SECT. I.-CHAP. I.

The true Character of the Presbyterian Pastors and People in Scotland.

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UR blessed Saviour, in his Sermon on the Mount, bids us beware

of false Teachers; and tells us, That by their Fruits we may know them: Such Fruits are not open and publick Scandals, for then the simple Multitude (that measure Religion by the Sound and not by the Sense) could not so easily be deluded by them. It must be acknowledged that the End of Preaching, should be the Edification of the Hearers; the Design of it being to perswade Men to Piety towards God, and Charity towards one another, and to draw the Image of God upon the Souls of Men. But it will appear from what follows, That the Scotch Presbyterians Sermons have no such tendency; for the Preachers themselves (who would have the World believe, that they only are the Powerful and Soul-refreshing Gospellers) have not been industrious to draw the Likeness of God upon the Hearts of their Hearers, but merely to impress their own Image there; that is, they labour'd not to make good Christians, but rigid Presbyterians.

That I may not be thought to assert this without Ground, (for I would not slander the Devil) I shall first give you the true Character of the Presbyterian Pastors and People. 2. I shall lay before you, some remarkable Passages taken out of their own printed Books, to confirm this Character. 3. Some special Notes (written from their own Mouths) as they preached them under the happy Reign of King Charles II. and since the late Revolution. Lastly, I shall give you some Taste of that Extemporary Gibberish which they use instead of Prayer, and for which they have justled out, not only all the Liturgies of the Pure and Primitive

Church, but even the Lord's Prayer itself, because it is an evident Argument and Pattern for Christians praying in a set Form. And in all this I shall say nothing but what I know to be true, and what I am ready to make appear to be so, upon a fair and free Trial, if that may be had where Presbyterians rule..

In the first Place then, I am to give you the true Character of the Presbyterian Pastors and People. I shall begin with the People, for they are truly the Guides, and their Pastors must follow them, whom they pretend to conduct. For the Preachers of the New Gospel, knowing that their Trade hath no old nor sure Foundation, they are forced to flee to this new and unaccountable Notion, that the calling and constituting of Ministers is in the Power of the Mob: Now the World knows by too long and sad Experience, that their Mobile is not led by Reason, nor Religion, but by Fancy and Imagination; so that we may be sure when the Election of Ministers is put in their Hands, they will chuse none but such as will sooth and indulge them in their most extravagant and mad Humours: What Ministers can be expected from the Choice of a People void of common Sense, and guided by irregular Passions, who torture the Scripture, making it speak the Language of their deluded Imaginations. They will tell you, that you ought to fight the Battles of the Lord, because the Scripture says in the Epistle to the Hebrews, Without shedding of Blood there is no Remission. They are generally covetous and deceitful; and the Preaching they are bred with, hath no Tendency to work them into the contrary Virtues. They call Peace, Love, Charity, and Justice, not Gospel, but dry Morality only. I had once very great Difficulty to convince one of them, that it was a Sin, for him to cheat and impose upon his Neighbour in Matters of Trade by concealing the Faults of his Goods from the Buyer. He ask'd my Reason: I told him, because he would not wish one to deal so with himself. That is (said he again) but Morality; for if I shall believe in Christ, I shall be saved. I ask'd him, Was not this Christ's Saying, Whatsoever ye would that others should do unto you, that do you unto others? Yes, he said, that was good, but that Christ, because of the Hardness of the Jews Hearts, spake very much Morality with his Gospel. The poor Man spoke as he was taught and bred in the Conventicles; for it will be very long e're they hear a Sermon upon just Dealing, or Restitution of ill-gotten Goods; and who knows not that despising of Dominions, speaking evil of Dignities, and rising in Arms against the Lord's Anointed, is with them but fighting the Battles of the Lord. One George Flint, in the Parish of Smalholm, in the Shire of Teviotdale, was look'd upon as a very great Saint among them; and yet out of Zeal against the Government, he kept a Dog whom he named Charles, after the King; and a Cat which he named Katherine, after the Queen; and another Dog whom he named Gideon, after the Minister of the Parish. They are a People that will not swear in common Discourse for a World, yet they never scruple before a

Judge any Perjury that may seem to advance the Cause, and stand in their ordinary Dealings to cheat for a Penny; nay, Murther itself becomes a Virtue when the Work of the Covenant seems to require it: And the new Gospel which they profess, is so far from condemning Lying, Cheating, Murther, and Rebellion, when committed to fulfil the Ends of the solemn League, that many of those whom they reckon Martyrs, have at their Execution gloried in these Crimes as the sure Evidences of their Salvation

Morality being thus discountenanced by the Generality of that Party, the poor People are thereby lock'd up in a Cell of Ignorance. This did clearly appear, when the Laws, in the former Government, discharged Conventicles, the People being thereby brought home to the Churches: When Ministers began to catechise them in the Principles of the Christian Religion, they found them grossly ignorant; for when they were desired to repeat the Creed, Lord's Prayer, and Ten Commandments, they told them they were above these childish Ordinances; for if they believed in Christ they were certainly well: And yet these Ignorants would adventure to pray Extempore, and in their Families to lecture upon the most mysterious Chapters of Ezekiel, Daniel, or the Revelation. A grave and good Minister told me, that upon a certain Occasion he desired a very zealous SheSaint to repeat the Creed: And that she returned this Answer, I know not what you mean by the Creed. Did not your Father (says the Minister) promise to bring you up in that Faith? Indeed did he not, (said she :) for, I thank my Saviour, that Superstition was not in my Father's Time. What then was in your Father's Time? (said the Minister.) It was (said she) the holy Covenant, which you have put away. Whether was it the Coveuant of Works or Grace? (said the Minister.) Covenant of Works! (said she,) That is Handy-labour: It was the Covenant of Grace, which was made with Adam, and which all of you have put away. At Night she went home, and a Number of the sighing Fraternity flocked after, pretending to hear her pray; their Family Exercise being ended, she told them the Conference that passed betwixt the Curate and her; and they all concluded she had the better, and that she was certainly more than a Match for the ablest Curate in that Country.

Generally their Conventicles produced very many Bastards, and the Excuses they made for that, was, Where Sin abounds, the Grace of God superabounds: There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ. Sometimes this, The Lambs of Christ may sport together: To the pure all things are pure. Nay, generally they are of Opinion, that a Man is never a true Saint, till he have a sound Fall, such as that of David's with Bathsheba. The following Narrative of a well known Truth shall serve for instance.

A Party of King Charles the Second's Guards being sent to apprehend Mr. David Williamson (one of the most eminent of their Ministers now in

Edinburg) for the frequent Rebellion and Treason he preached then at Sield-Meetings; and the Party having surrounded the House where he was, a zealous Lady, Mistress of the House, being very sollicitous to con. ceal him, rose in all Haste from her Bed, where she left her Daughter of about 18 Years of Age; and having dressed up the Holy Man's Head with some of her own Night-Cloaths, she wittily advised him to take her Place in the warm Bed, with her Girl; to which he modestly and readily consented; and knowing well how to employ his Time, especially upon such an extraordinary Call, to propagate the Image of the Party, while the Mother, to divert the Troopers Enquiry, was treating them with strong Drink in the Parlour, he, to express his Gratitude, applies himself with extraordinary Kindness to the Daughter; who finding him likely to prove a very useful Man in his Generation, told her Mother she would have him for her Husband: To which the Mother, though otherwise unwilling, yet, for concealing the Scandal, out of Love to the Cause, consented, when the Mystery of the Iniquity was wholly disclosed to her. This whole Story is as well known in Scotland, as that the Covenant was begun, and carried on by Rebellion and Oppression.

Nor was the Actor,* who is at this Day one of the chief Props of the Cause, more admir'd for his extraordinary Diligence and Courage in this Matter, than for his excellent Invention in finding a Passage of St. Paul's, to prove, that the Scandal of this was very consistent with the State of a Person truly Regenerate: Verily I do not, said he, deny, but that with St. Paul, I have a Law in my Members, warring against the Law of my Mind, and bringing me into Captivity unto the Law of Sin, which is in my Members. Now according to the Gloss which that whole Party puts upon this Scripture, saying that St. Paul here speaks of himself, and does not personate an unregenerate Man, this Defence of Williamson's must be allowed to be good; as also, that the Height of Carnality is consistent with the greatest Grace. Even so the Hereticks in St. Peter's Days wrested some Things hard to be understood, in St. Paul's Epistles, to their own Destruction.

There was among them a marry'd Woman near Edinburg, who had pay'd several Fines for not going to Church, yet scrupled not to commit Adultery with one of the Earl of Marr's Regiment, and the Fellow himself that was guilty, told, out of Detestation to their damnable Hypocrisy, that the vile Woman had the Confidence, in the Time of her Abomination, to say to him, O you that are in Marr's Regiment! But you be pretty able Men, but yet ye are great Covenant-breakers: Alas! few or none of you are godly.

There are very many Instances of this Nature, but I shall only add one more, which was told me by a Gentleman of good Reputation and Credit, who himself confessed with Regret, that in the Heat of his Youth he had * He was but last Year sent to agent their Affairs at Court

been guilty of the Sin of Fornication with a Gentlewoman of that holy Sect: He says, that being with her in a Garret, and she hearing Somebody come up Stairs, she said to him, Ah, here's my Aunt, I must devise a Trick to divert her. Upon which, she fell a whining, and howling aloud, as these People use to do at their most private Devotions; Oh, to believe, to believe! Oh, to have Experience! said she. And by that Means she diverted her Aunt's farther approaching, who instantly retir'd, commending her Niece's Zeal and Devotion. The Gentleman conceals the Woman's Name, out of regard to her Honour and his own, begs Pardon for the Sin, and tells it only for to discover the abominable Nature of their Hypocrisy.

They are generally deluded by Persons that have but a specious Pretence to Godliness. And such is the Force that a loud Voice, and whining Tone, in broken and smother'd Words, have upon the Animal Spirits of the Presbyterian Rabble, that they look not upon a Man as endued with the Spirit of God, without such Canting, and Deformity of Holiness. A Person that hath the Dexterity of Whining, may make a great Congregation of them weep with an Ode of Horace, or Eclogue of Virgil, especially if he can but drivel a little, either at Mouth or Eyes, when he repeats them. And such a Person may pass for a Soul-Ravishing Spiritualist, if he can but set off his Nonsense with a wry Mouth, which with them is call'd, A Gracepouring down Countenance. The Snuffling and Twang of the Nose, passes for the Gospel-sound; and the Throwings of the Face for the Motions of the Spirit. They are more concerned at the reading of the Speeches of their Covenant Martyrs, yea such Martyrs as dy'd for Rebellion and Murder, than in reading the Martyrdom of St. Stephen, or of any of his Followers. A Sermon of mere Railing and Nonsense will affect them more than Christ's Sermon on the Mount; and no Wonder, for all they do is to affect the Passions, and not the Judgment.

One Mr. Daniel Douglass, an old Presbyterian Preacher in the Mers, a simple Man as to the World, yet of more Learning, Ingenuity, and Goodnature than most of them; he was not long ago preaching before the Meeting of his Brethren, and analysing a Text logically, and very remote from vulgar Capacities, yet so powerful and melting was his Tone and Actions, that in the Congregation he spies a Woman weeping, and pointing towards her, he cries out, Wife, What makes you weep? I am sure thou understandest not what I am saying; my Discourse is directed to the Brethren, and not to the like of you: nay, I question whether the Brethren themselves understand this that I am speaking.

Several Instances can be given of their strong Delusions; this is none of the least, that they take it for a sure Evidence upon their Death-Beds, that it is well with them, because they never heard a Curate in their Lifetime. For an Indulged Presbyterian, who is the Author of the Review of the History of the Indulgence, tells us thus much, Pag. 527. and Pag. 528, That some of the leading People among the Presbyterians were of Opinion,