Review of Brambles Warning Against the Scots Discipline, Chapter 3
CHAP. III.
The Lawes and cuſtomes of Scotland admitte of no appeal from the generall aſſembly.
IN this chapter the challenge is, Appeals in Scotland from a generall aſſembly were no leſſe irrationall then illegall.that there are no appeales from the generall Aſſembly to the King, as in England from the Bishops Courts to the King in Chauncery, where a Commiſſion uſes to be given to delegats, who diſcuſſe the appeales. Anſ. The warner conſiders not the difference of the Government of the Church of Scotland from that which was in England. what the Parliament is in the State, that the generall aſſembly is in the Church of Scotland: both are the higheſt courts in their owne kind. There is no appeale any where in moderat Monarchies to the Kings perſon, but to the King in certaine legall courts; as the Warner here confeſſeth the appeale from Bishops lyes not, to the King in his perſon, but to the King in his court of Chauncery. As no man in Scotland is permitted to appeale in a civil cauſe from the Lords of Seſſion; much leſſe from the Parliament; ſo no man in an Eccleſiaſtick cauſe is permitted by the verie civil Law of Scotland to appeale from the general aſſembly. According to the Scots order & practiſe, the King in perſon or elſe by his high Commiſſioner ſits als uſually in the generall aſſembly, as in Parliament. But though it were not ſo, yet an appeale from a generall aſſembly to be diſcuſſed in a Court of delegats, were unbeſeeming and unreaſonable, the one Court conſiſting of above two hundred, all choſen men the beſt and moſt able of the Kingdome; the other but of two or three, often of very ſmall either abilities or integrity, who yet may be more fitt to decerne in an Eccleſiaſtick cauſe then a ſingle Bishop over his officiall, the ordinary truſted in all acts of juriſdiction for the whole dioces. But the Scots way of managing Eccleſiaſtick cauſes is a great deale more juſt, ſafe and Satisfactory to any rationall man then that old popish order of the English, where all the ſpirituall juriſdiction of the whole dioces was in the hand of one mercenary officiall without all reliefe from his ſentence, except by an appeale, as of old to the pope and his delegats, ſo therafter to the King, though never to be cognoſced-upon by himſelfe, but as it was of old by two or three delegats, The Churches juſt ſeverity againſt Montgomery and Adamſon was approven by the King and the parties themſelfe.the weakeſt of all courts, often for the quality and ever for the number of the judges.
Two inſtances are brought by the Warner to prove the Church of Scotlands ſtopping of appeals from the generall Aſſembly to the King, the caſes of Montgomery and Adamſon: if the cauſes and events of the named caſes had been wel knowne to the Warner, as he made this chapter diſproportionally short, ſo readily he might have deleted it al together. Both theſe men were infamous not only in their Miniſteriall charges but in their life & converſation; both became ſo inſolent that contrary to the eſtablished order of the Church & Kingdome, being ſuborned by wicked ſtateſmen, who in that day of darknes had wel neer brought ruine both to King and country, would needs take upon them the office of Arch-Bishops. While the aſſembly was in proces with them for their manifold and high miſdeameanors, the King was moved by them and their evill patrons, to shew his high diſpleaſure againſt the aſſemblyes of the Church. they for his Majeſties ſatiſfaction ſent their Commiſſioners and had many conferences; whereby the pride and contempt of theſe prelats did ſo encreaſe, that at laſt they drew the ſentence of excommunication upon their own heads: the King after ſome time did acknowledge the equity of the Church proceedings, and profeſſed his contentment their with: both theſe unhappy men were brought to a humble confeſſion of their crimes, and ſuch ſignes of repentance, that both after a renunciation of their titulare Bishopriks were readmitted to the function of the miniſtry, which they had deſerted. Never any other before or after in Scotland did appeale from the generall aſſembly to the King: the late excommunicat praelats in their declinatour againſt the aſſembly of Glaſgow, did not appeale as (I remember) to the King, but to another generall aſſembly to bee conſtitute, according to their own Popish and Tyrannical principles.