safety of Religion Kirk and Commonwealth depends much upon the comfortable assistance which all of them daily receive from Royal Iustice and Authority we protest and promise with our Hearts under the Obligation of the same Oath to defend not only this our Religion but the Kings Majesties Sacred Person and Authority as also the Laws and Liberties of this our Country under His Majesties Soveraign Power with our best Counsels Bodies Goods and whole Estates according to the Laws and against all sorts of persons and in all things whatsoever and likewise mutually to defend our selves and one another in this abovementioned Cause under the same obligation But while the Marquis was busie at Court procuring this Gracious Answer to their Demands and while His Majesty was condescending to such extraordinary Favours to them the Covenanters in Scotland were going on The Covenanters are very busie in Scotland posting up and down the Country for more Subscriptions to the Covenant and because the North continued firm to their Duty some Noblemen and Ministers went thither to draw them to their Party and on the 23d of Iuly they came to Aberdeen where there was a company of worthy and learned Doctors and Professors But the Covenanters welcome there was so cold all the Subscriptions they got being but 19 or 20 and they were not admitted to preach in the publick Churches which made them preach in the Court of the Earl Marshal's Lodgings that they went away full of fury and threats against that Place and this gave the rise to that Debate which followed betwixt the Doctors of Aberdeen and those Ministers Debates betwixt the Doctors in Aberdeen and them which the Learned Doctors managed with so great advantage as did not a little confound the whole Party and the Ministers being pinched by them about the lawfulness of combining without warrant of Authority alledged that my Lord Commissioner was satisfied with the Covenant upon the offer of that Explication was mentioned formerly But the falshood of this Calumny was cast back on them with shame by him at his return for as he had never expressed any satisfaction with their Covenant so all the ground they had for that was because according to the Kings Order he had treated about that Explication to gain time He brought along with him to Scotland Dean Balcanqual Doctor Balcanqual comes to Scotland a man of great parts of subtil wit and so eloquent a Preacher that he seldom preached in Scotland without drawing Tears from the Auditors Him the Marquis intended to make use of as his Council in Church-affairs which Trust he discharged faithfully and diligently and received those Informations which were made publick in the large Declaration penned by him The Marquis came to Holyroodhouse on the tenth of August and found things in a much worse posture than he had left them and that the Flames were growing almost past quenching for at a Convention of Burroughs a few days before they had enacted The Covenanters high resolutions That none might be Magistrates or bear Office in any Burrough except he had first taken the Covenant and the Covenanters were resolved that Bishops should have no Vote in the Assembly unless they were chosen by a Presbytery and they were sure that should not be They were resolved to abolish Episcopacy and to declare it unlawful and excommunicate if not all yet most of the Bishops they were resolved to condemn the Articles of Perth and discharge Bishops to Vote in Parliament they were also resolved to ordain all under pain of Excommunication to sign the Covenant and to shew they meant to break out into Hostility they were beginning to levy men in several places But to make sure work of the Assembly they fell on a new device of Lay-elders to be chosen Commissioners who should be men of the greatest power and interest whereby they doubted not to carry all things and because in a Meeting at Edinburgh of Ministers being 120 in number about four parts of five were only for limiting of Episcopacy it was resolved by the Iunto that none of these should be Commissioners The Marquis being surprized with so great a change of the State of Affairs gave account of all these inconveniences to His Majesty and resolved not to proceed to call a General Assembly since he saw what effects it was like to produce till he first went and acquainted His Majesty with these hazards On the 13th of August the Covenanters came to demand his Answer The Marquis makes known His Majesties intentions he told them he had a clear and full Answer to give them but desired to be excused till he first communicated it to the Council which was to sit next day So they were satisfied for that time and on the fourteenth he held a Council where he delivered His Majesties Answer in these Terms My Lords I Thought it fit to acquaint your Lordships before I returned His Majesties Answer to the Noblemen and others petitioning for the same which is so full of Grace and Goodness that we have all cause to bless God and thank His Majesty for it such is his tender care of this poor distracted Kingdom that he will leave nothing undone that can be expected from a Iust Prince to save us from Ruine and since he finds such Distraction in the Church and State that they cannot be well settled without a Parliament and Assembly the state of the Country and business being prepared for it he hath given me Warrant for calling of both that they may be orderly held as formerly they have been according to the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom And further I am to declare to your Lordships that this we are to attribute only to His Goodness for we cannot but acknowledge that our carriage hath been such as justly we might have expected that he would have taken another course with us which he was Royally and really prepared for had not His Mercy prevailed above His just Indignation and by a powerful and forcible way have taught us Obedience which he hath forborn to make use of meerly out of His Grace and Goodness It is our duty to let His Subjects know how great our obligation is to Him which every one of us in particular and all of us in general should strive to make every one sensible of and labour so far as lieth in our power to procure satisfaction to His Majesty and quiet to this distracted Church and State The day following he gave the Covenanters the same Answer with which they were no way satisfied But the Covenanters were not satisfied They asked what he meant by preparing of business he said it was to establish Order and Government again in the Country as it was before those Combustions and upon this he gave them a Note of those particulars His Majesty ordered to be settled and assured them immediately upon their Obedience he should indict an Assembly and Parliament as he was
Our Council by Our Letter to that effect CHARLES R. Oatlands the 9th of Septemb. 1638. With these His Majesty did also sign the following Instructions for his behaviour with the Bishops CHARLES R. Instructions to be communicated to the Bishops YOV shall shew My Lord of St. Andrews that We intend by being content with his demission of the Chancellours Place no injury to him and most willing We are that in the manner of doing it he may receive no prejudice in his reputation though we cannot admit at this time of his nominating a Successor and to make it more plain that We are far from having any thought to affront him by thinking of his demission We will in no ways that you urge him to do it yet you are to intimate that in Our opinion a fair Demission will prove more to the advancement of Our Service and be better for him than if he should retain the Place If you find him willing to demit you shall then try what consideration he doth expect from Vs and if the same be not altogether unreasonable you shall promise it in Our Name If a demission then it is presently to be done If he resolve to hold that Place then you must prâ—sently command his repair to Scotland all excuses set apart You shall communicate to him and the rest of his Brethren that far of Our Intentions that it is probable you may indict a General Assembly Thai We are content absolutely to discharge the Books of Service and Canons and the High Commission You shall shew that the Five Articles of Perth We are pleased be esteemed as indifferent and that though We maintain Episcopacy yet We will be content that their Power be limited according to the Laws And it is Our further Pleasure that if an Assembly be indicted he and the rest of his Brethren be there to defend themselves and their Cause and for that end that he and they repair to Newcastle Morpeth or Berwick there to attend your further advertisement that so immediately they may repair to Scotland not only to answer for themselves at the said Assembly but likewise to consult with you what will be fiâ—test to be done for the advancement of Our Service that evil may be kept off so much as in you and them lieth both from Kirk and Commonwealth C.R. Oatlands the 9th September 1638. As for the Place where the Assembly should be held The Assembly was to sit at Glasgow though in the written Instructions it is referred to my Lord Commissioners choice Edinburgh only excepted yet it seems it hath been concerted betwixt the King and him where it should hold for in a Paper concerning the Assembly presented by the Marquis to the King yet extant where mention is made of the Place of the Assembly the King with His Own hand interlined Glasgow if may be and without doubt that was the fittest place for as the City was large and convenient so the Magistracy there was right set Besides it was next to the place of the Marquis his Interest whereby his power for over-ruling them might have been greatest neither was it fit they should go so far from the scene as Aberdeen which was advised by my Lord St. Andrews since for the Strangers it would have been all to one purpose for thither they would all have flocked and it seemed not so proper they should meet in a Place or Country which was still well set lest the numbers and boldness of those Strangers had either poysoned or frighted them from their Duty But to make the whole matter clear I shall here set down the Covenant and Bond which were now enjoyned by His Majesty WE all and every one of us underwritten protest The National Covenant first signed by King Iames and now received by the Kings Order that after long and due examination of our Consciences in Matters of true and false Religion we are now thorowly resolved in the Truth by the Word and Spirit of God and therefore we believe with our Hearts confess with our Mouthes subscribe with our Hands and constantly affirm before God and the whole World that this only is the true Christian Faith and Religion pleasing God and bringing Salvation to man which is now by the Mercy of God revealed to the World by the preaching of the blessed Evangel and received believed and defended by many and sundry notable Kirks and Realms but chiefly by the Kirk of Scotland the Kings Majesty and the Estates of this Realm as Gods eternal Truth and only ground of our Salvation as more particularly is expressed in thâ— Confession of our Faith stablished and publickly confirmed by sundry Acts of Parliaments and now of a long time hath been openly professed by the Kings Majesty and whole body of this Realm both in Burgh and Land to the which Confession and form of Religion we willingly agree in our Consciences in all points as unto Gods undoubted Truth and verity grounded only upon his written Word and therefore we abhor and detest all contrary Religion and Doctrine but chiefly all kind of Papistry in general and particular Heads even as they are now damned and confuted by the Word of God and Kirk of Scotland But in special we detest and refuse the usurped Authority of that Roman Antichrist upon the Scriptures of God upon the Kirk and Civil Magistrate and Consciences of men all his tyrannous Laws made upon indifferent things against our Christian Liberty his erroneous Doctrine against the Sufficiency of the written Word the perfection of the Law the Office of Christ and his blessed Evangel his corrupted Doctrine concerning Original Sin our natural inability and rebellion to Gods Law our Iustification by Faith only our imperfect Sanctification and obedience to the Law the nature number and use of the Holy Sacraments his Five bastard Sacraments with all his Rites Ceremonies and false Doctrine added to the ministration of the true Sacraments without the Word of God his cruel Iudgements against Infants departing without the Sacrament his absolute necessity of Baptism his blasphemous opinion of Transubstantiation or real presence of Christs Body in the Elements and receiving of the same by the wicked or bodies of men his Dispensations with Solemn Oaths Perjuries and degrees of Marriage forbidden in the Word his cruelty against the Innocent divorced his devilish Mass his blasphemous Priesthood his profane Sacrifice for the sins of the dead and the quick his Canonization of men calling upon Angels or Saints departed worshipping of Imagery Reliques and Crosses dedicating of Kirks Altars Days Vows to Creatures his Purgatory Prayers for the Dead praying or speaking in strange Language with his Processions and blasphemous Litany and multitude of Advocates or Mediators his manifold Orders Auricular Confession his desperate and uncertain Repentance his general and doubtsome Faith his Satisfactions of men for their sins his Iustification by Works Opus operatum Works of Supererrogation Merits Pardons Peregrinations and Stations
wherein it is represented that your Lordships late Warrant for Printing His Majesties Letter hath occasioned great Grief and heavy Regrate of all who tender the Glory of God His Majesties Honour and procuring Vnity of Religion and Vniformity in Church-Government the continuance of Peace and Vnion betwixt the two Kingdoms and fearing if at this time we should be silent your Lordships should conceive us and the rest of the Kingdom to be involved with them in the like Desires Iudgements and Opinions and lest by our silence our Gracious Soveraign the Kings Majesty should believe us wanting in the Duty and Allegiance which by so many Tyes and Obligations we owe to Him our Native King or that our Brethren of England should apprehend the least Intention â—r Desire in us to infringe or any ways to encroach upon the Brotherly Vnion of the two Kingdoms so happily united under one Head We presume in all Humility to clear our selves and our Intentions to your Lordships and to all the World and therewith to represent our humble Wishes and Desires for Establishing His Majesties Royal Authority and continuing that happy Vnion betwixt the two Kingdoms which can never truely be conceived to be intended to weaken the Head whereby it is knit together and without which it can have no subsistence The happy Vnion of the two Kingdoms under one Head our King doth so much add to His Majesties Greatness and Strength of both Kingdoms that we British Subjects cannot choose but wish that the said Brotherly Vnion be heartily entertained and cherished by all fair and reasonable means to which we conceive no one thing will so much conduce as that the late Articles of the Treaty of Peace and Conclusions taken thereupon about Vnity of Religion may be carefully and timeously prosecuted wherein as our Commissioners then so we now without presuming or usurping to prescribe Rules or Laws of Reformation to our Neighbour-kingdom Civil Liberty and Conscience being so tender that it cannot endure to be touched but by such as they are wedded to and have lawful Authority over them notwithstanding seeing the duty of Charity doth oblige all Christians to pray and profess their Desires that all were of the same Religion with themselves and since we all acknowledge that Religion is the base and foundation of Kingdoms and the strongest Bond to knit the Subjects to their Princes in true Loyalty and to knit their Hearts one to another in true Vnity we cannot but heartily wish that this work of Vnion so happily begun may be crowned and strengthened by the Vnity of Church-Government and that your Lordships with us may be pleased to represent it to His Majesty and Both Houses of Parliament as an expression and Testimony of our Affections to the good of our Brethren in England and of our Desires to make firm and stable our Brotherly Vnion by the strong chain and Bulwark of Religion but as we have said no ways intending thereby to pass our bounds in prescribing and setting down Rules and Limits to His Majesty and the Two Houses of Parliament their Wisdom and Authority in the way of prosecution thereof The sense we have of the great Calamities and irreparable Evils which upon occasion of these unhappy Distractions and Mistakes betwixt the Kings Majesty and the Two Houses of England which if not speedily removed cannot but produce the fearful and prodigious effects of a bloody and Civil War obligeth us in the duty of Christians and as feeling members of what may concern our Common Head the Kings Majesty and the Good and Happiness of our Brethren of England humbly to represent to your Lordships That as we will not be wanting with our Prayers and our faithful and best Endeavours to assist in the removing of these unhappy Mistakes and Misunderstandings so we heartily wish and humbly Petition your Lordships that from the deepness of your Wisdom such happy Motions may flow as upon that tender care of our Soveraigns Person and Authority Peace and Truth may be settled in all His Majesties Dominions Although we will not presume nor take upon us to prescribe Laws and Rules to your Lordships yet in all Humility we intreat your permission to represent such Particulars as we conceive and are very confident will conduce much to the removing of all â—hese Mistakes betwixt His Majesty and His Two Houses of Parliament and be a ready mean to facilitate a happy and wished Peace and continue the Brotherly Vnion between the Two Kingdoms And first that in answering the foresaid Petition your Lordships may be pleased to do no Act which may give His Majesty just occasion to repent him of what Trust he so Graciously expressed in his Letter of the Date the fifth of December He reposes in us His Subjects of His Ancient and Native Kingdom for we cannot think that our Brethren in England or any other can believe that the ground of this Mutual Vnion of the two Kingdoms by the several and respective Vnions to our Prince and Head should weaken the strong Bond whereby it is knit and by which we are so firmly tied by so many Ages and unparalelled lineal descents of an hundred and seven Kings Neither can we suppose that any good Protestant or true member of our Church can imagine far less seduce others to believe that by the late Treaty of Peace or Act of Vnion we as Scotish Subjects are in any sort liberated from the Dutiful Obedience which as Scotishmen we owe to our Scotish King or from that due Loyalty which as Scotish Subjects we owe to our Native Soveraign for Maintenance of His Person Greatness and Authority or that thereby we are in any other Condition in these necessary Duties to our Soveraign than we and our Ancestors were and have been these many Ages and Descents before the making of the said Act or before the Swearing and Subscribing of our late Covenant by which we have solemnly sworn and do swear not only our mutual Concurrence and Assistance for the cause of Religion and to the utmost of our power with our Means and Lives to stand to the Defence of our Dread Soveraign His Person and Authority in the preservation of Religion Liberty and Laws of this Church and Kingdom but also in every Cause which may concern His Majesties Honour we shall according to the Laws of this Kingdom and Duty of Subjects concur with our Friends and Followers in quiet manner or in Arms as we shall be required of His Majesty or His Councel or any having His Authority Secondly That if your Lordships think it fitting to make any answer to the Parliament of England their Declaration your Lordships may be pleased not to declare enact or promise any thing which may trouble or molest the Peace of this Kirk and Kingdom which by God's special Grace and His Majesties Favour and Goodness we enjoy and have established unto us according to our Hearts desire by the Laws Ecclesiastical or Civil of
instructed They continued treating about this till the 20th of August but still declined to execute those particulars that were commanded and threatned to call an Assembly and Parliament themselves wherefore the Marquis craved again the space of twenty days to go and bring an Answer from His Majesty which he did to gain more time and to shew the King into what extremities they were now run and that it was necessary He should immediately break with them or give way to the full Career of their zeal The Marquis goes again to Court and so he took Journey on the 25th to Court But the first night he stopped at Broxmouth to consider with the Earls of Traquair Roxburgh and Southesk what advice to offer His Majesty who agreed on the following Articles taken from the Original penned by Traquair Articles of advice offered to His Majesty SInce the cause and occasion of all the Distractions which of late have happened both in Kirk and Polity seems to proceed from the conceived Fears of Innovation of Religion and Laws and that the Service-Book Book of Canons and the unbounded power of Bishops in the High Commission never yet warranted by Law was that which first gave ground and occasion to the Subjects Fears and seeing the said Books are offered to be proved to be full of Tenets and Doctrines contrary to the Reformed Religion professed and established within this Kingdom and the same introduced against all form and custom practised in this Church it were an Act of Iustice well beseeming so Gracious and Glorious a King absolutely and fully to discharge the same And seeing likewise this High Commission hath given so great offence to so many of Your Majesties good Subjects and as is constantly affirmed is of so vast and illimited a power and contrary to express Laws by which all such Iudicatories not established by Act of Parliament are declared to be of no force it would much conduce to the satisfaction of this People if this Iudicatory were discharged till the same were established by Law The practice of the Five Articles of Perth hath been withstood by the most considerable part of the Subjects of all qualities both Laity and Clergy whereby great Divisions have been in this Church and are like to have an increase if Your Majesty in Your accustomed goodness and care of this poor Kirk and Kingdom shall not be graciously pleased to allow that the pressing of these Articles may be forborn until the same may be considered of in an Assembly and Parliament and although we conceive Episcopaâ—y to be a Church-Government most agreeable with Monarchy yet the illimited power which the Lords of the Clergy of this Kingdom have of late assumed to themselves in admitting and deposing of Ministers and in divers other of their Acts and Proceedings gives us just ground humbly to beg that Your Majesty may be pleased to remit to the Consideration of the Assembly this their unwarranted Power The sense and apprehension of these foresaid Evils hath sâ—irred up the Subjects without warrant of Authority to joyn in a Bond and Covenant to withstand the foresaid Innovations and for maintainance of the true Religion the Kings Majesties Person and of one another in the defence thereof If Your Majesty might be graciously pleased in supplement hereof to allow or warrant such a Confession of Faith with such a Covenant or Bond joyned thereto as that signed by Your Majesties Father and by His Command by the Council and most part of the Kingdom we are very confident the same would be a ready and forcible mean to quiet the present Disorders at least to satisfie most part and if Your Majesty shall condescend to the foresaid Propositions we are hopeful if not confident it shall give so great contenâ— to so considerable a number of Your Majesties good Subjects of all qualities that if any shall stand out or withstand Your Majesties Royal Pleasure after the publication thereof they may be overtaken by Your Majesties Power within this Kingdom without the help or assistance of any Force elsewhere And because it is to be hoped that all that hath past in this business and all the Courses that have been taken herein by the Subjects hath proceeded from the foresaid Fears of Innovations and not out of any Disloyalty or dissatisfaction to Soveraignty and that Your good People may still taste the fruits of Your Grace and Goodness we wish Your Majesty may be graciously pleased upon the Word of a King to pardon what is past and never so much as to take notice of any of the Actions or Proceedings of what person soever who after this shall carry himself as becomes a dutiful Subject and in testification thereof shall give his best assistance for settling the present Disorders And if Your Majesty may be pleased to condescend hereto we conceive all Your Majesties Subjects Petitioners or Covenanters should acquiesce and rest heartily satisfied therewith and if any shall be so foolish or mad as notwithstanding this Your Majesties grace and goodness still to disturb the Peace of Your Majesties Government we in testification of our hearty thankfulness to our Soveraign by these humbly and heartily make offer of our Lives and Fortunes for assisting Your Majesty or Your Commissioner in suppressing all such Insolences or insolent persons Signed Hamilton Traquair Roxburgh Southesk From Broxmouth he went forward to wait on His Majesty and did shew him that unless he enlarged his Instructions he was to treat no further The Marquis advises the King to renew King Iames his Covenant since he saw the Contempt was like to be put on the last Instructions so visibly that he durst not make use of them lest he should thereby have exposed His Majesties Goodness to new Affronts And as he represented this to His Majesty so he told him nothing seemed so likely a Course for removing of Jealousies and settling all things as the Authorising the Covenant that upon King Iames his command was drawn up by Mr. Iohn Craig An. 1580 containing the renunciation of all the Articles of Popery which was the ground of the present Covenant The King reasons against that His Majesty did utterly disrelish the Proposition of signing that Covenant usually called the Negative Confession for he remembred how his Father had resented his doing of that as rash and indeliberate And it seemed strange to him that so many Negatives should be sworn to especially with such aggravations of Epithets as if one might not be firm enough to the Protestant Doctrine unless he not only abjured Popery in bulk but also by retail in so many particulars some whereof might be both uncertain and indifferent And it seemed tyrannical over tender Consciences to require such an Oath from all Persons but more especially from Women and simple People who could not judge well and so were not fit to swear in such nice points therefore the King said he looked upon the Remedy proposed as full
you are to warn and assist Ruthwen for the defence of the Castle of Edinburgh and to take in general the like care of all Our Houses and Forts in that Kingdom and likewise to advertise all such who are affected to Our Service that timously they may secure themselves And so We bid you heartily farewell The greatest Point gained in the Assembly was an Explication of the Bond of Defence which was conceived in these Words WE do swear not onely our mutual concurrence and assistance for the cause of Religion and to the uttermost of our power The Explication of the Covenant with our Means and Lives to stand to the Defence of our Dread Soveraign and His Authority in the preservation and defence of the said true Religion Liberties and Laws of this Kirk and Kingdom but also in every cause which may concern His Majesties Honour we shall according to the Laws of this Kingdom and Duties of good Subjects concur with our Friends and Followers in quiet manner or in Arms as we shall be required of His Majesties Council or any having His Authority The Clause about Episcopacy was worded That it was unlawful in this Church Episcopacy abjured in Scotland Upon this the Covenant was presented to the Commissioner and Council on the 30th of August with a desire that it might be signed and it was accordingly done which was received with great Joy witnessed by Bonfires and ringing of Bells and all the Pulpits and Streets were full of Traquair's Praises But His Majesty was no way satisfied with this as appears from the following Letter CHARLES R. Right Trusty c. The King displeased with Traquair YOur Letter of September the 27th to Hamilton We have seen and think fit to return Answer thereunto Our Self and the rather because We find by yours that some Points in the former Letter were not so fully expressed but that you desire more clear Answers First you say that in all your Directions it is condescended that by Act of Assembly Episcopacy should be declared unlawful in this Kirk and that by all the Capitulations of Agreement and Instructions given to you that same is allowed to be ratified in Parliament upon the foresaid terms agreed upon in the Assembly In this Point We must tell you that you are much mistaken for though you have Power for giving way to the Abolition of Episcopacy as contrary to the Constitutions of the Church of Scotland yet you will not find either in your Instructions or any other Direction since sent you that We have consented to declare the same Unlawful We making a great difference therein for many things may be contrary to the Constitutions of a Church which of thâ—mselves are not simply unlawful for whatsoever is absolutely unlawful in one Church cannot be lawful in the other of the same Profession of Religion but there may be many several Constitutions and yet they all lawful Therefore if I do acknowledge or consent That Episcopacy is unlawful in the Church of Scotland though as you have set it down in your consenting to the Act the word Unlawful may seem onely to have a relation to the Constitutions of that Kirk yet the Construction thereof doth run so doubtfully that it may be probably inferred That the same Function is acknowledged by Vs to be unlawful in any other Churches in Our Dominions Therefore as we totally disapprove of your consenting to the word Unlawful as well to the Function as Civil Places and Power of Church-men in the Act of the General Assembly so We absolutely command you not to ratifie the same in these terms in the Parliament but onely as contrary to the Constitutions of that Kirk and to declare that We ratifie this Act meerly for the Peace of the Land though otherwise in Our Own Iudgment We neither hold it convenient nor fitting which you are to declare at the Ratifying of the same And for the rest of your Declaration in the Assembly to be registred in the Books of Council for brevities sake We send you herewith a Copy of the same as likewise that of the Covenant interlined in those places which We disapprove of and conceive to be the contrary to your Instructions and some other Directions As We have formerly written to you We cannot consent to the rescinding any Acts of Parliament made in favour of Episcopacy nor do We conceive that Our refusal to abolish those Acts is contradictory to what We have consented to or to that we was obliged to there is less danger in discovering any future Intentions of Ours or at the best letting them guess at the same than if We should permit the rescinding those Acts of Parliament which Our Father with so much expence of Time and Industry established and which may hereafter be of so great use to Vs. And though it should perhaps cast all loose as you express yet We take God to witness We have permitted them to doe many things in this Assembly for establishing of Peace contrary to Our Own Iudgment And if on this point a Rupture happen We cannot help it the fault is on their own part which one day they may smart for So you have in this Point Our full Resolution We likewise wrote formerly to you that We thought it not fit at this time that the Power of the Lords of the Articles should be defined and that you are to avoid the same and to be sure not to consent thereunto Now your last Letter gives Vs ground to repeat the same again and to declare to you that We remain in Our former Opinion And whereas you say that it is to no purpose to vex Vs with all the indiscreet and mad Propositions that are made since they go about not onely to reform all pretended Abuses of what nature soever but to constitute and define the Power of all Iudicatories from the highest to the lowest and that you are like to agree in few or none of the General Acts If you find that what We have commanded you to doe is likely to cause a Rupture their impertinent Motions give you a fair occasion to make it appear to the World that We have condescended to all matters which can be pretended to concern Conscience and Religion and that now they aim at nothing but the Overthrow of Royal Authority contrary to all their Professions which We can neither with Honour nor Safety suffer And therefore We hope and expect that if a Rupture happen you will make this appear to be the cause thereof and not Religion which you know not onely to be true but must see it will be of great advantage to Vs and therefore must be seriously intended by you We have no Directions of new to give you concerning the Marquis of Huntley Sir Donald Mack-donald or any others to whom Malice is carried for their Zeal for Our Service but again recommend them to your care What hath past betwixt your self and the Earl of Argyle We
receive of their Plagues and that the Lord may be one and his Name one in the three Kingdoms We shall with the same sincerity reality and constancy in our several Vocations endeavour with our Estates and Lives mutually to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of the Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdoms And to preserve and defend the Kings Majesties Person and Authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms That the World may bear witness with our Consciences of our Loyalty and that we have no thoughts or intentions to diminish His Majesties just Power and Greatness We shall also with all faithfulness endeavour the discovery of all such as have been or shall be Incendiaries Malignants or evil Instruments by hindering the Reformation of Religion dividing the King from his People or one of the Kingdoms from another or making any faction or parties amongst the People contrary to this League and Covenant That they may be brought to publick Trial and receive condign Punishment as the degree of their Offences shall require or deserve or the Supreme Iudicatories of both Kingdoms respectively or others having power from them for that effect shall judge convenient And whereas the happiness of a blessed Peace between these Kingdoms denyed in former times to our Progenitors is by the good Providence of GOD granted unto us and hath been lately concluded and settled by both Parliaments We shall each one of us according to our place and interest endeavour that they may remain conjoyned in a firm Peace and Vnion to all posterity and that Iustice may be done upon the wilful opposers thereof in manner expressed in the precedent Article We shall also according to our places and callings in this common cause of Religion Liberty and Peace of the Kingdoms assist and defend all those that enter into this League and Covenant in the maintaining and pursuing And shall not suffer our selves directly or indirectly by whatsoever combination perswasion or terrour to be divided and withdrawn from this blessed Vnion and Conjunction whether â—o make deâ—ection to the contrary part or to give our selves to a detestable indifferency or neutrality in this Cause which so much concerneth the Glory of GOD the Good of the Kingdoms and Honour of the King But shall all the days of our lives zealously and constantly continâ—e therein against all opposition and promote the same according to our power against all â—ets and Impediments whatsoever And what we are not able our selves to suppress or overcome we shall reveal and make known that it may be fully prevented or removed And which we shall do as in the sight of God And because these Kingdoms are guilty of many sins and provocations against GOD and his Son Iesus Christ as is too manifest by our present distresses and dangers the fruits thereof We profess and declare before GOD and the World our unfained desire to be humbled for our own sins and for the sins of these Kingdoms especially that we have not as we ought valued the inestimable benefit of the Gospel that we have not laboured for the purity and power thereof and that we have not endeavoured to receive Christ in our hearts to walk worthy of him in our liâ—es which are the causes of other sins and transgreâ—sions so much abounding amongst us And our true and unfained purpose desâ—re and endeavoâ—r for our selves and all others under our power and charge both in publick and in private in all Duties we owe to God and Man to amend our lives and each one to go before another in the example of a real Reformation That the Lord may turn away his wrath and heâ—vy indignation and establish these Churches and Kingdoms in Truth and Peace And this Covenant we make in the presence of Almighty GOD the Searcher of all hearts with a true intention to perform the same as we shall answer at that great Day when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed Most humbly beseeching the Lord to strengthen us by his Holy Spirit for thâ—â— end and to bless our desires and proceedings with such success as may be deliverance and safety to his People and encouragement to other Christian Churches groaning under or in danger of Antichristian Tyranny to joyn in the same or like Association and Covenant To the Glory of GOD the Enlargement of the Kingdom of Iesus Christ and the peace and tranquility of Christâ—an Kingdoms and Commonwealths This was offered to the Assembly on the 17th of August The Censures that generally were passed on it and after it was publickly read Mr. Henderson being then Moderator had a long Speech about it Then it was read the second time and many of the most eminent Ministers and Lay-Elders were desired to deliver their Opinions about it who did all magnifie it highly and though the Kings Commissioner pressed a Delay till at least it were communicated to the King yet the approving it was put to the Vote and carried unanimously and they ordered the Lord Maitland the now Duke of Lauderdale and Mr. Henderson and Mr. Gillespy to carry it up to the Two Houses at Westminster On the same day it was also approved in the Convention Wise Obfervers wondered to see a matter of that Importance carried through upon so little Deliberation or Debate It was thougâ—t strange to see all their Consciences of such a size so exactly to agree as the several Wheels of a Clock which made all apprehend there was some first Mover that directed all those other Motions this by the one Party was imputed to Gods extraordinary Providence but by others to the Power and Policy of the Leaders and the simplicity and fear of the rest One Article of it was thought strange that one Government of the Church was abjured but none sworn to in its place for England this was not the fault of the Scots who designed nothing so much as to see Presbytery established in England But the English Commissioners would not hear of that and by that General words of Reforming according to the Word of God cast in by Sir Henry Vane thought themselves well-secured from the inroads of the Scotish Presbytery and in the very contriving of that Article they studied to out-wit one another for the Scots thought the next words of Reforming according to the Practice of the best Reformed Churches made sure game for the Scotish Model since they counted it indisputable that Scotland could not miss that Character Those of Scotland would have had Episcopacy abjured as simply unlawful but those of England would not condemn that Order which had merited so much Glory in the whole Christian Church therefore the second Article was so conceived that it might import only an Abolition of the present Model of England and it was so declared both in the Assembly of Divines and in the Two Houses of Parliament when they swore it The Scots either perceived not this Change or were
the use of the new Service-book are to be suspended and to be of no force hereafter You shall declare Our pleasure to Our two Archbishops as soon as the Country is any way settled that it is Our Pleasure that every Bishop shall live within his own Diocess except upon his own urgent occasions or that he be commanded from Vs or the Council to attend there for Our Service which I intend as seldom as may be You shall refuse Complaints against no man in particular whether Officers of State Councellours or Bishops so that it be against their Persons and not their Places All those Ministers who have been displaced by the seditious Multitude are to be so soon as conveniently may be repossessed again as they were As for silenced Ministers you may connive at their Preaching if you find it may tend to the quieting of the Country For the Organs in the Abby-Church We leave them to your discretion when to be used and to advertise Me of your opinion You are to cause insert 6 Weeks in Our Declaration for the delivery up of the Covenant and if you find cause less You shall declare that if there be not sufficient Strength within the Kingdom to force the refractory to Obedience Power shall come from England and that My Self will come in Person with them being resolved to hazard My Life rather than to suffer Authority to be contemned If you shall find cause you are to raise a Guard of 200 or more to attend Our Council You may treat with the Earl of Marr for the keeping of Our Castles of Edinburgh and Sterlin and for the present he must be charged with their safe Custody You shall take seriously into consideration the Copper-coyn and declare Our willingness to remedy the Evils that have risen thereby or what else the Subjects may justly complain of You may declare that as We never intended to assume the Nominating the Provost of Our Town of Edinburgh so We mean not by Our too frequent Letters to hinder the free Election of their own Officers You may likewise declare if you find cause that as We never did so by Gods Grace We never will stop the course of Iustice by any private directions of Ours but will leave Our Lords of Session and other Iudges to administer Iustice as they will be answerable to God and Vs. If you cannot by the means prescribed by Vs bring back the refractory and seditious to due Obedience We do not onely give you Authority but command all hostile Acts whatsoever to be used against them they having deserved to be used no other way by Vs but as a Rebellious People for the doing whereof We will not onely save you harmless but account it as acceptable Service done Vs. Such of these Instructions as you shall find cause We give you leave to divulge and make use of as you find Our Service shall require C. R. At Whitehall the 16th May 1638. All things being thus expeded he took leave a few days after The Marquâ—â— goes for Scoâ—land His Majesty having ordered him to write often to himself and to my Lord of Canterbury he being the onely English person trusted with the secrets of that business The Earl of Sterlin was then Secretary of State for Scotland but as the Copper-coyn made him at that time odious there so he was little esteemed in the Court and not at all imployed in Affairs except in matters of course Sir Henry Vane and the Marquis had contracted a Friendship in the Swedish Camp and so did keep a Correspondence yet that was most about accounts of the posture the King was in in England and what he could do by Force if Treaty could not prevail But with my Lord of Canterbury he kept a constant and free Intercourse and whatever that Archbishop might have been formerly in Scotish Affairs being abused by persons who did not truly represent them to him he was certainly a good Instrument this year which appears from his Letters to the Marquis with the Copies of his Returns which are extant where there were great Jealousies of him My Lord Commissioner begun his Journey about the end of May and on his way he met Letters from Scotland telling him that great Jealousies were raised and vented upon his advertising so many to meet him as if he had some strange design and that his Vassals in Cliddisdale were under high pains discharged to come and pay the duty they owed the Kings Commissioner and their own Superiour On the third of Iune he came to Berwick and there the Earl of Roxburgh met him who told him in what fury all People were and how small hopes there remained of prevailing upon the grounds he was to go on he answered he was resolved to follow his Instructions and be at his hazard Next day the Earl of Lauderdale with my Lord Lindsay came to him and from the later he learned that they would never give up the Covenant that they would have the five Articles of Perth abolished Episcopacy limited so that it should be little more than a Name and if these things were not granted them and a General Assembly and Parliament not called quickly they would call them themselves before the great Crouds at Edinburgh were scattered There was also no small Disorder in Edinburgh at this time for they had notice that there was a Ship in the Road loaded with Arms and Ammunition from which they took the Alarm having it represented much beyond the truth 200 Musquets and as many Pikes with a small quantity of Powder being all the Arms that were in the Ship They resolved to go out the next day and seize the Ship which had been easily done it being onely a Merchant-Vessel but the Earl of Traquair apprehending the hazard caused all the Arms to be sent down in a Boat that night to Fisher-raw and got Carts and presently transported them to Dalkeith which was then the Kings House This enraged the Covenanters when known by them next day and some of the more forward moved that they should presently go to Dalkeith and take them out by force but the wiser of them stopped this yet they set sure Guards around the Castle of Edinburgh and at all the Ports of the City that none of them might be carried thither This meeting with the Marquis his coming down was made use of by the Incendiaries to persuade the People that he designed mischief by these Arms and by the Advertisements he had formerly given another hellish report was also spread that he designed to call a Meeting of the chief Covenanters of all Ranks to Dalkeith and there to blow them up whereupon they resolved not to go out nor treat with him there at all All this was done to irritate the People into a prejudice against him of which he gave Advertisements to the King and held on his Journey The first thing he did was to inform himself exactly of all Matters and Persons
Interest which he could offer unto His Majesty and he would be sure of all his Men there such naked Rogues as they were is his own phrase Besides there were store of Cows in that Island for the provision of the Fleet which he appointed should not be spared Thus was the Design laid down for curbing the Scotish Insolences and layes down methodâ— for the effectuating of his design yet His Majesty firmly resolved that when-ever they returned to their Obedience he should not be inexorable The first thing for prosecuting this Design was the looking for Officers and Money for the former England was pretty scant yet the best were sought out On the second of February the King named the Earl of Arundel to be General the Earl of Essex to be Lieutenant-General of the Foot and the Earl of Holland to command the Horse Letters were also sent through the Counties for levying of Men and Advertisements given to the Nobility to meet the King at York against the first of April Antrim undertook bravely and Strafford said he should doe what was possible with all expedition The Fleet was appointed presently to be rigged out and Orders issued out for levying five thousand Souldiers under the Command of the three gallant Colonels Morton Byron and Harecoat who should go with the Fleet without knowing whither they went A Commission for the Lieutenantry of the North of Scotland was sent to the Marquis of Huntley but he was ordered to keep it up as long as was possible and carefully to observe two things One was not to be the first Aggressor except he were highly provoked or His Majesties Authority signally affronted the other was that he should keep off with long Weapons till His Majesty were on the Borders lest if he should begin sooner the Covenanters might overwhelm him with their whole Force and either ruine him or force him to lay down his Arms. As for the Marquis his Employment he told His Majesty that though he was so far from declining his Service at such a time that he should be infinitely troubled if he were not imployed yet he desired the King might choose a fitter person for the Naval Forces since he was altogether unacquainted with Sea-affairs and not fit for such an important Service But His Majesty looking upon this as an effect of his Modesty gave no hearing to it telling him that as for Affairs purely Naval Sir Iohn Pennington the Vice-admiral should go with him and would abundantly supply his defects in that But the getting of Money was the hardest part of all for two hundred thousand pound Sterlin was all the Money the King could make account of The Treasury was much exhausted and an unlucky Accident fell in at that time which put the King to much extraordinary Expence the Queen-Mother of France coming over to England yet the King found Himself able to doe well enough for the Summer following but His Purse could not weather out another year Thus did the King frame and prosecute His Design with the Secret whereof very few were trusted it being communicated to none without reserve save to Canterbury Arundel Sir Henry Vane and by Letters to Strafford but above all to the Marquis But here this Narration must be stopt that we may take a view of Scotland The Covenanters prepare for War and of the Power and Practices of the Covenanters In the beginning of Ianuary there was a full Meeting of them at Edinburgh where they first resolved to send a Gentleman to the King with the Assemblies Letter and a Petition from themselves full of Submission to the King Invectives against the Marquis and Justifications of their Procedure in all things particularly in the late Assembly which they doubted not they should make appear in the ensuing Parliament of the holding whereof they seemed to make no question With this the Earl of Argyle wrote a general Vindication of his own Behaviour and these Letters were sent to Court by Mr. Winram His Majesty received their Petition but resolved to give it such an Answer in due time as their Behaviour deserved but he wrote back to Argyle that he should be willing to receive from his own mouth a Vindication of his late Behaviour though it seemed scarce capable of any The Covenanters their next and indeed chief care was to fortifie themselves against what they knew in reason they might quickly expect Orders were therefore given through all the Shires of Scotland that a Committee of War should sit in every Shire Souldiers be listed and trained and a Commissioner sent from every County to lie at Edinburgh for receiving and transmitting of Orders Great care was also taken to provide the Country with Arms and Ammunition Merchants were sent every where to buy up all were to be had and in a short time there were Arms for above thirty thousand men brought to Scotland and particular Orders were given that none should be sold but to such as were well-affected to the Cause Strong and strict Guards were set about the Castle of Edinburgh so that it being but hitherto ill furnished little was to be expected from it wherefore Ruthwen would not shut himself up within it but went to offer his Service to His Majesty where he might be more useful They were also careful to fortifie Leith apprehending hazard from the Kings Fleet and about fifteen hundred of all Sexes yea and all Qualities for encouraging of others wrought about it till the Fortifications were compleated But of all men the Ministers were the busiest the Pulpits did ring with the Ruine of Religion and Liberties and that all might look for Popery and Bondage if they did not now quit themselves like men and are much inflamed by the Ministers Curses were thundred out against those who went not out to help the Angel of the Lord against the mighty so oddly was the Scripture applied and to set off this the better all was carried on with many Fasts and Prayers and they forgot not to pretend much Duty and Affection to the King but the Bishops and his other ill Councellours as they called them got the blame of all and none more than the Marquis By these means it was that the poor and well-meaning People were animated into great extremities of Zeal resolving to hazard all in pursuance of the Cause for they were told that the design was to reduce Scotland to a Province under the Power of the English whose Oppression they must resolve to bear if they stood not now to their own Defence Upon this it was that the Committees for War which were held in the several Shires about the beginning of February found small resistance and no difficulty of levying Men greater numbers being offered than could be either armed or maintained At Edinburgh the Session met with great trouble from the Covenanters The Session is disturbed for the greater number of the Lords of the Session being resolved not to own the Assembly all
have so often sworn and said Your Majesty would never condescend to will now be granted therefore they will give no credit to what I shall say thereafter but will still hope and believe that all their Desires will be given way to thinking as they have often said that I had Power to condescend to more but would not that I might endear my self to Your Majesty and be thought a deserving Servant in procuring more than you was content to accept of and so will for this cause stand upon those Points with me which they would not doe with any other who they could not but believe would freely grant to oblige them all such things as he had Power from Your Majesty to grant and trust him when he said he could go no further and so rather accept of that than adventure on a new Breach The rage and malice of the People is such against me that I am not onely advertised but advised from many amongst them who pretend to love me not to come into the Kingdom imployed as a Commissioner for it will be impossible for me to escape Affronting if I do with my Life I do not mention this out of a care to preserve it with the prejudice of Your Service but I know Your Iustice and Goodness is such that You would not suffer that Injury to go unpunished which would consequently bring alongst with it the losing of Your Majesties End of establishing this Business in a peaceable way If Your Majesty should longer continue me Your Commissioner it would confirm in them the Opinion which hath already possessed them that Your Majesty intends to govern that Kingdom by a Commissioner which is not more grievous to the Covenanters than it is to the Officers of Statâ— Whereas on the contrary if Your Majesty make choice of a New one they will think it is onely for the present Service and so rest both of them secure in that point and Your Service consequently go the smoother on for they will fancy if it prosper in my hands that then I may like the Employment so well as I would not willingly quit it but if it miscarry then neither I nor any other would be desirous to undergo that Charge and so they be freed of a Commissioner I am thought to have been a chief Instrument in moving Your Majesty to resent their Carriage in such sort as you have done which will cause in them for my sake not onely a Dislike of all that shall pass through my hands but even an Vndervaluing or at least not that hearty Acknowledgment of such Favours as Your Majesty conferreth on them which they would doe if another were imployed whom they would endeavour to gain for their own ends and hoping to make him theirs would not onely seem to be contented but endeavour to make Your Majesty the World and himself believe they were so Whereas on the contrary they would be ever repining and not give that obedient Acquiescing if I be continued as otherwise would be if any other were imployed If Your Majesty should at this time continue me Your Commissioner they would apprehend that I might resent the many particular Injuries done me and so be a mean to work them prejudice if it were but to revenge my self which will not onely cause Iealousie in them but an earnest endeavouring to make me incapable to prejudice them which cannot more easily be effected than by frustrating and crossing my Intentions of serving Your Majesty Whereas if another be imployed they will not apprehend it to be in my Power to prejudice them and so be free'd of that Fear and consequently give way to those things in another Mans person which they would not doe if I be still imployed They know that I am so well acquainted with their Ways and Proceedings and that my Heart is so streight to Your Majesties Service that I will not conceal any thing from You either of their by-past Actions or any thing that shall be done of new Whereas if Your Majesty imployed another they will be in hope that what is past is not so well known to him and so will be forgot or if remembred by me it will serve to no end I being out of Place and that perhaps he will be more sparing of speaking than I have been or that he is to be gained to their Party for which end hoping he may prove for the future useful to them they may comply with him for the present in divers things which they would not doe if I be continued There are so many of Your Majesties Subjects of all sorts whom I have persuaded to resist the Ways of the Coâ—enanters to their great prejudice that I shall be infinitely pressed by them to move Your Majesty for their Relief and I challenged of my Promise that whosoever suffered for that Cause Your Majesty would restore to the full to them the doing whâ—reof would draw on Your Majesty a great Charge and if they find it not performed to them by me continuing Commissioner it is probable they will then joyn with the Covenanters whereas if Your Majesty imploy another they will not know so well how to address themselves to him nor be in despair of obtaining it hereafter and so continue still in the way they are in This Work will make me I fear eâ—en lose Your Majesties Favour for I know it is so odious to You that I have cause to apprehend that You will not like the Actor or though Your Goodness will permit You to look upon him because what he did was by Your Command yet it may be imagined that Your Honour will oblige You not to seem to care for him Sure I am of this that whereas I am now perfectly hated by all Your Subjects who have withstood Your Majesty if it shall please you to lay this Employment upon me I shall hereafter be by all who wish Prosperity to Your Affairs in both Kingdoms and where or how I may be called to an account for this Vndertaking I know not and a business of that nature I take it to be that a Pardon ought humbly to be begged before it be meddled in seeing it is an Act so derogatory to Kingly Authority Give me leave humbly to represent unto Your Majesty if it be fit either for an Honest man or a Gentleman to be made the Instrument of doing that which he hath so often in publick and private condemned in so high a degree and withstood to the certain loss of most of my Country and many of Your Majesties Court and Kingdom of England Nor can I ever hope to live without perpetual Accusations of such who will find themselves grieved by that which will be done for not dissuading Your Majesty from this course or at least for accepting that Employment and proving Your Instrument therein This I could enlarge for much thereof I have already heard but I have presumed too much yet I hope Your Majesty will pardon me
course of the Assembly until We be advertised For the better facilitating of Our other Services and the more peaceable and plausible progress in all Businesses recommended to you We allow you at any time you shall find most convenient after the opening of the Assembly to declare That notwithstanding Our Own Inclination or any other Considerations We are contented for Our Peoples full satisfaction to remit Episcopacy and the Estate of Bishops to the Freedom of the Assembly but so as no respect be had to the Determination of the Point in the last Assembly But in giving way to the abolishing of Episcopacy be careful that it be done without the appearing of any Warrant from the Bishops and if any offer to appear for them you are to inquire for their Warrant and carry the Dispute so as the Conclusion seem not to be made in prejudice of Episcopacy as unlawful but onely in satisfaction to the People for settling the present Disorders and such other Reasons of State but herein you must be careful that Our Intentions appear not to any You shall labour that Ministers deposed by the last Assembly or Commiâ—sions flowing from them for no other cause but the subscribing of the Petition or Declinator against the last Assembly be upon their Submission to the Determinations of this Assembly reponed in their own Places and such other Ministers as are deposed for no other faults that they be tried of new and if that cannot be strive that Commissions may be directed from this Assembly for Trying and Censuring them according to the nature of their Process That immediately upon the Conclusion of this Assembly you indict another at some convenient time as near the expiring of the Year as you can and if you find that Aberdeen be not a Place agreeable let Glasgow be the Place and if that cannot give content let it be elsewhere The General Assembly is not to meddle with any thing that is Civil or which formerly hath been established by Act of Parliament but upon His Majesties special Command or Warrant We will not allow of any Commissioners from the Assembly nor no such Act as may give ground for the continuing of the Tables or Conventicles In case Episcopacy be abolished at this Assembly you are to labour that We may have the Power of chusing of so many Ministers as may represent the 14 Bishops in Parliament or if that cannot be that 14 others whom We shall present be agreed to with a Power to chuse the Lords of the Articles for the Nobility for this time untill the Business be further considered upon We allow that Episcopacy be abolished for the Reasons contained in the Articles and the Covenant 1580 for satisfaction of Our People be subscribed provided it be so conceived that thereby Our Subjects be not forced to abjure Episcopacy as a point of Popery or contrary to Gods Law or the Protestant Religion but if they require it to be abjured as contrary to the Constitution of the Kirk of Scotland you are to give way to it rather than to make a Breach After all Assembly-business is ended immediately before Prayers you shall in the fairest way you can protest that in respect of His Majesties Resolution of not coming in Person and that His Instructions to you were upon short advertisement whereupon many things may have occurred wâ—erein you have not had His Majesties Pleasure therefore and for such other Reasons as occasion may furnish you are to protest that in case any thing hath escaped you or hath been condescended upon in this present Assembly prejudicial to His Majesties Service that His Majesty may be heard for redress thereof in his own time and place We will not allow that either by the Commissions already granted nor upon no other Bill or Petition any part of the burden of the Charges of the last Business be laid upon any of Our good Subjects who have stood by Vs and have refused to subscribe their Bonds and Covenants That you stop the Signatures of the Rights of Kintyre Abbacy of Dear Abbacy of Scoon and generally all Acts in favours of Covenanters so far as you can without stopping the ordinary course of Iustice and you are to consider withall how His Majesties Right to any of the aforesaids may be put on foot without making interruption to the present Business in hand You shall take a course whereby the Rents of all such Bishopricks as are vacant be detained and either by Warrant of the Incumbent or by Demission may be collected and when any person shall be provided to these Benefices so vacant Our Will is that you take the same course with the Rents of these as by these We do command you to doe with the rest of the Rents of the Bishopricks of Scotland which is this to cause draw up a formal Assignation to the whole Rents Fruits Customs c. belonging to the Bishoprick whereof they are Bishop to be subscribed by them to and in Our Favour upon return whereof to you you shall give Power and Commission to such Persons as you shall receive under every one of their Hands to collect and intromet with the aforesaid Rents of the several Bishopricks and to deliver and be accomptable to you for the same and upon your receipt thereof you are to issue them out immediately again to the aforesaid Bishops or any having their Warrant to that effect You shall hear the Complaints or Petitions of any of Our Subjects or against any of Our Subjects but such as you know to be Sufferers for refusing to joyn with the Covenanters in the Covenanting way and you shall protect all such Persons by all the fair ways you can and particularly Sir John Hay and Sir Robert Spottiswood If any thing occur either in Civil or Ecclesiastical Iudicatory wherein you have not Our express Will and Pleasure signified unto you wherein you see clearly Our Royal and Princely Power and Authority prejudiced We will you to acquaint Vs therewith before any Proceeding be made You shall pay weekly for defence of Our Castle of Edinburgh an hundred Souldiers at eight pence per diem besides the English Gunners and Artificers at the Rates set down by the Marquis of Hamilton And as for Ruthwen himself you shall assign him the Rents of the Castle and you shall likewise keep a competent number ofWorkmen for completing the Fortifications already begun and shall withall provide the Castle with 6 moneths Victuals for the foresaid number of Souldiers and other Officers And as for Dumbriton you shall pay for the Defence thereof Souldiers at eight pence per diem to the number of 40 allowing the Rents and other Customs thereof for paying the Captain and other Officers At Berwick the 27th of Iuly 1639. These were the Instructions given the Earl of Traquair of which the Marquis wrote to a Covenanter That if they were not worse than Devils they would rest satisfied MEMOIRES OF THE LIFE and ACTIONS OF James
Grounds therefore the Duke resolved on a present abandoning of Affairs and of retiring from the World Lanerick was so angry at this Design that he spared nothing that either his Affection or Wit could suggest to divert him from that desperate Resolution as he termed it He told him could he not be Religious but he must turn a Monk and did he not think it best to serve God in that Station whereunto he had called him or must he reject the choice of Gods Providence and turn his own Disposer and was he so mean-spirited as to abandon matters because of the difficulties that were in theâ— But all he could devise was not like to prevail for the Duke protested it was impossible for him to look on and see His Majesties Ruin which was inevitable upon the Grounds he went on At this time the Independents The Independents cajole the King fearing the extremity to which the King was driven might force him to consent to any thing upon which a Settlement might follow betook themselves to strange Methods to obstruct it they therefore gave some hopes that they would be willing to dispense with the imposing of the Covenant and consent to a Toleration of Episcopacy and the Liturgy provided they might be satisfied in other points This suiting so well with the Kings Inclinations had too good a hearing from him but my Lord Lauderdale wrote from London very warmly for undeceiving the King But Lauderdale disabuses his Majesty assuring him that he infallibly knew their Designs were the Ruin of Monarchy and the Destruction of the King and His Posterity and though they might cajole His Majesty with some smooth Propositions those were meant for His Ruine that they might once divide Him from His Parliaments after which they would destroy both Him and them were it in their power But if the King would now consent to the Propositions all would go right and in spight of the Devil and the Independents both he would be quickly on His Throne but Delays were full of danger for they that wished well to the King were becoming daily more heartless and the other Party grew in their Insolence and the Earl of Essex his Death at that time had given the greatest blow to the Kings Affairs they could have met with This he continued to represent by many Letters both to the King and those about Him yet His Majesty was much wrought upon to give credit to those Offers of the Sectaries which made Him the less apprehensive of hazard At length when the Duke saw His Majesty immoveable The Duke obtains His Majesties permission to retire he begged His permission to retire But the King resisted that with so much reason and affection that in the whole Course of His Favours to him there had not been any since the business of Ochiltry wherein He had more obliged him than by the tenderness that then appeared in him Yet the Duke was so importunate that at length the King seemed to give way to it at least the Duke understood it so whereupon with as sad a heart as ever man had he took leave of the King which he apprehended to be his last Farewell and it proved to be so indeed except a transient view he had of Him at Windsor So he left the King and carried home with him a heart so fraughted with Melancholy that all could be done was not able to rouse him out of it and neither the tears of his dying Mother nor the intreaties of his Friends nor the constant persecution of his Brother who was much vexed at it were able to divert him from his Resolution for having overcome the Kings dislike of it which was stronger than all other things with him he was proof against every thing else But His Majesty quickly repented Him of that tacit consent He seemed to give and therefore sent after him this handsom Letter Hamilton I Have so much to write and so little time for it that this Letter will be suitable to the Times Which His Majesty retracts by His Letter without Method or Reason and yet you will find Lusty Truths in it which puts Me again out of fashion but the fitter for him to whom I write Now to My business but lest I should now forget it I must first tell you that those at London think to get Me into their hands by telling Our Country-men that they do not intend to make Me a Prisoner O No by No means but only to give Me an honourable Guard forsooth to attend Me continually for the security of My Person wherefore I must tell you and 't is so far from a secret that I desire every one should know it only for the way I leave it to you to manage it for My best advantage that I will not be left in England when this Army retires and these Garisons are rendred without a visible violent force upon My Person unless clearly and according to the old way of understanding I may remain a Free-man and that no Attendant be forced upon Me upon any pretence whatsoever So much for that A Discourse yesternight with Rob. Murray was the cause of this Letter having no such Intention before because I esteemed you a man no more of this part of the World believing your Resolutions to be like the Laws of the Medes and Persians But however he shewed Me such Reasons that I found it fit to do what I am doing for I confess one mans errour is no just excuse for anothers omission which is to stay your forreign Iourney by perswasion As for the Arguments I refer you to Robin only I will undertake to tell you some positive Truths the chief whereof is That it is not fit for you to go then It is less shame to recant than to persist in an Errour My last is By going you take away from Me the means of shewing My Self Your most assured real faithful constant Friend CHARLES R. New-Castle September 26th 1646. But this Letter will be lame unless made up with the Cover that went about it from Sir Robert Murray which was as he wrote in his next almost wholly the Kings words and not only his sense for the King the night before falling in Discourse with Sir Robert about the Duke discovered very fully the Constancy of His Royal kindness to him whereupon he laid His Commands on Sir Robert to put him in mind of the Inconveniences his obstinacy in that Resolution would heap upon him and mentioned them these are Sir Robert's words with a Friendliness that related not to his own Concernments Indeed they are such as the very apprehension of them cannot but deeply wound a Soul so great as yours They are briefly these The withdrawing your self at this time will be believed to proceed from a tacit Ioy at the appearance of the bad Success of his Affairs or rather out of a design to contribute to it under the disguise of a seeming Retiredness and
least you will find that according to My Professions I am Your most assured real constant Friend CHARLES R. His Majesty also expressed His Concerns for Traquair in the following Letter Lanerick ALbeit I am confident that you will further all My Friends Affairs yet I must not be so negligent in Traquair's behalf as not to name his business to you for admittance to his Place in Parliament of which I will say no more but you know his Sufferings for Me and this is particularly recommended to you by Your most assured real constant Friend CHARLES R. Newcastle 17th November 1646. POSTSCRIPT I account writing to you or your Brother all one They consult in Scotland how to dispose of their Armies But the main Business was what to do with their Armies that were in England The Kingdom was groaning under a heavy and unsupportable Burden for their Maintenance so disbanding was a very plausible Motion and all desired that only such Forces should be kept up as were necessary for the Preservation and Security of Scotland The Duke and his Brother regrated much that so many Gallant Men should be disbanded who might be very useful for the Kings Service therefore they opposed all these Propositions arguing that till a final Peace were settlâ—d in England they might look for no Security to Scotland And in their Letters to His Majesty they continued to represent the desperate estate of Affairs if he did not quickly satisfie them in the business of Religion and that the Money for the Pay of the Army was now coming in daily at London and would be quickly ready and after that was sent down they could not keep the Army any longer in England without a present Breach to which they found no inclinations in the Scotish Parliament as long as they were not satisfied in what was so earnestly desired But the King was firm to his first Resolution Master Lesley at his return to the King brought him such assurances of the Affection and Duty of both the Brothers that the next Dispatch carried the following Letters to them Hamilton I Remember yet so much Latine as an old Proverb comes to which is quod valde volumus id sacile credimus This I apply to Robin Lesley's report of your Carriage in My present Service concerning which I will only say that you shall not more certainly make good what he hath promised Me in your Name than I will to you what he hath said in Mine and even in something by way of speaking beyond My Power I doubt not but to make it good as concerning your French particular But I shall leave all things not only of this nature to this honest Bearers relation but likewise whatsoever else may concern the Service of Your most assured real faithful constant Friend CHARLES R. Newcastle 24th Nov. 1646. Lanerick I Have according to your Advice given a quick Return to this Trusty Bearer having instructed him fully in what I conceive necessary to My Affairs wherein in many things I have given him a Latitude to govern them according to your Directions wherefore I will say no more because if I should enter into Particulars I would not know how to end but that with Contentment I find daily more and more cause to be Your most assured real constant Friend CHARLES R. Newcastle 24th November 1646. POSTSCRIPT I recommend particularly the Earl of Morton's Affairs Matters were now ripening unto much Confusion and Mischief which made His Majesty think of a full Answer to the Propositions but before He sent it to London He communicated it to my Lord Lanerick in the following Letter Newcastle 4th Decemb. 1646. Lanerick The Kings Letter about His Answer to the Propositions ACcording to My Promise by little Nobs I send you here inclosed the Answer which I have resolved to send to London wherein you will find a Clause in favour of the Independents to wit the Forbearance I give to those who have Scruples of Conscience and indeed I did it purposely to make what I send relish the better with that kind of People But if My Native Subjects will so countenance this Answer that I may be sure they will stick to Me in what concerns My Temporal Power I will not only expunge that Clause but likewise make what Declarations I shall be desired against the Independents and that really without any reserve or equivocation yet know that no Perswasion or Threatning whatsoever shall make Me alter a tittle of any thing else in it nor that neither but upon these Assurances The end therefore why I send you this before it go to the English Parliament is to try before-hand how I can procure it to be countenanced by My Scotish Friends for which you are to use all possible industry not seeking a full Approbation but taking what you can get absolutely commanding you not to hazard it in a Publick Way unless you be sure that I shall receive no rub in it For this I conceive it were a wrong to you to use any Arguments to make you do your best but to tell you this is Coup de partie assuring you that I shall not judge you by the Event but by your Endeavours which I am confident will be according to your Professions and for Gods sake do not so much as expect much less linger after any other or further matter from Me whereby to serve Me in this great Business for upon the Faith of a Christian you shall have no more than what is now laid before you And know that I rather expect the worse than the better Event of things being resolved by the Grace of God and without the least repining at him to suffer any thing that Injury can put upon Me rather than sin against My Conscience of which upon My credit you see the furthest Extent in relation to the present Affairs I say no more but difficilia quae pulchra and so God bless your Endeavours Your most assured real constant Friend CHARLES R. POSTSCRIPT In order to that I have written and sent you herein I have commanded this Trusty Bearer Sir James Hamilton to tell you as many things as I can remember whom I desire you to return to Me or some other Trusty Messenger assoon as you may with what I am to expect from thence The inclosed Paper is marked on the back by the Kings Hand thus The Answer to the Propositions which I have resolved to send to London which I insert because it is not among His Majesties Printed Messages His Majesties Answer to the Propositions tendered to Him by the Commissioners from the Lords and Commons in the Parliament of England at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland CHARLES R. AS it is His Majesties chief desire to make such a Return to the Propositions The Kings Answer to the Propositions as may speedily produce a blessed firm and lasting Peace in all His Dominions so He hath employed His uttermost endeavours