A Hind Let Loose, Part 1 · Subpart 4
PERIOD. IV.
Containing the Testimony of the first Contenders against Prelacy and Supremacy, from the year 1570. to 1638.
HItherto the Conflict was for the Concerns of Christs Prophetical & Priestly Office, against Paganisine & Popery. But from the year 1570. And dounward, the Testimony is stated, and gradually Prosecuted, for the Rights, Priviledges, & Prerogatives of Christs Kingly Office: which hath been the peculiar Glory of the Church of Scotland, above all the Churches in the Earth, that this hath been given to her as the word of her Testimony; and not only Consequentially & Reductively, as all other Churches may challenge a part of this dignity, but Formally & Explicitely to contend for this very head, The Headship & Kingship of Iesus Christ, the Prince of the Kings of the Earth, and His Mediatory Supremacy over His oun Kingdom of Grace, both visible & Invisible. This is Christs supremacy, a special radiant Jewel of His Imperial Croun: which, as it hath been as explicitely incroached upon in Scotland, by His Insolent Enemies, as ever by any that entered in opposition to Him; so it hath been more expressly witnessed and wrestled for, by His suffering Servants in that Land, than in any place of the world. This was in a particular manner the Testimony of that Period, during the reign of King Iames the Sixth; as it hath been in a great measure in our day, since the year 1660. Which, as it is the most important Cause, of the greatest Consequence that Mortals can contend for; So it hath this peculiar Glory in it, that it is not only for a Truth of Christ, of greater value then the standing of Heaven & Earth, but also it is the very Truth, for which Christ Himself died, considered as a Martyr; And which concerns Him to vindicate & maintain as a Monarch. The Witnesses of that day made such an high account of it, that they encouraged one another to suffer for it, as the greatest Concern; being a witness for Christs Glorious & free Monarchie, which as it is the end of the other two Offices, so the Testimony is more Glorious to God, more honourable to His Son, and more Comfortable to them, then the Testimony either for His Prophetical office, or for His Priesthood, because His Kingdom was specially impugned at the time; As Mr Forbes & Mr Welsh write in a Letter to the Ministers at Court. The Corruptions & Usurpations wronging this Truth, that they contended against, were Prelacy and the Kings Supremacy in Ecclesiastical matters: which will be usefull to hint a litle, how they Prosecuted the Conflict. When Sathan (whose Kingdom was then declining) by several instruments & means, both by force & fraud, did endeavour to put a stop to the Reformation, by reintroducing the Antichristian Hierarchy of Prelacy, when he could not reestablish the Antichristian Doctrine of Popery; he left no means unessayed to effectuate it. And first he began to bring the name Bishop in request, that was now growing obsolete & odious, by reason of the abuse of it (as it ought to be still; for though the name be found in the Scriptures, yet neither is that Catechrestical application of it to Prelats to be sound, nor was there any other reason for the translation of it after that manner, except it were to please Princes; seeing the native signification of it is an Overseer, proper and common to all faithfull Pastors.) And indeed his first essay reached litle further then the bare name, for they were to be subject to & tryed by Assemblies, and hardly had so much power as Superintendents before. But it was a fine Court-juggle for Noblemen, to get the Church revenues into their hands, by restoring the Ecclesiastical titles, and obtaining from the titulars either Temporal Lands, or Pensions to their dependers: so they were only Tulchan Bishops, a Calfeskin to cause the Cow give milk. Yet, though this in our day would have been thought tollerable; The faithful Servants of Christ did zealously oppose it. Mr Knox denunced Anathema to the Giver, and Anathema to the Receiver. And the following Assembly condemned the office it self, as having no sure warrant, authority, nor ground in the Book of God, but brought in by the folly & corruption of mens invention, to the overthrow of the Church; and ordained all that brooked the office, to dimit simpliciter, and to desist & cease from preaching, while they received de novo admission from the Generall Assembly, under the pain of excomunication. Hereby they were awakened & animated, to a more vigorous Prosecution of the establishment of the House of God, in its due Government. In pursuance whereof, the Assemblies from that time untill the year 1581. Did with much painfulness & faithfulness attend the work; untill, by perfecting of the Second Book of Discipline, they compleated their work, in the exact Model of Presbyterial Government, in all its Courts & Officers. Which was Confirmed, & Covenanted to be kept inviolate, in the National Covenant, subscribed that year by the King, his Court, & Council; and afterwards by all ranks of People in the Land. Whence it may be doubted, whether the impudence of the succeeding Prelats that denyed this, or their perjury in breaking of it, be greater. This was but the first brush: a brisker assault followes. Wherein, for the better establishment of Prelacy, that what it wants of Divine right, might be supplyed by the accession of humane Prerogative, and not only Diocesan but also Erastian Prelacy might be set up, to destroy Christs Kingdom & advance Sathans; the Earle of Arran & his wicked Complices, move the King, contrary both to the Word & Oath of God, to usurp the prerogative of Jesus Christ, and assume to himself, a blasphemous Monster of Supremacy, over all Persons, & in all Causes, as well Ecclesiastical as Civil. But this also the faithful Servants of God did worthily & valiantly resist: and at the very first appearance of it, gave in a Grievance to the King, anno 1582. That he had taken upon him a spiritual Power, which properly belongs to Christ, as only King & Head of the Church; the Ministerie & execution whereof, is only given to such as bear office in the Ecclesiastical Government in the same: so that in the Kings Person, some men press to erect a new Popedome, as though he could not be full King of this Commonwealth, unless as well the spiritual as temporal Sword be put in his hand, unless Christ be rest of His Authority, and the two Jurisdictions confounded, which God hath divided, which directly tendeth to the wrack of all true Religion. Which being presented by the Commissioners of the General Assembly; the Earle of Arran asked, with a frouning Countenance, who dare subscribe these treasonable Articles? Mr Andrew Melvin answered, we dare, & will subscribe, & render our Lives in the Cause. And afterward, that same Assembly presented Articles, shewing, that seeing the spiritual Jurisdiction of the Church, is granted by Christ, and given only to them, that by preaching, teaching, & overseeing, bear Office within the same, to be exercised, not by the injunctions of men, but by the only Rule of Gods Word —hereafter, no other of whatsomever degree, or under whatsomever pretence, have any colour to ascribe, or to take upon them any part thereof, either in placing or displacing of Ministers, without the Churches admission, or in stopping the mouths of Preachers, or puting them to silence, or take upon them the judgment of tryal of Doctrine &c. But in contempt & contradiction to this, and to prosecute & exert this new usurped Power, Mr Andrew Melvin was summoned before the secret Council, for a Sermon of his, applying his doctrine to the Times Corruptions: whereupon he gave in his declinature against them as incompetent Judges; and told them, they were too bold, in a Constitute Christian Church, to pass by the Pastors, Prophets, & Doctors, and to take upon them to judge the Doctrine, and to control the Ambassadors of a Greater then was there, which they neither ought nor can do. There are (saith he, Loosing a litle Hebrew Bible from his girdle) my Instructions & Warrant: see if any of you can control me, that I have past my injunctions. For this he was decerned, to be warded in the Castle of Edinbrugh, but he being informed, that if he entered in ward he would not be released, unless it were for the scaffold, he conveyed himself secretly out of the Countrey. Hereafter when the Parliament 1584. had enacted this Supremacy, and submission to Prelacy, to be subscribed by all Ministers; the faithful first directed Mr David Lindsey to the King, desiring that nothing be done in Parliament prejudicial to the Churches Liberty: who got the Prison of Blackness for his Pains. And then when they could not get access for shut doors to Protest before the Parliament; yet, when the Acts were proclaimed at the Cross of Edinburgh, they took publick Documents, in name of the Church of Scotland (though they were but two) that they protested against the said Acts: and fled to England, leaving behind them reasons that moved them to do so. And Mr Iames Melvin wrote against the subscribers at that time very pertinently: Proving, first, that they had not only set up a new Pope, & so become Traitors to Christ, and condiscended to that chief error of Papistrie, whereupon all the rest depend; but further, in so doing they had granted more to the King, than ever the Popes of Rome peaceably obtained &c. And in the end, as for those that Lamented their oun weakness & feebleness, he adviseth them, to remove the publick slander, by going boldly to the King & Lords, and shew them how they had fallen through weakness, but by Gods power are risen again; and there by publick note & witness taken, free themselves from that subscription, and to will the same to be delete, renouncing & detesting it plainly, and thereafter publickly in their Sermons, and by their Declaration & retractation in writ, presented to the faithful, manifest the same, let them do with stipend, benefice, & Life it self what they list. This I insert, because this Counsel is now condemned, and when poor people, offended with Ministers subscriptions of Bonds & other Complyances, desire acknowledgments of the offence, they reject it as an impertinent imposition, and plead they are not obliged to manifest any retractation but to an Ecclesiastical Judicatory. To which I shall say nothing here, but this is no novelty. After this, it is known what bickerings the faithful witnesses of Christ had, in their Conflicts with this supremacy, upon the account of Mr David Blacks Declinature, which they both advised him to, & approved when he gave it in, against the King & Conncil as Judges of his Doctrine. And the Commissioners of the General Assembly ordained all, to deal mightily with the power of the word, against the Councils encroachments; for which they were charged to depart forth of Edinburgh. After which he added a second Declinature: Declaring, there are two Jurisdictions in this realme, the one Spiritual the other Civil; the one respecting the Conscience, the other externals; &c.— Therefore, in so far as he was one of the spiritual office-bearers, and had discharged his spiritual Calling in some measure of grace & sincerity, should not nor could not be Lawfully judged, for preaching and applying the word, by any Civil power; he being an Ambassadour & Messenger of the Lord Jesus, having his Commission from the King of Kings, and all his instructions set doun & limited in the book of God, that cannot be extended, abridged, or altered by any mortal wight, King or Emperour; And seeing he was sent to all sorts, his Commission & discharge of it should not nor cannot be Lawfuly, judged, by them to whom he was sent; they being sheep & not Pastors, to be judged by the Word and …t to be judges thereof in a judicial way. The Interloquutor being past against him for this; the Brethren thought it duty, that the Doctrine of the Preachers should be directed against the said Interloquutor, as against a strong & mighty hold set up against the Lord Jesus, and the freedom of the Gospel; and praised God for the force & unity of the Spirit, that was among themselves. And being charged to depart out of Toun, they leave a faithful Declaration at Large; shewing, how the Liberties of the Church were invaded & robbed: But all this was nothing, in comparison of their wrestlings for the Royalties of their Princely Master, and Priviledges of His Kingdom, against that Tyrants Insolencies, after he obtained he Croun of England. For then he would not suffer the Church to indict her oun Assemblies. And when the faithful thought themselves obliged to counteract his Encroachments, and therefore conveened in an Assembly at Aberdeen, anno 1605. they were forced to dissolve: and thereafter, the most eminent of the Ministers there assembled, were transported Prisoners to Black-ness. Whence being cited befor the Council, they decline their Judicatory. And one of their Brethren, Mr Robert Youngson, who had formerly succumbed, being moved in Conscience, returned: and when the rest were standing before the Council, desired to be heard; and acknowledged his fault, and therefore, howbeit not summoned by the Lords, was charged by the Living God, and compelled to compear that day, to justifie that Assembly, to the great astonishment of the Lords, and comfort of His brethren; He subscribed the Declinature with the rest: And for this they were arraigned, and condemned, as guilty of Treason, and banished. Before the execution of which sentence, Mr Welsh wrote to the Lady Fleming, to this effect. What am I, that He should first have called me, and then constituted me a Minister of glad things, of the Gospel of Salvation, these fifteen years already, and now last of all to be a sufferer for His Cause & Kingdom? To witness that good Confession, that Jesus Christ is the King of Saints, and that His Church is a most free Kingdom, yea as free as any Kingdom under Heaven, not only to convocate, hold & keep her Meetings, Conventions, & Assemblies: But also to judge of all her affairs in all her Meetings & Conventions, among His members and Subjects. These two points. (1) That Christ is the Head of His Church. (2) That she is free in her Government from all other jurisdiction except Christs, are the special Cause of our imprisonment, being now convict as Traitors, for maintaining thereof. We have now been waiting with joyfulness to give the last Testimonie of our blood in confirmation thereof. If it would please our God to be so favourable, as to honour us with that dignity. After this, the King resolving by Parliament to advance the estate of Bishops again, as in the time of Popery, without Cautions as before; and further to establish not only that Antichristian Hierarchie, but an Erastian Supremacy: The faithful Ministers of Christ, thought themselves bound in Conscience to protest. And accordingly they offered a faithful Protestation to the Parliament Iulij—1606. obtesting, that they would reserve into the Lords own hands, that Glory which He will communicate neither with man nor Angel, to wit, to prescribe from His holy Mountain a Lively pattern, according to which His oun Tabernacle should be formed: Remembring alwise, that there is no absolute & undoubted Anthority in this world, except the soveraigne Authority of Christ the King; to vvhom it belongeth as properly to rule the Church, according to the good pleasure of His oun vvill, as it belongeth to Him to save His Church by the Merit of His oun Sufferings: All other anthority is so intrenched vvithin the marches of Divine Command, that the least overpassing of the bounds set by God Himself, bring men under the fearful expectation of Temporal & Eternal judgements.—If ye should authorize Bishops, ye should bring into the Church the ordinance of man, vvhichwhich experience hath found, to have been the ground of that Antichristian Hierarchie, vvhichwhich mounted up on the steps of Bishops preeminence, until that man of sin came forth, as the ripe fruit of mans vvisedome, vvhom God shall consume vvith the breath of His oun mouth. Let the svvord of God pierce that belly, vvhichwhich brought forth such a monster: And let the staff of God crush that egg, vvhichwhich hath hatched such a Cockatrice: And let not only that Roman Antichrist be thrown down from the high bench of his usurped authority, but also let all the steps whereby he mounted up to that unlawful preeminence, be cut down & utterly abolished in this Land: And beware to strive against God with an open displayed banner, by building up again the walls of Iericho, which the Lord hath not only cast down, but also hath laid them under an horrible Interdiction & execration, so that the building of them again must needs stand to greater charges to the builders, then the reedifying of Iericho, to Hiel the Bethelite in the days of Ahab. Yet notwithstanding of all opposition, Prelacy was again restored in Parliament. And to bring all to a Complyance with the same, Presbytries & Synods universally charged, under highest pains, to admit a constant Moderator without change: which many refused resolutely, as being the first step of Prelacy. Upon this followed a great Persecution of the faithful, for their Nonconformity, managed by that Mongrel & Monstrous kind of Court, made up of Clergymen & Statesmen, called the High Commission Court, erected anno 1610. whereby many honest men were put violently from their charges & habitations; the Generality were involved in a great & fearful Defection. But the Copestone of the wickedness of that Period, was the Ratification of the five Articles of Perth; kneeling at the Communion, private Communion to be given to the sick, private Baptisme, and Confirmation of Children by the Bishop, and observation of festival dayes. Which were much opposed & testified against by the faithful, from their first hatching anno 1618. to the year 1621. when they were ratified in Parliament: at what time they were also witnessed against from Heaven, by extraordinary Lightenings & Tempest. And against this the Testimony of the faithful continued, till the Revolution anno 1638. Here we see how the Cause was stated in this Period; and may gather also, wherein it aggress, and how far it differs from the present Testimony, now suffered for under all rage & reproach.
I. The matter of the Testimony was one with that that we are suffering for, against Popery, Prelacy, & Supremacy; except that it was not so far extended against Tyranny, because that Tyrant was not such an usurper, nor such a violater of the fundamental constitutions of the Civil Government, as these that we have had to do with all. But as to the managing the Testimony, they far out stripped their successors in this generation, in conduct & courage, Prudence & zeal, as is above hintend in many instances: to which we may adde some more. When several plots of Papist Lords had been discovered, conspiring with the King of Spain, And they were by the Kings Indulgence favoured, and some were also perswaded to treat with them: famous Mr Davidson opposed with great resolution; Declaring before the Synod of Lothian, that it favoured much of defection in these dayes, that such notorious rebells to God, His Church, & the Country, should be so treated with; we should not rashly open a door to Gods Enemies, without better proof of their manners nor were yet seen. And when a convention in Falkland was consulting to call home these conspiring Traitors: Mr Andrew Melvin went thither uncalled; and when found fault with by the King for his boldness, he answered, Sir, I have a call to come here from Christ & His Church, who have special Interest in this Turn, and against whom this Convention is assembled directly: I charge yow, and your Estates, in the Name of Christ & His Church, that ye favour not His Enemies whom He hateth, nor go about to call home nor make Citizens of these, who have traiterously sought to betray their City & native Countrey, with the overthroiw of Chists Kingdom. And further challenged them of treason against Christ, His Church & the Countrey, in that purpose they were about. About the same time in a private Conference with the King, he called the King Gods sillie vassal; and taking him by the sleeve, told him; Sir, yow, and Church & Countrey is like to be wracked for not telling the Truth, and giving yow faithful Counsel; we must discharge our duty, or else be enemies to Christ & yow: Therefore I must tell yow, there are two Kings and two Kingdoms; There is Christ and His Kingdom, whose subject King Iames the 6th is, and of whose Kingdom he is not a King, nor a Head, nor a Lord, but a member, and they vvhom Christ hath called to vvatch over & govern his Church, have sufficient Authority, and Power from Him, which no Christian King should control but assist, othervvise they are not faithfull subjects to Christ. Sir, vvhen yovv vvere in your svvedling clouts, Christ reigned freely in this Land, in spight of all His enemies; but novv the vvisdom of your Council, vvhichwhich is Devilish & pernicious, is this, that yovv may be served of all sorts of men to your purpose & grandour, Iew & Gentile, Papist & Protestant, because the Ministers & Protestants in Scotland are too strong, & control the King, they must be vveakened & brought lovv, by stirring up a party against them, and the King being equal & indifferent, both shall be fain to flee to him, so shall he be well setled: But, Sir, let Gods wisedom be the only wisdom, this will prove meer & mad folly; for His curse cannot but light upon it, so that in seeking both yow shall lose both. To the like effect, Mr Robert Bruce, in a Sermon upon Psal, 51. gives faithful warning of the danger of the times. It is not we (sayes he) that are Partie in this cause; no, the quarrel is betwixt a greater Prince and them. What are we, but sillie men? Yet it has pleased Him to set us in this Office, that we should oppone to the manifest usurpation that is made upon His Spiritual Kingdom. Is there a more forcible mean to draw down the wrath of God, than to let Barrabas that nobilitate Malefactor pass free, and to begin the war against Christ and His Ministry. It puteth on the Copestone, that so many of our brethren should not be so faithful, as their Calling & this Cause craveth. Fy upon false brethren, to see them dumb, so faint hearted, when it comes to the Chock: Not only are they ashamed to speak the thing they think, which is a shame in a Pastor, but speak directly against their former Doctrin. They will speak the Truth a while, till they be put at, but incontinent they will turn and make their gifts weapons to fight against Christ; for there is none so malicious as an Apostate when he begins to slide back &c. The same faithful witness, because he would not preach as the King would have him, against his oun conscience, to justifie & Proclaim the Kings Innocency, in a forged conspiracy against him, was put from his Church in Edinburgh, and being requested in an insinuating manner to desist from preaching but for nine or ten dayes; he condiscended at first, thinking the matter of no great importance: yet that night his body was cast in a fever, with the terror of his conscience, and he promised he should never obey their Commandment any more. These were faithful men, yet we find they challenge themselves in deep humiliation, for their short comings & defections, at the renovation of the National Covenant, March, 30. 1596. the greatst solemnity ever had been seen in Scotland before that time, so that the place might worthily have been called Bochim. O when shall we see such a day, when even the most faithful among us, shall mourn over our far more aggravated defections! but if they mourned then for these first degrees of declensions, we may say, quam gravius ingemiscerent illi fortes viri, qui propter Ecclesiae Scoticanae Libertatem. olim in acie decertarunt, si nostram hanc ignaviam (ne quid gravius dicam) conspicerent! I know notwithstanding of all this, that some encourage themselves in a base Complyance with the present corruptions of our Church, from the practise of these Worthies; Alledging, they did not scruple to hear & join with Prelatical men, dispensing the ordinances. But this Objection will be easily refelled, if we consider, first, the Period wherein they were but growing up to a more perfect Reformation, and therefore might bear with many things which we cannot, after we have been reformed from them: They were then advancing and still gaining ground, we are now declining, and therefore should be more shie to lose what we have gained. They had then of a long time enjoyed their Judicatories, unto which they might recur for an orderly redress of such grievances that offended them; and when they were deprived of them, yet they were still in hopes of recovering them, and so suspended their total secession from that corrupt Church, untill they should recover them; in the mean time still holding their right and maintaining their cause against these Invaders. But we were at thevery first begining of this unhappy Revolution, totally deprived of our Judicatories, and denuded of all expectation of them in an ordinary way, and of all place, but what they are Masters of to contend with them that way; therefore must keep our selves free of their▪ Communion. But next if we consider their practise, we shall find these Worthies vvere not such Conformists, as our Complyers vvould make them. What if vve find among them Meetings, that vvere Called & Counted as Seditious & Schismatick, as Ours are novv? vve find a field Meeting, yea a General Assembly, at Dumfermling vvithout & against the Kings vvarrant, vvhen the …ports vvere shut against them, anno 1585. But that is not so pat to the purpose, as that vve find Private-Meetings at Edinburgh, and that in the very time of publick Service in the Churches, discharged by open Proclamation anno 1624. vvherein it is charged, that they had no respect to the ordinary Pastors, contemned & impugned their Doctrine, disobeyed & controlled their Discipline, abstained to hear the Word preached, and to Participate of the Sacraments. And long before that, vve find the sincerer sort scrupled to hear Bishop Adamson, not withstanding that he vvas absolved in the Assembly. And that aftervvards, the doubt being proponed to the Assembly, if it be a slander to a Christian, to absent himself from the Sermons of them that are suspended from all function in the Ministry. The Assembly Ansvvered, there is no slander in the Case but rather it is slanderous to resort. And why is not this ground to think it slanderous or scandalous to resort to them, who deserve to be suspended (all of them by a Spiritual cognizance, and some of them to be suspended Corporally, for their villanie) when there can be no access orderly to do it. And the rather, because we find in this Period, that sometimes Ministers were so faithful & zealous against the Corruptions of the Ministry, that they decerned Ministers to be suspended for far smaller faults, than many now could exempt themselves from; viz. if they were not powerful & Spiritual, if they did not apply their Doctrine to Corruptions, if they were obscure & too Scholastick before the people, cold & wanting zeal, flatterers, dissembling at publick sins for flattery or fear &c. As we may read in the Advice of the Brethren, deputed for penning the Corruptions in the Ministery, anno 1596. I wish our silent prudent Ministers now would consider the justness of this Censure, and what ground people have to be offended at such censurableness. But not only this may answer the false imputation of Conformity on these witnesses of Christ at that time, but I shall set down a part of a Letter of one of the banished Ministers at that time, discovering his mind about hearing these men, that were then serving the times. Mr Iohn Welsh, writing to Mr Robert Bruce, —what my mind is concerning the root of these branches, the bearer will shew yow more fully. They are no more to be counted Orthodox, but Apostates; They have fallen from their Callings by receiving an Antichristian, and bringing in of Idolatrie, to make the Kingdom culpable, and to expose it to fearful Judgments, for such an high perfidie against an Oath so sol…mnly enacted & given; And are no more to be counted Christians, but strangers, Apostates, & Persecutors, And therefore not to be heard any more, either in publick, or in Consistories, Colledges, or Synods; for what fellowship hath light with darkness? We see then as to that part of the Testimony, they were not dissonant to the vvitness of the present reproached sufferers.
II. As the matter & manner of their Testimony against all the invaders of the Churches priviledges, did speak forth a great deal of sincere & pure zeal; so their practice was conform, shewing forth a great deal of strictness, and aversness from all sinfull Complyances, even with things that would be now accounted of very minute & inconsiderable consequence, and for which honest sufferers now are flouted at as fools. When that Oath was formed for acknowledging the Supremacy, there was a Clause added which might have been thought to salve the matter, according to the Word of God. I fear many now would not stand to subscribe, with such a qualification. Yet the faithful then perceived the Sophistrie, that it made it rather worse, affirming that that brat of Hell was according to the word of God: And therefore, though there were several eminent men to perswade them to it both by advice & example, yet they could not in conscience Comply; And pleaded also from the illegality of that imposition, that they should be charged with the subscription of Laws, a thing never required before of any subject; if they offended against the Laws, why might they not be punished according to the Laws? When many honest faithful Patriots, for their attempt at Ruthven to deliver the Countrey from a vermine of Villains that abused the King, to the destruction of the Church & Kingdom, were charged to crave Pardon, & take remission; they would do neither, judging it a base condemning of duty: which puts a brand upon our sneaking Supplicators, & Petitioners, & Pardon-mongers, as unworthy to be called the race of such Worthies, who scorned such baseness, and choosed rather to endure the extremity of their unjust Sentences, of Intercommuning & Banishment &c. And when the Earle of Gowrie accepted of a Remission, he afterwards condemned himself for it, and desired that his old friends would accept of his friendship, to whom he had made himself justly suspected. Mr Black, when he had the same favour offered to him, refused altogether, left so doing he should condemn himself, and approve the Courts Proceedings: And the Brethren, confering with the Councellors, craving that some penalty should be condiscended unto for satisfying his Majestie in his honour, would not condiscend to any how light soever; lest thereby they should seem to approve the Judicatorie & their Proceeding. The Imprisoned Ministers, for declining the Council, had it in their offer, that if they would without any confession of offence only submit themselves to his Majestie, pro scandalo, accepto non dato, they should be restored to their places: But it pleased God so to strengthen them, that they stopped their Mouths, and convinced them in their Consciences, that they could not do it without betraying of the Cause of Christ. Again in another case, we have Instances of such strictness, as is much scorned now a dayes. The Ministers of Edinburgh were committed to ward, for refusing to pray for the Queen, before her execution in Forthringam Castle 1586. they refused not simply to pray for her, but for the preservation of her life, as if she had been innocent of the crimes laid to her charge, which had imported a condemnation of the proceedings against her. Afterwards in the year 1600. the Ministers of Edinburgh, would not praise God for the deliverie of the King, from a pretended Conspiracy of the Earle of Gowrie at that time, of which they had no credit nor assurance; and would not crave Pardon for it neither. For this Mr Robert Bruce was deprived of the exercise of his Ministry, and never obtained it again in Edinburgh: But now for refusing such compelled & imposed Devotion, to pray or praise for the King, poor people are much condemned. I know it is alleadged, that these faithful sufferers in those days, were not so strict as they are now, in submitting to unjust Sentences, and obeying & keeping their Confinements. I shall grant, there was much of this, and much might be tollerate in their circumstances, when the Court procedure against them was not so illegal, their Authority was not so Tyrannical, nor so necessary to be disouned, and they were so stated, that they were afrayed to take guilt upon them, in making their escapes: whereas it is not so with us. Yet we find very faithful men broke their Confinements: As Mr Iohn Murray, confined about Dumfreis, perceiving there was no end of the Bishops malice, and that he would be in no worse case than he was, he resolved without Licence either of King or Council to transport himself: So did also Mr Robert Bruce.
III. For resistence of Superior Powers, we have in this Period, first the practice of some Noblemen an Ruthven, anno 1582. who took the King, and seised on that Arrant Traitor, Enemy to the Church & Countrey, the Earle of Arran; declaring to the world the Causes of it, the Kings Correspondence with Papists, his usurping the Supremacy over the Church, and oppressing the Ministers, all by means of his wicked Councellors, whom therefore they removed from him. The King himself emitted a Declaration allowing this deed. The General Assembly approved of it, and perswaded to a Concurrence with it, and nothing was wanting to ratifie it, as a most Lawfull & laudable action. At length the Fox escapes, & changes all, and retracts his former Declaration. The Lords again rallie, and interprise the taking of the Castle of Stirling, and gain it; but afterward surrender it: after which the Earle of Gowrie is executed, and Ministers are commanded to retract the Approbation of Ruthven business, but they refused: and many were forced to flee to England, and the Lords were banished. But in the year 1585. they return with more success, and take the Castle of Stirling. The cowardly King does again acknowledge & justify their Enterprise, that they needed no Apology of words, Weapons had spoken well enough, and gotten them audience to clear their own Cause: but his after carriage declared him as crafty & false, as he was cowardly & fearful. Again we have the advice of the General Assembly, for resisting, when the Ministers were troubled, upon Mr Blacks bussiness, and there was an intention to pull them out of their Pulpits: They advised them to stand to the discharge of their Calling, if their flocks would save them from violence, and yet this violence was expected from the King and his Emissaries. As to that point then there can be no dispute.
IV. There was litle occasion for the Question about the Kings Authority in this Period, but generally all acknowledged it: because they were not sensible of his usurpation, and his cowardice made him incapable of attempting any thing that might raise commotions in civil things. Yet we remark, that whatsoever Authority he usurped beyond his sphere, that was disouned & declined by all the Faithful, as the Supremacy. Next that they resented, & represented very harshly, any aspiring to Absoluteness; as Mr Andrew Melvin could give it no better name, nor intertain no better notion of it, then to terme it, The bloodie Guillie, as he inveighs against it in the Assembly, 1582. And next, in this same Period, we have a very good description of that Authority, which the King himself allowes not to be ouned, which out of a Kings mouth abundantly justifies the disouning of the present Tyrannie: This same King Iames, in a speech to the Parliament in the year 1609. sayth, A King degenerateth into a Tyrant, when he leaveth to rule by …, much more when he beginneth to invade his Subjects Persons, Rights, & Liberties, to set up an Arbitrary Power, impose unlawful taxes, raise forces, make War upon his Subjects, to pillage, plunder, wast, and spoil his Kingdoms.