Beam in his own Eye with which he must grant the Soberest Presbyterians to be justly chargeable because as he himself is at great pains to inform the World both in the beginning and ending of his Book the whole party committed that trust to him when others had refused it Vid. Preface parag 5 and 7. pages and Second Vindication pag. 192. Upon which account not only the Scurrilous Railing but all the Untruths Contradictions and Nonsence which abounds in every Page is justly chargeable upon the whole Party of which I shall give the World such a tast as may be sufficient to make them judge of all the rest which would be too tedious and nauseous here to insert First then as to Scurrilous Railing Accusations in the very first page of his Preface he calls Prelatists The Seed of the Serpent whose Enmity against the Seed of the Woman that you must know is Scots Presbyterians as it began so it must end with the World and that you may not mistake him he avers after in the same page That they use the old stratagems of Satan and in the 2d page he compares them to Heathens Papists yea they are Devils both Greek and Syriack Devils nay they are Jesuites Wo to Posterity if they believe them for then to be sure succeeding Ages will turn absolute Scepticks He adds It 's evident that many of them regarded not the Civil Authority of the Nation and others by their lewdness of Conversation made themselves unworthy to be in the Holy Function of the Ministry Preface Paragr 2. And in the Book it self page 1. he charges the Authors of our late Books with Malice Lies Railing and guilty of the fowlest and falsest Misrepresentations that the Minds of Men can suggest enraged by being deprived of the occasion they once had to persecute their Neighbours the end to which they improved their Lucrative places Page 4. Mean Spirits and Mercenary Souls that imploy themselves in Mendicant Writings and Practices beyond the common size of Slanderous Malice Page 7. Guilty of the highest Impudence and Sauciness page 12. Prelatital Party eminent for Spite but hath neither Truth nor Charity to warrant it page 21. They who know their temper and the brow and way of those for whom they plead will not believe their Professions their Hypocrisie being shameful and twisted with Malice page 23. The temper of Episcopalians is by unmanly as well as unchristian shifts tobuoy up their sinking Cause page 25. This Historian's Ignorant Malice to be despised Judas Iscariot was his Predecessor page 52. The contempt of the Ministry came from the Atheism and Debauches of the Episcopal Clergy page 64. And again of an Eminent Divine he saith That his Words are like those of a Mad-man or of one raving in a Fever page 51. It would be tedious and nauseous to trace this his Presbyterian Eloquence through every page as he vents it or to shew how falsly and boldly he charges a whole Sacred Order of Men with the faults which he supposes and would have the World believe some single persons among them to be guilty of as that they are perfrictae frontis Nothing manifestly false can check their Conscience and Impudence The whole party grosly Ignorant Papising Prelates pages 126 131 133. Spuing out the most spiteful Venom that can lodge in a Humane Breast page 136. Impudence beyond Jesuitical page 142. They glory either in their having no Principle or that they can yield over the Belly of Conscience to promote their Interest with Men page 144. The differences betwixt us and them are not reconcileable a heap of Lies Men that have taught their Tongues and Pens to speak and write Lies pag. 146 147. Lies and Calumnies horrid lies a broad lie pag. 150 151. This which they now call a broad lie past for a Gospel Truth among the Presbyterians An. 1648. Prelatical Incumbents were Scandalous and unfit to edifie the people and do rather harden them in Wickedness page 162. A whole fardel of lies malicious Representations coupled falshoods impudent and false assertions brazen Foreheads page 166. Prelates spend their short Glass with gingling py-bald Orations page 168. Bitterness Malice and Contempt is suitable to the Hislorical Talent of many of the Prelatical Party If the Debauchery of Prelates did not tempt people to count all Religion a sham it were well page 173. He knows that his Impudent Assertions and Lies can be discovered and his Villanie come abroad at last page 178. A Snarling Cur a lying Spirit doth possess the Men with whom we have to do Pag. 191 194. This is the Meek Lowlie Strain of the Presbyterian new Gospel whereby the soberest of them pretend to vindicate their own proceedings and refute the Writings of other Men I leave the World to judge by this way of defending the Party what their Cause must be and to determine whether he who calls himself a Sober Presbyterian and says That he was selected and appointed by the sober General Assembly to write in their defence be not indeed as black and foul-mouth'd as the most rank and rigid Cameronian among them all for my part I can see no difference betwixt his Stile and theirs except this may pass for one that Mr. Rule seems to have learned his Stile from the Coal-stealers in Edenburgh or at Buckhaven of which Colledge only he ought to have been Principal whereas the Cameronians seem to have learned their Stile from the Shepherds and Herring-fishers on the Western Coast who tho' they have more Cant yet they have less Knavery than the former If Mr. Rule should challenge me as falling into the same fault for which I here blame him because of some sharpness which he may apprehend to be in that Character I have given before of the Presbyterian Preachers and People yet that is only chargeable upon my single person and not upon others of our Party for I neither do nor pretend to write by a Commission from them And besides he himself hath provided me with an Apologie viz. Calling things by their true names is not to be reckoned inconsistent with Moderation and Calmness A petulant and effronted Adversary is not to be handled with that softness of Stile which is fit for such as are more modest Preface Paragr 6 But passing those Flowers of Presbyterian Eloquence let us examine in the next place if this Author makes any amends for his Stile by the Truth and Reason that he writes it would be tedious to trace him through every Page in which his Nonsence Contradictions and Falshoods abound and therefore I shall here mention only some generals There is one Principle suitable to the Genius of the New Gospel only upon which much of his Book is founded and it 's this Do as ye have been done by by this he excuses the greatest Barbarities of the Presbyterian Rabble and often justifies their highest Severities against Episcopal Ministers it 's true in other places
that Christ because of the hardness of the Jews Hearts spake very much Morality with his Gospel The poor man spoke as he was taught and bred in the Conventicles for it will be very long e're they hear a Sermon upon Just Dealing or Restitution of ill-gotten Goods and who knows not that despising of Dominions speaking evil of Dignities and rising in Arms against the Lord 's Anointed is with them but fighting the Battels of the Lord. One George Flint in the Parish of Smalholm in the Shire of Teviotdate was look'd upon as a very great Saint among them and yet out of Zeal against the Government he kept a Dog whom he named Charles after the King and a Cat which he named Katherine after the Queen and another Dog whom he named Gideon after the Minister of the Parish They are a People that will not Swear in common Discourse for a World yet they never scruple before a Judge any Perjury that may seem to advance the Cause nor stand in their ordinary dealings to cheat for a penny nay Murther it self becomes a Virtue when the work of the Covenant seems to require it and the new Gospel which they Profess is so far from condemning Lying Cheating Murther and Rebellion when committed to fulfil the Ends of the Solemn League that many of these whom they reckon Martyrs have at their Execution gloried in these Crimes as the sure Evidences of their Salvation Morality being thus discountenanced by the generality of that Party the poor People are thereby lock'd up in a Cell of Ignorance This did clearly appear when the Laws in the former Government discharg'd Conventicles the people being brought thereby home to the Churches When the Ministers began to Catechise them in the Principles of the Christian Religion they found them grosly Ignorant for when they were desired to repeat the Creed Lord's-Prayer and Ten Commandments they told they were above these childish Ordinances for if they believed in Christ they were certainly well And yet these Ignorants would Adventure to pray Ex tempore and in their Families to Lecture on the most mysterious Chapters of Ezekiel Daniel or the Revelation A grave and good Minister told me that upon a certain occasion he desired a very zealous She-Saint to repeat the Creed And that she return'd this Answer I know not what ye mean by the Creed Did not your Father says the Minister promise to bring you up in that Faith Indeed did he not said she for I thank my Saviour that Superstition was not in my Father's time What then was in your Father's time said the Minister It was said she the holy Covenant which you have put away Whether was it the Covenant of Works or Grace said the Minister Covenant of Works said she that is handy Labour It was the Covenent of Grace which was made with Adam and which all of you have put away At Night she went home and a number of the sighing Fraternity flock'd after pretending to hear her pray Their Family Exercise being ended she told them the Conference that pass'd betwixt the Curate and her and they all concluded she had the better and that she was certainly more than match for the ablest Curate in that Country Generally their Conventicles produced very many Bastards and the Excuses they made for that was Where Sin abounds the Grace of God superabounds There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Sometimes this The Lambs of Christ may sport together To the pure all things are pure Nay generally they are of Opinion That a Man is never a true Saint till he have a sound fall such as that of David's with Bathsheba The following Narration of a well known Truth shall serve for Instance A party of King Charles II. his Guards being sent to apprehend Mr. Dav. Williamson one of the most Eminent of their Ministers now in Edenburgh for the frequent Rebellion and Treason he preached then at Field Meetings and the party having surrounded the House where he was a Zealous Lady Mistress of the House being very Solicitous to conceal him rose in all haste from her Bed where she left her Daughter of about Eighteen Years of Age and having dress'd up the Holy Man's Head with some of her own Night Cloaths she wittily advis'd him to take her place in the warm Bed with her Girl to which he modestly and readly consented And knowing well how to employ his time especially upon such and extraordinary Call to propagate the Image of the Party while the Mother to divert the Troopers enquiry was treating them with strong drink in the Parlour he to express his gratitude applies himself with extraordinary Kindness to the Daughter who finding him like to prove a very useful Man in his Generation told her Mother she would have him for her Husband to which the Mother though otherwise unwilling yet for concealing the Scandal out of Love to the Cause consented when the mystery of the Iniquity was wholly disclosed to her This whole Story is as well known in Scotland as that the Covenant was begun and carried on by Rebellion and Oppression Nor was the Actor who is at this day one of the chief Props of the cause more admired for his extraordinary diligence and courage in this Matter than for his excellent Invention in finding a passage of St. Paul's to prove that the Scandal of this was very consistent with the state of a person truly Regenerate Verily I do not said he deny but that with St. Paul I have a Law in my Members warring against the Law of my Mind and bringing me into Captivity into the Law of Sin which is in my Members Now according to the Gloss which that whole Party puts upon this Scripture saying That St. Paul here speaks of himself and does not personate an Unregenerate Man this Defence of Williamson's must be allowed to be good as also that the height of Carnality is consistent with the greatest Grace Even so the Hereticks in St. Peter's Days wrested some things hard to be understood in St. Paul's Epistles to their own Destruction There was among them a married Woman near Edenburgh who had paid several Fines for not going to Church yet scrupled not to commit Adultery with one of the Earl of Marr's Regiment and the Fellow himself that was Guilty told out of detestation to their damnable Hypocrisie that the vile Woman had the confidence in time of her Abomination to say to him O you that are in Marr 's Regiment but you be pretty able Men but yet ye art great Covenant Breakers alas few or none of you are Godly There are very many Instances of this Nature but I shall only add one more which was old me by a Gentleman of good Reputation and Credit who himself confessed to me with regret that in the heat of his Youth he had been guilty of the Sin of Fornication with a Gentlewoman of that Holy Sect he says that being with her
Religion and a clear breach of the Covenants By this Toleration the Papists are encouraged and encreased in Numbers the whole Nation overflow'd with their Hellish Locusts and all places fill'd with Priests and Jesuits yea the Executive Power of the Government is put in the Hands of the Romanists Watever Liberty this may be to some Consciences it 's none to the Tender it 's only a Toleration which is always of Evil for that which is good cannot be tolerated under the Notion of Good but countenanced and incouraged as such therefore this reflects upon our Religion when a Toleration is accepted which implies such a Reproach and the annexed Indemnity and Pardon tacitely condemns the Profession thereof as a Fault or Crime which no Christian can bear with or homologate by Acceptance whatever some Addressers particularly the Presbyterians at London have blasphemously alledged that God is hereby restored to his Empire over the Conscience Moreover says he true Presbyterians can never closs themselves among them that are hereby indulged viz. Archbishops and Bishops all the Prelatical and Malignant Crew all Quakers and Papists reaching also all Idolatry Blasphemy Heresie and Truth making the Professors of Christ Partners with Antichrist's Vassals Such a Toleration is contrary to the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament it 's like Julian the Apostate's Toleration designing to root out Chirstianity it 's contrary to the Confession of Faith and therefore to accept this Toleration is inconsistent with the Principles of the Church of Scotland National and Solemn Leagues and Covenants and Solemn Acknowledgments of Sins and Engagements to Duties in all which we are bound to Extirpate Popery and Prelacy as inconsistent with the whole Tract of our former Contendings and particularly with the Testimony of the Synod of Fiâ—e and other Brethren against Cromwel ' s vast Toleration and Liberty of Conscience The worst of all is says he that it 's further declared in that Toleration that nothing must be preached or taught which may any way tend to alienate the Hearts of the People from the King or his Government here is the Price at which they ought to purchase their Freedom a sad Bargain to buy Liberty and sell Truth But who can be faithful but he must think it his Duty to alienate the Hearts of the People from such an Enemy to Christ What Watchman must not see it his indispensable Duty to preach so that the People may hate the Whore and this Pimp of Hers It cannot be but very stumbling to see the Ministers of Scotland purchasing à Liberty to themselves at the rate of burying and betraying the Cause into Bondage and thus to be laid by from all Opposition to Antichrist's Design in such a season The World will be tempted to think that they are not governed by Principles but their own Interest and that it was not the late overturning of Religion and Liberty that offended them for if that Arbitrary Power had been but exerted in their favours tho' with the same prejudice to the Cause of Christ they would have complied with it as they do now Mr. Rule in his late Book is highly offended with the Author of the case of the afflicted Clergy for saying That the Presbyterians Addressed and Thanked K. James for this Toleration in a fawning and flattering manner and yet our honest Presbyterian Author deals more roundly with them Pag. 173. his words are these The Addresses made thereupon were with a strain of Fulsome and Blasphemous Flatteries to the Dishonour of God the Reproach of the Cause the Betraying of the Church the Detriment of the Nation and the exposing themselves to the Contempt of all Again says he Pag 176 177 178. The Address it self is of such a dress as makes the things addressed for to be odious and the Addressers to forefault the Respect and merit the Indignation of all that are friends to the Protestant and Presbyterian Cause Nothing could have been more cross to the real desires of the true Presbyterians than this newly start-up Opinion that Interest has led them to espouse There is nothing here sounds like the old Presbyterian strain neither was there ever an Address of this Stile seen before from Presbyterians It would have looked far more Presbyterian like to have sent a Protestation against the now openly desâ—gn'd Introduction of Popery and Subversion of all Laws and Liberties which they are Covenanted to maintain or at least an Address in the usual Language of the Presbyterians who used always to speak of the Covenants and work of Reformation but here never a word of these but of Loyalty to His Excellent to His Gracious and to His Sacred Majesty of Loyalty not to be questioned an entire Loyalty in Doctrine a resolved Loyalty in Practice and a fervent Loyalty in Prayers All that they are sollicitous about is not for the Prerogatives of their Master or the Liberties of the Church but lest their Loyalty be question'd that they be otherwise represented all that they beseech for is Not that the Cause of Christ be not wronged or Antichrist introduced by this Liberty but that those who promote any Disloyal Principles and Practices may be looked upon as none of theirs and all the hopes they have 〈…〉 great perswasions of His Majesty's Justice and Goodness Here is a Lawless Unrestrained Loyalty to a Tyrant claiming and absolute Power to be obeyed without reserve not only professed but solicitously sought to be the Principle of Presbyterians whereas it is the Principle of Atheistical Hobes This is not the Presbyterian Loyalty to the King according to the Restrictions in the Covenants but Erastian Loyalty to a Tyrant in his overturning Religion Laws and Liberties and in protecting and incouraging all Iniquity This Loyalty in Doctrine will be found Disloyalty to Christ in a sinful and shameful silence that wrong is done to him This Loyalty in Practice is a plain betraying of Religion and Liberty and lying by from all opposition to the destroyer of both And this Loyalty in Prayers for all Blessings ever to attend His Person and Government will be found inconsistent with the Zeal of Christians and the cries of the Elect unto God for Vengeance upon the Supporters of Antichrist nor consonant to Presbyterian Prayers in reference to Popish Tyrants it were much more suitable for them to pray That God which hath caused his Name to dwell in his Church may destroy all Kings that shall put to their Hands to alter and destroy the House of God Ezra 6. 12. Page 178. 179. This Address is so stuffed with sneaking Flatteries that it would more become Sycophants and Court Parasites than Ministers of the Gospel Nothing but a Rhapsody of Flatteries justifying all his Claim to Absoluteness and engaging to Demean themselves so as that he may find cause to enlarge rather than to diminish his Favours which can be no other way but in assisting him to destroy Religion and Liberty O what an indelible
Summers again in one year and bless his Crop O what cause have we to rejoyce c. Ep. 139. To Mr. John Mein I see Christ will not prigg with me nor stand upon stepping stones but cometh in at the broad side without Ceremonies or making of it nice Ep. 141. To the Earl of Lothian If your Lordship and others shall go on to dive to the lowest ground and bottom of the Knavery and perfidious treachery to Christ of the cursed and wretched Prelates the Antichrist's first-born and the first-fruit of his foul womb and shall deal with our Soveraign then your Righteousness shall break thorough the Clouds c. Ep. 142. O for a long Play-day with Christ Ep. 145. Mr. John Ferguson Were is not that I am dated now and then with pieces of Christ's sweet comforts I fear I should have made an ill browst of this honourable Cross Ep. 162. To Mr. Hugh Mc Kell I will verily give my Lord Jesus a free discharge of all that I like a fool laid to his charge and beg him pardon to the mends Ep. 163. I tremble at the remembrance of a new out-cast betwixt him and me but I find Christ dare not be long unkind Ep. 137. To my Lady Boyd Nothing hath given my faith a greater back-set till it crackt again than my closed mouth Ep. 139. To Carletown The Lord hath done it I will not go to Law with Christ for I would gain nothing of that The Devil is but God's Master-fencer to teach us to handle our arms Ep. 198. To Mr. John Levingston The Devil cannot get it denied but we suffer for the apple of Christ's eye his Royal Prerogatives as King and Law-giver let us not fear he will have his Gospel once again roûped in Scotland and the matter go to Vows to see who will say Let Christ be Crowned King in Scotland It is true Antichrist stirreth his tail but I love a rumbling and raging Devil in the Kirk rather than a subtil or sleeping Devil Christ never got a Bride without stroke of Sword Epist 200. O Hell were a good cheap price to buy him at Ep. 207. A kiss of Christ blown over his shoulder the parings and crumbs of glory under his Table in Heaven a shower like a thin May mist of his love would make me green sappy and joyful Ep. 214. Go on as ye have worthily begun in purging of the Lord's House in this Land and plucking down the Stalls of Antichrist's filthy nest this wretched Prelacy and that black Kingdom whose wicked aims have ever been and still are to make this fat world the only Compass they would have Faith and Religion to sail by and to mount up the man of sin their God-father the Pope of Rome upon the highest stair of Christ's Throne and to make a Velvet-church c. Ibid. These men mind nothing else but that by bringing in the Pope's foul tail first upon us their wretched and beggerly Ceremonies they may thrust in after them Antichrist's legs thighs and his belly head and shoulders and then cry down Christ and the Gospel and up the Merchandize and Wares of the Great Whore Ibid. Christ shall never be content with this Land neither shall his hot fiery indignation be turned away so long as the Prelate the man that lay in Antichrist's foul womb and the Antichrist's Lord Bailiff shall sit Lord Carver in the Lord Jesus Courts The Prelate is both the Egg and the Nest to cleck and bring forth Popery plead therefore for the pulling down of the Nest and crushing of the Egg. All that is meant here by Christ is Presbyterian Government I shall conclude this Section with some of their most remarkable Principles and Opinions concerning Civil Government The Presbyterians of late have talk'd much of their Loyalty but if they have any it must be in contradiction to their Principles For proof of this I shall not trouble you with Citations from Private Men but appeal to their Covenants and Solemn Leagues to their constant Doctrin as well as Practice of Resistance and some few Instances I must not omit taken from the Acts of their General Assemblies and those Books which have the general Approbation of the Party in which they express themselves thus Vnless Men blot out of their Hearts the Love of Religion and Cause of God and cast off all care of their Country Laws and Liberties c. they must now or never appear active against the King each one stretching himself to yea and beyond their Power it is not time to dally or go about the Business by halves nor to be almost but altogether Zealous Cursed is he that doth the Work of the Lord negligently Solemn and seasonable warning to all Ranks Feb. 12. 1645. Sess 18. In another seasonable and necessary warning dated July 27. 1649. Sess 27. they say But if his Majesty or any having or pretending Power and Commission from him shall Invade this Kingdom upon pretext of establishing him in the exercise of his Royal Power as it will be a high provocation against God to be accessory or assisting thereto so it will be a necessary Duty to resist and oppose the same The Author of the Hind let loose reflecting on these passages says These Fathers could well distinguish betwixt Authority and the Person and were not so Loyal as now their degenerate Children are Ambitious to shew themselves stupidly stooping to the Shadow thereof and yet will be called The only Assertors of Presbyterian Principles The Presbytery hath the Power of making Peace and War and the Parliament ought not to enter into any War without them more than Joshua did without the consent of Eliazar Any Vnion or Engagement of the Nation to defend the King's Person Honour or Prerogative is unlawful unless allowed by the Presbytery The Presbytery alone knows and it only can determine what the Cause of God is the King and Parliament are not to be complied with but in Subordination to the Covenant The Presbytery can Counter-act the Acts of the States of Parliament and discharge the Subjects from obeying such Acts as are imposed without the consent of the Presbytery Act General Assembly Aug. 3. 1648. Act and Declaration against the Act of Parliament July 13. 1648. Act General Assembly Aug 13. 1650. Tho' our Saviour told his Disciples That his Kingdom was not of this World and that therefore they ought not to fight for him yet that Doctrine does not now oblige Covenanted Christians for they may fight without yea and against the Consent of the Supream Magistrate for the Cause of God and a probable capacity to effectuate their Designs is the Call of God to do it Jus Pop. Preface to the Reader Naph Pag. 7 8 16 159. Not only is it necessary to resist the King by force in defence of the Solemn League and Covenant but also to resist King and Parliament when they pervert the right ways of the Lord and