t
authority as it is now established. This is the magistracy I have
rejected, that was invested with Christ's power; and seeing that power
taken from Christ, which is his glory, and made the essential of the
crown, I thought it was as if I had seen one wearing my husband's
clothes, after he had killed him. And seeing it is made the essential of
the crown, there is no distinction we can make, that can free the
conscience of the acknowledger from being a partaker of this
sacrilegious robbing of God. And it is but to cheat our conscience, to
acknowledge the civil power, for it is not the civil power only, that is
made the essential of the crown. And seeing they are so express, we must
be plain; for otherwise, it is to deny our testimony, and consent to his
robbery." From these words it is evident, _first_, that Mr. Cargill was
no _Seceder_, or of their mind, in this particular; and _second_, that,
at the time, there were some who did cheat and impose upon their own
consciences, by distinguishing (where there was no room for distinction)
between the king's civil and ecclesiastical authority--which distinction
was condemned and testified against by all who were truly faithful to
Christ and their own consciences, and tender of his honor and glory, by
their unanimous rejection of that anti-christian and unlawful power; and
that when they had much more reason and temptation to fly to such a
subterfuge for their safety, than _Seceders_ now have. And, _third_,
from these words it is also clear, that Mr. _Cargill_ and that poor,
distressed and persecuted people that adhered to him, rejected and
disclaimed the then authority, not so much because of their tyranny and
mal-administrations, as on account of the unlawfulness and wickedness of
the constitution itself (which was the prime original and spring of all
the wickedness in the administration), namely, because the king
arrogantly and sacrilegiously assumed to himself that power, which was
the sole and glorious prerogative of Jesus Christ. And as to the
difference that _Seceders_ make between that and the present time (since
the revolution), it is certain, that whatever greater degree of absolute
supremacy was then assumed by _Charles_ II, it does not vary the kind of
that claimed, or rather conferred on and exercised, by the supreme
powers, since the revolution (for _majus et minus non variant speciem_),
nor acquit them of the guilt of robbing the Son of God, Jesus Christ, of
his