from Scotland to ease our burthen so that person laid the plot of Prerogative and persecution and left the prosecution of it to his Successors which they have not failed in But our neerer acquaintance and that which begot friendship betwen us seemed to have laid on a more contrary yet sure foundation not on our union under one King but their falling out with him and opposing the effects of his Fathers plots and his sons Tyranny an act then very new and strange that both gained them hatred and respect according to the disposition of the Court and the temperature of the Kingdom and had gained them immortal glory to all Nations if they had been as uniform and even in the series of action as they were hot and violent in their first motions and agitations about it For the late King having been fully acquainted with his Fathers principles which he had a peaceable time to fortify and observed whom he made his enemies and friends did endeavour to go on where he left off and to propagate them with that zeal that an interested Agent ought to do upon whom only the active part of the work lay which design as it was chiefly to advance the Prerogative above the Law and Episcopacy above the Gospel and both as a step to Popery so it was carried on by degrees in England both as to Civils and Ecclesiasticals and so less discerned and the great method was to begin with Scotland first which as it was more remote so it taking full effect there as an Essay it might be effected in England with more power knowing that England was the more Heroick free and noble Nation and more incapable of bondage and slavery and they well knew it would be hard on a sudden to make a Civil War in England after so long a Summer of peace especially ere they had tryed what could be done with the two other Kingdoms But it first brake out in Scotland on a sudden and too violently by the zeal of the Archbishop of Canterbury who to provoke them sent them a new Common-Prayer-book worse then ours which was bad enough with many revilings and affronts publickly to the whole Nation that the Scots had nothing else but the grosness of the plot to oppose which yet was sufficient to move them to preserve themselves our condition was much worse by how much we lay more directly under the design and both the burthens of oppression and persecution with less plea and power to oppose The Scots soon resent those actings and unite themselves together and put themselves into a posture of defence against the King and his Incendiaries at Court and at last come into England to prevent the Kings coming with an Army to Scotland and in a little time they gained their desires with something from England over and above This first engagement against the King Common-Prayer and Bishops all which lay heavy on our consciences did not only gain them their own desires but got them the hearts of true Englishmen and abundance of reverence to their Cause and Nation yea all honest and godly men to whom then the thoughts of any Liberty was sweet and the glimmerings of probable hopes precious fell down at their feet espoused their quarrel and though their actings had but an occasional influence upon our condition our whole Parliament suffered a dissolution rather then they would contribute a farthing to make a war against them though Parliaments were then rare monuments of Priviledges to us and of such necessity to our affairs and we were hopeless of attaining any more and when the necessities of the King to get money moved him to call this Parliament as meaning once more to try the people we not onely again refused to act against Scotland but the first thing we did was to proclaim them our Dear Brethren and instead of granting Subsidies against them we gave them a gratuity of three hundred thousand pound sterling for standing up for their own just Liberties and giving us occasion of doing the same though some wise and single eyed men are not afraid to say that there was somewhat more in the end then preservation of Religion in that expedition First because there were many private animosities long before ripening about places among some great ones at Court and Scotland and that there was fire enough in these breasts to kindle a very great flame however they took occasion to kindle it at a fit season for the Scots 2. The revenues of the Court in Scotland were not so equally distributed among the Scots Noblemen but some got all 3. It was a fine Essay for the Noblemen and Gentry of Scotland having so good a pretence to try the temper of the English and take a clear prospect of our State But that which makes many especially believe that Religion was but a pretence is because they have made so little progress in the Reformation and purifying it among themselves and yet have made so many divisions in it and by it among us Others think their hatred was not so much against Superstition as Ceremony nor of Episcopacy but of its pontificalness in outward Ornaments which they could no so well maintain and their Nobility together But we must give them their due they had the first eminent occasion given them to oppose Innovations and they must have the honor of the first start we then thought them all Saints and at that time every breath after Religion and Profession of Reformation was so taking to good men who knew no way of attaining it by themselves that the Scot laid in a stock of credit which hath lasted them ever since having the first commendation of early risers though afterwards they might and did lie abed striving to secure their own interests and make use of others necessities which they have ever since carefully held to in all opportunities But the last and most special friendship hath been by our mutual conjunction in a common Cause against the late King and his malignant interest the King having for the present altered the Scene from Scotland to England though the design was the same against both we were fain to unite more closely and to profess against our common enemy yet as the Scots did not move or engage untill solemnly invited by our Parliament so we were loth to trouble them untill we saw them like to be engaged by others and we at present through the delayes and divisions of our first Armies were not able to improve our own strength This union was confirmed by the Solemn League and Covenant which one would think had been an everlasting foundation of Amity and love between us had it been well made and honestly kept But concerning this Covenant it is to be feared though it was solemnly taken yet it was carelesly made with much design and craft which God will punish as well as the breach of it For it was drawn by the Scots according to their sense and what
our faces what can be done next when Treaties are refused offers of Peace slighted must England bear all burdens like Issachar and stoop under them shall all the providences of God for this Nation be still darkned by a Scottish Mist must we let them do what they please to undermine overthrow all the happy issues of divine actings and yet we sit still shall they without rebuke and out of conscience be left alone to abuse our Parliament and Army enter into confederacies with all the enemies of this Nation and take upon them to impose a yong and raw Stripling as a King on us and yet no remedy to relieve our selves doubtless neither God nor the Scots would ever thank us for acting such a piece of folly There is a necessity of preventing a necessity and it is as lawfull for us to anticipate a mischief as to extricate our selves out of it when we are involved in it But that I may go on distinctly and by degrees let it be pondered in the weights of Justice and Equity what reason we have to enter Scotland to require satisfaction for their invading us whereby the Kingdom of England was endangered in the whole and many Counties were so much ruinated is it not enough that we have forborn all this while must we lose our Debts for want of demanding them and must we be slighted for our patiences and had not we need to ask satisfaction for the one when they are preparing for another that we may not trust too much where there is little to pay at last These questions are not in vain when we consider all things But whereas they say Its enough they have protested against that Invasion and that may be sufficient satisfaction It s easily answered if we reflect on the former Transactions and preparations to it who were the authors of it even these that protested against it who rather protested against the leaders then the Covenant and the person then the thing it self for the truth is these Gentlemen who had plaid their Cards so well in the South were cheated by Hamilton in the North who made use of all their preparations to ingross the power into his own hands Hamilton used the same arguments and profest the same principles which the Ministers had preacht used the same words for the Covenant and personal Treaty to reduce the Sectaries c. all these good words that they themselves now use and we have no reason but to belive with as true a heart Neither did ever the Kirk disavow a War with England upon these grounds until they saw their General and so we caught in their own snare for having by all their zealous agitations in Pulpit and Press made ready all things for a War they found they had unawares raised up a blacker Divel then they expected which they could not conjure down until God met him in the height of his progress by that Army which both he and they still make the Butt of their designs Besides grant all this to be a truth what is the protestation of private and particular persons to make satisfaction for National Dammages That invasion was by the Authority of a full Parliament after long and serious debates it is not for us to pry into their constitution if every party must be judge of the whole the Scots will soon lose all their pleas against England and their pretences against all our proceedings They may well remember how we acted to them in a far different cause at first when but a party in England and at Court acted against them and made a War to overthrow that Nation and infringe their Rights and Liberties as by Canterbury and Strafford though our Parliament abhorred the thoughts of it yet they would not out of England untill they had satisfaction for all their charges and gratuities to boot for preserving themselves which our Parliament freely and conscienciously gave them and yet it must be a crime in us to demand satisfaction for an actual and ruinating invasion by the absolute authority of their Parliament onely because some few private men who were as deep in the design as the invadors have out of some selvish reasons protested against it let our Brethren give us leave to reason would not the Protestation against all Transactions undertaken against the Scots by some few men in England by a full Parliament and all good peoples disaffection prevent the Scots from craving satisfaction of England who was innocent of any precedent missdemeanor but they must have full satisfaction onely for giving them occasion to form and raise an Army by these private designs without any actual ruin to that Nation and shall a discontented protestation against persons not the thing it self by some particular dissenters who laid the plot first of the same invasion for themselves be thought a just plea against our demands of satisfaction for the actual ruins of many of our Counties besides the Act of Oblivion of all the rest of their personal mis-behaviors we shall still appeal to Heaven if men will not hear us Had God permitted it That England had seen that miserable day that Hamilton had prevailed we should have had farther demonstration of their secret intentions it s now sufficient that we had an invasion to a very vast dammage to this Nation by the Commission of the Supreme authority of Scotland in that Act and no satisfaction but a bare protestation and a continued inveterate prosecution of the same design by these particular persons who are now the chief men in the Royal Covenant Engagement against England if God hath given us so much before hand as to forbear the paiment yet we should not be abused for the demands of our just debts and it s most hard and dis-ingenuous that we must be forced to pardon all former mis-carriages because of their words who are now ready on the same principles to cut our throats but let us not daub that Engagement against England as it was laid by Ecclesiastical principles and agitations so if God had not defeated and over-reached the layers of the Foundation or had but prospered Hamilton in that undertaking you would soon have seen the bottom of the business for either had the old design been headed by their Commanders or had the new been victorious we should have seen to what use the Covenant would have been put unto a full demonstration we have now if we do not want eyes But that the world may see how tender we were of that protesting party though we knew their principles and ends were the same as men forgetful of their own losses we did not onely by Gods strength beat that Army for them and take away their great eye-sores but never left upon a small intreaty until we had set the protesters in the Committee of Estates in Scotland and had disbanded our enemies though unto this day we never had either pay or thanks yet these very men that you may know
The False Brother OR A NEW MAP OF SCOTLAND Drawn by an English Pencil Being A short History of the Political and Civil Transactions between these two Nations since their first Friendship Wherein the many secret Designs and dangerous Aspects and Influences of that Nation on England are discovered With the Juglings of their Commissioners with the late King Parliament and City The Grounds of the Entrance of our Army into Scotland cleared from their own Principles and Actings Their main Pleas impleaded and answered Humbly presented to the Councel of State Frustra blanditiae venitis ad me Attritis miserabiles labellis Victurus Dominum deumque non sum Jam non est locus hac in urbe vobis Martial 1 Sam. 11.1 2. Make a Covenant with us and we will serve thee And Nahash the Ammonite answered on this condition will I make a Covenant with you that I may thrust out your right eyes London Printed by R. W. for Francis Tyton and are to be sold at the three Daggers in Fleetstreet neer Temple-Gate 1651. To the Reader THis Map was drawn by day light though it represents persons in their Night-Gowns and private walks all the design in it is but to make us Englishmen or keep us so Necessity hath now forced out many things which in former times prudence and better hopes would have stifled We have sad reason to repeat former miscarriages if there were any thing remaining to help but remembrance of what is past and caution for the future in our correspondence with that Nation The Author hath nothing to say absolutely against Scotland may they live as happy without us as we can do without them only that which this little Treatise deals withall is either their ill-neighbourhood or deceitful friendship in managing close designs against England by loving and brotherly expressions It s wholly submitted to an English Judgement if it be not quite lost in many some having already engaged it a great way beyond the borders others are ready to give it up with all their priviledges for enjoying the name of a Scotish King What is related needs no Apologie its Truth is its Shield and Buckler the use and improvement of it will be the great thing that remains which will be easily effectuall if we retain any sence of our former priviledges or present ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The false Brother IT is not unknown though it hath been sad and dangerous how many intricacies and strange emergencies have occurred in the affairs of this Nation since the Parliament first began to oppose the Tyranny of the late King so many changes and divisions within such a compass of time and ground ne'r have been experienced among any people which hath not proceeded either from the in evidence of our first principles or for want of the knowledge of our advantages over our common enemy but meerly from the designs of our seeming friends and bosome acquaintance who making use of our affections and indulgences as fast as God hath made way for an end of the warr have found out other instruments and pleas either to new model the old Enemy or alter our spirits and principles by secret divisions among our selves But among all the secret enemies this Nation hath had none have been more eminent and active with so much advantage as the Scottish Party with whom as we had most special correspondencies so they have had the fairest pretences and strongest influences on all parties all others being but under-agents to their designs whose craft and policy meeting with the ambition and discontent of some English spirits hath of a long time wrought together to the perplexing of all our affairs and to the recruiting our common Enemy either in their strength or hopes all which though it hath been a long while acted under-board and carried on by fair and unsuspected steps yet it hath at last broke out that all true Englishmen may see who were the first Agents and are to be the last reserve of the Malignant Interest For the full discovery of which plots and transactions of Scotland against England their methods and ends from first to last as far as can be gathered out of their dark and close negotiations with the King on the one side and Parliament and City of London on the other without any envy to that Nation but of faithfulness to England I have undertaken this short Discourse for the better carrying on of which Narrative it will not be amiss to begin at the first original of our acquaintance and to glance at the grounds of our distances and unions We may all remember that the beginning of our dearness and acquaintance with Scotland hath been but of late years Our Ancestors thought we were as providentially disjoyned from them by Tweed as they and we are by the Ocean from all the world besides and in all their overtures with that Nation their care was more to keep peace then friendship and to imprison them with observance in their own Nation rather then to inlarge our Dominions with theirs it being our utmost design to keep them from being bad Neighbors for good and profitable friends we never could expect them to be there being no parity or proportion for such a converse between us but on the one side there would be envy and design on the other jealousies and indignation they wanted too much and we enjoyed more then we could spare upon meer acts of love and National correspondencies And the Scots who naturally hate or envy Englishmen observed their own advantages and therefore rather sought to strengthen their alliances abroad especially with France who have been long our secret observing enemies then to be one with us knowing they could get more by helping others to annoy us then by themselves who have been ever too weak in strength though not in policy to deale single with the English Nation many and bloody battels have been fought between us the English to preserve their own borders which was the top of their design the Scots to inlarge their territories on ours which yet they never could obtain but have of late cast very hard for and have it still in their eye The neerest conjunction this State could ever formerly in prudence seek after with them was by Matches with their Princes which at last brought forth a more visible union of both Nations under one King which fell out fortunately for the Scots that their King should be translated into England whereby they should have his small Revenues in Scotland and advantage of place and insight to the priviledges and secrets of this Kingdom and yet lye out of our way and keep their own Nation to themselves This union though it was hopeful and very welcome to the English whose borders were never free from their ravenous invasion yet it proved not so well for England for as it brought more charge on us to maintain a King of three Kingdoms by one for we could expect little or nothing
dawbing there was in that affair some know that will not speak Some of our Commissioners did wish and desire some other terms to be inserted and some explained but it was husht as not being a time to dispute that it would offend the contrivers and retard the issue of affairs the Scots resolving not to move untill they had our consent fast in their net and our charity making us willing to hope they would be honest in their use and interpretation of so sacred a Text. Thus it came out in the Scottish Dialect which was then in fashion in England as the Spanish formerly at Court and yet we were fain to buy the paper and pay the Compilers and I pray God it prove not the costliest sheet that ever was drawn between two Nations yet we now thought our selves well and looked on our affairs as in a very hopeful condition the Scots being of late so high in all honest mens thoughts for their first expedition and being so firmly united against the common enemy sung Requiems to our selves hoping the War would soon be ended by the faithfulness and activity of the Scots Army and that the Royal Standard would fall down at the appearance of such a Covenanting Militia And truly the eyes and hearts of all honest-hearted men were so on them that they thought that God would onely make use of their Arms to effect our happiness their very name now which was formerly in English accounted as a barbarous expression was almost become sacred and spoken of with abundance of devotion But time that brings forth Truth soon discovered them and ere a year past over many men began to be startled and to see day through many little holes and to discover that England was like to pay well for their Charity and Affections yet while we were loving they were designing and making their advantages of our necessities the opening of which is one of the main ends of this Discourse This great Expedition as it drew on much expectation on all sides so it gave them many advantages over us which they carefully improved for they had their own demands both in Treaties and the Covenant they got into our affections and councels and had a predominant influence in all our affairs without suspition and were behind the Screen in all transactions besides they had their stakes in every hedge their Agents in every corner in the Parliament Assembly both the Armies of the Lord of Essex and Sir William Waller where the most of the Field Officers were Scotchmen who were made Lieutenants and Major Generals Colonels and Governors of great Garrisons besides a peculiar standing Army in the North and their Commissioners at London waiting on the design and so handsomly were they placed in all great Offices that the management of all affairs was almost come into the Scots hands and had not God wisely defeated their enterprizes England had been Scotland long ere this of which more anon But that I may quit scores as I go along because the Scots heighten their actings for us in this Expedition and in their Papers speak so largely of their assistance of us against the Royal Party as the greatest act of love and favour that ever was done unto a Nation charging of us with ingratitude and ill requital Let us a little remember that it was a common cause that but the day before as it were we did the like for them we paid them for the meer standing up for their own priviledges that we bought their love at a greater rate then brotherly assistances are used to be sold for and were at all the charges to maintain the Covenant both in England and Scotland And whereas they urge the Kings offers of the four Northern Counties to be annexed to that Crown if they would joyn with him with abundance of large promises In general as it would be worse than inhumanity for them to have engaged against the Parliament who had a but year or two before helpt them and sent them home with money in their purses when they came but about their own business So in particular they knew who were better paymasters the King or the Parliament and though they had not the four Northern Counties made over by the Covenant yet they did not doubt but to work them out and to have them for their Arrears which was more safe and honourable in the mean while they knew they should enjoy them for their Quarters However we must acknowledge their assistance was then seasonable and a favour And yet when we pay well for respects something of thanks may well be spared But to return to our main discourse It is very observable to consider the great difference in their carriages between their first Expedition for themselves and their second upon the score of the Covenant in their first coming they came with Bibles in their hands singing of Psalms and in a very lovely form of godliness and their behaviour generally was not much unsutable but in the second Expedition when they came with the Covenant in their hats and hands there was a sudden visible change both in persons and carriages the constitution of the Army of a more loose temper and Religion marcht in the rear for having us now fast by Covenant and lying under the shelter of so sure a pretence they presently fell to plunder and to challenge all things as their own and as I take it the first night they entred England they slew a thousand sheep though by the Treaty they should have brought in a moneths provision sutable to their Army and so acted as if they had nothing now to look after but an intire communion and mutual injoyment of all things in common with us and though we had Commissioners with them which by the Treaty were to order all things joyntly with them as they were seldome consulted withall so hardly ever obeyed these Gentlemen though tender enough of the English Interest giving way and yeelding to many things being loth to make broils and hinder the main work they so encroached ere they were aware on our priviledges and enjoyments in the North that there was nothing but sad oppressions and violences reigning over the poor Countreys without any redress and after they had warmed themselves with our English refreshments they without any Warrant from the Parliament or Approbation of our Commissioners lay on a universal Sess upon every thing that was of any concernment to the people besides Free-Quarter and particular plunders Thus our Commissioners remained among them rather as spectators of the misery of the people then as Counsellors and in authority with them These things were sad presages and opened many mens eyes in the North to see such sudden changes though the South knew not but they were all Saints It was wisdom then to conceal these things and not give them publick vent lest we should rejoyce our Enemies hoping likewise that it would be but for a while and that
this while in action and yet in the eyes and hearts of the people for their rare services and that their spirits would fain be at the main person to end the war whom the Scots had unworthily conveyed from them and they might well imagine that our Army could easilier beat the Scots out of England then the King into the Scots Army Yet when he went from them he was laden with as many promises as he could carry or well believe which was too well performed afterwards though privately of which more hereafter some of their great men told him he had done too much to be presently stood for ere they had worn out the thoughts of his miscarriages by their new strategems on these they were then pleased to call his enemies others told him that they could do him more service in his absence from them and with less suspition neither could the King have gone away with comfort nor they with that quietness had not they promised to make up all at last for besides the shifting off the burden from themselves in regard of maintenance they had the advantage of freer actings from him by how much they had so orderly given him up to the charity of the English Parliament 2. Great things lay visible to any Observer as to that transaction first that it was too costly for them to maintain him alone when they saw they could make no present use of him 3. That they could not part with their former engagement to the King without new promises in a more hopeful way of accomplishment and some of their Grandees at that time were for a present appearance and the Army was dealt withall to that purpose and the Regiments that were engaged I could relate and tell you how forward David Lesley himself was in that business and how far the Lords Calander Lanerick Sinclare yea and Lowden also acted in that affair but wiser and more concerned men knew the Kings temper and how little they had from him to satisfie their best and most followed men and what it was to fight so soon in a new mask for the old Cause and what need they had of two hundred thousand pounds at present to pay themselves and their Army that they changed the Case and gave up that person to us to look after which they could get then no more by The King who was no fool as to Politicks was not much discontented at his removal but looked upon it as his usual ghuesse and progress for he saw the Scots were too far engaged to England on the one way as he was on the other against both to expect a sudden opposition but he contented himself to think that he had laid a good foundation for their future designs and had both gained and engaged his formerly most opposite party And you shall finde that the Kings party did more storm at his giving up then the King himself who knew both his design and their promises they curse the Scots and fall on them as those that sold their King and betrayed their Trust but he knew that he was not sold but bought and as his necessities did drive him to come to them whom he perfectly hated so their necessities made them give him up and renew their first promises to be performed in a more convenient way they not finding mediums as yet so proportioned and fitted to their main end But it hath been thought with much seriousness by many that could the Scots have prevailed on him to have taken the Covenant they would have made a greater Cheat of him then ever they can now hope to make of Charls their Second Argyle who was their main man in his surrender to his praise be it spoken though he hath since opened his heart parted very fairly and with much complement from his Majesty and told him that he could be a better friend to him at a distance then in their quarters and whereas he could have now but one wheel moving for him if he staid he should hereafter have many Yet that I may not diminish any thing from them they were very zealous in pressing on him the Covenant and some other acts which was well done and indeed they had no other visible way without shame to make their best market by him and the King knew them so well that he would often tell them They loved him onely for themselves and yet he expected no more from them then that they might serve themselves by him Many particular discontents there were between them in their debates which the King would often put up and remember onely when he knew their full minde of delivering him up to the Parliament of England he laboured twice to escape from them which whether it were to try what they would do further for him or what he could do by himself I know not but he was prevented and not onely kept more safe but secured that future actions should manifest their real intentions But however the King is now delivered up to our Commissioners who was very cheery whether because he was freed from a Scottish bondage or was comforted with new hopes through their close Protestations I will not dispute but certainly he was no way danted or melancholy in sight he now saw himself the special Umpire of all affairs and the great prize of all Parties and therefore intended to let them try out among themselves their own differences and rejoyced in our divisions that he might raign But though the King was thus made ours after many disputes of the propriety of each Nation yet the Scots Army must have something else which they valued more then his personal presence viz. that English two hundred thousand pounds which was rather as a gratuity then pay all things considered and yet was gladly given to fore-speak a Peace ere they would march and yet to their Commendation they did keep their Articles upon reception of their money and I have nothing to say to dispraise their peaceable departure onely for the honor of England it may be well considered what a fruitful and blessed Nation we are in our societies and converses that whereas they came in with between two or three thousand Scots Naggs they marched out of England with about sixty Troopes of as gallant horse as ever any Army in Christendom was furnished withall and every Captain besides the extraordinaries of Colonels had his two or three led horses of as great value as some would judge their patrimony to be in Scotland were they equally divided by a sterling account But yet England have much to bless God they went away with no more then they did But still to the design This Army went into Scotland not to be disbanded after their pay but as into their Winter Quarters which though their march was at almost the end of our Winter yet but the middle of theirs and they were designed to go aside and lie out of sight untill things were prepared in the
for it whether to regain their lost Honor in delivering up the King at Newcastle and vindicate themselves of these aspersions of selling him for two hundred thousand pound or to make good their secret promises at his departure from them it s no great matter to be informed in but all the world may know they negotiated that affair more like the Kings authorized Commissioners for that purpose then the Commissioners of the Covenant and Nation of Scotland For when the Parliament stood on the way of Propositions wherein the Fundamental principles of both Nations should have been stuck unto and the absolute necessaries of our peace without restriction insisted on nothing would serve the Scots but a Personal Treaty which in effect was no more but this That we must yet be at the Kings mercy for what we had by the sword wrung out of his hands that this was a dangerous design that the Scots had a chief hand in it I shall demonstrate in these particulars For the first That it was not the right way but a by path found out on purpose for to act some other affair by is evident if we consider First that the way of Propositions was judged at the utmost pinch of our affairs to be the safest and fairest by both Nations and though the King often desired it when he had an Army as an argument it would not be granted knowing the influences of Royal aspects and respect 2. Any other way would be most useless for what could not be done by Propositions could not be by a personal presence for those Propositions were not as Ceremonial and State Complements which can be omitted without danger but of that consequence and Fundamentalness to this Nation and so connected together that we could not lose one without hazard of all Besides our affairs were not in that equal ballance at that time we having the King as our prisoner to Treat with him upon equal terms or to admit his person to explain or dash out our demands Yea the way of Propositions was most serious as safe for if the King refused to grant our desires in cold bloud when he had time to peruse them so long and to know his own heart towards them and yet refused to sign them and we durst not recede from them how could we expect by debate and conferences where men are many times surprized and lie under strong influences and have not time of looking so round about them to have got any thing by such a Treaty but these things have been in other Manifestoes more fully spoken unto That the Scots have been the prime instruments in it it s a Record in their own Remonstrances And their carriages too gross in it to be kept private they protested against the Parliaments way of Propositions and when they had nothing against the matter they carp at the method and cry out upon them for not putting the Covenant in the fore front while the Parliament intended nothing but to secure it in the middle and make it the center in which all things should rest and by which they should be determined this was judged a little politick Superstition in the Scots to make the world believe they had the onely care of the Covenant and the Parliament of themselves the high incroachments of these Gentlemen on the priviledges of England and the Parliament though it might give us a full discovery of their designs on us yet it is not to be paralleld by any Ministers of State in the Christian or Heathenish world for still wrapping themselves up in the Covenant they peremptorily take upon them to determine what proposals we shall make concerning our peace and when they have granted the substance will take on them to hold our hands in the writing of them that we must not place a letter or syllable in any order but what these Commissioners would have us nor could we have liberty to point our own words or add an accent without a severe check from them And when we had profest our selves proper Judges of our affairs and not to meddle with any proposals that immediatly concerned their Nation the Scots Commissioners ride post presently to the Isle of Wight and protest against all those things that our Parliament thought most fit for setling the peace of this Nation That all English men may see the aims of that Nation for power and domination in England and I may say it without partiality the Spanish Faction never had more power in the conclave at Rome then the Scots had at that time on the most of the English Nation And so strenously do they follow this affair that a personal Treaty is obtained at last but least it should not have been effected to bring the Parliament low and ballance the Kings power with theirs an universal insurrection is designed in all Counties in England and the Scots to come in on the back that the Army might be divided and broken and the Scots might back their papers with their swords this was the deepest and most dangerous design that ever was set on foot and the greatest power of God was maifested in preventing the efficacy of it which did not onely make a new War but would have utterly undone all former hopes For upon a suddain they revolt in Wales under Poyer Powel and Laughorn get together a great Army in Kent and Essex afterwards in Surry had all been as ready as these Counties and the word so fully given it had been a blow indeed unto this Nation as never was yet given the poor discountenanced Army is now fain to divide and to go into several corners to fight and suppress their new enemies among whom had not God appeared by an extraordinary presence we had not known the wonders we now see That the Scots were the great occasion if not the prime causes of this new and desperate plot will not be very difficult to discover though they seemed to veil it never so secretly for all these things fell out upon their Declarations against the Parliament and Army and were but the result of their transactions with the King and doubtless formed especially in the I le of Wight Their great endeavour as you may observe hath been since the work was done without them to destroy the Army the onely bulwark God hath given us to preserve our selves from the designs of the King and them and to disaffect the people from the Parliaments power and actings many strange things being blown up and down and kindled in the Nation by their Papers to this end it now breaks out into a flame besides all the pretences the new Mutineers make as the utmost of their desires is for the disbanding the Army for a personal Treaty and to suppress Sectaries and though the King lay close all this while and was glad of his Prison while his Agents were so instrumental yet he had his predominant influences and as they raised men he put Commanders
over them especially in Essex and Surrey and Scotland but to make it without question that the Scots had the first hand in this business let us but look back and remember with what discontents and contempts of the Parliament and Army and with what complements from the King the Scots Commissioners parted when their Secretary was made Sir John Chiesly a dangerous Omen in such a juncture and with what respect notwithstanding the complaints and charges of our Parliament against them which were sent after them they were re-ceived by their Parliament and what thanks were given them as if they had fully exprest the hearts of that Nation towards us But that which puts all out of doubt that the Scots were principal and trump in this work is that just at the same time to a hair Duke Hamilton invades England with a mighty Army by the authority and commission of the Scotish Parliament as knowing his time and how things were formerly agreed upon For the Commissioners of Scotland having laid fuel enough for the hottest flames to break out and took their last leave of his Majesty and Hamilton having over and above private instructions they withdraw to Scotland to receive thanks and prosecute the remainder of their work in preparing all things for it in Scotland which was fully done to the utmost advantage And had not God who hath not yet failed to prosecute this Cause and help his instruments in all their perplexities made bare his own Arm we should have had England peopled with that Nation at least morgaged to inrich them but God which out of abundant mercy was pleased to bless our Army in every corner where any opposition was made did specially help them to beat that Army which was like to an overflowing land-flood threatning ruine to every Countrey and to make use of this Army both to help some particular dissenters into that power which they now use against them and at last to cut off the root that no more influence might be from such a malevolent conjunction Thus the Reader hath had a faithful and plain relation of the secret and open designs of the Scots to be Conquerors of this Nation or to be joint-Rulers with us whereby we may look about our selves and remember what it is to be too much ingaged with poor and prying neighbours where so many advantages are to be had on the one side to tempt and so little on the other to provoke and at last to learn how dangerous it is for States which are like Sphaerical bodies to touch but in a point But things stay not here when the Scots saw themselves ferreted out of all their holes and the Parliament assisted notwithstanding all designs to remove out of the way the great stumbling block and to do Justice on the head of all our misery the late King that there was no more now for the Scots to do in England the Parliament having wisely changed the Government to a Commonwealth and cut off that hereditary usurpation of Monarchy which was never either justly begun or continued the Scots presently to make new divisions and that they might both continue the war and renew the old advantages proclaim his Son King of England as well as Scotland by the name of Charls the Second and afterwards without our consent nay in contempt of this Commonwealth treated with him at Breda by themselves both for England and Scotland and did engage to him to endeavor to advance him to the English Throne all this but to incense and provoke us to a new war with them and to make themselves by our ruines I am now come to the rational part of this Discourse and to capitulate with them about our entrance of Scotland No man I know of any disingagedness from that interest after all these passages will wonder that the Parliament of England should send an Army into that Nation who have invaded us so often both by their Armies and deceits especially when they have now taken our greatest enemy into their bosoms and have never given us satisfaction for all their former injâ—ries Though the grounds of this have been cleared fully by the Parliament and Army yet I shall take the boldness to vindicate this overture by some further reasonings and taking off their objections against our persons and actions In General no man can imagine and retain in his understanding that our entrance of Scotland could be out of any by-end either to inrich our selves or enlarge our Common-wealth all the world know that Scotland hath not so many temptations to make English men to lose all their accommodation to forsake their wives and children and venture their lives to injoy them without poverty and penury cold and hunger could allure them in which they have sadly experienced since they set their feet on that ground neither could power and domination be their ground seeing it would cost us more to gain such a power then ever we could get by the most intire communion in it and it would be a sad exchange for English men to remove from such a fertile and flourishing Nation to make a plantation in the fag end of the Creation Neither can it be imagined that the Parliament hath so much money to spare to keep an Army to plow up the fallow and barren mountains of another Nation or that they are so unfaithful to this Commonwealth as to hazard their most faithful and active instruments in a meer bravado against hunger and cold as well as Swords and Canons All men must needs conceive its a matter of greater consequence and built upon higher grounds then meer pettishness or envy seeing the subject is incapable of any such working distempers Our great desire is nothing else but satisfaction for their invading of us and security against the next terms most reasonable especially when we consider the wrongs and damages done to this Nation by their means and the grounds of more then fear and jealousies we have reason to entertain concerning their thirst after the power and priviledges of this Commonwealth yet I do not doubt but the concession of the latter would serve us though we have just ground to stand on the first We appeal to all the world whether we have not put it to the last and deferr'd it to the utmost period it will be a wonder to all Kingdoms and States if it were once fully known with what patience the Supream Authority of this Nation hath born their affronts from time to time with what ceremony and affection we have courted their favours desired a fair understanding a hearty compliance with us in friendship and that Commissioners might be appointed on each side to give and take satisfaction but as if we were already designed to ruine we could neither get money nor good words and as if they meant to hold out the blackest flagg of defiance they return all our endeavours for Peace with the dirt of reproach and slanders in
their hearts were and are those which ever since have abused our Parliament and Army and have made use of all their authority to overthrow us and yet we must be contented with their onely dissent onely to the manner and order of that invasion And yet truly I think we might well be satisfied in their dislike if we had not found that they have been both the first Agents and mean to be the last prosecutors of the same design but grant all these protesting spirits to be never so entire to the English interest the contrary to which we have found by woful experience yet we may see the complexion of that whole State in its aspects on England and may very well demand full satisfaction for a Parliamentary publick Commission to enslave and abase this Free born Nation When England was guiltless of any design they must satisfie When they come and invade us for their own security against two or three persons at Court we must out of Conscience reward them And when we make use of them in a Common Cause which would at last fall as hardly on themselves if they meant to keep their first principles yet we must pay them both for their own good as well as ours and maintain them in their zeal and love and Religion together and yet its unreasonable for this Commonwealth to propose satisfaction for an Authorized invasion on us to the undoing of thousands in the North. But the onely and best reason that ever I could find out to salve and quench such a motion is drawn from that way of arguing which is ab impossibili that its impossible for us to get satisfaction were they as Free as they are Froward and where there is nothing we may remember our English Proverb In that cause there the King must lose his Right intimating that if any thing could be got per fas aut nefas by hook or by crook Kings would be sure to get it who were nothing else but the Royal Catch-poles of a Commonwealth But grant that all arrears were discharged between us is it not reason that we should have security at least when we are willing to take that for satisfaction that is the next ground of entring Scotland to secure our own Borders and have not we reason when they have joyned with an interest diametrically against us to intreat that after they have laid their designs on England they will promise not to act them we desire nothing but peace at home and to reap the fruit of our own labors and Gods mercies Let Scotland sit down with the Triumph and Joys of their now Politick Convert we shall not envy them but they must give us leave to remember our own Condition when we have such neighbors and enemies joyned together who have been the bawds to all parties in their utmost Rapes and Ravishments of the Priviledges of this Commonwealth We wish we had as equal Judges as we have sufficient grounds for this Act they have given us cause of Jealousie should they prove never so honest now by their former Transactions but when both the former and latter designs are made one and the same pretences still pleaded to dress the old design and all waies of information and correspondencie is absolutely shut up by them its time for England to look to it self and to endeavor if they can to prevent that which they mean to prevail by viz. our facilness and delay upon what pretence soever And we mean to go by examples the Scots have led us the way and taught as the Method of invading long before Hamiltons Expedition upon sleighter and lower grounds and less occasion then we have For when the King by the prevailing Favourites at Court had raised an Army with intention to make war on them to prevent the miseries of war in their own Countrey and get before-hand with the King they fairly march over Tweed enter England and take New-Castle and by that means disappointed that intended mischief in their own Nation and have not we the same just reasons to take our opportunities when they have proclaimed a King over us and were forming an Army to enthrone him in this Nation let all the world judge If they say they had not stated a war against England or did not intend to invade us we shall desire nothing more from them than a full confirmation of that Protestation But what meant the Treaty at Breda what meant that Article wherein they promise upon his full satisfying the just demands of that State and Kirk they would endeavour to restore him to his rights in England Would they do it by an Army or not or could they restore him but by force upon us These juglings will not now serve the turn Can any man of any competency of reason judge that Charls Stuart who hath been bred up in his Fathers principles and who hath had such Tutors all this while would give up himself to live on the charity of that Nation or that he would ever enter Scotland but as a back door to England intending to make the furthest way about the nearest way home Or will any imagine that the Scots are so in love with a King as to be burthen'd both with his power and maintenance alone but that they meant to make use of him to get a greater footing in England than ever they had and to be enriched with the spoiles and rewards of this flourishing Nation for such a special service let every mans conscience speak this truth and should not we be for ever branded as fools to posterity to let them make their own preparations and take their own advantages to ruine us while we are terrified with the nicety of a word which they call invasion from securing our selves and certainly if the absolutest necessity had not enforced Expedition prudence and policy would have rendred it a madness for us to send our faithful and special Army into Scotland to suffer all that misery and hardship which they have since undergone and notwithstanding all former affronts without any acknowledgement much less redress from them God knows and honest men might see with what frame of spirit our Army entred Scotland in their addresses to the borders you would not think to see them they had been an Army of Souldiers but of suiters and humble Petitioners for a peace and it was no small encouragement to some silent and observing spirits to see the order of their addresses unto that Nation sending in their desires for nothing else but the security of England begging that they might not be put to extremities against that Nation but might yet receive some hopes of satisfaction writing as unto Saints not enemies and those that viewed their carriages saw as much of the workings of Christian bowels in that Remonstrance as ever any that came from an Army But all these amicable and sweet motions were returned with Fire and Sword with the utmost revilings and contempt as if
they were rather shooting Canons at them than writing answers which was a sad provocation as it was a dangerous presage of their own ruine It is likewise most observable in our March into Scotland what a change there was in the spirits of most of the Officers and Souldiers though they had been so egregiously abused yet with what fear and trembling they went on in that work not doubting of the justness of their Cause but as out of a loving shyness and unwillingness and Christian tenderness to do any thing that might endammage that Nation pausing every step hoping God would find out some other way to preserve England humbling themselves for former errors and miscarriages and so leisurely and sadly they went to this work that they seemed rather to be trayling their Pikes backwards than advancing them as if they were rather going to the Funeral of some dead General than to charge a formidable and inveterate Enemy And we have much reason to say that God hath and will answer them according to the sincerity of their hearts in that Expedition as he hath and will remember the juglings of that Nation both in England and among themselves So that they themselves by these carriages have at least strengthned our former just grounds of motion that way and the nigher we drew to our own borders the more reason we saw of entring Scotland Had they had any mind to peace or any other principle but that which acted them to do all these things in England they would have prevented a war in their own Nation by some loving and respectful answers to our just desires and tender motions and truly any kind Essay in that behalf would have too much prevailed upon our natures to stop our course for the present and hope more but as if they longed for such an act they daily provoked us to it scorning our motions denying so much as a name of honour to our chief Commander only styling him by the name of Lieut. General Cromwel whereby they would demonstrate themselves as perfect haters of their persons as of their actions Is there no blood left in gallant and noble Spirits who have conquered Armies of a more high and Noble Command and Model than any Army that could be raised in Scotland to be provoked to revenge But alas these things were past by as nothing by the greatness and magnanimity of the General who looked after Things more than Titles and had they but seemed to be any way plyable to a satisfying peace he and all the rest of the Officers would have been willing to have left their Titles behind them in that Treaty and been content also to have born all the affronts they put upon them besides but that they might render themselves absolute and implacable Enemies to this Army and Commonwealth they will not so much as admit a good motion with any sence but scorn us in our best acts of love that they might confirm the truth of all our former suspitions of them What could we now conclude on after all our care and timerousness in that Expedition but to be fully clear in that which we did but debate before and what was but probable before is now made necessary and of present concernment Thus God was pleased by the hight and hardness of their hearts toward us to add a more immediate ground of our entrance of Scotland to all we had before but the Scots thought to have undone us by this Act for first they thought to make this a foundation of a surer pretence of all future actings towards us and by the name of Invasion both to make us odious and to give themselves liberty hereafter to do what they would with England Secondly they drew them in to ensnare and destroy them as verily beleeving that ayr to be too sharp for English bodies and that hunger and cold should do their work for them which had been according to their design if God had not given them more than ordinary strength the miseries which in these few moneths that Army suffered in that Kingdom hath been more than ever they suffered in all the wars of England and Ireland Let all the world once more judge what ground we had to enter Scotland and whether it was not high time when we could get neither former dammages repaired nor present hopes of respect or correspondence from them with this Nation when they were preparing for an invasion of us and had put themselves out of a capability of peace What shall England be alwayes playing after-games Have we bought our priviledges at so easie a rate as to sell them all away upon mistaken charity We hope now the Scots have taught us wisdom to take opportunities though we have paid too much for the learning it But that I may not waste paper and tire the Readers patience with things so clear and demonstrative that I may remove any thing out of their way that may be further considered of by ingenuous and knowing men Let us now fall on their objections and take off their pleas against the Army and this Commonwealth in their proceedings formerly and now The great and main pretence of all their quarrel and stomack against England is the breach of the Covenant which they lay wholly on this Nation professing themselves as the makers so the only keepers of the Covenant a charge that 's heavy and sad enough if it were as true But as the word is general so is the charge God hath and will judge who hath been most faithful shortly as to that act only let it be considered that its hard to keep the Covenant according to the forc'd and fixt sence of every party but if by keeping the Covenant be meant the genuine and true end of it from the natural and right meaning of it ere it be brought forth from the womb of a design then we shall not doubt but to clear our selves before God and men that England hath kept the Covenant more intirely then Scotland and while they seem to keep their own words and syllables we have kept the sence and end of it and though we have not as it is reported of quondam Alderman Bunce a young Convert to the Scots kept the paper of it in our breasts yet we have had the true interpretation of it in our eyes and hearts and have prosecuted the Malignants to it against whom it was primarily made with the utmost justice that they might no more hinder the literal keeping of it by England and Scotland I only ask what was become of the Covenant when Hamilton came in to invade England whether was it publickly torn and burnt by that Nation Or whether ever it can be read clearly since without any hoblings and blots If they say they protest against it as formerly it s no doubt but the Scots themselves judge that there be many private persons in England which cannot be taxed with such a breach and yet because they
think the publick authority hath broken it they lay the charge on the whole and so reflectively we do not doubt but many private spirits in Scotland have kept chast and are not mixed with the former and present designs but as we are not to take notice of particular persons but as in their sphear but must judge of things by authoritative and National acts so we must lay the first and absolute breach of Covenant on that Nation which can never be repayed by any private professions and if England have broken it since it hath been by their example and because they have taken themselves discharged from their part in performance seeing the Scots have broke on their part first But if men will be impartial the ill use of the Covenant may be as bad as the breach of it if not worse and the truth is the several ill uses the Scots have made of that good thing hath made many careless in keeping of it for it hath been put to serve all turns the Personal Treaty the insurrections in England for a second war the Invasion of Scotland who came with the fullest sayles of the Covenant and now at last it is made to serve the Malignant Interest and to advance the Royal Party once the common Enemy against whom it was first made these and such like actings by it hath made the world beleeve that it was but a Scottish stratagem at first and is now become a defiled and common thing yet I could wish from my heart that it had been more conscienciously made and kept by both Nations But let us view the particulars of this charge The first is the not setting up of Presbyterial Government in England as it is in Scotland Reformation of Discipline being one of the main ends of it I have nothing to say against Reformation and of Discipline but only to say in general of it as the Apostle doth of the Law 1 Tim. 1.8 It is good if a man use it lawfully Yet that we may seriously weigh the thing as the Parliament held all care in calling together an Assembly of Divines and have hearkned unto their results so there were several precious spirits in the Assembly that could not well agree to a Scottish Presbytery and many things were offered by dissenting parties which though all were not of the mind of yet they saw much reason and Scripture in it and though Government were necessary yet they saw not that clearness of a Jure Divino as these of the North would have forc'd them unto the Assembly at first and after full debates were contented with such an expression as this That many Congregations may be under one Presbyterial Government which shewed only the prudential conveniency of the way at present and it never advanced further until the Scots would needs intrude their own Jus Divinum Discipline was with us and is a hard proposition and there are so many conscientious and honest and learned dissentors that it was found one of the hardest works to settle it either way however Scotland did leap over it by their opportunities But if we mean to lay the saddle on the right horse we may thank the Scots that Presbyterial Government hath not been fully setled in this Nation although they make it their great pretence For first they only proposed their own Model which was to be the exact pattern from which he was a Schismatick that dissented and to which they made the Word of God to stoop and by which they judged the whole nature of grace and all the State of Saints a Government which as it was much controverted and really thought unfit by moderate men so truly it was too course for our Christians and too tyrannical and imperious for the generousness and freedom of English Spirits Besides they wanted fit matter in every Congregation in England to build such a large superstructure upon the most of our Parishes being either under the darkness of formal or superstitious blindness or Malignant and horrid aversness from such an order and Government And if we could possibly get competent Members which must be a wonder yet for Elders you might traverse many Parishes ere you got one of a common capacity for such a work unless the Scots usual way of judging Elders and Members by were admitted viz. by taking the Covenant besides there was so much to say by Episcopal men on the one side and Congregational on the other and so much for an English and so much for a Scots Presbytery that the utmost result could be no more then a convenient probability And as all things were Schisme and Heresie that were not fully to that pattern which they thought infallible so England was utterly unprepared for such an universal and new structure that we were rather surprized and hurried into a form than any way fitly and ingenuously adapted to it For ere we had time to make any sutable survey of our fitness or any clear sight of the principle we were imposed upon by the Authority of a Government whose rule yet lay under debate the materials were so unfit and the rule so unclear that it made many of good affections to Discipline think it not to be the time for setting of it up or at least that the rule was not so fairly written for to hold it forth to all men in a word all things were so confused as to the materials of it in all or most places that many godly men thought either they must change their habitations or be put to sad shifts to satisfie their consciences in exercising all Ordinances which ought to be in a publick established Church Government But if we come to the manner of their actings the Scots who were the great Agents drove so furiously and made such faces on it that affrighted all sober and tender consciences from full closing in with it according to such a representation for ere they had proved the Divinity of it they would needs set up the Authority of it yea before they had cleared their principles they would have it enforc'd on all men to obey it and subscribe to it without any care of the best sort of consciences who were but newly released out of a like sort of bondage which certainly was not a wise act nor very religious for though many good men in the Assembly and Parliament were for that Government in its true nature and exercise yet they loved only an English not a Scottish Presbytery which differs little from Episcopacy but in the pontificalness of Ceremony it claiming and exercising as full and tyrannical a power against those that cannot stretch themselves to that uniformity as the other doth against non-conformity the great design of Scotland in urging not a but their Presbyterial Government so fiercely on England was to make their civil and Ecclesiastick transactions meet for as they had by their Treaties and our favours got a kind of a negative voyce in all our Counsels so by
introducing their own pattern in the Government of the Church they should have been to us as Rome to other Churches the last judge to whom all appeal and what influence the Church hath on the State all may guess But moreover the temper of our Ministers was yet contrary unto what the Scots would be at the most of them being not yet refined from the dreggs of Episcopacy and it would be very much unsuitable to wise and foreseeing transactors to put new wine into old bottles and trust unexperienced men with so large a power as was contended for which would but have made them and us presently remember the old principles they were more naturally instructed by whereas had they been willing to trust Christ with his own Government and had first cleered up to all men their way and waited for the full power untill they had given some eminent testimony of the goodness of it either to unite Saints or set up the power of godliness it might have have been by this established with abundance of peace and happiness to this Nation but as most good men were very jealous of an old Tyranny under a new name especially when the good thing contended for was Power and Authority so they found too many carnal mixtures both publikely and privately which frighted their consciences from a full compliance yea which is far worse so highly would the Scots party carry it that the utmost distinction of godly and honest men should be according to their submission to that rule neither would all the power of godliness serve to give out the manifestation of a Saint or to make a Christian but he must be called a Heretick and Schismatick without he were exactly measured by that tenter and rackt to make that profession And when the dissenting Brethren themselves men of known integrity and of special anoyntings who agreed with them in all the principles of Religion and Directory for Worship yea the principles of Discipline onely dissenting in the extension and subject of power and Authority when they desired but a forbearance and dispensation to their conscience from the utmost rigidness and severity of the Rule so far did the Scots model prevail that such a tender and rational request would not be granted which unheard of severity opened many mens eyes and made them think there was more than spiritual zeal in these designs especially when they saw Ministers of the Gospel looking after such a full Secular Power to prefer it before the power of godliness and full consent in the Orthodoxness of Doctrine or the purity of the matter of such a Government So that I cannot but lay the great blame on the Scots as the impediments of hindring the free and full establishment of that Discipline which would have surely took effect if it had been at first proposed in Scripture terms and language and afterwards had been prosecuted with the meekness and gentleness of a Gospel-Government and doubtless had not the Scots rid on the fore Horse and driven the Chariot Jehu like with their own principles and ends we should have had Presbytery in a better form and settlement than now we have for nothing opened our English eyes so much as their desperate thrustings of their pattern on us ere we had well cast off thoughts of Episcopacy or were in any religious capacity for another Government all men then began to wonder what Tabernacles these men did mean to build in England who would have engrost the legislative power both of State and Kirk into their own hands so that the true and real lovers of Presbytery were hindred by the violence and design of the Scots party who because they got more by their Ecclesiastical pretences than any civil actings therefore nothing would content them but their own Model in it by which they thought to have the most special influences on all the rest I hope by this time the Reader will see something into the nature of that Plea and will look upon the Scots who though they are accounted to Presbytery as the Spaniards to Popery the eldest sons of the Church yet fairer and better mediums might have been used to have wrought it out more effectually than a new inquisition or a peremptory imposition of a Government without clearness of principles or care of good consciences no more of that I come to the next main Objection which is the doing Justice on the late King an objection which is very unbecoming Scotland to make against us though it be too freqent for first Let our accusers be our Judges they laid the foundation we did but follow the same principle to its last end they taxed him as a man of blood profest there were no hopes of him to any good and when we come to joyn issue with them by our actings they exclaim on us for prosecuting their principles When they had him at Newcastle they knew not what to do with him but to give him over to make more work for them among us After all their desires of a personal Treaty their Kirk declares that to make a peace on these Concessions would be dangerous and destructive to the whole Cause and that God would curse us if we did centre in these grants And what could possibly be gain'd more seeing that was the last and utmost overture with him but to cut him off as immedicabile vulnus all wayes and essays were used to the utmost to gain but hopes of happiness by him but his returns were so gross that the Scots themselves protested in Print there was no residing in these concessions and what way was there else but a bringing him in unto his full power again though he utterly refused either to take the Covenant or abolish Episcopacy And truly the Scots rejoyce the Act is done though they are also glad that they were not the active instruments of it for they clearly saw he was too much engaged to several parties in England and Ireland for them to make use of his person for themselves and they could do no more for him than they had done and keep up any credit and esteem amongst good men this gallant piece of Justice is rather envyed by others than hated however it was done in a more noble and serious way than poysoning a way which the Scots have been of all Nations most guilty of he having a fair trial and a free hearing of what he could say for himself But we may lay the Kings death also very honestly on the Scots for they by the height of their expressions against the King both confirmed and aggravated our own experiences of him and provoked us to do some act to make their words good they cal'd him often a man of blood one that had shed more blood than any of his predecessors and what could we do less than revenge blood with blood the blood of millions with the blood of a particular person what attonement could be less and what more
proper And shall the Scots thus sprinkle blood upon all his garments and pass the sentence of condemnation on him and may not we lawfully execute it when never more bloody expressions were given to any Nero in the earth than Scotland gave to that King and as truly and yet they are angry with us for drawing out that blood which else would putrifie in his veins and for ever defile us This great and hainous act which the Scots so abhor as they led the way to it first so they were the hastners of it sooner than in probability it could have been effected for they made him stand out against all those just Propositions which were so often offered and denied and hardned his heart against giving full satisfaction giving him hopes of a better way for him to regain his ends and he who judged as a selvish Polititian could not but imagine that he need not to improve any other than his own principles for when they stirr'd so much for a personal Treaty and to wave the way of Propositions which he had so often knowingly rejected and made such ado about his person what could he think less than that his person was the unum necessariū and that we could never make our own peace without his being Umpire at least it made him believe his person was of more use than our Propositions and if we may make rational conjectures he had complied to any thing if the Scots had not made him think that he was the most useful person to the peace as he was to begin the war an Emblem of this the King himself gave I take it in the Isle of Wight when the King talking with our Commissioners threw a bone at his doggs before their faces that he might laught at them by a resemblance and intimate that while they were contending for him he would get his own ends When the Parliament of England saw how he was hardned against them and heightned by the Scots overtures to deny and scorn all our necessary Propositions what could we do less than improve our power to remove such a block which lay as the snare and temptation of all parties and at the catch of all our respects unto him What way was there left to prevent mischiefs and to settle affairs but that just severitie either we must have given him over to the Scots to Reform him as they have done his Son which is in English nothing but to make their own use of him against us or have lest the stain of all the Bloud unsatisfied for on this Nation or have been content to part with and be willingly cheated of our dear bought Liberties to save the bloud of a Tyrant who if he had lived longer would have cut a fresh vein in these three Nations which could hardly ever have been bound up what a Monument would it have been in England to see CHARLS STVART set up again in the English Throne with his Garments sprinkled do I say nay dyed in the bloud of the best people in the three Nations and to ride to the Parliament in such Robes and in a fair capacity of a double and deeper Tincture shall we ever be deluded with names and Titles and circumscribe Justice in the compass of some particular persons and not let it reign on the university of mankind But all men may easily judge the Scots never much lamented that person whom they did first condemn as a Tyrant and unfit to live of whose death they laid the surest foundations and is it not as lawful to behead him as imprison him when the urgency of affairs and his deserts merit the one as the other But no more of that he is sent to his Grave more Honourably than bloud-thirsty men are wont to be and so wil his Son if the Scots do not poyson him before he come to so much Honor. The next great ground of their hatred of us is The change of Government that we have not set up the Son to propagate his Fathers principles and follow his ends with revenge here they begin to Act according to their old way and take upon them to determine what Government we shall have what if England will change seven times yet more what is that to Scotland But the Mystery lies in this That we have cast off their King by whom they meant to share with us in the Priviledges of this Common-wealth and they are vext they must maintain a King alone whose name would do them better service in England than his Rule can do in Scotland Of the conveniency and necessity of a Change as we are the proper Judges so Scotland will invade us more really than we them if they offer to make another change among us we have not altered any thing of the Laws and Priviledges which are fundamental or fit for the happiness of our own Nation we have onely removed those persons who were the great obstructions in the full execution of them and who labored alwaies to render them useless or to overpower them by prerogative so that there is no alteration of the Government we having many good Laws which must not be abrogated but of the ill and Titular Governours whose names did more sway than the Laws and who superseded all Laws by their own wills But how comes it to pass that the Scots are so zealous about the Change of our Governors can they make us believe that they have so much care and love to us as to be so sadly troubled at our Changes seeing they themselves have made so many sad Changes amongst us or so much judgement as to know what Government is onely best for us No no we have got now so much out of that Fogg that we can discern between a Scotish Brotherly affection and an English Priviledge had not we changed him who must be their King and by whom they mean to further their old designs on us which are now grown riper by their cunning pretences of the Covenant we might have had what Government we would and had we altered and rased out all the Laws which are the veins and sinews of this body they would never have repin'd had we not cast off that person and so frustrated their hopes and I doubt not but if we had embraced Mahomets Religion we should have had better correspondencies with them than now we are like to have onely because we cannot jump the whole Nation into their form both in Kirk and State But had not we reason to change the Governors when we had like to lose both our first principles and the sense of all the signal victories of Gods Providence by a new name added to an old Malignant though a young pretender Could we possibly expect any savory fruit of such a rotten stock or that the Son who was engaged in the Fathers quarrrel and educated in his principles would act contrary to both if the Scots have more faith than we have or can get for the
of Estates with whom they left their power which was the only lawful power our Army having beaten Hamilton in England by the invitation of some private men prosecutes the remainder of that Army in Scotland where they make them lay down Arms and come to an agreement and set up the former Committee of Estates then accounted more honest and dissolve that Committee of Estates who sate by the full authority of the Supream power and besides whom all were but private persons this Committee hath ever since called Parliaments ordered all affairs as the Commission of the supream Authority of that Nation and yet they will have us to be no authority though the main of the body of the Commons of England in the same Parliament remain only because they have purged out many and predominant and Malignant humours which disturbed the health and marr'd the beauty of the whole and have cut off some rotten Members which were like to gangrene the Scots themselves also confessing in their Answer to the Armies Remonstrance that there was a party in Parliament which did betray their Trust and is it a destroying of the Authority to remove such a party And who are to be the Judges but these they call the prevailing party Were not the Scots drunk with malice and venome against this Nation they must be ashamed to deny us to be a lawful Authority when they remember themselves who did not only act without King or Parliament but got their Authority by dissolving the only lawful Parliamentary Power and courting the Royall which Committee of Estates was a meer non-entity untill our Army formed them in that Estate All that ever hath been acted in England need no other demonstrations to make them legal if examples may be arguments than the Scottish pattern but these pleas are grown too common and stale to have any efficacy on discerning and impartial spirits and if the Scots be admitted once as competent Judges of the Authority of our Parliament we may be sure they will judge according to their own sence and interest we have reason to bless God we have yet power to maintain our just Authority only we must observe to what end these men meddle so much in our affairs who have enough to reform at home and how unsutable is it to our carriages as to their Kingdom When did England ever send Commissioners into Scotland to tamper with parties or to print Declarations against any of their proceedings to divide the people from them when did we take upon us to say that Scotland did do ill in dissolving and annihilating the acts of a whole Parliament and by force set themselves in their places we know not their reasons of State as to their special actings neither care we to pry into them its fit they should be their own Judges and take their own advantages for their safety and security neither would England ever have been angry for their taking a King in among them or askt them why they did so if they had not proclaimed him K. of England also and agreed with him about imposing him on us especially when he is the common Enemy to both Nations I will add no more to this let actions speak if judgement belongs to them Justice and vengeance I am sure belongs to God who will judge his people and discover and punish the Tyrannical Government of men for the base and deceitful intentions of plausible and designing Neighbors We are now come to the last and most fiery Dart which is shot against us especially the Army which amounts to no less than a charge of Heresie and Schisme words of the saddest import to terrifie Christian spirits which is as bad and worse in a Church sence than Treason and Rebellion in the States for as they have used all mediums both Ecclesiastical and Civil that might hinder or destroy this Parliament and Army so they have invented all sorts of names which might make them odious in the eies of good and honest men to effect which no terms could be more proper and effectual than these something must needs be therefore spoken as to the charge and then of the application I am no pleader for any that are justly branded with these characters I have learnt the Doctrine of the Gospel better than to be an Heretick and have tasted so much of Gospel-love that I abhor to be a Schismatick but as these are names of the ugliest visage in Religion so they ought to be most warily and with great demonstration fixt on any who profess Religion or that are not obstinately opposite to all wayes of sound Doctrine and peace but when such horrid and black marks are fastned on men at a distance from converse and out of politick and particular ends it commonly either makes Hereticks or forces them to be Schismaticks ne'r to look after cōmunion with that party It would be wel ere men make use of such names they knew how to define them what a Heretick what a Schismatick is hath took up many debates among learned men when a man is proper to be called a Heretick not every error is Heresie nor every withdrawing from some particular acts a Schisme but we need not wade further into this controversie the Scots Heresie is not to take the Covenant and their Schism is not to follow the rules of the Kirk of Scotland for else we bless God setting aside some particular private desperadoes we have their marks we hold to the fundamentals both of Doctrine and Discipline though we cannot yet see all the particularities of either as we long after but especially we must confess we want eyes to see into the divine right of a Scotish Uniformity As for the Army on whom they lay the weight of both these expressions which they epitomize in the word Sectaries I shall not undertake to clear every particular person from many errors but this I must say if they have miscarried I hope they have repented and for the most of the Officers they have publikely profest their hatred of any that can really be called by such names It s true they had long since some subtle and windy spirits who vapoured in some high notions and for the present took frothy and active fancies among them but as they soon vanished so since they have seen much of the vanity and unsavouriness of such opinions and it hath been a cause of great humiliation among them and like the shaking of well planted trees it hath strengthned many of them more in the root and I hope these delusions of some among them hath but furbished and brightned the understanding of others who kept always the root of the matter in life and vigour in their hearts Yet if things were sifted to the bottome the Scots were great occasions if not causes of such opinions among them For they who minded nothing but their own design did so imprison and circumscribe all Religion in the Northern Model and