AN English Translation OF THE Scottish Declaration AGAINST JAMES GRAHAM ALIAS Marquess of Montrosse Wherein many things are set Right between the Kingdom of Scotland and Commonwealth of England With many Observable Passages concerning the Transactions with the late King and their now Declared King PROV 12.6 The words of the wicked are to lye in wait for blood but the mouth of the upright shall deliver them LONDON Printed by John Macock for Francis Tyton and are to be sold at his shop at the sign of the three daggers neer the inner Temple in Fleetstreet 1650. AN English Translation OF THE Scottish Declaration Against James Graham alias Marquess of Montrosse WEre it not that the Glory and Honor of the Common-wealth of England and these great Transactions of Divine Wisdom and Providence are more principally besmeared in this Declaration then the person or party of Montrosse I should soon consent with them in the beginning of that Paper That as they think others may well wonder they should take pains to answer him so much more that any one should undertake to vindicate or apologise for his person or Papers He with the rest of his party can never be too much abominated when Religion and true Liberties are mentioned being the most desperate engaged Instruments of carrying on the design of misery to the three Nations But seeing the whole strain and scope of that Declaration is to reflect on the Proceedings of the Parliament of England who are the true and lawful Heirs and Successors of the Mercies and Providences of God to this Nation and not so much against Montrosse and the Royal Party though they make his Paper the occasion of the Discourse I shall take liberty with a serious wariness of giving any offence to the honest and godly party in Scotland to set some things right in that Declaration and vindicate the late honest and just Proceedings of our Parliament to maintain yet the Vnion between us and our Brethren of Scotland almost quite broken by the Malignant Interest in that Nation that while we keep evening reckoning we may be long friends and that in their excusing themselves they may not so accuse us before our and their Enemies and so be devoured by them both together But before I come to the Declaration it self I cannot pass by some things which pass up and down less discernable which are matter of the greatest wonderment unto rational and sober men 1. That the heighth of their Zeal and Indignation should be vented on Montrosse calling him Excommunicated Traytor That viperous Brood of Satan c. and yet still keep up their esteem of the late King and their calling him His sacred Majesty with many such clawing expressions abhorring the least thought of dishonor to him when Montrosse only acted as his Servant and all that ever he did in the strength of that Commission and Authority he received both from the Father and the Son Let it be considered for what is Montrosse proclaimed Traytor by the Committee of Estates He must either be a Traytor to the King or the Kingdom to the King he was not for he acted by his Commands according to his will It must be then against the Kingdom and then much more is the King the Traytor who created him to that work if that Rule in Logick be true Quod efficit tale est magis tale though it is true the Instrument is not excused for the principal Agent yet the principal Agent is most to blame Montrosse was but a puny Agent to other great Traytors that the King made who hath made thousands in England Scotland and Ireland in that sence and yet he himself must not so much as be be thought on in such a capacity Had Montrosse never acted King Charls would have made another Traytor and when Montrosse was supprest and gone out of the Kingdom and all the Traytors in both Nations under hatches yet we found where the root of our misery lay and were put to it and pusled more by the grand Traytors own person then by all his Army and Royal Instruments besides God himself hath given out a Statute Law from Heaven not to respect the persons of men in Judgment and it 's Justice and Equity to lay the saddle on the right horse yea the King himself was to be commended for his plain actings according to his principles and apprehensions who in the beginning of this War thought it not only fit to proclaim the Earl of Essex and his Army Traytors but both Houses of Parliament as those that gave him the only Commission and Power to that work And it may well be wondered that the Scots who were wont to be men plain and broad enough in their expressions when they will and have done ordinarily to our Parliament and many honest and godly men should now complement so grosly as to call the Servant Traytor and the Master under whose power he acts sacred and spotless But if the man such blame must have What 's due to th' Master of the knave Do the Committee of Estates mean to revive that old Maxime in the the end of the War that we fought against in the beginning That the King can do no wrong That he is not accountable to any but God and so incapable of any Charge Either lower Monarchy in your thoughts and pretences to it or never solely tax these gallant and stout spirits who act under it out of the true sence of what you in words pretend and who have wanted nothing to make them fully honorable but a good Cause and Principle It cannot choose but be a double grief to them that they should be condemned for doing their duty to him who is uncapable of guilt in commanding and that they should have not only part of the misery but the whole guilt who were but Instruments and he free that is the Efficient as if the sword should be arraigned for Treason that kil'd the man and the person that struck the blow discharged If England had not left off that method of Courtship and Complement we had been as far to seek of our just Liberties after the beheading of these Traytors which were thought most notorious as we were at first and let Scotland look unto it if they make not better distinctions they may find other kind of Traytors more dangerous then Montrosse shortly entertained in Scotland with joy and acclamations I have been the longer on this observation to learn the Committee of Estates to speak plain English betimes lest they get that English Tyranny that we have happily and hopefully freed our selves from and we be troubled with a Scottish War they are a little longer learning this lessen then we are being yet fain implicitely to hold forth what we practise but must come to it shortly when some vails are off and they see both root and branch together among them only it is pity that these which have been first in the War should be last
distinction which doubtless was proper and rational enough of a politick and a personal capacity of the King the one never dyed and was in the supream Judicature the Parliament though the person was absent who was but a publique Officer of that power and therefore answered We fought not against his legal capacity but his personal commanding and acting those things which were contrary to Law and the good of the Kingdoms Let us but improve this distinction to what is done in the execution of the late King If there may be a separation between the King and his Power and Office and so he may be fought against and all weapons of death taken up to oppose him why is it more unlawful to separate his Head from his Body by the same distinction Fâ—r what is his Person when you abstract his Power or where will you find it but among the common rabble of mankind Let Charls Stuart be considered without his publike capacity and what will become of then name King All the while you fight against his personal capacity which is but as Charls Stuart you fight against but an ordinary and common man for it 's the 〈◊〉 feare of him with such an office that maâ—…es him in more then 〈◊〉 â—â—inâ—ry condition The same Objectiâ—ns of the Royal 〈◊〉 wil prove 〈◊〉 be as â—oâ—e◠〈…〉 up 〈…〉 him as taking away his life for the same and farther reasons for they rightly say as you cannot consider Kingly power without a person in whom it is invested but in a metaphisicall abstraction so neither can you act against the person without considering of him as one without the power and so as a private man if our Brethren can maintain the first and hold it lawfull upon ill government or tyranny to separate the person and the office we shall easily maintain the last when he is publikely devested of all and reduced to a common condition to use him as an ordinary person in case of felony and treason for his publike capacity was at Westminster when his person was at Oxford when we besieged him and fought against him so the same capacity was at Westminster when his body was on the Scaffold at White-Hall paying unto Justice for his mis-government and tyranny and we beheaded him as a Tyrant not as a King Let our brethren find out some new distinctions or els we are as far from being murtherers as they from being Traytors and Rebells which are much of kin together But farther as it is unquestionably lawfull on serious and reall grounds to depose and do justice on Kings and Princes as other Magistrates so never was there a greater and more universal concurrence of all reasons and circumstances and a greater harmony of the Laws of nature reason prudence and necessity to warrant any Act then was found and may be discerned in that Act of Justice on the late King it will be too large to repeat let us onely rub up our memory and wipe our eyes and we may soon glance at that which may easily satisfie us First Let us but consider the beginning of the actions and tyranny of that person in Scotland the inhumane promotion of that bloudy massacre in Ireland which unto this day cannot choose but make a trembling in the souls and bodies of any tender heart which the Scots themselves freely charge him with in the beginning of their Declaration the grosse and sad oppressions in England both in conscience and the estates of most of this poor Nation sadly being since set forth that the Parliament of both Nations in the most mature and serious Counsells thought no way fit to remedy the three Nations but to assist one another in Arms against him who had left the protection of his people withdrew from his Parliament and like a Butcher rather then a Prince of bowells and affection raiseth Armies in every part of the Nation of the most desperate Malignant and Popish spirits to destroy and ruine the Parliaments of both Nations and after a seven years war with the expence of an unspeakable treasure of riches and blood the most precious blood of thousands of Protestants yea Saints God having given us victory over his Armies and Forces as a just determination of the cause we appeal'd to him to vindicate yet as a man of blood while all essaies and meanswere using for peace by his instrument and commissions raiseth a second war in both Nations as if the Nation had not drunk deep enough of that sad cup and without any remorse gives new Commission to Ormond to be sure to make peace with the Irish Rebells on any terms and conditions though not one Proposition for the good of this Nation could be heartily consented unto by him and yet because we would try all means followed him up and down with Propositions sending Commissioners sometimes two hundred miles sometimes a hundred all to beg his assent to what we had fought for crouching and cringing as if we were still his slaves and he had regain'd his negative vote by our victories and yet no one Propositition of any concernment after all reiterated essaies that might secure us in our liberties or Religion granted but apparently found all the waies used for to gaine him were turn'd into designes of dangerous consequence against this Nation especially neither in his most retired and solitary condition could any perceive the least sense of remorse from him for all the blood shed in the three Nations delighting commonly in private to discourse of the wars and how many were slain and laughing at every fatall expression which every Christian heart can never sensibly enough lament and yet this man must be untouch't and all the blood as utterly forgotten as it was freely and violently spilt on the ground and thought sufficiently satisfied for if he would but set his hand to a few Propositions though loathing it in his heart and the same things wee proposed in the beginning of the war and yet we could not obtain that favour from him freely and with sense to grant those just desires we had got by the blood of our friends and the overthrow of all his Armies Let the Committee of Estates speak from their consciences and hearken to the secret whisperings of their own spirits and tell us plainly whether ever there was any hope of ever setling Reformation and liberty by that person whether such crimes found in any one person on earth were not meritorious of the utmost punishment or whether divine Justice and vengeance would not have followed this Nation had we spared that persons life with the carelesse oblivion of all that innocent blood shed meerly by his Commission and for his will and doubtlesse had not God raised up the spirits of a remnant to doe Justice in so publique and glorious a manner and so have prevented Gods judgment on us the cry of blood was so loud in Gods ears that God would stretch forth some immediate hand and have done
it himself with terrour and amazement to all the Nations And had there been any probable hope of better things from him yet the good that we should have got by him would be nothing to the weight of blood that would lie on this Nation unsatisfied for to procure judgements But what hope was there was his constitution or affections either to Episcopacy or Malignancy altered or abated had he any lower thought of himself and Prerogative was not the Queen as nearly related to him as ever did he not as much hate the Covenant as ever did he want any thing but power and oportunity to react his old principles Let us not trifle in these serious concernments politicall complements will not save Kingdoms the blood-thirsty man shall not live out half his daies saith holy Writ neither is it murther 〈◊〉 execute the murtherer but reason and justice there is no reason in nature or divinity that tells us that Kings are of such pure and refined flesh that they must in no cause be let blood what hath been done by the Parliament of England on that man of blood Heaven and Earth hath and will witnesse unto and vve doubt not novv justice is done though it should be but from a rais'd zeale as Phineas act vvas yet the person being the deserving subject of it the plague shall be staid And yet however we have all this reason and necessity for that Act with many eminent providences of God to shew concurring with and following it yet we free our Brethren from the guilt of the blood and wish heartily that they may be as free from the consequences of their politike compliances with the late King and his Son as we are before God of the crime and fault of that honourably memorable Act they have if they would speak out more reason to thank these instruments then charge them who have cut off the visible root of their and our miseries which neither they nor we know how to make a good use of and be true to our Covenant and consciences but though the root be cut down as rotten they intend to preserve the most naturall branch to graffe on the old stock of Malignancy that what the one could not do the other may if possible effect But let things be but accounted right was it not better to do an Act of Iustice at once in taking away the Kings life then to have left him dead while he lived and to have crucified him all dayes of his life with Papers and Pamphlets with reproaches and continuall representations of his unworthy and bloody actions and to have wish'd the same end yea onely to have let him live to see his misery and to have beheld those actings which he accounted as the greatest and highest affronts and worse then death it would be a great controversie to determine whether the King thought his imprisonment and restraint more infamous and cruell or his death if in the first the hope of an oportunity of revenge did not refresh and comfort him certainly it must needs be more honest and just before God and man for wicked and notorious acts to cut him off from his Kingdome then by degrees to complement him out of it and let him live to see it in the one shines justice in the other basenesse and deceit Had he reigned with all the qualifications and limitations we could for the present have put on his Government we had been ruined and had he not reign'd we had let him see his best self dead as a King before he died as a man which is a double death and so had as it were strangled him a more ignoble death then beheading The Committee of Estates might well remember on whom both their Kirk and State and our Parliament did often on more then shrewd suppositions lay the death of King James the losse of Rochell c. and with one voice ye at the last personall Treaty in the Isle of Wight did law the whole weight and charge of all the blood spilt in the three Nations directly on the Kings head and either it must lie on him or both Nations and was it fit in conscience that such a head should stand on his body which was full of so much innocent blood let justice and reason blush and Traytors and Murtherers Parricides and Patricides put on white garments and rejoyce as innocent ones if this man should escape the hands of justice and punishment Yea let Montrosse himself whom the Kirk calls a monster of men a child of the Devill clap hands and be canoniz'd for a Saint who rid but post as it were and for a little time through Scotland destroying and murthering in comparison of the late Charles Stuart who hath been the maine and only cause of the death of thousands shall I say millions of men ever since his reigne in England Scotland France and Ireland Nature Reason Religion did cry loud for vengeance and I had almost said and I may speak it without passion God himself had eclipsed yea lost the brightest beam of his divine justice that ever shined on this lower world if he had not some way or other brought that person to some eminent and preternaturall punishment and that way which God acted by was the most eminent and glorious But enough of this they are satisfied and so are we and if honest and just actings now follow we shall never have cause to repent of that act The last thing he taxeth them withall is that they have declared his Son King with proviso's robbing him of all right c. I shall say little against the justnesse of that proceeding if they will have a King they had need provide first for themselves yet there is much which may be objected and to speak truth as what ever they may expect from their new King will be but out of designe granted and untill he get the Kingdome so their actings seem to be but a bespeaking of a refusall and though the things they propound be never so necessary and just yet he hath his negative voice and power to deny them and yet be their King notwithstanding It had been a more faire way and lesse subject to misprision of deceit to have sent their conditions first e're they proclaimed him King and so to have let him know he injoyes not the Kingdome by succession but by election and compact on such conditions rather then first to declare him King give him full right and then put conditions without which he must not expect to be King that his Kingly right and power is involved in their conditions not in any naturall right of succession or heirship and as much as to tell him plainly you have no right nor title to the Kingdome of Scotland without you grant these terms which we thinkâ—â—… and though we have proclaimed you King will not own you as a King but really and implicitely depose you and so found your power onely in election and
specially aimed at and their transactions inserted in the same Kalender but it 's well they cannot call them Traytors we may possibly e're long see what new names we shall injoy when Charles Stuart and Montrosse shall both joyn together against the honest party of Scotland and when they have got a King who will be his favourites in Scotland I pray that the same names be not justly retorted on themselves by that party which they are faine now to court with expressions of disgrace on their best friends But to the Declaration it self and the maine things Montrosse layes as a charge on them which they strive to free themselves from I shall follow their own method and give them their due in what ever is just and right and excuse them wherein they do not intangle themselves The first thing Montrosse taxes them withall to which they reply is for hatching a Rebellion in their own Kingdome with promoting the like in England because they are both of the same nature or as the end and the means the same Reply wil salve both I need to comment little on this but to improve it on the same grounds and reasons only this is worthy to be observed that what we account our duty and safety they account rebellion unto this day that which the Committee calls their just defence as they do well expresse it in the second page Did we offer to stir untill Religion and Justice the main pillars of Government were shaken and neere to be overturned and shall the standing upon our defence for the preservation of our Religion and Liberties be accounted Rebellion You see how the just and righteous grounds of your proceedings are interpreted and that which you think honesty is still called rebellion though but in the first motions of it much more in the propagated necessary actings of that principle and you now see what ever glosse is put upon your transactions you shall be no more free of Rebellion then England but rather be accounted the first and principall powers in all the rest of the acts though done by us and it 's well you and we have a clear conscience for else we shall not want Records and Remembrancers of our former actings though never so honest and necessitous and if you think it 's only Montrosse's malice you are as much mistaken in politike as he was in legall and just actings he dare speak nothing but what the King his Master first dictates if you compare the Kings Pourtraicture in his last Book and his thoughts of your Nation there with his practises to you you will not find it a delusion And if your new King did not account you Rebells he would soon have complied with you his principles leading him to a union with any party but those that mean to make Religion and Liberty their interest and whereas you call Montrosse Traytor and he calls you Rebells who shall decide the Controversie between you when your King himselfe thinks the same and you in your consciences think him a Traytor And hath not Montrosse more ground as to the world to call you Rebells who will owne not only the same power but the same persons who have acted point-blank against what you call Justice then you to call him Traytor who acts though it may be more violently under that power you account sacred cannot live without that person that he serves as his Soveraigne We have found the misery of dawbing with the King we have changed oftentimes not onely our motions but many times principles to win and gain him but he never charged his but alwayes gained by our retreats and what ever plea we or our Brethren may have for the first ground of our actings it 's otherwise nay quite contrary apprehended by the King and his Party and to those that know what nature is or education they can easily judge how hard it is to change the first idaea and impression of things especially when it is accompanied with glorious Prerogatives and apprehensions of self-advantage and in royall brests it 's commonly seen that injuries and affronts are written as in Marble while respects and kindnesses are thought due and of necessity to be successive and onely valid hic nunc according to an immediate circumstance and present conveniency and if they will abstract that which they call policy and a little while look into the nature of things they shall soon find that there is not a motion of the hearts either of the King of Malignants or the Malignants themselves changed from what their first apprehension onely they are fain thorough providence and design to complement with us and then as our Brethren too grossely do at present with them untill they get as the Scots say to be the prevailing party but I know they are sensible enough of theafter-reckoning notwithstanding they sum up at present And therefore in vindication of themselves and us they honestly and ingeniously state the first grounds of the quarrell both in England and Scotland which is well done and it were to be wisht that it were imprinted on all our hearts in both Nations with a point of a diamond and it had been happy these virgin and untainted principles had been alwaies kept unto in Scotland They tell us p. 3. that when they were living quietly and peaceably a new Service Book was imposed on them to introduce Popery c. and relate the Kings invasions of them for but refusing it against their consciences charge him with breach of trust after Articles given And as to their conjunction with England as their assistance was desired so they saw further cause and reason then formerly p. 3. they notably expresse the pranks of the King and his adherents not staying in Scotland but traversing Ireland in a bloody Rebellion against thousands of Protestants who had the Kings Commission and with whom he afterwards made an Agreement rather then submit to any just condescentions of the Parliament and Protestants of England and Scotland though he had declared them formerly Traytors for their bloody massacres having also entrusted divers Popish Commanders in his Armies contrary to his first Declarations that no Papist should be in armes or about his person Upon these and such like reasons they and we joyned together in Covenant To which we may add his perfidious Treatings with us oftentimes especially at Brainford his hatred of the Covenant his impenitency continued actings in a second warre more dangerous then the former with a thousand more desperate transactions both by himself and Son and all these propagated and continued without any hope of remedy but by losing all the blood and expence of an eight yeares warres with danger and hazzard at the best for the future All these are sufficient grounds for honest men to look to themselves at first and defend themselves in the beginning and much more to provide for themselves at last Onely the misery is in the use and
application The Scots can find enough to vindicate themselves from rebellion at the first of these motions and yet can willingly taxe us at the end for doing the same things They can justly but upon a thought of feare and danger in some unfit overtures find ground to make use of the sword to defend themselves and cut off their enemies in generall and yet when the same things come to be heightened and break out in a greater flame and continued without hope of redresse they will condemn us for striking the last blow upon the same and greater grounds when they began the first as if the continuation of the same cause more desperately should not produce more notable effects or that the modest and secret essayes of things should bee more desperate then the strenuous propagation and prosecution of them and that aggravated and multiplied acts of tyranny should be more veniall then bare attempts which may be easily reformed by maturer counsell If the Kingdom of Scotland and England had sufficient ground to take up armes against the King at first when the sparks were but as under ashes much more ground had England when the flame was not onely broken out but daily fed and increased to make use of these armes to extinguish the chief Incendiary But conscience it seems made the principle and policy and design the application If they justifie the beginning of the work we may well the end of it on the same yea more absolute and necessitous grounds However Montrosse is deceived in both yet we should not put arguments into his hand by parting the actions which have been correspondent to the same principle Yet this is the happinesse of England thorough mercy that our Brethren shall have the scandall or rather glory of the beginning of the warre and we of the end yet they will be as much and more hated for what they acted first then we for what we have done at last having improved both their principles and our own together with the Kings tyrannicall power to our own safety and his deserved ruine while they complementing but with a name which they will find to be as most insnaring so like the name of the Beast which hath a mystery of deceipt wrapt up in it are not only like to be where they were but in a far worse condition then ever Scotland was in if God suffer but that young Spark to King it among them But to come to his more speciall charges which p. 4. they call his last and main forgeries they are reduced unto three heads 1. That his late Majesty being redacted to think on extreme courses did ingage us by a Treaty and having got all assurance from us did cast himself into the hands of our Army and that we contrary to all faith and paction sold our Soveraigne 2. That they now complotted his destruction and begin on the same score with his Son declaring him King with proviso's c. Of all these charges they say there is not one word true But that his late Majesty was redacted to an extreme course It were wel first to consider whether in a true sense these are charges worth the observing or answering that is first whether the delivery up of the King to the Parliament of England when in England notwithstanding any private treaty or particular promise of any Officers were not just and their duty 2. Whether the taking away by death such an implacable and gangren'd person were any complotting his destruction but a legall execution of justice and whether the declaring his Son King with proviso's be not just and fit no King being fit to reigne but he that meanes to compact for the safety and liberty of that Kingdome he is called to exercise that Office in But seeing the Committee take all these as hainous and blasphemous charges on them I shall give the reader a particular account of each of them not to confirm Montrosses paper but to cleer some things concerning our selves and them and let truth and reason reigne In vindication of themselves from the first they spend severall pages and strive to give a narrative of all proceedings in the Army and Parliament both in England and Scotland from the time of his coming in to their Army in the moneth of May 1646. unto May 1647. with the many Declarations both of the King and their Parliament concerning the end of his coming in to them which I am loath to repeat least I give too much offence to our Brother or puzzle the Reader with transcribing onely give in what I know concerning the truth of the charge and meet with some extravagancies in their Narrative For the first Though I hate the charge as it comes out of Montrosse's mouth and under so unclean a hand yet for truths sake and seeing they are not content to free themselves but to charge us and mixe therewith many ominous reflections on this Nation I shall present something more then probable that may make the penners of that Declaration think that though they have engrost the Prerogative of imposing names yet they have not the Soveraignty of truth in all they write They say p. 5. that after many essaies for London and the Sea he came to the Scots Army without acquainting those that had the trust and the charge of the Army and ask I hope to be resolv'd where was there any time or place for a Treaty here and what were those assurances that were given Let it be but asked the Committee whether Montrill the French Agent was not in the Scots quarters at Southwel and Hudson sent many times and what they did there and the question will soon be resolv'd the truth is as Hudson himself related and profest to some of honesty and integrity that the King emploied Montrill for that end and often sent Hudson to treat about his coming in who came often unto three of the Lords I will forbear to name them for his honour sake and propounded three Propositions concerning the Kings security and other things which he prest them to signe but they refused to give any thing under their hands least it should be discovered but that it should be as truly performed as if they had done it at which Hudson profest that he would not trust them with words seeing they had deceived the King so often before and that he would never perswade his Majesty without some paper security and confirmation under their hands but their particular Engagements were at last accepted thorough the mediation and assurance of Montrill and the General moreover said that he would willingly go on his knees to meet them these things were the profest relation of Hudsons own mouth now what the capitulations were and how far security was given I will not determin but the world may judge they were not in a dream as they professe in their paper to the Parliament immediately on his coming into them and that they need not be so absolute in
their challenges of any one to produce any testimony or demonstration for any such overture Hudson very well knew what he came at Southwell for and what he did there and this is faithfully his account from his own mouth with many more circumstances of a strange nature which out of love and tendernesse I omit Yea Hudson would often say when he heard that they denied any such knowledge with much vehemency that they grossely lied I shall relate but one story more which makes it out of doubt and it is a relation I heard with my own ears given in upon Oath by one that had relation to the Bed-chamber viz. that one night at New-castle the late King coming out into the presence Chamber to supper not very well pleased at something concerning the Scots dealing with him was reading in the window a Pamphlet that came out about that time entituled A game at Scotch and English wherein many particulars were discovered about the conveighing away of Ashburnham and Hudson and something about his coming in at Southwell to the Scots Army at which he was much pleased and said they were most truths He turns about to Sir James Lumsdale then Governor of New-castle who stood by with severall Lords and saith to him you did not know of the conveighing away of these two and he answered no if it like your Majesty he turnes to one of the Lords I take it it was the Lord Dumferlin no nor you did not know saith he of my coming in to your Army at Southwell and he answered no he did not the King after his wonted manner swore thus by God but you did I am sorry I should swear such an Oath again in print but it 's lawfull because it 's for the publique deciding a controversie and confirmation of truth that you have two Oaths if the world will believe the Kings Oath who knew well enough what was done concerning himself and another Oath confirming that he heard him swear thus But I leave it to the judicious Reader to consider I believe it was done but by some particular persons and very privately that the Parliament of Scotland knew it not and the fair delivery of him with their quiet march out of England is sufficient satisfaction to us and to acquit them for that private miscarriage I wish they had been as faithfull at the Isle of Wight as they were with him then and that they may come as fairly and honestly off from this King at Breda as they did from his Father at New-castle Onely I cannot but observe one passage p. 13. where though we and all honest men will joyn issue with the Committee that none can imagine they sold the King for money but did their duty in delivering him up to the Parliament yet I wonder they make the demonstration of it to be that they onely got two hundred thousand pounds of the Arrears due unto them for a very laborious service and as a part of the great expences they had been at by their expedition into England for the ends of the Covenant two hundred thousand pounds is not so small a sum to be given for Arrears especially if they considered the vast expences England had been at first and last and what great sums of money they received at severall times from England besides the Assessement of the four Northern Counties and free-quarter which came to farre more as it was audited by the Parliament then the Scots pay and arrears came unto especially if we consider what two hundred thousand pound sterling is accounted in the Kingdom of Scotland but most especially seeing it was for the ends of the Covenant and that we must pay them for doing their duty and that in so great sums and be slighted for our love is strange we could give our brethren 300000. l. for but beginning to resist Tyranny though principally relating to themselves and think nothing of it and since for but assisting in a cause of common concernment wherein they were equally engaged with us and for following the ends of the Covenant they have had first and last viis modis above a million of money in England and yet they go about to lesson our favours and heighten their owne Engagements and services for the Covenant though all upon our score but these things are slips and must be past by as lesser Errataes that doe not spoile the sense I onely adde this that never had Scotland so much of Englands wealth and treasure in such round sums in all the Reigns of the Kings either of England or Scotland as they have had from this Parliament and it 's bad parting with such friends The second Charge is That they have complotted the late Kings destruction to wipe of which aspersion they labour as in the fire and I shall freely acquit them only because they think it a Charge of so hainous a nature to have any hand in that legal act of Justice on him and insinuaâ—e the guilt of it on us I must crave leave to vindicate that act as noâ— only most necessary but just and an act of the most celestial and divine disposal and import as any civil act done in England since its first constitution For the lawfulness of bringing Kings to Iustice and to condemn them if they be found Tyrants it s not so much as questioned in politick Casuists and in reason if they may be deposed for ill Government as we have instances both in England and Scotland they may be executed on the same ground without we will take the notion of Kings in that large and vast capacity that the late deluded and blinded Royalists have used it That the King is a creature only of Gods making all other Magistrates being acknowledged to be the creature of the people but only Kings and they exempted from and independent to any power but only Gods And if Lex be Rex as Mr. Rutherford proveth at large and Kings are under and subject to Laws why should vve suppose them above punishment when they are found the highest Transgressors of those Laws Grant them all that diety the Scripture invests them with yet when they come to dye it is as other men it may be for the same offences as well as in the same condition of nature yea it 's against Reason and Nature though through usu ped custom it hath got som credit that all Magistrates should be liable to punishment in case of mal-administration of th ir office and only that one order excepted But to come nigher home and consider what our first Arguments and Distinctions were of making a War against the King and the same will hold for sharpening the Sword now and cutting more keenly and closer to the root The Royalists always told us we sinned in fighting against the Lords anointed and took up Arms against that powâ—r which God had made sacred and so called us Rebels against Gods Ordinances we then in both Nations found out a
these qualifications which had they exprest they laid down the right and true grounds of all power in Kings and other Magistrates which flowes immediately from the people and that mutuall compact and agreement that is between them without which they are but Usurpers and Tyrants and this is virtually and truly the construction of their carriage to the King though very commendable and laudable and if they have a King that will not heartily comply with them in their own just desires they may think upon a second defensive war in Scotland yet it 's a hard case that they must travel up and down on the wil of a young Malignant to beg confirmation of Propositions absolutely necessary for their own safety and the estate and wisdom and Religion of a whole Nation hang on the placet of a creature of their own making They may have time to see and feel yet what a snare they are brought into by that one sudden act of proclaiming him King For notwithstanding he should grant all their desires for the present and come in as their King and royallize it among them and they as they expresse it p. 20. should imbrace him on these termes do they imagine whom they lay in their bosome the Son of a bloody Father Heire to an entail'd curse more certain then to his Kingdome train'd up himself in blood all his dayes one that is set up to follow on where his Father left off one that never suckt in any other principles but prerogative and tyranny bred up under Bishops and Ceremonies which the ayre of Scotland seems to have a naturall antipathy unto one whom they themselves see is far off from hearkening to any sound counsell or advice but of those whom both Kingdoms have proclaimed Traitors who hates the Covenant and can never take it but to take them in their own share Alas who knowes the consequence who as soon as they receive him must set him on horse-back and ingage against their Brethren of England who have helped and succoured them in their distresse and fight the old quarrell only in the name of Charles the second My pen trembles to write and do not the hearts of the Committee of Estates and the godly party in Scotland shake for fear he may seal and signe to these Propositions Let him have an Army he will soon be Generall and once a horseback his young head will carry him far enough Alas to see Bishops and Ceremonies in Scotland again to behold the old Malignants triumphing on the ruines of the Kirk what a dolefull story would that be Doth not every godly eye foresee this in the dawnings of the day Hath Chaales Stuart learnt so much goodnesse and honesty to forsake all his Fathers best Friends to be quite out of correspondency and affections to his Mother and Cosins the Popish and Malignant Party in all the three Nations onely to betake himself to live under the good and wholsom Discipline of the Kirk of Scotland Or can it possibly be conceived that they should entertain him without his train either at present or suddenly to follow after him Ah poor Scotland once the terror to Episcopacy and Malignancy the first promoters of Reformation and art thou at last faine to take the grand Enemy of Church and State into thy bosome and dost beg but to enjoy him Art forc'd to seek thy peace in thy enemies quarters God forbid these sighs wil be aggravated in honest hearts if ever such a change should come to passe Do not they know that God will visit the sins of the fathers on their children especially the sins of those parents which have been persecutors of the Church and hinderers of reformation and have unnaturally spilt the blood of Saints and most especially when the children have likewise been accessories and actors in the same designe How sad is it that when God is dethroning Kings casting shame upon Princes as the great enemies of his Church Scotland should be setting them up and him that never had yet his face towards Sion This story is too sad to be long insisted on And therefore on the other side if he should deny to grant these their desires or pick and choose and propose terms of his own as his Father did with both Kingdoms formerly what a snare will yet lie on them that they should not let their King raign without prostrating his Conscence and Honor as he thinks unto their desires And may not Montrosse justly tax them with proclaiming him King with Provisoes c And whereas they may say they have given him right ad rem to the Kingdom but not in re to the lawful and actual exercise of his Power it will not serve the turn for it 's as good never proclaim him King as not let him raign yea to proclaim him King and deny him the exercise of his Kingly Power is clearly to depose him before he comes to raign deposing being nothing else but excluding Kings from the exercise of that power they were formerly invested with And let the world judg who deals more candidly with the King the Parliament of England or the Committee of Estates the one tells him plainly He hath no Right but what he gets by the Sword and the other proclaims his Right and will not let him exercise it without either he give them their own terms or conquer them Kings use not to pass by such courtesies they take deeper impression then most imagine he that is not worthy nor fit to exercise his office it 's pity he should have the name neither do Kings love to have their pictures drawing when they are dying Our Brethren are yet treating with the old Enemy and must pump what they can from his will and pleasure with continual hazard while we are trying how to propagate our Liberties and Advantages to the utmost and under a full sail of Providence We might have been all this while treating and have given as much time to our Enemies to plot as we to settle but God will countenance and prosper the most sincere and plain honest dealings and if we perish which would be more sad otherwise yet it 's in doing our duty and as seeds of a more glorious Church and Common-wealth There is one thing more in the conclusion of this Declaration wherein they say That they hope there is none in that Land or if any be found so base foolish and treacherous as to harken to the vain promises of James Graham c. they do declare all such as joyn with him or his Adherents in Arms to be guilty of high Treason c. But what if their King joyn with him he is truly proclaimed a Traytor Nay what if the King gave him that Commission to be Lieut. Governor and Capt. General for his Majesty c. which Paper expressing this Commission they say pag. 11. They have burnt by the common hangman at the Cross at Edinburgh And have they not then burnt the