last to the Kings cause Hitherto the King keeps from open defiance with the Parliament of England but now Gods flaming Minister of warre begins to brandish his sword against this Nation now the King is returned from Scotland and now begins the year 1642. wherein Arms are openly taken up and avowed on both sides Scotland for two or three years before had seen war but without slaughter Ireland had been miserably the yeer before imbrued with slaughter yet saw no war but England must now prepare her self both for war and slaughter At the first harnessing and making ready for the field both sides pretended to be on the defence and both pretended to stand for the defence of the same persons and rights the Parliament declares for the Kings rights aswell as the subjects Liberties and the King for the Subjects Liberties as well as his own rights the matter of the Protestation is the cause they both â—ight for insomuch that by their professions it might be thought the Protestation were equally favoured by both Neither were their successes much unanswerable to their professions for after a bloodie battell fought neer Keinton in Octob and another hot encounter at Brainford and after divers other conflicts in severall other places of the Northern Western and middle Counties of England either side got blows but neither side carried away any great advantage or conquest only the Kings secret correspondence with the Irish began now to grow more evident as well by their declaring for the Kings pretences as by his diverâ—ing the preparations made here against them At this time the threed of the Kings Councels was exceeding finely spun the more zealous He seemed against the Iâ—â—sh openly the more zeal He attested to them privately and they themselves could not but see by the Kings seizing our Irish provisions here and assuring himself of our Forces sent thither that the more we exhausted our selves in sending supplies against them the more unable we should be in the end either to resist the King here or to reduce them there Howsoever as was noted before though the most subtill threeds of the King were strong enough sometimes to fabricate toils and nets for his subjects yet they never could be twisted into ladders for the mounting of him to his aspired grandour About the beginning of the year 1643. another black desperate designe against the City of London was discovered scarce inferior to any of those former impregnations of the Kings inraged brain whereupon the Parliament again had recourse to this new religious guard of Vowing and Covenanting And herein after the Covenanters had humbled themselves before God for the Nations sins and judgements and promised by Gods grace to endeavour for the future an amendment of their wayes they the second time ingaged themselves by Vow and Covenant in the presence of Almighty God to be adhering faithfully to the Forces raised by the Parliament for defence of Religion and liberty c. But notwithstanding the vertue of both these holy remedies against the Kings uncessant stratagems about the latter end of the same Summer the Parliaments affairs came to a great declination and till they obtained aid from the Scotch Nation their condition was thought very tottering In August the English Commissioners began to treat at Edinburgh and about the depth of Winter the Scots advanced with a compleat well appointed Army Yet this may not be wholly preâ—ermitted that the Scots were long deliberating about their march and though they saw their ruin involved in ours and their faith no lesse pre-ingaged to us for mutuall assistance then ours was to them yet they advanced not at last but upon these strict conditions 1. That we being then but a wasted part of England yet should presently imburse them out of our afflicted affairs with a great summe of ready money 2ly That they should be payed as mercenaries and yet have a share in government here as if they were our joyntenants And 3ly that we should enter with them into a new solemn League and Covenant upon Oath as it was by them composed and conceived So disproportionable and unsuitable is their amity to their enmity for when they had a pretence of a quarrell contrary to former Treaties with England in 1648. t was in their power to invade England readily without assurance of present Advance-money or establisht pay afterwards and such able Enemies we found them in all ages but when they were to be ayding to part of England in observance of former Treaties in 1643. there is no moving in such a work without ample Covenants so much more difficult amongst them is the enterprise of helping then is the enterprise of undoing It is manifest now by that which has been hitherto premised that the first occasion of flying to such conscientious tyes and expedients as these was that the late Kings plots and conspiracies might be thereby the better disappointed and that the people might be thereby the better confirmed in their opposition against Him And this makes it now seem the more strange to us that the Scots at present should make their Covenant so main an engine for the King against us which at first was certainly excogitated as a main engine for us against the King 2ly it is hereby as manifest that the Scotch Covenant which is now insisted on by that Nation and was pressed on us at first with so much rigor did add no new obligation at all to the English Religion Liberty Monarchy and the peace of the Nations were as much secured before and as sanctimoniously by the Protestation in 1641. and by the vow and Covenant in 1643. as they were afterwards by the solemn League and Covenant when the Scotch Army was to enter England 3ly We cannot observe by any remarkable blessing from Heaven that the hand of God did ever give any gratious testimony in behalf of these new sacramentall obligations The protestation was thought ineffectuall till the vow and Covenant came in with a greater supply of religion the vow and Covenant was not able to break the Kings Armies till the solemn League of Scotland had superinduced its further sanctity and when that was superinduced and came accompanied with 20000 armed men from Scotland the King subsisted yea and thrived a long time after and without doubt those Oaths which he imposed within his quarters did asmuch service against us as ours did for us in our quarters We all know that t was not a new Oath but a new modeld Army that by Gods most gratious hand first gave check to the Kings prosperity and t is not so visible that ever we trampled on the Royalists formerly by observance of the Covenant as that we are now miserably ingaged in blood against the Scots by misprisions and false glosses of the same The Lord of his boundles mercy grant at last that we may return to our old wayes of humiliation seek to appease that Majesty by fasting and praying which is to be
against the Scots by suppressing the Covenant unduly as the Scots have against us by inforcing it immoderately I would willingly quit this as a nugatory weightles presumption The last thing that may deserve to stay and take up our thoughts a little is the issue and event that both sides have met with and this may justly sway our censures in such a question as this is The King being driven to extremities in Oxford and being privy to the differences betwikt both Nations about some constructions of the Covenant chose rather to cast himself into theirs then our hands and we cannot imagine that the King which so hated and feared the true intent of the Covenant would rather intrust his life to those which He thought more true then those whom he thought more false to the Covenant But what successe had that trust of his it cost him his ruine in the end for they which interpreted the Covenant for his purpose whilest he was to put â— great prize into their custodie soon found out a contrary interpretation when the Parliaments money out-weigh'd that prise This end their animating him divers times against our Propositions tendered when the King was thereby and by other secret correspondencies rendered more dangerous to us and more uncouncellable to Himself was fatall to Him But now since in favour of his Son the former interpretation is resumed the second time how has the case been altered The case in truth is even thus the young King has repented of his coming amongst them the Kirk begins to repent of his admission amongst them the hand of God has been heavy upon both and t is almost come to this that the most conscientious Presbyterians in Scotland must read the Covenant in a new sence amongst us whilest all the rest must lay afide the Covenant wholly amongst the ancient professed Enemies of it I will not strain this argument of successe too high but this is to be remarked that the successe here put is not ordinary or meer successe forasmuch as it has been sent from Heaven after solemn appeals thither made by two religious parties and as the honour of God was much concerned in it so the manner of sending it was more then ordinary We draw nearer now to the Covenant it self and shall consider it first in the whole and then in its parts The first clashing we had with the Scots was about the right which each Nation had past to the other meerly by joyning in such a mutuall sanctimonious stipulation for when we objected to them upon severall occasions that they interposed too far in the Affairs and Councels of England they as often gave us this Answer that we were not since our conjunction with them in the Covenant and Treaties to look upon them as strangers or so far distanced in the interest of England as they were before This was at large refuted and silenced by the Parliament and therefore little need to be said in it and indeed Leagues and Pacts are common amongst all other Nations yet no man ever argued such a State is united to such a State as to such a particular war or as to the attaining of some other particular purposes therefore they are incorporated into one State and united as to all other purposes whatsoever This is ridiculous sense and experience is sufficient to explode it And if the Scots plead further that there is something extraordinary in this bond of the Covenant which knits faster and closer then all other bonds proof will fail them herein and yet if proof were not failing their equality of interest with ours in England would not follow notwithstanding For either the Covenant has reduced our two States and Dominions into one or not If it has not then the English mans interest is as intire and remains as distinct from the Scochmans as it was before confusion of properties is a thing as abhorred in policy as a vacuity is in nature But if both the governments by our Covenant adunation be compacted into one and the same then where is that one and the same supreme Tribunall which is equally to determine all Nationall disputes and may legally challenge submission from all aggrieved parties Should an Army be committed to 2. Generals and the Commission specifie nothing concerning the partition of their Commands and prevention of their rivalities nothing but ruin could be expected Therefore the very letter of the Covenant was so far from intending to take away all severality from us that it clearly puts each Nations Liberties and rights amongst those other things which it proposes to it self to save by this promised assistance of each Nation ordring likewise this assistance that no man should yeeld the same otherwise then in his severall place and calling and according to all our severall places and interests T is the more immodesty also in the Scots to arrogate to themselves an equall share in the rich Common-wealth of England which the English never made any pretence to in the like barrener soil of Scotland But if a moity of our English government in all cases whatsoever be not due to the Scots as they are our brethren in Covenant with us and equall parties in the same stipulation yet in the next place we cannot deny them an equall share in the judgment of the Covenant and all disputes about the same If they be contractors with us and by vertue of the same Contract are as well inabled to require performances of conditions from us as they are obliged to perform conditions to us it stands with all manner of equity and reason that they should have as great a latitude and freedom as we in determining what is to be performed on either part We deny not to the Scots the same extent of judging in England as to Covenant differences which we claim in Scotland this onely is denied by us that either they are as properly Judges of matters in England as they are in Scotland or we in Scotland as in England This was the fallacy that should have blinded us but there is no such great depth of sophistry in it The States of England and Scotland are equally independent the Covenant cannot grant to one equall a jurisdiction over another So long as both Nations stand upon equality and confesse no superiority to be in either so long it is vain injurious and against the ends of the Covenant for one to passe sentence upon the other T is vain because the sentence has no operation at all the party sentenced protests justly against it and all third indifferent parties look indifferently upon the sentence and protestation T is injurious because he that condemns his equall does that to another which he would not have another do to himself and if there be no other superior Judge on earth He intrudâ— into the chair of God himself Lastly t is against the Covenant because the intent of the Covenant is to settle peace and amity by offices of
we cleer our selves in point of Church-Reformation for having covenanted to reform in Doctrine Discipline c. according to the word of God and the patterns of the best Reformed Churches we are bound as the Scots maintain to take our pattern from them and that we as yet refuse to do This is the grand and most heynous charge the Scots have against us and because we follow not the modell of Scotland which they hold the best Reformed Church in Christendom they seek to overwhelm us with a thousand calumnies and labour to possesse the world that wee are nothing else but a Lerna of Heresies and a sinck of all uncleannesse To this we answer 1. When wee are bound to reform according to the word of God and the examples of the best Churches wee conceive the word of God signifies all the examples of other Churches signifie nothing at all for those are the best Churches that reform neerest to the word of God and what Churches have neerest Reformed cannot be known but by the word of God it self so that that instance might have been spared 2. If it come to tryal by the word of God whether the Scots Reformation be the best or no the Scots therein can challenge no more priviledg of judging then we or any other Church When we were governed by Bishops the Gospel of Christ was as purely delivered in England and as heartily embraced by the English any being Judges besides the Scots as ever it was in Scotland and shall it be said that because wee have cast off Bishops and thereby come some steps neerer to the Scots our Doctrine remaining still the same without all innovation shall it be said that our very approaches have â—â—st us backward It will be required at their hands who are intrusted with the government of Christs Church that his word and Ordinances be piously and duly dispensed and it will be required at their hands who are governed that the dispensation of Christs words and Ordinances be faithfully and sincerely entertained but if the Governors rightly discharge their duty and the governed fail of theirs the Governors shall not answer for what they cannot help 't is God that gives the encrease and does the saving inward work the Minister cannot go beyond planting watering and doing that which is the outward work 'T is one thing therefore for the Scots to upbraid the Flock and another thing to upbraid the Overseers of the Flock and yet the Scots constantly take an advantage against us by confounding these two things For the people of England we must confesse they have been of late too much tainted with Heresies and monstrous opinions pudet haeâ— opprobria nobis dici potuisse non potuisse refelli I hope all good men are grieved and humbled for it but let the Scots consider 1. That growing of Tares in Gods Field does not alwayes shew that the Husband-man sowed ill grain the contrary rather is true inasmuch as the more busie the good Husband-man is culturing and improving the Earth the more sollicitous ever the Enemie is in casting in his malignant seeds the more readily eager he is to debosh mar the crop It was so with the Church of Christ in it's Infancy it was so under Constantine in it's maturity it was so in Luthers dayes when it began to recover out of a long lethargy and we must expect the like now when our aces are set upon the last and greatest calcination as ever the Church saw as Reformation now in the ends of the world when the chiefe mysteries of iniquity begin to be revealed will most annoy Sathan so Sathan will double his rage to annoy us accordingly Hornius the Dutch-man a great friend of the Scots and who in favour of the Scotch Presbytery has written a bitter Tract in Latine to defame us in Germany after he has represented us as the most leprous contaminated Nation in the world yet confesses withall that to the prodigious revoltings of some amongst us there is an answerable improvement of others in burning zeale and shining sanctity In Religion beauty and deformity are not inconsistent those times often which have been most glorious for divine dispensations of knowledge and grace have been likewise most deplorable for persecutions and apostacies and this has ever been a great stumbling block to carnall minds If therefore the great Lyon range and roare and ramp lesse in Scotland then in England let not our Brethren boast of it or think themselves the more safe 2. Let not partiality blind the Scots Strangers think Scotland ha's as great cause of humiliation as England if not greater Iliacos intra muros peceatur extra It were more Christian-like in them and lesse Pharisaicall to aggravate their own sins and extenuate other mens then to extenuate their own sins and aggravate other mens and if they wil remit nothing at all of their rigour against us yet let them not stuffe their long catalogues of Pseudodoxies with such wandring terms as Familisme Erastianisme Independentisme c. which taken improperly may reach the best Saints of God and are seldome used properly by any 'T is a sad thing to offend Gods little ones 't is a more sad thing to deprave many congregations of Gods most precious ones 3. Whatsoever judgement the Scots will take upon them to passe against the people in England yet let them not alway set upon the Magistrates or Ministers account what they find reprovable in the people let them not call us fedifragous for not redressing things beyond us and such as none can redresse besides God but this has been toucht upon already Let us therefore see what is peculiarly objected to the present governing power in England The Magistrate in England is charged to be an Enemie to Magistracy a strange charge certainly The very last answers we had this last Summer to our Declarations upon the march of our Army into Scotland tell us from the Committee of Estates and Commissioners of the Assembly that our expedition into Scotland is to overturn Religion and government Civill and Ecclesiasticall and to set up amongst them the same vast toleration of Religion as we have done in England Now if this were true the sins of the People would become the sins of the Magistrate but what credite can this obtain in the world As for the overturning of civill power that is answered already we confesse a change of the Form but we deny any overturning of the thing cal'd Government in England and wee hope our actions here and in Ireland and in other Forreign parts yea our War in Scotland also will quit and essoyn us of anarchy and ere long make the Scots swalow downe their own untruths with open shame As for the overturning Ecclesiasticall also that may be as resolutely and justly denyed as the other for that lawfull power which was in Bishops before is still in being and though we have not committed it so intirely unto
worse use they made of all that was or could be given them So all jealousies could not long be supprest for in time some of our Lords and Commons saw cause to conceale some things concerning this State from them and this was extreamly ill taken and indeed no otherwise then if it had been a reall piece of injustice to the Kingdom of Scotland but moderation as yet kept both within reasonable bounds Mr. A. Henderson was then living and conversant in those businesses and surely he was a man of an Apostolicall spirit and though a great lover of his Countrey yet He knowingly durst not interpose in an ill action for his Countreys advantage and I am perswaded He did very good offices and kept us from further jars during his life and if He had lived longer would have prevented much of what has hapned since Besides Presbytery the Scotch Clergies darling seemd plausible at first to the English and soon grew indeared to our Synod and for a good space it got such footing in England that the Scots had no cause of dissatisfaction in that behalf The King also the other darling of the Scotch Nation till about the latter end of Summer 1645. prosperd so that He more slighted the Scots then He did us and so about him there was no great cause of animosities and if any did appear they were more easily to be digested But when the English Army under the Lord Gen. Fairfax had in one Summer defeated and utterly broken two very great Armies of the Kings and taken in divers other considerable Cities and strengths without any help at all from the Scots many emulous considerations began to breed strange alienations in the hearts of our brethren The easie warfare of the Scots all this while had afforded them besides good store of pay and plunder an absolute signiory over the Northerne Counties our Northerne men tell us wofull stories till this day and now they saw that rich service or rather absolute dominion was likely to come to an end they thought sit to strengthen themselves in Berwick and Newcastle and they got Carlile also by very foul play in spight of our Commissioners as if they were resolved and certain to have a dispute with us Likewise in 1646. when Oxford grew straitned and unsafe to the King and when it was visible also that Presbytery after so many years experience did not altogether rellish with the English the Scots presently resolved as was related before to expound the Covenant in favour of the King at least for setling and securing their arrears and making a commodious retreat out of England Accordingly that Article which provided for the Kings interest served their interest wel enough and war so well commented upon by them that it held us at a bay till their contract was perfected and then after a long dispute very chargeable to our Nation at the instance of an Army and 200000 li. they delivered up Newcastle Barwick and Carlile and took time to study the Kings Article a little longer In the year 1647. there was no notable businesse for the Souldier England took a little breath having nothing to do but to squench the few remainders of war and Scotland kept at home to share the late gotten spoiles of England yet this year there past some new cajoleries betwixt the Scots and the King and some contests betwixt the Scots and us about the King and no doubt the next years action was now in forging and all preparatory hammers were on working And now enters the memorable year of 1648. a year never to be forgotten by the English in regard of the unparralleld dangers that then overspread it and the unspeakable mercies of God that then protected it All the enemies of this poore Common-wealth were now in a solemn conjuration against it In Ireland all was held past recovery Ormond the Parliaments revolted servitor was complying with the bloody Irish and betraying his own Religion into the bargain to get some of their forces into England in Wales in Kent in Essex in Surrey great bodies of men rose up some upon the old Royall account some upon a new whilst many also of the Navy fell away from the Parliament to make the case the more desperate No lesse then 40000 English did their endeavours this Summer to make way for Hamilton from whom by good intelligence doubtles they expected 20000 Scots Great was the goodness of God that all these confederates could not be in a readiness at one and the same time and that all the Forreign Princes round about us which favoured them could not be assistent to them that yeer God had so ordained it that the Welsh should be reduced before the Scots entred or else our condition had been altogether hopelesse in the eye of reason But to the Scoch businesse The Solemn League and Covenant was now brought under a new debate in the Parliament of Scotland and the main matter in question was how they could be absolved of that holy stipulation if they did not imploy all their power to reform Religion and to restore the King in England and for the fuller agitation and ventilation of this matter severall grave harangues by persons affected severally were drest and we may well imagine to what effect Agent of the Kirks party seeing the Parliament filled with so great a party of the Hamiltonians is supposed to begin My Lords and Gentlemen The Covenant presses us all to endeavour the reformation of Religion and the restauration of the King in England by a brotherly way of Assistance in our severall places and callings and so as that these ends of the Covenant may stand and agree with all the rest But withall it behoves us to use a great deal of caution and circumspection in a matter of so high importance wherein the honour of God and good of the Nations is so religiously involved not to be mistaken either in the mark we all shoot at or in the arrows we are to shoot As for the point of Religion I am perswaded it wants reformation in England and I beleeve I dissent not therein from any here but this scruple sticks by me I doubt whether I am so properly a Judge in England of Religion as I am in Scotland and if I am not then I fear I step out of my place and calling whilest I take upon me there to reform by force which sure the Covenant requires not but excludes in expresse terms The account of my scruples I give thus first if we are now judges of matters Ecclesiasticall in England we are so constituted by the Covenant for before the Covenant we pretended to no uch thing and in the Covenanâ— it self I finde no such constituting words 2ly if the Covenant creates us Judges in cases Eccles it creates us the same in all other things civil military and judiciall for all the interests of the King and Subjects in Parliament and out of Parliament are inclosed within the
are not qualified by the Covenant to do these honorable things in England Alas if the Covenant does not add any new qualification to us to serve Religion and our King I hope no man will suspect that it takes away any such qualification from us as we had before And I hope ther 's no man here but thinks before any Covenant taken he had a warrant and capacity good enough to do honorable service to his Religion and his native Prince Let me speak plainly and bluntly I doubt these scruples do not arise against us as we are Scotch men and so have no power of judging in England but rather as we are of such a party in Scotland that the Kirk dares not confide in us this is lamentable halting before God Let us not therfore be driven into any unmanly irresolution by logicall nicitiâ—s and School-puntilioes let us beleeve that such just ends as we aime at inservingour God and Prince have just avenues belonging to them and that God ha's not hedgd in or inscons'd goodnesse from the approaches of men as he did once the Tree of Life My Lord and Gentlemen shall pure reformed Religion want an Advocate in this presence no it were labour lost here to recommend the excellencies of her you all are confident you cannot but be certaine that God hath rather sent a Cherubim to invite and wast you to her assistance in England then to affright you and drive you from her embraces with a flaming Sword Then as for the King you have a greater interest in him then the English have and he ought to have a greater interest in you then he has in the English Let me tell you if you should prove oblivious of his favours he might upraid divers of you with your Fields and Vineyards as Saul did once his Benjamites Do we not all know that his graces towards us ha's made him the lesse acceptable to the English and does not the whole world taxe us of our ill requitall at Newcastle I speake of that in your ears what can be said then either we must requite him better and acquit our selves better now or all generations to come will call us ungratefull and unjust and for my part I cannot ever construe the Covenant as that it intends to render us ungratefull or unjust T is true the enterprise we goe upon must cost blood and fall heavie upon some of our fellow Covenanters in England it were else impossible almost it should be great and honorable let this be our comfort the work is great and honorable and being so it must be acceptable to God and that which God accepts cannot but be feaâ—able for Qui dat finem dat media Let the justice of this war fix our resolutions upon the pursuance of it and when we are upon its pursuance let us pursue it wisely and strenuously as becomes Souldiers let no scruples defraud us of the opportunities and advantages that attendit for such in war are irrecoverable pretious to be brief let us not be held up with Treaties by the English Commissioners let us not wave Langdale nor leave Berwick and Carlisle to the Enemy when we are in peace let the laws of peace order us when we are in war let the Maxims of war sway c. the rather for that advantage lost in peace may be regained but an error committed in war can never be redeemed The next Gentleman was of a different opinion from either of these and you may suppose his Oratory was as followeth My Lords and Gentlemen YOu have heard how much may be said for a present war with England and how much may be said against it you have heard in what extreams the arguments both of a meer Souldier and a meer Scholler run and now having heard both and compar'd both you may the better extract out of both that which is truly counsellable at this present and that doubtlesse teaches warily to decline both extreams The Gentleman that spake last maintained well the justice and necessity of the worke that is to be done such a service to God and the King cannot but be just and necessary and our Covenant cannot obstruct any thing that is of it self just and necessary therefore to oppose our Covenant against this war is to undervalue our Covenant and to entangle our selves in such nicities as are more fit for the Schools then this Senate On the other side the Gentleman that spoke first interposed some necessary advertisements about the manner of our prosecuting this high undertaking not fit to be neglected for doubtlesse it concerns Gods honor the safety of the King and the perpetuall peace and safety of these Nations that this affair be wisely managed as well as it is religiously intended We all know that the taking of some advantages in war if they be at too far a distance with Religion may prove our disadvantages and so the parting with some opportunities in some cases may be a gayn of better to us hast ha's overthrowne some undertakings as well as delay others Wherefore I desire leave to counterpoise with a little moderation that which hath been pressed by both the Gentlemen that spoke before me And First t is my humble motion that the Kirk here may have all possible satisfaction given them in the forming and heading of this Army and in the conduct and steering of the great designe forasmuch as without this condiscention we cannot expect their concurrence and without their concurrence we cannot expect that readinesse or confidence in our Friends at home nor that stupidity consternation in our enemies abroad as is to be desired Secondly That if wee admit not the English Commissioners to treate and then allow three moneths warning after the end of that Treaty yet we may instantly dispatch away an Expresse to the Parliament of England with particular demands and a cleere denunciation of warre within a moneth if those particulars be not instantly agreed to Thirdly That some reasonable space before wee march a Declaration may be emitted to satisfie our Friends in England with our sincere intentions towards them and that the buisines of the Kirke being setled and the King reinthroned wee have no intention to intrench upon the priviledges of the Parliament there or to breake that bond of confederation and union that was intended to be confirmed by the Covenant Fourthly That Langdale may be countenanced at a distance and with much reservation and that no other use may be openly made of Him then of a Forlorne Hope to seize the English frontire Garrisons for our use and to ingage upon other the like hazardous services How well these things are calculated for the Meridian of Edenburgh I leave every man to guesse freely but this is certain there were few in the Scotch Parliament who gave their judgements the first way many went the second way and all went the third way except onely in complying with the Kirke and if there be
Him then the Masse was formerly to his French Grand-father in the like case and if it were yet divers dulcifications might be added and accordingly divers mixtures were used to qualifie and make more potable that draught Advertisements had been sent from the yong Kings devout Mother in France and from her most Holy Father at Rome that in such an extremity the Oath was compulsory that the matter of the Oath was subject to many severall yea contrary interpretations that He should therefore be either left to be his own Interpreter at last in case He prevailed or if not yet He should be discharged of any contrary strained interpretation The truth was the present Power in Scotland had condemned Hamilton for invading England in behalf of an Anti-covenanting King and so it would be now too grosse for them to do the same thing till they had a Covenanting King whereupon it became impossible to them to relax the King of this condition The young King it may be might demand why they should more scruple fighting for an Anti-covenanting King then to fight against a Covenanting brother since the Covenant lost no more credit by the one then by the other and perhaps He might further demand why their conditions to Him were so rigorous since his to them pressed nothing but what was pleasing viz a joint concurrence against a Common enemy But his Mothers Councellors thought not fit to clog the debate with such intricacies All Scoch punctilioes being at last waved for the young King was so far from capitulating about his reception in Scotland that He was more forward to capitulate against his trusting himself there it came to the question what He should obtain at their hands in relation to England For satisfaction herein it was assured that the Scots had already proclaimed him King of Great Brittain that they had alreadie Protested against the governing party in England as guilty of Usurpation that they did now ingage to contribute their utmost endeavours by all necessarie and lawfull means according to the Covenant and duties of loyall Subjects to restore him to the peaceable possession of his other Dominions according to his undoubled right of succession This was the tenor in briefe of that Parlee here is an inthroning promist to the yong King by all necessary and lawfull meanes according to the Covenant and here force of armes is not openly profest as a necessary and lawfull meanes according to the Covenant that the English might be â—uâ—d in the more security but â—is ambiguously implyed and secretly so explained to the young King and his Counsell that He might proceed with the more vigor and confidence Hereupon now rises the contest whether this ambiguity of expression and mentall equivocall reservation in the agreement be such as ought to delude the English or not The Scots still say no force of Arms is threatned against us and that if we flie unto force of Arms against them either upon this or former hostilities we do cauâ—lâ—sly invade them They solemnly invoke God as a witnesse and Judge that they have denyed us no right that they have done us no wrong that in this preventing warre we are meer invaders and returners of evill for good Yet we must understand to make this good before the Bar of Almighty God himself they waver and dâ—llie and double and seek to collude in their own plea for they do not simply deny their ingaging to use force against us but unlawfull force nor yet are they willing to confesse their force intended and justifie it openly as lawfull by the Covenant Surely in an appeal to Almighty God the case need not be presented with so much art and under the cover of such dubious reservations Let us take a little notice first how far they deny secondly how far they justifie their forcible assisting the yong King against us After the King was well satisfied with their meaning by private insinuations and had adventur'd his person into Scotland then further craft was thought fit to be used to blinde the English and retard their preparations and therefore the Committee of Estates in Scotland publisht that the Article in the Treaty of Bredah concerning restoring the yong King to his Crowne of England was not to binde till the Parliament and Kirke of Scotland had taken a previous consideration and given their determination concerning the lawfullnesse and necessitie thereof Behold the ingenuity of the Scots They conclude a warre and no warre To all the enemies of England 't is a declared warre against England To the English themselves 't is no warre till the Scotch Parliament and Kirke have further declared in it The enemies of England have hereupon just warning and timely summons to arme and colleague for Englands offence but in the presence of God they speake it the English themselves have no just â—aâ—â—â— noâ— provocation to provide for any defence at all Though this agreement was made by the Enemies of England with the Enemies of England and refâ—rres to the Covenant which ha's alwayes been expounded to the justifying of a warre with England upon this quarrell and though this agreement must signifie a full defiance against England to all others yet to the English it must signifie nothing God himselfe being admitted Judge The English had been once before invaded by the Parliament of Scotland upon the same pretexâ—s of the Covenant without any warning given when both the Nations were not onely in profest amity but also under the religious ties of a solemne League and yet now when the Parliament of Scotland ha's perâ—idiously violated that amity and those ties and iâ— moreover fâ—stned in a new Agreement and Covenant with the most active foe that England ha's in the world by Sea and Land and by the words of that Agreement and Covenant ha's obliged it selfe to recover the Throne of England to Him yet now 't is expected that the English should sit still and attend till the Parliament and Kiâ—ke of Scotland had further deside them Alas the prevention of a wound that is likely to be mortall is as necessary when it is possible as the warding of it and some stroakes are of that nature that they cannot be repelled by the buckler if they be not anteverted by the sword Therefore the fictions of the Cockatrices eyes want no ground in policy whatsoever they doe in Nature and 't is often seene in warres and seditions that the party which surprizes not is sure to be surpriz'd This caused the Parliament of England this last Summer to send a preventing Army into Scotland yet with an intension of defence not offence for it was manifest to us if wee did not pitch the warre there and there draw the first bloud wee did necessarily expose our selves to the first charge and impression of our enemies here and choose to erect the theater of warre within our own Dominions Moreover had wee been meere Assaylants or had wee been defendâ—nts in an equall
nor their sincerity Thirdly All these rigoâ—s and impositions of the Scots our backs must bowâ— and crouch under for the Covenants sake and that we may prove true to the most high God to whom we have lifted up our trembling hands Though we have discovered the Covenant to be a fâ—laâ—â—ous lubricous ambiguous contract as others besides the Contractors themselves now wrack it so that in the Scotch sense it makes us enemies to them in our sense it makes the Scots enemies to us in a third sense it serves the Papists against us both and though we are throughly informed that the young King is not onely licensed but enjoyned to take it by all his Popish Patrons and Allies and to make use of it as a sâ—are to both Nations yet we must take no exception against it Hamilton in 1648. expounded the Covenant in behalfe of the King and Kirk to the raising of a war against us yet the same powers in Scotland that condemned that war in him raise the same against us now upon the same exposition All the difference is this Hamilton fought for a King that had not taken the Covenant because He was never so far necessitated whereas the present powers in Scotl â—ight for a King tâ—at has Covenanted against his will choosing rather to perjure then â—o perish But let us aske the Scots seriously Whether is the greater enemy of the Covenant before God he that refuses to take it because it is against his conscience or he that takes it against his conscience because he dares not refuse it Well Gods judgements herein is by us both implord we cannot doubt but God in his due time will judge make his judgement undeniable Fourthly Though we indeed are not enemies to the Covenant but can justly plead for our selves that we are zealous for a true Reformation even whilst we dislike the Scotch patterne and that we are well-wishers to Monarchy elsewhere even whilst we make choise of Democracy in England upon diverse urgent emergent considerations yet all our pleas are rejected the very last plea of Armes from which no necessitated men besides are barred is in us most imperiously condemned as well after open tryall as before Nay when wee know our selves condemned by the Scots as Enemies to the Covenant and that the yong King to be brought in by force over us is particularly sworne against us in that he is generally sworne against all enemies of the Covenant we must take it as a sufficient answer to all our complaints that the King has no power to annoy any but enemies to the Covenant This is to heape Scornes upon the rest of our endurances for this all one as if they should insolently tell us that no man can hold any thing but by the Covenant and the Covenant can have neither enemies nor friends but such only as they declare to be such To pursue these Scornes also and improve them the higher against us they make their young King in his Declaration at Dunferlin revoke all his Commissions granted against us by Sea and Land to any of his Instruments that adhere not to the Covenant Do not we know that such a revocation is meerly â—udicâ—ous and jocular Could the Scots imagine that either Rupert at Sea or the Irish Papists by Land would obey such a revocation so signed at Dunferlin And if Ante-Covenanters should lay down their Commissions would it be more ease for us to be spoiled and destroyed by the hands of false Covenanters then by the hands of Ante-Covenanters May not this King do what Hamilton did May he not prevaile over a faction of Covenanters and by them assaile us as Hamilton did and if not so may he not be impowred nay is he not already bound by all the Covenanters in Scotland nemine conâ—radicente to treat us as enemies Will not God in earnest look down upon the makers of such jests Fifthly As we must prostrate our selves to a King to such a King exercised many years in bloudy feats against us before his pretensions to the Crowne obtruded upon us by such Faedifragrous neighbours and further hardned against us by such religious incentives so we must also stoope and kneel to him upon the most servile odious conditions that can be For first wee must come to a new change of Government for his sake By the present setled forme Government is now devolved and as it were naturally resolved into the hands of the people and as Monarchy cost us a vast effusion of bloud before it necessitated its own ejection so it is likely to cost as much now before it can be reestablisht Lyons and Elephants doe not teeme and propagate so often and easily as mice and ferrets doe nor can wee expect that such great alterations in great States as these are should be compast without much sore travaile and long continude throwes The Scots doe know well enough that our sectarian Party in England which they charge of usurpation ha's a great Army in Scotland ready to cope with all their Levies another as great in Ireland a Militia not unequall to both in England besides a puissant Armado at Sea and can they imagin that the suppressing of this sectarian party and re-investing of Monarchy is likely to prove an unbloudy busines Secondly As wee must be forced from the Government that now is so we must be forced into a new Module of Government that never was before in England knowne or heard of The supreme Power of England must now suffer a partition and have its residence in two severall Councells the one Ecclesiasticall the other Civil and so whilest in imitation of Scotland it transforms it self into an Amphisbaena and submits to the motions of two Heads it can hardly avoid dangerous disputes and dissentions In cases of the Kirk the King must hearken to Divines in matters politick the King must be observant of his Parliamenâ—s but if there happen a difference in mixt matters t is left to the peoples discretion to side and adhere as they see cause Surely t will be an uncooth innovation in England to see Kirkmen sit in an Assembly and publish Declarations concerning peace and warrs as they do now in Scotland and whether such an innovation may be conducing to a good accord and understanding in the State or no we leave to conjecture 3ly As we must subject our selves to these grand innovations so they must also be purchased by us with the price of some of our best blood some few of our principall Patriots heads must be payed down in hand for them It should seem their Idol the Covenant requires some sacrifice to make an attonement for the indignities and prophanations it has lately suffered in England and so foure or five mens lives are demanded as a just oblation But the Scots might understand that we are not yet so tame and that the demand of such an oblation from us is all one as the demand of many Hecatombes and
therefore perhaps t is not parsimony of blood that makes them so parsimonious in their demands of blood 4ly As our pretiousest Friends must lye under this discretionary danger so the most fatall of our Enemies must be secured from all danger of our Laws for in the close of all an Act of Oblivion is to overwhelme all things and all men whatsoever Royallists Presbyterians Independents Papists Protestants are to be put into an equall condition What is this lesse then to spoil us of all advantages and exempt our Enemies from all disadvantages that the event of these late wars have cast upon us both especially when the Act is to passe as a Grace from our Masters in Scotland and not of reconcilement from us By this state of the cause so formed and owned by the Scots themselves 't is now apparent that if the English had yielded stupedly to all the conditions and Laws that are here imposed upon them they had left nothing remaining to themselves the whole English Nation had been given up to vassalage under a forreign Power Those very Royalists and Presbyterians which should have survived the Independents and could have severd themselves from the ruin of the Parliament as was very difficult to do yet should have seen the old Government of England overturned and have served a Master that should have served other Masters The Scots neverthelesse in the Declaration before mentioned recommend these impositions of their young K as his gratious condiscentions and they expect that hereby he offers satisfaction to the just and necessary desires of his good Subjects in England and Ireland And because they see there are many thousands in England who have utterly forgotten that ever they were born on this side the Twied They use many Arguments of Conscience and Honour to Arm all such against the Parliament and to in amour them with that Freedom and happinesse that this Declaration promises under them So wonderous a thing it is that any liberty under a Parliament of England should be thought worse by Englishmen then any servitude under the Kirk and state of Scotland but here are the true grounds of our expedition into Scotland the Justice whereof lookt backward to the incursion of Hamilton in 1648. whilst its necessity lookt forward to the Treaty at Breda and to the accord that was there made in March last There is a Justice of warre sometimes that derives it self onely from necessity but in the War that is now waged by our Parliament in Scotland we may truly avow that our Arms are just because they were necessary and we as truly avow that they became necessary by being so egregiously just inasmuch as the Magistrate often is restrained from dispensing with the Subjects right Now it appears by what ha's been here related that the Scots unprovoked powred in upon us 20000. men in a maner most perfidious and at a time most disadvantagious that after satisfaction peaceably sought they rejected us as unworthy of any Treaty with them that at Breda they have since conspired with â—â—r open Enemy against us making their cause his and his theirs and therefore directly contrary to the Scots Declarations emitted the last Summer we draw this conclusion that we have received wrongs insufferable that we have been denied rights indispensible and that we have been forced into a War unavoydable For we hope since no place nor time secures us from the offensive Arms of their young King and his Commissions Officers whose cause they have espoused by taking him into a forced Covenant No time nor place ought to secure him from our defensive prosecution Let the Scots flatter themselves as they please with fond umbrages that they observe their Covenant whilst they fight against us that are parties to it and whilst in the young K. they abet P. Rupert and the Irish that are parties ingaged against it God is not mocked He sees throughly the ill temper of that morter wherewith their ruinous cause is daubed The same God knows likewise how unwillingly we drew our swords in this quarrel and how far all aims of ambition domination revenge or spoil were distant from these our undertakings The same words which were once used by our Army after the great defeat given to Hamilton in England the same do we still resume after as great a successe neer Dunbar in Scotland We believe God ha's permitted his Enemies at several times to Tyrannize over his people that we might see a necessity of Union amongst them We likewise hope and pray that his glorious dispensations of successe against our Common Enemies may be the foundation of Union amongst Gods people in love and amity To this end God assisting before whom we make this profession to the utmost of our power we shall endeavour to perform what is behinde on our parts and when we shall through wilfulnesse fail herein let this Hypocritical profession rise up in Judgement against us before him who is and ha's ever appeared the severe avenger of Hypocrisie This we direct now to all the mislead yet well meaning people of Scotland as cordially after a second signal victory as we did then after the first Reader I here often mention the Scots and seem to intend the whole Nation but I pray thee make no such interpretations for I doubt not but there are many good people there that either know not their Magistrates Hypocrisie or bewail it in secret I my self know many excellent men of that Nation and these to me are as dear as if they were English Sit Tros sit Tyrius nullo discrimine habebo Of the INGAGEMENT THere was lately Printed a sheet of Considerations against our common Ingagement of Allegiance to this Common-wealth the Author seems to be a Presbyterian of the Scoch Faction by some thought able and learned his Arguments are very brief and I will answer him as briefly as may be The Arguments by which our Ingagement is impugned and as it were on every hand beleaguerd are eleven as I take it The first is against the Ingagements inconsistency with former Obligations 2. Its partiality towards Malignants 3. Its obscurity and ambiguity 4. Its illegall penalties 5. Its inefficacie 6. Its want of charity 7. Its rigor to harmless conscientious men 8. Its enmity to Reconciliation 9. Its diffidence in God 10. Its excesse and extremity in punishing 11. Its opposition to Christian Liberty The raising of this seige I hope will not prove very difficult Considerator This Ingagement to some that have already taken six or seven Oaths may possibly seem contrary to some of those former Obligations and such Ingagers must now suffer or sin against their doubting consciences Answ 1. No State can enact or ordain any thing but the same may be lyable to some mens doubts In Christian Religion it self all mens scruples are not prevented those Acts and Orders therfore which are not lyable to just doubts are sufficient and ought to binde Now the Ingagement which in