to the pains and to the profit which none of the mixed multitude of Murmurers were admitted to because of their unbelief Numb 21. 17. And O Father of Mercy while I am tossed upon the turbulent Seas of manifold troubles grant that thy presence may be with me and that thy Everlasting arms may be underneath me to support me for sure I am Moses thy Servant had good reason to be importunate in this suit Exod. 32. 2. compared with 14. and 15. v. Chap. 34. 9. Seeing no less could furnish him with fresh supplyes in the work he was about O let thy presence be with me and then my Soul shall dig and sing and sing and dig through times of trouble into Eternal Rest where I shall be admitted to behold the Rock Christ out of whom floweth the pure Fountain and River of Life and Happiness which I may drink and not be damnified through the assaults of Satan or the invasions of sin or of a wicked world any more now according to thy promise Mat. 10. 19. Out of thy Fatherly Mercy grant present help supply and direction in this time of trouble seeing it is not in man that walketh to direct his own steps Jer. 10. 23. and though it be a hard thing rightly to distinguish betwixt Sin and Duty yet thy Law thy Word and thy Truth which are quick and powerful dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit and is a director of the thoughts and thy Law giveth light Psal 119. 105. Psal 32. 8. For thy Testimonies O Lord are sure making wise the simple Psal 19. 7. For thou alone canst make all thy Dispensations prove profitable in order to the purging away of Sin even when they seem to be destructive Esa 27. 9. especially when thou intends them not for destruction but for tryal Deut. 8. 2 16. and for further Humiliation for thou O Lord hast led me for many years through a barren and wearisome Wilderness to the end that thou mayst work thy work of Mortification in me although if it had seemed good unto thee thou couldst have brought me into the Land of Promise and Rest a nearer way Exod. 13. 17. For thou by hardships many a time hides Pride from men and sealest up their instruction that thou may'st deliver his Soul from the Pit and that his life may see the light Job 33. 17. And although thou O Lord shouldst send me the back tract and tenor of my Life to seek my Souls comforts and incouragements from thence yet I have no cause to complain of hard dealing from thy hand seeing it is thy ordinary way with some of thy people Psal 42. 6. O God my Soul is cast down within me therefore will I remember thee from the Land of Jordan and from the Hill Hermon c. Yea the last time he brought me to the Banqueting-house and made love his Banner over me amongst the cold High-land Hills beside Kipper Nov. 1673. he remembred his former kindnesses towards me but withal he spoke it in mine Ear that there was a tempestuous storm to meet me in the Face which I behooved to go through with the strength of that Provision 1 Kings 19. 7. And now O my Soul seeing it is his ordinary way and method with thee to send a shower and a sunblink and again a sunblink and shower therefore keep thou silent to God and murmure not fret not be not disquieted be still and be content seeing all my Persecutors can do either by fraud or force can neither alter the Nature or kind of my sufferings on add so much as a degree thereto neither lengthen out the time of them for a moment Matthew 10. 29. Exodus 12. 41. All Pharoahs Power could not keep Israel one Night longer in Egypt therefore it is my duty to study with Paul Philippians 4. 11 12. Whatsoever State I am in therewith to be content and say Should the Earth be forsaken and the Rock be removed out of its place for me Job 18. 4. should God alter the course of his Providence for me in which there is such an efficacy as to carry all things to the proper and appointed end what an irresistable power and that I may be found in him not as having my own Righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith Phil. 3. 9. 10. and to resign up unto God my will and affections to be disposed as he pleaseth and to say with fear humility and reverence O Father not my Will but thine be done and whether I live or dye I may be the Lords that through his Mercy and Grace I may attain to his approbation viz. Well done good and faithful Servant who hath hitherto sent his Angel and shut the Lyons Mouth that they have not hurt me Dan. 6. 22. and who hath so shut the eyes of my Persecutors with a Sodomitish blindness that hitherto they could not find out the way how to break in upon me and I hope he will in due time bring me out of the fiery Furnace and shall not through his Grace suffer the smell thereof to be found upon me and if not yet I never held it to be my duty to worship this rotten and stinking Idol of Jealousie which these Nations have set up who have killed both the Lord Jesus and their own Prophets and have persecuted us Thes 1. 15. For thou O Lord hast not abhorred nor despised my afflictions when I was afflicted neither hast thou hid thy Face from me but when I cryed unto thee thou heardest me Ps 22. 24. Now O Lord God thou hast made the Heaven and the Earth by thy great Power and stretched out Arm Jer. 32. 17. Bring thou me at length to a happy arrival within the Gates of the New Jerusalem where no unclean thing can come that my praise may be of thee in the great Congregation And although as Job saith 10. 17. That thou O Lord hast delivered me to the ungodly and hast turned me over into the hands of the wicked yet by this I know that thou O Lord favourest me because mine Enemies do not triumph over me when I stand in Judgement thou O Lord didst not condemn and if it pleaseth thee thou will not leave me in their hands Ps 41. 11. Ps 37. 33. But canst bring up my Life from the Pit of Corruption Jonah 2. 6. And seeing I have not preferred nor sought after mine own things but thy Honour and Glory the Good Liberty and Safety of thy Church and People although I may be now mis-constructed by many yet at length I hope thou Lord will make my Light break forth as the Morning and my Righteousness as the Noon-day and that Shame and Darkness shall cover all who are Adversaries to my Righteous cause For thou Lord art the Shield of my help and the Sword of my excellency and my Enemies shall be found Lyars Amen yea and Amen James Mitchel
with many more and that in such an Extraordinary dreadful and terrible manner for my engaging to Prelacy and a Lordly Government over the Church of Christ contrary to which there lie so many ties and obligations on this Land that with the Grace of God I would not adventure to abide the terror of the Lord for all the stipends and preferments in Europe And truly the worst I wish to you or any Prelate in Britain or Ireland or their adherents is that they may have as sound a yokeing with their Consciences as I have had if they be not incorrigible Enemies of Christ Next upon serious search of the word of God and of Antiquity I am the more confirm'd in my Resolution Blondellus Salmatius Gerson Bucer yea the whole current of Primitive Fathers especially Smectymnuus have vindicated Presbytery against the whole World I want not many more solid Reasons to add only I suppose I could never be satisfied in them and therefore I forbear To conclude I do here before God and the whole World profess my disowning of Lordly Prelacy as it is now Established in our Land which I was once most fully engag'd into and my firm and resolute adherence to the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government of the Church of Scotland as it was professed in this Nation from the year of our Lord 205. and downward for the space of 230 years and then since the year 1580. till the year 1610. and then from the year 1638. till the year 1661. and from thence downwards by many Godly in these three Lands till this very day is and more particularly to the point that Government of Christs Church by an equality and parity of Pastors and Ministers all of them with one shoulder carrying on the work of the Lord and exercising the Keyes of Order and Jurisdiction Doctrine and Discipline in Communi according to due Order and feeding the flock of God not as being Lords of Gods Heritage but ensamples to the flock yea I do here with all the Lords faithful Servants and Witnesses in these three Lands both in the present and some former Generations and with all the Lords Witnessing and Suffering Servants and people that have heen or now are in this Land or present Generation confess and bear my Witness and Testimony the cause of God and work of Reformation so much as was attained thereof how afflicted and born down now soever and to the confessions of Faith of the Church of Scotland and of the three Kingdoms and to the rational and trinational Covenant and that I do rather choose to suffer affliction with the poor suffering people of God then to enjoy the pleasures of Sin for a season esteeming the reproaches for Christ greater riches than all the pleasures and preferments in the World I desire you with your Brethren to consider those Scriptures and take them home to you Isa 66. 5. Zachary 11. 5. John 16. 2 3. John 9. 1 10. Remember your worthy Bedfellow that is this day I hope in glory shall bear Witness against you Farewell for ever Lordly Prelacy for I had never a joyful hour since I engaged therein and welcome welcome my dear Lord Jesus Christ I embrace thee with the arms of my Soul and thy Cross I profess this confess thee bearing my Testimony to thee and thy persecuted Truth and by thy blood and the word of thy Testimony and not loving my life unto the death I hope to overcome Cambre-Ile August 6. 1677. Sic subscribit Alex. Symer Minister of the Gospel at Cambre Unless you are vers'd in our Historian Buchanan you will wonder why this Learned Antiquarian should assert That the Government of our Church was Presbyterian from the first Plantation of the Gospel in 205. or rather 203. till the arrival of Palladius in the middle of the Fifth Century You must know therefore that all the Authority our Presbyterians have for this assertion is from Buchanan that furious Enemy of Bishops who in the Fifth Book of his History writes that the Church in the aforesaid time was not governed by Bishops but by the Monks or Culdees which were it true as it is false would prove that the Government of the Church in that interval was not Presbyteterian but perfectly Laical seeing it was long after that time that Monks were admitted among the Clergy and permitted to meddle with Church affairs But you may find a larger confutation of this groundless assertion of Buchanan in Archbishop Spotswoods History in the seven first Pages of the First Book But to continue my Narrative of Mr. Mitchel I proceed to acquaint you with other memorable things that happen'd between his Condemnation and Execution which was on Friday the 18. of January last in the Grass-market about Three of the Clock in the Afternoon Some time before the execution the Reverend Mr. Annand Dean of Edinburgh not discourag'd with the unthankful returns one of his Brethren had receiv'd from the Malefactor before out of his tender compassion to his Soul wrote him a very affectionate and pious Letter wherein he endeavour'd to shew him from the Gospel how contrary his Principles and Practices were to the Doctrine of Christianity and exhorted him to Repentance for that Un-christian attempt by which he design'd to take away the Life of one Sacred Person and grievously wounded another c. to all which he return'd this Answer SIR I Received yours and since my time is very short and so very pretious I can only thank you for your Civility and Affection whether real or pretended and I tell you I truly close with all the precepts of the Gospel to Love and Peace and therefore pray I both for Mr. Sharp and you But knowing both Mr. Sharp's Wickedness and my own sincerity and the Lord 's Holy Soveraignty to use his Creatures as he pleases I can only refer the manifestation of my Fact to the day of God's Righteous and Universal Judgement praying heartily that God may have mercy on you and open your eyes to see both the wickedness of all your ways and of your Godless insulting over an unjustly condemn'd dying Man and grant unto you repentance and remission of your sins I am in this your well-wisher James Mitchel The Dean in his Letter urged an excellent argument to convince him that the impulse which was upon him so many years to assassin the Primate could not come from God like the Impulse of Phineas and the Zealots because he fail'd in the attempt which never any person did or could do that was moved by God to do an Heroick Act. But you see the blind Pseudo-Zealot takes no notice of this Argument in his Answer wherein to shew what an implacable enemy he was to the Office as well as the Person of the Archbishop he mentions his Grace not by his Character but by his Name Having been told in the Prison that he would not be permitted to speak to the People before his Execution he transcribed
Ravillac Redivivus BEING A NARRATIVE Of the late TRYAL of M R. JAMES MITCHEL A Conventicle-Preacher Who was Executed the 18th of January last for an attempt which he made on the Sacred Person of the Archbishop of St. ANDREWS To which is Annexed An Account of the TRYAL of that most wicked Pharisee Major THOMAS WEIR who was Executed for Adultery Incest and Bestiality In which Are many Observable Passages especially relating to the present Affairs of Church and State In a Letter from a Scottish to an English Gentleman LONDON Printed by Henry Hills 1678. SIR I Received your Letter wherein you charge me with unkindness for having neglected to Write unto you for the last six moneths and you also tell me you cannot imagine what hath made me so silent all this while that others have sent their Correspondents in England so many Letters of Scottish News But what you seem to make an aggravation of my fault I must Retort upon you in my own Defence and tell you plainly that being a Person uncapable to Write certainties in State-matters and too honest to Write lyes I could not prevail with my self to follow the ill example of many of my Countrey-men whereof some maliciously Wrote their own Forgeries and some out of weakness their Jealousies and Fears and all pretending to understand not only what were but what would be the Intrigues of Halyrud-House fill'd their Muddiman-letters with their own Inventions instead of real Truth The Reports which these Instruments of Mischief sent to London rebounded as quickly hither again and considering how foolishly some and how maliciously others of their Stories were contriv'd I cannot but sigh for the unhappiness of my Countrey where these Coiners and Dispersers of false News like the false Prophets in the Kingdom of Israel are a National judgment and a grievous Plague both to Church and State Therefore let me prevail with you for the time to come to give as little credit to the flying Reports which are sent from our Country as I do to those which are sent from yours and that we may both grow wiser by other mens Follies and take surer measures in our future Correspondence give me leave to propose that we Write nothing hereafter but matters of Fact and consine our selves to relate such useful and worthy Contingencies as might become an Historian of his own Age. By observing this rule we shall keep our selves within the safe bounds of Prudence and Duty and profit one another by our mutual Correspendence without abusing the credulity of the Vulgar or injuring the Ministers of publick Affairs Wherefore that I may put my own advice into practise and be a good example to my own rule the Subject of this Letter shall be a faithful Narrative of the Tryal Condemnation and Execution of one of our Presbyterian Preachers who made an attempt on the Sacred Person of the Archbishop of St. Andrews in the moneth of July 1668. The Story is very comprehensive and will invite me to speak of many particular things and persons and it will be difficult for me to pass through it all without touching a little upon publick Affairs in doing of which I shall endeavour to perform the part of a faithful Historian in keeping to my rule of Writing nothing but matter of Fact I have already fix'd the beginning of this Story in the moneth of July 1668. But the execrable wretch resolved to do the Fact two years before he did it and languish'd all the time for want of an opportunity to execute his inhumane design At last having observ'd that the Lord Primate us'd always to go about this Town in his Coach he resolv'd to Pistol him in it and accordingly on Saturday of the foresaid moneth discharged a Pistol loaden with three Bullets at him which were intercepted by the arm of the Lord Bishop of Orkney who at the same instant was getting into his Graces Coach As soon as he had shot he walked fast away and as he crossed the Street the Primate got a view of his face He was not immediately pursued which gave him opportunity to escape into the House of one Ferguson an ejected Minister which being in an obscure place of the Town he had prepar'd for a retreat in case he could get safe thither There having disguised himself by putting on a Periwig and changing his Clothes he immediately went into the Street again and made as great a bussel as any in the throng to find out the Assassin who had shot at the Primate and as he hop'd had kill'd him in his Coach He was known by none in the crowd but by three of his Confederates who had come to Town on purpose to assist him in his bloody design Their Designations or Titles were Barscob Mandroget and Major Lermouth who had been Ring-leaders in the Rebellion at Pentland-Hills in the year 1668. The Assassin joyn'd himself with these three and after a Consultation what they should do for their further security they unanimously resolv'd to retire into the Garden of Sir Archibald Primrose the now Justice General or to speak in your Phrase the Lord Chief Justice who had for many years the misfortune to be esteem'd a favourer and encourager of the Fanatical Faction though it be hard to imagine how a man that hath gotten so great an Estate by the Kings Royal Bounty should have so much favour for the worst of His Subjects unless he hath lost all sense of Gratitude and Honour Certain it is that there are such Monsters of Disloyalty and Ingratitude in the World and as certain it is though he be not one of them that the credit he hath with that party encourag'd this Murnival of Rebels and Murderers to shelter themselves the following night within his Precincts rather than any other Man 's in this populous Town But the Morning approaching they thought it safer to quit the Town and the other three conducting Mr. James Mitchel for that 's the name of this abominable Man he made a final escape by their assistance and was never after seen in this Country till the latter end of 1673. In this Interval betwixt July 68. and the latter end of 73. he had rambled through Holland England and Ireland from whence he return'd to his Country resolv'd as it seems to assassin the Primate again Not long after his return he married and repair'd with his Wife to Edinburgh presuming that after more than five years absence he might live incognito here at least so long till he could find another opportunity to execute his bloody design In order to which he hir'd a Shop within a door or two of the Primate's Lodgings where his Wife pretended to sell Tobacco and Brandy and such like things But he had not long frequented there before he was discover'd and apprehended upon suspicion and when he was taken which was on the same day of the Week and in the same place where he had formerly stood to commit the fact
several Copies of his intended Speech whereof one was found in his Pocket and taken from him before he was carried out to Execution It is long and the former part containing nothing but Libellous reflections on the Privy Council the Justiciary Lords and the King's Advocate I shall content my self to send you a transcript of the latter I Acknowledge my particular and private sins have been such as have merited a worse Death unto me but I dye in the hope of the merits of Jesus Christ to be freed from those Eternal punishments due to me for sin Yet I am confident that God doth not plead with me in this place for my private and particular sins but that I am brought here that the Work of God might be made manifest and for the Tryal of Faith John 9. 3. 1 Pet. 1. 7. and that I may be a witness for his despised Truth and interest in this Land who am called to seal the same with my Blood And I wish heartily that this my poor Life may put an end to the persecution of the true Members of Christ in this Kingdom so much actuate by these perfidious Prelates and in opposition to whom and in testimony of the Cause of Christ I at this time willingly lay down my Life and bless my God that he hath thought me so much worthy to do the same for his Glory and Interest Finally concerning a Christian Duty in a singular extraordinary case and my particular Judgement concerning both Church and State it is evidently declar'd and manifested more fully elsewhere So farewel all Earthly enjoyments and welcome Father Son and Holy Spirit into whose hands I commend my spirit As to that particular Christian duty in an extraordinary case and his Judgement concerning Church and State manifested elsewhere he means a larger blasphemous Libel which he left behind him wherein he endeavours to justifie his fact It is very long but yet I beseech you to read it over and if you have not read Naphthali nor Jus Populi vindicatum which is a Reply to the Answer which the Bishop of Orkney whom this miscreant wounded made to Naphthali I am confident you must be surpriz'd with horrour and astonishmment to see such Un-christian Doctrines come from a Christian Pen. Yet the Primitive Churches never receiv'd the Apostolick Epistles with greater veneration than the Members of our Field-Congregations receive such discourses as this nor can any Church-man respect any ancient Ecclesiastical Writer half so much as they adore Naphthali which is written in the Defence of the Rebellion in 1666. and wherein this horrid mans attempt upon the Primate is commended for an Heroical Act and that cursed Book with Lex Rex Jus populi vindicatum and Mr. Rutherfords Letters are the Fathers and Counsels of our Fife and Western Whigs I have here subjoyned the Account of my self principles and foresaid practises as they were set down in a Letter to a Friend and another Declaration both written by me when first Conveened before the Lords Justices in the year 1674. The Coppy of my Letter Edinburgh Tolbuith February the 16th 1674. SIR ME who may justly call my self the least of all Saints and the chiefest of all Sinners hath Christ his Son our Lord called to be a Witness for his destroyed Truth and trampled on Interest by this Wicked Blasphemous and God-contemning Generation and against all their other perfidious Wickednesses Sir I say the confidence I have in your real Friendship and love to Christ his Truth People Interest and Cause hath incouraged me to write to you hoping that you will not misconstruct nor take advantage of my Infirmities and Weakness you have heard of my Indictment which I take up in these two particulars First as they term it Rebellion and Treason anent which I answered to my Lord Chancellor that it was no Rebellion but a Duty which every one was bound to have performed in joyning with that party And in the year 1656. Mr. Robert Lightonne being the Primate of the Colledge of Edinburgh before our Laureation tendered to us the national Covenant and solemn League and Covenant which upon mature Deliberation I found nothing in them but a short compend of the Moral Law only obliging us to our Duty towards God and Men in their several Stations and I finding that our then banished Kings Interest lay wholly included therein viz. Both the Oath of Coronation Allegiance c. And they being the then tessera of all Loyalty And My Lord it was well known that then many were taking the Tender and forswearing Charles Stewarts Parliament and House of Lords I then subscribed them both The doing of which My Lord Chancellor would have stood me at no less rate if all 's well known then this my present adhering and prosecuting the ends thereof doth now And when I was questioned what then I called Rebellion I answered That it is Ezra 7. 26. And whosoever will not do the Law of thy God and of the King c. But being questioned by the Commissioner before the Council there anent I answered as I said to My Lord Chancellor before in the year 1656. Mr. Robert Lightonne being then Primate of the Colledge of Edinburgh before our Laureation he tendered to us the national Covenant and solemn League and Covenant where he stopped me saying I wade you are come here to give a Testimony and then being demanded what I called Rebellion if it was not Rebellion to oppose His Majesties Forces in the face to which I answered My Lord Commissioner if it please your Grace I humbly conceive that they should have been with us meaning that it was the Duty of those Forces to have joyned with us according to the national Covenant at which answer I perceived him to storm But says he I hear that you have been over Seas with whom did you Converse there Answer with my Merchant My Lord. But saith he with whom in particular with one John Michel a Cousin of mine saith he I have heard tell of him he is a Factor in Rotterdam to which I conceded But saith he did you not Converse with Mr. Levingston and such as he To which I answered My Lord Commissioner I Conversed with our banisht Ministers to which he replyed banisht Ministers banisht Traytors he will speak Treason at the very Bar. Then he answered himself saying but they would call the shooting at the Bishop an Heroick Act To which I answered That I never told them of any such thing Question But where did you see James Wallace last Answ Towards the borders of Germany some year ago Quest But what ailed you at my Lord St. Andrews here pointing at him with his finger Answ My Lord Commissioner the grievous oppression and horrid Bloodshed of my Brethren and the eager pursuit after my own Blood as it appeareth this day to your Grace and to all His Majesties Honourable Council after which he commanded to take me away that they might see what
the Sword and Scepter and set the Crown upon his head and he accordingly received them according to these Sacred Oaths and Promises and swore by the everliving God to use and improve them for the end aforesaid and especially in order to the performing of this Article viz. The extirpation and overthrow of Prelates and Prelacy and now the want of what Authority do they mean or speak of truly I know not except it be the Authority of their aggregation of new Gods of whom they have their gain life and standing viz. Chemosh or Bachus which with drunken Moab delighted to dwell within dark Cells and Ashteroth and Venus whom they worship in the Female kind because of their Adulteries and Whoredoms at also Milchom or Molech which signifies a Tyrannical King or a Devil if they will have it so in whose arms and power they put their young Infants and Posterity to be burnt and destroyed according to his Lust and Pleasure Amos 5. 26. Psal 116. 37. and that Mammon which they delight to worship daily together with their own bellies whose glory is their shame who mind earthly things whose end will be destruction except they repent which there is little probability of Psal 3. 19. to which if we may add their abominable Pride and Blasphemous perjury then their Gods will be equal in number to the Whore their Mother from whom they have their being strength and standing and from the Devil their Father who was a Deceiver Lyar Murderer from the beginning and now seeing the Prelates possess whatsoever their Gods Chemosh c. giveth them to possess then why should not we possess what the Lord our God giveth us to possess viz. His eternal Truths manifested to us in his revealed Will and keep and defend the same from all Innovations Corruptions and Traditions of his or our Adversaries defend our lives Laws and Liberties out of the hands of our Usurping Enemies Jud. 11. 24. for sure I am that God once dispossest the Prelates and Malignants of all these and should they again possess them through our defect God forbid But the like of this work our Murthering Prelates like not who plead like the Whore their Mother for passive Obedience and that all the Lords people who may not comply with your Idolatries should lay down their necks to their bloody Axes with whom too too many of our Hypocritical time-serving and perfidious Professors do agree who would rather abide with Ruben amongst the Sheepfolds than Jeopard either life or fortune in the help of the Lord against the Mighty but do not consider the bitter curse pronounced by the Angel of the Lord against Meros to which he immediately subjoyns a blessing upon Jael the Wife of Hebar the Kenite others excuse themselves thus viz. Vengeance is mine and I will re-pay but so the Throne and Judgement is the Lords and by this they would take away the use and office of Magistracy which erronious principle I detest for God even in the working of Miracles viz. in dividing the Red Sea Exod. 14. 16. he commanded Moses to stretch forth his Rod and Christ when he opened the blind Man's eyes maketh use of clay and of spittle though indeed I mean not of any who were willing to have helped but wanted opportunity yet there are many peevish time-serving Professors who resolve they shall never suffer so long as they have either Soul or Conscience to morgage providing that they may save them from suffering and if it will not do their business it seemeth that before they suffer they resolve to sell out at the ground Now Sir I have neither mis-interpreted Scripture nor mis-applyed it inregard of the Persons here hinted at nor been wrong in the end which ought to be the glory of God and the good of his Church and People Then I think that some Persons might forhear to scourge me so sore with their Tongues while I am not yet condemned by the common enemy and my bearing of some things reported by some behind my back hath occasioned my writing to you at this time O Sir be entreated to pray to the Lord in my behalf that he would be pleased out of his Mercy and Goodness to save me from sinning under suffering in this hour and power of darkness for my Soul is prest in me in the search betwixt sin and duty viz. least I should be too niggard and sparing of life when God calleth for it and upon the other hand least I should be too Prodigal and lavish of it in not using all legal defences in preserving of it and many things of the like Nature I am in a strait O Lord undertake thou for me Sir I hope you will excuse me in sending you these indistinct and irregular lines when you consider my present condition Sir believe I would many times when I am before them think a Scaffold a sweet retirement least they should cheap and deceive me in making me either to stain the declarative Glory of God my own Conscience or his People and Interest in wronging of them either by opening of the Adversaries mouths against them or in letting loose their hand upon them henceforth let the Adversary either say or do what they can yet the Righteous will hold on their way and he who hath clean hands will be stronger and stronger Job 17. 9. But he that saith unto the Wicked Thou art Righteous him shall the People Curse Nations shall abhor him Prov. 24. 24. Farewel in the Lord. POST-SCRIPT IT is acknowledged by all rational Royalists that it is lawful for any private Person to kill an Usurper or Tyrant sine titulo and to kill Irish Robbers and Tories or the like and to kill Boars Wolves and such devouring Beasts because the good of this action doth not redound to the Person himself only but to the whole Common-wealth and the Person acting incurrs the danger himself alone The Second Part of The Cloud of Witnesses pag. 60. Mr. Knoxe has these express words For God saith he had not only given me Knowledge and a Tongue to make known the Impiety of the Idol but had given me credit with many who would have put in execution God's Judgements if I would only have consented thereto But so careful was I of common Tranquility and so loth was I to offend some that in secret conference with zealous Men I travelled rather to slacken that fervency God had kindled in them than to animate or encourage them to put their hands to the Lord's Work wherein I acknowledge my self to have done most wickedly and from the bottom of my heart I do ask my God pardon that I did not what in me lay to have supprest that Idol in the beginning But O! how far are the Men in our time from such convictions whose work it is to put out any spark of Life or Zeal which appeareth in any Person against Idolatry and Idol of our times Now let Men whether Foes or Friends
diabolical prophane and blasphemous and Pharoah-like to say Who is the Lord that they should obey him Exod. 5. 2. Now seeing both the Throne and the Judgement is the Lords then O blessed and happy Magistrate who ruleth and governeth his Subjects keeping in a streight Line of subordination to God's Law and Statutes for in so doing who may say to him what dost thou Prov. and O happy and blessed people thus Governed Deut. 4. 8. And what Nation is there so great that hath Statutes and Judgments so Righteous as all this Law which I set before you this day But O the Blasphemous perjuries and Wickedness of this Apostate Generation whom no Bands Obligations nor Covenants can bind except these spoken in the 149 Psal 8. But shall they thus break the Covenant and escape and be delivered Ezek. 17. 15 18. As if the Lords hand and power could not reach them to inflict just and due punishment upon them wich commit such things I do detest and abhor that woful Indulgence and Incroachment and Usurpation on the Crown and Prerogatives Royal of our Lord Jesus Christ at least in the givers thereof howbeit I have very much Love Charity and Affection to many who have embraced the same for I do really think that they have been out-witted in that matter and have not wickedly departed from following the Lord yet I hope they shall get their Souls for a prey in the day of the Lord although they may suffer loss in building such Hay and Stuble upon the Rock Christ Jesus when that their work shall be burnt up by the fire of his Jealousie I protest before God Angels and men against all these Acts of Parliament or Council which are against and derogative to the work of God and Reformation and carrying on of the same according as we are ingaged and sworn in these holy bands of the National Covenant and solemn League and Covenant I abhor the shedding of the blood of the Lords people for their adhering to the same and the peoples guarding such in Prison houses and at Scaffolds unto their death whom both by the Oath of God upon them and by the eminent and laudable Laws of the Land and by the Law of Nature they were obliged to have defended to the uttermost of their lives and fortunes It being most well known that such as were put to death had committed no Crime but on the contrary had performed a Duty which they were as much obliged to have performed as these if the guarders had been as faithful to God and man as the Pannels were Likewise I protest against their Banishment Imprisonment or Finings or Confinements and against all the hardships and perplexities of whatsoever kind which they have been put to through the Iniquity of the times So that we may justly with our predecessors say That our Persecutors have devoured us and have Crushed us have emptied us swallowed us up like a Dragon and have filled their bellies with our Delicates and have cast us out 5 Jer. 34. For which cause God gave a charge to prepare Instruments for the overthrow and destruction of such Persecutors v. the 12. Because it was the Vengeance of the Lord and of his Temple so shall our Remnant who outlive these Persecutors say v. 35. The violence done to me and my flesh be upon Babylon and my blood be upon the Inhabitants of Chaldea let wrath from the Lord pursue them for their blood and violence in their persons and Estates and their strength wherein they conside and in their friends and favourites who have consulted and contrived within their wicked Courses I hope the time is drawing nigh and that the joynts of their Loyns is loosing their knees are beginning to smite one against another Dan. 5. 6. and the hand-writing begins to be pourtrayed upon the wall because they have not considered what God did to their Predecessors for their Idolatrous Pride and Wickedness although they knew it yet they are become more insolent in Idolatry and Wickedness and daring against God than ever their Forefathers presumed to be in medling with the Vessels and Materials of Gods house and with the Crown and Kingly Office of Christ Jesus and have appropriate them to their own Idolatrous ends and uses 21. 22. Therefore when the forbished Sword of the Lords Indignation and Justice breaketh forth to devour which it may do before the dark night of these dreadful Dispensations pass over then shall the time-serving Hypocrites of this Generation begin to their untimely Prayers viz. Hills and Mountains fall upon them to hide them from the face of the Righteous Judge for who may abide the day of his coming for Executing of Vengeance on his Adversaries In that day the man shall be accused who keepeth back his Sword from blood and who doth the work of the Lord deceitfully Jer. 48. 10. Yea happy shall he be that taketh this Cursed Malignant and prelatical brood and dasheth them against the Stones yea happy shall he be that rewardeth them as they have served us Psal 137. For this honour have all his Saints the high Praises of God in their mouth and a two edged Sword in their hand to execute Vengeance upon the Heathen Psal 149. Having thus delivered my self in the points that I have mentioned I only add to what I have said that I do only own these things as my own Judgement in these great and Important matters not willing that any thing wherein others may differ from me should be looked upon â—s the principles and perswasion of that party whereto I adhere And I obtest that no man be so Diabolick and Prophane as to charge this upon any of my perswasion it being but my own in which I hope God hath approven me and whom God Justifieth who dare Condemn Now if the Lord in his wife and over-ruling Providence bring me to the end of my Pilgrimage and to my long looked for and desired Happiness let him take his own way and time in bringing me to it And in the mean while O my Soul sing thou this Song Spring up O Well of this Happiness and Salvation of all this eternal Hope and Consolation and whilst thou art burthened with this clog of a clay Tabernacle dig thou deep in it by Faith Patience Hope and Charity and withal the Instruments which God hath given thee dig in it both by precepts and promises dig carefully and dig continually ay and till thou come to the Source and head of the Fountain himself from whence the waters of Life flow forth dig until thou come to the Assembly of the first born when this Song is most suitably sung to the Praise and Glory of the rich Mercy and free Grace of this fountain of Life O my Soul follow in all this digging the Direction of the great Law-giver so shalt thou prosper in all thy taking of pains O happy Nobles and Princes of Israel who were admitted to the sight and to the Song
IN some parts of this Villainous Paper you find the Author discoursing like a Jesuite in some like an Enthusiast and in many places like both And from the beginning to the end of it he argues from the supposed validity of the judicial Law which God gave the Isralites not as their God but as their Political Sovereign and which they on the other hand received from his infinite Majesty not on a Moral Account as his rational Creatures or the Sons of Adam or Noah but upon the account of the civil Relation they had to him as Subjects or his people in a Political sence For the Jewish Government as all their Writers agree was a Theocratical Constitution or the Temporal Kingdom of God who was pleased to become Jehovah-Stator and dwell among them in a visible external manner in so much that the Judges and Kings were but his High-commissioners and Vice-roys who were chosen and deposed by him at his pleasure and like Moses and Joshua his first two Generals could neither make War nor Peace nor undertake any State-matter of great moment without first asking Counsel of the Lord. Sometimes he answered them by Messengers or Prophets sometimes by Dreams and Visions but most commonly in the time betwixt Moses and the Captivity by Urim and Thummim which was a Political Oracle appointed on purpose for the Judges Kings or Generals or the whole Congregation to consult in matters of State and War But our Saviour who came to break down the wall of partition betwixt the Gentiles and the Jews threw his Fathers inclosure into the Common again and put an end to his Political Government over the Jews Who had they embraced Christianity and continued in their Country as one entire people to this day would not have been obliged by their specifick Judgments and Statutes wherein their Civil Criminal and Military Laws consist No the whole design of the Gospel is so inconsistent with the Jewish Oeconomy that it is impossible for Christians to observe some ridiculous to observe others and impious again to observe others of their judicial Laws Of the last sort are all those which God gave the Jews as Carnifices Gentium or Executioners of his Wrath upon the Seven Idolatrous incorrigible Nations as likewise all those Capital Acts against Idolatry as High Treason to his Government and inconsistent with the design he had to be King as well as God of the Jews whom he set up as a light among the Gentiles and secured them by those great severities from falling into Demonolatry which was the Catholique Religion of the World This was the general Opinion of all Christians till the Romanists began to argue by false Analogy from things and persons in the Jewish to things and persons under the Christian Dispensation and from them it was that the Presbyterians first of all learn'd to defend Murders Assassinations Rebellions and Massacres as you see this Villain hath done Pope Adrian the Sixth mov'd the Princes of Germany to cut off Luther and the Lutherans because forsooth God cast Corah and his Company down into Hell and commanded that all those should be put to death that would not obey the High Priest And as Davila relates in the Ninth book of his History the Pope compared the Duke of Guise that Patron of the cursed League to Judas Maccabeus and the Jesuites complimented him with the name of Gideon and bid him go on and prosper in the name of God According to which damnable notion of false Zealotry when they Consecrate an Assassin as Hospinian hath proved they sometimes do to Murder an Heretick Prince they Solemnly Consecrate him to the work of the Lord in such a like form as this Thou Elect Son of God take here the Sword of Gideon the Sword of Jeptha the Sword of Sampson the Sword of David the Sword of the Maccabees go and be of good courage and the Lord strengthen thy Arm. Can any thing be more like Mr. Mitchels Justification than this would not one think his Soul had entered into that secret of the Jesuites seeing he hath not acted only like one of their Assassins but written his Apology with their poysoned Ink. If Father Brown the Jesuite that Preach'd among them so many years had penn'd it could it have savoured stronger of the Society of Jesus or become such an Author better than it doth He boasted on his death-bed at Ingestonbrigges that he had Preached as down right Popery in our Field-conventicle as ever he had Preached in Rome it self and had he been the Author of this Paper he might have also boasted to the comfort of his departing Soul that he had written as true a Papistical Pamphlet as ever was written in the Romish Church I think there is great presumption to assert that the Father might help to indoctrinate Mitchel in this Mystery of Iniquity but if he did not yet both he and the Author of Naphthali might invent these Doctrines without consulting Jesuites seeing it is the Cabala of their own Sect. For this way of arguing to do mischief from the judicial Law was the Logick of our most Primitive Presbyterians which hath ever since caused so much ruine and blood For in the Convention at Edinburgh Jan. 1560. for Ratification of a new form of Church-Policy it was Enacted that all Monuments and Places of Idolatry by name Chappels Cathedral Churches and Colledges should be suppressed whereupon through the instigation of John Knox ensued saith my Author a pitiful Vastation of Churches and Church-buildings so that the Libraries nor Church-registers nor Sepulchers of the dead were spar'd And some ill advised Preachers saith he did animate the People in their Barbarous proceedings crying out that places where Idols had been worshipped ought by the Law of God to be destroyed and that the sparing of them was the reserving of things execrable as if he subjoyns the commandment given to Israel for destroying the places where the Canaanites did worship their false Gods had been a Warrant for them to do the same I confess the Council of Carthage in the time of Honorius decreed that the Emperors should be Petition'd to raze the Temples and destroy the Reliques of Heathen Idols but it was because in Maritime and other places of Afrique Idolatry was yet professed in them and not from any sense of Duty incumbent upon them from the Mosaic Law For that as well as the Latin and Greek Churches had converted the Temples of Idols into the Churches of Christ but as for the supernumerary useless company of them which remain'd as Snares and Monuments of the Dominion which the Devil had had in the World they thought it both for the honour and interest of Christianity that they should be taken away In the following year 1561. although Queen Mary had agreed with the Council That She should have her own Service in Her own Chappel yet the next day when the Tapers were carried through the Court a Zealot of Mr.
ninth day of April in the aforesaid year 1670. They were try'd before that Learned Civilian Mr. William Murray and Mr. John Prestoune Advocates who were made Judges by Commission for that time They were pursued by his Majesty's last Advocate Sir John Nisbett and the Jury by which they were try'd was Gideon Shaw Stationer James Penderer Vintner James Thomson Felt-maker Robert Brown Stationer James Brown Felt-maker Robert Johnston Skinner John Clighorn Merchant with many more sufficient Citizens of Edinburgh most of which together with the greater part of the Witnesses hereafter mentioned are yet alive The Court being set the Majors Libel was read the sum of which was contain'd in these four particulars Primò That he entised and attempted to defile his German Sister Jane Weir when she was but ten years old or thereabout and that he lay with her when she was sixteen years old while they both dwelt in Family with their Father and afterwards had frequent carnal dealing with her in the House of Wicket-Shaw in her younger years and lastly that after she was 40. years old he liv'd in a state of Incest with her in his house at Edinburgh where they dwelt together many years Secundò That he committed Incest with Margaret Bourden Daughter to Mein his Deceased Wife Tertiò That he committed frequent Adulteries during the Life of his said Wife both with married and unmarried Women and particularly with Bessy Weems his Servant Maid whom he kept in his House for the space of twenty years during which time he lay with her as familiarly as if she had been his Wife Quartò That to his Fornications Adulteries and Incests he proceeded to add the unnatural Sin of Beastiality in lying with Mares and Cows particularly in polluting himself with a Mare upon which he rode into the West Country near New Mills All which crimes particulariz'd in manner aforesaid he acknowledg'd judicially at the Bar. The sum of Jane his Sisters Libel is reducible to these two Heads First to the charge of Incest which she committed with her Brother and Secondly to the charge of Sorcery and Witchcraft but most especially of consulting Witches Necromancers and Devils and yet more particularly for keeping and conversing with a Familiar Spirit while she liv'd at Dalkeith which us'd to spin extraordinary quantities of Yarn for her in a shorter time than three or four Women could have done the same All which she judicially confessed in the Face of the Court. Then they proceeded to swear the Witnesses which the Lord Advocate call'd for further probation against them both Of these John Oliphant Wiliam Johnston and Archibald Hamilton Bailies i. e. Aldermen of Edinburgh depon'd that on the Monday preceding the Majors Arraignment he did freely confess and declare unto them that he had committed frequent Incests with his Sister Jane divers Fornications and Adulteries with other Persons and Beastiality with a Mare and a Cow Master John Sinclar a Conventicle-Minister depon'd that the day before his Tryal he freely confessed unto him that he was guilty of Adultery Incest and Bestiality and that his Sister had often been taken out of Bed from him whereupn asking him if he had ever seen the Devil he answered that he had felt him in the dark But as to his conversation with the Devil the Deponent might have declared more for he had confessed to him and many others particularly to the Lord Bishop of Galloway then Minister of Edinburgh that he had lain with the Devil in the shape of a beautiful Woman Margaret Weir Wife to Alexander Weir Bookseller in Edinburgh testify'd that when she was of the Age of 27. years or thereabouts she found the Major her Brother and her Sister Jane lying together in the Barn at Wicket-Shaw and that they were both naked in the bed together and that she was above him and that the Bed did shake and that she heard some scandalous Language between them in particular that her Sister said she was confident she should prove with Child Furthermore she Deponed that Catherine Cooper a Servant of the Majors told her that he had layn with Margaret Bourdon his Wives Daughter so that she would stay no longer in the House Anne Wife to James Simpson Book-binder in Edinburgh declared That on Monday preceding and that day in the morning that he confessed to her he had committed Incest with his Sister Jane and Margaret Bourdon his Wives Daughter as likewise bestiality with a Mare in the West Country and that he had carnally conversed with his Maid-servant Bessy Weems for two and twenty years Mr. Archibald Nisbett Writer to the Signet declared That in the year 51 or 52. it was reported in the Country that the Pannel had committed Bestiality with a Mare near New Mills and that he heard it reported the same day in which it was said he did the Fact Mr. John Alexander of Leith deponed the same and said he was then but half a mile from the place After these depositions the Major being examined about his act of Bestiality declared That a Gentleman having given him a Mare he rode upon her into the West Country to see some Friends and dealt carnally with her near New Mills and that a Woman saw him in the Act and complained of him to Mr. John Nave the Minister of New Mills at whose instance he was brought back to the place by some Soldiers but was there dismissed for want of further probation And further being asked about the time he answered That to the best of his remembrance it was when the Lords Gentlemen and Heritors were taken by the English at Elliot As for probation against Jane Weir the Lord Advocate insisted on her own Declaration and all the Depositions in which as a party she was involv'd And being asked if she knew any thing concerning the Correspondence that was said to be betwixt the Devil and her Brother she declared that she had a long time been jealous of it but was not certain and that six or seven years before she had found a mark upon his shoulder like that which is called the Devils mark at which she was sore afraid The Process being thus ended the Jury did unanimously find the Major guilty of Incest with his Sister and Bestiality with a Mare and a Cow and found him guilty of Adultery and Fornication by a plurality of Votes They also unanimously brought in Jane guilty of Incest with her Brother whereupon the Deputed Judges Sentenced him to be strangled at a Stake betwixt Edinburgh and Leith on Monday following the 11th of April and 〈◊〉 Body to be burnt to Ashes and condemned her to be hanged on the Tuesday following in the Grass-market of Edinburgh Thus far have I given you a juridical Account of the detestable crimes of this Hypocritical Monstrous Man I now proceed to acquaint you with other particulars no less surprizing than the former which upon strict enquiry I have reason to believe to be as true as