our hands and resigned into theirs who are the creators of our dangers and have declared for and thereby diverse times exasperated our greatest Enemy against us In Novem. 1643. before the Covenant was consummated the Lord Generall Essex moved in Parliament for the shortning of our war that the King who perchance was then encouraged to prolong the same out of hope of impunity at last in case his arms should miscarry might have a peremptory day set Him to come in or else to know his danger and this was consented to by both Houses but obstructed by the Scoch Commissioners what service was done to the King by this obstruction of the Scots and divers other the like ambidextrous dealings since that time and how much longer the war was protracted by it and how much mischief the same has at last drawn upon the Scots as well as us time has clearly enough demonstrated And yet still upon this the meanest and most intricate article of the Covenant they think they may break the unity and peace of great Brittain against one of the most indisputable fundamental tyes of the Covenant and that onely to shew their zeal to an Anti-covenanter which is a breach as indisputable and fundamentall as the former The intrinsecall form of the Covenant binds one party to assist the other against a common enemy it binds not one party to be assistent against the other for how can that be call'd assistence which is direct opposition Besides it binds specially to assist against such an enemy as is injurious to the others right freedom and property and can the Scots perform this bond to us when that which they call assistance to us is opposition against us even by taking away our right freedome and property for what right can remain to us whilest we are subjected to their forces what freedome whilest we are to be judged by their discretion What property when we have lost the independency of equals Certainly if we covenanted with the Scots as equall parties we did not covenant with them as superior Judges and if we had so covenanted with them our covenanting by Oath with God had been superfluous but we hope that will not be held superflous and therefore we will not endeavour to assoil our selves before the Scots we will onely in charity let them know how we have hopes to be assoiled before God The change of Government in England which could not be without the execution of the late King and rejection of his posterity more then they could be without change of Government was urged upon us and God before whom we plead knows we had not long premeditated it before nor imbraced it willingly at last by two unanswerable irresistable arguments The first was drawn from our duty to God the second from the naturall necessary care of our own preservation The first argument pressed us hard that what God had commanded could not be reversed by any act or pact of man that God had commanded us to punish blood with blood in all persons whatsoever under the power and force of our Laws and therefore our Covenant could not exempt the King himself If it be said that the King of England was above all Law that has been disputed by the sword these many years and decided for us by signall victories and the Scots have appeared as far upon that Triall as we have done and after that triall t is unequall for us to descend now to any other We prescribe nothing to other Nations whose Kings have a Legislative power and thereupon are solati Legibus and have their very wils interpreted and observed as Laws nor do we censure such States as have Princes subject to Laws yet use not rigor in all cases whatsoever We are willing that every one should stand or fall to his own Master Onely when immuring sequestring deposing impoysoning of Princes has been very frequent in the world that no Nation can be excused thereof at some time or other this seems beyond admiration that our judiciall publick execution upon the late Charles should undergo an harsher censure then all these meerly because it wanted not the due solemnities of Law and Justice to attend it May a Prince be reduced from his publick capacitie and when He is made a private person shall he be treated so as no private person may be treated Shall he be subjected to clandestine unlawfull proceedings belowe the right of a common person because He was once more then a common person and shall either Jurists or Statists that have any insight into the Laws of God and Nations stand for a secreted veiled justice such as blushes and dares not shew her face in open Court yet passe neglects upon that justice which as far abhors darknes and disdains the use of masks Our next argument was drawn from the hard necessity that was incumbent upon us for saving our selves from utter ruin Divers times we had made humble addresses to the King for a cordiall pacification the Lord knows our sincerity therin and the Scots that are now our accusers were for divers years our witnesses in that behalf but before 1646. the K had too much confidence in his English and Irish abettors and so would not hearken In the year 1646. the Kings English Forces in England failing we made new addresses at Newcastle where the King was in the nature of a Prisoner but we soon found at Newcastle that the Kings confidence was still supported there also by something that had been infused unto Him by the Scots and so that hope prooved frustrate likewise The dealing of the Scots herein was very close the English that were in Commission with the Scots for governing the affairs of that Army in the Scotch Quarters knew nothing by what invitation the King was drawn from Oxford thither nor to what purpose Montreil the French Agent was there solicititing but when our Propositions were rejected and that the Scots who joyned with us in tendring them began to dispute the Kings interests their own against us in other things and that their learned mouth Louden professed against the rigour of our capitulations in the same elaborate Oration to the King wherein He so zealously laid open the necessity of them we could not but discern a halting in that Nation and that that halting had as strange an operation upon the King The King thought now He had gotten as great a strength of Scots in the North the same being likewise fain away from our strength as He had lost of the English at Nasby and in the West and for our parts had the Scots been gold-proof we should have thought so too The disposing of the King was the matter in question the Scots were not desirous to take him into Scotland nor would leave him in England but being under our pay within our own territories where we had publick persons in Commission with them without the Parliaments or their Commissioners consents they would be a guard
Him then the Masse was formerly to his French Grand-father in the like case and if it were yet divers dulcifications might be added and accordingly divers mixtures were used to qualifie and make more potable that draught Advertisements had been sent from the yong Kings devout Mother in France and from her most Holy Father at Rome that in such an extremity the Oath was compulsory that the matter of the Oath was subject to many severall yea contrary interpretations that He should therefore be either left to be his own Interpreter at last in case He prevailed or if not yet He should be discharged of any contrary strained interpretation The truth was the present Power in Scotland had condemned Hamilton for invading England in behalf of an Anti-covenanting King and so it would be now too grosse for them to do the same thing till they had a Covenanting King whereupon it became impossible to them to relax the King of this condition The young King it may be might demand why they should more scruple fighting for an Anti-covenanting King then to fight against a Covenanting brother since the Covenant lost no more credit by the one then by the other and perhaps He might further demand why their conditions to Him were so rigorous since his to them pressed nothing but what was pleasing viz a joint concurrence against a Common enemy But his Mothers Councellors thought not fit to clog the debate with such intricacies All Scoch punctilioes being at last waved for the young King was so far from capitulating about his reception in Scotland that He was more forward to capitulate against his trusting himself there it came to the question what He should obtain at their hands in relation to England For satisfaction herein it was assured that the Scots had already proclaimed him King of Great Brittain that they had alreadie Protested against the governing party in England as guilty of Usurpation that they did now ingage to contribute their utmost endeavours by all necessarie and lawfull means according to the Covenant and duties of loyall Subjects to restore him to the peaceable possession of his other Dominions according to his undoubled right of succession This was the tenor in briefe of that Parlee here is an inthroning promist to the yong King by all necessary and lawfull meanes according to the Covenant and here force of armes is not openly profest as a necessary and lawfull meanes according to the Covenant that the English might be â—uâ—d in the more security but â—is ambiguously implyed and secretly so explained to the young King and his Counsell that He might proceed with the more vigor and confidence Hereupon now rises the contest whether this ambiguity of expression and mentall equivocall reservation in the agreement be such as ought to delude the English or not The Scots still say no force of Arms is threatned against us and that if we flie unto force of Arms against them either upon this or former hostilities we do cauâ—lâ—sly invade them They solemnly invoke God as a witnesse and Judge that they have denyed us no right that they have done us no wrong that in this preventing warre we are meer invaders and returners of evill for good Yet we must understand to make this good before the Bar of Almighty God himself they waver and dâ—llie and double and seek to collude in their own plea for they do not simply deny their ingaging to use force against us but unlawfull force nor yet are they willing to confesse their force intended and justifie it openly as lawfull by the Covenant Surely in an appeal to Almighty God the case need not be presented with so much art and under the cover of such dubious reservations Let us take a little notice first how far they deny secondly how far they justifie their forcible assisting the yong King against us After the King was well satisfied with their meaning by private insinuations and had adventur'd his person into Scotland then further craft was thought fit to be used to blinde the English and retard their preparations and therefore the Committee of Estates in Scotland publisht that the Article in the Treaty of Bredah concerning restoring the yong King to his Crowne of England was not to binde till the Parliament and Kirke of Scotland had taken a previous consideration and given their determination concerning the lawfullnesse and necessitie thereof Behold the ingenuity of the Scots They conclude a warre and no warre To all the enemies of England 't is a declared warre against England To the English themselves 't is no warre till the Scotch Parliament and Kirke have further declared in it The enemies of England have hereupon just warning and timely summons to arme and colleague for Englands offence but in the presence of God they speake it the English themselves have no just â—aâ—â—â— noâ— provocation to provide for any defence at all Though this agreement was made by the Enemies of England with the Enemies of England and refâ—rres to the Covenant which ha's alwayes been expounded to the justifying of a warre with England upon this quarrell and though this agreement must signifie a full defiance against England to all others yet to the English it must signifie nothing God himselfe being admitted Judge The English had been once before invaded by the Parliament of Scotland upon the same pretexâ—s of the Covenant without any warning given when both the Nations were not onely in profest amity but also under the religious ties of a solemne League and yet now when the Parliament of Scotland ha's perâ—idiously violated that amity and those ties and iâ— moreover fâ—stned in a new Agreement and Covenant with the most active foe that England ha's in the world by Sea and Land and by the words of that Agreement and Covenant ha's obliged it selfe to recover the Throne of England to Him yet now 't is expected that the English should sit still and attend till the Parliament and Kiâ—ke of Scotland had further deside them Alas the prevention of a wound that is likely to be mortall is as necessary when it is possible as the warding of it and some stroakes are of that nature that they cannot be repelled by the buckler if they be not anteverted by the sword Therefore the fictions of the Cockatrices eyes want no ground in policy whatsoever they doe in Nature and 't is often seene in warres and seditions that the party which surprizes not is sure to be surpriz'd This caused the Parliament of England this last Summer to send a preventing Army into Scotland yet with an intension of defence not offence for it was manifest to us if wee did not pitch the warre there and there draw the first bloud wee did necessarily expose our selves to the first charge and impression of our enemies here and choose to erect the theater of warre within our own Dominions Moreover had wee been meere Assaylants or had wee been defendâ—nts in an equall
nor their sincerity Thirdly All these rigoâ—s and impositions of the Scots our backs must bowâ— and crouch under for the Covenants sake and that we may prove true to the most high God to whom we have lifted up our trembling hands Though we have discovered the Covenant to be a fâ—laâ—â—ous lubricous ambiguous contract as others besides the Contractors themselves now wrack it so that in the Scotch sense it makes us enemies to them in our sense it makes the Scots enemies to us in a third sense it serves the Papists against us both and though we are throughly informed that the young King is not onely licensed but enjoyned to take it by all his Popish Patrons and Allies and to make use of it as a sâ—are to both Nations yet we must take no exception against it Hamilton in 1648. expounded the Covenant in behalfe of the King and Kirk to the raising of a war against us yet the same powers in Scotland that condemned that war in him raise the same against us now upon the same exposition All the difference is this Hamilton fought for a King that had not taken the Covenant because He was never so far necessitated whereas the present powers in Scotl â—ight for a King tâ—at has Covenanted against his will choosing rather to perjure then â—o perish But let us aske the Scots seriously Whether is the greater enemy of the Covenant before God he that refuses to take it because it is against his conscience or he that takes it against his conscience because he dares not refuse it Well Gods judgements herein is by us both implord we cannot doubt but God in his due time will judge make his judgement undeniable Fourthly Though we indeed are not enemies to the Covenant but can justly plead for our selves that we are zealous for a true Reformation even whilst we dislike the Scotch patterne and that we are well-wishers to Monarchy elsewhere even whilst we make choise of Democracy in England upon diverse urgent emergent considerations yet all our pleas are rejected the very last plea of Armes from which no necessitated men besides are barred is in us most imperiously condemned as well after open tryall as before Nay when wee know our selves condemned by the Scots as Enemies to the Covenant and that the yong King to be brought in by force over us is particularly sworne against us in that he is generally sworne against all enemies of the Covenant we must take it as a sufficient answer to all our complaints that the King has no power to annoy any but enemies to the Covenant This is to heape Scornes upon the rest of our endurances for this all one as if they should insolently tell us that no man can hold any thing but by the Covenant and the Covenant can have neither enemies nor friends but such only as they declare to be such To pursue these Scornes also and improve them the higher against us they make their young King in his Declaration at Dunferlin revoke all his Commissions granted against us by Sea and Land to any of his Instruments that adhere not to the Covenant Do not we know that such a revocation is meerly â—udicâ—ous and jocular Could the Scots imagine that either Rupert at Sea or the Irish Papists by Land would obey such a revocation so signed at Dunferlin And if Ante-Covenanters should lay down their Commissions would it be more ease for us to be spoiled and destroyed by the hands of false Covenanters then by the hands of Ante-Covenanters May not this King do what Hamilton did May he not prevaile over a faction of Covenanters and by them assaile us as Hamilton did and if not so may he not be impowred nay is he not already bound by all the Covenanters in Scotland nemine conâ—radicente to treat us as enemies Will not God in earnest look down upon the makers of such jests Fifthly As we must prostrate our selves to a King to such a King exercised many years in bloudy feats against us before his pretensions to the Crowne obtruded upon us by such Faedifragrous neighbours and further hardned against us by such religious incentives so we must also stoope and kneel to him upon the most servile odious conditions that can be For first wee must come to a new change of Government for his sake By the present setled forme Government is now devolved and as it were naturally resolved into the hands of the people and as Monarchy cost us a vast effusion of bloud before it necessitated its own ejection so it is likely to cost as much now before it can be reestablisht Lyons and Elephants doe not teeme and propagate so often and easily as mice and ferrets doe nor can wee expect that such great alterations in great States as these are should be compast without much sore travaile and long continude throwes The Scots doe know well enough that our sectarian Party in England which they charge of usurpation ha's a great Army in Scotland ready to cope with all their Levies another as great in Ireland a Militia not unequall to both in England besides a puissant Armado at Sea and can they imagin that the suppressing of this sectarian party and re-investing of Monarchy is likely to prove an unbloudy busines Secondly As wee must be forced from the Government that now is so we must be forced into a new Module of Government that never was before in England knowne or heard of The supreme Power of England must now suffer a partition and have its residence in two severall Councells the one Ecclesiasticall the other Civil and so whilest in imitation of Scotland it transforms it self into an Amphisbaena and submits to the motions of two Heads it can hardly avoid dangerous disputes and dissentions In cases of the Kirk the King must hearken to Divines in matters politick the King must be observant of his Parliamenâ—s but if there happen a difference in mixt matters t is left to the peoples discretion to side and adhere as they see cause Surely t will be an uncooth innovation in England to see Kirkmen sit in an Assembly and publish Declarations concerning peace and warrs as they do now in Scotland and whether such an innovation may be conducing to a good accord and understanding in the State or no we leave to conjecture 3ly As we must subject our selves to these grand innovations so they must also be purchased by us with the price of some of our best blood some few of our principall Patriots heads must be payed down in hand for them It should seem their Idol the Covenant requires some sacrifice to make an attonement for the indignities and prophanations it has lately suffered in England and so foure or five mens lives are demanded as a just oblation But the Scots might understand that we are not yet so tame and that the demand of such an oblation from us is all one as the demand of many Hecatombes and
the effects are lesse supernaturall but when the effects are more stupendious and beyond reason the Scripture it selfe stiles this the making bare and the stretching forth of Gods arme They which are disaffected to the late egregious proceedings of God in the world will not but they shall see and owne this truth But let us returne to the procedure of our affaires when the Army saw it selfe surrounded with so many dangers and insulting enemies it began by some faintnesses and carnall doubts to grow dangerous and an enemy to it self it began to receive suggestions that the removing of a King and Kingly power was like to prove more unfeaseable then to treat a King into reason And this was likely to have proved the more banefull because the King by speciall graces was as ready to draw them into this ambuscado as they were prone by their irresolutions and diffidencies to run into it themselves for 't is thought all agreements with the King would have been short lived but if any had been made with the Army that would have bin but as Samsons wit hs and ropes which was the reason That the King upon whom Five Addresses of the Parliament had wrought nothing seemed to lay the Armies Proposals though little differing in substance exceedingly to heart Howsoever it pleased God at this low ebbe of things when the Army was weakest and most apt to be inveagled and when the King was securest and had most hopes to inveagle to break off that Treaty and then was brought on the last with the Parliament in the Isle of Wight which when it was likely to overturne all by accepting of the Kings Concessions then also did God make the Army his Instrument in preventing that sad conclusion The debate in Parliament after the returne of the Commissioners was Whether the Kings Concessions at that Treaty had been such as might make further applications hopefull or no and after a very long time spent the affirmative was Voted This Vote struck a true apprehension of an universall imminent danger into the Army for now an accord with the King by the sense of the Parliament was to be hoped for whereas in truth any accord besides an absolute submission of the King was sufficient to take away all hope for since the King unsubmitting had no visible obstacle betwixt him and his long eagerly pursued ends but the Army and any accord was certaine to discard or new form that Army the security of all our Laws and rights yea and lives was solely to depend upon the Kings Honour and what was honour in his sense who was so principled and who had now for diverse yeares waded through so much bloud and exposed himself and posterity to so certain a disinherison only to be true to his principles any ordinary man may determine Immediatly therfore after this Vote past the Army saw no other remedy to prevent their eminent overthrow but to lay a hand of force upon the affirmative Voters in Parliament and to bring the King to a tryall which were done accordingly and so both they prevail'd and we were preserved as to this day Some say t was more Noble to trust the King too much then too little but these consider not that Trust is not always alike free in this case distrust could ruin but a few and that by a legall course but Trust was likely to have ruin'd Millions and the Laws to boot Some of the Scotts say God was able to save Religion and Liberty in despight of the King had he prov'd perfidious and therefore if the King was not to be trusted yet God was These consider not that God holds himselfe tempted not trusted when we leave the use of ordinary hopefull meanes on Earth and rely upon unprovmist succour from Heaven Some say if the King was not to be trusted yet the Army had no lawfull warrant to judge of him and the Parliament but these consider not that extream eminent and otherwise insuperable dangers give private persons yea single private persons an extraordinary warrant to defend themselves and others and this Warrant will be avowed by necessity the exception that all Law admits to be within the reach of no Law and the danger was here extream because it concerned Life Religion Liberty and all that could be endeared to man it was likewise eminent because another day might have prevented them by disbanding or some other way Lastly it was otherwise insuperable for that there was no other Judge or hand on Earth that could hear and relieve them Others say still the danger was not so existent or manifest to other men as to the Army Let it be considered by these 1 That Nature has entrusted to every man a speciall custody of his owne safety and there is none of us all but would be loath that the same should be transferred to another mans care viz. in cases extraordinary where legall remedy cannot be had in a common way 2 In matters of fact where no full proof can be had every mans judgement is to be lesse peremptory and to take in as much of Charity as is possible Whether the King would indeed have broken his Trust or no and whether the Army did falsly pretend such a fear or no neither of these is matter of Law nor liable to any infallible proof as to the fact wherefore I may sin against charity if I passe my judgement against either but I cannot sin if I leave the judgement of both to God and to waite for his determination Some in favor of the King frame conjectures that He was probably very firme in performing because He was so slow and circumspect in ingaging and that if He had been lubricous or profuse of his faith He would not have refused an accord with the Parliament so long upon what tearms soever Others make use of contrary conjectures to a contrary purpose alleadging that 't was but art in the King to dally and to trifle away some time with the English to set the higher esteem upon his constancy and make them the more assured of his performance that He was absolutely secure of the Englishmens facility and plain-dealing and never made any doubt to be received at his own pleasure that he was never to his last day void of other confidences or destitute of other plots to compasse his designe by force that for his fidelity and the value he set upon promises and oaths and the infinite subtilty he had to evade any ingagement whatsoever scarce any forraign State or Prince in Europe was ignorant in that point That scarce ever any just or innocent man fell under the weight of such transcendent unparraleld calamities But I list not to leane upon such Reeds as conjectures are t is enough for me to know that whatsoever man intends or acts wickedly and perversly God orders and disposes rightly and profitably may he so do for England Scotland and Ireland in all these late mutations It remains now that
are not qualified by the Covenant to do these honorable things in England Alas if the Covenant does not add any new qualification to us to serve Religion and our King I hope no man will suspect that it takes away any such qualification from us as we had before And I hope ther 's no man here but thinks before any Covenant taken he had a warrant and capacity good enough to do honorable service to his Religion and his native Prince Let me speak plainly and bluntly I doubt these scruples do not arise against us as we are Scotch men and so have no power of judging in England but rather as we are of such a party in Scotland that the Kirk dares not confide in us this is lamentable halting before God Let us not therfore be driven into any unmanly irresolution by logicall nicitiâ—s and School-puntilioes let us beleeve that such just ends as we aime at inservingour God and Prince have just avenues belonging to them and that God ha's not hedgd in or inscons'd goodnesse from the approaches of men as he did once the Tree of Life My Lord and Gentlemen shall pure reformed Religion want an Advocate in this presence no it were labour lost here to recommend the excellencies of her you all are confident you cannot but be certaine that God hath rather sent a Cherubim to invite and wast you to her assistance in England then to affright you and drive you from her embraces with a flaming Sword Then as for the King you have a greater interest in him then the English have and he ought to have a greater interest in you then he has in the English Let me tell you if you should prove oblivious of his favours he might upraid divers of you with your Fields and Vineyards as Saul did once his Benjamites Do we not all know that his graces towards us ha's made him the lesse acceptable to the English and does not the whole world taxe us of our ill requitall at Newcastle I speake of that in your ears what can be said then either we must requite him better and acquit our selves better now or all generations to come will call us ungratefull and unjust and for my part I cannot ever construe the Covenant as that it intends to render us ungratefull or unjust T is true the enterprise we goe upon must cost blood and fall heavie upon some of our fellow Covenanters in England it were else impossible almost it should be great and honorable let this be our comfort the work is great and honorable and being so it must be acceptable to God and that which God accepts cannot but be feaâ—able for Qui dat finem dat media Let the justice of this war fix our resolutions upon the pursuance of it and when we are upon its pursuance let us pursue it wisely and strenuously as becomes Souldiers let no scruples defraud us of the opportunities and advantages that attendit for such in war are irrecoverable pretious to be brief let us not be held up with Treaties by the English Commissioners let us not wave Langdale nor leave Berwick and Carlisle to the Enemy when we are in peace let the laws of peace order us when we are in war let the Maxims of war sway c. the rather for that advantage lost in peace may be regained but an error committed in war can never be redeemed The next Gentleman was of a different opinion from either of these and you may suppose his Oratory was as followeth My Lords and Gentlemen YOu have heard how much may be said for a present war with England and how much may be said against it you have heard in what extreams the arguments both of a meer Souldier and a meer Scholler run and now having heard both and compar'd both you may the better extract out of both that which is truly counsellable at this present and that doubtlesse teaches warily to decline both extreams The Gentleman that spake last maintained well the justice and necessity of the worke that is to be done such a service to God and the King cannot but be just and necessary and our Covenant cannot obstruct any thing that is of it self just and necessary therefore to oppose our Covenant against this war is to undervalue our Covenant and to entangle our selves in such nicities as are more fit for the Schools then this Senate On the other side the Gentleman that spoke first interposed some necessary advertisements about the manner of our prosecuting this high undertaking not fit to be neglected for doubtlesse it concerns Gods honor the safety of the King and the perpetuall peace and safety of these Nations that this affair be wisely managed as well as it is religiously intended We all know that the taking of some advantages in war if they be at too far a distance with Religion may prove our disadvantages and so the parting with some opportunities in some cases may be a gayn of better to us hast ha's overthrowne some undertakings as well as delay others Wherefore I desire leave to counterpoise with a little moderation that which hath been pressed by both the Gentlemen that spoke before me And First t is my humble motion that the Kirk here may have all possible satisfaction given them in the forming and heading of this Army and in the conduct and steering of the great designe forasmuch as without this condiscention we cannot expect their concurrence and without their concurrence we cannot expect that readinesse or confidence in our Friends at home nor that stupidity consternation in our enemies abroad as is to be desired Secondly That if wee admit not the English Commissioners to treate and then allow three moneths warning after the end of that Treaty yet we may instantly dispatch away an Expresse to the Parliament of England with particular demands and a cleere denunciation of warre within a moneth if those particulars be not instantly agreed to Thirdly That some reasonable space before wee march a Declaration may be emitted to satisfie our Friends in England with our sincere intentions towards them and that the buisines of the Kirke being setled and the King reinthroned wee have no intention to intrench upon the priviledges of the Parliament there or to breake that bond of confederation and union that was intended to be confirmed by the Covenant Fourthly That Langdale may be countenanced at a distance and with much reservation and that no other use may be openly made of Him then of a Forlorne Hope to seize the English frontire Garrisons for our use and to ingage upon other the like hazardous services How well these things are calculated for the Meridian of Edenburgh I leave every man to guesse freely but this is certain there were few in the Scotch Parliament who gave their judgements the first way many went the second way and all went the third way except onely in complying with the Kirke and if there be
cause against Enemies that had observed Feciall rites with us by giving us antecedent warning wee would not have been wanting in the due formalities of defiance towards them Nay had there been any reall doubt how the Parliament and Kirke of Scotland would have determin'd of the justice and necessity of a warre with England or had there been any certain time prefixt when that determination should have been given or had wee been assured of any just time to prepare our selves afterwards for a compleat defence wee had not been so forward in seeking out the hardships of that cold and sterill soyle but as our case was wee were great sufferers wee were sufferers by perfidious Enemies wee were delusorily referd fine die to Judges that were bound to no meetings for the resolution of a case that was before resolved against us and in the meane time whilst wee were brutishly thus to waite upon such Judges all our conjured foes were contriving our ruine and were certain to prepossesse irrecoverable advantages against us But now wee shall see in the next place the same Scots that before the Judgement-seat of God charged us hitherto for entring upon them when wee were in no danger nor under any provocation seeing all their transactions at Bredah more fully come to light betake themselves from denying to confessing and avoyding Such is their faultring such is their doubling if their deniall could be maintained they needed not descend to any confession and if their confession were avowable they needed not to fly to denyalls but the truth is they can neither absolutely deny nor absolutely justifie their hostile machinations and combinations against us and therefore they shufle and trifle and play fast and lose betwixt both In August last when the Scots saw the English would not yeeld themselves to be deluded or disappointed or forecluded of any advantages in war by the false pretexts of peace they stated the case of their war in a Declaration which they forced the young King to publish in his Name at Dunferlin and according to the case there stated they resolved to joyn upon the issue of a Battail and in the Field to expect Gods own decision from Heaven The Battail was fought and the decision of Heaven dissavoured the Scots but the successe of a pitcht Feild is not now held an Argument weighty enough to sink a cause so stated Let us therefore more narrowly look into the particulars of that Declaration and examine upon what sure rules of equity and piety the cause of the Scots as it is there drawn up stands founded At first the march of our Army was held meerly invasive causlesly offensive the Scots denyed any hostile intentions against us at all now t is granted there was an intention of force but it was no other then what was justifiable by the Covenant inasmuch as it threatned none but such as were Enemies to the Covenant This seems to mean that the Parliament of England with all their Armies and Adherents had had just cause to prevent an invasion from the Scots if they had been true to the Covenant that is if they had interpreted the Covenant in the Scotch sense but since they are judged to have dealt treacherously with the Covenant they are not worthy of any defence they ought not to claim so much priviledg as to prevent any danger or enmity For if the Scotch design had been meerly to plunder and inslave us then we might have stood upon our guards or used means of prevention lawfully but since the designe was meerly to reforme us and reclaime us to our loyalty and to reconcile us to our Covenant 't was arrogance in us to thinke any resistance at all reasonable Is not this a candid honest meaning does not this high pitch of prejudice become a faire noble enemy but to the effect and purport of our Scotch Declaration by that Declaration we are satisfied in two things First What conditions were proposed by the Scots to the King both in behalfe of Scotland and England and Secondly What Laws were agreed upon by them both to be imposed upon the English Of the Kings conditions little need be said by taking the Covenant explicitly he did implicitly bind himselfe to admit the Scots to be his interpreters of it and by admitting them to be his interpreters He did ingage to follow the advice of a Parliament in all Civill cases and of an Assembly in all businesses of the Church and t is to be understood that the same advice was to sway him as well when he was to consult about his affaires in England as about his Scotch affaires For a proof hereof we see when this very Declaration so neerly concerning the government of England was to be issued in the young Kings â—ame and he to avoid the same was withdrawne to Dunferlin Commissioners were sent after him from the Kirk and States to let him know that by the Covenant he was bound to signe and own this their Act and that by his refusall if he separated his interest from Gods and the Churches they would endeavour the preservation of both without his But let us passe to the â—aws imposed upon us by the accord â—t Bredah and let us view sadly those heavy iron yoakâ— that are there â—â—eathed for the neck of England After that the young King â—â— obliged to stand to the advice of the Scots in the supream counsels and concernments of England Let us consider â—ow â—ar that advice is converted to our confusion The first thing that we are to submit to is we are here to yeeld up the Crown of England to be disposed of by the Scots we must suppose there lies a duty and is conferd a power by the Covenant upon them to see to our line of succession and to take order that in all questions betwixt the people and any pretendor the Throne may be duly filled and possessed If a Traytor that ha's been an enemy in Arms that is claime by inheritance the Soveraignty of England the Scots may justifie force to invest him here 't is breach of Coven in us to oppose 2. Though the same K. may â—e under Sequestration in Scoâ—â— til he has given publick satisfaction there yet there is no satisfaction due in Engl of which the English are to be Judges for the English are to rest satisfied in this that the Scots rest satisfied if the Scots rest satisfied the English sequestration becomes vacâ—ted Nay though that which the Scotsâ—all satisfaction be apparently extorted by force and almost confessed to be meeâ—â—imulation yet the English in spight of their understandings and senses must accept of it The Scots say their young King is truly humbled for his Fathers Tyranny and his Mothers Idolatry the young King abhors ther hypocrisie therein and for divers days together puts all his hopes in this world upon eminent hazard rather then he will subscribe their dictates yet the English must neither question his
therefore perhaps t is not parsimony of blood that makes them so parsimonious in their demands of blood 4ly As our pretiousest Friends must lye under this discretionary danger so the most fatall of our Enemies must be secured from all danger of our Laws for in the close of all an Act of Oblivion is to overwhelme all things and all men whatsoever Royallists Presbyterians Independents Papists Protestants are to be put into an equall condition What is this lesse then to spoil us of all advantages and exempt our Enemies from all disadvantages that the event of these late wars have cast upon us both especially when the Act is to passe as a Grace from our Masters in Scotland and not of reconcilement from us By this state of the cause so formed and owned by the Scots themselves 't is now apparent that if the English had yielded stupedly to all the conditions and Laws that are here imposed upon them they had left nothing remaining to themselves the whole English Nation had been given up to vassalage under a forreign Power Those very Royalists and Presbyterians which should have survived the Independents and could have severd themselves from the ruin of the Parliament as was very difficult to do yet should have seen the old Government of England overturned and have served a Master that should have served other Masters The Scots neverthelesse in the Declaration before mentioned recommend these impositions of their young K as his gratious condiscentions and they expect that hereby he offers satisfaction to the just and necessary desires of his good Subjects in England and Ireland And because they see there are many thousands in England who have utterly forgotten that ever they were born on this side the Twied They use many Arguments of Conscience and Honour to Arm all such against the Parliament and to in amour them with that Freedom and happinesse that this Declaration promises under them So wonderous a thing it is that any liberty under a Parliament of England should be thought worse by Englishmen then any servitude under the Kirk and state of Scotland but here are the true grounds of our expedition into Scotland the Justice whereof lookt backward to the incursion of Hamilton in 1648. whilst its necessity lookt forward to the Treaty at Breda and to the accord that was there made in March last There is a Justice of warre sometimes that derives it self onely from necessity but in the War that is now waged by our Parliament in Scotland we may truly avow that our Arms are just because they were necessary and we as truly avow that they became necessary by being so egregiously just inasmuch as the Magistrate often is restrained from dispensing with the Subjects right Now it appears by what ha's been here related that the Scots unprovoked powred in upon us 20000. men in a maner most perfidious and at a time most disadvantagious that after satisfaction peaceably sought they rejected us as unworthy of any Treaty with them that at Breda they have since conspired with â—â—r open Enemy against us making their cause his and his theirs and therefore directly contrary to the Scots Declarations emitted the last Summer we draw this conclusion that we have received wrongs insufferable that we have been denied rights indispensible and that we have been forced into a War unavoydable For we hope since no place nor time secures us from the offensive Arms of their young King and his Commissions Officers whose cause they have espoused by taking him into a forced Covenant No time nor place ought to secure him from our defensive prosecution Let the Scots flatter themselves as they please with fond umbrages that they observe their Covenant whilst they fight against us that are parties to it and whilst in the young K. they abet P. Rupert and the Irish that are parties ingaged against it God is not mocked He sees throughly the ill temper of that morter wherewith their ruinous cause is daubed The same God knows likewise how unwillingly we drew our swords in this quarrel and how far all aims of ambition domination revenge or spoil were distant from these our undertakings The same words which were once used by our Army after the great defeat given to Hamilton in England the same do we still resume after as great a successe neer Dunbar in Scotland We believe God ha's permitted his Enemies at several times to Tyrannize over his people that we might see a necessity of Union amongst them We likewise hope and pray that his glorious dispensations of successe against our Common Enemies may be the foundation of Union amongst Gods people in love and amity To this end God assisting before whom we make this profession to the utmost of our power we shall endeavour to perform what is behinde on our parts and when we shall through wilfulnesse fail herein let this Hypocritical profession rise up in Judgement against us before him who is and ha's ever appeared the severe avenger of Hypocrisie This we direct now to all the mislead yet well meaning people of Scotland as cordially after a second signal victory as we did then after the first Reader I here often mention the Scots and seem to intend the whole Nation but I pray thee make no such interpretations for I doubt not but there are many good people there that either know not their Magistrates Hypocrisie or bewail it in secret I my self know many excellent men of that Nation and these to me are as dear as if they were English Sit Tros sit Tyrius nullo discrimine habebo Of the INGAGEMENT THere was lately Printed a sheet of Considerations against our common Ingagement of Allegiance to this Common-wealth the Author seems to be a Presbyterian of the Scoch Faction by some thought able and learned his Arguments are very brief and I will answer him as briefly as may be The Arguments by which our Ingagement is impugned and as it were on every hand beleaguerd are eleven as I take it The first is against the Ingagements inconsistency with former Obligations 2. Its partiality towards Malignants 3. Its obscurity and ambiguity 4. Its illegall penalties 5. Its inefficacie 6. Its want of charity 7. Its rigor to harmless conscientious men 8. Its enmity to Reconciliation 9. Its diffidence in God 10. Its excesse and extremity in punishing 11. Its opposition to Christian Liberty The raising of this seige I hope will not prove very difficult Considerator This Ingagement to some that have already taken six or seven Oaths may possibly seem contrary to some of those former Obligations and such Ingagers must now suffer or sin against their doubting consciences Answ 1. No State can enact or ordain any thing but the same may be lyable to some mens doubts In Christian Religion it self all mens scruples are not prevented those Acts and Orders therfore which are not lyable to just doubts are sufficient and ought to binde Now the Ingagement which in