Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	great_a	king_n	people_n	5,724	5	4.8029	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57866	A vindication of the Presbyterians in Scotland, from the malicious aspersions cast upon them in a late pamphlet, written by Sir George Mackenzie late Lord Advocate there, intituled, A vindication of the government in Scotland during the reign of King Charles II, &c. by a lover of truth.	Rule, Gilbert, 1629?-1701.	1692 (1692)	Wing R2234; ESTC R11921	23,811	33

〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Where tho' they were Elders he was speaking to he says Take heed therefore to your selves and to all the Flock in or over which the Holy Ghost hath made you Bishops as the same Word is rendred by our Translators 1 Tim. 3. 1. and Tit. 1. 17. Which had there been any Distinction then in the Church between a Bishop and a Presbyter t is not to be supposed the Apostle would have said And St. John takes to himself only the Appellation of Elder 2 Joh. 1. 3 Joh. 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Elder to the Elect Lady the Elder to the Well-beloved Gaius Not St. Andrews Glagow c. which seems the assuming to themselves an Authority after the Manner of the Kings of the Gentiles i. e. Princes and Noblemen contrary to Christs Express Command Matt 20 25 26. Since it cannot be denyed but Titles are Badges of Authority and wherever they are owned or given Authority is thereby indicated Nor will it much mend the Matter to say that this Honour is conferred upon them by the Prince since it is obvious to reply that Christs Command seems expresly to prohibit it who best knew what Mischief those great Titles and Authority would do in the Christian Church This Gentleman farther says that as they taught the People that their Government was Jure Divino so that People might thereby be obliged to defend them and it under the Pain of Eternal Damnation even when Episcopacy was established by Divine Law c. Where the Gentleman is so eager in Exposing that People that he justly exposes himself to the Laughter of any Understanding person when his saying that they might be obliged unto it does not deny but they might not Had he said they were bound or ought to do it he had spoke to the purpose and in that case he could have accused them of nothing but what not a few of his own Party have been guilty of And that Conventicles were prohibited from a just fear that the Old Humour would ferment into a Rebellion is only his assertion 't is apparent enough that those severe Acts were made principally to support the Bishops and for fear lest they should be turned out again as nothing but Force joyned with the Debauchery and Irreligion of the Generality of their Communion who only affected such Church Governors as spared their Vices ever kept them in that Kingdom And how cunningly soever he insinuates that the Rebellion at Pentland Hills in 1666 was the effect of their Field Conventicles yet 't is certain that there were but few Conventicles before that Insurrection The true Matter of fact in this point is that Major Turner and some others were sent into the West of Scotland to suppress the Presbyterians there the Soldiers were quartered upon FREE QUARTERS besides that they Forc'd the PEOPLE to pay them 6 d. a day that many Families there were totally Impoverisht so that they were forced to give over their Farms and have recourse to the Charity of other honest People for their Subsistance That in some places when that people were not able to entertain the Soldiers as they had at their first coming they fell a beating of 'em and abused them who with the Neighbourhood standing up in their own defence killed some of the Soldiers whereupon partly through fear of being executed and partly thro' Bitterness of Spirit which their grievous Bondage had caused in them since as Solomon says Oppression makes a Wise Man Mad they betook themselves to Arms and perswaded other People whose Lives had been imbittered by several Years Oppression to do the same That the Indulgence after that Insurrection was granted them out of any favour is a Notorious Untruth It is sufficiently known that it was a Stratagem used on purpose to divide them in so far as some Ministers were comprehended in it and others very popular left out And it is no less certain that this fully answered their design for as the Gentleman cunningly upbraids them afterwards those that preached in the Fields were too rigid Censurers of their Brethren of the Indulgence as vice versa those of the Indulgence were too Uncharitable towards their Brethren that Preacht in the Fields which gave so great Advantage to their Enemies that in a short time they were both reduced to a very low Pass Which shews how applicable that of our Saviour was to both of them The Children of this World are wiser in their Generation than the Children of Light And tho the Field-Meetings as he truly says were declared to be the Rendevouzes of Rebellion yet 't is certain the poor People had no other design in going to them than that they might hear the Word of God which they thought was more faithfully dispenst there than in the Publick Churches And it is no less certain that it had great Effects on not a few who at first went thither only out of Curiosity so that while they were under their preaching they seemed to live quite new Lives from what they did formerly and when those Field-Meetings were supprest those poor Wretches made sad Complaints of their returning to their Vomit when they were again confined to the Ministry of the Episcopal Clergy Nor is this Gentleman Ingenuous when he says the State was necessitated to suppress them for fear of being subverted for the true cause was because during their Preaching in the Fields all the adjacent Parishes frequented their Meetings So that the pretended Orthodox Clergy there had scarce all their own Family to hear them in few places more It is false that they had any design against the Government and though some of them went with Arms to those Meetings yet 't is certain they offered Wrong to no Body and disperst themselves peaceably after the Sermon was over unless they were disturbed by Soldiers in which case they had all the reason of the World to defend themselves for if their Minister was taken he was sure to be executed and any of the rest were to expect no better than Imprisonment it may be for some years if not sent Slaves to the West-Indies as not a few were who could not be charged with any thing but going to Meetings These things considered no thinking Man will wonder at their taking Arms along with them especially since the Doctrine of Self-defence is not now lookt upon as so great a Bugbear as it was represented to be by Gentlemen that had neither more Religion nor Honesty than they needed in those topping Years of Loyalty 82 83 84 85 86. It is notoriously false as he asserts That the Generality of the Presbyterians of Scotland said that the King had forfeited his Crown for Breaking the Covenant tho some did Yet he having taken the Covenant as his Coronation Oath and Sworn to maintain that Government and it being on a supposed belief of his Sincerity therein that they tendred him the Crown 't is not

the Dissenters Charge when it it Notorious that the greatest part of the Parliament Army was at first made up of the Church of England yea that of them few save the Laudian Faction joined King Charles I. a great part of whose Army at least the Officers of it were Roman Catholicks and 't is no less certain that the Body of the Parliament of Scotland upon that Kings imposing the Service-Book to be Read in one of the Churches of Edenborough entred into a League to defend themselves from any further Oppression or Tyranny that should be offered But the Reader may easily perceive by this what credit this Gentleman deserves whose Prejudice has so far benighted his Understanding as to avouch Lies so easily discoverable 't is a plain Indication that he will take a far greater Liberty in things less obvious to Mens Knowledge His third Reason is That this Caution was much more Just in Scotland than in England because Dissenters in Scotland were more Bigotted to the Covenant which is a Constant Fond for Rebellion But why the Covenant should be so tho I am no great stickler for it I cannot understand since among other things it binds the Takers thereof to preserve and defend the Kings Majesties Person and Authority in the Preservation of the true Religion by which no doubt they mean governing the Church by Presbyters c. And suppose this be an Oath made by the Majority of People as what is Ratified by Parliament must always be judged to be why should this be more inclinable to Rebellion than an Oath made to maintain Episcopacy and the Ceremonies And suppose a King should violate this latter Oath and endeavour to introduce either Popery or Presbytery it needs not now be questioned especially since our Loyal Gentlemen declared that the Reason why those Honest Orthodox Highlanders raised their Rebellion was because Presbytery was Establisht in Scotland I might say further that it was none of the least Reasons of King James's Abdication that he endeavoured to overturn the Church that he would not meet with much more favour from their Hands than at the most Bigotted Covenanters I remember I have Read that Mahomet in his Alcoran where he restricts his Votaries to such a number of Wives has yet a Reserve for himself And brings in God speaking thus At tibi O Prophet elicet quot vis ducere cum iis concumbere c. and so would have his Laws tye up the People but not himself I do not see those Gentlemen a whit more reasonable If Dissenters stand up in their own Defence against Tyranny it is resisting the Lords Anointed a Sin that will undoubtedly Damn them but if they play the same Game tho without the minutest Provocation or least shew of Reason for it as in the Case of the Highland Rebellion 't is no such matter they must restore their Church Rights c. His fourth Reason is That the Posterior Acts made against Field Conventicles were the necessary Product of new Accessional Degrees of Rebellion This is manifestly false since as above that at Pentland Hills in 1666 was the Effect of the Oppression those poor People groaned under and that at Bothwell-Bridge was begun in defence of their Ministers Life and Peoples Liberty and when they had once killed some Soldiers there was no safety for them to expect but what their Arms could purchase to them This Gentleman says afterwards That the Governors can say that no Man in Scotland ever suffered for his Religion But what means the Bleating of the Cattel then Were not Major Turner and several others sent to quarter upon those of the West on Free Quarters besides that they were forced to pay 6 d. a day prior to any Rebellion If this was not Persecution for Religion the Immortal of France to whom I dare say our Author bore no small respect has been basely traduced by Republican Spirits So that were this Gentlemans Paper strictly canvast it might be justly questioned whether there were more Lies or Sentences in it His Malicious Instance of Renwick shews the Inveteracy of his Hatred against the Presbyterians and he might as well have forbore the mentioning of it For I have been credibly informed that Renwick was a Romish Priest and spared on that account 't is not unlikely that he might weaken the Presbyterians by keeping up Divisions among them But that they insisted for his Life when we have it of a Person who is not wholly abandoned to his Passions and who will make Conscience of saying nothing but what is Truth we shall have some reason to give Credit to it He next endeavours to render them more odious by shewing how little they had to pretend for the justifying of their Dissent since there were no Ceremonies enjoin'd in the Episcopal Church there But our Gentleman might have forbore the taking upon him the Office of a Casuist which he seems so ill qualified for For all the Publick Ministers there since the beginning of the Civil Wars till King Charles's Restauration had taken the Covenant which obliged them not to own Diocesan Episcopal Government And there is no doubt but any Honest Man would think himself bound to disown it till such time as he were convinced that the Matter of the Oath was unlawful Now they having or at least believing they had a dispensation from God to Preach the Word 't is not to be supposed they would think themselves discharged from that Office because they were prohibited to Preach by the Bishop And 't is easily supposeable their Hearers had no great liking for the Bishops Curates especially since at the Restauration a very few excepted they were guilty of Breach of Oath the Matter whereof they could never yet prove to be sinful And if any Person be reputed Perjur'd every Honest Man shuns any Commerce with him Much more if a Man be of so Sacred a Function as is a Preacher of the Word who that has any thing of Religion in him will so much as Countenance him Besides since many of the Laity did take the Covenant and obliged themselves to disown Episcopal Government it needed not so much have startled him if he had any Conscience himself that those People would not hear the Publick Ministers till such time as they were satisfied of the unlawfulness of the Oath since hearing them duely and ordinarily might have seemed to be a down-right Violation of it Besides 't is not improbable that those who are of Opinion that that Office crept into the Church contrary to Christs Institution might more scruple at that than at any Ceremony whatsoever But the Gentleman by what he adds in the end of this Paragraph contradicts himself as if he were in a Frenzy for if the best of their Ministers and almost all the People Communicated as he says Why is he at so hard Labour to shew the Unreasonbleness of their Dissent from the Publick Churches As to what

him and thereupon questioned him about the Kings Authority and the poor Creuture denied all point Blank and was afterwards Executed for it and most of them that suffered there were of such distempered Brains as this Creature was and it was no unusual way with the Council to Execute those distrest People the same day they were brought in to Edinburgh sending them immediately from the Council House to the Place of Execution which was a certain Indication that some of those Honourable Members at least those who were highest in Power acted very differently from what our Religion injoins us and had very little of that Spirit of Tenderness and Charity so much inculcated by it And if they found that a Person was fully resolved to Die at coming before them to vex him they would keep him longer As it fell out to a certain Person in the beginning of King James's Reign before our Gentleman was turned out for we could see no danger of Popery till such time as Dissenters had Liberty who appearing before the Council as brisk as his Condition did allow him expecting as others to be sent straight to the Place of Execution Some of the Council said What! You think to die to day I warrant you you shall not have that favour you shall be kept till Friday it being Tuesday or Wednesday I cannot now say positively whether but heard it for an undoubted Truth and accordingly he was Executed on Friday And tho some of those People did maintain strange Tenets about Authority yet I doubt not but their Deaths were precious in Gods sight and will be required at the hands of those Persons if a seasonable Repentance which it may be no less than a taking severe Vengeance upon them for their Inventions will ever extort from them do not prevent it It had been more like a Christian to have sent those People to a Mad-house to try if there was any possibility of rectifying their Brains than to a Gibbet And we know what occasion was taken from the Imprudence of those Poor People by some Spiritual Merchants to traduce not only all the Presbyterians there but even all the Dissenters here and incense the Mob so against them that it is owing to no less than an Extraordinary restraining Power of God that they were not knocked on the Head as they went along the Streets so great a Hatred had Men whom no Principles keep back from perpetrating the Wickedest Action thereby conceived against them But I shall briefly expose the Strange and Unparallel'd Partiality of this Gentleman in vindicating the taking away those poor Peoples Lives by comparing them with our present Jacobites I think the most Bigotted Reader will grant that this Author has given them as black a Character as is possible to be done which for the more clear Conviction of his Prevarication I shall say nothing against only this Dato sed non Concesso that it were so it ought to be considered that King Charles II. had promised to maintain that Government by his Coronation Oath had again promised them a Liberty if not more at Breda and notwithstanding Prior to any Act of Disloyalty on their side had declared them to be Irreconcileable Enemies till such times as they altered their Principles which 't is not so easie a task for an Ingenuous Person to perform as Men that have none do commonly believe and treated them as such till at last he made not a few of them to become Haters of his Government On the other Hand 't is sufficiently known how the Jacobites have acquitted themselves here their Carriage has been such to Their Present Majesties that it needs not be questioned but that of all Persons that have been Seditious and Disaffected to a Government for many Ages they have been and are the most Inveterate For it plainly appears that since Their Majesties Accession to the Crown they have been continually Plotting to Subvert the Government so that the Jesuites themselves may give them the Precedency and even a Self-preservation seems to have required that some severer Laws had been made against them than as yet have We may at the same time consider that all this is without the least Provocation given them since Envy it self cannot with the least shew of Reason traduce Their Majesties Government Mildness having to a Prodigy discovered it self in all their Actions the Roman Catholicks themselves might have promised to sit under their own Vines and eat of their own Fig-trees And the Church of England was never in a more hopeful way of being firmly establisht and again recovering her former Splender which had some time been sullied And notwithstanding this some of her Members have conceived so irreconcileable a Hatred against this Government that no less than a Destruction of it would satisfie them Now if those severe Acts made against those Persons were so necessary for the supporting of King Charles II. Government Then I hope all Persons but themselves will acknowledge that they are no less necessary under this since 't is so plain that they have infinitely out-stript the others And tho they have not had the Courage to appear by themselves in Arms which if they had we might been rid of them long ere now yet which is infinitely more dangerous they have dealt with a Foreign Tyrant to send them Forces and have taken such Cruel Measures that Humanity it self would abhor But suppose such severe Acts had been emitted here by the Council that where-ever a Jacobite was taken Plotting or speaking Treasonable or Seditious Words he should be forthwith Executed for it except he would own the Present Government or take the Oaths to King William and Queen Mary or say God Bless them and that without any Verdict brought in by a Jury Or that if Soldiers should meet with any of those in the Fields or them that were declared to be such they should immediately shoot them I say had these severe Measures been taken against Jacobites here which yet Reasons of Preserving the Government would infinitely more justifie than the Proceedings against those simple Creatures in Scotland it would have given disgust to not a few Persons and I am sure this Author would have talkt very loudly against it In the Name of God then how can a Man of Learning suffer Reason to be so far Eclipst in him as to vindicate an Action done against those Men which he would have condemn'd if executed on Persons that are Infinitely more dangerous in a Kingdom Villains in Grain and Enemies to Mankind it self He heaps up several Falshoods to Justifie the granting the Soldiers Power to kill such as disowned the Kings Authority for that was granted before those two Men were killed at Swyne-Abby which happen'd but towards the end of King Charles's Reign and it cannot to this hour be certainly said who killed them they might as well have been Episcopal or Roman Catholicks or it may be some upon a private Pique c.