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parliament_n	king_n	lord_n	say_a	16,658	5	7.1993	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43666	Ravillac redivivus, being a narrative of the late tryal of Mr. James Mitchel, a conventicle-preacher, who was executed the 18th of January last, for an attempt which he made on the sacred person of the Archbishop of St. Andrews to which is annexed, an account of the tryal of that most wicked pharisee Major Thomas Weir, who was executed for adultery, incest and bestiality : in which are many observable passages, especially relating to the present affairs of church and state / in a letter from a Scottish to an English gentleman.	Mitchel, James, d. 1678, defendant.; Hickes, George, 1642-1715.; Weir, Thomas, 1600?-1670, defendant.	1678 (1678)	Wing H1860; ESTC R10945	57,651	80

several Copies of his intended Speech whereof one was found in his Pocket and taken from him before he was carried out to Execution It is long and the former part containing nothing but Libellous reflections on the Privy Council the Justiciary Lords and the King's Advocate I shall content my self to send you a transcript of the latter I Acknowledge my particular and private sins have been such as have merited a worse Death unto me but I dye in the hope of the merits of Jesus Christ to be freed from those Eternal punishments due to me for sin Yet I am confident that God doth not plead with me in this place for my private and particular sins but that I am brought here that the Work of God might be made manifest and for the Tryal of Faith John 9. 3. 1 Pet. 1. 7. and that I may be a witness for his despised Truth and interest in this Land who am called to seal the same with my Blood And I wish heartily that this my poor Life may put an end to the persecution of the true Members of Christ in this Kingdom so much actuate by these perfidious Prelates and in opposition to whom and in testimony of the Cause of Christ I at this time willingly lay down my Life and bless my God that he hath thought me so much worthy to do the same for his Glory and Interest Finally concerning a Christian Duty in a singular extraordinary case and my particular Judgement concerning both Church and State it is evidently declar'd and manifested more fully elsewhere So farewel all Earthly enjoyments and welcome Father Son and Holy Spirit into whose hands I commend my spirit As to that particular Christian duty in an extraordinary case and his Judgement concerning Church and State manifested elsewhere he means a larger blasphemous Libel which he left behind him wherein he endeavours to justifie his fact It is very long but yet I beseech you to read it over and if you have not read Naphthali nor Jus Populi vindicatum which is a Reply to the Answer which the Bishop of Orkney whom this miscreant wounded made to Naphthali I am confident you must be surpriz'd with horrour and astonishmment to see such Un-christian Doctrines come from a Christian Pen. Yet the Primitive Churches never receiv'd the Apostolick Epistles with greater veneration than the Members of our Field-Congregations receive such discourses as this nor can any Church-man respect any ancient Ecclesiastical Writer half so much as they adore Naphthali which is written in the Defence of the Rebellion in 1666. and wherein this horrid mans attempt upon the Primate is commended for an Heroical Act and that cursed Book with Lex Rex Jus populi vindicatum and Mr. Rutherfords Letters are the Fathers and Counsels of our Fife and Western Whigs I have here subjoyned the Account of my self principles and foresaid practises as they were set down in a Letter to a Friend and another Declaration both written by me when first Conveened before the Lords Justices in the year 1674. The Coppy of my Letter Edinburgh Tolbuith February the 16th 1674. SIR ME who may justly call my self the least of all Saints and the chiefest of all Sinners hath Christ his Son our Lord called to be a Witness for his destroyed Truth and trampled on Interest by this Wicked Blasphemous and God-contemning Generation and against all their other perfidious Wickednesses Sir I say the confidence I have in your real Friendship and love to Christ his Truth People Interest and Cause hath incouraged me to write to you hoping that you will not misconstruct nor take advantage of my Infirmities and Weakness you have heard of my Indictment which I take up in these two particulars First as they term it Rebellion and Treason anent which I answered to my Lord Chancellor that it was no Rebellion but a Duty which every one was bound to have performed in joyning with that party And in the year 1656. Mr. Robert Lightonne being the Primate of the Colledge of Edinburgh before our Laureation tendered to us the national Covenant and solemn League and Covenant which upon mature Deliberation I found nothing in them but a short compend of the Moral Law only obliging us to our Duty towards God and Men in their several Stations and I finding that our then banished Kings Interest lay wholly included therein viz. Both the Oath of Coronation Allegiance c. And they being the then tessera of all Loyalty And My Lord it was well known that then many were taking the Tender and forswearing Charles Stewarts Parliament and House of Lords I then subscribed them both The doing of which My Lord Chancellor would have stood me at no less rate if all 's well known then this my present adhering and prosecuting the ends thereof doth now And when I was questioned what then I called Rebellion I answered That it is Ezra 7. 26. And whosoever will not do the Law of thy God and of the King c. But being questioned by the Commissioner before the Council there anent I answered as I said to My Lord Chancellor before in the year 1656. Mr. Robert Lightonne being then Primate of the Colledge of Edinburgh before our Laureation he tendered to us the national Covenant and solemn League and Covenant where he stopped me saying I wade you are come here to give a Testimony and then being demanded what I called Rebellion if it was not Rebellion to oppose His Majesties Forces in the face to which I answered My Lord Commissioner if it please your Grace I humbly conceive that they should have been with us meaning that it was the Duty of those Forces to have joyned with us according to the national Covenant at which answer I perceived him to storm But says he I hear that you have been over Seas with whom did you Converse there Answer with my Merchant My Lord. But saith he with whom in particular with one John Michel a Cousin of mine saith he I have heard tell of him he is a Factor in Rotterdam to which I conceded But saith he did you not Converse with Mr. Levingston and such as he To which I answered My Lord Commissioner I Conversed with our banisht Ministers to which he replyed banisht Ministers banisht Traytors he will speak Treason at the very Bar. Then he answered himself saying but they would call the shooting at the Bishop an Heroick Act To which I answered That I never told them of any such thing Question But where did you see James Wallace last Answ Towards the borders of Germany some year ago Quest But what ailed you at my Lord St. Andrews here pointing at him with his finger Answ My Lord Commissioner the grievous oppression and horrid Bloodshed of my Brethren and the eager pursuit after my own Blood as it appeareth this day to your Grace and to all His Majesties Honourable Council after which he commanded to take me away that they might see what

there were two Pistols found about him in size and shape like that which the Primate saw him hold in his hand immediately after he had shot at his Grace and upon search they were also found to be charg'd with three bullets each Being apprehended by Sir William Sharp he was immediately brought to his Brother the Primate's Lodgings and though a great croud had pressed in after him yet his Grace knew him at first sight from all the rest such a deep impression the transient view he got of him after the shot had made upon him and going streight up to him without any hesitation he said unto him You Sir are the Man upon which the Wretch trembled and grew pale Not long after he was conven'd before the Privy Council and the Duke of Lauderdale his Majesty's High Commissioner then sitting in Council but he would confess nothing before them which made the Right Honourable Bord depute a Committee for his farther examination before which he freely confessed the fact and afterwards acknowledg'd and sign'd his Confession before the King 's High Commissioner sitting in Council with the Lord Halton the Treasurer Deputy the Earl of Rothes Lord Chancellour and some others of the Council subscrib'd as Witnesses and this Paper was brought at his Tryal against him as a judicial confession of his crime After this examination of him before His Majesty's High Commissioner sitting in Council which happen'd in February 1674. he was put upon his Tryal in the Criminal Court But after his Libel which your Law calls the Indictment was read he deny'd it and retracted the confession which he had freely made without any promise of pardon before the High Commissioner and the Council upon which Sir John Nisbet His Majesty's Advocate who notwithstanding his fair pretentions to the Church either loves or fears the Fanatical Faction too much seem'd very much surpriz'd and desisted immediately from his prosecution desiring the Judges to Adjourn the Court and from that time would never pursue the murderous Villain again although he was oblig'd by his Office to do it as well as by the Arch-Bishop who in Causa Sanguinis would not pursue him himself The Judges also at that time had no great Stomach to sit upon the Tryal of this bloody Saint So that the Privy Council were forc'd to send him Prisoner to the Basse a Rock in the Forth where I wish all his Brethren were where he continued till the latter end of last December when the Privy Council sent for him to be try'd again About this time it was rumour'd about Town and Country that the Whigs for so we call Fanaticks design'd to take off both the Archbishops and some other Bishops by assassination and likewise vehement suspicions and presumptions were found that they had the like design on other eminent Persons who were most concern'd and resolv'd to see them reduc'd to order and obedience And therefore the Council thought it expedient to prevent such barbarous attempts and secure the Lives of His Majesty's faithful Ministers to bring Mr. Mitchel to publick Justice that the Remonstrator-Presbyterians of our Country might see what their Clements and Ravillacs were to expect Since the Duke of Lauderdale came last hither Sir John Nisbett resign'd his Charge and his Majesty put Sir George Machenzy a Learned and Worthy Gentleman into his place who in obedience to the order of the Privy Council pursu'd this common enemy of Mankind with a Courage and Zeal that became such a gallant Man and a good Christian although he foresaw he must for ever disoblige that implacapable party which hath sworn to extirpate Episcopacy here You may easily judge with what deliberation and caution this miscreants Process was made Seeing his Tryal was dependant four days for he was arraigned on Monday the seventh of January in the Morning and receiv'd not Sentence till the following Thursday at two in the Afternoon As the Privy Council were very just so were they exceeding merciful to this inhumane Man for at the instance of his Majesty's Advocate they commanded Sir George Lockhart one of the best Lawyers of this Nation to be of his Counsel and had he been the greatest Subject of the three Kingdoms his cause could not have been more strenuously defended nor his Process made with more care The first day was spent in reading the Libel and discussing some preparatory doubts necessary to be determin'd by an Interlocutory sentence before the Assize which you call the Jury could be impannell'd and the Witnesses sworn The doubts were three First whether that confession which the Pannel for so we call the Prisoner at the Bar made before the King 's High Commissioner and the Privy Council sitting in Council were Judicial or Extrajudicial The second was whether if this Confession should be made appear to upon hopes or promise of pardon it should not serve for the Pannels exculpation And the third was whether by a certain Act of Parliament made for the security of his Majesty's Privy Counsellers and Officers the attempted assassinage of the Primate who was and is a Privy Counseller were Capital or no All which preliminaries the Judges deliberated upon and debated among themselves on Tuesday and on Wednesday following pronounced their Interlocutory in the affirmative upon the several heads You may perceive by the terms wherein I am forc'd to couch the Narrative of his Tryal that we have much of the Civil Law Indeed it is the Common Law of our Country and takes place in all cases that cannot be determin'd by our Statute or Consuetudinary Laws I know very well you understand nothing of it but yet your Reason cannot but suggest unto you that an Interlocutory is opposite to a definitive sentence and that this is nothing but the final doom consisting in the condemnation or absolution of the Criminal So th' other is a decision of such incident and emergent matters of Law as intervene betwixt the beginning an end of the cause Lancelot instit juris Canon l. 3. Tit. 15. Paragr 1. But to return to my Narrative after the Interlocutory was pronounc'd the Jury was impannell'd and the Witnesses sworn some of whose depositions I shall set down as I heard them and I think I shall never forget them as long as I can remember my Name The Keeper of the Tolbooth's Son for so we call the Prison here depon'd that having ask'd the Pannel how he could do such a Barbarous Action in cold blood against a man that had never done him wrong he answer'd That it was not done in cold blood for the blood of the Saints was reeking yet at the Cross in Edinburgh By the Saints he meant the Rebells at Pentland-hills in 1666 one of which he himself had been and some Principals whereof that were taken in the Field had been Executed about two years before at the Cross in Edinburgh The Lord Bishop of Galloway whom no good Church-man here ought to mention without honour and respect

the Privy Council to whom they send frequent accounts of their Proceedings and from whom they receive such measures and directions as may most conduce to reduce and secure those disorderly shires To which purpose in the first place they proceed to disarm them causing all suspected persons to deliver their Arms whereof great Provision was made to their respective Sheriffs upon Oath who are to deliver them to the Major General and to be sent by him to His Majesties Garrisons They have likewise order to plant Garrisons in what places soever they shall think fit and have proceeded to do Execution on the new built Meeting-houses those Temples of Baal Berith by Commanding that they should be pulled down and that their Materials should be burnt They are likewise to tender a Bond to be taken by all Heritors wherein as Masters of Families they are to be bound for themselves their Wives Children and Servants and as Landlords for their Tenants and Cottagers that they shall not go to Conventicles nor receive or supply Conventicle-ministers but live orderly in Obedience to the Law so that if their Wives or any of their Children or Servants Transgress they will be bound to undergo the legal Penalties for them But in case their Tenants or Cottagers Transgress they will be bound to present them to Justice or turn them off their Tenements or else to be lyable to the Penalties they shall incur The form of this Bond or civil Anticovenant was drawn up by the Privy Council and is as followeth I under subscribing do faithfully bind and oblige me That I my Wife Bairns and Servants respectively shall 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 oblige 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 the 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 Corters and their foresaids shall Contravene 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 there anent Otherwise I shall remove them and their Families from off my ground And if I shall fail herein I shall be lyable to such Penalties as the said Delinquents have incurr'd 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 This is the tenor of the Bond and least the force thereof should be eluded the Privy Council have declared That every Heritor that shall 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 liv'd that they lived orderly as to this matter shall be subject to such Fines as the Privy Council shall think fit to inflict to punish them for their Crime and repair the damage that shall accrue to the Heritor or Master whose Tenants or Servants they did receive All the Lords of the Privy Council and the Judges whom we call the Senators of the Colledge of Justice together with the Advocates Writers and all others belonging to the Society of the Lawyers have taken this Bond as also the Lords of the Exchequer and the Justitiary Lords which is a very prevalent example and little doubt is made but the generality of the Subjects of the Nation will chearfully sign it as being so beneficial to Authority and so proper an expedient to recover the common people into their Wits And it cannot possibly give the least umbrage of scruple to the Conscience of the most weak or peevish Dissenter being nothing but a purely civil alternative Obligation to do what the Law requires or submit to the Penalties therein contained Perhaps it may seem strange in England that a Landlord should be bound in this manner for his Tenants but there is nothing more reasonable and customary here because our Heritors have such a despotic power over their Tenants as you cannot well imagine unless you had lived here And in case any persons shall finally refuse to take this Bond as some Fife and Western Gentlemen have made difficulty at it The Privy Council according to the legal and uncontroverted Practise of that Bord in all ages hath ordained that Letters shall be directed to them to charge them forthwith to give in Security to His Majesties Privy Council that They their Wives Children Tenants and Servants shall keep His Majesties Peace and particularly that they shall not go to Conventicles nor harbor Rebels nor intercommuned persons and that they shall keep the Persons Families and Goods of their Regular Ministers harmless under the double of every mans valued yearly Rent if he have any ●or of such Penalties as shall be thought Convenient by His Majesties Council or their Committee if they have none which if they shall refuse to do within Six days next after the charge they are to be declared His Majesties Rebels as the manner is here with the sound of an Horn. To conclude the Committee is to proceed to the condign Censuring of such as shall appear upon proof to have harbored Welsh or Arnott or other intercommuned persons and such also as have invited or convocated the silly people unto the Field-Assemblies under pretence of hearing Sermons and such as contributed by Money Work or Materials to build the new Samaritan Synagogues two of which the Earl of Cassels was commanded to demolish in Catrict as was his duty to have done before All this hath been done under the wise Conduct of the Duke of Lauderdale to whose presence among us next under God this poor Church and Kingdom are redevable that they have been preserved from Confusion and blood And I question nor but his Vigorous endeavours to suppress this Schism the like whereof in all respects was never yet heard of in any Age or Nation have by this time effectually Confuted all the lying reports that were sent into England by our men of Schism and Faction with a design to render him odious in our Neighbour Country and discredit his administration here But I beg Mr. Mitchels and your pardon for leaving him so long I could not forbear to intersert this account of his Western Brethren whose Confessor he liv'd and whose Martyr he dy'd I 'le now return to visit him again and leave him no more till I see him in