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
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
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
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
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
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
feared we have provoked by superstitious vowing and swearing 4ly We cannot finde that ever the people was rightly fitted or at all benefited by these new sacramentall Leagues or rather politicall Sacraments for in England we had too many that would take the Kings Oaths when He was prevalent and the Parliaments also when they were prevalent and in Scotland Montrosses victory left lamentable spectacles of humane treacherie and impietie as to the Covenant No sooner had he in 1644. woon one pitcht Field but the Nation generally flow'd in to Him to submit unto his new royall bonds with curses upon them that had forcibly clogd their consciences by contrary ones before and no sooner had D Lesly routed Him but the same people again shifted Montrosses bonds with detestations as high and bitter as they had the Parliaments before This is a prodigious example exceedingly to be deplored not onely by the Scots but by all mankinde But to proceed The breaches and hostilities which at this day are sprung out of the Covenant betwixt the Covenanters of both Nations are too visible the question is therfore whether we shall charge these mischiefs upon the ill composure of the Covenant it self or upon the malice of the Covenanters and if upon the Covenanters whether are more guilty the English or the Scotch And first as to the Covenant it self it seems to me that even that was not compiled so briefly so clearly and so impartially as it might have been and that has given some occasion of stumbling to some but certainly blood had never been drawn by brethren so leagued together as we are had it not been for the ignorance arrogance and high injustice of the Covenanters Antiquity which was famous for ingenuity had not any use to charge their humane contracts much lesse divine with so various and heterogeneous branches as this Covenant is charged withall some points of it are divine some morall some civil some are of higher some of meaner concernment and all of them thus odly compacted together swell it up into too rude a lump Moreover since variety of parts made it more grosse and by consequence more obnoxious to doubts and intricacies there ought to have been more care to distinguish betwixt those parts which were coordinate and those which were subordinate and in case some provisoes proved inconsistent with others it should have been predetermined which should supersede and which should be superseded The King by one clause as He is King is to be maintained equally with Religion c. yet by another clause as He is a profest enemy to the Covenant is to be pursued by arms and brought to condigne punishment The safetie of Religion may possibly be irreconcileable with the safety of the King and the safety of the King confessedly owes a subordination to the safety of Religion yet it is left dubious by the Covenant how far the inferior here shall give way to the superior The unity and peace of the Nations is the scope of one Article in the Covenant and that Article had a high place in the intent of those which indighted the Covenant yet neither does this Article condemne all war as unlawfull betwixt the Nations nor yet prescribe when it may be judged Lawfull nor by whom The Scots by one interpretation of the Covenant are more strictly imbodied with us then formerly and so to be assisting in our Reformation yet by another interpretation they are to maintain to us our Nationall rights and not at all to interpose in judging of our English affairs and how can they reform where they may not judge or how can they judge where they have no propriety or how can they challenge more by vertue of this Covenant-union in England then we do in Scotland or how can confusion of interests be introduced where there remains a coordination so equally and justly preserved In the next place there is a palpable partiality in the Covenant whereby is easie to be perceived in which Nation it received its being for the Church of England and Ireland are to be reformed but the Church of Scotland is to be preserved in its perfection of Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government In summe all three Nations are to purge away whatsoever is contrary to sound doctrine and the power of Godlines and the only true standart for such purgation is the book of God and forasmuch as that is as truly a standart to the Scots as to the English they though the Covenant prejudges and presumes them perfect are to be tryed by this Book as well as we are and as that which is defective in them must be rectified by this standart so that which is not defective in us must be justified by the same We conclude therefore justly that either the Article it self pre-judges us or is by them ill prejudged when they assume that we are to conform to them more then they are to conform to us for so much as there is but one only book to which we are bound equally both of us to conform and of that Book they are no more authenticall interpreters then we are These exceptions and perhaps more might be taken against the Covenant it self and the manner of obtruding it but we fix not hereupon nor will we mention it as to the genuine intent of it without reverence the main offence that has been given to the world has been given by the Takers of it in a false sense not by it self The inquirie therefore at this time is whether the English or Scots whether the Presbyterians or Independents are most blameable before God and Men for the scandall which has been given by occasion of this Solemn League and Covenant For the better discussion hereof we shall do well to observe first which of the parties has been most clamorous against the other â—ly What the principall matter of those clamors has been 3ly What may be most probably aymed at by the raisers of those clamors 4ly What the issue has been As to the first it is apparent that the Scoch Presbyterians were the first compilers of the Covenant and that they still continue to set a sacred value upon it even unto a great degree of superstition and t is as apparent that they had not been so strangely transported with rage against us but for our attributing lesse then they do to it The Covenant is their Word in the day of battell the Covenant in specie is carried along by their Priests when they march into the Field as if it were held oraculous and had the same presence of God ingaged to it as the Ark had amongst the Jews The Covenant in Law is made transcendent to an Act of Parliament nay if both Nations should agree in one Act of Parliament that Act could neither make more intense nor more remisse the obliging force of this Covenant This Covenant is sometimes call'd Gods Covenant and inscribed by the Scots in the same table with Gods Covenant of mercy
against the Scots by suppressing the Covenant unduly as the Scots have against us by inforcing it immoderately I would willingly quit this as a nugatory weightles presumption The last thing that may deserve to stay and take up our thoughts a little is the issue and event that both sides have met with and this may justly sway our censures in such a question as this is The King being driven to extremities in Oxford and being privy to the differences betwikt both Nations about some constructions of the Covenant chose rather to cast himself into theirs then our hands and we cannot imagine that the King which so hated and feared the true intent of the Covenant would rather intrust his life to those which He thought more true then those whom he thought more false to the Covenant But what successe had that trust of his it cost him his ruine in the end for they which interpreted the Covenant for his purpose whilest he was to put â— great prize into their custodie soon found out a contrary interpretation when the Parliaments money out-weigh'd that prise This end their animating him divers times against our Propositions tendered when the King was thereby and by other secret correspondencies rendered more dangerous to us and more uncouncellable to Himself was fatall to Him But now since in favour of his Son the former interpretation is resumed the second time how has the case been altered The case in truth is even thus the young King has repented of his coming amongst them the Kirk begins to repent of his admission amongst them the hand of God has been heavy upon both and t is almost come to this that the most conscientious Presbyterians in Scotland must read the Covenant in a new sence amongst us whilest all the rest must lay afide the Covenant wholly amongst the ancient professed Enemies of it I will not strain this argument of successe too high but this is to be remarked that the successe here put is not ordinary or meer successe forasmuch as it has been sent from Heaven after solemn appeals thither made by two religious parties and as the honour of God was much concerned in it so the manner of sending it was more then ordinary We draw nearer now to the Covenant it self and shall consider it first in the whole and then in its parts The first clashing we had with the Scots was about the right which each Nation had past to the other meerly by joyning in such a mutuall sanctimonious stipulation for when we objected to them upon severall occasions that they interposed too far in the Affairs and Councels of England they as often gave us this Answer that we were not since our conjunction with them in the Covenant and Treaties to look upon them as strangers or so far distanced in the interest of England as they were before This was at large refuted and silenced by the Parliament and therefore little need to be said in it and indeed Leagues and Pacts are common amongst all other Nations yet no man ever argued such a State is united to such a State as to such a particular war or as to the attaining of some other particular purposes therefore they are incorporated into one State and united as to all other purposes whatsoever This is ridiculous sense and experience is sufficient to explode it And if the Scots plead further that there is something extraordinary in this bond of the Covenant which knits faster and closer then all other bonds proof will fail them herein and yet if proof were not failing their equality of interest with ours in England would not follow notwithstanding For either the Covenant has reduced our two States and Dominions into one or not If it has not then the English mans interest is as intire and remains as distinct from the Scochmans as it was before confusion of properties is a thing as abhorred in policy as a vacuity is in nature But if both the governments by our Covenant adunation be compacted into one and the same then where is that one and the same supreme Tribunall which is equally to determine all Nationall disputes and may legally challenge submission from all aggrieved parties Should an Army be committed to 2. Generals and the Commission specifie nothing concerning the partition of their Commands and prevention of their rivalities nothing but ruin could be expected Therefore the very letter of the Covenant was so far from intending to take away all severality from us that it clearly puts each Nations Liberties and rights amongst those other things which it proposes to it self to save by this promised assistance of each Nation ordring likewise this assistance that no man should yeeld the same otherwise then in his severall place and calling and according to all our severall places and interests T is the more immodesty also in the Scots to arrogate to themselves an equall share in the rich Common-wealth of England which the English never made any pretence to in the like barrener soil of Scotland But if a moity of our English government in all cases whatsoever be not due to the Scots as they are our brethren in Covenant with us and equall parties in the same stipulation yet in the next place we cannot deny them an equall share in the judgment of the Covenant and all disputes about the same If they be contractors with us and by vertue of the same Contract are as well inabled to require performances of conditions from us as they are obliged to perform conditions to us it stands with all manner of equity and reason that they should have as great a latitude and freedom as we in determining what is to be performed on either part We deny not to the Scots the same extent of judging in England as to Covenant differences which we claim in Scotland this onely is denied by us that either they are as properly Judges of matters in England as they are in Scotland or we in Scotland as in England This was the fallacy that should have blinded us but there is no such great depth of sophistry in it The States of England and Scotland are equally independent the Covenant cannot grant to one equall a jurisdiction over another So long as both Nations stand upon equality and confesse no superiority to be in either so long it is vain injurious and against the ends of the Covenant for one to passe sentence upon the other T is vain because the sentence has no operation at all the party sentenced protests justly against it and all third indifferent parties look indifferently upon the sentence and protestation T is injurious because he that condemns his equall does that to another which he would not have another do to himself and if there be no other superior Judge on earth He intrudâ— into the chair of God himself Lastly t is against the Covenant because the intent of the Covenant is to settle peace and amity by offices of
we cleer our selves in point of Church-Reformation for having covenanted to reform in Doctrine Discipline c. according to the word of God and the patterns of the best Reformed Churches we are bound as the Scots maintain to take our pattern from them and that we as yet refuse to do This is the grand and most heynous charge the Scots have against us and because we follow not the modell of Scotland which they hold the best Reformed Church in Christendom they seek to overwhelm us with a thousand calumnies and labour to possesse the world that wee are nothing else but a Lerna of Heresies and a sinck of all uncleannesse To this we answer 1. When wee are bound to reform according to the word of God and the examples of the best Churches wee conceive the word of God signifies all the examples of other Churches signifie nothing at all for those are the best Churches that reform neerest to the word of God and what Churches have neerest Reformed cannot be known but by the word of God it self so that that instance might have been spared 2. If it come to tryal by the word of God whether the Scots Reformation be the best or no the Scots therein can challenge no more priviledg of judging then we or any other Church When we were governed by Bishops the Gospel of Christ was as purely delivered in England and as heartily embraced by the English any being Judges besides the Scots as ever it was in Scotland and shall it be said that because wee have cast off Bishops and thereby come some steps neerer to the Scots our Doctrine remaining still the same without all innovation shall it be said that our very approaches have â—â—st us backward It will be required at their hands who are intrusted with the government of Christs Church that his word and Ordinances be piously and duly dispensed and it will be required at their hands who are governed that the dispensation of Christs words and Ordinances be faithfully and sincerely entertained but if the Governors rightly discharge their duty and the governed fail of theirs the Governors shall not answer for what they cannot help 't is God that gives the encrease and does the saving inward work the Minister cannot go beyond planting watering and doing that which is the outward work 'T is one thing therefore for the Scots to upbraid the Flock and another thing to upbraid the Overseers of the Flock and yet the Scots constantly take an advantage against us by confounding these two things For the people of England we must confesse they have been of late too much tainted with Heresies and monstrous opinions pudet haeâ— opprobria nobis dici potuisse non potuisse refelli I hope all good men are grieved and humbled for it but let the Scots consider 1. That growing of Tares in Gods Field does not alwayes shew that the Husband-man sowed ill grain the contrary rather is true inasmuch as the more busie the good Husband-man is culturing and improving the Earth the more sollicitous ever the Enemie is in casting in his malignant seeds the more readily eager he is to debosh mar the crop It was so with the Church of Christ in it's Infancy it was so under Constantine in it's maturity it was so in Luthers dayes when it began to recover out of a long lethargy and we must expect the like now when our aces are set upon the last and greatest calcination as ever the Church saw as Reformation now in the ends of the world when the chiefe mysteries of iniquity begin to be revealed will most annoy Sathan so Sathan will double his rage to annoy us accordingly Hornius the Dutch-man a great friend of the Scots and who in favour of the Scotch Presbytery has written a bitter Tract in Latine to defame us in Germany after he has represented us as the most leprous contaminated Nation in the world yet confesses withall that to the prodigious revoltings of some amongst us there is an answerable improvement of others in burning zeale and shining sanctity In Religion beauty and deformity are not inconsistent those times often which have been most glorious for divine dispensations of knowledge and grace have been likewise most deplorable for persecutions and apostacies and this has ever been a great stumbling block to carnall minds If therefore the great Lyon range and roare and ramp lesse in Scotland then in England let not our Brethren boast of it or think themselves the more safe 2. Let not partiality blind the Scots Strangers think Scotland ha's as great cause of humiliation as England if not greater Iliacos intra muros peceatur extra It were more Christian-like in them and lesse Pharisaicall to aggravate their own sins and extenuate other mens then to extenuate their own sins and aggravate other mens and if they wil remit nothing at all of their rigour against us yet let them not stuffe their long catalogues of Pseudodoxies with such wandring terms as Familisme Erastianisme Independentisme c. which taken improperly may reach the best Saints of God and are seldome used properly by any 'T is a sad thing to offend Gods little ones 't is a more sad thing to deprave many congregations of Gods most precious ones 3. Whatsoever judgement the Scots will take upon them to passe against the people in England yet let them not alway set upon the Magistrates or Ministers account what they find reprovable in the people let them not call us fedifragous for not redressing things beyond us and such as none can redresse besides God but this has been toucht upon already Let us therefore see what is peculiarly objected to the present governing power in England The Magistrate in England is charged to be an Enemie to Magistracy a strange charge certainly The very last answers we had this last Summer to our Declarations upon the march of our Army into Scotland tell us from the Committee of Estates and Commissioners of the Assembly that our expedition into Scotland is to overturn Religion and government Civill and Ecclesiasticall and to set up amongst them the same vast toleration of Religion as we have done in England Now if this were true the sins of the People would become the sins of the Magistrate but what credite can this obtain in the world As for the overturning of civill power that is answered already we confesse a change of the Form but we deny any overturning of the thing cal'd Government in England and wee hope our actions here and in Ireland and in other Forreign parts yea our War in Scotland also will quit and essoyn us of anarchy and ere long make the Scots swalow downe their own untruths with open shame As for the overturning Ecclesiasticall also that may be as resolutely and justly denyed as the other for that lawfull power which was in Bishops before is still in being and though we have not committed it so intirely unto
Presbyteries and Assemblies as the Scots would have us to the dishonouring of our Common wealth yet we have preserved it from abolition and utter dissolution The truth is in pursuance of our Covenant we have consulted with a Synod of Divines about the best method of Discipline and they are not able to satisfie us that the word of God the rule limited by the Covenant for our Reformation does invest any convention of Clergy-men who claim to be the only due Representants of the Church and immediate Vice-gerents of Christ with supremacy of independent power in all causes Ecclesiasticall The Pope claims no more in the pale of the Italian Church the Popish Cardinals and Bishops in Spain France c. claim lesse and the Protestant Prelates whom we lately ejected for Usurpers never claimed halfe so much Now the word of God is so farre from holding forth to us any such vast power in persons Ecclesiasticall that it's information is contrary viz. That the Apostles and Disciples of our Saviour for many years after his death assumed no more Authority on earth then he assumed that our Saviour plainly disclaimed all jurisdiction and dominion in this world that by practâ—se as well as precept he quasht all rivality about power or precedence amongst his own dearest followers Besides if any such spirituall supremacy were vested by divine right in any such Representants of the Church and vicars of Christ it were necessary that exact obedience in all things should bepayd them by all Inferiours and if such obedience were due it would be consequently necessary that they should be free from errour else the alleadged supremacy would serve to no great purpose and we know God and nature produce not great matters but for purposes as great This made the Romish Hierarchists rationally assert an infallible spirit when they had once asserted an uÌ„limitable power in the Church for where the Scripture is clear there needs no soveraign Judg every man is a sufficient Interpreter to himselfe and where the Scripture is doubtfull the doubt is to be cleared by something else of the same indisputable authority or else that defect is not supplyed noâ— can the same submission be demanded Wherefore upon this account we say that unlesse our supream Church Lords when they take us off from our own judgments cannot convince us by divine authority of cleer Scripture wil not convince us of some other divine authority in themselves of the same alloy as Scripture is for the inforcing of our acquiescence they deale worse with us then the Pope does with his Vassals Moreover that power in the Church which Eclipses and perturbes civill power cannot be supposed to be of Christs institution but such is the power of the Clergy in Scotland many ways Ergo For first clashings may be about what is purely a Civill case and what is purely Ecclesiasticall and all such clashings are exceeding dangerous 2 Since there are very few cases that are not mixt and as few mixt cases that are not unequally mixt great questions may arise to whether Tribunall the case shall be first refer'd when it is equally mixt and how the Tribunalls shall agree upon executing their decrees where the case is unequally mixt especially if the decrees be contrary as they may be In the year 1648. the Representative State of Scotland Voted a war with England necessary the Representative Kirk Voted the same unlawfull which contrary Votings might have confounded both for if the war was necessary the State might suffer much by the Churches seditious malediction and if the war was unlawfull yet the people having no more warrant to obey the Ecclesiasticall then Civill power in matters of that nature must needs be in a strange distraction and that distraction at that time might have created ethquakes in the whole Nation It should seem want of force in the party adhering to the Kirk preserved them at that time from a bloodie ingagement against the contrary party which might have devoured and swallowed up all For as soon as Hamilton was defeated in England the Kirk party got help from the English Army and by force wrested the Government out of Lannericks hands and then again had not Lannericks side been too weak another flame might have been kindled and perhaps have continued unquenched to this day Now if the temporal sword be in part spirituall and the cases of warre be held so equally mixt in Scotland that both the supreme independent Councels claim an equall judgement in them and do sometimes judge contrarily and there can be yet no certain rule given for the reconciling of those contrarieties it is manifest that these two coordinate powers may be destructive to the people and it is as manifest that no destructive institution can derive it self from God Much more might be said of the encroachments of the Clergie upon the Laity in cases mixt by pretending sometimes to an equality of interest in some cases where the Laities ought to be greater and pretending to all at other times where the Laities interest ought to be equall the Popish Clergie scarce ever used more jugling and trumperie in these affairs then the Presbyterian Ministery now uses In the stating of the present war in Scotland the Kirkmen go hand in hand with the Committee of Estates and in their Answers to our English Declarations they interpose in all points whatsoever whether religious politick juridicall or military and whether they be points of Law or matters of fact But if a Minister preach sedition in a Pulpit this appertains not to the secular Magistrate for though sedition be a secular busines and sedition may be preacht by a Minister in a Pulpit yet a Ministers Pulpit sedition is no matter for secular cognizance Was the Laity ever worse bridled when it was the Popes Asse But of this no more I will onely touch briefly upon the end of all this spirituall coordination and so shut up this point The Clergie of Scotland have spoken great and magnificent things of the use of their spirituall sword and the principall allegation for it was that without such a sword in the hands of the Kirk secular Princes and Grandees could not be awed and restrained in many enterprises and crimes very dangerous to the Church But who can imagine they ever beleeved themselves herein when in the processe of all our late wars that very Kirk it self which told the King He was guilty of a deluge of blood and had made himself and his throne and his posterity obnoxious to Gods high indignation thereby yet never offered to strike with the weapon of excommunication all that while if there was any correcting restraining healing recovering vertue in that weapon why did they uncharitably forbear to use it why did they not pitie those multitudes of Innocents that perished daily under his fury why did they suffer the King himself to run on and die in his persecutions And if their pretended weapon had really no such
vertue in it why do they brandish it so ludicrously onely to dazle our weak eyes The next Objection of the Scots is that we have not onely sequestred a great part of Christs spirituall power and detained it in Lay hands but have also abused the same power tolerating thereby and countenancing all manner of heresies which is directly contrary to our covenanted Reformation Our Answer is that we are neither intensively nor extensively lyable indeed to this objection For 1. all sects and scandals are not permitted by us nothing is more distant from truth then this suggestion All grosse sins and seducers are supprest with as quick severity as ever nay since the Norman Conquest there have not been so many sharp Laws made against Adultery Swearing blaspheming Sabbath-breaking and open prophanation as have been made within these few yeers All the remission and relaxation that our Parliament has indulged of late is only towards tender Consciences where men comport themselves civilly and inoffensively towards their neighbours and attempt to innovate nothing in the Church for perturbing of Religion and even in this also we havenot extended our indulgence so far as the united States of the Netherlands have and divers other Protestant Princes in Germany The truth is we do not finde such danger in Erastianisme Independentisme Anabaptisme Round-headisme c. as our rigid Presbyterians suspect and this would not dislike the Presbyterians themselves if they were men willing to do to others as they are willing others should do to them for they themselves are sensible that we can never desire more gentlenesse from them to us then is now shewed by us to them 2ly That toleration which we are accused of is but a non persecution in its most intensive degree for we use all Christian means besides force to reduce such as wander and divide from us and we are far from cherishing schismes and broyls either in Church or State Our Saviours own parable allows us where weeds have gotten head and are as numerous as the standing corn rather to spare the weeds for the corns sake then to indanger the corn for the weeds sake Howsoever it would be some charity in our traducers if they would advisedly consider how the growth of our weeds came at first to be so rank amongst us and thereupon joyn with us in humiliation for it not exult over us in scorn and derision Upon the first defiance given by the King to the Parliament half the Clergie at least fell away from this cause and before that rent could be sowde up there happened a second distance betwixt us and the Scots partly upon a royal and partly an Ecclesiasticall account and that distance drew on as great a revolt of the Clergie as the former And how can any man imagine but that strange disorders must needs follow and abound in a Church so deserted When the dressers of the Vineyard do not onely quit their charge but throw down the mounds how can it be expected but that Bores and Foxes should break in And indeed the Parliament is still ill beset for either they must deny preaching to the people to three parts of foure or else they must yeeld the Pulpits to their seditious Enemies and to such as shall seek to wound the Magistrate through the souls of the people This being the Parliaments hard case it may better become the Scots to whom may be attributed a great part of these disturbances to afford some pitie and help then to adde miserie to our miserie This is sufficient to plead for our indulgence let us onely advise the Presbyterians not to take unjust offence thereat or to stumble into the contrary extreme T is wofull to see how rigidly the Ministers carrie themselves towards the poore people in many places and what an absolute discretionarie power they challenge in many places over the ordinances of God There are many Parishes in England where the people have not been admitted to the Sacrament of the Lords Supper nor some Infants to the Sacrament of Baptisme for a long time This deserves much bewailing for certainly God gave these rich Legacies to the diffusive body of his Church for the spirituall comfort of the meanest servants of his and not to that which cals it self his representative body to be a trade and monopolie for their advantage in this world But I have done if the world now finde cause to condemne us of dealing treacherously with the Covenant and our fellow-Covenanters in that we have not submitted to the Scots and for their sakes disclaimed our own judgements and interests to gratifie the King and the Presbyterian Clergie with our perpetuall servility let us fall under their condemnation Or if the world can justifie the Scots as pursuers of that union freedome and fidelity which was aimed at in the Covenant when they made themselves our Lords to give us Laws in our own Dominions and when they did not onely raise sedition here in our own bowels but came in with an Army of 20000. men to devour us let them stand upright here and injoy their wished Triumph Our finall assurance and comfort is there sits a Judge in heaven who can neither deceive nor be deceived a Judge that hears all appeals made above and does right at last to all that groane under oppression and injustice belowe Of the Scoch Warre VVEe have seen how the Covenants waxen nose has been turned and moulded into many forms wee see now cause to suspect that 't was made so large at first and compacted of such materials that like the Grecian wooden Horse it might tear our walls the wider upon its entrance and discharge the more discords and dissentions amongst us after its entrance was procured We see it was intended by the honest party in England for cement to unite the Nations in a more arct faithfull confederation then ever our Ancestors knew but the couching of it was obscure and left liable to so many false glosses that it soon became {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Our brotherly offices of Assistance soon degenerated into harsh expostulations harsh expostulations begat secreet feudes and secreet feudes heightned themselves into open hostilities The question is only when open war commenced betwixt these Nations Whether the Scots first invaded us by their Duke Hamilton above two years since or whether the English first invaded Scotland this last summer under the command of the Lord Gen. Cromwell For a year or two after reception of the Covenant in England a good correspondence was kept betwixt us the Scotch Commissioners sat in our Committee of Lords and Commons at Darby house whereby they were admitted into the knowledge of our highest and secretest affaires and had opportunity to frame parties amongst us for promoting of their own Interests Out of these kindnesses sprung our first unkindnesses for the more honour was given to the Scots the more still they thought was due and the more they thought was due the
are not qualified by the Covenant to do these honorable things in England Alas if the Covenant does not add any new qualification to us to serve Religion and our King I hope no man will suspect that it takes away any such qualification from us as we had before And I hope ther 's no man here but thinks before any Covenant taken he had a warrant and capacity good enough to do honorable service to his Religion and his native Prince Let me speak plainly and bluntly I doubt these scruples do not arise against us as we are Scotch men and so have no power of judging in England but rather as we are of such a party in Scotland that the Kirk dares not confide in us this is lamentable halting before God Let us not therfore be driven into any unmanly irresolution by logicall nicitiâ—s and School-puntilioes let us beleeve that such just ends as we aime at inservingour God and Prince have just avenues belonging to them and that God ha's not hedgd in or inscons'd goodnesse from the approaches of men as he did once the Tree of Life My Lord and Gentlemen shall pure reformed Religion want an Advocate in this presence no it were labour lost here to recommend the excellencies of her you all are confident you cannot but be certaine that God hath rather sent a Cherubim to invite and wast you to her assistance in England then to affright you and drive you from her embraces with a flaming Sword Then as for the King you have a greater interest in him then the English have and he ought to have a greater interest in you then he has in the English Let me tell you if you should prove oblivious of his favours he might upraid divers of you with your Fields and Vineyards as Saul did once his Benjamites Do we not all know that his graces towards us ha's made him the lesse acceptable to the English and does not the whole world taxe us of our ill requitall at Newcastle I speake of that in your ears what can be said then either we must requite him better and acquit our selves better now or all generations to come will call us ungratefull and unjust and for my part I cannot ever construe the Covenant as that it intends to render us ungratefull or unjust T is true the enterprise we goe upon must cost blood and fall heavie upon some of our fellow Covenanters in England it were else impossible almost it should be great and honorable let this be our comfort the work is great and honorable and being so it must be acceptable to God and that which God accepts cannot but be feaâ—able for Qui dat finem dat media Let the justice of this war fix our resolutions upon the pursuance of it and when we are upon its pursuance let us pursue it wisely and strenuously as becomes Souldiers let no scruples defraud us of the opportunities and advantages that attendit for such in war are irrecoverable pretious to be brief let us not be held up with Treaties by the English Commissioners let us not wave Langdale nor leave Berwick and Carlisle to the Enemy when we are in peace let the laws of peace order us when we are in war let the Maxims of war sway c. the rather for that advantage lost in peace may be regained but an error committed in war can never be redeemed The next Gentleman was of a different opinion from either of these and you may suppose his Oratory was as followeth My Lords and Gentlemen YOu have heard how much may be said for a present war with England and how much may be said against it you have heard in what extreams the arguments both of a meer Souldier and a meer Scholler run and now having heard both and compar'd both you may the better extract out of both that which is truly counsellable at this present and that doubtlesse teaches warily to decline both extreams The Gentleman that spake last maintained well the justice and necessity of the worke that is to be done such a service to God and the King cannot but be just and necessary and our Covenant cannot obstruct any thing that is of it self just and necessary therefore to oppose our Covenant against this war is to undervalue our Covenant and to entangle our selves in such nicities as are more fit for the Schools then this Senate On the other side the Gentleman that spoke first interposed some necessary advertisements about the manner of our prosecuting this high undertaking not fit to be neglected for doubtlesse it concerns Gods honor the safety of the King and the perpetuall peace and safety of these Nations that this affair be wisely managed as well as it is religiously intended We all know that the taking of some advantages in war if they be at too far a distance with Religion may prove our disadvantages and so the parting with some opportunities in some cases may be a gayn of better to us hast ha's overthrowne some undertakings as well as delay others Wherefore I desire leave to counterpoise with a little moderation that which hath been pressed by both the Gentlemen that spoke before me And First t is my humble motion that the Kirk here may have all possible satisfaction given them in the forming and heading of this Army and in the conduct and steering of the great designe forasmuch as without this condiscention we cannot expect their concurrence and without their concurrence we cannot expect that readinesse or confidence in our Friends at home nor that stupidity consternation in our enemies abroad as is to be desired Secondly That if wee admit not the English Commissioners to treate and then allow three moneths warning after the end of that Treaty yet we may instantly dispatch away an Expresse to the Parliament of England with particular demands and a cleere denunciation of warre within a moneth if those particulars be not instantly agreed to Thirdly That some reasonable space before wee march a Declaration may be emitted to satisfie our Friends in England with our sincere intentions towards them and that the buisines of the Kirke being setled and the King reinthroned wee have no intention to intrench upon the priviledges of the Parliament there or to breake that bond of confederation and union that was intended to be confirmed by the Covenant Fourthly That Langdale may be countenanced at a distance and with much reservation and that no other use may be openly made of Him then of a Forlorne Hope to seize the English frontire Garrisons for our use and to ingage upon other the like hazardous services How well these things are calculated for the Meridian of Edenburgh I leave every man to guesse freely but this is certain there were few in the Scotch Parliament who gave their judgements the first way many went the second way and all went the third way except onely in complying with the Kirke and if there be
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
to his Church and therefore when they will animate the people against us in war they tell them that God cannot deliver up his Turtle dove and his Covenant into the hands of such Enemies Now because we come not up to this hight of adoration we seem despisers of the Covenant in the Scots eyes and because we seem despisers of so holy a thing accounted by them the very soul of Religion and policy their gall flows out most violently against us They tell us we have brought great scandall and reproach upon the Name of God the Name of his people and the study of piety that we have not onely broken the Solemn League and Covenant betwixt God and these Nations but have in effect rejected it and trampled upon it are become enemies to all the ends of it yea persecuters of the servants and people of God for their adherence to it This in effect has been their burthen against us for divers yeers though it be as void of truth as it is of charity and though we who may more justly instance in this and divers other things as breaches of the Covenant on their parts have never made the Covenant any ground of quarrell or reproach against them T is far from us to under-value the Covenant we hold it a religious tie of mutuall assistance betwixt the Nations against the common Enemies of Religion Liberty and Union and so we think honorably of it only we make it no spell nor idol nor can we beleeve that it ties us to any duty which our Pretestation and Vow tied us not to before nor did our Protestation and Vow create any new duties to us when we first entred into them In the next place though there be many heavy breaches of Covenant ubrayded to us yet all of them resolve into these two That we make not good what we have covenanted for either to God or to the King They could never say till this last Summer nor can they truly say so of us last Summer that we ever entred their Countrey to disturbe their peace to claim or usurp any share in their Government to lay taxes seize Towns waste Villages and destroy Natives amongst them as they have done amongst us all that they can object to us is concerning injuries done to other parties within our own territories where by the Covenant they have no jurisdiction at all In the behalf of God they complain that our professed Faith is nothing else but a mixture of Arrianisme Socinianisme Antinomianisme Familisme Antiscripturisme Anabaptisme Erastianisme and Independency but they know well that for matter of Doctrine we still retain the old Articles of our Church without any staggering at all in the least and for matter of Discipline we are willing to comply with them so far as they comply with Gods Word but in this we have our eyes in our heads as well as they and t is no Law for us to damne the opinion of Erastus or the person of any Independent because they by them are dishonorably spoken of The truth is the Independent departs not so far from Erastus as the Presbyterian and Erastus is no Freind to the supreme power of Synods nor the uncontroulable dominion of Priests and this makes the Independent so injurious to God otherwise call'd the Kirk otherwise call'd Kirkmen were it not alone for this sin in the Independent Arrainisme Socinianisme c. though we were therewith more infected then the Scots as we are not would make no breach of Covenant at all amongst us In behalf of the King they complain that we have treated him not onely as an Enemy to the Covenant but also irreconcileable to the very being of our State and hereupon they take upon them to bewail the hard condition of the English that they are loaded with so many and so great taxes and subjected so rigorous and obdurate Laws which shall receive Answers in due place But in the mean time t is neither the Kings nor the peoples sufferings that stirs such a deal of compassion and zeal in the bowels of our fellow-Covenanters t is the change of our Government by which they perceive at last they themselves are verie great loosers The truth is the difference betwixt the King and us heretofore was of great advantage to them and this advantage though it was no property or right of theirs but a wrong and damage of ours is now faln away from them The King shall now have no more occasion to give them pensions in Scotland nor gratifications here to do us dis-service in behalf of his Prerogative nor shall we be any more bound to hire their service against the Crown and we must know that these double offices or ambidextrous versatile arts of doing services and dis-services was as great a revenue to them especially since these last troubles as the intra does of all Scotland Now this therefore in the third place may save us our labour of further inquiry about the ends and aims of the Scots in their exclamations and expostulations against us when they contest in behalf of the Covenant We see what the Clergie in Scotland and here are so thirstie of they would fain have Consistories in every Parish where they might have a free power to dispence the Ordinances of Christ to such as prove observant of them and to cast out all that are not submissive enough and for fear Lay Judges should ballance too much there they would have Classes above better defecated of such secular persons and for fear lest those Classes should be controuled by Parliaments they would have Assemblies above all to act for Christ in all matters whatsoever military or judiciall wherein Christs Throne that is the Kirk may be concerned No Protestant Bishops ever aspired to so sollid a power on earth nay except in the Popes own Patrimony where He is a Prince no Bishops in Europe undâ—r any other Lay Princes are allowed to sit and act so independently upon a Commission so large as the Scotch Assemblies do and therfore we cannot wonder if such a new Hierachy as this of the Presbyterians be so desirable amongst our Kirk-men Furthermore when such impetuous appetites of all the Clergie in Scotland backs with some thousands of ours in England shall also fall in at the same time with the interests of so many of the Nobility Gentry and Souldiery in Scotland as drove a very thriving trade heretofore by siding sometimes with the King against us at other times with us against the King and these things can be no other way compast or pretended to but by the ambiguous sense of the Covenant we cannot wonder if the Covenant be held so venerable a thing as it is in Scotland and made the price of blood and war as to every puntilio in it More then this needs not be said of the Scotch Presbyterians if as much could be said of the English Independents and that they may have as fair hopes and probable ends