upon her bound loyalty to God and her Prince and to morrow bring wrath and dishonour on the whole Congregation of Israel Shall yet the accursed thing of Achans covetousness and the errour of Balaam for reward and the gainsaying of Core be her suspected shame and deep conceived too publikely spoken of reproach Let the Lord God of gods the Lord God of gods and all the Christian world know the truth herein for you alone that are in present Parliament do not perish in this iniquity That reproach hath made Jacobs name to stink among the Nations Lay open before the Lord and the King the integrity of your hearts and the cleanness of your hands and the hands of former times in the matter of that wedge of gold of 200000 l. at Newcastle anno 1646 at the return of your Armies and the remitting of that just one the late King to his Kingdom of England and both Houses of Parliament Whether it was the price of that sacred bloud or not as is too publikely reviled and cast in the teeth of all Scotchmen with bitterness and grief of heart to the body of the Land or whether it was a part of the lawful Wages and deserved Pay of your Souldiery for their more peaceable removing out of England by the Kings high-way without turning into the Fields or the Vineyards or drinking of the waters of the Wells And put the account thereof to the view of all men for stopping the mouth of iniquity in that suspected accursed thing Publish to the world your and former times professed faithful care at that time affirmed confidently to the Souldiery and all the good people of the Land that honour freedom and safety to that Royal Prince was sufficiently secured and provided for from that Parliament in England Declare how your and their Counsels and Debates in the Painted Chamber at Westminster in October 1646 concerning his Majesties Person hath been zealous faithful loyal and upright and where the horrid breach of that transaction did lie for the vindication of the ancient honour and true loyalty of your Nation Cleanse your and former times hearts counsels and ways of that unparallel'd and never the like heard of before seizing upon the Lords Anointed at Holmby-House and carrying him about all the Cities of the wicked Philistims with bloudy hearts and hands and closing him up at last in the Isle of Wight which was as the Isle of Patmos to S. John the Divine the place of heavens Revelations to his holy soul against the farther evil day and the weight and strength of his consolations by the ministring of Angels against the day of his sufferings by the hand of men through Divine permission Make good Answer to that Objection of suspected disloyalty and uncharitable forsaking of your Churches prayers and concurrence for the better encouragement of that Expedition and Army anno 1648 for relief of his late Majesties Person out of the aforesaid Isle of Wight Moreover put in yours and former times plea in the Court of heaven and declare before God and his holy Angels and the children of men your and their innocencie in those deep plottings and contrivings and Cabinet-counsels at the Lady Humes house at Edinburgh and elsewhere as is generally reported and affirmed with that Lucifer and Tyrant from hell for a scourge to the Nations concerning that abominable Regicide and horrid bloudy murder of the late King and the sincerity of yours and their Protestations against the same the day of his suffering in token of your detestation thereof And lastly vindicate or condemn former times deportments to your present Lord and King in those two Battels at Dunbar and Worcester in withdrawing his Princely care and command wisdom and courage from the first whether upon the terms that Davids Captains and Army did to him at Mahanaim in their marching against his rebellious son Absalom because that he was the light of his people and his life worth ten thousand of theirs or upon the account of suspected disloyalty by the usurpation of his Government and Command of his Militia and Forces contrary to the Royal Prerogative and essential right of his Crown And in weakning his Armies in the last Battel of Worcester by withdrawing of several Forces from his Camp at Sterling before their marching to England albeit at that time the common Enemy to both was then in the Land and if there Scotland could not without their Head the King encounter him in open Battel or flying Skirmish yet loyalty common wisdom and courage would have joyned to go into England with their valiant resolute Prince if not to defeat that wicked party there yet to have eased their own Nation of his consuming violence by way of diversion And whether the unfortunate event of those two fatal dismal days was through want of Military skill slothful negligence or otherwise or by wilful ignorance and gross downright desperate and disloyal carelesness which is nothing less then Treason against King and Country and Murder of so many precious souls Sure it is want of courage and resolution in those two valiant Armies was not the cause And now to speak but this once more and let not the most honourable Parliament be offended Declare your deep sense of and sympathie with the Peoples deplorable sufferings these 22 years past in their Fortunes and Estates and disbursments for you and former times And that in your righteousness to the Law of Nature Nations and Faith amongst men and common honesty amongst Christians without fraud or violence and honour of Parliaments and Parliamentary Promises and Protestations before heaven and earth You will resolve before dissolving upon the speediest effectual ways of Satisfaction of the Debts of those who are now utterly ruined in their former pretious esteem in the world and plentiful condition beyond their neighbours and by whose sufferings a publike calamity doth follow to many scores of poor Orphans and desolate Widows through their trust to them for the Publike As the generality of Scotland may and can witness heaven and earth of their innocencie in all these things and with honest hearts may comfort themselves in their conscientious Loyalty to God and his Vicegerents in their generations upon earth equally with any other People or Subject whatsoever so in charity it may be conceived that other States-men and then Rulers for the time and the now present Heads of the Tribes of Israel in Parliament assembled are likewise so Yet the smoaking fornace of that stinking smell of the worlds Reproach and Opprobry to Scotland in all these matters is not to this day nor ever will be quenched nor dispelled till your fair honest ingenuous and large Declaration in all the premises after the laudable example of the two Tribes and a half at Gilead to their brethren the ten Tribes in Canaan appear and be emitted to the world And if guiltiness be in some let not the righteous be as the wicked the clean as the
portion was on the one and other side and before the holy portion and the possession of the city Ezek. 45.7 and 48.21 In those days when every man followed the lust of his eyes and the abominations of his heart there was no King in Israel Judg. 17.6 The Law and Testimony is given to the King to govern the Lords people thereby Deut. 17.19 20. 2 King 11.12 And the people in that Government do owe to him obedience and loyalty And the manner of his kingdom is told to the people by Samuel the Prophet and laid up before the Lord as Judge for justice and punishment in case of the peoples disloyalty and disobedience 1 Sam. 10.25 The King is Custos utriusque Tabulae to Moses the Governour of Israel were the two Tables of the Law delivered and he onely called up to the mount of God when Aaron and Hur and the Elders of Israel were at a distance from him Exod. 22.2 14. And when the Book of the Law was found by Hilkiah the High-priest in the days of Josiah it was sent to the King for observance and government of the people by the same 2 King 22.8 10. This Religious mistake betwixt the Tribes is reconciled and cleared by their candid fair and large declaration That the building of their Altar great to see to was not done to rebel against the Lord and their Brethren nor to impose upon them but for a witness of their zeal to his glory and interest for themselves and generations after them in the true worship of his Name not to innovate and bring in a strange Religion but rather not to estrange themselves and posterity from the true Religion It was not done in rebellion against Authority nor in transgression against the God of Israel but with loyalty to the Governour albeit not consulted with by them therein and in their zeal to follow the Lord Not to debord from the Laws and Ordinances of God but that the border of Jordan which bounded them from the earthly Canaan of the ten Tribes might not divide them from the heavenly Canaan Now let Scotland trace the steps of this unadvised religious procedure and mistake and close their Tragical dispensations these many years past in a Comical Loyal Christian and peaceable Conclusion and fair Declaration to their Brethren of England and all Reformed Churches in the world and their lawful righteous Prince and Governour that all of them may say and perceive this day that the Lord is amongst them and hath delivered them out of the hand of the Lord because that Scotland hath not committed this trespass and saved them from the zealous wrath and revenging hand of the Lords Anointed because that they have not intended rebellion against him These twenty years past and upwards Scotland hath helped their Brethren in England and other Nations against the manners of the Canaanites of suspected Heresie Popery and Idolatrous Will-worship once and again have they gone over Jordan to them armed leaving their wives children and flocks behinde them and with their weapons in the one hand and their tools in the other hand labored to build the walls of Jerusalem by a just Reformation against their common enemy that man of sin and the Beast of Rome and their Emissaries and that work being done and setled by the many gracious Concessions and Indulgences of the late King of ever-blessed memory to both Nations and Scotland sent home again to their tents and the land of their possession with a blessing of friendly assistance to their losses Anno 1641 and resentment of their just charges and expences Anno 1646. albeit to say the truth more then the half thereof be yet in remainder unsatisfied Yet after their return they build a great Altar to see to by their new fears of alteration of former transactions Anno 1642. and 1643. and a League and Covenant with their Brethren in England and Ireland the same year without the approbation and consent of the late King their valorous wise couragious Joshua is proposed and agreed upon which in the judgment of many of the other Brethren was an imposing of the two Tribes and a half upon the ten Tribes and a building of that Altar upon the border of their Canaan not so significant of the Principles of true Religion as occasioning a jealousie and mis-understanding between them and their lawful Liege-Lord and King in their loyalty to him and his posterity as may witness the suspicion of forsaking of his Royal Person at Neweastle Anno 1646. and in Anno 1648. during his restraint at the Isle of Wight This Altar of League and Covenant was great to see to great in the eyes of God by the fruit of his grace upon the spirits of men if done sincerely and universally by all with the approbation of the Supreme Magistrate terrible in the sight of Satan and hell and all wickedness if successful amongst the Nations in life and conversation by that grace specious and full of lustre for Unity and Uniformity of Truth Worship and Government if uprightly intended with consent aforesaid without self-interest unbyassed ends of covetousness and ambition without hypocrisie It was long and painful in building with great sufferings in life and estate and costly with infinite treasure of Publike Faith from many honest men in their integrity of heart and innocencie of hands to God and Royal authority over them Yet as all these circumstances are no true characters of a good Cause so neither are they symptomes of a bad Cause where sincerity and candidness of heart with the grace of self-denial are in the work Now that Scotland is this day delivered out of the hands of her enemies the worst of men to whom the Lord had sold her these ten years past in the fierceness of his anger and by her most righteous Kings return from the wilderness for the fins of his people to the glory of his Throne and magnificence of his Kingdom with the seeking of his Lords and Counsellors unto him Is also by his most gracious goodness restored to her ancient Liberties and Priviledges of a free Nation and that babes and children are no more her Counsellors and Judges but a free Parliament granted to her of her own Nobles and heads of Israel and that her Prince with the advice of her brethren in England hath sent his Commissioner to her for her better settlement and establishing of his Kingdom there Let her now plead her cause with him in all submissive humility and uprightness of heart and clear to her King the cause and reason of building this her great Altar of League and Covenant to see to whether or not in transgression against the Lord and rebellion against his Anointed Is the suspected iniquity and jealousie of her former National Covenant 1638 too little in the balance of his Royal judgement and all Reformed Churches abroad but at this day also by the League and Covenant she must again bring jealousie
unclean the good as the sinner he that feareth an Oath as he that sweareth let the vile be separated from the pretious and the wicked cut off from the Congregation of the Lord Let sentence against an evil work be speedily executed that the heart of the sons of men be not fully set in them to do evil Give them according to their deeds and according to the wickedness of their endeavours Let their houses be made dung-hills and their mothers childless with the perpetual note of shame and ignominy in all their remembrances by the characters of The sons of Jeroboam who made Israel to sin and of Judas Iscariot who betrayed Christ and his Anointed and of that Dathan and Abiram which were famous in the congregation and strove against Moses and Aaron in the company of Corah and against the Lord and they became a signe And by so doing God in his truth and justice shall be honoured the heart of his King shall overflow in affections and zeal to the welfare of his people through a full perswasion of their former and future Loyalty your Publike Faith to many honest-hearted men in that Cause hitherto too much slighted and neglected by former times and your selves shall be by his goodness and consent satisfied The honour of Scotland shall be vindicated from lying and scandalous reproaches of the wicked sons of Balaam yea the earth shall be at rest and quiet the Fir-trees and Cedars of Lebanon shall rejoyce and all the Tribes of Israel in his Majesties Dominions shall say and sing This day we perceive that the Lord is amongst us because by the building of that great Altar to see to of the National Covenant anno 1638. nor by the League and Covenant anno 1643 you and former Rulers have not committed this trespass against the Lord in doing wickedness under the shadow of holiness nor done Rebellion against his Anointed under the said cloak of Religion nor pillaged your Country by covetousness and ambition with briery Abimelah the son of the Concubine under colour of assertors of her Christian and just Liberty in Church and State these fatal years last And that now you have delivered your own people in Scotland and brethren in England and Ireland out of the hand of the Lord and his Anointed while those Altars of Covenants were not made by you to the change of Religion or Government by unlawful Burnt-offerings of worship to any other God or homage to any other Governour but for a witness of holy emulation between you and your Brethren for the farther propagation of the Gospel and just Reformation in the time of dangerous security and deadness or fear of backsliding from your first love to Christ your Redeemer And if in this day of your General Meeting as the Representative of your Nation you do not thus declare and judge as aforesaid and that your hearts and tongues be not valiant for truth to God and man for the honour of God and your King and Nation which was the very fundamental of all your Covenants and the Motto of your displayed Banners upon every mountain and hill and at this time of restoring of all things you be silent in your Countries behalf against those serpentine hearts of bitterness and razers swords and coals of Juniper of fiery tongues at home and abroad in those their former and present reproaches scoffings mockings and revilings of your Nation and thousands of innocent honest-hearted people there upon that their suspected account of former times disloyalty forsaking and rebelling against God and his Vicegerent your Native Prince Then what may they say but that you are wrapt up with others in the same guiltiness and that such onely as keep the law contend with the wicked His Majesties gracious Indulgence to some by Pardon in this day of the Lords deliverance to himself may exempt from the evil of punishment of men but not from the evil of sin before God or shame amongst others in the like transgression yea the Pardon presupposes their confessed Guiltiness in the Law for the sick and not the whole needeth the physician And their guilt may be thought to be of knowledge also more then of ignorance for the Rich onely and Ringleaders of former times and not the Poor are hitherto pardoned till the Kings heart as an Angel of God do forget all the conceived infirmities of his honest-hearted people in the way his Royal wisdom shall think fit In the like condition with the Pardoned are the Heirs and Children of them that are dead for albeit by death their fathers personal reproach doth cease yet in the children of those parents does their shame still remain with the rest that are living in the world till their former ways be justified by uprightness and integrity of heart whatever be the professed repentance or contrary present actings of the one or the other by the changed face of providences in times of a new heaven and a new earth and their undeserved reflections and forsakings of their first friends of whose simplicity of heart and honest meaning and weakness to their utter ruine this day they before made use and served themselves by in the time of their former deportments for these asserted publike ends What return can you make to your Country who thus have assembled you at the command of their Prince when you clear not his countenance to them in his perswasion of their former Loyalty nor vindicate by Declaration and Justice upon the wicked the honour of your Nation amongst men And who knows whether you are not met together for such a day as this and therein to restore the perished and relieve the distressed by your Publike Faith and preserve the honour of your Nation from the unjust opprobry of Fides Publica fides Punica and the credit of Gospel-Reformation from fraud deceit and oppression Else be assured if you altogether hold your peace at this time enlargement and deliverance from this unjust infamy by wicked men and sufferings of the simple in estate shall rise to Scotland from another place but you and your fathers houses may be destroyed And in the mean time the uprightness of Scotlands heart and honest loyal meaning to God and their Soveraign Lord the King in their respective bounds and relations with subordination of the one to the other notwithstanding of all obloquie contradiction calumny and detraction by Nations or single persons is and shall be sealed up firm and sure in heaven before the Lord the searcher of all hearts and his holy Angels To the praise of his truth and righteousness and the comfort and rejoycing of every good Christian and Subject there at the day of their death and particular Judgement before the Tribunal of Christ and at the Great day of the Lord when every man shall receive his reward according to his works done in the flesh And that Publike Faith to the upright-hearted people in the work albeit at this time also neglected by you shall be to their posterity the harvest of their faith upon earth Peace and inward consolations shall be sown for the righteous whatever be their outward troubles and necessities And some time or other their horn shall be exalted for the grace of their simplicity of heart all along the way for a just and discreet Reformation of Religion and sure establishment of Royal Authority in the house of David while Sun and Moon endureth upon the pillars of Truth Justice Righteousness and Mercy FINIS