Committee they at their next meeting brought it in as their opinion That the Bishops were one of the greatest Grievances of the Nation which opinion the whole Meeting after serious Consideration approved of and voted them out of Doors After which all the Bishops withdrew themselves in Cabals with several disaffected people called several of their inferior Clergy together prompting them to Disobedience in the present Juncture which Principles many of the Episcopal Clergy did then vent too much in their Preachings and publick Prayers The Estates having emitted a Proclamation proclaiming William and Mary then King and Queen of England King and Queen of Scotland without a contradictory Vote and only one Non liquet And another Proclamation enjoyning the Clergy after the Proclamation to Read the Declaration and to pray for King William and Queen Mary and in doing of which many did comply but several refused yet all even those of the Episcopal Clergy though not complying with this who would live peaceably and regularly as Subjects the Estates took into their particular protection putting forth another Proclamation prohibiting all or any of the Subjects whatsoever to trouble or molest any of them in their Lives or Estates And none will be so Impudent as to alledge in publick that any either of the Bishops or their inferiour Clergy whether complying or not were ever troubled in their Persons or Estates since the said Prohibition and few even before by the unruly Rabble unless it be those whose Deportment no good Men can vindicate and those moderate Men of untainted Lives and Conversations of the Episcopal Communion who have chearfully complyed with the Estates and present Government will declare how they were caressed by the Presbyterian party in this Juncture and others who might be nice and scrupulous in some points christianly exhorted and invited to joyn with them without Engagements further than Reading the Declaration and Praying for King William and Queen Mary and I have reason to think that the present wise Parliament will impose nothing capable to trouble their Consciences in their complyance with the present Government And truly it would seem to be no small reproach to the Scotch Bishopsto hear those who were lately their inferior Clergy now declare in the Pulpit and elsewhere how these many years by-past they themselves have groaned under their Bishops Tyranny and Oppression of several kinds But after the Bishops were declared a Grievance to the Nation for many undeniable good pregnant Reasons and now voted out of Doors the Estates took many calm Methods by Exhortations c. with their Clergy to have their Deportment suitable to their profession in the present Juncture but several of them continued so obstinate and endeavoured to seduce others to the defaming of the Government in publick and private so that they were necessitated to deprive some of them though they indulged some eminent Men till they advised better and ordered Presbyterian Ministers to Preach in their Churches And sure I am notwithstanding the frequent Complaints given in to the Estates of the Episcopal Clergy's and their Parties meeting in Cabals with Papists and other disaffected People to the contempt of the present Government yet that they were so tender of their Character as Ministers of the Gospel that none of them were once prosecuted by the Estates their Committees the Privy Council or the present Parliament since their Deprivation except one Minister who was accused to have spoken some Treasonable Words and how tenderly they dealt with him in his Misbehaviour and Infirmities for fear of bringing a reproach upon any that Preached the Gospel whether6 of one Order or another is well known And it is too Publick how one of those deserting Ministers Wives and others of that perswasion who converse with Papists as the Effects of their Cabals were apprehended endeavouring to get into the Castle of Edenburgh with fresh Meat and other Provisions when it was block'd up and declared Treason to converse with or assist any therein and yet how tenderly they were proceeded against is generally known there are many others of their Evil Practices in the late Conjuncture might be spoken of too tedious to the Reader but to conclude with the Episcopal Clergy's Behaviour in Scotland of late Who have been more Active or like to be found more guilty in a Correspondence with and assisting the Lord Dundee and his Party now in Rebellion and committing most inhumane Actions than several of those who are called the Regular Clergy which must be publick to their shame besides that the late Bishop of Galloway is certainly concluded to be with the late King James in person in Ireland And as a further Evidence of the Estates the present Parliament the Council and other People of Scotland their favourable Deportment and Lenity towards the Episcopal Clergy there it 's undeniable that both the Bishops and their inferiour Clergy who by their ill Deportment and late Obstinacy deprived themselves of their Benefices do Walk and Travel in Town and Country on Foot in Coach and upon Horseback at their pleasure and live peaceably in their Houses without any Trouble or Molestation whatsoever And it will be found unquestionably true that neither the Episcopal Clergy nor any other who have been grievous and great Persecutors and Invaders of the Religion and Encroachers upon the Laws Liberties and Properties of their fellow Subjects in the late Government were in the least fear of their Lives or Estates in that Kingdom since the first general Meeting of the Estates Notwithstanding of the great Clamours and false Aspersions of purpose and industriously invented and spread abroad by some persons for their own ends being either afraid to abide the Test of the Law by way of moderate Justice or being uneasie to themselves and troublesom to others under any Government were it never so good and easie but where they have a power to gratifie their Lusts and voracious Appetite and to do Mischief to others And as for that Allegeance that the Bishops whose Order is abolished in Scotland and their inferiour Clergy who have deserted their Charge out of an ill Principle for the most part have not a livelyhood or subsistence it must be very gross and ridiculous for it 's well known that both the Bishops and those of their Clergy who have deserted their Charges had opulent Benefices and are rich though not to satisfaction or might have been so in a cheap Country where with the least management the half or third part of their yearly Benefices might maintain them and their Families very well for it 's known generally there that several Ministers with lesser Benefices than any that quit their Charge now have made good Fortunes for their Children And it 's hardly known that ever their Charity or Pious Acts was the occasion of their Poverty though they have had Examples enough from many of their good English Brethren Clergy-men and if they lived too sumptuously Sibi imputent And
for his Liberty and Toleration to Papists Quakers and all other Sects of which they were hindred before by the Episcopal Clergy their procurement and they no doubt had reason to thank the late King or any for the Liberty it self having by it received a glimps of the Gospel by their freedom to Preach it though they desponded of its long continuance but expected a greater Persecution thereafter which they Preached to their Hearers and no doubt their Prophetick Sentences had been fulfilled had not God in his Mercy prevented it by preparing a fit and glorious Instrument to preserve his People from the designed overflowing deluge of Popery and Slavery And what good Protestant would not thank a Turk or Pagan nay the Pope himself for Life Liberty and Freedom of the Reformed Religion much more a Native Prince especially considering what is before related about a 26 Years Oppression or Persecution from those called the Regular Clergy then and by their instigation for from that Clergy they could expect no good Tidings for some of them had the Impudence to say in Pulpit That Rome should have it e're Jack Presbyter should have it this is a Matter of Fact for who would not rather receive a favour in the acceptance innocent from a professed Enemy than be oppressed or cruelly used by a counterfeit false Friend or unnatural Relation judge ye And whether these Proceedings against those poor Protestants does not too much imitate the Romish Clergy and Missionaries imposition on Magistrates and Governors to be their Executioners let any indifferent man judge So that any impartial unbyassed person indued with common Sense and Reason considering what is said which is but a Specimen of a System that could be written on this unpleasant Subject to any good Protestant were it not to vindicate the generality of the Nation unjustly aspersed of purpose to make the Government unfavourable to Strangers who know no better may conclude that this persecuted People as well as the generality of the Scotch Nation have reason not to continue the Order of Bishops there for if the practices of particular Bishops in Scotland were rendred publick none would tax or reproach that Kingdom with violence inhumanity persecution or rashness in their present management of Church Affairs especially considering how great Instruments most of the Episcopal Clergy have been of late by their connivance forwardness or contrivance to encourage the Ministers of the late Government to encroach so much upon the Religion Laws Liberties and Properties of the Protestant Subjects we shall only instance two So ex ungue Leonem The first is of their Behaviour in the Parliament 1686. when there was no less Design than to rescind the Penal Laws fram'd and enacted against Papists Seminary Priests and Jesuits Hearers and Sayers of Mass ad terrorem to hinder the Growth of Popery in that Nation which was the only legal Bulwark and Security of the Protestant Religion these all the Bishops excepting three concurred to remove by removing of which Laws all persons lax in their Principles or Evil-designing Men would be left loose and at their full liberty to act in the Matters of Religion as they pleased and in which case a prevailing Party might easily impose whatever they pleased the Power being in their hand and the Prerogatives screwed up above the highest Note in the Scale of Musick But God who did not design to destroy that Nation meerly by his Providence as the Execution of his Eternal Decrees wonderfully prevented all those Hellish Designs beyond Humane Expectation and disappointed the Actors The next was that when all rational foreseeing Men had a jealousie of a Popish Contrivance to impose a Prince of Wales to deprive the lawful Heirs of their rightful Succession and Men having searched more narrowly into the Affair they were fully convinc'd in their Minds of a Popish imposture the whole Bishops of Scotland when in the mean time they could see no less than the Persecution of their honest Brethren in England for Religious Matters they some of them no doubt for worldly Interest whither that would drive them God knows and others in Compliance for fear of Suspension from or loss of their Offices and Benefices did make the most solemn though the most unreasonable unchristian Address and disagreeable to the pretended Character that ever was upon the Birth of a supposed Prince of Wales and what Expressions are in that Address so generally known cannot but be nauseous to any good Protestant to rehearse in which they called that Prince The Darling of Heaven c. But to come in the next place to the late Procedure of the Convention their Committees during their Adjournments and the Parliament now sitting in relation to Church Affairs I shall give an impartial Account of the particulars so much as is needful And first When the Nobility and Gentry of Scotland that were here in January last 1689. did give their Advice to the then Prince of Orange now our Gracious King what Methods to take in relation to the Settlement of the Scotch Nation then in great Confusion having no Government by reason of the late King's desertion of the Government The King did follow their Advice and albeit that some alledged a general Proclamation to be published in ordinary times and accustomary places for calling the ensuing general Meeting of the Estates would be the best Method to call them together for Reasons neither fit nor necessary to be inserted here yet His Majesty to a general Satisfaction did take very knowing Mens Advice to dispatch his Circular Letters which he did by vertue of the Trust they reposed in Him and the Advice given by the Gentry and Nobility of Scotland to such as had right to represent the Nation in a general Meeting not omitting the then Bishops their Order being as then Established by a standing Law which His Majesty would not Transgress And when those Representatives of the Nation did meet freely frequently and fully in a general Meeting by virtue of our now Gracious King's Warrant before explained had the Bisshops then behaved themselves as became persons of their Profession pretended Honour Character if they thought not the Call sufficiently warrantable they ought either not to present themselves at that general Meeting or when they did appear by vertue of that general Warrant they might have Protested and deserted the Meeting as in their Opinion not legal before it were constituted so by the general Meeting it self Otherwise to have complyed fully upon their Meeting and not only to have acknowledged their Faults Errors and Mismanagements in the late Government but also to have gone on honestly and vigorously with the other Estates in Prosecution of the good Designs of their meeting First By concurring to heal the Breaches made in the Hedges of Religion and removing the Encroachments made upon its Laws Secondly By restoring the wholsom Laws Liberties Properties of the Estates their Fellow-Subjects so much
to an evil designing Party who are always like the Salamander in the Fire and love to fish in muddy Waters acting both in different Elements for the same Ends or Discouragement to the good Party whose different Opinions about Circumstances ought not to divide them in the main I shall first state it as my Hypothesis as many Learned moderate Divines under both Governments do that Church Government whether it be this or that is a Matter indifferent There being no Platform of Government left in the Church either by Christ or his Apostles or their Disciples further than appointing Bishops in every Church which word in the common acceptation in the Originals and Translations by both Parties is understood to be Overseers without mentioning any Preheminence to them over their Brethren these being Presbyters and their Deacons and Elders So that Church Government in this case would seem to be left indifferent and every Nation or People link'd together in one Body or Society in their own Civil Government whether Monarchical Democratical Aristocratal c. have it left in their Option being free from Engagements either to the one or the other to settle that Church Government which the major part of that People or Society judges most suitable to the Word of God and the general Inclination and Genius of the People This being granted in the general In the next place let us consider That when that Nation in particular as generally all Europe were enslaved to the Romish Bondage there was no other and could no other Government be but Prelacy suitable to that of their Universal Bishops whose Vassals they as well as all other Prelats were as they called them who assume to themselves always the Title of Head of the Church and Christ's Vicars upon Earth which all those of the reformed Protestant Religion Episcopal or Presbyterial look upon as Blasphemous And therefore the Pope is called by them all Antichrist and no doubt he is But when that Peoples Eyes came to be opened to see clearly the Fundamental Errors which that Church maintained for several Ages and the many Cheats Villanies and Wickedness committed by that Clergy in general They began to be reformed in their Lives and Manners by the indefatigable pains and labour of some few Presbyters who suffered several kinds of Martyrdoms and other Cruelties therefore by the Popish Clergy And the Romish Clergies barbarous Cruelties in those times towards those valiant Champions in Christ's Cause did at last animate the People to prosecute a General Reformation in that Nation and their Reformation being by Presbyters It seems gave the rise there to that denomination of Presbyterian And the Romish Clergies Cheatry and wickedness in their Lives and Conversation and Cruelty towards those Reformers and those of the Reformed Religion occasioned the Peoples general hatred at the very Order of Bishops And besides that the bulk of the Scots Clergies Opinion being That a well Constitute Presbyterian Government is both more agreeable to the Word of God and general Inclination and Genius of the People than any other And though Superintendants were appointed there at the beginning of the Reformation the generality of the People not being as yet well Reformed the Reformers that they might prevail the more readily in moderation with the generality of the People especially considering the nearer they came to the last Settlement being Governed in Civil Matters by a Popish King Regent and Queen in the Infancy of their Reformation the easier the work appeared to be yet the Presbyterian was the first Established Government being fully settled in the Year 1592. by a general Meeting of the Estates and Confirmed by Parliament and continued so till the Year 1606. after that King James came to the Imperial Crown of England when he endeavoured to make an Union between the two Nations setled an Episcopal Government there though contrary to the Inclinations of the People and Clergy in general Expecting thereby to Unite them as well in Trade as in Church Government And the hopes of an Union in Trade and other things beneficial to Scotland moved many of those who were Presbyterially inclined to go beyond their Inclinations and Opinion alongst with that Settlement for present But that Settlement by Bishops in Scotland being all it seems that the then English Clergy and others designed and in which Settlement many Eminent Men of that Kingdom were too precipitant to their regret afterwards when they could not help it that being done the Union was blown up though I am of opinion as are many Eminent Men of both Nations and Well-wishers to the present Government That neither England or Scotland can ever be truly Happy till there be an Union in Parliaments as well as in Trade For though England be more opulent and powerful by Sea and otherwise by reason of their Trade yet when England has a Powerful Enemy in the Front Scotland might prove as dangerous if not a fatal Back-door to England and it 's not to be doubted if there were an Union but the Product and Export of Scotland to other Foreign Countries at present might be of equal Gain to England to what Scotland might expect by an Union in Trade from England which could be made appear to a demonstration But this not being hujus loci I hope to be excused for this Digression from the thing proposed there being some sympathy between the one and others Interest and to come to the point in hand when there is any Revolution in the State of that Kingdom as of late and they are so happy as to have a King and Governours that design nothing more than the Tranquillity and Happiness of the People the People eagerly in their Reformation desire to Establish that Church Government which their Clergy and People in general are of Opinion is most consonant to the Word of God and their own Inclination And to make it clear that the first Reformers were not at all for establishing the Order of Bishops Mr. Knox being in Exile in England by reason of the Clergies great Persecution in King James the Fifth's time in Scotland King Edward the Sixth having a great esteem for Mr. Knox he proffer'd him a Bishoprick in England but he thanked that good King heartily and refused it And a long time after that Kingdom was turned to the Christian Faith they had no Bishops nor does any of our own or Foreign Historians assert that there was any that had the title of Bishop in that Church before Paladius in the fifth Century nor was this Paladius either a Diocesian or Provincial Bishop Adrian in the ninth Century being the first Diocesian nor was there any Archbishop Primate or Metropolitan to consecrate Diocesian Bishops till the Year 1436. That Patrick Graham was made Archbishop of St. Andrews and yet 1200 years before this there was a Church in Scotland ruled by Monks and Presbyters and not to mention many other Eminent Men that treat upon that subject