A SHORT MEMORIAL OF THE Sufferings AND Grievances PAST and PRESENT OF THE PRESBYTERIANS IN SCOTLAND Particularly of those of them called by Nick-name Cameronians Printed in the Year 1690. TO THE READER IT is not needful in the entry to give a Deduction either of the Excellent Establishments of Religion and Civil Liberties and Provisions made for security of both that our Fathers obtained and Enjoyed by the Mercy of GOD under the Patrociny of Righteous Rulers Or of the deplorable Demolishments of these Invaluable Intersts since the unhappy Re-introduction of Prelacy and Tyranny which brought Poperie to the very Birth in this Land had it not pleased the Most High GOD by the interposition of the present King as an Instrument to make it abortive But it is very useful and pleasant to remember that the Reformation of the Church of Scotland was sometimes as far Celebrated among all the Churches as now it is Depreciated incontempt and Obscurity Among other peculiar Eminencies of it above many other Churches she had this very early for the subject of her Gloriation through Grace that at once and from the Beginning both Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government were Reformed according to the Pattern of the Institutions of Christ to that degree of Purity that our very first Reformers could assert to the praise of Grace that no Corruption was left in this Church that ever flowed from the Man of Sin Which through the Blessing of GOD upon the Faithful and earnest Labours and Wrestling of His Servants in the Ministry made such progress in a short time that not only the Doctrine was perfectly purged of the Leaven of Popery Arminianisme Socinianisme c. and all other Heresies the Worship of all Idolatry and Superstition but the Discipline was impartially exercised and the Government Reformed from Diocesan Prelacy Sectarian Confusions and Erastian Supremacy of the Civil Powers and framed in the nearest Conformity to the Primitive Apostolick Pattern according to the Word of GOD and example of the best Reformed Churches in the Presbyterial Order of Congregational Classical Synodical and National Assemblies In the Preservation and Observation of which Beautiful Order making our Church Beautiful as Tirzah Comely as Jerufalem Terrible as an Army with Banners This was also her Priviledge and Praise which is the Fruit of this Government wheresoever it hath Place that she was Once and for a long time as much admired for Union as of late for Divisions since these Corruptions made a Breach upon Vs Her Name was once called Philadelphia among all the Reformed Churches and t was long since attested at that unhappy Convention at Perth which attempted the Introduction of some Popish Novations in the Year 1618. That from that backward to the Year 1558. there had been neither Schisme nor Heresie in this Church as also from thence forward the same might have been said excepting the Contentions which the Prelates and Malignants occasioned until the fatal Catastrophe No Church on Earth had more Purity Order or Vnity and was freer of Corruption Defection and Division that this Church This our Renowned Reformation in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government as it was Founded on the Law and the Testimony of the GOD of Heaven so it was Confirmed by all the Sanctions Ratifications and Securities that any Right can be capable of among Men Not only by many Laws penal and Statutory Established as Bulworks for Preserving and Defending it against all the forementioned Adversaries by many Constitutions and Acts of General Assemblies ratified by Parliaments But by many again and again Renewed National and Solemn Covenants sworn to the most High GOD by all Ranks from the King to the Beggar in all Capacities and Conditions This Testimony for this Covenanted Reformation so Confirmed and Established as it hath been Transmitted to Vs through a long continued Tract of many Wrestling and Sufferings from our worthy Ancestors and sealed by much Precious Blood and the Bonds and Bondage of many Faithful Martyrs and Confessors of Christ adhering to the same in our day so as it was then and now Stated and Sealed hath been and is thought by all the Asserters of our Reformation to have such a near and clear Connexion with the great Concern of the Crown-Prerogatives and Imperial Dignities of the Prince of the Kings of the Earth as Head of His visible Kingdom whose incommunicable Glory it is without Competitoor Co-partner either Coordinate or Subordinate to Institute his own Government prescribe His own Laws appoint his own Ordinances which He will have observed without addition dimunition or alteration until His second coming and to constitute His own Officers Cloathed only with His Authority and to be regulated only by His Instructions in their Ministerial Function without any Dependence on Subordination to or Indulgence from any Man or Angel in the exercise thereof under their Master Christ alone to whom it belongs as properly to Rule the Church his own free Kingdom according to the good pleasure of His own Will as it belongs to Him to save his Church by the Merit of his own Sufferings that our Famous Fathers and such of their Children as have been faithful in following their footsteps have judged it a Testimony worthy to Sacrifice all their Interests upon in opposing and contending against all the Invasions and Vsurpations made upon these Prerogatives of Christ and Priviledges of His Church by Poperie Prelacy and Erastian Supremacy all condemned in the Law of GOD diseharged by the Laws of the Land and Abjured in our Covenants National and Solemn League As being highly derogatorie to the Glory of Christ contradictory to His revealed will offensive to His People obstructive to the Power and destructive to the peace purity and Liberty of His precious Gospel Now for adbering to this complex Testimony what have been the Sufferings and Grievances of Presbyterians in general and ours in particular since Anno 1660 from the Popish Prelatical and Malignant Party is more fully demonstrated with the Principles and Testimonie contended for by us vindicated in Naphtali Jus populi the Hind let loose our Informatory Vindication the Testimony against the Toleration given in by that faithful zealous Minister of Christ Mr. James Renwick and here summarly Remonstrated We had once a Resolution at the first appearance of the Prince of Orange who under GOD was the Honoured Instrument of our begun enlargement from them To have Addressed his Highness with this same Memorial But that failing after this long suspence in expectation of some Redress of Grievances whereof we and many others have been in a great measure disappointed We have been induced to publish it in this Iuncture with an Appendix of our present complaints of somethings that we understand to be wrong in the Church State Army and Country at the time of the writing thereof which was in the time and upon occasion of the many Adjournments of Parliament Wherein perhaps something will occur which may
seem obliquely to reflect upon the Government when we complain of the ill Administrations of many Malignants in power But as they are sad Truths which cannot be denyed and tho we may be charged with Imprudence in speaking so freely what many Thousands and those of the surest Friends the Government hath do think So however we be neither Politicians nor Flatterers we think Conscience and Loyalty both doth oblige us to speak what concerns the King and Country both to hear We do not blame the King for delaying the satisfaction that his People have long waited for further than for permitting some into Trust who have abused him with misinformations of what they waited for and with counsels to delay their satisfaction Nor are we jealous of his Majesties sincere intentions to perform what he hath promised and the Estates Demanded as necessary for settling the Church securing Laws restoring Liberties and Redressing Grievances Albeit many here complained of have laboured to suggest grounds of such Iealousie We have got already so much Advantage by the success of his Heroick Expedition And so many repeated Assurances of his Royal Resolutions to fulfill his Declaration and Promises to our satisfaction none of which we can charge him with the breach of tho many of them are not yet accomplished that we should be very unworthy to Iealouse his Integrity We consider his Majestie stated in very Difficult and Dangerous Circumstances since he interposed himself in our Gap between an angry God and a sinful Provocking People Wherein he hath to do with a potent Enemy without and many undermyning Enemies about his Hand seeking to ensnare him in sin and expose him to ruine and hath in his two Kingdoms of Britain People of different Interests and Inclination whom to Govern will require great deliberation and consequently occasion delayes But we lay the blame where it should lye on the Malignants at Court Council and Parliament who are seeking to betray him and us both If some of these be exposed and their old pranks discovered and the Grievous effects of their being so much in Power hinted at We hope the Candid Reader will think it no ill service either to King or Country ERRATA Reader before thou peruse these Sheets be pleased to help these Escapes of the PRESS omitting these of less Note Page 15. Line 34. Read encouraged P. 17. 19. R. superadded by L. 25. R. equaling P. 34. Col. 1. 9. R. 21 Men and 5 Women P. 35 Col. 2. L. 11. for Douglas R. Dundass P. 36. Col. 1. L 5 for Mouat R. Mewae Col. 2. L. 20 R. Dundass and L. 26. R. Dundass P. 39. L. 36. for Orders R. Order P. 48. L. 18. R. flowing A SHORT MEMORIAL OF THE GRIEVANCES and SUFFERINGS Of the PRESBYTERIANS in SCOTLAND Since the Year 1660. Particularly of those of them called CAMERONIANS AFTER King Charles returned from his Exile the first Device which the Malignants then advanced to the highest places of Trust fell upon for overturning our Religion Laws and Liberties was to prevent and obstruct all access either to Justice or Mercy for such as they had a mind to destroy and preclude all Applications for a Redress of Grievances Hence when some faithful Ministers were drawing up a Monitory Supplication to the King congratulating his Return and minding him of his Covenant Engagements and promises to promote and preserve the work of Reformation the Committee of States then siting caused apprehend and without hearing incarcerate them for no other cause but that Supplication against which at that time there was no Law and which all Law and Reason of the World will justifie as the most innocent expedient of getting their just complaints heard and redressed and the common priviledge of all men which slavery it self cannot take away Yet as all Men and they themselves could not but see this a manifest subverting of the Subjects Liberty So in procureing a Law to approve it afterwards they made it worse and more illegal in declaring Petitions to be unlawful and seditious Carol. 2. Parl. 2. Sess. 2. Act 2. Hence no Petition or Remostrance of publick Grievances Oppressing and enslaving Church or Nation either durst be offered or could find Access or Acceptance being interdicted and also punished very severely as in the instance of the Grievances given in against Lauderdale Nor durst Prisoners tender the most innocent Supplication even for release or a more easie Confinement in any terms that seemed either to reflect on their severity or represent the illegality of their prosecutions or in the least to vindicate the cause they were suffering for which caused many afterwards to decline all petitioning and choose rather to ly under the most unsupportable bondage for fear of having it made more miserable The next succeeding Devices to undermine and overturn our Religion and Liberty were the Mischiefs framed into Law by the first Session of the first Parl Charles 2. held by the Earl of Middletoun 1661. Wherein by the very first Act thereof all the Members were involved in a Conscience Ensnaring and Enslaving Oath of Absolute and Implieite Allegiance and Supremacy without the former usual Limitations then standing unrepealed not only wronging Parliaments in their Priviledges and the Church in her Liberties but the Lord Jesus Christ in his Prerogative of Supremacy and Headship over the Church making the King a Pope and not only a Church Member as a Magistrate or Church Officer but the Supreme Architectonick Head of the Church For refusing this afterwards many Ministers and others were banished several of them made to subscribe a Bond to remove out of all his Majesties Dominions within a moneth not to return under the pain of Death And many kept in prison by the Arbittary Power of the Council beside the tenor and extent of their own wicked Act thereupon In the following Acts of that same Session of Parliament they advanced the Kings Prerogative to the highest pitch of Absoluteness and the acknowledgement of this vast and unlimited prerogative in all particulars was formed and imposed Charl 2 Parl 1. Sess. 1. Act 2 3 4 5 11. This was the foundation of all the succeeding Tyranny and source of the Nations slavery and in it self a head of sufferings to several Gentlemen and others who could not in Conscience subscribe or make that acknowledgement of such a prerogative which would manifestly have imported an approving of the first audacious and presumptuous effect and attempt of its power exerted in rescinding and annulling at one blow all the Righteous and Legal Establishments of the Covenanted Reformation and all the Acts made in favours thereof in all the Parliaments and Conventions of Estates from the year 1640. to 1650. even those that the then King Charles 1. approved owned and called They rested not here in a general or gradual unhinging of Legal Constitutions made for security of our Religion and Liberty but then took advantage of the universal silent Submission of
Executions against us in a manner did then but begin to be cruel And all the power of the Forces was imployed to destroy us so much already destroyed For then more cruelly than ever not only the standing Forces but another Host of savage Highlanders inured to Rapine and Murder brought from the North were ordered and impowered to Act against us the greatest Barbarities in butchering and slaughtering us in the Fields where ever we could be found without all colour of Justice only for not satisfying them in their impertinent as well as wicked impositions on the Conscience or form of Law even the worst of their own Laws Accordingly some of us at Labour same traveling in the Road were cut off without pity Some surprised in Caves and Murdered there without time given to Pray to God for Mercy some were taken first to Prison then surprised with execution without a Triall or definite sentence not knowing when or if at all they should be execute Some had their Ears cutt then sentenced to be transported to Iamaica and yet some of these were kept and again sentenced with Death and Executed others were sent to an old ruinous Castle Denotter and kept in Vaults in such crouds and Numbers that they had no room either to sit or lie and so cruelly treated as would make Savages blush to hear of it and then banished to America and in the Voyage about 60 died But as those cruelties were Monstrnous for Illegality and Inhumanity so the ensuing Laws made in the first Parliament Iames 7th 1685. held by Queensberry Commissioner Approving and Ratifying the same do far exceed all former for unparalelled Attrociousness As Act 3. Allowing Pannals already in prison and indicted for Treason to be cited on 24 houres Act 4. Statuting That such as being cited to be witnesses as in cases of Treason Field or House Conventicles do refuse to depone they shall be lyable to be punished as guilty of these Crimes respectively in which they refuse to be witnesses Act 5. Declaring That the giving or taking the National Covenant or the Solemn League and Covenant or writing in Defence thereof or owning of them as Lawful or Obligatory on themselves or others shall infer the crime and pains of Treason Act 6. Declaring the usual procedure of Fyning Husbands for their Wives withdrawing from the Church to have been Legal Act 7. Statuting That the concealing and not revealing of any supply given to such as are Forefaulted for Treason to wit the most innocent contending for the Covenants and Work of Reformation against Popery Prelacy or Tyranny and tho the supply should be given to their nearest Relations so foresaulted is Treason and to be judged accordingly Act 8 Statuting That all that shall hereafter Preach at House or Field Conventicles and all Hearers also at Field Conventicles shall be punished by Death and Confiscation Act 13. Reinjoyning and further extending the Imposition of the Self-contradictory Test. Act 17. Ratifying Confirming and Approving what hath been done by the Privy Council Justiciary or those commissionated by them in Banishing Imprisoning and Fyning such as refused to take the Oath of Allegiance which includes the blasphemous Supremacy with asserting the Prerogatives And under the same pains Ordaining all Subjects so to take the said Oath when required Act 23. Ratifying and Approving the Opinion of the Lords of Council and Session adjudging it Treason to refuse the Oath of Abjuration confirming all the illegality of procedure thereupon Act 24. Statuting That all Masters Heretors Liferenters c. shall insert in all Tacks to be set by them to their Tennants in Burgh or Landwart an express clause oblieging the Tennant for his Wife and Family to Conformity under exorbitant penalties Act 25. Ratifying a Proclamation against us as bearing the effect of an Act of Parliament Requiring all the Subjects upon knowledge or information of any one or two or moe of us in any place to give information thereof to the Chancellour and to the nearest Commanders of the Forces within the space of an hour at most for every three Miles distance and all Sheriffs c. To call the Subjects to search and apprehend us And on our flight to acquaint the Magistrates of the next Shire and so from Shire of Shire till we be apprehended or expelled from the Realm with Certification that whosoever fails in pursuing us whether Magistrats or Subjects or in not giving timeous Information within the space forsaid shall be held as Art and Part and undergo the same Punishment with us In which Act and Proclamation we are called only 80 Runnagats Traitors and Fugitives tho` in pursuance of this cruel Edict they have Multiplied that Number many times over and over in imprisoning banishing and butchering our Dear Brethren And yet all the Prisons they could fill and Shipt they could fraught with us and Gibbets they could hang us on could never either exhaust or lesson our Number For the more we were afflicted the more we grew And the design to destroy us by the mercy of our GOD counteracting it proved alwayes a burdensome Stone to the Destroyers and an help to the Destroyed Yet tho they pretended to have us expelled out of the Realm they shut up all possible access to attempting to depart out of it For as Forces were lying on each side the Borders to catch us if we should escape by Land so they prevented all probability of going by Sea by Act 27. of this same Parliament Forbidding and Prohibiting all Masters of Ships to export any Passenger till he be brought before the next Magistrates which none of us durst venture upon for fear of our Lives This was an unhappy Specimen of the Kings Commenced Government and a very unprecedented Policy of his Counselors to reconcile male contented Subjects to a Loving and Consienciously Loyal Subjection to him being in effect the same with the Advice of the Young men to Rehoboam and productive of the same effect with that When practically in their Acts and Actings it was declared to us that whereas the former King had made our Yoke heavy This would add thereto The former had chastised us with Whips but he would chastise us with Scorpions Whereof having felt the smart so sharply we could not be easily induced to a kindly acknowledgment of Allegiance out of Conscience unto him who came not in as a Father to rule us but as a Lyon to devour us Wherefore tho much pressed by all the Tyrannical force that could be exercised to enslave us under that Yoke or destroy us for refusing we could not in Conscience own or acknowledge his Lawful Authority And in pressing it they gained little after all the blood they shed on Scaffolds and Fields upon this account but to ridicule the Government and make it more contemptible when they required every poor Lad Lass in the Country to give their Opinion of the Government a Question very unusual to be proposed to
private Subjects Men really invested with Authority do think their Laws and Power to execute them on Offenders may well enough secure the Peoples subjection and will disdain such a suspicion of the questionablenss of their Authority as to make it a Question to the Subjects The more it was made a Question to us the more it became questioned and suspected And the more we were made to enquire into it the further we were from deprehending or recognoscing in him either the Characters or Constitution of a Magistrate to be owned We considered the many righteous Laws established by our worthy Ancestors for the preservation of the True Religion and Liberties of the Kingdom insert in the National Covenant which every Soul in the Kingdom under the Bond of that Covenant is bound to maintain according to their Capacities As Act 8 Parl. 1. King Ia 6 repeated and ratified in many Acts afterwards expresly providing and ordaining that all Kings and Princes at their Coronation and Reception of their Princely Authority shall make their faithful promise by Oath and that they shall profess and maintain the Protestant Religion and shall abolish and gainstand all false Religion contrary the same and shall rule according to Law c. Which Oath of Coronation he did not take would not take could not take while a Papist and therefore we could not look on him as our King by Law We considered likewise that in our Covenants the Allegiance that we must own to the King is expresly limited and qualified thus In the preservation and defence of the True Rellgion Liberties and Laws of the Kingdom Of which Qualification Allegiance to him a destroyer of Religion and Liberty is nor capable We remembred the Principles and Sentiments of our Fathers upon the Admission of King Charles 2. to the exercise of his Royal Power Declared in their seasonable and necessary Warning Gen Assem Iuly 27 Sess 27 1649. Wherein they tell us That a boundless and illimited Power is to be acknowledged in no King nor Magistrate that there is a mutual Stipulation and Obligation between the King and the People as both of them are tyed to GOD so each of them are tyed to one another Accordingly Kings are to take the Oath of Coronation to abolish Popery and maintain the Protestant Religion As long therefore as the King refuses to Engage and Obliege himself for security of Religion and safety of his People it is consonant to Scripture and Reason and Laws of the Kingdom that he should be refused And that in the Covenant the Duty of owning the King is subordinate to the Duty of preserving Religion and Liberty And therefore without security of these it were a manifest breach of Govenant and a preferring the Kings Interest to the Interest of Christ to bring him to the exercise of his power And consequently for us to give such a consent to it as such an owning of him as required would amount to Accordingly also the Commission of the General Assembly in their Act of the West-Kirk Declared They would not own the King nor his Interest otherwise than with a subordination to GOD and so far as he should own and prosecute the Cause of GOD and disclaim his and his Fathers opposition to the Work of GOD and the Covenant We called to mind likewise what our Renowned Reformers gave out as the case of their Revolt from the Government of Mary Qu Dowager anno 1559. her persecuting the Professors of the True Religion and oppressing the Liberties of the True Lieges her intruding of Magistrates against all Order of Election her Adultering and Subverting the Old Laws of the Realm c. Which all Men know were as applicable to King Iames 7th as to her And therefore we had their Reason to obliege us and their example to encourage us to say with them We own and promise to our Lawful Soveraign all due Obedience provided we may have our Religion and Liberty secured without which we firmely purpose never to be subject to Mortal Man For which and many other Reasons we reckoned our selves under Obligations to decline the imposed owning of his Authority and took the opportunity in the time of the Expedition of the Earl of Argyle against him to Publish in a Declaration our Reasons why we could not acknowledge it In the mean time the late Earl of Argyle with some other Noblemen and Gentlemen Associating with the Duke of Munmouth to essay some Diversion and Opposition to the Kings designs of advancing and establing Tyrannie and Popery All the Forces Militia Troups and Companies and the whole Army of Heretors were powred in upon those Places of the Kingdom where most of us were sojourning Who besides all the blood shed upon the account of that Expedition the Blood of the Earle himself and others of both Nations engaged with him and many of his Wassalls in the Highlands cruely put to Death by the Marq. of Athol had in Commission and put in execution the Bloodiest Orders we think readily Men could ever receive or obey The greatest employment that that great Army had in hand and in heart was to wreck and exert all their fury and force upon the poor Mountain-Men as they called us Which they did by ranging and spreading themselves many miles in breadth every one within sight of another and searching for us through all the Rocks Woods Mountains and Mosses of the Country where we were hiding with such Vigore Violence and dilligence as if they had been hunting for Hares or Foxes And the greatest ambition and emulation of their Leaders and Champions Graham of Claver-house Liev. Gen. Douglas Brother to the Duke of Queensberry Col. Buchan with others of their inferiour Officers Maj. Balfour Liev. Creightoun and Liev. Livingstoun c. was who should be most skilful and succesfull in destroying us And all this for no other Cause then because we could not Answer to their satisfaction the Questions they proposed without any warrant of Law and against the Common Interest of Mankind which frees all Men from being obliged to discover their secret thoughts Namely because we could not obtain of our Consciences to declare that we would own and acknowledge that Authority which enacted and by which they acted all these mischiefs Yet to the commendation of GODS Clemency and condemnation of Mens cruelty we may say when they had shot all their bolts after they had hanged shot tortured or banished for slaves all they could catch of us they were further from their purpose than when they began our Numbers and Mettings for Gospel ordinances Administrated in Purity and power encreased more and more But at length tho' our Persecution continued the King was pleased to change his Methods with other Dissenters He multiplied many Favours to such of them as he called Moderate And by these means intending to advance the Mysterie of iniquity by stoping the mouths and binding up the hands of all from whom he might
applied unto But as Magistrates ought to interpose their Power for extruding and easing the people of Intruders so when they abuse it to the re inforcing of these intrusions honnest and zealous people can as hardly be restrained from resisting such Invasions and Impositions against the Laws of GOD and Man as they can be kept from withstanding a violent Invader of their Property or Intruder on their Heritage For our part as we thought it a seasonable duty to take the opportunity of the Interregnum before the settlement of a Government that we could subject our selves to for cleansing the Western Shiers of these Creatures which was done with all the discretion that the confusions of that time and the feared shortness of that opportunity could admitt And whatever clamour they make of their Persecutions in their Late Printed Account and Information to the Church of England stuft with Lies we defy them to give an instance of any hurt done by us to any of their Persons or Families or to charge us with one Six-pence worth of their Goods If any have let it be proven and punished which if others in other places had imitated in that season with the like discretion the Nation might have been much eased and the Government prevented of a great deal of trouble So tho we are not for Persecuting them who were our greatest Persecuters nor rendering them any evil for their evil farther than to restrain them from coming back again to Persecute us and from Intruding where they have no Right Yet we are resolved through Gods Assistance to endeavour by all approven means to hold them out now when they are out And sooner to die and venture the loss of all things temporal than to suffer any of them to repossess themselves of the Churches whence they are thrown out or any other within our reach untill after sufficient Evidences of their remorse they shall come in at the door of CHRISTS Appointment If in this we Offend the Malignants in the Parliament or Council we cannot help it it is not the first time nor perhaps the last But for the Noble Honoured Patriots among them who are well affected to the Cause of Reformation the Nations good and his Majesties Honour and Happiness we are confident they will construct of our ingenuity in good part as flowing from conscience and Candor And we are hopeful his Majestie will Compassionat us in this matter and consider the Case that it is more for his Honour and Interest to have respect to the Consciences of so many People than to the humor and haughtiness of a few debauched Lords and Gentlemen who delight in these vexations and who by Custom as it were have it for their Element to impose upon poor Peoples Consciences And we hope his Majesty will think upon the Redressing of this Grievance of the Continuance of these Episcopal Curates who took notice of this as one of the Grievances in his Declaration that he came to relieve the Nation from In the netxt place as to the State tho we desire to be more abstract from these Administrations that are above our reach yet it is obvious and Grievous to all that desire the Establishment thereof in Righteousness and Peace that the settlement of Church and State both is Retarded and Obstructed by the frequent Adjournments of Parliaments in so Critical a Season when the Government is not well settled the Enemies thereof are prevailing the Friends thereof are sore discouraged and devided and the Forces have no Maintenance If ever there 〈◊〉 of Parliaments now it must be when the greatest Interests 〈◊〉 King and People are in so eminent Hazard And yet it is more Grievous that when they Conveen and have opportunity to Act for the good of the Nation the settlement of the Church Government and the Redress of Grievances the Disputes of divided Factions about things of lesser Moment do hinder their Establishing of those things that all agree are Absolutely necessary Time might be afterwards spared for many of these Debates with which the present precious opportunity is wasted and they might with more Advantage and Facility be Adjusted and Composed afterwards if once the Establishment of the Church and the Security of the Nation were provided for and these things for which they have his Majesties Instructions were Settled and Enacted But we fear these Differences are much Fomented by Self-seeking Malignant Incendiaries who love to Fish in troubled Waters and to pursue their selfish and sinistrous ends of Undermining the Church supplanting the King's Interest and betraying the Countries Liberties from whom these Disorders and Grievances have proceeded which are now desired to be Rectified and Redressed and from whose Influence all these Retardments and Disapointments do flow which the Nation so much complains of For as the open and avowed Enemies of the King and Country owning the late King Iames his Interest all consisting either of the Popish or Prelatical and Malignant Faction not so much as one Presbyterian being among them are very many Insolent and Prevalent not only in the Highlands but in all the hires of the Kingdom and no doubt have their Active Agents Correspondents and Abetters in the Parliament Council and all the Supreme Judicatories of the Kingdom so there are far moe secret undermining Enemies who for the time are not appearing in opposition to the Government that are as great Enemies to the King and Country and all Righteous Interests as any that do most appear who are now desiring Places and ingyring themselves into publick Trust not to serve King William whose Advancement to the Throne they opposed with all the Power and Policy they had nor simply to satisfy their Insatiable Ambition but to put themselves in better Capacity to serve King Iames in Retarding all Righteous Establishments Rending the Parliaments and Ruining Us all Yea however some may account it Policy it is not only a Grievance but a Sin dishonouring God and destructive to the Nation and a dangerous Politick threatning hazard to Religion and Liberty and the Government that many wicked Malignants Enemies to Reformation are admitted imployed in the publick Administrations as Officers of State Members of Council Parliament and other Judicatories and places of Trust who not only were our cruel Persecuters and Murderers of our Bretheren whose Blood cries for Vengence against them but were the professed and sworn Tools of the late Tyranny and Instruments of the Nations Slavery Ministring to King Iames and cooperating with him in all his Encroachments upon our Religion Laws and Liberties as absolute Vassals of his Despotical Will under Oaths and Pensionary Obligations to obey without reserve and to this day are either evil Counsellours to perswade the King to some degrees of Arbitrariness or very disaffected to the Government Counsellers to Encouragers of or Connivers at Rebellion against it It had been worthy Service to the Nation to have at first exposed these Men in their own
shall be called to cognosce upon them of the pernicious Errors of Popery Socinianisme and Arminianisme maintained by many of them Abominable Adulteries committed by others of them the Profanity Sensuality and Debauchery Oppression and Persecution of Godliness and good Men chargeable on the generallity of them and Perjury in breach of Covenant and Schismatical intrusion without consent of the Church owned of all of them and Ungodliness by them transfused over all the Land as could not but make them detested of all as the greatest stain to be suffered in a Reformed Church Upon the back of this by the instigation of the Prelates who scorned to be and one no not by Iulian the Apostate in surpressing Religion they proceeded to poyson all the Seminaries of Learning Ordaining in Act. 9. Sess. 2. Parl. 1. Carol. 2. That none be Masters in any University except they both take the Oath of Supremacy and submit to and own Prelacy or be so much as a Pedagogue to Children without the Prelates Licence By which course Honest and Learned Men were brought to considerable Straits and Sufferings and Ungodly and Unsound Masters had access and encouragement to corrupt the Youth with perverse and Malignant Principles to the great and observable Detriment and Decrement of Religion Learning Sobriety and Morality in the Nation The next Contrivance was to corrupt all the Fountains of Judicature And for this End it was enacted Act 5. Sess. 2. Parl. 1. Carol. 2. That all Persons in any publick Trust or Office whatsoever should subscribe the Declaration renouncing and abjuring the Covenants And that not only under the Certified penalty of Forefaulting the Priviledges of Magistrates But also of all the Priviledges of Merchandizing Trading and others belonging to a Burgess Act 3. Sess. 3. Parl 1. Carol. 2. Whereby Perjury was made the chief and indispensable Qualification and Conditio sine qua non of all that were capable of Exercising any power in Church or State contrate to known Laws yet unrepealed which make them that are guilty of Perjury incapable of being intrusted with any publick Administration in the Kingdom The Parliaments thus corrupted and instigated by the Bishops and Curates Establish wicked Laws pressing Conformity And in the very first of them made such a streach beyond all bounds of Charity Justice Reason or Humanity that they made all Addresses to God or Man remonstrating such Grievances and reflecting on such proceedings to be Criminal Declaring Petitions to be Seditious And discharging all Writing Printing Remonstrating Praying or Preaching shewing any dislike of the Kings Absolute Prerogative and Supremacy in Causes Ecclesiastick or of the Government of the Church by Bishops Act 2. Sess. 2. Par. 1. Carol. 2. And Act 4 ibid. They not only prohibited any to Preach in publick or so much as in Families without the Prelates Licences but Discharged all Private Meetings in Houses for Religious Exercise of such as could not in Conscience give their Countenance to the Curats Service in Churches Then in the 3 Sess. Act. 2. They Declare that all Non conformed Ministers that shall presume to Exercise their Ministry shall be punished as Seditious Persons And Require of all in acknowledgement of and Complyance with his Majesties Government Ecclesiastical that they give their concurrence and countenance to the Curates and attend their Meetings for Worship Ordaining that whosoever shall withdraw shall incur each Nobleman Gentleman or Heretor the loss of a fourth part of their Years rent every Yeoman the loss of a fourth or under of his Moveables each Burgess the loss of his Burge-ship with the fourth of his Moveables with a reference to the Council for farther punishment and more effectual Execution Which the Council very vigorously Prosecuted in emitting most rigorous Proclamations after that Some requiring all to keep their Parioch Churches under the pain of 20. shil toties quoties Some discharging all Preaching Praying or Hearing in Families where three or some more then the Domesticks were found as unlawful Conventicles Others Certifying that all such Meetings not Authorised shall be punished by Pecunial and Corporal pains at the Arbittement of the Council Other Commanding all Masters of Families Heretors Landlords and Magistrates of Burghs ro cause their Servants Dependents Tennents Taxmen Cottars and all under their Charge to submit and conform to the Curates their Ministry For putting these Laws in Execution the King erected a High Commission Court consisting of some Prelates Noblemen Magistrates of Burghs and some Souldiers impowered by vertue of his Prerogative Royal and Supremacy to suspend deprive and Excommunicat As also to punish by Fining Confining and Incarcerating all keepers of Conventicles and all Non Conformists A Hotch-potch mongrel Monster of a Judicatory Authorized by the Prerogative against the Laws of GOD and Man meddling with Causes and Censures Ecclesiastick and Civil most Illegal and Arbitrary both for its Constitution and Procedure Whereby persons brought before them were made to answer super inquirendis contrare to express standing Law Ioc. 6. Parl. 10. Act. 13. Anno. 1585. without either Libel or Accuser or admitting Legal Defences except they take the Oaths and sentenced with Stigmatizing Scourging Banishment Deportation and Slaverie to Barbados c. By orders from this Court especially from the Prelates whose country sides were in a great measure Depopulate for Non-conformity by Souldiers Sometimes besetting the Churches where honest Ministers were not yet ejected and forcing all within to pay fines Sometimes going to the Curates Churches and Amerciating all the Absents in such fines as they pleased Sometimes by force driving all to Church beating wounding and binding the Reousants Sometimes exacting exorbitant fines by Plunder to the Harassing and making Havock of whole Country sides sparing sometimes Complyers no more then Recusants And punishing Husbands for their Wives Parents for their Children Yea doubling and tripling the same exactions after payment yet compelling them sometimes to subscribe an acknowledgement that the Captain had used them civilly and discreetly Then after all Apprehending Imprisoning Scourging some Stigmatizing others and sending them to Forreign parts that would not for all this conform Hereupon being outwearied with intollerable oppressions a small party of Dissenters were partly compelled and party by a surprise of Providence engaged to run together for their own defence at Pentland Anno 1666. Where after the defeat The Prisoners that were taken upon Quarter and solemn parol to have their life spared were treacherously given up to be Condemned the very manner of their Execution being first determined and described before Arraigment and cruelly hanged their Heads being set up at Edinburgh Glasgow Air Dumsreis and at Hamiltoun Turks would have blushed to have seen the like Among the rest one eminent Minister Mr. Hugh Mckail for having but a Sword tho not present at the Fight was first cruelly tortured with the Iron boots and afterwards execute to the death At their Executions Drums were beat that they
might not be heard a Barbarity never known in Scotland before and rarely heard of except in the Duke d' Alvas murdering the Protestants in the Netherlands But frequently used almost at all the Executions since of our Martyred Brethren in this Land Immediatly hereafter Souldiers were sent out on free Quarter to examine men by Tortures threatning to kill or rost alive all that would not delate all they knew Accessary to that rising Who accordingly by fire Matches and other tortures forced Women to discover their Husbands and other Relations although they knew not it they were there stripped them who Reset the Fugitives and thrusted them in crouds to Prisons in cold and nakedness And some they murdered without Process that would not because they could not discover those persecuted people Yea and drove away the Goods of the Country without respect to Guilt or Innocency In the mean time such as were in Armes and some that were not were Intercommuned and interdicted of all Reset Harbour Hiding Corresponding or Comfort under pain of Rebellion and of being counted guilty of the same Crimes wherewith the Intercommuned were charged And many Gentlemen Ministers and others were Forfeited of their whole Estates very illegally Yea some that were not present at that Appearance in Armes nor Legally Convict nor cited to answer according to Law were yet Forfaulted before the Act of Parl. 2. Act 11. Carol. 2. contrate to express standing Statutes And further all Dissenters and such as did not joyn in suppressing that Expedition were by order from the Council robbed of their Armes and Horses fit for service their guilty Consciences puting them in Fears and dictating their desert of greater opposition After all these Cruelties murdering the Persons and oppressing the Estates of poor Dissenters what they could not do by Law nor Force nor Futy they contrived to effectuate by Craft under the notion of Clemency but such a Clemency as was a greater Cruelty then any former Persecution The poor People that had nothing left them but a good Conscience must have that robbed from them likewise Therefore these wicked Councellers and Prelates still stirred up by the Curates having none or a seared Conscience of their own contrived to take away from People all Remainders of Conscience or to make them pliable to comply with every corruption they should introduce by imposing Conscience-debauching and ensnaring Oaths and Bands most Deceitfully and Ambiguously framed most Illegally imposed and Insolently pressed and more numerous since that time than ever was heard of in any Nation in one Age there being scarce one year since that time wherein several of these Oaths and Bonds have not been vented and imposed contradictory to one another contrary to our sworn Covenants and work of Reformation impossible to keep and unlawful to take Yet finding they could not yet suppress the persecuted Meetings for Gospel Ordinances but that the more violence was used the greater and more frequent they grew They fell upon a more crafty device to divide and destroy the Remnant to overturn what remained of the Churches Priviledges undestroyed and to settle Ministers and People into a silent and stupid Submission to all the Kings Usurpations upon the same by giving an Indulgence Anno 1669. to some outed Ministers with Restrictions and Instructions clearly homologatory of the Supremacy whence it flowed establishing the height of Erastianism prejudicial to the freedom of the Ministry injurious to the Priviledges of the Church contrary to Presbyterian Principles and contradictory to the Covenants The Grant and Acceptance whereof hath been the bane of the Church of Scotland and a Bone of Contention rending and ruining the Remnant of Ministers and People Unite before The end of it was to advance the Supremacy as upon this occasion they enlarged and explained it And because it was against Law therefore that the Kings Letter might be made the Supreme Law afterwards at least Law enough for the Council to proceed enact and execute what the King pleased in matters Ecclesiastick The Parl. 2. Act 1. Carol. 2. held by Lauderdale Asserts and Declares That by vertue of the Supremacy the ordering of the Government of the Church doth properly belong to his Majesty and Successors as an Inherent Right to the Crown and that he may enact and emitt such Constitutions Acts and Orders concerning Church Administrations Persons Meetings Matters as he in his Royal Wisdom shall think fit Which Acts Orders c. Are to be observed and obeyed by all Subjects any Law Act or Custom to the contrary notwithstanding But now as before faithful Ministers that were not thus Indulged sensible of the indispensable necessity of Preaching the Gospel and of the Peoples great necessity calling them to it from several quarters after they had undergone and endured many hazards and hardships of Villany and Violence Imprisonment and Banishment for meeting in the Houses where they were easily Intraped Interrupted and Insulted over were forced to go to the Fields and Preach in places most convenient secret and safe whither the People being tyred of their cold and dead Curates and wanting long the Ministry of their old Pastors resorted in great numbers on the greatest of hazards the Council then at the instigation of the Bishops and Curates raised Troops of Horse and Dragoons to pursue them as Traitors and Rebells for their following that Necessary and Signally blessed Duty Impowred and Encouraged to apprehend and bring Dead or Alive some Ministers with prices put upon their Heads and to incarcerate all they could find either at the Meetings or suspected to be coming to or from them Hence Prisons were filled some were sent to the Bass some Banished and many hundreds driven from their Dwellings Outlawed and Intercommuned For Legalizing such Mischiess the second Sess. of the second Parliament Anno 1670. held by Lauderdale made many wicked Laws causes of many Grievances following As Act 2. Ordaining all of every quality or sex called to depone upon Oath their knowledge of such Meetings and Persons therein to declare the same in all particulars interrogate under the pains of Fining Imprisonment or Banishment and Deportaion to the Indies as the Council shall think fit oblidging People thereby to betray their own Neighbours Act 5. Declaring all outed Ministers found Preaching or Praying in any House except in and to their own Family shall be Imprisoned till they find Caution under the pain of 5000 Marks not to do the like again and every Hearer shall be toties quoties fined each Tennant in 25 Pounds Scots each Cottar in 12 Pounds c. And that all that Preach in the Fields or in any House where any of the People are without Doors shall be punished with DEATH and any that shall seise and secure any of them dead or alive shall have 500 Marks reward Act 6. Imposing most I yrannically exorbitant and grievous Fines upon any that shall offer their Children to be Baptized by any but
expect Control or Contradiction and laying them by from all open opposition to the introduction of Poperie and advancement of Slaverie he purposed and proposed the repealing of the Penal Statutes against Papists at the Parliament held by the Earl of Murray Against which when afterwards some of the Common sort of people and of the Souldiers spoke some what freely and for shewing their dislike of setting up the Idolatrous Mass and for speaking against Poperie and the designs of the King they were put to Death in a most Despotical and Arbitrary manner The Persecution the mean while still continuing against us and growing more dangerous and worse to bear that we had all the brunt of it to sustain while the Forces had few other to Persecute but us which they did in great fury murdering in Fields and Scaffolds such as they could catch of us At length what could not be obtained by Law at the formentioned Parliament for taking off the Penal Statutes was effectuate by Prerogative in a Proclamation Feb 12 1687. Granting by the Kings Soveraign Authority Prerogative Royal and Absolute Power which Subjects are to obey without Reserve a Toleration under certain conditions Restrictions and Limitations to all sorts of Perswasions excepting us who are left to the full vigor and utmost rigor of the Laws made against us Suspending Stoping and Disabling all Laws or Acts of Parliament customs or constitutions against any Roman Catholick Subjects giving them freedom in all respects as much as any Prtoestant Subjects whatsoever not only to Exercise their Religion but to enjoy all Offices Benefices c. which he shall think fit to bestow upon them in all time coming Hence Papists were put into places of highest Trust both Civil and Military And Popish Magistrates without any Election established in Burghs c. contrare to the known Laws of the Kingdom admitting none to be Magistrates or so much as a Procutator Notar or member of Court who professes not the Protestant Religion Act 9. Parl 1. Iames 6. Declaring all Papists infamous and unable to sit or stand in Judgment pursue bear Office or to be admitted as proves Witness or Assisors against Protestants Act 45 Parl 3 Iames 6 which is extended to all and whatsomever Office without any Exception or Restriction in all time coming Act 5 Parl 20 Iames 6 Hence also the Idolatrous Mass was set up in the most publick places of the Kingdom and Popish Seminary Priests suffered and encouraged to preach and set up Schools to seduce the People especially the Youth contrate to many express standing Laws Act 3 Parl 1 Iames 6 and Act 5 ibid Ordaining all layers or hearers of Mass to be punished with imprisonment for the first fault banishment for the second and justifying to the Death for the third fault Act 122 Iarl 12 K Iames 6 Decerning That in all time coming the saying of Mass resetting of Jesuites Seminary Priests Traffiquing Papists shall be just cause to infer the pain and crime of Treason Act 196 Parl 14 Iames 6 Ordaining in all time coming all wilfull hearers of Mass and concealers of the same be execute to the Death Ratified in the 1 Act. Parl. 19. Iac. 6. And in 5. Act. Parl 20 Iac 6. Hence Papists have erected Schools and made sold and dispersed their Heretical Books tending to seduce the People from the true Religion contrary to express Laws Act. 106. Parl 7 Iac 6 Act 24 and 25 Parl 11 I 6. This Popish Toleration was neither extended to us all the three Proclamations thereof expresly providing that Field Conventicles all Preachers and Hearers thereat be prosecuted according to the utmost Severity and Rigor of the Lawes made against them left in their full Force and Vigor with a Command to all Judges Magistrates and Officers of â—orces to pursue us with all Violence Nor could we in Conscience and Duty directly or indirectly suffer our selves to be involved by any participation therewith or acceptance thereof in the sin of it against the Laws of GOD and Man Since it appeared evidently to flow from a Blasphemous fountain of Absolute Power through a Treasonable Channel of stoping Suspending and disabling the Penal Statutes made against the Enemies of GOD and of the Kingdom and to be designed for the wicked ends of subverting the Protestant Religion and the peaceable introduction of Popish Idolatrie and Heresie And to offer not the establishment of our Religion but the Tolerating of it under the scandalous notion of a thing to be suffered for a while and with such shameful securities as robbed the Church of all her Legal Charters of Laws and Covenants establishing her Reformation leaving her nothing in lieu thereof but a blind precarious promise of One whose principles oblieged him to keen no Faith with those to whom he promised it But against all these indignities done to Christ and injuries to the Church intended and effected by this Toleration our Ministers thought themselves oblieged to bear witness and Testimony And with respect both to necessity and duty to continue to keep their Meetings in the open Fields whether the Tyranny of the times had driven them Since they durst neither seem to Homologate the Toleration by coming under the sconce of such a protection Nor durst they give such advantage to such as were insatiably thirsting after their Blood and were impowered to shed it as they were seeking and would have found if they had shut up themselves within houses that could neither hold their Friends nor be hid from their Enemies This we looked upon as a Testimony for the interest of the Protestant Religion for our Covenanted Reformation for the Laws Liberties of our Country all undermined and sought to be subverted by that Toleration In the prosecution of this Device when others were killed with Popish kindnesses we were left to feell the sweet effects of Popish Crueltie Some of our Bretheren were Murdered in Fields and Scaffolds since that pretended Toleration Many both Men and Women have been banished and Sold for Slaves in Barbados Other severe Proclamations were issued against our Ministers Intercommuning seting a pryce upon their Heads to encourage all to apprehend them Dead or alive One of them Mr. Iames Renwick a painful Minister being Feb. 1688. was Executed to the Death in Edinburgh the Drums beating all the time of his Praying and speaking upon the Scaffold And after this not only was the Country oppressed with Souldiers free quarterings and frighted with their searches and Insolences in their ryding up and down the Country challenging peaceable Travellers upon the Road about their Opinions of the Kings Authority and if this and that was Rebellion and threatning present Death to such as did not satisfie them But the City of Edinburgh vexed with universal searches and the impositions of these impertinences whereby many were taken and examined by Claver-house who required them to renounce the Covenant imprisoned the Recusants Whereby the Prisons were crouded