AN APOLOGY FOR THE Clergy of Scotland, Chiefly opposed to the Censures, Calumnies, and Accusations OF A LATE Presbyterian Vindicator, In a LETTER to a FRIEND. WHEREIN His Vanity, Partiality and Sophistry are modestly Reproved, And the Legal Establishment of Episcopacy in that Kingdom, from the Beginning of the Reformation, is made evident from History and the Records of Parliament. Together with A POSTSCRIPT, relating to a Scandalous Pamphlet, Entitled, An Answer to the Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence.  Quibus ego non sum tantum honorom habiturus, ut ad ea quae dixerint, certo loco, aut singulatim unicuique respondeam. Sic breviter, quoniam non consulto, sed casu, in eorum mentionem incidi, quasi praeteriens satisfaciam universis. M. T. C Orat. in Q. Caecilium. 

Imprimatur.  
Sept. 24. 1692. Edmund Bohun.   
LONDON: Printed for Jos. Hindmarsh, at the Golden Ball over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill. 1693.   

THE CONTENTS.  

A Short Introduction Page 1, 2  
The Division p. 2  
The first Plea discussed, and the Cameronians proved not only to be Presbyterians, but the only true Presbyterians p. 2, 3, 4, 5  
The Villainies committed to be the result of an Uniform Combination, and wicked Principles, and not the transient efforts of Passion p. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10  
The second Plea of an Interregnum exposed p. 10  
The third Plea, that the People were injured by the Clergy disproven p. 11, 12, 13  
The fourth Plea, from the Immoralities of the Clergy, Confuted and Retorted p. 14, 15, 16  
The fifth Plea against the Clergy from their want of Popular Election, unreasonable in itself, and retorted upon the Adversary p. 16, 17  
The sixth Plea, that the Clergy peevishly and rigorously pressed Conformity, examined ibid.  
The seventh Plea against the Clergy, that they are Heterodox, found to be vain, foolish, and frivolous p. 18  
The eighth Plea, that they are Enemies to K. William and Q. Mary considered p. 19  
The ninth, that they Preached Nonresistance, and Passive Obedience. This Doctrine proved to be still reasonable and Christian p. 20  
The tenth Plea against the Clergy, that the Episcopal Church is remiss in Censuring scandalous Delinquents, baffled and rejected p. 22  
The second General Head, a Modest Censure of the Vindicator taken from his own Book. p. 23  
First, His avowed Partiality and Injustice ibid.  
Secondly, His peremptory and Enthusiastic pretences to a Jus Divinum p. 24  
Thirdly, His rudeness and vanity p. 25  
Fourthly, His Tergiversations and Lying p. 26  
Fifthly, His illnatured and uncharitable Insinuations p. 27, 28, 29, 30, 31  
The third General Head. His Theological Reasonings, etc. p. 38  
First, Of the Observation of Christmas, and the Festivities of the Church p. 39, 40, 41, 42  
Secondly, His Notion of Schism p. 43, 44, 45, 46  
Thirdly, His Censure of the Clergy for Preaching Morality p. 47, 48, 49, 50  
Fourthly, Nis Notion of Calvinism, and his way of explaining, and defending it p. 51, 52  
Fifthly, His pretences to Antiquity, and the History of the Culdees p. 53, 54, 55  
Sixthly, His Clamour against Ceremonies of human Institution p. 56  
The fourth General Head, wherein the Legal Establishment of Episcopacy in Scotland, is proved from the Records of Parliament p. 60, 61, 62, 63, 64  
The Conclusion in several instances from the foresaid History p. 66  
The Protestation in the year 1651. against the General Assembly p. 79  
Postscript, Relating to a Scandalous Pamphlet, Entitled, An Answer to the Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence p. 85, 86, etc.    

AN APOLOGY FOR THE Clergy of Scotland, etc.  
SIR,  
YOUR Friendship for me I look upon as a great Honour, and I value myself upon it; and the sincerity, wherewith I endeavour to serve you, prompts me more to undertake what you command, than any sense I can have of my own Skill or Ability: and rather than oblige you to continue your importunities, I send you here my thoughts of that Book you ordered me to Read. I undertook it with great aversion; partly because such scurrilous Contentions are very Unchristian in the first Original, scandalous in their Consequences, and very unedifying to the Christian Church. Partly, Because I think the late Presbyterian Barbarities and Cruelties towards the Episcopal Clergy in Scotland are sufficiently known all Europe over, and therefore I was unwilling to undergo the Penance of reading a Book, that provoked me in every other Line unto the undecencies of Passion. It lay by me six months without ever opening it, until I was overpowered by your Commands. Though, in the mean time I must tell you that you never imposed a severer Task upon me. I have no inclination to Read such Books, no more than I have to drink off a Potion of Physic every day to my Breakfast: besides there are some men with whose Genius I am not well acquainted, who cannot be silenced because they have made lies their Refuge. The Truth, itself (if at any time it happened to be on their side,) doth not please them unless it be dressed up in all the Colours of Falsehood, and stripped of its natural Beauty and Simplicity; who like Solomon's Whore, when they have but newly committed their Abominations, defy all mankind to charge them with the least Transgression. Men who Arm themselves with all degrees of Confidence to run down the clearest Truths that truly represent or seem to disparage the Faction in which they are engaged. If that Book of which you desire my Thoughts were particularly answered, such a Reply could not but swell to a prodigious Bulk, because to clear the Matter of Fact in so many particular Cases, obliges men to turn over all the Pamphlets to which his Book is related. I did indeed once Read his Book that he Entitles his Second Vindication, and I hope I shall never be so destitute of good Books (though at present I have very few) as to peruse it a second time. However I will briefly give you my thoughts of it, and since the Book has no method, I may be allowed to put the Reflections I make upon it in any order I please.  
In the first place I will examine his General Apologies by which he thinks to ward off the blame of the barbarous Rabbling of the Clergy from his Party. Secondly, From the Book itself, I'll give you a natural Character of the Author. Thirdly, I will shortly consider his Theological Reasonings, that occasionally falls under his consideration, when he pleads for the Innocence of Presbyterians. And lastly, I will consider the truth of that ordinary Objection that the Presbyterians manage against the Episcopal Church of Scotland, when they allege that Presbyterian Government was established in that Church from the beginning of the Reformation.  
And first, I take notice that all along he seem to disown the Cameronians as Presbyterians, or as men not of their Communion. At other times he acknowledges they are zealous godly men, and if he proves that the Barbarities committed upon the Clergy were not committed by sober and intelligent Presbyterians, he thinks the Presbyterians are sufficiently vindicated from all imputations of Cruelty and Violence. And therefore unless we prove them sober and intelligent, he thinks all our Complaints of the Outrage and Tumults of the Presbyterians are vain and impertinent: But are not the Cameronians Presbyterians? To what Communion then do they belong? Have they any Principles, Discipline, or Worship, different from the Presbyterians? Were not their Leading Men lately owned and received by the pretended General Assembly, without retracting any Articles of Doctrine, or disowning any of their Practices that they so zealously recommended to their Followers in the West? This is a very pleasant Fancy, that the Author should endeavour to hide the Tumults and Insurrections of that Party by changing the name of Presbyterian into Cameronian. The Donatists in afric (as readily all Schismatics do) split themselves into two great Factions, viz. The Primianists and the Maximianists. What Sacrilegious Villainies they committed (and all under the Pretext of Zeal and Reformation) every body knows. But pray? What an impertinent Apology could it have been for the Donatists to say that it was true indeed there were a great many Barbarities committed upon the Clergy, their Families, Churches, Altars, and Sacred Utensils; 
Vide Optatum, Milevit.  and upon the People adhering to their Communion, but that such Indignities were not committed by the sober intelligent Donatists, they intended no more than the Reformation of Abuses by orderly and Imperial Edicts. Their Zeal against the Traditores only put them upon extraordinary attempts of Reformation. It could not be denied, but that the African Church and the Catholic Clergy there were sadly oppressed and run down by a company of mad and ungovernable Enthusiasts; but the sober and intelligent Donatists were not to be blamed. They were either the Primianists, or the Maximianists, that committed such Extravagancies, and disorders, or (which is most probable) they were committed by the Circumcellians, a third Division of that unhappy Family.  
Now the Author makes just such another Apology for the Presbyterians of Scotland. He cannot deny but that the Orthodox Clergy in the Western Shires were miserably harassed, but the sober and intelligent Presbyterians are not to be blamed. We do easily grant him that the Presbyterians that were most instrumental in the Disasters of the Clergy were not sober men, though the most intelligent amongst them did contrive and manage the irregular Heats and Motions of their own Partisans.  
But to expose the vanity of this Apology a little more closely. We know no Opinions that Mr. Cameron propagated or entertained that were peculiar to himself. He followed most closely and ingenuously the Hypothesis of the old and zealous Presbyterians; and the plain Truth is, Mr. Cameron was not a man very proper to be the Founder of a new Sect. He built upon the Notions that he was taught by his Brethren: and the Presbyterians are obliged for this word Cameronian to the Episcopal Clergy, who mean no more by this word but a Presbyterian whose Zeal for his Faction (after the Example of Mr. Cameron) over drives him violently beyond all Bounds of discretion. And yet I cannot but commend their Artifice in this. The word Presbyterian is known in England, but the word Cameronian is not; and therefore this distinction (for distinctions are of great use sometimes) of Presbyterian and Cameronian is a very plausible Defence in England to disprove all the complaints made by the Episcopal Clergy. As if the Cameronians were a new Species of Schismatics different from the Presbyterians, and that we had three considerable divisions of Christians in Scotland, the Episcopal Party, the Presbyterians and the Cameronians. Whereas indeed, we know of none but two. And the Cameronians are those Presbyterians that have studied their own Principles most accurately, and draw from those Principles such practical Conclusions as they naturally and necessarily yield. I know not how this Author can make his Peace with the Cameronians. For the whole Nation knows that those Presbyterians whom he Nicknames Cameronians did assert their Presbyterian Principles when others were very silent; and upon this they value themselves as the most Pious, Active, and ingenuous of the whole Party, who differ not from others in their Principles but do exceed some of their Brethren in higher degrees of Zeal and Sincerity to promote the Interest of their Combination. But pray? What is it that the Cameronians have done that they might not have done upon Presbyterian Principles? For it is a received Maxim amongst them That the people may, (especially in Conjunction with their Pastors) reform the Church when the Magistrate is slack or remiss in his duty, or opposite unto the designed Reformation. Now the removal of the Episcopal Clergy upon their Hypothesis was a necessary mean to advance this glorious Reformation. And what is there in the most Barbarous Rabbling of the Clergy inconsistent with the Presbyterian Principles? Can Religion prosper in our Nation unless the Bishops and their Adherents be extirpated? And is not Presbyterian Government the immediate and express Institution of our Lord and Saviour? Is not the exercise of Presbyterian Discipline the Administration of his Royal Kingdom and Sceptre. And may we be less serious in asserting his Kingly Office than in defending his Priestly and Prophetical Office? Did not the Presbyterian Church of Scotland upon all Turns wrestle with Authority about this great Truth? And does the Author think that they ought not to interpose in so Critical a Juncture to rescue themselves from the Bondage of the Antichristian Hierarchy? That their Squeamish Consciences groaned under for so many years? If the Reformation of the Church from Episcopacy to Presbytery be of this Consequence (As they Print and Preach every where.) What is there in those last Tumultuous Rabbling that the Presbyterians can disown? Wherein are the Cameronians to be blamed? Because forsooth this Author thinks that the Actors of those Villainies we complain of were perhaps not so sober and intelligent, that is to say, he rejoiced in what was done, but he wished it might have been carried on with greater caution and secrecy, lest the Episcopal Clergy might take occasion to represent them and their proceedings in their true and natural Colours.  
I think the Author is to blame for saying the Cammeronians are not intelligent. For certainly they took their Measures by the best directions that could be had; for their Agents gave them exact intelligence of what they might venture upon and when. Accordingly a company of wicked Incendiaries (who had declared War against King Charles the Second, when he Governed the Nation by those Laws that were made in times of Peace by the most unanimous and solemn Parliaments that ever the Nation had, and who declared in their Seditious Pamphlets and Papers that he had forfeited all Right to the Crown, because forsooth, he had broke the Covenant) I say they, were the men who at the beginning of this Revolution (as they were directed) fell violently upon the Clergy and drove them from their Houses and Residence; to the scandal of Christianity, and reproach of our Nation. And this is not at all to be imputed to the casual efforts of Passion or Revenge, but to an uniform Combination of the whole Society: and this appears, because the Clergy were not generally Rabbled by their own Parishioners, but by those Firebrands who concerted their Measures with their own Societies, and did nothing of that Nature without Advice and Directions. 
The Confederacies against the Government were then called Societies in the West of Scotland.  The Author thinks to excuse what was done against the Clergy, when he tells us in some places of his Book, that their own Parishioners gave them no disturbance: but this proves that the Cruelties they met with proceeded from a League and Covenant amongst their Enemies since those mischiefs did not light upon a few of the Clergy (who might possibly provoke their Parishioners by some indiscretions) but upon the whole Order, even upon such, (who mistaking the true Objects of Pity and Compassion) as had frequently interposed with their Superiors to mitigate the Legal Penalties against Non-Conformists. Add to this that severals of the Gentry in the West, who were better natured and had better Principles than their Presbyterian Neighbours, were very forward to resent the Affronts, and Indignities done to the Clergy, until they understood that the Tide was risen too high to be resisted: and that such of the Presbyterians as were then out of the Nation, and directed the Methods that the Rabblers were to take, would vigorously resent the least stop that was put to their career. For it is observable of such men that they never forgive an Injury; and no Injuries are more implacably resented than any the least Affront that is offered to their Faction and Government. And it is no wonder for they never say the Lords Prayer, and it is probable that their opposition to that Divine Composure, is rather from its contradiction to their Nature, than from the strength of some whiffling Enthusiastic Arguments invented against it. It is not possible to oblige men of their Tempers by any Favours, and the Clergy upon the last Revolution found such of them as they had done kindness to, most venomous and irreconcilable: and generally the Body of the People in those Western Shires are cunning, avaricious and dissembling beyond measure: and since the Presbyterian Principles invaded their Honesty, it was never heard that any of them heartily forgave an Injury, or what they sancied to be so.  
But I return to what I intended, viz. That the Affronts done to the Clergy were concerted by the Party: since it is evident from many of their Topics and their avowed Principles, that there was nothing so rude or villainous in the disasters that the Clergy met with but what they might venture upon by the Maxims of their Moral Theology; so also it appears undeniably from this, that the Leading Men of that Party who were at London upon the beginning of the Revolution, opposed with all Vigour and Impudence all the Evidences brought from Scotland of the Sufferings of the Clergy. And though a Reverend person brought with him Authentic Attestations of what the Clergy suffered; 
Dr. S—.  yet the leading Presbyterians boldly averred, that there was nothing in Scotland but prosound Peace and Silence; that they had Letters from their Factors and Chamberlains informing the contrary to what was alleged by the Episcopal Party.  
In the Confusion that Affairs than stood, it was easy for them to stop any regular or legal Trial; and they had in that critical Juncture many Advantages of their Neighbours. So their Emissaries in Scotland went on with all possible Licence and Villainy. 
Jusque datum sceleri—  And it is very odd that this Author should undertake to vindicate the Presbyterians from those Tumults, when the united force of the whole Party, with all their Zeal and Strength, never yet appeared so unanimous and uniform in any enterprise as at that time in their endeavours to pull down our National Church, and so fond were they then of their Revenge, that they preferred their Dagon of Presbytery to their being United to England. The Author thinks that neither he nor his Party are obliged to vindicate any act of Cruelty that proceeded from the Civil Authority against the Clergy. If they were the Patrons of Presbytery (as he thanks God they were) certainly their Actings ought to have been justified in the first place, but he tells us that if the Clergy have suffered any thing that was hard and extraordinary, it ought not to be imputed to his Party and Principles, but to the King and the Council, and the Rabble, as he very mannerly expresses himself. Yet I must thank him for this compendious Apology, since the Presbyterians under the late Reigns suffered nothing but what was inflicted by Law. We need make no excuses for the Laws made against Presbyterians, and those Laws more gravely consulted, than the hasty and undigested resolutions of peevish and angry Outlaws. And such Laws were made in times of Peace, and with all Solemnity and Deliberation, and were absolutely necessary to maintain the Peace of the Nation, and the King's legal and just Prerogative against the Popular but pernicious Tenets of bigoted Covenanters; now I hope you are sufficiently convinced that I need not transcribe the History of the Tragical Rebellion in King Charles the First his time, nor yet the many Protestations of the Covenanters at the Cross at Edinburgh against the Kings most Just and Fatherly Proceedings. And to convince you by one Instance that they love nothing but what they possess by Force and Rebellion. When that most gracious King ordered the Covenant to be taken as it was Enacted in King James the Sixth his time (thinking this might blunt the edge of the Covenanters, and satisfy the deluded People) they Protest against this his Proclamation. For you must think that in their Divinity, things Lawful in their Nature, nay things Necessary, (for such they take the Covenant to be) become unlawful when once required by lawful Authority. 
Vid. Kings large Manifesto.  Does this Author think that the present Generation knows nothing of the History of Presbyterians? That the British Tragedies from the year 1638. are buried in eternal silence? That all the Monuments of their daring Insolence are extinct? That the Acts of the General Assembly are quite lost? That the Villainies of the Remonstrators are Recorded no where? Why then does he think to impose upon the World by telling us that indeed they are very sorry for the Tumults that happened in the West, but that the Presbyterians were no Actors in those disorders. They would gladly see things done more regularly and orderly; They (forsooth) love no such Methods: and yet the present Ministers of the Presbyterian Church cannot instance any one thing that the Cameronians did upon this late Revolution, but what is justifiable from Presbyterian Principles; and though they could not be justified from their former Principles, why may not the present Presbyterians improve the Principles of their Predecessors 
* Who of the old Presbyterians ever Preached against the use of the Lords Prayer or Doxology?  As all Sectaries do who grow worse and worse until they are given up of God unto a Reprobate mind. And indeed if I had any Books by me I could easily prove (especially from their own Calderwood) that the Presbyterians did nothing towards the Clergy in the West of Scotland upon the late Revolution, but what they ought to have done upon their Principles and former Practices. It is very pleasant to observe what different Batteries the Presbyterians in Scotland, and the Dissenters in England raise against Episcopacy. The Presbyterians in Scotland plead for their National, Classical, Spiritual Power, independent upon Kings: the Dissenters in England plead that such a Spiritual Union amongst Clergymen is too powerful a Faction, and may easily endanger the Safety and Peace of the Nation. 
Letters of a Dissenter to the truly Learned Dr. Burscough.  The Reason is, the Presbyterians are in possession of such an Union in Scotland, and the Dissenters in England have no legal Cement to unite them together. And therefore every thing that they are not in Possession of at present, is wicked and dangerous: but if they could grasp it, it might become a very useful Engine to Propagate the Covenant all Europe over. For they find that men are naturally averse to the Power and Authority of their Discipline, and therefore it were necessary to support it by all the strength of Laws and Edicts, and by the Inquisition itself, if the Eyes of Princes could be so far opened as to see that there is no true Reformation wrought but by the Conduct and direction of Presbyterians. I have insisted the longer upon this general Topick because most of his Book is built upon this Subterfuge alone, that Cameronians are no Presbyterians, though they can be reduced to no other Schismatics; and that what they did was disowned by the Presbyterians though he himself knows the contrary, and the whole Party magnified these Heroes; and when it was doing it was said to be nothing less than the Cause and Work of God.  
But I leave this general Head when I give you an account of one remarkable piece of Sophistry and tergiversation, that he makes use of to palliate the Crimes of his Party; and it is so much the more material, since if he fails in this he shakes the Foundation of all his Apologies, by which he would make us believe that the wise and leading Men of his Party had no hand in any Tumults, no not in that at Edinburgh in December 1688. His words are, 
Pag. 35. Edinburgh Edition.  For the Tumults at Edinburgh, we know of none but what was made by the Students at the College there in burning the Pope in Effigy. And a little altar, That any Presbyterians who then or since had Authority in the State or Church did assist in contrivance or management of this matter we do utterly deny. I have faithfully transcribed his own words, because this is a considerable passage which flies in the Face of all Evidence, and contradicts the Conviction of all the Inhabitants at Edinburgh. Then, if the barbarous Tumult at Edinburgh was managed and contrived by the Leading Men of his Party, who then and since have had Authority in the State, in that case all his Apologies for the Presbyterians fall to the ground. And from this one single Instance his Book is ruined and his Authority baffled, 
Crimine ab uno disie omnes.  and the next General Assembly will order him to be more cautious, and quietly tell him, it had been better he had not ventured upon this unfortunate Sally against his Adversaries. For there is nothing more easily made out than that the Leading Men of the Presbyterians were the sole Actors and Contrivers of this hideous Tumult. To make you sensible of this, let me observe first, That he shussles and confounds two very different Stories into one, viz. The Tumultuous desaceing of the King's Chapel, and the burning of the Pope in Effigy: for the last was near a fortnight after the other without any Tumult or disorder. The Students had made a mock Effigies of the Pope, and carried it from the place that it was made to the College, and from thence to the Cross at Edinburgh. All of them in the mean time walking orderly in their Ranks, and the College Mace carried before them by one of the Public Servants, this could not be obtained without the Master's Permission. So there was no Tumult nor no disorder intended. A great many of the Nobility, and most of the Citizens of best quality were looking on, and when this foolish Ceremony was over, they retired to their Lodgings without any Tumult or Extravagance. But the defacing the Chapel at Holyrude House was a Tumult indeed, and a very tragical one too, in all its beginnings and Consequences. This fell out upon the 10. day of December, 1688. The Presbyterian Faction in Edinburgh, had sometime before determined to Rifle the King's House, particularly my Lord Chancellor's Lodgings, to deface the Chapel, and to force the Guards, and in a word, to make the most terrible and the most numerous show that they were able to make. In order to this they gave out that the Papists intended a Massacre of the Protestants, though there was not a Papist in Edinburgh to two thousand Protestants: And in the Confusion that Men were then in, a great many unwary people were frighted, and the Presbyterians concerted their Measures and slew to their Arms, and the City for that night become a dismal habitation, carrying all the marks of Hell and Confusion; nothing was to be heard but screeches, lamentable howl and shootings, and this was not managed by the Body of the People (who were very a verse to such treacherous and unmanly adventures) but by some of the Leading Presbyterians, who then and now have Authority in the State, and might be known by their large Buff-Belt, and a Halberd upon their Shoulder, running up and down in great fury to excite the People to this Reformation. In this Scuffle, before they entered the Chapel, there were some killed, and several wounded by the Guards that kept the King's House, and in the mean time the Governors of this Tumult finding that the People were not so forward to Pillage the King's House, went up and down and told them that their own Children were killed, when those very Children were as Home and safe in their Lodgings. And though many were wounded, and severals killed, yet not a Student belonging to the College was hurt, for there were but very few of them whose Youth and Levity had engaged them to be witnesses of this Tumult.  
I believe the Ringleaders of the Presbyterians at Edinburgh will give the Vindicator but little thanks for mentioning this Tumult that is openly avowed by themselves And he may ask, not only the forementioned Gentleman, but also the Master of F— and several others (whose names are concealed, and may continue so, unless the Vindicator, or some of his Associates, by their indiscretions oblige me to be more particular) whether they were there, and what a glorious Figure they made. If it be unpleasant to name particular Gentlemen, they may thank their Vindicator who obtrudes such fulsome Lies upon the World, when the Matter of Fact is so very recent, and known to all the Inhabitants at Edinburgh; and the Leading Presbyterians are very loath to part with the honour of this Achievement, so agreeable to their constant Genius and former Practices; for one of their chief Advocates pleaded lately before the Judges, in the Trial of Mr. Wallace, that they that Pillaged the King's House were a Company of Grave, Reasonable, Thinking Men, Commanded by a Lord of the Sessions. We see then by this one single Instance the Spirit of Lies and Vanity that runs through his Book. For if it be undeniable that this Rabble Reformation was concerted by the Ringleaders of the Faction. Then he must own that the Tumults were not the accidental Efforts of some angry inconsiderable People but the united endeavours of the Presbyterians.  
And indeed this Essay at Edinburgh was but the Preface to other marks of the Kindness they intended the Clergy in that place; if their violence had not been happily prevented by the Generous Resolution of that Learned and Illustrious Society of the College of Justice: and it is very probable that the Vindicator wrote down this Story carelessly and hand over head. For if he had advised with his Friends at Edinburgh, George Stirling the Apothecary, and Mr. Menzies in the Locken buiths: they could not be so self-denied as to be willingly deprived of the honour they had in managing and contriving this Tumult. 
The very next Lord's day one of their Ministers in the Meetinghouse belonging to the Tron Church Parish, December 17. thanked God for this Glorious Reformation, I instance him not to exclude others, but because I can prove it.  It was a disparagement to their Zeal, and Activity, to be robbed of the Glory they acquired in this Enterprise. I cannot but acknowledge that it is highly indecent to name particular Men, but what shall we say when we have to do with such Wasps and Hornets: you see then by the Reflections I have made of this General Topick, what the Superstructure must be.  
The next thing under which he endeavours to cover himself and his Party, is his fancy of an Interregnum. He tells us gravely in many places of his Book, that what was done against the Clergy was done in an Interregnum, and that the People were highly provoked by the Clergy, that they were instrumental in the Sufferings of the Non-Conformists. That the Clergy themselves were but profligate and debauched, and that they are generally such as are unacquainted with the operation of the Spirit of God upon their Hearts; and if this does not excuse, yet it extenuates what those zealous Patriots did at that time to advance the Glorious Reformation.  
I cannot but take notice in the first place of his wild imagination of an Interregnum, which cannot properly fall out in an Hereditary Monarchy; for the King never dies. For, Though the Laws were not put in Execution in that Interval of Confusion and uncertainty, yet they retained their Legal Force and Authority. The Government was indeed in a Convulsive Motion, so that it could not perform the ordinary Functions of Order and Justice; but does he think, that because humane Laws were in that Interval hindered, that therefore the Godly and Zealous Presbyterians were loosed from the Obligations of the Laws of Nature and Religion? Is there no security against the violent hands of those Saints, but the coercive power of Laws? How can they pretend to be better Christians than the rest of their Neighbours when they venture upon the most unchristian Practices? Which puts me in mind of the Character that Cornelius Tacitus gives of the Jews, They were kind and affectionate to their own Kindred, but they retained adversus omnes alios hostile odium. Juvenal gives the same Character of them, but it is much more agreeable to the Presbyterians. Does he think that the Notion of an Interregnum can justify what modest Men are ashamed to own? 
Non monstrare vias eadem nisi sacra colenti.  And is it for the honour of his Party that he should proclaim to the World that they stand not in awe of the Divine Laws, unless they are restrained by the terror of Humane Laws? Why do they pretend to be acquainted with the Gospel, when they openly and jointly contemn its most essential Precepts? But he says the People were much injured and provoked by the Clergy. What the Clergy in the West of Scotland did, I know not, if I make an estimate of their proceedings against Non-Conformists, from the practice of our Clergymen in other parts of the Nation, I declare sincerely to you I never knew one of them that prosecuted the Dissenters without great reluctancy, nay I knew many of them that interposed with sincere kindness and vigour for their Parishioners, frequently and with success too, when they were obnoxious to the Laws.  
But let us suppose that the Clergy did prosecute the Dissenters according to Law, they did nothing in this but what they were obliged to do, the Peace of the Nation was endangered, the Legal and Lineal Monarchy was undermined; and the Government, by such frequent shake, most likely to relapse into its former state of Civil War and Confusion; and the souls of the People committed to their Care were poisoned with dark and Enthusiastic Principles: Speaking evil of Dignities took place of the Ten Commandments, and a Schism unreasonable in its beginnings, and disowned by all Protestant Churches, and the learnedest Presbyterians 
* 
Bochart. Phaleg. Edit. 3. Lugd. Batav. pag. 989. Cavendum igitur ne Scyllae fugâ in hanc Charybdim incidamus, neve rigor nimius, & plusquam Vatinianum in Episcopos odium, eo imprudentes adigat, ut Veteri Ecclesie dicam scribamus, & all ejus communione ipsi nos arceamus. A quibus Extremis Gallicanas Ecclesias semper abhorruisse libri à Gallis scripti palam indicant, & Nostrorum perpetua praxis.  
Idem ibid. Interim Episcopale regimen esse antiquissimum, & paulo post Apostolos per Universam Ecclesiam magno cum fructu obtinuisse, est mihi compertissimum.  , was propagated in all corners of the Nation with all vigour and diligence; and ought the Clergy to look on and continue idle Spectators when the Peace and Safety of their Country Spiritual and Temporal was so daringly and factiously invaded? Were they not obliged by the Laws of God and Man to stop this Career of Insolence and Villainy, and though they ought to undeceive the poor deluded People by all the soft Methods of tenderness and meekness, yet the Boutefeu's and Incendiaries were to be chastised and lashed with greater severities, and our Governors did nothing then but what they ought to have done in their own defence, unless they had resolved to Sacrifice the Fundamental Constitution of the Monarchy and their own Honours, Dignities, and Estates unto the Caprice and Ambition of some bigoted Covenanters.  
But I would ask the Vindicator whether they of the Clergy that never prosecuted any of the Dissenters were the more kindly treated upon this last Revolution. I know severals of them who have been most spitefully used by the Presbyterians, though formerly they did them all the good Offices that lay in their power. The Clergy, as well as the Laity, were obliged by the Laws of the Land, and by the Fundamental Laws of Humane Society, to crush, and extirpate the beginnings of Rebellion, and the attempts of such as preached the most pernicious Principles, until at last the Rebels justified in their Books and Sermons open and avowed Murders. And that by the most natural Consequences from their own Principles, when the wickedness of the Party appeared thus terrible to the Peace of the Nation, was it to be expected that our Governors should look on and suffer their own Throats to be cut, their Families to be forfeited, their King to be dethroned, their Church Polity to be pulled down, and the entire Scheme of their Government to be defaced? And all this for no other Reason, and upon no wiser Consideration, than because their Enemy's pretended Religion, and gave most sacred Names to the most abominable Crimes. And now again that they are uppermost, they are very angry that men do not shut their Eyes, and suffer their Follies and Tyranny to overspread the Nation without Contradiction. But what was it, that their Ministers did suffer upon the Restitution of King Charles the Second. Why they would not take Presentations from the Patron, nor Collation from the Bishop: they would possess their Benefices against the Law, and in defiance of Authority: but was any of them turned out that did comply with the Law? 
Bishop Lighton.  So earnest were some of our Ecclesiastical Governors to keep them in their Places, that they made such offers of Peace and Accommodation, as none could refuse but sullen and desperate Incendiaries, nor was there any thing required of them, but what the most rigid Presbyterians might comply with, if their Zeal to support their Faction had not infatuated them as much against the Vow of Baptism, as against the common Peace and Safety of their Country.  
The Presbyterians in Scotland are generally blinded with this fatal prejudice (an Evidence of their incurable Enthusiasm) they think that no man can act any thing against the Presbyterians, but he immediately acts against the light of his own Conscience. They take it for granted that their way is the only true Religion, that it is plainly revealed, and that they give greater Evidences of Piety, and Religion, than any other Society of Christians upon Earth, and if you do not believe this presently, without Examination, you are far from the Kingdom of God. Nay, you are alienated from the life of God. Hence it is that the Presbyterians conclude that whatever is done against their Party, is done rather against the Light and Conviction of their Enemies, than the petulance and vanity of their own Fraternity: therefore they insinuate upon all occasions, that all Reasonings against them proceed from Profanity and Atheism, or from men void of all Principles and Religion. You may as easily reason a Bedlamite out of his fancied Honours and Principalities, as persuade any of their deluded Disciples that they may be in an Error: and this they owe to their cunning Teachers, who tyrannize over their Belief as imperiously as the cruel Brach-mans' do among the Indians.  
But let me inquire in the next place calmly, did the meek Covenanters when they got the ascendent in King Charles the First his time, treat their Opposite with that gentleness and discretion, that condescension and longanimity, that became the true Gospel of our Saviour? But so very far from this temper, that they prosecuted the Malignants with all Rage and Cruelty. And if there were not another instance of their Cruelty, but the Sufferings of the excellent Bishop Wishart, men might easily penetrate into the Genius and Spirit of the Party. Then their Pulpits thundered against the Malignants all the Curses in the Bible; and all were Malignants, in their Dialect, that were not Presbyterians. Add to this the universal and restless endeavours of their Ministers to ruin the Persons, Estates, and Families, of all that opposed their Designs: and their Discipline was made an Engine to pry into the greatest Secrets of Families, and the Presbyterian Chaplain, who was ordinarily the Minister's Intelligencer, complained in his Prayers of what he thought amiss in the Family or Neighbourhood, nay the Soundest part of the Nation groaned under this Tyrannical Pedantry, as the Israelites did under the Egyptians, when their bloody Scaffolds stood erected for some whole weeks together. Then it was, that their modest Ministers said that their Cause was like to prosper, when they justified one Crime by the Commission of another, and the whole Scheme of their Arbitrary Tyranny from their Success and Prosperity; when their Turkish Argument of Force and Arms ran down the Doctrines of our Meek and Crucified Saviour. And now forsooth they must tell us, that the Episcopal Clergy were rigid, and peevish, and severe, to their Parishioners; when perhaps they did not represent to the Judges, in their several bounds, the tenth part of those Crimes that were committed against the Church and State; and yet the Law did oblige them to give up the names of Recusants. And do not we see, that the Presbyterians since the late Revolution have out done the diligence of all men against the Clergy and Laity of the Episcopal persuasion, for the whole Faction applied their utmost force (since the Revolution) to ruin her Neighbours, and possess themselves of all their Places, Civil, Military, and Ecclesiastical.  
The truth is, there are no people upon Earth that value Government and Sovereignty as the Presbyterians do. It is the Idol they bow to: there is nothing gratifies their highest Passions so much as a power to tyrannize. If the whole world were once under their Feet, they would look cheerful, their Blood would Circulate more briskly; until this be obtained there is no rest nor peace for mankind. The Discipline, the Sacred Discipline of Geneve, must wrestle with all Authority until the Consummation of all things.  
But if the former excuse did not serve his Design; yet it is often insinuated all a long his Book that most of the Clergy were wicked men. But let me suppose the truth of this infamous accusation; who made them Judges of the Scandalous Clergy? Whose Delegates were they in the Execution of this Punishment? I have told you before that I am acquainted with very few of the Clergy of the Western Shires, but I am informed by judicious and intelligent Men, that generally the Clergy in those Shires were Grave, Sober, and Assiduous in the work of the Ministry. That most of them endeavoured upon all occasions to gain those Enthusiasts from their Schism and Delusion, and were very successful in this Christian design, if a new Indulgence after the Defeat at Bothwel Bridge had not buoyed up their Interest. As for the scandalous Aspersions cast upon the Clergy by the Western Presbyterians, it is certain that by one of the Vindicators own Rules we ought not to believe them; because they are all of them of a Party, and indeed of such a Party, who from their first appearance in the World placed much of their strength in reproaching the Clergy. If some of the Ministers in the West did not live according to the Dignity of their Character, we ought rather all of us (who have not renounced our Baptism) to lament it, rather than insult and upbraid them with it. Indeed a Minister, whose Employment is to fit other men for Eternal Life, and yet lives in open and scandalous opposition to his Rule, is the most monstrous thing in Nature. All the Satirical Writings of the Poets, and all the Invectives of Orators, cannot furnish one word to give a true Idea of that loathsome Creature. But on the other hand, If any of them be guilty, to upbraid them with their faults, is not the way to reform them, for of all Advices those that are given to reform the Clergy, should be managed most nicely and tenderly. And it is to be feared that the Vindicator and his Associates are very glad when they can discover the trip of their Adversaries. If any of the Clergy be guilty of such things as are clamorously alleged by Presbyterians; it is no Argument against the common Cause of the Catholic Church, and the Apostolical Succession of that Hierareby of Bishop, Presbyter, and Deacon, continued from the days of the Apostles until now. And therefore he may, if he will (as is threatened) employ the people in the West to make and gather stories to the disadvantage of the Episcopal Clergy, and it is an easy thing to swell that Volumn into a prodigious Bulk, if their ignorant and implacable Enemies may be believed, it is not possible for them not to accuse. But I think the Vindicator himself, is not of so profligate a 
The Presbyterians in England libelled all kind of Crimes against the Clergy before the Rump Parliament, and one of them was deprived for drunkenness, who was so abstemious, that he never drank any thing in his life but Milk and Water.  Conscience as to give Ear to such malicious Reports. We have had late Instances of the Presbyterian activity against the Reputation of the Clergy, no man could escape a Libel that enjoyed a comfortable Benefice. Nothing could have made the Presbyterians more contemptible than this treacherous and sneaking method of Libelling, when it was visible to all men that those scurrilous Papers were intended for no more, than to ruin and disgrace the most innocent and deserving men. And it is very odd that they could venture to blindfold the Nation by this bassled and hypocritical Shame, and how comes it that the Clergy in the West are represented as Criminals, when they dare not attack the Clergy in the North? The reason is obvious, the People in the West date their Conversion from the time that they forbear to hear the Curates, and they think themselves obliged by all their ties and solemn Covenants, to ruin and disparage those limbs of Antichrist. But the People in the North can discover no such beauty in their Presbyterian Discipline: they love and honour their own Ministers, they hear them Preach the Articles of Christian Faith, and true and solid Morals, and so rough are those Infidels in the North, that they never thought Snivelling necessary to make a great Saint. They love a plain and unaffected Style, and they cannot be persuaded but that the Oracles of God may be Preached without affectation, and yet with all requisite Gravity and Recollection.  
If there be so many Libels gathered by Presbyterians, it may provoke their Enemies to recriminate, and if the Vindicator thinks that such scurrilous writings can serve the common cause of Religion, I wish him more wisdom and sobriety: I condemn all such methods in all Parties, and if the thing were allowable, we could tell him that many of his Associates in the Ministry are very scandalous, some of them Adulterers. some Fornicators, some Blasphemers; some whole Presbyterian Families Incestuous,  — Sed praestat motos componere fluctus. 
If I rejoiced in this Recrimination, I were not a good Christian. But it is necessary to put those Proud and Supercillous men in mind, that they are but ordinary Mortals, encompassed about with the same Infirmities with other men, and that they should consult the Scriptures, and the Fathers for Arguments, rather than the Cameronian Zealots in the Western Shires; and if they beat the Clergy at those Weapons, they deserve to be chastised; and for a conclusion to this Observation, I must tell you that I know not a more unblamable Company of men upon Earth than the Episcopal Clergy of Scotland. Nor do I know any five of them in the whole Nation, who could not undergo the severest Examinations, used in the Christian Church Preparatory to Ordination, I wish that they may make a Christian use of their present Trials, and give the world a proof of that greatness of soul that qualifies men for the Priesthood; that all round about them may be convinced that he that is in them is greater than he that is in the World. Seneca 
John Ep.  tells us that to do good even when it is attended with infamy, is noble and heroic: and a greater than Seneca tells us, that we must go through good report and bad report; God will clear our Innocence as the Sun in his Meridian Elevation, and I hope to the Conviction of our Enemies, that in the simplicity of our souls we designed the Reformation of sinners, and that we look upon ourselves as Dedicated to the immediate Service of God, and the sooner we retire into our own Consciences, and discover the secret Springs of our present Calamity, the sooner will our heavenly Father remove the marks of his Indignation. There is no Argument so proper to convince the Ignorance of foolish men as by well doing: and though we should not be so successful in gaining Proselytes in the midst of a crooked and perverse Generation, yet we fortify the Peace and Tranqulllity of our Consciences, we strengthen ourselves against those things that are most terrible to Flesh and Blood, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of Glory, in the midst of all Calamities and Reproaches that are cast upon us. And let not them that are yet untouched think that their Brethren, upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell, are greater sinners than their Neighbours.  
I leave this, and I go forward to another Topick by which he endeavours to vindicate the Presbyterians; and it is this that the Clergy of the Church of Scotland did press the Consciences of the Presbyterians; and that the People could not own them 
Vid. pag. 52. and pag. 87.  as their Ministers, because they were obtruded upon them, and not invited by Popular Elections. But the Vindicator should consider, that if his Argument be turned against his Party in the North of Scotland, it may be of dangerous Consequence to the growth of Presbytery. For the bresbyterians there are not likely to carry their Elections by plurality of Votes; but does not he remember that severals of the Remonstrator Presbyterians have been inducted to their Churches by some Troops of English Horse in the time of the late Civil Wars, yet he does not think but that the People owed all Deference and Spiritual Obedience to them; and if a 
* His own word.  Pastoral Relation may be founded between a Minister and the People by Cromwell's Troopers, why not by King Charles the Second Dragoons? But does not the Vindicator remember that some have been obtruded on the old College of Aberdeen, without the Regular and Collegiate Election, by the same very force that had planted some Remonstrator Ministers, and that without any Trial or Examination, when their more deserving Predecessors were most Tyrannically removed.  
But not to trifle with the Vindicator, The method of admitting Ministers in the Church of Scotland, under the Episcopal Constitution, is the most just, and the most unexceptionable that can be devised. For when the Candidate for any Ecclesiastical Preferment receives 
Vid. Letters of the Persecution.  a Presentation from the Patron, he goes to the Bishop, and the Bishop sends him to the Presbytery to undergo the ordinary trials of his Literature and Sufficiency; and when the Bishop and his Presbyters with him are satisfied of his Knowledge and Learning, than the Bishop serves a public ●dict at the Church where the Candidate is to be preferred, inviting all the Parishioners to come to the Cathedral Church against an appointed day, to see if they have any reasonable exception against the Candidate; and this is not done in a hurry but they have a competent time allowed them to gather all possible Informations concerning him from all Quarters; and if they can object any thing against him that is of any weight, they are heardand the Candidate is repulsed: now I would gladly know what is it that the People can complain of in this Ecclesiastical Polity? The Consusions of Elections that are solely left to the People are innumerable, and though we had not famous and remarkable Instances in Ecclesiastical History of the bloody and tragical Effects of such popular Elections, our own Country might furnish us with very many sad Experiments, 
Damasus and Urcisinus at Rome, Videtiam Ammianum Marcelinum.  when the Parishioners could not compromise the affair peaceably, they quickly came to Blows, and in many places to Bloodshed, and Riots. These were all the good effects we could discern of their popular Elections; it cannot be denied, but that the method of electing the Clergy varied often and appeared under many Figures in several Ages, and Countries, since the first Plantations of Christianity: but I dare boldly say no Christian Church came nearer the Apostolical Method, and more happily avoided both Extremes, than the Church of Scotland under the Episcopal Constitution. But you may put the Vindicator in mind 
Wherever they dare venture, they have no regard to the popular Call, as lately appeared at Leith, the unanimous popular Election of Mr. George Grace was refused, and one Wishart a Presbyterian thrust upon them.  that the Presbyterians themselves never thought the Call of the People so essential a Constitution of that Pastoral Relation. For there is an Act of the General Assembly, ordering the Presbytery to name a Minister to such Parishes as were Malignant, that is, such as were of the Episcopal persuasion, so this pretended popular Election, if at any time it prove unserviceable to advance their Tyranny, is immediately rejected. For the Presbyterians do not at all believe any such inherent Right in the People to choose their own Ministers; for they think the Malignants have no Right to choose for themselves, this is the sole privilege of the Godly. The Malignants are not at all to be consulted, accordingly we see that though their Parliament judged the power of Election in the Heretors and Elders of each Parish, or in the major part of them, yet no Elections are allowed by the Presbyteries, though never so unanimous and universal, but such as are promoted by their own Factions, witness Musselburgh and Tranent.  
There is hardly any thing insisted upon by the Presbyterians more foolish and inconsistent with common honesty than this Topick from popular Elections, and to say the truth, the old Presbyterians never obtrude such a whimsy upon the People: the Lay Patronages were not abolished in Scotland until the year 49. when the Discipline was in its Zeaith when there was no sin Preached against but Malignancy, and the King, Prerogative Royal was possessed by the Kirk. Presbyterians in other Countries quietly submit to Lay Patrons: and indeed if the Bishops take care that 〈◊〉 but pious and virtuous Men be Ordained, what harm can the Church 〈◊〉 by such Presentations. May not the Clergy examine such Candidates 〈◊〉 offer themselves to the Ministry, accurately and narrowly▪ 'Tis certain that the most tristing and supersicial Students do most effectually recommend themselves to the People, nay there are so many mean and abject Arts requisite to promote a Clergyman (if the Hypothesis of the popular Election hold necessary) that an ingenuous man cannot proslitute himself to such servile and popular methods. As for the grave and retired Clergyman, he is sure never to be preferred; and if some judicious and discreet Patron does not force him out of his Solitude, he is like to die amongst his Books, and the Church has been served in all Ages to the best Advantages by such as lest understood the Arts of Insinuation, and it will continue so until the end of all things.  
In the next place I do not see why the Vindicator should say that the Clergy pressed the Consciences of their Hearers: there was nothing in our worship, but the use of the Lords Prayer, the Doxology, and the Apostolic Creed at Baptism, that they themselves objected against, are not these mighty Grievances to Tender Consciences? The Vindicator tells us that Presbyterians were not against the use of those Forms but they would not use them as the Prelatists did. What he means by this I cannot tell; but I can tell you that all the Presbyterians before the year 1638. made use of them all. And that after the year 38. until Cromwell's Army invaded our Nation they never left off the using of those Catholic and Christian Forms. But such of the Remonstrators as were deeply in the Interests of the Usurper, then left off the use of such Forms, drawing as near as was possible to the Spiritual Heights, and pretended Purity of the Independents in the Army. And the Christian Religion at that time in our Nation varied in its outward Figure, and in their Notions about it as much as the Philosophy of the Schools, and the wise Questions of Universal and Objectum Attributionis logicae. The Vindicator is content to use such Forms, but not as the Episcopal Church doth command it. That is to say, he will do nothing in Unity and Society with the Christian Church, and though the Vow of Baptism oblige us, as we are Members of Christ's Mystical Body, to preserve and support the Unity of the Christian Church, yet he thinks he may leave the Communion the Church, without either fear or scruple, in those very things that are short Abstracts of our Faith, and Symbols of our Profession. And yet no People are now so violent as they in pressing Subscriptions to the Presbyterian Confession at Westminster, and that without any exception, restriction, or explication, I am of Opinion that 
Vid. Presbyterian Inquisition of the College of Edinburgh.  the Episcopal Clergy of Scotland have been from their Infancy taught in, (and are firmly resolved to adhere to) the Protestant Religion, and is it not a piece of extraordinary vanity in the Presbyterians to insinuate that they themselves are the only men careful to preserve the purity of Doctrine? Did not the Clergy that addressed to the pretended General Assembly, plainly declare that they would subscribe the Westminster Confession, as it contained the Fundamentals of Protestant Religion. But this the Vindicator thinks did not sufficiently purge them from the suspicion of being Arminians. There are but very few of the Clergy of Scotland that explain the Doctrine of Grace and Freewill after the method of Arminius; and if any of them does not favour the Calvinian Hypothesis they are very far from propagating their Opinions in a factious manner, and not at all inclined to change the Pulpit into a Metaphysical Chair. I think it is no disparagement to either of the Parties to say that every one of them cannot state such controversial differences fairly, and reason about them closely; nor is it necessary for every Country Minister to read Alvarez and Dr. Tuisse, Arminius and Episcopius. Those questions have been debated in all Ages of the Church, and if we understand so little of our selves, of our own soul, and its union with the body, the method and manner of its operations. How daring a thing is it to pretend to grasp the infinite Mind that made Heaven and Earth, and to methodise the Acts of that eternal Intellect, in whom we live, move, and have our Being? To read some of the 
Acts 17.  School men is enough to make a modest man tremble, when he considers that the incomprehensible Deity is thought to be fettered by the Laws, Methods, and confused Notions of our Mind, this is learned Ignorance, and the Presbyterians may think they wonderfully reform the World when they oblige Ministers to Swear their Systems of Metaphysics. It were infinitely better to leave them to their Liberty in things that are disputable in their Nature, and past finding out after all our Endeavours. Upon the whole matter, the Objections against the Clergy from the Doctrine they Preach is vain and trifling, and serves no other Design than to fill the Mouths of the People with words that they do not understand, and yet have a mischievous influence upon their lives.  
Another Topick by which he endeavours to provoke the present Powers against the Episcopal Clergy, is, that 
Page 24. Edinb. Edit.  they are Enemies to King William and Queen Mary. I have no Commission to give an account of particular men's Opinions in the Controversy that is now debated in Britain, but I may observe that the Vindicator puts a mean Compliment upon King William, to tell the World in Print that the Interest of King 
Page ibid. Edinb. Edit.  William, and that of the Presbyterians is embarked together; i. e. If King William does not punctually observe 
For they fancy the Covenant to be the tenure by which any King may hold his Crown.  the Original Contract, they know well enough what they owe all earthly Kings. Again he tells us, that such of the Episcopal Clergy as addressed to King William and Queen Mary; never thought of any such Address, until they had lost all hopes of King James; and by this he thinks to disparage the Episcopal Clergy wonderfully: whereas the Argument rightly turned is to their Advantage. That they never treacherously betrayed King James when they were publicly Praying for him, nor did they secretly undermine his Government when they were giving public thanks for his Administrations, as the Presbyterians did, and such of the Episcopal Clergy as came over to King William, aught to be treated with Civility and Protection at least, if it were no more but that their Principles of Government are more agreeable to Reason, and more favourable to Monarchy in General, and the Common Peace of Mankind. I know no Notion the Presbyterians can have of a King, but that he should be 
* And therefore K. William having not taken the Covenant, and being in League with bigot Papists, and still Protecting the Church of England and its Hierarchy, should be Excommunicated upon Presbyterian Principles, as at Sanghair lately it was reasoned and determined, the 10th. of August.  Arch-Bedle to the Kirk, and that he ought to employ his Power and Authority to execute their Decrees. The Vindicator remembers no doubt the Act of the West Kirk. A Specimen of Presbyterian Loyalty to K. William and Q. Marry, we have lately from the Provost of Rutherglin, who publicly owned that they would indeed Arm so many Forces, and not Disband them until K. William had Established Presbytery to their mind; and if he did not so settle it, they would turn him out, and use him as they did K. Charles the First. But if the Episcopal Clergy in the West of Scotland are enemies to the present Government, they are obliged to continue in that opposition by the Vindicators Principles, so unfortunate is he in his Endeavours to serve the present Government. For if the Clergy in those Shires never met with any thing but Acts of Hostility, without any Law, Trial, or so much as any the least Formality of Justice; pray, let the Vindicator tell me what Allegiance do they owe upon such Principles, as he and his Associates were wont to propagate under the Reign of K. Charles the Second? And therefore he himself (not others) deserves to have his Neck stretched for adhering to such Principles, as necessarily overthrow in their last consequence all Government and Order.  
Another Topick upon which he and others found many of their Libels against the Clergy, is, that they were subservient in the late Reigns to advance Arbitrary Power by their Doctrine of Nonresistance and Passive Obedience. 

— Nunquamne reponam  
Vexatus toties.—   The Episcopal Clergy Preached no Doctrine but the true Christian Doctrine, which can never be overthrown by all the Attempts of their Adversaries; they Preached indeed that in every Government there was a Supreme Legal Tribunal, from whose Decisions there lay no Appeal upon Earth. That this Supreme Tribunal was not at all to be resisted, and therefore that the Insurrections in the Western Shires against the King, Parliament, and Laws was Rebellion, in its most rigorous Notion: this indeed they did Preach, and I hope they are not yet so degenerate as to think or Preach otherwise: as for the other Branch of the Controversy, whether the King of Scots may be resisted, I will tell the Vindicator my Opinion when he and I stands upon a Level. For where the Supreme Tribunal may be resisted, and counter acted, then there is something higher than what is already granted to be Supreme; but the King and Parliament are with us Supreme, and if they may be resisted, what is it that may not be resisted? If Sentences interfere, there can be no Government, because no final Decision of Controversies; therefore there can be no Appeal from the Supreme Tribunal in any Nation; and into whatever Figure the Government is moulded, some such Supreme Independent Tribunal must be acknowledged, whence there is no Appeal, and of which there is no resisting; unless you so order your Government as to have one part of it fight perpetually against the other and 
Vitia dominantium tolerare debemus sicut nimios imbres. Cornel. Tacit.  in that case our Saviour tells us, That a House divided against itself cannot stand. And do the Presbyterians think to recommend themselves by asserting such Doctrines as necessarily overthrow all Government? And Blows up the Foundations of all Humane Society? We have all the Governments in the World to defend us upon this Head; for without this necessary truth no Notion can be form of what is Law, Government, or Society; do not we see every day such as opposed the Government, any where, Fined, Confined, or Executed? And this carries with it the Unanimous Sentence of all Judges upon Earth, declaring that the Government is not to be Resisted in its first and Supreme Authority: neither ought the Secrets of Government to be so profaned, as to be laid open to the Censure and Objections of every petulant Medler. It is not our business, who live in private Stations, to Canvas the Mysteries of State; God ordinarily gives to such as are at the Helm of Government another Spirit, than that he bestows upon private men, their care must extend far and near, we must not upon all occasions publish our Comments upon their actions, far less ought we to fly to Arms when our Caprice is not satisfied, nor when the Dreams and Delusims of our particular Sect are discouraged. For, If men may run to Arms upon every occasion, the Political World should quickly tumble into the Original Chaos. Whatever Parties then there are that oppose the Doctrine of Nonresistance, thus stated, are Enemies to all Government, and when they themselves are invested with Power and Authority, their Practice b●●●●●● their former Notions, and exposes sufficiently their Chimerical Ideas; and whatever branches there may be of this Controversy, it must be agreed to on all hands, that the Scots Presbyterians were Rebels under Charles I. and Charles II. in all the Formalities of Rebellion.  
The Vindicator himself thinks that the Authority of 
Pag. 96. and 97.  the Nation in the Convention or Parliament, may take away the Legal Right that belongs to the Clergy. Had not the Clergy as good right to their bypast Stipends as any man had to his private Estate? So it seems that in some cases the Convention may invade the Property of private men, especially the Property of the Episcopal Clergy, and this is no other stretch of Arbitrary Power, than what was practised formerly against the Liege's in the warmest weather of the Covenant, when private men were compelled to lend their money to Levy an Army against the King: yet since it was to advance the Covenant there was nothing Arbitrary in it, and though it was open Robbery, and never practised by any of our Kings, yet we were forced to stoop to Ruin and Poverty, because the Covenanters said that this was our Liberty and Property. So they that clamour most against Arbitrary Power, practise it most when they dare venture.  
Another Imputation whereby the Presbyterians endeavour to fully the Reputation of the Episcopal Clergy is this, that the kindness that any have for Episcopacy proceeds from the Espiscopal Clergy's indulging men in their sins and immoralities. And 
Pag. 76. and pag. 166.  this is the old story, and contains nothing but their inveterate spite and malice. What is it that the Episcopal Church teaches that indulges men in their sins? What Doctrine is it, that's publicly owned or taught by the Episcopal Church, that has the least tendency to the breach of any of God's Commandments? How long shall these Sons of Strife continue in their Impudence? Though this Accusation be as senseless as it is indesinite, yet upon this occasion they ordinarily magnify their discipline, as the most Sovereign Remedy against the immoralities of the Age, much after the same manner that Montebanks do when they set off their Drugs with vehement and zealous Harangues; and if you have the patience for a quarter of an hour you'll hear all that they can say. Whereas a grave experienced Physician, will make no such promises, but he'll calmly consider the present temper of your Body, the Causes of your Disease, and proportion his Applications to your strength, and other Circumstances, without noise or Ostentation.  
I know no effect that ever the Presbyterian Discipline had towards Reforming the World, unless you reckon that the murdering of Bastard Children was of that Nature. It cannot be denied but that the Presbyterian Ministers use long Discourses to the Whores that sit on the Stool of Repentance, but they cannot name three of them that ever mounted that Public Seat but they became Prostitutes, and when once they made Shipwreck of their Modesty, one may guests what followed. And their public appearance in this manner made them impudent. This is all the Reformation I know that their Discipline most eminently promotes; its true indeed there was a very remarkable Step towards the Reformation made by Sir John Hall, and his Associates, the first year of the Revolution, when the Wells were locked up, and none could have fresh Water upon Sunday, yet as much Wine and Brandy was allowed as one was pleased to call for. But if by their Discipline, they mean that endless and pragmatic inquisition into all Actions, it is as impracticable, as it is burdensome; and though it be a natural step to advance their Supremacy, 
Vid. Bramhal on the Scots Discipline.  yet it is attended with so much confusion and animosities, that neither true Religion nor Liberty can endure it. It is pleasant to hear them declaim against the Tyranny of Papal Power, and yet meddle with all that ever he meddled 
Act of General Assembly 49.  with.  
We know what Profanations of the Name of God were occasioned by this Discipline in the year 1648. when the best of the Nobility and Gentry, and others were made to profess their Repentance for the Lawful Engagement. I do not plead against Ecclesiastical Discipline; for it is absolutely necessary to the order and Preservation of the Church, as it is a Society founded by our Lord and Saviour. But this new fantastic and apish imitation of strictness, is inconsistent with reason, as it is indeed destructive to true and regular Devotion. The Vindicator uses to refer his Readers to other Books, I cannot condemn that practice, therefore I wish him to Read Bishop Bramhall's Treatise of the new Discipline. There is nothing more desirable than to see the Ancient Discipline revived, and all men ought to Pray that God would direct our Ecclesiastical Governors, to restore the Primitive Discipline, so as the most negligent may be awakened, directed, and encouraged to repent, and testify his Repentance by the most unfeigned mortification, and Charity.  
Thus I have run over some of the General Heads that are scattered up and down his Vindication, and given you freely but very briefly my Opinion of them. The next thing I undertook for your satisfaction was to inquire into the Spirit and Genius of the Author, by the Characters that appear of him in his Vindication. Not that I conclude him habitually such, for perhaps the paroxysms of his Indignation are over, but this I may conclude that when this Book was written, he was overdriven with his passion: I do not immediately conclude him to be of the Seed of the Serpent, nor of the Race of Esau, nor a 
His own mannerly expressions.  Villain, nor the Successor of Judas Iscariot, nor a Rabshakeh. Though he opposes the Apostolical Government of Episcopacy, he is not of my Opinion; but I do not think he deserves any Censure on that account that he is not of my Persuasion. His Adversaries cannot drive him to a greater absurdity than if he be made to vent his Passion in personal Reflections, and therefore I shall endeavour to six nothing upon his person but what naturally follows from his own words.  
I charge him therefore in the first place with open and 
Pag. 94.  avowed Partiality. He rejects the Testimony of any man that is not of his Party, so he rejects the Testimony of John Gibson, one of the Magistrates of Glasgow because, says he, he was of a party, and made. 
* Alderman.  a Bailiff by the Archbishop; and all knew the Prelates. Inclinations towards the present Civil Government. His Argument may be reduced into form thus, the Bishop was an enemy to the Civil Government, John Gibson was named a Bailiff by the Bishop: Ergo the Testimony of John Gibson ought not to be received in a Matter of Fact: this is very hard, how can a man at London be more credibly informed of a Matter of Fact in Glasgow, than by the Authentic Testimonies of the Magistrates of Glasgow, but he tells us the Magistrates were of a Party, and what of that? By this method of reasoning what becomes of Calderwood's History of the Presbyterians? Must not we believe him at all because he is of a different persuasion? Just so our Author treats Mr. Morer, one of the Prebendaries of Sarum, who wrote the first Letter of the Persecutions. The Vindicator tells us it is one lie from the beginning to the end, and why all this harshness and severity? Why? Because the Vindicator imagines him to be a Jacobite, though he ventured his person in Ireland, and swore the Oath of Allegiance to K. William and Q. Marry, and wrote this Letter to one of his Ecclestastical Superiors in England, yet the account he gave of the Scots Affairs did not please the Vindicator, and therefore he's immediately transformed into a Jacobite. This is a very hard case, but why may not even the Jacobites be received as Witnesses. The Jews when they swear upon the Pentateuch are received as Witnesses before all Judicatures, and in all Courts in Christendom; so are the mahometans when they swear upon the Koran, and all Pagans if they swear by the Idol of their Country. But Mr. Morer is no Presbyterian, and therefore his Testimony must be rejected; thus with one dash of his Pen he overthrows all the Accounts that he himself had from the West, to the Disparagement of the Episcopal Clergy, or in defence of their Enemies, for they are all of them of a Party, and obliged by their Oaths to 
Page 85.  ruin Episcopacy. And again he rejects the Testimony of a great and an exact Historian, because he was no Presbyterian. And again, The Testimony of a Mininister, 
Page 88  Witnessing the Persecution of another, must not 
Page 100  be received. 
Page 109.   
Another thing very remarkable in this Book, is the Author's peremptory and dogmatic pretences to the Jus Divinum of Presbytery, contrary to the Modesty, or rather Caution of the first Presbyterians, who declared in their public Concessions, that all 
Vid. Confession of Faith inserted in the Oath of the Test.  Church Polity was variable, and changeable; but the Scots Presbyterians, think they cannot justify their Zeal for their now Polity, unless the People believe it to be of Divine Right. But how to make up this Divine Right from the Precepts of our Saviour, or the practice of the Apostles, or the Succession of the first Ages of Christianity, they know not; they are resolved to say it is of Divine Right, and then they work hard for strained Consequences, and hence it is that they are very angry if their intrinsic Ecclesiastical power lodged in this parity be not obeyed, or questioned. So the Vindicator complains that such of the Episcopal Clergy as addressed to them, did consider them no otherwise than as a Company of men that derived all the Power they had from the Convention, and was not this a mighty astront? They cannot endure that they should be considered as Delegates of the State, when as yet all the Nation knows, and common Sense must determine they could have no power over the Episcopal Clergy, but what they derived from the State; and therefore all along he asserts positively, that the Scots Presbytery is the immediate Institution of Jesus Christ. But I must be so just to him as to acknowledge that most of all his Brethren, are equally peremptory and dogmatic upon this Head, and though Calvin acknowledges great honour and deference to be due to Prelates etiam hoc nomine, if they should embrace the Reformation, yet his Disciples are more improved, and cannot endure that any other Church Pollty sold prevail. From this proceed the high and lofty Epithets they bestow upon Presbytery; Christ's visible Kingdom upon Earth, his Royal Crown and Sceptre, his express Institution and Discipline. And upon this Hypothesis they become proud and insolent, they despise all their opposites as men not acquainted with the Spirit of 
Page 185.  God. and enemies to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. 
Page 178.   
Another thing I take notice of in his Writings, is, his rudeness and vanity. He represents his Adversary as a Liar, and a Villain, though he cannot prove that the Author of the History of the General Assembly wrote one Lie, from the beginning to the end, if the Accounts he got from such as were present were not so exact, he himself was not to be blamed; but the Vindicator cannot prove that any information 
Pag. 123.  he got was false. Again, one of his Adversaries is represented as a Liar, and a Slanderer, and tell us again that the Council appointed that no Decreet should pass in savour of the Episcopal Clergy, until the Parliament should determine in that extraordinary case; where I take notice, that according to the Vindicators present Doctrine, the Council may stop and disable the Laws, especially when the the Episcopal Clergy Prosecute their Debtors before the Ordinary Judge. and therefore the Council may invade any man's Legal Property, contrary to the Law, and much more the Parliament; yet this is a stretch or Arbitrary Power, never heard of in Scotland notwithstanding of all the hideous Clamours of that restless Faction. He may if he will endeavour to justify that Arbitrary stretch, but I think that they who were most active in it, do truly think shame of it as a thing as much unprecedented and unwarrantable.  
Again, He insinuates that the Clergy had Clubs for 
Pag. 55  thinking, and that it is an impudent falsehood that either Dr. R. or Mr. Malcolm made application to the Presbyterians. As for the last whether he made application, or after what manner, I neither know nor shall I ever inquire. As for the first he is at his rest, and I will not rake into his Ashes; but this is certainly known, although he had addressed unto the Presbyteries, he had been rejected because he was one of the Ministers of Edinburgh; for his Party had determined to break through all obstacles of Justice and Decency, rather than suffer any of the Episcopal Clergy to continue within the City of Edinburgh. Nay, no Presbyterian was allowed, if once he had made the least Advances of Compliance with Episcopacy, as was then too visible in the Case of Mr Wilky.  
The Vindicator's clownish Buffonery, and insulting over the afflicted, in the 4th. page, I omit. You will excuse me if I do not transcribe the most part of his Book, the ordinary Epithets he bestows on his Adversaries are, that they are impudent Slanderers and Villains; but when his Heroic Passion is put into a higher ferment, they are Successors of Judas Iscariot, and Rabshakes. No doubt the Sisters will think that the Vindicator is a precious convincing man, he tramples upon the Episcopal Clergy as if they were below his notice, there is no grappling with a Giant of so much strength and reason.  
We must be taught better manners than to venture upon this man of Oak and Forehead, poor Creatures! Have not we been taught better than to make public the Secrets of the Faction? if this man write once again, he will ruin us for ever.  
Is not the World well mended by this Reformation? But I had rather prove the Vindicator a Liar than call him so, and therefore you may ask him who gave him information that my Lord Dundee had gathered together at Edinburgh two thousand men of the Kings disbanded Forces, that with them he 
Pag. 40.  might surprise the Convention, when all the Nation knows that when he retired from Edinburgh he had not above thirty or forty to attend his Person. Who saw the two thousand? And how comes the Vindicator to six upon that precise number twice? Where were they Mustered? And is it likely that my Lord Dundee at the Head of two thousand well trained old Soldiers could be forced to retire from Edinburgh by all the Vagabond Russians that came from the West. Let the Vindicator recollect himself a little, and inquire where he had this information. What my Lord Dundee intended is not the Subject of our present enquiry, but I am very sure that if he had had the fourth part of that number the Vindicator alleges, he could have quickly made the Convention at that time retire: and this I confidently think, though the Vindicator Confutes this probability by telling Mr. Morer 
Pag. 13.  that the Presbyterian Confidence is built on a better foundation than such as Dundee was; and here I must take notice of this Gentleman's Charitable Temper and Condescension. Mr. Morer, one of the Prebendaries of Sarum, wrote that none doubted but that if my Lord Dundee had lived he would have changed at that time the Face of Affairs in Scotland. From this the Vindicator concludes that the Episcopal Party in Scotland placed their Confidence in none higher than my Lord Dundee, how is it possible to shun those venomous darts of spite and ill nature? So when ever you speak to a Presbyterian I advise you to take good heed what you say, and how; if you do not say every thing that may be said, they are sure to conclude, that what was left unsaid was not at all believed by you: so when Mr. Morer writes again he must tell his Patron that though such a change was probable according to the situation of Affairs at that time yet the Episcopal Party placed their Confidence in God. For if his words are not thus guarded the Presbyterians will immediately conclude that the Episcopal Party are but a pack of Atheists that place no Confidence in God, but lean on the Arm of Flesh.  
I return from this Digression to that that I lately mentioned, viz. The Vindicators story of two thousand disbanded Soldiers, which carries with it all the marks by which a wilful and deliberate lie, may be known from modest and ingenuous Truth, and the reason why I instance in this particular is because the Vindicator was at Edinburgh, or not far from it, about that time, and therefore it is not probable but that he might have known the truth: and from this I conclude that either he lies deliberately, and wilfully, or his Informers are Liars, and idle talkers, or at best he himself, is guilty of supine negligence, in gathering true Informations. For to do him Justice, I promise to retract this publicly, if he get five or six men of any note even amongst the Presbyterians in Edinburgh, who will declare it under their hands that they knew that my Lord Dundee had gathered together two thousand Disbanded Soldiers at Edinburgh, before he retired from the Convention. And the Vindicator himself cannot deny but that this is an extraordinary piece of Condescension, that I should leave it to be decided by the Testimony of Presbyterians themselves, since he rejects all Episcopal Witnesses.  
The next thing I instance, as to his Candour and Integrity, is this, that in the third page of his Preface he 
Second Vindication. Edenb. Edit.  writes, that there was Advice written by Dr. Canaries to Mr. Lisk, to be communicated to the Episcopal Party, That they should yield feigned Obedience to the Presbyterians at present, and these words he caused to be Printed in a different Character, that every one might conclude they were the words of Dr. Canaries Letter; whereas the Doctor never wrote such a thing, nor any thing that can yield any such Consequence. And 'tis yet more pleasant to read his Letter that justifies this disingenuous usage, because forsooth feigned Obedience was a Scriptural Phrase, and though the Doctor wrote no such thing, yet he thinks he was allowed to Print this Relation of him, so as all the World might conclude these words were the express words of Dr. Canarie's Letter, and this Lie is more unpardonable than the former, because it is deliberate and unrepented off. I shall mention one Instance more of his Candour and Integrity, and it relates to Mr. Macmath, whom he injures most atrociously.  
And because he raises all his Batteries against Mr. Macmath, the Minister of Leswade, we need no other proof of the Vindicators ingenuity, nor no other Character of his genius than to read that part of his Libel that relates to Mr. Macmath. First, he charges him with Drunkenness, but the Vindicator knew no such thing, only the barbarous Villains who wounded him upon the Road as he was Travelling from Edinburgh to his own House, they would take care to transmit to the Vindicator such stories as were most convenient for him to propagate, but Mr. Macmath was that very night, before he came from Edinburgh, in the company of two Gentlemen of Honour and Integrity, 
Mr. Riddel of Haysning in the Forest, and Captain Straitone.  and appeals to them whether they could perceive in him either the first beginnings, or the least appearance of any excess or disorder, and their Testimony is of greater authority than all the stories that the Vindicacor can patch together from such Villains as made an attempt upon his life.  
Next he charges him with amorous, wanton, and lascivious behaviour, and I am glad the Vindicator mentions it, because in this very story we have a notorious instance of their Villainy and Hypocrisy: there was a poor woman hired by the Presbyterians to say that Mr. Macmath once made Love to her, and she was prevailed with by her Brother, a Presbyterian, to say so, and when she was encouraged by them again to adhere to what she said, she declined it, and told them that she had said enough for any thing she had gotten. Her Brother, who had taught her thus to accuse an innocent man, was smitten with such a remorse (when he came to consider more narrowly what he had done) that he was in hazard to destroy himself, and actually did so, when he removed to the next Parish, by ripping up his own Belly. But it is no wonder to hear Mr. Machmath thus calumniated, when they had the impudence to accuse 
Anno 38.  the Venerable Old Archbishop Spotswood of Incest with his own Niece of fourteen years old. And to make an end of what concerns Mr. Macmath, let me acquaint the Reader that such as were most active in his Trouble and Persecution, very shortly after felt the severity of God's just Judgement. John Clark, who beat him with the great end of his Musket, was suddenly bruised to death by the fall of a Tree in the Wood of Rosling, so that he never spoke again: and for the other Mr. Borthwite, his Conscience did so check him, that he had no peace until he ended his life in a most lamentable Distraction and Madness. I am not so bold as to infer that the Persecuting of Mr. Macmath was the only sin that drew upon them the visible and sudden marks of God's heavy displeasure, but I may very safely say that the Signatures of God's anger are frequently legible enough in the punishment of some men's sins, and that Atheistical Hypocrites seldom escape his indignation even in this World.  
As for the Vindicators Tattling of Mr. Finlasone, Mr. Finlasone himself denied all when he was challenged. But, that I may no longer detain the Reader, nor yet condemn myself to the drudgery of raking into that Puddle that is here heaped together against Mr. Macmath, let him compare the following Authentic Certificate in favours of Mr. Macmath, subscribed by the Gentlemen and others of his own Parish, with all the little knavish and impudent Lies that the Vindicator has gathered already, or may hereafter invent, and then let him Judge as his discretion will lead him.  

Leswade, August 10. 1689.  
WE Subscibers', Heretors, or such as represent them, Elders, and others within this Parish of Leswade, do hereby Declare and Testify that Mr. John Macmath, present Minister there, has been above these twenty years bygone in the said Ministry to our great satisfaction, and has Preached the Word of God faithfully, and performed other Duties of his Ministerial Function diligently; his Deportment and Behaviour being suitable to his Doctrine and Sacred Employment: wherefore we do own him as our lawful Minister, and are well pleased that he be continued in the peaceable exercise of his Ministry amongst us, as witness these presents subscribed with our hands. Sic Subscribitur.  

Sir Will. Drummond of Hauthornden, Kt. William Drummond.  
Saintclare of Rosline, Baronet. Jo. Saintclare.  
Lately one of the Magistrates of Edinburgh. Jo. Johnstone.  
Representing the Barronry of Prestone. Ro. Preston.  
Nicolsone of Trabrowne, one of the Magistrates of Edinburgh, as representing Leswade Barronry. Ja. Nicolsone.  
Son to the L. Prestone. Alex. Prestone.  
Town Major of Edinburgh, living in the Parish of Leswade. Major Will. Murray.  
Son to the L. Prestone. Char. Prestone.  
Son to Major Murray. Pat. Murray.  
Elders  
Alex Lawder.  
Ja. Chiseholme.  
Will. Dobie.  
Tho. Geddes.  
Archibald Johnstone.  
Jo. Mulckin.  
Tho. Reok.  
Ad. Threplain.  
Will. Ramsey.  
Alex. Porteous.  
William Poversell.  
Masters of Families.  
John Reok.  
Franc. Scott.  
Pat Whytlaw.  
Ja. Morisone.  
Jo. Mathre.  
Geo. Johnstone.  
Da. Mackall.  
Alex. White.  
And. Summer.    
Again he tells us, that it is well known that the Episcopal Party made all the essays they were capable 
Pag. 12.  of to carry the Elections for the Convention, when it is far better known, that in several Shires the Episcopal Gentry declined industriously their being chosen for that Convention, particularly in the Shire of Ross where the Vindicator dare not say that the Presbyterians can carry the Elections. And let me but once for all tell you, that the Presbyterians had many Advantages of their Opposites at that time not to be named. To be short, his Book is every where interspersed with the silliest shufflings and tergiversations: it is not enough for him to say that he is not acquainted with the Matter of Fact, when any thing is affirmed by his Adversary, that he is a stranger to, but instead of this; he presently flies in his Face and gives him the Lie. I'll give you one Instance of this rudeness, Mr. Morer wrote to his Patron, that there were some that Sat in the late Convention, who were not infeft in their Estates, and consequently were excluded by the Fundamental Laws of the Nation. This the Vindicator denies, and tells us, his denial is a sufficient answer, and all this because Mr. Morer did not name the Members of the Convention that were not infeft in their 
Pag. 12.  Estates. Had it not been an extraordinary indiscretion to have named particular Gentlemen, and to publish what might be so prejudicial to their Interest amongst their Creditors and Acquaintances. And if the Vindicator will generously conceal their names, he shall know them too when he pleases; and when he thus contends for the honour of that Convention, he in the next Line blunders most unhappily, and tells the World in Print that some Sat in that Convention who were forfeit for High Treason by all the solemnities and forms of Law, and that before the Sentence was Repealed by any Judicatory: and therefore I advise the Vindicator not to bind up the Sovereign Powers of the Earth to little Punctilios and Forms of Law, but let him be a little more kind to Arbitrary Power, and the extraordinary Exigences of State. And since he thinks it very just that the Convention should allow such a procedure against all the Forms of Law; why may not he allow the King and Council to put the very Laws in Execution against fanatics, when the essentials of Government are endangered by their Conspiracies and Insurrections. There are frequent Instances of his Disingenuity and shifting, which no body expects should be particularly refuted: because they engage one's inquiries into all those Pamphlets he pretends to refute; and because the Book would swell to a prodigious Bulk, and the Public is not at all concerned to know the Circumstances of every particular Ministers Sufferings in the West of Scotland.  
I could in the next place inform you of his Inconsistencies. He treats his Adversaries as Brethren, yet in 
Pag. 10. Paragraph 6.  his Preface he insinuates that such Disputes with the Episcopal Party are but the struggle and oppositions between the Seed of the Woman, and the Seed of the 
Ibidem.  Serpent; and that there are but few Matters of Fact that he pretends to any knowledge of himself. Yet in the next Line almost, he tells us that he doth not build on hear-say or common Talk; and yet the materials of his Book are but the Testimonies of many who were Actors or Abettors of the Western Villainies: and if he did not build on hear-say, how came he to Print that Mr. George Henry, Minister at Carstarphin, meddled with a Brewery, which is notoriously false? And though this be a trifling story, yet is it an undeniable Evidence that the Vindicator was heedless and inconsiderate in gathering true Materials.  
Again, The Vindicator tells us that they do not think K. William an Idolater though he Communicate with 
Pag. 115.  the Church of England, yet when some of his Party mounts the Desk and declaims their Maccaronicks, they positively conclude that the Church of England is idolatrous. Again, he does not allow that the Clergy who Addressed the Commission of the General Assembly had any measure of wit, yet their Contrivances were founded on deep Consults. But let me tell the Vindicator, that no man, or Society of men, has the Monopoly of Prudence, the most cautious steps may be sometimes frustrated and the wisest men may sometimes widely mistake their measure: and the Hearts of all Men, as well as the Hearts of Kings and Princes, are in the hands of God, and their motions directed by his Providence. And after all, let me tell the Vindicator once more, that that little Contrivance and Formula of an Address blew up their pretended Assembly: and let me tell him more, yet (though I pretend to no acquaintance in Political things) that it is very probable that those very Laws by which the Ringleaders of Presbytery thought to secure their Tyranny for ever, will occasion its fall and ruin, though they endeavour to support it by the Pens and Lungs of all its Associates.  
I could name many other Inconsistencies, I have no room for them: every other Line is stuffed with such mean and scurrilous Rail that it is nauseous to repeat them; yet I cannot but take notice of his Vanity. He treats his Adversaries with scorn and contempt. The Author of the History of the General Assembly he treats as a Sciolist, and as a Momus, and he is enraged that he should presume 
Pag. 183. and Pag. 169.  to write that one of the Presbyterian Doctors could not speak Latin. Such an Affront was not to 
Mr. Gilbert Rule.  be endured by a man that had signalised himself so much in Controversial Feats, and therefore I advise you when you meddle with the Presbyterions, to make your Approaches with all possible Caution and Reverence. A Presbyterian had rather be accused of Adultery, Sodomy, or Incest, than to be thought Ignorant, and this is the reason why the Author of that History is lashed with all the severities of satire, and the Vindicator would have forgiven him any thing rather than the least Insinuation of being ignorant. Alas! this was not to be be endured that one of their Leaders, and who had made a remarkable Figure, should be thus run down and exposed to laughter. For though the Presbyterians look very demure and grave, you mistake them, if you think them Stoics: If you venture to say any thing that may rob them of that pleasant Imagination of their own Grandeur, that lovely idea that they have of themselves, and their extraordinary performances.  
But I must tell you what occasioned his heavy displeasure against the Author of the History of the General Assembly, That Author gives one Instance why he thought Mr. Gilbert Rule did not understand throughly the things that he wrote of, because when he Cites the Epistle of St. Jerom to Evagrius, and from thence Cites the Sentence you see in the Margin 
* Sancti Hieron. Epist. ad Evagr. Quid facit Episcopus quod non facit Presbyter excepta ordinatione.  he must needs force the word ordinatio in that Epistle to signify the Ordering of the Meetings. This Exposition the Author of that History (such an Infidel he is) thinks a little Paradoxical, if not downright Ignorance; because no Ecclesiastical Writer in that, or any former Age understood any such thing by that word so placed, as it is in that Epistle; besides there's no mention of any meeting near that word, that determine it to that signification. And since this Exposition was so very odd, the Author of that History did treat it and the Inventor of it very familiarly. Besides, others do think that it this Exposition be received, it will oblige us to understand St. Jerom, in many places, in a Sense contrary to the Opinion of all former Ages.  
Thus I find St. Jerom informs us that such and such a man was Ordinatus ab Apostolis Episcopus of 
Catalogus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum.  such a place, therefore the meaning must be that such a man was appointed to meet the Apostle at such a place. However the Vindicator treats him as a Sciolist, a Momus, a poor sequacious Animal, that follows such as went before him. But if he had been acquainted with the penetrating Genius of Mr. Rule and others, he had no doubt understood the Father's better. It is very difficult to guests what to impute this extravagant Fancy to, he thought it dangerous to allow that Ordinatio did signify the Imposition of Hands, at least he wished such a power might not be granted to a Bishop, and therefore he will have Ordinatio in that Epistle of St. Jerom to Evagrius, to signify the ordering of something, though that thing be not named in St. Jreom; and if it signifies the ordering of something (as the Vindicator profoundly Reasons,) why not the ordering of a Meeting? And if it was the ordering of a Meeting? Why not the ordering of an Ecclesiastical Meeting? Yet all this time it is not determined whether this ordering of the Meeting be an Authoritative appointing of the time when they should meet, and what they should treat of, or only presiding as Moderator amongst them, when the Collective body themselves appointed the meeting. Because, I say, this is left uncertain; perhaps the Vindicator will judge it most convenient to adhere to the last. If he had said, that Ordinatio signified the ordering of a Dromedary it had been more to his purpose, for certainly the ordering of such an Animal made not so great a distinction between a Bishop and Presbyter as the ordering of Ecclesiastical Meetings.  
How contrary such a fancy is to the received exposition of that word, will best appear when we consider other places in the works of S. Jerom, where the word Ordinare is made use of, and let us suppose that the word must be interpreted according to the new Critic. Thus we find St. Jerom, Comment. 1. Epist. ad Timothe. Cap. 3. ab initio Primum laicos instituit de quibus optimi quique in facordotium eliguntur & sic dicit quales debeant ordinari. Then the meaning must be according to this late discovery, that the Apostle declared such as were fit to be appointed to meet. Again, S. Jerom in his Comment on the Epist. to Titus in those words: For this cause left I thee in Crete that thou mightest ordain, He hath these words, Quae desunt recto tenore corrige & tunc demum presbyteros poteris ordinare, cum omnes in Ecclesia fuerint recti, when all have been blameless in the Church, than thou mayst appoint Presbyters to meet. And again, in his Catalogue Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum, speaking of S. James the Brother of our Lord, Jacobus qui appellatur frater Domini cognomento justus— Post Passionem Domini statim ab Apostolis Hierosolymorum Episcopus ordinatus, the meaning must be, that he was appointed by the Apostles to meet at Jerusalem. And in the same Book it is said again, Timotheus autem Ephesiorum Episcopus ordinatus a Beato Paulo, that is to say, Timothy the Bishop was appointed by S. Paul to meet at Ephesus. Again, Polycarpus Joannis Apostoli discipulus & ab eo Smyrnae Episcopus ordinatus, totius Asiae princeps fuit. I need add no more testimonies to make this Critical observation more ridiculous, and I defic all that ever looked into the Presbyterian Books to find any thing so palpably ignorant and foolish, as this exposition of that passage in S. Hierom, except it be the Vindicators Notion of decretum praedamnatum, which I shall examine before I end this Letter, and yet I do not remember that ever I read any Man more proud and supercilious; but Ignorance and Pride go ordinarily together. I shall not contend with him about this nonsensical Whimsy, I wish with all my heart he had writ a Book in Quarto of such Expositions of the most difficult places in the Father's▪ and I dare assure him such Books would be read by the Youth in the Universities with far greater Delight than his Vindication of the Kirk of Scotland. And I have a far greater Opinion of the knowledge of most of his Brethren, than to think that there are two of them in the Nation (except it be Mr. Russel and Mr. Gourlay) that can agree with him in this Exposition; the reason why I mention it here is not to dispute with him any farther concerning it, but to give you an Instance of his insufferable Pride and Vanity that he resents the least Contradiction to his Nonsense with so much bitterness and indignation 
* Nulli patentius reprehenduntur, quam qui maxime laudari merentur. Plin. Ep. 20. lib. 7. .  
Another Instance to the same purpose we have again p. 183. The Author of the History of the General 
Pag. 183.  Assembly said, That such as were thrust into Universities and Colleges by the Presbyterian Faction were short of their Predecessors. This nettles the Vindicator, who, (if his 
Tacit. Convitia spreta exolescunt, si irascare agnita videntur.  sufficiencies be such as he fancies) should have slighted it. And therefore he compares the men of his way with their Predecessors, (I suppose he must mean such as are lately promoted into the Seminaries of Learning) if the Vindicator means Mr. Rules Predecessors in the College of Edinburgh that are already dead, He is extravagantly impertinent; If he mean the Masters lately ejected, I assure him, they never compared themselves nor their Sufficiencies with any dead nor alive; the more any man knows the less he thinks of it; and though Knowledge in itself be very valuable, yet such Thrasonical Boastings of it are very opposite to the nature of it. It may be the Vindicator thinks that the ejected Masters wrote so advantageously of themselves: but if that be his mistake, I dare assure him they had no hand in any History of the Assembly, or of any affairs relating 
As to the Characters given to some of them, neither they nor the Author of that History was to be blamed for it.  to it. And if such as love these Masters speak kindly of them, when they are expelled by a prevailing Faction, he need not take it ill, far less is there any necessity to run them down with such loud and saucy Comparisons 
* Tullius Orat. in Caecil. Nam cum omnis arrogantia odiosa est, tum illa Ingenii atque eloquentiae multo molestissima. . He instances in four particulars, wherein he thinks the present Masters may compare with their Predecessors, viz. The Knowledge of Books, useful Learning, Prudence to direct the Studies of the Youth, Grammar, and the knowledge of the learned Languages 
† Nam levia ingenia quia nihil a-h bent nihil sibi detrabunt, magno ingenio multaque nihilominus habituro convenit etiam simplex veri erroris confessio. Celsus de Medic. lib. 8. . If it be so, it is still so much the better, but it is very difficult for any man that was entirely a stranger to his Predecessors, to know what Books they recommended or were themselves acquainted with. But the Author mentioning casually Mr. Gilbert Rule's want of Latin, brought the Vindicator into this lofty strain of Comparisons, no doubt it was to let the World see how well he understood the Roman Authors, that he citys Plutarch and Simonides in Latin, but a little Latin may go very far if it be dexterously managed, and it may be worth his while to consider the direction 
† Buchan. Francise. 
Novi ego qui tantum tor quinq latina teneret  
Verba, sed ingenii sic dexteritate valebat,  
Ut quocunque loco, de re quacunque parata,  
Semper & ad nutum posita in station teneret.   Buchanan gave the Franciscans. But if he would be entreated to put on a more cheerful humour, I would tell him freely my opinion on the whole matter; and that is, that a man may be learned, and judicious, and know a great many excellent Books, and reason closely and yet not speak the Latin readily; so that there is no necessity to appear buffy and out of humour, though it were said that he did not speak Latin purely and fluently, that accomplishment depends upon long practice and upon all Revolutions (and sometimes without them) the public Schools have their Factions, and some are ready to censure what is not justly censurable, and this might occasion the Boys to be a little more severe than perhaps was allowable, when this Rabbi spoke something instead of Latin that was neither Latin nor Scotch.  
But I must tell him withal what I heard from eye and ear Witnesses in (and this I have more credible Attestations than any of the Testimonies the Vindicator brings to disparage the Clergy) That the said Mr. Rule did publicly in his Prelections in plenis Academiae comiti is, say, That one that did so and so, as the Church of England did, was guiltus Idolatriae; nor have I this from the younger Boys of that House, but from such as need not be named and cannot reasonably be suspected of lying. And I must tell Mr. Rule, though such an unhappy Trip would vilify him amongst the Students, yet it never lessens him in my Opinion, because one's Imagination may be so fixed upon the thing, that he forgets what Language he ought to speak. But I will tell you of another thing that I think was yet worse.  
At a public Commencement, apprehending that a Gentleman who was disputing against the Praeses did bear too hard upon him; He got up very gravely, and spoke to the Praeses thus, Domine Praeses, require illum ut proponat Argumentum categorice. It is true, that require illum is Latin; for (if I remember right) it may be met with in Eunuch. Terent. But in a sense vastly different from what was intended by Mr. Rule. For the sense intended by Mr. Rule no doubt, was that the Praeses would oblige the Opponent to be more methodical. and if that be the meaning, it could not be more unhappily expressed, for requirere aliquem in true Latin signifies to search for one again and again, to see where he may be found. I shall give you one Instance more, It is this, Mr. Rule finding 
Mr. Magnus' Prince.  that one of the Students in a Harangue, advanced some things that were unagreeable to him, and favourable to some of the Masters that were lately ejected, He got up and offered to silence the Youth, and said, That ille diolamat contra starum Regni, He meant no doubt the late Convention and Parliament, and any thing against them in the old Latin was contra Ordines Regni, how this aught to be expressed after the Reformation I know not. I can make no Apology for keeping you so long to such Importinencies, but who can help it: Why shall men give themselves the trouble to answer Books so accurately as the Vindicator pretends to do, that there must not be a Cobweb in all their foldings unswept. This put the Vindicator upon many impertinent Essays, and if I had time to insist upon them I could furnish you with very pleasant Instances out of his Answers to Mr. Morer's Letter. But the Vindicator must refute accurately; and this obliges him to condescensions below Gravity and Manhood. Every where we have visible marks of the Vindicators Genius, every where he stoops so low when he has nothing to pick up but straws and broken Pins, the Spirit of Contradiction eats out the vitals of his Soul, and ever and anon puts him upon silly and extravagant importinencies: For to nothing else can it be imputed than to his impardonable vanity — his wishing this Sciolist or some other would attempt the refuting his Books.  
I must confess, I read his Vindications and his pretended Answer to the Ironicum, and if he be not improved since he wrote those Tracts, he deserves no particular Answer, for his Explication of S. Jerom's Epistle, and his Decretum praedamnatum (of which hereafter) are Indications of his groundless and illiterate Fopperies: if he had defended himself by the common Pleas of learned Presbyterians, he ought to be treated with Civility and Discretion; but when he presumes to dictate either blasphemous Nonsense, (such as his decretum praedamnatum) or visionary and childish Romances (such as his fancy of the meaning of Ordinatio in S. Jerom's Epistle) he should in this case be treated according to his Character, for it is not possible that so much ignorance could dwell but in the company of so much Pride, and therefore I appeal to all the Scots Presbyterians, if ever they yet discovered any such monstrous Nonsense written or said by any man that pretended to have read but one System in his life-time, and yet this Mormo of a Scholar must forsooth strat with so much insolence and vanity, as if he were teaching some Americans, who were never acquainted with the civilised part of Mankind. There have been many attempts used by different Parties to expose one another for their Ignorance and Immoralities, but I defy all men to name one Instance of greater Ignorance, either before or after the Reformation than this one Notion of his Decretum praedamnatum, and yet forsooth he must pretend to explain and defend the Calvinian System, and takes occasion by an innocent Sentence or two, to thrust himself into this Scuffle without considering whether he understood the Controversy or not, but I leave him to the Chastisement of others.  
Good Nature and Christian Modesty teach us to hide and extenuate the weaknesses of others; but when those very men pretend to give Rules to all mankind, they ought to be put in mind that it is not yet time for them to appear so arrogant and presumptuous. Affectation is the meanest Vice, and an intolerable piece of Hypocrisy; we are not so ugly by our natural defects, as by the Accomplishments that we sergeant, and this is the Hereditary uncurable Disease of our Peddling little Reformers. They cannot endure to follow the common Sentiments of Mankind, they are all for heights, and singularities. He that walks not in the common Road, where the way is safe, must be silly, and bypocondriack, or proud, and designing; and therefore the Spirit of Christianity teaches us to believe and practise the indisputable Truths of our Religion, more than the peculiar Opinions of broken Schismatics, and lesser Fraternities. Sometimes I have had some kind Thoughts towards the Quakers; but when I considered that they needlessly forsake the innocent Customs of Mankind, the Universally acknowledged Rules of Decency, and the Universal Tradition of the Church, I must think that they are led by a Spirit of Delusion and Pride. Nothing recommends us to God more than true Humility, and it is an undeniable proof of Integrity and Self denial to comply with the innocent Customs of the World, and therefore our Saviour left us an Example, by which we may in the midst of all tentations live in the World, and yet continue unspotted by its infection. I have digressed two far, not from what I designed, but from the Vindicators account of things.  
I am afraid I may get upon the Finger-ends, because I did not name my Witnesses for the Latin Eleganeys that I lately mentioned; but if he waits to the Bookseller whose name is prefixed, he shall know as many Witnesses as are necessary, and forty more such Barbarisms.  
To end, and to complete this Character of the Vindicator, I might mention his apparent Shuffle and Tergiversations, for when the Outrages done to the Clergy are open and notorious, than he extenuates it as no great Injury, when some of them were beat upon the Head, and Legs, and others of them made to go through deep waters in the midst of Winter.  
But among all the Flights of his Invention there is none more remarkable than this unwary concession, that Ecclesiastical 
Page 164.  Judicatories that inquire into Scandals are not obliged to follow the Forms of other Courts. I thought that the Forms of Civil Courts were wisely appointed partly to prevent our being surprised, partly to hinder (as far as humane Prudence could prevent) all Forgeries, and Combinations, against the innocent, and that the Forms were but the external Fences, that the Law invented to guard Justice and Equity. But this Author tells us that it's doubted (no doubt amongst Learned Men) whether the Ecclesiastical Court be obliged to follow such Forms. It is very odd that the Laity among the Scots Presbyterians, who pretend to be at the greatest Remove from Popery, shall thus calmly stoop to the most intolerable slavery of the Inquisition.  
Next to this Concession is his fair Advertisement to the Church of England, that indeed the Covenanters do not think themselves obliged to reform the Church of 
Pag.  England, unless they are called to it; but if the Godly in England call them, than all their Ammunition must be employed to serve their dear Brethren in England.  
Next to this, let me instance his shameful Shuffling about the Toleration lately granted to Presbyterians in Scotland, he tells us, that they expressed as much as 
Pag. 5.  they were capable their dislike of the Toleration given to the Papists for their Heresies and Idolatry, yet their Agents, then at Court, wrote Books (such as they were) 
Mr. J. S.  pleading that the Penal Laws ought to be Repealed; but withal the Vindicator adds that they do not grudge 
Pag. 6.  Liberty to any others who can show as good a Warrant for their way of Worship as they do, i. e. they have a Divine Right for their way, and none others can have a Divine Right if they have it; because their way is different from all others; and therefore at bottom they are against Toleration as the most mischievous thing in the World: and in the time of the late Troubles they exclaimed against it, as a thing worse than the Calves of Dan and Bethel. Now you have no other Character of the Vindicator from me, than what I have extracted from his Book, nor do I conclude him to be habitually guilty of such shuffling and disingenuity; but single Acts may grow into rooted Habits. He is so deeply tinctured with the fulleness of his Faction; that he'll rather question whether the Body of the Sun is luminous, than admit the least scruple concerning the Divine Right of Presbytery.  
The next thing I promised to Discourse of, was his Theological Reasonings that occasionally falls under his Consideration, when he pleads the Innocence of the Presbyterians.  
It is true, the Vindicator does not designedly insist on those Theological heads that I am shortly to speak of, but incidentally they fall in his way; but he 
Pag.  cannot forbear his venomous Squibs, when he mentions the practice of the Catholic Church, that mostly expose their Novelty and Enthusiasm. The first I take notice of is his Censure of the Catholic Observation of Christmas; The Author of the second Letter did very judiciously observe how diametrically opposite the 
Pag. 25.  western fanatics are to the spirit and practice of the Catholic Church, That they should begin their Barbarities against the Clergy upon that very day upon which the Church did celebrate the Nativity of our blessed Saviour; and which the Angelical Hosts of Heaven did magnify with triumphant Songs; the Vindicator cannot let this Observation 
Pag. 25.  pass without his Theological Animadversions. And he tells us in the first place, that the Author of that Letter valued himself upon this fine Notion, certainly the Author could not value himself upon this Notion, but he had great reason to value the universal practice of the Christian Church from the first plantations of Christianity. Next the Vindicator tells us, that it is ridiculous to assert that that day was celebrated by the Court of Heaven. What? says he, Did the Court of Heaven keep the Anniversary day? This is profoundly wise. There is no standing before the wit and smartness of such Repartees. What, did not the Court of Heaven celebrate the birth of our blessed Saviour? And was not the Anniversary Solemnity of this Festival a just imitation of what the Court of Heaven did? But he asks if the Court of Heaven did keep an Anniversary? For the great Danger is in that word Anniversary. But might not the Christian Church take care that this glorious Mystery should never be forgotten? And was it not reasonable that our Posterity should remember it, as well as they to whom it was first revealed? and could the Christian Church take more effectual methods to preserve the memory of it than by appointing this Anniversary Festival? He grants that the Institution is very ancient, but that the Church did keep it in all Ages is said without book; If he means that there are no Presbyterian Books that give Evidence for this Festival, we grant it; but if he mean that the Church did not observe it from the very days of the Apostles, we desire to know when it began? and in what Period of the Church it was not observed? and than we may see more clearly into the Origine of this Festival: And though it had not been from the beginning the Christian Church may continue the practice of it upon the best reasons. He asks again, If our Saviour was born upon the 25th day of December, but this is childish and impertinent, when the Church did order the Commemoration of that Mystery on the 25. of December, she did not decide that Chronological Nicety, whether our Saviour was born on the 25. of December, nor was it needful to increase the Devotions of the Church, that they should be performed with regard to one day more than to another, as if they depended upon such a Critical Minute of time, I hope the Vindicator knows that the 25. of December in France is not the 25. of December in Britain; and yet the Christians of either communion celebrate the Nativity of our blessed Saviour with regard to the Calculations of the Country in which they live, nay, he may know that there are Considerable Objections against the common Aera of the Christians. But the Vindicator 
Vid. Mr. Medes Discourse of Christmas.  thinks that such an Anniversary day is not to be kept by God's Appointment. But hath not God appointed us to obey the Apostles and their Successors our lawful Ecclesiastical Rulers to the end of the World: And may not they regulate the public Solemnities and returns of God's Worship? Is there any thing in this Regulation but what hath a natural tendency to preserve and propagate the great truths of the New Testament? With what impudence then dare we refuse obedience to the universal Church, when her Constitutions are so just, so wise and so agreeable to the whole tenor of the Gospel? If all the Ecclesiastical Constitutions from the days of the Apostles had been written in the Bible, could one read it in a thousand years? There was a plain necessity in that case to have continued the immediate inspiration in the Church until the consummation of all things. Upon this their Hypothesis Reason becomes useless to order the public Solemnities of the Church, the Christian Faith being once revealed, they needed not the assistance of a new Revelation to order its public Solemnities; For when the festivities and Fasts of the Church were only conversant about the Articles of Faith already revealed, it is supposed that common sense and discretion must clothe the great Mysteries of our Religion, with such vehicles of time, place, and public Solemnity, as best preserve their reverence, and transmit them to Posterity. But this is an unfortunate mistake, an original Blunder of the whole Party; and as long as they keep to this Maxim they must necessarily continue stubborn and ungovernable, and proof against the wisest Constitutions of the Christian Church: for they must have Scripture for such things as could not be contained in the Scripture; but he fortifies this with a Latin Sentence, as if Nonsense could change its Nature 
Quia scriptum non legimus ideo jussum non credimus.  by being put into Latin. For the Question is not of Articles of Faith, but concerning the Constitutions of the universal Church. But perhaps the Vindicator might yield to the Observations of Christmas, if the Observation of it were not anniversary. There is some hidden dangerous Plot in that word Anniversary, as if our Posterity were not to be educated in that Faith which we believe. And so Enthusiastic our Presbyterians are become, that they broach Principles unknown to all the subdivisions of Dissenters in England; and though more knowing and intelligent among them never scruple the observation of an Anniversary day, since they yearly commemorate the dreadful Fire of London, by Fasting and Prayers.  
From all this I conclude, That it is very dangerous, if not impious, to separate from the Church in those excellent Constitutions that have been received from the beginning, and in all Countries where the name of Jesus hath been worshipped, such Constitutions and Solemnities have been derived from the Apostles or Apostolic times.  
When the World was enlightened by the knowledge of the Son of God, he did not extinguish the light of Reason, but he supposes it, and reasons from it, and strengthens it, and there is nothing more strongly inclined towards God, and the Communications of his Spirit, than true and unbiased Reason. Therefore such Constitutions [as the reason of all Mankind is agreed in) have nothing in them contrary to the purity of our Religion.  
If Anniversary days and Festivals have been profaned among the Pagans to the worship of Idols, why 
A short digression.  may they not be sanctified by the true Object of Worship, and the honour of Jesus Christ? Public Solemnities have nothing in their own nature that is reprovable no more than the motion of the Sun, or the vicissitude of Seasons, if any part of our time be abused to excess or riot, or the worship of an Idol, we are liable to the Justice of God.  
But when we return from Idols to the true God, when we change our excess into fasting, and prayer, and when the whole Scene is become pure, what is there in all this that can be blamed? Do not we see all Nations agree in this, that public Solemnities, and anniversary Festivals, and Fasts are necessary to the being and beauty of Religion, even those Nations that are at the greatest distance from our Customs, our Language, our Laws, and way of living, upon the Conversion of Nations to the Christian Religion; some of the places where they worshipped their Idols have been dedicated to the true God; and was it not a happy Victory over the Kingdom of Darkness when the public Solemnities of Idolatry, times and places, have changed their Objects, their Exercises, and their End.  
It is true, the great Anniverssaries of the Jewish Religion were appointed immediately by divine Authority. But had not they other Anniverssaries not immediately appointed by God, and do you read that ever the Prophets did reprove the Jews for such Anniverssaries. They did indeed reprove their negligence and indevotion in them, but the thing itself was acknowledged reasonable and prudent, and a very powerful instrument of true Religion when managed with Contrition, true Simplicity and Piety. Zach. Did ye at all fast unto me saith the Lord. The Fasts mentioned here are of humane appointment, and yet anniversary.  
Our Saviour was present at the Feast of the Dedication, for which there was not any immediate Divine Institution; and though he had not been present, if it had been superstitious he had certainly reproved it, and given directions against such usages in the general. To shake off all the externals of Religion, is as dangerous as the multiplying of them, the one is the Error of the Romanists, and the other the superstition of the Dissenters. It is certain that nothing preserves Knowledge of Christian Religion amongst the Body of the People more than the Festivals of the Church; for it is not left to the Arbitrary or Extemporary Fits of Devotion, but the Church by her excellent Discipline order the matter so, that it is not possible to forget the Faith unto which we have been once Baptised: but amongst the Presbyterians in Scotland, the People are taught by their Leaders to despise all Forms, such great souls ought not to be fettered to the Rules and Methods of the Universal Church, and therefore it is very rare to find a Child in the West of Scotland, that can repeat the Commandments or the Creed (I mean the Children of Presbyterian Parents) and by such Enthusiastic pretences, Atheism is insensibly promoted, and the Body of the People alienated from the simplicity of Christian Religion, and scarcely will they allow any man to be acquainted with true Religion that mentions those first Principles of it. It is not possible to tell how much their opposition to Forms and Festivals of the Church has infatuated their People, there is nothing can make a Clown in the West of Scotland laugh so heartily, as when the Curate recommends to their Children the Creed, the Lords Prayer, and Ten Commandments; and therefore they have no opinion of any Man's understanding, unless he entertain them with Discourses of Gods unsearchable decrees, of Justification before Conversion, and how the Convictions of natural Conscience may be distnguished from the Convictions that proceed from the Spirit of God: to observe the Festivals of the Church is but a piece of antiquated Superstition. But we ought to remember that the stated Festivals and Fasts of the Church do preserve, and increase true Devotion and Mortification. Fasting is acknowledged a necessary Instrument of Religion by all Nations who profess any Religion at all. It is not enjoined, but supposed by our Saviour: why may not then the Church regulate and direct the Public Solemnities of Fasting, as well as of Prayer. There is nothing so proper to fix our attention as Fasting, it delivers the Soul from the oppressions of the Body, and restores it to its true and native Sovereignty over our Lusts and Passions. The stated Periods of Fasting oblige the most stubborn and impenitent to think of his Soul, and the visible Practice of the Church Preach Repentance more effectually, and make more lasting Impressions than the loose and indefinite Homilies of selfconceited men.  
The External Solemnities of Religion may be abused (as the most excellent things are) when they are left to the Conduct of humane weakness; but it is not possible to preserve Religion among the Body of Mankind, without those Vehicles of Form 
Vid. Dr. Gunning of the Lent-Fast.  and Order. Nothing hinders the Reformation of the Grecian Churches, from the variety of their Errors and Superstitions, so much as the open neglect of Fasting 
We may seek for rest in new ways, but we shall never find it but in the old.  among the Protestants, and this Practice is not to be defended, but rather lamented and amended. What a Cruelty is it in all the Sectaries to deprive the People of the Public helps of Prayer and Fasting? Who can justify this, that considers the many Encumbrances, Tentations, Weaknesses, that we daily encounter? They that set up Methods of their own, in opposition to the Wisdom of the Church, in all Ages may amuse the People for a while, but can produce nothing that is solid or useful. It is certain that the Grecian Churches had, long ere now, made an utter Apostasy from the Christian Religion, if the ancient and fixed Discipline of the Church did not retain them in the Faith, and when we consider how much the Religion that we are Baptised into, triumphs over Sensualities and Concupiscence, we cannot but acknowledge the Wisdom and Beauty of the ancient Discipline. The most useful things in Art or Nature, may be sadly abused by Folly or Ignorance. We are not to separate from the Roman Church, further than they have separated from the Wise and Primitive Constitution of the first Ages of Christianity; and all the Protestants abroad seem to agree in this Truth, for they Preach and Pray Publicly upon the great Fasts and Festivals of the Church. The public Seasons of Devotion are the Catechism of the People. It is true, when there is no day fixed for the Uniform Celebration of such a Mystery it may be remembered by some; but it is not credible that all the People will remember it; but when the day is fixed we cannot forget it, and from our Infancy we are easily trained in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord, and in the simplicity of Christian Religion, free from Jewish Superstition (touch not, taste not, handle not, with which all our Sectaries are unhappily Leavened) as well as from giddiness and Enthusiasm. 
coloss.   
The next thing that I mention, is his Accusation against the Episcopal Church, that they were guilty of Schism: For, He tells us that he knows no Schism, but such as was caused by his Opposites, and this is pleasant enough. There is a 
Pag.  Company of men lately started up in the Christian Church, and if the Universal Church does not immediately strike Sail to their Novelties, all must be concluded Schismatics. By our Baptismal Vows we are obliged to preserve the Unity of the Catholic Church, we are Members of that visible Body, that worship the true God through Jesus Christ, and consequently we are obliged to worship God in Unity and in Society, nor can we separate from any sound part of the Catholic Church, that does not require unlawful Conditions of Communion, and such as are forbidden by that God whom we Worship. Upon this Hypothesis, I think it impossible for the Presbyterians of Scotland to defend themselves against the Charge of Schism in its most rigorous and formal Notion.  
First, Because they separate from all Church's Ancient and Modern, there is not now a Church upon Earth with whom they think they may Communicate without fear of being polluted. The Protestants of France observe the Festivals of the Church, as also the Protestants of Geneve and Switzerland, and the Calvinists in Germany do the same. As for the Lutherans of Germany, Denmark, and Sweedland, we dare not so much as once name them, they have all of them Liturgies and Festivals, and Organs, and Divine Hymns, distinct from the Psalms of David. As for the Socinians of Poland, though they agree in some things with them; yet they would no doubt refuse their Communion. They must refuse, upon their Principles, the Communion of the Grecian Church, and all the Subdivisions of it: and they cannot join with the Papists, nor yet with the Church of England. And their Consciences could not endure to Communicate with the Episcopal Church of Scotland, that was against their Covenants, and their Obligations, as if a man could disengage himself from what he is obliged to, by the Common Ties of Christianity, and the Vows of Baptism, by any Bond or posterior Obligation of his own.  
But if there be no visible Church with which they can Communicate, they are certainly cut off from the visible Communion of Saints over the Habitable World; and this Pharisaical singularity is so much the more hateful, that it is abhorred by all Protestant Churches, and if the Vindicator will Read Durellus only, he will easily see how opposite this peevishness is to the Sentiments and Practice of all Reformed Churches. It is acknowledged by all sober men, that to join with, or abet Schismatics, makes one guilty of Schism: and therefore the Presbyterians can by no means require the Members of the Episcopal Church, to join with them, who have wilfully and furiously cut themselves off from the whole Body of Christians: but there is lately found out a wise Distinction to save them from this blow, they can have occasional Communion with other Churches, though they cannot have a sixth Communion with them.  
Before I consider this Distinction, let me inform you that the Ringleaders of the former Presbyterians in Scotland never made use of any such Distinction, they themselves reasoned against Separation upon such frivolous pretences as are now alleged by their 
Vid. Rutherford's Due right of Presbytery.  Successors; but the Presbyterians have borrowed this Distinction from English Dissenters. And the former Presbyterians 
Collection of Cases against Dissenters, by the Clergy of London.  did never separate from the Public Worship under the Episcopal Constitution; nor did the latter Presbyterians after the Restoration, dream of it until the year 1664. that some of the Western Bigots, as had fled to Holland, thought that the Faction could not be supported unless People were taught that they were obliged to leave the Communion of the Episcopal Church entirely. And accordingly in Ann. 1664. there appeared a Seditious Pamphlet in Octavo, Entitled, The Apologetical Relation of the Church of Scotland. And it is impossible for any Presbyterian to name any one Book or Treatise before this Pamphlet, that justified the Separation of Presbyterians from the Public Reformed Worship under the Episcopal Constitution in the Church of Scotland. It is a long time since I Read this Book, and therefore I cannot give a particular account of it, though I remember that the Author when he comes to that Conclusion, that the People were not to hear the Curates, he speaks with diffidence and hesitation, and in some one place or other of that Dispute he softens this wild and extravagant Paradox by some restrictions and limitations. That they were not to hear them always nor constantly, but that they ought so far to separate as to keep the Party from being swallowed up in the Communion of the Church. Accordingly, their first Essays of Schism were but faint and timorous, they were not in the beginning so well armed against the Remorse of their own Consciences, for this was a Novelty, and they did not venture upon it with that boldness and assurance that afterward appeared, to that degree that our Governors were forced to make severe Laws against their Field Meetings, which were justly termed by our Law the Rendezvous of Rebellion. And though the Bigots in the West had advanced this Paradox, 
Vid. Defence of King Charles II. Government by S. G. M.  yet the Presbyterians of greatest Note and Learning took no notice of it, but kept the Communion of the Church after the Restoration of Episcopacy as punctually as any 
Mr. Ro. Douglas, Mr. Geo. Hutchinson, Mr. Sam. Rutherford, Mr. J. W. and many others.  Church-malt. And it is very observable that all the Presbyterian Ministers in Scotland, made use of the Christian Forms of the Lords Prayer, Creed, and Doxology, until oliver's Army invaded Scotland, and the Independent Chaplains in that Army thought their own Dispensation was above that of Geneva. Upon this, such of the Presbyterians as would recommend themselves to the Usurper, and such as had his Ear, forbore those Forms in the Public Worship, and by degrees they fell into desitetude (for it was not Creditable to be out of the Fashion) and yet they have the Confidence to justify their Separation from the Episcopal Church, partly because such such Christian Forms are retained in the Public Worship. And though they dispute against the use of Forms, yet 
Those Christian Forms were rejected by Bastard Presbyterians that grew upon the Independent Stock.  they pronounce the Apostolic Benediction after Sermon, as others do, except some few who love rather to Paraphrase it, than keep to its Original simplicity. The unhappy temper of Schismatics leads them to do every thing against the Spirit and Practice of the Church; and though the Canonical and Universal Methods of the Church are tempered with regard to our weakness and infirmities, yet they love to fly in the Face of their Mother, when she tenderly binds up their Wounds, and offers her Assistance to prevent their Ruin and Danger.  
I have almost forgot to inquire into the meaning of that distinction of occasional and fixed Communion. Why may not one do that constantly (since the Common Ties of Christianity oblige him) that he may do occasionally? But if the meaning be that their Consciences allow them now and then to hear an Episcopal Presbyter Preach, or Read, though they dare not venture upon the highest Acts of Communion, such as receiving of the Lords Supper, at this rate they may have this occasional Communion with Papists, Grecians, Jews, and Mahumetans, for they all teach some great and common Truths which they dare not refuse.  
But secondly, It is apparent that the Scots Presbyterians are Schismatics in the strictest Sense, because by their Principles they must needs profess, that if they had lived one hundred and fifty years before the first Council of Nice, there was then a necessity to separate from the Unity of the Church. For then all those things that they scruple at in the Public Worship were practised by the Universal Church, the Solemnities, and Festivities, the Public Fasts, the Altars, the Hierarchy of Bishop, Presbyter, and Deacon. Nay, the Dignity of Metrapolitans is supposed as Ancient and Venerable by the first Council of Nice. So upon the Presbyterian Hypothesis, they should have been obliged if they had lived amongst the Ancients then, to keep up distinct and separate Conventicles, when the Purity of their Lives, and the Glory of Martyrdom, and Patience, made them shine to the Confusion of their Enemies, when their Zeal for God made them victorious over all the Powers of Darkness, when by their Fast and their Prayers, they crucified the Flesh with all its Lusts and Affections, when they taught the Gospel in its Majesty, and Simplicity, and baffled the Objection of the Pagans by their heavenly Conversation. Let my Soul be with those first Christians, I would choose their Company at all adventures, without the least fear of either Christmas, Easter, or Good Friday.  
But thirdly, The present Presbyterians must be Schismatics, by the Doctrine and Practice of their Predecessors. This I have touched a little before.  
Fourthly, I desire the Presbyterians to name some Schismatics in the Records of Ecclesiastical History, that are now acknowledged by the common consent of all Churches to be Schismatics, and then I inquire what it was that made them such; and if this be not agreeable to the Presbyterians more eminently, than to any rank of the ancient Schismatics, I am mistaken.  
But fifthly, They themselves do not deny (nor can they) but that they are Schismatics in St. Cyprian's Notion of Schism, since to separate from ones own Bishop was a just and Apostolical Notion of Schism. And the Presbyterians of Scotland are by so much the more inexcusable in that they have stubbornly and factiously Conspired against the Apostolical Hierarchy of Bishop, Presbyter, and Deacon.  
The next thing that I remark, is his Censure of the I piscopal Clergy for Preaching Morality, pag. 62. and 63. He tells us that the Author of the Second Letter wrote, That the Episcopal Party understand the Christian Philosophy better, and that it was never understood or preached better in Scotland, than under Episcopacy. The Vindicator replies very wittily, That he thought the Commendation of a Minister had been rather to understand Christian Divinity, than Christian Philosophy. But softly, Sir, I do not see that nice distinction between Christian Divinity, and Christian Philosophy; for if Philosophy be truly Christian, it must be refined upon no lower Standard than the Morals that our Saviour practised, and recommended; and is not this Christian Divinity in it; Nature and Tendency? The Author of that Letter did not understand by Philosophy, the lame and defective Systems of the Pagans, but rather that Heavenly and Spiritual Rule delivered by our Saviour. I hope he has not the Impudence to accuse the Clergy that they recommended the Pagan Morals as a perfect Rule of Life to their Hearers; or that they themselves did neither believe nor exhort others to believe the Mysteries of Faith, the Credenda of our Religion. It may be they did fortify some excellent Arguments among the Philosophers with Christian Motives, and what the Philosophers (who spoke of the Immortality of the Soul with dissidence and hesitation) could not recommend but faintly: the Christian Preachers did assert boldly, since the Resurrection of our Saviour from the Dead, was an invincible and infallible Argument, not only of our Resurrection, but of the Glory that shall afterwards be revealed. There is nothing truly excellent among the Pagan Writers, but what is in one place or other for the Matter found in the New Testament, and purer Morals, and greater heights than the Pagans could discern. Nor can I think but that the Preachers of the Gospel may make very good use of Pagan Moralists. I always thought Seneca a very excellent Book, but if Seneca be Christianised (as the Vindicator speaks) I cannot see what fault the Vindicator can find with Seneca, or Marcus Aurelius, or any of our Ancient Friends. For certainly Christian Morality in its true extent and latitude, is nothing else but Evangelical Obedience and Holiness, without which no man 
Heb.  shall see God. And I believe the Author of that Letter intended no more, than that the Episcopal Clergy did plainly and seriously recommend to their Hearers the Reformation of their 〈◊〉 according to the Christian Standard. And truly, Sir, notwithstanding the Vindicators Sarcastic Paraphrase, I think this is very good Philosophy, nay more, I think Moral Philosophy never arrived at its true Elevation and Meridian Purity, but by the Doctrine of our Saviour and his Apostles; and does the Vindicator know better Philosophy than what is taught in the Sermon upon the Mount, and in the 12th. to the Romans, we Preach that the Wisdom which is from above is pure, peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy, and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy, we Preach that a man endowed 
Jam. 3. 17.  with knowledge, should show out of a good Conversation, 
Jam. 1. 26.  his Works with meekness of Wisdom. We Preach That if any seem to be religious, and bridleth not his Tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, that this man's Religion is vain, because true Religion, and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the Fatherless, and Widow, in their Afflictions, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. We Preach that the Grace of God that bringeth salvation, bath appeared to all men, teaching us, 
Tit. 2. 11, 12.  that denying ungodliness, and worldly Lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world. And truly, Sir, I think this very good Morality, and the rather because we fortify our Exhortations, with the same motives that the Apostles used, and with which the Pagan Philosophers could not be acquainted. Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and 
Tit. 2. 13, 14.  our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good Works. It is very true that the Pagan Philosophers Preached against Lust and Sensualities, and Uncleanness; but could they recommend Chastity by such powerful and invincible motives as you meet with, 1 Cor. 6. 19, 20. What, know you not that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body and your spirit which are Gods. And without all doubt S. Paul recommended to the Philippians the true use of the Moral Philosophers, when he exhorts Phil. 4. 8. Finally Brethren whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Compare this with the place on the Margin, and hundreds of such places, and from 
Galat. 5. 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26.  them I conclude, that to Preach what the Moral Philosophers commended (though we must Preach many things that they could not see) and to strengthen them by Christian Motives is a thing very becoming the Ministers of the Gospel: because it is indispensably necessary and agreeable to the Practice of our Saviour, and his Apostles. But the Vindicator tells us, Pag. 62. That this is the dialect of men strongly inclined to Socinianism. I let go this mark of his spite and ill nature, for we have no Socinians amongst the Episcopal Clergy of Scotland. And if he understands the Socinians, they are not so very zealous for Celebrating the Festival of Christ's Nativity and Incarnation; nor yet are they great Enemies to Presbyterian Government, nor can they be thought zealous for any particular Platform (were it never so agreeable to the Canons of the Ancient Church) any further than their interest is involved. He tells us a little after, that the preaching of some men is such morality, as Seneca and other Heathens taught, only Christianised with some words; so the Vindicator thinks that the morality they recommended to their Hearers was neither higher nor purer than the Doctrines of Seneca and other Stoics; But it may be that they have read Seneca with as much attention as he did, and can give as good an account of the Defects of the Stoical Philosophy, and wherein it fell short of the Christian Standard: One may easily guests whom he means, and intends to hit by this waspish accusation. But to pursue him thorough all his hiding places, and little Subterfuges, is as useless as it is wearisome. The reason why I kept you so long on this Head, was to discover the Genius of the people we have to do with. He tells us, this Philosophy was never much preached by the Presbyterians: but the Philosophy that I have described was preached by S. Paul, and consequently not opposito unto the Doctrine of Christ crucified (as he fancies) 
1 Cor. 1. 23, 24.  but rather subservient unto it, and a great confirmation of the truth and divinity of it; It is very true, that the Princes of Philosophers understood not the Revelations of the Gospel, but the true exercise of Reason is very consistent with Revelation; and S. Paul's discourse to the Athenian 
Acts 17.  proves him a learned and solid Philosopher. And though the Apostles were mean and illiterate men, yet God did strengthen their Reason beyond the most accurate Philosophers: And when he sent them forth to preach the Gospel, they became in the strictest sense greater Philosophers than their Enomies. And though the Christian Religion in its beginnings appeared weak and foolish, yet when it was narrowly enquired into, it was found to be the wisdom of God, and the power of God: for the Apostles offered the best Reasons to convince both Jew and Gentile, that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messins; and consequently, that there was no other 
Acts. 2.  name under heaven known by which men might be saved but the name of JESUS. They proved their Mission, and their Doctrine by their Miracles; and this was an Argument divine, and a refragable in its nature; as it was obvious and plain to the meanest Capacity, and therefore the Author to the Hebrews 
Hebr. 2. 3, 4.  concludes, that the damnation of Infidels is the most just and reasonable thing, because infidelity itself is most inexcusable, since God did bear witness to the Gospel by signs, and wonders, and divers miracles and gifts of the holy Ghost. True Philosophy 
* Vid. Just in Mar. Dialog. cum tryph.  and Religion support one another. None can be truly religious but he that exercises his Reason, and he that exercises his reason must of necessity be religious. For the whole of our Religion is a reasonable 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  service; God treats us as reasonable Creatures; he makes himself Master of our Will, by methods suitable to his wisdom and our nature; when the light of the Gospel enters the Soul and warms it by its direct beams and perpendicular rays, she than chooses what is best with all her force and delight.  
It is certain, that if the Moral Philosophers could lay aside their pride and the interest of a Faction, they might be sooner gained to Christianity than others, they could not but see the beauty and reasonableness of such excellent Morals as were recommended in the Gospel, and were far above the lame and defective systems of the Pagan Schools. There are no excellent Precepts amongst the Pagans, but what are contained in the New Testament; and if we recommend Christian virtue by Christian motives, I think the whole undertaking is very commendable. Why the Vindicator should thus waspishly Comment on an innocent Sentence or two of that Author, I cannot tell; but he may remember that when we were Boys we were taught that Philosophy in its utmost extent and latitudo, was the knowledge of divine and human things. And then Christian Philosophy is good Christian Divinity & vicê versâ; but the Vindicator is afraid lest any one may think him a stranger to Philosophy, and therefore tells us, that it may be that they understand that as well as their Neighbours. And no doubt this Paragraph of his, that I have examined, is a sufficient Evidence of his Philosophical skill and knowledge.  
Such another Specimen of his Candour and Ingenuity we meet with pag. 66. where he again insinuates, that the Clergy are Socinians, etc. The 
Pag. 66.  Author of the second Letter had justly observed, that the Clergy could not be erroneous, because they could sign the 39 Articles of the Church of England. But the Vindicator replies, So can many do who every day preach against the Doctrine contained in these Articles. And at this rate he may disprove all external Evidences: there is no penetrating into the hearts of men, they are only accessible to Omniscience to whom all things are naked and open. But the Vindicator may remember, that the dissenting Ministes in and 
Article of a Confession of Faith.  about London in their late agreement, require no more of any as marks of Orthodoxy, than the subsoription of 36 Articles. The Vindicator insinuates, that though the Clergy do subscribe them, yet they preach against them. This is another stroke of his good Nature and Civility; and he may beconvinced long e'er now, that the Episcopal Clergy is not so very pliable to do any thing against their Convictions in view of their worldly Interest, even when he and his Party have been very active to reduce them to extraordinary straits and difficulties; nay, if he will oblige me to be plain, I could tell him, where some Ministers of that Faction were so villainously zealous against the Clergy, that they did solicit Witnesses against them, where they themselves, or some of their intimate Brethren were Judges. I am not to publish Names, but I can prove this whenever it is found convenient. I know the Vindicator will be very curious to know my Informers, but I am not obliged to be so particular, though I am resolved by God's assistance to perform all the promises I make to him and his Associates.  
But the next Censure that he bestows on the Clergy is of the same nature with the former. The Author of the second Letter had said, that there were many among the Clergy who were not inclined to be every day talking to the people of God's decrees and absolute reprobation, etc. Indeed, I think the Author gave a just account of the prudence and modesty of his Brethren, but the Vindicator lashes him here with great severity, and tells him that his discourse is impertinent; for they do not require that one should talk always to the people of Decrees and Reprobations. But here the Vindicator gives no great proof of his Logic. For the phrase, every day did not imply a Metaphysical strictness, as if the Presbyterians never preached on any other Subject but on the absolute Decrees and Reprobation; but the plain and obvious meaning is, that Presbyterians did frequently and indiscreetly handle such abstruse Subjects, as neither they nor the people were able to fathom. And all such Phrases, though they seem to imply a Logical universality must be interpreted, to intend no more, than that such or such a thing frequently comes to pass.  
The next Blow is more severe, and one had need 
Pag. 66.  to be armed Capapee to meet with it, But if he mean (as he must if he speak to the purpose) that the absolute decrees of Election and Reprobation, both praeteritum as an act of Sovereignty, and praedamnatum as an act of Justice, are not to be held forth or taught to the people; we abhor this as an unsound Doctrine, and look on him as a pitiful Advocate for the Orthodoxy of the Clergy. Thus the Vindicator is sufficiently revenged of his Adversary, who is now more lamentably shattered than can be imagined; It is not generous in the Vindicator thus to pursue his Victory; is it possible that such meek and calm Saints shall thus openly expose the weakness of their Antagonists. But if the Vindicator were out of his passion, I would entreat him to tell me in what place of Saint 
Virg. Aeneid. 1.— Tantaene animis coelestibus irae.  Paul's Epistles does he read of a Decretum praedamnatum, and what ever come of the Calvinian or Arminian Hypothesis; I am afraid his Explication is both complicated Nonsense and Blasphemy. But he tells us, that he understands Philosophy as well as his Neighbours; pray, let him tell us in which of the Schoolmen or Protestant Calvinists did he ever read of a Decretum praedamnatum? praeteritio and praedamnatio may be met with, but a Decretum praedamnatum is the peculiar invention of this 
* Tully de nat. deorum, lib. 3. nihil tam absurdum quod non dixerit aliquis philosophorum.  Philosopher. The Decree is the Act of God, and there is no act of his can be condemned. Such an unfortunate Blunder as this is was never before seen in print; and yet the Vindicator must tell us, that such things must be held forth to the people, and in imitation of Saint Paul too. Truly, I think they had as good not be held forth, but hid and laid up in the boundless Registers of Chimeras, Nonentities, and Negations. I think this Deoretum praedamnatum may keep company with such ancient Gentlemen of its own kindred and Family; and ought not at all to be held forth to the people. And if you be acquainted with the Vindicator, you may advise him to read the Calvinian Hypothesis before he venture to explain it. And perhaps there are some about him who may expose his explication of the decrees as much as they do his Latin reasonings against Idolatry.  
The next thing I take notice of is his historical Argument from the Culdees, to prove that there was a Presbyterian Church in Scotland in the primitive 
Pag:  times before Popery entered. And the plain truth is, this is the only thing that he says, that deserves to be considered, not for any weight or historical Truth that is in it, but because the learned Blondel made use of it to support that imaginary Hypothesis from some Ancient Testimonies. He had met with it in Buchanan's History, and that learned Historian took it unwarily from his Contemporary Monks, Boctius and others, or such as were little removed from his own Age; Blondel made use of it to serve the dissenting 
Apolog. pro sententia Hieronym, p 315.  Interest in Britain. And to the end that he might make a great muster of Testimonies, he must needs erect a Presbyterian Church in Scotland towards the end of the second Century, or beginning of the third. If they can prove this, I must confess it is of considerable weight; but the great misfortune is, there are no Authors now extant upon whose Testimony an affair so distant from our times can be reasonably founded. None within six hundred years of that Period gives us the least evidence for it, when I say six hundred years, I do not mean, that good Authors at the distance of seven or eight hundred years give any Evidence for it more than their Predecessors; but when there is none to vouch it within that Period, it is ridiculous to impose it as a piece of true History. And our Vindicator tells us, that though the Presbyterian Government 
Pag. 3. Vindicat. 1.  continue for some Ages in the Church of Scotland before they had Bishops: Can he name any Church upon Earth that embraced the Christian Religion, and yet none to write the affairs of their own time for some Ages together? But if the writings of those ancient Presbyterians are lost; Are there no fragments of them preserved in the writings of succeeding Ages? There were no people so ignorant as the Monks for some Centuries before the Reformation; and yet there was nothing that they were so ignorant in as true Ecclesiastical History. And if they had been the most learned and accurate, what could they help themselves in an affair of this nature when they had no certain Records 
The Antiquity of our Nation does not depend on any such Monkish Legend, but may very well stand on its former grounds, and such collateral proofs as may be borrowed from the Roman Historians. Vid. Macken. Defence of the Royal Line.  by which they might transmit the knowledge of former times to Posterity. No tradition of that Antiquity can be preserved without writing; why then do they obtrude this fabulous Story, since it cannot be received by any known rules of Credibility, we have no vestige of it from any Author that lived near those times. The Vindicator uses to refer us in some Instances to his own little Books, I do him a greater kindness when I refer him to the Learned Du Launoy, and from several Treatises and 
Du Launoy.  reasonings of his (which now I have not at command) he may learn by what Rules to distinguish fabulous Accounts from true and solid History, and not only from him but from hundreds, if they do but argue from principles of common sense, and the acknowledged rules of Logic. 
* Logica Clerici parte secunda de judici is. Desicientibus omnibus historicis monumentis historia gentis alicujus cognosci nequit, nec quidquam verum nisi casu de ca dici. Quot conjecturae inanes cirea historiam sacram & Ecclesiast team, quasi certae affer●●●●● quae mu●●o majorem historiarum requirerent lucem, si de tis quidquam certi slatuendum esse●?  Indeed, the Presbyterians might have given us some of the Acts of their Assemblies, in that ancient Period, and the rules of Discipline, as well as obtrude upon us this Romantic Account. And if I dare interpose my Opinion, I think that the late illiterate Monks advanced this Fable to gratify the Pope's design, of exempting the religious Orders from Episcopal Jurisdiction, by which Engine the Bishops were kept low, and the Reformation hindered, and the religious Orders encouraged, to check their Authority in all places. This is so known, that it needs neither proof nor illustration; and this Fiction of the Culdees governing a Church without the authority of a Bishop, invented in the days of Barbarism and Superstition, seems naturally calculated to advance this Design, and to depress the Episcopal Jurisdiction. For the Monks that propagated this Story, were more conversant in little Legends, than the Writings of the Ancients. And hardly is there any thing more opposite to the Universal Testimony, and simplicity of those Ages, than this Monkish Fable of Presbyterian Government, towards the end of the Second Century, or the beginnings of the Third, when all the known Records of the Christian Church unanimously declare for the Hierarchy of Bishop, Presbyter and Deacon, and the Succession of Bishops from the Apostles. It is not possible to preserve the memory of the greatest men 
* Tullius pro Archia Poeta? Atque is tamen (Alexander) come in Sigaeo ad Achillis tumulum astitisset. O fortunate, inquit, adolescens qui tuae virtutis Homerum praeconem inveneris! & verè, nam nisi Ili●s illa extitisset idem tumulus qui corpus ejus contexerat nomen etiam obruisset. , the greatest Conquests, or the most remarkable Actions, unless they are timeously committed to writing. Unwritten Tradition goes but a short way, and is not able to support itself with any certainty, for any number of years. Is it likely that the Scotish Church had any other Ecclesiastical Government than what was received in the Christian Church when they were converted to the Faith? and is it not very sad that there are no parallel Instances of any other Church from abroad? By whom were they Converted? And is it not reasonable to think that such as were instrumental in their Conversion, would plant the Ecclesiastical Government amongst them that they were acquainted with themselves? And are there any footsteps of such a Government amongst the more polite and learned Nations, who because they had the Advantages of learning, might sooner transmit to Posterity the Knowledge of their Ecclesiastical Affairs. And let me ask the Presbyterians, if they had all the Testimonies of the Ancients in favours of their parity, and that we only had the Authority of some fabulous Monks in some remote Corner of the World to support our Hierarchy, and that in an Age of shameful Ignorance, and Darkness, when they imposed upon mankind, and multiplied their visionary Legends. I ask, how the Vindicator would treat us if we appeared with our Culdees against the undoubted Records of the Fathers, the Universal Suffrages of Counsels, the Succession of the famous Sees, and the glorious Cloud of Witnesses, that by their Zeal and Sufferings enlightened the World? I think he would treat us very huffingly, and let us hear more than once his oft repeated and beloved Metaphor of the Seed of the Serpent, and the Seed of the woman. Would not he 
1. Vindicat. Preface.  tell us of our bold and silly pretences to Antiquity. However when the Vindicator names good Authors foreign or domestic in the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, or seventh Century (and this is more than by the Rules of Credibility or History we need yield to him) than it is time to consider his Testimonies. Let him 
Apoleg. pro Sentent. Hieron.  Read Blondel again, and see whether that great Antiquary can name any Ancient Writer to uphold this Monastic Dream. But if I should grant that there had been some Priests in Scotland before there were Bishops in it, there is nothing in that Concession to favour Presbytery; for they had their Mission and Ordination from Bishops in other places to whom they might give an account of their Travels and Success, and this was ordinary before Nations were Converted. But when they received the Faith, all Ecclesiastical Officers were then encouraged to continue amongst them, and this is it that we confidently affirm, that where there are any Records of Nations and Countries Converted to the Faith, there do we meet with the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy of Bishop, Presbyter, and Deacon, over the whole Christian Church. The Primitive Confessors and Martyrs Travailed the World over to gain Proselytes to Christianity, some Bishops, some Presbyters, some Deacons, some Laymen; but wherever there was any considerable number of Converts, than they became an Organical Church, and had Bishops and Presbyters Constituted, until their sound went unto all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. 
Rom. 10. 18. Pag. 184.   
He runs down the Author of the History of the General Assembly as one, not acquainted with the Actings of Grace in the Soul, because forsooth he had not spoke with reverence enough of Mr. Gray's Sermons, in that Page cited on 
Pag. 185.  the Margin.  
The Vindicator discovers much of his own creeping Genius, when he discourses of the Act of their Assembly against the private Administration of Baptism, nor is it possible to pursue him in such a Wilderness of little impertinencies.  
Their pretended Assembly would have done better if they had left the Administration of Baptism to the discretion of Ministers in all places, it is certainly much to be wished, that Baptism be Administered with all public Solemnity, when there is not an apparent necessity to recede from so laudable a Custom, but to make Discourses to the People on particular Texts of Scripture, at the Administration of Baptism, is a thing in itself altogether new and unnecessary. If the nature, use, and design of it, be seriously explained, there needs no more. And to think a Sermon, in the modern and usual Notion, necessary is as great Superstition, as that of theirs, who fancy that the effects of it follow ex opere operato, which Phrase is very little understood by the People, and perhaps others who should teach the People do not throughly understand it neither.  
Next I shall take notice of what we are told by the Vindicator Pag. 174. That the Presbyterians could not comply with Human Ceremonies with a good Conscience in the Worship of God 
* But they refused to join in the Worship of God when there were no Ceremonies appointed. . It is true the Vindicator hath not in this place any Discourse to prove this unlawful, but I take notice of it as one of the Theological hints that are interspersed in his Defamatory Libel, But may not Ceremonies of Human Appointment (if they decently and gravely express our Affections) be used in the Worship of God? Did not Solomon advise us to look to our Feet when we come into the house of God, and the same Ceremony was practised under the Patriarchal Dispensation, viz. That of putting off our Shoes when we approach the Holy Place: as Moses was enjoined by God himself, because the place he stood upon was holy ground, and this was an Advertisement that he ought to do what was ordinarily done by all the Eastern Nations when he approached the place of God's peculiar Residence. And pray, Was it not a significant Ceremony expressive of their Reverence and adoration? In like manner, Sackcloth and Ashes did amongst all Nations signify grief and sorrow, therefore in their Humiliations they were used to express their Remorse and Contritions. The Presbyterians fix upon a word, and pronounce it with disdain and contempt, they repeat it with Indignation, and then their zealous Disciples when they hear that word pronounced, presently let fly their thoughts to some monstrous thing or other that is not at all signified by that word; yet the Idea of some such ugly thing sticks to their Imagination, for no other reason but that Master John frowned when he heard that word pronounced. What other reason can we give why the word (significant Ceremony) should disturb their Imaginations? Why may not we express our Thoughts, Passions, and Affections by Ceremonies as well as by words? Since both are innocent, and both serve the same design. But the Covenanters themselves used significant Ceremonies, when they imposed the Covenant: he that Swore was to lift up his right hand bare, you are to take notice that it was the Right and not the Left, and it was lifted up and not otherwise extended. It was bare, and not covered, and was not this a significant Ceremony of Human Institution?  
In the Worship of God, nature taught Mankind to approach God with all the decent Marks of Distance and Adoration, and they that declaim most against Ceremonies, do practice them frequently, only they do this more awkwardly, and with a figure becoming their singularity; but this will never convince the Intelligent part of Mankind that they are either wiser or better than any of their Neighbours. True Religion obliges us to comply with the innocent decencies of Mankind, and to affect nothing that's extraordinary or singular. Our Saviour left us this Example, he eat and drank with Publicans and Sinners, and affected no Customs different from the Jews. If the Ceremonies be practised by the Nation amongst whom we live, if they decently express our Reverence, or our Humiliation, I see no reason why they may not be used in the Service of God, as well as words, especially when they are commanded by our lawful Superiors as necessary Instruments of Public Order and Uniformity, nor can they change their Nature by being commanded; for such and such Ceremonies are in their Nature indifferent, yet some one or other must be used, and which of them we shall use may very well be determined by our lawful Superiors. Sitting (for any thing I know) was never looked upon as a Posture of Reverence, yet the Presbyterians in Scotland, for the most part fit all of them in time of Public Prayer, what they signify by it I know not, I am sure not that which becomes Prayer, and the Worship of the most High God. We look upon the decent Ceremonies of the Church as Appendages or Expressions, but not constituent parts of Worship, as is foolishly and peevishly alleged by our Adversaries; and I may put the Vindicator in mind, that the reason why some of the Clergy in Scotland Read the Book of Common-Prayer, is not what he suggests, according to his wont Candour and Ingenuity, but rather an open avowing of their Principles, when it was visible to the World there was no possibility of uniting with the Presbyterians.  
Another thing I take notice of, is to be met with Pag. 196, 197. The Author of that Epistle, that is subjoined to the Vindicators Book, tells us, to the reproach of our Bishops, that some of them upon the Restoration of the Government submitted to reordination to the great scandal not only of this, but other Reformed Churches. I know none were scandalised at it, but such as were resolved to pick quarrels with every thing that the Bishops would do. It was no scandal to the Foreign Churches or the French Divines. All of them the greatest men among 
M. Alix, and many others.  them are reordained when they come to England, and they cheerfully submit to it. And this was never condemned by any Public Act of the Gallican Church, nor by none of their Eminent Divines. The Church of England does not absolutely condemn their Ordinations in France, but rather waves the debate: but she is determined to preserve an unquestionable succession of Priests within her own Bounds.  
As to the Matter of Fact narrated in Mr. Meldrum's Letter I know nothing of it, and therefore I ought to say no more than I know. He tells us that he subscribed a Paper, and that the Paper was drawn out of the Archbishop's Letter by a Friend of his, and that now he reputes for Subscribing this Paper, and that though he was in great Friendship afterwards with Bishop Scougal, and did what others in that Interval did, yet he thinks that by all this he paid no formal Canonical Obedience. From all which I observe, that it is a very happy thing to live in, or near an University as Mr. Meldrum did. Distinctions are very useful things, one had better carry a good bundle of them about him than all your famous Elixirs and Essences; one may pay material Canonical Obedience, but it is dangerous to pay it formally: the great mischief is in the formality of paying it, but for my part I have sworn Canonical Obedience formally, and I have paid it materially, and shall never decline my Bishops Spiritual Authority when ever there is occasion, and I think all the Presbyters of that National Church are as much obliged to obey their Spiritual Governors, notwithstanding of all that past in favours of the opposite Faction since the Revolution. And now I think it high time to go forward to the fourth Particular that I promised, viz.  
To let you see the several Periods of Episcopacy and Presbytery in the Church of Scotland since the Reformation. And I am the more confident to give you satisfaction, because I had the happiness to peruse a Manuscript (written by a person of great honour and true Learning) relating to this very affair; and it is of so much the greater weight and Authority, that it is not only founded on our best Historians, but on the authentic Records of Parliament; and it is from that Manuscript that I copy the following Account: for it is apparent that the Church was never governed by a Parity of Officers, but by different Orders from the beginning of the Reformation. And in the entry to this Narration, Let us remark, says my Author, That none of our Martyrs did ever impugn or oppose imparity in the Church, or preach or write against it; you cannot name one Testimony, unless you argue from their preaching against Popish Tyranny and unwarrantable exercise of Ecclesiastical Power, to infer that they were for (the then unheard of) Parity, and all who write of those Martyrs and first Reformers, omit not to praise them for their dutiful submission to their Bishops and Superiors. And it is very probable these Martyrs would have pseached against Ecclesiastical Tyranny as well in a Company of Arbitrary Presbyters, as they did when it was lodged in one or few; and that Presbyters may be Tyrants, witness the Scots History from the year 1639 to 1652. At which time Cromwell (though no Friend to Episcopacy) was so wearied with the Insolences and Confusions of Presbytery, that he dismissed it solemnly at Barrow-Moor. 
Let us now come to positive Evidences. The very first established Reformation in Scotland, was that which on the 6th of July 1560 (being the third day after the pacification at Leith) was concluded on, betwixt the Lords and Ministers of the Congregation assisted by the Queen of England's General and Ambassader on the one side. And the Queen Regent, the popish Lords, and Clergy, assisted by the French Ambassador on the other side, in name of Francis and Mary their Sourreigns. 
Spotswood, Ann. 1560. pag. 149. and Knox in his Hist. 1560. pag. 264 sets down at length the form of Electing the Superintendents.  The Protestant Lords and Clergy did meet, at Edinburgh, the Protestants preached in the Churches and in their Assembly they did distribute their Preachers among the Chief Towns of the Nation, and did nominate five Superintendents for the Dioceses, where the Bishops were popish. For there are no Superintendents named then for Galloway and Argile, because the Bishops of those Dioceses were Protestants.  
By the said Treaty a Parliament was to hold in August following, wherein the Confession of Faith drawn up by the Superintendents was given in to the Lords of the Articles, prepared by them, and Voted in Parliament, where it was carried in the Affirmative. In this Parliament the Bishops did sit as the first Estate. The popish Bishops voted against the Confession, the Protestant Bishops, viz. Galloway and Argile, and three Abbots voted for it. The Sederunt of this Parliament is on Record with its Acts, and related by Spotswood, pag. 149.  
In January thereafter, the Scottish Protestant Clergy offer a form of Church Policy; one of its Heads is for Superintendents, whom they name, and appoint, with distinct Dioceses for them, and to show that these Reformers did not treat of Superintendents as a temporary Resolution for that time only; It is there said, that the Election of Superintendents, in aftertimes should be stricter than the present circumstances would allow; and the last Head of that Policy prescribes some Conditions to be kept in future Elections of Superintendents. Spotwood, pag. 150 and 160, and by the book of Policy, pag. 168. it is expressly ordered, that Complaints against Ministers be notified to the Superintendents. And the Petition presented to the Queen, related by Knox Hist. pag. 337. bears, as the superscription of the Superintendents, Ministers of the whole Church of Scotland, to the Queen's Majesty, etc. And in the year 1563. John Knox and others elected a Superintendent for Dumfries, and the Letter written from the Assembly or Convention of the Scots Church at Edinburgh on the 27. of December, 1566. to the Church of England bears this Superscription. The Superintendents, Ministers, and Commissioners of the Church within the Realm of Scotland to their Brethren, the Bishops and Pastors of England. And at Queen Mary's first arrival in Scotland from France, the Superintendents and Ministers did meet at Edinburgh in an Assembly, Knox bist. pag. 318.  
In January 1572. the Commission of the Assembly did meet at Leith, under the Regent's Government, and did agree on seven Articles of Policy. 1. That all Bishoprics which were vacant (and those were only four; for where popish Bishops were alive, the sees were not esteemed vacant, but supplied by Protestant Superintendents) should be filled out of the ablest of the Ministry. Secondly, That spiritual Jurisdiction should be exercised by Bishops in their Dioceses; and the sixth Article is, that Ministers should receive Ordination from the Bishops, and in Dioceses where no Bishops were, they should receive Ordination from the Superintendents. And in August thereafter, the General Assembly of the Church did meet at Perth, and approved of all these Articles; and accordingly Mr. John Douglas, Mr. James B●yd, Mr. James Paton, and Mr. Andrew Graham, were placed in the four vacant Bishoprics. It was Mr. Andrew Melvil's misfortune that he was neglected, and therefore in the year 1575. he stirred up one Mr. Dury to impugn the Episcopal Order, and all Imparity. This is the first time that this debate was tossed in our Church; and on it, Church and State immediately divided, and much Confusion, Rapine, Blood and other mischiefs did follow, and then and since every fiery Faction did lay hold on this Schism as a fund whereon to build all Rebellion and Treason. In prosecution of this Schism Mr. Andrew (and some Ministers led by him) did in the year 1578. draw a Book of Policy stuffed so with the spirit of Mr. Andrew himself, that it was rather a Proposal for the overthrow of all just Authority than an Establishment of a Religious Government: and therefore it could never (no not in these distracted furious times (even when there was no King in our Israel) obtain approbation from any Authority, but was looked on as a Rhapsody of groundless Assertions, and full of mischievous Novelties. Indeed, in the year 1580. an Assembly met at Dundee, called by Mr. Andrew and his Associates without a shadow of any permission from the Civil Authority; and they declared that the Office of a Bishop (but with this restriction, as it was then used) had neither foundation nor warrant in the Word of God. But let all serious Christians consider, whether they will believe this famous Conventicle or the plain Scriptures, the Doctrine of the Apostles, the primitive Fathers, and the Canons of all Oecomenick Counsels, and the rule of Apostolic and primitive Practice, and to help their choice, let them take notice of the pious Design of this Assembly in casting off Bishops, by the very next clause in their Act, viz. That their next Assembly should consider how to dispose of the Patrimony and possessions of Bishops. This was the primitive Invasion of the King's Patronages and Regale of the Crown. Then Presbyterian Disciples began to propagate their new Gospel very zealously; The first was one Montgomery, who at Sterling proposed that all such as spoke for the Order of Bishops should be censured; but this zealous Saint did most basely and simoniacally (shortly thereafter) bargain with a Nobleman that he might be made Bishop of Glasgow, and then his Co-Presbyters (who themselves were not so successful) handled him to purpose; but with such indiscretion, that in pursuing him they trampled on the King and all the Civil Authority, in so far, that when they were called to answer for illegal Invasions on the King's Authority, they did boldly protest, that though they compeared in civility to the King, yet that they did not acknowledge the King 〈◊〉 Councils Right in any Ecclesiastic matter. This was on the 12th of April 1582. And shortly thereafter in one of their Assemblies holden at St. Andrews, Mr. Andrew Melvil told the Master of Requests (who was sent by the King to stop some of their illegal procedures) that they did not meddle in Civil matters; but in Ecclesiastic matters they had sufficient Authority to proceed, and did so.  
The practice on these grounds did shortly follow, for on the 23d of August 1582. the King was made Prisoner by a Faction of Lords at the house of Ruthwen, and on the 13th of October 1582. the Assembly of the Church at Edenburg, did by an Act approve of that perduellion, and declared that it was good service to God and his Chucrh. And in the beginning of January 1583. two Ambassadors came from France, and one from England, to endeavour the King's Liberty; the Assembly ordered the Ministers to declaim against the impious Design of liberating the King, and they did rail at the Ambassadors by name, and stirred up the Rabble (their faithful Confederates on all occasions) not to suffer the Badge of the French Order 
Du St. Esprit.  to be seen on their Streets, it being the mark of the Beast, a badge of Antichrist, and to show their good Manners as well as their sound Doctrine, the King having appointed the Magistrates of Edinburgh to entertain the Ambassadors on the 16th of February 1583. The Ministers appointed a solemn Fast on that very day, and civilly preached from morning till night, (a matter of no great difficulty to such as preach for such ends, and with so little rule) cursing the Magistrates, and their Company, and were with difficulty kept from excommunicating them.  
The King having delivered himself from his restraint, Mr. Dury and others of the Ministry openly assert that there was no injury done to the King, and Mr. Melvil declaimed frequently against the King, for which he was called before the Council; but he boldly declined the King and Council as Judges in prima Instantia of what's preached in the Pulpit, even though it were high Treason, and so he fled to England▪ from whence he kindled that Conspiracy, which shortly thereafter brought the Earl of Gowry and others to the Scaffold. These seditious doctrines and practices moved the whole Estates of the Kingdom in the year 1584., on the 22d day of May in a Parliament at Edinburgh by a solemn Act, to assert the King's Sovereign Power over all persons, and in all causes as his undoubted ancient Right; and that it was Treason to decline his Authority in any matter, and discharging all Assemblies, Convocations, and all Jurisdictions spiritual or temporal, not allowed by the King and Estates: and prohibiting all factions and seditious Preachings, Sermons, and all slanderous Speeches against the King. The Ministers declaimed against this and reproached this Act of Parliament. Notwithstanding of all this, the King was prevailed with to allow Mr. Melvil and his Complices to return to their Churches: but no sooner had they this favour, than Mr. Andrew calls an Assembly to St. Andrews; it consisted of Presbyters and Laics, and one Mr. Robert Wilky, a Regent Professor, and Laic was chosen Moderator. There in a most ridiculous manner they Cite the Archbishop of St. Andrews on twenty four hours to Compear before them (and he not compearing) they caused a young indiscreet Fellow, called Hunter, to Excommunicate him, for having accession to that Act of Parliament lately mentioned, he being a Member of Parliament, and an Assembly meeting this very year at Edinburgh, would have taken up this difference, and in order thereto did Absolve the Archbishop from Excommunication; yet Mr. Andrew and his adherents protested against the Assembly, and declared that notwithstanding of their Absolution, yet the Archbishop should be still esteemed as one delivered to Satan, until signs of true Repentance appeared. And though upon all occasions they magnify their Assemblies, and their pretended parity, yet when the far major number was against their humour, they regarded not their plurality. For in Anno 1591. when the Synod of St. Andrews had determined to constitute one Mr. Weems, Minister at Leuchars, Mr. Melvil, and some few more, viz. six were for one Mr. Walace, and when the far major part would not submit to his Opinion, (though they pretend that the Kingdom of Christ is invaded when Bishops or Princes oppose the majority of a Synod) yet Mr. Melvil. and his six withdraw to another place, and admitted Mr. Walace to the Ministry of Leuchars, and the Synod did admit Mr. Weems. But this had almost engaged the Parishioners in Blood, and the scussle could not be ended until Melvil's Faction prevailed so far against the Synod, that neither of the two should be Minister at that Church. The Reason why I insist on this, is, to let them of a contrary Opinion see how justly our dislike of a parity in Church Offices is Founded, and that there being no imaginable warrant for it from Scripture, Apostolic Practice, Primitive Fathers, Councils, or any well Established Christian Church, and that the best plea for it, seems to be the pretended parity that is alleged amongst the first Reformers in Scotland, we judged it fit first to show that there was an imparity then; and always thereafter in this Church, and that the design of parity was always rejected by our Kings, Parliaments, and the most, and best of our Clergy, and that the immoralities, and Seditions, of such as contended for parity gives us no invitation to be amongst their Successors.  
It is true, that the King in the year 1590. and 1591. and 1592. was so often brought into danger, twice was he Captive, and constantly in great trouble by the Seditions of Mr. Andrew Melvil, and his fiery complices, that in the year 1592. he did consent to grant a great deal of Jurisdiction to Presbyteries; Synods, and General Assemblies by Act of Parliament; and this of necessity to evite a threatened Rebellion, and that by the advice of Chancellor Maitland, who in Council advised the King to give them much of their will, for that 〈◊〉 the short way to make them odious, as already they were troubleseme to the Nation, and then they would be turned out by all. Yet there was never an Act or motion of Abolishing Episcopacy; but on the contrary, they continued in their Dioceses and Churches always thereafter, and in the very year 1594. Cunnigham Bishop of Aberdeen did Babtize Prince Henry at Sterling; but the King was forced to connive a while at at their Insolence, for they had preached the People into a persuasion that the King was to betray his own Crown and Kingdoms to the King of Spain. And when three Noblemen were brought to Trial before the Justice, the Ministers would needs order the Process in October 1593., and to back them, they stirred up multitudes of the Rabble to Arms, thereby to force Justice to decide in their favour; nor would they disband or abstain from coming before the Judges in armed Crowds, although the King and Council did by Proclamation prohibit them. If this be Presbyterian Government, it must be confessed that Anno 1590., 1591., 1592., and 1593. Presbyters had it solely. But all this time Bishops did exist by Law, enjoyed their Rents, and preached in their Churches, if you trust not us, Notice the most Authentic Records of the Kingdom.  
By Act of Parliament 1. Jac. 6. Chap. 7. Ministers are ordered to be presented by the Patrons to the Superintendent of the Diocese. Note, At this time most of the Bishops were Popish, which occasioned the Protestants to appoint Superintendents.  
Anno 1572. Parl. 3. Jac. 6. Chap 45. The Government of the Church is declared to be in the Archbishops, Bishops, and Superintendents. Note, Both Bishops, and Superintendents, are contemporary then in the Church.  
The like owned Chap. 46. 48. and 54. of that Parliament.  
In the year 1573. The Authority of the Bishops is owned by the first Act of the 4. Par. Jac. 6.  
In the year 1578. the like by Act. 63. Parl. 5. Jac. 6.  
In the year 1579. the like by Act. 71. Parliam. 6. Jac. 6.  
In the year 1581. That the Bishops did continue in the Church appears from Act 100 Parl. 7. Jac. 6.  
The like appears from the Acts 106, and 114, of that Parliament.  
In the year 1584. The Bishop's Authority fully owned Act. 132. Parl. 8. Jac. 6  
In the year 1587. It appears that Prelacy existed then by Act 28. Parl. 11. Jac. 6.  
Also in that 11. Parl. It appears by the Act of Annexation, that Prelacy did still exist by Law, even although their Temporalties were annexed to the Crown. and by the 111. Act, of that 11. Parl.  
In the year 1591., 1592., 1593., and 1594. The King, and Bishops, could not stop the Insolence of Presbyters, nor their meeting in Synods and Assemblies, without any interposition of the Royal Authority, but this hindered not but that the Bishops did still exist by Law, and exerced some part of their Office, and in all Parliaments and Conventions of Estates, the Prelates did did always Sat and Vote as the first of the three Estates, as the Records and Sederunts of all the Parliaments will prove.  
In the year 1596. Leslie, Bishop of Ross, dying at Brussels, Mr. David Lindsey was presented by the King to the Bishopric the very next year.  
In the year 1598. there was a Conference appointed at Falkland betwixt the Commissioners of the Assembly, and some appointed by the King to meet with them, where they agreed on ten Articles or Propositions of Policy, for the Church, relating chiefly to the Clergy's Votes in Parliament, and the Elections of Bishops in the Dioceses; some of these Propositions were foolish, but it was thought convenient that the King should comply with those Hot Heads in some things; for at that time Severals began to debate his Right of Succession to the Crown of England, and so he would have all quiet at Home, yet still this is evident that Bishops did then exist by Law, and that although something concerning them was debated, yet their Office and Order was not.  
In the year 1600, these forementioned Articles were approved in the Assembly at Monross, March 28, 1600. and to that Assembly Mr. Dury (who was the chief Tool with Mr. Melvil for parity) at his death did write an Exhortation disowning his former Errors, and earnestly advising them to submit to the ancient Order, and to choose good Bishops of the best of the Ministers.  
In the year 1601. the King called an Assembly of the Church to meet at Brunt Island, where many good things were Enacted, both for the true Liberty of the Church, and for reclaiming the Popish Nobility from their Errors, which proved more effectual and pacific than all the former furious Methods, which at that time were promoted by a Hot Headed Man, called Davidson, who by a Letter to the Assembly incited them to declare against the King's Hypocrisy, and other Errors. The Assembly would have proceeded to Censure him, but the King would not allow it, saying, it was matter of Joy that these Hot Heads were reduced to one, or some few.  
In the year 1602. the King in an Assembly at Halyrood-House, did show great Clemency to some fiery Ministers, whom the Assembly would have Censured: as also he gave great Satisfaction to the whole Assembly and Nation; by his excellent Proposals for establishing Provisions both for Bishops and Presbyters. And in this Assembly of the Church was the fifth of August appointed an Anniversary Thanksgiving for the King's Delivery from Gowry's Conspiracy.  
Before the Diet appointed for the next General Assembly, the Crown of England did fall to the King by the Death of Queen Elizabeth; so there was no meeting of Church General Assemblies for a while, but the few remaining Hot Headed Presbyters were very busy on the King's removal so far: and fearing the excellent Order of the English Church (the great Safety and Peace of Britain depending on an entire and full Concord of the Island) they were apprehensive that upon such Considerations, the King would heartily promote a further Establishment of Episcopal Jurisdiction in Scotland. The Presbyterians in this Juncture did busily stir up Prejudices in the People against the Church of England; though undoubtedly the best Reformed Church and greatest Bulwark against Popery. And though the King, for good Reasons, when he went to England, Adjourned the General Assembly from July 1604, to July 1605. yet these Men prevailed with Nine of the Fifty Presbyteries of Scotland to keep the Meeting notwithstanding of the King's Prorogation: where Thirteen Persons meeting did most Seditiously run into such Declarations against the Statutes, and standing Laws, as were by the Judicatures declared Treason, and for which Severals of the Thirteen were Condemned before the Justices. For they could not be persuaded either to acknowledge, or revoke their seditious Pasquil's, but they were afterwards pardoned by the King, when they confessed that the Chancellor encouraged their Meeting in July 1604. and proved it, which forced the Chancellor to prove likewise that they promised to connive at his being a Papist, and his Possession of what he had of the Church Lands, upon Condition he should own them against Episcopacy, whereupon the King said that the Presbyterians would betray the Protestant Religion in hatred to Episcopacy, and the Chancellor would betray Episcopacy for greed of their Temporalties. So far my Author.   
And now from all this I infer, that the first Reformers of our Religion in Scotland declaimed against the Tyranny, and encroachments of the Bishop of Rome, but never against the Episcopal Jurisdiction as such. That Mr. Wisehart, and some others of our most Eminent Reformers and Martyrs knew no other Government of the Church but Episcopacy. The first being bred in the University of Cambridge, and others, who were his Disciples, followed his Sentiments. And that the first Reformers submitted to the Episcopal Jurisdiction of such of the Bishops as Preached and promoted the Protestant Doctrine.  
Secondly, That though the Episcopal Authority was frequently weakened, crushed and interrupted, by the Popular Insurrections, and Conspiracies of Mr. Melvil's Faction, yet it was never legally abolished, but rather continued in the Church, secured, and defended by many Laws.  
☞ Thirdly, That the Presbyterians always watched the difficult Postures of the King's Affairs, and whenever they found him at a disadvantage, than they made him much more uneasy by Popular Tumults, and Insurrections.  
Fourthly, That the Romish Clergy never pleaded their Exemptions from the Secular Powers more violently and factiously, than the Melvilian Tribe in Scotland.  
Fifthly, That Episcopacy was not Abolished in that very year wherein they pretend that Presbytery was Established, but that Episcopacy in Anno 1592. was still retained in all its legal Rights, Privileges, and Authority. It is true that the Insolence of Presbyters was not then to be resisted, but by granting them great Liberties, and that this Liberty was granted by the necessitous Circumstances that the King was in.  
Sixthly, That the most violent of their Faction had not then the Impudence to quarrel the Superiority of a Bishop above a Presbyter, as a thing unlawful in itself; but that Mr. Melvil made his approaches to the ruin of Episcopacy by plausible pretences, viz. That it was abused, and that it was not exercised according to its primitive designs and simplicity.  
Seventhly, I observe that Episcopacy was never legally Abolished in Scotland, until the Tragical Rebellion in King Charles the First his Reign broke forth, and we need not inform the World how unwilling King Charles the Martyr was to Abolish Episcopacy.  
Eighthly, That the Royal Authority never gave way to their Rebellion, and Insolence, when they could hinder it; but sometimes they were forced to yield to grant them great Liberties to avoid the heavier Blows and Thunder Claps of their Fury.  
Ninthly, That we can have no better Evidence for any Matter of Fact than the Public Records of Parliament.  
Tenthly, We may clearly discern that the Vindicators Book in defence of his Party, is one Hypocritical Shuffle from top to bottom. For if Mr. Melvil, the Founder of Presbytery, and his Confederates, did affront the King's Person, and declined his Authority, and provoked the Rabble, and Excommunicated the Archbishop, and was so rude to the Ambassadors of Foreign Princes, and profanely appointed a Fast, with no other design than to baffle the King to his Teeth. Then let me ask the Vindicator why all this Apology, to persuade the World that Presbyterians are not capable of such Villainies as is the Rabbling of the Clergy. Nay, I must tell him Presbyterians did nothing upon this last Revolution, but what they Practised when they had not such opportunities to to vent their Malice. And by this unquestionable History he and all others may see, to how little purpose his Distinction of sober Presbyterians, and Cameronians will serve him; for the Cameronians have no Principles different from Presbyterians, nor the Presbyterians from Cameronians, nor is it possible to resute the Cameronians by Presbyterian Principles.  
Eleventhly, We may gather from the preceding History, and the constant Practice of Presbyterians, that they have no Principles of Unity amongst themselves, for, the lesser number (if more Popular than their Brethren) may remonstrate with that Insolence, and Fury, against the plurality as to stop the whole course of Discipline, as in the forementioned case of Mr. Andrew Melvil.  
Twelsthly, The Spirit of Presbytery, is a Spirit of Tyranny, and cannot endure to Obey, and therefore such as are fully Poisoned with its Principles, (whenever the Decisions of the Public contradict their own peculiar Plan and Scheme) they immediately fly in the Face of that Authority, they formerly pretended to support, and by general words, which at the bottom have no particular signification, but what they please to put upon them, they pick quarrels, and exceptions against all their own Judicatures, Governments Civil and Ecclesiastical.  
This is visible as from many instances, so from the famous Protestations of several biggorted Incendiaries against the General Assembly of the Presbyterians Anno 1651. because that General Assembly did promote the Public Resolutions in order to the Restoring the King to the Exercise of his Government, they pretend that the General Assembly was not rightly constituted, that the generality of the Godly did adhere to the Protesters, that the Public Resolutioners had made defection, because they were for bringing again into Places of Power and Trust, such as would probably serve the King against the Rebellion then on Foot, upon such pretences they decline their Supreme National Judicatory, and because that Print is known but to very few of the present Generation, and since it is a Monument of their Villainy and Stubbornness, it may be seen at the end of this Letter. I have no more to add, but that I wish my Skill to serve you, were equal to my Zeal and Affection, for I am in all sincerity  
Your most obedient Servant.   

The Protestation of divers Ministers, against the Proceedings of the late Commission of the Church of Scotland, as also against the lawfulness of the present pretended Assembly.  
Right Reverend,  
HOW gracious God hath been to the Church of Scotland, in giving her pure Ordinances; we trust that while we live, it shall be acknowledged, with thanfulness, by us unto the Most High, of whom we desire Mercy and Grace to adhere unto the Doctrine, Worship, Discipline and Government Established in this Land, amongst the many sad Tokens of the Lords Indignation and Wrath against this Kirk, the present Difference of his Servants in the Ministry, is looked upon by us, and we believe by all the godly in the Land, as one of the greatest. And as we hold it a Duty deeply to be humbled before the Lord in the Sense thereof, and by all lawful and fair means, within the compass of our power and station, to endeavour the remedy; so we do acknowledge a free General Assembly, lawfully Called, and rightly Constituted, and proceeding with Meekness and Love in the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, according to the Rule of the Word, and the Acts and Constitutions of this Kirk, to be amongst the first and most effectual means appointed of God for obtaining the same, and for preserving Purity, and advancing the power of the Work of Reformation in this Age, and transmitting the same unspotted to our Posterity, and to the Ages and Generations that are to come: but that as the faithful Servants of Jesus Christ in his Church in former times did by his good Hand on them in the right Administration of free and lawful General Assemblies, bring the Work of Reformation in Scotland unto a great Perfoction, and nigh Conformity with the first Pattern: so unfaithful Men minding their own things more than things of Christ, and Usurping over their Brethres, and the Lords Inheritance, did deface the beauty thereof, first by encroaching upon the Liberty and Freedom of Assemblies, afterwards by taking away the very Assemblies themselves. Therefore remembering and calling to mind the many Bonds and Obligations that lie upon us from the Lord, and being desirous to be found faithful in this day of Tentation, and to exonerate our Consciences as in his sight, and to avoid the accession unto that guiltiness in which many have involved themselves. And conceiving that this Meeting is not a lawful General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, in regard that the Election of Commissioners to the same, have been limited and prejudiced in the due Liberty thereof, by a Letter and Act of their Commissioners of the last Assembly sent to Presbyteries, appointing such Brethren as after Conference remained unsatisfied with, and continued to oppose the Public Resolutions, to be Cited to the General Assembly. And in regard the Commission of many burgh's and Presbyteries are absent, as wanting free access, by reason of the Motions of the Enemy: and in regard that many of the Commissioners of the last General Assembly have carried on a course of defection, contrary to the Trust committed to them, and to the Acts and Constitutions of this Church: and who in their Remonstrances and Papers, have stirred up the Civil Magistrate against such who are unsatisfied in their Consciences with their Proceedings, and who have prelimited the Assembly, by their Letter and Act formerly mentioned, are admitted to Sat, and Voted as Members of the Assembly, and their Moderator chosen to be Moderator of the Assembly, notwithstanding timous exception was made against them, that they ought not to be admitted as Members of the Assembly, until their Proceedings were first tried and approven by the Assembly: and in regard that his Majesty, and his Majesty's Commissioners by his Speech, did incite too hard Courses against these who are unsatisfied in their Consciences, with the Proceedings of the Commissioners, before the trial and approbation of the Commission Book, or any Act made by the Assembly for the approving their Proceedings; we do upon these, and many others important grounds and reasons, to be proponed and given in time and place convenient, in the name of the Church of Scotland, and in our names, and in the name of all Ministers, Ruling Elders, and Professors of this Kirk, who do, or shall adhere to us, Protest against the Validity and Constitution of this Assembly, as not being free and lawful: and that they may not assume unto themselves any Authority, nor exercise any Power or Jurisdiction for determining of Controversies, making of Acts emitting of Declarations, judging of Protestations or Appeals, or Proceedings of Synods, or inferior Judicatories, or Censuring Persons or Papers, or issuing of Commissions of whatsoever sort to any persons whatsoever, and in particular Protests that they may not proceed unto the Approbation or Ratification of the Proceedings of the former Commission, not only because of the want of just Power and Authority so to do, but also because these Proceedings contain many things contrary to the Trust committed to their Commissioners, especially their allowing and carrying on a Conjunction with the Malignant Party, and bringing them into Places of Power and Trust in the Judicatories and in the Army, contrary to the Word of God, Solemn League and Covenant, the Solemn Confession of Sins, and Engagement to Duties, the constant Tenor of Warnings, Declarations, Remonstrances, Causes of Humiliations, Letters, Supplications, Acts and Constitutions of this Kirk, and the laying a Foundation for the Civil Magistrate, to meddle with these things which concern Ministers, their Doctrine and Exercise of Ministerial Duties before they be Cited, Tried, and Censured by the Judicatories of the Kirk. And we Protest that whatsoever Determinations, Acts, Ratifications, Declarations, Censures, or Commissions that shall be made or given by them, may be Void and Null, and may not be interpreted as binding to the Kirk of Scotland; but that notwithstanding thereof, it may be free for us, and such as adhere to us, to Exercise our Ministry and enjoy the due Christian Liberty of our Consciences, according to the Word of God, National Covenant, Solemn League and Covenant, the Confession of Sins, and Engagements to Duties, and all the Acts and Constitutions of this Kirk, and that there may be liberty to choose Commissioners, and to Convene a Free and Lawful General Assembly, when there shall be need, and the Lord shall give opportunity, and to add what further reasons shall have weight for strengthening this our Protestation, and showing the nullity of this Assembly, and the unwarrantableness of the Proceedings of the Commissioners of the former Assembly; and that these presents may be put upon Record in the Registers of the General Assembly to be extant ad futuram rei memoriam, and that we may have a subscribed Extract under the Clerk's hand.  
Subscribed and presented at St. Andrews 20. July, 1651. by 

Mr. A. G. Moderator of the last Assembly.  
Mr. Samuel Rutherford.  
Mr. James Guthery.  
Mr. Patrick Gillespy.  
Mr. John Meinzies.  
Mr. Ephraim Melvin.  
Mr. John Carstaires.  
Mr. William Adair.  
Mr. Thomas Wyllie.  
Mr. John Nevoy.  
Mr. James Simpson.  
Mr. William Guthery.  
Mr. Alexander Moncreif.  
Mr. John Hamilton in Inderkip.  
Mr. Robert Muire.  
Mr. John Hart.  
Mr. Andrew Donaldson.  
Mr. Robert Keith.  
And ten other Ministers.     

Right Reverend,  
WE are constrained by many necessities, and by transferring of the Assembly, to be absent from your subsequent meeting; and having laid to Heart what the Lord requireth of us in this day of so sad a Dispensation, and so sore a Controversy against the Land. We think ourselves bound in Conscience, to lay open to you, that we are much unsatisfied with the Proceedings of the Commissioners of the late General Assembly relating to the inbringing and entrusting of the Malignant Party, with the Consequences thereof; there issuing forth one Act with a Letter, to the prejudice, as we conceive, of the Presbyteries Election of Commissioners to this Assembly, which hath need to be looked on, lest the Freedom of this High Court of Jesus Christ, by such preparatives, be infringed. We wish it be your Wisdoms care, that begun Evils be remedied, our bleeding Wounds with tender Hands bound up, and that the fierce Wrath of the Lord smoking in our Bowels may be quenched: and do in all humility and reverence of your Wisdoms, and tenderness of respect to precious Men, whom we much honour and love in the Lord, though in this matter we most disser from them in Judgements; Protest that the foresaid Proceedings be not Ratified and approven by you, and that we be not involved in the Gild and Consequences to the Ratifications thereof: and this we crave to be Recorded in your Register for the Vindication of Truth, and exoneration of our Consciences. The Lord give you wisdom in all things, and pour out upon you a spirit of Healing the backslidings of the Land, of building up our Breaches.  
We rest Your Wisdoms loving Brethren and Servants in Christ. Subscribed and sent from Pearth to Dundee (to which place the Assembly was Adjourned from S. Andrews upon the 21. July 1651.) by M. Alexander Dunlap, William Sumervell, John Mauld, James Donaldson, John Veatch, John Hamilton in Carmichael, Alexander Barterem, Ministers; and William Brown of Dolphington, a Ruling Elder.   

POSTSCRIPT.  
WHEN the Printer had cast off the former Sheets, there appeared here a scurrilous Pamphlet, entitled an Answer to the Scots Presbyterian Eloquence in three parts. If you would have a Character of the Author you must read the Book, and perhaps by so doing, you may meet with something that is extraordinary, and which cannot so easily fall under words; he appears with all the storm and Thunder that passion and rage can furnish him with, he breathes nothing but violence and indignation, and blusters with so much fury, that at first view you may perceive him as great a Separatist from good nature and modesty, as he is from the Christian Church and her Worship.  
He divides his Pamphlet into three parts. In the first, he complains of cruel Laws made against the Presbyterians in the former Reigns. In the second, he meddles with the Author of the Scots Presbyterian Eloquence. In the third, he assaults the Sermons and Lives of the Bishops and Clergy.  
As to the first, King Charles' II. and our subordinate Governors made no Laws against the Presbyterians in Scotland, but what they were forced to make in their own defence; when the King was restored to his hereditary right, and the Nations delivered from their Egyptian bondage; the Parliament being called they enacted such Laws as were absolutely necessary for preserving their Liberty and sundamental Constitution: and because they had so sadly smarted under their cruel Taskmasters (the Covenanters) in the late Civil Wars, they took care in the first place, by gentle Laws both the reclaim the deluded, and secure their own safety. The frequent attempts and insurrections of the Presbyterians afterwards obliged them to make more severe Laws, nor did ever any man in that Period suffer capital punishment, but for high Treason against the King and State. If their errors and delusions were purely speculative, and did not upon all turns prompt them to overturn the Government and grasp the Sovereignty, they might live in Scotland in all peace and tranquillity, as other Dissenters did. But when the whole 
* Vid. Hind let loose. Nepthali Jus populi.  Scheme of their Religion (as far as they differ from the Episcopal party) is nothing in itself but ungovernable humour and Rebellion, and when their insolence became so intolerable that they proclaimed open War against the King in his own Dominions, and preached to their Hearers that they ought to kill his Servants, and that he had no right to the Crown because he broke the Covenant; what Apology needs there be made against the unreasonable clamours of such desperate Incendiaries, especially when their cruelties towards the Episcopal Church both Clergy and Laity after the Year 1637. were unparallelled in History, as they were diabolical in their nature. And their Oath of the Covenant imposed upon all ranks and degrees of persons within the Nation, and (Children at the Schools not excepted) with greater tyranny, malice and violence than the Fathers of the Inquisition ever practised.  
What was it then that the King was to be blamed for, and his Ministers of State? Why; they would not acknowledge that the King had lost his right to the Crown, they defended his calm and obedient Subjects from the hands of these religious Harpies who would needs persuade the Nation, that there was no Sin so much to be dreaded, as any the least transgression of the solemn League and Covenant. The King and his Ministers of State might more plausibly be accused of cruelty, if they had made severe Laws against the consequences of Presbyterian Opinions, rather than against the open and avowed efforts of treachery and Rebellion; Prudence and caution might arm them against the first, but self-defence, the Laws of nature and Nations, their own honour and safety, must needs prompt them to the second.  
In short, you will meet with nothing in the first part of this Pamphlet, but an ill contrived abstract of the Hind let loose, and you know that the Episcopalians took care to compendise that Book, and publish it of new, that all men might see the principles, practices and humours of that Sect whom they oppose: nor can there be a better defence of King Charles the seconds Government, than the Hind let loose, if duly considered, and upon the whole matter I will only say this, that if the Ministers of State under King Charles II. in Scotland have done nothing against the Presbyterians, but what all wise, great, and good Men have done in the like cases, than the Clamours of this party against their Ministry are rather an honour to, than an accusation against their proceedings. For as long as there are any Records of public transactions preserved in our Nation, the Rebellions under King Charles I. and II. and the principles by which they have been maintained, and the 
* Vid. King's large Manifesto.  Artifices, made use of to delude the people unto misery and Enthusiasm, can never be forgotten: and if there was no other Book extant but the Acts of their General Assemblies, they sufficiently vindicate King Charles TWO, and his Ministers of State from any shadow of cruelty and rigour.  
But all this and much more is made evident by the Learned and Loyal 
* Sir George Mackenzie.  Advocate in his short and accurate Defence of King Charles the 2ds. Government, where he attacks, and baffles by Reason, Law, and the customs of Nations, the little cavils and exceptions started against the administrations of that wise and peaceable Monarch. A Book which shall never be answered, I do not mean, that they shall not write against it, but that it is unanswerable, and they may as wisely run a tilt against a Rock, as endeavour to shake any part of its main design. The reasonings of it are so clear, the historical retorsions so undeniable, and the villainies of their factions and combinations so transparent, that to meddle with that Book will more and more discover their folly, as well as renew their correction: and the publisher of it thinks still he has done the Nation good service; and he is the more confirmed in his Opinion, that he perceives, that the little and hidden Nurslings of Presbytery are galled by it. 
* Answer to the Scottish Presbyterian Eloquence, p. 27.  It is a Lie that Sir George Mackenzie pretended he would not publish it, though he would not allow a Copy surreptitiously procured to come abroad without his immediate orders and directions; and when he saw it convenient, he recommended it to his Friend to publish it; and it might have been printed a good while before he died, if the publisher had not been diverted by many little Occurrences. But let nor this Scribbler, or any of his party, blame Sir George Mackenzie, that their Covenants were added to the Treatise lately mentioned; this is solely to be imputed to the Publisher, and he needs no Apology for the doing of it, since they are undeniable monuments of their incurable stubbornness and Rebellion: and the reasonings in the Treatise itself are frequently related to, and illustrated by those wicked Papers, I mean the Bonds and Covenants of that restless Faction. But to end this Paragraph, you may tell this Accuser, that the original Copy written by Mr. Andrew Johastone (than Amanuensis to Sir George Mackenzie) is full in the Publishers hands.  
The Scribbler unwarily does us a great deal of honour, when he 
Quis genus Aeaeadum?— Virg.  tells the World that the practices of Presbyterians under the Reign of King Charles II. were prosecuted and opposed by such as the Duke of Queensberry, Marquis of Athol, Earl of Linlithgow, Viscount of Tarbat, Lieutenant General Drummond, and Sir George Mackenzie. If he understood the Laws of Consequence, he might easily see that Men of their Quality, Sense and Interest are too great a weight in the opposite Scale, and since we have just reason to glory in their parts, honour and integrity, it is very odd that he should be so foolish, as to own that we are favoured by persons of their merit and virtue. 'Tis pleasant to see with what rudeness and vanity this little Man assaults the memory of Sir George Mackenzie; so have I seen sometimes when a generous Falcon drops dead to the ground, the Kites, the Crows, and the Jackdaws gather about him, and solemnize a Jubilee, and yet even when he lies dead they dare not touch one of his feathers. He may remember the Fable, that when the Lion 
Phaedri Fabulae.  was expiring, the Ass amongst other Beasts kicked him, and insulted over him. I do not mean by this, that Sir George Mackenzie, if he were alive, would have taken notice of his bawling or buffonery; but to let him see, that he is as void of generosity and honour, as he is of common sense and modesty.  
In this first Part he appears very uneasy, that the Episcopal Party are not Persecuted to the utmost, and upbraids us ever and anon with the Lenity that we meet with under the present Government, and again must needs persuade the World, that our Principles of Passive Obedience are 
Pag. 26.  more dangerous to the present Government, than the Principles of the Covenant were to the former. But if there be no more in the case than Passive Obedience, I think the Government needs not be afraid; and if the Episcopal Party are not so violently Persecuted now, if they do not feel those loads of Misery that they groaned under from the year 1638. to 1649, (when the Covenanted Zealots were uppermost) this is not at all to be imputed to the Lenity of Presbyterians, but to the restraints that are laid upon them by the opposite Bias of the Nobility and Gentry, and because their most terrible Weapon of Excommunication is blunted (the Civil Penalties that formerly did attend it being taken away) this is the true Reason why they do not Prosecute their Antagonists with Excommunications, because such Censures now have no force; so that notwithstanding of all his Panegyrics in commendation of their Meekness, we look upon them still as Tigers Chained, not altered in their Nature, but much more galled and irritated by their restraint. If the Scotch Episcopal Party has any favour in England or in Scotland, they ought to thank God for it, and his Instruments whom he directs, and employs to preserve them. I hope 'tis visible to the World, with what Industry and Application, and by what Engines and Means, Presbyterians are resolved to destroy them.  
In the Second Part of his Pamphlet he falls foul upon the Author of the Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence, in which Scuffle I am not at all concerned. I think the Author of that Collection was to blame, that he did not more particularly relate the times when, the persons, by whom, and places where, such Stuff was Preached, and perhaps he has been unwary as to some Stories which need Confirmation, but since there is such variety and multitude of true Stories of that Nature, nothing should be advanced to their disadvantage that is not duly attested. As for the Inconsistencies charged upon the Author of the Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence, they are not worth your while to consider them, nor have I any inclination to examine them, nor am I concerned to offer my mediation between them; only let me inform you that the Book of which I send you the General History, contains not one good Consequence from the beginning to the end.  
I have heard that the Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence has been much talked off, and therefore I take the liberty to acquaint you with the Reasons that induce me to believe, that there was no injury done the Scotch Presbyterians in the publishing of that Book.  
First, Because the Printed Accounts cited from their Books are equal to the unprinted relations of their Sermons and Prayers. Mr. Rutherford's Letters alone have in them many coarse and abusive Metaphors, and Applications that are mean and loathsome; and though I do not at all in this Letter meddle with his design and meaning, yet I think it but a modest Censure to say, that there was in those Letters more Popularity than Piety. I know the Party do magnify him highly, and it is no part of my business to lessen their Opinion of him; yet I must tell you, that in the esteem of all impartial Men he must fall below the Character they bestow upon him. He had Read Dr. Twisse, and others of his Opinion, and if any Learning appear in his Books, it is but some of the Metaphysics he had borrowed from Dr. Twisse, as Dr. Owen, in his Treatise De Justitiâ Vindicatiuâ, assures us. And he was so plunged in these Metaphysical Whimsies, that none can make Sense of what he wrote. Let his Patrons consider that Chapter in his Exercitationes Apologeticae pro Divinâ Gratiâ, wherein he pretends to answer that Argument, Quod unusquisque tenetur credere, and then tell me if they can boast of his Perspicuity and Solidity. Of the same Stamp are his Metaphysical Dissertations annexed to his Book De Providentia, de Ente Possibili: if I had the Book by me, I think I could give you Divertisement. I know very well what our Adversaries will say, viz. that I do not understand him, and I must sincerely acknowledge they are in the right of it.  
But Secondly, The most blasphemous Stories in the Book called the Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence, can be proved by the best and most undeniable Evidence, viz. That of Mr. Urquhart's concerning the Lords Prayer, that of Mr. Kirkton's concerning the Holy Ghost, and that he believed Abraham run out of the Land of Caldea for debt. Now I agree with this angry Scribbler, so far, that these are horrid and blasphemous expressions, and I pitch upon them, because he himself thinks that nothing can be worse, and that these Expressions alone (if falsely alleged) disprove the whole Collection. Now we fairly offer to prove these three, the first against Mr. Urquhart, the other two against Mr. Kirkton. This is undeniably just by his own Concessions Pag. 61. and if such blasphemous Stories are openly tolerated, what must we expect from that Society of Men, and I have in the former Treatise given you two instances of greater Ignorance and Nonsense in the Printed Books of Mr. Rule, than any thats to be found in the Scotch Eloquence. As for the Stories cited from the Scotch Eloquence against Mr. Rule, and mentioned by him in Pag. 61. I do not truly believe them, unless I have better Authority for them.  
Thirdly, suppose that one had a mind to make Stories to the disadvantage of the Scotch Presbyterians, yet their jargon is so coarsely extravagant, that it is not possible for any Man to speak their Language, unless he had been Educated in their Gibberish, and the Harmony between their Printed Books, and their unprinted Sermons is so exact, that none can doubt of the last who Read the first. Let me but name one Man, it is Mr. J. K. his Fancy is so Comical, so surprising, so unimitable, that it is not possible to say any thing as he says it himself, nor yet to ascribe to another what is said by him; and this way of Preaching is no new thing amongst the Presbyterians. They always accused the Episcopalians that their Sermons were Cold, and Dry, and Moral Discourses, and were not Calculated to the Capacities and Affections of the People as theirs were, and therefore they complied so much with the Genius of the People that they forgot the Majesty of Religion, and the distinction between things Sacred and Profane.  
Fourthly, There may be so many Stories added of their abusive Distorsions of the Scripture with Authentic attestations, that it were their wisdom to let this Debate fall. For Preaching after their way is become of late so trifling an Exercise, that no Man could perform it to the satisfaction of their thorough paced Disciples, but he that was either an extraordinary Hypocrite, or well advanced in Madness, and whatever Men pretend that have considered the affair but superficially, 'tis necessary to expose that absurd, sensual, and ludicrous Sect, that Metamorphose Religion, and its Solemn Exercises unto Theatrical Scenes. If the great things of Religion be true, if we have any thing that distinguishes us from the Beasts that perish, if our Souls survive our Bodies, and if our belief and hopes of invisible things, and the slate of Retribution be not entirely a Dream: what greater affront can be done to the Majesty of God, the dignity of Human Nature, and the Common Sense of Mankind, than thus by mock Sermons to Lampoon the great Truths of the Gospel? Did not our meek and blessed Saviour chastise the Hypocrisy of the Pharisees with greater severity, than the more open and undisguised lewdness of Publicans and Sinners? And St. Paul treats them with no other Language, than that of dogs, evil workers, and the concision; their Character is more at length in the Epistle of St. Judas; such religious Scorners do in the most effectual manner promote Atheism, and they that Act Devotion after the manner of a Farce, do expose it more than the Wits, and the Philosophers.  
Upon this consideration alone the Presbyterian Preachments do more harm to Piety, than the most subtle Arguments of Ancient and Modern Atheists: we are supported against Atheism by the strength of Natural Reason, when we are attacked gravely by plausible appearances: but when we are surprised and disarmed by the sudden insinuations of Raillery, we are quickly overcome, not because we are weak, but because we do not resolutely encounter the Enemy. One Sermon mixed with such fooleries, as give occasion to this Digression, do more real hurt than can be imagined; and if it be a fault to Publish them, how intolerable is it to Preach them, and to support Societies that seem to design nothing less than to ridicule all Religion. But it is the just Judgement of God, that they who have forsaken the Unity of the Church should be given up to strong delusions.  
In the third part of his Pamphlet, he heaps together some monstrous and ridiculous Stories against the Clergy, and though one had sufficient strength to grapple with a Scavenger and lay him in the Mire, yet methinks the undertaking is neither generous nor decent. There are a great many of them that he asperses that I know nothing off, so it is not reasonable to expect that I should meddle in their affairs, and yet if they were the most arrant Villains upon Earth, I am able to demonstrate, that his Testimony against them is not Valid. And therefore I humbly beg of all disinterested Strangers to consider but a few Particulars; and then let them judge whether the accusations of Presbyterians against the Episcopal Church of Scotland are to be valued.  
First, They may remember that this way of Libelling, is the true Characteristic of the Party, and we need gather no other instances to prove this, than the Practices of their General Assembly, Anno 1638. Who (when they Sat) Libelled the Venerable Archbishop Spotswood, and all his Brethren of that Order, of the most abominable Crimes, and charged them with the sins of Habitual Lying, Swearing, Drunkenness, Adultery, Incest, Sodomy, and Sorcery, with an etc. and they passed their Censures upon them as guilty of these Abominations, and inserted the names of particular Gentlemen as Witnesses, who were never acquainted with this Contrivance: and ordered all the Ministers of the Nation to Read all these Libels and Sentences from their Pulpits, as if the whole Process had been fairly examined, and the Witnesses had appeared before that Packed Jury of Mock ecclesiastics.  
Now this was the Solemn Act of the whole Party met in a General Assembly, who concerted those Methods, when they were mutually conscious to the Knavery of one another, and defying the Omniscience of Heaven, went on resolutely against their own Convictions, as well as the Practice of all former Ages. It is but ordinary for private Men to assault the Reputation of others, but what degrees of wickedness must they arrive to, that Combine together, and own to one another, that the plainest Laws of God might be trampled upon, rather than miss their end. And this Villainy is still upon Record, and to their everlasting disgrace undeniable, and will continue so, as long as there are any Monuments of that Nation preserved.  
Their Predecessors thus United, found Calumny the most proper Weapon, and effectual Instrument to serve their Malice, and to disgrace amongst the deluded People, Grave, Learned, Loyal, and Judicious Men; and the People were quickly undeceived, when the Covenanters got into the Saddle: for from the year 1638. to the year 1652. (when Oliver grew weary of their insolence) the Nation groaned under the saddest and most unutterable Bondage. The Reader is therefore desired to remember that no Man can continue a Presbyterian without the Arts of Calumny. Omne imperium conservatur iisdem artibus quibus primò acquiritur: and when the Varnish of Hypocrisy drops off, than the Tyranny supported by it must sink. The Presbyterians began their Faction with Calumny, and they cannot now (if they would) lay it aside. What could the Episcopal Clergy expect from their present Persecutors, less than their Predecessors met with in that General Assembly? Who stuck at nothing, how monstrous soever, to promote their end; when they forbear to breath, than it is that they forbear to Slander and Calumniate.  
When upon the late Revolution the Presbyterians were empowered more plainly to discover their Nature, the first thing they betook themselves to was that of Libelling; and when they have now wearied themselves (if they can be wearied of what is so natural to the Faction) and exposed their own Reputation by invading that of other men's, they must yet go on, not that they find this Method successful, but because they cannot forbear; and it is enough for the Reader to know that they cannot name three of the Clergy of Scotland justly deprived for Immoralities, after all their Insidious Arts, Libel, and Clamours since the Revolution.  
But to make the Villainy of that General Assembly, I lately named a little 
Anno 1638.  more conspicuous, I desire the Reader may remember a very memorable Story. It is this, The Assembly pretended that the Bishops were proved guilty of all the Crimes that were imputed to them, by sufficient Evidence; and therefore they inserted the names of several Gentlemen, and others, in their Sentences, as Witnesses of the Libels. And in their Sentence against the Archbishop Spotswood, the Laird of Balfour, in Fife, was named as a Witness, whereas this Honest Gentleman never knew any thing of the matter; and all the time of the Sitting of that Mock Assembly, he had never been from his own House, which is at least threescore Miles from Glasgow. But Mr. Colin Adam, Minister of Anstruther-Easter, did Read the 
That you may be fully informed of the 〈◊〉, disingenuity, illegal Practices, and tumultuous Villainies of the Covenanters, you are earnestly desired to Read King Charles I. large Declaration in Folio. Lond. Printed for R●b. Young, 1639.  Sentence against the Archbishop, from the Pulpit upon a Sunday, according to the Assemblies appointment, the Laird of Balfour being in the Church, and hearing his own name Read as a Witness of the Libel against the Archbishop, went out of the Church, and immediately after Sermon called for the Minister, and challenged him how he could Read His name in such a Villainous Paper, since he himself knew that he had not been from Home all the time of the Assembly, and so could not have been a Witness there. To which the Minister answered, that he knew well enough he was not a Witness, but the Assembly had inserted his name, and he durst not but Read as they had ordered. Now let the World judge what an Assembly this was, and what Credit ought those Enemies of Mankind and good Nature ever to have, after such a palpable Wickedness; that when they had charged the Fathers of the Church with such Abominations, they should presume to abuse the names of Particular Gentlemen, as Witnesses of their own inventions.  
After this piece of undeniable History, I would gladly know, whether any Modest Man thinks it necessary, that a particular answer should be returned to the odious Libel against the unstained Reputation of that Pious, Prudent, Learned, and Loyal Martyr Archbishop Sharp, who cannot be named, but to the disgrace of the Scotch Presbyterians. I need not upon this occasion run out into Tragical Exclamations against their Impudence, the more they Lie, the more true they are to the Spirit of the Party. They cannot be more kind to his Reputation than they were to his Life, whom they barbarously murdered, and whose Assassins were magnified in their Pamphlets. And 
Vide Hind let loose.  though this little unknown Accuser pretends that he was not Murdered by the Presbyterians, because (forsooth) one of their Ministers in Holland refused the Sacrament to one of the Murderers, yet it was undeniably the effect of their united Combination, and justified in their 
Vide Hind let lose throughout.  Pamphlets, and attempted once, and threatened frequently before. We dare him, and all his Associates, to answer what Mr. sheild's has Written relating to this Affair: my meaning is, that this effort of their Villainy was not the result of private Passion, but the avowed and just Consequence of their Principles, and then let their Patrons tell me if they meet with any thing worse in the Morals of the Jesuits, that are every where so justly exposed. They agree in their Notions, but exceed them far by their Bawling, Rudeness, and Buffonery. The Jesuit is Mannerly and Artificial, but the Scotch Presbyterian seems to act by the mechanism of his Nature.  
Slanders and Calumny, being thus Authorized by the Assembly, it was no wonder to see their Leading Men Practise the same Villainies; therefore it is that you find Mr. Rutherford, Gravely and Maliciously, accuse the Bishops of the same Crimes, that the Assembly accused them of, in his Preface to Lex Rex, which I cannot Cite more particularly, having no Books by me.  
Secondly, Such as are Strangers to our affairs, must remember that this Trade of Libelling the Clergy is no Reflection upon our Country. For the whole Body of the Clergy of England 
Vid. Centuries of Scandalous Ministers complained of to the Parliament, Anno 1646.  were thus maliciously assaulted, and all the Crimes Libelled against them, that their Enemies could invent. And if such an illustrious Body of ecclesiastics were thus rudely treated, can the Clergy of Scotland, under their present Miseries and Oppressions, expect fairer Quarters.  
Thirdly, I desire the Reader to consider with how much Rudeness and Ignorance, this unknown Lampooner bespatters the present Clergy of the Church of England, and the Laity of her Communion. It is no part of my business to transcribe his Characters 
* You may meet with them at length Page 4. of his Pamphlet. , if he had assaulted only some private Men, in some remote Corners of our Country, he might be thought only to defend his own Party, but when he foams nothing but Spite and Rancour, and Violence, against all Men of whatever Rank, Nation, or Dignity, I again wish the unbiased Reader to tell me if this Man should be particularly answered. It is not possible for him to hide his Nature, the paltry cruptions of his Choler are ungovernable. He seems to forget his own design (which was to make the Scotch Clergy odious in England) he accuses them before whom he Pleads, as much as those who were the first Objects of his Indignation.  
But this is not enough, he attacks not only our prime Nobility and Gentry, but all our Kings since the Reformation. I am alraid I have troubled you too much, and therefore I make haste in a word or two, to examine the Characters he gives of particular men, as far as I know them.  
Some he accuses as guilty of gross Immoralities, that were actually for such Immoralities deposed and censured by their Ecclesiastic Superiors, such were Dean Hamilton, Ninian Paterson, John Anderson of Terregles, and Kockburn of St. Bothens. And is it not very strange that he should accuse the justice of our Ecclesiastical Superiors, because of such vicious persons as were actually censured by their Authority. So it seems in this man's Language they are accountable for them whom they censure, as well as for others. Others he names that are not at all of my acquaintance, and it is nothing but what I expected, that the Agents of the party would employ their little Missionaries to gather Stories from all corners of the Country amongst their Disciples.  
The first that he endeavours to abuse, is Dr. Paterson Archbishop of Glasgow, and that in a stile becoming the true race of the Gnostics, I mean Scotch Presbyterians, who have no other precedents in History, than these impure Sectaries, whose lives were a disgrace to humane Nature, as well as a reproach to Religion. The World is not yet so besotted as to think that the Archbishop of Glasgow needs particular answers. Indeed, I must acknowledge that the Author has pretty well secured himself against such Apologies: his accusations are so obscene, that no Christian must name them; and therefore he has hid himself in a Cloud of Forgeries, that none can repeat but a Devil, and none could invent but the Author. The Archbishops Character, Merit and Parts, cannot but draw upon him the Odium of the whole Party. And I wish with all my heart, they had not tried his patience by more terrible methods, than those of Pasquil's 
Vid. Pag. 64.  and Calumnies.  
The next of my Acquaintance is Mr. Brown Minister of Drysdale, and the foolish Notes that he makes him to have preached, is a pure Forgery, a Lie in which there is not any mixture of truth. His connivances of the Adultery of Lockerby with Archbald Johnstone of Kirkburn's Wife, is of the same stamp with the former, for he prosecuted the Adulterer so vigorously, that he got him excommunicated, and continued so under the highest Censures of the Church, until the evidences of his repentance obliged the Bishop to absolve him.  
In the next Paragraph he mentions Mr. Cant, whom he names underling to 
Pag. 66.  Mr. Hamilton, and whom he rails at again. Mr. Andrew Cant was never underling 
Pag. 71.  to any dead nor alive, though still subordinate to his Governors both Civil and Ecclesiastical: the unaffected freedom of his temper makes him now and then a scourge to Hypocrites, and he still preaches the Gospel to all that observe him by his patience, as he did lately by his excellent Sermons: and the stories forged of him are but the exhalations of the Libelers infectious breath.  
In the next Paragraph to Mr. Cant, he mentions severals who had their Mission and Education from the Presbyterians, and if they preached such things, we know to whom they owe it; many of 'em are dead long since, and it was not possible upon the restitution of the Government, Anno 1660, so speedily to recover the Clergy from Presbyterian fooleries, for though they complied with Episcopacy, such as grew old under Presbytery, spoke still the Language of Ashdod: for being enjoined under Presbytery to preach perpetually against Montrose, and the Malignants: they stumbled now and then into their former blundering; and it is pleasant to see this Man accuse the Church for the sayings of Presbyterians, who though they complied with Episcopacy upon the restoration of the Government; yet still they wore the marks of their former slavery in their Phrase as well as in their Faces, such are most of them he names, Pag. 66. 67.  
But the most impetuous Efforts of his malice are levelled against Dr. Canaries. The Doctor told me, That these were not the first Essays of their Civility towards him; for he being employed by some of the Episcopal Clergy to represent their grievances at Court, the Presbyterians from that very moment fixed their Eye upon him, and prosecuted him with all the Calumnies that their fury and common practices in such cases could suggest unto them. But still they found the Doctor too hard for them, and the wise Men amongst them have frequently owned to him, that as they hated such Methods, so they highly disapproved the particular injustice that was done to the Doctor. Mr. Spalding who was Clerk to the first pretended Assembly after the Revolution, and is now one of the Preachers of Dundee, was put upon searching after such a Story; but (as he confessed to Mr. carstair's) he found there was nothing to be made of it. And the Doctor appeals, both to Mr. carstair's, and Mr. Spalding for the truth of this, and he doubts not but that they will readily do him justice in it, and and it is very odd that this Libeler should accuse him of new, when he stood two Trials before the Privy Council, when it was highly Presbyterian, and proceeded against the Episcopal Clergy with the greatest rigour: and another before a Presbyterian Synod, in which all the Members except three Ministers, and three ruling Elders, were mighty violent against him. And in both these Trials he so baffled his Accusers, that the Judicatories treated him with special Honour, and acquitted him from all the Calumnies that were charged upon him, and reproved his Enemies for their malicious libelling of him. And this Narrative the Doctor can prove by authentic Extracts, which he has in his own hands. So that the underling Pedlars amongst the Presbyterians may write what they please, 'tis not now in their power to hurt him. And the Doctor further appeals to the Presbytery of Selkirk, when he was there, how readily they would have received him into their Communion, such a particular esteem they had for him. The Story that's metamorphosed by this Accuser into a prodigious villainy is no more than this, That the Doctor, when he was a Boy at the University, fell into the Company of two other Young Gentlemen at Dundee, and they three walking about the Fields in the Summertime, met in the Evening with some Women that were watching in the Fields the Linen that they had washed, the other two Gentlemen accosted some of these Women, by amorous and foolish Embraces, and the Doctor over hearing one of them squeak, he called them back, and chid them for what they had done, and told them if there was any noise made about it, he would declare he had no accession to it. And when this trisling Story was examined before the Presbytery of Dundee, both the Women, and the other two Gentlemen acquitted the Doctor, and constantly owned that he had no share in it at all. And this is remarkable, that there was no Circumstance relating to it, but what was examined by Mr. Rate, than Minister of Dundee, an Indulged Presbyterian. Nor did the Doctor go out of the Nation till two years after that, upon occasion of his Father's death. By this Story one may see the Malice, and indefatigable Industry of that Sect, it was the Doctor's early fate to be accused by the Presbyterians; and though no part of the Story be within any possible degrees of Truth: yet the Reader may see, how the Libeler Vapours, as if he had the best and clearest Evidence. And since the Doctor has lived eighteen or nineteen years beyond the reach of Calumny, blameless, to the Conviction of his Enemies, how foolish, and how impious is it to accuse him.  
As for his being Popish he has given an account of that in the Preface to his Sermon Printed at London 1686; but that he was a Jesuit is a Lie, for he was never of any Order in that Church, and his Zeal against Popery did sufficiently appear, and all that know him, know his Innocence, as to all the malicious Slanders invented against him.  
The following Paragraph, pag. 72. mentions Mr. Monro, commonly called Doctor Monro. I am sufficiently acquainted with the Doctor, and he says so little of him, that I may be allowed to examine it particularly. First, He's commonly called Dr. Monro, and the meaning of this is one of two, either a Fanatic Squeamishness that will not allow the Title of Doctor to any Clergy Man; or, an insinuation that he was not graduated Doctor in the University. If the first be intended, 'tis but a piece of Quakerism, the 4th. day of the Week commonly called Wednesday. If the second be meant, he was not called Doctor until the Month of February 1682, when he received his Degree in the Theological Schools of the New College at St. Andrews from the Learned Doctor Comri, than Vice Chancellor of the University.  
Our Libeler adds that he is a mighty Agent for the Party. If he has any qualities to recommend him, that of a good Agent is none of them. And again, he is represented to be one of the Episcopal Pamphleteers. I do not know what he means by this, unless he charges him with publishing the Presbyterian Inquisition. It may be he was the Author of that Narrative, which he is ready to justify if ever he is fairly tried (excepting still some Marginal Notes relating to Mr. Rule, to which he had no accession) and this Pamphlet contains so many steps of Presbyterian Knavery and disingenuity, that if he please he may let it alone.  
But the saddest blow against the Doctor is this, that it is well known that he 
Pag. 72.  Road for several years in the Pope's Guards, but I ask, to whom is this known? To the Presbyterians only, who know all secrets, and discover Plots in the World of the Moon? But I must tell you that for the time the Doctor was abroad, he was never out of France, and the Confines of it, nor nearer to Rome than about four hundred and eighty Italian Miles. It were more easy for this Accuser to have Copied the former Libel contained in the Presbyterian Inquisition, than thus to trust to his own invention.  
Mr. Grace comes next, if he mean Mr. James Grace, Minister of Kelso, he is remarkable for his Modesty, Learning, Veracity, and Piety, and he is Charactered in an opposite Style, by such as neither know him, nor the virtuous that recommend him to his Brethren.  
Mr. George Henry, Minister of Corstorphen, is a Man of Gravity and Prudence, 
Pag. 78.  and his other qualifications are undeniable, and he is not capable of any such extravagance of Passion as this common Accuser charges him with.  
Mr. Alexander Ramsay, Minister of the Old Kirk of Edinburgh, was driven from his Residence in the West by the Covenanted Zealots, and lived since in the Eye of the Nation, beloved of all that know him, whether we consider his blameless Life, or Ministerial Sufficiencies.  
Dr. Annan Dean of Edinburgh was known all Scotland over, and there was scarcely ever a more innocent Man in Britain, and he needs no Apology.  
Now 'tis pleasant enough to observe, that in all this List he hath not named the Author of Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence, nor the Publisher.  
I have given you a short account of such as I know, for such as I am not acquainted with, I have no reason to believe this Libeler. For if they were never so guilty, they must have other Accusers than Men of such Prostitute Consciences. His Civility to the Church of 
* Vide Page 4. throughout.  England alone, makes it appear how little he is to be regarded. He begins his Book with a 
† Printed for Tho. Anderson near Charing-Cross. 1693.  Lie in the Title Page, that it might be all of a piece. As for any Shadows of Argument that are here and there scattered, if they be of any weight they shall be considered when the other Pamphlets, that are threatened by the Party, are made public.  
Farewell.  
FINIS.