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act_n	day_n	parliament_n	session_n	3,425	5	10.6408	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47734	An answer to a book, intituled, The state of the Protestants in Ireland under the late King James government in which, their carriage towards him is justified, and the absolute necessity of their endeavouring to be free'd from his government, and of submitting to their present Majesties, is demonstrated.	Leslie, Charles, 1650-1722.	1692 (1692)	Wing L1120; ESTC R994	223,524	303

as Nevil Pain c. their Clergy Barbarously Rabbled and Episcopacy Abolished Though they say that the Prince of Orange in his Declaration to Scotland Dated at the Hague 10. Octob. 88. Promises to preserve their Church as then Established among them From any Alteration And makes that the chief End and Design of his then intended Expedition Then they tell of the many wicked and illegal Courses which were taken to overturn the Foundations of Church and State in that Kingdom That when the Meeting of the Estates of Scotland was called by the Prince of Orange's Circular Letters in March 89. none were sent to several Royal Brughs in the North which is the most Episcopal and consequently the most Loyal part of Scotland And therefore such sent no Representatives That at the first Meeting of the Estates they refused when it was moved to adjourn for eight Days as they did in England to give time to the Members from the remote parts of the North to get to Edenbrugh But did precipitate Matters before they came That the Oaths required by Law to be taken by all the Members of Parliament or any Judicature before they can sit or vote there were without Law laid aside By which means the Anti-Monarchical and Fanatical Party were let into the House That several Noble-men and Gentle-men who had been Forefaulted for Treason and so had no Property nor Interest in Scotland were admitted as Members of this Convention before their Forfeitures were Rescinded even by this Convention and so were made the King's Judges to pass Sentence of Forefaulture against him for the Injuries which they pretended he had done to them And that one of these viz. the Earl of Argyle was sent with the tender of the Crown of Scotland to the Prince and Princess of Orange by Act of Convention 24 Apr. 89. before his Forefaulture was taken off which was not done till 1 Aug. 89. by the 4th Act of the first Session of the first Parliament of William and Mary That by these Means the Fanatical Party in that Convention were the most Numerous And framed such a Committee of Elections as for any or no Cause turn'd out any Episcopal Member who came in Competition with one of their own That by their Act 4 July 90. they rescinded all the Forefaultures since the year 1665. and Monmouth by name and Richard Rumbold an English-man who was to have Assassinated King Charles II. at Rye-house and in publick Proclamations in Scotland was taken notice of as the supposed Executioner of King Charles I. That within this Act of Grace were included all that were concerned in the publick and open Rebellions of Pentland-hills Bothwell-brig Monmouth and Argyle and the very Assassinates of the Lord Archbishop of St. Andrews those Furies incarnate were all as many as were alive enabl'd to be Members of Parliament and to pass Sentence of Forefaulture against their King That King William by his additional Instructions to his Commissioner Duke Hamilton dated the 17th of July 89. empowers him to pass Acts for Rescinding all Foresaultures since 1660. But this exceeded the Modesty even of that Parliament They would not expresly own that no Treason could be committed against K. C 2. or K. J. 2. at the same time that they Deprived and Foresaulted so many on the behalf of K. W. That the Fanatical Mob who had Rabbled the Episcopal Clergy were Armed and made the Guard of that Convention and resolved to sacrifice any who durst oppose their Designs witness Sir George Mackenzy that great Ornament of his Nation and Profession who was forced to fly from their Fury to save his Life it being made appear they had laid Plots to murder Him and Others They tore Episcopal Ministers Gowns off their backs in the streets of Edinburgh where the Convention sate and attacked the Lord Archbishop of Glasgow there That the Bishops who are the First of the Three Estates of Parliament were excluded from sitting in that Parliament before they were a Parliament by vertue of Instructions sent from King William to his Commissioner Duke Hamilton dated 31 May 89. in these words You are to pass an Act turning the Meeting of Estates into a Parliament and that the Three Estates are to consist of the Noblemen Barons and Burgesses Accordingly the Meeting of Estates wherein the Bishops sate was turned into a Parliament 5 June 89. the Bishops being first excluded which the Jacobites think a material Objection against the validity of all the Acts of that Parliament particularly that of 22 July 89. abolishing Prelacy and the Act 7 June 90. setling Presbyterian Church-Government Whence the Jacobite Episcoparians desire us to take a view of the Methods how their Church was over-turned They first tell us That the major part of Scotland and much the greater part of the Nobility and Gentry are Episcopal and therefore that Episcopacy would carry it in any fair and free Convention of the Estates in Scotland That several Reasons are given above why it was not so in the late Convention there That the Presbyterian Managers did instigate and set on their Rabble to fall upon the Episcopal Clergy and drive them by violence from their Churches and that the Presbyterian Ministers who had preached in those Parishes by a Toleration from King James should take possession of them before the Meeting of the Estates where they would endeavour to excuse the Rabble and continue the Possession and likewise make use of this as an Argument That Episcopacy was contrary to the inclinations of the people That the Rabbling began in December 88. and to make way for it a Report was industriously spread abroad as in England That some Thousands of Irish were landed in Galloway and marching forward with Fire and Sword Upon which the Fanaticks took Arms and fell upon the Episcopal Clergy with a Violence that is hardly credible That they drove them from their Churches plundered their Houses assaulted their Persons pricking some with Bodkins c. till they have gone distracted in which miserable condition a Gentleman told me he met an old Companion of his at the College an Episcopal Clergy-man who had been thus served by that Rabble That they turned the Wives and Children of the Episcopal Clergy out of their Houses to shift as they could upon which many of their Children dy'd and their Wives miscarried A Presbyterian but who abhorr'd the Brutality of these Proceedings told me that he was at the Rabbling at Air and saw an Episcopal Minister's Wife who had been but three or four days delivered turned out with her Children into the Streets and all People shut their Doors upon them insomuch that this Gentleman mov'd with so lamentable a Spectacle bestirr'd himself in Compassion to them and that it was Eleven at Night before he could get a poor Cabbin to give them shelter That they used to lead the Ministers about in Triumph tearing their Gowns which they called the Rags of the Whore and burning the

Book of Common Prayer where-ever they could find it calling it the Mass in English This was the Western Fanatick Rabble who began their Work upon Christmas Day to be witty in their Malice That at Edinburgh it self the Tumult was so high that the Mob forced the King's Palace rifted the Chancellor's Lodgings gutted the Chappel designed for the Order of the Knights of St. Andrew carried the King's Picture to the Mercat-Cross and there publickly stabb'd and tore it with the like Indignities as some ungrateful and bruitish Villains express'd in the rancor of their Hearts against the King's Statue at Newcastle and Glocester That upon these violent Disorders the King being gone from England and no settled Government in the Nation the College of Justice at Edinburgh took Arms and kept Watch and Ward to secure the Peace of the City and their Clergy from being Rabbled That then a Proclamation came from the Prince of Orange commanding all persons to lay down their Arms That the College of Justice did thereupon lay down their Arms but the Fanaticks did not for they said that they knew the Order was not intended against them and they proceeded to greater Insults against the Episcopal Clergy and fell upon those they had not medled with before and a Tumult was raised at Glasgow and those of the Rabbled Clergy who thought themselves protected by the Prince's Proclamation and thereupon returned to their Churches and Livings were much more rudely treated than before and particular Favours were granted to the Town of Glasgow by 15 Act of 2 Sess of 1 Parl. of W. and M. for the Zeal of the Community of the said City who were the principal Rabblers for the Protestant Religion as it is expressed in the Act. That the Rabbled Clergy made application to the P. of O. for Protection from this Outrage and sent Dr. Scot Dean of Glasgow who assisted by Dr. Fall Principal of the College of Glasgow did represent their deplorable Condition to his Highness who gave them no other Answer than to refer them to the Meeting of the Estates which did not assemble till 14 March following That they suffering unspeakable Hardships and Indignities all that time from December to March made the same Request for Protection from the Rabble to the Meeting of Estates then convened In answer to which That the Meeting of Estates by their Act 13 Apr. 89. excluded from the Protection of the Goverument all the Ministers who had been Rabbled before that day and were not then in Possession of their Churches And being turned into a Parliament by their Act 7 June 90. declared That these Rabbled Ministers had Deserted their Churches and therefore adjudged them to be Vacant and ordered those Presbyterian Ministers who without any Law had taken possession of them when the Incumbents were driven away by the Rabble to continue their possession and have Right to the Benefices and Stipends according to their entry in the Year 89. viz. when the Incumbents were Rabbled And to this being an Act of Parliament the Royal Assent was given That these Ministers Rabbled before 13 Apr. 89. and for that only reason declared to have abdicated by the Parliament were about 300. That the foresaid Act 13. Apr. 89. obliged all that remained to Pray for K. W. and Q. M. as King and Queen of Scotland and read a Proclamation publickly from their Pulpits against the owning of King James And that they might not have too long time to consider of it it was to be read under pain of Deprivation the next day viz. 14 Apr. 89. by all the Ministers of Edinburgh the 21st by all on that side the River Tay on the 28th by all be-north Tay which was hardly time to have the Proclamation transmitted to them all At Edinburgh the Proclamation came not from the Press till late on Saturday night and it was to be read at Morning-Service next day so that many of them it is supposed had not an hours time to resolve That this severe Act was more severely executed by the Earl of Crawford then President of the Council and other Presbyterian Lords and that near as many were turn'd out by the Rabble within doors as the Field-Rabble had done That Matters being thus prepared for total Abolition of Episcopacy all haste was made to do it An Act was framed for that purpose and Instructions were sent to the Commissioner in these words You are to Touch the Act already passed Abolishing Episcopacy as soon as you can and to Rescind all Acts inconsistent therewith That the haste required was observed for these Instructions were signed by King William at Whitehall the 17th of July 89. and the Act was Touched at Edinburgh the 22d of the same month Thus fell Episcopacy in Scotland Two Months and eleven Days after King William and Queen Mary took upon them the Crown of that Kingdom which was the eleventh of May 89. That those Presbyterian Ministers who were ejected by Law Anno 1662. upon the Restoration of Episcopacy were restored to the Churches they had before by Act of this Parliament 25 April 90. without any Provision made for those who were ejected That they did not pretend to that Regard to any who should be Deprived as the Parliament of England seemed to do by allowing Twelve of the Clergy who should refuse the Oaths the Third of their Bishopricks or Livings during their Life and left it to K. W. to apply it to which Twelve of them he thought fit But that he has applied it to none lest they should fare better than their Deprived Brethren in Scotland That not only those Presbyterian Ministers who were outed by the Bishops Anno 1662. but even those who had been Deposed and put under Censure as Incendiaries and wicked Men by their own Presbyterian Synods Anno 1660 and 1661. without being released from those Censures by any Synod or Ecclesiastical Authority of their own were Restored Anno 1690. by Act of Parliament That these as being most violent were most esteem'd and one of them Mr. Hugh Kennedy was made Moderator of the General Assembly Anno 1690. while he lay under the Censure of their own Kirk which was not taken off till the end of that same Assembly That thus their Church was established by Men thrust out of their Church as the State by Men Forefaulted by the State That by Act of their Parliament 7 June 90. Setling Presbyterian Church Government the whole Church-Government and Authority is placed in the hands of those Presbyterian Ministers outed since the first of January 1661. who were not then above Fifty or Sixty in number and such as they should admit exclusive of all other Presbyters which was a greater Superiority settled in one Presbyter above another than that which they Abolished in the Bishops as an insupportable Grievance And these new-modell'd Presbyters invested with Episcopal Power in Opposition to Episcopacy did exercise it with a Tyranny and Lordliness the Bishops had never

next under God chiefly to the Clemency of K. J. who restrained all he could the Insolence and Outrage of their Enemies of which I can give you some remarkable Instances and good Vouchers I appeal to the E. of Granard whether Duke Powis did not give him Thanks from K. J. for the Opposition he made in the House of Lords to the passing the Act of Attainder He encouraged the Protestant Lords ●o sp●●● against it 〈◊〉 Pa●lia●●● and the Act for Repeal of the Acts of Settlement and desired that he and the other Protestant Lords should use their Endeavours to obstruct them To which the Lord Granard answered That they were too few to effect that but if the King would not have them pass his way was to engage some of the Roman Catholick Lords to stop them To which the Duke replied with an Oath That the King durst not let them know that he had a mind to have them stopt And yet this Author c. 2. s 5. n. 3. p. 23. would have us believe That the Duke used his Interest with the King to put a stop to them but was not able to do it I farther appeal to that noble Lord the E. of Granard whether the same day that the News of the driving the Protestants before the Walls of Derry come to Dublin as his Lordship was going to the Parliament House he did not meet K. J. who asked him where he was going His Lordship answered to enter his Protestation against the Repeal of the Acts of Settlement Upon which K. J. told him That he was fallen into the hands of a People who ramm'd that and many other things down his Throat His Lordship took that occasion to tell his Majesty of the driving before Derry The King told him that he was grieved for it That he had sent immediate Orders to discharge it and that none but a barbarous Moscovite so he stiled General Rosen who commanded that driving who thereby it seems was bred or born in Moscovy could have thought of so cruel a Contrivance Let me add to this Testimony of my Lord Granard's what I had from the Mouth of a Scots Clergyman who being in King James's Army the 26th of June 1690. the Thursday before the Boyne asked Major-General Maxwell a Roman Catholick how K. J. came to pass the Act of Attainder and the Repeal of the Acts of Settlement being at that time so visibly against his Interest The General replied Sir if you did but know the Circumstances the King is under and the Hardships these Men the Irish put upon him you would bemoan him with Tears instead of blaming him But what would you have him to do All his other Subjects have deserted him this is the only Body of Men he has to appear for him he is in their hands and he must please them Yet this Author affirms confidently c. 3. s 12. n. 20. p. 163. That K. J. of his own accord was the first who motioned the Repealing of the Acts of Settlement in his Speech at the opening of the Parliament in Dublin But the Author has not annexed that Speech in his long Appendix where many other Papers of greater Bulk less Consequence and much harder to be procured are inserted at large But no doubt he had a Reason for it therefore I have annexed it to this No. 1. and there you will see not a Word of what this Author avers but rather the contrary viz. That the King did not desire a Repeal of the Acts of Settlement but only a Relief to such as had been injured by those Acts which may happen in the justest Acts in the World especially of the Settlement of a whole Nation after such a Rebellion and terrible Revolution as that of 41. And K. J. there desires no farther for them than may be consistent with Reason Justice and the publick Good of his People All the Words of his Speech which relate to the Acts of Settlement are these I shall also most readily consent to the making such good and wholsom Laws as may be for the general Good of the Nation the Improvement of Trade and the Relieving such as have been injured by the late Acts of Settlement as far forth as may be consistent with Reason Justice and the Publick Good of my People These are his Words and if our Author had set them down he would have thought it a hard Task to have found fault with them I never heard any Protestant say but that there were many hard Cases and even unjust in the Acts of Settlement But they excuse it by saying that it is impossible to be otherwise in so general and great a Settlement where so many thousands are concerned and that it is better to bear with that than to unsettle a Nation which may have worse Consequences and fall into the like Mistakes again and again And this seems to be King James's Sense of that Matter all along But will any say that such as shall appear to be injured ought not to be redressed if a way can be found agreeable to Reason Justice and Publick Good This would be to plead expresly against Reason and Justice and likewise against the Publick Good I am told that King James's meaning was to have a Sum of Money raised for such as had been injur'd by the Acts of Settlement but by no means to encroach upon the Acts And what Fault could our Author have found with this unless he thinks that Justice ought not to be done to the Irish or not to be executed against Protestants which may be the Reason why in all his Railings at the cruel Act of Attainder he has forgot to give one Reason why Rebels should not be attainted or why these Irish Protestants should not have been so dealt with supposing them to be Rebels as K. J. and that Parliament did certainly suppose But was it not very cruel to attaint so many To this they will reply was it not as cruel and more criminal that so many should be Rebels But this is said only for Arguments sake for it is most certain that K. J. did not propose nor was inclined either to this Act of Attainder or to the Repeal of the Acts of Settlement as this Author slanderously reports of him but with exceeding ill luck as to his Vouchers of which he gives another Instance c. 3. s 12. n. 2. p. 145. where he says it is certain Chief Justice Nugent and Baron Rice succeeded in their Design when they came over to England in Spring 88. to concert the methods of Repealing the Acts of Settlement Whereas all here upon the place know that K. J. did then positively refuse to consent to it which my Lord Sunderland does witness in his Letter of the 23 of March 89. and says that the King was resolved not to think of that year and perhaps never And yet this Author confidently quotes that very Letter in this same place as a Voucher on his side but

shewn For being by a particular Clause in that Act enabled by themselves or whom they should appoint to try and purge out all insufficient negligent scandalous and erroneous Ministers they erected Tribunals in every Presbytery as arbitrary but more senseless than the Inquisition and did but one good Act to purge out those Episcopal Presbyters who complied with their Schism and Usurpation for which they could never want a pretence because Ordination or Collation from Prelates was always made one Article in their Visitations and thought erroneous enough to spew any out of their Churches But as to these Deprived Clergy I must here take notice of a distinction much used in England to mollifie Lay-Deprivations viz. That the Bishops and Clergy Deprived by Act of Parliament lose not their Character only are barr'd by the Secular Power to exercise it in such Districts But Act 35. of Sess 2. of the first Parliament of William and Mary in Scotland those Ministers who did not Pray for King William and Queen Mary and were therefore Depriv'd were afterwards prohibited to preach or exercise any part of the Ministerial Function either in Churches or elsewhere upon any pretext whatsoever And in the 38th Act of the same Session they do as much confound our State-distinction of de Facto and de Jure which they say is cunningly of late spread abroad to weaken and invalidate the Allegiance sworn to their Majesties And therefore they order a Certificate to be subscrib'd by all who take the Oath declaring K. W. and Q. M. to be King and Queen as well de Jure as de Facto And they say That in all these things they have dealt more frankly and plainly if not more honestly and sincerely than we have done in England They think it more fair and open Dealing plainly to Foresault the King for Male-administration than to Abdicate him for flying to save his Life And when he is gone that he should not take the Right to the Crown along with him and leave K. W. nothing but a de Facto Possession which they think a Betraying K. W. to the last Degree and making him no better than an Usurper They think it the same thing to debar Clergy-men from the Exercise of the Ministerial Function as to leave them no Place to exercise it in And as Charitable to allow nothing to the Depriv'd as to name something for them and put it into Hands where they are sure never to come by it But I know not so well how they 'll solve that Contradiction which seems to be betwixt their Claim of Right 11 Ap. 89. and their Confession of Faith Ratified and Established Act 5. of 2 Sess 1 Parl. William and Mary Read over in their Presence and inserted Verbatim in the Body of the Act. The Claim of Right begins in these Words Whereas King James being a profest Papist did assume the Regal Power c. And the first of their Claims is in these Words That by the Law of this Kingdom no Papist can be King or Queen of this Realm And yet in the abovesaid Confession of Faith Chap. 23. It is Decreed and Established as the true Christian Doctrine in these Words viz. Infidelity or Difference in Religion doth not make void the Magistrates just and legal Authority nor free the People from their due Obedience to him But I must not exceed the bounds of a Preface For if I should only Name all the Hardships and Oppressions the illegal and arbitrary Proceedings of which the Jacobites complain of in Scotland say they are ready to make good by undeniable Vouchers I should swell this beyond the Bulk of Dr. King's Book and that the Truths of the Proceedings in Scotland would if possible out-number the Falstoods he relates of Ireland But for a fuller Account of these Scots Affairs I refer you to a small Tract called A Letter to a Friend giving an Account of all the Treatises that have been Publish'd with Relation to the present Persecution against the Church of Scotland Printed for Jo. Hindmarsh Among these as to the State Affairs be pleased to consult that Tract called The late Proceedings and Votes of the Parliament of Scotland contained in an Address delivered to the King And for the Affairs of the Church An Account of the present Persecution of the Church of Scotland in several Letters The Case of the present Afflicted Clergy of Scotland The Historical Relation of the late General Assembly held at Edinburgh And the Presbyterian Inquisition And there you will find such Cruelties used towards the Loyal and Episcopal Party in Scotland as were unheard of in Ireland and by Dr. King's Principles would justifie any Foreign Prince to interp●se on their behalf And if it be true which he lays down as the Foundation upon which he builds all that he says in his Book viz. That if a King design to destroy one main Part of his People in favour if an●ther whom he loves better he does Abdicate the Government of those whom he designs to destroy contrary to Justice and the Laws If this be true the Episcopal Party in Scotland think it would free them from all Obligation to K. William's Government But how far it is Applicable to the Protestants in Ireland to justifie their Carriage towards King James will be seen in what follows Suppose say they it were true which Dr. King asserts as it is most false That K. James while he was in Ireland did endeavour totally to overthrow the Church Established by Law there and set up that which was most agreeable to the Inclinations of the major Number of the People in that Kingdom who are Roman Catholicks The Jacobites ask if this were so Whether it be not fully vindicated in the 4th Instruction of those which King William sent to his Commissioner in Scotland dated at Copt-Hall 31. May 89. in these Words You are to pass an Act Establishing that Church Government which is most agreeable to the Inclinations of the People By which Rule they say That it was as just to set u● Popery in Ireland as Presbytery in Scotland And that the Law was not more against the one in Ireland than against the other in Scotland That the Parliament in Ireland was liable to less Exception than that in Scotland● The one called in the usual Form by Writs from their Natural King to whom they had Sworn the other by Circular Letters from a Foreign Prince to whom they ow'd no Obedience who could not nor did pretend any other Authority over them or Right to the Crown besides The Inclinations of the People Which therefore they say in return for their Kindness he has made the Standard for Church Government as well as the Government of the State That it is only alleged that King James intended to do in Ireland what he did not do when it was in his Power and what King William actually did in Scotland viz. To overturn the Church then by Law Established