Enemies to the present Government and French Incendiaries or at least such a Crew as would sacriâ—ice all that is dear to us as Men and Christians to their own private Resentments 1. It is very well known and too lately transacted to be forgotten that the States of Scotland in their Claim of Right did demand the Abolition of Prelacy as contrary to the Inclination of the Generality of the People on which Condition amongst others their Majesties accepted that Crown and in pursuance of their Promise have by Act of Parliament abolished Prelacy since and established Presbytery in Scotland as most agreeable to the World of God as well as the Peoples Inclinations Then if their Majesties should be prevailed upon which blessed be God there is no cause to fear to act contrary to their solemn Oaths and the Claim of Right they must needs see that the People of Scotland would have ground enough to plead a Breach of the Original Contract nor could the Church of England for shame condemn them seeing they made use of the same Plea in their Convention and Parliament against King Iames. And in the next place let them but consider that upon the same ground this or any other King may as well break with them and invade the Constitution of their Church which by the Coronation-Oath they have bound him to maintain And whether Charles the Second after he was by them perswaded to break his Oath to the Presbyterians in Scotland made any greater Conscience of maintaining the Civil and Religious Liberties of England Iâ— appeal to themselves And therefore seeing by that excessive Power which they gave their Kings in things sacred meerly to destroy the Presbyterians they found at last that they had put a Rod in their Hands to whip themselves I think they should be cautious how they play that Game over again I do not write this as having any suspicion that their Majesties are so weak as to be prevailed upon to alter the Church-Government in Scotland but meerly to let the World see that they who sollicite them to it are their greatest Enemies and design to shake their Throne and that it is not the Church of England's Interest to countenance our Scots Prelatisâ—â— nor to importune their Majesties on that Head If what is already said be not enough I would earnestly intreat all sober Church-of England-Men to consider what were the Consequences of their meddling in our Affairs and incensing King Charles the First against the Presbyterians in favour of our Runnagate Prelates and their Hirelings And seeing like Causes may have the like Effects they would do well to beware It is not unknown that Scotland is a distinct Nation and ought to be govern'd by their own Laws and Councils and therefore it must needs be an Invasion of the Rights of Scotland for English Ministers of State and Prelates to meddle or give Counsel in Scotish Affairs when not call'd to it And I cannot but think that all reasonable Men will easily grant that the Parliament and General Assembly of the Church of Scotland are better Judges of what is expedient for that Nation than a few English Ministers of State or Prelates and that both of them have reason to reject what Directions or Injunctions come from such a Mint And I would put it to the Consciences of all judicious Church-of England-Men how they would take it if the King were in Scotland that any of the Dissenting Ministers who are really injured as those who preached at St. Hellin and Hiâ—ley Chappels in Lancashire or the whole of them because denied a Comprehension should â—ly thither and by their Interest with Scots Presbyterian Ministers of State and Preachers importune his Majesty to have the Constitution of the Church of England overturned and proâ—ure Orders to have such and such Ministers planted in Churches tho they refuse to satisfy the Law I say in such a case I appeal to their own Consciences how they would take it whether they would reckon themselves obliged to obey or if they would not complain that their Rights were invaded and demand Satisfaction of such Ministers of State c. as Incendiaries and Disâ—â—â—bers of the Harmony between King and Subjects I believe verily they would and that not without good reason tho I am sure the case is much stronger on our side still for the Dissenting Ministers of England are all of them Loyal to his Majesty willing to swear Allegiance and pray for him but so are not our Scots Prelatists And besides his Majesty is really the Head and Fountain of all Power in the Church of England who have not only their Temporal Baronies and Honours from him but are nominated to their Bishopricks by him but so it is not in Scotland where he hath divested himself of the Supremacy and neither bestows Lands nor Honours upon Church-Men Then the case being so the Golden Rule which commands us to do as we would be done by should oblige English-Men not to meddle with our Church no more than they would have us to meddle with theirs and if the Parliament of Scotland do pass over what of that Nature is already done it 's not to be supposed that the Red Rampant Lion is become so much a Calf as not to roar sometime or other and make the fattest and proudest of the Beasts in the Field to tremble as ersâ— of old but I hope and pray that God will avert both the Cause and the Effect The English Bishops did not gain so much by the the last Bellum Episcopale against us that they need to be fond of another and we doubt not to find as much Justice from the Parliament of England now as we found then and have no reason to doubt but King William would be as ready as Charles the First to deliver up his Ministers to the Law if it should be made appear against them that they have been meddling too much in our Affairs I know that our Scots Prelatists possess the Church of England that we think our selves obliged to endeavour the Extirpation of their Hierarchy and upon that account prevail with them to endeavour our Subversion But I would earnestly beg all moderate Men to weigh the following Answers 1. That the reason of entring into that solemn League and Covenant was the Fury which the English Prelates evidenced at that time against the Church of Scotland having excommunicated the same in all the Churches in England forced a Service-Book upon us more exceptionable than their own and in Conjunction with Papists enabled Charles the First to raise 30000 Men against us when the Parliament of England refus'd to concur with him insomuch that that Expedition was called the Bishops War But blessed be God his present Majesty is far from any such Attempt and the English Bishops the chief of them at least are Men of more Moderation So that there is no such cause for us to endeavour the Overthrow of their Hierarchy 2. That the
A CONTINUATION OF THE ANSWER TO THE Scots Presbyterian Eloquence Dedicated to the Parliament of Scotland Being a Vindication of the Acts of that August Assembly from the Clamours and Aspersions of the Scots Prelatical Clergy in their Libels printed in England With a Confutation of Dr. M 's Postscript in Answer to the former proving That it 's not the Church of England's Interest to countenance the Scots outed Clergy As also Reflections on Sir Geo. Mackenzy's Defence of Charles the Second's Government in Scotland And Instances on Record of Sir George's Subornation against Sir Hugh and Sir George Campbel and the Laird of Blackwood Presbyterian Gentlemen Together with the Acts of the Scots General Assembly and present Parliament compared with the Acts of Parliament in the two last Reigns against the Presbyterians By VVILL LAICK London Printed in the Year 1693. TO THE STATES of SCOTLAND in Parliament Assembled Most Noble Patriots I Presume but with that profound Respect which is due to such an August Assembly humbly to implore your Protection to this rude and indigested yet real Effort of true Love to my Country and to you Worthy Patriots in particular whom all honest-hearted Scotsmen look upon as the Healers of our Breaches and Restorers of our Paths to dwell in And therefore it is not possible for any Man who has a drop of true Scots Blood in his Veins to hear your Authority impugned and your Wisdom called in Question without resenting it to the utmost of his Ability And if according to the common Opinion of some of our Neighbours Sâ—otorum ingenia sint praefervida an Affront of that Nature is enough to make them boil over Hence it is that in a former Endeavour I could not forbear to besprinkle Scotico aceto some degenerate Monsters of our Country who exposed to contempt as much as in them lay whatever Scotsmen account dear in things Civil and Sacred Had it been only a particular Party or some such pack'd Clubs as disgraced the Name of Parliaments in former Reigns and enacted such Laws as their present Majesties with your Advice have declared to be impious had it I say been thus the Matter might have been the more easily digested but to have a lawful and a freely elected Parliament of Scotland charged in a Neighbouring Kingdom with a deliberate and malicious Lie in an Act so unanimously resolv'd on and duly canvas'd as was that of your Assembly concerning the Nation 's being first reformed by Presbyters and that therefore Presbyterian Government is most sutable to the Inclinations of our People I say to have a Lie of that Nature charged upon you is a Piece of Impudence that none but the Party culpable could be guilty of And yet as if they had a mind to exhaust all the Treasure of the bottomless Pit at once and to bankrupt the Malice and Falshood of Hell for ever after they go on to charge you further with lodging the Government of the Church in the Hands of such blasphemous ignorant and immoral Beasts as Asrica never produced the like and to aggravate your Guilt would make our Neighbouring Nation believe that at the â—ame time you have turn'd out such a Generation of Ministers as the Primitive Church would have been proud of for their Sanctity and adorâ—d for their Learning Thus those common Incendiaries in their printed Libels treat the Parliament of Scotland which for the Antiquity of its Standing and fulness of its Power gives place to none in Europe But it is not to be wondred at most Noble Patriots that that Party should treat you thus seeing they hate your being any otherwise than to serve as their Drudges and devour the best and most industrious Part of the Subjects by which both you and that Ancient Kingdom which you represent were well-nigh entomb'd in Oblivion and Disgrace It was that Party who changed a well-limited and regular Monarchy into an absolute and uncontroulable Tyranny that durst arrogate a Power to cass and annul your firmest Laws and treat you with Contempt as perfect Slaves It was that Party who robbed Christ of his Prerogatives Royal to be Jewels in the Crowns of their Absolute Monarchs It was that Party which robbed the People of their Consciences to bring them to an absolute dependance on the Prelatical Mitres And not only deprived you of the Property of your Houses but denied you a safe Retreat into your own Hearts It was that Party who rendred K. Iames the Sixth so much a Prelatical Bigot as to the disturbance both of Church and State and contrary to his Oath to obtrude Bishops upon the Nation and persecute the sincerest Protestants while at the same time he indulged the Papists and in fine had such an aversion for his Native Country that instead of seeing it once in three Years for administring Justice according to his Promise he never came to it but once after his Succession to the Crown of England and instead of favouring his Church of Scotland which he pretended once so much to admire he persecuted those who declin'd a Conformity with the Church of England It was that Party who influenced Charles the First though a Native of Scotland to put such an intolerable Affront upon the Nation as to demand their Crown to be sent to England and afterwards to invade us with a formidable Army designing an absolute Conquest and in an unnatural manner to subject that Nation to his newly acquired Crown which his Ancestors did so much disdain that they maintain'd 300 Years War upon that Head with no small Glory And how the Faction prevail'd with Charles the Second to requite our Nation for making themselves a Field of Blood in Defence of his Title is so fresh that it needs not be recapitulated and it is yet much more recent how well K. Iames the Seventh rewarded us for owning his Right of Succession when England had in a manner spued him out by the Bill of Exclusion he I say rewarded us by publishing such despotical Proclamations as with an unparallel'd audacity declared us Slaves to the perpetual Infamy of that Generation of Scotsmen who were so tamely bereft of their Liberty which our Noble Progenitors maintained against Romans Picts Britains Danes Saxons Normans and English for twenty preceeding Ages So that I say considering how the Prelatical Faction inâ—luenced those four Monarchs to treat our Nation though they derived their Being and Honour from it and were otherwise in many respects tantorum haud quaquam indigni avorum The Resolve of your August Assembly that Prelacy was an insupportable Grievance to that Kingdom deserves to be engraven in Pillars of Corinthian Brass and that all Scotsmen as no doubt many thousands will should not only wheâ— their Pens but their Swords in defence of it It is that Party who in this Reign impugn your Authority by procuring Letters from Court to command such things to the Assembly as by Law they are not
obliged to comply with and if they should have done it could neither have been answerable to God nor your Honours for it to pull down with their own Hands that Hedg which he in his Providence by your Act hath set about the Church in lodging the Government upon themselves which no doubt the Wisdom of your August Assembly judged to be the best Expedient to secure the Peace of the Church and yet for noncompliance how did they procure the Dissolution and Reproach of that Assembly to the manifest violation of your Authority and that by the Advice of some English Courtiers and Prelats as if they had a mind to homologate the Ancient Pretensions of that Crown and Church over yours and in the view of the World declare our Parliament and General Assembly not able to give Advice in our own Affairs but fit to be over-ruled by a pack'd Club of another Nation and shall they act thus impune to affront a Parliament which Malice it self cannot say as their Party did formerly of the English Parliament That it is but a superfluous Tumour or Wen for all who know our History are sensible of the share which the Scots Parliaments have from the first Constitution of our Government been possest of not only in the Legislative but the Executive Power and if our Historians may be believed laid the Foundation and have often-times since regulated and limited the Power of our Monarchy and to the eternal Confusion of all those who would insinuate the danger thereof to Kingly Government have notwithstanding preserved our Monarchy in a longer and more uninterrupted Succession than any Nation of Europe It is not unknown to your August Assembly what Convulsions the Prelatical Party have thrown the Kingdom into since the first Intrusion of their Prelacy and how near the Ruine both of our Religious and Civil Liberties were effected by their Concurrence with the Tyranny of the late Reigns represented in your Claim of Right and therefore the World cannot but justify your Conduct in depriving them of any share of the Government of the Church which they only seek that they may undermine and tho they should comply with the Terms required in Law yet their former Perjuries and contradictory Tests are but too shrew'd Causes to suspect their future Levity which together with the Disaffectedness they have generally evidenced to the present Government demonstrates how dangerous it is to entrust them with the Conduct of Peoples Consciences And what may justly render them hateful to all honest Scots-men is the Obloquy and Reproach they have thrown here upon the whole Nation and their under-hand dealing with the high-flown Church-of England-Party who have a Heart-hatred at our Country and Religion and have treated you with so much Contempt that tho you mov'd for an Union and his Majesty was graciously pleased to back it they disdain'd to give him any Answer as thinking you unworthy of a Politick or Temporal Union and yet they would be at forcing you to an Ecclesiastical and Spiritual Union which if they could effectuate the World must allow that they ought in the next place to beg us for Fools who could believe that they have a Kindness for our Souls who have â—one for our Bodies Yet this is the Party that our Prelatical Country-men do so much court and make Application to while they slight Scots-men who are authoriz'd to represent our Affairs So much have they divested themselves of all natural Respect to their Country that if their Prelacy live they care not tho the Name and Fame of Scotland die and that they may effectuate their Designs there 's no doubt but they will be forming Parties in your August Assembly and make many fair Pretences of desiring Liberty only to exercise what belongs to their pretended indelible Character of Pastors and promise to undertake nothing to the Disturbance of the publick Tranquillity But their worming themselves in by degrees in King Iames the VIth's time under fair Pretences and then overturning all when they had opportunity is a sufficient Caveat to beware of them as inwardly ravening Wolves tho outwardly they appear in Sheeps Cloathing Your August Assembly cannot so soon have forgot that the Nation was almost totally ruined your Counties invaded by savage Highlanders your Tenants murdered and Families impoverish'd your Houses plundered your Wives Daughters and Relations ravish'd your selves and tender Infants exposed to Wandring Hunger Nakedness and Cold and all the Miseries and Oppressions which you groan'd under in the late Reigns both as to Soul and Body I say your Honours cannot certainly have forgot these things so far as to be prevail'd upon by any Insinuations whatever again to deliver up your bleeding Church and Country into the Hands of that Faction lest the latter end be worse than the first There 's no cause to fear a Rupture with England on that account The good Church-of England-Laity and not a few of their Clergy have incurred danger enough from their high-flown Tantivies and have smarted sufficiently under their Doctrine of Passive Obedience to make them cautious and willing to secure themselves from their Fury so far will they be from concurring with them against you The chief Arguments used here for re-admitting the Prelatical Clergy are That it will contribute to his Majesty's Interest and please the Church of England and supply the vacant Congregations As to the first How it can promote his Majesty's Interest to disoblige the greatest part of Scotland and all the Dissenters in England and Ireland is beyond the reach of Mankind to determine 2. How it can be supposed that a Party who have hitherto witnessed so much Rancour against his Majesty's Person Family and Government as the Scots Episcopal Clergy have done is only to be answered by those who can swear contradictory Oaths as our Curats did in their infamous Tests c. As to the second That it will please the Church of England it may easily be answered that we do not owâ— them so much Kindness and if we did we must first know what that Church of England is that we must oblige for hitherto she hath been an individuum Vagum that no body knows where to find it being as difficult to define her as to make a Coat for the Moon Her Doctrinal Articles are own'd by us and all good Protestants but that is not the Characteristick of the Church of England for in the late Reigns Passive Obedience and Nonresistance were her Shibboleth but now she hath renounced those Doctrines by acting diametrically opposite to them And for a Character of the Church of England in this Reign we cannot certainly have it better than from a Vote of the last House of Commons who resolved on an Address of Thanks to his Majesty for the Care he had taken of the Church of England in the Alteration which was then made in the Lieutenancy of London and that was because by the ill Advice of a certain Prelate and
others the Military Power of the City was lodg'd in those who had surrendred her Charter and dipp'd their Hands in the Blood of my Lord Russel Colonel Sidney Alderman Cornish c. and contributed to the Arbitrary Methods of the late Reigns And because this is but one half of the Parliament let 's look into the higher House and there you will find that according to the opinion of none of the least Church-of England-Men when the Act pass'd for depriving the Nonjurant Bishops it was look'd upon as a fatal Blow to the Church of England So that in plain terms the Jacobite Party is what that Faction means by the Church of England And as a Commentary upon the Text let 's but consider the main Engine which they have made use of to quash the Discovery of all Plots against the Government and we shall find that it was by giving out those Discoveries as the Efforts of Republicans and Dislenters against the Church of England and if we look nearer home and consider how it comes to pass that such Men are advanced to the highest Places in the Scots Government who were the Contrivers Enacters and bloody Executioners of those Laws which your August Assembly hath declared to be impious we shall find it to be done by the Interest of that Party in the Church of England If we consider further whence it is that those who betray'd our Army murder'd our People and plotted the Destruction of your Convention escape unpunish'd you will fin'd it to be by the Procurement of the aforesaid Party Now all these things being considered it will easily appear whether it be your Interest to oblige this Church or not Or if we take her according to the general Acceptation of Bishops and Ceremonies the Vote of your August Assembly concerning Prelacy your Act establishing Presbytery as most agreeable to the Word of God and the Opposition made to the Ceremonies by our Country in Charles the First 's time will speedily determine the case And it will yet appear less reasonable to oblige that Church so taken if we consider that those of her own Communion and the best of them too look upon both Bishops and Ceremonies to be indifferent and not of Divine Institution as may be seen by the Writings of Mr. Hickeringil Counsellor Stephens and Stillingfleet's Irenicum So that in effect the best of the Church-of England-Communion are embark'd in the same Bottom with your selves and the common Enemies of both call them Presbyterians as well as you and treated them accordingly in the late Reigns So that from that worthy part of the Church of England who are Men of good Lives and keep firm to the Doctrine of their Church you need fear no Opposition for to do them Justice they are as zealous for the Protestant Religion as any and never join'd in persecuting their Brethren of a different Opinion To what they pretend of supplying the vacant Churches may speedily be replied The Assembly hath declared their Willingness to employ such of them as are Godly and Orthodox And as for others the good old way of our Church in the Reformation when Ministers were scarcer than now of appointing Men to preach by turns to those vacant Congregations till they can be otherwise supplied is the much safer and better Expedient than to entrust such Men with the Charge of other Peoples Souls who have discovered so little care of their own and whom in your Wisdom you objected against as the great and insupportable Grievance of the Nation Nor have you any such Encouragement from their former Success to imploy them again and if it shall seem good in your Eyes to go on as you begun and encourage a Reformation such of our Country-men as are abroad will be the sooner prevail'd with to come home and others to prosecute their Studies to adapt them for the Ministry and fill up the Vacancies for it cannot be hid from your Illustrious Assembly that the intrusting the chief Enemies of the Presbyterians in the Government is a great Discouragement to all that wish well to our Church or Countryâ— and administers but too just cause of Suspicion that we must either be imbroil'd in a Civil War or return to our former Bondage which nothing but your Care with his Majesty's Assistance and God's Blessing is able to prevent Your Honours may perhaps be inclin'd to think that there is too much Gall in my Pen against our Prelatical Clergy but such of your Number as have been lately at London cannot but know what an Odium they have endeavoured to bring upon the Country in general and your August Assembly in particular insinuating That you are neither the True nor full Representatives of the Nation and but a meer surreptitious Faction got together by the Opportunity of tumâ—ltuous Times and that you neither acted from a Principle of Honour nor Conscience but did only what you thought would be pleasing to the Prince of Orange And hence they have used their utmost Endeavours to have you Dissolv'd by the Interest of the high-slown Prelatical English Courtiers to whom they represent you in the blackest Colours which their Malice or Wit can invent And not only so but they make use of your Name as the Turkish Slaves do those of their Barbarous Masters from whom they have escaped to move those of the Church-of England-Communion to open their Purses pretending that you have turn'd them out in a barbarous and illegal manner or that they have had such and such Indignities and Affronts put upon them And thus they beg from one Clergy-man to another and spend what they get at Taverns and Ale-houses or sitting up whole Nights at Cards particularly at Mills in Westminster or Hutchinsons in the Hay-Market and when their Stock is spent renew the begging Trade or else troop about the Country and with their stol'n Sermons or railing Invectives against the Government of Scotland both in Church and State insinuate themselves into the Adorers of Bishops and Ceremonies for the latter of which though they exclaim'd against them at Home they profess themselves to be mighty Zealots Abroad and thus they disseminate their Poison in our Neighbouring Nation by their lying Tongues and blasphemous Pamphlets So that hence your August Assembly may have a sufficient view whether it be safe to reintroduce such Men into the Church who have given up themselves to all manner of Villanies and are become Devotoes to those unscriptural Ceremonies which occasion'd the fatal War in Charleâ—â— the First 's Time and have moreover evidenced such Levity and Unsted fastness both in imbracing rejecting them at Home since the Revolution that it 's visible they are not acted by Principle but Interest and that their Interest has been always contrary to what your August Assembly hath now espoused both as to Policy and Religion is so evident that whoever casts but an Eye upon the History ever since they were obtruded upon the Nation may soon
Scots Presbyterians do not at all think themselves obliged by that Covenant to endeavour a forcible extirpation of the English Prelacy but in Concurrence with the Parliament of England and therefore so long as they have not their Call to the Work the English Prelacy is in no Hazard and the best way to keep so is for the Church of England to carry modestly and neither to meddle with us nor give their own Parliament occasion to make such a Vote against them as the Parliament of Scotland made against our Bishops That they were the great and insupportable Grievance of the Nation so that they have their Safety in their own Hand But if they should be so infatuated to proceed as they began in relation to the late General Assembly of the Church of Scotland or if they be such Fools as to concur to the stiâ—ling of all Plots against his Majesty as hitherto because so many of their own Communion are concerned in them let them blame themselves for what will be the unavoidable Consequences soon or late for the Church-of England Laity are too good Protestants and English-men to be always led by the Clergy or continually hood-wink'd and not discover the Plots carried on against the State under pretence of Zeal to the Church of which me-thinks the Hot-headed Clergy should take warning seeing they may easily perceive how little Ground their Passive Obedience had gain'd when the honest Church-of England Laicks found themselves in hazard by K. Iames as to their Liberties and Religion Next I would earnestly beg that they would consider how the Faction under a pretence of Zeal for the Church and against Presbytery screw'd up the Prerogative to such a height that Englishmen had very near lost their Liberty and Property It was this mistaken Zeal that threw out the Bill of Exclusion surrendred the Charters of Corporations enabled the King to pack Parliaments pick Juries and cut off whomsoever he pleased under pretence of Law It was this mistaken Zeal that brought the late Reign and all the direful Effects of it which we have already felt or are still impending upon us It was this mistaken Zeal which delay'd his present Majesty's Access to the Throne gave the Enemies opportunity to ruin Ireland raise a Rebellion in Scotland and Plot as they do still in England And shall we never be aware of it Methinks that if the Church of England compared Things past and present She might easily perceive that this intemperate Heat against Presbytery doth naturally issue in Popery and Slavery and that she has much more reason to unite for Defence of the Protestant Interest and her own Doctrinal Articles with the Church of Scotland than by espousing the Cause of a few proâ—â—igate or traiterous Clergy-men because Episcopal run her self into unavoidable Dangers Is it possible that a Harmony in Discipline should have more Power to unite distinct Interests than a Harmony in Doctrine and Agreement under one Civil Head hath to cement those who drive the same Interest It cannot be unknown to the Church of England if she believes either their Majesties Proclamations or considers the procedure of his Parliament and other Courts in Scotland that the Prelatical Party there drive at a Design to restore K. Iames. And with she yet entertain such Vipers in her Bosom as their outed Clergy and not only so but for their sakes entertain Suspicions of his Majesty and sollicite him against the Church of Scotland Can she say that we have ever made any Address to him against the Church of England and why should they be more zealous against us than we against them Does she not know that Arch-bishop Vsher and some of the greatest of her Fathers thought Episcopacy and Presbytery reconcileable and the other things in Controversy indifferent How is it then that she thinks her Differences with King Iames and the Church of Rome more reconcileable as she must needs do if she fall in with her own high-flown Tantivees and our Scots Prelatists But I hope if no Religious Considerations will prevail that the danger of their running the same Risk with us may they seeing both they and we have the same Security viz. the King 's accepting of the Crown on such and such Conditions and consenting to Acts of Parliament accordingly if he should break to one he may do the same to both and though they may think that he will not overthrow their Hierarchy because the Bishops depending on him may be useâ—ul to him in the Parliament-House yet at the same time he may as Charles the Second did invade their Civil Liberties and then their Religion nor nothing else can ever be secure I must again beg the Reader not to mistake meâ— as designing to create any Suspicion of his Majesty following such an unhallowed Pattern but meerly to set this as a Beacon before the Church of England that they may beware of being Shipwrack'd twice upon the same Rock which will be unavoidable if they should prevail wiâ—h any of their Kings to break the Original Contracts or call in K. Iames or set up any other Pretender against his present Majesty and prosper which blessed be God there 's no probability that ever they will for never was King better beloved by Subjects and let them try it when they please they 'll â—ind he has in Scotland Twenty to One firm in his Interest And whatever Noise they make to blind their own Designs of our hazard from a Republican Faction if they will assure the Nation of such Governours as are now at Helm those whom they call Republicans will as cordially submit to them as any But I foresee an Objection as to Scots Affairs That they only sollicit his Majesty to dissolve the present Parliament and call another which will restore Episcopacy and recognize his Title Answ. 1. His Majesty hath had too many Proofs of the Loyalty of Presbyterians and the Treachery of Episcopalians to venture such an Experiment or if he should and they happen to recognize his Title he can never think that they submit from Affection but meerly from Interest when they see they can do no better And in truth whatever Pretences of Loyalty they make it 's demonstrable enough that as the Country-man when the London â—Drawers baul'd out Welcome Sir laid his Hand on his Pob and said I thank you my Friend so may his Majesty when our Scots Prelatists pretend Loyalty put his Hand to his Side and say I thank you my Sword for no longer will they be his Friend than he is able to cudgel them Whereas it 's very well known that the Scots Presbyterians declared for him before Providence had determined their Crown in his Favour and have beat into the Prelatists whatever Loyalty they pretend to have Nor is it to be thought a Prince so Good and Generous as his present Majesty will ever be so ungrateful to his Friends or act so much contrary to Reason and his own
Conscience as to shake the present Title he has to the Crown of Scotland to buy the Consent of the Scots Prelatists who could not desend their Darling K. Iames nor make any other Effort to re-establish him but by hectoring among the inaccessible Hills stealing Cows and Sheep plundring the Country murdering the People by Treachery and Surprize and at last seising the insignificant Rock called the Bass where if they please they may send for him to govern the Solon Geese and themselves the greater of the twoâ— But 2. They will find themselves mistaken if his Majesty should gratify them so far as to dissolve this and call another Parliament the Presbyterians have not lost but gain'd Ground since the Revolution and they have smarted too severely under the Prelates to suffer themselves either to be hectored or kick'd out of their present Settlement by any more pack'd Clubs and knowing that Instruments of Cruelty are in the Habitations of the Prelats will rather quit themselves like Men for the Ark and People of their God than be brought again under the Philistin Slavery This is only to undeceive our Prelatists who promise themselves such an easy Conquest not that we can suspect a Prince of our King's Prudence Generosity and Conscience capable of so much Weakness as to disoblige the Kingdom of Scotland those who preserved him the Crown of Ireland and such as are his steady and useful Friends in England as he must needs do if he gratify the Scots Prelatists They have not now an effeminate and luxurious Prince to deal with who provided he might wallow in impure Pleasures was content to abandon all Care of his Subjects but one who knows his Friends from his Foes has been accustomed to Government from his Cradle outbrav'd the Hector of France in his Youth and therefore is not to be frighted by our Scots Prelatists and the English Tories into such mean Compliances for fear of Prelatical Insurrections and Tantivy Grumblings he stisâ—ed greater Serpents than those in his Cradle and carries a Sword to cut off the Hydras Heads as fast as they multiply But now to come to the Postscript or pretended Answer to my Last One would have thought that our Prelatists had bankrupt their Treasure of Lies Malice and Blasphemy in their late Pamphlet call'd The Scots Presbyterian Eloquâ—nce But the Apologist and Post-scribler demonstrate the contrary and evidence That their Magazines are still full and running over and I confess there is no cause to wonder at it when we consider that the Bottomless Pit whence they are furnish'd is an unfathomable Source and that the Father of Lies is not yet so superannuated but that he can beget more of the Breed But to come to our Author he tells you in his very first Page That he could not read two Lines of Dr. Rule 's Book without being provok'd unto the Undecencies of Passion and therefore it is no marvel that the reading of mine put him stark mad seeing I treat the Faction with some more roughness than the Doctor did Pag. 1. After a very superâ—icial Division of my Book he gives a sutable Answer and that you may know he was blinded with Passion he begins with downright Nonsense and a notorious Lie I suppose there is scarcely any body but knows that the Faction did brag of Charles the Second's peaceable Restoration as a Miracle and Demonstration that God own'd his Title nay Sir Geo. Mackenzie Vindic. p. 5. owns he was restored almost by universal Consent and yet the Scribler alledges that he and our subordinate Governors were forced to make Laws against the Presbyterians of Scotland in their own Defence Now it is certain that none have any Legislative Power in Scotland but the King and Parliament and by subordinate Governours he must therefore if he understands himself mean the latter and if so it is plain that the Presbyterians at that time attack'd neither but had sufficiently smarted under the Usurper for maintaining the Right of King and Parliament by the Sword and refusing to abjure Charles Stewart and the Lords who are a constituent part of our Parliament so that neither of them being attack'd nor threatned to be attack'd in Authority nor Person but on the contrary the Presbyterians being sworn to maintain them the pretence of a necessity to make Laws in their own Defence is a false excuse But if our Author would speak Truth he should say that Charles the Second having a Mind to break his Oath which he had taken solemnly to maintain Presbytery and the Privilege of Parliaments and being secured as he thought in foro divinâ— by the Dispensation first of his Popish and then of his Episcopal Priests he must find some pretence to salve his Credit in foro humano and so with his pack'd Parliament formed Iniquity into a Law Whether the said Laws were gentle as our Author says I leave it to the Consideration of all thinking Men who please to peruse them as exhibited in my other Book It seems indeed that the Prelates thought them too gentle and not extensive enough for them when they pressed Conformity in so barbarous a manner beyond the extent of the said Laws in so much that they were forced to extort Certificates from the People that they had been civilly used because they knew they had exceeded the Law and were liable to be called to an account for it One of the first Laws they made was an unlimited Oath of Allegiance which swallowed up the Privileges of the People took away all the Suffrage of Parliaments as to the Succession of the Crown and establish'd a Despotical Tâ—ranny which this Author calls the King's Hereditary Right so infallibly true is it that Tyranny and our Scots Prelacy are inseparably connected and such Brethren in Iniquity that the one is always productive of the other and therefore as soon as he had deprived the People of their Native Rights he made bold to invade their Consciences and contrary to his own Oath and the Peoples Inclinations brought in the abjured Prelates as knowing very well that Tyranny could not subsist without them and so he supported them in their Lording it over the Peoples Consciences and they to requite their Creator preach'd up his Divine Right to Tyrannize over their Purses and Persons And thus did Tyranny and Prelacy like two scabbed Jades nab one another till they were both sent a packing by his present Majesty Nor can I omit to take notice of the natural Aversion which Prelacy has to a lawful Government it being visibly seen that not only our Scots Prelates who were his Majesty's personal Enemies but even the English Prelates most of whom pretended to be his Friends were and are jealous that the Destiny of their Hierarchy is at hand for every one knows how sollâ—citous the Pillars of Prelacy were to club at the Devil-Tavern to contrive means for the maintaining their Hierarchy and how to fetter his Majesty with Oaths not to touch
the Heretable Iudges i. e. Hereditary Sheriffs refused to put the Laws in execution against Conventicles by which they became formidable Which destroys two more of his and the Faction's Assertions viz. That Presbyterianism was not popular and that none but the Rabble were their Friends for those Hereditary Sheriffs are the best and most ancient Families generally in every County So that Sir George wrongs his Cause exceedingly by that Concession seeing those Hereditary Judges living upon the Place and being acquainted with the Industry and Honesty of the persecuted Party would not abandon their Honour and Conscience to become Hangmen to their Neighbours and Tenants And therefore the Court being resolved to ruin the Country imployed bloody cut-throat Papists as the Earl of Airly and Laird of Meldrum and their barbarous Savages the Popish Highlanders But according to the natural disingenuity of his Faction he takes no notice that those Military Judges pull'd the Hereditary Sheriffs from off their Benches and would not let them proceed against the Presbyterians according to the Statute-Law because that was too mild in their Opinion One remarkable Instance thereof was at Selkirk where Meldrum pull'd Philiphaugh who is Hereditary Sheriff of the Forest now a Lord of the Session out of his Chair when holding his Court. Another of Sir George's Defences are the alledged Severity to the Cavaliers in Charles the First 's Time Which if true though there 's no reason to take his Word for Proof he could not but know the truth of that Maxim Inter Arma silent Leges and that this could not justify the Dragooning of People to Church and taking free Quarter in time of Peace But Sir George accordinâ— to his wonted disingenuity takes no notice of the Case of that Severity if any such were viz. that the Persons so treated harassed their Native Country with Fire and Sword in conjunction with those who had cut the Throats of Protestants in Ireland filled the Kingdom with bloody Murders and barbarous Villanies I have neither time nor is it consistent with my present Design to anâ—madvert any further upon his pretended unanswerable Book but I think any honest Reader will be satisfied that it needs no worse Character than to be stigmatiz'd as a flat Contradiction to their Majesties and the present Parliament of Scotland being a sophistical and unfair Relation of Matters of Fact to make the World believe that all those Grievances have been false which the Parliament complain'd of his Majesty declared against and founded the Justice of his Expedition upon their Redress So that it will issue in this either that Sir George Mackenzy is a Liar or that his Majesty and the Parliament of Scotland are such and therefore good Mr. Doctor I am not afraid to appeal to the Judgment of all disinterested Persons whether it be you or I that are most void of Generosity Honour Modesty and common Sense of all which you deprive me in the 89 th Page of your Libel So that tho the Ass may vapour a while in the Lion's Skin the Ears of the dull Brute will discover him at last And thus our Doctor has wounded his Pretences to Loyalty by defending Sir George's Book But allowing all to be true that Sir George alledges as the Cause of our Persecution by Charles the Second I say still that the Faction deserves to be more severely treated by this Government upon the very Parallel viz. thus They own Passive Obedience to be true Doctrine and were as much sworn to that as we were to the Covenant so that if they believe that Doctrine they must needs look upon their present Majesties to have no just Title and think themselves obliged to rebel Now Malice it self could never fasten any such Consequence upon the Covenant as to Charles the Second's Title Ergo Passive Obedience must be more dangerous to this than the Covenant was to that Government But the Doctor turns his back and takes no notice of this Argument only magisterially tells you that if there be no more in the case than Passive Obedience the Government needs not be afraid Tho every body but the Faction â—hose Interest it is to dissemble the Consequences of their Principles sees the contrary by Demonstration from the Practices of the Nonjurant Bishops the high Church-of England Zealots and the Scots Rebellions 2. The Episcopal Party disown the Presbyterian Ministers and won't hear them Ergo by Sir George Mackenzy's Position they should be dragoon'd to Church and with much more reason than they dragoon'd us for there 's nothing in our way of Worship but what they practis'd themselves nor can they object against our Form of Government for they had it in conjunction with their own Episcopacy Then seeing we neither do nor desire that they should be persecuted on account of their Dissent whether are they or we most moderate All the difference is that there are no Laws against their Nonconformity as there were against ours which I grant to be true and hence we can demonstrate Presbyterian Moderation that the Parliament did not make any Laws against the Consequences of Prelatical and Passive-Obedience-Principles tho the Prelatists made Laws against ours and sure I am we had much more reason to have made Laws against them who did actually oppose and rebel against his present Majesty while the Parliament was sitting and yet no such thing was â—ver moved As for his Allegation that our Moderation proceeds from the opposite Biass of the Nobility and Gentry it shows his Ingratitude but all Men of sense must needs be convinced that the Parliament who settled Presbyteriaâ— Government and that with so much care as to entrust none but the old Presbyteâ—ian Ministers thrown out by the Prâ—lates and such as they should admit with any shâ—re of the Government were not so much biass'd in â—avour of the Episcopalians as to restrain from making such Laws on that account if there were no other reason Pag. 91. He owns that the Author of the Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence has perhaps been unwary as to some Stories which need Confirmation Well said Doctor perhaps unwary when I have made it evident from his own words that he contradicts himself but the Inconsistencies I charge him with you say you have no Incâ—ination to examine and truly I believe it because you know they are true And whereas you say there is not one good Consequence in my Book pray let 's hear what you can say in your next to avoid the dint of the Consequences there deduced and here repeated to prove your Party in general Liars Persecuters c. But the good-natur'd Doctor being sorry that he has done us so much faâ—our as to grant that his Friend was unwary as to some Stories retracts immediately and tells you there are multitudes of true Stories against us of that nature and believes that there was no Injury done us in publishing that Book Well argued wary Doctor you own that your Friend was unwary in