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Remember hereafter that a fool told you this; and if ever plague, famine, war, fire, earthquakes, inundations, or other judgments befall the world, do not attribute 'em to the aspects and conjunctions of the malevolent planets; to the abuses of the court of Romania, or the tyranny of secular kings and princes; to the impostures of the false zealots of the cowl, heretical bigots, false prophets, and broachers of sects; to the villainy of griping usurers, clippers, and coiners; or to the ignorance, impudence, and imprudence of physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries; nor to the lewdness of adulteresses and destroyers of by-blows; but charge them all, wholly and solely, to the inexpressible, incredible, and inestimable wickedness and ruin which is continually hatched, brewed, and practised in the den or shop of those Furred Law-cats.

It was likewise the sin of the land, and a great breach of Covenant, when the Duke of York was admitted to the exercise of the royal office against the laws of God and man; being incapable of the Covenant qualifications of a magistrate, and being a Papist, and so incapable of taking the "oath of coronation to maintain the true Protestant religion, and gainstand and abolish Popery;" which, for the preservation of the true religion, laws, and liberties of this kingdom, is stated by the 8th Act of Parliament, I King James VI, "That all kings, at the reception of their princely authority, shall take and swear;" yet this authority, though inconsistent with, and declaredly opposite to religion and liberty, was owned and upheld, by paying cess and supplies, expressly exacted for upholding tyranny in the destruction of religion and liberty; and though the Lord did, for a long time, by the tyranny of Charles II. and James VII., chastise these covenanted lands, yet there has not been a turning to him that smiteth: but these lands have again transgressed the Lord's commandments, and broken this part of the Covenant of the Lord, by receiving, admitting, supporting and subjecting to such, for Kings and Queens over these realms as want the qualifications required in God's word, and enacted by the righteous and laudable laws of the land to be in magistrates, superior and inferior: which were not brought under Covenant ties and obligations, to be for God and religion in their own persons and families, and to advance and preserve the same allenarly in their dominions; but in place thereof have come under oath and obligation to countenance, protect end advance the Romish superstitions and innovations in the worship of God and government of the Church, which the Covenant binds these kingdoms to suppress and extirpate, and in consequence of, and in conformity to, these obligations, do maintain and defend, or tolerate and allow Prelacy and Sectarian errors in their dominions, contrary to the true religion and sound doctrine, contrary to justice and equity; yea, contrary to that trust especially committed to the hands of Christian Magistrates, who for that end have the sword given them, that they may be a terror to evil doers, preserve and defend the true religion and professors thereof, and punish and extirpate false religion and heresies, and bring the wheel over the broachers, maintainers and abettors thereof; which did, and do exercise an Erastian supremacy over the church, in proroguing, and dissolving General Assemblies, appointing diets and causes of fasts and thanksgivings; and by their civil authority causing them to be kept and observed; which do not impartially execute justice upon all offenders, witness the frequent indemnities and remissions granted to murderers; as particularly, the passing without punishment the persons which perpetrated the inhuman, barbarous and lawless action of the massacre of Glencoe.

"His vest succinct then girding round his waist, Forth rushed the swain with hospitable haste, Straight to the lodgements of his herd he run, Where the fat porkers slept beneath the sun; Of two his cutlass launched the spouting blood; These quartered, singed, and fixed on forks of wood, All hasty on the hissing coals he threw; And, smoking, back the tasteful viands drew, Broachers, and all."