that Discipline Which will best appear by a view of the Powers which the Presbytery claims and Exercises But let me Commend One Note to you as Previous to that Examination This Party has constantly screw'd it self into the World by an Oath of Mutual Defence Which Oath they apply as well to the Ruine and Extirpation of their Opponents as to their own Preservation by making it a Test of good Affection to That Interest and Excluding all People whatsoever from any Office or Benefit Ecclesiastical or Civil without subscribing it You cannot deny but this Oath in the very Institution of it is a Violence both upon Law and Conscience and Consequently that the Imposition falls heaviest upon those that make an Honourable and Religious Scruple of their Actions So that here is already exposed the most Considerable part of the Nation for the Subject of their Displeasure with their Lives Liberties and Fortunes at Mercy as you will find upon a further Consideration of their Usurped Authority and Iurisdiction Presb. Leave this way of General Discourse and come to Particular Instances Where is it that you find This Exorbitant Power that you talk of Indep In the very Declaration of the Commission of the General Assembly of Scotland 1648. page 53. The Duties of the Second Table as well as of the First As namely the Duties between King and Subject Parents and Children Husbands and Wives Masters and Servants and the Like being conteined in and to be taught and cleared from the Word of God are in That Respect and so far as concerneth the Point of Conscience a Subject of Ministerial Doctrine and in Difficult Cases a Subject of Cognizance and Iudgment to the Assembly of the Kirk The Dispute here was about the Assemblies Authority in the Question of War or Peace Is not This at one Blow to destroy the Order of all Relations Political Natural and Moral Princes must not presume to make War or Peace To Enact Laws or Abrogate To Spare or Punish without Ecclesiastical Licence The Subject must go to the Masters of the Parish to know whether he shall Obey Authority or Resist it And after the same manner it fares with Parents and Children Husbands and Wives Masters and Servants So that there is not any Person either Publique or Private Or any Action or Office of Regard to Community Family or Alliance that scapes their Pragmatical Scrutiny and Inspection Presb. So far as these Duties are matter of Conscience there is no Doubt but they are of Ecclesiastical Cognisance and further then so they make no Pretension Indep But you must give me leave to tell you then that their Consciences are larger then other Peoples The Old Nonconformist as au Expedient for the settling Ecclesiastical Affairs Page 43. proposes the setting up of Work-Houses for the Poor the Carrying on of the Fishing Trade The taking off of Protections that none may be Imprison'd but according to Law and the Abatement of Taxes The Assembly at Glasgow 1638. passed an Act concerning Salmon Fishing and another about Salt Pans And all This I Warrant ye so far as they concerned Point of Conscience But if you would see what the Consistory calls Conscience in the full Extent we must repair for satisfaction to their Direction and Practises in the matter of Conscience and Excommunication The Kirk proceeds to Excommunication in all Capital Crimes where the Offender that deserv'd to dye is suffer'd to live And in Cases of Fornication Drunkenness Swearing Cursing Sabâ—…ath-Breaking Wanton Words Contempt of the Orders of the Church Oppression of the Poor Deceipt in Buying and Selling by wrong Mete and Measure Presb. Well and what hurt 's in all this Indep None at all But let me proceed They Censure also Excess in Apparel Meat or Drink UNCOMELY GESTURES Contentiousnes without reasonable Cause Chiding Brawling VAINWORDS Every fault that tendeth to the Hurt of a Man's Neighbour or to the Hindrance of the Glory of God Whether by Force or Fraud Word or Deed Manifestly or Secretly Purposely or Ignorantly And the Judgment of the whole is left to the Discretion of the Church So that your very Thoughts are not free The Spiritual Ruler says the Book of Discipline Iudgeth Both Inward Affections and External Actions in respect of Conscience by the Word of God Upon which ground they take upon them to Censure the very SUSPICION of Avarice and Pride Superfluity or Riotousness in Chear or Rayment But upon Dancers Robin Hoods and all Games that brings Loss they have no mercy These particulars are extracted to a syllable out of the most Authentical Records they have to shew for the Warrant of the Scottish Discipline Our Blessed Model But many People perchance will make it a matter of nothing to be Excommunicate upon a Supposition that the Anathema is the uttermost spite of the Censure They never dream of Carâ—…ings Iogges Pillories Shaving their Beards and Cutting half the Hair of their Heads Banishments Pecuniary Muâ—…cts Close Imprisonments and all sorts of Studied Defamations Nay If any man refuse to Subscribe their Confession of Faith Rule of Government and Manner of Worship He is forthwith Excommunicate and upon Remonstrance of a Commissioner from the Presbytery to the Civil Iudg a Warrant granted commanding him to Conform by a Day Certein or to be OUTLAWED If he Conform not within that time his ESTATE MOVE ABLE is FORFEITED and if not within a Year and a Day he Loses his whole REVENUE for his Life After This at the further Instance of the Churches Commissioner Out go Letters of Caption for Apprehending of his Person and Committing him as a Rebel And if he be not to be found These are follow'd with Letters of Inter-Communing forbidding all men either Personally to Confer with him or by Letter or interposed Person to Correspond with him upon Pein of the Inter-Communers being Iudged and Reputed a Rebel of the same Guiltiness As to the General Rule of Excommunication no Person Wife and Family excepted is to have any Communication with the Excommunicate be it in Eating or Drinking Buying or Selling Yea in Saluting or Talking with Him Unless at Commandment or License of the Ministry for his Conversion His Children Begotten and Born after That Sentence not to be admitted to Baptism till of Age to require it Unless the Mother or some special Friends Members of the Kirk Offer and Present the Child Damning the Iniquity and Contempt of the Impenitent There are that do not allow Husbands to accompany with their Wives in the State of Excommuni cation Now upon what has been deliver'd Let any Man Consider the Unchristian Rigor of This Disciplinary Inquisition not only in the Actual Tyranny of it but in the more Miserable Consequences First as it Scandalizes the Gospel and makes the Death of Christ seem to be no Effect by Imposing upon Us such Conditions of Salvation as if the Blessed Angels should descend and Indue Humane shapes they were
is Their Enemy too because it keeps them in Awe that they dare not Steal It is the same Case with Traytors Felons Vagabonds and all Criminals And so it is with Factions and Associated Parties We might set up This Government or This Church and We T'other say they if it were not for Those Accursed Laws that make it Death to Endeavour such an Alteration This is a True and Naked Accompt of the Peoples Thoughts and Reasonings in the Point of Liberty and Obedience and a sufficient Proof of their INCLINATION not against This or That but against any Establishment It being the main End of Government to secure the Community against the Encroachments and Attempts of Particulars Though to the very great Damage and Ruine many times of Private Persons and Parties If you be satisfied now that the People do not Naturally love Government you need not doubt but they will judge it their INTEREST to Remove it Every Male-Content enterteining himself with hopes of mending his Condition upon the Change But Alas This is not an Undertaking for Single Persons Small Parties or Petty Factions by Themselves apart but some Common Medium must be found out for the Uniting of them All which indeed is amply provided for in the Project of Liberty of Conscience and does not only facilitate the Work by drawing the Disaffected into a Body but it does also Countenance and Encourage it by Authorising the Separation N. C. But to Me it seems on the Contrary that an Indulgence would set the Peoples Minds at Liberty from Fears and Contrivances for the avoidance of Impendent Dangers and encourage them to engage the Utmost of their Endeavours and Abilities in the Businesses of Peace and Security C. As to the Security and Peace of the Publique if enough be not already said you may repair to the History of our late Broils for the rest Where you will also find the Condition of Particulars to have been every jote as Distracted and Unquiet in proportion as That of the Government You are to expect Schisms in Corporations Companies Families as well as in Religious Congregations Divisions as well betwixt Parents and Children Masters and Servants as betwixt Rulers and Subjects Feuds betwixt Man and Wife betwixt Brethren Kinred Friends and all these Differences variously Influenced according to the Benignity or Malignity of their Divided Opinions Nor will it be any wonder upon admittance of This Liberty to have as many Religions in a House as Persons where the Husband draws one way the Wife another and the Rest of the Family have Their ways by Themselves too And This goes on to the utter Extermination of Order Duty and Quiet till they have throughly wearied themselves with Tossing and Tumbling from one Sect or Profession to another And then when they are at their Wits End they commonly take up in the Church of Rome with an Implicite Faith in the Conclusion Now if what I have said may be of force sufficient to prove that Liberty of Conscience is destructive both of Religion and Government and of the Peace of the Kingdom as well Private as Publique I cannot see how it should advance us as is earnestly suggested in the Business of Trade and Plenty N. C. We shall never have a Flourishing Trade without it Because the Pressure in these things falls generally more upon the Trading sort of Men then any in the Nation We may see it in the Great City and in all Corporations It makes many give over Trading and Retire It makes others remove into Holland and other Forreign Parts as it did heretofore from Norwich to the Irrecoverable Prejudice of our Cloathing Trade upon the like Occasion And it certainly prevents all Protestant Strangers to come to Live and Trade among us C. The Pressure you say falls most upon TRADERS I answer that you begin with a Non Constat for the Thing it self does not appear And then you make Traders more Scrupulous then the rest of the Nation who are not Generally understood to be more Conscientious as having divers Temptations in the way of their Employments to strein a Point of Conscience now and then and they are but Men as well as their Neighbours If your Observation be Right We may thank the Nonconforming Ministers who have had the handling of them Your urging that want of Liberty makes many give over Trading and Retire does not agree with their Observation that place their Wonder on the other side that so many Hold considering the Circumstances of a long and Expensive War with the French and Dutch The most Expensive that ever this Kingdom undertook And Two of the most dreadful and destroying Iudgments that ever Almighty God laid upon this Nation i. e. Pestilence and Fire one upon the neck of another You object the Removal of others into Holland as formerly Indeed it is not for the Credit of your Cause to mind us of those that formerly left us Take the Peins to read Bayly's Disswasive Pa. 75. and there you shall see what Work they made in Holland Even such that Peters himself was scandalized at it quitted his Congregation and went to New-England Bridg Sympson and Ward renounc'd their English Ordination and took Ordination again from the People The People after this deposed Mr. Ward and the Schism betwixt Sympson's Church and Bridg his was so fierce that their Ministers were fain to quit their Stations and the Dutch Magistrate forc'd to interpose the Civil Authority to quiet them In New England their Humour and Behaviour not much Better according to the Report of the same Author Pag. 60 61. Of Forty Thousand Souls not a Third Part would be of any Church and such Heresies started as a Man would tremble to Recite If only such as These forsake us the Land has a good Riddance Further If it was to the Prejudice of our Cloathing Trade This Separation Who can help it It was Their Fault to betray the Interest of their Country by teaching the Mystery to Forreigners but no blame at all can be reflected upon the Government for Refusing Toleration to such Lawless and Unruly Libertines Now as to the hindring of Protestant Strangers from coming over to us and Trading with us It is a clear Mistake to imagine the Church of England to be such a Bugbear to those of the Reformation abroad as is pretended Which shall hereafter be made appear It is not the Act of Uniformity that hinders Strangers but the want of an Act of Endenisation which perchance the Wisdom of future Times will find convenient for the Supply and Repair of that Depopulation which is brought upon us by our Colonies But to come to an Issue How was it with Trade when Conscience took the full Swinge It brought on a War and so it must again or a Standing Army to prevent it How many Families were ruin'd on the one side with pure Benevolence to the Cause in Contributions and Enterteinments to the Devourers of Widows
Shoulders first before they parted with their Market Upon which Menace they were quiet The Author of Presbytery Display'd gives you some Instances of the Presbyteries Interposal in Actions of Debt and menacing Landlords and Creditors with Excommunication unless they laid down the Precess Upon Pretense Forsooth that though it was in a Civil Cause it had yet a Spiritual Prospect Withdrew People from their Callings and Hindred the Progress of the Gospel And this is no more then any man will reasonably Expect that looks but with half an eye upon the very Frame and Provision of the Discipline Is not he a mad man that thinks to recover a Debt at Common Law against any Member or Members Friend of the Presbytery when ' â—…is but flying to the Canon of the Consistory to silence the Dispute and telling Him that He is Contentious without a Reasonable Cause Cannot the Church put an End to Strife among Brethren as well as the Civil Magistrate It is a matter of Evil Example and tends to the Hurt of our Neighbour If the Creditor be Obstinate and will not take good Counsel Out flyes an Excommunication against Him for refusing to obey the Orders of the Church I would now fain understand what it is that sets so many of the MINISTERS a Gog upon this Platform For certeinly They are of all Mortals the most Contemptible the Iunto and some few of the Select Ones Excepted Their Discipline Divides the Church Patrimony into four Parts One for the Pa stor Another for the Elders Deacons and other Kirk-Officers their Doctors and Schools A Third for Charitable Uses and the Rest for Repairing of Churches and other Incidental Charges So that the Clergy is strip'd already of 3. Parts of 4 of their Legal Maintenance And then for the poor Pittance that is left so much as will keep Life and Soul together they are allow'd in Meal and Mault and totally dependent upon the Mercy of the Church for the rest And yet for this pittiful stipend They are to be call'd to Accompt how they spend it and their Wives and Children to be thrown at last upon the Charge of the Parish In their Preaching they are Limited by the Direction and Design of their Leaders Only Tenants at Will in their Cures and lyable to be Removed Suspended or Deposed at Pleasure This Arbitrary Dominion together with the Shameful Condition of their Bondage has proved so great a Discouragement to the Ministry that they have found themselves forc'd to Press Ministers into the Service as they would do Souldiers And where they find men of Abilities for their Purpose The Civil Magistrate is call'd upon to compel them to the Ministry Nay rather than fail the Nobility and Gentry must bring up their Children to the Service and good Liking of the Kirk under Pein of Church-Censure A Jurisdiction exercised according to the Latitude of This Discipline One would think might satisfie any Reasonable sort of People But alas If they do not as much Exceed their own Bounds in their Practise as they exceed all other Models in their Pretensions they reckon it as good as nothing They can Cite People out of a Remote Iurisdiction Deprive whole Presbyterys for Dissent Kings Declaration page 314 Call Nine Presbyters of Fifty a General Assembly Spotswood p. 490. Demolish Churches 304. and Dispose of the Patrimony 311. and what not More needs not be said as to the Empire They Exercise over King Lords and Commons severally and in divers Respects We come now to their Usurpations upon the Common Rights and Priviledges of Mankind CHIDING as I told you they have drawn within the Compass of Ecclesiastical Censure So that Masters shall not Reprove their Servants nor Parents their Children without leave of the Eldership to the utter Dissolution of the Order and Discipline of Private Families Nay they have taken in BRAWLING too and made every Billingsgate Quarrel every Brabble betwixt a Butter-Whore and an Oysterwench a Subject of Consistorial Cognizance Under the Censure of LEWD CUSTOMS are Comprized all sorts of Publique Sports Exercises and Recreations that have been long in Use upon the Worshipful Pretense forsooth that they had their Original from the times of Paganism or Popery As Comedies Interludes Wrastlings Foot-Ball-Play May-Games Whitson-ales Morrice-Dances Bear-baitings Nay the Poor Rosemary and Bayes and Christmas-Pye is made an Abomination Presb. And are not the Independents as much against these Fooleries as the Presbyterians Indep No we take Our own Freedom to forbear what we dislike our selves and allow other People their Liberty to Practise what pleases them But to proceed All GAMES that bring LOSS are Prohibited Tennis Bowles Billiards Not so much as a Game at Stool-Ball for a Tansy or a Cross and Pyle for the odd Penny of a Reckoning upon Pein of Damnation Shortly Boys shall not Play At Span-Counter or Blow-Point but shall Pay Tell to some Presbyter What do you think now of UNCOMELY GESTURES That a man shall be given to the Devil for Lolling upon his Elbow or setâ—…ing on his Back-side in the Presence of the Deacon of the Parish And the Like for Excess in EATING or APPAREL Every Bit we put into our Mouths and every Rag we put upon our Backs becomes a Snare to Us. It may be either too much or too costly and What Reformation soever the Kirk shall think fit to Order either in our Clothes or Dyet must be observ'd with the same Degree of Submission and Obedience as if the matter in Question were an Article of our Creed Their Censure of VAIN WORDS is yet more Rigorous and reaches for ought we know to the honestest Endearments and Familiarities of Friendship and Conversation even to the Exclusion of Common Decency and Civility But let Our Words be what they will We are still dependent upon the good Pleasure of the Eldership whether they will pronounce them Vain or Edifying But why should a man expect to scape for WORDS where THOUGHT it self is Censurable SUSPICION of Avarice Pride c. as you have heard He that sues to recover a Debt shall be suspected of Avarice He that refuses to Crouch like the Asse under the Burthen shall be suspected of Pride And for a Man and a Woman to be only seen together shall be ground enough for a suspicion of Incontinency Nay they shall be Cited Interrogated Close-Committed and put to Bread and Water upon it and compell'd to Swear in Propriam Turpitudinem After all This and that no Proof appears and that they purge themselves upon Oath It shall be yet Enacted by the Assembly that if ever These two shall be seen again in Company together unless at Church or Market they shall be taken pro Confesso for Guilty A whole Volume says the Author of Presbytery Display'd might be written of Young Women by these Courses disgraced and Defamed Of many Families divided and scatter'd whereas before there was never any jealousie betwixt the Man