others the Military Power of the City was lodg'd in those who had surrendred her Charter and dipp'd their Hands in the Blood of my Lord Russel Colonel Sidney Alderman Cornish c. and contributed to the Arbitrary Methods of the late Reigns And because this is but one half of the Parliament let 's look into the higher House and there you will find that according to the opinion of none of the least Church-of England-Men when the Act pass'd for depriving the Nonjurant Bishops it was look'd upon as a fatal Blow to the Church of England So that in plain terms the Jacobite Party is what that Faction means by the Church of England And as a Commentary upon the Text let 's but consider the main Engine which they have made use of to quash the Discovery of all Plots against the Government and we shall find that it was by giving out those Discoveries as the Efforts of Republicans and Dislenters against the Church of England and if we look nearer home and consider how it comes to pass that such Men are advanced to the highest Places in the Scots Government who were the Contrivers Enacters and bloody Executioners of those Laws which your August Assembly hath declared to be impious we shall find it to be done by the Interest of that Party in the Church of England If we consider further whence it is that those who betray'd our Army murder'd our People and plotted the Destruction of your Convention escape unpunish'd you will fin'd it to be by the Procurement of the aforesaid Party Now all these things being considered it will easily appear whether it be your Interest to oblige this Church or not Or if we take her according to the general Acceptation of Bishops and Ceremonies the Vote of your August Assembly concerning Prelacy your Act establishing Presbytery as most agreeable to the Word of God and the Opposition made to the Ceremonies by our Country in Charles the First 's time will speedily determine the case And it will yet appear less reasonable to oblige that Church so taken if we consider that those of her own Communion and the best of them too look upon both Bishops and Ceremonies to be indifferent and not of Divine Institution as may be seen by the Writings of Mr. Hickeringil Counsellor Stephens and Stillingfleet's Irenicum So that in effect the best of the Church-of England-Communion are embark'd in the same Bottom with your selves and the common Enemies of both call them Presbyterians as well as you and treated them accordingly in the late Reigns So that from that worthy part of the Church of England who are Men of good Lives and keep firm to the Doctrine of their Church you need fear no Opposition for to do them Justice they are as zealous for the Protestant Religion as any and never join'd in persecuting their Brethren of a different Opinion To what they pretend of supplying the vacant Churches may speedily be replied The Assembly hath declared their Willingness to employ such of them as are Godly and Orthodox And as for others the good old way of our Church in the Reformation when Ministers were scarcer than now of appointing Men to preach by turns to those vacant Congregations till they can be otherwise supplied is the much safer and better Expedient than to entrust such Men with the Charge of other Peoples Souls who have discovered so little care of their own and whom in your Wisdom you objected against as the great and insupportable Grievance of the Nation Nor have you any such Encouragement from their former Success to imploy them again and if it shall seem good in your Eyes to go on as you begun and encourage a Reformation such of our Country-men as are abroad will be the sooner prevail'd with to come home and others to prosecute their Studies to adapt them for the Ministry and fill up the Vacancies for it cannot be hid from your Illustrious Assembly that the intrusting the chief Enemies of the Presbyterians in the Government is a great Discouragement to all that wish well to our Church or Countryâ— and administers but too just cause of Suspicion that we must either be imbroil'd in a Civil War or return to our former Bondage which nothing but your Care with his Majesty's Assistance and God's Blessing is able to prevent Your Honours may perhaps be inclin'd to think that there is too much Gall in my Pen against our Prelatical Clergy but such of your Number as have been lately at London cannot but know what an Odium they have endeavoured to bring upon the Country in general and your August Assembly in particular insinuating That you are neither the True nor full Representatives of the Nation and but a meer surreptitious Faction got together by the Opportunity of tumâ—ltuous Times and that you neither acted from a Principle of Honour nor Conscience but did only what you thought would be pleasing to the Prince of Orange And hence they have used their utmost Endeavours to have you Dissolv'd by the Interest of the high-slown Prelatical English Courtiers to whom they represent you in the blackest Colours which their Malice or Wit can invent And not only so but they make use of your Name as the Turkish Slaves do those of their Barbarous Masters from whom they have escaped to move those of the Church-of England-Communion to open their Purses pretending that you have turn'd them out in a barbarous and illegal manner or that they have had such and such Indignities and Affronts put upon them And thus they beg from one Clergy-man to another and spend what they get at Taverns and Ale-houses or sitting up whole Nights at Cards particularly at Mills in Westminster or Hutchinsons in the Hay-Market and when their Stock is spent renew the begging Trade or else troop about the Country and with their stol'n Sermons or railing Invectives against the Government of Scotland both in Church and State insinuate themselves into the Adorers of Bishops and Ceremonies for the latter of which though they exclaim'd against them at Home they profess themselves to be mighty Zealots Abroad and thus they disseminate their Poison in our Neighbouring Nation by their lying Tongues and blasphemous Pamphlets So that hence your August Assembly may have a sufficient view whether it be safe to reintroduce such Men into the Church who have given up themselves to all manner of Villanies and are become Devotoes to those unscriptural Ceremonies which occasion'd the fatal War in Charleâ—â— the First 's Time and have moreover evidenced such Levity and Unsted fastness both in imbracing rejecting them at Home since the Revolution that it 's visible they are not acted by Principle but Interest and that their Interest has been always contrary to what your August Assembly hath now espoused both as to Policy and Religion is so evident that whoever casts but an Eye upon the History ever since they were obtruded upon the Nation may soon
A CONTINUATION OF THE ANSWER TO THE Scots Presbyterian Eloquence Dedicated to the Parliament of Scotland Being a Vindication of the Acts of that August Assembly from the Clamours and Aspersions of the Scots Prelatical Clergy in their Libels printed in England With a Confutation of Dr. M 's Postscript in Answer to the former proving That it 's not the Church of England's Interest to countenance the Scots outed Clergy As also Reflections on Sir Geo. Mackenzy's Defence of Charles the Second's Government in Scotland And Instances on Record of Sir George's Subornation against Sir Hugh and Sir George Campbel and the Laird of Blackwood Presbyterian Gentlemen Together with the Acts of the Scots General Assembly and present Parliament compared with the Acts of Parliament in the two last Reigns against the Presbyterians By VVILL LAICK London Printed in the Year 1693. TO THE STATES of SCOTLAND in Parliament Assembled Most Noble Patriots I Presume but with that profound Respect which is due to such an August Assembly humbly to implore your Protection to this rude and indigested yet real Effort of true Love to my Country and to you Worthy Patriots in particular whom all honest-hearted Scotsmen look upon as the Healers of our Breaches and Restorers of our Paths to dwell in And therefore it is not possible for any Man who has a drop of true Scots Blood in his Veins to hear your Authority impugned and your Wisdom called in Question without resenting it to the utmost of his Ability And if according to the common Opinion of some of our Neighbours Sâ—otorum ingenia sint praefervida an Affront of that Nature is enough to make them boil over Hence it is that in a former Endeavour I could not forbear to besprinkle Scotico aceto some degenerate Monsters of our Country who exposed to contempt as much as in them lay whatever Scotsmen account dear in things Civil and Sacred Had it been only a particular Party or some such pack'd Clubs as disgraced the Name of Parliaments in former Reigns and enacted such Laws as their present Majesties with your Advice have declared to be impious had it I say been thus the Matter might have been the more easily digested but to have a lawful and a freely elected Parliament of Scotland charged in a Neighbouring Kingdom with a deliberate and malicious Lie in an Act so unanimously resolv'd on and duly canvas'd as was that of your Assembly concerning the Nation 's being first reformed by Presbyters and that therefore Presbyterian Government is most sutable to the Inclinations of our People I say to have a Lie of that Nature charged upon you is a Piece of Impudence that none but the Party culpable could be guilty of And yet as if they had a mind to exhaust all the Treasure of the bottomless Pit at once and to bankrupt the Malice and Falshood of Hell for ever after they go on to charge you further with lodging the Government of the Church in the Hands of such blasphemous ignorant and immoral Beasts as Asrica never produced the like and to aggravate your Guilt would make our Neighbouring Nation believe that at the â—ame time you have turn'd out such a Generation of Ministers as the Primitive Church would have been proud of for their Sanctity and adorâ—d for their Learning Thus those common Incendiaries in their printed Libels treat the Parliament of Scotland which for the Antiquity of its Standing and fulness of its Power gives place to none in Europe But it is not to be wondred at most Noble Patriots that that Party should treat you thus seeing they hate your being any otherwise than to serve as their Drudges and devour the best and most industrious Part of the Subjects by which both you and that Ancient Kingdom which you represent were well-nigh entomb'd in Oblivion and Disgrace It was that Party who changed a well-limited and regular Monarchy into an absolute and uncontroulable Tyranny that durst arrogate a Power to cass and annul your firmest Laws and treat you with Contempt as perfect Slaves It was that Party who robbed Christ of his Prerogatives Royal to be Jewels in the Crowns of their Absolute Monarchs It was that Party which robbed the People of their Consciences to bring them to an absolute dependance on the Prelatical Mitres And not only deprived you of the Property of your Houses but denied you a safe Retreat into your own Hearts It was that Party who rendred K. Iames the Sixth so much a Prelatical Bigot as to the disturbance both of Church and State and contrary to his Oath to obtrude Bishops upon the Nation and persecute the sincerest Protestants while at the same time he indulged the Papists and in fine had such an aversion for his Native Country that instead of seeing it once in three Years for administring Justice according to his Promise he never came to it but once after his Succession to the Crown of England and instead of favouring his Church of Scotland which he pretended once so much to admire he persecuted those who declin'd a Conformity with the Church of England It was that Party who influenced Charles the First though a Native of Scotland to put such an intolerable Affront upon the Nation as to demand their Crown to be sent to England and afterwards to invade us with a formidable Army designing an absolute Conquest and in an unnatural manner to subject that Nation to his newly acquired Crown which his Ancestors did so much disdain that they maintain'd 300 Years War upon that Head with no small Glory And how the Faction prevail'd with Charles the Second to requite our Nation for making themselves a Field of Blood in Defence of his Title is so fresh that it needs not be recapitulated and it is yet much more recent how well K. Iames the Seventh rewarded us for owning his Right of Succession when England had in a manner spued him out by the Bill of Exclusion he I say rewarded us by publishing such despotical Proclamations as with an unparallel'd audacity declared us Slaves to the perpetual Infamy of that Generation of Scotsmen who were so tamely bereft of their Liberty which our Noble Progenitors maintained against Romans Picts Britains Danes Saxons Normans and English for twenty preceeding Ages So that I say considering how the Prelatical Faction inâ—luenced those four Monarchs to treat our Nation though they derived their Being and Honour from it and were otherwise in many respects tantorum haud quaquam indigni avorum The Resolve of your August Assembly that Prelacy was an insupportable Grievance to that Kingdom deserves to be engraven in Pillars of Corinthian Brass and that all Scotsmen as no doubt many thousands will should not only wheâ— their Pens but their Swords in defence of it It is that Party who in this Reign impugn your Authority by procuring Letters from Court to command such things to the Assembly as by Law they are not
Scots Presbyterians do not at all think themselves obliged by that Covenant to endeavour a forcible extirpation of the English Prelacy but in Concurrence with the Parliament of England and therefore so long as they have not their Call to the Work the English Prelacy is in no Hazard and the best way to keep so is for the Church of England to carry modestly and neither to meddle with us nor give their own Parliament occasion to make such a Vote against them as the Parliament of Scotland made against our Bishops That they were the great and insupportable Grievance of the Nation so that they have their Safety in their own Hand But if they should be so infatuated to proceed as they began in relation to the late General Assembly of the Church of Scotland or if they be such Fools as to concur to the stiâ—ling of all Plots against his Majesty as hitherto because so many of their own Communion are concerned in them let them blame themselves for what will be the unavoidable Consequences soon or late for the Church-of England Laity are too good Protestants and English-men to be always led by the Clergy or continually hood-wink'd and not discover the Plots carried on against the State under pretence of Zeal to the Church of which me-thinks the Hot-headed Clergy should take warning seeing they may easily perceive how little Ground their Passive Obedience had gain'd when the honest Church-of England Laicks found themselves in hazard by K. Iames as to their Liberties and Religion Next I would earnestly beg that they would consider how the Faction under a pretence of Zeal for the Church and against Presbytery screw'd up the Prerogative to such a height that Englishmen had very near lost their Liberty and Property It was this mistaken Zeal that threw out the Bill of Exclusion surrendred the Charters of Corporations enabled the King to pack Parliaments pick Juries and cut off whomsoever he pleased under pretence of Law It was this mistaken Zeal that brought the late Reign and all the direful Effects of it which we have already felt or are still impending upon us It was this mistaken Zeal which delay'd his present Majesty's Access to the Throne gave the Enemies opportunity to ruin Ireland raise a Rebellion in Scotland and Plot as they do still in England And shall we never be aware of it Methinks that if the Church of England compared Things past and present She might easily perceive that this intemperate Heat against Presbytery doth naturally issue in Popery and Slavery and that she has much more reason to unite for Defence of the Protestant Interest and her own Doctrinal Articles with the Church of Scotland than by espousing the Cause of a few proâ—â—igate or traiterous Clergy-men because Episcopal run her self into unavoidable Dangers Is it possible that a Harmony in Discipline should have more Power to unite distinct Interests than a Harmony in Doctrine and Agreement under one Civil Head hath to cement those who drive the same Interest It cannot be unknown to the Church of England if she believes either their Majesties Proclamations or considers the procedure of his Parliament and other Courts in Scotland that the Prelatical Party there drive at a Design to restore K. Iames. And with she yet entertain such Vipers in her Bosom as their outed Clergy and not only so but for their sakes entertain Suspicions of his Majesty and sollicite him against the Church of Scotland Can she say that we have ever made any Address to him against the Church of England and why should they be more zealous against us than we against them Does she not know that Arch-bishop Vsher and some of the greatest of her Fathers thought Episcopacy and Presbytery reconcileable and the other things in Controversy indifferent How is it then that she thinks her Differences with King Iames and the Church of Rome more reconcileable as she must needs do if she fall in with her own high-flown Tantivees and our Scots Prelatists But I hope if no Religious Considerations will prevail that the danger of their running the same Risk with us may they seeing both they and we have the same Security viz. the King 's accepting of the Crown on such and such Conditions and consenting to Acts of Parliament accordingly if he should break to one he may do the same to both and though they may think that he will not overthrow their Hierarchy because the Bishops depending on him may be useâ—ul to him in the Parliament-House yet at the same time he may as Charles the Second did invade their Civil Liberties and then their Religion nor nothing else can ever be secure I must again beg the Reader not to mistake meâ— as designing to create any Suspicion of his Majesty following such an unhallowed Pattern but meerly to set this as a Beacon before the Church of England that they may beware of being Shipwrack'd twice upon the same Rock which will be unavoidable if they should prevail wiâ—h any of their Kings to break the Original Contracts or call in K. Iames or set up any other Pretender against his present Majesty and prosper which blessed be God there 's no probability that ever they will for never was King better beloved by Subjects and let them try it when they please they 'll â—ind he has in Scotland Twenty to One firm in his Interest And whatever Noise they make to blind their own Designs of our hazard from a Republican Faction if they will assure the Nation of such Governours as are now at Helm those whom they call Republicans will as cordially submit to them as any But I foresee an Objection as to Scots Affairs That they only sollicit his Majesty to dissolve the present Parliament and call another which will restore Episcopacy and recognize his Title Answ. 1. His Majesty hath had too many Proofs of the Loyalty of Presbyterians and the Treachery of Episcopalians to venture such an Experiment or if he should and they happen to recognize his Title he can never think that they submit from Affection but meerly from Interest when they see they can do no better And in truth whatever Pretences of Loyalty they make it 's demonstrable enough that as the Country-man when the London â—Drawers baul'd out Welcome Sir laid his Hand on his Pob and said I thank you my Friend so may his Majesty when our Scots Prelatists pretend Loyalty put his Hand to his Side and say I thank you my Sword for no longer will they be his Friend than he is able to cudgel them Whereas it 's very well known that the Scots Presbyterians declared for him before Providence had determined their Crown in his Favour and have beat into the Prelatists whatever Loyalty they pretend to have Nor is it to be thought a Prince so Good and Generous as his present Majesty will ever be so ungrateful to his Friends or act so much contrary to Reason and his own
be proved on him that when talking to a certain Minister about the Church of Scotland one of the good-natur'd Doctor 's commendable Expressions were That if the Episcopal Party had it not he car'd not if the Devil had it Well but to proceed the Doctor acknowledges that other Dissenters liv'd peaceably in Scotland Now other Dissenters we had none but Quakers and Papists and that they liv'd peaceably we very well knew and used to ask why they persecuted us more than them seeing their Difference in Principles was much greater if our Episcopalians had been as they pretended to be good Protestants Now I think every one knows the Principles and Practices of the Papists to be dangerous in all Protestant Governments and that Quakerism has too great affinity with Popery so that their kind Treatment while we were barbarously persecuted is none of the best Arguments to prove our Episcopalians good Protestants And pray let our Author in his next give us an account Why Popish Recusants for denying the King 's Ecclesiaslical Supremacy were not dragoon'd to come to Church plundred hunted and hanged as we were But seeing I know he will not tell the Truth I 'le venture to tell it for him in Bishop Carnerosse's words The Papists were their necessary Friends A King of their Religion was dropping ripe to fall into the Throne and every one knows that under Popery Bishops may grow Cardinals and Popes but under Presbytery they cannot exist and this is the Rope which draws the Inclinations of our Hierarchical Men so much towards Rome instead of drawing Rome so much to them If I be mistaken let the Advances which the Church of Rome made upon us and the Interest they obtain'd in Court and else-where under the warm Wings of Prelacy in the Reigns of both the Charles's and the last of the Iames's bear witness Nay our good-natur'd Doctor was even so kind to Mother-Church as to impose on his Scholars an Oath in K. Iames's Time to maintain the blank Christian Religion and to hinder the publishing of Mr. Iamison's Book against Quakerism yet his Rancor against Presbytery was so great though the Malice of the Court seem'd to be asswaged that when the Presbyterians desired they might have the Common Hall of the College of which he was then Principal to meet in he answered like a scurrilous and spightful Villain That his Hall should never be a groping Office Indeed Doctor I am very well satisfied that if any such things had been practis'd at our Meetings the Episcopal Clergy would never have been their Enemies for very sure I am that the greatest Swearers Drunkards and Whoremasters of the Parish were generally the greatest Friends to the Curats And Arch-bishop Paterson whose Champion you are may for ever stop your Mouth seeing Megg Patterson with whom he had been base own'd it before the Court upon Examination And your other good Friend Mr. Hamilton whom you are so careful to vindicate would certainly have been a â—requenter of such groping Offices had there been any seeing he was not ashamed upon a certain Occasion to declare That he hated all words which ended in ism except Baptism and Priapism The Doctor having dropt out a feeble and a faint Lie to justify the making of the Laws against us Vices acquirit eundo and ibid. tells you boldly That the Scheme of the Presbyterian Religion wherein they differ from the Episcopalians is nothing but ungovernable Humour and Rebellion Well said good-natur'd Doctor who is a Separatist from good Nature and the Christian Church now Modest Sir I must bâ—g your pardon to say that you are either an ungovernable passionate Prelate or the King and Parliament are stark Fools and Knaves to have abolished Episcopacy in Scotland where according to you they must have establish'd nothing but ungovernable Humour and Rebellion Certainly his Majesty and the Parliament are more concerned to preserve the Soveraignty than such Fellows as you and if they had not been satisâ—ied that the Presbyterians were better Friends to it than the Prelatists they would never have establish'd them and ejected the other Pray Sir if your Eyes be not blinded with Passion look upon the Harmony of Confessions and see whether ours or yours if you know where to find your own be most agreeable to the Reform'd Christian Church and then if you please look a little further into their Discipline and if it do not provoke you to Indecency of Passion read 1 Tim. 4. 14. 2 Tim. 3. Acts 20. 28 29. Acts 15. Titus 1. Phil. 1. 1. and see which of us are the greatest Separatists from the Christian Church and whether those Texts be chargeable with ungovernable Humour and Rebellion and so long as those Texts make it evident that Bishop and Presbyter are the same in Name and Office not so much as Ordinatione excepta if it be ungovernable Humour and Rebellion to believe so we will be ungovernable and rebellious still As for your citing the Hindâ— lâ—t loose Ius Populi and Naphtali it 's altogether foreign to the purpose all of them contain such Arguments for the lawfulness of resisting Tâ—yrannizing Princes as your Party could never answer and for any thing particular in any of them especially the Hind let loose which was writ against Presbyterians as well as Prelatists none but one of your own Kidney can charge them upon the Presbyterians in general But further it 's mighty strange that this Principle should be so Criminal in us and yet Venial in the Church-of England-Men Wherefore do not you cite Iulian the Apostate Mr. Hickeringil or Dr. Burnet the Bishop of Salisbury's Works c. to the same purpose And pray let us know why the Presbyterians are more chargeable with Ius Populi c. than the Church of England are with those The Author will not take notice of what has been so often told him and his Party that the horrid Cruelties exercis'd upon the Presbyterians in the West as dragging them to hear the Curates per Force plundering them of all they had ravishing their Wives Daughters and Maids chasing them to the Woods and Mountains in the extremity of Winter denying the poor Children left at home any other subsistance than what was left by the surfeited Dogs the tying of Gentlemen Neck and Heels and rosting them before Fires without so much as allowing them a draught of Water to quench their insupportable Thirst forcing of Bonds from them for such and such Sums and extorting Certificates after all this under their Hands that they had been civilly used I say the Faction will not hear when we tell them that all this was done before they could charge us with any Insurrection and yet are so disingenuous as to instance our posâ—eriour Efforts for Self-defence as the Occasion of all severe Laws Than which nothing can be more unjust and by the Doctor 's own confession Pag. 87. That the King and his Ministers of State might more plausibly be accused of