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
the Nation to break down at once the carved work of the whole Fabrick of the Reformation as with Axes and Hammers in that insolent effrontry and indignity against Heaven in making void the National and Solemn League and Covenants which the Church and State both in their Representatives and Members did most solemnly Swear and Subscrive for themselves and Posterity which for the matter of them perpetually obliging for the manner so Religiously engaged into and for their ends so Glorious no power on Earth can dispense with disannull or disable which not only the Lord from Heaven did ratify by the Conversion of many Thousands and vouchsafing his presence gracious in Ordinances and propitious in Providences at the subscriving of them But in this Land at the Inauguration of the King Charles 2. being the condition upon which he was admitted to the Government the latter of these Covenants was Ratified and Established as the great fundamental Law of the Kingdom whereon all the Rights and Priviledges either of King or People are principally bottomed and secured and as the very Magna Charta of our Reformation Yet this not only they did break in Heaven-daring boldness but to flatter the King in making way for Prelacy Tyranny and Popery and to indulge the licentiousness of some debauched Nobles who could not endure the Yoke of Christs Government according to his Institutions there Covenanted to be preserved they enacted and declared it should have no Obligation or binding Force any farther and that none should henceforth require the renewing of it Carol. 2. Parl. 1. Sess. 1. Act. 7. And afterwards that the National Covenant and Solemn League and Covenant were in themselves Unlawful Oaths and therefore annulled all Acts and Constitutions Ecclesiastical or Civil approving them Parl. 1. Sess. 2. Act. 2. And not only so but in contempt of Heaven they caused burn them by the hand of the Hangman For adhering unto these Sacred Inviolable and Indispensible Engagements the sufferings of Presbyterians have in a great measure been stated since that time The next wicked project was to remove out of the way all who were eminent Instruments in promoting that work of Reformation now about to be razed and whom they feared would obstruct their Antichristian and Tyrannical designs both in the State and in the Church Accordingly the Noble Marquess of Argyle was beheaded for no other alledged cause but for his complyance with the English when they had made a Conquest of our Land Wherein also the Judges that condemned him were Socii Criminis And afterwards the Lord Wariston upon the same pretence And for the same pretended cause many other Gentlemen above 800 were Arbitrarly and Exorbitantly fined some under divers stiles twice over Such of the Ministry also as had been most faithful servent for the interests of their Master and of his Church were cruelly and most illegally removed some by Death as famous Mr. Guthrie for asserting the Kingly Prerogative of Christ in opposition to the Erastian Supremacy encroaching thereupon others by Banishment for giving faithful warning and protesting against the defection of that time thereby only contraveening a wicked Proclamation discharging them to speak against the Proceedings of the State others Indicta causa without access to give in their defences or to get so much as an extract of their sentence After they had thus prepared their way by the very first Act of the second Sess of the first Parl. anno 1662. They reestablished and redintegrated their Dagon of Episcopal Prelacy with all its inseparably concomitant retinue of Pride Perjury Simony Sacriledge and intollerable Usurpations and Corruptions And wreathed again about our Neck that Yoke which neither our Fathers who wrestled much against it nor we were nor ever shall be able to bear which as it is insupportable to and hated of all the Godly and desirable to none but dissolute debauched Persons who cannot endure Christs discipline impartially exercised and do find incouragement under the wings of Prelacy being in its original both the Mother and Daughter Root and Off-spring Cause and Effect of Popery a device which advanced the Man of Sin to his hight in the World and the only remaining support of his hopes of recovering these Kingdoms by Christs conquest rescued from his Tyranny in its nature evidently eversive of the very nature of Gospel Church Government in its ends only adapted to bring the Church into a slavish dependence on subordination to an usurped Supremacy of the Magistrate which is a change only of the Pope not of the Popedom And in its effects alwayes found to be most deplorably destructive to the purity and power of Religion and peace of its sincere profession and that which hath introduced and encouraged Impiety Error Schism and Persecution in these Lands So by all the sober and judicious that have known the Case of this Church and Kingdom it hath been acknowledged to be the source and spring of all our Sorrows and Grievances under which we have groaned these 28 Years This abjured Prelacy as it was introduced by manifest Perjury and Persidy so it was at first erected and hitherto advanced and supported on such a Foundation as might bear out and justify the Contrivers and Promoters of it as well in all attemprs to set up Popery it self the Act establishing it Declaring the disposal of the Government of the Church doth properly belong to his Majesty as an inherent Right of the Crown by vertue of his Royal Prerogative and Supremacy in causes Ecclesiastick An usurpation upon the Kingdom of Christ equivalent to any that ever the Papacy it self durst aspire unto over the Government of the Church The first effect whereof was by another Act 1 Sess. 2 Parl. Carol. 2. the restoring the old exploded bondage of Parronages another old Relict of Popish Slavery depriving the Church of the freedom of Calling and Choosing their own Pastors And dispossessing all the Ministers who entered since the Year 1640. of their Churches and Benefices possessed without the presentations of Patrons After which by the instigation of the Prelates the Council passed an Act October 1662 whereby above 300 Ministers were violently put out of their Charges and their Congregations laid desolate without all Legal Procedure without either Accusation or Citation Conviction or Sentence or a hearing allowed to them And therefore for simple Nonconformity and refusing subjection to and taking Collations from the Prelates the rest of the Ministers in great numbers were with cruelty more beseeming Turks thrust from their Labours and banished with a nice and strange confinement 20. Miles from their own Parish Church Six Miles from a Cathedral and three Miles from a Burgh In whose room succeded a swarm of Ignorant and Scandalous Apostates the Prelates and their Mercenary Substitutes the Curats against whom such Charges might alwayes have been adduced and to this day such Accusations are in readiness to be produced to any competent ludicatories that
shall be called to cognosce upon them of the pernicious Errors of Popery Socinianisme and Arminianisme maintained by many of them Abominable Adulteries committed by others of them the Profanity Sensuality and Debauchery Oppression and Persecution of Godliness and good Men chargeable on the generallity of them and Perjury in breach of Covenant and Schismatical intrusion without consent of the Church owned of all of them and Ungodliness by them transfused over all the Land as could not but make them detested of all as the greatest stain to be suffered in a Reformed Church Upon the back of this by the instigation of the Prelates who scorned to be and one no not by Iulian the Apostate in surpressing Religion they proceeded to poyson all the Seminaries of Learning Ordaining in Act. 9. Sess. 2. Parl. 1. Carol. 2. That none be Masters in any University except they both take the Oath of Supremacy and submit to and own Prelacy or be so much as a Pedagogue to Children without the Prelates Licence By which course Honest and Learned Men were brought to considerable Straits and Sufferings and Ungodly and Unsound Masters had access and encouragement to corrupt the Youth with perverse and Malignant Principles to the great and observable Detriment and Decrement of Religion Learning Sobriety and Morality in the Nation The next Contrivance was to corrupt all the Fountains of Judicature And for this End it was enacted Act 5. Sess. 2. Parl. 1. Carol. 2. That all Persons in any publick Trust or Office whatsoever should subscribe the Declaration renouncing and abjuring the Covenants And that not only under the Certified penalty of Forefaulting the Priviledges of Magistrates But also of all the Priviledges of Merchandizing Trading and others belonging to a Burgess Act 3. Sess. 3. Parl 1. Carol. 2. Whereby Perjury was made the chief and indispensable Qualification and Conditio sine qua non of all that were capable of Exercising any power in Church or State contrate to known Laws yet unrepealed which make them that are guilty of Perjury incapable of being intrusted with any publick Administration in the Kingdom The Parliaments thus corrupted and instigated by the Bishops and Curates Establish wicked Laws pressing Conformity And in the very first of them made such a streach beyond all bounds of Charity Justice Reason or Humanity that they made all Addresses to God or Man remonstrating such Grievances and reflecting on such proceedings to be Criminal Declaring Petitions to be Seditious And discharging all Writing Printing Remonstrating Praying or Preaching shewing any dislike of the Kings Absolute Prerogative and Supremacy in Causes Ecclesiastick or of the Government of the Church by Bishops Act 2. Sess. 2. Par. 1. Carol. 2. And Act 4 ibid. They not only prohibited any to Preach in publick or so much as in Families without the Prelates Licences but Discharged all Private Meetings in Houses for Religious Exercise of such as could not in Conscience give their Countenance to the Curats Service in Churches Then in the 3 Sess. Act. 2. They Declare that all Non conformed Ministers that shall presume to Exercise their Ministry shall be punished as Seditious Persons And Require of all in acknowledgement of and Complyance with his Majesties Government Ecclesiastical that they give their concurrence and countenance to the Curates and attend their Meetings for Worship Ordaining that whosoever shall withdraw shall incur each Nobleman Gentleman or Heretor the loss of a fourth part of their Years rent every Yeoman the loss of a fourth or under of his Moveables each Burgess the loss of his Burge-ship with the fourth of his Moveables with a reference to the Council for farther punishment and more effectual Execution Which the Council very vigorously Prosecuted in emitting most rigorous Proclamations after that Some requiring all to keep their Parioch Churches under the pain of 20. shil toties quoties Some discharging all Preaching Praying or Hearing in Families where three or some more then the Domesticks were found as unlawful Conventicles Others Certifying that all such Meetings not Authorised shall be punished by Pecunial and Corporal pains at the Arbittement of the Council Other Commanding all Masters of Families Heretors Landlords and Magistrates of Burghs ro cause their Servants Dependents Tennents Taxmen Cottars and all under their Charge to submit and conform to the Curates their Ministry For putting these Laws in Execution the King erected a High Commission Court consisting of some Prelates Noblemen Magistrates of Burghs and some Souldiers impowered by vertue of his Prerogative Royal and Supremacy to suspend deprive and Excommunicat As also to punish by Fining Confining and Incarcerating all keepers of Conventicles and all Non Conformists A Hotch-potch mongrel Monster of a Judicatory Authorized by the Prerogative against the Laws of GOD and Man meddling with Causes and Censures Ecclesiastick and Civil most Illegal and Arbitrary both for its Constitution and Procedure Whereby persons brought before them were made to answer super inquirendis contrare to express standing Law Ioc. 6. Parl. 10. Act. 13. Anno. 1585. without either Libel or Accuser or admitting Legal Defences except they take the Oaths and sentenced with Stigmatizing Scourging Banishment Deportation and Slaverie to Barbados c. By orders from this Court especially from the Prelates whose country sides were in a great measure Depopulate for Non-conformity by Souldiers Sometimes besetting the Churches where honest Ministers were not yet ejected and forcing all within to pay fines Sometimes going to the Curates Churches and Amerciating all the Absents in such fines as they pleased Sometimes by force driving all to Church beating wounding and binding the Reousants Sometimes exacting exorbitant fines by Plunder to the Harassing and making Havock of whole Country sides sparing sometimes Complyers no more then Recusants And punishing Husbands for their Wives Parents for their Children Yea doubling and tripling the same exactions after payment yet compelling them sometimes to subscribe an acknowledgement that the Captain had used them civilly and discreetly Then after all Apprehending Imprisoning Scourging some Stigmatizing others and sending them to Forreign parts that would not for all this conform Hereupon being outwearied with intollerable oppressions a small party of Dissenters were partly compelled and party by a surprise of Providence engaged to run together for their own defence at Pentland Anno 1666. Where after the defeat The Prisoners that were taken upon Quarter and solemn parol to have their life spared were treacherously given up to be Condemned the very manner of their Execution being first determined and described before Arraigment and cruelly hanged their Heads being set up at Edinburgh Glasgow Air Dumsreis and at Hamiltoun Turks would have blushed to have seen the like Among the rest one eminent Minister Mr. Hugh Mckail for having but a Sword tho not present at the Fight was first cruelly tortured with the Iron boots and afterwards execute to the death At their Executions Drums were beat that they
Curats and Indulged Ministers which were afterwards by Act 11. Sess. 3. Parl. 2. laid upon all who shall keep their Children Unbaptized for Thirty dayes together Act 9. Imposing intolerable Fines on all that shall three Sabbath dayes together withdraw themselves from their own Paroch Churches Act 9. Sess 3. Declaring all Ordinations of Ministers since the Year 1661. which have not been by Bishops to be Null and Invalid and that they are no Ministers that are otherwise Ordained encroaching hereby on the most Intrinsick and formally Ecclesiastick Powers of the Officers of Christs Kingdom These wicked Acts were followed with cruel Executions whereby many were made to endure such Havock as harder could not be found in the Reign of Caligula or Nero both in their own Houses in Prisons and at Sea in Deportations Hereafter thinking the ordinary Forces not cruel enough in executing these enacted Mischiefs they brought from the wild Highlands a Host of 10 or 11000 Barbarous Savages and poured them in upon the Westeren Shires all peaceable at the time none so much as moving a Finger against them on design as would seem utterly to lay them desolate with Orders to press a Bond of Conformity wherein every Subscriber was bound for himself and all under him to frequent the Paroch Church and never go to House or Field Meetings nor reset any that went to them but to informe against pursue and deliver up all outed Preachers to Judgement Many Houses and Families were then left desolate the Inhabitants being made to flee in the Winter Season many left their Cattel and in seeking to recover them lost their Lives Yet the Innocent Country was made to pay for all this Service and hire them to do more by paying the imposed Cess enacted and exacted professedly by the Act of the Convention of Estates holden by Lauderdale anno 1678. to raise and maintain more Forces and to maintain the Supremacy as now Asserted and Established and to suppress Field Meetings called Rendezvouses of Rebelion And for the same Causes and to suppress the Propagation of the Principles then suffered for continued by Act 3. Parl. 3. held by the DUKE of York Commissioner And by Act 12. Parl. 1. Iac. 7. holden by Queensberry continued and prorogued during all the Terms of his Lifetime which because of the Illegality of its imposition the nature of its Exaction being an Obedience to a wicked Law a help to the Ungodly to make Havock of the Church a hire to the Souldiers to destroy what remained of Religion and Liberty and because of its ends so expresly Declared in the Narratives of the Acts to suppress the persecuted Gospel and destroy its Followers many Presbyterians durst not justify by Obedience in paying the required Moyetie but chose rather to suffer joyfully the spoyling of their Goods and all the force and fury they could exert against them Whereby many tho' poor yet honest and honestly provided Families were laid waste and exposed to the Miseries of uncertain Wanderings At length upon occasion of Graham of Claverhouse his assaulting a meeting near Loudoun-hill carrying about with him a Minister and several Countrey men bound as Beasts and getting a repulse in the rancounter with the meeting Another Insurrection for our Lives Liberties and Religion was undertaken and discomfited at Bothwel-bridge anno 1679 and at the defeat several hundreds were killed on the Field and 10. or 1100. were taken Prisoners stript and carried to Edinburgh where after two of our Ministers were martyred for that Appearance Mr. Iohn King and Mr. Iohn Kid And after the rest of the Prisoners were kept several weeks in a Church yard without a covert either from cold or heat in the open Air a bond was tendered seeming to offer Life and Liberty on terms that clearly condemned the cause never to rise in Arms against the King on any pretence whatsoever c. Which many took and the rest of us that refused and even many that did take it were sent away in a Ship bound for America between 2 and 300 in all who were all murdered in the Ship being shut up under the hatches when it split upon a Rock in the North of Scotland excepting 50 some of which are yet alive to give this account After this the grand Design of subverting and utter everting our Reformation tho' from the beginning of this Fatal Catastrophe projected and by all the forementioned Methods prosecuted hitherto was more and more discovered and beyond all denial demonstrated that nothing less was intended then the gradual introduction of Popery and Slavery and that by all the ordinat Iesuitical Rules observed in the seduction of Churches into the Roman Tyrannie The chiefest of which have alwayes been to foment all Quarrels among Protestants and to strengthen the Party readiest to comply to make and execme rigorous Laws against the most tenacious and to load the Protestant Opinions that are more obnoxious with all odious constructions Accordingly in the first place to propagate Defection and promote Division a Proclamation was emitted anno 1679 inveighing against and resolutely interdicting all Field-meetings and granting Liberty to Preach in Houses upon terms of a cautionary Bond binding and oblieging the People for their Ministers living peaceably and in Order thereto to present him before his Majesties Privy Council when they should be called so to do And in caise of falizie in not presenting him to be lyable to the sum of 6000 merks Yet excluding all these Ministers who were suspect to have been at that insurrection of Bothwel And all those who should afterwards be admitted by Non conformed Ministers Whereby those that durst not comply were exceedingly divided and more easily destroyed For their Courts of cruel Inquisition went by Circuit through the Country pressing the Bond of Peace denying the Principle and renouncing the Priviledge of Defensive Arms And taking up Portuous Rolls of all that were suspect to have been at Bothwel insurrection whereof they reputed all to be convict who being summoned did not appear or were delated by Oath super inquirendis to have been seen or heard to be in Armes or did not go to the Kings Camp about that time Whereby not only upon the account of that Appearance were many executed to the Death by packing bloody Juries and Assises as might conduce and be for their murdering ends besides more than can be reckoned that were kept to perish in Prisons or Deportations to Banishment But many Gentlemen and others were Indyted Imprisoned and some condemned to Death others Forefaulted or Fyned above the value of their Estates for having seen or spoken with some of those called Rebels or because they did not discover or apprehend them even when they did not and could not know whether they were called or counted Rebels or not And some poor People when they could not be reached any way for this insurrection at Bothwell nor any other overt Act or Transgression against even
And yet notwithstanding of an Indemnity October 2 1688 alledged as ample as Absolute Power could make it tho not expresly excluded they were detained Prisoners until the Report of his Highness the Prince of Orange now King of Brittain his prevailing and fear of his Victorious Arms did move them not to keep any longer any that might be evidences and Witnesses of their Arbitrary cruelty As the same reason also it seems did constrain them to take down and bury the heads of those they murdered for fear lest these monuments of their cruelty standing might occasion the Question to be moved by whom and for what they were set up Than which nothing shall be more confounding to them when inquisition shall be made for blood Thus these Enemies of the Country the encroaching Privy Council and the Prelates in special now universally contemned since the Toleration were going on in their Designs to enslave the Nation and to prevent and suppress all Essayes to retrive or revive any hopes of recovering any Liberty Multiplying their searches not only for us but for any that were suspected to favour their present Majesties Cause and undertaking so soon as it began to be surmised here and laying up in irons and closs prison some Gentlemen upon suspicion of their being privy to it And as soon as they had certain intelligence of King William his great and generous Resolutions in order to the Restauration and Preservation of Religion Laws and Liberties in these three Kingdoms They made such vigorous preparations for opposition and issued out such virulent Proclamations inveighing against his Highness under such severities of certifications requiring all from 60 to 16 to concur under their displayed Banner for Arbitrary Government as if they had feared an Invasion from Turks or Tartars Yet in the mean time tho there were suspicions then and discoveries since of an intended Popish Massacre they disarmed the Western Shires and sent Orders to the Officers of Forces especially imploying such as were professedly Popish to go through the Country and take all their Armes leaving them nothing to defend themselves withal and causing the People to swear that they had no other Armes than such as they got And in their march meeting with some of our number they threatned to shoot them presently if they would not own King Iames pray for him and for confusion to all his Enemies which they refusing at first were appointed to be shot and had their faces covered with Napkins and with great difficulty escaped by complying By the former Summary and abridged Abstract and compendious Deduction of our many and manifold Grievances the Truth whereof can be evidenced by many demonstrative Evidences it may appear what have been our sufferiugs since that fatal Revolution anno 1660 from the Popish Prelatical and Malignant Party and what have been their Attempts Machins and Methods to overturn our Religion Laws and Liberties and subject us to meer Arbitrary and Absolute Tyrannie At least what have been their capital Devices whereby they have ruined and sought to raze us And what have been the principal causes and kinds of our Sufferings in their prosecuting the same The particular Relation of which so far as can be collected is intended GOD willing afterwards in due season to be published Only here it may not be inconvenient to subjoyn by way of specimen a short Recapitulation in bulk of some instances of our several kinds of Sufferings with a touch at some of the most principal Instruments thereof in the five Western Shires First For Fines and other Exorbitant and Illegal Exactions of Money the particular summs cannot be here enumerated but their vastness when together calculate may be easily collected by the scraps already gathered of some poor Families of Farmers Cottars Servants c. and many of these omitted or not known which would very considerably augment the summ in some few Shires viz. Clidsdale Renfrew Air Galloway Nithsdale and Annandale only for but a few years to wit since Bothwel bridge insurrection amounting to above 288000. pounds Scots Money Besides the many honest Families which have been casten out of their houses harassed and spoiled of their All Some of their houses being thrown down some Burnt some shut up their goods and moveables seized upon their Crop and Cattel also disposed of at the will of their Persecuters in the forementioned Shires amounting to above 200 of all which we have a particular account in readiness to instruct The immediate Authors Actors and Instruments of these oppressions were principally the Curates instigating the Privy Council which impowered the Forces and Noblemen and Gentlemen of the Country to prey upon the poor People All cannot be here expressed but some of the most noted in the Western Shires shall be named who were the greatest Persecuters and Oppressors by Finings and other Exactions Of Officers of the Forces Col. Dowglas now Liev Gen. Dowglas Brother to the Duke of Queensberry exacted above 2000 Pounds Scots Money in Galloway Nithsdale Shire of Aire and other Places Liev. Gen. Drumond besides the Forefaultries of Gentlemen did also exact moneys of the poor in the Shire of Air. The Earl of Lithgow and his Souldiers spoiled much in Galloway The Earl of Airly and his Troup in the same Shire The Lord Balearras a great Oppressor in Galloway besides all the Robberies he committed in Fife Graham of Claverhouse afterwards Viscount of Dundee with his Brother and subaltern Officers in Galloway Nithsdale and Anandale exacted by Fines and otherwise above 13500 pounds Scots money Col Buchan a most violent persecuter in Galloway and Shire of Air by Robberies took from the People upwards of 4000 pounds Scots Major Cockburn a great oppressor in Galloway Major White in Clidsdale and shire of Air exacted by Fines and otherwise above 2500. p Scots Major Balfour now called Liev Col Balfour a great persecuter and Oppressor in Clidsdale Captain Strauchan with his Troup oppressed and spoiled much in Galloway other places Captain Inglis with his Troup did dispossess many Families and got much spoil in Galloway shire of Air and Clidsdale Captain Dowglas in Galloway committed much outrage and spoil Captain Dalzel harassed much in Anandale Captain Bruce in Nithsdale Meldrum in Clidsdale in several Inroads uplifted from poor Families upwards of 2300 Pounds besides the vast summes he exacted in Mers and Tiviotdale with the Earle of Hume Ker of Gradown Laird of Hayning and Blindlee and in Tweddale with the Laird of Possa all great Persecuters Liv. Winram in Galloway a very vigilant Persecuter and Spoyler Liev. Barns also in the same Shire took much Spoyl Liev. Iohn Living stoun a most violent Persecuter and Exacter Liev. Lauder in the Shire of Air a most outragious Persecuter and Oppressor Bonshaw a Borderer a High-way Man afterwards an Officer of Dragoons robbed much from the poor People in Clidsdale Duncan Grant a Creple with a Tree Leg a very outragious Persecuter exacted in Clidsdale from
unto followed Such as had not served the Enemy in destroying nor engaged by Oaths and Tests to destroy the cause now to be sought for and defended But that they should be well affected of approven Fidelity and of a sober conversation Having also declared That the cause they were called to appear for was the service of the Kings Majesty in the defence of the Nation Recoverie and preservation of the Protestant Religion and in particular the work of Reformation in Scotland in opposition to Popery Prelacy and Arbitrary Power in all its Branches and Steps until the Government of Church and State be brought to their Lustre and Integrity established in the best and purest times Upon these terms we offered to compleat two or three more Regiments if it had been accepted But before we offered to be Souldiers we had first made an offer to be Subjects And because we did not look upon our selves as Subjects to the Late King who treated us as Enemies We made therefore a voluntary Tender of our Subjection in a peculiar Petition by our selves which we purposed to have given in to the Meeting of Estates at their first sitting down We shewed it to several Honourable Members but by their Advice it was delayed until the Meeting prevented the purpose of it by Proclaiming the King and Queen The Tenor whereof here Follows TO THE MEETING of ESTATES Of the Kingdom of SCOTLAND THE NOBLEMEN BARONS and BVRGESSES Lawfully Called and Chosen now Assembled at Edinburgh for Establishing the Government Restoring and Securing the True Religion Laws and Liberties of the said Kingdom The Humble PETITION of the poor People who have Suffered Grievous Persecution for their Revolt from and disowning the Authority of James the VII Pleading for the devolving the Government upon the Prince of Orange now King of England SHEWETH THat the sad effects of the Late Arbitrary and Tyrannical Course of Government which these Nations and we in a special manner have been groaning under these years past From which to Relieve them the Most Serene and Illustrious Prince of Orange was induced by the Propitious Conduct of a very Glorious Providence to Undertake this Noble and Heroick Enterprise And for Redressing which This Honourable Convention is Called and Conveened Together with the revived hopes since His Highness Auspicious Arrival that all honnest men have begun to conceive and entertain of getting their Grievances freely Represented and Redressed The denyal whereof these several years hath been to us and many others a Grievance very grievous Have necessitate incited invited and encouraged us among others tho of the meanest Figure and lowest Interest in this great Affair Yet as persons pressed to declare and oppressed for declaring their Consciences Sentiments and Resentments of the Late abused Government to take the Boldness now to open our hearts to this Great and Honourable Meeting And with all humility as becomes to Represent to Your Honours That as we conceive we wanted not Right and Reason upon Consciencious Grounds to decline the Illegally extorted and Arbitrarly imposed acknowledgement of our Allegiance unto Iames the VII Whose Authority we could never own because of his Illegal Investiture without taking or being in Capacity to take the Oath of Coronation while addicted to Poperie contrare to the Laws of God and Man because of his Advancing the Prerogative unto an Illimited and most Despotical Absolutness which all were required to obey without Reserve And because of his Arbitrary abusing it to the undermining and overturning our Religion Laws and Liberties and intended Introduction of Poperie and Slaverie at the opened gap of the Prelatical Hierarchy Erastian Supremacy and the Late vastly extended Toleration And because we could not own it our Sufferings have been very great known to this and other Nations and we are confident will not now be condemned by any that have espoused the Cause and have been honoured to concur in the Enterprise of Rescuing these Nations from the Unsupportable Yoke of the Late Popish Domination upon the same or equivalent grounds on which we durst not own it So we prostrate ourselves yet sorrowing under the smart of our still bleeding wounds at your Honours Feet who have a Call a Capacity and we hope a good mind to cure them And offer this our Petition enforced by all the formerly felt presently seen and for the future feared Effects and Efforts of this Throne of Iniquity and the mischief thereby framed into Law and practised or projected against all Law by the Cry of the Blood of our murdered Brethren by the slavery of the banished free born Subjects of this Realm by all the miseries that many forefeited disinhereted harassed and wasted honest Families have been redacted to their Estates and Lives being at the mercy of incensed Souldiers for adhering unto the Ancient Covenanted Establishments of Religion and Liberty And by all the Arguments of Justice Necessity and Mercy that ever could conciliate Commiseration among Men of Wisdom Piety and Vertue humbly Beseeching Requesting and Craving of your H Now when GOD hath given you this opportunity to Act for His Glory the good of the Church and Nation your own Honour and the Happiness of Posterity Now when this Kingdom the Neighbouring and all other Nations of Europe have their Eyes upon you expecting you will acquit your selves like the Representatives of a free Nation in redeeming it from Slaverie otherwise ineluctable following the Noble footsteps of your Renowned Ancestors and the present Precedent and Pattern of this Honourable Convention and Parliament now sitting in England That you will proceed without any farther Procrastinations alwayes especially now Dangerous when Papists and other Malignant Enemies are openly attempting to raise a Rebellion against the State to declare the late Iniquous Government dissolved the Crown Vacant and Iames VII whom we never have and resolve with many Thousands never again to owne to have really Forfeited and rightly to be deprived of all Right and Title he could ever pretend thereunto And to provide that it may never be in the Power of any succeeding Governour for the time to come to aspire unto or arrive at such a Capacity of Tyrannizing Moreover since Anarchy and Tyranny are equally to be detested and the Nation cannot subsist without a Righteous Governour and none can have a nearer Right nor fitter Qualifications than his Illustrious Highness whom the Most High hath signally Owned and Honoured to be our deliveror from Popery end Slavery We Cry and Crave that King William now of England may be Chosen and Proclaimed King of Scotland and that the Regal Authority be devolved upon him with such necessary Provisions Limitations and Conditions of Compact as may give Iust and Legal Securities of the Peace and Purity of our Religion Stability of our Laws priviledges of Parliaments and Subjects Liberties Civil and Ecclesiastick and make our Subjection both a clear Duty and a comfortable Happiness And because Kings are but Men mortal mutable and
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
applied unto But as Magistrates ought to interpose their Power for extruding and easing the people of Intruders so when they abuse it to the re inforcing of these intrusions honnest and zealous people can as hardly be restrained from resisting such Invasions and Impositions against the Laws of GOD and Man as they can be kept from withstanding a violent Invader of their Property or Intruder on their Heritage For our part as we thought it a seasonable duty to take the opportunity of the Interregnum before the settlement of a Government that we could subject our selves to for cleansing the Western Shiers of these Creatures which was done with all the discretion that the confusions of that time and the feared shortness of that opportunity could admitt And whatever clamour they make of their Persecutions in their Late Printed Account and Information to the Church of England stuft with Lies we defy them to give an instance of any hurt done by us to any of their Persons or Families or to charge us with one Six-pence worth of their Goods If any have let it be proven and punished which if others in other places had imitated in that season with the like discretion the Nation might have been much eased and the Government prevented of a great deal of trouble So tho we are not for Persecuting them who were our greatest Persecuters nor rendering them any evil for their evil farther than to restrain them from coming back again to Persecute us and from Intruding where they have no Right Yet we are resolved through Gods Assistance to endeavour by all approven means to hold them out now when they are out And sooner to die and venture the loss of all things temporal than to suffer any of them to repossess themselves of the Churches whence they are thrown out or any other within our reach untill after sufficient Evidences of their remorse they shall come in at the door of CHRISTS Appointment If in this we Offend the Malignants in the Parliament or Council we cannot help it it is not the first time nor perhaps the last But for the Noble Honoured Patriots among them who are well affected to the Cause of Reformation the Nations good and his Majesties Honour and Happiness we are confident they will construct of our ingenuity in good part as flowing from conscience and Candor And we are hopeful his Majestie will Compassionat us in this matter and consider the Case that it is more for his Honour and Interest to have respect to the Consciences of so many People than to the humor and haughtiness of a few debauched Lords and Gentlemen who delight in these vexations and who by Custom as it were have it for their Element to impose upon poor Peoples Consciences And we hope his Majesty will think upon the Redressing of this Grievance of the Continuance of these Episcopal Curates who took notice of this as one of the Grievances in his Declaration that he came to relieve the Nation from In the netxt place as to the State tho we desire to be more abstract from these Administrations that are above our reach yet it is obvious and Grievous to all that desire the Establishment thereof in Righteousness and Peace that the settlement of Church and State both is Retarded and Obstructed by the frequent Adjournments of Parliaments in so Critical a Season when the Government is not well settled the Enemies thereof are prevailing the Friends thereof are sore discouraged and devided and the Forces have no Maintenance If ever there 〈◊〉 of Parliaments now it must be when the greatest Interests 〈◊〉 King and People are in so eminent Hazard And yet it is more Grievous that when they Conveen and have opportunity to Act for the good of the Nation the settlement of the Church Government and the Redress of Grievances the Disputes of divided Factions about things of lesser Moment do hinder their Establishing of those things that all agree are Absolutely necessary Time might be afterwards spared for many of these Debates with which the present precious opportunity is wasted and they might with more Advantage and Facility be Adjusted and Composed afterwards if once the Establishment of the Church and the Security of the Nation were provided for and these things for which they have his Majesties Instructions were Settled and Enacted But we fear these Differences are much Fomented by Self-seeking Malignant Incendiaries who love to Fish in troubled Waters and to pursue their selfish and sinistrous ends of Undermining the Church supplanting the King's Interest and betraying the Countries Liberties from whom these Disorders and Grievances have proceeded which are now desired to be Rectified and Redressed and from whose Influence all these Retardments and Disapointments do flow which the Nation so much complains of For as the open and avowed Enemies of the King and Country owning the late King Iames his Interest all consisting either of the Popish or Prelatical and Malignant Faction not so much as one Presbyterian being among them are very many Insolent and Prevalent not only in the Highlands but in all the hires of the Kingdom and no doubt have their Active Agents Correspondents and Abetters in the Parliament Council and all the Supreme Judicatories of the Kingdom so there are far moe secret undermining Enemies who for the time are not appearing in opposition to the Government that are as great Enemies to the King and Country and all Righteous Interests as any that do most appear who are now desiring Places and ingyring themselves into publick Trust not to serve King William whose Advancement to the Throne they opposed with all the Power and Policy they had nor simply to satisfy their Insatiable Ambition but to put themselves in better Capacity to serve King Iames in Retarding all Righteous Establishments Rending the Parliaments and Ruining Us all Yea however some may account it Policy it is not only a Grievance but a Sin dishonouring God and destructive to the Nation and a dangerous Politick threatning hazard to Religion and Liberty and the Government that many wicked Malignants Enemies to Reformation are admitted imployed in the publick Administrations as Officers of State Members of Council Parliament and other Judicatories and places of Trust who not only were our cruel Persecuters and Murderers of our Bretheren whose Blood cries for Vengence against them but were the professed and sworn Tools of the late Tyranny and Instruments of the Nations Slavery Ministring to King Iames and cooperating with him in all his Encroachments upon our Religion Laws and Liberties as absolute Vassals of his Despotical Will under Oaths and Pensionary Obligations to obey without reserve and to this day are either evil Counsellours to perswade the King to some degrees of Arbitrariness or very disaffected to the Government Counsellers to Encouragers of or Connivers at Rebellion against it It had been worthy Service to the Nation to have at first exposed these Men in their own