last to the Kings cause Hitherto the King keeps from open defiance with the Parliament of England but now Gods flaming Minister of warre begins to brandish his sword against this Nation now the King is returned from Scotland and now begins the year 1642. wherein Arms are openly taken up and avowed on both sides Scotland for two or three years before had seen war but without slaughter Ireland had been miserably the yeer before imbrued with slaughter yet saw no war but England must now prepare her self both for war and slaughter At the first harnessing and making ready for the field both sides pretended to be on the defence and both pretended to stand for the defence of the same persons and rights the Parliament declares for the Kings rights aswell as the subjects Liberties and the King for the Subjects Liberties as well as his own rights the matter of the Protestation is the cause they both â—ight for insomuch that by their professions it might be thought the Protestation were equally favoured by both Neither were their successes much unanswerable to their professions for after a bloodie battell fought neer Keinton in Octob and another hot encounter at Brainford and after divers other conflicts in severall other places of the Northern Western and middle Counties of England either side got blows but neither side carried away any great advantage or conquest only the Kings secret correspondence with the Irish began now to grow more evident as well by their declaring for the Kings pretences as by his diverâ—ing the preparations made here against them At this time the threed of the Kings Councels was exceeding finely spun the more zealous He seemed against the Iâ—â—sh openly the more zeal He attested to them privately and they themselves could not but see by the Kings seizing our Irish provisions here and assuring himself of our Forces sent thither that the more we exhausted our selves in sending supplies against them the more unable we should be in the end either to resist the King here or to reduce them there Howsoever as was noted before though the most subtill threeds of the King were strong enough sometimes to fabricate toils and nets for his subjects yet they never could be twisted into ladders for the mounting of him to his aspired grandour About the beginning of the year 1643. another black desperate designe against the City of London was discovered scarce inferior to any of those former impregnations of the Kings inraged brain whereupon the Parliament again had recourse to this new religious guard of Vowing and Covenanting And herein after the Covenanters had humbled themselves before God for the Nations sins and judgements and promised by Gods grace to endeavour for the future an amendment of their wayes they the second time ingaged themselves by Vow and Covenant in the presence of Almighty God to be adhering faithfully to the Forces raised by the Parliament for defence of Religion and liberty c. But notwithstanding the vertue of both these holy remedies against the Kings uncessant stratagems about the latter end of the same Summer the Parliaments affairs came to a great declination and till they obtained aid from the Scotch Nation their condition was thought very tottering In August the English Commissioners began to treat at Edinburgh and about the depth of Winter the Scots advanced with a compleat well appointed Army Yet this may not be wholly preâ—ermitted that the Scots were long deliberating about their march and though they saw their ruin involved in ours and their faith no lesse pre-ingaged to us for mutuall assistance then ours was to them yet they advanced not at last but upon these strict conditions 1. That we being then but a wasted part of England yet should presently imburse them out of our afflicted affairs with a great summe of ready money 2ly That they should be payed as mercenaries and yet have a share in government here as if they were our joyntenants And 3ly that we should enter with them into a new solemn League and Covenant upon Oath as it was by them composed and conceived So disproportionable and unsuitable is their amity to their enmity for when they had a pretence of a quarrell contrary to former Treaties with England in 1648. t was in their power to invade England readily without assurance of present Advance-money or establisht pay afterwards and such able Enemies we found them in all ages but when they were to be ayding to part of England in observance of former Treaties in 1643. there is no moving in such a work without ample Covenants so much more difficult amongst them is the enterprise of helping then is the enterprise of undoing It is manifest now by that which has been hitherto premised that the first occasion of flying to such conscientious tyes and expedients as these was that the late Kings plots and conspiracies might be thereby the better disappointed and that the people might be thereby the better confirmed in their opposition against Him And this makes it now seem the more strange to us that the Scots at present should make their Covenant so main an engine for the King against us which at first was certainly excogitated as a main engine for us against the King 2ly it is hereby as manifest that the Scotch Covenant which is now insisted on by that Nation and was pressed on us at first with so much rigor did add no new obligation at all to the English Religion Liberty Monarchy and the peace of the Nations were as much secured before and as sanctimoniously by the Protestation in 1641. and by the vow and Covenant in 1643. as they were afterwards by the solemn League and Covenant when the Scotch Army was to enter England 3ly We cannot observe by any remarkable blessing from Heaven that the hand of God did ever give any gratious testimony in behalf of these new sacramentall obligations The protestation was thought ineffectuall till the vow and Covenant came in with a greater supply of religion the vow and Covenant was not able to break the Kings Armies till the solemn League of Scotland had superinduced its further sanctity and when that was superinduced and came accompanied with 20000 armed men from Scotland the King subsisted yea and thrived a long time after and without doubt those Oaths which he imposed within his quarters did asmuch service against us as ours did for us in our quarters We all know that t was not a new Oath but a new modeld Army that by Gods most gratious hand first gave check to the Kings prosperity and t is not so visible that ever we trampled on the Royalists formerly by observance of the Covenant as that we are now miserably ingaged in blood against the Scots by misprisions and false glosses of the same The Lord of his boundles mercy grant at last that we may return to our old wayes of humiliation seek to appease that Majesty by fasting and praying which is to be
of forcible alterations amongst themselves to the defrauding of their neighbours Thirdly Admit the Parliament by which Hamilton was Commission'd was an unjust Parliament admit it was no Parliament at all and admit that Hamilton with a lesse party and without any Commission at all had broke in upon us in a hostile manner yet even this would not leave the English altogether remediles for in this case upon a just demand of satisfaction made by the English the Scots must disowne the act and see the outrage legally expiated upon the actors or else they owne it themselves and so become as obnoxious as the actors That which was the sin of one Towne in Benjamin at first became the sin of the whole Tribe of Benjamin afterwards and doubtlesse that which was the sin of one Tribe in Israel at first had become the sin of all Israel at last if justice had not been lawfully executed Let the Scots look upon this with sad eyes for that blood of the English shed by Hamilton which is now the guilt of a party only in Scotland upon the deniall of just ice may be made the guilt of all Scotland The second evasion of the Scots is this They say if they were persons challengeable of satisfaction yet they that sit now in the Parliament of England are not persons that can duly challenge or require satisfaction It should seeme as Scotland before was not to be found in Scotland so England is now not to be found in England so hard a matter it is to get right from them that can thus easily transforme and deforme whole Nationall bodies The meaning is Government in England has been of late changed two of the Estates in Parliament are removed by force and the third Estate usurpes what was due to all wherefore as they cannot treate with us about satisfaction but they must acknowledge us a lawfull authority so conscience forbids them to acknowledge our authority lawfull To this wee answer 1. The change of rule in a Nation does not change the Nation forasmuch as the manner of rule is changeable and accidentall and so does not give beeing or support the essence of a State If wee in England beeing a Monarchy owe three Millions to the Hollander the change of Monarchy in England will not exempt us from our obligation and if we in England beeing a Democracy have three Millions due from the Hollander our returne to Monarchy will not denude us of our remedie The devastations and hostilities of Hamilton were suffred by the English Nation and the Parliament of England demands justice and restitution for the same in behalfe of the English Nation now 't is not agreeable to justice or reason that a slight exception taken against the substitute should disable the Principal or any incapacity of the demandant redound to the prejudice of him which is the true Interessent Secondly If the usurpation of the Parliament of England shall bar the State of England from its due course of justice yet how does it appeare to the Scots that the power of our Parliament is an usurp't power If God or Man ha's given them any warrant to judge of our actions and affaires in England let them shew it for without some such warrant they are but our Equalls and one equall ha's no power of judging another If they plead any undeniable principle in nature which condemnes all alteration of Government as unlawfull and all extrusion of Governours as usurpation and of this Maxime they say all men are equally Judges then how will they justifie their extrusion of Lannerick and their new moulding of their Committee of Estates after the defeature of Hamilton which without armes and our assistance they could not have compast Is that a naturall indispensible principle in England which is not so in Scotland Away with such partiall shifts let the Scots shew us that Nation under Heaven that ha's not severall times been driven to mutations of Governments and Governours and been at last justified therein by the plea of necessity and common safety and wee shall confesse their Lordly power over us Thirdly If the Scots be our Lords and will give judgement against us in this case yet they must know that wee are now upon our appeal before almighty God and have accordingly taken Armes into our hands for the prosecution of that appeal And does not one of the primary Lawes of Warre teach them what a hazard it is to deny right to him that beares his â—aked sword in his hand Arma Tenenti Omnia dat qui justa negat Will the Scots lay an incapacity of Treating upon us first and then of fighting afterwards The difference now betwixt us is whether wee have justly enterd Scotland or no to seeke redresse of many injuries and depredations by tryall of battaile which was denide us by debate in a friendly intercourse and doe the Scots thinke now to argue us out of our armes doe they think that the same condemnations of our usurp't power by which they insulted over us when wee sought a Treaty will be seasonable now when the cause is preferd to a higher Court This were to cut us off from all remedie whatsoever this were to detrude us below the miserablest of men this is beyond all ordinary strains of Tyranny There is no Client nor Subject nor slave whatsoever but by way of his last appeale may repell force with force when his case is beyond all other decision and this is held no more then a making an humble addresse to Heaven or laying the cause before the Lord of Hosts his Footstoole Will the Scots then which have droven us their equalls to this last resort prejudge and foreclude us in this also and so make us worse them the worst of inferiors Certainly if we may not treate before wee confesse our selves usurpers wee may fight till God declares us to bee so or that our enemies have usup't over us The third advantage or exception of the Scots against our demands of satisfaction is taken from the space of time that interlapsed betwixt the overthrow of Hamilton and our solemne denouncing against them for that hostilitie as also from some reciprocall kindnesses and testimonies of accord and pacification which past betwixt the Nations in the mean while Of both these I shall now give this faithfull account The victory of of L G Cromwell against the Scots was about the latter end of Summer 1648 and our Forces following that chase stayed in Scotland till about Mid-winter following During the stay of our Army in Scotland a good understanding was betwixt us and the Kirk party there for we had both the same ends against the Hamiltonians and so whilest we extorted the sword out of Lannericks hands and put it into Arguiles we did our own businesse and the Kirks too and the Kirks more immediately then our own Howbeit a Treaty was now begun in the Isle of Wight with the King where the Scoch Commissioners appeared
to Him in England till their Parliament at home were further satisfied In the mean time after a long consuming war ended England was constrained still to pay and maintain two Armies the Scotch to prevent a new war if that were possible the English to sustain a new war if prevention proved unpossible so that every moment was irksome to us whilst the Kings pretentions was an occasion to draw so much treasure from our coffers and it was as irksome to the King to see the Scotch arrears or any thing else besides his pretentions brought into debate but at last the Scotch arrears took place and justled out the Kings matters for after a great sum agreed upon the Scots quite contrary to the high expostulations of some of their Papers thought it honorable to leave the King in England and the English thought it as profitable to buy the Scots out of England This probably might prepare the King for new Pacificatory addresses partly by damping his hopes in the Scots and partly by defeating the next privy applications of the Scots to Him and partly by giving a better rellish of the English whose prisoner then He was yet had been treated very honorably but this would not do new Propofitions were once and again sent and denyed and new assurances from the Scots were admitted which procured thosy denyalls Nay after that Hamilton in 1648. Commission'd by the Parliament and Presbyterians in Scotland had invaded us with 20000 men and was beaten and a new party of Kirkmen of a contrary party to Hamilton had gotten the sway of the State into their hands by the help of our forces who pursued the Hamiltonians beyond the Tweed the English still received further repulses So vowedly inflexible was the King against all that could be tenderd by the English though even when his condition was grown lowest and the Parliaments Propositions not at all raysd higher and so vowedly obstinate were the Scots and all parties and factions among them upon all changes of affairs whatsoever to make all agreements of the English with the King disadvantageous to their fellow Covenanters Their voluminous Papers yet shew what they pretended to in disposing of the Kings person in England what a negative voice in the Parliament of England they would assign to Him what revenues and signiorys out of the Court of Wards and elsewhere they would secure to Him what power military and judiciall they would intrust him with in England and how all should be managed by the joynt advice and consent of Scotland In summe the King must again be more humbly sought to then ever He must be discharged of imprisonment received in pomp at London to treat about what we had to propose and his freedome must be such that He must sent for and advice with what Delinquents He pleasde if we granted the Scots this we left our selves nothing if we denyed All Ireland was at the Kings devotion all Ormonds all Oneals adherents all the old Irish all the English Irish all the Protestants all the Papists were against us we had then scarce three considerable Towns left in that Countrey In Scotland all that Montrosse all that Huntly all that Hamilton all that Arguile the Kirks Champion had any power in even Jo Cheesly himself to get a dubbing at the last hand was for the royall Cause In England the Clergie had imbitterd the City and the City had sharpned the Countrey against the Army and against all that had not forgotten the first quarrel with the King The Parliament it self had some leading men in it that had secretly capitulated with the King and those false Leaders had many other ignorant followers that would beleeve no such matter At such a time as this when all forrein States desired and contributed something to our ruin besides and the King had as free scope to sollicite and treat them as ever and did make use of his time especially to conclude with the Irish what should the Army do to execute the King and eradicate Monarchy was to expose themselves to a thousand hazards and extremities to spare the King and Monarchy and submit to the Scoch Presbyterian faction was to perish inevitably to treat with the King brought them upon this perplexity either they must propose things safe for the State and then they had no hopes of prevailing or they must propose things unsafe which would be sinfull dishonorable and ruinous to them as well as others in the end I am confident England never travail'd with such sharp throes or strugled through such gasping agonies since She was first a mother and none but God could have given her such a deliverance When the King was retrograde to his Trust and with the swinge of his Train had swept all the chief luminaries out of our firmament when the Clergie was generally disaffected and with their doctrines had almost poysoned all the City and almost half the Countrey when the remaining part of the Parliament that had stoodout the brunt so long and wetherd so many gusts became recreant at last then did an Army inspirde with strange courage but stranger counsell from above step in to save their sinking Countrey over-powring all the windes and waves that raged against them The wonderfull dispensations of God bringing great matters to passe by such crosse meanes must be observed and adored by all that are not aliens from Religion and I doubt not but future Parliaments in future ages will be amazedly affected with them but of all men we that now live and see the effects of that critical time and what a prospering posture we are now in within so short a space in England Scotland Ireland and round about by the seconding mercies of God since must needs most gratfully recent these things except we have sold our selves to Atheism rebellion against Heaven The Chiliasts from hence and from the race ordering of all our commotions since 1640. something before may assure themselves that Christ is to reign upon Earth and that he ha's already taken the Scepter out of the greater Warriors and Counsellors hands of the earth into his own For the hills are now plained and the vallies are raised and yet there is no humane hand appearing in it Some men thinke all successe unworthy of all regard as if there were no difference between the administrations of God in his Church in times of distresse and his disposing of other mens ordinary affaires at other times or as if Alexander Hector Caesar had foyled their enemy by the same inward promptings as Joshua David and Judas Machabeus did but this certainly is an irreligious error for as there is a generall providence of God by which the course of all naturall things is steered so there uses to be a speciall interposition of God in some things and is to be acknowledged when his owne honour and interest is specially concerned and this speciall interposition is sometimes of the finger of God when
Presbyteries and Assemblies as the Scots would have us to the dishonouring of our Common wealth yet we have preserved it from abolition and utter dissolution The truth is in pursuance of our Covenant we have consulted with a Synod of Divines about the best method of Discipline and they are not able to satisfie us that the word of God the rule limited by the Covenant for our Reformation does invest any convention of Clergy-men who claim to be the only due Representants of the Church and immediate Vice-gerents of Christ with supremacy of independent power in all causes Ecclesiasticall The Pope claims no more in the pale of the Italian Church the Popish Cardinals and Bishops in Spain France c. claim lesse and the Protestant Prelates whom we lately ejected for Usurpers never claimed halfe so much Now the word of God is so farre from holding forth to us any such vast power in persons Ecclesiasticall that it's information is contrary viz. That the Apostles and Disciples of our Saviour for many years after his death assumed no more Authority on earth then he assumed that our Saviour plainly disclaimed all jurisdiction and dominion in this world that by practâ—se as well as precept he quasht all rivality about power or precedence amongst his own dearest followers Besides if any such spirituall supremacy were vested by divine right in any such Representants of the Church and vicars of Christ it were necessary that exact obedience in all things should bepayd them by all Inferiours and if such obedience were due it would be consequently necessary that they should be free from errour else the alleadged supremacy would serve to no great purpose and we know God and nature produce not great matters but for purposes as great This made the Romish Hierarchists rationally assert an infallible spirit when they had once asserted an uÌ„limitable power in the Church for where the Scripture is clear there needs no soveraign Judg every man is a sufficient Interpreter to himselfe and where the Scripture is doubtfull the doubt is to be cleared by something else of the same indisputable authority or else that defect is not supplyed noâ— can the same submission be demanded Wherefore upon this account we say that unlesse our supream Church Lords when they take us off from our own judgments cannot convince us by divine authority of cleer Scripture wil not convince us of some other divine authority in themselves of the same alloy as Scripture is for the inforcing of our acquiescence they deale worse with us then the Pope does with his Vassals Moreover that power in the Church which Eclipses and perturbes civill power cannot be supposed to be of Christs institution but such is the power of the Clergy in Scotland many ways Ergo For first clashings may be about what is purely a Civill case and what is purely Ecclesiasticall and all such clashings are exceeding dangerous 2 Since there are very few cases that are not mixt and as few mixt cases that are not unequally mixt great questions may arise to whether Tribunall the case shall be first refer'd when it is equally mixt and how the Tribunalls shall agree upon executing their decrees where the case is unequally mixt especially if the decrees be contrary as they may be In the year 1648. the Representative State of Scotland Voted a war with England necessary the Representative Kirk Voted the same unlawfull which contrary Votings might have confounded both for if the war was necessary the State might suffer much by the Churches seditious malediction and if the war was unlawfull yet the people having no more warrant to obey the Ecclesiasticall then Civill power in matters of that nature must needs be in a strange distraction and that distraction at that time might have created ethquakes in the whole Nation It should seem want of force in the party adhering to the Kirk preserved them at that time from a bloodie ingagement against the contrary party which might have devoured and swallowed up all For as soon as Hamilton was defeated in England the Kirk party got help from the English Army and by force wrested the Government out of Lannericks hands and then again had not Lannericks side been too weak another flame might have been kindled and perhaps have continued unquenched to this day Now if the temporal sword be in part spirituall and the cases of warre be held so equally mixt in Scotland that both the supreme independent Councels claim an equall judgement in them and do sometimes judge contrarily and there can be yet no certain rule given for the reconciling of those contrarieties it is manifest that these two coordinate powers may be destructive to the people and it is as manifest that no destructive institution can derive it self from God Much more might be said of the encroachments of the Clergie upon the Laity in cases mixt by pretending sometimes to an equality of interest in some cases where the Laities ought to be greater and pretending to all at other times where the Laities interest ought to be equall the Popish Clergie scarce ever used more jugling and trumperie in these affairs then the Presbyterian Ministery now uses In the stating of the present war in Scotland the Kirkmen go hand in hand with the Committee of Estates and in their Answers to our English Declarations they interpose in all points whatsoever whether religious politick juridicall or military and whether they be points of Law or matters of fact But if a Minister preach sedition in a Pulpit this appertains not to the secular Magistrate for though sedition be a secular busines and sedition may be preacht by a Minister in a Pulpit yet a Ministers Pulpit sedition is no matter for secular cognizance Was the Laity ever worse bridled when it was the Popes Asse But of this no more I will onely touch briefly upon the end of all this spirituall coordination and so shut up this point The Clergie of Scotland have spoken great and magnificent things of the use of their spirituall sword and the principall allegation for it was that without such a sword in the hands of the Kirk secular Princes and Grandees could not be awed and restrained in many enterprises and crimes very dangerous to the Church But who can imagine they ever beleeved themselves herein when in the processe of all our late wars that very Kirk it self which told the King He was guilty of a deluge of blood and had made himself and his throne and his posterity obnoxious to Gods high indignation thereby yet never offered to strike with the weapon of excommunication all that while if there was any correcting restraining healing recovering vertue in that weapon why did they uncharitably forbear to use it why did they not pitie those multitudes of Innocents that perished daily under his fury why did they suffer the King himself to run on and die in his persecutions And if their pretended weapon had really no such
vertue in it why do they brandish it so ludicrously onely to dazle our weak eyes The next Objection of the Scots is that we have not onely sequestred a great part of Christs spirituall power and detained it in Lay hands but have also abused the same power tolerating thereby and countenancing all manner of heresies which is directly contrary to our covenanted Reformation Our Answer is that we are neither intensively nor extensively lyable indeed to this objection For 1. all sects and scandals are not permitted by us nothing is more distant from truth then this suggestion All grosse sins and seducers are supprest with as quick severity as ever nay since the Norman Conquest there have not been so many sharp Laws made against Adultery Swearing blaspheming Sabbath-breaking and open prophanation as have been made within these few yeers All the remission and relaxation that our Parliament has indulged of late is only towards tender Consciences where men comport themselves civilly and inoffensively towards their neighbours and attempt to innovate nothing in the Church for perturbing of Religion and even in this also we havenot extended our indulgence so far as the united States of the Netherlands have and divers other Protestant Princes in Germany The truth is we do not finde such danger in Erastianisme Independentisme Anabaptisme Round-headisme c. as our rigid Presbyterians suspect and this would not dislike the Presbyterians themselves if they were men willing to do to others as they are willing others should do to them for they themselves are sensible that we can never desire more gentlenesse from them to us then is now shewed by us to them 2ly That toleration which we are accused of is but a non persecution in its most intensive degree for we use all Christian means besides force to reduce such as wander and divide from us and we are far from cherishing schismes and broyls either in Church or State Our Saviours own parable allows us where weeds have gotten head and are as numerous as the standing corn rather to spare the weeds for the corns sake then to indanger the corn for the weeds sake Howsoever it would be some charity in our traducers if they would advisedly consider how the growth of our weeds came at first to be so rank amongst us and thereupon joyn with us in humiliation for it not exult over us in scorn and derision Upon the first defiance given by the King to the Parliament half the Clergie at least fell away from this cause and before that rent could be sowde up there happened a second distance betwixt us and the Scots partly upon a royal and partly an Ecclesiasticall account and that distance drew on as great a revolt of the Clergie as the former And how can any man imagine but that strange disorders must needs follow and abound in a Church so deserted When the dressers of the Vineyard do not onely quit their charge but throw down the mounds how can it be expected but that Bores and Foxes should break in And indeed the Parliament is still ill beset for either they must deny preaching to the people to three parts of foure or else they must yeeld the Pulpits to their seditious Enemies and to such as shall seek to wound the Magistrate through the souls of the people This being the Parliaments hard case it may better become the Scots to whom may be attributed a great part of these disturbances to afford some pitie and help then to adde miserie to our miserie This is sufficient to plead for our indulgence let us onely advise the Presbyterians not to take unjust offence thereat or to stumble into the contrary extreme T is wofull to see how rigidly the Ministers carrie themselves towards the poore people in many places and what an absolute discretionarie power they challenge in many places over the ordinances of God There are many Parishes in England where the people have not been admitted to the Sacrament of the Lords Supper nor some Infants to the Sacrament of Baptisme for a long time This deserves much bewailing for certainly God gave these rich Legacies to the diffusive body of his Church for the spirituall comfort of the meanest servants of his and not to that which cals it self his representative body to be a trade and monopolie for their advantage in this world But I have done if the world now finde cause to condemne us of dealing treacherously with the Covenant and our fellow-Covenanters in that we have not submitted to the Scots and for their sakes disclaimed our own judgements and interests to gratifie the King and the Presbyterian Clergie with our perpetuall servility let us fall under their condemnation Or if the world can justifie the Scots as pursuers of that union freedome and fidelity which was aimed at in the Covenant when they made themselves our Lords to give us Laws in our own Dominions and when they did not onely raise sedition here in our own bowels but came in with an Army of 20000. men to devour us let them stand upright here and injoy their wished Triumph Our finall assurance and comfort is there sits a Judge in heaven who can neither deceive nor be deceived a Judge that hears all appeals made above and does right at last to all that groane under oppression and injustice belowe Of the Scoch Warre VVEe have seen how the Covenants waxen nose has been turned and moulded into many forms wee see now cause to suspect that 't was made so large at first and compacted of such materials that like the Grecian wooden Horse it might tear our walls the wider upon its entrance and discharge the more discords and dissentions amongst us after its entrance was procured We see it was intended by the honest party in England for cement to unite the Nations in a more arct faithfull confederation then ever our Ancestors knew but the couching of it was obscure and left liable to so many false glosses that it soon became {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Our brotherly offices of Assistance soon degenerated into harsh expostulations harsh expostulations begat secreet feudes and secreet feudes heightned themselves into open hostilities The question is only when open war commenced betwixt these Nations Whether the Scots first invaded us by their Duke Hamilton above two years since or whether the English first invaded Scotland this last summer under the command of the Lord Gen. Cromwell For a year or two after reception of the Covenant in England a good correspondence was kept betwixt us the Scotch Commissioners sat in our Committee of Lords and Commons at Darby house whereby they were admitted into the knowledge of our highest and secretest affaires and had opportunity to frame parties amongst us for promoting of their own Interests Out of these kindnesses sprung our first unkindnesses for the more honour was given to the Scots the more still they thought was due and the more they thought was due the
great sticklers for the King to our Nations great dis-service and this gave us some glimpse that even in the Kirk party restored so lately to power by our means all was not so sound and sincere as it ought to be The Treaty not succeeding about the last of Januar the King was brought to the block and then the insolencies of the Scoch Commissioners and their haughty intrusions into the managery of our English State affairs and their despicable subjecting of our Parliament to their over-ruling wils grew so intolerable that upon the 17. of Febr the Parliament declared publickly against them This begat another Paper from the Commissioners dated the 24. following more imperious and controuling then formerly and this was presently after voted a designe in the contrivers of it to raise sedition that so under specious pretences they might gain advantage to second their late perfidious invasion The 6. of March following the State of Scotland wrote a Letter to us as they now inform us to avow their Commissioners last Paper and withall disallowing our construction of it for that they judged it no incroachment upon our Government nor any indeavour to raise sedition They likewise signified in the same that if any prevalent party in either Kingdom had or might break the bonds of Union yet those sacred tyes ought not to be layed aside or cancell'd but preserved for the benefit of such as were innocent in both Nations The Scoch Commissioners to whom this Letter was sent for delivery of it were now upon their return for Scotland and so the same never came to our hands though the Scots untruly tax us of suppressing it But why should they suspect any designe in us of suppressing this Letter The Letter if we had received it would not have healed our grievances it would rather have made the wounds wider for the Scots Commissioners had charged us of Treason perjury usurpation c. for doing those things within our own government which were required at our hands by justice and Reason of State now their principals in Scotland tell us that this charge is true but being true it molests not it shakes not it justles not us out of any part of our power nor stirs the people at all against us What is this but to tell us that they are more truly Judges in England of Treason perjurie usurpation c. then we that 't was not injurious in them to condemne us nor seditious in the people to rise up against us in observance of their commands Sometimes they pretend they aime at nothing beyond a simple protesting against us and that a freedome of Protesting is due to all men but this is meerly to delude and infect the people the more for t is evident to all men that such Protestations as their Papers have exhibited have ever been fraighted with the worst of calumnies the severest of sentences and have been received by the people as warlike defiances In this case therefore when so many insurrections and broils have been actually bred against us in our own bowels and so dangerously seconded by forrein Forces we call in all men to be Judges betwixt us whether we may not more justly cast out Protestations when they do but palliate seditious conspiracies then to submit to seditious conspiracies because they cover themselves with the names of Protestations This Letter miscarrying and our Parliament having waited awhile for some other return by some Expresse or other in May following about nine months after the Scoch Rout a complanatory Letter was sent from hence about divers grievances in generall and satisfaction was therein desired by Treaty in a peaceable way An Answer hereunto came in June following recomplaining that the Scots justly found themselves aggrieved at the late proceedings in England in reference to Religion taking away the Kings life and change of fundamentall Government which they had protested against That in case the English would disclaim their late proceedings against Covenant and Treaties they were contented to authorise Commissioners for a Treaty Otherwise they were resolved to keep themselves free from all complyance with malignants on the one hand and the Enemies of Kingly Government on the other That in regard of the Covenant the Treaties and many Declarations of both Kingdoms they could not acknowledge that to be a Parliament from whom the last Proposition came to them about a Treatie to be appointed Here was a flat deniall of any satisfaction by declining all means of treating about the same Here was a reason given of that deniall as full of enmity and hostility as could be instead of making any compensation due to the State of England for the bloodshed and rapine of Hamilton here was a strange coacervation and accumulation of new â—landers and defamations upon the Parliament of England Letters from the Parliament are now as it were interdicted no such subscription is to be admitted hereupon in July following our Parliament issued forth a Declaration for the better stating of these matters the endeavour of that Declaration was to remove yet all Nationall misunderstanding iâ— possible and to demonstrate that the English yet had not laid aside all thoughts of peace but concluding that if still they were diverted out of the wayes of peace unwillingly the fault was not theirs This Declaration was made as publick as ever any was in England and we have thousands here of the Scotch Nation disaffected enough to us and ten thousands of English Presbyterians besides more imbittered then the Scoch and all these can attestate the evulgation of this Declaration yet the Scots call it a Dormant Declaration and most dis-ingenuously would infuse it into the people that they had never nor could have any notice of it A Letter of theirs to us in the hands of a single Messenger could not be intercepted but a Manifest of ours Printed and intitled to the whole world must needs miscarry and that by our collusion Some reply was expected by us to the matter of this Declaration and some months past away hanging our expectation but none came the first news we heard was that about the middle of March following there was a Treaty agreed on to be at Bredah betwixt the Scots and their yong declared King and that the principall Subject of that Treaty was about the pretensions of the yong King to England and the quarrels of the Scots against England This to us that had so little hopes of reconcilement before was a sufficient alarme and upon this our L Generall Cromwell was sent for out of Ireland all warlick preparations were made ready and our Army this last Summer as soon as we got notice of the agreement made at Bredah and how far it concerned the life of this Common-wealth made its entrance into Scotland This relation gives the true procedure of all memorable matters betwixt Summer 1648. and Summer 1650. with the reasons of the slow motions of the English and amongst them all whether there was