Selected quad for the lemma: enemy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
enemy_n	advantage_n	great_a	part_n	1,014	5	3.9894	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57866	A vindication of the Presbyterians in Scotland, from the malicious aspersions cast upon them in a late pamphlet, written by Sir George Mackenzie late Lord Advocate there, intituled, A vindication of the government in Scotland during the reign of King Charles II, &c. by a lover of truth.	Rule, Gilbert, 1629?-1701.	1692 (1692)	Wing R2234; ESTC R11921	23,811	33

A VINDICATION OF THE Presbyterians in Scotland FROM THE Malicious Aspersions cast upon them In a late PAMPHLET Written by Sir George Mackenzie late Lord Advocate there Intituled A Vindication of the Government in Scotland during the Reign of King Charles II. c. By a Lover of Truth O lingua fraudis machinatrix impia Qua spe meum oppugnas caput Scythae ferocis lingua Pestilentior Tinctis veneno spiculis Ignis voracis lingua flammis acrior Quam silva flagrat arida Buchanan Psal. CXX 3 4. LONDON Printed for Edward Golding 1692. 'T IS very unaccountable that whilst not a few Virulent and Lying Pamphlets against the Present Establishment in Scotland have come abroad they should be generally entertained with so profound a Silence as is usually the Concomitant of the greatest Guilt And since it can be plainly demonstrated that it does not proceed from this it must be acknowledged that 't is owing to a Prodigious Stupidity and Supineness in those Persons to suffer themselves to be thus impune traduced 'T is too apparent what Advantages their Restless and Tyrannical Enemies reap thereby who like that Arch-Tyrant their Master Lucifer are uncessantly pushing on their Mischievous Designs the Effects of which we have in part tasted already and may yet more if a seasonable Diligence in exposing them to the World do not prevent it Let not therefore a Selfish Timorous nor Slavish Principle or a Prodigious Supineness deter any from so commendable a design as is the defending our Liberties and Priviledges against those Men who have been so Mighty Hunters after them and at last the Overthrowers thereof and setting them forth in their own Colours that the Government nor Subjects may be no more imposed upon by so Spurious a Race of Mankind whom should we judge of them by their Actions we would rather conclude to be of Diabolical than Humane Extract But lest I should seem to lay heavy burthens on other Mens Shoulders and refuse to touch them with one of my Fingers I shall briefly here tho' in a total Diffidence of my Ability to engage so Learned an Adversary as Sir George Mackenzie was make some Remarks on his Vindication and leaving the Law Part to Gentlemen of the Long Robe I shall content my Self with shewing the World with what Ingenuity he represents those Persons who were the Butt of the Fury of that Government he undertakes the Vindication of And if I can Evince to the World that they whom he represents as the Refuse of Mankind were but acted by the same Principles that the Generality of Men are and that what they are charged with is but what the most pretendedly Loyal have or would have under the same Circumstances been guilty of then I hope I shall appear to have rendred useless our Gentlemans best Engine for vindicating that Government And in the first place it may seem strange that any Person should undertake the Vindication of the Management of Affairs in Scotland under the Reign of Charles II. Since no Body that we know of has in Print undertaken that of the Management of Affairs then even here where things were not screwed up to the heighth they were in that Kingdom But above all it may be matter of highest admiration that a Person who was as much Dipt as any in those Arbitrary Proceedings should aspire to impose thus far on the World and more that any should be so credulous as to receive as Truths what the Passion our Author discovers throughout the whole Pamphlet plainly declares how unlikely he was to give a true Relation of But to be brief He would have done well to have mentioned the Particulars wherewith those Malicious Authors he mentions reproached the Government and then refuted them by plain Matter of Fact This would have procured greater Credit from all Judicious Unbyast Persons than a bare representing them as it pleased him and that Faction This Author was too forward when he asserted that those that complained of Oppressions in Kings Charles II. Reign were the first Aggressors in the Reign of King Charles I. Since 't is too obvious that what they Acted then was mostly defensive It is sufficiently known what Infringments upon their Liberties that King made It would be thought no small Encroachment here to introduce a New Mode of Worship without its being enacted by Parliament How Passive-spirited soever we are 't is hardly to be believed we would suffer it And 't is beyond all denyal true that King Charles I attempted it there and that that alone did raise the Ferment of the Nation against him and brought upon him all the Miseries he suffered from thence He concludes this Paragraph with saying that what was done against them rather deserves rather the Name of Self-defence than Persecution But let 's hear how he makes good this Assertion For clearing this he says 't is necessary to represent that in the Year 1637. We lived under the most Pious and Orthodox Prince of the Age and yet a Rebellion was form'd against him as a Papist and a Tyrant c. But how Pious and Orthodox soever this Prince was as 't is none of my business to Question either yet when so great Infringements were made upon the Priviledges of the People so Arbitrary Imprisonings Finings c. which are too Notorious for Impudence it self to deny 't was no contemptible Sign that the best that could be said of him was that he was too much Influenced by Bad Counsel which is at least a Corruption And 't is a no less true than usual saying Corruptio optimi pessima and if they took what course they thought conduced most for their Security 't is but what may be Parallell'd in several Ages past And late times have informed us that not a few of those Persons who have condemned this Practice of theirs against the Lords Anointed have been forced in Extremity to have recourse to a much like Expedient And therefore I think what he insinuates upon this Head will have little Influence on any save our present Malecontents He proceeds to aggravate their Crimes wherein he must needs be Guilty of the Highest Disingenuity or Gross Ignorance of Matters of Fact the latter of which is hardly credible of a Man of his Industry and Learning while he says that Covenants were entred into by a Part of the Subjects since it is certain that the Covenant was made by the Body of the Parliament the Earl of Montrose himself who was afterwards so great a Champion for them concurring at first as vigorously as any and 't is sufficiently known that it was upon a disgust probably owing to his aspiring Genius who like another Pompey non modo Superiorem sed nec Parem ferre valebat that he became such a Champion for the Arbitrary Cause And supposing they had any just ground for defending themselves Liberties c. As if when a King takes upon him to alter the Settlement stablisht

〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Where tho' they were Elders he was speaking to he says Take heed therefore to your selves and to all the Flock in or over which the Holy Ghost hath made you Bishops as the same Word is rendred by our Translators 1 Tim. 3. 1. and Tit. 1. 17. Which had there been any Distinction then in the Church between a Bishop and a Presbyter t is not to be supposed the Apostle would have said And St. John takes to himself only the Appellation of Elder 2 Joh. 1. 3 Joh. 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Elder to the Elect Lady the Elder to the Well-beloved Gaius Not St. Andrews Glagow c. which seems the assuming to themselves an Authority after the Manner of the Kings of the Gentiles i. e. Princes and Noblemen contrary to Christs Express Command Matt 20 25 26. Since it cannot be denyed but Titles are Badges of Authority and wherever they are owned or given Authority is thereby indicated Nor will it much mend the Matter to say that this Honour is conferred upon them by the Prince since it is obvious to reply that Christs Command seems expresly to prohibit it who best knew what Mischief those great Titles and Authority would do in the Christian Church This Gentleman farther says that as they taught the People that their Government was Jure Divino so that People might thereby be obliged to defend them and it under the Pain of Eternal Damnation even when Episcopacy was established by Divine Law c. Where the Gentleman is so eager in Exposing that People that he justly exposes himself to the Laughter of any Understanding person when his saying that they might be obliged unto it does not deny but they might not Had he said they were bound or ought to do it he had spoke to the purpose and in that case he could have accused them of nothing but what not a few of his own Party have been guilty of And that Conventicles were prohibited from a just fear that the Old Humour would ferment into a Rebellion is only his assertion 't is apparent enough that those severe Acts were made principally to support the Bishops and for fear lest they should be turned out again as nothing but Force joyned with the Debauchery and Irreligion of the Generality of their Communion who only affected such Church Governors as spared their Vices ever kept them in that Kingdom And how cunningly soever he insinuates that the Rebellion at Pentland Hills in 1666 was the effect of their Field Conventicles yet 't is certain that there were but few Conventicles before that Insurrection The true Matter of fact in this point is that Major Turner and some others were sent into the West of Scotland to suppress the Presbyterians there the Soldiers were quartered upon FREE QUARTERS besides that they Forc'd the PEOPLE to pay them 6 d. a day that many Families there were totally Impoverisht so that they were forced to give over their Farms and have recourse to the Charity of other honest People for their Subsistance That in some places when that people were not able to entertain the Soldiers as they had at their first coming they fell a beating of 'em and abused them who with the Neighbourhood standing up in their own defence killed some of the Soldiers whereupon partly through fear of being executed and partly thro' Bitterness of Spirit which their grievous Bondage had caused in them since as Solomon says Oppression makes a Wise Man Mad they betook themselves to Arms and perswaded other People whose Lives had been imbittered by several Years Oppression to do the same That the Indulgence after that Insurrection was granted them out of any favour is a Notorious Untruth It is sufficiently known that it was a Stratagem used on purpose to divide them in so far as some Ministers were comprehended in it and others very popular left out And it is no less certain that this fully answered their design for as the Gentleman cunningly upbraids them afterwards those that preached in the Fields were too rigid Censurers of their Brethren of the Indulgence as vice versa those of the Indulgence were too Uncharitable towards their Brethren that Preacht in the Fields which gave so great Advantage to their Enemies that in a short time they were both reduced to a very low Pass Which shews how applicable that of our Saviour was to both of them The Children of this World are wiser in their Generation than the Children of Light And tho the Field-Meetings as he truly says were declared to be the Rendevouzes of Rebellion yet 't is certain the poor People had no other design in going to them than that they might hear the Word of God which they thought was more faithfully dispenst there than in the Publick Churches And it is no less certain that it had great Effects on not a few who at first went thither only out of Curiosity so that while they were under their preaching they seemed to live quite new Lives from what they did formerly and when those Field-Meetings were supprest those poor Wretches made sad Complaints of their returning to their Vomit when they were again confined to the Ministry of the Episcopal Clergy Nor is this Gentleman Ingenuous when he says the State was necessitated to suppress them for fear of being subverted for the true cause was because during their Preaching in the Fields all the adjacent Parishes frequented their Meetings So that the pretended Orthodox Clergy there had scarce all their own Family to hear them in few places more It is false that they had any design against the Government and though some of them went with Arms to those Meetings yet 't is certain they offered Wrong to no Body and disperst themselves peaceably after the Sermon was over unless they were disturbed by Soldiers in which case they had all the reason of the World to defend themselves for if their Minister was taken he was sure to be executed and any of the rest were to expect no better than Imprisonment it may be for some years if not sent Slaves to the West-Indies as not a few were who could not be charged with any thing but going to Meetings These things considered no thinking Man will wonder at their taking Arms along with them especially since the Doctrine of Self-defence is not now lookt upon as so great a Bugbear as it was represented to be by Gentlemen that had neither more Religion nor Honesty than they needed in those topping Years of Loyalty 82 83 84 85 86. It is notoriously false as he asserts That the Generality of the Presbyterians of Scotland said that the King had forfeited his Crown for Breaking the Covenant tho some did Yet he having taken the Covenant as his Coronation Oath and Sworn to maintain that Government and it being on a supposed belief of his Sincerity therein that they tendred him the Crown 't is not