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
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
any composure made betwixt the Nations for Hamiltonsâ—aedifradous irruption either by satisfaction given on the one side and taken or confest by the other t is left to judgement But the Scots alledge still that immediately after the breaking of Hamilton in England and the dis-arming of his brother in Scotland there were given divers clear demonstrations of amity and good accord betwixt the Nations Letters will yet testifie that the godly party in Scotland satisfied the English in their innocency and that the English did accept of the same as good satisfaction For example in Septemb and Octob the L Generall Cromwell wrote in behalf of the Kirk patty by Him then seated at the stern and his letters did recommend them to the Parliament as men carefull of the unity of the Nations and the interest of England On the other side the Scots remitted hither an honourable Testimony of the fair comportment of our Souldiery there together with a thankfull acknowledgment of the benefit and advantage which our seasonable assistance had afforded them Likewise from the Parliament here it was written back that the religious and well affected people in Scotland were excused from those impious and unwarrantable actions and that there was no willingnes in the English to impute those evils to the Nation in generall As for the L Generals Letters questionlesse they contained his true plain meaning He did believe at that time that the interest of England and the unity of the Nations was valued by the Kirk and the Arguilians in Scotland but what discharge was this to the rest of the Nation nay what discharge is this to any of that Nation His Commission extended not to compound for the dammages sustained by us nor did He ever treat about the same nor did He at last finde his loving recommendations justly answered by that Godly parties actions Out of this therefore there follows nothing but that our L Generall was more charitable then the Scots were gratefull As for the Scotch Letters they serve well to shew the single dealing of our L Generall towards them and their double dealing towards Him but they serve not at all to shew any act of oblivion or any other pacificatory conclusion that was consented to by both Nations Therefore the good that they then bore witnesse to in our Souldiery we hold it to be just and according to merit but when they publish retracting contradicting Papers after the intermission of two years and therein complain as they did this last Summer thaâ— the L Generall came in un-invited that the manner of his entrance was not guided by their Instructions and that the proceedings of his Army were very unsatisfying in many other things this is an argument of their profound dissimulation As for the Parliaments Letters although the Parliament at that time was too full of Kirkmen yet if they had any full words of release in them we should noâ— prolong our contestation hereupon but the utmost that can be extracted out of them is a charitable exemption of some that had the testimony of wishing well to the unity of the Nations and interest of England from the pen of the L Generall The Parliament was unwilling that the Scotch Nation in generall should be charged with the guilt and blood of the Hamiltonians and therefore it did acquit and hold exonerated thereof all the religious and well-affected people of Scotland Without question the religious and well-affected people here excused are understood to be no other then such as had been adverse to Hamiltons exposition of the Covenant upon sincere grounds and not for any factious or particular respects But how few such there were in Scotland at that time is now manifest by the general adhering of that Nation to their new King against us For there is not one man in Scotland that assists this young King against us now but He expounds the Covenant in the same manner as Hamilton did then and He might have as safely complyed with Hamilton in that Ingagement as He may with the yong King in this as will be further demonstrated in due place These are the main subterfuges which the Scots flie unto when we tax them of that cruell barbarous Ingagement against us in 1648. The rest of their pleas whereby they seek not to shelter themselves from the whole guilt but onely to extenuate it or rather to qualifie our demanded satisfaction are scarce worth the mention They say they have received some dammage in Scotland by the â—â—ish and have demanded satisfaction of us but as yet received none A strange objection have not the Irish been prosecuted by us these nine yeers as Enemies And though they owe allegiance de jure to England yet are they not as mortall Enemies de facto to us as to the Scots Do we any way abet justifie or spare them to vouchsafe more to this were to disparage right They say moreover that some satisfaction has been made us by the booty and pillage which Hamiltons Army lost in England Some few Scoch Arms and Horses which falling amongst the Souldiers as due prize were like water spilt upon the ground neither received in satisfaction by the State of England nor so given by the State of Scotland must come in upon the Account of the English to satisfie them for all the plunders murders and wasts which a Scoch Army perpetrated contrary to Treaties and sworn Covenants No more of this here ends the first part of the Scoch Warre whose Scene was layed in England we come now to its second part where our Scene by Gods abundant grace and goodnesse is removed into Scotland And in this transition from past to present imminent hostilities we doubt not but to evidence the necessity of our War in Scotland à parte post as well as we have done the justice of it a parte ante THe Treaty at Bredah in March last betwixt the Scots and their declared King both being upon termes of Hostility with us had little busines to be debated that was peculiar to Scotland the main thing to be proposed by both parties was the removing some mis-understandings amongst themselves that they might thereupon the better double their powers and twist their pretensions against England The Kings interest was Monarchy the Scots was Monarchy and Presbytery the English were held to be advers to both these interests and the Covenant therfore to favour both the Treators against the English so mis-understandings amongst the Treators could noâ— be hard to be removed or at least their slight jars could not be hard to be laid asleep for a while when they had so little to loose to each other and yet so much to gain from a third party All that the Scots desired of the King as humble suitors was but this that He would take the Covenant if that were but swallowed down in its literall sence they thought all their further aims sufficiently provided for and this could not be much more bitter to
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
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
last to the Kings cause Hitherto the King keeps from open defiance with the Parliament of England but now Gods flaming Minister of warre begins to brandish his sword against this Nation now the King is returned from Scotland and now begins the year 1642. wherein Arms are openly taken up and avowed on both sides Scotland for two or three years before had seen war but without slaughter Ireland had been miserably the yeer before imbrued with slaughter yet saw no war but England must now prepare her self both for war and slaughter At the first harnessing and making ready for the field both sides pretended to be on the defence and both pretended to stand for the defence of the same persons and rights the Parliament declares for the Kings rights aswell as the subjects Liberties and the King for the Subjects Liberties as well as his own rights the matter of the Protestation is the cause they both â—ight for insomuch that by their professions it might be thought the Protestation were equally favoured by both Neither were their successes much unanswerable to their professions for after a bloodie battell fought neer Keinton in Octob and another hot encounter at Brainford and after divers other conflicts in severall other places of the Northern Western and middle Counties of England either side got blows but neither side carried away any great advantage or conquest only the Kings secret correspondence with the Irish began now to grow more evident as well by their declaring for the Kings pretences as by his diverâ—ing the preparations made here against them At this time the threed of the Kings Councels was exceeding finely spun the more zealous He seemed against the Iâ—â—sh openly the more zeal He attested to them privately and they themselves could not but see by the Kings seizing our Irish provisions here and assuring himself of our Forces sent thither that the more we exhausted our selves in sending supplies against them the more unable we should be in the end either to resist the King here or to reduce them there Howsoever as was noted before though the most subtill threeds of the King were strong enough sometimes to fabricate toils and nets for his subjects yet they never could be twisted into ladders for the mounting of him to his aspired grandour About the beginning of the year 1643. another black desperate designe against the City of London was discovered scarce inferior to any of those former impregnations of the Kings inraged brain whereupon the Parliament again had recourse to this new religious guard of Vowing and Covenanting And herein after the Covenanters had humbled themselves before God for the Nations sins and judgements and promised by Gods grace to endeavour for the future an amendment of their wayes they the second time ingaged themselves by Vow and Covenant in the presence of Almighty God to be adhering faithfully to the Forces raised by the Parliament for defence of Religion and liberty c. But notwithstanding the vertue of both these holy remedies against the Kings uncessant stratagems about the latter end of the same Summer the Parliaments affairs came to a great declination and till they obtained aid from the Scotch Nation their condition was thought very tottering In August the English Commissioners began to treat at Edinburgh and about the depth of Winter the Scots advanced with a compleat well appointed Army Yet this may not be wholly preâ—ermitted that the Scots were long deliberating about their march and though they saw their ruin involved in ours and their faith no lesse pre-ingaged to us for mutuall assistance then ours was to them yet they advanced not at last but upon these strict conditions 1. That we being then but a wasted part of England yet should presently imburse them out of our afflicted affairs with a great summe of ready money 2ly That they should be payed as mercenaries and yet have a share in government here as if they were our joyntenants And 3ly that we should enter with them into a new solemn League and Covenant upon Oath as it was by them composed and conceived So disproportionable and unsuitable is their amity to their enmity for when they had a pretence of a quarrell contrary to former Treaties with England in 1648. t was in their power to invade England readily without assurance of present Advance-money or establisht pay afterwards and such able Enemies we found them in all ages but when they were to be ayding to part of England in observance of former Treaties in 1643. there is no moving in such a work without ample Covenants so much more difficult amongst them is the enterprise of helping then is the enterprise of undoing It is manifest now by that which has been hitherto premised that the first occasion of flying to such conscientious tyes and expedients as these was that the late Kings plots and conspiracies might be thereby the better disappointed and that the people might be thereby the better confirmed in their opposition against Him And this makes it now seem the more strange to us that the Scots at present should make their Covenant so main an engine for the King against us which at first was certainly excogitated as a main engine for us against the King 2ly it is hereby as manifest that the Scotch Covenant which is now insisted on by that Nation and was pressed on us at first with so much rigor did add no new obligation at all to the English Religion Liberty Monarchy and the peace of the Nations were as much secured before and as sanctimoniously by the Protestation in 1641. and by the vow and Covenant in 1643. as they were afterwards by the solemn League and Covenant when the Scotch Army was to enter England 3ly We cannot observe by any remarkable blessing from Heaven that the hand of God did ever give any gratious testimony in behalf of these new sacramentall obligations The protestation was thought ineffectuall till the vow and Covenant came in with a greater supply of religion the vow and Covenant was not able to break the Kings Armies till the solemn League of Scotland had superinduced its further sanctity and when that was superinduced and came accompanied with 20000 armed men from Scotland the King subsisted yea and thrived a long time after and without doubt those Oaths which he imposed within his quarters did asmuch service against us as ours did for us in our quarters We all know that t was not a new Oath but a new modeld Army that by Gods most gratious hand first gave check to the Kings prosperity and t is not so visible that ever we trampled on the Royalists formerly by observance of the Covenant as that we are now miserably ingaged in blood against the Scots by misprisions and false glosses of the same The Lord of his boundles mercy grant at last that we may return to our old wayes of humiliation seek to appease that Majesty by fasting and praying which is to be
justice and humanity betwixt the Nations whereas there can be no end of controversies and hostilities when sentences shall be spoken against parties that are no inferiors and that by parties that are no superiors The Scots therefore in this have been exceedingly too blame and there is no doubt but the ruine of the King and all the late miseries of their own wasted Countrey have been derived from this strange insufferable arrogance of theirs T is frequent with them to protest against the Parliament of England as no lawfull Authority to denounce against all the Souldery of England as Sectaries Rebels and regicides to upbraid all the Gentry and Comminalty of England submitting to the present Government as men that prostitute their consciences to a sinfull shamefull thraldome to incite all the Presbyterians and discontented persons in England to the kindling of new flames amongst us And this is more then to invade a moity of the Legislative power of England this is to seize all this is more then to claim a jurisdiction in Covenant affairs this is to in vasâ— all us totally in all cases whatsoever this is more then to pronounce judgement against us at home in civill cases this is to pursue us with fire and sword as well forrein as domestick Should our Nation now descend to the like outragious recriminations or rather feminine altercations being first provoked and having juster grounds what an odious noise would this trouble all Europe with Well but still there is something to be said for the Scots if they may not call us to their own barre as they are our fellow Covenanters and as they are equally parties in so religious a League with us yet there is another Bar to which they may cite us there is still here upon earth a barre of common equity and reason and at this Barâ—e the English are accountable for all their delinquencies against the Covenant To this we agree and shall appear aâ— is required by the citation The late King some years before the eruption of these troubles had made many dangerous attempts against the purity of the Protestant Religion and the Liberties of the Subjects in all the three Nations Now in 1643. when Arms were taken up on all hands either for assisting or opposing the King in those his designes against Religion and Liberty the Covenant was formed by that party which rose up against the King and the main primary use it was formed intended for was to protect Religion and Liberty against Him and his adherents The formers of it also at the same time took notice that the cases of Religion and Liberty could not be well separated forasmuch as the King if He prevailed against the one would more easily prevail against the other Religion was the richer Free-hold but Liberty had the stronger fence to preserve it from the violence of intruders It was likewise visible that Religion would make the people more zealous for Liberty and Liberty would impower the people the better to defend Religion besides suppose the taking away of the people and you suppose with all the taking away of Religion and suppose the taking away of Liberty and you do in a manner suppose the taking away of the people for the life of a bodie politick consists not in living but in living free The Covenant therefore primarily and ultimately proposes to it self the safety and prosperity of the true Protestant Religion in the safety and Liberty of the three Nations and the safety and Liberty of the three Nations in the safety and prosperity of the true Protestant Religion All other Articles in the Covenant are but secondary and subordinate hereunto and they are to have respect from us not as they stand higher or lower in order but as they are more or lesse serviceable to those higher purposes for which they were at first ordained Upon this ground that branch in the Covenant which obliges us to seek God in this sacred Ingagement by a speciall amendment of our lives and reformation of our own private wayes at such a time as this merits the honor of the first place And next hereunto worthily may succeed those 2. branches by which the Nations are so strictly confederated in peace and amity and by which all parties to this confederation have past their solemn Pacts to be assisting to each other bringing all opposites to condigne punishment That branch which was inserted in favour of the King at that time the principal Enemy of the Covenant and for saving of his Prerogatives so desperately at that time disputed by the sword if it could challenge any place at all could certainly challenge none but the last and lowest how soever the Scots had ranged it and do still propugn it Nothing surely could more cloud the meaning of each part in the Covenant or more pester and perturbe the whole frame of it then this insertion The same Oath to God now binds us in one clause to pursue with fire and sword all that are enemies to this Oath and yet the grand enemy of this Oath by another clause in the same Oath is preserved inviolable nay that clause which preserves one Enemy has a local preference before that which pursues all Hereupon if a Commission be taken from the King to destroy this Solemn League He that takes it dies ignominously as a Traytor but he that gives it has that indemnity given by the Covenant which his kingly office could not have given him The very penning also of this Article leaves us very dubious and perplext how far the Kings royalty is saved to Him for the saving is not absolute but refers to some thing in order above it and that is the saving of Religion and Liberty Here therefore two new doubts meet with us to intangle us 1. In what degree the King may be proceeded against when in such a degree He indangers Religion and Liberty 2ly how we shall exactly judge of these degrees when our judgements are wholly left at liberty without any limits or marks set by the Covenant The Scots have proceeded so far as to imprison the Kings person and to sequester all his royall power which is a temporary dethroning and deposing because they suppose Religion and Liberty was so far impugned by Him but they suppose that from an imprisoned sequestred King no further offence or danger can arise and therfore He ought not further to suffer This is sufficiently erroneous but this is not all yet for they will not only thus expose Religion and Liberty to greater hazards in their own Countrey but they will over-rule us with their errors and inforce us to run the same hazards in our Countrey likewise and this is more we are sure then the Covenant enforces us unto And doubtles this is very hard For besides that there is no Nation nor scarce any individuall person in any Nation who is not Judge of his own danger in this case our judgement is wrested out of
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
we cleer our selves in point of Church-Reformation for having covenanted to reform in Doctrine Discipline c. according to the word of God and the patterns of the best Reformed Churches we are bound as the Scots maintain to take our pattern from them and that we as yet refuse to do This is the grand and most heynous charge the Scots have against us and because we follow not the modell of Scotland which they hold the best Reformed Church in Christendom they seek to overwhelm us with a thousand calumnies and labour to possesse the world that wee are nothing else but a Lerna of Heresies and a sinck of all uncleannesse To this we answer 1. When wee are bound to reform according to the word of God and the examples of the best Churches wee conceive the word of God signifies all the examples of other Churches signifie nothing at all for those are the best Churches that reform neerest to the word of God and what Churches have neerest Reformed cannot be known but by the word of God it self so that that instance might have been spared 2. If it come to tryal by the word of God whether the Scots Reformation be the best or no the Scots therein can challenge no more priviledg of judging then we or any other Church When we were governed by Bishops the Gospel of Christ was as purely delivered in England and as heartily embraced by the English any being Judges besides the Scots as ever it was in Scotland and shall it be said that because wee have cast off Bishops and thereby come some steps neerer to the Scots our Doctrine remaining still the same without all innovation shall it be said that our very approaches have â—â—st us backward It will be required at their hands who are intrusted with the government of Christs Church that his word and Ordinances be piously and duly dispensed and it will be required at their hands who are governed that the dispensation of Christs words and Ordinances be faithfully and sincerely entertained but if the Governors rightly discharge their duty and the governed fail of theirs the Governors shall not answer for what they cannot help 't is God that gives the encrease and does the saving inward work the Minister cannot go beyond planting watering and doing that which is the outward work 'T is one thing therefore for the Scots to upbraid the Flock and another thing to upbraid the Overseers of the Flock and yet the Scots constantly take an advantage against us by confounding these two things For the people of England we must confesse they have been of late too much tainted with Heresies and monstrous opinions pudet haeâ— opprobria nobis dici potuisse non potuisse refelli I hope all good men are grieved and humbled for it but let the Scots consider 1. That growing of Tares in Gods Field does not alwayes shew that the Husband-man sowed ill grain the contrary rather is true inasmuch as the more busie the good Husband-man is culturing and improving the Earth the more sollicitous ever the Enemie is in casting in his malignant seeds the more readily eager he is to debosh mar the crop It was so with the Church of Christ in it's Infancy it was so under Constantine in it's maturity it was so in Luthers dayes when it began to recover out of a long lethargy and we must expect the like now when our aces are set upon the last and greatest calcination as ever the Church saw as Reformation now in the ends of the world when the chiefe mysteries of iniquity begin to be revealed will most annoy Sathan so Sathan will double his rage to annoy us accordingly Hornius the Dutch-man a great friend of the Scots and who in favour of the Scotch Presbytery has written a bitter Tract in Latine to defame us in Germany after he has represented us as the most leprous contaminated Nation in the world yet confesses withall that to the prodigious revoltings of some amongst us there is an answerable improvement of others in burning zeale and shining sanctity In Religion beauty and deformity are not inconsistent those times often which have been most glorious for divine dispensations of knowledge and grace have been likewise most deplorable for persecutions and apostacies and this has ever been a great stumbling block to carnall minds If therefore the great Lyon range and roare and ramp lesse in Scotland then in England let not our Brethren boast of it or think themselves the more safe 2. Let not partiality blind the Scots Strangers think Scotland ha's as great cause of humiliation as England if not greater Iliacos intra muros peceatur extra It were more Christian-like in them and lesse Pharisaicall to aggravate their own sins and extenuate other mens then to extenuate their own sins and aggravate other mens and if they wil remit nothing at all of their rigour against us yet let them not stuffe their long catalogues of Pseudodoxies with such wandring terms as Familisme Erastianisme Independentisme c. which taken improperly may reach the best Saints of God and are seldome used properly by any 'T is a sad thing to offend Gods little ones 't is a more sad thing to deprave many congregations of Gods most precious ones 3. Whatsoever judgement the Scots will take upon them to passe against the people in England yet let them not alway set upon the Magistrates or Ministers account what they find reprovable in the people let them not call us fedifragous for not redressing things beyond us and such as none can redresse besides God but this has been toucht upon already Let us therefore see what is peculiarly objected to the present governing power in England The Magistrate in England is charged to be an Enemie to Magistracy a strange charge certainly The very last answers we had this last Summer to our Declarations upon the march of our Army into Scotland tell us from the Committee of Estates and Commissioners of the Assembly that our expedition into Scotland is to overturn Religion and government Civill and Ecclesiasticall and to set up amongst them the same vast toleration of Religion as we have done in England Now if this were true the sins of the People would become the sins of the Magistrate but what credite can this obtain in the world As for the overturning of civill power that is answered already we confesse a change of the Form but we deny any overturning of the thing cal'd Government in England and wee hope our actions here and in Ireland and in other Forreign parts yea our War in Scotland also will quit and essoyn us of anarchy and ere long make the Scots swalow downe their own untruths with open shame As for the overturning Ecclesiasticall also that may be as resolutely and justly denyed as the other for that lawfull power which was in Bishops before is still in being and though we have not committed it so intirely unto
vertue in it why do they brandish it so ludicrously onely to dazle our weak eyes The next Objection of the Scots is that we have not onely sequestred a great part of Christs spirituall power and detained it in Lay hands but have also abused the same power tolerating thereby and countenancing all manner of heresies which is directly contrary to our covenanted Reformation Our Answer is that we are neither intensively nor extensively lyable indeed to this objection For 1. all sects and scandals are not permitted by us nothing is more distant from truth then this suggestion All grosse sins and seducers are supprest with as quick severity as ever nay since the Norman Conquest there have not been so many sharp Laws made against Adultery Swearing blaspheming Sabbath-breaking and open prophanation as have been made within these few yeers All the remission and relaxation that our Parliament has indulged of late is only towards tender Consciences where men comport themselves civilly and inoffensively towards their neighbours and attempt to innovate nothing in the Church for perturbing of Religion and even in this also we havenot extended our indulgence so far as the united States of the Netherlands have and divers other Protestant Princes in Germany The truth is we do not finde such danger in Erastianisme Independentisme Anabaptisme Round-headisme c. as our rigid Presbyterians suspect and this would not dislike the Presbyterians themselves if they were men willing to do to others as they are willing others should do to them for they themselves are sensible that we can never desire more gentlenesse from them to us then is now shewed by us to them 2ly That toleration which we are accused of is but a non persecution in its most intensive degree for we use all Christian means besides force to reduce such as wander and divide from us and we are far from cherishing schismes and broyls either in Church or State Our Saviours own parable allows us where weeds have gotten head and are as numerous as the standing corn rather to spare the weeds for the corns sake then to indanger the corn for the weeds sake Howsoever it would be some charity in our traducers if they would advisedly consider how the growth of our weeds came at first to be so rank amongst us and thereupon joyn with us in humiliation for it not exult over us in scorn and derision Upon the first defiance given by the King to the Parliament half the Clergie at least fell away from this cause and before that rent could be sowde up there happened a second distance betwixt us and the Scots partly upon a royal and partly an Ecclesiasticall account and that distance drew on as great a revolt of the Clergie as the former And how can any man imagine but that strange disorders must needs follow and abound in a Church so deserted When the dressers of the Vineyard do not onely quit their charge but throw down the mounds how can it be expected but that Bores and Foxes should break in And indeed the Parliament is still ill beset for either they must deny preaching to the people to three parts of foure or else they must yeeld the Pulpits to their seditious Enemies and to such as shall seek to wound the Magistrate through the souls of the people This being the Parliaments hard case it may better become the Scots to whom may be attributed a great part of these disturbances to afford some pitie and help then to adde miserie to our miserie This is sufficient to plead for our indulgence let us onely advise the Presbyterians not to take unjust offence thereat or to stumble into the contrary extreme T is wofull to see how rigidly the Ministers carrie themselves towards the poore people in many places and what an absolute discretionarie power they challenge in many places over the ordinances of God There are many Parishes in England where the people have not been admitted to the Sacrament of the Lords Supper nor some Infants to the Sacrament of Baptisme for a long time This deserves much bewailing for certainly God gave these rich Legacies to the diffusive body of his Church for the spirituall comfort of the meanest servants of his and not to that which cals it self his representative body to be a trade and monopolie for their advantage in this world But I have done if the world now finde cause to condemne us of dealing treacherously with the Covenant and our fellow-Covenanters in that we have not submitted to the Scots and for their sakes disclaimed our own judgements and interests to gratifie the King and the Presbyterian Clergie with our perpetuall servility let us fall under their condemnation Or if the world can justifie the Scots as pursuers of that union freedome and fidelity which was aimed at in the Covenant when they made themselves our Lords to give us Laws in our own Dominions and when they did not onely raise sedition here in our own bowels but came in with an Army of 20000. men to devour us let them stand upright here and injoy their wished Triumph Our finall assurance and comfort is there sits a Judge in heaven who can neither deceive nor be deceived a Judge that hears all appeals made above and does right at last to all that groane under oppression and injustice belowe Of the Scoch Warre VVEe have seen how the Covenants waxen nose has been turned and moulded into many forms wee see now cause to suspect that 't was made so large at first and compacted of such materials that like the Grecian wooden Horse it might tear our walls the wider upon its entrance and discharge the more discords and dissentions amongst us after its entrance was procured We see it was intended by the honest party in England for cement to unite the Nations in a more arct faithfull confederation then ever our Ancestors knew but the couching of it was obscure and left liable to so many false glosses that it soon became {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Our brotherly offices of Assistance soon degenerated into harsh expostulations harsh expostulations begat secreet feudes and secreet feudes heightned themselves into open hostilities The question is only when open war commenced betwixt these Nations Whether the Scots first invaded us by their Duke Hamilton above two years since or whether the English first invaded Scotland this last summer under the command of the Lord Gen. Cromwell For a year or two after reception of the Covenant in England a good correspondence was kept betwixt us the Scotch Commissioners sat in our Committee of Lords and Commons at Darby house whereby they were admitted into the knowledge of our highest and secretest affaires and had opportunity to frame parties amongst us for promoting of their own Interests Out of these kindnesses sprung our first unkindnesses for the more honour was given to the Scots the more still they thought was due and the more they thought was due the
of forcible alterations amongst themselves to the defrauding of their neighbours Thirdly Admit the Parliament by which Hamilton was Commission'd was an unjust Parliament admit it was no Parliament at all and admit that Hamilton with a lesse party and without any Commission at all had broke in upon us in a hostile manner yet even this would not leave the English altogether remediles for in this case upon a just demand of satisfaction made by the English the Scots must disowne the act and see the outrage legally expiated upon the actors or else they owne it themselves and so become as obnoxious as the actors That which was the sin of one Towne in Benjamin at first became the sin of the whole Tribe of Benjamin afterwards and doubtlesse that which was the sin of one Tribe in Israel at first had become the sin of all Israel at last if justice had not been lawfully executed Let the Scots look upon this with sad eyes for that blood of the English shed by Hamilton which is now the guilt of a party only in Scotland upon the deniall of just ice may be made the guilt of all Scotland The second evasion of the Scots is this They say if they were persons challengeable of satisfaction yet they that sit now in the Parliament of England are not persons that can duly challenge or require satisfaction It should seeme as Scotland before was not to be found in Scotland so England is now not to be found in England so hard a matter it is to get right from them that can thus easily transforme and deforme whole Nationall bodies The meaning is Government in England has been of late changed two of the Estates in Parliament are removed by force and the third Estate usurpes what was due to all wherefore as they cannot treate with us about satisfaction but they must acknowledge us a lawfull authority so conscience forbids them to acknowledge our authority lawfull To this wee answer 1. The change of rule in a Nation does not change the Nation forasmuch as the manner of rule is changeable and accidentall and so does not give beeing or support the essence of a State If wee in England beeing a Monarchy owe three Millions to the Hollander the change of Monarchy in England will not exempt us from our obligation and if we in England beeing a Democracy have three Millions due from the Hollander our returne to Monarchy will not denude us of our remedie The devastations and hostilities of Hamilton were suffred by the English Nation and the Parliament of England demands justice and restitution for the same in behalfe of the English Nation now 't is not agreeable to justice or reason that a slight exception taken against the substitute should disable the Principal or any incapacity of the demandant redound to the prejudice of him which is the true Interessent Secondly If the usurpation of the Parliament of England shall bar the State of England from its due course of justice yet how does it appeare to the Scots that the power of our Parliament is an usurp't power If God or Man ha's given them any warrant to judge of our actions and affaires in England let them shew it for without some such warrant they are but our Equalls and one equall ha's no power of judging another If they plead any undeniable principle in nature which condemnes all alteration of Government as unlawfull and all extrusion of Governours as usurpation and of this Maxime they say all men are equally Judges then how will they justifie their extrusion of Lannerick and their new moulding of their Committee of Estates after the defeature of Hamilton which without armes and our assistance they could not have compast Is that a naturall indispensible principle in England which is not so in Scotland Away with such partiall shifts let the Scots shew us that Nation under Heaven that ha's not severall times been driven to mutations of Governments and Governours and been at last justified therein by the plea of necessity and common safety and wee shall confesse their Lordly power over us Thirdly If the Scots be our Lords and will give judgement against us in this case yet they must know that wee are now upon our appeal before almighty God and have accordingly taken Armes into our hands for the prosecution of that appeal And does not one of the primary Lawes of Warre teach them what a hazard it is to deny right to him that beares his â—aked sword in his hand Arma Tenenti Omnia dat qui justa negat Will the Scots lay an incapacity of Treating upon us first and then of fighting afterwards The difference now betwixt us is whether wee have justly enterd Scotland or no to seeke redresse of many injuries and depredations by tryall of battaile which was denide us by debate in a friendly intercourse and doe the Scots thinke now to argue us out of our armes doe they think that the same condemnations of our usurp't power by which they insulted over us when wee sought a Treaty will be seasonable now when the cause is preferd to a higher Court This were to cut us off from all remedie whatsoever this were to detrude us below the miserablest of men this is beyond all ordinary strains of Tyranny There is no Client nor Subject nor slave whatsoever but by way of his last appeale may repell force with force when his case is beyond all other decision and this is held no more then a making an humble addresse to Heaven or laying the cause before the Lord of Hosts his Footstoole Will the Scots then which have droven us their equalls to this last resort prejudge and foreclude us in this also and so make us worse them the worst of inferiors Certainly if we may not treate before wee confesse our selves usurpers wee may fight till God declares us to bee so or that our enemies have usup't over us The third advantage or exception of the Scots against our demands of satisfaction is taken from the space of time that interlapsed betwixt the overthrow of Hamilton and our solemne denouncing against them for that hostilitie as also from some reciprocall kindnesses and testimonies of accord and pacification which past betwixt the Nations in the mean while Of both these I shall now give this faithfull account The victory of of L G Cromwell against the Scots was about the latter end of Summer 1648 and our Forces following that chase stayed in Scotland till about Mid-winter following During the stay of our Army in Scotland a good understanding was betwixt us and the Kirk party there for we had both the same ends against the Hamiltonians and so whilest we extorted the sword out of Lannericks hands and put it into Arguiles we did our own businesse and the Kirks too and the Kirks more immediately then our own Howbeit a Treaty was now begun in the Isle of Wight with the King where the Scoch Commissioners appeared