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
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
about fifty or sixty Presbyterian Bishops But such was the posture of their Affairs at that time that there was no other way they could see for securing their Interest and so they made Necessity Justifie a little Nonsense and this year they had a more favourable Commissioner to deal with the good Earl of Melvill But then there is a great deal of considerable stuff in it For observe I pray you the charitable judgment they make of the Bishops and Episcopal Clergy All the distractions have been in this Kingdom will continue still incurable unless this poor oppressed Church be purged from all Corruptions brought into it by ambitions and covetous Church-men it is well they are allowed to be Church-men who sought their own things but not the things of Iesus Christ. And with whom were the Churches filled when Prelacy was erected and the Presbyterian Ministers turn'd out With ignorant and scandalous Persons nay with many erroneous and unsound in the Faith and Enemies to the Reformation and till the Church is freed from these Oppressors and Oppressions she can never be right is not all this charitably said Yet this is not the worst of it For consider the whole strain of the Petition and they are the only Protestants of the Nation For if we may believe them God stirred up the Prince of Orange to espouse the Interest of the Protestant Religion and of the afflicted Ministers and Professors thereof And yet I am very sure many will confidently affirm he did not espouse at his first coming to Britain at least the Interest of the afflicted Ministers of their Persuasion in Scotland Further God raised up their Lordships the Members of Parliament their most noble and honourable Patriots to prejoyn heartily with His Majesty in appearing zealously for serving the Protestant Religion in this Kingdom and for what may tend for the better Establishing of it in all its concerns Now what is all this but that though King Iames had given a Toleration to the Presbyterians yet that put them only in a very weak uncertain and arbitrary State and they could not be well enough till they had a legal Establishment Exclusive of all Popish Prelates and their Adherents And not only so but the steps the Parliament have already made have opened a door of hope to them and to all that love the true Reformed Protestant Religion in this Land that they will go on zealously c. Which words are not capable of another sense than this that whosoever is not Zealous against Prelacy and for Presbytery is not a Lover of the true Reformed Protestant Religion There are a great many other things in this Petition which deserve their proper Remarks but I will not take notice of them any more but as they fall in naturally in the progress of this Paper and then they shall be considered The first of which shall be the Case of the Presbyterian Ministers who were turned out of these Churches they possessed after the first of January 1661. Where in this Petition you see the great injury which was done them is mightily aggravated Several hundreds of them all at one time were driven out of their Churches without either Accusation or Citation And this was so palpable a Persecution so manifest an Effort of Oppression and Tyranny That His Majesty was graciously pleased to take notice of it in his Declaration for Scotland 1688. which 't is very true he did for his words are That the Dissenters in Scotland have just cause of distrust when they call to mind how some hundreds of their Ministers were driven out of their Churches without either Accusation or Citation Nay our Petitioners are at it again in another place of the same Petition and Crave That these Ministers 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 This case I say I shall in the first place consider because it was the first thing in the Petition which was redressed by the Parliament For within a day or two after this Petition was presented this Act was made which I have transmitted to you ACT restoring the Presbyterian Ministers who were thrust from their Churches since the first of January 1661. April 25. 1690. Forasmuch as by an Act of this present Parliament relative to and in Prosecution of the Claim of Right Prelary and the Superiority of Church-Officers above Presbyters is abolished and that many Ministers of the Presbyterian Persuasion since the first of January 1661. have been deprived of their Churches or banished for not conforming to Prelacy and not complying with the Courses of the Time Therefore their Majesties with the Advice and Consent of the Estates of Parliament Ordain and Appoint that all those Presbyterian Ministers yet alive who were thrust from their Churches since the first day of January 1661. or Banished for not conforming to Prelacy and not complying with the Courses of the Time have forthwith free access to their Churches and that they may presently exercise the Ministry in those Parishes without any New Call thereto and allows them to brook and enjoy the benefits and stipends thereunto belonging and that for the whole Crop 1689. and immediately to enter to the Churches and Manses where the Churches are vacant and where they are not vacant then their entry thereto is declared to be the half of the Benefice and Stipend due and payable at Michaelmass last for the half year immediately preceeding betwixt Whitsunday and Michaelmass Declaring that the present Incumbent shall have right to the other half of the Stipend and Benefice payable for the Whitsunday last bypast And to the effect that these Ministers may meet with no stop or hinderance in entring immediately to their Charges the present Incumbents in such Churches are hereby appointed upon intimation hereof to desist from their Ministry in these Parishes and to remove themselves from the Manses and Glebes thereunto belonging betwixt and Whitsunday next to come and that the Presbyterian Ministers formerly put out may enter peaceably thereto And appoints the Privy Council to see this Act put in Execution Which Act you see uses the same colours for representing the odiousness of the usage these Presbyterian Ministers had receiv'd that the Declaration and the Presbyterian Petition had made use of before especially in the statutory part where it says in express terms that they were thrust from their Charges which can import no less than Force and Violence in opposition to Law and Iustice it calls the Churches from which they had been thus thrust their Churches As if notwithstanding their dispossession they had still continued to have a Title good in Law and it restores them forthwith to the exercise of their Ministry in their Parishes without any New Call thereto Each of which singly much more altogether make it evident that this their restitution was intended by the Parliament not as an
as they have so much scope for choice Neither will they suffer Meldrum the Prelatist to return at any rate And they are in the Right for the first book of Discipline saith It 's better to have no Minister at all than a bad one Now the Subsumption is easie if the Man ever owned Episcopacy The other Instance shall be Mr. William Violent one of the gravest and ablest Men of the Party he had been Minister before the restitution of the Government at East-Ferry in the Shire of Fife and was also dispossessed with the rest Anno 1662. but he wanted a Benefice no longer I think than till K. Charles II. granted his Indulgence for planting some Churches in the West with-Presbyterian Ministers which was in the year 1669. For he was among the first that embraced that Indulgence and was possessed of the Church of Cambus-Netham where he continued till about the year 1684. when that Indulgence was retracted and the Laws were put in execution But after K. Iames his toleration came out in the year 1678 he took the benefit of that too returned to Cambus-Netham got a Meeting-house for the Church was planted with a regular Minister and continued there without ever minding the Ferry where there was no such encouragement till he had this Act of Parliament for him and then about Whitsunday 1690. To the Ferry he comes dispossesses Mr. White a very old Man who by reason of his Age was not able to officiate by himself But his Assistant one Mr. Wood had complied in all points with the Civil Government secures to himself the Benefice according to the Act and then returns to his better Provision at Cambus-Netham where he had the Benefice also by another Act of the same Parliament and where he still continued till he got a Call to be a Professor of Theology in the New College in St. Andrews and so in one year he got the Rents of no less than three Benefices Now this is pretty strange considering that it was wont to be one of the principal Common Places of the Party in their invidious declamations against the pretended Corruptions of the Church of England For none was represented in blacker Dress than the business of Pluralities unless it was her Antichristian Hierarchy and Idolatrous Liturgy But I remember I heard a rare Note of a Sermon which was preached within these three years The Godly may sin but the wicked must not And so I leave that second Act of the late Parliament and all its Appendages Proceed we now to consider the next which concerned the Church and Clergy namely that wonderfully famous one Intituled Act Ratifying the Confession of Faith and setling Presbyterian Church-Government dated at Edinburgh Iune the seventh 1690. This Presbyterian Church government is the great Diana of the Party and the true Parent of all these Tumults Rabbles and Confusions which ruined Religion desolated the Church and oppressed the Clergy And therefore this Act that establishes it deserves a little more fully to be considered which I shall do by these steps 1. I shall briefly deduce the Arts were used and the Methods were taken to work up the Parliament to a suitable temper before this weighty Point came to be debated and voted in the House 2. I shall consider the Treatment it met with in the House And 3. What Consequences it hath produced since To begin with the First Indeed all hands were never more busie at work than on that occasion Prelacy as no doubt you know already had been declared an intolerable grievance and trouble to this Nation and contrary to the inclinations of the generality of the People ever since the Reformation the year before in our new claim of Right This the meeting of Estates had done in an hurry how truly and honestly you may perhaps learn more fully on another occasion after the whole Ecclesiastical State and a great many Members of both the other two had deserted the House in pursuance of the same Article of the Claim of Right The same intolerable Prelacy was abolished by the same meeting of Estates after it was declared a Parliament about the 8th of Iuly the same year But then the House could not agree about a new form of Government to be introduced upon the Church Several Schemes were drawn and presented but none pleased all Parties and so no form at all was established but the Church continued in a state of meer matter without form and void of Government for eleven Months after A strange state sure for a Christian Church I doubt if you shall find its parallel since ever there was one for there was much more in it than a sede vacante But to go on During this state of Anarchy in the Church some People's heads began to settle as indeed they had need after such an universal giddiness and the sudden zeal many had lately taken up for Presbytherian Parity began to cool and relent if not to decay and languish People turned thoughtful and began to reflect and examine whether they had found Prelacy so intolerable a burthen as the meeting of the Estates had declared it to have been and their own sense not telling them any such thing But finding their Necks not so much galled by that Yoke which for some 27 or 28 years had lain upon them and withal calling to mind how many Necks had smarted so very sharply under the former Reign of Presbytery that they were no longer able to bear their Heads They began to compare things and to consider if it was not better to continue at blunt Cudgels with Prelacy than come streight to downright Sharps with Parity In short so far did such reasonings and recollections prevail That the Inclinations of the generality of the people which had been made the Standard in April 1689. were beginning to discover themselves to be very much different from what the Party expected about the end of that year and the beginning of 1690. And there was no little solicitude among them lest they had mistaken their Measures and their dear Parity might chance not to be established according to their wishes And therefore I say all hands were most actively at work and the whole Sect were studying to acquit themselves with a sutable diligence and application about the time the Parliament was a meeting For instance not only had the Preachers their old Petition in readiness to be presented whenever it should be seasonable of which I have discoursed already But also That same week if I remember right the very day before the Parliament met a worthy Piece came hot from the Press Intituled A true Representation of Presbyterian Government c. It was written by one Mr. Gilbert Rule the Pamphleteer General for the Party We had no less than three Editions of it in a very few days and the last the most considerable For besides several Corrections and Enlargements in the Book it had the addition of a Preface wherein we were
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
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
matter of Fact which I have plainly and freely told you and then to make your own Reflections And so I cometo the Third thing which I promised concerning this Act which was to tell you what Consequences it produced And that which deserves to be put in the front was The Pious Gratitude of the Presbyterian Ministers to the Parliament for making so gracious an Act How they thanked the Commissioner and Crawford and Sutherland and such others of their good Friends in private I am not able to tell But in their Sermons they were extremely careful to express a deep sense of the wonderful Favour was done them I shall only take notice of two that were published viz. Mr. Gilbert Rules and Mr. David Williamson's Mr. Gilbert's Sermon as I told you was preached before the Act was voted and therefore he was at the pains to Embelish it with a Preface to the Reader when it was a printing wherein he Harangues Thus As the Interest of Religion was our Solicitude when these thoughts were conceived and delivered So now we are filled with joy while we behold the Religious Regard which the High and Honourable Court of Parliament have shewed to the Mountain of the Lords House above other Mountains which they truly are and ought to be concern'd about in the Great Step towards the establishing thereof that they made by their Vote of the 28th instant And then he concludes That the Lord may help them to go on as they have begun and hitherto acted and reward them for their Good Deeds towards his House is the earnest Prayer of c. But was worthy Mr. David inferiour to Him That 's not to be thought neither indeed was He for Thus he bespeaks them in His Sermon preached Iune 15. which I cited before Honourable Worthies I incline not by Panegyricks to offend your modest Ears whose Praise will be in the Church But we bless God we have such a King and Queen to Rule over us and such a Representative of their Majesties in this Honourable Court and so many Noble and worthy Patriots in this Assembly who befriend the Interest of our Lord We bless the Lord and we bless you from the Lord with our Hearts for what you have done for the House of the Lord c. I believe He never Complemented Lady more Zealously Thus these two Eminent Lights And it is not to be doubted but the rest were as forward But to this very hour I never so much as heard of one of them who either publickly or privately condemned that Article concerning the Rabbled Ministers And now when I think on it who can blame a Commissioner or a Parliament for making such an Act when they were thus not only Authorized and justified but prais'd and magnified by such Infallible Casuists And indeed laying aside all Notions of Right and Wrong and Heaven and Hell and Judgment The Brethren had all the Reason in the World to be thus thankful For Not only were they secured of all these Benefices where they had set up at their own hands after the Rabbling Trade begun for the year 1689 which they had still in their prospect And in order to which that Act of Council dated December 24. 1689. whereof I have spoken sufficiently already was made But they had also another fair Opportunity of gaining considerably by it For they had not so many Preachers of their Gang as filled the half of these Churches from which the Conformists had been forced so that there were some Hundreds of Vacancies whereby they had an Excellent occasion to petition the the Council for the vacant Benefices to make up their pretended losses This was a Blessed Providence and with them it had been to resist a divine Call to have neglected it And therefore it was their great Business in the Months of August September and October c. to make Hay while the Sun shined that is to petition the Council for vacant Stipends Thus Mr. William Veitch had been a Great sufferer for why He had been forced to appear actually in Rebellion against K. Charles II. at Pictland Hills for which he was not Hang'd indeed but declared Rebel and Fugitive But now that the Fields were fair and he had endured so much undeserved Persecution would He not have been to blame if he had not studied his own Interest And therefore he petitioned for no less than Five Vacancies viz. Creiland Eckfurd Yettam Marbottle and Oxnam 'T is true the Council were so hard-Hearted as to grant him only Three of them viz. Creiland Eckfurd and Yettam This was hard enough but alas tho he had confidently affirmed in his Petition the contrary it was afterwards found that the Minister of Creiland had not been deprived before Michaelmas 1689. So that Mr. Veitch could not get that Benefice which was certainly a very disappointing Persecution to him No doubt you have heard of this Mr. Veitch before for he is the same who had the inward Call to be Minister at Peebles because the Benefice was far better rather than at several other places where he was far more earnestly desired Thus also One Mr. Iohn Dickson who had sometime preached at Rutherglen but as I am told was never admitted to the Ministery there before the Restitution of Episcopacy 1662. petitioned not only for that but other Four Benefices And a great many more I could instance if my design'd brevity would allow me In short if they had preached but one or two Sermons in a Parish casually or upon an Invitation from one or two of the Parishioners in a whole years time it was sure to be put into the Bosom of the Petition that they had served the Cure in such a Parish and that was enough Thus did that Act of Parliament caress the Presbyterians While in the mean time it behoved the poor deprived Rabbled Clergy who had an undoubted Title in all Justice and Equity patiently to endure want and see their Estates disposed of to other People without daring to say that any wrong was done them Until at last the Duke of Hamilton and some other Councillors who were not entirely of the fashionable Metal began to encourage some of them to petition the Council and promised them their assistance And so indeed some of them got Gifts of their own Benefices But then two or three things are observable For 1. If there was a Presbyterian Preacher who pretended to have exercised his Ministery in such or such a Parish it was in vain for the Rabbled Man to petition for it The CÃ se was clear it belong'd to the Presbyterian by the Act of Parliament So that there was no place for any Man to petition for his own Benefice but where no Presbyterian could pretend that he had served in that Parish 2. Whoever petitioned was carefully to forbear pleading any thing like Right or Title for that was downright to flee in the face of the Act of Parliament which Crawford who was seldom or
just neither more nor less than this Skeen upon such a Saturday for such was that 13th of April was not in the exercise of his Ministry had not publick Worship and Sermon and therefore the Act of Parliament declared his Church vacant And is not this a probable Consequence I could easily say a great deal more but perhaps even what I have said is a Digression Leave we therefore the Session and let us accompany Skeen now to the Council His pinching Circumstances prompted him to make another Attempt before he should quite give over and that was to Petition the Council that they would retract their Gift to Murray and restore him to his Right Or if they would not do that That their Lordships would at least allow him the equivalent for the year 1689. out of some other vacancy You may easily collect Reasons enough to recommend this Petition from what I have already set down i. e. The usage he had received from the Rabble the death of his Wife the numerousness of his Family his Poverty his continuing so long in the exercise of his Ministry after the 13th of April his never to that hour being under any Sentence Civil or Ecclesiastical his never being heard for his Interest Murray's procuring that Gift surreptitiously c. and a great many more All these he had in his Petition But the Result was the Council would neither recall their Gift to Murray nor supply the poor mans needs from any other Fund So that all this while he has nothing but the Charity of good Christians to subsist by Thus I have briefly hinted at such things as may give you a sufficient tast of the consequences of our Act of Parliament that settled the Presbyterian Government 'T is now time for us to return to the Parliament house again and see what more was done there concerning the Church or the Clergy And that which comes next in order of time was a draught of an Act which the Earl of Linlithgow gave into the Parliament the next day after the Act establishing Presbytery was Voted The design of it was to give Toleration to those of the Episcopal Persuasion to worship God after their own manner and particularly that whoso were inclined to use the English Liturgy might do it safely Being presented by so considerable a Member they could not refuse it a Reading But it never got more Indeed I am apt to believe his Lordship who presented it did not expect that it should meet with better entertainment However one thing was gain'd by it even that it was rejected and that the Party who had so thankfully embraced King Iame's Toleration before now that they were mounted on the Sadle refused to Tolerate any of a different Persuasion This themselves were sensible of and that it was a Thorn put into their Foot But it was inconsistent with their Principles to grant it and so that such a thing should have been moved incensed them exceedingly especially the Preachers who for several days after made it their work to declaim vehemently against all Tolerations particularly worthy Mr. David Williamson in his famous Sermon which I have cited already was at it with a great deal of warmth and that oftner than once For not only towards the end of his Sermon did he Harangue directly and copiously against it calling it A Backset to all that was done and a Mystery of Iniquity c. But even near the beginning with more Zeal than Discretion He made it an infallible mark of Infidelity in a Prince to grant Tolerations Do not think I am injurious to him you shall have his own words In respect of Religion some Princes are Believers as Ioshua some Infidels and so are either such as persecute Religion as Herod and Iulian or Tolerate it as a Trajan Thus the Zealous Man not considering that King William had granted a Toleration in England Nay so much was the Mans Teeth set on edg that such a thing should have been once muttered in Parliament that he was earnest in his Exhortations to the House That they would if not Hang at least Banish all the Prelatists Thus he tells them It is not the wisdom of Magistrates to overlook dangerous Persons by Cruel Indulgence one Achan spared may endanger the whole Camp of Israel is not this as bad as Hanging Traytors to Kirk and King would be duly noticed And again Persons of a dangerous Complexion to undermine the State would be incapacitated and a Rope is the best way for that and put out of reach to hazard the Commonwealth If he were a Churchman an Abiathar he might be sent to Anathoth This last fling I am apt to believe was design'd against the Archbishop of Glasgow for possibly Mr. David dreaded he was upon the Plot of the Toleration Stubborn Parliament that would not provide Halters or at least Prisons for all these Rogues when such a godly Man advised them The next thing wherein the Church was concerned was an Act which passed Iuly 29. 1690. Abolishing Patronages and setting up in their stead What Popular Elections according to the Presbyterian Profession Nothing less What then A new Model for Electing Ministers for which it will be very hard to find a Ius Divinum in all the Scripture For now the Heritors and Elders are to name and propose the Person for whom they encline to the whole Congregation to be either approved or disapproved by them and if they disapprove the Disapprovers must give in-their Reasons to the Effect the Afsair may be cognosced upon by the Presbytery of the bounds at whose judgment and by whose determination the Calling and Entring of a particular Minister is to be ordered and concluded c. I am not at present to debate the Reasonableness or Conveniency of this new Model But it surpriz'd me at first that the Presbyterian Preachers were so easily pleased with this after their so warm and frequent Protestations for the Ius Divinum of the popular Elections But this Surprize was soon over when I found that this Method in the result brought the whole Power as effectually into their Hands and perhaps more easily than popular Election could have done and that was all they were aiming at And here it is that the Divine Right of any thing with them doth commonly terminate At least I am very far mistaken if this is not all the Divine Right that shall be found at the bottom of the most part of their glorious Pretences The next thing I am to take notice of concerns a Set of Men whom I know not if you will allow to be called in a State of Persecution viz. Those who had been Deprived by the Committee of Estates and the Council Anno 1689. for not Reading the Proclamation against the owning the late King James and not praying publickly for William and Mary as King and Queen of Scotland Some of these though they had obeyed their Sentence so far as not to exercise their