Claude lets them see, that Luther spoke in a Monkish Stile, and that tho Stile of the Convent did represent Conflicts betwixt the Flesh and Spirit, as personal Exploits with the Devil: To prove this, he instances St. Dominick, who says, that he saw the Devil one Night, in his Iron Hands, carry a Paper to him, which he read by the Light of a Lamp, and told him it was a Catalogue of his Sins, and the Sins of his Brethren; upon which St. Dominick commanded him to leave the Paper with him, which was done accordingly: And afterwards he and his Brethren found Cause to correct something in their Lives. All that is said for this, is, that it is a Romantick Stile proper to the Monks, and all that is meant thereby is this, that the Devil could lay such Sins to their Charge, and their Consciences did smite them, therefore they corrected what they found amiss. But such a Stile did create wrong Ideas in the literal Interpreters of such Narrations: And it is like some of our Reformers, reading Books of this Nature, either thought such Apparitions real, or that they affected the Stile; for it is reported of Mr. Robert Bruce, one of our Scotch Reformers, that having studied the Civil Law, and going one Day to the College of Justice, to pass his Tryals in order to commence Advocate, he said, that he saw a great Gulph in the Close or Court of the Parliament-House, like the Mouth of Hell, and this diverted his Entrance into the House; upon which he gave over the Study of the Law, and applied himself to Theology. Whether the Thing was literally true, or whether the Man had a disturbed Imagination, (as good Men may have) or whether he affected the Stile of the Convent, and meant thus much by it, That the Employment of a Jurist was dangerous, and apt to lead Men into such Temptations as he feared might be too strong for him, I know not what to conclude; but this I am sure of, That one Mr. Thomas Hogg, a very popular Presbyterian Preacher in the North, asked a Person of great Learning, in a religious Conference, whether or not he had seen the Devil? It was answer'd him, That he had never seen him in any visible Appearance. Then I assure you (saith Mr. Hogg) that you can never be happy till you see him in that manner; that is, until you have both a personal Converse and Combat with him. I know nothing more apt to create a more religious Madness in poor well-meaning People, than this sort of Divinity, in which our Presbyterians have quite out-done the senseless old Monks.

T

CHAP. III.

HEIR Principles and Doctrine being, as ye have heard, opposite to Morality, it will not be thought strange that the Height of Pride and Rusticity should appear in their Conversation: The common Civilities due to Mankind, they allow not to Persons of the best Quality, that are of a different Opinion from themselves. To avoid and flee from the Company where a Curate is, as if it were a Pest-House, is a common Sign of Grace: To affront a Prelate openly, is a most meritorious Work, and such as becomes a true Saint: To approve and applaud the Murtherers of the Archbishop of St. Andrews, is an infallible Evidence of one thoroughly reformed. That the World may be satisfied of their Behaviour towards ordinary Men, I shall give you some late Instances of their Carriage towards those of the highest Rank and Quality; the Matters of Fact are such as are known to be true, by Multitudes of People before whom they were acted; and themselves have the Impudence still to glory in them; and yet I will not say but some of the Party may deny them upon Occasion at Court, as they do other Things as evident; for I know what Metal their Foreheads are made of.

1. That when their Majesties Privy Council, by Advice of all the Judges, conformable to a standing Act of Parliament, and common Practice, appointed a Sermon upon the 30th Day of January, 1690-1, the Council some Time before sent a Person of Quality, one of their own Stamp and Kidney, to the Commissioners of the General Assembly, to desire them in their Majesties and Council's Name, to appoint one of their Number to preach before them in St. Giles's Church on that Day, and to put them in Mind that it was the Anniversary for the Martyrdom of King Charles the First, and that a Sermon proper for the Occasion was expected, according to the Religion, Law, and Custom of the Nation. The grave Noddies of the Assembly answer'd thus: Let the Council do their own Business, for we are to receive no Directions from the State, nor to take our Measures from the Council, espec aching anniversary Sermons. Upon which

they appointed Shields, a Cameronian, one of the most wild and violent of the Hill-men, to preach in the Tron Church, wherein they used to have Weekly Lectures, as it happened upon that Day of the Week, but where neither the Lords of Council, nor Judges, were used to come. All that he spoke concerning the King's Murther, was this; Ye, Sirs, perhaps, some of you, may foolishly fancy that I came here to Day to preach to you concerning the Death of King Charles the First: What? Preach for a Man that died 40 Years ago! If it be true what some Histories tell of him, he is very much wronged; but if it be true what we believe of him, and have Ground for, he is suffering the Vengeance of God in Hell this day for his own and his Forefathers Sins. The same Shields, as he was holding forth some Time before at Edinburgh, said, That for aught he saw, King William and Queen Mary were rather seeking an earthly Crown to themselves, than seeking to put the Crown on Christ's Head. That is, in the conventicle Stile, to settle Presbyterian-Government.

This same Year again they peremptorily refused and despised the Privy Council's Order, requiring them, according to a standing Act of Parliament, to preach upon that Day.

2. Inst. Mr. Arsekine, preaching in the Tron Church at Edinburgh, the Day after the King, by open Proclamation, had adjourned the General Assembly, said, Sirs, Ye heard a strange Proclamation the other Day, which I hope the Authors of may repent some Day: It brings to my Mind, Sirs, aa old Story of King Cyrus, who once set his Hands fairly to the building of God's House, but his Hand was not well in the Work, when he drew it out again: All is well that ends well, Sirs; for what think ye became of King Cyrus, Sirs? I'll tell you, that now, Sirs, he e'en made an ill End, he e'en died a bloody death in a strange Land. I wish the like may not befall our King; they say Comparisons are odious, but I hope you will not think that Scripture-Comparisons are so; whatever you may think, I am sure of this, that no King but King Jesus has power to adjourn our General Assembly. This was spoken so lately, before so great an Auditory, that whatever Rule may say in his next Book, yet I think the Author himself will not have the Impudence to deny it.

3. When last Summer their Commissioners returned from King William in Flanders, and told the General Assembly, That the King had positively told them that he would not any longer suffer them to oppress and persecute the Episcopal Subjects; and desired them in his Name to acquaint the General Assembly with his Mind, that for the Time to come they should proceed more moderately, otherwise he would let them know that he is their Master; the Moderators said openly, That if it were not for the great Army he had with him, he durst not have said so to them; and however, he had been wiser to have held his Peace, for that they owned no Master but Christ.

When King William in January last desired them, by his Letter to the

General Assembly, to re-admit into the Exercise of the Ministry, so many of the Episcopal Presbyters as should be willing to submit to and comply with a Formula which his Majesty sent to them, and appointed to be the Terms of Communion betwixt the Parties: This Proposal of Peace and Union, which moderate Presbyterians might have been thought to have rejoiced in, was insolently rejected, and exclaimed against by all the Assembly, except one Mr. Orack.* Then the common Discourse and Preaching of Presbyterians was, that King William designed to dethrone King Jesus; that the prescribing to them any Formula was an Encroachment upon Christ's Kingdom, and a violent Usurpation of his Privileges; that any Formula but the Covenant is of the Devil's own making, and ought not to be tolerated by Presbyterians. The Moderator of the General Assembly, in his Prayer immediately after its Dissolution, reflected upon King William as sent in Wrath to be a Curse to God's Kirk. He and the whole Assembly protested against the King's Power to dissolve them, and before his Commissioner disclaimed all his Authority that Way: Afterwards, to make their Testimony (that's their Word for Treason) publick, they went to the Cross of Edinburgh, and took a formal Protestation after the old Manner against the King, in Behalf of the People of God, (by which they intend their own Subjects.) The magnanimous Earl of Crawford vowed before the Commissioners, that he would adhere to the Protestation with his Life and Fortune, two Things equally great and valuable.

Their ordinary Doctrine and Discourse in the Pulpit, and out of it, speaking of the Kirk and King, is, Deliverance will come from another Hand, but thou and thy House shall perish. Mr. Matthew Red, holding forth the new Gospel at his Kirk in North-Berwick, Feb. 20th, 1691-2, said, The Kirk of Scotland is presently under the same Condition that David was, when he was so sore persecuted and pursued by Saul, that he seemed to have no way left him to escape; but then a Messenger came and told Saul, that the Philistines had invaded the Land; this gave Saul some other †Tow in his Rock, and by that David was delivered. This Mr. Red being that same Night with another of his Brethren at Supper, at a Knight's House in that Parish, told him plainly, that by the Philistines in his Sermon he meant the French. And both the new Gospellers agreed, that the Kirk of Seotland could not now be otherwise delivered, but by an Invasion of the French to restore King James. This Account I had from a Gentleman of good Credit, who was present both at the Sermon and Supper. Mr. Stenton, one of their most noted Preachers, said in an open Company, the Day after the Assembly was dissolved, That they had appointed their next Meeting in 1693, hoping that before that Time they might have another King, who would allow them better Conditions. They now lay great Stress

* A Person who was well educated, and justly esteemed at St. Andrew's University.

That is in English some other Fish to fry.

upon the Prophecy of an old Man in the West, who at his dying in 1689 said, The perfect Deliverance of God's Kirk must come after all by the French, for this King William will not do it. And say commonly, that they brought in a Dog for God's Sake, and that he now begins to bite the Bairnes.

This being their Way of treating a King, who has condescended to oblige them even to his own Loss, and to the Wonder of Mankind; what may their Fellow-Subjects, especially such as are not of their Biggotry, or Opinion, expect from them? That this is no new Thing to them, nor the Actings only of some few of the more rigid Sort of them, is evident from their extravagant and constant Course of Rudeness to King James the Second, and to both the Charles's, whereof many Instances are to be seen in their own Books; some of them you may meet with in the next Section.

All the Presbyterians profess, that the keeping of Anniversary Days, even for the greatest Blessing of the Gospel, is Superstition and Popery. For the modestest of them that ever spake last Year against Christmas, was Frazer of Bray, who preaching in the high Church of Edinburgh, in his ordinary Turn upon that Day on which Christmas fell, all that he said, was, Some will think that I will speak either for the Day or against it: To speak against it I see no Reason, and to speak for it I see as little; for why should we keep our Saviour's Birth-day, and not his Conception. Had this Man been but acquainted with the Liturgy of the Primitive Church, or of that in the Neighbour-Nation, he might have found that they keep Annunciationday for the Conception, and this would have broke the strongest Horn of his Presbyterian Dilemma. But for all the abhorrence that Presbyterians have, and do profess against the Observation of Anniversary-Days, yet they never missed to preach an Anniversary-Sermon on Mr. Heriot, who built and endowed the great Hospital in the City of Edinburgh; the Reason is, that for every Sermon in Heriot's Commendation, they get five Pounds, a new Hat, and a Bible. If they could have made but the same Purchase by preaching on Christmas, it's more than probable that they would have thought the annual Observation of our Saviour's Birth, as little superstitious as that of Mr. Heriot's Memory.

But the Disingenuity, Hypocrisy, and Covetousness of that Party, appear not only in this, but in many other Particulars; for who clamour'd more than Presbyterians against Plurality of Benefices, which was never allowed, nor practised under Episcopacy in our Kingdom, and now several of them are suing for five or six Stipends at once, viz., the great Apostles of the new Gospel. Dr. Rule, Mr. John and Mr. William Vetches, Mr. David Williamson, and Mr. John Dickson. I cannot here omit a Passage of Mr. James Kirton, now a famous Preacher in Edinburgh, who held forth formerly in a Meeting-House about three-and-twenty Miles from it, in the Parish of St. Martin, within the Shire of the Mers, in which Parish there