portae inferorum non vincent eam tibi dabo claves c. inde per temporum successionum vices Episcoporum ordinatio Ecclesiae ratio decurrit ut Ecclesia super Episcopos constituatur omnes actus Ecclesiae per eosdem praepositos gubernetur cum hoc itaque divina lege fundatum sit miror Epist. 68. he calls the Ordination of a Bishop sub populi assistentis conscientiâ traditionem divinam Apostolicam observationem and instanceth in Act. 1. 15. and Epist. 65. upon occasion of a Deacon reproaching Rogatianus his Bishop Pro solitâ tuâ humanitate fecisti ut malles de eo nobis conqueri quum pro Episcopatus vigore Cathedrae autoritate haberes potestatem quâ posses de illo statim vindicari Meminisse autem diaconi debent quoniam Apostolos id est Episcopos propositos dominus elegit diaconos autem post ascensum domini in coelos Apostoli sibi constituerunt Episcopatus sui Ecclesiae ministros And Epist. 42. to Cornelius Bishop of Rome Hoc enim vel maximè frater laboramus laborare debemus ut unitatem à domino per Apostolos nobis successoribus traditam quantum possumus obtinere curemus Epist. 69. Christi qui dicit ad Apostolos ac per hoc ad omnes praepositos qui Apostolis vicarià ordinatione succedunt qui audit vos me audit Faith of the Apostles and 6 Not in the Faith of the holy Scriptures which command every Soul to be Subject to the higher Powers and which neither teach directly nor indirectly That the Episcopal Government is an Antichristian or the Presbyterian by Kirk-Sessions Presbyteries and Synods a Divine Institution or that the Magistrate hath no privative Power over Ecclesiastical Persons or in causes Ecclesiastical or that Passive Obedience to an unjust Sentence is as great a Sin as Active Obedience to an unrighteous Command c. Primitive Christians and 7 Not in the Faith of the holy Scriptures which command every Soul to be Subject to the higher Powers and which neither teach directly nor indirectly That the Episcopal Government is an Antichristian or the Presbyterian by Kirk-Sessions Presbyteries and Synods a Divine Institution or that the Magistrate hath no privative Power over Ecclesiastical Persons or in causes Ecclesiastical or that Passive Obedience to an unjust Sentence is as great a Sin as Active Obedience to an unrighteous Command c. Protestant Reformed Churches and particularly of the 8 Not in the Faith of the holy Scriptures which command every Soul to be Subject to the higher Powers and which neither teach directly nor indirectly That the Episcopal Government is an Antichristian or the Presbyterian by Kirk-Sessions Presbyteries and Synods a Divine Institution or that the Magistrate hath no privative Power over Ecclesiastical Persons or in causes Ecclesiastical or that Passive Obedience to an unjust Sentence is as great a Sin as Active Obedience to an unrighteous Command c. Church of Scotland whereof I am a poor Member that has been so wonderfully Carried on against so much Opposition Athanasius who flourished Anno Dom. 326. writing to Dracontius Elected to a Bishoprick and refusing it saith Quod si nullam omnino merâ—edem Episcopi functioni destinatam credis servatoremque â—ui eam ita instituit contemnis Damasus who flourished Anno Dom. 367. Epist. 4. de chorepiscopis Nullus ex Septuaginta discipulis quorum speciem isti gerunt nil de hoc quod Apostolis eorumque successeribus Episcopis specialiter debebatur legitur assumpsisse Epiphanius who flourished Anno Dom. 360. Haeres 75. writes thus Docet divinus Apostoli sermo quis sit Episcopus quis Presbyter cum dicit ad Timotheum qui erat Episcopus Presbyterum ne objurges Ambrosd de dignit sacerdot writes thus Claves illas regni coelorum in beato Petro cuncti suscepimus sacerdotes i. e. Episcopi for in the following Chapters he asserts That the Bishops in St. Peter received the Keys from Christ and the Presbyters from them Augustin ad Quod vult deum de haeresibus among other Heretical Opinions of Tom. 6. Aerius reckons this for one Quod docebat Presbyterum ab Episcopo nullâ differentiâ debere discerni De verbis dom Serm. 24. Dicit ergo qui vos Spernit meSpernit Si solis Apostolis dixit qui vos spernit me spernit Spernite nos si autem sermo ejus pervenit Tom. 10. ad nos vocavit nos in eorum loco constituit nos videte ne spernatis nos ne ad illum perveniat injuria quam nobis feceritis Ad Crescon Grammat l. 1. Attende etiam quod quemadmodum ad Titum cum explicaret Paulus qualis esse Episcopus debeat there he asserts Titus to have been a Bishop Non ergo solos qui ex circumcisione sunt sed eos maximè tales esse ait oportere tamen in doctrinâ sanâ redargui refellique ab Episcopo vaniloquos mentis seductores indubitatâ praeceptione firmavit There he saith That St. Paul commanded all Bishops in Titus to exhort and convince Gainsayers And in the next words he saith He looked upon that Precept as given to himself Unde hoc etiam mihi jussum esse cognosco hoc pro viribus ago Enarrat in Psalm 44. in our Translation the 45. 16. v. Pro patribus tuis nati sunt tibi filii Quid est pro patribus tuis nati sunt tibi filii patres missi sunt Apostoli pro Apostolis filii nati sunt tibi Constituti sunt Episcopi Hodie enim Episcopi qui sunt per totum mundum unde nati sunt ipsa Ecclesia patres illos appellat ipsa illos genuit ipsa illos constituit in sede patrum Apostolórum non ergo te putes desertam quia no vides Petrum quia non vides Paulum quia non vides illos per quos nata es de prole tua tibi crevit paternitas Contra literas Petil. lib. 2. c. 51. Cathedra tibi quid fecit Ecclesiae Romanae in quâ Petrus sedet in quâ hodie Anastasius sedet vel Ecclesiae Hierosolymitanae in quâ Jacobus sedit in quâ hodie Johannes sedet quare appellas Cathedram Pestilentiae Cathedram Apostolicam Chrysostome in his Homily on Ignatius saith he was Successor to St. Peter in the See of Antioch ordained by the Apostles ut tanto principatu dignus and in his Homilieâ— on Timoth. and Titus he expresses his opinion of Bishops as of an Apostolical Institution Perhaps it may seem superfluous to shew further how effrontedly this Antiepiscoparian speaks in saying He died in the Faith of the Primitive Christians but because the Presbyterians have the confidence to represent Hierom as a Patron of their Cause I will take a little more pains to shew how they have abused the World by this pretence in demonstrating that this Father held the
but says nothing by way of contrition for his Treasons Schisms and Rebellions which is in plain English Pharise-like to swallow a Cammel and strain at a Gnat. of Duty I have not wanted my own sinful infirmities and weakness So that I may justly say I have no righteousness of my own all is like filthy Rags But g What Episcopal Protestant doth not think himself bound to bless God upon the same account or doth not believe the same things of Jesus Christ or hath not the same trust and affiance in him though I hope better grounded than his is but he must make himself talk at this rate to insinuate to the People that he Suffered for preaching these Gospel-Truths blessed be God that there is a Saviour and an Advocate Jesus Christ the righteous and I do believe that Jesus Christ is come into the World to save Sinners of whom I am the chief and that through Faith in his Righteousness I have obtained Mercy and that through him and him only I desire to have a happy and glorious Victory over Sin Satan Hell and Death and that I shall attain unto the Resurrection of the Just and be partaker of Eternal Life I know in whom I have believed that h By citing part of this passage 2 Tim. 1. 12. he Jesuitically insinuates as if the whole were applicable to him and by consequence that he Suffered for the same cause as the Apostle did viz. for Preaching of the Gospel For the Verse begins thus For the which Cause I also suffer these things nevertheless I am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed and I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him he means either his Preaching or the Rebellious People to whom he Preached against that day as if he were put to Death for Preaching and they were persecuted for hearing the Gospel Preached he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day I i And do not Protestant-Bishops and their Clergy Preach Salvation in Christs name and Christs alone have in my poor Capacity Preached Salvation through his Name and as I have Preached so do I believe and with all my Soul I have Commended and yet I do Commend to all of you the riches of k See note i in the first Speech his free Grace and Faith in his name as the alone and only way whereby ye can be saved It may be many may think but I bless the Lord without any l Is there then no sollid ground to believe that a man who Blasphemously Preached Rebellion in the name of God and who preached it in Assemblies of Armed men in the Fields and who preached those Assemblies into a Marching Army and who Marched himself along with them in Arms I say is there no sollid ground to believe that such a man Suffered as an Evil Doer and not as a Martyr for Christ solid ground that I Suffer not as an Evil Doer and as a busie Body in other â—ens matters but I reckon not much upon that having the Testimony of my Conscience for it was the m Is it not great Blasphemy in this Traitor to compare his Lot first with the Lot of Christ who was put to Death for asserting that he was Messias and the Son of God And 2ly with the Lot of his faithful Witnesses who were put to Death by the Jews for maintaining that Jesus whom they had Crucified was the Messias and that God had Raised him from the Dead and had made him the only Mediator betwixt God and Man and that Salvation was to be had in no other name but his And likewise Suffered by the Gentiles for preaching against Idolatry declaring unto them That God who made Heaven and Earth was the only true God and that Jesus whom the Jews Crucified was raised from the Dead and was the great piacle for the sins of the World c. For which of these Truths or for what other Article of the Creed or for what Doctrine of the Gospel professed by the Catholick Church did this Blasphemer Suffer that he durst compare his Lot to that of Christ and the primitive Christians It is not the Suffering but the cause for which any man Suffers that can justify such a parallel otherwise all Malefactors might take the confidence to Baspheme as well as this Traitor and his Brethren who pretend to suffer for Christ and be conformed unto him in his Sufferings when they are put to Death for most Hainous crimes So that Execrable wretch †In Ravillaâ— Redivivus Mitchel declared in the Speech which he threw among the Spectators That he died a Witness for Christs despised Truth and Interest which God called him to seal with his Blood So Naphtali page 226. brings in those who were hanged at Edinburgh Decemb. 7. 1666. for the Rebellion at Pâ—â—tland-hills speaking thus We are Condemned by Men but this is our rejoycing the Testimony of our Conscience that we Suffer not as Evil Doers but for Righteousness for the Word of God and the Testimony of Jesus Christ. Would you know the Righteousness for which they Suffered It was their Covenant the Presbyterian Government and the Supremacy of the King in Sion Things and notions which the Primitive Christians never knew nor heard of nor whereof one title is to be found in their Writings or in the Word of God Lot of our blessed Lord himself and also the Lot of many of his eminent and precious Servants and People to Suffer by the World as Evil Doers yea I think it I have so far ground not to scare at such a Lot that I count it my Non-such honour and Oh what am I that I should have been honoured so when so many Worthies have n If the Worthies of the cause pant after this incomparable honour why doth not their mighty zeal and ambition render them impatient like some of the Primitive Christians who not being able to stay till God called them presented themselves before the criminal Tribunals fearing lest they might want an opportunity to dye for the name of Christ. Did the Covenanters so pant after the honour of Martyrdom we should see the Rebels render themselves in Troops to Authority and here men not Arraigned cry out in the chamber of criminal Justice and we were at Bothwel-Bridge we should see them throng to bear their Testimony at the Cross or in the Grass-Market of Edinburgh where Mr. Welsh hath foretold and I hope in this he is a true Prophet that he must glorifie God panted after the like and have not come at it and my Soul rejoyceth in being brought to a Conformity with my blessed Lord and Head and so blessed a Company in this way and Lot And I desire to pray that I may not be to any of you to day upon this account a o In the Scripture every thing or Person that is an occasion of a
ye will all give me now your Charity being within a little space to stand before my Judge and I pray the Lord That he may forgive them that did so misrepresent me but I thank the Lord whatever men have said of me concerning this that on the contrary I have been often dissuading from such Ways and Practices and of this my Conscience bears me Witness but here I would not have you mistake me as if I did approve of Ways and Practices contrary to the Word of God and that of our Covenanted and Reformed Religion and as I ever abhorred Division and Faction in the Church as that which tends to its utter ruine if the Lord prevent it not so I would in the Bowels of my Lord and Master if such a feckless one as I may presume to exhort and perswade both Ministers Nor in the Faith or Profession of the Apostles who both Taught and Practised the contradictions to the fore-mentioned Doctrines and whereof some for †See Rom. 16. 7. Eph. 4. 11. Gal. 1. 19. Rev. 2. 2. 2 Cor. 8. 23. Phil. 2. 25. there were more Apostles than Barnabas and Paul and the Twenty two especially so called were Bishops fixed to particular Diocesses as St. a Euseb. lib. 3. c. 23. John at Ephesus St. b Hierom. de Script Eccles. in Tit. c. 1. Mark at Alexandria c Euseb. lib. 3. c. 4. Tituâ— in Crâ—te James called the d Compare Matth. 13. 55. 27. 56. Marc. 15. 47. with John 19. 25. Lords Brother Son of Cleopas at e See the Authors quoted in Spalat l. 2. c. 2. 16. Hegesip apud Euseb. l. 2. c. 23. Hierom de Script Eccles. Gal. 2. 18 19. Acts 12. 17. Gal. 2. 12. Acts 21. 18. Acts 15. All which places shew That James was resident in Jerusalem and had some singular Ecclesiastical Authority and Presidency there Jerusalem not to mention f Euseb l. 3. c. 4. Hierom de Script Eccles. Timothy the first Bishop of Ephesus and the Angels of the Seven Churches in the Revelations whom universal Tradition hath delivered for Bishops of the Seven Asiatick Churches and Professors if there be any Fellowship of the Spirit any Consolation in Christ if any comfort in Love if any Bowels of Mercy that ye be like-minded having the same Love being of one accord of one mind in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself Phil. 2. 1. 3. Harmoniousness and Oneness in the things of God can never enough be sought after and Harmony and Unitedness in things that tend to the 3 He means the Presbyterian Government which according to them is Christs Interest Dignity Crown Kingdom Scepter Government and Royal Prerogative by which he Reigns as King in Sion Prejudice of Christs Interest can never enough be avoided and fled from And as I am willing to lay down my Tabernacle so also I Dye in the 4 Not in the Faith of the holy Scriptures which command every Soul to be Subject to the higher Powers and which neither teach directly nor indirectly That the Episcopal Government is an Antichristian or the Presbyterian by Kirk-Sessions Presbyteries and Synods a Divine Institution or that the Magistrate hath no privative Power over Ecclesiastical Persons or in causes Ecclesiastical or that Passive Obedience to an unjust Sentence is as great a Sin as Active Obedience to an unrighteous Command c. Faith of the Holy Scriptures and in the 5 Not in the Faith of the holy Scriptures which command every Soul to be Subject to the higher Powers and which neither teach directly nor indirectly That the Episcopal Government is an Antichristian or the Presbyterian by Kirk-Sessions Presbyteries and Synods a Divine Institution or that the Magistrate hath no privative Power over Ecclesiastical Persons or in causes Ecclesiastical or that Passive Obedience to an unjust Sentence is as great a Sin as Active Obedience to an unrighteous Command c. Nor in the Faith of the Primitive Christians who looked upon the Bishops as the Successors of the Apostles who derived upon them the same Ecclesiastical Authority which they received from Christ. Every one that is but tolerably versed in the Writings of the Primitive Christians must needs confess that this was the belief of the Primitive Catholick Church but to confute the shameful assertion of this ignorant Pseudo-Minister let us descend to particular Primitive The Office of a Bishop proved to be distinct from that of a Priest and of Divine Institution Writers and see what They say upon this Subject Ignatius in his Epistles insists wholly upon the avoiding of Heresie and Schism and the Avoiding of Schism is every where inculcated by him to consist in this That without the Bishop nothing be done and all with the advice of the Presbyters Heretofore some Paraphrastical Copies of this Fathers Epistles have gone abroad in the World in which could not be found the many places which the Fathers quoted out of them at least in the same words but since the Edition of the Medicaean Greek Copy by Is. Vossius and the two old Latin Copies by Bishop Usher which differ from the former Copies and agree with one another and wherein are found all the places quoted out of them by the Fathers and in the same Expressions wherein they are quoted no tolerable reason hath been given why they should not pass for pure and genuine neither by Blundell nor Salmasius who probably had written their Books against Episcopacy before they had seen these latter Copies nor our own †See their two Answers at the Isle of Wight and the Appendix to the Jus Divinum Minist Anglican Prop. 3. pag. 108. men who still cry down these Epistles without mentioning these latter Copies or distinguishing between them and the former This Father who was Bishop of Antioch Anno Dom. 69. and contemporary with St. John in his Epist. ad Magnes saith thus Vos decet non concuti aetate Episcopi sed Secundum virtutem dei patris omnem reverentiam ei tribuere Ad Smyrnens omnes Episcopum Sequimiâ—i ut Jesus Christus patrem Presbyterium ut Apostolos diaconos autem revereamini ut dei mandatum Nullus sine Episcopo aliquid operetur eorum quae convenit in Ecclesiam illa firma gratiarum actio Eucharistia reputetur quae sub ipso est vel quam utique concesserit Ubi utique apparet Episcopus illic multitudo sit quemadmodum utique ubi est Jesus Christus illic Catholica Ecclesia non licitum est sine Episcopo neque Baptìzare neque Agapen facere sed quod utique ille probaverit hoc est deo beneplacitum ut stabile sit firmum omne quod agitur Honorans Episcopum à deo honoratus qui occultum ab Episcopo aliquid operatur diabolo praestat obsequium Ad Ephes. Concurrite sententia dei etenim Jesus Christus incomparibile nostrum vivere patris sententia ut ipsi
THE Spirit of POPERY Speaking out of the Mouths of Phanatical-Protestants OR THE LAST SPEECHES OF Mr. JOHN KID And Mr. JOHN KING Two Presbyterian Ministers Who were Executed for HIGH-TREASON and REBELLION At Edinburgh August the 14th 1679. With ANIMADVERSIONS and the History of the Archbishop of St. Andrews his Murder extracted out of the Registers of the Privy-Council c. By an Orthodox Protestant 1 Pet. 4. 15 16. But let none of you suffer as a Murderer or as a Thief Yet if any Man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but glorifie God on this behalf Matth. 23. 13. 16 17. 27. 31 32. Wo unto you Hypocrites who for a pretence make long Prayers Ye fools and blind ye blind Guides you are like unto beautified Sepulchres fair without but full of dead mens bones and uncleanness within Fill ye up the measure of your Fathers for you are the Sons of them who killed the Prophets Luke 11. 49 50 51. Some of them they shall Slay and Persecute that the blood of all which was shed from the blood to the blood may be required of this Generation Matth. 7. 15. Beware of False-Prophets which come to you in Sheeps Cloathing but inwardly are Ravening-Wolves Gen. 49. 6. O my Soul come not thou into their Secret nor unto their Assembly for in their anger they Slew a Man 2 Tim. 3. 2 3 4 5. Boasters Proud Blasphemers Unthankful Unholy False-Accusers Incontinent Fierce Traitors Heady High-minded having the outward appearance of Godliness but denying the Power thereof from such turn away Dehinc ut quiescant porro moneo desinant maledicere malefacta ne noscant sua LONDON Printed by H. Hills and are to be Sold by Walter Kittleby at the Bishops-head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1680. THE PREFACE Wherein the Author of the Animadversions addresseth himself to the English-Dissenters especially the Presbyterians and shews the Jesuitical Tricks that have been used in the former Edition of these Speeches IN Writing the Animadversions upon these two treasonable and blasphemous Speeches and the History of the Archbishops Murder as a further Commentary upon them I have had a double regard to the English and Scottish Reader and have consequently said some things in both of them with respect to the one which may seem superfluous to the other The consideration I had to the former obliged me to cite and exemplifie many Scottish Acts of Parliament Orders and Proclamations of the King by his Privy-Council which had been needless but that without them it was not possible for any but a Scotsman fully to understand the meaning of those passages in the Speeches to illustrate which they are produced And the consideration I had to the latter hath made me insist much on the invalidity of the Kirk-Ministery and the Divine Institution of Episcopacy in doing of which I have cited the Latin Fathers in the Original and the Greek in Latin because this Language in Scotland among the men is almost as common as their Mother-Tongue But besides those things upon which I have largely insisted for the sake of the one of which the other had not so much need I have purposely insisted on other useful things upon the common account of both Particularly I have been elaborat in explaining most of those Texs of Scripture which the two Malefactors misapplied to themselves or their own Party and in citing out of the Kirk-Writers their Papal Jesuitical Murderous Schismatical and Rebellious Principles in doing of which I protest I have not said the fourth-part of what I was able to produce I have also here and there exemplified their Principles with their Practices and all this I have done without any at least without any material reflections upon the English-Dissenters for whose sake especially I have undertaken this small but tedious work For the conforming part of both Churches generally know enough to make them detest the Principles and Practices of our Jesuitical Separatists and so will read things of this nature not so much for instruction as delight and for our Scottish-Nonconformists especially those of the Field-Separation it would be lost labour to write Books for them who lye under as strong a prejudice against the Church-Writers as the most bigoted Papists do and like them are also terrified and prohibited by their Jesuitical Preachers from reading of any thing that is written by an Orthodox Protestant Pen. Therefore the principal design which I had in Publishing all this was for your sakes O ye Nonconformists from our Sister Church of England who have more ingenuity and who I cannot but believe are ignorant of the nature of our Separatists and their Separation because upon all occasions you appear as much concerned for them as if you thought that their Cause and yours were the very same Did you not take them for a more rational and innocent Sect than they are you would I am confident be ashamed to Correspond with them who are the shame of the Presbyterian Name You would not if you rightly understood them Defend their Separation Apologize for their worst Actions By sundry Libellous Pamphlets and most false and Seditious Discourses sent from Scotland and dispersed purposely in this our Kingdom of England especially in our City of London that the cause of these Disorders is sought to be shifted off the Rebels in Scotland and most unjustly cast upon King Charles 1st his lesser Declarat 1640. pag. 2. disperse their Calumniating and lying Stories and with your Interests and Purses support their tottering Cause You would not defend their unrighteous dealings rail at those who bring them to Condign Punishment and call their Fineings Imprisonments and Executions Persecution although they are Condemned upon the very same Account and Suffer for the very same Principles and Practices for which you rejoyce to see the Papists but especially the Jesuits Dye by the Executioners hand If you will not believe me read this little Book nay read but the Speeches and the History and if you please let the rest alone and then if you do not find that I Charge them truely expose me in Print for a Calumniator or Post me up for a Knave But if you find that the Presbyterian Sect of which these two Malefactors and the Archbishops Murderers were profess a Papal Soveraignty over your Native Prince and most of all the Doctrines if not all for which the Jesuits are Secluded both Kingdoms by Capital Laws then I beseech you nay I conjure you as you would be thought true and impartial Protestants or men of common Ingenuity not to favour or approve in the Presbyterian what you abhor in the Popish Priests and People nor to call the Execution of wholsom and necessary Laws Tyranny and Persecution with respect to the one which you declare to be Laudable Justice on the other How have both you and the Conforming-Protestants applauded the Zeal and Justice of your Magistrates in Executing your Laws upon the former and yet you
revile and hate those who Execute our Laws upon the latter though their Principles are as incompatible with the Government and call the Church-Protestants Papists or say they are Popishly affected when you hear them like good Subjects rejoyce at the news of their Defeats or express their satisfaction that they Suffered as the nature of their Crimes deserved I say Their Principles are as incompatible with Who under the Mask and Vizard of Religion seek to Sâ—bvert all Monardâ—â—al and Civil Government King Ch 〈…〉 his lesser Declaration 1640. p. 3. Government and the common Security that every man ought to have in Human Societies and that they would be extirpated out of any Protestant Government of the World as the Jesuits were once out of France and many other Popish Countreys but Ours and Yours and yet when a Parcel of them a Year ago were sent on Ship-board into the Thames in order to be Transported according to Law you made as great a stir about it with the King and his Secretary for this Kingdom as if they had been the most Innocent and Orthodox-Protestants in the World Had they been Jesuited Papists we should all have rejoyced but had they been so many of either Churches Communion especially of those whom you invidiously call High-flown Church-men though in Charity I believe you would have been sorry for them yet I doubt if you would have taken half that pains to prevent their Transportation have given them half so much Money or upon their account have cryed out Tyranny half so much In like manner when the Highlanders about two years since were brought down under the Conduct of their Chiefs into those Shires where at least five parts in six are of this Jesuitical Sect What Tragical outcries did you make at London though if the Papists should have kept such frequent and numerous Field-Conventicles in the Popish Shires of England at a time when the Kings Standing Forces were not able to dissipate the tenth part of them you would have thought it both lawful expedient and laudable to have sent Thousands of People from Protestant Shires to Quarter among them for a little while till other expedients could have been found You know very well that the first Discoverer of the Horrid Popish Plot hath declared to all the World That Jesuits were sent into Scotland about the same time that they began to Field-Conventicle to encourage them to Rebel and disturb the Ministery of the Duke of Lauderdale and yet you are so confident as to contradict him in this particular reporting in favour of our Jesuited Presbyterians That there was no need for such a Force to over-rule them but that they were brought upon them purposely to provoke them to Rebel I must also remind you of the innumerable Lyes you dispersed I cannot believe you rais'd them of the Devastations Murders Robberies Rapes c. committed by the Highlanders among those Presbyterian Jesuits though there were as few and as small disorders committed by them as ever was by the like number not only of Soldiers but Men. For they are not Barbarians as you Styled them unless it be in the same sence that the Greeks and Romans called all other People Barbarous that spoke not their Languages and wore not the Pall and Gown No I assure you they are a very Civil Generous and Governable People who committed not half so many nor so great disorders in that expedition as the Soldiers who were levied about the same time in England did about the places where they lay Did any of them do such a Barbarous action not to mention others as that of Captain upon Sir Robert Viners Daughter if they did let it be published but if they did not then I beseech you be not accessory to such lying Stories again But the Loyal Highlanders were from the beginning Malls to the Covenant and Covenanters and this is the true ground why our Presbyterians in the first place and you by contagion from them in the second hate and defame them so much For the very same reason you are directed by them to Calumniate the great name of his Grace the Duke of Lauderdale The Church is supported upon and our Pestilent Sectarians crush'd under his Ministery and therefore you Conspire to represent him as a Tyrant Papist and what not Though some of the most Considerable among you know him to be a man of great Moderation and Piety and one who abominates Popery from his heart I think fit also to mind you of the Misrepresentations which you made of the Archbishops Murder endeavouring to lay it elsewhere than at the door of that Phanatical Party who brought his Grace as the Jesuits have done greater men to Ehuds Dagger and Gideons Sword I have made a True Narrative of it and of the Jesuitical Principles upon which it was Committed on purpose that you seeing of what manner of Faith and Spirit this direful Sect are may Befriend them no longer but shew your selves sincere Protestants in abhorring the worst part of Popery in them aswel as in Papists properly so called Furthermore I cannot but tell you that I am very much offended at the spiteful manner after which you have Treated the Church and her Clergy ever since the Discovery of the Popish-Plot I have seen the Narratives of your Essex and Leicester-shire Elections and have read the Books which your Rabbies have lately put out and comparing them with other Phanatical shall I call them or Popish Libels methinks I find little of the Ancient Puritan Spirit among you but that you have deviated ten times further from their Principles than the Divines in Celeusma are falsly represented to have deviated from the Doctrines of the Church Nay to deal plainly with you you seem to have much of the Covenanting Spirit among you and if you stop not in time I am afraid that as many Acts of Parliament must be made in your Countrey for the protection of the Clergy as have been made in ours What are you not ashamed to Assault the Church on one side while the Papists Storm her on the other A Church of all the Reformed most hated by the Papists and whose Clergy alone hath done much more against Popery than the Divines of all Reformed Communions in the World And yet you are not ashamed to misrepresent this very Clergy to the people for Papists or Papishly affected a Clergy whose Writings all Foreign Protestant Divines study English on purpose to understand and which at this day praised be God for it can produce more Great men than the Greek and Latin Churches put together in the most flourishing Century could ever shew at a time But this is not to act like Protestants but Papists or whatsoever else you will call those who endeavour to ruine the Fortress of the Protestant Cause And truly while some of your leading Dissenters openly avow that they are neither Presbyterians nor Independents c. Nor of any other known name do they
will be mightily endangered if not destroyed by the latter not only the Baptizing of Infants the Observation of the Lords-day the Admission of Women to the Holy-Communion who were not as Cassand observes admitted to the Paschal Lamb which it succeeded nor can it be expresly proved out of the New Testament that ever they received it but the Order and Authority of Presbyters to Administer it nay the use of both the Holy Sacraments which the Vid. Apol. Relig Reform by Barclay Quakers say was a Temporary Institution and the Divine Authority of the Scriptures in general upon which the Christian Religion depends But I hear that one intends to do this in a particular Tract wherein he also designs to shew That scarce one particular of the Christian Religion except the Authority of the Scriptures in general hath been so little contested as Episcopacy and Episcopal Ordination wherein for above 1400. years the Hereticks agreed with the Catholick Church This being so it may easily be discerned to what cause we ought chiefly to ascribe that Deluge of Atheism and utter contempt of Religion which hath overflowed the Land You have been the main occasion of it the Atheists as well as the whole Brood of Sects are your though I confess Equivocal Offspring and to give them their due they have not been ingrateful but always serviceable to you and upon all occasions have joined with you in your main designs against the Bishops and the Church However it is the Churches unhappiness yet it is not Her dishonour that She and Her Clergy have you and them your Allies for their Common Enemies you joyn hand in hand against them and endeavour to cover their Faces with shame and fill their Souls with contempt But I desire you seriously to consider whether your ingratitude to God for such a Church and your contempt and forsaking of such a Clergy who have always been such faithful and invincible Champions against the Papists be not one of those crying Sins which have justly provoked God to threaten us with Popery and which may at length urge him to bring you under the King of Babylon both for your Punishment and Cure I believe you will be offended at me for what I have said of the necessity of Episcopal and invalidity of Presbyterian Orders but I have said no more of this Subject than Bishop Against Champney page 118. Fern who asserts that the latter are to be accounted void within the Church of England and every compleat and regularly formed Church Or Bishop Answer to the third Epist. of Pet. Moulin Andrews who asserted That the Reformed Church of France in wanting Episcopacy wanted something which was of Divine Right Or King In his first Paper to Mr. Henderson Charles the First who asserted That by the alteration of our Church-Government we should be deprived of a Lawful Priesthood c. Or in effect then Apocalypsis Apocalypscos page 130. Dr. More who on Rev. 13. 11. makes Episcopacy to be the Horns of the Lamb which were upon the Beasts or Antichrists Head Or last of all then In his Separation of Churches Mr. Dodwell who as I am assured from very good Judges hath unanswerably shewed the nullity of these by the necessity of having those in every visible Church I have not yet seen the Book but I am confident I am rightly informed about it because I find Mr. Baxter so angry both at it and the Author in his last Book I shall say no more than this That if this Doctrine be true then you who maliciously oppose the Divine Institution or who by virtue of Presbyterian Orders Sacrilegiously presume to Administer the Sacraments in opposition to our Episcopal Communions within the British Isles have a sad account to give without Repentance to the Head and Founder of the Catholick Church Edinburgh Jan. 5. 1679. 80. The Author having met with King Charles the Firsts Declaration concerning his Subjects of Scotland 1640. since he finished his Animadversions thought fit to add what follows out of the 56 57 and 58 Pages for the further illustration of what is said of the Letter of the Covenanting Lords to the French King in the 30th Page BUT to fill up the measure of their Treasons they have endeavoured to settle Intelligences in parts beyond the Seas and practised to let in Foraign Power into that Our Kingdom as We are able to make appear under the hands of some of the chiefest of them as if the fire which by their own Rebellions they have already kindled within the bowels of that State were not sufficient to consume it unless they added fuel to it from abroad And herein appears first their malignity to Us their Natural Soveraign in that they had rather prostitute themselves to Foraign Government and that such as is different in Religion than yield conformity to Ours But because the World shall see that We charge them not but upon very good and sure grounds We have thought fit to set down here their own Letter Of which We have given Our good Brother the French King accompt being confident he will not assist any Rebels against Us. The Letter follows with this endorsement Au Roy which in France is always understood from those Subjects only to their Natural Prince SIRE VOstré Majesté estant l'asyle sanctuaire des Princes Estats affligéz nous avous trouvé necessaire d'envoyer ce Gentilhome le Sieur de Colvil pour representer à V. M. la candeur naiveté tant de nos actions procedures que de nos intentions lesquelles nous desirons estre gravées escrites à tout â—univers avec un ray du Soleil aussy bien que V. M. Nous vous Supplions doncques treshumblement Sire de â—â—y adjouster foy creance a tout ce qu'il dira de nostre part touchant nous nos affaires estant tresasseurés Sire d'une assistance eigale a Vostre clemence accoustumee cydevant si souvent monstrée a ceste Nation laquelle ne cedera la gloire á autre quelconque d'estre eternellement Sire de V. M. Les treshumbles tresobeyssants tressaffectionnés Serviteurs Rothes Montrose Leslie Mar. Montgomery Loudoun Forrester Englished thus SIR YOur Majesty being the Refuge and Sanctuary of afflicted Princes and States we have found it necessary to send this Gentleman Mr. Colvil to represent unto Your Majesty the candor and ingenuity as well of our actions and proceedings as of our intentions which we desire to be engraved and written to the World with a beam of the Sun as well as your Majesty We therefore most humbly beseech You Sir to give faith and credit to him and to all that he shall say on our part touching us and our affairs being most assured Sir of an assistance equal to Your wonted clemency heretofore and so often shewed to this Nation which will not yield the glory to any other whatsoever to be eternally Sir Your Majesties most humble most obedient and
before them and craving their pardon that he had accepted of it as †The Epistle Dedicatory to Bishops Halls Episcopacy Graham Bishop of Orkney did his forsaking of his Negative power by a contract with his Presbyters and committing all Church-Affairs to their sole management not to mention the remitting of their Canonical Oath would have been as Sacrilegious a concession as a Bishop quatenus such could make He had thereby virtually reduced himself into a Presbyter which the Primitive Church did abhor as †Can. 29. Concil Chalced Math. Blastar Cap. 28. in E. Sacrilege and would undoubtedly have deprived and Excommunicated if not Anathematised any Bishop that durst have been so perfidious to the Apostolick cause But yet though beyond all example he cut the very Nerves of Episcopal Jurisdiction in these Articles of Accomodation the Nonconform Ministers scornfully rejected them and wrote against them in a book intituled The Case of Accomodation c. Printed in 4 o 1671. the Godly and 17 There is not one Learned man among them unless he be a Priest for so custom emphatically calls the Romish Presbyters or a Jesuit in Masquerade Learned that are of another judgment I judge it fit likewise in this case to leave my Testimony 18 Last Summer was Twelve-month the Convention of Estates gave his Majesty a Five-months Tax or 30000l Sterling a year for five years successively to maintain a Regiment of Foot and 3 Companies of Dragoons and 3 Troops of Horse for suppressing of the Field-Conventicles This Act was like to be such a Blow to the Cause made up of Faction and Schism that it was vigorously opposed under some colour or other by an insignificant contrary Party who were not the Sixth part of the House And as soon as it was passed the Field-Preachers who had told the people before that the Convention would come to nothing fell immediately to Preach against the Five-months Tax telling them that it was given by the enemies of Christ to drive him out of the Kingdom and that it would be as great a sin to pay it as it was to Judas to betray Christ. Nay they told them that this was the day of Christs enemies and the power of darkness and the very Nick of temptation which God permitted to trie whether they would have Christ for their King or no and charged them as they would answer it before them at the great day not to forsake him contrary to their Holy Covenant by sinfully complying with such an Antichristian Act. Their people upon this were so affrighted that many of them rather than pay the Cess will suffer distreint and in particular the Earl of Dundonalds chief servant fell perfectly distracted by trouble of Conscience for having assisted his Lord at Renscot in laying the Cess upon that Shire And the very same Sanctified Ruffians who murdered the Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews in Fife had several days before laid wait for the Collectors of this Tax against the stent taxation cess that hath been so unjustly imposed so irrelevantly founded and vigorously caried on by the late Convention of Estates and meerly upon no other account imaginable but to make a final extirpation 19 i. e. of Christ as King in Sion of the Covenant of the Presbyterian Government that Pattern in the Mount of Christ his Gospel and Ordinances out of the Land and how lamentable it is to consider how many Professors did willingly pay it and were most forward for others to do the same In the next place though to many I die desired yet I know not to a few my death is not desired and it s the rejoycing of my heart that I die in the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath loved me and given himself for me and in the Faith of the Apostles and Prophets and in the Faith that there is not a name under Heaven by which men can be Saved but by the name of Jesus and in the Faith of the Doctrine Worship and Government of the Kirk of Scotland as it is now Established according to the Word of God Confessions of Faith Catechisms larger and shorter like as I leave my Testimony against Popery Perjury Prophanity Prelacy Heresie and every thing contrary to sound Doctrine In the close as a dying Person and as one who hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be Faithful I would humbly leave it on the Godly Ministers to be faithful for their Lord and Master and not to hold their peace in such a day when so many ways are taken for injuring him his Name nay his Sanctuary Ordinances Crown and Kingdom 20 Well threatned false Prophet I hope there will be found a Party in this Land that will contend for him and his matters upon all hazards and as faithfulness is called for in Ministers so Professors would concern themselves that they countenance not nor abate any thing that is inconsistent with their former principles and practices I have a word to add further that God is calling persons to repentance and to do their 21 To assert the Covenant first Works O that Scotland were a mourning Land And O that Reformation were our practice according as we are Sworn in the Covenant Again Christians of grace and experience would study more stability and straightness in this day when so many are turning to the right hand and so many to the left 22 Consider how Blasphemously he applies this Scripture He that endures to the end shall be saved he hath appointed a Kingdom for such as continue with him in his temptations Next as ever ye would expect to have the Form of the house of God shewed you in all the Laws thereof goings 23. Of the Presbyterian Government Discipline out thereof and comings in thereof then think it no shame for you for all that hath been done sitting down on this side Jordan is like to be our bane Oh when shall we get out and run after him with all our hearts and never rest till he return I commend my Wife and poor young ones to the care and Faithfulness of the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob the God that hath led me to this day and who is the God of my Salvation be their God and my God their Father and my Father I am also hopeful that Christian Friends and Relations will not be unmindful of them when I am gone Lastly I bear my Testimony to the Cross of Christ and Bless him that ever he counted me worthy to appear for him in such a Lot as this Glory to him that ever I heard of him and that ever he fell upon such a method of dealing with me as this And therefore let none that loves Christ and his righteous Cause be offended at me and as I lived in the Faith of this that the three 24 Married to God by the Solemn League Covenant See more in Notes upon W. Kingdoms are married Lands
Christians forsaking or falling off from Christ or the Christian Religion is Metaphorically called a Scandal a Stone of Stumbling and a Rock of Offence and any man even our blessed Redeemer who spoke did or suffered any thing that accidentally deterred others from believing in Christ or that gave him occasion to desert him or his Doctrine is said to have offended or Scandalized them or given them offence in which sense 1 Cor. 1. 23. Christ is said to be a Scandal or Stumbling-block to the Jews and Luk. 7. 23. saith our Saviour Blessed is he that shall not be offended in me i. e. who shall not take occasion to disert or deny me at the time of my Sufferings see also Matth. 17. 27. 18. 6. 26. 31. 33. Therefore this Basphemer here applyes to himself the very words of the Apostle speaking of Christ crucified nay the very words of Christ himself to induce the poor People to believe that the very cause of the Covenanters is the very cause of Christianity and so deter them upon the Execution of the Rebels from quitting the cursed Rebellious cause Stone of Stumbling or a Rock of Offence and blessed is he that shall not be offended in Christ and his poor Followers and Members because of being Condemned by the World as evildoers As for those things for which Sentence hath passed against me I bless the Lord my p Is not this in effect to assert with the Jesuits That a good intention or meaning doth hallow a bad Action heart doth not Condemn me Rebellious I have not been neither do I judge it to be Rebellion for me to have indeavoured in my capacity what possible I could for the born-down and q He means by Episcopacy and Supremacy with respect to the former of which the Interest of Christ was universally ruined from the time of the Apostles till the French-Reformation and with respect to the latter from the time of Constantine the first Christian Emperour till the time when the Popes under the pretended Vicarship of Christ the King of Sion Subjected the Empire unto the Church And therefore good Christian People is not this a blessed cause which must have obliged Christians to separate from the Catholick Church in the purest times the age of the Apostles for they were Bishops and the age next unto them and to have rebelled under a pretence of Religion and defending the Interest of Christ against the first Christian Emperors to whom the Greek and Latin Churches attributed as much Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Matters and over Ecclesiastical Persons as the English and Scottish do to the King They a 1 Con. Nicen. by Constant. 1 Con. Constantinop by Theodos. Sen. Con. Eph. by Theodos. Junior Con. Chalced by Marcion convocated general Councils fat in them among the Patriarchs Bishops and Presbyters made b Syn. Oecumen Octava Where are the Speeches and Subscriptions of Basilius the Emporor and Leo. Orâ—tions upon Ecclesiastical matters to them and by their c Syn. Oecumen Octava Where are the Speeches and Subscriptions of Basilius the Emporor and Leo. Subscriptions consented to and confirmed what was determined therein And Councils wherein they did not sit used always to beseech them to d Epist. Concil Constantinop 1. ad Theodosium ratify their Decrees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They had power to e Can. 12. and 16. Concil Chalced. Balsam in 16. can Concil Carthag erect new Bishopricks to abolish old ones to f As Theodosius in the Election of Nectarius dispense with the Ecclesiastical Canons and to order many things in Church-Matters which were not defined therein as is plain out of the Code and Novelles and the Capitularia of the ancient French Kings They were Priviledged to come to the g 69. Can. Concil Sexti in Trullo Altar when all other Laies were forbidden and the Clergy to shew how sacred their Persons were and that the concerns of the Church ought to be their chief care h Grot. de imperio summar potest c. 2. 7. called them Priests and Bishops which in these days would pass for Episcopal tantivies as the traiterous Author of the Appeal thinks he wittily speaks There consent was requisite to the Election of Bishops nay they often nominated the Persons to be Elected and had power to i Novil 3. c. 1. Sancimus igitur The reason which the Emperor Justinian gave for that Law was the excessive number of the Clergy which was disproportionate to the Places and Revenue of the Church The Law and the Preface to it deserves to be considered by the Right Reverend and worthy Fathers of our Church forbid the Bishops to Ordain which by the leave of the Romish and Kirk-Writers I take to be a Privative power Lastly They had a power to suspend †Novil 123. c. 1. Sancimus igitur quoties Episcopum opus fuerit ordinari sed etiam illum qui praeter hoc persumpserit ordinare segregari uno anno a sacro ministerio Bishops and Presbyters and also to k Cod. l. 1 Tit. 1. 6. Anathematizamus Nestorium 2. Eutychetem 3. Apollinarium Anathematize Hereticks which signified a power of pronouncing them rightly and duly Anathematized and of doing many other things with respect to the Church-matters and Church-men and because the two Sister-Churches and their Clergy assert as much power to be due to the King in such Causes as the Kings of Judah and the Christian Emperors had therefore the Kirk-Preachers call them l The Author of the Apology Episcopal-Erastian Churches and their Ministers and Bishops Court-Parasites and when they argue from the example of the best Judaean Kings and the most Pious Christian Emperors m Calder-Woods altare Damâ—scenum Naturâ insitum est omnibus regibus odium in Christum The same is to be found in Rutherfords Lex Rex They can tell them by Authority that in all Kings there is a natural enmity against Christ nay they tell the People that the Bishops and their Clergy have ruined the Interest of Christ and that if they will have Christ for their King they must rise up to destroy the Idol of Supremacy and Antichristian Prelacy which supports it and therefore this miserable Wretch being conscious to himself of so good a Cause saith His heart did not condemn him of Rebellion for having endeavoured in his poor capacity to uphold the born-down and ruined Interest of Christ. I once had the diversion to hear a Kirk-Disciple rail at the Rescinding Act and Act of Supremacy which gave me occasion to shew what great power the Greek and Latin Churches granted to be due to the Christian Emperors in Church-matters to which he answered me That it was always natural to Clergy-men to flatter Kings and Emperors and great men just as I have read in one of the Letters which Mr. sent to all the Bishops of Scotland That Pride was always a natural sin to the Clergy which he spoke upon the
eos quos baptizaverat suos putabat esse non Christi in toto orbe decretum est ut unus de Presbyteris electus super poneretur caeteris ad quem omnis Ecclesiae cura pertinereâ— schismatum semina tollerentur Having now shewed that the Primitive Christians believed the Function of a Bishop to be distinct from that of a Presbyter and Superior to it and that the Bishops were the Successors of the Apostles and of Christs institution as they were I hope it is plain that this Antiepiscopal Deceiver dyed not in the Faith of the Primitive Christians as he hath the impudence here to profess From what I have here said of the Episcopal Office and Authority I may draw some Corollaries First that the Primitive Catholick Church acted in Conformity to its own Profession in declaring Aerius as an Antiepiscoparian an Heretick Secondly that Church-Government is not indifferent but that the †Episcopos esse in Ecclesiâ debere tanquam institutionem Apostolicam ac ordinationem proinde divinam contra Puritanos contraque Bellà rminum semper sensi qui negat Episcopos à deo immediatè suam jurisdictionem accepisse Sed nihil mirum à Puritanis eum stare quum Jesuitae nihil quà m Puritano-papistae â—int This was the Judgment of King James as is observed by Becanus de Prim. regn Angl. c. 7. Jacobi regis praefat Monar Episcopal is immediately of Apostolical and mediately of Christs institution and by consequence at least as unalterable as the Baptism of Infants and observation of the Lords-Day which the Presbyterians with good reason declare that the Magistrate ought not to change or take away Thirdly that it is Blasphemy to say that Episcopacy is an Antichristian usurpation over the Church Fourthly that to assert with the Covenanters that the Presbyterian-Government is of Divine institution is an Unscriptural Heretical and absurd Doctrine contrary to the Word of God and the practice and profession of the Holy Catholick Church And as this Jesuited Presbyterian died not in the Faith or Profession of the Primitive Christians so he died not in the Faith of the Reformed Churches First not of the Church of England which is Governed by Bishops like the Primitive Churches and after the warrant of their example hath Instituted Ceremonies and worships God by Liturgical Forms Nor secondly of the Reformed Church of France which submits to the regulation of the Edict of Nantes which is a pure and Secular Edict and which hath always worshipped God by a Common-Prayer-Book and observes Holy-days as Christmas Easter and Whitsunday and which reverences Protestant Bishops after the example of Calvin and Beza their first Reformers and owns Ministers Ordained by them and are never without some such in their Church And whos 's †The Kings larger Declaration pag. 75. Pastors especially those of Charenton were offended at the Solemn League and Covenant as an indelible Scandal to the Protestant Cause as also the Professors Ministers and Consistory of Geneva and their neighbour Reformed Churches as was certified to King Charles the First by his Publick Ministers abroad Nor lastly died he in the Faith of the Reformed Church of Scotland which never professed Episcopacy to be an unlawful or Antichristian Constitution c. as may be seen in the Larger and Lesser Scoticane Confession in the Harmony but I suppose he means the Covenanted Reformed Church that Schismatical Military Church which was and is the Reproach of the Protestant or Reformed Name by the mighty 9 So he calls the incurable obstination of the Presbyterian Party in Schism against the Episcopal Church and Faction and Rebellion against the State Power Goodness and Wisdom of God I bear my witness and Testimony to the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government of the Kirk of Scotland by 10 A great * Presbyteries Tryal pag. 50. Apostle of the Covenant said in the Pulpit that the Angels and Saints of heaven if they could leave the sight of God would be glad to come down and see the admirable order of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland by Kirk-Sessions Presbyteries and Synods Which Platform being no where to be found in the Scripture made many that had cryed up the Presbyterian Discipline for a Divine Institution tuâ—â— Independents Quakers and Atheists and condemn it as in truth it is for a meer human invention Which if Mr. Calvin had not hit upon and set up in that exigence in Geneva had never been known to the Western no more than to the Eastern parts of Christendom at least to great Britain where it hath been taught in both Kingdoms without any ground in the Scriptures or Antiquity for the sole indispensable government of the Church †King Charles his larger Declarat pag. 67. The National Covenant is that which in the Harmony is called Generalis Confessio it was first Subscribed by King James of blessed Memory and his Household 1580. and by Persons of all Ranks 1581. by an Ordinance of the Privy-Council and Act of General-Assembly It was Subscribed again by all sorts of Persons 1590. by a new Ordinance of Council at the desire of the General Assembly with a general Bond for maintaining the true Religion and the Kings Person and so far Authority permitting or commanding it all was well But then afterwards in †See the Declaration in w. on the first Speech and the Kings larger Declarat pag. 68 69 70. 1638. without the Kings Authority or Commission from his Council they imposed it again according to a new Interpretation of their own although no Authority can interpret any Oath Law or Rescript but that which made it or those whom they who made it have Constituted Interpreters and Judges thereof The new Interpretation was That this Confession was to be interpreted and understood against all the pretended Innovations as if every one of them had been expressed therein viz. The Five Articles of Perth the Service Book the Book of Canons the High-Commission and Episcopacy it self although these things were neither named nor hinted at in that Confession whereof the first Framers only abjured in it those Romish Corruptions which in their time had infected the Church Besides all this they altered the Bond which was annexed to the former Confession by adding these words without authority A mutual defence of one another against all Persons whatsoever by which what they meant the King by woful experience found The Copy of this Confession may be seen in the forecited larger Declaration of the King Kirk-Sessions Presbyteries Synods and General-Assemblies Also I bear my Witness and Testimony to our Covenants †National and Solemn-League betwixt the three Kingdoms which Sacred and Solemn Oath I believe cannot be dispensed with nor loosed by any person or Party upon earth but are fully binding these Nations and will be so ever hereafter Also I bear my Testimony to our publick Confessions of Sin and engagements to Duty and that either as to what concerns
the Reformation of our Families or Persons or the Reformation of the whole Church in general As also to the Causes of 11 A Seditious and Blasphemous Book so called which was burnt in Scotland by the hand of the common Hangman See Poormans Cup pag. 19. Gods wrath the rejecting of which is to be feared to be one of the greatest causes of Gods wrath this day against the Land I do also bear Witness and Testimony to the Protestation given in against the Controverted Assemblies in the publick Resolvings for bringing in the 12 So he calls the Loyal and Episcopal Party Malignant Party into places of Power and Trust contrary to our solemn Engagements and Obligations to God Also I adhere to our 13 See Note 13. on the first Speech Confessions of Faith larger and shorter Catechisms I witness my Testimony against Popery which is so greatly increased yea so much Countenanced and professed openly The Scottish Oath of Allegiance by many and that without the least I For Testification of my faithful Obedience to my most Gracious Sovereign Charles King of Great Britain c. Affirm Testify and Declare by this my solemn Oath that I acknowledge my said Sovereign onely Supream Governor of this Kingdom over all Persons and in all Causes and that no Foreign Prince Power State or Person Civil or Ecclesiastick hath any Jurisdiction Power or Superiority over the same and therefore I do utterly renounce and forsake all Foreign Power Jurisdictions and Authorities and shall at my utmost power Defend Assist and Maintain his Majesties Jurisdiction foresaid against all †Contra omnes mortales deadly and shall never decline his Majesties Power and Jurisdiction as I shall answer to God punishment I bear witness also against the Antichristian Prelacy now Established by Law contrary to our Vows to Almighty God And against the Rescinding of our solemn Oaths and Engagements as a thing that calls for Divine Vengeance And against all Oaths and Bonds contrary to our Covenant and Engagements especially that Oath of 14 So the Presbyterian Jesuit calls the Scottish Oath of Allegiance This is the Form of it and let the Protestant World judge if it be an Oath That calls for the Vengeance of God Supremacy the 15 See Note w on the first Speech Declaration against our Covenant and that Bond called the 16 That is The Bond for keeping the Peace whereby the Taker obligeth himself only to live Peaceably and not to rise in Arms against the King This Bond was tendered to the Rebels taken in the Battel at Pentland-hills and refused by many of them who were Hanged and are since reckoned among the Martyrs of the Cause It was likewise tendered to the late Rebels who were taken after the Battel of Bothwel-Bridge but about 300. of them refused it and are since Transported but five more especially who were accomplices with the Murderers of the late Archbishop of St. Andrews and who would not confess that the Killing of him was a Sin or Murder when they were asked in both Terms by Authority if it were so were Sentenced to be Hanged in Chains at Magus the place where that Execrable Murder was committed Was it ever heard in any other Christian Nation That any men refused to dye by the hand of the Executioner rather than engage not to rise in Arms against their lawful Sovereign The Christians under the Turks would not dye Martyrs if they Suffered upon that Principle Lord Jesu pity the madness and delusion of this People Amen Amen Bond of Peace and that 17 This is the Form of it and let the World judge whether it deserveth the name of horrid or no horrid Bond so frequently imposed against the Meetings of his People in Fields and Houses intended for the down bearing of the Gospel and Interest of our Lord and The Form of the BOND Master with all other Bonds publick or private contrary to our I underscribing do faithfully bind and oblige me That I my Wife Bairns and Servants respectively sâ—â—ll no ways be present at any Conventicles and disorderly Meetings in time coming but shall live orderly in Obedience to the Law under the Penalties contained in the Acts of Parliament made there-anent As also I bind and â—blige me That my whole Tenants and Cotters respectively their Wives Bairns and Servants shall likewise refrain and abstain from the said Conventicles and other illegal Meetings not authorized by Law and that they shall live orderly in Obedience to the Law And further That I nor they shall Recept Supply or Commune with forfeited Persons intercommuned Ministers or Vagrant Preachers but shall do our utmost Endeavour to Apprehend their Persons And in case my said Tenants Cotters and their foresaids shall Contraveâ—â— I shall take or apprehend any Person or Persons guilty thereof and present them to the Judge Ordinar that they may be Fined or Imprisoned therefore as is provided in the Acts of Parliament made thereanent Otherwise I shall remove them and their Families from my ground and if I shall fail herein I shall be liable to such Penalties as the said Delinquents have incurred by the Laws consenting to the Registration hereof in the Books of his Majesties Privy-Council or Books of any other Judges Competent that Letters and Executorials may be direct hereupon in Form as Effeirs and Constitutes my Procurators Obligations and Covenants to God also against all such that Connive at or Complie with or Strengthen the hands of this Prelatical Malignant and Persecuting Party As also against all Errors Schisms and Heresies contrary to our Engagements to God especially against that Ruining and Soul-deluding Evil or rather This is the Tenor of that Bond which the Fanaticks railed so much against and lest the force of it should be Eluded the Privy-Council †Rav. Rediv. page 50 Enacted That every Heritor who should receive into his Lands or Service any Tenants or Servants of any other Heritor without a Certificate from him or the Minister of the Parish where they lived That they lived orderly as to the matter of Conventicles should be subject to such Fines as the Privy Council should think fit to inflict to punish them for their Crime and repair the damage that should accrue to the Heritor or Master whose Tenants or Servants they did receive While the Feuds were kept up in Scotland it was usual for the King to bind the Chief for the Peaceable behaviour of the whole Tribe or Clan and because the Heritors or Landlords of that Countrey have such a despotical power over their Tenants it hath been the immemorial practice of the King Privy-Council and Parliament upon occasion to bind Landlords of all qualities for the peaceable demeanour of their Tenants and to give them Power and Warrant to take Bonds from them or upon their refusal to remove them from their possessions if they were Rack-renters but if they had Leases to denounce
they Preach under Restrictions by Licence from the Privy-Council and the Followers of the Field-Ministers hate them as bad as the Bishops-Curates so they call the Church-Ministers especially those among them who conscientiously keep the conditions upon which they are permitted to Preach Indulged and such as Countenanced them in that way even to the Ruining and Renting of the Church which alass is too evident by sad and doleful experience As also I bear my Testimony against the 24 See Note 18. on the first Speech Test imposed by the late Convention of Estates whereby the Enemies of Christ and his Church are supplied with all necessaries for the utter Extirpating of the Interest of Christ and his Church There is one thing more I would say The Lord seems to be very wroth with this Land The causes are many First The dreadful Slight the Lord Jesus has received in the 25 From the Field-Preachers Offers of the Gospel Secondly The horrid Prophanity that has overpassed the whole Land that not only 26 Meetings in Fields and Houses Religion in its Exercise but even †The Scots are naturally a very Civil People and where the Covenanting Principles have not soured their Tempers as much Civility and good nature may be expected from them as from any other Nation in the World But among the Presbyterian Party there is nothing but pure Barbarity to be found towards those who are known to favour the Church especially towards the Bishops and their Clergy whom they treat upon all occasions with all imaginable rudeness insomuch that I wonder that this Gentleman should complain of the want of common Civility which he could do upon no other account but that from the time of his Apprehension to the hour of his Execution he was treated as Traitors and Rebels usually are under all the Governments of the World Certainly he had forgot his own Party when he made this Complaint and therefore though he be gone I shall refresh the memory of his Brethren that they upon the same occasion may not make the same groundless Complaint Let them then remember their inhuman usage of Montross their insolent and undutiful carriage to his present Majesty when he stood in need of their Assistance the barbarous manner in which they Murdered the late Archbishop of St. Andrews the barbarous indignities which they offered to the dead Body of an Officer called Graham whom they killed at that Conventicle which began the late Rebellion upon the account of his Name The insolencies which they committed in regular Ministers and Loyal Gentlemens Houses as they Marched along the Countrey to Glascow particularly in Stabbing Cutting and Gashing his Majesties Picture wheresoever they found it as by name in the House of the Laird of Hagges Their barbarous behaviour in the Archbishops House at Glascow where they burnt his Books cut in pieces his best Hangings and Furniture and almost killed a Gentlewoman with Blows who was left to keep the House only for saying these words Gentlemen I hope you 'l remember that you are in the Archbishops House Their barbarous and sacrilegious behaviour in the Cathedral of Glascow where finding a Tomb-stone over the two Children of the Bishop of Argyle with an Inscription of a Modern date they digged up their Bodies run them through with their Swords and left them lying above the ground The barbarous Lies and continual defamations with which they Persecute the Duke of Lauderdale because he stands as a Bulwark betwixt them and the Church Their most barbarous usage of the Church-Ministers as is evident from the two forecited Acts of Parliament for the security of their Persons and Houses not to speak of lesser indignities as of laughing scoffing and flouting at them when they pass the Streets and refusing to Salute them when they meet them in other company and saying of Grace to themselves at Tables where they are called to say Grace for the whole Company as if they had taken Gods name in vain or not concluded the Blessing in the name of Christ. Nay The Presbyterian Women of all sorts not excepting those whose Quality and Education should have taught them more Civility would not many years since rise up or bow or make a Curtesy or drink to a Bishop till their Interest obliged them to comply with a great and better Principled Lady whose example hath much reformed them in this Point common Civility is gone Thirdly There is the horrid perjury in the matters of our Vows and Engagements It 's to be 27 Indeed it is to be feared that the Covenanters will once more bring a Sword upon these Lands to avenge the Quarrel of the Covenant and we all know that the Sword of the Presbyterians as well as that of the Jesuits is the Sword of the Lord and of Gideon which was the Word when they rose up in Rebellion to pull the Popish Octavians from King James in Edinburgh when he was rescued by the Hammermen Presbytery Displayed pag. 49. feared the Lord will bring a Sword on these Lands which shall avenge the Quarrel of his Covenant Fourthly There is a dreadful Formality and Supineness in the duties of Religion which is introductive to that Wo which came upon the careless Daughters Fifthly Horrid ingratitude What do we render to him for his Goodness is not the most of all that we do wickedness and to strengthen our hands to do evil Sixthly The want of humility under all our Troubles We are brought low yet we are not low in the sight of God And a Seventh thing is dreadful Covetousness and minding of our own things more than the things of God and that amongst all Ranks Would to God that there were not too many amongst us who are Enemies to the Cross of Christ and mind Earthly things and yet I dare not say but that there are many faithful and precious to him in Scotland both of Ministers and Professors whom I hope God will keep stedfast and who will study to be sound and faithful to their Lord and Master and whom I hope he will make as 28 When God immediately called any man to any Charge or Business that would find Opposition from Wicked Men or Devils he was wont to inspire him with supernatural Courage and Confidence which by the Jewish Writers is called the Spirit of Might and as †More Nevoc p. 2. c. 38. Maimonides observes it was always conferred upon the Person sent and Employed by God after the Promise of 1 Hccha ani or Ehjeh gnimmach Go and I will be with thee This Promise was solemnly made to Moses Exod. 3. 12. to the People of Israel who were called to Fight against Nations greater and stonger than themselves Deut. 31. 6 8 to Joshua and the People together Josh. 1. 5. to the Prophet Ezek. 3. 8 9. where God assured him That he would make his Face strong against their Faces and his Forehead strong against their Foreheads
Converted Butcher and his Wife 34 35. Cardinal Beton his Murder and Melvils Speech to him 66. John Balfour the Assassin 36. Bestiality Seven or Eight Conventiclers put to death for that Crime 34. Bishops The Successors of the Apostles their Office distinct from that of a Priest and of Divine Institution 38 39 40. they had a new Ordination distinct from that of Presbyters 41. Mr. Robert Blaires Divinity 30. John Bridgeford his Adultery and Blasphemy 34. The Bond for the Peace 44. Rebels choose to be Hanged and Transported rather than take it 16. The Bond tendred in 1677. and 1678. what the Covenanters said of it 50 51. Mr. Blake his Pride and Blasphemy 53. Mr. Robert Bruce his saying to King James 50. what the King said of him 51. Buchanan 13. in Marg. his Doctrine of Kings 29. and of Ehuds Dagger or Heroical Murders 69. in Marg. Burning of London assigned as a Divine Judgment for burning the Covenant there by the hands of the Common-Hangman 8. C. Mr. Cameron 70. Mr. Calderwoods Altare Damascenum 24. 30. Mr. Andrew Cant 7. Mr. Alexander Cant 53. Solemn League and Covenant the great Scandal to Foreign Reformed Churches 42. The National Covenant 43. Churches Greek and Latin attributed as great a Supremacy in Ecclesiastical matters to the Christian Emperors as the English and Scottish do to the King 23. Church of Scotland hath no Liturgical Forms or Ceremonies 26. is in a state of Persecution 28. Covenanters They refuse to answer when examined by Authority 1 12. their blasphemies about the Covenant 7. 26 4â— and against the Act of Supremacy 9. 25. They reckon Wariston Guthry and Mitchel c. for Martyrs 10. their ignorance and wickedness 12. Their Jesuitical Doctrines 13 14. 66 67 68. They impose new Articles of Faith 13 14 25. They Preaâ—â— against the Five-Months Tax 16. 71. Their Pseudo-Martyrs dyed Drunk 18 19. They aggravate the common infirmities of Human nature and take no notice of their own presumptious Sins 21. They by their Principles must have separated from all Churches since Christs time till the Reformation 23. They call Episcopal Churches Erastian Churches and their Ministers Court-Parasites 24. They assert the use of the Lords-Prayer Creed and Ten Commandments to be Superstitious and Idolatrous 25. They condemn the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy 25. The true cause of their hatred to Montross and the late Lord Primate 25. in Marg. g. They are not Persecuted but justly Punished 25 26 27. They are great Persecutors and Tyrants 27. 28. They and their Predecessors Persecuted Queen Mary Stuart King James King Charles the First and the Second 28. Their Treasonable and Jesuitical Principles about Government 29 30 31. They mock at the Doctrine of Passive Obedience 32. They speak great things about the holiness of their own Party 33. Their wickednessess and debaucheries 12. 34 35. They Murder at Houses as well at Field-Conventicles 36. Their incivility and inhumanity 47. Their Sawciness and Impudence 49. Their Pride and Spiritual Fast Lying Slandering c. 51 52 53. Their agreements with Arrians Novatians Donatists and Papists 50. Their Assassinating and Massacring Principles 66 67 68. Cess granted by the last Convention The Field-Preachers Preach against it 16. 47 71. Jesuitical Letter Post finem Primitive Christians and Christian Churches the common Doctrines wherein they all agreed 33. All Protestants ought to confess them as the common notions of Christianity 16. Consistory of Geneva and Charenton Scandalized at the Covenant 42. Cup of cold Water a Book vid. Poor Mans Cup. D. Desertion The Doctrine of Desertion not grounded in Scripture 34. The Scottish Declaration against the Covenant 8. Mr. John Dickson his blasphemies 8. 12 45. Jannet Duglass 35. Mr. Robert Duglass his Papal Pride 50. Earl of Dundonalds Servant the cause of his Distraction 16. E. Episcopacy proved to be a Divine Institution 38. 39. c. Christian Emperors Their Supremacy and Power in Ecclesiastical Matters and over Ecclesiastical Persons 23. City of Edinburgh railed at by Naphtali 52. F. Field-Meetings proved by many instances to be Randevouzes of Rebellion against Mr. Kid 11. Lord Forrester his Tragical End 35. James Foyer the holy Beggar 34. The right notion of Free-Grace 4. 5. The fulfilling of the Scriptures the blasphemies of that Book 19 20. French-Church scandalized at the Covenant 42. a Letter forged by the Western Covenanters in the name of the French-Church 52. G. Gallows of two sorts invented by the late Rebels one for the common Enemies of Christ and the other for the Nobles 54. Geneva The Reformed Church there scandalized at the Covenant 42. General Assembly the Papal Tyranny thereof 51. Sir Edmondbury Godfreys Murder parallel'd 50. Goodman Knoxes Companion his Rebellious and Murderous Principles 30. 66. Causes of Gods wrath a Book so called 43. Mr. Alexander Gibson Clerk of the Privy Council his Certificat 12. Grayham the Apostat Bishop of Orkney 16. Mr. Patrick Gillispie his Papal Pride 50. H. Mr. Hamilton Captain of Mr. Welshes Guard afterwards General of the Covenanted Army his Debaucheries 35. Robert Hamilton of Barnes 35. Mr. William Houston 34. I. King James His opinion of Bishops 42. in Marg. he complains of the Sawciness of the Presbyterian Ministers 49. The Papal State which the Presbyterian kept with him 50. His Sarcasm against Mr. Robert Bruce 51. Incest Eight Fanaticks convicted of that Crime in one Parish 34. Indulgence The Field-Preachers absolutely against Indulgence 6. 14 47. Addit post finem they write and preach against the Indulged 16. The Information for Defensive Arms 14. 31. The Irish justified their Rebellion by the example of Scotland 30. Jus populi Vindicatum 68. K. Mr. John Karstaires 34. Mr. Kid pretends to miraculous assistance 2 3. The King no otherwise to be obeyed than according to the Covenant 31. Mr. John Kings Jesuitical way of answering 20. his blasphemous applications of Scripture 21 22 23. got his Wife with Child before Marriage 34. dyed not in the Faith of the Primitive Christians 37. nor of the reformed Churches 42. as he told the People he did King Charles the First his larger Declaration 42 43. Knoxes Hist 13 14. in Marg. 30. 66. Knoxes Liturgy 27. L. Duke of Lauderdale 11. 47 73. Andrew Lesly his Murder Adultery and Blasphemy 33. Leightons Sions plea 14. Archbishop Leighton censured for his Articles of Accomodation 15 16. Lex Rex The treasonable and blasphemous Doctrines of that Book 30. it commends Mariana the Jesuit 16. mocks at the Doctrine of Passive Obedience 31. A Letter in the name of the French Church forged by the Fanaticks 52. London The burning of London and the last great Plague assigned as a Judgment for burning the Covenant there 8. Lords-Prayer Called a Papistical Charm 25. Bishop Lindseys Narration of the Assembly at Perth 25. Covenanting-Lords They wrote a Letter to the French King which Montross penned 30. Lords discontented who went to London March 1678. prayed for at a Field-Fast 11 Chancellor