Jesuit he pretends to Suffer upon a Religious account though he really suffer'd as a Disturber of the Government and as a Traitor and Rebel to the King He suffer'd not for Preaching but for Preaching in arms and among armed-men who assembled themselves on Stated days every week against the Law and defended their Assemblies by force of Arms. Or if he suffer'd for Preaching it was not for Preaching Christ and the Gospel but for Preaching up Rebellion which is contrary to both For Preaching against the Established Government and the Laws For railing in their Preaching against the King and his Counsellors telling the people that he was guilty of Perjury and had no right to Govern and that they endeavoured to drive Christ out of the Kingdom Lastly for Preaching up the Covenant and the Presbyterian Government of which they assert the same things as Priests and Jesuits do of the Pope and this is the main thing for which I must lay down my tabernacle this day viz. that I did Preach Christ and the Gospel in several places of this Nation for which I bless him as I can that ever such a poor and obscure person as I am should be thus priviledged by him for mentionmaking of his grace as I was able 3ly Give me leave to add this word further that though there be great appearances of spreading and Preaching this glorious Gospel yet I fear there is a snare at the bottom and poyson in the dish which may gender and be productive of not only greater scarcity of honest Preachers and Preaching but a real Famine of the Word this I say is my fear and I hope God will keep his o i. e. The Kirk-Ministers and people from seeking or accepting of any indulgence from the King For to Preach by leave and permission from the King is to grant that Ministers depend on the Secular power for the actual exercise of their Ministery and supposeth that they may receive limitations and restrictions from the Magistrate which is utterly inconsistent with that independent Authority which they derive immediately from the King in Sion and destructive of his Supremacy Kingdom Crown and Scepter as may plainly be seen from Mr. Browns Jesuitical Letter Printed at the end of these two Speeches and the Apology Servants and people from fomenting any thing to the detriment of the Gospel I am afraid that the Lord is beginning to multiply his stripes upon this land We have walked p i. e. Several times contrary to him in setting up Episcopacy Seven times contrary to him and therefore we may lay our account unless repentance prevent it that he will walk seven times contrary to us there is more and more ground to fear that there is a q Well threatned Sword bathed in heaven a glittering Sword sharpened and furbished against thee O guilty and Harlot Scotland let this Land consider how neutral and indifferent we are grown in the r i. e. In the matter of the Covenant matters of God even like Ephraim long ago a Cake not turned which is upon the matter Contrary to and inconsistent with our Solemnly sworn Covenant next how far are we fallen from our s viz. Our love for the Presbyterian Discipline first Love How far are we degenerate from that noble Vine into which the Lord did once Plant us How lamentable it is How far we have gone the way to t viz. Episcopacy Egypt drinking the waters of Sihor Again What a woful Spirit of bitterness is predominating in this Land and in this Age u viz. The indulged Ministers against the Field-Preachers such as Welsh Kid King Cameron c. and the Field-Preachers against the indulged Ministers who hold that as long as they are not subjected to the Bishops it is not against their Solemn League and Covenant nor inconsistent with the Ministerial Authority nor destructive to Christs Soverainity to accept of a limited indulgence from the State And therefore they were content to be obliged not to Preach without their Parishes not to Baptize Children of other Parishes nor to engage Parents at the Baptism of their Children to bring them up according to the Solemn League and Covenant nor to Preach against the Government of the Church or State and to observe the 29th of May. c. Ephraim vexing Judah and Judah Ephraim Manasseh Ephraim and Ephraim Manasseth the growing doggedness of this temper almost amongst all portends terrible things from the Lord against this Land 4ly Reformation according to our sworn Covenants is neither designed nor practised What means all this deformation that is come to pass in these days instead of the Contrary How many of us have been Pulling down that which we have been building up how many of us call good evil and evil good disowning and dissavouching that which sometime we judged our honour to testifie for and avouch 5ly A Publick Spirit in contending for God and his matters in substance and Circumstances according to our vows and obligations is much amissing amongst us at this day Further I am pressed in Conscience to make mention of all those great and glorious things that God hath done in Scotland since the year 1640. and 1641. the aboundant measure of his Spirit that was poured out upon his servants and people and the renewing of that National Covenant twice in that year and once in the year following the Blessed efficacy that the Gospel had at that time in all the Corners of the Land the great things that followed upon it which while improven made our Land most desirable w The Solemn League and Covenant is the Alpha and Omega of the Kirk-Doctrines and Cause Hence they commonly call it the Holy League and Covenant as both the Pope and Jesuits called its Prototype the League of the Papists in France and as the Pope compared the Duke of Guise to Judas Maccabaeus and the Jesuits to Gideon Davila lib. 9. So the Kirk-Preachers taught that the Lords who began the Design of the Covenant acted like the Jewish Worthys in promoting of it and were moved and directed so to do by the secret motions of the Spirit of God In the beginning of the Covenant they set up one Mrs. Mitchelson a Ministers Daughter for a Prophetess who pretended to be Inspired with a Spirit of Divination and she said that it was revealed to her by God that their Covenant was approved by him and ratified in heaven and Mr. Henry Rollock a Covenanting-Minister being desired to pray with her answered he durst not because it would not be good manners in him to speak while his Master Christ was Speaking in her and yet at length she openly confessed that she was an Impostor and that the Ministers told her in private what she should speak The Author of Naphtali pag. 240. brings in Mr. Hugh Mackell a Rebel-Preacher saying Whatever indignity is done to the Solemn League and Covenant I esteem it no less than doing despite to
but justly punished when they are Prosecuted upon this account Q. E. D. This made my Lord Bacon truly say That they are the men which propagate Religion by Wars force Consciences yet cry out their Consciences are forced that nurse Seditions authorize Conspiracies and Rebellions and put the Swords in the Peoples hand that Sanctifie Tumults Preach off the Heads of Kings and overthrow Constitutions and Government that undermine Laws and Settlement that resist for Conscience-sake and teach others so to die for their Salvation that make Christ a raiser of Sedition and his Religion a Firebrand that despise Dominions and speak evil of Dignities and yet pretend to fear God And therefore the Magistrate is so far from Persecuting the men of such professed Principles that he is bound by that Trust which God hath reposed in him to Prosecute them with severe Punishments as being pernitious not only to his Government but the Souls of his Subjects who by virtue of these damnable Doctrines will be in a constant disposition to Rebellion in this World and in danger of Damnation in the World to come Neither are they Persecuted for remonstrating against false Doctrines For the Doctrines against which they remonstrate are but contradictions of their own Principles which I have already proved to be false It remains then That if they are Persecuted it is in being Prosecuted for Matters of Practice either upon the account of Divine Worship which belongs to the First Table or for Matters of Morality which belong to the Second Upon this latter Score they cry out of Persecution first upon a positive account when they are prosecuted for harbouring hideing and maintaining declared and attainted Traitors who act according to the foresaid Principles contrary to express Law †I say Fallaciously For as Cicoro writes lib. 3. Offic. Patria Praestat omnibus officijs filius patriae Salutem anteponet Saluti patris and lib. 1. Offic. omnium societatum nulla est gravior nulla carior quà m ea quae cum repub est unicuique nostrûm Cari sunt parentes cari liberi propinqui familiares sed omnes omnium Caritates patria una complexa est Sed si contentio quaedam est comparatio fiat quibus plurimum tribuendum sit officii principes sunt Patria Parentes Fallaciously pretending That common humanity and charity obligeth them to relieve and assist such miserable Persons who it may be are their Fathers or Sons or Brothers or Ministers to whom they are related in Christ or for not obeying lawful Authority when they are called in his Majesties name to assist in Seizing of them or Searching for them and for not repairing to the Kings Host according to the most ancient Law of the Kingdom when the Covenanters rise up to destroy the Government of Church and State But if it be a Sin to harbour a Traitor be he who he will or not to assist at his apprehension according to Law and to refuse in a time of Rebellion to repair to the Kings Standard when legally called If these things I say be Sins as every thing must be which is contrary to the Allegiance of Subjects the Laws of the Countrey and the Duty which every Man owes to the Publick-Weal then they are not Persecuted but justly punished when they are prosecuted on this account They also pretend to be Persecuted under this Head upon a Negative account when they are Prosecuted for not †See Note a on the first Speech and the Apology Sect. 2. Where the Author compares this Act to the Oath de super inquirendis used in the Inquisition deponeing in the matter of Field-Meetings according to the Act of Parliament Caroli 2. Session 2. Act. 2. which obligeth them as they object without exception of Persons the Father to inform against the Son the Husband against his Wife c. against Justice Mercy and Equity and for not rendring themselves according to the Kings Proclamations and lastly for not appearing when they are cited before the Courts But if it is the Duty of the nearest †Quod si tyrannidem occupare si patriam prodere conabitur pater silebitne silius imo vero obscerabit patrem ne id faciat si nihil proficiet accusabit minabitur etiam ad extremum si ad perniciem patriae res spectabit patrâ—ae salutem anteponet saluti patris Relation for example of the Father to depone against the Son when he is required by the Father of the Countrey the King with respect to whom they are both Sons or which is all one by the Law and if it also be the Duty of every 1 For there is no other way left to satisfy the Law criminal Subject to render himself to Justice uncalled much more when he is commanded by his lawful Sovereign to do it and to 2 For not to appear is Contempt and Contumacy appear upon due citation before his competent Judge then these men who are real delinquents upon these Scores are not Persecuted but justly punished when they are Fin'd Imprisoned Transported Banished or Outlaw'd and denounced Rebels upon the aforesaid accounts It remains then That we require whether they are Persecuted for matters of Divine Worship either upon a negative or positive account First Then they pretend not to be Persecuted for not Worshipping a false God because the Church-Congregations worship the same God and Saviour which they themselves do But then they pretend with mighty cragical Exaggerations to be Persecuted for not Worshipping this true God in a false way crying out as often as they speak of the breach of the Covenant †Napht. page 2. Of Rebellion Blasphemy and perfidy against God of Contempt of him of overturning the Work of the Gospel of promoting the Kingdom of darkness and Antichrist nay as if the Church had turned Idolatrous of Apostatizing from God of rejecting Christ and overturning the Work of his Spirit and Arm c. and when all comes to all they are so far from being Persecuted for not Worshipping of God in any false unfitting or unscriptural way their own Consciences being Judge that the way after which the Church-Congregations worship him is the very same with their own without Form in any Office or Ceremony of any sort But if the Church of Scotland Worship'd God by one prescribed Form and had appointed Ceremonies as her Sister-Church according to the example of the Primitive-Churches hath done yet this would not prove their Sufferings upon the account of Separation to be Persecution unless they could prove that Forms and Ceremonies in the general are unlawful which can never be proved or that those particular Forms and Ceremonies which they were bound to observe were unlawful and then indeed their plea would be good Nothing can be replied to this but that though the manner of Worship be the same in Churches and Conventicles yet the Ministery is not but that the Church-Ministery by Bishops and Presbyters
revile and hate those who Execute our Laws upon the latter though their Principles are as incompatible with the Government and call the Church-Protestants Papists or say they are Popishly affected when you hear them like good Subjects rejoyce at the news of their Defeats or express their satisfaction that they Suffered as the nature of their Crimes deserved I say Their Principles are as incompatible with Who under the Mask and Vizard of Religion seek to Sâ—bvert all Monardâ—â—al and Civil Government King Ch 〈…〉 his lesser Declaration 1640. p. 3. Government and the common Security that every man ought to have in Human Societies and that they would be extirpated out of any Protestant Government of the World as the Jesuits were once out of France and many other Popish Countreys but Ours and Yours and yet when a Parcel of them a Year ago were sent on Ship-board into the Thames in order to be Transported according to Law you made as great a stir about it with the King and his Secretary for this Kingdom as if they had been the most Innocent and Orthodox-Protestants in the World Had they been Jesuited Papists we should all have rejoyced but had they been so many of either Churches Communion especially of those whom you invidiously call High-flown Church-men though in Charity I believe you would have been sorry for them yet I doubt if you would have taken half that pains to prevent their Transportation have given them half so much Money or upon their account have cryed out Tyranny half so much In like manner when the Highlanders about two years since were brought down under the Conduct of their Chiefs into those Shires where at least five parts in six are of this Jesuitical Sect What Tragical outcries did you make at London though if the Papists should have kept such frequent and numerous Field-Conventicles in the Popish Shires of England at a time when the Kings Standing Forces were not able to dissipate the tenth part of them you would have thought it both lawful expedient and laudable to have sent Thousands of People from Protestant Shires to Quarter among them for a little while till other expedients could have been found You know very well that the first Discoverer of the Horrid Popish Plot hath declared to all the World That Jesuits were sent into Scotland about the same time that they began to Field-Conventicle to encourage them to Rebel and disturb the Ministery of the Duke of Lauderdale and yet you are so confident as to contradict him in this particular reporting in favour of our Jesuited Presbyterians That there was no need for such a Force to over-rule them but that they were brought upon them purposely to provoke them to Rebel I must also remind you of the innumerable Lyes you dispersed I cannot believe you rais'd them of the Devastations Murders Robberies Rapes c. committed by the Highlanders among those Presbyterian Jesuits though there were as few and as small disorders committed by them as ever was by the like number not only of Soldiers but Men. For they are not Barbarians as you Styled them unless it be in the same sence that the Greeks and Romans called all other People Barbarous that spoke not their Languages and wore not the Pall and Gown No I assure you they are a very Civil Generous and Governable People who committed not half so many nor so great disorders in that expedition as the Soldiers who were levied about the same time in England did about the places where they lay Did any of them do such a Barbarous action not to mention others as that of Captain upon Sir Robert Viners Daughter if they did let it be published but if they did not then I beseech you be not accessory to such lying Stories again But the Loyal Highlanders were from the beginning Malls to the Covenant and Covenanters and this is the true ground why our Presbyterians in the first place and you by contagion from them in the second hate and defame them so much For the very same reason you are directed by them to Calumniate the great name of his Grace the Duke of Lauderdale The Church is supported upon and our Pestilent Sectarians crush'd under his Ministery and therefore you Conspire to represent him as a Tyrant Papist and what not Though some of the most Considerable among you know him to be a man of great Moderation and Piety and one who abominates Popery from his heart I think fit also to mind you of the Misrepresentations which you made of the Archbishops Murder endeavouring to lay it elsewhere than at the door of that Phanatical Party who brought his Grace as the Jesuits have done greater men to Ehuds Dagger and Gideons Sword I have made a True Narrative of it and of the Jesuitical Principles upon which it was Committed on purpose that you seeing of what manner of Faith and Spirit this direful Sect are may Befriend them no longer but shew your selves sincere Protestants in abhorring the worst part of Popery in them aswel as in Papists properly so called Furthermore I cannot but tell you that I am very much offended at the spiteful manner after which you have Treated the Church and her Clergy ever since the Discovery of the Popish-Plot I have seen the Narratives of your Essex and Leicester-shire Elections and have read the Books which your Rabbies have lately put out and comparing them with other Phanatical shall I call them or Popish Libels methinks I find little of the Ancient Puritan Spirit among you but that you have deviated ten times further from their Principles than the Divines in Celeusma are falsly represented to have deviated from the Doctrines of the Church Nay to deal plainly with you you seem to have much of the Covenanting Spirit among you and if you stop not in time I am afraid that as many Acts of Parliament must be made in your Countrey for the protection of the Clergy as have been made in ours What are you not ashamed to Assault the Church on one side while the Papists Storm her on the other A Church of all the Reformed most hated by the Papists and whose Clergy alone hath done much more against Popery than the Divines of all Reformed Communions in the World And yet you are not ashamed to misrepresent this very Clergy to the people for Papists or Papishly affected a Clergy whose Writings all Foreign Protestant Divines study English on purpose to understand and which at this day praised be God for it can produce more Great men than the Greek and Latin Churches put together in the most flourishing Century could ever shew at a time But this is not to act like Protestants but Papists or whatsoever else you will call those who endeavour to ruine the Fortress of the Protestant Cause And truly while some of your leading Dissenters openly avow that they are neither Presbyterians nor Independents c. Nor of any other known name do they
not prompt us to believe that they may be Papists or at least are so fond of their own Conceits as to be of nothing but of themselves So Arius was an Arian Novatus a Novatian and Donatus a Donatist and no part of Christendom ever yet wanted men who had the vanity to affect singularity in Opinions of Religion to Commence Heresiarchs and become Chiefs of a Sect. Thus for example I know not what Mr. Baxter can be called but a Papist or Baxterian he is not of the Church of England it is manifest folly and injustice to call him Papist He saith He is no Presbyterian c. he must therefore like the Founder of an Heresie be denominated from himself unless he can reduce himself to any other denomination Catholick or Heterodox that now is or ever was among Christians and if he can let him do us the favour to tell us what it is I am likewise very much Scandalized at you for giving the right hand of Fellowship to our Presbyterian Jesuits whom were you of the Principles of the Ancient Puritans you would thrust out of your Synagogues as soon as you know what they are should you favour and Caress Professed Jesuits and admit them to your Communions would it not be reasonable to suspect that you were Jesuits your selves and therefore if after this you shall own our Covenanting Hildebrandists who would set their feet on the Necks of Christian Princes you must excuse us if we say that you your selves are such I am sure should the Bishops and Clergy of either Church do but half as much for the Papists as you have done for our Presbyterian Papalines you would and very justly too proclaim them for Papists all over the Protestant world Many of them this day are protected among you and one of them among you or which is worse one of your selves lately Published these two Treasonable and Blasphemous Speeches with so many Tricks and Falsifications as none but a Jesuit or Jesuited Nonconformist could do For first in the Title-page he calls them The last Speeches of c. at the place of Execution without mentioning the horrid Crimes for which they were Executed which plainly shews be he Scots or English that he is one of these Jesuited Presbyterians that counted the late Insurrection no Rebellion as these two Traytors did amply declare Also by omitting to mention the Treasons and Rebellion for which they were Executed he gives the people occasion to think that they were put to death like Apostles meerly for Preaching the Gospel though before they engaged in the late Insurrection they Preached Treason and Rebellion in the Feilds to Thousands of Armed-men In the 6th pag. where he saith that Mr. King bore his Testimony against the Covenant he hath left out these words in which he bore it Also I hear my Witness and Testimony to our Covenants National and Solemn-League betwixt the Three Kingdoms which Sacred and Solemn Oath I believe cannot be dispensed with nor loosed by any person or party upon Vid. p 42. Earth but are fully binding these Nations and will be so hereafter And in the 7th pag. he hath left out all that follows And against all Oaths and Bonds contrary to our Covenant and Engagements especially that Oath of Supremacy the Declaration against the Covenant and that Bond called the Bond of peace and that horrid Bond so frequently imposed against the Meetings of his people in Fields and Houses intended for the Down-bearing of the Gospel and Interest of our Lord and Vid. p. 43. 44. Master with all other Bonds Publick or Private contrary to our Obligations and Covenants to God also against all such that Connive at or Comply with or strengthen the hands of this Prelatical Malignant and Persecuting Party In the 8th page he hath left out all this And particularly I bear my Testimony against that horrid Violation done to our Lord Jesus Christ and that by Usurping upon his Royal Prerogatives and in Spoiling him of his Crown Sword Scepter and Royal Robe by taking those Princely Ornaments to invest a man with whose Breath is in his Vid. p 46 47. Nostrils 〈…〉 ough that woful Supremacy so much applauded to and universally owned even of such of whom better things might have been expected I mean the Indulged and such as Countenanced them in that way even to the ruining and renting of the Church which alas is too Evident by sad and doleful experience So much for the larger Omissions but in other places of this Speech he hath left out as material passages by which in the 5th pag. he hath perverted the Sence for in this place I have been often dissuading from such ways and practices and of this my Conscience bear me Witness but here I would not have you mistake me as if I did approve of ways and Vid P. 〈◊〉 practices contrary to the word of God and that of our Covenanted Reformed Religion He hath left out all betwixt the Hooks Again in the 8th page to that Expression to all those who have laid down their Vid. p. 46. lives he should have added as it follows in the true Copy either formerly or of late in the Fields So in the 9th page from these words provoke the Lord to bring a Sword upon these Lands he hath taken away to avenge the Quarrel of his Covenant Lastly page 12. in this Vid. p. 48. Expression And send a Reviving day to the Work and People of God he hath omitted the word Work So much for Kings Speech and the Falsifications are no less considerable in that of Kids For first he hath Postponed the most scandalous part of his Speech which he spoke a little after the beginning and put it towards the end For what is contained betwixt eightly as for c. after Harlot Scotland page 21. and let the Land consider after Principles and Practices page 25. line 3. should have been Printed after all that follows from these words and should have followed on the blank page to reflection upon any page 27. line 19. as may be seen by consulting the Sixth and Eleventh Pages of this Edition which is sufficiently proved by these words in the close as a dying person at the bottom of the Sixteenth Page of this Edition which usher in his last words The reason is plain why he put the most poysonous part at the latter end viz. That the common Reader who might have spit it out again at first might take it down without scruple after his palate had been prepared with all he had unwarily swallowed before But this had not been so great a fault had he Printed it all but he hath left out all that Treasonable Papal Rebellious Jesuitical stuff from these words his Servants and People page 7. line 17. in this Edition to and moreover page 10. line 35. which I desire the Reader to consult But besides this great omission he is guilty of several others which ought to be observed
will be mightily endangered if not destroyed by the latter not only the Baptizing of Infants the Observation of the Lords-day the Admission of Women to the Holy-Communion who were not as Cassand observes admitted to the Paschal Lamb which it succeeded nor can it be expresly proved out of the New Testament that ever they received it but the Order and Authority of Presbyters to Administer it nay the use of both the Holy Sacraments which the Vid. Apol. Relig Reform by Barclay Quakers say was a Temporary Institution and the Divine Authority of the Scriptures in general upon which the Christian Religion depends But I hear that one intends to do this in a particular Tract wherein he also designs to shew That scarce one particular of the Christian Religion except the Authority of the Scriptures in general hath been so little contested as Episcopacy and Episcopal Ordination wherein for above 1400. years the Hereticks agreed with the Catholick Church This being so it may easily be discerned to what cause we ought chiefly to ascribe that Deluge of Atheism and utter contempt of Religion which hath overflowed the Land You have been the main occasion of it the Atheists as well as the whole Brood of Sects are your though I confess Equivocal Offspring and to give them their due they have not been ingrateful but always serviceable to you and upon all occasions have joined with you in your main designs against the Bishops and the Church However it is the Churches unhappiness yet it is not Her dishonour that She and Her Clergy have you and them your Allies for their Common Enemies you joyn hand in hand against them and endeavour to cover their Faces with shame and fill their Souls with contempt But I desire you seriously to consider whether your ingratitude to God for such a Church and your contempt and forsaking of such a Clergy who have always been such faithful and invincible Champions against the Papists be not one of those crying Sins which have justly provoked God to threaten us with Popery and which may at length urge him to bring you under the King of Babylon both for your Punishment and Cure I believe you will be offended at me for what I have said of the necessity of Episcopal and invalidity of Presbyterian Orders but I have said no more of this Subject than Bishop Against Champney page 118. Fern who asserts that the latter are to be accounted void within the Church of England and every compleat and regularly formed Church Or Bishop Answer to the third Epist. of Pet. Moulin Andrews who asserted That the Reformed Church of France in wanting Episcopacy wanted something which was of Divine Right Or King In his first Paper to Mr. Henderson Charles the First who asserted That by the alteration of our Church-Government we should be deprived of a Lawful Priesthood c. Or in effect then Apocalypsis Apocalypscos page 130. Dr. More who on Rev. 13. 11. makes Episcopacy to be the Horns of the Lamb which were upon the Beasts or Antichrists Head Or last of all then In his Separation of Churches Mr. Dodwell who as I am assured from very good Judges hath unanswerably shewed the nullity of these by the necessity of having those in every visible Church I have not yet seen the Book but I am confident I am rightly informed about it because I find Mr. Baxter so angry both at it and the Author in his last Book I shall say no more than this That if this Doctrine be true then you who maliciously oppose the Divine Institution or who by virtue of Presbyterian Orders Sacrilegiously presume to Administer the Sacraments in opposition to our Episcopal Communions within the British Isles have a sad account to give without Repentance to the Head and Founder of the Catholick Church Edinburgh Jan. 5. 1679. 80. The Author having met with King Charles the Firsts Declaration concerning his Subjects of Scotland 1640. since he finished his Animadversions thought fit to add what follows out of the 56 57 and 58 Pages for the further illustration of what is said of the Letter of the Covenanting Lords to the French King in the 30th Page BUT to fill up the measure of their Treasons they have endeavoured to settle Intelligences in parts beyond the Seas and practised to let in Foraign Power into that Our Kingdom as We are able to make appear under the hands of some of the chiefest of them as if the fire which by their own Rebellions they have already kindled within the bowels of that State were not sufficient to consume it unless they added fuel to it from abroad And herein appears first their malignity to Us their Natural Soveraign in that they had rather prostitute themselves to Foraign Government and that such as is different in Religion than yield conformity to Ours But because the World shall see that We charge them not but upon very good and sure grounds We have thought fit to set down here their own Letter Of which We have given Our good Brother the French King accompt being confident he will not assist any Rebels against Us. The Letter follows with this endorsement Au Roy which in France is always understood from those Subjects only to their Natural Prince SIRE VOstré Majesté estant l'asyle sanctuaire des Princes Estats affligéz nous avous trouvé necessaire d'envoyer ce Gentilhome le Sieur de Colvil pour representer à V. M. la candeur naiveté tant de nos actions procedures que de nos intentions lesquelles nous desirons estre gravées escrites à tout â—univers avec un ray du Soleil aussy bien que V. M. Nous vous Supplions doncques treshumblement Sire de â—â—y adjouster foy creance a tout ce qu'il dira de nostre part touchant nous nos affaires estant tresasseurés Sire d'une assistance eigale a Vostre clemence accoustumee cydevant si souvent monstrée a ceste Nation laquelle ne cedera la gloire á autre quelconque d'estre eternellement Sire de V. M. Les treshumbles tresobeyssants tressaffectionnés Serviteurs Rothes Montrose Leslie Mar. Montgomery Loudoun Forrester Englished thus SIR YOur Majesty being the Refuge and Sanctuary of afflicted Princes and States we have found it necessary to send this Gentleman Mr. Colvil to represent unto Your Majesty the candor and ingenuity as well of our actions and proceedings as of our intentions which we desire to be engraved and written to the World with a beam of the Sun as well as your Majesty We therefore most humbly beseech You Sir to give faith and credit to him and to all that he shall say on our part touching us and our affairs being most assured Sir of an assistance equal to Your wonted clemency heretofore and so often shewed to this Nation which will not yield the glory to any other whatsoever to be eternally Sir Your Majesties most humble most obedient and
King in his wrath and that the Church was well Governed for above 300 years before there was any Christian King Lastly is it not Jesuitism to teach the people that they ought to labour for an holy hatred of our Reformed Bishops and their adherents and that it is p Naphtali Jus populi vindicatum Mitchels greater Speech in Ravillac Redivivus The introduction to the Apology lawful and laudable to kill them and their Curates and that Protestant Prelacy is an enemy to true Godliness and admirably fitted to bring the Church unto a slavish dependance upon the King If these be Jesuitical Doctrines thou blind leader of the blind then thou and thy brethren will never be able to wash off the aspersions of Jesuitism with all the water in Tweed and the Forth Jesuitism is one I am hopefull there was never one that did converse with me that had the least ground of laying this to my charge and know not how it s come to pass to cast it upon me nothing except implacable prejudice that some have been prepossessed with against me I am not ignorant that near 2 years ago a person of Note in this Church who living was pleased to say that I had died in that judgment but after he was better informed he changed his Note and said it was misinformation but now the Lord before whom I must stand and be judged by and by knows that I have a perfect abhorrence of the things and it was never my intention directly or indirectly Though I must confess some few years bygone some were pressing with me that I might Conform and embrace Prelacy but for Popery and that trash it came never nearer my heart than the Popes Conclave or the Alcoran which my Soul abhors 9ly I have been also 11 Not by the Church-Ministers but by the indulged brethren who think it consistent with the nature and design of the Covenant and the Supremacy of the King of Sion to accept of his Majesties indulgence which Brown Welsh King Kid Cameron and the rest declare is unlawful to do branded with Factiousness divisive and seditious Preaching and practices I must confess if it be so it was more than I was ever aware of according to the measure that God hath given me it was my endeavour to Commend 12 In his Soverainity Royal Prerogatives Crown and Kingdom Christ to the hearts and souls of people even repentance towards God and Faith towards Jesus Christ according to the Word of God Confession of Faith 13 The Assemblies larger and shorter Catechism Catechisms larger and shorter yea I did press them also when God did cast it in 14 That was as often as he thought fit my way to remember their Sworn Covenant in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government and that they would make it their work to stand to it in substance and Circumstances seeing it is so cried down in this day and if this be divisive 〈…〉 10ly I am pressed in Conscience to bear my testimony against and abhorrence of every invasion usurpation or incroachment that is made or hath been made against Christs Royal Prerogative Crown and Kingdom original upon and derivate from that which they call the 15 See note y. Supremacy I was never free to lay a Confederacy with those that I judge in a great part have laid a Confederacy in that thing and the Lord is my Record I was never free in my Conscience for that which is called the 16 And as they hold it unlawful to take the Kings Licences and Indulgences as being inconsistent with their immediate Mission from Christ and his Prerogative Royal So they think it unlawful to accept of any Accomodation from the Church as being incompatible with their Solemn League and Covenant that Oath of God as they call it by which they are obliged to endeavour the extirpation of Episcopal Government and set up Presbytery in its stead Dr. Leighton sometimes Bishop of Dumblane and Arch-Bishop of Glascow offered them Six Articles of accommodation in his Diocess by which he did really unbishop himself and left himself nothing of the holy Apostolic Office but the empty name Indulgence neither first nor second as it was tendred by the Council and as it was embraced by a great many Godly-hearted men in this Island yea it was never lawful nor expedient to me and in effect The ARTICLES this is the main ground why I am rendred obnoxious to so many imputations 1st That if the Dessenting brethren will come to Presbyteries and Synods they shall not only be obliged to renounce their own private opinion anent Church-Government and Swear or Subscribe any thing thereto but shall have liberty at their entry to the said meeting to declare and enter it in what form they please that I have been all along contrary to their Indulgence in my judgment I confess I have been of that judgment and die in the judgment contrary to it and this I crave leave to say without any offence to 2ly That all Church-Affairs shall be managed in Presbyteries or Synods by the free vote of Prebyters or the Major part of them 3ly If any difference fall out in the Diocesian Synods betwixt any of the Members thereof it shall be lawful to appeal to a Provincial Synod or their Committee 4ly That Intrants being lawfully presented by the Patron and duly Tried by the Presbytery there shall be a day agreed on by the Bishop and Presbytery for their meeting together and for their Solemn Ordination and Admission at which there shall be one appointed to Preach and that it shall be at the Parish-Church where he is to be admitted Except in the case of impossibility or extream inconvenience and if any difference fall in touching that Affair it shall be referable to the Provincial Synods or their Committee as any other matter 5ly It is not to be doubted but my Lord Commissioner his Grace will make good what he offered anent the Establishment of Presbyteries and Synods and we trust that his Grace will procure such security to those Brethren for declaring their judgment that they may do it without any hazard in contravening any law and that the Bishop shall humbly and earnestly recommend this to his Grace 6ly That no Intrant shall be ingaged to any Canonical Oath or Subscription to the Bishop and that his opinion anent that Government shall not prejudge him in this but it shall be free for him to declare These are the Articles of accomodation in which that Prelate most unworthily parted with his Negative voice wherein the very essence of Episcopal power consists †Ignatius ad Smyrn ad Philadelph ad Trall For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. was the Apostolical rule of Church-Government can 39. Sanct. Apost and therefore next to the appearance of a Bishop before a meeting of Presbyters upon a citation from them and renouncing the Episcopal Function
King out of Prison and in Prosecuting this Act Mr. William Colvill was deposed though he was a most learned and worthy man for not reading the Causes of a Fast which they appointed which puts me in mind of what Queen Mary Stuart was used to say That she was as much afraid of a Fast of the Ministers as of an Army of Souldiers In another Act of Assembly July 20. 1649. they Ordained that all that had been accessory to the Engagement 1648. should be processed and made solemnly to renounce it as sinful and unlawful and in their Seasonable warning July 27. 1649. They call the Defeat of this noble and pious Design by Cromwell a great mercy to the People of God and say it ought to be perpetually remembred and that all men ought to bless God for it and page 10. they say That if the King or any for him shall Invade this Land in order to his Establishment it will be a necessary Duty to resist and oppose him and page 11. so long as the King refuses to hearken to the desires of the Kirk and State it is consonant to the Scripture Reason and the Laws of the Kingdom to refuse to admit him to the Exercise of his Government till he give satisfaction in these things and in their Letter to the King page 30. they say That his refusing to satisfie their desires was nothing else but an Opposing of the Kingdom of the Son of God and a Refusing to let him Reign over him and his Kingdoms and That his Entertaining of James Graham will bring on him and his Throne the guilt of all the Blood that be and his Accomplices had shed and page 31. they exhort him to lament for the iniquities of his Fathers House and especially for his opposition to Religion and the Cause of God the permitting and practising of Antichristian Prelacy in the Royal Family it self and the Shedding of so much Blood of the People of God In one of their Acts they inhibit the Lords Supper to be Administred to any Person but who should first subscribe the Covenant which they also forced young Students and fresh men in the Universities to take and if any of them who were insnared in it in their youth chance to be Clergy-men especially Bishops then the Covenanters have a just ground to conspire their Destruction for being Apostates from the Cause They here I include their Predecessors Persecuted Queen Mary King James threatning to Excommunicate him and his whole Council King Charles the First of blessed Memory and his Majesty who now Reigns and whom God preserve from Falling into their hands again knows by former and latter experiences what a Persecuting spirit they are of What cruelty did they use against all those who refused to sign the Covenant or who broke it upon being convinced what a bond of iniquity it was They were declared to be Rebels and denounced Enemies both to God and Man Their Persons were Seized their Goods Confiscate and in Novemb. 1643. when some of the most Eminent Nobility refused to Seal it Commissions were given to Soldiers to bring them in Prisoners and to kill them if they made Resistance What bloody Tribunals were Erected at St. Andrews Glascow and Edinburgh How many Noblemen and Gentlemen of good Quality were most Barbarously Murdered especially the Heroick Montross for obeying their Sovereign's Commission and how did the Covenanters rejoyce when the Scaffolds were reeking with their Blood One of their Ministers Preached then That the work of Reformation went Bonnily on Another in his Prayer Blasphemously said Lord send us more Scaffold-Work A Fanatical Lady in the West said That the Covenant could not be Advanced but by Blood And many Ministers were then Deposed for not Preaching for it and for speaking Civilly to Montross and Praying with him by name Mr. Robert Tran of Eglesholm and many others as their own Registers yet do shew And then for the Rump of the old Faction still remaining how do They Persecute the Church and her Clergy with their utmost Malice and Power There was an Act of Parliament expressly made for Securing the Persons Families and Goods of Ministers 1669. and another against Assaulting of Ministers 1670. And the Author of Naphtali pag. 134. Exhorts all People To acquit themselves like Men and pull the Bishops out of the Sanctuary that the Wrath of God may be averted in the Righteous Punishment of those wicked Men. Accordingly Mr. James Mitchel attempted to Murder the late Archbishop of St. Andrews and in his larger Speech in Ravillac Red. he saith They are all Blessed that shall take the Proud Prelates and dash their Brains against the Stones And what he attempted was at last Successfully Effected by †Viz. by John Balfour of Kinlock David Haxton of Rathillet George Balfour in Gilston James Russel in Kettle Robert Dingwall in Caddam Andrew Guillan in Balmerinoch Alexander Henderson and Andrew his Brother in Kilbrachmont George Fleming in Balbuthy 10. Field-Zelots of the same Principles whereof some had Ridden a long time in the Field-Preachers Guards And in the middle of last October Three Fanatick Ruffians knocked down one Mr. Malne a Church-Minister in the Streets of Glascow when the Justice-Eyre was Sitting there And I profess when I consider in what a Persecuted Condition the Bishops and Clergy of our Sister-Church are my heart bleeds for them and methinks I hear them now crying out with one Voice to his Sacred Majesty as the Disciples cry'd to our Saviour in the Storm Save us or else we Perish Persecuted not only in their Liberties Priviledges and Persons but also in their Lives therefore it was that I joyned with a s Or as some of their great Apologists and Patrons were pleased to represent them at London A Poor Innocent Peaceable fort of People who only desired to serve God according to their own Consciences and truly so they do when they rebell and Murder but how well they deserved this Character the World saw and his Majesty Felt as soon as they got into their great Evangelist Naphtalis probable capacity and had they won the first Battel we should have seen and felt more poor handful The Lord knows who is the searcher of hearts that neither my Design nor Practice was against his Majesties Person and just t No Not against his Majesties Person but against his Evil Counsellors as he would have spoken in the Covenanting Style and not against his Just Government but against his Supremacy and his Legislations against the Covenant which make his Government Unjust and himself a Tyrant an Idolater and an Enemy to Christ and then how the People ought to deal with him under that Notion and Character will be worth the while to see Buchanan in his Dialogue de jure Regni saith That it is as Lawful and Meritorious to kill Tyrants as Wolves and Bears and their Whelps and that those who do such noble Acts ought to be rewarded by all
eos quos baptizaverat suos putabat esse non Christi in toto orbe decretum est ut unus de Presbyteris electus super poneretur caeteris ad quem omnis Ecclesiae cura pertinereâ— schismatum semina tollerentur Having now shewed that the Primitive Christians believed the Function of a Bishop to be distinct from that of a Presbyter and Superior to it and that the Bishops were the Successors of the Apostles and of Christs institution as they were I hope it is plain that this Antiepiscopal Deceiver dyed not in the Faith of the Primitive Christians as he hath the impudence here to profess From what I have here said of the Episcopal Office and Authority I may draw some Corollaries First that the Primitive Catholick Church acted in Conformity to its own Profession in declaring Aerius as an Antiepiscoparian an Heretick Secondly that Church-Government is not indifferent but that the †Episcopos esse in Ecclesiâ debere tanquam institutionem Apostolicam ac ordinationem proinde divinam contra Puritanos contraque Bellà rminum semper sensi qui negat Episcopos à deo immediatè suam jurisdictionem accepisse Sed nihil mirum à Puritanis eum stare quum Jesuitae nihil quà m Puritano-papistae â—int This was the Judgment of King James as is observed by Becanus de Prim. regn Angl. c. 7. Jacobi regis praefat Monar Episcopal is immediately of Apostolical and mediately of Christs institution and by consequence at least as unalterable as the Baptism of Infants and observation of the Lords-Day which the Presbyterians with good reason declare that the Magistrate ought not to change or take away Thirdly that it is Blasphemy to say that Episcopacy is an Antichristian usurpation over the Church Fourthly that to assert with the Covenanters that the Presbyterian-Government is of Divine institution is an Unscriptural Heretical and absurd Doctrine contrary to the Word of God and the practice and profession of the Holy Catholick Church And as this Jesuited Presbyterian died not in the Faith or Profession of the Primitive Christians so he died not in the Faith of the Reformed Churches First not of the Church of England which is Governed by Bishops like the Primitive Churches and after the warrant of their example hath Instituted Ceremonies and worships God by Liturgical Forms Nor secondly of the Reformed Church of France which submits to the regulation of the Edict of Nantes which is a pure and Secular Edict and which hath always worshipped God by a Common-Prayer-Book and observes Holy-days as Christmas Easter and Whitsunday and which reverences Protestant Bishops after the example of Calvin and Beza their first Reformers and owns Ministers Ordained by them and are never without some such in their Church And whos 's †The Kings larger Declaration pag. 75. Pastors especially those of Charenton were offended at the Solemn League and Covenant as an indelible Scandal to the Protestant Cause as also the Professors Ministers and Consistory of Geneva and their neighbour Reformed Churches as was certified to King Charles the First by his Publick Ministers abroad Nor lastly died he in the Faith of the Reformed Church of Scotland which never professed Episcopacy to be an unlawful or Antichristian Constitution c. as may be seen in the Larger and Lesser Scoticane Confession in the Harmony but I suppose he means the Covenanted Reformed Church that Schismatical Military Church which was and is the Reproach of the Protestant or Reformed Name by the mighty 9 So he calls the incurable obstination of the Presbyterian Party in Schism against the Episcopal Church and Faction and Rebellion against the State Power Goodness and Wisdom of God I bear my witness and Testimony to the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government of the Kirk of Scotland by 10 A great * Presbyteries Tryal pag. 50. Apostle of the Covenant said in the Pulpit that the Angels and Saints of heaven if they could leave the sight of God would be glad to come down and see the admirable order of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland by Kirk-Sessions Presbyteries and Synods Which Platform being no where to be found in the Scripture made many that had cryed up the Presbyterian Discipline for a Divine Institution tuâ—â— Independents Quakers and Atheists and condemn it as in truth it is for a meer human invention Which if Mr. Calvin had not hit upon and set up in that exigence in Geneva had never been known to the Western no more than to the Eastern parts of Christendom at least to great Britain where it hath been taught in both Kingdoms without any ground in the Scriptures or Antiquity for the sole indispensable government of the Church †King Charles his larger Declarat pag. 67. The National Covenant is that which in the Harmony is called Generalis Confessio it was first Subscribed by King James of blessed Memory and his Household 1580. and by Persons of all Ranks 1581. by an Ordinance of the Privy-Council and Act of General-Assembly It was Subscribed again by all sorts of Persons 1590. by a new Ordinance of Council at the desire of the General Assembly with a general Bond for maintaining the true Religion and the Kings Person and so far Authority permitting or commanding it all was well But then afterwards in †See the Declaration in w. on the first Speech and the Kings larger Declarat pag. 68 69 70. 1638. without the Kings Authority or Commission from his Council they imposed it again according to a new Interpretation of their own although no Authority can interpret any Oath Law or Rescript but that which made it or those whom they who made it have Constituted Interpreters and Judges thereof The new Interpretation was That this Confession was to be interpreted and understood against all the pretended Innovations as if every one of them had been expressed therein viz. The Five Articles of Perth the Service Book the Book of Canons the High-Commission and Episcopacy it self although these things were neither named nor hinted at in that Confession whereof the first Framers only abjured in it those Romish Corruptions which in their time had infected the Church Besides all this they altered the Bond which was annexed to the former Confession by adding these words without authority A mutual defence of one another against all Persons whatsoever by which what they meant the King by woful experience found The Copy of this Confession may be seen in the forecited larger Declaration of the King Kirk-Sessions Presbyteries Synods and General-Assemblies Also I bear my Witness and Testimony to our Covenants †National and Solemn-League betwixt the three Kingdoms which Sacred and Solemn Oath I believe cannot be dispensed with nor loosed by any person or Party upon earth but are fully binding these Nations and will be so ever hereafter Also I bear my Testimony to our publick Confessions of Sin and engagements to Duty and that either as to what concerns
the Reformation of our Families or Persons or the Reformation of the whole Church in general As also to the Causes of 11 A Seditious and Blasphemous Book so called which was burnt in Scotland by the hand of the common Hangman See Poormans Cup pag. 19. Gods wrath the rejecting of which is to be feared to be one of the greatest causes of Gods wrath this day against the Land I do also bear Witness and Testimony to the Protestation given in against the Controverted Assemblies in the publick Resolvings for bringing in the 12 So he calls the Loyal and Episcopal Party Malignant Party into places of Power and Trust contrary to our solemn Engagements and Obligations to God Also I adhere to our 13 See Note 13. on the first Speech Confessions of Faith larger and shorter Catechisms I witness my Testimony against Popery which is so greatly increased yea so much Countenanced and professed openly The Scottish Oath of Allegiance by many and that without the least I For Testification of my faithful Obedience to my most Gracious Sovereign Charles King of Great Britain c. Affirm Testify and Declare by this my solemn Oath that I acknowledge my said Sovereign onely Supream Governor of this Kingdom over all Persons and in all Causes and that no Foreign Prince Power State or Person Civil or Ecclesiastick hath any Jurisdiction Power or Superiority over the same and therefore I do utterly renounce and forsake all Foreign Power Jurisdictions and Authorities and shall at my utmost power Defend Assist and Maintain his Majesties Jurisdiction foresaid against all †Contra omnes mortales deadly and shall never decline his Majesties Power and Jurisdiction as I shall answer to God punishment I bear witness also against the Antichristian Prelacy now Established by Law contrary to our Vows to Almighty God And against the Rescinding of our solemn Oaths and Engagements as a thing that calls for Divine Vengeance And against all Oaths and Bonds contrary to our Covenant and Engagements especially that Oath of 14 So the Presbyterian Jesuit calls the Scottish Oath of Allegiance This is the Form of it and let the Protestant World judge if it be an Oath That calls for the Vengeance of God Supremacy the 15 See Note w on the first Speech Declaration against our Covenant and that Bond called the 16 That is The Bond for keeping the Peace whereby the Taker obligeth himself only to live Peaceably and not to rise in Arms against the King This Bond was tendered to the Rebels taken in the Battel at Pentland-hills and refused by many of them who were Hanged and are since reckoned among the Martyrs of the Cause It was likewise tendered to the late Rebels who were taken after the Battel of Bothwel-Bridge but about 300. of them refused it and are since Transported but five more especially who were accomplices with the Murderers of the late Archbishop of St. Andrews and who would not confess that the Killing of him was a Sin or Murder when they were asked in both Terms by Authority if it were so were Sentenced to be Hanged in Chains at Magus the place where that Execrable Murder was committed Was it ever heard in any other Christian Nation That any men refused to dye by the hand of the Executioner rather than engage not to rise in Arms against their lawful Sovereign The Christians under the Turks would not dye Martyrs if they Suffered upon that Principle Lord Jesu pity the madness and delusion of this People Amen Amen Bond of Peace and that 17 This is the Form of it and let the World judge whether it deserveth the name of horrid or no horrid Bond so frequently imposed against the Meetings of his People in Fields and Houses intended for the down bearing of the Gospel and Interest of our Lord and The Form of the BOND Master with all other Bonds publick or private contrary to our I underscribing do faithfully bind and oblige me That I my Wife Bairns and Servants respectively sâ—â—ll no ways be present at any Conventicles and disorderly Meetings in time coming but shall live orderly in Obedience to the Law under the Penalties contained in the Acts of Parliament made there-anent As also I bind and â—blige me That my whole Tenants and Cotters respectively their Wives Bairns and Servants shall likewise refrain and abstain from the said Conventicles and other illegal Meetings not authorized by Law and that they shall live orderly in Obedience to the Law And further That I nor they shall Recept Supply or Commune with forfeited Persons intercommuned Ministers or Vagrant Preachers but shall do our utmost Endeavour to Apprehend their Persons And in case my said Tenants Cotters and their foresaids shall Contraveâ—â— I shall take or apprehend any Person or Persons guilty thereof and present them to the Judge Ordinar that they may be Fined or Imprisoned therefore as is provided in the Acts of Parliament made thereanent Otherwise I shall remove them and their Families from my ground and if I shall fail herein I shall be liable to such Penalties as the said Delinquents have incurred by the Laws consenting to the Registration hereof in the Books of his Majesties Privy-Council or Books of any other Judges Competent that Letters and Executorials may be direct hereupon in Form as Effeirs and Constitutes my Procurators Obligations and Covenants to God also against all such that Connive at or Complie with or Strengthen the hands of this Prelatical Malignant and Persecuting Party As also against all Errors Schisms and Heresies contrary to our Engagements to God especially against that Ruining and Soul-deluding Evil or rather This is the Tenor of that Bond which the Fanaticks railed so much against and lest the force of it should be Eluded the Privy-Council †Rav. Rediv. page 50 Enacted That every Heritor who should receive into his Lands or Service any Tenants or Servants of any other Heritor without a Certificate from him or the Minister of the Parish where they lived That they lived orderly as to the matter of Conventicles should be subject to such Fines as the Privy Council should think fit to inflict to punish them for their Crime and repair the damage that should accrue to the Heritor or Master whose Tenants or Servants they did receive While the Feuds were kept up in Scotland it was usual for the King to bind the Chief for the Peaceable behaviour of the whole Tribe or Clan and because the Heritors or Landlords of that Countrey have such a despotical power over their Tenants it hath been the immemorial practice of the King Privy-Council and Parliament upon occasion to bind Landlords of all qualities for the peaceable demeanour of their Tenants and to give them Power and Warrant to take Bonds from them or upon their refusal to remove them from their possessions if they were Rack-renters but if they had Leases to denounce
Marquess of Huntly or Me and yet this Answer is defended by Mr. Robert Bailly in his Dissuasive from the Error 's of the Times It is notoriously known in Scotland That Mr. Robert Duglas of Edinburgh and Mr. Patrick Gillespy of Glâ—scow were more haughty and insolent in their behaviour than all the Bishops I will not except Cardinal Beton that ever were in the Land But to proceed from the Pride of single men let us reflect a little on the Insolence of their Spiritual Judicatories the Presbytery Synod and General Assembly It is notoriously known what great state the Presbytery or Consistory kept with King James and it is upon Record in the Presbytery-Books of Edinburgh how his †Presbytery Displayed pag. 7 8. c. Majesty not once but often hath sent Persons of Honour and great Quality demanding or rather requesting some things of them who have heard the Commissioners propose the Kings mind but then to keep the power and place which the King of Sion had given them in that dignity which was suitable to so high a Trust they have dismissed the Noblemen sent by the King without Answer and by Order of that Spiritual House have appointed one or two as Commissioners of the Presbytery to go to the King with their Will and Pleasure losing nothing of Christs Authority and carrying themselves with the King almost as if two Free States or two Free Princes had met to treat together The Presbytery of Edinburgh as many yet alive remember attempted to censure the Merchants for Carrying Wheat to Spain in a time of Dearth because it was to feed Gods Enemies but above all to Transport Wax to Spain for that was to be accessory to Idolatry because the Wax for the most part was employed in making Tapers and Candles to the Virgin Mary and other Saints The * Presbytery Displaid pag. 9. 10. Presbytery of St. Andrews threatned to Excommunicate a man who had gotten a Judgment from the highest Civil Judicatory in the Kingdom against another who ought him a Sum of Money if he persisted to put the Judgment in Execution and he for fear of this dreadful Court and Sentence desisted from his Pursuit Many instances might also be produced of this holy Sunhedrim's repealing of Royal Grants confirmed by Law and of citeing Noblemen and Gentlemen before them for Commencing Civil Suits against their own Tenants because it bred Strifes withdrew the People of God from their lawful Vocations and hindered the progress of the Gospel as may be seen in the Author cited in the Margin They also undertook to Remove and Transplant any Minister at pleasure though never so learned and unblameable upon a pretence That it was for the Good of the Church or That the Congregation was not edified by his Preaching as may be seen in the same Author and as many yet alive can tell In their Provincial Synods which consisted of Commissioners chosen out of all the Presbyteries within the Province they extended their power in proportion to the dignity of the Court and the Commissioners at their Return home were to see that every Minister of their respective Presbyteries were to Preach as the Synod did direct and command The Nobility and Gentry were forced to court these leading Ministers and make Addresses to them as to so many Popes to strengthen themselves and their Party with the Spiritual Sword In their going to and coming from the Synods the most Eminent of the Nobility and Gentry used to meet them and invite them to their Houses lodge them in their best Chambers and set them at the head of their Tables and never any Bishops in Scotland entered Cities with such Convoys and attended with such great Personages as these Arch-Presbyters used to do When Mr. Robert Bruce came from his Visitation in the West or South he made his Entrance into Edinburgh like a Prince or like an Ambassador or like the Pope into Rome insomuch That King James once looking out of the Window in his Palace and seeing his Cavalcade said with indignation which extorted an Oath from him Mr. Robert Bruce I am sure intends to be King and declare himself Heir to King Robert Bruce Their General-Assembly was composed of Commissioners sent from all the Presbyteries of the Kingdom It was the Supream Sanhedrim wherein the King of Sion sate in the highest power and glory he could upon Earth It was there where Ecclesiastical Sovereignty and Infallibility was to be found and concerned it self in all Temporals in ordine ad Spiritualia The authority they exercised in it they pretended to have by immediate Trust from Christ and declared That whosoever obeyed not this Sovereignty be he King or Subject it was all one was to be Excommunicated They allowed the King or his Commissioner to sit there but he had only one affirmative Voice and if the greater part of Voices determined contrary to his Voice or his Conscience he was bound to put it in Execution In this Court the Spiritual legislative power was seated it was the highest Tribunal and Judicatory of Christ upon Earth from which no Person no Office no Condition of Creature was Privileged and from whence no Appeal could be had The King had no power to appoint the time or place of this Assembly but once a Year it must necessarily meet and oftner if the Commissioners of Assembly thought fit They Contemned Usurped and renounced the Sovereign Authority as it served their Turn they denounced the same War against their Enemies which God commanded Israel to execute against the Canaanites all the Ministers of the Church were to Preach as they directed and a Minister Preaching Treason was to be censured by none but themselves They challenged to themselves a power of Condemning Annulling and Repealing Acts of Parliament and of subjecting the Supream Civil Judicatory of the Nation to them as in the case of Graham one of the Lords of the Session and if any man doubt of the truth of these Assertions let him read the 6th Book of Spotswood's History or the Author of Presbytery Displayed in the General-Assembly In their General-Assembly 1648. July 28. pag. 7. they made an Act and Declaration against the Act of Parliament and Committee of Estates and against all Oaths and Bonds imposed in the common Cause without the Consent of the Kirk They also Ordained all that engaged in the late Kings Relief to incur the wrath of God and to be processed with the highest Censure of the Church which was the heighth of Blasphemy Insolence and Pride This Self-Conceit and Persuasion which they had of their own Spiritual Excellence and dearness to God is the true reason why they indulge themselves the liberty of speaking so Contemptibly Disdainfully Slanderously and Reproachfully of the Church and all that are of Episcopal Communions without any regard to the Functions or Qualities of Men. Naphtali rails at the late King of Blessed Memory for a
the Confidence to give this Publick Act the Lye and say as indeed they dare take the Confidence to say any thing That it was drawn up at Whitehall by the Duke of Lauderdale and sent by him to the Privy-Council of Scotland who will Publish any thing which he shall order and in any Form which he shall prescribe After the issuing out of this Proclamation the Privy-Council were very diligent in Examining the Inhabitants of Magus and many others upon Oath whose Depositions are extant in the Registers of the Privy-Council and very many were Examined also in the Sheriff-Court of Fiffe according to the tenure of this Proclamation and their Examinations are kept in the Records of that Court From whence it was made apparent that the Bloody Assassins and many others who were strongly presumed to have been Abetters and Contrivers of the Murder were notorious Fanaticks Frequenters of Field-Conventicles and Followers of Mr. Welsh and other Traiterous Intercommuned and Rebellious Preachers Nine of the Actors in this Tragedy were discovered by their Names and Sirnames which as it is fitting to set forth the horror of such a Murder I shall here set down in Letters of Blood John Balfour of Kinloch David Hackston of Rathillet George Balfour The Names of the Murderers in Gilston James Russel in Kings-kettle Robert Dingwall a Farmers Son in Caddam Andrew Guillan Weaver in Balmerinoch Alexander Henderson and Andrew Henderson Sons to John Henderson in Kilbrachmont George Fleming Son to George Fleming in Balbuthy The Depositions of the Witnesses who upon Oath proved these Persons to have been Actors in the Archbishops Murder ly upon Record as abovesaid to satisfie any who perhaps may doubt of the truth of what is here said more particularly it was deposed by one James Anderson Farmer at a Farm called Teuchits That George Balfour abovementioned came after the Murder to his Brothers House at Gilston and told him it was done and that the rest of the Murderers waited for him on Taces-Moor and that he having returned to them they went all Nine and possessed themselves of the Barn at Teuchits about Three in the Afternoon from whence they parted about Seven when all of them spoke with the said James Anderson who knew them all particularly and named them as they are above-mentioned Thus far the Discovery was made when the late Rebellion broke out on the Twenty ninth of May which forced the Privy-Council to desist from their vigorous pursuit of the Murderers and apply themselves to the Suppression of that Insurrection which carried with it the fate of the three Kingdoms and would have certainly very much shaken the Government if the Rebels had got the first Victory or could but have maintained their ground But they were no sooner Beaten and the Kingdom Resetled but the Privy-Council resumed their care in pursuing the Discovered Murderers of the Lord Primate who also had all taken Arms in the Rebellion and issued out this following Proclamation the Twentieth of September following for the Apprehension of them A PROCLAMATION Anent the Murtherers of the late Archbishop of St. Andrews and appointing Magistrates and Councils of Burghs Royal to Sign the Declaration at Michaelmas next CHARLES by the Grace of GOD King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith To Our Lovits Heraulds Macers Pursevants or Messengers at Arms Our Sheriffs in that part conjunctly and severally specially constitute Greeting We taking to Our Consideration how much the Protestant Religion and the Honour of this Our Ancient Kingdom are stained by that Barbarous and Horrid Assassination and Murther of the late Archbishop of St. Andrews whereof We have by several Proclamations expressed Our Abhorrency and prohibited the reset of these Murtherers whom We have excepted from Our late Gracious Pardon and Indemnity And albeit it was the Duty not only of those in Authority under Us but of all Our Subjects to use their endeavours for discovering and bringing to Justice these execrable Persons Enemies to all Humane Society yet We understand that these Murtherers and likewise divers Heritors and Ministers who were engaged in the late Rebellion and are excepted from Our Indemnity have been harboured and reset in some places of this Kingdom to the great Reproach of the Nation and Contempt of Our Authority and Laws Therefore We with advice of Our Privy-Council do Command and Charge all Sheriffs Stewarts Bayliffs of Regalities and Baylieries and their Deputes Magistrates of Burghs and others in Authority under Us to Search for Seek Take and Apprehend the Persons afternamed viz. John Balfour of Kinlock David Haxstoun of Rathillet George Balfour in Gilstoun James Russel in Kettle Robert Dingwal a Tenents Son in Caddam Andrew Guillan Webster in Balmerinoch Alexander and Andrew Hendersons Sons to John Henderson in Kilbrachmont and George Fleming Son to George Fleming in Balbuthy who did perpetrate and commit the said horrid Murther and also any Heritors and Ministers who were in the late Rebellion and any Persons who have Reset and Harboured these Murtherers and Rebells wherever they can be found within the Bounds of their respective Jurisdictions and put them in sure Ward and Firmance until they be brought to Justice And in case these Persons flee out of the Shire That they give notice thereof to the Sheriff or other Magistrate of the next Shire or Jurisdiction that they may in like manner Search for Apprehend and Secure them until they be brought to Justice With Power to the Sheriffs and other Magistrates aforesaid if they shall find cause to call to their Assistance Our Subjects within their Jurisdiction or such a number of them as they shall think fit who are hereby Required to Concur with and Assist them under all highest Pain and Charge And We expect That the Sheriffs and other Magistrates aforesaid will use exact diligence in the Premises as they will be answerable on their highest Peril And seeing by the Fifth Act of the second Session and the second Act of the third Session of Our first Parliament The Magistrates and Councils of Burghs are Ordained at and before their Admissions to the exercise of their Offices to Sign the Declaration appointed to be Signed by all Persons in Publick Trust under the Certifications therein exprest Therefore We with Advice aforesaid do Command and Require the Magistrates and Councils of the respective Burghs of this Kingdom who shall be chosen at the next ensuing Elections to Sign the foresaid Declaration as is prescribed in the said Acts and to return the Declarations so Signed by them to the Clerks of Our Privy-Council betwixt and the third Thursday of November next certifying such as shall not give Obedience that they shall be proceeded against and censured conform to the said Acts of Parliament Our Will is Herefore and We Charge you strictly and Command that incontinent these Our Letters seen ye pass to the Market-Cross of Edinburgh and remanent Market-Crosses of the Head Burghs of the several
Shires of this Kingdom and other places needful and there by open Proclamation make publication of the Premises that none may pretend ignorance of the same And We Ordain these presents to be Printed Given under Our Signet at Edinburgh the Twentieth Day of September 1679. And of Our Rign the Thirty one Year Will. Paterson Cl. Sti. Concilii GOD save the KING But by this time the Murderers and Rebels had fled the Kingdom notwithstanding all imaginable care and diligence to prevent their Escape and while the Covenanting-Army as the Rebels Styled themselves lay at Glascow one of the Balfours as a very creditable Gentleman who was then in the Town told me openly boasted of the Murder as a glorious Fact and said holding up his Arm This hand helped to kill the Fox And it hath been already Published to the World That five of their Accomplices Complotters and Abetters of the Murder chose to Dye and be hung up in Chains upon the place rather than confess the sinfulness of the Action by acknowledging it was Murder or a Sin The Fanatical Party foretold it in several places and the Morning before it was committed one of the Assassins like a Jesuit Consecrated to an Heroical Act after a solemn Sacrilegious Form of Devotion held up his hand and Swore That that hand should kill the Arch-Prelate upon which the holy Sister his Hostess kissed him and it is notoriously known in Scotland that he who commanded the Foot for Mr. Welsh upon Reupar-Law that famous Field-Conventicle owned that their Friends thanked God for the Archbishops Death which neither they nor their Abbettors in either Kingdom will call Murder when they have occasion to speak thereof Having absolved my first part I proceed to shew out of the Presbyterian Writings the Principles upon which they ground this bloody Practice of Assassination in performing of which I must go up as high as the Murder of Cardinal Beton Archbishop of St. Andrews who was Assassin'd by private Gentlemen as the late Lord Primate was only with this difference that the Cardinal was Murdered in his own Palace the Castle of St. Andrews and the Primate in the open Field The names of his Murderers were Normaâ— Lesly John Lesly Peter Carmichael and James Melvil who with Sixteen or Seventeen more seized the Castle and when they had entered the Cardinals Chamber Lesly and Carmichael fell violently upon him but James Melvil with-held them and said This Work and Judgment of God although it be secret ought to be done with great gravity And upon these words presenting unto him the point of his Sword said Repent thee of thy former wicked life but especially of the shedding of the blood of that notable Instrument of God * The first Martyr of Scotland Mr. James Wiseheart which albeit the flame of Fire consumed before men yet cries it Vengeance against thee and we from God are sent to revenge it for here before my God I protest That neither the hatred of thy Person nor love of thy Riches nor the fear of any trouble thou couldest have done to me in particular moved or moveth me to Strike thee but only because thou hast been and remainest an obstinate Enemy against Christ Jesus and his holy Gospel And the meek Man of God as Knox calls him having so spoken Struck the Cardinal twice or thrice with a Stog-Sword although he cried out pitifully for mercy saying I am a Priest you will not Slay a Priest and though he exhorted him to Repentance yet he allowed him no more time for it than was spent in his Grave and Godly Harangue I have taken this Relation out of Knoxes History to which I refer the Reader Pages 143 144 145. or to the 28th page of Presbytery Displayed where it is also related in this manner And from the whole it is apparent that Melvil committed this Murder Gravely Deliberately and in Cold Blood declaring That he was sent from God to do it not for any private end but to revenge the blood of Mr. Wiseheart and because he was an Enemy to Jesus Christ and his Gospel Knox commends this direful Action of Mr. James Melvil for a Godly Fact and so the bloody Field Presbyterians have applauded the Nine Murderers of the late Lord Primate and will doubtless Canonize them as they did Mitchel who attempted to Assassin him Eleven Years before And * Tyranny and Popery pa. 27. Goodman Knoxes his Companion whom I cited before page 30. saith That all men are bound to see the Laws of God kept and to suppress and resist Idolatry by force Nor is it sufficient for Subjects not to obey the wicked Commands of Princes but they must resist them and deliver the Children of God out of the hands of their Enemies as we would deliver a Sheep that is in danger to be devoured by a Wolf And if the Magistrate shall refuse to put Mass-mongers and False Preachers and now all Bishops and Church-Ministers in their esteem are such to Death the People in seeing it performed shew that Zeal of God which was commended in Phineas Gilby Sings to the same Tune and saith That Kings Princes and Governors have their Authority from the People and upon occasion the People may take it away again as men may revoke their Proxies and Letters of Atturney It is lawful says he to kill wicked Kings and Tyrants The Subjects did kill the Queens Highness Athalia Jehu killed the Queens Majesty Jesabel Elias being no Magistrate killed the Queens Majesties Chaplains Baals Priests John Knox in his debate with Lithington Hist. of Reformation pag. 390. Justifies the killing of Tyrannical Princes and men in publick places by private persons from the example of Phineas whom he asserts to have been a private person and tells us He had not only a large Reward for his fact Numb 25. 12 13. but an ample approbation for it Psal. 106. 31. So that it was accounted to him for Righteousness i. e. as a Righteous action and affirms That it is to he imitated by all those who prefer the the true Honour of the true Worship and Glory of God to the affection of fleshly and wicked Princes nay he says That his example approved by God stands to us instead of a Commandment for as God in his nature is constant and immutable so can he not condemn in the ages subsequent that which he hath approved in his servants before us Naphtali Justifies the Rebellion at Pentland-hills 1666. from the same example of Phineas and Blasphemously ascribes it to the holy Spirit of God asserting that the Rebels were no more to be condemned as Traytors than Phineas ought to have been for a Murderer seeing they were led by the same Spirit and had as good warrant as he See pag. 21. 22 23 24 c. This Doctrine and both John Knox and the Author of Naphtali the maintainers of it are industriously defended and vindicated by the Author of Jus populi vindicatum cap. 20.
going down in June 1677. they openly threatned the Archbishops and other Bishops and such of the Kings Ministers as they thought were most vigorous in putting the Laws in Execution against them This gave occasion to the Privy-Council to order the Tryal of Mr. James Mitchel that the rest by his Punishment might be deterred from Practising upon others Heroical Attempts As soon as his Tryal was ordered the Fanaticks threatned more than before and knowing that Sir George Mackenzy his Majesties Advocate was bound by his Office to Prosecute him they sent him nameless Letters to tell him That if he pursued Mr. Jamees Mitchel it should cost him his Life which it undoubtedly will if ever he fall into their hands While the Miscreants Tryal was depending for it lasted four days there were Letters also sent to the Archbishop for attempting of whose Life he was tryed threatning him That if Mr. James were put to Death it should certainly cost him his Life which I believe might be one reason why his Grace afterwards in Council endeavoured to procure his Reprieve A little after his Execution it was That to prevent the Rising of the Fanaticks in the West the Highlanders by the Advice of the Privy-Council as the Marquess of Athol had first proposed and by his Majesties express Authority marched under the Conduct of their respective Lords with the Standing Forces into that Countrey after the Heritors in a meeting had sent word to the Council That they could not under take for the Peace While they Quartered there which was not 〈…〉 two Months the cruel Fanaticks lay in wait upon all occasion to their blood which made them that they durst not walk abroad 〈…〉 such numbers as might secure their Lives After they had leav 〈…〉 home they marched not together as an Army but travelled 〈…〉 nies as they thought fit and a small Party of them going P 〈…〉 the Road somewhere about Sterling were set upon by a band of 〈…〉 Phineases who killed some of them and wounded more The Summer ensuing his Majesty called a Convention of the 〈…〉 Estates who gave him Five Months Tax for five Years following to maintain a Regiment of Foot three Troops of Horse and three 〈…〉 of Dragoons which was to be added to the other Standing Forces 〈…〉 more effectual Suppressing of Field-Conventicles These Forces 〈…〉 raised and distributed into their Quarters the Fanaticks watched 〈…〉 as Ravenous Birds or Beasts watch their Prey endeavouring to 〈…〉 them by night in their Quarters or at any other time when their 〈…〉 security made them unable to defend themselves Particularly in 〈…〉 last 1679. a Company of them came upon a very small Party of Soldiers Quartered in or near Maclin about Midnight or early in the Morning on the Lords day and most barbarously Massacred them in their Lodgings The Assassins when they came to the door knocked as Friends and kindly asked for the poor Soldiers as Camrades are wont to ask for one another And they not thinking of any harm got up and opened the Door which was no sooner done but without speaking one word they Shot one of them dead through the belly and wounded the rest so mortally that they left them for dead Nevertheless as it is credibly reported these Heroical Butchers went straight away to a Field-Meeting where they partook of the Sacrament of the Lords-Supper if I may call that a Sacrament which such utter Usurpers of the Priests-Office Sacrilegiously Administer and Schismatics and Rebels take And about March last 1679. Twenty six or Twenty seven of these Heroical Pseudo-Zealots having met Armed in a private Lodging at the further end of a remote Lane in Edinburgh sent a Messenger who was of the Conspiracy to tell the Town-Major who was always diligent in his Office and faithful to his Trust That there was a Conventicle in such a place The Major with three or four men whom he called to his Assistance went immediately upon the Information to the foresaid House where the Inspired Heroes after many Shots from both ends of the Room into which they had trapand the Major fell upon the Major in particular whom having wounded as they thought beyond all possibility of recovery they left for dead and made their escape One of the Assistants they Shot dead through the Reins and bruised and wounded the rest While they beat and wounded the Town-Major they called him Enemy to Christ Instrument of Satan c. and urged him to Swear that he would never disturb their Meetings or seize any Person at them again and protested withal unto him That not any private Quarrel moved them to kill him but because his Employment was to discover their Meetings and execute the Tyrannical and Antichristian Laws against them The House wherein this Riot was committed was kept by an holy Sister a noted Fanatick who frequently entertained the Rebellious intercommuned Preachers and such like Enthusiastical Cut-throats as these She is Sister in Law to one Andrew Turnball in Broomhall one noted among a Club of Assassins who combine to Murder his Majesties Officers and as many Witnesses examined upon Oath before the Privy-Council May the Fifth 1677. declared he and his Son were two of those who rescued two Fanatical Criminals from a Serjeant and four Militia Soldiers in which rebellious action they discharged several Pistols at them and wounded them with Swords as well as Shot calling them Dogs c. and telling them that those whom they served were Devils and deserved to be worse used than they But to return to the Story of the Major The day of the Week in which this Massacre was acted was Tuesday and the Sunday before Mr. Cameron that famous Field-Preacher Preached twice in the same House where were present most of the Murderers as by Examination of several Witnesses before the Privy-Council it afterwards appeared I have passed by many other Stories of this nature as that of the bloody attempt which they made upon the Ensign and Soldiers of the Bass at a Conventicle near Dumbar in Summer 1678. whereof some being afterwards Apprehended were tryed and one was put to death But they were never moved with stronger impulses to kill any sort of men than the Leviers and Collecters of the Cess which the Convention had granted for erecting and maintaining the foresaid additional Forces The Murderers of the Archbishop did also lay in wait for those who gathered this Tax which they said was given to drive Christ out of the Kingdom and the Soldiers whose Murder I related above were some of those who were commanded out to Convoy the Gatherers of the Cess At the same time by way of preparation of what was to follow they made almost daily Musters of their Forces at their Field-Meetings as at Lesmahago and Munkland in Clidsdale Rubber-Law in Tiveot-dale and several parts of Sterling-shire where they refused to dissolve their Meetings when they were required to do it in the Kings name and dared his
hear is sent Douglas's Regiment to secure us against the French Besides I am credibly informed that the Papists have their Arms restored and the Protestants are not many of them yet recovered from being the suspected Party the Sea Towns as well as the In-land are full of Papists that Kingdom cannot long continue in the English Hâ—nds if some better care be not taken of it This is in your Power and there is nothing there but is under your Laws therefore I beg that this Kingdom at least may be taken in consideration together with the State of England For I am sure there can be no safety here if these Doors be not shut up and made sure By the very next Post after this Speech was said to have been spoken Forty written Copies of it were sent from London by the Gentlemen of the Party to Edinburgh and the Fanaticks grew so insolent and so daring upon it that several Loyal Gentlemen wrote up Accounts to what height of Insolences this Speech had blown up the Enemies of the Church and the Monarchy and that they had just reasons to fear that very dangerous attempts if not a down-right Rebellion would speedily ensue thereupon But these reports found not too much Credit at London where the World was made believe by men whose Interest it was that they should not be Credited That they were but the Inventions of the Duke of Lauderdale for whose advantage in that conjuncture it was that they should be believed But what we would not then believe we shortly after saw verified and the event falling out so contrary to the expectation of men who had been deluded by the Duke of Lauderdales ungrateful Enemies made many of them who had spoken publickly and done much ill against him declare since That they were sorry for it and for the time to come would do so no more But to return to this pretended Speech which emboldned the People to such wicked Attempts I find it very difficult for my self to believe that the Right Honourable and worthy Person under whose name it was Published could be the Author of such an Harangue that reflected upon a Peer whom he once esteemed so much and owned for the greatest States-Man in the World Nay one must needs think that so Wise and generous a Gentleman who hath so great an Estate to lose and who was so true to the Kings Service and Interest while his Majesty was pleased to Employ him should speak nothing in that August Assembly which should fire the Disaffected of either Kingdom and consequently endanger the Government and involve us all in a common Confusion again But if he did speak it to discharge any private Resentments which might over-rule the generosity of his Nature yet I am confident he would not have done so had he known the true state of Scotland which few Englishmen do or foreseen the evil effects which it immediately had in encouraging the Covenanters to Assassinate Massacre and Rebel For now they began to look and speak big in Edinburgh and many of them were heard and seen upon the Crown of the Causway who had skulked about in darkness before And as for the disaffected parts of the Countrey they now Display'd the Banners of Jesus Christ as they blasphemously called their Colours at their Conventicles every where and their Preachers now told them That the time of their Deliverance and of Gods taking Vengeance upon his Enemies was now at hand only they must repent and be strong and of a good Courage and fight the Battles of the Lord. They also threatned in all places such as they thought were seriously active against them talking of great Changes and Revolutions in England and in publick places dropt Lists of the names of those men whom they had a mind should fall by Heroical hands Particularly at Cupar the Shire-Town in Fiffe there was found in the Streets a threatning Declaration while the Sheriff-Depute was there demanding the legal Fines from those who had been convicted of frequenting Field-Conventicles and entertaining declared and attainted Traitors and fugitives and intercommuned Rebels The Declaration was thus directed To all and sundry to whose hands these Presents shall come but especially to the Magistrates and Inhabitants of the Town of Cupar in Fiffe BE it known to all men That whereas under a pretext of Law though most falsly there is most abominable illegal and oppressive Robberies and Spoils committed in this Shire by Captain Carnegie and his Soldiers by vertue of a precept from William Carmichael c. he being authorized and held on to it by that Perjured Apostat Prelate Sharp who c. These are therefore to declare to all that shall any ways be concerned in this Villanous Robbery and Oppression either by Assisting Recepting Levying or any manner of way Countenancing the same that they shall be holden as guilty thereof and however they may think themselves for the present secured being guarded by a Military Force and those that are thus Robbed despisable yet let them take this for a warning that they shall be handled severely answerable to their Villanies and that by a Party equal to all that dare own them and that shortly as God shall enable and assist them whose names may be read in these following Letters A. B. C. D. E. F. G. H. I. K. L. M. N. O. P. Q. R. S. T. U. W. X. Y. Z. The Archbishop is mentioned by name in this Declaration which prepared the way for his Murder for according to the tenure of it they very shortly after handled him severely in the bloody manner which you have read Mr. Carmichael was neither Counselled nor Authorised by him to Levy the Fines as they most invidiously asserted in their Declaration but he was in their account an Apostat and therefore was to be represented as the Author of all publick Proceedings against them that the direful Vengeance of the whole Sect might fall upon his head They Murdered him as I have related on the third of May 1679. and on the Twenty ninth following they began the Rebellion because as their first Declaration bears it was appointed a day of Solemn Thanksgiving for setting up an Usurper to destroy the Interest of Christ and assume the Power which is proper to him alone I would here set down this treasonable and blasphemous Declaration at large but having some thoughts hereafter to write the History of this Rebellion I will not prevent my own design FINIS Added for the further illustration of what is said in the Animadversions o u y 10 18 on the first Speech and 23 and 24 on the second Extracted out of the Epistle to The History of the Indulgence Printed 1678. NOw then the Indulgence is embraced and thanks to the givers are rendered by the takers I ask therefore First If they could after this their acceptance and giving of thanks to the Council have withdrawn from that appearance and â—isted themselves before Christ Jesus the
before them and craving their pardon that he had accepted of it as †The Epistle Dedicatory to Bishops Halls Episcopacy Graham Bishop of Orkney did his forsaking of his Negative power by a contract with his Presbyters and committing all Church-Affairs to their sole management not to mention the remitting of their Canonical Oath would have been as Sacrilegious a concession as a Bishop quatenus such could make He had thereby virtually reduced himself into a Presbyter which the Primitive Church did abhor as †Can. 29. Concil Chalced Math. Blastar Cap. 28. in E. Sacrilege and would undoubtedly have deprived and Excommunicated if not Anathematised any Bishop that durst have been so perfidious to the Apostolick cause But yet though beyond all example he cut the very Nerves of Episcopal Jurisdiction in these Articles of Accomodation the Nonconform Ministers scornfully rejected them and wrote against them in a book intituled The Case of Accomodation c. Printed in 4 o 1671. the Godly and 17 There is not one Learned man among them unless he be a Priest for so custom emphatically calls the Romish Presbyters or a Jesuit in Masquerade Learned that are of another judgment I judge it fit likewise in this case to leave my Testimony 18 Last Summer was Twelve-month the Convention of Estates gave his Majesty a Five-months Tax or 30000l Sterling a year for five years successively to maintain a Regiment of Foot and 3 Companies of Dragoons and 3 Troops of Horse for suppressing of the Field-Conventicles This Act was like to be such a Blow to the Cause made up of Faction and Schism that it was vigorously opposed under some colour or other by an insignificant contrary Party who were not the Sixth part of the House And as soon as it was passed the Field-Preachers who had told the people before that the Convention would come to nothing fell immediately to Preach against the Five-months Tax telling them that it was given by the enemies of Christ to drive him out of the Kingdom and that it would be as great a sin to pay it as it was to Judas to betray Christ. Nay they told them that this was the day of Christs enemies and the power of darkness and the very Nick of temptation which God permitted to trie whether they would have Christ for their King or no and charged them as they would answer it before them at the great day not to forsake him contrary to their Holy Covenant by sinfully complying with such an Antichristian Act. Their people upon this were so affrighted that many of them rather than pay the Cess will suffer distreint and in particular the Earl of Dundonalds chief servant fell perfectly distracted by trouble of Conscience for having assisted his Lord at Renscot in laying the Cess upon that Shire And the very same Sanctified Ruffians who murdered the Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews in Fife had several days before laid wait for the Collectors of this Tax against the stent taxation cess that hath been so unjustly imposed so irrelevantly founded and vigorously caried on by the late Convention of Estates and meerly upon no other account imaginable but to make a final extirpation 19 i. e. of Christ as King in Sion of the Covenant of the Presbyterian Government that Pattern in the Mount of Christ his Gospel and Ordinances out of the Land and how lamentable it is to consider how many Professors did willingly pay it and were most forward for others to do the same In the next place though to many I die desired yet I know not to a few my death is not desired and it s the rejoycing of my heart that I die in the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath loved me and given himself for me and in the Faith of the Apostles and Prophets and in the Faith that there is not a name under Heaven by which men can be Saved but by the name of Jesus and in the Faith of the Doctrine Worship and Government of the Kirk of Scotland as it is now Established according to the Word of God Confessions of Faith Catechisms larger and shorter like as I leave my Testimony against Popery Perjury Prophanity Prelacy Heresie and every thing contrary to sound Doctrine In the close as a dying Person and as one who hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be Faithful I would humbly leave it on the Godly Ministers to be faithful for their Lord and Master and not to hold their peace in such a day when so many ways are taken for injuring him his Name nay his Sanctuary Ordinances Crown and Kingdom 20 Well threatned false Prophet I hope there will be found a Party in this Land that will contend for him and his matters upon all hazards and as faithfulness is called for in Ministers so Professors would concern themselves that they countenance not nor abate any thing that is inconsistent with their former principles and practices I have a word to add further that God is calling persons to repentance and to do their 21 To assert the Covenant first Works O that Scotland were a mourning Land And O that Reformation were our practice according as we are Sworn in the Covenant Again Christians of grace and experience would study more stability and straightness in this day when so many are turning to the right hand and so many to the left 22 Consider how Blasphemously he applies this Scripture He that endures to the end shall be saved he hath appointed a Kingdom for such as continue with him in his temptations Next as ever ye would expect to have the Form of the house of God shewed you in all the Laws thereof goings 23. Of the Presbyterian Government Discipline out thereof and comings in thereof then think it no shame for you for all that hath been done sitting down on this side Jordan is like to be our bane Oh when shall we get out and run after him with all our hearts and never rest till he return I commend my Wife and poor young ones to the care and Faithfulness of the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob the God that hath led me to this day and who is the God of my Salvation be their God and my God their Father and my Father I am also hopeful that Christian Friends and Relations will not be unmindful of them when I am gone Lastly I bear my Testimony to the Cross of Christ and Bless him that ever he counted me worthy to appear for him in such a Lot as this Glory to him that ever I heard of him and that ever he fell upon such a method of dealing with me as this And therefore let none that loves Christ and his righteous Cause be offended at me and as I lived in the Faith of this that the three 24 Married to God by the Solemn League Covenant See more in Notes upon W. Kingdoms are married Lands
so I die in the Faith of it that there will be a Resurrection of his Name Word Cause and Covenant and of all his interests therein though I dare not determine the time when nor the manner how but leave all those things to the infinitely wise God who hath done and will do all things well Oh that he would return to this Land again repair our breaches take away backslidings appear for his Work O that he were pacified towards us Oh that he would pass by Scotland once again and make our time a time of love Come Lord Jesus come quickly himself hasten it in his own time and way The Lord is my Light my Joy and my Life my Song and my Salvation The good of his chosen be my mercy this day and the enriching comforts of the Holy-Ghost keep up and carry me fair through to the glory of his Grace to the Edification of his people and my own eternal Advantage John Kid. Amen THE LAST SPEECH OF Mr. John King With Animadversions thereupon Men and Brethren I Do not doubt but many that are Spectators here have some or other end then to be edified by what yee may see in the behaviour or hear in the last words of one going to eternity But if any of you have ears to hear as I doubt not but some of this great gathering have then I desire your ears and attention if the Lord shall help and permit me to speak to a few things First I bless the Lord since by his wisdom and holy providence he hath carved out my lot to die after this manner that I die not a As unwillingly as other malefactors use to do for in the interval betwixt his condemnation and execution he by his friends used all the means he could to procure his Majesties pardon unwillingly nor by force It is true I could not do this of my self neither allways having an inclination to put the evil day farr away but through b There are two sorts of courage one natural and the other supernatural or inspired and the raising of the Animal Spirits by strong liquors for Aristotle compares Enthusiasm to wine will plausibly counterfit both Hence we see that common Malefactors party to rid their minds of the torment of fear and partly out of a vain glorious desire to be mistaken by the rabble for men of great natural courage who contemn Death privatly fortify themselves before the time of execution by strong spirits and cordials by vertue of which they often appear to die like gallant men In like manner religious Malefactors I mean such as pretend to suffer upon the account of religion that they may rid themselves of the terrours of an evil conscience and appear to be assisted like Martyrs with supernatural courage highten their spirits at the time of execution by strong liquours and cordialls which make them brisk and bold and insensible of Death and Hell But then as the former sometimes drink to much and so discover the Cheat by dying Drunk so the latter who are so much the more execrable Hypocrites of the two as it is a greater sin to counterfit Grace than nature sometimes by taking too much of the creature discover their imposture by their Drunkenness and by dying not like Martyrs but sots This was the deplorable case of Hugh Peters whose sad condition that good penitent Mr. Cook lamented at his execution This likewise was the case of the Pentland-Rebels who were executed at Edinburgh who were so stupified and besotted with the Sack and Brandy which they drank on the day of their execution and the day before that they died like Beasts without so much as making a prayer to God or desiring others to pray for them to the great scandal of all good Christian spectators who saw them and whereof many yet a live can witness what I say Lastly this was the case though not to that degree of Gaven the Jesuit elder brother to this deceiver who delivered as much as he was permitted to speak of this speech which he had composed before in such a broken confused manner as Drunken men use to do in somuch that the orthodox spectators pityed the wretch and his brotherhood were ashamed See notes d and f on the first in Speech grace I have been helped and by his grace yet hope to be and though possibly I might have shunned such a hard sentence if I had done things which though I could I durst not do no not for my Soul yet I durst not God knows redeem my Life by the loss of my Integrity and Honesty I bless the Lord that since I have been apprehended and a prisoner God hath very wonderfully upholden me and made out that comfortable word c I shewed before on note c in the first speech that this sort of Ministers falsly so called have a Jesuitical trick of abusively applying the holy Scriptures to themselves Here we may see another notable instance of it where the deceiver applys to himself this comfortable message which the Prophet delivered in Gods name to the Jews as they were his People in a civil sence bidding them not to be afraid or dismay'd because he would strengthen them help them and uphold them against their Enemies so that those who were incensed against them should be ashamed and confounded and those that warred against them should be as a thing of naught But here he blasphemously asserts that God miraculously upheld him and made out these comfortable words to him as if the Holy Ghost had whispered them in his conscience as expressly as the Prophet spoke them unto the Jews Or as if whatsoever was written in the holy Scriptures were to be so exactly transcribed in the works of Providence that even the Prophetical passages and predictions were to be accomplished over and over in different Ages or as if the latter works of Providence not only in general but as to particular Societies and Persons did answer as exactly to some or other places of the Scripture as Face answers to Face in a Glass This Doctrine is taught in a Book called The fulfilling of the Scriptures Printed 1669. wherein are such Blasphemous applications of the Scripture-promises to the Condition of the Covenanters in Scotland as cannot be read without horrour and indignation by any Orthodox man Ever since the Re-establishment of Episcopacy the Conventicle-Preachers have assured their People that God would destroy it again and restore his own work but then as often as they began to withdraw from them seeing no probability of such a turn then they Preached and Wrote of the great promises which were made to Believing as that Faith was the Evidence of things not seen and that they ought to believe the naked Word when there was no appearance of its out-making according to 2 Chron. 20. 20. Hear O Judah and Inhabitants of Jerusalem believe in the Lord your God so shall you be Established believe his Prophets so shall you