66

Up and down the country many ministers warned their people fully and faithfully of the evils coming on, and the dangers the church of Scotland was in the hazard of, notwithstanding the severe act [to prohibit seditious meetings] we have seen was published against ministers' freedom in preaching, by the committee of estates." The act rescissory repealed the ordinance which established presbytery, but the ministers in that interest privately met, and framed a petition to parliament, craving that a new act might be made for establishing of religion and church government ;" and the synod of Glasgow, which was chiefly composed of remonstrators, drew up a declaration, in which they asserted that "the whole synod, and every member thereof, do willingly declare that they are fixed in the doctrine, discipline, worship, and church government by sessions, presbyteries, synods, and general assemblies, as it is now professed and practised within this church; and they are resolved, by the grace of God, so to remain 2."

The synod of Glasgow adjourned till the second Tuesday of May, when they re-assembled; but they were discharged by proclamation from meeting, as not being warranted by law. According to the true spirit of presbytery, the members met clandestinely in a private house, where, after some debate, they commissioned three of their number to go to Edinburgh to protest against their being prevented from meeting as a synod; a step they dared not have taken during the headship of Oliver Cromwell. No notice was taken of this protest, "and there were no more synods of presbyterian ministers in Glasgow till September 1787.3" The synod of Fife met at St. Andrews in April, and had agreed to a petition to parliament to ratify the privileges of the kirk; but before they had formally voted the petition, the earl of Rothes interrupted them, and in the king's name commanded silence, and required them to desist from business, and immediately to disperse. The synod of Perth and Stirling met at the latter town, and now that the pressure of their former minister, Mr. Guthrie, was removed by his execution, they formally voted the remonstrance to be razed out of their records, because they said it contained several things that reflected on his majesty and the estates of parliament. The synod made no overture to parliament in favour of presbytery, but quietly awaited the coming events, whose shadows had preceded them. The synod of Dumfries met with the view of remonstrating with the parliament, and had

1 Wodrow's History, i. 109.

2 Ibid. i. 118.

3 Ibid.

agreed to an act to censure and depose all ministers who should comply with episcopacy. They were dissolved and dispersed by the earl of Queensbury and the laird of Hartfield, by orders from the lord commissioner. The synod of Galloway met at Kirkcudbright, and were occupied in drawing up a petition against episcopacy, and for the preservation of the liberties of the kirk; in which they said, the "government of the kirk has been attended with rich spiritual blessings. . . . On the other hand, if your lordships will respect terminus ad quem of this feared, threatened, and begun change—to wit, lordly episcopacy-first, it is a plant which our Heavenly Father never planted, there being no ground or footing for it in the Word of God; . . . . secondly, after the extirpation of it in the times of reformation, its regress has never been fair, but always, through violent intrusion, by the force and fraud of corrupt carnal men, minding their own things, and not the things of Christ; and that, contrary to law, reason, equity, conscience, solemn oaths and engagements, and clear Scripture light. Thirdly, it is a government that we are solemnly bound, as by the law of God, so by the OATH of God upon us, to EXTIRPATE from the foundation." The earl of Galloway, in the king's name, dissolved their meeting. John Park, the moderator, protested against his lordship's proceedings, as an injury done to a court of Christ, and which was incompetent for the civil magistrate to execute. At the synod of Lothian, which met in Edinburgh, some of the moderate resolutioners made a motion for censuring the remonstrators, which occasioned a warm debate and opposition from Mr. Douglass and others; in the midst of which the earl of Callander and sir Archibald Stirling entered, and " required the moderator to purge the synod of rebels," meaning the remonstrator brethren, and to threaten them with civil penalties, and to expel them, with which the synod complied, and several of their members were suspended1."

The synods above named assembled in those parts of the country where the remonstrators were most numerous; and it is instructive to observe the instinctive fears which that party entertained of the restoration of episcopacy, although not one word had been said of it in parliament or by the executive government. On the north side of the river Tay, which is the largest, and was then the most populous part of the kingdom, the synods were not disturbed by any commissioners from the crown, for being altogether episcopalian, the govern

1 Wodrow, i. 118.

ment had nothing to fear from their proceedings. There, episcopacy had taken deep root, and had never been wholly extirpated, but both the clergy and the people had succumbed to the pressure of the times; and they now waited with quiet satisfaction for that change of which no one seemed to entertain any doubt. There also the moderate presbyterians, or resolutioners, were most numerous, and who made no opposition to the hierarchy. The extensive synod of Aberdeen met in April, and agreed to the following petition to the lord commissioner, which, as it had considerable influence on the king's council, I here insert entire. There was not a dissenting voice in the whole synod, and it was signed by fifty-three parish ministers:·

"To his Grace his Majesty's Commissioner, and the High Court of Parliament:

"The humble address of the synod of Aberdeen:

"The various dispensations wherewith the righteous and wise Lord of heaven and earth hath been exercising us these many years by-gone, cries aloud to all the subjects of Scotland, who have not laid aside all sense of sin and duty, to reflect seriously upon the public transactions of this church and nation; especially upon the deportment thereof to the king and the royal authority; and while the Lord is pleased to fix such thoughts upon our spirits, we cannot, unless we would blindfold our own consciences, stop the mouth thereof, hide our sin in our bosom with Adam, and keep fast deceit under our tongue, but give glory to God in an humble and ingenuous confession, as of the national guiltiness of Scotland, so of our own iniquity, in so far as we have been any way accessory to these sinful and rebellious affronts and wrongs, which have been put upon the royal authority, whether during the reign. of our late most gracious sovereign, that blessed martyr Charles I., or since his horrid murder, to our gracious king, who now, in the Lord's most wonderful and gracious providence, reigns over us; and particularly, we acknowledge these sad and grievous sins to be lying on the land, and upon us, according to the several degrees and measures of our accession, whether driven thereto by force and violence of a prevailing party, through human weakness in that hour of temptation, or by sinful silence and want of courage to have pleaded against such courses; viz. the rising in arms against the king; the preaching up the lawfulness of defensive arms by subjects. against the supreme magistrate, which is contrary to scripture,

to all sound antiquity, to the constant practice of the ancient primitive church, to the judgment of all sound orthodox divines, contrary to our national [Knox's] Confession of Faith, and to the oath of allegiance: popular reformation without, much more against the king's consent and authority: the assisting the king's enemies, by joining our forces with them, while as they were in rebellion against their sovereign lord and master: the preaching down the king's cause and interest, and preaching up the interest of his enemies: the giving out a paper called A Seasonable Warning for delivering up the King at Newcastle,' and that without any assurances, either by writing or pledges for his majesty's security, safety, honour, and freedom; although there was no sufficient hostage in that land to have been given for his sacred person-the preaching against the intended relief of his majesty of precious memory, when he was a suffering prisoner in the Isle of Wight, in 1648, where he was detained till at last these usurpers brought him to that fatal block-the putting unjust limitations and restrictions on our gracious king, who now reigns over us by God's blessing (in despite of all open and veiled enemies, who of late have put on the robe of loyalty) before he was admitted to the exercise of his royal power-the indignities which were put upon his sacred majesty by a factious and treacherous party, in that infamous and treasonable Remonstrance-the opposing of the public Resolutions, both of king, church, and state, by that party [the Protestor's] for the most just and necessary defence of king, religion, honour, and all which was dear to men and christians, the land being invaded, and one-half thereof being possessed by an army of sectaries, who by force and fraud had enslaved their own native country, that ancient and famous kingdom of England. And although these sins of the remonstrance, opposing of, and protesting against the public. resolutions, be not a national guiltiness, both the one and the other being testified against and condemned by the generality of the state, church, and country; yet these being the guiltiness of a party in the nation, we could not omit them as matters of just provocation against God Almighty-the excluding the king's interest out of the state of the quarrel betwixt his majesty's own army and that usurper and tyrant, Cliver Cromwell, by that infamous act of the West Kirk-the forcing of the king's majesty, being then in their power, rather as a noble prisoner than as a free king, sore against his royal will, to subscribe declarations' against himself and his royal familythe little sympathy with his majesty in his sufferings abroad, the sinful neglect of duty, for fear of men, in not praying for

him in public-sinful silence in not preaching absolutely against the usu pers-too much, at least, passive compliance with them, sitting down, like Issachar, under the burthen, and being, like Ephraim, a silly dove without a heart. For these, and sins of a like nature, done against the royal authority, God, in his justice and wisdom, brought and kept us long under a sad captivity and bondage. And have not all the land, and we, according unto the measure of our accession, more nor [than] reason to confess guiltiness before God, men, and angels, and to entreat earnestly for mercy therefor, at the throne of grace? And now, since it hath pleased the eternal God, by whom kings reign, to bring back our native king, and settle him upon his royal ancestors' throne, for which we shall desire to bless the Lord while we live, we conceive that upon this signal mercy, God calls upon us to engage, like as we hourly do in the strength of God engage ourselves, never to be accessory to any disloyal principle or practice, but declare our utter abhorrence thereof, and of every thing which may have any tendency that way; obliging not only ourselves to subjection, obedience, and submission to the royal authority and commands, but also to preach loyalty, subjection, obedience, and submission, and to press the same from the Word of God, and according thereto, unto all his majesty's subjects under our ministry; and that it is sinful and ungodly for subjects to resist the king's authority; but that in case of dissatisfaction in any command by his majesty, it is their duty to suffer.

"And because it hath pleased the king's majesty and his high court of parliament, for the over-reaching of many ministers in Scotland, their outstretching of presbyterial government, by making it run in an eccentric line, in meddling with civil concernments, and topping with the supreme authority, and upon other grave considerations known to themselves, which becomes not us to search into, to take away and rescind the laws and acts of parliament, whereby the government o. this church had any civil authority. That it would please the king's commissioners' grace and the high court of parliament to join with us in this our earnest petition, and to transmit the same to his sacred majesty, that he will allow us to be still under his majesty's protection, and that he may be pleased in his wisdom and goodness to settle the government of this rent church, according to the Word of God, and the practice of the ancient primitive church, in such a way as may be most consistent with the royal authority, may conduce most for godliness, unity, peace, and order, for a learned, godly, peace