fallible particularly We crave that he be bound in his Royal Oath not only to Govern according to the Will and Command of GOD and Ancient Laudible and Righteous Laws in the Ministration of Justice punishment of Iniquities Redressing of just Grievances and preservation of true Liberties But above all that he and his Sucessors profess persevere in Protect and maintain the true Protestant Religion abolish Poperie and all false Religion Heresie Idolatrie and Superstition revive the Penal Lawes against the same re-establish and Redintegrate the Ancient Covenanted Work of Reformation of this Church in Doctrine worship discipline and Government according to the Word of GOD Confession of Faith Covenants National and Solemn League upon its old foundations as Established from the Year 1638. and downward to 1650 And that he restore and Confirme by his Princely Sanction the due Priviledges of the Church granted to her by JESUS CHRIST her only Head and Supreme and never assume to himself an Erastian Supremacy over the Church in Causes Ecclessiastick or Unbounded Prerogative in Civils above Law but as the Keeper of both Tables of the Law of God in a way Competent to Civil Authority interpose his Power for the Ejecting out of the Church the Prelats the main Instruments of the Church and Nations Miseries And from all Administration of the Power and Trust in the State such Malignant Enemies as have promoted the Ruine thereof Upon these or the like Termes We tender our Allegiance to King William and hope to give more pregnant Proof of our Loyalty to his Majesty in Adverse as well as Prosperous Providences than they have done or can do who profess Implicite Subjection to Absolute Authority so long only as Providence preserves its Grandure MAY IT THEREFORE PLEASE YOUR HON. To take the Premises into Your serious Consideration and put a Favourable Construction on this our Humble and Earnest Request which sense of Duty in desire to Exoner our Conseiences and in Complyance with and at the Solicitation of the Cries of many Thousands in the Nation moved and craved We take the Confidence to present to Your HON. In the Hope that Zeal for GOD and his Church regard to Iustice and Mercy Care of Your own as well as the Countries Interest dutiful Love Loyalty and Gratitude to King William and even Pity to us will prevail with Your Wisdom to grant in with all convenient Expedition And Your Supplicants shall ever Pray c. FROM what is above hinted it may appear that We are not Enemies to Government but that as we have had Occasion We have given more Evidences of true Loyalty than any of our Traducers and of true Zeal to have this Government fixed on such a Foundation as may make it Secure and Stable and Subjection thereunto to be not only a Duty but a Comfort And with the same inviolable Zeal Affection and Fidelity since others will not We cannot forbear to Remonstrare those Grievances that are as well hateful to GOD and hurtful to the Government as Grievous to Us. First As to the Church tho' all Honest Subjects have been impatiently expecting the settlement thereof from the Kings Declaration his Promises at the Acceptance of the Crown and his Instructions to D. Hamiltoun Yet to this Day it is neither Settled nor Purged nor Planted but kept in uncertain suspense what to fear or what to hope Popery indeed is much suppressed in a way wherein much of GOD and little of Man is to be acknowledged and admired yet the Ancient Laudable Laws against Papists Seminary Priests Sayers and Hearers of Mass are not Revived Reinforced nor put in Execution while many of these Idolaters and Intycers to Idolatry are connived at past without punishment and favourably Intreated when some of us have apprehend them and delivered them into Custody Whence they are much encouraged where they Cohabite in great Numbers especially in the Sea Coast of Galloway where they may open a Door and free Ingress to the Irish whenever they have a mind to Invade whereby the Country about is contiunally Tormented with fears of their Massacres and Murdering Attempts We can never be freed from the hazard of the Return of Popery so long as Papists are so much Tolerated and are bragging of their hopes of getting a Toleraration established Suspending and Dispensing with the Penal Statutes against them which will defile the Land with Idolatry and expose us to the Judgement of GOD. We desire also to be thankful that Poperies eldest Daughter the Episcopal Hierarehy or Prelacy hath got such a knock on the head that it is abolished by Law its return so far Legally precluded that the removal thereof being one of the Stipulations Artieles of Compact with his Majesty at the Disposal and Acceptance of the Crown it cannot be restored without asignal Violation of the Regal Covenant the native Consequences whereof may beforeseen to be so dangerous that we hope the Kings Wisdom and Justice will be proof against all the Insinuations and Perswasions of the Church of England to hazard it yet it is a very burdensome Grievance that the settlement of the Church Government is so long suspended and the Nation kept in Suspense not knowing what shall be settled in stead of Prelacy abolished whereby the Land is left to settle in nothing but to rest and rott in old Crying sins and new provocations are daylie Multiplied without control Scandals and Disorders to the dishonour of GOD reproach of Religion stumbling the weak hardening the perverse and offending all are not restrained but much encouraged and different factions much fomented while Church Government and Discipline the only Preservative and restaurative Medicine for such Distempers is neither established nor any rule determined by which it shall be Established except the Inclinations of the People which are in themselves very variable and must be ruled by and not a Rule unto the Institutions of IESVS CHRIST And as they are variable so they are as Various and diverse as there are Numbers of Persons or Parties that prefer their own Humours and Interests to the Supreme Law the revealed will of Christ Some are for Erastianisme Some for a constant Moderatorship some for a Superintendency some perhaps for Independency some for a Toleration of all some are for a continuance of the Curates either without any Accommodation with them and secluding them from a share of the Government but suffering them still to Exercise their Ministry Or by an Accommodation and Coalition with them in the Government also some again are for the continuance of Patronages how ever it be We and many Thousands are against all these things as being contrary to the Word of GOD abjured frequently in our COVENANTS NATIONAL and SOLEMN LEAGVE condemned in the confession of this and all other best Reformed Churches And in the doleful experience of former times known to be inlets to many wicked inventions innovations and corruptions in the Church And in process of time
their wicked Laws were condemned for their simple declared Opinion of it Which the Council and Court of Justiciarie particularly Sir George Mackenzie Advocate did extort from them by terrible menacings of Death and Torture For being interrogate Whether the rysing at Bothwel-bridge was Rebellion and a sin against GOD Many for saying it was not yea for not saying it was and waving the Question as reckoning themselves not oblieged to Answer were cruelly condemned and executed tho they declared and were known to be as free as the Child unborn of these Actions they were examined upon In Fine After our Patience had been long outwearied with insupportable Slavery and under such intollerable Oppressions in our Consciences Persons and Estates so universaly extended that in the present circumstances we had more reason to hope that past miseries present Pressures and future Dangers of greater Encroachments then foreseen by all men that did not willingly shut their Eyes should have incited and invited all that had any regard to the great Interests of Religion and Liberty to concur in an Essay to emancipate themselves and posterity from that Yoke of grassant growing Tyrannie Than to fear the condemnation of any under these Oppressions or the clamour and out cry of those that were at ease against the Informality Illegalily Unseasonableness or Unfealableness of such Revolt We were Enduced and Enforced at length when we could do no more to preserve what remained of these Interests or save our Consciences innocent from all participation of the sin of the destroyer of them To declare for our parts a Revolt from and disown Alleagiance to King Charles the Second as being no longer to be accounted our Supreme Magistrate but ipso jure devested of that Office and Trust Reposed and Devolved on him by express Compact and Covenant When he broke all these conditions whereupon his Authority and our Alleagiance were founded in his utter violating and making void the Covenant and Coronation Oath whereby our Subjection to him limited to those provisions was explicitely disingaged and remitted when he did unhinge and insringe all the Legal Establishments of our Religion and subverted all our Religious Liberties by usurping a Blasphemous Sacrilegious Supremacy over Ecclesiastical Ordinances instituted by Christ And when now he had overturned all Fundamental constitutions of the State as well as the Church subverting the Peoples Rights Liberties Laws and all securities of our Life and Enjoyments whatsoever by claiming and taking an Absolute Tyrannical Civil Prerogative paramount to all Law inconsistent either with the Freedom or Safety of the People Whereby no shadow of Government was left but Arbitrary Absoluteness making the Kings Letter the Supreme Law of Scotland while Innocent and Honest People for Conscience were grievously oppressed and Perjuries Adulteries Idolatries and all Impieries were not only Indemnified and past without punishment but encouraged as Badges of Loyalty For which causes we openly proclaimed our Revolt from the Government as it was then Administrate And in the same Declaration we reckoned our selves oblieged to protest against the Reception of the Duke of York in Scotland And against his succeeding to the Crown who was then declared incapable of Succession of the Government by a Vote of the two Honourable Houses of the Parliament of England For For owning and not daring to disown which Revolt it is impossible to enumerate our Kinds and Degrees of Sufferings for this we had our Ministers and Brethren Murdered both in the Fields and Scaffolds and Prisons and Seas Besides those that were slain at Airds-moss where Bruce of Earleshall attacked us and slew Mr. Richard Cameron a Faithful and Zealous Minister with many of our Brethren After this it was generally imposed on Prisoners even such as could not be charged with any Accession to the forementioned Declaration to give an account of their Thoughts and Consciences about the Lawfulness of the Kings Authority which if they could not own or declined to declare their Thoughts as judging it the common Interest of Mankind to plead for the Freedom of Thoughts from all humane Jurisdiction or if any answered with such innocent Qualifications as that they owned all Lawful Authority In the Lord or According to the Word of God then they were punished as Traitors executed to the Death and some at their first apprehending Tormented with Fire-matches then laid in Irons afterwards Tortured with the Boots or Thumbkins and after all executed in a most Barbarous manner without suffering them to speak their dying Words for beating of Drums Thus a great number of innocent People have been destroyed without respect to Age or Sexe some meer Boyes have been for this hanged some stouping for Age some Women also hanged and some Drowned because they could not satisfy the Council Justitiary Court and the Souldiers with their thoughts about the Goverment In the Year 1681. the Duke of York as Commissioner from his Brother held a Parliament Auspicated with the Blood of Mr. Donald Cargil a Godly and Faithful Minister which was shed at the Cross of EDINBURGH the day before the sitting down of the Parliament wherein he not only presided against all our Righteous Laws that Make a Papist incapable of such a Trust and against their own Laws without taking the Oaths of Administration but procured an Act to be made recognizing his Succession to the Crown notwithstanding all standing unrepealed Laws against papists wherein also many Acts were contrived that have been great causes of the desolation and depopulation of the Country that ensued As Act 4. dowbling the Fines imposed by former Laws for Fieid Conventicles And ordering Heretors and Masters to put away their Tennants Cottars or Servants at any time of the Year without any warning or process of removing notwithstanding of any Tacks or Terms to run And to retain their goods c. Act 18. Declaring that all Jurisdiction doth so reside in his Majestie that his Majesty may by himself or any Commissionated by him take Cognizance and Decision of any cases or causes he pleases Hereby a foundation was laid for overturning all Civil and Criminal Justice and for erecting the Tyranny of the Popish Inquisition whensoever matters were ripe for it and for commissionating Souldiers to take away the lives of Innocents without all Process of Law as was frequently exemplified afterward And Act 6. and 25. Framing and Imposing on all in Trust a detestable and self contradictory Test which turned out of all places of Trust any that retained any measure of common Honesty For explaining which the late Earl of Argyle was arfaigned and condemned and escaping prison forced to flee to forraign Lands As many others both Gentlemen and Commons were constrained to leave the Land where for multiplied illegal and ensnaring impositions they could neither live like Men nor like Christians but as Asses couching under all burdens These and the like Acts with many others Arbitrarly superadded Proclamations which have been multiplied every year
poor People above 1500 pounds Of Noblemen Gentlemen and Others in the above-mentioned Shires the greatest Oppressors and Persecuters of the people were In Clidsdale Sommervail of Spittel Sheriff de pute who besides his other wayes of Persecution wherein he was most Active drew from the poorest People above 1200 pounds The Laird of Halyards who uplifted more then 8500 pounds The Laird of Lachop a great Persecuter and Oppressor The Laird of Bonnytown and Laird Symme both violent Persecuters and Exactors In the City of Glasgow Provest Iohnston Prov. Barns Bail Iohn Anderson Bail Yuil Bail Graham William Sterling Baron Baylif great Persecuters exacted above 20000 pounds In Renfrew The Earl of Glencairn by Fines and dispossessing of Families exacted partly there and partly in Clidsdale and Nidsdale above 2400 pounds Lord Semple a Papist a persecuter Alexander Hume in Eglshome a most violent and vigilant Persecuter and Exactor with many others Mr. Ezechiel Montgomery a great Fine-Monger In the Shire of Air The Earle of Drumfries exacted above 1000 pounds The Lord Craigy a great persecuter and oppressor William Creighton Sheriff depute very violent and active Crawford of Ardmillan a wicked persecuter and spoiler Mr. William Crawford Montgomery of Bozland Laird of Broyche Clark Ogilbie all great persecuters who sought to make themselves up with the spoils of the poor people In Galloway The Laird of Lag Grierson a most wicked persecuter there and in Nithisdale exacted above 1200 pounds The Laird of Elie Lidderdale and Canon of Merdrogat all diligent persecuters and Intelligencers together with the then Collectors In Nithsdale The Duke of Queensberry and his Sons oppressed much Iohn Alison Chamberlain to the Duke of Queensberry who when dying said He had damned his Soul for the Duke his Master And George Charters another of the Dukes Factors who vaunted he had made 26 journeys in one year in pursuite of the Whiggs Iohn Dowglas of Sten-house a Papist exacted above 5000 p The Laird of Closburn above 700 pounds Sir Robert Dalzel upward of 400 p of a few poor Families Sir Robert Lawrie of Maxweltoun an oppressor and persecuter In Anandale The Lord Anandale dispossessed and harassed many Families and persecuted much in Galloway The Laird of Westerhall a great Per exacted upwards of 1000 p Sir Patrick Maxwel of Sprinkell a very active and violent persecuter and oppressor The Lairds of Powdeen Castlemilk Robert Caruthers of Ramaskells Thomas Kennedy of Heybeiths most violent persecuters of poor People The Summes here charged upon these Gentlemen are collected from the Minutes the Writer had by him which he is certain are computed within the extent of the several Summes The rest here named did also extort Considerable Summes to their own gain and the poor Peoples loss but because the forsaid Minuts do not give a Particular account of the Quotas therefore they are not supplied Next for the Forefaulted Gentlemen and Heretors we shall not meddle with them Hoping they shall give a good account of themselves And as for the number of such as have been forced to a Voluntary Exile to Forreign Countries we think it Impossible to come to any reckoning of them Nor of these that have been Imprisoned these 30. Years for Nonconformity of whom it cannot be told how many have died in Prison or contracted their Death in Prison which spedily did follow upon their Liberation Nor of the many extorted vast Sums and Robberies of prisoners by Iaylors Of the Banished deported into other Countries for the Cause of Adhering to the Covenant and Work of Reformation it may suffice to give this account Besides the 6. or 7. Ministers that were banished and went to Holland and 7. or 8. Country People to France Several others to Barbados before Pentland Since the Year 1678. there have been banished and sent away Slaves of Men and Women for the same Cause 700. viz. anno 1678. To Virginia 60. whereof 3. or 4. were Ministers who were all by the Mercy of God delivered at London Anno. 1679. Of the Prisoners taken at Bothwel were banished to America 250 who were taken away by Paterson Merchant in Leith that transacted for them with Provost Milns Laird of Barntown the Man that first did burn the Covenant whereof 200 were drowned by Shipwrack being shut up within the hatches 50 escaped Afterwards were banished to Flanders 7. men Thereafter were taken away in Banishment by one Robert Maloch 14. men Then by Walter Gibson Late Provest in Glasgow to Corolina 30. Anno. 1685. in the time of Queensberries Parliament of Men and Women were sent to Iamaica 200. That same Year of the Prisoners in Dinotter with others were taken away by Pitlochie to Newgersie 100. whereof 24. were Women That same Year 13. more were sent to Barbados Anno. 1687. after the Toleration 21. Men and Women were sent to Barbados As for the Number of the slain at the several Skirmages at Pentland Bothuel Airdsmoss c. They amount too about 400. and some odds The Number of such as have been executed to Death on Scaffolds under collour of Law from Mr. Iames Gutherie the first to Mr. Iames Renwick is about 140 whereof some were Women The list of those that were killed in cold Blood without Tryal Conviction or any colour of Law by the persons under written followeth Omitting the account of Finlay murdered by General Dalzels orders at Air because he could not discover who was at the appearance at Pentland in the year 1666 And of Iames Davie in Bathgate paroch and several others at several times in several places whose blood was mingled with their sacrifice at Sermons in the Fields before Bothwel-bridge And of Thomas Ker of Heyhope brother to the Laird of Cherrie trees who was forced to flee for shelter into the English Borders and there killed by Col Struthers anno 1678 And of Henry Hall of Haughead apprehended at Queensferrie by Midletoun Governour of Blackness and after several wounds at length knocked on the head by Tho George Waiter at Queensferrie A short hint of those that have been Murdered since the Year 1682. may suffce Iohn Graham of Claver house Viscount of Dundee in the Year 1682. with a party of his Troup pursued William Graham in the parish of in Galloway making his escape from his Mothers house and overtaking him instantly shot him dead Item The said Claver house together with the Earl of Dumbarton and Liev Gen Dowglas caused Peter Gillis Iohn Bryce Thomas Young who was taken by the Laird of Lee William Fiddison and Iohn Buiening to be put to Death upon a Gibbet without Legal Tryal or Sentence suffering them neither to have a Bible nor to pray before they died at Mauchlin anno 1685. Item The said Claverhouse coming to Galloway in answer to the Viscount of Kenmures Letter with a small party surprised Robert Stuart Iohn Grier Robert Ferguson and another and instantly shot them dead at the water of Dee in Gallaway December 1684. Their Corps being
productive of Prelacy again Which in the Lords strength We and many Thousands do intend never to submit to tho for our Recusancy we should suffer the greatest persecution from Men. We are for the Restauration and Re-establishment of this Churches Ancient Covenanted Reformation in its Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God Confession of Faith Catechisms Larger and Shorter National and Solemn Covenants and Acts of General Assemblies in all its Legall Immunities Securities and Sanctions as before the Year 1650. These Different Inclinations cannot be a Rule of Government and order but of Ataxie and Confusion Nor can they be determined by a Lesbian rule unconstant and uncertain But somewhat to which all must vail and and submit and which must claim the last Appeal Tho we might with as great Confidence as others Venture the success of our Plea for Presbyterie upon the decision of a Poll and Plurality of Votes providing which could not be denied none be admitted to Vote but such as are well affected to the Government of King William and Queen Marry Yet we cannot subject the determination of that Plea to any other Rule than he Institution of CHRIST considering that either the Lord IESVS who is anointed only King and Head of his Church and is faithful in all his House must not have appointed any Government or order thereof at all which would exceedingly Reflect upon His Wisdom and Faithfullness and the Perfection of his Law or this Government which he hath appointed must not be Arbitrary and Ambulatory indifferently determinable by the will and inclinations of Men no more than others of His Institutions can be We plead for no Government and for nothing in this of Presbyterie but what we have the Lawes of CHRIST in his Word the Ancient Lawes of the Nation the Constitutions of the Church never yet repealed by any subsequent Authority Ecclesiastick and the Covenant Eengagements of all ranks in the Land of Indespensible obligation for Nor do we plead for any exercise or extent of this order further then is necessary for the purging of the Church of every Antichristian or Erastian Corruption and Invention Defection or Schism Error or Scandal in Officers or Members impartially And for the Planting of the Church with Godly able and Faithful Ministers for the Instruction conviction conversion Edification and Consolation of the Members thereof But now not only is this Government not established but even that of Prelacy is not effectually nor can be abolished while the many iniquous Laws against Presbytery and pressing submission to Prelacy are not rescinded And while our National and Solemn League Cevenants for Preserving and Promoting Reformation are so far forgotten and trampled upon that the Acts Antiquating and Discharging them to be owned are not only not Abrogated but so far yet observed that it is hardly allowed they should be publickly mentioned While also the Ecclesiastical Supremacy a feather likewise of Antichrists wing and a Blasphemous and Sacrilegious Encroachment upon Christs Prerogatives and His Kingdoms Priviledges is not revocked nor declared void whereby it stands declared by wicked Laws to be the inherent Right of the Magistrate to Order Dispose Alter or Innovate the external Government of the Church and to plant or transplant Ministers and give them Instructions to Regulate them in the Exercise of their Function which if not Abolished will not only optn a Door to the Introdnction of Prelacy or Popery again But if the Protestant Religion be never so well Established this will in process of time unhinge all possible Settlements thereof There is nothing more the Interest of the Church than to seek that this Mountain in the way of its Reformation be removed and all Acts confirming the same repealed and Indulgences following therefrom be declared to be Usurpations Another Pillar of Prelacy the constant support of it and stop to Reformation does yet continue while the burdensome Bondage of Patronages is not removed whereby the Church is Robbed of the Liberty of choosing her own Guides intrusted with her greatest concerns the Great-men have open access Implicity to impose and Prey upon and Pester the Church with Corrupt Teachers But if all these things were Rectified it is impossible the Church can ever be settled or purged or planted as long as the Episcopal Curats intruded by the Prelats Collation and Patrons Presentation contrare to the Institutions of Christ and the Constitutions of this Reformed Church without the Call and contrare to the Inclinations of the People in many places but every where the Bane of the Nation the Scandal of the Church and the cause of all our Confusions are continued in the Churches How can the Church be settled when those that unsettled it continue in the same Capacity to oppose all Righteous Settlements of Reformation How can the Church be purged when the greatest Corrupters and the most corrupted Members remain in Power Either they must be looked upon and Subject themselves as Members of the Presbyterian Church and then Discipline cannot but strike against them in such a measure of Severity as may be some way proportioned to the greatness of their Scandal their Obstinacy Impenitency and Continuance in it as long as they could and the hazard of their Leavening the whole Lump or they must be looked upon as Pure and Perfect Schismaticks seting up a distinct Church and seperate Communion within a well Constitute National Church and as such they ought to be Censured and Restrained How can the Church be planted when those Plants that the LORD never planted fill so much of His Vineyard and continue in so many Paroches either to sterve them with the hungry Husks of Ethick Homilies and Harangues of Moral Vertues instead of Gospel Holiness not knowing to Preach the Mystery of the Covenant of Grace or declare the Counsel of GOD to the Conversion of Sinners unto CHRIST or so poyson them with points of Popery Arminianisme Socinianisme Yet many of them do yet Peaceably possess the places they were intruded into and others dispossessed are reponed by Force contrare to the inclinations of the Paroch and notwithstanding their opposition in some places as for instance in Colintown and in Peebles where great Insolences were committed affronting the Magistrates and disturbing the Presbyterian Meeting which have been overlooked but the least Accession to any Opposition that was made hath been severely punished one Francis Beatie upon this account being for these many weeks kept in prison and his Petitions for Liberty ejected This hath discouraged many and opened their mouths to reflect That tho this Government be as much admited for Acts of Mercy to Rebells as the former was for Cruelty yet wherever any Presbyterian can be apprehended in any fault he must expect the rigour of Severity We do not justifie illegal Tumults nor do we approve that people should transgress their Line and Station in endeavours of Reformation when there is a Magistrate to be