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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51160	The spirit of calumny and slander, examin'd, chastis'd, and expos'd, in a letter to a malicious libeller more particularly address'd to Mr. George Ridpath, newsmonger, near St. Martins in the Fields : containing some animadversions on his scurrilous pamphlets, published by him against the kings, Parliaments, laws, nobility and clergy of Scotland : together with a short account of Presbyterian principles and consequential practices.	Monro, Alexander, d. 1715?; S. W.	1693 (1693)	Wing M2446; ESTC R4040	71,379	106

The SPIRIT of Calumny and Slander Examin'd Chastis'd and Expos'd IN A LETTER TO A MALICIOUS LIBELLER MORE Particularly Address'd to Mr. GEORGE RIDPATH Newsmonger near St. Martins in the Fields CONTAINING Some Animadversions on his Scurrilous Pamphlets Published by him against the Kings Parliaments Laws Nobility and Clergy of Scotland TOGETHER With a short account of Presbyterian Principles and Consequential Practices Tenue est mendacium perlucet si diligenter inspexeris Senec. London Printed for Joseph Hindmarsh at the Golden-Ball over against the Royal Exchange 1693. TO THE READER IT is not much worth the while to inform the World that now Mr. George Ridpath is at the Head of the Presbyterian Party in Scotland His Associates there and here have such an Opinion of him that they consider him as the Invincible Champion of their Cause and the truth is if any Man be so inconsiderable and so much a Brute as to fight him at his own Weapons Mr. Ridpath will certainly carry the Prize He 's the Man that is now most likely to pull down Antichrist and the Whore of Babylon And as for the Scotch Episcopal Clergy who yet retain any kindness for the Hierarchy and the former Government if he lives another year they must all of them be banish'd the Isle of Britain It is enough for you to know that now the Presbyterians as is probable have by an unanimous Suffrage chosen him to manage the Libels against their Opposites He now appears in the Field of Battel with all the Noise Lies and Clamour that becomes a Zealous Covenanter He began this last years Campagne with a Libel against Dr. M o which valuable Book he Dedicated to the Parliament of Scotland by this one may easily infer that either he had a mean Opinion of the Parliament or extraordinary thoughts of himself If the following Treatise cannot be reduc'd into any certain Method this is not to be imputed unto me for I must confess that I too much follow'd the Excursions of Mr. Ridpath's invention I was willing to contract the Animadversions that I made upon his Book into as little room as was possible and therefore the frequent Transitions from one thing to another are best understood by such as have Read his Continuation c. I hope most Men are better employed than either to think or speak of the Calumnies and Lies that he industriously heaps together against the Clergy His Party is resolv'd to make use of such Engines against the Church as they and their Fore-Fathers found most successful to the Extirpation of Root and Branch and they that are unacquainted with their Malicious Methods are great Strangers to our Nation and History If the Reader meet with some Paragraphs that are more particular and peculiar to Mr. Ridpath than the Publick is oblig'd to take notice of I must be excus'd since I was compell'd for I assure you that I value personal altereations no otherwise than a good Christian ought to do Nor did I ever Write to satisfie or convince Mr. Ridpath that being a thing in it self impossible There is a certain Order of Mean Spirited Fellows I do not mean by their External Quality who think that there is nothing written by their Party were it never so ignominiously fulsome and scandalous but what is invincible and unanswerable Their Pride and Vanity are Incurable It is not my meaning that we ought to put our selves to the Drudgery of answering all the Scurrilous and Obscene Libels that are propagated by our Enemies but 't is reasonable to let our Friends see that at some times we can Confute them if that be thought convenient I am so far convinc'd of the weakness of their Reasonings that I know no Sect Antient or Modern that ever broke the Peace of the Christian Church but may be more plausibly defended than the latest Edition of Presbytery in Scotland I never thought that the Reputation of my Friend was in any hazard by being attack'd by Mr. Ridpath or the Little Creatures who instigate him yet by the following Papers I make it plain to all disinteressed persons that Mr. Ridpath lies Willfully and Deliberately in several Instances and therefore I may be allow'd to take leave of him for the future if he does not manage his accusations as becomes the Spirit of Truth Innocence and Ingenuity If you think that the Style is more sharp than is Decent or Just then I intreat you may Read his Books which occasion'd these Papers and then I am confident that you will retract your Censure and find that I have meddled with his Person as little as was possible He is in some places so Obscene that there is no coming near him and therefore I made all possible hast to rid my imagination of him and the paultry Trash that he gathers together The Bookseller was willing to Print a Sheet or two more than the Letter that I address'd to Mr. Ridpath and therefore I gave him some Propositions that are extracted out of such Books as are most in Vogue amongst the Scotch Presbyterians that the Reader might have a sample of their Moral Theology with regard to Obedience Government and Subjection To which I have added a Letter written from the Tolbooth of Edinburgh by the Famous Assassin Mr. James Mitchel who endeavours to prove from several Texts of Scripture that he ought to kill Dr. Sharp Lord Archbishop of St. Andrews In short to use the words of a Great Man Rebellion is the Soul of the Kirk And though we had not known the History of that Parliament Anno 1645. So they call'd the bloody Meeting at St. Andrews we have later Instances of their Arbitrary and Tyrannical Malice against the better half of the Nation Their very Patrons are asham'd of them not through any ingenuous remorse but because their bare fac'd Villanies are frequently expos'd I think the following Letter needs no other Preface than what is already hinted by Sir Your humble Servant S. W. The CONTENTS THE Occasion of this Letter Mr. Ridpath the Author of two or three Scurrilous and abusive Pamphlets against the Kings Parliaments Laws Nobility and Clergy of Scotland Page 1 His Rage and Passion against the Author of the Apology for the Clergy of Scotland Ibid. His Challenge fairly embrac'd The Author of this Defence undertakes to prove that there is not a good Consequence in Mr. Ridpath 's Books from the beginning to the end p. 2 The Character bestowed upon Mr. Rutherford by the Author of the Apology no justifiable ground of Mr. Ridpath 's clamourous bawling against the Learn'd Advocate Ibid. ●●●path 's accusation against Sir George Mackenzie in the case of C. of C. founded only on his own Petulance and Malice p. 3 Ridiculous advices to the Ministers of State in England and his Civilities to K. W. and Q. M. Ibid. His imitation of the famous Presbyterian Buffoon Dr. Bastwick when he reviles the present Clergy of the Church of Scotland p. 4 His impudence in

suffer Buffoons to treat crowned Heads so familiarly whatever be the Quarrel between Princes this Language is intolerable yet some Animals are privileged to bark at this rate The Clazomenians coming to Sparta fullied the Thrones on which the Ephori sat when the Ephori came to know this Indignity they bore it patiently and called for a publick Herald and ordered him to proclaim through the City that it was lawful for the Clazomenians to do things that were unbecoming and undecent that is to say such barbarous Rascals were below Reproof and Revenge Two of our Archbishops you treat in the same Language that Dr. Bastwick the famous Presbyterian Buffoon used towards the Archbishop of Canterbury and his Collegues when he tells them that the Hierarchy came from the Pope and the Devil Diabolus caccavit illos They forsooth must be called Magnates Ecclesiae and the Verity of the matter is They are Magnae Nates Ecclesiae It is tedious to transcribe his Civilities to Archbishop Laud and his Venerable Brethren and therefore I refer you to the Book cited in the Margin only there is one of his Complements which I set down because it hath in it the mean and scurrillous Spirit of the Party which you copy so exactly that one would have thought Dr. Bastwick had been your Father thus he goes on speaking of the Priests of the Church of England They are secundum Ordinem Diaboli a Generation of Vipers proud ungrateful illiterate Asses the Church is as full of Ceremonies as a Dog is full of Fleas And again One would think that Hell were broke loose and that the Devils in Surplices in Hoods in Capes and Rochets and in four-squared Cow-turds upon their Heads were come among us and had beshit us all Pho how they stink This is the Wit and Civility of an enraged Presbyterian these are the Flights of a Zealot when inspired to the heighth You treat Archbishop Sharp and the Archbishop of Glasgow in the same Language that Archbishop Laud and Archbishop Spotswood were complemented by your Predecessors There is a Letter here which I have seen from the Archbishop of Glasgow to one of his Friends which some time or other may see the light in a larger Treatise It was occasioned by your obscene Libels against him I must tell you one thing that is in it and it may provoke your Curiosity to see it He promises two hundred pound sterl to any Man that will prove by Witnesses of known Probity any one Particular that is maliciously vented against him by your self or any of your Informers Why then do not ye appear openly above-board for the Bishop declines no competent Judge in Scotland 'T is true He thought that the Book that treated him so barbarously had been writ by some of the fluttering Damme's about the City whose most compendious Method to destroy Religion is at any rate to run down the Clergy but if he had known his Accuser 't is more than probable he would forbear any Vindication He was sometimes opposed by Persons of the first Quality in the Nation and if he had been so wicked a Wretch as you represent him he had certainly forfeited his Life to Justice and his Name to Infamy as he expresses it himself in his Letter Mr. Ridpath do not take it ill that I do not go through the Particulars of your Libel against the Bishop for I have made you a fair Offer already and besides when you are better informed you will find your self that you name some Persons in your Libel who are lasting Monuments of the Disgrace of your Faction so that you have as little of the Wisdom of the Serpent as of the Innocence of the Dove You may go on and accuse the Bishop and his Collegues of all the Crimes that your Predecessors charged the former Bishops with in the year 1638 nay which is more you may accuse him of all the Villainies which your own Major Wier actually committed when he ran about with so many of the Sisters from one Communion to another and I assure you that neither he nor any of his Friends will take notice of you We know very well that you are at extraordinary pains to gather Intelligence against the Clergy but all your Evidences hitherto are of no Authority at all You think that if Mr. Rule 's Book provoked the Author of the Postscript to Undecencies of Passion the reading of yours would make him stark mad Not so Mr. Ridpath we may sometimes get a more deadly Wound by an Arrow that flies near the Earth than by the Thunder that goes over our Heads He begins you say with downright Nonsense and a notorious Lie but one and the same Proposition cannot be both Nonsense and a Lie one cannot tell what to make of the first and therefore it is neither a Lie nor a Truth he continues still in the same Opinion that the Principles and Practices of the Covenanters occasioned the Laws that you complain of whether you mean their Practices from the Year 1637 to the Year 1650 or their Behaviour after the Restoration of King Charles II all is one to me they overthrew the Monarchy under King Charles I disturbed it by frequent Insurrections under King Charles II and are ready to do so still if at any time their boundless Tyranny and Ambition be restrained The rest of that Paragraph is a Declamation against Prelacy and the Clergy of England must be lashed with the same Severity wherewith you chastise those of Scotland and in your first Book you represent those of England as a Company of treacherous Prevaricators that the Crown set them up by a daring Perjury and that the same Party hath thrust that Family from the Throne by a Copy exactly answering the Original They are obliged very much to your Civilities if the Family be thrust from the Throne you are the Author of a new Discovery but I leave this to their consideration who are more concerned You are diffident of your Arguments against the Author of the Postscript and therefore you will take more effectual and compendious methods to ruin him for you tell us that upon the taking of Namure he was heard in St. James's Park to salute Mr. Shields by the title of a Bishop no doubt in view of a Revolution which was likely to follow There is one thing that I thank you heartily for viz. that this accusation is express particular and circumstantiated for when accusations are loose general and indefinite nothing can be fixt upon that can lead us unto the Truth and therefore Mr. Ridpath here I plainly give you the Lye I know a man of your honour will resent this affront The affirmative part is your own and therefore common sense obliges you to prove it if you can you are here upon the place so are they whom you accuse the Dr. declines no competent Judge in England and if you can prove that ever

himself or not is not positively affirmed by the Dr. so your contradiction vanishes into air and noise You raise more dust than a Coach and six Horses when you are about to kill a Fly It is probable that the Author of the Postscript may be chastised for having said that Mr. Rutherford's Writings in some places were past all human understanding I have no commission from him or any of his Friends to return your Language in Specie You tell us that if Mr. Ruhterford were alive he would have scorned to have fouled his Fingers with such an Episcopal Hawker but indeed Mr. Ridpath I do not think that Mr. Rutherford was so proud but that some time or other he fouled his Fingers with meaner Creatures than the Doctor But what was it that he said of Mr. Rutherford's Writings that in some places they were very dark and obscure and was this any such extraordinary Crime Mr. Ridpath I love to say very little of Men that are dead if you think that his Writings are so clear pray give us your Commentaries upon his second Chapter of his second Exercitation Pro divina Gratia 2. Resp Distinguo vocem verum quod unusquisque tenetur credere id est verum metaphysicè fundamentaliter in se quoad eventum concedo majorem tum minorem pernego But still he left us to guess what the other Member of the Distinction may be Therefore take it thus Quod unusquisque tenetur credere id est verum logicè formaliter extra se quoad non eventum nego Majorem And then both the one and the other are good strong Nonsense in all its formalities But he goes on Christum enim pro unoquoque mortuum esse in se fundamentaliter metaphysicè non est verum sed falsum Christum pro unoquoque Mortuum esse metaphysicè falsum is a Phrase I am not acquainted with and if one durst speak it the Author seems not notwithstanding of all the Flights of his Metaphysicks to advert to the trite distinction between the Veritas Metaphysica and the Veritas Logica For Veritas Metaphysica numeratur inter proprietates Entis consequenter non objectum fidei sed simplicis apprehensionis at propositionibus logicè veris assentimur vel propter testantis auctoritatem vel propter rei evidentiam And the Question is not de Metaphysica veritate hujus propositionis sed de veritate Logica This is not the only Instance that may be pick'd out of this Paragraph to prove it obscure and unintelligible that other Phrase in se quoad eventum concedo Majorem is as dark as any thing can be nor do I remark here the Solecism of his Latin quoad Eventum but I name this Exercitation as unintelligible from the beginning to the end And because you are a Man of honour and cannot endure Contradiction with any Patience it were a more gallant Exercise for you to prove that this Exercitation of his is plain and solid Theology than to blot so much Paper with your imaginary Libels against the Clergy You fight much at the rate that the Tartars do when they are driven before their Enemies or rather like the Dutch who are mounted on Horseback that they may flie with greater Convenience but if you have as much Courage and Honour as you have Bawling and Impudence come to a close Engagement and prove that Mr. Rutherford's Answers to the forementioned Argument are solid plain and intelligible What miraculous Feats other Presbyterians can do is nothing to your purpose Add to the former Instance Mr. Rutherford's Argument in his 22. Chapter of his Disputatio Scholastica de divina Providentia to prove that there is no opposition between Sin and the Divine Nature which I cannot now transcribe and yet still I have the Confidence to say that it is foolish childish and frivolous and of the most pernicious consequence upon the Morals of Mankind For if there is no opposition between the Divine Nature and Sin antecedenter ad liberum D E I decretum Men may be brought to think that Sin is not so odious in it self nor at so great a distance from true Perfection as the Scriptures represent it But if you would see many more passages that are unintelligible read his Disquisitiones de Ente possibili and the former Exercitation and if any thing can convince you you may be then forced to acknowledge that his Writings are obscure and consequently the Doctor 's saying so did not furnish you with the least umbrage of charging Sir George Mackenzie with the grossest Immoralities of Life for such I think the subornation of Witnesses is The next Blow is for his Incivility to Mr. Rule that he does not allow him the Title of Doctor Truly Mr. Ridpath if he wilfully made use of any other Complement towards him than what is just there is no Man alive more ready to retract his Error than he he thought there was no rudeness in bestowing upon him the Title by which he was ordinarily known and if the Doctor knew not the several steps of his Promotion I see no reason why you can accuse him of Incivility and the thing being purely indifferent if he had been better informed he would not deny any thing that he knew to be so easie and innocent Next you tell us that you do not believe the two instances that are cited in that Postscript against Mr. Rule upon the Doctor 's Authority But why Mr. Ridpath did the Author say so of him barely upon his own Authority or are they not to be seen both of them in his Printed Books and are not you much more uncivil to him who revive Stories when perhaps they are entirely forgotten by others The decretum praedamnatum was not the Fiction of my Friend nor yet his new and unnaccountable Criticism of the word Ordinatio and now you may add another which is decretum praeteritum And you may see these new Decrees never mentioned before by any Class of Divines in page 66 of his Vindication of the Church of Scotland And now I think one is sufficiently provoked to call you impudent that you bring above-board things that you neither understand nor defend You complained in your former Pamphlet of the Injuries done to Mr. Urqhuart and Mr. Kirkton because the first was said to have spoken contemptuously of our Blessed Saviour and the Lord's Prayer and the other alledged that Abraham run out of the Land of Chaldea for debt The Author of the Postscript told you that both these Stories which you your self thought unpardonable could be proved and I am confident many more of that nature But you tell us that you are sufficiently satisfied by those who have lately made enquiry into the Affair that the whole is a malicious Calumny So we must take it upon your Word and theirs it might be reasonably expected from you that at least you would have procured under their own hands solemn

and do not run up and down and make a noise as if I opposed and Act of Parliament I only dispute against the Opinions of blind Zealots who have no more regard to the peace of the Nation than they have to the Order of Episcopacy Mr. Ridpath If you are as resolute as you are clamorous you cannot but think it reasonable to appear for no man is obliged to consider fulsome Lampoons no accusations ought to be heard against any man far less against Kings Dukes and Prelates unless the accuser openly pawn his reputation to prove the Crimes fairly before a competent Judicature There are many things in both your Books that I have not mentioned yet I am ready to prove that they are less material and more ridiculous than those I have named for I know no man so pusillanimous as to turn his back upon you for fear of any harm that you can do him and therefore I set down the initial Letters of name and sirname and that in Mr. Rule 's Latine makes up Totum Nomen and there are a great many here who know me though at present I neither wear the Doctoral Scarf or Canonical Habit. I have hitherto treated you with all Civility though there be none alive has fewer Engagements or Obligations to continue Mr. Ridpath Your humble Servant S. W. POSTSCRIPT Mr. Ridpath THE following Certificates and Letter came to my hands from Scotland not until the former Sheets were wrought off else they had been set down in their proper places to which they are more immediatly related The first is under the Hands of so many honest Inhabitants of Leith in favours of Mr. Andrew Cant sometime their Minister and it fully and plainly disproves and overthrows the Original and Fundamental Libel propagated by your self and your Informers against him viz. That he was suspended from the exercise of his Ministry and therefore the other Fabulous accounts that you raise upon this Calumny must necessarily fall to the Ground It is not possible to prove Negatives in a Matter of Fact otherwise than when they who ought to know the thing in Controversie declare upon Honor and Conscience that there never was any such things and if the Course of his Ministry had been interrupted by any Sentence how easily might this be prov'd nay how impossible had it been to have deny'd it since in so numerous a Parish so near the Centre of the Nation their would have been so many Witnesses of so recent a Transaction We whose Names are underwritten Inhabitants of Leith do by these presents declare upon Honor and Conscience that Mr. Andrew Cant sometime our Minister was never discharged the Exercise of his Office by any Sentence Ecclesiastical or otherwise amongst us but on the contrair continued very diligent and painful therein for the space of eight years or thereby after which time he was preferred to be one of the chief Ministers of the City of Edinburgh Sic Subscribitur Jo. Broune Skipper Ja. Hutcheson Notar Publick John Burton Baker Alex. Robertson Wine-Cooper James Cuningham Wine-Cooper Patrick Smith Wine-Cooper John Wilson Wine-Cooper Thomas Riddell Skipper Ja. Balfour Merchant T. Fenwick Maltman Jo. Muchmutie Skipper James Johnston Wright or Joyner Rob. Herdman Maltman Robert Bowy Wine Cooper G. Farquhar Maltman Andrew Fairservice Carter Geo. Davidson Maltman George Albercromby Maltman J. D. James Dow Tailor J. W. James Walker as I took it Mason The two last could subscribe no otherwise being illiterate but very Honest I have subjoyn'd to this Certificate a Letter to one of his Friends in London occasion'd by your fulsome and unchristian Libels against him Worthy Sir EVer since I came to mans years I have been very sensible that we live here in the Neighbourhood of a Sullen sett of People that can never think themselves secure of any measure of Reputation unless they raise it upon the Ruins of the good Name of innocent Men that are not of their Opinion in every thing and am farther confirmed in this Thought by a late instance in what concerns me personally in a slanderous Pamphlet inscribed An Answer to the Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence It was some months in this place before I could procure a sight of it but when I had seen it the thoughts I had concerning what I am wickedly Libelled of were not so full of Anger as Disdain to find an obscure sorry Jack anapes for so he must be attacquing me with so much Malice and arrant Calumny though I was living very peaceably as I haye always done without being the Aggressor of any Person or Party At first I was resolved to slight it as a thing that can never do me harm with any one that knows me yet upon second thoughts and to satisfie a worthy Friend of mine I give you the trouble of this line which bears such short answers to the ill-natur'd and cursed accusations of that infamous Libeller as I think sufficient First Then he endeavours to vilifie and belie me by saving I was an Underling at Leith What he means by this I know not the true matter is that the first appearance I made in my Sacred Office was as second Minister of Leith to which I came regularly by a Presentation from the Patrons and Collation thereupon from the Diocesan I cannot apprehend any disparagement in the thing and I am sure I have yet a very great kindness from all that People excepting a few Bigots and of very little interest Next I remember he will needs have the World believe that I Preached very odd things to the People but has not so much as given one instance not for want of Malice but it seems invention in that particular My poor gift of Preaching the Holy Gospel was but small yet I bless God I am not asham'd of it and I hope I have somthing of the power of those Divine Truths I declar'd to the World on my own Heart and Seals of them upon the Hearts of others but if this Railing Fellow doubt I be competently qualified let him procure me Liberty and Safety I will not decline to Preach before the General Assembly In another passage of that Pamphlet this Silly Fellow charges me with being a notable Brawler and for proof says I was Suspended for sometime from the Exercise of my Office for beating of a Highlander To lot you see what Impudence is in this Contrivance I send you herewith inclosed a Copy of a Declaration under the Hands of some of the honest Neighbours in Lieth bearing that I was never Suspended the Exercise of my Office during my abode with them and if it were necessary I doubt not but I can easily obtain the attestation of all that are yet alive of them I left in the place It s hard that I should be obliged after fifteen years time to give them the trouble of attesting my innocence against the snarlings of a rank-mouth'd Curr but I have done it very easily Now this being made appear a