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cause_n	great_a	king_n	people_n	5,231	5	4.6713	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57288	The Scots episcopal innocence, or, The juggling of that party with the late King, His present Majesty, the Church of England, and the Church of Scotland demonstrated together with a catalogue of the Scots Episcopal clergy turn'd out for their disloyalty ... since the revolution : and a postscript with reflections on a late malicious pamphlet entituled The spirit of malice and slander ... / by Will. Laick.	Ridpath, George, d. 1726.	1694 (1694)	Wing R1465; ESTC R28104	55,845	73

their Assertion if they should have admitted them into the Church upon such a bare-fac'd Equivocation for so the modest Gentlemen may subscribe to the Alceran as containing the Mahometan Doctrine in Turky or the Council of Trent as containing the Popish Doctrine in the Church of Rome Then certainly their Majesties and Parliament cannot be blamed if they have changed the words so far as to make the Subscriber own it as the Confession of his own Faith otherwise a Door had been opened to all Errors and Heresies whatsoever And seeing the Petitioners own that the Doctrine of the Protestant Religion as professed in Scotland is contained in the said Confession if they refuse to subscribe it as theirs it 's plain that they entertain some other than that Protestant Doctrine and if so it cannot justly be called hard Measure to exclude them from officiating as Ministers in that or any other Protestant Church seeing the Doctrine of that Confession is own'd by all except Lutherans and is every way agreeable to the Doctrine contained in the Articles of the Church of England Then as to the Oath of Allegiance and Assurance I confess there is reason enough to doubt their Sincerity if they should comply for never was there any thing conceived in Terms more express to abjure the lawfulness of resisting Kings or those commissionated by them upon any Pretence whatsoever than the Scots Declaration and Acknowledgment of the Prerogative And seeing that Doctrine was so much extoll'd and applauded and that the Party valued themselves so highly upon it I cannot conceive how they can without down-right Perjury own his present Majesty's Title except they have changed their Principles And seeing they have never by any publick Authentick Act renounced that Doctrine nor given us their Reasons why there is no great Cause to think that they will be any steadier in their Allegiance to King William than they were to King Iames and therefore Swear or not Swear there 's no Encouragement to trust them with the Conduct of Peoples Consciences But however if they refuse to swear Allegiance no Body can think the Government obliged to grant them Protection for that were but to nourish Vipers in their Bosom And if they should swear Allegiance and decline the Assurance it discovers that they act mala Fide with the Government and only watch for an Opportunity to declare against it For if they think that their present Majesties have not a Title de Iure they will never own their Right de Facto any longer than while they are not in a Capacity to rebel And at the same time such a Distinction denotes a Man of a very ill inform'd if not of a debauch'd Conscience For if their Majesties Title be not lawful it cannot be lawful for me to own it and if their Title be lawful it must needs be lawful for me to oblige my self to defend them in it against all Pretenders whatsoever So that a declining of the Latter is an infallible Demonstration of my doubting the Former And if those who call their Majesties Right in question be fit to be intrusted as Leaders of the Subjects let common Sense and Reason determine Now that the greater part of the Scots Episcopal Clergy disown their Majesties Title is evident from the Practice of all their Bishops to whom they have sworn Canonical Obedience from the practice of the most part of themselves seeing some hundreds of them were turn'd out by the Convention on that Head and by their Behaviour now seeing they universally refuse the Assurance though many of them formerly had sworn Allegiance which is in plain English no other than a granting of the Premisses and a denying the Conclusion Or according to the Example of a certain Gentleman in England granting the Abdication and denying the Vacancy And in truth their offering to swear Allegiance and declining the Assurance is much such another Trick upon the State as by their Formula they have put upon the Church they would subscribe the Confession of Faith as that of the Nation but not their own And so they would also swear that King William and Queen Mary are King and Queen of Scotland but not theirs Their Prevarication in this Affair puts it out of all doubt that their Design to be admitted into a Share of the Government of the Church was not according to the specious Pretences in their Petition but meerly to imbroil both Church and State and by our Confusion to make way for the late Kings in whom that they still design to keep an Interest is manifest by their sh●●●●ing with the Government as to the swearing Allegiance which they put off from time to time with frivolous Pretences till they see the Success of the late King's Endeavours to reinthrone himself So last Year they pretended that they would take the Oaths if they were imposed upon the Presbyterians as well as them And knowing that that could not be done without an Act of Parliament they and their Party stav'd off this Session as long as they could Which in the mean time shews that it was Humour and not Conscience which kept them from complying And now that there is an Act enjoining the Presbyterians to take the Oath and Assurance and that they conform almost universally to the Confusion of those who reproached them as Enemies to Kingly Government yet the Episcopal Clergy keep off still and not above two of them have subscribed them because the E. of L w and Viscount T t c. advised the contrary on this Pretence forsooth that their Petition was not answered at first and the Comprehension taken in hand immediately on its being tendered Which a certain Minister of State did wisely defer till the last as reasonably imagining that that Affair would create Heats and disappoint his Majesty's other Affairs which were to be treated of in Parliament So that before ever the Church-Affairs were meddled with they sent their Agents to disswade the Northern Clergy from taking the Oaths because there was no Comprehension and tho that Objection be now vacated yet they persist still in their Obstinacy So that it 's evident they have Interest at Bottom and it 's but rational to conclude that the said Managers intend to make their Court with the late King by keeping the Clergy from abjuring him or swearing Allegiance to their present Majesties But to return to our Petitioners They were so disingenuous and so little sincere in their Application that when required to attend the Committee of Security to whom they were referred by the Parliament they not only declined all Communing with them but did in contempt of their Majesties and the Parliament load the Members of the Committee with Obloquy and Reproach And as I am informed from a very good Hand resolve to continue in their Churches without qualifying themselves according to the late Act. I shall forbear insisting upon their Ingratitude to their Majesties and the Parliament till afterwards

no Sect Antient or Modern that ever broke the Peace of the Christian Church but may be more plausibly defended than the latest Edition of Presbytery in Scotland By the latest Edition they must mean as it is now established since the late Revolution in Doctrine and Discipline Now for the Doctrine of the Presbyterians it is establish'd by Act of Parliament as contained in the Westminster Confession which is granted by every one to be the same as to the Matter with the Doctrinal Articles of the Church of England Then as for their Discipline which is establish'd by the same Authority it is that of their Government by Parochial Consistories made up of the Minister and Elders Presbyteries which consist of a greater number of Ministers and Elders associated Provincial Synods which are composed of Delegates from the several Presbyteries and General Assemblies which are form'd of Commissioners from all the Presbyteries of the Kingdom Now any that have perused the Learned Arch-bishop Vsher's Treatise to reconcile Episcopacy and Presbytery or that have ever considered the Concessions made as to the Government of the Church by Charles I. in his Treaties may easily be convinc'd whether our Learned Authors were not possessed with the Spirit of Calumny and Slander even in the sense of the Moderate Episcopalians when they publish'd the Proposition above-mentioned But this will appear more evident still if we do but enumerate some of the Antient and Modern Sects who have broke the Peace of the Church To begin with the Gnosticks who were so Antient that Dr. Hammond Diss. Proem de Antichr thinks that the Apostles saw the first Authors of their Opinions and that St. Paul alludes to them in 1 Tim. 6.20 They are charg'd with denying the Godhead of Jesus Christ maintaining all manner of Impure Lusts polluting the places where they met accordingly and foasting barbarously on the Children begotten in such Impurity after they had pounded them into Mortar which they esteem'd a most religious Act as is related by Tertullian Epiphan Theodoret c. In the next place we shall name the Arians who begun about 290 and infected most of the Christian World They held Christ to be a Creature and the Holy Ghost the like rebaptiz'd the Orthodox and baptiz'd all their Disciples only from the Navel upwards as thinking the inferiour Parts unworthy of it The Donatists flourish'd in the 4 th Age and held that the Son was less than the Father and the Holy Ghost less than the Son That it was lawful to kill themselves rather than fall into the Hands of the Magistrates and to kill others who were not of the Faith The Armenians in the 6 th Age who held that Christ took not a Humane Body from the Virgin that his Body was immortal from the Minute of his Conception that there was a quaternity of Persons and that the Divinity suffered In the 11 th and 12 th the Bong●milit rejected the Books of Moses and aledged that God had a Humane Shape But to make haste we shall come to the German Anabaptists of the 16 th Century whose Opinions and Enthusiasms are known to every one And the Socinians who deny the Divinity of Jesus Christ c. For the Arminians I know it 's in vain to name them most of the Party being infected with their Leaven But if any Man will be at the pains to compare the Doctrine of the Church of England in her Articles and the Westminster Confession which agree in the Matter with the Sects here mentioned he may quickly be satisfi'd whether those Gentlemen may not justly be charged with a Spirit of Malice and Slander in saying That they know no Sect Antient or Modern c. but what are more plausible than Presbytery in the latest Edition They have no other Hole to creep out at but either that they knew not of those Sects or else that those Hereticks did not break the Peace of the Church and then we shall know what Judgment to make of their Learning and Ingenuity But if they insist upon the Comprehension Act let them answer what I have already said on that Head However we may quickly be satisfied that those Gentlemens Veracity and Learning are much of a-piece if we consider the amiable Character which they bestow upon the Presbyterians in the Scots Presbyterian Eloquence viz. That they are void of common Sense never scruple any Perjury before a Judg that may seem to advance their Cause That they think Murder a Vertue when the Work of the Covenant requires it That they generally discountenance Morality glory in Lying Cheating Murder and Rebellion to fulfil the Ends of the Solemn League That they look not upon a Man as endued with the Spirit of God without a loud Voice whining Tone broken and smothered Words and such canting deformity of Holiness Their Ministers they say are a proud sowre unconversible Tribe looking perfectly like Pharisees having Faces like their horrid Decrees of Reprobation are without Humanity void of common Civility Never preach Christ nor Eternity are Firebrands the Scandal of Christianity and Disgrace of the Nation Now I would fain in the first place ask our Gentlemen Whether this be not an Arraignment of the King and Parliament who have lodged the Government of the Church in such Mens Hands and established Presbytery to please such a sort of People And if this Character be true Whether King William be not the greatest of Tyrants to have establish'd such a Church by the touch of his Scepter in contrariety to such a Learned Holy and Innocent Party as the Scots Episcopalians And if this Character be not true Whether the Libellers and Bookseller be not obnoxious to the Government and guilty of seditious Designs in accusing his Majesty of having concurred to the settling of such a Church Or whether the Ministers of State in Scotland have not cause to demand Justice for this Indignity put upon their King and Parliament In the next place Who deserve most to be charg'd with Falshood Malice Slander and Forgery the Authors of the Scots Presbyterian Eloquence who charge the whole Presbyterian Party of Scotland with those odious Crimes in general or the Answerer who proves the Prelatical Persecution by Acts of their own Parliaments and their Murders by uncontroulable Instances And his Charge in general against their Clergy by the Vote of this present Parliament when a Convention That they were the great and insupportable Grievance of the Nation To which the Prelatists can oppose nothing but Sir George Mackenzie's Vindication of Charles II's Government in Scotland which the Answerer hath made appear to be a malicious Libel or else the Cause of King William's Undertaking was unjust and He and his Parliament of Scotland abominable Liars in declaring those Acts which Sir George defends to be impious And last of all I would ask those Gentlemen Whether they think that any thing which they invent or suggest against the Answerer can justly deserve any Credit

true Scots-men do and will maintain that they ought not to meddle in our Affairs Stafford was as high once as some others are now And his Holiness Archbishop Laud who took the Title of Pontifex Maximus Aeternum Reverendissime Cancellarie and Sanctitas Vestra did as much despise the Church and Kingdom of Scotland as you and your Patrons do at this Day yet both of them were broken in pieces by falling on that Stone And as I said then I say still that the Kingdom of Scotland is not so very contemptible but that its Influence may reach those who put an Affront and Injury upon them now as well as formerly As for your false malicious and impudent Reflection Pag. 3. That I treat King William no better than other Kings It 's like the rest of your Sense and Veracity I only make a Supposition that if it should be so and so what we may justly plead and defend by the practice of the Church of England toward King Iames. Whereas I charge your Kings with direct Breach of their Trust and Subversion of the Original Contract but your Eyes were blinded with Indecencies of Passion or sitting up too late at the Tavern that you could not or would not see what I wrote yet like a devout Worshipper of Calumny you are resolved to reproach tho without either Sense or Reason as appears by your delicate Argument to maintain your Position because I say he is prevailed upon to write Letters to the General Assembly which they are not obliged in Law to comply with therefore you argue that according to my Hypothesis If he venture upon such Essays of Arbitrary Power he may in a little time forfeit his Title since he has none but such as is twisted with the Divine Right of Presbytery Pray Doctor look upon this Argument your self once more and see whether your Conclusion can naturally follow from the Premisses and compare the Hypothesis which you have laid down as mine with P. 4. of my Book which you refer to and see if you have not knavishly perverted it My Assertion is That their Majesties accepted the Crown upon this Condition among others in the Claim of Right That they should consent to the Abolition of Prelacy as contrary to the Inclination of the generality of the People And that they have since abolished it accordingly which is a fulfilling of the Contract and established Presbytery in Scotland as most agreeable to the World of God as well as the Peoples Inclinations which are the very Words of the Act of Parliament Then I suppose that if their Majesties should be prevailed upon which blessed be God there is no cause to fear to act contrary to their solemn Oath and the Claim of Right they must needs see that the People of Scotland would have ground enough to plead a Breach of the Original Contract Nor could the Church of England for shame condemn them seeing they have made use of the same Plea in their Convention and Parliament against King Iames. Now Doctor where can you find in these Words that I say or insinuate that he hath no Title but what is twisted with the Divine Right of Presbytery His Title is indeed twisted with an Obligation to abolish Prelacy as contrary to the Peoples Inclinations and to establish such a Government of the Church as should be found most agreeable to the same And accordingly after a Twelve-months suspence which was time enough to examine it Presbytery was settled as most agreeable to the People and ex super abundanti as also most agreeable to the Word of God Which Clause it was in his Majesty's own Power to have consented to or not for there was no such thing twisted with his Title nor did I ever assert it as you do knavishly alledg though at the same time I made it appear that according to the Church of England's Hypothesis a King may forfeit his Title by breaking the Original Contract and dispensing with the Laws for that was the Clamour of your Party against the late King though your Universities Judges and Clergy had formerly preached up his Dispensing Power Then for your Argument to fix your Malicious Reflection upon me that if he venture upon such Essays of Arbitrary Power as writing Letters to the General Assembly which they are not obliged in Law to comply with he may in a little time Forfeit c. It 's so weak that I am asham'd for Country's-sake that ever that Man should have been made Vice-Chancellor of an University who argues no better Will any Man of Sense infer that because his Majesty out of his exuberant Clemency to his sworn Enemies writes to the General Assembly to admit some of them into the Church which they are impowered to do by the Law if they please but are not obliged by the Law to do it I say will any Man of Sense think that this is such an Essay of Arbitrary Power as may hazard the forfeiture of the Crown Indeed Doctor according to the late Actings and Arguments of your Party such a Principle may be fix'd upon a certain sort of Men in the World who assoon as the King touched the Hem of their Garment and gave Liberty to Dissenters did forthwith bandy against him and expel him But you may see that all those Kings which the Presbyterians did oppose were guilty of overturning the very Foundations and yet the World must needs own that they were very tender of King Charles I's Title and Person notwithstanding of all his Male-Administrations And if your Doctorship please either to read Rushworth's Collections Whitlock's Memorials or the Bishop of Salisbury's Memoirs of the House of Hamilton you will find how Honourably the Presbyterians of Scotland acted in relation to King Charles I both in the Treaty at delivering him up complaining of the Breach of that Treaty by the Usurping Faction and protesting against his Imprisonment and Trial though you be pleas'd to the dishonour of your Native Country to assert with as much Impudence as Ignorance and Malice That we tied him Hand and Foot till others out off his Head Whereas all the World knows that the same Party who cut off his Head would be satisfied with nothing less than our Hearts Blood for espousing his Cause and that of his Son and Successor Charles II. when those who were afterwards the greatest Sticklers for your Party did at the same time abjure him as did also General Monk when he was actually bringing him in which you may see in the same Author's above-mentioned and the Life of both those Kings printed lately by Nathaniel Crouch in the Poultry In the next place Doctor I must find some Weapon-Salve for that dreadful Wound which you have given me in saying That her present Majesty is much obliged to me for alledging that the Scots Prelatists have put the Stuarts from the Throne Really Doctor I do think that the Family of Nassaw is now upon the Throne and