do not justle one against another but sweetly agree and any justling or clashing which hath proceeded from the corruptions of Magistrates or Ministers are not to be imputed to the Lords Ordinances and it 's the earnest desire of all truly godly and loyal subjects who seek the glory of God and the Magistrates true honour and interest That whatsoever in the actings of their rightful Magistrates hath exceeded the bounds which the Lord hath set to them may be in mercy discovered to them and in time reformed That all occasions of grief and stumbling may be taken out of the way of truly loyal subjects and all occasion of doing mischief may be cut off from those who take advantage from those excesses to render the Magistrate contemptible and to overthrow that Power which they have from God As for what they say of Ministers hindering those who would have given a testimony and censuring others who did give it the truth is Presbyterian Ministers endeavoured to restrain some young men who instead of preaching the Gospel made it their work to revile the Magistrate and Ministers who made use of the liberty granted by the Magistrate but these youths discovered themselves not to be of Presbyterian Principles by their refusing to be subordinate to the Ministers and by reproaching them who would have reclaimed them from their disorderly and Schismatick practices By this the Magistrate may perceive if the Presbyterian Ministers who are Presbyterians indeed had by allowance of the Magistrate the peaceable exercise of their Ministry and liberty of meeting for regulating their own actings and the actings of those who profess themselves to be Presbyterians such unruly persons who stir up the people to Schism and Sedition would not be admitted to the Ministry or if they after their admission discovered themselves to be of pernicious principles they would be put from the Ministry and so the people who are true to Presbyterian Principles would not own them and so they would not have access to pervert the people with Seditious and Schismatick doctrine this would be found the most proper Remedy for these distempers But what wonder is it if young men who are ordinarily rash being but Novices who have not studied the Body of Divinity and who have no experience and know not the Principles and Practices of Presbyterial Government who are not put ro Presbyterial Exercises for their trial and instruction and who it may be have never seen any thing of the Exercise of Presbyterial Government in Presbyteries or Synods and who are not under the iâ—spection of meetings of Presbyterians but wander to and fro at random not thinking themselves accountable to any meeting of Ministers nor censurable by any What wonder is it if such persons when they are blown up with the vain applause of some ignorant and humorous people who under their sad sufferings have taken up such prejudice against the Magistrate and all to whom the Magistrate shews any favour that they think what is most cross to the Magistrate is most right and any thing which the Magistrate allows they think it wrong and so they cry up those Preachers most who speak most invectively against the Magistrate and against those Ministers to whom the Magistrate shews any favour I say what wonder is
would not be eligible though we are obliged to nothing jussu ejus or upon the intuition of his Command yet we may do many things eo jubente he commanding and should do eo premente he inforcing them and we have many things to do ipso seu volente seu nolente whether he will or forbid the doing of them c. By which passages it appears That those godly learned Presbyterians in those Treatises which they wrote of purpose to maintain the Kings Authority when he was thrust from it and to shew that the Subject might do nothing which might prejudge his right or which might be interpreted to be an owning of the title of the then Usurpers who had forced the King out of his Dominions yet they shew that Taxes might be paid to the Usurpers and that they who payed it were not accountable for the abuse that the Usurpers made of it which lets us see how far they would have been from refusig to pay Tribute to the rightful Magistrate though imposed for some wrong end And I cannot but here take notice how constantly and courageously Presbyterians owned the Kings Authority when he was thrust from the exercise of it and how careful they were that Subjects might do nothing which might be prejudicial to his Title when he was violently disposessed of his Kingdoms I shall not speak of the Testimonies they gave in preaching and in print against the Usurpers upon the account of their usurpation and for asserting of the Kings Title I wish their Loyalty had been better remembred but any suffering they have met with since will not make them repent of their constant adherence from a principle of Conscience to their Allegiance and covenanted Duty to their rightful Sovereign If any will but look to the frontispiece of Mr. Gee's Book where there is an empty Chair of State and the Scepter and Crown lying upon the ground and below the King standing and above his head non est potestas nisi a Deo Rom. 13. and under his feet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and opposite to him upon the other side an Armed-Soldier with his hand in the handle of his Sword meaning the Parliament and under his feet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and below Absolom hanging upon a tree and Joab darting him 2 Sam. 18. and the Woman of Abel casting Sheba's head over the wall 2 Sam. 20. They may see Presbyterians Loyalty and courage in a time of hazard when others who afterward would have engrossed all Loyalty to themselves were very calm and some of them speaking in another Dialect Mr. Rutherford used to keep Family-fasts to pray for the King in his distress There is no Loyalty comparable to that which is founded upon the word and Covenant and the Principle of Conscience bound by the Word and Oath of God The late King advised those who were desirous to befriend him in his straits to preach the Obligation of the Covenant which binds to maintain his Person and Authority The new Principles of Confusion which are opposite to the Magistrates Authority and to the paying of Tribute to Rulers are directly opposite to and inconsistent with the Principles and Practices of Presbyterians and seem to have been devised by Jesuits and then craftily conveyed into the heads of weak people distmepered with sad suffering or having Zeal without Knowledge that they might at once render those people ridiculous and expose their possessions as a prey and their lives to the Sword and their profession of Religion to contempt and scorn as if it made men frantick and deprived them of the use of common Reason and sense I heard from a godly and learned Minister That he heard a great Zealot against the paying of the Sess say That whatever was unlawful for a man to do voluntarily was unlawful for him to do upon Legal or Physical constraint and another said If men on constraint might pay Sess which they should not voluntarily do without Legal and Physical constraint feared to follow then the three Children might have worshipped Nebuchadnezars Image because they were under constraint And when it was answered that there were some actions in the substance of the fact sinful that no constraint could make lawful such as Idolatry and some which outward Circumstances made lawful or unlawful that distinction was denied such is the ignorance of some of those Teachers Another made the paying of the Sess like the offering of Children to Moloch It 's a great pity that well-meaning people who from a Principle of Conscience are willing rather to suffer than to sin should be misguided by ignorant men and drawn into needless calamities to the ruin of their Families and the reproach of Religion They add That these Ministers advised the Prisoners to take the Bond c. Ans Those Prisoners being taken at Bothwel-bridge were pressed to bind themselves not to take up Arms against the Kings Person and Authority under the Certification of no less punishment than Death Now as we heard from the larger Catechism It 's the duty of inferiors to defend and maintain the Persons and Authority of their Superiors which imports much more than the not taking up Arms against them and their Authority 2. Though they had not been Subjects but only Prisoners of war in the victors power to deprive them of life or liberty for ever I suppose they could not have been blamed for the preservation of their life to have given in such a Bond some who were taken Prisoners by Cromwel for their liberty engaged not to carry Arms against him and I do not remember that any censured them for it what they say in a Parenthesis that hazard will not make a moral change in actions is a palpable error if there were twenty with drawn-swords waiting at the Church-door to kill a Minister if he should come to preach it were rash furious self-destroying self-murdering Zeal for a Minister to venture to go to preach at that time in despite of the hazard so certain visible and unavoidable and yet it were his duty at another time to preach where there were no such hazard for a Merchant to cast his Wares in the Sea in a calm were wicked folly contrary to the 8th Command a stealing from his Family and himself and yet in a storm Paul and the Passengers and Mariners thought it their duty to cast out both Goods and Tackling of the Ship This Subscription would have no ways condemned innocent self-defence against the unjust violence of Papists which the Reformed Churches made use of when they did cast off the yoke of the Whore David and his men had Arms but they were not taken up against Sauls Person and Authority as appears by Davids practice who would neither himself kill nor suffer his men to kill Saul and that upon the account of his Authority being the Lords Anointed and though Saul in his distemper calls David his enemy yet in his lucide intervals he calls him his Son
Galatians It 's to this fellowship with Christ that God calls us in the Gospel and then give all diligence to make your calling and election sure It 's sad to see several people who will talk great things of the interests of Christ in the Land so ignorant of Christ and of union with him and so unconcerned as to their own interest in Christ that though they have no assurance of it and cannot give one mark of interest in Christ yet they are not sensible of this nor regrating it nor earnestly seeking in publick or private to know him to be in him to know if they be in him but they are taken up with other things Christ is not in their mind heart and mouth they are not speering after him in their private converse as the Spouse doth in the Song Saw ye him whom my soul loveth They are more in seeking to know some useless barren notion some jangling debate than they are in seeking to know Christ and him crucified more taken up in apprehending some unedifying empty conceit than in apprehending Christ or seeking to be apprehended by him Who can think that they are truly careful about Christs interests in the Land who are careless about their own interest in Christ and give no diligence to make sure their calling If folk were taken up about the one thing necessary it would take them off their vain janglings about these things which tend neither to edification nor peace They who are striving to enter in at the strait gate and taking the kingdom of heaven by violence and working out the work of their salvation with fear and trembling and giving diligence to make their calling and election sure will not find leisure to dote about questions and strifes of words whereof cometh envy strife railings and evil surmisings That weighty question What shall I do to be saved would take folk off from unedifying questions and doubtful disputations 2. Be much in the exercise of Faith and Repentance ye must live and walk by Faith and be daily searching out your sins looking into the sink of original corruption that loathsome stinking corrupt body of Death that is ever present with you to hinder you from good and incline you to evil and to the innumerable swarms of actual sins which compass you about and ye must be daily confessing your sins judging your self lamenting after the Lord lying at the Fountain opened to the house of David and Inhabitants of Jerusalem and coming through the great High Priest Jesus the Son of God to the Throne of Grace to obtain Mercy and find Grace to help in the time of need These exercises would hold you doing and keep you from medling as a busie-body in things too high for you and that do not belong to you and are not within the compass of your calling if ye were thus exercised ye would walk humbly with God and humbly with men ye would be so far from bidding others stand by themselves as if ye were holier than they that in holiness of mind ye would esteem others better than your selves and so far from casting at fellowship with the Lords people in publick Ordinances or private worship that ye would rather judge your self unworthy of their fellowship and if ye could do it would rather separate from your self than from others ye would think it a great mercy and priviledge that the like of you had any access to wait at the posts of the Lords doors and any place in his Courts beware of those who undervalue the preaching of Faith and Repentance for this was the Doctrine of the Prophets of John the Baptist who came preaching the Doctrine of Repentance and directing his hearers to the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the World Christ himself preached that men should repent and believe the Gospel and the Apostle Paul taught Repentance toward God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ Repentance and Faith are as necessary for the beginning and progress of our motion towards Heaven as our two legs are necessary for walking and the exercise of Faith and Repentance cease not till all tears be wiped away and Faith be turned into sight to cut off the exercise of Faith and Repentance is to cut off the legs of a man who is fleeing from sin and wrath to the true City of Refuge Ye may be sure that those Teachers who make it their business to discover to you your sins and diseases your poverty nakedness filthiness and direct you to Christ as the Saviour of sinners as the Physitian of souls as full of grace and truth who hath fine white Raiment fine Gold who is a fountain opened who teach you to loath your selves and to love Christ to have no confidence in the flesh but to rejoyce in the Lord Jesus who teach you that you are nothing and he is all that you may not glory in your selves but in the Lord you may be assured that they preach the same that Christ and his Apostles preached and if you were rightly sensible of your own sins and humbled for them then the consideration of the sins of others would not puff you up but humble you further Dan. 9.5 6 7 8. Beware of the way of those who talk of the sins of others as if they were accusers leading a process against others and commending themselves by condemning others for that looks like the strain of the Pharisee in the 18. of Luke The sins of our Rulers Ministers and of persons of all ranks should make us ashamed Ezr. 9.6 3. Let the Glory of God and the enjoying of God be your chief end and take his word which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament for the only Rule to direct you how to glorifie and enjoy him deny your self beware of self-seeking self-pleasing of pleasing your own humors or the humors of others Let that be your great design to please God to be accepted of him if you can please others to their edification become all things to all for gaining of them but beware ye displease not God to please any make no mans Testimony though it were given immediately before his death the rule of your Faith or Practice so long as men are here on earth they know but in part and even good men may err in their judgment and practice in several things some are so easily misled that if a Paper come to their hand that pleases them in some opinion that they are addicted to they take all the rest of it for unquestionable truth without examination or if a Preacher be of their party they implicitely follow him in any thing he says or does beware of listning to Impulses and Revelations which ye find born in upon you even though ye be in a good frame of Spirit when they are cast in for Satan can turn himself into an Angel of light and wait such occasions of suggesting errors and he can delude people by
Presbytery in Scotland Chap. 10. pag. 124. Consideration 8. Says We Separate not from men but Errors we Separate from Papism kindly properly and totally from Christian Articles in no sort And pag. 123. We have not Separate from Rome's Baptism and Ordination of Pastours according to the Substance of the Act nor from the letter of the twelve Articles of the Creed and Contents of the Old and New Testament as they stand with relation to the mind and intent of the Holy Ghost Howbeit we have left the false Interpretations of the Lords of poor Peoples Faith and Conscience The Historian himself in some cases grants that we should joyn in the Worship of God with these who comply with Prelacy notwithstanding of all they have done as we saw from his concessions in the stating of the Question and yet here he speaks as if all Uniting with them were sinful If the hearing of these who have complyed with Prelacy be at any time a Duty then the hearing of them is no complyance with Prelacy and if the hearing of them who have really complyed with Prelacy be not a complyance with Prelacy then suppose the Indulged Ministers had really complyed with an Erastian Power in the Magistrate yet the hearing of the Indulged Ministers would not have been any complyance with Erastianism How much then is this Historian in the wrong to the poor People who would fright them from hearing the Indulged Ministers who have never complyed with any Erastian Power or sinful Supremacy in the Magistrate as if the hearing of the Word of God Preached by them were sinful a homologating of a sinful Supremacy He adds Alas this our strength will prove our weakness let us remember that of Esay 8.11 12 13 14. He means that Uniting in the Worship of God in these paroches where Indulged Ministers are settled is our weakness and so that it's Peoples strength to withdraw from the Worship of God in these Paroches This must be his meaning or he says nothing to the purpose in hand This is one of the Historians Paradoxes that Union in the true Worship of God is the Churches weakness and that the breaking off that Union is the Churches strength That is to say a Church divided shall stand It seems a Church is not like other Societies for our Saviour says A House and Kingdom divided cannot stand This is a pitiful Paradox for it 's contrary to Scripture Reason Common Sense Experience and the Author brings no shadow of Reason to give it any colour of probability but as he began his last Reason with praying so he Ushers in this pitiful Paradox with lamentation that seeing it had nothing in it nor upon it to plead for it's admission it might be received of meer pity He should have considered that a Printed Book would readily come to the hands of Rational men who regard not Passions that are void of Reason and who will not be prayed or lamented out of their wits Yet this will pass currant among weak People who will be more moved with an Oh or an Alas than with ten solid Reasons or Scripture-Testimonies The Scripture which he exhorts us to remember makes nothing for withdrawing from hearing the Word of God Preached by the Lords Ministers When the Lord Instructed the Prophet That he should not walk in the way of that People nor say a Confederacy to all them to whom that People said a Confederacy He did not discharge the Prophet to hear the Word of God or to joyn with the Lords People in the Worship of God The way of Gods Ordinances is the way of God in which the Lords goings are and in which his People walk with him and in which he hath commanded them to walk but the way of that People was their sinful ways ways of their own which were not Gods ways the Confederacy discharged was not joyning together in the Lords Ordinances for the Lord had commanded his People to Assemble together for his Solemn Worship Deut. 12.11 12 13. Deut. 15.19 20. Deut. 16.7 8.16.17 But the Confederacy discharged is a Confederacy with the King of Assyria He cites Amos 4.12 13. Where the Lord directs his People to prepare to meet their God This Scripture is as little to the Historians purpose as the former for the way to meet with God is not to withdraw from the Worship of God but upon the contrary they who would meet with God must come to his Ordinances for there he meets with them Exod. 25.22 Exod. 29 42 43. He hath said That they who hear his Servants hear himself and hath blessed these who hear him and watch daily at his gates and wait at the Posts of his Doors That 's the way to find him to find Life c. Prov. 8.32 33. He hath promised that where he Records his Name he will come to his People and bless them Separation from the Lords Ordinances is no preparation to meet with God but it is a departing from God And if this Separation from the Lords People and from his Worship be comprehended under the Separating of our selves from every sinful course the Christian complyance which he speaks of is an unchristian mis-application of that word in the 4th of Amos And if he thought that they who have heard the Indulged Ministers must utterly forsake that way as a way provoking the Lord to wrath he was quite out and utterly mistaken about this utter forsaking The Scripture with which he closeth Zeph. 2.1 2 3. is not for his scattering of the Lords People but for the gathering of them together to the Solemn Worship of God If the Author had pondered this Scripture and observed the directions of the Spirit of the Lord which are given in it he would not have endeavoured to scatter the Lords People and if he had made more Conscience of seeking Righteousness he would not have done so many and great wrongs and injuries to his innocent Brethren who had done him no wrong and who were doing right things and if he had made more Conscience of seeking Meekness he would have been more quiet and either altogether been silent or spoken and written of these things with more calmness and composure of Spirit If meekness as they say were lost it would be a hard work to find it in this History in which there is much of the wrath of man which perfects not the Righteousness of God He concludes well with two Petitions of the Lords Prayer Thy Kingdom come thy Will be done If he had looked to the Exposition of the Second Petition of the Lords Prayer in the larger Catechism he would have found that this is a part of the meaning of that Petition that the Church may be countenanced and maintained by the Civil Magistrate and to confirm this the 1 Tim. 2.1 2. is cited I exhort therefore that first of all Supplications Prayers Intercessions and Thanksgivings be made for all men for Kings and for all that are in