principles in the service of Jesus and in the Ministeries of that Church Wherefore my Lord if any thing of that nature have pass'd my Pen in the vacancie of a Synod I submit to any Canon of retractation or penance shall be prescribed me by your Reverence together with that joint primitive Oracle and most worthy person whoâ— the Doctor took and I do by his wary precedent for the other Pillar of his Sanctuary the Lord Bishop of Sarum whose countenaâ—ce and favour I some years since was honoured with more I presume for the integrity of my principles than any meritorious pregnancie in my parts But my Lord if some timorous or superstitious Caâ—tâ—le in my Grave Censour would keep me so far from Rome as to thrust me into the precincts of Geneva I confesse to him and all the world that upon demonstrative reasons I am much more affraid in Christianities behalf of the Leman Lake than Tiber and look with more horrour on the rebellions sprung and reprobatory damnation denounc'd from thence than on any encroachment upon Kings or indulgencies unto the people so prodigally made by and defused from the Papal See In fine my Lord the glosses are not many I have upon points controverted between the Church of Rome and us if those few be so short as to render my sense suspected I will enlarge them when call'd upon to the full state I have made of them deliberately unto my self For the gall in my ink I shall say onely with your Lordships leave I know not where more commendably or excusably I may affect to give it a deeper black than in the relation of their proceedings whose souls were as red as scarlet and the issue of all their enterprises died in bloud I may be no lesse concerned to anticipate an after câ—nsure incident from persons of another rank I mean such of the Scotch Nobility or related to them whose faith and gallantry hath effaced such their ignoble progenitours impeachments in their coates and yet may conceive their Names and Families purposely tainted by my Pen where I make a blot in some branch of their pedigree or descent To whom I professe I searched not their Heraldry for a distinction but as I intended no man injury or disrepute so I preferred necessary truth to his or their vulgar honour in my design Which being in that respect a case of Conscience craves likewise your Lordships cognisance though as it regards the rule of prudence I must answer it at my hazard For the rest my Lord til it appear by more than an obscure single suffering that I have infringed the canon of Christian Charity or deviated from the doctrine and practice of the Ancient Church I humbly crave your Lordships favourable protection of this essay and of my name in that communion into the Ministery whereof your ordination introduced me which no new discoveries nor discourses in forreign parts have obliged my reason to desert nor doth any self-conviction discourage me in my subscription as that Churches and My Honoured Lord Caen Aug. 27. 1657. Your Lordships most humbly obedient Son and Servant Ri. Watson HISTORICALL Collections IF the sacred Oracles and Records which Christ with his Apostles Evangelists Disciples delivered unto the ears and deposited in the hands of the primitive-Primitive-Church had been at large in every particular preserved and by the same authority successively transmitted whereby that smaler volume of their writings hath been manifested to our knowledge and commended to our belief the errours and abuses in Christianity had been fewer or refomation whensoever necessary more regular such a standing rule giving sudden Evidence against the least obliquities which Schism and Heresie could transgresse in and being a Bar against the boldness of those spirits which when the letter of Scripture is not as it never but is in the sense clear and powerfull to confound them rather multiply than rectifie things amisse upon their pretended priviledge of prophesie or revelation The mystery of Gods providence in withholding this succour from his people is not so much to be repin'd at as his mercy to be magnified in administring the remainder of those helps which is compleat to the support and satisfaction of any moderate inquirer after the general of doctrine and particulars of discipline the explication of the former and enlargement of the latter being ever taken into the power of the Catholick-Church which in its orginal purity so studied a visible communion of Saints that either by expresse dispensation or indulgent connivance many national provincial yea inâ—eriour corporate or collegiate Congregations had that latitude of difference and singularity of profession or practiceâ— for which any proper 〈◊〉 pretence could be produced before a general Council or in lesse matters before their Patriarch and Bishops vested with authority to such purpose as wherein their content and complacency kept all devout well-meaning Christians from Schism and a scandalous separation Others whose pride ambition or covetousnesse carried them beyond the canon of moderation and peace were severely censur'd curs'd excommunicated cut off from Christs body which like rotten members they might otherwise have corrupted and gangrand having no re-admission or re-union to that holy sound continuity without serious and open repentance humble submission to the high authority of the Church which if they persisted obstinately to contemn or neglect the power of truth subdued their doctrines the storm of Gods wrath dispersed their conventicles the sword of his vengeance executed their persons in some exemplary temporal death if it pursued them not to eternal damnation How far the visible Church whether Romane or Greek made at any time a general defection from her self in a manifest detortion of or declention and deviation from her own canon is neither my design nor duty in reference to my present undertaking to search no more than to condemn or vindicate particular Churches in their separate condition The Sum of what I intend in this my Treatise is to shew how the Scotch-Presbyterian Kirk which when time was would have fain been accepted as the pattern of purity and clearest extraction of Christian Religion began Reformation upon no deep sense no deliberate Examen how corruption crept in nor proceeded according to any other rule than the Anomalie of a prejudicate fancy or premeditated malice which intended rather the destruction of persons than composition of minds â—o a due temper and sobriety in worship having no other commission but what was given out by the spirit of disobedience and errour nor the countenance of any precedent beside what might be cited from the unhappy successe in the attempts of Rebellion and Schism The first Sect of preparatory Reformers their History pretends to were the Lollards of Kyle who in the reign of King Iames the fourth about the year 1494. becoming numerous and troublesome both to Church and State were accused to the King not onely as Hereticks but Rebels The
and other habits weekly or monthly or quarterly as his fancy serv'd he bestowed upon the poor His having a tub of water nightly by his bed-side wherein he by moon-shine bath'd himself to allay some heat that troubled him in his rest And by the latter he so exasperated the young spirits of his pupills that the desperate part of them complotted his murder to obtain their deliverance his apprehension whereof might be the reason that brought him back into his Country with the Scotish treaters that came from England who when they had him at home magnified him for a Prophet and sent him up down under colour of Religion to draw the people to their party What Town soever rejected hâ—m he denounced against it fire and sword by the spirit which judgement they prepared as Gods instruments to fulfill He began at Montrosse and thence passed to Dundee where an inhibition was given him in the Queen and Governours name and they that brought it were told by him that they chaced from them the messenger of God The Lord Marshall and other Noble men whose part he acted would have maintained him in the place or have taken him along with them but some other spirit diâ—ected him to the Westland where the Bishop of Glascow was fain to raise a great party to dispute with Mr. George's disciples for the Church which the Earl of Glencarne and diveâ—s Gentlemen of Kyle would have made good for him but that he thought it as good mustering his men at the Market-Crosse as he did otherwhile about a Mole-hill or some other little piece of rising ground in the fields This itenerant Doctor thus travelled from place to place and wheresoever he lodged thither the devoted Gentry of that quarter address'd themselves with their armed Vassals and Tenants to receive Orders rather for the managing the great design than instructions for the amendment of their lives If any were so addicted to their old Religion or alleageance or so disposed to their quiet that they made no appearance worthy Mr. Georges preaching or presence he would run from his Tet into an invective for an hour or two still brandishing his threats of fire and sword as at Haddington because he could not take from his pulpit an account of an hundred auditors in the Church after which vehemency so dejected in spirit having it may be some other intimations of his being at the end of his prophetick race that the last part of his speech was like a testament at departure and his good-night a taking leave for ever of his acquaintance which howsoever he meant it proved proper enough being seized on before morning at Ormeston by order from the Governour with the Cardinals advice as a person dangerous for his sowing the tares of sedition among the seed of his new Evangel The Earl Bothwel with a guard of House was imployed in surprising him or else he had not been taken nor was he without some resistance and articling with the Earl having some armed Proselytes in the house who observe no orders obey no commands but when they cannot help it who would not have surrendred him but that they saw themselves over-power'd What promise if any the Earl Bothwell had passed for his protection was not judged so obligatory as his alleageance to deliver him up to justice which he did after some better satisfaction than what Knox most ambiguously and maliciously instanceth the Cardinals gold or the Queens undertaking to favour him in all lawfull suits to women Edenburgh was not thought so fit a place for his imprisonment as the Castle of St. Andrews whither he was shortly sent and soon after brought unto his tryall although the bold opportunity of one David Hamilton the speaker for him and his partisans by a mixture of advice intreaty terrour had wrought the Governour into some uncertainty of allowing the proceedings About the end of February 1546. the Iudges Ecclesiastical and Civill sitting in the Abbey Church Mr. Wisheart was sent for to answer divers articles alledg'd against him who going into a Pulpit according to the custome of that place after one Father Lawder a Priest who was to manage the accusation had read the articles against him began an Oration making entrance and advancing what he could into the mindes of his Auditors under the glorious canopy of the Word of God which onely and that purely and sincerely he pretended to have taught and nothing in the mother-tongue beside the ten Commandements the twelve Articles of the Faith and Prayer of the Lord and at Dundee the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans where I do not find he insisted long upon the 13. Chap. at least in the sense the holy Apostle intended it though I censure him not to have deserved the unhandsome titles put upon him by Lawder at the beginning of every Article Thou false Heretick Runnagate Traitor and Thief c. which is not a form prescribed against any person brought before that justice added little force to the sequell of his accusation part of which as to the substance he might Christianly and honourably have acknowledged I mean that wherein the latter Tenents of the roman-Roman-Church superinduced to that purity her great Apostles planted in her carry more weight in the ear than the genuine stalk is able to support But where the accusation was justly laid in behalf of the Government under which he lâ—vâ—d or the Authority of the Church delivered to her by Christ and his Apostles and their incorrupâ—ed Successors I must elevate Mr. Georges answers and leave the rest to the restriction or relaxation of mens â—iâ—â—vate opinions in the world To the first which chargeth him with preaching at Dundee after the Governour had commanded him to desist and again after the Bishop of Brechen had excommunicated for contâ—macy of that kinde he in vâ—in claims the liberty taken and given but not in that latitude by the Apostle in the Acts We shall rather obey God than men which qualifies not every man with a mission that pretends to it of his own head nor with a remission of his passive obedience to higher powers else every bold Heretick rightly so called may assume as much Nor can he wrest that of the Prophet Malachy I shall curse your blessings and blesse your cursings saith the Lord against the after Excommunication in the Christian Church which duly regulated the Romanes may challenge and justifie to be valid in fit cases Nor as to the ninth Article will St. Iohn and St. Peter countenance him in laying hands of Ordination upon himself when the one saith He hath made us Kings Priests the other He hath made us a Kingly Priesthood any more than they will another man in setting the Diadem on his head which he thinks fitter for it than the Kings or taking that Scepter into his hand which he supposeth an infirm
Potentate cannot hold For the eleventh Article about the lawfulness of eating flesh on Fryday aswell as Sunday As to the purity of dayes which bears proportion to the Passion and Resurrection or indifferency of meatâ— abstracting from all Superiours rational commands and in pious people an humble commemoration of Christs suffering by their suffering somewhat weekly at that time St. Paul may justifie him in his answer though they were other dayes he meant but yet by his favour not in reversing the Statutes or Canons composed in piety and prudence wâ—ich encounter no principles of Religion nor deny fit supplies to the necessity of nature or moderate desires of a regular appetite in due season But that which betrayed his ignorance extreamly or an insolent arrogance of singular extraordinary indowments from God for the interpretation of his Word or where that in practicals and circumstantials is silent for the intelligence of his pleasure was his answer to the 15. Article which charged him with denying to obey Provincial or General Councils whereof he owned no knowledge as if the History of Gods Church in the purest times of Christianity had not been worth his search nor the exemplary endeavours of the ancient Doctors and Fathers who confounded heathen and hereticks by their writings with joyn'd hands rais'd an edifice of Religion according to the most exact model they at so near a distance traditionally received from Christ and his Apostles deserv'd his review nor what they sealed with their bloud so much of his reverence as to consider wether so many did and himself but one could not erre especially when the very Bible to which he appealed for the authority of his doctrine had been for its own integrity and incorruption of words and points and consequently of sense whether their glosses and commentaries be admitted or no and could be commended to him by no more powerful testimony than their Canons neglected and scorned by him for the introduction of what Knox he a prety pair to be paralled with representative Christianity in the majestick Sessions of Emperours and Bishops had for seditious ends concluded in a corner Whether his singularity in these or any other exorbitant opinions proceeded from passion or perswasion I shall not determine nor can I clear his Judges in their sentence of condemnation unto death unless his sedition were so manifest dangerous which it might be that no security could be given for the publick peace but by his removal The manner of it as it lies in the vulgar story was with more pomp and curiosity than became the gravity or charity very requisite in Cardinals Bishops or inferiour Clergy Mr. Georges behaviour near the time of his execution such in many particulars as became an humble pious and couragious Christian as appears by divers prayers and discourses yet his popularity and debasing Prelacy had not quitted him the very day he was to suffer when he beseeched the brethren and sisters those Epiâ—oen Priests of his making to exhort their Prelates to the learning of the Word of God c. To tell them That if they would not convert themselves from their wickâ—d errour there should hastily come upon them the wrath of God which they should not eschew very Prophetick and positive and prevalent no question from such mechanick mouths And though he forgave the Hangman when about to do his office yet he had not so much chariâ—y for the Cardinal against whom this angry Martyr denounceth the sentence of a violent death revealed to him more likely by Iohn Lesly Melvin and Carmichel if it were not the overflowing of his own bloudy heart concurring in the design whose hands were to act it than by any Oracle from heaven where no such murders are forged his last words being these as his own Friend hath recorded them He who in such state from that high place feedeth his eyes with my torments within few dayes shal be hanged out at the same window to be seen with as much ignâ—miny as he row there leaneth in pride The credit of the new gospel had been crackt if the prediction of this great prophet had not been hastily accomplished which his principal disciples took presently into their care whose stomacks were so full of indignation against the Cardinal that their meat could not down before they had declared it at their tables That the bloud of Mr. George should be revenged or else it should cost life for life The most proper instruments for such a purpose must be men of metal whose spirits being exasperated by a sympathy with their late deceased Friend or a passive sense of some late injury apprehended from their great enemy that lived against as many of their wishes as there accrued minuts unto his time were predisposed to any desperate attempt Three or four such were pitched upon to surprise Babilon so they call'd the Castle of the Cardinal of St. Andrews upon whom they speedily executed the work 't is their own language that is they wickly murdered him in his Chamber In which act Iohn Lesly and Peter Carmichael being too hasty they were rebuked by Iames Melvin the more sedate Reformer of the three and told This work and judgement of God ought to be done with greater gravity He presents to him the point of the sword saies Repent thee of thy former wicked life that is stopping the godly brethren in their course strikes him twice or thrice through with a stog sword and so he fell All honest Christians were astonished at so horrid and execrable an act but the meek disciplinarians did not onely saith Buchanan approve it but came to gratulate these authors of their publick liberty others ventured life and fortunes with them for the future libertatis authores so it should seem the Cardinal had tied up their hands till this stog sword cut the knot and set them at liberty to do mischief uncontrouled afterward Iohn Knox is so tickled with the business that he becomes very witty and because he would not lose his jest tells his Reader expresly he writes merrily about it but by this time he knows if he chang'd not his mind that the end of that mirth is heavinesse I believe That his heart and he might not keep at distance the Easter following he goes to live with the murderers in the Castle and not long after from the cry of this bloud takes his call to the ministry which was the greatest vengeance that ever God sent to that Kingdome For this first thriving plant of the discipline being set by the sword and cherished by * license and lust the soil prepared by the Cardinals bloud grew up on a sudden to branch it over all Civill Magistrates and Laws and in short space over-topt Royal Authority it self some comfortable assurance whereof he gave to the brethren in his first Sermon upon Dan. 7.24 c. And another King shall