Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	bishop_n	king_n	scotland_n	4,378	5	8.3735	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51160	The spirit of calumny and slander, examin'd, chastis'd, and expos'd, in a letter to a malicious libeller more particularly address'd to Mr. George Ridpath, newsmonger, near St. Martins in the Fields : containing some animadversions on his scurrilous pamphlets, published by him against the kings, Parliaments, laws, nobility and clergy of Scotland : together with a short account of Presbyterian principles and consequential practices.	Monro, Alexander, d. 1715?; S. W.	1693 (1693)	Wing M2446; ESTC R4040	71,379	106

Attestations that they never said any such thing and that was all that you could do to prove your Negative and this might have been easily had especially from Mr. J. K. who lives at Edinburgh nor is there any of us so far exasperated against him as not to believe his own Testimony solemnly and seriously delivered And this is more Civility on our part than any of them will allow us at any time or upon any occasion If I were at Edinburgh I could prove the Affirmative and you must excuse me to continue just where I was notwithstanding of all the Informations you have received The following Paragraph hath in it more Impertinencies than there are Lines and yet it is probable that many of your Sect may think it seraphically witty The Author of the Postscript said that the absurd and ludicrous Sect metamorphos'd Religion and its solemn Excercises into Theatrical Scenes Another of the same Fraternity says that your Preachers were whining Fellows that drivelled at Mouth and Eyes And thus you make them contradicct one another and then you run away with a loud holla'a as if you were at the Head of the Rabble pulling down a Cathedral to see so many Curates slain with the Jaw bone of an Ass The word Theatrical Scenes does not determine whether your Preachers acted Comedies or Tragedies and a whining Scaramouchi may act his part in either and if so the many Words which you have gathered to no purpose discover your Ignorance and not any Contradiction amongst them whom you hate But Mr. Ridpath are you not in a strange Career when you can never hit upon the true nature of a Contradiction I am not surpriz'd that you do not know the Nature of a Comedy and Tragedy for you never read Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor none of the Commentators upon him either ancient or modern yet you might in two months time for so long I am told you was at the University have learned what a strict and formal Contradiction is That the Presbyterians were better at Libelling than their Neighbours is evident from all Records and therefore the Author of the Postscript had good Reason to say that Libelling was their Characteristick as that which they most practised and excelled all others in that in which they placed most of their Strength and Confidence and which they will never forbear if they happen to live where there is any to be accused But you say that your Enemies were the first Aggressors and their bold Attempts against the Godly justifies all the rough Treatment that they have met with Mr. Ridpath there is one thing that I would entreat you to condescend to and it is in itself very just and reasonable and unless you yield to it we may fight to our last breath without satisfying one another or serving any good Design the thing is this when you accuse Persons and Parties you must be more express definite and particular in your Libels I am of the Opinion that it is not possible for Presbyterians to forbear Libelling especially upon all publick Turns and Revolutions their Libels against the Clergy both in England and in Scotland are still upon Record Did you never see the Centuries of scandalous Ministers accused before the Long-Parliament The General Libel against the Bishops of Scotland may be seen when you please in the King 's Large Manifesto and in the first Volume of Nalson's Collections and if you believe neither of these Books since they were both written by Malignants read the Acts of the General Assembly 1638 and there you have the very same Libels mentioned and there is no Presbyterian but knows that the Libels against the Bishops in the Year 1638 were read from all the Pulpits of the Nation where the Assembly's Authority was obeyed and what is said by the Author of the Postscript of their Behaviour towards Archbishop Spotswood is commonly attested by the oldest Men in that corner of the Country near St. Andrews Particularly this is more carefully preserved in the Family of Ballfour And the Bishop of O. and Mr. Sage of Glasgow had this very Story from the Laird of Ballfour's own mouth 'T is true that there is an Act of the General Assembly mentioning the Libels against the Bishops but there are also among the unprinted Acts Acts of Excommunication and Deposition against some Prelates and when those Acts are produced I offer to prove from their own Authentick Records many more steps of their Fraud and Artifice That there are such Acts as I last named unprinted vid. Index of the principal unprinted Acts of the Assembly at Glasgow 1638. And if they were not afraid of being discovered and exposed upon this very Head those Acts had been printed as well as the other Principal Acts nay the Act against Episcopacy it self was not printed because it could not but alarm all the Protestant Churches abroad against them when the Order of Episcopacy was condemned as simpliciter unlawful a thing unheard in the Christian Church until the mungrel Conventicle at Glasgow sat therefore the Act against Episcopacy was left unprinted as well as the Acts of Excommunication and Deposition against some Prelates And this is either altogether unknown to or dissembled by Mr. Gilb. Rule when he denies the Truth of that Story as related by the Author of the Five Letters And you are a Fool to think that in those days when Rebellion and Hypocrisie were triumphant they would have stuck at such little Punctilio's and not practise all Arts to delude the Populace I hope you do not deny what use they made of Margaret Mitchelson's Visions Raptures and Revelations by which they persuaded the People that the Covenant was authorised by immediate Revelations from Heaven as well as by the Popular Tumults at Edinburgh The Knavery against Archbishop Spotswood was an Injury done to him and the Church but the counterfeit Raptures of Margaret Mitchelson countenanced by your Party mocked and defied God's Justice and Providence no less than it ridicul'd and prophan'd all Religion Vid. King 's large Declaration Nay they procured Libels against the Clergy from most Counties in England and in those Counties where they had none to work upon of their own Gang they forged Libels and presented such counterfeit Petitions in the name of such Counties and dispersed their Forgeries for real Truths to make their Party appear numerous and the Clergy odious And Sir Thomas Aston petitioned the House of Lords against this villanous Practice but this was not welcome to those Lords who favoured the Faction and therefore Sir Thomas Aston was reprehended and the Forgerers gently rebuked And my Author truly observes that this was like to prove aglorious Reformation which was built upon such Foundations and advanced by such Arts and Methods So that if you mean the former Presbyterians they were the first Aggressors and if you mean the modern they practised this Trade of Libelling ever since the beginning of the

he could not but be mad to the last degree if he were angry at the names you give him since they of the first quality in Europe have no fairer quarter at your hands A Scribler a Pedant a Hawker a Villain an Ass an Ignoramus a Blunderer are all of them words that he can hear with patience when his Superiours are not better treated One may modestly conclude that you are very angry and that 's a greater punishment than any of your Adversaries can inflict upon you The Author of the Postscript to the Apology for the Clergy of Scotland told you already that he was not at all concerned in that Scuffle between you and your Antagonist nor is he likely to offer his mediation to end your Debate and he is still of the opinion that he can employ his time better than to read again your Answer or the Book that occasioned it His Postscript is a short Epistolary account of the first or rather a Character of the present methods of Presbytery in imitation of their Predecessors than any particular view of your Book and I am content that you impute this to his ignorance or weakness or what else you please to call it It is very odd that you should think that you have power to summon any body to the Press when you please even when you lurk behind the Curtains You take it for granted that Dr. M. was the Author of that Postscript and it may be you hit right enough yet tho your Party be lashed in it with some severity he takes no great pleasure in medling with particular men further than necessity constrains He said that there was not a good consequence in your Book from the beginning to the end this could not but provoke a man of your courage and mettle By a Consequence I humbly think he understood a truth deduced from true and solid Principles that overthrows the common cause of Episcopacy or the reputation of those men whom you asperse I mean such of the Clergy who were never under any publick censure of the Church He told you likewise that he had no inclination particularly to examine the imaginary contradictions that you charge your Enemy with and now I give you the reason partly because the Theme as you manage it yields no edification partly because the publick is not at all concerned to read such Libels and altercations and he gives you liberty to triumph as much as you please upon this Head but if your honour and credit is at stake and that you find your self concerned more particularly to run him down than any other he is content to meet you before any competent number of grave witnesses who by their authority may mitigate such excursions of rudeness as may be feared if your blood should boil to its usual fervor and to reason the matter calmly and without either huffing or the terrible language of an Almanzor to demonstrate that there is not a good consequence in your Book from the beginning to the end And indeed you may excuse me to tell you that in your last Pamphlet you seem not to understand the very first Elements of Logick Moreover the Author of the Postscript incurr'd your high displeasure by saying that there were abusive Metaphors in Mr. Rutherford's Letters and some dark and unintelligible passages in his Scholastical Essays and is this the unpardonable Crime for which there can be no atonement Mr. Ridpath this was no reflection upon his Morals but a plain matter of Fact to be seen by every body that peruseth the Books that are cited And therefore this could not at all justifie your accusing Sir George Mackenzie to have suborned Witnesses a practice so infamous and so wicked that I am confident no man of honour will ever say any such thing of the truly Just and Learned Advocate A previous examination of Witnesses in criminal Cases is not Subornation but precognition practised at all times in Scotland before they deponed judicially and Sir George Mackenzie wanted not many clear evidences to prove that C. of C. was plotting an insurrection against the King and Government about the time of Argyle's rebellion You may read the elegant History of that insurrection written by the Bishop of Rochester and there you may see with your own Eyes several authentick Evidences upon record against C. of C. and I must tell you that Sir George Mackenzie needed not that Gentleman's Assistance to re commend him to the present Court if he had been ambitious to have been a Favorite and if he told C. of C. that he had done him an Injury and begg'd him pardon how came this Confession to be made publick if he to whom it was first revealed under trust spread it abroad he is guilty of something that no Gentleman will readily own but the plain truth is Sir George Mackenzie never told him any such thing after the manner you represent it and he had very good reason to expect that the Witnesses against C. of C. would judicially depone in publick the very same things that they asserted in private and if you please you may remember that there is a greater difference between Sir George Mackenzie and your self than between Mr. Rutherford and those of our Clergy you trample upon Your Advices and Threatnings to the Ministers of State in England are idle and of no use at all for Ministers of State will advise according to their Light and Conviction without any regard to the short-liv'd Pamphlets that fly about the City nor are they likely to receive their Measures either from you or any of us who see so little in their Sphere The Presbyterians in England are not yet ripe for a Rebellion and they in Scotland can do little to disturb England without their Assistance and therefore you had best forbear your Threatnings for I am apt to think that your Influence in either Nation goes but a little way You treat King William no better than other Kings since you say he is prevailed upon to write Letters to the General Assembly that they are not obliged in Law to comply with but better Lawyers are of another Opinion and if King William venture upon such Essays of Arbitrary Power in a little time according to your Hypothesis he may forfeit his Title since he has none but such as is twisted with the Divine Right of Presbytery But indeed Mr. Ridpath I think we had Kings in Scotland before we had either Covenants or Presbytery or the Claim of Right and that our fundamental Constitution does not depend upon an Act of the General Assembly tho the General Assembly sometimes venture in terminis to make an Act against an Act of Parliament It is a gentile Compliment that you bestow upon Queen Mary when you allow the Jacobites to invite her Father to keep the Solon-Geese in the Bass and I think none is permitted to speak so but Mr. Ridpath It is not safe for any Government to

The SPIRIT of Calumny and Slander Examin'd Chastis'd and Expos'd IN A LETTER TO A MALICIOUS LIBELLER MORE Particularly Address'd to Mr. GEORGE RIDPATH Newsmonger near St. Martins in the Fields CONTAINING Some Animadversions on his Scurrilous Pamphlets Published by him against the Kings Parliaments Laws Nobility and Clergy of Scotland TOGETHER With a short account of Presbyterian Principles and Consequential Practices Tenue est mendacium perlucet si diligenter inspexeris Senec. London Printed for Joseph Hindmarsh at the Golden-Ball over against the Royal Exchange 1693. TO THE READER IT is not much worth the while to inform the World that now Mr. George Ridpath is at the Head of the Presbyterian Party in Scotland His Associates there and here have such an Opinion of him that they consider him as the Invincible Champion of their Cause and the truth is if any Man be so inconsiderable and so much a Brute as to fight him at his own Weapons Mr. Ridpath will certainly carry the Prize He 's the Man that is now most likely to pull down Antichrist and the Whore of Babylon And as for the Scotch Episcopal Clergy who yet retain any kindness for the Hierarchy and the former Government if he lives another year they must all of them be banish'd the Isle of Britain It is enough for you to know that now the Presbyterians as is probable have by an unanimous Suffrage chosen him to manage the Libels against their Opposites He now appears in the Field of Battel with all the Noise Lies and Clamour that becomes a Zealous Covenanter He began this last years Campagne with a Libel against Dr. M o which valuable Book he Dedicated to the Parliament of Scotland by this one may easily infer that either he had a mean Opinion of the Parliament or extraordinary thoughts of himself If the following Treatise cannot be reduc'd into any certain Method this is not to be imputed unto me for I must confess that I too much follow'd the Excursions of Mr. Ridpath's invention I was willing to contract the Animadversions that I made upon his Book into as little room as was possible and therefore the frequent Transitions from one thing to another are best understood by such as have Read his Continuation c. I hope most Men are better employed than either to think or speak of the Calumnies and Lies that he industriously heaps together against the Clergy His Party is resolv'd to make use of such Engines against the Church as they and their Fore-Fathers found most successful to the Extirpation of Root and Branch and they that are unacquainted with their Malicious Methods are great Strangers to our Nation and History If the Reader meet with some Paragraphs that are more particular and peculiar to Mr. Ridpath than the Publick is oblig'd to take notice of I must be excus'd since I was compell'd for I assure you that I value personal altereations no otherwise than a good Christian ought to do Nor did I ever Write to satisfie or convince Mr. Ridpath that being a thing in it self impossible There is a certain Order of Mean Spirited Fellows I do not mean by their External Quality who think that there is nothing written by their Party were it never so ignominiously fulsome and scandalous but what is invincible and unanswerable Their Pride and Vanity are Incurable It is not my meaning that we ought to put our selves to the Drudgery of answering all the Scurrilous and Obscene Libels that are propagated by our Enemies but 't is reasonable to let our Friends see that at some times we can Confute them if that be thought convenient I am so far convinc'd of the weakness of their Reasonings that I know no Sect Antient or Modern that ever broke the Peace of the Christian Church but may be more plausibly defended than the latest Edition of Presbytery in Scotland I never thought that the Reputation of my Friend was in any hazard by being attack'd by Mr. Ridpath or the Little Creatures who instigate him yet by the following Papers I make it plain to all disinteressed persons that Mr. Ridpath lies Willfully and Deliberately in several Instances and therefore I may be allow'd to take leave of him for the future if he does not manage his accusations as becomes the Spirit of Truth Innocence and Ingenuity If you think that the Style is more sharp than is Decent or Just then I intreat you may Read his Books which occasion'd these Papers and then I am confident that you will retract your Censure and find that I have meddled with his Person as little as was possible He is in some places so Obscene that there is no coming near him and therefore I made all possible hast to rid my imagination of him and the paultry Trash that he gathers together The Bookseller was willing to Print a Sheet or two more than the Letter that I address'd to Mr. Ridpath and therefore I gave him some Propositions that are extracted out of such Books as are most in Vogue amongst the Scotch Presbyterians that the Reader might have a sample of their Moral Theology with regard to Obedience Government and Subjection To which I have added a Letter written from the Tolbooth of Edinburgh by the Famous Assassin Mr. James Mitchel who endeavours to prove from several Texts of Scripture that he ought to kill Dr. Sharp Lord Archbishop of St. Andrews In short to use the words of a Great Man Rebellion is the Soul of the Kirk And though we had not known the History of that Parliament Anno 1645. So they call'd the bloody Meeting at St. Andrews we have later Instances of their Arbitrary and Tyrannical Malice against the better half of the Nation Their very Patrons are asham'd of them not through any ingenuous remorse but because their bare fac'd Villanies are frequently expos'd I think the following Letter needs no other Preface than what is already hinted by Sir Your humble Servant S. W. The CONTENTS THE Occasion of this Letter Mr. Ridpath the Author of two or three Scurrilous and abusive Pamphlets against the Kings Parliaments Laws Nobility and Clergy of Scotland Page 1 His Rage and Passion against the Author of the Apology for the Clergy of Scotland Ibid. His Challenge fairly embrac'd The Author of this Defence undertakes to prove that there is not a good Consequence in Mr. Ridpath 's Books from the beginning to the end p. 2 The Character bestowed upon Mr. Rutherford by the Author of the Apology no justifiable ground of Mr. Ridpath 's clamourous bawling against the Learn'd Advocate Ibid. ●●●path 's accusation against Sir George Mackenzie in the case of C. of C. founded only on his own Petulance and Malice p. 3 Ridiculous advices to the Ministers of State in England and his Civilities to K. W. and Q. M. Ibid. His imitation of the famous Presbyterian Buffoon Dr. Bastwick when he reviles the present Clergy of the Church of Scotland p. 4 His impudence in

suffer Buffoons to treat crowned Heads so familiarly whatever be the Quarrel between Princes this Language is intolerable yet some Animals are privileged to bark at this rate The Clazomenians coming to Sparta fullied the Thrones on which the Ephori sat when the Ephori came to know this Indignity they bore it patiently and called for a publick Herald and ordered him to proclaim through the City that it was lawful for the Clazomenians to do things that were unbecoming and undecent that is to say such barbarous Rascals were below Reproof and Revenge Two of our Archbishops you treat in the same Language that Dr. Bastwick the famous Presbyterian Buffoon used towards the Archbishop of Canterbury and his Collegues when he tells them that the Hierarchy came from the Pope and the Devil Diabolus caccavit illos They forsooth must be called Magnates Ecclesiae and the Verity of the matter is They are Magnae Nates Ecclesiae It is tedious to transcribe his Civilities to Archbishop Laud and his Venerable Brethren and therefore I refer you to the Book cited in the Margin only there is one of his Complements which I set down because it hath in it the mean and scurrillous Spirit of the Party which you copy so exactly that one would have thought Dr. Bastwick had been your Father thus he goes on speaking of the Priests of the Church of England They are secundum Ordinem Diaboli a Generation of Vipers proud ungrateful illiterate Asses the Church is as full of Ceremonies as a Dog is full of Fleas And again One would think that Hell were broke loose and that the Devils in Surplices in Hoods in Capes and Rochets and in four-squared Cow-turds upon their Heads were come among us and had beshit us all Pho how they stink This is the Wit and Civility of an enraged Presbyterian these are the Flights of a Zealot when inspired to the heighth You treat Archbishop Sharp and the Archbishop of Glasgow in the same Language that Archbishop Laud and Archbishop Spotswood were complemented by your Predecessors There is a Letter here which I have seen from the Archbishop of Glasgow to one of his Friends which some time or other may see the light in a larger Treatise It was occasioned by your obscene Libels against him I must tell you one thing that is in it and it may provoke your Curiosity to see it He promises two hundred pound sterl to any Man that will prove by Witnesses of known Probity any one Particular that is maliciously vented against him by your self or any of your Informers Why then do not ye appear openly above-board for the Bishop declines no competent Judge in Scotland 'T is true He thought that the Book that treated him so barbarously had been writ by some of the fluttering Damme's about the City whose most compendious Method to destroy Religion is at any rate to run down the Clergy but if he had known his Accuser 't is more than probable he would forbear any Vindication He was sometimes opposed by Persons of the first Quality in the Nation and if he had been so wicked a Wretch as you represent him he had certainly forfeited his Life to Justice and his Name to Infamy as he expresses it himself in his Letter Mr. Ridpath do not take it ill that I do not go through the Particulars of your Libel against the Bishop for I have made you a fair Offer already and besides when you are better informed you will find your self that you name some Persons in your Libel who are lasting Monuments of the Disgrace of your Faction so that you have as little of the Wisdom of the Serpent as of the Innocence of the Dove You may go on and accuse the Bishop and his Collegues of all the Crimes that your Predecessors charged the former Bishops with in the year 1638 nay which is more you may accuse him of all the Villainies which your own Major Wier actually committed when he ran about with so many of the Sisters from one Communion to another and I assure you that neither he nor any of his Friends will take notice of you We know very well that you are at extraordinary pains to gather Intelligence against the Clergy but all your Evidences hitherto are of no Authority at all You think that if Mr. Rule 's Book provoked the Author of the Postscript to Undecencies of Passion the reading of yours would make him stark mad Not so Mr. Ridpath we may sometimes get a more deadly Wound by an Arrow that flies near the Earth than by the Thunder that goes over our Heads He begins you say with downright Nonsense and a notorious Lie but one and the same Proposition cannot be both Nonsense and a Lie one cannot tell what to make of the first and therefore it is neither a Lie nor a Truth he continues still in the same Opinion that the Principles and Practices of the Covenanters occasioned the Laws that you complain of whether you mean their Practices from the Year 1637 to the Year 1650 or their Behaviour after the Restoration of King Charles II all is one to me they overthrew the Monarchy under King Charles I disturbed it by frequent Insurrections under King Charles II and are ready to do so still if at any time their boundless Tyranny and Ambition be restrained The rest of that Paragraph is a Declamation against Prelacy and the Clergy of England must be lashed with the same Severity wherewith you chastise those of Scotland and in your first Book you represent those of England as a Company of treacherous Prevaricators that the Crown set them up by a daring Perjury and that the same Party hath thrust that Family from the Throne by a Copy exactly answering the Original They are obliged very much to your Civilities if the Family be thrust from the Throne you are the Author of a new Discovery but I leave this to their consideration who are more concerned You are diffident of your Arguments against the Author of the Postscript and therefore you will take more effectual and compendious methods to ruin him for you tell us that upon the taking of Namure he was heard in St. James's Park to salute Mr. Shields by the title of a Bishop no doubt in view of a Revolution which was likely to follow There is one thing that I thank you heartily for viz. that this accusation is express particular and circumstantiated for when accusations are loose general and indefinite nothing can be fixt upon that can lead us unto the Truth and therefore Mr. Ridpath here I plainly give you the Lye I know a man of your honour will resent this affront The affirmative part is your own and therefore common sense obliges you to prove it if you can you are here upon the place so are they whom you accuse the Dr. declines no competent Judge in England and if you can prove that ever