_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 Christ's prophetical and
priestly office, against paganism and popery. But from the year 1570,
and downward, the testimony is stated, and gradually prosecuted for the
rights, privileges and prerogatives of Christ's 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 and reductively, as all
other churches may challenge a part of this dignity, but formally and
explicitly to contend for this very head, the headship and kingship of
Jesus Christ, the prince of the kings of the earth, and his mediatory
supremacy over his own kingdom of grace, both visible and invisible.
This is Christ's supremacy, a special radiant jewel of his imperial
crown, which as it hath been as explicitly encroached 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 James the 6th; 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 the truth of Christ, of greater value
than the standing of heaven and earth, but also it is the very truth for
which Christ himself died, considered as a martyr; and which concerns
him to vindicate and 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 Christ's
glorious and free monarchy, 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, than the testimony either for his
prophetical office, or for his priesthood, because his kingdom was
especially impugned at the time;' as Mr. Forbes and Mr. Welch wrote in a
letter to the Ministers at court. The corruptions and usurpations
wronging this truth, that they contended against, were prelacy and the
King's supremacy in ecclesiastical matters; which will be useful to hint
a little, how they prosecuted the conflict. When Satan (whose kingdom
was then declining) by several instruments and means, both by force and
fraud, did endeavour to put a stop to the reformation, by reintroducing
the antichristian hierarchy of prelacy, when he could not re-establish
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 and 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 catechestical application of it to
prelates to be found, 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
faithful pastors.) And indeed his first essay reached little further
than the bare name, for they were to be rejected to, and tried by
assemblies, and hardly had so much power as superintendants 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 calf-skin to cause the cow give
milk_. Yet, though this in our day would have been thought tolerable,
the faithful servants of Christ did zealously oppose it. Mr. Knox
denounced Anathema to the giver, and Anathema to the receiver. And the
following Assembly condemned the office itself, 'as having no sure
warrant, authority, nor ground in the book of God, but brought in by the
folly and corruption of men's invention, to the overthrow of the church;
and ordained all that brooked the office, to demit simpliciter, and to
desist and cease from preaching, while they received _de novo_ admission
from the General Assembly, under the pain of excommunication.' Hereby
they were awakened and 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, until the year 1581, did with
much painfulness and faithfulness attend the work: until, by perfecting
of the second book of discipline, they completed their work, in the
exact model of Presbyterial Government, in all its courts and officers;
which was confirmed and covenanted to be kept inviolate, in the
National Covenant, subscribed that year by the King, his Court and
Council; and afterwards by all ranks of people in the land. Whence it
may be doubted, whether the impudence of the succeeding prelates, that
denied this, or their perjury in breaking of it, be greater. This was
but the first brush. A brisker assault follows; wherein, for the better
establishment of prelacy, that what it wants of divine right, might be
supplied by the accession of human prerogative, and not only Diocesan,
but also Erastian prelacy might be set up, to destroy Christ's kingdom,
and advance Satan's; the Earl of Arran, and his wicked accomplices move
the King, contrary both to the word and oath of God, to usurp the
prerogative of Jesus Christ, and assume to himself a blasphemous monster
of supremacy, over all persons, and in all causes, as well
ecclesiastical as civil. But this also the faithful servants of God did
worthily and valiantly resist; and at the very appearance of it, gave in
a grievance to the King in the year 1582, 'That he had taken upon him a
spiritual power, which properly belongs to Christ, as only king and head
of the church; the ministry and execution whereof is only given to such
as bear office in the ecclesiastical government in the same: so that in
the King's person, some men press to erect a new popedom, 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 reft of
his authority, and the two jurisdictions confounded, which God hath
divided, which directly tendeth to the wreck of all true religion.'
Which being presented by the Commissioners of the General Assembly, the
Earl of Arran asked with a frowning countenance, who dare subscribe
these treasonable articles? Mr. Andrew Melvin answered, we dare, and
will subscribe, and 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, and overseeing, bear office within
the same, to be exercised, not by the injunctions of men, but by the
only rule of God's word.--Hereafter, no other, of whatsoever degree, or
under whatsoever pretence, have any colour to ascribe, or to take upon
them any part thereof either in placing or displacing of ministers,
without the church's admission, or in stopping the mouths of preachers,
or putting them to silence, or take upon them the judgment of trial of
doctrine,' &c. But in contempt and contradiction to this, and to
prosecute and exert this new usurped power, Mr. Andrew Melvin was
summoned before the Secret Council, for a sermon of his, applying his
doctrine to the time's 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, and
doctors, and to take upon them to judge the doctrine, and to controul
the ambassadors of a greater than was there, which they neither ought
nor can do. There are (saith he, loosing a little Hebrew bible from his
girdle) my instructions and warrant: see if any of you can controul me,
that I have past my injunctions.' For this he was decerned to be warded
in the castle of Edinburgh; 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 country. 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
Lindsay to the King, desiring, that nothing be done in parliament
prejudicial to the church's 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 public 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. James Melvin wrote against the subscribers at that
time very pertinently; proving first, 'That they had not only set up a
new pope, and so become traitors to Christ; and condescended to that
chief error of papistry, 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 own weakness and feebleness, he adviseth them, to remove the
public slander, 'by going boldly to the King and Lords, and shew them
how they had fallen through weakness, but by God's power are risen
again; and there by public note and witness taken, free themselves from
that subscription, and to will the same to be delete, renouncing and
detesting it plainly, and thereafter publicly in their sermons; and by
their declaration and retractation in writ, presented to the faithful,
manifest the same, let them do with stipend, benefice, and life itself,
what they list.' This I inferr, because this counsel is now condemned;
and when poor people, offended with ministers subscriptions of bonds and
other compliances, 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 Black's declinature, which
they both advised him to, and approved when he gave it in, against the
King and Council, 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 Council's 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 realm; 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 and sincerity, should not, nor could not be
lawfully judged for preaching and applying the word, by any civil power;
he being an ambassador and messenger of the Lord Jesus, having his
commission from the King of kings, and all his instructions set down and
limited in the book of God, that cannot be extended, abridged, or
altered by any mortal wight, king or emperor; and seeing he was sent to
all sorts, his commission and discharge of it should not, nor cannot be
lawfully judged by them to whom he was sent; they being sheep, and not
pastors, to be judged by the word, and not to be judges thereof in a
judicial way.' The interlocutor being past against him for this, the
brethren thought it duty, that the droctrine of the preacher should be
directed against the said interlocutor, as against a strong and mighty
hold set up against the Lord Jesus, and the freedom of the gospel; and
praised God for the force and unity of the spirit that was among
themselves. And being charged to depart out of the town, they leave a
faithful declaration at large, shewing how the liberties of the church
were invaded and robbed. But all this was nothing, in comparison of
their wrestlings for the royalties of their princely Master, and
privileges of his kingdom, against the tyrant's insolences, after he
obtained the crown of England; for then he would not suffer the church
to indict her own Assemblies. And when the faithful thought themselves
obliged to counteract his encroachments, and therefore convened in an
Assembly at Aberdeen in the year 1605, they were forced to dissolve,
and thereafter, the most eminent of the ministers there assembled were
transported prisoners to Blackness; whence being cited before 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 justify 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. Welch 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
tidings of the gospel of salvation, these fifteen years already, and now
last of all to be a sufferer of his cause and 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 and keep her meetings, conventions and
assemblies; but also to judge of all her affairs in all her meetings and
conventions among his 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 Christ's, 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 testimony 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 state of bishops again, as in the
time of popery, without cautions as before; and further, to establish
not only that Antichristian Hierarchy, but an Erastian supremacy: the
faithful ministers of Christ thought themselves bound in conscience to
protest; and accordingly they offered protestation to the parliament
July----1606, obtesting, 'That they would reserve into the Lord's own
hands, that glory which he will communicate neither to man nor angel, to
wit, to prescribe from his holy mountain a lively pattern, according to
which his own tabernacle should be formed: remembring always, that there
is no absolute and undoubted authority in this world, except the
sovereign authority of Christ the King; to whom it belongeth as properly
to rule the church, according to the good pleasure of his own will, as
it belongeth to him to save his church by the merit of his own
sufferings: all other authority is so entrenched within the marches of
divine command, that the least overpassing of the bounds, set by God
himself, brings men under the fearful expectation of temporal and
eternal judgment.--If ye should authorize bishops, ye should bring into
the church the ordinance of man, which experience hath found to have
been the ground of that Antichristian Hierarchy, which mounted up on
steps of bishops pre-eminence, until that man of sin came forth, as the
ripe fruit of man's wisdom, whom God shall consume with the breath of
his own mouth. Let the sword of God pierce that belly, which brought
forth such a monster; and let the staff of God crush that egg, which
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 pre-eminence,
be cut down and utterly abolished in this land: and beware to strive
against God with an open displayed banner, by building up again the
walls of Jericho, which the Lord hath not only cast down, but also hath
laid them under an horrible interdiction and execration; so that the
building of them again must needs stand to greater charges to the
builders, than the re-edifying of Jericho, 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 compliance with the same,
presbyteries and 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 non-conformity, managed by
that mongrel and monstrous kind of court, made up of clergymen and
statesmen, called the high commission court, erected in the year 1610,
whereby many honest men were put violently from their charges and
habitations; the generality were involved in a great and fearful
defection. But the cope-stone 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 baptism: and
confirmation of children by the bishop; and observation of festival
days:' which were much opposed and testified against by the faithful,
from their first hatching in the year 1618, to the year 1621, when they
were ratified in parliament; at what time they were also witnessed
against from heaven; by extraordinary lightnings and tempests. And
against this the testimony of the faithful continued, till the
revolution in the year 1638. Here we see how the cause was stated in
this period; and may gather also wherein it agrees; and how far it
differs from the present testimony, now suffered for under all rage and
reproach.
I. The matter of the testimony was one with that we are suffering for,
against popery, prelacy and supremacy; except that it was not so far
extended against tyranny, because that tyrant was not such an usurper,
nor such a violator of the fundamental constitutions of the civil
government, as these that we have had to do withal. But as to the
managing the testimony; they far outstripped their successors in this
generation, in conduct and courage, prudence and zeal, as is above
hinted in many instances; to which we may add some more. When several
plots of papist lords had been discovered, conspiring with the king of
Spain, and they were by the king's indulgence favoured, and some were
also persuaded to treat with them, famous Mr. Davidson opposed with
great resolution; declaring before the synod of Lothian, 'That it
savoured much of defection in these days, that such notorious rebels to
God, his church, and the country, should be so treated with; we should
not rashly open a door to God's 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 and
his church, who have special interest in this turn, and against whom
this convention is assembled directly; I charge you, and your estates,
in the name of Christ and 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 fought to betray their city and native country,
with the overthrow of Christ's kingdom.' And further challenged them of
treason against Christ, his church and the country, in that purpose they
were about. About the same time, in a private conference with the king,
he calls the king God's silly vassal; and taking him by the sleeve, told
him, 'Sir, you, and church and country is like to be wrecked for not
telling the truth, and giving you faithful counsel; we must discharge
our duty, or else be enemies to Christ and you: therefore I must tell
you, there are two kings and two kingdoms; there is Christ and his
kingdom, whose subject king James VI. is, and of whole kindom he is not
a king, nor a head, nor a lord, but a member; and they whom Christ hath
called to watch over and govern his church, have sufficient authority
and power from him, which no Christian king should controul, but assist,
otherwise they are not faithful subjects to Christ. Sir, when you were
in your swaddling clouts, Christ reigned freely in this land, in spight
of all his enemies; but now the wisdom of your council, which is
devilish and pernicious, is this, that you may be served of all sorts of
men to your purpose and grandeur, Jew and Gentile, Papist and
Protestant, because the ministers and Protestants in Scotland are too
strong, and controul the king, they must be weakened and brought low, by
stirring up a party against them; and the king being equal and
indifferent, both shall be fain to flee to him, so shall he be well
settled: but, Sir, let God's wisdom be the only wisdom, this will prove
mere and mad folly; for his curse cannot but light upon it; so that in
seeking both, you shall lose both.' To the like effect Mr. Robert Bruce,
in a sermon upon Psal. li. gives faithful warning of the danger of the
times. 'It is not we (says he) that are party in this cause; no, the
quarrel is betwixt a greater prince and them. What are we but silly men:
Yet it has pleased him to let 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
Barabbas that nobilitate malefactor pass free, and to begin the war
against Christ and his ministry. It putteth on the cope-stone, that so
many of our brethren should not be so faithful, as their calling and
this cause craveth. Fy upon false brethren, to see them dumb, so
faint-hearted, when it comes to the shock; not only are they ashamed to
speak the thing they think, which is a shame in a pastor, but speak
directly against their former doctrine. 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 own conscience, to justify and proclaim the king's
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 days; he condescended 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 commandments any more. These were faithful men,
yet we find they challenge themselves, in deep humiliation, for their
short-comings and defections. At the renovation of the national covenant
March 30th, 1596, was the greatest 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, 'How heavily would these valiant men groan, who formerly contended
so stoutly for the liberty of the church of Scotland, if they beheld
this our laziness (that I may call it by no worse name!') I know
notwithstanding of all this, that some encourage themselves in a base
compliance with the present corruptions of our church, from the practice
of these worthies; alledging, they did not scruple to hear and 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 shy 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, until they should recover them; in the mean time still
holding their right, and maintaining their cause against these invaders.
But we were, at the very first beginning 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 ourselves free of
their communion. But next, if we consider their practice, we shall find
these worthies were not such conformists, as our compliers would make
them. What if we find among them meetings, that were called and counted
as seditious and schismatic as ours are now? We find a field meeting,
yea, a General Assembly at Dumfermline, without and against the king's
warrant, when the ports were shut against them, in the year 1585. But
that is not so pat to the purpose, as that we find private meetings at
Edinburgh, and that in the very time of public service in the churches,
discharged by open proclamation in 1624, wherein it is charged, that
they had no respect to the ordinary pastors, contemned and impugned
their doctrine, disobeyed and controuled their discipline, abstained to
hear the word preached, and to participate of the sacraments. And long
before that, we find the sincerer sort scrupled to hear Bishop Adamson,
notwithstanding that he was absolved in the Assembly. And that
afterwards, 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 answered,
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
villany) 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 and 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 and
spiritual; if they did not apply their doctrine to corruptions; if they
were obscure and too scholastic before the people; cold and wanting
zeal, flatterers, dissembling at public sins for flattery or fear, &c.
As we may read in the advice of the brethren, deputed for penning the
corruptions in the ministry, in 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. John Welch, writing to
Mr. Robert Bruce,----'What my mind is concerning the root of these
branches, the bearer will shew you 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 idolatry, to make the
kingdom culpable, and to expose it to fearful judgments, for such an
high perfidy against an oath so solemnly enacted and given; and are no
more to be counted Christians, but strangers, apostates, and
persecutors; and therefore, not to be heard any more, either in public,
or in consistories, colleges, 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 witness of the present reproached sufferers.
II. As the matter and manner of their testimony against all the invaders
of the church's privileges, did speak forth a great deal of sincere and
pure zeal; so their practice was conform, shewing forth a great deal of
strictness and averseness from all sinful compliances, even with things
that would be now accounted of very minute and 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
sophistry, 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 persuade them to it, both by advice and 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 the attempt at
Ruthven to deliver the country from a vermin of villains that abused the
King, to the destruction of the church and kingdom, were charged to
crave pardon, and take remission; they would do neither, judging it a
base condemning duty, which puts a brand upon our sneaking supplicators
and petitioners, and 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 and
banishment, &c. And when the Earl 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 the same favour offered
to him, refused altogether, lest so doing he should condemn himself, and
approve the courts proceedings: and the brethren, conferring with the
counsellors, craving that some penalty should be condescended unto for
satisfying his majesty in his honour, would not condescend to any, how
light soever; lest thereby they should seem to approve the judicatory
and their proceeding. The imprisoned ministers, for declining the
counsel, had it in their offer, that if they would, without any
confession of offence, only submit themselves to his majesty, "for
scandal received, not given," 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-days. The
ministers of Edinburgh were committed to ward, for refusing to pray for
the queen, before her execution in Fothringham 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
delivery of the king from a pretended conspiracy of the Earl 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 and imposed devotion, to pray or
praise for the king, poor people are much condemned. I know it is
alledged, that these faithful sufferers in those days, were not so
strict as they are now, in submitting to unjust sentences, and obeying
and keeping their confinements. I shall grant, there was much of this,
and much might be tolerate in their circumstances, when the court's
procedure against them was not so illegal, their authority was not so
tyrannical, nor so necessary to be disowned, and they were so stated,
that they were afraid 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. John Murray, confined at Dumfries, perceiving there
was no end of the bishop's 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 resistance of superior powers, we have in this period, first
the practice of some noblemen at Ruthven, in the [year] 1582. who took
the King, and seized on that arrant traitor, enemy to the church and
country the Earl of Arran; declaring to the world the causes of it, the
King's correspondence with papists, his usurping the supremacy over the
church, and oppressing the ministers, all by means of his wicked
counsellers, whom therefore they removed from him. The King himself
emitted a declaration allowing this deed. The General Assembly approved
of it, and persuaded to a concurrence with it, and nothing was wanting
to ratify it, as a most lawful and laudable action. At length the fox
escapes, and changes all, and retracts his former declaration. The lords
again rally, and interprise the taking of the castle of Stirling, and
gain it; but afterward surrender it: after which the Earl of Gowrie was
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 and 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 and false, as he was cowardly and fearful. Again, we have the
advice of the General Assembly, for resisting, when the ministers were
troubled upon Mr. Black's business, 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 little occasion for the question about the King's
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 disowned and declined by all the faithful, as the
supremacy. Next that they resented, and represented very harshly, any
aspiring to absoluteness; as Mr. Andrew Melvin could give it no better
name, nor entertain no better notion of it, than to term it, the bloody
gully, 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 allows not to be owned, which out of a King's mouth
abundantly justifies the disowning of the present tyranny: this same
King James, in a speech to the parliament, in the year 1609, saith, 'A
king degenerateth into a tyrant, when he leaveth to rule by law, much
more when he beginneth to invade his subjects persons, rights and
liberties, to set up an arbitrary power, impose unlawful taxes, raise
forces, make war upon his subjects, to pillage, plunder, waste, and
spoil his kingdoms.'