for her Self and Family she would have a Mass in Private But the Preachers decrying that Toleration in their Pulpits produced a Dangerous Tumult against the Freedom of her own Chappel After several Riots and Open Rebellions which were still promoted and seconded by the Presbytery In July 1564. the Queen was Marri'd to the Lord Dainly And June 19. 1566. brought to bed of a Son afterward James VI. in the Castle of Edinburgh In 1567. they sent the Queen Prisoner to Lochlevin and pass'd an Act of Assembly for the Securing and Disposing of the Person of the Infant-Prince with Direction to move the Queen to a Resignation of her Government and the Appointing of a Regent during his Minority which by Force and Menaces her Majesty was compell'd to do and her Renunciation and Commission Publish'd at the Market-Cross at Edinburgh the Prince being Crown'd and Anointed King in the Church of Striveling the Third day after the Publication being July 29. On the 20th of August the Earl of Murray was Elected Regent King James being as yet but Thirteen Months old At the Beginning of the Spring in 1568. the Queen made her Escape and was convey'd to Hamilton where several Lords meeting in Council her Resignation was declar'd Void as Extorted by Fear and Proclamation issu'd against the Rebels that had Usurped her Authority The Dispute in short was brought to a Battle May 13. the Queens Army Defeated and She her self fled into England for Protection where the Faction never left the Persute of her till they brought her to the Scaffold But here you 'l say there was a Foreign Interest and Popery in the Case If That were All how came it that they handled the Young King at as Course a rate every jot as they had treated his Mother tho' their Natural Prince and afterward the Celebrated Champion of the Protestant Cause The Government of Scotland had been Administer'd by Four Regents when upon the Earl of Morton's desire to be Discharg'd of his Regency the King not twelve years old as yet accepted of it and his Acceptation thereof was Proclaim'd at Edinburgh March 12. 1577. where the Regent himself was Assisting As an Earnest of the Respect they bare to his Majesties Authority Andrew Melvil presented a Form of Church Government to the Parliament at Striveling in 1578. which they referr'd to certain Commissioners who agreed to such General Heads as did not touch the Authority of the King nor prejudg the Liberty of the State But this did not content Them so that they resolv'd to put their Conclusions in Practice the next Assembly without staying for a Ratification Spotswood's Hist. Fol. 302. In Glasgow the next Spring the Ministers put the Magistrates of the City upon Demolishing the Cathedral but the Tradesmen Interpos'd and Defended it In 1582. Montgomery was Process'd for Preaching at Glasgow The King by his Warrant commanded the Assembly to desist which the Moderatour peremptorily refus'd and thereupon the Officer pull'd him from his Seat and Clap'd him up in the Tolbuyth for which they Decreed him to be Excommunicate tho' the King himself earnestly perswaded them to the Contrary After this Contempt of the Kings Authority they made a Violent Seizure of his Person and carri'd him Prisoner to the Castle of Ruthen where they kept him Close Nine Months forcing him by a Writing under his hand to command the Duke of Lenox to Depart the Kingdom and Imposing upon him what Servants they pleas'd under pretence of Zeal to Religion and Care of his Person They did also Petition the next General Assembly at Edinburgh to give their sence of the Action Who made themselves Judges and did so highly approve of it that they appointed all Ministers to recommend the Actors of it as good Christians and Patriots pretending that there was no other way to preserve their Religion and Freedoms And yet this Duke dy'd soon after in France of the Reformed Communion For the Countenance of this Proceeding they force the King being but Seventeen years of Age to emit a Proclamation commanding all those that had Levy'd any Forces upon Pretence of his Restraint to Disband within Six hours upon Pain of Death and Declaring that he was at Liberty and had only his Friends about him In the Summer following under Colour of Viewing the Castle of St. Andrews It was contriv'd that the Gates should be shut upon his Followers and so he deliver'd himself from his Guard It would be but the same thing over again to Enumerate the Repeated Usurpations of their Government and the Contumacy of their Ministers their Rebellious Practises at Striveling Glasgow c. and that Horrid Outrage against the Octavians in Edinburgh Decemb. 17. 1596. When the King appoints a Feast they Indict a Fast the Council Orders the Ministers of Edinburgh to give Thanks for his Majesties Deliverance from Gowry's Conspiracy Their Answer was That they were not acquainted with the Business And when it was urg'd that they were only to affect the People with the Sence of his Majesties having scap'd a great Danger they Reply'd That nothing should be Vtter'd in the Pulpit but That whereof the Truth was known Nay they would not so much as pray for the Kings Mother when her Death was Resolv'd upon tho' the very Form was prescrib'd in the most Innocent Terms Imaginable viz. That it might please God to Illuminate her with the Light of his Truth and save her from the apparent Danger wherein she was cast And This would have been the Issue too of the English Project under Queen Elizabeth as appears by the Insolence of their Demands and the Virulence of their Writings if the Conspiracy had not been nipp'd in the Bud. The Scottish Insurrection in 1637. was only their Old Method Reviv'd Of which in a few Words Out of the Kings Declaration upon That Subject Upon occasion of a Seditious Uproar at Edinburgh Octob. 18. 1637. his Late Majesty order'd the Discharge of all such Meetings upon Pain of Death And his Proclamation being Publish'd at Sterling Lithgow and Edinburgh was encounter'd with a Protestation against it at the same Times and Places and with the same Solemnity as if they had been Both by the same Authority Immediately upon this Affront the Protestors erect Publique Tables of Council for Ordering the Affairs of the Kingdom without the Consent of the King and in Contempt of his Majesty and Council At These Tables having First agreed upon their Covenant they conclude upon Certain Propositions of Instruction to the Party No Answer must be made to State-Questions without Advice All Proclamations to be Protested against and to take nothing for Satisfaction Less than their Whole Demand This way of Anti-Protesting they made use of from first to last Upon his Majesties Proclamation for Dissolving the Assembly at Glasgow 1638. they did not only Protest and Refuse to Depart but Cited the Kings Council that Sign'd the Proclamation to appear before the King and
Parliament In This their Protestation his Majesty observes Eleaven Nullities and that In One Hour they made Void Six General Assemblies tho' Two of them Wholly and the Other Four in Part were Ratifi'd by Acts of Parliament In Another Hour they Damn'd all the Arminian Tenets without Defining what they were In Another Hour they Depriv'd One Arch-Bishop and Two Bishops And in One hour more they Abolish'd Episcopacy Deposing Four Bishops barely upon a Libel read in the Pulpit without Examining any One Witness against them and only for the Crime of Obeying Parliaments and General Assemblies All This they do as having the Cognition of Ecclesiastical Matters They Arm the Subject Block up and Force the Kings Forts and Castles Intercept Victuals and Ammunition for their Relief Tax the People Levy Soldiers against the King Issue out Warrants to Sheriffs for Commissioners of Parliament and when they are Ask'd why they do these things 'T is for the Good of the Church they say the Glory of God and the Preservation of Religion Kings Declaration pag. 415. These are the men that bind their Kings in Chains and their Nobles in Links of Iron according to the very Letter And you shall now see that the English Covenanters are as good Text-Proof as their Brethren Take Notice here That my Observations are restrain'd simply to the Actings of the Presbyterians without Imputing any thing to Them that was done by the Influence of the Independents It appears from what is already said that The Name of God was the Prologue to Both Rebellions The Form and Doctrine of the English League the very Translation of the Scottish It rests now to shew that the English Practices are so likewise and how far they have put their Seditious Positions in Execution What was the English way of Remonstrating and Declaring but the Scottish Mode of Protesting The General Assembly declines the Kings Authority in the Case of Treason and so did the House of Commons in the Case of their Members The Kirk refus'd to pray for the Queen and our Mock-Parliament made it Penal to Pray for the King And they both of them took upon themselves to Convene Assemblies Impose Othes and Subscriptions by their own Power To Banish the Kings Servants and Scandalize his Ministers And with a Scottish Grace the English Faction tells the King in Answer to one of his Declaration That his Suggestion is as False as the Father of Lies can Invent. As they agreed in the Intent of the Reformation So did they also in the Manner of it They Alarm'd the City of London at Midnight that the King was coming with his Papists to fire the Town and burn the Citizens in their Beds the Common Pretences of Scotland And after the Scottish Methode too they Rifled Winchester-Church in 1642. Burnt the Communion-Table in an Ale-House brake open several Leaden Chests wherein the Bodyes of some of the Saxon Kings were Deposited Casting the Dust into the Air and throwing the Bones of them at the Windows Hacking with their Swords the Crown that was there upon the very Statue of the King With the same Barbarity they proceeded at Chichester where they Pickt out the Eyes of Edw. VI. his Picture saying that all this was long of his Book of Common Prayer At Canterbury and Rochester they did the Like and turn'd the Church of St. Paul both into a Stable and an Ale-House It might serve in one word for all to say That they have put all their Positions before spoken of in Practice The Two Houses by their own Authority set up Ordinances for Laws settl'd the Militia stil'd themselves the Supreme Judicature of the Kingdome Chang'd the Whole Frame of the Government Punish'd those as Traytours that serv'd the King Seiz'd the Kings Forts Towns Magazines and Revenues Rais'd an Army against him Impos'd Taxes Excise Customes took away Episcopacy and the Common-Prayer and settled the Directory Proclaim'd Fasts spoil'd the King of his Authority made him a Prisoner under Colour of taking him into Protection and then for a Sum of Money with Judas betray'd their Master to be Crucifi'd All this and More was not only the Effect of the Covenant but the very Drift and Meaning of it as appears by the Artificial Emprovement of it to all their Purposes being the very Test of the Faction No man was allow'd to Practice the Law No man Admitted into the Ministry that had not taken it and it was Impos'd under a Penalty upon the Whole Nation And Then After the Taking of it it was made Death for any man to return to his Allegiance and all the Deserters of the Conspiracy that were murther'd under a Form of Justice were put to Death for Breach of Covenant When the late King May 1646. in his Distress apply'd himself to the Scotch and they receiv'd him as into Protection his Friends were kept from him at Newcastle by as strict an Order as afterwards at Holdenby But they Formaliz'd the Matter however how Base a thing it would be for Scotland to Deliver up their King and how Inconsistent with the Duty of their Covenant and how Dishonourable to the Army to whom in his Extreme Danger he had Recourse for Safety The Scotch Commissioners also Aggravating the Matter If it be Contrary say they to the Law and Common Practice of Nations to deliver up the meanest Subject fled to them tho' it be for the greatest Crimes How much more would the World abroad Condemn our Army for a Base Dishonourable Act if they should deliver up their Head and Soveraign having cast himself into their Hands to be Dispos'd of at the Arbitrament of another Nation Nay says the Chancellour I shall desire that the Word of Disposing of the Kings Person may be rightly understood for to Dispose of the Kings Person as Both Houses or Both Kingdoms shall think fit may in some sence be to Depose or worse But alas these Difficulties only stuck till the Price was agreed upon How Stiff they were till the Bargain was Struck and after That how Flat and Supple For Then he tells his Majesty plainly If he refuses the Propositions Both Kingdoms will be Constrain'd for their Mutual Safety to agree and settle Religion and Peace without him And he is told afterward by the Pretended Declaration of the Kingdome of Scotland of Jan. 16. 1646. that by reason of his Refusal there would be a Joynt Course taken by Both Kingdoms concerning the Disposal of his Person And Then a little After with respect had to the Safety and Preservation of his Royal Person In the Preservation and Defence of the True Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms According to the COVENANT c. On Feb. 12. They Exhort their Covenanted Brethren the Assembly at Westminster to hold fast their Solemn League and Covenant to Entertain a Brotherhood and Vnity between the Nations but not a Syllable of the King And again Jan. 18. the General Assembly
of the Kirk presses the Two Houses to a Speedy Establishment of the Presbytery And here again no Mention of his Majesty But what 's the Sum now of these Propositions that stand in Competition with the Kings Freedome Life and Dignity First Only the Justifying and Confirming of all they had done Secondly The giving away of the Militia of England and Ireland for Twenty Years with Power to Raise Men and Money Thirdly His Majesty must Swear and Sign the Covenant Impose it upon the Three Kingdomes Abolish Episcopacy and settle Religion as Both Houses shall Agree Fourthly All Honours since 1642. must be made Null and Void No Peers admitted in Parliament for the Future but by Consent of the Two Houses Fifthly All Great Places and Offices of Honour in England and Ireland to be Dispos'd of by Consent of Parliament and in Fine his Majesty must deliver to Death Beggery and Scorn all that ever Serv'd him Thus was this Glorious Prince Betray'd and Sold according to the COVENANT Here 's the True English of it and the Divinity of that Moloch to which this Nation has offer'd up so many Noble Sacrifices Are not our Fundamental Laws Persons Consciences and Estates Secure and Happy under the Care and Wing of such Blessed Guardians How meanly have we Prostituted the Reverence of the Land and of the Government to the Lusts of these Imperious Shameless Ravishers Take Notice here of some of the Kirks following Resolves upon the Main Point in Question First That the Kings Taking of the Scotch Covenant and Passing Some of the Propositions does not Warrant Scotland to Assist him against England Secondly That upon bare Taking the National Covenant they may not Receive him Thirdly That the Clause in the Covenant for Defence of the Kings Person is to be understood In Defence and Safety of the Kingdom Fourthly That his Majesty shall Execute no Power in Scotland without satisfying every Point Fifthly That Refusing the Propositions he shall be dispos'd of according to the Covenant and the Treaties Nor would the Two Houses Probably have Us'd him any better if he had gone to Them For upon his First withdrawing himself they Voted it Treason and Death without Mercy for any Man to Harbour and Conceal the Kings Person upon a Supposition that his Majesty was then in London This was the 4th of May and on the 6th the Commons Voted him to Warwick Castle which was Unvoted again upon the 9th and in June they Voted the Kings going to the Scots a Design to prolongue the War Let me not appear to Confound the Faction of Scotland with the Nation for no Country affords greater Instances of Integrity and Honour Nay I have heard it from good Authority that the Kings going into Scotland which he most earnestly desir'd was carry'd in the Negative only by Two Voyces His Majesty is now under the Care of his New Governours and a Prisoner to the Covenanters at Holdenby where he desir'd only Two of his Chaplains that had not taken the Covenant and Then a Common-Prayer Book for his own Private Use but Neither could be Granted him At the Isle of Wight the same Faction had the handling of him again where they still Treated his Majesty much at the same Rate And they Us'd his Royal Successour not much better in 1650. When to Auspicate the Project for the Recovery of his Crown in the very Dependence of a Treaty at Breda with him upon the Instigation of the Kirk they Murther'd the Brave and Generous Montross with the most horrid Circumstances of Malice Imaginable And how they Us'd the King himself afterward at his Coming among them I am not willing to mention Nay when the Time appointed by Gods Providence was come for the Restoring of the King the Presbyterian Ministers in London Publish'd a kind of Squinting Gratulation upon That Occasion as if Popery were coming in with his Majesty for Company And the same Party upon the Re-Admission of the Secluded Members press'd upon the House of Commons these Two following Votes for the Justification of the Rebellion in 1641. and in order to the Exclusion of the Royal Party from the next Choice 1. I do Acknowledge and Declare that the War undertaken by Both Houses of Parliament in their Defence against the Forces rais'd in the Name of the Late King was Just and Lawful and that Magistracy and Ministry are the Ordinances of God 2. Resolv'd that All and Every Person who have Advised or Voluntarily Aided Abetted Assisted in any War against the Parliament since the First day of Jan. 1641. His or Their Sons unless He or They have since manifested their Good Affections to This Parliament shall be Vncapable to be Elected to serve as Members of the next Parliament So that as their Feud against Kings is Implacable their Aversion likewise to all those that Love their Prince descends from Generation to Generation How Inconsistent Presbytery is with Monarchy is sufficiently manifest But they 'l say for themselves that Kings may be Misled and that it is not the Form of Government that is Grievous to Them but the Male-Administration of it To which it may be Reply'd That All Governours under what Form soever are to Them Alike where they themselves are not Vppermost And that the Reformation of Personal Failings will not do their Business without the Total Subversion of all those wholesome and Profitable Laws that stand in the Way of their Discipline It being their Custome to Reproach Princes and their Ministers for straining the Prerogative while they Themselves at the same time Usurp over Kings Parliaments and People And Trample under their Feet All that is Sacred in Society and Government Princes 't is true may have their Errours and their Passions but what have the Innocent Laws done Are They Popishly Affected too But where ever Presbytery reigns there can be no Law but their own Will Did they not in Scotland Damn Bishops as Anti-Christian and Deprive Ecclesiastiques of their Voyces in Parliament Convention and Council notwithstanding Three Acts of Parliament that is to say of 1584. 1597. and 1606. expresly to the Contrary And did they not pronounce the Acts of the Assemblies of Glasgow and Perth to be Void and Illegal tho' Enacted as Municipal Laws Ask them now says his Late Majesty Large Declaration Pag. 416. by what Authority they do these things expresly against Acts of Parliament Acts of Council and Acts of General Assemblies They Answer that Those Acts of Assembly were unduely Obtain'd and that now they have Rescinded them For Acts of Parliament and Acts of Council they Express great Wonder that any man should Question their Authority over-Them For if Christ be above the King Christs Council must likewise be Supreme Parliaments being only the Council of the Kingdom And for the Kings Privy Council and Judges they must submit to the Councellours and Judges under Christ who is the King of Kings Nor is