THE LAST SPEECH OF Mr. John Kid. With Annotations thereupon.

COnsidering what bo­dily distempers I have been exercised under, since I came out of the Which was applied to him to make him Confess his Accomplices in the Rebellion, and answer to such Questions, as Authority asked him in order to the perfect discovery of it; which before he was brought to the boot (for that is the name of the Instrument of Torture) he Jesuit-like refused to do. Contrary to the manner of the Primitive Christians (to whom the Rebellious Cove­nanters are blasphemously compared in the Apology for the persecuted Ministers, and Pro­fessors of the Presbyterian reformed Religion Printed 1677.) of whose behaviour at the criminal Tribunals Tertullian writing in his first Apolog. saith, That it was their Custom freely to Confess when they were examined by Authority. Christianus vero—si denotatur gloriatur, si accusatur non defendit, interrogatus vel ultro confitetur. But the 2d. Act of the 2d. Session of the 2d. Parl. of Charles the 2d. began at Edinb. July 28. 1670. Rebellious Covenanters quite contrary, when they are required by his Majesties Authority to declare either simply, or upon Oath, what they know of Rebellious Field-meetings, and the persons who were present at them, and disorders done therein, are wont to give either shifting Equivocating Answers, or else not to answer at all, contrary to their Allegiance as Subjects, and in contempt of the lawfull Powers, and of God who hath ordained them, but exactly according to the Doctrine of the Jesuits in the Rhemish notes on the New-Testament Acts. 23. which say. If thou be put to an Oath to accuse Catholicks for serving of God as they ought to do, or to utter any innocent man to Gods enemies, and his, thou oughtest first to refuse such unlawfull Oaths; but if thou hast not Constancy and Courage so to do, know thou that such Oaths bind not at all in Conscience, but may, and must be broken under the pain of Damnation. Tor­ture, being scarce two hours out of my Naked Bed in one day, it cannot be expected that I can be in a Capacity for saying any thing to purpose in such a Juncture, especially seeing I am not as yet free of it; However I cannot but Reve­rence the good hand of God for good upon me, and desire with all my soul [Page 2] to bless him for this my As if this Rebellious Pseudo-Minister, who helped to Preach eight or nine thousand Subjects into arms against their Lawful So­vereign, Suffered for the same Cause as did the Blessed Apostles, who rejoyced that they were counted Worthy to suffer for the name of Christ. Acts. 5. 41. present Lot. It may be there are a great many here that judg my Lot very sad and deplo­rable. I must confess death in it self is very terrible to flesh and blood; but as it is an out-let to sin, and an in-let to righteousness, so it is the Christi­ans great and unexpressible priviledg: and give me leave to say this, that there is something in a Christians condition, that can never put sin without the reach of unsufferableness, even Death, Shame, and the Cross being enclosed; and if there be Peace betwixt God and the Soul, there is nothing that can damp peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, which is a most supporting ingredi­ent in the bitterest Cup, and under the Sharpest and There is nothing more common, than for these Presbyterian Ministers (falsely so call'd) to delude the poor people by abu­sive Applications of, and allusions to the passages of the Holy Scriptures, after the manner of the Jesuits. Thus he by this expression of the Fiery-Trial, gives them occasion to consider, the Fineings, Impri­sonments, and execution of the Rebels, as a Persecution; which as Fire tries true from false Gold, would distinguish Sincere from Hypocritical Christians, i. e. those who would Suffer for Christs Soverainty, and the Solemn League and Covenant, from those who would desert both. As if a Conspi­racy against the Apostolical Government of the Church Universal for above 1500 years (for so the Covenant deserves to be called) could Justifie, shall I say, or Sanctifie an Insurrection of Subjects against their Sovereign (which the defence of the Christian name cannot justifie by the Gospel) and by conse­quence make the Legal Fineings, Imprisonments, and Transportations of incorrigible Rebells Persecution, their executions by Axes and Haltars Martyrdom, and themselves Martyrs for the holy Jesus, the Prince of Peace, who will not have even the very being of his Church and Gospel defended by the Subjects Sword. [...]yest Trial he can be expo [...] [...]. This is my mercy, that I have some-what of this to lay claim to, viz. It cannot reasonably be denied, but that God hath sometimes irradiated the Souls of Confessors, and Martyrs at the time of their Sufferings, and begot within their hearts such a secret sense of his favour, as hath made them Sing in their torments, and rejoyce at death: but this is a very extra­ordinary, and unpromised favour, and given like the miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost, but to some of those, who have truly suffered for the Cause of Christ. But for such a Malefactor as this, who lived in a state of Rebellion against his So­vereign, and whose whole imployment was to Preach his Subjects into Rebellion against him, for the re-establishment of the Presbyterian Discipline, of which the whole Church of God was utterly ignorant for almost 16 Ages: I say, for such a Rebel as this to pretend to such secret significations of Pardon from Gods Spirit at the hour of execu­tion, when in the next words he declares his utter impenitence for his crime, can be nothing but a delusion of Satan, or an effect of the same Enthusiasm, which makes them pretend to Praying and Preaching by Inspiration, and other gifts of the Holy Ghost. Intimations of Pardon and Peace betwixt God and my Soul: and as concerning that for which I am Condemned, I magnifie his grace, that I never had the least Behold good people how like a Jesuit he speaks. He acknowledges that he never had the least remorse, or accusation of Con­science for his Treasons and Rebellions, but counted it his honour to die under the name of a Traitor and Rebel, for that Many­headed Pope the Presbyterian Government, which as the Kirk-men Teach, is the Royal Scepter of Christ▪ Challenge, but on the contrary judge it my honour that ever I was counted worthy to be Staged upon such a Con­sideration. 3ly. Another thing that re [...]ders the Despicable lot of the Chri­stian Superable, is, that there is a felt [Page 3] and That God also was sometimes wont to give unto his Martyrs the Spirit of Fortitude at the hour of death, as a sign that they were supported by him, and by consequence suffe­red for him, is plain from the Holy Scriptures, and both Jewish, and Christian Martyrolo­gies; and therefore this wretch pretends here to this Sign also, that he might seem to die not a deplorable, as he speaks, but a glorious death, i. e. not as a Malefactor, but as a Martyr. But yet because he was conscious to himself how timerous he ap­peared, notwithstanding all the Brandy and Cordials which he had drank, he speaks ambiguously about it, telling the people he had ground to believe, that more, or less God would perfect his own strength in his weakness; certainly he meant that God would yet put forth his glorious power in a greater degree in him, so that it should become more apparent to the Spectators, before he was turn'd off the Ladder, than at the moment when he spoke. Sensible presence from the Lords strengthening the Soul when most put to it; and if I could have this for my allowance this day, I could be bold to say, O death where is thy Sting, and could not but cry out Welcome to it and all that follows upon it; I grant the Lord by an Act of Sove­reignty may go and come as he pleases, but yet he will never There are many Texts in the Old-Test▪ which speak of Gods forsaking, and not for­saking his people the Jews, and the Kings, whom he set over them, as his Vicereys, which are all to be understood in a Political sense. Thus 1 Sam. 12. 22. Saith the Prophet Fear not, for the Lord will not for­sake his people, for his great names sake, be­cause it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people. So 2 Kings 21. 13, 14. I will (saith God) Stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and I will wipe it as a man wipeth a dish—and I will forsake the remnant of my inheritance. So Psal. 94. 14. The Lord will not cast off his people, nor forsake his inheritance. So Psal. 71, King David prays God his rock and fortress to deliver him from the hand of his enemies, and not to forsake him, i. e. not to lay him aside in his old age, till he had shewn his strength to the generation in which he lived, and his power to every one that was to come. So also he prays God in the 51 Psal. not to cast him away from his presence, as he did Saul, nor to take his holy Spirit from him, by which he was enabled to Govern his people. For God was wont to send his Spirit in visible impressions upon all those, whom he called to judge and Govern his people, as upon Judges 3. 10. 6. 34. 11. 29. 13. 25. Othniel, Gideon, Jephtha, Samson, and Saul, whom Samuel told, when he was to be made King, that the Spirit of the Lord should come upon him for a Sign, and that he should Prophesie, and be turned into another man. 1 Sam. 10. 6, 9. And at King Davids inauguration 'tis expresly said, 1 Sam. 26. 13. that Samuel took the horn of oyl, and anointed David in the midst of his Brethren, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him from that day forward; this was the Spirit of Go­vernment, which consisted in a mighty power and impulse to do brave Heroical actions, and carried along with it all the Royal qualifications, that a man ought to have, whom God was pleased to call to the Helm. Maimonides calls it the Spirit of Fortitude, but he might as well have called it the Spirit of Wisdom, and Counsell, for it fitted the persons upon whom it came in all points for the Royal Office, and the Collation of it in visible impressions upon them was a Sign to the people that they were Authorized, and Com­missioned by God. And therefore King David after the matter of Uriah, for which he deserved to be rejected, like Saul, prays God in a most penitential manner, not to cast him away from his presence, nor take away the Spirit of Government from him, which he had instead of a standing Commission from God. Upon these, and such like Texts, which are to be understood in a Political sence, hath been founded the Doctrine of Spiritual desertion or the comings and goings of God from the Soul, which hath been as usefull an engine for the Ministers falsely so called, to take fast hold on the Souls, and Purses of their Melancholick Disciples, as the Doctrines of Transubstantiation, Purgatory, and Absolution hath been to the Romish Priests, of taking hold of the Souls and Purses of theirs. For when a man oppressed with Melancholy, or Melancholick Doctrines, shall in his fits of dejection think himself deserted by God, will he not admire and reve­rence the very Shadow of that holy man whose Prayers shall prevail with God to return unto him again? And then after the recess of the Melancholick fit, which he is taught to believe is the comfortable return of the Spirit, he cannot but be very liberal to him, by whose powerfull intercession he hath received such a Divine benefit, a blessing better than life it self. I deny not but that God may sometimes beget Supernatural joy in the soul of an holy man, by impressing upon him a secret sense of his love, and like­wise kindle the flames of Hell in the Conscience of a sinner, by impressing on his soul a secret sense of his wrath: But these are extraordinary ways of dealing with men, of which the Scriptures are silent; but he can no more impress the sense of his wrath upon the spirit of a gracious, then the sense of his love upon the spirit of a graceless Christian, nor secretly contribute to enslave, and torment the Consciences of good men with hor­rour, or unreasonable jealousies and fears. Indeed nothing is more plainly taught in the Holy Scriptures than this; that God gives his holy Spirit of assisting grace, or which is all one, the gracious assistance of his holy Spirit to men, and upon certain provoca­tions takes it from them again: and this is the only Scriptural desertion, and the only sence in which that word ought to be used. Away then with those Canting Phrases of Gods Going, and Coming to the soul in fits of supernatural joys and fears, with which the Coiners of the Doctrine of desertion teach, that the souls of holy Men are now transported, and then pressed down as it were to Hell. forsake his people, and this is a Cordial to me in the case I am now exposed un­to; the exercising and putting forth of his glorious Power is able to Tran­sport the Soul of the believer and mine above the reach of all sublunary difficulties; and therefore seeing I have hope to be kept up by his power, I would not have you look upon my Lot, or any other that is, or may be in my case, in the least deplorable, see­ing we have ground to believe that more or less he will perfect his power and strength in weakness.

That I may come a little to the purpose in hand, I declare before you all in the sight of God, Angels and Men, and in the sight of the sun and all that he has Created, that I am a [Page 4] most Yes a Rebell, a Schismatick, a Blas­phemous interpreter of the Holy Scriptures, an usurper of the Ministery, who was guil­ty of all the blood which was shed under the Kings Standard on one side, and the Banner of Christ, as the Rebels in their Declara­tion Blasphemously called their Standard on the other. But these are not the sins, which he confesseth here, but sins of another com­plexion; and indeed it is almost impossible to have any reputation for holiness in the Kirk, unless a man hath been a great sin­ner, and Converted as St. Paul really was, and this Wretch pretends to have been, by a strong hand, i. e. tout d'un coup, in a sudden miraculous manner. So that if a good Christian cannot tell the time, and place, and other circumstances of his Conversion, he shall still be looked upon as little better than an unregenerate man, though he be never so Moral and unblamable in his life. As if it were impossible for men to be good from their Childhood, or unscriptural to date their regeneration from the Font. miserable sinner, by reason of my original and actual trangressi­ons, I must confess that they are more than the hairs of my head, that they are gone over my head, and altogether past reckoning, I cannot but say as Jacob said, I am less than the least of Gods mercies, yet I must declare to the Commendation of the The word Grace proceeds from the Latin word Gratia, by which the ancient Latin Church rendered [...] whereby the Greek Translators rendred Hhen, and Hhesed, whereof the former signifies Favor, Kindness, Love, Mercy, Pity, Benevolence, and the latter as Maimonides (More Nev. part 3. c. 53) observes, signifies a free benefit, or gratuitous favor, which is done to a person that was altogether unworthy of it, or else a greater favor and benefit, than the person on whom it is bestowed deserves. In which sences he saith it is opposit to Tzedakah which both signifies justice, and the due, which justice gives to every man In this sence St. Paul saith, Rom. 3. 24. That we are justified freely by his Grace, and not by works, or perfect sinless obedience, because then the reward would be reckon­ed not of Grace but of debt, or Justice. Accordingly the freedom of Gods grace con­sists in the gratuitous redemption of the world through Jesus Christ, which was a meer favor, or such a benefit as mankind was altogether unworthy of, and which God in justice was not bound to do. I say it consists in the gratuitous redemption of all mankind, and not in the arbitrarious calling and election of this, and that particular man, as this Kirk-Preacher here suggests. So that when a man speaks of the free Grace of God, in reference to his own particular, if he speak Orthodoxly, he ought to be understood of his own share in the general free redemption, and not of the free Grace of God in saving of him, and reprobating or passing over others, which is the Kirk, and Kirkers usual sence of free grace, according to the Assemblies larger and shorter Catechisms, which they have Homologated for their own. But this is strange Divinity, and un­worthy of the Divine Nature, which Phancys God out of meer wilfulness and osten­tation of his Soveranity, to pluck one man out of the fire and leave another, as capa­ble of his mercy, to burn eternally therein. God indeed is a most Absolute Sovereign, but then, as Cicero saith in his Books of Laws, he is infinita mens & ratio, and his Absolute Soveranity is under the Government and regulation of his infinite Wisdom, which is utterly uncapable of Fondness, and Antipathy, or the unaccountable loving of this, and hating of that particular person, and must needs restrain him from Arbitrary ways of dealing with his rational creatures, Angels and men. freedom of his grace that to me [Page 5] who am the least of Such a Saint as the Primitive Christians never heard of, nor all Antiquity can shew. Saints was his grace made known, and that by a strong hand, and dare not but say that he hath loved me and washed me in his own blood from all mine iniquities; and well is me this day, that ever I heard or read that Faith­ful saying, That Jesus Christ came to the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief.

2ly. I must declare in his sight, that I am the most unworthy that ever opened a Mouth, to Preach the insearchable riches of Christ in the Gospel; yea the sense of this made me altogether unwilling to set about so great a work, until by the im­portunity of some (whose name is savory to me and many others) I was prevailed with to fall about it, and howbeit out of great weak­ness I went about it, yet I am hope­full, not altogether without Very true, for his Country saw the fruits of his, and his Brethrens Ministery, in numberless Rendesvouzes of Rebellion, and at last in a Covenanted Army in the Field. fruit, and if I durst say it without vanity, I never found so much of the Here the Enthusiast Blasphemously miscalls the irregular heat of his Phancy elevated in Preaching, the cursed Zeal with which he Preached, and the sensual pleasure and satisfaction which he took to see himself crouded about with troops of Auditors in the Field, the presence of God upon his soul. pre­sence of God upon my spirit, as I have found in exercises of this nature, though I must still confess attended with unexpressible weakness; Here like a Jesuit he pretends to Suffer upon a Religious account, though he really suffer'd as a Disturber of the Government, and as a Traitor and Rebel to the King. He suffer'd not for Preach­ing, but for Preaching in arms, and among armed-men, who assembled themselves on Stated days every week against the Law, and defended their Assemblies by force of Arms. Or if he suffer'd for Preaching, it was not for Preaching Christ and the Gospel, but for Preaching up Rebellion, which is contrary to both. For Preaching against the Established Government and the Laws. For railing in their Preaching against the King and his Counsellors, telling the people that he was guilty of Perjury, and had no right to Govern, and that they endeavoured to drive Christ out of the Kingdom. Lastly, for Preaching up the Covenant, and the Presbyterian Govern­ment, of which they assert the same things, as Priests and Jesuits do of the Pope. and this is the main thing for which I must lay down my tabernacle this day, viz. that I did Preach Christ and the Gospel in several places of this Nation, for which I bless him, as I can, that ever such a poor and obscure person as I am, should be thus priviledged by him for mentionmaking of his grace, [Page 6] as I was able. 3ly. Give me leave to add this word further, that though there be great appearances of spread­ing and Preaching this glorious Gos­pel, yet I fear there is a snare at the bottom, and poyson in the dish, which may gender and be productive of not only greater scarcity of honest Preachers and Preaching, but a real Famine of the Word, this I say is my fear, and I hope God will keep his i. e. The Kirk-Ministers and people from seeking, or accepting of any indul­gence from the King. For to Preach by leave and permission from the King, is to grant that Ministers depend on the Secular power for the actual exercise of their Mi­nistery, and supposeth that they may receive limitations and restrictions from the Magi­strate, which is utterly inconsistent with that independent Authority which they derive immediately from the King in Sion, and de­structive of his Supremacy, Kingdom, Crown, and Scepter, as may plainly be seen from Mr. Browns Jesuitical Letter, Printed at the end of these two Speeches, and the Apology. Servants and people from foment­ing any thing to the detriment of the Gospel. I am afraid that the Lord is beginning to multiply his stripes up­on this land. We have walked i. e. Several times contrary to him in setting up Episcopacy. Seven times contrary to him and therefore we may lay our account (unless repentance prevent it) that he will walk seven times contra­ry to us: there is more and more ground to fear that there is a Well threatned. Sword bathed in heaven, a glittering Sword sharpened and furbished against thee O guilty and Harlot Scotland; let this Land consider how neutral and indifferent we are grown in the i. e. In the matter of the Covenant. matters of God, even like Ephraim long ago a Cake not turned, which is upon the matter Contrary to, and inconsistent with our Solemnly sworn Covenant; next how far are we fallen from our viz. Our love for the Presbyterian Discipline. first Love? How far are we degenerate from that noble Vine into which the Lord did once Plant us? How lamentable it is? How far we have gone the way to viz. Episcopacy. Egypt, drinking the waters of Sihor? Again What a woful Spirit of bitterness is predominating in this Land? and in this Age viz. The indulged Ministers against the Field-Preachers, such as Welsh, Kid, King, Cameron, &c. and the Field-Preachers against the indulged Ministers; who hold, that as long as they are not subjected to the Bishops, it is not against their Solemn League and Covenant, nor inconsistent with the Ministerial Authority, nor de­structive to Christs Soverainity, to accept of a limited indulgence from the State. And therefore they were content to be obliged not to Preach without their Parishes, not to Baptize Children of other Parishes, nor to engage Parents at the Baptism of their Children, to bring them up according to the Solemn League and Covenant, nor to Preach against the Government of the Church or State, and to observe the 29th. of May. &c. Ephraim vexing Judah, and Judah Ephraim, Manasseh Ephraim and Ephraim Manasseth; the grow­ing doggedness of this temper almost amongst all, portends terrible things from the Lord against this Land. 4ly. Reformation according to our sworn Covenants is neither designed nor practised. What means all this deformation that is come to pass in these days instead of the Contrary? How many of us have been Pulling [Page 7] down that which we have been build­ing up? how many of us call good evil, and evil good, disowning and dissa­vouching that which sometime we judged our honour to testifie for and avouch? 5ly. A Publick Spirit in contending for God and his matters, in substance and Circumstances ac­cording to our vows and obligations, is much amissing amongst us at this day. Further I am pressed in Con­science to make mention of all those great and glorious things that God hath done in Scotland since the year 1640. and 1641. the aboundant measure of his Spirit that was poured out upon his servants and people, and the renewing of that National Co­venant twice in that year, and once in the year following, the Blessed efficacy that the Gospel had at that time in all the Corners of the Land, & the great things that followed upon it, which while improven, made our Land most desirable. The Solemn League and Covenant, is the Alpha and Omega of the Kirk-Doctrines and Cause. Hence they common­ly call it the Holy League and Covenant, as both the Pope and Jesuits called its Prototype, the League of the Papists in France; and as the Pope compared the Duke of Guise to Judas Maccabaeus, and the Jesuits to Gideon. (Davila lib. 9.) So the Kirk-Preachers taught, that the Lords who began the Design of the Covenant, acted like the Jewish Worthys in promo­ting of it, and were moved and directed so to do by the secret motions of the Spirit of God. In the beginning of the Cove­nant, they set up one Mrs. Mitchelson a Ministers Daughter for a Prophetess, who pretended to be Inspired with a Spirit of Divination, and she said, that it was re­vealed to her by God, that their Covenant was approved by him, and ra­tified in heaven, and Mr. Henry Rollock a Covenanting-Minister being desired to pray with her, answered he durst not, because it would not be good manners in him to speak, while his Master Christ was Speak­ing in her, and yet at length she openly confessed, that she was an Impostor, and that the Ministers told her in private what she should speak. The Author of Naphtali, pag. 240. brings in Mr. Hugh Mackell a Rebel-Preacher saying, Whatever indignity is done to the Solemn League and Covenant, I esteem it no less than doing despite to the Spirit of Grace in his most eminent exerting of himself, and that it is a sin of the same nature with that of those men, who ascribed Christs casting out of Devils to Belzebub, but far greater. And Mr. Andrew Cant in a Sermon at Glascow 1638, pressing the people to take the Covenant, said, that he was sent to them with a Commission from Christ, to bid them Subscribe the Co­venant, which is Christ's Contract, and that he himself was come a woer to them from the Bride-Groom, and called unto them to come, and be hand-fasted unto Christ by Subscribing the Contract, and that he would not depart the Town till he had got the names of all that should refuse to Subscribe it, of whom he promised to complain to his Master Christ. But in effect he complained of them to the Committee of Estates and general Assembly, to get them Forfeited and Excommunicated. But the great Trick of the Kirk-Preachers, hath always been to Parallel the Solemn League and Covenant with the Mosaical Covenant, which was a Political aswell as a Religious Contract betwixt God and the Jews, by which he as it were Espoused himself to that people, and that people to himself. Hence they are wont to apply whatsoever is said of the Mosaical throughout the Old Test. to the Solemn League and Covenant, and the making, keeping, or breaking thereof. Were the Israelites Married to God by the one: so were the Scots and English Married to him by the other? Was the forsaking of the one, the cause of all the judgments which fell upon them: so the forsaking of the other (and not the Kings blood) is the cause of all the judgments that have fallen upon these? Were the King aswell as the people obliged to keep the former: so his Majesty aswell as his Subjects are obliged to keep the latter? Did that oblige the Children in the loyns of their Parents; so doth this oblige the people of both Nations, and their Posterity for ever more? Hence they Sacrilegiously Baptize their Children into it, and expresly renew it every time they receive the Communion, which was insti­tuted as a Seal of the Covenant of Grace. Was the breaking of that a Revolting from God: so the rescission of this is an utter Apostacy, especially of Scotland, from God? So that the Whig-Apostles never speak of their Country since the Establishment of Epis­copacy, but as of an Harlot and Idolatress, that hath forsaken her first Love, and Married her self to another God. It would be endless to recite all their Blasphemies about it. They make the last great Plague, and the Burning of London, to have been judgments for burning this Covenant there by the hand of the Common-Hangman: (Poor mans Cup of cold water, Printed in 4^o 1678. pag. 19.) Nay they Teach that his Majesty, like the Revolting Kings of Israel, and Iudah, hath no right to Govern, because he hath Revolted from it and Christ. Nay they damn all the Edicts and Acts of Parliament that are contrary to it, as the Act Statuting, that no Leagues, nor Bonds be made among the Subjects of any degree, upon whatsoever Pretence without his Majesties, and his Successors Privity and Consent. The Act rescinding and Annulling all the pretended Parliaments held 1640, 1641 &c. The Act for the Reestablishing of Episcopacy. The Act concerning the Declaration to be Signed by all in Publick Trust, as Privy-Counsellors, Members of Parliament, Judges, Magistrates in Corporations, Justices of the Peace &c. A Copy of which I think fit to set down here. I——do sincerely affirm and declare, that I judge it unlawful to Subjects upon pretence of Reformation, or other pretence whatsoever, to enter into Leagues or Covenants, or to take up Arms against the King, or those Commissionate by him, and that all those Gatherings, Convocations, Petitions, Protestations, and erecting and keeping of Counsel-Tables that were used in the beginning, and for carrying on of the late Troubles, were Unlawful and Seditious. And particularly that these Oaths, whereof the one was com­monly called the National Covenant (as it was Sworn and explained in the year 1638, and thereafter,) and the other intituled a Solemn League and Covenant, were, and are in themselves unlawful Oathes, and were taken by and imposed upon the Subjects of this Kingdom, against the Fundamental Laws and Liberties of the same, and that their lieth no obligation upon me, or any of the Subjects from the said Oaths, or either of them, to en­deavour any Change, or Alteration of the Government either in Church or State, as it is now Established by the Laws of the Kingdom. The Act for Security of the Persons of regular Ministers. The Act against Sepa­ration and Disobedience to Ecclesiastical Authority. The Act of Supremacy (of which more hereafter) The Act against unlawful Ordinations. The Act for an Anniversary day of Thanksgiving for his Majesties Restauration, which the Rebels in their lesser Declaration on the 29th of May last, call an Act appointing an holy Anniversary day to be kept on the 29th of May, for giving Thanks for the up-setting of an Usurped Power, destroying the interest of the Church of Christ in the Land, which is to set up the Creature to be worshiped in the room of our great Redeemer, and to consent to the assuming of the Power, which is proper to the Lord alone. And therefore they burnt it publickly at the Cross of Glasgow on the 29th. of May last, with the Act of Supremacy, the Act concerning the Declaration, and the Rescinding Act. And as they damn all these Acts upon the account of the Covenant, so they also damned the Bond which the Council tender'd in 1677, and 1678. The Author of the poor mans Cup calls it the Bond of Disloyalty to Christ. And Mr. Iohn Dickson in Crambushlane Preaching at a Conventicle May 26th. 1678. Said that those, who had taken it had committed a greater sin than the sin of the Holy-Ghost, and were already in hell. To conclude all their other Blasphemies about the Covenant, there goes about among them a Manuscript, written to prove that it is unlawfull to hear the Church-Ministers, wherein the Author most Blasphemously affirms, that the Solemn League and Covenant is nothing else, but the substance of the Covenant of Grace. 2ly. I bear my Testimony to the Solemn League and Covenant, as it was Professed & Sworn in Scotland, England, and Ireland, in the year 1643. Yea as it was timed and taken by the Representa­tives and Body of these 3 Lands, which tie is binding and can by no power on Earth be infringed, whe­ther Secular or Ecclefiastical, and that it was our glory to be coun­ted a people married to the Lord: we and ours from one generation to another, from henceforth and for ever; so that Prelacy as it is now Established by a pretended Law, is destructive down-rightly to the Sworn Covenants, yea not only [Page 8] [Page 9] Prelacy, Popery, Loyalty. Malignancy and

Heresie, but His Majesties Supremacy over all per­sons, and in all Causes Ecclesiastical with­in the Kingdom of Scotland, was asser­ted by the first Act of the Second Parlia­ment began at Edinburgh, Octob. 19. 1669. The Kirk-Ministers have ever since rail'd against this Act above all the rest, saying, that Jesus Christ is quite exauctorat and unkinged by it, that it hath overthrown his Prerogative Royal, and made the King Su­preme in the house of Christ. That the Three Estates have thereby Blasphemously decla­red, that they have no King but Caesar, that it is most expresly contrary to the 2d. Psalm, and that by subjecting all Ecclesi­astical matters to the Imperial Scepter, they have given a sinful mortal power to King it over the house of God. Insomuch that Iesus Christ hath neither name, nor thing of Kingly power left him by this Cursed Act, by which all power Ecclesiastick is declared to be the intrinsick and inherent Prerogative of the Crown. In particular the Author of the Poor Mans Cup, &c. saith, that he admires the Patience of God, that the Nation wherein such a wickedness was decreed, hath not before this Perished from under heaven; and saith that the Question is put by the Governours to the followers of Christ in the fields, with greater contempt than Pilate put it. What? is Iesus than your King? And then he crys, Oh noble Cause! Oh who would not rejoyce to enter the List of contra­diction with these his enemies, and have once an opportunity to say, Yes he is a King, and will be a King when you are gone, and will prove himself higher than the Kings of the Earth, by rescinding your Supremacy that Idol of his jealousie and indignation, and object of his revenge. Nay he saith, that it is a pure, perfect, and unparallel'd contradiction to the Doxology of the Lords Prayer, and that never any thing was so like it in Sence and Sound, as what is Recorded by the Holy Ghost of the King of Babylon, Isa. 14. 13, 14. I will ascend into Heaven, I will exalt my Throne above the Stars of God, I will sit also upon the Mount of the Congregation in the sides of the North, I will ascend above the heighths of the Clouds, I will be like the most High. Supremacy, and every thing Original upon and derivate from it. 3ly. I can but make men­tion of that honorable and noble practise, that this Land was privi­ledged with, viz. that after both defections the Lord put it in the heart of Christs Church and State, to renew those Covenants again with the National and Solemn League and Covenants, together with an acknowledgment of sin and an en­gagement to Duty, and that in the close of that year; which performance was attended with so much of the So he Blasphemously calls a National Fascination to Rebellion, and Schism▪ Lords power and presence, that it was like a Resurrection from the Dead to all, that were Witnesses thereof, both Speakers and Hearers, that many were forced to Cry out, The joy of the Lord is our strength, God of a truth is here.

4ly. I dare not but add this in the case wherein I now stand, viz. I dare not but add my Concurrence with, and Adherence to all these publick Testimonies, Protestations, and Declarations, that have been owned, evinced and remitted by all the Presbyterian Ministers and Pro­fessors that appeared against the pub­lick resolutions, for taking in the Malignant Party into Judicatories [Page 10] and Armies, as also I joyn my Cor­dial adherence to and with them that protested against the 2 gene­ral Assemblies at Saint Andrews, who endeavored to approve what the Commission had done in the year 1650. and 1651. in reference to the intrusting of the Malignant Party, which, as was said by these protesting worthies, laid the foundation of all that has come or may come upon us. I hope this will not offend any.

5ly. I am bound in Conscience in the next place, to testifie my dislike and abhorrence of that horrid, cruel, barbarous, unheard of and un­paralleld Deportment and practice of that This is the 15th Act of the First Parliament, begun at Edinburgh, Ian. 1. 1661. whereby all the pretended Parlia­ments from 1640. to the end of 1648. and by consequence the Established Presbyterian Government were all rescin­ded, and Annulled; and they also rail as much against it, as against the Act of Supremacy, and burnt them like two Idols both together. Act Recissory, wherewith as at one Lash, by an Act of that Precipitate Parliament, they endea­vored to Rescind, Annul, and Re­pel all those great and glorious things that the So he Blaspemously calls a strong hand of Rebellion. strong hand of the Lord had done in Scotland for more than 20 years bygone, over the belly of so much opposition and standing contradiction of proclaimed and a­vowed Adversaries upon all hands, yea I proclaim my abhorrence of all the Confusion, He means the Blood first, of those who were Executed soon after his Majesties Restauration, as of Wariston, Guthrie, &c, 2ly. of those who were Executed for the Rebellion at Pentland-Hills 1666, who in Naphtali and Ius populi vindicatum are called Worthies, precious Saints, and Mar­tyrs, &c. and lastly the Blood of Mitchel, who suffered for attempting the Murder of the late Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews, since effected by them, whom the Author of the Poor Mans Cup hath Canonized for a Saint and Martyr in this Parallel with Samson; which I shall set down in his own words, pag. 35. First Samson was a Rackel and Rough▪handed Saint, ready to Pelt the Phi­listines on all occasions: yet Secondly, the Holy Ghost for all the faults that followed him hath Recorded his name, and Enrolled him in the number (even while the names of many others are left out) of those Emi­nent Worthies. Heb. 11. And so he hath made the name of Mr. Mitchell Savory, [...] [...]s he took many Testimonies from him [...] [...] his appearances to the Cause, so he owned him in the end, and honoured him to die, Witnessing a good Confession, which will be on Record to Posterity. Thirdly as Sam­son did more mischief to the enemies of the people of God at his death, than in all his life (for when they sent for him to make themselves merry at a sight of his misery, the Lord helped him to spoil their Sport) So I judge it is beyond question with every Sober man, that Mr. Mitchells death hath done more hurt to its Contrivers and furious drivers, than ever his life could have done, even though he had shot again, and hit that unhallowed Mark, &c. Blood, murder, Fine­ing▪ Confineing, Imprisonments, Stigmatizing, with other unexpressi­ble Cruelties that has issued [...] that Cursed Generation there [...]9 years by gone; and moreover, I leave my Testimony against all other Confusions, Imprisonments and Blood, that is or may be intended against these in the Land, who de­sign to He means from Idolatrous revolting from God into the Episcopal Church, which is not the house of Christ, as they Sacrilegiously teach. keep their garments clean, whether in Prison, or out of Prison.

6ly. As concerning that which is the ground of my death, viz. See note n. Preach­ing here and there in some Corners, I bless my God I have not the least Challenge for it, though these that [Page 11] Condemned me were pleased to call these Preachings If weekly Meetings of Hundreds and Thousands of Armed-men in the Fields, nay if weekly Meetings of Armed-men formed into Troops, and Companies ready upon all occasions of probable capacity to Fight against the King, for the King in Sion, were Rendevouzes of Rebellion, then your Field-Preachers were Rebels, and the Field-Meetings Rendevouzes of Rebellion. What else were those Field-Meetings of which was gathered that Army of Saints, which fought the Kings Forces on Pentland-hills in a ranged Battel 1666? What else were those numerous Field-Meetings a little more than 2 years since, upon his Grace the Duke of Lauderdales going down into Scotland? which [...] the Privy Counsell to advise his Majesty to send English forces to lie in readiness [...] the borders, and to order the Vicount Granard to lie with an Army on the Irish [...] ready to be Transported upon occasion, and likewise upon the motion of the Marquess [...] A [...]hol, to procure the Lords of the Highlands a Commission to March with their Vassals un­der the Command of his Majesties Major General into the West, to prevent the Field-Conventicles from running together into a general Rebellion, as they did the last May. Or to come to particulars, what else was that Field-fast near Iedburgh in Tive [...]tdale towards the latter end of March 1678? where there were present 7 Preachers, and 5000 people, (the men being armed) to seek God for 3 things. 1st. That he would be pleased to put an end to the Persecution of his people in this Kingdom. 2ly. That he would have mercy on all those that took the wicked Bond, and give them grace to repent of it. 3ly. That he would bless with success, those noble Lords, who were gone to London. What else was that formidable Conventicle in the March the May following, where were Assembled eight or 9000 people to receive the Sacrament, and renew the Solemn League and Covenant, of which the Privy Counsell gave his Majesty an account? What else was that Conventicle neer Dumbar shortly after, where they fell upon the Kings Forces of the Basse, that went out to dismiss them, and killed one of the Souldiers, and wounded more? But if I should go on to enumerate all the Field-Meetings till that great one which began the Rebellion in May last, I should rather write an History than a Commentary, but I shall be ready to give a particular account of them▪ when a good occasion shall require. Rendezvouzes of Rebellion, yet I must say this of them, They were so far from being reputed so in my eyes, that if The Kirk-Preachers are always wont to speak Great and Magnificent things of their Followers, whereas for the general, they are the most ignorant, and wicked sort of people perhaps in the Christian world. For their ignorance take this as a Specimen or proof of it. ever Christ had a Party or people wherein his Soul took pleasure, I am bold to say these meetings were a great part of them; the Shinings and Glory of our God were eminently seen a­mongst these Meetings, the Con­vincing Power and Authority of our Lord went out with his Servants in those Blasphemously Nicknamed Conventicles; this I say without Reflection upon any.

7ly. As for that other Clause in my Indictment, upon which my Sentence of death is founded, viz. Personal presence twice or thrice with Parties whom they called Re­bels, for my own part I never judg­ed nor called them such. I acknow­ledge and do believe that there were [Page 12] Edingburgh 13. of May. 1678. THis day a number of persons being brought before a Committee of Council, and examin­ed concerning their being at a Field-Conventicle, at or near Catcart upon Sunday the 12th of this instant, one of them, named David Ferguson, being interrogate, why he did not keep his Parish-Kirk, answered, that he had Sworn the Covenant, whereby he was obliged not to hear Bishops, Deans, or Curates. And several of these persons being asked, why they went to Conventicles, declared it was to hear the truth of God, and be­ing interrogate what that truth of God was, declared they could not tell, and diverse of them being asked, acknowledged, that they could not say the Lords Prayer, the Belief, nor the ten Commandements. This is attested to be true by me Mr. Alexander Gibson one of the Clerks of his Majesties Privy Council. Alexander Gibson. The number of persons which were brought before the Committee were about 70, being the very same Company of men, who were brought into the Thames about 9 Months since in order to their Transportation (according to the 2d. Act of the 2d. Session of the Second Parliament of Charles the II. began at Edinburgh, July 28. 1670.) into his Majesties Plantations for obstinately refusing, when they were examin­ed by Authority, to discover any persons who were at that Field-Conventicle, in coming from which they were taken, and the disorders transacted therein. And were not the Disciples of these Field-Prophets very ignorant, it were not possible for them to believe Episcopacy to be an Antichristian, and Presbytery, which is but of yesterday, to be a Divine institution, to Baptize their Children into the Solemn League and Cove­nant, to think it unlawfull to hear Protestant Bishops and Episcopal Ministers Preach, and call that Church Idolatrous which hath neither Idols nor Ceremonies, nor any Li­turgical Forms, nor any thing which can give the least umbrage of suspicion to tender Consciences falsely so called, but worships God in the self-same manner as they them­selves do. I speak not this to upbraid our Sister-Church (for which I dayly pray) with her defects, for her imperfect state is not her fault, but her misery, caused by the iniqui­ty of the times, but to shew the gross ignorance of the people, that are led away from her Communion, and Believe, that the use of the Lords Prayer is Idolatrous, that they cannot profit by the Church-Ministery, nay that all the Bishops and their whole Clergy never did nor never will Convert a Soul, as Mr. John Dickson Blasphemously Preached at Pollemadie in June 1673. And then for their wickedness I refer the Reader to the 3, or 4 last pages of Ra­villac Redivivus, though I could say an hundred times more upon this Subject, having by me a Manuscript of 20 sheets, Entituled the Principles and Practises of the Pha­naticks, under▪ the heads of Jesuitism, Anabaptism, Blasphemy, Cheating, Lying, Cru­elty, Slandering, Fornication, Bestiality, Witchcraft, &c. which perhaps ere long may be made publick for the honour of these Gnostics and their Teachers; but were there no more to object against them, but their Rebellious and Schismatical Principles and Practises, 'tis enough to make us conclude, without breach of Charity, that they are not a Party or people, wherein the Soul of Christ takes pleasure, as this deceiver confident­ly boasts. many that came in the The Scripture speaks of those who followed Absolom, as Rebels, though many of them followed him in the simpli­city of their hearts, as many of the Western people followed their Preachers into the late Rebellion, & thought that they did God good Service in so doing, being deceived by this Murderer of Souls and his Bretheren, who make the people ignorant, and then abuse their ignorance to the ruine of their Bodies, Souls and Estates. simplicity of their hearts, like those that fol­lowed Absolom long ago. I am as sure upon the other hand that there were a great Party there that had nothing before them, but the reprocuring of [Page 13] the So he Blasphemously calls the Cove­nant, and Presbyterian Discipline. Lords fallen work and the restoring of the breach which is void as the Sea, and I am apt to think that such of these that were most Branded with mistakes will be found to be most single. But for He means Rebellion in his own Jesui­tical sence. Rebellion against his Majesties Person or just Government, the Lord knows my Soul abhors the name and thing. Loyal have I been, and wille every Christi­an to be so. I was ever of this judg­ment, to give to Caesar the things that are Caesars, and to God the things that are Gods.

8ly. Since I came to Prison, I have been much Branded with ma­ny things which I must call asper­sions, whereof Neither thou pretended Minister of the Gospel, nor thy Brethren will ever be able to wash off the aspersion of Jesuitism. 6 Book of Spotsw. Hist. particularly the story of Adam Blake. For is it not Jesuitism to maintain, that the Rebellion of Church-men is not treason, because they are not subject to the Secular power? Is it not Jesuitism to carry on So­lemn Leagues and Covenants among the Subjects without, and against the Princes consent? Buchan. de jure regni Lysimachus Nicanors letter. Is it not Jesuitism to Teach, that Kings ought to be Excommunicated, and that Subjects ought to withdraw their Obedience from them when they are Excom­municated, nay as soon as they begin to abuse the power against the Church? Spotsw. Hist. 6 book. the Covenan­ters protesta­tion July 1638. published at the Cross in Glas­cow. Lysim. Nic. Naphtali. Is it not Jesuitism to deny, that Kings have power to Convocate and dissolve Ecclesi­astical Synods and Councils? And that no power on Earth is above that Manyheaded-Pope, the general Assembly, which hath power to make Laws without the King? Is not Jesuitism to condemn the English Liturgy, and to forbid the people under pain of publick Penitence, or Damnation, to read it, or any books of Episcopal Di­vines, nay not to have them in their houses, nor to converse with Church-Ministers (whom they scornfully call Curates, and the Bishops Journey-men) much less to hear them Preach? Is it not Jesuitism to assert, that Salvation is not to be had out of the narrow Communion of Presbyterian Churches, and to invent and impose new Articles of Faith as, That Episcopacy is an Antichristian constitution, that it is Popery to observe the The passi­on, resurrecti­on, and ascenti­on of our Lord, and the discent of the Holy-Ghost. Apostolical Festivals, or to administer the Communion in private to sick persons, and that Presbytery is the sole and unalterable Government of the Church. Is it not Jesuitism to Write and Preach a­gainst the Scottish Act and English Oath of Supremacy, and to Knox in his Chron. pag. 78, and [...]3. Lysim. Nic. absolve the people from their Oath of Allegiance, under a pre­tence of the Kings being an enemy to Christ? Is it not Naphtali. Buchanan de jure regni. Jesuitism to Teach that there is a Reciprocal obligation betwixt Kings and their Subjects, and that if he perform not his part, they ought not to perform theirs? Nay is it not Jesuitism to Teach, that the Buch. de jure regni. Supream power is lodged originally in the people, which they may take from the Prince, when he is no longer worthy of it, and that the Buch. de jure regni. Naphtalies probable capa­city. Primitive Christians did not take Arms against the persecuting Empe­rors for the same reason, that Christians take not up Arms in the Ottoman Empire, because they had not sufficient force? Is it not Jesuitism to assert that a good intention will hallow a wicked action, or which is all one to Rebel, Murder, and Rob to advance the cause of God? Is it not Jesuitism to compare Protestant Princes to Heathen, idola­trous and persecuting Tyrants? And to distinguish betwixt their Private and Political Persons, and so make the people believe they fight for the King when they fight against the anointed man? Is it not Jesuitism to Teach that Apology &c. Printed 1677. Magistrates in Church-matters have only a Cumulative but not a Privative power, and that all the Secular power on Earth cannot deprive or silence a Minister, because every Minister is so by special mission from Christ, and in his Ministerial capacity is subject to none but him? Is it not Jesu­itism to assert, that the King hath not power to Ordain a publick Fast or Festival, and that Apology. Sect. 3. passive obedience, and Submission to the unrighteous Decrees and unjust Sentences, and punishments of Rulers, is as great a sin as active obedience to their unrighteous laws? Is it not Jesuitism to assert, that King Solomon deprived Apology. Abiathar the High-Priest, not as a King but as a Prophet, and that the Ministers ought not to Preach by per­mission from the Magistrate, nor to have the exercise of their Function regulated by Secular Edicts and Laws? Is it not Jesuitism, nay the usurpation of the Inquisition it self, Spotsw. Hist. lib. 6. An. 1596. to meddle with every thing, even Edicts, and Acts of Parliament, under the colour and pretence of Scandal, and use the holy Communion as a Seal to other Oaths, Vows and Covenants, besides that of our Baptismal Covenant with God? Is is not Jesui­tism to assert, that a Naphtali about Mr. Mitchels attempt. Knox in his Chronicle applauds Norman Leslies kelling the Cardinal at St. Andrews, and James Mel­vin calls it a godly fact, and Leighton in his Sions Plea saith, that Feltons killing the Duke of Buckingham was an heroi­cal and laudable fact. See also Mitchels Speeches in Ravillac Redivivus. private person may kill a man in publick Authority by im­pulse, and that such Acts are heroical, like that of Phineas, and have wrought great deliverances for the Church of God? Is it not Jesuitism to represent Christian Protestant Kings as a judgment and not as a Blessing to the Church, by telling the people, The information for defen­sive arms. Sions Plea, pag. 196. there were no Kings before Cains days, that God gave the Jews their first King in his wrath, and that the Church was well Governed for above 300 years before there was any Christian King? Lastly, is it not Jesuitism to teach the people, that they ought to labour for an holy hatred of our Reformed Bishops and their adhe­rents, and that it is Naphtali, Jus populi vindicatum. Mitchels greater Speech in Ravillac Redivivus. The introduction to the Apo­logy. lawful and laudable to kill them and their Curates, and that Protestant Prelacy is an enemy to true Godliness, and admirably fitted to bring the Church unto a slavish dependance upon the King? If these be Jesuitical Doctrines, thou blind leader of the blind, then thou and thy brethren will never be able to wash off the aspersions of Jesuitism with all the water in Tweed and the Forth. Jesuitism is one. I am hopefull there was never one that did converse with me, that had the least ground of laying this to my charge, and know not how its come to pass to cast it upon me, nothing except implacable prejudice that some have been prepossessed with against me; I am not ignorant that near 2 years ago, a person of Note in this Church, who living was pleased to say, that I had died in that judg­ment, but after he was better in­formed, he changed his Note and said it was misinformation; but now the Lord, before whom I must stand and be judged by and by, knows, that I have a perfect abhorrence of the things, and it was never my inten­tion directly or indirectly. Though I must confess some few years bygone some were pressing with me, that I might Conform and embrace Pre­lacy; but for Popery and that trash it came never nearer my heart than the Popes Conclave, or the Alcoran, which my Soul abhors.

[Page 14] 9ly. I have been also Not by the Church-Ministers, but by the indulged brethren, who think it con­sistent with the nature and design of the Covenant, and the Supremacy of the King of Sion, to accept of his Majesties indul­gence, which Brown, Welsh, King, Kid, Cameron and the rest, declare is unlawful to do. branded with Factiousness, divisive and sedi­tious Preaching and practices. I must confess if it be so, it was more than I was ever aware of, according to the measure that God hath given me, it was my endeavour to Commend In his Soverainity, Royal Preroga­tives, Crown and Kingdom. Christ to the hearts and souls of people, even repentance towards God and Faith towards Jesus Christ according to the Word of God, Con­fession of Faith, The Assemblies larger and shorter Catechism. Catechisms larger and shorter, yea, I did press them al­so (when God did cast it in That was as often as he thought fit. my way) to remember their Sworn Co­venant in Doctrine, Worship, Dis­cipline and Government, and that they would make it their work to stand to it in substance and Circum­stances, seeing it is so cried down in this day▪ and if this be divisive [...].

[Page 15] 10ly. I am pressed in Conscience to bear my testimony against, and abhorrence of every invasion, usur­pation or incroachment that is made or hath been made against Christs Royal Prerogative, Crown and King­dom, original upon, and derivate from that which they call the See note y. Su­premacy. I was never free to lay a Confederacy with those that I judge in a great part have laid a Confe­deracy in that thing, and the Lord is my Record, I was never free in my Conscience for that which is called the And as they hold it unlawful to take the Kings Licences and Indulgences, as being inconsistent with their immediate Mission from Christ, and his Prerogative Royal: So they think it unlawful to accept of any Accomodation from the Church, as being incompatible with their Solemn League and Covenant, that Oath of God, as they call it, by which they are obliged to endeavour the extirpation of Episcopal Government, and set up Presbytery in its stead. Dr. Leigh­ton sometimes Bishop of Dumblane and Arch-Bishop of Glascow, offered them Six Arti­cles of accommodation in his Diocess, by which he did really unbishop himself, and left himself nothing of the holy Apostolic Office, but the empty name. Indulgence, neither first nor second as it was tendred by the Council, and as it was embraced by a great many Godly-hearted men in this Island; yea, it was never lawful nor expedient to me: and in effectThe ARTICLES. this is the main ground why I am rendred obnoxious to so many impu­tations,1st. That if the Dessenting brethren will come to Presbyteries and Synods, they shall not only be obliged to renounce their own pri­vate opinion anent Church-Government, and Swear or Subscribe any thing thereto; but shall have liberty at their entry to the said meeting, to declare, and enter it in what form they please. that I have been all along contrary to their Indulgence in my judgment. I confess I have been of that judgment, and die in the judg­ment contrary to it; and this I crave leave to say without any offence to 2ly. That all Church-Affairs shall be managed in Presbyteries or Synods, by the free vote of Prebyters, or the Major part of them. 3ly. If any difference fall out in the Diocesian Synods betwixt any of the Members thereof, it shall be lawful to appeal to a Provincial Synod, or their Committee. 4ly. That Intrants being lawfully presented by the Patron, and duly Tried by the Pres­bytery, there shall be a day agreed on by the Bishop and Presbytery for their meeting together, and for their Solemn Ordination and Admission, at which there shall be one appointed to Preach, and that it shall be at the Parish-Church where he is to be admitted. Except in the case of impossibility or extream inconvenience; and if any difference fall in touch­ing that Affair, it shall be referable to the Provincial Synods or their Committee, as any other matter. 5ly. It is not to be doubted but my Lord Commissioner his Grace will make good what he offered anent the Establishment of Presbyteries and Synods, and we trust that his Grace will procure such security to those Brethren for declaring their judgment, that they may do it without any hazard in contravening any law, and that the Bishop shall humbly and earnestly recommend this to his Grace. 6ly. That no Intrant shall be ingaged to any Canonical Oath or Subscription to the Bishop, and that his opinion anent that Government shall not prejudge him in this; but it shall be free for him to declare. These are the Articles of accomodation, in which that Prelate most unworthily parted with his Negative voice, wherein the very essence of Episcopal power consists. Ignatius▪ ad Smyrn. ad Philadelph. ad Trall. For [...] &c. was the Apostolical rule of Church-Government, (can. 39. Sanct. Apost.) and therefore next to the appearance of a Bishop before a meeting of Presbyters, upon a citation from them, and renouncing the Episcopal Function before them, and craving their pardon that he had accepted of it, as The Epistle Dedicatory to Bishops Halls Episcopacy. Graham Bishop of Orkney did; his forsaking of his Negative power by a contract with his Presbyters, and com­mitting all Church-Affairs to their sole management (not to mention the remitting of their Canonical Oath) would have been as Sacrilegious a concession, as a Bishop, quatenus such, could make. He had thereby virtually reduced himself into a Presby­ter, which the Primitive Church did abhor as Can. 29. Concil. Chal­ced. Math. Blastar Cap. 28. in E. Sacrilege, and would undoubtedly have deprived and Excommunicated, if not Anathematised, any Bishop that durst have been so perfidious to the Apostolick cause. But yet though beyond all example he cut the very Nerves of Episcopal Jurisdiction in these Articles of Accomodation, the Nonconform Ministers scornfully rejected them, and wrote against them in a book intituled, The Case of Accomodation &c. Printed in 4^o 1671. [Page 16] the Godly and There is not one Learned man among them, unless he be a Priest (for so custom emphatically calls the Romish Pres­byters) or a Jesuit in Masquerade. Learned that are of another judgment. I judge it fit likewise in this case to leave my Testimony Last Summer was Twelve-month, the Convention of Estates gave his Majesty a Five-months Tax, or 30000l. Sterling a year, for five years successively, to main­tain a Regiment of Foot, and 3 Compa­nies of Dragoons, and 3 Troops of Horse for suppressing of the Field-Conventicles. This Act was like to be such a Blow to the Cause made up of Faction and Schism, that it was vigorously opposed under some colour or other by an insignificant contrary Party, who were not the Sixth part of the House. And as soon as it was passed, the Field-Preachers, who had told the people before, that the Convention would come to nothing, fell immediately to Preach against the Five-months Tax, telling them, that it was given by the enemies of Christ to drive him out of the Kingdom, and that it would be as great a sin to pay it, as it was to Judas to betray Christ. Nay they told them, that this was the day of Christs enemies, and the power of darkness, and the very Nick of temptation, which God permitted to trie whether they would have Christ for their King or no, and charged them, as they would answer it before them at the great day, not to forsake him contrary to their Holy Covenant, by sinfully complying with such an Antichristian Act. Their people upon this were so affrighted, that many of them rather than pay the Cess, will suffer distreint; and in particular the Earl of Dun­donalds chief servant fell perfectly distracted by trouble of Conscience for having assisted his Lord at Renscot in laying the Cess upon that Shire. And the very same Sanctified Ruffians, who murdered the Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews in Fife, had several days be­fore laid wait for the Collectors of this Tax. against the stent taxa­tion cess that hath been so unjustly imposed, so irrelevantly founded and vigorously caried on by the late Con­vention of Estates, and meerly upon no other account imaginable, but to make a final extirpation i. e. of Christ as King in Sion, of the Covenant & of the Presbyte­rian Govern­ment, that Pat­tern in the Mount. of Christ his Gospel and Ordinances out of the Land: and how lamentable it is to consider how many Professors did wil­lingly pay it, and were most forward for others to do the same. In the next place, though to many I die desired, yet I know, not to a few my death is not desired; and its the rejoycing of my heart that I die in the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath loved me and given himself for me, and in the Faith of the Apostles and Prophets, and in the Faith that there is not a name under Heaven by which men can be Saved, but by the name of Jesus, and in the Faith of the Doctrine, Worship and Government of the Kirk of Scotland, as it is now Established according to the Word of God, Confessions of Faith, Catechisms larger and shorter like as I leave my Testimony against Popery, Perjury, Prophanity, Prelacy, Heresie, and every thing contrary to sound Doctrine. In the close, as a dying Person, and as one who hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be Faithful, I would [Page 17] humbly leave it on the Godly Ministers to be faithful for their Lord and Master, and not to hold their peace in such a day, when so many ways are taken for injuring him, his Name, nay his Sanctuary, Ordinances, Crown and Kingdom. Well threatned false Prophet. I hope there will be found a Party in this Land, that will contend for him and his matters upon all hazards: and as faithfulness is called for in Ministers, so Professors would concern themselves that they coun­tenance not nor abate any thing that is inconsistent with their former prin­ciples and practices. I have a word to add further that God is calling per­sons to repentance, and to do their To assert the Covenant. first Works. O that Scotland were a mourning Land! And O that Reformation were our practice according as we are Sworn in the Covenant! Again, Christians of grace and expe­rience would study more stability and straightness in this day, when so many are turning to the right hand and so many to the left: Consi­der how Blas­phemously he applies this Scripture. He that endures to the end shall be saved: he hath appointed a Kingdom for such as continue with him in his temptations. Next, as ever ye would expect to have the Form of the house of God shewed you in all the Laws thereof, goings 23. Of the Presbyterian Government & Discipline. out thereof, and comings in thereof, then think it no shame for you for all that hath been done; sitting down on this side Jordan is like to be our bane. Oh when shall we get out and run after him with all our hearts, and never rest till he return. I commend my Wife and poor young ones to the care and Faithfulness of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God that hath led me to this day, and who is the God of my Salvation, be their God and my God, their Father and my Father. I am also hopeful that Christian Friends and Relations will not be unmindful of them, when I am gone. Lastly, I bear my Testimony to the Cross of Christ, and Bless him, that ever he counted me worthy to appear for him in such a Lot as this. Glory to him that ever I heard of him, and that ever he fell upon such a method of dealing with me as this. And therefore let none that loves Christ and his righteous Cause be offended at me; and as I lived in the Faith of this, that the three Married to God by the Solemn League & Covenant. See more in Notes upon W. Kingdoms are married Lands, so I die in the Faith of it, that there will be a Resurrection of his Name, Word, Cause and Covenant, and of all his interests therein, though I dare not determine the time when, nor the manner how, but leave all those things to the infinitely wise God, who hath done and will do all things well. Oh that he would return to this Land again, repair our breaches, take away backslidings, appear for his Work! O that he were pacified towards us! Oh that he would pass by Scotland once again, and make our time a time of love! Come Lord Jesus, come quickly, himself hasten it in his own time and way. The Lord is my Light, my Joy, and my Life my Song and my Salvation. The good of his chosen be my mercy this day, and the enriching comforts of the Holy-Ghost keep up and carry me fair through to the glory of his Grace, to the Edifica­tion of his people, and my own eternal Advantage.

Amen.

THE LAST SPEECH OF Mr. John King. With Animadversions thereupon.

I Do not doubt but many, that are Spectators here, have some or other end, then to be edifi­ed by what yee may see in the behaviour, or hear in the last words of one going to eter­nity: But if any of you have ears to hear, as I doubt not but some of this great gathering have, then I desire your ears and attention, if the Lord shall help and permit me to speak to a few things. First I bless the Lord (since by his wisdom and holy provi­dence he hath carved out my lot to die after this manner) that I die not As unwillingly as other malefactors use to do, for in the interval betwixt his condemnation, and execution, he by his friends used all the means he could to pro­cure his Majesties pardon. unwillingly, nor by force. It is true, I could not do this of my self neither, allways having an inclination to put the evil day farr away; but through There are two sorts of courage: one natural, and the other supernatural, or in­spired, and the raising of the Animal Spirits by strong liquors (for Aristotle compares Enthusiasm to wine) will plausibly coun­terfit both. Hence we see that common Malefactors, party to rid their minds of the torment of fear, and partly out of a vain glo­rious desire to be mistaken by the rabble for men of great natural courage, who contemn Death, privatly fortify themselves before the time of execution by strong spirits, and cordials, by vertue of which they often ap­pear to die like gallant men. In like man­ner religious Malefactors (I mean such as pretend to suffer upon the account of reli­gion) that they may rid themselves of the terrours of an evil conscience, and appear to be assisted, like Martyrs, with supernatu­ral courage, highten their spirits at the time of execution, by strong liquours, and cordi­alls, which make them brisk, and bold, and insensible of Death, and Hell. But then as the former sometimes drink to much, and so discover the Cheat by dying Drunk: so the latter (who are so much the more execra­ble Hypocrites of the two, as it is a greater sin to counterfit Grace than nature) sometimes by taking too much of the creature discover their imposture by their Drunkenness, and by dying not like Martyrs, but sots. This was the deplorable case of Hugh Peters, whose sad condition that good penitent Mr. Cook lamented at his execution. This likewise was the case of the Pentland-Rebels who were executed at Edinburgh, who were so stupified, and besotted with the Sack, and Brandy, which they drank on the day of their execution, and the day before, that they died like Beasts, without so much as making a prayer to God, or desiring others to pray for them; to the great scandal of all good Christian spectators, who saw them, and whereof many yet a live can witness, what I say. Lastly, this was the case, though not to that degree, of Gaven the Jesuit, elder brother to this deceiver, who deliver­ed as much, as he was permitted to speak, of this speech (which he had composed before) in such a broken confused manner, as Drunken men use to do, in somuch, that the orthodox spectators pityed the wretch, and his brotherhood were ashamed. See notes d, and f, on the first in Speech. grace I have been helped, and by his grace yet hope to be, and though possibly I might have shunned such a hard sentence, if I had done things which (though I could) I durst not [Page 19] do, no not for my Soul, yet I durst not (God knows) redeem my Life by the loss of my Integrity and Ho­nesty. I bless the Lord, that since I have been apprehended and a priso­ner, God hath very wonderfully up­holden me, and made out that com­fortable word, I shewed before on note c, in the first speech, that this sort of Ministers falsly so called, have a Jesuitical trick of abusively applying the holy Scriptures to themselves. Here we may see another notable instance of it, where the deceiver applys to himself this comfortable message, which the Pro­phet delivered in Gods name to the Jews, as they were his People in a civil sence, bid­ding them not to be afraid, or dismay'd, be­cause he would strengthen them, help them, and uphold them against their Enemies: so that those who were incensed against them should be ashamed, and confounded, and those that warred against them should be as a thing of naught. But here he blasphemous­ly asserts, that God miraculously upheld him, and made out these comfortable words to him, as if the Holy Ghost had whispered them in his conscience as expressly, as the Prophet spoke them unto the Jews. Or as if whatsoever was written in the holy Scriptures, were to be so exactly transcribed in the works of Providence, that even the Prophetical passages, and predictions were to be accomplished over and over in different Ages; or as if the latter works of Providence, not only in general, but as to particular Societies, and Persons did answer as exactly to some or other places of the Scripture, as Face answers to Face in a Glass. This Doctrine is taught in a Book called, The fulfilling of the Scriptures, Printed 1669. wherein are such Blasphemous applications of the Scripture-promises to the Condition of the Covenanters in Scotland, as cannot be read without horrour, and indignation, by any Orthodox man. Ever since the Re-establishment of Episcopacy, the Conventicle-Preachers have assured their People, that God would destroy it again, and restore his own work; but then as often as they began to withdraw from them, seeing no probability of such a turn, then they Preached, and Wrote of the great pro­mises which were made to Believing, as that Faith was the Evidence of things not seen, and that they ought to believe the naked Word, when there was no appearance of its out-making, according to 2 Chron. 20. 20. Hear O Judah, and Inhabitants of Jerusalem, believe in the Lord your God, so shall you be Established, believe his Prophets, so shall you Prosper. But then when things fell not out according to the prediction of these false Prophets, but quite contrary, then they had another Scripture to quiet their Disciples, viz. That the Righteous ought not to be afraid of evil tidings, but that their hearts should be established trusting in the Lord, and that they should not be afraid, untill they had seen their desires upon their Enemies, Psalm. 112. 7, 8. Therefore they ought to get their Spirits quiet in a recumbency on God, and to trust his Testimony more than their own Hearts, because there was then a most sensible outgate, when there was least of SenseFulfil. of Script. pag. 50. and most of Faith; that when their Cause was lowest, then God called them to throw themselves on the promise, and that their most desperate venture of Life, Estate, and Credit upon the Promises of God, hath usually had the richest Incom, and that those who have been most Friends to Faith, have had Faith most a Friend to them. And then if through Faction of great men, or secret favour of Fanaticks in Power, any thing happened for their advantage, then there was another comfortable Triumphant Text to be applyed to them, to make them expect greater matters yet, viz. Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the Fig-Tree, believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things than these▪ Joh. 1. 50. Therefore is it good with Caleb, to take part with the promise against the discourag­ing reports about the Anakims; for believing doth always make way for sense, so that it is good to trust in God in a day of streights, seeing his returns have been not only ac­cording to Faith, but have often exceeded their belief. Then whatsoever happens for the Interest of the Cause, is not only the reward of their Faith, but the answer of their Prayers; for the People of the Lord can testifie by experience, that when they have oft with Hannah gon in before the Lord in the bitterness of their Spirit, they have been made to return with a sensible, and marvellous change in their case. For God is near unto his People, in what they call upon him according to his Word. Those who have a desire to see more of their Blasphemous applications of Scripture, may consult the foresaid Book, out of which I have taken these. See also Notes e. h. o. Fear not, be not dis­mayed, I am with thee, I will strengthen thee, I will uphold thee by the right hand of my righteousness, Isa. 41. 10. I thank the Lord he never gave me leave so much as to have a thought, [Page 20] much less to seek after any Yet when he was charged by authori­ty for having born Arms in the late Rebelli­on, he denyed it. Upon which one, or more of those who apprehended him be­ing called, Swore that they took him with Swords and Pistols, to which, being asked if that was not to bear Arms, he said, that he meant he never bore Arms in an Hostile manner, viz. in his hands. Shift, that might have been in the least sin­ful. I did always, and yet judge it better to The Posterity of Abraham were made Gods Segoulah, or peculiar People, by ver­tue of that particular Contract which he was pleased to make with the Father of the Faithful, and seal with the Sacrament of Circumcision: and therefore if Moses, when he came to years of Discretion, had owned himself for the Son of Pharaohs Daughter, and so had succeeded to Pha­raohs Imperial Throne, he had virtually abjured the Blood of Abraham, and there­by renounced God, his only Church and People, and that holy Covenant, to which were annexed so many Promises and Pri­viledges, as singular Prerogatives of that People, and particularly, that of them, as concerning the Flesh, Messias himself should come. In this therefore the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, commends the Faith of Moses, that he chose rather in a time of Persecution to own his Brethren, the only Church and People of God, and the Covenant by which they were espoused to him, than to enjoy the Temporal pleasures of a Crown, to which he could not have suc­ceeded without renouncing of Abrahams Blood. But what is this to the case of this Deceiver, who was hanged for rebelling against his natural Prince? Yes, it was a brave Text to induce the People to believe, that he was a great Prophet, and the Familiar Friend of God, as Moses was, and that the Covenanters are Gods People, and the People of the Episcopal Churches, but as Egyptians, whom it is Lawful and Meritorious to Rob, and Kill. suffer affliction with the People of God, than to enjoy the plea­sure of sin for a season. Therefore I am come hither to Suffer, and to lay down my Life. I bless the Lord, I dye not as a Fool, though I ac­knowledge, I have nothing to boast of in my self. I acknowledge, I am a Sinner and one of the chiefest, that has gone under the name of a Professor of Religion, yea, amongst the unworthiest of those that have Preached the Gospel. See note on h. in the first Speech. My Sins and Corruptions have been many, I have defiled me in all things, and even in the following and doing By Duty here, I suppose, he means Prayer, which the Presbyterian Writers Emphatically call by that name. And as in other things, so especially in this, they use to perplex, and enslave the consciences of men, by representing the natural infir­mities of human nature, for great sins, which either are not sins at all, as those first moti­ons of the appetite, which the Schoolmen call motus primo primi, or else but common irregularities of our corrupt nature, which God will never lay to our charge; unless we indulge, and promote them. Such as are extravagant thinkings, which proce [...] from the nimble and disultory nature of the imagination, which will make Excursions, when the mind is most serious, and intent. No man can be so intent upon a Mathematical demonstration, but wandring thoughts will interpose, whether he will or no, and inspite of his uttermost attention so interrupt him, that he will some­times loose the connexion, and be forced to begin his demonstration again. Besides some things, and accidents will make such deep impressions upon our phancies, do what we can to resist them, that our minds will rave upon them in our Studies and Prayers, and in such cases God who knows whereof we are made, better than we know our selves, will be so far from imputing them unto us, that, if we manfully resist them, he will pity our infirmities, and accept of the will for the deed. I make this remark, because there is nothing more common than to find our modern Pharisees, with their Mouths full of tra­gical lamentations, and complaints of the common infirmities of human nature, without taking notice of their own, on their Parties presumptious sins. Like this deplorable wretch, who heretakes pains to confess, that he wanted not infirmities in doing of Duty, which no meer man ever yet wanted, but says nothing by way of contrition for his Treasons, Schisms and Rebellions, which is in plain English Pharise-like to swallow a Cammel, and strain at a Gnat. of Du­ty, I have not wanted my own sin­ful infirmities and weakness. So [Page 21] that I may justly say, I have no righteousness of my own, all is like filthy Rags; But What Episcopal Protestant doth not think himself bound to bless God upon the same account? or doth not believe the same things of Jesus Christ? or hath not the same trust and affiance in him, though I hope better grounded than his is? but he must make himself talk at this rate to in­sinuate to the People, that he Suffered for preaching these Gospel-Truths. blessed be God, that there is a Saviour, and an Ad­vocate Jesus Christ the righteous; and I do believe, that Jesus Christ is come into the World to save Sin­ners, of whom I am the chief, and that through Faith in his Righteous­ness I have obtained Mercy, and that through him and him only I desire to have a happy and glorious Victory over Sin, Satan, Hell and Death, and that I shall attain unto the Resurrection of the Just, and be partaker of Eternal Life; I know in whom I have believed that By citing part of this passage, 2 Tim. 1. 12. he Jesuitically insinuates, as if the whole were applicable to him, and by con­sequence, that he Suffered for the same cause, as the Apostle did, viz. for Preaching of the Gospel. For the Verse begins thus: For the which Cause I also suffer these things, nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am per­swaded, that he is able to keep, that which I have committed unto him (he means either his Preaching, or the Rebellious Peo­ple to whom he Preached) against that day, as if he were put to Death for Preach­ing, and they were persecuted for hearing the Gospel Preached. he is able to keep that which I have com­mitted to him against that day; I And do not Protestant-Bishops, and their Clergy Preach Salvation, in Christs name, and Christs alone? have in my poor Capacity Preached Salvation through his Name, and as I have Preached, so do I believe, and with all my Soul I have Commended and yet I do Commend to all of you the riches of See note ⁱ in the first Speech. his free Grace and Faith in his name, as the alone and only way whereby ye can be saved. It may be many may think (but [Page 22] I bless the Lord without any Is there then no sollid ground to be­lieve, that a man, who Blasphemously Preached Rebellion in the name of God, and who preached it in Assemblies of Arm­ed men in the Fields, and who preached those Assemblies into a Marching Army, and who Marched himself along with them in Arms, I say is there no sollid ground to believe, that such a man Suffered as an Evil Doer, and not as a Martyr for Christ? solid ground) that I Suffer not as an Evil Doer, and as a busie Body in other [...]ens matters, but I reckon not much upon that, (having the Testimony of my Conscience) for it was the Is it not great Blasphemy in this Trai­tor to compare his Lot first with the Lot of Christ, who was put to Death for assert­ing, that he was Messias, and the Son of God? And 2ly. with the Lot of his faithful Witnesses, who were put to Death by the Jews for maintaining that Jesus, whom they had Crucified was the Messias, and that God had Raised him from the Dead, and had made him the only Mediator betwixt God and Man, and that Salvation was to be had in no other name but his; And likewise Suffered by the Gentiles for preaching against Idolatry, declaring unto them, That God who made Heaven and Earth was the only true God, and that Jesus whom the Jews Crucified, was raised from the Dead, and was the great piacle for the sins of the World, &c. For which of these Truths, or for what other Article of the Creed, or for what Doctrine of the Gospel professed by the Ca­tholick Church did this Blasphemer Suffer, that he durst compare his Lot to that of Christ, and the primitive Christians? It is not the Suffering, but the cause for which any man Suffers, that can justify such a parallel; otherwise, all Malefactors might take the confidence to Baspheme, as well as this Traitor and his Brethren, who pretend to suffer for Christ, and be conformed unto him in his Sufferings, when they are put to Death for most Hainous crimes. So that Execrable wretch In Ravilla [...] Redivivus. Mitchel, declared in the Speech which he threw among the Spectators, That he died a Witness for Christs despised Truth and Interest, which God called him to seal with his Blood. So Naphtali page 226. brings in those, who were hanged at Edinburgh, Decemb. 7. 1666. for the Rebellion at P [...]tland-hills, speaking thus, We are Condemned by Men—but this is our rejoycing the Testimony of our Conscience, that we Suffer not as Evil Doers, but for Righteousness, for the Word of God, and the Testimony of Jesus Christ. Would you know the Righteousness for which they Suffered? It was their Covenant, the Presbyte­rian Government, and the Supremacy of the King in Sion. Things and notions which the Primitive Christians never knew, nor heard of, nor whereof one title is to be found in their Writings, or in the Word of God. Lot of our blessed Lord himself, and also the Lot of many of his emi­nent and precious Servants and Peo­ple, to Suffer by the World as Evil Doers, yea, I think it, I have so far ground not to scare at such a Lot, that I count it my Non-such honour, and (Oh what am I that I should have been honoured so, when so many Worthies have If the Worthies of the cause pant after this incomparable honour, why doth not their mighty zeal and ambition render them impatient like some of the Primitive Chri­stians, who not being able to stay till God called them, presented themselves before the criminal Tribunals, fearing lest they might want an opportunity to dye for the name of Christ. Did the Covenanters so pant after the honour of Martyrdom, we should see the Rebels render themselves in Troops to Authority, and here men not Arraigned cry out in the chamber of criminal Justice, and we were at Bothwel-Bridge, we should see them throng to bear their Testimony at the Cross, or in the Grass-Market of Edinburgh, where Mr. Welsh hath foretold, (and I hope in this he is a true Prophet) that he must glorifie God. panted after the like, and have not come at it) and my Soul rejoyceth in being brought to a Conformity with my blessed Lord, and Head, and so blessed a Company in this way and Lot. And I desire to pray, that I may not be to any of you to day upon this [Page 23] account a In the Scripture every thing, or Per­son, that is an occasion of a Christians for­saking or falling off from Christ, or the Christian Religion, is Metaphorically called, a Scandal, a Stone of Stumbling, and a Rock of Offence, and any man (even our blessed Redeemer) who spoke, did, or suffered any thing that accidentally deterred others from believing in Christ, or that gave him oc­casion to desert him or his Doctrine, is said to have offended (or Scandalized) them, or given them offence, in which sense 1 Cor. 1. 23. Christ is said to be a Scandal, or Stumbling-block to the Jews, and Luk. 7. 23. saith our Saviour, Blessed is he, that shall not be offended in me, i. e. who shall not take occasion to disert, or deny me, at the time of my Sufferings. (see also Matth. 17. 27. 18. 6. 26. 31. 33.) Therefore this Basphemer here applyes to himself the very words of the Apostle speaking of Christ crucified; nay, the very words of Christ himself, to induce the poor People to believe, that the very cause of the Covenanters, is the very cause of Christianity, and so deter them, upon the Execution of the Rebels, from quitting the cursed Rebellious cause. Stone of Stumbling or a Rock of Offence, and blessed is he, that shall not be offended in Christ, and his poor Followers and Members, because of being Condemned by the World, as evildoers. As for those things for which Sentence hath passed against me, I bless the Lord, my Is not this in effect to assert with the Jesuits, That a good intention, or mean­ing, doth hallow a bad Action. heart doth not Condemn me, Rebellious I have not been, neither do I judge it to be Rebellion for me to have indeavoured in my capacity what possible I could for the born-down and He means by Episcopacy and Supre­macy, with respect to the former, of which the Interest of Christ was universally ruin­ed from the time of the Apostles till the French-Reformation, and with respect to the latter, from the time of Constantine the first Christian Emperour, till the time when the Popes under the pretended Vicarship of Christ, (the King of Sion) Subjected the Empire unto the Church. And therefore (good Christian People) is not this a bles­sed cause, which must have obliged Christians to separate from the Catholick Church in the purest times, the age of the Apostles (for they were Bishops) and the age next un­to them, and to have rebelled under a pretence of Religion, and defending the Interest of Christ against the first Christian Emperors, to whom the Greek, and Latin Churches attributed as much Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Matters, and over Ecclesiastical Persons, as the English and Scottish do to the King. They 1 Con. Nicen. by Constant. 1 Con. Constantinop. by Theodos. Sen. Con. Eph. by Theodos. Junior. Con. Chalced, by Marcion. convocated general Councils, fat in them among the Patriarchs, Bishops, and Presbyters, made Syn. Oecumen. Octava. Where are the Speeches, and Subscriptions of Basilius the Emporor, and Leo. Or [...]tions upon Ecclesiastical matters to them, and by their Syn. Oecumen. Octava. Where are the Speeches, and Subscriptions of Basilius the Emporor, and Leo. Subscriptions consented to, and confirmed, what was determined therein. And Councils, wherein they did not sit, used always to beseech them to Epist. Concil. Constantinop. 1. ad Theodosium. ratify their Decrees, [...]. They had power to Can. 12. and 16. Concil. Chalced. Balsam. in 16. can. Concil Carthag. erect new Bishopricks, to abolish old ones, to As Theodosius in the Election of Nectarius. dispense with the Ecclesiastical Canons, and to order many things in Church-Matters, which were not defined therein, as is plain out of the Code and Novelles, and the Capitularia, of the ancient French Kings. They were Priviledged to come to the 69. Can. Concil. Sexti in Trullo. Altar, when all other Laies were forbidden, and the Clergy to shew how sacred their Persons were, and that the concerns of the Church ought to be their chief care Grot. de imperio summar. potest. c. 2. 7. called them Priests, and Bi­shops, which in these days would pass for Episcopal tantivies, as the traiterous Author of the Appeal thinks he wittily speaks. There consent was requisite to the Election of Bishops, nay, they often no­minated the Persons to be Elected, and had power to Novil. 3. c. 1. Sancimus igitur. The reason, which the Emperor Justi­nian gave for that Law, was the ex­cessive number of the Clergy, which was disproportionate to the Places, and Revenue of the Church. The Law and the Preface to it, deserves to be considered by the Right Reverend, and worthy Fathers of our Church. forbid the Bishops to Ordain, which by the leave of the Romish and Kirk-Writers, I take to be a Privative power. Lastly, They had a power to suspend Novil. 123. c. 1. Sancimus igitur, quoties Episcopum opus fuerit ordinari—sed etiam illum qui praeter hoc persumpserit ordinare, segregari uno anno a sacro ministerio. Bishops, and Presbyters, and also to Cod. l. 1 Tit. 1. 6. Anathemati­zamus Nestorium, 2. Eutychetem, 3. Apollinarium. Anathematize Hereticks, which signified a power of pronouncing them rightly and duly Anathematized, and of doing many other things, with respect to the Church-matters, and Church-men, and because the two Sister-Churches and their Clergy assert as much power to be due to the King in such Causes, as the Kings of Ju­dah, and the Christian Emperors had, therefore the Kirk-Preachers call them The Author of the Apology. Episcopal-Erastian Churches, and their Ministers, and Bishops, Court-Parasites, and when they argue from the ex­ample of the best Judaean Kings, and the most Pious Christian Em­perors; Calder-Woods altare Dam [...]scenum. Naturâ insitum est omnibus regibus odium in Christum. The same is to be found in Rutherfords Lex Rex. They can tell them by Authority that in all Kings there is a natural enmity against Christ; nay, they tell the People, that the Bishops, and their Clergy have ruined the Interest of Christ; and that if they will have Christ for their King, they must rise up to destroy the Idol of Supremacy, and Anti­christian Prelacy which supports it; and therefore this miserable Wretch, being cons­cious to himself of so good a Cause, saith, His heart did not condemn him of Rebel­lion, for having endeavoured in his poor capacity to uphold the born-down, and ruined Interest of Christ. I once had the diversion to hear a Kirk-Disciple rail at the Rescinding Act, and Act of Supremacy, which gave me occasion to shew what great power the Greek and Latin Churches granted to be due to the Christian Emperors in Church-matters, to which he answered me, That it was always natural to Clergy-men to flatter Kings, and Emperors, and great men, just as I have read in one of the Letters which Mr.—sent to all the Bishops of Scotland, That Pride was always a natural sin to the Clergy, which he spoke upon the occasion of their keeping of Coaches, and admitting of their Secular Titles, for which I likewise find them censured by the Viperous Author of the Reform­ed Bishop, Printed lately at London. Ruined In­terest of our Lord and Master, and for the relief of my poor Brethren, [Page 24] Afflicted and It hath always been the custom of Sectaries to miscall the Execution of the Laws, by the odious name of Persecution, which common People, who seldom con­sider, that the righteousness of the Cause, and not the sufferings of the Prosecuted make Persecution, are apt to think is really such, as often as men suffer upon a pretend­edThe true no­tion of Perse­cution stated. religious account. Therefore I will take an occasion from the abuse of the word by this Deceiver, to declare from the words of our Blessed Redeemer, That Persecution in the active sence is Inflicting, and in the passive, suffering of Evil for Righteousness­sake. Whosoever then is truly Persecuted, must be prosecuted for matters of professed Faith, or Principles, or for matters of Practice. Upon the former account a man is Persecuted, when he is prosecuted either for professing (under which I comprehend Preaching and Teaching) a true Doctrine, which he is bound to profess, as the Apostles were persecuted by the Jews for professing Jesus to be the Christ, or for remonstrating against a false Doctrine, which he is bound to remonstrate against, as the same Apostles were persecuted for opposing this Doctrine, that Moses his Law was to be observed under-Christ. But whosoever is persecuted for matters of practise, is prosecuted either for matters of Divine Worship, which concern the first Table, or for Matters of Morality, which belong to the Second, for there is no Righteousness, or Righteous cause, which is not reducable to one of these Two. With respect to matters of Divine Worship, a man is persecuted either upon a Negative account, for not Worshipping a false god, like the Three Children in Daniel, or else for not Worshipping the true God in a false way; as St. Paul, and the other Apostles were persecuted by the Sanhedrim, for not Worshipping God according to the Jewish manner, after it was abrogated; and these are the two Sorts of Persecution, which most ordinarily occur in reading the Scriptures. Or 2ly. Upon a positive account for Worshipping the true God in a true way, or to express it in the Sectaries own tearms, for Serving of God, as Daniel was cast into the Lions Den for Praying to God against the Kings Decree. With respect to matters of Morality, a man is also Persecuted two ways; First, Upon a Negative account, when he is Prosecuted for not doing something, which is in its own nature, or by Gods positive Command Morrally Evil: as the good Midwives were in danger of being Prosecuted by Pharaoh, for not Murdering the He­brew-Infants. Or 2ly. Upon a positive account, when he is Prosecuted for doing some good Deed, which in such and such circumstances ought to be done, as our blessed Lord was Prosecuted by the Pharisees for opening the Eyes of the Blind, and healing on the Sabbath-day. These distictions being premised, let us see, in which of these cases the Covenanters areCovenantert not Persecuted. Persecuted, or, which is all one, for what they are Martyrs: For no man is Per­secuted, but as far as he is Persecuted he is a Martyr, and by his Suffeaings bears Witness to the righteous Cause, for which he Suffers. First Then, they are not Persecuted, when they are Prosecuted for professing the Principles of their Party; because they are False, Impious, or both. For contrary to the Universal Church of God, they hold, that Episcopacy is an Unscriptural, and An­tichristian Constitution; That it is a sin to take Episcopal Orders, or directly or indirectly to See the Apologetical Narra­tion, and the Apology. own the Authority of the Bishops, and See the Apologetical Narra­tion, and the Apology. unlawfull to hear them or their Clergy Preach. Nay, That it is lawfull to kill them, if they For then they are Persecuting Prelates. inform Authority, or Preach, or Write against them; That the Use of the A great Apostle of the Cove­nant, Elder Brother to Dr. Owen, said, that the common Use of the Lords Prayer was a Papistical Charm. And a Minister of Galloway thanked God, that he had banished two Idols out of his Parish, Our Father, and I believe in God. Lords Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments is Superstitious, and Idolatrous, That the Com­mon-Prayer is an Idol; That the observation of See Bishop Lindseys Narration of the Assembly at Derth. Holy-days, (the four Apostolical not excepted) private Baptisms, private Communi­ons, and Confirmation, are unlawful, Superstitious, and Popish; That the Presbyterian Government is of Divine Institution; That the The Apologetical Narration, and almost all their Books. solemn League and Covenant cannot be rescinded by any power on Earth, but obligeth us and our Posterity for ever; and that it is lawfull to kill those that This was the true ground of their implacable hatred to the Mar­quess of Montross, and the late Arch­bishop of St. Andrews. Apostatize from it; That the Oath of Allegiance in Scotland, and the Oath of Supremacy in England, ought not to be taken; and That the The Apologetical Narration, see Note y on the first Speech. Act of Supremacy unkings Christ; That it is unlawful to appear at Bishops The Apologet. Narrat. and Napht. page 126. saith, That their Oppressions, and grievances by reason of this Court alone, do far exceed the pressures, and injuries of the Spanish Inquisition; whereupon the United Provinces have justified their Revolt from the King of Spain. Courts, or before the The Apologet. Narrat. and Napht. page 126. saith, That their Oppressions, and grievances by reason of this Court alone, do far exceed the pressures, and injuries of the Spanish Inquisition; whereupon the United Provinces have justified their Revolt from the King of Spain. High-Commission-Court; That the Supream Magistrate cannot silence a Minister, nor indict a Fast, (which the good Kings of Judah, and Israel, and the King of Nineveh did) That the Jus Populi Vindicatum. Apologet. Narr. Sect. 11. People have a Right to defend themselves, and their Covenanted Religion; That Apologet. Narr. Sect. 9. The Apology. Mitchels larger Speech in Rav. Red. Though the Right of Patro­nage is far Elder than Popery, as is evident from that Law of Justinian Novel. 123. c. 18. Siquis oratorii domum fabricaverit, and the Council of Toled. 9. c. 2. decernimus ut quam­diu fundatores Ecclesiarum. presentations to Livings in the Church, by Lay-Persons, and Collations by Bishops, is Po­pish and unlawful, not to mention all their other Principles, which are occasionally mentioned in these Animadversions. But if all these, and their other Doctrines, which they profess in opposition to the Church and State, be False or Impious, or both, as most assuredly they are, then they are not Persecuted, but justly pu­nished, when they are Prosecuted upon this account. Q. E. D. This made my Lord Bacon truly say, That they are the men which propagate Religion by Wars, force Consciences, yet cry out, their Consciences are forced; that nurse Seditions, authorize Conspiracies and Rebellions, and put the Swords in the Peoples hand; that Sanctifie Tumults, Preach off the Heads of Kings, and over­throw Constitutions, and Government; that undermine Laws, and Settlement; that resist for Conscience-sake, and teach others so to die for their Salvation; that make Christ a raiser of Sedition, and his Religion a Firebrand; that despise Dominions, and speak evil of Dignities, and yet pre­tend to fear God. And therefore the Magistrate is so far from Persecuting the men of such professed Principles, that he is bound by that Trust which God hath reposed in him, to Prosecute them with severe Punishments, as being pernitious, not only to his Government, but the Souls of his Subjects, who by virtue of these damnable Doctrines, will be in a constant disposition to Rebellion in this World, and in danger of Damnation in the World to come. Neither are they Persecuted for remonstrating against false Doctrines; For the Doctrines against which they remonstrate, are but contradictions of their own Principles, which I have already proved to be false. It remains then, That if they are Persecuted, it is in being Prosecuted for Matters of Practice, either upon the ac­count of Divine Worship, which belongs to the First Table; or for Matters of Morality, which belong to the Second. Upon this latter Score, they cry out of Persecution, first upon a positive account, when they are prosecuted for harbouring, hideing, and main­taining declared and attainted Traitors, who act according to the foresaid Principles, contrary to express Law; I say Fallaciously: For as Ci­coro writes lib. 3. Offic. Patria Prae­stat omnibus officijs, filius patriae Salu­tem anteponet Saluti patris. and lib. 1. Offic. omnium societatum nulla est gravior, nulla carior, quàm ea, quae cum repub. est unicuique nostrûm, Cari sunt parentes, cari liberi, propin­qui, familiares, sed omnes omnium Caritates patria una complexa est. Sed si contentio quaedam est & compa­ratio fiat, quibus plurimum tribuen­dum sit officii; principes sunt Patria, & Parentes. Fallaciously pretend­ing, That common humanity and charity obligeth them to relieve, and assist such miserable Persons, who, it may be, are their▪ Fathers, or Sons, or Brothers, or Ministers, to whom they are related in Christ; or for not obeying lawful Authority, when they are called in his Majesties name to assist in Seizing of them, or Searching for them, and for not repairing to the Kings Host, (according to the most ancient Law of the Kingdom) when the Covenanters rise up to destroy the Government of Church and State. But if it be a Sin to harbour a Traitor, be he who he will, or not to assist at his appre­hension according to Law, and to refuse in a time of Rebellion to repair to the Kings Standard when legally called; If these things, I say, be Sins, as every thing must be which is contrary to the Allegiance of Subjects, the Laws of the Countrey, and the Duty which every Man owes to the Publick-Weal; then they are not Persecuted, but justly punished, when they are prosecuted on this account. They also pretend to be Persecuted under this Head, upon a Negative account, when they are Prosecuted for not See Note (a) on the first Speech, and the Apology Sect. 2. Where the Author compares this Act, to the Oath de super inquirendis, used in the In­quisition. deponeing in the matter of Field-Meetings, according to the Act of Par­liament, Caroli 2. Session. 2. Act. 2. which obligeth them, (as they object) without exception of Persons, the Father to inform against the Son, the Husband against his Wife, &c. against Justice, Mercy, and Equity, and for not rendring themselves according to the Kings Proclamations, and lastly, for not appearing, when they are cited before the Courts. But if it is the Duty of the nearest Quod si tyrannidem occupare, si patriam prodere conabitur pater, si­lebitne silius? imo vero obscerabit pa­trem ne id faciat, si nihil proficiet ac­cusabit, minabitur etiam; ad extre­mum si ad perniciem patriae res specta­bit, patr [...]ae salutem anteponet saluti patris. Relation; for example, of the Father to depone against the Son, when he is required by the Father of the Countrey, the King, (with respect to whom they are both Sons) or which is all one by the Law; and if it also be the Duty of every For there is no other way left to satisfy the Law. criminal Subject to render himself to Justice, uncalled; much more when he is commanded by his lawful Sovereign to do it, and to For, not to appear, is Contempt, and Contumacy. appear upon due citation before his competent Judge, then these men who are real delinquents upon these Scores, are not Persecuted, but justly punished, when they are Fin'd, Imprisoned, Transported, Banished, or Outlaw'd, and denounced Rebels upon the aforesaid accounts. It remains then, That we require, whether they are Persecuted for matters of Divine Worship, either upon a negative or positive account. First Then, they pretend not to be Persecuted for not Worshipping a false God, because the Church-Congregations worship the same God, and Saviour, which they them­selves do. But then they pretend, with mighty cragical Exaggerations, to be Per­secuted for not Worshipping this true God in a false way; crying out, as often as they speak of the breach of the Covenant, Napht. page 2. Of Rebellion, Blasphemy, and perfidy against God, of Contempt of him, of overturning the Work of the Gospel, of promoting the Kingdom of darkness, and Antichrist; nay, as if the Church had turn­ed Idolatrous, of Apostatizing from God, of rejecting Christ, and overturning the Work of his Spirit, and Arm, &c. and when all comes to all, they are so far from being Per­secuted for not Worshipping of God in any false, unfitting, or unscriptural way, (their own Consciences being Judge) that the way after which the Church-Congregations worship him, is the very same with their own, without Form in any Office, or Ceremony of any sort. But if the Church of Scotland Worship'd God by one prescribed Form, and had appointed Ceremonies as her Sister-Church, according to the example of the Primitive-Churches, hath done; yet, this would not prove their Sufferings upon the ac­count of Separation to be Persecution, unless they could prove, that Forms, and Cere­monies in the general are unlawful, which can never be proved; or that those particu­lar Forms, and Ceremonies which they were bound to observe, were unlawful; and then indeed their plea would be good. Nothing can be replied to this, but that, though the manner of Worship be the same in Churches, and Conventicles, yet the Ministery is not; but that the Church-Ministery by Bishops, and Presbyters Episcopally Ordained is unlawful: which Assertion supposeth, that if it be lawful, then they are justly pu­nished, and not Persecuted for not going to Church; and either it must be granted to be lawful, or else the Ministery of the Universal Church was unlawful for above 1500. years. There remains then nothing, but to assert, That they are punished upon a posi­tive account, for serving of God, or for Worshipping of him in a true Way. That the way by which they publickly Worship God, is a true way; as to the substance of the Worship, were their Presbyterian, and Schismatical Ministery valid, I would not deny: but then because there are many true ways of publick Worship, Subjects, like the Children, and Servants of a Family, ought publickly to Worship God in that true way of Worship which the Supream Magistrate, the Father of the Nation, doth appoint. I will put this case to the Covenanters: There's none of them dare deny, but that the French, and Helvetian Churches Worship God in a true way, and that the reformed Church of Scotland likewise worshipped him in a true way, when Mr. Knoxes Liturgy, which is almost the same with that of the French Church, was in Use. Now therefore, I desire they would tell me, That supposing the Presbyterian Government were legally Established in Scotland, together with that unprescribed Formless way of Worship, which they now use, Whether a Separating Party refusing to come to Church, because they would Worship God according to the French Liturgy, or that of Mr. Knoxes, would be guilty of Schism, or no? If they say, yes, as by their own Principles, and in common reason they are bound to do; then I desire to know, Whether the Supream Power may not forbid their Separate Meetings, and command them to come to Church under certain Pains, and Penalties, and might not most justly inflict them, if they disobeyed? They cannot say no, by their own Principles, and Practices, as well as out of common reason; and if they say yes, then they acknowledge in another case, that they are justly punish­ed, and not Persecuted for meeting to worship God in Conventicles, against the penal Laws. But furthermore, It is not sufficient, that the substance of publick Worship be true, unless the Circumstances of it be also due. It would (for example) be a very pu­nishable exorbitancy for any Party of conforming People in England to meet illegally in Fields, or Houses, or at Midnight in Churches, to Celebrate Divine Service by the Book of Common-Prayer, although they pretended for their Vindication, That it was against their Consciences to Pray or Communicate with Profane Persons, who come to the Churches, or to have their Christian liberty abridged by legal confinement to Time, and Place. This is the very case of the Field-Fanaticks, who though they worship God in the same way as the Church-Congregations do, as to the substance of the Wor­ship; Yet, notwithstanding their pretence, that they dare not own the Church-Ministery, they are justly punished, and not Persecuted for their Irregularities, and Transgressions in the legal circumstances thereof. But lastly, Though the way in which they meet to Worship God, were not only true, but as excellent as they imagine it to be; nay, were they the only true Christians in the World, and their Magistrates Idolaters, or Atheists, yet, they have no reason to say they are Persecuted, when they are punished on this account; because the Laws, which forbid them to meet in such a manner, allow every Family with a certain number of Strangers, to worship God in what manner they like best; and were they of the Principles, and Temper of the Primitive Christians, they would be so far from complaining of Persecution, that they would be thankful to God, and the Powers, for so much indulgence, and strive by their peaceable behaviour to procure more. But then, If they be considered as a People of Treasonable, Seditious, and Schis­matical Principles and Practices, that have long lived in a State of Rebellion, and twice actually Rebelled in the space of 13. years; The punishments which they com­plain of, will be so far from looking like Persecution, that they must be acknowledged by all, but themselves, the just Demerits of their Crimes. They complain indeed ofCovenanters great Pe [...]secu­ters and Ty­rants. Persecution, whereas they themselves have been, and are the greatest Persecuters in the World. It is notoriously known, with what violence they formerly Persecuted the Bishops, and all who durst adhere to them and the Church. They Tyrannically Usurped Authority to depose, and Excommunicate them all in 1638. because (as the Act bears) they had been Consecrated to the Episcopal Office, condemned by the Confession of Faith, and Acts of that Kirk, as having no Warrant in the Word of God; wl [...]ereas there is not one syllable against it, either in the Called in the Harmony, Scoticana Con­fessio. larger, or Called in the Harmony, Generalis con­fessio, and by the Covenan­ters, The Na­tional Cove­nant. shorter Con­fession of Faith. They usurped authority over Mens Consciences, in a most Tyrannical Popish manner; not only by taking upon them to loose Mens Consciences from the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy to the King, and of Canonical obedience to the Bishops, (the last of which they declared to be unlawful in their Assembly, Decemb. 5th. 1638.) but they imposed the Covenant on all men, under the penalty of Banishment, Forfei­ture of Estates, and Excommunication, taking away from all those who refused it, both Heaven and Earth, as far as they could, at one Blow. Nay, as much as they could, they forced the Conscience of the late King, of blessed Memory, not suffering him to Serve God in his own Family according to his own way, which was by the Common-Prayer. The general Assembly in August 1640. made an Act against Expectants, (or young Students in Divinity) who should refuse to subscribe the Covenant, by which they declared them uncapable of Preaching, Reading in a Church, or Teaching School, or Residing in any Colledge, or University; and if they continned obstinate, to be Excommunicated; and yet they now complain of the King, Parliament, and Council, for obliging Expectants, and Scholars, at their Laureation to take the Oath of Alle­giance, which is their Duty to do. They were not only content to declare Episcopacy to be Popish, and Antichristian, but in an Act of Assembly 1638. they declared, That it was abjured in the National Covenant 1581. under these words, The Popes wicked Hierarchy, (a Bull, or contradiction in Adjecto) which as they cite it from the Council of Trent, includes the Orders of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons; so that if Bishops were abjured by them who took the National Covenant under the Popes Hierarchy, how came it to pass, that they did not abjure Priests and Deacons too? They made an Act of Assembly, August 3d. 1648. for Censuring of Ministers, who spoke not to the corrupti­ons of the time, i. e. for not Preaching, and Praying against the Engagement for deli­vering the late King out of Prison; and in Prosecuting this Act, Mr. William Colvill was deposed, though he was a most learned and worthy man, for not reading the Causes of a Fast which they appointed; which puts me in mind of what Queen Mary Stuart was used to say, That she was as much afraid of a Fast of the Ministers, as of an Army of Souldiers. In another Act of Assembly, July 20. 1649. they Ordained, that all that had been accessory to the Engagement 1648. should be processed, and made solemnly to renounce it, as sinful and unlawful, and in their Seasonable warning, July 27. 1649. They call the Defeat of this noble and pious Design by Cromwell, a great mercy to the People of God, and say, it ought to be perpetually remembred, and that all men ought to bless God for it; and page 10. they say, That if the King, or any for him shall Invade this Land, in order to his Establishment, it will be a necessary Duty to resist and oppose him; and page 11. so long as the King refuses to hearken to the de­sires of the Kirk and State, it is consonant to the Scripture, Reason, and the Laws of the Kingdom to refuse to admit him to the Exercise of his Government, till he give sa­tisfaction in these things; and in their Letter to the King, page 30. they say, That his refusing to satisfie their desires, was nothing else but an Opposing of the Kingdom of the Son of God, and a Refusing to let him Reign over him and his Kingdoms; and That his Enter­taining of James Graham, will bring on him and his Throne the guilt of all the Blood that be, and his Accomplices had shed; and page 31. they exhort him to lament for the iniquities of his Fathers House, and especially for his opposition to Religion and the Cause of God, the permitting and practising of Antichristian Prelacy in the Royal Fa­mily it self, and the Shedding of so much Blood of the People of God. In one of their Acts, they inhibit the Lords Supper to be Administred to any Per­son, but who should first subscribe the Covenant, which they also forced young Students, and fresh men in the Universities to take; and if any of them who were insnared in it in their youth, chance to be Clergy-men, especially Bishops; then the Covenanters have a just ground to conspire their Destruction, for being Apostates from the Cause. They (here I include their Predecessors) Persecuted Queen Mary, King James, threatning to Excommunicate him, and his whole Council, King Charles the First of blessed Me­mory, and his Majesty who now Reigns, (and whom God preserve from Falling into their hands again) knows by former and latter experiences, what a Persecuting spirit they are of. What cruelty did they use against all those who refused to sign the Covenant, or who broke it upon being convinced what a bond of iniquity it was? They were declared to be Rebels, and denounced Enemies both to God and Man; Their Persons were Seized, their Goods Confiscate; and in Novemb. 1643. when some of the most Eminent Nobility refused to Seal it; Commissions were given to Soldiers to bring them in Prisoners, and to kill them if they made Resistance. What bloody Tribunals were Erected at St. Andrews, Glascow, and Edinburgh? How many Noble­men, and Gentlemen of good Quality were most Barbarously Murdered (especially the Heroick Montross) for obeying their Sovereign's Commission? and how did the Co­venanters rejoyce, when the Scaffolds were reeking with their Blood; One of their Mi­nisters Preached then, That the work of Reformation went Bonnily on. Another in his Prayer Blasphemously said, Lord send us more Scaffold-Work. A Fanatical Lady in the West, said, That the Covenant could not be Advanced but by Blood. And ma­ny Ministers were then Deposed for not Preaching for it, and for speaking Civilly to Montross, and Praying with him; by name, Mr. Robert Tran of Eglesholm, and many others, as their own Registers yet do shew. And then for the Rump of the old Facti­on still remaining, how do They Persecute the Church, and her Clergy with their utmost Malice and Power? There was an Act of Parliament expressly made for Securing the Persons, Families, and Goods of Ministers, 1669. and another against Assaulting of Ministers, 1670. And the Author of Naphtali pag. 134. Exhorts all People, To acquit themselves like Men, and pull the Bishops out of the Sanctuary, that the Wrath of God may be averted in the Righteous Punishment of those wicked Men. Accordingly, Mr. James Mitchel attempted to Murder the late Archbishop of St. Andrews; and in his larger Speech in Ravillac Red. he saith, They are all Blessed, that shall take the Proud Prelates, and dash their Brains against the Stones. And what he attempted was at last Successfully Effected by Viz. by John Balfour of Kinlock, David Haxton of Rathillet, George Balfour in Gilston, James Russel in Kettle, Robert Dingwall in Caddam, Andrew Guillan in Balmerinoch, Alex­ander Henderson, and Andrew his Bro­ther in Kilbrachmont, George Fleming in Balbuthy. 10. Field-Zelots of the same Principles, whereof some had Ridden a long time in the Field-Preachers Guards. And in the middle of last October, Three Fa­natick Ruffians knocked down one Mr. Malne a Church-Minister, in the Streets of Glascow, when the Justice-Eyre was Sitting there. And I profess, when I consider in what a Persecuted Con­dition the Bishops and Clergy of our Sister-Church are, my heart bleeds for them; and methinks I hear them now crying out with one Voice to his Sacred Majesty, as the Disciples cry'd to our Saviour in the Storm, Save us, or else we Perish. Persecuted, not only in their Liberties, Priviledges, and Persons, but also in their Lives, there­fore it was that I joyned with a [Page 25] [Page 26] [Page 27] [Page 28] [Page 29] Or as some of their great Apologists, and Patrons were pleased to represent them at London, A Poor, Innocent, Peaceable fort of People, who only desired to serve God according to their own Consciences; (and truly so they do when they rebell and Murder) but how well they deserved this Character, the World saw, and his Majesty Felt, as soon as they got into their great Evangelist Naphtalis probable capacity; and had they won the first Battel, we should have seen and felt more. poor handful; The Lord knows, who is the searcher of hearts, that neither my Design nor Practice was against his Majesties Person and just No, Not against his Majesties Person, but against his Evil Counsellors, as he would have spoken in the Covenanting Style, and not against his Just Government, but a­gainst his Supremacy, and his Legislations against the Covenant, which make his Go­vernment Unjust, and himself a Tyrant, an Idolater, and an Enemy to Christ; and then how the People ought to deal with him under that Notion and Character, will be worth the while to see. Buchanan in his Dialogue de jure Regni saith, That it is as Lawful and Meritorious to kill Tyrants, as Wolves, and Bears, and their Whelps; and that those who do such noble Acts, ought to be rewarded by all Men. He saith also, That the Pople are more Excellent, and Greater than the King, and have as much Power over him, as he hath over any one of them; and that when he is called to be Judged by them, a less is cited by the greater; and that if he will not come to be Judged, they may kill him like a Night-Thief any way, and That he ought to be compelled by Force of Arms. Napht. pag. 71. saith, in the words of Mr. Robert Duglass, who Preached at his Majesties Coronation in Scotland, That Breach of Covenant and Rebellion against God, was an old continued Sin in the Kings House, which God had always severely Punished. If therefore the King should not acknowledge Jesus Christ King of Sion, who is above him, but Break the Covenant; Gods Controversy against the Kings Family would be carried on to the Weakning, if not Overthrowing of it. Sam. Rutherford the Author of Lex Rex, saith, That the King is no King, (then a Tyrant) but Covenant­ing-ways, and Conditionally; and that by the Covenant the People have a Civil Claim against him, and may Punish him in Courts set up by themselves, and may resume what Power be hath; for he is but their Subject, and Vassal; And page 178. calls Mariana his Elder Brother, (whom even Gavan the Jesuit in his dying Speech seemed to Con­demn) an approved Author. Knox in his History of Reformation, pages 392, 393. saith, That Subjects may not only Lawfully Oppose themselves to their Kings, whenso­ever they do any thing which oppugnes Gods Command, but that they may also Execute Judgment upon them according to Gods Law. So that, if the King be a Murderer, Ido­later, Adulterer, &c. he shall Suffer according to Gods Law, not as a King, but as an Offender; and Lex Rex saith, That the Sanhedrim ought, and should have put David [...] Death. And page. 77, and 78. Knox also saith, That it is not Birthright nor [...] of Blood, that makes a King to reign lawfully over a People Professing Christ; [...] Princes be Tyrants against God and his Truth, then Subjects are freed from their Oath of Obedience, and may rise up against him in Arms. And one Mr. Goodman one of Knoxes Companions, in his Book of Obedience, as Philanax Anglicus cites him, page 50. saith these words: It is a Duty incumbent on all People, severely to prosecute all Idolaters, none to be excepted, neither King, nor Queen, nor Emperor. This is Gods Commandment to the People, That in case of such a Defection, they Seize upon their Princes that would seduce them from God, and carry them away to the Gallows, and hang them up. Napht. in his Preface saith, That if the King, after the Example of Antichristian or Pagan Nations, will institute and appoint Needless, Vain, Superstitious, Burdensome Rites, no man needs denounce, but rather fear the Personal Doom Executed upon Saul and Uzza, for Usurping the Priests Office; And page 150▪ he saith, That through the manifest and notorious Perversion of the great Ends of Society and Government, the bond thereof being Dissolved, the Persons, one or more, thus liberated from it, do relapse into their Pr [...]eve Liberty, and Privilege; and accordingly, as the Similitude of their Case, and Exigence of their Cause do require, may upon the very same Principles again joyn, and associate for their better Defence and Preservation, as they did at first enter into Societies. Mr. Robert Blair when he was Regent in the Colledge of Glascow, taught his Scholars, That Monarchy was an unlawful Government, for which he was Preferred at St. Andrews, Mr. Calderwood in his Altare Damascenum, did not only say in general, That in all Kings, naturally, there was an hatred to Christ; but in particular called King James, A most infense Enemy to the Purity of Religion; and yet Mr. Baily in his Answer to Issachars Burden, page 65 says, That this man was of greater Worth than all the Prelates that Scotland ever bred, put them altogether. Conformable to these Principles, a Caball of the first Covenanting Lords wrote a Treasonable Letter to the French King; some say, To crave his Aid against their own Natural Sovereign Charles the First. The Letter was Subscribed by Rothes, Montross, Lesly, Marre, Mont­gomery, Loudonne, and Forrester; but by Gods good Providence, and the Abhorrence which another Lord shew'd to Subscribe it, it was laid aside, and never so much as Addressed, Au Roy tres Christien, although, as I have heard, The Earl of Trequaire, who shewed the King the Original, folded it up, and wrote upon it Au Roy. I have heard, That Montross was the Penner of it, which I therefore observe, to shew how dan­gerous these Kirk-Jesuits are in the State, since they Perverted not only the Com­mon People, but so many of the great Nobility, and those who were men of the greatest Parts. See Sir Richard Bakers Chron. page 507. and in page 536. he saith, That the Irish Rebels to justifie their Rebellion, alledged, That they Rebelled against the Tyrannical Government that was over them, after the Example of Scotland, which had got great Privileges by that Course. As if they had declared in the words of this Traitor, That they had no Design against his Majesties Person and Just Government, but had always Studied to be Loyal in the Lord. Government, but I always stu­died to be Loyal to lawful Authori­ty in the Lord; I thank God my heart doth not condemn me of any Disloyalty; I have been Loyal, and I recommend it to all to be Obedient [Page 30] [Page 31] to higher Powers in He means according to the Covenant, and as far as the King should favour the Presbyterian Government, and submit his Scepter to the Scepter of Christ. Other­wise to Obey him would be a Sin, for then he would go out of his Line and Order, so as to Command contrary to God; and then the Subjects not Obeying him, is not Disobe­dience to the Magistrate, but Obedience to God, who in this case becomes their imme­diate Superior; and if the People do not thus Resist the Magistrate, they Sin against God, and their own Souls. These are the words in the Second Reason of the Cove­nanters Instructions for Defensive Arms, Printed 1638. So Napht. pag. 157. saith, That Disobeying the Powers, when they act in the right Line of Subordination, is indeed Rebellion, and as the Sin of Witchcraft; but to Resist and Rise up against Persons abu­sing Sacred Authority, and Rebelling against God the Supream, is to Adhere to God as our Liege-Lord, and to Vindicate our Selves, and his Abused Ordinance, from Wickedness and Tyranny; and page 151. Explaining these words of the Covenant, In our seve­ral Places, and Callings; he saith, That every man in his Station is thereby bound to promote the Covenant, [not by all lawful, but] by all possible means; and if any in higher Place would Seduce their Inferiours into Apostacy, then it is their Duty to Resist such Wickedness and Violence, and their Calling, to endeavour either the Reformation or Removal of those, who prove so Contrary and Destructive to the Ends unto which they were Ordained. How contrary is this Jesuitical Doctrine of the Covenanters, to the Profession and Practice of Primitive Christians, and the Confession of Protestant Churches, and especially of the Church of England? which Teaches, That Subjects are absolutely bound to Obey their Sovereign, by actual Obedience, when his Com­mandments are not Sinful, and when they are so, by Passive Obedience; after the Example of the Primitive Christians, who patiently and meekly Suffered all sorts of Punishments, and Torments, when they were in a most probable Capacity, if they had Rebelled. In Tertullians time, the Infidels complained, That the Christians were so numerous, 1. Apolog. & Cyprian ad Demetr. inde est quod nemo nostrum, quan­do apprehendi­tur, relucta­tur, nec se ad­versus inju­stam violenti­am vestram quam vis [...]ni­us & copiosus noster sit popu­lus, ulciscitur. Obsessam vociferantur civitatem, in agris, in Castellis, in insulis Christi­anos: omnem Sexum, aetatem, Conditionem, & jam dignitatem transgredi ad hoc nomen moerent; and in his Second Apology, he appeals to the Heathens, If they were not numerons enough to make greater Armies than any were then in the World? telling them, That the Christians had left them nothing but their Temples. Si enim & hostes exertos, non tantum vindices occultos agere vellemus, deesset nobis vis numerorum & copia­rum.—besterni sumus & vestra omnia implevimus, urbes, insulas, Castella, municipia conciliabula, castra ipsa, tribus, decurias, palatium, senatum, Eorum; sola vobis relinquimus templa cui bello non idonei, non prompti fuissemus,—and in the very next words declares, That the Christian Religion taught them not to Kill, but to be Killed. Qui tam liben­ter trucidamur, si non apud istam Disciplinam occidi magis liceret, quàm occidere. But the Covenanters on the contrary, assert, (see Lex Rex, from page 313. to 322.) That no man is bound in Conscience to passive Subjection under unjust Punishments inflicted by the Magistrate, more than to active Obedience to unlawful Commands; passive Obedience in that case coming under no Command of God. Nay, That it is a Sin against God to submit to an unjust Sentence, and an Act of Grace and Vertue for a Man to Resist the Magistrate Violently, when he doth him Wrong; and Self-Mur­der, not to Resist when he offers to take our Lives without Cause, though not with­out Law. Nay, He Blasphemously mocks at the very notion of Passive Obedience, as a Chimera and a Dream, forgetting who was brought like a Lamb to the Slaughter, and like a Sheep that is Dumb before his Shearers, opened not his mouth. And Mr. George Gillespy in the Preface to his Printed Sermon before the House of Commons, on Ezek. 43. 11. he calls Preces & lacrymae sunt arma Ecclesiae, the new Oxford-Divinity, to the immortal Honour of that University, which so malled the Covenant; and where this Primitive Christian Divinity, (which he most ignorantly miscalled new) will, I hope, be taught to the end of the World. I take the more notice ofPassive Obe­dience as [...]rted. this, because many of the late Seditious Pamphlets have Lampooned the Doctrine of Passive Obedience, especially those which have been written against the Succession of his Royal Highness; and the Pages 66. 67, 68. Author of The History of the late Civil Wars, in his Censure of the Whole Duty of Man. I shall for the Confutation of them all, set down some Texts of Scripture, and the Sense of ancient Christians on this Subject; and then leave my Reader to judge, whether it be not Blasphemy to scoff at the notion of Passive Obedience, and Nonsense to say, That Rebellion may be justified thereby. 1 Pet. 2. 18, 19, 20. Servants be Subject to your Masters, not only to the good and Ames. Paren­tem si aequus est, si iniquus, feras. gentle, but also to the froward; for this is thankworthy, if a man for Conscience towards God, endure grief, suffering wrongfully; for what glory is it if when you are buffetted for your faults you take it patiently; but if when you do well, and suffer for it, you take it patiently, this is acceptable with God, for even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also Suffered for us, leaving as an Example, That we should follow his Steps. And 1 Pet. 4. 13, 14, 15. But rejoyce in as much as you are Partakers of Christs Sufferings—for if you are reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you; but let none of you Suffer as a Murderer, or a Thief, or an Evildoer—yet if any man Suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but glorifie God on this behalf. Rev. 13. 10. He that killeth with the Sword shall be killed with the Sword; here is the Patience and Faith of the Saints. Hebr. 11. 35, 36, 37. They were Tortured—Scourged—Stoned, Sawn assunder, &c. which St. August, de civit. dei, l. 22. Explains in these words, Neque tunc civitas Christi, quamvis tunc peregrinaretur in terris, & haberet tam magno­rum agmina populorum adversus impios persecutores, pro temporali salute pugnavit; sed potius ut obtineret aeternam non repugnavit. Ligabantur, includebantur, caedebantur, tor­quebantur, urebantur, laniebantur, trucidabantur, & multipliclabantur, non erat ijs pro salute pugnare, nisi salutem pro salute contemnere. So Lactantius, lib. 5.—& idèo cum tam nefanda perpetimur, ne verbo quidem reluctamur, sed deo remittimus ultionem. But the Thebean Legion which consisted of 6666. Soldiers, all Christians, is beyond all other Example. They lay with the rest of the Army at Octodurum, when Maximianus the Em­peror Commanded, That Sacrifice should be offered unto the Gods. This Command being given, the Christian Legion marched away to a Village called Now St. Mau­ritz in Savoy. Agaunum, whi­ther the Emperor sent, to Command them to come, and Sacrifice with the rest, but they refused, whereupon the Emperor Commanded, That every Tenth Man through the whole Legion should be Slain; which was Executed, without the least Shew of Resistance against them who were appointed to put them to Death. And Mauritius a Primicerius of the Le­gion, bespoke the Soldiers at the time of Execution, Thus: I was very much afraid, Fellow-Soldiers, lest any of you, as it is very natural, especially for Armed men to do, should have Resisted under the specious pretext of Self-Defence. And I was prepared to forbid you to do so, in the Name and by the Example of Christ, who Commanded Peter, when he drew his Sword, to put it up again; thereby Teaching, &c.—The first Decimation being Executed, the Emperor Commanded the rest to Sacrifice, who An­swered him thus: We are thy Soldiers, Caefar, and have taken up Arms to Defend the Empire, and never yet were Punished either as Desertors, Traitors, or Cowards, and we would now Obey thee in this particular, but that being Christians we are obliged by our Religion not to Worship Daemons, nor approach their Altars, which are polluted with Blood. Thou hast Commanded us to Sacrifice, or every Tenth Man of us shall be put to Death. Know assuredly that we are all Christians, who, as to our Bodies, are thy Subjects, but not as to our Souls, which now look up to the Founder of our Religion, Christ. After­wards Exuperius the Standard-Bearer spoke unto them thus: You see, Fellow-Soldiers, I bear the Eagle, the Sign of Secular War; but it is not to these Arms, that I desire to provoke you, nor in War of this nature That I would have you shew your Valour; but in another way of Combating, by which, and not by your Swords you shall win the Kingdom of Heaven. He left also this Message to be sent to the Emperor: That Desperation, which made all other men Valiant in Dangers, could not prevail with them to use their Arms against his Majesty, who had refused to Resist with their Swords in their hands, because they had rather Die, than get an unlawful Victory; and perish in Inno­cency, than Survive in Sin. All which shews, First, That Passive Obedience is no Chimaera, but a real Notion; Secondly, That it is the indispensible Duty of all Christians when they are Persecuted by Authority; and Thirdly, That it is so far from justifying Rebellion, as the Author of Behem. foolishly Asserts, That it is the only Doctrine which can keep Subjects who are really Persecuted and Oppressed, or phansie themselves to be so, from Rebelling against their Sovereign; and therefore the Popish, and Presbyterian Jesuits, who love to have it in their Power to trouble the Govern­ment of Christian Monarchs, declare it to be as great a Sin, as active Obedience to their unlawful Commands. And now, when all Sects, whereof some are not Chistians, with great confidence call themselves Protestants, upon the account of their Opposition,No Orthodon Protestants who deny the Doct­rine of Passive Obedience. whether real or pretended, to Popery; I freely declare, That none of them are, or ought to be esteemed so in a strict, and Orthodox sence, but such as Profess the Doctrine of Passive Obedience, as strictly as it was both Professed and Practised in the Primitive Catholick Church. Nay, furthermore, seeing there are some common Maxims of Christian Divinity, which were always professed by the Church Universal for undoubted Truths, although they are not set down expressly, neither in the Scriptures, nor in the Apostles Creed, and the truth of which were never questioned but by some few Hereticks, who had no proportion to the rest; I also assert, That no Man nor Society of Men, how Antipapistical soever they may be, ought to be looked upon as Orthodox Protestants, unless they profess these common Notions of Christianity, without the Belief and Profession of which, none could be counted Orthodox Christians in the Primitive Catholick Church. These common Principles, wherein all Christian Churches agreed, are these: That the Scriptures are the Word of God; That there are Three distinct Persons in the holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and that these Three † That Infant▪ are to be Bap­tized. are one God; That Christ is both God and Man in the same Person; That the Lords-Day, or First Day of every Week ought to be kept Holy; That a Solemn Yearly Commemoration of the Passion, Resurrection, and Ascention of our Lord, and of the Descent of the Holy Ghost, ought to be Observed; and that the Church Universal is to be Governed by Bishops above, and distinct from Presbyters. There never was any Church from the Apostles, and downwards for above Fourteen hundred Years, which did not consent to the Truth of These, and some other Doctrines, and look upon them as the common Notions of the Christian Religion, delivered down from its first Original, with the Articles of Christian Faith. And therefore, as no Arrian, Photinian, Sabbatarian, or Aerian, how Opposite soever they were to the Jews and Heathens, the common Ene­mies of Christianity, were admitted for truly Catholick or Orthodox Christians, in the Primitive times; but were Condemned, and Anathematized for Hereticks;The true not▪ on of Protest­ancy. so now, no Society of Antiscripturists, Antitrinitarians, Socinians, Antidomi­nicans, (for I will not call them Antisabbatarians) Antipaedobaptists, Antiepiscopa­rians of what Denomination soever; and likewise no Society of men professing the Ob­servation of the Apostolical Holy-days to be Superstitious and Idolatrous, how opposite soever they pretend to be to the common Enemie of the Reformed Churches, ought not to be considered as Orthodox Protestants, who by that name are understood to Protest against the Errors, Innovations, Corruptions, and Usurpations of the Romish, but not against the Common Doctrines of the Primitive Catholick Church. the Lord. And that I Preached at Field-Meet­ings, which is the other ground of my Sentence; I am so far from ac­knowledging that the Gospel Preach­ed that way, is a Rendezvouzing in Rebellion, as it is so termed; that I bless the Lord that ever counted me worthy to be Witness of such Meet­ings, which have been wonderfully Countenanced and owned, not only [Page 32] [Page 33] to the The Delusion of many Thousands, as their numerous Field-Meetings do shew. Conviction, but even to the Conversion of many Thousands; yea, I do I observed before, That the Covenant-Preachers are apt to speak mighty things of their Party. So Naphtali, speaking of the Covenanted-Army, which rebelled at Pentland-Hills 1666. saith, That there hath not been in Britain such another Company of men joyned in Arms for the Covenant, and Cause of God, for sound Judgment, true Piety, Integrity of Heart, Fervent Zeal, un­daunted Courage, &c. Whereas they were for the most part Crack-Brained men, of broken Fortunes, and such as had been processed for Fornications, and Adulteries; as all those who went to Christs Standard, out of the Parishes of Kilmarnock and Phimus, were known to be, being in all Twenty Persons. And if any man will take the pains to enquire into their Morals, they will find this Sect to be one of the wickedest People, not only for Treason, Schism, and Rebellion, but for Sensual Sins, and Abomi­nations, that ever professed the name of Christ. They use all manner of Care and Secrecy to Conceal their Wickedness; but yet, so many undeniable Stories of their Privy Pranks are come to Light, as make them the Scandal of the Christian name. Ly­simach. Nicanor First Edition page 79. Tells us of one Andrew Lesly, who forsook Ireland to come and take the Covenant, after which he immediately left his own Wife, to live with a Whore, the Daughter of an holy Sister at Edinburgh; who Blasphe­mously said, That her Child was fallen into an holy Fornication with a Brother, not out of Lust, but Love, and therefore resolved, That she should not Confess it, lest the Gospel should be Scandalized; and that it was better to fall into the hands of God by False-Swearing, than to fall into the hands of men by Confessing the Fact; which ap­peared after she had Sworn, by her great Belly and Lying In. Chancellor Louden, the great Pillar and Promoter of the Covenant, was known to all the Nation for a notori­ous Whoremonger and Adulterer, both at home and abroad, especially with Major Johnstons Wife, who bare him several Children; and yet he was called a Saint among them. The Story of their Principal Saint, Major Thomas Weir, so Infamous for Forni­cation, Adultery, Incest, and Bestiality, for which he was Condemned, was lately Pub­lished in Ravillac Redivivus, to which I refer the Reader. Mr. James Symson Minister at Airthe, a little before his Majesties Restauration, took a Womans Oath before the Congregation, who had brought forth a Bastard, in these words: That she never knew a man, more than she knew him; which made the People suspect it to be his own, for almost every day she brought cases of Conscience to him in his Chamber, which made his Wife Jealous after she heard the words of the Oath. One James Foyer a Beggar, who passed for so great a Saint among them, that he was Registred for a known Seeker of God in the Presbytery Book of Glascow, was afterwards found guilty of above an hundred Adulteries, Incests, innumerable Fornications, and Witch-Craft; for which he should have been Hanged, had not the Glascow-Fanaticks made a Contribution, and bribed the English-Judges to save his Life, so that he was only Scourged through the Town. Afterwards he Dyed miserably by a Ditch; when he Tempted Women to Un­cleanness, he said he would give them an holy Kiss, and if he knew them not to be in the State of Grace, he would not meddle with them. Since his Majesties Restauration, Seven or Eight great Fanaticks have been Burnt for Bestiality, who always went to Conventicles, and refused to hear the Church-Ministers Preach; and in the Parish of Govean, in Two Years time, Eight Persons were found guilty of Incest, all Fanaticks, who acted their Abominations as they went to, and came from Conventicles, as they confessed before the Presbytery of Glascow. Mr. Hugh Archibald Minister at Evandale a Zealous Fanatick, was guilty of many Adulteries. And Mr. James Porter, a Famous Conventicler, Son of Mr. James Porter Synod-Clerk of Glascow, got a Child in Adultery, with Margaret Gilchrison in Gorbels, and thought to have Murdered it at his Birth, but that he was hindred by some Women living in the lower Story, who heard it cry. It was Baptized by Mr. Alex. Janison, and Mr. Porter himself fled into Ireland. Mr. William Houston at Elskine, one of their Ministers, kept a Servant Maiden, with whom he lay nightly till she brought forth a Child, and then they both fled to Ireland. Mr. Sam. Rutherford their great Apostle, Mr. John Karstaires, Mr. Matthew Rumsey, and Mr. John King, the Author of this Speech, got their Wives with Child before Marriage; and for this last, many doubt if he and his pretended Wife were ever Married at all. Mr. Peter Paterson, a certain Fanatical Lords Chaplain and Chamberlain, begot many Children in Adultery; and though it was their Custom to do all they could to Conceal the Infirmities and Failings of their Ministers and eminent Professors, to avoid Scandal, yet great is the number of such who were processed for Adultery, as their own Presby­tery-Registers yet do shew. One John Bridgeford in Michel Govean, a great Conventicler, and Married man in the Year 1664. used to wait upon his Neighbours Wife to Conventicles, and Lye with her in the Return; and Tempted her to it by the Example of David, and told her it was the way to humble her, and make her a good Christian, as both he and she judici­ally confessed before the Presbytery. Afterwards he went to Edinburgh, where he begot another Child in Adultery, and Murdered it and his own Wife, for which he was Hanged there. Charles Petticrue a Married man in Glascow, lay with a Woman in James Galts House in the Day, and was catched in the Act; yet he was one of those Covenant­ing Zealots, who held it unlawful to come to Church. The Wife of James Wallace of Badrean a great Conventicler, was taken by her Husband in the Act of Adultery with his Man Servant. He brought them both tied together in their Shifts to Pascly-Cross; She had the Bible in her hand when she committed Adultery, and Tempted her man, who first refused her, to the Sin, by Blasphemously telling of him, There was no Con­demnation to them who were in Christ. Balfour a Butcher in Kippin Parish, pretended, with his Wife, to be Converted by Mr. John Law, a Conventicle-Preacher. Soon af­ter their Conversion, she ran away with his man, and took all his means with her; but he followed, and overtook them at Dumfreis, recovered some of his Money and Goods, and Sold them both to Virginia. I could instance in more, whom I forbear to mention out of respect to their Families, and Relations. And since his Majesties Restauration there have been above an hundred Adulteries, and many more Fornications committed by Conventiclers, within the single Presbytery of Glascow, whose names shall be produced out of the Registers, if they be denied. Ravillac Redivivus page 43. saith, That there are more Fornications and Adulteries committed in the West, where these Fanaticks so much abound, than in all the Nations besides; and particularly, That Seventeen of them of one Parish, within the Presbytery of Pasely, did publick Penance at one time. Mr. Hamilton who hath long been Captain of Mr. Welshes Guards, and whom they made Lieutenant-General to Jesus Christ in the last Insurrection, (for they Bl [...]phe­mously said, That Christ was their General) is notoriously known for a Deb [...]he [...] ▪ who spent the Estate which his Father left him, on Whores. About a Year [...]e, one Mr. Williamson a Conventicle Preacher, being searched for betimes one Morning at the Lady Carrs House of Cherritry, came upon the first Allarm to her Bedside, and [...] her he could be no where safe, but in her Ladiships own Bed; whereupon she very charitably let him come to Bed to Her and her Daughter; but the noise increasing, she went out to treat the Soldiers, and by that means to divert them from a strict Search. After the Soldiers were gone, she bethought her self of whom she had left in Bed with her Daughter, and presently ran into her Chamber, where finding the good man still in Bed with her Daughter, she called him names, and then fell furiously upon the young Lady; but she fell a crying, and told her it was then too late to Chide, which having found to be true, they were married together before he went from her House. The Tragical Story of the Lord Forrester is now the Talk of the whole Kingdom. He was the first man who took the advantage of his Majesties late Proclamation of Indulgence, to set up an House-Conventicle without the Precincts of Edinburgh, Two Miles out of the Town. Thi­ther his Lordship went with his Concubine, who was his late Wives Niece, the first Sund [...], and ordered Solemn Thanks to be given for the great Blessing of Indulgence; but [...]n after, some day of that or the very next Week she killed him, when he was Drunk, with his own Sword, with which he had often threatned to kill her Aunt, his late Lady▪ who was a great lover of the English Church. She was since Arraigned and Condemn for the horrid Murder, and told the Court she was Married to his Lordship, who for that pur­pose (she said) promised her to get a Dispensation from the Pope. Ravil. Rediv. also saith, That almost all, who are Executed for Witchcraft, come from this holy People, as they call themselves. Most certain it is, That the Five Witches, which bewitched Sir George Maxwell of Nether-Pollock to Death, and the Four which bewitched Robert Hamilton of Barnes, were all Presbyterians, who dyed owning that Party, and disown­ing, and bearing Testimony against the Bishops and Curates, and against the Belief, the Lords Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, calling them Popish Trash at the Stake, when they were ready to be Burnt. They were discovered by one Jannet Duglass, who pretends to have the Second Sight; but is believed to have a Familiar Spirit. And it is Observable, That both Sir George, and the Laird of Barnes, both Zealous Covenanters, consulted with her for the recovery of their health. In the beginning of November last, a Discovery was made of a great number of Witches in Burrowstoness, a Port on the Forth, where the Fanaticks think themselves most Safe, and where they usually land the Arms which they buy in Foreign Countreys for the Service of the Cause. Five of them, all Conventiclers, have freely confessed; and the chief of them one—Vicar was a most Zealous, and Celebrate Professor, and the greatest Convener of the People to Conven­ticles, that was in all the Countrey. I could say a great deal more of their other ungodly Practices, but I protest I am weary with Raking in this Dunghill, and had not said thus much, but for the same reason as some of the Primitive Fathers set forth the Practices of the filthy Gnosticks, to let the World see what a wicked Sect they are. And therefore I dare assert with as much con­fidence, and more reason than this Rebel and his Brother Kid asserted the contrary, That if ever there were a Sect of Christians, That were not the People of God, and in whom his Soul took no Pleasure, then these Rebellious Covenanters are such. assert, that if the Lord hath any purer Church and People in this Land, it has been in and a­mong these Meetings in Fields and [Page 34] [Page 35] [Page 36] I am glad of this occasion to tell the Reader, That they used to meet Armed in the Houses, as well as in the Fields; Nay, it hath been a common Stratagem among them, to fill Houses with Armed men, and then to give it out, That there were Con­venticles kept in them, That so they might have an opportunity to Murder the Officers, Civil or Military, that were sent to seize them. Thus Mr. George Balfour (since one of the Murderers of the Archbishop of St. Andrews) having got together a com­pany of Armed Ruffians in an House near St. Andrews, served Captain Karstairs, and Mr. Garret, the latter of which after many Shots and Stabs, they left for dead upon the ground. Thus likewise about, January last, they served the Town-Major of Edinburgh, as the Papists served Sir Edmondbury Godfrey in London; For, having filled an House in Edinburgh with Armed men, they sent a Messenger to the Major, to Ad­vertise him of a Conventicle there; who according to his Duty, having taken about Three or Four Assistants with him, went to the House to seize them according to Law. As soon as he knocked at the Door, he was let in, and was conducted to a Room, where he saw no body, till he was surprized with Armed men, who rushed in upon them at two Doors and Shot at them, and then fell upon them with Swords and Durkes, one of the Assistants was Shot dead through the Back, they Slashed and Stabbed the Major in several places, and dragged him out of doors, where they left him for dead. Houses, so much now despised by some, and Persecuted by others. That I Preached up Rebellion, and Rising in Arms against Authority, I bless the Lord my Conscience doth not condemn me in this, it being ne­ver my Design, if I could have Preached Christ, and Salvation through his name; That was my Work, and herein have I walked, according to the Light and Rule of the Word of God, and as it did be­come (though one of the meanest) a Not a Minister, but an Usurper of the Ministery: First, As Ordained by Pres­byters, whom all See Can. 19. Concil. Sard. & Can. 4. Cont. Constantino­pol. 1. Antiquity never believed to have more power to Ordain a Presbyter, than for Deacons to Ordain a Deacon, or Presbyter, or for a College of Laymen to Ordain both. This is a certain truth, and if any ingenuous man desire to be satisfied in this point, which implies the necessity of Episcopal Orders; let him read a Book Intituled, A brief Account of ancient Church-Government, &c. It is a full Answer to Blundell, and all the Presbyterian Writers, and was Printed in 4^o for John Crook, at the Ship in St. Pauls Church-Yard 1662. Secondly, as being Ordained by Schismatical Presbyters; whose Ordinations, had they had the same power to Ordain as Bishops have, would by the Sacred Canons have been [...]. invalid upon the account of Schism and Sedition; and the Presbyters Ordained by them in such a Factious and Undutiful manner, would have been deposed by the Laws of the Catholick Church. And if the Rebellious Presbyters, the Fathers and Grandfathers of these now living, who undertook to Ordain, were not guilty of Schism in the highest manner, then the notion of Schism is a Chimaera, and there was never such a thing in the Catholick Church. For they Assembled toge­ther without their Bishops, cited them to compear before them, and declared their Office to be Antichristian, and their Jurisdiction an Usurpation over the Church. Lastly, They abjured them, and brought the People to do the same in the Solemn League and Cove­nant, and Invaded their Office and Jurisdiction; and their Successors, these Ministers, falsly so called, still persevere to do the same. Thou art not then a Minister, Thou blind Guide! but (as a great Minister of State, and the Bulwark of the two Churches told his Majesty, when he was petitioned for thy life) an Usurper of the Ministery, a Rebel, a Traitor, a Deceiver of the People, who must answer for the blood of a Thou­sand poor Wretches, who perished in the Rebellion at Bothwel-Bridge. Minister of the Gospel; I have been looked on by some, and mis­represented [Page 37] by Called the Indulged Ministers. See Note (u) on the first Speech, and Section the fifth of the Apology. others, that I have been of a Divisive and Factious hu­mor, and one that stirred up Division in the Church; but I am hopeful that ye will all give me now your Charity, being within a little space to stand before my Judge; (and I pray the Lord, That he may forgive them that did so misrepresent me) but I thank the Lord, whatever men have said of me concerning this, that on the contrary, I have been often dissuading from such Ways and Practices, and of this my Con­science bears me Witness; but here I would not have you mistake me, as if I did approve of Ways and Practices contrary to the Word of God, and that of our Covenanted and Reformed Religion; and as I ever abhorred Division and Faction in the Church, as that which tends to its utter ruine, (if the Lord pre­vent it not) so I would in the Bow­els of my Lord and Master, if such a feckless one as I may presume to exhort and perswade both MinistersNor in the Faith, or Profession of the Apostles; who both Taught and Practised the contradictions to the fore-mentioned Doctrines, and whereof some (for See Rom. 16. 7. Eph. 4. 11. Gal. 1. 19. Rev. 2. 2. 2 Cor. 8. 23. Phil. 2. 25. there were more A­postles than Barnabas, and Paul, and the Twenty two especially so called) were Bi­shops, fixed to particular Dio­cesses; as St. Euseb. lib. 3. c. 23. John at Ephe­sus, St. Hierom. de Script. Eccles. & in Tit. c. 1. Mark at Alexan­dria, Euseb. lib. 3. c. 4. Titu [...] in Cr [...]te, James called the Compare Matth. 13. 55. 27. 56. Marc. 15. 47. with John 19. 25. Lords Brother, Son of Cleopas at See the Authors quoted in Spalat. l. 2. c. 2. 16. He­gesip. apud. Euseb. l. 2. c. 23. Hierom de Script. Eccles. Gal. 2. 18, 19. Acts 12. 17. Gal. 2. 12. Acts 21. 18. Acts 15. All which places shew, That James was resident in Jeru­salem, and had some singular Ecclesiastical Authority, and Presidency there. Jerusa­lem, not to mention Euseb l. 3. c. 4. Hierom de Script. Eccles. Timo­thy the first Bishop of Ephesus, and the Angels of the Seven Churches in the Revelations, whom universal Tradition hath delivered for Bishops of the Seven Asiatick Churches. and Professors, if there be any Fel­lowship of the Spirit, any Consolation in Christ, if any comfort in Love, if any Bowels of Mercy; that ye be like­minded, having the same Love, be­ing of one accord, of one mind, in low­liness of mind let each esteem others better than himself, Phil. 2. 1. 3. Harmoniousness and Oneness in the things of God, can never enough be sought after, and Harmony and Unitedness in things that tend to the He means the Presbyterian Govern­ment, which, according to them, is Christs Interest, Dignity, Crown, Kingdom, Scepter, Government, and Royal Prero­gative, by which he Reigns as King in Sion. Prejudice of Christs Interest, can never enough be avoided, and fled from. And as I am willing to lay down my Tabernacle, so also I Dye in the Not in the Faith of the holy Scriptures; which command every Soul to be Subject to the higher Powers, and which neither teach directly, nor indi­rectly, That the Episcopal Government is an Antichristian, or the Presbyterian by Kirk-Sessions, Presbyteries, and Synods, a Divine Institution; or that the Magistrate hath no privative Power over Ecclesiastical Persons, or in causes Ecclesiastical; or that Passive Obedience to an unjust Sentence, is as great a Sin, as Active Obedience to an unrighteous Command, &c. Faith of the Holy Scrip­tures, and in the Not in the Faith of the holy Scriptures; which command every Soul to be Subject to the higher Powers, and which neither teach directly, nor indi­rectly, That the Episcopal Government is an Antichristian, or the Presbyterian by Kirk-Sessions, Presbyteries, and Synods, a Divine Institution; or that the Magistrate hath no privative Power over Ecclesiastical Persons, or in causes Ecclesiastical; or that Passive Obedience to an unjust Sentence, is as great a Sin, as Active Obedience to an unrighteous Command, &c. Nor in the Faith of the Primitive Christians, who looked upon the Bishops, as the Successors of the Apostles, who derived upon them the same Ecclesiastical Authority, which they received from Christ. Every one that is but tolerably versed in the Writings of the Primitive Christians, must needs con­fess, that this was the belief of the Primitive Catholick Church; but to confute the shameful assertion of this ignorant Pseudo-Minister: let us descend to particular Primi­tiveThe Office of a Bishop proved to be distinct from that of a Priest; and of Divine Insti­tution. Writers, and see what They say upon this Subject. Ignatius in his Epistles, insists wholly upon the avoiding of Heresie, and Schism; and the Avoiding of Schism is every where inculcated by him to consist in this, That without the Bishop nothing be done, and all with the advice of the Presbyters. Heretofore some Paraphrastical Copies of this Fathers Epistles, have gone abroad in the World, in which could not be found the many places which the Fathers quoted out of them, at least in the same words; but since the Edition of the Medicaean Greek Copy, by Is. Vossius, and the two old Latin Copies by Bishop Usher, which differ from the former Copies, and agree with one another, and wherein are found all the places quoted out of them by the Fathers, and in the same Expressions wherein they are quoted; no tolerable reason hath been given, why they should not pass for pure and genuine, neither by Blundell, nor Salmasius, (who pro­bably had written their Books against Episcopacy, before they had seen these latter Co­pies) nor our own See their two Answers at the Isle of Wight, and the Appendix to the Jus Di­vinum Minist. Anglican. Prop. 3. pag. 108. men, who still cry down these Epistles, without mentioning these latter Copies, or distinguishing between them and the former. This Father who was Bishop of Antioch, Anno Dom. 69. and contemporary with St. John in his Epist. ad Magnes▪ saith thus: Vos decet non concuti aetate Episcopi, sed Secundum virtutem dei patris omnem reverentiam ei tribuere. Ad Smyrnens. omnes Episcopum Sequimi [...]i, ut Jesus Christus patrem, & Presbyterium ut Apostolos, diaconos autem revereamini ut dei mandatum. Nullus sine Episcopo aliquid operetur eorum quae convenit in Ecclesiam—illa firma gratiarum actio [Eucharistia] reputetur, quae sub ipso est, vel quam utique concesserit. Ubi utique apparet Episcopus illic multitudo sit, quemadmodum utique ubi est Jesus Christus illic Catholica Ecclesia, non licitum est sine Episcopo neque Baptìzare neque Agapen facere, sed quod utique ille probaverit, hoc est deo beneplacitum, ut stabile sit, & firmum omne quod agitur. Honorans Episcopum à deo honoratus; qui occultum ab Episcopo aliquid operatur diabolo praestat obsequium. Ad Ephes. Concurrite sententia dei, etenim, Jesus Christus incomparibile nostrum vivere, patris sententia ut & ipsi, [Episcopi] secun­dum terrae fines determinati Jesu Christi sententia sunt, unde decet vos concurrere Epis­copi Sententiâ. Ad Magnes. In concordiâ dei studete omnes operari, praesidente Episcopo in loco dei.—Ad Tralles. omnes revereantur diaconos ut mandatum fesu Christi, & E­piscopum ut Jesum Christum existentem filium patris, Fresbyterion autem ut [Syned­rium] concilium dei—valete in Jesu Christo subjecti Episcopo, ut dei mandato, simi­liter & Presbyterio. Ad Magnes. He commends Sotion the Deacon, Quoniam sub­jectus est Episcopo, ut Gratiae Dei, & Presbyterio ut legi Jesu Christi. See many more citations to this purpose out of this Father, in Dr. Hammonds Dissert. 2. Cap. 25. Justin Martyr in his Apology to the Emperor Antoninus, written about 155. speaking of the Customes of the Christians, writes thus: Postea [1 Tim. 15. 17. [...]] praeposito panis, & aquae & vini poculum offertur, quibus ille acceptis—praesidens vero postquam gratia­rum 1 Cor. 14. the holy Communi­on is called (Eu­charistia) giv­ing of Thanks, [...]. actionem, [† Eucharistiam] perfecit—deinde lectore quiescente praesidens orationem qua populum instruit, habet, precibus peractis, panis offertur, & vinum & aqua, & prae­positus itidem preces & gratiarum actiones fundit. Hegesippus a Christian Writer, who flourished Anno Dom. 140. is cited by Euseb. lib. 4. c. 22. giving an account of the Bishops of his days, where he saith, Se plurimos Episcopos Romae Convenisse, & ab omnibus unam eand [...]mque audivisse Doctrinam; and particularly of the Church of Corinth, Corinthiorum (inquit) Ecclesia in rectâ fide permansit [ [...]] usque ad Primum Episcopum, and Jerusalem, Postquam (inquit) Jacobus cognomine Justus Martyrium pertulit, frater patruelis domini Symeon Cleopae filius Episcopus constituitur. About the same time, or a little before, Dionysius Bishop of Corinth wrote several Epistles, apud Euseb. l. 4. c. 23. One to the Athenians, in which he makes mention of Quadratus formerly their Bishop, and of Publius the Martyr, Bishop before him, and then of Dionysius the Areopagite, St. Pauls Convert, as their first Bishop. Another to the Gnossians, in which he exhorts Pinytus their Bishop, Ne grave onus castitatis fratrum cervicibus tanquam necessarium imponat. Another, Gortinensi Ecclesiae, in which he commends their Bishop for the renowned courage of his Church, [...]; Another to the Romans, wherein he commends Soter their Bishop for his Charity and Hos­pitality. Irenaeus, who flourished Anno Dom. 180. writing against the Valentinians, Argues thus: Habemus annumerar [...] eos, qui ab Apostolis instituti sunt Episcopi in Ecclesiis, & Successo­res eorum iisque ad nos, qui nihil tale docuerunt, quale ab his deliratur. Etenim si recon­dita mysteria scissent Apostoli, quae seorsim, & latenter à reliquis perfectos docebant, his vel maximè traderent ea, quibus etiam ipsas Ecclesias committebant, valde enim per­fectos, & irreprehensibiles eos esse volebant, quos & Successores relinquebant, suum ipso­rum locum Magisterii tradentes. After this he gives a Catalogue of the Bishops, who had succeeded Peter, and Paul, in the Church of Rome; after again, he urgeth, That Polycarp made Bishop of Smyrna by the Apostles, knew no such Doctrine; Polycarpus autem non solùm ab Apostolis edoctus, & conversatus cum multis ex iis qui dominum nostrum viderunt, sed etiam ab Apostolis in Asia, in eâ, quae est Smyrnis Ecclesia constitutus Episcopus, quem & nos vidimus.—See also his Epist. to Victor apud Euseb. l. 5. c. 23. Clemens Alexandrinus Contemporary, which Irenaeus in the Story of the Debauched Young Man, who was converted by St. John, apud Euseb. lib. 3. c. 23. saith, Quum ex insula Patmo Ephesum rediisset Johannes, ad finitimas rogatus se contulit, partim ut Episcopos constitueret, partim ut integras Ecclesias componeret—vultu ad eum verso, qui super cunctos Episcopos erat constitutus, hunc (inquit) testibus Ecclesiâ, & Christo studio­sè tibi commend [...]—Afterwards, agedum (inquit) Episcope, redde nobis depositum, quod ego, & Christus tibi commendavimus, sub testimonio Ecclesiae cui praesides. And Strom. 6. mentions three Degrees of Clergy, nam hic quoque in Ecclesiâ ( [...]) progressiones Episcoporum, Presbyterorum, Diaconorum sunt imitationes gloriae Angelicae; and Strom. 3. T [...]m Episcopos (inquit Apostolus) oportet constitui, qui ex domo propriâ toti quo­que Ecclesiae praeesse meditati Tertullian, whom I should have named before Clemens Alexandrinus, de praescript. c. 36. affirms▪ That the Apostles Chairs or Apostolick Thrones, remained still in his time, which was the latter end of the Second, and beginning of the third Age.—Percurre Ecclesias Apostol [...]as, apud quas ipsae adhuc Cathedrae Apostolorum suis locis praesident—proxima est Tibi Achaia? habes Corinthum. Si non longè es à Macedoniâ, habes Philippos, habes Thessalonicenses. Si potes in Asiam tendere, habes Ephesum. Si autem Italiae adja­ces, habes Romam—and c. 32. Edant ergo origines Ecclesiarum suarum, evolvant ordinem Episcoporum suorum, ita per successiones ab initio decurrentem, ut primus ille E­piscopus aliquem ex Apostolis, vel Apostolicis viris, qui tamen cum Apostolis perseveraver [...]t habuerit auctorem, & antecessorem. Hoc enim modo Ecclesiae Apostolicae census suos differunt: sicut Smyrnaeorum Ecclesiâ Polycarpum à Johanne collocatum refert, sicut Ro­mano [...]um Clementem à Petro ordinatum itidem, perinde utique & caeterae exhibent, quos ab Apostolis in Episcopatum constitutos Apostolici seminis traduces habeant. And de Baptismo c. 17. dandi quidem habet jus summus sacerdos, qui est Episcopus, dehinc Pres­byteri, & diaconi, non tamen sine Episcopi autoritate. After Tertullian, and Clemens Alexandr. Origen, who flourished Anno Dom. 230. writes thus in 2▪ Hom. in Num. Putasne qui sacerdotio funguntur, agere omnia quae illo ordine digna sunt?—unde est, quod saepe audimus blasphemare homines, & dicere, Ecce qualis Episcopus, aut qualis Presbyter, vel qualis diaconus? and Hom. 16. in Matth. Episcopi, & Presbyteri, quibus creditae—and 7 Hom. in Hierom. Plus à me (Pres­bytero) exigitur, quàm à diacono, plus à diacono, quàm à Laico, qui vero totius Ecclesiae arcem obtinet (Episcopus) pro omni Ecclesiâ reddet rationem. Cyprian, who flourished Anno Dom. 248. writes thus in his 27. Epist. Lapsis. Domi­nus noster—Episcopi honorem, & Ecclesiae suae rationem disponens in Evangelio, loquitur, & dicit, Petre, ego tibi dico, quia tu es Petrus, & super ipsam petram aedificabo Ecclesiam meam, & portae inferorum non vincent eam, & tibi dabo claves, &c.—inde per temporum, & successionum vices Episcoporum ordinatio, & Ecclesiae ratio decurrit, ut Ecclesia super Episcopos constituatur, & omnes actus Ecclesiae per eosdem praepositos gubernetur, cum hoc itaque divina lege fundatum sit, miror—Epist. 68. he calls the Ordination of a Bishop, sub populi assistentis conscientiâ traditionem divinam, & Apostolicam observati­onem; and instanceth in Act. 1. 15. and Epist. 65. upon occasion of a Deacon reproach­ing Rogatianus his Bishop,—Pro solitâ tuâ humanitate fecisti, ut malles de eo nobis con­queri, quum pro Episcopatus vigore, & Cathedrae autoritate haberes potestatem, quâ posses de illo statim vindicari.—Meminisse autem diaconi debent, quoniam Apostolos, id est Episcopos & propositos dominus elegit, diaconos autem post ascensum domini in coelos Apo­stoli sibi constituerunt, Episcopatus sui & Ecclesiae ministros; And Epist. 42. to Cornelius Bishop of Rome, Hoc enim vel maximè frater & laboramus & laborare debemus, ut uni­tatem à domino, & per Apostolos nobis successoribus traditam, quantum possumus obtinere curemus. Epist. 69.—Christi, qui dicit ad Apostolos, ac per hoc ad omnes praepositos, qui Apostolis vicarià ordinatione succedunt, qui audit vos, me audit. Faith of the A­postles, and Not in the Faith of the holy Scriptures; which command every Soul to be Subject to the higher Powers, and which neither teach directly, nor indi­rectly, That the Episcopal Government is an Antichristian, or the Presbyterian by Kirk-Sessions, Presbyteries, and Synods, a Divine Institution; or that the Magistrate hath no privative Power over Ecclesiastical Persons, or in causes Ecclesiastical; or that Passive Obedience to an unjust Sentence, is as great a Sin, as Active Obedience to an unrighteous Command, &c. Primitive Christians, and Not in the Faith of the holy Scriptures; which command every Soul to be Subject to the higher Powers, and which neither teach directly, nor indi­rectly, That the Episcopal Government is an Antichristian, or the Presbyterian by Kirk-Sessions, Presbyteries, and Synods, a Divine Institution; or that the Magistrate hath no privative Power over Ecclesiastical Persons, or in causes Ecclesiastical; or that Passive Obedience to an unjust Sentence, is as great a Sin, as Active Obedience to an unrighteous Command, &c. Protestant Reformed Churches, and particularly of the Not in the Faith of the holy Scriptures; which command every Soul to be Subject to the higher Powers, and which neither teach directly, nor indi­rectly, That the Episcopal Government is an Antichristian, or the Presbyterian by Kirk-Sessions, Presbyteries, and Synods, a Divine Institution; or that the Magistrate hath no privative Power over Ecclesiastical Persons, or in causes Ecclesiastical; or that Passive Obedience to an unjust Sentence, is as great a Sin, as Active Obedience to an unrighteous Command, &c. Church of Scotland, whereof I am a poor Mem­ber, that has been so wonderfully Carried on against so much Oppo­sition [Page 38] [Page 39] [Page 40] Athanasius, who flourished Anno Dom. 326. writing to Dracontius Elected to a Bishoprick, and refusing it, saith, Quod si nullam omnino mer [...]edem Episcopi functioni destinatam credis, servatoremque, [...]ui eam ita instituit contemnis— Damasus, who flourished Anno Dom. 367. Epist. 4. de chorepiscopis. Nullus ex Sep­tuaginta discipulis, quorum speciem isti gerunt, nil de hoc quod Apostolis eorumque successe­ribus (Episcopis) specialiter debebatur legitur assumpsisse. Epiphanius, who flourished Anno Dom. 360. Haeres. 75. writes thus:—Docet di­vinus Apostoli sermo, quis sit Episcopus, & quis Presbyter, cum dicit ad Timotheum, qui erat Episcopus, Presbyterum ne objurges. Ambrosd. de dignit. sacerdot. writes thus: Claves illas regni coelorum in beato Petro cuncti suscepimus sacerdotes, (i. e. Episcopi) for in the following Chapters he asserts, That the Bishops in St. Peter received the Keys from Christ, and the Presbyters from them. Augustin, ad Quod vult deum de haeresibus, among other Heretical Opinions ofTom. 6. Aerius, reckons this for one, Quod docebat Presbyterum ab Episcopo nullâ differentiâ de­bere discerni. De verbis dom. Serm. 24. Dicit ergo, qui vos Spernit meSpernit.) Si solis Apostolis dixit, qui vos spernit, me spernit, Spernite nos, si autem sermo ejus per­venit Tom. 10. ad nos, & vocavit nos, & in eorum loco constituit nos, videte ne spernatis nos, & ne ad illum perveniat injuria, quam nobis feceritis. Ad Crescon. Grammat. l. 1. Attende etiam quod quemadmodum ad Titum cum explicaret (Paulus) qualis esse Episcopus de­beat—there he asserts Titus to have been a Bishop, Non ergo solos, qui ex circum­cisione sunt, sed eos maximè tales esse ait, oportere tamen in doctrinâ sanâ redargui refellique ab Episcopo vaniloquos, & mentis seductores indubitatâ praeceptione firmavit. There he saith, That St. Paul commanded all Bishops in Titus to exhort, and convince Gainsayers; And in the next words he saith, He looked upon that Precept, as given to himself, Un­de hoc etiam mihi jussum esse cognosco, hoc pro viribus ago,—Enarrat. in Psalm. 44. (in our Translation the 45. 16. v.) Pro patribus tuis nati sunt tibi filii. Quid est pro patribus tuis nati sunt tibi filii? patres missi sunt Apostoli, pro Apostolis filii nati sunt tibi, Constituti sunt Episcopi. Hodie enim Episcopi, qui sunt per totum mundum unde nati sunt? ipsa Ecclesia patres illos appellat, ipsa illos genuit, & ipsa illos constituit in sede patrum [Apostolórum] non ergo te putes desertam quia no▪ vides Petrum, quia non vides Paulum, quia non vides illos, per quos nata es; de prole tua tibi crevit paternitas.—Contra literas Petil. lib. 2. c. 51. Cathedra tibi quid fecit Ecclesiae Romanae in quâ Pe­trus sedet, & in quâ hodie Anastasius sedet, vel Ecclesiae Hierosolymitanae in quâ Ja­cobus sedit, & in quâ hodie Johannes sedet—quare appellas Cathedram Pestilentiae Cathedram Apostolicam? Chrysostome in his Homily on Ignatius, saith, he was Successor to St. Peter in the See of Antioch, ordained by the Apostles, ut tanto principatu dignus; and in his Homilie [...] on Timoth. and Titus, he expresses his opinion of Bishops, as of an Apostolical Insti­tution. Perhaps it may seem superfluous to shew further how effrontedly this Antiepiscoparian speaks, in saying, He died in the Faith of the Primitive Christians; but because the Presbyterians have the confidence to represent Hierom, as a Patron of their Cause, I will take a little more pains to shew how they have abused the World by this pretence; in de­monstrating, that this Father held the authority of Bishops to be above, and distinct from that of Presbyters, and also a Divine Institution. For in his Catalog. Script. Ec­clesiast. 3. Gal. 1. 18. 19. Acts 12. 17. Gal. 2. 12. Acts 21. 18. Acts 15. Jacobus frater Domini cognomento Justus—post passionem Domini statim ab Apostolis Hierosolymorum Episcopus ordinatus—Hegesippu [...] vicinus Apostolicorum tem­porum in quinto commentariorum libro de Jacobo narrans, ait, Suscepit Ecclesiam Hierosoly­mae post Apostolos frater Domini Jacobus, cognomento Justus. 11 Timotheus autem Euseb. l. 3. c. 4. Ephe­siorum Episcopus ordinatus à beato Paulo—12 Titus Episcopus Cretae—27 Polycarpus Johannis Apostoli discipulus, & ab eo Smyrnae Episcopus ordinatus, totius Asiae princeps fuit. Com. in Galat. 1. 19. Paulatim procedente tempore, & alii ab his, quos dominus elegerat ordinati sunt Apostoli, sicut ille ad Philippenses sermo declarat, dicens, necessarium existimavi Epaphroditum.—Here he asserts, That the Apostles, who were chosen by Christ, Ordained other Apostles, as Epaphroditus, Phil. 2. 25. and Mark. Catal. Script. Eccles. 15. Marcus discipulus & interpres Petri—primus Alexandriae Christum annun­cians Bishops prov­ed to be a di­stinct Order from Presby­ters. constituit Ecclesiam, And Prooem. in Matth. Marcus interpres Petri Apostoli, & Alexandrinae Ecclesiae primus Episcopus.—Here by the way, it may be observed in an­swer to NAKED TRUTH, That St. Hierom saith, That such, and such persons were Ordained Bishops by the Apostles; and surely in saying so, he meaneth, that they had a new Ordination distinct from that of Presbyters; for it's most reasonable to sup­pose, that the Father used the word in the signification it had in his own time, when, and long before there was a distinct Ordination of Bishops, by a new imposition of hands, by three Persons of the Episcopal Order. So in Euseb. l. 6. c. 4. 3. Cornelius Bishop of Rome, Anno Dom. 255. writes to Fabius touching the Ordination of Novatianus. Hosce tres (accitos Episcopos) manuum impositione [ [...]] Episcopatum ei dare coegit. And the same Bishop to St. Cyprian, Epist. 46. Tantummodo circumductos se quoque commisisse schismatica, ut paterentur ei manus qu [...]si in Episcopum imponi. And Cyprian Epist. 68. plainly distinguishes the Ordinations of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, each from other.—Nec hoc in Episcoporum tantum, & Sacerdotum, sed in diaconorum ordi­nationibus observâsse Apostolos animadvertimus; and afterwards, Ut ad ordinationes ritè celebrandas, ad eam plebem cui Praepositus ordinatur, Episcopi ejusdem provinciae proximi quique conveniant, & Episcopus deligatur, plebe praesente, quae singulorum vitam plenissi­mè novit, & uniuscujusque actum de ejus conversatione perspexit, quod & apud vos factum videmus in Sabini Collegae nostrae ordinatione, ut de universae fraternitatis suffragio, & de Episcoporum, qui in praesentiâ convenerant, quique de eo ad vos literas f [...]cerant, judicio, Episcopatus ei deferretur, & manus ei in locum Basilidis imponerentur. See also Cyprian Epist. 52. and Eusebius l. 5. c. 6. of the like Ordinations, and Can. 1. and 2 Apost. Episcopi à duobus vel tribus Episcopis ordinentur. Presbyter ab uno ordinetur & diaconus, & reliqui clerici. From all which it is plain, that Bishops before St. Hierom's time had a different Ordination from Presbyters; and if so, then the new Ordination must infer a new Au­thority▪ and the same Authority which this Father understood to have been conferred on Ti­mothy, and Titus Bishops by the Apostles, the same he understands to have been con­ferred on Polycarp, and Epaphroditus, and the other Bishops; and hence it appears, that That notion of Blondels, which Mr. Baxter hugs so much in his Nonconformists plea, of the Senior Presbyter's being a Bishop without new Ordination, is a meer Phan­cy and Shift. But to go on with St. Hierom, in the conclusion of his Epist. to Eva­grius, which the Presbyterians rely so much upon, Ut sciamus traditiones Apostolicas sump [...]as de veteri testamento, quod Aaron, & filii ejus, atque Levitae in templo fuerunt, hoc sibi Episcopi, Presbyteri, & Diaconi in Ecclesiâ sibi vendicent. Epist ad Nepotianum, esto subjectus Pontifici tuo, & quasi animae parentem suscipe—quod Aaron & filios ejus, hoc Episcopum, & Presbyteros esse noverimus; and Epist 54. speaking of the Bishops of his own Age; he saith, Apud nos Apostolorum locum tenent Episcopi. And in Psalm. 45. 16. Nunc, quia Apostoli à mundo recesserunt habes pro his Episcopos filios, sicut & hi pa­tres tui, quia ab ipsis regeris. And Epist. 1. ad Heliodor. speaking of the Modern Bi­shops, he saith, Stant loco Pauli, tenent locum Petri; and Epist. ad Riparium adversus Vigilantium, Miror Sanctum Episcopum, in cujus parochiâ esse presbyter dicitur, acquies­cere furori ejus, & non Virgâ Apostolica confrigere vas inutile, & tradere in interitum carnis. Here he plainly asserts the Bishops Apostolical Rod, or Authority in Excommu­nicating a Presbyter; and by that expression, Quid enim facit, exceptâ ordinatione, Episcopus, quod presbyter non faciat? he asserts, That only Bishops had power of Or­dination; and from this Expression compared with the Those who desire to see▪ more, may con­sult Dr. Ham­mond, di [...]ert. 2. Cap. 29. forecited passages, I appeal to any Presbyterian in the World, whether they think that this Father durst have under­taken to have Ordained a Presbyter himself, or durst have owned any Presbyter for such, made such only by the Imposition of Presbyters hands. Nay in this very Epistle Ad Evagr. he saith, That the Greatness, or Littleness, Richness, or Poverty of Diocesses, makes not one Bishop above another, but that they are all Ejusdem Meriti, & sacerdotii, & Apostolorum Successores. And in his Prooem to St. Matth. speaking of St. Johns Gospel, he saith, The Apostle wrote it against the Cerinthians and Ebionites, Coactus ab omnibus pene tunc Asiae Episcopis, & multarum Ecclesiarum legationibus. The truth is, this Fa­ther being offended at the arrogance of the Deacons of his time, and especially of those of Rome; wrote this Epistle to E [...]agrius, Contra eos, qui diaconum Presbytero aequabant; and had no ill design at all upon the Apostolical, or Episcopal Office, but only he scrued up the dignity of the Priests Office to as high a pitch as he could, which made him con­tradictory to himself, in asserting the original Identity of Bishops and Presbyters in that Epist. and his Commentaries upon Titus 1. 5. where he writes, Idem est ergo Presbyter & Episcopus, & antequam diaboli instinctu Schismata in religione fierent, & dicerent in populis ego sum Pauli, ego Apollo, ego autem Cephae, communi Presbyterorum consilio Ecclesiae gubernabantur; postquam vero unusquisque eos, quos baptizaverat suos putabat esse, non Christi, in toto orbe decretum est, ut unus de Presbyteris electus super poneretur caeteris, ad quem omnis Ecclesiae cura pertinere [...], & schismatum semina tollerentur. Having now shewed, that the Primitive Christians believed the Function of a Bishop, to be distinct from that of a Presbyter, and Superior to it; and that the Bishops were the Successors of the Apostles, and of Christs institution, as they were, I hope it is plain, that this Antiepiscopal Deceiver dyed not in the Faith of the Primitive Christians, as he hath the impudence here to profess. From what I have here said of the Episcopal Office and Authority, I may draw some Corollaries. First, that the Primitive Catho­lick Church acted in Conformity to its own Profession, in declaring Aerius, as an An­tiepiscoparian, an Heretick. Secondly, that Church-Government is not indifferent, but that the Episcopos esse in Ecclesiâ debere tan­quam institu­tionem Aposto­licam, ac or­dinationem proinde divi­nam contra Pu­ritanos▪ con­traque Bellàr­minum semper sensi, qui negat Episcopos à deo immediatè su­am jurisdicti­onem accepisse. Sed nihil mi­rum à Purita­nis eum stare, quum Jesuitae nihil, quàm Puritano-papi­stae [...]int. This was the Judg­ment of King James, as is observed by Becanus de Prim. regn. Angl. c. 7. Ja­cobi regis prae­fat. Monar. Episcopal is immediately of Apostolical, and mediately of Christs institution, and by consequence (at least) as unalterable as the Baptism of Infants, and observation of the Lords-Day; which the Presbyterians with good reason declare, that the Ma­gistrate ought not to change, or take away. Thirdly, that it is Blasphemy to say, that Episcopacy is an Antichristian usurpation over the Church. Fourthly, that to assert with the Covenanters, that the Presbyterian-Government is of Divine institution; is an Unscriptural, Heretical, and absurd Doctrine, contrary to the Word of God, and the practice and profession of the Holy Catholick Church. And as this Jesuited Presbyterian died not in the Faith, or Profession of the Primitive Christians, so he died not in the Faith of the Reformed Churches. First, not of the Church of England, which is Governed by Bishops, like the Primitive Churches, and after the warrant of their example hath Instituted Ceremonies, and worships God by Liturgical Forms. Nor secondly, of the Reformed Church of France, which sub­mits to the regulation of the Edict of Nantes, which is a pure and Secular Edict, and which hath always worshipped God by a Common-Prayer-Book, and observes Holy-days, as Christmas, Easter, and Whitsunday; and which reverences Protestant Bishops after the example of Calvin, and Beza their first Reformers; and owns Mi­nisters Ordained by them, and are never without some such in their Church. And whose The Kings larger Decla­ration pag. 75. Pastors, especially those of Charenton, were offended at the Solemn League and Covenant, as an indelible Scandal to the Protestant Cause; as also the Professors, Mi­nisters, and Consistory of Geneva; and their neighbour Reformed Churches, as was certified to King Charles the First by his Publick Ministers abroad. Nor lastly died he in the Faith of the Reformed Church of Scotland, which never professed Episcopacy to be an unlawful, or Antichristian Constitution, &c. as may be seen in the Larger, and Lesser Scoticane Confession in the Harmony; but I suppose he means the Covenanted Reformed Church, that Schismatical Military Church which was, and is the Reproach of the Protestant, or Reformed Name. [Page 41] [Page 42] by the mighty So he calls the incurable obstination of the Presbyterian Party in Schism against the Episcopal Church, and Faction, and Rebellion against the State. Power, Goodness and Wisdom of God, I bear my wit­ness and Testimony to the Doctrine, Worship, Discipline and Govern­ment of the Kirk of Scotland by A great Presbyte­ries Tryal pag. 50. Apostle of the Covenant said in the Pulpit, that the Angels, and Saints of heaven, if they could leave the sight of God, would be glad to come down, and see the admirable order of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland by Kirk-Sessions, Pres­byteries, and Synods. Which Platform be­ing no where to be found in the Scripture, made many that had cryed up the Presbyte­rian Discipline for a Divine Institution, tu [...] Independents, Quakers, and Atheists, and condemn it (as in truth it is) for a meer human invention. Which, if Mr. Calvin had not hit upon, and set up in that exi­gence in Geneva, had never been known to the Western, no more than to the Eastern parts of Christendom; at least to great Britain, where it hath been taught in both Kingdoms, without any ground in the Scriptures, or Antiquity, for the sole indispensable government of the Church.King Charles his larger De­clarat. pag. 67. The National Covenant is that which in the Harmony is called Generalis Confessio; it was first Subscribed by King James of blessed Memory, and his Household 1580. and by Persons of all Ranks 1581. by an Ordinance of the Privy-Council, and Act of General-Assembly. It was Subscribed again by all sorts of Persons 1590. by a new Ordinance of Council at the desire of the General Assembly, with a general Bond for maintaining the true Religion and the Kings Person; and so far, Authority permitting, or commanding it, all was well. But then afterwards in See the De­claration in (w.) on the first Speech, and the Kings lar­ger Declarat. pag. 68, 69, 70. 1638. without the Kings Authority, or Commission from his Council, they imposed it again according to a new Interpretation of their own, although no Authority can interpret any Oath, Law, or Rescript, but that which made it, or those, whom they who made it have Constituted Interpreters, and Judges thereof. The new Interpretation was, That this Confession was to be interpreted, and understood against all the pretended Innovations, as if every one of them had been expressed therein, viz. The Five Articles of Perth, the Service Book, the Book of Canons, the High-Commission, and Episcopacy it self, although these things were neither named, nor hinted at in that Confession; whereof the first Framers only abjured in it those Romish Corruptions, which in their time had infected the Church. Besides all this, they altered the Bond, which was annexed to the former Con­fession, by adding these words without authority, A mutual defence of one another against all Persons whatsoever; by which, what they meant, the King by woful experience found. The Copy of this Confession may be seen in the forecited larger Declaration of the King. Kirk-Sessions, Presbyteries, Synods, and General-Assemblies. Also I bear my Witness, and Testimony to our Co­venants, † National, and Solemn-League betwixt the three Kingdoms, which Sacred and Solemn Oath, I be­lieve, cannot be dispensed with, nor loosed by any person or Party upon earth; but are fully binding these Na­tions, and will be so ever hereafter. Also I bear my Testimony to our publick Confessions of Sin, and en­gagements to Duty; and that either as to what concerns the Reformation of our Families, or Persons, or the [Page 43] Reformation of the whole Church in general; As also to the Causes of A Seditious and Blasphemous Book so called, which was burnt in Scotland by the hand of the common Hangman. See Poormans Cup, pag. 19. Gods wrath: (the rejecting of which is to be feared to be one of the greatest causes of Gods wrath this day against the Land.) I do also bear Witness and Testimony to the Protestation given in against the Controverted Assemblies, in the publick Resolvings for bringing in the So he calls the Loyal, and Episcopal Party. Malignant Party into places of Power and Trust, contrary to our solemn Engagements and Obli­gations to God; Also I adhere to our See Note (13.) on the first Speech. Confessions of Faith, larger and shorter Catechisms. I witness my Testimony against Popery, which is so greatly increased, yea so much Countenanced, and professed openlyThe Scottish Oath of Allegiance. by many, and that without the leastI For Testification of my faithful Obedience to my most Gracious Sovereign Charles, King of Great Britain, &c. Affirm, Testify, and Declare by this my solemn Oath, that I acknowledge my said Sovereign onely Su­pream Governor of this Kingdom, over all Persons, and in all Causes; and that no Foreign Prince, Power, State, or Person Ci­vil, or Ecclesiastick, hath any Jurisdiction, Power, or Superiority over the same; and therefore I do utterly renounce, and forsake all Foreign Power, Jurisdictions, and Au­thorities; and shall at my utmost power, Defend, Assist, and Maintain his Majesties Jurisdiction foresaid, against all Contra om­nes mortales. deadly: and shall never decline his Majesties Power and Jurisdiction, as I shall answer to God. punishment. I bear witness also a­gainst the Antichristian Prelacy now Established by Law, contrary to our Vows to Almighty God; And against the Rescinding of our solemn Oaths and Engagements, as a thing that calls for Divine Vengeance; And against all Oaths and Bonds con­trary to our Covenant and Engage­ments, especially that Oath of So the Presbyterian Jesuit, calls the Scottish Oath of Allegiance: This is the Form of it, and let the Protestant World judge if it be an Oath, That calls for the Vengeance of God. Su­premacy, [Page 44] the See Note (w) on the first Speech. Declaration against our Covenant, and that Bond called the That is, The Bond for keeping the Peace, whereby the Taker obligeth him­self only to live Peaceably, and not to rise in Arms against the King. This Bond was tendered to the Rebels taken in the Battel at Pentland-hills, and refused by many of them, who were Hanged, and are since reckoned among the Martyrs of the Cause. It was likewise tendered to the late Rebels, who were taken after the Battel of Bothwel-Bridge, but about 300. of them refused it, and are since Transported; but five more especially, who were accomplices with the Murderers of the late Archbishop of St. Andrews, and who would not confess that the Killing of him was a Sin, or Murder, when they were asked in both Terms by Authority, if it were so? were Sentenced to be Hanged in Chains at Magus, the place where that Execrable Murder was committed. Was it ever heard in any other Christian Nation, That any men refused to dye by the hand of the Executioner, rather than engage not to rise in Arms against their lawful Sove­reign? The Christians under the Turks would not dye Martyrs, if they Suffered upon that Principle. Lord Jesu pity the madness, and delusion of this People. Amen. Amen. Bond of Peace, and that This is the Form of it, and let the World judge, whether it deserveth the name of horrid, or no: horrid Bond so frequently im­posed against the Meetings of his People in Fields and Houses, in­tended for the down bearing of the Gospel and Interest of our Lord and The Form of the BOND. Master, with all other Bonds pub­lick or private, contrary to ourI——underscribing, do faithfully bind, and oblige me, That I, my Wife, Bairns, and Servants respectively, s [...]ll no ways be present at any Conventicles, and disorderly Meetings in time coming, but shall live orderly in Obedience to the Law, under the Penalties contained in the Acts of Parliament made there-anent. As also I bind, and [...]blige me, That my whole Te­nants, and Cotters respectively, their Wives, Bairns, and Servants shall likewise refrain, and abstain from the said Conventicles, and other illegal Meetings not authorized by Law; and that they shall live orderly in Obedience to the Law. And further, That I, nor they shall Recept, Supply, or Commune with forfeited Persons, intercommuned Ministers, or Vagrant Preachers; but shall do our utmost Endeavour to Apprehend their Persons. And in case my said Tenants, Cotters, and their foresaids, shall Contrave [...], I shall take, or apprehend any Person or Persons guilty thereof, and present them to the Judge Ordinar, that they may be Fined, or Imprisoned therefore, as is provided in the Acts of Parliament made there­anent. Otherwise I shall remove them and their Families from my ground; and if I shall fail herein, I shall be liable to such Penalties, as the said Delinquents have incurred by the Laws, consenting to the Registration hereof in the Books of his Majesties Privy-Council, or Books of any other Judges Competent, that Letters and Executorials may be direct hereupon in Form as Effeirs, and Constitutes my Procurators. Obligations and Covenants to God; also against all such that Connive at, or Complie with, or Strengthen the hands of this Prelatical, Malig­nant, and Persecuting Party; As also against all Errors, Schisms, and He­resies, contrary to our Engagements to God, especially against that Ruin­ing, and Soul-deluding Evil, or ra­therThis is the Tenor of that Bond, which the Fanaticks railed so much against; and lest the force of it should be Eluded, the Privy-Council Rav. Rediv. page 50▪ Enacted, That every He­ritor, who should receive into his Lands, or Service, any Tenants, or Servants of any other Heritor, without a Certificate from him, or the Minister of the Parish where they lived, That they lived orderly, as to the matter of Conventicles, should be subject to such Fines, as the Privy Council should think fit to inflict, to punish them for their Crime, and repair the damage that should accrue to the Heritor or Master, whose Tenants, or Servants they did receive. While the Feuds were kept up in Scotland, it was usual for the King to bind the Chief for the Peaceable behaviour of the whole Tribe, or Clan; and because the Heritors, or Landlords of that Countrey have such a despotical power over their Tenants, it hath been the immemorial practice of the King, Privy-Council, and Parliament, upon oc­casion to bind Landlords of all qualities for the peaceable demeanour of their Tenants, and to give them Power, and Warrant to take Bonds from them, or upon their refusal to remove them from their possessions, if they were Rack-renters; but if they had Leases, to denounce them Rebels by Letters raised under the Signet of the Privy-Coun­cil. But because in England, where Tenants are not so dependent on their Landlords, such proceedings are not (nor indeed ought to be) practised; therefore an inconside­rable party of men, whom the Covenanters look upon as their Patrons, misrepresented this Bond in that Kingdom, for an Arbitrary, Tyrannical, and Illegal Proceeding, though some of the chief Complainers had themselves consented to the Enacting of the like, but more rigorous Orders in 1666. and in 1677. as may be seen in the True Narrative of the Proceedings of the Privy-Council in Scotland, &c. Printed at Edinburgh, and Reprinted by Authority at London, 1678. The Field-Preachers damned this Bond with Bell, Book, and Candle; and parti­cularly Mr. John Welsh, Preaching somewhere about Lanerk, and in Carrick, after he had severely reproved the People, for not coming Armed to the Conventicle, with Swords, and Pistols, to defend the Gospel; He said, The Taking of this Bond, was a renouncing of their Baptism, and making a Covenant with the Devil more express, and worse than that of Witches. And Mr. John Dickson, Preaching at a Conventicle May 26. 78. said, That those who had taken it, had committed a greater Sin, than the Sin of the Holy Ghost, and were already in Hell. [Page 45] Those who have read the Books of Keith, and Barclay, the Scottish Quakers, know the reason why the Presbyterians of that Countrey are so angry at that Sect. For they, and their Brethren by the help of their Books, pelt the Covenanters on all occasions, with such unanswerable vexa­tious Arguments, as these: That they ought not to object the Surplice, nor the imposition of other Ceremonies against the Church of England, who obliged Penitents for Adultery, and other Crimes to appear in Sackloth, which was both a Symbolical, and Jewish Ceremony. Devilry of Quakerism, so much connived at, if not allowed and countenanced by many, whose Office it is to restrain it; as also against all the steps and courses of backsliding and defection which have been and now are on foot in this Land, and against all the Branches and parts thereof, under whatso­ever name or notion. Moreover, I bear my Testimony to all the Testi­monies given both formerly and of late by our Suffering, and Banished That the People of God called Quakers, have as much reason to say, That they Preach (which is to speak from God to men) by the Spirit; as the Presbyterians for asserting they can Pray (which is to speak from man to God) by the Spirit. That they therefore had the notion of Immediate Inspiration from them; or if by that Phrase of theirs, Praying by the Spirit, they un­derstood not Inspiration of matter, and words in their Devotions, which they (the Quakers) profess to have, that then they ought to pray to God by prescribed Forms in publick Worship, as the People of the Communion of the Anglicane Church do. It being the height of Impudence and Blasphemy, for an Orator of a Congregation not Inspired, to undertake to pray, when he is not certain, either what, or how he shall speak. That therefore, there ought to be no Medium betwixt prescribed, and inspired Devotions in publick Worship; and that either the Church of England, or the People called Quakers are in the right, and Extemporarians, not Inspired, certainly in the Wrong. That the Presbyterian Preachers are great Deceivers and Hypocrites, in pretending to their own People to Pray by the Spirit, and denying to others in close Argumentati­on, that they Pray by Inspiration; and that it appears from their own Writings, that their way of long praying was meer Art, Artificial Method, or Logical Contrivance, which any witty Boy shall learn and perform, as well as a Man. That they of all other Christians cannot be the People of God, who set up, and maintain their Religion by shedding of Christian Blood; of which they have shed more in a few years within this little Isle, than was shed in the first Ten famous Per­fecutions within the vast circumference of the Roman Empire; and that the want of the Spirit of Meekness, and Passive Obedience, (which is as eminently seen among them, [the Quakers] as among the Primitive Christians) plainly declares, they are not Christ's. That they have no reason to condemn the Church of England for human Inventions, for that their Prayers before, and after Sermon, and before and after Baptism and the Lords Supper, are human Inventions; That their Solemn League and Covenant is an human (or rather a Diabolical) Invention; Nay, That their Church-Discipline by Kirk-Sessions, Presbyteries, and Synods, is not only an human, but a new Invention, which hath no ground neither in the Scriptures, nor Ancient Christian Writers; whereas Church-Government by Bishops (which they condemn) was a very ancient, universal Constitution, and hath far more to say for it self, than theirs. That the Bishops, and their Clergy and People, are far more Civil, Kind, Meek, Affable, and Charitable, than the Ministers and People called Presbyterians, who have always been of a Violent, Furious, Proud, and Persecuting Spirit, apt to exclude all from Salvation, but themselves. That they ought not to complain of legal Rigours, and Persecution, who Persecuted the People which call themselves the Church, without, and against Law, by all manner of ways, and with the greatest rigour that men could be Persecuted; and therefore whatsoever they can suffer from them now, is but what themselves most unjustly inflicted before. These and such like, are the ways of Argu­ing, whereby the Quakers vex and expose the Presbyterians, who therefore, call them (for they have an excellent talent that way) Devillish, Satanical, Damned, and all other names that belong to Hell. Witnesses, and to all the Testimonies [Page 46] of our See Note (3.) on the first Speech. first Sufferers, Noblemen, Gentlemen, Ministers, and others, that have Suffered in this City and King­dom, who cheerfully laid down their lives with admirable See Note (b) on this Speech, and (d.) and (f.) on the first Speech. Divine assistance; and to all those that have laid down their lives, either former­ly or of late in the Fields; As also to those, who have sealed their Testi­monies, either with Forfeitures, Particularly their Ministers in the Bass. Im­prisonment, or Banishment on this Account, Score, and Quarrel; And particularly I bear my Testimony against that horrid Violation, done to our Lord Jesus Christ, and that by usurping upon his Royal Prero­gatives, and in spoiling him of his Crown, Scepter, Sword, and Royal Robe, by taking those Princely Or­naments to invest a man with, whose Breath is in his Nostrils, through that woful See Note (7.) on the first Speech. Supremacy so much ap­plauded to, and universally owned, e­ven [Page 47] of such of whom better things might have been expected; I mean the The Hill-Preachers call the Indulged Ministers (of whom more in Note (u.) on the first Speech) Council-Curates, and they represent them to the People as Traitors to Jesus Christ, because they Preach under Restrictions by Licence from the Privy-Council; and the Followers of the Field-Ministers hate them as bad as the Bi­shops-Curates, (so they call the Church-Mi­nisters) especially those among them who conscientiously keep the conditions upon which they are permitted to Preach. Indulged, and such as Counte­nanced them in that way, even to the Ruining and Renting of the Church; which alass is too evident by sad and doleful experience; As also I bear my Testimony against the See Note (18.) on the first Speech. Test imposed by the late Con­vention of Estates, whereby the E­nemies of Christ and his Church are supplied with all necessaries for the utter Extirpating of the Interest of Christ and his Church. There is one thing more I would say, The Lord seems to be very wroth with this Land. The causes are many; First. The dreadful Slight the Lord Je­sus has received in the From the Field-Preachers. Offers of the Gospel; Secondly, The horrid Propha­nity that has overpassed the whole Land, that not only Meetings in Fields, and Houses. Religion in its Exercise, but even The Scots are naturally a very Civil People; and where the Covenanting Prin­ciples have not soured their Tempers, as much Civility and good nature may be expected from them, as from any other Nation in the World. But among the Presbyterian Party, there is nothing but pure Barbarity to be found towards those, who are known to favour the Church; especially towards the Bishops, and their Clergy, whom they treat upon all occasions with all imaginable rudeness; insomuch that I wonder, that this Gentleman should complain of the want of common Civility, which he could do upon no other ac­count, but that from the time of his Apprehension, to the hour of his Execution, he was treated, as Traitors and Rebels usually are under all the Governments of the World. Certainly, he had forgot his own Party, when he made this Complaint; and therefore, though he be gone, I shall refresh the memory of his Brethren, that they upon the same occasion may not make the same groundless Complaint. Let them then remember their inhuman usage of Montross, their insolent and undu­tiful carriage to his present Majesty, when he stood in need of their Assistance; the barbarous manner in which they Murdered the late Archbishop of St. Andrews; the barbarous indignities which they offered to the dead Body of an Officer called Gra­ham, (whom they killed at that Conventicle which began the late Rebellion) upon the account of his Name: The insolencies which they committed in regular Mini­sters, and Loyal Gentlemens Houses, as they Marched along the Countrey to Glascow; particularly, in Stabbing, Cutting, and Gashing his Majesties Picture, wheresoever they found it; as by name in the House of the Laird of Hagges: Their barbarous beha­viour in the Archbishops House at Glascow, where they burnt his Books, cut in pieces his best Hangings, and Furniture, and almost killed a Gentlewoman with Blows, who was left to keep the House, only for saying these words, Gentlemen, I hope you'l remember that you are in the Archbishops House: Their barbarous, and sacrilegious behaviour in the Cathedral of Glascow; where finding a Tomb-stone over the two Children of the Bishop of Argyle, with an Inscription of a Modern date, they digged up their Bodies, run them through with their Swords, and left them lying above the ground. The barbarous Lies, and continual defamations with which they Persecute the Duke of Lauderdale, because he stands as a Bulwark betwixt them and the Church. Their most barbarous usage of the Church-Ministers, as is evident from the two forecited Acts of Parliament, for the security of their Persons and Houses: not to speak of lesser in­dignities, as of laughing, scoffing, and flouting at them when they pass the Streets, and refusing to Salute them, when they meet them in other company; and saying of Grace to themselves at Tables, where they are called to say Grace for the whole Company, as if they had taken Gods name in vain, or not concluded the Blessing in the name of Christ. Nay, The Presbyterian Women of all sorts, not excepting those whose Quality and Education should have taught them more Civility, would not many years since, rise up, or bow, or make a Curtesy or drink to a Bishop, till their Interest obliged them to comply, with a great, and better Principled Lady, whose example hath much reformed them in this Point. common Ci­vility is gone; Thirdly, There is the horrid perjury in the matters of [Page 48] our Vows and Engagements; It's to be Indeed it is to be feared that the Cove­nanters will once more bring a Sword upon these Lands to avenge the Quarrel of the Covenant; and we all know, that the Sword of the Presbyterians, as well as that of the Jesuits, is the Sword of the Lord, and of Gi­deon, which was the Word, when they rose up in Rebellion to pull the Popish Octavi­ans from King James in Edinburgh, when he was rescued by the Hammermen, Pres­bytery Displayed, pag. 49. feared, the Lord will bring a Sword on these Lands which shall avenge the Quarrel of his Covenant; Fourthly, There is a dreadful Forma­lity and Supineness in the duties of Religion, which is introductive to that Wo which came upon the careless Daughters. Fifthly, Horrid ingra­titude. What do we render to him for his Goodness? is not the most of all that we do, wickedness, and to strengthen our hands to do evil? Sixthly, The want of humility under all our Troubles; We are brought low, yet we are not low in the sight of God. And a Seventh thing is, dreadful Covetousness, and minding of our own things more than the things of God, and that amongst all Ranks. Would to God that there were not too many amongst us, who are Enemies to the Cross of Christ, and mind Earthly things; and yet I dare not say, but that there are many faithful and precious to him in Scotland, both of Ministers and Professors, whom I hope God will keep stedfast, and who will study to be sound and faithful to their Lord and Master, and whom I hope he will make as When God immediately called any man to any Charge, or Business, that would find Opposition from Wicked Men, or Devils; he was wont to inspire him with supernatural Courage, and Confidence, which by the Jewish Writers, is called the Spirit of Might; and as More Ne­voc. p. 2. c. 38. Maimonides ob­serves, it was always conferred upon the Person sent, and Employed by God after the Promise of 1 Hccha ani, or Ehjeh gnim­mach, Go, and I will be with thee. This Promise was solemnly made to Moses, Exod. 3. 12. to the People of Israel, who were called to Fight against Nations greater and stonger, than themselves, Deut. 31. 6, 8 to Joshua and the People together, Josh. 1. 5. to the Prophet, Ezek. 3. 8, 9. where God assured him, That he would make his Face strong against their Faces, and his Forehead strong against their Foreheads, and harder than a Flint or Adamant, so that he should not fear them, nor be dismayed at their Looks, though they were a Rebellious House. Lastly, To the Prophet Jeremiah, who told God, That he was no more able to deliver Prophe­tical Messages, than a Child; upon which, God assured him, That he would put his words in is mouth, and be with him; and bid him not be afraid of their faces, for he would make him a Defenced City, an Iron Pillar, and Brazen Walls against the whole Land, both against King and Priests, and Princes and People, c. 1. 8, 9, 17, 18. and c. 15. 19, 20. which are the very words, which this Dec [...]iver Blasphemously here ap­plies to the Covenanted Party, as if the Spirit of Impudence, Rebellion, and Resisting the Magistrate, which rests upon them, were that Spirit of Supernatural Courage and Con­fidence, which God was wont to give to those whom he sent and employed about Busi­ness of his own. So in the New Testament, when Christ sent out the Apostles, after his Resurrection, he solemnly made this Promise unto them: All power (saith he) is given unto you, both in Heaven and Earth, go ye therefore, and Teach all Nations Baptizing them, &c. and Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have Com­manded you, and lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the World. Accordingly we read in the Acts of the Apostles, who were the Prophets of the New Testament, with what invincible courage and resolution those poor men appeared before the Jewish, and Heathen Tribunals; and with what astonishing Presence, both of body and mind, they bore the name of Jesus before the Kings and Princes, and People of the Earth. I have been the more full in the explication of this notion, because the Presbyterian Ministers have been so guilty of applying these Promises of Divine Presence, and Assist­ance to themselves, and of talking and acting at such an arrogant rate; as if, like the Prophets, they had been sent, and employed by God. By this means, they have brought a great Scandal on the Ministerial Office, and made People loath the Pulpit, and the Church. How often do we find King James in the Sixth Book of Spotswood's History, complaining of the Sawciness, and Presumptuousness of the As Welsh, Bruce, Blake, Balguan, Oud. Davidson, and the Ministers of Edinburgh. See also Presbytery Displayed, pag. 36. and 37. in the Story of James Gibson, who called the King to his Face before his Privy-Council. Persecutor, and Jeroboam, and that he and his Children should be rooted out, and conclude the (Royal) race. Ministers? with what con­fidence and authority did they presume to impose their own Injunctions, and Prohibiti­ons upon him, and denounce Judgments against him in Gods name, as if they had been sent to him by Gods express Call, like Nathan to King David, Moses to Pharaoh, and Elijah to Ahab, &c. and he had given them Foreheads of Adamant and Flint. And as they treated him with a Counterfeit sort of Prophetical boldness, liberty and zeal, so their Successors who had, and have a double Portion of that rude and insolent Spirit, have treated his Son, Charles the First, and his Grandson, Charles the Second; and so they will treat all the Kings that shall sit on this British Throne, as long as there can be found in the Bible any Prophetical Message, Promise, or Enterprize, which they can with any colour apply to themselves. Brasen Walls, and as Iron Pillars, and as strong De­fenced Cities, in the following of their Dutie in these sad and evil Times: but it were to be Wished that there were not too many, who strengthen the hands of Evil Doers, and make themselves Transgressors [Page 49] by studying again to To set up Episcopacy, which before they had thrown down. build that which formerly they did destroy. But let such take heed to that Zachar. 5. 1, 2, 3, 4. The Pro­phet relates the Vision he had of the fly­ing Roll, which was twenty Cubits long, and ten broad, full of Curses on one side against Thieves, and on the other against False-Swearers, which this Deceiver, affect­ing (as the manner of this sort of Preach­ers is) Prophetical Expressions, and Con­fidence, abusively applies to those, who set up, or contributed to set up Episcopacy, which they had most sinfully abjured. But if the Prophet saw a Roll full of Curses twenty Cubits in length, and ten in breadth, against the Thieves, and False-Swearers in the Land, the wicked Covenanters may justly expect as many Curses to fall upon their heads, as a Roll ten times longer and broader can contain. Their Rebellions, Trea­sons, Murders, Assassinations, Railings, Slanderings, Perjuries, Blasphemies, and Schisms will make it appear at the day of general Judgment, that all the Curses in the Law are due unto them, when as many of them, as dye without Repentance, shall be damned for those very Sins which they blasphemously call Graces; and when Jesus Christ for all their LORD! LORD! have we not done and Suffered such things for thy Name, and thy Interest, shall say unto them, I know ye not, depart from me ye Hy­pocrites, ye Blasphemers of my Name, into everlasting Burnings, prepared for the Devil and his cursed Angels. flying roll in Zechary, and let all the Lords Servants and Ministers, take heed that they watch and be stedfast, and quit themselves like men and be strong, and that they set their Trum­pets to their mouths, and give a sea­sonable and faithful Warning to all Ranks concerning Sin and Duty, es­pecially against the Sins of the sinful Time. It's to be lamented, and it's [Page 50] sadly regrated by all of the Behold the Pride, the Spiritual Fast, and Self-Conceit of the Presbyterian Sect, who in all their Printed Books, Sermons, and Discourses, commonly Style themselves, The People of the Lord, The Godly Party, The Saints, &c. as if all others of Reform­ed Episcopal Churches, and Communions, were a wicked, or at best but a meer for­mal sort of Christians, who did not belong to God. They agree in this Spiritual Ar­rogance not only with the Arrians, Dona­tists, and Novatians of old, but with the Papists themselves, who proudly, and un­charitably call themselves Catholicks, and exclude all others from that Title, and from Salvation, but themselves. Lords People, that there has been so much silence and fauting even amongst Ministers; of how great concern­ment is it now in this sad juncture, that Ministers consider well, what it is that God calleth for at their hands, not to be silent, now especially when so many horrid and cruel things are acted, when they are so much calledBut▪ to return to the Lords People; I dare boldly say, That never any Reformed Bishop did yet equal, nor any Pope (—) exceed the Pride and Insolence of many of our Pres­byterian Beckets, as may be seen in Spotswood's History, not to mention others, which I have had occasion to cite. Was ever any Answer more Insolent than that of Mr. Ro­bert Bruce, to King James? Your Majesty shall either lose the Marquess of Huntly, or Me; and yet this Answer is defended by Mr. Robert Bailly in his Dissuasive from the Error's of the Times. It is notoriously known in Scotland, That Mr. Robert Duglas of Edinburgh, and Mr. Patrick Gillespy of Gl [...]scow, were more haughty and insolent in their behaviour, than all the Bishops (I will not except Cardinal Beton) that ever were in the Land. But to proceed; from the Pride of single men, let us reflect a little on the Insolence of their Spiritual Judicatories, the Presbytery, Synod, and General Assembly. It is notoriously known what great state the Presbytery, or Consistory kept with King James, and it is upon Record in the Presbytery-Books of Edinburgh, how his Presbytery Displayed, pag. 7, 8. &c. Majesty not once, but often hath sent Persons of Honour, and great Quality, de­manding, or rather requesting some things of them, who have heard the Commissioners propose the Kings mind; but then to keep the power and place which the King of Sion had given them in that dignity which was suitable to so high a Trust, they have dismissed the Noblemen sent by the King, without Answer, and by Order of that Spi­ritual House, have appointed one or two, as Commissioners of the Presbytery, to go to the King with their Will, and Pleasure, losing nothing of Christs Authority, and carry­ing themselves with the King, almost, as if two Free States, or two Free Princes had met to treat together. The Presbytery of Edinburgh, as many yet alive remember, attempted to censure the Merchants for Carrying Wheat to Spain in a time of Dearth, because it was to feed Gods Enemies; but above all to Transport Wax to Spain, for that was to be accessory to Idolatry, because the Wax for the most part was employed in making Tapers, and Can­dles to the Virgin Mary, and other Saints. The Presbytery Displaid, pag. 9. 10. Presbytery of St. Andrews threatned to Excommunicate a man, who had gotten a Judgment from the highest Civil Judicatory in the Kingdom, against another who ought him a Sum of Money, if he persisted to put the Judgment in Execution; and he for fear of this dreadful Court and Sentence, desisted from his Pursuit. Many instances might also be produced of this holy Sunhedrim's repealing of Royal Grants confirmed by Law, and of citeing Noblemen, and Gentlemen before them, for Commencing Civil Suits against their own Tenants, because it bred Strifes, withdrew the People of God from their lawful Vocations, and hindered the progress of the Gospel, as may be seen in the Author cited in the Margin. They also undertook to Remove, and Transplant any Minister at pleasure, though never so learned and unblameable, up­on a pretence, That it was for the Good of the Church, or, That the Congregation was not edified by his Preaching; as may be seen in the same Author, and as many yet alive can tell. In their Provincial Synods, which consisted of Commissioners chosen out of all the Presbyteries within the Province, they extended their power in proportion to the dignity of the Court; and the Commissioners at their Return home, were to see that every Mini­ster of their respective Presbyteries, were to Preach as the Synod did direct, and com­mand. The Nobility and Gentry were forced to court these leading Ministers, and make Addresses to them, as to so many Popes, to strengthen themselves and their Party, with the Spiritual Sword. In their going to, and coming from the Synods, the most Eminent of the Nobility, and Gentry used to meet them, and invite them to their Houses, lodge them in their best Chambers, and set them at the head of their Tables; and never any Bishops in Scotland entered Cities with such Convoys, and attended with such great Personages, as these Arch-Presbyters used to do. When Mr. Robert Bruce came from his Visitation in the West, or South, he made his Entrance into Edinburgh like a Prince, or like an Ambassador, or like the Pope into Rome: insomuch, That King James once looking out of the Window in his Palace, and seeing his Cavalcade, said with indignation, which extorted an Oath from him, Mr. Robert Bruce, I am sure, in­tends to be King, and declare himself Heir to King Robert Bruce. Their General-Assembly was composed of Commissioners sent from all the Presbyteries of the Kingdom. It was the Supream Sanhedrim, wherein the King of Sion sate in the highest power and glory he could upon Earth. It was there, where Ecclesiastical Sovereignty, and Infallibility was to be found, and concerned it self in all Temporals, in ordine ad Spiritualia. The authority they exercised in it, they pretended to have by immediate Trust from Christ; and declared, That whosoever obeyed not this Sovereign­ty, be he King or Subject (it was all one) was to be Excommunicated. They allowed the King (or his Commissioner) to sit there, but he had only one affirmative Voice, and if the greater part of Voices determined contrary to his Voice, or his Conscience, he was bound to put it in Execution. In this Court, the Spiritual legislative power was seated; it was the highest Tribunal, and Judicatory of Christ upon Earth, from which no Person, no Office, no Condition of Creature was Privileged, and from whence no Appeal could be had. The King had no power to appoint the time or place of this Assembly, but once a Year it must necessarily meet, and oftner if the Commissioners of Assembly thought fit. They Contemned, Usurped, and renounced the Sovereign Authority as it served their Turn; they denounced the same War against their Enemies, which God commanded Israel to execute against the Canaanites; all the Ministers of the Church were to Preach as they directed, and a Minister Preaching Treason, was to be censured by none, but them­selves. They challenged to themselves a power of Condemning, Annulling, and Re­pealing Acts of Parliament, and of subjecting the Supream Civil Judicatory of the Nation to them; as in the case of Graham one of the Lords of the Session; and if any man doubt of the truth of these Assertions, let him read the 6th. Book of Spotswood's History, or the Author of Presbytery Displayed in the General-Assembly. In their General-Assembly 1648. July 28. pag. 7. they made an Act, and Declaration against the Act of Parliament and Committee of Estates, and against all Oaths and Bonds imposed in the common Cause, without the Consent of the Kirk. They also Ordained all that engaged in the late Kings Relief, to incur the wrath of God, and to be processed with the highest Censure of the Church, which was the heighth of Blasphemy, Insolence, and Pride. This Self-Conceit, and Persuasion which they had of their own Spiritual Excellence, and dearness to God, is the true reason why they indulge themselves the liberty of speaking so Contemptibly, Disdainfully, Slanderously, and Reproachfully of the Church, and all that are of Episcopal Communions, without any regard to the Functions or Qualities of Men. Naphtali rails at the late King of Blessed Memory for a Papist, and having an hand in the Irish Rebellion; and at his Present Majesty, for not punishing the Papists for Burning of London, and compares him to Nebuchadnezzar, for setting up a Golden Image to be Worshipped, and to Saul, and Uzziah, for Usurping the Priests Office, and to Julian the Apostate, for destroying the Christian Religion, pag. 9. 26, 28. He also calls the Appointing the 29. of May, a Profane Institution, and saith, That the Native issue of the Prerogative is the Establishing the Kingdom of Antichrist, and an Usurpation of the Prerogative of Jesus Christ; and saith, That the King Erects a Papacy in himself more absurdly than the Pope did; and saith, That he is a stated Antichrist. Pages 39, 40, 41, 90. He Reproaches the Parliament pag. 86. saying, That they made the Kings Throne the foundation of Perjury and Apostacy; and pag. 87. he saith, That they Blaspheme the Spirit and Work of the Lord, in the Act For the Anniversary Remembrance of his Majesties Birth and Restauration; and pages 2. 93, and 94▪ he accuses them all of hor­rid Apostacy, and Rebellion against God, and of appointing a Declaration of high Impiety to be Signed; and saith, They were the Rebuilders of the Kingdom of An­tichrist. As for the Privy-Council, he calls them Murderers. Pag. 123. and pag. 91. he saith, That they have set the King in Christs Throne. He rails at the City of Edinburgh, for the Engagement they took of their Burgesses against the Rebels at Pentland. Hills, p. 166, 167. and accuses them of Apostacy, and Rebellion against God, and threatens them with the Burning of London; and pages 177, 178. he tells them, They had made a Conspiracy against the Lord, and against his Annointed. As for the Church-Ministers, he calls them Wolves, Thieves, Graceless Hirelings, and Plants which God never planted; and saith, It is the indispensable Duty of the People to drive them away, and root them up, page 108. The Author of the Apologetick Narration, calls the Honourable Senators of the Col­lege of Justice, Perjured Men, and the Vilest of Men, from whom no Justice can be expected, and who are not worthy to be Judges among the Heathens, &c. and all be­cause they have taken the Declaration against the Covenant. Pages 328, 329. The General-Assembly 1648. in their Supplication to the late King, (August 12.) who was then under imprisonment, hath these words: It shall be your Majesties Wisdom in this, as in all that hath befallen you these Years past, to read the righteous hand of the Lord, writing bitter things against you: as for all your provocations, so especially for your resisting his Work, and authorizing by your Commissions, the shedding the bloud of his People; for which it is high time to repent, that there may be no more wrath against You, and Your Realms. And page 58. of that Supplication, they say: Had your Ma­jesty hearkened to our Counsel some years ago, the bloud of many thousands, that now lies upon your Throne, might have been spared. The Assembly and Parliament in their Declaration against Montross, Printed 1649. pages 7, 8, &c. call him Excommunicate Traitor, Viperous Brood of Satan, Child of the Devil, perfidious proud Atheist, and Traitour, though he had the Kings Commission for all that he did, and was a man of as eminent Piety, as Valour. The Assembly of Divines at London, with the Scottish Commissioners drew up a Letter in Latine, and the same did the General-Assembly in Scotland, which by order of the English House of Commons, (for so they called themselves) they sent to the Belgick, French, Helvetian, and other Reformed Churches; wherein they assure them, That the King made it his whole business to root out the Protestant Religion, and used all means possible to reduce the Nation to Popery again. I know a Gentleman, who hath a Letter pretended to be written from Paris in the name of the French-Church, dated June 5. 1662. wherein they call the Parliament of Scotland an ungodly Assembly, a Seed of Evil Doers, that gather themselves together against the Souls of the Righteous, and condemn Innocent Bloud; that slay the upright, and breath out Blasphemies against the Heavens, &c. But the Style of this Letter de­monstrates, That it was written by some Western Fanatick, and Fathered on the French Church. In the Declaration of the Lords and Commons of England, sent to the General-As­sembly 1643. page 9. they affirm, That the King and the Prelatical Party in England were in Arms for the ruining, and destruction of the Protestant Religion, and all the Professors thereof; and in the English Ministers Letter to the Assembly page 10. they call the King, and his Party, a generation of Brutish, Hellish Men; and page 17. they affirm, That the Prelatical Party are combined for the universal depression of the true Protestant Religion in Europe. Naphtali pag. 117, 118. saith, That the Bishops are favourers and encouragers of all Profaneness, Drunkenness, Adultery, Blasphemy, and that they have heaped together in their own Persons the Dunghill of vilest Vices, and transmitted the same over all the Land; and the whole Fanatical Gang rail just now at the present Bishops, as their Pre­decessors did at the Bishops 1638. Page 300. he accuses Archbishop Burnet, (now the most worthy Archbishop of St. Andrews) of furious Zeal, Pride, Ambition, and Contempt of his Clergy, and domineering over them; though he is known in both Na­tions to be one of the most Moderate, Meek, and Humble Men on the Earth, and one that loves and cherishes his Clergy like a Father, and as a Father is beloved and re­verenced by them again. He also calls the Bishop of the I [...]les, who is a man of emi­nent Temperance, a Glutton; and the Bishop of Dunkell, who was a most Pious Man, and lover of true Piety in other Men; an hater of Godliness, and Good Men. And as for the Curates, (as he calls the regular Clergy) he calls them in general, Men void of the Fear of God, Drunkards, Whoremongers, and what not? pag. 302. And at this rate the whole Sect talks of Bishops, Episcopacy, the Clergy and the Church; and he that can speak with most Venom and Malice against them and the King, and the Duke of Lauderdale, is counted the greatest Saint Mr. Andrew Cant, Eldest Son of old Mr. Andrew Cant, and the true inheritor of his Fathers violent Spirit, was deposed by the Synod of Aberdeen, from his Ministery at Banchrie, for railing at the King, the Queen, and the Bishops, not long after his Ma­jesties Restauration. He said, The Maintaining of Bishops against Gods Will, had tried the Kings Predecessors, and if he should be so foolish as to set them up again, down he should go, do what he could. He said, That her Majesty was a Vagabond Woman, compassing Sea and Land to prosecute her wicked Designs, and (like a true Presbyterian Cursing Meroz) Wisht the Cross, if not the Curse of God to accompany her. Mr. Welsh, as Ravill. Rediv. relates, page 45. in a Preachment to a Multitude of 7000. People, spoke these words, The King, the Nobles, and the Prelates are sure the Murderers of Christ; and then sitting down in his Chair, he said, Oh People I will be silent, speak oh People, and tell me what good thing the King hath done since his home coming; yea, hath he not done all the mischief a Tyrant could do? At another Conventicle not long after, he spoke thus, or to this purpose, That God would yet assert the Cause of Pentland-hills, in spite of the Curates, and their Masters the Prelates, and in spite of the Prelates, and their Master the King, and in spite of the King, and his Master the Devil. This Spirit of Railing, Slandering, and Reproaching, hath always been the Gift and privilege of this People of the Lord, from their first Original to this day. For, John Knox in his Appeal and Admonitions Printed 1644 calls Queen Mary Stuart, a Wicked, Mischievous, Proud, False, Dissembling, Unconstant Woman, a breaker of Promises, a Traitoress to the Crown of England; and call her Reign, a Monstri­ferous Empire of a wicked Woman, an Usurped Government, &c and old Mr. John Welsh, Grandfather to the Villain before mentioned, in a Sermon said, That King James was possest with the Devil, and compared him to a Mad Man, &c. And Mr. Blake in a Sermon at St. Andrews 1596. as Spotswood cites him in his 6th. Book page 423. said, That all Kings were the Devils Bairns, That the Kings heart was Treacherous, and That the Devil was in the Court, and Guiders of it; That Queen Elizabeth was an Atheist; That the Nobles, and Lords were Miscreants, Godless, Degenerate, Dissemblers, and Enemies to the Church; That the Privy-Council were Holliglasses, Cormorants, and men of no Religion. For all which, notwithstanding, the Kirk would not let him be questioned, because it was delivered in the Pulpit. Accordingly, we still find how that evil Spirit haunts the holy Sect at this day, in Lying, Slandering, Reproaching, and Back-biting all that love, or defend the Church. In particular, I cannot but observe, what monstrous and malicious Lies and Calumnies they and their Patriots have for some years, almost daily raised against the Duke of Lauderdale, for no other reason, but because he stands as a Work of Defence between the Projectors against the Government and the King, between Presbytery and Episco­pacy, Popery and the Church. And therefore we need not wonder at that Speech of King James (who was experimentally acquainted with the Presbyterian Spirit) to Dr. Reinolds at Hampton Court, who begged of his Majesty a Presbytery, or a Con­stitution very like it: Stay I pray you for one seven Years before you demand that of me, and if you find me pursey, and fat, and my windpipes stuffed, I will perhaps hearken to you: for let that Government once be up, I am sure I shall be kept in breath, and then we shall all of us have work enough, both our handfulls; but, Dr. Reinolds, till you find I grow lazy, let that alone. Presbytery Displayed pag. 7. And so much for the Lords People. [Page 51] [Page 52] [Page 53] and ought to be concerned to As if they were Apostles, and the Christian, or Protestant Religion depended upon their Breath. speak even upon the peril of Life. It's certainly a dreadful Sin in the sight of God. I shall only desire that [Page 54] God may open the mouths of some of his faithful Servants, that with all Impudence; See Note () boldness they may speak out the mind of their Master, that so the Work, Interest, Crown, and Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ may not be destroyed, and that the As if the Salvation of the People depended on the mouths of these Blasphe­mous Pseudo-Ministers. Souls of poor People which are precious to God may not be, without a Testimony, Ru­ined. I shall add but 2 or 3 words more; First, all that are profane, I would exhort you seriously that ye would return to the Lord by sincere repentance; if ye do, iniquity shall not be your ruine; if not, know that the day of the Viz. By the Sword of the Lord and of Gideon; for as this People think themselves the People of God in as peculiar a sence as the Jews were: so, like them too, they pre­tend to be Carnifices gentium, which made them call their Standard, Christs Banner, and march with Gallows of the common Make for the common sort of the Enemies of God; but for the Nobles that durst Op­pose Christ and his People, they had invent­ed a new sort of Machine, with Hooks and Spikes, whereupon, first they intended to Hang them up, and then to set up their Quarters and Heads as Traitors and Rebels to Jesus Christ. Lords Vengeance is near, and it hastneth on. O know for your comfort, that there is a door of mercy yet opened, if ye be not de­spisers of the day of Salvation: and ye that have been and yet are Re­proachers and Persecutors of Godli­ness, and such as live Godly, take heed, take heed, sad will your day be, when In the Old-Testament, Jewish sence, to scatter his Enemies by the Sword of his People. God ariseth to scatter his Enemies, if ye repent not of all your ungodly deeds. 2ly. All those that are Gallios, if their own private Interests prosper and go well, they care the less for the Interest of Christ, take heed, be zealous, and repent lest the Lord pass that Sentence, I will spue you out of my mouth. 3ly. As for the truly Godly, and such as are lament­ing after the Lord, and are mourning for all the abominations done in the City and in the Land, and are taking pleasure The Rubbish, and Ruines of the Presbyterian-Government, upon which they strive to build the whole old Fabrick again, as the Jews endeavoured to Rebuild the Temple on its old Foundation in Zion, till Earthquakes, Fire, and Lightnings made them desist from the cursed Work. in the rubbish, and stones of Zion, be of good courage, and cast not away your Confidence; I dare not say any thing to future things, but surely the Lord has a An handful of Precious, Zealous, Militant Saints, of whom every single man thinks he can chase Ten of Christs Ene­mies, and Two put Ten thousand of them to Flight. handful that is precious to him, whom he will be gra­cious to. This is a dark night, how long it may last the Lord knows. O let not all the sad disasters, that his poor People are trusted with (though very astonishing) terrifie them. Be­ware of Snares that abound; cleave fast to your Covenanted reformed Re­ligion; do not shift the Cross of Christ, if ye be called into it, it's better to [Page 55] Suffer than to Sin; account the Consider how blasphemously this Text is applied. Re­proaches of Christ greater Riches than the Treasures of the World. In the last place, let not my Death be griev­ous to any of you; I hope it will be more profitable both for you and for the Church and Interest of God, than my life could have been; I bless the Lord, I can freely and frankly for give all men the guilt of it, as I desire to be forgiven of God. Pray for them that Persecute you, and bless them that Curse you. As for the Cross of Christ, I bless the Lord, I never had cause, nor have cause this day to re­pent for any thing I have Suffered, or can now Suffer for his name. I thank the Lord who has shewn mercy to such a vile Sinner as I am, that ever he should have advanced me to such a high dignity, as to be made a He was never made a Minister, ei­ther immediately by God, as the Apostles were, or by men Commissioned from God, as the Episcopal Ministers are, nor by men not Commissioned by God, I mean by Pres­byters in a case of absolute necessity, (which is the only case that can justifie Presbyterian Ordination;) but by men who were them­selves Shismaticks, and Usuppers of the Mi­nistery, even as he himself is. Minister of the Blessed and Ever­lasting Gospel, or that ever I should have a He calls the Delusion of so many poor People, in following him into the Hills, and from the Hills into Rebellion, The Seal of his Ministery upon their hearts. According to which Sence, the Anabaptists, Quakers, and Missionary Jesuits, nay Ma­homet himself, may be said to have had a Seal set to their Ministery upon the hearts of the ignorant Multitudes, whom they de­ceived. Seal set to my Ministery upon the hearts of some in several cor­ners of this Land. The Lord visit Scotland with more and more faith­ful Preaching, and send a reviving day to the Work and People of God; and in the mean time be patient, be sted­fast, immovable, always abounding in the Work of the Lord, and live in love and peace one with another, and the Lord be with his poor afflicted groan­ing People that are left behind.

Now Ibid farewel to all my Friends and dear Relations. Farewel my poor Wife and Child, whom I leave on the good hand of him who is better than Seven Husbands, and who will be a Father to the Fatherless. Farewel allHaving finished my Animadversions, I now proceed to give a true, and brief Narrative of the horrid Murther of the late Archibishop of St. Andrews, as a fur­ther Commentary on the Whole. Created Comforts, and Welcom E­verlasting life, Everlasting glory, E­verlasting Love, and Everlasting praise; bless the Lord, O my Soul, and all that is within Me, praise his holy Name.