and without fear and in a humble dependance upon the Lord in whom alone is the salvation of his people every man ought with all faithfulness and diligence to make use of all these meanes that are approved and allowed of God for preserving and carrying on of his work and for securing and guarding the Land against all enemies whatsoever both upon the right hand and upon the left The Spirit of errour and delusion in our Neighbour-Land in the policy of Satan hath vailed it selfe in many under the mask of holiness and is in the righteous and wise dispensation of God armed with power and attended with successe Therefore all the Inhabitants of this Land would labour for more knowledge and more love of the truth without which they may easily be deceived and led into tentation and would learn to distinguish betwixt the shew and power of godliness We know that there be many in England who be truly godly and mourn with us for all the errors and abominations that are in that land but it is without controversie that that Spirit which hath acted in the Courses and Counsels of these who hath retarded and obstructed the work of God despised the Covenant forced the Parliament murthered the King changed the civil Government and established so vast a tolleration in Religion cannot be the Spirit of Righteousness and Holiness because it teaches not men to live godly and righteously but draws them aâ—ide into error and makes them to bring forth the bitter fruits of inipiety and imquity and therefore ought to be avoided and not only are such of our Nation as travel in our Neighbour-land to take heed unto themselves that they receive not infection from such as are leavened with Errour but these also who live at home especially in those places where Sectaries upon pretext of merchandise and other civil imployments ordinarily traffique and converse Neither needs any man to be affraid of the power and successe of that party they who have gadded about so much to change their way shall ere long be ashamed the Lord hath rejected their confidences and they shall not prosper in them How far they may proceed in their Resolutions and Actings against this Kingdom is in the hand of the most high if the Lord shall suffer that party to invade this Land it may be the comfort and incouragement of all the Inhabitants thereof that not only hath that unlawfull engagement against the Kingdom of England been declared against and condemned both by Kirk and State but also that these men can pretend no quarrel against us unlesse it be that we have adhered unto the Solemn Leagne and Covenant from which they have so foully revolted and backslidden and that we have born testimony against Tolleration and their proceedings in reference to Religion and Government and the taking away of the Kings life and therefore we trust that in such a case none will be so far deficient in their duty as not to defend themselves against such injust violence and in the strength of the Lord to adhere unto their former principles with much boldness of spirit and willingness of heart in this certainly we shall have a good conscience and the Lord shall be with us We are not so to have the one of our eyes upon the Sectaries as not to hold the other upon the Malignants they being an enemy more numerous and no less subtile and powerful nor the other and at this time more dangerous unto us not only because experience hath proven that there is a greater aptitude and inclination in these of our Land to comply with Malignants then Sectaries that they carry on their wicked designs under a pretext of being for the King but also because there be many of them in our own bowels and for that they do pretend to be for maintenance of the Kings Person and Authority and which is the matter of our grief because the King owns their principles and ways which if it be not taken heed unto may prove a great snare and dangerous tentation to many to side with them against the Lords people and his cause The constant tenor of the carriage of these in this Land who stand for the cause of God are undenyable arguments of their affection to Monarchy and to that Royal Family and Line which hath sweyed the Scepter of this Kingdom for many hundreds of yeers past albeit his Majesty who lately reigned refused to harken to their just desires yet did they with much patience and moderation of mind supplicate and solicite his Majesty for satisfaction in these things that conceres Religion and the Covenant and were still willing that upon satisfaction given he should be admitted to the exercise of his Royal Power and whatsoever envy and malice objects to the contrary were careful to get assurance concerning the safety of his Majesties Person when they brought their Army out of England and when notwithstanding of that assurance the prevailing party of Sectaries were acting his life did to the utmost of their power endevor by their Commissioners that there might have been no such proceeding and when their desires and endevors were not successful did protest and bear testimony against the same And as both Kirk and State had testified their tender respect to his Majesty who now reigns by their Letters written to him whilst his Father was yet living so no sooner did the Parliament hear of his Fathers death but they did with all solemnity proclaim him King of these Kingdoms and after they had acquainted his Majesty by Messages with their proceedings herein Commissioners were sent both from State and Kirk instructed with power and commission to expresse the Affection of this Kingdom to Monarchy and his Majesties Person and Government together with their desires concerning the security of Religion and the Pence of those Kingdoms And albeit the desires of both which are now published to the world with his Majesties Answers thereto are such as are most just and necessary yet the Counsels of the Malignant party had so great influence upon his Majesty that his Answers are not only not satisfactory but short of that which was many times granted by his Royal Father and cannot be acquiesced unto unless we would abandon the League and Covenant and betray Religion and the cause of God We hold it the duty of all who live in this Land to wrestle with God in the behalf of the King that he may be recovered out of the snare of evil Counsel and brought to give satisfaction to the publick desires of Kirk and State and in their places and stations to use all endevors with himself and others for that effect and to be willing upon satisfaction given to admit him to the exercise of his power and cheerfully to obey him in all things according to the Will of God and the Laws of the Kingdom and to do every thing that tends to the preservation of his Majesties Person and just greatness
A REMONSTRANCE AND DECLARATION OF THE Generall Assembly OF THE Church of Scotland CONCERNING Present and Imminent Dangers and concerning Duties relating thereto EDINBVRGH Printed by Evan Tyler Printer to the Kings most excellent Majesty 1649. And Re-printed at London for Robert Bostock dwelling at the sign of the Kings-head in Pauls Church-yard 1649. Edinburgh 27. July 1649. Sess 27. A seasonable and necessary Warning and Declaration concerning Present and Imminent Dangers and concerning Duties relating thereto from the General Assembly of this Kirk unto all the Members thereof THe Lord who chooses Jerusalem in a furnace of Affliction hath been pleased since the beginning of the work of Reformation in this Land to exercise his People with many tryals All that desired to keep a good conscience were not long ago under many heavy and sad pressures from the insolency and oppression of a prevailing party of dis-affected and Malignant men who under a pretext of bringing the King to a condition of Honor Freedom and Safety did carry on an unlawful Engagement against the Kingdom of England and if the Lord had not been merciful unto his People they were like either to have been banished out of the Land or to have bin kept in a perpetual bondage in their consciences persons and estates But he whose Messengers those men had mocked and whose Word they had despised did bring them down suddenly in a day and restored liberty and peace unto his people a mercy and deliverance which as it ought to be remembred with thankfulness and praise so may it engage our hearts not to faint in troubles and straits that do yet abide us but to trust in the name of the Lord who both can and will deliver us still out of all our afflictions Albeit we do now enjoy many rich and precious blessings wherein we have reason to be comforted and to rejoyce yet it were to shut our eyes if we should not see our selvs involved in threatned with many and great dangers at home and from abroad It is matter of exceeding great sorrow to think upon the ignorance and profanity the impenitency and security that abounds still in the Land notwithstanding all the gracious dispensation of the Gospel and means of grace in such purity and plenty that none of the Nations round about us can boast of the like and of all the long-suffering patience of the Lord and of all his sharp rods wherewith he hath afflicted us from year to year and of all the mercies and deliverances wherewith he hath visited us and of our late solemn confession of sins andengagement unto duties sealed with the renewing of the Covenant and the Oath of God Which some men have so far already forgotten as to return with the dog to the vomit and with the sow to the puddle and many signs of inconstancy and levity do appear among all sorts and ranks of persons who seem to want nothing but a suitable tentation to draw them away from their stedfastness Our Army is not yet sufficiently purged but there be still in it Malignant and scandalous men whose fidelity and constancy as it is much to be doubted so is the wrath of the Lord to be feared upon their proceedings and undertakings without a speedy and effectual remedy That prevailing party of Sectaries in England who have broken the Covenant and despised the Oath of God corrupted the Truth subverted the sundamental Government by King and Parliament and taken away the Kings life look upon us with an evill eye as upon those who stand in the way of their monstrous and new-fangled devices in Religion and Government and though there were no cause to fear any thing from that party but the Gangrene and infection of those many damnable and abominable errors which have taken hold on them yet our vicinity unto and dayly commerce with that Nation may justly make us afraid that the Lord may give up many in this Land unto a spirit of delusion to beleeve lyes because they have not received the love of the Truth Neither is the Malignant party so far broken and brought low as that they have abandoned all hopes of carrying on their former designs against the Covenant and work of Reformation beside many of them in this Kingdom who are as Foxes tyed in chains keeping their evil nature and waiting an opportunity to break their cords and again to prey upon the Lords people There be standing Armies in Ireland under the command of the Marquess of Ormond the Lord Inchiqueen the Lord of Airds and George Munroe who forgetting all the horrible cruelty that was exercised by the Irish Rebels upon many thousands of the English and Scottish Nations in that Land have entred into a Peace and Association with them that they may the more easily carry on the old designs of the Popish Prelatical and Malignant party and the Lord of Airds and George Monroe have by treachery and oppression brought the Province of Vlster and Garisons therein under their power and command and have redacted our Country-men and such as adhere unto the Covenant and cause of God in that Province unto many miseries and straits and are like to banish the Ministers of the Gospel and to overturn these fair beginnings of the work of God which were unto many a branch of hope that the Lord meant to make Ireland a pleasant Land But which is more grievous unto us then all these our King Notwithstanding of the Lords hand against his Fathers opposition to the work of God and of the many sad and doleful consequences that followed thereupon in reference to Religion and his Subjects and Person and Government doth hearken unto the counsels of these who were Authors of these miseries unto his Royal Father and to his Kingdoms by which it hath come to pass that his Majesty hath hitherto refused to grant the just and necessary desires of this Kirk and Kingdom which were tendred unto him from the Commissioners of both for securing of Religion the Liberties of the Subject his Majesties Government and the Peace of the Kingdom And it is much to be feared that those wicked Counsellors may so far prevail upon him in his tender years as to engage him in a war for overturning if it be possible of the work of God and bearing down all those in the three Kingdoms that adhere thereto which if he shall do cannot but bring great wrath from the Lord upon himself and his throne and must be the cause of many new and great miseries and calamities to these lands It concerns a Nation thus sinful and loaden with iniquity and involved in so many difficulties and dangers by timous repentance and unfained humiliation to draw neer to God and to wrestle with him in Prayer and supplication that our sin may be pardoned and our iniquity done away and that he would establish the Land in the love of the Truth and inable every one in their station to do their duty boldly
upon these and other important considerations It shall bee the wisedom of every one who dwells in the Land to take heed of such a temptation and snare that they be not accessary to any such designs or endeavours as they would not bring upon themselves and upon their families the guilt of all the detriment that will undoubtedly follow thereupon to Religion and the Covenant and of all the miseries and calamities that it will bring upon his Majesties Person and throne and upon these Kingdoms such a thing would in all appearance be the undermining and shaking if not the overthrowing and destroying of the work of Reformation and therefore whosoever attempt the same oppose themselves to the cause of God and will at last dash against the Rock of the Lords power which hath broken in pieces many high and lofty ones since the beginning of this Work in these Kingdoms and it is unto us a sure Word of promise That whosoever shall associate themselves or toke counsell together or gird themselves against God and his Work shall be broken in pieces It is not only joyning in Arms with the Malignant partie that all these who would keep their integrity has need to beware of but also subtill devices and designes that are promoted by fair pretexts and perswasions to draw men to dispence at least with some part of these necessary desires that are propounded to his Majestie for securing of Religion after many turnings and devises the foundation of the Unlawfull Engagement was at last laid by his Majesties Concessions of the date the yeer 1648. wherein though many things seemed to be granted yet that was denied without which Religion and the Union betwixt the Kingdoms could not have been secured and it is probable that such a way may be assayed again and prosecuted with very much cunning and skill to deceive and insnare the simple It doth therefore concern all ranks and conditions of persons to be the more warie and circumspect especially in that which concerns the Nationall Covenant and the solemn League and Covenant that before his Majestie be admitted to the exercise of his Royall Power that by and after the Oath of Coronation he shall assure and declare by his Solemn Oath under his hand and seal his allowance of the Nationall Covenant and of the Solemn League and Covenant and obligation to prosecute the ends thereof in his Station and Calling and that he shall for himself and successors consent and agree to Acts of Parliament injoyning the solemn League and Covenant and fully establishing Presbyteriall Government the Direâ—tory of Worship the Confession of Faith and Catechisme as they are approvea by the Generall Assembly of this Kirk and Parliament of this Kingdom in all his Majesties Dominions and that he shall observe these in his own practise and familie and that he shall never made opposition to any of these nor endeavour any change thereof Albeit the League and Covenant be despised by that prevailing party in England and the work of Uniformity thorow the retardments and obstructions that have come in the way be almost forgotten by these Kingdome yet the obligation of that Covenant is perpetuall and all the duties contained therein are constantly to be minded and prosecuted by every one of us and our posterity according to their place and stations and therefore we are no lesse zealously to endeavour that his Majestie may Establish and swear and subscribe the same then if it were unanimously regarded and stuck unto by all the Kingdom of England his Majeste swearing and subscribing the league and Covenant will much contribute for the Security of Religion his Majesties happiness and the Peace of his Kingdoms As it is incumbent to all who live in this Kirk and Kingdom to bee watchfull and circumspect so it concernes these of the High and Honorable Court of Parliament and their Committees in a special way to see to their dutie and to be straight and resolute in the performance of the same Their former proceedings is unto us a sufficient evidence and ground of hope that they will not be wanting in any necessary testimonie of duty and Loyaltie that they owe to the King by using all just and seasonable established upon his Thrones And we trust that upon the other hand the sense of their Obligation to God and his Oath that is upon them will make them constantly to adhere to their former principles and resolutions and desires concerning Religion and the Covenant that reall satisfaction may be had there anent before the King be put in exercise of his power and that they wil carefully provide for the safety of the Kingdom both in regard of intestine dangers and in regard of invasion from without It is not long since they together with the rest of the Land made solemn publike Confession of Compliance with Malignants carnall confidence following of it self interests and hearkning to the Counsels of flesh and blood and did in a special way engage themselves to comply and seek themselves and their own things no more to abandon the counsels of their own hearts and not to rely upon the Arm of flesh and to purge Judicatories and Armies from prophane and scandalous Persons And God forbid that they should so soon forget or neglect so necessary duties and fall again unto so great and grievous transgressions We trust that they will seek the things of Christ and not their own things that they will hearken to his Word and not walk in the imaginations of their own hearts that they will relie upon the Arm of the Lord and not upon the arm of flesh that they will be warie and circumspect in discerning the dispositions and affections of those whom they put in trust and that seeing this Kindom hath so much smarted and been so often deceived by compliance with Malignants that they will carefully avoid this snare of those who were upon the former Unlawful Engagement and be tender in bringing in of such And we cannot but exhort them in the Name of the Lord to take notice of the Oppression of the People and Commons in the Land by the lawlesse exactions of Land-Lords Collectors and Souldiers We doe not justifie the murmurings and grudgings of those who preferring the things of the world to the Gospel and things of Jesus Christ repine at necessarie burthens without which it is not possible that the Land can be secured from invasion without and insurrection within or the Cause and People of God defended from enemies It is the duty of every one who hath taken the Covenant willingly and with a cheerful minde to bestow their meanes and their pains as they shall be called thereunto in an orderly way yet should these to whom God hath committed the Government take care that they be not nedlesly burthened and that none grind their faces by oppression not only by making of Laws against the same but by searching out of the cause of the poor and by executing