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
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
Enemies to the present Government and French Incendiaries or at least such a Crew as would sacriâ—ice all that is dear to us as Men and Christians to their own private Resentments 1. It is very well known and too lately transacted to be forgotten that the States of Scotland in their Claim of Right did demand the Abolition of Prelacy as contrary to the Inclination of the Generality of the People on which Condition amongst others their Majesties accepted that Crown and in pursuance of their Promise have by Act of Parliament abolished Prelacy since and established Presbytery in Scotland as most agreeable to the World of God as well as the Peoples Inclinations Then if their Majesties should be prevailed upon which blessed be God there is no cause to fear to act contrary to their solemn Oaths and the Claim of Right they must needs see that the People of Scotland would have ground enough to plead a Breach of the Original Contract nor could the Church of England for shame condemn them seeing they made use of the same Plea in their Convention and Parliament against King Iames. And in the next place let them but consider that upon the same ground this or any other King may as well break with them and invade the Constitution of their Church which by the Coronation-Oath they have bound him to maintain And whether Charles the Second after he was by them perswaded to break his Oath to the Presbyterians in Scotland made any greater Conscience of maintaining the Civil and Religious Liberties of England Iâ— appeal to themselves And therefore seeing by that excessive Power which they gave their Kings in things sacred meerly to destroy the Presbyterians they found at last that they had put a Rod in their Hands to whip themselves I think they should be cautious how they play that Game over again I do not write this as having any suspicion that their Majesties are so weak as to be prevailed upon to alter the Church-Government in Scotland but meerly to let the World see that they who sollicite them to it are their greatest Enemies and design to shake their Throne and that it is not the Church of England's Interest to countenance our Scots Prelatisâ—â— nor to importune their Majesties on that Head If what is already said be not enough I would earnestly intreat all sober Church-of England-Men to consider what were the Consequences of their meddling in our Affairs and incensing King Charles the First against the Presbyterians in favour of our Runnagate Prelates and their Hirelings And seeing like Causes may have the like Effects they would do well to beware It is not unknown that Scotland is a distinct Nation and ought to be govern'd by their own Laws and Councils and therefore it must needs be an Invasion of the Rights of Scotland for English Ministers of State and Prelates to meddle or give Counsel in Scotish Affairs when not call'd to it And I cannot but think that all reasonable Men will easily grant that the Parliament and General Assembly of the Church of Scotland are better Judges of what is expedient for that Nation than a few English Ministers of State or Prelates and that both of them have reason to reject what Directions or Injunctions come from such a Mint And I would put it to the Consciences of all judicious Church-of England-Men how they would take it if the King were in Scotland that any of the Dissenting Ministers who are really injured as those who preached at St. Hellin and Hiâ—ley Chappels in Lancashire or the whole of them because denied a Comprehension should â—ly thither and by their Interest with Scots Presbyterian Ministers of State and Preachers importune his Majesty to have the Constitution of the Church of England overturned and proâ—ure Orders to have such and such Ministers planted in Churches tho they refuse to satisfy the Law I say in such a case I appeal to their own Consciences how they would take it whether they would reckon themselves obliged to obey or if they would not complain that their Rights were invaded and demand Satisfaction of such Ministers of State c. as Incendiaries and Disâ—â—â—bers of the Harmony between King and Subjects I believe verily they would and that not without good reason tho I am sure the case is much stronger on our side still for the Dissenting Ministers of England are all of them Loyal to his Majesty willing to swear Allegiance and pray for him but so are not our Scots Prelatists And besides his Majesty is really the Head and Fountain of all Power in the Church of England who have not only their Temporal Baronies and Honours from him but are nominated to their Bishopricks by him but so it is not in Scotland where he hath divested himself of the Supremacy and neither bestows Lands nor Honours upon Church-Men Then the case being so the Golden Rule which commands us to do as we would be done by should oblige English-Men not to meddle with our Church no more than they would have us to meddle with theirs and if the Parliament of Scotland do pass over what of that Nature is already done it 's not to be supposed that the Red Rampant Lion is become so much a Calf as not to roar sometime or other and make the fattest and proudest of the Beasts in the Field to tremble as ersâ— of old but I hope and pray that God will avert both the Cause and the Effect The English Bishops did not gain so much by the the last Bellum Episcopale against us that they need to be fond of another and we doubt not to find as much Justice from the Parliament of England now as we found then and have no reason to doubt but King William would be as ready as Charles the First to deliver up his Ministers to the Law if it should be made appear against them that they have been meddling too much in our Affairs I know that our Scots Prelatists possess the Church of England that we think our selves obliged to endeavour the Extirpation of their Hierarchy and upon that account prevail with them to endeavour our Subversion But I would earnestly beg all moderate Men to weigh the following Answers 1. That the reason of entring into that solemn League and Covenant was the Fury which the English Prelates evidenced at that time against the Church of Scotland having excommunicated the same in all the Churches in England forced a Service-Book upon us more exceptionable than their own and in Conjunction with Papists enabled Charles the First to raise 30000 Men against us when the Parliament of England refus'd to concur with him insomuch that that Expedition was called the Bishops War But blessed be God his present Majesty is far from any such Attempt and the English Bishops the chief of them at least are Men of more Moderation So that there is no such cause for us to endeavour the Overthrow of their Hierarchy 2. That the
the Heretable Iudges i. e. Hereditary Sheriffs refused to put the Laws in execution against Conventicles by which they became formidable Which destroys two more of his and the Faction's Assertions viz. That Presbyterianism was not popular and that none but the Rabble were their Friends for those Hereditary Sheriffs are the best and most ancient Families generally in every County So that Sir George wrongs his Cause exceedingly by that Concession seeing those Hereditary Judges living upon the Place and being acquainted with the Industry and Honesty of the persecuted Party would not abandon their Honour and Conscience to become Hangmen to their Neighbours and Tenants And therefore the Court being resolved to ruin the Country imployed bloody cut-throat Papists as the Earl of Airly and Laird of Meldrum and their barbarous Savages the Popish Highlanders But according to the natural disingenuity of his Faction he takes no notice that those Military Judges pull'd the Hereditary Sheriffs from off their Benches and would not let them proceed against the Presbyterians according to the Statute-Law because that was too mild in their Opinion One remarkable Instance thereof was at Selkirk where Meldrum pull'd Philiphaugh who is Hereditary Sheriff of the Forest now a Lord of the Session out of his Chair when holding his Court. Another of Sir George's Defences are the alledged Severity to the Cavaliers in Charles the First 's Time Which if true though there 's no reason to take his Word for Proof he could not but know the truth of that Maxim Inter Arma silent Leges and that this could not justify the Dragooning of People to Church and taking free Quarter in time of Peace But Sir George accordinâ— to his wonted disingenuity takes no notice of the Case of that Severity if any such were viz. that the Persons so treated harassed their Native Country with Fire and Sword in conjunction with those who had cut the Throats of Protestants in Ireland filled the Kingdom with bloody Murders and barbarous Villanies I have neither time nor is it consistent with my present Design to anâ—madvert any further upon his pretended unanswerable Book but I think any honest Reader will be satisfied that it needs no worse Character than to be stigmatiz'd as a flat Contradiction to their Majesties and the present Parliament of Scotland being a sophistical and unfair Relation of Matters of Fact to make the World believe that all those Grievances have been false which the Parliament complain'd of his Majesty declared against and founded the Justice of his Expedition upon their Redress So that it will issue in this either that Sir George Mackenzy is a Liar or that his Majesty and the Parliament of Scotland are such and therefore good Mr. Doctor I am not afraid to appeal to the Judgment of all disinterested Persons whether it be you or I that are most void of Generosity Honour Modesty and common Sense of all which you deprive me in the 89 th Page of your Libel So that tho the Ass may vapour a while in the Lion's Skin the Ears of the dull Brute will discover him at last And thus our Doctor has wounded his Pretences to Loyalty by defending Sir George's Book But allowing all to be true that Sir George alledges as the Cause of our Persecution by Charles the Second I say still that the Faction deserves to be more severely treated by this Government upon the very Parallel viz. thus They own Passive Obedience to be true Doctrine and were as much sworn to that as we were to the Covenant so that if they believe that Doctrine they must needs look upon their present Majesties to have no just Title and think themselves obliged to rebel Now Malice it self could never fasten any such Consequence upon the Covenant as to Charles the Second's Title Ergo Passive Obedience must be more dangerous to this than the Covenant was to that Government But the Doctor turns his back and takes no notice of this Argument only magisterially tells you that if there be no more in the case than Passive Obedience the Government needs not be afraid Tho every body but the Faction â—hose Interest it is to dissemble the Consequences of their Principles sees the contrary by Demonstration from the Practices of the Nonjurant Bishops the high Church-of England Zealots and the Scots Rebellions 2. The Episcopal Party disown the Presbyterian Ministers and won't hear them Ergo by Sir George Mackenzy's Position they should be dragoon'd to Church and with much more reason than they dragoon'd us for there 's nothing in our way of Worship but what they practis'd themselves nor can they object against our Form of Government for they had it in conjunction with their own Episcopacy Then seeing we neither do nor desire that they should be persecuted on account of their Dissent whether are they or we most moderate All the difference is that there are no Laws against their Nonconformity as there were against ours which I grant to be true and hence we can demonstrate Presbyterian Moderation that the Parliament did not make any Laws against the Consequences of Prelatical and Passive-Obedience-Principles tho the Prelatists made Laws against ours and sure I am we had much more reason to have made Laws against them who did actually oppose and rebel against his present Majesty while the Parliament was sitting and yet no such thing was â—ver moved As for his Allegation that our Moderation proceeds from the opposite Biass of the Nobility and Gentry it shows his Ingratitude but all Men of sense must needs be convinced that the Parliament who settled Presbyteriaâ— Government and that with so much care as to entrust none but the old Presbyteâ—ian Ministers thrown out by the Prâ—lates and such as they should admit with any shâ—re of the Government were not so much biass'd in â—avour of the Episcopalians as to restrain from making such Laws on that account if there were no other reason Pag. 91. He owns that the Author of the Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence has perhaps been unwary as to some Stories which need Confirmation Well said Doctor perhaps unwary when I have made it evident from his own words that he contradicts himself but the Inconsistencies I charge him with you say you have no Incâ—ination to examine and truly I believe it because you know they are true And whereas you say there is not one good Consequence in my Book pray let 's hear what you can say in your next to avoid the dint of the Consequences there deduced and here repeated to prove your Party in general Liars Persecuters c. But the good-natur'd Doctor being sorry that he has done us so much faâ—our as to grant that his Friend was unwary as to some Stories retracts immediately and tells you there are multitudes of true Stories against us of that nature and believes that there was no Injury done us in publishing that Book Well argued wary Doctor you own that your Friend was unwary in
be so easily distinguished For who can tell where to find a Man that 's sometimes a Protestant sometimes a Papist turns Protestant again and from a Cadee become a Curat then Head of a College and at last leaves his Country for Schism and Disloyalty As for your Story about Spotswood you would have done well to have cited your Author for since as I told you not long ago you gave your self the Lie we have no reason to believe you Moreover it 's but very natural for a Cadee of Dunbarton's Regiment which us'd to plunder People of their Goods and make no scruple to rob Men of their good Names not to be believed For your Encomium on Arch-bishop Sharp it 's no surprizal to me his Villany was so universally known that no Man but those of his Gang will defend him and that 's no more than Whitney lately hang'd for Robbeâ—y may expect and without doubt has from his quondam Underlings As for your charging the Arch-bishop's Murder on the Presbyterian Principles 't is like your Philosophy Mr. Shields says it Ergo it's true It were a sufficient Answer to tell you another denies Ergo it's false And I tell you again and again That the Hind let loose was never the Standard of our Principles nor approved by our Party and I dare venture to say Mr. Shields will not now own every thing in it himself Nor is it his Disgrace but Honour to retract what upon second thoughts he finds will not hold And as for your Allegiance that there 's nothing worse in the Morals of the Iesuits You do well to defend your Friend but I directed you before where you might find as bad nay worse among our Scots Prelatists who gave publick Commissions to murder Men without Form of Law which is more than a sudden intemperate fit of Rage in a few Men who accidentally rencountring the Prelat who was actually pursuing them for their Liveâ— by his booted Apostles did inconsiderately deprive him of his As for what I say against the Church of England it's what many of her Sons own to be true and whether the Passive-Obedience-Men deserve any better treatment I refer to the incomparable Argument lately published by Mr. Iohnson So that if there be any Incivility to the Church of England it 's yours and not mine for I distinguish whom I mean and apply it to all in gross Pag. 101. He charges me with attaquing all our Kings since the Reformation This is unwarily argued Doctor then I perceive that according to you King William is none of our Kings for sure I am I do not attaque him But your Doctorship may please to know that I accused none of your Kings but what the Parliaments have accused before me and I think their Copy may be writ after nor do I know any reason why we should be more sparing of late than former Kings if their Male-administrations be alike and that it may be done with equal safety All Histories Sacred and Prophane abound with the wicked Lives of Kings so that this Prelatical Maxim of burying their publick Faults in Silence never yet found nor never will find encouragement from God or Man and their contrary practice flows not from Principle but Interest nor do they spare Kings more than others when they thwart that witness Heylin's Reflections upon pious K. Edward the Sixth and the Carriages of the whole Party toward K. Iames when he granted the Indulgence and to this we may add their continual Invectives and rebellious Practices against their present Majesties So that they hâ—ve forgot the somuch wrested Text which condemns speaking Evil of Dignities they being the guiltiest of all Men alive in that respect as may be demonstrated from their Clamours against all but Monarchical Government though all Powers that be are ordained of God and to which according to the Divine Command we should always chearfully submit whether to the King as Supream or other Governours Magistracy in this respect being also called the Ordinance of Man because though the Genus be determined by God yet the Species is left to the determination of Men else were it altogether unlawful for the Subjects of Republicks to own their Governours which no Man sanae mentis will affirm And herein God has evidenced his Love to Mankind that he hath bounded all sorts of Governments with one Commission which is to encourage the Good and punish Evil-doers So far may they go and no further Ibid. He says That I charge them with such as were deposed for their Immoralities as Dean Hamilton and Cockburn of St. Botâ—ens whereas I only charge them with having protected those Men from the Punishment due to their Impieties and baffling their Prosecutors So that if those Men were depos'd at last it confirms my Charge of Injustice in the Administration which punish'd Men for accusing those whose Guilt at last they themselves were forced to confess As for your Apology for Arch-bishop Paterson It is not much for your Credit to be Patron to a common Stallion whom all Scotland know to be such and Mag Paterson a common Strumpet did own before the Lords of the Session but a few Years ago that she lay both with him and his Brother and one of the greatest Ladies in Scotlaud took him in the very Act of Villany with one of the Dutchess of York's Maids of Honour upon the back-stairs of the Palace The modest Doctor pretends to be very squeamish and complains of my Obscenity alledging That none but a Devil can repeat nor none but the Author invent such Instances as are there brought against the Episcopal Cleâ—gy Good Sir to use your own Expression the paltry eruption of your Passion seems here ungovernable If he be a Devil that repeats them what is he that acts them But why must he be more a Devil that gives an account of Episcopal Debauches than he that forges prophane Stories against the Presbyterians Let any unblassed Man read the Scots Presbyteriâ—â— Eloquence and the Answer and certainly he must own That if the latter was writ by a Devil the former must be writ by a Beelzebub Your magnifying the Arch-bishop's Merit so much who was imprison'd for Disloyalty shows your disaffection to the Government Your Defence of Brown and Cant are so like a pedantick Doctor that they deserve no regard and what I write of them are so far from being my Invention oâ— as you most learnedly word it is the Exhalation of my most infectious Breath that I can bring you the Authors to avow it to their Faces Pag. 103. He says It 's pleasant to see me accuse the Church for the Sayings of the Presbyterians You own that those who preach'd such ridiculous things were guilty of Blunderings after they conformed to Episcopacy Truly Doctor if there were any greater Blunderers amongst them than your self they must have been Blunderers in Folio for I cannot think they were guilty of a more palpable Blunder than this to call
the 〈◊〉 of the Minister if the Parish disapprove him their Reasons are to be judged by the Presbytery and if the Freeholders and Elders do not apply to the Presbytery for calling and choosing a Minister in six Months the full Power to be in the Presbytery tanquam jure devoluto And the same Act orders a Compensation to the Patrons for their Right of Presentation Act 38. For securing their Majesties Government obliging all Persons who in Law are obliged to swear to own their Majesties as King and Queen de jure as well as de facto and defend their Title against King Iames c. the Refusers to be reputed disaffected deprived of their Offices and be obliged to give Security for their Good-Behaviour as the Government shall think fit providing it extend no further than Bond Caution or personal Imprisonment securing of Horse Arms or putting Garisons in their Houses There is also an Act but what Number or Session I cannot tell being where I cannot get a sight of the Acts abolishing the King's Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Affairs for which we are mightily reproached by our Enemies who do not consider what has been writ unanswerably by Mr. Gillespy in his Aaron's Rod blossoming and other Books against it I confess my self but a meeâ— Laick and not skill'd in Controversies having never made them my Study any farther than to satisfy my self that I did not give blind Obedience But the Scripture telling us that Christ is Head of his Church and that other Foundations can no Man lay than what is already laid on the Prophets and Apostles and Common Reason must needs inform me that for any Man or Party of Men to take upon them any other than a Declarative Power in Church-Matters and that according to the Word of God must needs be an invading of Christ's Prerogative And seeing he himself declar'd that his Kingdom is not of this World that it should be govern'd by Worldly Monarchs is humano capiti cervicem jungere equinam And I cannot but wonder that the Church of England â—s late Experience should not convince them of the Unreasonableness of this Doctrine For I believe they were sensible under the late King that a Popish Head was altogether inconsistent with the Safety of a Protestant Church And I am confident the Christians in Turky never dream'd that the Grand Signior was the Head of the Christian Church and this being a Demonstration that it cannot belong to the Chief Magistrate as such he can lay claim to it no other way Especially if we consider that the Church as in Acts 15. did meet and declare the Mind of God in Church-Matters without either the Call or Consent of the Heathen 〈…〉 and we have never yet had any Divine Revelation to recal it Then as for abolishing Patronages which occasions a further Clamour It 's plain that the Parliament have made a very rational Act on that Head and it 's but equal that every one who has a Soul and evidences any real Concern about it should have a Vote in choosing his Minister and not wholly rely on the Choice of a Patron who perhaps is so wicked that he takes no care of his own and is very unfit to choose a Minister for the Souls of a whole Parish And as for the other Acts they are so plain that any who will but take care to compare them with those of the late Reigns if they be not blinded as our Doctor was with the Indecencies of Passion we dare refer to them which are the most moderate or whether the Scots Prelatists be not guilty of an audacious Lie in asserting that they are more severely treated than ever we were And I would pray the Reader to take this along with him That their Laws tho barbarous to a Prodigy in themselves were yet more barbarously put in Execution beyond their Extent and that our Laws tho moderate in themselves are yet more moderately put in Execution Yea and besides those Acts of Parliament their Council took upon them a Parliamentary Power and made Acts more bloody than those of their Parliaments enabling Souldiers to examine any Man they met and to kill him without any further Trial if he did not give them satisfying Answers to their Questions of which any that pleases may be fully satisfied in my first Answer I had almost omitted taking notice of one remarkable thing which past in the Convention of States after the Revolution They declared themselves a free and lawful Meeting whatever might be contain'd in the Letter from Iames the VIIth to dissolve them or impede their Procedure in which Archbishop Paterson and six other Bishops and the Viscount of Dundee concurr'd Now if this was not a manifest disowning of K. Iames's Authority let any Man judg and yet these Men did afterwards exclaim against the Convention and Parliament as unlawfully called because wanting K. Iames's Authority and opposed K. William's coming to the Crown So that it 's evident our Scots Episcopalians are Men of the same Kidney with those Jacobite Bishops in England who join'd in sending for the Prince of Orange and yet afterwards turn'd his Enemies out of a pretended Loyalty to K. Iames. The Faction have lately drawn up and dispersed amongst their Friends a sort of Manifesto from those of the Episcopal Perswasion in the North of Scotland full of Invectives against the Government which together with other Monuments of their Rebellious Temper c. against their present Majesties may perhaps in a little 〈◊〉 see the Light FINIS a K. James's Proclamation b Act of Supremacy c Act for fâ—riot Conforâ—iâ—y d By frequent making them Garisons e Extorting your Thoughts by Torture and then hanging you for them