our hands and resigned into theirs who are the creators of our dangers and have declared for and thereby diverse times exasperated our greatest Enemy against us In Novem. 1643. before the Covenant was consummated the Lord Generall Essex moved in Parliament for the shortning of our war that the King who perchance was then encouraged to prolong the same out of hope of impunity at last in case his arms should miscarry might have a peremptory day set Him to come in or else to know his danger and this was consented to by both Houses but obstructed by the Scoch Commissioners what service was done to the King by this obstruction of the Scots and divers other the like ambidextrous dealings since that time and how much longer the war was protracted by it and how much mischief the same has at last drawn upon the Scots as well as us time has clearly enough demonstrated And yet still upon this the meanest and most intricate article of the Covenant they think they may break the unity and peace of great Brittain against one of the most indisputable fundamental tyes of the Covenant and that onely to shew their zeal to an Anti-covenanter which is a breach as indisputable and fundamentall as the former The intrinsecall form of the Covenant binds one party to assist the other against a common enemy it binds not one party to be assistent against the other for how can that be call'd assistence which is direct opposition Besides it binds specially to assist against such an enemy as is injurious to the others right freedom and property and can the Scots perform this bond to us when that which they call assistance to us is opposition against us even by taking away our right freedome and property for what right can remain to us whilest we are subjected to their forces what freedome whilest we are to be judged by their discretion What property when we have lost the independency of equals Certainly if we covenanted with the Scots as equall parties we did not covenant with them as superior Judges and if we had so covenanted with them our covenanting by Oath with God had been superfluous but we hope that will not be held superflous and therefore we will not endeavour to assoil our selves before the Scots we will onely in charity let them know how we have hopes to be assoiled before God The change of Government in England which could not be without the execution of the late King and rejection of his posterity more then they could be without change of Government was urged upon us and God before whom we plead knows we had not long premeditated it before nor imbraced it willingly at last by two unanswerable irresistable arguments The first was drawn from our duty to God the second from the naturall necessary care of our own preservation The first argument pressed us hard that what God had commanded could not be reversed by any act or pact of man that God had commanded us to punish blood with blood in all persons whatsoever under the power and force of our Laws and therefore our Covenant could not exempt the King himself If it be said that the King of England was above all Law that has been disputed by the sword these many years and decided for us by signall victories and the Scots have appeared as far upon that Triall as we have done and after that triall t is unequall for us to descend now to any other We prescribe nothing to other Nations whose Kings have a Legislative power and thereupon are solati Legibus and have their very wils interpreted and observed as Laws nor do we censure such States as have Princes subject to Laws yet use not rigor in all cases whatsoever We are willing that every one should stand or fall to his own Master Onely when immuring sequestring deposing impoysoning of Princes has been very frequent in the world that no Nation can be excused thereof at some time or other this seems beyond admiration that our judiciall publick execution upon the late Charles should undergo an harsher censure then all these meerly because it wanted not the due solemnities of Law and Justice to attend it May a Prince be reduced from his publick capacitie and when He is made a private person shall he be treated so as no private person may be treated Shall he be subjected to clandestine unlawfull proceedings belowe the right of a common person because He was once more then a common person and shall either Jurists or Statists that have any insight into the Laws of God and Nations stand for a secreted veiled justice such as blushes and dares not shew her face in open Court yet passe neglects upon that justice which as far abhors darknes and disdains the use of masks Our next argument was drawn from the hard necessity that was incumbent upon us for saving our selves from utter ruin Divers times we had made humble addresses to the King for a cordiall pacification the Lord knows our sincerity therin and the Scots that are now our accusers were for divers years our witnesses in that behalf but before 1646. the K had too much confidence in his English and Irish abettors and so would not hearken In the year 1646. the Kings English Forces in England failing we made new addresses at Newcastle where the King was in the nature of a Prisoner but we soon found at Newcastle that the Kings confidence was still supported there also by something that had been infused unto Him by the Scots and so that hope prooved frustrate likewise The dealing of the Scots herein was very close the English that were in Commission with the Scots for governing the affairs of that Army in the Scotch Quarters knew nothing by what invitation the King was drawn from Oxford thither nor to what purpose Montreil the French Agent was there solicititing but when our Propositions were rejected and that the Scots who joyned with us in tendring them began to dispute the Kings interests their own against us in other things and that their learned mouth Louden professed against the rigour of our capitulations in the same elaborate Oration to the King wherein He so zealously laid open the necessity of them we could not but discern a halting in that Nation and that that halting had as strange an operation upon the King The King thought now He had gotten as great a strength of Scots in the North the same being likewise fain away from our strength as He had lost of the English at Nasby and in the West and for our parts had the Scots been gold-proof we should have thought so too The disposing of the King was the matter in question the Scots were not desirous to take him into Scotland nor would leave him in England but being under our pay within our own territories where we had publick persons in Commission with them without the Parliaments or their Commissioners consents they would be a guard
any credit to be given to Hamilton who affirm'd it religiously at the time of his arraignment in England the Kirkes party refused to comply with Him and his party more out of emulations and particular State-animosities then out of any dislike of the cause or condemnation of the undertaking And time ha's since made this more manifest for even the Commissioners of the Kirke in their Declarations since and by their ingaging against us with their yong declared King have even by the Covenant and the same constructions of it owned every part of the quarrell against us which they condemned in Hamilton setting only aside his entring upon us without three moneths previous warning well The Scotch Parliament having sufficiently Commission'd Hamilton for his March into England rose without any audience or intercourse granted to our Commissioners Hamilton being so Commission'd makes present use of Langdale and his Train speeds away with 20000. men for England seizes Barwick and Carlile commits infinite barbarous cruelties and destructions in the foure Northerne Counties before previous warning given according to our Treaties but within some few weeks fights with the Lievtenant-Generall Cromwell in Lancashire is taken prisoner seâ—s his Army defeated and the remainders of it chased back into Scotland Out of this matter of fact so stated a dispute now arises whether this hostile action of Hamilton that was then chargeable upon the Parliament of Scotland be still justly to be answerd and accounted for to the State of England by the present State of Scotland The Scots deny it upon these grounds For their first evasion they say the good party that now governs is not the same as the party was that then governed Whereby they would have us understand that the State of Scotland is changed since 1648. and does not remaine the same as it was at that time and therefore ought not to be responsal for what was then done After the Committee of Estates and the Kirk-Commissioners have condemned Hamiltons invasion without antecedent warning and his other miscarriages in taking Barwick and Carlile c. and confest that nothing can be offerd in excuse thereof they yet adde that never any people in the world in a time of defection did more evidence their freedome from guilt then They they meane the party now governing did Here is a defection confest in a Parliament lawfully chosen and in the major part of the people adhaering to that Parliament but there was a remnant of good people which at that time evidenced their freedome from that guilt and that remnant since by force and assistance of the English Army ha's gotten power into their hands and therefore the Magistrate that is now is not guilty of that defection nor consequently the State of Scotland liable to make any reparation This evasion must be thus stopt up 1. In all States where there is a Representative the publick act of that Representative or of its major part bindes all and every person And though the next Representative may repeale Laws formerly made and recede at pleasure from what its predecessâ—rs acted erroneously or temporarily and these new repeals and recessions shall be binding to all persons therein represented yet even these alterations also must be without fraud Salvâ— semper jure Tertij they must be without any prejudice to â—orrein States and persons there not represented Nay if the State of England passe an Interest in Land to a Subject of England upon a good consideration and contract that act shal be binding perpetually and may not under favour be avoyded by a New Representative because that avoydance will appeare fraudulent in the State and because such avoydance is to the damage of one that is as it were a third person and contracts with the State upon equall terms and it seemes that a speciall consent is necessary in such a case of his disinherison and that his generall consent given by his Representatiues ought not to divest him And if it be here objected that the constitution of the State of Scotland is different from other States inasmuch as it consists of two Representatives one civil and the other ecclesiasticall and in this ingagement of Hamilton the ecclesiasticall Representative did not act nor concurre but dissent and protest against it and so made the civil act the lesse authoritative We answer First the ecclesiasticall Representative of Scotland ha's no power but in cases meerly ecclesiasticall such as this was in 1648. was not Secondly if the Scots will tell us that Hamiltons action and case was in ordine ad spiritualia wee must not suffer such collusion to be turnd to our prejudice The State of Scotland must not thinke it sufficient to stroke us in their spirituall capacity whilst they strike us in their temporal capacity the duplicity of their Powers must not justifie or excuse duplicity in their dealings when wee sustaine publick injuries whether it be from a jurisdiction Parliamentary or Synodical the whole State of Scotland must be answerable for satisfaction Thirdly if the Ingagement of Hamilton was the lesse valid in Law if we did grant this as we doe not because all that feared the Lord in the Land did petition and pray against it and expose themselves to some persecution for not complying with it yet this does not render the same ingagement the lesse mischievous to us There was not one drop of English bloud the lesse shed then nor is there one drop the lesse to be accounted for now Fourthly wee are not without some strong presumptions that the small number of the religious party in Scotland which were enemies to the Ingagement then were not so much enemies to it as it was mischievous to us or unjust in it selfe as because it promoted Hamiltonsâ—action too high and had an ill aspect upon their owne particular interest in Scotland Else what makes them so zealous against our receiving of right now which pretend they were so zealous against our receiving of wrong then It seemes strange to us that the English which had never a Friend in Scotland two yeares since to warde one blow from their throats or to do any real act of resistance to Hamilton should now finde never an Enemy in Scotland obnoxious to their challenge of satisfaction and that the same men should be the most forward to debarre us of reparation now which were then most forward to protest against our suffrings Secondly where two Representatives have been legally chosen if it be not honorable for the later to anull the formers act in prejudice of a third person that ha's right much lesse honorable is it for a Representative brought in by the sword to derogate from the acts of a former Representative that had a faire and free election from the people Wherefore let the present power in Scotland apply this to themselves and the rather for that they complain of forcible alterations amongst us onely upon pretended discommodities to our selves whilst they themselves make use
any composure made betwixt the Nations for Hamiltonsâ—aedifradous irruption either by satisfaction given on the one side and taken or confest by the other t is left to judgement But the Scots alledge still that immediately after the breaking of Hamilton in England and the dis-arming of his brother in Scotland there were given divers clear demonstrations of amity and good accord betwixt the Nations Letters will yet testifie that the godly party in Scotland satisfied the English in their innocency and that the English did accept of the same as good satisfaction For example in Septemb and Octob the L Generall Cromwell wrote in behalf of the Kirk patty by Him then seated at the stern and his letters did recommend them to the Parliament as men carefull of the unity of the Nations and the interest of England On the other side the Scots remitted hither an honourable Testimony of the fair comportment of our Souldiery there together with a thankfull acknowledgment of the benefit and advantage which our seasonable assistance had afforded them Likewise from the Parliament here it was written back that the religious and well affected people in Scotland were excused from those impious and unwarrantable actions and that there was no willingnes in the English to impute those evils to the Nation in generall As for the L Generals Letters questionlesse they contained his true plain meaning He did believe at that time that the interest of England and the unity of the Nations was valued by the Kirk and the Arguilians in Scotland but what discharge was this to the rest of the Nation nay what discharge is this to any of that Nation His Commission extended not to compound for the dammages sustained by us nor did He ever treat about the same nor did He at last finde his loving recommendations justly answered by that Godly parties actions Out of this therefore there follows nothing but that our L Generall was more charitable then the Scots were gratefull As for the Scotch Letters they serve well to shew the single dealing of our L Generall towards them and their double dealing towards Him but they serve not at all to shew any act of oblivion or any other pacificatory conclusion that was consented to by both Nations Therefore the good that they then bore witnesse to in our Souldiery we hold it to be just and according to merit but when they publish retracting contradicting Papers after the intermission of two years and therein complain as they did this last Summer thaâ— the L Generall came in un-invited that the manner of his entrance was not guided by their Instructions and that the proceedings of his Army were very unsatisfying in many other things this is an argument of their profound dissimulation As for the Parliaments Letters although the Parliament at that time was too full of Kirkmen yet if they had any full words of release in them we should noâ— prolong our contestation hereupon but the utmost that can be extracted out of them is a charitable exemption of some that had the testimony of wishing well to the unity of the Nations and interest of England from the pen of the L Generall The Parliament was unwilling that the Scotch Nation in generall should be charged with the guilt and blood of the Hamiltonians and therefore it did acquit and hold exonerated thereof all the religious and well-affected people of Scotland Without question the religious and well-affected people here excused are understood to be no other then such as had been adverse to Hamiltons exposition of the Covenant upon sincere grounds and not for any factious or particular respects But how few such there were in Scotland at that time is now manifest by the general adhering of that Nation to their new King against us For there is not one man in Scotland that assists this young King against us now but He expounds the Covenant in the same manner as Hamilton did then and He might have as safely complyed with Hamilton in that Ingagement as He may with the yong King in this as will be further demonstrated in due place These are the main subterfuges which the Scots flie unto when we tax them of that cruell barbarous Ingagement against us in 1648. The rest of their pleas whereby they seek not to shelter themselves from the whole guilt but onely to extenuate it or rather to qualifie our demanded satisfaction are scarce worth the mention They say they have received some dammage in Scotland by the â—â—ish and have demanded satisfaction of us but as yet received none A strange objection have not the Irish been prosecuted by us these nine yeers as Enemies And though they owe allegiance de jure to England yet are they not as mortall Enemies de facto to us as to the Scots Do we any way abet justifie or spare them to vouchsafe more to this were to disparage right They say moreover that some satisfaction has been made us by the booty and pillage which Hamiltons Army lost in England Some few Scoch Arms and Horses which falling amongst the Souldiers as due prize were like water spilt upon the ground neither received in satisfaction by the State of England nor so given by the State of Scotland must come in upon the Account of the English to satisfie them for all the plunders murders and wasts which a Scoch Army perpetrated contrary to Treaties and sworn Covenants No more of this here ends the first part of the Scoch Warre whose Scene was layed in England we come now to its second part where our Scene by Gods abundant grace and goodnesse is removed into Scotland And in this transition from past to present imminent hostilities we doubt not but to evidence the necessity of our War in Scotland à parte post as well as we have done the justice of it a parte ante THe Treaty at Bredah in March last betwixt the Scots and their declared King both being upon termes of Hostility with us had little busines to be debated that was peculiar to Scotland the main thing to be proposed by both parties was the removing some mis-understandings amongst themselves that they might thereupon the better double their powers and twist their pretensions against England The Kings interest was Monarchy the Scots was Monarchy and Presbytery the English were held to be advers to both these interests and the Covenant therfore to favour both the Treators against the English so mis-understandings amongst the Treators could noâ— be hard to be removed or at least their slight jars could not be hard to be laid asleep for a while when they had so little to loose to each other and yet so much to gain from a third party All that the Scots desired of the King as humble suitors was but this that He would take the Covenant if that were but swallowed down in its literall sence they thought all their further aims sufficiently provided for and this could not be much more bitter to
Scotlands holy War A DISCOURSE Truly and plainly remonstrating How the SCOTS out of a corrupt pretended zeal to the COVENANT have made the same scandalous and odious to all good men and How by religious pretexts of saving the Peace of Great Brittain they have irreligiously involved us all in a most pernitious Warre Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum Curs'd man what canst Thou hope for what desire To Thee Christ brings a sword his Gospel fire Be man no more abjure thy wretched kinde Lest Mannah poizen Sun-beams strike thee blinde By H. P. Esquire LONDON Printed by Fran Neile in Aldersgate-street 1651. READER I Have lately seen in Print an Apologie for such Ministers and people as out of conscience did not observe the Thanksgiving-day dedicated by the Parliament to Almighty God for giving us victory against the Scots and the Apologist had prefixed this Title in his Front Sad and serious Politicall Considerations touching the Invasive Warre against our Presbyterian Protestant Brethren in Scotland their late great overthrow and the probable dangerous consequences thereof to both Nations and the Protestant Religion As soon as I had read it over I saw heavy and bitter charges in it against the Power now Governing and by consequence against our Nation and Religion but all was built upon such premisses as were left utterly unproved I doubt not therefore but all Schollers will deride the Author as void of wit and ingenuity and will think that Pamphlet unworthy of an Answer which can challenge nothing besides a flat denyall But when I consider the multitude who scarce discern betwixt Arguments and Invectives or points that require solid proofs and such as sometimes are not worth prooving when I consider this multitude may be dangerously imposed upon by confident writers indeed such as have effrontery enough to grant themselves any thing under dispute I dare not be wanting to a distressed Cause and vitiated Truth What the Apologist though affirmant has left unproved viz that the Parliament has broken Covenant with the Scots and made an Invasive warre upon the Presbyterians the same I though respondent shall endeavour to leave disproved And I hope I shall remonstrate by something more then Averments my Antagonists best arguments 1 that the Covenant was first violated by the Scotâ— and 2ly that this warre of great Brittain was raised by the Presbyterians Of the Covenant ABout 11. or 12. yeers since the late King began to take Arms against the Scotch Nation upon Ecclesiastical quarrels but his successe was so ill therein that He could neither hopefully pursue nor yet handsomly compose those broils The reason was because his Popish Subjects could not and his Protestant Subjects in England would not support him with their effectuall assistance in that causless warre So this Parliament was then convened to extricate the said King out of those difficulties and had â—here been any other remedie that possibly could have releasd him so intangled as He then was either by pacifying the Scots without force or forcing them without pacification this remedie had never been thought on for there was nothing in the world more adverse to his Tyrannicall ends then the freedome and controuling authority of that high Court Long it was not therefore after the sitting of our great Councell before the said King gave open testimonies how odious it was to Him to see his boundles Prerogative so checkt nay many months had not elapsed before disgusts had hacht ripend bloody dangerous plots against the whole representative bodie of our State 2. Armies were now in the North out of all military imployment and this put the King in some hopes that either one of them or both might be woone to his partie and so help to rid him of his loathed rivality Strong endeavours were used accordingly but God blasted them all the Scotch Army thought it too horrid a thing to attempt the ruin of that Court which was so true to their preservation and so assured to the ends of their late Declaration and the English Army durst not attempâ— any thing having the power of London to mate them before and the Scots behinde yet the Parliament truly apprehending danger from these and other like machinations to forâ—ifie themselves the better frame a Protestation for all the people to take and whosoever should refuse the same He was voted unfit to bear Office either in Church or Common-wealth This Protestation was taken in 1641. and the Protesters did thereby in the presence of Almighty God binde themselves to defend Religion the King the Parliament publick Liberty the Union and peace of the three Kingdoms with a clause to be assisting to all that adhered to this Protestation and to be at enmity with all its opposers The King stomacht much this new way of imbodying the people in leagues and parties and knew well that the contrivers of it intended it for a combination against his unlimited pretensions but seeing his interests were here as specially provided for as any other without any insinuated subordination and that it left his pretensions as unprejudiced as they were before he smothered much of his distaste against it Ordinary affronts and misadventures did rather quicken then quash this Kings resolutions wherefore upon this Account He made the more haste into Scotland upon some concealed reasons of State and his hope was that by his passing through both the Armies in the North He should finde an opportunity to be his own negotiater with all the chief Commanders All these royall arts neverthelesse miscarried and were not able to debosh the Armies for either the Commanders were jealous of the soulderies integrity or the Souldiery of one Army suspected the sincerity of the other or else the Parliaments sollicitations proved as efficacious as the Kings somthing there was that concurred to the abortion of that mischief The King therfore speeds away to Scotland with superâ—etations of further plots in his unquiet head but his old fate still accompanied him for there He was soon disburthened of some of his monstrous conceptions to the great detriment of other men but He scarse ever prospered in any one designe for the advancement of himself Some Noblemen that were invited to a bloodie supper got timely advertisement of the royall assassinators and so by flying privily out of Edenburgh secured themselves but that ever to be execrated insurrection in Ireland by the Irish Papists against the British Protestants came to effect at that time and t is known well enough that the chief actors in that tragedie alledged a Commission from the King under the great Seal of Scotland to justifie all that they then perpetrated Here was an issue of blood spent that is not stanched to this day little lesse then 500000 Christians were sacrificed and devoted to slaughter by that Commission and the King himself never took any effectuall course to wipe off that stain but what prosperity has that dismall deluge of blood brought at
to Him in England till their Parliament at home were further satisfied In the mean time after a long consuming war ended England was constrained still to pay and maintain two Armies the Scotch to prevent a new war if that were possible the English to sustain a new war if prevention proved unpossible so that every moment was irksome to us whilst the Kings pretentions was an occasion to draw so much treasure from our coffers and it was as irksome to the King to see the Scotch arrears or any thing else besides his pretentions brought into debate but at last the Scotch arrears took place and justled out the Kings matters for after a great sum agreed upon the Scots quite contrary to the high expostulations of some of their Papers thought it honorable to leave the King in England and the English thought it as profitable to buy the Scots out of England This probably might prepare the King for new Pacificatory addresses partly by damping his hopes in the Scots and partly by defeating the next privy applications of the Scots to Him and partly by giving a better rellish of the English whose prisoner then He was yet had been treated very honorably but this would not do new Propofitions were once and again sent and denyed and new assurances from the Scots were admitted which procured thosy denyalls Nay after that Hamilton in 1648. Commission'd by the Parliament and Presbyterians in Scotland had invaded us with 20000 men and was beaten and a new party of Kirkmen of a contrary party to Hamilton had gotten the sway of the State into their hands by the help of our forces who pursued the Hamiltonians beyond the Tweed the English still received further repulses So vowedly inflexible was the King against all that could be tenderd by the English though even when his condition was grown lowest and the Parliaments Propositions not at all raysd higher and so vowedly obstinate were the Scots and all parties and factions among them upon all changes of affairs whatsoever to make all agreements of the English with the King disadvantageous to their fellow Covenanters Their voluminous Papers yet shew what they pretended to in disposing of the Kings person in England what a negative voice in the Parliament of England they would assign to Him what revenues and signiorys out of the Court of Wards and elsewhere they would secure to Him what power military and judiciall they would intrust him with in England and how all should be managed by the joynt advice and consent of Scotland In summe the King must again be more humbly sought to then ever He must be discharged of imprisonment received in pomp at London to treat about what we had to propose and his freedome must be such that He must sent for and advice with what Delinquents He pleasde if we granted the Scots this we left our selves nothing if we denyed All Ireland was at the Kings devotion all Ormonds all Oneals adherents all the old Irish all the English Irish all the Protestants all the Papists were against us we had then scarce three considerable Towns left in that Countrey In Scotland all that Montrosse all that Huntly all that Hamilton all that Arguile the Kirks Champion had any power in even Jo Cheesly himself to get a dubbing at the last hand was for the royall Cause In England the Clergie had imbitterd the City and the City had sharpned the Countrey against the Army and against all that had not forgotten the first quarrel with the King The Parliament it self had some leading men in it that had secretly capitulated with the King and those false Leaders had many other ignorant followers that would beleeve no such matter At such a time as this when all forrein States desired and contributed something to our ruin besides and the King had as free scope to sollicite and treat them as ever and did make use of his time especially to conclude with the Irish what should the Army do to execute the King and eradicate Monarchy was to expose themselves to a thousand hazards and extremities to spare the King and Monarchy and submit to the Scoch Presbyterian faction was to perish inevitably to treat with the King brought them upon this perplexity either they must propose things safe for the State and then they had no hopes of prevailing or they must propose things unsafe which would be sinfull dishonorable and ruinous to them as well as others in the end I am confident England never travail'd with such sharp throes or strugled through such gasping agonies since She was first a mother and none but God could have given her such a deliverance When the King was retrograde to his Trust and with the swinge of his Train had swept all the chief luminaries out of our firmament when the Clergie was generally disaffected and with their doctrines had almost poysoned all the City and almost half the Countrey when the remaining part of the Parliament that had stoodout the brunt so long and wetherd so many gusts became recreant at last then did an Army inspirde with strange courage but stranger counsell from above step in to save their sinking Countrey over-powring all the windes and waves that raged against them The wonderfull dispensations of God bringing great matters to passe by such crosse meanes must be observed and adored by all that are not aliens from Religion and I doubt not but future Parliaments in future ages will be amazedly affected with them but of all men we that now live and see the effects of that critical time and what a prospering posture we are now in within so short a space in England Scotland Ireland and round about by the seconding mercies of God since must needs most gratfully recent these things except we have sold our selves to Atheism rebellion against Heaven The Chiliasts from hence and from the race ordering of all our commotions since 1640. something before may assure themselves that Christ is to reign upon Earth and that he ha's already taken the Scepter out of the greater Warriors and Counsellors hands of the earth into his own For the hills are now plained and the vallies are raised and yet there is no humane hand appearing in it Some men thinke all successe unworthy of all regard as if there were no difference between the administrations of God in his Church in times of distresse and his disposing of other mens ordinary affaires at other times or as if Alexander Hector Caesar had foyled their enemy by the same inward promptings as Joshua David and Judas Machabeus did but this certainly is an irreligious error for as there is a generall providence of God by which the course of all naturall things is steered so there uses to be a speciall interposition of God in some things and is to be acknowledged when his owne honour and interest is specially concerned and this speciall interposition is sometimes of the finger of God when
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
great sticklers for the King to our Nations great dis-service and this gave us some glimpse that even in the Kirk party restored so lately to power by our means all was not so sound and sincere as it ought to be The Treaty not succeeding about the last of Januar the King was brought to the block and then the insolencies of the Scoch Commissioners and their haughty intrusions into the managery of our English State affairs and their despicable subjecting of our Parliament to their over-ruling wils grew so intolerable that upon the 17. of Febr the Parliament declared publickly against them This begat another Paper from the Commissioners dated the 24. following more imperious and controuling then formerly and this was presently after voted a designe in the contrivers of it to raise sedition that so under specious pretences they might gain advantage to second their late perfidious invasion The 6. of March following the State of Scotland wrote a Letter to us as they now inform us to avow their Commissioners last Paper and withall disallowing our construction of it for that they judged it no incroachment upon our Government nor any indeavour to raise sedition They likewise signified in the same that if any prevalent party in either Kingdom had or might break the bonds of Union yet those sacred tyes ought not to be layed aside or cancell'd but preserved for the benefit of such as were innocent in both Nations The Scoch Commissioners to whom this Letter was sent for delivery of it were now upon their return for Scotland and so the same never came to our hands though the Scots untruly tax us of suppressing it But why should they suspect any designe in us of suppressing this Letter The Letter if we had received it would not have healed our grievances it would rather have made the wounds wider for the Scots Commissioners had charged us of Treason perjury usurpation c. for doing those things within our own government which were required at our hands by justice and Reason of State now their principals in Scotland tell us that this charge is true but being true it molests not it shakes not it justles not us out of any part of our power nor stirs the people at all against us What is this but to tell us that they are more truly Judges in England of Treason perjurie usurpation c. then we that 't was not injurious in them to condemne us nor seditious in the people to rise up against us in observance of their commands Sometimes they pretend they aime at nothing beyond a simple protesting against us and that a freedome of Protesting is due to all men but this is meerly to delude and infect the people the more for t is evident to all men that such Protestations as their Papers have exhibited have ever been fraighted with the worst of calumnies the severest of sentences and have been received by the people as warlike defiances In this case therefore when so many insurrections and broils have been actually bred against us in our own bowels and so dangerously seconded by forrein Forces we call in all men to be Judges betwixt us whether we may not more justly cast out Protestations when they do but palliate seditious conspiracies then to submit to seditious conspiracies because they cover themselves with the names of Protestations This Letter miscarrying and our Parliament having waited awhile for some other return by some Expresse or other in May following about nine months after the Scoch Rout a complanatory Letter was sent from hence about divers grievances in generall and satisfaction was therein desired by Treaty in a peaceable way An Answer hereunto came in June following recomplaining that the Scots justly found themselves aggrieved at the late proceedings in England in reference to Religion taking away the Kings life and change of fundamentall Government which they had protested against That in case the English would disclaim their late proceedings against Covenant and Treaties they were contented to authorise Commissioners for a Treaty Otherwise they were resolved to keep themselves free from all complyance with malignants on the one hand and the Enemies of Kingly Government on the other That in regard of the Covenant the Treaties and many Declarations of both Kingdoms they could not acknowledge that to be a Parliament from whom the last Proposition came to them about a Treatie to be appointed Here was a flat deniall of any satisfaction by declining all means of treating about the same Here was a reason given of that deniall as full of enmity and hostility as could be instead of making any compensation due to the State of England for the bloodshed and rapine of Hamilton here was a strange coacervation and accumulation of new â—landers and defamations upon the Parliament of England Letters from the Parliament are now as it were interdicted no such subscription is to be admitted hereupon in July following our Parliament issued forth a Declaration for the better stating of these matters the endeavour of that Declaration was to remove yet all Nationall misunderstanding iâ— possible and to demonstrate that the English yet had not laid aside all thoughts of peace but concluding that if still they were diverted out of the wayes of peace unwillingly the fault was not theirs This Declaration was made as publick as ever any was in England and we have thousands here of the Scotch Nation disaffected enough to us and ten thousands of English Presbyterians besides more imbittered then the Scoch and all these can attestate the evulgation of this Declaration yet the Scots call it a Dormant Declaration and most dis-ingenuously would infuse it into the people that they had never nor could have any notice of it A Letter of theirs to us in the hands of a single Messenger could not be intercepted but a Manifest of ours Printed and intitled to the whole world must needs miscarry and that by our collusion Some reply was expected by us to the matter of this Declaration and some months past away hanging our expectation but none came the first news we heard was that about the middle of March following there was a Treaty agreed on to be at Bredah betwixt the Scots and their yong declared King and that the principall Subject of that Treaty was about the pretensions of the yong King to England and the quarrels of the Scots against England This to us that had so little hopes of reconcilement before was a sufficient alarme and upon this our L Generall Cromwell was sent for out of Ireland all warlick preparations were made ready and our Army this last Summer as soon as we got notice of the agreement made at Bredah and how far it concerned the life of this Common-wealth made its entrance into Scotland This relation gives the true procedure of all memorable matters betwixt Summer 1648. and Summer 1650. with the reasons of the slow motions of the English and amongst them all whether there was
Him then the Masse was formerly to his French Grand-father in the like case and if it were yet divers dulcifications might be added and accordingly divers mixtures were used to qualifie and make more potable that draught Advertisements had been sent from the yong Kings devout Mother in France and from her most Holy Father at Rome that in such an extremity the Oath was compulsory that the matter of the Oath was subject to many severall yea contrary interpretations that He should therefore be either left to be his own Interpreter at last in case He prevailed or if not yet He should be discharged of any contrary strained interpretation The truth was the present Power in Scotland had condemned Hamilton for invading England in behalf of an Anti-covenanting King and so it would be now too grosse for them to do the same thing till they had a Covenanting King whereupon it became impossible to them to relax the King of this condition The young King it may be might demand why they should more scruple fighting for an Anti-covenanting King then to fight against a Covenanting brother since the Covenant lost no more credit by the one then by the other and perhaps He might further demand why their conditions to Him were so rigorous since his to them pressed nothing but what was pleasing viz a joint concurrence against a Common enemy But his Mothers Councellors thought not fit to clog the debate with such intricacies All Scoch punctilioes being at last waved for the young King was so far from capitulating about his reception in Scotland that He was more forward to capitulate against his trusting himself there it came to the question what He should obtain at their hands in relation to England For satisfaction herein it was assured that the Scots had already proclaimed him King of Great Brittain that they had alreadie Protested against the governing party in England as guilty of Usurpation that they did now ingage to contribute their utmost endeavours by all necessarie and lawfull means according to the Covenant and duties of loyall Subjects to restore him to the peaceable possession of his other Dominions according to his undoubled right of succession This was the tenor in briefe of that Parlee here is an inthroning promist to the yong King by all necessary and lawfull meanes according to the Covenant and here force of armes is not openly profest as a necessary and lawfull meanes according to the Covenant that the English might be â—uâ—d in the more security but â—is ambiguously implyed and secretly so explained to the young King and his Counsell that He might proceed with the more vigor and confidence Hereupon now rises the contest whether this ambiguity of expression and mentall equivocall reservation in the agreement be such as ought to delude the English or not The Scots still say no force of Arms is threatned against us and that if we flie unto force of Arms against them either upon this or former hostilities we do cauâ—lâ—sly invade them They solemnly invoke God as a witnesse and Judge that they have denyed us no right that they have done us no wrong that in this preventing warre we are meer invaders and returners of evill for good Yet we must understand to make this good before the Bar of Almighty God himself they waver and dâ—llie and double and seek to collude in their own plea for they do not simply deny their ingaging to use force against us but unlawfull force nor yet are they willing to confesse their force intended and justifie it openly as lawfull by the Covenant Surely in an appeal to Almighty God the case need not be presented with so much art and under the cover of such dubious reservations Let us take a little notice first how far they deny secondly how far they justifie their forcible assisting the yong King against us After the King was well satisfied with their meaning by private insinuations and had adventur'd his person into Scotland then further craft was thought fit to be used to blinde the English and retard their preparations and therefore the Committee of Estates in Scotland publisht that the Article in the Treaty of Bredah concerning restoring the yong King to his Crowne of England was not to binde till the Parliament and Kirke of Scotland had taken a previous consideration and given their determination concerning the lawfullnesse and necessitie thereof Behold the ingenuity of the Scots They conclude a warre and no warre To all the enemies of England 't is a declared warre against England To the English themselves 't is no warre till the Scotch Parliament and Kirke have further declared in it The enemies of England have hereupon just warning and timely summons to arme and colleague for Englands offence but in the presence of God they speake it the English themselves have no just â—aâ—â—â— noâ— provocation to provide for any defence at all Though this agreement was made by the Enemies of England with the Enemies of England and refâ—rres to the Covenant which ha's alwayes been expounded to the justifying of a warre with England upon this quarrell and though this agreement must signifie a full defiance against England to all others yet to the English it must signifie nothing God himselfe being admitted Judge The English had been once before invaded by the Parliament of Scotland upon the same pretexâ—s of the Covenant without any warning given when both the Nations were not onely in profest amity but also under the religious ties of a solemne League and yet now when the Parliament of Scotland ha's perâ—idiously violated that amity and those ties and iâ— moreover fâ—stned in a new Agreement and Covenant with the most active foe that England ha's in the world by Sea and Land and by the words of that Agreement and Covenant ha's obliged it selfe to recover the Throne of England to Him yet now 't is expected that the English should sit still and attend till the Parliament and Kiâ—ke of Scotland had further deside them Alas the prevention of a wound that is likely to be mortall is as necessary when it is possible as the warding of it and some stroakes are of that nature that they cannot be repelled by the buckler if they be not anteverted by the sword Therefore the fictions of the Cockatrices eyes want no ground in policy whatsoever they doe in Nature and 't is often seene in warres and seditions that the party which surprizes not is sure to be surpriz'd This caused the Parliament of England this last Summer to send a preventing Army into Scotland yet with an intension of defence not offence for it was manifest to us if wee did not pitch the warre there and there draw the first bloud wee did necessarily expose our selves to the first charge and impression of our enemies here and choose to erect the theater of warre within our own Dominions Moreover had wee been meere Assaylants or had wee been defendâ—nts in an equall
cause against Enemies that had observed Feciall rites with us by giving us antecedent warning wee would not have been wanting in the due formalities of defiance towards them Nay had there been any reall doubt how the Parliament and Kirke of Scotland would have determin'd of the justice and necessity of a warre with England or had there been any certain time prefixt when that determination should have been given or had wee been assured of any just time to prepare our selves afterwards for a compleat defence wee had not been so forward in seeking out the hardships of that cold and sterill soyle but as our case was wee were great sufferers wee were sufferers by perfidious Enemies wee were delusorily referd fine die to Judges that were bound to no meetings for the resolution of a case that was before resolved against us and in the meane time whilst wee were brutishly thus to waite upon such Judges all our conjured foes were contriving our ruine and were certain to prepossesse irrecoverable advantages against us But now wee shall see in the next place the same Scots that before the Judgement-seat of God charged us hitherto for entring upon them when wee were in no danger nor under any provocation seeing all their transactions at Bredah more fully come to light betake themselves from denying to confessing and avoyding Such is their faultring such is their doubling if their deniall could be maintained they needed not descend to any confession and if their confession were avowable they needed not to fly to denyalls but the truth is they can neither absolutely deny nor absolutely justifie their hostile machinations and combinations against us and therefore they shufle and trifle and play fast and lose betwixt both In August last when the Scots saw the English would not yeeld themselves to be deluded or disappointed or forecluded of any advantages in war by the false pretexts of peace they stated the case of their war in a Declaration which they forced the young King to publish in his Name at Dunferlin and according to the case there stated they resolved to joyn upon the issue of a Battail and in the Field to expect Gods own decision from Heaven The Battail was fought and the decision of Heaven dissavoured the Scots but the successe of a pitcht Feild is not now held an Argument weighty enough to sink a cause so stated Let us therefore more narrowly look into the particulars of that Declaration and examine upon what sure rules of equity and piety the cause of the Scots as it is there drawn up stands founded At first the march of our Army was held meerly invasive causlesly offensive the Scots denyed any hostile intentions against us at all now t is granted there was an intention of force but it was no other then what was justifiable by the Covenant inasmuch as it threatned none but such as were Enemies to the Covenant This seems to mean that the Parliament of England with all their Armies and Adherents had had just cause to prevent an invasion from the Scots if they had been true to the Covenant that is if they had interpreted the Covenant in the Scotch sense but since they are judged to have dealt treacherously with the Covenant they are not worthy of any defence they ought not to claim so much priviledg as to prevent any danger or enmity For if the Scotch design had been meerly to plunder and inslave us then we might have stood upon our guards or used means of prevention lawfully but since the designe was meerly to reforme us and reclaime us to our loyalty and to reconcile us to our Covenant 't was arrogance in us to thinke any resistance at all reasonable Is not this a candid honest meaning does not this high pitch of prejudice become a faire noble enemy but to the effect and purport of our Scotch Declaration by that Declaration we are satisfied in two things First What conditions were proposed by the Scots to the King both in behalfe of Scotland and England and Secondly What Laws were agreed upon by them both to be imposed upon the English Of the Kings conditions little need be said by taking the Covenant explicitly he did implicitly bind himselfe to admit the Scots to be his interpreters of it and by admitting them to be his interpreters He did ingage to follow the advice of a Parliament in all Civill cases and of an Assembly in all businesses of the Church and t is to be understood that the same advice was to sway him as well when he was to consult about his affaires in England as about his Scotch affaires For a proof hereof we see when this very Declaration so neerly concerning the government of England was to be issued in the young Kings â—ame and he to avoid the same was withdrawne to Dunferlin Commissioners were sent after him from the Kirk and States to let him know that by the Covenant he was bound to signe and own this their Act and that by his refusall if he separated his interest from Gods and the Churches they would endeavour the preservation of both without his But let us passe to the â—aws imposed upon us by the accord â—t Bredah and let us view sadly those heavy iron yoakâ— that are there â—â—eathed for the neck of England After that the young King â—â— obliged to stand to the advice of the Scots in the supream counsels and concernments of England Let us consider â—ow â—ar that advice is converted to our confusion The first thing that we are to submit to is we are here to yeeld up the Crown of England to be disposed of by the Scots we must suppose there lies a duty and is conferd a power by the Covenant upon them to see to our line of succession and to take order that in all questions betwixt the people and any pretendor the Throne may be duly filled and possessed If a Traytor that ha's been an enemy in Arms that is claime by inheritance the Soveraignty of England the Scots may justifie force to invest him here 't is breach of Coven in us to oppose 2. Though the same K. may â—e under Sequestration in Scoâ—â— til he has given publick satisfaction there yet there is no satisfaction due in Engl of which the English are to be Judges for the English are to rest satisfied in this that the Scots rest satisfied if the Scots rest satisfied the English sequestration becomes vacâ—ted Nay though that which the Scotsâ—all satisfaction be apparently extorted by force and almost confessed to be meeâ—â—imulation yet the English in spight of their understandings and senses must accept of it The Scots say their young King is truly humbled for his Fathers Tyranny and his Mothers Idolatry the young King abhors ther hypocrisie therein and for divers days together puts all his hopes in this world upon eminent hazard rather then he will subscribe their dictates yet the English must neither question his
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
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
justice and humanity betwixt the Nations whereas there can be no end of controversies and hostilities when sentences shall be spoken against parties that are no inferiors and that by parties that are no superiors The Scots therefore in this have been exceedingly too blame and there is no doubt but the ruine of the King and all the late miseries of their own wasted Countrey have been derived from this strange insufferable arrogance of theirs T is frequent with them to protest against the Parliament of England as no lawfull Authority to denounce against all the Souldery of England as Sectaries Rebels and regicides to upbraid all the Gentry and Comminalty of England submitting to the present Government as men that prostitute their consciences to a sinfull shamefull thraldome to incite all the Presbyterians and discontented persons in England to the kindling of new flames amongst us And this is more then to invade a moity of the Legislative power of England this is to seize all this is more then to claim a jurisdiction in Covenant affairs this is to in vasâ— all us totally in all cases whatsoever this is more then to pronounce judgement against us at home in civill cases this is to pursue us with fire and sword as well forrein as domestick Should our Nation now descend to the like outragious recriminations or rather feminine altercations being first provoked and having juster grounds what an odious noise would this trouble all Europe with Well but still there is something to be said for the Scots if they may not call us to their own barre as they are our fellow Covenanters and as they are equally parties in so religious a League with us yet there is another Bar to which they may cite us there is still here upon earth a barre of common equity and reason and at this Barâ—e the English are accountable for all their delinquencies against the Covenant To this we agree and shall appear aâ— is required by the citation The late King some years before the eruption of these troubles had made many dangerous attempts against the purity of the Protestant Religion and the Liberties of the Subjects in all the three Nations Now in 1643. when Arms were taken up on all hands either for assisting or opposing the King in those his designes against Religion and Liberty the Covenant was formed by that party which rose up against the King and the main primary use it was formed intended for was to protect Religion and Liberty against Him and his adherents The formers of it also at the same time took notice that the cases of Religion and Liberty could not be well separated forasmuch as the King if He prevailed against the one would more easily prevail against the other Religion was the richer Free-hold but Liberty had the stronger fence to preserve it from the violence of intruders It was likewise visible that Religion would make the people more zealous for Liberty and Liberty would impower the people the better to defend Religion besides suppose the taking away of the people and you suppose with all the taking away of Religion and suppose the taking away of Liberty and you do in a manner suppose the taking away of the people for the life of a bodie politick consists not in living but in living free The Covenant therefore primarily and ultimately proposes to it self the safety and prosperity of the true Protestant Religion in the safety and Liberty of the three Nations and the safety and Liberty of the three Nations in the safety and prosperity of the true Protestant Religion All other Articles in the Covenant are but secondary and subordinate hereunto and they are to have respect from us not as they stand higher or lower in order but as they are more or lesse serviceable to those higher purposes for which they were at first ordained Upon this ground that branch in the Covenant which obliges us to seek God in this sacred Ingagement by a speciall amendment of our lives and reformation of our own private wayes at such a time as this merits the honor of the first place And next hereunto worthily may succeed those 2. branches by which the Nations are so strictly confederated in peace and amity and by which all parties to this confederation have past their solemn Pacts to be assisting to each other bringing all opposites to condigne punishment That branch which was inserted in favour of the King at that time the principal Enemy of the Covenant and for saving of his Prerogatives so desperately at that time disputed by the sword if it could challenge any place at all could certainly challenge none but the last and lowest how soever the Scots had ranged it and do still propugn it Nothing surely could more cloud the meaning of each part in the Covenant or more pester and perturbe the whole frame of it then this insertion The same Oath to God now binds us in one clause to pursue with fire and sword all that are enemies to this Oath and yet the grand enemy of this Oath by another clause in the same Oath is preserved inviolable nay that clause which preserves one Enemy has a local preference before that which pursues all Hereupon if a Commission be taken from the King to destroy this Solemn League He that takes it dies ignominously as a Traytor but he that gives it has that indemnity given by the Covenant which his kingly office could not have given him The very penning also of this Article leaves us very dubious and perplext how far the Kings royalty is saved to Him for the saving is not absolute but refers to some thing in order above it and that is the saving of Religion and Liberty Here therefore two new doubts meet with us to intangle us 1. In what degree the King may be proceeded against when in such a degree He indangers Religion and Liberty 2ly how we shall exactly judge of these degrees when our judgements are wholly left at liberty without any limits or marks set by the Covenant The Scots have proceeded so far as to imprison the Kings person and to sequester all his royall power which is a temporary dethroning and deposing because they suppose Religion and Liberty was so far impugned by Him but they suppose that from an imprisoned sequestred King no further offence or danger can arise and therfore He ought not further to suffer This is sufficiently erroneous but this is not all yet for they will not only thus expose Religion and Liberty to greater hazards in their own Countrey but they will over-rule us with their errors and inforce us to run the same hazards in our Countrey likewise and this is more we are sure then the Covenant enforces us unto And doubtles this is very hard For besides that there is no Nation nor scarce any individuall person in any Nation who is not Judge of his own danger in this case our judgement is wrested out of
verge of the Covenant and yet no man here supposes himself bound by any words of the Covenant to look after the whole administration of justice and the whole managery of the government in England or els to stand answerable for all abuses whatsoever that are not there redressed 3ly If the Covenant give us a power so large in England it must by the same reason give the Eng the same in Scotland for the bonds are equall and reciprocall and so here are discords raised betwixt us contrary to the principall drift of the Covenant such as never can be pacified the sword it self can never give any decision in the busines victory may take away equallity betwixt 2. brethren but meer victory can never take away the true right of equallity 4ly The Covenant injoynes us precisely to assist one another in reforming now the word assistence intimates a concurrence with the party covenanting against some joynt opposer it cannot be forced to intimate any violence against the party covenanting 5ly Not onely the tenor of the whole Covenant but also the particular clear purport of the fifth Article in the Covenant mainly intends to tye a firmer closer knot of union and conjunction betwixt the Nations then ever was before and therefore to rescinde a knot so manifest upon expositions and glosses of things not manifest seems to me to be a wilfull violation of the Covenant As to the other point about the Kings inlargement much may be resumed of what I said before against our judging in England but I forbear that the scruples that here suggest themselves to me are these 1. If the Kings liberty may not be restrained then neither any other of his royall prerogatives honours and powers and yet we our selves hold all these here under sequestration and for divers yeares of late we have entred upon and administred the whole royalâ— Office ourselves shall we then maintaine that the K has a right to that in England to which He has no right in Scotland 2ly If the K has a right now to his Liberty being amongst the English it will follow upon the same reason that He had a right to the same two years since when he was in our Quarters at Newâ—rk and Newcastle yet all men will sâ—â— amongst us He had no command at all but was under such a guard as had a strict charge of his person and were as rigorously answerable for the same as any Jaolers whatsoever Besides all men know He was by us delivered up to the English against his will and that upon contract and valuable considerations and that we could not have justified if we had thought he was at full liberty and could not be thereof abridged Thirdly A speciallâ— Article in our Covenant obliges us to bring all enemies of the Covenant to condigne punishment and we do punish daily capitally such of the Kings adherents as have offended against us by his Commissions and shall we think that death is due to the Actor and instrument when imprisonment is not due to the Author and principall Fourthly If we dispute not about the Kings imprisonment but as it is such that is as he is imprison'd by the Souldiery in England without consent of the Parliament there then do we take upon us to vindicate the consent of that Parliament without consent of that Parliament And since we hear not that there is any change of the Kings restraint save onely of the persons under whom he is restrained nor do the Parliament in England think fit to use force nor to desire our assistance therein I doubt if we should obtrude our force therin without any call we should offend against another proviso in the Covenant by intrenching upon the Parliaments priviledge there and by invading the Subjects property likewise which the charge of this war must necessarily draw after it These things deserve a sober deliberation before we resolve upon the justice of this war but then the justice being cleered yet I conceave we are bound to all mankind much more Christians and brethren in Covenant to give what evidence we can of the justice of our cause that if possible they may be convinced and do right before bloud be shed And since the Parliament of England upon reports of our preparations ha's dispatcht Commissioners hither to treat about all points in difference and we specially by Treaty were held to send the like to them and after all to give three months previous warning before we could have recourse to the Sword I hope no man here will offer any thing against a Treaty with the English Commissioners that satisfaction before blood may be either given or taken and if not yet the due space of warning may be observed if we should faile herein I fear we should proclaim our selves to the world abusive simulatory pretenders of the Covenant only to prophane the high Gods Name to whom we have all lifted up our false hands Next since the English in observance of their faith to us ingaged freely for our better assurance in them have left their Frontire Towns Berwick and Carlisle ungarrison'd notwithstanding the notice they have of our present posture I hope we shall scorne to make their plain dealing with us a â—nare to themselves and thinke to chastise their fidelity with our infidelity at such a time as this is when we wage war with holy thoughts and only for religious purposes And lastly since we are to engage out of pure conscience to the ends of the Covenant one whereof is to bring all enemies of the same Covenant to a legall triall I hope we shall not receive Langdale and the rest of the English Fugitives whose Swords have drawne much bloud of Covenanters to fight under our Covenanters banners This will convince us of insincerity before men this will provoke the eyes of Gods jealousie against us in the day of Battail God must be served justly as wel as in just actions and when bloud is the meane and holinesse the end God uses to be more jealous and expects more exactnesse then ordinaâ—ily Oh let not any occasion be given by a Parliament of Scotland to lay stumbling blocks before others let not the world say we wrest the Covenant to what sence we please and use it as the Papist do the word of God the case is of grand consequence it may concerne us and our posterity for ever I pray let it be throughly scand and sifted Hereunto a Gentleman of Hamiltons party may be supposed to answer My Lords and Gentlemen YOu have heard it granted that Religion in England wants Reformation and that the King ought to be set free from his forced durance under the Souldier you have heard likewise granted that our Solemn League and Covenant requires these things to be done but divers scruples have been cast in withall about the manner of doing these things in regard that a juste is required as well as a justum The main thing is that we
of forcible alterations amongst themselves to the defrauding of their neighbours Thirdly Admit the Parliament by which Hamilton was Commission'd was an unjust Parliament admit it was no Parliament at all and admit that Hamilton with a lesse party and without any Commission at all had broke in upon us in a hostile manner yet even this would not leave the English altogether remediles for in this case upon a just demand of satisfaction made by the English the Scots must disowne the act and see the outrage legally expiated upon the actors or else they owne it themselves and so become as obnoxious as the actors That which was the sin of one Towne in Benjamin at first became the sin of the whole Tribe of Benjamin afterwards and doubtlesse that which was the sin of one Tribe in Israel at first had become the sin of all Israel at last if justice had not been lawfully executed Let the Scots look upon this with sad eyes for that blood of the English shed by Hamilton which is now the guilt of a party only in Scotland upon the deniall of just ice may be made the guilt of all Scotland The second evasion of the Scots is this They say if they were persons challengeable of satisfaction yet they that sit now in the Parliament of England are not persons that can duly challenge or require satisfaction It should seeme as Scotland before was not to be found in Scotland so England is now not to be found in England so hard a matter it is to get right from them that can thus easily transforme and deforme whole Nationall bodies The meaning is Government in England has been of late changed two of the Estates in Parliament are removed by force and the third Estate usurpes what was due to all wherefore as they cannot treate with us about satisfaction but they must acknowledge us a lawfull authority so conscience forbids them to acknowledge our authority lawfull To this wee answer 1. The change of rule in a Nation does not change the Nation forasmuch as the manner of rule is changeable and accidentall and so does not give beeing or support the essence of a State If wee in England beeing a Monarchy owe three Millions to the Hollander the change of Monarchy in England will not exempt us from our obligation and if we in England beeing a Democracy have three Millions due from the Hollander our returne to Monarchy will not denude us of our remedie The devastations and hostilities of Hamilton were suffred by the English Nation and the Parliament of England demands justice and restitution for the same in behalfe of the English Nation now 't is not agreeable to justice or reason that a slight exception taken against the substitute should disable the Principal or any incapacity of the demandant redound to the prejudice of him which is the true Interessent Secondly If the usurpation of the Parliament of England shall bar the State of England from its due course of justice yet how does it appeare to the Scots that the power of our Parliament is an usurp't power If God or Man ha's given them any warrant to judge of our actions and affaires in England let them shew it for without some such warrant they are but our Equalls and one equall ha's no power of judging another If they plead any undeniable principle in nature which condemnes all alteration of Government as unlawfull and all extrusion of Governours as usurpation and of this Maxime they say all men are equally Judges then how will they justifie their extrusion of Lannerick and their new moulding of their Committee of Estates after the defeature of Hamilton which without armes and our assistance they could not have compast Is that a naturall indispensible principle in England which is not so in Scotland Away with such partiall shifts let the Scots shew us that Nation under Heaven that ha's not severall times been driven to mutations of Governments and Governours and been at last justified therein by the plea of necessity and common safety and wee shall confesse their Lordly power over us Thirdly If the Scots be our Lords and will give judgement against us in this case yet they must know that wee are now upon our appeal before almighty God and have accordingly taken Armes into our hands for the prosecution of that appeal And does not one of the primary Lawes of Warre teach them what a hazard it is to deny right to him that beares his â—aked sword in his hand Arma Tenenti Omnia dat qui justa negat Will the Scots lay an incapacity of Treating upon us first and then of fighting afterwards The difference now betwixt us is whether wee have justly enterd Scotland or no to seeke redresse of many injuries and depredations by tryall of battaile which was denide us by debate in a friendly intercourse and doe the Scots thinke now to argue us out of our armes doe they think that the same condemnations of our usurp't power by which they insulted over us when wee sought a Treaty will be seasonable now when the cause is preferd to a higher Court This were to cut us off from all remedie whatsoever this were to detrude us below the miserablest of men this is beyond all ordinary strains of Tyranny There is no Client nor Subject nor slave whatsoever but by way of his last appeale may repell force with force when his case is beyond all other decision and this is held no more then a making an humble addresse to Heaven or laying the cause before the Lord of Hosts his Footstoole Will the Scots then which have droven us their equalls to this last resort prejudge and foreclude us in this also and so make us worse them the worst of inferiors Certainly if we may not treate before wee confesse our selves usurpers wee may fight till God declares us to bee so or that our enemies have usup't over us The third advantage or exception of the Scots against our demands of satisfaction is taken from the space of time that interlapsed betwixt the overthrow of Hamilton and our solemne denouncing against them for that hostilitie as also from some reciprocall kindnesses and testimonies of accord and pacification which past betwixt the Nations in the mean while Of both these I shall now give this faithfull account The victory of of L G Cromwell against the Scots was about the latter end of Summer 1648 and our Forces following that chase stayed in Scotland till about Mid-winter following During the stay of our Army in Scotland a good understanding was betwixt us and the Kirk party there for we had both the same ends against the Hamiltonians and so whilest we extorted the sword out of Lannericks hands and put it into Arguiles we did our own businesse and the Kirks too and the Kirks more immediately then our own Howbeit a Treaty was now begun in the Isle of Wight with the King where the Scoch Commissioners appeared
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
truth is not repugnant to any of our former Oaths or Obligations is lyable to no just doubts For our former Oaths and Ingagements if we rightly understand them did not so intentionally oblige us to the form of Government as to Government it self nor to this or that changable medium of governing as to the fixt perpetuall end of government Forms and Means are sometimes very expedient and so long they are necessarily to be observed but the question is how far they ought to be observed when they clash and by some emergent alteration in the State are put out of Tune and so jar as it were with substances and Ends and all wise men know Subordinata non pugnant the matter of lesse moment gives way to the greater The Law of the Sabbath was strict in all its rites and requir'd an exact obedience in all its duties which were suitable to its end but when mans being which was the end of the Sabbath came in question all its subordinate offices and solemnities submitted The Jews thought man must rather perish then the Sabbath be broken by any labour to save him and if man had been created for the celebration of that day they had judged rightly but since that days rest was ordained for man our Saviour gives a contrary judgement The same reason reaches our case Our allegiance has been formerly ingaged to the State of England governed in such a form that form is now changed and now our allegiance to the State cannot be continued in the old form without danger to the substance without ruine to the end for which allegiance was so ingaged In this case if we grant that the form of government is but a mean and that it was ordained for the convenience of government not government for the forms we have nothing to do but to conclude with our Saviour that necessity makes the change lawfull and the violation of the form no violation forasmuch as there is no repugnance in subordinate things Dunkirk was yesterday under the Spaniard t is to day under the French the loyalty which the Dunkirkers payed yesterday to the Spaniard is now due to the French That Dunkirker which now keeps his loyaltie to the Spaniard breaks it and may justly suffer for Treason but that Dunkirker which departs from his former loyalty keeps it and the truth of his loyalty will be justified by the end of all Loyalty Consider Known Malignants whose Consciences are too hard for such scruples readily take the Ingagement and so get Trust and imployment whilest the tendernes of Conscience shuts honest men out Answ 2. This Objection has no more Force against the Ingagement then it has against preaching the Word administring the Sacraments and all the best Ordinances that ever were past by God or man for there was never any duty so holy nor injunction so equitable but some scrupulous men perplexed and intangled themselves with fears about it and some men of ill conversation would rush and intrude rudely into it T is impossible for the Magistrate either to ease tender Consciences or to discriminate hard hearts in all cases wherefore let us not require impossible things of our Magistrates Consider This Ingagement is so pressed that scruples arising none is permitted to clear them to himself nor can the tendrers of it prescribe the sense wherein it is to be taken so it must be subscribed blindly in the implicit meaning of the Imposers This agreâ—s not with the nature of a solemn Obligation Answ 3. The Ingagement is most injuriously accused of any obscuritie no art of man could pen any thing more clearly or succinctly nay I am verily perswaded that the same men that cavil at the Ingagement for ambiguity can scarce produce one Law or rule in all the book of God which might not be made as subject to cavillations as this bond of allegiance By our subscriptions we onely binde our selves to be true and faithfull to the Common-wealth of England as it s now governed without King or Lords To ask what the Common-wealth of England is is ridiculous t is the same now under this form of Regiment as it was before under Monarchy To ask how it can be governed without King or Lords is more ridiculous our senses discover to us that we have a government that we have a government without King or Lords and if we please we may further inform our selves that there have been other such governments in all ages amongst all Nations To ask how we may be true and faithfull to this Government is most ridiculous of all for Truth and fidelity in England is the same as Gods Law commands every where No Law of Gods is more perspicuous then that which enjoyns obedience and subjection to Powers and Magistrates and yet the same Law of God which injoyns obedience and subjection intends true obedience and faithfull subjection they cannot be divided false obedience is no obedience unfaithfull subjection is no subjection Therefore let our Considerator cavil at God and his Word to which our Ingagement refers him let him not cavill at those which refer him Consider The Subjects Liberty is saved to Him by divers Laws and Oaths yet the not subscribing of this Ingagement hercaves any man now of the benefit of Law the greatest of all Liberties and rights Answ 4. Liberty is the due birth-right of every Englishman but Liberty has its bounds and rules and the liberty of every member must be subordinate to the liberty of the whole body By the Laws of Liberty every man is to injoy that which is his own but since one man has far greater and better things to injoy then another the liberties of one may extend further then the Liberties of another Likewise when our Liberties are equall extensive one man may voluntarily renounce or maliciously forfeit that which another does not Therfore we must not suppose that any man in England by the Protestation or Covenant or any Law else has such an estate or inheritance in his Liberty as is altogether indefeasible and unreleasible whatsoever He does or saies But in the last place there is a Liberty of the whole State aswell as of any particular subject and that Liberty of the whole State must supersede the Liberty of every particular subject whensoever both accord not the lesser to avoid repugnance must alwaies give place to the greater The Conâ—iderator is very erroneous when He thinks the Law allowes him any right or freedome to disturbe the Law or to oppose any constitution upon which publick right and freedom is founded Consider These kinde of ties have commonly prooved uneffectuall nay they have often proved mischievous like artillery turned against the first planters and devisers of them Witnesse the Bishops Canonicall Oath witnesse the late Covenant c. Answ 5. Religious ties and pacts are not unlawfull in themselves but we hold the use of them unlawfull when they are inforced without sincerity without necessity and without due authority
the effects are lesse supernaturall but when the effects are more stupendious and beyond reason the Scripture it selfe stiles this the making bare and the stretching forth of Gods arme They which are disaffected to the late egregious proceedings of God in the world will not but they shall see and owne this truth But let us returne to the procedure of our affaires when the Army saw it selfe surrounded with so many dangers and insulting enemies it began by some faintnesses and carnall doubts to grow dangerous and an enemy to it self it began to receive suggestions that the removing of a King and Kingly power was like to prove more unfeaseable then to treat a King into reason And this was likely to have proved the more banefull because the King by speciall graces was as ready to draw them into this ambuscado as they were prone by their irresolutions and diffidencies to run into it themselves for 't is thought all agreements with the King would have been short lived but if any had been made with the Army that would have bin but as Samsons wit hs and ropes which was the reason That the King upon whom Five Addresses of the Parliament had wrought nothing seemed to lay the Armies Proposals though little differing in substance exceedingly to heart Howsoever it pleased God at this low ebbe of things when the Army was weakest and most apt to be inveagled and when the King was securest and had most hopes to inveagle to break off that Treaty and then was brought on the last with the Parliament in the Isle of Wight which when it was likely to overturne all by accepting of the Kings Concessions then also did God make the Army his Instrument in preventing that sad conclusion The debate in Parliament after the returne of the Commissioners was Whether the Kings Concessions at that Treaty had been such as might make further applications hopefull or no and after a very long time spent the affirmative was Voted This Vote struck a true apprehension of an universall imminent danger into the Army for now an accord with the King by the sense of the Parliament was to be hoped for whereas in truth any accord besides an absolute submission of the King was sufficient to take away all hope for since the King unsubmitting had no visible obstacle betwixt him and his long eagerly pursued ends but the Army and any accord was certaine to discard or new form that Army the security of all our Laws and rights yea and lives was solely to depend upon the Kings Honour and what was honour in his sense who was so principled and who had now for diverse yeares waded through so much bloud and exposed himself and posterity to so certain a disinherison only to be true to his principles any ordinary man may determine Immediatly therfore after this Vote past the Army saw no other remedy to prevent their eminent overthrow but to lay a hand of force upon the affirmative Voters in Parliament and to bring the King to a tryall which were done accordingly and so both they prevail'd and we were preserved as to this day Some say t was more Noble to trust the King too much then too little but these consider not that Trust is not always alike free in this case distrust could ruin but a few and that by a legall course but Trust was likely to have ruin'd Millions and the Laws to boot Some of the Scotts say God was able to save Religion and Liberty in despight of the King had he prov'd perfidious and therefore if the King was not to be trusted yet God was These consider not that God holds himselfe tempted not trusted when we leave the use of ordinary hopefull meanes on Earth and rely upon unprovmist succour from Heaven Some say if the King was not to be trusted yet the Army had no lawfull warrant to judge of him and the Parliament but these consider not that extream eminent and otherwise insuperable dangers give private persons yea single private persons an extraordinary warrant to defend themselves and others and this Warrant will be avowed by necessity the exception that all Law admits to be within the reach of no Law and the danger was here extream because it concerned Life Religion Liberty and all that could be endeared to man it was likewise eminent because another day might have prevented them by disbanding or some other way Lastly it was otherwise insuperable for that there was no other Judge or hand on Earth that could hear and relieve them Others say still the danger was not so existent or manifest to other men as to the Army Let it be considered by these 1 That Nature has entrusted to every man a speciall custody of his owne safety and there is none of us all but would be loath that the same should be transferred to another mans care viz. in cases extraordinary where legall remedy cannot be had in a common way 2 In matters of fact where no full proof can be had every mans judgement is to be lesse peremptory and to take in as much of Charity as is possible Whether the King would indeed have broken his Trust or no and whether the Army did falsly pretend such a fear or no neither of these is matter of Law nor liable to any infallible proof as to the fact wherefore I may sin against charity if I passe my judgement against either but I cannot sin if I leave the judgement of both to God and to waite for his determination Some in favor of the King frame conjectures that He was probably very firme in performing because He was so slow and circumspect in ingaging and that if He had been lubricous or profuse of his faith He would not have refused an accord with the Parliament so long upon what tearms soever Others make use of contrary conjectures to a contrary purpose alleadging that 't was but art in the King to dally and to trifle away some time with the English to set the higher esteem upon his constancy and make them the more assured of his performance that He was absolutely secure of the Englishmens facility and plain-dealing and never made any doubt to be received at his own pleasure that he was never to his last day void of other confidences or destitute of other plots to compasse his designe by force that for his fidelity and the value he set upon promises and oaths and the infinite subtilty he had to evade any ingagement whatsoever scarce any forraign State or Prince in Europe was ignorant in that point That scarce ever any just or innocent man fell under the weight of such transcendent unparraleld calamities But I list not to leane upon such Reeds as conjectures are t is enough for me to know that whatsoever man intends or acts wickedly and perversly God orders and disposes rightly and profitably may he so do for England Scotland and Ireland in all these late mutations It remains now that