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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51160	The spirit of calumny and slander, examin'd, chastis'd, and expos'd, in a letter to a malicious libeller more particularly address'd to Mr. George Ridpath, newsmonger, near St. Martins in the Fields : containing some animadversions on his scurrilous pamphlets, published by him against the kings, Parliaments, laws, nobility and clergy of Scotland : together with a short account of Presbyterian principles and consequential practices.	Monro, Alexander, d. 1715?; S. W.	1693 (1693)	Wing M2446; ESTC R4040	71,379	106

vindicated from any suspicion of lessening the Royal Authority But Mr. Ridpath did you never hear of a Merchant throwing overboard his Goods in a Storm his Principle is no doubt to preserve and improve his Stock yet when Life and Ship and all is in hazard Silver and Gold and the best Cargo that he is Master of must be flung over Men sometimes in the Simplicity of their Hearts may yield to some publick Acts in a time of Danger and Confusion which in their own Nature and Tendency are inconsistent with their Principles the wisest Men may sometimes mistake their measures and the presence of ones Mind does not perpetually attend him A great many of the Presbyterians of Scotland took the Covenant as it was enjoin'd by King Charles I. in the sense intended by King and Parliament in the Reign of King James VI. yet this act of their duty and obedience was by the Leading-Covenanters thought inconsistent with their principles and practices and therefore they were forced to disown it afterwards and to adhere to the Covenant it its true and genuine sense of Sedition and Rebellion All the Presbyterians of Scotland after the Restoration of King Charles II. both Ministers and People came to Church without scruple or hesitation yet afterwards they began to think that this practice could not be reconciled to their mutinous Associations and Covenants and therefore for the most part all of them left the Church and publick Worship of the Episcopalians There is a Protestation upon record in the Year 1641. in the journal of the House of Commons May 3. which in its nature was but a Prologue to the Solemn League and Covenant and very derogatory to the King's prerogative and the ancient settlement of the Nation and yet I find that several of the Loyal Nobility and six Bishops signed this Protestation Things may appear very plausible in the beginning that are introductiory to the saddest consequences The Nobility and Bishops that signed the Protestation that I just now named had reason to repent of their precipitancy when the Faction owned above board that no Reformation woul satisfie but the extirpation of Root and Branch according to the phrase that then was in vogue We are to take an estimate of mens principles not from their indeliberate and casual stumblings in time of darkness uncertainty and danger but rather from their constant Doctrine their habitual Byass their more calm and sedate reasonings their Books Homilies and Sermons I could name later instances than any that I have touched which might reasonably be presum'd to be inconsistent with their Principles who were actors and yet I am so far from thinking them disingenuous or treacherous that I know them to be men of the greatest Candor upon Earth All this I have said upon the supposition that the Bishops who concurred with that Vote of the Convention intended it in its full extent and latitude but I know that they intended no more by the words free and lawful meeting than what they are capable of in the lowest sense that they can be taken in and as Privy Councellours some of the Bishops might suspend the execution of the King's Orders contained in his Letters until he should be better informed of the state of affairs and until he should reiterate his Commands in that case I am apt to think that all who own his authority would leave the Convention Mr. Ridpath I would gladly know whether you think that a Libel against Dr. Monro was a Book worthy to be dedicated to the Parliament of Scotland and whether your returning to Scotland was such an extraordinary advantage to the Nation that you thought they would upon this consideration go forward to the through settlement of Presbytery for no doubt you are among the first of those Students who promise to return if your Model be established in its height The Books that you have written against our Kings Dukes and Parliaments may make atonement for the former Gallantries of your Life I despise the knowledge of your particular History and unless you are as stupid as you are petulant you may guess by some dark hints in this Letter which I took care that no other should understand but your self that I am not altogether a stranger to your Adventures I had your Life sent me written by one of your Acquaintances but though I may have many faults yet I never loved personal Reproaches and altercations When you are in the heighth of your humour and passion I think you still below Revenge It may be that the Lay-Gentleman who is next to take you to task may handle you more briskly notwithstanding that Presbytery is now triumphant and setled by an Act of Exclusion of the Episcopal Clergy Mr. Ridpath I sincerely wish you more sense and modesty and I enter my Protestation before all reasonable men that I am not obliged to answer indefinite Libels If you think that you are so extraordinarily qualified to manage the Debates that are on foot chuse one of the Questions that are toss'd between both the parties eithe the divine Right of Presbytery or the unlawfulness of Anniversary Days or significant Ceremonies in the worship of God I name these because you offer to vindicate your own Opinions concerning them in your Books and since you cite the Epistles of S. Augustine to S. Jerome from which you say the antiquity of Presbytery may be demonstrated pray do not forget to name that Epistle but I am affraid you will be forced to go to the Booksellers in the World of the Moon before you can meet with it and to make you amends I offer to prove positively that there is not one of your party in Scotland that truly and sincerely represents the Opinions of St. Jerom nay more expresly I offer to make evident from the writings of St. Jerome that Eiscopacy was established by the Apostles and that he never dream'd of any such period of the Church wherein the parity of Presbyters prevailed after the death of the Apostles And if you must write Books you ought to come out from behind the Curtains and let us know where your Bookseller may be found and by whom they are Licensed and take the assistance of all your Fraternity read all the Books that you think defend your Cause to the best advantage and let us plainly hear what grounds you have to assert that your new and upstart Discipline is founded upon devine Right and why the Ministers of the Episcopal persuasion are turned out if they do not solemnly promise never directly nor indirectly to alter an Ecclesiastical Government which can no more be reconciled to the former constitution of Presbytery than to the Word of God the Canons of the Universal Church and the practice of the first Ages of Christianity And let us know if ever Clergymen were turned out of their Livings upon their denying to make any such promise since the name of Christian was heard in the World

The SPIRIT of Calumny and Slander Examin'd Chastis'd and Expos'd IN A LETTER TO A MALICIOUS LIBELLER MORE Particularly Address'd to Mr. GEORGE RIDPATH Newsmonger near St. Martins in the Fields CONTAINING Some Animadversions on his Scurrilous Pamphlets Published by him against the Kings Parliaments Laws Nobility and Clergy of Scotland TOGETHER With a short account of Presbyterian Principles and Consequential Practices Tenue est mendacium perlucet si diligenter inspexeris Senec. London Printed for Joseph Hindmarsh at the Golden-Ball over against the Royal Exchange 1693. TO THE READER IT is not much worth the while to inform the World that now Mr. George Ridpath is at the Head of the Presbyterian Party in Scotland His Associates there and here have such an Opinion of him that they consider him as the Invincible Champion of their Cause and the truth is if any Man be so inconsiderable and so much a Brute as to fight him at his own Weapons Mr. Ridpath will certainly carry the Prize He 's the Man that is now most likely to pull down Antichrist and the Whore of Babylon And as for the Scotch Episcopal Clergy who yet retain any kindness for the Hierarchy and the former Government if he lives another year they must all of them be banish'd the Isle of Britain It is enough for you to know that now the Presbyterians as is probable have by an unanimous Suffrage chosen him to manage the Libels against their Opposites He now appears in the Field of Battel with all the Noise Lies and Clamour that becomes a Zealous Covenanter He began this last years Campagne with a Libel against Dr. M o which valuable Book he Dedicated to the Parliament of Scotland by this one may easily infer that either he had a mean Opinion of the Parliament or extraordinary thoughts of himself If the following Treatise cannot be reduc'd into any certain Method this is not to be imputed unto me for I must confess that I too much follow'd the Excursions of Mr. Ridpath's invention I was willing to contract the Animadversions that I made upon his Book into as little room as was possible and therefore the frequent Transitions from one thing to another are best understood by such as have Read his Continuation c. I hope most Men are better employed than either to think or speak of the Calumnies and Lies that he industriously heaps together against the Clergy His Party is resolv'd to make use of such Engines against the Church as they and their Fore-Fathers found most successful to the Extirpation of Root and Branch and they that are unacquainted with their Malicious Methods are great Strangers to our Nation and History If the Reader meet with some Paragraphs that are more particular and peculiar to Mr. Ridpath than the Publick is oblig'd to take notice of I must be excus'd since I was compell'd for I assure you that I value personal altereations no otherwise than a good Christian ought to do Nor did I ever Write to satisfie or convince Mr. Ridpath that being a thing in it self impossible There is a certain Order of Mean Spirited Fellows I do not mean by their External Quality who think that there is nothing written by their Party were it never so ignominiously fulsome and scandalous but what is invincible and unanswerable Their Pride and Vanity are Incurable It is not my meaning that we ought to put our selves to the Drudgery of answering all the Scurrilous and Obscene Libels that are propagated by our Enemies but 't is reasonable to let our Friends see that at some times we can Confute them if that be thought convenient I am so far convinc'd of the weakness of their Reasonings that I know no Sect Antient or Modern that ever broke the Peace of the Christian Church but may be more plausibly defended than the latest Edition of Presbytery in Scotland I never thought that the Reputation of my Friend was in any hazard by being attack'd by Mr. Ridpath or the Little Creatures who instigate him yet by the following Papers I make it plain to all disinteressed persons that Mr. Ridpath lies Willfully and Deliberately in several Instances and therefore I may be allow'd to take leave of him for the future if he does not manage his accusations as becomes the Spirit of Truth Innocence and Ingenuity If you think that the Style is more sharp than is Decent or Just then I intreat you may Read his Books which occasion'd these Papers and then I am confident that you will retract your Censure and find that I have meddled with his Person as little as was possible He is in some places so Obscene that there is no coming near him and therefore I made all possible hast to rid my imagination of him and the paultry Trash that he gathers together The Bookseller was willing to Print a Sheet or two more than the Letter that I address'd to Mr. Ridpath and therefore I gave him some Propositions that are extracted out of such Books as are most in Vogue amongst the Scotch Presbyterians that the Reader might have a sample of their Moral Theology with regard to Obedience Government and Subjection To which I have added a Letter written from the Tolbooth of Edinburgh by the Famous Assassin Mr. James Mitchel who endeavours to prove from several Texts of Scripture that he ought to kill Dr. Sharp Lord Archbishop of St. Andrews In short to use the words of a Great Man Rebellion is the Soul of the Kirk And though we had not known the History of that Parliament Anno 1645. So they call'd the bloody Meeting at St. Andrews we have later Instances of their Arbitrary and Tyrannical Malice against the better half of the Nation Their very Patrons are asham'd of them not through any ingenuous remorse but because their bare fac'd Villanies are frequently expos'd I think the following Letter needs no other Preface than what is already hinted by Sir Your humble Servant S. W. The CONTENTS THE Occasion of this Letter Mr. Ridpath the Author of two or three Scurrilous and abusive Pamphlets against the Kings Parliaments Laws Nobility and Clergy of Scotland Page 1 His Rage and Passion against the Author of the Apology for the Clergy of Scotland Ibid. His Challenge fairly embrac'd The Author of this Defence undertakes to prove that there is not a good Consequence in Mr. Ridpath 's Books from the beginning to the end p. 2 The Character bestowed upon Mr. Rutherford by the Author of the Apology no justifiable ground of Mr. Ridpath 's clamourous bawling against the Learn'd Advocate Ibid. ●●●path 's accusation against Sir George Mackenzie in the case of C. of C. founded only on his own Petulance and Malice p. 3 Ridiculous advices to the Ministers of State in England and his Civilities to K. W. and Q. M. Ibid. His imitation of the famous Presbyterian Buffoon Dr. Bastwick when he reviles the present Clergy of the Church of Scotland p. 4 His impudence in

suffer Buffoons to treat crowned Heads so familiarly whatever be the Quarrel between Princes this Language is intolerable yet some Animals are privileged to bark at this rate The Clazomenians coming to Sparta fullied the Thrones on which the Ephori sat when the Ephori came to know this Indignity they bore it patiently and called for a publick Herald and ordered him to proclaim through the City that it was lawful for the Clazomenians to do things that were unbecoming and undecent that is to say such barbarous Rascals were below Reproof and Revenge Two of our Archbishops you treat in the same Language that Dr. Bastwick the famous Presbyterian Buffoon used towards the Archbishop of Canterbury and his Collegues when he tells them that the Hierarchy came from the Pope and the Devil Diabolus caccavit illos They forsooth must be called Magnates Ecclesiae and the Verity of the matter is They are Magnae Nates Ecclesiae It is tedious to transcribe his Civilities to Archbishop Laud and his Venerable Brethren and therefore I refer you to the Book cited in the Margin only there is one of his Complements which I set down because it hath in it the mean and scurrillous Spirit of the Party which you copy so exactly that one would have thought Dr. Bastwick had been your Father thus he goes on speaking of the Priests of the Church of England They are secundum Ordinem Diaboli a Generation of Vipers proud ungrateful illiterate Asses the Church is as full of Ceremonies as a Dog is full of Fleas And again One would think that Hell were broke loose and that the Devils in Surplices in Hoods in Capes and Rochets and in four-squared Cow-turds upon their Heads were come among us and had beshit us all Pho how they stink This is the Wit and Civility of an enraged Presbyterian these are the Flights of a Zealot when inspired to the heighth You treat Archbishop Sharp and the Archbishop of Glasgow in the same Language that Archbishop Laud and Archbishop Spotswood were complemented by your Predecessors There is a Letter here which I have seen from the Archbishop of Glasgow to one of his Friends which some time or other may see the light in a larger Treatise It was occasioned by your obscene Libels against him I must tell you one thing that is in it and it may provoke your Curiosity to see it He promises two hundred pound sterl to any Man that will prove by Witnesses of known Probity any one Particular that is maliciously vented against him by your self or any of your Informers Why then do not ye appear openly above-board for the Bishop declines no competent Judge in Scotland 'T is true He thought that the Book that treated him so barbarously had been writ by some of the fluttering Damme's about the City whose most compendious Method to destroy Religion is at any rate to run down the Clergy but if he had known his Accuser 't is more than probable he would forbear any Vindication He was sometimes opposed by Persons of the first Quality in the Nation and if he had been so wicked a Wretch as you represent him he had certainly forfeited his Life to Justice and his Name to Infamy as he expresses it himself in his Letter Mr. Ridpath do not take it ill that I do not go through the Particulars of your Libel against the Bishop for I have made you a fair Offer already and besides when you are better informed you will find your self that you name some Persons in your Libel who are lasting Monuments of the Disgrace of your Faction so that you have as little of the Wisdom of the Serpent as of the Innocence of the Dove You may go on and accuse the Bishop and his Collegues of all the Crimes that your Predecessors charged the former Bishops with in the year 1638 nay which is more you may accuse him of all the Villainies which your own Major Wier actually committed when he ran about with so many of the Sisters from one Communion to another and I assure you that neither he nor any of his Friends will take notice of you We know very well that you are at extraordinary pains to gather Intelligence against the Clergy but all your Evidences hitherto are of no Authority at all You think that if Mr. Rule 's Book provoked the Author of the Postscript to Undecencies of Passion the reading of yours would make him stark mad Not so Mr. Ridpath we may sometimes get a more deadly Wound by an Arrow that flies near the Earth than by the Thunder that goes over our Heads He begins you say with downright Nonsense and a notorious Lie but one and the same Proposition cannot be both Nonsense and a Lie one cannot tell what to make of the first and therefore it is neither a Lie nor a Truth he continues still in the same Opinion that the Principles and Practices of the Covenanters occasioned the Laws that you complain of whether you mean their Practices from the Year 1637 to the Year 1650 or their Behaviour after the Restoration of King Charles II all is one to me they overthrew the Monarchy under King Charles I disturbed it by frequent Insurrections under King Charles II and are ready to do so still if at any time their boundless Tyranny and Ambition be restrained The rest of that Paragraph is a Declamation against Prelacy and the Clergy of England must be lashed with the same Severity wherewith you chastise those of Scotland and in your first Book you represent those of England as a Company of treacherous Prevaricators that the Crown set them up by a daring Perjury and that the same Party hath thrust that Family from the Throne by a Copy exactly answering the Original They are obliged very much to your Civilities if the Family be thrust from the Throne you are the Author of a new Discovery but I leave this to their consideration who are more concerned You are diffident of your Arguments against the Author of the Postscript and therefore you will take more effectual and compendious methods to ruin him for you tell us that upon the taking of Namure he was heard in St. James's Park to salute Mr. Shields by the title of a Bishop no doubt in view of a Revolution which was likely to follow There is one thing that I thank you heartily for viz. that this accusation is express particular and circumstantiated for when accusations are loose general and indefinite nothing can be fixt upon that can lead us unto the Truth and therefore Mr. Ridpath here I plainly give you the Lye I know a man of your honour will resent this affront The affirmative part is your own and therefore common sense obliges you to prove it if you can you are here upon the place so are they whom you accuse the Dr. declines no competent Judge in England and if you can prove that ever

Attestations that they never said any such thing and that was all that you could do to prove your Negative and this might have been easily had especially from Mr. J. K. who lives at Edinburgh nor is there any of us so far exasperated against him as not to believe his own Testimony solemnly and seriously delivered And this is more Civility on our part than any of them will allow us at any time or upon any occasion If I were at Edinburgh I could prove the Affirmative and you must excuse me to continue just where I was notwithstanding of all the Informations you have received The following Paragraph hath in it more Impertinencies than there are Lines and yet it is probable that many of your Sect may think it seraphically witty The Author of the Postscript said that the absurd and ludicrous Sect metamorphos'd Religion and its solemn Excercises into Theatrical Scenes Another of the same Fraternity says that your Preachers were whining Fellows that drivelled at Mouth and Eyes And thus you make them contradicct one another and then you run away with a loud holla'a as if you were at the Head of the Rabble pulling down a Cathedral to see so many Curates slain with the Jaw bone of an Ass The word Theatrical Scenes does not determine whether your Preachers acted Comedies or Tragedies and a whining Scaramouchi may act his part in either and if so the many Words which you have gathered to no purpose discover your Ignorance and not any Contradiction amongst them whom you hate But Mr. Ridpath are you not in a strange Career when you can never hit upon the true nature of a Contradiction I am not surpriz'd that you do not know the Nature of a Comedy and Tragedy for you never read Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor none of the Commentators upon him either ancient or modern yet you might in two months time for so long I am told you was at the University have learned what a strict and formal Contradiction is That the Presbyterians were better at Libelling than their Neighbours is evident from all Records and therefore the Author of the Postscript had good Reason to say that Libelling was their Characteristick as that which they most practised and excelled all others in that in which they placed most of their Strength and Confidence and which they will never forbear if they happen to live where there is any to be accused But you say that your Enemies were the first Aggressors and their bold Attempts against the Godly justifies all the rough Treatment that they have met with Mr. Ridpath there is one thing that I would entreat you to condescend to and it is in itself very just and reasonable and unless you yield to it we may fight to our last breath without satisfying one another or serving any good Design the thing is this when you accuse Persons and Parties you must be more express definite and particular in your Libels I am of the Opinion that it is not possible for Presbyterians to forbear Libelling especially upon all publick Turns and Revolutions their Libels against the Clergy both in England and in Scotland are still upon Record Did you never see the Centuries of scandalous Ministers accused before the Long-Parliament The General Libel against the Bishops of Scotland may be seen when you please in the King 's Large Manifesto and in the first Volume of Nalson's Collections and if you believe neither of these Books since they were both written by Malignants read the Acts of the General Assembly 1638 and there you have the very same Libels mentioned and there is no Presbyterian but knows that the Libels against the Bishops in the Year 1638 were read from all the Pulpits of the Nation where the Assembly's Authority was obeyed and what is said by the Author of the Postscript of their Behaviour towards Archbishop Spotswood is commonly attested by the oldest Men in that corner of the Country near St. Andrews Particularly this is more carefully preserved in the Family of Ballfour And the Bishop of O. and Mr. Sage of Glasgow had this very Story from the Laird of Ballfour's own mouth 'T is true that there is an Act of the General Assembly mentioning the Libels against the Bishops but there are also among the unprinted Acts Acts of Excommunication and Deposition against some Prelates and when those Acts are produced I offer to prove from their own Authentick Records many more steps of their Fraud and Artifice That there are such Acts as I last named unprinted vid. Index of the principal unprinted Acts of the Assembly at Glasgow 1638. And if they were not afraid of being discovered and exposed upon this very Head those Acts had been printed as well as the other Principal Acts nay the Act against Episcopacy it self was not printed because it could not but alarm all the Protestant Churches abroad against them when the Order of Episcopacy was condemned as simpliciter unlawful a thing unheard in the Christian Church until the mungrel Conventicle at Glasgow sat therefore the Act against Episcopacy was left unprinted as well as the Acts of Excommunication and Deposition against some Prelates And this is either altogether unknown to or dissembled by Mr. Gilb. Rule when he denies the Truth of that Story as related by the Author of the Five Letters And you are a Fool to think that in those days when Rebellion and Hypocrisie were triumphant they would have stuck at such little Punctilio's and not practise all Arts to delude the Populace I hope you do not deny what use they made of Margaret Mitchelson's Visions Raptures and Revelations by which they persuaded the People that the Covenant was authorised by immediate Revelations from Heaven as well as by the Popular Tumults at Edinburgh The Knavery against Archbishop Spotswood was an Injury done to him and the Church but the counterfeit Raptures of Margaret Mitchelson countenanced by your Party mocked and defied God's Justice and Providence no less than it ridicul'd and prophan'd all Religion Vid. King 's large Declaration Nay they procured Libels against the Clergy from most Counties in England and in those Counties where they had none to work upon of their own Gang they forged Libels and presented such counterfeit Petitions in the name of such Counties and dispersed their Forgeries for real Truths to make their Party appear numerous and the Clergy odious And Sir Thomas Aston petitioned the House of Lords against this villanous Practice but this was not welcome to those Lords who favoured the Faction and therefore Sir Thomas Aston was reprehended and the Forgerers gently rebuked And my Author truly observes that this was like to prove aglorious Reformation which was built upon such Foundations and advanced by such Arts and Methods So that if you mean the former Presbyterians they were the first Aggressors and if you mean the modern they practised this Trade of Libelling ever since the beginning of the