[fol. 16.] First. It will be very proper to inform you that I have the honour to be more immediately descended from one of those Scottish clergymen,[20] who unhappily surviv'd our flourishing Church and prosperous nation at the late Revolution; by which means it was my lot, by the wise providence of God to be early train'd up in the school of adversity, inasmuch as he underwent the common fate of our other spiritual pastors and dear fathers in Christ who were by merely secular, and what is worse, unlawful force thrust away from their charges and depriv'd of that maintenance to which they had a general and divine right as well as a legal title by our Constitution. And this in many instances was executed with the utmost rigour and severity, attended with every wicked and aggravating circumstance. For how could it be otherwise when allowed to be done by an ungovern'd mob, distracted with enthusiasm and misguided zeal, but whose deed received its sanction by some subsequent pretended laws.
Into this once glorious but now declining part of the Church Catholick I was thro' the care and piety of my loving parents enter'd by a holy baptism. For which inestimable benefit, as my judgment ripen'd and my reason improv'd I ever found [fol. 17.] greater cause to bless the happy instruments, and to thank my God, as it clearly appeared upon impartial enquiry that this Church for purity of doctrine, orthodoxy in the faith, perfection of worship and her apostolical government, equals, if not excels, any other church on the earth. And therefore I persisted by Divine grace an unworthy member in her faithful communion till thro' various instances of the goodness and care of Heaven manifested in the wonderful support and preservation of our family, I received a pious and liberal education (tho' my father, wore out with sufferings, lived not to see it half compleated), and at length arrived at that age when by the canons of the Church I could be admitted into holy orders; which I received at a time no earthly motive could influence me, but a sincere intention to serve God and to my power to do good offices to men.
Both which I, tho' most unworthy of the sacred character, have ever honestly endeavour'd to the utmost of my weak ability, by enforcing and practising, as far as circumstances and my station in the Church would permit, that golden and glorious rule for the conduct of a Christian, and for every [fol. 18.] church whereby to reform itself, and moreover which alone can unite the differing parts of Christendom, I mean the Holy Scriptures, with their only genuine and authentick comment, the universal doctrines and practices of Christ's Church in her first three centuries. Which that it may again universally obtain God Almighty grant for his sake who purchas'd the Church with the effusion of his blood.
In perfect consistency with this Catholick and noble rule I declare upon this aweful occasion, and on the word of a dying man, that I ever abhor'd and detested and do now solemnly disclaim the many errors and corruptions of the Church of Rome; as I do with equal zeal the distinguishing principles of Presbyterians and other dissenting sectaries amongst us who are void of every support in our country but ignorance and usurping force, and whom I always considered as the shame and reproach of the happy Reformation, and both alike uncatholick and dangerous to the soul of a Christian.
I must further declare that by the same method I found out [fol. 19.] the absurdities of these two differing parties, I was soon determin'd from rational and solid arguments to embrace the doctrines of passive obedience, the divine right of kings, and in particular the indefeasible and hereditary title of our own gracious sovereign, James the Eighth and Third, and of his royal heirs, whom God preserve and restore.
For these I am thoroughly convinc'd are doctrines founded upon the best maxims of civil government and on the Word of God; and besides the very essence of our own Constitution and municipal laws. And therefore I could never view that Convention which pretended to depose King James the Seventh, our King's royal father, and dispose of his crown; I could never, I say, view that unlawful and pack'd Assembly in any other light but as traitors to their country and rebels to their King.
And as our then injured King and his undoubted heirs have from time to time uninterruptedly claim'd their right and asserted their dominion, I am so far from thinking that the [fol. 20.] royal misfortunes loose the subjects from their obedience, that I rather apprehend they loudly call for a steadier allegiance and more faithful duty.
In which sentiments I have been still more and more confirm'd by the lamentable consequences of the opposite opinion, and by that sad affliction and load of misery, which a long usurpation has brought upon my country and which it is needless for me here to insist upon, as our numerous grievances, too heavy to be born, have been strongly, but alas! in vain, represented and loudly proclaimed even in some late pretended parliaments.
But what more naturally falls to my share to consider, and what I fear has been still less regarded in the long persecuted state of my dear mother, the Church of Scotland, that Church of which it is my greatest honour to be a member and a priest, tho' very undeserving of either; a Church, national and independent of any other and of every power upon earth, happily govern'd by her own truly primitive bishops, as so many spiritual princes, presiding in their different districts, and in them, accountable to none but God for the administration of her [fol. 21.] discipline; a church, whose creeds demonstrate her soundness in the faith, and who is blest with a liturgy (I mean the Scots Liturgy,[21] compil'd by her own bishops) nigher to the primitive model than any other church this day can boast of (excepting, perhaps, a small but I believe a very pure church in England[22] who, I am told, has lately reformed herself in concert with the forementioned and infallible rule)—in one word a church very nearly resembling the purest ages, and who (after more than half a century groaning under persecutions and mourning in her own ashes, but all the while distinguishing herself no less by forbearance and charity to her bitterest enemies than by her steadiness to principle and Catholick unity) is now at last, alas! devoted, in the intention of her adversaries to utter destruction; which I fervently pray God to prevent.
Her oratories have been profan'd and burnt, her holy altars desecrated, her priests outragiously plundered and driven from their flocks, some of them imprison'd and treated with uncommon cruelty, her faithful members almost depriv'd of the [fol. 22.] ordinary means of their salvation, and this mostly done without so much as a form of law, by a hostile force specially appointed by him who calls himself the Duke of Cumberland, and who (God grant him a timely repentance and forgive him) has occasion'd the painful and untimely death of many innocent and inoffensive persons; and by wilful fire and sword, by every means of torment and distress—barbarity exceeding Glencoe massacre itself—has brought a dreadful desolation upon my dear country.