indeed it was not Preached till after Presbytery was established and so you may think it is inartificially done to bring it in here but I had rather take a reproof for transgressing the rules of History than not record the Testimony of such a vigorous Witness especially considering how notable it is for it is in real sense that Christ was a Martyr for Presbyterian Government His very words are these Church-Government is no light matter it is an ordinance of God the Royal Diadem of Christ he was a Martyr on this head it was his Ditty on the Cross. Joh. 19. 19. Iesus of Nazareth King of the Iews A wonderful Sermon this was as ever you read I was once at the pains to number the particulars he had amassed in it And if my memory serves me they were about 180. I have thus given you this tast of their Sermons at once though it is not so exactly agreable to the true order of things that you may have the fuller view of them and I might not be obliged to make so many interruptions as another method would have required And by this sample you may judge both of the parts and zeal of the rest of the Brethren for it is not to be doubted but those whose Sermons were not judged accurate enough for the Press were yet every whit as much heated with the holy fire according to the proportions of their Capacities as these first Rate-men But neither was all this yet enough for securing the precious Interest It was necessary to set other tools also a going One there was which I believe had no inconsiderable influence there was a generation of Female Advocates belike some of them Disciples of such as Mr. David Williamson Ladies and Gentlewomen who came at that time and stay'd at Edinburgh and made it their work by all imaginable ways to influence the Members of Parliament into a zealous disposition to carry on the work There was also great throngs of the Preachers still in Town who could not have any other business but to do what they could for advancing the Cause but I believe the Holy Sisters the Citizens Wives and some of themselves too were as successful in making Proselytes as the Preachers for they had better occasion to traffick with such of the Members as stay'd at their houses or were of their acquaintance And besides they had t'other shilling in greater readiness to give for a pint of Sack and that goes very far with well disposed People After all these there was a certain company of Planets little Luminaries Members of Parliament some of whom I could name if it were needful who made it their trade early and late in season and out of season in all companies and on all occasions to vex the more intelligent and to fright the less discerning and very many were such into a forwardness for Presbytery Nay more yet it was confidently talked that not a few of the meaner sort of Members got Money and were kept upon Pension that they might be servicable By these and other such Arts was the Cause carried on and no Methods were left unessayed till a competent number of Votes were secured for every thing that the Commissioner intended While in the mean time the Club was entirely broken and the generality of the Kingdom who were of other Principles found themselves obliged to live quietly and wait a more proper season for diligence and action And so much for the first part of my undertaking Come we now to the Second Which is to give you a brief Account how this Act was prepared debated voted and at last got the Royal Assent in the House It was introduced according to its quality by the Earl of Sutherland who presented an Act to the House concerning it upon the day of I have seen a Copy of it and thought once upon Transcribing it for your use but it was tediously long and coarsely worded and it contained little more than what you have in the Printed Act and therefore after some more thinking I judged it not worth the pains Although it was believed that it was compiled by some of the Brethren who were best studied in the matter some other schemes were also given in by some other Members but his Lordship 's got the preference It was most regarded and best liked by Melvil and Crawford who probably had seen it before and so it was particularly recommended to the Committee which was nominated for Church Affairs Eighteen were at first named to be of that Committee viz. Noblmen Barons Burgesses Earl of Crawford Sir Iohn Maxwell Sir Tho. Stewart of Coltness E. of Sutherland Sir Patrick Hume Anderson for Glascow V. of Arburthnet Sir Iohn Monro Smith for St. Andrews V. of Stair Laird of Levingston William Heggins L. Cardross Laird of Brodie Iames Kenman L. Carmichael Laird of Dalfoilly Patrick Mordock All of the true stamp except the Laird of Levingston who it was thought was named merely for shew or that it might not be said they were all Presbyterians Besides these first Eighteen I think other two were added afterwards but I have forgot their names This Committee met very often and commonly they had some of the leading Ministers with them for advice At last after many an hour and much pains spent about it it was returned by the Committee to the House on Friday the 23d of May more briefly and distinctly digested indeed and much more smoothly worded and yet without any substantial alteration or difference betwixt it and the E. of Sutherland's Copy Being thus prepared and returned to the House in the first place it was twice read over all the Members composing themselves to a diligent and headful Attention This done not a few points in it were debated and several Amendments were made But before I proceed further I will set it down as it was at last agreed upon and made a Law and then give you a brief account of some particulars in it which may perchance contribute something to your better understanding of it ACT Ratifying the Confession of Faith and settling Presbyterian Church-Government Iune 7. 1690. OUR Soveraign Lord and Lady the King and Queens Majesties and the three Estates of Parliament conceiving it to be their bound Duty after the great deliverance that God hath lately wrought for this Church and Kingdom in the first place to settle and secure therein the true Protestant Religion according to the truth of Gods word as it hath of a long time been Professed within this Land As also the Government of Christ ' s Church within this Nation agreeable to the word of God and most conducive to the advancement of true Piety and Godliness and the establishing of Peace and Tranquillity within this Realm And that by an Article of the Claim of Right it is declared that Prelacy and the Superiority of any Office in the Church above Presbyters is and hath been a great and unsupportable Grte vance and Trouble
others were deprived for not giving Obedience to the Act of the Estates of the said 13th of April 1689. Therefore Their Majesties with Advice and Consent foresaid do hereby Declare all the Churches either deserted or from which the Conform Ministers were removed or deprived as said is to be vacant and that the Presbyterian Ministers Exercising within any of these Parishes or where the last Incumbent is dead shall continue their Possession and have Right to the legal Benefices and Stipends forth and from the time of their entering and in time coming ay and while the Church as now Established take further course therewith In the Article thus digested you see that 't is said That Conform Ministers who had Deserted which none had or were removed from their Churches ought not to be reponed The Duke was not pleased with this Clause And pleaded That it was not only needless as 't is evident it was but also that by necessary consequence it would infer that these who had been removed alias Rabbled for in this case these are truly equivalent terms since the 13th of April ought not to be reponed neither For if their being thus removed was a sufficient Reason in one case why they ought not to be reponed why not in all Which Reasoning prevailed and so that Clause was left out Another Amendment was You see by the Article as it was prepared by the Committee The Presbyterian Ministers simply upon their Exercising in such a Parish should have the Benefice which the Duke excepted against And said that many Presbyterian Ministers had exercised their Ministry in several Parishes and Possessed themselves of the Churches from which the Conform Ministers had been forced who had neither Presentation nor Call from the greater or better part of the Parish And what Title could such Men have to the Benefice This was pungent also and so this Clause was added as you see it in the Printed Act Exercising their Ministry by the desire or consent of the People The Third was this in the Article as prepared by the Committee The Presbyterian Ministers were to have the Benefices forth and from the time of their entering without specifying any definite term or year from which that entering might be dated The Duke said This was very strange for many Presbyterian Ministers had exercised their Ministry in several Parishes even since King Iames's Toleration which was in the year 1687. So that this Clause gave them Title even since that year though both in that year and the next there was a legal Incumbent in the actual and uninterrupted exercise of his Ministry in the Parish What Iniquity was this Hereupon the time of their entering was limited to the year 1689. as now you have it I have represented these things that you may see as severe as the Act is how much more so it had been if the Committee's draught had passed or if the Duke of Hamilton had not been at very much pains Besides these Amendments in this Article procured by his Grace on that 23d of May there was another thing proposed by the Laird of Kellburn one of the Commissioners I think for the Shire of Bute it was that such Ministers as had not had free access to their Churches and by consequence could not give Obedience to the Proclamation of the Estates April the 13th upon the days appointed but were willing to obey when they should have opportunity might be excepted out of the number of these whom the Parliament was to declare deprived and their Churches vacant But that was rejected with scorn Come we now to our Wednesday on which the great Point in the Article was debated viz. Whether the Deed of the Rabble should be justified and all these Ministers who had been driven from their Churches by the Rabble should be deprived The Duke of Hamilton Pleaded earnestly that this Article might not pass It was wonderful to call these Men Deserters For was it not notorious all the Kingdom over that they were violently forced from their Churches by Tumult and Rabble and could not without the evident peril of their Lives continue in the exercise of their Ministry at their respective Churches It was as wonderful to declare their Churches vacant because of their being removed from them For what would be the sense of the word removed in the present Case Was it not plain that it was just neither more nor less than Rabbled And what might the World think of the Justice of the Parliament if it should sustain that as a sufficient ground for declaring their Churches vacant These Men had entered to their Churches according to Law how then could they be deprived without a legal Tryal What evil had they done They had never had opportunity to disobey the Government They were violently thrust from their Churches by the Rabble before the 13th of April 1689. So it was impossible for them to obey the Authority of the meeting of the Estates in that days Proclamation Nay consider that Proclamation and it will be found that it did not bind them Were they chargeable with any other Crimes or Scandals Why then let them be first Tryed and Convict and then deprived by due Course Was it ever heard that Ministers of the Gospel of Christ were turned out of their Offices and Livings without the least Guilt fixed on them what a reflection would it cast upon the King if such an Act should be made Did not he come to these Kingdoms to deliver us from Arbitrary Power To secure Liberty and Property as well as Religion But how was it consistent with this to deprive so many Protestant Ministers of their Churches and Livings for no imaginable Reason in Law or Equity Besides when first the Government of this Kingdom was transferred on His Majesty did he not receive these Men into his Protection by his Declaration dated February the 6th 1688 9. But how was it consistent with the common Protection due to Subjects to deprive them of their undoubted Rights so very Arbitrarily These and many other such unanswerable Arguments did his Grace insist on Neither did any one Man so much as once offer at shewing how such a thing could consist with Law Justice or Reason While the Duke was thus Pleading Sir Patrick Scott Presented the Petition and craved it might be read He was assisted by the Duke who prest it very warmly And then there was no little stir in the House For such as were resolved to Vote the Petitioners out of their Rights knew very well if it should be read they were not able to render a solid Reason why what it craved should not be granted and therefore they had no inclination that the House should hear it But then it was as difficult to find a colour of Reason why it should not be read Crawford said It could not be read in the midst of the Act a wise Tale indeed for when was it proper to read it if not when the Case it
Clergy And forthwith a stop was put to the Course of Justice For generally those who were liable to pay the Tythes in the Western Shires where Rabling had most prevailed refused to pay one Farthing of what was due for the year 1688. or any years preceding having for them the pretext of this Act of Council Neither would the Judges grant Sentences in favour of any such Ministers as had the hard fortune to stand in these unlucky Circumstances And indeed it was no wonder if the Judges were shy to meddle with such an Act considering on the one hand how darkly and indistinctly it was worded and on the other how ticklish the Times then were and how natural it was for the Council to have turned them out of their Places if they had chanced to give it an Interpretation however consonant with the Rules of Justice unsuitable to the designs of the Government No man I think needs to doubt but this Treatment seem'd grievous enough to the poor Sufferers They had entered to their respective Churches according to Law They had never been summoned to appear before any Court Ecclesiastical or Civil nor tryed or convict of any Crime or Scandal that might infer a Deprivation Only they had been thrust from their Stations by lawless force and violence a thing so far from being Criminal in them that it rather ought to have engaged the Government to have taken particular care for their Redress and Restitution What then may be thought of this precluding them the benefit of the Common Law for what was uncontrovertibly due to them Especially considering that most of them had numerous Families and not one of twenty any Stock of his own besides his Benefice wherewith to maintain them Hard enough sure Well Necessity you know Sir is a rigorous Taskmaster and puts one upon all imaginable Shifts to be eased of its burthen And so it is not to be doubted but these poor men would bestir themselves as effectually as they could to have that Act if not repealed at least explained and made more favourable as indeed they did but without success For though some Consellors such as the Duke of Hamilton in whose absence the Act was made were inclin'd to do them Justice yet at that time the Earl of Crawford and the Lord Cardrosse two Lords who had some reason to commiserate the needy and their Adherents of the Presbyterian Party made greatest numbers at the Council Board and they had made the Act and so they would not so much as hear of admitting it to a new deliberation This as soon as they knew it made the afflicted Ministers though they had prepared their Petition quite give over the design of addressing to the Council and betake themselves to the last Remedy Patience till the Parliament should meet to which their Case by the Act of Council was refer'd I have hitherto given you but a very slender account of this matter but if you will be pleas'd to read on you shall have what may satisfie you before I have done Now proceed we strait to the Parliament In the mean time I must tell you that it is no part of my present undertaking to meddle with any thing but what concerns the Church or the Clergy And even of that too you are not to expect the most perfect account The Parliament met upon the 15th of April 1690. And the first thing they did in relation to the Church was the Abolition of the Kings Supremacy in Ecclesiastical matters But alas the thorough-pac'd Presbyterians were sadly nick'd in that matter for it was only the Act which was made Anno 1669. that was rescinded and other Acts that asserted the Supremacy to a degree entirely inconsistent with the Prerogatives of the Kirk were kept in force and unrepeal'd At least this I am sure of Mr. Andrew Melvill a great Promoter if not the first Parent of Presbyterian Parity in Scotland and Mr. David Black and such antient Worthies of the Sect reckoned them intolerable when they called them the Bloody Gullies of Arbitrary Power i. e. the Cut-throat Knives But that 's no great matter only one thing let me add further concerning the first Act which is that it founds the Repeal of that Sixty Nine Act upon this reason that That Supremacy was inconsistent with the Establishment of the Church-Government not now in being for Presbytery was not erected till six Weeks after But now desired which what sense it may make in Law or Politicks it is not my purpose to enquire But I remember many thought then that it was a pretty odd fetch in common reason to abolish that Act because the Supremacy as explained in it was inconsistent with what had no real Existence but only an imaginary one in the desires of a Party But however that was The making this Act was an encouraging Step to the Presbyterian Ministers for no sooner had they found by this that their Party was strongest in the Parliament than they presented their Petition to it craving an entire Settlement of all their new and peculiar Scheme which Petition because it was of so considerable consequence and so far as I can learn though twice published here yet never reprinted in England and so perhaps you have not had occasion to consider it I will here set down and give you some short Animadversions upon it To His GRACE His MAJESTIES High-Commissioner and to the Right Honourable the Estates of Parliament The Humble ADDRESS of the Presbyterian Ministers and Professors of the Church of Scotland Sheweth THAT as we cannot but acknowledge and adore the Holy and Righteous Dispensation of the Lord in all the great and long continued Afflictions wherewith he hath afflicted us for our sins so we are not a little filled with admiration at the great and wonderful Providence of our Most Gracious God who alone doth great Wonders for his Mercy endureth for ever That at such a Time when our strength was gone and there was none to deliver He mercifully stirred up that Pious and Magnanimous Prince William then Prince of Orange now by the good hand of God Our Gracious Soveraign to Espouse the Interest of the Protestant Religion and of the afflicted Ministers and Professors thereof in these Kingdoms and hath blessed him in so Heroick and Noble an Undertaking with agreeable success As also hath raised up your Lordships our most Noble and Honourable Patriots to joyn heartily with His Majesty in appearing zealously for securing of the Protestant Religion in this Kingdom and for what may tend to the better establishment thereof in all its concerns and in evidencing your just Indignation against the Corruptions of Church and State in your Lordships Claim of Right And particularly by freeing us of the Yoke of Prelacy and of the undue Powers and Ecclesiastical Supremacy in Church Matters formerly established in the Supreme Magistrate And these your Lordships zealous beginnings for appearing for the interest of the Protestant Religion and
Professors thereof have been and are great matter of joy to our hearts and of blessing and magnifying our Lord and Master in your Lordships behalf So they are a door of hope to us and to all that love the true Reformed Protestant Religion in this Land That his Grace His Majesties High Commissioner and this Honourable Court of Parliament will in your Station go on zealously in your work of purging this poor oppressed Church from all Corruptions brought into it by Ambitious and Covetous Church-men who sought their own things but not the things of Iesus Christ and from all the sad Consequences which have followed upon the Erecting of Prelacy such as were the driving several hundreds of Ministers all at one time out of their Churches without either accusation or citation and the filling of their places with Ignorant and Scandalous Persons which His Majesty is Graciously Pleased to Notice in his Declaration for Scotland as an occasion of all this poor Churches Miseries and from which unsupportable Sufferings He declared His Resolution to relieve and rescue us And we may add with many also erroneous and unsound in the Faith Enemies to the Reformation and who have now appeared disaffected to the present Civil Government as also framing of a numerous train of severe Laws severely Executed both on Ministers and People of all degrees so for that even while we were counted and treated as Sheep for the slaughter we might not Petition or Complain without rendring our selves highly Criminal by the Laws and Acts then made All which we hope the Commissioner his Grace and your Lordships in this present Parliament will take to your serious Consideration and will free this poor oppressed Church from such Oppressors and Oppressions and settle it again upon the right Foundations of Government and Discipline agreeable to the Word of God and Established in this Church by Law near an hundred years agoe Which settlement we are confident will prove the best remedy of all our otherways incurable distractions and the mean of quieting and uniting the whole Country in a joynt and firm Opposition against all His Majesties and your Lordships Enemies We therefore His Majesties most Loyal Subjects and your Lordships most humble and dutiful Servants in Christ Humbly beseech the Commissioner his Grace and Honourable Estates of Parliament seeing the Kings Majesty hath Declared and your Lordships with him have Zealously appeared for the Protestant Religion you will be Graciously Pleased by your Civil Sanction to Establish and Ratifie the late Confession of Faith with the larger and shorter Catechisms which contain the sum and substance of the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches The Directory of Worship and Presbyterial Church Government and Discipline all agreeable to the Word of God and formerly received by the general Consent of this Nation And seeing Prelacy and all who have entered under Prelacy have been imposed upon the Church without her Consent in any of her free General Assemblies and that Presbyterial Government cannot be secure in the hands of them who are of contrary Principles Therefore we humbly Petition that the Church-Government may be Established in the hands of such only who by their former Carriage and Sufferings have Evidenced that they are known sound Presbyterians and well affected to His Majesties Government or who hereafter shall be found to be such which are hopeful by the Grace of God shall be managed with such Christian Prudence Moderation and Tenderness as shall leave no just matter of Complaint to any and that not only these Ministers yet alive who were unjustly thrust from their Churches may be restored thereto and these Parishes and Flocks at that time no less violently imposed upon may be freed from Intruders But also all other Presbyterian Ministers who either are already or may be by respective Flocks orderly called hereafter may have access to be settled in Churches after the Presbyterian way as they shall be Ecclesiastically approved and appointed and may have your Lordships Civil Sanction added thereunto And we also Request that the Church thus Established may be allowed by your Lordships Civil Sanction to appoint Visitations for purging out insufficient negligent scandalous and erroneous Ministers And seeing Patronages which had their Rise in the most corrupt and latter times of Antichristianism have always been a great grievance to this Church as the source and fountain of a Corrupt Ministry That these may be Abolished And that the Church may be Established upon its former good Foundations Confirmed by many Acts of Parliament since the year one thousand five hundred and sixty And that all Acts contrary to this Government that ratifie Ceremonies and impose Punishments on Presbyterians for Non-conformity and for Worshiping of God according to their Principles may be Abrogate And as a good and necessary mean for preserving the Purity of the Church your Lorships take care that Learned Sound and Godly Men be put in Universities and Seminaries of Learning humbly submitting to your Lordships Wisdom the method of considering and effecting these our desires Thus all things being done for the House of the God of Heaven according to the Commandment of the God of Heaven by your Lordships pious and wise managing these Affairs of the Church of Christ This poor long oppressed and tossed Church may at length through God's Blessing arrive at a safe and quiet Harbour and the true Honour and Happiness of His Majesty and your Lordships as the signal Nursing Fathers of the Church of Christ in this Land may be advanced and continued to future Generations And so the Blessing of the Church that was ready to perish may remain still upon His Majesty and your Lordships And your Lordships Petitioners shall ever Pray that God may Bless and Protect the Persons of Their Majesties King William and Queen Mary long to rule and govern this Nation and your Lordships under them This Petition word for word unless it was in one or two Sentences had been presented by them to the Parliament the year before for a man may be against set forms in their Petitions to God yet for them in Petitions to Parliaments while the Duke of Hamilton was Commissioner but his Grace was no ways pleased with it for several Reasons but principally that they craved that the Church Government might be Established in the hands of such only who by their former carriage and sufferings had evidenced that they were known sound Presbyterians For what was this said his Grace but to pull down one sort of Prelacy and set up another in its place to abolish one that was consistent and intelligible and establish another that imply'd Contradictions And indeed there was no answering this difficulty For there were but about fifty or sixty such Ministers alive in the whole Nation And it was craved that the Government of the Church should be Established in their hands in the first Instance which what was it else but instead of fourteen Prelatical to give us
such an Affair nor to the wisdom and care of a Parliament to ratifie what had never been publickly considered in Parliament This reason had such force with it that it was agreed it should be read and the Laird of Craiginsh moved that if it must be read it might be read on the Lords day having doubts probably that it might be a Prophanation of it to read it on another day However it was agreed it should be read on Monday the 26th as soon as the Parliament should meet and so it was and heard with what attention the Members were pleased to give it I believe it was the first time a good many of them had ever heard it However it passed without any exception which was pretty fair for such a vast number of Propositions as are contained in the Westminster Confession The Confession of Faith thus approved it was moved next that the Catechism might be read over also But the Confession had worn out some three or four hours to them and most part were wearied with it and beginning to discover some by looks some by whispers that they were no way willing at that time to hear any more such long Lectures and so it was moved by the D. of Hamilton who was probably well enough satisfied to escape the hearing them also that the Catechism and Directory might be forborn For as he said they had now voted the Confession of Faith and that was a sufficient standard and so they might leave the rest to the Ministers to be managed according to their Discretion This Proposal was greedily snatched at by the most part But there were some of the Ministers in the House who were not a little surprized that the Parliament appeared so unanimous to neglect what they had so expresly craved in their Petition and so they were like to fall a muttering which the Commissioner perceiving he left his Throne and went out of the House to another apartment the Earl of Crawford first and then the Ministers following him What passed among them there whether the D. of H. his Reasoning after they had pondered satisfied them or they themselves stumbled upon some new Discovery I am not able to tell Though there wants not probability that there might be something of the latter Of this at least I am sure a very good Reason for forbearing the pressing the Ratification of the Catechism and Directory any further was very obvious For The Directory positively and peremptorily appoints The Scriptures to be read publickly in Churches one Chapter out of each Testament at least every Sunday before Sermon as being part of the publick worship of God and one means sanctified by him for the edifying of his People Which the Presbyterians in Scotland have been so far from observing these many years that not only has there been no such practice among them but even in some very considerable Churches they lately got a custom of reading the Sermon which was last Preached as it was taken from the speakers mouth by some zealous and swift handed Brother instead of the Scriptures before the Preacher come to the Pulpit And besides this The same Directory because the Prayer which Christ taught his Disciples is not only a pattern of Prayer but it self a most comprehensive Prayer I recommends it to be used in the Prayers of the Church and the larger Catechism is express to the same purpose And yet as the guise goes now it would be a mighty scandal to the Sect if any Brother should say that Prayer For this reason I say it seems to me very consequential that the Ministers needed not have been very earnest for having the Cateohism and Directory ratified But as I said I cannot tell if this reason occurred to them on that occasions But it seems some one or other did For after they returned to the House the matter was compounded and the Duke's motion was agreed to and so the Article was framed as you now have it without mentioning the Catechism or Directory The second thing that I shall take notice of in this Act shall be the repealing of a former Act of Parliament Intituled Act acknowledging and asserting the Right of Succession to the Imperial Crown of Scotland Ch. 2. Parl. 3. Art 3. I need not send you a Copy of that Act for doubtless you have seen it In short it is an Act declaring That according to the fundamental Constitutions of the Scottish Monarchy the Crown descends by lawful Succession according to the proximity of blood so that in that same instant in which the present Sovereign dies the next in blood is setled on the Throne This Act was not named with Rest which were to be repealed as inconsistent with the Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Government in the Act as it was prepared by the Committee But no sooner came they to consider these Acts which were to be repealed in the House but Sir Iames Montgomery of Skelmurly made mention of this and pleaded earnestly that it might be likewise inserted and annulled His reason was because that Act was utterly inconsistent with the security of the Protestant Religion For by that Act the next Heir might come to the Throne and actual administration of the Government without taking the Coronation Oath which was the only Security the King could give for the Protestant Religion and it was possible the next Heir might be a Papist And then he insisted to shew how all this was contrary to the Claim of Right The Duke of Hamilton pleaded on the other hand That to rescind that Act was to cut the lineal Succession that he remembred very well that Act was made as much if not more to exclude the Duke of Monmouth as to make way for K. Iames. And that it was a very tender Point and dangerous to speak about The Lord Stair added That it was Treason even in Parliament unless one had a good backing to move the rescinding of it Nor was it necessary to rescind it seeing whatever was prejudicial in it to the Protestant Religion or Presbyterian Government was ipso facto to be rescinded by this Act they were now a forming But Sir Iames Montgomery of Skecmurly's Reasons prevailed And so it carried that it should be inserted and rescinded with the rest in so far at least as it was inconsistent with the just now named Interests The making so great a Stir about this Act I remember at that time made no little Noise and underwent several Censures out of the House Some wondered what had moved Sir Iames to start such a matter Was it merely to rub up old Sores as we say For where was the difficulty of securing the Protestant Religion though that Act had stood in force Is the Protestant Religion inconsistent with a lineal Succession Or was it inconsistent with the Protestant Religion to say That God Almighty is an earthly Sovereign's immediate Superiour None of these could ever enter into a Mans head who had so