E-text prepared by Jordan, Julia Neufeld, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) A HIND LET LOOSE; OR, AN HISTORICAL REPRESENTATION OF THE TESTIMONIES OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND, FOR THE INTEREST OF CHRIST. WITH THE TRUE STATE THEREOF IN ALL ITS PERIODS. TOGETHER WITH A 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 reproached Remnant of Presbyterians there, witnessing against the Corruptions of the Time: WHEREIN Several Controversies of greatest Consequence are enquired into, and in some measure cleared; concerning hearing of the Curates, owning of the present Tyranny, taking of ensnaring Oaths and Bonds, frequenting of Field-meetings, defensive Resistance of tyrannical Violence, with several other subordinate Questions useful for these Times. * * * * * BY MR. ALEXANDER SHIELS, LATE MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL IN ST. ANDREW'S. 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 the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death._ Glasgow _PRINTED BY WILLIAM PATON_, FOR JOHN KIRK, CALTON, THE PUBLISHER. 1797. PREFACE. CHRISTIAN READER, Presuming it is thy desire to answer the holy and honourable designation I accost thee with, I shall take the confidence to assure thee, it is my design to answer, in some measure, the expectation which the title of this treatise would offer, in the hope that, wherein I come short (as I indeed confess not only my jealous fears, but my sensible conviction of my insufficiency for such a great undertaking) thy Christian tenderness will impute it to my weakness, and not to any want of worth in the cause I manage, which is truly worthy, weighty, noble and honourable, in the esteem of all the lovers of Christ, that have zeal for his honour in exercise; and therefore as it gives me all the encouragement I have, in dependence on his furniture whose cause it is, to make such an essay, so it animates my ambition, albeit I cannot manage it with any proportion to 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 plea be weak. All I shall further say by way of preface, is to declare the reason of the title, and the design of the work.