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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	call_v	great_a	sin_n	1,506	5	4.4144	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43666	Ravillac redivivus, being a narrative of the late tryal of Mr. James Mitchel, a conventicle-preacher, who was executed the 18th of January last, for an attempt which he made on the sacred person of the Archbishop of St. Andrews to which is annexed, an account of the tryal of that most wicked pharisee Major Thomas Weir, who was executed for adultery, incest and bestiality : in which are many observable passages, especially relating to the present affairs of church and state / in a letter from a Scottish to an English gentleman.	Mitchel, James, d. 1678, defendant.; Hickes, George, 1642-1715.; Weir, Thomas, 1600?-1670, defendant.	1678 (1678)	Wing H1860; ESTC R10945	57,651	80

true this Hypothesis will never be able to solve those Diabolical Phaenomena in the Air. Some again think that the words and expressions of his Prayer were represented by the Devil upon the Stage of his Fancy after the same manner as when a man dreams he reads such a Letter or Book But he never was affected with any Consternations Tremblings or Abreptions of mind which both in true and false Prophets were the constant effects of such strong and violent impressions as were required to exhibit such unwonted representations upon the Imagination nor after his long Prayers were ended were his natural strength or Spirits exhausted as if his Devotion had been Visionary they must have been Others therefore considering him as an Apostate from God and as a Vassal and Apostle of the Devil think it very agreeable to Divinity to assert that he was immediately but yet without much violence inspired by the Devil and helped by him both in the Conception and utterance of his Prayers This they conceive the Evil Spirit might do like an assistant form by impregnating his Fancy with Enthusiastical conceptions and thereby rendring his Imagination very turgent and ready to swell above its banks which being done by the immediate Operation of the Evil Spirit the wretched 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 could not fail to burst forth in flumine Orationis or a full Torrent of Prayer and likewise be affected with such moderate Raptures as yet left him in a condition to understand what he said Furthermore to prevent all possible objections they say That if God suffered the Devil to counterfeit Prophetical Visions or the true Spirit of Prophecy under the Law then they know no reason why it should be thought inconsistent with his goodness or disagreable to his infinite wisdom to permit him under the Gospel to counterfeit Inspiration or the true Spirit of Prayer But for my own part had not the Monster himself ascribed his fluency in Devotion to the assistance of the Devil I should have wholly ascribed it to the vigour of his own Enthusiastical Imagination without any Foreign Force For not only his fluency in Prayer but the moderate Raptures and little extatic fits into which he was Transported are explicable by the natural power of unassisted Imagination as I could make it out by many examples and where a natural cause alone is sufficient to account for any effect I am always sparing to joyn with it a supernatural Cause All the while he was in Prison he lay under violent apprehension of the heavy Wrath of God which put him into that which is properly called Despair a Despair which made him hate God and desist from Duty to him and with which the Damned Souls in Hell are reasonably supposed to be constantly affected In this sence he was desperate and therefore would admit neither Church nor Conventicle-ministers to pray for him or discourse with him about the infinite mercy of God and the possibility of the forgiveness of his Sins Much less could he endure to be exhorted to repent or be brought to entertain any thoughts of Repentance telling all the World that he had sinned himself beyond all possibility of Repentance and Pardon that he was already damn'd that he was sure his Condemnation to Eternal burnings was already pronounced in Heaven and that the united Prayers of all the Saints in Heaven and Earth would be vain and insignificant if they were offered to God in his behalf So that when some charitable Ministers of the City by name the present Bishop of Galloway and present Dean of Edinburgh were resolved to Pray before him for his Repentance and Pardon against his consent he was with much difficulty withheld from interrupting of them in their devotions and the posture he put himself in when they began to pray was to lye upon his Bed in a most stupid manner with his Mouth wide open and when Prayers were ended being ask'd if he had heard them and attended to them he told them They were very troublesome and cruel to him and that he neither heard their devotion nor cared for it nor could be the better for all the Prayers that Men or Angels could offer up to Heaven upon his account It was his Interest to believe there was no God and therefore to ease the torments of his mind he attempted now and then to comfort and flatter up himself into this absurd belief For he was sometimes observ'd to speak very doubtfully about his existence in particular to say that if it were not for the terrors which he found tormenting him within he should scarce believe there was a God Being with great tenderness and compassion besought by one of the City-Ministers that he would not so resolvedly destroy himself by despairing of God's Mercy which upon Repentance had been granted to Murtherers Adulterers Sodomists Bestialists nay to those that had denyed Christ he replyed in anger Trouble me no more with your beseeching of me to Repent for I know my sentence of damnation is already seal'd in Heaven and I feel my self so hardned within that if I might obtain Pardon of God and all the Glories of Heaven for a single wish that I had not committed the sins with the sence whereof I am so tormented yet I could not prevail with my self to make that single wish And were your Soul in my Soul's stead you would find your exhortations impertinent and troublesome for I find nothing within me but blackness and darkness Brimstone and burning to the bottom of Hell I have been told by very credible Persons that the Body of this unclean Beast gave manifest tokens of its impurity as soon as it began to be heated by the Flames and certain it is that after it was burnt a report was presently sent from hence to the Brethren in the West that the Malefactor who was burnt for such execrable crimes was not Major Weir but another Person who exactly resembled him and whom the wicked Prelates and Curates had bribed to personate the Godly Major who was said to be gone with a contribution to the exiled Brethren in Holland and call himself by his name This report was believed in the West for several Months till time discover'd that the Major was no more As for Jane this incarnate Devils Sister she was very insensible of her great sins and was so far from remorse of conscience for them and despairing of the mercy of God as she did that she presum'd too much upon it placing a great deal of confidence in her constant adherence to the Covenant which she call'd in her Brother Mitchel's style the Cause and Interest of Christ She confessed indeed as he did that her sins deserv'd a worse death than she was condemn'd to dye but she never shewed her self in the least concern'd for what might ensue after death When she was upon the Ladder she bespoke the people in the following words I see a great croud of People come hither to day to

and very Holy young man till some of the Servants observed an extraordinary familiarity betwixt him and a young Woman who was the old Gardeners Wife Being possessed with this suspicion they observed him the more and one night as they were watching they saw his Mistris go to his Chamber which was a Summer-house built on the Garden wall The Key as it happened was left on the out-side of the door which one of those that watched observing gently locked the door upon them and immediatly ran to call his Master who came to the Garden to see what would be the event After they had been as long as they pleas'd together at last Hortensia comes to go out who to her great confusion finding the door locked steps back to the Adulterer who fearing that she should be taken with him immediatly let her down the Garden wall by the help of his Shirt she hanging at one end and he holding the other as naked as when he was born His Patron all this while beheld him like a filthy Priapus upon the Garden wall and the next day in great indignation discharged him of his service and house I suppose this is one of his particular and private sins which you 'l find him hereafter confessing in his Speech deserved a worse death than he endured Afterwards he came to Edinburgh where he lived some years in a Widows house called Mrs. Grissald Whitford who dwelt in the Cow-gate and with whom that dishonour of Mankind Major Weir was boarded at the same time By his Conversation it may be presumed that Mitchel improved much in the art of Hypocrisie and drunk in more deeply those Murderous and Treasonable Principles which he afterwards practised in the whole course of his life and justified at his death Now began he to Converse with the most Bigot Zealots against Auhority to frequent and hold Conventicles to Preach up the Covenant and to the utmost of his power to promote the Schism which was begun in the Church By these practises he much endear'd himself to his Tutor Major Weir who recommended him for a Chaplain to a Fanatical Family the Lady whereof was Neice to Sir Arch. Johnston Laird of Wareston one of the most furious Rebels against the late blessed King and greatest complyers with the late Usurpation in the Three Kingdoms and whom you may remember to have been President of the Committee of Safety for all which accumulated Treasons he was executed here in 1663. During his abode in this Family broke out the Rebellion of the Fanaticks in 1666. He no sooner heard of it but joyned with the Robels who were defeated at Pentland-hills Though Mr. Welsh as it is reported during the Fight prayed with up-lifted hands to the Lord of Hosts against Amalek as his Spirit moved him to miscall the Royal Forces and had his hands stayed up by some of his Brethren as Moses had his by Aaron and Hur Mr. Mitchel had the Fortune to escape from the Field but was afterwards proclaimed Traytor with many other principal Actors in the Rebellion and afterwards excepted by name in His Majesties Gracious Proclamation of Pardon that he might receive no benefit thereby From this time he skulked about and sheltered himself among the Rebellious Saints of the Brotherhood till the Devil tempted him to Assassin the Lord Primate for which he hath expiated by his blood Among others of his excellent qualifications I have told you what an utter Ignoramus he was I cannot forbear to tell you further that Welsh and Arnot and all the rest of them are full as illiterate as he and that their insuperable ignorance in Divine and Humane Learning is the Mother of their Murdering Zeal Indeed all the late Troubles upon the account of Episcopacy are chiefly to be ascribed to the shameful ignorance of Protestant Divines in Ecclesiastical Antiquity who looking no further back into the History of Religion than the time of the Reformation and some of them not so far did either hate Episcopacy as an Usurpation or else looked upon it as a meer human Constitution and so could not have that particular Veneration for it that was due to an Apostolical Ordinance so visibly founded in the Scriptures and which was the sole invariable Government of Gods Universal Church for above 1500 years Of this that excellent man Mr. Henderson was a deplorable example who though he was a man of great Temper and Prudence and very Learned in his way yet want of Antiquity of which he was so ignorant was the unhappy cause why he engaged for the Covenant against the King and the Church Had he spent but half so many hours in that as he did in the study of other things he had never moved so excentrically to the Church nor done those things for which he expiated with tears before His late blessed Majesty at Newcastle afterwards spending the short remainder of his life in a sorrowful Penitential Retirement for which he grew suspected by his Brethren of the Covenant who called him Apostat from the Cause There are many persons yet alive who can testifie this to be true which may teach all Divines how dangerous it is for them to live in ignorance of Ecclesiastical Antiquity which is so easily acquired and so useful to be known That comprehensive Genius Mr. Calvin wanted nothing but this to make him as Orthodox and Consummate a Divine as ever was in the Church of God for had he been but half as well versed in the more Primitive Ecclesiastical Writers as he was in St. Augustin he had never coin'd the notion of a Lay-elder defended the Horrible Decree or been exposed for so many absurdities by meek Cassander's Pen. But to conclude this Digression with Mr. Henderson there were very few among our Covenanting-ministers comparable to him for Prudence and Learning and yet even the lowermost Form of our former Presbyterians were Great men in comparison to these of the Remonstrator Faction who are all burning Zeal but no knowledge as you will perceive not only by the sequel of this Story but this Letter of an ignorant Minister that lately Revolted from our Church SIR I Received your Letter of the 15th of July wherein you say That on the first Wednesday of August you are to have a Presbytery you ought to have termed it a meeting of the Exercise and on the second Wednesday of August a Provincial meeting with your Bishop of Rothesay and once for all I desire you may take this for an absolute Answer First That God hath of a long time been dealing with my Conscience but especially since October last when I was called to Mul for Electing Mr. Andrew Wood Bishop I confess his want of the Irish language did stick with me besides many other things as well now as before about the Election of Mr. James Ramsey and all of you save one did then profess that they did stick with you also though now you have swallowed down that Pill

several Copies of his intended Speech whereof one was found in his Pocket and taken from him before he was carried out to Execution It is long and the former part containing nothing but Libellous reflections on the Privy Council the Justiciary Lords and the King's Advocate I shall content my self to send you a transcript of the latter I Acknowledge my particular and private sins have been such as have merited a worse Death unto me but I dye in the hope of the merits of Jesus Christ to be freed from those Eternal punishments due to me for sin Yet I am confident that God doth not plead with me in this place for my private and particular sins but that I am brought here that the Work of God might be made manifest and for the Tryal of Faith John 9. 3. 1 Pet. 1. 7. and that I may be a witness for his despised Truth and interest in this Land who am called to seal the same with my Blood And I wish heartily that this my poor Life may put an end to the persecution of the true Members of Christ in this Kingdom so much actuate by these perfidious Prelates and in opposition to whom and in testimony of the Cause of Christ I at this time willingly lay down my Life and bless my God that he hath thought me so much worthy to do the same for his Glory and Interest Finally concerning a Christian Duty in a singular extraordinary case and my particular Judgement concerning both Church and State it is evidently declar'd and manifested more fully elsewhere So farewel all Earthly enjoyments and welcome Father Son and Holy Spirit into whose hands I commend my spirit As to that particular Christian duty in an extraordinary case and his Judgement concerning Church and State manifested elsewhere he means a larger blasphemous Libel which he left behind him wherein he endeavours to justifie his fact It is very long but yet I beseech you to read it over and if you have not read Naphthali nor Jus Populi vindicatum which is a Reply to the Answer which the Bishop of Orkney whom this miscreant wounded made to Naphthali I am confident you must be surpriz'd with horrour and astonishmment to see such Un-christian Doctrines come from a Christian Pen. Yet the Primitive Churches never receiv'd the Apostolick Epistles with greater veneration than the Members of our Field-Congregations receive such discourses as this nor can any Church-man respect any ancient Ecclesiastical Writer half so much as they adore Naphthali which is written in the Defence of the Rebellion in 1666. and wherein this horrid mans attempt upon the Primate is commended for an Heroical Act and that cursed Book with Lex Rex Jus populi vindicatum and Mr. Rutherfords Letters are the Fathers and Counsels of our Fife and Western Whigs I have here subjoyned the Account of my self principles and foresaid practises as they were set down in a Letter to a Friend and another Declaration both written by me when first Conveened before the Lords Justices in the year 1674. The Coppy of my Letter Edinburgh Tolbuith February the 16th 1674. SIR ME who may justly call my self the least of all Saints and the chiefest of all Sinners hath Christ his Son our Lord called to be a Witness for his destroyed Truth and trampled on Interest by this Wicked Blasphemous and God-contemning Generation and against all their other perfidious Wickednesses Sir I say the confidence I have in your real Friendship and love to Christ his Truth People Interest and Cause hath incouraged me to write to you hoping that you will not misconstruct nor take advantage of my Infirmities and Weakness you have heard of my Indictment which I take up in these two particulars First as they term it Rebellion and Treason anent which I answered to my Lord Chancellor that it was no Rebellion but a Duty which every one was bound to have performed in joyning with that party And in the year 1656. Mr. Robert Lightonne being the Primate of the Colledge of Edinburgh before our Laureation tendered to us the national Covenant and solemn League and Covenant which upon mature Deliberation I found nothing in them but a short compend of the Moral Law only obliging us to our Duty towards God and Men in their several Stations and I finding that our then banished Kings Interest lay wholly included therein viz. Both the Oath of Coronation Allegiance c. And they being the then tessera of all Loyalty And My Lord it was well known that then many were taking the Tender and forswearing Charles Stewarts Parliament and House of Lords I then subscribed them both The doing of which My Lord Chancellor would have stood me at no less rate if all 's well known then this my present adhering and prosecuting the ends thereof doth now And when I was questioned what then I called Rebellion I answered That it is Ezra 7. 26. And whosoever will not do the Law of thy God and of the King c. But being questioned by the Commissioner before the Council there anent I answered as I said to My Lord Chancellor before in the year 1656. Mr. Robert Lightonne being then Primate of the Colledge of Edinburgh before our Laureation he tendered to us the national Covenant and solemn League and Covenant where he stopped me saying I wade you are come here to give a Testimony and then being demanded what I called Rebellion if it was not Rebellion to oppose His Majesties Forces in the face to which I answered My Lord Commissioner if it please your Grace I humbly conceive that they should have been with us meaning that it was the Duty of those Forces to have joyned with us according to the national Covenant at which answer I perceived him to storm But says he I hear that you have been over Seas with whom did you Converse there Answer with my Merchant My Lord. But saith he with whom in particular with one John Michel a Cousin of mine saith he I have heard tell of him he is a Factor in Rotterdam to which I conceded But saith he did you not Converse with Mr. Levingston and such as he To which I answered My Lord Commissioner I Conversed with our banisht Ministers to which he replyed banisht Ministers banisht Traytors he will speak Treason at the very Bar. Then he answered himself saying but they would call the shooting at the Bishop an Heroick Act To which I answered That I never told them of any such thing Question But where did you see James Wallace last Answ Towards the borders of Germany some year ago Quest But what ailed you at my Lord St. Andrews here pointing at him with his finger Answ My Lord Commissioner the grievous oppression and horrid Bloodshed of my Brethren and the eager pursuit after my own Blood as it appeareth this day to your Grace and to all His Majesties Honourable Council after which he commanded to take me away that they might see what

though for the honour of our Nature and Religion I wish no such stories were extant in the World Nay confident I am that when you have consider'd it in all the circumstances that attend it you will say that he who is the subject thereof was one of the most prodigious sinners that ever was extant of humane race For there 's nothing in History comparable to him nor I hope will ever be and had not our blessed Saviour told us that Men may be so wicked as to sin beyond forgiveness I could scarce have believ'd that any Man much less a Christian could have committed uncleanness in all specieses with Women Devils and Beasts But such a Monster was this Pharisee of whom I am going to give you an account which is partly taken out of the publick Register of our criminal Court and where that cannot relieve me from common fame the notoreity of the things related or the Authority of Persons of known Integrity and great Reputation in the World He was born and bred in the Western parts of this Kingdom which as it appears from the preceeding Narrative hath ever been the most Fanatical part of our Country and most disaffected to the King and the Church There he was early prepossessed with the principles of Schism and Rebellion which he shew'd upon all occasions particularly in the beginning of the late Rebellion wherein he was a forward stickler and by his extraordinary zeal for the Cause raised himself to a greater command in some Troop or Company than Men of his mean Original use to arrive unto here About the Year 1649. he had the great trust of the Guards of this City committed unto him under the quality of Major and from that time to the day of his Infamous Death was always called by the Name of Major Weir He behav'd himself in this Office with great cruelty and insolence towards the Loyal party being very active in discovering and apprehending the Cavaliers and bringing them to be arraign'd and try'd for their Lives He used to insult and triumph over them in their miseries and persecute them with all manner of Sarcasms and Reproaches when they were led out like Victims to publick Execution as many yet alive can testifie to the World In particular the barbarous Villain treated the Heroick Marquess of Montrosse with all imaginable insolence and inhumanity when he lay in Prison making his very calamities an Argument that God as well as Man had forsaken him and calling him Dog Atheist Traytor Apostate Excommunicate Wretch and many more such intollerable Names This cruel manner after which he used to outrage the poor Royalists pass'd among the people for extraordinary zeal and made them consider him as a singular Worthy whom God had raised up to support the Cause He studyed the Art of Dissimulation and Hypocrisie always affecting a formal gravity and demureness in his looks and deportment and employing a vast and tenacious memory which God had given him in getting without Book such words and phrases of the Holy Scriptures as might serve best in all companies to make him pass for an Holy and gifted Man He had acquir'd a particular gracefulness in whining and sighing above any of the sacred Clan and had learn'd to deliver himself upon all serious occasions in a far more ravishing accent than any of their Ministers could attain unto By these and other Hypocritical Arts he had got such a name for sanctity and devotion that happy was the Man with whom he would converse and blessed was the Family in which he would vouchsafe to pray For he pretended to pray only in the Families of such as were Saints of the highest Form insomuch that the Brethren and Sisters of these Precincts would shrive who should have him to exercise in their Houses and of those that liv'd at a greater distance some would come forty or fifty miles to have the happiness to hear him pray He had indeed but by what assistance will be seen hereafter a wonderful fluency in extemporary Prayer and what through Enthusiastical phrases and what through Extasies and raptures into which he would appear transported he made the amazed people presume he was acted by the Spirit of God Besides praying he used to exhort and bless the Families in which he prayed but he never undertook to Preach in them for fear of invading the Ministerial Province which certainly would have offended the Kirk After this manner and in this mighty reputation he lived till the Year 1670. which was the 70th year of his Age. When like the Tyrant Tiberius after so many Murthers and sorts of unnatural Lusts he was no longer able to endure the remorse of his awakened conscience but to ease the inquietudes of his guilty mind was forced to accuse himself which he first of all did among those of his own party and desired them to bring him to publick Justice to expiate for his abominable crimes But they considering what a confounding scandal and dishonour the Hypocrisie of such an eminent Professor would reflect upon the whole Sect did with all possible care and industry strive to conceal the Major's condition which they did for several months till one of their own Ministers whom they esteem'd more forward than wise revealed the secret to the Lord Abbotshall then Provost of Edinburgh who judging humane Nature uncapable of such horrid crimes as the Minister told him the Major had confessed concluded he was fallen into a phrenzy or high degree of melancholy and therefore courteously sent some Physicians of his own perswasion and acquaintance to visit him and Physick him for his distempered Brain But the Physicians returning to the Provost assured him that the Major was in good health and that he was free of Hypocondriack Distempers and had as sound intellectuals as ever he had had and that they believed his Distemper was only an exulcerated Conscience which could not be eas'd till he was brought to condign punishment as with cryings and roarings he desir'd to be Afterwards the Provost for his further satisfaction sent some Conventicle-Ministers to enquire into his condition and make a report thereof who finding it impossible to disguise the matter which now was Town-talk told his Lordship that the Major was not affected with melancholy but that the terrours of God which were upon his Soul urg'd him to confess and accuse himself The Provost thereupon began to conclude that he had good grounds to take publick notice of this affair and therefore without further enquiry sent the guards of the City to seize upon the Major and his Sister who was involv'd in his confessions and carry them both to the publick Goal There they were visited by Persons of all Sorts and Qualities Clergy-men Lay-men Physicians Lawyers Conforming and Non-conforming Ministers who all flocked thither to see this Monster and discourse with him about his horrible crimes They had not been long in Prison before they were brought to Tryal which was on the