that Baptism by Episcopal Ministers is the Mark of the Beast; and the bearing of them as unlawful as Fornication, Adultery, or the worshipping of the Calves of Dan and Bethel: And I think that a Curate can tell no worse Tale of them, than this, which a Presbyterian himself owns and declares to the World in Print.

I cannot here pass by what happen'd a few Years ago, in the Parish of Tindrum, in the South-West; a Person that was executed for Beastiality there, in his Prayers bless'd God, that for a long Time he had heard no Curate preach; at which the Hearts of some Presbyterian Saints began to warm with Affection to him, and exprest so much Charity, that upon that Account they doubted not but that he might be saved; and were sorry that he was not allowed to live, because of the Good that such a zealous Man might have done.

It is a well-known Truth in the Parish of Teviotdale, that two or three sighing Sisters, coming to a Man in Prison, the Night before he was burnt for Beastiality; the wholesomest Advice they gave him was this, O Andrew, Andrew, Andrew, all the Sins that ever you committed, are nothing to your hearing the cursed Curates; if you get Pardon for that Sin, Andrew, all is right with you.

A young Woman in Fife, Daughter to a Presbyterian Preacher there, reading that of St. Peter, Christ the Bishop of our Souls, blotted out the Word (Bishop) and in the Place thereof, inserted Presbyterian of our Souls.

And by the same Spirit of Bigotry, one of her zealous Sisters in the same Family, tore everywhere out of her Bible the Word Lord; because, said she, it is polluted by being applied to the profane Prelates.

Instances of their Madness and Delusions might swell into a huge Volume, but I shall only mention two or three which are commonly known. What greater Instance of Delusion, than that seven or eight Thousand People should be raised to Rebellion at Bothwell-Bridge, from labouring their Ground, and keeping their Sheep; and that by Sermons assuring them, that the very Windle-straws, the Grass in the Field, and Stars in Heaven would fight for them: and that after the Victory they should possess the Kingdom themselves, O it's the promis'd Land, and you Israelites shall inherit it; but in this they found their Preachers to prove false Prophets. After their Defeat, a Gentleman told me, that going to view the Field, where the Battle was fought, he saw one in the Agony of Death, crying out, Ah, cheated out of Life and Soul: The Gentleman inquired what he meant by that Expression, Ah, (said he) our Preachers, our Preachers, they made us believe, that as sure as the Bible was the Word of God, we should gain the Day, for that the Windle-straws should fight for us.

About the same Time a Person of Quality returning from the West, with some of the King's Forces, being necessitated to lodge in a Country-House,

where there was but one Woman, and she with Child; for the Men, and all that were able to run, had fled out of the Way; the Nobleman encourag'd the poor Woman, desiring her not to be afraid; sent one upon his own Horse for a Midwife, and other Women to attend her. The poor Woman surprised and encourag'd with his unexpected Kindness, began to talk more freely, and said, Sir, I see you that are King's-men are not so ill as we heard ye were; for we have heard that it was ordinary for you to rip up Women with Child; but pray will you tell me, Sir, what sort of Men are your Bishops? They are, (said he,) very good Men, and they are chosen out from the Clergy to oversee the rest of the Ministers. But are they, says she, shapen like other Men? Why ask you that? said he. Because our Preachers made us believe, the Bishops were all Cloven-footed. There is scarce one of an hundred among the Presbyterian Vulgar, that will be either reason'd or laugh'd out of the strange Opinions they have of Bishops; as particularly, that they will not suffer Witches to be Burnt, because (as they allege) every Bishop lose's five hundred Marks Scots, for every Witch that is burnt in his Diocese. Nay, the generality of the Presbyterian Rabble in the West, will not believe that Bishops have any Shadows, as an Earnest of the Substance, for their opposing of Covenant-work in the Land.

I shall add but one Instance more of the Silliness of the Presbyterian People, and that is of a certain Person well known both in the North and South of Scotland, for being not a Degree and a Half from an Idiot, and to be a Man that can scarcely read an English Book. This Person takes on him to be a Preacher, and among Presbyterian People has procured a great Esteem to himself for a wonderful and rare Gospeller; for having not the least Degree either of natural and acquir'd Parts, they therefore conclude him to have a large Stock of Grace, and to be a most heavenly Man. He came lately to the Mers, where he was never known before, and lodging on a Saturday's Night in a Country-Town, he caus'd to call in the good People in the Town to Prayers. Immediately the House was fill'd with a Crowd, then he lectures to them on the first of Ezekiel, and he told them, that the Wheel spoken of in the sixteenth Verse, was the Antichrist, and the Wheel in the Middle, was the Bishops and the Curates; for (says he) here's a Wheel within a Wheel, just so the Curates are within the Bishops, and both of them within Antichrist. Then the Wheels are (says my Text) liften up; even so Beloved, the Bishops and Curates are lifted up; lifted up upon Coaches with four Wheels, just as Satan lifted up Christ to the Pinnacle of the Temple; but God will take the Hammer of the Covenant in his own Hand, and knock down these proud Prelates, and break all their Coaches and their Wheels to pieces, Beloved, and lay the Curates on their Backs, so that they shall never rise again; for the Prophet says here, that when they went, they went upon their four Sides, and they returned not when they went, Beloved: That you may see is very plain and clear; for though they may go out and prosecute God's own covenanted People, yet they shall re

B

turn falling upon their Broad-Sides, and get such a Fall that they shall never be able to stand or return to persecute the Godly, so long as they go upon their four Sides, and are lifted up upon four Wheels. The people said, they never heard such a sweet Tongue in a gracious Man's Head. He spoke much against those that took an Indulgence from King James. The next Day he told them the Episcopal Minister in the Parish was his Cousin, therefore he would go to Church, and hear how he could preach. Truly, Sir, (says the People) we shall go along with you wherever you go, albeit it be our ordinary to go to the Meeting-House in the Parish. And that same very Day he brought all the Dissenters in the Parish to the Church. The People intreated him to deal with the Minister to turn Presbyterian, and promised to desert the Meeting-House Preacher, whom they ordinarily heard, and to hear the Episcopal Minister upon his Conversion. He promis'd to deal very seriously with him: For that Purpose, the next Day he came to the Minister's House, and after a few Sighs and affected Groans he expostulates thus, Dear Cousin, what makes you own perjur'd Episcopacy? What have you to say against that Office? replies the Minister, I have many Arguments, said he, and one I am sure you can never answer; and you will find it in Psalm xlv. Verse 1. My heart inditeth a good Thing. Now, is not this, says he, a plain Argument against Bishops? For when will they indite good Things? The People wondered that the Minister could not be perswaded by so clear an Argument, and said, Poor Soul, his Heart is hardened, he has not Grace enough to believe and be converted. This Account is proved before very many famous Witnesses in the City of Edinburgh. All I have told of them is Truth, but the Hundredth-part is not told. You may judge of the Tree by these Fruits; and what a delicate Set of Reformers we have at this Time in the West and South of Scotland.

I

CHAP. II.

COME in the next Place, to give you a true Character of their Preachers. And truly, to be plain, they are a proud, sour, inconversible Tribe, looking perfectly like the Pharisees, having Faces like their horrid Decree of Reprobation. They are without Humanity, void of common Civility, as well as Catholick Charity; so wholly enslaved to the Humours of their People, that they give no other Reason why they converse not with Men of a different Opinion, but only that their People would take it very ill if they should. However, I fear there is something in it more, and that is, lest their Ignorance should be discover'd; for it's certain, they have as little Learning as Good-nature; and we have both felt and seen, that That is next Neighbour to none at all.

They have their Souls cast into a different Mould from all Christians in the World. There is no Church but they differ from, both in Worship and Practice: They have quite banish'd the Use of the Lord's Prayer, and what ridiculous Stuff they have foisted in for it, shall be told in its proper Place. The smoothest Reason that they alledge for their forbearing it, is, That the Use thereof is inconvenient. This is Dr. Rule's own Reason in that pretended Answer he has published to the Ten Questions concerning Episcopal and Presbyterian Government in Scotland. Their famous Preacher James Kirktown, when one of the Magistrates of Edinburgh enquired why they did forbear the publick Use of the Lord's Prayer? told him downright, because it was the Badge of the Episcopal Worship. I doubt not but many have heard long e're now of a Conference that past betwixt my Lord Band a ruling Elder in the North. In short, it is this: Five Presbyterian Preachers last Year, appointed themselves Judges, to purge two or three Dioceses in the North. They took to assist, or to accompany them, some whom they call Ruling-Elders, one of whom entreated my Lord B- to further with his Help the happy and blessed Reformation, particularly by giving in Complaints against ignorant, scandalous, and erroneous Ministers, that the Church of God might be replenished with the Faithful: Truly then (saith my Lord) there is one whom I can prove to be very Atheistical,

Ignorant, and Scandalous. At which the ruling Elder began to prick up his Ears; And pray you, Sir, (says he) Who is the Man? Indeed (says my Lord) I will be free with you, it is Mr. James Urquhart, one of your own Preachers, who is come with you now to sit as a Judge upon others; and by Witnesses of unquestionable Honesty I can make it appear that he said, if ever Christ was drunk upon Earth, it was when he made the Lord's Prayer. And I appeal to your self, who are a Ruling-Elder, whether or not this be Blasphemy? Some other Things of Scandalous Nature I can prove against him. O but (says he) we are not come here to judge our Brethren, our Business is with the Curates.

It is ordinary to hear the People say, that if Christ were on Earth again, he would think Shame of that Form, that they could make better themselves, and that he was but young when he compos'd it. All which Blasphemies must needs be the Effects or Consequence of what they hear from their Preachers. And as for the Apostles Creed, it is not so much as once mentioned at the baptizing of Infants; for all that they require at Baptism, is, That the Father promise to breed up the Child in the Belief of the Westminster Confession of Faith, and that he shall adhere to all the National Engagements laying on them to be Presbyterians.*

Here I cannot forget what Mr. John Dickson, Preacher in the MeetingHouse at Kelso, said once in a Sermon; Ask (said he) an old dying Wife, if she hath any Evidence of Salvation, she will tell you, I hope so; for I believe the Apostles Creed, I am taken with the Lord's Prayer, and know I my Duty to be the Ten Commandments. But I tell you, Sirs, these are but old rotten Wheel-barrows, to carry Souls to Hell. These are Idols that the false Prelates and Curates have set up, to obstruct the Covenant and the Work of God in the Land.

For reading the Scripture in Churches, they have abolished that with the rest; and in place thereof, he that raises the Psalm, reads the Sermon that was preached the Sabbath before: And for the Gospel-Hymn, call'd the Doxology, or Gloria Patri, they reject that as a superstitious prelatical Addition to the Word of God. A certain Maid being lately catechised by one of these Preachers, the first Question he proposed to her was, Maggy, now what think you are the Saints doing in Heaven? I know not, Sir. O Maggy, that is a very easy Question, answer it, Maggy. I think then (says she) they are doing that in Heaven which ye will not let us do on Earth. What is that Maggy? says he. They are singing Glory to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Sir. Now that is your Mistake, Maggy, (said he) for there's no such malignant Songs sung there; you have been quite wrong taught, Maggy, the Curates have deceiv'd you, Maggy.

Though Mr. Rule, who defends the New Gospellers by denying their Prints, and by palpable Untruths, seems to disown this in his Second Vindication of his Kirk; yet much honester Presbyterians affirm it, and glory in it. Vid. Covenants with Acknowledgment of Sins and Engagement to Duties, renewed at Lesmahago. 1688, Et Hind let loose.