A LETTER FROM EDINBURGH Concerning The difference of the Proceedings of the Well-affected in SCOTLAND From the Proceedings of The ARMY in ENGLAND LONDON Printed in the Yeare 1648. A Letter from EDINBURGH Concerning the difference of the Proceedings of the Well-affected in Scotland from the Proceedings of the ARMY in England Dated the 19. of Decemb. 1648. SIR I Am much troubled and amazed at that which you relate concerning the late proceedings of your England ARMY but most of all at the pretences which are used to colour the same which are That they follow the example which hath been given them here in Scotland and that they act the Resolutions which our Marquesse of Arguile and your Lieutenant-Generall did conclude at their last meeting Which are things so far dissonant not only from truth but from all likelyhood that I dare confidently say nothing could have been devised either more falfly or with lesse appearance As for the Marquesse I dare pawn all that I am worth in this world that our Noble and faithful Marquesse who hath so freely and often hazarded himself and all that he hath for the true interest of Scotland in maintaining the National Covenant did never agree to any of those undertakings you mention your Army set upon which are most directly opposite to all the purposes and intents of our Covenant For in stead of the Reformation and settlement of Religion it is evident that your men intend to settle nothing but rather to unsettle all both in Church and State by an universal Toleration of all Religions In stead of maintaining the Priviledges of Parliament as the supreme Judicature of your Kingdome they break it in peeces and setling themselves as Judges over it over the King and over the whole Kingdom they effectively undertake to dissolve it Instead of defending the King and his Authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms they set themselves to destroy him and his Race and will have an elective King or none at all Thus the three first Articles of the Covenant are utterly made void In stead of bringing evil Instruments that hinder the Reformation of Religion and divide between the King and his people to condigne punishment their whole way is to overturn that which is setled in the Reformation of Religion and to make a Faction dividing the King from his people which is against the 4. and 5. Articles Nor can they by the principles which they follow be faithful to the 6. Article thereof which is to defend and assist the Covenanters but they rather will become the chief prosecutors of the same Now I am sure that neither my Lord of Argyle nor any of those that manage the publique affairs here at this time would ever give way to any designs from which such breaches of Covenant might ensue nay our zeal and sincerity for the Covenant and for the settlement of all things according to it will be found such That whatever the Kings concessions may be to you or us upon the ratification of a Peace nothing will be satisfactory except the whole matter of the Covenant be approved and the taking thereof be confirmed and enjoyned by Law not being left Arbitrary or to come in under an Act of Oblivion and except also Episcopacie be utterly extirpated root and branch for ever whereupon you seem not to stand much at this present These things are so unalterably determined in our Councels and such fundamental grounds amongst us that it is not possible that those Advices by which your men are acted can have had either their beginning or ever will have their approbation from us or from any that are faithfull to us such as we know the Marquesse of Argile to be As for the other pretence That this undertaking of your Army is done by our example in these our last troubles It is a most notorious falshood and a most injurious calumny against us For which cause I think my self bound to let you see the contrary and how far our actions differ from that which is related of your Army Be pleased therefore to take notice that in all our late proceedings the Party well-affected to the Covenant who were disaffected to the Engagement never made any violent or tumultuous opposition against the Councels of the Parliament but whiles matters were in deliberation the greatest part of the people of this Kingdom petitioned only against the designes of the major part of Parliament which did pursue an Engagement against England contrary to the Covenant and Treaties And when the thing was brought to a result the well-affected Members of Parliament dissented and protested according to the practise of this Kingdom against the engagement Nor did the well-affected here make ever any opposition to the Parliament it self whose Authority is sacred and supreme amongst us whiles they carried on maters which they had resolved Nor was there any opposition made to the councels of the Committee of Estates nor ever any wrong offered to them in their persons but all the opposition which was made was afterward made against a few persons of the Committee of Estates whose illegal proceedings and actual oppression being intolerable they were resisted not only in a way justifiable by the necessity of natural defence but even conformable to the Law of the Land Concerning the Persons which the Parliament nominated to be a Committee of Estates they were above an hundred but when the Parliament was ended Nine of those alone were packt to make a Quorum which could meet at all occasions and did over-rule the whole Kingdome most illegally and tyrannically First their illegal proceedings were such That contrary to all Law they took upon them to impede the execution of Acts of Parliament a power never given unto them nor that could be committed unto any for how can it be supposed that ever any Parliament would or lawfully could give to Deputies a power to alter or suspend the Lawes of the Kingdome and standing Acts of Parliament They caused divers Subjects to take the Oath ex Officio A thing wholly contrary to the Laws of this Kingdome They gave Order to denounce the Marquesse of Argile Rebel before any charge given in against him and other things of this nature were done by them to others whom they did processe for Treason upon a general accusation without setting downe the particulars and without producing any accusers which even the abetters of their owne Councellors were ashamed of Secondly Their actuall Oppressions were such that they caused Souldiers to quarter upon the well-affected with so much cruelty as that in the space of fourteen dayes they exacted in some places to the value of seven years rent by which meanes some families were dissolved and ruined yea they killed women that resisted their insolent and unruly carriages and offered violence to Ministers preaching in the Pulpit interrupting Divine-Worship All which was done without any hope of redresse when petitioned
acting offensively without Law and against trust which is a ruinous disorder to the State The undertaking of our Nine men was the pursuit of an Engagement opposite to the Covenant and Treaties with England oppressive to all the faithful in the Land and destructive to the peace of the Kingdom and union betwixt the Kingdome but the undertaking of your Parliament was the pursuit of peace by a Personal Treaty with the King which by his condiscensions was in some things brought towards a hopeful issue What the difference is between these two judge ye and thereupon consider what resemblance there is between the opposition which our Nobles and Commissioners made unto the proceedings of our Quorum and the resistance which your Army doth make against the Votes of their Masters the Houses of Parliament tending to the settlement of Peace in the Kingdome As for the manner of our mens proceedings I have shewed you how patiently they endured oppression how they never disturbed the Parliaments counsels nor of the Committee of Estates nor offered violence to their persons but by regular addresses sought the redresses of grievances and by a Treaty did obtain the same Whether your Army hath suffered any oppression from the Parliament or have had any ill usage from them your know better then I that am a stranger but I never heard of any And what the way of their addresses are I need not to expresse you can judge and I will not conjecture what hereafter they may be The professed aim of the well-affected party here is the same which it was formerly To settle the Kingdome in the observance of the Covenant of the Treaties with England and of the known Lawes and constitutions of Government What the aime of your Army is and how constant they are to the Proposals which formerly they made and where they will rest I shall leave it to you to judge and to the event to shew The meanes which our men used to prosecute their aime were a friendly Treaty to lay down Arms on all sides To settle and maintain the just Authority of Government To right the wrong done to England and to call a free Parliament Now what resemblance the wayes of your men have with these judge ye And then tell me where the pretended example is and wherein the comparison can be made between that which we have done and that which your men are doing If it can be shewed in any circumstance or made imaginable to any rationall man I shall acknowledge my ignorance My admiration at a pretence so far out of purpose and so injuriously reproachfull to our Cause together with my zeale to vindicate the reputation of our smeerity by the Righteousnesse of our proceedings hath moved me to the thus large All the ground upon which we can challenge a right to be trusted and believed in that which we do or say that our meaning is upright and without deceit can be no other but the justifiablenesse of our carriage in our constant way that it is orderly in our Calling and answerable to a known Rule But if we keep no Rule or cast off all respect unto that Rule which we are bound to acknowledge and which we have obliged our selves to walk by and if our enterprizes are disproportionate to our Calling and to the principles of our profession in Christianity then we may justly be suspected to be deceivers and not mean truly whatever we pretend Therefore he that is nowhere to be found constant in his pretences nor in his Rules known can deserve no trust nor can he be rationally judged to be sincere because he will naturally shape his Rule according to his Pretences and not his Pretences according to that which is a true Rule He that walks by a Rule denies himself and comes to the light thereof that he may be judged But he that hath no Rule but pretends only now this and then that doth seek himself and is a deceiver who shunneth the light although he may pretend never so much New-light It is a sad thing to see men whom in charity we could not but judge conscionable after great professions and pretensions to the Spirit in the beginning to fall flat and end wholly in the flesh The Lord keep us from this temptation and let him that stands take heed lest he fall I can scarce break off from these troublesome thoughts but they are not so pleasing to me that I should delight to lengthen them Therefore I shall now rest and bid you Farewell who am Edinb 19 Decem. 1648. Your Friend to serve you J. S. FINIS
against yet this was indured with much patience a long while till all hope of redresse was lost and till that packt Quorum begun to raise new Forces whereby to oppresse this kingdome and reinforce their wicked engagement a-against England For although they pretended in their Declaration to the Kingdome that their going into England was in pursuance of the ends of the Covenant to preserve Religion and keep the Vnion between the Kingdomes yet they gave then Commissions to such as had been eminently active in the Rebellion under the conduct of the late Earle of Montrose which was not only contrary to expresse Acts of Parliament but a designe utterly destructive to all the well-affected of this Kingdome by the arming of their deadly enemies against them whereupon they were constrained to looke unto themselves and stand upon their lawfull defence Thus I have briefly opened what the high tyranny oppression and usurpation of power was in a few men of this Kingdome above and against all laws civill and naturall which necessitated the honest Party to betake themselves unto the just wayes of defence which the Laws of this Land allow and the naturall rights of all men do provide for them in such cases which how they made use of and how the blessing of God hath been upon them in their legall Proceedings I shall now adde that as by what I have said you may see the disterence of Authority and Governement which is between your Parliament and our nine Committee-men So by what I shall say you may also see the way of acting which our well-affected Party here did take and how farre it differs from the way wherein your Army hath set it selfe to walk To this effect you must know that the standing Lawes of this Kingdome lately confirmed when the King was last with us in Parliament have provided a remedy for publick grievances when they are come to the extremity and otherwise fail which is this that the Subjects of this Kingdome may meet together in cases of eminent danger for the Preservation of their Religion Lawes and Liberties and the Publique good of the Kirke and State These are the words of the Law Therefore when matters were brought to this passe that I have told when many of the Committee of Estates were Prisoners in England and some that were at home did abuse their power to the destruction of this Kingdome and the disturbance of the peace and union between the two Kingdomes the question was moved whether or no the well-affected ought not to meet to provide for the safety of the Kingdome of their Lawes and Liberties seeing not only the Law did allow them so to doe in such like cases of danger but besides naturall right the Nationall Covenant did bind them expressely to assist each other in maintaining and promoting the ends of their Covenant against all lets and impediments whatsoever the answer to this question being clear and easie and the practice of meeting in such occasions being ordinary in former times besides those of the Nobility who had protested in Parliament against the engagement the Commissioners of divers Shires and Burrowes did meet also as formerly they had done in the like distresse in the yeare 1637 and 38 and 39. These Noblemen and Commissioners being thus met and accompanied with a considerable number of the Gentry and Yeomanry went towards Edinburgh the place unto which the Lord Chancellor and others of the Committee of Estates were summoned to meet by a Quorum of the Committee that were for the engagement These Lords and Commissioners therefore went as by the Law they were allowed and by their Shires and Burroughs they were directed for redresse of their Grievances The Gentry and Yeomanry went as by their Covenant they were bound to protect and defend with all their might their Commissioners in pursuance of the ends of the Covenant in case they should be assaulted or wronged by those who were in armes against them And the Noblemen went in obedience to a Summons from the Committee of Estates whereof themselves were the principall members when these came to Edinburgh at the day appointed the packt Quorum being conscious of their owne guilt durst not stay for them but speedily removed themselvs out of the way keeping neither day nor place which themselves had appointed yet this was no prejudice to the Authority residing in the Committee of Estates appointed by Parliament as if therby it were dissolved because in this Realme the power of acting as a Committee doth not at any time depend upon the precise keeping of appointments but onely upon the full number of the Quorum nor at this time was there any wanting of the number to make a Quorum although those that had abused their power were retired And because the Lord Chancellor who by vertue of his place may at any time call the Committee of Estates did call a Quorum of the Committee by which all the publique businesses have been since managed no Authority was dissolved In all this it is most evident that the well-affected party in this Kingdome did nothing presumptuously but every thing regularly and justly having for every step of their proceeding not onely the warrant of a Law but the allowed practises of former times to lead them Nor did they any Act of violence unto the Members of the Committee of Estates although they had been violently assaulted and oppressed they onely defended themselves against those that were in Armes against them They came together to consult and redresse matters out of course that the Kingdome might bee preserved from ruine and they made use of their power to none other end but to pursue and maintaine their Covenant with England in avoiding a warre with it by causing the forces raised against it to be disbanded and the Garisons detained from it to be restored and for the settlement of the Councel of State without all appearance of usurpation And least those who did retire from Edinburgh where now the Committee sits should thinke themselves or be lookt upon by others as excluded and deprived by meer force from the right which the Parliament gave them to sit in the Committee of Estates therefore a friendly Treaty was entertained with them at which upon consideration of preventing a warre with England which otherwise seemed unavoidable they were rationally induced and considerately declared themselves content to forbeare the use of their right of comming to the Committed of Estates and the exercise of all publick trust and to leave the mannaging of the publick affairs to such of the Committee as had not been accessory to the Engagement And to referre all differences to a Parliament to be called betwixt that and the 10. of Ianuary according to the power granted to the Committee of Estates by the Parliament to call a Parliament when ever they should thinke fit by which transaction you see that the just Authority of Governement is not onely regularly but voluntarily
devolved upon those that now mannage it and Providence did so order it that this transaction fell out neer about the time when the Commissioners of Parliament were to be chosen and changed of course according to the Lawes and constant Practice of this Kingdome which is every yeare at Michaelmas whether there be a Parliament to sit or not Here then you see what that proceeding is upon which the pretence of an example to be taken from us is grounded and what appearance there is 〈◊〉 any such ground here all the Practices of our well-affected Party are necessary and commendable in all circumstances and most warrantable by all the Laws of God and man in this land as well Natural as Civill and Ecclesiasticall here all particular grievances are referred by all sides to be determined by a free Parliament here all the fundamentall Laws are entirely preserved here every thing hath been carried openly and professedly from the beginning to the end above board without any subtile undermining practices and here the least offer is not made by any for the faults of some to change and alter the frame of Government in the whole By all which if you consider matters ingenuously I suppose you will say that nothing will be found in your case parallel unto ours almost in any circumstance For if matters are carried amongst you as you intimate and others informe us and as by some papers may be conjectured they are or will be shortly I dare sadly prognosticate your fate that you will have the most disorderly and confused State that is this day in the world your condition will be worse then ours for though we were sadly oppressed and wickedly involved into an unjust engagement against England to our owne confusion yet the authors of our ruine were those that had some stamp of authority lawfully conferred upon them and there were lawes knowne and wayes practiceable and Instruments in a readinesse to redresse their exorbitances but if you fall under the power of those that are so farre from having right to authority that they can have no true stamp but that of servants woe be unto you the men that did disorder us were yet men of some sence and reason although they did drive their designes to the utmost furiously but no furie is like that of a combined unreasonable multitude whose interest is to have no rule standing what your lawes are to finde a redresse or what wayes you may have practiceable and what Instruments to follow them for your good I am not capable to judge but this I may guesse that the Leaders of your Army and their Agitatâ—rs that lie under deck having gone so farre will not cease and in all likelihood will resolve to stick at nothing that may stand in their way of racing the present foundations that they may stand alone The old Maxime of Caesar is sad one Si violandum est jus Regnandi causa violandum est in caeteris Pietatem colito When men have not the feare of God before their eyes it is naturall for them to deifie themselves and whatever they imagine then subordinate to that end which they have set up to themselves and for themselves as best and supreme they thinke that only good and lawfull and every thing else abominable upon this ground they will easily dispense with themselves and their consciences to do evill that good may come of it And because the good which they seem to aime at is a Libertine not properly Government but correspondencie and equality that they will sacrifice if they be true to their Principles all matters of Rule and Order both divine and humane and all Obligations and engagements both naturall morall and conscionable unto this Idoll And in so doing they will thinke themselves not only justifyable but glorious And because the way of power is only left unto them to compasse their glorious designes they will think all lawfull what can be done that way and the more glory due to themselves the more they can crush others but I pray God these Predictions may never prove true in those men whom you know I have truly counted worthy of esteem and for whose miscarriages I should be much afflicted in many respects partly for their great and many good parts partly for their deserts in a good cause and the honour they have merited hitherto of all the well-affected thereunto and particularly of us here of late in Scotland which I would not have them stain with any disorderlinesse partly and especially lest their miscariages in this kind give the greatest wound unto Religion that can be given by any in this age This would grieve me to the heart And when I think on what I begin to see and hear from you and others and remember that they are but men as others I tremble at the presages of my grief But these sad and passionate considerations do make this Letter too big and have made me almost forget the Parallel which I was about to make or rather to leave unto you to make if any such thing can be found between the late proceedings of our Worthies here and the present undertakings of your Army there For whether your consider the persons that are Actors in the businesse on both sides here and there or the Actions which they undertake or the way and manner of their proceeding therein or the things which they professedly aim at or the means which they use to bring the same to passe I am sure there will be nothing found in our men that hath any resemblance to yours and consequently nothing that can give them an example for what they do or any ground in comparison with us to alter your State The persons who acted with authority our affairs here on the one side were a Quorum of nine Committee-men and those that have right to authority among you are none but the Parliament And what difference there is between that great body of Representatives and our Nine men judge ye On the other side here the Actors were the Peeres and Noblemen of the Kingdome joyned with the Commissioners of Shires and Burroughs whom the Covenanters protected from danger as they were bound to do And the Actors on the other side with you are the Officers Souldiers of your Army Now what difference there is in the right of the one the other to act in cases of publike grievance against those that are in Authority judge ye by what I have formerly laid concerning our Lawes and by this That no Souldiers or Army in the world can have any right or lawfull calling before God or the world either to be together or to act in any thing otherwise then as they are the Servants of those that have chosen them to be an Army which is with you the Parliament Our Noblemen Commissioners and Covenanters acted defensively according to Law for the redresse of disorders ruinous to the State but your Army is in a way of