did suffer any thing For these others were settled in Churches by an Indulgence granted by the King Against which Indulgence all the Sufferers like true Presbyterians gave their Testimony calling it a meer brat of Erastianism What Government could tolerate such Ministers as John Deckson whom I named before who in a Sermon Preached by him in the Parish of Gallashiels declar'd That it was all one to Sacrifice to Devils as to pay Cess to King Charles The Author of the Review of the History of Indulgence one of the Sober sort of Presbyterians tells Page 610. the same of a Preacher of his Acquaintance I shall say no more of their Sentiments concerning Government but only referr the Readers to their Printed Acts of General Assemblies and to those Covenants which themselves have Printed often Subscribed and Sworn and which are now again for the benefit of Strangers published in that Excellent Vindication of King Charles II. his Happy Government in Scotland by Sir George Mac Kenze in which it's Evident that they plainly renounce Monarchy and all Power but that of the Covenanted Kirk As to their Disposition to live peaceably I appeal not only to their Principles vented in these Covenants and Acts of their general Assemblies but also to the many private Murthers and open Rebellions which they have been guilty of under every Reign since their first entry into Britain Even in our own Days since 1666 they have raised no less than Three formidable Rebellions besides many lesser Insurrections and Tumults wherein many Christians have suffered With what Violence did they flee to Arms and persecute all who were not of their Party upon the occasion of the late Revolution when if it had not been for their indiscreet and fiery Zeal this Kingdom might have been happily united to England But what ever Advantage such an Union might have brought to the Church and State yet because it seemed to have no good Aspect to the covenanted cause therefore the motion of it though offered was industriously stifled and that Opportunity which we can hardly hope to recover quite lost Nay under the present Government for which they in the beginning pretended to be so zealous 't is well known over all the Kingdom that they were last Year contriving by force without any regard to Authority to have the Solemn League renewed and imposed after the old manner upon all Men Women and Children and in order to this good end many Thousands of them at Field meetings in the West conveened after their ordinary way with Bibles and Musquets Psalm-Books and rusty Swords and subscrbed a new Association for raising of Men Horse and Arms to advance the Old Cause repurge the holy Kirk and make a thorow Reformation in the Land But I shall take occasion by and by to give you some later and more evident Instances of their Neglect and Contempt of their present Governors In the next place survey them in their Learning and you shall find that it lies only in the study of some Anti-Arminian Metaphysicks and in the practical Divinity they pretend to draw from the Heads of Election and Reprobation whereby they preach Men out of their Wits and very often into Despair and Self-murder It 's generally known that Joseph Brodie Preacher in Forress in the time of the late Presbytery did in the presence of a very Learned and Eminent Person take occasion in the Pulpit to speak of a poor Man who was then in such a desperate Condition that it was judg'd necessary to bind up his Hands lest otherwise he should cut his own Throat as he continually threatned of this desperate Wretch the pious Preacher above-named pronounced thus Sirs this is the best Man in my Parish would to God ye were all like him he does truely fear Reprobation which most of you are not aware of There is a common printed Pamphlet compos'd and publish'd by a Presbyterian Preacher concerning one Bessie Clarkson a Woman that lived at Lanark who was three Years in despair or to speak in their Cant under Exercise Whosoever reads that Pamphlet will find that the poor Woman's Distemper proceeded only form their indiscreet Preaching representing God as a sower severe and unmerciful Being It is known in the Shire of Teviotdale that Mr. William Veach murder'd the Bodies as well as Souls of two or three Persons with one Sermon For preaching in the Town of Jedburgh to a great Congregation he said There are Tow thousand of you here to day but I am sure Fourscore of you will not he saved upon which Three of his ignorant Hearers being in Despair dispatched themselves soon after And lately in Edenburgh Mr. James Kirkton the Everlasting Comedian of their Party one of their famous Preachers in that City praying publickly for a poor Woman much troubled in Spirit said A wholesome Disease good Lord a wholesome Disease Lord for the Soul Alas said he few in the Land are troubled with this Disease Lord grant that she may have many fellows in this Disease Not only do they make their People distracted with such desperate Doctrine as this but moreover they incourage them in direct Impieties Mr. Selkirk preaching at Musselburgh expressed himself thus God seed no Sin in his Chosen Now Sirs be you guilty of Murder Adultery Bestiality or any other gross Sin if you be of the Election of Grace there is no fear of you for God sees no Sin in his Chosen covenanted People And this is consonant to an expression of Mr. Samuel Rutherford's printed Letters Hellfulls of Sins cannot separate is from Christ In the Parish of Mr. Macmath Minister of Leswade some of those who were lately the most active in persecuting and driving him form his Residence even after he had the Privy Councils Protection and a Guard assign'd him for his Defence have since suffer'd violent deaths two of them prevented the Hangman's pains by becoming their own Murtherers When the Earl of Lauderdale and Sir George Mackenzie dyed last year much about one time the party who pretend to unriddle all the most secret Causes of God's Providence called their Deaths a visible Judgment for their being Enemies to the good Cause altho' it be well known that both these honourable Persons dyed of a natural Death in a good age being both of them worn out with their great diligence in their King and Country's Service perhaps indeed their days were shortened by seeing such Firebrands able again to force themselves into the Church as had before ruin'd both it and the State and were the Scandal of Christianity as well as Disgrace of their Nation But when these abovenamed Self-Murtherers of the Parish of Leswade had divided Judas's death betwixt them the one hanging himself the other ripping up his own Belly till all his Bowels gushed out The Presbyterian Preacher in that Parish holding forth next Sunday was so ready of Invention as to find Arguments from thence for the Confirmation of the good Cause Ab Sirs says
in the Land and to creep into places of Trust and especially the stupid Submission to the Restitution of Church and State and to the Re-introduction of their wicked Establishments abjur'd by Covenant did gradually induce Parishes and Provinces to this dreadful Sin of Covenant-breaking Then in some subsequent Pages he enumerates all the Curses and Plagues national or personal spoken of in Scripture as threatned with a special regard to the breaking of this Covenant and who can tell says he but the Sword now drawn in Scotland and Ireland may avenge the Quarrel of God's broken Covenant Pag. 27. The breaking of the Covenant is the most Heinous of all Sins Profainity of all sorts Hypocrisie Idolatry Adultery Treachery Pride Blood and Oppression and all that ever brought down Vengeance upon any Generation recorded in Scripture or in any History with these indeed and the greatest aggravations of them the Land hath been Polluted but chiefly that which incenses the Anger of the Lord hath been and remains to be Breach of Covenant and all these Abominations not simply because Breaches of the Law if God but as under this special Aggravation that they have been and are Breaches of the Covenant as is evident from Deuterom 29. 25. Because they have forsaken the Covenant of the Lord God of their Fathers c. Pag. 33. The great Reason why Men should renew the Covenant at this time and why those of the true Presbyterian Party did it in the end of 1688. They though it then says he expedient as it is still by renewing of these Antient Covenants to declare what Cause they would avouch and appear for what King they would own and upon what Terms they would offer their Submission to the present Government then to be Established who had before declared their Revolt from the former and for this end to make this the Band of their Association The same Author in his Solemn Confession of Sins pag. 53. says most ingenuously We and our Teachers in a great measure complyed with submitted unto and connived at the incroachments of the Supremacy and absolute Power both in accepting and countenancing the former Indulgences and the late Tolleration We have taken and subscribed Oaths and Bonds all which have been contrary to the Reformation we were Sworn to preserve Pag 54. We are obliged to confess the offensive Carriage and Conversation of many that have gone to England who have proven very stumbling to the Sectarians there Yea of late many have embraced the Toleration introductive of a Sectarian multiformity without so much as a Testimony against the Toleration of Popery it self The general Toleration which in its own Nature tended and in its Design intended to introduce Popery and Slavery by Arbitrary and Absolute Power hath been accepted and addressed for by many of our Ministers and countenanced complyed and concurr'd with by many of our People without a Testimony or endeavour to understand it Many dregs of Popish Superstition have been observed Popish Festival days as Pasch Yule and Fastings Eve c. have been kept by many And prelatical Anniversary days devised of their own Heart appointed for Commemorating the Kings Birth Days as May 29. Octob. 14. c. Who were born as Scourges to this Realm being complied with by many pag. 58. As it was our Fathers Sin to inaugurate the late King after such Discoveries of his Hypocritical enmity to Religion and Liberty upon his subscription of the Covenant to when he burnt and buried that Holy Covenant and degenerated into manifest Tyranny and had razed the very Foundation on which both his Right to Govern and the Peoples Allegiance were founded and remitted the Subjects Allegiance by annulling the bond of it we sinned in continuing to own his Authority When all he had was engaged and exerted in Rebellion against God for which the Lord put us to shame and went not out with our Armies at Pentland Hills and Bothwell Bridge Notes out of the Hind let loose Printed 1687. which Book is the great Oracle and Idol of the true Covenanters Pag. 3. It 's observable how reproachfully he speaks of Princes and even of such as are now our Kings Allies in these words The Protestants of Hungary are under the tearing Laws of that Ravenous Eagle the Tyrant of Austria Those of Piedmont under the Grassant Tyranny of that little Tyger of Savoy Pag. 24. Our first Reformers never resigned nor abandoned that first and most just priviledge of Resistance Nay nor of bringing publick Beasts of prey to condign Punishment in an extraordinary way of vindictive justice E. G. Cardinal Beaton that was Slain in the Tower of St. Andrew's by James Melvin who perceiving his consorts moved with Passion withdrew them and said This work and Judgement of God altho' it be Secret ought to be done with greater Gravity and presentnig the point of his Sword to the Cardinal said Repent thee of thy former wicked Life but especially of the shedding of the Blood of Mr. George Wisheart which yet Crys for Vengeance from God upon thee And we from God are sent to revenge it for here before my God I protest that Nothing moveth me to strike thee but only because thou hast been and remainest an obstinate Enemy agoinst Christ Jesus and his holy Gospel Of which fast says my Author the faithful and famous Historian Mr. Knox speaks very Honourably and after the Slaughter joyned himself with them yet now such a fact committed upon such another Bloody and Treacherous Beast the Cardinal prelate of Scotland Eight years agon is generally Condemned as Horrid Murder Pag. 75. Speaking of the King's defeat at Worcester he says Israel had Sinned and Transgressed the Covenant Having taken the accursed thing and put it even amongst their own stuff therefore the Children of Israel could not stand before their Enemies but an Army of them near 30000. was totally Routed at Worcester and the Achan the cause of the overthrow was forced to hide himself beyond Sea where he continued a wandring Fugitive in Exile till 1660. False Monk then General with a Combination of Malignants and publick Resolutioners did machinate our Misery and effectuated it by bringing the King home to England from his Banishment wherein he was habituate into an implacable hatred against the Work of God Pag. 96. The Covenant is our Magna Charta of Religion and Righteousness our greatest Security for all our Interests Pag. 99. That same perfidious Parliament fram'd an Act for an Anniversary Thanksgiving Commemorating every 29th of May that Blasphemy against the Spirit and Work of God and Celebrating that unhappy Restauration of the Rescinder of the Reformation which had not only the Concurrence of the Universality of the Nation but alas for shame that it should be told in Gath even of some Presbyterian Ministers who afterwards accepted the Indulgence one of which a Pillar among them was seen scandalously Dancing about the Bonfires O Holy and Astonishing Justice thus
Religion and a clear breach of the Covenants By this Toleration the Papists are encouraged and encreased in Numbers the whole Nation overflow'd with their Hellish Locusts and all places fill'd with Priests and Jesuits yea the Executive Power of the Government is put in the Hands of the Romanists Watever Liberty this may be to some Consciences it 's none to the Tender it 's only a Toleration which is always of Evil for that which is good cannot be tolerated under the Notion of Good but countenanced and incouraged as such therefore this reflects upon our Religion when a Toleration is accepted which implies such a Reproach and the annexed Indemnity and Pardon tacitely condemns the Profession thereof as a Fault or Crime which no Christian can bear with or homologate by Acceptance whatever some Addressers particularly the Presbyterians at London have blasphemously alledged that God is hereby restored to his Empire over the Conscience Moreover says he true Presbyterians can never closs themselves among them that are hereby indulged viz. Archbishops and Bishops all the Prelatical and Malignant Crew all Quakers and Papists reaching also all Idolatry Blasphemy Heresie and Truth making the Professors of Christ Partners with Antichrist's Vassals Such a Toleration is contrary to the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament it 's like Julian the Apostate's Toleration designing to root out Chirstianity it 's contrary to the Confession of Faith and therefore to accept this Toleration is inconsistent with the Principles of the Church of Scotland National and Solemn Leagues and Covenants and Solemn Acknowledgments of Sins and Engagements to Duties in all which we are bound to Extirpate Popery and Prelacy as inconsistent with the whole Tract of our former Contendings and particularly with the Testimony of the Synod of Fiâ—e and other Brethren against Cromwel ' s vast Toleration and Liberty of Conscience The worst of all is says he that it 's further declared in that Toleration that nothing must be preached or taught which may any way tend to alienate the Hearts of the People from the King or his Government here is the Price at which they ought to purchase their Freedom a sad Bargain to buy Liberty and sell Truth But who can be faithful but he must think it his Duty to alienate the Hearts of the People from such an Enemy to Christ What Watchman must not see it his indispensable Duty to preach so that the People may hate the Whore and this Pimp of Hers It cannot be but very stumbling to see the Ministers of Scotland purchasing à Liberty to themselves at the rate of burying and betraying the Cause into Bondage and thus to be laid by from all Opposition to Antichrist's Design in such a season The World will be tempted to think that they are not governed by Principles but their own Interest and that it was not the late overturning of Religion and Liberty that offended them for if that Arbitrary Power had been but exerted in their favours tho' with the same prejudice to the Cause of Christ they would have complied with it as they do now Mr. Rule in his late Book is highly offended with the Author of the case of the afflicted Clergy for saying That the Presbyterians Addressed and Thanked K. James for this Toleration in a fawning and flattering manner and yet our honest Presbyterian Author deals more roundly with them Pag. 173. his words are these The Addresses made thereupon were with a strain of Fulsome and Blasphemous Flatteries to the Dishonour of God the Reproach of the Cause the Betraying of the Church the Detriment of the Nation and the exposing themselves to the Contempt of all Again says he Pag 176 177 178. The Address it self is of such a dress as makes the things addressed for to be odious and the Addressers to forefault the Respect and merit the Indignation of all that are friends to the Protestant and Presbyterian Cause Nothing could have been more cross to the real desires of the true Presbyterians than this newly start-up Opinion that Interest has led them to espouse There is nothing here sounds like the old Presbyterian strain neither was there ever an Address of this Stile seen before from Presbyterians It would have looked far more Presbyterian like to have sent a Protestation against the now openly desâ—gn'd Introduction of Popery and Subversion of all Laws and Liberties which they are Covenanted to maintain or at least an Address in the usual Language of the Presbyterians who used always to speak of the Covenants and work of Reformation but here never a word of these but of Loyalty to His Excellent to His Gracious and to His Sacred Majesty of Loyalty not to be questioned an entire Loyalty in Doctrine a resolved Loyalty in Practice and a fervent Loyalty in Prayers All that they are sollicitous about is not for the Prerogatives of their Master or the Liberties of the Church but lest their Loyalty be question'd that they be otherwise represented all that they beseech for is Not that the Cause of Christ be not wronged or Antichrist introduced by this Liberty but that those who promote any Disloyal Principles and Practices may be looked upon as none of theirs and all the hopes they have 〈…〉 great perswasions of His Majesty's Justice and Goodness Here is a Lawless Unrestrained Loyalty to a Tyrant claiming and absolute Power to be obeyed without reserve not only professed but solicitously sought to be the Principle of Presbyterians whereas it is the Principle of Atheistical Hobes This is not the Presbyterian Loyalty to the King according to the Restrictions in the Covenants but Erastian Loyalty to a Tyrant in his overturning Religion Laws and Liberties and in protecting and incouraging all Iniquity This Loyalty in Doctrine will be found Disloyalty to Christ in a sinful and shameful silence that wrong is done to him This Loyalty in Practice is a plain betraying of Religion and Liberty and lying by from all opposition to the destroyer of both And this Loyalty in Prayers for all Blessings ever to attend His Person and Government will be found inconsistent with the Zeal of Christians and the cries of the Elect unto God for Vengeance upon the Supporters of Antichrist nor consonant to Presbyterian Prayers in reference to Popish Tyrants it were much more suitable for them to pray That God which hath caused his Name to dwell in his Church may destroy all Kings that shall put to their Hands to alter and destroy the House of God Ezra 6. 12. Page 178. 179. This Address is so stuffed with sneaking Flatteries that it would more become Sycophants and Court Parasites than Ministers of the Gospel Nothing but a Rhapsody of Flatteries justifying all his Claim to Absoluteness and engaging to Demean themselves so as that he may find cause to enlarge rather than to diminish his Favours which can be no other way but in assisting him to destroy Religion and Liberty O what an indelible
are to blame for it After all this if neither Bishops nor other Ministers neither Laick Lords nor Gentry both of the Scotch and English Nation must be allowed to have any Credit when they are brought by our Authors to attest known Truths and matters of Fact whereof they were Eye Witnesses then I beseech you why should men receive that high Character and Testimony which Mr. Rule gives of himself pag. 169 when he says He did not only practice Medicine but likewise took the Degree of Doctor in it yet never giving over the Work of preaching frequently This is a terrible Man indeed who it seems can kill both Soul and Body He is far stricter to the Covenanted Work than his Brethren the Presbyterians in England for they can upon occasion for Interest and other such holy Purposes unite and joyn with Independents whereas he like a man of unmoveable Conscience withstood the temptation of having an Independent Congregation at Aberdeen when great offers of that Charge were made to him there and in Northumberland he suffered no small loss because he would not fall in with that Independent way Again if you 'll believe himself he hat no want of Latin and that he speaks false Lattin is false he is ready as he hath done to give proof to the contrary and to compete with all such as pretend to it but when and where we must not know till Elias come Nay besides all this he hath an excellent hand at Latin Prayers which he can make longer or shorter as the occasion requireth but never so short as some men alledge neither doth he use to pray VERY LONG in publick even in English and that 's more indeed than any other of his Fraternity can alledge for themselves Long Prayers serve the Party for many great ends in them they can sound the Alarms to Rebellion commend themselves highly defame the King rail against and revile Malignants raise and inflame the Mob vent false News and Stories and many other Hocus tricks their long ex Trumpry Prayers serve for Moreover Mr. Rule to shew his Parts longs for an Adversary like himself I wish says he a Sciolist would make it appear by a Solid Refutation what Ignorance I have discovered in my Writings I am ready to defend it with all the probability the subject matter is capable of But my mistakes if I be in any must not pass for proofs of my Ignorance If any Momus will make his censure on the Presbyterian Government it 's like Mr. Rule the great Atlas of the Cause or some for him will give him a farther Answer Just such another as this exceeding civil and fair Vindication And then to conclude his own Character he assures us That he exceeds all other Presbyterians both in his tenderness to the Episcopal party and in his Argumentative way rather than bitterness of all which the new Gospel Modesty and Meekness the Candor Ingenuity and Argumentation that appears every where in his late Books is a sufficient evidence Now for a man to say all this of himself because no body else will this sure is teste me ipso with a witness unless it shall be allowed that Gilbert may witness for Rule and Rule again for Gilbert that the Doctor may witness for the Principal and the honest Principal again by way of Requital does the like kindness to his beloved Doctor this is the Presbyterian way of proving things by Witnesses Mr. Rule answers our Books so throughly that he imputes to the Authors as a fault in their Method every little escape of the Printers about wrong numbering the Pages which is frequently occasioned by sending one and the same Book to several Houses for the speedier dispatch however the Alphabetical numbering of the Sheets ordinarily serves to help the misplaced Figures but tho' Mr. Rule be often dabling about the Press yet it seems he either does not or he will not know this Mr. Rule at last to confirm all the Contradictions and Falshoods of his Book brings in Mr. Meldrum one of his own Kidney and just such another Scribler as appears by his Letter Page 195. where he says That the Prelatists way is to spread Reflective Pamphlets in England keeping them as secret as they can in Scotland where the falshood of matters of Fact are not known and they might soon have their Shame and Lying discovered None but a true Scots Presbyterian could have asserted this for he himself too well knows that his Party which domineers now in Scotland allows no Episcopal Pamphlets to be brought into or dispersed in that Kingdom and that sometime before the writing of his Letter several hundreds of these Pamphlets were by the Presbyterian Party seiz'd at Berwick to prevent their being dispersed in Scotland and that contrary to all the Rules of Justice and Commerce betwixt the two Nations and to the great prejudice of the Bookseller these Books are by the Arbitrary Power of Presbyterians still kept up But we shall allow Mr. Meldrum to be more candid in this than in his former dealings with us if he will but now obtain to us the common liberty of the Press in Scotland and then we promise that he shall have a sight of all our Pamphlets sine praetio aut praece which now he says he cannot obtain by either of these means Page 196 None but a Cameronian will assert as Mr. Meldrum does That the Covenant is a Sacred Oath just as Sacred as that by which the Jews bound themselves to murther St. Paul The World is not now ignorant how that Covenant was by Subjects who had no shadow or Authority pressed upon their Brethren in despite of the King at the expence of much Treasure and many thousand Lives and Perjuries Page 197. he says That the submitting of some who had been ordained only by Presbyterians to be re-ordained by Bishops is Scandalous None but one of Rule 's Evidences would have said this the Reformed French have been always justly reputed by all other Protestants for the great Learning and Piety of their Ministers and yet the most Learned and Pious of their Ministers at their coming into England when they could have the advantage of being Ordained by Bishops have chearfully not only submitted to it but begged it of the Right Reverend Fathers of the Church Of which we have many late Instances The account he gives of his shufling and shifting about the Oath of Canonical Obedience is very Comical for he owns That he Subscribed a Paper whereof he did not seriously consider either the words or the matter and he thinks himself sufficiently absolved from that because forsooth he was not present when that paper was read in the Church and by telling the People next Lord's day that he conceiv'd he had yielded to nothing but what he first offered which they that know the matter of Fact call Canonical Obedience for which if you 'll believe him he lamented several years after all
Summers again in one year and bless his Crop O what cause have we to rejoyce c. Ep. 139. To Mr. John Mein I see Christ will not prigg with me nor stand upon stepping stones but cometh in at the broad side without Ceremonies or making of it nice Ep. 141. To the Earl of Lothian If your Lordship and others shall go on to dive to the lowest ground and bottom of the Knavery and perfidious treachery to Christ of the cursed and wretched Prelates the Antichrist's first-born and the first-fruit of his foul womb and shall deal with our Soveraign then your Righteousness shall break thorough the Clouds c. Ep. 142. O for a long Play-day with Christ Ep. 145. Mr. John Ferguson Were is not that I am dated now and then with pieces of Christ's sweet comforts I fear I should have made an ill browst of this honourable Cross Ep. 162. To Mr. Hugh Mc Kell I will verily give my Lord Jesus a free discharge of all that I like a fool laid to his charge and beg him pardon to the mends Ep. 163. I tremble at the remembrance of a new out-cast betwixt him and me but I find Christ dare not be long unkind Ep. 137. To my Lady Boyd Nothing hath given my faith a greater back-set till it crackt again than my closed mouth Ep. 139. To Carletown The Lord hath done it I will not go to Law with Christ for I would gain nothing of that The Devil is but God's Master-fencer to teach us to handle our arms Ep. 198. To Mr. John Levingston The Devil cannot get it denied but we suffer for the apple of Christ's eye his Royal Prerogatives as King and Law-giver let us not fear he will have his Gospel once again roûped in Scotland and the matter go to Vows to see who will say Let Christ be Crowned King in Scotland It is true Antichrist stirreth his tail but I love a rumbling and raging Devil in the Kirk rather than a subtil or sleeping Devil Christ never got a Bride without stroke of Sword Epist 200. O Hell were a good cheap price to buy him at Ep. 207. A kiss of Christ blown over his shoulder the parings and crumbs of glory under his Table in Heaven a shower like a thin May mist of his love would make me green sappy and joyful Ep. 214. Go on as ye have worthily begun in purging of the Lord's House in this Land and plucking down the Stalls of Antichrist's filthy nest this wretched Prelacy and that black Kingdom whose wicked aims have ever been and still are to make this fat world the only Compass they would have Faith and Religion to sail by and to mount up the man of sin their God-father the Pope of Rome upon the highest stair of Christ's Throne and to make a Velvet-church c. Ibid. These men mind nothing else but that by bringing in the Pope's foul tail first upon us their wretched and beggerly Ceremonies they may thrust in after them Antichrist's legs thighs and his belly head and shoulders and then cry down Christ and the Gospel and up the Merchandize and Wares of the Great Whore Ibid. Christ shall never be content with this Land neither shall his hot fiery indignation be turned away so long as the Prelate the man that lay in Antichrist's foul womb and the Antichrist's Lord Bailiff shall sit Lord Carver in the Lord Jesus Courts The Prelate is both the Egg and the Nest to cleck and bring forth Popery plead therefore for the pulling down of the Nest and crushing of the Egg. All that is meant here by Christ is Presbyterian Government I shall conclude this Section with some of their most remarkable Principles and Opinions concerning Civil Government The Presbyterians of late have talk'd much of their Loyalty but if they have any it must be in contradiction to their Principles For proof of this I shall not trouble you with Citations from Private Men but appeal to their Covenants and Solemn Leagues to their constant Doctrin as well as Practice of Resistance and some few Instances I must not omit taken from the Acts of their General Assemblies and those Books which have the general Approbation of the Party in which they express themselves thus Vnless Men blot out of their Hearts the Love of Religion and Cause of God and cast off all care of their Country Laws and Liberties c. they must now or never appear active against the King each one stretching himself to yea and beyond their Power it is not time to dally or go about the Business by halves nor to be almost but altogether Zealous Cursed is he that doth the Work of the Lord negligently Solemn and seasonable warning to all Ranks Feb. 12. 1645. Sess 18. In another seasonable and necessary warning dated July 27. 1649. Sess 27. they say But if his Majesty or any having or pretending Power and Commission from him shall Invade this Kingdom upon pretext of establishing him in the exercise of his Royal Power as it will be a high provocation against God to be accessory or assisting thereto so it will be a necessary Duty to resist and oppose the same The Author of the Hind let loose reflecting on these passages says These Fathers could well distinguish betwixt Authority and the Person and were not so Loyal as now their degenerate Children are Ambitious to shew themselves stupidly stooping to the Shadow thereof and yet will be called The only Assertors of Presbyterian Principles The Presbytery hath the Power of making Peace and War and the Parliament ought not to enter into any War without them more than Joshua did without the consent of Eliazar Any Vnion or Engagement of the Nation to defend the King's Person Honour or Prerogative is unlawful unless allowed by the Presbytery The Presbytery alone knows and it only can determine what the Cause of God is the King and Parliament are not to be complied with but in Subordination to the Covenant The Presbytery can Counter-act the Acts of the States of Parliament and discharge the Subjects from obeying such Acts as are imposed without the consent of the Presbytery Act General Assembly Aug. 3. 1648. Act and Declaration against the Act of Parliament July 13. 1648. Act General Assembly Aug 13. 1650. Tho' our Saviour told his Disciples That his Kingdom was not of this World and that therefore they ought not to fight for him yet that Doctrine does not now oblige Covenanted Christians for they may fight without yea and against the Consent of the Supream Magistrate for the Cause of God and a probable capacity to effectuate their Designs is the Call of God to do it Jus Pop. Preface to the Reader Naph Pag. 7 8 16 159. Not only is it necessary to resist the King by force in defence of the Solemn League and Covenant but also to resist King and Parliament when they pervert the right ways of the Lord and
come Sirrah stand there at my left hand thou and the Devil shall together even now There is nothing more ordinary among the Generality of their Preachers than to tell that Christ did not set his foot in Scotland this eight and twenty years or this I brought a stranger to you now and a very great stranger indeed this many a year would you know who it is it is Christ Sirs hadd him fast then for if once he get out of Scotland again it 's like he 'l never return It is very well known in Perthshire that one of their Rabbies Preaching a◠St. Johnstone or thereabout a little before the Battel of Killich ankie upon these words Resist the Devil and he will slie from you he begins very gravely after this manner Humph my beloved you are all here the day even for the fashions cause but wo◠ye who is amongst you the day even the meikle horned Devil tho you cannot see him yet I do I see him Sirs by the eye of faith but you 'l say now that we have him here what shall we do with him Sirs Humph what way will ye destroy him some of you will say we will hang him ha ha my beloved there are not so many tows in all the Parish as hung him besides he 's as light as a feather What then will ye do with him for he will not hang. Then some of you will say we will drown him Humph my beloved there is too much cork in his Arse he 's as souple as an Eel he will not sink Others of you will say we will burn him Na na Sirs ye may scald your selves but ye cannot burn him for all the fire in Hell could never yet singe a hair on his tail Now Sirs you cannot find a way among you all to kill him but I will find it what way will this be Sirs we shall even shoot him Wherewith shall we shoot him We shall shoot him with the Bible Now Sirs I shall shoot him presently so presenting the Bible as Soldiers do their Musquet he crys out Touff Touff Touff Now he is shot there lies the foul thief as dead as a Haron Some Eye-witnesses report of another that was to give the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper such as they can give and having got into the Pulpit he looks about him and says Sirs I miss somebody here to day I miss Christ here the day but he promised to be here the day I think he will be as good as his word however I will go out and see if he be coming he at this went out of the Pulpit and staying out some little time he comes in and tells them Now Sirs Christ is coming I saw him on his white Horse coming to you Now what entertainment will you give him I will tell you Sirs Will ye get among you all but one Pint of Faith a Gill of Grace and a Mutchkine of Sanctification and this will make a good morning draught for him In the Mers there was a Communion given lately and as it is ordinary there is a Discourse for every Table one of the Preachers that 's most cried up for his Eloquence said You that are Wives ye will be saying ordinarily when ye meet Cummer have ye spun your Yarn yet But alas I fear there are few of you that have spun a Wedding-garment for Christ the day But Christ will be among you and see who is his well busked Bride he 'l say to them that have not on their Wedding-garment Is that nasty Slut there my Bride shame and lack fall that Bride Go nasty Slut sway'd away to Hell It is ordinary among some Plebeians in the South of Scotland to go about from door to door upon New-years Eve crying Hagmane a corrupted word from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies the Holy Month. John Dickson holding forth against this Custom once in a Sermon at Kelso says Sirs do ye know what Hagmane signifies It is the Devil be in the house that 's the meaning of its Hebrew Original Another time he told his Hearers what an Idolatrous Church the English Church is for lay two Eggs in a Dish and the one is not so like the other as the Church of Rome and the Church of England are to one another I know a Minister that went purposely to hear this man and declared upon his real truth that he held out a nonsensick rhapsody for an hour and an half time on the third of Matth. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased All the Graces of the Spirit said he are mysterious faith is a mystery there is a faith that is not saving but that 's no mystery I believe if I should ask any of you whether or no ye believe the words that I read to you you will all say Humf we all believe that Sirs the Devil does more and yet he is not saved nor like to be in haste This is a passage of our Saviour's Transmigration Sirs says he It tells how our blessed Saviour was reform'd like an Angel of Light when his Disciples saw that Glorious sight they were all like a Country man that had never tasted outlandish wine before the wine runs up into his head and makes him dizzie so the Disciples were dizzie the 17. v. They knew not what they said t that is they were dizzie From the words we learn this note of Doctrine That Christ he is lovely O he is lovely O he is lovely First as he is the Son of God 8. Prov. v. 15. By me Kings reign and princes decree justice That is lovely Christ hath authority over all the Kings of the world The Great Turk can do nothing without him The meikle Deel and the black Pape can do nothing without him There were a pack of Deels limbs a year or two ago here and they thought forsooth all would be their own and now lovely Christ in his Providential Providence is like to disappoint them all and who kens but they 'l come begging Pease and Pottage at ours doors yet Christ is lovely as he is Mediator cut him all in pieces from head to foot every bit of him is lovely They 'l tell you now the young Prince is banished Britain but I 'le tell you of a young Prince that has been banished Britain these 28 years by the incoming of the perjur'd Prelates and drunken Curates lovely Christ is that young Prince and now he is like to come back again to get his Crown O take him now now when he is coming with a whip in his hand to scourge out the cursed Curates c. This was preached in the Parish of Smallum in Teviotdale and the effect of this Preaching followed the next Sabbath for the rabble came and pulled the Minister out of his Pulpit in the time of his Sermon One Mr. Thomas Ramsay in Mordington within the Shire of Berwick said in a Sermon upon the
he nothing has befallen these Men but what God had from Eternity decreed and I can tell you Sirs why he decreed it indeed it was even because they had gone sometimes to hear the Graceless Curates Ah Sirs ye may see in this Judgment the danger of that Sin beware of hearing Curates Sirs you see it 's a dangerous thing Sirs but I 'll tell you more yet anent this Sirs this is a plain proof that the Gospel has non been preached in this Parish these twenty eight Years for in all that time you have no heard so much as of one that had a tender Conscience like these men but now when we begin again to preach the Gospel it 's so powerful that it awakes mens Consciences and pricks them so at the Heart that they cannot bear it nor live under it And now I leave the World to Judge whether this sort of Learning and manner of Preaching doth not stand in diametrical opposition to all Religion and Reason and does not in its Tenure and Effects appear to be indeed the Doctrine of Devils and another Gospel and yet by it our Rabble Reformation has been wrought All true and solid Learning particularly Antiquity is decryed by them because in it there is no vestige no not so much as any shadow of Presbytery to be found to preach Peace and Righteousness tho' that be the design of the Gospel yet since it does not answer the Ends of the Covenant it must be condemn'd as temporizing time-serving and the pleasing of men more than God who they are sure can never be pleas'd but in their Covenanted way Morality with them is but old out-dated heathenish Virtue and therefore such a Book as The whole Duty of Man is look'd upon with wonderful contempt by them Frazer of Bray one of the greatest among them professes downright that there is no Gospel nor any relish of it in that Book and that Aristotle's Ethicks have as much true Divinity as that Book hath And John Vetch of Woolstruthers says That that Book is too much upon Moral Duty A certain Lady of their Stamp getting it once into her hands and hearing that it was a Moral Book done by an Episcopal Divine she made a Burnt Offering of it out of her great Zeal against Episcopacy and Morality Mr. Macquire one of their celebrated Professors and Preachers in his Preface to Brown's Book entituled Christ the Truth Way and Life calls the people that are taken up with the whole Duty of Man or any such Books a Moralizing or rather says he a Muddizing Generation The most of their Sermons are Nonsensick Raptures the abuse of Mystick Divinity in canting and compounded Vocables oft-times stuffed with impertinent and base Similes and always with homely course and ridiculous Expressions very unsuitable to the Gravity and Solemnity that becomes Divinity They are for the most part upon Believe Believe and mistaking Faith for a meer Recumbency they value no Works but such as tend to propagate Presbytery When they speak of Christ they represent him as a Gallant Courting and Kissing by their Fulsome Amorous Discourses on the mysterious Parables of the Canticles and making Christ and his Gospel to be their own Kirk Government they have quite debased Divinity and debauched the Morals of the People This is evident not only from their manner of Preaching but also from their way of Writing most of their Books whereof some Instances shall be given in the next Section Some of them have an odd way of acting in the Pulpit personating Discourses often by way of Dialogue betwixt them and the Devil Such ways were of old familiar to the Monks as appears from Monsieur Claude in his Second part of the Defence of the Reformation Chap. 10. where he vindicates Luther from an aspersion cast upon him by the Church of Rome For say the Papists Luther professeth in his Writings that he had a Conference with the Devil concerning the Mass and that the Devil accused him for being an Idolater To which Luther answers That he was then in Ignorance and that he obey'd his Superiours Hence the Papists conclude that Luther was the Devil's Scholar But Monsieur Claude lets them see that Luther spoke in a Monkish Stile and that the Stile of the Convent did represent conflicts betwixt the Flesh and Spirit as personal exploits with the Devil To prove this he instances St. Dominick who says That he saw the Devil one Night in his Iron Hands carry a Paper to him which he read by the light of a Lamp and told it was a Catalogue of his sins and the sins of his Brethren upon which St. Dominick commanded him to leave the Paper with him which was done accordingly and afterwards he and his Brethren found cause to correct something in their Lives All that is said for this is that it is a Romantick Stile proper to the Monks and all that is meant thereby is this that the Devil could lay such and sins to their charge their Consciences did smite them therefore they corrected what they found amiss But such a Stile did create wrong Ideas in the Litteral Interpreters of such Narrations And it is like some of our Reformers reading Books of this nature either thought such Apparisions real or that they affected the Stile for it its reported of Mr. Robert Bruce one of our Scotch Reformers that having studied the Civil Law and going one day to the Colledge of Justice to pass his Tryals in order to commence Advocate he said that he saw a great Gulph in the Close or Court of the Parliament-House like the mouth of Hell and this diverted his entrance into the House upon which he gave over the Study of the Law and applyed himself to Theology Whether the thing was litterally true or whether the man had a disturbed Imagination as good men may have or whether he affected the Stile of the Convent and meant thus much buy it That the imployment of a Jurist was dangerous and apt to lead men into such Temptations as he feared might be too strong for him I know not which to conclude but this I am sure of That one Mr. Thomas Hogg a very popular Presbyterian Preacher in the North asked a person of great Learning in a Religious Conference whether or not he had seen the Devil It was answered him That he had never seen him in any visible apperance Then I assure you saith Mr. Hogg that you can never be happy till you see him in that manner that is until you have both a personal Converse and Combat with him I know nothing more apt to create a more Religious Madness in poor well-meaning people that this sort of Divinity in which our Presbyterians have quite out-done the senseless old Monks Their Principles and Doctrine being as ye have heard opposite to Morality it will not be thought strange that the height of Pride and Rusticitie should appear in their Conversation The common Civilities due to