The Assemblies Answer to the English Ministers Letter.
Right reverend and dearly beloved Brethren in
our Lord and common Saviour Jesus Christ.
WEE the Ministers and Elders met together in this Nationall Assembly, were not a little refreshed and comforted by the good report which we heard of you, and others of our Brethren of the Kirk of England, by some of our Ministers who, by the good providence of our Lord, had seen your faces and conversed with you. But now yet more comforted by your Letters which we received, and which were read in the face of the Assembly, witnessing your Christian love, and rejoycing with us in God for his great and wonderfull Work in the Reformation of this Kirk, and in the beginning of a blessed Reformation amongst your selves, and that you are so sensible of your communion and fellowship with us, and to desire to know our minde and judgement of that which some Brethren amongst you hold, concerning Kirk-government.
We doe with our hearts acknowledge and wonder at the great and unspeakable wisedome, mercie, and power of our God, in restoring unto us the truth and puritie of Religion, after many Back slidings and defection of some in this Kirk, and desire not only to confesse the same before the world, and all other Christian Kirkes, but also doe pray for grace to walk worthy of so wonderfull a love: We have been helped by your prayers, in our weak endeavours, and you have mourned with us (we know) in the dayes of our mourning; and therefore is it that you doe now rejoyce and praise God with us: Neither are we out of hope, but the same God shall speedily perfect that which he hath begun amongst you, that your joy may be full: which is the desire of our soule, and for which we doe now pray, and in our severall Congregations will be instant at the throne of grace, for this and all other spirituall and temporall blessings upon the Kirk and Kingdome of England, by name, expecting the like performance of mutuall love from you, and others equally minded with you, for your parts, till a common consent may be obtained, even that you will recommend the Kirk of Scotland, by name, in your prayers to God. Thus shall we be as one people, mourning and rejoycing, praying and praising together; which may be one meane of the preservation of Unity, and of many other blessings to us both.
We have learned by long experience, ever since the time of Reformation, and specially after the two Kingdomes have been (in the great goodnesse of God to both) united under one Head and Monarch, but most of all of late, which is not unknown to you, what danger and contagion in matters of Kirk-government, of divine worship, and of doctrine, may come from the one Kirk to the other, which beside all other reasons, make us to pray to God, and to desire you, and all that love the honour of Christ, and the peace of these Kirks and Kingdomes, heartily to endeavour, that there might be in both Kirks, one Confession, one Directory for publike worship, one Catechisme, and one Forme of Kirk-government. And if the Lord who hath done great things for us, shall be pleased to hearken unto our desires, and to accept of our endeavours, we shall not only have a sure foundation for a durable Peace, but shall be strong in God, against the rising or spreading of Heresie and Schisme amongst our selves, and of invasion from forraine enemies.
Concerning the different Formes of Kirk-government, projected by sundrie sorts of men, to be set up in place of Episcopall Hierarchie, which we trust is brought near unto its period, we must confesse, that we are not a little grieved that any godly Ministers and Brethren should be found, who doe not agree with other Reformed Kirks in the point of government as well as in the matter of Doctrine and Worship; and that we want not our own feares, that where the hedge of Discipline and Government is different, the Doctrine and Worship shall not long continue the same without change: yet doe not marvell much, that particular Kirks and Congregations which live in such places, as that they can conveniently have no dependencie upon superiour Assemblies, should stand for a kind of independencie and supremacie in themselves, they not considering that in a Nation or Kingdome, professing the same Religion, the government of the Kirk by compound Presbyteries and Synods is a help and strength, and not a hinderance or prejudice to particular Congregations and Elderships, in all the parts of Kirk-government; and that Presbyteries and Synods are not an extrinsecall power set over particular Kirks, like unto Episcopall dominion, they being no more to be reputed extrinsecall unto the particular Kirks, nor the power of a Parliament, or Convention of Estates, where the Shires and Cities have their own Delegates, is to be held extrinsecall to any particular Shire or City.
Our unanimous judgement and uniforme practice is, that according to the order of the Reformed Kirks, and the ordinance of God in his Word, not onely the solemne execution of Ecclesiasticall power and authoritie, but the whole acts and exercise thereof, do properly belong unto the Officers of the Kirk; yet so that in matters of chiefest importance, the tacite consent of the Congregation be had, before their decrees and sentences receive finall execution, and that the Officers of a particular Congregation may not exercise this power independently, but with subordination unto greater Presbyteries and Synods, Provinciall and Nationall; which as they are representative of the particular Kirks conjoyned together in one under their government; so their determination, when they proceed orderly, whether in causes common to all, or many of the Kirks, or in causes brought before them by appellations or references from the inferiour, in the case of aberation of the inferiour, is to the severall Congregations authoritative and obligatorie, and not consultatory only: And this dependencie and subordination, we conceive not only to be warranted by the light of nature, which doth direct the Kirk in such things as are common to other societies, or to be a prudentiall way for Reformation, and for the preservation of Truth and Peace, against Schisme, Heresie, and Tyranny, which is the sweet fruits of this government wheresoever it hath place, and which we have found in ancient and late experience; but also to be grounded upon the Word of God, and to be conforme to the paterne of the Primitive and Apostolicall Kirks; and without which, neither could the Kirks in this Kingdom have been reformed, nor were we able for any time to preserve Truth and Unity amongst us.
In this forme of Kirk-government, our unanimity and harmony by the mercy of God, is so full and perfect, that all the Members of this Assembly have declared themselves to be of one heart, and of one soule, and to be no lesse perswaded, that it is of God, then that Episcopall government is of men; resolving by the grace of God, to hold the same constantly all the dayes of our life, and heartily wishing that God would blesse all the Christian Kirks, especially the famous Kirk of England, unto which in all other respects we are so nearly joyned with this divine Forme of government. Thus having briefly and plainly given our judgement for your satisfaction, and desiring and hoping that ye will beleeve against all mis-reports, that we know not so much as one man, more or lesse eminent amongst us, of a different judgement, we commend you unto the riches of the grace of Christ, who will perfect that which he hath begun amongst you, to your unspeakable comfort. Subscribed by our Moderator and Clerk.
Edinburgh, 9 Aug. 1641.