A Hind Let Loose, Part 1 · Subpart 6

A Hind Let Loose · Part 1 · Subpart 6

p. 93PERIOD. VI.

Containing the Testimony through the continued Tract of the present Deformation from the year 1660. to this day.

NOw comes the last Catastrophe of the Deformation of the Church of Scotland, which now renders her to all Nations as infamously despicable, as her Reformation formerly made her admired & envied; which in a Retrograde motion hath gradually been growing these 27 years, going back through all the steps by which the Reformation ascended, till now she is returned to the very border of that Babylon, from whence she took her departure, and reduced through defection, & division, and persecutions, to a confused Chaos of almost irreparable dissolution, and unavoidable desolation. Through all which steps notwithstang, to this day, Scotland hath never wanted a witness for Christ, against all the various steps of the Enemies advancings, and of professed friends declinings: Though the Testimony hath had some singularities, some way discriminating it from that of former Periods; in that it hath been more difficult, by reason of more desperate & dreadful assaults of more enraged enemies, more expert & experienced in the accursed art of overturning than any formerly; In that it hath been attended with more disadvantages, by reason of the Enemies greater prevalency, and Friends deficiency, and greater want of significant Assertors, than any formerly; In that it hath been intangled p. 94in more multifarious intricacies, of questions, and debates, and divisions among the Assertors themselves, making it more dark, and yet in the end contributing to clear it more than any formerly; In that it hath been intended & extended to a greater measure, both as to matter & manner of contendings against the Adversaries, and stated upon nicer points; more enixely prosecuted & tenaciously maintained, & sealed with more sufferings, than any formeriy; In that it hath had more opposition & contradiction, and less countenance from professed friends to the Reformation, either at home or abroad, than any formerly. And yet it hath had all these several specialities together, which were peculiar to the former Testimonies, in their respective Periods: being both Active & Passive, both against Enemies & Friends; And in cumulo stated against Atheisme, Popery, Prelacy, & Errastian Supremacy, which were the successive heads of the former Testimonies, and also now extended in a particular manner against Tyrannie. And not only against the substance & essence of these in the abstract, but against substance & circumstance, abstract & concret root & branch, head & tail of them, and all complying with them, conforming to them, or countenancing of them, or any thing conductive for them, or deduced from them, any manner of way, directly or indirectly, formally or interpretatively. This is that extensive and very comprehensive Testimony of the present Period, as it is now stated & sealed with the blood of many: Which in all its parts, points & pendicles is most directly relative, and dilucidly reducible, to a complex Witness for the Declarative Glory of Christs Kingship and Headship over all, as He is God and as He is Mediator, which is the greatest concern that Creatures have to contend for, either as Men or as Christians. The matter of this Testimony, I shall give a short manuduction to the progress & Result of its Managment.

During the Exile of the Royal Brothers, it is undenyably known that they were, by their Mothers caresses and the Jesuites Allurements, seduced to abjure the Reformed Religion (which was easie to induce persons to that never p. 95had the sense of any Religion) and to be reconciled to the Church of Rome: And that, not only they wrote to the Pope many promisses of promoting his projects, if ever they should recover the power into their hands again, and often frequented the Mass themselves; but also, by their example and the influence of their future hopes, prevailed with many of their dependents & attendants abroad, to do the like. Yet it is also unquestionably known, that in the mean time of his Exile, …e renewed & confirmed, by private Letters to Presbyterians, his many reiterated Engagments to adhere to the Covenant, and declared that he was & would continue the same man, that he had declared himself to be in Scotland (wherein doubtless, as he was an expert Artist, he equivocated, and meant in his heart he would continue as Treacherous as ever) which helped to keep a Loyal Impression of his Interest in the hearts of too many, and an expectation of some good of him, of which they were ashamed afterwards. And immediatly before his return, its known what promises are contained in that Declaration from Breda (from whence he came also the second time, with greater Treachery than at the first) to all Protestants that would live peaceably under his Government; begining now to weigh out his perfidie, & perjurie, & breach of Covenant, in offering to tolerote that in an Indulgence, which he swore to maintain as a duty. But in all this he purposed nothing, but to ingyre & ingratiate himself into the peoples over credulous affections, that they might not obstruct his return, which a jealousie of his intended Tyrannie would have awakened them to withstand. And so having seated himself, and strengthened his power against the attemptings of any, whom his conscience might suggest an apprehension that they ought to resist him, he thought himself discharged from all obligations of Covenants, Oaths, or promises, for which his faith had been pledged. And from the first hour of his arrival, he did in a manner set himself to affront & Defy the Authority, of God, and to be revenged upon his Kingdoms for inviting him so unanimously to sway their Scepter; in polluting & infecting the people with all debaucheries & monstrous p. 96villanies; and commencing his incestous Whoredoms that very first night he came to his Palace, wherein he continued to his dying day outvying all for vileness. Yet he went on deluding our Church with his dissimulations, and would not discover all his wickedness hatched in his heart at first, till his designs should be riper; but directed a Letter to the Presbyterie of Edinburgh, declaring he was resolved to protect & preserve the Government of the Church of Scotland, as it is settled by Law without violation: Wherein it was observed he altered the Stile, and spake never a word of the Covenant, our Magna Charta of Religion & Righteousness, our greatest security for all Interests intrusted to him, but only of Law; by which, as his practice expounded it afterwards, he meant the Prelatical Church, as it was settled by the Law of his Father, since which time he reckoned there was no Law but Rebellion. This was a piece & preludie of our base defection, & degeneration into blind, blockish, & brutish stupidity; that after he had discovered so much perfidie, we not only at first tempted him to Perjurie, in admitting him to the Crown, upon his mock-engagment in the Covenant, whereby God was mocked, His Spirit was grieved, His Covenant prostituted, the Church cheated, & the State betrayed; but after the Lord had broken his yoke from off our necks, by sending him to exile ten years, where he was discovered to be imbibing all that venome & Tyrannical violence, which he afterward vented in revenge upon the Nations; and after we had long smarted for our first transaction with him; yet not withstanding of all this, we beleeved him again, and Issachar-like couched under his burdens, and were so far from withstanding, that we did not so much as witness against the readmission & restauration of the head & tail of Malignants, but let them come in peaceably to the throne, without any security to the Covenanted cause, or for our Civil or Religious Interests, and by piece meal, at their oun ease, leasure & pleasure, to overturn all the Work of God, and reintroduce the old Antichristian yoke of abjured Prelacy, and blasphemous Sacrelegious Supremacy, and Absolute Arbitrary Tyrannie with all their abominations: p. 97which he, and with him the generality of our Nobility, Gentry, Clergy, & commonality by him corrupted, without regard to faith, or fear of God or man, did promote & propogate, until the Nation was involved in the greatest revolt from, & rebellion against God, that ever could be recorded in any Age or Generation; Nay attended with greater & grosser Aggravations, than ever any could be capable of before us, who have had the greatest Priviledges that ever any Church had; since the National Church of the Iewes, the greatest light; the greatest effects of matchless magnified love, the greatest Convictions of Sin, the greatest Resolutions & Solemn Engagments against it, and the greatest Reformation from it, that ever any had to abuse & affront. O Heavens be astonished at this, & horribly afraid! for Scotland hath changed her Glory, and the Crown hath fallen from off her head, by an unparalelled Apostasie, a free & voluntary, vvilfull & deliberate Apostasie, an avoued & declared & Authorized Apostasie, Tyrannically carried on by Militarie violence & cruelty, a most universal & every vvay unprecedented Apostasie! I must a litle change my method, in deducing the narration of this Catastrophe, and subdistinguish this unhappie Period into several steps; shevving hovv the Enemies opposition to Christ advanced, and the Testimony of His Witnesses did gradually ascend, to the pitch it is novv arrived at.

I. These Enemies of God, having once got footing again, with the favour and the fawnings of the foolish Nation, went on fervently to further and promote their wicked design: and meeting with no opposition at first, did encourage themelves to begin boldly. Wherefore, hearing of some Ministers peaceably Assembled, to draw up a Monitory Letter to the King, minding him of his Covenant Engagments & promises (which was though weak, yet the first witness & warning against that Heaven-daring wickedness then begun) they cruelly incarcerate them. Having hereby much daunted the Ministry from their duty in that day, for fear of the like unusual & outragious usage. The Parliament conveens Ianuar. 1. 1661. without so much as a Protestation for Religion & Liberty given in to p. 98them. And there, in the first place, they frame & take the Oath of Supremacy, Exauctorating Christ, and investing His usurping Enemy with the spoils of his robbed Prerogative, acknowledging the King only supreme Governour over all persons & in all Causes, and that his power & Iurisdiction must not be declined. Whereby under all persons & all Cause…, All Church Officers, in their most properly Ecclesiastick Affairs & Concerns of Christ, are comprehended: And if the King shall take upon him to judge their Doctrine, Worship, Discipline, or Government, he must not be declined as an incompetent Judge. Which did at once enervate all the Testimony of the 4th Period above declared, and laid the foundation for all this Babel they have built since, and of all this war that hath been waged against the Son of God, and did introduce all this Tyrannie & absolute power which hath been since carried to its Complement, and made the Kings Throne the foundation of all the succeeding perjurie & Apostasie. Yet, though then our Synods & Presbytries, were not discharged, but might have had access in some Concurrence to witness, against this horrid Invasion upon Christs Prerogative and the Churches Priviledge, no joint Testimony was given against it, except that some were found witnessing against it in their singular Capacity by themselves. As faithful Mr Iames Guthrie, for declining this usurped Authority in prejudice of the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus, suffered death, and got the Martyrs Crown upon his head: And some others, for refusing that Oath arbitrarly imposed, were Banished or Confined, when they had gained this Bulwark of Christs Kingdom; Then they waxed more insolent, and set up their Ensigns for signs, and broke doun the carved Work of Reformation with axes & hammers. In this Parliament 1661. They past an Act Rescissorie, whereby they annulled & declared void the National Covenant, the Solemn League & Covenant, Presbytrial Government, and all Lawes made in favours of the Work of Reformation, since the year 1633. O horrid wickedness! both in its nature so attrocious, to condemn & rescind what God did so signally seal as His oun Work, to the conviction of the world, and for which He will rescind the p. 99Rescinders, and overturn these Overturners of His Work, and make the curse of that broken Covenant bind them to the punishment, vvhom its bond could not oblige to the duty Covenanted; And in its design & end so base & detestable, for nothing but to flatter the King in making way for Prelacy, Tyranny, & Popery, and to indulge the licenciousness of some debauched Nobles; who could not endure the yoke of Christs Government, and to suppress Religion & Righteousness under the ruines of that Reformation. But O holy & astonishing Justice, thus to recompense our way upon our own head! to suffer this work & cause to be ruined under our unhappy hands, who suffered this Destroyer to come in before it was so effectually secured, as it should not have been in the power of his hand (whatever had been in his heart, swelled with enmity against Christ) to have razed & ruined that Work as now most wickedly he did, and drew in so many into the guilt of the same deed, that almost the whole Land not only consented unto it but applauded it; by approving & countenancing another wicked Act framed at the same time, by that same perfidious Parliament for an Anniversary Thanksgiving commemorating every 29. of May, that Blasphemy against the Spirit & Work of God, and celebrating that unhappy Restauration of the Rescinder of the Reformation; which had not only the concurrence of the universality of the Nation, But (alas for shame that it should be told in Gath &c!) even of some Ministers who afterwards accepted the Indulgence (one of which a Pillar among them, was seen scandalously dancing about the bonefires.) And others, who should have alarmed the whole Nation quasi pro aris & focis, to rise for Religion & Liberty, to resist such wickedness, did wink at it. O how Righteous is the Lord now in turning our Harps into mourning! Though alas! we will not suffer our selves to this day, to see the shining Righteousness of this Retribution: And though we be scourged with Scorpions, & brayed in a Mortar, our madness, our folly in these irreligious frolicks, is not yet acknowledged let be lamented. Yet albeit, neither in this day when the Covenant was not p. 100only broken but Cassed & declared of no obligation, nor afterward when it was burnt (for which Turks & Pagans would have been ashamed & afraid at such a terrible sight, and for which the Lords Anger is burning against these bold burners, and against them who suffered it, and did not witness against it) was there any publick Testimony by protestation, or Remonstrance, or an publick witness? though the Lord had some then, and some who came out afterward with the Trumpet at their mouth, whose heart then sorrowed at the sight: And some suffered for the sense they shewed of that Anniversary abomination, for not keeping which they lost both Church & Liberty. Its true the ordinary Meetings of Presbytries & Synods were about that time discharged, to make way for the exercise of the new power conferred on the four Prelats who were at Court, reordained & Consecrated thereby renouncing their former Title to the Ministry. But this could not give a discharge from a Necessary Testimony, then called for from faithful Watchmen. However the Reformation being thus rescinded & razed, and the House of the Lord pulled doun, then they begin to build their Babel. In the Parliament anno 1662. by their first Act they restore & reestablish Prelacy, upon such a foundation as they might by the same Law bring in Poperie, which was then designed; and so settled its Harbinger Diocesan & Erastiar Prelacy, by fuller Enlargment of the Supremacy. The very Act beginneth thus. For as much as the ordering & disposal of the external Government of the Church, doth properly belong to his Maj. as an Inherent right of the Croun, by virtue of his Royal Prerogative, & Supremacy in Causes Ecclesiastick—what ever shall be determined by his Maj. with advice of the Arch Bishops, and such of the Clergy as he shall nominate, in the external Government of the Church (the same consisting with the standing Lawes of the Kingdom) shall be valide & effectual. And in the same Act all Lawes are rescinded, by which the sole power & Jurisdiction within the Church doth stand in the Church Assemblies, And all which may be interpreted, to have given any Church power, Jurisdiction, p. 101or Government to the Office bearers of the Church, other than that which acknowledgeth a dependence upon, & subordination to the Soveraign power of the King as Supreme. By which, Prelats are redintegrated to all their priviledges & preheminencies, that they possessed anno 1637. And all their Church power (robbed from the Officers of Christ) is made to be derived from, to depend upon, and to be subordinate to, the Croun prerogative of the King: whereby the King is made the only fountain of Church power, and that exclusive even of Christ, of whom there is no mentioned exception: And his vassals the Bishops, as his Clerks in Ecclesiastiks, are accountable to him for all their administrations; A greater usurpation upon the Kingdom of Christ, than ever the Papacy it self aspired unto. Yet, albeit here was another display of a banner of defyance against Christ, in altering the Church Government of Christs Institution into the humane Invention of Lordly Prelacy, in assuming a power by prerogative to dispose of the external Government of the Church, and in giving his Creatures patents for this effect, to be his Administrators in that usurped Government; There was no publick, Ministerial, at least united Testimony against this neither. Therefore the Lord punished this sinful & shamful silence of Ministers, in His holy Justice, though by mens horrid wickedness; when by another wicked Act of the Council at Glasgow, above 300 Ministers were put from their Charges; and afterwards, for their Non-conformity in not Countenancing their Diocesan Meeting, and not keeping the Anniversary day May 29. The rest were violently thrust from their labours in the Lords vineyard, and banished from their Parishes, and adjudged unto a nice & strange Confinement, twenty miles from their oun parishes, six miles from a Cathedral Church as they called it, and three miles from a Burgh; whereby they were reduced in to many inconveniencies. Yet in this fatal Convulsion of the Church, generally all were struck with blindness & baseness, that a Paper-Proclamation made them all run from their posts, and obey the Kings Orders for their ejection. Thus were they given p. 102up, because of their forbearing to sound an alarm, charging the people of God, in point of Loyaltie to Christ, and under the pain of the Curse of the Covenant, to a wake and acquit themselves like men, and not to suffer the enemie to rob them of that Treasure of Reformation, which they were put in possession of, by the tears, prayers, & blood of such as went before them; instead of those prudential fumblings, & fisflings then & since so much followed. Wherefore the Lord in His holy righteousness, left that enemie (against whom they should have cried & contended, and to whose eye they should have held the Curse of the Covenant, as having held it first to their oun, in case of unfaithful silence in not holding it to his) to cast them out of the House of the Lord, and dissolve their Assemblies, and deprive them of their priviledges, because of their not being so valiant for the Truth, as that a ful & faithful Testimony against that Encroachment might be found upon record. Nevertheless somewere found faithful in that hour & pour of darkness, who kept the Word of the Lords patience, and who were therefore kept in & from that tentation (which carried many away into sad & shamful defections) though not from suffering hard things from the hands of men; & only these who felt most of their violence, found grace helping them to acquit themselves suitably to that dayes Testimony, being thereby prevented from an Active yeelding to their impositions, when they were made passively to suffer force. However that season of a publick Testimony was lost, and as to the most part never recovered to this day. The Prelats being settled, & readmitted to voice in Parliament, they procure an Act, Dogmatically condemning several Material parts & points of our Covenanted Reformation, to wit, these positions That it was lawful for Subjects, for Reformation or necessary self defence, to enter into leagues, or take up Armes, against the King: And particularly declaring that the national Covenant, as explained in the year 1638. and the Solemn league & Covenant, were & are i… themselves unlawful Oaths, and were taken by & imposed upon the subjects of this Kingdom against the fundamental p. 103Lawes & Liberties thereof, That all such gatherings & petitions, that were used in the begining of the late troubles, were unlawful & seditious: And whereas then People were led unto these things, by having disseminated among them such principles as these, That it was lawful to come with petitions & Representations of grievances to the King, That it was lawful for people to restrict their Allegiance under such & such limitations, and suspend it untill he should give security for Religion &c. It was therefore enacted, that all such positions & practices founded thereupon, were treasonable—And furder did enact▪ that no person, by writing, praying, preaching, or malicious or advised speaking, express or publish any words or sentences, to stir up the people to the dislike of the Kings prerogative & Supremacy, or of the Government of the Church by Bishops, or justifie any of the deeds, actings, or things declared against by that Act. Yet not withstanding of all this subversion of Religion & Liberty, and restraint of asserting these Truths here trampled upon either before men by Testimony, or before God in mourning over these Indignities done unto Him, in everting these & all the parts of Reformation, even when it came to Daniels case of confession, preaching & praying Truths interdicted by Lavv; fevv had their eyes open (let be their vvindovvs in an open avouching them) to see the duty of the day calling for a Testimony. Though aftervvards, the Lord Spirited some to assert & demonstrate the Glory of these Truths & duties to the vvorld. As that Judicious Author of the Apologetical Relation, vvhose Labours need no Elagium to commend them. But this is not all: for these men, having novv as they thought subverted the Work of God, they provided also against the fears of its revival: making Acts, declaring, that if the outed Ministers dare to continue to preach, and presume to exercise their Ministrie, they should be punished as seditious persons; requiring of all a due acknowledgment of, & hearty complyance with, the Kings Government Ecclesiastical & Civil; And that who soever shall ordinarly & wilfully withdraw & absent from p. 104the ordinary Meetings for Divine Worship in their ou… Churches on the Lords day, shall incur the Penalties there insert. Thus the sometimes Chast Virgin, whose name was Beulah to the Lord, the Reformed Church of Scotland, did now suffer a violent & villanous rape; from a vermine of vile Schismatical Apostates, obtruded & imposed upon her, instead of her able, painful, faithful & succeseful Pastors, that the Lord had set over her, and now by their faintness & the Enemies force robbed from her; And none now allowed by Law to administer the Ordinances, but either Apostate Curats, who by their Perjurie & Apostacy forfaulted their Ministry, or other Hirelings & Prelat… Journey-men, who run without a Mission except from them who had none to give according to Christs Institution, the seal of whose Ministry could never yet be shown in the Conversion of any sinner to Christ: but if the tree may be known by its fruit…, we may know whose Ministers they are; ut ex ungue Leonem, by their Conversions of Reformation into Deformation, of the Work & Cause of God into the similitude of the Roman beast, of Ministers into Hirelings, of their Proselytes into ten times worse children of the Devil then they were before, of the power of Godlyness into formality, of Preaching Christ into Orations of Morality, of the purity of Christs Ordinances into the vanity of mens Inventions, of the beautiful Government of the House of God for Edification, to a Lordly preheminence & Domination over consciences, in a word of Church & State Constitutions for Religion & Liberty all up side doun into wickedness & slavery: These are the Conversions of Prelacy. But now this astonishing blow to the Gospel of the Kingdom, introducing such a Swarm of Locusts into the Church, And in forcing a Complyance of the people with this defection, and that so violently & rigorously, as even simple withdrawing was so severely punished by severe Edicts of fyning, & other arbitrary punishments at first; what did it produce? did it awaken all Christs Ambassadours, now to appear for Christ, in this clear & clamant case of Confessing Him, and the freedom & Purity of His Ordinances? p. 105Alas! the backwardness & bentness to backsliding, in a Superseding from the duties of that day, did make it evident, that now the Lord had in a great measure forsaken them, because they had forsaken Him. The standart of the Gospel was then fallen, and few to take it up. The Generality of Ministers & Professors both went & Conformed so far as to hear the Curats, contrary to many points of the Reformation formerly attained, contrare to their Covenant Engagments, and contrare to their oun principles & practice at that same time; scrupling and refusing to keep the Bishops visitations, and to Countenance their Discipline & power of Iurisdiction, because it was required as a Testification of their acknowledgment of, & Complyance with the present Government, And yet not scrupling to Countenance their Doctrine & usurped power of Order required also by the same Law, as the same Test of the same Compliance & submission. Its strange that some yet doe plead for persisting in that same Complyance, after all the bitter Consequents of it. Other Ministers Lay altogether by in their retired recesses, waiting to see what things would turn to: Others were hopeless, turned Farmers & Doctors: others more wyllie, staid at home, & Preached quietly in Ladies Chambe… But the faithful thought that this Tyrannical ejection did … or could not unminister them, so as they might not Prea… Gospel where ever they were, as Ambassadours of …; but rather found themselves under an indispensible necessity to Preach the Gospel and witness for the freedom of their Ministry, and make full proof of it, in preaching in season & out of season: and thereupon as occasion offered preached to all such as were willing to hear; but at first only in private houses, and that for the most part at such times, when Sermons in publick surceased (a superplus of Caution.) But afterwards, finding so great difficulties and Persecutions for their house Meetings, where they were so easily attrapped, were constrained at last to keep their Meetings in the fields, without shelter from cold, wind, snow, or rain. Where testifieing both practically & particularly against these Usurpations on their Masters Prerogatives, and witnessing p. 106for their Ministerial freedom, contrary to all Law-Interdictions, without any Licences or Indulgences from the Usurper, but holding their Ministry from Jesus Christ alone, both as to the Office & exercise thereof; they had so much of their Masters Countenance, & success in their labours, that they valued neither hazards nor hardships, neither the contempt of pretended Friends, nor the Laws nor threatnings of Enemies, adjudging the penalty of death it self to Preachers at Field Conventicles as they called them. Now having thus overturned the Church Government, by introducing Prelacy, to advance an absolute Supremacy; the effects whereof were either the Corruption, or Persecution of all the Ministrie, Encouragment of profanity & wickedness, the enerease & advancment of Popery, Superstition, & Error, cruel impositions on the Conscience, and oppressions for Conscience sake, by the practices of cruel Supra-Spanish Inquisitions, and all manner of outcryes of outragious violence & villany: The King proceeds in his design, to pervert & evert the wel modelled & moderated Constitution of the State Government also, by introducing & advancing an Arbitrary Tyranny; the effects whereof were, an absolute Mancipation of Lives & Liberties and estates unto his lust & pleasure, the utter subversion of Lawes, and absolute impoverishin… the people. For effectuating which, he first proc… lasting Imposition of intollerable Subsidies & Taxati…, to impoverish that he might the more easily enslave the Nation; Next a further recognizance of his Prerogative, in a subjection of persons, fortunes, & whole strength of the Kingdom to his absolute arbitrement, in a Levy of Militia of 20000 footmen, & 2000 horsemen sufficiently armed, with 40 dayes provision, to be ready upon the Kings call to march to any part of his Dominions, for opposing whatsoever invasion, or insurrection, or for any other service. The first sproutings of Tyrannie were cherished, by the cheerfull & stupid submission generally yeelded to these exorbitances; under which they who suffered most were inwardly Malecontents, but there was no opposition to them by word or Action, but on the contrary, generally people did not so p. 107much as scruple sending out or going out as Militia-men: never adverting unto what this Concurrence was designed, & demanded, and given for; Nor what an accession it was, in the nature & influence of the mean it self, and in the sense & intention of the Requirers, unto a Confederacy for a Complyance with, and a Confirmation & strengthening of Arbitrary Tyrannie. After the fundamental constitutions of both Church & State are thus razed & rooted up, to confirm this Absolute Power, he contrived to frame all inferior Magistrats according to his mould: And for this end appointed, that all persons in any publick Trust or Office whatsoever should subscribe a Declaration, renouncing & abjuring the Covenants; whereby Perjurie was made the chief & indispensible qualification, and Conditio sine qua non, of all that were capable of exercing any power or place in Church or State. But finding this not yet sufficient security for this unsettled settlement; because he wel understood, the people stood no ways obliged to acknowledge him but only according to the solemn Covenants, being the fundamental Conditions whereupon their Allegiance was founded (as amongst all people, the Articles mutually consented betwixt them and these whom they set over them, are the constituent fundamentalls of Government) and wel knowing, that he & his Associats, by violating these Conditions, had loosed the people from all subjection, to him, or any deriving power from him, whereby the people might justly plead, that since he had kept no Condition they were not now obliged to him, he therefore contrived a new Oath of Allegiance to be imposed upon all in publick trust both in Church & State; wherein they are made to oblige themselves to that Boundless breaker of all Bonds Sacred & Civil, and his Successors also, without any reciprocal obligation from him to them, or any reserved restriction, limitation, or qualification, as all humane Authority by Gods Ordinance must be bounded. Whereby the Swearers have by Oath homologated the overturning of the very Basis of the Government, making free people Slaves to the subverters thereof, betraying their native Brethren & posterity to the lust of Tyrannie, and p. 108have in effect as really as if in plain termes affirmed, that whatsoever Tyrannie shall command or do, either as to the overturning of the work of God, subverting of Religion, destroying of Liberty, or persecuting all the Godly to the utmost extremity, they shall not only stupidly endure it, but actively concur with it, and assist in all this Tyrannie. Alas there was no publick Testimony against this Trick, to bring people under the yoke of Tyrannie; except by some who suffered for Consciencious refusing it, while many others did take it, thinking to salve the matter by their pitiful quibleng senses, of giving Cesar his due. Where as this Cesar, for whom these Loyal Alleg…ers plead, is not an ordinary Cesar, but such a Cesar, Nero, or Caligula, that if he got his due, it would be in another kind. Strange! can Presbyterians swear that Allegiance, which is substitute in the place of the broken & burnt Covenant? Or could they swear it to such a person, who having broken & buryed the Covenant, that he who had sworn it might have another right and another Allegiance than that of the Covenant, had then remitted to us all Allegiance founded upon the Covenant? However, having now prepared & furnished himself with Tools so qualified for his purpose, in Church & State, he prosecutes his Persecution with such fervour & fury, rage & revenge, impositions & oppressions, and with armed formed force, against the faithful following their duty in a peaceable manner, without the least shadow of Contempt even of his abused Authority, that at length in the year 1666, a small party were compelled to go to defensive armes. Which, whatever was the desire of the Court (as it is known how desirous they have been of an Insurrection, when they thought themselves sure to suppress it, that they might have a vent for their Cruelty; and how one of the Brothers hath been heard say, that if he might have his wish, he would have them all turn Rebells and go to armes.) Yet it wa… no predetermined design of that poor Handful. For Sir Iames Turner, pursuing his cruel orders in Galoway, sent some Souldiers to apprehend a poor old man; whom his neighbours compassionating, intreated the Souldiers to loose him as he lay bound, but were answered with drawen p. 109Swords and necessitated to their own defence: In which they relieve the man, and disarm the Souldiers, and further attacqued some others oppressing that Countrey, disarming 10 or 12 more, and killing one that made resistence. Whereupon, the Countrey being alarmed, and fearing from sad experience Sir Iames would certainly avenge this affront upon the whole Country, without distinction of free & unfree, they gather about 54 horsemen, march to Drumfreis, take Sir Iames Turner Prisoner, and disarm the Souldiers, without any more violence. Being thus by Providence engaged without any hope of retreat, and getting some Concurrence of their Brethren in the same Condition, they come to Lanerk, where they renew the Covenant; and thence to Pentland hills: where, by the holy Disposal of God, they were routed, many killed, and 130 taken Prisoners, who were treated so treacherously & truculently, as Turks would have blushed to have seen the like. Hence now on the one hand, we may see the Righteousness of God, in leaving that Enemy to Him, whom we embraced, to make such avowed Discoveries of himself, without a blush to the world, and to scourge us with Scorpions that we nourished and put in his hands: And also, how justly at that time He left us into such a damp, that like Asses we couched under all burdens, and few came out to the help of the Lord against the Mighty, drawing on them Meroz's Curse, and the blood of their butchered Brethren; after we had sitten, & seen, and suffered all things Civil & Sacred to be destroyed in our sight without resentment. And though the Lord, who called out these worthy Patriots who fell at Pentland to such an appearance for His Interests, did take a Testimony of their hands with acceptance by sufferings, and singularly Countenanced them in sealing it with their blood; yet He would not give success nor His presence to the Enterprise, but left them in a sort of infatuation, without Counsel & Conduct, to be a prey to devourers, that by a sad inadvertency they took in the Tyrants Interest into the State of the Quarrel. Which should have warned His people for the future, to have stated the Quarrel otherwise.

p. 110II. By this time; and much more after, the King gave as many proofs & demonstrations of his being true to Antichrist, in minding all the promises & treaties with him, as he had of his being false to Christ, in all his Covenant Engagments with His People. For in this same year 1666. he, with his dear & Royal Brother the Duke of York, contrived, countenanced, & abetted, the burning of London, evident by their employing their Guards to hinder the People from saving their oun, and to dismiss the Incendiaries the Papists, that were taken in the fact. The Committee, appointed to cognosce upon that business, traced it fo far, that they durst go no further, unless they would arraign the Duke, & charge the King, and yet before this it was enacted as Criminal for any to say the King was a Papist. But having gained so much of his design in Scotland; where he had established Prelacy, advanced Tyranny to the hight of Absoluteness, and his Supremacy almost beyond the reach of any additional supply, yea above the Popes oun Claim, and had now brought his only opposites, the few faithful Witnesses of Christ, to a Low pass; he went on by Craft as wel as Cruelty, to advance his oun in promoting Antichrists Interest. And therefore, having gotten the Supremacy devolved upon him by Law (for which also he had the Popes dispensation, to take it to himself for the time, under promise to restore & surrender it to him, as soon as he could attain his end by it, as the other Brother succeeding hath now done) he would now exert that usurped power, and work by infnaring policy to effectuate the end which he could not do by other means. Therefore, seeing he was not able to suppress the Meetings of the Lords people for Gospel Ordinances, in house & fields, but that the more he laboured by violent courses the greater & more frequent they grew; he fell upon a more Craftie device, not only to overthrow the Gospel and suppress the Meetings, but to break the faithful, and to divide, between the Mad-cap & the Moderate Fanaticks (as they phrased it) that he might the more easily destroy both; to confirm the usurpation, and to settle people in a sinful silence & stupid submission to all the Incroachments made p. 111on Christs Prerogatives, and more effectually to overturn what remained of the Work of God. And, knowing that nothing could more fortifie the Supremacy than Ministers their homologating & acknowledging it; Therefore he offerd the first Indulgence, Anno 1669. Signifying in a Letter, dated that year Iune 7. His gracious pleasure was, to appoint so many of the outed Ministers, as have lived peaceably & orderly, to return to preach & exercise other functions of the Ministrie, in the Paroch Churches where they formerly served (provided they be vacant) and to allow Patrons to present to other vacant Churches, such others of them as the Council should approve: That all who are so Indulged, be enjoyned to keep Presbytries, and the Refusers to be confined within the bounds of their paroches: And that they be enjoined not to admitt any of their neighbour Paroches unto their Communions, nor Baptize their Children, nor marry any of them, without the allowance of the Minister of the Paroch, and if they Countenance the people deserting their oun Paroches, they are to be silenced for shorter or longer time, or altogether turned out, as the Council shall see cause: And upon Complaint made & verified, of any Seditious discourse or expressions in the Pulpit, uttered by any of the Ministers, they are immediatly to be turned out, and further punished according to Law: And seeing by these orders, all Pretences for Conventickles were taken away, if any should be found hereafter to Preach without Authority, or keep Conventickles, his Pleasure is, to proceed with all severity against them, as Seditious persons & Contemners of Authority. To salve this in point of Law (because it was against former Lawes of their oun) and to make the Kings Letter the supreme Law afterwards, and a valid ground in Law, where upon the Council might proceed, & enact, and execute what the King pleased in Matters Ecclesiastick; he therefore caused frame a formal Statutory Act of Supremacy, of this Tenor. That his Maj. hath the supreme Authority & Supremacy over all Persons and in all Causes Ecclesiastick, within his dominions, and that by p. 112virtue thereof, the ordering & disposal of the external Government of the Church, doth properly belong to him & his successors, as an Inherent right to the Croun: And that he may settle, enact, & emitt such Constitutions, Acts, & Orders, concerning the Administrating therof, and Persons employed in the same, and concerning all Ecclesiastical Meetings & Matters, to be proposed & determined therein; as he in his Royal wisdom shall think fit: which Acts, Orders, & Constitutions, are to be observed & obeyed by all his Maj. Subjects, any Law, act, or custom to the contrary notwithstanding. Where upon, accordingly the Council, in their Act Iuli…. 27. 1669. do nominate several Ministers, and appoint them to Preach, and exercise the other functions of the Ministrie, at their respective Churches there specified, with Consent of the Patrons. The same day also they conclude & enact the forementioned Restrictions, conform to the Kings Letter above rehearsed, And ordain them to be intimat to every person, who is by Authority foresaid allowed the exercise of the Ministrie. These Indulged Ministers, having that Indulgence given only upon these termes, that they should accept these Injunctions, and having received it upon these termes also (as an essential part of the bargain & Condition, on which the Indulgence was granted & accepted, as many following Proclamations did expressly declare) do Appoint Mr Hutcheson, one of the number, to declare so much; In Acknowledging his Maj. favour & Clemency, in granting that Liberty, after so long a restraint; And however they had received their Ministrie from Jesus Christ, with full Prescriptions from Him for regulating them therein, yet nothing could be more refreshing on earth to them, than to have free Liberty for the exercise of their Ministrie, under the Protection of Lawful Authority: And so they purposed to be have themselves, in the discharge of the Ministrie, with that wisdom that became faithful Ministers, and to demean themselves towards Lawful Authority, notwithstanding of their known judgment in Church affairs, as wel becometh Loyal subjects; And their prayer to God p. 113should be, that the Lord should bless his Maj. in his person & Government, and the Council in the publick administration, and especially in the Pursuance of his Maj. mind in his Letter, wherein his singular moderation eminently appears.—Afterwards they issued out Proclamations, reinforcing the punctual observation of the forementioned Injunctions, and delivered them into the Indulged. In the mean time, though Cruel Acts & Edicts were made against the Meetings of the Lords people, in houses & the fields, after all these Midianitish wyles to suppress them; such was the presence of the Lord in these Meetings, and so powerful was His Countenance & Concurrence with the Labours of a few, who laid out themselves to hold up the Standart of Christ; that the number of Converts multiplyed dayly, to the praise of free Grace, and to the great encouragment of the few hands that wrestled in that Work, through all humane discouragment. Therefore King & Council was put to a new shift, which they supposed would prove more effectual: To wit, because there was a great number of Non-conformed Ministers not yet Indulged, who either did or might hereafter hold Conventickles, therefore, to remeed or prevent this in time coming, they appoint & ordain them to such places where Indulged Ministers were settled, there to be confined with allowance to Preach as the Indulged should employ them; thinking by this means to incapacitate many to hold Meetings there or elswere: And to these also they give injunctions & restrictions to regulate them in the exercise of their Ministrie. And to the end that all the outed Ministers might be brought under restraint, and the Word of God be kept under bonds, by another Act of Council they Command, that all other Ministers (not Disposed of as is said) were either to repair to the Paroch Churches where they were, or to some other Paroches where they may be ordinary hearers, and to declare & condiscend upon the Paroches where they intend to have their Residence. After this they assumed a Power, to Dispose of these their Curats as they pleased, and transport them from place to place; whereof the only ground was p. 114a simple Act of Council, the Instructions alwayes going along with them, as the constant Companion of the Indulgence▪ By all which it is apparent; what ever these Ministers alledge, in vindication of it to cover its deformity, in their Balmes to take away its Stink, and in their Surveyes to gather Plaisters to scurf over its Scurveyness, viz. that it was but the removal of the Civil restraint, And that they entered into their places by the Call of the People (a meer mock pretence for a Prelimited imposition, whereby that Ordinance of Christ was basely prostituted & abused) And that their Testimony & Protestation was a Salvo for their conscience (a meer Outopian fancy▪ that the Indulgers with whom they bargained never heard of, otherwise, as they did with some who were faithful in testifying against their Encroachments, they would soon have given them a Bill of Ease) It cannot be denyed, that that doleful Indulge…e, both in its Rise, Contrivance; Conveyance, Grant, & Acceptance, End & Effects, was a Grievous Encroachment upon the Princely Prerogative of Jesus Christ the only Head of the Church; whereby the usurpers Supremacy was Homologated; bowed to▪ complyed with, strengthened & established▪ the Cause & Kingdom of Christ betrayed, His Churches Priviledges surrendered, His Enemies hardened, His Friends stumbled, and the Remnant rent & ruined; in that it was granted & deduced from the Kings Supremacy, and conveyed by the Council; in that, according to his pleasure, he gave and they received a Licence & warrant, to such as he nominated & Elected and judged fit & qualified for it, and fixed them in what particular Paroch he pleased to assign, under the notion of a Confinment, in that he imposed and they submitted to restrictions in the exercise of their Ministry, in these particular Paroches, inhibiting to Preach elswhere in the Church; And with these restrictions, he gave and they received instructions to regulate & direct them in their functions: All which was done without Advice or Consent of the Church: And thereupon they have frequentlie been called & coveened before the Counci…, to give ac…ount of their Ministerial exercise, and some of them sentenced, p. 115silenced, & deposed for alledged disobedience. This was a manifest Treason against Christ, which involved many in the actual guilt of it that day, and many others who gaped after it & could not obtain it, and for more at that time & since in the guilt of Misprision of Treason, in passing this also without a witness. Thus, in holy judgement, because of our Indulging & Conniving at the usurper of Christs Throne, He left a great part of the Ministers to take that wretched Indulgence; and another part, instead of remonstrating the wickedness of that deed, have been left to palliate, & plaister, & Patronize it, in keeping up the Credit of the King & Councils Curats, wherein they have shewed more zeal, than ever against that wicked Indulgence. Yet the Lord had some Witnesses, who prettie early did give significations of their resentment of this dishonour done to Christ, as Mr William Weer, who having got the Legal Call of the People, and discharging his duty honestly, was turned out; And Mr Iohn Burnet, who wrote a Testimony directed to the Council, shewing why he could not submit to that Indulgence, inserted at large in the History of the Indulgence; Where also we have the Testimony of other ten Ministers, who drew up their Reasons of Non-Complyance with such a snare; And Mr Alexander Blair, who, upon occasion of a Citation before the Council for not observing the 29 of Maij, having with others made his appearance, and got new Copies of Instructions presented to them, being moved with zeal and remembering whose Ambassadour he was, told the Council plainly, that he could receive no Instructions from them in the exercise of his Ministry, otherwise he should not be Christs Ambassadour but theirs, and herewith lets their Instructions drop out of his hand, knowing of no other Salv… or manner of Testifying for the Truth in the Case؛ for which he was imprisoned, & died under Confinement. But afterwards, the Lord raised up some more explicite Witnesses against that defection. All this Trouble was before the year 1673. About which time, finding this device of Indulgences proved so steadable for his Service in Scotland, he was induced to try it also in England; which he did almost with the same or p. 116like success, & producing the same effects of defection, security, & unfaithfulness. The Occasion was upon his wars with the Dutch: Which gave another demonstrative discovery of his Treacherie & Popish perfidie, in breaking League with them, and entering into one with the French, to destroy Religion & Liberty in Britain: Wherein the King of France assures him an Absolute Authority over his Parliaments, and to reestablish the Catholick Religion in his Kingdoms of England Scotland & Ireland; to Compass which it was necessary first to abate the pride & power of the Dutch, and to reduce them to the sole Province of Holland, by which means the King of England should have Zeland for a retreat in case of need, and that the rest of the Low Countries should remain to the King of France, if he could render himself Master of it. But to return to Scotland. While by the forementioned Device, he thought he had utterly suppressed the Gospel in house & field Meetings, he was so far disappointed, that these very means & Machins by which he thought to bury it, did chiefly contribute to its revival. For, when by Persecution many Ministers had been chased away by illegal Law-Sentences, many had been banished away, and by their ensnaring Indulgences many had been drawen away from their duty, and others were now sentenced with Confinements & Restraints, if they should not choose & fix their residence where they could not keep their Quiet & Conscience both; they were forced to wander and disperse through the Country, and the People being tired of the cold & dead Curats, and wanting long the Ministrie of their old Pastors, so longed & hungered after the Word, that they behoved to have it at any rate cost what it would; which made them entertain the dispersed Ministers more earnestly, and encouraged them more to their duty. By whose Endeavours, through the mighty power & presence of God, and the Light of His Countenance now shining through the Cloud, after so fatal & fearful a darkness that had overclouded the Land for a while, with such a resplendent brightness, that it darkened the Prelatick Locusts, and made them hisse and gnash their tongues for pain, and dazeled p. 117the eyes of all Onlookers; the Word of God grew exceedingly, and went through at least the Southern borders of the Kingdom like lightning, or like the Sun in its Meridian beauty; discovering so the Wonders of Gods Law, the Mysteries of His Gospel, and the Secrets of His Covenant, and the Sins & Duties of that day, that a numerous issue was begotten to Christ, and His Conquest was Glorious, Captivating poor slaves of Satan, and bringing them from his power unto God, and from darkness to Light. O! who can remember the Glory of that Day, without a melting heart, in reflecting upon what we have lost, and let go, and sinned away, by our Misimprovements? O that in that our day we had hearkened to His voice, and had known the things that belonged to our peace! A day of such power, that it made the People, even the bulk & body of the People, willing to come out and venture, upon the greatest of hardships and the greatest of hazards, in pursuing after the Gospel, through Mosses & Moors, & inaccessible Mountains, Summer & Winter, through excess of heat & extremity of cold, many dayes & night-journeyes; even when they could not have a probable expectation of escaping the Sword of the wilderness, and the barbarous fury of bloody Burrio's raging for their prey, sent out with orders to take & kill them, it being now made Criminal by Law, especially to the preachers & Convocaters of those Meetings. But this was a day of such power, that nothing could daunt them from their duty, that had tasted once the sweetness of the Lords presence at these persecuted Meetings. Then had we such Humiliation-dayes for personal & publick Defections, such Communion-dayes even in the open fields, and such Sabbath-Solemnities, that the places where they were kept might have been called Bethel, or Peniel, or Bochim, and all of them Iehovah-Shammah; wherein many were truly Converted, more Convinced, and generally all Reformed from their former immoralities: That even Robbers, Thieves, and Profane Men, were some of them brought to a saving subjection to Christ, and generally under such restraint, that all the severities of heading & hanging &c. in a great many p. 118years, could not make such a Civil Reformation, as a few dayes of the Gospel, in these formerly the Devils Teritories, now Christs Quarters, where His Kingly Standart was displayed. I have not Language to lay out the inexpressible Glory of that day: But I will make bold to say two things of it, first, I doubt if ever there was Greater dayes of the Son of Man upon the Earth since the Apostolick times, than we enjoyed for the space of Seven years at that time: And next, I doubt, if upon the back of such a lightsome day there was ever a blacker night of darkness, defection, division, & confusion, and a more universal impudent Apostasie, than we have seen since. The world is at a great loss, that a more exact & complete account demonstrating both these, is not published, which I am sure would be a fertile Theme to any faithful pen. But this not being my scope at present, but only to deduce the steps of the Contendings of Christs Friends & His Enemies, I must follow the threed of my Narration. Now when Christ is gaining Ground by the preached Gospel in plenty, in purity, & power, the Usurpers Supremacy was like to stagger, and Prelacy came under universal Contempt, in so much that several Country Curats would have had but scarce half a dozen of hearers, and some none at all. And this was a General Observe that never failed, that no sooner did any poor Soul come to get a serious sense of Religion, and was brought under any real Exercise of Spirit about their Souls Concerns, but as soon they did fall out with Prelacy and left the Curats. Hence to secure what he had possessed himself of by Law, and to prevent a dangerous Paraxisme which he thought would ensue upon these Commotions, the King returned to exerce his innate Tyranny, and to emit terrible Orders, and more terrible Executioners, & bloody Emissaries, against all Field Meetings: which, after long patience▪ the people at length could not endure; but being first chased to the Fields, where they would have been content to have the Gospel with all the inconveniences of it, and also expelled from the Fields, being resolute to maintain the Gospel, they resolved to defend it & themselves by Armes. To which, unavoidable necessity p. 119in unsupportable extremity did constrain them, as the only remaining remedy. It is known, for several years they met without any Armes, where frequently they were disturbed & dispersed with Souldiers some killed others wounded, which they patiently endured without Resistence: At length the Ministers that were most in hazard, having a Price set upon their heads to be brought in dead or alive, with some attending them in their wanderings, understanding they were thus appointed for death, judged it their duty to provide for the necessary defence of their lives from the violence of their Armed Assaulters. And as Meetings increased, diverse others came under the same hazard, which enforced them to endeavour the same remedy, without the least intention of prejudice to any. Thus the number of Sufferers increasing, as they joyned in the Ordinances at these persecuted Meetings, found themselves in some probable Capacity to defend themselves and these much endeared & precious Gospel Priviledges, & to preserve the Memory of the Lords great Work in the Land, which to transmit to posterity was their great design. And they had no small encouragment to endeavour it, by the satisfying sweetness & comfort they found in these Ordinances, being perswaded of the justness of their Cause, and of the groundlessness of their Adversaries quarrel against them: And hereunto also they were incited & prompted, by the palpableness of the Enemies purposes to destroy the Remainder of the Gospel, by extirpating the Remnant that professed it. Wherefore in these circumstances, being redacted to that strait, either to be deprived of the Gospel or to defend themselves in their Meetings for it; And thinking their turning their backs upon it for hazard, was a cowardly deserting duty, and palpable breach of Covenant-Engagments, abandoning their greatest Interest, They thought it expedient, yea necessary, to carry defensive Armes with them. And as for that discouragment from the difficulty & danger of it, because of their fewness & meanness, it did not deter or daunt them from the endeavour of their duty; when they considered, the Lord in former times was wont to oune a very small party of their Ancestors, who in extremity jeoparded p. 120their lives in defence of Reformation against very potent & powerful Enemies: These now ouning the same Cause, judged themselves obliged to run the same hazard, in the same circumstances, and to follow the same method, & durst not leave it unessayed, leaving the event to God: considering also, that not only the Law of Nature & Nations doth allow self defence from unjust violence, but also the indissoluble obligation of their Covenants, to maintain & defend the true Religion & one another in promoving the same, made it indispensible to use that endeavour, the defect of which through their former supineness gave no small encouragment to the Enemies: They considered also what would be the consequence of that War, declared against all the Faithful of t…e Land with a displayed banner, prosecuted with fire & …word, and all acts of horrid hostility, published in printed Proclamations, & written in Characters of blood by barbarous souldiers, so that none could enjoy Gospel Ordinances dispensed in Purity, but upon the hazard of their lives: And therefore, to prevent & frustrate these effects, they endeavoured to put themselves in a posture. And hereunto they were encouraged, by the constant experience of the Lords countenancing their endeavours in that posture, which alwayes 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 harme thereby. Thus the Lord was with us while we were with Him, but when we forsook Him then 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 …ands of Barbarous Souldiers, for suppressing the Gospel in these field-Meetings. And for their Maintinance, they imposed new wicked & arbitrary Cesses & Taxations, professedly required for suppressing Religion & Liberty, banishing the Gospel out of the Land, and preserving & promoting his Absoluteness over all Matters & p. 121Persons Sacred & Civil: Which, under that tentation of great suffering threatened to Refusers, and under the disadvantage of the silence & 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 overawed and prelimited States; but from the nature of that imposed Complyance, that it was a sinful transaction with Christs declared Enemies, a strengthening the hands of the wicked, an Obedience to a wicked Law, a Consenting to Christs 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 Oppressours to destroy Religion & Liberty; And from the fountain of it, an Arbitrary power domineering over us, and oppressing & overpressing the Kingdoms with intollerable exactions That to pay it, it was to entail slaverie on the posterity; And from the declared end of it, expressed in the very Narrative of the Act, viz: to levy & maintain forces for suppressing & dispersing Meetings of the Lords people, and to shew unanimous affection for maintaining the Kings Supremacy as now established by Law; which designs he resolved, and would be capacitate by the Granters to effectuate by such a Grant, which in effect, to all tender Consciences, had an evident tendency to the exauctorating the Lord Christ, to maintain Souldiers to suppress His Work, & murder His Followers, yet all this time Ministers & Professors were unite, and with one soul & shoulder followed the Work of the Lord, till the Indulged▪ being dissatisfied with the Meetings in the fields, whose Glory was like to overcloud & obscure their beds of ease, and especially being offended at the freedom & faithfulness of some, who set the Trumpet to their mouth, and shewed Iacob his sins & Israel his transgressions impartially without a clock or cover, they began to make a faction p. 122among 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 Christs Ambassadours, touched & affected with the affronts done to their Princely Master by the Supremacy and the Indulgence its Bastard brood & brat, began after long silence to discover its iniquity, and to acquaint the people how the Usurper had invaded the Mediators Chair, in taking upon him to depose; suspend, silence, plant & transplant His Ministers, where & when & how he pleased, and to give forth warrants & Licences for admitting them, with Canons & Instructions for regulating them in the exercise of their Ministrie, and to arraign & censure them at his Courts for delinquencies in their Ministry; pursuing all to the death who are faithful to Christ, and maintain their Loyaltie to His Lawes, and will not prostitute their Consciences to his lusts, and bow doun to the Idol of his Supremacy, but will oune the Kingly Authority of Christ. Yet others, and the greater number of dissenting Ministers, were not only deficient herein, but defended them, joyned with them, and (pretending prudence & prevention of Schisme) in effect homologated that deed and the practice of these Priests Ezek. 22. 26. teaching & advising the people to hear them, both by precept, and going along with them in that Erastian Course: And not only so, but condemned & 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 with their blood; yet then even by their Brethren were loaden with the reproachful Nicknames of Schismaticks, blind Zea…ots, I…suits &c. But it was alwayes observed, as long as Ministers were faithful in following the Lord in the way of their duty, Professors were fervent, And ununder all their Conflicts with Persecuters▪ the courage & zeal of the lovers of Christ was blazing, and never out-braved by all the enemies boastings to undertake brisk Exploits: p. 123which from time to time they were now and then essaying, till defection destroyed, and division diverted their zeal against the Enemis of God, who before were alwayes the object against which they whetted the edge of their just Indignation. Especially the insulting insolency & insolent villanie of that publick Incendiarie, the Arch-Prelate Sharp, was judged intollerable by ingenuous Spirits; because he had treacherously betrayed the Church & Nation, and being imployed as their delegate to oppose the threatened introduction of Prelacy, he had like a perjured Apostate and perfidious Traitor advanced himself into the place of Primate of Scotland, and being a member of Council he became a chief Instrument of all the Persecution, and main Instigator to all the bloody violence & cruelty that was exerced against the people of God; by whose means, the letter sent doun to stop the shedding of more blood after Pentland was kept… up, until several of these Martyrs were Murdered. Therefore in Iulij 1668. Mr Iames Mitchel thought in his duty to save himself, deliver his Brethren, and free the Land of the violence of that beast of prey, and attempted to cut him off: which failing, he then escaped, but afterwards was apprehended; and being moved by the Councils Oath, and Act of Assurance promising his life, he made Confession of the fact: Yet afterwards for the same he was arraigned before the Justiciary, and the Confession he made was brought in against him, and witnessed by the perjured Chancellour Rothes, and other Lords, contrare to their Oath & Act produced in open Court, to their indeleble infamy: whereupon he was tortured, condemned, & executed. But Justice would not suffer this Murder to pass long unrevenged, nor that Truculunt Traitor, Iamos Sharp the Arch-Prelat, who was the occasion & cause of it, and of many more both before & after, to escape remarkable punishment; the severity whereof did sufficiently compense its delay, after ten years respite, wherein he ceased not more and more to pursue, persecute, & make havock of the Righteous for their duty, until at length he received the just demerit of his perfidie, perjury, apostasie, p. 124sorceries, villanies, and murders, Sharp arrowes of the Mighty & coals of Iuniper. For upon the 3. of May 1679. several worthy Gentlmen, with some other men of Courage & zeal for the cause of God and the good of the Country, executed righteous Judgement upon him in Magu… Moor near St Andrews. And that same monethmonth, on the Anniversary day May 29. the Testimony at Rutherglen was Published, against that abomination of celebrating an Anniversary day, kept every year for giving thanks for the setting up an usurped power, destroying the Interest of Christ in the Land—And angainst all sinful & unlawful Acts, emitted & executed, published & prosecuted against our Covenanted Reformation. Where also they burnt the Act of Supremacy, the Declaration, the Act Recissory &c. in way of retaliation for the burning of the Covenants. On the Sabbath following Iun. 1. A field Meeting for the Worship of God near to Loudoun-hil was assaulted by Graham of Claverhouse, and with him three troups of horse & Dragoons, who had that morning taken an honest Minister and about 14 Countrymen out of their beds and carried them along with them as Prisoners to the Meeting in a Barbarous manner. But by the good hand of God upon the Defendents, they were repulsed at Drumclogg and put to flight, the Prisoners relieved, about 30. of the Souldiers killed on the place, and 3. of the Meeting, and several wounded on both sides. Thereafter the people retreating from the pursuit, consulted what was expedient in that juncture, whether to disperse themselves as formerly, or to keep together for their necessary defence. The result was, that considering the craft & cruelty of those they had to deal with, the sad consequents of falling into their hands now more incensed than ever, the evil effects that likely would ensue upon their separation, which would give them access to make havock of all; they judged it most safe in that extremity for some time not to separate. Which Resolution, coming abroad to the ears of others of their Brethren; determined them incontinently to come to their Assistence, considering their necessity, and their oun lyableness to the same common danger, upon the account of their endeavours p. 125of that nature elsewhere to defend themselves, being of the same judgement for maintaining of the same Cause, to which the were bound by the same Covenants, and groaning under the same burdens; they judged therefore that if they now with held their assistence in such a strait, they could not be innocent of their Brethrens blood, nor found faithful in their Covenant: To which they were encouraged with the Countenance & success the Lord had given to that Meeting, in that defensive Resistence. This was the Rise & Occasion of that Appearance at Bothwelbridge, which the Lord did in His Holy Soveraignty confound, for former Defections by the means of Division, which broke that litle Army among themselves, before they were broken by the Enemy. They continued together in amiable & amicable peace for the space of 8 or 9 dayes, while they endeavoured to put out & keep out every wicked thing from amongst them, and adhered to the Rutherglen-Testimony, and that short Declaration at Glasgow confirming it; Representing their present purposes & endeavours, where only in vindication & defence of the Reformed Religion—as they stood obliged thereto by the National & Solemn League & Covenant, and the Solemn Acknowledgment of Sins & Engagment to duties; Declaring against Popery, Prelacy, Erastianisme, and all things depending thereupon. Intending hereby to comprehend the defection of the Indulgence, to witness against which all unanimously aggreed: Until the Army encreasing, the Defenders & Daubers of that defection, some Ministers and others, came in who broke all, and upon whom the blood of that Appearance may be charged. The occasion of the breach was, first, When in the sense of the obligation of that Command, when the host goeth forth against thine enemies, keep thee from every wicked thing, an overture was offered to set times apart for humiliation for the publick sins of the Land, according to the practice of the Godly in all ages before engaging their enemies, and the laudable precedents of our Ancestors; that so the Causes of Gods wrath against the Nation might be enquired into & confessed, and the Lords Blessing, Counsel, & Conduct p. 126to & upon present Endeavours, might be implored. And accordingly the Complying with abjured Erastianisme, by the acceptance of the ensnaring Indulgence, offered by & received from the Usurping Rulers, was condescended upon among the rest of the grounds of fasting & humiliation, so seasonably & necessarely called for at that time. The Sticklers for the Indulgence refused the overture, upon politick considerations, for fear of offending the Indulged Ministers & Gentlemen, and provoking them to withdraw their Assistence. This was the great Cause of the division, that produced such unhappy & destructive effects. And next, whereas the Cause was stated before according to the Covenants, in the Rutherglen-Testimony & Glasglow-Declaration, wherein the Kings Interest was waved; These Dividers drew up another large paper (called the Hamiltoun-Declaration) wherein they assert the Kings Interest, according to the third Article of the Solemn League & Covenant. Against which the best affected contended, & protested they could not in Conscience put in his Interest in the State of the Quarrel, being now in stated opposition to Christs Interests, and inconsistent with the meaning of the Covenant, and the practices of the Covenanters, and their own Testimonies; while now he could not be declared for as being in the defence of Religion & Liberty, when he had so palpably overturned & ruined the Work of Reformation, and oppressed such as adhered thereunto, and had burnt the Covenant &c. Whereby he had loosed the people from all obligation to him from it. Yet that contrary faction prevailed, so far as to get it published in the name of all: whereby the Cause was perverted & betrayed, and the former Testimonies rendered irrite, and the Interest of the publick Enemy epsoused. Finally, the same day that the Enemy approached in sight, And a considerable advantage was offered to do execution against them, these Loyal Gentlemen hindered & retarded all Action, till a Parly was beat, and an Address dispatched to the Duke of Monmouth, who then commanded his Fathers Army. By which nothing was gained, but free Liberty given to the Enemies to plant their Canon, and advance p. 127without interruption. After which, in the Holy All-overruling Providence of God, that poor handful was signally discountenanced of God, deprived of all Conduct, divested of all Protection, and laid open to the raging Sword, the just punishment of all such tamperings with the Enemies of God, and espousing their Interest, and omitting humiliation for their own and the Lands sins. About 300 were killed in the Fields, and 1000. and upwards were taken Prisoners, stripped, and carried to Edinburgh, where they were kept for a long time in the Gray Friers Churchyard, without shelter from cold or rain. And at length had the tentation of an insnaring bond of peace: Wherein they were to acknowledge that Insurrection to be Rebellion▪ and oblige themselves never to rise in Armes against the King, nor any commissionate by him, and to live peaceably &c. Which, through fear of threatened death, and the unfaithfulness of some, and the impudence of other Ministers that perswaded them to take it, prevailed with many: Yet others resolutely resisted, judging it to imply a condemning of their duty, an abandoning of their Covenant-Engagments, wherein they were obliged to duties inconsistent with such bonds, and a voluntary binding up their hands from all oppositions to the declared War against Christ, which is the native sense of the peace they require, which can never be entertained long with men so treacherous. And therefore upon Principles of Reason & Conscience they refused that pretended Indemnity, offered in these termes. Nevertheless the most part took it: and yet were sentenced with banishment; and sent away for America as well as they who refused it; And by the way, (a few excepted,) perished in Shipwrack: whose blood yet cries both against the Imposers, and the Perswaders to that bond.

III. This fearful & fatal stroke at Bothuel, not only was in its immediate effects so deadly, but in its consequents so destructive, that the decaying Church of Scotland, which before was begining to revive, was then cast into such a swoon that she is never like to recover to this day. And the Universality of her Children, which before espoused her Testimony, was after that partly drawn by Craft, and p. 128partly drawn by Cruelty, from a Conjunction with their Brethren in prosecuting the same, either into an open defection to the Contrary side, or into a detestable indifferency & neutrality in the Cause of God. For first of all the Duke of Monmouth, whose nature more averse from Cruelty than the rest of that Progeny made him pliable to all suggestions of wicked policy, that seemed to have a shew or smoothness & lenity, procured the emission of a pretended Indemnity, attended with the foresaid Band of p…ace for its Companion. Which were dreadful snares, catching many with flatteries, and fair pretences of favours, fairded over with curious words and cozening names of living peaceably &c. while in the mean time a most deadly & destructive thrust (as it were under the fifth rib) because most secret, was intended against all that was left remaining of the Work of God undestroyed, and a bar put upon all essayes to revive or recover it by their oun consent, who should endeavour it. This Course of Defection carried away many at that time: And from that time, since the taking of that bond of peaceable living, there hath been an universal preferring of peace to Truth, and of ease to duty. And the generality have been left to swallow all baits, tho the hook was never so discernible, all those ensnaring Oaths & Bonds imposed since, which both then & since People were left to their oun determination to chuse or refuse; many Ministers refusing to give their Advice when required & requested thereunto, and some not being ashamed or afraid to perswad the People to take them. The Ministrie then also were generally insnared with that banded Indulgence, the pretended benefit of that Indemnity, which as it was designed so it produced the woful effect of propagating the defection, and promoting the division, and laying them by from their duty & Testimony of that day, which to this day they have not yet taken upon their former ground. For when a Proclamation was emitted, inveighing bitterly against field Meetings, and absolutely interdicting all such for the future under highest pain, but granting Liberty to Preach in houses upon the termes of a Cautionary bond given for their living peaceably: yet excluding p. 129all these Ministers who were suspected to have been at the late Rebellion; and all these who shall afterward be admitted by Non-Conforme Ministers: And certifying, that if ever they shall be at any field Conventickle, the said Indemnity shall not be useful to such Transgressours any manner of way: And requiring security, that none under the colour of this favour continue to preach Rebellion. Though there seems to be enough in the Proclamation it self to have scarred them from this scandalous snare, yet a Meeting of Ministers at Edinburg made up of Indulged, avowed Applauders of the Indulgence, or underhand Approvers and favourers of the same, and some of them old Publick Resolutioners, assuming to themselves the name of a General Assembly, yea of the Representative of the Church of Scotland, voted for the Acceptance of it. And so formally transacted & bargained upon base, dishonest, & dishonourable termes with the Usurper, by consenting & compacting with the People to give that bond, Wherein the People upon an humble Petition to the Council, obtaining their Indulged-Minister do bind & oblige—that the said—shall live peaceably. And in order thereto to present him before his Maj. Privie Council, when they shall be called so to do; And in case of failzie in not presenting him, to be Lyable to the summe of 6000 Merks. Whereby they condemned themselves of former unpeaceableness, and engaged to a sinful Peace with the enemies of God, and became bound and fettered under these bonds to a forbearance of a Testimony, and made answerable to their Courts, and the People were bound to present them for their duty. The sinfulness, scandalousness, & inconveniences of which transactions, are abundantly demonstrated by a Treatise thereupon, intituled, The Banders disbanded. Nevertheless many embraced this new bastard Indulgence, that had not the benefit of the former brat, of the same Mother the Supremacy, and far more consented to it without a witness, and most of all did some way homologate it, in preaching under the sconce of it: Declining the many reiterated & urgent Calls of the …ealous Lovers of Christ, to come out and maintain the p. 130Testimony of the Gospel in the open fields, for the honour of their Master and the freedom of their Ministrie. Whereupon, as many poor People were stumbled and jumbled into many confusions, so that they were so bewildered & bemisted in doubts & debates, that they knew not what to do, and were tempted to question the Cause formerly so servently contended for against all opposition, then so simply abandoned, by these that seemed sometimes valiant for it, when they saw them consulting more their oun ease than the Concerns of their Masters Glory, or the necessity of the poor people hungering for the Gospel, and standing in need of Counsel in time of such abounding snares, whereby many became a prey to all tentations: So the more zealous & faithful, after several Addresses, Calls, & Invitations to Ministers, finding themselves deserted by them, judged themselves under a necessity to discountenance many of them, whom formerly they followed with pleasure; and to resolve upon a pursuit & prosecution of the duty of the day without them, and to provide themselves with faithful Ministers, who would not shun for all hazards to declare the whole Counsel of God. And accordingly through the tender Mercy of God, compassionating the exigence of the People, the Lord sent them first Mr Richard Cameron, with whom after his serious solicitation his Brethren denied their concurrence, and then Mr Donald Cargil; who, with a zeal & boldness becoming Christs Ambassadours, maintained & prosecuted the Testimony, against all the Indignities done to their Master and wrongs to the Cause, both by the encroachments of Adversaries and defections of their declining Brethren. Wherein they were signally countenanced of their Master; And the Lords Inheritance was again revived with the showres of the Gospels blessings, wherewith they had been before refreshed; and enlightened with a Glance & Glimpse of resplendent brightness, immediatly before the obscurity of this fearful night of darkness that hath succeeded. But as Christ was then displaying His beauty, to His poor despised & persecuted People; so Antichrist began to blaze his bravery, in the solemn & shameful reception of his p. 131harbinger, that Pimp of the Romish whore, the Duke of York. Who had now pulled off the Mask, under which he had long covered his Antichristian Bigotrie, through a trick of his brother, constrained by the Papists importunity, and the necessity of their favour, & recruit of their Coyn, either to declare himself Papist, or to make his brother do it: whereby all the locusts were engaged to his Interest, with whom he entered into a Conspiracy and Popish Plot, as was discovered by many infallible evidences, and confessed by Coleman his Secretary, to Sir Edmund-Bury Godfrey; for which, lest he should witness against him, when Coleman was apprehended, that Gentleman was cruelly murdered by the Duke of Yorks contrivance & command. Yet for all the demonstrations of his being a Bigot Papist, that he had long given unto the world, it is known what some suffered for saying, that the Duke of York was a Papist and being forced to leave England he was come to Scotland to promots Poperie & Arbitrary Government. However, thô the Parliament of England, for his Poperie & Villanie, and his ploting & pursuing the destruction of the Nation, did vote his Exclusion; yet degenerate Scotland did receive him in great pompe & pride. Against which, the forementioned faithful witnesses of Christ did find themselves obliged to testify their just resentment, and to protest against his succeeding to the Croun, in their Declaration published at Sanquhair, Iune 22. 1680. Wherein also they Disoune Charles Stewart, as having any Right, Title, or Interest in the Croun of Scotland or Government thereof, as being fore…aulted several years since, by his perjurie & breach of Covenant, Usurpation on Christs Prerogatives, and by his Tyranny & breaches in the very Leges regnandi in matters Civil—And declare a war with him, and all the men of these practices—homologating the Testimony at Rutherglen, and disclaiming that declaration at Hamiltoun. This Action was generally condemned by the body of lurking Ministers, both for the matter of it, and the unseasonableness of it, and its apparent unfeasibleness, being done by a handful so inconsiderable, for number, strength, or significancy. But as they had very great & important p. 132reasons to disclaim that Tyrants Authority, hinted in the Declaration it self, and hereafter more fully vindicated: so the necessity of a Testimony against all the Tyrannical Encroachments on Religion & Liberty, then current & encreasing; and the sin & shame of shifting & delaying it so long, when the Blasphemous Supremacy was now advanced to its summity; the Churches Priviledges all overturned; Religion and the Work of Reformation trampled under foot; the Peoples Rights & Liberties destroyed, and Lawes all subverted; and no shadow of Government left but arbitrary Absoluteness, obtruding the Tyrants will for Reason, and his Letter for the Supreme Law (witness the Answer which one of the Council gave to another, objecting against their Proceedings as not according to Law, what devil do ye talk of Law? have not we the Kings Letter for it?) And all the ends of Magistracy wholly inverted; while innocent & honest People were grievously oppressed in their persons, Consciences, & Estates; And Perjuries, Adulteries, Idolatries, and all impieties were not only connived at, but countenanced as badges of Loyaltie, and manifest & monstrous Robbries & Murders Authorized, Judgement turned into gall, and the fruit of Righteousness into hemlock; do justify its Seasonableness: And the ends of the Declaration, to keep up the Standart of the Gospel, and maintain the Work of Reformation, and preserve a Remnant of faithful Adherers to it; the nature of the Resolution declared, being only to endeavour to make good & maintain their Revolt, in opposition to all who would pursue them for it, and reinforce them to a subjection to that yoke of slaverie again; and the extremity of danger & distress that party was in, while declared & pursued as Rebells, and intercommuned & interdicted of all supplie & solace, being put out of their oun, and by Law precluded of the harbour of all other habitations, and so both for safety & subsistence compelled by necessity to concur & keep together, may alleviate the Censure and stop the Clamour of its unfeasibleness. But thô it is not the prudence of the managment, but the justness of the Action, that I would have vindicated from obliquies; yet it wanted nothing but success to justify both, in the conviction of many that made much outcry against it. In these dangerous page missing p. 135in his maintainance of the true Covenanted Religion—which homage they cannot now require upon the account of the Covenant, which they have renounced & disclaimed; and upon no other ground we are bound to them—the Croun not being an inheritance, that passeth from Father to son without the Consent of Tenants—(3) Of the hope of their returning from these Courses: Whereof there is none, seeing they have so often declared their purposes of persevering ill thein, And suppose they should dissemble a repentance—supposing also they might be pardoned, for that which is done—from whose guiltiness the Land cannot be cleansed, but by executing Gods righteous Judgements upon them—yet they cannot now be believed, after they have violated all that humane wisdom could devise to bind them. Upon these accounts they reject that King, and those associate with him in the Government—and declare them henceforth no lawful Rulers, as they had declared them to be no lawful Subjects—they having destroyed the established Religion, overturned the fundamental Lawes of the Kingdom, taken away Christs Church-Government, and changed the Civil into Tyrannie, where none are associate in partaking of the Government, but only these who will be found by Justice guilty of Criminals—And declare they shall, God giving power, set up Government & Governours according to the Word of God, and the qualifications required Exod. 18. vers. 20.—And shall not commit the Government—to any single person, or lineal succession, being not tyed as the Jewes were to one single family—and that kind being lyable to most inconveniences, & aptest to degenerate into Tyrannie—And moreover, that these men set over them shall be engaged to Govern Principally, by that Civil & Judicial Law (not that which is any way Typical) given by God to His people of Israel—as the best so far as it goes, being given by God—especially in matters of life & death—and other things, so far as they reach, and are consistent with Christian Liberty—exempting p. 136Divorces & Polygamie—6. Seeing the greatest part of Ministers, not only were defective in Preaching against the Acts of the Rulers for overthrowing Religion —but hindered others also who were willing, and censured some that did it—and have voted for acceptation of that Liberty, founded upon & given by virtue of that blaspemously arrogate & Usurped power—and appeared before their Courts to accept of it, and to be enacted & authorized their Ministers—whereby they have become the Ministers of men, and bound to be answerable to them as they will—And have preached for the lawfulness of paying that Tribute, declared to be imposed for the bearing doun of the true Worship of God—And advised poor Prisoners to subscribe that Bond—which if it were universally subscribed —they should close that door, which the Lord hath made use of in all the Churches of Europe, for casting off the yoke of the whore—and stop all regress of men, when once brought under Tyrannie, to recover their Libertie again.—They declare they neither can nor will hear them &c. nor any who encouraged & strengthened their hands, and pleaded for them, and trafficqued for union with them. 7. That they are for a standing Gospel Ministrie, rightly chosen & rightly ordained —& that none shall take upon them the Preaching of the Word &c. unless called & ordained thereunto —And whereas Separation might be imputed to them, they refell both the malice, and the ignorance of that Calumnie—for if there be a Separation, it must be where the change is; and that was not to be found in them, who were not separating from the Communion of the true Church, nor setting up a New Ministrie, but cleaving to the same Ministers & Ordinances, that formerly they followed, when others have fled to new wayes, and a new Authority, which is like the old piece in the new Garment. 8. That they shall defend themselves in their Civil, Natural, & Divine Rights & Liberties—And if any assault them, they shall look on it as a declaring a war, and take all p. 137advantages that one enemie does of another—but trouble and injure none but those that injure them—This is the Compend of that Paper which the Enemies seised and published, while it was only in a rude draught, and not polished, digested, nor consulted by the rest of the Community: yet, whether or not it was for their advantage so to blaze their oun baseness in that Paper truly represented, I leave it to the Reader to judge: or, if they did not thereby Proclaim their oun Tyrannie, and the Innocency & honesty of that people, whom thereby they were seeking to make odious; but in effect inviting all Lovers of Religion & Liberty to Sympathise with them, in their difficulties & distresses there discovered. However that poor Partie continued together in a posture of defence, without the Concurrence or Countenance of their Covenanted Brethren, who staid at home, and left both them to be murdered and their Testimony to be trampled upon, untill the 22. of Iulij 1680. Upon the which day they were attacqued at Airsmoss, by a strong party of about 120 horse well armed, while they were but 23 horse and 40 foot at most; and so fighting valiantly were at length routed, not without their Adversaries Testimony of their being resolute men: Several of Zions precious Mourners, and faithful Witnesses of Christ, were killed; and among the rest, that faithful Minister of Christ, Mr Richard Cameron sealed & fulfilled his Testimony with his blood. And with others, the valiant and much honoured Gentleman, David Hackstoun of Rathillet, was after many received wounds apprehended, brought in to Edinburgh; and there, resolutely adhering to the Testimony, and disouning the Authority of King & Council, and all their Tyrannical Judicatories, was cruelly murdered, but countenanced eminently of the Lord. Now remained Mr Donald Cargil, deprived of his faithful Collegue, destitute of his Brethrens concurrence, but not of the Lords Counsel & Conduct; by which he was prompted & helped to prosecute the Testimony, against the Universal Apostasie of the Church & Nation, Tyranny of Enemies, Backsliding of Friends, and all the wrongs done to his Master on p. 138all hands. And considering, in the zeal of God, and sense of His holy Jealousie provoked and threatening wrath against the Land; for the sins especially of Rulers; who had arrived to the hight of Heaven-daring Insolence in all wickedness, in which they were still growing & going on without control; That notwithstanding of all the Testimonies given against them, by publick Preachings, Protestations, and Declarations, remonstrating their Tyranny and disouning their Authority; yet not only did they still persist in their sins & scandals, to make the Lords fierce Anger break forth into a flame, but were ouned also by Professors, not only as Magistrats, but as members of the Christian & Protestant Church; And that, however both the defensive armes of men had been used against them, and the Christian armes of Prayers, and the Ministerial weapon of Preaching, yet that of Ecclesiastical Censure had not been Authoritatively exerted against them: Therefore, that no Weapon which Christ allowes His Servants under His Standart to manage against His Enemies might be wanting, thô he could not obtain the Concurrence of his Brethren to strengthen the solemnity & formality of the Action; yet he did not judge that defect, in this broken Case of the Church, could disable his Authority nor de…ur the duty, but that he might and ought to proceed to Excommunication. And accordingly, in September—1680. at the Torwood, he excommunicated some of the most scandalous and Principal Promoters & Abettors of this Conspiracy against Christ, as formally as the present Case could admit: After Sermon upon Ezek. 21. 25, 26, 27. And thou profane wicked Prince of Israel, whose day is come &c. He had a short and pertinent discourse on the nature, the subject, the causes, and the ends of Excommunication in general: And then declared, that he was not led out of any private Spirit or passion to this Action, but constrained by Conscience of duty and zeal to God to stigmatize with this brand, and wound with the Sword of the Lord, these Enemies of God that had so Apostatized, rebelled against, mocked, despised & defied Our Lord, and to declare them as they are none of His, to be none of ours. The persons excommunicated, p. 139and the Sentence against them, was given forth as followes—I being a Minister of Iesus Christ, and having Authority and Power from Him, do, in His Name & by His Spirit, excommunicat…, cast out of the true Church, and deliver up to Satan, Charles the Second, King &c. The Sentence was founded upon these grounds, declared in the pronunciation thereof (1) for his high mocking of God, in that after he had acknowledged his own sins, his fathers sins, his mothers Idolatrie—yet had gone on more avowedly in the same than all before him. (2) for his great Perjurie, in breaking & burning the Covenant. (3) for his rescinding all Lawes for establishing the Reformation, and enacting Lawes contrarie thereunto. (4) for commanding of Armies to destroy the Lords people. (5) for his being an Enemy to true Protestants, & helper of the Papists, and hindering the execution of just Lawes against them. (6) for his granting Remissions & Pardons for Murderers, which is in the power of no King to do, being expressly contrare to the Law of God. (7) for his Adulteries, and dissembling with God & man—Next by the same Authority, and in the same name, he excommunicated Iames Duke of York, for his Idolatrie, and setting it up in Scotland to defile the Land, and entycing & encouraging others to do so: Not mentioning any other sins, but what he scandalously persisted in in Scotland &c. With several other rotten Malignant Enemies, on whom the Lord hath rati…ed that Sentence since very remarkably, whose sins & punishments both may be read more visiblie in the Providences of the time, than I can record them. But about this time, when amidst all the abounding defections & divisions of that dark & dismal hour of tentation, some in zeal for the Cause were endeavouring to keep up the Testimony of the day, in an abstraction from Complying Ministers; Others were left (in holy judgment, to be a stumbling block to the Generation hardening them in their defections, and to be a beacon to the most zealous to keep off from all unwarrantable excesses) to fall into fear…ul extravagances and delirious & damnable delusions, being overdriven with ignorant & p. 140blind zeal into untroden paths, which led them into a labyrinth of darkness; when as they were stumbled at many Ministers their unfaithfulness, so through the deceit of Sathan and the hypocrisie of his Instruments, they came to be offended at Mr Cargil his faithfulness, who spared neither left hand declensions nor right hand extremes, and left him and all the Ministers; not only disouning all Communion with those that were not of their way, but execrating & Cursing them; and kept themselves in desert places from all Company; where they persisted prodigiously in fastings, and singing Psalms, pretending to wonderful raptures & Enthusiasmes: and in fine, I. Gib with 4 more of them came to that hight of Blasphemy, that they burnt the Bible & Confession of Faith. These were the sweet singers, as they were called, led away into these delusions by that Impostor & Sorcerer Iohn Gib; who never encreased to such a number, as was then feared & reported, being within thirty & most part women: all which for the most part have been through Mercy reclaimed from that destructive way, which through Grace the Reproached Remnant, adhering to the foresaid Testimony, had alwayes an abhorrence of. Wherefore that ignorant & impudent Calumnie, of their Consortship with Gibs followers, is only the vent of viperous Envy. For they were the first that discovered them, and whose pains the Lord blessed in reclaiming them, and were alwayes so far from partaking with them, that to this day these that have come off from that way, and have offered the Confession of their scandal, do still complain of their over-rigid severity, in not admitting them to their select fellowships. To which may be added this undenyable Demonstration, that whereas the persecu…ing Courts of Inquisition did alwayes extend the utmost severity against the Ouners of this Testimony, yet they spared them: And the Duke of York, then in Scotland was so we… pleased with Gib's Blasphemies, that he favoured him extraordinarly, and freely dismissed him. This was a cloudy & dark day, but not without a burning & shining light as long as that faithful Minister of Christ, Mr Donald Cargil, was following the Work of the Lord; who shortly after this finished p. 141his Testimony, being apprehended with other two faithful & zealous Witnesses of Christ, Mr Walter Smith, and Mr Iames Boog, who with 2 more were altogether, at Edinburgh 27. Iulij 1681. Crouned with the Glory of Martyrdom. Then came the day of the Remnants vexation, trouble, darkness & dimness of anguish, wherein who so looked unto the Land could see nothing but darkness & sorrow, & the light darkened in the Heavens thereof, wherein neither Star nor Sun appeared for many dayes, and poor People were made to grope for the wall like the blind, and to stumble in noon day as in the night. While the Persecution advanced on the one hand, a violent spait of defection carried doun the most part of Ministers & Professors before it, driving them to Courses of sinful & scandalous Conformings with the times Corruptions, Compearings before their Courts, Complyings with their Commands, paying of theis Cesses and other Exactions, Taking of their Oaths & Bonds, and countenancing their Prelatical Church-Services, which they were ashamed to do before. And thereupon on the other hand the Divisions and Confusions were augmented, and poor people that desired to cleave to the Testimony were more & more offended and stumbled at the Ministers, who either left the Land in that clamant Call of the peoples necessity, or lurked in their own retirements, and declined the duty of that day, leaving people to determine themselves in all their perplexities, as a prey to all tentations. But the tender Pastor and Shepherd of Israel, who leads the blind in the way they know not, did not forsake a Remnant in that hour of tentation who kept the Word of His Patience; and as He helped those that fell into the hands of Enemies to Witness a good Confession, so He strengthened the zeal of the remaining Contenders, against all the Machinations of Adversaries to crush it, and all the Methods of Backsliding Professors to quench it. And the mean which most effectually preserved it in life & vigour, was the expedient they fell upon of Corresponding in General Meetings, to consult, informe, & confirme one another about common duties in common dangers, for preservation p. 142of the Remnant from the destruction & contagion of the times, and propagation of the Testimony: Laying doun this General Conclusion for a foundation of Order, to be observed among them in incident doubtful cases, & emergent Controversies, that nothing relative to the publick, and which concerns the who…e of their Community, be done by any of them, without harmonious consent sought after & rationally waited for, and sufficient deliberation about the best means & manner. In the mean time, the Duke of York, as Commissioner from his brother, held a Parliament wherein he presided, not only against all righteous Lawes that make a bloody & avowed Papist incapable or such a Trust, but against the Letter of their oun wicked Lawes, whereby none ought to be admitted but such as swear the Oaths; yet not only was he constitute in this place, but in the whole Administration of the Government of Scotland without the taking any Oath, which then he was Courting to be entailed Successor and heir of the Croun thereof; And for this …n… made many pretences of flatteries, and feigned expressions of love, & of doing many acts o… kindness to that ancient Kingdom, as he hath made many dissembling protestations of it since, for carrying on his oun Popish & Tyrannical designs: But what good-will he hath born to it, not only his acts & actings written in Characters of the blood of Innocents declare, but his words do witness, which is known when and to whom he spake, when he said, It would never …e wel til all on the southside of Forth were made a hunting field. However in that Parliament, anno 1681. he is chiefly intended, and upon the matter by a wicked Act declared legal & lineal Successor, and a detestable Blasphemous and Self-contradictory Test is framed for a Pest to Consciences, which turned out of all places of Trust any that had any remaining measure of common honesty; And when some was speaking of a bill for securing Religion in case of a Popish Prince, the Dukes answer was notable, that whatsoever they intended or prepared against Papists should light upon others: whereby we may understand what measures we may expect, when his designs are ripe. And to all the Cruel Acts then & before made against the People of God, there was one superadded p. 143regulating the execution of all the rest, whereby at one dash all Civil & Criminal Justice was overthroun, and a foundation laid for Popish-Tyranny, that the Right of Iurisdiction both in Civil & Criminal Matters is so inherent in the Croun, that his Maj. may judge all Causes by himself, on any other he thinks fit to commissionate. Here was Law for Commissionating Souldiers to take away the lives of Innocents, as was frequently exemplified afterwards, and may serve hereafter for erecting the Spanish Inquisition to murder Protestants when he thinks fit to commissonate them. Against which wicked Encroachments on Religion & Liberty, the Faithful thought themselves obliged to emit a Testimony: And therefore published a Declaration at Lanerk, Iannary 12. 1682. Confirming the preceeding at Sanquhair, and adding reasons of their Revolt from the Government of Charles the Second. 1. For cutting off the neck at one blow of the noble Constitution of Church & State, and involving all Officers in the Kingdom in the same perjurie with himself. 2. For exalting himself into a sphere exceeding all measures Divine & humane, Tyrannically obtruding his will for a Law in his arbitrary Letters, so that we are made the reproach of Nations, who say, we have only the Law of Letters instead of the Letter of the Law. 3. For his constant adjourning & dissolving Parliaments at his pleasure. 4. For his arrogantly arrogated Supremacy in all Causes Civil & Ecclesiastick, and oppressing the Godly for Conscience & duty. 5. For his exorbitan… Taxings, Cessings, & grinding the faces of the poor, dilapidating the rights & revenues of the Croun, for no other end but to imploy them for keeping up a Borthel▪ rather than a Court. 6. For installing a successor, such an one (if not worse) as himself, contrare to all Law, Reason, & Religion, and framing the Test &c. And in end offer to prove, they have done nothing in this against our Ancient Lawes, Civil or Ecclesiastick—but only endeavoured to extricate themselves from under a Tyrannous yoke, and to reduce Church & State to what they were in the year 1648 and 1649. After which Declaration, they were more condemned by them that were at p. 144ease than ever, and very untenderly dealt with; being without any previous admonition reproached, accused, and informed against, both at home & abroad, as if they had turned to some wild & unhappy Course. For which Cause, in the next General Meeting, they resolved to delegate some of their number to forreign Churches, on purpose to vindicate themselves from these Calumnies, and to represent the justness of their Cause, and the sadness of their Case, and provoke them to some Sympathie abroad, which was denied at home: And withall to provide for a Succession of Witnesses, who might maintain the Testimony, which was then in appearance interrupted, except by Martyrdom & Sufferings. Therefore by that means having obtained access for the instruction of some young men, at an University in the United Provinces, in process of time, Mr Iames Renwick received Ordination there, and came home to take up the Standart of his Master, upon the ground where it last was left, and to carry on the Testimony against all the oppositions of that day, from open Enemies & backsliding Professors: an undertaking more desperate-like than that of Unus Athanasius contra totam orbem, and like that of a Child threshing doun a Mountain. Which yet against all the outragious rage of ravening Enemies, ranging, ravaging, hunting, chasing, pursuing after him, through all the touns, villages, cottages, woods, moors, mosses, & mountains of the Country; and against all the scourge of tongues, contradictions, condemnations, obliquies, reproaches, & cruel mockings of incensed Professors, and generally of all the Inhabitants of the Land; he was helped to prosecute, by many weary wanderings, travells, and traversings through the deserts, night & day, Preaching, Confering, & Catechising, mostly in the cold winter nighrs in the open fields: until, by the Blessing of God upon his labours, not only was the faithfull Witnessing Remnant that joyned in the Testimony, further cleared confirmed, and encouraged, and their number much encreased by the coming in and joyning of many others to the fellowship of their settled Societies; but also many others, in page missing p. 149but as soon as it grew dark, all hope lost, they dispersed, every man shifting for himself; only a few keeping together all the nixt day, had a skirmage with a Party of the Enemies, in which they slew the Captain, and about 12 or some moe of his men, and afterwards they dispersed themselves also. The Enemies, searching the Country, gleaned up the E. of Argyle himself, Col. Rumbol an Englishman, Mr Thomas Archer Minister, Gawin Russel, an David Law, who were all condemned & execute at Edinburgh, and many others who were banished to America: and about some 20 in the Highlands, who were hanged at Inerarie. In England, the D. of Monmouths expedition, though it had more action, yet terminated in the same success, the loss of many hundred lives, many killed in Battel: And afterwas, by the mercy of the Duke of York▪ several hunderds in the West of England were carried about and hanged before the door of their oun habitations; and to make his Captains sport by the way, according to the number of the hours of the day, when the murdering humour came in their head, so many of the poor Captives were hanged, as a prodigious monument of monstrous Crueltie. This was the Comencement of the present Tyrants Government. In the mean time, the Wanderers in Scotland, thô they did not associate with this Expedition upon the account of the too promiscuous admittence of persons to trust in that Partie, who were then and since have discovered themselves to be Enemies to the Cause, and because they could not espouse their Declaration as the State of their Quarrel, being not concerted according to the constant Plea of the Scots Covenanters, and for other reasons given in their late Vindication: yet against this Usurpation of a bloody Papist, advancing himself to the Throne in such a manner, they published another Declaration at Sanquhair, May 28. 1685. Wherein, Approving & adhering unto all their former Declarations, And considering that Iames Duke of York, a Profest & Excommunicate Papist, was proclaimed—To testify their resentment of that deed, And to make it appear unto the world, that they were free thereof, by concurrence p. 150or connivance; They Protest against the foresaid Proclamation of Iames Duke of York as King: In regard that it is the choosing of a Murtherer to be a Governour, who hath shed the blood of the Saints—that it is the hight of Confederacy with an Idolater, for bidden by the Law of God—contrarie to the Declaration of the Gen. Ass. of the Church, Iulij 27. 1649. And contrary to many wholesome & laudable Acts of Parliament—and inconsistent with the safety, faith, Conscience, & Christian Libertie of a Christian People, to chuse a subject of Antichrist to be their Supreme Magistrate—and to entrust an Enemy to the Work & People of God with the Interests of both: And upon many important grounds & reasons (which there they express) they Protest against the validity & Constitution of that Parliament, approving & ratifying the foresaid Proclamation—And against all kind of Poperie in General & Particular heads—as abjured by the National Covenant, and abrogated by Acts of Parliament—and against its entrie again into this Land, And every thing that doth or may directly or indirectly make way for the same: Disclaiming likewise all Sectarianisme, Malignancy, and any Confederacy therewith.—This was their Testimony against Poperie in the season thereof: which thô it was not so much condemned as any former Declarations, yet neither in this had they the Concurrence of any Ministers or Professors; who as they had been silent, and omitted a seasonable Testimony against Prelacy, and the Supremacy, when these were introduced, so now also, even when this wicked Mysterie & Conspiracie of Poperie & Tyrannie, twisted together in the present designe of Antichrist, had made so great a progress, and was evidently brought above board, they were left to let …lip this opportunity of a Testimony also, to the reproach of the declining & far degenerate Church of Scotland. Yea to their shame, the very rabble of ignorant People may be brought as a witness against the body of Presbyterian Ministers in Scotland, in that they testified their detestation of the first Erection of the Idolatrous Mass, and some of the souldierie, p. 151and such as had no Profession of Religion, suffered unto death for speaking against Poperie and the designs of the King, while the Ministers were silent. And some of the Curats, and members of the late Parliament 1686. made some stickling against the taking away of the penal Statutes against Papists; while Presbyterians, from whom might have been expected greater opposition, were sleeping in a profound submission. I cannot without Confusion of Spirit touch these obvious & dolorous reflections, and yet in candor cannot forbear them. However the Persecution against the Wanderers went on, and more cruel Edicts were given forth against them, while a relenting abatement of severity was pretended against other Dissenters. At length what could not be obtained by Law at the late Parliament for taking off the Statutes against Papists, was effectuated by Prerogative: and to make it pass with the greater approbation, it was convoyed in a channel of pretended Clemency, offering a sort of Liberty, but really introducing a licencious Latitude, for bringing in all future snares by taking off some former, as arbitrarly as before they were imposed, in a Proclamation dated Feb. 12. 1687. Granting, by the Kings Soveraign Authority, Prerogative Royal, and absolute power, which all Subjects are to obey without reserve, a Royal Toleration, to the several Professors of the Christian Religion afternamed, with & under the several Conditions, restrictions, & limitations aftermentioned. In the first place, tolerating the Moderate Presbyterians to meet in their private houses, and there to hear all such Ministers, as either have or are willing to accept of the Indulgence allanerly, and none other: And that there be nothing said or done contrare to the wel & peace of his reign, seditious or treasonable, under the highest pains these Crimes will import, nor are they to presume to build Meeting houses, or to use out-houses or barns—In the mean time its his Royal will & pleasure, that Field Conventicles, and such as Preach at them, or who shall any way assist or connive at them, shall be prosecute according to the utmost severity of Lawes made against them—In like manner tolerating the p. 152Quakers to meet & exercise in their forme, in any place or places appointed for their Worship—And by the same absolute power, foresaid, suspending, stoping, & disabling all Lawes or Acts of Parliament, Customs, or Constitutions against any Roman Catholick subjects—So that they shall in all things be as free in all respects as any Protestant subjects whatsoever, not only to exercise their Religion, but to enjoy all Offices, benefices, &c. which he shall think fit to bestow upon them in all time coming—And cassing, annulling, & discharging all Oaths whatsoever, and Tests, and Lawes enjoyning them. And in place of them this Oath only is to be taken—I A. B. do ackowledge, testifie, & declare that Iames the Seventh &c. is rightful King & Supreme Governour of these Realms, and over all persons therein; And that it is unlawful for Subjects, on any Pretence or for any Cause whatsoever, to rise in Armes against him, or any Commissionated by him; and that I shall never so rise in Armes, nor assist any who shall so do; And that I shall never resist his power or Authority, nor ever oppose this Authority to his person—but shall to the utmost of my power assist, defend, & maintain him, his heirs & lawful successors, in the exercise of their Absolute power & Authority against all deadly—And by the same absolute power giving his ful & ample Indemnitie, to all the foresaid sorts of People, under the foresaid restrictions. Here is a Proclamation for a Prince: That Proclaims him in whose name it is emitted, to be the greatest Tyrant that ever lived in the world, and their Revolt who have disouned him to be the justest that ever was. For herein that Monster of Prerogative is not only advanced, paramount to all Lawes Divine & humane, but far surmounting all the lust, impudence, & insolence of all the Roman, Sicilian, Turkish, Tartarian, or Indian Tyrants that ever trampled upon the Liberties of Mankind; who have indeed demanded absolute subjectio…, & surrender of their Lives, Lands, & Liberties at their pleasure, but never arrived at such a hight of arrogance as this does, to claim absolute obedience, without reserve of Conscience, Religion, Honour, or Reason; Not only that which ignorantly p. 153is called Passive, never to resist him, not only on any Pretence, but for any Cause, even thô he should command his Popish Ianizaries to murder & massacre all Protestants, which is the tender mercy & burning fervent charity of Papists; but also of absolute Active obedience without reserve, to assist, defend, & maintain him in every thing, whereby he shall be pleased to exercise his absolute power, thô he should command to burn the Bible as well as the Covenant (as already he applauded Iohn Gib in doing of it) and to burn and butcher all that will not go to Mass, which we have all grounds to expect will be the end of his Clemency at last. Herein he claims a power to command what he will, and obliging subjects to obey whatsoever he will command: A power to rescind, stop, & disable all Lawes; which unhinges all stabilitie and unsettles all the security of humane societie, yea extinguishes all that remains of natural Liberty: Wherein, as is wel observed by the Author of the Representation of the threatening dangers impending over Protestants Pag. 53. It is very natural to observe, that he allowes the Government, under which we were born, and to which we were sworn, to be hereby subverted & changed, and that thereupon we are not only absolved & acquited from all Allegiance to him, but indispensably obliged, by the ties & engagments that are upon us, to apply our selves to the use of all means & endeavours against him, as an Enemy of the People & subverter of the legal Government. But this was so gross, and grievously gripping in its restrictions, as to persons, as to the place, as to the matter allowed the Presbyterians in Preaching, that it was disdained of all; and therefore he behoved to busk it better, and mend the matter, in a Letter to the Council (the Supreme Law of Scotland) bearing date March 31. 1687. of this tenor—Whereas we did recommend to yow to take care, that any of the Presbyterians should not be allowed to Preach, but such only as should have your Allowance for the same, and that they at the receiving the Indulgence should take the Oath contained in the Proclamation—These are therefore to let you know, that thereby we meant such p. 154of them as did not solemnly take the Test; but if nevertheless the Presbyterian Preachers do scruple to take the said Oath, or any other Oath whatsoever, and that you shall find it reasonable or fit to grant them or any of them our said Indulgence, so as they desire it upon these termes; It is now our will & pleasure—to grant them our said Indulgence, without being obliged to take the Oath, with power unto them to enjoy the benefite of the said Indulgence (during our pleasure only) or so long as yow shall find they behave themselves regularly & peaceably, without giving any cause of offence to us, or any in Authority or trust under us in our Government.—Thus finding the former Proposal not adequately apportioned to his design, because of its palpable odiousness, he would pretend his meaning was mistaken (thô it was manifest enough) and mitigate the matter by taking away of the Oaths altogether, if any should scruple it; whereas he could not but know, that all that had sense would abhor it: yet it is clogged with the same restrictions, limited to the same persons, characterized more plainly and peremptorly, with an addition of Cautions, not only that they shall not say or do any thing contrare to the wel & peace of his reign seditious or treasonable; but also that they behave themselves regularly & peaceably without giving any cause of offence to him or any under him; which comprehends lesser offences than sedition or treason, even every thing that will displease a Tyrant and a Papist, that is, all faithfulness in seasonable Duties or Testimonies. But at length lest the difformity & disparity of the Proclamation for the Toleration in Scotland, and the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience in England, should make his Pretences to Conscience suspect of disingenuity, and lest it should be said he had one Conscience for England and another for Scotland; therefore he added a third eke to the liberty, but such as made it still an ill favoured patched project to destroy Religion & true Liberty, in another Proclamation dated at Windsor, Iune 28. 1687. wherein he sayes—Taking into our Royal Consideration, the sinistrous Interpretations, which either have or may p. 155be made of some Restrictions (mentioned in the last) we have thought fit by this further to declare, that we will Protect our Arch-bishops &c. And we do likewise, by our Soveraign Authority, Prerogative Royal, and Absolute power, suspend, stop, & disable, all penal & Sanguinary Lawes; made against any for Non-conformity to the Religion established by Law in that our Ancient Kingdom—to the end, that by the Liberty thereby granted the peace & security of our Government in the practice thereof may not be endangered, we hereby straitly charge all our Loving subjects, that as we do give them leave to meet & serve God after their oun way, in private Houses, Chappels, or Places purposely hired or built for that use, so that they take care that nothing be Preached or taught, which may any way tend to alienate the hearts of our People from us & our Government, and that their Meetings be peaceably & publickly held, and all persons freely admitted to them, and that they do signify & make known to some one or more of the next Privie Councellors, Sheriffs, Stewards, Bailiffs, Justices of the Peace, or Magistrats of Burgh Royal, what place or places they set a part for these uses, with the names of the Preachers—provided alwayes that the Meetings be in houses, and not in the open fields; for which now after this our Royal grace & favour (which surpasses the hopes, & equalls the very wishes of the most zealously concerned) there is not the least shadow of execuse left: Which Meetings in the fields we do hereby strictly prohibite & forbid, against all which we do leave our Lawes & Acts of Parliament in full force & vigour, notwithstanding the premises; and do further command all our Judges, Magistrats, & Officers of forces, to prosecute such as shall be guilty of the said field Conventicles with the utmost rigour; for we are confident, none will after these Liberties & freedoms, given to all without reserve to serve God in their oun way, presume to meet in these Assemblies, except such as make a pretence of Religion to cover their treasonable designs against our Royal person & the peace of our Government

p. 156This is the Royal Charter for security of the Protestant Religion (intended to secure it so, that it shall not go much abroad again) in Lieu of all the Lawes, Constitutions, Oaths, & Covenants wherewith it was formerly confirmed. This is the only patent which the Royal Dâties, the Moderate Presbyterians, have now received to ensure their enjoyment of it durante beneplacito, during his pleasure whose Faith is as absolute over all ties of promises, as his power from whence it flowes is over all Lawes; whose chiefest principle of Conscience is that no Faith is to be kept to Hereticks. Here is the Liberty which is said to surpass the hopes and equal the wishes of the most zealously concerned; holding true indeed of too many, whose hopes & wishes & zeal are terminate upon peace rather than Truth, ease rather than duty and their own things rather than the things of Christ; But as for the poor wild Wanderers, it some way answers their fears and corrosponds with their jealousies, who put the same interpretation upon it as on all the former Indulgences, Indemnities & Tolerations, proceeding from the same fountain & designed for the same sinistrous ends with this, which they look upon as more openly & obviously Anti-christian: and therefore, while others are rejoicing under the bramble-shadow of it, they think it a cause of weeping & matter of mourning, not because they do not share of the benefit of it, but because they are afraid to share of the Curse of it. For which cause, thô a freedom be pretended to be given, to all without reserve to serve God in their own way, they think it necessary to reserve to themselves the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made them free, and to serve Him in His Way thô interdicted by men, and to take none from Antichrist restricted with his reserves; And do look upon it as a Seasonable Testimony for the Cause of Christ, and the Interest of the Protestant Religion, and the Lawes & Liberties of the Country, all overturned & subverted by this Toleration, to keep their Meetings as in former times, in the open fields whither their Tyranny hath driven them. And let them call these Meetings covered & treasonable designs against the Government on pretence of Religion, I trust it shall be made evident in the Conviction of all that know Religion, p. 157that their designs are to preserve it, in opposition to the Tyranny that goes about all these wayes to suppress it. Though I must suspend the Reasons of their keeping their Meetings in the fields, till I come to discuss that Case in its oun place: Here I shall only say, none that is acquainted with their Circumstances, which are as dangerously stated as ever, by reason of the Constant Persecution of Cruel enraged Enemies incessantly pursuing them without relenting, notwithstanding of all this pretence of Clemency & tenderness to Conscience, but may know they can neither have safety, secrecy, nor conveniency in houses for fear of their entrapping enemies, and none will blame them that after so many discoveries of their truculent treachery they dare not trust them: And besides, they think it sinful, scandalous, & inconvenient to seem to homologate this Toleration, the wickedness whereof they are convinced of, from these Reasons.

I. Considering the Granter in his personal Capacity, as to his Morals, they look upon him as a person with whom they cannot in Prudence communicate, in any transaction of that nature. First, because being in his Principles & practice professedly treacherous, yea obliged to be both perfidious & cruel by that Religion whereunto he is addicted, he cannot be trusted in the least concerns, let be those of such momentous consequence as this, without a stupid abandoning of Conscience, Reason, & Experience. Since both that known principle, that no Faith is to be kept to Hereticks, which is espoused by all Papists, does to them justify all their lying dissimulations, equivocations, & treacheries imaginable; and that Lateran Canon, that enjoyns Kings to destroy & exstirpate Hereticks under pain of excommunication, does oblige him to be cruel; besides what deep engagments he is known to be under by Oaths & Promises to the Pope, both in his exile, and while a subject, and since he came to the Croun; which make him to all Considering persons to be a person of that Character, whose deceitful dainties are not to be desired, and that when he speaketh fair is not to be beleeved, for there are seven abominations in his heart. Of which open & affronted Lies we have a p. 158sufficient swatch, both in his Proclamation for Scotland and Declaration for England; where he speaks of his constant resolves of uniting the hearts of Subjects to God in Religion, & to their Neighbours in Christian Love, and that it never was his principle to offer violence to any mans Conscience, or use invincible necessity against any man on the account of his persuasion; and that their Property was never in any case invaded since his coming to the Croun; and that it hath been his constant sense & opinion, that Conscience ought not to to be constrained nor People forced in matters of meer Religion. To which, his uninterrupted endeavours to divide us from God and from on another, that he might the more easily destroy us, and his constant encroachments upon Lawes, Liberties, & Properties, and all Interests of men & Christians for Conscience sake do give the lie manifestly. And it must be great blindness not to see, and great baseness willingly to wink at that double faced equivocation, in matters of meer Religion; by which he may elude all these flattering promises of tenderness, by excepting at the most necessary & indispensable duties, if either they be such wherein any other Interest is concerned beside meer Religion, or if their troubles sustained thereupon be not altogether invincible necessities. Hence the plain falsehood & doubleness of his Assertions as to what is past, may give ground to conclude his intended perfidie in the promises of what is future. Next, it is known what his Practices & Plots have been for the destruction of all honest & precious Interests; what a deep hand he had in the burning of London, in the Popish plot discovered, anno 1678. in the Murder of the Earle of Essex, yea in the Parricide committed upon his oun brother. By all which it appears, nothing is so abominable & barbarous which he hath not a Conscience that will swallow & digest without a scruple; and what he hath done of this kind must be but preparatory to what he intends, as meritorious to attone for these villanies. And in his esteem, and persuasion of Papists, nothing is thought more meritorious than to exstirpate the Protestant Religion, and destroy the Professors thereof. Therefore being such a person with whom in Reason no honest man could transact, for a p. 159tenure of the least piece of Land or house or any holding whatsoever, they dare not accept of his security or protection for so great an Interest, as the freedom & exercise of their Religion under the shadow of such a bramble. If it was the Shechemites sin & shame to strengthen a naughty Abimelech, and strengthen themselves under the shadow of his protection, much more must it be to take protection for Religion as wel as peace, from such a Monster of crueltie & treacherie. This were against their Testimony, and contrary to the Laudable Constitutions of the Church of Scotland, to take no Protections from Malignant Enemies, as was shewed above in Montroses case. See Pag. 82. above.

II. Considering his Religion more particularly, they judge it unlawful so to bargain with him as this Acceptance would import. It is known he is not only a Papist, an Apostate Papist, and an Excommunicate Papist (as is related above) but a fiery Bigot in the Romish Religion, and zealous sworn votarie & vassal of Antichrist: who, as the Letter of the Iesuite from Liege lately published in print tells us, is resolved either to convert England to Poperie or die a Martyr, and again that he stiles himself a son of the Societie of Iesuites, and will account every injury done to them to be a wrong done against himself; being known to be under the conduct & guidance of that furious Order, yea and enrolled as a member of that Society. Which makes it the less to be wondered, that he should require absolute obedience without reserve, seeing he himself yeelds absolute obedience as wel as implicite faith, without reserve, to the Jesuites. Such a Bigot was Mary of England (as also his great Grandame of Scotland if she had got her will) And his Bigotrie will make him emulous of her Crueltie, as counting it a diminution of his glory, for such a Champion as he under Antichrists banner to come short of a womans enterprizes: Nor would the late King have been so posted off the stage, if his successor were not to act more vigorously than he in this Tragical design, to which this Toleration is subservient. He is then a Servant of Antichrist, and as such under the Mediators Malediction; yea in this respect is heir to his Grandfathers p. 160imprecation, who wished the Curse of God to fall upon such of his Posterity as should at any time turn Papists. How then can the Followers of the Lamb strike hands, be at peace, associate, confederate, or bargain with such a declared Enemy to Christ? Certainly the Scripture-Commands of making no Covenant or League, interdicting entering into any affinity with the People of these abominations, and forbidding saying a Confederacy with them, do lay awful bonds on the Faithful to stand aloof from such. The People might have had Liberty of Conscience under the Assyrian Protection, when they were saying a Confederacy with him, but in so doing they forefaulted the benefit of the Lord being a Sanctuary to them. To bargain therefore with such an one for a Toleration of Religion, were contrary to the Scriptures, contrary to the Covenants and Principles of the Church of Scotland, against Associations & Confederacies with such Enemies. See Gillesp. Useful Case of Conscience concerning Assoc. hinted Pag. 83. and more Head. 3. Arg. 1. But to accept of this Liberty as now offered were a bargaining; for where there is a Giving & Receiving upon certain Conditions, where there are Demands & Complyance; Commands & Obedience, Promises & Relyance, Offers upon termes & Acquiescence in these termes, what is there wanting to a bargain, but the meer formality of Subscriptions? At least it cannot be denied, but the Addressers have bargained for it, and in the name of all the Accepters, which must stand as their deed also; if they do not evidence their resentment of such Presumption, which I do not see how they can, if they abide under the shadow thereof the same way as they do. I grant Liberty is very desirable, and may be taken & improven from Enemies of Religion: And so do the Wanderers now take it & improve it to the best advantage, without receiving it by acquiescing in any termes. But such a Liberty as this was never offered without a destructive design, nor ever received without a destructive effect. It is one of the filthie flatteries found in the English Addresses, particularly that from Totness, that the present Indulger is like another Cyrus who proclaimed Liberty to the People of p. 161God Ezra. 1. But who sees not the disparity in every respect? Cyrus at his very first entry into the Government did lay out himself for the Churches good; This man who speaks now so fair, his first work was to break our head and next to put on our hood, first to assert & corroberate his prerogative, and then by virtue of that to dispense with all Penal Lawes: It was foretold that Cyrus should deliver the Church at that time; But was it ever promised that the Church should get Liberty to advance Antichrist? or that Antichrist, or one of his Limbs, should be employed in the Churches deliverance, while such? The Lord stirred up the Spirit of Cyrus; Can it be said without blasphemy that the Lord stirred up this man, to contrive the introduction of Poperie by this Gate & Gap, except in a penal sense for judgment? Cyrus had a Charge to build the Lord a House, but this is not a Charge but a Grant or Licence, not from nor according to Gods Authority but mans, not to build Christ a House, but a Babel for Antichrist; and all this Liberty is but contrived as scaffolding for that Edifice, which when it is advanced then the scaffolding must be removed.

3. Considering him in his Relation as a Magistrate, it were contrary to their Testimony so often renewed & ratified, & confirmed with so many reasons, and sealed by so much blood, bonds, banishment, & other sufferings, to oune or acknowledge his Authority which is meer Usurpation & Tyrannie; in that by the Lawes of the Land he is incapable of Government, and that he hath neither given nor can give, without an hypocritical & damning cheat, the Oath & Security indispensibly required of him before & at his entry to the Government. Yet this Liberty cannot be Complyed with, without recognoscing his Authority that he arrogates in giving it: Seeing he tenders it to all his good Subjects, and gives it by his Soveraign Authority, and to the end that by the Liberty thereby granted the peace & security of the Government in the practice thereof may not be indangered; And in the Declaration to England, it is offered as an expedient to establish his Government on sach a foundation, as may make his Subjects happy, and unite them to him by inclination as p. 162well as duty; to which indeed the Acceptance thereof hath a very apt subserviency: seeing it implies, not only ouning of the Government out of Duty, but an union & joyning with it and him by inclination, which is a cordial Confederacy with Gods enemie, and a cooperating to the establishment of his Tyrannie; that the peace & security thereof may not be endangered. And in his former Proclamation, he gives them the same security for their Rights & Properties, which he gives for Religion; And in the English Declaration, addeth that to the perfect enjoyment of their Propertie, which was never invaded &c. Which to accept, were not only to take the security of a manifest lie, but to prefer the word of a man that cannot, must not, will not keep it (without going cross to his principles) to the Security of Right & Law which is hereby infringed, and to acknowledge not only the Liberty of Religion, but the Right of Property to his grant: which when ever it is removed, there must remain no more Charter for it, but stupid slavery entailed upon Posterity, and pure & perfect Tyranny transmitted to them. The sin & absurdity where of may be seen demonstrated Head. 2.

4, Considering the Fountain whence it flowes, they cannot defile themselves with it. In the English Declaration, it flowes from the Royal will & pleasur… which speaks a Domination Despotical & Arbitrary enough, but more gently expressed than in the Scots Proclamation; where it is refounded on Soveraign Authority, Prerogative Royal, and Absolute Power: Proclaiming by sound of Trumpet à Power Paramount to all Law, Reason, & Religion, and outvying the hight of Ottoman Tyranny▪ A Power which all are to obey without res…rve: A power to Tolerate or Restrain the Protestant Religion, according to his Royal will or pleasure: An Absolute power which can not be limited by Lawes, nor most Sacred Obligations, but only regulated by the Royal lust; whereby indeed he may suffer the Protestant Religion, but only precariously so long as he pleases, and until his Royal pleasure shall be to command the establishment of Poperie, which then must be complyed with without control. Whereby all the tenure that Protestants p. 163have for their Religion, is only the Arbitrary word of an absolute Monarch, whose principles oblige him to break it, and his ambition to disdain to be a slave to it. Now the Acceptance of this Grant, would imply the recognizance of this power that the Granter claims in granting it; which utterly disolves all Government, and all security for Religion & Liberty, and all the precious Interests of men & Christians: Which to acknowledge, were contrare to Scripture, contrary to Reason, and contrary to the Principles of the Church of Scotland, particularly the Declaration of the Gen. Ass. Iulij 27. 1649. See pag. 89. &c. and contrary to the Covenant.

5. Considering the Channel in which it is conveyed, they cannot Comply with it. Because it comes through such a Conveyance, as suspends, stops, & disables, all penal Lawes against Papists, and thereby everts all the Securities & legal Bulwarks that Protestants can have for the establishment of their Religion; yea in effect leaves no Lawes in force against any that shall attempt the utter subversion of it, but rati…ies & leaves in ful vigour all wicked Lawes & Acts of Parliament, against such as would most avowedly assert it; and stops & disables none of the most cruel & bloody Lawes against Protestants: for the most cruel are such as have been made against Field-Meetings, which are hereby left in ful force & vigour. Hence as he hath formally by absolute power suspended all Lawes made for the Protection of our Religion, so he may when he will dispense with all the Lawes made for its establishment; and those who approve the one by such an Acceptance, cannot disallow the other, but must recognosce a power in the King to subvert all Lawes, Rights, & Liberties, which is contrare to Reason as wel as Religion, and a clear breach of the National & Solemn League & Covenants.

6. Considering the Ends of its Contrivance, they dare not have any accession to accomplish such wicked Projects, to which this Acceptance would be so natively subservient. The expressed ends of this Grant are, to unite the hearts of his Subjects to him in Loyaltie and to their Neighbours in love, as in the former Proclamation; And that by the Liberty p. 164granted the peace & security of his Government in the practice thereof may not be endangered, as in the latter Proclamation; And to unite the Subjects to him by inclination as well as duty which he thinks can be done by no means so effectually as by granting the free exercise of Religion, as in the English Declaration. Whence we may gather not obscurely, what is the proper tendency of it, both as to the work & worker, to wit, to incline & induce us by flatterie to a lawless Loyaltie, and a stupid contented slavery when he cannot compel us by force, and make us actively cooperate in setting & settling his Tyranny, in the peaceable possession of all his Usurpations, Robberies, & Encroachments upon our Religion, Lawes, & Liberties, and to incorporate us with Babylon, for wbo are the Neighbours he would have us unite with in love, but the Papists? against whom all the Lovers of Christ must profess themselves irreconcileable Enemies. The English Declaration does further discover the design of this device, in one expression which will most easily be obtained to be beleeved of any in it, viz. that he heartily wishes that all the People of these Dominions were members of the Catholick Church: which clearly insinuates, that hereby he would entyce them to commit fornication with that Mother of harlots; which entycing to Idolatrie (if we consult the Scripture) should meet with another sort of entertainment than such a kind & thankful Acceptance, which is not an opposing of such a wicked wish, but an encouraging & corroberating of it. And further he sayes, that all the former tract of Persecutions never obtained the end for which it was employed; For after all the frequent & pressing endeavours that were used, to reduce this Kingdom to an exact con…ormity in Religion, it is visible the success has not answered the design, and that the difficultie is invincible. Wherein we may note his extorted acknowledgment, that all former endeavours to destroy the Work of God have been successless, which induces him to try another method, to which this Acceptance is very subservient, to wit, to destroy us and our Religion by flatteries, and by peace to overturn Truth, and by the subversion of Lawes to open a door to let in Poperie and all abominations. But what is more obscurely expressed in p. 165his words, is more visibly obvious in his works, to all that will not willingly wink at them; discovering clearly the end of this Liberty is not for the Glory of God, nor the Advantage of Truth, or the Churches Edification, nor intended as a benefit to Protestants; but for a pernicious design, by gratifying a few of them in a pretended favour to rob all of them of their chiefest Interests, Religion, Lawes, Rights, & Liberties, which he could not otherwise effectuate but by this arbitrary way; for if he could have obtained his designs by Law: he would never have talked of Lenity or Liberty, but having no legal ends he behoved … compass them by illegal means. They must then be very blind who do not see, his drift is, first to get in all Popish Officers in places of Publick Trust, by taking off the Penal Lawes disabling them for the same; Then to advance his Absoluteness over all Lawes, in a way which will be best acknowledged & acquiesced in by People, till he be so strengthened in it that he fears no control; And then to undermine & overturn the Protestant Religion, & establish Poperie & Idolatrie: which he is concerned the more violently to pursue, because he is now growing old, and therefore must make hast, lest he leave the Papists in a worse condition than he found them: which to be sure the Papists are aware of, and their conscious fears of the Nations resentments of their Villanies will prompt them, as long as they have such a Patron, to all vigilance & violence in playing their game: And withall, hereby he may intend to capacitate himself for subduing the Dutch, against whom he hath given many indications of a hostile mind of old & of late; not only in hiring two Rascals to burn the Amsterdam-fleet heretofore, but in stirring up & protecting the Algerine Pyrats against them; So universal a Protector is he become of late, that Papists & Protesiants, Turks & Iewes are shrouded under the shadow of his Patrociny, but with a design to destroy the best, when his time comes. Which cursed designs cannot be counteracted, but very much strengthened by this Acceptance.

7. Considering the Effects already produced thereby, they cannot but abhor it. Seeing the eyes of all that are p. 166tender may affect their hearts, observing how the Papists are hereby encouraged & encreased in numbers, the whole Nation overflow'd wlth their hellish Locusts, and all Places filled with Priests & Iesuites, yea the executive power of the Government put into the hands of the Romanists, and on the other hand how the People are endangered with their abounding & prevailing Errors (to which the Lord may & will give up those that have not received the love of the Truth) Truth is sallen in the streets & equity cannot enter, a Testimony against Antichrist is abandoned & laid aside as unseasonable, the edge of zeal for the Interest of Christ is blunted and its fervor extinginshed, they that should stand in the Gap and upon the watch Tower are laid aside from all opposition to the invasions of the Enemy, and lulled asleep by this bewitching Charm & intoxicating Opium, Ministers & Professors are generally settling on their lees and languishing in a fatal security, Defection is carried on, Division promoted, and Destruction is imminent. Is it not then both a part of the Witness of the Faithful, and of their wisdom to stand aloof from such a Plague, that hath such destructive effects?

8. Considering the Nature & Name of this pretended Liberty, they cannot but disdain it as most dishonourable to the Cause of Christ. It is indeed the honour of Kings and happiness of People; to have true humane & Christian Liberty established in the Common wealth, that is, Liberty of Persons from slaverie; Liberty of Priviledges from Tyranny, and Liberty of Conscience from all impositions of men; Consisting in a freedom from the Doctrines, Traditions, & Commandments of men against or beside the Word of God, in the free enjoyment of Gospel Ordinances in purity & power, and in the free observance & establishment of all His Institutions of Doctrine, Worship, Discipline, & Government, in subordination to the only Rule of Conscience, the revealed Will of its only Law-giver Jesus Christ. When this is ratified as a Right by the Sanction of approven Authority, and countenanced & encouraged as Religion, by the Confirmation of Lawes, approving whatsoever is Commanded by the God of p. 167Heaven to be done for the House of the God of Heaven (which is the full amount of all Magistrats Authority) Then we are obliged to accept of it with all thankful acceptation. But such a Liberty, as overturns our Rights, our Priviledges, our Lawes, our Religion, and Tolerates it only under the Notion of a Crime, and indemnifies it under the notion of a Fault to be Pardoned, and allowes the exercise thereof only in Part so & so modified, cannot be accepted by any to whom the reproach thereof is a burden, and to whom the reproaches of Christ are in esteem, in such a day when even the hoofs of Christs Interest buried in bondage are to be contended for. Whatever Liberty this may be to some Consciences, it is none to the tender according to the Rule of Conscience, It is only a Toleration which is alwayes of evil: for that which is good cannot be tolerated under the notion of good, but countenanced & encouraged as such. Therefore this reflects upon our Religion, when a Toleration is accepted which implies such a reproach: And the annexed Indemnity & Pardon tacitely condemns the Profession thereof as a fault or Crime, which no Christian can bear with, or by his acceptance homologate these reproaches, if he consider the nature of it: And much more will he be averse from it, if he consider how dishonourable it is to God (whatever some Addressers, particucularly the Presbyterians at London, have blasphemously alledged, that God is hereby restored to His Empire over the Conscience) Since the Granter, after he hath robbed the Mediator of His Supremacy and given it away to Antichrist, And God of His Supremacy Imperial as Universal King by a Claim of Absolute Power peculiar to Him, he hath also robbed Him of His Empire over the Conscience, in giving every man the Empire over his oun Conscience, which he reserves a power to retract whem he pleases.

9. Considering the Extent of it, they cannot class themselves amoug the number of them that are Indulged thereby. It takes in not only the Arch-Bishops & Bishops, and the Prelatical & Malignant Crue, but all Quakers, and Papists, reaching all Idolatry, Blasphemy, & Heresie, and Truth also (which could never yet dwell together under one p. 168sconce) Whereby the Professors of Christ come in as Partners in the same bargain with Antichrists Vassals; And the Lords Ark hath a place with Dagon, and its Priests & Followers consent to it; And the builders of Babel & of Ierusalem ar made to build together, under the same Protection; and a sluce is opened to let the enemy come in like a flood, which to oppose the Accepters cannot stand in the Gap nor lift up a Standart against them. Liberty indeed should be Universally extended to all the Lords People, as Cyrus his Proclamation was General, who is there among yow of all His People? his God be with him. But a Toleration of Idolaters, Blasphemers, & Hereticks, as Papists, &c. is odious to God, because it is contrary to Scripture, expressly Commanding Idolaters to die the death, and all Seducers & Entycers to Apostasie from God to be put to death without pity; and Commending all righteous Magistrats that executed Judgement accordingly, as Asa, Hezekiah &c. yea even Heathen Magistrats that added their Sanction to the Lawes of God, as Artaxerxes is approven for that Statute, that whosoever will not do the Law of God and of the King, judgement should be executed speedily upon him. And in the New Testament this was never repealed but confirmed, in that the sword is given to Magistrats, not in vain, but to be a terror to, and revengers to execute wrath upon all that do evil, among whom Seducers that are evil workers & Idolaters are chiefly to be ranked, being such as do the worst of evil to mankind. Ephesus is commended because they could not bear them which are evil: and Thyatira reproved for suffering Iezebel: by which it appeareth, that our Lord Jesus is no friend to Toleration. It is true this is spoken against Churchmen; but will any think that will be approven in Civil Powers, which is so hateful in Church Officers? Surely it will be the duty & honour of these horns spoken of Revel. 17. to eat the whores flesh & burn her with fire: And shall that be restricted only to be done against the great Antichrist, & not be duty against the lesser Antichrists, the limbs of the Great one? It is recorded of Iulian the Apostate, that among other devices he used, to root out Christianity this was one, that he gave Toleration openly to all the different Professions that were among Christians, whereof there p. 169were many heretical in those dayes: which is exactly aped by Iames the Apostate now for the same end. It is also contrare to the Confession of faith Chap. 20. § 4. asserting that for their publishing such opinions, or maintaining of such practices, as are contrary to the light of Nature, or to the known Principles of Christianity, whether concerning Faith Worship, or Conversation, or to the power of Godliness, or such erroneous opinions or practices, as either in their oun nature, or in the manner of publishing or maintaining them, are destructive to the external Peace &. Order, which Christ hath established in the Church; they may lawfully be called to account, and proceeded against by the Censures of the Church, and by the power of the Civil Magistrate. And therefore to accept of this Toleration is inconsistent with the Principles of the Church of Scotland, with the National & Solemn League & Covenants, & Solemn Acknowledgment of sins & Engagement to duties, in all which we are bound to extirpate Poperie, Prelacie &c. With the whole tract of Contendings in the fifth Period above related, and particularly by the Testimony of the Synod of Fife, and other Brethren in the Ministry, against Cromuels vast Toleration & Liberty of Conscience, mentioned above Pag. 76. for it is plain, if it be not to be suffered, then it is not to be accepted.

10. Considering the Termes wherein it is offered, they cannot make such a shameful bargain. In the former Proclamation it is granted expressly under several Conditions, Restrictions, & Limitations: whereof indeed some are retracted in the Latter, as the restriction of it to Moderate Presbyterians, which would seem to be taken off by extending to all without reserve to serve, God in their oun may; but being evidently exclusive of all that would serve God in Christs way, and not after the mode prescribed, it is so modified and restricted that all that will accept of it must be Moderate Presbyterians indeed, which as it is taken in the Court sense must be an ignominy to all that have zeal against Antichrist. The Limitation also to private houses and not to out-houses, is further enlarged to Chappels or places purposely hired but still it is stinted to these, which they must bargain p. 170for with Councellors, Shiriffs &c. So that none of these Restrictions & Limitations are altogether removed, but the Condition of taking the Oath only: yet it is very near to an equivalency homologated, by the Accepters acknowledging in the Granter a Prerogative & Absolute Power over all Lawes, which is confirmed & maintained by their Acceptance. As for the rest that are not so much as said to be removed, they must be interpreted to remain, as the termes, conditions, restrictions, & limitations, upon which they are to enjoy the benefite of this Toleration. And what he sayes, that he thought fit by this Proclamation further to declare, does confirme it, that there are further explications, but no taking off of former restrictions. Hence it is yet clogged with such provisions & restrictions, as must make it very nauseous to all truly tender (1) The restriction as to the Persons still remains, that only Moderate Presbyterians, and such as are willing to accept of this Indulgence allanerly, and none other, and such only whose names must be signified to these Sheriffs, Stewards, Bailifs &c. are to have the benefit of this Indulgence: wherey all the zealous & faithful Presbyterians are excluded, (for these they will not call them Moderate) and all that would improve it without a formal Acceptance, and all who for their former diligence in duty are under the lash of their wicked Law, and dare not give up their names to those who are seeking their lives, must be deprived of it. (2) It is restricted to certain Places still, which must be made known to some one or more of the next privie Councellors & whereby they are tied to a dependence on their warrand, and must have their lease & licence for Preaching the Word in any place, and Field-Meetings are severely interdicted, though signally countenanced of the Lord, whereby the Word of the Lord is bound & bounded; and by this Acceptance their bloody Lawes against Preaching in the open fields, where People can have freest access with conveniency & safety, are justified. (3) The manner of Meeting is restricted, which must be in such a way as the peace & security of the Government in the practice thereof may not be endangered, and again that their Meetings be peaceably held, which is all one upon p. 171the matter with the bond of peace, and binding to the good behaviour so much formerly contended against by Professors, and is really the same with the Condition of the Cautionary Bond in the Indulgence after Bothuel, of which see Pag. 129. And further they must be openly & publickly held, and all persons freely admitted to them; which is for the informing trade, exposing to all the inconveniences of Iesuites, and other Spies & Flies their delations, in case any thing be spoken reflecting on the Government, a great tentation to Ministers. (4) The worst of all is upon ther matter of Preaching. which is so restricted & limited, that nothing must be said or done contrare to the well & peace of his reign, seditious or treasonable; And in case any treasonable speeches be uttered the Law is to take place against the guilty, and none other present, providing they reveal to any of the Council the guilt so committed, as in the former Proclamation: And in the last it is further declared, that nothing must be Preached or taught, which may any way tend to alienate the hearts of the People from him or his Government. Here is the price at which they are to purchase their freedom (a sad bargain to buy Liberty & sell Truth) which yet hardly can be so exactly paid, but he may find a pretence for retrenching it when he pleases; for if a Minister shall Pray for the overturning of a throne of iniquity, or for confounding all that serve graven Images, and for destruction to the Pope and all that give their power to that beast, there will be something said against the well of his Government; Or if any shall hear this and not delate it, then the same pretence is relevant; Or if he shall Preach against the Kings Religion as Idolatry, and the Church of Rome as Babylon, and discharge his Conscience & Duty in speaking against the Tyrannie of the times; Or let him Preach against any publick sin faithfully, a Popish Critick or Romish Bigot shall interpret it to be an alienation of the Peoples hearts from the King & his Government. But who can be faithful, and Preach in season & out of season now, but he must think it his duty to endeavour to alienate the hearts of the People from such an Enemy to Christ, and his absolute Tyranny, so declaredly stated against God? What Watchman must not see it his indispensable p. 172Duty, to warn all People of his Devilish designs to destroy the Church & Nation, and Preach so that People may hate the whore, and this Pimp of hers? Sure if he Preach the whole Counsel of God, he must Preach against Poperie & Tyrannie. And if he think this Indulgence from Absolute Prerogative, granted & accepted on these termes, can supercede him from this faithfulness, then he is no more the Servant of Christ but a pleaser of men. Therefore since it is so clogged with so many restrictions, so inconsistent with duty, so contrary to Scripture, so clearly violatory of Covenant-Engagements, so cross to the constant Contendings & Constitutions of this Church, and Acts of Ass. (See Pag. 80. &c.) it were a great defection to Accept of it.

11. Considering the Scandal of it, they dare not so offend the generation of the Righteous by the Acceptance, and dishonour God, disgrace the Protestant Profession, wrong the Interest thereof, and betray their native Country, as thus to comply with the Design of Antichrist, and partake of this cruel tender mercy of the beast; who hath alwayes mischief in his heart, and intends this as a Preparative for inducing or inforcing all that are hereby lulled asleep either to take on his Mark, or bear the Marks of his fiery fury afterwards. For hereby forreign Churches may think, we are in a fair way of reconciliation with Antichrist, when we so kindly accept his Harbingers favours. And it cannot but be very stumbling to see the Ministers of Scotland, whose Testimony used to be terrible to the Popish and renouned through all the Protestant Churches, purchasing a Liberty to themselves at the rate of burying & betraying the Cause into bondage & restraint, and thus to be laid by from all active & open opposition to Antichrists Designs, in such a season. The world will be tempted to think, they are not governed by Principles but their oun Interest in this juncture, seeking their oun things more than the things of Christ; And that it was not the late Usurpation upon, & overturning of Religion & Liberty that offended them, so much as the Persecution they sustained thereby; but if that Arbitrary Power had p. 173been exerted in their favours, tho with the same prejudice of the Cause of Christ, they would have complyed with it as they do now. Alas sad & dolorous have been the Scandals given & taken by & from the Declining Ministers of Scotland heretofore, which have rent & racked the poor Remnant, and offended many both at home & abroad, but none so stumbling as this. And therefore the tender will be shie to medle with it.

12. Considering the Addresses made thereupon, with such a stain of foulsome & blasphemous flatteries, to the dishonour of God, the reproach of the Cause, the betraying of the Church, and detriment of the Nation, and exposing themselves to the contempt of all, the poor Persecuted Partie dare not so much as seem to incorporate with them. I shall set doun the first of their Addresses, given forth in the name of all the Presbyterian Ministers, And let the Reader judge whether there be not Cause of standing aloof from every appearance of being of their number. It is dated at Edinburgh, Iulj 21. 1687. of this tenor.