PAGE 220
breath in my native air, yet I trust what part of the world soever
I go to, I shall not cease to pray for a blessing
to1
these lands, and to his Majesty, and the government, and the inferior magistrates
thereof, but especially to the land of my nativitie.
L. Ch. — You must either goe to the Tolbooth, or subscrive a few
words of acquiescing to your sentence.
Mr Liv. — My Lord, rather then I will goe to the Tolbooth I
will subscrive the same; the tenor whereof is: — " I, Mr John
Livingstone, late minister at Ancrum, bind and obliedge me, that
I shall remove myself forth of his Majesty's dominions, wathin the
space of eight weeks after the date heirof, and that I shall not
remain within the same hereafter, without licence from his Majesty
or Privy Councill, under the pain of death; and that I shall depart
from Edinburgh to the north side of Tay, and there remain while
my departure, and that my going off Edinburgh shall be within
forty-eight houres after the date heirof. Subscribed at Edinburgh
the 11th [day] of December 1662."
L. Com. — You must see that you keej) no conventicles, nor
preach in churches nor houses.
To that he answered nothing.
He cannot say that this is all that either they or he spoke; or that
he hath so punctually repeated their speeches as his own, but so
near as he remembers these things were spoken. It may be some
of the things given as spoken by the chancelor were spoken by the
commissioner. One also of these two had
a2
discourse, that his
case was like some of the contests of the Jesuits anent the power
of the Pope and Councill, but he did not well understand it, nor
remember it. He remembers also one, but he knows [not] who,
asserted that it was a part of the king's supremacy (and so imported
in the oath) to sett up the bishops in the church. Some things
also they spoke to which he gave no answer; but, so far as he
remembers, this is the substance of all.
Now also, by the suggestion of some others, he remembers that
**************
1
"On."
2
"Had some."
|
PAGE 221
when he was speaking of the king's civill power in religious things,
they enquired if the king had power to convocate synods. To
which he answered, he had, not meaning thereby that he had the
only power, but that as Christ's officers have power from him to
enact, so also the king, when need is, hath power to conveen them;
but he did not say, as is given out by some, that the king
had1
power to dissolve synods at his pleasure. They also enquired if
there was any co-ordinat power with the king's. As he remembers,
he answered, there was no civill co-ordinat power with the
king's; but if he did not add the word civill, as he cannot fully
determine whether he added it or not, so it must be meant that
way, for he was speaking of the king's civill power, and had before
asserted that Christ had appointed a government and discipline,
which was not dependant on civill powers, and Christ's power in
the Church (his soveraignty being infinit) cannot be said to be
co-ordinat with the civill power that he hath given to creatures;
and the power that his servants exerce in his name cannot properly
be said to be co-ordinat with civill powers, it being of a far different
kind from theirs, being only exercised ministerially, and being
about things of another world.
**************
1
"Hath."
|
