extirpation of the Kingdom of Darkness and whatsoever is contrair to the Kingdom of Christ and especially Idolatry and Popery in all the Articles of it as we are bound in our National Covenant and Superstition Will-worship and Prelacy with its Hierarchy as we are bound in our Solemn League and Covenant And that we shall with the same sincerity endeavour God giving us Assistance the overthrow of that Power that hath established that Prelacy and Erastianism over the Church and exercises such a Lustful and Arbitrary Tyranny over the Subjects seeking again to introduce Idolatry and Superstition in these Lands contrair to our Covenants And in a word that we shall endeavour the extirpation of all the works of Darkness and the Relicts of Idolatry and Superstition which are both much enlarged and revived in our times and execute righteous Iudgments impartially according to the Word of God and degree of Wickedness upon the Committers of these things but especially Blasphemy Idolatry Atheism Sorcery Perjury Uncleanness Prophanation of the Lords day Oppression and Malignancy that being thus zealous for God he may delight to dwell among us IV. Seriously considering that the hand of our Kings has been against the Throne of the Lord and that now for a long time the Succession of our Kings and the most part of our Rulers with him hath been against the purity and power of Religion and Godliness and freedom of the Church of God and hath degenerate from the vertue and good Government of their Predecessors into Tyranny and hath of late so manifestly rejected God his Service and Reformation as a Slavery as they themselves call it in their publick Papers especially in these last Letters to the King and Duke of Lauderdale disclaiming their Covenant with God and Blasphemously inacting it to be burnt by the hand of a Hang-man governed contrary to all right Laws divine and humane excercised such Tyranny and Arbitrary Government opprest Men in their Consciences and Civil Rights used free Subjects Christian and reasonable Men with less discretion and justice than their Beasts and so not only frustrate the great end of Government which is that Men may live Godly Holily and Peaceably under them and might be maintained in their Rights and Liberties form injury and wrong but hath also walked contrary to it so that it can no more be called a Government but a lustful Rage excercised with as little right Reason and with more Cruelty than in Beasts and they themselves can be no more called Governours but publick Grassators and publick Iudgements which all Men ought as earnestly to labour to be free of as of Sword Famine or Pestilence raging amongst us and besides hath stopped instead of punishing the Course of Law and Iustice against Idolaters Blasphemers Atheists Murderers Incestuous and Adulterous and other Malefactors and instead of rewarding the Good hath made Butcheries and Murthers on the Lord's People sold them as Slaves Imprisoned For faulted Banished and Fined them upon no other account but for maintaining the Lords Right to rule Consciences against the Usurpations of Men for fulfilling their Vows and repelling unjust Violence which innocent Nature allows to all of all which and more particulars we can give we speak as before God innumerable and sure Instances Neither can it be thought that there is hope of their returning from these Courses having so often shewed their Natures and Enmities against God and all Righteousness and so often declared and renewed their Purposes and Promises of persevering in these Courses And suppose they should dissemble a Repentance of these Evils and profess to return to better Courses being put to Straits or for their own Ends for upon no other account can we reasonably expect it and though it might be thought that there might be Pardon for what is done which we cannot yet see to be without the violation of the Law of God and a great guiltiness on the Land from which guiltiness the Land can never be free but by executing of God's righteous Iudgements upon them for omitting of so greatly deserved and so necessarily requisite a Justice yet they cannot be believed after they have violated all Tyes that Humane Wisdom can devise to bind Men and beside there will be something of Folly found to think to bind a King that pretends to absoluteness And our Fathers or rather our selves at first judged it not warrantable to receive Him without consenting to and swearing of the Covenant And if so the renouncing and disclaming thereof we ought at present to judge to be a just and reasonable ground of rejecting Him upon these Grounds being assured of God's approbation and Mens whose Hearts are not utterly byassed and their Consciences altogether corrupted and knowing assuredly that the upholding of such is to uphold Men to bear down Christ's Kingdom and to uphold Satans and the depriving of Men of right Government and good Governours to the ruining of Religion and undoing of Humane Society We then seeing the innumerable Sins and Snares that are in giving obedience to their Acts on the other hand seeing if we shall acknowledge their Authority and refuse Obedience to their sinful Commands the endless Miseries that will follow and siding with God who we hope will accept and help us to a liberation from their Tyranny against his stated and declared Enemies do reject that King and those associate with him from being our Rulers because standing in the way of our Right free and peaceably serving of God propagating his Kingdom and Reformation and overthrowing Satans Kingdom according to our Covenant And declares them henceforth to be no lawful Rulers as they have declared us to be no lawful Subjects upon a ground far less warrantable as Men unbyassed may see and that after this we neither owe nor shall yield any willing Obedience to them but shall rather suffer the outmost of their Cruelties and Injustice until God shall plead our Cause and that upon these Accounts because they have altered and destroyed the Lord's established Religion overturned the fundamental and establish'd Laws of the Kingdom taken altogether away Christ's Church and Government and changed the Civil Government of this Land which was by King and free Parliament into Tyranny where none are associate to be partakers of the Government but only those who will be found by Justice to be Guilty of Criminals and all others excluded even those who by the Laws of the Land by Birth had a right to and a share in that Government and that only because not of the same Guiltiness and mischievous Purposes with themselves And also all free elections of Commissioners for Parliaments and Officers for Government are made void by their making those the Qualifications of admission to these Places which by the Word of God and the Laws of this Land were the cause of their exclusion before so that none can look upon us or judge us bound in Allegeance to them unless they say also we are bound in
blamed a King's Advocat for assisting in Criminal Processes nor lies there any Action or Scandal against him any where on that account as can be proved from many hundreds of Citations of the best Laws and Lawyers but he darkens his own Cause when just who uses these to ignorant people and he lessens his own esteem who thinks he needs them amongst men of better sense The Law trusts him entirely as a Publick Servant who manages these Pursuits by Virtue of his Office and not by Malice The King's Advocat must either have a Negative over the King and all the Iudicatories by refusing to concur by which he might make the justest pursuit useless for tho he should lay down his Employment yet it would give an ill impression even of the best Cause or otherways he must be obliged to concur in which Case he can do no prejudice because Iudges are presum'd to be learned and the Advocat is still to be consider'd as too interested to have any dangerous Influence Nor can he abuse the Iury with any misrepresentation in point of Law for they are only allow'd by our Law to consider what is meer matter of Fact and whether the precise point of Law referr'd to them by the Judges be prov'd by these Depositions of the Witnesses which lye before the Jury in Writing Iudges may err in point of Law and Juries in point of Fact but neither of these are entrusted to the Advocate so that poor People are abus'd extreamly when they are informed that the King's Advocate occasioned any Mans Death Sir George might here likewise represent that in the Rebellion against K. Ch. I. many Noblemen and Gentlemen were pursued for rising in Arms by that same King's Commission by whose Authory their Iudges did sit and yet none of the Advocats of these times were ever quarrel'd with or mis-represented for debating even against their Master's Commission and Remission as will appear by the Processes of Haddo President Spotswood Marquess of Huntley Montross and hundreds of other Gentlemen but Sir Geo. needs justifie himself by no such Precedents In the third place Sir George Mackenzie may unanswerably urge that no Man who endeavoured so to lessen the Power of the King's Advocats by Acts of Parliament and Regulations can be thought to have had any inclinations to stretch it as also he may value himself for refusing to accept the King's Advocate 's place till his Predecessour resign'd it under his hand that he never informed against any Man nor suggested any pursuit that when a Pursuit was motioned he pleaded as much in private for the Defendant if the case was dubious as any of his Advocates did thereafter in the process nor did he ever shew any vehemence in the process except when he was jealous'd of Friendship to the Defendant or of love to popularity because he had so pleaded in private and no age did ever see so many thousands pardoned nor so many Indemnities granted as was in his time which as it must be principally ascribed to the extraordinary Clemency of the Kings he served so it may be in some measure imputed to the natural Byass which Sir George had to the merciful hand There is great Reason to believe that poor People are only misled by mis-informations since some in their Pamphlets clamour against the Advocate for threatning the Iury with a Process of Errour whereas all that he does is to protest for a process of Errour which is a duty imposed upon him by our Law They accuse him also for having occasioned great expences to the Countrey for keeping Witnesses unexamined whereas it appears fully from our Statutes and Practice that the examination of Witnesses is no part of his duty for the Sollicitor presents them and the Iudges only can examine them The bulk of all the processes raised in K. Charles 2. and K. Iames 7. Reigns were against such as rose in actual Rebellion at Pentland-Hills Bothwell-Bridge and Argyle 's Invasion the first were pursued by Sir Iohn Nisbet one of the best Lawyers and Country-men that ever pleaded and Sir George Mackenzie did but Copy his Libels in pursuing Men in the other two Rebellions These Indictments were founded upon the Laws of all Nations and particularly of Scotland declaring that Subjects taking Arms against the King and his Authority were Traytors All the Nobility and Gentry almost all who are in the present Government rose against them with their Swords in their hands and so were more guilty if that must be called guilt than any Judge these Proceedings were justified by many Parliaments and all the Iudicatures and England still continues to think that Monmouth's Invasion was a Rebellion so that the succeeding King's Advocates could not be blamed for pleading in defence of what others fought for and judged There were other two Classes of Men prosecuted in those times the one was of the Murderers of the Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews the other was of such as in publick Rendezvous of Rebellion as at Sanqhuar wherein they declared K. Ch. 2. to have forfeited his Right to the Crown because he had broken the Covenant which was the fundamental Contract betwixt God the King and the People and therefore they declared War against him and that it was lawful to kill all who served him Now it is left to any indifferent Reader to judge whether there needed any Eloquence to prevail with Iudges or Iurors to condemn such Rebels But to shew the Clemency of the Government Strangers would be pleased to consider that tho' above 20000 had been guilty of publick Rebellion yet 200 died not by the Criminal Court and above 150 of these might have saved their lives by saying God bless the King not that the refusing to say this was made a Crime as is villainously represented but that this easie defence was allowed under this Gâ—ntle King whose Clemency we wish may be imitated by those who cry so much out against his Cruelty and amongst the many thousands that rose with Argyle only two notorious Rebels were pitched upon by the Criminal Court to die for the example and terrour of others And I may safely say that there died not six in all the the time that Sir Geo. was Advocate except for being in actual Rebellion and for being Guilty of Assassination clearly proved nor did the Earl of Argyle himself die till he had actually invaded his native Country nor George Lermonth till it was proved that tho' he wanted Arms yet he commanded those who were in Arms to fall upon the King's Souldiers and so they were killed by his Command And what Eloquence is requisite to perswade Judges or Juries to condemn in such Crimes TO THE READER WHEN we inform Strangers of the Seditious Principles of the Scotch Presbyterians they are justly surprised that such Villanies can be practised where Humanity and Christianity are not openly and plainly renounced and therefore some of their own Authentick Papers are here subjoined which contain
and no King if he have not power to order his House and Subjects and they not following him nor his Ministers if not asserting and maintaining of this Kingly Power against all Incroachers and Usurpers of it and besides we being commanded If any Brother walk disorderly from such to withdraw and although in the capacity we now are in we neither have nor assume to our selves Authority to give our definite and authoritative Sentences of Deposition and Suspension against these Ministers yet we declare which is proper for us to do that we neither can nor will bear Preaching nor receive Sacraments from these Ministers that hath accepted of and voted for that Liberty and declares all who have encouraged and strengthened their Hands by hearing and pleading for them all those who have traffiqued for an union with them without their renouncing and repenting of these things all those that do not testifie faithfully against them and after do not deport themselves suitably to their Testimonies and all who joyn not in publick with their Brethren who are testifying against them we declare that we shall not hear them Preach nor receive Sacraments from them at least till they stand in Judgment before these Ministers and be judged by them who have followed the Lord and kept themselves free of these Defections And as our Hearts hath cleaved to these Ministers while they were on the Lord's side and subjected our selves to them so we shall still cleave to those that abide following him and shall be subject to them in the Lord. VII Then we do declare and acknowledge that a Gospel-Ministry is a standing Ordinance of God appointed by Christ to continue in the Church until the end of the World and that none of us shall take upon him the preaching of the word or administring the Sacraments unless called and ordained thereto by the Ministers of the Gospel And as we declare that we are for a standing Gospel-Ministry rightly chosen and rightly ordained so we declare that we shall go about this work in time to come with more Fasting and Praying and more careful Inspection into the Conversation and Holiness of these Men that shall be chosen and ordained the want of which formerly hath been a great sin both in Ministers and People which hath not been the least cause of this Defection THE Declaration and Testimony OF THE True-Presbyterian Anti-Prelatick and Anti-Erastian Persecuted-Party in SCOTLAND IT is not amongst the smallest of the Lords Mercies to this poor Land that there hath always been some who hath given a Testimony of every course of Defection which we were guilty of which is a token for Good that he does not as yet intend to cast us off altogether but that He will leave a remnant in whom He will be glorious if they through His Grace keep themselves clean still and walk in His Way and Method as it hath been walked in and owned by Him in our Predecessors of truly worthy Memory their time in their carrying on our noble Work of Reformation in the several steps thereof from Popery and Prelacy and likewise from Erastian-Supremacy so much usurped by him who it is true so far as we know is descended from the Race of our Kings yet he hath so far deborded from what he ought to have been by Perjury and Vsurpation in Church Matters and Tyranny in Matters Civil as is known by the whole Land that we have just reason to believe that one of the Lords great Controversies against us is that we have not disowned him and the Men of his Practices whether inferiour Magistrates or any others as Enemies to our Lord and His Crown and the True-Protestant and Presbyterian Interest in their hands our Lords espoused Bride and Church Therefore although we be for Government and Governours such as the Word of God and our Covenants allows yet we for our selves and all that will adhere to us as the Representatives of the True Presbyterian Church and covenanted Nation of Scotland considering the great hazard of lying under such a sin do by these presents Disown Charles Stuart who hath been reigning or rather we may say tyrannizing on the Throne of Scotland or Government thereof for faulted several years since by his Perjury and breach of Covenant with God and His Church and Usurpation of his Crown and Royal Prerogatives therein and many other breaches in matters Ecclesiastick and by his Tyranny and breach of the very Leges Regnandi in matters Civil for which Reasons we declare That several years since he should have been denuded of being King Ruler or Magistrate or having any Power to act or to be obeyed as such As also being under the Standard of Christ Captain of Salvation we declare War against such a Tyrant and Usurper and all the Men of his Practices as Enemies to our Lord Jesus Christ His Cause and Covenants and against all such as have strengthened him sided with him or any ways acknowledged him in his Usurpation and Tyranny Civil and Ecclesiastick yea and against all such as shall strengthen side with or any ways acknowledge any other in the like Usurpation and Tyranny far more against such as would betray or deliver up our free Reformed Mother Church into the Bondage of Antichrist the Pope of Rome By this we Homologat the Testimony given at Rutherglen the twenty ninth of May 1679. and all the faithful Testimonies of those that have gone before us as of those also that have suffered of late and we do disclaim that Declaration published at Hamiltoun Iune 1679. chiefly because it takes in the Kings Interest which we are several years since loosed from because of the foresaid Reasons and others which may after this if the Lord will be published As also we disown and by this resents the reception of the Duke of York a profest Papist as repugnant to our Principles and Vows to the most High God and as that which is the great though alace too just reproach of our Church and Nation We also by this protest against his succeeding to the Crown and whatever hath been done or any are essaying to do in this Land given to the Lord in prejudice to our Work of Reformation And to conclude We hope none will blame us for or offend at our rewarding those that are against us as they have done to us as the Lord gives the opportunity This is not to exclude any that hath declined if they be willing to give satisfaction to the degree of their offence Given at Sanqhuair Iune 22. 1680. These are the True and Exact Copies of the Fanaticks New Covenant and Declaration Collationed with the Originals which are kept amongst the Records of His Majesties Privy-Council and attested by Al. Gibson Cl. Sti. Concilii And Will Paterson Cl. Sti. Concilii A Blasphemous and Treasonable PAPER Emitted by the Phanatical Undersubscribers On May 1. 1681. According to the Original lying in the hands of the Clerks of His Majesties Most Honourable
presence of Almighty GOD the Searcher of all Hearts with a true intention to perform the same as we shall answer at that great Day when the secrets of all Hearts shall be disclosed Most humbly beseeching the Lord to strengthen us by his holy Spirit for this end and to bless our desires and proceedings with such Success as may be deliverance and safety to his People and Encouragement to other Christian Churches groaning under or in danger of the Yoke of Antichristian Tyranny to joyn in the same or like Association and Covenant To the glory of God the enlargement of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and the Peace and Tranquility of Christian Kingdoms and Common-wealths West-kirk the 13. day of August 1650. THe Commission of the General Assembly considering that there may be just ground of stumbling from the Kings Majesties refusing to subscribe and emit the Declaration offered unto him by the Committee of Estates and Commissioners of the General Assembly concerning his former carriage and resolutions for the future in reference to the Cause of God and the Enemies and Friends thereof Doth therefore declare that this Kirk and Kingdom do not own nor espouse any Malignant party or quarrel or interest But that they fight meerly upon their former Grounds and Principles and in defence of the Cause of God and of the Kingdom as they have done these twelve Years past And therefore as they do disclaim all the Sin and Guilt of the King and of his House so they will not own Him nor his Interest otherwise than with a Subordination to God and so far as he owns and prosecutes the Cause of God and disclaimes his and his Fathers opposition to the Work of God and to the Covenant and likewise all the Enemies thereof And that they will with convenient speed take in Consideration the Papers lately sent unto them from OLIVER CROMWEL and vindicate themselves from all the falsehoods contained therein especially in those things wherein the quarrel betwixt us and that party is mis-stated as if we owned the late Kings proceedings and were resolved to Prosecute and Maintain his present Majesties interest before and without acknowledgement of the Sins of his House and former ways and Satisfaction to Gods People in both Kingdoms A. Ker. 13. of August 1650. THe Committee of Estates having seen and considered a Declaration of the Commission of the General Assembly anent the stating of the quarrel whereon the Army is to fight do Approve the same and heartily Concur therein Tho Henderson A True and Exact Copy of a Treasonable and Bloody Paper called The Fanaticks New Covenant which was taken from Donald Cargill at Queens-Ferry Iune 3. 1680. one of their Field-Preachers a declared Rebel and Traitor Together with their Execrable Declaration published at the Cross of Sanquhair upon the Two and twentieth day of the said Month of June after a solemn Procession and singing of Psalms by Cameron the notorious Ringleader of and Preacher at their Field-Conventicles accompanied with Twenty of that wretched Crew WE Under-Subscribers for our selves and all that join with us and adhere to us being put to it by God our Consciences and Men Do bind our Souls with a solemn and sacred Bond lest on the one hand we should be carried away with the stream of the Apostacy and defection of the Church in this time and on the other hand lest we should not being so engaged evanish in Vanity and be without a right Rule in good Designs We have judged it our duty again to Covenant with God and one another and to publish this DECLARATION to the World of our Purposes that Men may know our most inward thoughts the Rules that we walk by and the outmost ends that we have before our eyes for this intent that those who are lovers of God zealous of His reigning in Glory and desirous of Reformation and the propagation of His Kingdom may have occasion no more to be jealous of our Intentions and others may have no ground to load us with odious and foul Aspersions but that all knowing the truth of us if they shall strive against us and Truth with us shall do it without excuse and against conviction and that those who shall join with us may do it upon solid and undoubted grounds and both they and we may expect Grace from Him Faithfully to persevere and happily to be successful in so good Purposes It is true We are not ignorant of the great unmindfulness failing counteracting and mocking that has been in our former Vows and Covenants with God and of the great Iudgments that hath and are like to follow such impious and sinful dealing with God in such weighty Matters for which we both ought and desire to be Humbled before Him which cannot but make us with great trembling of Heart enter into new ones knowing both our own weakness and readiness to relapse and the great hazard and danger of such relapses Yet the desire of recovering and preserving a remnant and the conviction of this as the most convenient mean the zeal to Gods glory and Christs reigning which is the highest and most acceptable duty Man can perform to God hoping for His Mercies who is witness to the Integrity of our Hearts and rightness of our Intentions that he will instruct direct accept and prosper us we go forward declaring that nothing else but what we here express is our Design I. We Covenant and Swear that we take the only true and living God Father Son and Holy Ghost to be our God and betakes our selves to the Merits and Righteousness of His Son as the alone Righteousness that can justifie us before God and that we take His Scriptures and Word to be the Object of our Faith and rule of our Conversation in all things and that we shall give up our selves to Him to be renewed instructed and in all things ruled by His Spirit according to that Word and shall earnestly endeavour by His Grace to render to Him that Love Worship and Obedience that His Word requires and His Goodness engages us to II. That we shall to the outmost of our Power advance the Kingdom of Christ established throughout the Land if at any time hereafter God shall give us this opportunity Righteousness and the true reformed Religion in the truth of its Doctrine in the purity and power of its Worship and Ordinances and its Discipline and Government and free the Church of God from the Thraldom Tyranny Incroachment and corruption of Prelacy on the one hand and Erastianism on the other And we shall to our power relieve the Church and Subjects of this Kingdom we being called thereto by His giving of us Power Power being Gods Call to do good of that Oppression that hath been exercised upon their Consciences Civil Rights and Liberties that Men may serve Him Holily without fear and possess their civil Rights in quietness without disturbance III. That we shall endeavour to our outmost the
Allegeance to Devils they being his Vicegerents and not Gods V. We then being made free by God and their own doings he giving the Law and they giving the Transgression of that Law which is the cause that we are loosed now from all Obligations both Divine and Civil to them and knowing that no Society of Men that hath Corruption in them which always is ready to beget disorders and do injuries unless restrained and punished by Laws and Government can be without Laws and Government and withal desiring to be governed in the best way that is least lyable to Inconveniencies and Tyranny We do declare that we shall set up over our selves and over all that God shall give us Power Government and Governours according to the Word of God and especially according to that word Exod. 18. v. 21. Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the People able Men such as fear God Men of Truth hating Covetousness and that we shall no more commit the Government of our selves and the making of Laws for us to any one single Person and lineal Successor we not being tied as the Iews were by God to one Family Government not being an Inheritance but an Office which must be squared not to the Interest and Lust of a Man but to the good of the Commonwealth and this kind of Government by a single Person c. being most liable to Inconveniencies as sad and long experience may now teach us and aptest to Degenenate into Tyranny Moreover we declare that these Men whom we shall set over us shall be ingaged to govern us principally by that Civil or Judicial Law given by God to his People of Israel especially in matters of Life and Death and in all other things also so far as they teach excepting only that Law viz. anent Slaves which does not agree with that Christian Liberty established in all Christendom only violated by our Tyrants and some others of late and that of Divorces and Poligamy the one being not a Law but a Permission granted upon the account of the hardness of their Hearts the other being a Sinful Custom contrair to the first institution of Marriage crept in into the Church We know that Men of Malignant and perverse Spirits that has not a higher God than a wicked King which suits only with their lustful licentiousness and it may be others with them that seemed to be of better Principles will raise an ignorant Clamour upon this that it is a Fifth-Monarchy and we Fifth-Monarchy-men and will labour to amuse the People with strange Terms and put odious names on good things to make them hateful as their way is but if this be their Fifth-Monarchy we both are and ought to be such and that according to his word VI. It being the work of the Ministers of the Gospel to preach propagate and defend the Kingdom of God and to preserve the Doctrine Worship Discipline Government Liberties and Priviledges of the same from all Corruptions and Incroachments of Rulers and all others And seeing that the Ministers of the Church of Scotland at least the greatest part of them before not only were defective in Preaching and Testifying against the Acts of these Rulers for overthrowing Religion and Reformation abjuring our Covenant made with God establishing a Government in the Church which that King calls his own Government and so not God's contrair to our Covenant Against inacting of that Blasphemous so Calvin calls that Supremacy of Henry the Eighth upon which this Prerogative is founded and from which it is derived and is no less if not more jnjurious to Christ and inslaving to his Church and Sacrilegious Prerogative given to a King over the Church of God and against the other Acts and Incroachments of His Church and hindred others also who were willing and would have testified against them and censured some that did it for which together with the other Causes in their Trust and Administration we may say God hath left them to do worse things but also hath voted in that Meeting which they are pleased to call an Assembly of Ministers but how justly let Men judge an Acceptation of that Liberty founded upon and given by vertue of that blasphemously arrogated and usurped Power and hath appeared before their Courts to accept of that Liberty and to be enacted and authorized there as Ministers and so hath willingly for this is an elicit Act of the Will and not an Act of Force and Constraint translated the Power of sending out ordering censuring for as they accept of their Liberty from them so they submit to their Censures and Restraints at least all of them who were yet tried with it and others of them appeared and acknowledged before their Courts that they would not have done these things that they were charged with if they had thought it would have offended them Ministers departing from the Court of Christ and subjection to the Ministry to the Courts of Men and subjection to the Magistrate which had been impious and injurious to Christ and His Church though they had been Righteous and Lawful Rulers and by their changing of Courts according to common Law hath changed their Masters and of the Ministers of Christ are become the Ministers of Men and bound to answer to them as oft as they will and as by the acceptation of this Liberty in such manner they have Translated the Power so they have given up and utterly quit the Government and a succession of a Presbyterian Ministry for as these were not granted them of their Masters so they Exercise their Ministry without them and so by this as the Ecclesiastick-Government is swallowed up in the Civil if the rest had followed them the Ministry should have also been extinct with themselves and the whole Work of Reformation had been buried in Oblivion not so much as the remembrance of it kept up These together with the other of their Commissions in Preaching the lawfulness of paying that Tribute declared to be imposed for the bearing down of the true Worship of God which they falsly termed Seditious Conventicles and their advising these poor Prisoners to subscribe the Bond and consequently could not but so advise all others if put to it for the hazard that Men were in will not make a real change of the morality of that Action and beside the rest may be put to it upon the same hazard and so if the one should advise which consequently they must do and the other should subscribe this would altogether close that door which the Lord hath made use of in all the Churches of Europe for casting off the Yoke of the Whore and restoring the Truth and Purity of Religion and Reformation and freedom of the Churches and should have stopped all ingress for Men when once brought under Tyranny to recover their Liberty again These Ministers then not being followers of Christ who before Pontius Pilate gave a good Confession which was that he was a King
Privy Council WE undersubscribers now Prisoners for the truth in the Cannongate Tolbuith though most vile yet it pleased the Holy Ghost to work on our Spirits of a time past in clearing causes of wrath and shewing us duty from day to day that now in some time past we are and have been called Mad men and Devils and now there is none in the Kingdom in Prison or out of Prison that we can converse with as Christians And yesterday being the 26 day of the 5 th Moneth it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to take out of our Bibles the Psalms in meeter for several causes mentioned afterwards for the Book of the Revelation says if any Man should add unto these things God shall add unto him the Plagues which are written in this Book and we did Burn them in our Prison-house and sweep away the Ashes Likewise in the Holy Scriptures we renounce Chapters and Verses and Contents because it is only done by Humane Wisdom and the changing of the Books after the Holy Ghost had placed them we being pressed to this work by the Holy Ghost do renounce the Impression and Translation of both the Old and New Testaments and that for additions put unto them by Men and other causes as first putting in horrid Blasphemy making a Tyrant Patron of the Church when the Scriptures holds of none but of God and needs no Patronage from any King Prince or Rulers and the writing of that Blasphemous Sacrilegious as some call it the Epistle Dedicatory filled with such Language as Dread Sovereign Highness most High and Mighty most Sacred Majesty and likewise the horrid unparallell'd Blasphemy making a Triangle with these Hebrew Letters in it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iehovah representing the Trinity and likewise putting in horrid Pictures in several places of the Holy Scripture and likewise drawing scores betwixt the Books of the Bible and other superfluous Traditions Likewise we renounce the Catechisms Larger and Shorter and Confession of Faith against which we have many causes one cause is in the 23 Chap. for the Scripture proofs that they cite proves the contrary of that they write We renounce the Acts of the General Assembly and all the Covenants and acknowledging of Sins and engagement to Duties and that which they call Preaching Books and all their works way form and manner of Worship Doctrine Discipline and Government and the studying on their Books the thing they call their Preaching for instead of going to God for his mind to the People they go to their Books and so makes their Books their God and their leader and so all following that way go to Hell together The cause of this is we find none of their works but they are like themselves Carnal and Corrupt according to that Scripture Hate the Garment spotted with the Flesh. We renounce the limiting of the Lord's Mind by Glasses and their ordination of Men only Learned and their saying that Learning is the essential of a Minister without grace Likewise we renounce their manner of renewing Covenants pressing Mens Consciences to take a Covenant and by so doing has filled the Kirk and State with Tyrants and incarnate Devils as we find this day they knew the Men to have no marks of grace but on the other hand to be prophane as them they call King and Rulers Captains and Comanders in State and Armies and all Kirk Officers whom we call Tyrants and Iudas's for by so doing they have corrupted both Kirk and State as this day Kirk Men and States Men whom we call Iudas's and Tyrants are studying in opposition to Holiness and the work of Reformation who entred in by these same Covenants are now pursuing our lives for a Christian walk And likewise we renounce the Covenant taken at Queensferry commonly called Cargil's Covenant and likewise Hamiltown Declaration yea and Sanquhare Declaration because they may and has owned these and are owning these who are Enemies to Holiness and were Enemies to us as some of them said we should suffer Kirk Censure for giving over the old Apostat Ministers to the Devil and some of them counted us their Enemies for the truths sake and sent us word they would protest against us and so we justifie our Lord in breaking them at Airds Moss we justifie the Lord likewise in taking away that they call Field-Preachings or mockings because they were nothing but Rebellion against the High Lord as we find now when our Lord is come to the Cross there is neither Minister nor People to bide by him of the many Thousands has flocked to the thing they call Preachings or mockings and therefore now all are found void of saving Grace and so we see that word is accomplished Strait and narrow is the way that leadeth unto Life and few there be that find it And that other word many shall strive and shall not be able We finding all former Actions to be such as Devils has and can creep in at as Declarations and Covenants and get the name of Saints Therefore this day it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to renounce and burn the former Covenants and Declarations because they are not strait enough according to Scripture and all their Works such like and therefore we will own none of their Works till it please the Lord to give us teaching from himself By this all may know and understand we overturn and formally burns all the former Works of the Clergy of Scotland and throughout all the whole World that are in opposition to Holiness dated the 6 th day of the Week being the 27. of the 5 th Month 1681. about Mid-day We renounce and decline all Authority throughout the World and all that are in Authority and all their Acts and Edicts from the Tyrant Charles Stuart to the lowest Tyrant and burns them the same day being the 6 th day of the week the 27 day of the 5 th Month 1681. at Cannongate Tolbuith Iron-house We renounce the names of Months as Ianuary February March April May Iune Iuly August September October November December Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Martimas Holydays for there is none holy but the Sabbath day Lambmas day Whitsunday Candlemas Beltan Cross stones and Images Fairs named by Saints and all the remnants of Popery Tool or Christmas old Wives Fables and By-words as Palmsunday Carlinesunday the 29 th of May being dedicat by this Generation to Prophanity Peacesunday Halloweven Hogmynae night Valentins even no Marrying in the Month they call May the innumerable Relicts of Popery Atheism and Sorcery and New years day and Hansell-Monday Dredgies and Likewakes Valenteins Fair Chappels and Chaplains likewise Sabbath days Feastings Blythmeats Banquetings Revelling Pipings Sportings Dancings Laughings Singing prophane and lustful Songs and Ballads Table-Lawings Monk-lands Frier-lands Blackfrier-lands Kirks and Kirkyards and Mencat Crosses Fount-stones Images Registers of Lands and Houses Register Bonds Discharges and all their Law-works Inhibitions
all that are unchast in thoughts words and behaviour and all that makes no Conscience of their way and whosoever loveth and maketh a lye shall tremble that day when they shall enter into Eternity when it shall be said as it was to Dives Thou in thy Lifetime hadst thy good things and Lazarus his bad things For except a Man be born again he can in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven We take up the Book of the Holy Scripture at the Lords command and for a Testimony of our Dissatisfaction at the abounding Corruptions both of Translators and the Press and likewise for a Testimony of our desires and intentions for a new Translation and Impression free of the foresaid and other abuses we to our power reform our own Books and sayes that the word of God needs no humane Art we hold that the Word of God is laid the Foundation of this new Building and shortly it shall become the head Corner stone of the Building over both Kirk and Stater Kirk-Men and States-Men so that Scripture towards the end of the Rev. of Iohn shall be fulfilled And I saw Heaven opened and behold a white Horse and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True and in Righteousness he doth Iudge and make War his Eyes were as a flame of Fire and on his Head were many Crowns and he had a new Name written that no Man knew but he himself and he was Cloathed with a Vesture dipt in Blood and his Name is called the word of God And first to shew that we take the Word of God in every point to be our Rule the sum and end of our so much reproached and mocked at Exercise Fasting and Prayer will be found in the Book of Psalms Be thou exalted O God above the Heavens and let thy glory be above all the Earth It is written in the Acts of the Apostles It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us but they usurping Supremacy says by the Authority of the General Assembly allows these Psalms to be sung in Congregations c. which we renounce And more we think the Psalm Book in Meeter and no other thing ought to be within the broads of the Bible but the simple Scriptures of Truth the Psalms may be had in a Book by themselves We are so reproached and calumniate that we are forced to make our defence and shew that we have mourned fasted and prayed many a day and many a night this last Winter many times in the open Fields in Frost and Snow while our Cloaths were frozen upon us and our Feet frozen in our Shooes as the Town of cursed Borronstonness can witness and all this to find out the causes of our Lords tarrying when those who are now calling us Devils were turning themselves upon their Ivory beds like a door upon the Hinges eating the fat and drinking the sweet at their own ease And when we were driven thence by Persecution we took our selves to the Fields holding still by our duty where many Women did offer themselves to the Work with whom our spirits was many a time burdened whom we could not put away as our blessed Lord dealt with Iudas whom he knew would betray him without manifest causes We stayed not with them but on solemn days such as Sabbaths and appointed times for publick meeting but when they took their rest betwixt hands we continnued still in Fields nights and days fasting and praying for two or three days together several times and it was always their fear we should propose some question to try them for Separation and that night before we was taken we warned them that the Soldiers would come and told them to use their freedom we saw them also a mile off an hour before they came and none of them would go away and after we were brought in hither after some several days Fasting and Prayer we being warned by the Holy Ghost followed Esther's advice and continued from eight a Clock of the morning the 24 day of the 5 Month till the 27 at four afternoon Fasting and Praying we sent them word likewise to Fast and Pray and when we sent them the answer of our Prayers in the writ they called us Devils Thence we fasted till the 28 day at night and thence till the 30 at night waiting still to see if they would recover but they waxed still worse and we were forced to write this to vindicate our carriage towards them Walter Ker. Iohn Gibb David Iamison Iohn Young This is Exactly Compared and Collationed with the Principal Copy by me WIL. PATERSON Cl. Sti. Concilii FINIS A Catalogue of some Books Printed for Io. Hindmarsh at the Golden-Ball over against the Royal-Exchange in Cornhill THE Antiquity of the Royal Line of Scotland farther Cleared and Defended against the Exceptions lately offer'd by Dr. Stillingfleet in his Vindication of the Bishop of St. Asaph By Sir George Mackenzie His Majesty's Advocate for the Kingdom of Scotland The Moral History of Frugality with its opposite Vices Covetousness Niggardliness Prodigality and Luxury Written by the Honourable Sir George Mackenzie late Lord Advocate of Scotland A Memorial for His Highness the Prince of Orange in Relation to the Affairs of Scotland Together with the Address of the Presbyterian-Party in that Kingdom to His Highness And some Observations on that Address By two Persons of Quality An Account of the Present Persecution of the Church in Scotland in several Letters The Case of the Present Afflicted Clergy in Scotland truly represented To which is added for Probation the attestation of many unexceptionable Witnesses to every Particular and all the Publick Acts and Proclamations of the Convention and Parliament relating to the Clergy By a Lover of the Church and his Country An Historical Relation of the late Presbyterian General Assembly held at Edinburgh from October 16. to November 13. In the Year 1690. In a Letter from a Person in Edinburgh to his Friend in London Vid. Cargil and Sanchars Covenant at the end * That is this noise of Prisoners yet preserved alive So the Preacher applied his Doctrin The truly learned Advocate for the King †Illud tamen generaliter observandum quod Iurisdictio nunquam privative sed cumulative delegaâ—i potest non est quasi transitio juris de unâ— persona in aliam sed tantum mandata jurisdictio quod non obstante Delegatione adhuc remanet in delegante Considering the violent and cruel temper of their Enemies * Compare this with the Sanchar Declaration and Cargil's Covenant at the end of this Paper * That is the same Punishment which the Law provides against such a Criminal Art eod II. Art 3. ejusdem Art 10. Act 92. Ses. II. Iac. 6. * Vid. Cargils Covenant and Sanchar Declaration