many Persons and Families otherwise exposed to Ruine might not become fuel to new Disorders or the seeds of future Troubles His Majesty desires that His Two Houses of Parliament should seriously descend into these Considerations and tenderly look upon His Condition herein and the perpetual Dishonour that must cleave to Him if He should thus desert so many persons of Condition and Fortune that have engaged themselves with Him only out of a sense of Duty His Majesty is very unwilling to enlarge Himself further upon this Subject but earnestly desires that upon Conference these Particulars may be better understood and reconciled wherein He will condescend to all that in Honour and Iustice He may do concerning the same and then they may likewise particularly consider and conclude of the best Means to discharge the Publick Debts as likewise those of His Majesties and then His Majesty will apply Himself to the Consideration concerning the Seals and any other thing now casually omitted or to which for the present without further Information or Debate His Majesty cannot give any positive Answer As for the Offices which are mentioned in the 17th Article albeit His Majesty judges that the free Disposal of them is a necessary Flower of the Crown yet he is content for the space of these next Ten Years to come to nominate such both for England and Ireland who after shall be approved of by the Two Houses to be enjoyed by these Persons Quam diu se bene gesserint so that after the said Ten Years they shall return to be disposed of as formerly His Majesty will very willingly consent to the Act for the Confirmation of the Priviledges and Customs of the City of London And now that His Majesty hath thus far endeavoured to comply with the Desires of His Two Houses of Parliament He conceives it seasonable for Him to propose some things for Himself which if consented to may be a testimony of their reciprocal Affections to Him First that an Act of Oblivion and General Pardon be passed by Act of Parlâ—ament whereby all the seeds of Discontentments and future Troubles may be quite extirpated Secondly that the Two Houses would settle upon His Majesty such a certain Revenue as may be honourable and sufficient for the support of Him His Wife Children and their Families Lastly that this Agreement may be firm and lasting His Majesty desires to come to Westminster with honourable Freedom and Safety there solemnly to confirm the same where He may both give and receive Pledges of mutual Love Confidence and of Trust with them in all things which shall concern the good and prosperity of His People Newcastle the Decemb. 1646. To this Letter with the Inclosed Message my Lord Lanerick wrote the following Answer Lanerick 's Answer to His Majesty Most Sacred Soveraign IMmediately after the receipt of Your Majesties Commands of the 4th Instant by Sir James Hamilton I imparted under a tye of Secrecy Your intended Message to the Houses of Parliament to such Persons as I knew were most tender of Your Majesties Honour and Happiness but I must humbly beg Your Majesties Pardon if my Freedom offend since I cannot conceal so important a Truth as that I cannot find many here satisfied with it nor dare I promise the least Countenance to it from this Kingdom seeing Your Majesty hath divers times verbally and now again by Your Letter assured me of Your Resolution to adhere to the Grounds contained in this Message I shall not presume to make any Objections against it having when I had the honour to wait upon Your Majesty last represented my sense of that You was pleased to send by Mr. Murray whereof this in divers Particulars comes far short for besides that it is as wanting in that Article concerning Religion Your Majesty offers far less than you did at that time by the private Instructions Your Majesty then gave Him in the Propositions about the Militia Officers of State and the Great Seal yet I find not Your Majesties Condition is much more promising at least to vulgar eyes That Clause concerning the Liberty Your Majesty would allow to Tender Consciences is one of the meanest Particulars that is misliked in Your Majesties Answer to the Proposition concerning Religion Your Majesties Preface to that Article the Limitation of time to Presbyterial Government the addition of Twenty of Your Majesties Nomination to the Assembly of Divines the particular Exception of Your Own Family and what is most of all the total omission of making any mention of the Covenant are the most insisted-on Objections But as I dare not think upon the sad Consequences in relation to Your Majesties Person and Government which will presently follow upon the Return of the Scotish Army and Your Majesties declining to allow the Covenant without which though I presume not to press it all that can be offered will not satisfie here so I will not conceal the great advantages which I conceive the doing of it would bring to Your Majesty and to those You study to preserve for I am confident it might be so managed as this Kingdom would not only declare themselves for Preserving Your Majesties just Rights in Civil Relations but likewise engage themselves for an honourable and speedy Invitation of Her Majesty to return from France Besides an easie passing of all such who during these Troubles have adhered to Your Majesty in England with what else could be expected from faithful and dutiful Subjects But I have by my impertinent Expressions exceeded both my Intention and Duty for which I humbly beg Pardon for Your Majesties most faithful most loyal most obedient Subject and Servant LANERICK Edinburgh 8th Decemb. 1646. Upon this His Majesty wrote what follows Lanerick I Like well of your accustomed Freedom nor shall I alter My stile to you and indeed as I am well satisfied with your Proceedings His Majesty writes more fully on these Heads in order to My Commands sent by Sir James Hamilton so I wonder much that My intended Answer had so ill a Reception among you for aâ—beit I could not expect that you would approve what I know is so much against your Wishes yet I thought that even Common Charity besides believe Me there is also the Interest of the Country which would be considered might make you endeavour to make the best of that yâ—u saw remediless Yet since what I sent you is so much mistaken the rest is the less wonder to Me for it amazes Me to hear that some amongst you who know every tittle that Will. Murray carried say that this is far short in divers Particulars when there is but one which is the Militia for which there is any colour and not that neither but in a much wrested sense And is it not so when private Instructions are the only ground which only permit a further Latitude to be made use of in case of absolute necessity and not otherwise it being a new kind of Incivility
had been committed in the way of introducing the late Books His Majesty did more than correct that by His gracious Condescensions that he was resolved as soon as the Country was settled to call both an Assembly and Parliament if they themselves obstructed it not but withall he represented to them the madness of hazarding on a Rupture with the King they knew it would not be uneasie to engage England against them the Kings Navy was in good case and it would be no trouble to the King to destroy their Trade which would quickly impoverish the Country therefore he desired they would follow such courses as might redeem themselves and their Country from Ruine and Infamy This prevailed with divers and all acknowledged there was that strength of reason in his Discourse that it was not easie to resist him long and see him much but there were rough and wild Spirits who could neither be tamed nor tuned right by it yet the Multitudes began to disperse but the Covenant was so dear to them that it was the endangering of all to speak of delivering it up On the 15th of Iune he received the following Answer from His Majesty to the Accounts he had sent him Hamilton THough I answered not yours of the fourth yet I assure you that I have not been idle so that I hope by the next week I shall send you some good assurance of the advancing of our Preparations This say not to make you precipitate any thing for I like of all you have hitherto done and even of that which I find you mind to doe but to shew you that I mean to stick to my Grounds and that I expect not any thing can reduce that People to their Obedience but onely Force I thank you for the clearness of your Advertisements of all which none troubles me so much as that in a manner they have possessed themselves of the Castle of Edinburgh and likewise I hold Sterlin as good as lost As for the dividing of my Declaration I find it most fit in that way you have resolved it to which I shall adde that I am content to forbear the latter part thereof until you hear my Fleet hath set sail for Scotland In the mean time your care must be how to dissolve the Multitude and if it be possible to possess your self of my Castles of Edinburgh and Sterlin which I do not expect And to this end I give you leave to flatter them with what hopes you please so you engage not me against my Grounds and in particular that you consent neither to the calling of Parliament nor General Assembly untill the Covenant be disavowed and given up your chief end being now to win time that they may not commit publick Follies untill I be ready to suppress them and since it is as you well observe my own People which by this means will be for a time ruined so that the loss must be inevitably mine and this if I could eschew were it not with a greater were well But when I consider that not onely now my Crown but my Reputation for ever lies at stake I must rather suffer the first that Time will help than this last which is irreparable This I have written to no other end than to shew you I will rather die than yield to those impertinent and damnable Demands as you rightly call them for it is all one as to yield to be no King in a very short time So wishing you better success than I can expect I rest Your assured constant Friend CHARLES R. Greenwich 11 June 1638. POSTSCRIPT As the Affairs are now I do not expect that you should declare the Adherers to the Covenant Traitors until as I have already said you have heard from me that my Fleet hath set Sail for Scotland though your six weeks should be elapsed In a word gain time by all the honest means you can without forsaking your Grounds But he had taken his Resolution about this set down in the Postscript before he got the Kings Answer He delays to publish the Proclamation to avoid an affront for he wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury that he was resolved on it finding the hazard on the one side was a present Rupture which would have been the ruine of the Kings Affairs and of all his Friends whereas the hazard of not doing it was onely the cutting off his Head for transgressing his Instructions which he was willing not onely to endanger but lose for the Kings Service But till the Multitudes were wholly dispersed he duâ—st not hazard on the the publishing of the Proclamation lest Authority might have met with an affront in it This was now doing apace Commissioners onely staying in name of the rest but all the Ministers hearing that the Covenant must be given up or no Treaty made their Pulpits ring with it and the Marquis was to purpose inveighed against some not sparing to say that the faggots in Hell were prepared for his reward but all declared they would never quit their Covenant but with their Lives A Protestation was also resolved on whenever the Declaration should be published which made it be delayed a little longer and it was told him by the Kings Advocate that a Protestation might be legally made and that it had been done so in the year 1621. But for all this things begun to promise some likelyhood ofSettlement which made him write to the King not to proceed in his warlike Preparations till things were more desperate to which he received the following Answer Hamilton THe dealing with Multitudes makes diversity of Advertisement no way strange and certainly the alteration from worse to less ill cannot be displeasing wherefore you may be confident I cannot but approve your Proceedings hitherto for certainly you have gained a very considerable point in making the heady Multitude begin to disperse without having engaged me in any unfitting thing I shall take your advice in staying the publick Preparations for Force but in a silent way by your leave I will not leave to prepare that I may be reaâ—y upon the least advertisement Now I hope there may be a possibility of securing my Castles but I confess it must be done closely and cunningly One of the chief things you are to labour now is to get a considerable number of Sessioners and Advocates to give their opiniâ—n that the Covenant is at least against Law if not treasonable Thus you have my Approbation in several shapes tâ—erefore you need not doubt but that I am Your assured constant Friend CHARLES R. Theobalds 13 Jun. 1638. At this time the Session sate not He advises the King to bring back the Session to Edinburgh for the Town and Country about Sterlin threatned them so that they could not return thither wherefore the Marquis desired a Warrant from the King to bring the Session back to Edinburgh both because it was not fit they should be too far from himself and the Council
been conceived of more use to Your Majesties Service Your condition is so variously represented here that Your faithfullest Servants know not how to carry themselves therefore the intimation of Your Majesties Own Pleasure would be of great use No sooner shall the temper of People here which for the present is strangely inflamed be any thing allayed than one or both of us You commanded shall attend You according to the Duty of Your Majesties most humble most faithful most obedient Subject and Servant LANERICK His Majesty upon that wrote what follows Lanerick The Kings account of the usage he had in the Army IT is impossible for Me at present to give a Categorical Answer to your I confess necessary Question all I can say is that I am now at much more Freedom than I was at Holmby for My Friends have free access to Me My Chaplains wait upon Me according to their Vocation and I have free Intelligence with My Wife and any Body else whom I please all which was flatly denied me before besides the Professions are much more frank and satisfactory to what I desire of this Army than ever was offered by the Presbyterians And truly if these People rightly understood their own Condition and Interests they must do what they profess which is that King Parliament and People may each have respectively what is their own and yet it must be their Actions not Words alone which shall make Me put Confidence in them Hitherto they have made Me no particular Offers though daily pressed by Me but assoon as I can clearly see through their Intentions one way or other I will not fail to advertise you with My Commands thereupon In the mean time having truly though shortly set you down the true estate of My present Condition I leave you to judge and do what you shall find best for My Service So I rest Your most assured real constant Friend CHARLES R. Casam 12th July 1647. POSTSCRIPT I have intrusted this trusty Bearer with several Particulars which I thought too long for a Letter And the day after that he wrote again Lanerick THis is first to recommend this honest Bearer to your Care to further him in passing of those small Favours I have bestowed upon him next that you would do your best for the relief of those Gordons who were lately taken both which as to you were needless but that I know it is fit for Me at all occasions to express the Care I have of those that wish Me well So farewell Your most assured real constant Friend CHARLES R. Casam 13th July 1647. POSTSCRIPT Send me word if you have yet remembred your Promise to Me concerning the late Archbishop of St. Andrews his Book To which my Lord Lanerick wrote this Answer May it please Your Majesty YOurs of the 12th I received yesterday Lanerick's Answer We are joyed for what you write of the Civilities you met with but are full of doubts and fears of their Continuance especially since we are informed that notwithstanding all Publick Professions strange Demands are preparing to be offered to Your Majesty I ever hated thralling of Consciences yet I shall be sorry there were no other price of Spiritual Freedom than Your Majesties loss of all Temporal Power This Kingdom will be easily induced to venture their Lives for the last but none will hazard the first since they will not declare for Your Majesty but clogged with the Covenant It was thought fit to delay all Resolutions untill the 5th of August next expecting against that time either from the nature of the Demands we hear are now to be made to Your Majesty or from the carriage of the Army to Your Sacred Person grounds will be given either to rest satisfied or to resent it as becomes Loyal Subjects It is wished Your Majesties true Condition and positive Pleasure may be made known from Your Self if possible against that time when certainly the sense both of this Church seeing the General Assembly will be then sitting and State upon the present Differences in England as they have relation to or can have influence upon Scotland will be made known It is wished Your Majesties Prudence may prevent further Prejudice by going at first the full length You intend in granting what Conditions shall be demanded or if You find them absolutely destructive to You to put Your Self in that Condition that our Persons and Lives may be of use to Your Majesty which shall be the constant care of Your Majesties most faithful most loyal most obedient Subject and Servant LANERICK Edinburgh 21th July 1647. POSTSCRIPT I have not as yet been able to put Your Commands in execution concerning the Bishop of St. Andrew's Book in regard the Copy I have is both uncorrect and wanting in many essential things but I have already taken a Course to have that supplyed from a true Copy of the Original now in the possession of our Commissioners at London His Majesties Answer follows Lanerick YOurs of the 21th Instant I received yesterday having before resolved to have written to you though I had received none from you to shew you from time to time what My Condition is And yet for easing My pains I have thought fit to refer you to the Bearer John Chisley to tell you the true State of Affairs with My Opinion thereupon to whom I have largely and fully spoken My Mind wherefore I will only say this one word that whatsoever you resolve on you must not think to mention as to England either Covenant or Presbyterial Government for it will ruin you and do Me no good experience of which was clearly seen at Newcastle So desiring you to trust this Bearer I rest Your most assured real constant Friend CHARLES R. Wooburn 27th July 1647. The Army forces the Parliament The Army drew nearer London declaring they came to restore the King and to reform the Parliament This was Popular and took with many wherefore the Parliament to undeceive both King and People Voted His Majesties coming to Richmond for a Personal Treaty and that the Army should not come within thirty miles of London But the Army refused obedience and carried the King with them and sent threatning Messages for Recalling of those Votes and they designed next to model the Two Houses whereupon a frivolous general Charge was drawn against 11 of the most considerable Members who withstood their Designs and they pressed their Suspension from the House But it was Voted in Parliament to be against Law to suspend any Member upon a general Charge without bringing in and proving special matter And the Two Houses did choose a Committee of Safety to Treat with the City of London for Raising a new Militia for their own Security and some of the Trained Bands were drawn together under Presbyterian Officers Upon this the Army came to London forced the Houses to recall their Votes and disband their Forces and drove away the eleven Members And thus having
safety of Religion Kirk and Commonwealth depends much upon the comfortable assistance which all of them daily receive from Royal Iustice and Authority we protest and promise with our Hearts under the Obligation of the same Oath to defend not only this our Religion but the Kings Majesties Sacred Person and Authority as also the Laws and Liberties of this our Country under His Majesties Soveraign Power with our best Counsels Bodies Goods and whole Estates according to the Laws and against all sorts of persons and in all things whatsoever and likewise mutually to defend our selves and one another in this abovementioned Cause under the same obligation But while the Marquis was busie at Court procuring this Gracious Answer to their Demands and while His Majesty was condescending to such extraordinary Favours to them the Covenanters in Scotland were going on The Covenanters are very busie in Scotland posting up and down the Country for more Subscriptions to the Covenant and because the North continued firm to their Duty some Noblemen and Ministers went thither to draw them to their Party and on the 23d of Iuly they came to Aberdeen where there was a company of worthy and learned Doctors and Professors But the Covenanters welcome there was so cold all the Subscriptions they got being but 19 or 20 and they were not admitted to preach in the publick Churches which made them preach in the Court of the Earl Marshal's Lodgings that they went away full of fury and threats against that Place and this gave the rise to that Debate which followed betwixt the Doctors of Aberdeen and those Ministers Debates betwixt the Doctors in Aberdeen and them which the Learned Doctors managed with so great advantage as did not a little confound the whole Party and the Ministers being pinched by them about the lawfulness of combining without warrant of Authority alledged that my Lord Commissioner was satisfied with the Covenant upon the offer of that Explication was mentioned formerly But the falshood of this Calumny was cast back on them with shame by him at his return for as he had never expressed any satisfaction with their Covenant so all the ground they had for that was because according to the Kings Order he had treated about that Explication to gain time He brought along with him to Scotland Dean Balcanqual Doctor Balcanqual comes to Scotland a man of great parts of subtil wit and so eloquent a Preacher that he seldom preached in Scotland without drawing Tears from the Auditors Him the Marquis intended to make use of as his Council in Church-affairs which Trust he discharged faithfully and diligently and received those Informations which were made publick in the large Declaration penned by him The Marquis came to Holyroodhouse on the tenth of August and found things in a much worse posture than he had left them and that the Flames were growing almost past quenching for at a Convention of Burroughs a few days before they had enacted The Covenanters high resolutions That none might be Magistrates or bear Office in any Burrough except he had first taken the Covenant and the Covenanters were resolved that Bishops should have no Vote in the Assembly unless they were chosen by a Presbytery and they were sure that should not be They were resolved to abolish Episcopacy and to declare it unlawful and excommunicate if not all yet most of the Bishops they were resolved to condemn the Articles of Perth and discharge Bishops to Vote in Parliament they were also resolved to ordain all under pain of Excommunication to sign the Covenant and to shew they meant to break out into Hostility they were beginning to levy men in several places But to make sure work of the Assembly they fell on a new device of Lay-elders to be chosen Commissioners who should be men of the greatest power and interest whereby they doubted not to carry all things and because in a Meeting at Edinburgh of Ministers being 120 in number about four parts of five were only for limiting of Episcopacy it was resolved by the Iunto that none of these should be Commissioners The Marquis being surprized with so great a change of the State of Affairs gave account of all these inconveniences to His Majesty and resolved not to proceed to call a General Assembly since he saw what effects it was like to produce till he first went and acquainted His Majesty with these hazards On the 13th of August the Covenanters came to demand his Answer The Marquis makes known His Majesties intentions he told them he had a clear and full Answer to give them but desired to be excused till he first communicated it to the Council which was to sit next day So they were satisfied for that time and on the fourteenth he held a Council where he delivered His Majesties Answer in these Terms My Lords I Thought it fit to acquaint your Lordships before I returned His Majesties Answer to the Noblemen and others petitioning for the same which is so full of Grace and Goodness that we have all cause to bless God and thank His Majesty for it such is his tender care of this poor distracted Kingdom that he will leave nothing undone that can be expected from a Iust Prince to save us from Ruine and since he finds such Distraction in the Church and State that they cannot be well settled without a Parliament and Assembly the state of the Country and business being prepared for it he hath given me Warrant for calling of both that they may be orderly held as formerly they have been according to the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom And further I am to declare to your Lordships that this we are to attribute only to His Goodness for we cannot but acknowledge that our carriage hath been such as justly we might have expected that he would have taken another course with us which he was Royally and really prepared for had not His Mercy prevailed above His just Indignation and by a powerful and forcible way have taught us Obedience which he hath forborn to make use of meerly out of His Grace and Goodness It is our duty to let His Subjects know how great our obligation is to Him which every one of us in particular and all of us in general should strive to make every one sensible of and labour so far as lieth in our power to procure satisfaction to His Majesty and quiet to this distracted Church and State The day following he gave the Covenanters the same Answer with which they were no way satisfied But the Covenanters were not satisfied They asked what he meant by preparing of business he said it was to establish Order and Government again in the Country as it was before those Combustions and upon this he gave them a Note of those particulars His Majesty ordered to be settled and assured them immediately upon their Obedience he should indict an Assembly and Parliament as he was
Our Council by Our Letter to that effect CHARLES R. Oatlands the 9th of Septemb. 1638. With these His Majesty did also sign the following Instructions for his behaviour with the Bishops CHARLES R. Instructions to be communicated to the Bishops YOV shall shew My Lord of St. Andrews that We intend by being content with his demission of the Chancellours Place no injury to him and most willing We are that in the manner of doing it he may receive no prejudice in his reputation though we cannot admit at this time of his nominating a Successor and to make it more plain that We are far from having any thought to affront him by thinking of his demission We will in no ways that you urge him to do it yet you are to intimate that in Our opinion a fair Demission will prove more to the advancement of Our Service and be better for him than if he should retain the Place If you find him willing to demit you shall then try what consideration he doth expect from Vs and if the same be not altogether unreasonable you shall promise it in Our Name If a demission then it is presently to be done If he resolve to hold that Place then you must prâ—sently command his repair to Scotland all excuses set apart You shall communicate to him and the rest of his Brethren that far of Our Intentions that it is probable you may indict a General Assembly Thai We are content absolutely to discharge the Books of Service and Canons and the High Commission You shall shew that the Five Articles of Perth We are pleased be esteemed as indifferent and that though We maintain Episcopacy yet We will be content that their Power be limited according to the Laws And it is Our further Pleasure that if an Assembly be indicted he and the rest of his Brethren be there to defend themselves and their Cause and for that end that he and they repair to Newcastle Morpeth or Berwick there to attend your further advertisement that so immediately they may repair to Scotland not only to answer for themselves at the said Assembly but likewise to consult with you what will be fiâ—test to be done for the advancement of Our Service that evil may be kept off so much as in you and them lieth both from Kirk and Commonwealth C.R. Oatlands the 9th September 1638. As for the Place where the Assembly should be held The Assembly was to sit at Glasgow though in the written Instructions it is referred to my Lord Commissioners choice Edinburgh only excepted yet it seems it hath been concerted betwixt the King and him where it should hold for in a Paper concerning the Assembly presented by the Marquis to the King yet extant where mention is made of the Place of the Assembly the King with His Own hand interlined Glasgow if may be and without doubt that was the fittest place for as the City was large and convenient so the Magistracy there was right set Besides it was next to the place of the Marquis his Interest whereby his power for over-ruling them might have been greatest neither was it fit they should go so far from the scene as Aberdeen which was advised by my Lord St. Andrews since for the Strangers it would have been all to one purpose for thither they would all have flocked and it seemed not so proper they should meet in a Place or Country which was still well set lest the numbers and boldness of those Strangers had either poysoned or frighted them from their Duty But to make the whole matter clear I shall here set down the Covenant and Bond which were now enjoyned by His Majesty WE all and every one of us underwritten protest The National Covenant first signed by King Iames and now received by the Kings Order that after long and due examination of our Consciences in Matters of true and false Religion we are now thorowly resolved in the Truth by the Word and Spirit of God and therefore we believe with our Hearts confess with our Mouthes subscribe with our Hands and constantly affirm before God and the whole World that this only is the true Christian Faith and Religion pleasing God and bringing Salvation to man which is now by the Mercy of God revealed to the World by the preaching of the blessed Evangel and received believed and defended by many and sundry notable Kirks and Realms but chiefly by the Kirk of Scotland the Kings Majesty and the Estates of this Realm as Gods eternal Truth and only ground of our Salvation as more particularly is expressed in thâ— Confession of our Faith stablished and publickly confirmed by sundry Acts of Parliaments and now of a long time hath been openly professed by the Kings Majesty and whole body of this Realm both in Burgh and Land to the which Confession and form of Religion we willingly agree in our Consciences in all points as unto Gods undoubted Truth and verity grounded only upon his written Word and therefore we abhor and detest all contrary Religion and Doctrine but chiefly all kind of Papistry in general and particular Heads even as they are now damned and confuted by the Word of God and Kirk of Scotland But in special we detest and refuse the usurped Authority of that Roman Antichrist upon the Scriptures of God upon the Kirk and Civil Magistrate and Consciences of men all his tyrannous Laws made upon indifferent things against our Christian Liberty his erroneous Doctrine against the Sufficiency of the written Word the perfection of the Law the Office of Christ and his blessed Evangel his corrupted Doctrine concerning Original Sin our natural inability and rebellion to Gods Law our Iustification by Faith only our imperfect Sanctification and obedience to the Law the nature number and use of the Holy Sacraments his Five bastard Sacraments with all his Rites Ceremonies and false Doctrine added to the ministration of the true Sacraments without the Word of God his cruel Iudgements against Infants departing without the Sacrament his absolute necessity of Baptism his blasphemous opinion of Transubstantiation or real presence of Christs Body in the Elements and receiving of the same by the wicked or bodies of men his Dispensations with Solemn Oaths Perjuries and degrees of Marriage forbidden in the Word his cruelty against the Innocent divorced his devilish Mass his blasphemous Priesthood his profane Sacrifice for the sins of the dead and the quick his Canonization of men calling upon Angels or Saints departed worshipping of Imagery Reliques and Crosses dedicating of Kirks Altars Days Vows to Creatures his Purgatory Prayers for the Dead praying or speaking in strange Language with his Processions and blasphemous Litany and multitude of Advocates or Mediators his manifold Orders Auricular Confession his desperate and uncertain Repentance his general and doubtsome Faith his Satisfactions of men for their sins his Iustification by Works Opus operatum Works of Supererrogation Merits Pardons Peregrinations and Stations
most assured who expressed their satisfaction to the full Then he pressed it might be put to the Vote which was there debated at length but some desired they might proceed more maturely since it was a Confession of Faith they were to sign This could not be refused and so was followed by a long debate and in end many desired they might not be put to sign it that night The Marquis remembring the Disorder had followed upon the last Act and resolving not to run such a risque again said he did not desire it should be signed that night but that they should be ready for it next morning withall protesting he would have none sign it but such whose Consciences were satisfied and who were ready to hazard Life and Fortune in the prosecution of it and so after he had caused Registrate His Majesties Letter they rose about ten a clock at night Most part of that night he spent in labouring those who had Scruples and consulting with such as were well affected In the morning the Clerk-Register and Kings Advocate came to draw the Forms of indicting the Assembly The Kings Advocate seemed unwilling it should be according to the style used in King Iames his latest times and much opposed by the Covenanters but he was over-ruled About six in the morning the Earl of Rothes and many of the Covenanting Lords desired access and the Marquis calling as many of the Council together as could be had of a sudden admitted them Rothes in the name of the rest said they heard the Council were to sign the old Confession of Faith and to publish a Declaration thereabout which they desired might be delayed till Monday next and then they doubted not to be able to give good reasons why they should not doe it The Marquis replied he should return them an Answer by the advice of the Lords of the Council quickly and from them he went to Council being firmly resolved to admit of no delay knowing that it was sought on design to divide the Council The Covenanters upon their Petition were called in to the Council and they raised a long Debate which lasted about four hours and in the end no delay was granted at which the Covenanters were infinitely discontented and went away not without some big words At length after three hours more debate amongst the Councellours The Council â—est satisfied with His Majesties offers it was carried without a contrary voice that the Confession should be presently signed next the Proclamation of Grace was ordered to be published with another for indicting an Assembly at Glasgow the 21th of November and another for a Parliament at Edinburgh the 15th of May next then they passed an Act declaring their full satisfaction with His Majesties Concessions together with a Letter of Thanks to His Majesty expressing their full satisfaction with large Engagements to adhere constantly to His Service and so they rose at four a clock having sate from seven in the morning The Proclamations were immediately sent to the Cross yet the Covenanters protest which there met with Protestations but many judged they went upon Grounds so weak that it was visible they were designed for no other end but to keep the People from being satisfied and to hinder the Subscription of the Confession and Bond. Many of the Council were displeased with the Protestation and swore to the Marquis that since Religion was now secured they would appear in another manner for the Kings Interest but all he could do could not persuade them to pass a Censure upon the Protestation as Seditious Next there were Commissions given out for the Shires to seek in Subscriptions to the Confession of Faith and the Earl of Rothes and some other Covenanters were joyned in the Commission for the several Shires which was censured by many but most of all by the King himself who knew not how to construct of this as will appear by a Letter which will be inserted in its place But most of the Councellours were earnest for it upon these Reasons that it gave these Lords a fair opportunity of retreating if they would accept of it it might also confirm all that the Kings Indemnity was designed to be Real when such persons were so soon trusted it might give some Jealousie to the other Covenanters against those who were so trusted as if under-hand they had given some Engagements But chiefly the Body of the People would be very much persuaded that the thing was designed in earnest when they read those Names in the Commissions Upon these Grounds the Marquis yielded to the desires of the Councellours and the King was fully satisfied when he was informed about it which will quickly appear Upon the notice His Majesty had of what passed he wrote the following Letter Hamilton I Have no time now to make my observations upon your Proceedings therefore now I shall onely tell you that I approve them all in what concerns your part of them and that not onely so but that I esteem it to be very great Service as the times are This much I thought necessary at this time to encourage you in your Proceedings my next shall be longer yet this is enough to assure you that I am Your assured constant Friend CHARLES R. Hampton-Court 30 Sept. 1638. This being done the Marquis his next Work was to preserve Episcopacy which was in visible hazard since the worst-affected every where were chosen Commissioners for the Assembly The Marquis apprehends the design against Episcopacy and of this he advertised the King desiring him to go on with his Preparations for fear of the worst and particularly he remembred him of the Resolution he had taken about Berwick which was that because Souldiers could not be levied in England and sent thither without making a direct Breach therefore a thousand and five hundred Souldiers should be levied in the Prince of Orange his Name in Holland and these be suddenly shipped and as suddenly landed at Berwick for securing of that place But withall he advertised His Majesty to go on with much secrecy lest the Covenanters might take the start of him and therefore he advised the stopping of a Magazine that was to be sent to Hull which since it was not presently to be made use of he thought might lie as well in the Tower of London as there And to this Dispatch he had the following Answer Hamilton I See by yours of the 27th of September that the Malignity of the Covenanters is greater than ever so that if you who are my true Servants do not use extraordinary Care and Industry my Affairs in that Kingdom are likely rather to grow worse than better therefore you that do your endeavours accordingly deserve the more praise and your opposers the more punishment and in my mind this last Protestation deserves more than any thing yet they have done for if raising of Sedition be Treason this can be judged no less And methinks if
to come and wait on Him And for the Militia the Scots had declared themselves satisfied with the Kings Concessions about it wherefore He desired they would stick to Him according to their Promises As for Religion He desired they would represent to those who were best-affected how dangerous it would be to insist too much on that at this time when the greatest hazard was from the Sectaries and that His Majesties consenting to a temporary Establishment of what they craved did put them in a fair way to their Desires And beside all this it was recommended to them to procure a delay of the Desire for an answer to the Propositions till the 16th of September When these Instructions were given them the King desired their promise first of Secrecy next of Fidelity in discharging what was intrusted to them for the second they undertook it but refused the first except the King also promised Secrecy His Majesty presently apprehended their Design was that the Duke and his Brother might understand nothing of their Imployment and finding it was a thing wherein neither of them was concerned He thought it unfit to disoblige Argyle by that Refusal since he was so able to serve him if he should be Cordial in it and He was secure of the two Brothers that if they mistook His Reservedness it would be easie for Him to clear Himself afterwards Yet this Secret was ill-kept among them for the Earl of Lauderdale had notice of it as he told the Author before they came to London but opposed much the seeking a Delay to a prefixed day since he knew that could not be granted without adding a dreadful Sanction of Deposing the King in case a favourable Answer came not against the day appointed and found it would be easier to procure a Delay by other Methods than by asking it The Duke and his Brother were much troubled with the Kings Reservedness in that Affair but assoon as they understood the ground of it they were satisfied But what success that Negotiation had or how it was managed doth not appear to me from any of the Duke's Papers In the beginning of August the Duke went to Scotland where his greatest Care was to see what could be done to get the Committee of Estates to be satisfied with the Kings Concessions The Duke deals with the Committee of Estates to get them to acquiesce in His Majesties Concessions representing to them how they did at once put England in the possession of the desired Church-Government and set the other out of the way which was a great stop to their full satisfaction He desired they would consider how inhumane and unchristian it was to force the Kings Conscience and how much it favoured of the Violence they had lately condemned in the Bishops It was visible that nothing but Conscience could be imagined to lye in the way of the Kings Accepting the Propositions and were His Majesty like many Princes to swallow down all things and belch them up at their Pleasure there would be less ado made but the Kings sticking at what He could not yield did abundantly secure them of His making good to them all that was promised On the other hand they were to consider that if they should now desert the King and bring their Army out of England it would make them odious through the whole World and the payment of the Arrears of their Army would pass under a far worse Character Besides England was divided and the Party that was most prevalent among them waâ— the Independent with the other Sectaries who would never carry on the Settlement of Religion and by their present carriage at London it appeared what Friendship they had for Scotland wherefore he moved earnestly that their Army should not be brought out of England till a firm Peace should be established according to the first Treaty Anno 1643. but was opposed by the Ministers This did shake many but some of the Leading Church-men were not satisfied with this and represented to their Party that all this was said smoothly to engage them to the Kings Quarrel which they were resolved never to do till the Covenant were taken by Him Neither were they well-satisfied with the Duke for his being instrumental in the Agreement with Montrose and his Party and it was preached to his face that all the Bloud that was lately shed would lye on them and their Posterity who for the pleasing of men had procured such Favour to the Enemies of God and of his Cause and People In the end of August they sent the Duke with the Earls of Crawford and Casilis and some others to deal with His Majesty for a speedy granting of the Propositions The Duke is sent to the King to obtain from him the granting the Propositions and to represent to him all the inconveniences that followed even upon a Delay much more upon a Denial The Duke had no willingness to the Employment misdoubting the Success and knowing his engaging avowedly in such a Message would be misrepresented but there was no avoiding of it for had he declined it he would have been suspected of being an ill Instrument and of Aversion from the thing which would have disabled him much from going on with the Kings Service They came to Newcastle in the beginning of September where they discharged themselves of their Commission to the full But the King answered them in the following Paper yet extant under His Majesties Hand My Lords I Shall begin by answering what you have now said for I assure you I had not thus long delayed My Answer The Kings Answer to their Desires but to weigh fully those Reasons and Arguments which you have laid before Me whereby to use the uttermost of My Endeavours to give you all poâ—sible Satisfaction for you having told Me nothing but what I have heard before the change of Answer could hardly be expected And now I do earnestly desire you to consider what it is that I desire which is To be heard which if a King should refuse to any of His Subjects He would for that be thought a Tyrant For this if I had but slight Reasons it were the less to be regarded but they are such upon which such a Peace as we all desire doth depend for albeit it is possible that if I should grant all you desire a Peace might be slubbered up yet it is impossible that it should be durable unless there should be a right Vnderstanding betwixt Me and My People which cannot be without granting of what I desire Yet I desire to be rightly understood for though many like to Esops Fable will call Ears Hornes yet let men say what they will I am far from giving you a Negative nay I Protest against it My only Desire being to be heard for I am confident that upon Debate I shall so satisfie them in some things as likewise I believe they may satisfie me in many things that we shall come to
Grounds therefore the Duke resolved on a present abandoning of Affairs and of retiring from the World Lanerick was so angry at this Design that he spared nothing that either his Affection or Wit could suggest to divert him from that desperate Resolution as he termed it He told him could he not be Religious but he must turn a Monk and did he not think it best to serve God in that Station whereunto he had called him or must he reject the choice of Gods Providence and turn his own Disposer and was he so mean-spirited as to abandon matters because of the difficulties that were in theâ— But all he could devise was not like to prevail for the Duke protested it was impossible for him to look on and see His Majesties Ruin which was inevitable upon the Grounds he went on At this time the Independents The Independents cajole the King fearing the extremity to which the King was driven might force him to consent to any thing upon which a Settlement might follow betook themselves to strange Methods to obstruct it they therefore gave some hopes that they would be willing to dispense with the imposing of the Covenant and consent to a Toleration of Episcopacy and the Liturgy provided they might be satisfied in other points This suiting so well with the Kings Inclinations had too good a hearing from him but my Lord Lauderdale wrote from London very warmly for undeceiving the King But Lauderdale disabuses his Majesty assuring him that he infallibly knew their Designs were the Ruin of Monarchy and the Destruction of the King and His Posterity and though they might cajole His Majesty with some smooth Propositions those were meant for His Ruine that they might once divide Him from His Parliaments after which they would destroy both Him and them were it in their power But if the King would now consent to the Propositions all would go right and in spight of the Devil and the Independents both he would be quickly on His Throne but Delays were full of danger for they that wished well to the King were becoming daily more heartless and the other Party grew in their Insolence and the Earl of Essex his Death at that time had given the greatest blow to the Kings Affairs they could have met with This he continued to represent by many Letters both to the King and those about Him yet His Majesty was much wrought upon to give credit to those Offers of the Sectaries which made Him the less apprehensive of hazard At length when the Duke saw His Majesty immoveable The Duke obtains His Majesties permission to retire he begged His permission to retire But the King resisted that with so much reason and affection that in the whole Course of His Favours to him there had not been any since the business of Ochiltry wherein He had more obliged him than by the tenderness that then appeared in him Yet the Duke was so importunate that at length the King seemed to give way to it at least the Duke understood it so whereupon with as sad a heart as ever man had he took leave of the King which he apprehended to be his last Farewell and it proved to be so indeed except a transient view he had of Him at Windsor So he left the King and carried home with him a heart so fraughted with Melancholy that all could be done was not able to rouse him out of it and neither the tears of his dying Mother nor the intreaties of his Friends nor the constant persecution of his Brother who was much vexed at it were able to divert him from his Resolution for having overcome the Kings dislike of it which was stronger than all other things with him he was proof against every thing else But His Majesty quickly repented Him of that tacit consent He seemed to give and therefore sent after him this handsom Letter Hamilton I Have so much to write and so little time for it that this Letter will be suitable to the Times Which His Majesty retracts by His Letter without Method or Reason and yet you will find Lusty Truths in it which puts Me again out of fashion but the fitter for him to whom I write Now to My business but lest I should now forget it I must first tell you that those at London think to get Me into their hands by telling Our Country-men that they do not intend to make Me a Prisoner O No by No means but only to give Me an honourable Guard forsooth to attend Me continually for the security of My Person wherefore I must tell you and 't is so far from a secret that I desire every one should know it only for the way I leave it to you to manage it for My best advantage that I will not be left in England when this Army retires and these Garisons are rendred without a visible violent force upon My Person unless clearly and according to the old way of understanding I may remain a Free-man and that no Attendant be forced upon Me upon any pretence whatsoever So much for that A Discourse yesternight with Rob. Murray was the cause of this Letter having no such Intention before because I esteemed you a man no more of this part of the World believing your Resolutions to be like the Laws of the Medes and Persians But however he shewed Me such Reasons that I found it fit to do what I am doing for I confess one mans errour is no just excuse for anothers omission which is to stay your forreign Iourney by perswasion As for the Arguments I refer you to Robin only I will undertake to tell you some positive Truths the chief whereof is That it is not fit for you to go then It is less shame to recant than to persist in an Errour My last is By going you take away from Me the means of shewing My Self Your most assured real faithful constant Friend CHARLES R. New-Castle September 26th 1646. But this Letter will be lame unless made up with the Cover that went about it from Sir Robert Murray which was as he wrote in his next almost wholly the Kings words and not only his sense for the King the night before falling in Discourse with Sir Robert about the Duke discovered very fully the Constancy of His Royal kindness to him whereupon he laid His Commands on Sir Robert to put him in mind of the Inconveniences his obstinacy in that Resolution would heap upon him and mentioned them these are Sir Robert's words with a Friendliness that related not to his own Concernments Indeed they are such as the very apprehension of them cannot but deeply wound a Soul so great as yours They are briefly these The withdrawing your self at this time will be believed to proceed from a tacit Ioy at the appearance of the bad Success of his Affairs or rather out of a design to contribute to it under the disguise of a seeming Retiredness and
that particular Freedoms should be esteemed Publick Obligations yet if they think they have so great a catch of it so that Scotland will declare for Me I will stand to the least tittle of these Instructions nothing being omitted according to their plain Grammatical sense As for the Officers of State certainly My Advocate will clear that Mistaking for all the Alteration concerning them is only for the better Conformity of that Paper which he brought from London And for the Great Seal upon the perusal of all My Papers I have not wit enough to find from whence the ground of going less can be taken but for Religion I know not what to say except endeavouring to be civil be termed a going less if so that fault shall be soon helped And indeed I cannot but think it strange that rather than to comply any thing with My Conscience you will I speak not personally to you but to the Kingdom in general submit to the Wills of those who at least can never prove your Friends and that to the visible Prejudice I may say more both of you and Me though I express My endeavouring to content you by shewing you more than a probable way for attaining your Pretensions which you make altogether desperate by rejecting My Offer And truly I am confident not to be single to think your Exceptions strange for first civil Ingenuity uses not to be misliked then I rather expected Thanks for giving of some time to Presbyterial Government than to have the Limitation of it objected against Me especially since that without Me it cannot be established And is it unfit for Me to have what is granted to all Publick Ministers by the Law of Nations Yes I cry you mercy for Kings use to dispense not to be dispensed with And why will ye not have Twenty Divines of My Nomination to speak amongst your grave Assembly Is it that you misdoubt your Cause or that you will not have it disputed neither of these Reasons can I submit to a third I cannot find Lastly as for your Covenant when and not before I shall be satisfied in My Conscience that I may allow it I will but I see no way for that satisfaction unless by such a Conference as I have proposed Now for sad Consequences I know no Antidote so good as a clear Conscience which by the Grace of God I will preserve whatsoever else happen to Your most assured real constant Friend CHARLES R. Newcastle 14th December 1646. POSTSCRIPT I have so much work now that if you had ten Brethren what I have written is enough for them all A few days after this His Majesty sent His last Message to the Two Houses to be presented to the Scotish Parliament with which he wrote the following Letters to the two Brothers Hamilton I Thank you for the timeous advertisement you and your Brother have sent Me by this Bearer whom I have returned to you with some Queries which I desired a Friend of yours to write more at large to you than I have now time for to which and to this Bearer referring you I rest Your most assured real faithful constant Friend CHARLES R. Newcastle December 19th 1646. Lanerick SInce I saw by what Sir James Hamilton brought Me from you what Reception My intended Message to London was likely nay sure to have and since My Conscience will not permit Me a further Length I know not what I may do upon a full and free Debate at London I have sent another the Copy whereof is here inclosed which I expresly send you to acquaint the Scotish Parliament with what I have done and to desire their Assistance in it in which knowing that your Fidelity needs no spurs nor your Ability information what to say I will say no more but that I am Your most assured real constant Friend CHARLES R. Newcastle 19th Decemb. 1646. But as for the inclosed Message it being Printed among His Majesties Messages it is needless to insert it here And now came on the fatal Turn of matters in Scotland which shall be set down from a Letter of my Lord Lanerick's that follows but to whom the Writer knows not the Direction being lost SInce my last our Debates have been of so great Importance that I cannot conceal them Yesterday we spent two Hours in the grand Commitee the whole Parliament being present and indeed to good purpose for it was resolved that present Instructions should be sent to our Commissioners to press His Majesties coming to London with Honour Safety and Freedom and that we should declare our Resolutions to maintain Monarchical Government in His Majesties Person and Posterity and His Iust Title to the Crown of England But I confess this Day is the saddest I ever saw for after Resolutions were taken of sending to His Majesty it is carried that nothing but a Grant to the whole Propositions must be demanded and in case of a Refusal the former Certifications given to His Majesty put in execution of Securing the Kingdom and Settling a Government without Him and lest His Majesty should have hopes of engaging this Kingdom on easier terms or thinking to come to Scotland where though He should lose England He might exercise the Office of a King it is to be Declared that this Kingdom cannot lawfully engage themselves for His Majesties Preservation albeit He should be even Deposed in England He not taking the Covenant satisfying in Religion and giving a satisfactory Answer to the rest of the whole Propositions presented to Him in name of both Kingdoms Besides it is to be Declared that His Majesty will not be admitted to come to Scotland where though He were His Regal Function would be susâ—ended and even His Royal Pâ—rson at least be put under Restraint if not delivered up to the Parliament While we were on these Debates the inclosed Warning was presented to the Parliament by the Commission of the Kirk which though you may think possibly high yet really it is very moderate in regard of these Motions have been in Publick for now all Private Meeting is quit by us in relation to His Majesties Person which certainly will not only not be admitted to come into Scotland but a joynt Course will be taken by both Kingdoms for keeping him in Restraint in England And you may be confident that will certainly be carried in despight of those that will oppose it And to prepare us the better before we come to a Resolution we are to morrow to have a kind of Fast and hear two Sermons in the Morning according to our Custom at St. Andrews before the Executions and the rest of the Day is to be imployed in taking a Final Resolution which without all peradventure will be to send Commissioners to His Majesty to demand the whole Propositions for Religion will not satisfie and to settle both Kingdoms without His Majesties Regal Authority and imprison His Person in England for He will not be admitted to come to
with the like apprehensions to minister much Comfort to him only he pressed him not to give way to languishing Sorrow but to see what could be done for setting things right again and for infusing that sense of Shame and Horrour in all People for the late Action which might prepare them to a Noble Reparation of it by a generous Engaging in the Kings Quarrel And upon this much pains was taken to infuse Jealousies of the Independents in the minds of the Kirk-men though there were other violent persons as careful to refute them Most of this Year was spent in possessing all mens Minds with these Apprehensions so preparing them for what they designed to execute upon the first Opportunity The Duke and the Earls of Lauderdale and Lanerick were they who united most closely and cordially for the contriving and prosecuting of that Design The King was Prisoner at Holmby without any other Liberty save that of taking the air sometimes all his Servants were denied access to him and so cruel was the zeal of his Enemies that it reached to his Soul for they refused liberty for his Chaplains to wait on him a favour not denied to the worst of Malefactors but God was his Refuge who supported him in all his Sufferings and Solitudes The Two Houses wrote to the Committee of Estates in Scotland that they should take such a joynt Course with them as might tend most to bring things to a happy Peace But now the Jealousies betwixt the Parliament and the Army begun to grow visible and above board for the Presbyterian Party in the Parliament saw their Error too late Disorders rise in England most of them seemed to have intended the Kings Good only they were mistaken in Judging that the Parliament in which they were most numerous would never be disobeyed by the Army but being disappointed in this they ruined all their confidence in their Power in Parliament having been the cause why they let the Scotish Army go home for till they were gone the Independents crouched under them and trepanned them into Severities against the King and the Dismissing of the Scots who were no sooner gone but the Army acted what had been before projected but most industriously concealed from the Presbyterians Lauderdale is sent to England In April the Earl of Lauderdale was sent from Scotland to London to insist on the motion for a Settlement with the King and chiefly to hinder the adding of any new Propositions and he was also Instructed to deal for a permission to the Duke and the Earl of Dumfernline to go and serve the King in his Bedchamber But the Earl of Lauderdale found matters in great confusion at Westminster for the chief thing thought on was the Disbanding of the Army which was an unnecessary Burden to the Kingdom many grounds of Fear appearing that their Designs were to keep themselves up and govern the Nation by a Military and Arbitrary Power therefore such as were best-affected judged it necessary once to disband them before they engaged in a new Treaty with the King But for that private Proposition concerning the Duke and Dumfernline the Earl of Lauderdale seeing it would not take because there was not a Family yet settled about the King nor could it be expected that any from Scotland would be the first they would set about His Majesties Person did not present it and indeed the Duke's late Behaviour in opposing the Delivery of the King had forfeited his Credit with those of England then in Power But it is not my meaning to go on with a regular History of the irregular Transactions that past in England this Year I shall only say so much of them as will make appear what reason the Scots had for their Proceedings and to clear what may have relation to the Dukes Concerns In the middle of May the King sent a new Message to the Parliament of England in order to a Treaty but his Offers were the same upon the matter they had been at Newcastle and so not like to take and the Two Houses were then busied about Disbanding the Army They therefore ordered the Army to be disbanded and some of the Forces they kept up to be sent over to Ireland and all Satisfaction being offered The Army refuses obedience to the Parliament the time of their Disbanding was named But the Ring-leaders of the Army disposed them to mutiny against the Parliament upon pretence of want of Satisfaction in matter of Money and Reparation in point of Honour so the Army drew to a Body and erected a Court who were called the Agitators Mean-while Cromwel puts his Party in the House of Commons on the Recalling oâ— their Declarations against the Army and goes to the Army though his Commission was expired More Money was offered to the Army but nothing was accepted only divers of the Presbyterian Officers submitted and subscribed for Ireland whereupon they were by the prevailing part of the Army disbanded and takes the King from Holmby And the Army to make a sure game for their Party sent one Ioice a Taylor by Trade but now a Cornet by his Employment to Holmby who came at twelve a clock at night and forced the King to go with him against his will Upon which the Earl of Lauderdale emitted a Declaration in Name of the Scotish Nation against that Force put on the Kings Person contrary to all their Treaties and Declarations and demanded that His Majesties Person might be presently set at Liberty and brought with Honour Freedom and Safety to some of His Houses in or about London and after that he went to Newmarket to wait on the King who was there with the Army But the Army begun to abuse His Majesty into some Confidence in them And use Hiâ— civilly and used Him at another rate than had been done at Holmby They gave free access to all His Servants to come to Him they allowed His Chaplains to attend about Him and serve in their Office according to the Liturgy and permitted Him free Correspondence with the Queen and every body else and in their Discourses intimated their willingness to lay aside the Covenant and allow the Toleration of Episcopacy and the Liturgy all which though smoothly said was meant to cajole Him to his Ruine Assoon as His Majesty was at Liberty He wrote the following Letter to my Lord Lanerick Lanerick THe present condition of My Affairs is such He writes to Lanerick that I believe you and your Brother may do Me better Service at London than where you are therefore I desire that both or at least one of you would come up assoon as you could the rest I leave till meeting and so farewel Your most assured real constant Friend CHARLES R. Newmarket 22th Iune 1647. To this my Lord Lanerick wrote this Answer Sir YOur Majesties Letter of the 22th of June had been immediately obeyed Lanerick's Answer if our Stay here for some time had not
of a long Preamble and Eight Articles THe first was That before they went on to a War and find great opposition from the Ministers the Grounds and Causes of it might be well cleared Secondly that the alledged Breaches of the Covenant and Treaties might be condescended upon and Reparation of them first sought Thirdly that there might be no such Grounds of War as might break the Vnion of the two Kingdoms and disoblige the Presbyterians of England Fourthly that none of the disaffected or Malignant Party might be admitted to Trust but on the contrary that they should be opposed and suppressed Fifthly that the Kings late Concessions might be declared unsatisfactory Sixthly that they should engage not to restore His Majesty to the exercise of His Royal Power till He should by Oath bind Himself and His Successors to consent to Acts of Parliament for confirming the League and Covenant and settling Presbytery the Directory and the Confession of Faith Seventhly that none might be trusted but such as were of known Integrity and good affection to the Cause Eighthly that the Church might have the same Interest in carrying on this Engagement which they had in the Solemn League and Covenant These Demands run in so high a strain that those of the Church-Party judged either they would be rejected and so the Church would pretend somewhat for their breaking with the Parliament or if they were yielded to it would so alienate the Hearts of the King and all His Friends in England from them that they would hate them as much as they did the English Parliament or Army The Committee of Parliament found the Strait they were in and saw what an unhappy practice it had been to give the Church-men so great an interest in Civil Affairs Some were for brisker Courses and for clapping up in Prison all the more turbulent Ministers but the Duke apprehended great trouble from that fearing it should raise stirs among the people which might retard the design of the Kings Delivery upon which all his thoughts were bent The hazard of intercepting Letters made the Intercourse by them so slow that the Lords that corresponded with His Majesty had no Return from him before the beginning of April and then they got that which follows I Was as glad to see the constancy of your Resolutions as I was sorry to understand the great Opposition you find in Your Vndertakings The King writes to his Servants in Scotland But as for any Enlargement concerning Church-affairs I desire you not to expect it from Me for such expectations have been a great cause of this My present Condition which I assure you I am still resolved rather to suffer than to wrong My Conscience or Honour which I must do if I enlarge My Self any thing in those points But I take very well the freedom of your Advice because I see it flows from your Affection being also confident that you will cheerfully and resolutely go on according to your Engagements to Me who am Your most assured real constant Friend CHARLES R. 17th March 1648. And to this the Earls of Lauderdale and Lanerick wrote the following Answers SIR WE have received Your Majesties of the 17th of March Nothing but the cruel slowness of Proceedings here would have made us so long silent and that was occasioned by the great Opposition we have met with from the Ministers and the rigid Persons who strongly pretend Your Majesties not satisfying in matters of Religion and upon these grounds have gained upon many and obstructed any Engagement Yet we and those we have interest in are so sensible of our Duties our Honour and of Your Majesties sad Condition which goes nearer our Hearts than any earthly thing that although an Engagement upon the terms we parted on be impossible yet we shall either procure Scotland's Vndertaking for Your Majesties Person or perish let the hazard or opposition be what it can We can boldly say we have the Major Vote of the Parliament clear and if we were blest with Your Majesties Presence the work were done We dare not presume in this troublesom way to express the particulars of our Difficulties or Resolution but hope shortly to give a more satisfactory account having vowed to live and die Your Majesties most humble most faithful and most loyal Subjects and Servants LAVDERDALE LANERICK 22th March 1648. Lanerick also wrote what follows taken from an imperfect Copy under his hand SIR I Have been long silent and possibly should have been so a little longer had I not received Your Majesties of the 17th of the last Moneth but lest I be involved in other mens Guilt I must first speak and then perish or do my Duty Sir at our first returning to Scotland we met with a general Dissatisfaction with what you offered concerning Religion from the Ministers and their Party though all I have Interest in would have cheerfully hazarded their Lives for Your Majesties Preservation upon these or easier terms but after long Debate upon the Consequences of engaging in so great a Work not only without Vnanimity but with the Opposition of the Church and most of those who have been of greatest Eminence and Power during these late Troubles this moved us to a willingness for a very extraordinary Compliance with their Desires providing we might be assured of an Engagemennt But now when we have gone a greater length than even our Loyalty can allow us we find that nothing is intended by them but either a Conjunction with those that seek your Ruine or at least a dull and stupid Suffering and enduring of those destructive Resolutions to Religion and Government which are now designed by the Enemies of God and Your Majesty After this there was a new Committee of 24 chosen by the Parliament for a Conference with the 12 Commissioners of the Kirk who had many Meetings with them and gave them satisfaction to all their Demands so that all back-doors were shut and they were ashamed that they had asked no more wherefore being driven from all their Pretences they fled to the last starting-hole of Jealousie and said that their Designs were contrary to their Professions This was a tedious Affair and cost many Conferences In end great Offers were made to satisfie the Church-party but nothing did prevail whereupon the Committee drew up a large Declaration of all the Violations of the Covenant and Treaties made by the Two Houses together with an account of their own Intentions suitable to the Propositions made by the Ministers only they stood much upon the sixth Article that seemed most contrary to their Duty to their Sovereign and it took them up many days at length they yielded even to that but for this the Reader is referred to the Declaration printed with the Acts of that Parliament On the 25th of April the great Business was carried The Parliament vote an Engagement for the King of putting the Kingdom into a posture of Defenâ—e but the account of the
was at that time much influenced by the Dukes Enemies yet Bellandin got many promises made him of a large supply of Mony and Ammunition Upon these Expectations the Earl of Lanerick was against a speedy March into England but much pressed by others but this was opposed by the Earl of Lauderdale who pressed a present Dispatch They were called upon so earnestly from their Friends in England that to linger still was to lose the Kings Party there for now the Kentish men were broken and some of them had passed over unto Essex where many rose with them and carried Colchester and made a good Body both of Horse and Foot but were not able to hold out long against the Army yet they gave them divers foils But that of the greatest Importance was that most of the Navy had declared for the King and desired a Correspondence with Scotland and Willoughby who was made Vice-Admiral by the Prince was a great Friend to the Scotish Nation The Earl of Inchequin also with his Army in Ireland had declared against the Parliament and sent to Scotland a very kind Message for a good Understanding with that Parliament and finally a part of the English Army being much sollicited by the Church-party in Scotland who complained that they were now exposed by them to Ruin was coming North-ward under the Command of Lambert and Langdale had written to them that he could not be able to stand long before Lambert if he were not speedily relieved and that Carlisle also would be in great hazard neither was the hazard only the loss of Carlisle of which they made less account but the Army which was with Langdale whose Wives and Children were in Carlisle did threaten to leave him and Capitulate if that Place were not preserved Besides all this they at Westminster to temper the general Hatred against them had called back the Secluded Members of both Houses and were Levying new Forces and had Voted a Personal Treaty with the King at which time also one Osburn avouched that there were Designs against the Kings Person and that himself had been sollicited to assist in the poysoning him All these Considerations were pressing and could admit of no delays wherefore Lauderdale insisted for a present March and that the Dukes Carriage might shew it was the Kings Service and not a Faction he was designing nor Resentments against these who withstood him in Scotland for so did Lauderdale mistake Lanerick's advice for curbing of the Church-party and punishing their Leaders The Duke saw great reason on both sides and is resolved on and though his own Judgment went along with his Brothers Advice knowing well it was easie for him to have forced all Scotland very soon into a Compliance with their Design which being once done he could have marched into England upon greater advantages and with a far better Army yet he was content to be over-ruled believing that if they were prosperous in England upon which depended all their hopes it would be no great Work to Master any Opposition might be made in Scotland And thus did the unripened forwardness of those in England force the Duke on a fatal Precipitation of Counsels The resolution was taken and a General Rendezvous appointed to be at Annan near the Borders of England on the 4th of Iuly All this while my Lord Lanerick had not forgotten the Kings Commands about the Marquis of Huntley but the ill Opinion the Church-men had of them was such that to have proceeded roundly in that matter would have given greater grounds of Jealousie to that Party therefore the Iunto sent him word to the Castle of Edinburgh where he was then Prisoner that though at that time it was not fit to set him at liberty by an Order yet they were willing he should make his Escape and they offered their Assistance for conveying him safe away But he said he was brought thither by Order and he would not steal out as a Thief and from this fatal stiffness they could not get him removed yet they resolved to liberate him openly when they should be better able to avow their Actions The Opposition the Church-men made to the Raising of the Army An Insurrectâ—on at Mauchlin did still retard the Levies and discourage the Souldiers though the Officers were generally resolute Some Forces were sent West-ward under the Command of Sir Iames Turner to keep that Country quiet who found a little Authority vigorously managed did quickly tame some of the most unruly But at Mauchlin there was a great Gathering under the Colour of an Assembly to a Solemn Communion and many went thither Armed pretending hazard from the danger of that time Turner got notice that an Insurrection was designed there and advertised the Duke of it who ordered Turner not to stir till the Earls of Calander and Middleton should come to assist him who came to Pasely on the Saturndy before that Communion they drew out the Forces that lay there consisting of two Regiments of Foot and fourteen Troops of Horse and marched to Steuarton where the Earl of Glenâ—airn and others of the Nobility met them Some advised a March of the whole Forces others thought a few Troops were sufficient for dispersing that Multitude whereupon Middleton was commanded out with six Troops who found them near two thousand strong Horse and Foot but being ill-commanded they were soon disordered Middleton and Hurry gave the Charge and were briskly encountered so that they were made to retreat with the loss of some men and both Middleton and Hurry got slight Wounds but the Party that had given them this rude Shock having cleared a way for themselves made their Retreat The report of this Disorder was brought hot to Calender who leaving the Foot at Kilmarnock went with the eight Troops he had with him to assist Middleton but upon his appearing all run away The Horse were not pursued sixty Foot Souldiers were taken and five Officers and some Ministers who were all dismissed only the Officers were condemned to dye by a Council of War but were afterwards pardoned by Calander Some Forces were sent towards the Borders After this before a General Rendezvous was possible the Duke for animating those of Carlisle who began to be sore put to it sent Collonel Lockhart with some Regiments of Horse to lye at Annan and Collonel Turner with five or six Regiments of Foot to lye at Dumfrice hoping thereby to hinder Lambert from coming near Carlisle wherein his expectation did not fail him for no sooner came Lockhart to Annan but Lambert drew his Troops nearer and Sir Marmaduke Langdale got air a while for Provision both for his Men and Horses and against the day appointed the General came from Edinburgh to Annan with Calander Middleton and Baylie and several Regiments of Horse and Foot The Army enters England Turner also came to him from Dumfrice with the Regiments that lay there and some Ammunition and abundance of Meal
both that they should have some honest Noblemen Commissioners here to reside at Edinburgh and that we shall have some at London that by Commutation of Counsels our Common Peace may be the better settled and continued You shall try if the Treaty betwixt the Kings Majesty and the Two Houses of Parliament be like to take effect and shall study to preserve the Interest of this Kingdom in the matter of the settling of the Peace of these Kingdoms and if you shall find there are real Grounds to hope an Agreement betwixt the King and the Two Houses in respect both Kingdomes are engaged in the same Cause and Covenant and have been and still are under the same Dangers and to the end our Peace may be more durable you shall endeavour that before any Agreement of Peace be made we may be first acquainted therewith An. 1649. that we may send up Commissions in relation to the Treaty with the King upon the Propositions and in relation to mutual Advice for the settling of the Peace of these Kingdomes and accordingly as you find the Two Houses inclined therein you shall give us Advertisement You shall according as upon the place it shall be found expedient present the same Desires to the Two Houses of Parliament in name of this Kingdome touching the Work of Reformation as shall be presented to them from this Kirk You shall assist Mr. Blair in this Imployment and take his advice and assistance in yours and give us Advertisement weekly how all matters goe You shall publish all Papers either concerning the Proceedings of the Church or of the Protesters which are necessary to be known You shall endeavour to keep a good Vnderstanding betwixt us and the City and the Assembly of Divines and strive to remove all Iealousies betwixt us and them or betwixt honest men amongst themselves You shall endeavour that honest men who have suffered for opposing the Engagement be not prejudiced but furthered in payment of the Sumes assigned unto them before the Engagement out of the two hundred thousand pound Sterling and Brotherly Assistance for publick Debts or Losses You shall acquaint the Speakers of both Houses with his Majesties Letter to this Committee and our Answer sent to Him You shall desire that the Noblemen and Gentlemen of Quality and considerable Officers of the Army that went into England under the Duke of Hamilton and which are now there Prisoners may be kept as Pledges of the Peace of the Kingdomes especially to prevent a new Disturbance in this Kingdome or Trouble from this Kingdome to England until the Peace of both be settled You shall acquaint the Two Houses with our Answer to that of L. General Cromwell 's of the sixth of this Instant and make use of the Grounds therein mentioned as you shall find occasion Their next Care was to look well to Lanerick Lanerick appointed to be secured but escapes to Holland and the other Engagers lest they should attempt somewhat against them the account of which shall be set down in a Letter Lanerick wrote to the Lord Chancellour when he left Scotland For in the end of Ianuary the Earl of Lauderdale came from Holland being commanded by the Prince to see what might be done there but he found all so discouraged and overpowered that no good was to be expected and he got advertisement from the Lord Balmerino that they designed to secure both Lanerick and himselfe and as he believed would deliver them up to the Parliament of England as Incendiaries whereupon they both resolved to go beyond Sea in the same Ship in which Lauderdale came and to offer their Service to the Prince The Letter follows My Lord ALbeit the Proceedings of the late Committee constituted of Dissenters against me was without president in Confining me a free Subject who was neither Guilty nor so much as accused of any Guilt or Breach of the Laws of the Kingdome for declining to sign a Declaration and Bond which even they themselves conceived in Iustice they could not enjoyn me to sign yet I did submit and went not without the Bounds limited for my Confinement until I was certainly informed that upon Wednesday last at a private and select Committee it was resolved I should instantly be Committed and the little Liberty left me taken from me for it seems that these private persons I speak not of Iudicatories who procured the severe Instructions given those employed to London against my Brother the Duke of Hamilton and the many Noble and Gallant Persons who are now in Bonds with him for their Loyal Endeavours to have rescued His Majesty from being murthered are not satisfied or think themselves secure while any enjoy their Liberties who would have been Instruments in that pious Duty to our Sovereign therefore I am forced to seek shelter and protection abroad since Innocency and Law and even Treaties and Publick Engagements prove now too weak Grounds for securing me at home And though this rigid and unparalellâ—d Procedure against me might have tempted the dullest and calmest nature to some Desperation yet I have still preferred the Peace and Quiet of Scotland to all my own Interests and I do ingeniously declare upon my Honour unto your Lordship that I neither have had neither do I know of any Design from abroad or at home of interrupting the same and now in whatsoever corner of the World it shall please the Lord to throw me as I shall endeavour by his assistance to maintain my Loyalty to my Prince untainted so I shall still preserve a perfect affection to the Peace and Happiness of my Country My prayers to God shall be that it may yet be instrumental of advancing the Work of Reformation and so fixing the Crowns of these Kingdomes upon the Head of our Soveraign Lord the King and of His Royal Progeny after Him that Faction and Rebellion may never be able to shake or interrupt their Government that Loyalty may lose the name of Malignancy and a good Christian may with Safety and without Scandal be and profess to be a good Subject that the Acts of unquestionable Parliaments and the Decrees of other Sovereign Iudicatories of this Kingdom may be Security sufficient to the Subjects to govern their Civil Actions by that they may be free of arbitrary Exactions and Impositions and may enjoy with Truth and Peace their Estates and Liberties without the tyrannous Encroachments of great men and other impowered persons and I am confident that the God of Heaven who will Iudge all the Iudges on earth will avenge the wrongs of the oppressed and in his own time restore me again to my Country who am now forced by unjust Persecution to flee from it This I shall patiently wait for and give your Lordship no more Trouble but desire you to make what use of this you think fit from My Lord Your Lordships most humble Servant LANERICK Dirleton 25th January 1649. But now I return to prosecute what remains to
being a necessity of searching divers Records for Precedents which required a competent time as had been allowed in former cases but the Court refused to promise it only they said they would take it into their consideration The Counsel insisted and said plainly they declined the Imployment on those terms and would be forced to declare it Monday the 26th the other two Officers that had signed the Capitulation for the Duke and his Troops The ninth Appearance who had been sent for a great way off were examined who agreed with the former Witnesses in matters of Fact and also with Lilburn that by signing the Articles they only meant the Duke should be preserved from the Violence of the Souldiers and not from the Justice of the Parliament Then the Counsel began to Plead and all four spoke on the several Heads of the Plea Mr. Heron spoke cursorily and elegantly but not very materially Mr. Parsons a young man spoke boldly and to good purpose Mr. Chute the Civilian spoke learnedly and home and Mr. Hales since the much-renowned Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench elaborately and at length The Heads of their Arguments follow The Duke's Counsel at Law plead for him The Duke being as was granted a born Scotch-man his Tie of obligation and subjection to that Kingdom was indispensable and indissoluble so that his late Imployment could not be refused when laid on him by the Authority of that Kingdom no more than a Native of England living in it can disobey the Commands of this Parliament whereas any Subjection the Duke owed the Parliament of England was only acquired and dispensable That since no man can be a Subject of two Kingdoms whatever Tye lay on him to the Kingdom of England it was not to be put in Competition with what he owed Scotland it being a Maxim in Law that Major relatio trahit ad se minorem and that Ius Originis nemo mutare potest That there was an Allegeance due to the King and another to the Kingdom and no Treason could be without a Breach of Faith and Allegeance due to them against whom it was committed for these Kingdoms were two distinct Kingdoms and though the Allegeance due to the King was the same in both Kingdoms yet that due to the Kingdoms was distinct nor was the Actual administration of the Kingdoms in the Kings Person when the Duke got his Imployment therefore as his Allegeance to the Kingdom of Scotland was ancienter and stronger than any Tie that lay on him in England so what he did by their Order might well make him an Enemy to this Kingdom but could not infer Treason Yet all this of the Allegeance due to the Kingdom was founded on no Common or Statute Law as Mr. Hales himself confessed afterwards but he urged this well against those who asserted it it being the universally received Maxim at that time That whether he was a Post-natus or Ante-natus did not appear but though he were it did not vary the Case nor his obligation to the place of his Nativity and so though he were Post-natus or accounted a Denizen by his Fathers Naturalization his Offence could not be Treason but Hostility at most and by that supposed Hostility he could only lose his Priviledge of a Denizen but could not be made a Traitor there being no Precedent where ever any man was attainted of Treason for a hostile Invasion and it was questionable if this Offence could amount to that nor could any case be alledged where one born in another Independent Kingdome acting by a Commission from that Kingdom and residing there when he received his Commission and raising the Body of his Army in that Kingdom and coming into this in an Open Hostile manner was ever judged guilty of Treason Naturalization was intended to be a Benefit and not a Snare so that one might well lose it but was not to be punished for it And so when France and England were under one Soveraign divers of both Nations were naturalized in the other yet when Hostility broke out betwixt them many so naturalized fought on the side of their Native Kingdom for which none were put to death though divers were taken Prisoners And in Edward the third's time though he claimed France as his by Right yet when the Constable of France invaded England and was taken Prisoner he was not tried nor put to death but sent back to France as being a Native of that Kingdom And when David Bruce King of Scotland invaded this Kingdom and was taken Prisoner great endeavours were used to find a Legal ground for his Trial he being Earl of Huntington in England but this Plea was waved for it was found that it could not be done justly that being but a less degree of Honour though King Edward claimed a kind of Homage from the Crown of Scotland That if the Duke were on that account put to death it might prove of sad consequence in case there was War any more betwixt the Kingdoms since most of the present Generation were Post-nati and all would be so quickly and yet if the Lord Fairfax who was both a Post-natus and had his Honour in Scotland were commanded to lead an Army thither and being taken were put to death it would be thought hard measure For the Duke's Father's Naturalization it was true by the Statute of the 25 Ed. 3. provision was made that Children born without the Kingdom whose Parents were then in the King's Allegeance should be Denizens but the Duke was born before his Father's Naturalization which can never reach him none but the Issue after his Father's Naturalization being included within it and the word Haeres in the Act is only a word of Limitation and not of Creation nor did his making use of the assistance of some English Forces make him a Traytor It is true if an Englishman conduct a Foreign Army or if a Foreigner come of his own head or in a Rebellious way to assist an English Rebellion it will amount to Treason for the Act of such an Alien is denominated from the crime of those he assist here where he owed a local Obedience which was the Case of Shirley the Frenchman and of Lopez but if an Alien come with a Foreign Force though he make use of English Auxiliaries that only infers a Hostility but no Treason and was the case of the Lord Harris a Scotchman 15 Eliz. and of Perkin Warbeck both having English help and though Warbeck was put to death it was by no Civil Judicatory but only by the Will of Henry the 7th who erected a Court-Marshall for that purpose The present case was yet clearer where the Alien had Authority from his Native Kingdom and was commanded by them to make use of English help so that though Langdale's assisting the Duke did make himself a Traytor yet the Duke's accepting of it only infers an Act of Hostility And whereas it was objected that the Parliament had already by
only was her Honour unstained but even her Fame continued untouched with Calumny she being so strict to the severest Rules as never to admit of those Follies which pass in that style for Gallantry She was a most affectionate and dutiful Wife and used to say she had the greatest reason to bless God for having given her such a Husband whom as she loved perfectly so she was not ashamed to obey But that which crowned all her other Perfections was the deep sense she had of Religion she lived and died in the Communion of the Church of England and was a very devout person Many years before her death she was so exact in observing her Retirements to her Closet that notwithstanding all her Avocations and the Divertisements of the Court as the Writer was informed by one that lived with her no day passed over her without bestowing large portions of her time on them beside her constant attendance on the Chappel She bore first three Daughters and then three Sons her Daughters were Lady Mary Lady Anne and Lady Susanna her Sons were Charles Iames and William but all her Sons and her eldest Daughter died young A year before she died she languished which ended in a Consumption of which after a few Moneths sickness she died so that she prepared for Death timeously About a Moneth before her death she called for her Children and gave them her last Blessings and Embraces ordering them to be brought no more near her lest the sight of them might have kindled too much tenderness in her which she was then studying to raise above all created objects and fix where she was shortly to be admitted She died the tenth of May in the year 1638 and left her Lord a most sad and afflicted person and though his Spirit was too great to sink under any burden yet all his Life after he remembred her with much tender Affection She died indeed in a good time for her own Repose when her Lord was beginning to engage in the Affairs of Scotland which proved so fatal both to his Quiet and Life But the Distractions of the following years concurring with the affectionate Remembrance of his Lady which rather increased than abated with time kept him from the thoughts of re-engaging in a married life Neither did the death of his Sons shake him from that purpose since he had so noble a Successor secured for his Family in the person of his Brother and next to him he had two Daughters who were dear to him far beyond the ordinary rate of Children on whom he got his Dignity and Fortune entailed in case his Brother died without Sons His Religion was Protestant and Reformed and as he was a Zealous Enemy to Popery so he was no less earnest for a good Correspondence among all the Reformed Churches His Religion in particular betwixt the Lutherans and Calvinists and therefore was a Great Patron and Promoter of the designs of Mr. Dury who bestowed so much of his travel and so many of his years in driving on that desired Union for I find by many of Dury's Letters to him that as he owed a great part of his Subsistence to the Money and Places were procured for him by the Duke both from the King and my Lord of Canterbury so his best Addresses to the Swedish Court and the Princes of Germany were those he had from him and therefore he continued giving him an account of his success as to his Patron and Benefactor As for our unhappy Differences which have divided this Island he judged neither the one nor the other worth the Blood was shed in the Quarrel and the excess he had seen on both hands cured him from being a Zealot for either He was disâ—atisfied with the Courses some of the Bishops had followed before the Troubles began and could not but impute their first Rise to the Provocations had been given by them but he was no less offended with the violent spirits of most of the Covenanters particularly with their opposition to the Royal Authority As long as the King employed him for the preservation of Episcopacy he served him faithfully and though afterwards he pressed him much for his consent to the Abolition of that Government in Scotland it was not from any Prejudice himself had at it but flowed only from the Affection he had to His Majesty since he saw it could not have been preserved at that time without very visible hazard both to King and Countrey and so he took the National Covenant at the Kings Command Anno 1641 in the Parliament of Scotland He was all his life a great honourer of true Piety where-ever he saw it notwithstanding any mistakes that might have been mingled with it so that whatsoever particular ground of Resentments he had at any who he judged feared God the consideration of that did overcome and stifle it but his first Imprisonment in the year 1643 was the happiest time of his Life to him for there he had a truer prospect of all things set before him which wrought a Change on him discernible by those who knew him best This made him frequently acknowledge Gods great Goodness to him in that Restraint for then he learned to despise at the foolish pleasures of Sin and the debasing vanities of a false World which had formerly possessed too great a Room in his thoughts It is true he chose to be Religious in secret and therefore gave no other vent to it in his Discourse than what he judged himself obliged to which was chiefly to his Children to whom he always recommended the Fear and Love of God as that wherein himself had found his only Joy and Repose The following words are a part of one of his Letters to them which he wrote a little before his last going to England IN all crosses even of the highest nature there is no other remedy but Patience and with alacrity to submit to the good-will and pleasure of our Glorious Creator and be contented therewith which I advise you to learn in your tender Age having injoyed that Blessing my self and found great Câ—mfort in it while involved in the middle of infinite Dangers He was a constant Reader of the Scriptures and during his Imprisonment they were his only Companions other books being for a great while denied him and he making a vertue of that necessity became a diligent and serious Reader of those holy Oracles and studied to take the measures of his Actions from them and not from the foolish Dreams and Conjectures of Astrology though the enquiring after and taking notice of these be among the injurious Imputations Obloquy fastened upon him But so far was he from any regard to them that an Astrologer coming to him in Germany with a Paper wherein he said he should read a noble Fortune he after he had sent him away threw it into the fire without once openinâ— it and indeed he was so far from flattering himself with the
The shortning of our days is an Evil wholly depending on Opinion for if men did now naturally live but Twenty years then we should be satisfied if they died about 16 or 18. We call not that Death immature in any who live to Seventy and yet this Age is as far short of the old Period before and since the Flood as he who now dies of eighteen is of Seventy Let us still be ready for it and it cannot come too soon for let us die young or old still we have an Immortal Soul and do lay down our Bodies for a time as that which was the Instrument of our Sorrow and Trouble and the Scene of Sickness and Diseases let us not then fear that which rids us of all these for by fearing it we shall never the more avoid it but make it the more miserable to us Fanius who killed himself for fear of Death died as certainly as Porcia who eat burning Coals or Cato who tore out his own Bowels To die is necessary and natural and may be honourable but to die poorly basely and sinfully that alone is that which can make a man miserable for no man can be a Slave but he that fears pain or fears to die to such a man nothing but peaceable times can secure his Quiet for he depends upon things without him for his Felicity and so is well but during the Pleasure of his Enemy a Thief or a Tyrant but blessed is he who willingly resigns his Soul and Body into Gods hands as unto the hands of a blessed Creator and Redeemer O Blessed Iesus thou didst die for me grant that I may with Ioy submit unto thy Summons when thou shalt call me to Death for thou art my Advocate as well as my Iudge and camest into the World to save sinners whereof O Lord I acknowledg I am the greatest but thy Mercies are infinite O God of Mercy and God of all Comfort with much mercy look upon the sadness and sorrow of thy Servant my Sins lie heavy upon me and press me sore by reason of thy hot displeasure my Miseries are without comfort because they are the punishments of my Sins my Sin hath caused my sorrow and my sorrow doth not cure my Sin and unless thou for thy own sake and meerly because thou art good pity me I am as much without Remedy as without Comfort Lord pity me let thy Grace refresh my spirit let thy Comfort support me thy Mercies pardon me and let not my portion be among helpless and accursed Spirits for thou art good and gracious and I throw my self upon thy Mercy suffer me never to let my hold go anddo then with me what seems good in thy own eyes I cannot suffer more than I have deserved and yet I can need no Relief so great as thy Mercy is for thou art infinitely more merciful than I can be miserable Lord make me the object of thy Mercy both in my Life and in my Death if even this day thou shalt think fit to remove me from this valley of miseries either by the violent hand of this merciless Enemy or any other way which in thy Providence thou hast ordained when my Soul shall go out from the Prison of this Body may it be received by Angels and preserved from the horrour and amazements and the surprize of Evil Spirits and be laid up in the Bosom of our Lord till at the day of thy second Coming it shall be reunited to the Body which is now to be laid in the dust yet I hope shall be raised up in Ioy to live for ever and behold the Face of God in the Glories of our Lord Iesus who is our Hope our Resurrection and our Life our Blessed and ever-Glorious Redeemer to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be all Honour and Glory for ever and ever Amen In these Exercises he continued till it was almost morning and then he threw himself down on the Bed where he did not lie above two hours when he was called on to make ready and assoon as he was Dressed and Armed he waited on the King into the Field The Dukes Regiment charges gallantly at Worcester-Fight The Account of that Engagement is not here to be offered since nothing belongs to this Work but that wherein the Duke was concerned His Regiment was commanded to charge a Body of Horse and Foot that stood near two peece of Cannon not far from the Severn but there were two great Bodies of Foot standing on each side of the Lane through which they were to go and these firing on them as they pasâ—ed they received great Loss but having got through the Lane there was no coming to the Enemy who stood in a close Ground but through aGap in the Hedge through which theLieutenant Collonel with a very inconsiderable Number Charged and the Enemy gave ground and left the Cannon in their hands the Horse retiring to Hacker's Regiment who came up and Charged and was gallantly received by the Lieutenant Collonel and the Dukes Regiment but some Foot brought to line the Hedges on their Flanks Fired so on them that they were forced to retire The Duke being near the Kings Person and observing all that passed inquired who they were and being told it was his own Regiment His great Valour he thought it unworthy of him to be too far from Danger when they were so put to it and galloped all alone from the King to the place where they were where he found them retiring and did all he could either by words or threatnings to make them keep their Ground But the Enemy did still bring up more Foot and Fired uncessantly on them and most of the Officers were either wounded or had their Horses killed under them particularly the Lieutenant Collonel who had all the while Charged very gallantly had his Horse shot under him and so they were beaten back The Duke himself keeped in the Reer with such as were in a Condition to wait on him to the great hazard of his Person and gave signal demonstrations of a high Courage but the Enemy following him close in great Bodies he commanded some Foot to make good the Hedge against them and rode up and down among them and encouraged them to stand and die for the Service of their King and the Honour of their Country An. 1652. and did several times Charge down to the Hedges so that all were astonished at such daring and unusual Valour But the Enemy pressing on he rode again with his Pistol in his hand to the Hedge where he received the fatal Shot that quite disabled him He is wounded His Majesty hearing of the extreme Danger he exposed himself to in these Charges and knowing well how great a loss he would suffer if so brave a Commander and such a wise and faithful Counsellor were killed sent once again to call him away from that Hazard he was in but he choosed to prefer
a most happy Agreement This I believe is not much neeâ—ful to satisfie your Iudgements for I am not ignorant how really yâ—ur Commissioners at London have endeavâ—ured a satisfactory Answer to My Message as likewise what good Instructions have been sent them â—ut of Scotland so that the force of Power more than the force of Reason hath made you so instant with Me as you have been with which I am so far from finding fault that what you have done I take well knowing it proceeds out of the abundance of your Zeal to My Service therefore as you see I do not mistake you so I am careful not to be mistaken by you Wherefore again I desire you to take notice that I do not give a Denyal My Desire being only to be heard as likewise that you will take things as they are since neither you nor I can have them as we would wherefore let us make the best of every thing and now as you have fully performed your Duty to me so I cannot doubt but you will continue to press those at London to hear Reason And certainly you can little expect fair dealing from those who shall reject so much Reason and of that sort which you have and I hope will offer to them Not to stay you too long upon so unpleasing a Subject I assure you that nothing but the Preservation of that which is dearer to Me than My Life could have hindred Me from giving you full satisfaction for upon My word all the dangers and inconveniences which you have laid before Me do not so much trouble Me as that I should not give full satisfaction to the Desires of My native Country especially being so earnestly pressed upon Me. And yet here again I must tell you for in this case repetitions are not impertinent that I do not give you a Denyal nay I protest against it and remember it is your King that desires to be heard To this Paper I shall adde another given by His Majesty to the Committee then at Newcastle but by the Copy extant written with Lanerick's hand it doth not appear when it was sent them The Paper follows My Lords Another Paper of His Masties to the same purpose 'T Is a very great grief to Me that what I spoke to you Yesterday and offered to you in Writing concerning Religion hath given so little satisfaction yet lest the Reasons I then told you should not be so fully understood I think it necessary at this time to set them down to you in this Paper I then told you that whatsoever was My particular Opinion I did no ways intend to perswade you to do any thing against your Covenant wherefore I desire you to consider whether it be not a great step to your Reformation which I take to be the chief end of your Covenant that Presbyterial Government be Legally settled It is true I desire that My Own Conscience and those that are of the same opinion with me might be preserved which I confess doth not as yet totally take away Episcopal Government but then consider withall that this will take away all the superstitious Sects and Heresies of the Papists and Independents to which you are no less obliged by your Covenant than the taking away of Episcopacy And this that I demand is most likely to be but temporary for if it be so clear as you believe that Episcopacy is unlawful I doubt not but God will so enlighten Mine eyes that I shall soon perceive it and then I promise you to concurr with you fully in matters of Religion But I am sure you cannot imagine that there is any hope of Converting or Silencing the Independent Party which undoubtedly will get a Toleration in Religion from the Parliament of England unless you joyn with Me and in that way I have set down for the re-establishing My Crown or at least that you do not press Me to do this which is yet against My Conscience until I may do it without Sinning which as I am confident none of you will perswade Me to do so I hope you have so much Charity not to put things to such a desperate Issue as to hazard the loss of us all because for the present you cannot have full satisfaction from Me in Point of Religion Not Considering that besides the rest of the Mischiefs which may happen it will infallibly set up the innumerable Sects of the Independents nothing being more against your Covenant than permitting of those Schisms to encrease As for the Message which I think fit at this time to send I have chosen rather to mention the Point of Religion in a general than particular way lest not knowing all these Reasons which I have set down to you which are most unfit for a Message it may give less satisfaction than I desire Nevertheless I do conjure you by that Love and Loyalty you have always professed unto Me that you make use of what I offered Yesterday in Writing with these Reasons which I have now set down to you and those further Hopes I have now given you for the best advantages of My Service With this particular Explanation That whereas I mentioned that the Church-Government should be left to My Conscience and those of My opinion I shall be content to restrict it to some few Diocesses as Oxford Winchester Bristol Bath and Wells and Exceter leaving all the rest of England fully to the Presbyterian Government with the strictest Clauses you shall think upon against Papists and Independents POSTSCRIPT I require you to give a particular and full account hereof to the General Assembly now sitting in Scotland shewing them that I shall punctually make good My last Letter to them and that this is a very great step to the Reformation desired not only by the present putting down all Sects and Independents but likewise presently establishing Presbyterian Government â—oping that they as Ministers of Gods Word will not press upon Me untimeously the matter of Church-Government and Discipline until I may have leisure to be so perswaded that I may comply with what they desire without Breach of Conscience which I am confident they as Church-men cannot press me to do The Duke left nothing unsaid that could be devised The Duke seeing matters desperate resolves to retire out of Britain to prevail with the King for satisfying Scotland in the point of Religion assuring him that he found a great willingness in them to serve him in all other things should he yield to them in that one That for the point of the Militia they would study to bring it to what the King desired and in the point of the Delinquents they would labour to get it brought to that in which the Process of the Incendiaries in Scotland had ended that they should only be secluded from Trust but he assured him he found it impossible to make them abate a tittle of the Demand of Religion Yet His Majesty continued on his former