Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	bishop_n	call_v	presbyter_n	3,421	5	11.0026	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

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

he spoke with Mr Shields in St. Jame's Park he 'll acknowledg all the Libels against him to be true and the only method to save your Reputation in this particular is to put it to a fair Trial. But I perceive that you are as unfortunate in the informations that you receive against the Clergy as you are hasty and unadvised in publishing of them Whether the error in Scotch Grammar with which you charge the Dr. be an omission of the Printer or his inadvertence is not material to enquire he had rather commit a thousand such than one Latin Solecism in a publick Harangue ex Cathedra It is uneasie to live next door to a Grammarian Read over again the 2d page of your Continuation l. 21. or the 5th p. of your Preface l. 30. and tell me if it be exact Grammar It is impudence beyond comparison to say that the Dr. charged Mr. Rule falsly with speaking wrong Latin 't is a wonder to me why he himself or any of his Friends should be so zealous to defend him upon that Head and if you would be so wise as to let those stories alone I know none would be so idle as to revive them and because you will not suffer us to forget his Latine I will give you one instance more of the purity of his Stile Asking one of the Students what was his Name the Youth told him so and so but not adding his Sirname He asked again quid est totum nomen At another time missing the Key of a certain Box which is kept in the Library when he would have opened it he told them that were about him Nescio quid factum est de iis habui mox Now the Affirmative is mine I am obliged to prove it when ever you put me to it You are all of you so tender upon the point of Honour that you let nothing pass without present Revenge and Mr. Rule himself may know the Witnesses when he pleases tho it be not decent to print their Names The next accusation against the Dr. is that he cannot forbear Swearing Mr Ridpath I hope it is otherwise and this is but an Article of the original Libel answered already in the Presbyterian Inquisition You was advised by the Author of the Postscript rather to insist on the old Libel than to trust to your own invention Moreover you say that it can be proved that he said to a certain Minister that if the Episcopal party had not the Government he cared not if the Devil had it By other accusers this Calumny is otherwise represented viz. that if the Episcopal party had not the Government he cared not if the Papists had it but both are beat out upon the same Anvil I wish you had named the Minister to whom this was said the Devil has but too much of the Government of the World already and I am affraid that they who publish such malicious and indefinite reports are more governed by him than they are aware of You charge him again that he hindered the printing of Mr. Jameson's Book against Quakerism he had no authority to do so nor was it possible for him to treat Mr. Jameson with greater civility than he did As for the Oath imposed on the Scholars in King James his time that is sufficiently accounted for in another Treatise and whether you are satisfied or not it matters not much The Objejections started against it were but the Whimsies of a malicious Pedant who knew not well what he said It must be confessed that He preferred the French Refugies to the Scotch Presbyterians when both petitioned the Town-Council for the use of the publick Hall to preach in upon the Sundays I am not obliged to believe upon your authority that he had any undecent expressions upon that occasion I incline to think that if the Presbyterians had the publick Hall of the College very many naughty persons would resort unto it though the Presbyterian Ministers should endeaviour to hinder it Now I would gladly ask you one Question whether ever you had a Scholar that answered you with greater submission and obedience than I do You name a Person at the foot of the 15 pag. whom you say the Dr. was careful to vindicate that he never so much as mentioned his Name but Newsmongers have a greater priviledge than their Neighbours 'T is certain that the Scheme of the Presbyterian Religion as far as they differ from the Episcopalians is nothing else but ungovernable Humour and Rebellion Now is it necessary to strike off the Doctor 's Head for this one Expression The Presbyterian Opinions as such are new and lately started and peculiar to themselves nor is there any of the Reformed Churches that ever asserted Presbyterian government to be founded upon such Divine Right as is exclusive of all other Ecclesiastical Polities The Church of Scotland which you say was Presbyterian from the beginning of the Reformation declares positively in her Confession of Faith that Church Polity is variable and the Order of Bishops was never condemned by our Reformers and Buchanan tells us expresly that our first Reformers were so far from being Presbyterians that Scoti ante aliquot annos Anglorum auxiliis è servitute Gallica liberati Religionis cultui ritibus cum Anglis communibus subscripserunt To say that the Church of Scotland should be governed by Presbytery because Presbyters were most active in the first Reformation is an unpardonable Impertinence If all the Bishops in the Church of Scotland had been as zealous to promote the Reformation as the Bishops of Galloway and Argyle would it therefore follow that if the Bishops had reformed the Church without the assistance of Presbyters there ought to be no Presbyters in the Church when it was fully reformed No I think this could not follow and therefore when the Bishops own the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches they must be obeyed and our Reformers never declaimed against their Order and if they would adhere to the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches Calvin determines positively in that Case that nullo non anathemate digni sunt who stubbornly oppose their Authority but we had no such thing as Presbytery in Scotland settled by Authority in all its Pretences until the Rebellion brake out in the Year 1638. Presbyterians we had Tumults Combinations and Factions in abundance and Interruptions of the legal Government and Parliamentary Concessions to pacify the Faction but a total abolishing of the Order of Bishops before the Rebellion in King Charles I. his time was never heard and to say otherwise contradicts the Series of all our Records If the places of Scripture that you cite prove that the names of those Clergy-men that were above Deacons were not distinguished yet this cannot infer an Equality among them for the Apostles themselves were called sometimes Presbyters and the Church was never governed by a perfect Equality of Presbyters The Ecclesiastical Senate

use their utmost endeavours Naph pag. 155. 41. We ought not to believe that the Primitive Christians were so numerous as the first Apologists for Christianity did give out they were deceived in a Matter of Fact for the Sufferings of the Martyrs do not at all militate against the lawfulness of Defensive Arms. Lex Rex pag. 2. 71. 42. The very power to Extirpate the present Government is God's Call to do so Cargil's New Cov. Art 1. 43. We are no more bound by any tie of Allegiance to the present Governours than we are bound in Allegiance to the Devils Cargil's New Cov. Art 9. If the Scotch Presbyterians under the former Reigns had satisfied themselves with the Theory of Rebellion and if they had not actually practis'd according to the full extent and tendency of their Principles then their Writings and Seditious Sermons might have been tolerated with the greater Ease but since those active Gentlemen ventur'd upon the Natural Conclusions that their Principles yielded so that none of the Kings Loyal Subjects knew but that they were to be murder'd as soon as they stept out of Doors I hope modest Men will allow that severe Laws were very necessary when the Holy Scriptures were perverted to destroy the General Peace of Mankind and fiery Enthusiasts were made believe that they might make bold with the Life of any Man whom they took to oppose their own Dreams if they fancyed that their Neighbours were Canaanites and Moabites Most of them that bawl'd against the Government of Charles II. are such as never understood the Temper of our Religious Incendiaries or were themselves deeply ingaged in the Rebellion and therefore I have added to the former Papers the following Letter to undeceive such as are misinform'd and to let the World see that it was impossible for our Kings and Parliaments to forbear the making of such Laws as our Enemies complain of when the Holy Scriptures were wrested contrary to their True Meaning and made to truckle under the hellish designs of incorrigible Hypocrites The following Paper is a very Authentick one written by the famous Assassin Mr. James Mitchel who attempted the Life of the Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews upon the Streets of Edinburgh and in doing so wounded the Bishop of Orkney This Sacrilegious Effort he endeavours to justifie from the Holy Scriptures The Presbyterians cannot take it ill that the Monuments of their Martyrs are preserv'd if they say that all Presbyterians have not such Principles I say so too but then they must remember that such were the Presbyterians against whom the Laws were made under the former Reigns and 't is difficult to know whether all of them have not the same Principles if once they are provok'd to anger and if they are consequential to the Doctrine of the first Puritans for Goodman saith expresly That If the Magistrates shall refuse to put Mass-mongers and false Preachers to death the people in seeing it perform'd do shew that zeal of God which was commended in Phineas destroying the Adulterers and in the Israelites against the Benjamites Let any sober Man consider what Improvemnnts the Principles of the following Letter are capable of and then let him tell me whether he can name any Crimes punished by any Magistrates in any Corner of the World more dangerous to human Society than the Doctrines that he may read with his own Eyes in this Letter I have copied it from that Collection of Mr. Mitchel's Papers which his own Consederates took great care to Print and preserve in the latter Editions of Naphtali THE COPY OF A LETTER FROM Edinburg Tolbooth February 1674. ME who may justly call my self less than the least of all Saints and the chiefest of all Sinners yet Christ Jesus calleth to be a Witness for his despised Truth and trampled on Interests and Cause by the wicked blasphemous and God contemning Generation and against all their perfidious wickedness Sir I say the Confidence I have in your real Friendship and Love to Christ's Truth People Interest and Cause hath encouraged me to write to you at this time hoping you will not misconstruct me nor take advantage of my Infirmity and weakness You have heard of my Inditement which I take up in these two particulars First As they term it Rebellion and Treason anent which I answered to My Lord Chancellor in Committee that it was no Rebellion but a Duty which every one was bound to have performed in joyning with that party and I in the Year 1656 Mr. R. L. being then Primar in the Colledge of Edinburg before our Laureation tendered to us the National Covenant and Solemn League and Covenant upon mature Deliberation I found nothing in them but a short compend of the Moral Law only binding us to our Duty towards God and towards Men in their several Stations and I finding that our banished King's Interest lay wholly included therein and both Coronation and Allegiance Oaths c. and they being the Substance of all Loyalty and my Lord it was well known that many were taking the Tender and forswearing Charles Stuart Parliament and House of Lords I then subscribed both the doing of which My Lord Chancellour would have stood at no less rate if as well known than this my present adhering and prosecuting the Ends thereof doth now and when I was questioned what then I called Rebellion I answered it is in Ezra vii Verse 26. And whosoever will not do the Law of God and of the King c. but being questioned before the Commissioner and the Council therea nent I answered as I said to my Lord Chancellour before in the Year 1656. Mr. R. L. being then Primar in the Colledge of Edinburg before our Laureation he tendered to us the National and Solemn League and Covenant He Stopt me Saying I 'll wad ye 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 the which I answered viz. My Lord Chancellour if it please your Grace I humbly conceive they should have been with us according to the National and Solemn League and Covenant at which Answer I perceived him to storm But saith he I heard ye have been over Seas with whom did ye converse there Answer with my Merchant But saith he with whom in particular Answer with one John Mitchel a Cousin of mine own Saith he I have heard of him he is a Factor in Rotterdam to which I conceded But saith he did ye not converse with Mr. Livingston and such as he to which I answered I conversed with all all our banished Ministers To which he replyed banished Traitors ye will speak Treason at the 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 any such thing but where did you see James Wallace last Answer Towards the Borders of Germany