it should have done if it had been spoken here But was it all true he alledges of this Bishop and of the Minister of Libbertown his Names-sake yet is it not Nonsense in any Man to say that Vitium Personae is Vitium Regiminis or that a Company of Men and that Office and Dignity they are invested with should suffer because some particular Member of that Society does miscarry and transgress Had I thus retorted his Answer and told him That all the Presbyterian Ministers are Rogues because Williamson their late Representative was such in Deflowring a Ladies Daughter under whose Roof he Lodg'd certainly the Observator would be Angry and yet it is no more than what he himself has done to render quid pro quo But passing by this I say that the Scotch Bishops were Men of Good Lives and if from External Actions we may be allowed to call Men Pious and Good they were certainly such for they were Charitable to the Poor Courteous and Kind to the Stranger did Relieve the Widow and the Fatherless and Persons of all Ranks and Qualities had an easie Access unto them In their Doctrine they were Orthodox in their Discourse very Modest and Grave and in their Carriage to all very Humble and Meek all which I Appeal to the Author's Conscience whether or not these following Men were such Dr. Burnet Arch-Bishop of Glascow Dr. Young Bishop of Edenburgh Dr. Laury Bishop of Brechin and Dr. Atkins Bishop of Galloway and as to the inferior Clergy was not Mr. Lundy and Mr. Meldrum the Ministers of the Toll Booth-Church Mr. Cant of the New and Dr. Scot of the Abbey and all the others of Edenburgh Men of Piety and Learning which if he should deny many Thousands will contractict him to his Face and this may serve to Answer all alledged in the First Second and Third Pages But as our Observator Upbraids the Church of Scotland so he likewise must have a sling at England and tho' it be the best Constituted Church in the World and that which certainly comes nighest to the Primitive times yet that part of it which was to wait on her Royal Highness the Princess Anne in Scotland is Calumniated and Revil'd as if they had been a Sect of the Nicolaitans who thought Luxury and Uncleanness to be no Sin Thus he has the Impudence to say That the Chappel was a Bawdy-House and all the Members of their Church guilty of Fornication and Adultery Sure if there was any such thing it was among those of the Church of Rome who could when the Duke of York was there have a Pardon for any Sin But for the Members of the Church of England I did not hear any thing of them and tho' I will not Justifie what is Wicked or Criminal in them yet this I can say that I never see any Hearers more Attentive or a Priest Administer or People Receive the Sacrament with greater Piety Gravity and Decency then all of this Church did when the Princess Anne was then at Edenburgh And thus to Abuse a Prelate of the English Church I mean the Reverend Dr. Turner who was ever lookd upon to be a Man of a Good Life and to Reflect on a Princess of the Royal Blood is a Crime methinks which deserves the Pillory at least In the 7th and 8th Pages he tells us of the diligence of the Presbyterian Parsons and of sending Lay-Elders to see whether Masters of Families do Pray this may be and I know it was Machiavil's principle quoties vis fallere plebem finge Deum and the Custom of the false Apostles who would have St. Paul and others differing from themselves to be thought Men of dissolute Lives to pretend to a Strictness of Life and Conversation which the Gospel did not enjoin and as for these measures they now take we have known the like to have been done by Major Wear who was Guilty of Sodomy Buggery and Incest and by a Phanatical Preacher Mitchael who taking aim to kill the A.B. Sharp Shot Bishop Honiwood through the hand and it is no new thing for us to know that this Pharasaical Tribe will devour Widows houses and for a pretence make long Prayers He would also have us believe that they neither Swear nor Drink that may be but I am sure Cheat and Lie Confoundedly they will and Pray and Exclaim against their Governours as the aforesaid Mitchael did for he twenty times said he had no design against the Arch-Bishop and afterwards confess'd his Crime to the Lord Chancellour and I my self saw King and Kid 2. Ph. Ministers Hang'd for Preaching Rebellion and when they were on the Scaffold there was a Pardon offer'd 'em to Pray for the King and they would not and I heard Cameron once in My Lady Binstons Pray for the Confusion of the King and his Council and yet our Obs would make these Persbyterians to be for Monarchy Who have ever been Enemies to Crown'd heads Let 'em talk what they will he who hates a Bishop can never love a King And he who treads on a Mitre will quickly pull off the Crown so that still the Maxim will prove true no Bishop no King But next the Obser according to his wonted Cruelty would have the Chuch of England believe that the Church of Scotland differs from her thereby endeavouring to obstruct their Charity and farther alledges that the Assemblies Confession of Faith was taught at Edenburgh Which is so false that when I my self was there which was much about the time he mentions nine or ten years ago there was not any of the Tutors taught it Except his own who was then reputed a Man of little Sense and a Phanatick of the first Magnitude I mean Mr. Pillans who was often hiss'd at in our publick Examinations and made a subject of Scoff and Derision for all But besides the English Liturgy since ever I could remember has been still hugg'd and admir'd by the Episcopal party and though they did not dare publickly to profess it because of the Furious and Insolent Rabble yet there was Arch-Bishop Burnet and Bishop Atkins and several others of our Bishops who have had it read in their Families and the Sacrament given to many of the Clergy together and many of the Episcopal party were so glad when they saw this Service countinanc'd by Authority in the Abby that they came thither in Crouds all which I refer to the Reverend Bishop of Ely and the great respect they always shew the English Clergy in their own Country puts this beyond all dispute In the 14th and some of the preceeding pages he makes a Catalogue of the Persbyterians Sufferings and by what I can understand thinks it alowable to deal Just so by the Episcopal Party but I thought this pretender to Religion had not so learned Christ as to tell us that the law of Retalliation is still in force but if it was which I suppose in all Particulars no Man will assert if
THE PRELATICAL CHURCH-MAN Against the Phanatical Kirk-Man OR A VINDICATION OF THE AUTHOR OF THE SUFFERINGS OF THE Church of Scotland LONDON Printed in the Year 1690. To the READER THO I have always had an Aversion to Writing And thought it greater Prudence in a Man meanly gifted to be silent and conceal his Weakness than in Print to publish and proclaim it Yet when the Credit of the Church of Scotland lies at Stake and that of England whereof I am a Member is reflected on I thought in Conscience I was bound and that in Duty to my Ghostly Fathers I could do no loss than to confute those Things which I know to be Aspersions and to proceed from a Parasite who transposes and subâ—erts the Truth He has lately wrote a little Pamphaleâ— called Animadversions on the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland Which indeed is so full of Venom and of Words so unbecoming a Christian That one would think this Author was some Amphibious Creature void of all Morality and Religion I 'm inform'd he 's a Physitian or rather a Salamanca Doctor who having for some time beat his Brains and crack'd his Scull in the Study of the Civil Law which he could never Reach nor Comprehend did at last expecting some Relief from Physick read Culpepper's Midwifry Aristotle's Problems and Burton's Melancholy And then after the Fashion of our Quacks set up for an eminent Doctor But had he been a Civilian I should have expected Sense and Reason from him Or if a Physitian something to heal and not to fester our Sores But what he scribles being mere Stuff and Trash and obscene scurilous Language I should rather fancy him to be of Kin to the Billingsgate-Wenches whom I think he more by half resembles than our Bishops do Antichrist or our Church the Hirarchy of Rome or by his Words Hellish Prelates and Infernal Furies one would take him to be a Cameronian Phanatical Thunderer whose Excellency consists in someing out Horrors Hell and Damnation in his Pulpit A Subject so common to this Sect That he who preaches Salvation or Universal Redemption is excommunicated by 'em But I think I need give no farther Character of our Author his monstrous ugly and deform'd Issue His Animadversions shewing him to be a Malicious and Envious Person whose Bowels are fall of Gall and his Tongue dip'd in Poison For he shews so much ill Nature in every Paragraph he writes that one would take him to be an Enemy to the Race of Mankind And indeed he is so full of Choler and so hurried with Passion that he lets his Words fly at Random without Reason Deliberation or Sense And this being the hot and firy Temper of our Phanatical Zealot I hope the Ingenious Reader will be pleased to examine what this Kirk Animadvertor says THE Scotch Animadversions CONFUTED IF Episcopacy was not of Divine Right which very Eminent and Learned Divines have asserted Yet being of Apostolical Constitution according to the received Opinion of the most Judicious Ancient and Modern Writers being established by positive Laws in a Nation And by all unbyassed and unprejudiced Persons being acknowledged the best of Ecclesiastical Governments I should think it no superlaive Impudence in one of this Perswasion to disown all Seditious Meetings and Conventicles for their Church Nor do I think it any piece of Arrogance in the Bishops or the Priests of this Church nor in any of their Communion to assume to themselves the Name of a National Church And tho' our Ingenious Observat in the first Page of his Pamphlet compares the National Church of Scotland to that Universal Church of Rome and appears to make no distinction between the Two bringing the Scotch by way of Similitude and Comparison Yet he is much mistaken in his Logick and if he had not told us he was an University Man I should have thought that he was Bred at Gresham-College or as the Phrase is in his own Idiom in the College of Buckhaven for here he makes no distinction between the whole and its parts and appears as little to discern whether Genus and Species be the same for the Scotch owning their Church and aâ—l other Churches to be but a Number of Men set apart or collected together to Worship God after that Form prescrib'd in his Word They own England and Holland and all the Companies of Believers that Worship in a Decent Form to be a Church as well as themselves nor did they ever exclude Rome from being a Church tho' in their Pulpits and in their Books they have all disown'd it for a True and Vniversal Church To that here our Animadvertor either understands not what an Universal Church is or if he does is very unjust in imputing to a Church what she never thought nor did For there being but one True Church in the World and all National Churches being Members of this one that which comprehends all must only be Universal and none but our Author could be so Ignorant as to think there was two Universals of the same kind or that the Church of Scotland did ever in Discipline or Doctrine shake Hands with the Church of Rome as our worthy Animadversionist with a stock of Confidence and Ignorance does Assert But as Malice will make a Man invent where there is no subject and Asperse where there is no Blemish so likewise this Worthy Gentleman would make the World believe that there was nothing like Devotion and Piety among the Bishops and Priests of this Church Nay that they were so Wicked in their Lives and Conversations that they did Countenance and Encourage the worst and greatest of Crimes This certainly must be a Notorious Falshood for I my self during Twelve or Thirteen Years have been a constant Spectator of the Lives and Carriage of the Clergy and in all that time could never see nor so much as hear of any that was guilty of the least Misdemeanor I Liv'd at Edenburgh where they were every Day to be seen and happen'd to converse with those who would have made a Mountain of a Mole-hill and made any little-Failing or Infirmity in a Bishop the most Heionus and Aggravating Crime yet notwithstanding their envious and watchful Eyes which did follow and attend the Bishops even to their Homes yet could I never hear of any Scandalous thing laid to their Charge nay I never heard of any Bishop but Dr. Paterson late Arch-Bishop of Glascow that ever was tax'd with any thing undecent or unbecoming their Gown and it was the Opinion of most Men that the Report rais'd on him was very False and did meerly proceed from Envy Because the Duke of Lauderdale did take so much notice of him therefore they thought the only way to be even with the Bishop and the Duke was to call the Bishop his Sister Hatton's Gallant which I dare affirm is a Notorious Lie and 't is pity that Scandalum Magnatum does not reach as well there this foul Mouth'd Wretch as
it be not a Phanatick Yet I think the Episcopalians as he calls 'em deserve no such Usage because the Phanaticks were guilty every Day of Rebellion and Treason did make many Uproars and Insurrections and did several times involve the whole Nation in Blood and to subdue and quell such Spirits and to punish such great Offenders who did disturb the Peace and Government of the Nation methinks could be no Crime at all and their Sufferings being for doing Ill they should be asham'd to glory in them or to think that by turns they ought to punish the Church And as to the Sufferings of the Episcopal Church which he so confidently contradicts and says That the Author cannot instance the Persons Place and time He walks upon a false Supposition for there was a Clergy-man not many Days ago with me upon the Royal Exchange who came from Galloway in Scotland who said That he would swear it before the King and Council and prove it by several Witnesses that all was true that that Ingenious and Charitable Gentleman wrote and that there was much more true than what was there contained and if there should be any Occasion for it he would prove both the Time and Place Nay I myself do remember That Six or Seven Years ago there was one Mr. Kirk a Minister in the West who told me that these Phanaticks were so furious that they did first Rob a neighbouring Minister of his Goods and afterwards did pull down the House upon him And if they did commit such Outrages and Villanies when the Civil Government was in force what less than Barbarity could be expected when every Phanatick was allowed to do what was right in his own Eyes And this verefies that Epithet which the Revered Bishop Atkins bid a Writer to the Signet give him John or William by the Indignation of God Bishop of Incarnate Devils And these are the men who approve of the murthering of their High-Priest a Crime having such a Train of aggravating Circumstances that none but a Phanatick without Horror and Trembling would mention it For this poor Gentleman being gray headed and above Eighty Years old was in his Coach beset by a Company of Phanaticks and tho his Daughter with Tears in her Eyes pray'd 'em for Christ's sake to spare her aged Father and he himself had earnestly entreated them after they had determined to butcher him to let him have but time to recommend his Soul to God they in the very instant of Prayer cut off his Right Hand shot him through the Body and left him in the Choach wallowing in his Blood which made his Daughter miscarry and being Melancholy was in great Danger of losing her Life Yet this worthy good man does this Cannibal exclaim against and tho Death should put an end to the Rage of the worst of Men yet could this vile Wretch be contented to be glutted with his Blood again And his Malice does not terminate here but he must likewise have a Stroke at the Metropolitans and Bishops of England and compares them to Titus Oates and calls 'em Dark Lanthorns who are the great Lights of our Church and have done more Good in one Week than he and all the Salamanca Doctors can do in a whole Age And tho our Author be so favourable to Oates yet I think it not strange since Birds of a Feather will flock together Besides this he threatens That if any of 'em should read the Service or endeavour to introduce it to Scotland that they may perhaps suffer as much as Arch-Bishop Laud did that is become a Victim and Sacrifice to the People which one Expression deserves a Rope if there was no other and 't is pity such an Incendiary should be suffered to live Yet I would with all my Heart that there was no greater Danger than this and that Ireland was as easily subdued as Episcopacy might again be brought in and kept in Scotland And I am sure was there a Pole about Eipiscopacy there that Three Parts in Four of that Nation would be for it and all of 'em in a few Years might perhaps be perswaded to entertain the Prayers of the Church of England Which if they cannot as yet be so happy as to enjoy I shall earnestly pray to God That he would make their Majesties King William and Queen Mary successful in their Arms That he would give them the Necks of their Enemies bless 'em with a happy and prosperous Reign and make them yet instrumental in re-establishing that Episcopacy which in Scotland by a Trick was Voted out That all good men may with the Poet say There is a Church but not a Kirk of Scots FINIS