Part 25 (1/2)
_Right Honourable, right Reverend, and most dearly beloved in our Lord,_
We do thankfully acknowledge your respectfull remembrance of us by your Letters at all occasions; and not a little rejoyce to see that happie correspondence and Christian communion so sweetly entertained amongst us, which is so acceptable in the sight of the Lord, so pleasant and profitable, especially when kept and entertained betwixt Kirks and Kingdomes about affairs of highest and most publick concernment and interest: We have nothing more in our desires than to entertain that harmonious correspondence, that Christian sympathie and compa.s.sion, that sounding and resounding of bowels, which well beseemeth Kirks and Nations, United by a solemn League & sacred Covenant, for mutuall endeavours, by all lawfull means to a further unitie in that Faith once delivered to the Saints, and greater Uniformitie in Divine Wors.h.i.+p, Discipline, and Government, according to the Paterne.
The case and condition of your bleeding Kingdome is no lesse sensible to us, than if our selves were in affliction with you; but we trust all is working to your best, and to our Lords glory: That some of you hes fallen, it is to try you, purge you, and make you white: If the Lord by those means be with that Reformation of his Ordinances, bringing also alongst that other Reformation of hearts and lives should it not be welcomed with all joy, although it bee upon the expence of blood and lives? The Lord will turn the bygone rage of Man to his glory and your spiritual good the remnant of rage will hee restraine. The Lord delivereth his owne by degrees, _he is with them in trouble, and delivereth them, and honoureth them_; He who hath been sensibly with you hitherto, and upholden you in your trouble, will we trust, yet deliver you, and honour you: The more ye sow in tears, the greater shall be your harvest of peace and joy, when the Lord according to the dayes wherein he hath afflicted you, and the years wherein yee have seen evill, shall make you glad, and his Work to appeare unto you, and his glory unto your children, and the beautie of the Lord your G.o.d to be upon you, and shall establish the work of your hands; yea, even establish the work of your hands.
We should prove both unthankfull to G.o.d, and unfaithfull to men, did wee not hold out unto you the Lords gracious and powerfull dealing with us in the like condition, and comfort you with the consolations wherewith wee our selves have been comforted: We were involved in the like difficulties; we had the strong opposition of highest Authoritie set over two powerfull Kingdoms, beside this of ours; and the unhappy providence of our wickedly wise and wary Prelates, had done what in them lay, to make the Ministery of this Land sworn Enemies to the intended Reformation: So that we walked in a very wildernesse, in a labyrinth, and as upon deep waters, wherein not onely did our feet lose footing, but also our eyes all discovering or discerning of any ground; yea; wee were ready to lose our selves: Yet the Lord hath graciously rid us, and recovered us out of all these difficulties, and set our feet upon a rock, and ordered our goings. The experience wee have had in our own persons, affoordeth us confidence and hope concerning your affaires; and wee trust this hope shall not be disappointed; it is our duety to hope upon experience, and it is the Lords word and promise, that such an hope shall not be ashamed. It cannot choose but beget confidence in you, when ye shall consider, that ye have seen before your eyes your neighboring s.h.i.+p of this Kirk and Kingdome, having (as it were) loosed from your side, in the like or self-same storme, notwithstanding all tossing of windes and waves, yet (_not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts_) to have arrived safe and sound to the Port and Harberie; yea, and to have dared to put out again unto the storm, to contribute her weak endeavours for your help.
We acknowledge your impediments to be great and many, the sufferings of your Brethren, the People of G.o.d, cannot choose but both damp your spirits, and divide your thoughts: Your walking in an untroden and unknown way, must put you (though never so willing to go on speedily, yet) to take time and leisure to ask for the right way, and ye want nor the opposition of some amongst your selves, to whom notwithstanding we trust the Lord will reveale his truth in his own time. Never the lesse (much honoured and dear Brethren) go on couragiously against the stream of all opposition; every Mountain in the way of _Zerubbabel_, the Lord shall make plain; and as many of you as are perfect, be thus minded, that forgetting the things that are behinde, and looking to the things that are before, you presse hard towards the mark, as having before you, not onely the prize of the high calling and recompence of reward, but also at the end of this race, these two precious Pearls and inestimable Jewels of Truth and Unity, and all the Reformed Churches beholding and looking on, not onely as witnesses, but also being ready to congratulate and embrace you.
We were greatly refreshed to hear by Letters from our Commissioners there with you, and by a more particular relation from the Lord _Waristoun_ now with us, of your praise-worthy proceedings, and of the great good things the Lord hath wrought among you and for you: Shall it seem a small thing in our eyes, that the Covenant (the foundation of the whole Work) is taken? That that Antichristian Prelacy with all the traine thereof is extirpate? That the door of a right entrie unto faithful Shepherds is opened; many corruptions, as Altars, Images, and other Monuments of Idolarry and Superst.i.tion removed, defaced and abolished; the Service-book in many places forsaken, and plaine and powerfull preaching set up; the great Organs at _Pauls_ and _Peters_ taken down; That the Royal Chappell is purged and reformed, Sacraments sincerely administrate, and according to the paterne in the Mount, That your Colledges, the Seminaries of your Kirk, are planted with able and sincere Professors? That the good hand of G.o.d hath called and kept together so many pious, grave, and learned Divines for so long a time, and disposed their hearts to search his Truth by their frequent Humiliations, continuall Prayers, and learned and peaceable debates? Should not all and each one of these stir up our souls to blesse the Lord, and render both you and us confident, that he who hath begun the good Work, will perfect it, and put the Copestone upon it; That the beauty of a perfected Worke may s.h.i.+ne to all Nations, and we may say and shout, _Grace, Grace, unto it_; That the time may be when full liberty and leasure shall be to all the Builders of the House of G.o.d, to give themselves with both their hands to the building up and edifying the People of G.o.d in these things that belong to life and G.o.dlinesse, to the making of them wise to salvation, and throughly furnished to every good work, and when the Lord shall delight to dwell more familiarly, and to work more powerfully in, and by his throughly purified Ordinances? That you afflicted and tossed with tempests and not comforted, shall have your stones laid with fair Colours, your foundation with Saphires, your Children shall be taught of G.o.d, and shall have great peace, and no Weapon framed against you shall prosper, and every tongue that riseth against you in Judgement shall bee condemned; That the Lord will awake as in the ancient dayes, as in the generation of old; That the Redeemed of the Lord shall come unto Zion with singing, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.
And as we are confident that the Lord who heareth Prayer, and hath promised to guide his Servants in all truth, will bring your labours to a comfortable Conclusion: So do all the Reformed Kirks, and the Kirk of Scotland above all others extreamly long for the taste of the fruits of their pious labours and continual pains: And so much the more, that we have suspended some material determinations amongst our selves, upon expectation of Uniformity; And that in the meane time so many scandalous Papers come to our view, and to the hands of the People here, for libertie of Conscience, toleration of Sects, and such Practices as are contrary to the Doctrine, Goverment, and Peace of all the Reformed Kirks. For stopping and suppressing whereof, as wee doubt not, but your wisedome, and the Authority of the honourable Houses of Parliament will use some more effectual means; So do we hope that your Determinations shall carry such evidence of Divine Truth, and demonstration of the Spirit, that those unhappy Clouds of darknesse shall be so scattered, that they shall be no more gathered nor appear hereafter, to the dishonour of G.o.d, the prejudice of his Truth, and the scandalizing of so many Souls for which Christ hath dyed.
We do with hearty thankfulnesse resent all the kindnesse and respect you have shown to our Commissioners, and your high esteeme of them in love for the Works sake; Although their presence here would be very comfortable unto us, very steedable to the publick, and necessar in respect of their great and important particular charges and Stations; yet do we willingly dispense with all, yea nothing shall be too dear unto us, so that this Work be finished with joy, and _Jerusalem made the glory and praise of the whole Earth: Because of the house of the Lord our G.o.d we will feel her good: For our Brethren and Companions sake, we will now say, Peace be within her Walls, prosperity within her Palaces._
_Edinburgh 4 June 1644,_
Subscribed in name of the Generall a.s.sembly of the Kirk of _Scotland_, by the Moderator of the a.s.sembly.
_The a.s.semblies answer to their Commissioners at_ London.
_Reverend and Beloved Brethren,_
It would have been the rejoycing of our hearts, and the lightning of our countenances, to have seen your faces, and injoyed your presence here with us, especially, should yee have arrived unto us loaden with the spoils of Antichrist, the Trophees of the Kirk of Christ, and the long longed-for fruits of your painfull labours: But seeing it hath pleased the Lord whose Interest in the businesse is main and princ.i.p.all otherwise to dispose, it doth become us with all humility to submit to his good pleasure, with faith & patience to attend his leasure, _for he that beleeveth maketh not haste_, and with more frequency and fervencie in prayer seek to him who will be sought for these things and having _begun the good work will perfect it_, and double the benefit by bestowing it in a more seasonable time unto us.
We have not been a little refreshed with your Letters sent unto us and the Commissioners of the preceeding a.s.sembly, and with these from the Reverend Synod of Divines, the answer whereof you will be pleased to present unto them: by all which and more particularly by a full Relation from the Lord _Waristoun_ a faithfull witnesse and a fellow labourer with you there, we see and acknowledge that by the Lords blessing, the Progresse of the Work is already more, than we can overtake in the course of our thankfulness; that your labours are very great, your pains uncessant, your thoughts of heart many, that ye endure the heat of the day; but being confident of your patient continuance in wel-doing, and that your labours shall not be in vaine in the Lord, wee have renewed your Commission, and returned the Lord _Waristoun_ unto you, according to your desire, that ye may prosecute that great Work which the Lord hath blessed so farre in your hands.
When the Ordination and entry of Ministers shall be conformable to the Ordinance of G.o.d, there is to be expected a richer blessing shall be powred out from above, both of furniture and a.s.sistance upon themselves, and of successe upon their labours; for which end as our earnest desire is, that the Directory for it may be established: so doe we exceedingly long to see the common Directory for wors.h.i.+p perfected, which may prove an happy meane of that wished for Uniformity in the Kirks of the three Kingdomes, shall (we trust) direct by all Rocks of offence and occasions of stumbling, and shall remove all these corruptions wherewith the Lords sacrifice and service hath been defiled.
That point concerning a change of the Paraphrase of the Psalmes in Meeter, we have referred to the Commissioners here, whose power and Commission granted by the preceding a.s.sembly, we have renewed and continued. That there be difficulties concerning Kirk-Government, wee think it not strange for these reasons you lay our before us; yet because the minds of men are still in suspense upon the successe of the determination of that Reverend a.s.sembly on the one hand, and upon the successe of the Warre on the other: which doth not a little faint their hearts and feeble their hands, both you and we must be instant with G.o.d and man for a finall determination of all these debates, and a happy and speedy conclusion of this great affaire, so much concerning his own glory and the good of his Kirk. _Now the Lord lead you in all truth, and give you understanding in all things._
Edinburgh 4. June 1644.
_Subscribed in name of the Generall a.s.sembly by the Moderator._
_The a.s.semblies Letter to the Kirks in the_ Netherlands.
Fratres in Domino plurimum colendi.
_Quae Anno superiore Ecclesiarum Zelandicarum nomine, missae sunt ad nos Literae, ut eas communis totius Ecclesiae vestrae Religicae voluntatis restes suisse interpretaremur, effecit benevolentia vestra tot tantisque officiis n.o.bis spectata: Quam sententiam n.o.bis confirmarunt ea quae copiose clarissimus Eques_ D. Archibadus Jonsto nus Varistonus _in soro supremo Judex, a reliquis tum Ordinum c.u.m Ecclesiae hujus Regni Delegate_ Londine _nonita pridem remissus, in hac ipsa Synodo Nationali de eximio vestro erga nos syudio commemoravit: Praefertim quanta fid, quam solicita diligentia nofsram, vel Domini potius nostri Jesu Christi causam, quae nunc_ Londini _agitur & promoveriitis, & promovers etiamnum fatagatis. Quo in negotio, ex iis, quorum ab eo resitata audivimus nomina, de propensa reliquorum voluntate & cura, ut conciliandae Ecclesiarum Britannicarum unionis faeliciter suscepta consilia, vestra ope & opera prosperum mature fortiantur exitum, minime obscura fecimus indicia. Sunt haec tam illuseria __ benevolentiae vestrae testimonia, & in omnium bonorum oculis adeo perspicua ut eorum memoriam nulla unquam delere potuerint oblivia. Laboris autem & jam inpensi & porr suscepti ad controversias in Synodo_ Londinensi _suborientes fliciter expediendas & decidendas nequando pniteat ex eo quem per divinam jam benedictionem fructum cepistis, optima quaeque in posterum sperare consentaneum est._