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TOGETHER WITHA Vindication of the present TESTIMONY against the Popish, Prelatical,and malignant Enemies of that Church, as it is now stated,for the Prerogatives of CHRIST, Privileges of the Church,and Liberties of Mankind; and sealed by the sufferings of a reproachedRemnant of Presbyterians there, witnessing against the Corruptions ofthe Time:
WHEREINSeveral Controversies of greatest Consequence are enquired into, andin some measure cleared; concerning hearing of the Curates, owningof the present Tyranny, taking of ensnaring Oaths and Bonds,frequenting of Field-meetings, defensive Resistance of tyrannicalViolence, with several other subordinate Questions useful for theseTimes.
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Psal. xciv. 20. Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee,which frameth mischief by a law?
Rev. xii. 11. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by theword of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
Glasgow
PRINTED BY WILLIAM PATON,
FOR JOHN KIRK, CALTON, THE PUBLISHER.
1797.
Presuming it is thy desire to answer the holy and honourable designationI accost thee with, I shall take the confidence to assure thee, it is mydesign to answer, in some measure, the expectation which the title ofthis treatise would offer, in the hope that, wherein I come short (as Iindeed confess not only my jealous fears, but my sensible conviction ofmy insufficiency for such a great undertaking) thy Christian tendernesswill impute it to my weakness, and not to any want of worth in the causeI manage, which is truly worthy, weighty, noble and honourable, in theesteem of all the lovers of Christ, that have zeal for his honour inexercise; and therefore as it gives me all the encouragement I have, independence on his furniture whose cause it is, to make such an essay, soit animates my ambition, albeit I cannot manage it with any proportionto its merit, yet to move the Christian reader to make enquiry about it,and then sure I am he will find it is truth I plead for, though my pleabe weak. All I shall further say by way of preface, is to declare thereason of the title, and the design of the work.
Though books use not to be required to render a reason of their names,which often are arbitrarily imposed more for the author's fancy and thetime's fashion, than for the reader's instruction: yet, seeing thetime's injuries do oblige the author to conceal his name, the title willnot obscurely notify it to some for whose satisfaction this is mainlyintended, and signify also the sc