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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	world_n	wretch_n	year_n	24	3	3.9316	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43666	Ravillac redivivus, being a narrative of the late tryal of Mr. James Mitchel, a conventicle-preacher, who was executed the 18th of January last, for an attempt which he made on the sacred person of the Archbishop of St. Andrews to which is annexed, an account of the tryal of that most wicked pharisee Major Thomas Weir, who was executed for adultery, incest and bestiality : in which are many observable passages, especially relating to the present affairs of church and state / in a letter from a Scottish to an English gentleman.	Mitchel, James, d. 1678, defendant.; Hickes, George, 1642-1715.; Weir, Thomas, 1600?-1670, defendant.	1678 (1678)	Wing H1860; ESTC R10945	57,651	80

behold a poor old miserable Creatures Death but I trow there be few among you who are weeping and mourning for the broken Covenant and having so spoken she threw her self in greater hast off the Ladder than a Person should have done who was no better prepar'd for another World I could tell you many more remarkable stories of our Fanatick Zealots that have been put to death for lying with Beasts and other unnatural crimes One not many years since was put to death at Sterling for committing uncleanness with five Individual among which there were four species of irrational Animals and immediately before his Execution the unclean Wretch protested against the Prelates and boasted of his constant zeal for the Covenant and so without declaring any detestations of his crimes or desiring the people to pray for him went off with all assurance into the other World I should not have related any of these stories with reflection on the Schismatical party but that nine parts in ten of the horrid sins such as Witchcraft Bestiality and Incest are found among them which hath occasion'd a Proverbial Sarcasm in our Language against them that the Whigs ga to Heaven a Gate of their own This is no Hyperbole but a plain Historical Truth which our Judges can testifie and which may be confirm'd by the Registers of our criminal Courts And then as for Adulteries and Fornications those common failings of these Pharisees there are more of them committed and more Bastards born within their Country the Western Holy-Land than in all our Nation besides This is evident from comparing the Parish-Registers and the Registers of the Presbyterys or Rural Deaneries of those Shires with the rest of the Parish and Presbytery Registers in every Diocess of the Church Not very long since in a Parish within the Presbytery of Paseley there were no fewer than 17. Whigs who did publick Penance for Fornications and Adulteries at one time The Parish is very disaffected so that on that Lords-day wherein this Herd of Goats did stand in the Seat of Publick Repentance there were but two Regular Persons besides the Minister and Precentor in the Church I know you are already wondering that Fanatical Sinners will do Penance in the Kirk which is as serious and solemn a piece of Worship as any belongs to the Service of God Therefore to unriddle the Paradox unto you be pleas'd to take notice That if any Fornicator Adulterer c. contumaciously refuse to submit to Church-Censure his Majesty's Advocat is to pursue him before the Supream Judicature or Lords of the Session who upon Evidence of his Contumacy issue out Order for having him declar'd the King's Rebel that is to be solemnly denounc'd an Out-Law with the sound of an Horn. After the Horning for so we call the Denunciation Letters of Caption are direct against him so that if he be taken he must be put in Prison and although he be not he forfeits his Personal and the Annual Revenues of his real Estate and becomes altogether 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Theophilus the Greek Civilian calls Slaves and Minors and all that are Civilly dead Hence an Out-law is almost in the same Condition with us as Deportatus in Insulam was among the Romans he is uncapable of all Civil Employments he hath no Head in Law He can make no Will or Testament of his own nor receive any Benefit by any other Man's So that our Whigs like yours who will be Married by the Common-Prayer choose rather to mock God and offend their tender Consciences sometimes than forfeit their Liberty and Estates I am very well satisfy'd in my own Conscience that I have done nothing against the strictest Rules of Christian Charity in discovering the impious Principles and Practises of this Sect I have done it upon the same grounds and motives that the Ancient Fathers publish'd the Wicked Lives and Opinions of the more primitive Hereticks particularly of the Gnosticks who were the Archetype of our Whigs And the Parallel in most Particulars runs so exact between them that I cannot abstain from comparing them together First then as the Gnosticks were so call'd from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Knowledg falsly so call'd and boasted that they were the most Knowing although they really were the most Ignorant of the Christian Religion of any Sect in the World So our Whigs stile themselves the Knowing Christians and look upon us who adhere to the Church but as ignorant silly formal People that understand not Gospel Mysteries but are spoil'd after the Tradition of Men after the Rudiments of the World and not after Christ Secondly As the Gnosticks pretended to understand the Scriptures better than all other Christians and yet did most absurdly and blasphemously interpret them as Epiphan hath shew'd in many particulars So our Whigs pretend to this gui●t as their own peculiar Talent and yet interpret the Word of God as absurdly to make it comply with their wicked Opinions as the Gnosticks did to make it countenance theirs Mr. Mitchel's Papers are full proof of this Charge besides the Books I mention'd before Thirdly As the Gnosticks spoke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or mighty high things of Simon Magus equalling him with God So our Whigs speak big-swelling words of Baal-berith or the Solemn League and Covenant to which they ridiculously apply whatsoever is said of the Covenant of Grace which God made with Abraham and of that Political Covenant which he made with the Jews and of the counterpart of it which the Jews or any of their Kings made and renew'd with God baptizing their Children into it as into the Covenant of the Gospel and making it the cause and Interest and Truth of Christ In the fourth place As the Gnosticks pretended to be Christians and yet in many things comply'd with the wicked Jews and joyned with them in raising Persecution against the Church so our Whigs pretend to be the purest Protestants in the World and yet in many things are real Papists and now joyn most cordially with them to overthrow both our and your Church which the Papists acknowledg to be the strongest Bulwarks against themselves that are in the Protestant World In the fifth place as the Gnosticks contumeliously used the Apostles and Presbyters of the Primitive Church hating them with the Malice of Cain and gain-saying them among the People after the impudent manner of Corah and opposing them as Jannes and Jambres did Moses and Aaron so our Whigs treat our reverend Clergy with all imaginable contempt and barbarity hating our Bishops with a mortal hatred calling their Government an Usurpation over God's Heritage and rail at his Majesty and all other Magistrates that support them binding and re-binding themselves by a solemn Oath to extirpate the Apostolical Function though in doing of it they should shed an Ocean of Protestant Blood To proceed as the Gnosticks were raging Waves of the Sea i.e. a fierce tumultuous and troublesome people so are the Whigs

and very Holy young man till some of the Servants observed an extraordinary familiarity betwixt him and a young Woman who was the old Gardeners Wife Being possessed with this suspicion they observed him the more and one night as they were watching they saw his Mistris go to his Chamber which was a Summer-house built on the Garden wall The Key as it happened was left on the out-side of the door which one of those that watched observing gently locked the door upon them and immediatly ran to call his Master who came to the Garden to see what would be the event After they had been as long as they pleas'd together at last Hortensia comes to go out who to her great confusion finding the door locked steps back to the Adulterer who fearing that she should be taken with him immediatly let her down the Garden wall by the help of his Shirt she hanging at one end and he holding the other as naked as when he was born His Patron all this while beheld him like a filthy Priapus upon the Garden wall and the next day in great indignation discharged him of his service and house I suppose this is one of his particular and private sins which you 'l find him hereafter confessing in his Speech deserved a worse death than he endured Afterwards he came to Edinburgh where he lived some years in a Widows house called Mrs. Grissald Whitford who dwelt in the Cow-gate and with whom that dishonour of Mankind Major Weir was boarded at the same time By his Conversation it may be presumed that Mitchel improved much in the art of Hypocrisie and drunk in more deeply those Murderous and Treasonable Principles which he afterwards practised in the whole course of his life and justified at his death Now began he to Converse with the most Bigot Zealots against Auhority to frequent and hold Conventicles to Preach up the Covenant and to the utmost of his power to promote the Schism which was begun in the Church By these practises he much endear'd himself to his Tutor Major Weir who recommended him for a Chaplain to a Fanatical Family the Lady whereof was Neice to Sir Arch. Johnston Laird of Wareston one of the most furious Rebels against the late blessed King and greatest complyers with the late Usurpation in the Three Kingdoms and whom you may remember to have been President of the Committee of Safety for all which accumulated Treasons he was executed here in 1663. During his abode in this Family broke out the Rebellion of the Fanaticks in 1666. He no sooner heard of it but joyned with the Robels who were defeated at Pentland-hills Though Mr. Welsh as it is reported during the Fight prayed with up-lifted hands to the Lord of Hosts against Amalek as his Spirit moved him to miscall the Royal Forces and had his hands stayed up by some of his Brethren as Moses had his by Aaron and Hur Mr. Mitchel had the Fortune to escape from the Field but was afterwards proclaimed Traytor with many other principal Actors in the Rebellion and afterwards excepted by name in His Majesties Gracious Proclamation of Pardon that he might receive no benefit thereby From this time he skulked about and sheltered himself among the Rebellious Saints of the Brotherhood till the Devil tempted him to Assassin the Lord Primate for which he hath expiated by his blood Among others of his excellent qualifications I have told you what an utter Ignoramus he was I cannot forbear to tell you further that Welsh and Arnot and all the rest of them are full as illiterate as he and that their insuperable ignorance in Divine and Humane Learning is the Mother of their Murdering Zeal Indeed all the late Troubles upon the account of Episcopacy are chiefly to be ascribed to the shameful ignorance of Protestant Divines in Ecclesiastical Antiquity who looking no further back into the History of Religion than the time of the Reformation and some of them not so far did either hate Episcopacy as an Usurpation or else looked upon it as a meer human Constitution and so could not have that particular Veneration for it that was due to an Apostolical Ordinance so visibly founded in the Scriptures and which was the sole invariable Government of Gods Universal Church for above 1500 years Of this that excellent man Mr. Henderson was a deplorable example who though he was a man of great Temper and Prudence and very Learned in his way yet want of Antiquity of which he was so ignorant was the unhappy cause why he engaged for the Covenant against the King and the Church Had he spent but half so many hours in that as he did in the study of other things he had never moved so excentrically to the Church nor done those things for which he expiated with tears before His late blessed Majesty at Newcastle afterwards spending the short remainder of his life in a sorrowful Penitential Retirement for which he grew suspected by his Brethren of the Covenant who called him Apostat from the Cause There are many persons yet alive who can testifie this to be true which may teach all Divines how dangerous it is for them to live in ignorance of Ecclesiastical Antiquity which is so easily acquired and so useful to be known That comprehensive Genius Mr. Calvin wanted nothing but this to make him as Orthodox and Consummate a Divine as ever was in the Church of God for had he been but half as well versed in the more Primitive Ecclesiastical Writers as he was in St. Augustin he had never coin'd the notion of a Lay-elder defended the Horrible Decree or been exposed for so many absurdities by meek Cassander's Pen. But to conclude this Digression with Mr. Henderson there were very few among our Covenanting-ministers comparable to him for Prudence and Learning and yet even the lowermost Form of our former Presbyterians were Great men in comparison to these of the Remonstrator Faction who are all burning Zeal but no knowledge as you will perceive not only by the sequel of this Story but this Letter of an ignorant Minister that lately Revolted from our Church SIR I Received your Letter of the 15th of July wherein you say That on the first Wednesday of August you are to have a Presbytery you ought to have termed it a meeting of the Exercise and on the second Wednesday of August a Provincial meeting with your Bishop of Rothesay and once for all I desire you may take this for an absolute Answer First That God hath of a long time been dealing with my Conscience but especially since October last when I was called to Mul for Electing Mr. Andrew Wood Bishop I confess his want of the Irish language did stick with me besides many other things as well now as before about the Election of Mr. James Ramsey and all of you save one did then profess that they did stick with you also though now you have swallowed down that Pill

those that are judicially prov'd When they were seized she desired the Guards to keep him from laying hold on a certain Staff which she said if he chanc'd to get into his hand he would certainly drive them all out of doors notwithstanding all the resistance they could make This Magical Staff was all of one piece with a crooked head of Thorn-wood she said he received it of the Devil and did many wonderful things with it particularly that he used to lean upon it in his Hypocritical prayers and after they were committed she still desired it might be kept from him because if he were once Master of it again he would certainly grow obdurate and retract the Confessions which he had so publickly made Apollonius Thyaneus had such a Magical Staff as this which I believe was a Sacramental Symbol which the Devil gave to the Major and the Court had some such apprehensions of it for it was ordered by the Judges to be burnt with his Body She also confessed in Prison that she and her Brother had made a compact with the Devil and that on the 7th of Septemb. 1648. they were both Transported from Edinburgh to Musselborough and back again in a Coach and six Horses which seemed all of fire and that the Devil then told the Major of the defeat of our Army at Preston in England which he confidently reported in most of its circumstances several days before the news had arrived here This Prediction did much increase the high opinion the People began to have of him and served him to make them believe that like Moses he had been with God in the Mount and had a Spirit of Prophecy as well as of Prayer But as for her self she said she never received any other benefit by her Commerce with the Devil than a constant supply of an extraordinary quantity of yarn which she was sure she said to find ready for her upon the Spindle what ever business she had been about Besides the Bestialities which the Major judicially acknowledged he had committed with the Mare and Cow he confessed he had done the same Abominations with three Species more and the Woman that delated him for the Fact near New Mills was by order of the Magistrates of Lanerk whipped through the Town by the hand of the Common Hangman as a slanderer of such an eminent Holy man The Fornications and Adulteries which this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Buggerers are called by the Council of Ancyra Committed with the most Sanctimonious and Zealous Women of the Sect are too numerous to be related here He had got himself the Priviledge under a pretence of Praying and Exhortation to go to their Houses and into their Bed-chambers when he pleased and it was his practise to visit married Women at such times especially as their Husbands were from home One especially who lived in the Street called the West-bow in Edinburgh he had several times sollicited in her Husbands absence to gratifie his unclean desires till at last wearied out with his importunity she told him how much she abhorred his design and charged him never to come more to her House Upon this he forbore to visit her for some time till one night when she was undressed and ready to step into Bed the Major suddenly appears standing by her at which she was so extreemly frighted that she fell into a swoun she had no sooner recovered but the Major endeavored to comfort and assure her and confirm her against that strange surprize and renewing his addresses he Tempted her with many Arguments and filthy Speeches and Gesticulations telling her he had taken that marvelous way of appearing in private with her on purpose to secure her Reputation that he would go out of her House in a manner as invisible as he came in But she by this time having recovered her usual courage and strength pushed him off with violence and cry'd out for help to her Maid upon which he immediately disappeared The Windows and Doors were all close shut and I make little doubt but his Coachman to the fiery Coach conveighed him in and out through the Chimney or perhaps by the Door which the cursed Familiar might open and shut again as well as the Angel of the Lord did unlock and lock the Prison Door wherein the Apostles were put As for the miserable Woman she was never well after this Magical manner of Address which the lustful Satyr made unto her but immediately fell into a deep Melancholy which ended in a languishing Sickness whereof not many weeks after she died and when she was upon her death Bed she declared this strange Story to many persons yet alive of great Integrity Wisdom and Fame I have already told you what an active Rebel this Multiform Sinner was but I forgot to tell you that he was an eminent Promoter of the Western Remonstrance in the year 1650. To these principles he stuck as close as to the Devil himself insomuch that when the Government of our Church was restored he avowedly renounced the Communion of it and endeavored to widen the Schism to the utmost of his power He could not so much as endure to look upon an Orthodox Minister but when he met any of them in the Streets he would pull his Hat over his eyes in a Pharisaical kind of indignation and contempt While he was in Prison he acknowledged his Hypocrisie by which he had deluded men and mock'd God declaring that in all his life he had never prayed to God in private nor had any power to speak when he attempted to do it although he had such an extraordinary and charming utterance in his solemn Conventicle-prayers He also confessed that he never bow'd his knee to God at his own or other mens Prayers which exactly agrees with his Sisters Relation of his leaning at his Prayers on his Magical Staff and none of his own party can remember that at any Devotion even when he seem'd most Rapturous they ever saw him kneel Nay furthermore he confessed which I cannot mention without horror that his fluency in Prayer by which he ravished the People proceeded from the assistance of the Devil who he said helped him to the words and phrases in which he expressed himself This hath given several men several ways of Conjecture how it could be done Some who knew him better than I ever had the unhappiness to do are of opinion that he was the Praying-Oracle of the Devil out of whom he personally spoke The reason which they alledge for their conjecture is that sometimes the sound of his Voice like the sight of Spirits had something unnatural in it as if it had not been form'd by the Organs of Speech Others think it reasonable to believe That he saw all the words and expressions in his Prayer successively written by the Devil in the air But upon enquiry I find that he like most of the Extemporarians commonly Prayed with his eyes shut which if it be