A VINDICATION OF THE GOVERNMENT IN SCOTLAND During the REIGN of King Charles II. AGAINST Mis-Representations made in several Scandalous Pamphlets To which is added the Method of proceeding against Criminals as also some of the Phanatical Covenants as they were Printed and Published by themselves in that Reign By Sir GEORGE MACKENZIE Late LORD ADVOCATE There LONDON Printed for I. Hindmarsh at the Golden Ball in Cornhill 1691. A VINDICATION OF THE Government in SCOTLAND During the Reign of King CHARLES II. AGAINST Mis-representations made in several Scandalous Pamphlets THe Design of this Paper is neither to seduce others into Faction nor to make an Apologie the one being too Malicious and the other too Mean But because many honest and sincere Men have been abused by some late Misinformations whereby the Charity and Vnity of Protestants amongst themselves are much weakened therefore this Paper comes to set things in their true light by a bare Narrative which will be sufficient to reclaim those who are abus'd and to confute those malicious Authors who have endeavour'd to Reproach a whole Nation with Villanies of which none but these Authors themselves could have been guilty Because the Civil Government in Scotland was never bigot in that King's Reign therefore we shall not run back to consider Episcopacy or Presbyterie otherways than as they may concern the Civil Government Neither should we run so far back as to the Government of King Charles I. were it not to prove that these of the same persuasion who now complain were the first Aggressors and consequently what was done against them deserves rather the name of Self-defence than Persecution For clearing this it is necessary to represent that in the Year 1637 we liv'd under the most Pious and Orthodox Prince of the Age and yet a Rebellion was form'd against him as a Papist and a Tyrant by which all the Fundamental Laws were shaken and all honest Men ruin'd Neither needs there any other proof for this Assertion than the Records of Parliament General Assemblies and Iustice Court From the Records and Acts of Parliament it is undeniable that the power of nominating Judges Counsellors and all Officers of State the power of levying War and raising Taxes were usurp'd by the people Covenants were entred into by a part of the Subjects and by them impos'd imperiously upon the rest Leagues and Covenants were entred into with England Ambassadours were sent to Foreign Princes and States and even to France tho' little less terrible then than now exclaiming against the Injustice of the King justifying their taking Arms against him and therefore intreating the French Aid and Assistance The King himself was inhumanely deliver'd up to his Enemies and thereafter the Army that went in to defend his precious Life were declared Rebels all which was uncontravertedly inconsistent with the Laws of the Kingdom then standing From the Acts of the General Assembly it is clear that the Assembly 1639. refus'd to rise when dissolv'd by the King's Commissioner and most of the following Assemblies did both sit down and rise without his Warrand This Assembly threw out the Bishops and abrogated Episcopacy without Authority of Parliament tho' the Bishops were always the first of the three Estates of Parliament A new Oath was invented called the Covenant without the King's Authority and all Men Women and Children that were above ten years of age forc'd to take it and such as took it not were Excommunicated upon which all their Moveables or Chattels were Confiscated and they themselves being declar'd disobedient to the Laws were forc'd to fly The King 's Negative Voice was declared Illegal and the Acts made for assisting him in the Year Forty Eight were declar'd Void and Null by an unparallel'd Invasion the General Assembly imitating in this as in many other things the Church of Rome raised themselves above King and Parliament From the Records of the Iustice Court we find that the Estates made Advocates or Attorney Generals by their own Authority who prosecuted to death such as defended their own Houses by vertue of express Commissions from the King and such as rose in Arms for his Defence tho' they had both his Commissions and Remissions though the Iudes that Condemned them sat by vertue of that very King's Commission They not only borrowed vast Sums by meer force from private Men whom they never payed but also they were the first that brought in Free and dry Quarter Cess Excise and all these Publick burthens afterwards so much complain'd of when they were continued upon necessary Exigencies by lawful Authority we having neither formerly known Oaths nor Publick burthens under our gentle Kings against whom they so much exclaim'd as Tyrants because forsooth they kept them from being such All these Proceedings were not only condemn'd by the general Opinion of both Protestants and Papists abroad but stand yet condemned by express Acts of Parliament and by many Acts in the like Cases in Scotland and England and so nothing which can be alledged in justification of them deserves or needs an answer King Charles the Second being restored by almost the Universal consent of all the People the worst of whom grew weary of their Villanies The Parliament of Scotland being called they enquired very seriously into the occasion of such Disorders and soon found that they were all to be charged upon the Solemn League and Covenant and those who adhered thereto and therefore they endeavoured to perswade the Presbyterians to disown the Covenant all favour being promised to them upon that condition But finding that the Presbyterians generally thought themselves bound to own the Covenant the Parliament concluding that the same Men owning the same Principles would be ready upon occasion to act over again the same things therefore they by Vote which may be called unanimous seeing only four or five dissented restored Episcopacy and that so much the rather because that Government had in no age nor place forced its way into the State by the Sword but had still been brought in by the uncontraverted Magistrate without ever thrusting it self in by Violence and yet the Government did sustain Episcopacy as a part of the State but never as a Hierarchy wholly independent from it The Presbyterian Preachers had all along taught the People That as their Government was Iure Divino so the People might thereby be obliged to defend them and it under pain of Eternal Damnation even when Episcopacy was Established by Law and accordingly some of the People who retained that Principle frequented the Conventicles at which these Ministers Preacht whereupon the State fearing that the old Humour might ferment again into a Rebellion discharged under some small Penalties any above Five Strangers to meet in a Conventicle leaving thereby at once the free exercise of their Conscience in their Families and yet securing the State against such a total defection as might involve us in a New Civil-War which without doubt was all the State design'd
Fortnights and even during that Fortnight most men pay'd for their Quarters nor was there any more Surety sought at least from Masters and Heretors than the ordinary Surety of Law-borrows by the very style whereof any private Man may force another by the Law to secure him against all Prejudices from his Men Tennents and Servants and others of his Command Out-hounding and Raâ—ihabition And that the King had great reason to be jealous of their breaking the Peace appears fully from the Reasons above Represented and when this Surety was thereupon approv'd by Parliament by which it was Enacted that Masters should be liable eithr to remove their Tennents from their Lands or to present them to Iustice It prov'd a most advantageous Remedy for settling the Nation to the great advantage both of Master and Servant this alternative securing the Master from many hardships and ingaging his Servants to obey him as he was obliged to obey the King and keep the Peace As to the Cumulative Iurisdiction so much complain'd of because it gives the King a power to name Sheriffs and other Inferiour Iudges who may have an equal share in the Administration with those who had the sole Heretable Iurisdiction formerly whereby it is pretended the Property of the Subjects was invaded It is answered that Heretable Iurisdictions are of themselves very little to be favour'd because the Heir must be a Iudge both in Matters of Life and Fortune though he want Probity or Knowledge in the Law and the Interested Superiours or Over-Lords had thereby the unfortunate poor Vassals absolutely at their Devotion and therefore by an old Law in K. Iames the 2 ds time there was an Act made discharging all Heretable Iurisdictions without consent of Parliament and Sir Iohn Nisbet upon these and many other good Reasons advised that all the other Heretable Iurisdiction because almost all granted since that time should be Repealed and yet though these Heretable Iudges refus'd to concur in putting the Laws against Field-Conventicles and Armed Insurrections in Execution or conniv'd at them whereby they grew very formidable the Council unwilling to take away these Iurisdictions totally chose rather to name others to sit with those Iudges or to supply their absence if they refused to come but there-after S. G. M. succeeding as Advocate to prevent all Debate advis'd the bringing this point to the Parliament to the end that that procedure of the King's Council might be either Vncontravertedly Legal if acquiesc'd in or let fall if refus'd and accordingly the Parliament having pass'd it into an Act it seems great Malice and Ignorance to call this Illegal and it being founded upon such just and solid Reasons it seem'd as strange why it should be thought severe and never Lawyer spoke against it except those who had Heretable Iurisdictions It were unreasonable that the King should complain of what he consented to in Parliament in favours of his Subjects and so it must be likewise concluded unreasonable that the Subject should complain of this point which they have granted to the King especially seeing it is more in favours of the Subjects than of Him it being a strong Bulwark against great Mens oppressing of their Vassals and Inferiours and therefore I cannot see why the Inferior sort should be so dull or unreasonabe as to complain of it But notwithstanding of this Clamour and abstracting even from this Act it is still maintain'd by the Advocate that all Lawyers and particularly our Learned Craig in his Book De Feudis assert that the Superiour has still an Accumulative Iurisdiction with his Vassal as to the point of Iudging for tho' he delegate a Jurisdiction for his Conveniency yet that is not exclusive that being a quality which still adheres as Craig says however Sir George Makenzee Advocate advis'd to stop all Clamours that the Heretable Iudge might still have the Casualties so that his Property could not be said to be invaded and lest this might be drawn to the Session as is ridiculously pretended the Act is only made Relative to Iurisdictions given by his Majesty to his good Subjects which can in no sense fall under the Cognizance of the Session i. e. the Iudges As to the Act made in Council allowing Souldiers to kill such as refused to own the King's Authority It is answer'd that there being many Proclamations issued out by the Dissenters declaring That the King had forfaulted his Right by breaking the Covenant and that therefore it was lawful to kill him and those who serv'd him Many accordingly being kill'd it was thought necessary by some upon the fresh news of Murdering some of the King's Horse-Guard at Swyn-Abbey in their Beds to terfy them out of this Extravagancy by allowing the Soldiers to use them as in a War in which if any call For whom are you and the others owning that they were for the Enemy it is lawful then to kill And thus they felt their Folly and the necessary effects of their Principle and yet still it was ordered That none should be kill'd except those who were found in Arms owning that Principle of Assassination and refusing to clear themselves of their having been in Accession to the declaring of War which they had then begun nor were these kill'd but when their deliberate refusal could be proved by two Witnesses But that it may plainly appear that no more was in all this intended by the Governours than to secure the Publick Peace by terrifying those Assassines who had so manifestly invaded it Secret Orders were given that this should not last above a fortnight and that none should be kill'd except those who were found in the publickly printed List of declar'd Rebels who may be kill'd by the Laws of all Nations and but very few even of those Rebels were kill'd tho' this has been made the Foundation of many dreadful Lies This mischief was intolerable in it self and we desire to know how it could have been otherways remedied for the Law must find Cures for all Mischiefs and these who occasion'd them should of all others be least allow'd to complain After the terrour of that procedure had much cooled the Zeal of Assassination for a time it took new fire and several Proclamations for disowning the King's Authority and Murthering his Servants were posted upon all Church Doors and Mercat-Crosses so that no man who served the King could know whether or not his Murtherer was at his elbow and they had reason to look upon every place as their Scaffold Whereupon the Advocate being desired to raise Processes against some who owned those Pernicious Principles he prevailed with the Council to ask the Opinion of all the Iudges upon this Quaery viz. Whether any of his Majesties Subjects being questioned by his Majesties Iudges or Commissioners if they own a late Proclamation in so far as it does declare War against his Sacred Majesty and asserts that it is lawful to kill all those who are employed by
But to elude these Penalties for House-Conventicles some Preachers amongst whom were some of those who had been formerly banished gathered the People together in the Fields they bringing Arms with them to secure their Ministers came at last to have such an Opinion of their own strength that they formed themselves into an Army and were defeated at Pentland Hills Novemb. Anno 1666. Yet within a short time of that the State Indulged them so far as to allow them their own Ministers settling them in Churches and allowing them the enjoyment of the Benefices in many places This did not satisfie these People because the Ministers so Indulged acknowledged the King and Council's Authority and they with some of their violent Preachers railed as much against these Indulged Ministers as against the Bishops and regular Clergy and call'd them Council Curates and separated from them The State considering that by the Laws of all Nations rising in Arms is to be accounted Rebellion and that a Preacher's Presence could legitimate the Action no more than a Priest could Transubstantiate the Elements they declared by several Acts Field-Meetings to be the Rendevouzes of Rebellion Notwithstanding all which these Dissenters proceeded as from House to Field-Meetings so from Field-Conventicles to publish Proclamations Declaring that the Covenant was the Original Contract betwixt God the King and the People and therefore King Charles the Second having broken it forfaulted his Crown and being to be considered only as a private Subject and Enemy to God they had declared a just War against him and that it was lawful to kill him and all who served him following as was pretended the Noble Examples of Phineas and Eliud and in consequence of this Doctrin they murthered the Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews and several others to defend these Murtherers an Army was gathered by them which was beat a Bothuel-Bridge Anno 1679. But yet the King to reclaim them granted both an Indemnity and Indulgence notwithstanding of which a New Plot was entred into and it was Contrived in a Meeting of the Scots at London that 20000 Men should be raised in Scotland and that the Garrisons of Berwick and Carlile and all the Officers of State should be seized which was likewise seconded by Monmouth and Argyle's Rebellion Anno 1685. Whereupon the Parliament finding that the Preaching up of Rebellion in private Conventicles had occasion'd all this danger to King and People and that nothing could be secure whilst every thing might be preacht they Enacted That the Ministers who preacht at Conventicles should be Capitally Punished but by Vertue of this Act no Man was ever Punished much less Executed This being the true Progress and these the Occasions of making those Acts it is admired why the Government is taxed with so much Cruelty and the Acts themselves reproached as Diabolical For First These against House-Conventicles are the same with the Laws in England and less severe than those made against Dissenters in Queen Elizabeths time or than those now standing against the Calvinists in Sweden or those made and now executed by the Presbyterians and Independents in New-England but much more gentle than those our Presbyterians made when they Govern'd 2. Whatever might be said against such Acts in Countries where Dissenters never entred into a War yet in this Isle where they upon the same Principles overturned the Government and Laws and were upon every occasion again attempting it so small a Caution cannot be accounted severe 3. This Caution was much more just in Scotland than even in England because the Dissenters in Scotland were more bigotted to the Covenant which is a constant Fond for Rebellion 4. The Posteriour Acts made against Field-Conventicles were the necessary product of new accessional degrees of Rebellion and were not Punishments design'd against Opinions in Religion but meerly against Treasonable Combinations which exceeded what was attempted in England or elsewhere and the Governours for the time can truly and boldly say That no Man in Scotland ever suffer'd for his Religion But if any will pretend that Religion obliges him to rise in Arms or to Murder this Principle ought neither to be sustain'd as a Defence nor the obviating of it to be made a Crime and as the Covenanters laughed at such a defence when propos'd for them who assisted King Charles I. meerly for Conscience sake so they cannot deny but they zealously prest Sir Iohn Dalrymple then Advocate to hang Mr. Renwick a Field-Preacher for Field-Preaching where some of his Hearers were Arm'd because he was like to divide their Church after they got an Indulgence from King Iames against the accepting whereof Renwick and his Party exclaim'd highly and that so much the more plausibly for that many of them who now accepted an Indulgence from a King professedly Popish had rejected and preacht against those who accepted of one when offer'd by a King of the Protestant Profession I must also ask them if any should now rise in Arms in defence of Episcopacy and alledge Conscience for so doing would they sustain that as a just defence 5. When ever any Man offer'd to keep the Church former Fines were generally remitted if timeous Application was made and more Indulgencies and Indemnities were granted by this King than by any that ever reign'd and generally no Man was executed in his Reign who would say God Bless the King or acknowledge his Authority an unusual Clemency never shewn in any other Nation and such as was not practised by those who now cry out against the Severity of that Government The Reader will be astonished when we inform him that the way of Worship in our Church differed nothing from what the Presbyterians themselves practised except only that we used the Doxologie the Lord's Prayer and in Baptism the Creed all which they rejected We had no Ceremonies Surplice Altars Cross in Baptisms nor the meanest of those things which would be allowed in England by the Dissenters in way of Accommodation That the most Able and Pious of their Ministers did hear the Episcopal Clergy Preach many of them Communicated in the Churches and almost all the People Communicated also so that it cannot be said that they were Persecuted and forced to joyn with an Vnsound much less Heretical Church as the French Protestants are From all which it follows clearly that the Complainers were the Aggressors that the Government proceeded by slow steps to Punish even those who had forced it into a Resentment and that all pains were taken to Reclaim rather than Punish Any Reasonable and Unprejudiced Man must allow that the State had reason to be jealous that the same Men who had Invaded and overturned the Government under King CHALES I. retaining still the same Principles as Sacred and bursting forth into the same Excesses under King CHARLES II. were still to be kept in awe and within the Barriers of Law and that by their own Principle of Salus Populi better some few of the Society
should perish than that the whole should go to ruin Vnitas non unus as was said by them in the E. Straffords Case and if two States of Parliament without the King were thought the best and necessary Judges of what was Salus Populi in those days much more should it be acknowledged that the King and three Estates in many subsequent Parliaments agreeing cordially together should be acknowledged to be the true Judges of what was Salus Populi in our Government especially when what they did was founded on a Series of uncontraverted Laws and upon long and deplorable experience of the Mischiefs occasion'd by that Pary Whereas they who condemn our proceedings must and do acknowledge before they Condemn us that they consider themselves as a People coming into a Country where there were no Laws and so might take any new Laws they thought fit for the present exigent A Liberty which we Poor Slaves durst never take foolishly conceiving our selves over-ruled by our Statute-Books Ancient Customs and Oaths regulating our Duty and Conscience For answering the Objections which are made against the Government I shall class them into these General Enormities with which the Government is charged and into the particular instances of its pretended Cruelty The first General Objection is That the severe Laws made against Conventicles were yet more severely put in execution by Sir Iames Turner and Sir William Ballantine and others which occasion'd the Insurrection at Pentland-hills and it is alledged that these Conventiclers came only to petition the Council not to overturn the Government To this it is answered That all rising in Arms upon any pretext whatsoever is declared Rebellion in this and all other Nations and if any should rise now in Arms because Free-quarter is taken from them against Law they would find this Government so to take it Nor can it be pretended that Justice was denied to private Petitioners but on the contrary Turner and Ballantine were laid aside which is all the State could do it being impossible to answer for all the extravagancies of Soldiers even under the most just Government From this likewise it necessarily follows that because this was no just War therefore the Learned and Worthy Sir Iohn Nisbet then King's Advocate and the Criminal Iudges were unjustly reproached for refusing to allow the defence founded on giving Quarter that being only to be allowed in Iusto Bello And it is to be remembred that this defence was not allowed to the Worthy President Sir Robert Spotswood Son to the famous Archbishop in Anno 1645 tho' the War was just on the King's side and he acted by vertue of a Commission from that very King by whose Authority the Parliament that Condemned him was called and it could not be proved by those that were taken at Pentland-hills that Quarter was granted them whereas it was clearly proved that the Council in General had discharged granting of Quarter upon the foresaid account We pass under silence here the Dreadful Slaughter of several Hundreds Killed after Free Quarter given and Surrendring of the Castle of Dunvileigh which made Lieutenant General Leslie who then commanded the Army threaten to lay down his Commission notwithstanding of a violent Sermon made before him upon these words 1 Sam. Chap. 15. v. 14. What meaneth then this bleating c. As to the sending away People to the Plantations it is answered that none were sent away but such as were taken at Bothuel-Bridge or in Argyle's Rebellion and the turning Capital Punishment into exile was an Act of Clemency not of Cruelty As to Torture it is allowed not only by the Law of our Nation but of all Nations except England and founded on the foremention'd Maxims Salus Populi c. Pereat unus potius quam Vnitas nor was it ever inflicted but where the Person tortured was evidently proved to be Guilty of Accession to the Crime and that he knew the Accomplices it being still left in his power to secure himself against Torture by confessing who were his Accomplices or by clearing himself by his Oath that he did not know them which Oath was required to free not to bind the Deponent because his Knowledge of the matter was first proved and it was still previously declared by Act of Council that nothing he was to Depone should prejudge him And those who had been in that Government were very sorry that when Torture was declared a Grievance in the last Convention Matters of high importance relating to the Government were still excepted which expos'd the Subjects to as much danger as formerly As to the Imprisoning free Leidges without giving any reason and detaining them in Prison for many Years It is answered that we have no Act for Habeas Corpus in Scotland and so these things may be accounted Severe but not Illegal and they were introduced in the late Vnhappy Presbyterian Rebellion where thousands were kept in Prison a great many years without any Crime or Hopes of Releasment but the true Reason of the frequent Imprisonments during K. Charles the 2 d's Government should only be charged on those who were Accessories to the Plots and Rebellions which occasion'd them and no Men wish'd more than we did to see those peaceable times which might allow an Act of Parliament for Habeas Corpus Another thing which occasioned these long Imprisonments was That the persons imprisoned refus'd to acknowledge the King's Authority without which they could not have been set at liberty when there was a clear Probation against them But can this be objected to Vs by those who have since Imprison'd more in one Year than we did in five As to the bringing in the Highlanders on the Western shires and taking free Quarter there it is answered that many thousands had gather'd in Field Conventicles with Arms for several Years and when these Conventicles which used to meet in several places pleas'd to join in one they could easily form an Army To prevent which the Council wrote a Letter to these Western-shires entreating them to fall upon some course for security of the Peace they returning for answer That the Peace could not be secured there without Abrogating Episcopacy The King and Council consider'd this as a Sacrificing the Laws to the Humours and Passions of private Men and such too as they had reason to think could no more be satisfied with that Concession than their Predecessours were who proceeded to ruin King Charles I. after he had parted with the Order of Episcopacy to please them and therefore the Highlanders were sent in to secure the Peace and because Mony could not be provided in haste the Council declar'd by their Act That those on whom they were quartered should be paid out of the first and readiest of the Fines owing there and the Superplus should be paid by the King nor have those who were then in the Government clamour'd so much now for a Years Free Quarter as these People did then for a
extirpation of the Kingdom of Darkness and whatsoever is contrair to the Kingdom of Christ and especially Idolatry and Popery in all the Articles of it as we are bound in our National Covenant and Superstition Will-worship and Prelacy with its Hierarchy as we are bound in our Solemn League and Covenant And that we shall with the same sincerity endeavour God giving us Assistance the overthrow of that Power that hath established that Prelacy and Erastianism over the Church and exercises such a Lustful and Arbitrary Tyranny over the Subjects seeking again to introduce Idolatry and Superstition in these Lands contrair to our Covenants And in a word that we shall endeavour the extirpation of all the works of Darkness and the Relicts of Idolatry and Superstition which are both much enlarged and revived in our times and execute righteous Iudgments impartially according to the Word of God and degree of Wickedness upon the Committers of these things but especially Blasphemy Idolatry Atheism Sorcery Perjury Uncleanness Prophanation of the Lords day Oppression and Malignancy that being thus zealous for God he may delight to dwell among us IV. Seriously considering that the hand of our Kings has been against the Throne of the Lord and that now for a long time the Succession of our Kings and the most part of our Rulers with him hath been against the purity and power of Religion and Godliness and freedom of the Church of God and hath degenerate from the vertue and good Government of their Predecessors into Tyranny and hath of late so manifestly rejected God his Service and Reformation as a Slavery as they themselves call it in their publick Papers especially in these last Letters to the King and Duke of Lauderdale disclaiming their Covenant with God and Blasphemously inacting it to be burnt by the hand of a Hang-man governed contrary to all right Laws divine and humane excercised such Tyranny and Arbitrary Government opprest Men in their Consciences and Civil Rights used free Subjects Christian and reasonable Men with less discretion and justice than their Beasts and so not only frustrate the great end of Government which is that Men may live Godly Holily and Peaceably under them and might be maintained in their Rights and Liberties form injury and wrong but hath also walked contrary to it so that it can no more be called a Government but a lustful Rage excercised with as little right Reason and with more Cruelty than in Beasts and they themselves can be no more called Governours but publick Grassators and publick Iudgements which all Men ought as earnestly to labour to be free of as of Sword Famine or Pestilence raging amongst us and besides hath stopped instead of punishing the Course of Law and Iustice against Idolaters Blasphemers Atheists Murderers Incestuous and Adulterous and other Malefactors and instead of rewarding the Good hath made Butcheries and Murthers on the Lord's People sold them as Slaves Imprisoned For faulted Banished and Fined them upon no other account but for maintaining the Lords Right to rule Consciences against the Usurpations of Men for fulfilling their Vows and repelling unjust Violence which innocent Nature allows to all of all which and more particulars we can give we speak as before God innumerable and sure Instances Neither can it be thought that there is hope of their returning from these Courses having so often shewed their Natures and Enmities against God and all Righteousness and so often declared and renewed their Purposes and Promises of persevering in these Courses And suppose they should dissemble a Repentance of these Evils and profess to return to better Courses being put to Straits or for their own Ends for upon no other account can we reasonably expect it and though it might be thought that there might be Pardon for what is done which we cannot yet see to be without the violation of the Law of God and a great guiltiness on the Land from which guiltiness the Land can never be free but by executing of God's righteous Iudgements upon them for omitting of so greatly deserved and so necessarily requisite a Justice yet they cannot be believed after they have violated all Tyes that Humane Wisdom can devise to bind Men and beside there will be something of Folly found to think to bind a King that pretends to absoluteness And our Fathers or rather our selves at first judged it not warrantable to receive Him without consenting to and swearing of the Covenant And if so the renouncing and disclaming thereof we ought at present to judge to be a just and reasonable ground of rejecting Him upon these Grounds being assured of God's approbation and Mens whose Hearts are not utterly byassed and their Consciences altogether corrupted and knowing assuredly that the upholding of such is to uphold Men to bear down Christ's Kingdom and to uphold Satans and the depriving of Men of right Government and good Governours to the ruining of Religion and undoing of Humane Society We then seeing the innumerable Sins and Snares that are in giving obedience to their Acts on the other hand seeing if we shall acknowledge their Authority and refuse Obedience to their sinful Commands the endless Miseries that will follow and siding with God who we hope will accept and help us to a liberation from their Tyranny against his stated and declared Enemies do reject that King and those associate with him from being our Rulers because standing in the way of our Right free and peaceably serving of God propagating his Kingdom and Reformation and overthrowing Satans Kingdom according to our Covenant And declares them henceforth to be no lawful Rulers as they have declared us to be no lawful Subjects upon a ground far less warrantable as Men unbyassed may see and that after this we neither owe nor shall yield any willing Obedience to them but shall rather suffer the outmost of their Cruelties and Injustice until God shall plead our Cause and that upon these Accounts because they have altered and destroyed the Lord's established Religion overturned the fundamental and establish'd Laws of the Kingdom taken altogether away Christ's Church and Government and changed the Civil Government of this Land which was by King and free Parliament into Tyranny where none are associate to be partakers of the Government but only those who will be found by Justice to be Guilty of Criminals and all others excluded even those who by the Laws of the Land by Birth had a right to and a share in that Government and that only because not of the same Guiltiness and mischievous Purposes with themselves And also all free elections of Commissioners for Parliaments and Officers for Government are made void by their making those the Qualifications of admission to these Places which by the Word of God and the Laws of this Land were the cause of their exclusion before so that none can look upon us or judge us bound in Allegeance to them unless they say also we are bound in
all that are unchast in thoughts words and behaviour and all that makes no Conscience of their way and whosoever loveth and maketh a lye shall tremble that day when they shall enter into Eternity when it shall be said as it was to Dives Thou in thy Lifetime hadst thy good things and Lazarus his bad things For except a Man be born again he can in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven We take up the Book of the Holy Scripture at the Lords command and for a Testimony of our Dissatisfaction at the abounding Corruptions both of Translators and the Press and likewise for a Testimony of our desires and intentions for a new Translation and Impression free of the foresaid and other abuses we to our power reform our own Books and sayes that the word of God needs no humane Art we hold that the Word of God is laid the Foundation of this new Building and shortly it shall become the head Corner stone of the Building over both Kirk and Stater Kirk-Men and States-Men so that Scripture towards the end of the Rev. of Iohn shall be fulfilled And I saw Heaven opened and behold a white Horse and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True and in Righteousness he doth Iudge and make War his Eyes were as a flame of Fire and on his Head were many Crowns and he had a new Name written that no Man knew but he himself and he was Cloathed with a Vesture dipt in Blood and his Name is called the word of God And first to shew that we take the Word of God in every point to be our Rule the sum and end of our so much reproached and mocked at Exercise Fasting and Prayer will be found in the Book of Psalms Be thou exalted O God above the Heavens and let thy glory be above all the Earth It is written in the Acts of the Apostles It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us but they usurping Supremacy says by the Authority of the General Assembly allows these Psalms to be sung in Congregations c. which we renounce And more we think the Psalm Book in Meeter and no other thing ought to be within the broads of the Bible but the simple Scriptures of Truth the Psalms may be had in a Book by themselves We are so reproached and calumniate that we are forced to make our defence and shew that we have mourned fasted and prayed many a day and many a night this last Winter many times in the open Fields in Frost and Snow while our Cloaths were frozen upon us and our Feet frozen in our Shooes as the Town of cursed Borronstonness can witness and all this to find out the causes of our Lords tarrying when those who are now calling us Devils were turning themselves upon their Ivory beds like a door upon the Hinges eating the fat and drinking the sweet at their own ease And when we were driven thence by Persecution we took our selves to the Fields holding still by our duty where many Women did offer themselves to the Work with whom our spirits was many a time burdened whom we could not put away as our blessed Lord dealt with Iudas whom he knew would betray him without manifest causes We stayed not with them but on solemn days such as Sabbaths and appointed times for publick meeting but when they took their rest betwixt hands we continnued still in Fields nights and days fasting and praying for two or three days together several times and it was always their fear we should propose some question to try them for Separation and that night before we was taken we warned them that the Soldiers would come and told them to use their freedom we saw them also a mile off an hour before they came and none of them would go away and after we were brought in hither after some several days Fasting and Prayer we being warned by the Holy Ghost followed Esther's advice and continued from eight a Clock of the morning the 24 day of the 5 Month till the 27 at four afternoon Fasting and Praying we sent them word likewise to Fast and Pray and when we sent them the answer of our Prayers in the writ they called us Devils Thence we fasted till the 28 day at night and thence till the 30 at night waiting still to see if they would recover but they waxed still worse and we were forced to write this to vindicate our carriage towards them Walter Ker. Iohn Gibb David Iamison Iohn Young This is Exactly Compared and Collationed with the Principal Copy by me WIL. PATERSON Cl. Sti. Concilii FINIS A Catalogue of some Books Printed for Io. Hindmarsh at the Golden-Ball over against the Royal-Exchange in Cornhill THE Antiquity of the Royal Line of Scotland farther Cleared and Defended against the Exceptions lately offer'd by Dr. Stillingfleet in his Vindication of the Bishop of St. Asaph By Sir George Mackenzie His Majesty's Advocate for the Kingdom of Scotland The Moral History of Frugality with its opposite Vices Covetousness Niggardliness Prodigality and Luxury Written by the Honourable Sir George Mackenzie late Lord Advocate of Scotland A Memorial for His Highness the Prince of Orange in Relation to the Affairs of Scotland Together with the Address of the Presbyterian-Party in that Kingdom to His Highness And some Observations on that Address By two Persons of Quality An Account of the Present Persecution of the Church in Scotland in several Letters The Case of the Present Afflicted Clergy in Scotland truly represented To which is added for Probation the attestation of many unexceptionable Witnesses to every Particular and all the Publick Acts and Proclamations of the Convention and Parliament relating to the Clergy By a Lover of the Church and his Country An Historical Relation of the late Presbyterian General Assembly held at Edinburgh from October 16. to November 13. In the Year 1690. In a Letter from a Person in Edinburgh to his Friend in London Vid. Cargil and Sanchars Covenant at the end * That is this noise of Prisoners yet preserved alive So the Preacher applied his Doctrin The truly learned Advocate for the King †Illud tamen generaliter observandum quod Iurisdictio nunquam privative sed cumulative delegaâ—i potest non est quasi transitio juris de unâ— persona in aliam sed tantum mandata jurisdictio quod non obstante Delegatione adhuc remanet in delegante Considering the violent and cruel temper of their Enemies * Compare this with the Sanchar Declaration and Cargil's Covenant at the end of this Paper * That is the same Punishment which the Law provides against such a Criminal Art eod II. Art 3. ejusdem Art 10. Act 92. Ses. II. Iac. 6. * Vid. Cargils Covenant and Sanchar Declaration