A LETTER To a FRIEND Giving an Account of all the Treatises that have been publish'd With Relation to the Present Persecution Against the Church of SCOTLAND Lam. I. iv The ways of Zion do mourn because none come to the solemn feasts all her gates are desolate her Priests sigh her virgins are afflicted and she is in bitterness And verse xii Is it nothing to you all ye that pass by LONDON Printed for Joseph Hindmarsh at the Golden Ball over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill 1692. A LETTER To a FRIEND c. SIR I Don't much wonder that the present State of the Church of Scotland should be a little surprising to you at your return from your Travels beyond Seas it being so very much changed from what it was some Years ago when you were last in Scotland that the bare reflection upon it must needs occasion Grief and Sadness to any who are endued with the least sense of Religion or Morality The Church was then in a flourishing condition her Authority and Discipline in such force and vigour that a Sentence of Excommunication was even terrible to the most wicked and prophane her Pastors were Men of Judgment Learning and Prudence and of such unblameable Lives and Conversations that they quite stopt the Mouths of their calumniating and malicious Enemies Whereas now the Scene of Affairs is so much altered that the Church is made level with the ground and her Adversaries take pleasure in the rubbish thereof the Apostolical Order of Bishops totally subverted and the greatest part of the Episcopal Clergy barbarously driven from their respective Churches many of which are at present void and destitute of Pastor and their Flocks left desolate like Sheep wandring without a Sheepherd others of their Churches are invaded by Men who can lay no claim to that sacred Function of the holy Ministry having never received Ordination from those Persons who are duly authorized to confer it and their pretences for Learning and the other Qualifications necessary for that Office are so very little that the greatest part of them have never had occasion to apply themselves to those Studies but have been all along trained up in Mechanick Employments and have now leapt directly from the Shop into th Pulpit where they exercise their Gifts at such a rate and entertain theâ—â— Auditors with such nauseous Stuff sometimes intermixt with blasphemous Sentences that instead of advancing the Christian Religion 't is to be feared they have propagated more Atheism and Irreligion in the Nation than many Years will be able to root out And since your Curiosity prompts you to a strict enquiry into the Ways and Methods by which this surprising Revolution was brought about I shall in order to your satisfaction direct you to all those Treatises that have been published on this occasion where you may find an exact and impartial account of the present Persecution raised against the Church of Scotland how it was at first contrived and set on foot after the landing of the Prince of Orange here in England in the Year 1688 and how it has been managed and carried on even till this time with all the Fury and Violence imaginable by the Presbyterian Faction in that Kingdom The first Discourse I think which was published on this Subject was A Memorial for his Highness the Prince of Orange in relation to the Affairs of Scotland together with the Address of the Presbyterian Party in that Kingdom to his Highness and some Observations on that Address By two Persons of Quality This Memorial was wrote sometime before the Prince of Orange was proclaimed King of England and the Author's design in it was to inform the Prince how seditiously and rebelliously the Presbyterians in Scotland had behaved themselves under the Reigns of K. James VI. K. Charles I. and K. Charles II. how in the Reign of K. Charles I. they overturned not only the Government of the Church but usurped likewise that of the State rescinded all the Royal Prerogatives and murthered Thousands of the King 's best Subjects besides the many other Barbarities which they committed under the pretence of Religion And from hence the Author takes occasion to shew the Prince how much his Interest obliged him to suppress that insolent Party whose Principles and Practices were not only inconsistent with the Monarchy but even destructive of all human Society and that on the contrary Episcopacy being necessary for the support of the Monarchy he ought to make it his chief care and concern to maintain and support it and the rather because he had so solemnly engaged his Honor for the Defence thereof for having published in his Declaration That his design of coming over was to support the Laws of the Nation he tells him That he was therefore in Honor bound to support Episcopacy it being confirmed by Twenty Seven Parliaments of that Kingdom The Observations upon the Presbyterians Address to the Prince of Orange are done by another Pen They sufficiently expose the Contradiction and Inconsistency that always appears in the Actions of that Party In their Address to the P. of Orange they complain heavily of their Oppression and Suffering under K. James's Government that They were lying in the Mouth of the Lyon while Refuge failed and when they looked on their right and left Hands there was no Man found to pity them till the Lord raised up his Highness for their Deliverance And yet notwithstanding these heavy and grievous Complaints we find that in their Address to K. James they render him their humble and hearty Thanks for putting a stop to their long and sad Sufferings for Nonconformity and they acknowledg the receipt of Favors from him valuable above all earthly Comforts Nay so little reason have they to complain of Persecution from him that it 's known how the leading Men of that Faction were only caressed and cajoled by the then Ministers of State to a very high degree and preferr'd to Places of great Trust in the Nation And they themselves were then so sensible of these Obligations that out of Gratitude they offered to use their Interest for carrying on the Designs at that time set on foot by the Papists for promoting of Popery in these Dominions It is very well known to any who were then in Scotland how eminently they comply'd with the Dispensing Power in taking an Indulgence from the Papists how they magnifi'd K. James upon that account as the best of Kings that ever reigned and how active some of the most pragmatical Men of that Party were in engaging all of their own persuasion to promote a Relaxation of the Penal Laws and in persuading such Members of Parliament as they could influence to go along with the Designs of the Court therein And this is so notorious that one of their own Preachers was severely checked and rebuked by the Party because much about that time in a Sermon preached before their Provincial Assembly at Edinburgh he
signified his dislike of these Proceedings and laid before them the dangerous Consequences of the same how fatal such Methods would at last prove to the Protestant Religion in these Nations I could here entertain you with a great many Instances of their Behaviour under K. James's Government and of their ready complyances with all the Popish Designs then set on foot but that I think it altogether superfluous since one of their own Party has sufficiently exposed them to the World upon this account and shewn how their Practices at that time were directly contrary to their former Principles and that their Behaviour was such as did rather become Sycophants and Court Parasites than those who assumed the Title of Ministers of the Gospel And his Accusation is so very true that they have never as yet attempted to answer him or to vindicate themselves from those many Scandals and Reproaches wherewith he so justly charges them nay on the contrary they are so conscious of their own Guilt that in their Address to the P. of Orange they very very frankly own it and make a long Apology to his Highness for it The next thing that appear'd abroad with relation to our Scotch Affairs was a short Letter entituled The present State and Condition of the Clergy and Church of Scotland It gave us but a very short and brief tho a true account of the many Affronts and Indignities that were done to the Episcopal Clergy of that Kingdom by the Presbyterians there but after having enumerated some few Instances of their atrocious Cruelties such as the killing of one Minister the daubing of anothers Face with Excrements and the inhumane usage of the Wife of a third tho in Childbed he at last concludes That it was beyond the power of words to express their Misery to that degree as they suffered it This Letter had not been very long publish'd when there comes out a scurrilous Pamphlet under pretence of an Answer to it it was call'd A brief and true account of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland occasion'd by the Episcopalians since the Year 1660. being a Vindication of their Majesties Government in that Kingdom relating to the Proceedings against the Bishops and Clergy there With some Animadversions upon a Libel entituled The present State and Condition of the Clergy and Church of Scotland The Author of this Pamphlet instead of answering the Letter as he pretends summs up and highly aggravates the Punishments that were justly inflicted upon the Presbyterian Dissenters by the Civil Government for their frequent Insurrections and Rebellions against it and charges the Episcopal Clergy as the Authors of all their Sufferings upon that account The Proceedings of the Civil Magistrate against this rebellious Crew are sufficiently vindicated by a learned Pen as I shall afterwards inform you And as for the Behaviour of the Episcopal Clergy with relation to the Sufferings of these Men they were so far from being any ways the Authors of them that there may be many Instances given where the Clergy have interceeded for their Pardon and actually saved many of them from the Gallows which they could not have escaped had they been left to the due course of Law And yet these Men did afterwards prove so ungrateful that they were the chief Instruments of all the Sufferings and Persecution which those Clergy-Men to whom they owed their Lives and Fortunes met with in this late unhappy Revolution of our Church Affairs And this is plain in the Case of Sir John Riddel and Mr. Chisholm Minister at Lisly whom he was then prosecuting for his Non-complyance and yet at the same time ingenuously confessed to him before a good many Witnesses that he had been very much obliged to him and protested he would never have treated him at that rate if it had not been Matter of Conscience to him This Answer is all over stuff'd with so many groundless Reflections and Aspersions upon the Clergy and fill'd with such obscene and scurrillous Language without the least semblance of Reason or Argument that the true way of answering it had been to publish to the World a true and impartial History of the Author's Life and Actions that by comparing it with his Writings they might easily perceive what Credit and Authority they ought to have among all serious and sober Men. I must confess I 'm a great Enemy to all personal Reflections in whatever kind of Writings as knowing how prejudicial they ofâ—en are to the Merit of the Cause and how antichristian it isâ— for us to publish to the World the personal Infirmities of our Brethren when the Laws of Religion oblige us rather to cover and conceal them and to endeavour to reclaim them by a private and brotherly Admonition yet when Men do thus divest themselves of all Morality and Religion as at this rate without the least restraint of Modesty or good Manners to bespatter the sacred Persons of Princes and Prelates I know no other way to deal with them but either to oblige them publickly to recant their Calumnies and Aspersions or at least to fight them with their own Weapons and to expose them to the World in their true Colours that the unwary and undiscerning Multitude may not be bubbled into a belief of their malicious Lies and Calumnies There was indeed a Reply very soon returned to this Answer which I suppose did not a little discompose our Author it giving him a small tast of what Treatment he might expect if he should still continue to write at this extravagant and scurrilous rate The Title of it is The Prelatical Church-Man against the Phanatical Kirk-Man or a Vindication of the Author of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland This is a short Vindication of such of the Clergy as our Author had attempted to wound in their Reputation by his groundless and malicious Aspersions But much about this time or a little before there was a Discourse publish'd which tho it was not design'd as an Answer to this scurrilous Pamphlet it having been publish'd before it came abroad yet contains such Matters of Fact as do fully answer all the Calumnies of this Accuser and it relates the History of the Persecution so impartially as that it defies the Contradiction of the most effronted Adversary It is called An Account of the present Persecution of the Church of Scotland in several Letters The occasion and design of this undertaking was this When the Presbyterian Parâ—y had barbarously and inhumanly treated the Episcopal Clergy of that Kingdom when their Rabble had turn'd out of their Churches by Force and Violence above 300 Ministers in the Southern and Western Countries and had driven them in the midst of Winter with their Wives and tender Children from their Houses and places of abode and when they had got such Ministers as their Rabble could not reach deprived of their Livings by a Sentence of their Civil Judicatories and by this means had expos'd them to all
concerning his barbarous Usage by the Rabble I Master Gilbert Muschet Minister at Cumbernauld do by these presents declare That whereas I was orderly presented to the Church at Cumbernauld by John Earl of Wigtone and received Ordination and Collation from Alexander late Archbishop of St. Andrews then Lord Archbishop of Glasgow and continued there these Twenty Three Years in the Function of the Ministry Yet nevertheless I have been of late excluded and expell'd by the Rabble both from the Church and from my Manse and Glebe and I my self and my Wife have been in great danger of our Lives having been hurt and wounded by my own Parishioners and their Associates Follow the particular Wrongs done me by the Rabble and the Parties and Witnesses if I could have a hearing On Christmas day 1688. They took away all my Books together with my Papers to burn them at the Trone The Parties were James Mochrie Rob. Allan John Kirkwood John Anderson James Rae James John and Alexander Neilsons by order as they alledg'd from John Carmichael Chamberlaine James Carmichael his Son and James Fleyming Ground Officer Witnesses were Fergus Lugie Hary Logy John Baird and Robert Boyd Younger In January 1689. They made me by their Threatnings give back Four Petty Poynds to the value of ten or twelve Pounds Scotch that were long ago obtained in a fair legal way by a Decree before the Sheriff for payment to the Reader and Beddal The Parties were Ja. Brounlees John Ballach John Russel of Catecraig and Tho. Smellie Witnesses Fergus Lugie Will. Cassils Ja. Starke and their two Wives and Robert Stark Kirk-Officer February 4th They excluded me from the Church and sacrilegiously robb'd and took away the Key of the Church Door together with the Vtensils of the Church They likewise broke open the Doors of my House with a great Hammer rent my Gown and burnt it and laid violent hands upon my self and my Wife and the Kirk Officer Parties Ja. Bailzie Ja. Mochrie Rob. Angus Ja. Bresh Alexander Harvy Ja. Thomson Ja. Rae John Gillespie Younger Agnes Mochrie and Agnes Steil Witnesses John Davy Rob. Stirling Tho. Buchanan and John Steil March 7. They came out with Staves and Battoons and stop'd my Plough after I had till'd near Three Acres thereof and threatned to beat the Ploughmen to cut the Horse Legs and Plough-tackling if they did not desist Parties Robert Stirling Marion Lamb Agnes Mochrie Margaret Moorhead Margaret Miller Jean Miller Margaret Davy and Ja. Buchanan Witnesses John Watson David Macklay William Cassils Younger James Machany Margaret Colen and Mary Stark April 30. They took possession of my Glebe being Seven Acres and a half of Land for the use of the Meeting-House Preacher they till'd the rest of it and thereafter did sow and harrow it all except one ridg which I had caused sow and harrow before Parties Robert Boyd Ja. Russel Ja. Gilmore John Anderson John Young James Mochrie William Cassils and Ja. Rae And tho Eight of them had promised to pay me for what I had tilled and sown thereof yet they never performed the same Witnesses John Carmichael James Carmichael James Davie and Ja. Jarvey April 21. They violently by force of Arms stopp'd my entry into the Church in order to read the Convention's Proclamation and threw the Proclamation in the Ditch and carried me Prisoner to the Town Parties Ja. Rae and John Greenlees armed their Associates John Kirkwood William Cassils Ja. Mochrie Robert Allan James Thomson John Anderson John Smith James Buchanan and Tho. Dinn Witnesses Rob. Bresh James Machany John Stark Robert Alexander and John Ewans Hugh Templeton with divers others April 28. The entred the Meeting-House Preacher into the Church by force of Arms tho he never read the Convention's Proclamation nor obey'd the tenour of it then or since Parties Ja. Mochrie John Kirkwood William Cassils Ja. Thomson Ja. Rae John Greenlees Thomas Dinn John Smith Ja. Anderson Ja. Renie John Gillespie Witnesses Ja. Russel John Young John Stirling with divers others May 2. They broke open the Windows of my House robbing me of several things to a considerable value and charged me to remove the rest of my Furniture within Twenty four Hours otherwise they would throw it into the Stone-Quarry Parties Ja. Mochrie Ja. Rae Ja. Gilmore Younger and Ja. Buchanan with others Witnesses Jo. Kirkwood Ja. Neilson John Gillespie and Ja. Buchanan May 3. They again after opprobrious Language haled me Prisoner to the Newtoun commanding me to deliver up the Key of the Manse and three of them broke two of the Doors in my own House within the Newtoun of Cumbernauld beating my Wife Parties Ja. Mochrie Ja. Rae and James Buchanan the first of these searched narrowly for me in my own Chamber threatning to kill me where I narrowly escaped and he thereafter pursued me upon the King's High-way Associates to the said Three Persons were John Gillespy Younger Ja. Gilmore Younger and James Renie together with John Kirkwood William Cassils and James Thomson John Anderson John Greenlees and John Smith Witnesses John Young Hary Luggie Ja. Barrie Hugh Templetone and others at a publick Wedding May 20. Mr. Michael Robb the Meeting-House Preacher extruded me from the Glebe as the Rabble did from the Manse and caused his Servant to beat the Kirk-Officer when he was shearing a little Grass for my Horse when he was taken away by the command of one Lieutenant Haddo who took him along to the South and West Countries twenty days upon pretence of a commanded Party Witnesses John Stirling John Bennie John and Tho. Buchanans Jo. Cowie Robert Stark Alexander Robert and John Ewans July 28. After ringing the first Bell I entered the Church and read the Convention's Proclamation before an English Captain and Cornet and John Carmichael Chamberlain and having thereafter offered to preach in the Forenoon and to obey the tenour of the said Proclamation I was stopped by James Rae and William Cassils the last whereof laid violent hands upon me in that sacred place and hurled me by the Shoulders through the Church Isle and thrust me out at the Door tearing my Coat and my Gown Witnesses Ja. Robb James Neilson John Gillespy Younger James John and Tho. Buchanans and Ja. Renie August 6. They caused Home of Nineholes Troop eat a whole Night the Grass of that Meadow which I paid Duty for to the Earl of Wigtone the Hay thereof being worth Ten Marks Scotch was quite destroy'd and they caus'd Captain Morton's Horse eat a considerable quantity of my Corn of that Land I pay for yearly Parties John Carmichael who quartered the said Troop Mr. Robb and John Cuy his Servant who put them from the Glebe to eat my Meadow Witnesses John and Thomas Buchanans Alexander and John Ewans September 20. They pursued me upon the High-way as I was convoying a Cousin of my own alledging that he and I had taken down the Bell. They hurled us back Prisoners to the Town and James Rae ran at