did suffer any thing For these others were settled in Churches by an Indulgence granted by the King Against which Indulgence all the Sufferers like true Presbyterians gave their Testimony calling it a meer brat of Erastianism What Government could tolerate such Ministers as John Deckson whom I named before who in a Sermon Preached by him in the Parish of Gallashiels declar'd That it was all one to Sacrifice to Devils as to pay Cess to King Charles The Author of the Review of the History of Indulgence one of the Sober sort of Presbyterians tells Page 610. the same of a Preacher of his Acquaintance I shall say no more of their Sentiments concerning Government but only referr the Readers to their Printed Acts of General Assemblies and to those Covenants which themselves have Printed often Subscribed and Sworn and which are now again for the benefit of Strangers published in that Excellent Vindication of King Charles II. his Happy Government in Scotland by Sir George Mac Kenze in which it's Evident that they plainly renounce Monarchy and all Power but that of the Covenanted Kirk As to their Disposition to live peaceably I appeal not only to their Principles vented in these Covenants and Acts of their general Assemblies but also to the many private Murthers and open Rebellions which they have been guilty of under every Reign since their first entry into Britain Even in our own Days since 1666 they have raised no less than Three formidable Rebellions besides many lesser Insurrections and Tumults wherein many Christians have suffered With what Violence did they flee to Arms and persecute all who were not of their Party upon the occasion of the late Revolution when if it had not been for their indiscreet and fiery Zeal this Kingdom might have been happily united to England But what ever Advantage such an Union might have brought to the Church and State yet because it seemed to have no good Aspect to the covenanted cause therefore the motion of it though offered was industriously stifled and that Opportunity which we can hardly hope to recover quite lost Nay under the present Government for which they in the beginning pretended to be so zealous 't is well known over all the Kingdom that they were last Year contriving by force without any regard to Authority to have the Solemn League renewed and imposed after the old manner upon all Men Women and Children and in order to this good end many Thousands of them at Field meetings in the West conveened after their ordinary way with Bibles and Musquets Psalm-Books and rusty Swords and subscrbed a new Association for raising of Men Horse and Arms to advance the Old Cause repurge the holy Kirk and make a thorow Reformation in the Land But I shall take occasion by and by to give you some later and more evident Instances of their Neglect and Contempt of their present Governors In the next place survey them in their Learning and you shall find that it lies only in the study of some Anti-Arminian Metaphysicks and in the practical Divinity they pretend to draw from the Heads of Election and Reprobation whereby they preach Men out of their Wits and very often into Despair and Self-murder It 's generally known that Joseph Brodie Preacher in Forress in the time of the late Presbytery did in the presence of a very Learned and Eminent Person take occasion in the Pulpit to speak of a poor Man who was then in such a desperate Condition that it was judg'd necessary to bind up his Hands lest otherwise he should cut his own Throat as he continually threatned of this desperate Wretch the pious Preacher above-named pronounced thus Sirs this is the best Man in my Parish would to God ye were all like him he does truely fear Reprobation which most of you are not aware of There is a common printed Pamphlet compos'd and publish'd by a Presbyterian Preacher concerning one Bessie Clarkson a Woman that lived at Lanark who was three Years in despair or to speak in their Cant under Exercise Whosoever reads that Pamphlet will find that the poor Woman's Distemper proceeded only form their indiscreet Preaching representing God as a sower severe and unmerciful Being It is known in the Shire of Teviotdale that Mr. William Veach murder'd the Bodies as well as Souls of two or three Persons with one Sermon For preaching in the Town of Jedburgh to a great Congregation he said There are Tow thousand of you here to day but I am sure Fourscore of you will not he saved upon which Three of his ignorant Hearers being in Despair dispatched themselves soon after And lately in Edenburgh Mr. James Kirkton the Everlasting Comedian of their Party one of their famous Preachers in that City praying publickly for a poor Woman much troubled in Spirit said A wholesome Disease good Lord a wholesome Disease Lord for the Soul Alas said he few in the Land are troubled with this Disease Lord grant that she may have many fellows in this Disease Not only do they make their People distracted with such desperate Doctrine as this but moreover they incourage them in direct Impieties Mr. Selkirk preaching at Musselburgh expressed himself thus God seed no Sin in his Chosen Now Sirs be you guilty of Murder Adultery Bestiality or any other gross Sin if you be of the Election of Grace there is no fear of you for God sees no Sin in his Chosen covenanted People And this is consonant to an expression of Mr. Samuel Rutherford's printed Letters Hellfulls of Sins cannot separate is from Christ In the Parish of Mr. Macmath Minister of Leswade some of those who were lately the most active in persecuting and driving him form his Residence even after he had the Privy Councils Protection and a Guard assign'd him for his Defence have since suffer'd violent deaths two of them prevented the Hangman's pains by becoming their own Murtherers When the Earl of Lauderdale and Sir George Mackenzie dyed last year much about one time the party who pretend to unriddle all the most secret Causes of God's Providence called their Deaths a visible Judgment for their being Enemies to the good Cause altho' it be well known that both these honourable Persons dyed of a natural Death in a good age being both of them worn out with their great diligence in their King and Country's Service perhaps indeed their days were shortened by seeing such Firebrands able again to force themselves into the Church as had before ruin'd both it and the State and were the Scandal of Christianity as well as Disgrace of their Nation But when these abovenamed Self-Murtherers of the Parish of Leswade had divided Judas's death betwixt them the one hanging himself the other ripping up his own Belly till all his Bowels gushed out The Presbyterian Preacher in that Parish holding forth next Sunday was so ready of Invention as to find Arguments from thence for the Confirmation of the good Cause Ab Sirs says
in the Land and to creep into places of Trust and especially the stupid Submission to the Restitution of Church and State and to the Re-introduction of their wicked Establishments abjur'd by Covenant did gradually induce Parishes and Provinces to this dreadful Sin of Covenant-breaking Then in some subsequent Pages he enumerates all the Curses and Plagues national or personal spoken of in Scripture as threatned with a special regard to the breaking of this Covenant and who can tell says he but the Sword now drawn in Scotland and Ireland may avenge the Quarrel of God's broken Covenant Pag. 27. The breaking of the Covenant is the most Heinous of all Sins Profainity of all sorts Hypocrisie Idolatry Adultery Treachery Pride Blood and Oppression and all that ever brought down Vengeance upon any Generation recorded in Scripture or in any History with these indeed and the greatest aggravations of them the Land hath been Polluted but chiefly that which incenses the Anger of the Lord hath been and remains to be Breach of Covenant and all these Abominations not simply because Breaches of the Law if God but as under this special Aggravation that they have been and are Breaches of the Covenant as is evident from Deuterom 29. 25. Because they have forsaken the Covenant of the Lord God of their Fathers c. Pag. 33. The great Reason why Men should renew the Covenant at this time and why those of the true Presbyterian Party did it in the end of 1688. They though it then says he expedient as it is still by renewing of these Antient Covenants to declare what Cause they would avouch and appear for what King they would own and upon what Terms they would offer their Submission to the present Government then to be Established who had before declared their Revolt from the former and for this end to make this the Band of their Association The same Author in his Solemn Confession of Sins pag. 53. says most ingenuously We and our Teachers in a great measure complyed with submitted unto and connived at the incroachments of the Supremacy and absolute Power both in accepting and countenancing the former Indulgences and the late Tolleration We have taken and subscribed Oaths and Bonds all which have been contrary to the Reformation we were Sworn to preserve Pag 54. We are obliged to confess the offensive Carriage and Conversation of many that have gone to England who have proven very stumbling to the Sectarians there Yea of late many have embraced the Toleration introductive of a Sectarian multiformity without so much as a Testimony against the Toleration of Popery it self The general Toleration which in its own Nature tended and in its Design intended to introduce Popery and Slavery by Arbitrary and Absolute Power hath been accepted and addressed for by many of our Ministers and countenanced complyed and concurr'd with by many of our People without a Testimony or endeavour to understand it Many dregs of Popish Superstition have been observed Popish Festival days as Pasch Yule and Fastings Eve c. have been kept by many And prelatical Anniversary days devised of their own Heart appointed for Commemorating the Kings Birth Days as May 29. Octob. 14. c. Who were born as Scourges to this Realm being complied with by many pag. 58. As it was our Fathers Sin to inaugurate the late King after such Discoveries of his Hypocritical enmity to Religion and Liberty upon his subscription of the Covenant to when he burnt and buried that Holy Covenant and degenerated into manifest Tyranny and had razed the very Foundation on which both his Right to Govern and the Peoples Allegiance were founded and remitted the Subjects Allegiance by annulling the bond of it we sinned in continuing to own his Authority When all he had was engaged and exerted in Rebellion against God for which the Lord put us to shame and went not out with our Armies at Pentland Hills and Bothwell Bridge Notes out of the Hind let loose Printed 1687. which Book is the great Oracle and Idol of the true Covenanters Pag. 3. It 's observable how reproachfully he speaks of Princes and even of such as are now our Kings Allies in these words The Protestants of Hungary are under the tearing Laws of that Ravenous Eagle the Tyrant of Austria Those of Piedmont under the Grassant Tyranny of that little Tyger of Savoy Pag. 24. Our first Reformers never resigned nor abandoned that first and most just priviledge of Resistance Nay nor of bringing publick Beasts of prey to condign Punishment in an extraordinary way of vindictive justice E. G. Cardinal Beaton that was Slain in the Tower of St. Andrew's by James Melvin who perceiving his consorts moved with Passion withdrew them and said This work and Judgement of God altho' it be Secret ought to be done with greater Gravity and presentnig the point of his Sword to the Cardinal said Repent thee of thy former wicked Life but especially of the shedding of the Blood of Mr. George Wisheart which yet Crys for Vengeance from God upon thee And we from God are sent to revenge it for here before my God I protest that Nothing moveth me to strike thee but only because thou hast been and remainest an obstinate Enemy agoinst Christ Jesus and his holy Gospel Of which fast says my Author the faithful and famous Historian Mr. Knox speaks very Honourably and after the Slaughter joyned himself with them yet now such a fact committed upon such another Bloody and Treacherous Beast the Cardinal prelate of Scotland Eight years agon is generally Condemned as Horrid Murder Pag. 75. Speaking of the King's defeat at Worcester he says Israel had Sinned and Transgressed the Covenant Having taken the accursed thing and put it even amongst their own stuff therefore the Children of Israel could not stand before their Enemies but an Army of them near 30000. was totally Routed at Worcester and the Achan the cause of the overthrow was forced to hide himself beyond Sea where he continued a wandring Fugitive in Exile till 1660. False Monk then General with a Combination of Malignants and publick Resolutioners did machinate our Misery and effectuated it by bringing the King home to England from his Banishment wherein he was habituate into an implacable hatred against the Work of God Pag. 96. The Covenant is our Magna Charta of Religion and Righteousness our greatest Security for all our Interests Pag. 99. That same perfidious Parliament fram'd an Act for an Anniversary Thanksgiving Commemorating every 29th of May that Blasphemy against the Spirit and Work of God and Celebrating that unhappy Restauration of the Rescinder of the Reformation which had not only the Concurrence of the Universality of the Nation but alas for shame that it should be told in Gath even of some Presbyterian Ministers who afterwards accepted the Indulgence one of which a Pillar among them was seen scandalously Dancing about the Bonfires O Holy and Astonishing Justice thus
appear in person at it It is to you that the Nation owes her miraculous deliverance from the Idolatries of the Creed Lords-Prayer and Gloria Patri It 's your Lp. that hath rescued us from the Superstitions of observing Christmass Easter and Whitsunday and from all the Popish fopperies of Cassocks close sleev'd Gowns and Girdles It 's your Lp. that enriched Their Majesties Treasure with the Revenues of fourteen fat Bishops and with admirable expedition have voided more than half of the Churches of the Kingdom and advanced such a set of Preachers as it is certain never flourished in any period of the Church of Scotland under any of their Majesties Predecessors and now that some malignant Lords have been brought into the Council again your Lp. hath retir'd from it bravely scorning to sit at the same Board with the Opposers of the Cause My L. tho' the times have been reeling and dangerous yet your Lp. has by extraordinary management put your self beyond the greatest reach and Malice of Fortune for you have indeed deserved well of all Parties K. James is obliged to thank you for the real Service you have done him and K. William for your good Will to serve His Majesty The Presbyterian Clergy own their good Livings to you and the Episcopal Divines are bound to you for advancing them to the Honour of being Confessors The stubborn Highlanders owe all their Composition-money to your Lp and the West Country Rabble were highly enriched by your Lp's Countenauce and Protection You scorn that malignant way of making your Palace a Cooks Shop for Strangers but tho' your Commons be short yet it 's well known that your Graces are long at least after Dinner the full length of a Curates Sermon and that is three quarters of an hour There is one thing more that your Lordship is most remarkable for and that is your daily practice of Family Duty it 's well known that there have been more new Creatures begotten in your Lp's Family than in any other we have yet heard of and in this matter such is your great Goodness and Humility that you condescend often to allow to some of your Servants the Paternal Honour that 's known to be due to your Lp. But all these and many more such like extraordinary Qualifications which the World admire in your Lordship are nothing to those Supernatural Gifts and Graces which are so evident in all your Actions that you often take God to witness that you never make one step without the special Assistance and Direction of the Holy Ghost My L. these and other Reasons that I now omit since I hope this shall not be the last Address of this nature makes me bold to give your Lp. this trouble and humbly to beg your Protection to what you so much value and that you would but once at least grant the Petition of My L. Your Lp's most Obedient and most Obliged Servant Jacob Curate SECT 1. The true Character of the Presbyterian Pastors and People in Scotland OUR Blessed Saviour in his Sermon on the Mount bids us beware of false Teachers and tells us That by their Fruits we may know them Such Fruits are not open and publick Scandals for then the simple Multitude that measure Religion by the Sound and not by the Sense could not so easily be deluded by them It must be acknowledged that the End of Preaching should be the Edification of the Hearers the Design of it being to perswade Men to Piety towards God and Charity towards one another and to draw the Image of God upon the Souls of Men. But it will appear from what follows That the Scotch Presbyterians Sermons have no such tendency for the Preachers themselves who would have the world believe that they only are the Powerful and Soul-refreshing Gospellers have not been industrious to draw the likeness of God upon the Hearts of their Hearers but meerly to impress their own Image there that is they labour'd not to make good Christians but rigid Prebyterians That I may not be thought to assert this without ground for I would not slander the Devil I shall first give you the true Character of the Presbyterian Pastors and People 2. I shall say before you some remarkable passages taken out of their own Printed Books to confirm this Character 3. Some special Notes written from their own Mouths as they preach'd them under the happy Reign of K. Charles II and since the late Revolution Lastly I shall give you some taste of that Extemporary Gibberish which they use instead of Prayer and for which they have justled out not only all the Liturgies of the Pure and Primitive Church but even the Lord's Prayer it self because it is an evident Argument and Pattern for Christians praying in a set Form and in all this I shall say nothing but what I know to be true and what I am ready to make appear to be so upon a fair and free tryal if that may be had where Presbyterians Rule In the first Place then I am to give you the true Character of Presbyterian Pastors and People I shall begin with the People for they are truly the Guides and their Pastors must follow them whom they pretend to Conduct For the Preachers of the new Gospel knowing that their trade hath no old nor sure Foundation they are forced to flee to this new and unaccountable Notion that the Calling and Constituting of Ministers is in the Power of the Mob Now the World knows by too long and sad Experience that their Mobile is not led by Reason nor Religion but by Fancy and Imagination so that we may be sure when the Election of Ministers is put in their hands they will chuse none but such as will readily sooth and indulge them in their most extravagant and mad Humors What Ministers can be expected from the choice of a People void of common Sense and guided by irregular Passions who torture the Scripture making it speak the Language of their deluded Imaginations They will tell you that ye ought to fight the Battels of the Lord because the Scripture says in the Epistle to the Hebrews Without shedding of Blood there is no Remission They are generally Covetous and Deceitful and the Preaching they are bred with hath no tendency to work them into the contrary Virtues They call Peace Love Charity and Justice not Gospel but dry Morality only I had once very great difficulty to convince one of them that it was a Sin for him to cheat and impose upon his Neighbour in matters of Trade by concealing the faults of his Goods from the Buyer He ask'd my Reason I told him Because he would not wish one to deal so with himself That is said he again but Morality for if I shall believe in Christ I shall be saved I ask'd him Was not this Christ's saying Whatsoever ye would that others should do unto you that do you unto others Yes he said that was good but
possess the Pulpits of Learned Men they are at a great Disadvantage for their better Auditories expect solid Divinity Rational and close Discourses and that being none of their Talent puts them quite out of their Road and Element and hence it is that the People generally forsake and abhor them and nothing but a few of the Rabble frequent their best Churches and Preachers So that now their own dear followers begin to complain and cry out That Christ did more good in the Hills than he does now in the Churches And if they hold on at their usual manner of Raving in Pulpits they cannot fail to render themselves as Ridiculous and odious as they deserve which they have made pretty good Advances to already They frequently upbraid Curates as deserted of the Spirit because they own that in the composing of their Sermons they make use of Books and yet Mr. David Williamson one of their ablest Men Preaching before the Parliament on Ps 2. and verse 10. stole most of his Sermon from Herle's Tripus of Wisdom and had the Confidence to reprint the same at Edinburgh Indeed the nonsence and railing of that Sermon is wholly his own for none but himself ever pretended or presumed as he does there That Christ dyed a Martyr for the Presbyterian Government because forsooth this Inscription was written on his Cross Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews I do not discommend the use of Books but the Hypocrisie of these Men who give out that they Preach meerly by Inspiration and Meditation as Mr. Areskine did in a Sermon which he Preached lately in the Tron Church at Edinburgh his words were these The Curates goes to their Books for Preachings but we go to our Knees for our Preachings And yet such is the silliness of some deluded People that they proclaim these for Soul-refreshing and powerful Preachers and for Men that as they Phrase it have an inbearing Gift speaking home to their Hearts Indeed make some People judges we know Presbyterian Sermons will gain the applause I remember the Old Fable of the Cuckow and the Nightingale both contended who should Sing sweetest the Ass because of his long Ears is made judge the Nightingale Sung first the Cuckow next the Asse's determination was that truly the Nightingale Sung pretty well but for a good sweet plain taking Song and a fine Note the Cuckow Sung far better Some who are not so well acquainted with the Scotch Presbyterian's manner of Preaching and praying may perhaps think that matters are here aggravated against them because things so very Ridiculous were never vented by any former Sect as these I have and am hereafter to discover of them but they are too well known to be denyed among us And that Strangers may not think themselves imposed upon I shall in the next Section give the Reader some little taste of their Printed Books and leave him to judge from the Ridiculousness of what they have deliberately published to the World that way what extravagancy they may be Guilty of in these extemporary Ravings which they mis-call Spiritual Preaching and Praying SECT II. Containing some Expressions out of their printed Books AND first for their Sermons Mr. William Guthry at Fenwick hath printed one full of Curses and Imprecations Viz. Will you gang Man to the cursed Curates Gang and the Vengeance of God gang with thee The cursed Curates bids us side with them the Devil rugg their Hearts out of their sides The Sermon in every Page is to the same purpose The People in the West are mightily taken with it and the Author is held for a great Saint among them chiefly upon the account as themselves phrase it of his sharp Pen against Prelates and Curates Mr. Walwood Brother to Mercurius in a printed Sermon on this Text If the righteous shall scarcely be saved c. says among other as ridiculous things these words Men think that every Dog will win to Heaven but I assure you it is a great matter to win there for Noblemen that will be saved I believe there 's not twenty I trow I doubled them for Gentlemen I could write them all in three inch of Paper Ibid. Men thought much when a part of the City of Glascow was burnt but for my part I would not shed a Tear tho' Glascow and Edinburgh both were burnt and a great matter they burnt the Covenant The best of their Preachers were singled out to hold forth to the Parliament and the L. Commissioner M. a Person equally fitted to judge of Ministers and Statesmen appointed such of these Sermons to be printed as he in his Godly Wisdom thought fittest for advancing the designs of Omnipotent Presbytery These Sermons are generally inhanced by the Party and preserved as infallible Evidences of the great Learning and Piety of the New Gospel Professors upon which account they are carefully kept from malignant Hands and Eyes However I once had the favour allowed me to read three of the choicest of them published by Williamson Rule and Spalding wherein they extol Presbyterian Government with all the glorious Epithets due to the Gospel and the Christian Church viz. Christ's Bride his Virgin his Spouse his Glory his Honour his Church his precious Remnant his glorious Elect his pure People God's House Tabernacle Dwelling place and Sanctuary his Holy Ark his chosen Generation his dear Children his Kingdom his Mountain his Jewels his Crown Scepter and Diadem in a word the most obscure and darkest Prophesies and Revelations were all spoke with an eye to the present Scotch Model tho' that be so new as never to have been heard of in Scotland or any other Church before and the Presbyterians themselves will as soon prove that the High Priesthood of Aaron among the Jews was a Type of Presbyterian Democracy in the Church as shew any Foot-steps or the least mention of Presbyterianism in any of the ancient Monuments and Records of the Church except they will say that Christianity began with Calvin and yet if you 'll believe the Sermons of the former Triumvirate they that oppose the Rigour of Scotch Presbytery are Enemies to God and his Cause to Christ and to his Gospel they are worse than Heathens they are Philistines which are not to be suffered to live in the Holy Land nay they that concur not to advance it to its former height and that is above King and Parliament not only their Estates and Lives but their Souls may go for it You Members of Parliament who are not forward for this you shall with Jehoiakim be buried with the Burial of an Ass Think but seriously what an Epitaph may be written on your Tomb and what Discourses may be of you when ye are gone Here lies a Man that never was a Friend to Christ or his Interest now he is dead but he was an Opposer and Persecutor of Christ of his Truth and People But dying is not all what shall ye say when ye shall be
to Recompence our way upon our own Head To suffer this holy Work and Cause to be ruined under our unhappy Hands who suffered the Destroyer to come in who had it in his Heart swell'd with enmity against Christ to raze and ruine the Work as he most Wickedly did Pag. 110. The King gave us many proofs and Demonstrations of his being true to Antichrist in minding all the Promises and Treaties with him as he had of his being false to Christ in all his Covenant-Engagements with his People For in the Year 1666. He with his Dear and Royal Brother the Duke of York contrived Countenanced and Abetted the burning of London evident by their employing their Guards to hinder the People from saving their own and to dismiss the Incendiaries the Papists who were taken in the Fact Pag. 123. At length the virulent Traytor James Sharp the Arch Prelate received the just Demerit of his Perfidy Perjuries Apostacies Sorceries Villanies and Murders sharp Arrows of the mighty and Coals of Juniper for upon the 3d of May 1679. several worthy Gentlemen with some other Men of Courage and Zeal for the Cause of God and the good of the Country executed Righteous judgement upon him at Magus Moor near St. Andrew's And the same Month on the 29th of May the Testimony at Rutherglen was published against that Abomination of Celebrating an Anniversary day for setting up an usurped Power destroying the Interest of Christ in the Land and against all sinful and unlawful Acts emitted and executed published and prosecuted against our Covenanted Reformation where also they burnt the Acts of Supremacy the Declaration the Act Rescessory for the burning the Covenant Page 146. At length the King of Terrours a Terrour to all Kings cut off that Supreme Author and Authoriser of Mischief Charles the Second by the suspicious Intervention of an unnatural Hand as the Instrument thereof wherein much of the Justice of God was to be observed and of his Faithfulness verified That bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days His bloody Violence was recompenced with the unnatural Villany of his Brother and his unparallel'd Perjury was justly rewarded with the most ungrateful and treacherous Monster of a Parricide for all the numerous Brood of his adulterous and incestuous Brats begotten of a Multitude of Whores at home and abroad yea with his own Sister too he died a Childless Pultron and had the unlamented Burial of an Ass and for all his Hypocritical Pretentions to a Protestant Profession he drunk his Death in a Popish Potion contrived by his own dear Brother that succeeded him passionately resenting Charles his Vow to suffer the Murder of the Earl of Essâ—x to come to a Trial which was extorted by the reiterated Solicitations of some who offer'd to discover by whom it was contrived and acted which made the Duke's guilty Conscience to dread a Detection of his deep Accession to it whereupon the Potion quickly after prepared put a stop to that and an end to his Life February 6th 1685 of which horrid Villany time will disclose the Mystery and give the History when it shall be seasonable Page 237. A Prelate's Depute is no Minister of Christ but a Curate is a Prelate's Depute Ergo. That a Prelate's-Depute is no Minister of Christ I prove not only from that that a Prelate qua talis is not a Servant of Christ but an Enemy and therefore cannot confer upon another that Dignity to be Christ's Servant but also from this that the Scriptures allow no derivation of deputed Officers Rom. 12. 7 9. Page 255. Never can it be instanced these twenty seven Years that the Curates have brought one Soul to Christ but many instances may be given of their murdering Souls Hence these who cannot but be Soul-murderers may not be heard or entertaind as Soul-Physicians but the Curates cannot but be Soul-murderers Ergo. Page 256. The Meetings of the Curates for Administration of Ordinances in their way the Lord hates and hath signally forsaken therefore we should hate and forsake them This is confirmed by Mr. Durhame Rev. 1. p. 55. Page 259. Hearing of Curates reductively involves us under the guilt of Idolatry and breach of the second Commandment therefore we ought not to let them dwell in the Land lest they make us sin Exod. 23. 32. We should destroy their very names out of the place Deut. 12. 3. Jud. 2. 7. Page 285. Jus Populi cap. 16. says he Make this one Character of a Tyrant that living in Luxury Whoredom Greed and Idleness he neglecteth or is unfit for his Office How these sute to our times we need not express what effrontery of Impudence is it for such Monsters to pretend to rule P. 296. Kings and Tyrants for the most part are reciprocal terms Page 306. We own the obligation of our sacred Covenants unrepealably and indispensably binding to all But we deny that hereby we are bound either to maintain Monarchy or to own the Authority of either of the two Monarchs that have monarchized or tyrannized over us these twenty seven Years past In the Covenants we are not bound but only conditionally tomaintain the King's Person and Authority that is only upon the terms that he should be a Loyal Subject to Christ and a faithful Servant to the People which he cannot be thought who does not cause all stand to their Covenant-Engagements as Josiah did 2 Chron. 34. But alas there was never a Jostah in the Race of our Kings they rose up to the height of Rebellion against God and the People with Heaven-daring Insolency not only breaking but burning the Holy Covenant Concerning owning of Tyrants Authority p. 308. When Monarchy becomes opposite to the Ends of Government the Contagion of it affects that very Species of Government and then the House is to be pulled down when the Leprosie is got into the Walls and Foundation The People may make their publick Servant sensible that he is at his highest Elevation but a Servant Hence now when the Species named in the Covenant viz. Monarchy is so vitiate that it is become the Instrument of the Destruction of all the Ends of that Covenant and now by Law transmitted to all Successors as an hereditary perfect and perpetual Opposition to the coming of Christ's Kingdom so that as long as there is one to wear that Crown but Jehovah will in Righteousness execute Coniah's Doom upon the Race Jerem 22. ult write this Man Childless and to enter Heir to the Government as now established he must be an Enemy to Christ There is no other way left but to think on a new Model moulded according to the true Pattern Page 311. As he is not nor will not be our covenantted and sworn King and therefore we cannot be his covenanted and sworn Subjects so he is not nor can be our crown'd King and therefore we cannot be his liege Subjects owning Fealty and Obedience to him Page 340. It will be found
Summers again in one year and bless his Crop O what cause have we to rejoyce c. Ep. 139. To Mr. John Mein I see Christ will not prigg with me nor stand upon stepping stones but cometh in at the broad side without Ceremonies or making of it nice Ep. 141. To the Earl of Lothian If your Lordship and others shall go on to dive to the lowest ground and bottom of the Knavery and perfidious treachery to Christ of the cursed and wretched Prelates the Antichrist's first-born and the first-fruit of his foul womb and shall deal with our Soveraign then your Righteousness shall break thorough the Clouds c. Ep. 142. O for a long Play-day with Christ Ep. 145. Mr. John Ferguson Were is not that I am dated now and then with pieces of Christ's sweet comforts I fear I should have made an ill browst of this honourable Cross Ep. 162. To Mr. Hugh Mc Kell I will verily give my Lord Jesus a free discharge of all that I like a fool laid to his charge and beg him pardon to the mends Ep. 163. I tremble at the remembrance of a new out-cast betwixt him and me but I find Christ dare not be long unkind Ep. 137. To my Lady Boyd Nothing hath given my faith a greater back-set till it crackt again than my closed mouth Ep. 139. To Carletown The Lord hath done it I will not go to Law with Christ for I would gain nothing of that The Devil is but God's Master-fencer to teach us to handle our arms Ep. 198. To Mr. John Levingston The Devil cannot get it denied but we suffer for the apple of Christ's eye his Royal Prerogatives as King and Law-giver let us not fear he will have his Gospel once again roûped in Scotland and the matter go to Vows to see who will say Let Christ be Crowned King in Scotland It is true Antichrist stirreth his tail but I love a rumbling and raging Devil in the Kirk rather than a subtil or sleeping Devil Christ never got a Bride without stroke of Sword Epist 200. O Hell were a good cheap price to buy him at Ep. 207. A kiss of Christ blown over his shoulder the parings and crumbs of glory under his Table in Heaven a shower like a thin May mist of his love would make me green sappy and joyful Ep. 214. Go on as ye have worthily begun in purging of the Lord's House in this Land and plucking down the Stalls of Antichrist's filthy nest this wretched Prelacy and that black Kingdom whose wicked aims have ever been and still are to make this fat world the only Compass they would have Faith and Religion to sail by and to mount up the man of sin their God-father the Pope of Rome upon the highest stair of Christ's Throne and to make a Velvet-church c. Ibid. These men mind nothing else but that by bringing in the Pope's foul tail first upon us their wretched and beggerly Ceremonies they may thrust in after them Antichrist's legs thighs and his belly head and shoulders and then cry down Christ and the Gospel and up the Merchandize and Wares of the Great Whore Ibid. Christ shall never be content with this Land neither shall his hot fiery indignation be turned away so long as the Prelate the man that lay in Antichrist's foul womb and the Antichrist's Lord Bailiff shall sit Lord Carver in the Lord Jesus Courts The Prelate is both the Egg and the Nest to cleck and bring forth Popery plead therefore for the pulling down of the Nest and crushing of the Egg. All that is meant here by Christ is Presbyterian Government I shall conclude this Section with some of their most remarkable Principles and Opinions concerning Civil Government The Presbyterians of late have talk'd much of their Loyalty but if they have any it must be in contradiction to their Principles For proof of this I shall not trouble you with Citations from Private Men but appeal to their Covenants and Solemn Leagues to their constant Doctrin as well as Practice of Resistance and some few Instances I must not omit taken from the Acts of their General Assemblies and those Books which have the general Approbation of the Party in which they express themselves thus Vnless Men blot out of their Hearts the Love of Religion and Cause of God and cast off all care of their Country Laws and Liberties c. they must now or never appear active against the King each one stretching himself to yea and beyond their Power it is not time to dally or go about the Business by halves nor to be almost but altogether Zealous Cursed is he that doth the Work of the Lord negligently Solemn and seasonable warning to all Ranks Feb. 12. 1645. Sess 18. In another seasonable and necessary warning dated July 27. 1649. Sess 27. they say But if his Majesty or any having or pretending Power and Commission from him shall Invade this Kingdom upon pretext of establishing him in the exercise of his Royal Power as it will be a high provocation against God to be accessory or assisting thereto so it will be a necessary Duty to resist and oppose the same The Author of the Hind let loose reflecting on these passages says These Fathers could well distinguish betwixt Authority and the Person and were not so Loyal as now their degenerate Children are Ambitious to shew themselves stupidly stooping to the Shadow thereof and yet will be called The only Assertors of Presbyterian Principles The Presbytery hath the Power of making Peace and War and the Parliament ought not to enter into any War without them more than Joshua did without the consent of Eliazar Any Vnion or Engagement of the Nation to defend the King's Person Honour or Prerogative is unlawful unless allowed by the Presbytery The Presbytery alone knows and it only can determine what the Cause of God is the King and Parliament are not to be complied with but in Subordination to the Covenant The Presbytery can Counter-act the Acts of the States of Parliament and discharge the Subjects from obeying such Acts as are imposed without the consent of the Presbytery Act General Assembly Aug. 3. 1648. Act and Declaration against the Act of Parliament July 13. 1648. Act General Assembly Aug 13. 1650. Tho' our Saviour told his Disciples That his Kingdom was not of this World and that therefore they ought not to fight for him yet that Doctrine does not now oblige Covenanted Christians for they may fight without yea and against the Consent of the Supream Magistrate for the Cause of God and a probable capacity to effectuate their Designs is the Call of God to do it Jus Pop. Preface to the Reader Naph Pag. 7 8 16 159. Not only is it necessary to resist the King by force in defence of the Solemn League and Covenant but also to resist King and Parliament when they pervert the right ways of the Lord and
cry of their Feet I will run the ways of thy Commandments that is the cry of the Feet And the cry of the Eye They looked on him and were lightened that 's the cry of the Eye If we would go to Heaven we must not only cry with our Mouth but likewise with out Hands Feet and Eyes The same Mr. Arskine said in another Sermon What Sirs if the Devil should come with a Drum at his side saying Hoyes hoyes hoyes who will go to Hell with me boys who will go to Hell with me The Jacobines would answer We 'll all go we 'll all go Mr. James Kirkton preaching on Jezabel said That well-favoured Whore what became of her Sirs she fell over a Window Arse over Head and her black bottom was discovered you may all guess what the Beholders saw beloved a black sight you may be sure One Mr. Mair a Presbyterian Preacher Son to Mr. John Mair the Episcopal Minister in Towch being desired by the Father to preach for him the Son said He would or could not preach in their Churches because they were polluted but was content to preach in a Fire-house This was provided for him and the Company whereof his Father was one being convened he said I will tell you a sad truth Sirs You have been driven to Hell in a Coach this eight and twenty years and that old Stock my Father pointing to him has been the Coachman Mr. Kirkton in October last preaching on Hymns and Spiritual Songs told the People There be four kinds of Songs Profane Songs Malignant Allowable and Spiritual Songs Profane Songs My Mother sent me to the Well she had better gone her self for what I got I dare not tell but kind Robin loves me Malignant Songs such as He ho Gillichrankie and the King enjoys his own again against which I have not much to say 3ly Allowable Songs like Once I lay with another man's Wife Ye may be allowed Sirs to sing this but I do not say that ye are allowed to do this for that 's a great deal of danger indeed Lastly Spiritual Songs which are the Psalms of David but the Godless Prelates add to these Glory to the Father the wrost of all I have yet spoken of The same Kirkton in March the year before that in a Sermon upon Come into me all ye that are heavy and weary laden expressed himself thus Christ invites none to him but those that have a great burthen of Sins upon their back ay but beloved ye little ken what Christ is to day what Crafts-man do you think him now is there none of you all can tell me that Sirs truly then I must e'en tell you would you ken it now in a word then he 's a tell you would you ken it about to day Have ye any broken Hearts to mend bring them to me and I 'll soder them that is give them Rest beloved for that 's the words of my Text. Mr. Arskin in January last holding forth in the Tron Church concerning Noah's Ark said that the Wolf and the Lamb lodged most peaceably together in it and what do you think was the reason of this Beloved you may think it was a strange thing and so indeed it was Sirs but it was done to fufil that Prophecy of Isaiah Sirs The Wolf and the Lamb shall lye down together there 's a plain reason now for it Sirs On Sunday in January last immediately after the King had recommended to the General Assembly a Formula upon the Subscribing whereof by the Episcopal Presbyters he desired they might be re-admitted to the publick Exercise of the Ministry I heard one Mr. Webster a noted professor of the New Gospel lecturing upon Psal 15 On the 1st Verse he said That none but God could answer the Psalmist's Question there and therefore said he it does not belong to any Earthly King Prince or Potentate to determine who should be Officers in God's House or to prescribe Terms of Communion to his Kirk On the 2d Verse he said That it was necessary for God's People to walk uprightly that is said he never to betray the Cause of Christ's Kirk for sear of great Men Our way is God's own way and sure to stand stiff to that is the best way to please God and even great Men at the long run On the 3d Verse he appealed to the Consciences of his Hearers If Scots Presbyterians were not a holy harmless innocent sincere modest and moderate People and whatever is said to the contrary but Lybels Lies and Slanders On the 4th Verse he said That the Prelates Curates and Malignant Counsellors are the vile persons spoke of there and whom all the fear God are bound to contemn and despise especially said he because they have sworn to the hurt of the Kirk in taking the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy the Test and the Oath of Canonical Obedience and now think to expiate all this by subscribing a bare foolish Formula because King William forsooth has sent it to us as if the Presbyterians ought to admit or allow any Form but the Covenant About that same time I mean in January last Mr. Fraser of Bray at Edenburgh at the new Kirk pretending to preach upon this Text of the Revelation There was joy in Heaven Michael and his Angels fought against the Dragon and his Angels Michael and his Angels why no good Christian can doubt but by this we are to understand Christ and this Kirk and by the Dragon and his Angels is plainly meant the Prelates and Curates You see from this then Sirs betwixt whom this War and this Fighting was in Heaven and since they fight in Heaven for this Cause of the Kirk why should not we fight for it also upon Earth What needs our Kirk be affraid of Kings they are but men but we have Christ to fight for us and we are his his Angels and must fight with him till we destroy the Dragon Prelates and their Curate Angels Ah Sirs ye read says he that this Dragon's Tail swept down a third part of the Stars of Heaven I have a sad thing to tell you now Sirs Alas this Dragon's Tail has swept the North of Scotland for few or none of Christ Ministers are to be found there The same Frazer of Bray preaching at a Conventicle in the beginning of King James his Reign began his Discourse thus I am come here to preach this day Sirs in spite of the Curates and in spite of the Prelates their Masters and in spite of the King their Master and in spite of the Hector of France his Master and in spite of the Pope of Rome that 's both their Master and in spite of the Divil that 's all their Master SECT IV. Containing some few Expressions of the Presbyterian Prayers MR. James Kirkton said once in his Prayers O Lord restore our banished King Lord restore our banished King do not mistake my meaning Lord it is not K. James whom thou