Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
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A37366
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A declaration of the army of England vpon their march into Scotland signed in the name and by the appointment of his excellency the Lord General Cromwell and his councell of officers, Jo. Rushworth, secretary.
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England and Wales. Army.
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1650
(1650)
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Wing D637; ESTC R29702
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7,520
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20
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the command of that Army into England and leaving his Brother and other Kindred in power in Scotland Thus upon the same Ground and pretence to carry on the Kingly Interest have you been twice deceived and now he is brought in among you who hath turned every stone and tryed all friends and. Allyes in Forraine parts endeavoured commotions at home by his wicked and malignant Instruments commissioned Rupert the French and all that Pyraticall Generation who doe spoil take plunder and destroy our ships and trade at Sea and all to the end he might destroy the people of God and the peace of the three Nations And now being by his Mother and the Popiâ—h Interests abroad â—ouncelled thereto hath made a complyance with you as his last refuge who even whilest he was treating with you had his heart set upon Montrosse and his accomplices writing Letters and sending particular Orders wo kin and upon his Popish Army in Ireland to whom he had given Commissions and whom he still owned as his faithfull Subjects not with stanall the innocent blood by them shed and would never be induced to comply or close with the Covenant and Presbytery till utterly disappointed of all those his Malignant and Popish hopes and confidences Is there not now just cause for all good men with you to feare that one so bred so engaged and interested and meerly in such a way comming in to you doth but watch his opportnuity to speak nothing of the weight of the blood of Saints under the altar erying still for vengeance upon him and that family till by his influence upon your Army which you know how composed he may gaine his ends upon you and how likewise the generality of the people of Scotland are affected is not unworthy of your most serious consideration nor of a friendly intimation from us But that which most awakens us is That notwithstanding all this and all the wrongs done to England from Scotland they refuse to doe us right so that what wrongs soever we have or shall sustain must be without remedy and we also without security for the future as is sufficiently expostulated in the Parliament of Englands Declaration afore mentioned and the seeds laid of a perpetuall Warre by taking our grand Enemy into your bosoms and your Engagement to him in the late Treaty with Him to restore Him to the possession of England and Ireland and therefore we call Heaven and Earth to witnesse whether or no we have not cause to defend our selves by hindring the present power of Scotland from taking their time and advantage to impose thus upon us and whether they have now any just reason to wonder at the approach of an Army to their borders and the taking some of their Ships by ours yea whether our coming into Scotland with an Army upon so clear a ground be any other then a just and necessary defence of our selves for preservation of those rights and liberries which divine providence hath through the expence of so much blood and treasure given us and those amongst you have engaged they will if they can wrest from us Unlesse it must be taken for granted That the Parliament of England ought to sit still and be silent whilest their ruine is contrived their friends and brethren destroyed by Sea and Land whom in conscience and duty both before God and Man they ought to preserve And now we come to speake to all those who are with in the â—â—mpasse of the Title of this Declaration That we undertake this businesse in the fear of God with bowels full of love vea full of pitty to the Inhabitants of the Country and if it shall please God to make Scotland sensible of the wrongs done to us and to give to the Commonwealth of England a satisfying security against â—â—ute injuries we shall rejoyce But if that may not be obtayned we shall desire such as feare God not to joyne or have to doe with those who are the authors actors of so much evill and mischiefe against their neighbours And we dare say to the prayse of God That that which moves us to this greâ—t undertaking is not any reliance upon the arme of flesh or being lifted up with the remembrance of former successes or the desire of accomplishing any designes of our own that we have fore-layd but the full assusance we have that our cause is just and righteous in the sight of God looking at all precedent changes and the successes that have produced them not as the work of the policy or strâ—ngth of Man but as the eminent actings of the providence and pover of God to bring forth his good will and pleasure concerning the things which he hath determined in the world And we are confident that as he hath hitherto gloriously appeared so he will still bearing witnesse to the righteousnesse of this cause in great mercy and pitty of the infirmities and faylings of us his poore creatures And we doe most humbly implore his Divine Majesty to give a mercifull testimony whether the actings of divers men amongst you have not proceeded from Worâ—dly Interests together with the rancour and bitternesse of their Spirits who we feare through envy at Instruments have refused to acknowledge his hand and goodnesse in the accomplishment of these great changes and whether ours have not come from the sinplicity of our and other his poor servants hearts who we trust have desired though in the middest of mâ—nifold weakenesses to follow him in integrity through difficult paths having nothing but danger and ruine appearing to the flesh and little to encourage us saving those signall manifestations of his presence in those high acts of his providence and the feare of his name lest â—e going before we should not follow And this we can further adde That nothing is so predâ—â—â—nant within us next to our duty to God not to betray a cause to which he hath so much witnest as the love we haâ—e towards those that feare God there who may possibly suffer through their own mistakes or our disability to distinguish in a common calamity of which Christian love we hope we gave some proofe and testimony when we were last in Scotland with this Army and were by God made instrumentall to break the power of those that then oppressed the Godly Party there and were then ready at their desire to doe every thing on their behalfe which might put them into the seat of Authority and Power whose consciences knows this is true and for which this late Act of Engagement to their new King against England is to good requitall nor their beaping upon us the reproach of a Sectarian Army a Christian dealing all which we doe with comfort commend to God and can notwithstanding all this say by the Grace of God We can forgive and forget those things and can and doe desire of God that the preâ—ious in Scotland may be seperated from the vile which is the end of this our Paper And to the truth of this let the God of Heaven in his great mercy pardoning our weakenesses judge of us when we come to meet our Enemies in the field if through the perversenesse of any in Authorâ—ty with you God shall please to order the decision of this controversie by the Sword which we from our hearts beseech the Lord to avert and to give you the like Christian and Brotherly affection towards us which we by Gods grace beare towards you Signed in the Name and by the Appointment of his Excellency the Lord Generall Cromwell and his Councell of Officers Jo. Rushworth Secretary FINIS
together the end is to be preferred before the means Now that there was a reall inconsistency between the end and the means and that the lesser did fight against the greater is your own judgment who in a Book of yours called A necessary and seasonable Testimony against Toleration say thus of the two Houses pag. 12. And doubtlesse the Lord is highly disâ—leased with their procoedings in the Treaty at Newport in reference to Religion and Covenant concerning which they accepted of such Concessions from His Majesty as being acquiessed in were dangerous and destructive to both Had we not then appeared against these Concessions and likewise against those of both Houses who acquiesced in them had not Religion and Liberty both been destroyed which now by the blessing of God are preserved And if that action concerning the Parliament deserve a charge yet least of all from your selves who when you saw the Parliament which sent Duke Hamilton with an Army into England proceed in waves destructive to Religion and Libetty you counte nanced and acted with those that rose up for publique safety though contrary to Acts of Parliament and called a new one excluding whom you thought fit all which was done by virtue and authority from the Committee of Estates then sitting at Edinburgh which indeed was no Committee if you respect formalities the breach whereof you so often charge upon us being constituted of such persons as by Act of the foregoing Parliament had not legall right to sit or act therein they not having taken the Oath for faithfull discharge of the trust reposed in them in reference to the late Engagement against England injoyned by that Parliament to be taken by every Member of the Committee at his first sitting or else to have no place or vote therein as is fully set down in the Commission for the constituting of that Committee of Estates We could more particularly set forth how the Committee of Estates there sitting according to the litterall sence of the aforementioned Commission was broken and driven away by that force raysed and acted by you as aforesaid but we spare not seeking to justifie our actions by yours but to shew that you have done the same things for presevation of Religion and Liberty which you so highly charge as evill upon us And therefore we further desire you seriously to consider That the inconsistency of our Religion and Liberties with the Kings Interest and former constitution of Parliament did not arise from our yealousies or pretences but from the hardnesse of the Kings heart and the backsliding of the greater part of those that were intrusted in the Parliament by their acquiescing in those Concessions and endeavouring immediately to bring in the King upon them We therefore reckon it no breach but a Religious keeping of the Covenant according to the equitic thereof when our Parliament for Religion and Liberties sake and the Interest of the people did remove the King and Kingship As also we assert our selves Keepers of the Covenant when the competition hath been between the forme and substance if we have altered some formes of the Government in part for the substance sake As for the Presbyteriall or any other Forme of Church Government they are not by the Covenant to be imposed by force yet we doe and are ready to imbrace so much as doth or shal be made appear to us to be according to the Word of God Are we to be dealt withall as enemies because we come not to your way Is all Religion wrapt up in that or any one Form Doth that name or thing give the difference between those that are the Members of Christ and those that are not We think not so We say Faith working by love is the true Charactor of a Christian and God is our Witnes in whomsoever we see any thing of Christ to be there we reckon our duty to love writing forch more plentifull effusion of the Spirit of God to make all those Christians who by the malice of the World are diversified and by their own carnall mindednesse doe diversifie themselves by severall names of Reproach to be of one heart and one mind worshipping God with oue consent We are desirous that those who are for the Presbyteriall Government should have all freedom to enjoy it and are perswaded That if it be so much of God as some affirme if God be trusted with his own means which is his Word powerfully and effectually Preached without a too busie medling with or engaging the Authorities of the World it is able to accomplish his good pleasure upon the minds of men to produce and establish his purposes in the World concerning the Government of his Church And as for the Blasphemies and Heresies wherewith some Statists amongst you have laboured to brand us We can say That we doe own those sound Grounds and Principles of the Christian Religion Preached and held by the Generality of godly Ministers and Christians of these later times abhorring from our hearts and being ready to beare our witnesse against any detestable Blasphemies and Heresies lately broken out amongst us we have already punished some amongst us for Blasphemy and are further ready to doe it but how uningeniously we have been dealt with by some amongst you and of our own Countrymen in heaping Calumnies upon our heads to render us vile and odious to our Brethren yea and the whole world we leave to God to judge who will â—e trust in due time make these things manifest But were Presbytery thus to be contested for and that in upholding it all Religion did and would flourish yet how improbable it is That the course taken by those in authority with you will produce the things you desire to say no more let your own experiences 〈◊〉 little minde you What pretenders were some Lords and other persons in the North of Ireland whilest they mingled the Presbyterian with the Kingly Interest and the Ministers by their Preaching seduced the people from their Obedience to England under the same pretence But no sooner had those persons got the power into their own hands but they shook off the Ministers by threatnings causing some of them to quit the country and in generall discouraging the exercise of the Government there declaring plainly by their actions that it was but aide vice to draw on the Royall Interest those very Persons that did get power into their hands under those pretences in mediately joyned with Owen Roe O Neale and these bloody Irish Rebells upon the Kingly Interest It will not be unfit to mind you also how the Nobility and some of the Ministers of Scotland Preaching and crying up a War against England under pretence of the Covenant did thereby lay the foundation to Duke Hamiltons getting the command of that Army who over numbring them in Parliament power and friends and by the advantage of Malignants thrust all that you could call the good party out of power and authority himselfe getting