all such who shall be received into Communion with them in Church-Government be obliged to subscribe the Confession of Faith ratified in the second Session of the Parliament There it 's plain that they arrogate no more Power than what is given them by Law and it 's obvious that by this Act they neither exclude the Prelatists ab officio nor beneficio So that the Church-of England-Men have no reason to complain that their Brethren are severely treated for they have made no such steps towards a Comprehension with the English Dissenters though his Majesty desired it And yet what a racket do they keep because the Scots Episcopal Clergy are only denied a share in the Government of the Church which they designedly seek that they may undermine it and are not ashamed to own it In their Letter to his Majesty Novemb. 13. 1690. at the Close of that Assembly they acquaint him with the Instructions which they had given to those appointed for Viâ—itation concerning the Conformists viz. That none of them shall be removed from their Places but such as are either Insufficient Scandalous Erroneous or supinely negligent and that those of them be admitted to Ministerial Communion who upon due trial shall be found Orthodox Able Godly Peaceable and Loyal and that such who shall be found to have received Wrong in any Inferior Judicatory of the Church should be duly redressed Yet what Clamour what Lies what Obloquy and Reproach have the poor Presbyterians of Scotland been loaded with in blasphemous and virulent Pamphlets publish'd in London by Hindmarsh the late King's Bookseller and promoted and disseminated by that ungovernable Faction And what a clutter did the high-â—lown Courtiers keep about the Scots General-Assembly how industrious to misrepresent them to the King and how restless till they had them dissolved contrary to the Laws and at such a time as we were threatned with a Rebellion at Home and an Invasion from Abroad that so his Majesty having disobliged his only Friends in Scotland might be totally deprived of any Assistance from thence but blessed be God who disappointed their Designs And I hope that moderate and truly Religious Church-of England-Men will henceforth be more cautious in listening to the Calumnies of our Episcopal Clergy when they consider the Moderation of the above-mentioned Acts of the Presbyterian General-Assembly which they have no reason to think of such dangerous Consequence as our Pamphleteers would have them believe and as D M ro in his Papers lately seized by Authority would have further insinuated And that they may have yet a further proof of their Moderation I would pray them to read the seventh Instruction given by the said Assembly to the Commissioners appointed for Visitation viz. That they be very cautious of receiving Informations against the late Conformists and that they proceed in the matter of Censure very deliberately so as none may have just cause to complain of their Rigidity yet so as to omit no means of Information and that they shall not proceed to Censure but upon sufficient Probation And that the World may be farther satisfied in their Impartiality in the fourth Instruction they declared that the Power of the Visiters shall reach Presbyterians as well as others and in the second Instruction they gave them Power to stop the precipitant or unwarrantable Procedure of Presbyteries in Processes If any Proceedings can be more mild or regular let the World judg So that whether Dr. M â— and his Fellow Libellers who impudently assert that there is nothing like Order Moderation or Justice among the Presbyterians be Liars or not let these Acts determine And if there were no other thing to stop the Mouths of all Cavillars the Assembly's Declaration That they would depose no Incumbents simply for their Iudgment concerning Church-Government nor yet urge Reordination upon them were sufficient and if there be any Ingenuity in the Church-of England-Men it may for ever silence them as to their Complaints against our Administration seeing those of their Communion have been and continue still to be so much guilty of a contrary Practice towards Dissenters And further this Assembly whom they branded as void of all Moderation or Humanity made an Act in favour of Mr. Couper Curat of Humby and recommended Mr. Cameron one of the late Conformists to the Privy-Council for Charity which is more than ever was done by any Episcopal Assembly in favour of Presbyterian Ministers Having proved the Falshood of the Episcopal Calumnies against our Church as void of Moderation it remains that I do the same as to the State and tho it be already sufficiently done in my first Answer it will not be amiss to insist on it in this And because contraria juxta se posita magis â—lucescunt I shall exhibit a short Epitome of their Acts of Parliament against us in the two last Reigns and of ours against them in this that the World may see on whose side Justice and Moderation lies Acts of Parliament by Charles the Second and James the Seventh against the Presbyterian Government and Prebyterians in Scotland PArl. 1. Session 1. Car. II. They enacted the Oath of Allegiance asserting the King to be the only Supream Governour over all Persons and in all Causes and obliging the Takers to the utmost of their Power to defend assist and maintain his Majesty's said Jurisdiction against all Persons whatsoever and that they should never decline his Power and Jurisdiction Parl. 1. Sess. 1. Act 2 3 4 5 11. An Acknowledgment of the King 's vast and unlimited-unlimited-Prerogative was enjoin'd to be subscribed by all in publick Trust over and above the Oath of Allegiance Octob. 1662. The Council not Parliament turn'd out 300 Ministers without Citation or Hearing Parl. 1. Sess. 1. Act 7. Sess. 2. Act 2. They enacted That the National Covenant and Solemn League and Covenant should have no Obligation and ordered them to be burnt by the Hand of the Hangman Sess. 2. Act 3. They restored Patronages Sess. 1. Act 4. Enacted That none be Masters in any University except they take the Oath of Allegiance and own Prelacy and none should be School-master Tutor or Pedagogue to Children without a Prelate's Licence Sess. 2. Act 5. and Sess. 2. Act 3. Enacted That all in publick Trust or Office renounce and abjure the Covenant on pain of losing their Places and Privilege of Trading Sess. 2. Act 2. Enacted That all Petitions Writing Printing Remonstrating Praying or Preaching shewing any dislike of the King 's absolute Prerogative and Supremacy in Causes Ecclesiastick or Episcopacy be punished as seditious And that no Meetings be kept in private Houses Sess. 3. Act 2. Enacted That all Non-conformed Ministers that presume to exercise their Ministry shall be punish'd as seditious Persons And that all Persons in acknowledgment of his Majesty's Government Ecclesiastical attend the Sermons of the Curats Noblemen and Gentlemen refusing to lose a fourth of their Rents Burgesses their Freedom and a fourth part
A CONTINUATION OF THE ANSWER TO THE Scots Presbyterian Eloquence Dedicated to the Parliament of Scotland Being a Vindication of the Acts of that August Assembly from the Clamours and Aspersions of the Scots Prelatical Clergy in their Libels printed in England With a Confutation of Dr. M 's Postscript in Answer to the former proving That it 's not the Church of England's Interest to countenance the Scots outed Clergy As also Reflections on Sir Geo. Mackenzy's Defence of Charles the Second's Government in Scotland And Instances on Record of Sir George's Subornation against Sir Hugh and Sir George Campbel and the Laird of Blackwood Presbyterian Gentlemen Together with the Acts of the Scots General Assembly and present Parliament compared with the Acts of Parliament in the two last Reigns against the Presbyterians By VVILL LAICK London Printed in the Year 1693. TO THE STATES of SCOTLAND in Parliament Assembled Most Noble Patriots I Presume but with that profound Respect which is due to such an August Assembly humbly to implore your Protection to this rude and indigested yet real Effort of true Love to my Country and to you Worthy Patriots in particular whom all honest-hearted Scotsmen look upon as the Healers of our Breaches and Restorers of our Paths to dwell in And therefore it is not possible for any Man who has a drop of true Scots Blood in his Veins to hear your Authority impugned and your Wisdom called in Question without resenting it to the utmost of his Ability And if according to the common Opinion of some of our Neighbours Sâ—otorum ingenia sint praefervida an Affront of that Nature is enough to make them boil over Hence it is that in a former Endeavour I could not forbear to besprinkle Scotico aceto some degenerate Monsters of our Country who exposed to contempt as much as in them lay whatever Scotsmen account dear in things Civil and Sacred Had it been only a particular Party or some such pack'd Clubs as disgraced the Name of Parliaments in former Reigns and enacted such Laws as their present Majesties with your Advice have declared to be impious had it I say been thus the Matter might have been the more easily digested but to have a lawful and a freely elected Parliament of Scotland charged in a Neighbouring Kingdom with a deliberate and malicious Lie in an Act so unanimously resolv'd on and duly canvas'd as was that of your Assembly concerning the Nation 's being first reformed by Presbyters and that therefore Presbyterian Government is most sutable to the Inclinations of our People I say to have a Lie of that Nature charged upon you is a Piece of Impudence that none but the Party culpable could be guilty of And yet as if they had a mind to exhaust all the Treasure of the bottomless Pit at once and to bankrupt the Malice and Falshood of Hell for ever after they go on to charge you further with lodging the Government of the Church in the Hands of such blasphemous ignorant and immoral Beasts as Asrica never produced the like and to aggravate your Guilt would make our Neighbouring Nation believe that at the â—ame time you have turn'd out such a Generation of Ministers as the Primitive Church would have been proud of for their Sanctity and adorâ—d for their Learning Thus those common Incendiaries in their printed Libels treat the Parliament of Scotland which for the Antiquity of its Standing and fulness of its Power gives place to none in Europe But it is not to be wondred at most Noble Patriots that that Party should treat you thus seeing they hate your being any otherwise than to serve as their Drudges and devour the best and most industrious Part of the Subjects by which both you and that Ancient Kingdom which you represent were well-nigh entomb'd in Oblivion and Disgrace It was that Party who changed a well-limited and regular Monarchy into an absolute and uncontroulable Tyranny that durst arrogate a Power to cass and annul your firmest Laws and treat you with Contempt as perfect Slaves It was that Party who robbed Christ of his Prerogatives Royal to be Jewels in the Crowns of their Absolute Monarchs It was that Party which robbed the People of their Consciences to bring them to an absolute dependance on the Prelatical Mitres And not only deprived you of the Property of your Houses but denied you a safe Retreat into your own Hearts It was that Party who rendred K. Iames the Sixth so much a Prelatical Bigot as to the disturbance both of Church and State and contrary to his Oath to obtrude Bishops upon the Nation and persecute the sincerest Protestants while at the same time he indulged the Papists and in fine had such an aversion for his Native Country that instead of seeing it once in three Years for administring Justice according to his Promise he never came to it but once after his Succession to the Crown of England and instead of favouring his Church of Scotland which he pretended once so much to admire he persecuted those who declin'd a Conformity with the Church of England It was that Party who influenced Charles the First though a Native of Scotland to put such an intolerable Affront upon the Nation as to demand their Crown to be sent to England and afterwards to invade us with a formidable Army designing an absolute Conquest and in an unnatural manner to subject that Nation to his newly acquired Crown which his Ancestors did so much disdain that they maintain'd 300 Years War upon that Head with no small Glory And how the Faction prevail'd with Charles the Second to requite our Nation for making themselves a Field of Blood in Defence of his Title is so fresh that it needs not be recapitulated and it is yet much more recent how well K. Iames the Seventh rewarded us for owning his Right of Succession when England had in a manner spued him out by the Bill of Exclusion he I say rewarded us by publishing such despotical Proclamations as with an unparallel'd audacity declared us Slaves to the perpetual Infamy of that Generation of Scotsmen who were so tamely bereft of their Liberty which our Noble Progenitors maintained against Romans Picts Britains Danes Saxons Normans and English for twenty preceeding Ages So that I say considering how the Prelatical Faction inâ—luenced those four Monarchs to treat our Nation though they derived their Being and Honour from it and were otherwise in many respects tantorum haud quaquam indigni avorum The Resolve of your August Assembly that Prelacy was an insupportable Grievance to that Kingdom deserves to be engraven in Pillars of Corinthian Brass and that all Scotsmen as no doubt many thousands will should not only wheâ— their Pens but their Swords in defence of it It is that Party who in this Reign impugn your Authority by procuring Letters from Court to command such things to the Assembly as by Law they are not
of their Movables and Yeomen the fourth of their Movables and others 20 â— a time leaving the Council at liberty to inâ—â—ict further Punishments that if there were three above the Family at Preaching or Prayer it should be esteemed a Conventicle and commanding Lords of Mannors Masters of Families and Magistrates of Buroughs to cause all under their Charge to come to Church And for putting these Laws in Execution a High-Commission-Court was erected by the King contrary to Act 13. Parl. 10. Iac. 6. with Power to examine upon Oath de super inquirendis Parl. 2. Act 1. Lauder daâ—e Commissioner Enacted That by virtue of the Supremacy the ordering of the Government of the Church doth properâ—y â—elong to his Majesty and Successors as an inherent Right to the Crown and that he may enact and emit such Constitutions Acts and Orders concerning Church-Administrations Persons Meetings and Matters as he in his Royal Wisdom shall think fit which Acts c. are to be obeyed by all Subjects any Law Act or Custom to the contrary notwithstanding Sess. 2. Parl. 2. Enacted That all who should be required do depone upon Oath their Knowledg of all Meetings or Persons at them on pain of Fining Imprisonment Banishment or Transportation Act 5. Enacted That all outed Ministers found preaching or praying in any House but their own Family be imprisoned till they â—ind Bond for 5000 Marks not to do the like again Every Hearer toties quoties 25 â— if a Tenant and 12 â— if a Sub-Tenant And that all who preach in the Field or in a House if any of the People are without Doors shall be punished with Death and those who can seize and secure any such Minister dead or alive shall have 500 Marks Reward The Magistrates of Burghs to be sin'd at the Council's Pleasure for any Conventicles held in their Burghs and they to be reimburs'd from the Landlord of the House And Men to be â—in'd if their Wives and Children went to Meetings Act 6. Imposed Fines from 100 â— to 20 l. Sterling a time on such as had their Children baptized at such Meetings and Servants to be â—ined in half their Wages Act 11. Sess. 3. The same Fines were imposed upon them who should keep their Children un-baptized for thirty days And by Act 7. that same Session they enacted 〈◊〉 Fines on â—uch as absented from Church for three days together Act 9. Sess. 3. They declared all Ordination since 1661. which had not been by Bishops to be invalid In 1678 a Convention of States held by Lauderdale laid on a Tax to levy Forces for suppressing Field-Meetings which was afterwards continued by the Parliaments held by the Dukes of York and Queensberry In 1681 the D. of York being Commissioner without taking the Oaths appointed by Law and against Acts which rendred Papists incapable they doubled the Fines for Field-Conventicles and ordered Gentlemen to put away their Tenants and Masters of Families their Servants or sub-Tenants without Warning if they went to Meetings Act 18. They enacted That all Jurisdiction doth so reside in his Majesty that he may by Himself or Commissioners take Cognizance of and decide any Cases or Causes which he pleased Act 6 and 25. They imposed on all a self-contradictory Test which obliged them to stand by the Confession of Faith recorded in Parl. 1. Iac. 6. which disown'd the Supremacy and own'd the Lawfulnesâ— of Defensive Arms tho the contrary to both were sworn in the Test without so much as a non obstante Parl. 1. Iac. 7. D. of Queensberry Commissioner Act 3. allowing Prisoners indicted for High-Treason to be summon'd to make their Defence in 24 hours time Act 4. That such as being cited for Witnesses in cases of Treason or Conventicles and refused to depone should be liable to be puniâ—hed as guilty of the â—ame Crimes Act 5. That giving or taking the National or Solemn League and Covenant or owning them obligatory should be High-Treason Act 7. Making the Concealment of any Supply given to forfeited Persons tho the nearest Relations Treason Act 8. That all who preach at House or Field-Conventicles or such as hear at Field-Conventicles should be punished by Death and Confiscation Act 13. Re-injoining and further extending the Imposition of the Test. Act 23. Making the refusing the Oath of Abjuration High-Treason Act 24. Ordering all Lords of Mannors c. to insert a Clause in all Leases to their Tenants obliging them and their Families to Conformity under exorbitant Penalties Act 25. Ordering the Cameronians to be pursued and those who neglected it to be reputed equally guilty Acts of Parliament by King William and Queen Mary against Episcopacy in Scotland PArl. 1. W. M. They enacted the Oath of Allegiance thus I A. B. do sincerely promise and swear that I will be faithful and bear true Allegiance to their Majesties K. William and Q. Mary Iuly 22 1689. Act against Prelacy as a great and insupportable Grievance to the Nation Sess. 2. Act 2. For restoring Presbyterian Ministers ordering them to have immediate Access to their own Churches if vacant and to have the whole Year's Stipend but if there be an Incumbent in their Churches he shall have right to the half Year's Stipend Act 5. Ratifying the Confession of Faith and Presbyterian Government as most agreeable to the Word of God and most conducive to the Advancement of Piety and true Godliness and establishing the Peace of the Realm being received by the general Consent of the Nation to be the only Government in the 114 Act Iac. 6. Parl. 12. An. 1592. Setling the Government of the Church on Presbyterian Ministers outed since Ian. 1661. and such as they have received or shall receive Taking notice that many of the Episâ—opal Ministers had deserted their Flocks and others were depriv'd for not reading the Proclamation and not praying for the King and Queen Iâ—id They authorize the Presbyterian Ministers to appoint Visitors and purge out scandalous and in sufficient Ministers and order those who are contumacious and proven guilty to be suspended and deprived Act 14. Impowering the Council to tender the Oath of Allegiance to suspected Persons or to secure them who shall be informed against on probable grounds and to â—ine such as refuse in a fifth of their Estate and not to exceed one or two Year's Rent of them who are Landed-Men Act 17. About visiting Universities appointing Professors in the Faculties to take the Oath of Allegiance and submit to the Government of the Church Act 35. Against such Ministers as being deprived for not praying for their Majesties do preach and pray elsewhere and diffuse the Poison of their Disaffection forbidding them to exercise any part of their Ministerial Function on any pretence whatsoever until they swear Allegiance engage to pray for King William and Queen Mary and disown King Iames or to be proceeded against as disaffected Act 23. Concerning Patronages The Freeholders and Elders of the Parish being Protestants are to have
the 〈◊〉 of the Minister if the Parish disapprove him their Reasons are to be judged by the Presbytery and if the Freeholders and Elders do not apply to the Presbytery for calling and choosing a Minister in six Months the full Power to be in the Presbytery tanquam jure devoluto And the same Act orders a Compensation to the Patrons for their Right of Presentation Act 38. For securing their Majesties Government obliging all Persons who in Law are obliged to swear to own their Majesties as King and Queen de jure as well as de facto and defend their Title against King Iames c. the Refusers to be reputed disaffected deprived of their Offices and be obliged to give Security for their Good-Behaviour as the Government shall think fit providing it extend no further than Bond Caution or personal Imprisonment securing of Horse Arms or putting Garisons in their Houses There is also an Act but what Number or Session I cannot tell being where I cannot get a sight of the Acts abolishing the King's Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Affairs for which we are mightily reproached by our Enemies who do not consider what has been writ unanswerably by Mr. Gillespy in his Aaron's Rod blossoming and other Books against it I confess my self but a meeâ— Laick and not skill'd in Controversies having never made them my Study any farther than to satisfy my self that I did not give blind Obedience But the Scripture telling us that Christ is Head of his Church and that other Foundations can no Man lay than what is already laid on the Prophets and Apostles and Common Reason must needs inform me that for any Man or Party of Men to take upon them any other than a Declarative Power in Church-Matters and that according to the Word of God must needs be an invading of Christ's Prerogative And seeing he himself declar'd that his Kingdom is not of this World that it should be govern'd by Worldly Monarchs is humano capiti cervicem jungere equinam And I cannot but wonder that the Church of England â—s late Experience should not convince them of the Unreasonableness of this Doctrine For I believe they were sensible under the late King that a Popish Head was altogether inconsistent with the Safety of a Protestant Church And I am confident the Christians in Turky never dream'd that the Grand Signior was the Head of the Christian Church and this being a Demonstration that it cannot belong to the Chief Magistrate as such he can lay claim to it no other way Especially if we consider that the Church as in Acts 15. did meet and declare the Mind of God in Church-Matters without either the Call or Consent of the Heathen 〈…〉 and we have never yet had any Divine Revelation to recal it Then as for abolishing Patronages which occasions a further Clamour It 's plain that the Parliament have made a very rational Act on that Head and it 's but equal that every one who has a Soul and evidences any real Concern about it should have a Vote in choosing his Minister and not wholly rely on the Choice of a Patron who perhaps is so wicked that he takes no care of his own and is very unfit to choose a Minister for the Souls of a whole Parish And as for the other Acts they are so plain that any who will but take care to compare them with those of the late Reigns if they be not blinded as our Doctor was with the Indecencies of Passion we dare refer to them which are the most moderate or whether the Scots Prelatists be not guilty of an audacious Lie in asserting that they are more severely treated than ever we were And I would pray the Reader to take this along with him That their Laws tho barbarous to a Prodigy in themselves were yet more barbarously put in Execution beyond their Extent and that our Laws tho moderate in themselves are yet more moderately put in Execution Yea and besides those Acts of Parliament their Council took upon them a Parliamentary Power and made Acts more bloody than those of their Parliaments enabling Souldiers to examine any Man they met and to kill him without any further Trial if he did not give them satisfying Answers to their Questions of which any that pleases may be fully satisfied in my first Answer I had almost omitted taking notice of one remarkable thing which past in the Convention of States after the Revolution They declared themselves a free and lawful Meeting whatever might be contain'd in the Letter from Iames the VIIth to dissolve them or impede their Procedure in which Archbishop Paterson and six other Bishops and the Viscount of Dundee concurr'd Now if this was not a manifest disowning of K. Iames's Authority let any Man judg and yet these Men did afterwards exclaim against the Convention and Parliament as unlawfully called because wanting K. Iames's Authority and opposed K. William's coming to the Crown So that it 's evident our Scots Episcopalians are Men of the same Kidney with those Jacobite Bishops in England who join'd in sending for the Prince of Orange and yet afterwards turn'd his Enemies out of a pretended Loyalty to K. Iames. The Faction have lately drawn up and dispersed amongst their Friends a sort of Manifesto from those of the Episcopal Perswasion in the North of Scotland full of Invectives against the Government which together with other Monuments of their Rebellious Temper c. against their present Majesties may perhaps in a little 〈◊〉 see the Light FINIS a K. James's Proclamation b Act of Supremacy c Act for fâ—riot Conforâ—iâ—y d By frequent making them Garisons e Extorting your Thoughts by Torture and then hanging you for them
obliged to comply with and if they should have done it could neither have been answerable to God nor your Honours for it to pull down with their own Hands that Hedg which he in his Providence by your Act hath set about the Church in lodging the Government upon themselves which no doubt the Wisdom of your August Assembly judged to be the best Expedient to secure the Peace of the Church and yet for noncompliance how did they procure the Dissolution and Reproach of that Assembly to the manifest violation of your Authority and that by the Advice of some English Courtiers and Prelats as if they had a mind to homologate the Ancient Pretensions of that Crown and Church over yours and in the view of the World declare our Parliament and General Assembly not able to give Advice in our own Affairs but fit to be over-ruled by a pack'd Club of another Nation and shall they act thus impune to affront a Parliament which Malice it self cannot say as their Party did formerly of the English Parliament That it is but a superfluous Tumour or Wen for all who know our History are sensible of the share which the Scots Parliaments have from the first Constitution of our Government been possest of not only in the Legislative but the Executive Power and if our Historians may be believed laid the Foundation and have often-times since regulated and limited the Power of our Monarchy and to the eternal Confusion of all those who would insinuate the danger thereof to Kingly Government have notwithstanding preserved our Monarchy in a longer and more uninterrupted Succession than any Nation of Europe It is not unknown to your August Assembly what Convulsions the Prelatical Party have thrown the Kingdom into since the first Intrusion of their Prelacy and how near the Ruine both of our Religious and Civil Liberties were effected by their Concurrence with the Tyranny of the late Reigns represented in your Claim of Right and therefore the World cannot but justify your Conduct in depriving them of any share of the Government of the Church which they only seek that they may undermine and tho they should comply with the Terms required in Law yet their former Perjuries and contradictory Tests are but too shrew'd Causes to suspect their future Levity which together with the Disaffectedness they have generally evidenced to the present Government demonstrates how dangerous it is to entrust them with the Conduct of Peoples Consciences And what may justly render them hateful to all honest Scots-men is the Obloquy and Reproach they have thrown here upon the whole Nation and their under-hand dealing with the high-flown Church-of England-Party who have a Heart-hatred at our Country and Religion and have treated you with so much Contempt that tho you mov'd for an Union and his Majesty was graciously pleased to back it they disdain'd to give him any Answer as thinking you unworthy of a Politick or Temporal Union and yet they would be at forcing you to an Ecclesiastical and Spiritual Union which if they could effectuate the World must allow that they ought in the next place to beg us for Fools who could believe that they have a Kindness for our Souls who have â—one for our Bodies Yet this is the Party that our Prelatical Country-men do so much court and make Application to while they slight Scots-men who are authoriz'd to represent our Affairs So much have they divested themselves of all natural Respect to their Country that if their Prelacy live they care not tho the Name and Fame of Scotland die and that they may effectuate their Designs there 's no doubt but they will be forming Parties in your August Assembly and make many fair Pretences of desiring Liberty only to exercise what belongs to their pretended indelible Character of Pastors and promise to undertake nothing to the Disturbance of the publick Tranquillity But their worming themselves in by degrees in King Iames the VIth's time under fair Pretences and then overturning all when they had opportunity is a sufficient Caveat to beware of them as inwardly ravening Wolves tho outwardly they appear in Sheeps Cloathing Your August Assembly cannot so soon have forgot that the Nation was almost totally ruined your Counties invaded by savage Highlanders your Tenants murdered and Families impoverish'd your Houses plundered your Wives Daughters and Relations ravish'd your selves and tender Infants exposed to Wandring Hunger Nakedness and Cold and all the Miseries and Oppressions which you groan'd under in the late Reigns both as to Soul and Body I say your Honours cannot certainly have forgot these things so far as to be prevail'd upon by any Insinuations whatever again to deliver up your bleeding Church and Country into the Hands of that Faction lest the latter end be worse than the first There 's no cause to fear a Rupture with England on that account The good Church-of England-Laity and not a few of their Clergy have incurred danger enough from their high-flown Tantivies and have smarted sufficiently under their Doctrine of Passive Obedience to make them cautious and willing to secure themselves from their Fury so far will they be from concurring with them against you The chief Arguments used here for re-admitting the Prelatical Clergy are That it will contribute to his Majesty's Interest and please the Church of England and supply the vacant Congregations As to the first How it can promote his Majesty's Interest to disoblige the greatest part of Scotland and all the Dissenters in England and Ireland is beyond the reach of Mankind to determine 2. How it can be supposed that a Party who have hitherto witnessed so much Rancour against his Majesty's Person Family and Government as the Scots Episcopal Clergy have done is only to be answered by those who can swear contradictory Oaths as our Curats did in their infamous Tests c. As to the second That it will please the Church of England it may easily be answered that we do not owâ— them so much Kindness and if we did we must first know what that Church of England is that we must oblige for hitherto she hath been an individuum Vagum that no body knows where to find it being as difficult to define her as to make a Coat for the Moon Her Doctrinal Articles are own'd by us and all good Protestants but that is not the Characteristick of the Church of England for in the late Reigns Passive Obedience and Nonresistance were her Shibboleth but now she hath renounced those Doctrines by acting diametrically opposite to them And for a Character of the Church of England in this Reign we cannot certainly have it better than from a Vote of the last House of Commons who resolved on an Address of Thanks to his Majesty for the Care he had taken of the Church of England in the Alteration which was then made in the Lieutenancy of London and that was because by the ill Advice of a certain Prelate and