to the Presbyterians, to whom the mob was subject. The Presbyterians did not interpose to check the rabble, or to restrain their excesses: and Gilbert Rule, the great defender of the Kirk in that day, actually admits the charge. "If few did it," says this author, that is, preach against such unchristian conduct, "it was because they, who were the actors in that scene, little regarded the preaching of the sober Presbyterians." Sage sarcastically remarks: "it might be of use to inquire what kind of scene he took it to be? Whether tragical or comical? or both? Tragical to the Prelatists, and comical to the Presbyterians? It was worth inquiring likewise, whom he meant by sober Presbyterian preachers? If there are any such in the nation? How many?" Rule had said, that the ministers had publicly spoken against the practices of the rabble, "both before they were acted for preventing them, and after, for reproving them and preventing the like;" from which Sage infers, that the rabbling of the Clergy was not by accident, but a devised scheme; that the Presbyterians were aware of the plan, though they did not concur with the mob. He assures us also, that some, to his own knowledge, admitted, that "it was the surest way to have the curates once dispossessed."[1]
- ↑ The Fundamental Charter of Presbytery, as it hath been lately established in the Kingdom of Scotland, Examined and Disproved, by the History, Records, and Public Transactions of our Nation. Together with a Preface: wherein the Vindicator of the Kirk is freely put in mind of his habitual infirmities. 8vo. London, 1695. Preface. Two works by this Author cannot be too highly praised. The Principles of the Cyprianic Age, with regard to Episcopal Power and Jurisdiction: asserted and recommended from the genuine Writings of St. Cyprian himself, and his Contemporaries. By which it is made evident that the Vindicator of the Kirk of Scotland is obliged, by his own concessions, to acknowledge that
