In the Late unhappy Reigns.

THAT in the days of our Affliction and Misery, we never did, nor yet will cast back our Eyes, and Remember: Nay, that we are not so much as desireous to be informed of all the pleasant things we had in the days of Old; particularly, and especially, about the time of that Signal and Glorious appearance, and manifestation of the Great GOD, the Lord Our GOD, at the breaking up of the Reformation from Prelacy, &c. and the solemn renewing of our Covenant with Him; what fervent wrestlings Night and Day, with strong crys and Tears, was then to be found among the Worthies of that time, which ushered in the Dawning of that Blessed day, never to be forgotten; and now when past, to be Remembred with sorrow? What Plentiful powrings forth of the Spirit from on High, did then Ap­pear in the Morning of that Day, evidently Manifested, both in his spe­cial reviving influences upon the truly Gracious, and general influen­ces upon all Ranks of Persons: That Nobemen, Gentlemen, Burgesses, Ministers, and Commons of all sorts, were admirably animated and ex­cited unto a Cheerful, speedy and resolute Renewing of their Covenant for Reformation of Religion, and their own personal Conversation, with the most sin­gular tender Frame that hath been ever heard of, lifting up their Hearts and Hands unto the most High GOD, with Rivers of Tears trick­ling down their Faces; And when they were engaged in that Covenant, [Page 11] turn'd, as it were, into other Men, of a more excellent Spirit than former­ly, undervaluing their own things, minding and valuing only the things of Jesus Christ, wholly taken up in the Advancement of that Conmon Good Cause and Interest of Religion, as their One Thing Needful. What Power and Efficacy, did then accompany the Preaching of the Gospel, to the Convincing and Converting of many Sinners to the LORD, Establi­shing and Confirming of Believers in the Faith, a great Concomitant Seal of GOD's Approbation of that Blessed Work? What Joy and Trembling was there then at the Hearing of the Word? What Lively Heart-Exercise? What [...]lowing forth of the Spices of GOD's Garden? What Tenderness o Conscience? What Delight and Pleasure without Wearying in Religious Exercises and Duties, and Communion with GOD, and Christian Fel­lowship of the Saints for Mutual Prayer, and Godly Conference for Edi­fication? What clear Light did then shine, to set us in the straight Paths of the LORD, to discover, and keep from turning aside unto Crooked Ways, on the Right or Left Hand? Then was our Publick Councils, both of Church and State, shined upon from Heaven, and Righteous Decrees pro­ceeded forth, Then had Scotland, Magistrats and Judges, Wise, Sober, Grave, truly Noble Patriots for their Countrey, and Valiant for the Truth: Our Rulers then were not a Terror to Good Works, but to the Evil. Then did the People rejoyce, when the Righteous were in Authority: Then were the Church of Scotlands Ministers and Teachers Cloathed with Salva­tion, and her Saints shouted aloud for Joy, her Provision was abundantly Blest, and then went all things well in our Judah: Then was it pleasant to see Brethren dwelling and acting together in Unity, and joint in the Truth: All our Strivings were, who should be most Zealously Faithful and For­ward in their Masters Service. What Unite Zeal, Tenderness, Through­ness, and Peremptory Exactness, was there then for all CHRIST's Royal Interests, the due Rights and Priviledges of his Church? Carefully Obvi­ating and, Abstaining from the least Appearance of Ceding in the Matters of our GOD, or Declining to either Hand, from his Streight Paths, for Fear or Favour of any; Valourously, and Timeously Resisting, Witnessing and Protesting against the least. Incroachment upon our great Masters Roy­al Prerogative. How Famous was a Man then, according as he Diligent­ly, Faithfully and Zealously Acted for the LORD? Advancing that Bles­sed Reformation, Impartially Opposing all Opposers, and Opposition thereto? How Unsavoury then was Detestable Neutrality, and Indifferency in the Cause and Covenant of GOD? Then was Poor Despicable Scotland Ho­nourable among the Nations. Then might it have been truly said of Scot­land, What Nation is there so Great, who hath GOD so nigh unto them, as the LORD our GOD is in all things that we call upon him for? Then might it have been said of thee, O Church of Scotland, Happy art thou, [Page 12] Who is like unto thee, O People saved by the LORD? the Shield of thy Help, and who is the Sword of thy Excellency, and thine Enemies shall be found Liars, or Subdued unto thee, and thou shalt Tread upon their High Places: For then the LORD was with us, while we were with him, the Light of his Countenance was our Strength and Joy, which made us to prosper in every good Work, and whithersoever we went forth. But now, Alas! — Ah — Reader! whoever thou art; Stop and Pause, stand Amazed, and think and think again, upon what we once had, and sweetly enjoyed, But now Alas! Now, we have miserably lost: And if thou be a Chri­stian Born in Scotland, and have the least Spunk of Spiritual Life, and the smallest Spark of that once Noble (though now Frightful) Grace of Zeal (then the Glory and Defence of a Reformation, now ready to give up the Ghost, Crawling, Languishing, and Breathing out its last, under that Hideous and All-devouring Mountain of thrice Cursed Self; then no big­ger than Elijah's Hand, but now covering and overspreading the Face of the whole Kingdom) if thou be not twice dead, and pluckt up by the Roots, or a Detestable Gallio, and Loathsome Laodicean; If thou have not the obdured Heart of a Stone, the Bowels of a Judas, and altogether left of GOD; Then this must needs make thy Soul sink within thee, and force Floods of Tears from thine Eyes, and cause thee to cry out with Wonder and Astonishment, O Dreadfully Degenerat Age! Ah Wretched Gene­ration! O People Foolish and Unwise! have we thus requite, and so shamefully forsaken the LORD our GOD, and Zedekiah-like, Ezek. 17.19. have with our own Hands drawn down upon our selves that flying Roll, the Double Vengeance of GOD and his Temple, and entered our selves Heirs unto all the Broad Curses of a Broken COVENANT, and Intail'd that Fearful Doom upon us, and our Poor Posterity (which the Hardned Jews once did, and which is bound upon them unto this very Day) his Blood, his Precious Blood, be upon us and upon our Children; The Blood of a Glori­ous Reformation, now almost Sunk in its own Ruines; The Blood of all the Zealous Contending and Wrestling Martyrs of CHRIST and his Cause be upon us. Have we indeed given our Amen and Hearty Consent to all this! or where are we? What are we doing? What have we a mind yet to do? Ah! When will we once do something or other to Purpose, for to Avert and Prevent (if possible) the Terrible Judgments Threatned, Determined and Hastning. Certainly what's come upon us, cannot but deeply Affect us, else we are but Base Bastards, or at least very Unnatural Sons of our Poor Bleeding and Forsaken Mother, now when she is bringing our Faults to Re­membrance, and laying Fearful and Heavy Things to our Charge, we cannot but return her the Whip'd Boy's Answer to Queen ELIZABETH, Infandum Regina jubes renovare Dolorem. Ah! Will we never come to our Wits, till the Surprizing Thunder-Claps of GOD's Wrath put us all to our Wits End.

[Page 13]2. That we have never to this day duly and distinctly reflected upon, and seriously pondered and laid to Heart, the Tremenduous and Horrid Nature, with the Singular Aggrava [...]ions, of Scotlands National Guilt; And wherein soever any of our selves yet alive, will be found Guilty with the Guilty Nation, since the time of our last Renewing of the COVENANT, in the Year 1638, until the Year 1660: For, as our Declinings soon be­gan, and by the time we had put our Hands well to the Plough, many did, Alas! look back again, so they ever wrought, Corrupting like a Gan­grene or Leprosie, till at length it broke out upon our Foreheads, and then as a Mystery of Iniquity, at last broke forth in a plain, open, professed, and shamelesly Avow'd Bursting of all the Bonds, and a Declared Stated War against the LORD and his Anointed: And though the particular Steps of Defection, in that Interval of Years, are fully expressed in the Publick Papers of these Times; As in that Solemn Acknowledgment of Sins, Engage­ment to Duties, Confession of the Ministers, Protestation, Remonstrance, Causes of Wrath, &c. Yet they are not to this day duly laid to Heart, and mour­ned for.

3. The Universal Debauchery, Ryoting, &c. and even the Blindfold and Random-Rejoycing of Professors, upon the Return of K. C. the 2d. of [...] Memory, ere ever they knew, whether he would prove a Friend or Foe to Religion; Some whereof, Smarted afterwards by his Fury, and their own Disappointment, bearing the Blae Marks of their Fondness and Folly.

4. The Horrid Mocking of both GOD and Man, by the same K. C. the 2d. both at Breda, in Presence of the Scots Commissioners, who were De­signing both his Spiritual Good, and Temporal Grandure and Prosperi­ty; and afterwards by his Letters to Ministers, and his Answers to theirs. And at last, (to put the Fatal Cape-Stone upon all) do but Read the two Papers found in his Closet after his Final Exit, and Printed by his Brothers Command in anno 1687. Wherein he Avowedly declareth to the World, his being Popish, and doth Bless GOD for the same. All this notwithstan­ding of his taking the Oath of the Great GOD upon him, once and again, with the greatest Aw, Solemnity, and at least seeming Cheerfulness and Willingness imaginable: Then afterwards (to aggravat his Dreadful A­postacy) in his Publick Declaration before his Court at Dumfermling, the 16th. of August 1650, he had these Fearful Mock-Expressions. That he was Firmly Resolved, through the LORDs Strength, to Adhere unto that COVENANT; And to Prosecute, to the outmost of his Power, all the Ends thereof, in his Station and Calling, Really, Constantly and Sincerely, all the Days of his Life; In Order to which, he doth in the first place, Profess and Declare, That he will have no E­nemies, but the Enemies of the COVENANT, and that he will have no Friends, but the Friends of the COVENANT, and that he will not Imploy, or give Com­missions [Page 14] to any, who have been Active in Council or Arms against the COVE­NANT, until that they have not only taken and renewed that COVENANT, but also have given sufficient Evidence of their Integrity, Carriage and Affection to the Work of Reformation; And is fully Convinc'd, that that COVENANT doth Undoubtedly tend for the Glory of GOD, the Good of his Cause and People, and his own Honour and Happiness. YET, Upon his first Mounting the Throne, how suddenly did he Read out to his Subjects, in Letters of Blood, the Words of Unhappy Rehoboam, 1 King. 12.13. and 14. Then immediatly Sung Psal. 2.3. The Furious Effects of which, forced some of us, at last, to Read Eccles. 7.7. And turn Mad-Men. And no sooner was the Crown put upon his Mortal Head, but (as a Second Pope) he most Darringly Grasp'd at CHRIST's Crown too, by that Blasphemous Supremacy, in Usur­ping the Sole Prerogative Royal of the SON of GOD, as his Viccar, yea Co-Partner, and more than equal Sharer with him, in Ecclesiastick and Spiritu­al Matters. And did put this as boldly in Execution, by his Impious and Sanguinary Laws: Instance, the Turning out, and Actually Depriving, Hand over Head, at one Blow, some Hundreds of Presbyterian Ministers, CHRIST's Faithful and sent Ambassadours, without ever so much as tel­ling them, by Summonds, Lybel, or Process, for what: The Shedding, and taking upon his Head, the Innocent Blood of the Famous, and emi­nently Faithful Mr. James Guthry: The Repeated Woful Indulgences, Im­posing of Heavy Taxes, Cesses, &c. and Levying of Military Forces: All Grounded upon, and Inforced from that very Head of this Monstruous and Accursed Supremacy, (This is that Achaz) as if he had been fully Re­solved to Jump himself into the Un-pardonable Sin: And was likewise Owned, Acknowledged, and Sworn unto as such, by all Ranks of Per­sons, especially by the Fourteen thrice Abjured, and Avowedly Perjured, Antichristian, Knights of the Black Order, and their Sycophantick, Under­ling, Scandalous Creature-Curats, both in their Lifeless Sermons, and par­ticularly, in their Fearful, Commedian-like, and Complementing Pray­ers to the Great GOD, the Searcher of Hearts. From all which, I am easily perswaded to believe, that this Man Died a Violent Death, as was Shrewdly Suspected, Universally Reported, and Expresly Affirmed by the late D. of Monmouth in his Declaration; And that he found the Weight of that Daeadful Word, Ezek. 17.15, 18, 19. Shall he escape that doth such things, or shall he Break the Covenant and be Delivered? Seing he despised the Oath, by breaking the Covenant, (When lo, he had given his Hand) and hath done all these things, he shall not escape. Therefore thus saith the LORD, As I live, sure­ly mine Oath that he hath Despised, and my Covenant that he hath Broken, even it will I Recompense upon his own Head.

5. The Ministers their too calmly and suddenly quiting their Respect­ive Posts and Charges, over which the Holy Ghost had made them par­ticular [Page 15] Overseers, and that only upon a threatned hazard, by Paper-Proclamati­ons, ere ever they were thrust out by force; and so exposing their poor Flocks to the hazard of these Grievous Wolfs, afterwards obtruded upon them, and redacted themselves to an utter incapacity of reentering to them, as Mat­ters then stood, and this without giving a sufficient Testimony by any Church Judicatory, against so horrid an Act, thereby to have publickly Witnessed before all men, for the Spiritual Kingly Power, and Supreme Government of their Great LORD and Master, only Lord of their Mini­stry, and the Exercise thereof; and to have protested against the gain-say­ers: And then indeed, or never was the Season, when his Enemies had so darringly presumed to inhibit, and Discharge his Commissionat Ambassa­dors to negotiat a Peace in his Name with poor Sinners, and so openly declared that they would no longer have this Man to Reign over them. And likewise their Flock (especially the Great Ones, Representatives of the Nation) had neither the Courage, Affection, nor Honesty to give them the least Incouragement, in standing by them, but did basely leave their poor Pastors to stand upon their own leggs, and shift for themselves; which was indeed the great Argument (though no suf­ficient excuse) that discouraged them to stand out the Storm: However, it be most true, and worthy of all our observation, that their Holy and on­ly wise Lord and Master (whose prerogatve it is to bring Glory to him­self, and good to us, out of all our Misguidings) did in the depth of his Counsel, order that Providential loosing of Ministers from their Charges, for the majus bonum Ecclesiae, and to the more effectual advancement of the Gospel in many other places of the Kingdom, particularly among the wild Highlanders and rude Borderers. This was a Singular and remarkably blest Transportation indeed, by the soveraign hand of the great Shepherd of the Flock, whatever was the Faintings or infirmity of under-Pastors in this business; Not unto us, not unto us, but unto him be the Glory. But ah! When we reflect again, and again, upon that dismal day, when the whole of our Reformation from Prelacy, &c. was so professedly and avowedly raz­ed, and quite overturned, and that Antichristian Prelatick Government set up by a pretended Supremacy over the Church: Oh! What sinful Silence then surprised us all, that there was found no Party in the land of all the Covenanted Friends to Reformation; Nay not of Ministers (whose part it was by Office as Watch-men) either to give warning in due Season; as used to be in former times, or jointly to appear, for Witnessing their resent­ment of that most dreadful course of Rebellion against the CHRIST of GOD: And that which more aggravated that sinful silence; they were at that time in a far better capacity to have joined in any Testimony, then ever they were afteawards, being in the Possession of Church Assemblies, at least of Presbytries and Synods, before they were by violence dissolved. O! What [Page 16] sad Reflections may we have, upon that sinful and shameful dismissing of our selves, and Presbytries, without so much as one poor Paper-Testimony from any of them in all Scotland! And albeit something of this Nature was often mentioned, and aimed at in several Synods and Presbytries of this Church; Yea, and earnestly endeavoured by some of our most Faithful Men, yet never brought forth to perfection, or publick view, but still by some diversion, and uhappy hand or other, stiffled in the Birth, unwor­thily suffering our selves to be deceived and imposed upon by Cornal advi­sings of some pretending to Prudence (under that false and shameful pre­tence of being unseasenable, when it was most, if not, only Seasonable) to forbear and delay to a more convenient time; and still a new woful ad­vice to delay, untill at length the most seasonable opportunity was Elapsed and lost, the like whereof never to be recovered again. (O that this may not be our Case this day!) Then was our Arm broken, then was our Hair cut. Then did our Strength depart from us, our former Zeal and Courage (which we never recovered since. or ever like to do) did then fail and evanish.

6. That even these Men, who from clear conviction of the warrantable­ness and excellency of that Glorious Work of Reformation, so willingly en­gadged, and Chearfully did Swear unto the most High GOD, that they should Zealously and constantly defend the same, and who were also Honoured to be Co-workers together with him, in raising up, and defending this No­ble Work, and signally Countenanced by many remarkable incouradgements while they followed the Lord: That even they, in such a Generation, did so soon forsake, yea and conspired together against their own COVENAN­TED GOD, contrar to so solemn Engadgements, and with wicked Hands, avowedly in the face of GOD, Angels, Sun, Moon and Starrs, before the World, and the Churches abroad, to their Eternal Disgrace, did o­verturn the whole of that Beautyful Work, and not only practically, but professedly, and under collour of Law, made void the OATH of GOD, declaring the same to be no more binding, either on their own or other men's Consciences; rescinded all the laudable Acts and Laws made in fa­vours and defence thereof: Lick'd up again that vile Vomit of Abjur'd Pre­lacy, Establishing the same by a Law, made many grievous Acts and E­dicts for strengthening that Conspiracy: Manifestly invaded our Great LORD and Master his Prerogative of Supremacy over his own House, Or­dinances and Ambassadors, and did set up an Idol of Jealousie, in his room, and razed the warranted Ministerial Government of Christ by Presbyters, and violently raised, dissipated, and discharged all our Church Assemblies, condemning them as unlawful Convocations of the Subjects, grievously per­secuted the truely G [...]dly, both Ministers and others, who feared the OATH of GOD, and refused to Comply with this violent Course of horrid defe­ction: [Page 17] And what the Lords Worthies have endured (whom the World was not worthy of) since this National revolt from Christ, and opposition to his Cause, would scarce be believed among the Nations abroad. And which might here be added, that most of the Nobility, many of the Gentry and Common People (what through Slavish fear, what through Ignorance) did immediatly faun in with, own and Countenance these poor lifeless Curats, upon whom was this dreadful Character every where observed, that they were none of those whom the Lord had sent, and therefore could not profit this people at all, it being frequently testified by such of their hearers, as had most understanding to discern a profiting Preaching, that they never found any good by them; severals of whom did afterwards withdraw from them, upon this very head, among other accounts: And which is yet more con­siderable, that many of the People who had lived Ignorant and Profain, while they continued under them, have (after they withdrew, and re­sorted to these Ordinances, at the Meetings called Conventicles, being graciously caught by the Power of GOD in the Preaching of the Gospel) reformed their life, and made serious in the great concerns of their Souls salvation; and who also afterwards did indure the greatest of sufferings, rather than to forsake, or ingage to forsake those persecuted Meetings, and and return again to these Curats.

7. OUR old Rotten Perjuries and breach of solemn COVENANTS, which though now almost quite forgot, doth yet stick unto us, like an over­grown Leprosie, and from which this Land, and Inhabitants thereof, can never be cleansed and cured, but either by tremenduous desolating Judg­ments, or by deep repentance, and turning again to the Lord, by Renew­ing our COVENANT as publickly and solemnly, as it was vilely broken and then Burnt, by the Hands of the Common Hangman, and other execrable Ruffians. Ah! Few of us to this day, have seriously laid to Heart the Attrociousness of this Guilt, nor been so deeply affected therewith, as we ought, for all these abominations done in the midst of us: And not a few of us, alas! do rather extenuat, palliat, and hide the Lands defection; as if the then change of Church Government, Robbing CHRIST of his Supremacy, such open, barefaced and avowed Perjury, and breach of CO­VENANT, with all the dreadful consequences thereof, had been Matters of Moon-shine, of small moment, and not have made such Buffle and noise about, cryed out, and Witnessed against, as some others did judge it their duty to do upon all hazards. These and many moe, may make us Belshazzar-like, to fear and quake, that in the day (which fast hastneth) when the Holy and Righteous GOD (to whom vengeance belongeth) shall draw his Sword to avenge the Quarrel of his COVENANT, many of us (who would needs be looked upon, and do vainly fancy our selves to be Innnocent non-complyers with the Lands revolt) shall not escape to share [Page 18] with the workers of Iniquity, in their Plagues, because we have been so much partakers with them in their Sins. Let us remember the remarkable instance of Saul and the Gibeonits, and tremble: That Breach of COVE­NANT (though an unlawful Oath) was notwithstanding severely punished in good Davids Time, by the fearful plague of Famine. 2 Sam. 21. and 1. Which sad and heavy stroak, we are this day groaning under, and still encreasing upon us, and no relief to be expected from abroad. And because we have wofully Reacted the same Conspiracy against the Lord and his Anointed, which the perfideous and Treacherous Israelits were guilty of, Jerem. 11.9, 10. And the Lord said unto me, a Conspiracy is found among the Men of Judah, and among the Inhabitants of Jerusalem, they are turned back to the iniquities of their Forefathers, who refused to hear my Words: The House of Isra­el, and the house of Judah have broken my COVENANT, which I made with their Fathers. It is then no wonder, if he should pass that same heavy Doom and Sentence upon Us, as he did upon them: Therefore thus saith the Lord, be­hold I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall Cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them. All our former stroaks have not reached GOD's Gracious Ends to put us upon the speedy Search and try­al of our ways: We have been hitherto (Pharoah-like) proof to all his Threatnings and Judgments spiritual and Temporal. O! Who knoweth, but this may be already the Ninth Plague, under which we are pining away? Ah then! Let us take the Allarm in time, before we provoke an Incense [...] GOD to surprise us with that last and fearful Word, once for all. Exod. 11.1.6. Yet will I bring one Plague more upon (Scotland) not to Mend, but to End them; not to Reclaim, but to destroy them. And there shall be a great Cry throughout all the Land; such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more. Yet for all thats come upon us, there are not a few of our Ministers (alas for it) who no ways do make it their Concerning business to Preach up the indispensible Obligations, we and the whole Land ly under, by vertue of these our Solemn COVENANTS; And others do this so darkly and obscurely, that the one half of their hearers knoweth not well what they would be at. Though I know and do acknowledge there be many Faithful Ambassadors of Christ in Scotland, who boldly discharges their Consciences herein. But are we not all equally concerned? O why do we not then all of us, long for it up, Preach it up, Pray it up. Discourse it up, till at length our good Go­vernment proclaim it up? For up it will upon us, in spite of our Hearts, if not by our free consent, and Zealous endeavours, for our own good, yet by Gods appointment, I am afraid, for our distruction. Alas, we are as yet like Ephraim, a Cake unturn'd, like a silly Dove without Heart, Hos. 7.8.11. Ah! We but Smother the Lands guilt; so that we may say with Hos. 13.12.13. The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up, his Sin is hid, he is an Unwise Son, for h [...] should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of Children. O Scotland, return [Page 19] then speedily unto the LORD, for thou hast fearfully and shamefully fallen by thine iniquity.

8. The Total Apostacy of many False Brethren, and pretended Profes­sors of the Truth: Instance, that Grand Judas, and Arch-Traitor Sharp, &c. supposed by all Sound Divines, who knew him, to be Guilty of the Fearful, and Un-pardonable Sin against the Holy Ghost. O shall not then such a Frightful Ship-wrack, as the above Instance is, (though there were no more) be an everlasting Warning, and perpetual Caution, especially to all Young Students, from Spleeting their Poor Souls upon the like Rocks, by Rushing themselves Precipitantly, upon the Tremenduous, Weighty, and Painful Work of the Ministry, perhaps for By-Ends; Trusting only to their Parts, and a Small Stock of Learning, before they be well Rooted and Grounded in the Faith, and have the Precious Stock of Real Grace, a Through and Saving Change wrought upon their Souls, and come this Length, even to make a Personal COVENANT with GOD, Write it, Sign it, and lay it up by them, ad futuram rei memoriam, as a Witness, either for, or against them, accordingly as they afterwards behave themselves; And not offer to Preach the Great Point of Conversion, &c. to others, be­fore they be past the Pangs of the New Birth, and become True and Sin­cere Converts themselves; that so they may be able to Speak from the Heart, and their own Sweet Experience, to the Heart. When all this is made Conscience of, and done, then they may, with a Holy Boldness, (as ha­ving GOD's Call,) yet with Humility, Fear and Trembling, come forth, and offer themselves to the Service of their COVENANTED GOD, to be Fellow-Labourers in the LORD's Vineyard, now when the Harvest is great and the Labourers few. And having these Pre-requisit Necessary Qualifi­cations, and yet stands, as it were, Idle all the Day, in the Mercat-Place, 'mongst the Croud of Groundless Objections, and other needless Niceties, some not coming out, until the eleventh Hour; some, may be, not at all: Such will be found Guilty of Sitting GOD's Call, which is again Dan­gerous on the other Hand. But O! Since every Individual Christian, e­very Believer, is expresly Commanded, To put on the whole Armour of GOD; how much more then a Minister of the Gospel; and all little enough, to put them in a Standing Posture, to Resist the Fiery Darts of the Devil, and to keep them from Turning either a Desperat Judas, an Ambitious Diotrephes, or a Covetous, Base, and Mean Spirited Demas: For, so long as we are in the State of Imperfection, we may lay our Account for it, that Satan, the Common Enemy, will still be Throwing in his Tares among the good Wheat; And his Grand and Principal Design is, to raise up, and Tempt Corrupt Church-Men, as well knowing, that such wil play the Devil and all, to get their Ambitious, Greedy, and Covetous Ends Accomplished, if it were to the utter Ruine of a whole Church. And should not this, on the o­ther [Page 20] Hand, put Presbytries, and all concerned upon their Guard, How and Whom they Admit, and Receive into their Bosom? By the By, suffer me to tell you, that it is the Complaint, and Dayly Fears of many, both Mi­nisters and People, That Persons are now Recommended, Received and Admitted, upon too Slender Proofs of their Sufficiency, and too Easy Try­al and Search, especially, as to the above Necessar, Inward, Soul Qual­fications of a Minister of CHRIST; and so is seen upon it: Are there not already some Thrust out, who, the next Day, are ready to Cut our own Throats, or Turns a Disgrace and Scandal to their Brethren, and the Ho­ly Ministry? I do acknowledge and believe, that a Minister (though a Cast-away himself) may Preach the Gospel to others, yea, and perhaps be some Sort of an Instrument, to Convert a Sinner; Yet I think, this is almost as Rare a Thing, as another Thief upon the Cross; So that we dare not, nor must not take our Measures by, or presume upon this Head. Therefore, we are bold to say, that any Designing for this Sacred and Aw­ful Office, cannot be too Cautious himself, nor too Strictly Try'd, and then Bound by all that's Sacred, and Tyed by as Formidable an Oath, as can possibly be Worded, that they are True and Sound Presbyterians in their Heart, Judgment, and Principles, and Declared, Stated and Avowed E­nemies to every Thing, that so much as Smells of Popery, Prelacy, Erastia­nism, and such like Destructive Errors; And Resolves, in their Masters Strength, Firmly and Resolutely, to Adhere to their Principles upon all Hazards. And if any such afterwards (notwithstanding of all this) Li­sten to the Tempter, Swallow the Bait, Venture upon Perjury, and will needs Damn themselves, Let them then go to Hell with a Witness, it's none of your Fault, you are free from their Blood, and from having any Hand in the Churches Ruine. I humbly think this is no Unseasonable Advice and Caution, especially since we have so many former Fatal Experiences of Mens Naughtiness.

9. The Universal Complying, Cowardly Ceding, Yielding and Tampe­ring with the then Desperat Enemies to Reformation, and especially in the great Points of CHRIST's Crown, as Sole King, Head, and Supreme Gover­nour of his Church; And a Partial Falling away from the Truth, by both Mi­nisters and People, Men of Timorous Spirits, and Lovers of Ease; togethe [...] with the many Unaccountable Steps of Defection and Division flowing there­from. Instance, the Taking and Accepting of our Protestant Pope's Indulgences, (Founded upon, and Directly Flowing from that Cursed Supremacy▪ the Mother of many Woful Divisions and Animosities, not Cured to thi [...] Day: The Paying of Unlawful Taxes, Cesses, and Impositions for Damna­ble Ends; the Express Narrative of the Act bearing to this Purpose, viz. T [...] Raise and Maintain Forces to Suppress Field Preaching, (by them calle [...] Rendevouzes of Rebellion) and to show our Unanimous Affection and Resolution [Page 21] to Maintain His Majesties Supremacy and Greatness, over all Persons and Causes, as Established by Law, &c. But (to give the above Indul­gence another little Touch) let it be considered, that as other Steps of De­fection seemed to be more Passive, Extorted and Violented, especially from Professors, by Reason of Uncessant Persecution and Cruelties: Yet this of the Indulged, was a mere Voluntar Act, purely of their own Accord, by making a down-right Paction with the Enemy, and willingly Surren­dring up the Fort of their Ministerial Priviledges, Committed to their Trust and Keeping, by their Great LORD and Master; and that no ways upon Articles of Capitulation, but wholly upon Discretion; all the Conditions and Terms being of the Enemies own Making; and how Fair and Ho­nourable these Conditions were, (consideratis considerandis, as the Lands Cir­cumstances then stood) let the Weighty Nature, Import, and Extent of their Sacred Office Judge. O! our Venerable Assembly, do your selves and us the Justice, to allow us but a Fair Vote amongst you, whether this was a Sinful and Shameful Step of Defection, yea, or not; And then likewise, as to all the other Backslidings, Defections and Declinings, (Naming them one by one, else it signifies nothing) whether they have been, and so long as not Acknowledged and Condemned, still are, Presbyterian Grie­vances, and Causes of Wrath, yea, or not: This might be thought, no Un­seasonable Overture, if it were no more, but to Undeceive, and Take off the Perswasion of many Inconsiderat Creatures, and the Suspition of o­thers, that these Defections are Homologat by all; though Persons more Wise, and Tender of our Ministers due Credit and Reputation, do per­swade our selves, that not a tenth Man amongst them, either will or dare Owne, Defend, Excuse, or Extenuat any of the Lands Defections, &c.

10. The Dreadful Benumming, Deadning, Debauching, and Violent­ly Racking of Mens Consciences, by Soul-Damning, and Self-Contradictory Oaths, all directly contrair unto, and openly Flying in the Face of our former Solemn Vows and Engagements to the Great GOD, and our Uni­versal Complyance therewith; so that the Poor Land was, with its Inha­bitants, Deeply Sunk in the Guilt of most Horrid, Fearful and fre­quent Perjuries, and the Consciences of many a Poor Wretch, so Seared, as with a Hot Iron, that they, at length, became quite Senseless, Stupid, Regardless and Indifferent, how often, and how many of them they took; if it had been (as they themselves said) to Cart Load fulls. O! what Hi­deous Cryes, from the frequent Perjuries in Scotland, are sent up to the GOD of Vengeance in Heaven, for Hastning the Wrath Determined.

11. The Innumerable, Bloody, Barbarous, and Inhumane Cruelties, Committed and Exercised by Monstruous Canibals, Fratricides, and Vile Ruffians, in their Slavish and Absolute Obedience unto Men Establishing [Page 22] Iniquity by a Law, by Defaming, Slandering, Informing against, Sear­ching out, Hunting these Poor Partridges out of their Lurking Holes, Dens and Caves, Pursuing them, Plundering, Pillaging, Harrassing, Beg­garing, Intercommuning, Dragooning, Apprehending, Imprisoning, Shutting them up in Dungeons and Rocks in the Sea, Banishing to For­raign Plantations, Selling them for Slaves, Mutilating, Dismembring, Pi­stolling them upon the High Roads, Heading, Hanging, Drowning, Quartering, Tormenting them with Burning Matches, Torturing with Boots, and Thumikins, Boutchering and Murdering Thousands of the LORD's Hidden Ones, in the Open Fields, upon the Road, upon Moun­tains, in Mosses and Moors, in their Beds, and Cutting off some, even in the very Act of Worshipping GOD, while on their Knees: And all this to their own Brethren, Countrey-Men and Relations, and that a­gainst all Ranks of Persons, without Distinction of High and Low, Rich or Poor, Respecting neither Age nor Sexe, Sickness nor Infirmity; from Dying Men of Fourscore, to Young Girles of Fifteen, of all who any ways Opposed, or gave the least Shadow of a Testimony; nay so much as Offered to Mutter but one Word against their Raging, Madd and Des­perat Designs, and when no Lybel could be found or proved (in their Sense) to find them Guilty, then their Unreasonable Fury Reached and Squeezed the Poor Innocent Pannel that fell in their Hands, by that De­vilishly Popish de super inquirendis, upon his very Thoughts, Judgment and Opinion, so that they were sure to have a Hit at him, Fas aut Knave-Fas, Right or Wrong, if he was but a True Protestant-Presbyterian, and good Chri­stian. Such was Scotlands Savage Brutality in Diebus illis, when the Red Dra­gon, that Old Serpent, and his Bloody Slavish Volunteers, were Casting out Water as a Flood after the Woman, and was Wroth with her, and made War with the Remnant of her Seed, which keeped the Command­ments of GOD, and had the Testimony of JESUS. Nor was this all, but these Poor Perplexed Worthies, must likewise Suffer by False Friends, Secret Judas's, and Pretended Professors, forsooth, particularly when they were at last put to that Forced Pinch, and Unavoidable Necessity of Defending themselves, their Poor Children, Families, and the Cause of GOD with Sword in Hand, once at Pentland-Hills, a second time a [...] Loudoun-Law, and Bothwel-Bridge, and a third time with that Noble Marty [...] the E. of Argyle; How did then Thousands of Heretors, besides th [...] Militia through the whole Kingdom, (in all these Bloody Rencounters) presently Raise the Huy and Cry after them, got all to their Arms, an [...] joined with the common Enemy, as if they had been going to op­ [...]ose a formidable Invasion of Forraign Cut-throats, or Irish Massacrers, an [...] its more then probable, many of them had neither been so ready, s [...] Stout, nor so cruel against such: And so soon as any of them were take [...] [Page 23] Prisoners, dragged into Edinburgh and other Towns, and there condemn­ed to die as Malefactors; how ready was then our Cowardly Burgers, and degenerat Citizens to watch them, and to guard them to, and at their publick Executions, to their indelible Blot and perpetual Disgrace. And others lying Snaking at Home, by their own Chimny Corner, either Ex­cusing themselves, or Shifting so urgent, pressing and peremptory a Call to joyn with their poor Brethren (by which, much of their Blood might have been saved) whose only supposed Crime was merely for Non-Com­plance, for Innocent Self-Defence, and frequenting these persecuted Meet­ings, and Preaching of the Gospel by Christs Faithful and sent Ambassa­dors, in Houses or Fields, as they had best Access; standing out, and Wit­nessing for that same Truth, contending for that same Noble Cause, and keeping up a Testimony for that same Work of Reformation, which they themselves, and their Enemies, were all equally ingadged, and so­lemnly Sworn to maintain and defend.

12. That in the most of the above Woful Steps of Defection, there never wanted (Alas! for it) a party of our Ministers, not only Complying themselves, but still likewise Confusing and Confounding others of their Brethren, and the poor People, by Arguments and Perswasions to follow their unhappy Footsteps in joyning with, and hearing of these Lifeless and Unsent Curats, taking of Sinful Engagements, paying of Wickedly imposed Cesses, and exorbitant Taxes; as also, to Desert the Meetings of these Cou­rageous and Eminently Faithful Servants of CHRIST, who jeoparded their Lives in the open Fields; and to Embrace and accept of repeated Indulgences, Tollerations, &c▪ founded upon that Cursed Supremacy, and Absolute Power; and many of them suffered themselves to be tyed Neck and Heels, by Bonds, Engagements and other Instructions, how they should behave and regulat themselves in the Exercise of their Ministry; and then to be Coupled together by pairs, and thrown in into small Congregations, un­worthy of the free Ambassadors of Christ to come under, or be thus Treat­ed; our Enemies strictly Discharging and Prohibiting all the rest of the Presbyterian Ministers in Scotland, ever to speak in his Name, upon their Highest perril: thereby declaring to the World their manifest design, to put an utter stop to the further spreading or preaching of the Gospel through the Land, or the distributing the Bread of Life to a poor Soul starving People, by Confining the same to a narrow Spot; well knowing, that by this means, ere long, that little Spark of their own kindling and appointing, would in like manner quickly go out; And likewise se­veral Ministers did ly quite by, as useless Stewards, voluntarly deposing themselves: Others Judged it a sufficint exoneration of their Consciences, and a making a full proof of their Ministry, to have had a Morning, E­vening, or other Dyets Exercise, now and then, with a very few Hearers, [Page 24] and these select and hand hand-weal'd Persons, such as had most interest with the Master of the House, in the Corner of a Hall or Chamber, where the poor longing common people, these who had most need of, and great est hunger after the Word, could have no access, but quite debarr'd: Tho this indeed, in some Cases, and at some Seasons might have been expedi­ent. Now, if the whole Church and People of Scotland had listned to these Ministers, Complyed with all the above unaccountable steps of Defection, by their Perswasion and Example, and no more of a Testimony keeped up by any Remnant in the Land against them, given over the Preaching and hearing of the Gospel by Christs sent Ambassadors, in Houses or Fields (thereby preserving, at least, some Relicts of our Principles, and the small Spunk of our first Love and Zeal, which was ready to die) but Calmly had yielded up the Cause by degrees, Removed the due Distance, and quite laid aside all difference of Judgement and Practice, betwixt the then Contending Parties of Presbytrie and Prelacy: Ah then! What would we have been, do you think, by this time, and at this day? Surely, not Presbyterian; and consequently the Government of the Church, settled by King and Parliament in Scotland, at the late happy Revolution, according to the inclinations of the People (as it was worded) would without doubt, have been purely Episcopal at best. Alas! We have all reason, both Ministers and People (when we compare our selves with our Fore-fathers) to cry out as in Lam. 4.7, 8. Our Nazarites formerly were Purer than Snow, Whit­er than Milk, more Rudy than Rubies, their Polishing, (their Bright and Shining Zeal) was of Saphir: But O unworthy we! Their degenerat Off­fpring (scarce known or descerned to be their Posterity) our Vissage is blacker than a Coal, we are not known in rhe Streets, our Skin cleaveth to our Bones, it is Withered, it is become like a Stick; so that it may, now be said, and from Scotland all her Beauty is departed, Lam. 1.6. How hath the Lord covered our Sons and Daughters with a Cloud in his Anger? All that pass by, may clap their Hands at us, hiss and wagg their Head, saying, is this FA­MOUS COVENANTED SCOTLAND, that Men called the Perfection of Beauty, the Joy of the whole Earth? Lam. 2.1.15. And let me tell you, that tho I owne and do acknowledge, that the Church of Scotland doth at present enjoy her Lawful National Assemblies, duely Constitute and Fenced in their Masters Name, and do bless GOD for it; especially having Lawful Authority upon their side, and a Gracious PRINCE to owne and Counte­nance them therein; notwithstanding much hampered and Straitned, even amongst themselves, Frightned, I do not know for what. Yet I am bold to say (which all knoweth to be true) That such Ministers (bearing ne­ver so great a Figure in the Church) who are yet lying under the publick scandals of former habitual Hearing of the Curats, and advising the Poor People to do the like, Embracing of repeated Indulgences, and tempting [Page 25] their Brethren to do the same: Taking of sinful Bonds and Engadgements, wholly Burrying their Masters Talent, lying quite by as useless Stewards &c. would as soon have been admitted to sit and Vote in some of our former Zealous Assemblies, as we could admit and suffer Men infected with the Plague or Leprosy to sit amongst us now; but would have put them out of the Camp till they had Purified themselves by Repentance, and returned with their Trespass Offering, by making some sort of Confession and Acknowledgement of their Error; And its more than pro­bable, that such are as Dead Flees, the Achans in that Court; and no won­der, nay it is enough to to Tempt Satan to stand at their Right Hand, to resist and accuse them, and even their Brethren, our Joshuah's amongst them for their sakes, while they offer to stand before the Angel of the LORD, with their Filthy Garments, if it were no more but to blast and marr all their at­tempts for further Reformation. The Lord Rebuke him, even the Lord that has chosen Scotland, Rebuke thee O Satan, and dissappoint thee of thy Hellish designes! Are not these our Church Judicatories, priviledges and Blessings, as Brands pluckt again out of the Fire: The LORD take away our Filthy Gar­ments, and cause our Iniquity to pass from us; The LORD Cloath our Joshuah's with change of Raiment, that in stead of any thing that looks like Byassed-self, they may put on Zeal, and in stead of a Timorous Spirit, they may put on Holy boldness and Courage, both in points of Government and Disciplin. O that we may not be such a Brand pluckt out of the Burning, as in Amos 4.11. Against whom the Lord had a dreadful Controversy; the same Reason given there, Continuing still to be our sad Motto, yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord: Though I am very hopeful, that that GOD who has begun to repair his own House, and again to cast out the Rubbish, will yet rear it up till he has put a Glorious Cape-Stone upon it, and (if we could but exercise Patience) force the greatest Malcontent among us to sing and Cry, Grace to it, Amen.

Since the late Happy REVOLUTION.

OUR Horrid Ingratitude, and base requital we have given to the LORD for so seasonable, Signal and surprising a DELIVERANCE by the Worlds Renouned HERO, the then illustrious PRINCE of ORANGE, now our Gracious KING and SOVERAIGN, when we were not in the least dreaming of it: But on the Contrary, it was visibly seen, by all good Men, to be an Act of pure Soveraignity and Surprising Mercy as to Us; we were fo far from deserving and expecting it, that by that time we had calmly consented to be their perpetual Slaves, and Isachar-Ass-like did tamely Couch down between the Two unsupportable Burden [...]: Popery [Page 26] and Prelacy, and not only tacitly accepted of; but openly addressed our English Pope in a Letter of Thanks for a Sinful and impiously designed To­leration: Though this I Confess was a strong Temptation at the time; (before our Eyes were opened to see the Sting in its Taill, and Death in the Pot) yet we are sure, there is not a Faithful Minister in Scotland, who is not now sufficiently Convinced of this, and all the above Courses of Defection, for exitus acta probat.

2. Our sudden plunging our Selves into distrustful Fears, and betaking our selves to Carnal Policy, under the false Notion of commendable Circum­spection, Wisdom and prudence, that Conscience-cheating Quirk, whereby many in our days wears out and wards off all Checks and Challenges of Conscience whatsomever, for the Latitude they have taken, and do take to themselves in this Hour of Tentation: But that Prudence (most falsely so called) that leads any to shift the duty of the Day, or yield to Comply with Courses and Things, though but Doubtful to the Conscience, will be found (when Weighed in the Just Ballance) to be Atheistical Policy, and Unbelieving Fears, Dishonourable to GOD, Re­proachful to the Principles of Good Religion, Offensive to Tender Con­sciences, an Enemy to True Zeal, and the Mans own Peace, in the Day when the Deceived Conscience shall be Awaked out of Sleep. For True Prudence, or the Grace of Prudence, and Tenderness of Conscience, even as to the Hooves of Truth, and Abstaining from the least Appearance of Evil, are ever joyned together: And Prudence or Moderation, (call it what you will) without the necessar Concomitant of Tenderness, (have it who please) will be found, before GOD, to be but Carnal Craft, and Suttleness, though now adays, many will needs force upon it, the Painted Name of Pru­dence, thereby suffering many Precious and Golden Opportunities, Misera­bly to Slip through our Fingers, by which, a begun Work of Reformation might have been, ere now, pretty far Advanced. This is like to prove both our Shame and Ruine, let us pretend what we will. Ah! When we Reflect how Early we left our first Love and Zeal, then became Spiritual Adulterers, forsook our COVENANTED GOD, and made Sinful Man our Fear and our Dread; then we turned a Company of Treacherous Men, no more Valiant for the Truth, but proceeded from Evil to Worse: And as the Proverb runs, False to GOD, True to no Man, so is it now come to this Jer. 9.4, 5, 6, 7. Take ye heed every one of his Neighbour, and Trust ye not in any Brother, for every Brother will utterly Supplant, and every Neighbour will Walk with Slanders, and they will Deceive every one his Neighbour, and will not Speak the Truth; they have Taught their Tongues to Speak Lyes, and Weary themselve [...] to Commit Iniquity: Our Habitation is in the midst of Deceit, through Deceit we refuse to you the LORD. Therefore GOD is sensibly Melting us down [Page 27] and seemeth to be saying, Jer. 5.9. Shall I not Visit them for these Things? Shall not my Soul be Avenged on such a Nation as this? You may clearly Read our Name and Sirname here in every Step, Jer. 9.2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. O that we may look to our selves, before it prove Fatal to us, as in vers. 11. Ah! let us not provoke the LORD to pass that Terrible Word, Therefore Pray not for this People: neither lift up a Cry or Prayer for them, for I will not hear them in the time that they Cry unto me in their Trouble, Jerem. 7.16. While in the mean time he is saying to all Well Meaning Professors, Seekest thou great things for thy self? Seek them not; for behold, I will bring Evil upon all Flesh, Jer. 45.5. It will never be well with Treacherous Apostat Scot­land, especially considering how far we have Backslidden, and how much Ground we have lost, and are still losing, until we come to this, Jer. 50.4, 5. In those days, and at that time, saith the LORD, the Children of Israel shall come, they and the Children of Judah together, (great and small) going and Wee­ping, they shall go and seek the LORD their GOD, they shall ask the way to Zion with their Faces thitherward, saying, Come let us joyn our selves to the LORD in a perpetual COVENANT, that shall never be forgotten. But how far, Alas! we are from this Noble Frame at present, let both Kirk and State Judge. O when shall that Blessed Day come, when one shall say, I am the LORDs, and another shall call himself by the Name of Jacob, and another shall Subscribe with his Hand unto the LORD, and Sirname himself by the Name of Israel, Jsa. 44.5.

3. Our giving Way to Base and Cursed SELF, preferring that Vile Idol of Jealousie unto every thing thats Civil or Sacred, suffering Self Ends, and Worldly Designs, not only to Creep in, but to have the Sole Ascendant over all that's truly Great, Good, and Glorious; notwithstanding GOD is putting every day New Marks of his Displeasure upon it: Are we not Smar­ting under the Loss and Want of these Comforts, which are Nearest and Dearest to SELF, Trade Decaying, Money Wearying out, Credit lost by Poverty and Treachery, the Staff of Bread Failing, every thing Blasted we take in Hand? Deut. 28.20. The LORD sending upon us Cursing, Vexa­tion and Rebuke in all we set our Hand unto for to do, because of the Wickedness of our Doings, whereby we have forsaken him; for we are already, Deut. 28.16, 17. Cursed in the City, Cursed in the Field, Cursed in our Basket, and Cursed in our Store, and in the Fruit of our Land: So that (if we will not for His Glory,) GOD seems resolved (for our Destruction) to Sacrifice this our Only Isaac before our Eyes. Do but Seriously Read Haggai 1.4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11. I remember a Word in Isai. 26.9. With my Soul have I desired thee in the Night, yea with my Spirit within me will I seek thee Early, for when thy Judg­ments are in the Earth, the Inhabitants of the World will learn Righteousness. Shall we not then be Allarmed out of our Dreadful Security, and Early and Speedily, with the whole Bent of Soul, and Fervour of Spirit, Desire [Page 28] him, Seek him, Follow hard after him, and Keep closs to him, now in this Dark Night of Desertion, when his Judgments are Flying through the Earth, and already Seen and Felt by us. And (as the Learned Pool spea­king on this Verse) good Reason it is, that we should thus Desire and Seek him, in the Way of his Judgments, because this is the very Design of his Judgments, that we should thereby be Awakened to Learn and Return to our Duty. O! shall even the Inhabitants of the World Shame the Profes­sors of Scotland, who have not hitherto Learned this Great Lesson, and up­on whom the Judgments of GOD have not as yet had this Blessed Effect.

4. The quite giving up with, abandoning and Crushing any thing that looks like A PUBLICK SPIRIT among us; that no Sooner it begins to peep out, in any Court, Civil or Sacred, but immediatly all about, are upon its top, so that its forc'd to shrink back, as Frighted it self, and frightful to others. O sad Reflection! Ah that it should be said of this Generation, and upon too good grounds, that if the Same Men (who in our Noble Reforming Predecessors days, were counted Famous, according as they lifted Axes upon the Thick Trees) were now alive, they would be reck­oned Fools and Mad-men; nay we would be ready to cry out against them, with the unbelieving Jews upon Paul and Silas, as Men going to turn the World up side down; Notwithstanding we have the same Holy Religion to maintain, the same Noble Cause to Contend for, The same desperat Malignant Enemies to graple with, and the same Omnipotent Jehovah to defend us, which they had.

5. The Monstruous Principles of Atheism, Deism, Socinianism, Quakerism, with other black and Hellish Notions Spewed out of the bottomless Pit, by which multitudes of the Poor, ramp, Inadvertant, ignorant Youth are perverted and Ruined to their own Damnation.

6. The avowed and open Profanity, Debauchery, and desperate wick­edness overspreading the whole Land, and Raging every where, as if the Flood Gates of Hell were broke loose upon us, and overflowing all its Banks: and many of the Diabolick Actors and Committers of these Abominations, Ridiculing, Contemning and trampling upon all Law and Disciplin, es­pecially the Officers and Souldiers of the standing Forces, as to the far greater part of them, and none to Controll or Check them, which is Lamentable.

7. That notwithstanding there be many good and wholesome Laws made against Profanity and Impiety, &c. yet by the negligence and Infidelity of Under Magistrates in many places, there is not one of them put to due Execution. And (pardon me my Noble and worthy Patriots, and my dear and Reverend Pastors to say) that many of the Law-makers themselves make no conscience to Patronize and follow them forth, by their own good Example, nor to see and cause their own Laws and Acts, either Civil or Sacred, to be carefully, Faithfully, and impartially Execute upon all [Page 29] Transgressors, without Distinction of High and Low, else how comes it, that Habitual Cursers, Swearers, Drunkards, Whoremongers, Adulterers, Sabbath-Breakers, Open Mockers at Serious Religion, &c. abounds e­very where, and go Merrily on, without the least Check or Punishment: Only some of the Poorer Sort, now and then, must be Offered up as a Victim for all the rest. Ah! if we had once the Spirit and Courage, to fall upon Effectual Ways and Means, (of which Hundreds might easily be Proposed, and Prosecute to Good Effect,) for the Curbing of Vice, and Advancing of Reformation, other Projects would certainly Succeed better in our Hand. And while it is thus with us, we but Mock GOD and Man; and all Good Christians, the King's Best-Subjects, Expecting the Parturi­unt Montes of such Strong and Excellent Laws, to Knock down these Un­circumcised Philistines, Heaps upon Heaps before them, are only Charm'd out of their Senses, by the mere Empty Trumpet Sound of Paper Procla­mations. Yea there be many Persons of Quality, and others, who are not at the Pains, when in their Power, so much as to Discourage and Suppress Deboached and Wicked Practices in their Bounds, where they have their Residence, nor to Reform and Purge even their own Families, and Do­mestick Servants, Dayly Polluting our Streets, and wherever they go, with their Horrid Cursing, Swearing, Obscene Discourses, &c. A Scan­dal to their Masters, a Shame to Christianity, Noysome to all Sober Men, Infectious to others, and Destructive to their own Souls.

8. The Interlyning and Mixing in with Good Men in Places of Publick Trust, Profit or Honour, Persons known by many, and suspected by all, to be either Heart Jacobites, and Enemies to every thing that's Good, or Naughty Rotten Hearted Covetous Professors, who both alike Regardeth His Majesties True Interest, the Good of Religion, and their Countrey, no more than they were Turks and Pagans, but all must Bow, Fall, and Sink before their Grand Dagon SELF. There is no more Regard had in our Day to that Honest Old Gentleman called True Merit, then if he were a Bug-Bear Criminal, though sadly Languishing by a long Decay, that now his Face is scarce known amongst the Universal Croud of Base Spiri­ted Self-Seekers. And so cometh of it: Doth not the whole Kingdom Groan under the Weight of this Sad Truth? So that all the Cesses, Impositions, Taxes and Supplies, which the Subjects do as Willingly and Cheerfully Contribute, as ever a Poor People did, to the Streatching, yea Over-Streatching themselves; Yet this is far from Answering His Majesty's Ho­nest Designs, or the Peoples Expectations. Ah! is it not then Worth our While, nay a Necessar Duty, (as we shall be Answerable to GOD, King and Countrey,) for to make a Narrow, Through, and Impartial Search into the Bottom, to find out the true Causes of these Things, and Trace back into every Step of the Managements, or (I am afraid) the Misma­nagements [Page 30] of particular Persons, Under-Receivers, &c. If it were no more then to give the Subjects Concerned, and the Poor Distressed Countrey, Towns and Cities some Kind of Ease and Satisfaction, what Way their MO­NEY is gone, and how it is Disposed on, to Whom, and for What. There­fore, We do Humbly Begg, Earnestly Hope, and Greedily Expect, that our Great and High Court of Parliament will Effectually and Speedily fall upon the above Search, both for their own Exoneration, and the Unspeakable Satisfaction of the Poor Liedges; especially when Surmises, Suspicions and Jealousies do Arise and Increase every Year, whether from Just Grounds or not, I shall not Determine, (let a Wise Parliament find out that) but it is now Scandalously become the Table-Talk through the whole Kingdom; So that People are Tempted to Believe, that Quod omnes Dicunt est Verum. As also, that they would Ease us of perhaps a great many Pensioners, whom neither their Bad Circumstances, nor any Signal and Special Service done to King or Countrey, do plead for, especially now when the Necessar Fonds, it seems, do not, nor cannot Answer their own Native and Proper Ends, for which they were laid on. (Pardon my Freedom, this is the Peoples Jea­lousie, for GODs Sake Unriddle the Mystery to them) And since it is so, and still like to be so, I and all Reasonable Men do humbly think, That Want who will, His Majesties Souldiers ought not, seing such cannot Subsist without it; but especially, since this will Frighten and quite Discou­rage all others hereafter, from Offering themselves to His Majesty's Service, upon any Occasion, if they do not meet with more Encouragement than hi­therto. And so soon as any Person or Persons are found out, and Convi­cted as Guilty of Bold, Impudent, and Underminding Practises of this Nature, I think all Good Men, Faithful and Conscientious Loyalists, who are true to King and Countrey, will, in their Judgment, readily bring in their Ver­dict, and give their Vote and Sentence, that such Villains ought, and should be Legally Dewitted, and (far more deservedly then Poor Agag) be Cut and Hewed into Pieces, and made a Sacrifice to the Publick; then after­wards, all the small Parcels and Fragments of their Vile Carcase, Care­fully Joyned together, and Hung up in Chains before the Sun, as a La­sting Disgrace, and Terrour to all Batriaecides, and National Cut-Throats. If all this be but mere Apprehensions, Vulgar Fancies and Mistakes, what meaneth the Bleeting of the Sheep, the Constant Clamours, the Incessant Complaints and Outeryes of all Concerned, both in the New and Old Ar­rears, &c. Yet Standing out, and Multitudes of them, both Officer [...] and others Redacted to great Straits thereby, though many of them, Good and Brave Men, who Cheerfully and Resolutely Ventur'd their Lives, and Lost their All in His Majesty's Service, and for the Protestant Interest, at the first Breaking up of the late Happy Revolution. We know that ou [...] Wise Parliament doth lay on Yearly and Necessar Foods, by them Judge [...] [Page 31] Competent to Accomplish the Design, and Reach these Ends; and the Subjects in City, Town, and Countrey Declares, they are made to pay the same to the Outmost Farthing; And yet, what becomes of a great part of all this, is indeed a Mystery beyond our Fathoming, we must needs leave this Grand Question at the Door of some Guilty Consciences, and Defrauding Zacheuses, to Answer in a Dying Hour, either upon a Bed or a Gibbet, as Providence shall Determine.

I do not in the least presume from this Eight Artickle to Reflect upon his SACRED Majesty, or upon the publick deed of any Court Civil or Sacred; God forbid I should; I know our GRACIOUS PRINCE would as gladly have us every way Happy, as we our selves, not like our Trium-viri in the Late unhappy Reigns, who all Three made it their constant busi­ness furiously to drive on the Temporal, Spiritual and Eternal Ruine of their best Subjects, that is, all good Christians; the last avowedly declaring that it would never be well with him till the West of Scotland was made a Huntingfield: And yet our late Helli — Bishops, and their Creature Curats, made one of them equal to JESUS CHRIST, making the Paralel run be­twixt him and our Blessed Saviour in every Point, his Divinity scarcely excepted, notwithstanding a Mortal Enemy to Reformation; though no true Presbyterian did approve or Justify the foul manner of his Death: A Second, they openly cryed up for a God (and was he not a Pure, Chast and cleanly one) and a Third, they Impudently proclaim'd to be Heavens Darling: And yet we cannot get these Sparks to pray for a Protestant Prince. GOD have Mercy upon us! If a Bigot Papist be the Darling of Heaven, a Daniel greatly beloved; where is then the Faith and Hope of a Protestant? I could scarce have had the Confidence to have published this among Christians, if I had not my self heard these Popish-Protestants, or De­mi-Atheists (which you please) utter such expressions. Ah LORD! To what a fearful hight and length these Spiritual Scots Fathers and their unworthy Gang would have arived unto by this time, if Providence and the good hand of GOD upon our great Deliverer had not speedily and Seasonably, step'd in for our Relief, and said to the Raging Sea, and them both. Hitherto thou shalt come and no further; and driven these Soul Murdering Locusts out of our Coasts. They were come this length, even to infect and Poison their poor witless Hearers with Gross Arminianism and other distructive Errors, preaching them openly out of Pulpits, and industruously diffusing and spreading them through the whole Kingdom. Haec olim meminisse, &c. O shall not we (when we reflect on these things) all of us cry out with one Heart and Voice, LONG LIVE KING WILLIAM, the great Instrument of our late Deliverance, and of all our present Mercies. The LORD, the LORD his GOD, his great and wonderful hitherto Preserver, make this our valiant Gideon, our good Jehosaphat, a TENDER ZEALOUS REFORMING JOSIAH, and [Page 32] level all the Mountains of Jacobite and Malignant opposition, and make them become a plain before Great Britains ZERUBABEL. And that he may every day take on more and more, King Davids Noble Resolution, Psal. 101, a Psalm directed on purpose by the Spirit of GOD, as an excellent Coppie for all Christian Kings and Princes to walk by: The Lord make him yet further a Glorious Instrument in his hand for advancing National Reformation, for Renewing our National Vows and Engagements to the Great GOD, and to sup­press Profanity, and all maner of Wickedness, in Courts, Cities, Towns and Counties of his three Dominions. The Lord who hath now, we hope, begun to fix the Crown upon his Head, and settle him upon his Throne in Peace, give him still to increase and grow in Piety towards GOD, and Favour towards Men: and that with Zeal and Courage, he may un­dauntedly trace the Blessed-Foot-steps of his resolute Brother-King the Fa­mous Reforming Hesekiah 2 Chron. 29.2, 3, 4.5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. Where that Noble Prince did begin his Happy and Succesful Reign with Religion and Reformation: For it is said of him, that in the First year of his Reign, in the First Month, he opened the Doors of the House of the Lord (as our Gracious Sovereign likewise did in Scotland) and Repaired them; and Commanded to Purge and to Plant the House of GOD, and made a Covenant with GOD; and himself pushed on and encouraged his Priests, the Ministers to Zeal and Forewardness in that same Work of Reformation. And O our DEAREST PRINCE, do but see, how wonderfully GOD did Bless and succeed this Godly Monarch, in so good and Necessar a Work, by Remarkably and suddenly changing the Hearts of his Subjects, not­withstanding after so long and general Defection and Apostacy, v. 36. And this is not all, but he with his Nobility are at pains and expence them­selves Cap. 30.24. Then when we consider the Blessed effects that this Work had (when it thus begins at the Fountain) is very observable Cap. 31.1. where we see that, it put an edge of Zeal upon all Ranks of Persons They broke the Images in pieces, and cut down the Groves: Then down went the HIGH PLACES and the Altars (these constant Enemies to true Reformation) out of all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasse, untill they had uterly distroyed them all. Then (to incourage all Suc­ceeding Kings and Princes to do the same upon the like occasion, and to do it Honestly) the Sacred History concludeth with this: That whatever Hesekiah did of this Nature. he did it with all his Heart, and therefore pros­pered: Nowise like either our Masked Jeraboam or barefac'd Reboboam in the late unhappy Reigns, who whatever they did of this kind, was quite cross to their true temper and Inclination, with a secret Heart Aversion: Or otherwise, from a Spirit of deep dissimulation and Carnal policy. And so came of it, GOD early forsaking them both; Witness, the one turning a [Page 33] desperat Apostat, the other a Cursed Idolator. And Finally (whose Nature it is, to our sweet Experience, to relieve the Oppressed) That he would at least Mediat, and effectually Interceed for the poor Distressed and Per­plexed persecuted Protestants Abroad, who (I know) do look upon our true and most Christian King, our Great Defender of the Faith, as concerned to do as much in their Favours as possibly his Interest can lead him. This is, I am sure, the Earnest and hearty Prayers of all good Men, his Ma­jesties best Subjects. But to return. I say, this in nowise is to be Impu­ted to our GRACIOUS PRINCE (in a manner a Stranger unto us) For how can we Imagine, that HE should know and be acquainted with our Humours and Constitutions at such a distance, as we ourselves are, to our Smarting Experience: But these fauning sycophantick, underminding and Bribing Moles, or to speak in broad Scots, these Moudiwarts, these Earth-worms, these Horse-Leeches, these self-Gormondizers, these Heart Enemies to all good Government, Civil or Sacred, will needs insinuat themselves upon, and croud in to Places of publick Trust by Money, Interest or Court-Factions, the constant Plague and Bane of Government. And here I crave leave to tell the Reader, that though I am none of those who take a King to be Infallible, and one who cannot Err, and conse­quently one who requireth, and we must give Unlimited and absolute O­bedience unto, for whoever pretends to this (having thereby broken his Coronation Oath, of Ruling according to the Laws of the Land, and by that same, have loosed and freed the Subjects from their Sworn alledgeance, the paction being Mutual and Conditional) I count him no True King, Or­eained of GOD (a Scourge he may) to Govern Free-born Christian Sub­jects; but a designed Tyrant, over Beasts and Slaves, such as our Blind Blockish, Brutal and Mad Loyalists in our late Times, who would not in the least have scroupled to have cryed up, if it had been the Solemn League and Covenant, and Presbytrie to day, and Prelacy to Morow, Popery the Third day, The Turks Alcoran the Fourth, Paganism the Fifth, Renoun­ced GOD, and Worshiped the Devil the Sixth; and run the full Carreir to Hell the Seventh; and all this by the mere Breath of a Man, whose Word and Law was their Bible, their Oracle, their Soul, their Consci­ence, thair GOD and their All: some may perhaps think me highly Un­charitable, but thousands in Scotland have avowedly maintained this Curs­sed Theses, that no King can do wrong, that all Kings are, or ought to be absolute, and that Absolute Obedience ought to be given unto them. I have heard them often declare this: But I suppose now, they mean'd bad Kings: Else, how comes it, that these same Sparks, our Conscienci­ous Nonjurant Jacobites (I must needs smile to see any of these Plutonick Saints pretend to Conscisnce, who formerly Scroupled and startled at no­thing) I say, how comes it, that they did so suddenly change their Note, so soon as KING WILLIAM, our Gracious Soveraign mounted the Throne? [Page 34] This must be pure Wickedness indeed, and Satanical Malice in the Abstract, against all good Men, merely for Goodness sake; since GOD has Blessed us with a PRINCE, who hath more Wit and Grace than to require any such Slavish Servitude from them. And yet a KING, who by the Opini­on of all Good Men, hath as few Faults and Failings as any Mortal that e­ver Swayed a Scepter over these Sinful Islands of Britain and Ireland. And therefore (to come to my intended purpose) I say (though I be not a Blind Loyalist) yet if his Majesty do Judge it meet, and think it sit and ne­cessar to keep up in Scotland, so great a Number of Standing Forces,, now in time of Peace, I and all thinking Men must be Silent, stopping our Mouths with this one great Argument, that HE alone seeth farther into the Affairs of Europe, and particularly of those which Concern either our safety or dan­ger, and hath more true Wisdom, Honesty and Courage, to foresee Hazards, and prevent Inconveniencies, than we all have. But if any of them be keeped up by Court Interest or otherwise, then I take them to be Scotlands great Grievance and insupportable Burden, especially now when the one half of the Kingdom is in a Starving Condition, that we should distress our selues to Maintain and Feed Thousands of Idle Mouths, except only in Belching out horrid Oaths, Curses and Blasphemies against the GOD that made them: At least, it might be thought not only fit, but necessar, for to purge our Forces from such desperat Achans in the Camp: and to fill up their Room with Men, whom RELIGION, KING, and COUN­TREY may safely Trust to; such as these who were first under the brave and Noble Earl of Angus, those Resolute Volunteers, who were the First in Scotland, that stood up for the then ILLUSTRUOUS PRINCE of O­RANGE, and the Protestant Religion, and who now are Commanded by Collonel Ferguson, most part of which (notwithstanding of their frequen [...] Recrutes) are at least good Moral Men, and a great many, both Officer [...] and Souldiers truely Religious, and have gone as far in signalizing them­selves for his Majesty, and lost as much of their Blood (their whole Fiel [...] Officers being once and again cut off) in his Service, as almost any Re­giment in the whole Army, both in Flanders, and likewise in that Miracu­lous Bout, and Bloody Ingagement at Dunkeld in Scotland, we here about 75 [...] of them, tho Raw and undisciplined men grapled with near 5000 of Des­perat Highlanders for three days together: Notwithstanding of all this they may perhaps be traduced by the open Debauchees of this Age, and o­ther Ill Men, merely for Religions sake. And be the by let me tell you, [...] think that the Reigning and Raging VVickedness, the crying Sins of the Ar­my and Naval Forces, especially among the Scots and English, was one of th [...] provocking Causes, why we had many times so bad Success, both by Se [...] & Land, so tedious and lingering a War; and that it often fared the worse wit [...] our VALAROUS PRINCE for our Unworthy sakes: I do believe all sober thin [...] ­ing [Page 35] Men, are sufficiently Convinced of this, though the Cause was undoubted­ly just and good (Wherein it had been very Desireable, and all Good Men could have Wished, that we had not Joyned in Confederacy with Papists and Popish Princes, if we could possibly have done our Business without them: But sure­ly our Way hath not been so Well Pleasing to GOD, as to Expect that a Provoked LORD will Work Wonders and Miracles, even for the best of us: Since therefore, it seemed otherwise to be Impracticable, I will not, I dare not here Condemn it. Necessity hath no Law: And let me ask the Que­stion at these, who will Admit of no Exceptions in this, and many other Cases and Varying Circumstances; That if a few of them were Furiously At­tacked by a Strong Party of Desperat Robbers, all Designing their Lives, And the late Fourteen Perjured Prelats coming up with the Arch-Traitor Sharp, if Alive, upon their Head, and Cheerfully Offering their Assistance, Whether or not they would Accept of it, nay Earnestly Desire it? If any should Answer in the Negative,— But I Desire to be Sparing in Giving my Sentiments of such Persons, since they pretend a Principle of Conscience and Zeal for GODs Glory, though pethaps Pur-Blind; Since, Alas! in this Dark Night of Sin and Desertion, The Pleasant Voice behind us, saying, THIS IS THE WAY, Walk ye in it, is Sadly a Missing, and we left to Grope in the Dark, so that the Poor People, at least, are at a Stance; as scarce know­ing, what to Approve, and what to Condemn; What is Sin, and what is Duty; especially when it comes to the Seasonable Duty of the Day, then I am afraid we are all to seek. Therefore, (as I told you in my Apology) These Persons ought rather to be Better Informed, than Slighted, and all Means possible taken, (with Meekness of Spirit) to perswade them in un­to Regular Scriptural Courses, and Convince them out of their Unwarrantable Extreams. The LORD Bless and Succeed any Essay of this Nature, and put every one of us in such a Humble Frame, that all of us, and each of us, may Readily and Ingenuously meet one another, as far as the Blessed Rule of GODs Word will allow us, and our present Dangerous Circumstances do plead for; and there Mutually Confess one to another, Mourn, Weep, and Cry for what has been a Miss on either Side. O that we could ply this our Great and First Work to Purpose, till we had, by our Holy Impor­tunity, and Patient Onwaiting, (leaving no Stone Unturned on either Hand, With all Lowliness and Meekness, with Long-Suffering, Forbearing one another in Love,) Wrestled down the Spirit of GOD: Then would we be soon per­swaded to Endeavour, TO KEEP THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT IN THE BOND OF PEACE, a Choice, Excellent, and much [...]onged for Blessing: Then would the Church of Scotland, once more, be Beautiful as Tirza, Comely as Jerusalem, and Terrib [...]e as an Army with Banners, though we should never draw a Sword in the Cause, which our Sworn [...]nemies, a Desperat Malignant Party well knoweth; And therefore, the Devil and [Page 36] they do make it their Chief and Constant Business, for to Blow up the Coal, by Raising Misreports, Complaints, and Groundless Accusations; This Bree­deth Suspicions and Jealousies one of another, that Createth many Needless and Unnecessary Scruples; This again doth Beget Unaccountable Heats and Irregular Passions: So that at last, by this Infernal Squib prepared in Hell, we immediatly (ere we are aware) Break out into Open Rents, and Sta­ted Divisions, never Resting, till the One Party Hurry it self Headlong into a Down-right Separation from the Other, quite giving up all Commu­nion and Fellowship with one another, thereby Cutting off One Great Article of our CREED; And yet I hope, both going on in the same Strait and Narrow Way which leadeth unto Life Eternal. This cannot chuse, but highly Provoke the Blessed GOD of Peace, the GOD of Love, and the GOD of Order; And when by the Strong Remainders of Corruption, and even of our own Malignant Humours, we have thus Wrought up the Work our selves unto Malignants Hands, it is no Wonder, that Satan and They stand by, Laughing and Rejoycing in the probable Prospect of our Devouring one a­nother, and thereby becoming both together a Prey to them. Accor­ding to, Divide, & Impera. Ah then! will we be perswaded on both Sides, to fall upon some Speedy and Effectual Methods, Approven of GOD, to prevent this Fatal and Fearful Consequence, and Disappoint the Common Enemy. I think there's no Tender Christian, but he should Spend and be Spent, nay Spend if it were his Dearest Blood, to Accomplish this Great End. Par­don my long Parenthesis and necessar Digression; I could not well get it Slip'd in into another Paragraph.) I say, though the Cause was Unque­stionably Good; As in the Case of the Sinful Israelites, Warring against Wicked Benjamin, who yet were Smitten before them once and again, with a great Slaughter, upon that very same Account, as Pool well Explaineth it, Judges 20. Though I do not, by this, pretend to seek, or expect an Army of Saints upon Earth, yet I hope, I may boldly say it before King and Parliament, that every Man in his Right Wits Earnestly Desireth, and Longeth to see the Day, when some Care shall be takent to Purge our Forces, at least of INCARNAT DEVILS; else what can we rationally ex­pect, but the Curse of GOD, instead of GODs Blessing to follow them, and Indanger our selves, by Intertaining such Hell-Vipers in our Bosom.

9. The Blind, Rash and Presumptuous Approaching unto, and the Pro­miscuous Admitting of Persons, to the Tremenduous Sacrament of the LORD's Supper, who have had a High Hand in the late Defections; parti­cularly those who are Guilty of Avowed Perjury, Apostacy, Persecution, Bloodshed and Abominable Testers, without giving any Sign of their Abhor­rence, or the least Acknowledgment of their former Wicked Courses (if it were but in Presence of the Minister and Two Elders) thereby Profaning and Polluting that Sacred Table. And I think it's no Heresie, if I should say, [Page 37] That National publick Scandals can never be fully Removed, without some kind of publick Acknowledgment. If any shall say, that all this is done. I ans­swer, That as no Law or Act of Parliament is in force or binding upon the Subjects, till once it be Proclaimed and Promulgat: So I reckon this is not yet done, neither will we perswade people to believe it, especially when they see no sign of Reformation upon the back of it (the thing being a publick scandal) till it be publickly Intimate. I am not so Morose, as to demand their Names, Sir-Names or Qualities, to be thrown over the Pul­pit, or by Sound of Trumpet; but only to ease our Minds in so far, by declaring in General Terms, That there are none suffered to sit in publick Ju­dicatory's, Civil or Sacred, of the above Persons thus suspected, Nor Admit­ted to the Sacrament, but such as have Humbly acknowledged this their Sin and Scandal.

10. The great and Remarkable Decay of that wonted Life, Power and Exercise of Religion among many: Alas! who are Esteemed truely Religi­ous. That Scripture may sadly be applyed Rev. 3.2. That there is little Remaining, and that which Remaineth, is ready to die. This is without doubt, the Controversie the Lord hath been (and never more than now) plead­ing against his people and Remnant in Scotland Rev. 2.4. THOU HAST LEFT THY FIRST LOVE; and this is certainly the Root and Rise of all our other defections and steppings aside in Practice or Principles, from the good old Paths, wherein we walked, when Grace was in its Lively ascend­ant within the Heart. This is the great and main duty, and First Work the Lord has been by many loud crys, calling us to, these years past, Rev. 2.5. That we should Remember from whence we are fallen, Repent and do our FIRST WORKS, With that dreadful Certification, That our Candlestick shall be re­moved, except we Repent: And indeed, if we do not look about us in time, we have Reason to expect and dread it; For though God hath said, The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against his Church, yet there is not one Promise in the whole Bible, securing any particular Church. The lamentable Exam­ple of the Jews, and the said instance of these once Famous Churches of Asia, &c. Confirm this. This great and growing decay may be sadly pre­sumed from the manifest Fruits thereof: As 1. Our Great and woeful Bar­renness and Fruitlesness in the Practice of Godliness, under a Preached Gospel, notwithstanding purely dispensed by the poor wrestling Servants and Ambassadors of Christ, Toiling all the Day, and catching little or nothing; so that we seem to be very near the Execution of that dreadful Sentence, CUT THEM DOWN, CUT THEM DOWN, WHY CUMBER THEY THE GROUND? And that The word of the LORD is like to be unto us, Pre­cept upon Precept, Line upon Line, &c. That we may go and fall backward, and be broken, and Snared, and taken Isai. 28.13. However, though there be some most unreasonable Creatures, not to be regarded, but abhored for this [Page 38] Wicked mistake, being so Wildly Uncharitable, as boldly to affirm, that Con­version Work is not to be found in our day, by a Preached Gospel in Scotland; yet I am fully perswaded, and do firmly believe (Blessed be the Lord, Glo­ry to his Name for it) that the Gospel is certainly doing good amongst us, and poor Souls Reaping the unspeakable Sweet Fruits of it, notwithstand­ing of failings on all hands, and that Conversation Work is known, seen and felt upon the Hearts of some, here and there, through the Kingdom, both upon ordinary occasions of hearing the Word, and more signally and frequently observed upon solemn occasions of Celebrating the Sacrament of the Lords Supper, where I hope there are yet now and then, days of the Son of Man: But alas! we may say, this was never more Rare, since the Bles­sed dauning of our Reformation in Scotland▪ especially in Touns; and par­ticularly in thee, O City of Edinburgh! Considering the great plenty of Means they enjoy. The provocking Causes and humbling Reasons of this may be (1.) that the Lord hath an undoubted Controversie with our Mother for her old Contracted guilt of PERJURY, APOSTACY, and other woe­ful defections, together with our late HEINOUS INGRATITUDE, and woeful Abuse and misimprovement of signal Mercies, Opportunitys, Blessings and Priviledges; for which we her poor Children are thus Deserted. (2ly.) The want of that Zeal, Faithfulness, and Boldness, which appear'd in our Ministers in former times, then Burning and Shining Lights. (3ly.) the want of that Gospel simplicity, yea, and of Common Honesty and Integrity in the Hearers of the Word, which was once amongst the Professors of Scotland, So that every Lass and Lad may now visibly see, and clearly observe in their very Faces and Carriage, when they come to the House of God, that their Minds and Affections are running another Airth, driving quite other designs, and some other base, mean and wicked By-ends, that they seem rather like a Company of Blind Stupid Blocks, as Senseless and Uncon­cerned as the very Seats they Sit on, whom neither a BARNABAS ca [...] ALLURE by the calm Voice of the GGSPEL, Charming never so sweetly, to listen to the wholesom Word of Exhortation; nor yet a BOANERGES, can ROUSE, FRIGHTEN and ALARUM, by all the Thunders and Threatnings of the LAW, to suffer the Word of Reproof to move them, to A­waken their Benumbed and seared Consciences, or to have any enterance int [...] their Ambitious, Proud, Covetous, Selfish, Sensual and Obdured Hearts, like those who are struck Dead, and Slain by the words of his Mouth: That if [...] Wild Pagan came in, and were Witness to their behaviour, they would cer­tainly conclude, that these Men and Women were serving Stocks an [...] Stones, or Worshipiping of Baal, who neither Hears nor Sees them: The luke­warm Professor, the Rotten Hearted Hypocrite, and Moral Man, vainly fancy­ing, that all is well enough with them already, and that therefore the Wor [...] [Page 39] doth not Concern them; the Adulterer and Furnicator, continuing still like Filthy Swine, without the least Remorse; the Drunkard, Tipler, and Belly-God, sitting and sleeping, going on without the least Check; the Bold Swearer, never a whit moved at what can be said against that Cursed and Cursing Sett; and the Profane, Impudent Wretch, Mocking and Ridiculing all, as idle Stories, and mere Fables, &c. And the poor Ministers, our dear Pastors, looking on, and observing this, vexing their Righteous Souls (with Lot in Sodom) and fetching up the other secret Grean, when they see they are but Spending their Strength in vain, and labouring to litle or no purpose amongst these Beasts in the Shape of Men, as if they were fully resolved for Hell and Damnation, in spight of both GOD and Man; That whoever taketh in hand to Convince such, may as easily undertake to Graple and Fight with the Wild Beasts at Ephesus, 1 Cor. 15.32. Yet I am perswaded, that in Spite of the Devil himself, and their own Ob­dured Hearts Combyn'd together, it is impossible for these Scots Atheists to Ward off, or keep out Pricking Convictions; but that the Poor Conscienc [...] (GODs Deput) will certainly, now and then, be getting up upon them, Flying in their Face, and putting them in Hell, perhaps once a Week (if not oftner) though their Brutal Stout Stomachs do Labour to keep it as Secret, and bear it as Fair as possible before the World, and their own Graceless Gomerades, Bending their outmost Force to Smoother, Bear down, and Crush any Thing, that looketh like the Good Motions and Breathings of the HOLY GHOST: And all this, because they are Fixedly Resolved not to part with their Sin and Company. O! what else can such GOD-Daring Des­perado's expect in a Dying-Hour, when it comes to the Swellings of Jordan, but a Certain Fearful Looking for of Judgment, & Fiery Indignation, which shall Devour them Eternally, with these Inlightned Creatures in Hebr. 10.26, 27. Ah for the Man or Woman Born in Scotland! and Living under the Clearest Gospel Light, and yet Dies Impenitent, in an Unconverted State, without GOD, without Hope, and without Holiness; Of all Men in the World, they are the most Un­excuseable; Of all Men at Death, the most Miserable; At Judgment, will meet with the Heaviest Doom and Sentence; And then to Eternity, the Hottest Hell. O the Word ETERNITY! It has put many a Man to his Wits-End. They who will not Believe these Truths, and be Perswaded Speedily to Mourn and Turn, We must even leave them to Pyne away in this their Infidelity, and Waste their Wretched Days amongst the Black Roll of those who are Con­demned already, Job. 3.18. Who bind themselves over to the Wrath of GOD, Joh. 3.36. And who make the Great GOD a Liar, 1 Joh. 5.10. Ay and while they Repent; And I must tell them, that Repent or not, they will find it, (Sooner or Later) that Repentance unto Life, or the Saving Grace of Repentance, is not so Soon, or so Easily Attained unto, as many of them do Wickedly and Fondly Fancy, Ah! will these Spectacles of Horrour but [Page 40] Read the above Cited Place, Hebr. 10. and lay it Seriously to Heart, while it may yet be Time, and if it be not already too late; That if peradven­ture even these Actors, Workers, and Contrivers of Mischief, may be yet Re­claimed and Saved from the Evil and Danger of their Way, and made Mo­numents of Free Grace, though hitherto, with Saul, Acts 9.1. Breathing out Threatnings and Slaughter against the Cause and People of GOD; And such as hath been Monsters in Wickedness, may yet be made Miracles of Mer­cy: This is the Earnest Prayer of all Good Christians in their Behalf; though, I am afraid, most of them be already past all Recovery: And that many, who perhaps are Mocking, while Reading this Subject, may be yet put to Seek this Great Blessing of GODs MERCY, upon a Death-Bed, and to Seek it with Strong Cryes and Tears, yet all in Vain, Only these Fearful Words still Sounding in their Ears, as Miserable Comforters, Prov. 1.24, 25, 26, 27, and 28. Because I have Called, and Ye Refused, but have set at nought all my Counsel, and would none of my Reproof, I also will LAUGH at your Calamity, and MOCK when your Fear cometh, when your Destruction cometh as a Whirl-Wind, when Distress and Anguish cometh upon you, THEN SHALL THEY CALL UPON ME, BUT I WILL NOT ANSWER, They shall Seek Me Early (that is, so soon as ever this their Distress and Anguish doth Seize them, or with great Earnestness and Fervency, as Pool Explains it) but they shall not Find Me. Let none offer here to Wound PRESBYTERIANS through my Sides, and Upbraid them with Breach of Charity, (as is the Constant Trick, and Willfull Mistake of these Men I am here speaking of) only to Rubb an Odium upon us: For in any Thing of this Nature, We Declare only our Fears, and by no Means, our Random Positive Assertion of any Person Alive, that such a Man will go to Hell; or of any one Soul after Death, that it is actually Damn'd, as not Daring to enter into GODs Se­crets: And we Heartily Pray, that we were all Disappointed of these our Fears, and that they were not so Justly Grounded upon many Black, Dis­mal, and too Evident Marks. O! will these Poor Creatures be perswaded Once to Turn Serious, Thinking, Rational Men. And who knoweth, what one Serious Thought might do, No less than CONVERSION may fol­low it close at the Heels. The Psalmist could Attest this to his Sweet Ex­perience, Psal. 119.59, 66. I THOUGHT on my Ways, and Turned my Feet unto thy Testimonies: I made Haste, and Delayed not to Keep thy Commandments. Surely they have Thrown away many Thoughts to Worse Purpose; Will they but Employ One of them, to Run out a Few Minuts upon their E­ternal State, lay aside their Rooted Prejudice, and Unreasonable Enmity, and Suffer themselves now and then to Reflect, what, in all Probability, will be the Final, Fatal, and Fearful End of their present Course and Way, which they are Madly and Merrily Pursuing; And to give some Credit to the Infallible and Certain Rule of Faith and Manners, the Precious Word [...] [Page 41] of Truth; that word which is the great mean in the Spirits hand, to Convince and Convert poor witless Sinners, where these SIMPLE ONES may learn many a Choise Lesson; See and Read their Name, their Nature, their Sin, their Remedy, their Judgement, Doom and Sentence: And because (by their Practice and Carriage) they seem to be out of their proper Element, while in the performanee of any Spiritual Duty, therefore, I only Recom­mend to them this one Chapter (not to weary them, and if they think it worth their serious perusal) Prov. 1. Where CHRIST the WISDOM of the FATHER, steps in himself, making out all I have here said, by Inviting, Beseeching, Courting, obtesting and expostulating with, even Mockers and Scorners, the worst of Sinners, enforcing the whole with a sweet encouragement, by adding a Gracious and Precious Promise, if they will but turn at his Reproof And when all this will not do it (as alas! what will to many of them?) Then he backeth it with dreadful threatnings, foretelling their inevit­able Ruine, if they stand it out. And this WISDOM is said to cry with a loud Voice (as Pool well explaineth it) to intimate both Gods earnestness in inviting Sinners to Repentance, and their inexcusableness, if they will not hear such loud-crys. These Poor Creatures (though their Case be Despe­rate like, yet they) make no Conscience, and are at no pains to prevent their own Ruine, by frequenting of Ordinances, and the other Means of Life, in order to the great end, the Salvation of their precious and immor­tal Souls. Surely, if Solomon (or Christ and the Spirit of God by Solomon) Prov. 8.34. saith, Blessed is the Man that heareth me, watching dayly at my Gates, waiting at the Posts of my Doors, then the dreadful Consequence must hold on the other hand: Cursed is the Man that will not hear me, nor watch daily at my Gates, or wait at the Posts of my Doors, who seldom comes to the House of God, or attends a Preached Gospel. How can such ex­pect to Triumph, sing and say with David? Ps. 23.6. Goodness and Mercy all my Life, shall surely follow me, And in Gods House for ever more, my dwelling place shall be. Ah! how confounding may such Scriptures as these be to many of them upon a Death-bed, as Ps. 5.7.26.8, 27.4.36.8.65.4.69.9. Joh. 5.39, 40. 1 Cor. 1.18, 19, 20, 21. &c. And though they do now and then Deigny themselves to come to the Church (besides their Sitting like unconcerned Blocks) so soon as the Congregation begins to praise GOD by Singing, then some of them appeareth like so many dead Mutes, never so much as opening their Lips (to the loathing of all serious observers) as thinking it below them to join in their Noble and Gentle Voices with the Melody of the Vulgar. O how will such miserable Dummies, Answer the Psalmists express injunction from the Spirit of GOD, that have ever heard or Read, Ps. 95.1, 2, 3. O come, let us sing unto the Lord, let us make a joyful NOISE to the Rock of our Salvation. Let us come before his Presence with Thanksgiving, and make a joyful Noise unto him with PSALMS: For the Lord is a [Page 42] Great GOD and a great King, above all Gods. Nay these Pagan Christians (none of the meanest Rank) are so void of all pretence to Religion, that they dis­dain so much, as to seek GODS BLESSING when they sit down to eat, but to it they go, like so many Beasts; and then again from it, without ever offering to return him the small Tribute of THANKS for what they have Received, notwithstanding their GREAT AND LIBERAL DO­NOR giveth them a Splendid well covered Table, with all other Neces­aries, Comforts and pleasures of Life. Ah! How is it possible, that e­ver these poor Wretches can bow a Knee to GOD in secret, and pray, or pray to any purpose, and wrestle with him in good earnest, in the behalf of their perishing Souls, being thus quite left of GOD, that they neither can nor will open their Mouth in any Duty, but are as it were Judicially Tongue-Tacked, that they are not able to speak one Word of Sense, either of GOD, to GOD, or for GOD; though perhaps they can make a Fluent Discourse up­on any other Subject. But I begin to be Weary in Pursuing these Men, as Despairing to Catch them (these Resolute and Desperate Run-away's) I will not say, any one of them, we having had a Late Great and No­table Instance of ONE, whose NAME and QUALITY, Good Breeding for­bids me to make Publick, whom (by all Appearance hitherto) the Lord has pluckt as a Brand out of the Fire, Zech. 3.2. Yet this was Remarkable in him (which many of the other Wretches are void of) That he had al­ways a Warm Side to Good Men, to the Cause of GOD and the present Church Government, even in his Rambling Days. I humbly beg him pardon for this Expression (though doubtless he is fully sensible of it himself) And that I do not give him his due Titles, as otherwise I incline, and he highly deserveth. I have been at pains to inform my self by both Ministers and o­thrs, and from all the Enquiry that I can make, I do find, (Glory to his Name for it) That he seemeth to be SINCERE and SERIOUS, the which is Great and Good News to all Good Christians. O! Who can withstand Irresistable Free Grace? When once GOD, by his SPIRIT, begins effectually to Work, Then the Greatest Sinner, then the Strongest Lust, then the Stoutest Heart must Stoop, Throw down its Weapons, Give Place to the SON of GOD, and make Way for this KING of GLORY to Enter in. Here is an Eminent Proof, What A GOD can do, and a Sweet Out-making of the Reply, which our Blessed Lord made to his Disciples their Answer to that Puzzling Asser­tion, and Amazing Truth, Mat. 19.22, 23, 24, 25, 26. Though indeed this, and many other Places lets us clearly see, that it is very Rare, That a Great Man, or a Rich Man findeth Mercy, and (Consideratis Considerandis▪) no Wonder. However, let none Despair: Here is as Broken a Ship, as al­most any of you, and yet (I hope) Come Fairly and Safely to Land: And on the other Hand, let none here incourage themselves, or presume (upon their Eternal Peril) from this, to Delay, Put off, and Stand it out [Page 43] till another Time, perhaps of Sickness, Old Age, or a Death-Bed, &c. I do Reckon him One of a Thousand that gets Mercy, who thus Boldly Ven­tures to Split his Poor Soul upon such a Dangerous Rock: For he that Re­solves to Continue in Sin, upon the Hopes of Future Repentance, he Pands his Soul in the Devils Hands; if he Repent, which (as I said before) is One of a Thousand, its well, he Relieves his Pand; If not, the Devil keeps it to all Eternity: And that Subtile Devil, who tells a Man, he may delay Repentance to Day, or that it is an Easie Thing to Repent, will to Morrow assure him, there's no Repentance for him at all, but he must be Damn'd with­out Remedy. Alas! my Heart is Deceitful, and therefore I dare not Trust it, especially upon the Devils Ground. Ah! that Men would but COME AND SEE, and be perswaded to Ply the Means in Good Earnest: O! will they come, when the Spirit of GOD is so Earnestly Inviting them, gi­ving them no less than the Heart-Melting and Kindly Compellation of Children, Ps. 34.11. Come ye Children, Hearken unto Me, I will Teach you the Fear of the LORD: Then might some of them soon be made to Cry out with the Psalmist, Ps. 66.16. Come and hear, all ye that Fear GOD, and I will declare what he hath done for my Soul. And likewise, to Invite their Wicked Companions, and Proclaim with the Poor (but Happy) Samaritan Woman, Joh. 4.29. COME SEE A MAN, which told me all things that ever I did: Is not this the CHRIST? Though I know, The Wind bloweth, when, where, and how it Listeth, Joh. 3.8. Yet I dare promise them in Christs Name, that they shall come speed; And (with this THRICE WORTHY PERSON) come to Reap the sweet Fruits of all their Pains, if it were no more but INWARD PEACE OF CON­SCIENCE, a great Blessing, a continual Feast, and may well be reckon­ed. The Hundred fold, even in this Life, and worth a thousand Worlds in a dying Hour: And if they continue waiting at the POOL-SIDE, as Hum­ble, Depending, Self-undone, needy Sinners, the Ever-blessed SPIRIT will certainly in his own Time, come and move upon the Waters of their Hearts and Affections. O for moe desireable Instances of this kind! Then might we expect our REFORMATION to advance a pace, and every thing else prosper before us. One pregnant Proof of his Sincerity I must crave leave here to insert, as an Excellent Pattern to all that shall f [...]llow after him: That when in Company lately with some persons, who it seems had been Witnesses to his former Latitude, where it's reported he had a strange Expression (no less than the Impulse of the HOLY GHOST) One of them saying to him, What's this has befallen you now? We have seen the Day, when you could have let an Oath flee as freely as any of us. His Answer was, SINCE EVER I DID BELIEVE THERE WAS A GOD, I DURST NOT TAKE HIS NAME IN VAIN. O Great and Remarkable Saying, the like whereof, not to to be heard in an Age; well worth the Recording to all Posterity, and enough to Confound [Page 44] our Scots Protestant Athiests, especially now in a Gospel-day. Go on, TRUELY BRAVE SOUL, a whole TRINITY bids you go and pros­per: All the Promises in the BIBLE are on your side, and engaged for you; Only, Hold on and Hold out, For, It is he (and none else) that endures to the End, who shall be saved, Matth. 10.22. For the LORDs sake make sure Work; Examine and try the Sincerity, Soundness, and Throughness of your Conversion, the Reality of your Graces, the Evidences of your Interest in Christ, by these and the like Scriptures, 1 Sam. 3.10. Psal. 27.8.42.1, 2.73.2, 5.119.11, 14, 20, 30, 46, 47, 48, 53, 57, 59, 60, 63, 67, 93, 101, 104, 106, 136, 167. Luke 24.31, 32. Joh. 21.15, 16, 17. Acts 2.37.16.29, 30. Rom. 8.1. 1 Cor. 9.26, 27. 2 Cor. 5.17.7, 10, 11 Phil. 3.13, 14. Col. 3.1, 2, 5. 1 Pet. 2.1, 2, 3.1 Joh. 2.3, 4, 5.3.14, 18, 19, 24. &c. There is not one Hypocrite in all Scotland, that can apply these to himself; show me the Man or Woman that liveth under the power and dominion of any one unmortified lust, or giveth way to the least known sin, who dare for their Souls, bring such Scriptures closs home to their own Consciences, and say (as in the sight of GOD) that they are the Words of their Hearts, and that they have made it their Business and earnest Endeavour to observe them and make them their own; Though they should boldly presume to say it, I am as bold to tell them, That any one bosome sin Indulged, hath such a byass in that per­son who giveth way to it, that though he may seem to be in the Way to Heaven, yet that one Lust (whatsoever it be) unmortified, will certainly car­ry him to Hell at last. You are now advanced to a High and Eminent Post, observe your Leader; Follow your Blessed Guide, the Unerring SPIRIT of GOD: Keep closs by the Great Captain of your Salvation, then you may be able to say, Phil. 4.13. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. I hope, you have begun to Signalize your self in this Nohle Warfare, And done more already, than he that Taketh in a City, Prov. 16.32. Ps. 18.29. You have now Freely Listed your self in CHRISTs Muster-Roll, and Ta­ken On as a Resolute Volunteer, (no ways by Constraint) Received, I hope, the Earnest of the Spirit, Entered in Pay, And begins to be Sensible of your Gracious Income, That you have Reason already, to Cry out with David, Psal. 34.8. O Taste and see, that the LORD is Good: Blessed is the Man, that Trusteth in him. Ah! How should this Call, Incourage and Embolden you to Fight and Act under CHRISTs Colours, For his Cause, for his Interests, for his Precious Truths, for his People, for the further Advancement of a be­gun Reformation, for the effectual suppressing and discouraging of Vice; and against the open Enemies of GOD, Sworn Enemies to Reformation: As also, Enemies from within, the Body of Sin and Death, the strong Re­mainders [Page 45] of Corruption, yet strugling and crauling, though, I hope, knock'd in the Head, and a deceitful Heart, with many moe: So that you see, your Work is great, your post dangerous-like (though safe and Ho­nourable, and the Victory secured to you, notwithstanding you were but a bruised Reed, the very Weakest believer in Christ, if a True and sincere one, Matth 12.20. Rom. 16.20. Satan hath one great Mark of a Coward; For do but Resolutely and believingly Resist him, he will certainly Flee from you, Jam. 4.7. However, this Requireth no less than the whole Armour of God: You must put it on, and prove it, though as yet but a young Da­vid, perhaps unexperienced, and not used to it, 1 Sam. 17.39. Your GREAT LORD and Head Commander, is one of strict Discipline, the Holy One of Israel. Do but mark that one Scripture and Tremble, Exod. 23.20, 21. Behold I send mine Angel before thee (His own Son) to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared: Beware of Him, and obey His Voice; provock Him not: For He will not Pardon your Transgressions (that is, you shall not escape unpunished) for my Name is in him. You have now put your Hand once fairly to the Plough: O let that Awful Scripture al­wise stare you in the Face, Heb. 10.38. But if any Man draw back, my Soul shall have no pleasure in him. A Meiosis, that is, His very Soul abhorrs him. O then place your Guard, the Fear and Dread of GOD. You will find him in Prov. 14.27, 16.6.23, 17. Isai. 8.13. Ps. 16.8.119.120. &c. This excellent guard (the Fear of the Lord) made good resolute Joseph a Brazen Wall against the Violent Assault of a strong Temptation (though many in our day make light of this and other gross Abominations.) Gen. 39.9. How then can I do this great Wickedness and sin against GOD? Let this engage you to lay Bands upon your self, resign your self up to him, make a Personal Covenant with your GOD, Write it, sign it, and Seal it. Then put on strong Resolutions, and back these with strenuous endeavours, Psal. 119.106. I have Sworn and I will perform it; that I will keep thy Righteous Judgments: And O but this be highly Reasonable, and good our Common (as we use to say] since GOD in his deep condescention, hath likewise Sworn unto us, Psal. 89.3. I have made a Covenant with my Chosen, I have sworn unto Da­vid my Servant. O Words full of Wonder! to Sinful bits of Clay; a Thou­sand pities [with Reverence so to speak] besides the great Sin and danger of it, to displease such an one. And if a Temptation, should threaten to Ma­ster you [as alas! the least is too strong for our handling] then make use of your Noble Second, your Glorious Intercessor and Advocat; call him in by Prayer to your timeous assistance, and put up with him his own Petition to GOD his Father, Zech. 3.2. The Lord rebuke thee O Satan, even the Lord, that (I hope) has chosen poor me, rebuke thee: Is not this a Brand pluckt out of the Fire. The Spirit of GOD hath, I hope, Intimate to your Conscience, a Gracious Pardon and indemnity for all by gones, and given it a Commis­sion [Page 46] to tell you, as Nathan unto David. 2 Sam. 12.13. The Lord hath put a­way thy sin, thou shalt not die: O then observe the next perempter injunction given by the Son of GOD, upon the back of this great Blessing. Joh. 5, 14. Behold! Thou art made whole: sin no more, [with this Certification] least a worse thing come unto thee. And who can tell, or is able to express, what is under this Word, A WORSE THING? For the Lords sake then, set your Watch, especially when Intangled in bad Company, and Particularly, as to your Words and Discourse, when in Passion, or in breaking of a Jest. Psal. 34.13. Prov. 21.23. Jam. 1.26, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Read this Chapter: Da­vid, though a Holy Man, thought this well worth his while to pray for, Ps. 141.3. set a Watch, O Lord before my Mouth: Keep the Door of my Lips. O what Dishonour the Great God gets by the Tongue, Jam. 3.6. But above all keep the Heart, that cursed Root of Bitterness. Jerem. 17.9. Prov. 4.23, &c. trust it not for one Moment, it will certainly give you the slip, if you do: The Spirit of God expresly tells us, Prov. 28.26. He that Trusteth in his own Heart is a Fool. The Sad Instance of Peter Confirm this, Matth. 26.35, 74. O! it may make the best of us all to Tremble, when we Compare these two Verses together. Though I should Die with Thee, yet will I not Deny Thee; And (immediatly, upon the Back of this his Dangerous Self Confidence) Then began he to Curse and to Swear, saying, I know not the Man. Ah! here is your Worst Enemy, your Bosom-Traitor: Suspect it, have a Constant Eye of Jealousie upon it: And when you have done all you Can, you must put it in his Hands, whose sole Prerogative it is, both to Know, and to Search it: Pray and Cry with the Psalmist, Ps. 139.23, 24. Search me O GOD, and know my HEART, Try me, and know my THOUGHTS, and see if there be any Wicked Way in me, and Lead me in the Way Everlasting. What Reason have we to stand in Fear, when we hear such Words from a Man according to GODs own Heart? O the HEART! it is a very Mystery of Iniquity. Look well to the Bud­dings of Sin, the first Rise and Secret Stirrings of Corruption, which we are ready to Mistake and Overlook, Ps. 19.12. Do but see the Fatal Effects of giving Way to it, Jam. 1.14, 15. And all along, be sure to keep a Special Eye upon your Predominant Evils, your Delilah's, bearing down the Parti­ticular Sin or Sins, you have been, or are most Inclined and Tempted un­to: For every M [...]n, even a David, has his Particular Iniquity, Ps. 18.23. The Sin that more easily Overcomes and Masters him, and most frequently Haunts him, Hebr. 12.1. O when this Grand Traitor Assaults, let it put you to your Prayers again and again, 2 Cor. 12.8. For this I Besought the LORD Thrice, that IT might Depart from Me. You are now Entered the Lists, and upon the Great Work of your Souls Salvation: O then, so soon, and how often the Enemy begins to Parlee with you, give him Zealous Nehemiah's Return to Wicked Sanballat, Nehem. 6.2, 3, 4. I am doing a Great Work so that I cannot come down. Pray for the Outmaking of the Great Promise of RE­STRAINING [Page 47] GRACE, this being likewise very necessar, Hos. 2.6, 7. An Encouraging Word, and Worth your Reading. Look well to every Step of your Way and Walk, Prov. 4.26. Ponder the Path of thy Feet: And Breathe out with the Psalmist, Psal. 119.5. O that my Ways were Directed to Keep thy Statutes. A whole Trinity is Caring for you, And therefore, Looking Narrowly upon you: The Eyes of all Good Men; The Single Eye of an Enlightned Conscience (as a Thousand Witnesses, and which cannot be Brybed) is looking upon you: Nay, the Eyes of a Perverse Wicked World are upon you, Seeking, Waiting and Watching for your Halting, only that they may Blaspheme GOD and his WAY. O then! Keep your Post, Maintain your Ground, 1 Cor. 15.58. Therefore be Stedfast and Unmoveable, always Abounding in the Work of the LORD, Gal. 5.1. &c. Above all Outward Tentations, Flee for your Life Bad Company Ah! How many Millions of Poor Inadver­tant Souls hath been Irrecoverably Lost and Ruin'd to all Intents and Pur­poses, by this most Dangerously Infecting Plague. And yet, Alas! How Pleasant and Agreeable is it, even to the Remainders of Black Nature, to be Dancing with the Poor Silly Butter-Flee, about this Infernal Candle, till (ere we are Aware) the Wings of our Souls and Affections are Sing'd and Burnt. And how can it possibly be otherways: The Spirit of GOD expresly says, Prov. 6.27. Can a Man take Fire in his Bosom, and not be Burnt, Prov. 13.20. A Companion of Fools shall be Destroyed. 1 Cor. 5.11. Eph. 5.11, 12. Consider these Scriptures, And make David's Intimats your Companions, Psal. 101.6. Mine Eyes shall be upon the FAITHFUL of the Land, and Psal. 119.63. I am a COM­PANION of all them that FEAR THEE. Give good heed to the Word of Re­proof, let it sink down to your Heart, Ps. 119.11. Thy Word have I hid in my Heart, that I might not SIN against thee. And Carefully Observe and Follow the Wholsome Instruction of your Teachers, Prov. 4.13. Take fast hold of INSTRUCTION, let her not go; Keep her, for she is thy Life. Highly Prize what you have got: The New-Creature is a Generous Soul, it is of­ten putting up such-like Questions (very well pleasing to GOD) What shall I render to the LORD? What shall I Speak for HIM? What shall I do for HIM? How shall I Act for HIM? Nay, What shall I Suff [...]r for HIM? O when you look into the Rock whence you are Hewen, and to the hole of the Pit whence you are Digged, Isa. 51.1. When you was doubtless groaning out your sad Case with the Psalmist, Psal. 40.12. Innumerable Evils have compassed me about, mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up: They are more than the hairs of mine Head, therefore my Heart faileth me. And then when you Reflect, how a gracious GOD did sweetly alter the Shene, and did not keep you long in the place of the breaking furth of Children, but seasonably appeared for your Re­lief, and made you to say (I hope upon good Grounds) Psal. 40.1, 2, [...], [Page 48] 4. He inclined unto me, and heard my cry: He brought me up also out of an HOR­ABLE PIT, out of the MIRY CLAY, and set my feet upon a ROCK: And he hath put a new Song in my Mouth, even Praise unto our GOD. Blessed is the Man that maketh the LORD his Trust. Look but back, and see what GOD has done for you and in you: Look up, and see what he is still doing for you: Look foreward, and behold by the Eye of Faith, what He will yet further do for you: Then, O then! You cannot but break out in won­dering and admiring Eternal, Electing Love, and the Riches and Freedom of his Grace, and break furth into Singing, such as Psal. 34.103.116. &c. O Trade with your precious Talent, improve it well, and hide it not Psal. 116.12, 13, 14. Ephes. 3.17, 18, 19. Phil. 3.13.14. Col. 2.6. and Mat. 25. from verse 24. to 30. And when any Duty presents it self to you, either ordinar or more Solemn, private▪ or publick Duties, especially when attended with Difficulty or Danger: As when GOD in His Provi­dence calleth you to stand up and Witness for any Truth, for His Cause, for His Interests, for Advancing a begun work of REFORMATION: Or on the other Hand, in every Rancounter with Sin, Corruption or Temptation to it; As Bad-company, &c. [I name this the oftner, because most Tempt­ing, and therefore the most Dangerous] Then remember your Prince, your Great General, the LORD of Hosts, is looking on, and narrowly observing your Mo [...]ions, how you behave, and how you come off, 2 Chron. 16.9. Psal. 11.4.33.13, 14.34.15. Prov. 5.21. and 15.3. Keep your Eye then care­fully upon HIM, Psal. 25.15. Especially, since his Eye of Mercy is u­pon you, Psal. 32.8.33.18. One such a Gracious Look, made poor Peter (after he had denyed his Dear Master) go out and weep bitterly for his folly, Luke 22.61, 62. O pray with David, Psal. 17.5. Hold up my goings in thy Paths, that my footsteps slip not, Psal. 119.117. You are now begun to Climb the HILL of GOD, a steep Hill, and hard for Flesh and Blood, especially when we consider Enemies on all Hands; Armies of Devils and Temptations from without, and Swarms of even Remaining Corruptions from within, every one giving the poor Soul still the other tugg and back-pull: And on the other Hand, the many difficult and painful Sin-mortifying duties, and Soul-exercising▪ and quickening Graces, you are necessarly and frequently cal­led unto, no less than the plucking out of the Right Eye, the cutting off of the Right Hand, to be fervent in Spirit, serving the LORD, &c. Nay, perhaps to dangerous duties; Who knoweth, but, Unto you it is given, in the Behalf of Christ, not only to Believe on His Name, but also, to Suffer for His sake, Phil. 1.29. A Noble Priviledge and Honour not allowed to every Believer. You may lay your Account for to meet with one Searching Tryal after another: GOD will Try your Sincerity, both in your Personal and Publick Capacity; Satan will Try you, Desiring to have you, that he may Sift you as Wheat, Luke 22.31. The World will likewise Try you, and labour to get you again [Page 49] brought over to its side. Ah then! be sure you have the prerequesite Scrip­ture qualifications in Answer to this great Question, Psal. 24.3. Who shall as­send unto the Hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his Holy place? To wit, He that hath CLEAN HANDS & a PURE HEART, that is, inward Sincerity and Uprightness, as the Root and Spring; and an outward Blameless Walk and Conversation, as the Fruit Evidencing your Sincerity; Evangelick Perfection be­ing ascribed in Scripture to both, as Psal. 37, 37. Mark the PERFECT MAN, and behold the UPRIGHT, for the end of that Man is Peace: And and the other was found in good Zachery and Elizabeth Luke 1.6. They were both RIGHTEOUS BEFORE GOD, and walked in all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Lord BLAMELESS. I desire to believe, that you have been the wise Builder, and have already sit down and reckoned the Cost: However, all this requireth no less than everlasting Arms to be underneath you, Deut. 33.27. The good Angel of the Covenant hath (I hope) taken you by the Hand, led and brought you out of the Sodom of black Nature: O then have a care! Look not back with an Eye of Complacency or Regrate: You will see a sad Instance in that fearful Monument of GODs severe Justice, a lasting beacon, enough to frighten us all, Gen. 19.26. Luke 17.32. But you may, nay frequently ought (for the exciting of your Fear, your Love, Holy gratitude, and New obedience to your Gracious De­liverer) cast back your Eye, and look unto the Rock whence you are Hewen, and to the Hole of the Pit whence you are digged, and compare Ezek. 16.3, 4, 5. with v. 6. and 8. O what Man-Abasing, Heart-melt­ing and Soul-Ravishing words are here! And when with Paul you can say, 1 Tim. 1.13. Once I was such an one, thus and thus was it with me: BUT I OB­TAINED MERCY: Then you cannot chuse but likewise cry out with him v. 17. Now unto the King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, the only Wise GOD, be Honour and Glory for ever, Amen. Pardon me— SIR, That I have been so particular and positive in my poor Advice, and taken upon me to speak of, or to a Person of so great Merit; It is out of a dear Respect to your true Ho­nour, and Love to your Soul; Not pretending in the least to be your Instructer or Teacher, but only as your Remembrancer, and Humbly hoping, that this may prove someway useful, suitable and seasonable both to your self, and any who hereafter may be inclined to follow and trace your Noble Reform­ing Footsteps. Pardon me likewise, good Reader, that I have been somewhat prolix, and perhaps tedious: As I told you before, that I was wearie of the former Subject, So I could not well get off this pleasant one.

But 2ly, Our great and woeful Decay, Appeareth in our resting in an unseri­ous and superficial Form and performance of Religious Duties, such as Reading or Hearing of the Word, Secret and Family Prayer, &c. little Studying the ex­ercise of Mortification and Sanctification, or stirring up our selves to take hold of God, & to attain to that practical Mysterie of Communion and Fellowship with [Page 50] God in these Holy exercises, which is the Chief end and use thereof. Yea, not a few of our Scots Apostats, who some time ago, from a Natural Conscience, made a fashion of Worshiping God in their Families, hath now given that ne­cessar and Commendable Duty quite over, others to stop the Mouth of that same Natural Conscience, doth think themselves sufficiently Exoner­ed before a Holy GOD (who bids us abound in the work of the Lord, and who hath said, Cursed is every one that doth this work negligently, and who hath a Male in his Flock, and offereth a Female (Corrupt thing) I say, they think it very fair, if they make some formal shew of Family Worship only upon Sabbath days in the evening, some Reading a Chapter, and no more; o­thers Reading and Singing, but no bowing of a Knee to their Maker; o­thers again avowedly graceless, openly ridiculing, contemning and disdain­ing any thing of this Nature, never regarding that fearful Word Jer. 10.25. Pour out thy Fury upon the Heathen that know thee not, and upon the Fami­lies that call not on thy Name, where you see, the Spirit of God ranketh these VVretches among wild Heathens. 3. Want of delight, and rather wearying in all these Religious performances, especially those which are most Spi­ritual, as secret Prayer, Holy Meditation, Self searching, watching over the Heart and Conversation, which sometime hath been pleasant, when our Fathers, yea, many of our selves, sat under his Shadow with great delight, and his Fruit was Sweet to our tast; the want whereof doth now discover a sad decay of Faith and Love in the inner Man. 4. The great Unclearness and Uncertain­ty of a PERSONAL INTEREST IN CHRIST and the Covenant of Grace, which many now Labours under, and the little Care there is to have this Interest made sure, and as little Exercise for the want thereof; and though this may be generally Complained of, yet alas! the remedy is little indea­voured, but a deep security, until the awakning come, (may be) on a Death-bed, with a Flood of Amazements, with dread and horrour of Consci­e [...]ce, through uncertainty, where their Eternal Landing shall be beyond Time. 5. The prevailing and growing Power of our Corruptions within, that in­fallibly follows upon decay of Grace, yea such prevailing Power, that many gets not Restrained from breaking forth in Offensive practices, and others have enough a do to get them keeped within Doors. 6. The great Indulging and Fostering of folks own predominat evils, such as Pride, Passion, and Sensu­alit [...], Lazieness, Vanity and Lightness, which often appears in Words, Ge­stures, and Gaudy guizes of Apparel, to the great Reproach of that Hu­mility, Gravity, and Sobriety, that ought to be in persons pretending to Godly­ness, and which is as dead Flees in the Oyntment of the Apothecary, that cause it to send forth a stinking Savour; so is this Folly in any who are in Reputation for VVisdom▪ 7. The little Regard that is had to the giving and occasioning of Offence, and the great aptitude and readiness there is, to take Offence, or st [...]mble themselves when any occasion is given. 8. The great Fears and [Page 51] Faintings (many times, we know not our selves for what, Unbelief and distrust, creating Bugg-Bears in our way) that not a few labours under, both Ministers and People; And this fear frequently breaking forth in our Sinful and Scandalous shifting and shunning of many of the necessar and sea­sonable Duties we have been urgently called to perform; yea almost every Duty, which is attended with any probable or seeming Danger, & difficulty, have been utterly shifted by (alas!) too many upon that account; particularly that great concerning Point of Presbyterian Government; in Joyntly and Zeal­ously standing up for the Royal Prerogative of our great Lord and Master Jesus Christ, as Supreme Lord and only King and Head of His Church, together with the true Liberties, Priviledges, and Intrinsick Power of the Church. As Luther said of Justification, that true Religion either Stands or Falls, as we are Sound or Unsound in this Cardinal Article of our Faith. So I may say, that Presbyterian Government Stands or Falls, as they either strenuously Contend for, or faintingly Yeelds and lets go the least Hoove or punctilio of this Cardinal Point. 9. The great neglect of that necessar and profitable Duty of privat Christian-Fellowship for Prayer, and Godly Conferrence for mutual Edification: And tho it be true, that severals in many places, makes yet Conscience to keep up the Exercise of this Duty, and that sometimes, I hope, to blest Advantage, and for keeping themselves in a Lively Frame; Though alas! far inferior to what it has been formerly: Yet, how many are there in Scotland, both in Towns and Country, who are Persons capable to Associat themselves into Societys for that Effect, and have no Reasonable Lett in their way to hinder, who notwithstanding do Indulge themselves in the utter neglect thereof; Some looking on it, as the Duty only of Little Ones, or the weaker sort of Christians, but below them, who think themselves come to Maturity; Some pretending the Abuse of that Exercise, an Ar­gument that may plead against any other Duty of Religion, as well as this; Others pretending frivolous Excuses, and needless Niceties: So that it is be­come a Matter of no small Difficulty, either to get such to joyn in these Societies, or keeped from wearying and breaking off, if at any time they be ingaged therein. Yea, there is too good Ground to complain of some Ministers their Deficiency to stirr up and incourage to this Duty, or to engage themselves therein, which might be both profitable to themselves, and these Societies too, for better Regulating them to Edification. It was the Lawdable Practice of our Ministers in our Best Days, before our Declinings, both to press this Duty frequently in Publick, and also by their own Good Example to commend it to others: Though this Blessed Exercise was never more urgently called for than at this Day, when the Hand of a Provoked, Jealous, and Angry GOD, is pressing us very sore every way: O to be a­mongst the Number of those MARKED ONES, who Sigh and Cry for [Page 52] their own Sins, and the Abominations of the Sinful Place and Land they-live in, and who fear the LORD and speak often one to another, such have a singu­lar Interest and Claime to GODs Distinguishing Favour and Special Protecti­on, even Temporal Preservation in publick and National Calamities, when others are neither spared nor pittyed by the Destroying Angel, making no distinction betwixt the avowed openly debauch'd Malignant, and the Rot­ten hearted, lukewarm, formal blazing Professor, nor betwixt the formal Professor, and the Timerous, Cowardly, Faint-hearted, Ceding Kirk-man; do but seriously read the 9. of Ezekiel, and Mal: 3.16, 17, 18.10. The dislike and prejudice many have taken and still take at free Search­ing, Warning, Reproving Preaching and Preachers, who do and must make Conscience to cry aloud, and lift up their Voice like a Trumpet, to show them and the Land their Sins and Transgressions, yea sometimes a Minister is counted and Offender for a Reproving Word, by not a few Professing Friends, choosing ra­ther to hear Ministers preach smooth and Fair Generals, and prophesying of Peace, but cannot endure the sound Doctrine of Reproof, and discovering the Crying Sins of the time; and as many love to have it thus, so they have it alas! too frequently. 11. The great and almost utter neglect of that clearly commanded Duty, to Reprove and Admonish one another; And the great Difficulty there is to get our selves brought into that Mortified and Composed Frame, suteable either to Give or Take Reproof to Edification; But Passions rising often on either Hand, to marr all. It may now be sad­ly said, Let no Man strive nor reprove another, &c. How rare a thing is it to find either privat Professors, and not a few Ministers, in case to be Ad­monished by one another (even for things Justly reproveable) or when Ad­monished, to Amend; But rather a propensity to defend and argue in Defence of the things they are Admonished for? 12. The great Security and senselessness, which hath seized on us in all this evil and decayed Frame, under which we ly and pine away, using little or no Effectual Means, to stirr up our selves into the Exercise of Repentance, and Recovering from our sad Condition, so as to recover our wonted Zeal, and Tenderness, which was formerly found in this Church.

11. The Lamentable grieving and vexing of the Spirit of GOD by many, the Resisting and Quenching it by others; And a third black set of Wretches, who in stead of working out their Salvation with fear and trembling, they merrily and unregarded work out their own Damnation, and goes dan­cing to the Pit, by openly doing despite to the Spirit of Grace, and mocking at all Serious Religion, the fearful mark of that unpardonable Sin against the Ho­ly Ghost.

12. Our little Concernedness and small Sympathy we have with the Afflicti­ons and Temptations of our Brethren, the poor persecuted Protestants abroad, the miserable and sinking State of that once famous and flourishing Church [Page 53] and People in France, by the incessant Crueltys of their Monstruous and and unnatural Prince, notwithstanding his best Subjects, and by whose means he oweth his Crown and Kingdom; As also the deplorable Case of those Ancient and Famous WALDENSES upon the Mountains and in the Vallies of Piedmont, &c. Redacted to Extremity of Sufferings, by that Raging Tyger of Savoy, that Ungrate Monster, now again returned with the Dog to his Old Vomit, notwithstanding they were signally serviceable unto him, as his most Faithful Subjects, ready to Sacrifice themselves for his safety. And which is a sore Matter, we have not to this Day Made it our business, effectually to fix and settle a mutual Correspondence betwixt us and these afflicted People, Tossed with Tempest and not Comforted, and other Reformed Churches abroad (as our Zealous Predecessors thought it their bound Duty to do) so that we are as Ignorant of their particular Circum­stances, either as to their outward Condition, or inward Frame and Resolu­tion, as if they were living beyond the wild Deserts of Arabia, by which we are mightily straitned in our Prayers, knowing neither how, nor what to Pray for them. Surely they are well worth our Serious, Painful, yea expensive enquirie and concernedness, especially these NOBLE VVAL­DENSES; each of whom maketh up a Demonstrative Argument, and a standing Witness against Episcopacy and Prelacy, those Worthies having all along, carefully & Conscienciously at the constant Expense of their dearest Blood observed the necessar Injunction of the Apostle Jude, v. 3. In Ear­nestly contending for the Faith which was once Delivered to the Saints, and have stood their Ground, Maintained and keeped their CHRISTIAN PRIN­CIPLES Pure and Unstained with either Popish or Superstitious Errors in all the Succession of Ages, as Faithfully Handed down from the very Apo­stles themselves, and could never to this Day hear of, or endure so much as the Name of a BISHOP or LORDLY PRELAT amongst them.

I had almost forgot Two or Three Particulars of no small Moment, and do Begg the Ingenuous Reader to impute it only to the Defect of Memory, that they came not in into their proper place and Order, as designed: And since they now present themselves (Pardon me) I must out with them.

The first is, Concerning the Receiving in of CURATS, those of the ab­jured Episcopal Clergy into Church Communion and other Priviledges with us. To which I give you not only my own Humble Thoughts, but like­wise the Judgment of others (both Ministers and People) who are far better vers'd in Divine Politicks than my self, viz. That they ought all of them once fairly and Legally to be depos'd, and their Churches declar­ed Vacant (our former Zealous Assemblies you know, not only deposed, but even did Excommunicat one Perjured Prelat after another) and whereas I am not so unreasonably Hard-hearted, as not to admit and allow of [Page 54] After-Repentance, though (whoever might, when they can do no better, Apply to have a share in our Church Government, and appear willing to join with us) a Livelyhood, Worldly Interest, or Necessity, would seem to be their Grand and Leading Motive, as to the most part of them; yet so soon as any one of them did give sufficient evidence of their grief and sor­row for what they have done, for their former Course and way, make a full and Particular Confession of all their Steps of Defection, and give in their Judgment and naked thoughts (as in the sight of GOD) Concerning both Presbyterial and Episcopal Government in the House of GOD; and like­wise to declare before GOD and His Church, what they are Fixedly re­solved in His Strength, to Adhere to and Stick by in all Times c [...]mming; and with all Cheerfulness and readiness (without the least hesitation or scru­ple) Offereth to Submit and Comply upon the strictest Terms and Conditions that the Church can Rationally and Warrantably demand: I think, then (and not till then) we ought to give them all the due Encouragment possible, if it were to put them in our Bosom: We have the Exemple of the Great GOD for this in Repenting and Returning Ephraim, whom we ought to I­mitat in all his Imitable Perfections, particularly in this of LOVE Jerem. 31.20. Is Ephraim my dear Son? Is he a Pleasant Child? so likewise we ought Cheerfully to give the Right Hand of Fellowship to all such, and Enter­tain a dear Respect and Affection for them, if otherways qualified and fit­ted as Painful and Faithful Ministers of Christ: And surely, if their Re­pentance be Real and Sincere, they will with PAUL, appear upon all oc­casions amongst the most Zealous and Forward for GOD and His Interests, as (Glory to His Name) we have some Blessed Instances of such, who are now Eminent Pillars in the Church. Though I must Confess (when I have said all that Conscience and Reason can allow) That Scripture, Ezek. 44.10, 11, 12, 13, and 14. has often Startled me, and puts many to a Stance (how applicable it is to these Men without the least Streach, let any unbyassed Scotsman Judge) The Lord there being positive and per­emptor in Rejecting them for good and all; at least, if we do Receive them into the Church, We are to suffer them come no further benn (as we use to say) than to be Porters, Door-keepers, Beddals, or in such-like Servile Imployment: I do not here Disparage them; I suppose the best of them will not pretend to be better than the Royal Psalmist, Psal. 84.10. Who made this his Choice, rather than still to dwel in the Tents of Wickedness: I say, they are to be no further Advanced than to be Door-keepers or Beddals, &c. but never more to be Honoured to Mount a Pulpit, GOD Expresly Dis­charging them to come near unto him to do the Office of a Priest, nor e­ver to meddle with any of his Holy things; but are Doom'd to bear their I­niquity and Shame to their Dying day, who have thus fearfully gone astray a [...] caused our Israel, the Poor ignorant People of Scotland to Commit Ini­quity, [Page 55] with them: These Truce breakers, False accusers, These Apostat Trai­tors, these late Bloody Informers, Dispisers of those that are Good, Heady, Ambiti­ous, Highminded, having a form of Godliness, but quite denying the Power there­of, Leading Captive only the worst of Men and Women▪ led away with diverse Lusts; These Janes and Jambreses, withstanding both our Moses and Aaron: These are they who have Transgressed after the manner of Corah, Resisting the Truth, Men of Corrupt Minds, Reprobat Concerning the Faith, these evil Men, and Se­ducers, Waxing worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived: The LORD let them proceed no further, and cause their Folly and Wickedness to be manifest to all Men. Do but Read their desireable Properties 2 Tim. 3. Scripture Expressions, and none of my Invention, and surely most part of them deserves worse E­pithets from us, nay even from their own Parochiners, whose Souls have been pyning away under their careless Charge, many of whom (when Prelacy broke in upon us like a Deludge) did seem to be in the way to Canaan, but these LOCUSTS has driven both themselves and their witless Hear­ers quit back to Egypt again; and reduced them, by their Supine Negli­gence, Bad Example, and (for the most part) Scandalous Lives, to their old Egyptian darkness; So that when a PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER is providentially Called or Settled in any of these Parts or Paroches, who most frequented and followed their CURAT, do find them a Company of mere Ignorant Blocks, very little differing from downright Atheists, not on­ly void of all Serious Religion, but altogether Ignorant of the very Funda­mentals of Christianity. And it was remarkably observed throughout all the Corners of the Land, That so soon as any poor Creatures their Eyes were opened (by resorting now and then to the Sent and Faithful Ambassadors of Christ in Houses or open Fields) did begin seriously to consider their ways, especially when under Soul Exercise for Sin, the want of an Interest in Christ, and upon the account of their Eternal State, from that very day they did separat from these their Soul Destroyers, and did begin to En­tertain a Religious Aversion at them and their way; Particularly, when u­pon a Death-bed, then a very sight of these intruding Hyrelings, was a Ter­rour to them. I speak it with Horrour, Name me the Man or Woman, who were able to declare in their Dying Hour, that ever they got any Saving Good by them, or were Converted through their Means, while continuing such: But upon the contrare, hundreds in Scotland, within these fortie Years, has declared in their last Words, and that with Soul Agony, that they were Ruined and Poysoned by them, and therefore, could not suffer such to come near them: All this is Matter of Fact, and which multitudes of yet living Instances can Attest, who when in Sickness and Trouble of Mind, has given Orders to pack them down Stairs; For which they were ordinarly Branded by them for Frentick, Distempered, Melancholick Persons, therein agreeing with the Pagan Sentiments of their fratres fraterrimi, the O­pen [Page 56] Debauchees of this Age. From all which, I am bold to say, that with­out some Reasonable Demonstration and Evident Proof of their Sincere Repentance, it is a Tempting of GOD to receive them into Church Communion: Let us not for the LORDs Sake admit of such Men upon a Venture, or a May-be, who likewayes (May-be) will the next day make it their Business to Un­dermine and Ruine us all, and then Laugh at the Simplicity and Easy Creduli­ty of Presbyterians; Nay, it would certainly open a Door for all Rotten-Hearted Kirk-Men to come in, and then break off at pleasure, and turn their Coat upon every small Temptation, if they should perceive they might be again Received and Admitted upon so easie Terms. I speak this, not so much to censure what is past, as to Caution and Guard us against any thing of this Nature in all time coming, it being a very Dangerous and Tender Point. It were undoubtedly the Interest of both Church and State, to mantain these Naughty Creatures upon their own and the Kingdom's Charge, wherein all good Men would willingly Contribute, providing we could but secure them from doing further Mischief, not only those in Churches, Corrupting their poor Hearers by their Life and Doctrine. (I de­sire all along to Caution my Words, I speak not this of them all, I know there are some more Sober and Sound than others) But likewayes a Pack of prophane scandalous Wretches, Drunkards, Swearers, and Obscene Vagabond Fellows, polutting both City and Countrey with their IRREGULAR BAPTISMS, MARRIAGES, &c. Who do not in the least scruple (for a small piece of Money) to Baptize all the Bastards and Illegittimat-Brats in the Kingdom, without enquiring after either Father or Mother; Nor to joyn in Marriage the Brother with his Sister (for any thing they know, their Enquiry, if any at all, being very overly, only for a Sham-Ex­oneration) And to marry a Man unto one Woman to Day, and to another to Morrow, and both alive, the which they have already done. Now, if these of the more Sober and Sound amongst them, had but the above Ne­cessar Qualifications and Marks, then I should be for Moderation, yea for the hight of Moderation in their favours, as much as any Man: But this is too good a WORD to make a Baffle, a Nose of Wax, a Mock of: Let us not make it a common Gallio-Bridge for both Clean and Unclean to pass over; Let us not stretch it further, or skrue it higher, than the Blessed Unerring Rule will suffer it to go.

A second is, The dayly Oathing and Swearing the Leidges upon every small Triffle (I will not say, relating to the publick Go [...]d, so much as) to Inrich and make up a few particular Persons, T—men, &c. so that they with their Sub-T—men, Cl—s, and Sub-Cl—s, are allowed to impose an Oath upon the Subjects (poor silly Women and others not ex­cepted) where they are Obliged and Threatned upon pain of Ruine (their Random Decreets amounting to no less) to come in Yearly, nay [Page 57] Monethly, and hold up their Hands and Swear again and again by the Great GOD for the Value, if it were but a Six-pence, yea, even for the least Gill of Brandy, &c. Retailed by them; So that Multitudes of Ignorant Creatures who have a small Livelyhood, little or no Gain thereby, and perhaps as little Knowledge and Conscience, are (besides their taking the Holy Name of GOD in vain) undoubtedly and unavoidably PERJURED; Otherwayes, utterly undone if they scruple to Swear. O Lamentable! Ah National Grievance! (as if the poor Land were not deeply enough already sunk in PERJURY) That Men of whatsoever Perswasion, Pres­byterian, Episcopal, every Jacobit-Malignant, Atheist-fellow, should be Toller­ate, nay perhaps Impowered thus to do what they list: We have been so inur'd and habituat in Debauching our own and other Men's Consciences, in the late Heathenish Reigns, that we cannot get off it to this very Day. Ah! to what a pittyful pass and puzling Streach are we come, that we cannot get ten Faithful, Creditable Monyed Men in all Scotland of undoubted In­tegrity, whom King and Countrey may Trust, to collect the publick Fonds (I confess such a Sett was never rarer since Scotland became Christi­ans) but must be necessitat to flee for Relief to the next dangerous Horn of the Dilemma, to put all to a Common Roup, and entrust our Princes Reve­nues and the Kingdoms Substance, to every Tantivi-Tory; Malignant Under­miner, who bids most (whatever Oaths they may come under to gain their Point) and then not only puting the whole Superplus and Excrescence into their own privat Pockets; But likeways, the Fatal Event, and our constant Sad Experience makes it too probable, that (like so many voraci­ous and greedy gripping Hounds) they run with violent Hands, and a Conscience wide like Hell upon the very Stock it self, which is Sacred, and set a part by express Act of Parliament, for His Majestie's Use, and the Publick Concerns of the Kingdom. And moreover, such may be their Abo­minable Idolatry (Covetousness I mean) that notwithstanding they come off considerable Gainers, yet perhaps may have the Impudence to Bill his Ma­jesties Honourable Council, and Petition for an Abatement, pretending they have mett with great Losses by Disappointments, Accidents, vast Charges, necessar Contingencies, National Calamities, and what not? when, ten to one, that same Summ they seem to come short of, is already lying secure in their Coffers. And if they (by Ways and Means) should come to get a hearing, and their Petition granted, which is hardly suppos­able, this were a way indeed to blind our Eyes, & render them altogether Innocent. Surely one of these three must hold, either there must be great Villains and Villanies amongst us, or we must be a pack of wicked and sloothful servants▪ or otherwayes all Men are Liars. But these things are True or not; If not (which I will not deny, for you hear me affirm nothing positive­ly) Then these Men are mightily wrong'd by Common Fame and Universal [Page 58] Report; But if True, which you know I dare not averr, then certainly the Devil hath them hard and fast in his grips, though he should kick them up Stairs for a while, and mount them next day to a Sir John and Sir James, in hopes of making each of them e're long a second Faustus or Spira, and the Lord knows how soon; As for REPENTANCE, they have done with it, except they make Restitution, even to four fold, if they can, for they themselves know, that without Restitution, [while in their Power] there is no Repentance; So that none has Reason to envy either Them or their Tempting Places; for every penny of Money got by Treachery, Fraud, and Falshood, will in all Probabili­ty bind upon them a Talent of Eternal Wrath and Torment. Who among our gripping Wretches, dare say with Faithful and Consciencious Samuel, when they are stepping in to Eternity (I am afraid their Eyes will never be open­ed till then) 1 Sam. 12.3. Behold here I am, witness against me before the LORD and His Anoynted; Whose Ox have I taken? Whose Ass have I stolen? Or whom have I DEFRAUDED? Whom have I OPPRESSED? Or of whose hand have I received any Brybe, to blind mine Eyes therewith? And can for their Souls hold up their Faces, and Averr before GOD with Paul, in presence of the Council, Acts 23.1. Men and Brethren, I have lived in all good Consci­ence before GOD until this day. Ah! is it any wonder that nothing prospers with us, but every thing Blasted we take in Hand, and not one thing ever comes to any good Account that we get once among our Hands; For why? GOD doth Blow upon all, and how can it otherwayes be; So long as the most part of us, are so madly pursuing Cursed Self, and we, Base Spirits, Narrow Souls, Large Consciences, Greedy Hearts, and Gripping Hands? I de­sire the Ingenuous Reader still to take this alongst with him, for the Author's Vindication, that he does not speak his own Positive Sentiments, but only declareth what he heareth as the constant increasing Noise and Complaint, and what is the Universal Report and Clamour of almost every Man and Woman, in Kirk and Mercat, Street and Tavern, City and Country, which must needs Tempt him to say with Paul, 1 Cor. 11.18. I hear there be such and such things among you, and I partly believe it. You may Observe likewayes all alongs, that I have some other Weighty Design in mine Eye, than in seeming, to Reflect upon any particular Person, which Presseth me to be thus plain, viz: To Prevent, if possible, others from running themselves head­long into the like fearful Guilt. For Instance, when I speak (as above) of poor silly VVomen, and other Ignorant Bodies, who have little VVit, and probably as little Conscience; My chief Design is to Frighten and Deterr them and all Others in time coming, from darring to involve themselves in the Dreadful Guilt and Crying Sin of Perjury, &c. which is certainly one of the great and Provoking Causes of GODs Wrath, and which doth make the whole Land [as at this day] for to Mourn and Groan under the Fatal and Direful Effects thereof; Surely no serious Soul, nay good Christian, durst [Page 59] have the least Hand in, or Accession to it, for a thousand Worlds. I hope therefore, the Reader will pardon me, if I reach a By-blow, and throw a Squibb now and then at some particular Anonimo's, not in the least to hurt them, but to Allarm and Reclaim such, if Guilty; And [if they plead Not Guilty] to Forewarn and Caution them and all others, from swallowing such Dangerous Baits for the future.

A Third is anent our Fast days, Preparation—, Communion, and Thanksgiv­ing-days, the dangerous effects whereof upon the whole Land, and upon many a Poor Soul may make us Tremble for to think on't. Ah for the MOCK-FASTS, &c. that has been amongst us these years past! It had been far better for multitudes of Men and Women, that Divine Providence, and our Good Government of Church and State had never appointed and set a part such Blessed Seasons of GRACE and MERCY, they being all so strangely and fearfully perverted and abused by them, as Pearls thrown be­fore so many Swine. O! Who, upon a Day of Humiliation, are crying out, with Ezra. 9.6. O my GOD, I am ashamed, and do Blush to lift up my Face to Thee, my GOD, for mine Iniquities are encreased over my Head, and my Trespass is gone up unto the Heavens: Or with the Psalmist. Ps. 40.12, 13. Innumerable Evils have Compassed me about, mine Iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up, they are moe than the Hairs of mine Head, therefore mine Heart Faileth me. Be pleased O LORD to Deliver me, O LORD make haste to help me: And with the Church in Lam. 1.20. Behold O LORD, for I am in distress, my bowels are troubled, mine Heart is turned within me, for I have grievously Rebelled. Wo will be to that Man, that Wo­man, that Lass or Lad come to Years of Understanding, who u­pon a Solemn Day of Humiliation and Fasting, goeth not out with Peter and Weeps bitterly for their Sin and Folly; and who doth not take on fixed and peremptor Resolutions and Engadgements from that very day to forsake and part with their Sin in all time Coming. But alas! Upon the Contrar, how many (Avowedly profane and impious) has no regard at all to this Precious and Critical Season: O what can we expect, will be the Portion of such, when the Man or Woman that comes even the length of Counterfeit Humility, and sorrow on such a day, do meet with so severe a Check and sharp Rebuke from the SPIRIT of the LORD Isai, 58.5. Zech. 7, 5. &c. especially when Reformation doth not follow upon it Isai. 1. from ver. 11, to 21. Psal. 50.16.17. It being as hateful to a HOLY GOD, as the Killing of a Man, offering up of Swins Blood, or the Cutting off of a Dogs Neck, Isai. 66.3, 4. Who upon a Fast or Preparation day before the Communion are passing through the dark and dry Valley of Baca (of Black Nature) upon the consciencious Search and Tryal of their State and of their way, Plowing up the fellow Ground of their Hearts, there digging deep with Sensible and Humble Convictions, till they make a Well of Tears and Godly Sorrow, so [Page 60] that the Heavenly Rain of the Spirits influence may fall down and fill the Pools of their Affections, with the Waters of Joy and Consolation; then afterward (by a tender strict and Holy Walk) making it their Work to go on from Strength to Strength, from one Degree of Grace to another, till it be perfected in Glory. Some indeed do make a fashion of seeking God before they go to tread his Courts, but suffice themselves with an Overly, Formal confused, short, Lifeless Word, upon their Sin, upon their Danger, upon their State and Case (great Concerning Points) upon which Holy Men of GOD has thought it worth their while to write whole Volumns. O who are groaning out their Case in secret before the Lord? And like a Princely Jacob Wrestling with the Angel of the Covenant Gen, 32, 26. I will not let thee go untill thou Bless me? and with the Poor Blind Men Matth. 20.30, 31. for saving Illumination, crying and crying the more, until they get a Grasious Hearing, SON OF DAVID HAVE MERCY UPON ME: Or pleading, with the distressed Importunat Widow Lord give me this day if it were but the least Crumb of Mercy, the least Sense of a Sealed Pardon, the smallest tokens of thy Gracious presence and assistance to be with me in e­very step of this days work, Mat. 15. from vers. 22. to 29. Who with the Spouse Cant. 7.5. is holding HIM fast in the Galleries of His Ordinances? And who are resolving with the Psalmist, Pfal. 26.6. I will wash mine hands in Innocency, So will I compass thine Altar O LORD? Ah! Who are considering the place they are going to, is no less than Holy Ground, and therefore by a Fixed and Holy Resolution puting off their Shoes from of the Feet of their vain, wicked and filthy Conversation? Then might they Exult with the Psalmist Ps. 43.4. Then will I go unto the Altar of GOD, unto GOD my ex­ceeding Joy. O what if not a few, cry Hosanna to him upon a Communion Sab­bath, and before next Saturday, cry Crucifie him, by their Untender VValk, their Unwatchfulness, by their Corrupt Communication, rash Swearing, Tippling, Ex­cess, vain and profane Company, &c. What think you of them, that knows no more what it means to lay hold on Christ, to receive Christ, to put on Christ, to make use of Christ, to make a Personal Covenant with Christ, or any thing of that nature, than the very Reprobat World doth, and yet bold­ly rusheth Blindfold unto that Sacred Table, designed not for Converting to Christ, but Confirming, Establishing and Sealing a Believer in Christ, alrea­dy Converted? O how many, from Soul satisfaction, and upon Solid grounds, can say with the Spouse, Cant. 4.16. let my Beloved come unto his Garden and eat His pleasant Fruits, who have not yet made Choice of their Beloved, cordially and fully closed with Christ, are not past the pangs of the new Birth, and therefore has no Garden to invite him to, but the Garden of the Sluggard, black Nature, all over growen with the stinking Weeeds of Corruption, hearts full of, not only Raging but reigning Sins, a very Sink of unmortified Lusts. And what Fruit can they present their pretended Beloved from this Cursed Root [Page 61] and Tree, but Grapes of Sodom, and Aples of Gomorah? Not one Grain of Saving Grace in that Poor Soul. What think you of the Man or Woman, who [notwithstanding of all this] are at no Consciencious Pains, taketh no Sufficient Time to take a look of their State, turn over their Evidences, pre­pare their Hearts, and get a suitable Frame of Soul before they venture upon that Tremenduous Ordinance; And are at as little pains after a Communion, to Search, Try, Examine, and ask GOD and their own Hearts, what they have Got, and what they have Missed; Whether thereby they have hight­ned their Condemnation, or got their Bands Loosed? If they have been feed­ing upon empty Husks, or has got CHRIST in them the Hope of Glory, &c. And so comes of it, for I appeal to their own Consciences, if there be the smallest Signs of any Saving Change wrought in them, or the least Refor­mation upon the back of it. Ah! If the Great GOD (at any of these Solemn Appearances) should come down to the Congregation, and ask the Question with an Audible Voice, Jerem. 30.21. Who is this that hath engaged his Heart to approach unto Me? Who amongst these durst or could hold up their Faces, & give a Conscience Satisfying Answer to Him? Alas! I am afraid, our naughty unprepared Hearts (for the most part of us) would quickly like Nabels sink and die within us, and become as a Stone, and we fall down before Him, like so many Bold and Darring Guilty Criminals. And what if CHRIST, the Great MASTER of the FEAST, the INVIT­ER, and the FEAST it self (who is alwayes present in a way of MERCY to some, and JUSTICE to others, both entertaining and viewing His Guests) should stand at the Head of His own Table, looking narrowly a­bout Him, with His All-pearcing Eye (as indeed He doth, when we little consider it) not only to the outward Appearance and Behaviour, but chiefly and principally to the Heart, to the deepest and most secret Cor­ners there, to the Inner-Man, both as to the Gracious State & Frame of the Soul; And should single out every Uunconverted and unworthy Communicant, and by Name and Sir-Name, Call to the hearing of all about them, FRIEND (Pretended Professor, Dead Moralist, Bold Hypocrite, Presumptuous Wretch, Prophane Fellow) HOW CAMEST THOU IN HITHER, NOT HAVING THE WEDDING GARMENT? O what unprepared Soul (the up-sitten Believer not excepted) were able to stand before this Al­larming and Soul killing Question? But then, what think you of those who are come to the length of Men and Women, nay to Midle and Old Age, who have never to this day gone to the Table of the LORD, and all because of the Necessity of the above requisit and necessar Qualifications: Let me tell such, as it is a Fearful Sin to go Unprepared, so I reckon it a dread­fully, Unexcusable, and Unaccountable Sin on the other Hand, not to Fit and Prepare themselves for it, making still the other sinful and God-pro­voking Excuse (let it be what it will) which will never abide the Impar­tial [Page 62] Tryal of either GOD or their own Conscienes, at a Tribunal or on a Death-bed. As for Secret Despisers and avowed Contemners of such Gracious Opportunities, open Ridiculers and Mockers, who with their own Hands, do throw the very Door of Mercy on their own Teeth, that in stead of At­tending Divine Worship on Week-Dayes, Sabbath-Dayes, and upon such So­lemn Occasions, do either Loyter in their Beds, or goeth in Cabals, spends and wastes these Invaluable Minuts in one anothers Chambers, in Taverns, Ale-houses, nay probably with their Loathsome Whores, and about some gross Villanies, not to be named, Blaspheming GOD, Damning themselves, Cursing one another, and Railing and Raging against the Faithful Servants of CHRIST, and the whole Government be the By; A fearful mispending and throw­ing away of the Blessed Dayes of their Visitation, and a sad Return they give to that Great Question (which every Child knoweth) WHAT IS THE CHIEF END OF MAN? As for such, I am wholly at a Stance, what to say either to them or for them; It passeth the Skill of a Solomon to give his Advice here, they being upon the very brink of the unpardonable Sin against the Holy Ghost, if not already Plung'd into it; So that I am afraid that same Blessed Spirit has past the Word, Hos. 4.17. LET THEM A­LONE; these sporting Leviathans, Job. 41. Whose skales are their pride, shut up together as with a closs Seal; Out of whose mouths goeth burning Lamps, and sparks of Fire flee out; Whose Hearts are as firm as a Stone, yea as hard as a piece of the nether Mill-stone, Who laugh at the shaking of the Spear, &c. So that it seemeth to no purpose to throw Pearls before such Swine, or cast Holy Things unto Dogs, in whom there is nothing wanting to begin their Tor­ment, but Soul Distress, Anguish of Spirit, Horrour of Conscience, the Terrors of GOD to Distract them, all which, may come upon them in one Night: Therefore, I here leave them with the poor possessed Man, Mark 5.2, 3, 4, 5. Cutting and slashing himself amongst the Tombs; these Lunatick Desperatly mad Wretches, possessed with such a furious Devil, whom nothing can Tame, Bind, or Engage, whom none of our LORDs Dis­ciples can cast out and cure, except CHRIST Himself step in and speak the Word, Matth. 17.17. BRING HIM HITHER TO ME; for sure they are resolved (as long as they can) never to come in his way: If He come in theirs, it is well, if not, they are lost for ever: But this seemeth to be too mild and gentle a Comparison; For that Devil in Mark 5. (for as Fierce as he was, seeing CHRIST but a fat off) ran and was constrained to make the fashon of Worshipping Him, ver. 6. I rather leave these filthy Gadarean Swine (in whom an unclean and raging Devil has so visibly and sensibly entered) to run on, till they throw themselves headlong over that steepr Pecipies, the dreadful Rock of their own presumption, into the Immense Oeean of Eternal Vengeance. I will not say what an Omnipotent Hand of Power by a Miracle of MERCY may do to Overtake and Recover One, [Page 63] Two, or Three, among the many Hundreds; Nay, I fear, among the many Thousands of them: For I know, what ever he be, if a Thousand times worse than the worst of Sinners, (if he be not a Real Devil, and one already among the damn'd) that if he will but Confess his Sin, Mourn for it, forsake it, turn unto GOD, Cordially come to Christ, Close with, and Embrace Him in the Gospel Terms, that our wonderfully condescending LORD Joh. 6.37. WILL IN NO WAYS CAST HIM OUT, but pluck him as a Brand (a half burnt Stick) out of the Fire; though when a long suffering and Patient GOD, is by His Spirit, Standing and Knocking at the Door of their Hearts and Consciences, loudly calling and Crying as in Jerem. 23.27. I have seen thine Adultries, the Leudness of thy Whoredoms, and thine Abominations: Woe unto thee, O thou wicked and filthy Wretch, wilt thou not be made clean: Ah! when shall it once be; yet they are stoutly answering him with these Resolute Sinners in Job. 21.14, 15. De­part from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy Ways: What is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? Or at best, with an inlightned Felix, Trembling under a sudden Conviction, Acts. 24.25. Go thy way for this time; when I have a Convenient Season, I will call for thee: And be sure, this will never be, if we can possibly shun it, untill we come to look pale Death in the Face, and be Arrested to our Beds, when we can do no better, and are able to Com­mit sin no longer; Then its like, we will call for a Minister, cry for help, be content to come unto Christ, and be willing at last to be saved by his Blood, who could never endure to be Sanctified by His Spirit. Thus they build their whole Hopes of Heaven, and certainty of Happyness upon the Slender Spiders Webb of a last Moments Peradventure, and their own Cursed Free-will. I will not limit the Holy One of Israel, though we all do see them Running the straight Road to Perdition, taking the Speedyest Course, the nearest way, Post to Distruction; yet an ALL CONQUERING CHRIST, (He that is Mighty to Save to the uttermost,) can, and may make one of them now and then, a single Thief upon the Cross: However, I am afraid, that a Holy and Just GOD, has already given the most part of them their final Mittimus down to the bottomless Pit, to that Lake that Burns with Fire and Brimstone, and that so soon as DEATH, the King of Terrors and Terror of Kings, shall get its Commission to strike them down, and (may­be) sooner than they are aware of; who knoweth, but incensed Justice may suddenly beat up their Quarters with that surprizing and Terrible Alarm, Luke. 12.20. Thou Fool, this Night thy Soul shall be required of thee. They themselves know, that we have fearful Instances in every Age of such Bel­shazzers, and Magor Missabibs. If they please and think it worth their while [...] I would Gladly, (from a Bleeding Simpathy I have with, and unfeigned Love to their Poor Perishing Souls) recommend to their serious perusal, two small Books in Octavo, next to the Bible, and its most fit and proper [Page 64] for such desperat hardned Sinners; the one called Sighs from Hell, or the Groans of a Damned Soul; the other is that excellent and useful Piece, Allan's Al­larm to the unconverted.