private Subjects Men really invested with Authority do think their Laws and Power to execute them on Offenders may well enough secure the Peoples subjection and will disdain such a suspicion of the questionablenss of their Authority as to make it a Question to the Subjects The more it was made a Question to us the more it became questioned and suspected And the more we were made to enquire into it the further we were from deprehending or recognoscing in him either the Characters or Constitution of a Magistrate to be owned We considered the many righteous Laws established by our worthy Ancestors for the preservation of the True Religion and Liberties of the Kingdom insert in the National Covenant which every Soul in the Kingdom under the Bond of that Covenant is bound to maintain according to their Capacities As Act 8 Parl. 1. King Ia 6 repeated and ratified in many Acts afterwards expresly providing and ordaining that all Kings and Princes at their Coronation and Reception of their Princely Authority shall make their faithful promise by Oath and that they shall profess and maintain the Protestant Religion and shall abolish and gainstand all false Religion contrary the same and shall rule according to Law c. Which Oath of Coronation he did not take would not take could not take while a Papist and therefore we could not look on him as our King by Law We considered likewise that in our Covenants the Allegiance that we must own to the King is expresly limited and qualified thus In the preservation and defence of the True Rellgion Liberties and Laws of the Kingdom Of which Qualification Allegiance to him a destroyer of Religion and Liberty is nor capable We remembred the Principles and Sentiments of our Fathers upon the Admission of King Charles 2. to the exercise of his Royal Power Declared in their seasonable and necessary Warning Gen Assem Iuly 27 Sess 27 1649. Wherein they tell us That a boundless and illimited Power is to be acknowledged in no King nor Magistrate that there is a mutual Stipulation and Obligation between the King and the People as both of them are tyed to GOD so each of them are tyed to one another Accordingly Kings are to take the Oath of Coronation to abolish Popery and maintain the Protestant Religion As long therefore as the King refuses to Engage and Obliege himself for security of Religion and safety of his People it is consonant to Scripture and Reason and Laws of the Kingdom that he should be refused And that in the Covenant the Duty of owning the King is subordinate to the Duty of preserving Religion and Liberty And therefore without security of these it were a manifest breach of Govenant and a preferring the Kings Interest to the Interest of Christ to bring him to the exercise of his power And consequently for us to give such a consent to it as such an owning of him as required would amount to Accordingly also the Commission of the General Assembly in their Act of the West-Kirk Declared They would not own the King nor his Interest otherwise than with a subordination to GOD and so far as he should own and prosecute the Cause of GOD and disclaim his and his Fathers opposition to the Work of GOD and the Covenant We called to mind likewise what our Renowned Reformers gave out as the case of their Revolt from the Government of Mary Qu Dowager anno 1559. her persecuting the Professors of the True Religion and oppressing the Liberties of the True Lieges her intruding of Magistrates against all Order of Election her Adultering and Subverting the Old Laws of the Realm c. Which all Men know were as applicable to King Iames 7th as to her And therefore we had their Reason to obliege us and their example to encourage us to say with them We own and promise to our Lawful Soveraign all due Obedience provided we may have our Religion and Liberty secured without which we firmely purpose never to be subject to Mortal Man For which and many other Reasons we reckoned our selves under Obligations to decline the imposed owning of his Authority and took the opportunity in the time of the Expedition of the Earl of Argyle against him to Publish in a Declaration our Reasons why we could not acknowledge it In the mean time the late Earl of Argyle with some other Noblemen and Gentlemen Associating with the Duke of Munmouth to essay some Diversion and Opposition to the Kings designs of advancing and establing Tyrannie and Popery All the Forces Militia Troups and Companies and the whole Army of Heretors were powred in upon those Places of the Kingdom where most of us were sojourning Who besides all the blood shed upon the account of that Expedition the Blood of the Earle himself and others of both Nations engaged with him and many of his Wassalls in the Highlands cruely put to Death by the Marq. of Athol had in Commission and put in execution the Bloodiest Orders we think readily Men could ever receive or obey The greatest employment that that great Army had in hand and in heart was to wreck and exert all their fury and force upon the poor Mountain-Men as they called us Which they did by ranging and spreading themselves many miles in breadth every one within sight of another and searching for us through all the Rocks Woods Mountains and Mosses of the Country where we were hiding with such Vigore Violence and dilligence as if they had been hunting for Hares or Foxes And the greatest ambition and emulation of their Leaders and Champions Graham of Claver-house Liev. Gen. Douglas Brother to the Duke of Queensberry Col. Buchan with others of their inferiour Officers Maj. Balfour Liev. Creightoun and Liev. Livingstoun c. was who should be most skilful and succesfull in destroying us And all this for no other Cause then because we could not Answer to their satisfaction the Questions they proposed without any warrant of Law and against the Common Interest of Mankind which frees all Men from being obliged to discover their secret thoughts Namely because we could not obtain of our Consciences to declare that we would own and acknowledge that Authority which enacted and by which they acted all these mischiefs Yet to the commendation of GODS Clemency and condemnation of Mens cruelty we may say when they had shot all their bolts after they had hanged shot tortured or banished for slaves all they could catch of us they were further from their purpose than when they began our Numbers and Mettings for Gospel ordinances Administrated in Purity and power encreased more and more But at length tho' our Persecution continued the King was pleased to change his Methods with other Dissenters He multiplied many Favours to such of them as he called Moderate And by these means intending to advance the Mysterie of iniquity by stoping the mouths and binding up the hands of all from whom he might
unto followed Such as had not served the Enemy in destroying nor engaged by Oaths and Tests to destroy the cause now to be sought for and defended But that they should be well affected of approven Fidelity and of a sober conversation Having also declared That the cause they were called to appear for was the service of the Kings Majesty in the defence of the Nation Recoverie and preservation of the Protestant Religion and in particular the work of Reformation in Scotland in opposition to Popery Prelacy and Arbitrary Power in all its Branches and Steps until the Government of Church and State be brought to their Lustre and Integrity established in the best and purest times Upon these terms we offered to compleat two or three more Regiments if it had been accepted But before we offered to be Souldiers we had first made an offer to be Subjects And because we did not look upon our selves as Subjects to the Late King who treated us as Enemies We made therefore a voluntary Tender of our Subjection in a peculiar Petition by our selves which we purposed to have given in to the Meeting of Estates at their first sitting down We shewed it to several Honourable Members but by their Advice it was delayed until the Meeting prevented the purpose of it by Proclaiming the King and Queen The Tenor whereof here Follows TO THE MEETING of ESTATES Of the Kingdom of SCOTLAND THE NOBLEMEN BARONS and BVRGESSES Lawfully Called and Chosen now Assembled at Edinburgh for Establishing the Government Restoring and Securing the True Religion Laws and Liberties of the said Kingdom The Humble PETITION of the poor People who have Suffered Grievous Persecution for their Revolt from and disowning the Authority of James the VII Pleading for the devolving the Government upon the Prince of Orange now King of England SHEWETH THat the sad effects of the Late Arbitrary and Tyrannical Course of Government which these Nations and we in a special manner have been groaning under these years past From which to Relieve them the Most Serene and Illustrious Prince of Orange was induced by the Propitious Conduct of a very Glorious Providence to Undertake this Noble and Heroick Enterprise And for Redressing which This Honourable Convention is Called and Conveened Together with the revived hopes since His Highness Auspicious Arrival that all honnest men have begun to conceive and entertain of getting their Grievances freely Represented and Redressed The denyal whereof these several years hath been to us and many others a Grievance very grievous Have necessitate incited invited and encouraged us among others tho of the meanest Figure and lowest Interest in this great Affair Yet as persons pressed to declare and oppressed for declaring their Consciences Sentiments and Resentments of the Late abused Government to take the Boldness now to open our hearts to this Great and Honourable Meeting And with all humility as becomes to Represent to Your Honours That as we conceive we wanted not Right and Reason upon Consciencious Grounds to decline the Illegally extorted and Arbitrarly imposed acknowledgement of our Allegiance unto Iames the VII Whose Authority we could never own because of his Illegal Investiture without taking or being in Capacity to take the Oath of Coronation while addicted to Poperie contrare to the Laws of God and Man because of his Advancing the Prerogative unto an Illimited and most Despotical Absolutness which all were required to obey without Reserve And because of his Arbitrary abusing it to the undermining and overturning our Religion Laws and Liberties and intended Introduction of Poperie and Slaverie at the opened gap of the Prelatical Hierarchy Erastian Supremacy and the Late vastly extended Toleration And because we could not own it our Sufferings have been very great known to this and other Nations and we are confident will not now be condemned by any that have espoused the Cause and have been honoured to concur in the Enterprise of Rescuing these Nations from the Unsupportable Yoke of the Late Popish Domination upon the same or equivalent grounds on which we durst not own it So we prostrate ourselves yet sorrowing under the smart of our still bleeding wounds at your Honours Feet who have a Call a Capacity and we hope a good mind to cure them And offer this our Petition enforced by all the formerly felt presently seen and for the future feared Effects and Efforts of this Throne of Iniquity and the mischief thereby framed into Law and practised or projected against all Law by the Cry of the Blood of our murdered Brethren by the slavery of the banished free born Subjects of this Realm by all the miseries that many forefeited disinhereted harassed and wasted honest Families have been redacted to their Estates and Lives being at the mercy of incensed Souldiers for adhering unto the Ancient Covenanted Establishments of Religion and Liberty And by all the Arguments of Justice Necessity and Mercy that ever could conciliate Commiseration among Men of Wisdom Piety and Vertue humbly Beseeching Requesting and Craving of your H Now when GOD hath given you this opportunity to Act for His Glory the good of the Church and Nation your own Honour and the Happiness of Posterity Now when this Kingdom the Neighbouring and all other Nations of Europe have their Eyes upon you expecting you will acquit your selves like the Representatives of a free Nation in redeeming it from Slaverie otherwise ineluctable following the Noble footsteps of your Renowned Ancestors and the present Precedent and Pattern of this Honourable Convention and Parliament now sitting in England That you will proceed without any farther Procrastinations alwayes especially now Dangerous when Papists and other Malignant Enemies are openly attempting to raise a Rebellion against the State to declare the late Iniquous Government dissolved the Crown Vacant and Iames VII whom we never have and resolve with many Thousands never again to owne to have really Forfeited and rightly to be deprived of all Right and Title he could ever pretend thereunto And to provide that it may never be in the Power of any succeeding Governour for the time to come to aspire unto or arrive at such a Capacity of Tyrannizing Moreover since Anarchy and Tyranny are equally to be detested and the Nation cannot subsist without a Righteous Governour and none can have a nearer Right nor fitter Qualifications than his Illustrious Highness whom the Most High hath signally Owned and Honoured to be our deliveror from Popery end Slavery We Cry and Crave that King William now of England may be Chosen and Proclaimed King of Scotland and that the Regal Authority be devolved upon him with such necessary Provisions Limitations and Conditions of Compact as may give Iust and Legal Securities of the Peace and Purity of our Religion Stability of our Laws priviledges of Parliaments and Subjects Liberties Civil and Ecclesiastick and make our Subjection both a clear Duty and a comfortable Happiness And because Kings are but Men mortal mutable and
fallible particularly We crave that he be bound in his Royal Oath not only to Govern according to the Will and Command of GOD and Ancient Laudible and Righteous Laws in the Ministration of Justice punishment of Iniquities Redressing of just Grievances and preservation of true Liberties But above all that he and his Sucessors profess persevere in Protect and maintain the true Protestant Religion abolish Poperie and all false Religion Heresie Idolatrie and Superstition revive the Penal Lawes against the same re-establish and Redintegrate the Ancient Covenanted Work of Reformation of this Church in Doctrine worship discipline and Government according to the Word of GOD Confession of Faith Covenants National and Solemn League upon its old foundations as Established from the Year 1638. and downward to 1650 And that he restore and Confirme by his Princely Sanction the due Priviledges of the Church granted to her by JESUS CHRIST her only Head and Supreme and never assume to himself an Erastian Supremacy over the Church in Causes Ecclessiastick or Unbounded Prerogative in Civils above Law but as the Keeper of both Tables of the Law of God in a way Competent to Civil Authority interpose his Power for the Ejecting out of the Church the Prelats the main Instruments of the Church and Nations Miseries And from all Administration of the Power and Trust in the State such Malignant Enemies as have promoted the Ruine thereof Upon these or the like Termes We tender our Allegiance to King William and hope to give more pregnant Proof of our Loyalty to his Majesty in Adverse as well as Prosperous Providences than they have done or can do who profess Implicite Subjection to Absolute Authority so long only as Providence preserves its Grandure MAY IT THEREFORE PLEASE YOUR HON. To take the Premises into Your serious Consideration and put a Favourable Construction on this our Humble and Earnest Request which sense of Duty in desire to Exoner our Conseiences and in Complyance with and at the Solicitation of the Cries of many Thousands in the Nation moved and craved We take the Confidence to present to Your HON. In the Hope that Zeal for GOD and his Church regard to Iustice and Mercy Care of Your own as well as the Countries Interest dutiful Love Loyalty and Gratitude to King William and even Pity to us will prevail with Your Wisdom to grant in with all convenient Expedition And Your Supplicants shall ever Pray c. FROM what is above hinted it may appear that We are not Enemies to Government but that as we have had Occasion We have given more Evidences of true Loyalty than any of our Traducers and of true Zeal to have this Government fixed on such a Foundation as may make it Secure and Stable and Subjection thereunto to be not only a Duty but a Comfort And with the same inviolable Zeal Affection and Fidelity since others will not We cannot forbear to Remonstrare those Grievances that are as well hateful to GOD and hurtful to the Government as Grievous to Us. First As to the Church tho' all Honest Subjects have been impatiently expecting the settlement thereof from the Kings Declaration his Promises at the Acceptance of the Crown and his Instructions to D. Hamiltoun Yet to this Day it is neither Settled nor Purged nor Planted but kept in uncertain suspense what to fear or what to hope Popery indeed is much suppressed in a way wherein much of GOD and little of Man is to be acknowledged and admired yet the Ancient Laudable Laws against Papists Seminary Priests Sayers and Hearers of Mass are not Revived Reinforced nor put in Execution while many of these Idolaters and Intycers to Idolatry are connived at past without punishment and favourably Intreated when some of us have apprehend them and delivered them into Custody Whence they are much encouraged where they Cohabite in great Numbers especially in the Sea Coast of Galloway where they may open a Door and free Ingress to the Irish whenever they have a mind to Invade whereby the Country about is contiunally Tormented with fears of their Massacres and Murdering Attempts We can never be freed from the hazard of the Return of Popery so long as Papists are so much Tolerated and are bragging of their hopes of getting a Toleraration established Suspending and Dispensing with the Penal Statutes against them which will defile the Land with Idolatry and expose us to the Judgement of GOD. We desire also to be thankful that Poperies eldest Daughter the Episcopal Hierarehy or Prelacy hath got such a knock on the head that it is abolished by Law its return so far Legally precluded that the removal thereof being one of the Stipulations Artieles of Compact with his Majesty at the Disposal and Acceptance of the Crown it cannot be restored without asignal Violation of the Regal Covenant the native Consequences whereof may beforeseen to be so dangerous that we hope the Kings Wisdom and Justice will be proof against all the Insinuations and Perswasions of the Church of England to hazard it yet it is a very burdensome Grievance that the settlement of the Church Government is so long suspended and the Nation kept in Suspense not knowing what shall be settled in stead of Prelacy abolished whereby the Land is left to settle in nothing but to rest and rott in old Crying sins and new provocations are daylie Multiplied without control Scandals and Disorders to the dishonour of GOD reproach of Religion stumbling the weak hardening the perverse and offending all are not restrained but much encouraged and different factions much fomented while Church Government and Discipline the only Preservative and restaurative Medicine for such Distempers is neither established nor any rule determined by which it shall be Established except the Inclinations of the People which are in themselves very variable and must be ruled by and not a Rule unto the Institutions of IESVS CHRIST And as they are variable so they are as Various and diverse as there are Numbers of Persons or Parties that prefer their own Humours and Interests to the Supreme Law the revealed will of Christ Some are for Erastianisme Some for a constant Moderatorship some for a Superintendency some perhaps for Independency some for a Toleration of all some are for a continuance of the Curates either without any Accommodation with them and secluding them from a share of the Government but suffering them still to Exercise their Ministry Or by an Accommodation and Coalition with them in the Government also some again are for the continuance of Patronages how ever it be We and many Thousands are against all these things as being contrary to the Word of GOD abjured frequently in our COVENANTS NATIONAL and SOLEMN LEAGVE condemned in the confession of this and all other best Reformed Churches And in the doleful experience of former times known to be inlets to many wicked inventions innovations and corruptions in the Church And in process of time