Christians forsaking or falling off from Christ or the Christian Religion is Metaphorically called a Scandal a Stone of Stumbling and a Rock of Offence and any man even our blessed Redeemer who spoke did or suffered any thing that accidentally deterred others from believing in Christ or that gave him occasion to desert him or his Doctrine is said to have offended or Scandalized them or given them offence in which sense 1 Cor. 1. 23. Christ is said to be a Scandal or Stumbling-block to the Jews and Luk. 7. 23. saith our Saviour Blessed is he that shall not be offended in me i. e. who shall not take occasion to disert or deny me at the time of my Sufferings see also Matth. 17. 27. 18. 6. 26. 31. 33. Therefore this Basphemer here applyes to himself the very words of the Apostle speaking of Christ crucified nay the very words of Christ himself to induce the poor People to believe that the very cause of the Covenanters is the very cause of Christianity and so deter them upon the Execution of the Rebels from quitting the cursed Rebellious cause Stone of Stumbling or a Rock of Offence and blessed is he that shall not be offended in Christ and his poor Followers and Members because of being Condemned by the World as evildoers As for those things for which Sentence hath passed against me I bless the Lord my p Is not this in effect to assert with the Jesuits That a good intention or meaning doth hallow a bad Action heart doth not Condemn me Rebellious I have not been neither do I judge it to be Rebellion for me to have indeavoured in my capacity what possible I could for the born-down and q He means by Episcopacy and Supremacy with respect to the former of which the Interest of Christ was universally ruined from the time of the Apostles till the French-Reformation and with respect to the latter from the time of Constantine the first Christian Emperour till the time when the Popes under the pretended Vicarship of Christ the King of Sion Subjected the Empire unto the Church And therefore good Christian People is not this a blessed cause which must have obliged Christians to separate from the Catholick Church in the purest times the age of the Apostles for they were Bishops and the age next unto them and to have rebelled under a pretence of Religion and defending the Interest of Christ against the first Christian Emperors to whom the Greek and Latin Churches attributed as much Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Matters and over Ecclesiastical Persons as the English and Scottish do to the King They a 1 Con. Nicen. by Constant. 1 Con. Constantinop by Theodos. Sen. Con. Eph. by Theodos. Junior Con. Chalced by Marcion convocated general Councils fat in them among the Patriarchs Bishops and Presbyters made b Syn. Oecumen Octava Where are the Speeches and Subscriptions of Basilius the Emporor and Leo. Orâ—tions upon Ecclesiastical matters to them and by their c Syn. Oecumen Octava Where are the Speeches and Subscriptions of Basilius the Emporor and Leo. Subscriptions consented to and confirmed what was determined therein And Councils wherein they did not sit used always to beseech them to d Epist. Concil Constantinop 1. ad Theodosium ratify their Decrees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They had power to e Can. 12. and 16. Concil Chalced. Balsam in 16. can Concil Carthag erect new Bishopricks to abolish old ones to f As Theodosius in the Election of Nectarius dispense with the Ecclesiastical Canons and to order many things in Church-Matters which were not defined therein as is plain out of the Code and Novelles and the Capitularia of the ancient French Kings They were Priviledged to come to the g 69. Can. Concil Sexti in Trullo Altar when all other Laies were forbidden and the Clergy to shew how sacred their Persons were and that the concerns of the Church ought to be their chief care h Grot. de imperio summar potest c. 2. 7. called them Priests and Bishops which in these days would pass for Episcopal tantivies as the traiterous Author of the Appeal thinks he wittily speaks There consent was requisite to the Election of Bishops nay they often nominated the Persons to be Elected and had power to i Novil 3. c. 1. Sancimus igitur The reason which the Emperor Justinian gave for that Law was the excessive number of the Clergy which was disproportionate to the Places and Revenue of the Church The Law and the Preface to it deserves to be considered by the Right Reverend and worthy Fathers of our Church forbid the Bishops to Ordain which by the leave of the Romish and Kirk-Writers I take to be a Privative power Lastly They had a power to suspend †Novil 123. c. 1. Sancimus igitur quoties Episcopum opus fuerit ordinari sed etiam illum qui praeter hoc persumpserit ordinare segregari uno anno a sacro ministerio Bishops and Presbyters and also to k Cod. l. 1 Tit. 1. 6. Anathematizamus Nestorium 2. Eutychetem 3. Apollinarium Anathematize Hereticks which signified a power of pronouncing them rightly and duly Anathematized and of doing many other things with respect to the Church-matters and Church-men and because the two Sister-Churches and their Clergy assert as much power to be due to the King in such Causes as the Kings of Judah and the Christian Emperors had therefore the Kirk-Preachers call them l The Author of the Apology Episcopal-Erastian Churches and their Ministers and Bishops Court-Parasites and when they argue from the example of the best Judaean Kings and the most Pious Christian Emperors m Calder-Woods altare Damâ—scenum Naturâ insitum est omnibus regibus odium in Christum The same is to be found in Rutherfords Lex Rex They can tell them by Authority that in all Kings there is a natural enmity against Christ nay they tell the People that the Bishops and their Clergy have ruined the Interest of Christ and that if they will have Christ for their King they must rise up to destroy the Idol of Supremacy and Antichristian Prelacy which supports it and therefore this miserable Wretch being conscious to himself of so good a Cause saith His heart did not condemn him of Rebellion for having endeavoured in his poor capacity to uphold the born-down and ruined Interest of Christ. I once had the diversion to hear a Kirk-Disciple rail at the Rescinding Act and Act of Supremacy which gave me occasion to shew what great power the Greek and Latin Churches granted to be due to the Christian Emperors in Church-matters to which he answered me That it was always natural to Clergy-men to flatter Kings and Emperors and great men just as I have read in one of the Letters which Mr. sent to all the Bishops of Scotland That Pride was always a natural sin to the Clergy which he spoke upon the
THE Spirit of POPERY Speaking out of the Mouths of Phanatical-Protestants OR THE LAST SPEECHES OF Mr. JOHN KID And Mr. JOHN KING Two Presbyterian Ministers Who were Executed for HIGH-TREASON and REBELLION At Edinburgh August the 14th 1679. With ANIMADVERSIONS and the History of the Archbishop of St. Andrews his Murder extracted out of the Registers of the Privy-Council c. By an Orthodox Protestant 1 Pet. 4. 15 16. But let none of you suffer as a Murderer or as a Thief Yet if any Man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but glorifie God on this behalf Matth. 23. 13. 16 17. 27. 31 32. Wo unto you Hypocrites who for a pretence make long Prayers Ye fools and blind ye blind Guides you are like unto beautified Sepulchres fair without but full of dead mens bones and uncleanness within Fill ye up the measure of your Fathers for you are the Sons of them who killed the Prophets Luke 11. 49 50 51. Some of them they shall Slay and Persecute that the blood of all which was shed from the blood to the blood may be required of this Generation Matth. 7. 15. Beware of False-Prophets which come to you in Sheeps Cloathing but inwardly are Ravening-Wolves Gen. 49. 6. O my Soul come not thou into their Secret nor unto their Assembly for in their anger they Slew a Man 2 Tim. 3. 2 3 4 5. Boasters Proud Blasphemers Unthankful Unholy False-Accusers Incontinent Fierce Traitors Heady High-minded having the outward appearance of Godliness but denying the Power thereof from such turn away Dehinc ut quiescant porro moneo desinant maledicere malefacta ne noscant sua LONDON Printed by H. Hills and are to be Sold by Walter Kittleby at the Bishops-head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1680. THE PREFACE Wherein the Author of the Animadversions addresseth himself to the English-Dissenters especially the Presbyterians and shews the Jesuitical Tricks that have been used in the former Edition of these Speeches IN Writing the Animadversions upon these two treasonable and blasphemous Speeches and the History of the Archbishops Murder as a further Commentary upon them I have had a double regard to the English and Scottish Reader and have consequently said some things in both of them with respect to the one which may seem superfluous to the other The consideration I had to the former obliged me to cite and exemplifie many Scottish Acts of Parliament Orders and Proclamations of the King by his Privy-Council which had been needless but that without them it was not possible for any but a Scotsman fully to understand the meaning of those passages in the Speeches to illustrate which they are produced And the consideration I had to the latter hath made me insist much on the invalidity of the Kirk-Ministery and the Divine Institution of Episcopacy in doing of which I have cited the Latin Fathers in the Original and the Greek in Latin because this Language in Scotland among the men is almost as common as their Mother-Tongue But besides those things upon which I have largely insisted for the sake of the one of which the other had not so much need I have purposely insisted on other useful things upon the common account of both Particularly I have been elaborat in explaining most of those Texs of Scripture which the two Malefactors misapplied to themselves or their own Party and in citing out of the Kirk-Writers their Papal Jesuitical Murderous Schismatical and Rebellious Principles in doing of which I protest I have not said the fourth-part of what I was able to produce I have also here and there exemplified their Principles with their Practices and all this I have done without any at least without any material reflections upon the English-Dissenters for whose sake especially I have undertaken this small but tedious work For the conforming part of both Churches generally know enough to make them detest the Principles and Practices of our Jesuitical Separatists and so will read things of this nature not so much for instruction as delight and for our Scottish-Nonconformists especially those of the Field-Separation it would be lost labour to write Books for them who lye under as strong a prejudice against the Church-Writers as the most bigoted Papists do and like them are also terrified and prohibited by their Jesuitical Preachers from reading of any thing that is written by an Orthodox Protestant Pen. Therefore the principal design which I had in Publishing all this was for your sakes O ye Nonconformists from our Sister Church of England who have more ingenuity and who I cannot but believe are ignorant of the nature of our Separatists and their Separation because upon all occasions you appear as much concerned for them as if you thought that their Cause and yours were the very same Did you not take them for a more rational and innocent Sect than they are you would I am confident be ashamed to Correspond with them who are the shame of the Presbyterian Name You would not if you rightly understood them Defend their Separation Apologize for their worst Actions By sundry Libellous Pamphlets and most false and Seditious Discourses sent from Scotland and dispersed purposely in this our Kingdom of England especially in our City of London that the cause of these Disorders is sought to be shifted off the Rebels in Scotland and most unjustly cast upon King Charles 1st his lesser Declarat 1640. pag. 2. disperse their Calumniating and lying Stories and with your Interests and Purses support their tottering Cause You would not defend their unrighteous dealings rail at those who bring them to Condign Punishment and call their Fineings Imprisonments and Executions Persecution although they are Condemned upon the very same Account and Suffer for the very same Principles and Practices for which you rejoyce to see the Papists but especially the Jesuits Dye by the Executioners hand If you will not believe me read this little Book nay read but the Speeches and the History and if you please let the rest alone and then if you do not find that I Charge them truely expose me in Print for a Calumniator or Post me up for a Knave But if you find that the Presbyterian Sect of which these two Malefactors and the Archbishops Murderers were profess a Papal Soveraignty over your Native Prince and most of all the Doctrines if not all for which the Jesuits are Secluded both Kingdoms by Capital Laws then I beseech you nay I conjure you as you would be thought true and impartial Protestants or men of common Ingenuity not to favour or approve in the Presbyterian what you abhor in the Popish Priests and People nor to call the Execution of wholsom and necessary Laws Tyranny and Persecution with respect to the one which you declare to be Laudable Justice on the other How have both you and the Conforming-Protestants applauded the Zeal and Justice of your Magistrates in Executing your Laws upon the former and yet you
the Spirit of Grace in his most eminent exerting of himself and that it is a sin of the same nature with that of those men who ascribed Christs casting out of Devils to Belzebub but far greater And Mr. Andrew Cant in a Sermon at Glascow 1638 pressing the people to take the Covenant said that he was sent to them with a Commission from Christ to bid them Subscribe the Covenant which is Christ ' s Contract and that he himself was come a woer to them from the Bride-Groom and called unto them to come and be hand-fasted unto Christ by Subscribing the Contract and that he would not depart the Town till he had got the names of all that should refuse to Subscribe it of whom he promised to complain to his Master Christ. But in effect he complained of them to the Committee of Estates and general Assembly to get them Forfeited and Excommunicated But the great Trick of the Kirk-Preachers hath always been to Parallel the Solemn League and Covenant with the Mosaical Covenant which was a Political aswell as a Religious Contract betwixt God and the Jews by which he as it were Espoused himself to that people and that people to himself Hence they are wont to apply whatsoever is said of the Mosaical throughout the Old Test. to the Solemn League and Covenant and the making keeping or breaking thereof Were the Israelites Married to God by the one so were the Scots and English Married to him by the other Was the forsaking of the one the cause of all the judgments which fell upon them so the forsaking of the other and not the Kings blood is the cause of all the judgments that have fallen upon these Were the King aswell as the people obliged to keep the former so his Majesty aswell as his Subjects are obliged to keep the latter Did that oblige the Children in the loyns of their Parents so doth this oblige the people of both Nations and their Posterity for ever more Hence they Sacrilegiously Baptize their Children into it and expresly renew it every time they receive the Communion which was instituted as a Seal of the Covenant of Grace Was the breaking of that a Revolting from God so the rescission of this is an utter Apostacy especially of Scotland from God So that the Whig-Apostles never speak of their Country since the Establishment of Episcopacy but as of an Harlot and Idolatress that hath forsaken her first Love and Married her self to another God It would be endless to recite all their Blasphemies about it They make the last great Plague and the Burning of London to have been judgments for burning this Covenant there by the hand of the Common-Hangman Poor mans Cup of cold water Printed in 4 o 1678. pag. 19. Nay they Teach that his Majesty like the Revolting Kings of Israel and Iudah hath no right to Govern because he hath Revolted from it and Christ. Nay they damn all the Edicts and Acts of Parliament that are contrary to it as the Act Statuting that no Leagues nor Bonds be made among the Subjects of any degree upon whatsoever Pretence without his Majesties and his Successors Privity and Consent The Act rescinding and Annulling all the pretended Parliaments held 1640 1641 c. The Act for the Reestablishing of Episcopacy The Act concerning the Declaration to be Signed by all in Publick Trust as Privy-Counsellors Members of Parliament Judges Magistrates in Corporations Justices of the Peace c. A Copy of which I think fit to set down here I do sincerely affirm and declare that I judge it unlawful to Subjects upon pretence of Reformation or other pretence whatsoever to enter into Leagues or Covenants or to take up Arms against the King or those Commissionate by him and that all those Gatherings Convocations Petitions Protestations and erecting and keeping of Counsel-Tables that were used in the beginning and for carrying on of the late Troubles were Unlawful and Seditious And particularly that these Oaths whereof the one was commonly called the National Covenant as it was Sworn and explained in the year 1638 and thereafter and the other intituled a Solemn League and Covenant were and are in themselves unlawful Oathes and were taken by and imposed upon the Subjects of this Kingdom against the Fundamental Laws and Liberties of the same and that their lieth no obligation upon me or any of the Subjects from the said Oaths or either of them to endeavour any Change or Alteration of the Government either in Church or State as it is now Established by the Laws of the Kingdom The Act for Security of the Persons of regular Ministers The Act against Separation and Disobedience to Ecclesiastical Authority The Act of Supremacy of which more hereafter The Act against unlawful Ordinations The Act for an Anniversary day of Thanksgiving for his Majesties Restauration which the Rebels in their lesser Declaration on the 29th of May last call an Act appointing an holy Anniversary day to be kept on the 29th of May for giving Thanks for the up-setting of an Usurped Power destroying the interest of the Church of Christ in the Land which is to set up the Creature to be worshiped in the room of our great Redeemer and to consent to the assuming of the Power which is proper to the Lord alone And therefore they burnt it publickly at the Cross of Glasgow on the 29th of May last with the Act of Supremacy the Act concerning the Declaration and the Rescinding Act. And as they damn all these Acts upon the account of the Covenant so they also damned the Bond which the Council tender'd in 1677 and 1678. The Author of the poor mans Cup calls it the Bond of Disloyalty to Christ. And Mr. Iohn Dickson in Crambushlane Preaching at a Conventicle May 26th 1678. Said that those who had taken it had committed a greater sin than the sin of the Holy-Ghost and were already in hell To conclude all their other Blasphemies about the Covenant there goes about among them a Manuscript written to prove that it is unlawfull to hear the Church-Ministers wherein the Author most Blasphemously affirms that the Solemn League and Covenant is nothing else but the substance of the Covenant of Grace 2ly I bear my Testimony to the Solemn League and Covenant as it was Professed Sworn in Scotland England and Ireland in the year 1643. Yea as it was timed and taken by the Representatives and Body of these 3 Lands which tie is binding and can by no power on Earth be infringed whether Secular or Ecclefiastical and that it was our glory to be counted a people married to the Lord we and ours from one generation to another from henceforth and for ever so that Prelacy as it is now Established by a pretended Law is destructive down-rightly to the Sworn Covenants yea not only Prelacy Popery x Loyalty Malignancy and Heresie but y His Majesties Supremacy over all persons and in all Causes
Ecclesiastical within the Kingdom of Scotland was asserted by the first Act of the Second Parliament began at Edinburgh Octob. 19. 1669. The Kirk-Ministers have ever since rail'd against this Act above all the rest saying that Jesus Christ is quite exauctorat and unkinged by it that it hath overthrown his Prerogative Royal and made the King Supreme in the house of Christ. That the Three Estates have thereby Blasphemously declared that they have no King but Caesar that it is most expresly contrary to the 2d Psalm and that by subjecting all Ecclesiastical matters to the Imperial Scepter they have given a sinful mortal power to King it over the house of God Insomuch that Iesus Christ hath neither name nor thing of Kingly power left him by this Cursed Act by which all power Ecclesiastick is declared to be the intrinsick and inherent Prerogative of the Crown In particular the Author of the Poor Mans Cup c. saith that he admires the Patience of God that the Nation wherein such a wickedness was decreed hath not before this Perished from under heaven and saith that the Question is put by the Governours to the followers of Christ in the fields with greater contempt than Pilate put it What is Iesus than your King And then he crys Oh noble Cause Oh who would not rejoyce to enter the List of contradiction with these his enemies and have once an opportunity to say Yes he is a King and will be a King when you are gone and will prove himself higher than the Kings of the Earth by rescinding your Supremacy that Idol of his jealousie and indignation and object of his revenge Nay he saith that it is a pure perfect and unparallel'd contradiction to the Doxology of the Lords Prayer and that never any thing was so like it in Sence and Sound as what is Recorded by the Holy Ghost of the King of Babylon Isa. 14. 13 14. I will ascend into Heaven I will exalt my Throne above the Stars of God I will sit also upon the Mount of the Congregation in the sides of the North I will ascend above the heighths of the Clouds I will be like the most High Supremacy and every thing Original upon and derivate from it 3ly I can but make mention of that honorable and noble practise that this Land was priviledged with viz. that after both defections the Lord put it in the heart of Christs Church and State to renew those Covenants again with the National and Solemn League and Covenants together with an acknowledgment of sin and an engagement to Duty and that in the close of that year which performance was attended with so much of the z So he Blasphemously calls a National Fascination to Rebellion and Schism Lords power and presence that it was like a Resurrection from the Dead to all that were Witnesses thereof both Speakers and Hearers that many were forced to Cry out The joy of the Lord is our strength God of a truth is here 4ly I dare not but add this in the case wherein I now stand viz. I dare not but add my Concurrence with and Adherence to all these publick Testimonies Protestations and Declarations that have been owned evinced and remitted by all the Presbyterian Ministers and Professors that appeared against the publick resolutions for taking in the Malignant Party into Judicatories and Armies as also I joyn my Cordial adherence to and with them that protested against the 2 general Assemblies at Saint Andrews who endeavored to approve what the Commission had done in the year 1650. and 1651. in reference to the intrusting of the Malignant Party which as was said by these protesting worthies laid the foundation of all that has come or may come upon us I hope this will not offend any 5ly I am bound in Conscience in the next place to testifie my dislike and abhorrence of that horrid cruel barbarous unheard of and unparalleld Deportment and practice of that 1 This is the 15th Act of the First Parliament begun at Edinburgh Ian. 1. 1661. whereby all the pretended Parliaments from 1640. to the end of 1648. and by consequence the Established Presbyterian Government were all rescinded and Annulled and they also rail as much against it as against the Act of Supremacy and burnt them like two Idols both together Act Recissory wherewith as at one Lash by an Act of that Precipitate Parliament they endeavored to Rescind Annul and Repel all those great and glorious things that the 2 So he Blaspemously calls a strong hand of Rebellion strong hand of the Lord had done in Scotland for more than 20 years bygone over the belly of so much opposition and standing contradiction of proclaimed and avowed Adversaries upon all hands yea I proclaim my abhorrence of all the Confusion 3 He means the Blood first of those who were Executed soon after his Majesties Restauration as of Wariston Guthrie c 2ly of those who were Executed for the Rebellion at Pentland-Hills 1666 who in Naphtali and Ius populi vindicatum are called Worthies precious Saints and Martyrs c. and lastly the Blood of Mitchel who suffered for attempting the Murder of the late Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews since effected by them whom the Author of the Poor Mans Cup hath Canonized for a Saint and Martyr in this Parallel with Samson which I shall set down in his own words pag. 35. First Samson was a Rackel and Rough handed Saint ready to Pelt the Philistines on all occasions yet Secondly the Holy Ghost for all the faults that followed him hath Recorded his name and Enrolled him in the number even while the names of many others are left out of those Eminent Worthies Heb. 11. And so he hath made the name of Mr. Mitchell Savory 〈◊〉 â—s he took many Testimonies from him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his appearances to the Cause so he owned him in the end and honoured him to die Witnessing a good Confession which will be on Record to Posterity Thirdly as Samson did more mischief to the enemies of the people of God at his death than in all his life for when they sent for him to make themselves merry at a sight of his misery the Lord helped him to spoil their Sport So I judge it is beyond question with every Sober man that Mr. Mitchells death hath done more hurt to its Contrivers and furious drivers than ever his life could have done even though he had shot again and hit that unhallowed Mark c. Blood murder Fineing Confineing Imprisonments Stigmatizing with other unexpressible Cruelties that has issued 〈◊〉 that Cursed Generation there â—9 years by gone and moreover I leave my Testimony against all other Confusions Imprisonments and Blood that is or may be intended against these in the Land who design to 4 He means from Idolatrous revolting from God into the Episcopal Church which is not the house of Christ as they Sacrilegiously teach keep their garments clean whether in
so I die in the Faith of it that there will be a Resurrection of his Name Word Cause and Covenant and of all his interests therein though I dare not determine the time when nor the manner how but leave all those things to the infinitely wise God who hath done and will do all things well Oh that he would return to this Land again repair our breaches take away backslidings appear for his Work O that he were pacified towards us Oh that he would pass by Scotland once again and make our time a time of love Come Lord Jesus come quickly himself hasten it in his own time and way The Lord is my Light my Joy and my Life my Song and my Salvation The good of his chosen be my mercy this day and the enriching comforts of the Holy-Ghost keep up and carry me fair through to the glory of his Grace to the Edification of his people and my own eternal Advantage John Kid. Amen THE LAST SPEECH OF Mr. John King With Animadversions thereupon Men and Brethren I Do not doubt but many that are Spectators here have some or other end then to be edified by what yee may see in the behaviour or hear in the last words of one going to eternity But if any of you have ears to hear as I doubt not but some of this great gathering have then I desire your ears and attention if the Lord shall help and permit me to speak to a few things First I bless the Lord since by his wisdom and holy providence he hath carved out my lot to die after this manner that I die not a As unwillingly as other malefactors use to do for in the interval betwixt his condemnation and execution he by his friends used all the means he could to procure his Majesties pardon unwillingly nor by force It is true I could not do this of my self neither allways having an inclination to put the evil day farr away but through b There are two sorts of courage one natural and the other supernatural or inspired and the raising of the Animal Spirits by strong liquors for Aristotle compares Enthusiasm to wine will plausibly counterfit both Hence we see that common Malefactors party to rid their minds of the torment of fear and partly out of a vain glorious desire to be mistaken by the rabble for men of great natural courage who contemn Death privatly fortify themselves before the time of execution by strong spirits and cordials by vertue of which they often appear to die like gallant men In like manner religious Malefactors I mean such as pretend to suffer upon the account of religion that they may rid themselves of the terrours of an evil conscience and appear to be assisted like Martyrs with supernatural courage highten their spirits at the time of execution by strong liquours and cordialls which make them brisk and bold and insensible of Death and Hell But then as the former sometimes drink to much and so discover the Cheat by dying Drunk so the latter who are so much the more execrable Hypocrites of the two as it is a greater sin to counterfit Grace than nature sometimes by taking too much of the creature discover their imposture by their Drunkenness and by dying not like Martyrs but sots This was the deplorable case of Hugh Peters whose sad condition that good penitent Mr. Cook lamented at his execution This likewise was the case of the Pentland-Rebels who were executed at Edinburgh who were so stupified and besotted with the Sack and Brandy which they drank on the day of their execution and the day before that they died like Beasts without so much as making a prayer to God or desiring others to pray for them to the great scandal of all good Christian spectators who saw them and whereof many yet a live can witness what I say Lastly this was the case though not to that degree of Gaven the Jesuit elder brother to this deceiver who delivered as much as he was permitted to speak of this speech which he had composed before in such a broken confused manner as Drunken men use to do in somuch that the orthodox spectators pityed the wretch and his brotherhood were ashamed See notes d and f on the first in Speech grace I have been helped and by his grace yet hope to be and though possibly I might have shunned such a hard sentence if I had done things which though I could I durst not do no not for my Soul yet I durst not God knows redeem my Life by the loss of my Integrity and Honesty I bless the Lord that since I have been apprehended and a prisoner God hath very wonderfully upholden me and made out that comfortable word c I shewed before on note c in the first speech that this sort of Ministers falsly so called have a Jesuitical trick of abusively applying the holy Scriptures to themselves Here we may see another notable instance of it where the deceiver applys to himself this comfortable message which the Prophet delivered in Gods name to the Jews as they were his People in a civil sence bidding them not to be afraid or dismay'd because he would strengthen them help them and uphold them against their Enemies so that those who were incensed against them should be ashamed and confounded and those that warred against them should be as a thing of naught But here he blasphemously asserts that God miraculously upheld him and made out these comfortable words to him as if the Holy Ghost had whispered them in his conscience as expressly as the Prophet spoke them unto the Jews Or as if whatsoever was written in the holy Scriptures were to be so exactly transcribed in the works of Providence that even the Prophetical passages and predictions were to be accomplished over and over in different Ages or as if the latter works of Providence not only in general but as to particular Societies and Persons did answer as exactly to some or other places of the Scripture as Face answers to Face in a Glass This Doctrine is taught in a Book called The fulfilling of the Scriptures Printed 1669. wherein are such Blasphemous applications of the Scripture-promises to the Condition of the Covenanters in Scotland as cannot be read without horrour and indignation by any Orthodox man Ever since the Re-establishment of Episcopacy the Conventicle-Preachers have assured their People that God would destroy it again and restore his own work but then as often as they began to withdraw from them seeing no probability of such a turn then they Preached and Wrote of the great promises which were made to Believing as that Faith was the Evidence of things not seen and that they ought to believe the naked Word when there was no appearance of its out-making according to 2 Chron. 20. 20. Hear O Judah and Inhabitants of Jerusalem believe in the Lord your God so shall you be Established believe his Prophets so shall you
King out of Prison and in Prosecuting this Act Mr. William Colvill was deposed though he was a most learned and worthy man for not reading the Causes of a Fast which they appointed which puts me in mind of what Queen Mary Stuart was used to say That she was as much afraid of a Fast of the Ministers as of an Army of Souldiers In another Act of Assembly July 20. 1649. they Ordained that all that had been accessory to the Engagement 1648. should be processed and made solemnly to renounce it as sinful and unlawful and in their Seasonable warning July 27. 1649. They call the Defeat of this noble and pious Design by Cromwell a great mercy to the People of God and say it ought to be perpetually remembred and that all men ought to bless God for it and page 10. they say That if the King or any for him shall Invade this Land in order to his Establishment it will be a necessary Duty to resist and oppose him and page 11. so long as the King refuses to hearken to the desires of the Kirk and State it is consonant to the Scripture Reason and the Laws of the Kingdom to refuse to admit him to the Exercise of his Government till he give satisfaction in these things and in their Letter to the King page 30. they say That his refusing to satisfie their desires was nothing else but an Opposing of the Kingdom of the Son of God and a Refusing to let him Reign over him and his Kingdoms and That his Entertaining of James Graham will bring on him and his Throne the guilt of all the Blood that be and his Accomplices had shed and page 31. they exhort him to lament for the iniquities of his Fathers House and especially for his opposition to Religion and the Cause of God the permitting and practising of Antichristian Prelacy in the Royal Family it self and the Shedding of so much Blood of the People of God In one of their Acts they inhibit the Lords Supper to be Administred to any Person but who should first subscribe the Covenant which they also forced young Students and fresh men in the Universities to take and if any of them who were insnared in it in their youth chance to be Clergy-men especially Bishops then the Covenanters have a just ground to conspire their Destruction for being Apostates from the Cause They here I include their Predecessors Persecuted Queen Mary King James threatning to Excommunicate him and his whole Council King Charles the First of blessed Memory and his Majesty who now Reigns and whom God preserve from Falling into their hands again knows by former and latter experiences what a Persecuting spirit they are of What cruelty did they use against all those who refused to sign the Covenant or who broke it upon being convinced what a bond of iniquity it was They were declared to be Rebels and denounced Enemies both to God and Man Their Persons were Seized their Goods Confiscate and in Novemb. 1643. when some of the most Eminent Nobility refused to Seal it Commissions were given to Soldiers to bring them in Prisoners and to kill them if they made Resistance What bloody Tribunals were Erected at St. Andrews Glascow and Edinburgh How many Noblemen and Gentlemen of good Quality were most Barbarously Murdered especially the Heroick Montross for obeying their Sovereign's Commission and how did the Covenanters rejoyce when the Scaffolds were reeking with their Blood One of their Ministers Preached then That the work of Reformation went Bonnily on Another in his Prayer Blasphemously said Lord send us more Scaffold-Work A Fanatical Lady in the West said That the Covenant could not be Advanced but by Blood And many Ministers were then Deposed for not Preaching for it and for speaking Civilly to Montross and Praying with him by name Mr. Robert Tran of Eglesholm and many others as their own Registers yet do shew And then for the Rump of the old Faction still remaining how do They Persecute the Church and her Clergy with their utmost Malice and Power There was an Act of Parliament expressly made for Securing the Persons Families and Goods of Ministers 1669. and another against Assaulting of Ministers 1670. And the Author of Naphtali pag. 134. Exhorts all People To acquit themselves like Men and pull the Bishops out of the Sanctuary that the Wrath of God may be averted in the Righteous Punishment of those wicked Men. Accordingly Mr. James Mitchel attempted to Murder the late Archbishop of St. Andrews and in his larger Speech in Ravillac Red. he saith They are all Blessed that shall take the Proud Prelates and dash their Brains against the Stones And what he attempted was at last Successfully Effected by †Viz. by John Balfour of Kinlock David Haxton of Rathillet George Balfour in Gilston James Russel in Kettle Robert Dingwall in Caddam Andrew Guillan in Balmerinoch Alexander Henderson and Andrew his Brother in Kilbrachmont George Fleming in Balbuthy 10. Field-Zelots of the same Principles whereof some had Ridden a long time in the Field-Preachers Guards And in the middle of last October Three Fanatick Ruffians knocked down one Mr. Malne a Church-Minister in the Streets of Glascow when the Justice-Eyre was Sitting there And I profess when I consider in what a Persecuted Condition the Bishops and Clergy of our Sister-Church are my heart bleeds for them and methinks I hear them now crying out with one Voice to his Sacred Majesty as the Disciples cry'd to our Saviour in the Storm Save us or else we Perish Persecuted not only in their Liberties Priviledges and Persons but also in their Lives therefore it was that I joyned with a s Or as some of their great Apologists and Patrons were pleased to represent them at London A Poor Innocent Peaceable fort of People who only desired to serve God according to their own Consciences and truly so they do when they rebell and Murder but how well they deserved this Character the World saw and his Majesty Felt as soon as they got into their great Evangelist Naphtalis probable capacity and had they won the first Battel we should have seen and felt more poor handful The Lord knows who is the searcher of hearts that neither my Design nor Practice was against his Majesties Person and just t No Not against his Majesties Person but against his Evil Counsellors as he would have spoken in the Covenanting Style and not against his Just Government but against his Supremacy and his Legislations against the Covenant which make his Government Unjust and himself a Tyrant an Idolater and an Enemy to Christ and then how the People ought to deal with him under that Notion and Character will be worth the while to see Buchanan in his Dialogue de jure Regni saith That it is as Lawful and Meritorious to kill Tyrants as Wolves and Bears and their Whelps and that those who do such noble Acts ought to be rewarded by all
eos quos baptizaverat suos putabat esse non Christi in toto orbe decretum est ut unus de Presbyteris electus super poneretur caeteris ad quem omnis Ecclesiae cura pertinereâ— schismatum semina tollerentur Having now shewed that the Primitive Christians believed the Function of a Bishop to be distinct from that of a Presbyter and Superior to it and that the Bishops were the Successors of the Apostles and of Christs institution as they were I hope it is plain that this Antiepiscopal Deceiver dyed not in the Faith of the Primitive Christians as he hath the impudence here to profess From what I have here said of the Episcopal Office and Authority I may draw some Corollaries First that the Primitive Catholick Church acted in Conformity to its own Profession in declaring Aerius as an Antiepiscoparian an Heretick Secondly that Church-Government is not indifferent but that the †Episcopos esse in Ecclesiâ debere tanquam institutionem Apostolicam ac ordinationem proinde divinam contra Puritanos contraque Bellà rminum semper sensi qui negat Episcopos à deo immediatè suam jurisdictionem accepisse Sed nihil mirum à Puritanis eum stare quum Jesuitae nihil quà m Puritano-papistae â—int This was the Judgment of King James as is observed by Becanus de Prim. regn Angl. c. 7. Jacobi regis praefat Monar Episcopal is immediately of Apostolical and mediately of Christs institution and by consequence at least as unalterable as the Baptism of Infants and observation of the Lords-Day which the Presbyterians with good reason declare that the Magistrate ought not to change or take away Thirdly that it is Blasphemy to say that Episcopacy is an Antichristian usurpation over the Church Fourthly that to assert with the Covenanters that the Presbyterian-Government is of Divine institution is an Unscriptural Heretical and absurd Doctrine contrary to the Word of God and the practice and profession of the Holy Catholick Church And as this Jesuited Presbyterian died not in the Faith or Profession of the Primitive Christians so he died not in the Faith of the Reformed Churches First not of the Church of England which is Governed by Bishops like the Primitive Churches and after the warrant of their example hath Instituted Ceremonies and worships God by Liturgical Forms Nor secondly of the Reformed Church of France which submits to the regulation of the Edict of Nantes which is a pure and Secular Edict and which hath always worshipped God by a Common-Prayer-Book and observes Holy-days as Christmas Easter and Whitsunday and which reverences Protestant Bishops after the example of Calvin and Beza their first Reformers and owns Ministers Ordained by them and are never without some such in their Church And whos 's †The Kings larger Declaration pag. 75. Pastors especially those of Charenton were offended at the Solemn League and Covenant as an indelible Scandal to the Protestant Cause as also the Professors Ministers and Consistory of Geneva and their neighbour Reformed Churches as was certified to King Charles the First by his Publick Ministers abroad Nor lastly died he in the Faith of the Reformed Church of Scotland which never professed Episcopacy to be an unlawful or Antichristian Constitution c. as may be seen in the Larger and Lesser Scoticane Confession in the Harmony but I suppose he means the Covenanted Reformed Church that Schismatical Military Church which was and is the Reproach of the Protestant or Reformed Name by the mighty 9 So he calls the incurable obstination of the Presbyterian Party in Schism against the Episcopal Church and Faction and Rebellion against the State Power Goodness and Wisdom of God I bear my witness and Testimony to the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government of the Kirk of Scotland by 10 A great * Presbyteries Tryal pag. 50. Apostle of the Covenant said in the Pulpit that the Angels and Saints of heaven if they could leave the sight of God would be glad to come down and see the admirable order of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland by Kirk-Sessions Presbyteries and Synods Which Platform being no where to be found in the Scripture made many that had cryed up the Presbyterian Discipline for a Divine Institution tuâ—â— Independents Quakers and Atheists and condemn it as in truth it is for a meer human invention Which if Mr. Calvin had not hit upon and set up in that exigence in Geneva had never been known to the Western no more than to the Eastern parts of Christendom at least to great Britain where it hath been taught in both Kingdoms without any ground in the Scriptures or Antiquity for the sole indispensable government of the Church †King Charles his larger Declarat pag. 67. The National Covenant is that which in the Harmony is called Generalis Confessio it was first Subscribed by King James of blessed Memory and his Household 1580. and by Persons of all Ranks 1581. by an Ordinance of the Privy-Council and Act of General-Assembly It was Subscribed again by all sorts of Persons 1590. by a new Ordinance of Council at the desire of the General Assembly with a general Bond for maintaining the true Religion and the Kings Person and so far Authority permitting or commanding it all was well But then afterwards in †See the Declaration in w. on the first Speech and the Kings larger Declarat pag. 68 69 70. 1638. without the Kings Authority or Commission from his Council they imposed it again according to a new Interpretation of their own although no Authority can interpret any Oath Law or Rescript but that which made it or those whom they who made it have Constituted Interpreters and Judges thereof The new Interpretation was That this Confession was to be interpreted and understood against all the pretended Innovations as if every one of them had been expressed therein viz. The Five Articles of Perth the Service Book the Book of Canons the High-Commission and Episcopacy it self although these things were neither named nor hinted at in that Confession whereof the first Framers only abjured in it those Romish Corruptions which in their time had infected the Church Besides all this they altered the Bond which was annexed to the former Confession by adding these words without authority A mutual defence of one another against all Persons whatsoever by which what they meant the King by woful experience found The Copy of this Confession may be seen in the forecited larger Declaration of the King Kirk-Sessions Presbyteries Synods and General-Assemblies Also I bear my Witness and Testimony to our Covenants †National and Solemn-League betwixt the three Kingdoms which Sacred and Solemn Oath I believe cannot be dispensed with nor loosed by any person or Party upon earth but are fully binding these Nations and will be so ever hereafter Also I bear my Testimony to our publick Confessions of Sin and engagements to Duty and that either as to what concerns
the Reformation of our Families or Persons or the Reformation of the whole Church in general As also to the Causes of 11 A Seditious and Blasphemous Book so called which was burnt in Scotland by the hand of the common Hangman See Poormans Cup pag. 19. Gods wrath the rejecting of which is to be feared to be one of the greatest causes of Gods wrath this day against the Land I do also bear Witness and Testimony to the Protestation given in against the Controverted Assemblies in the publick Resolvings for bringing in the 12 So he calls the Loyal and Episcopal Party Malignant Party into places of Power and Trust contrary to our solemn Engagements and Obligations to God Also I adhere to our 13 See Note 13. on the first Speech Confessions of Faith larger and shorter Catechisms I witness my Testimony against Popery which is so greatly increased yea so much Countenanced and professed openly The Scottish Oath of Allegiance by many and that without the least I For Testification of my faithful Obedience to my most Gracious Sovereign Charles King of Great Britain c. Affirm Testify and Declare by this my solemn Oath that I acknowledge my said Sovereign onely Supream Governor of this Kingdom over all Persons and in all Causes and that no Foreign Prince Power State or Person Civil or Ecclesiastick hath any Jurisdiction Power or Superiority over the same and therefore I do utterly renounce and forsake all Foreign Power Jurisdictions and Authorities and shall at my utmost power Defend Assist and Maintain his Majesties Jurisdiction foresaid against all †Contra omnes mortales deadly and shall never decline his Majesties Power and Jurisdiction as I shall answer to God punishment I bear witness also against the Antichristian Prelacy now Established by Law contrary to our Vows to Almighty God And against the Rescinding of our solemn Oaths and Engagements as a thing that calls for Divine Vengeance And against all Oaths and Bonds contrary to our Covenant and Engagements especially that Oath of 14 So the Presbyterian Jesuit calls the Scottish Oath of Allegiance This is the Form of it and let the Protestant World judge if it be an Oath That calls for the Vengeance of God Supremacy the 15 See Note w on the first Speech Declaration against our Covenant and that Bond called the 16 That is The Bond for keeping the Peace whereby the Taker obligeth himself only to live Peaceably and not to rise in Arms against the King This Bond was tendered to the Rebels taken in the Battel at Pentland-hills and refused by many of them who were Hanged and are since reckoned among the Martyrs of the Cause It was likewise tendered to the late Rebels who were taken after the Battel of Bothwel-Bridge but about 300. of them refused it and are since Transported but five more especially who were accomplices with the Murderers of the late Archbishop of St. Andrews and who would not confess that the Killing of him was a Sin or Murder when they were asked in both Terms by Authority if it were so were Sentenced to be Hanged in Chains at Magus the place where that Execrable Murder was committed Was it ever heard in any other Christian Nation That any men refused to dye by the hand of the Executioner rather than engage not to rise in Arms against their lawful Sovereign The Christians under the Turks would not dye Martyrs if they Suffered upon that Principle Lord Jesu pity the madness and delusion of this People Amen Amen Bond of Peace and that 17 This is the Form of it and let the World judge whether it deserveth the name of horrid or no horrid Bond so frequently imposed against the Meetings of his People in Fields and Houses intended for the down bearing of the Gospel and Interest of our Lord and The Form of the BOND Master with all other Bonds publick or private contrary to our I underscribing do faithfully bind and oblige me That I my Wife Bairns and Servants respectively sâ—â—ll no ways be present at any Conventicles and disorderly Meetings in time coming but shall live orderly in Obedience to the Law under the Penalties contained in the Acts of Parliament made there-anent As also I bind and â—blige me That my whole Tenants and Cotters respectively their Wives Bairns and Servants shall likewise refrain and abstain from the said Conventicles and other illegal Meetings not authorized by Law and that they shall live orderly in Obedience to the Law And further That I nor they shall Recept Supply or Commune with forfeited Persons intercommuned Ministers or Vagrant Preachers but shall do our utmost Endeavour to Apprehend their Persons And in case my said Tenants Cotters and their foresaids shall Contraveâ—â— I shall take or apprehend any Person or Persons guilty thereof and present them to the Judge Ordinar that they may be Fined or Imprisoned therefore as is provided in the Acts of Parliament made thereanent Otherwise I shall remove them and their Families from my ground and if I shall fail herein I shall be liable to such Penalties as the said Delinquents have incurred by the Laws consenting to the Registration hereof in the Books of his Majesties Privy-Council or Books of any other Judges Competent that Letters and Executorials may be direct hereupon in Form as Effeirs and Constitutes my Procurators Obligations and Covenants to God also against all such that Connive at or Complie with or Strengthen the hands of this Prelatical Malignant and Persecuting Party As also against all Errors Schisms and Heresies contrary to our Engagements to God especially against that Ruining and Soul-deluding Evil or rather This is the Tenor of that Bond which the Fanaticks railed so much against and lest the force of it should be Eluded the Privy-Council †Rav. Rediv. page 50 Enacted That every Heritor who should receive into his Lands or Service any Tenants or Servants of any other Heritor without a Certificate from him or the Minister of the Parish where they lived That they lived orderly as to the matter of Conventicles should be subject to such Fines as the Privy Council should think fit to inflict to punish them for their Crime and repair the damage that should accrue to the Heritor or Master whose Tenants or Servants they did receive While the Feuds were kept up in Scotland it was usual for the King to bind the Chief for the Peaceable behaviour of the whole Tribe or Clan and because the Heritors or Landlords of that Countrey have such a despotical power over their Tenants it hath been the immemorial practice of the King Privy-Council and Parliament upon occasion to bind Landlords of all qualities for the peaceable demeanour of their Tenants and to give them Power and Warrant to take Bonds from them or upon their refusal to remove them from their possessions if they were Rack-renters but if they had Leases to denounce
page 45. in a Preachment to a Multitude of 7000. People spoke these words The King the Nobles and the Prelates are sure the Murderers of Christ and then sitting down in his Chair he said Oh People I will be silent speak oh People and tell me what good thing the King hath done since his home coming yea hath he not done all the mischief a Tyrant could do At another Conventicle not long after he spoke thus or to this purpose That God would yet assert the Cause of Pentland-hills in spite of the Curates and their Masters the Prelates and in spite of the Prelates and their Master the King and in spite of the King and his Master the Devil This Spirit of Railing Slandering and Reproaching hath always been the Gift and privilege of this People of the Lord from their first Original to this day For John Knox in his Appeal and Admonitions Printed 1644 calls Queen Mary Stuart a Wicked Mischievous Proud False Dissembling Unconstant Woman a breaker of Promises a Traitoress to the Crown of England and call her Reign a Monstriferous Empire of a wicked Woman an Usurped Government c and old Mr. John Welsh Grandfather to the Villain before mentioned in a Sermon said That King James was possest with the Devil and compared him to a Mad Man c. And Mr. Blake in a Sermon at St. Andrews 1596. as Spotswood cites him in his 6th Book page 423. said That all Kings were the Devils Bairns That the Kings heart was Treacherous and That the Devil was in the Court and Guiders of it That Queen Elizabeth was an Atheist That the Nobles and Lords were Miscreants Godless Degenerate Dissemblers and Enemies to the Church That the Privy-Council were Holliglasses Cormorants and men of no Religion For all which notwithstanding the Kirk would not let him be questioned because it was delivered in the Pulpit Accordingly we still find how that evil Spirit haunts the holy Sect at this day in Lying Slandering Reproaching and Back-biting all that love or defend the Church In particular I cannot but observe what monstrous and malicious Lies and Calumnies they and their Patriots have for some years almost daily raised against the Duke of Lauderdale for no other reason but because he stands as a Work of Defence between the Projectors against the Government and the King between Presbytery and Episcopacy Popery and the Church And therefore we need not wonder at that Speech of King James who was experimentally acquainted with the Presbyterian Spirit to Dr. Reinolds at Hampton Court who begged of his Majesty a Presbytery or a Constitution very like it Stay I pray you for one seven Years before you demand that of me and if you find me pursey and fat and my windpipes stuffed I will perhaps hearken to you for let that Government once be up I am sure I shall be kept in breath and then we shall all of us have work enough both our handfulls but Dr. Reinolds till you find I grow lazy let that alone Presbytery Displayed pag. 7. And so much for the Lords People and ought to be concerned to 31 As if they were Apostles and the Christian or Protestant Religion depended upon their Breath speak even upon the peril of Life It 's certainly a dreadful Sin in the sight of God I shall only desire that God may open the mouths of some of his faithful Servants that with all 32 Impudence See Note boldness they may speak out the mind of their Master that so the Work Interest Crown and Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ may not be destroyed and that the 33 As if the Salvation of the People depended on the mouths of these Blasphemous Pseudo-Ministers Souls of poor People which are precious to God may not be without a Testimony Ruined I shall add but 2 or 3 words more First all that are profane I would exhort you seriously that ye would return to the Lord by sincere repentance if ye do iniquity shall not be your ruine if not know that the day of the 34 Viz. By the Sword of the Lord and of Gideon for as this People think themselves the People of God in as peculiar a sence as the Jews were so like them too they pretend to be Carnifices gentium which made them call their Standard Christs Banner and march with Gallows of the common Make for the common sort of the Enemies of God but for the Nobles that durst Oppose Christ and his People they had invented a new sort of Machine with Hooks and Spikes whereupon first they intended to Hang them up and then to set up their Quarters and Heads as Traitors and Rebels to Jesus Christ. Lords Vengeance is near and it hastneth on O know for your comfort that there is a door of mercy yet opened if ye be not despisers of the day of Salvation and ye that have been and yet are Reproachers and Persecutors of Godliness and such as live Godly take heed take heed sad will your day be when 35 In the Old-Testament Jewish sence to scatter his Enemies by the Sword of his People God ariseth to scatter his Enemies if ye repent not of all your ungodly deeds 2ly All those that are Gallios if their own private Interests prosper and go well they care the less for the Interest of Christ take heed be zealous and repent lest the Lord pass that Sentence I will spue you out of my mouth 3ly As for the truly Godly and such as are lamenting after the Lord and are mourning for all the abominations done in the City and in the Land and are taking pleasure 36 The Rubbish and Ruines of the Presbyterian-Government upon which they strive to build the whole old Fabrick again as the Jews endeavoured to Rebuild the Temple on its old Foundation in Zion till Earthquakes Fire and Lightnings made them desist from the cursed Work in the rubbish and stones of Zion be of good courage and cast not away your Confidence I dare not say any thing to future things but surely the Lord has a 37 An handful of Precious Zealous Militant Saints of whom every single man thinks he can chase Ten of Christs Enemies and Two put Ten thousand of them to Flight handful that is precious to him whom he will be gracious to This is a dark night how long it may last the Lord knows O let not all the sad disasters that his poor People are trusted with though very astonishing terrifie them Beware of Snares that abound cleave fast to your Covenanted reformed Religion do not shift the Cross of Christ if ye be called into it it 's better to Suffer than to Sin account the 38 Consider how blasphemously this Text is applied Reproaches of Christ greater Riches than the Treasures of the World In the last place let not my Death be grievous to any of you I hope it will be more profitable both for you and for
was and yet is the bane of our Cause and that which hath given the bleeding Interest of Christ in that Suffering Church a more dreadful stroak than all that Prelacy hath done some so far as they will not have it mentioned a Sin upon the Land nor preached against others so far as they will have none so much as hinting what iniquity lieth wrapped in hearing and countenancing these Indulged Persons yea I say the generality for any thing I know are come that length to be ready to question and censure such as preach against it or preach upon the ground where any Indulged Minister is Oh where are we now when it is come to that and what will be the end of this prodigious fainting and change are we so in love with the Supremacy the like whereof was never heard of in any Christian Church no not in the Church where Antichrist sits nor was ever arrogate by any Magistrate either Heathen Turk or Christian which is our shame and should be our sorrow and will prove such a provocation in the sight of the Lord that he cannot pardon till Vengeance be executed upon the Land and Posterity in a degree proportionate to the unparallelled height of that Abomination and Desolation are we I say so inamored with that Image of Jealousie which provoketh to Jealousie that we must plead so much for that woful Spirit come out of that bitter root after we have seen and felt the lamentable effects of it wo is me if this be all our Zeal for God and his Christ this day when his Prerogatives are incroached upon by men who have sold themselves to destroy so far as they can all the Interest of Jesus Christ and to banish himself his Kingdom and all his Concerns out of the Land Who I pray among these Indulged Men I say as such for otherways I honour such as are known to me and shall entertain charitable thoughts of others can be called the Ambassadors of Christ who depend as to the actual exercise of the Ministerial Function or such who never were immediately intrusted even as to kind with Church-power receiving Injunctions Limitations and Authority not Interpretatively but expressly and In terminis from them and so acting under the Magistrate in a Subordination as directly and formally as an Inferior Civil-Court or Magistrates do for any thing I can observe And who dare say that this is consonant to our received and avowed Reformation How may can or dare any be silent and not lift up their voice like a Trumpet not only to exoner their own Consciences and bear full witness against this Sin when now by reason this universal condemnation of all publick appearance against the Indulgence as becoming in a more plain undeniable manner the Sin of the Suffering Church whereas before it seemed to me to be only the Sin of the fainting People who had contrary to their Oath and Vow departed from the Suffering Brethren to the weakning the hands of the Suffering Remnant and strengthening the oppressing Adversaries but also so far as in them lieth are for the Peoples altogether lying by and compliance with this Evil to the further provoking the Lord against the whole Land Is it reasonable for us now in the day of the Lords contending to be thus tender of a few men how worthy soever otherways and untender of the grand Concerns of the Lord our Master I'ts strange to me that any should plead for it directly or indirectly and it were directly designed to countermind the Lords wonderful appearance in and by these Assemblies of the Lords People now named Conventicles and blasphemously Vid. Animadvers p. 11. Randevouzes of Rebellion and that now after the Lord hath counter-wrought these Enemies to the astonishment of all I look upon this and taking the Bond lately tendered and Submissive payment of this Exaction Money for all the three were and are contrived designed pressed and carried on expresly and in plain terms to burden and keep down the work of God by Field and House-meetings Randevouzes of Christs Militia where he as King and Generalissimo is Leading Ruling and Mustering his faithful Soldiers nor can I see that such who are so favourable to the Indulgence can speaking consequently condemn the taking of the Bond or the payment of this Imposion which is to me a practical compend of all former compliances with this Enemy and a plain practical declaration of their ingagement to root Chirist and all his out of the Land Tho it is true there is a Magis and a Minus that may be yielded yet there is nothing that can alter the kind Wherefore dear Brethren hitherto God hath helped you go on in the strength of the Lord contending against all flesh for your Lord and Master who is able to make all grace abound beware of all formal or material and virtual yieldings unto any compliance with any contracts whatsoever that have a tendancy to weaken Christs Interests either in it self or in the mind of any faithful for he who is faithful in a little will be followed with dominion over many Cities The Spirit of Zeal would make us wise as Serpents and resolute to stand upon Foot 's or Inches for as not a light Skirmishing with fore-parties but the main Battle ad triarias vâ—ntum in est and the yielding of one foot may occasion the losing the whole day O Lord God of Hosts arise thou and then thine Enemies shall be Scattered and strengthen the weak things that remain when the things that once were are now as it were disappearing and plead thy own Cause and determin that long depending Controversy in thy own time and way Let me hear from you my dear Brother His Grace be with you Yours in the Lord Subscribed J. B. Supposed to be one John Brown a Field-Preacher and Traiter who fled into Holland where he is an Agent for the Covenanting-Party Amen THE INDEX For the Animadversions A. ACcomodation absolutely refused by the Covenanters 15. Acts of Parliament damned by the Covenanters 8 9 10. St. Andrews Presbytery of St Andrews its Papal way of Proceeding 50. Late Archbishop of St. Andrews the true ground of the Covenanters hatred to him 25. in Marg. g. his Murderers 29. 63. the manner of his Murder 56 57. his Meek Carriage to his Murderers 57. his last words 16. his Murderers lay wait for the Collectors of the Cess 16. Five of their Accomplices Hang'd up in Chains at the place where he was Murdered 44. Present Archbishop of St. Andrews 52. his House Plundered by the Covenanters and his House-Keeper beaten 47. Scottish Oath of Allegiance 43. The Apology for the Persecuted Ministers c. 1. 14. 24 25 26. The Apologetical Narration 25. 52. Apologie pour Jean Chastel written by the Jesuits and practised by the Covenanters 67. Mr. Hugh Archibald his Adulteries 34. Bishop of Argyles Children 47. The Principles of Assassination out of the Presbyterian writings 66 67 68. B. Balfour the