Mercenary Souls, that employ themselves in mendicant Writings and Practices;- -beyond the common Size of slanderous Malice, p. 7. Guilty of the highest Impudence and Sauciness, p. 12. Prelatical Party, eminent for Spite, but hath neither Truth nor Charity to warrant it, p. 21. They who know their Temper, and the Brow and Way of those for whom they plead, will not belive their Professions, their Hypocrisy being shameful and twisted with Malice, p. 13. The Temper of Episcopalians is by unmanly, as well as unchristian Shifts, to buoy up their sinking Cause, p. 29. This Historian's Ignorant Malice is to be despis'd, Judas Iscariot was his Predecessor, p. 52. The Contempt of the Ministry came from the Atheism and Debauches of the Episcopal Clergy, p. 64. And again, of an eminent Divine,* he saith, That his Words are like those of a mad Man, or of one raving in a Fever, p. 51. It would be tedious and nauseous to trace this his Presbyterian Eloquence, through every Page, as he vents it; or to shew how falsely and boldly he charges a whole sacred Order of Men with the Faults which he supposes, and would have the World believe, some single Persons among them, to be guilty of; as that they are perfricto frontis, Nothing manifestly false can check their Conscience and Impudence: The whole Party grossly ignorant: Papising Prelates, p. 126, 131, 133. spuing out the most spiteful Venom that can lodge in a human Breast, p. 136. Impudence beyond Jesuitical, p. 142. They glory either in their having no Principle, or that they can yield over the Belly of Conscience, to promote their Interest with Men, p. 144. The Differences betwixt us and them are not reconcilable; † a Heap of Lies, Men that have taught their Tongues and Pens to speak and write Lies, p. 146, 147. Lies and Calumnies, horrid Lies, a broad Lie, p. 150, 152. This which they now call a broad Lie, pass'd for a Gospel Truth among the Presbyterians, An. 1648.‡ Prelatical Incumbents were scandalous, and unfit to edify the People, and do rather harden them in Wickedness, p. 162. A whole Fardel of Lies, malicious Representations, coupled Falsehoods, impudent and false Assertions, brazen Foreheads, p. 166. Prelates spend their short Glass with gingling pye-bald Orations, p. 168. Bitterness, Malice, and Contempt, is suitable to the historical Talent of many of the Prelatical Party: If the Debauchery of Prelates did not tempt People to count all Religion a Sham, it were well, p. 173, He knows that his impudent Assertions and Lyes can be discover'd, and his Villany come abroad at last, p 178. A snarling Cur a lying Spirit doth possess the Men with whom we have to do,||

p. 191, 194. This is the meek lowly Strain of the Presbyterian New Gospel, whereby the Soberest of them pretend to vindicate their own Proceedings, and refute the Writings of other Men. I leave the World to judge, by this Way of

• Loved and honoured by all but Presbyterians.

And yet they own the same Religion with us, p. 1. 1. 3.

The Authority of their Assemblies above that of King and Parliament.
Well Ranted Rule.

defending the Party, what their Cause must be, and to determine, whether he who calls himself a sober Presbyterian, and says, That he was selected and appointed by the sober General Assembly, to write in their Defence, be not indeed as black and foul-mouth'd, as the most rank and rigid Cameronian among them all: For my Part, I can see no Difference betwixt his Stile and theirs, except this may pass for one, that Mr. Rule seems to have learn'd his Stile from the Coal-Stealers in Edinburgh, or at Buch-Haven, of which College only he ought to have been Principal; whereas the Cameronians seem to have learned their Stile from the Shepherds and HerringFishers on the Western Coast, who, though they have more Cant, yet they have less Knavery than the former. If Mr. Rule should challenge me, as falling into the same Fault for which I here blame him, because of some Sharpness which he may apprehend to be in that Character I have given before of the Presbyterian Preachers and People, yet that is only chargeable upon my single Person, and not upon others of our Party; for I neither do, nor pretend to write by a Commission from them: And besides, he himself hath provided me with an Apology, viz. Calling Things by their true Names, is not to be reckon'd inconsistent with Moderation and Calmness; a petulant and effronted Adversary is not to be handled with that Softness of Stile, which is fit for such as are more modest. Preface, Parag. 6.

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CHAP. IV.

UT passing those Flowers of Presbyterian Eloquence, let us examine in the next Place, if this Author makes amends for his Stile, by the Truth and Reason that he writes. It would be tedious to trace him through every Page, in which his Nonsense, Contradictions, and Falsehoods abound, and therefore I shall here mention only some Generals.

There is one Principle suitable to the Genius of the New Gospel only upon which much of his Book is founded, and it's this, Do as ye have been done by; by this he excuses the greatest Barbarities of the Presbyterian Rabble, and often justifies their highest Severities against Episcopal Ministers; it's true in other Places he condemns them, and says, he will not defend them; but he seems not concern'd shamefully to contradict himself at every Turn. The People for whom he pleads are not so critical as to observe that, and for others he says, that he despises and contemns them. Sometimes, if you'll believe him, Cameronians are zealous godly Men, eminent for their Suffering for Christ: By and by, says he, They are a wild, ungoverned, desperate Rabble, rendered mad by Oppression. The Sum of all is, Revenge is a true Presbyterian Vertue, and Contradictions, Mr. Rule's best Way of Reasoning.

Preface, Parag. 6. These are his Words: I have treated the Adversaries I deal with as Brethren, desiring rather to exceed, than come short in Civility and fair Dealing with them. But at the same Time he takes the Liberty almost in every Page, to call those he deals with, Of the Seed of the Serpent, Devils, habitual Drunkards and Swearers, Traitors that deserve to have their Necks stretched, profane Persons, constant SabbathBreakers, horrid Liars and Slanderers, Men who beat their Wives, and in their Dealings are most injurious to Men, having no Conscience, Page 32.. Ministers who are Opposers of Christ, and his Institution, who harden and encourage the People in their Sins. As we may read in the Pages above cited, and many other of Rule's exceeding civil Book, which being written

Preface, Parag. 6. at the End, and Page 26. &c.

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by the Design of the whole General Assembly, it's but natural and just to conclude, that this is only the Way of Scots Presbyterian Civility and fair Dealing. Again in the same Preface, and Parag. 6, he says, I build not on Hear-say, or common Talk, which is the best Foundation of many of "the Assertions of my Adversaries." And in the same Page, these are his immediate preceding Words: " The Truth of Matters of Fact asserted in "this Treatise, is not to be taken from me, but from them who are my "Informers, few of whom I pretend to any personal Knowledge of; there"not my Veracity is pledg'd, but that of others: If they have deceiv'd or "been deceiv'd, I am not to answer for that." What can a Man believe of a Book that's usher'd in with such a doubting and contradictory Preface? If these were not Mr. Rule's own express Sayings, Nobody could well believe, that the whole Faction could have singled out such a Writer to vindicate them; but Falsehood it seems has no Feet, and Liars who have so little Wit and Memory, must needs be often intangled in their own Snares.

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"Some of the Church of England have meddled far beyond their Line “in our Affairs, though we be far from interposing in any of theirs, p. 16. only upon Occasion we take the Christian Liberty that our Predecessors "have always done, of calling them Superstitious, Popish, and Idolatrous "in their Worship; and in their Doctrine, scandalous for Arianism, Armi"nianism, Socinianism, Popery, and that Turkish Bow-String Doctrine of "Passive Obedience: and that in their Government they are directly contrary to Christ's Institution, to the Design of the Reformation, and to the 'Holy Covenant, being Tyrannical, Prelatical, yea, and Archi-papaprelatical. What we are bound to by the Covenant, says he again, is not "to reform them, but to concur with them, when lawfully called, to advance "the Reformation;" that is, wholly to overturn their Church and State, as we formerly did by our own glorious Gospel-Methods of Fire and Sword, having a very lawful Call from a godly Party, who invited us to fight the Battles of the Lord against the Mighty, the King, "who opposed Reforma"tion-Work in the Land: And now, says he, it's far from our Thoughts to go beyond that Boundary, in being concerned in their Affairs; we wish "their Reformation, but leave the managing of it to themselves:" that is, till we find such a blessed Occasion those Worthies of the Lord, the Reformers, did in 48.

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Page 23. He says, That King James abdicated the Government, and that the Parliament call'd it so. If he knows any Thing of those Affairs he knows that the Parliament of Scotland did not give it that Name, though that of England did: However, if he did abdicate, I would fain know, how this consists with Rule's concluding just before, p. 22, That his Royal Authority was taken away by the Nation; and with what he says, p. 100, The Nation laid him aside, and chused another. That is the constant Doctrine of Scotch Presbyterians, (and they practise accordingly),

That the People can give and take away the Royal Authority, can lay aside and chuse Kings at their pleasure, Vide Buchan. de Jur. Reg. Jus. Populi Vind. Lex Rex, and Rule's Vind. Now, to use Mr. Rule's moderate Phrase in that Place, Some Men's Necks have been made to stretch for a less Crime, than to assert under an Hereditary Monarchy, that Kings are not to be elected. And it's certain they are as little Friends to their present Majesties, as to Monarchy, who would found their Authority upon such a tottering Bottom: nay Mr. Rule, in the Name of the other Presbyterians, tells plainly that they owe no Allegiance to King William, but in so far as he supports Presbytery, and that it would overturn the very Foundation of his Authority to restore Episcopacy. For (says he) it is declar'd against in the Claim of Right as a Grievance, and therefore cannot be restor❜d without overturning the Foundation of our present civil Settlement, p. 90, Parag. 4. And again, Page 152, Parag. 2. The Convention hath voted Episcopacy to be a Grievance to the Nation, and in the Claim of Right made it a Fundamental Article in the Government, that it should be abolish'd. Now what's the Meaning of all this, but that the present Government of State must necessarily stand and fall with Presbytery? So that all their great Boasts of Loyalty to the present King, amount to no more than this, No Presbytery, no King William.

Page 36, Parag. 11. he says, Most of the Episcopal Ministers who went out, were put out by their own Consciences; for they deserted their Charges without either Sentence, Threatening, or Compulsion. And yet before that, Page 26. Parag. 6. he owns, That the Presbyterian Rabble did persecute, and drive them away. But that this is no more imputable to the Presbyterians, than the Drunkenness, Swearing, Whoredoms, and Persecutions,* that we charge many of the Prelatists with, are to be look'd on as the Crimes of all the Episcopalians. And further he excuses that Rabble, because, as he there avers, They were under the highest Provocations imaginable, to do what they did; yea, to have proceeded to farther Severities. And he adds, out of the Abundance of Presbyterian Sense, that these Things were done in an Interregnum; which, by the bye, can never possibly fall out in an hereditary Kingdom:† And though he says we had then no Church Government, yet himself knows the contrary, and that Prelacy stood then established by many Laws made in twenty-seven Parliaments, freely and legally elected in the most settled Times, and that the Prince of Orange, who had then, at the Desire of some of the Nobility and Gentry, taken the Kingdom under his Protection, did by his solemn Proclamation order all Things in the Church and State, to continue as the Laws had fixed them, till the Convention of the States should meet. But, says honest Mr. Rule, these enrag'd People were chafed in their Minds, and having now Potentiam, though not Potestatem, therefore it was not to This is the civil Stile that he promis'd to exceed in, Pref. Par. 6. + Where in th Sense of the Law the King never dies.

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