that professed Reformed Protestants should stand in so litle aw of a solemn Oath and Name of the great and living God But I exhort and obtest you all that so much the more as others have made void His Covenant you would esteem it the more precious and closely follow the Reformation vowed in every Article thereof upon all occasions given you of the Lord And that you abhor detest and refuse any engagement whatsoever that may wrong your Oath in the Covenant directly or indirectly as ye would escape the wrath of God that is coming on such breaking of Covenant but rather choise the greatest extremity of affliction then the least sin of this sort as Moses did who refused to be called the Son of Pharaoh's Daughter but chused rather to suffer reproach for Christ And be not afraid of suffering for Christ as though it were an evill thing neither scar ye at His cross for the Lord Himself saith My yoke is easy and My burthen light Yea it is lighter to us then to many that stand by Believe Faith maketh all burthens light to the believing Sufferer And now I beseech you believers in Christ abide in Him and bring forth fruit unto Holiness and study tenderness in all manner of conversation and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord And let not this profane and mocking Generation have any thing to reproach you with but that whereof you would not be ashamed that when you suffer ye may not suffer as evill doers that whereas they speak evill of you they may be ashamed that falsly accuse your good conversation in Christ It is not knowledge nor a bare Profession that glorifieth God but Tenderness Holiness and Righteousness that do commend Religion and His Cause to all men and shall convince your Adversaries of their Wickedness in wronging you and make them the more inexcusable in that day when they shall be judged Yea what know ye but ye may win others by your tender and good conversation I recommend to you that ye would be much and fervent in the use of that precious duty of Prayer wherein most near Communion with God upon earth is to be found Be much in prayer with and for others Forsake not the assembling of your selves together as the manner of some is I wish they may see the evill of it who neglect it but exhort one another and so much the more as ye see the day approaching Earnestness and diligence will hasten the Lord's coming with relief unto you and to the Lords born-down Work and your slackness in this may make the wheels of His chariot to move the more slowly For the effectuall fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much with God It will do more then Armies of men and weapons of War for your defence and deliverance I beseech you also my dear Friends that you acquaint yourselves with the Word of God in the Holy Scripture that ye may have acquaintance with Jesus Christ who is clearly set forth therein that ye may know Him in His excellency and come to love and believe in Him whom ye know that ye may be acquainted with His revealed will therein and may know what is truth and cleave fast thereto from a sure persuasion that it hath the warrant of His Word and may be guarded against every error of the wicked and that ye may fully know what is good and what is evill And that ye may suffer with confidence when ye are brought forth thereto as I am Finally my dear Friends be ye perfect be of good comfort be of one minde live in peace and the God of love and peace shall be with you JOHN WODROW The Copy of JOHN WODROW His Letter to His Wife dated Decemb 22. 1666. which was the Day on which He suffered My Heart REverence the good Providence of the Lord our God who can do nothing wrong For whatsoever He doth is well-done and my Soul faith Amen I had not a will of my own my Heart since that day wherein Yow and I parted My Lord and my God captivated it brought it to a submission unto His will I bless Him for evermore for it that I was never left to my own will Praise O praise Him all ye living And O thou my soul praise the Lord for it I bless the Lord for evermore that ever He visited my Fathers Family that ever He condescended to come unto my Fathers Family and to give a visit to the like of me He visited me there and set his Love upon me and hath chosen me for this very end to be a witness for his covenanted Reformation For this my Soul is glad and my Glory rejoyceth for this Honour wherewith He hath honoured me And that though I be condemned to die by men on earth yet am I justifyed of God through the blood of my Saviour Jesus Christ who standeth in our nature in Heaven and hath made me free through his imputed Righteousness made over unto me in which I stand for ever And within a few hours I shall see Him in peace as I am seen of Him and behold and wonder and wonder behold for evermore even that most glorious excellency which is in Him All that which is spoken of Him is but litle O my Heart my dear Love come and see I beseech yow I thought I had known something of my dearest Lord before that I had some love from and to Him before But never was it so with me as it hath been with me since I came within the doors of this Prison many a precious visit hath his gracious Majesty given unto me He is without all comparison O love love Him 0 come to Him O taste and see and that shall resolve the question best The thing I suffer for is the Covenanted Reformation I bless God and all that is within me doth bless and magnify His Holy Name for this tnat Scotland did ever enter into a Covenant with the Lord into a sworn Covenant with the hand lifted up to the Lord And I have now sworn and renued this Covenant again for my self you and my four Children in all the parts and points thereof And I pray God help you to abide in the Covenant for ever And now I give you and my four Children unto the Lord and commit you ro Him as your Covenanted God and Husband my Childrens Covenanted Father I say no more but either study to be indeed a sincere Christian a seeker of His face in sincerity or else you will be nothing at all I recommend you and your young-ones to Him who is God All-sufficient and aboundeth in Mercy and Love to them that Love Him and keep his Covenant The blessing of the Covenant be upon you so fare you well So saith Your loving and dying Husband JOHN WODROW The Testimony of RALPH SHIELDS An English-man who died in Edinburgh Decemb. 22. 1666. My Friends I Am come here to die and I thank God it
and Inclinations of Persons Times and Places or the pretended conveniency of Civil Policy as to leave Doctrin and Worship thus Indifferent and arbitrarily determinable and variable according to these crooked and changable rules If Church Government must be Indifferent and thus arbitrarily determinable and Ambulatory because the Holy Scripturs do not Expressly affirme that Presbyterial Government is the Only Government which should be in the Christian Church and also Expressly declare that it is Unalterable to the worlds end and that the first Institution and Practice thereof by the Apostles and their Successors in the Ministry never was nor shall be Repealed why may not the Civil Magistrat or any other arrogating a power of Instituting or Altering Church Government or Officers by Parity of reason make many other Necessary and Practicall points of Faith which are not more Expressly declared by the Holy Scriptures to be Unalterable Truths then Presbyterial Government is though all be evident enough to be also Indifferent arbitrarily determinable mutable then farewel Infant-baptisme Womens receaving of the Lords Supper observation of the first day of the week for the Christian Sabbath yea farewel Law Testimony more sure Word of Prophecy whereunto we should go take heed for a new Rule of Faith Practice welcome Humane Prudence State-Policy Corrupt Changable Disposition of man pretended Necessity or Conveniency of State Time Place yea welcome all Doctrins Practices which though they were once positively prohibited can alleage that the Scripture doth not Expressly declare that they never were nor shall be repealed And where are we then In vain is the Law in vain is the pen of the Scribe and every one without transgression may do what seemeth good in his own eyes if only he can Temporize and offeâ—d not the Civil Magistrat by violation of his Arbitrary Institutions and Lawes in Church affâ—iâ—s wherein he must be Supream O my soul come not intâ— the secrets of such Latitudinarian or rather in this Nullifidian Adiaphorists We would not be here mistaken as if we denyed to the Civil Magistrat any Power which the Holy Scriptures allow unto Him for as we assert his Office to be an Ordinance of God and his Person being lawfully therewith vested to be signally impressed with a special Character of Majestick Authority wherefore in a due Subordination to Him who is Lord over all He should be subjected to and obeyed So we chearfully grant that whereas the Heathen Magistrat because of his Morall incapacity to Exerce more power about Religion and Ecclesiastical affairs hath only a Power in Actu signaâ—o and â—us ad rem the Christian Magistrat hath Ius in re and in Actu Exercito may and should by his Lawes establish the true Religion within his dominions and command his Subjects to make publick profession thereof That by his Civil Sanction he may and should Ratify Ecclesiasticall Sentences aggreeable to the Word of God That anent these he may and should Exercise an Antecedent Discretive Iudgment whereby he may not adde an Implicit approbation That for Preaching and Propagation of the Gospel and for nursing of Piety and Learning he may and should provide Necessary and Convenient accommodation and encouragement as to Persons Places and Revenues That for his own Information and Advice he may call Occasionall Meetings of Church Officers and others to Confer and Debate matters before him That Pro râ— nata he may Convocate Ecclesiasticall Synods to reason and conclude Church affairs according to the Scripture That for his own Information and for preventing of Outward Force and Inward Confusion he may be Present therein by Himself or his Delegats That by his Power he may and should Defend and Encourage the Church in the free and peaceable Possession of all her Intrinsecall Priviledges and all the Members thereof in the Profession and Practice of the same That by the same Authority he may and should repress Error Heresy Superstition Atheisme Blasphemy and Profanness and Punish the Authors and Spreaders thereof That in case of negligence he may Command all and even Ministers to perâ—orme their râ—spective duties in general as necessity requireth And that for Civil transgressions he may Civilly puniâ—h Ecclâ—siastical Persons as well as other Subjects according to the Law of God and Righteous Lawes of the Land The Zealous discharge of all which we would thankfully acknowledg to God and Man as the Faithfull performance of that gracious Promise that Kings shall be the Churches nursing â—atheâ—s But if discontented herewith as if all this together with the Weighty affairs of the Common wealth were too little work for his Transcendent Power and Abilities and as if Jesus Christ had no Kingdom or Government or these were not distinct from the Kingdoms and Government of the World or though thâ—y were as if he were equally Head and Fountain of both He will needs aâ—bitrarily Institut or Alter the Species of Church Government Authorise Exauthorise or Restrain Church-Officers in the Exercise of the Power of Order or Jurisdiction in whole or in part as the Parliament and Councill have prohibited some Hundreds the whole Exercise of their Ministry and the High Commission which claimeth no power but what is solely and immediatly derived from the King hath deprived some from the Office interdicted Others the administration of the Lords Supper If he will Define Articles of Faith and prescribe what heads of Doctrine Ministers shall treat or not treat of in their Sermons as the King hath done in his printed Letter to the Bishop of York And thereupon Primarily Immediatly and Antecedently to any Judgment of the Church which is the Pillar of Truth and to which the Spirits of the Prophets are Subject Cognosce and Determine of Ministers Doctrine when the Church herself is willing and ready to try the Spirits And Criminally or Capitally punish them therefore under the pretence of Treason and Rebellion as several instances can be adduced against King and Councill in the series of our Church If he will Ordain particular Church Censurs to to be executed against particular persons for particular definite Ecclesiastical alleaged offences leaving nothing undone by Himself in person but the Execution of what he hath appointed As the Parliament hath appointed Suspension and Deprivation of Ministers for not observing the Bishops meetings and the King in his Commission to the High Commission hath appointed Excommunication whereas they may as well Immediatly Suspend Deprive and Excommunicat themselves as Appoint them to be executed in the manner specified in the said Act of Parliament and Commission If after the example of Antichristian or Pagan Nations he will Institut and Enjoin Needless Vain Superstitious Significant and Burdensome Rits in the Worship of God as most of the Imposed Ceremonies in the Lyturgy can be instructed be If he will arrogate the Sole Power of convocating Ecclesiastical Synods which is an Intrinsecall priviledg of the Church
consequents thereof are very observable which were thus Mr Sharp having formerly been intimately familiar with Mr Wood came to visite him under his Sickness whereunto Sharps Apostacy had no small accession thereafter did falsely spread a report by word writ that Mr Wood had reseiled from Presbyterial Government Whereof when Mr Wood was informed he was of new grievously affected and afflicted and thereupon for his own Vindication left this Testimony behind him But Mr Sharp finding himself thereby made a publlck lyar making lyes still his refuge pursueth Mr Wood being dead as well as alive with a new slander alleaging his Testimony to be Fictitious or Extorted from him when through distemper of his sickness he knew not what he did and thereupon caused summond the Witnesses the Writter and some other persons before the High Commission But the contrary of this was and is most Evident not only because this Testimony was written and subscribed a considerable number of dayes before his Death dureing which intervall as before he was so composed that he spake many gracious words about his own soul Ordered his Civil affairs and a famous Physician was not without hopes of his Recovery But also because hearing that some of his faithful Brethren Co-Presbyters were in the town he sent once again for them and before them and some other Ministers at other times purged himself of that unjust Imputation and did bear witness for Presbyterial Government more fully freely then is in the written Testimony some time thereafter of his own accord did call for the Writter there being none other present in the chamber at the beginning did indite and cause him writ the same as it now is without any Alteration as also in a Letter written some considerable time before inviting Mr Carstairs to come and visite him he had made mention of the Backsliding Tryalls and Sufferings of the times and expressed his desire to Live that he might give a more free Testimony to the Truth Notwithstanding all which Mr Sharp obstructing the reading of a Letter written by Mr Carstairs to the Chancelor containing and clearing the matter of fact persisted with great Attestations before the High Commission in his former false alleagance and Slandering both of the Dead and the Living and caused imprison the Writer and one of the witnesses and forced the other whom for his eminent Parts Holiness and Faithfulness he most pursued to a Retirement for his own safety What shall be given to Thee O Sharp Or what shall be done to Thee O false Tongue Sharp arrows of the Mighty and Coals of Juniper The Nationall Covenant OR The Confession of Faith of the Kirk of Scotland subscribed at first by the Kings Majesty and his Houshold in the yeare 1580. Thereafter by Persons of all rankes in the yeare 1581 By ordinance of the Lords of the Secret Councill and Acts of the general Assembly Subscribed againe by all sorts of Persons in the Yeare 1590 By a new Ordinance of Council at the desire of the General Assembly With a General Band for maintenance of the true Religion the Kings Person And now subscribed in the Year 1638. By Us Noblemen Barons Gentlemen Burgesses Ministers and Commons then under-subscribing Together with our resolution and promises for the causes after specified To maintaine the said true Religion and the Kings Majesty according to the Confession foresaid and Acts of Parliament And now upon the Supplication of the General Assembly to His Majesty's high Commissioner and the Lords of his Majesty's Honorable Privy Council subscribed again in the Year 1639. by Ordinance of Council and Act of General Assembly The Tenor whereof here followeth WE All and every one of Us underwritten Protest that after long and due Examination of our owne Consciences in matters of true false Religion We are now throughly resolved of the Truth by the Word and Spirit of God and therefore we believe with our hearts confess with our mouths subscribe with our hands and constantly affirme before God and the whole Word that this onely is the true Christian Faith and Religion pleasing God and bringing Salvation to man which now is by the mercy of God revealed to the world by the preaching of the blessed Evangel and receaved believed and defended by many and sundry notable Kirks and Realmes but chiefly by the Kirk of Scotland the Kings Majesty and three estates of this Realme as Gods eternall Truth and onely ground of our Salvation as more particularly is expressed in the Confession of our Faith stablished and publickly confirmed by sundry Acts of Parliament and now of a long time hath beene openly professed by the Kings Majesty and whole body of this Realme both in Burgh and Land To the which Confession and forme of Religion wee willingly agree in our consciences in all points as unto Gods undoubted Truth and Verity grounded onely upon his written Word And therefore we abhorre and detest all contrary Religion and Doctrine But chiefly all kinde of Papistry in generall and particular heads even as they are now damned and confuted by the Word of God and Kirk of Scotland but in special we detest and refuse the usurped authority of that Roman Antichrist upon the Scriptures of God upon the Kirk the civill Magistrate and conscience of men All his tyrannous lawes made upon indifferent things against our Christian liberty His erronious Doctrine against the sufficiency of the written Word the perfection of the Law the office of Christ and his blessed Evangel His corrupted Doctrine concerning originall sinne our naturall inability and rebellion to Gods Law our Justification by faith only our imperfect Sanctification and obedience to the Law the nature number and use of the Holy Sacraments His five bastard Sacraments with all his Rites Ceremonies and false Doctrine added to the ministration of the true Sacraments without the Word of God His cruell judgement against Infants departing without the Sacrament his absolute necessity of Baptisme his blasphemous opinion of Transubstantiation or reall presence of Christs body in the Elements and receiving of the same by the wicked or bodies of men His dispensations with solemne Oathes Perjuries and degrees of Mariage forbidden in the Word his cruelty against the innocent divorced his divellish Masse his blasphemous Priesthood his profane Sacrifice for the sinnes of the dead and the quick his Canonization of men calling upon Angels or Saints departed worshipping of Imagery Relicts and Crosses dedicating of Kirks Altars Dayes Vowes to creatures his Purgatory Prayers for the dead praying or speaking in a strange language with his Processions and blasphemous Letany and multitude of Advocates or Mediators his manifold Orders Auricular Confession his desperate and uncertaine Repentance his general and doubtsome Faith his satisfactions of men for their sinnes his Justification by works opus operatum works of Supererogation Merits Pardons Peregrinations and Stations his holy water baptising of Bells conjuring of Spirits crossing saning
and other essentiall Censures given by God to the spirituall Office-bearers in His Church and warranded by His Word are ratifyed is even in so far and totally cassed and rescinded And that the World may know how presumptuous and absurd this Usurpation is which cannot be justly conceaved without an instance of it's effects we here subjoyn that 4 Act. Sess 3. of the same Parliament for the constitution of a National Synod wherein the King is made soveraignly and properly to constitute this Assembly both as to the Appointment of it's Members Constituent and of it's constant President the absolute regulation of things there to be proposed which are declared to be only such as He shall please to signify the determination and limitation of it's Decisions which are to be agreed to by the President as well as the major part and providing that they be not contrary to the Prerogative or the Laws of the Realm And lastly as to the necessity of the King's presence in person or by his Commissioner and of his Ratification and Approbation without which no Act or Deed is to be of any force Now let the World consider what he could have done more in the constitution and regulation of his own Court of Exchequer And if he hath not done all as to the constitution of this Court immediatly depending upon our Lord Jesus Christ and his sole Authority which He Himself hath done or possibly could do by what warrand or rule He who is King of Kings will require We shal not here stand to examine these Acts according to former Laws Oaths and Engagements hereby most fearfully violated and contemned This is a strain of wickedness above all that former times could imagine O! that God would speak to the Authors but not in his wrath and as he hath set His only Son upon his holy Hill of Zicn so he would cause them to fear His displeasure that they may yet be wise and instructed to kiss the Son left he be angry and they perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a litle Surely to define that the sole Power and Jurisdiction of this Church doth not stand within the same but in some thing without beside our Lord Jesus and that the same is fountain'd in and derived from the King and that all Church-Officers in all Church matters are accountable to him who is neither thereto Gifted nor Called is to set the King upon our Lord Jesus his Throne and a high derogation from and reflection upon him who hes builded the Temple of the Lord bears the Glory sits and rules both as King Priest upon His Throne Who more worthy then Moses was faithful and perfect as a Son over His own House and therefore did not leave His Church destitute of any such necessary and proper Officer or Assister when neither King nor Prince was so much as members thereof And lastly it 's a plain Perversion in stead of Performance of that Promise made to the Church Isai 49. ver 23. That Kings should be it's Nursing Fathers where in place of Dominion there Submission is expresly injoyned they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the Earth We know that this empty Notion of External Policy is vainly pretended to colour the matter But seeing whatsoever can be meaned by external Policy even as to outward decency and Order is either particularly determined by our Lord Himself and His blessed Apostles or under the definition of General and Evident Rules left unto the Churches arbitriment whereby the King being no Church-Officer upon a double account is clearly excluded and seing that under the pretence of this External Policy the greatest most superstitious Novations in the pure Worship of God and the greatest Corruptions and Abuses both by the appointment of new Officers in the Church of Christ without His own warrand and the usurping and perverting of the Power of Spiritual Censures in the Government of Gods House may be and have been introduced we doubt not but all rational men do see the delusions of such vain pretences And certainly since the Act it self doth proceed to grant the King all the Power in over both Ecclesiastick Causes Persons that can be imagined it would be but ordinary ingenuity in our Adversaries plainly to assert that the King is the Great Apostle and Vicegerent of our Lord Jesus Christ in and over His House Although they should not only appear herein destitute of any better warrand then this present Act of Parliament But most plainly to justify al the Usurpation that ever the Pope or Antichrist can be charged with 6. Bishops being thus restored and admitted to sit and give voice in Parliament this Mixture and the Power of their Antichristian Spirit doth quickly exert it self And without regard to the nature of Parliamentary and all Civil Powers which are no wayes conversant about things and perswasions only Internal and meerly appertaining to conscience or to the Word of God which is the ground and warrant upon which all Power whatsoever being only Declarative in matters of this kind ought certainly and expresly to proceed They procure a Dogmatick Act declaring these Positions That it is lawful to Subjects for Reformation or necessary Self-defence to enter into Leagues or take up Arms against the King and such like to be Rebellious and treasonable and particularly that the National Covenant as it was explained in the Year 1638 and the Solemn League and Covenant were and are in THEMSELVES UNLAWFUL OATHS and were taken by and imposed upon the Subjects of this Kingdom against the Fundamental Law and Liberties thereof Which neither they nor all the invention of Hell is able to condescend upon or instruct And therefore out of the plenitude of their power as much as ever any Pope pretended to they loose the Obligation of Conscience and free the Subjects of their Engagements And further to compleat this their Wickedness they appoint a Declaration of this High Impiety to be signed by all in Publick Trust that none may be admitted to or exerce the same except they receave in their right hand or in their foreheads this their accursed mark O! Lord our God thow art of purer eyes then to behold Evil and canst not look on Iniquity VVherefore lookst thou on them that deal treacherously and holds thy tongue when the wicked devour the man that is more righteous then he Yet surely O Lord thou hast ordained them for judgement and O mighty God thou hast estabished them for correction Can the World beleeve that a whole Nation in it's most National Capacity including King Parliament and the body of the People should after most clear and evident convictions and signal Manifestations of the Glory and presence of God in the most important and holy Concernments of all Truth and Righteousness most solemnly as it were to day engage themselves by Oath unto the Lord and to morrow without so much as seriously
Ministers who dare to preach in contempt of that Act to be punished as Seditious persons and also to be careful to remove and dispossess such who should be Suspended or Deprived for non-conforming declaring that if they thereafter presume to exercise their Ministry they should be punished as Seditious persons Thus in the height of Perfidy and Violence men under the pretext of abused and perverted Authority proceed to dare and presume against God their own Consciencâ—â— all their Sacred Indissoluble Oaths and Engagements and to persecut such for preaching who standing stedfast therein and having a dispensation of the Gospel committed unto them by him who is King in Zion higher then the Kings of the Earth may out to contemn the menaces of vain Man in regard of that heavy and severe woe sounding in their ears if they preach not the Gospel But the Act doth furder proceed to require of all a due Acknowledgement of and hearty Complyance with the Kings Government Ecclesiastical and Civil and therefore to ordain and declare that who ever shal ordinarily and wilfully withdraw and absent themselves from the ordinary Meetings for divine VVorship in their own Churches on the Lords day whether upon the account of Popery or other dissaffection shall incurre each Heritor the loss of a fourth of that years rent each Yeoman the loss of a fourth or under of his moveables each Burgess the loss of his Liberty and Burgeship with the fourth of his moveables and concludes with a reference to the Council for further punishment more effectual execution likeas in order hereunto the Council by several Proclamations since have so much intended the severity of this Act that every Parish in stead of having a Lawfull Pastor is now inslaved to a Graceless Violent Hireling as it's Lord and Master and to the extortion of Souldiours appointed for his Executioners and Exactors We shall not here debate the Lawfulness or Unlawfulness of the Obedience here required only for the vindication of many thousands of the Faithful who by their sufferings have born Testimony against this Act we add 1. that waving the ordinary captious maner of proposing the question in the terms of Hearing or nor Hearing which strickly taken are not the subject thereof we are assured that none seriously pondering the obligation of the Oath of God sincerely really constantly all the dayes of our life to endeavour the extirpation of Prelats and their dependants but they will acknowledge that the owning of and submitting to the Apostat Curats according to this Act as our Ministers is most diametrally opposit thereto Can we Lawfully Own such whom we are bound to abhorre Or Submit to such whom we are bound to extirpate Surely this were to rebuild what we have destroyed 2. That though some nimble Sophisters who fear not after vowes to make inquiry can and have swallowed both Owning and Submitting as not repugnant to the duty of Extirpation yet seing the direct contrary thereof is by the terms themselves very significantly imported and that these terms were for this express cause and design particularly elected and made choice of by the Parliament for ranversing of the Obligation of the holy Covenant no sober man will be tempted by their delusion to think either that Owning and Submitting signify no more then Simple Submitting or that that Active Assenting and Complying Submission here mean'd is no more then that Stil and Passive Submission unto which men by the force of inevitable necessity and against their wills are oftentimes constrained 3. That whoever pretending to enter into the Ministery doth presumptuously contemn and despise the sacred Rule and Order of Entry appointed by the great Shepherd cannot be reputed to enter by the Door nor to be so much as Externally by him Sent or Called But such as do enter by gross and palpable Perjury and wicked Violence and Intrusion do without question contemn the sacred Rule and Order of Gods Word so that to admit such to be so much as Externally Called were to make the God of Order the Author of Confusion and him who is the Truth the favourer of Perjury We know that this notion of an External Call is conceited by many to be no other thing then the performance of such Rites and Solemnities as are prescribed to the Admission of a Minister done by such a Person or Persons on whom the like hath been performed but seing that by many instances of gross Disorder and Violence which are obvious for any man to suppose many absurdities might be hence inferred and that to be Externally Called according both to the meaning of Truth and the import of the words is to have such a Visible Evidence of the Call of Iesus Christ as in Reason and Charity doth oblige all men to receave the person so called as truely sent Certainly if any Person force his own Entry into the Ministry by open and profane Contempt of the Rule and Order given by our Lord Jesus he doth in like maner as palpably disprove any Evidence of a Lawful Call which he can pretend to no man is obliged either to Beleeve him to be Called or to Receave him as Sent. Which things are so evident in themselves that whoever denyeth them is obliged by the same consequence to affirm that if Simon Magus had in his horrid wickedness purchased the Apostleship by money the Christian World had been bound to Receave him as an Apostle 4. Though we are not to lanch out into these depths how the Soveraignity of Divine Providence hath suffered Churches to fall away into Apostacy and again recovered them and if during these times of Apostacy a standing Ministry still continued or how long it did if not what way it was revived and raised up in which cases true Faith in Jesus Christ which is the substance of all and a conscientious walking according to the measure of the times doth certainly purge and sustain many things otherwise chargeable with Informality Yet of this weare confident that it hath alwayes been both the sin and misery of all Apostatizing Churches that they have not resisted the beginnings of Defection and when the Authors theirof did prove incorrigible though formerly Ministers that they did not separate from them and account them as Heathens and Publicans which course if duely and zealously observed had undoubtedly put a great stop and hinderance to the rise and wicked Usurpation of Antichrist all whose malice and violence without the delusion and complyance of such who ought to have resisted them had never proven so effectual 5. That a man may be a Minister and yet not a Minister unto all so as to oblige them to receave him as sent to them which may be intuitively understood beyond the light and power of any demonstration if we but suppose the case of a particular Congregation living under and acknowledging their own lawful Pastor that amongst such a few violent persons arising bring in
not the Common-wealth let the Covenant Conscience be rooted out then come on us what will these are the only enemies of their usurpations wicked lusts and therefore must be accounted so both to King and Countrey against these are our forces leavyed and maintained and unto this design their numbers must be modelled and our exactions proportioned The arraying of the Countrey and establishing of the Militia conform to our ancient Laws and Liberties may possibly arm the Prelats enemies surely that course would not so violently press Conformity and execute their cruelty nor so largely gratify a few Nobles who by the command of the troops must be made sharers of the spoil and booty and so engaged for these vile Prelates against the poor Countrey O blinded Nobles are not the wealth and peace of the Countrey your riches and stability O abject Scotland how art thou abondoned This being the design rage and jealousy of the tyrannizing Prelats in order thereunto there must be five troops more added to these already leavyed and the Countrey yet more oppressed for the securing and establishing of their wickedness 2 They are endeavouring by all means to have the Declaration against the Covenant generally pressed that either by violent straining they may destroy all conscience thereof or may more fully discover and more effectually reach all the faithful in the Land whom by the test of a refusal they purpose to stage and severely punish as enemies to Authority We shall not offer here to adde any thing against this Declaration If all that the Lord hath done in this Land now by the space of near an 100 years all that his servants have formerly declared and testifyed and now of late have witnessed and sealed with thâ—â—r blood and all the tenor and purpose of this discourse avail not to justify our holy Covenants and condemn this horrid Apostacy and wicked Declaration nothing certainly will be able to perswade and the mighty power of God can only convert Only we have reason to fear that the same spirit of deceat which under the colour of due obedience to lawful Authority ensnared wretched Edinburgh to a combination and conspiracy against the Lord and his Anointed may renew the same practise upon the whole Land for the more easy involving of such in this Apostacy whom possibly the gross and palpable wickedness of the Declaration might deterre And to such we give this warning that as all Powers are subordinat to the most High and appointed and limited by His holy will and commandment for his own glory and the Peoples good and as our Alleagiance was and standeth perpetually and expresly thus qualifyed viz. in defence of Religion and Liberty according to our first and second Covenants and lastly seing all Alleagiance and obedience to any created Power whatsoever though in the construction of charity apparently indefinite yet of it 's own nature is indispensibly thus restricted To renew the same or take any the like Oath of Alleagiance purely and simply purposely omitting the former and due Restriction especially where the Powers are in most manifest and notorious Rebellion against the Lord and opposition to his Cause and Covenant is in effect equivalent to to an express rejecting and dis-owning of the same Limitation and of the Soveraign Prerogative of the Great God and King over all which is thereby reserved as much as in plain terms to affirm that whatever abused Authority shall command or do either as to the overturning of the VVork of God subverting of Religion destroying of Rights Liberties or persecuting of all the Faithful to the utmost extremity we shall not only stupidly endure it but actively concur with assist in all this Tyranny And if this be not more yea double wickdness above all that the Declaration doth import let all men consider O! all ye who desire to behold the good that God will do for His People beware of this High Rebellion against Him 3. As all restraints of either Conscience or Law are now wickedly taken off and only a convenient oppurtunity waited for to re-introduce that dead carcase of Formality the Service-book and the whole bulk of these corrupt Ceremonies and pernicious Superstitions that have been formerly and alwayes found so destructive to the light power of the Gospell are so vain and ridiculous in themselves that nothing but the very spirit of darkness and judiciall delusion from the Lord can induce men to such fopperies so may we certainly expect the re-imposing of this heavy yoke and all the Sin Superstition Persecution and Wrath which necessarily do attend it except we abide stedfast in the Lord's Cause and Covenant instantly intreating and patiently waiting for His Salvation and glorious appearance again in this Land Thus we have represented in part both the Sin Sufferings and Distresses that ly upon the whole Land which though they be most heavy and greivous in themselves yet are they in their Tendency Presage more to be regarded Can any man seriously look upon the hatred and scorn of that Light and Truth wherein once we gloried the spite against the Holy Covenant and all Conscience the Blaphemy and sin against God and the violence and persecution against all such as fear His Name whereby the enemy rageth and their tumult continually increaseth and not be astonished Is there any who believeth that God is and that His Words are Truths and all His Wayes judgements His Threatnings sure and certain His jealousy as a consuming fire His wrath so dreadful and His indignation so terrible that only the same Omnipotency which inflicteth the strokes can sustain poor passive wretches from evanishing at it's smallest rebukes and yet shall sustain them eternally and not tremble because of the provocation of all these Abominations O! that such whom the Love of Christ hath not constrained nor the tears and weeping of a departing Saviour moved might be yet perswaded by the Terror of the Lord that the dread of God might make their hearts soft Surely abounding sin is the greatest Woe and prevailing transgression the greatest cause of mourning but above all sins and transgressions Christ despised in His Gospell and Ordinances and persecuted in His members is the most mournful and fearful Which as it scattered and destroyed the Lord's peculiar People and Nation dear to Him above all Nations and hath overturned and ruined the fairest part of the Christian World either in Barbarity or gross Darkness so is it the great condemnation of the whole World This is the work and wickedness of accursed Prelacy most Perjurious in it's Rise and ever Antichristian in it's Designes and Effects as all who have hearts to understand what we have here declared and eyes to see the present state and condition of matters must and will acknowledge This is thy Sin O Scotland and if mercy prevent it not shall be thy ruine This is the Voice Testimony and Warning of all the sufferings of the Lord's
all things but loss and dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ MY LORD for whom I now suffer the loss of all things that I may win Him and be found in Him and that I may not only know the fellowship of His sufferings but the power of His resurrection and attain unto the resurrection of the dead And as for yow my dear Friends as I pray for you that the God of all grace who hath called us unto His eternall glory by Christ Jesus after ye have suffered a while may make yow perfect stablish strengthen and settle yow so I recommend to you the same truth that you be not soon shaken in mind but that ye hold fast the profession of your faith without wavering And as you have receaved the Lord so walk in Him Warning and obtesting you by all manner of obligations and by the hope and joy of that crown which I wait for that ye keep your selves unspotted with the abominable courses and practices of these times whereunto ye may be tempted by the extremity of suffering and particularly that ye beware of unlawfull Oaths and Declarations against the Cause and Covenant of God that ye have no complyance with nor give consent unto this Prelacy which ye have abjured And that you be afraid and aware of Popery which by Connivance doth so visibly abound and dayly increase But by fighting the good fight and keeping of the faith you may finish your course as I do in the assurance of the crown of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge hath laid up and shall give unto me and not to me only but to all them that love His appearance ALEXANDER ROBERTSON The Testimony of JOHN NILSON of Corsack who died at Edinburgh Dec. 14. 1666. BEing made a spectacle to the World to Angels and to Men I found it necessary for vindication of the Truth of my self for undeceaving of some encouraging of others to leave this line behind me which with my innocent blood may speak when I am gone I am condemned I shall not say how unjustly as a Rebell against Man but the Lord God of Gods He knoweth all Israel shall know that it is not for Rebellion against God but for endeavouring to recover the blessed work of Reformation and particularly for endeavouring to extirpate Prelacy which hath been the cause of so much sin and suffering within this Land and for renewing of the Covenant from the obligation whereof seing I made my Vow and Promise to the Lord neither I my self nor any humane Authority can absolve me And if any account this Rebellion I do plainly confess that after the way which they call Heresy I worship the God of my fathers Although the insupportable oppression under which I and many others did groan were enough to justify our Preserving and Defending of our selves by Armes yet know that the Cause was not Ours but the Lord's for we suffered all our grievous Oppressions not for evill-doing but because we could not in conscience acknowledge comply with and obey Prelacy and submit unto the Ministery of Ignorant Light and Profane men who were irregularly and violently thurst upon us Neither did we only or mainly designe our civil Liberties but the Liberty of the Gospel the Extirpation of Prelacy the Restauration of our faithful Pastors the Suppression of Profanity Promoving of Piety the saving of ourselves from unjust violence untill we had presented our Grievances and Desires And in a word the Recovering of the once glorious but now ruined Work of Reformation in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Nationall Covenant and Solemn League and Covenant to which I declare my adherence and through grace shall seal the same with my blood My Advocate drew up a Supplication for me wherein was acknowledged that I had been with the Rebels but let none offend thereat for â— do hereby declare that I was so far from accounting that course Rebellion that I judged and still do judge it was my duty to joyn therein and my honor to suffer therefore Otherwise I should have counted my self accessary to the blood of the Lord's People which is shed And cannot but regret that others of the Lord's People when they heard of us did not come forth with speed to help the Lord against the Mighty much more let all mourn that not only many have appeared as Enemies but also conjured themselves against the Lord the same Covenant which they so solemnly sware And as for the Petition it self I knew not that expression was in it Being conscious to my self of so much weakness so many hainous sins which predomine in me of unfruitfulness under the Gospel and unsutable walking thereto I confess my self the vilest of sinners and desire to mourn for the same and pray that the Lord for Christ's sake may freely forgive me as I have forgiven them that have wronged me and hope through the righteousness of Jesus Christ to obtain the same And I do exhort all and every one of my friends to more holiness Prayer and stedfastness alwayes abounding in the Work of the Lord And above all things to detest shun that wicked Declaration against the Covenant the apparant temptation of the time and the very mark of Antichristian Prelacy All that I have is but little but if I had many Worlds I would lay them all down as now I do my life for Christ and His Cause nothing doubting but the Lord will abundantly provide for my Wife and my six Children whom I commit to the Lord's care and recommend to the Kindness and Prayers of the faithful And do lay an express charge on my Wife that she shew all my Children that I have bound them all to the Covenant for which now I lay down my life and that She lay it upon them as my last command that they adhere to every Article thereof The Work and People of God are brought very low It may be because they were not ripe for a deliverance And for the greater triall and filling up of the cup of the Adversaries Or because there was litle or less prayer then should have been amongst these who appeared at this time that the Lord hath made this late breach But dear Friends be not therefore tempted to call in question the Work of Reformation or to think the worse of Christ and His Cause because of sufferings Nor be discouraged because these few who took their lives in their hands fell before the Adversary For as sufferings are often sweetned by the Spirit of God and Glory that resteth upon the sufferers and afterward bring forth the peaceable fruits of righteousness unto them that are exercised thereby So the Lord will arise in due time and have mercy upon Zion and plead the cause which is his own And this Testimony as I am this day to seal with my blood so I subscribe with my hand JOHN NILSON OF CORSACK The Testimony
knew Him rightly His cross it is sweet easy to the believer for He maketh death to be life and bringeth light out of darkness I desire to follow the blessed Captain of my salvation through well and wo. I beseech you my dear Friends whom now I am to part with that ye stand to the defence of all the truths of God and of His Word that ye receive the Lord Christ as He hath offered Himself therein ye who have not closed with Him And that he who hath closed with Him abide in Him by a lively faith and love bringing forth fruits that you may put credit on your profession and keep off every thing that may shame your glorious and blessed Master before this evill and adulterous generation And I give you all warning and deâ—ort you heartily as ye love your own souls and as ye will answer to Him who shall judge the quick and dead that ye stand fast in all the duties ye are sworn unto in the National and in the Solemn League and Covenant both towards God your King and one another And that ye beware of snares in taking of any Oaths or Declarations contrary in the least to the Oath of God in these Covenants I leave my wife and little children upon Jesus Christ my Lord who are now to be made a widow and fatherless for His sake trusting He will care for them And I recommend them to the counsell and kindness of His people under Him I can forgive the wrong done to me in taking away my life for this Cause and wish God to be merciful to these that have condemned me or have had any hand in my death But blessed be God that brought and hath kept me on His side of this Cause and honoured me to be a publick witness for Him and His blessed Truth and Cause for which I shall praise Him in the World to come whether I now go yea I will praise Him on the borders of Death Eternity To His blessed Name Father Son and Holy Ghost be praise for now and ever So saith your dying friend for Christ JOHN WILSON A true Relation of the Sufferings and Death of M R HEW M c KAIL. Preacher of the Gospel M R Hew M c Kail having passed and improven the vertuous means of his Education at the University of Edinburgh and with his Uncle Mr Hew Mc Kail Minister there in whose family he did reside to the satisfaction and good hope of all in the Winter 1661. upon the very turne of this sad Catastrophe offers himself to Tryall being 20 years old before the Presbytery of Edinburgh in order to the work of the Ministery and being by them amply approven and licensed and having preached at several times with the great benefit and applause of all his hearers he did preach his last publick Sermon in Edinburgh in the Great Church thereof upon the Sabbath immediatly preceeding that 8 of September 1662. the day affixed by the then Parliament for the removal of the Ministers of Edinburgh His text was Song 1.7 In this Sermon taking occasion to speak of the great and many persecutions to which the Church of God hath been and is obnoxious and amplifying the Point from the Persons and Powers who have been instrumental therein he said that the Church and People of God had been persecuted both by a Pharaoh upon the Throne a Haman in the State and a Iudas in the Church and falling to inlarge the several wayes and manner of the Persecutions of these men the issue thereof the cases of Haman and Iudas appeared in the conviction of his Adversaries to have such a near resemblance to the state and condition of the then Rulers of State and Church that though he did make no Application yet he was reputed to be guilty thereof Whereupon within a few dayes thereafter there was a Party of Horsemen sent to the Place where he then lived near to Edinburgh for to seise his Person and make him Prisoner But upon almost no more then a moments advertisement he escapes out of his bed and shifting only to another chamber was miraculously preserved from the Search then used though most diligent and accurate For this cause he being necessitated to leave that Place retired home-ward to his Fathers house where having lurked a while and thereafter as occasions call'd him spent the four years that have since interveen'd in several places and with much uncertainty Yet during all this space to the certain knowledge and sweet remembrance of all that conversed with him he was most seriously exercised in the Study of Piety and true Knowledge wherein as he greatly advanced above all his equalls so at length he became most eminent and exemplary While he is thus living and employed at his Fathers house the late Troubles arising in the West fall out and the newes thereof having alarmed him with the rest of that Countrey upon the 18. of Nov. last being the Sabbath for such motives and upon such considerations as he himself doth fully afterward declare he joined himself to those who rose in these parts for the assisting of that poor afflicted Party as in their consciences by their Covenant they thought themselves indispensably obliged When and where he joined with them or what was his part or endeavours amongst them needs not to be remembered Only this is certain that being of a thin body and tender constitution he was so disabled and weakened with the toil and fatigue of continual marching and tempestuous weather particularly at Air where he lay a considerable time as if he had been dead by reason of fainting that he could no longer endure it Whereupon on Tuesday Novemb. 27. he was necessitated to part from them in the morning near to the New Bridge upon Cramond water And in his way towards Libberton Parish about twelve of the clock passing through Bread's Craigs he was taken without resistance having only a small ordinary sword by such of the Countreymen as were then sent out to view the fields in which passage it is very observable that his escape formerly mentioned was not more miraculous then his present taking was fatal for it is without question had he but retained and observed the least of that advertency and caution wherein at other times he was known to be both ready very happy he might without either hazard or trouble have escaped this inconvenience but God who gave him the full experience of his turning all things unto the good of them that love Him did thus by his simplicity and folly prepare the way for His own Glory and His servants joy and Victory Being brought to Edinburgh and first to the Towns Council-house in their search for letters he was immediatly stript and there being none found committed prisoner to the Tolbuith Upon the Wedensday being the 28 of November by order from the Secret Council he was brought before the Earle of Dumfreis Lord Sinclar Sir Robert Manray
of Preist-field and others in order to his Examination and being interrogate concerning his joyning being with the Wesi-land forces he conceaving himself not obliged by any Law or Reason to be his own Accuser to the destruction of his life did plainly deny the question but being desired to signe with his hand what he had said and they caused write though at first he appeared willing yet partly being advised by the Lord Sinclar to beware that he subscribed nothing whereof the contrary would be found true left it might therefore fare the worse with him and partly scrupling at the terms of Rebells and Rebellion wherein the question and his Answer were conceaved and partly bethinking that a simple denyall may import more then the pleading of Not-guilty he refused to subscribe his name which being reported to the Council gave great offence and brought him under the suspition of a deep dissembler On Thursday Novemb. 29. being again called before his Examinators upon the considerations mentioned for allaying the Councils prejudice preventing the inconvenience he might there-through sustain he gives in a Declaration under his own hand testifying that he had been with the Westland Forces with whom he occasionally mett and that he resolved to have withdrawn from them upon the first opportunity which he was also about to do when he was taken without either offering to flee or resist which he desired the Council the rather to believe because he had told so much to William Lawry of Blackwood a person imployed from the Lieut. Generall Dalzell to the West-land Forces But notwithstanding that William Lawry did testify this to be a truth yet the Council retaining former impressions and apprehending that the presence and confronting of some other Prisoners of the Westland Forces who plainly declared their accession to that Rising and their deponing concerning him did only move Mr Hew to this acknowledgement although it be certainly known that he had formed and subscribed the same the night before they fortify and persist in their jealousy and suspecting him to have been a contriver of the Insurrection and privy to all Designes and Intelligence relating to it they dealt with him with great importunity to be ingenuous and to declare who were the Ring-leaders of the late Rising and what correspondence either at home or abroad was kept anent it And this was done especially upon the Monday Dec. 3. at which time also the Boots a terrible instrument of Torture which the humanity of our later times hath so much abhorred that not only the fashion of them was forgot but all Torture for their cause disused yet new ones such as they are were laid before him upon the Town Council-House table and he certifyed that if he would not confess he should be tortured by them to morrow And accordingly upon Tuesday Dec. 4. he was again called before the Council where after the Examination Torture of Iohn Nilson of Corsack he was again examined by the Earle of Rothess the Kings Commissioner the Marquess of Montress and several of the Privy Councill in the Town Council-House the Bishop of St Andrewes for the honor of his profession forsooth and some others of the Counsellers upon more real and Christian motives having at first withdrawn themselves And being urged to confess he declared with a solemn Attestation that he knew no more then he had already confessed whereupon they ordered the Executioner to put his leg into the Boot and to proceed to the Torture But as he had before confessed and declared ingenuously all he knew so this Torture though in it self very violent and painful by the extraordinary compression both of flesh sinews and bones by the force of timber wedges and hammer used upon him in a double measure even to ten or eleven strokes with considerable intervals as there remained no truth concealed which it could extort did not in the least move him to express any impatience or bitterness but having sustained it most constantly and Christianly before he got the last three strokes he protested solemnly in the sight of God that he could say no more though all the joints of his body were in as great torture as that poor leg and desires to know what could hinder them to believe one of his Profession who had so solemnly declared as in the sight of God that he knew no more then he had told viz. that to the best of his knowledge the Rising in the West was meerly occasional upon a discontent betwixt the people in the Stewarty of Galloway Sir Iames Turner to which every one did run as their hearts moved them when they heard of it This Torture was the cause why he was not indicted with the first ten who being arraigned and sentenced on Wedensday Dec. 5. were hanged on the Fryday thereafter at the Cross of Edinburgh Many thought that considering his small accession unto that Rising which neither was nor could be proven to be more then what he himself had freely confessed and that he had suffered such hard measure by Torture that not in order to the discovery of his own Crime but the declaring of the Contrivers and his Complices that the same should have procured him favor but the matter was otherwise determined Neither was the Sermon before mentioned so quite forgotten though ill remembered and often repeated in Councill in these words Achab upon the Throne and no more and therefore Upon Monday the 10 of Dec. he and other seven receaved their Indictments of Treason were acordingly summoned to appear before the Iustices on Wedensday Dec. 12. But his Torture close Imprisonment thereafter for so it was ordered having cast him in a Fever whereby he was utterly disenabled to make his appearance Upon Tuesday Dec. 11. he gave in to the Lords of Council his Supplication of the Tenor following viz. that whereas I have receaved an Indictment of Treason which was yesterday delivered to me and I appointed to make answer thereto to morrow and seing in this matter of the highest importance not only all the time allowed is very short but I am and have been ever since my Torture in a great distemper and Fever besides the great pain and utter inability of my leg which hath constantly kept me bed-fast and doth render me incapable not only of minding my own Defence but wholly unable either to walk or stand far less to go and compeir before the Lord Iustice as I doubt not but Physicians will testify if your Lo will order them to visit me which I humbly beg And seing my accession to the Crimes libelled is so very slender being only simple Presence and that not only occasional as I did declare before Your Lo but also in some sort retracted and purged by my purposed and actuall off-coming and deserting and lastly seing I was put to sore Torture in order to a furder discovery with a promise of favor in case of my Ingenuity which I
their obligation in the Covenant for mutual defence and assistance in the common cause of Religion and Liberty to joyn with them for their help Neither should I have adventured to insert these instances if besids the diligent care that was used in collecting of them making them credible the notoriety thereof whereby they were unquestioned in that part of the Countrey and many such-like things whereunto all that is mentioned is but like a preface committed since Novemb. 1666 especially in the Western parts rendering them probable they were not the native product of this Prelatical course betwixt which and them there is such connexion as is betwixt the natural cause and the effect and if the committers thereof had not had command example and encouragement for many of them from the Prelats whom they resemble as much as face answereth to face in water It is true the Prelats should no more bear all the blame then Sathan who restraineth none but tempteth to all should be charged with all the Sin of man and they were and are first and chief in the transgression who were their Authors and are their upholders and abettors and in retaliation of their flattery of the Powers and connivance at profanness in all and in subserviency to their interest and designe have perpetrated and permitted so much wickedness and oppression Yea the Peoples walking willingly after the commandement will never Excuse those who by Law Force Example make Israel to Sin yet it is above contradiction that Prelacy is the chief though not the only Interest in subserviency to which all these things are done and the Prelats themselves are a conjunct if not the Principal cause thereof These men having put off their former vizards no man needeth further to unmask them Let these who employed and maintained Sharp to agent their cause and others who promoted him to the Prelacy declare their own Experience of his continued series of ungrate deceaving and undermining of them and their Interests under Trust and professions to the contrary as all men know that he hath Impiously and Perfidiously betrayed the Church and Cause of God if they will not Let his own many letters written unto them be produced as in reason and for Vindication they should and they will evince him to be the Archest Traitor that ever Scotland bred And how can it otherwise be will he who is false to God be true to any man If that man escape some stupenduous and disgracefull remark by the hand of God or Man I will not say that Others need neither fear the One nor regard the other but sure I am that many more Experienced in the observation of divine Providence and forseâ—ing then I am are much mistaken Let the City of Glasglow and persons of all Qualities especially in that countrey-side ingenuously say whether that fiery Zelot for the height of English Hierarchy and Ceremonies and otherwise insignificant man Master Burnet prelate there doth nor in Just recompence of too many their enslaving their own light and conscience in flattery of him and complying with that course most insolently domineer over them as his slaves with as much Prid Ambition and Contempt as the most absolute Prince doth over his vassals Let these of the Synod of Glasgow remember with what deep dissimulation Mr Hamilton prelat of Galloway did by Express suffrage declare before the last Synod there against the same Prelacy which at that same instant of time he was clandestinly corresponding with the Rulers to establish This man of all others hath been the chief Cause of all the Oppression and persecution in that countrey and thereby the Occasion of the late riseing in Armes blood that hath followed thereupon One instance of Mr Honeyman prelate of Orkney I cannot ommit that in the year 1661 when Mr Sharp had discovered himself walking in his own garden he said to a famous person who can bear witness thereof Just as Balaam spake truth whether he would or not That Mr Sharp was as false as Iudas and I would gladly know to whom this Casuist who since hath embraced a Bishoprick will Compare himself for fals-hood except to him who entered into Iudas with the sop I need tell no man who knoweth the Persons of the brutish Sensuality of Mr Wallace P. of the Isles who studieth more the filling of his belly then he was ever fit for feeding of a flock nor of the hatred of Godliness and good men in Mr Guthrey P. of Dunkel who while he was Minister at Sterlin was an old persecuter of both nor the scandalous drinking of Mr Sraughan P. of Brechen let those who visite him in his own house declare how liberally he useth to entertain them with Wine there upon their own Expence It is true indeed that Mr Lighton prelate of Dumblan under a Jesuitial-like vizard of Pretended Holiness humility crucifixion to the world hath studied to seem to Creep upon the ground but alwayes up the hill toward promotion places of more ease honor Wealth as there is none of them all hath with a Kiss so betrayed the Cause and smiten Religion under the fifth rib and hath been such an offence to the godly so there is none who by his way practice and Expressions giveth greater suspicion of a popish affection inclination and design If these men had not put off their own vaile no pencil of the most skilled artist could have drawn them to the life but now by shewing of themselves they have saved others a labour or at least made it more easy And therefore I shall rake no more into this unpleasant dung-hil of the vilest vice which they and their Brethren in Iniquity whom not nameing here doth not Except from their part of the charg of Ambition Prid Sensuality Idleness Covetousness Oppression Persecution Dissimulation Perjury Treacheiy and Hatred of Godliness and Good men have heaped together in their own Persons and transsused to others over all the Land O the Immense long suffering and unsearchable Wisedome of God! who hearing the cry of these things stirreth not the Zeal of all to Execute his just Judgment upon these men but it may be that he is ripening and reserving them for a more God-like strok then any would be acknowledged to be wherein man were Instrumental Neither are their Mercenaries whom they hire as Postillions to ride upon the fore-horse of all their Wickedness less skilled but more foreward that way then their drivers It were as far above the faith of any who have not heard and seen to beleeve and might render any pen suspected of the want of truth or tenderness to write the Hundreth part as it it easy to instance incredibly much but endless to relate all that is true of the Ignorance Lightness Profaness of these men When I have told that several lying in known and acknowledged fornication without removall of the scandal have been admitted to the Ministry by the Prelats who knew it