All other Authority is so entrenched within the Marches of Divine Command that the least overpassing of the Bounds set by God himself bring Men under the fearful expectation of Temporal and Eternal Iudgements c. Yet notwithstanding of all opposition Prelacy was again restored in Parliament And to bring all to a complyance with the same Presbyteries and Synods universally charged under highest pains to admit a Constant Moderator without change which many refused resolutely as being the first step of Prelacy Upon this followed a great Persecution of the faithful for their Nonconformity managed by that Mongrel and Monstrous kind of Court made up of Clergy-men and States-men called the High Commission Court erected anno 1570. whereby many honest Men were put violently from their Charges and Habitations the Generality were involved in a great and fearful Defection But the Copestone of the wickedness of that Period was the Ratification of the five Articles of Perth kneeling at the Communion private Communion to be given to the Sick private Baptism and Confirmation of Children by the Bishop and Observation of Festival Days Which were much opposed and testified against by the faithful from their first hatching Anno 1618. to the Year 1621. when they were ratified in Parliament And against this the Testimony of the faithful continued till the Revolution Anno 1638. The following Period from the Year 1638 to 1660 continues and advances the Testimony to the greatest heighth of purity and power that either this Church or any other did ever arrive unto We shall give a short deduction of the rise progress and end of the Contendings of that Period In the midst of the forementioned Miseries and Mischiefs that the Pride of Prelacy and Tyrannical Supremacy had multiplied beyond measure upon this Church and Nation and at the heighth of all their haughtiness when they were setting up their Dagon and erecting Altars for him imposing the Service Book and Book of Cannons c. The Lords People were surprized with a sudden unexpected Deliverance by very despicable means even the opposition of a few weak Women which afterwards was followed out with more Masculine fervor accosting King and Council with Pititions Remonstrances Protestations and Testimonies against the Innovations and resolving upon a mutual Conjunction to defend Religion Lives and Liberties against all that would innovate or invade them To fortifie which all the Friends to the Liberty of the Nation did solemnly renew the National Covenant which though in it self obligeing to the Condemnation of Prelatical Hierarchy and clearly enough confirming Presbyterial Government yet they engaged unto it with an enlargement to suspend the Practice of Novations already introduced and the approbation of the Corruptions of the present Government with the late places and Power of Church Men till they be tryed in a free General Assembly Which was obtained that same Year and indicted at Glasgow And there notwithstanding all the opposition that the King's Commissioner could make by Protestations and Proclamations to dissolve it the six preceding Assemblies establishing Prelacy were annulled the Service Book and High Commission were condemned all the Bishops were deposed and their Government declared to be abjured in that National Covenant tho' many had through the Commissioners perswasions subscribed it in another Sense without that application As also the five Articles of Perth were there discovered to have been inconsistent with that Covenant and Confession and the Civil places and power of Church Men were disproved and rejected On the other hand Presbyterial Government was justified and approved and an Act was passed for keeping Yearly General Assemblies This was a bold beginning out-braving all difficulties Which in the following Year were much encreased by the Prelates and their partakers Rendezvouzing their Forces under the Kings personal Standard and menacing nothing but Misery to the zealous Covenanters Yet when they found them prepared to resist were forced to yield to a Ratification concluding that an Assembly and Parliament should be held for healing all Grievances of Church and State In which Assembly at Edinburgh the Covenant is ratified and subscribed by the Earl of Traquaire Commissioner and enjoyned to be subscribed by the Body of the whole Land with an explication expresly concerning the five Articles of Perth the Government of Bishops the Civil places and power of Church Men. But the Year following King and Prelates with their Abettors go to Arms again but were fain to accommodate the matter by a new Pacification whereby all Civil and Religious Rights were ratified And in the following Year 1641 by Laws Oaths Promises Subscriptions of King and Parliament fully confirmed the King Charles the First being present and consenting to all But the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus being thus advanced the Glory of the Lord did shine upon us with such Splendor that it awaked England and animated the Lords People there to aspire to the like Reformation For advice in which because tho' all agreed to cast off Prelacy yet sundry Forms of Church Government were projected to be set up in the room thereof chiefly the Independent Order Therefore the Brethren in England wrote to the Assembly then sitting at Edinburgh who gave them answer in behalf of the Presbyterial Government So from henceforth the Assembly did incessantly urge Vniformity in Reformation with their Brethren in England as the chiefest of their Desires Prayers and Cares And in the Year 1643 prevailed so far that the English Parliament did first desire that the two Nations might be strictly united for their mutual defence against the Prelatical Faction and their Adherents in both Kingdoms and not to lay down Arms till these implacable Enemies should be brought in Subjection and did instantly urge for help and assistance from Scotland Which being sent did return with an Olive-branch of Peace and not without some beginning of a Reformation in England And afterwards a Bloody War beginning between the King and Parliament with great success on the Kings side Commissioners were sent from both Houses to Scotland earnestly inviting to a nearer Union of the Kingdoms and desiring assistance from this Nation to their Brethren in that their great distress And this produced the Solemn League and Covenant of the three Kingdoms first drawn up in Scotland and approved in the Assembly at Edinburgh and afterward embraced in England This is that Covenant comprehending the purpose of all Prior and the Pattern of all Posterior Covenants which the Representative of Church and State in the three Nations did solemnly Subscribe and Swear for themselves and Posterity and of which the Obligation cannot be Disannull'd Disabled or Dispensed by any Power on Earth And this Covenant was rigorously imposed upon all Recusants who were wicked Enemies to God and Church and Nation and for their Malignancy were then to be Prosecuted not for their Scrupling at a Covenant but for their contumacious contempt of a Law This was no violence done to their Conscience for as they had
Yea not so much as to say God save the King which was offered at the price of their Life but they would not accept Deliverance on these Terms Now remained Mr. Donald Cargil deprived of his faithful Collegue destitute of his Brethrens Concurrence who prosecuted the Testimony against the Universal Apostasie of the Church and Nation Tyranny of Enemies Backsliding of Friends and all the wrongs done to his Master on all hands And considering in the Zeal of God and Sense of his holy Jealousie provoked and threatning Wrath against the Land for the Sins especially of Rulers that notwithstanding of all their Testimonies given against them by publick Preachings Protestations and Declarations remonstrating their Tyranny and disowning their Authority yet not only did they persist in their Sins and Scandals but were owned also by Professours not only as Magistrates but as Members of the Christian and Protestant Church and that however both the Defensive Arms of Men had been used against them and the Christian Arms of Prayers and the Ministerial Weapon of Preaching yet that of Ecclesiastical Censure had not been Authoritatively exerted against them Therefore that no Weapon which Christ allows his Servants under his Standard to manage against his Enemies might be wanting tho' he could not obtain the Concurrence of his Brethren to strengthen the Solemnity and Formality of the Action yet he did not judge that Defect in this broken Case of the Church could disable his Authority nor demur the Duty but that he might and ought to proceed to Excommunication And accordingly in Sept. 1680. at the Torwood he Excommunicated some of the most scandalous and principal Promoters and Abettors of this Conspiracy against Christ as formally as the present Case could admit After Sermon upon Ezek 21. 25 26 27. And thou profane wicked Prince of Israel whose Day is come c. The Persons Excommunicated and the Sentence against them was given forth as follows I being a Minister of Iesus Christ and having Authority and Power from him do in his Name and by his Spirit Excommunicate cast out of the Church and deliver up to Satan Charles the Second King c. The Sentence was founded on these Grounds For 〈◊〉 great Perjury in breaking and burning the Covenant for his rescinding all Laws for establishing the Reformation end enacting Laws contrary thereunto For commanding of Arms to destroy the Lords People For his granting Remissions and Pardons for Murderers which is in the power of no King to do c. Next by the same Authority and in the same Name he Excommunicated James Duke of York for his Idolatry and setting up in Scotland to defile the Land and enticing and encouraging others to do 〈◊〉 With several other rotten Malignant Enemies But about this time when some in zeal for the Cause were endeavouring to keep up the Testimony of the day in an abstraction from Complying Ministers others were left to fall into fearful extravagancies and delirious and damnable Delusions being overdriven with ignorant and blind Zeal into untroden Paths which led them into a Labyrinth of Darkness When as they were stumbled at many Ministers their unfaithfulness so they came to be offended at Mr Cargill his Faithfulness who spared neither left-hand Declensions nor-right hand Extreams and left him and all the Ministers not only disowning all Communion with those that were not of their way but Execrating and Cursing them and kept themselves in desart places from all Company where they persisted prodigiously in Fastings and singing Psalms pretending to wonderful Raptures and Enthusiasms And in fine Iohn Gib with 4 more of them came to that height of Blasphemy that they burnt the Bible and Confession of Faith These were the Sweet Singers as they were called led away into these Delusions by that Impostor and Sorcerer Iohn Gib of which destructive way the approached Remnant adhering to the foresaid Testimony had always an Abhorrence of Wherefore that ignorant and impudent Calumny of their Consortship with Gibs Followers is only the vent of viperous Envy For they were the first that discovered them and reclaimed them and were always so far from partaking with them that to this day these that have come off from that way and have offered the Confession of their Scandal do still complain of their over-rigid Severity in not admitting them to their select Fellowships Shortly after this Mr. Donald Cargill finished his Testimony being apprehended with other two faithful and zealous Witnesses of Christ Mr. William Smith and Mr. Iames Beeg who with two more were altogether at Edinburgh 27 Iuly 1681. Crowned with the Glory of Martyrdom Then came the Day of the Remnants vexation the Persecution vaxing on the one hand and a violent Spirit of defection carrying down the most part of Ministers and Professours before it driving them to Courses of sinful and scandalous Conformings with the Times Corruptions Compearings before their Courts Complyings with their Commands paying of their Cesses and other Exactions taking of their Oaths and Bonds and countenancing their Prelatical Church-Services which they were ashamed to do before And thereupon on the other hand the Divisions and Confusions were augmented and poor People that desired to cleave to the Testimony were more and more offended and troubled at the Ministers who either left the Land or lurked in their own retirements But the remaining Contenders fell upon the expedient of corresponding in General Meetings to consult inform and confirm one another about common Duties in common Dangers Laying down this General Conclusion for a foundation of Order to be observed among them in incident doubtful Cases and emergent Controversies that nothing relative to the publick and which concerns the whole of their Community be done by any of them without harmonious consent sought after and rationally waited for and sufficient deliberation about the best means and manner In the mean time the Duke of York as Commissioner from his Brother held a Parliament in which he is declared legal and lineal Successour and a Test is framed for a Pest to Consciences which turned out of all Places of Trust any that had any remaining measure of common Honesty And to all the Cruel Acts then and before made against the People of God there was one superadded regulating the Execution of all the rest whereby at one dash all Civil and Criminal Justice was overthrown That the Right of Iurisdiction both in Civil and Criminal Matters is so inherent in the Crown that his Majesty may judge all Causes by himself or any other he thinks fit to Commissionate Here was a Law for Commissionating Souldiers to take away the Lives of Innocents as was frequently exemplified afterwards Against which encroachments on Religion and Liberty the faithful thought themselves obliged to emit a Testimony And therefore published a Declaration at Lanerk Ian. 12. 1682. Confirming the proceeding at Sanquhair and adding reasons of their Revolt from the Government of Charles the Second For his arrogantly arrogated
Supremacy in all Causes Civil and Ecclesiastick and oppressing the Godly for Conscience and Duty for installing a Successour such an one if not worse as himself and framing the Test c. And in end offer to prove they have only endeavoured in this to extricate themselves from under a Tyrannous Yoke and to reduce Church and State to what they were in the Years 1648 and 1649. After which Declaration they were more Condemned by them that were at ease than ever For which Cause in the next General Meeting they resolved to delegate some of their number to Forreign Churches on purpose to vindicate themselves from these Calumnies And withal to provide for a Succession of Witnesses Therefore by that means having obtained access for the instruction of some young Men at an University in the united Provinces in process of time Mr. Iames Renwick received Ordination there and came home to take up the Standard of his Master upon the ground where it was left Which undertaking notwithstanding all the Rage of Enemies and all the Scourge of Tongues of incensed Professours he Prosecuted by many weary wandrings Night and Day Preaching Conferring and Catechising until not only was the faithful Witnessing Remnant that joyned in the Testimony further cleared confirmed and encouraged and their number much encreased by the coming in and joyning of many others to the Fellowship of their setled Societies but also many others in other places of the Country were induced to the contracting themselves in the like to the setling such Fellowships in most of the Southern Shires But then the fury of Persecutors began to flame more flagrantly than ever not only in sending out Cruel Souldiers Foot Horse and Dragoons to pursue after them in the wildest and remotest recesses in the Wilderness but emitting Edicts allowing them to kill slay hang drown and destroy such as they could apprehend of them pro libitu and commanding the Country to assist them c. For which Cause to preserve themselves from and put a stop to that deluge of Blood and demur and deter the Insolency of Intelligencers and Informers they were necessitate to publish the Apologetick Declaration and affix it upon several Mercat-Crosses and Parish-Church Doors Nov. 8. 1684. Wherein they declare their firm Resolution of constant adherence to their Covenants and Engagements and to the Declarations disowning the Authority of Charles Stewart and to testifie to the World that they purpose not to injure or offend any whomsoever but to pursue the ends of their Covenants in standing to the defence of the Work of Reformation and of their own Lives yet if any shall stretch forth their hand against them by shedding their Blood actually either by Authoritative commanding or obeying such Commands to search for them and deliver them up to the spilling of their Blood to inform against them to raise the Hue and Cry after them and delate them before their Courts All these shall be reputed by them Enemies to God and the Covenanted Reformation and punished as such according to their Power and the degree of their offence if they shall continue so malitiously to proceed against them And declare they abhor and condemn any personal attempts upon any pretext whatsoever without previous Deliberation common or competent consent without certain probation by sufficient Witnesses the guilty Persons Confession or the notoriousness of the deeds themselves And in the end warn the bloody Doegs and flattering Ziphites informing against them to be expect to be dealt with as they deal with them This Declaration occasioned greater Tryals to them and trouble to the Country by the pressing an Oath abjuring the same universaly up on all as well Women as Men and suffering none to Travel without a Pass declaring they had taken that Oath and giving power to all Hostlers and Inn-keepers to impose Oaths upon all Passengers Travellers Gentlemen or Country-men who were to Swear that their Passes were not forged And Prisoners that would not take the Oath were according to the foresaid Act Condemned and Executed And after that they gave Orders and Commands to the Souldiers to pursue the Chase after these Wanderers more violently and shoot or otherwise put them to Death wherever they could apprehend them Hence followed such a slaughter and seizure of them that common People usually date their common Occurrences since from that beginning of killing time as they call it Yet that Declaration was so far effectual as to scare many from their former diligence in informing against them and to draw out some to joyn with the Wanderers more publickly even when the danger was greatest of owning any respect to them In the beginning of this killing time the first Author and Authorizer of all these Mischiefs Charles II. was removed by Death And the Duke of York succeeding immediately upon his mounting the Throne the Executions and Acts prosecuting the Prosecution of the poor Wanderers were more Cruel than ever Now the Earl of Argyle having been Arraigâ—ed and Condemned for his Explanation of the Test but escaped out of the Castle of Edinburgh and after him several Gentlemen being arbitrarily oppressed and troubled upon the Act of Intercommuning with Rebels and for a pretended Plot against the Government as they called it and many other Gentlemen having lost either their Lives or Fortunes many did resort to the United Provinces From whence as soon as they had provided themselves with Arms after the ascending of Iames Duke of York they returned to Scotland under the conduct of the Earl of Argyle their chosen Captain And Argyle's Party perceiving that their Enemies were above ten times their number dispersed every Man shifting for himself The Enemies searching the Country gleaned up the Earl of Argyle himself Col. Rumbold an English Man Mr. Thomas Archer Minister Gawin Russel and David Law who were all Condemned and Executed at Edinburgh and many others who were Banished to America And about some 20 in the Highlands who were Hanged at Ineravie In the mean time the Wanderers tho' they did not associate with this Expedition upon the account of the too promiscuous admittance of Persons to trust in that party who were then and since have discovered themselves to be Enemies to the Cause and because they could not espouse their Declaration as the State of their Quarrel being not concerted according to the constant plea of the Scots Covenanters Yet against this Usurpation of a Papist they published another Declaration at Sanquhair May 28. 1685. Wherein approving and adhering unto all their former Declarations and considering that James Duke of York a profest and Excommunicate Papist was proclaimed to testifie their Resentment of that deed and to make it appear unto the World that they were free thereof by Concurrence or Connivance they protest against the foresaid Proclamation of James Duke of York as King In regard that is contrary to the Declaration of the General Assembly July 27 1649. And they protest against the Validity and Constitution
there or elsewhere And to these also they give Injunctions and Restrictions to regulate them in the exercise of their Ministry And to the end that all the outed Ministers might be brought under restraint and the Word of God be kept under Bonds by another Act of Council they Command that all other Ministers not disposed of as is said were either to repair to the Parish-Church where they were or to some other Parishes where they may be ordinary hearers and to declare and condescend upon the Parishes where they intend to have their Residence After this they assumed a Power to dispose of these their Curates as they pleased and transport them from place to place whereof the only ground was a simple Act of Council the Instructions always going along with them as the constant companion of the Indulgence By all which it is apparent whatever these Ministers Alledge viz. That it was but the removal of the Civil Restraint and that they entred into their places by the Call of the People a meer mock-pretence for a prelimited Imposition whereby that Ordinance of Christ was basely prostituted and abused and that their Testimony and Protestation was a Salvo for their Consciences a meer Utopian fancy that the Indulgers with whom they bargained never heard of otherwise as they did with some who were faithful in notifying against their Encroachments they would soon have given them a Bill of ease It cannot be denied that that doleful Indulgence both in its Rise Contrivance Conveyance Grant and Acceptance End and Effects was a grievous Encroachment upon the Princely Prerâ—gative of Jesus Christ the only Head of the Church whereby the Usurpers Supremacy was Homologated bowed to complyed with strengthened the Cause and Kingdom of Christ betrayed his Churches Privileges Surrendred his Enemies hardened his Friends stumbled and the Remnant rent and ruined And yet a great part of the Ministers took that Indulgence and another part did instead of Remonstrating the Wickedness of that deed Palliate and Plaister and Patronize it in keeping up the Credit of the King and Councils Curâ—tes Yet the Lord had some Witnesses who pretty early did give significations of their Resentment of this dishonour done to Christ as Mr. William Wâ—er who having got the Legal Call of the People and discharging his Duty honestly was turned out And Mr. Iohn Burnet who wrote a Testimony directed to the Council shewing why he could not submit to that Indulgence inserted at large in the History of Indulgence where also we have the Testimony of other Ten Ministers who drew up their Reasons of Non-complyance with such a Snare And Mr. Alex Blaire who upon occasion of Citation before the Council for not observing the 29 th of May told the Council That he could receive no Instructions from them in the Exercise of his Ministry otherwise he should not be Christ's Ambassador but theirs But afterwards the Lord raised up some more explicit Witnesses against that defection While the King thought he had by that Device utterly suppressed the Gospel in House and Field-Meetings he was so far disappointed that these very Means and Machins by which he thought to bury it did chiefly contribute to its revival For when by Persecution many Ministers had been chased away by illegal Law-Sentences many had been banished away and by their ensnaring Indulgences many had been drawn away from their Duty and others were now Sentenced with Confinements and Restraints if they should not choose and fix their Residence where they could not keep their Christ and Conscience both they were forced to wander and disperse through the Country by whose Endeavours the Word of God grew exceedingly and went at least through the Southern Borders of the Kingdom like Lightning O! who can remember the Glory of that day without a melting Heart A day of such Power that it made the People willing to come out and venture upon the greatest of hardships and the greatest of hazards in pursuing after the Gospel even when they could not have a probable expectation of escaping the Sword of the Wilderness and the barbarous fury of bloody Burrio's raging for their Prey sent out with Orders to take and kill them it being now made Criminal by Law especially to the Preachers and Convocaters of these Meetings I will make bold to say I doubt if ever there were greater days of the Son of Man upon the Earth since the Apostolick times than we enjoyed for the space of Seven Years at that time Now when Christ is gaining ground by the Preached Gospel in Plenty Purity and Power the Usurpers Supremacy was like to stagger and Prelacy came under contempt Hence to secure what he had possessed himself of by Law and to prevent a dangerous Paroxism which he thought would ensue upon these Commotions the King returned to exert his innate Tyranny and to emit terrible Orders and more terrible Executioners and bloody Emissaries against all Field-Meetings which after long Patience the People at length could not endure but being first chased to the Fields where they would have been content to have the Gospel with all the Inconveniencies of it and also expelled from the Fields being resolute to maintain the Gospel they resolved to defend it and themselves by Arms To which unavoidable necessity in unsupportable extremity did constrain them as the only remaining Remedy It is known for several Years they met without any Arms where frequently they were disturbed and dispersed with Souldiers some killed others wounded which they patiently endured withou Resistance At length the Ministers that were most in hazard having a Price set upon their Heads to be brought in dead or alive with some attending them in their wandrings understanding they were thus appointed for death judged it their duty to provide for the necessary defence of their Lives from the Violence of their armed Assaulters And as Meetings encreased divers others came under the same hazard which enforced them to endeavour the same Remedy without the least intention of of prejudice to any Thus the number of Sufferers increasing as they joyned in the Ordinances at these persecuted Meetings found themselves in some probable capacity to defend themselves and these much endeared Gospel-Priviledges and to preserve the Memory of the Lord 's great Work in the Land which to transmit to Posterity was their great design Wherefore in these Circumstances being redacted to that strait either to be deprived of the Gospel or to defend themselves in their Meetings for it and thinking their turning their Backs upon it for hazard was a cowardly deserting duty and palpable breach of Covenant-Engagements abandoning their greatest Interest they thought it expedient yea necessary to carry defensive Arms with them it being an indissoluble obligation in their Covenants to maintain and defend the true Religion and one another in promoting the same And hereunto they were encouraged by the constant experience of the Lord 's countenancing their Endeavours in that posture which always
proved successful for several Years their Enemies either turning their backs without disturbance when they observed them resolve Defence or in their Assaultings repulsed so that there was never a Meeting which stood to their Defence got any considerable harm thereby Thus the Lord was with us while we were with him but when we forsook him he forsook us and left us in the hands of our Enemies However while Meetings for Gospel-Ordinances did continue the Wicked Rulers did not cease from time to time to encrease their numerous Bands of Barbarous Souldiers for suppressing the Gospel in these Field-meetings But all this is nothing to what followed when thinking these Blood-Hounds were too favourable they brought down from the wild Highlands a Host of Salvages upon the Western Shires more terrible than Turks or Tartars Men who feared not God nor regarded Man to wast and destroy a plentiful Country which they resolved before they left it to make as bare as their own This Hellish Crew was adduced to work a Reformation like the French Conversions to press a Bond of Conformity wherein every one Subscribed was bound for himself and all under him Wife Children Servants Tenants to frequent their Parish Churches and never to go to these Meetings nor reset nor entertain any that went but to Inform against Pursue and Deliver up all vagrant Preachers as they called them to Tryal and Judgment Then for the maintenance of the Souldiers there were imposed new wicked and arbitrary Cesses and Taxations professedly required for suppressing Religion and Liberty banishing the Gospel out of the Land and preserving and promoting the King's Absoluteness over all Matters and Persons Sacred and Civil which under that tentation of great Sufferings threatned to Refusers and under the disadvantage of the silence and unfaithfulness of many Ministers who either did not condemn it or pleaded for the peaceable payment of it many did comply with it then and far more since Yet at that time there were far more Recusants in some places especially in the Western shires than Complyers And there were many of the Ministers that did faithfully declare to the People the Sin of it not only from the illegality of its Imposition by a Convention of over-awed and prelimited States but from the nature of that imposed Compliance that it was a sinful Transaction with Christ's declared Enemies a strengthning the hands of the wicked an obedience to a wicked Law a consenting to Christ's expulsion out of the Land and not only that but far worse than the Sin of the Gadarens a formal Concurrence to assist his Expellers by maintaining their force a hiring our Oppressors to destroy Religion and Liberty and from the declared end of it expressed in the very Narrative of the Act viz. To Levy and Maintain Forces for suppressing and dispersing Meetings of the Lord's People and to shew unanimous affections for maintaining the King's Supremacy as now Established by Law Yet all this time Ministers and Professors were unite and with one Soul and Shoulder followed the work of the Lord 'till the Indulged being dissatisfied with the Meetings in the Fields whose Glory was like to over-cloud and obscure their Beds of ease and especially being offended at the freedom and faithfulness of some who set the Trumpet to their Mouth and shewed Iacob his Sins and Israel his Transgressions impartially without Cloak or Cover they began to make a Faction among the Ministers and to devise how to quench the fervour of their Zeal who were faithful for God But the more they sought to extinguish it the more it brake out and blazed into a flame For several of Christ's Ambassadours touched and affected with the affronts done to their Princely Master by the Supremacy and the Indulgence of its Bastard-Brood and Brat began after long silence to discover its iniquity and to acquaint the People how the Usurper had invaded the Mediator's Chair in taking upon him to Depose Suspend Silence Plant and Transplant his Ministers where and when and how he pleased c. Yet others and the greater number of Dissenting Ministers were not only deficient herein but defended them joyned with them and pretending Prudence and prevention of Schism in effect homologated that deed and the Practice of these Priests Ezek 22. 26. teaching and advising the People to hear them both by Precept and going along with them in their Erastian Course And not only so but Condemned and Censured such who Preached against the sinfulness thereof especially in the first place worthy Mr. Walwood who was among the first Witnesses against that Defection and Mr. Kid Mr. King Mr. Cameron Mr. Donald Cargil c. who Sealed their Testimony afterwards by their blood yet then even by their Brethren were loaden with the reproachful Nick-names of Schismaticks Blind Zealots Jesuites c. But it was always observed as long as Ministers were faithful in following the Lord in the way of their Duty Professors were fervent and under all their Conflicts with Persecutors the Courage and Zeal of the Lovers of Christ was blazing and never outbraved by all the Enemies boastings to undertake brisk Exploits which from time to time they were now and then essaying 'till defection destroyed and division diverted their Zeal against the Enemies of God who before were always the Object against which they whetted the edge of their jusâ— indignation Especially the Arch-Prelate Sharp was judged intollerable by ingenuous Spirits Therefore in Iuly 1668. Mr Iames Mitchel thought it his duty to save himself deliver his Brethren and attempted to cut him off which failing he then escaped but afterwards was Apprehended Tortured Condemned and Executed But Justice would not suffer the Arch-Prelate to escape Remarkable Punishment the severity whereof did sufficiently compensate sate its delay after Ten Years respite For upon the 3 d of May 167 several worthy Gentlemen with some other Men of Courage and Zeal for the Cause of God executed Righteous Judgment upon him in Magus Moore near St. Andrews And that same Month on the Anniversary Day May 29th the Testimony at Rutherglen was Published against that Abomination Celebrating an Anniversary-Day kept every year for giving thanks for the setting up an Vsurped Power destroying the interest of Christ in the Land and against all sinful and unlawful Acts emitted and executed published and prosecuted against our Covenanted Reformation Where also they burnâ— the Acts of Supremacy the Declaration the Act Recissory c. in way of retalition for the burning of the Covenants On the Sabbath following Iune 1. A Field-Meeting near to Lowden-Hill was assaulted by Claverhouse and with him three Troops of Horse and Dragoons who had that Morning taken an honest Minster and about 14 Countrymen out of their Beds and carried them along with them but they were repulsed at Drumclogg and put to flight the Prisoners relieved about 30 of the Souldiers killed on the place and three of the Meeting and several wounded on both sides Thereafter the People