THE HISTORY OF SCOTCH-PRESBYTERY BEING AN EPITOME OF The Hind let Loose By Mr. SHIELDS With a Preface by a Presbyter of the Church of Scotland Juven Vitia ultima fictos Contemnunt scauros Castigata remordent LONDON Printed for I. Hindmarsh at the Golden-Ball in Cornhill MDCXCII The PREFACE THE following Treatise being but a short Compend of a larger Book appears at this time to give the World a just Account of the Principles Practices and Behaviour of the Scotch â—resbyterians it was written some Years ago by â—ne of that Fraternity It is sad to consider how â—uch the Spirits of Men are soured and imbitâ—ered by Faction and Interest it shuts their Eyes â—gainst the clearest light The Dictates of Humaâ—ity and the Genius of the Christian Religion â—eeten our Passions but when we are enflamed â—y the Interests of a Party we forget the exâ—ress Laws of God and if they look us broad in 〈◊〉 Face when we offer violence to our Conviâ—ions we bow and bend them by metaphysical â—ricks and Evasions to serve our Design contraâ—y to their original Bias and Sanctity and this â—as never so visible as in that turbulent and fiery â—â—ct that frequently disturbed and now at last â—ath almost over-â—un the Church of Scotland in 〈◊〉 they have Ruined and Oppressed a Learned â—rave and Orthodox Clergy especially in the â—outhern Shires They have a Systeme of Opiniâ—ns peculiar to themselves which they call Their â—rinciples for though a thing in it self is just and â—easonable yet if it be not agreeable to Their â—rinciples that 's to say the Opinions that are â—ore immediately properly and originally Calâ—ulated to serve the Designs of their Society they â—eject it with Indignation and Disdain they pity â—ll Mankind that have not the same Thoughts that â—hey have and they continue by the Authority of their Guides under the slavery of implicite Faith â—ore than any other Sett of Men in the World The Christian Religion above all things designâ—d to alienate our Thoughts and Affections from â—he Pageantry and Vain-glories of the World â—nd to moderate our Passions that they might not â—rove troublesome to Society nor extravagant in â—heir Violence nor precipitate in their Actings â—he Spirit of Faction opposes the Gospel in these great Ends for it covets nothing so much as outward Glory and Empire and it prosecutes these Desires with restless and implacable Ardours and â—ll under the Visor of Religion When our perverse Inclinations which God commanded to be â—ortified are made more head-strong by the â—otions we have of Religion then our Appetites â—ecome as wild as they are unreasonable We find this clearly exemplified in the Phariâ—ees of old Our Saviour came that he might deâ—troy the Works of the Devil and enliven the World by a reasonable Religion to turn Men from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan to the living God to inspire Mankind with the Principles of the best and wisest Philosophy most useful in all the Changes and Vicissitudes of this Life and that which did certainly prepare them for a better he taught his Disciples to be most assiduous in those Duties of Religion that made no Noise abroad and fell not easily under the Observation of Men that advanced solid and substantial Piety to love God and our Neighbour to approve our selves unto him that seeth in secret to despise the Censures and Applause of a perverse Generation and to live upon the invisible Supports of a good Conscience to exercise Patience and Fortitude and Magnanimity because by our Religion we were engaged to Combat with the World and with all its cross Accidents under the Banner of a crucified Saviour Yet when we read the History of the New Testament we find that the most zealous Sect of the Pharisees opposed this blessed Design of our Saviour in all its principal Branches They took great care to be seen by the People in all their odd and extraordinary Performances they were mighty forward to propagate their own Traditions the private Doctrines of their Schools were much dearer to them than the Commandments of God Mark 7. 3. As for Simplicity of Intention Innocence and the Love of God they thought such Vertues not so convenient for them who were in the Government and thought it necessary to have the People blindly to obey their Dictates That Religion that penetrates to the Center of our Spirits and changes the whole Bias of our Souls crosses the Desires of our degenerate Nature and leads every Thought captive to the Obedience of Christ and is supported by the Faith of distant and invisible Rewards they thought such a Religion yielded no nourishment for Vain-glory and therefore they despised it and ordered the matter â—o that amidst all their long Prayers disfigured Faces and theatrical Fasts they might leave their insatiable Passions of Pride Vain-glory Covetousness Malice and Revenge untouched and unsubdued Hence it is that they were very careful in little things Mat. 23 24 whatâ—ever drew after it the applause of the People who always admired the most empty and the most transient things Their Batâ—ologies were mistaken for Zeal and Devotion and their outward Austerities for true Mortificâ—tion They did all things to be seen of Men Mat. 23. 5. and if the Law of God did expresly contradict their beloved Scheme the Law it self must needs bow to their Principle There is nothing in Humane Nature that we feel more tenderly nor is there any thing more deeply engraven on our Souls than the Gratitude we owe to our Parents when their Infirmities and Disasters require our Assistance yet by their Doâ—â—rine of the Corban they evacuated this Fundamental Piety Justice Compassion and Natural Affection were in their Eyes but mean and despicable things they only understood the abstruse Mysteries of Religion and nothing provoked their indignation so much as to be thought ignorant wherefore they so huffingly tell the poor Man restored to his sight by our Saviour dost thou teach us Ioh. 9. 34. tho by the most evident Arguments he had just before exposed both their shameful Ignorance and Vanity and when St. Paul himself was tinctur'd with this leaven his brisk and generous Spirit was sadly employed in persecuting the Church There is nothing more opposite to the pure and undefiled Religion than Pharisaical Pride and Hypocrisy nor no kind of Pharisees persecute with greater Violence and Spite than that sullen and demure Tribe that affect Domination and Tyranny by a counterfeit and disguised Humility The sad Effects of such an insolent Humor are too sadly felt by the Clergy of Scotland The Presbyterian Courts and Judicatories are as void of the common Forms of Justice as of Tenderness and Humanity the late Erection of it being in its Frame more properly Calculated to advance Tyranny and tho their Agents propagate many Stories to lessen and extenuate and sometimes to excuse their unaccountable Proceedings yet as long as they confess the shameful rabbling of the Clergy they acknowledge
proved successful for several Years their Enemies either turning their backs without disturbance when they observed them resolve Defence or in their Assaultings repulsed so that there was never a Meeting which stood to their Defence got any considerable harm thereby Thus the Lord was with us while we were with him but when we forsook him he forsook us and left us in the hands of our Enemies However while Meetings for Gospel-Ordinances did continue the Wicked Rulers did not cease from time to time to encrease their numerous Bands of Barbarous Souldiers for suppressing the Gospel in these Field-meetings But all this is nothing to what followed when thinking these Blood-Hounds were too favourable they brought down from the wild Highlands a Host of Salvages upon the Western Shires more terrible than Turks or Tartars Men who feared not God nor regarded Man to wast and destroy a plentiful Country which they resolved before they left it to make as bare as their own This Hellish Crew was adduced to work a Reformation like the French Conversions to press a Bond of Conformity wherein every one Subscribed was bound for himself and all under him Wife Children Servants Tenants to frequent their Parish Churches and never to go to these Meetings nor reset nor entertain any that went but to Inform against Pursue and Deliver up all vagrant Preachers as they called them to Tryal and Judgment Then for the maintenance of the Souldiers there were imposed new wicked and arbitrary Cesses and Taxations professedly required for suppressing Religion and Liberty banishing the Gospel out of the Land and preserving and promoting the King's Absoluteness over all Matters and Persons Sacred and Civil which under that tentation of great Sufferings threatned to Refusers and under the disadvantage of the silence and unfaithfulness of many Ministers who either did not condemn it or pleaded for the peaceable payment of it many did comply with it then and far more since Yet at that time there were far more Recusants in some places especially in the Western shires than Complyers And there were many of the Ministers that did faithfully declare to the People the Sin of it not only from the illegality of its Imposition by a Convention of over-awed and prelimited States but from the nature of that imposed Compliance that it was a sinful Transaction with Christ's declared Enemies a strengthning the hands of the wicked an obedience to a wicked Law a consenting to Christ's expulsion out of the Land and not only that but far worse than the Sin of the Gadarens a formal Concurrence to assist his Expellers by maintaining their force a hiring our Oppressors to destroy Religion and Liberty and from the declared end of it expressed in the very Narrative of the Act viz. To Levy and Maintain Forces for suppressing and dispersing Meetings of the Lord's People and to shew unanimous affections for maintaining the King's Supremacy as now Established by Law Yet all this time Ministers and Professors were unite and with one Soul and Shoulder followed the work of the Lord 'till the Indulged being dissatisfied with the Meetings in the Fields whose Glory was like to over-cloud and obscure their Beds of ease and especially being offended at the freedom and faithfulness of some who set the Trumpet to their Mouth and shewed Iacob his Sins and Israel his Transgressions impartially without Cloak or Cover they began to make a Faction among the Ministers and to devise how to quench the fervour of their Zeal who were faithful for God But the more they sought to extinguish it the more it brake out and blazed into a flame For several of Christ's Ambassadours touched and affected with the affronts done to their Princely Master by the Supremacy and the Indulgence of its Bastard-Brood and Brat began after long silence to discover its iniquity and to acquaint the People how the Usurper had invaded the Mediator's Chair in taking upon him to Depose Suspend Silence Plant and Transplant his Ministers where and when and how he pleased c. Yet others and the greater number of Dissenting Ministers were not only deficient herein but defended them joyned with them and pretending Prudence and prevention of Schism in effect homologated that deed and the Practice of these Priests Ezek 22. 26. teaching and advising the People to hear them both by Precept and going along with them in their Erastian Course And not only so but Condemned and Censured such who Preached against the sinfulness thereof especially in the first place worthy Mr. Walwood who was among the first Witnesses against that Defection and Mr. Kid Mr. King Mr. Cameron Mr. Donald Cargil c. who Sealed their Testimony afterwards by their blood yet then even by their Brethren were loaden with the reproachful Nick-names of Schismaticks Blind Zealots Jesuites c. But it was always observed as long as Ministers were faithful in following the Lord in the way of their Duty Professors were fervent and under all their Conflicts with Persecutors the Courage and Zeal of the Lovers of Christ was blazing and never outbraved by all the Enemies boastings to undertake brisk Exploits which from time to time they were now and then essaying 'till defection destroyed and division diverted their Zeal against the Enemies of God who before were always the Object against which they whetted the edge of their jusâ— indignation Especially the Arch-Prelate Sharp was judged intollerable by ingenuous Spirits Therefore in Iuly 1668. Mr Iames Mitchel thought it his duty to save himself deliver his Brethren and attempted to cut him off which failing he then escaped but afterwards was Apprehended Tortured Condemned and Executed But Justice would not suffer the Arch-Prelate to escape Remarkable Punishment the severity whereof did sufficiently compensate sate its delay after Ten Years respite For upon the 3 d of May 167 several worthy Gentlemen with some other Men of Courage and Zeal for the Cause of God executed Righteous Judgment upon him in Magus Moore near St. Andrews And that same Month on the Anniversary Day May 29th the Testimony at Rutherglen was Published against that Abomination Celebrating an Anniversary-Day kept every year for giving thanks for the setting up an Vsurped Power destroying the interest of Christ in the Land and against all sinful and unlawful Acts emitted and executed published and prosecuted against our Covenanted Reformation Where also they burnâ— the Acts of Supremacy the Declaration the Act Recissory c. in way of retalition for the burning of the Covenants On the Sabbath following Iune 1. A Field-Meeting near to Lowden-Hill was assaulted by Claverhouse and with him three Troops of Horse and Dragoons who had that Morning taken an honest Minster and about 14 Countrymen out of their Beds and carried them along with them but they were repulsed at Drumclogg and put to flight the Prisoners relieved about 30 of the Souldiers killed on the place and three of the Meeting and several wounded on both sides Thereafter the People
base among ingenuous Men. But here is a Rhapsodie of Flatteries from the deep Sense they have of his Majesties Gracious and surprizing favour finding themselves bound in Duty to offer their most humble and hearty thanks to his Sacred Majesty the favour bestowed being to them valuable above all Earthly comforts One would think it behoved to be a very great favour from a very great Friend for very gracious ends But what is it In not only putting a stop to their long sad Sufferings which were some ground indeed if the way were Honest But this not only supposes an also what is that But also granting us the Liberty which is either a needless Tautology for if all Sufferings were stopped then Liberty must needs follow or it must respect the Qualifications of the Liberty flowing from such a Fountain Absolute Power through such a conveyance stopping all Penal Laws against Papists in such a Form as a Toleration for such Ends as overturning the Reformation and introducing Popery This is the Favour for which they offer most humble and hearty Thanks more valuable to them than all Earthly Comforts Sure if they thank him for the Liberty they must thank him for the Proclamation whereby he grants it and justifie all his claim there to Absoluteness being that upon which it is superstructed and from which it emergeth and so become a listed Faction to abet and own him in all his attemptings engaged now to demean themselves as that he may find Cause rather to enlarge than to diminish his favours which can be no other way but in assisting him to destroy Religion and Liberty at least in suffering him to do what he will without controll O what an indeliberate reproach is this for Ministers who pretend to be yet for the defence of the Gospel thus to be found betraying Religion through justifying and magnifying a Tyrant for his suspension of so many Laws whereby it was established and supported 4. It were more tolerable if they went no farther than Flatteries but I fear they come near the Border of Blasphemy when they say that the Great God hath put this in his Royal Heart which can bear no other Construction but this that the Holy Lord hath put it in his Heart to assume to himself a Blasphemous and Absolute Power whereby he stops and suspends all Penal Laws against Idolaters and gives a Toleration for all Errors If it be capable of any other Sense it must be like that as the Lord is said to have moved David to number the People or that Rev. 17. 17. God hath put it in their Hearts to fulfill his Will and to agree and give their Kingdom to the Beast But to bless God and thank the Tyrant for this wicked Project as deliberate and purposed by Men I say is near unto Blasphemy And again where they say they are firmly resolved by the help of God so to demean themselves as his Majesty may find Cause rather to enlarge than to diminish his favours this in effect is as great Blasphemy as if they had said They resolved by the help of God to be as unfaithful Time-serving and silent Ministers as ever plagued the Church of God for no otherwise can they demean themselves so as he may find cause to enlarge his Favours towards them it being no way supposable that his enlarging his Favours can consist with their faithfulness but if they discover any measure of Zeal against Antichrist he will quickly diminish them Thus far I have compendiously deduced the Account of the progress and Prosecution of the Testimony of this Church to the present State thereof FINIS A Catalogue of some Books Printed for Io. Hindmarsh at the Golden-Ball over against the Royal-Exchange in Cornhill THE Antiquity of the Royal Line of Scotland farther Cleared and Defended against the Exceptions lately offer'd by Dr. Stillingfleet in his Vindication of the Bishop of St. Asaph â—y Sir George Mackenzie His Majesty's Advocate for the Kingdom of Scotland The Moral History of Frugality with its opposite Vices Covetousness Niggardliness Prodigality and Luxury Written by the Honourable Sir George Mackenzie late Lord Advocate of Scotland A Memorial for His Highness the Prince of Orange in Relation to the Affairs of Scotland Together with the Address of the Presbyterian-Party in that Kingdom to His Highness And some Observations on that Address By two Persons of Quality An Account of the Present Persecutâ—on of the Church in Scotland in several Letters The Case of the Present Afflicted Clergy in Scotland truly represented To which is added for Probation the attestation of many unexceptionable Witnesses to every Particular and all the Publick Acts and Proclamations of the Convention and Parliament relating to the Clergy By a Lover of the Church and his Country An Historical Relation oâ— the late Presbyterian Generaâ— Assembly held at Edinburgh from October 16 to November 13. In the Year 1690. In â— Letter from a Person in Edinburgh to his Friend in London * M. Aâ—rel Aâ—â—tonin â—ull de Octâ—e â— 1. 〈◊〉 si sibi ipse conâ—ntrat non in â—erdum natura boâ—itate vincatur â—t ut neque amiâ—itiam câ—lem posâ—t nee justitian â—es liberalitatem Read the Preface to Dr. Hooker's Polity Pretended Answer to the Irâ—nicum I cannot elâ—e the Page having no Books by me