Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A37366
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A declaration of the army of England vpon their march into Scotland signed in the name and by the appointment of his excellency the Lord General Cromwell and his councell of officers, Jo. Rushworth, secretary.
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England and Wales. Army.
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1650
(1650)
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Wing D637; ESTC R29702
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7,520
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20
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A DECLARATION OF THE ARMY OF ENGLAND Vpon their March into Scotland Signed in thâ— Nâ—me and by the Appointment of his Excellency the Lord Generall CROMWELL and his Councell of Officers Jo. Rushworth Secretary Newcastle Printed by S. B. 1650. A DECLARATION of the ARMY of ENGLAND upon their March into SCOTLAND To all that are Saints and Partakers of the Faith of Gods Elect in Scotland WE the Army of England doe from the bottome of our Hearts wish like Mercy and Truth Light and Liberty with our selves from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ Although we have no cause to doubt but that the Declaration of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England bearing Date the 26 of June 1650. And Published to manifest to the World the justice and necessity of sending their Army into Scotland may satisfie all impartiall and uninterested men in all the Nations round about us the matters of Fact therein contained being true and the Conclusions made from thence and the resolutions thereupon taken agreeable to the Principles of Religion Nature and Nations And therefore it may seem to some if not improper yet superfluous for us their Army to say any more Yet however out of our tendernesse towards you whom we look upon as our Brethren and our desire to make a distinction separation of you from the rest as who through the cunning practises of some wicked and designing men byassed by particular Interests or for want of a true and right Information and Representation of the great and wonderfull transactions wrought amongst us and brought to passe by the meer finger of our God may possibly be scandalized at some late actions in England and thereby be involved in that common cause so much from Heaven declared against by blasting all Persons and Parties that at any time in the least under what pretence or disguise soever ingaged therein and so with them to become partakers of their miseries We have therefore thought sit to speak to some particulars and that as in the presence of the Lord to whose grace and in the dread of whose name we doe most humbly appeale and who should we come to a day of engagement will be a sore witnes against us if we utter these things in hypocrisie and not out of bowels of love to perswade the hearts and consciences of those that are godly in Scotland that so they may be with drawne from partaking in the sinne and punishment of evill doers or that at least we might exonerate our selves before God and Man do Remonstrate as followeth And for as much as we beleeve many godly People in Scotland are not satisfied with the proceedings of this Nation concerning the death of the late King the rejection of his Issue the change of the Government and severall actions conversant thereabout Although it cannot be supposed that we shall in this Paper meet with all objections that may be made these very particulars alone requring more lines then we intend in the whole Yet we briefly say That we were engaged in a warre with the said King for the defence of our Religion and Liberties and how many times Propositions for a safe and well-grounded peace were offered to him and how often he refused to consent thereto you well know which according to humane accompt he might have closed with had not the righteous God who knoweth the deceitfull heart of man and is the preserver of mankinde â—specially of his people in his secret judgement denied him a heart to ascent thereto By which refusals he made it appeare that nothing lesse would satiâ—fie then to have it in his own power to destroy Religion and Liberties the subversion whereof he had so often attempted That He was a man guilty of more innocent bloud in England Ireland and Scotland even of those he ought to have preserved as a Father his Children then any of his predecessors or we think then any History mentioneth the guilt whereof he brought upon his Family by solemne appeales to God That the Sonne did tread in the Fathers steps and pursue his designes destructive to Religion and Liberty That a Party in Parliament false to God and to their trust were willing and did endeavour to betray the cause into the late Kings hands That a remaining party desiring to be true to God and to the people that intrusted them out of integrity of heart and fearing that the high displeasure of God would fall upon them if they had not done it did bring to justice and cause to be executed the said King did reject the Person now with you did lay aside the House of Lords an estate not representing the people nor trusted with their Liberties Yet at that time very forward to give up the Peoples Rights and obstruct what might save them and alwaies apt enough to joyne with Kingly Interest against the Peoples Liberties whereof we wish you have not like sad experience and did for the good of the people resolve the Government into a Common-wealth And having done all this that they are not accomptable to any other Nation is sufficient to say to you except it be to excite you to rejoyce in this wonderfull work of God and to be thankfull to him for so much deliverance as you have thereby and leave the rest to the State of England to whom it doth only and properly belong who have manifested their regular proceedings therein according to the true and equitable intent of the constitution of England and the Representors of the people in Parliament in their severall and respective Declarations if they be looked into to which we referre you Besides it is worthy consideration with how many providences this Series of action hath been blest which would require a Volume to recount If Treaties be urged against us It is easie to say by whom they were broken and how eminently even by the then full Authority of the Parliament of Scotland and the Invasion by Duke Hamilton and yet that not the first breach neither And if it be said That hath been Protested against and revoked since we aske doth that make up the breach so as to challeng England still upon Agreements and Articles you know as to right it doth not except you suppose that England made their bargaine so that Scotland might breake and England remain bound whereas it is a known Law of Nations that in the breach of the League by the one Party the other is no longer obliged If the Couenant be alleaged against us this may be said by us with honesty and clearenesse Religion having therein the first place civill Liberties the next the Kings Interest and consitution of Parliament the last and these with subordination one to another The Covenant tyed us to preserve Religion and Liberty as the ends of it even when these were inconsistent with the preservation of the Kings Interest and the frame of Parliament because when the means and the end cannot both be enjoyed
the command of that Army into England and leaving his Brother and other Kindred in power in Scotland Thus upon the same Ground and pretence to carry on the Kingly Interest have you been twice deceived and now he is brought in among you who hath turned every stone and tryed all friends and. Allyes in Forraine parts endeavoured commotions at home by his wicked and malignant Instruments commissioned Rupert the French and all that Pyraticall Generation who doe spoil take plunder and destroy our ships and trade at Sea and all to the end he might destroy the people of God and the peace of the three Nations And now being by his Mother and the Popiâ—h Interests abroad â—ouncelled thereto hath made a complyance with you as his last refuge who even whilest he was treating with you had his heart set upon Montrosse and his accomplices writing Letters and sending particular Orders wo kin and upon his Popish Army in Ireland to whom he had given Commissions and whom he still owned as his faithfull Subjects not with stanall the innocent blood by them shed and would never be induced to comply or close with the Covenant and Presbytery till utterly disappointed of all those his Malignant and Popish hopes and confidences Is there not now just cause for all good men with you to feare that one so bred so engaged and interested and meerly in such a way comming in to you doth but watch his opportnuity to speak nothing of the weight of the blood of Saints under the altar erying still for vengeance upon him and that family till by his influence upon your Army which you know how composed he may gaine his ends upon you and how likewise the generality of the people of Scotland are affected is not unworthy of your most serious consideration nor of a friendly intimation from us But that which most awakens us is That notwithstanding all this and all the wrongs done to England from Scotland they refuse to doe us right so that what wrongs soever we have or shall sustain must be without remedy and we also without security for the future as is sufficiently expostulated in the Parliament of Englands Declaration afore mentioned and the seeds laid of a perpetuall Warre by taking our grand Enemy into your bosoms and your Engagement to him in the late Treaty with Him to restore Him to the possession of England and Ireland and therefore we call Heaven and Earth to witnesse whether or no we have not cause to defend our selves by hindring the present power of Scotland from taking their time and advantage to impose thus upon us and whether they have now any just reason to wonder at the approach of an Army to their borders and the taking some of their Ships by ours yea whether our coming into Scotland with an Army upon so clear a ground be any other then a just and necessary defence of our selves for preservation of those rights and liberries which divine providence hath through the expence of so much blood and treasure given us and those amongst you have engaged they will if they can wrest from us Unlesse it must be taken for granted That the Parliament of England ought to sit still and be silent whilest their ruine is contrived their friends and brethren destroyed by Sea and Land whom in conscience and duty both before God and Man they ought to preserve And now we come to speake to all those who are with in the â—â—mpasse of the Title of this Declaration That we undertake this businesse in the fear of God with bowels full of love vea full of pitty to the Inhabitants of the Country and if it shall please God to make Scotland sensible of the wrongs done to us and to give to the Commonwealth of England a satisfying security against â—â—ute injuries we shall rejoyce But if that may not be obtayned we shall desire such as feare God not to joyne or have to doe with those who are the authors actors of so much evill and mischiefe against their neighbours And we dare say to the prayse of God That that which moves us to this greâ—t undertaking is not any reliance upon the arme of flesh or being lifted up with the remembrance of former successes or the desire of accomplishing any designes of our own that we have fore-layd but the full assusance we have that our cause is just and righteous in the sight of God looking at all precedent changes and the successes that have produced them not as the work of the policy or strâ—ngth of Man but as the eminent actings of the providence and pover of God to bring forth his good will and pleasure concerning the things which he hath determined in the world And we are confident that as he hath hitherto gloriously appeared so he will still bearing witnesse to the righteousnesse of this cause in great mercy and pitty of the infirmities and faylings of us his poore creatures And we doe most humbly implore his Divine Majesty to give a mercifull testimony whether the actings of divers men amongst you have not proceeded from Worâ—dly Interests together with the rancour and bitternesse of their Spirits who we feare through envy at Instruments have refused to acknowledge his hand and goodnesse in the accomplishment of these great changes and whether ours have not come from the sinplicity of our and other his poor servants hearts who we trust have desired though in the middest of mâ—nifold weakenesses to follow him in integrity through difficult paths having nothing but danger and ruine appearing to the flesh and little to encourage us saving those signall manifestations of his presence in those high acts of his providence and the feare of his name lest â—e going before we should not follow And this we can further adde That nothing is so predâ—â—â—nant within us next to our duty to God not to betray a cause to which he hath so much witnest as the love we haâ—e towards those that feare God there who may possibly suffer through their own mistakes or our disability to distinguish in a common calamity of which Christian love we hope we gave some proofe and testimony when we were last in Scotland with this Army and were by God made instrumentall to break the power of those that then oppressed the Godly Party there and were then ready at their desire to doe every thing on their behalfe which might put them into the seat of Authority and Power whose consciences knows this is true and for which this late Act of Engagement to their new King against England is to good requitall nor their beaping upon us the reproach of a Sectarian Army a Christian dealing all which we doe with comfort commend to God and can notwithstanding all this say by the Grace of God We can forgive and forget those things and can and doe desire of God that the preâ—ious in Scotland may be seperated from the vile which is the end of this our Paper And to the truth of this let the God of Heaven in his great mercy pardoning our weakenesses judge of us when we come to meet our Enemies in the field if through the perversenesse of any in Authorâ—ty with you God shall please to order the decision of this controversie by the Sword which we from our hearts beseech the Lord to avert and to give you the like Christian and Brotherly affection towards us which we by Gods grace beare towards you Signed in the Name and by the Appointment of his Excellency the Lord Generall Cromwell and his Councell of Officers Jo. Rushworth Secretary FINIS