hath been worshipped such Constitutions and Solemnities have been derived from the Apostles or Apostolick times When the World was enlightened by the knowledge of the Son of God he did not extinguish the light of Reason but he supposes it and reasons from it and strengthens it and there is nothing more strongly enclined towards God and the Communications of his Spirit than true and unbiassed Reason Therefore such Constitutions as the reason of all Mankind is agreed in have nothing in them contrary to the purity of our Religion If Anniversary days and Festivals have been profaned among the Pagans to the worship of Idols why may they not be sanctified by the true Object of Worship and the honour of Jesus Christ Publick Solemnities have nothing in their own nature that is reproveable no more than the motion of the Sun or the vicissitude of Seasons if any part of our time be abused to excess or riot or the worship of an Idol we are liable to the Justice of God But when we return from Idols to the true God when we change our excess into fasting and prayer and when the whole Scene is become pure what is there in all this that can be blamed Do not we see all Nations agree in this that publick Solemnities and anniversary Festivals and Fasts are necessary to the being and beauty of Religion even those Nations that are at the greatest distance from our Customs our Language our Laws and way of living upon the Conversion of Nations to the Christian Religion some of the places where they worshipped their Idols have been dedicated to the true God and was it not a happy Victory over the Kingdom of Darkness when the publick Solemnities of Idolatry times and places have changed their Objects their Exercises and their End It is true the great Anniversaries of the Jewish Religion were appointed immediately by divine Authority But had not they other Anniversaries not immediately appointed by God and do you read that ever the Prophets did reprove the Jews for such Anniversaries They did indeed reprove their negligence and indevotion in them but the thing it self was acknowledged reasonable and prudent and a very powerful instrument of true Religion when managed with Contrition true Simplicity and Piety Zach. Did ye at all fast unto me saith the Lord. The Fasts mentioned here are of humane appointment and yet anniversary Our Saviour was present at the Feast of the Dedication for which there was not any immediate Divine Institution and though he had not been present if it had been superstitious he had certainly reproved it and given directions against such usages in the general To shake off all the externals of Religion is as dangerous as the multiplying of them the one is the Error of the Romanists and the other the superstition of the Dissenters It is certain that nothing preserves Knowledge of Christian Religion amongst the Body of the People more than the Festivals of the Church for it is not left to the Arbitrary or Extemporary Fits of Devotion but the Church by her excellent Discipline orders the matter so that it is not possible to forget the Faith unto which we have been once Baptized but amongst the Presbyterians in Scotland the People are taught by their Leaders to despise all Forms such great souls ought not to be fettered to the Rules and Methods of the Universal Church and therefore it is very rare to find a Child in the West of Scotland that can repeat the Commandments or the Creed I mean the Children of Presbyterian Parents and by such Enthusiastick pretences Atheism is insensibly promoted and the Body of the People alienated from the simplicity of Christian Religion and scarcely will they allow any man to be acquainted with true Religion that mentions those first Principles of it It is not possible to tell how much their opposition to Forms and Festivals of the Church has infatuated their People there is nothing can make a Clown in the West of Scotland laugh so heartily as when the Curate recommends to their Children the Creed the Lords Prayer and Ten Commandments and therefore they have no opinion of any Mans understanding unless he entertain them with Discourses of Gods unsearchable decrees of Justification before Conversion and how the Convictions of natural Conscience may be distnguished from the Convictions that proceed from the Spirt of God to observe the Festivals of the Church is but a piece of antiquated Superstition But we ought to remember that the stated Festivals and Fasts of the Church do preserve and increase true Devotion and Mortification Fasting is acknowledged a necessary Instrument of Religion by all Nations who profess any Religion at all It is not enjoyned but suposed by our Saviour why may not then the Church regulate and direct the Publick Solemnities of Fasting as well as of Prayer There is nothing so proper to fix our attention as Fasting it delivers the Soul from the oppressions of the Body and restores it to its true and native Sovereignty over our Lusts and Passions The stated Periods of Fasting oblige the most stubborn and impenitent to think of his Soul and the visible Practice of the Church Preach Repentance more effectually and make more lasting Impressions than the loose and indefinite Homilies of self-conceited men The External Solemnities of Religion may be abused as the most excellent things are when they are left to the Conduct of humane weakness but it is not possible to preserve Religion among the Body of Mankind without those Vehicles of Form and Order Nothing hinders the Reformation of the Grecian Churches from the variety of their Errors and Superstitions so much as the open neglect of Fasting among the Protestants and this Practice is not to be defended but rather lamented and amended What a Cruelty is it in all the Sectaries to deprive the People of the Publick helps of Prayer and Fasting Who can justifie this that considers the many Incumbrances Tentations Weaknesses that we daily encounter They that set up Methods of their own in opposition to the Wisdom of the Church in all Ages may amuse the People for a while but can produce nothing that is solid or useful It is certain that the Grecian Churches had long ere now made an utter Apostacy from the Christian Religion if the ancient and fix'd Discipline of the Church did not retain them in the Faith and when we consider how much the Religion that we are Baptized into triumphs over Sensualities and Concupiscence we cannot but acknowledge the Wisdom and Beauty of the ancient Discipline The most useful things in Art or Nature may be sadly abused by Folly or Ignorance We are not to separate from the Roman Church further than they have separated from the Wise and Primitive Constitution of the first Ages of Christianity and all the Protestants abroad seem to agree in this Truth for they Preach and Pray Publickly upon the great Fasts and
Church Polity to be pulled down and the entire Scheme of their Government to be defaced And all this for no other Reason and upon no wiser Consideration than because their Enemies pretended Religion and gave most sacred Names to the most abominable Crimes And now again that they are uppermost they are very angry that men do not shut their Eyes and suffer their Follies and Tyranny to overspread the Nation without Contradiction But what was it that their Ministers did suffer upon the Restitution of King Charles the Second Why they would not take Presentations from the Patron nor Collation from the Bishop they would possess their Benefices against the Law and in defiance of Authority but was any of them turned out that did comply with the Law So earnest were some of our Ecclesiastical Governors to keep them in their Places that they made such offers of Peace and Accommodation as none could refuse but sullen and desperate Incendiaries nor was there any thing required of them but what the most rigid Presbyterians might comply with if their Zeal to support their Faction had not infatuated them as much against the Vow of Baptism as against the common Peace and Safety of their Country The Presbyterians in Scotland are generally blinded with this fatal prejudice an Evidence of their incurable Enthusiasm they think that no man can act any thing against the Presbyterians but he immediately acts against the light of his own Conscience They take it for granted that their way is the only true Religion that it is plainly revealed and that they give greater Evidences of Piety and Religion than any other Society of Christians upon Earth and if you do not believe this presently without Examination you are far from the Kingdom of God Nay you are alienated from the life of God Hence it is that the Presbyterians conclude that whatever is done against their Party is done rather against the Light and Conviction of their Enemies than the petulance and vanity of their own Fraternity therefore they insinuate upon all occasions that all Reasonings against them proceed from Prophanity and Atheism or from men void of all Principles and Religion You may as easily reason a Bedlamite out of his fancied Honors and Principalities as persuade any of their deluded Disciples that they may be in an Errour and this they owe to their cunning Teachers who tyrannize over their Belief as imperiously as the cruel Brach-mans do among the Indians But let me enquire in the next place calmly did the meek Covenanters when they got the ascendent in King Charles the First his time treat their Opposite with that gentleness and discretion that condescention and longanimity that became the true Gospel of our Saviour But so very far from this temper that they prosecuted the Malignants with all Rage and Cruelty And if there were not another instance of their Cruelty but the Sufferings of the excellent Bishop Wishart men might easily penetrate into the Genius and Spirit of the Party Then their Pulpits thundered against the Malignants all the Curses in the Bible and all were Malignants in their Dialect that were not Presbyterians Add to this the universal and restless endeavours of their Ministers to ruin the Persons Estates and Families of all that opposed their Designs and their Discipline was made an Engine to pry into the greatest Secrets of Families and the Presbyterian Chaplain who was ordinarily the Ministers Intelligencer complained in his Prayers of what he thought amiss in the Family or Neighbourhood nay the Soundest part of the Nation groaned under this Tyrannical Pedantry as the Israelites did under the Egyptians when their bloody Scaffolds stood erected for some whole weeks together Then it was that their modest Ministers said that their Cause was like to prosper when they justified one Crime by the Commission of another and the whole Scheme of their Arbitrary Tyranny from their Success and Prosperity when their Turkish Argument of Force and Arms ran down the Doctrines of our Meek and Crucified Saviour And now forsooth they must tell us that the Episcopal Clergy were rigid and peevish and severe to their Parishioners when perhaps they did not represent to the Judges in their several bounds the tenth part of those Crimes that were committed against the Church and State and yet the Law did oblige them to give up the names of Recusants And do not we see that the Presbyterians since the late Revolution have out done the diligence of all men against the Clergy and Laity of the Episcopal persuasion for the whole Faction applyed their utmost force since the Revolution to ruin her Neighbours and possess themselves of all their Places Civil Military and Ecclesiastical The truth is there are no people upon Earth that value Government and Sovereignty as the Presbyterians do It is the Idol they bow to there is nothing gratifies their highest Passions so much as a power to tyrannize If the whole world were once under their Feet they would look chearful their Blood would Circulate more briskly untill this be obtained there is no rest nor peace for mankind The Discipline the Sacred Discipline of Geneve must wrestle with all Authority until the Consumation of all things But if the former excuse did not serve his Design yet it is often insinuated all a long his Book that most of the Clergy were wicked men But let me suppose the truth of this infamous accusation who made them Judges of the Scandalous Clergy Whose Delegats were they in the Execution of this Punishment I have told you before that I am acquainted with very few of the Clergy of the Western Shires but I am informed by judicious and intelligent Men that generally the Clergy in those Shires were Grave Sober and Assiduous in the work of the Ministry That most of them endeavoured upon all occasions to gain those Enthusiasts from their Schism and Delusion and were very successful in this Christian design if a new Indulgence after the Defeat at Bothwel Bridge had not buoyed up their Interest As for the scandalous Aspersions cast upon the Clergy by the Western Presbyterians it is certain that by one of the Vindicators own Rules we ought not to believe them because they are all of them of a Party and indeed of such a Party who from their first appearance in the World placed much of their strength in reproaching the Clergy If some of the Ministers in the West did not live according to the Dignity of their Character we ought rather all of us who have not renounced our Baptism to lament it rather than insult and upbraid them with it Indeed a Minister whose Employment is to fit other men for Eternal Life and yet lives in open and scandalous opposition to his Rule is the most monstrous thing in Nature All the Satyrical Writings of the Poets and all the Invectives of Orators cannot furnish one word to give a true Idea of that loathsome Creature But
Preferment receives a Presentation from the Patron he goes to the Bishop and the Bishop sends him to the Presbytery to undergoe the ordinary tryals of his Literature and Sufficiency and when the Bishop and his Presbyters with him are satisfied of his Knowledge and Learning then the Bishop serves a publick â—dict at the Church where the Candidate is to be preferred inviting all the Parishioners to come to the Cathedral Church against an appointed day to see if they have any reasonable exception against the Candidate and this is not done in a hurry but they have a competent time allowed them to gather all possible Informations concerning him from all Quarters and if they can object any thing against him that is of any weight they are heardand the Candidate is repulsed now I would gladly know what is it that the People can complain of in this Ecclesiastical Polity The Consusions of Elections that are solely left to the People are innumerable and though we had not famous and remarkable Instances in Ecclesiastical History of the bloody and tragical Effects of such popular Elections our own Country might furnish us with very many sad Experiments when the Parishoners could not compromise the affair peaceably they quickly came to Blowes and in many places to Bloodshed and Riots These were all the good effects we could discern of their popular Elections it cannot be denyed but that the method of electing the Clergy varied often and appeared under many Figures in several Ages and Countries since the first Plantations of Christianity but I dare boldly say no Christian Church came nearer the Apostolical Method and more happily avoided both Extremes than the Church of Scotland under the Episcopal Constitution But you may put the Vindicator in mind that the Presbyterians themselves never thought the Call of the People so essential a Constitution of that Pastoral Relation For there is an Act of the General Assembly ordering the Presbytery to name a Minister to such Parishes as were Malignant that is such as were of the Episcopal persuasion so this pretended popular Election if at any time it prove unserviceable to advance their Tyranny is immediately rejected For the Presbyterians do not at all believe any such inherent Right in the People to chuse their own Ministers for they think the Malignants have no Right to chuse for themselves this is the sole privilege of the Godly The Malignants are not at all to be consulted accordingly we see that though their Parliament Iudged the power of Election in the Heretors and Elders of each Parish or in the major part of them yet no Elections are allowed by the Presbyteries though never so unanimous and universal but such as are promoted by their own Factions witness Musselburgh and Tranent There is hardly any thing insisted upon by the Presbyterians more foolish and inconsistent with common honesty than this Topick from popular Elections and to say the truth the old Presbyterians never obtrude such a whimsey upon the People the Lay Patronages were not abolished in Scotland until the year 49. when the Discipline was in its Zeaith when there was no sin Preached against but Malignancy and the King Prerogative Royal was possessed by the Kirk Presbyterians in other Countries quietly submit to Lay Patrons and indeed if the Bishops take care that 〈◊〉 but pious and vertuous Men be Ordained what harm can the Church 〈◊〉 by such Presentations May not the Clergy examine such Candidates 〈◊〉 offer themselves to the Ministry accurately and narrowly 'T is certain that the most tristing and supersicial Students do most effectually recommend themselves to the People nay there are so many mean and abject Arts requisite to promote a Clergy-Man if the Hypothesis of the popular Election hold necessary that an ingenuous man cannot proslitute himself to such servile and popular methods As for the grave and retired Clergy-Man he is sure never to be preferred and if some judicious and discreet Patron does not force him out of his Solitude he is like to die amongst his Books and the Church has been served in all Ages to the best Advantages by such as least understood the Arts of Insinuation and it will continue so until the end of all things In the next place I do not see why the Vindicator should say that the Clergy pressed the Consciences of their Hearers there was nothing in our worship but the use of the Lords Prayer the Doxology and the Apostolick Creed at Baptism that they themselves objected against are not these mighty Grievances to Tender Consciences The Vindicator tells us that Presbyterians were not against the use of those Forms but they would not use them as the Prelatists did What he means by this I cannot tell but I can tell you that all the Presbyterians before the year 1638. made use of them all And that after the year 38. until Cromwell's Army invaded our Nation they never left off the using of those Catholick and Christian Forms But such of the Remonstrators as were deeply in the Interests of the Usurper then left off the use of such Forms drawing as near as was possible to the Spiritual Heights and pretended Purity of the Independents in the Army And the Christian Religion at that time in our Nation varied in its outward Figure and in their Notions about it as much as the Philosophy of the Schools and the wise Questions of Universale and Objectum Attributionis logicae The Vindicator is content to use such Forms but not as the Episcopal Church doth command it That is to say he will do nothing in Unity and Society with the Christian Church and though the Vow of Baptism oblige us as we are Members of Christs Mystical Body to preserve and support the Unity of the Christian Church yet he thinks he may leave the Communion the Church without either fear or scruple in those very things that are short Abstracts of our Faith and Symbols of our Profession And yet no People are now so violent as they in pressing Subscriptions to the Presbyterian Confession at Westminster and that without any exception restriction or explication I am of Opinion that the Episcopal Clergy of Scotland have been from their Infancy taught in and are firmly resolved to adhere to the Protestant Religion and is it not a piece of extraordinary vanity in the Presbyterians to insinuate that they themselves are the only men careful to preserve the purity of Doctrine Did not the Clergy that addressed to the pretended General Assembly plainly declare that they would subscribe the Westminster Confession as it contained the Fundamentals of Protestant Religion But this the Vindicator thinks did not sufficiently purge them from the suspicion of being Arminians There are but very few of the Clergy of Scotland that explain the Doctrine of Grace and Freewill after the method of Arminius and if any of them does not favor the Calvinian Hypothesis they are very far from propagating their
it as a thing worse than the Calves of Dan and Bethel Now you have no other Character of the Vindicator from me than what I have extracted from his Book nor do I conclude him to be habitually guilty of such shuffling and disingenuity but single Acts may grow into rooted Habits He is so deeply tinctur'd with the fulleness of his Faction that he 'll rather question whether the Body of the Sun is luminous than admit the least scruple concerning the Divine Right of Presbytery The next thing I promised to Discourse of was his Theological Reasonings that occasionally falls under his Consideration when he pleads the Innocence of the Presbyterians It is true the Vindicator does not designedly insist on those Theological heads that I am shortly to speak of but incidentally they fall in his way but he cannot forbear his venomous Squibs when he mentions the practice of the Catholic Church that mostly expose their Novelty and Enthusiasm The first I take notice of is his Censure of the Catholick Observation of Christmas The Author of the second Letter did very iudiciously observe how diametrically opposite the western Phanaticks are to the spirit and practice of the Catholick Church That they should begin their Barbarities against the Clergy upon that very day upon which the Church did celebrate the Nativity of our blessed Saviour and which the Angelical Hosts of Heaven did magnifie with triumphant Songs the Vindicator cannot let this Observation pass without his Theological Animadversions And he tells us in the first place that the Author of that Letter valu'd himself upon this fine Notion certainly the Author could not value himself upon this Notion but he had great reason to value the universal practice of the Christian Church from the first plantations of Christianity Next the Vindicator tells us that it is ridiculous to assert that that day was celebrated by the Court of Heaven What says he Did the Court of Heaven keep the Anniversary day This is profoundly wise There is no standing before the wit and smartness of such Repartees What did not the Court of Heaven celebrate the birth of our blessed Saviour And was not the Anniversary Solemnity of this Festival a just imitation of what the Court of Heaven did But he asks if the Court of Heaven did keep an Anniversary For the great Danger is in that word Anniversary But might not the Christian Church take care that this glorious Mystery should never be forgotten And was it not reasonable that our Posterity should remember it as well as they to whom it was first reveal'd and could the Christian Church take more effectual methods to preserve the memory of it than by appointing this Anniversary Festival He grants that the Institution is very ancient but that the Church did keep it in all Ages is said without book If he means that there are no Presbyterian Books that give Evidence for this Festival we grant it but if he mean that the Church did not observe it from the very days of the Apostles we desire to know when it began and in what Period of the Church it was not observed and then we may see more clearly into the Origine of this Festival And tho it had not been from the beginning the Christian Church may continue the practice of it upon the best reasons He asks again If our Saviour was born upon the 25th day of December but this is childish and impertinent when the Church did order the Commemoration of that Mystery on the 25. of December she did not decide that Chronological Nicety whether our Saviour was born on the 25. of December nor was it needful to encrease the Devotions of the Church that they should be performed with regard to one day more than to another as if they depended upon such a Critical Minute of time I hope the Vindicator knows that the 25. of December in France is not the 25. of December in Britain and yet the Christians of either communion celebrate the Nativity of our blessed Saviour with regard to the Calculations of the Country in which they live nay he may know that there are Confiderable Objections against the common Aera of the Christians But the Vindicator thinks that such an Anniversary day is not to be kept by Gods Appointment But hath not God appointed us to obey the Apostles and their Successors our lawful Ecclesiastical Rulers to the end of the World And may not they regulate the publick Solemnities and returns of Gods Worship Is there any thing in this Regulation but what hath a natural tendency to preserve and propagate the great truths of the New Testament With what impudence then dare we refuse obedience to the universal Church when her Constitutions are so just so wise and so agreeable to the whole tenor of the Gospel If all the Ecclesiastical Constitutions from the days of the Apostles had been written in the Bible could one read it in a thousand years There was a plain necessity in that case to have continued the immediate inspiration in the Church until the consummation of all things Upon this their Hypothesis Reason becomes useless to order the publick Solemnities of the Church the Christian Faith being once revealed they needed not the assistance of a new Revelation to order its publick Solemnities For when the festivities and Fasts of the Church were only conversant about the Articles of Faith already reveal'd it is supposed that common sense and discretion must cloath the great Mysteries of our Religion with such vehicles of time place and publick Solemnity as best preserve their reverence and transmit them to Posterity But this is an unfortunate mistake an original Blunder of the whole Party and as long as they keep to this Maxim they must necessarily continue stubborn and ungovernable and proof against the wisest Constitutions of the Christian Church for they must have Scripture for such things as could not be contain'd in the Scripture but he fortifies this with a Latin Sentence as if Nonsence could change its Nature by being put into Latin For the Question is not of Articles of Faith but concerning the Constitutions of the universal Church But perhaps the Vindicator might yield to the Observations of Christmas if the Observation of it were not anniversary There is some hidden dangerous Plot in that word Anniversary as if our Posterity were not to be educated in that Faith which we believe And so Enthusiastick our Presbyterians are become that they broach Principles unknown to all the subdivisions of Dissenters in England and tho more knowing and intelligent among them never scruple the observation of an Anniversary day since they yearly commemorate the dreadful Fire of London by Fasting and Prayers From all this I conclude That it is very dangerous if not impious to separate from the Church in those excellent Constitutions that have been received from the beginning and in all Countries where the name of Jesus
external Evidences there is no penetrating into the hearts of men they are only accessible to Omniscience to whom all things are naked and open But the Vindicator may remember that the dissenting Ministes in and about London in their late agreement require no more of any as marks of Orthodoxy than the subsoription of 36 Articles The Vindicator insinuates that though the Clergy do subscribe them yet they preach against them This is another stroke of his good Nature and Civility and he may beconvinced long e're now that the Episcopal Clergy is not so very pliable to do any thing against their Convictions in view of their worldly Interest even when he and his Party have been very active to reduce them to extraordinary straits and difficulties nay if he will oblige me to be plain I could tell him where some Ministers of that Faction were so villanously zealous against the Clergy that they did solicite Witnesses against them where they themselves or some of their intimate Brethren were Judges I am not to publish Names but I can prove this whenever it is found convenient I know the Vindicator will be very curious to know my Informers but I am not obliged to be so particular though I am resolved by Gods assistance to perform all the promises I make to him and his Associates But the next Censure that he bestows on the Clergy is of the same nature with the former The Author of the second Letter had said that there were many among the Clergy who were not inclined to be every day talking to the people of Gods decrees and absolute reprobation c. Indeed I think the Author gave a just account of the prudence and modesty of his Brethren but the Vindicator lashes him here with great severity and tells him that his discourse is impertinent for they do not require that one should talk always to the people of Decrees and Reprobations But here the Vindicator gives no great proof of his Logick For the phrase every day did not imply a Metaphysical strictness as if the Presbyterians never preach'd on any other Subject but on the absolute Decrees and Reprobation but the plain and obvious meaning is that Presbyterians did frequently and indiscreetly handle such abstruse Subjects as neither they nor the people were able to fathom And all such Phrases though they seem to imply a Logical universality must be interpreted to intend no more than that such or such a thing frequently comes to pass The next Blow is more severe and one had need to be armed Capa-pee to meet with it But if he mean as he must if he speak to the purpose that the absolute decrees of Electon and Reprobation both praeteritum as an act of Sovereignty and praedamnatum as an act of Justice are not to be held forth or taught to the people we abhor this as an unsound Doctrine and look on him as a pitiful Advocate for the Orthodoxy of the Clergy Thus the Vindicator is sufficiently revenged of his Adversary who is now more lamentably shattered than can be imagined It is not generous in the Vindicator thus to pursue his Victory is it possible that such meek and calm Saints shall thus openly expose the weakness of their Antagonists But if the Vindicator were out of his passion I would entreat him to tell me in what place of Saint Paul's Epistles does he read of a Decretum praedamnatum and what ever come of the Calvinian or Arminian Hypothesis I am afraid his Explication is both conplicated Nonsense and Blasphemy But he tells us that he understands Philosophy as well as his Neighbors pray let him tell us in which of the Schoolmen or Protestant Calvinists did he ever read of a Decretum praedamnatum praeteritio and praedamnatio may be met with but a Decretum praedamnatum is the peculiar invention of this Philosopher The Decree is the Act of God and there is no act of his can be condemned Such an unfortunate Blunder as this is was never before seen in print and yet the Vindicator must tell us that such things must be held forth to the people and in imitation of Saint Paul too Truly I think they had as good not be held forth but hid and laid up in the boundless Registers of Chimera's Non-entities and Negations I think this Deoretum praedamnatum may keep company with such ancient Gentlemen of its own kindred and Family and ought not at all to be held forth to the people And if you be acquainted with the Vindicator you may advise him to read the Calvinian Hypothesis before he venture to explain it And perhaps there are some about him who may expose his explication of the decrees as much as they do his Latin reasonings against Idolatry The next thing I take notice of is his historical Argument from the Culdees to prove that there was a Presbyterian Church in Scotland in the primitive times before Popery entred And the plain truth is this is the only thing that he says that deserves to be considered not for any weight or historical Truth that is in it but because the learned Blondel made use of it to support that imaginary Hypothesis from some Ancient Testimonies He had met with it in Buchanan's History and that learned Historian took it unwarily from his Contemporary Monks Boctius and others or such as were little removed from his own Age Blondel made use of it to serve the dissenting Interest in Britain And to the end that he might make a great muster of Testimonies he must needs erect a Presbyterian Church in Scotland towards the end of the second Century or beginning of the third If they can prove this I must confess it is of considerable weight but the great misfortune is there are no Authors now extant upon whose Testimony an affair so distant from our times can be reasonably founded None within six hundred years of that Period gives us the least evidence for it when I say six hundred years I do not mean that good Authors at the distance of seven or eight hundred years give any Evidence for it more than their Predecessors but when there is none to vouch it within that Period it is ridiculous to impose it as a piece of true History And our Vindicator tells us that tho the Presbyterian Government continue for some Ages in the Church of Scotland before they had Bishops Can he name any Church upon Earth that embrac'd the Christian Religion and yet none to write the affairs of their own time for some Ages together But if the writings of those ancient Presbyterians are lost Are there no fragments of them preserved in the writings of succeeding Ages There were no people so ignorant as the Monks for some Centuries before the Reformation and yet there was nothing that they were so ignorant in as true Ecclesiastical History And if they had been the most learned and accurate what could they help
to connive a while at at their Insolence for they had preached the People into a persuasion that the King was to betray his own Crown and Kingdoms to the King of Spain And when three Noblemen were brought to Tryal before the Justice the Ministers would needs order the Process in October 1593 and to back them they stirred up multitudes of the Rabble to Arms thereby to force Justice to decide in their favour nor would they disband or abstain from coming before the Judges in armed Crowds although the King and Council did by Proclamation prohibit them If this be Presbyterian Government it must be confessed that Anno 1590 1591 1592 and 1593. Presbyters had it solely But all this time Bishops did exist by Law enjoyed their Rents and preached in their Churches if you trust not us Notice the most Authentic Records of the Kingdom By Act of Parliament 1. Jac. 6. Chap. 7. Ministers are ordered to be presented by the Patrons to the Superintendent of the Diocese Note At this time most of the Bishops were Popish which occasioned the Protestants to appoint Superintendents Anno 1572. Parl. 3. Jac. 6. Chap 45. The Government of the Church is declared to be in the Archbishops Bishops and Superintendents Note Both Bishops and Superintendents are contemporary then in the Church The like owned Chap. 46. 48. and 54. of that Parliament In the year 1573. The Authority of the Bishops is owned by the first Act of the 4. Par. Jac. 6. In the year 1578. the like by Act. 63. Parl. 5. Jac. 6. In the year 1579. the like by Act. 71. Parliam 6. Jac. 6. In the year 1581. That the Bishops did continue in the Church appears from Act 100. Parl. 7. Jac. 6. The like appears from the Acts 106 and 114 of that Parliament In the year 1584. The Bishops Authority fully owned Act. 132. Parl. 8. Jac. 6 In the year 1587. It appears that Prelacy existed then by Act 28. Parl. 11. Jac. 6. Also in that 11. Parl. It appears by the Act of Annexation that Prelacy did still exist by Law even although their Temporalties were annexed to the Crown and by the 111. Act of that 11. Parl. In the year 1591 1592 1593 and 1594. The King and Bishops could not stop the Insolence of Presbyters nor their meeting in Synods and Assemblies without any interposition of the Royal Authority but this hindered not but that the Bishops did still exist by Law and exerced some part of their Office and in all Parliaments and Conventions of Estates the Prelates did did always Sit and Vote as the first of the three Estates as the Records and Sederunts of all the Parliaments will prove In the year 1596. Leslie Bishop of Ross dying at Brussels Mr. David Lindsey was presented by the King to the Bishoprick the very next year In the year 1598. there was a Conference appointed at Falkland betwixt the Commissioners of the Assembly and some appointed by the King to meet with them where they agreed on ten Articles or Propositions of Policy for the Church relating chiefly to the Clergy's Votes in Parliament and the Elections of Bishops in the Dioceses some of these Propositions were foolish but it was thought convenient that the King should comply with those Hot Heads in some things for at that time Severals began to debate his Right of Succession to the Crown of England and so he would have all quiet at Home yet still this is evident that Bishops did then exist by Law and that altho something concerning them was debated yet their Office and Order was not In the year 1600 these forementioned Articles were appoved in the Assembly at Monross March 28 1600. and to that Assembly Mr. Dury who was the chief Tool with Mr. Melvil for parity at his death did write an Exhortation disowning his former Errors and earnestly advising them to submit to the ancient Order and to chuse good Bishops of the best of the Ministers In the year 1601. the King called an Assembly of the Church to meet at Brunt Island where many good things were Enacted both for the true Liberty of the Church and for reclaiming the Popish Nobility from their Errors which proved more effectual and pacific than all the former furious Methods which at that time were promoted by a Hot Headed Man called Davidson who by a Letter to the Assembly incited them to declare against the Kings Hypocrisie and other Errors The Assembly would have proceeded to Censure him but the King would not allow it saying it was matter of Joy that these Hot Heads were reduced to one or some few In the year 1602. the King in an Assembly at Halyrood-House did shew great Clemency to some firy Ministers whom the Assembly would have Censured as also he gave great Satisfaction to the whole Assembly and Nation by his excellent Proposals for establishing Provisions both for Bishops and Presbyters And in this Assembly of the Church was the fifth of August appointed an Anniversary Thanksgiving for the Kings Delivery from Gowry's Conspiracy Before the Diet appointed for the next General Assembly the Crown of England did fall to the King by the Death of Queen Elizabeth so there was no meeting of Church General Assemblies for a while but the few remaining Hot Headed Presbyters were very busie on the Kings removal so far and fearing the excellent Order of the English Church the great Safety and Peace of Britain depending on an intire and full Concord of the Island they were apprehensive that upon such Considerations the King would heartily promote a further Establishment of Episcopal Jurisdiction in Scotland The Presbyterians in this Juncture did busily stir up Prejudices in the People against the Church of England tho undoubtedly the best Reformed Church and greatest Bulwark against Popery And though the King for good Reasons when he went to England Adjourned the General Assembly from July 1604 to July 1605. yet these Men prevailed with Nine of the Fifty Presbyteries of Scotland to keep the Meeting notwithstanding of the Kings Prorogation where Thirteen Persons meeting did most Seditiously run into such Declarations against the Statutes and standing Laws as were by the Judicatures declared Treason and for which Severals of the Thirteen were Condemned before the Justices For they could not be persuaded either to acknowledge or revoke their seditious Pasquils but they were afterwards pardoned by the King when they confessed that the Chancellour encouraged their Meeting in July 1604. and proved it which forced the Chancellour to prove likewise that they promised to connive at his being a Papist and his Possession of what he had of the Church Lands upon Condition he should own them against Episcopacy whereupon the King said that the Presbyterians would betray the Protestant Religion in hatred to Episcopacy and the Chancellour would betray Episcopacy for greed of their Temporalties So far my Author And now from all this I infer that the first Reformers of our Religion in