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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51154	An apology for the clergy of Scotland chiefly oppos'd to the censures, calumnies, and accusations of a late Presbyterian vindicator, in a letter to a friend : wherein his vanity, partiality and sophistry are modestly reproved, and the legal establishment of episcopacy in that kingdom, from the beginning of the Reformation, is made evident from history and the records of Parliament : together with a postscript, relating to a scandalous pamphlet intituled, An answer to The Scotch Presbyterian eloquence.	Monro, Alexander, d. 1715?	1693 (1693)	Wing M2437; ESTC R20155	87,009	107

and simoniacally shortly thereafter bargain with a Nobleman that he might be made Bishop of Glasgow and then his Co-Presbyters who themselves were not so successful handled him to purpose but with such indiscretion that in pursuing him they trampled on the King and all the Civil Authority in so far that when they were called to answer for illegal Invasions on the Kings Authority they did boldly protest that tho they compeared in civility to the King yet that they did not acknowledge the King 〈◊〉 Councils Right in any Ecclesiastick matter This was on the 12th of April 1582. And shortly thereafter in one of their Assemblies holden at St. Andrews Mr. Andrew Melvil told the Master of Requests who was sent by the King to stop some of their illegal procedures that they did not meddle in Civil matters but in Ecclesiastick matters they had sufficient Authority to proceed and did so The practice on these grounds did shortly follow for on the 23d of August 1582. the King was made Prisoner by a Faction of Lords at the house of Ruthwen and on the 13th of October 1582. the Assembly of the Church at Edenburg did by an Act approve of that perduellion and declared that it was good service to God and his Chucrh And in the beginning of January 1583. two Ambassadors came from France and one from England to endeavour the Kings Liberty the Assembly ordered the Ministers to declaim against the impious Design of liberating the King and they did rail at the Ambassadors by name and stirred up the Rabble their faithful Confederates on all occasions not to suffer the Badge of the French Order to be seen on their Streets it being the mark of the Beast a badge of Antichrist and to shew their good Manners as well as their sound Doctrine the King having appointed the Magistrates of Edenburgh to entertain the Ambassadors on the 16th of February 1583. The Ministers appointed a solemn Fast on that very day and civilly preached from morning till night a matter of no great difficulty to such as preach for such ends and with so little rule cursing the Magistrates and their Company and were with difficulty kept from excommunicating them The King having delivered himself from his restraint Mr. Dury and others of the Ministry openly assert that there was no injury done to the King and Mr. Melvil declaimed frequently against the King for which he was called before the Council but he boldly declined the King and Council as Judges in prima Instantia of what 's preached in the Pulpit even tho it were high Treason and so he fled to England from whence he kindled that Conspiracy which shortly thereafter brought the Earl of Gowry and others to the Scaffold These seditious doctrines and practices moved the whole Estates of the Kingdom in the year 1584 on the 22d day of May in a Parliament at Edenburgh by a solemn Act to assert the Kings Sovereign Power over all persons and in all causes as his undoubted ancient Right and that it was Treason to decline his Authority in any matter and discharging all Assemblies Convocations and all Jurisdictions spiritual or temporal not allowed by the King and Estates and prohibiting all factions and seditious Preachings Sermons and all slanderous Speeches against the King The Ministers declaimed against this and reproached this Act of Parliament Notwithstanding of all this the King was prevail'd with to allow Mr. Melvil and his Complices to return to their Churches but no sooner had they this favour than Mr. Andrew calls an Assembly to St. Andrews it consisted of Presbyters and Laicks and one Mr. Robert Wilky a Regent Professour and Laick was chosen Moderator There in a most ridiculous manner they Cite the Archbishop of St. Andrews on twenty four hours to Compear before them and he not compearing they caused a young indiscreet Fellow called Hunter to Excommunicate him for having accession to that Act of Parliament lately mentioned he being a Member of Parliament and an Assembly meeting this very year at Edenburgh would have taken up this difference and in order thereto did Absolve the Archbishop from Excommunication yet Mr. Andrew and his adherents protested against the Assembly and declared that notwithstanding of their Absolution yet the Archbishop should be still esteemed as one delivered to Sathan until signs of true Repentance appeared And though upon all occasions they magnifie their Assemblies and their pretended parity yet when the far major number was against their humour they regarded not their plurality For in Anno 1591. when the Synod of St. Andrews had determined to constitute one Mr. Weems Minister at Leuchars Mr. Melvil and some few more viz. six were for one Mr. Walace and when the far major part would not submit to his Opinion though they pretend that the Kingdom of Christ is invaded when Bishops or Princes oppose the majority of a Synod yet Mr. Melvil and his six withdraw to another place and admitted Mr. Walace to the Ministry of Leuchars and the Synod did admit Mr. Weems But this had almost engaged the Parishioners in Blood and the scussle could not be ended until Melvil's Faction prevailed so far against the Synod that neither of the two should be Minister at that Church The Reason why I insist on this is to let them of a contrary Opinion see how justly our dislike of a parity in Church Offices is Founded and that there being no imaginable warrant for it from Scripture Apostolick Practice Primitive Fathers Councils or any well Established Christian Church and that the best plea for it seems to be the pretended parity that is alledged amongst the first Reformers in Scotland we judged it fit first to shew that there was an imparity then and always thereafter in this Church and that the design of parity was always rejected by our Kings Parliaments and the most and best of our Clergy and that the immoralities and Seditions of such as contended for parity gives us no invitation to be amongst their Successors It is true that the King in the year 1590. and 1591. and 1592. was so often brought into danger twice was he Captive and constantly in great trouble by the Seditions of Mr. Andrew Melvil and his firy complices that in the year 1592. he did consent to grant a great deal of Jurisdiction to Presbyteries Synods and General Assemblies by Act of Parliament and this of necessity to evite a threatned Rebellion and that by the advice of Chancellor Maitland who in Council advised the King to give them much of their will for that 〈◊〉 the short way to make them odious as already they were troubleseme to the Nation and then they would be turned out by all Yet there was never an Act or motion of Abolishing Episcopacy but on the contrary they continued in their Dioceses and Churches always thereafter and in the very year 1594. Cunnigham Bishop of Aberdeen did Babtize Prince Henry at Sterling but the King was forced

God unto a Reprobate mind And indeed if I had any Books by me I could easily prove especially from their own Calderwood that the Presbyterians did nothing towards the Clergy in the West of Scotland upon the late Revolution but what they ought to have done upon their Principles and former Practises It is very pleasant to observe what different Batteries the Presbyterians in Scotland and the Dissenters in England raise against Episcopacy The Presbyterians in Scotland plead for their National Classical Spiritual Power independent upon Kings the Dissenters in England plead that such a Spiritual Union amongst Clergy-Men is too powerful a Faction and may easily endanger the Safety and Peace of the Nation The Reason is the Presbyterians are in possession of such an Union in Scotland and the Dissenters in England have no legal Cement to unite them together And therefore every thing that they are not in Possession of at present is wicked and dangerous but if they could grasp it it might become a very useful Engine to Propogate the Covenant all Europe over For they find that men are naturally averse to the Power and Authority of their Discipline and therefore it were necessary to support it by all the strength of Laws and Edicts and by the Inquisition it self if the Eyes of Princes could be so far opened as to see that there is no true Reformation wrought but by the Conduct and direction of Presbyterians I have insisted the longer upon this general Topick because most of his Book is built upon this Subterfuge alone that Cameronians are no Presbyterians though they can be reduced to no other Schismaticks and that what they did was disowned by the Presbyterians though he himself knows the contrary and the whole Party magnified these Heroes and when it was doing it was said to be nothing less than the Cause and Work of God But I leave this general Head when I give you an account of one remarkable piece of Sophistry and tergiversation that he makes use of to palliate the Crimes of his Party and it is so much the more material since if he fails in this he shakes the Foundation of all his Apologies by which he would make us believe that the wise and leading Men of his Party had no hand in any Tumults no not in that at Edinburgh in December 1688. His words are For the Tumults at Edenburgh we know of none but what was made by the Students at the College there in burning the Pope in Effigy And a little alter That any Presbyterians who then or since had Authority in the State or Church did assist in contrivance or management of this matter we do utterly deny I have faithfully transcribed his own words because this is a considerable passage which flies in the Face of all Evidence and contradicts the Conviction of all the Inhabitants at Edenburgh Then if the barbarous Tumult at Edenburgh was managed and contrived by the Leading Men of his Party who then and since have had Authority in the State in that case all his Apologies for the Presbyterians fall to the ground And from this one single Instance his Book is ruin'd and his Authority baffled and the next General Assembly will order him to be more cautious and quietly tell him it had been better he had not ventured upon this unfortunate Sally against his Adversaries For there is nothing more easily made out than that the Leading Men of the Presbyterians were the sole Actors and Contrivers of this hideous Tumult To make you sensible of this let me observe first That he shussles and confounds two very different Stories into one viz. The Tumultuous desaceing of the Kings Chappel and the burning of the Pope in Effigy for the last was near a fortnight after the other without any Tumult or disorder The Students had made a mock Effigies of the Pope and carryed it from the place that it was made to the Colledge and from thence to the Cross at Edenburgh All of them in the mean time walking orderly in their Ranks and the Colledge Mace carryed before them by one of the Publick Servants this could not be obtained without the Masters Permission So there was no Tumult nor no disorder intended A great many of the Nobility and most of the Citizens of best quality were looking on and when this foolish Ceremony was over they retired to their Lodgings without any Tumult or Extravagance But the defacing the Chappel at Holyrude House was a Tumult indeed and a very tragical one too in all its beginnings and Consequences This fell out upon the 10. day of December 1688. The Presbyterian Faction in Edenburgh had sometime before determined to Rifle the Kings House particularly my Lord Chancelor's Lodgings to deface the Chappel and to force the Guards and in a word to make the most terrible and the most numerous shew that they were able to make In order to this they gave out that the Papists intended a Massacre of the Protestants though there was not a Papist in Edenburgh to two thousand Protestants And in the Confusion that Men were then in a great many unwary people were frighted and the Presbyterians concerted their Measures and slew to their Arms and the City for that night become a dismal habitation carrying all the marks of Hell and Confusion nothing was to be heard but screeches lamentable howlings and shootings and this was not managed by the Body of the People who were very a verse to such treacherous and unmanly adventures but by some of the Leading Presbyterians who then and now have Authority in the State and might be known by their large Buff-Belt and a Halbard upon their Shoulder running up and down in great fury to excite the People to this Reformation In this Scuffle before they entred the Chappel there were some killed and several wounded by the Guards that kept the King's House and in the mean time the Governours of this Tumult finding that the People were not so forward to Pillage the King's House went up and down and told them that their own Children were killed when those very Children were as Home and safe in their Lodgings And though many were wounded and severals killed yet not a Student belonging to the College was hurt for there were but very few of them whose Youth and Levity had engaged them to be witnesses of this Tumult I believe the Ringleaders of the Presbyterians at Edenburgh will give the Vindicator but little thanks for mentioning this Tumult that is openly avowed by themselves And he may ask not only the forementioned Gentleman but also the Master of F and several others whose names are concealed and may continue so unless the Vindicator or some of his Associates by their indiscretions oblige me to be more particular whether they were there and what a glorious Figure they made If it be unpleasant to name particular Gentlemen they may thank their Vindicator who obtrudes such fulsome Lies upon

to connive a while at at their Insolence for they had preached the People into a persuasion that the King was to betray his own Crown and Kingdoms to the King of Spain And when three Noblemen were brought to Tryal before the Justice the Ministers would needs order the Process in October 1593 and to back them they stirred up multitudes of the Rabble to Arms thereby to force Justice to decide in their favour nor would they disband or abstain from coming before the Judges in armed Crowds although the King and Council did by Proclamation prohibit them If this be Presbyterian Government it must be confessed that Anno 1590 1591 1592 and 1593. Presbyters had it solely But all this time Bishops did exist by Law enjoyed their Rents and preached in their Churches if you trust not us Notice the most Authentic Records of the Kingdom By Act of Parliament 1. Jac. 6. Chap. 7. Ministers are ordered to be presented by the Patrons to the Superintendent of the Diocese Note At this time most of the Bishops were Popish which occasioned the Protestants to appoint Superintendents Anno 1572. Parl. 3. Jac. 6. Chap 45. The Government of the Church is declared to be in the Archbishops Bishops and Superintendents Note Both Bishops and Superintendents are contemporary then in the Church The like owned Chap. 46. 48. and 54. of that Parliament In the year 1573. The Authority of the Bishops is owned by the first Act of the 4. Par. Jac. 6. In the year 1578. the like by Act. 63. Parl. 5. Jac. 6. In the year 1579. the like by Act. 71. Parliam 6. Jac. 6. In the year 1581. That the Bishops did continue in the Church appears from Act 100. Parl. 7. Jac. 6. The like appears from the Acts 106 and 114 of that Parliament In the year 1584. The Bishops Authority fully owned Act. 132. Parl. 8. Jac. 6 In the year 1587. It appears that Prelacy existed then by Act 28. Parl. 11. Jac. 6. Also in that 11. Parl. It appears by the Act of Annexation that Prelacy did still exist by Law even although their Temporalties were annexed to the Crown and by the 111. Act of that 11. Parl. In the year 1591 1592 1593 and 1594. The King and Bishops could not stop the Insolence of Presbyters nor their meeting in Synods and Assemblies without any interposition of the Royal Authority but this hindered not but that the Bishops did still exist by Law and exerced some part of their Office and in all Parliaments and Conventions of Estates the Prelates did did always Sit and Vote as the first of the three Estates as the Records and Sederunts of all the Parliaments will prove In the year 1596. Leslie Bishop of Ross dying at Brussels Mr. David Lindsey was presented by the King to the Bishoprick the very next year In the year 1598. there was a Conference appointed at Falkland betwixt the Commissioners of the Assembly and some appointed by the King to meet with them where they agreed on ten Articles or Propositions of Policy for the Church relating chiefly to the Clergy's Votes in Parliament and the Elections of Bishops in the Dioceses some of these Propositions were foolish but it was thought convenient that the King should comply with those Hot Heads in some things for at that time Severals began to debate his Right of Succession to the Crown of England and so he would have all quiet at Home yet still this is evident that Bishops did then exist by Law and that altho something concerning them was debated yet their Office and Order was not In the year 1600 these forementioned Articles were appoved in the Assembly at Monross March 28 1600. and to that Assembly Mr. Dury who was the chief Tool with Mr. Melvil for parity at his death did write an Exhortation disowning his former Errors and earnestly advising them to submit to the ancient Order and to chuse good Bishops of the best of the Ministers In the year 1601. the King called an Assembly of the Church to meet at Brunt Island where many good things were Enacted both for the true Liberty of the Church and for reclaiming the Popish Nobility from their Errors which proved more effectual and pacific than all the former furious Methods which at that time were promoted by a Hot Headed Man called Davidson who by a Letter to the Assembly incited them to declare against the Kings Hypocrisie and other Errors The Assembly would have proceeded to Censure him but the King would not allow it saying it was matter of Joy that these Hot Heads were reduced to one or some few In the year 1602. the King in an Assembly at Halyrood-House did shew great Clemency to some firy Ministers whom the Assembly would have Censured as also he gave great Satisfaction to the whole Assembly and Nation by his excellent Proposals for establishing Provisions both for Bishops and Presbyters And in this Assembly of the Church was the fifth of August appointed an Anniversary Thanksgiving for the Kings Delivery from Gowry's Conspiracy Before the Diet appointed for the next General Assembly the Crown of England did fall to the King by the Death of Queen Elizabeth so there was no meeting of Church General Assemblies for a while but the few remaining Hot Headed Presbyters were very busie on the Kings removal so far and fearing the excellent Order of the English Church the great Safety and Peace of Britain depending on an intire and full Concord of the Island they were apprehensive that upon such Considerations the King would heartily promote a further Establishment of Episcopal Jurisdiction in Scotland The Presbyterians in this Juncture did busily stir up Prejudices in the People against the Church of England tho undoubtedly the best Reformed Church and greatest Bulwark against Popery And though the King for good Reasons when he went to England Adjourned the General Assembly from July 1604 to July 1605. yet these Men prevailed with Nine of the Fifty Presbyteries of Scotland to keep the Meeting notwithstanding of the Kings Prorogation where Thirteen Persons meeting did most Seditiously run into such Declarations against the Statutes and standing Laws as were by the Judicatures declared Treason and for which Severals of the Thirteen were Condemned before the Justices For they could not be persuaded either to acknowledge or revoke their seditious Pasquils but they were afterwards pardoned by the King when they confessed that the Chancellour encouraged their Meeting in July 1604. and proved it which forced the Chancellour to prove likewise that they promised to connive at his being a Papist and his Possession of what he had of the Church Lands upon Condition he should own them against Episcopacy whereupon the King said that the Presbyterians would betray the Protestant Religion in hatred to Episcopacy and the Chancellour would betray Episcopacy for greed of their Temporalties So far my Author And now from all this I infer that the first Reformers of our Religion in

Saddle for from the year 1638. to the year 1652. when Oliver grew weary of their insolence the Nation groaned under the saddest and most unutterable Bondage The Reader is therefore desired to remember that no Man can continue a Presbyterian without the Arts of Calumny Omne imperium conservatur iisdem artibus quibus primò acquiritur and when the Varnish of Hypocrisie drops off then the Tyranny supported by it must sink The Presbyterians began their Faction with Calumny and they cannot now if they would lay it aside What could the Episcopal Clergy expect from their present Persecutors less than their Predecessors met with in that General Assembly Who stuck at nothing how monstrous soever to promote their end when they forbear to breath then it is that they forbear to Slander and Calumniate When upon the late Revolution the Presbyterians were impowred more plainly to discover their Nature the first thing they betook themselves to was that of Libelling and when they have now wearied themselves if they can be wearied of what is so natural to the Faction and exposed their own Reputation by invading that of other Mens they must yet goe on not that they find this Method successful but because they cannot forbear and it is enough for the Reader to know that they cannot name three of the Clergy of Scotland justly deprived for Immoralities after all their Insidious Arts Libellings and Clamours since the Revolution But to make the Villany of that General Assembly I lately named a little more conspicuous I desire the Reader may remember a very memorable Story It is this The Assembly pretended that the Bishops were proved guilty of all the Crimes that were imputed to them by sufficient Evidence and therefore they inserted the names of several Gentlemen and others in their Sentences as Witnesses of the Libels And in their Sentence against the Archbishop Spotswood the Laird of Balfour in Fife was named as a Witness whereas this Honest Gentleman never knew any thing of the matter and all the time of the Sitting of that Mock Assembly he had never been from his own House which is at least threescore Miles from Glasgow But Mr. Colin Adam Minister of Anstruther-Easter did Read the Sentence against the Archbishop from the Pulpit upon a Sunday according to the Assemblies appointment the Laird of Balfour being in the Church and hearing his own name Read as a Witness of the Libel against the Archbishop went out of the Church and immediately after Sermon called for the Minister and challenged him how he could Read His name in such a Villanous Paper since he himself knew that he had not been from Home all the time of the Assembly and so could not have been a Witness there To which the Minister answered that he knew well enough he was not a Witness but the Assembly had inserted his name and he durst not but Read as they had ordered Now let the World judge what an Assembly this was and what Credit ought those Enemies of Mankind and good Nature ever to have after such a palpable Wickedness that when they had charged the Fathers of the Church with such Abominations they should presume to abuse the names of Particular Gentlemen as Witnesses of their own inventions After this piece of undeniable History I would gladly know whether any Modest Man thinks it necessary that a particular answer should be returned to the odious Libel against the unstained Reputation of that Pious Prudent Learned and Loyal Martyr Archbishop Sharp who cannot be named but to the disgrace of the Scotch Presbyterians I need not upon this occasion run out into Tragical Exclamations against their Impudence the more they Lye the more true they are to the Spirit of the Party They cannot be more kind to his Reputation than they were to his Life whom they barbarously murdered and whose Assassines were magnified in their Pamphlets And though this little unknown Accuser pretends that he was not Murdered by the Presbyterians because forsooth one of their Ministers in Holland refused the Sacrament to one of the Murderers yet it was undeniably the effect of their united Combination and justified in their Pamphlets and attempted once and threatned frequently before We dare him and all his Associates to answer what Mr. Sheilds has Written relating to this Affair my meaning is that this effort of their Villany was not the result of private Passion but the avowed and just Consequence of their Principles and then let their Patrons tell me if they meet with any thing worse in the Morals of the Jesuits that are every where so justly exposed They agree in their Notions but exceed them far by their Bawling Rudeness and Buffoonry The Jesuit is Mannerly and Artificial but the Scotch Presbyterian seems to act by the mechanism of his Nature Slanders and Calumny being thus Authorized by the Assembly it was no wonder to see their Leading Men Practise the same Villanies therefore it is that you find Mr. Rutherford Gravely and Maliciously accuse the Bishops of the same Crimes that the Assembly accused them of in his Preface to Lex Rex which I cannot Cite more particularly having no Books by me Secondly Such as are Strangers to our affairs must remember that this Trade of Libelling the Clergy is no Reflection upon our Country For the whole Body of the Clergy of England were thus maliciously assaulted and all the Crimes Libelled against them that their Enemies could invent And if such an illustrious Body of Ecclesiasticks were thus rudely treated can the Clergy of Scotland under their present Miseries and Oppressions expect fairer Quarters Thirdly I desire the Reader to consider with how much Rudeness and Ignorance this unknown Lampooner bespatters the present Clergy of the Church of England and the Laity of her Communion It is no part of my business to transcribe his Characters if he had assaulted only some private Men in some remote Corners of our Country he might be thought only to defend his own Party but when he foams nothing but Spite and Rancour and Violence against all Men of whatever Rank Nation or Dignity I again wish the unbyassed Reader to tell me if this Man should be particularly answered It is not possible for him to hide his Nature the paltry cruptions of his Choler are ungovernable He seems to forget his own design which was to make the Scotch Clergy odious in England he accuses them before whom he Pleads as much as those who were the first Objects of his Indignation But this is not enough he attacks not only our prime Nobility and Gentry but all our Kings since the Reformation I am alraid I have troubled you too much and therefore I make haste in a word or two to examine the Characters he gives of particular men as far as I know them Some he accuses as guilty of gross Immoralities that were actually for such Immoralities deposed and censured by their