A Hind Let Loose, Part 3
PART. III.
THE PRESENT TESTIMONY Stated and Vindicated in its Principal Heads.
BY what is above premitted, the Reader may see the Series & Succession of the Testimony of Christs Witnesses in Scotland from time to time, in all the Periods of that Church; how it hath been transmitted from one generation to another Doun to our hands; how far it hath been extended; and what Increments it hath received in every Period; how it hath been opposed by a Continued Prosecution of an hereditary War against Christ, by an Atheistical, Papistical, Prelatical, and Tyrannical faction; and how it hath been concerted, contended for, maintained, & sealed actively & passively, by an Anti-pagan, Anti-Popish, Anti-Prelatical, Anti-Erastian, Anti-Sectarian, and Anti-Tyrannical Remnant of the Followers, Professors, Confessors, & Martyrs of Christ in all Ages. Now it remains in the third & last Place to consider the Merit of the Cause as it is now Stated, to see whether it will bear the weight of those great Sufferings wherewith it hath been sealed. I hope all the Lovers of Christ, who have an estee…. …ven of His reproaches above all the Treasures of Egypt; will grant that if these sufferings be Stated on the least or lowest of the Truths of Christs, then they are not Misstated, no… built upon a bottom that will not bear them, or is not of that worth to sustain them. For Certainly every Truth, the least of Truths, is of greater value than any thing that we can suffer the loss of for it, yea of infinitely greater value than the whole world. So that if I prove these Heads of Suffering to be Truths, wherein Conscience is concerned, the Cause will be sufficiently vindicated from the loadings & lashings of such as prefer Peace to Truth. & ease to dutie, who to Justify their oun backwardness & detastable lukwarmness call some of them only State questions about things Civil, and not Gospel-Truths and Heads to State suffering upon: And if they be Truths & Duties, the Cause will some way be rendered more Illustrious, that it is Stated upon the smallest hoofs & hair-breadths of the Concerns of Christs Declarative Glory; as being a greater witness of its Ouners Love & Loyalty to Christ, and of their pure & tender zeal for His honour, than if for more substantial & fundamental Truths, which a Natural Conscience may reclaim to Decline, when for the meanest Circumstantials of Christs Truths they dare & are ambitious to bestow their dearest blood. But if the Complexe of them be impartially Considered, no unprejudiced Arbiter will suffer himself to have such extenuating Impressions of the present Word of Patience, & Testimony of the suffering Remant in Scotland this day: But it will appear to be a very weighty & worthy Concern, as any that either Men or Christians can be called to Witness for; being the Priviledge of all mankind, the Duty of all Christians, and the Dignity of all Churches, to assert, It is for the Glory & Croun Prerogatives and Imperial Regalia of the King of Kings, with reference to His visible Kingdom, of which the Government is layd upon His shoulders, against the heaven-daring Usurpations & encroachments made thereupon, both as He is Mediator & King & Head of the Church, and as He is God & Universal King of the world. As He is Mediator, it is His Peculiar Prerogative to have a Supremacy & Sole Soveraignty over His oun Kingdom, to institute His oun Government, to constitute His oun Lawes, to ordain His oun Officers, to appoint His oun Ordinances, which He will have observed without alteration, addition, or diminution untill His Second Coming: This His Prerogative hath been & is invaded by Erastian Prelacy, Sacrilegious Supremacy, and now by Antichristian Poperie, which have overturned His Government, inverted His Lawes, subverted His Officiers, & Perverted His Ordinances. As He is God & Universal King, it is His in communicable Property & Glory, not only to have Absolute & Illimited Power, but to invest his Deputed Ministers of Justice with His Authority & Ordinance of Magistracy, to be administred in subordination to Him, to be regulated by His Lawes, and to be improved for His Glory & the good of Mankind: This Glory of His hath been invaded by Tyrants & Usurpers arrogating to themselves an Absolute Power, intruding themselves without His investment into Authority, in a Rebellion against Him, in opposition to His Lawes, and abusing it to His dishonour, and the destruction of Mankind. Against both which Encroachments the Present Testimony is stated, in a Witness for Religion & Liberty, to both which these are destructive. This will appear to be the Result & Tendency of the Testimony in all its parts, opposed by the Enemies of Religion & Liberty, and the end of all their oppositions, to bring it to this Crinomenon, who shall he King? Iesus or Cesar? Let any seriously search into all their Proclamations & Edicts against Religion & Liberty, this will be found to be the soul & sense of them, practically & Really speaking to this purpose, especially since this man came to the Throne.