supremacy passed, which has plagued this
church and nation ever since; at the instigation of Dr. Burnet, he set
the indulgence on foot 1670; got the act against conventicles made,
which occasioned so many hardships and bloodsheds in this land; nay,
such was his fury, that when they would not comply, he uncovered his arm
to the elbow in council, and swore by Jehovah he would make the best of
them submit. In a word, he was the prime instrument of all the cruelties
exercised for a number of years, while he obtained the king's ear. Nor
was this all; for he became notorious for a wicked profligate life and
conversation; a thing common with apostates:--a Sabbath-breaker, gaming
on the Lord's day, a profane swearer and blasphemer, a jester on
scripture and things religious, one time saying to prelate Sharp, _Sit
thou on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool_. He
perjured himself in Mr. Mitchel's case, promising in council he should
be indemnified to life and limb, and then swearing before the judiciary,
that there was no such promise or act made. For these, with his other
sins of adultery, counselling the king, and assisting him in all his
tyrannies in overturning the work of reformation, and murdering those
who adhered to these covenants that he himself had engaged in, he was
also one of those excommunicated at Torwood, 1680. Towards the end of
his life, he became such a remarkable Epicurean, that it is incredible
the flesh, or juice of flesh, it is said, he devoured in one day, eating
and drinking being now his only exercise and delight. His scheme of
management had rendered him odious to the English patriots. Now his
effeminate life made him unfit for business: so, about 1681, he was
obliged to resign his offices; after which, by old age and vast bulk of
body, his spirits became quite sunk, till his heart was not the bigness
of a walnut: and so at last upon the chamber box, (like another Arius)
he evacuated soul, vital life, and excrements all at once; and so went
to his own place.--_Burnet and Wodrow's histories, and Walker's
remarks_.

J---- WYLIE, though of no great note, yet for a wicked life and practice
was a tool fit enough for the dreary drudgery of persecution: in which
he got a party of soldiers to assist him as often as he would. In this
devilish employment, amongst other instances, he got a party of
Blackaras' troop, 1683, and came upon John Archer, while his children
were sick, and himself ill