Law to which upon occasion all particular Acts must bow what else can be alledged to justifie the throwing out the first estate of Parliament the passing by the Magistrates then in possession in making of their Elections and allowing some who had been sentenced for Treason to sit and Vote in Parliament without ever examining the grounds upon which they had been Condemned These who think that the necessity of State can justifie such Proceedings which must be their only Plea ought to be very careful how they blame their Predecessors for Severities which some Mens ungovernable humours necessitated them to We must also be allowed to admire how those who so eminently comply'd with the Dispencing Power in taking an Indulgence from the Papists and who magnified King Iames upon that account as the best of Kings that ever Reign'd should so snarle at us who in a Parliament at which not one of them assisted refused to take away the Penal Laws made against Popery whilst many of us resign'd our Places willingly in defence of those Laws Or how those who did sit in Parliament and Judicatures with us consenting to and approving what was done in those Reigns should now Countenance such Reproaches against us it being most undeniable that there 's but very few who deserved any Employment or had any sence who did not concur in most of those things for which we are now so severely censured and there are very few of any Note or Consideration either in the last Convention or present Parliament who have not been accessory to many of the things now complain'd of We do therefore in the last place recommend to all disinteressed Men to consider that the Men of the greatest Quality Learning Experience Parts and Estates being then in the Government and upon Oath it is to be presumed that love to the Salvation of their Souls respect to their Honour and care of their Families and Posterity would have obliged them to shun and avoid all those Severities with which they are now most unjustly charged and in common Charity to believe that what was then done by those in Power was design'd only for the Security of the Protestant Religion against those Factions and Schisms and to preserve the Country from those Civil Wars and Distractions which had destroyed both in the last Age and threatned to do the like in this notwithstanding all the Pains and Care that was taken to reduce the Authors of those Mischiefs to live peaceably and quietly We foreseeing very clearly that one Months Civil War would occasion more ruine and destruction to the Country than possibly the Severities of a whole Reign could do The only Design of this Paper being to defend our selves without offending others and rather to cement than widen Differences we wish that all sides may busie themselves so much in setling their Native Country that they may forget injuries which the most impartial cannot think so great in the Reign of King Ch. the Second as those that were committed by the Complaining Party in the Reign of K. Ch. the First and we should be sorry they had been ballanced But sure they will be most unpardonable who begin again upon a new score for after that nothing can be expected but that all Parties will run in an endless Circle of Severities Which God of his infinite Mercy avert A TRUE ACCOUNT OF THE Forms us'd in pursuits of Treason ACCORDING TO The Law of Scotland By which the JUSTICE of that Nation may be known to mis-informed Strangers Written Anno 1690. IT is much to be admired That such as never read our Law revis'd our Records nor were ever employ'd as Iudges or Advocats in our Criminal Courts should adventure to condemn the Proceedings of those who for many years have made that part of our Law their constant Study who were upon Oath and knew that their Posterity should be judged by their Decisions But to inform all men more particularly and to set things in their true light I shall represent the Legal way of Procedure in Cases of Treason which is the only Crime to which this Jealousie may reach and then prove that the King's Advocat cannot prejudge the party accus'd in any step of the process Treason may be pursued either at the instance of a private Informer or at the instance of the King's Advocat who is ratione Officii Calumniator Publicus If a private person inform then his Name must be exprest to the end he nor none of his Relations may be us'd as Witnesses he must find Surety that he shall prove and that he shall insist as being liable in Poenam Talionis if he fail in proving the Crime When the pursuit was to be carried on for the publick Interest the King's Advocat examined the Witnesses alone but Sir George Mackenzie thinking the Advocat might have been jealous'd as too interested prevail'd to get this Examination referr'd to the Iudges who in all Nations enquire into the Grounds whereupon pursuits are to be rais'd and after the Depositions were taken and sign'd by the Iudges and Witnesses the Advocat presents them to the Privy Council and if after reading them and a full debate upon them many of the Learned Lawyers of the Nation being Privy Counsellors it be found by Vote of Council that there is sufficient ground from the Evidence to raise Process of Treason then there is an Act of Council drawn ordering the King's Advocat to insist but in this Tryal the Advocat tho a Counsellor never votes The Reason why this previous Examination is allow'd is to secure the Subjects against their being rashly and unwarrantably pursued or prosecuted without sufficient Grounds But left a Witness might have lookt upon himself as pre-engaged by this previous Deposition therefore these first Depositions were always torn and the Witnesses declared free from whatever they had formerly depos'd To strengthen the Security of the Defendant or party accused Sir George Mackenzie us'd to interpose with the Officers of State before the Depositions were brought into the Council and to represent to them his own scruples And if the Officers of State continued still of Opinion that a Process was to be rais'd or the Party accused to be proceeded against then he desired the ablest Advocats of the Nation to be called before whom the Depositions were read and if they concurr'd with the Officers of State in their Iudgment of the matters being criminal then these Advocats were Ordain'd also to concur with him in the pursuit And many of the most learn'd and most popular Advocats did concur with him in the most intricate cases as in Argyle's Iervis Wood's c. which is not to be imagin'd they would have done had they thought their Pleading in these cases any guilt or fault Tho by the Laws of England and other Nations the Defendant is allowed no Advocats to plead for him in Criminal Cases but especially not in Treason except where the Iudges can see debateable points
A VINDICATION OF THE GOVERNMENT IN SCOTLAND During the REIGN of King Charles II. AGAINST Mis-Representations made in several Scandalous Pamphlets To which is added the Method of proceeding against Criminals as also some of the Phanatical Covenants as they were Printed and Published by themselves in that Reign By Sir GEORGE MACKENZIE Late LORD ADVOCATE There LONDON Printed for I. Hindmarsh at the Golden Ball in Cornhill 1691. A VINDICATION OF THE Government in SCOTLAND During the Reign of King CHARLES II. AGAINST Mis-representations made in several Scandalous Pamphlets THe Design of this Paper is neither to seduce others into Faction nor to make an Apologie the one being too Malicious and the other too Mean But because many honest and sincere Men have been abused by some late Misinformations whereby the Charity and Vnity of Protestants amongst themselves are much weakened therefore this Paper comes to set things in their true light by a bare Narrative which will be sufficient to reclaim those who are abus'd and to confute those malicious Authors who have endeavour'd to Reproach a whole Nation with Villanies of which none but these Authors themselves could have been guilty Because the Civil Government in Scotland was never bigot in that King's Reign therefore we shall not run back to consider Episcopacy or Presbyterie otherways than as they may concern the Civil Government Neither should we run so far back as to the Government of King Charles I. were it not to prove that these of the same persuasion who now complain were the first Aggressors and consequently what was done against them deserves rather the name of Self-defence than Persecution For clearing this it is necessary to represent that in the Year 1637 we liv'd under the most Pious and Orthodox Prince of the Age and yet a Rebellion was form'd against him as a Papist and a Tyrant by which all the Fundamental Laws were shaken and all honest Men ruin'd Neither needs there any other proof for this Assertion than the Records of Parliament General Assemblies and Iustice Court From the Records and Acts of Parliament it is undeniable that the power of nominating Judges Counsellors and all Officers of State the power of levying War and raising Taxes were usurp'd by the people Covenants were entred into by a part of the Subjects and by them impos'd imperiously upon the rest Leagues and Covenants were entred into with England Ambassadours were sent to Foreign Princes and States and even to France tho' little less terrible then than now exclaiming against the Injustice of the King justifying their taking Arms against him and therefore intreating the French Aid and Assistance The King himself was inhumanely deliver'd up to his Enemies and thereafter the Army that went in to defend his precious Life were declared Rebels all which was uncontravertedly inconsistent with the Laws of the Kingdom then standing From the Acts of the General Assembly it is clear that the Assembly 1639. refus'd to rise when dissolv'd by the King's Commissioner and most of the following Assemblies did both sit down and rise without his Warrand This Assembly threw out the Bishops and abrogated Episcopacy without Authority of Parliament tho' the Bishops were always the first of the three Estates of Parliament A new Oath was invented called the Covenant without the King's Authority and all Men Women and Children that were above ten years of age forc'd to take it and such as took it not were Excommunicated upon which all their Moveables or Chattels were Confiscated and they themselves being declar'd disobedient to the Laws were forc'd to fly The King 's Negative Voice was declared Illegal and the Acts made for assisting him in the Year Forty Eight were declar'd Void and Null by an unparallel'd Invasion the General Assembly imitating in this as in many other things the Church of Rome raised themselves above King and Parliament From the Records of the Iustice Court we find that the Estates made Advocates or Attorney Generals by their own Authority who prosecuted to death such as defended their own Houses by vertue of express Commissions from the King and such as rose in Arms for his Defence tho' they had both his Commissions and Remissions though the Iudes that Condemned them sat by vertue of that very King's Commission They not only borrowed vast Sums by meer force from private Men whom they never payed but also they were the first that brought in Free and dry Quarter Cess Excise and all these Publick burthens afterwards so much complain'd of when they were continued upon necessary Exigencies by lawful Authority we having neither formerly known Oaths nor Publick burthens under our gentle Kings against whom they so much exclaim'd as Tyrants because forsooth they kept them from being such All these Proceedings were not only condemn'd by the general Opinion of both Protestants and Papists abroad but stand yet condemned by express Acts of Parliament and by many Acts in the like Cases in Scotland and England and so nothing which can be alledged in justification of them deserves or needs an answer King Charles the Second being restored by almost the Universal consent of all the People the worst of whom grew weary of their Villanies The Parliament of Scotland being called they enquired very seriously into the occasion of such Disorders and soon found that they were all to be charged upon the Solemn League and Covenant and those who adhered thereto and therefore they endeavoured to perswade the Presbyterians to disown the Covenant all favour being promised to them upon that condition But finding that the Presbyterians generally thought themselves bound to own the Covenant the Parliament concluding that the same Men owning the same Principles would be ready upon occasion to act over again the same things therefore they by Vote which may be called unanimous seeing only four or five dissented restored Episcopacy and that so much the rather because that Government had in no age nor place forced its way into the State by the Sword but had still been brought in by the uncontraverted Magistrate without ever thrusting it self in by Violence and yet the Government did sustain Episcopacy as a part of the State but never as a Hierarchy wholly independent from it The Presbyterian Preachers had all along taught the People That as their Government was Iure Divino so the People might thereby be obliged to defend them and it under pain of Eternal Damnation even when Episcopacy was Established by Law and accordingly some of the People who retained that Principle frequented the Conventicles at which these Ministers Preacht whereupon the State fearing that the old Humour might ferment again into a Rebellion discharged under some small Penalties any above Five Strangers to meet in a Conventicle leaving thereby at once the free exercise of their Conscience in their Families and yet securing the State against such a total defection as might involve us in a New Civil-War which without doubt was all the State design'd
the natural consequences of their Covenant and Principles by which we leave the World to Iudge whether Sir George Mackenzie has not treated them with all modesty and tenderness and whether any Form of Government can possibly subsist where such wicked and pernicious Fooleries are propagated THE Solemn League and Covenant WEE Noblemen Barons Knights Gentlemen Citizens Burgesses Ministers of the Gospel and Commons of all sorts in the Kingdoms of Scotland England and Ireland by the Providence of GOD living under one King and being of one reformed Religion Having before our eyes the Glory of GOD and the Advancement of the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ the Honour and Happiness of the Kings Majesty and his Posterity and the true Publick Liberty Safety and Peace of the Kingdoms wherein every ones private condition is included And calling to mind the treacherous and bloody Plots Conspiracies Attempts and Practices of the Enemies of GOD against the True Religion and Professors thereof in all places especially in these three Kingdoms ever since the Reformation of Religion and how much their Rage Power and Presumption are of late and at this time increased and exercised whereof the deplorable estate of the Church and Kingdom of Ireland the distressed estate of the Church and Kingdom of England and the dangerous estate of the Church and Kingdom of Scotland are present and publick Testimonies We have now at last after other means of Supplication Remonstance Protestations and Sufferings for the preservation of our selves and our Religion from utter ruine and destruction according to the commendable practice of these Kingdoms in former times and the Example of GOD's People in other Nations after mature deliberation resolved and determined to enter into a mutual and solemn League and Covenant Wherein we all subscribe and each one of us for himself with our hands lifted up to the most high GOD do Swear 1. THat we shall sincerely really and constantly through the Grace of GOD endeavour in our several places and Callings the Preservation of the Reformed-Religion in the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government against our Common Enemies The Reformation of Religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of GOD and the Example of the best Reformed Churches And shall Endeavour to bring the Churches of GOD in the three Kingdoms to the nearest conjunction and Vniformity in Religion Confession of Faith Form of Church Government Directory for Worship and Catechising That We and our Posterity after us may as Brethren live in Faith and Love and the Lord may delight to dwell in the midst of us 2. That we shall in like manner without respect of persons endeavour the Extirpation of Popery Prelacy that is Church Government by Archbishops Bishops their Chancellours and Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons and all other Ecclesiastical Officers depending on that Hierarchy Superstition Heresie Schism Prophaneness and whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to sound Doctrine and the Power of Godliness Lest we partake in other mens sins and thereby be in danger to receive of their plagues And that the Lord may be One and his Name One in the three Kingdoms 3. We shall with the same sincerity reality and constancy in our several Vocations endeavour with our Estates and Lives mutually to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of the Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdoms And to preserve and defend the Kings Majesties Person and Authority in the preservation and defence of the True Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms That the World may bear witness with our Consciences of our Loyalty and that we have no thoughts or intentions to diminish His Majesties Iust Power and Greatness 4. We shall also with all faithfulness endeavour the Discovery of all such as have been or shall be Incendiaries Malignants or evil Instruments by hindering the Reformation of Religion dividing the King from his People or one of the Kingdoms from another or making any Faction or Parties amongst the People contrary to this League and Covenant That they may be brought to publick Tryal and receive condign punishment as the degree of their Offences shall require or deserve or the supream Iudicatories of both Kingdoms respectively or others having power from them for that effect shall judge convenient 5. And whereas the happiness of a Blessed Peace between these Kingdoms denyed in former times to our Progenitors is by the good Providence of GOD granted unto us and hath been lately concluded and setled by both Parliaments We shall each one of us according to our place and Interest endeavour that they may remain conjoined in a firm Peace and Union to all Posterity And that Iustice may be done upon the wilful Opposers thereof in manner expressed in the precedent Article 6. We shall also according to our places and callings in this common Cause of Religion Liberty and Peace of the Kingdoms assist and defend all those that enter into this League and Covenant in the maintaining and pursuing thereof and shall not suffer our selves directly or indirectly by whatsoever Combination Perswasion or Terrour to be divided and withdrawn from this Blessed Vnion and Conjunction whether to make defection to the contrary part or to give our selves to a detestable indifferency or neutrality in this Cause which so much concerneth the Glory of GOD the Good of the Kingdoms and Honour of the King But shall all the days of our lives zealously and constantly continue therein against all opposition and promote the same according to our power against all Lets and Impediments whatsoever and what we are not able our selves to suppress or overcome we shall reveal and make known that it may be timely prevented or removed All which we shall do as in the sight of GOD. And because these Kingdoms are guilty of many sins and provocations against GOD and his Son Jesus Christ as is too manifest by our present distresses and dangers the fruits thereof we profess and declare before GOD and the World our unfeigned desire to be humbled for our own sins and for the sins of these Kingdoms especially that we have not as we ought valued the inestimable benefit of the Gospel that we have not laboured for the Purity and Power thereof and that we have not endeavoured to receive Christ in our Hearts nor to walk worthy of him in our lives which are the causes of other sins and transgressions so much abounding amongst us and our true and unfeigned purpose desire and endeavour for our selves and all others under our Power and Charge both in publick and in private in all Duties we owe to GOD and Man to amend our lives and each one to go before another in the example of a real Reformation That the Lord may turn away his wrath and heavy indignation and Establish these Churches and Kingdoms in Truth and Peace And this Covenant we make in the