A LETTER SENT From a Gentleman IN THE HAGUE TO A Noble and Loyal EARL IN SCOTLAND My dear Lord I Hold a very great Obligation to your fair opinion that you dare so boldly rely upon my weak uncertain and most unfixt judgment as to make it the basis and foundation whereon you have designed to build such noble resolutions as shall render you to the world in all your actions glorious This were if possible to make me more your Lordships debtor when in your high civilities and undeserved favours you have express'd your self a Tyrant and have already engaged me above my Abilities or hopes to return the least satisfaction Without your commands to which I owe a duty and shall pay a reverence I should forbear to give you the present of my slender observation and inconsiderable knowledge in which you will sooner meet a perplexity then any contentation My ready obedience shall witnesse my respects of which I can give no other account then that they are infinite My Lord The eyes of all Christendom are intent and fixt on our young and most hopefull King he is the sole and Noble object of all mens thoughts and expectations and indeed the most proper object of all Princes whose interests are so inextricably involved in his that what is his cruel and unjust Fate this day by a sudden revolution may be theirs the next Certainly It is not improvidence but necessary prudence to use their utmost endeavours and imploy all their force to secure their own when their Neighbours house is set on fire which they can no way better do then by diligently attempting to extinguish those flames that so neerly and dangerously threaten them If the People that Nobile sterquilinium by an usurped power will take into their hands the publick managing of Kingdoms I know not what Government can be either safe or lasting When Monarchy under which we have flourished and Prospered so many ages and have been happy to the wonder and envy of other Nations is supplanted and destroyed our fundamentall lawes totally subverted when Kings are fotc't to render that account of their Actions before men before their subjects which they owe to God alone and should not pay till the last Audit When they are sentenced and barbarously put to death When the encroaching sword controlls the awfull Scepter and Crowns the glory of the Kings head are with contempt and scorn basely trampled under foot Outrages so horrid that I abhor from my very soul the unworthy memory of them the onely naming of them puts me into distemper and my thoughts into a confusion I grow inraged when I consider how of the best of Kings the best of 〈◊〉 the best of Saints those Apocriphal Devils have made a cursed example without a Precedent Who-ever shall revolve and search all the Registers of Antiquity return to the first Annals and make the strictest inquiry into the Records of History shall never finde that Justice did serve for a hand maid to 〈◊〉 in a Murther so inhumane and so execrable or that her sacred 〈◊〉 and Power was ever so blasphemed that the most damnable impiety â—â—â—ginable should resume the title of Righteous Judgment And that the most just and pious King having acted nothing contrary to Law and being above Law should be made subject to that Law and suffer under a meer formality My Lord It is lost time and no benefit to repeat past and so unpleasing actions it is high time to advise what is expedient and necessary to be done and since there is no remedy no power to recall what is past presently provide against future inconveniences I shall freely communicate to your Lordship my sense and if I understand any thing aright what it is I conceive most fit and just My Lord I understand my self so well as I shall not presume to advise conscious of my own weaknesses Yet I know my self so well again as I can finde no reason why I should despair so as not to dare to inform Information is the life of Counsel Counsel the life of a Prince in the life of a Prince how many are concern'd The King hath now had time enough to consult with his Melancholy his Griefs must now yeeld place to his nobler Anger his Majesty grow austere and put on just indignation I would see those Blacks sad emblems of Sorrow chang'd into revenging Scarlet and the whole earth wearing his purple Livery dyed in the blood of persidious Rebels Yet should the inundation swell to that height which might threaten an universall Deluge it would not suffice to wash away the stains of their black and detestable Murther No sacrifice can expiate and appease the incensed Deity when innocent blood spilt on the ground can by no art be gathered up Revenge Revenge is sweet whose dayly meditation is not Revenge till he can meet an hour and opportunity to breath iâ— on those unparallel'd villains he is a Conspirator he consented and is guilty of the Kings Death and Murther How far short of his duty falls that Subject that tamely spends and wastes his strength in effeminate tears whose Masculine vigour should be exhausted in drops of blood I would choose to avenge yet I cannot choose too but bemoan so dear a losse My Lord I am confirmed in the same opinion in which your last Consultations and your Lordships most answerable reasons did irresistibly engage me I conclude from those really true premises the King must force his way to his Crowne in England through the heart of Scotland it is most just and necessary to reduce first to there due obedience that people that first and most unjustly rebelled The Question and the Difficulty will be objected which way I propose to my self but two either by force or Policie the sowing of the Lyons skin to the Foxes or the joyning of a Mans head to the neck of a horse is not a third distinct but rather a conjunction of both policy and force in one where singly they come short of there expected operation the nimblenesse and dexterity of the one quickens and spirits the powers of the other Policy and reason serve for a bridle to restraine and curbe Force when it grows too refractory and head-strong If Policy prevailes in the purposes of the King policy is a kind of beating the Bush while the Birds fly away and escape for they are too old to be caught with Chaffe and too strong to be held with lymetwigs The King must then send an addresse to the House of Parliament that defiled Cage of all manner of unclean fowles and if he will ever rightly understand the true state of that Kingdome he must imploy men able and faithfull of his owne I remember well what I heard long since the Earle of Dorset tell the late King of ever blessed Memory that had he sent an Englishman into Scotland to negotiate his affaires there when he commanded the then Marquis of Hamilton he had perfectly understood
the reall condition of that Kingdome and happily prevented the ensuing calamities of all If not impossible it is very improbable that ever the King shall come to a full knowledge of Scotland while he imployes Scotchmen into there native country where there proper and indeed all there interest lyes Which very few men doe and those find it very hard too to divest themselves of their own interests and lay them aside There Allyes there Estates there Friends there one thing or another abates there Zeale to his Majesties service what earnestnes soever they put on for a disguise But this is that which most dwels with me I am so blind I cannot see how it is safe for the King to trust men that are privy to his designs here and have so great relation to Scotland whither or no for fall back fall edge they will provide for their own preservation will not they which hitherto hath been constantly practised conceale something from both that neither the King nor his Subjects of Scotland shall come to a right understanding of each other they themselves shuffling and dealing will know how the Cards goe and will suit their game accordingly This benefit the King will receive by imploying English He shall be certaine to know faithfully what he must trust to and in extremities it is a singular good to know the worst of ills Which way soever his Majesties Counsell shall incline the sending to them will be no Remora to his other resolutions for he may and must prepare for action howsoever If the King resolve as I know not how he better can to make use of his power and force them to the obedience from which they are fain My Lord you understand well who must doe his businesse and beate their Apostacy into duty and performances not they who Traiterously presumed to take the Crown from hiâ— Maâ—esties head and Rebelliously entrencht on his Sacred authority but those who would have set and held it on Not they who to prosecute I know not what private sinister and unhansome ends publikely repented of having served the last Sainted King of Sacred memory in the just preservation of his Royall Person and duest Prerogatives not they who in his Majesties greatest exgencies and necessities not only deserted his imployments but as if that had not been enough entered into a confederacy with his severest and most Barbarous enemies Not they who to show their power in one kingdome weakened and ensebled the strength of two and empoverished the Kings friends to enrich his enemies Not they who led out Freemen in Scotland to render them Prisoners in Englaâ—d and slaves to Forraign Countries I have no Fâ—â—th â—n Covenants nor will I ever more trust the Oaths of perfidious and Perjurd meâ— I will â—epose more confidence in one excommunicated Christian then in a legion of Heathnish Covenanters Till this time I never thought excommunication a blessing When Allegiance is there crime and obedience the cause why they are excluded the Pale of there reformed Church I shall look and hope for salvation without it and a little doubt theirs that are within Let me live and dye with those noble Soules that to save their honors have with those bad bold men lost there Titles They are rich and happy though robd of all it was possible to take from them They are honorable although degraded and have good right to there Coates and Honors what usurping Covenanter soever and unjust pretender swell in the borrowed robes of their untainted Titles My Lord iâ— did not a little please me after their severall mockfasts in Scotland to see the very common people as if they were undeceived entertain the Covenant with scorn and laughter in the very Churches so ridiculous and horrid a thing did it seem to them for any to offer that again which they had broke the first time and intended nothing lesse then to keep the second I pitty there present and sad condition which comming but lately from thence I cannot so soon forget which to repaire I am confident they would now prefer the Kings interest to any whatsoever My Lord Your Lordship knows that I know their severall Factions and their Fractions Kind Heaven multiply their divisions Divide impera was said of old and I could wish upon as good grounds the Heads of those Factions were more heartily together by the Ears that they were at that distance I could from my heart wish their heads from their shoulders Till some of their heads shall be divided from their bodies it will be hard to divide the body of that Kingdom from those Heads I fear Combination and suspect Conspiracies amongst those Covenanters It was much the discourse before I left those parts there had been meetings in the night the aptest season for dark intentions between the greatest seeming adversaries and irreconcileable Let them designe in Hollowest Caverns of the Earth and plot in deapest Hell from whence they borrow there black Counsels whose Actions will not indure the light whose professions differ from their Actions who draw neer to the King with their lips when their hearts are far from him I dread that Monster worse then the Night-mare which these Nocturnae lucubrationes valde pâ—riculosiores will in time if not prevented unseasonably produce when they blush not to fit in Counsell by night that are ashamed to be seen converse in the day when the Sun would blush to discover them together My Lord Were it not strange for me to tell and you to beleeve that yet the Covenant is urged to the King That fatall Covenant which his Glorious Father of ever blessed Memory with honour unexampled and a conscience inviolable rejected and contemned Away with the Covenant that meer stalking Horse trained up to betray and make a prey of poor innoeent and unwary simplicity What vizard must they put on what confident face that offer to the King or expect he should keep what they themselves have most wilfully violated I blush for them that they are no whit out of countenance to present so unsavory a dish to his Princely Pallate of which many having furfetted they disgorged it before and have not themselves tasted in the second course who having been in the unlawfull the dismall engagement are debarred from participating without publik repentance made Well may they give satisfaction to there Kirke and retake that pretious morsell the Covenant it self can give none to the King when he shall consider the ruins of his Kingdoms reflect on the losse of his Crown and meditate on the Barbarous murther of his innocent Father sadly occasioned by their damnable league and cursed Covenant against which he is neither Loyall nor Religious that enters not his protestation My Lord their remains one thing I shal acquaint your Lordsh with which seâ—iâ—usly I grieve to write there are who whisper unprofitable dangerous delays in the Kings care insinuating what a longer time may bring forth I should be
bloudthirsty Murtherers have opposd themselves and taken counsell together will not be severely avenged of them for the loud crying bloud of there Anointed When with one eye I look down on there Diabolicall proceedings against so pure an innocence my other exalted reguards just Heaven that hath an eye to them sees all there follies and shall have them in derision I cannot but smile when I seriously consider he that sitteth in the Heavens shall laugh at their Calamity and mock when there fenres shall invade them like a furious and Impetuous Tempest and there destruction violently swallow them up like a whilewind When but in equall ballance I weigh the actions of these cursed Pagans I find no paralell but the Jews crucifying our Saviour There was Christ sold and betrayd by one of his Disciples one yet sate at table with him here his Anointed is bought sold and betrayed by his followers whom he had embosomed betrayd by those that had fed at his table had eaten there daily bread at his bounty warmed them at his fires made hey in the sunshine of his favors and had sheltered themselves from the violence of oppressors under the shadow of his Kingly protection there was Christ betrayd by one of his counsell Here was one unus instar omnium betrayd by many of his privy Counsell The Band the Captains and Officers of the Jews came forth to take Christ as a thiefe with flave and swords They hurry him from place to place How often have the Captains Officers and theeves of this cursed Band come out against King Coarles the First Charles the Great the Good the First Great Good King three Kingdomes were alone most happy in They came not only with staves and swords But fire bullets and what ever deadly engines of War could promise them or procure his unhappy Death From how many severall Prisons did they convey him Changing only the Dungeon not his bad condition while he himself stood constant to his own excelling goodnes If they took often Counsell how they might slay our Saviour preaching in the temple they have as often meditated his fall and murther praying in his chamber While the fall of a roof must lay a foundation for his ruine and death There was innocence slandered and accused by falf witnesses For every one our Saviour had our King had ten thousand At last two falfe witnesses rose up but two would suffice a bloudy Priest and a thirsting Multitude But how in inumerable swarms did they rise against our dread Soveraigne every one fixing and leaving a poysonous and deadly sting behind The Jews reviled mocked Christ and spit in his face what unheard of usage did the King groan under what horrid abuses contumelies reproaches base aspersions were heaped on him by these ungentile Devils yet he opened not his mouth There were souldiers too that Gaped on him and spit on his Majesties Face Those men accused falsly Jesus the Son of God of Blasphemy See here a God among the Sons of men Blasphemed by fals Accusers His sacred Name blasted with disdainfull titles of tyrant yet never King more mercifull more just Traytor yet no Subject and faithfull to his God He never betrayed the trust received from him Murtherer Yet who can lay innocent bloud to his charge The souldiers among the Jews cast lots for his Garments It was all our Saviour had the Jewish Parliament and the Pagan Army have divided the spoyl and amongst themselves shared his royall inheritance with the fat of the land And now there remains nothing worse to be done then the bringing of our Savior to the crosse and our Soveraign to the Block whither he bore the crosse of his Savior There is a souldier ready with a spear to pierce his sides here stand souldiers ready with an Axe to strike of his head one fatall and cursed blow ends both there lives â—e joy in the former it was happy for us grieve and mourn in this latter it ws ill for us though for him happy Christ sits at the right hand of the Father certainly Charls sits at the right hand of the Son and both shall come to judge the Quick and the Dead If these men prosper and carry it to there Graves I shall renounce one Article of my Faith There crimes are so new so horrid and so great there can be nothing added to encrease there number or power or render them to the world more odious and contemptible I trust to see them like the Jewes scâ—ttered and disperst and foorer expect the calling of the Jewes then the conversion of these sinners I looke upon them as certainely they are Antichrist and daily pray for there suddaine downefall I account the Jewes lesse Guilty then they while they crucified our Saviour not knowing he was the Lord of life Or acknowledging him there King By how many oaths of Allegiance Adamantine covenants in which they had desperately sworne and protestations and vows were they indissolubly tyed to him aâ— there Lord and King Yet they have put him to death and of all then Oaths and damned Covenants kept but that one particular of making him a glorious King My Lord Pardon me that I forget my self and from a Souldier I turn a Preacher it is a liberty that carries with it a Pass-port in the Age we live in I know better to handle my Armes then a Text which were I to analize the Campane should afford a Pulpit Rebells be the auditors which I would have preach and thunder'd into such a Feare and trembling they should not to have patience to stay out half the Sermon which should be a lecture of Anatomie delivered in bullets Fire and sword My Lord there is one thing which your Lordship must pardon me it is this tedious call it what you please worke of superrogation and as little meritorious I promised a letter and it is swolne into a Pamphlet had it been more neately drest it might have found the easier excuse If from the result of so uneven so disproportioned judgement you can collect the least satisfaction I shall pardon my selfe in that I have been the lesse troublesome and adde no more then that there is not a person living more My Lord Your Lordships faithfull and Affectionate Servant R.G.