smaller things which had relation to Civill Priviledges seemed chiefly if not wholly to be the state of the quarrell Afterwards you were carried on further and further in owning what was necessary for advancing the great business you were engaged into and dis-owning what you saw destructive to it as the Kings Negative Vote in Parliament and Generall Assemblies the uncertainty of the calling of Parliaments and establishing a Committee of Estates in the Intervales of Parliament c. But after all these were obtained by a wonderfull Series of Providence carrying you along and countenance you being freed from the Service-Book Episcopacy and the rest your Enemies being vanquished the powers of the Nation in appearance friendly to you and countenancing the busines the King the great opposer thereof made in a manner to approve you in all you had done by his ratifying all in Parliament so that you could desire nothing of him outwardly but you had it Ordinances in purity none to manage the business but such as were professed Friends to the work yet for all this were you not stil at a loss all you had gotten every day ready to be betrayed every farther degree of freedom opposed Dear Friend consider I conceive the stresse of the matter lyes here that which has bin your hurt hinderance all along hath been not so much open enemies as dissembling prophane men among you haters of godlines and the Godly and of any appearance of God in discovering of duties in order to the carrying on of the great Work or in abandoning what was discovered to be inconsistent or incongruous therwith engaged in the busines upon corrupt accompts ready alway to betray it into the hands of enemies and while avowing themselves and continuing professed Friends opposing and retarding good motions raising Factions against you and the true interest of the cause and by these great pretences and professions of being for the Covenant and Work of God becoming so numerous in Judicatories that they have carryed all before them I shall instance the year 1648. Did not that Parliament then become so highly Malignant that many if not all that were Godly in the Parliament though I do not say that all who went along with them in the Protestation did it upon a right accompt as has appeared since were forced to protest and leave the House and yet all the while none pretending more for the Cause of God and Covenant then they while they were carrying on their Malignant Designes and persecuting all the Godly in Scotland who did not go along with them And indeed can you say but all along though sometimes you have been more at one in carrying forward some outward thing there has been reall and visible distances and heart burnings betwixt you the Godly and such as were engaged in the businesse upon a wrong accompt they sometimes whispering that good motions coming from you did smell of Sectarisme and new light or by raising Factions against you to the dividing of Judicatories and so at best clogging you in the way and making the Work halt to the sadding of the Spirits of all honest men that were looking on So that I say the great contest of late and that which hath had a great influence upon all the late transactions these five or six years hath been by whose hands that so generally professed should be managed and who could justly and rightly claim an Interest in it as Friends or sutable instruments thereto and who were enemies I appeal to your own experience what was in this before the year 1648. how honest men were under-mined by a Faction that partly had engaged with them in the beginning and partly had crept in by professing themselves to go along with them in the Work by taking the Covenant which by the way I desire you to take notice whether it has not been to large a rule in so searching a busines did they not see themselves undermined a long time before it came to so direct a breach as afterwards it did and yet they professing themselves Friends to the Covenant and Work they could not be rid of them till themselves were shuffled to the door And though these that did then protest seemed to be unanimous in what they did in their ends moving them to it and their principles carrying them on in it all that did follow therupon yet I dare appeal to such of you as were then acquainted with busines if many of these that did protest were not in their judgements for an engagement at that same time and that their searing from it was their seeing it chiefly carried on by such as they judged to be enemies to their ruling of matters though professed friends to the Work the power of managing businesses being likely to be established in their hands This I can averre from some of the Protesters themselves that at a close Committee of the chief of the Protesters it was resolved to possesse Berwick and Carlile long e're it was surprised by Duke Hamilton and that party And though the way you were then necessitated to you owning your selves at first but as private men and the party in Scotland risen in Armes and standing for the Covenant and interest of the people of God was an extraordinary remedy you being expresly tied in the Covenant to maintain the Priviledges of Parliament yet under that notion and upon that accompt that you were the People of God and them that had onely the true interest to profess your selves Friends to the Cause Covenant and interest of the People of God and such as only could rightly challenge a priviledge to manage these and places of trust in the Kingdom and yet all this while you were nothing but private men there being a Committee of Estates appointed that you could not say but they were lawfully constituted they having established the foresaid Committee as the Authority of the Kingdom in the interval of the Parliament upon the foresaid accompt of their evil managing of business through their becoming enemies to the Work and people of God as you then thought you did rise in Arms against them and did not onely oppose their Authority but did break them so as to be no. Authority at all and moreover did constrain them to condescend that you should be a Committee of Estates Being thus a Committee you did set down Rules for calling a new Parliament you did contrary to the Fundamental Laws of Scotland whereby every Freeholder having a Forty shilling Land holden of the King hath the priviledge to vote in choosing Commissioners and to be chosen debar any from voting in Elections or being Elected that had voted in Parliament to the Engagement 1648. or in the Committee of Estates had taken the Oath for carrying on thereof or had subscribed the Bond for promoving the same or had taken the Oath in Committees of shires for the advancing of it or had given obedience in an active way to the
Treatie with the King and were likely to close in a way wherewith they were dis-satisfied and that they had left out Scotlands interest The proceedings against the King the taking of his life must be also protested against notwithstanding his continued and confirmed obduredness in his ways al the Justice the Covenant tyes to against Delinquents and the execution of Justice upon severals of our own acting only by vertue of his Commissions and that he were himself oft by us declared a Murtherer the grand Murtherer guilty of all the Innocent blood had been shed in the three Kingdoms that we had no ty upon us for the preservation of his Person by the Covenant otherwise then as in the defence and preservation of Religion and Libertie If it be objected that they were not a free constituted Judicatory that did the thing and so upon that accompt it was murther Let it be considered upon the same consideration if it may not be as strongly cleared that Iames Grahame and all that died upon a Scaffold since 1648. were murthered since it may be made appear that according to the strict accompt of the Lawes of this Nation there has not been a free nor right constituted Parliament since 1648. as appeares by what is aforesaid concerning the constituting of the Parliament that sat down the fourth of Ianuary 1649. As a dutie the King that now is behooved to be proclaimed immediatly though then engaged and running head-long in his Fathers steps Commissioning Prince Rupert Iames Grahaem Ormond making an open and avowed Peace with the Irish Rebels to which height his Father never came Commissioners are sent to him and though at that time through the strength of his passion to the way his heart was engaged unto and the apparent hopes in Ireland whether he also sent his goods he was kept from any seeming condescendence to their desires Yea though they were exceedingly baffled and slighted yet the Lords seeing no consistencie at all betwixt those in England and their Prerogative Interest as Lords and finding a spirit of levelling as they named it beginning to break out honest men beginning to think and to make it appear they thought the Lords interest to be exorbitant and tyrannicall and that the most of them were enemies to Pietie and pious men and to motions tending to the countenancing of both and that they were friends to the getting in and keeping in naughtie men in places of trust with a design to uphold their interest and greatnes and beginning then to look after their libertie in those things that great men had encroched upon them these considerations though so slighted as aforesaid did move them under the notion of duty to presse a second addresse In which many Godly men were ensnared by condescending unto it upon this attempt that they were desirous to shun the scandal of being complyers with these they called Sectaries who had declared against Monarchy hovv that business vvas carried on many of you know better then my self An Express being sent to the Isle of Iarsey to the King by his return a Treaty was desired at Breda the King writing to the Committee of Estates naming them so which he had not formerly done though then only with a Proviso in order to that Treaty The same day and place that the King wrote to the Committee of Estates he did write to James Graham relating the former Commission given him to come into Scotland giving him an accompt of all passages between him and them in Scotland and pressing him vigourously to prosecute the business and the rather because he thought his coming to Orkney had occasioned the sending of that second address unto him and he was hopefull his vigourous prosecuting of that which he had intrusted him with should be a means to make the Committee fall lower in their conditions And though the Copy of this Letter came to Scotland and was known by the Committee of Estates before they fell upon their Instructions notwithstanding of all this these who had projected the business would go on and did prosecute it with so much heat and earnestness that the business both in Instructions and Commissioners was concluded by the Committee of Estates although the Parliament were to sit down vvithin four or five dayes after Those of you that were upon publique business may remember how the whole matter was carried being hudled over and over-hasted so as might have rendred the businesse suspitious to any that were not much left of God to some it did clearly appear to be carryed on by way of designe Though the shenning of scandall made some honest men go along in it yet I think that which partly did entangle severalls was the expectation they had that the King would not agree to the Instructions As for the carrying on of the Treaty and the managing of it in Holland I refer that to the causes of the Commissions Fast appointed when they sate at Sterling and to the Westland Remonstrances of Kirk and Army My designe in all this is that you may take notice how a party and faction even of those whom the Lord had separated from the rest of the Nation pretending as highly as ever has carried aside and entangled the Godly and undermmed you And when in part your snare is discovered unto you though with the price of many sorrows to your selves and much misery to the Land now they begin to appear in their own colours My dear Friends Give me leave in a Christian freedom to expostulate with you and from what I have laid down before you either as matter of Fact or as your received principles to speak freely my own heart unto you what my thoughts reach unto concerning your present low condition as what may have had a great hand in the Providence of God to make your condition as it is I think it may appear unto you from what hath been said though I should adde nothing that there is a distinct interest of the People of God from all worldly interests that it does also clearly appear that your mingling yours therewith and your complying and joyning with Malignant and carnall Instruments in prosecution thereof hath had no small influence in bringing you to so low a condition as you are at this day Yea and which is a greater abomination and also exceedingly tending thereto when you and your brethren in England did fall into mistakes and differences together have you not strengthened the hands of your and their enemies by declaring one anothers Infirmities to the world and not only so Have not you the people of God sided with the men of the world in their way of reproaching your Brethren Yea have not you made them Judges of the differences between you and them which is contrary to that of the Apostle even in Civill things betwixt such as are Saints indeed that they should not bring their causes before the Heathen Judges much less their spiritual differences And
whether the generality of the Parliament and General Assembly of Scotland hath been any other upon a true accompt but heathen Iudges in respect of the appearances of God in them in their publick actings or private walkings I leave it to your serious consideration And I appeal to your selves whether you have not in an implicite way for the most part f llowed their Iudgements especially the Kirk and how by so doing you have been entangled and ensnared if you will not see you shall see Consider how the Lord condiscends to your weakness by writing in great Letters your sin and your snare in these by discovering to you what I have asserted both of Kirk and State You are not strangers to proceedings at St. Johnston how these men are now not ashamed to profess their wayes before the Sun all their fair pretences whereby they have ensnared you are now coming out in their own colours I need not name the particulars they being so evident these men that have heightened prejudices between you and your Brethren in England upon fair pretences who were Iudges and Parties whose guilty conscierces told them they deserv'd to be so dealt with as their brethren had been dealt with by the Godly in England whom the Lord had so strangely raised up for that Work and did clearly see they should be so dealt with by you when you should come to understand your own interest and the true interest of that which you had primarily engaged your selves unto And therefore notwithstanding they did make use of you and did entangle you with good pretences yet your selves know they were always jealous of you and did hate you in their hearts and for the Kirk what they are become I mean the generality of them how great Traitors to their own Professions and Declarations Preachings Warnings and Remonstrances to the interest of all the Godly in Scotland is evident passing all other things by their sense of the Westland Remonstrance and their going along with that Parliament at St. Iohnston and by their late Warnings Remonstrances Declarations and Acts and all these under the pretence of good Patriots which is an evidence that their interest is worldly and not Spirituall and hath the Mark of the Beast upon it Dear Freinds I humbly suppose it does not become you to be implicite in receiving any thing of consequence from the best of men much less from such as these have been and are ye who have Iesus Christ to be your Light and Councellor and the anointing from above and should know that all men are lyars and ready to be byassed with Interest How unbeseeming is it for you especially in these days to be implicite in your belief or in receiving any thing off mans hand without examination How much this hath prevailed amongst you and how ye have loved tohave it so is obvious and how these lords over the conscience have pursued its being so as hath also appeared in their peremptoriness in acts questionable in themselves their naming all the English Army Sectaries and Blaspemous without exceptions Enemies to the People of God and to godliness Their bitter way of expressing of this without clearly or scarce at all refuting their Error or shewing what they held their laboring to wrest every thing to the worst sence or to put such a construction for the which there was not the least shaddow of a ground their giving it as the note of a Sectary in him that should question their way in these or should forbear to go along with them or should question the matter or whether that which they did assert to be Error was so or no calling these problematique questions tending to rend the Church and for Professors notwithstanding it be a duty prescribed unto and commended in the people of God especially into a day of darkness and difficulty to speak often one to another to exhort to rebuke to be free one with another yet I appeal to one and all of you if their hath not been and is such a spirit even amongst you that you could not nor cannot bear any thing differing from your own opinion or rather the opinion of the Kirk whether in Doctrine Discipline or the business of the time notwithstanding the most of you give me leave in Christian freedom to speak without offence could not give a reason for what you held or practised especially in these things relating to the times but were implicitely led by other mens judgements which is your reproach your sin and your snare this day and hath not had I dare confidently say it the least hand in bringing you into the posture you are at present Doth not the language of all these call upon you to seperate from worldly interests and carnal men as much as you can and from an implicite carnal blinde way of fearing or trusting man Is it not evident that it hath been the design of God from the beginning of this work to have it so Have not all his dispensations from time to time signified this yea does not as hath been said your own principles and practices hold out so much Hath not your opposing of this by your laboring to joyn the seed of the Woman and of the Serpent together and to mingle their Interests again and again brought contempt and disappointment upon you Have they not constantly pretend what they will laid you by and set up themselves and if this hold in Civil things how much more in Spiritual And do not you clearly see it cannot be otherwise Is it not as clear as the light that if this Parliament at St. Johnston were desolved and another called according to the Laws of the Kingdom I dare say and it is known to you it might well be worse it could not be better the result of so many years professing and fighting for a Covenant chiefly relating to Religion a Nation wholly almost overgrown with Malignants Enemies to you and to what the Covenant chiefly drives at And for the Kirk I offer it to your consideration whether the generality of them be not godless self-seeking men I do not onely mean this Commission that goes along with the present State but any Assembly that hath been or is likely to be in haste and for such as are godly I shall wish that too many even of these have not more an eye to the upholding of an Arbitrary Power unto their medling in Civil matters then to the holding forth of Iesus Christ and the interest of the People of God Hath it not been a snare to themselves and to all honest men in Scotland especially to such as were in Iudicatories and Armies Ministers though good men medling so much in the business of the time their way being when they were disaffected with the State to declare out of the Pulpits their faults as also to put forth Declarations thereanent which at the best did tend to nothing but to make the State Hypocrites and to the