A MEMORIAL For His HIGHNESS the Prince of Orange, In Relation to the AFFAIRS OF SCOTLAND: Together with The ADDRESS of the Presbyterian-Party in that Kingdom to His HIGHNESS; AND Some OBSERVATIONS on that Address.  
By two Persons of Quality.  Psal. xcv. 10. Forty years long have I been grieved with this generation, etc. 
Licenced.  
LONDON, Printed for Randal Tailor near Stationers Hall. 1689.   

A MEMORIAL for His 
* N. B. These were written some time before the Prince was proclaimed King of England, etc.  Highness the Prince of Orange in relation to the Affairs of Scotland.  
May it please Your Highness,  
THE Rise of our Animosities, and the reason why they are warmer in Scotland than in England, is, That England reform by the Royal Authority, and therefore the Government of their Church was suited to the Monarchy; but Scotland Reforming by force and violence, some of our Reformers coming from Geneva, and the Republics of Switzerland, though otherwise good Divines, yet were so far mistaken in their Politics as to inspire many of their Converts with an aversion to the Monarchy, as well as to Popery; Buchanan and others wrote Books which were thereafter condemned as Treasonable even in King James' minority. These Puritans (as they were then called) so vexed the righteous Soul of King james the 6th, that he was never at ease or secure till he succeeded to the Crown of England, and then he settled Episcopacy in Scotland; as most suitable to the Monarchy, and fitted to unite the two Kingdoms: and though it was fully agreed to for many years, yet some factious and ambitious Noblemen being desirous to advance themselves, though by the ruin of their Country; and some Priest ridden and blind Zealots among the Gentry, admiring the Parts and Persons of their Enthusiastic Preachers, were instigated by them to join with the Puritanical Party, and at length to rise in a most unjustifiable War against their lawful Sovereign. During which, the Presbyterians entered in a Covenant, wherein they obliged themselves by solemn Oath to extirpate Prelacy and bring all opposers of their Covenant to condign punishment: and thereafter into a League with England, wherein they obliged themselves to reform England after the Model of the best reformed Churches abroad, for their own ends leaving the Rule thus general. All these Oaths and Leagues being entered into by Subjects without and against, yea and in despite of the Royal Authority, and the evident design of them being to overturn the fundamental constitution of the Church and State in the two Kingdoms, were therefore mostly justly condemned as Treason by the Parliaments in both Nations. Notwithstanding whereof, the Covenanters in prosecution of the black designs of these Oaths, raised first the Rabble, and afterwards strong Armies against that most pious and Protestant King Charles I. who out of a religious desire as much as in him lay to preserve their peace and his own, condescended to all that they desired, in a Parliament held by himself at Scotland. But the lust of rebellious Zealots hath no bounds; for the Faction encouraged with this success, and having obtained now the Government of the Church, they immediately after usurped that of the State, calling by their own pretended Authority rebellious Parliaments, wherein they rescinded all the Royal Prerogatives, murdered thousands of the King's best subjects, and almost quite ruined all the Ancient Families of the Nation who opposed them, preferring and enriching chiefly mean and factious persons who headed the Rabble, robbing more from these Loyal Families in one month, without any pretext of Law, than hath been exacted from them since the King's Restauration in prosecution of it; besides the many other barbarities which they committed under pretext of Religion; as the Poyniarding hundreds of them in cold blood after Quarter granted, and the hanging them with the King's Commission about their Necks. At length having robbed the King of all Power to defend himself, they gave him perfidiously up to those who inhumanly murdered him at his own Palace-gate, to the great reproach and scandal of the Reformation; themselves being all the while after supported by these very Regicides, against the Royalists, whom they called Malignants; till God restored King Charles II. and then offers of Peace and Pardon were made to these Presbyterians, provided, they would but disown the Covenant and their rebellious principles. But they refusing all offers, Episcopacy was restored chiefly for the Monarchies sake: The Faction being enraged at this, proceeded with all fire and fury to preach up Rebellion in their Conventicles. The Parliament in the mean time justly displeased at this insolence and contempt of Authority, and desirous to secure the peace and the people from the Poison of rebellious and false Doctrine, appointed all to come to Church; whereupon they broke forth in open Rebellions, and some of their Ring leaders being taken in the guilt, and not disowning nor promising to help these faults, were punished in order to terrify others; and this is all the Severity complained of.  
By this your Highness may see:  
1. That You being come to support our Laws, You are in honour bound to support Episcopacy, which is confirmed by twenty seven Parliaments.  
2. That Episcopacy is necessary for support of the Monarchy, and that the Scottish Presbytery is not opposed by us as an Ecclesiastical Government, but as having incorporated into it many horrid Principles, inconsistent with humane Society, in which the Monarchy is more concerned than we.  
3. That what these who were in the Government did, was conform to Law, and that these Laws were made for preservation of the Protestant Religion, Monarchy, humane Society, and Self-defence. And that they value their Church-Government more than the Protestant Religion, is clear by their late compliance with the Papists upon getting an Indulgence; Whereas the Church of England and we hazarded all rather than comply; They magnified the dispensing Power, and we opposed it.  
4. This appears more clearly by their present Principles, whereby many, as we are informed own, that Subjects have a right to force their King to do them Justice, and that they are his Judges, and may dethrone him; That the Rebellion against King Charles the First and Second, and in favour of the Duke of Monmouth were just; and that the Monarchy being returned by Forfeiture to the People, there remains no Prerogative with future Kings who are to have no more power than the People will give them: and because we love the Monarchy, we are decried as Slaves; whereas it had been easier for us to have connived at their Insolences, and to become Republicans with them.  
5. To evidence that they resolve not as yet to be quiet; They in place of accommodating differences at this time, wherein all Protestants should show what happy change they hope for from Your Highness coming to restore our Religion and Laws, do threaten Magistrates out of their Government, and Ministers from their Charges, forcing them to swear, after many indignities, that they shall never return to their Employments, doing thereby all that in them lies to disgrace Your Highness' designs, and to persuade the Nation that they only must give Measures, and that none can live peaceably there without complying with all their Inclinations.  
6. That their numbers are not near so great as ours, appears convincingly from this: that twenty seven Parliaments have run unanimously against them under four Kings, and that they have still been easily overcome in all their Rebellions: and though now they appear numerous here, yet that proceeds from their being all here, upon design to make themselves appear considerable, that they may be thought necessary; and to the end, that some of them may recover what was justly taken from them, and may get Employments by procuring the Possessors to be incapacitated. Whereas others, trusting to the Laws, the Interest of the Monarchy and Your Highness' just sense of things, thought no such appearance necessary till the Convention. These Presbyterians have also instigated some Tumults, to fright honest Men, who will not rise in Arms without Authority, yet if there be not Forces sent down under well-principled Officers, they will be forced again to beg leave to raise new Forces in self-defence, without which we can neither live at home nor go to serve Your Highness in the Convention.  
7. Many of them pretending that their Presbytery is jure divino, and that they are bound to it by Oaths (though declared Treason) do own that they can submit to no Laws inconsistent with Presbytery, whereas we are ready to comply with whatever Your Highness and a Parliament shall find convenient for the Monarchy and the good of the Kingdom, being grieved at those Animosities in which they delight. And to demonstrate our Innocence and our readiness to accommodate all matters justly, we desire to be heard before Your Highness or any You shall name.  
8. We do in the next place, offer to Your Highness' Consideration, whether in this Age, wherein Episcopacy is acknowledged to have been the best Bulwark against Popery, the English, who so justly love and reverence Episcopacy will unite with Scotland, if subjected to Presbytery; especially since the Presbyterians, who generally own the Covenant▪ are sworn to extirpate Episcopacy, having violently and effectually concurred in the last Age, to throw it out of both Nations. Which Oath will certainly bind them to overthrow Episcopacy in England more industriously, when England by the Union becomes a part of their native Country.  
We design not by this to load all of that persuasion, amongst whom we confess many are so moderate as to deserve, that for their sake we should incline heartily to such an Indulgence as may satisfy sober Dissenters, nor would we have troubled your Highness with this Account, if we had not been assured that there was an Address prepared, craving a total extinction of Episcopacy, as contrary to the divine right of Presbytery; which if it be acknowledged, they can be subject to no Law; and the Covenant, though illegal and irreligious, must be the Rule: Which if yielded, no sober Man can live in security; and though some things may now be reform in that Address by advice from London, yet the first draught shows their inclination: And even the extinction of Episcopacy which will certainly be craved, they being sworn to it in their Covenant, obliges us to offer this in defence of our Laws, and to prevent the inconveniences and insolences which would ensue on so great an Alteration.  
Lastly, We humbly entreat Your Highness to consider, that in the Church, as it is now established by Law under Episcopacy amongst us, we have no Ceremonies at all, no not so much as any form of Prayer, no Music but singing in the Churches, the Doctrine and Discipline is the same both in the Church and Conventicle; and in a word not one Ace of difference between the two, but that in the present Church instead of their Moderators, whom themselves have sometimes confessed may be Constant, we have Bishops whom the King is pleased to make Lords, allowing the Presbyters a free Vote in their Elections; and even the Bishops govern only by Presbyteries and Synods, as the World shall have a more particular and full account of hereafter. And now after this we leave Your Highness and the World to judge, what just ground they have for their separation from our Church's Communion: or if the difference betwixt us and the Presbyterians, for such they all own themselves, be indeed such as may justify their constant clamour, present noise and tumults, their uncharitable Censures and cruel Persecutions of their reformed Brethren; whether the difference betwixt us be truly such as may warrant their dividing the Church, disturbing the State, and weakening the Reformation, which Your Highness hath so generously and piously engaged to protect; and which we shall always heartily pray God to prosper You in.  
THe Reader is desired to observe first, that the Figures placed in the Address, lead to the Annotations, on that part of it which are marked with the same Figures. Secondly, that the public Resolutioners and Remonstrators were two conten●ding Parties among the Scots Presbyterians, who as they found favour from the Usurper, or had Power and Interest with the Rabble, mutually excommunicated and persecuted one another. These were called Public Resolutioners, who adhered to the public Resolves of the State in favours of the King: and they called Remonstrators, who dissented from these Proceedings of the Public, by their open Remonstrances against them.  

The PRESBYTERIAN ADDRESS FROM SCOTLAND TO THE Prince of Orange.  
May it please  
WHen we begin to think how the Lord hath blessed your illustrious Progenitors in being the happy Instruments of so much good to his Church, and in standing in the Gap, and appearing for the People of God, his Truth and Interest in Times of the greatest Extremity, when matters seemed desperate in the Eyes of all who could look no higher than the Hand of second Causes, and how the Lord crowned their resolute Endeavours with the Success of planting a beautiful Church in the United Provinces, and delivering the People of God there from the fury of the Spanish Persecutions. And that your Royal Highness hath succeeded these Worthies of the Lord, as in their Estates and Dignities, so in their Zeal for the Gospel of Christ, sympathy withi his suffering People, and magnaninous Resolution in appearing in such an astonishing way for the Kingdom of our Lord jesus, and for his faithful Servants, while lying in the Mouth of the Lion, while Refuge failed, and we looked on the Right and Left Hands and no Man was found till the Lord raised up your Highness, and put it in your Heart to lay down Life and all things of a corporal Interest at the stake, while ye did act for his Glory, and lamentably oppressed Servants. Ah, we have not Hearts to prise that wonderful Mercy, the greatness of past and present Sufferings, the inexpressible hazard, the irremediless (as to the hand of Man) condition we seemed to be in, do heighten the Mercy beyond our apprehension, so that when your Highness first appeared, we were like them that dream, and our Hearts were filled with matter of Hope and joy, yet how are we overwhelmed with fear, considering our provocations and sinning in the face of judgements, and in a day of so much Wrath and Indignation, the combination of so many potent Adversaries, the Perils from Winds and raging Seas, the hazard to your valiant Army, but especially to your Highness' Royal Person, sent us to the Throne of Grace (and oh how great had our guiltiness been, if we had lain by) to wrestle for the protection of Heaven towards your Highness' Person, Army and Navy. And now that the Lord hath not despised the Prayer of the destitute, and hath made his outstretched Arm appear in the prudent Conduct and desirable Success of such an Heroic Undertaking, and that the Lord hath melted the Hearts of some in making them join with your Highness' Forces, hath bound up the Hands of implacable Adversaries, and hath stopped all ways of escaping, is the doing of our God, and it's wonderful in our Eyes. And God forbid, that ever we forget such a Mercy, or that we neglect to stir up the People under our Charges to magnify his Name for so seasonable and so great a Mercy, which upon several accounts may be compared with the delivering of God's People out of Egypt, and out of Babylon, and from Antichristian Darkness by the Reformation, begun by Zuinglius and Luther, if now we get Grace to improve it to the Honour of his Name.  
Great Sir, as the Welfare and Happiness of the Kirk hath mainly influenced your Highness' great Undertaking, so we are confident, that the sad Case of the Kirk of Scotland, occasioned by the overturning of that beautiful Government, the Presbyterian Government of the Kirk established there, and Mother Churches in France, United Provinces, etc. will by your tender Care, and Providence, now find a suitable Remedy: and that your Highness will commiserate the deplorable State of a Kirk once famous for its Reformation, Purity, Piety, Order and Unity. And oh how refreshing was it to Christ's afflicted ones, to find that your Highness was so nearly concerned, and so deeply touched with our late Sufferings, as to hold forth your Sympathy in your Highness' Gracious Declaration, containing one just Epitome of our sad Trials, and unparallelled (on such account) Sufferings, which would require a Volume for rehearsing the several particulars, and giving a full History of the merciless Perseiutions we were forced to lie under, since the erection of Prelacy: yea, the Severity ran to such an height, that by the eighth Act of King James the Seventh his Parliament, it was statute and ordained, that all Preachers in Houses or Field Conventicles, and all present at Field-Meetings, should be punished by Death, and Confiscation of Goods. And though by the Light of Nature, and Law of Nations, it be the Oppresseds innocent Refuge to supplicate the judges or Ruler, yet with our Rulers it was accounted a Crime of the highest Demerit. And his Majesty's Commissioner in his first Parliament, after his Return from Exile, sent to the several Provincial Synods, then meeting at the set time, to raise them; which accordingly they did. So soon as they did move, as all of them were to do, towards a supplication to the Parliament for ratifying the Government of the Kirk, established by King and solemn Acts of Parliament. And what Tongue can express the Oppression we have met with since that day. And though it were not pertinent in this our humble Address to trouble your Royal Highness with an account of particulars, yet we have given to these now sent from us to your Highness, such Information concerning those, as during the short time of our staying together, we could provide, which they are ready to offer to your Highness, when required; neither could we take upon us to condescend upon any method for remedy of our Grievances, but entirely relying upon your Highness' Zeal for the Glory of God, and good of this Kirk, do in all Humility beseech, and in the Bowels of Christ jesus entreat your Highness to procure the Extirpation of Prelacy, and Re-establishment of Presbyterian Government of this Kirk, and of the restoring of the faithful Ministers of Christ to their respective Charges, from which they were so unjustly thrust out.  
It will not (we hope) seem strange to your Highness' Goodness, though some of us being on the place about the time the King allowed to Ministers the free Exercise of their Ministry, opened the Prison Doors, and set the Captives at liberty, recalled the Exile, took off the Arrests, and permitted these to return to their homes, who know not where to hide their Heads, did by their Address thankfully acknowledge the Favour of a little Respite from so much Slavery and intolerable Sufferings, all of them being ready solemnly to protest, that it was far from their thoughts to homologate the Liberty granted to Papists, or the Arbitrary Dispensing Power, to speak nothing of that absolute Power, without reservation, claimed by his Majesty, and asserted by Parliament and Council. But our confidence of your Highness' persuasion of our Integrity in that matter, makes us forbear any farther Apology. But oh, as the Lord hath followed your pious Endeavours for the delivering of Britain and Ireland from the Persecution they were lying under (while we could espy no Remedy) with wonderful Success: So he will be pleased to strengthen your Highness for going on in his Work, and will make you an happy Instrument for delivering of other Churches groaning under Popish Persecution. Babylon the great must fall. And that this may be the time, and your Highness the Man of God's Right Hand, whom he hath made strong for being eminently instrumental in such a Glorious Work, that he would more and more sanctify and humble you under his bountiful Dispensation, and would guard and preserve your Person, and multiply his choice Blessings spiritual and temporal on your precious Princess, your Royal Consort, shall be the continual Prayer of  
Serene Highness, Your assiduous Orators at the Throne of Grace, and most Faithful and Humble Servants.   

Their Letter to the Prince: which they ordered to be sent at the same time with the preceding Address.  
SIR,  
IF we might have met for moving in this great Concernment, or had known how to transmit a Testimony of our Congratulation at your Highness' safe Arrival, we had not been so far wanting in Duty, as to have delayed to this time. And if it had been supposed needful to have called a fuller Meeting, we know few or none, except such as are biased by interest, or accession to our Persecution, who would not have cordially concurred as in one Gratulation; so in this our humble Supplication to your Royal Highness, and for evidencing our zeal for your Highness' Happiness and Prosperity, we have appointed a solemn Day of Thanksgiving for your Highness' great and glorious Success to be forthwith observed in all Congregations, and that continual Prayers be poured out to God for your Highness' Royal Consort, as in Families of private Devotion, so in our public Meetings.  
Edinburg, 8. jan. 1689.   

ANNOTATIONS.  
YOu are pleased to call the Prince Royal Highness, we do not grudge him the highest Titles; we know he deserves the greatest that are due to the most worthy Heroes, and we hope, that in due time he shall justly enjoy these that are proper to the most glorious Monarches; only we cannot but think it strange, that the Popes and Puritans should be the only Clergymen that take upon them, without public consent, to dispose of Royal Titles. Just so in your late Address to King james the Seventh, you are pleased to compare him to some of the great Deliverers of God's People in the Old Testament, although in your former Books, Sermons and Prayers, you would allow no better Titles to the best of your own Protestant Kings, but that of Ahab, jehu, or jeroboam.  
(1) When we begin to think, etc.] The Reader ought not to imagine, that this Address is like their extemporary Prayers, (wherein if one may judge by their Expressions, they never so much as begin to think.) No, this is the last Effort of all the Remonstrator-Wit in the Nation revised and refined, and indeed the Smoothness and Harmony of the first Paragraph is an undeniable proof of their thoughtfulness and eloquence. However, I hope the glorious Actions of the Prince, and those of his illustrious Ancestors shall be recorded far otherwise than in the Panegyrics of Enthusiasts.  
(2) A Beautiful Church, etc.] This Expression is remarkable; for that the Protestant Church in the United Provinces presume not to prescribe to the State, as your Assemblies always did; sometimes purging the Army, as you did the King's at Dunbar, to the Ruin of it; sometimes declaring against the public Acts of the Nation, as you did against the honourable Attempt, made by Duke Hamilton, to relieve the King, when Prisoner at the Isle of Wight. For though that Army was raised and sent under his Grace for that purpose into England, by the public Authority of the Nation, yet you were pleased to condemn it as an irreligious Design, and the Battle itself as an unlawful Engagement; afterwards compelling the best of the Nobility to do open Penance in Sack cloth before your Congregations, for being concerned in it. Moreover, it's worth your notice, that the Reformed Churches in the United Provinces, which you confess so beautiful, have their Organs, which they use in the Divine Service; they observe other Holy days besides the Lord's Day, and in all their public Administrations have a grave Liturgy, or set Form of Prayer, wherein they Religiously and constantly use the Lord's Prayer, Creed and Ten Commandments, all which you disclaim as superstitious Fooleries.  
(3) His suffering People, etc.] Tho you made others to suffer more, and with far greater Bitterness and Cruelty; yet you would have yourselves thought the only People in Britain that dare suffer for Conscience sake. You forget, it seems, how in the time of your Covenant your Scaffolds stood up for some Months, employed in the bloody Execution of many noble and worthy persons, who because of their previous Oaths of Allegiance, and Canonical Obedience, could not in Conscience or Honour submit to your Covenant, the Obligations whereof you thought sufficient to cancel all former Ties, even those of the Ten Commandments not excepted.  
(4) The Kingdom of the Lord jesus, etc.] Id est, Presbytery, after the Scotch Model, for that in their Language is the Kingdom of Christ, although your Ruling Elders and you, governed with such a Rod of Iron, as seems quite opposite to Christ's Sceptre.  
(5) No Man was found to help us, etc.] Did not Father Petre, with all vigour, employ his power and interest, at the Court, to procure your Indulgence and Toleration? If he had not applied himself to serve your Interest, he had not obeyed the Directions of his Society for distracting the Reformation: than you faithfully served the Whore of Babylon, in supplanting the Church, when her Face was against a more powerful and formidable Enemy.  
(6) Of a Corporal Interest, etc.] A fulsome expression indeed, but that's not extraordinary for some Men to use, were not Honour and Reputation things of far greater value for a Prince to venture, but you presume to measure his Highness by your own Scantling.  
(7) Like them that dream, etc.] When his Highness knows you better, he will find that you are Dreamers indeed. 'Twere good for the People, whose Morals you have debauched, that you dreamed less; for it cannot be denied, but that in the multitude of your Dreams there are divers Vanities.  
(8) Our Provocations, etc.] There is certainly nothing could recommend you more to his Highness, than most ingenuously to confess and forsake your habituul Faults, your incurable spite against the Royal Race, your sauciness to King james the Sixth, your binding King Charles the First a Sacrifice upon the Altar, your open Rebellions against King Charles the Second. If you will heartily acknowledge these Provocations, and what you have frequently done against the Authority of King and Parliament, and by some public Deed of yours renounce the Principles that naturally yield such Consequences, than there is no doubt but the Prince of Orange will accept your Repentance.  
(9) To wrestle, etc.] It cannot be denied indeed, but that your Prayers in the public are Wrestle without a Metaphor, but they are leveled most against the Pulpit, and all the struggling is how to press out one sentence after another, and to keep wind in the Bags for two hours together. Just so we were told, after you were warmed with the dispensing Power, that the Queen's Big Belly was the effect of the Heat and Pregnancy of these your Wrestle in Prayer. But the Priests thought 'twas the Result of their Devotions at Loretto. And as you ascribe all the courage and conduct of this wonderful action of the Prince to the prevalency of your own Prayers; so in your Addresses to King james, you alleged all the piety and goodness you so much magnified in the late Indulgence, to have proceeded from the same fountain; although it be well known that that very Indulgence was first framed at the Conclave, & sent hither from Rome: & Secretary Coleman's Letters, still upon Record, are sufficient to convince the world, that such an Indulgence was all along designed as the readiest method to destroy the North. Heresy.  
(10) Melted the Hearts of some, etc.] Namely, the Sons of the Church of England, who, as you would charitably represent them, can do nothing in favours of the Protestant Religion, but when they are forced to it by some extraordinary Accidents, or outward Violence.  
(11) Implacable Adversaries, etc.] Compare this with your late Address to King james, when you had neither the Courage nor Fidelity to open your Mouths against Popery, although yourselves could not but be convinced, that it was violently breaking in upon us at the Door which was opened mostly by your Divisions. Here you also promise to stir up the People under your Charges; I know not how they came to be under your Charge, but this the whole Nation too well knows, that the Design of most of your Sermons and Prayers too is to stir them up, as you have done formerly, to Tumults, Calumnies and Assassinations, and whose name I beseech you, do you magnify in this, unless it be his who was a Liar and Murderer from the beginning. Here also it's observable, that in the List ye assign of the first Reformers, ye make no mention of the Learned Calvin; sure the peaceable Father Knox would not have denied him the honour of naming him among the Reformers, and at least have given him equal place with either Zuinglius or Luther. But ah his Letters, his unsavoury Letters, these unadvised and unholy Letters to the Limbs of the Beasts, the Bishops of England, our throughly reformed Consciences cannot away with these Letters, wherein like a worldly Courtier, and carnal Politician he compliments and commends these Popishly affected Bishops, and approves of the Constitution of their Superstitious Church, as most agreeable to the Government of the State and Monarchy of England, though not to the Republic at Geneva. These ye think were carnal and worldly ends, unbecoming the purity of your new Light and Doctrine, therefore the poor old Gentleman Calvin must be no longer mentioned among the Reformers. Another Dash of a through-paced Assembly would certainly exclude Luther too; for you know he never took the Covenant, and therefore could not be throughly reform. And besides he seems to smell rankly of the Scarlet Whore, in the Superstitious Forms of Prayer, Ceremonies in Worship, and Holy Days, which he allowed and appointed to be observed in the Church where he was concerned.  
(12) Improved to the Honour of his Name, etc.] You should have added here, and to the Persecution of far better Christians than ourselves.  
(13) Beautiful Government, etc.] If the Devils Sacrifices, human Blood and Slaughter, the trampling upon the State, the Exirpation of all Liturgies, and the everlasting Contentions of public Resolutioners and Remonstrators could make it beautiful, it cannot be denied but that it was so in the highest degree.  
(14) Once famous for, etc.] A Church without Prayers, whose Worship is invisible, and as often vaiyed as the several Administrators appear in different places, or are affected with different Passions; a Church without Canons, without Uniformity, and void of Decency, in this sense your Church was and is still famous.  
(15) Purity and Piety, etc.] In this Catalogue of excellent things that made your Church famous, not one word of Charity; indeed that's none of the Ingredients of the Remonstrator-Constitution. He who would see that in its proper Colours, let him strip Christianity naked of all Morality, and in lieu of that, place these Vices which our Saviour reproved in the Pharisees; Hypocrisy, Pride, Insolence and Singularity. Then add to these a Conversation so ordered, as to apply the Prophetical Language of the Old Testament, frequently and impertinently to every trifling Occurrence, keeping at the same time the greatest distance from what's recommended in Christ's Sermon on the Mount; and by this means a Man may have some Idea of the Religion of our Remonstrators.  
(16) On how refreshing, etc.] 'Twas very comfortable indeed to you, that you imagined his Highness the Prince had no account of the Regular Clergy, but from these that studied to defame them, and to represent them all, without exception, either as ignorant or wicked persons. But to your great Grief the Prince is not precipitant, he will deliberately inquire into your former ways, and how the Remonstrator-Learning appeared, either in Sermons, as Books against Popery, when it so fiercely assaulted us. May be some will be so just as to tell his Highness, that Learning was never so much your Talon, and that some of the most famous Doctors 
* The Learned Doctors at Aberdeen were all deposed and expelled, for disputing against the Legality of some Subjects imposing Oaths upon others, without the consent of lawful Authority.  our Nation had since the Reformation, Men whose Learning and Conscience were their greatest Crimes, were not allowed a Country Church to preach in, nor so much as the benefit of a private School to teach, when you were last upon the Stage.  
(17) Punished by death, etc.] It would be difficult for you to name one Man put to death for being present at a Field-Conventicle, though I could name some that you have killed formerly for wearing the King's Livery. 
† Two of King Charles the Second Lifeguard murdered at Swyn Abbie some few years ago, being by some of that Party barbarously shot from the Windows, and killed, as they sat at Supper in their Inn.  And it would be as impossible for you to justify your Meetings in the Field with vast numbers of armed Men, when the Laws have declared it treasonable, and when there is not any thing in the Worship of the Church established by Law, that you scruple at, except the Lord's Prayer, the Doxology, and the Reading of the Scriptures before the Minister goes into the Pulpit: neither of which we are ashamed of; though you ought to be for separating upon that account.  
(18) Solemn Acts of Parliament, etc.] The King and Parliament having experience of your saucy Behaviour, and unheard of Cruelties for so many years did in a full and Free Parliament re-establish the Episcopal Government about a year after the Restoration of King Charles; and it is arrogant, as well as unjust, for you to imagine, that his Highness the Prince will believe you, when you asperse the Memory of his Royal Uncle King Charles, (whom all Men know to have been merciful and wise to a Miracle) with such Cruelties as are inconsistent with the Laws of Nature and Nations. Ye ought in Justice to have told the Prince also how many Indulgences he emitted in your favours, and how little you deserved them at his Hands: you should have likewise told him, that Episcopacy never forced itself upon the State by violence, (as Presbytery did, and still endeavous to do.) But the King, Nobility and Gentry, wearied with the tyrannical Discipline of your Assemblies, did over and again ratify that Apostolical Government in Parliament, and cannot therefore now be removed till those many Laws be taken away even by them who are deeply sworn never to endeavour the alteration of the Government in the Church or State. Which Oath was not as your Covenant, pressed upon any without the consent of lawful Authority, nor under any penalties, except the not being entrusted in public Offices be accounted as such; and it were very hard not to allow the Government the choice of such as should serve in it.  
(19) These sent from us, etc.] And you are confident his Highness will believe all they say without any farther examination, just as you would have the ignorant Mobile believe, and receive all your Doctrines with an implict Faith.  
(20) Extirpation of Prelacy, etc.] And will nothing less satisfy you, than the total Extirpation of that Government which hath now continued in all the parts of the Christian Church for fifteen hundred years, and was first planted with Christianity itself by the Apostles, whose Doctrines, it seems, you relish not in these Points which are not agreeable to your Covenant. When the Parliament is legally constituted, and the Sense of the whole Nation fully heard, there may be some things in the Constitution of the Church-Government made more perfect, but it is strange, if it can be entirely removed, unless the Civil Government of the Nation be again usurped by a Committee of the general Assembly. It will be considered who they are that demand this Change? A Set of Men who have renounced the Communion of all the Reformed Churches in Europe, Presbyterian or Episcopal: for the Conform Clergy in Scotland are willing to refer all Debates between them and you to foreign Presbyterians, who cannot be supposed to have any Bias to our side. And though your Industry and Faction (in populous Cities on the South Side of Forth) make you appear numerous; yet any, who throughly knows the Nation, knows that you are not truly one twentieth part of it. But whatever your strength be, let me entreat you, that when ye beg for new Revolutions, ye would forbear to abuse the sacred Name Jesus, by making it the Prologue to Confusions in his Church; alas, it hath been too too ordinary to usher in such black Designs with that holy Name.  
(21) We hope, etc.] Now comes in your Apology for your late Address, under the Influences of the Dispensing Power, and then your zeal against Popery appeared in a profound silence; for you told your People you preached Christ, and that was enough, though you did not insist on the particular Controversies against Rome. Now and then you darted some waspish Reflections against the Church of England, when she was otherwise employed than to take notice of your whistling Arguments and unjustifiable spite against her, which appeared more visible lately when it was tossed in your Divan; whether or not you should address the Prince of Orange for abolishing Episcopacy over all Britain and Ireland; but though you be sworn to that in your Covenant, yet you must wait some further time for it. It is a part of the Ceremony ye use in removing the conformed Clergy of the West, to inquire if they have the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England, and if they have it, it is wrapped up in the Minister's Gown, and both committed to the flames together, with loud shouts of Joy and Triumph. Witness your late Outrage to Mr. Bell, Minister of Kilmarnock, and even your pretended kindness for the Prince of Orange is known to be much cooled, since you heard of his communicating with the Church of England: nor is it long since you preached that the Church of England was more idolatrous than the Church of Rome; because they received the Sacrament kneeling, where they believed no Corporal Presence to be. Just so one of these whom you have since appointed a Commissioner from you to the Prince, hearing that his Highness frequented the Prayers of the Church of England, and that he had received the Sacrament from the Hands of a Bishop, was so unadvisedly indiscreet and impertinent, as to say, that he never expected better of a Dutch Conscience. A true Specimen of a Remonstrator's Charity, and signal evidence, that ye value not the best Consciences, when they will not stretch to the full length of your covenanted Standard. I cannot here omit what one Veatch, canting in Mr. Hamilton's Meeting House at Edinburgh lately said, his words were these; Oh Sirs, wonderful things, and great things, Sirs, very great things have been done here by mean Instruments: (meaning the Rabble, on whose commendation he had fully enlarged before.) But alas, Sirs, the half of your work is not done, so long as the Prelates and Curates are to the Fore (that is in true English so long as they are left alive) and if the Prince of Orange will not put to his helping hand, and lend God a lift, I will say to him as Modecai did to Hester, Hester iv. 14. Who knows but thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this; but if thou wilt altogether hold thy peace, deliverance will come from another place to the Jews, (a most pertinent Epithet for Remonstrators) but thou and thy father's house shall perish. Another of their Preachers about the same time, holding forth to his Auditory, said, Oh Sirs, Sirs, but ye be an hidebound people, a lucken handed and fast griping people, Sirs, I could gar (that is cause) a few Fourteens (that is Scotch Marks) drive all the Prelates and Curates out of the Town; indeed I could easily do it, Sirs. This is a Doctrine very agreeable, I confess, to the Covenant; but whether it be so to the Gospel of Peace or no, I leave the World to judge.  
(22 (Who knew not where to hide their Heads, etc.] Good lack, poor Gentlemen, no where to hide their Heads! and yet if we may believe what ye confidently affirmed before, the Bias of the whole Nation is for Presbytery; it seems they were a very merciless, as as well as unconscionable People, who were so much affected to your Cause, and yet would not allow the Professors of it, when persecuted, the least shelter, (Mendaces oportet esse memores) but this was your comfort, in these troubles, that many Angels were sent to support you, and if it were not that I am resolved to avoid all personal Reflections, I could name some, who when removed from their places for Nonconformity, had little or nothing; and yet purchased considerable Estates under the pretended persecution. The Severity of our Laws never appeared against Dissenters for having different Opinions from the established Church; nor can you instance any one that suffered either Ecclesiastic or Civil Censure, only upon that account, but for High Treason against the State. Some indeed, according to their demerit, suffered death, such as Cameron, one of your Preachers, who emitted a Declaration of War against the King, declaring, that every covenanted Brother was bound to cut off from the face of the Earth his Majesty, and all that had, or did bear Office under him: and Hackstoun of Rathallat, and a Weaver, Murderers of the late Archbishop of S. Andrews, as also a Fiddler, who had murdered his own Wife, when big with Child. These were some of the Martyrs of your new Gospel, whose Heads and Hands you have lately removed from the public Gates at Edinburgh, and buried with all the Solemnity that the Reforming Rabble, and your Preachers upon their Van, could possibly make.  
(23) Asserted by Parliament, etc.] The absolute power seemingly implied not asserted in some Parliaments, is not to be understood in that unlimited sense, that your Assemblies assumed it to themselves, but as it is restrained and interpreted by the constant tenor of our Laws, the practice of the Nation, and the just and necessary exceptions that all such general words must be supposed to receive from Reason and the Liberties of Mankind.  
(24) For going on in his work, etc.] Let it be a through Reformation, a truly covenanted Work, such as may bring all Malignants, the most Protestant Kings not excepted, to condign punishment, or else you'll never believe it to be indeed the Work of the Lord.  
(25) Humble you, etc.] He will be sufficiently humbled, if ever you get him under the Yoke of Presbyterian Discipline, and you should take all care to conceal from him the Methods you are wont to use for humbling Princes; as also the difference betwixt your way, and that of the Presbyterian Churches abroad, either in France, or the Netherlands.  
(26) Accession to our Persecution, etc.] You mean undoubtedly the Conform Clergy, whom, when you have not power to persecute, ye show your inclinations to it, by calumniating and misrepresenting them. However in the present business, whenever lawful Authority enjoins them, they will be ready to observe a day of Thanksgiving for our Deliverance from Popery and Slavery, with more cheerfulness and order than you can pretend to. In the mean while it's worth the Prince's notice; how you adventure without the State to appoint public Solemnities. It may be some will inform his Highdess how your Predecessors appointed a Thanksgiving on that very day wherein the State had enjoined a Fast. And to show their cross Disposition, a Fast at another time, when King james the Sixth had appointed a Feast for the public entertainment of Foreign Ambassadors in the City of Edinburgh.   
THis is the Address which in your public Meeting of the Assembly at Edinburgh you agreed to, and subscribed; but upon the News of the Prince's having communicated with the English Church, you demurred a little, and the sending of it to his Highness was delayed till ye heard from your Friends at Court, by whose advice your Address perhaps suffered some Alterations before it was sent thither; but these, as I am credibly informed, were not material, and therefore deserve no notice. However, the industry you used to have some persons of Quality at London subscribe it, was very remarkable; for, as some of these persons themselves have told me, you would not allow them to read it, till they should first sacredly promise to subscribe it. A Method very agreeable to that which ye used in getting hands to the Covenant, when several young Children were taught to write their Names of purpose to affix them to it; and Schoolboys were brought from dreiving their Tops, to dreive on the Work of the Lord in subscribing the Covenant. Implicit Faith, it seems, is a Doctrine as much in vogue among Scots Presbyterians, as among Papists themselves; and the Consistory and Conclave do not really differ so much as you would have the World believe.  
In all this that I have said, I must tell you, that I have no thoughts of Cruelty against Distenters, I indeed pity them, as deluded. And if it were in my power I would not persecute them, but rather, as Brethren, restore them with the Spirit of Meekness. I allow, that so long as they are willing to contain themselves within the just Liberties and Limits of Subjects, they have as good a right to the Royal Protection, as any other Set of Men in the Nation; but then they should let the World see, that they can allow other Protestants to live too, as having the same natural Right with themselves: and that they are capable of such an Accommodation as the Learned Protestants abroad are not against: and that they do not abhor the Communion and Practices of other Reformed Churches; and particularly, that they do not think themselves bound by the Covenant, or any other Tie to persecute these of the Church of England.  
Lastly, it were very just and pertinent in them to declare their resolutions never again by their Sentences, to counteract and condemn the Decrees of the supreme Civil Judicatures of the Nation; and to satisfy the World in this, it will be fit for them by some public deed to disclaim and renounce that absolute Supremacy or Papacy which the Kirk hath always claimed over Kings, and Civil Powers. Many public and known Instances might be assigned, wherein they have challenged and usurped this power; but Hercules may be known by his Foot, and therefore one instance that's yet fresh in the memory of many, shall serve for all; and it's that of the unnatural as well as undutiful Behaviour of the Kirk to their lawful Sovereign King Charles the Second in the year 1650, when like a hunted Partridge he fled from the Birds of Prey in England to them for Sanctuary. The easiest Proposals they made to him were no less than these: 1. To subscribe the Covenant, which they knew his Majesty did not, nor could not like, because of the Destruction it had brought upon his Father and Kingdoms, and of the Door it opened for continual Rebellion against himself. 2. To make public satisfaction to the Kirk, that is open Penance before their Congregations, for his own Sins, and these of his Father's House, particularly for his and his Families Godless Opposition (as they called it) to the Cause of God, the Work of the Covenant. 3. That his Majesty should subscribe, and publish to the World a Declaration, charging himself and his Family with the whole guilt of all the Miseries and Blood (not excepting that of the Royal Martyr his Father) which had been occasioned by these unhappy Civil Wars themselves had raised, and carried on for so many years before. Upon these Conditions they promised to make him a most glorious King indeed.  
But when his Majesty modestly declined the last two, which in Honour and Conscience he could not submit to, immediately out comes that Tundering Bull from the General Assembly against him, THE ACT OF THE WEST KIRK; it was commonly called so, because the Assembly was held at the West Church of Edinburgh, where both the foresaid Declarations which they would have imposed upon the King, and that Act of the West Kirk are still kept, and to be seen upon Record in the public Register at that place. A true and exact Copy of which Act, as it was faithfully transcribed from the authentic Original, I shall here for the satisfaction of the Reader subjoin.  

West Kirk, the 13th. Day of August, 1650.  
THe Commission of the General Assembly, considering, that there may be just ground of stumbling, from the King's Majesties refusing to subscribe, and emit the Declaration offered unto him by the Commissioners of the General Assembly, concerning his former Carriage and Resolutions for the future, in reference to the Cause of God, and Enemies and Friends thereof, doth therefore declare, that this Kirk and Kingdom do not own or espouse any malignant Party, Quarrel or Interest, but that they fight merely upon their former Grounds and Principles, and in Defence of the Cause of God, and of the Kingdom, as they have done these twelve years past; and therefore as they do disclaim all the Sin and Gild of the King, and of his House, so they will own him and his Interest no otherways than with a subordination to God, and so far as he owns and prosecutes the Cause of God, and disclaims his and Father's Opposition to the Work of God, and to the Covenant, and likewise all the Enemies thereof. And that they will with convenient speed take into consideration the Papers sent unto them by Oliver Cromwell, and vindicate themselves from all the Falsehoods therein contained, especially in those things wherein the Quarrel betwixt us and that Party is mistated. As if we owned the late Kings Proceedings, and were resolved to prosecute and maintain his present Majesty's Interest, before, and without a full acknowledgement of the Sins of his House, and former ways, and Satisfaction to God's People in both Kingdoms.  
Sic subscribitur A. Ker.  
The Order for Printing this Act is signed by Tho. Henderson.  
Accipe nunc Danaum insidias, & crimine ab uno  
— Disce omnes.   
Many Papers to this purpose, and more odious, might be published, but my Design is not to expose, but if possible, to reclaim those whom this antimagistratical Party leads by an implicit Faith of the Assemblies Infallibility in all its Oracles; nor would I have sent this abroad, if our whole Church and Nation had not been first attacked by them, and that not only in their present outrages against all who are not of their Gang; but also in most scandalous and scurrilous Libels, in one whereof they have accused the Government in all its Proceedings since the Restoration, to have been worse than the Inquisition; though it was malicious, yet it was cunningly done in them to print and publish this among Strangers; for they knew it could find no credit at home, where the Falsehoods of it would have been as easily discovered as the Malice of the Authors is. The public Proceedings of the Nation against that Party, were indeed no more than self-defence, and therefore may easily, as they will be shortly vindicated, and justified to the World, where all the matters of Fact of that which they call Persecution, and the true Causes of it, will be impartially discovered and laid open, which will be but little to the credit of the Party, or their pretended Martyrs, of whom they have now promised so glorious and full a History; and I doubt not but the impartial and unprejudiced part of Mankind will abominate and abhor when they hear the former and present Barbarities and bloody Cruelties, which that covenanted Party, under pretence of Reformation, have committed, and do daily at this time inflict, without any respect to Office, Age or Sex, upon all such as differ from them, only in a very inconsiderable Punctilio of Government, and not in the least point (that themselves can allege) either of Doctrine, Discipline or Worship. And I doubt not but his Highness the Prince, by their open Disobedience to his late Proclamation for securing the Peace, and by their opposition to, and contempt of all former Government, will be soon convinced, how impossible it is to make them quiet under any; and the World will be easily satisfied by but a little inquiry into their Principles and Practices, how inconsistent the Papacy of the Scots Presbytery is with any Form of Government, except that of Popery, which arrogantly presumes (as they also do) to punish and persecute all Governors in the State at their pleasure, and manage all secular Interests in ordine ad Spiritualia.  
Would to God they would but comply with this one advice of the Apostle, Study to be quiet, and do your own Business.  
FINIS.