and Measures of all your Votes may be the Known and Established Laws of the Land which Neither Can nor Ought to be Departed from nor Chang'd but by Act of Parliament And I may the more reasonably Require That You make the Laws of the Land your Rule because I am Resolved they shall be Mine FINIS ADVICE TO THE READER HAving received the following Papers just as this Tractate was finished and Printed off I thought my self obliged to Comply with the reasonable Request of so many Persons of that Worth and Quality the Subscribers are Thô at the same time I must confess that neither I nor this Treatise do or can deserve that Character their Civility and Goodness have bestowed on us Sir BEing Inform'd that you are upon a Continuation of that Excellent Work Entituled An Address to the Freemen and Freeholders of the Nation and that the Third Part of it is now in the Press we take the Freedom to Trouble you with this our Joynt-Request That if you take any Notice of the Case of Mr. Richard Thompson of Bristol Clerk in the Series of your Narration you will be pleased to give Credit to the Report which we shall here offer you And if you think fitting to Communicate it to the Publick in his Justification and Defence The Particulars hereof we have partly upon very Good Authority And we are able to Testifie the Truth of the rest upon our own Knowledge and Experience as to the Character Life and Conversation of This Worthy Gentleman He was Born of Protestant Parents and Educated in the Methods and Principles of the Church of England He received his Orders of Priesthood from the Hands of Dr. Fuller Bishop of Lincoln in the year 1670. Immediately upon this Qualification he was sent by the Reverend Dr. Pierce to serve in his Cure of Brington in Northamptonshire where he continued some Years with a very Fair Reputation About the year 1675. He removed from thence to Salisbury upon the Invitation of the said Dr. Pierce then Dean of Sarum where he liv'd with him in his own House In the year 1676. The Dean bestow'd upon him first a Prebend And then a Presentation to St. Marie's in Marlborough In 1677. He Travail'd with Mr. Jo. Norborne of Calne in Wiltshire but within less than a Twelvemonth he was Recall'd upon the Vacancy of Bedminster by Bristol his Present Living When he was abroad he neither Studyed at St. Omers nor Douay as was suggested Nor ever saw those Places nor pass'd into any part of Flanders or Italy but France alone He spent near Seven Months of his time at Paris and in the Academy of Monsieur Fonbert a Protestant still frequenting the English Ambassador's Chappel and receiving the Sacrament there And during his stay he Preach'd twice and read Prayers often in That Chappel At Guien upon the Loyre he sojourn'd all his time there with Monsieur Du Paizy the Protestant Minister Frequenting the Protestant Church and that only Receiving the Sacrament also from the hands of Monsieur Du Paizy to put those Men out of hope of Gaining him over that had already Sollicited him by fair Promises of Advantage to the Communion of the Church of Rome At Blois he kept himself also upon the same Reserve avoiding even to Lodge in the House of a Romanist but upon Absolute Necessity He was not yet so Rigorous as not to allow himself in a Curiosity to make an Acquaintance as well with Persons Eminent in their several Orders of the Church of Rome as with the Famous Men of the Protestant Churches He does not deny but that he had twice or thrice seen Mass performed while he was abroad but it was Curiosity not Religion that carried him thither And that he is so far from being stagger'd in his Faith by any thing he saw abroad that he is the more Confirm'd in it And that he would rather Beg within the Communion of the Church of England than be the greatest Person the Church of Rome could make him out of it Since his Return in 1678. No man hath kept himself more strictly to the Orders of the Church of England He hath taken the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy at least Eight several times Preaching and Acting in Conformity thereunto He never Refus'd any Test of Fidelity to the Government and Declares himself Ready to take any farther Tests that shall be lawfully impos'd upon him Sir We have Extracted these Particulars from Evidences Uncontestable and we reckon it our Duty to God to the Church to Common Justice and to Persecuted Innocence to Present This Account to your self in hopes that you will Transmit it with your own Ingenious Reflexions to the View and Consideration of the World We have Annexed hereunto a short Summary of what will be Attested on his behalf since he came to Bristol And we have thereunto subjoyn'd several Fair and Ample Certificates in his Vindication and Defence We could have added many more as particularly A Certificate of the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop Now of Chichester late of Bristol who has been pleas'd to Certifie Mr. Richard Thompson to be in these very words A Person of much more then ordinary Endowments for Learning an Excellent Preacher and which Crowns both the Former a Man of a Clean Life and Vnreproveable Conversation A Person free from Novelties in Religion but very sound and Orthodox in the Doctrines he Preaches and thoroughly Conformable as to Discipline c. And then afterward his Lordship Concludes thus I know no Young Man of his Years that better deserves very Good Preferment in our Church then This Young Man doth And this I do Testifie sincerely from my Heart and give under my Hand this Fourteenth day of September in the year of our Lord 1679. at my Palace in Chichester For the Truth and Authority of the whole Matter we are willing and ready to become Answerable and shall take it for a singular Kindness if you will be pleas'd to let These Testimonials pass into the World at the instance of Sir Your humble Servants Thomas Eston Mayor Sir Richard Crump Kt. Sir John Knight Kt. James Twyford Walter Gunter Thomas Davidge John Yeomans Touching Mr. THOMPSON's Care and Pains at BRISTOL in the Discharge of his Function there And his Reputation among the Inhabitants of the said City 1. IT is Undeniably known That he hath brought over many Anabaptists and Quakers to the Church of England there and Baptized them Publickly 2. That he hath Instructed and Grounded many Hundreds of Children who were afterward Confirmed by the Bishop of the Place in the Catechism of the Church of England 3. It is certain that he is never without a Full Auditory whensoever he Preacheth or when he Readeth the Prayers only And that he hath in his time much encreased the Number of Communicants 4. There are many most Worthy Gentlemen in That City that will not be Ashamed to own their Establishment in the Church of England to
cannot possibly better represent this than in the Words of Camden The State of England was most miserable at that time as being involved in a War with Scotland on the one side and France on the other oppressed with the Debts which Henry the Eighth and Edward the Sixth had Contracted the Exchequer was Exhausted Calis and the County of Oyen and in them a great Magazine were lost to the dishonour of the English Name and the People were divided in their Opinions concerning Religion The Queen had no Potent Friends nor was fortified with the * Cognatione Alliance or Kindred of any Foreign Princes The Trade of England must of necessity be very small when the Nation was thus Near ruine But when the Queen had once setled the business of Religion and afterwards had taken care to preserve it from Foreign Violence by Repairing her Navy Royal so that it was far Superiour to any other which gave her Reputation at home and Fame abroad and also from the Attempts of the Papists and Dissenters by severe Laws constantly put in Execution and had thereby Won the Affections of her People and stilled their Fears They being secur'd thus at home began to search all the corners of the World for Trade and sent forth their Fleets to the East and West Indies to Muscovy by the Bay of St. Nicholas by them Discover'd and Green-Land and indeed whether not whence they returned with Honour and Wealth and made her and themselves Happy One thing that gave a great Advantage to the Trade and consequently to the Wealth of England in her time was the Devastations which the severity of the Duke de Alva and the Wars of Flanders thereby occasion'd caused in those Countries by which means we gained some Addition to our People the knowledge of some Manufactures which we had not before and also a vast stock of Mony and Treasure which altogether had like to have totally ruin'd the Spanish Netherlands but however this concurring with the rest helped to advance England to that height of Wealth and Reputation in the World that it was in her days the Bulwark of Christendom and without any considerable forrein Assistance humbled and brought down the House of Austria which then aimed at an Universal Monarchy But then it cannot be denyed that together with these Low Countrymen Factions and Common-Weath Principles entred England And although the severity of that Queen and the great Affection and Veneration the People had for her added to her Constancy whose Motto was Semper eadem Always the same kept them both under so as they were never able to give her any considerable disturbance yet they grew and encreased and in the Reign of her Successor tugged stoutly in the House of Commons for the Victory with the Court Party as they then stiled all that stood to the Crown and kept King James at Bay and destitute of those Supplies that were necessary to preserve the Grandeur of the Crown and the Reputation of England and forced him to spend Seven Years of his Reign without calling any Parliaments and the last he called which was in his One and Twentieth Year involved him in War And the next basely Betray'd his Son who succeeded presently after to the Necessity of clapping up a Dishonourable Peace for want of Means to carry on a War When King James came to the Crown the Dissenters of England expected a mighty advantage by it because Scotland had been always Presbyterian from whence he came during his time and they hoped his Education might have strongly influenced him to favour them above the Religion Established and upon this intuition Jan. 14. 1603. they procured the Conference at Hampton Court but alass they had so basely and Traiterously used him in Scotland and he was a Prince of that great Learning and Prudence that when they desired a kind of Presbyterie to be Setled here He replyed If you aim at a Scotch Presbyterie Full. C.H. L. 10. p. 18. it agreeth with Monarchy as God and the Devil then Jack and Tom and Will and Dick shall meet and Censure me and my Council Therefore I reiterate my former Speech Le Roy S' avisera the King will be advised stay I pray for one Seven Years before you demand it and then if you find me grow pursie and fat I may perchance hearken unto you for that Government will keep me in breath and give me work enough And in the next Paragraph he tells them That he had learned by the Example of his Mother and their dealings with him in his Minority this Maxime NO BISHOP NO KING So they totally failed of their expected advantage and were kept under though with a gentle hand in all his time But when his Son Succeeded and in his Parliaments found how strong these Factions were who had in a great measure prevailed upon the Free-men and Free-holders of the Nation to send up thither great Numbers of good Common wealth men as they then stiled them that is Factious Ambitious Disloyal Persons that hated the Religion and Monarchy by Law Established and when he saw these made it their business to encrease the necessities of the Crown and then denyed just and necessary supplies but upon such terms as would have ruined him and when he also perceived that one great design of theirs was to render him and his Government odious by clamoring eternally against his Conduct and Ministers of State He then saw there was an absolute necessity of a more effectual and vigorous Execution of the Laws against them Hereupon these godly men grew impatient Roger Cokes Englands improvement part 3. p. 13. and one part of them in the years 1636 37 and 38 fled over into Holland and planted themselves at Leyden Alkmare and other places where they instructed the Dutch in our Woollen Manufactures of Norfolk and Suffolk and I have heard saith my Author who is a credible person Sir Charles Harbord a person of great Wisdom and Insight in Forreign as well as the Interest of this Nation say That if all the Bishopricks of England were sold and given to the Nation it would not near compensate the loss the Nation sustained thereby And page 32 of the same discourse he informs us That in the time of our late Wars the Dutch by the means of these Manufactures got from the English the East-land Trade the Company of which heretofore was above all others the most flourishing and by Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles the First was termed the Royal Company for it supplied Muscovy Sweden Denmark Poland and Lifeland with our Woollen Manufactures and made very advantagious Returns by Treasure especially Hungaria Duckets and the Commodities of those Countries into England This Trade till King Charles his Reign the English solely injoyed About the beginning of King Charles his Reign the Dutch began to be Interlopers rather than Traders with the English in it but in the time of the Wars by
the aforesaid means the Dutch allmost totally excluded the English We may observe how much the Trade of the Nation in general suffered by all this and especially that of Norfolk Suffolk and Essex of which the said Author gives an instance pag. 33. and from thence we may conclude how far the Trade of the Nation hath been and consequently may again be impaired by Factions if they be encouraged still amongst us I ought not to pass over in silence that my last quoted Author Ascribes this to the severe injunctions of Ecclesiastical discipline which these Zealous people would not indure And I know that many have used this as an Argument against Persecution and for a Toleration Comprehension or as the new Name is an Union But I reply if there were no Factions there could be no Persecution as they stile it nor any such dammage of our Trade and Commerce Secondly that they were not thus persecuted till they had provoked that King to the uttermost by rendring all Parliaments dangerous to the Crown and brought things into that State that neither the Monarchy nor the Religion Established could be any longer preserved without that severity So we may see if they be treated gently they grow Numerous and endeavour to subvert the Government if they be dealt severely with they over into forreign Countries and destroy our Trade so that both waies our ruine is almost assured by them and therefore should be no more incouraged than Pyrates and the common enemies of Mankind But to go on Another part of these people had before Planted themselves in New England in the West Indies 1629. where they have since grown Numerous and Rich and have abundantly practised that severity upon others who have dissented from them which they clamoured against and called persecution when it was used with more reason against themselves The Dutch being much exalted by the peace they had made with Spain whereby they were owned and acknowledged for a free and independent State by their old Sovereign and having acquired a vast Treasure by their Trade over all the World and by redeeming the places which were put into Queen Elizabeths hands for security of repayment of the Expence she was at to protect their feeble infant State out of the Hands of King James having so cut off their former obligations of respect to the Crown of England and lastly being grown strong in Shipping and knowing very well upon what ill terms King James and King Charles the Martyr stood with their Parliaments fell to plot the intire destruction of the English Trade and Navigation and in Order to this fell to endeavour the ruine of the English Fishery upon our own proper Seas His Majesties propriety and dominion on the Brittish Seas p. 26. They had formerly never Fished till they had begged leave of the King or of his Governour of Scarborough Castle this was now thought beneath the Magnificence of the Hogan Mogans and therefore they refused it Ib. pag. 29. 30. 55. They had formerly been limited by our Kings both for the number of the Vessells they should Fish with and the time Now they were resolved to be their own Carvers and in order to that denyed the English the Soveraignty of the British Seas Ib. p. 6. And as if all this had not been enough grew nearer and nearer upon the English Shores year by year than they did in preceding times without leaving any bounds for the Country people and Natives to Fish upon their Princes Coasts and oppressed some of his Subjects with intent to continue their pretended possession and had driven some of their great Vessells through their Netts to deter others by fear of the like Violence from Fishing near them c. as Secretary Nanton Pag. 58. January 21. 1618. acquaints the Lord Ambassador Carlton And to justify all this they sent out Men of War with their Fishermen to maintain that by force which they might have had of Courtesie for the asking To prevent these disorders of the Dutch King James Published a Proclamation in the seventh year of his Reign to assert his Right and exclude all Persons from Fishing upon our Seas without particular License but they neither valued this nor his Remonstrances by his Ambassadors nor the like Proclamation made in the twelfth year of his Sons Reign but went on by all the Crafts and Violences imaginable to ruine our Fishery to subvert the Right and Soveraignty the Kings of England have ever had to the Narrow Seas And all this only upon a presumption that those Princes would never be able to call them to an account by a War for all these Injuries And in the year 1639 The Reign of King Ch. fol. London 1655. pag. 163. they fell upon a Fleet of Spaniards in our Ports and Harbours with Canon and Fire-ships so furiously as made them all cut their Cables and being 53 in Number 23 ran on shore and stranded in the Downs whereof Three were burnt Two sunk and Two perished on the Shoar the remainder of the Twenty three being deserted by the Spaniards who went to Land were Manned by the English to save them from the Dutch and the other Thirty Ships put to Sea of which only Ten escaped thus far for the Narrative in short And now be pleased to read the Opinion of the Historian upon this These Two Potent Enemies Ibid. p. 165. being both Friends to England the British Seas ought by rule of State to have been an Harbour of Retreat to secure the Weaker from the Stronger not the Scene of their Hostile Ingagement and had this presumptuous Attempt of the Hollander met with a King or in times of another temper it would not it's like have been so silently connived at and their Victory might have cost them the loss of Englands Correspondence c. besides the King the Dutch well knew was of a Genius as not querulous so if provoked very placable and the Disposition of his Affairs as well as of his Mind disswaded from expostulating the Matter with them To that height of injustice and insolence were the Dutch then grown by the Divisions of England and the ill understanding betwixt the King and his Subjects This unfortunate Prince had made many brave Attempts before for the Honour and Safety of the English Nation without any good success for want of such Effectual Supplies from his Parliaments as might enable him to go through with them and he had taken up a generous Resolution to encrease the Navy Royal to a greatness proportionable to the Dutch and other neighbour Nations who were now striving for the Mastery of the Seas by out-building each other He got nothing from the Commons in Parliament that was considerable but with great difficulty and accompanied with Remonstrances Impeachments of the Chief Ministers complaints of Grievances and lowd Clamours of pretended fears and jealousies of Popery Arminianism Innovations in matters of Religion and as fast as
in Arms candidly and sincerely are these 1. The defending and securing of the true Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Government founded upon the word of God and summarily comprehended in our Confessions of faith and Catechisms and Established by the Laws of this Land To which Kings Nobles and People are solemnly sworn and engaged in our National and Solemn League and Covenant and more particularly the defending and maintaining the Kingly Authority of our Lord Jesus Christ over his Church against all sinful Supremacy derogatory thereto and encroaching thereupon 2. The preserving and defending the Kings Majesty his Person and Authority in preservation and defence of that true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdom that the World may bear Witness with our Consciences of our Loyalty and that we have no thoughts or intention to diminish his just Power and Greatness 3. The Obtaining of a free and Unlimited Parliament and a free General Assembly in Order to the Redressing or foresaid Grievauces for preventing the eminent danger of Popery and Extirpating of Prelacy from amongst us This therefore being the cause we appear for and resolve in Gods great Name to own They are much more honest and ingenuous than our Dissenters for that they speak frankly and freely what they mean to do which the other deny in words and prosecute in deeds as much as the Scots as far as they durst thereby Homologating all the Testimonies of faithful Sufferers for the truth in Scotland these eighteen years by gone We humbly request the Kings Majesty would restore all things as he found them when God brought him home to his Crown and Kingdoms and if that cannot be obtained then we heartily and humbly invite intreat beseech and obtest in the Bowels of Jesus Christ all who are under the same * * That is the Obligation of the Covenant Bonds with us to occur in the Defence of this Countrey Cause and Interest And that they will not stand still and see not only us oppressed but this foresaid cause ruined Adversaries highly and proudly insult against God and all good Friends of the truth discouraged Yea the Protestant Cause in Britain and Ireland and even your selves within a little time made a Prey of or else forced when we are Broken which the good Lord prevent dreadfully to wrong your Consciences Finally because we desire no mans hurt or blood We request our Countrey men now the standing Forces of this Kingdom some of them being our Friends and Kinsmen not to fight against us least in so doing they be found fighting against the Lord whose cause and quarrel we are sure he will own and signally countenance seeing we fight under his Banner who is the Lord of Hosts I have taken the pains to transcribe this Long Declaration not for any delight I take in it but because it is an undeniable instance and demonstration that the Kirk-men in Scotland did then intend to have renewed that War again that formerly brought this Nation to the very brink of Ruine and was the means of the Barbarous Murther of his Majesties Father of the Banishment of our King and his Brothers and Sisters for twelve years of the expence of 48 Millions of Money and Plate and of the loss of one hundred thousand Lives by Fire Sword and Famine All which calamities were begun and carried on by these very men first in Scotland by the incouragement of some factious men of our own Nation and afterwards here in England upon the same pretences As any man may remember that is but fifty years old and the rest may see by comparing this Declaration with those that were made then and therefore I cannot but admire the Providence of God in preventing this Presbyterian Plot by a Prorogation in the very nick of time without which this Rebellion would in all likely-hood have had much countenance from some in England who encouraged it Underhand upon pretences of Countenance from above how groundless soever nor had it ended as it did and where it did if they had got the first battel or but been able to have kept the Field But for the benefit of my Country Reader who is not acquainted with the affairs of Scotland let me observe two or three things for the better understanding of this Grand Cheat and without which this doleful Story may leave great impressions of pity upon the mind of an English-man which these bloudy Rebels of all the world do not deserve The Reader then shall be pleased to understand that besides this Rebellion there was a former one at Pentland Hills where these Covenanteers fought the Kings Forces in ranged Battel in 1666 and in many of their Field Conventicles there was weekly Meetings of Hundreds and Thousands of Armed men formed into Troops and Companies ready upon all occasions of probable capacity to fight against the King for the King in Sion And in 1676 they appeared so numerous that the Privy Council of Scotland advised his Majesty to send English Forces to lie in readiness upon the Borders and to order Viscount Granard to lie with an Army on the Irish Coasts ready to be transported upon occasion and likewise upon the Motion of the Marquess of Athol to procure the Lords of the Highlands a Commission to march with their Vassals under the Command of his Majesties Major General into the West which descent of the Highlanders is mentioned in the Declaration and Aggravated beyond truth or reason by stilling them Barbarians which those that knew these men aver they were not but behaved themselves very civilly to prevent the Field Conventicles from running together into a general Rebellion as they did this May. But to come to particulars they had a Field fast near Iedburgh in Tiveotdale toward the latter end of March 1678 where there were present 7 Preachers and 5000 people the men being armed to seek God for three things 1. That he would be pleased to put an end to the persecution of his people in that Kingdom 2ly That he would have mercy on all those that took the wicked Bond that was not to suffer any Conventicles on their Lands and give them grace to repent 3ly That he would bless with success those Noble Lords that were gone to London to complain of the Duke of Lauderdale and who procured the first Address against him though to no purpose There was another in the March the May following where were assembled eight or 9000 People to receive the Sacrament and renew the solemn League and Covenant of which the Privy Council gave his Majesty an account And another near Dumbar shortly after where they fell upon the Kings forces of the Basse that went out to dismiss them and killed one of the Souldiers and wounded more Finally my Author who is a learned Gentleman saith if he should go on to enumerate all the Field Meetings till that great one which began the Rebellion this May he might write a History The Spirit of Popery
speaking out of the Mouths of Phanatical Protestants or the last Speeches of John Kid and John King c. pag. 11. The matter of fact being thus stated the Reader need not wonder they were severely treated when they suffered the pains of Treason and Rebellion but besides those they had committed a vast number of Massacres and Assassinations before they murthered the Primate and this aggravated their sufferings Now all the cunning of this Declaration lies in this that they tell us what they suffered and perhaps truly but not a tittle of the case Which is just as if all the Rogues in the Nation should joyn and pen a complaint ennumerating how many of them since his Majesties Return have been Hanged Quartered Whipped Branded Transported Pillored Imprisoned which never meant any hurt to his Majesty or the Government but only to get a Living the best and easiest way they could Now to one that is as little vers'd in our ways of Punishment as we are in the Scotch it would seem a rueful Story whilest an English man would smile as knowing why they suffered all these hardships I need not apply it but shall add this they have deserved ten times more then they have felt as being the bloudiest Cut-throats in the world So that in Scotland no man dare to offend them openly for fear of assassination but such as either must by the necessity of their places or else have good means of defending their Lives against them Next I observe this Declaration is nothing but a large flourish upon the Speech and drawn just at that loose general rate which that is calling those Taxes and Punishments Arbitrary which they acknowledg were according to several Acts of Parliament and then pretending the persons that do constitute their Parliaments or States are overawed But then I must commend their ingenuity in this that they do not with the Commons of England lay the blame of all this upon the Duke of Lauderdale or their Ministers but upon the total change of their Government and State both Sacred and Civil and upon the Parliament of Scotland and the King whom they supplicate with menaces to restore him into the same State he found them in without which they were sensible the removing of the Duke of Lauderdale or any other of the great Ministers of State would signify nothing as to their Designs which was as they plainly tell us to set up the Presbyterian Doctrine and Church Government to serve the King in nothing else any further then he would serve them in that And lastly to obtain a free and unlimited Parliament and Assembly that is such as it might not be in his Majesties power to dissolve or frustrate by prorogation till they had extirpated Popery and Prelacy both together which was freely and roundly to tell us what they would have without canting and amusing us with general terms and hints but then I must not deny they had swords by their sides to justify these demands which our Gentlemen want and I wish ever may do but yet the Reader may observe that Speech that was so hugged in England and the Scotch Declaration meant the same thing though in different terms Observe also that they call the Presbyterian Doctrine and Government the Religion established though they own it to be taken away by a rescissory Act of Parliament for they believe all those Acts that have or shall be made against it are Null and Void and the former Acts are still in force though repealed which is an odd sort of Establishment consisting in the fancy of the people that own it and not in Law or Nature They lay the stress of their Justification upon necessity and yet own the greatest part of it to arise from hence that they must be deprived of the Gospel preached by the faithful Ministers and be made Slaves if they did not rebel Now as to their civil interest they would be in the same State with their Country men who are so far from rebelling that they have several times chastised them for it with a very little assistance from England And as to their Preachments I wonder in what part of the Gospel they learned to defend Christs Religion by rebellion but we must know this is pure Scotch Calvinistical Jesuitical Doctrine begun by the Devil and his Vicar the Pope not many hundred years ago and for which Bellarmine acknowledges there is neither Precept nor Example in the Bible nor in all Church History till near a thousand years after our Saviour's time and he gives this reason why the Gospel taught patience and submission because the contrary would have ruined Christianity then when but a few professed it but tells us St. Paul would have taught otherwise if he had lived in our days I shall not dispute how the Cardinal or the Scotch Gentlemen who talk at the same rate came to know this but I say it is equally destructive of any other Doctrine a man hath no mind to practise as of this of submission to Princes and suffering patiently for the truth without resistance As suppose I have a mind to revenge and they tell me of the Doctrine of meekness and forgiving injuries and Enemies if I reply this Doctrine was adopted to the Infant state of Christianity when Professors were few and exposed to persecution and could have got nothing by revenging their quarrels but ruine but the state of things is otherwise now and I may revenge my self with security both as to my self and as to my Religion and from thence infer that that Doctrine is ceased and I am at liberty to do in that particular as I see cause and that St. Paul would have taught so if he had lived in these times I say if I should argue thus upon their principles it could never be answered and a man might say as much for any other Gospel precept he had no mind to obey But to return The Covenanters in their first Declaration date the rise of all their troubles from the year 1648 and that is true and worth a Note You must know Charles the first had given them by the pacification all that they asked and the long Rebel Parliament had sent them home loaden with thanks Money and the spoils of England before our wars began * A View of the late Troubles cap. 18. but things going ill on the Parliament side after the King had routed Waller in the West and almost totally subdued the North by the valour of the E. of Newcastle the Parliament having no other way to turn them were forced to call in the Scots once more with Money and Promises yea and Oaths too to settle the Presbyterian Church Government here in England These two things prevailing upon them in they came and that ruined the King and his Party who at last surrendring himself to the Scots they dutifully sold him to the Parliament for 300000 lb. as all the World knows but the Chapmen fell out and