Letter to the High & Honourable Court of Parliament.
The Generall Assembly, Humbly Sheweth,
That whereas we have seen & considered the Act of Parliament abolishing Patronages, and doe highly commend the piety and zeal of the Estates of Parliament in promoving so necessary a point of Reformation, The Generall Assembly do humbly supplicate, that beside the setling of the Ministers stipends, that the Tythes mentioned in the said Act, may be affected with the burthen of pious uses, within the respective Paroches, conform to a draught of an Act seen by the Commissioners of the late Generall Assembly before it pasted in Parliament, And that the foresaid Act, may be made effectuall for the setling of Ministers Stipends in Kirks erected, and necessary to be erected according to the Tenour of the Act of Parliament, And for this effect, that your Lordships will hasten the sitting of the Commission for Plantation of Kirks, with all convenient diligence, and your Lordships Answer.
27. July, 1649. Antemeridiem. Sess. 27.
A seasonable and necessary Warning and Declaration, concerning Present and Imminent dangers, and concerning duties relating thereto, from the Generall Assembly of this Kirk, unto all the Members thereof.
The Lord who chooses Jerusalem in a furnace of Affliction, hath been pleased since the beginning of the work of Reformation in this Land, to exercise his People with many trials; all that desired to keep a good conscience, were not long agoe under many heavy and sad pressures from the insolency and oppression of a prevailing party of dis-affected and Malignant men, who under a pretext of bringing the King to a condition of Honour, Freedom and Safety, did carry on an unlawfull Engagement against the Kingdom of England: and if the Lord had not been mercifull unto his people, they were like either to have been banished out of the Land, or to have been kept in a perpetuall bondage in their consciences, persons and estates: But he whose Messengers those men had mocked, and whose word they had despised, did bring them down suddenly in a day, and restored liberty and peace unto his people: A mercy and deliverance, which as it ought to be remembred with thankfulnesse and praise, so may it engage our hearts not to faint in troubles and straites that do yet abide us but to trust in the name of the Lord, who both can and will deliver us still out of all our afflictions.
Albeit, wee do now enjoy many rich and precious blessing wherin wee have reason to be comforted, and to rejoyce; yet it were to shut our own eyes if we should not see our selves involved in, and threatned with many and great dangers at home and from abroad, it is matter of exceeding great sorrow to think upon the ignorance and profanity, the impenitencie and security that abounds still in the Land, notwithstanding all the gracious dispensation of the Gospel, and [pg 451] means of grace in such purity and plenty, that none of the Nations round about us can boast of the like, and of all his sharp rods wherewith he hath afflicted us from year to year, and of all the mercies and deliverances wherewith he hath visited us, and of our late solemn confession of sinnes, and engagement unto duties, sealed with the renewing of the Covenant and the Oath of God; Which some men have so far already forgotten, as to return with the dogge to the vomit, and with the sow to the puddle: And many signes of inconstancy and levity do appear among all sorts and ranks of persons, who seem to want nothing but a sutable tentation to draw them away from their stedfastnesse; Our Army is not yet sufficiently purged, but there be still in it Malignant and scandalous men, whose fidelity and constancy, as it is much to be doubted, so is the wrath of the Lord to be feared, upon their proceedings and undertakings, without a speedy and effectuall remedy.
That prevailing party of Sectaries in England, who have broken the Covenant, and despised the Oath of God, corrupted the truth, subverted the fundamentall Government, and taken away the Kings life look upon us with an evill eye, as upon these who stand in the way of their monstruous and new fangled devices in Religion and Government; And though there were no cause to fear any thing from that party but the Gangrene and infection of those many damnable and abominable errours which have taken hold on them yet our vicinity unto and daily commerce with that Nation, may justly make us afraid that the Lord may give up many in this Land unto a spirit of delusion to beleeve lies, because they have not received the love of the truth.