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A59964 The history of Scotch-presbytery being an epitome of The hind let loose / by Mr. Shields ; with a preface by a presbyter of the Church of Scotland. Shields, Alexander, 1660?-1700.; Shields, Alexander, 1660?-1700. Hind let loose. 1692 (1692) Wing S3432; ESTC R3536 61,532 66

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Opinion of things or because they would not Condemn these necessitated risings in Arms to be Rebellion and a Sin against God which they were forced to declare by terrible menacings of Death making their Arbitrary Laws to reach the Heart Thoughts and inward Sentiments of the Mind as well as outward Actions Whereupon this became a Criminal Question robbing many of their Lives Was the rising at Bothwell-bridge Rebellion and a Sin against God And this Was the killing of the Bishop of St Andrews horrid Murther Which if any answered negatively or did not answer affirmatively they were cruelly Condemned to Death The Ministry then also were generally insnared with that Bonded Indulgence the pretended benefit of that forementioned Indemnity For when a Proclamation was emitted inveighing bitterly against Field-Meetings and absolutely introducing all such for the future under highest pain but granting Liberty to Preach in Houses upon the Terms of a Cautionany Bond given for their living peaceably Yet excluding all these Ministers who were suspected to have been at the late Rebellion and all those who shall afterwards be admitted by Non-Conform Ministers And certifying that if ever they shall be at any Field-Conventicle the said Indemnity shall not be useful to such Transgressours any manner of way And requiring security that none under the colour of this favour continue to Preach Rebellion Though there seems to be enough in the Proclamation it self to have scared them from this scandalous snare Yet a Meeting of Ministers at Edinburgh made up of Indulged avowed Applauders of the Indulgence or underhand Approvers and favourers of the same and some of them old Publick Resolutioners assuming to themselves the name of a General Assembly voted for the acceptance of it And so formerly transacted and bargained upon base dishonest and dishonourable Terms with the Usurper by consenting and compacting with the People to give that Bond wherein the People upon an humble Petition to the Counsel obtaining their Indulged Minister do bind and oblige that he shall live peaceably And in order thereto to present him before his Majesty's Privy Council when they shall be called so to do And in case of failure in not presenting him to be liable to the Sum of 6000 Merks Whereby they Condemned themselves of former unpeaceableness Many embraced this new Bastard Indulgence that had not the benefit of the former Brat of the same Mother the Supremacy and far more consented to it without a Witness and most of all did some way homolegate it in Preaching under the Sconce of it Declining the many reiterated and urgent Calls of the zealous Lovers of Christ to come out and maintain the Testimony of the Gospel in the open Fields for the honour of their Master and the freedom of their Ministry Whereupon as many poor People were tumbled and jumbled into many confusions so that they were so bewildered and bemisted in doubts and debates that they knew not what to do and were tempted to question the Cause formerly so fervently contended for against all opposition than so simply abandoned by those that seemed sometimes valiant for it when they saw them consulting more their onw ease than the Concerns of their Masters Glory or the necessity of the poor People Hungering for the Gospel so the more zealous and faithful after several Addresses Calls and Invitations to Ministers finding themselves deserted by them judged themselves under a necessity to discountenance many of them whom formerly they followed with pleasure and to resolve upon a persuit and prosecution of Duty of the Day without them and to provide themselves with faithful Ministers who would not shun for all hazards to declare the whole Counsel of God And accordingly the Lord sent them first Mr. Richard Cameron with whom after serious solicitation his Brethren denied their Concurrence and then Mr. Donald Cargill who with a zeal and boldness becoming Christs Ambassadours maintained and prosecuted the Testimony against all the Indignities done to their Master and wrongs to the Cause both by the encroachments of Adversaries and Defections of their declining Brethren And now the Lords Inheritance was again revived But as Christ was then displaying his Beauty to his poor despised and persecuted People the Duke of York came to Scotland who did receive him in great Pomp and Pride Against which the forementioned faithful Witnesses of Christ did find themselves obliged to testifie their just resentment and to protest against his succeeding to the Crown in their Declaration published at Sanquhair Iune 22. 1680. Wherein also they disown Charles Stuart as having any Right Title or Interest in the Crown of Scotland or Government thereof because of his breath of Covenant and Vsurpation on Christs Prerogatives c. And declare a War with him and all the Men of these Practices homologating the Testimony at Rutherglen and disclaiming that Declaration at Hamiltown This Action was generally Condemned by the Body of lurking Ministers both for the matter of it and the unseasonableness of it and its apparent unfeasiblness being done by a handful so inconsiderable for number strength or significancy But tho' it is not the prudence of the management but the justness of the Action that I would have vindicated from Obloquies yet it wanted nothing but success to justifie both in the Conviction of many that made much outcry against it In these dangerous Circumstances their difficulties and discouragements dayly encreased by their Enemies vigilancy their enviers Treachery and their own inadvertency some of their number falling into the hands of them that sought their lives For two of the most eminent and faithful Witnesses of Christ Mr. Donald Cargill and Henry Hall were surprized at Queens Ferrie Mr. Cargill escaped at that time but the other endeavouring to resist the Enemies was Murdered by them And with him they got a draught of a Covenant declaring their present purposes and future Resolutions The Tenor whereof was an Engagement To free the Church of God of the Corruption of Prelacy on the one hand and the Thraldom of Erastianism on the other To persevere in the Doctrin of the Reformed Churches especially that of Scotland and in the Presbyterian Government exercised in Sessions Presbyteries Synods and General Assemblies as a distinct Government from the Civil and distinctly to be exercised not after a Carnal manner by plurality of Votes or Authority of a single Person but according to the word of God making and carrying the sentence To execute Righteous Iudgement impartially according to the Word and degree of Offence upon the Committers of these things especially to wit Blasphemy c. Oppression and Malignancy c. To reject the present Rulers as the only speedy way of relaxation from the Wrath of God lying on the Land Therefore easily solving the Objectious 1. of our Ancestors obliging the Nation to this Race and Line that they did not buy their Liberty with our Thraldom nor could they bind their Children to any thing so much to their
proved successful for several Years their Enemies either turning their backs without disturbance when they observed them resolve Defence or in their Assaultings repulsed so that there was never a Meeting which stood to their Defence got any considerable harm thereby Thus the Lord was with us while we were with him but when we forsook him he forsook us and left us in the hands of our Enemies However while Meetings for Gospel-Ordinances did continue the Wicked Rulers did not cease from time to time to encrease their numerous Bands of Barbarous Souldiers for suppressing the Gospel in these Field-meetings But all this is nothing to what followed when thinking these Blood-Hounds were too favourable they brought down from the wild Highlands a Host of Salvages upon the Western Shires more terrible than Turks or Tartars Men who feared not God nor regarded Man to wast and destroy a plentiful Country which they resolved before they left it to make as bare as their own This Hellish Crew was adduced to work a Reformation like the French Conversions to press a Bond of Conformity wherein every one Subscribed was bound for himself and all under him Wife Children Servants Tenants to frequent their Parish Churches and never to go to these Meetings nor reset nor entertain any that went but to Inform against Pursue and Deliver up all vagrant Preachers as they called them to Tryal and Judgment Then for the maintenance of the Souldiers there were imposed new wicked and arbitrary Cesses and Taxations professedly required for suppressing Religion and Liberty banishing the Gospel out of the Land and preserving and promoting the King's Absoluteness over all Matters and Persons Sacred and Civil which under that tentation of great Sufferings threatned to Refusers and under the disadvantage of the silence and unfaithfulness of many Ministers who either did not condemn it or pleaded for the peaceable payment of it many did comply with it then and far more since Yet at that time there were far more Recusants in some places especially in the Western shires than Complyers And there were many of the Ministers that did faithfully declare to the People the Sin of it not only from the illegality of its Imposition by a Convention of over-awed and prelimited States but from the nature of that imposed Compliance that it was a sinful Transaction with Christ's declared Enemies a strengthning the hands of the wicked an obedience to a wicked Law a consenting to Christ's expulsion out of the Land and not only that but far worse than the Sin of the Gadarens a formal Concurrence to assist his Expellers by maintaining their force a hiring our Oppressors to destroy Religion and Liberty and from the declared end of it expressed in the very Narrative of the Act viz. To Levy and Maintain Forces for suppressing and dispersing Meetings of the Lord's People and to shew unanimous affections for maintaining the King's Supremacy as now Established by Law Yet all this time Ministers and Professors were unite and with one Soul and Shoulder followed the work of the Lord 'till the Indulged being dissatisfied with the Meetings in the Fields whose Glory was like to over-cloud and obscure their Beds of ease and especially being offended at the freedom and faithfulness of some who set the Trumpet to their Mouth and shewed Iacob his Sins and Israel his Transgressions impartially without Cloak or Cover they began to make a Faction among the Ministers and to devise how to quench the fervour of their Zeal who were faithful for God But the more they sought to extinguish it the more it brake out and blazed into a flame For several of Christ's Ambassadours touched and affected with the affronts done to their Princely Master by the Supremacy and the Indulgence of its Bastard-Brood and Brat began after long silence to discover its iniquity and to acquaint the People how the Usurper had invaded the Mediator's Chair in taking upon him to Depose Suspend Silence Plant and Transplant his Ministers where and when and how he pleased c. Yet others and the greater number of Dissenting Ministers were not only deficient herein but defended them joyned with them and pretending Prudence and prevention of Schism in effect homologated that deed and the Practice of these Priests Ezek 22. 26. teaching and advising the People to hear them both by Precept and going along with them in their Erastian Course And not only so but Condemned and Censured such who Preached against the sinfulness thereof especially in the first place worthy Mr. Walwood who was among the first Witnesses against that Defection and Mr. Kid Mr. King Mr. Cameron Mr. Donald Cargil c. who Sealed their Testimony afterwards by their blood yet then even by their Brethren were loaden with the reproachful Nick-names of Schismaticks Blind Zealots Jesuites c. But it was always observed as long as Ministers were faithful in following the Lord in the way of their Duty Professors were fervent and under all their Conflicts with Persecutors the Courage and Zeal of the Lovers of Christ was blazing and never outbraved by all the Enemies boastings to undertake brisk Exploits which from time to time they were now and then essaying 'till defection destroyed and division diverted their Zeal against the Enemies of God who before were always the Object against which they whetted the edge of their jus● indignation Especially the Arch-Prelate Sharp was judged intollerable by ingenuous Spirits Therefore in Iuly 1668. Mr Iames Mitchel thought it his duty to save himself deliver his Brethren and attempted to cut him off which failing he then escaped but afterwards was Apprehended Tortured Condemned and Executed But Justice would not suffer the Arch-Prelate to escape Remarkable Punishment the severity whereof did sufficiently compensate sate its delay after Ten Years respite For upon the 3 d of May 167 several worthy Gentlemen with some other Men of Courage and Zeal for the Cause of God executed Righteous Judgment upon him in Magus Moore near St. Andrews And that same Month on the Anniversary Day May 29th the Testimony at Rutherglen was Published against that Abomination Celebrating an Anniversary-Day kept every year for giving thanks for the setting up an Vsurped Power destroying the interest of Christ in the Land and against all sinful and unlawful Acts emitted and executed published and prosecuted against our Covenanted Reformation Where also they burn● the Acts of Supremacy the Declaration the Act Recissory c. in way of retalition for the burning of the Covenants On the Sabbath following Iune 1. A Field-Meeting near to Lowden-Hill was assaulted by Claverhouse and with him three Troops of Horse and Dragoons who had that Morning taken an honest Minster and about 14 Countrymen out of their Beds and carried them along with them but they were repulsed at Drumclogg and put to flight the Prisoners relieved about 30 of the Souldiers killed on the place and three of the Meeting and several wounded on both sides Thereafter the People