eternal and immutable decree of God from quhilk all our salvation springs and depends VIII Of Election FOR that same eternal God and Father who of meer grace elected us in Christ Jesus his son before the foundation of the World was laid appointed him to be our head our brother our pastor and great Bishop of our souls But because that the enmity betwixt the justice of God and our sins was sik that no flesh by it self could or might have attained unto God it behoved that the Son of God should descend unto us and take to himself a bodie of our bodie flesh of our flesh and bone of our bones and so become the Mediator betwixt God and man giving power to so many as believe in him to be the sons of God as himself does witness I passe up to my Father and to your Father to my God and to your God Be quhilk maist haly fraternity whatsoever we have tynt in Adam is restored unto us again And for this cause we are not afraid to call God our Father not sameikle because he has created us quhilk we have common with the reprobate as for that that he has given to us his only Son to be our brother and given unto us grace to acknowledge and imbrace him for our only Mediator as before is said it behoved farther the Messias and Redeemer to be very God and very man because he was to underly the punishment due for our transgressions and to prefent himself in the presence of his Fathers Iudgement as in our person to suffer for our transgression and inobedience by death to overcome him that was author of death But because the onely God-head could not fuffer death neither yet could the onely man-head overcome the samine he joyned both together in one person that the imbecillity of the ane should suffer and be subject to death quilk we had deserved And the infinite and invincible power of the other to wit of the goodhead should triumph and purchase to us life liberty and perpetual victory And so we confess and maist undoubtedly believe IX Of Christs Death Passion and Burial THAT our Lord Iesus offered himself a voluntary Sacrifice unto his Father for us that he suffered contradiction of sinners that he was wounded and plagued for our transgressions that he being the clean innocent Lamb of God was damned in the presence of ane earthly Iudg that we should be absolved before the tribunal seat of our God that he suffered not only the cruel death of the Cross quhilk was accursed by the sentence of God but also that he suffered for a season the wrath of his Father quhilk sinners had deserved But yet we avow that he remained the only well-beloved and blessed Son of his Father even in the midst of his anguish and torment quhilk he suffered in body and soul to make the full satisfaction for the sins of his people After the quhilk we confess and avow that there remains no other Sacrifice for sin quhilk if any affirm we nothing doubt to avow that they are blasphemous against Christs death and the everlasting purgation and satisfaction purchased to us by the same X. Of his Resurrection WE undoubtedly believe that in samiekle as it was impossible that the dolours of death should retain in bondage the Author of life that our LORD JESUS crucified dead and buried who descended into hell did rise again for our justification and destroying him who was the Author of death brought life again to us that were subject to death and to the bondage of the same We know that his Resurrection was confirmed by the testimony of his very enemies by the Resurrection of the dead whose Sepulchres did open and they did rise and appeared to many within the City Jerusalem It was also confirmed by the testimony of his Angels and by the senses and judgments of his Apostles and of others who had conversation and did eat and drink with him after his Resurrection XI Of his Ascension WE nothing doubt but the self-same body quhilk was born of the Virgin was crucifyed dead and buried and quhilk did rise again did ascend into the heavens for the accomplishment of all things where in our names and for our comfort he has received all power in heaven and earth where he sits at the right hand of the Father inaugurate ‑ in his Kingdom Advocate and onely Mediator for us Quhilk Glory Honour and Prerogative he alone among the brethren sall possess till that all his Enemies be made his fotostool as that we undoubtedly believe they sall be in the finall judgement To the execution whereof we certainly beleive that the same our Lord Iesus sall as visibly return as that he was seen to ascend And then we firmly believe that the time of refreshing and restitution of all things sall come in samiekle that they that fra the beginning have suffered violence injury and wrong for righteousness sake sall inherit that blessed immortality promised fra the beginning But contrariwise the stubborn inobedient cruell oppressours filthy persons idolaters and all such sorts of unfaithfull sall be cast into the dungeon of utter darkness where the worm sall not die neither yet their fire sall be extinguished The remembrance of quhilk day and of the judgement to be executed in the same is not onely to us a bridle whereby our carnal lusts are refrained but also such inesteemabe comfort that neither may the threatning of Worldly Princes neither yet the fear of temporal death and present danger move us to renounce and forsake that blessed society which we the members have with our Head and only Mediator Christ Iesus whom we confess and avow to be the Messias promised the only head of his Kirk our just Lawgiver our only high Priest Advocate and Mediator In which Honours and Offices if Manor Angel presume to intrude themselves we utterly detest and abhor them as blasphemous to our Soveraign and Supreme Governour Christ Iesus XII Of Faith in the Holy Ghost THis our Faith and the assurance of the same proceeds not from flesh and blood that is to say from no natural powers within us but is the inspiration of the Holy Ghost Whom we confess God equal with the Father and with the Son who sanctifies us and brings us in all verity by his own operation without whom we should remain for ever enemies to God and ignorant of his Son Christ Jesus For of nature we are so dead so blind and so perverse that neither can we feel when we are pricked see the light when it shines nor assent to the will of God when it is revealed unless the Spirit of the Lord Jesus quicken that which is dead remove the darkness from our minds and bow our stubborn hearts to the obedience of his blessed will And so as we confess that God the Father created us when we were not As his Son our Lord Iesus redeemed us when we were enemies to
that were all were designed as was at first given out the Advocate needed not have set him oâ— high as Naboth and accusâ— him as a blasphemer of God and the King Then turning his speech to the Lords of Iustitiary he thought to have desired that they would yet seriously consider his words in their true sense and circumstances his own Explanation of his Explication and especially the forgoing matter of fact to have been laid before them with his Defences and grounds of Exculpation as also to have told them that they could not but observe how that he was singled out amongst thousands against whom much more then all he is charged with could be alledged and that they must of necessity acknowledge if they would speak out their own conscience that what he had said was spoke in pure innocence and duty and only for the exoneration of himself as a Christian and one honoured to be of His Majesties Privy Council where he was bound by his Oath to speak truth freely And not to throw the smallest reproach on either person or thing Adding that he was â—oath to say any thing that lookes like a reflection upon His Majesties Privy Council but if the Council can wrong one of their own number he thought he might demand if he had not met with hard measure For first he was pressed and perswaded to come to the Council then they receive his Explanation and take his Oath then they complain of him to His Majesty where he had no access to be heard and by their Letter under their hands affirm that they had been careful not to suffer any to take the Test with their own Explanations albeit they had allowed a thing very like it first to Earl Queensberry then to the Clergy And the President now Chancellour had permitted several members of the Colledge of Iustice to premise when they sware the Test some one sense some another and some non-sense as one saying he took it in sane sensu another making a speech that no man understood a third all the time of the reading repeating Lord have mercy upon me miserable sinner Nay even an Advocate after being debarred a few dayes because albeit no Clerk yet he would not take it without the benefit of his clergy viz. the Councils Explanation was yet thereafter admitted without the Warrant of the Councils Act but all this in the case of so many other was right and good Further the Council expresly declare the Earl to be Guilty before he had ever said one word in his own defence Thereafter some of them become his Assizers and others of them witness against him and after all they do of new concern themselves by a second Letter to His Majesty wherein they assert That after full debate and clear probation he was found guilty of Treason c. to have a sentence past against him and that of so high a nature and so dreadfull a consequence as suffers no person to be inconcerned far less their Lordships his Iudges who upon grounds equally just and which is more already predetermined by themselves may soon meet with the same measure not only as Concealers of Treason but upon the least pretended disobedience or non-compliance with any Act of Parliament and after all must infallibly render an accunt to God Almighty He bids them therefore Lay their hands to their hearts and whatever they shall judge he is assured that God knows and he hopes all unbyassed men in the world will or may know he is neither Guilty of Treason nor any of the Crimes libelled He sayes he is glad how many out do him in asserting the true Protestant Religion and their Loyalty to His Majesty Only he addes If he could justify himself to God as he can to His Majesty he is sure he might account himself the happiest man alive But yet seeing he hath a better hope in the mercy of God through Jesus Christ he thereupon rests whether he find Justice here on earth or not He sayes he will adde nothing to move them either to tenderness or pity he knows that not to be the place and pretends to neither from them He pleads his Innocence and craves Justice leaving it to their Lordships to consider not so much his particular case as what a Preparative it may be made and what may be its consequences And if all he hath said do neither convince nor perswade them to alter their judgment yet he desires them to consider whether the case do not at least deserve to be more fully represented and left to His Majesties wisdom and justice seeing that if once the matter pass upon record for Treason it is undoubted that hundreds of the best and who think themselves most innocent may by the same methods fall under the like Condemnation when ever the Kings Advocate shall be thereto prompted And thus you have a part of what the Earl intended to have said before pronouncing Sentence if he had not made his Escape before the day Yet some things I perceive by his notes are still in his own breast as only proper to be said to His Majesty I find several Quotations out of the Advocates printed books that it seemes he was to make some use of but seeing it would have been too great an interruption to have applyed them to the places designed I have subjoyned them together leaving them to the Advocate 's own and all mens consideration It was by some remarked That when the Lords of Iustitiary after the ending of the first dayes debate resolved that same night to give Judgment upon it they sent for the Lord Nairn one of their number an old and infirm man who being also a Lord of the Session is so decayed through age that he hath not for a considerable time been allowed to take his turn in the Outer house as they call it where they judgelesser causes alone But notwithstanding both his age and infirmity and that he was gone to bed he was raised and brought to the Court to consider a debate a great deal whereof he had not heard in full Court and withall as is informed while the Clerk was reading some of it fell of new asleep It was also remarked that the Lords of Justitiary being in all five viz. the Lord Nairn above-mentioned with the Lords Collintoun Newtoun Hirkhouse and Forret the Libell was found relevant only by the odds of three to two viz. the Lord Nairn foresaid the Lord Newtoun since made President of the Session and the Lord Forret both well enough known against the Lord Collintoun a very ingenuous Gentleman and a true old Cavalier and the Lord Hirkhouse a learned and upright judge As for the Lord Justice General who was also present and presided his vote according to the constitution of the Court was not asked yet he is since made a Marquies and Lord high Treasurer But to return to my Narrative the Earl as I have already told you did not think fit
word of God be the certain and infallible signs of the true Kirk we mean not that every particular person joyned with such company be an elect member of Christ iesus For we acknowledg and confess that dornel cockle and chaff may be sown grow and in great abundancely in the midst of the wheat that is the Reprobate may be joyned in the society of the Elect and may externally use with them the benefits of the word and Sacraments But such being but temporal professors in mouth but not in heart do fall back and continue not to the end And therefore have they no fruit of Christs Death Resurrection nor Ascension but such as with heart unfeignedly believe with mouth boldly confess the Lord Iesus as before we have said shall most assuredly receive these gifts First In this life remission of sins and that by only Faith in Christs blood in so much that albeit sin remains and continually abides in these our mortal bodies yet it is not imputed unto us but is remitted and covered with Christs Justice Secondly in the general Judgment there shall be given to everyman and woman resurrection of the flesh for the Sea shall give her dead the Earth these that therein be inclosed yea the Eternal God shall stretch out his hand on the dust and the dead shall arise uncorruptible and that in the substance of the self-same flesh that every man now bears to receive according to their works glory or punishment For such as now delight in vanity cruelty filthiness superstition or idolatry shall be adjudged to the fire unquenchable in which they shall be tormented for ever as well in their bodies as in their souls which now they give to serve the Devil in all abomination But such as continue in well-doing to the end boldly professing the Lord Jesus we constantly believe that they shall receive glory honour and immortality to reign for ever in life everlasting with Christ Iesus to whose glorified body all his Elect shall be made like when he shall appear again in Iudgment shall render up the Kingdom to God his Father who then shall be and ever shall remain in all things God blessed for ever To whom with the Son and with the Holy Ghost se all honour and glory now and ever So be it Arise O Lord and let thine enemies be confounded let them flee from thy presence that hate thy godly Name Give thy Servants strength to speak thy VVord in boldnessâ— and let all Nations cleave to thy true Knowledge Amen Thir Acts and Articles were read in the face of Parliament and ratified by the three Estates at Edinburgh the 17. day of August the year of God 1560. years Act I. 6. P. 1. C. 8. Anno 1567. Anent the Kings Aith to be given at His Coronation ITem Because that the increase of vertue suppressing of Idolatrie craves that the Prince and the People be of ane perfite Religion quhilk of Gods mercie is now presently professed within this Realm Therefore it is statute and ordained be our Soveraign Lord my Lord Regent and the three Estates of this present Parliament that all Kings and Princes or Magistrats whatsoever holding their place quhilk hereafter in any time sall happen to reigne and bear rule over this realm at the time of their Coronation and receipt of their Princely Authoritie make their faithfull promise be aith in presence of the eternal God that during the haill course of their lives they sall serve the samin eternall God to the uttermost of their power according as he hes required in his maist haly Word revieled and contained in the new and auld Testaments And according to the samin word sall maintaine the trew Religion of Christ Iesus the preaching of his halie word and due and right ministration of the Sacraments now received and preached within this realme And sall abolish and gainstand all false Religion contrare to the samin And sall rule the people committed to their charge according to the will and command of God revealed in his foresaid Word and according to the laudable Lawes and Constitutions received in this realme nawise repugnant to the said Word of the eternal God And sall procure to the uttermaist of their power to the Kirk of God and haill Christian people trew and perfite peace in all time cumming The Rights and rents with all just Priviledges of the Croun of Scotland to preserve and keep inviolated nouther sall they transfer nor alienate the samin They sall forbid and represse in all estates and degrees reife oppression and all kinde of wrang In all judgements they sall command and procure that justice and equitie de keeped to all creatures without exception as the Lord and father of all mercies be mereyful to them And out of their Lands and Empyre they sall be carefull to root out all heretikes and enemies to the trew worship of God that shall be convict be the trew Kirk of God of the foresaid crymes And that they fall faithfullie affirme the things above written be their solemn aith Act. J. 6. P. 1. C. 9. Anno 1567. No person may be judge Procurator Notar nor Member of Court quha professis not the Religion ITem The Kings grace with advice of my Lord Regent and the three Estates of this present Parliament statutes and ordains That no manner of person nor persons be received in any times hereafter to bear publick office removabill of judgment within this Realm but sik as profess the puritie of Religion and Doctrine now presently established And that nane be permitted to procure nor admitted Notar or created a Mâ—mber of Court in any time coming without he in likewise professe the Evangel and Religion foresaid Providing alwayes that this Act be on no wise extended to any manner of person or persons havand their offices heritable or in life-rent but that they may use the samin conforme to their infeftments and dispositions granted to them thereof Which Act was thereafter Anno 1609. explained and extended in this manner Part of the Act I. 6. P. 2. C. 5. Anno 1609. intituled c. AND that the Act made in His Highness first Parliament bearing that nane that professe not the true Religion presently professed within this Realm may be judge Procurator or Member of Court be extended to all and whatsomever offices without any exception or restriction in all time coming Act. J. 6. P. 3. C. 47. Anno 1572. Adversaries of the true Religion are not Subjects of the King Of Apostats ITem Forsameikle as there hes been great rebellion and disobedience against our Soveraign Lords authoritie in time bypast and seeing the cause of Gods true Religion and His Highness authoritie foresaid are so joyned as the hurt of the ane is common to baith It is therefore declared statute and ordained by our Soveraign Lord with advice and consent of his Regents grace with the three Estates and hail bodie of this present Parliament That
the Civil Magistrate I am never to endeavour that it may be setled by the consent of the Church 2. The Bishops by the Act of Restitution Art 1. Ses. 2. Par. 1. Char 2. being allowed to inflict Censures and to exercise all other Discipline only with advice and consent of such of the Clergy as shall be found to be of known loyalty and prudence yet tho they should utterly neglect Synods and Presbyteries and call only such Ministers as they please tho it were but Two or Three and let them make Canons concerning Doctrine and Worship suspend and depose Ministers inflict the highest Censures either upon Church-men or Laicks I am not to endeavour an alteration of these things 3. There being no Obligation on them by that Law which gives them their Legal Establishment either to reside in their Diocesses or to visit their Churches or to hold but one Benefice I am to use no endeavour that this may be helped 4. They being by the same Act only accountable to His Majesty I am not to endeavour that they may be accountable to the Church tho they be convicted in a National Synod for any of their Administrations 5. Whereas by the Act establishing a National Synod Act 4. Ses. 2. Par. 1. Char. 2. the Moderators of every Presbytery who are nominated to that Office by the Bishop are appointed to be of the Commissioners for the National Synod and the Moderators declared to have a Negative Voice for the chusing of the other Commissioners And so the whole Asseâ—bly is nominated by the Bishops And it being further enacted That nothing is to be debated and considered in the said Assembly but as it is proposed by His Majesty and Successors And that the Archbishop of St. Andrews as President of the Assembly is declared to have a Negative Voice not only in the whole Synod but even on His Majesty himself So that whatever should be agreed on by all the rest of the Bishops and Clergy His Majesty consenting thereto yet it cannot be concluded and emitted without consent of the President Yet I am to affirm and swear That I am not to endeavour the alteration of any of these things And that there lies no Obligation on me either from respect to Religion or duty to my Prince and Native Countrey or any regard to Episcopacy or any other manner of way whatsoever to endeavour the least change of any of these fore-mentioned And I promise and swear That I shall from henceforth with my utmost power defend assist and maintain His Majesties Jurisdiction foresaid against all deadly c. And I shall never decline His Majesties Jurisdiction as I shall answer to God c. And finally I affirm and swear by this c. That I shall not only submit unto but that I shall own and approve His Majesties Jurisdiction i e. all â—is Rigâ—ts and Prerogatives especially his Ecclesiastical Supremacy Yea that I shall with my utmost power both of body and mind defend and maintain the same against all creatures whatsoever And tho His Majesty should by himself or any Laick deputed by him inflict a Church-censure or an Excommunication it self yet I shall never decline this his Power and Jurisdiction as I shall answer to God at the great day And finally I affirm and swear That this my solemn Oath is given in the plain genuine meaning of tâ—e words without any equivocation mental reservation or any manner of evasion whatsoever and that I shall not accept or use any dispensation from any creature whatsoever So help me God c. And lastly I affirm and swear That I have sworn all these things in the plaâ—â— sense and meaning of the words not only without equivocation or mental reservation buâ— without any manner of evasion whatsoever So that I renounce all senses and glosses and explications whatsoever which seem any way disagreeable to the plain sense of the words of this Oath as they are commonly understood by meâ— And that as I shall not accept or use any dispensation from any creature whatsoever so I shall never make use orrely upon such glosses as explications to help me out or set me free from Perjâ—ry Wherefore being fully perswaded of the truth and lawfulness of all that I have now sworn and as sincerely resolved to perform it in every Arâ—icle thereof I do confidently pray to God to help me to this Grace to do so and I wish he may make me so speed here and hereafter as I am perswaded and resolved 1. An Oath being considered bâ— all men who have any sense of a Deity as a most Sacred Bond and of the straitest Obligation It 's to be presumed that no man who truely fears God will rashly adventure on it For if I affirm any thing upon Oath of the truth whereof I am not certain or if I promise any thing of the justice or lawfulness whereof I have any doubt or which I am not fully resolved to perform I make my self guilty of Perjury which even the most barbarous Nations have ever looked on as the foulest of Crimes For it 's both the greatest affront that can be put on God in calling him to be Judge and Witness to a Lye and one of the greatest injuries that can be done to men in overthrowing the best security and chiefest ground of trust that they have It were therefore to be wished that Oaths were never imposed except in cases of absolute necessity For it is certain that the most part of â—en being acted â—ore by interest then by conscience will be too easily perswaded to swallow them that they may shun a present inconveniency whatever daâ—ger or damage it mâ—y import to them in the Life to come And it has been always observed that these wâ—o have been most forward to take Oaths are most forward to break them 2. But all who truely fear the Lord who prefer the peace of their Conscience to their worldly interest and who look more to the things that are not seen then to the things that are seen will think themselves obliged to advise well before they adventure on an Oath that if they swear at all they may do it as the Lord himself requires Jer. 4 2. in truth in judgment and in righteousness i e. that they know what they affirm to be true and what they promise to be just and righteous and that in neither of these they be rash or inconsiderate but have their judgments truly informed and sufficiently instructed in both If a man be uncertain or doubtful in any of these he is by no means to adventure on an Oath but rather to suffer the loss of all things than to take it 3. Now if an Oath containing one single Proposition and contrived in the plainest and easiest terms ought to be diligently weighed and pondered before it can be taken how much more such an Oath as this which consists of so many different and various matters Some of which are not only
have heard and by the above-mentioned Restitution of the Marquess of Huntly were miserably cut off But upon the Earl's present disaster what neither material justice nor the merit of the Persons could obtain against the House of Huntly is now by importunity procured against the Earl of Argyle for the more effectual ruine of his Family and Friends and these old Creditors of Huntly who were no original Creditors of Argyle brought in upon Argyl's Estate to the exclusion of his proper Creditors And further least the real Securities by Morgages and otherwise that some of the Earl's Creditors have should avail them these are also made void by the Act of Quinquennial Possession and the other Rigours of forfaultures only accustomed to be practised and yet not without some mitigation in the case of atrocious and open Rebellion against the King and Kingdom And besides all this his Majesty hath been also moved to give away considerable Superiorities and Lands pertaining to the Earl to several Persons having no other pretension or merit saving an unreasonable enmity against the Family of Argyle By all which it is evident that besides the horrible usage the Earl met with in his Trial and Sentence not only is He himself wholly neglected and his Children little regarded in this late disposal of his Estate but his proper Creditors and Friends are also prejudged and postponed And in effect his whole Estate fair and opulent enough to have payed all his debts honestly provided his Children competently and sustained the dignity of his Rank honourably cutted and carved on before his eyes at pleasure and much of it parcelled out and bestowed upon the worst of his neighbors and his greatest enemies But to make a mends for all our Author sayes The Tiends are returned to the Church But seeing the Earl possessed all his tithes by good and lawfull purchases and undoubted rights from the Church whereof the Church neither did nor could complain our Author should have remembered that The Lord loves Iudgment and hates Robbery for burnt offering Yet in all this the Earl doth not intertain one hard thought of His Majesty knowing certainly that notwithstanding all was prepared for him by his learned Iudges and wife Councellours Yet he hath not stept one step in this affair but by importunity even tho all access to represent any thing to him on the Earl's behalf was way-laid Nor did his Majesty yeeld to pass the late Signature disposing of the Earl's Estate albeit the Earl of Middletoun was sent express about it until his Royal Highness arrived from Scotland at Newmarket and prevailed As for the three capital Sentences against the Earl's Family which our Author mentions you have a full account of them in the Narrative What return shall we then make to our Author 's Euge for a happy Kingdom but O unhappy happy Kingdom Wherein the fairest words are made the foulest offence and the smallest offence punished as the greatest Treason where dreames and visions are exhibited for Indictments and Judges and Jurors find them to be Realities where Right is turned to precarious Gift and then taken and retaken at pleasure And yet all these things gloried in as the greatest marks of its felicity And in a word whose misery is lamented by all except a few that enrich themselves with its spoyls and triumph in its Ruines Our Author comes in the next place to give an account in what manner the Earl gave in his Explanation and took the Test Where denying and affirming many things at random which are all distinctly set down and cleared in the Narrative I shall here only briefly remark his own as he pretends to do other mens Mistakes And first albeit the Earl was not publikly desired to take the Test yet it is most true that in private his Royal Highness did much press him to it and after a meeting of Council had been designedly appointed for the Earl's taking or resussing his Highness did peremptorily oblidge him to attend the next Council-day in course and plainly refused to give him leave to withdraw and take the benefite of the two moneths longer time allowed by the Act of Parliament 2ly It is false That the Earl had assured both his Royal Highness and many others that he would not take the Test that he came in abruptly to the Council that he spoke with so slow or soft a voice that none say they hear'd him that he clapt down on his knees and took the Test. When as 3ly It is certain That what passed betwixt his Royal Highness and the Earl about the Test is faithfully setdown in the Narrative and the Earl was not more positive with any other on that subject That it was with difficulty that the Earl got his appearance before the Council delayed untill the day he presented hemself And that that day he was expected and also spoke to and treated with by several Councellors before he entred about the swearing with an Explication That being entred and a stool set to him to kneel upon he first gave in or which is more declared openly and word by word directed toward his Royal Highness the Sense and Explanation wherein he was content to swear That his Highness heard it and told the Earl so much the next morning That the Clerks heard it and repeated it to several persons and one of them in his Witnessing against the Earl expresly swears that he heard it and saw it accepted That some that sate remotest in the Council both heard and repeated the Earl's words That after the Earl had pronounced them the Oath was administrat to and sworn by him Which was the most proper natural and direct Acceptance that could be desired So that after this business was thus publikly transacted for our Author to say either that the Earl spoke softly or that he specially being himself a Privy Councellour should first have given in his Sense and petitioned to know if it was acceptable is a silly pretence But 4ly Our Author not only contrary to truth but which is more remarkable in contradiction even to his Majesties Advocate and the Records of the Court proceeds to affirm 1. That the Earl dispersed copies of his Explanation albeit his Majesties Advocate having libelled the same thing was necessitat to pass from it because absolutly false and destitute of all evidence And next That his Majesties Advocate having allowed the Earl to prove That the Council heard and approved it yet he failed in the probation Whereas it is manifest from the Process that the Earl having alledged for a defence against the crimes of Leasing making Depraving and Treason That the Council had accepted his Explanation in manner above declared and that therefore it could not be made a ground to infer any of these crimes against him The Lords by their Judgment Interloquutour did expresly repell this defence And all they sustained was a defence proponed to elude the Perjury to witt That the Earl emitted his
whoso does in the contrary to be punished at the Kings will And by the 10th Act Par. 10. James 6. it is statuted That none of His Majesties Subjects presume or take upon him publikly to declare or privately to speak or write any purpose of reproach or slander of His Majesties Person Estate or Government or to deprave his Laws or Acts of Parliament or mistconstrue his Proceedings whereby any mistaking may be moved betwixt his Highness his Nobility and loving Subjects in time coming under pain of death certifying them that does in the contrary they shall be reputed as seditious and wicked instruments enemies to his Highness and to the Commonwealth of this Realm and the said pain of death shall be executed against them with all rigour to the example of others And by the second Act Ses. 2. Par. 1 Char. 2. it is statuted That whosoever shall by writing libelling remonstrating express publish or declare any words or sentences to stir up the people to the dislike of His Majesties Prerogative and Supremacy in causes Ecclesiastik or of the Government of the Church by Archbishops and Bishops as it is now setled by Law is under the pain of being declared incapable to exercise any Office Civil Ecclesiastik or Military within this Kingdom in any time coming Like as by the fundamental Laws of this Nation By the 130th Act Par 8. James 6. it is declared That none of His Majesties Subjects presume to impugn the Dignity or Authority of the Three Estates or to procure innovation or diminution of their Power and Authority under the pain of Treason And that it is much more Treason in any of His Majesties Subjects to presume to alter Laws already made or to make new Laws or to add any part to any Law by their own Authority that being to assume the Legislative Power to themselves with his Majesties highest and most incommunicable Prerogative Yet true it is That albeit His Sacred Majesty did not only bestow on you the said Archibald Earl of Argyle those vast Lands Jurisdictons and Superiorities justly for faulted to His Majesty by the Crimes of your deceased Father preferring your Family to those who had served His Majesty against it in the late Rebellion but also pardoned and remitted to you the Crimes of leasing making and misconstruing His Majesties and his Parliaments proceedings against the very Laws above written whereof you were found guilty and condemned to die therefore by the High Court of Parliament the 25. of August 1662. And raised you to the Title and Dignity of an Earl and being a member of all His Majesties Judicatures Notwithstanding of all these and many other Favours you the said Archibald Earl of Argyle Being put by the Lords of His Majesties Privy-Council to take the Test appointed by the Act of the last Parliament to be taken by all persons in publik Trust you insteed of taking the said Test and swearing the same in the plain genuine sense and meaning of the words without any equivocation mental reservation or evasion whatsoever you did declare against and defame the said Act and having to the end you might corrupt others by your pernicious sense drawn the same in a Libel of which Libel you dispersed and gave abroad Copies whereby ill impressions were given of the King and Parliaments Proceedings at a time especially when his Majesties Subjects were expecting what submission should be given to the said Test and being desired the next day to take the same as one of the Commissioners of His Majesties Treasury you did give in to the Lords of His Majesties Privy-Council and owned twice in plain judgment before them the said defamatory Libel against the said Test and Act of Parliament declaring That you had considered the said â—est and was desirous to give obedience as far as you could whereby you clearly insinuated that you was not able to give full obedience In the second Article of which Libel you declare That you were confident the Parliament never intended to impose contradictory Oaths thereby to abuse the people with a belief that the Parliament had been so impious as really and actually to have imposed contradictory Oaths and so ridiculous as to have made an act of Parliament which should be most deliberate of all humane Actions quite contrary to their own intentions after which you subsumed contrary to the nature of all Oaths and to the Acts of Parliament above-cited that every man must explain it for himself and take it in his own sense by which not only that excellent Law and the Oath therein specified which is intended to be a Fence to the Government both of Church and State but all other Oaths and Laws shall be rendered altogether uselesse to the Government If every man take the Oaths imposed by Law in his own sense then the Oath imposed is to no purpose for the Legislator cannot be sure that the Oath imposed by him will bind the takers according to the design and intent for which he appointed it and the Legislative Power is taken from the Imposers and setled in the taker of the Oath And so he is allowed to be the Legislator which is not only an open and violent depraving of His Majesties Laws and Acts of Parliament but is likewise a setling of the Legistative Power on private Subjects who are to take such Oaths In the third Article of that Paper you declare That you take the Test in so far only as it is consistent with it self and the Protestant Religion by which you maliciously intimate to the people That the said Oath is inconsistent with it self and with the Protestant Religion which is not only a down-right depraving of the said Act of Parliament but is likewise a misconstruing of His Majesties and the Parliaments Proceedings and misrepresenting them to the people in the highest degree in the tenderest points they can be concerned and implying that the King and the Parliament have done things inconsistent with the Protestant Religion for securing of which that Test was particularly intended In the Fourth Article you do expresly declare that you mean not by taking the said Test to bind up your self from wishing and endeavouring any alteration in a lawful way that you shall think fit for advancing of Church and State whereby also it was designed by the said Act of Parliament and Oath That no man should make any alteration in the Government of Church and State as it is now established and that it is the duty of all good Subjects in humble and quiet manner to obey the present Government Yet you not only declare your self but by your example you invite others to think themselves â—oosed from that Obligation and that it is free for them to make any alteration in either as they shall think fit concluding your whole Paper with these words And this I understand as a part of my Oath which is a treasonable invasion upon the Royal Legislative Power as if it were
are altogether strained and unwarrantable and inconsistent with the Earle true design and the sincerity of his meaning and intention in making of the said Explication Wednesday the 12. of December the day of compearance assigned to the Earl being novv come he was brought by a guard of Souldiers from the Castle to the place appointed for the trial and the justice Court being met and fenced the Earl now Marques of Queensberry then Justice General the Lords Nairn Collingtoun Forret Newtoun and Hirkhouse the Lords of Justitiary sitting in judgment and the other formalities also performed the indictment above set down Num 24. was read and the Earl spoke as followes The Earl of Argyle's Speech to the Lord Justice General and the Lords of the Justitiary after he had been arraigned and his Indictment read My Lord Iustice General c. I Look upon it as the undeniable priviledg of the meanest Subject to explain his own words in the most benign sense and even when persons are under an ill Character the misconstruction of words in themselves not ill can only reach a presumption or aggravation but not any more But it is strange to alledg as well as I hope impossible to make any that know me believe that I could intend any thing but what was honest and honourable suitable to the Principles of my Religion and Loyalty tho I did not explain my self at all My Lord I pray you be not offended that I take up a little of your time to tell you I have from my Youth made it my business to serve His Majesty faithfully and have constantly to my power appeared in his Service especially in all times of difficulty and have never joyned nor complyed with any Interest or Party contrary to His Majesties Authority and have all along served him in his own way without a frown from His Majesty these Thirty years As soon as I passed the Schools and Colledges I went to travel to France and Italy and was abroad 1647 1648 and till the end of 1649. My first appearance in the world was to serve His Majesty as Collonel of his Foot-Guards And tho at that time all the Commissions were given by the then Parliament yet I would not serve without a Commission from His Majesty which I have still the Honour to have by me After the misfortune of Worcester I continued in Arms for His Majesties Service when Scotland was over-run with the Usurpers and was alone with some of my Friends in Arms in the Year 1652. and did then keep up some appearance of opposition to them And General Major Dean coming to Argyleshire and planting several Garisons he no sooner went away but we fell upon the Garisons he had left and in one day took two of them and cut off a considerable part of a third and carried away in all about Three hundred Prisoners And in the end of that year I sent Captain Shaw to His Majesty with my humble Opinion how the War might be carried on who returned to me with Instructions and Orders which I have yet lying by me After which I joyned with those His Majesty did Commissionate and stood out till the last that the Earl of Middleton His Majesties Lieutenant General gave me Orders to capitulate vvhich I did vvithout any other Engagements to the Rebels but allovving persons to give bale for my living peaceably and did aâ— my capitulating relieve several Prisoners by exchange vvhereof my Lord Granard out of the Castle of Edenburgh vvas one It is notarly knovvn that I vvas forefaulted by the Usurpers vvho vvere so jealous of me that contrary to their Faith vvithin Eight Moneths after my Capitulation upon pretence I keep'd Horses above the value they seased on me and keeped me in one Prison after another till His Majesties happy Restauration and this only because I vvould not engage not to serve His Majesty tho there vvas no Oath required I do with all gratitude acknowledg His Majesties Goodness Bounty and Royal Favours to me when I was pursued before the Parliament in the Year 1662. His Majesty was graciously pleased not to send me here in any opprobrious way but upon a bare verbal Paroll Upon which I came down poste and presented my self a Fourthnight before the day Notwithstanding whereof I was immediately clapt up in the Castle but having satisfied His Majesty at that time of my entire Loyalty I did not offer to plead by Advocates And His Majesty was not only pleased to pardon my Life and to restore me to a Title and Fortune but to put me in trust in his Service in the most eminent Judicatories of this Kingdom and to heap Favours upon me far beyond what ever I did or can deserve tho I hope His Majesty hath always found me faithful and thankful and ready to bestow all I have or can have for his Service And I hope never hath had nor ever shall have ground to repent any Favour he hath done me And if I were now really guilty of the Crimes libelled I should think my self a great Villain The next occasion I had to shew my particular zeal to His Majesties Service was in Anno 1666. when the insurrection was made that was represt at Pentland-Hills At the very first the intercourse betwixt this place and me was stopt so that I had neither Intelligence nor Orders from the Council nor from the General but upon a Letter from the now Archbishop of St. Andrews telling me there was a Rebellion like to be in the three Kingdoms and bidding me beware of Ireland and Kintyre I brought together about Two thousand men I seased all the Gentlemen in Kintyre that had not taken the Declaration tho I found them peaceable And I sent a Gentleman to General Dalziel to receive his Orders who came to him just as they were going to the Action at Pentland and vvas with him in it and I keept my Men together till his return And when I met with considerable trouble from my Neighbours rebelliously in Arms and had Commissions both on publik and private Accounts have I not carried dutifully to His Majesty and done what was commanded with a just moderation which I can prove under the hands of my enemies and by many infallible demonstrations Pardon me a few words Did I not in this present Parliament shew my readiness to serve His Majesty and the Royal Family in asserting vigorously â—â—e lineal legal Succession of the Crown and had a care to have it exprest in the Commissions of the Shires and Burghs I had interest in Was I not for offering proper Supplies to His Majesty and his Successor And did I not concur to bind the Landlords for their Tenants altho I was mainly concerned And have I not always keept my Tenants in obedience to His Majesty I say all this not to arrogate any thing for doing what was my Honour and Duty to His Majesty but if after all this upon no other ground but words that
use of Times and Places and Companies of another nature on whom their suggestions and insinuations may prevail But it is a violence to the common Reason of mankind to pretend that a person of the Pannel's Quality having the honour to serve His Majesty in most eminent Capacities and devoted to His Majesties Interest and Service beyond the strictest ties of Duty and Allegiance by the transcendent Favours he had received that the Pannel in those Circumstances and in presence of his Royal Highness and Lords of Privy-Council should design to declame and de facto declame against and defame His Majesties Government To suppose this is absolutely contradictory to the common Principles and Practices of Law and common Topiks of Reason And as to Balmerino's Case it is answered That the Lords of Justitiary are humbly desired to call for and peruse the said Petition and Books of Adjournal which was certainly a defamatory Libel of His Majesties Father of blessed Memory and of the States of Parliament in the highest degree bearing expresly that there was nothing designed but an innovation of the Protestant Religion and the subversion and over-turning the Liberties and Priviledges of the Parliament and the Constitutions of the Articles and other things of that kind which made certainly of it self a most villanous and execrable Libel containing the highest Crimes of Treason and Perduellion and was not capable of any good sense or interpretation but was absolutely pernicious and destructive So that it is in vain to pretend that the said Libel did contain Prefaces and Protestations of Loyalty which no Law regards even in simplici injuria maledicto tho committed by a private person cum praefatione salvo honore or the like and which were certainly ridiculous to sustain in a Libel concerning Crimes of Treason And whereas it is pretended That tho others were guilty of these Crimes it does not excuse the Earl and that the Lords of Privy-Council cannot remit Crimes and the negligence of the Kings Officers cannot prejudg his Interest It is answered The Pannel is very confident that neither the Lords of His Majesties Privy-Council consisting of persons of eminent Loyalty and Judgment nor His Majesties Officers were capable of any such escape as is pretended and if the tenor of the Pannels Explication did in the least import the high and infamous Crimes libelled as beyond all peradventure it does not it were strange how the same being contained in the foresaid vindication and the whole Clauses thereof justified that this should have been looked on as no Crime and allowed to be published And the Pannel neither does nor needs to make farther use thereof but to convince all dis-interested persons that his Explication can import no Crime And whereas it is pretended That the Crime of Treason is inferred from the fundamental Laws of the Kingdom and from that Clause of the Pannel's Explication wherereby he declares he is not bound up by any thing in this Oath not to endeavour any alteration in a lawful way which being an indefinite Proposition is equipollent to an univetsal and is upon the matter coincident with a Clause which was rebellious in its consequences contained in the Solemn League and Covenant It is answered That it is strange how such a plain and innocent Clause whereby beyond all question he does express no more than was naturally imported in the Oath it self whether exprest or not should be made a foundation to import the Crime of Treason which no Lawyer ever allowed except where it was founded upon express Law Luce Meridiana Clariâ—r And indeed if such stretches and inferences can make men guilty of Treason no man can be secure And the words in the Pannel's Declaration are plain and clear yet non sunt cavillanda and import no more but that in his station and in a lawful way and consistent with the Protestant Religion and his Loyalty he might endeavour any alteration to the advantage of Church and State And was there ever any loyal or rational Subject that does or can doubt that this is the natural import of the Oath And indeed it were a strange Oath if it were capable of another sense and being designed for the security of the Government should bind up mens hands to concur for its advantage And how was it possible that the Pannel or any other in the capacity of a Privy-Councellor or a Member of the Parliament would have satisfied his Duty and Allegiance in other terms And whereas it is pretended that there was the like case in the pretended League and Covenant it is answered The Assertion is evidently a Mistake and tho it were the Argument is altogether inconsequential For that League and Covenant was treasonable in it self as being a Combination entered into without His Majesties Authority and was treasonable in the glosses that were put upon it and was imposed by absolute violence on the Subjects of this Kingdom And how can the Pannel be in the least supposed to have had any respect to the said League and Covenant when he had so often taken the Declaration disowning and renouncing it as an unlawful and sinful Oath and concurred in the many excellent Laws and Acts of Parliament made by His Majesty condemning the same as seditious and treasonable And whereas it is pretended That the Pannel is guilty of Perjury having taken the Oath in another sense than was consistent with the genuine sense of the Parliament and that by the Authority cited he doth commento eludere Iuramentum which ought always to be taken in the sense of him that imposeth the Oath It is answered The Pretence is most groundless and Perjury never was nor can be inferred but by the commission or omission of something directly contrary to the Oath And altho it it is true That where an Oath is taken without any Declaration of the express sense of the persons who take it it obliges sub poena Perjurii in the sense not of the taker but of the imposer of the Oath because expressing no Sense Law and Reason presumes there is a full acquiescence in the sense and meaning of the imposer of the Oath and then if an Oath be not so taken he that takes it is guilty of Perjury Yet there was never Lawyer nor Divine Popish or Protestant but agree in this That whatever be the tenor of the Oath if before the taking thereof the party in express terms does publikly openly declare the sense in which he takes it it is impossible it can infer the Crime of Perjury against him in any other sense this not being Commentum excogitatum after the taking of the Oath And if this were not so how is it possible in Sense and Reason that ever any Explication or Sense could solve the Scruples of a mans Conscience For it might be always pretended That notwithstanding of the express sense wherein he took it he should be guilty of Perjury from another sense And that this is
December or because of Christmas to the first Moonday of January was for the Earl's sake adjourned till Fryday the 23. to the end that immediatly upon the Kings Return they might pronounce Sentence He was moreover informed that his Royal Highness was heard say that if the express returned not timeously he would take upon himself what was to be done Which being general and dark was the more to be suspected All this the Earl told made him the same Moonday late cast in his thoughts whether it were not fit for him to attempt an escape but his doubtings were so many he could resolve nothing that night except to put off till Wednesday Yet on Twesday morning he began to think if he did at all design to escape he had best do it that same evening However he was even then not fully resolved not had he as yet spoke one word of it to any mortal But about ten of the Clock this Twesday his Highness absolute refusal to suffer the Earl to see him untill his Majesties Return came was confirmed And about Noon the Earl heard that some Troups and a Regiment of foot were come to Town And that the Next day he was to be brought down from the Castle to the common Jail from which Criminals are ordinarily carried to Execution and then he resolved to make his escape that very night and yet did not conclud it throughly till five of the Clock in the evening At which time he gave directions about it not thinking to essay it till near ten But at seven one coming up from the city and telling him that new orders were privatly given for further securing of him that the Castle guards were doubled and none suffered to go out without showing their faces and that some Ladies had been already put to do it and therefore disswading him to attempt any escape because it was impossible the Earl said No then it is full time And so he made haste and within half an hour after by Gods blessing got safe out questioned pretty warmly by the first sentry but not at all by the main guard and then after the great gate was opened and the lower guard drawn out double to make a lane for his company one of the guard who opened the gate took him by the arm and viewed him But it pleased God he was not discerned When he was out he was not fully resolved whither to go Home he had judged safest But he thought it might breed Mistakes and Trouble that he designed not So he resolved to go for England and to take the road That by Post he might be his Majesties first informer of his escape But being disappointed of horses that he expected he found that the notice of his escape was got before him And soon after as he came the length of Newcastle heard that his Majesty had given way to pronounce Sentence against him according as he had apprehended from the circumstances and other grounds I have told you which made him judge it would be an undiscreet presumption in that state to offer himself to his Majesty while he knew none durst address him and so he rather choosed to shift in the wide World till his Majesty might be at some greater freedom both to understand his case and apply suitable remedies His Majesties clear and excellent understanding and gracious and benign disposition do fully assure him that his Majesty doth not in his thoughts charge him with the least Disloyalty and that he hath no Complacence in his ruine But if His Majesty do at present ly under the pressure ofsome unlucky influences not so easy to his Royal inclinations the Earl it seemes thinks it reasonable to wait patiently for a better opportunity It may indeed appear strange that Innocence Honour oppressed in his Person almost beyond a parallel should not ere now have constrained him to some publik Vindication Especially when to the horrid Sentence given against him his Adversaries have further prevailed to cause His Majesty dispose not only of his Heritable Offices and Jurisdictions the pretended eye sore But also upon his whole Estate and Fortune with as little consideration of the Earl's personal Interest as if he had fallen for the blackest Treason and most atrocious Perduellion But besides that some things are of themselves so absurdly wicked that all palliating pretences do only render them the more hateful and the very simple hearing doth strike with an horrour not to be hightned by any representation Next that the Earl being so astonishingly overtaken for words as fairly and honestly uttered as he could possibly devise doth with reason apprehend that there is nothing he can say in this matter though with the serenest mind and in the greatest truth and sobriety that may not be construed to flow from a design to lay blame where hitherto he hath been tender to give any ground of offence I say beside these things he is withall I know most firmly perswaded That if ever he shall have the happiness to be once heard by His Majesty and in his presence allowed to explain a few Particulars in duty here omitted His Majesties justice and goodness will quickly dispell all the clouds that now hang over him and restore him to that favour wherein he hath sometime reckoned himself very happy and which he will ever be most ready to acknowledge And therefore all that in the mean time he judged necessary or would give way to was that for preserving the remembrance of so odd a Transaction untill a more seasonable juncture some Memorials should be drawn and deposited in sure keeping which being grown under my hand unto this Narrative I thought I could not better observe his order then by transmitting it to your faithful custody I have carefully there in observed the truth in point of fact avouching nothing but upon the best and clearest evidence can possibly be expected not have I as to the manner licenced or indulged my self in any severity of expression which I thought could be justly in such a case omitted without betraying the Cause Yet if you now or any other hereafter shall judge that I do sometime exceed let it not be imputed to him for as he did indeed charge me to guard against any more warm or vehement expression then the merit and exigence of the subject do indispensibly require so I am assured that he silently and patiently waits on the Lord committing his way to him and trusting in him that he may bring it to passe and that he shall bring forth his righteousness as the light and his judgment as the noon-day POSTSCRIPT SIR HAving in this Narrative sometimes adduced as you have seen the Advocate 's own authority ad hominem I shall here as I promised subjoin such passages out of his printed Book as though they deserved not a place above may yet make a pertinent POSTSCRIPT And omitting what in that Book called The Laws and Customs of Scotland in matters
doth still retain its outmost and best Security viz. The Fidelity of such as it intrusts without whose allowance all senses and Explications are utterly insignificant In the 3d. place Our Author offends at the Mist for saying That the Legislator is surest of those who give Explanations plain dealing is alwayes honest dealing Because sayes our Author If this prove any thing it vvill prove that any man may adject any quality and so render all Oaths useless c. But. 1. You have just now heard That the Takers adjecting without the Administators accepting signifies nothing 2ly Our Author acknowledges That vvhere the sense is previously offered to and accepted by the Legislator or such who are by him authorized to administrate which certainly in Law and sense is the same thing it secures the Taker Which notwithstanding of our Author 's reasonless denial is in terminis the Earl's case But 3ly Our Author adds That the Earl's saying He is content to take the Test as far as it is consistent with it self and the Protestant Religion condescends to nothing Strange The Parliament in the Test expressly make the Confession the standard of the Protestant Religion The Council in their Explanation ran verse this and make the Protestant Religion the standard of the Confession and the very fixed point of the Test. And yet when the Earl swears the Test without the least reflection on the Confession as far as it is consistent vvith it self and the Protestant Religion All this must be nothing As to what our Author adds That he is desirous to knovv in vvhat part of Europe such Qualities vvere ever allovved Would he allow me the like liberty I would ask him 1. In what part of Europe was ever such a Test framed 2ly In what part of it was ever such an Explanation as the Earl's after acceptance made a crime And 3ly In what part of the whole world was ever such an Indictment contrived and Judgment past And in the mean time he may find in the Narrative just such a quality as the Earl's allowed in a far plainer Oath by a far severer Prince and in a far more publik manner to Archbishop Cranmer in England And. 2. ly A much more odd One in the same matter by the Scotch Council to the Scotch Clergy Our Author repeats And sayes It vvere most absurd to think that misinterpreting of Laws and defaming of Parliaments should be suffered because thrown in into Explications and that adjected Qualities are worse then Equivocations and mentall Reservations But there being neither Misinterpreting nor Defaming in the Earl's case and the Quality by him adjected being in itself sound and congruous and by the Council accepted Notwithstanding our Author's foolish pretence That it was not first offered by vvay of Petition I cannot stand to refute all impertinencies And as to what he adds about the Councils Explanation emitted in favours of the Clergy that it doth not unsecure the Legislator not admitt the Takers to be Judges as he falsly insinuats that the Earl's doth all these things are already fully examined The second Crime sayes our Author fixed upon the Earl from his Explanation vvas grounded on the Act Ja 6. Par 10. c. 10. Made against defaming of King and Parliament and depraving their Laws But this Crime and all that our Author sayes for enforcing it being so largely and clearly answered in the Narrative I freely grant That Defaming and Depraving are great Crimes That it is one of the principal Concerns of Governours to have themselves esteemed by their People That Lavvs for this effect have been consented to by our Parliaments to serve as our Author loves to speak instead of Armies though yet we have the misfortune to have both That even Insinuations and Inferences if plainly tending to the Reproach and Slander of Rulers may be in so far criminal as to deserve an extraordinary though not the ordinary pain And lastly That in Crimes Dolus malus is for the most part presumed from the nature and circumstances of the Deed it self And shall only adde 1. That where our Author asserts That the forementioned Act of Parliament was made against Words and Papers in general vvhereby misliking might be moved betwixt the King and his Subjects And that it regards the effect only vvithout respect to the Author's design the same is false inconsistent and dangerous False because it is a known Maxime of Lavv and Reason That Maleficia Voluntas Propositum Delinquentis distinguit l. 53 ff de Furtis And to think that the Lavv punishes any thing without either apparent or presumed dole and malice is to confound Crime and Chance Guilt and Innocence 2. Inconsistent because albeit our Author do here tell us that the Parliament look't only to the effect yet afterwards He not only alledges that the Earl's malice may be gathered from the nature and strain of the Paper but endeavours to clear it by several circumstances And lastly Dangerous because thereby a man's best security Innocence and a Conscience void of offence is quite taken away and the man and his words and writings exposed to every perverse Inference that Madness prompted by Malice may suggest 2ly That notwithstanding all the evil inferences and worse consequences that our Author charges upon the Earl's words yet it is impossible for any man considering without prejudice the Circumstances wherein they were emitted not to acknowledge that as they were plainly intended by the Earl for the Exoneration of his ovvn Conscience so in place of Defaming Depraving they evidently contain a very seasonable Vindication of the Parliaments honour and integrity If the Test had been unanimously concluded in Parliament and universally received by the People without hesitation or exception And if in that case a man had idlely and officiously said That he believed that the Parliament did not intend to impose contradictory Oaths and that he for his part could take it as far as it is consistent vvith it self and the Protestant Religion I grant that a nice or malicious Hearer might possibly have formalized and made it a matter of Explication But when it was notour and offered to be proven that contradictions in the Test were the common discourse That almost a third of the orthodox Clergy did on this account scruple at it And severall of them had published their scruples in writing That the Earl when desirous to absent was ordered to be called to the Council either to take the Test or refuse it And that the very day he appeared before them they voted their own Explanation in favours of the Clergy I appeal to all impartial men if the Earl's Asserting publikly his Confidence and Willingness as you have heard instead of a Reflection was not in such a juncture a most just and fair Declaration as well in behalf of the Parliament as of his ovvn Conscience But our Author strains and insists upon Consequences from the precise and abstract words without regaird
to either occasion time place manner or end albeit the principal significators in cases of this nature and in effect the main hinges of all morality A Logick capable to pervert the best words and subvert all ingenuity and honesty amongst men For put the case that to satisfy the apprehensions and doubts that were so frequent of Contradictions and Inconsistencies in the Test His Highness himself or the President of the Council had said to these Scruplers in these or the like words That he was confident the Parliament had no intention to impose contradictory Oaths It is evident That by our Author 's reasoning this very apology how fairly soever intended in charity to these dissenters and for the Parliaments vindication might as well as the Earl's words be urged with all our Author's misconstructions and made a mortall Crime But leaving things so obvious and already so fully cleared take a short account of the Circumstances wherewith our Author doth further charge the Earl And first He sayes That the Earl's Father and Family had owned eminently the Principles against which this Oath was taken But our Author cannot deny that they owned yet more eminently the Protestant Religion the only subject of this Part of the Test and of the Earl's Explanation now questioned And for the other Principles here named they owned them no otherwise then the Parliaments of both Kingdoms did 2ly He says The Earl himself had taken the Covenant And so did And many thousands of his good Subjects beside 3ly He tells us The Earl had all along opposed the Test in Parliament But therefore there was the greater reason that his offer to take it with an Explanation should have been favourably accepted 4ly Our Author adds The Earl had positivly told his Royal Highness he would not take the Test. But this is both false and impertinent 5ly He says Neither the Ministers nor others in the Earl's countrey upon whom he had influence had taken the Test. But beside that this is not true absolutly and that in effect Few Ministers in Scotland had at that time taken the Test in respect there were about two moneths of the time allowed by the Act of Parliament then to run how iniquous is it to make the Earl accountable for other mens inclinations 6ly The Concern and Kindness the Fanatiks shew for the Earl is also objected but with the same truth and pertinency as all the rest And yet our Author concluds All which demonstrate That he had an aversion from the Test. Which indeed might very well have been without this demonstration But that therefore what he said about it or as our Author speaks did against it was done dolo malo is just as much as to say that he who in candid and honest dealing goes about to explain an ambiguous Oath before he take it speaks maliciously against it But our Author tells us That the Lords of Justitiary had a clear Precedent for what they did against the Earl in the like Iudgment given in the same Court against the Lord Balmerino Who for a Petition presented to and accepted and once read by his late Majesty vvas found guilty upon far remoter inferences of Misconstruing his Majesties Proceedings But this being particularly answered by the Earl's Lawyers in the Process I shall only here add 1. That Balmerino's Petition containing many positive alledgeances reflecting on several passages of the Government in order to a redress wherein his design might very readily fall under suspicion holds no parallel with the Earl's Explanation on his part a mere Proposal made with all due respect to the Parliament and simply tendered for the clearing of his Oath and Conscience and not indeed capable of another construction 2ly The King never accepted Balmerino's Petition by way of Approbation nor was it so much as delivered to him by Balmerino But our Author by this false phrasing of the King 's having seen and read this Petition would take off the Councils formal and direct Acceptance of the Earl's Explanation And 3ly That albeit Balmerino's Petition and the Earl's Explanation hold no manner of proportion yet even Balmerino's case was generally judged so hard that his Jurours themselves divided upon it and he was only found guilty by eight of them against seven that assoiled him and immediatly after Sentence he was freely pardoned As to what our Author adds Of this same Earl's being formerly found guilty Anno 1662. Of the like Crime upon the like Ground It is very true He was indeed then found guilty of the like Crime and upon the like Ground And not only by the same partie but by some of the same Persons who semel semper are and will be in eodem genere But of this you have already had a large and full account Our Author comes to review the Mist's Justification of the Earl's words To which opposing his former Perversions he only repeats with some new extravagancies what is already answered Thus for instance where the Earl in duty and civility sayes by way of Preface That he was desirous to give obedience as far as he could which clearly refers to the Act of Parliament and the Councils Requisition whereunto he professes his willingness to give all possible satisfaction Our Author to shew his good Breeding and better sense tells us That these words vvere intended by the Earl for a quality and part of his Oath as if he had said that though he vvas content to svvear yet he vvas only minded to keep so as far as he could Whereas it is evident as the sun-light that the quality that the Earl adjects and which he would have understood for a part of his Oath begins after these words And therefore I take the Test And that this quality is both certain sound and most genuine But having already told you that before the Earl's appearance the Countrey was filled with the noise of Contradictions and Inconsistencies in the Test So that the Earl's words in stead of Reproaching were in effect a direct and very seasonable Vindication of the Government as well as of his own Conscience And that the Security of the Government as to Oaths is not concerned in the senses that men devise or propose as our Author perpetually mistakes but in such as it pleaseth the Council the grand Administrators to accept I shall not trouble you with further Reflections on this head Specially seeing that albeit the importunity of the Earl's Accuser have occasioned what in the Narrative and what in this Preface a sensing and resensing of his words almost ad Nauseam Yet the plain truth and my opinion is that the Earl's words never had nor can have but two senses and these most distinct and constant The one genuine just and honest which all indifferent men ever did and do acknowledge The other most strained crooked and calumnious which yet his Adversaries will alwise adhere to But sayes our Author these words I take it in so far as it