Series 3 > Register of the consultations of the ministers of Edinburgh and some other brethren of the ministry > Volume 1

82 THE REGISTER OF CONSULTATIONS
the whole power of Kirk governm1 into the hands of a
few men, as was also designed by the late procured order
for giving testimonials to all intrants into the Ministrie,
which maketh the whole plantation of Kirks in a whole
fifth part of the Land blindlie to depend upon four men,
two of them being ministers, an usurpation far beyond
any thing that ever prelacie amounted or pretended to.
At which procured order wee do here againe declare our
greeving, as palpably subverting the whole government
establisht in this Kirk, especially as to the calling and
planting of Ministers, as was particularly and evidently
made manifest in our former paper anent that order, to
which we do now refer.
5. That godlie and faithfull men who have been most
instrumental for the good of the Kirk and have stood
against prelacie and malignancie, and do yet stand against
the same and against all usurpations upon the Kirk,
should, for withstanding usurpations, encroachments, and
disorders of that nature, be misrepresented and traduced
as men who favour not but oppose piety, which mis¬
representations tend and no doubt are designed to the
laying aside of the most part of the faithful Ministers in
Scotland, to the end that some few men may govern the
Kirk, a thing which cannot but bring ruin upon the
Kirk and governm4 thereof.
6. That the consciences of honest men in the Ministrie,
living peaceablie, are straitened and have bonds imposed
upon them by proclamations to which they cannot yeeld
without wronging their consciences. Whereas, were such
bonds off them and they left to their freedom, they might
the better deliberate and resolve upon what is most con¬
venient to be done under the present dispensations.
7. That we are traduced as medlers with civill affaires,
whereas, as we have renounced by covenant all civill power,
so wee nor medle (as is evident to all who sees our pro¬
cedures and actings, which are not hid in darkness, but
open and plaine to the view of all men), nor intend ever
to medle with civill business, but are resolved, by the
Lord’s grace, to keep our selves closse to such matters as