All other Authority is so entrenched within the Marches of Divine Command that the least overpassing of the Bounds set by God himself bring Men under the fearful expectation of Temporal and Eternal Iudgements c. Yet notwithstanding of all opposition Prelacy was again restored in Parliament And to bring all to a complyance with the same Presbyteries and Synods universally charged under highest pains to admit a Constant Moderator without change which many refused resolutely as being the first step of Prelacy Upon this followed a great Persecution of the faithful for their Nonconformity managed by that Mongrel and Monstrous kind of Court made up of Clergy-men and States-men called the High Commission Court erected anno 1570. whereby many honest Men were put violently from their Charges and Habitations the Generality were involved in a great and fearful Defection But the Copestone of the wickedness of that Period was the Ratification of the five Articles of Perth kneeling at the Communion private Communion to be given to the Sick private Baptism and Confirmation of Children by the Bishop and Observation of Festival Days Which were much opposed and testified against by the faithful from their first hatching Anno 1618. to the Year 1621. when they were ratified in Parliament And against this the Testimony of the faithful continued till the Revolution Anno 1638. The following Period from the Year 1638 to 1660 continues and advances the Testimony to the greatest heighth of purity and power that either this Church or any other did ever arrive unto We shall give a short deduction of the rise progress and end of the Contendings of that Period In the midst of the forementioned Miseries and Mischiefs that the Pride of Prelacy and Tyrannical Supremacy had multiplied beyond measure upon this Church and Nation and at the heighth of all their haughtiness when they were setting up their Dagon and erecting Altars for him imposing the Service Book and Book of Cannons c. The Lords People were surprized with a sudden unexpected Deliverance by very despicable means even the opposition of a few weak Women which afterwards was followed out with more Masculine fervor accosting King and Council with Pititions Remonstrances Protestations and Testimonies against the Innovations and resolving upon a mutual Conjunction to defend Religion Lives and Liberties against all that would innovate or invade them To fortifie which all the Friends to the Liberty of the Nation did solemnly renew the National Covenant which though in it self obligeing to the Condemnation of Prelatical Hierarchy and clearly enough confirming Presbyterial Government yet they engaged unto it with an enlargement to suspend the Practice of Novations already introduced and the approbation of the Corruptions of the present Government with the late places and Power of Church Men till they be tryed in a free General Assembly Which was obtained that same Year and indicted at Glasgow And there notwithstanding all the opposition that the King's Commissioner could make by Protestations and Proclamations to dissolve it the six preceding Assemblies establishing Prelacy were annulled the Service Book and High Commission were condemned all the Bishops were deposed and their Government declared to be abjured in that National Covenant tho' many had through the Commissioners perswasions subscribed it in another Sense without that application As also the five Articles of Perth were there discovered to have been inconsistent with that Covenant and Confession and the Civil places and power of Church Men were disproved and rejected On the other hand Presbyterial Government was justified and approved and an Act was passed for keeping Yearly General Assemblies This was a bold beginning out-braving all difficulties Which in the following Year were much encreased by the Prelates and their partakers Rendezvouzing their Forces under the Kings personal Standard and menacing nothing but Misery to the zealous Covenanters Yet when they found them prepared to resist were forced to yield to a Ratification concluding that an Assembly and Parliament should be held for healing all Grievances of Church and State In which Assembly at Edinburgh the Covenant is ratified and subscribed by the Earl of Traquaire Commissioner and enjoyned to be subscribed by the Body of the whole Land with an explication expresly concerning the five Articles of Perth the Government of Bishops the Civil places and power of Church Men. But the Year following King and Prelates with their Abettors go to Arms again but were fain to accommodate the matter by a new Pacification whereby all Civil and Religious Rights were ratified And in the following Year 1641 by Laws Oaths Promises Subscriptions of King and Parliament fully confirmed the King Charles the First being present and consenting to all But the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus being thus advanced the Glory of the Lord did shine upon us with such Splendor that it awaked England and animated the Lords People there to aspire to the like Reformation For advice in which because tho' all agreed to cast off Prelacy yet sundry Forms of Church Government were projected to be set up in the room thereof chiefly the Independent Order Therefore the Brethren in England wrote to the Assembly then sitting at Edinburgh who gave them answer in behalf of the Presbyterial Government So from henceforth the Assembly did incessantly urge Vniformity in Reformation with their Brethren in England as the chiefest of their Desires Prayers and Cares And in the Year 1643 prevailed so far that the English Parliament did first desire that the two Nations might be strictly united for their mutual defence against the Prelatical Faction and their Adherents in both Kingdoms and not to lay down Arms till these implacable Enemies should be brought in Subjection and did instantly urge for help and assistance from Scotland Which being sent did return with an Olive-branch of Peace and not without some beginning of a Reformation in England And afterwards a Bloody War beginning between the King and Parliament with great success on the Kings side Commissioners were sent from both Houses to Scotland earnestly inviting to a nearer Union of the Kingdoms and desiring assistance from this Nation to their Brethren in that their great distress And this produced the Solemn League and Covenant of the three Kingdoms first drawn up in Scotland and approved in the Assembly at Edinburgh and afterward embraced in England This is that Covenant comprehending the purpose of all Prior and the Pattern of all Posterior Covenants which the Representative of Church and State in the three Nations did solemnly Subscribe and Swear for themselves and Posterity and of which the Obligation cannot be Disannull'd Disabled or Dispensed by any Power on Earth And this Covenant was rigorously imposed upon all Recusants who were wicked Enemies to God and Church and Nation and for their Malignancy were then to be Prosecuted not for their Scrupling at a Covenant but for their contumacious contempt of a Law This was no violence done to their Conscience for as they had
Preach and presume to exercise their Ministry they should be punished as Seditious Persons requiring of all a due acknowledgment of and hearty complyance with the King's Government Ecclesiastical and Civil and that whosoever shall ordinarily and wilfully withdraw and absent from the ordinary Meetings for Divine Worship in their own Churches on the Lord's Day shall incur the Penalties there inserted And thus none are allowed by Law to administer the Ordinances but either Apostate Curates who by their Perjury and Apostatize forfaulted their Ministry or other Hirâ—lings and Prelates Journey-men who ran without a Mission except from them who had none to give acâ—ording to Christ's Institution the Seal of whose Ministry could never yet be shewn in the Conversion of any Sinner to Christ but if the Tree may be known by its Fruits we may know whose Ministers they are by their Conversions of Reformation into Deformation of the Work and Cause of God into the similitude of the Roman Beast of Ministers into â—â—iâ—elings of the Power of Godliness into Formality of Preaching Christ into Orations of Morality of the Purity of Christ's Ordinances into the vanity of Men's Inventions of the Beautiful Government of the House of God for Edification to a Lordly Preeminence and Domination over Consciences In a word of Church and State Constitutions for Religion and Liberty all upside down into Wickedness and Slavery But now this astonishing Blow to the Gospel of the Kingdom introducing such a swarm of Locusts into the Church and in forcing a compliance of the People with this defection and that so violently and rigorously as even simple withdrawing was so severely punished by severe Edicts of Fining and other Arbitrary Punishments at first for at first they did not Imprison any for simple absenting themselves from the Curates and only imprisoned those who at any time shewed more than ordinary Zeal against the Curate's Intrusion what did it produce The generality of Ministers and Professors both went and Conformed so far as to hear the Curates contrary to many Points of the Reformation formerly attained contrary to their Covenant-Engagements and contrary to their own Principles and Practices at that same time scrupling and refusing to keep the Bishops Visitations and to countenance their Discipline and Power of Iurisdiction because it was required as a Testification of their acknowledgment of and Compliance with the present Government and yet not scrupling to Countenance their Doctrine and usurped Power of Order required also by the same Law as the same Test of the same compliance and submission Other Ministers lay altogether by in their retired recesses waiting to see what things would turn to others were hopeless turned Farmers and Doctors others wylie staid at home and Preached quietly in Ladies Chambers But the Faithful found themselves under an indispensable necessity to Preach the Gospel and witness for the freedom of their Ministry and make full proof of it in Preaching in Season and out of Season and thereupon as occasion offered Preached to all such as were willing to hear but at first only in private Houses and that for the most part at such times when Sermons in publick surceased a Superplus of Caution But afterwards finding so great Difficulties and Persecutions for their House-Meetings where they were so easily atâ—rapped were constrained at last to keep their Meetings in the Fields Where testifying both practically and particularly against these Usurpations on their Master's Prerogatives and witnessing for their Miâ—isterial freedom contrary to all Law-Interdictions without any Licenses or Indulgence from the Usurper but holding their Ministry from Jesus Christ alone both as to the Office and Exercise thereof they had so much of their Master's Countenance and success in their Labours that they valued neither hazards or hardships neither the contempt of pretended Friends nor the Laws nor threatnings of Enemies adjudging the Penalty of Death it self to Preachers at Field-Conventicles aâ— they called them Now having thus overturned the Church-Government by introducing Pâ—elacy to advance ane absolute Supremacy the King proceeds in his Design to pervert and evert the well modelled and moderated Constitution of the State-Government also by introducing and advancing ane Aâ—bitrary Tyranny For effectuating which he first procures a lasting Imposition of intollerable Subsidies and Taxations next a further recognisance of his Prerogative in a Subjection of Persons Fortunes and whole strength of the Kingdom to his absolute Arbitriment in a Levy of Militia of 20000 Footmen and 2000 Horsemen sufficiently armed with Forty days Provision to be ready upon the King 's call to march to any part of his Dominions for opposing whatsoever Invasion or Insurrection or for any other Service The first sproutings of Tyranny were cherished by the cheerful and stupid Submission generally yeilded to these Exorbitancies so that generally People did not so much as scruple sending out or going out as Militia-men After the fundamental Constitutions of both Church and State are thus razed and rooted up he contrived to frame all Inferior Magistrates according to his Mould And for this end appointed that all Persons in any Publick Trust or Office whatsoever should subscribe a Declaration renouncing and abjuring the Covenant But finding this not yet sufficient security for this unsettled Settlement because he well understood the People stood no ways obliged to acknowledge him but only according to the Solemn Covenants being the fundamental Conditions whereupon their Allegiance was founded and well knowing that he and his Associates by violating these Conditions had loosed the People from all Subjection to him or deriving any Power from him whereby the People might justly plead That since he had kept no Condition they were not now obliged to him he therefore contriv'd a new Oath of Allegiance to be impos'd upon all in publick Trust both in Church and State Strange can Presbyterians swear that Allegiance which is substitute in the place of the broken and burnt Covenant Or could they swear it to such a Person who having buried the Covenant that he might have another Right and another Allegiance than that of the Covenant had then remitted to us all Allegiance founded upon the Covenant However having prepared and furnished himself with Tools so qualified for his purpose in Church and State he prosecutes his Persecution with such fervor and fury that at length in the Year 1666 a small Party were compelled to go to defensive Arms which was occasioned thus Sir Iames Turner pursuing his Cruel Orders in Galloway sent some Souldiers to apprehend a poor old Man whom his Neighbours Compassionating intreated the Souldiers to loose him as he lay bound but were answered with drawn Swords and necessitated to their own defence In which they relieve the Man and disarm the Souldiers and further attacked some others oppressing that Country disarming Ten or Twelve more and killing one that made resistance Whereupon the Country being allarm'd and fearing Sir Iames would certainly avenge this Affront upon the whole
proved successful for several Years their Enemies either turning their backs without disturbance when they observed them resolve Defence or in their Assaultings repulsed so that there was never a Meeting which stood to their Defence got any considerable harm thereby Thus the Lord was with us while we were with him but when we forsook him he forsook us and left us in the hands of our Enemies However while Meetings for Gospel-Ordinances did continue the Wicked Rulers did not cease from time to time to encrease their numerous Bands of Barbarous Souldiers for suppressing the Gospel in these Field-meetings But all this is nothing to what followed when thinking these Blood-Hounds were too favourable they brought down from the wild Highlands a Host of Salvages upon the Western Shires more terrible than Turks or Tartars Men who feared not God nor regarded Man to wast and destroy a plentiful Country which they resolved before they left it to make as bare as their own This Hellish Crew was adduced to work a Reformation like the French Conversions to press a Bond of Conformity wherein every one Subscribed was bound for himself and all under him Wife Children Servants Tenants to frequent their Parish Churches and never to go to these Meetings nor reset nor entertain any that went but to Inform against Pursue and Deliver up all vagrant Preachers as they called them to Tryal and Judgment Then for the maintenance of the Souldiers there were imposed new wicked and arbitrary Cesses and Taxations professedly required for suppressing Religion and Liberty banishing the Gospel out of the Land and preserving and promoting the King's Absoluteness over all Matters and Persons Sacred and Civil which under that tentation of great Sufferings threatned to Refusers and under the disadvantage of the silence and unfaithfulness of many Ministers who either did not condemn it or pleaded for the peaceable payment of it many did comply with it then and far more since Yet at that time there were far more Recusants in some places especially in the Western shires than Complyers And there were many of the Ministers that did faithfully declare to the People the Sin of it not only from the illegality of its Imposition by a Convention of over-awed and prelimited States but from the nature of that imposed Compliance that it was a sinful Transaction with Christ's declared Enemies a strengthning the hands of the wicked an obedience to a wicked Law a consenting to Christ's expulsion out of the Land and not only that but far worse than the Sin of the Gadarens a formal Concurrence to assist his Expellers by maintaining their force a hiring our Oppressors to destroy Religion and Liberty and from the declared end of it expressed in the very Narrative of the Act viz. To Levy and Maintain Forces for suppressing and dispersing Meetings of the Lord's People and to shew unanimous affections for maintaining the King's Supremacy as now Established by Law Yet all this time Ministers and Professors were unite and with one Soul and Shoulder followed the work of the Lord 'till the Indulged being dissatisfied with the Meetings in the Fields whose Glory was like to over-cloud and obscure their Beds of ease and especially being offended at the freedom and faithfulness of some who set the Trumpet to their Mouth and shewed Iacob his Sins and Israel his Transgressions impartially without Cloak or Cover they began to make a Faction among the Ministers and to devise how to quench the fervour of their Zeal who were faithful for God But the more they sought to extinguish it the more it brake out and blazed into a flame For several of Christ's Ambassadours touched and affected with the affronts done to their Princely Master by the Supremacy and the Indulgence of its Bastard-Brood and Brat began after long silence to discover its iniquity and to acquaint the People how the Usurper had invaded the Mediator's Chair in taking upon him to Depose Suspend Silence Plant and Transplant his Ministers where and when and how he pleased c. Yet others and the greater number of Dissenting Ministers were not only deficient herein but defended them joyned with them and pretending Prudence and prevention of Schism in effect homologated that deed and the Practice of these Priests Ezek 22. 26. teaching and advising the People to hear them both by Precept and going along with them in their Erastian Course And not only so but Condemned and Censured such who Preached against the sinfulness thereof especially in the first place worthy Mr. Walwood who was among the first Witnesses against that Defection and Mr. Kid Mr. King Mr. Cameron Mr. Donald Cargil c. who Sealed their Testimony afterwards by their blood yet then even by their Brethren were loaden with the reproachful Nick-names of Schismaticks Blind Zealots Jesuites c. But it was always observed as long as Ministers were faithful in following the Lord in the way of their Duty Professors were fervent and under all their Conflicts with Persecutors the Courage and Zeal of the Lovers of Christ was blazing and never outbraved by all the Enemies boastings to undertake brisk Exploits which from time to time they were now and then essaying 'till defection destroyed and division diverted their Zeal against the Enemies of God who before were always the Object against which they whetted the edge of their jusâ— indignation Especially the Arch-Prelate Sharp was judged intollerable by ingenuous Spirits Therefore in Iuly 1668. Mr Iames Mitchel thought it his duty to save himself deliver his Brethren and attempted to cut him off which failing he then escaped but afterwards was Apprehended Tortured Condemned and Executed But Justice would not suffer the Arch-Prelate to escape Remarkable Punishment the severity whereof did sufficiently compensate sate its delay after Ten Years respite For upon the 3 d of May 167 several worthy Gentlemen with some other Men of Courage and Zeal for the Cause of God executed Righteous Judgment upon him in Magus Moore near St. Andrews And that same Month on the Anniversary Day May 29th the Testimony at Rutherglen was Published against that Abomination Celebrating an Anniversary-Day kept every year for giving thanks for the setting up an Vsurped Power destroying the interest of Christ in the Land and against all sinful and unlawful Acts emitted and executed published and prosecuted against our Covenanted Reformation Where also they burnâ— the Acts of Supremacy the Declaration the Act Recissory c. in way of retalition for the burning of the Covenants On the Sabbath following Iune 1. A Field-Meeting near to Lowden-Hill was assaulted by Claverhouse and with him three Troops of Horse and Dragoons who had that Morning taken an honest Minster and about 14 Countrymen out of their Beds and carried them along with them but they were repulsed at Drumclogg and put to flight the Prisoners relieved about 30 of the Souldiers killed on the place and three of the Meeting and several wounded on both sides Thereafter the People
of that Parliament approving and ratifying the foresaid Proclamation c. This was their Testimony against Popery in the Season thereof Which tho' it was not so much Condemned as any former Declarations yet neither in this had they the Concurrence of any Ministers or Professours who as they had been silent and omitted a seasonable Testimony against Prelacy and the Supremacy when these were introduced so now also they were left to let slip this opportunity of a Testimony against Popery to the reproach of the declining and far degenerate Church of Scotland Yea to their shame the very Rabble of ignorant People may be brought as a Witness against the Body of Presbyterian Ministers in Scotland in that they testified their detestation of the first Erection of the Idolatrous Mass and some of the Souldiery and such as had no Profession of Religion suffered unto Death for speaking against Popery and the designs of the King while the Ministers were silent And some of the Curats and Members of the late Parliament 1686. made some stickling against the taking away of the Penal Statutes against Papists while Presbyterians from whom might have been expected greater opposition were sleeping in a profound Submission I cannot without confusion of Spirit touch these obvious and dolorous Reflections and yet in Candour cannot forbear them However the Persecution against the Wanderers went on there were more Butchered and Slaughtered in the Fields than in all the former Tyrants Reign there have been more Banished to Forreign Plantations in this Mans time than in the others and there have been more cruel Acts of Parliament enacted in this Tyrants time than the former made all his Reign For not only was there an Act making it Treason to refuse the Oath of Abjuration confirming all their procedure hereupon before but an Act making it Criminal to own the Covenant and another Act making it Criminal for any to be present at a Field-Meeting which was only so to Preachers before But a relenting abatement of severity was pretended against other Dissenters At length what could not be obtained by Law at the late Parliament for taking off the Statutes against Papists was effectuated by Prerogative in a Proclamation dated Feb. 12 1687. But this was so gross and grievously griping in its restrictions as to Persons as to the place as to the matter allowed the Presbyterians in Preaching that it was disdained of all and therefore he behoved to busk it better and mend the matter in a Letter to the Council bearing date March 31. 1687. Of this Tenor Whereas we did recommend to you to take care that any of the Presbyterians should not be allowed to Preach but such only as should have your allowance for the same and that they at the receiving the Indulgence should take the Oath contained in the Proclamation these are therefore to let you know that thereby we meant such of them as did not solemnly take the Test. But if nevertheless the Presbyterian Preachers do scruple to take the said Oath or any other Oath what soever and that you shall find it reasonable or fit to grant them or any of them our said Indulgence so as they desire it upon these terms It is now our Will and Pleasure to grant them the said Indulgence during our Pleasure only or so long as you shall find they behave themselves regularly and peaceably without giving any cause of offence to us or any in Authority or Trust under us in our Government But at length to take of all difformity and disparity of the Proclamation for the Toleration in Scotland and the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience in England he added a third eke to the Liberty in another Proclamation dated Iune 28 1687. And this is the Royal Charter for â—â—curity of the Protestant Religion in lieu of all the Laws Constitutions and Oaths wherewith it was formerly confirmed This is the only Patent which the Royal Dalilees the Moderate Presbyterians have now received to ensure their enjoyment of it durante beneplacito But as for the poor Wanderers while others are rejoycing under the Bramble-shadow of it they think it a cause of weeping and matter of mourning not because they do not share of the benefit of it but because they are afraid to share of the Curse of it For which Cause they do look upon it as a seasonable Testimony for the Cause of Christ and the Interest of the Protestant Religion and the Laws and Liberties of the Country all overturned and subverted by this Toleration to keep their Meetings as in former times thinking it sinful scandalous and inconvenient to seem to homologate this Toleration the wickedness whereof they are convinced of from these Reasons besides those for which they rejected the former Indulgencies Indemnities and Tolerations and those which regard the Granter as to his Principles and Religion For considering the Fountain whence it flows they cannot defile themselves with it it being refounded on Absolute Power proclaiming by sound of Trumpet a Power Paramount to all Law a Power to tolerate or restrain the Protestant Religion according to his Royal Will or Pleasure Now the acceptance of this Grant would imply the recognizance of this power that the Granter claims in Granting it Which utterly dissolves all Government and all security for Religion and Liberty Considering also the Channel in which it is conveyed they cannot comply with it Because it comes through such a Conveyance as Casses annulls stops suspends and disables all Penal Laws against Papists and thereby eveâ—ts all the Securities and legal Bulwarks that Protestants can have for the establishment of their Religion yea in effect leaves no Laws in force against any that shall attempt the utter subversion of it but ratifies and leaves in full rigour all wicked Laws and Acts of Parliament against such as would most avowedly assert it Hence as he hath formerly by Absolute Power suspended all Laws made for the Protection of our Religion so he may when he will dispense with all the Laws made for its establishment and those who approve the one by such an Acceptance cannot disallow the other but must recognosce a Power in the King to subvert all Laws Rights and Liberties Considering the Ends of its contrivance they dare not have any accession to accomplish such wicked Projects to which this Acceptance would be so natively subservient Which Project was discovered in the English Declaration viz. That he heartily wishes that all the People of these Dominions were Members of the Catholick Church Considering the Effects already produced thereby they cannot but abhor it Seeing the Papists are thereby encouraged all places filled with Priests and Jesuits yea the executive Power of the Government put into the hands of the Romanists And on the other hand a Tâ—stimony against Antichrist is abandoned and laid aside as unseasonable the edge of Zeal for the Interest of Christ is blunted they that should stand in the Gap and upon the
acknowledging of the Sin of his House and former ways and satisfaction to Gods People in both Kingdoms A. Ker. And that same day The Committee of Estates having seen and considered a Declaration of the Commission of the General Assembly anent the stating the Quarrel wherein the Army is to fight do approve the same and heartily concur therein Tho. Henderson Whereupon thereafter he encites that Declaration at Drumfermling Wherein Professing and appearing in the full perswasion and Love of the Truth he repenteth as having to do with and in the sight of God his Fathers opposition to the Covenant and Work of God and his own Reluctances against the same hoping for Mercy through the Blood of Iesus Christ and obtesting the Prayers of the Faithful to God for his stedfastness and then Protesting his Truth and Sincerity in entring into the Oath of God resolving to prosecute the Ends of the Covenant to his utmost and to have with it the same common Friends and Enemies exhorting all to lay down their Enmity against the Cause of God and not to prefer Mans Interest to Gods which will prove an Idol of Iealousie to Provoke the Lord and he himself accounteth to be but selfish Flatteries Then at his Coronation the Action commenceth with his most solemn renewing of the National and Solemn League and Covenant Thereafter in the Year 1651. followed the Ratification of all these preceding Treaties Transactions and Engagements concluded and enacted by the King and the Parliament whereby the same did Pass into a Perpetual Law And this Covenant which from the beginning was and is the most sure and indispensible Oath of God became at length the very Fundamental Law of the Kingdom whereon all the Rights or Priviledges either of King or People are principally bottomed and secured After this it came to pass that zeal for the cause rightly stated was suddenly contracted to a few whereby a plain defection was violently carried on by the Publick Resolutioners who relapsing into that most Sinful Conjunction with the Malignants did bring them into places of Power and Trust in Judicatories and Armies in a more Politick than Pious way requiring of them a constrained and dissembled Repentance which Reflection did cause the first Division of that kind and most permanent of any that ever was in the Church of Scotland by reason of the surcease of General Assemblies stopped and hindered by the Yoke of the Sectarian Usurpers And it has been the spring and source of all our Reflections since Upon this our Land was invaded by Oliver Cromwell who defeated our Army at Dunbar Next an Army being raised according to these unhallowed Resolutions was totally routed at Worcester And the King forced to hide himself in the Oak and thence to transport himself beyond Sea where he continued in Exile till the Year 1660. Yet there was still a faithful Remnant of Ministers and Professors zealous for the Cause keeping their Integrity who in their Remonstrances and Testimonies witnessed against both their Malignant Enemies and their backsliding Brethren the Resolutioners And also against the Sectarians their Invaders whose vast Toleration and Liberty of Conscience which they brought in to invade our Religion as they invaded our Land and infect it with their Multifarious Errors was particularly by the Synod of Fife and other Brethren in the Ministry that joyned themselves to them testified against and demonstrated to be wicked and intollerable But in the mean time the Sectarian Army here prevailed till after the Usurper Cromwell his Death Monk then General with a Combination of Malignants and publick Resolutioners did bring home the King to England from his Banishment Now comes the last Catastrophe of the Deformation of the Church of Scotland which in a retrograde motion hath gradually been growing these 27 Years going back through all the steps by which the Reformation ascended till now she is reduced to the very Border of that Babilon from whence she took her departure Through all which steps notwithstanding to this day Scotland hath never wanted a Witness for Christ against all the various steps of the Enemies advancings and of professed Friends declinings Though the Testimony hath had some Singularities in that it hath been attended with more disadvantages by reason of the Enemies greater prevalency and Friends deficiency and greater want of significant Assertors than any formerly in that it hath been intangled in more multifarious Intricacies of questions and debates and Divisions among the Assertors themselves In that it hath been intended and extended to a greater measure both as to matter and manner of contendings against the Adversaries and stated upon nicer points more earnestly Prosecuted and tenaciously maintain'd than any formerly to that it hath had more opposition and contradiction and less Countenance from professed Friends to the Reformation either at home or abroad than any formerly And yet it hath been both Active and Passive both against Enemies and Friends and in Cumulo stated against Atheism Popery Prelacy and Erastian Supremacy and extended in a particular manner against Tyranny And not only against the substance and essence of these in the Abstract but against Substance and Circumstance Abstract and Concrete Root and Branch Head and Tail of them and all complying with them conforming to them or countenancing of them or any thing conductive for them or deduced from them any manner of way directly or indirectly formally or interpretatively This is that extensive and very comprehensive Testimony which in all its parts points and particles is most directly relative and dilucidly reducible to a complex Witness for the Declarative Glory of Christs Kingship and Headship over All as he is God and as he is Mediator The management of this Testimony was thus King Charles the Second upon his Return directed a Letter to the Presbytery of Edinburgh declaring he was resolved to protect and preserve the Government of the Church of Scotland as it is settled by Law without Violation Wherein it was observed he spake never 8 word of the Covenant our Magna Charta of Religion and Righteousness but only of Law by which he meant the Prelatical Church as it was settled by the Law of his Father since which time he reckoned there was no Law but Rebellion This was a piece and prelude of our base Defection that we were so far from withstanding that we did not so much as witness against the Readmission and Restauration of the Head and Tail of Malignants but let them come in peaceably to the Throne without any Security to the Covenanted Cause and by piece-meal at their own ease leisure and pleasure to overturn all the Work of God and reintroduce the Old Antichristian Yoke of abjured Prelacy and Blasphemous Sacrilegious Supremacy and absolute Arbitrary Tyranny with all their abominations Which he and with him the Generality of our Nobility Gentry Clergy and Commonality did promote and propagate untill the Nation was involved in the greatest Revolt from and
they lost both Church and Liberty It 's true the ordinary Meetings of Presbyteries and Synods were about that time discharged to make way for the Exercise of the new power conferred on the four Prelates who were at Court But this could not give a discharge from a necessary Testimony then called from faithful Watchmen However the Reformation being thus rescinded and razed and the House of the Lord pulled down then they begin to build their Bable In the Parliament Anno 1662. by their first Act they restore and re-establish Prelacy upon such a Foundation as they might by the same Law bring in Popery and setled its Harbinger Diocesan and Erastian Prelacy by fuller enlargement of the Supremacy The very Act beginning thus Forasmuch as the ordering and disposal of the external Government of the Church doth properly belong to his Majesty as an inherent Right of the Crown by Virtue of his Royal Prerogative and Supremacy in Causes Ecclesiastick whatever shall be determined by his Majesty with advice of the Archbishops and such of the Clergy as he shall nominate in the External Government of the Church the same consisting with the standing Laws of the Kingdom shall be valid and effectual And in the same Act all Laws are rescinded by which the sole Power and Jurisdiction within the Church doth stand in the Church-Assemblies and all which may be interpreted to have given any Church-power Jurisdiction or Government to the Office-Bearers of the Church other than that which acknowledgeth a dependence upon and Subordination to the Soveraign Power of the King as Supream By which Prelates are redintegrated â—o all their Priviledges and Preheminences that they possessed Anno 1687. And all their Church-Power robbed from the Officers of Christ is made to be derived from to depend upon and to be Subordinate to â—he Crown-Prerogative of the King Whereby the King is made the only Fountain of Church-Power and that exclusive even of Christ of whom there is no mentioned Exception And his Vassals the Bishops as his Clerks in Ecclesiasticks are accountable to him for all their Administrations a greater Usurpation upon the Kingdom of Christ than ever the Papacy it self aspired unto Yet albeit here was another display of a Banner of defiance against Christ in altering the Church-Government of Christs Institution into the humane Invention of Lordly Prelacy there was no publick Ministerial at least united Testimony against this neither Therefore the Lord punished this sinful and shameful silence of Ministers when by another wicked Act of the Council at Glasgow above 300 Ministers were put from their Charges and afterwards for their Non-conformity in not countenancing their Diocesan Meeting and not keeping the Anniversary Day May 29. the rest were violenâ—ly thrust from their Labours in the Lords Vineyard and Banished from their Parishes and adjudged unto a strange and nice Confinement twenty Miles from their own Parishes six Miles from a Cathedral Church as they called it and three Miles from a Burgh Yet in this fatal Convulsion of the Church generally all were struck with Blindness and Baseness that a Paper-Proclamation made them all run from their Posts and obey the Kings Orders for their ejection Thus were they given up because of their forbearing to sound an Allarm charging the People of God in point of Loyalty to Christ and under the pain of the Curse of the Covenant to awake and acquit themselves like Men and not to suffer the Enemy to rob them of that Treasure of Reformation which they were put in possession of by the Tears Prayers and Blood of such as went before them instead of those prudential fumblings and fistlings then and since so much followed Wherefore the Lord in his Holy Righteousness left that Enemy to cast them out of the House of the Lord and dissolve their Assemblies and deprive them of their Priviledges because of their not being so valiant for the Truth as that a full and faithful Testimony against that Encroachment might be found upon Record Nevertheless some were found faithful in that Hour and Power of Darkness who kept the Word of the Lords Patience and who therefore were kept in and from Tentation which carried away many into sad and shameful Defections tho' not from suffering hard things from the hands of Men and only these who felt most of their violence found Grace helping them to acquit themselves suitably to that days Testimony being thereby prevented from an active yeilding to their impositions when they were made passively to suffer force However that season of a publick Testimony was lost and as to the most part never recovered to this day The Prelates being setled and readmitted to voice in Parliament they procure an Act Dogmatically condemning several Material parts and points of our Covenanted Reformation to wit these Positions That it was Lawful for Subjects for Reformation or necessary self-defence to enter into Leagues or take up Arms against the King And particularly declaring that the National Covenant as explained in the Year 1688. and the solemn League and Covenant were and are in themselves unlawful Oaths and were taken by and imposed upon the Subjects of this Kingdom against the Fundamental Laws and Liberties thereof That all such Gatherings and Petitions that were used in the beginning of the late Troubles were unlawful and seditious And whereas People were then led into these things by having disseminated among them such Principles as these That it was lawful for People to come with Petitions and Representations to the King That it was lawful for People to restrict their Allegiance under such and such Limitations and suspend it until he should give security for Religion c. It was therefore enacted that all such Positions and Practices founded thereupon were Treasonable And furder did enact that no Person by Writing Praying Preaching or malicious or advised speaking express or publish any Words or Sentences to stir up the People to the dislike of the Kings Prerogative and Supremacy or of the Government of the Church by Bishops or justifie any of the Deeds Actings or things declared against by that Act. Yet notwithstanding of all this Subversion of Religion and Liberty and restraint of asserting these Truths here trampled upon either before Men by Testimony or before God in Mourning over these Indignities done unto him in everting these and all the parts of Reformation even when it came to Daniel's Case of confâ—ssion Preaching and Praying Truths interdicted by Law few had their Eyes open let be their Windows in an open avouching them to see the duty of the day calling for a Testimony Tho' afterwards the Lord spirited some to assert and demonstrate the Glory of these Truths and Duties to the World As that judicious Author of the Apologetical Relation But this is not all For these Men having now as they thought subverted the Work of God they provided also against the fears of its revival making Acts declaring that if outed Ministers dare to continue to
Country without distinction of Free and Unfree they gather about Fifty four Horsemen march to Dumfreâ—â— take Sir Iames Turner Prisoner and disarm the Souldiers without any more violence Being thus by Providence engag'd without any hope of retreat and getting some Concurrence of their Brethren in the same condition they come to Lanerk where they renew the Covenant and thence to Pentland-Hills where by the Holy disposal of God they were routed many killed and 130 taken Prisoners of which 35 were afterwards hanged who had much of the Lords Presence at their deaths and assurance of his Love strengthening them to Seal a noble Testimony After this conflict many were forefaulted of their Estates and Intercommuned Souldiers are permitted to take free Quarter in the Country to Examine Men by Tortures to strip them who did so much as resist the Fugitives and thrust them into Prisons c. Hence we may see the Righteousness of God how justly at that time he left us in such a damp that like Asses we couched under all Burdens and few came out to the help of the Lord against the Mighty drawing on them Meroz's Curse and the Blood of their butchered Brethren But the King having now brought his only opposites the few Faithful Witnesses of Christ to a low pass he went on by Craft as well as Cruelty to advance his own in promoting Antichrist's Interest And therefore having gotten the Supremacy devolved upon him by Law he would now exert that usurped Power and work by insnaring Policy to effeâ—tuate the End which he could not do by other means Therefore seeing he was not able to suppress the Meetings of the Lord's People for Gospel-Ordinances in Houses and Fields but that the more he laboured by violent courses the greater and more frequent they grew hâ— fell upon a more crafty Device not only to overthrow the Gospel and suppress the Meetings but to break the Faithful and to divide between the Mad-cap and the Moderate Fanaticks as they phrased it that he might the more easily destroy both to confirm the Usurpation and to settle People in a sinful silence and stupid submission to all the Incroachments made on Christ's Prerogatives and more effectually to overturn what remained of the work of God And knowing that nothing could more fortifie the Supremacy than Ministers their homologating and acknowledging it Therefore he offered the first Indulgence Anno 1669 signifying in a Letter dated that Year Iune 7. His gracious Pleasure was To appoint so many of the outed Ministers as have lived peaceably and orderly to return to Preach and exercise other Functions of the Ministry in the Parish-Churches where they formerly served provided they be vacant to allow Patrons to present to other vacant Churches such others of them as the Council should approve That all who are so indulged be enjoyned to keep Presbyteries and the Refusers to be confined within the bounds of their Parishes and that they be enjoyned not to admit any of their neighbour Parishes unto their Communions nor Baptize their Children nor marry any of them without the allowance of the Minister of the Parish and if they Countenance the People deserting their own Parishes they are to be silenced for shorter and longer time or altogether turned out as the Council shall see causeâ— And upon complaint made and verified of any Seditious Discourse or Expressions in the Pulpit uttered by any of the Ministers they are immediately to be turned out and further punished according to Law And seeing by these Orders all pretences for Conventicles were taken away if any should be found hereafter to preach without Authority or keep Conventicles His Pleasure is to proceed with all severity against them as Seditious Persons and Contemners of Auhtority To salve this in point of Law and to make the Kings Letter the Supreme Law afterwards and a valid ground in Law whereupon the Council might proceed and enact and execute what the King pleased in matters Ecclesiastick He therefore caused frame a formal Statutory Act of Supremacy of this Tenor That his Majesty hath the Supreme Authority and Supremacy over all Persons and in all Causes Ecclesiastick within his Dominions and that by vertue thereof the ordering and disposal of the External Government of the Church did properly belong to him and his Successors as an inherent right to the Crown and that he may Settle Enact and Emit such Constitutions Acts and Orders concerning the Administrating thereof and Persons employed in the same and concerning all Ecclesiastical Meetings and Matters to be proposed and determined therein as He in His Royal Wisdom shall think fit which Acts Orders and Constitutions are to be observed and obeyed by all His Majesties Subjects any Law Act or Custom to the Contrary notwithstanding Whereupon accordingly the Council in their Act Iuly 27. 1669 do nominate several Ministers and appoint them to Preach and exercise the other Functions of the Ministry at their respective Churches there specified with consent of the Patrons The same day also they Conclude and Enact the forementioned Restrictions conform to the King's Letter and ordain them to be intimate to every person who is by Authority foresaid allowed the exercise of the Ministry These indulged Ministers having that Indulgence given only upon these terms that they should accept these Injunctions and having received it up these terms also as ane Essential part of the Bargain and Condition on which the Indulgence was granted and accepted as many following Proclamations did expresly declare do appoint Mr. Hutcheson one of the number to declare so much In acknowledging His Majesties Favour and Clemeâ—cy in granting that Liberty after so long a restraint and howevâ—â— they had received their Ministry from Iesus Christ with full Preâ—â—â—â— from him for regulating them therein yet nothing could be more refâ—eshing on Earth to them thâ—â— to have free liberty for the exercise of their Mâ—nistry under the Protection of Lawful Authority In the mean time tho cruel Acts and Edicts were made against the meeting of the Lord's People in Houses and the Fields after all these Midianitish Wiles to suppress them such was the Presence of the Lord in these Meetings and so powerful was his Countenance and Concurrence with the Labours of a few who laid out themselves to hold up the Standard of Christ that the number of Converts multiplied daily to the great encouragement of the few Hands that wrestled in that work through all humane discouragement Therefore King and Council was put to a new shift which they supposed would prove more effectual to wit Because there was a great number of Nonconformed Ministers not yet Indulged who either did or might hereafter hold Conventicles therefore to remede or prevent this in time coming they appoint and ordain them to such places where Indulged Ministers were settled there to be confined with Allowance to Preach as the Indulged should employ them thinking by this means to incapacitate many to hold Meetings
Yea not so much as to say God save the King which was offered at the price of their Life but they would not accept Deliverance on these Terms Now remained Mr. Donald Cargil deprived of his faithful Collegue destitute of his Brethrens Concurrence who prosecuted the Testimony against the Universal Apostasie of the Church and Nation Tyranny of Enemies Backsliding of Friends and all the wrongs done to his Master on all hands And considering in the Zeal of God and Sense of his holy Jealousie provoked and threatning Wrath against the Land for the Sins especially of Rulers that notwithstanding of all their Testimonies given against them by publick Preachings Protestations and Declarations remonstrating their Tyranny and disowning their Authority yet not only did they persist in their Sins and Scandals but were owned also by Professours not only as Magistrates but as Members of the Christian and Protestant Church and that however both the Defensive Arms of Men had been used against them and the Christian Arms of Prayers and the Ministerial Weapon of Preaching yet that of Ecclesiastical Censure had not been Authoritatively exerted against them Therefore that no Weapon which Christ allows his Servants under his Standard to manage against his Enemies might be wanting tho' he could not obtain the Concurrence of his Brethren to strengthen the Solemnity and Formality of the Action yet he did not judge that Defect in this broken Case of the Church could disable his Authority nor demur the Duty but that he might and ought to proceed to Excommunication And accordingly in Sept. 1680. at the Torwood he Excommunicated some of the most scandalous and principal Promoters and Abettors of this Conspiracy against Christ as formally as the present Case could admit After Sermon upon Ezek 21. 25 26 27. And thou profane wicked Prince of Israel whose Day is come c. The Persons Excommunicated and the Sentence against them was given forth as follows I being a Minister of Iesus Christ and having Authority and Power from him do in his Name and by his Spirit Excommunicate cast out of the Church and deliver up to Satan Charles the Second King c. The Sentence was founded on these Grounds For 〈◊〉 great Perjury in breaking and burning the Covenant for his rescinding all Laws for establishing the Reformation end enacting Laws contrary thereunto For commanding of Arms to destroy the Lords People For his granting Remissions and Pardons for Murderers which is in the power of no King to do c. Next by the same Authority and in the same Name he Excommunicated James Duke of York for his Idolatry and setting up in Scotland to defile the Land and enticing and encouraging others to do 〈◊〉 With several other rotten Malignant Enemies But about this time when some in zeal for the Cause were endeavouring to keep up the Testimony of the day in an abstraction from Complying Ministers others were left to fall into fearful extravagancies and delirious and damnable Delusions being overdriven with ignorant and blind Zeal into untroden Paths which led them into a Labyrinth of Darkness When as they were stumbled at many Ministers their unfaithfulness so they came to be offended at Mr Cargill his Faithfulness who spared neither left-hand Declensions nor-right hand Extreams and left him and all the Ministers not only disowning all Communion with those that were not of their way but Execrating and Cursing them and kept themselves in desart places from all Company where they persisted prodigiously in Fastings and singing Psalms pretending to wonderful Raptures and Enthusiasms And in fine Iohn Gib with 4 more of them came to that height of Blasphemy that they burnt the Bible and Confession of Faith These were the Sweet Singers as they were called led away into these Delusions by that Impostor and Sorcerer Iohn Gib of which destructive way the approached Remnant adhering to the foresaid Testimony had always an Abhorrence of Wherefore that ignorant and impudent Calumny of their Consortship with Gibs Followers is only the vent of viperous Envy For they were the first that discovered them and reclaimed them and were always so far from partaking with them that to this day these that have come off from that way and have offered the Confession of their Scandal do still complain of their over-rigid Severity in not admitting them to their select Fellowships Shortly after this Mr. Donald Cargill finished his Testimony being apprehended with other two faithful and zealous Witnesses of Christ Mr. William Smith and Mr. Iames Beeg who with two more were altogether at Edinburgh 27 Iuly 1681. Crowned with the Glory of Martyrdom Then came the Day of the Remnants vexation the Persecution vaxing on the one hand and a violent Spirit of defection carrying down the most part of Ministers and Professours before it driving them to Courses of sinful and scandalous Conformings with the Times Corruptions Compearings before their Courts Complyings with their Commands paying of their Cesses and other Exactions taking of their Oaths and Bonds and countenancing their Prelatical Church-Services which they were ashamed to do before And thereupon on the other hand the Divisions and Confusions were augmented and poor People that desired to cleave to the Testimony were more and more offended and troubled at the Ministers who either left the Land or lurked in their own retirements But the remaining Contenders fell upon the expedient of corresponding in General Meetings to consult inform and confirm one another about common Duties in common Dangers Laying down this General Conclusion for a foundation of Order to be observed among them in incident doubtful Cases and emergent Controversies that nothing relative to the publick and which concerns the whole of their Community be done by any of them without harmonious consent sought after and rationally waited for and sufficient deliberation about the best means and manner In the mean time the Duke of York as Commissioner from his Brother held a Parliament in which he is declared legal and lineal Successour and a Test is framed for a Pest to Consciences which turned out of all Places of Trust any that had any remaining measure of common Honesty And to all the Cruel Acts then and before made against the People of God there was one superadded regulating the Execution of all the rest whereby at one dash all Civil and Criminal Justice was overthrown That the Right of Iurisdiction both in Civil and Criminal Matters is so inherent in the Crown that his Majesty may judge all Causes by himself or any other he thinks fit to Commissionate Here was a Law for Commissionating Souldiers to take away the Lives of Innocents as was frequently exemplified afterwards Against which encroachments on Religion and Liberty the faithful thought themselves obliged to emit a Testimony And therefore published a Declaration at Lanerk Ian. 12. 1682. Confirming the proceeding at Sanquhair and adding reasons of their Revolt from the Government of Charles the Second For his arrogantly arrogated