they might not want pleas propose the necessity of a personal Treaty with the King to make up all former miscarriages all these like so many twisted cords they thought could never be broken a great part of the City and the then visible power were so courted and the Ministers of London so Coacht up and down the City by the Scots and these Lords and Commons that the Trumpet was blown for a new War all pay hindred from the Army they withdrawing their contributions refusing to lend any more money without they would disband and so vigorously was this design carried on that the City put themselves in a posture of hostility as if the Royal Army were at their Gates and Reformadoes and others duly listed encouraged by money and promises the Army so hated on a sudden that it was dangerous and capital but to mention them with respect at the same time a multitude of Prentices and listed Souldiers came down to Westminster from the City to awe the moderate party and make them to vote in the King to London upon which the Speaker with many honest Members left the House and fled to the Army at Hounslow-Heath who were marching to prevent the design in the City which had proved a bloody and doleful overture if God had not by the wise mediation of some instruments prevented it But that the Scots were the main wheel in this work may be easily known if we remember their converses then in the City and the series of their carriages since in prosecuting the same design for after that issue when the Grandees as Hollis Stapleton and the rest of the eleven Members were upon the Armies charge against them laid aside that they could not act the Scots come forth and act the part in sight themselves by other pretences especially that the world may know how deeply the Scots were interested in the making a new war between the Army and the City thinking it best to begin at the head Let us but view their affections and carriages to our Commissioners in Scotland who were soon after sent to keep up good correspondencies between us they were very much sleighted especially Mr. Marshal that pious and prudent Minister to whom England is much beholding whom they would hardly own or look on or suffer to preach and all because God had made him a happy instrument at that time to prevent that bloody Engagement and had for the present been used to qualifie the spirits of the Ministers and to make all friends a work which was his great honour and the Cities and Kingdoms most seasonable mercy at which nothing but envy malice and a deep engaged spirit could have any exception So zealous have the Scots been for Englands good that they will not let us flourish too much in peace lest we should grow proud and wanton But to go on for if one means fail another may effect all the next weapons the Scots take up are more spirituall and these kept for the last as being of the most keen and prevailing nature and they were the Covenant and Presbyterial Government both good but badly handled to such ends the first being most large they put most weight upon as comprehending the other From both these they drew a necessity of a personal Treaty with the King all which were prosecuted in their seasons It fell out a little before the height of these workings that the King was brought by Coronet Joyce into our Army who though he was sent towards Oxford about another business yet had a mind to visit Holdenby and try a conclusion on the King which he did though without any command from the Army yet with some advantage at present at least of freeing them from fears of his being made use of against them for the Scots with that party in Parliament had intended his surprizal to make a new work for the Army and once more to try a Northern trick in England This accident more incensed their spirits than ever when they thought how they were disappointed in their best laid plots and now they fall pelmel on both Parliament and Army urging Treaties plying the Kingdom with Remonstrances and Declarations which none durst to do but the Scots Commissioners nor they had not our Parliament had a large gift of patience and long-sufferance accompanied with great tenderness of the preservation of the union of the two Nations and they too great a mind to make England Scotland Yet truly they had little reason to envy the Armies enjoying the King but as it gave a check to their designs for they never got any thing by him but repentance which cost them dear to obtain and with some loss of Reputation in the eyes of many dis-ingaged spirits the King striving to drive on his own Interest by every party he converst withal However the Scots thought it a great loss and that which did perplex their Motions therefore first cryed out against the Army for that act as if they had forgotten what their Army did in a far different cause or were not yet got out of their dream of their Armies stated reception of him at Southwell and carrying him to Newcastle but the great cause of the murmur was this That they were afraid that the Army would have made that use of him which the Scots Commissioners and the English Scots intended It will too much lengthen this Narrative to repeat every circumstance about these Transactions the general and moral account I doubt not but will suffice When the Scots saw all this would not do they fall to their pens and shoot up and down their paper pellets against the Army and now flie to the Covenant as their last refuge taxing the Parliament and Army with breach of Covenant all England and Scotland is now filld with nothing else but the cries of breach of Covenant the most hainous and destroying sin of any Nation the Army given out as the Army Royal of Heresies and Schismes names as odious in Ecclesiasticals as Rebelion and Treason in Politicks that no good Christian can think of but abhor And these are so fastened on the army and reflected on the Parliament that all good men that were not very wary and observant looking on them both through this black Glass could not imagine them to be otherwise then Monsters who are incapable of any priviledge in a Commonwealth this Plea hath and doth do the Scots more service than any that ever they made use of because it leaves something alwaies suspicious and doubtful at the best in those which bear the brand of it and wild still prevail on implicite-faith'd men of which the whole world is full The Personal Treaty must be usherd in by this which was nothing else but a way to bring the King into London with Peace Honor and safety and to lessen and mittigate all former actings which the Scots Commissioners prosecute with the greatest violence and are the onely main men in view standing
The False Brother OR A NEW MAP OF SCOTLAND Drawn by an English Pencil Being A short History of the Political and Civil Transactions between these two Nations since their first Friendship Wherein the many secret Designs and dangerous Aspects and Influences of that Nation on England are discovered With the Juglings of their Commissioners with the late King Parliament and City The Grounds of the Entrance of our Army into Scotland cleared from their own Principles and Actings Their main Pleas impleaded and answered Humbly presented to the Councel of State Frustra blanditiae venitis ad me Attritis miserabiles labellis Victurus Dominum deumque non sum Jam non est locus hac in urbe vobis Martial 1 Sam. 11.1 2. Make a Covenant with us and we will serve thee And Nahash the Ammonite answered on this condition will I make a Covenant with you that I may thrust out your right eyes London Printed by R. W. for Francis Tyton and are to be sold at the three Daggers in Fleetstreet neer Temple-Gate 1651. To the Reader THis Map was drawn by day light though it represents persons in their Night-Gowns and private walks all the design in it is but to make us Englishmen or keep us so Necessity hath now forced out many things which in former times prudence and better hopes would have stifled We have sad reason to repeat former miscarriages if there were any thing remaining to help but remembrance of what is past and caution for the future in our correspondence with that Nation The Author hath nothing to say absolutely against Scotland may they live as happy without us as we can do without them only that which this little Treatise deals withall is either their ill-neighbourhood or deceitful friendship in managing close designs against England by loving and brotherly expressions It s wholly submitted to an English Judgement if it be not quite lost in many some having already engaged it a great way beyond the borders others are ready to give it up with all their priviledges for enjoying the name of a Scotish King What is related needs no Apologie its Truth is its Shield and Buckler the use and improvement of it will be the great thing that remains which will be easily effectuall if we retain any sence of our former priviledges or present ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The false Brother IT is not unknown though it hath been sad and dangerous how many intricacies and strange emergencies have occurred in the affairs of this Nation since the Parliament first began to oppose the Tyranny of the late King so many changes and divisions within such a compass of time and ground ne'r have been experienced among any people which hath not proceeded either from the in evidence of our first principles or for want of the knowledge of our advantages over our common enemy but meerly from the designs of our seeming friends and bosome acquaintance who making use of our affections and indulgences as fast as God hath made way for an end of the warr have found out other instruments and pleas either to new model the old Enemy or alter our spirits and principles by secret divisions among our selves But among all the secret enemies this Nation hath had none have been more eminent and active with so much advantage as the Scottish Party with whom as we had most special correspondencies so they have had the fairest pretences and strongest influences on all parties all others being but under-agents to their designs whose craft and policy meeting with the ambition and discontent of some English spirits hath of a long time wrought together to the perplexing of all our affairs and to the recruiting our common Enemy either in their strength or hopes all which though it hath been a long while acted under-board and carried on by fair and unsuspected steps yet it hath at last broke out that all true Englishmen may see who were the first Agents and are to be the last reserve of the Malignant Interest For the full discovery of which plots and transactions of Scotland against England their methods and ends from first to last as far as can be gathered out of their dark and close negotiations with the King on the one side and Parliament and City of London on the other without any envy to that Nation but of faithfulness to England I have undertaken this short Discourse for the better carrying on of which Narrative it will not be amiss to begin at the first original of our acquaintance and to glance at the grounds of our distances and unions We may all remember that the beginning of our dearness and acquaintance with Scotland hath been but of late years Our Ancestors thought we were as providentially disjoyned from them by Tweed as they and we are by the Ocean from all the world besides and in all their overtures with that Nation their care was more to keep peace then friendship and to imprison them with observance in their own Nation rather then to inlarge our Dominions with theirs it being our utmost design to keep them from being bad Neighbors for good and profitable friends we never could expect them to be there being no parity or proportion for such a converse between us but on the one side there would be envy and design on the other jealousies and indignation they wanted too much and we enjoyed more then we could spare upon meer acts of love and National correspondencies And the Scots who naturally hate or envy Englishmen observed their own advantages and therefore rather sought to strengthen their alliances abroad especially with France who have been long our secret observing enemies then to be one with us knowing they could get more by helping others to annoy us then by themselves who have been ever too weak in strength though not in policy to deale single with the English Nation many and bloody battels have been fought between us the English to preserve their own borders which was the top of their design the Scots to inlarge their territories on ours which yet they never could obtain but have of late cast very hard for and have it still in their eye The neerest conjunction this State could ever formerly in prudence seek after with them was by Matches with their Princes which at last brought forth a more visible union of both Nations under one King which fell out fortunately for the Scots that their King should be translated into England whereby they should have his small Revenues in Scotland and advantage of place and insight to the priviledges and secrets of this Kingdom and yet lye out of our way and keep their own Nation to themselves This union though it was hopeful and very welcome to the English whose borders were never free from their ravenous invasion yet it proved not so well for England for as it brought more charge on us to maintain a King of three Kingdoms by one for we could expect little or nothing
South for their next March and those had been the next Invadors had not Hambleton who was too crafty changed the Commanders not the design but of that in its place the progress will demonstrate the intentions And now begins the play having discharged themselves of that burthen most honest men began to renew their good thoughts of the Scots and to think them very honest and true-hearted to the interest of England whereby they got fresh advantages to their intended work And having understood fully our condition as is related set their Engines in motion and by their Commissioners at London transact all their secret contrivances yet as men not onely zealous but careful they took their times and made such handsome vizards for their faces as should not onely hide them but set out their design as Paint doth ugly visages But to particulars The King by this time is setled at Holdenby Hunting and Hawking under the protection of his Overseers very pleasant and jolly thinking he had need to do little when his business was like to be done to his hand by such happy and unsuspected instruments The Scots Commissioners are now busie at London with that party which they found most sutable in the Parliament and City with whom they fully strike in not neglecting to lay baits for all collateral and hopeful instruments not yet so directly brought to that design The first plot of this new confederacy is to destroy the Army or weaken it that it should be no considerable block in the way for this end many secret trains are laid to undermine them and blow them up both in their persons and reputations they had many plausible arguments at hand for the countenance of their intentions as the burthen of an Army the uselesness of them now they had taken the King and all was prepared for peace yet they shew not so visibly their hatred at first but strive to divide them and to cast them into another model that they might not be looked on as the Army that conquered the King but as reformed and made fit for their use For God having by special providences removed from this life the old Lord General Essex who lived to see what faithfulness and activity in an Army could effect and to have his glory clouded by a New Model which was formed out of the dust of his greatness This Gentleman some thought seasonably taken out of the way being verily supposed to be the fittest person to head this design having been laid aside as well as the Scots Army and only honoured to begin the war which might render him under the same animosity especially having more of honour on his person to provoke him to envy and revenge About this time also Major General Massey's Brigade who raunted and vapoured in the West were happily disbanded which was a great mercy and done with much reluctancy but that the new conquering General was sent to see it done this Army was designed to be the materia prima of this Model and the Scots Army to be the form and spirit of the whole but seeing themselves thus disappointed first from Heaven more immediately concerning the one and by an over-powering force as to the other they presently fell to work with the Army it self on whom they laid several plots First they strive to gain them to themselves as knowing they were instruments fit to be used For this end they pretend their pitty and compassion to Ireland and to send some part of them over there or the whole as need should be this was the most taking and religious veile next the Covenant that ever could be thought prevalent to make all men think their intentions honest and spiritual but behold the mystery they must have new Commanders to conduct them their own faithful Officers who had waded equally with them in blood must be reduced for fear they should do more service and have the honour of reducing that Nation also which since God hath maugre all designs blest them to effect and strange and engaged Officers put upon them as Waller Massey c. This enterprize had too much of the spleen in it and was not so handsomely managed as the others were for presently the very common Souldiers smell the Scots fingers in it and by a wonderful way of providence they unite and resolve to live and dye with their own Officers When they saw this would not take they having got the casting Vote now in Parliament think to quash them by that Authority they had most carefully preserved and get them voted Rebels and Traytors and all that took part with them which were new and exotick words to be given to an Army who had saved them from being executed according to that account and doubtless such a vote had never been breath'd forth in that house if the Scots Ayr had not blown on the humors of some discontented English spirits who would fain have had them provoked and tempted to have done something which they might more plausibly take advantage of for their ruine But it proved afterwards that was too rough a way to deal with Souldiers to whom then Parliament and City and Countrey as instruments under God did owe the enjoyments of all their peace and power This great and terrible Vote was past then against the Army only upon their desiring and petitioning the fairest and most customary way of address to the Parliament for the continuance of their own Officers over them for an Act of Indemnity for acts done out of the necessity of their service which were not justifiable in times of peace for their Arrears and such like equitable requests It was noted as a strange change of the Parliaments complexion at that time towards such faithfull and active servants and judged to proceed from great prevailings of humor that it made the souldiers consider more seriously what they fought for all this while and to judge that Tyranny had but changed its outward and looser garments and that they were under the designs of the old Enemy in a new dress so that this stratagem not being by it self effectuall they add another for that party having now the power of the Treasury of the Nation they spare not for monies to encourage our discourage promising large rewards to those Officers and Souldiers that would leave the Army threatning others entertaining all the Ruffianly Reformadoes of Massey's and Wallers Army paying them all their Arrears with gratuities whereby they got them privately listed spending all that money upon their own creatures which should of right have been long before paid to the Army who had dearly earn'd it gallantly made it due At this time to make a full breach the Scots Commssioners acted behind the Curtain and more remotely yet most powerfully having the advantage of secrecy they lie in the City ply the Ministers to provoke the people against the Army and to engage with these whom they had formerly made theirs in the Parliament and that
dawbing there was in that affair some know that will not speak Some of our Commissioners did wish and desire some other terms to be inserted and some explained but it was husht as not being a time to dispute that it would offend the contrivers and retard the issue of affairs the Scots resolving not to move untill they had our consent fast in their net and our charity making us willing to hope they would be honest in their use and interpretation of so sacred a Text. Thus it came out in the Scottish Dialect which was then in fashion in England as the Spanish formerly at Court and yet we were fain to buy the paper and pay the Compilers and I pray God it prove not the costliest sheet that ever was drawn between two Nations yet we now thought our selves well and looked on our affairs as in a very hopeful condition the Scots being of late so high in all honest mens thoughts for their first expedition and being so firmly united against the common enemy sung Requiems to our selves hoping the War would soon be ended by the faithfulness and activity of the Scots Army and that the Royal Standard would fall down at the appearance of such a Covenanting Militia And truly the eyes and hearts of all honest-hearted men were so on them that they thought that God would onely make use of their Arms to effect our happiness their very name now which was formerly in English accounted as a barbarous expression was almost become sacred and spoken of with abundance of devotion But time that brings forth Truth soon discovered them and ere a year past over many men began to be startled and to see day through many little holes and to discover that England was like to pay well for their Charity and Affections yet while we were loving they were designing and making their advantages of our necessities the opening of which is one of the main ends of this Discourse This great Expedition as it drew on much expectation on all sides so it gave them many advantages over us which they carefully improved for they had their own demands both in Treaties and the Covenant they got into our affections and councels and had a predominant influence in all our affairs without suspition and were behind the Screen in all transactions besides they had their stakes in every hedge their Agents in every corner in the Parliament Assembly both the Armies of the Lord of Essex and Sir William Waller where the most of the Field Officers were Scotchmen who were made Lieutenants and Major Generals Colonels and Governors of great Garrisons besides a peculiar standing Army in the North and their Commissioners at London waiting on the design and so handsomly were they placed in all great Offices that the management of all affairs was almost come into the Scots hands and had not God wisely defeated their enterprizes England had been Scotland long ere this of which more anon But that I may quit scores as I go along because the Scots heighten their actings for us in this Expedition and in their Papers speak so largely of their assistance of us against the Royal Party as the greatest act of love and favour that ever was done unto a Nation charging of us with ingratitude and ill requital Let us a little remember that it was a common cause that but the day before as it were we did the like for them we paid them for the meer standing up for their own priviledges that we bought their love at a greater rate then brotherly assistances are used to be sold for and were at all the charges to maintain the Covenant both in England and Scotland And whereas they urge the Kings offers of the four Northern Counties to be annexed to that Crown if they would joyn with him with abundance of large promises In general as it would be worse than inhumanity for them to have engaged against the Parliament who had a but year or two before helpt them and sent them home with money in their purses when they came but about their own business So in particular they knew who were better paymasters the King or the Parliament and though they had not the four Northern Counties made over by the Covenant yet they did not doubt but to work them out and to have them for their Arrears which was more safe and honourable in the mean while they knew they should enjoy them for their Quarters However we must acknowledge their assistance was then seasonable and a favour And yet when we pay well for respects something of thanks may well be spared But to return to our main discourse It is very observable to consider the great difference in their carriages between their first Expedition for themselves and their second upon the score of the Covenant in their first coming they came with Bibles in their hands singing of Psalms and in a very lovely form of godliness and their behaviour generally was not much unsutable but in the second Expedition when they came with the Covenant in their hats and hands there was a sudden visible change both in persons and carriages the constitution of the Army of a more loose temper and Religion marcht in the rear for having us now fast by Covenant and lying under the shelter of so sure a pretence they presently fell to plunder and to challenge all things as their own and as I take it the first night they entred England they slew a thousand sheep though by the Treaty they should have brought in a moneths provision sutable to their Army and so acted as if they had nothing now to look after but an intire communion and mutual injoyment of all things in common with us and though we had Commissioners with them which by the Treaty were to order all things joyntly with them as they were seldome consulted withall so hardly ever obeyed these Gentlemen though tender enough of the English Interest giving way and yeelding to many things being loth to make broils and hinder the main work they so encroached ere they were aware on our priviledges and enjoyments in the North that there was nothing but sad oppressions and violences reigning over the poor Countreys without any redress and after they had warmed themselves with our English refreshments they without any Warrant from the Parliament or Approbation of our Commissioners lay on a universal Sess upon every thing that was of any concernment to the people besides Free-Quarter and particular plunders Thus our Commissioners remained among them rather as spectators of the misery of the people then as Counsellors and in authority with them These things were sad presages and opened many mens eyes in the North to see such sudden changes though the South knew not but they were all Saints It was wisdom then to conceal these things and not give them publick vent lest we should rejoyce our Enemies hoping likewise that it would be but for a while and that
became moderate towards the Kings interest and fell into a discontented and envious humor against the new Model who were assisted from heaven to do that in one Summer which they had been dallying about some years and had lost more ground then ever they gained striving rather to ballance the Parliaments interest then improve it to a Conquest These Gentlemen with many others being now out of Office in the Army and so remoter from influences which much depended on the Military power and seeing all their former services swallowed up and lost in the present faithfulness and usefulness of this Army joyn in with the Scots party whose condition was much alike as to their overtures and the Scots who were glad of such instruments in our own bosoms strike in with them and lay their heads together how to work upon all tempers and distempers of men that they might either make a new war for themselves to manage or patch up a peace wherein they might be seen to be the eminent instruments thinking that would be most raising and advantagious to themselves it being more taking to the people to be instruments of making any unjust peace then of conquering by just war But the most plausible and teeming Agents they used were some Ministers in London and other places who had by their good Doctrine got into mens affections whom they used as fit bellows for such a flame and the religious vail and peculiar engine was the Covenant which was made use of to serve both ends So that this design hath been well composed and made up of English materials and Scottish spirits who were as the predominant ingredient in a Potion of the most secret and effectual influence The proper subject of these new contrivances were that remnant in the Parliament whom they had observed most immovable in their principles set against the Tyranny of the King and his interest which they knew would be more afterwards then ever hating to be so unfaithful to Gods Providences and their own engagements to this Nation as to sell away their Liberties after a conquest which they might have had in as good terms and with less hazard before the war And because God had kept the Army to the same principles and united them with that honest party they must be the main Butt of all these envenomed arrows which afterwards were shot at Rovers as well as in a level against them This poor Army because they had been too active and had been honored to Conquer that proud and insolent party the bare opposition of whom by the former Armies cost this Nation some millions to little purpose must now be put in their place and accounted the common enemy and the tables were presently turned and new names invented of distinction and disgrace that what they could not effect by force they might by craft which the Scots Commissioners were the great Masters of but that I may go on by degrees as this plot was managed The first work they set about in order to effect their end ' was to get the King into the Scots Army that he might be further out of the sight of the English and to prevent the Army from having the onely glory of doing all that though they had conquered his party they might not have the honor of taking his person I know the Scots deny any capitulation with him and profest they were as men that dreamt but if Martial and Hudson and Ashburnham who were the prime Agents in it or the King himself who swore it oftentimes upon his discontents may be believed as in these secret affairs which concerned themselves they were the best witnesses then it is out of doubt you may see this more full in a little Book Intituled The English Translation of the Scots Declaration against Montross where both Hudsons and the Kings Affidavit about this business are recorded Nay so fond they were of this new design and the Officers of the Army so transported with it that the old General Lesley told Hudson that his Majesty might be sure of his welcome he would willingly meet him half way bare-foot and on his knees rather then to miss his company besides they presently hasted away with him to Newcastle contrary to the advice of our Commissioners then amongst them and the absolute command of our Parliament as if they had got some rich prize and their ultimate end in this war and that they might have no objection of delay the King gave up Newark as a token of his love to them and though by being at Newark he was full half way to the Parliament yet they without stop carry him farther off that they might draw him at a greater distance from us and keep him as a pawn for themselves This transaction how ever guilded over was of a strange and dangerous import in such a juncture of time and shews much of the Scots ends that when he was beaten out of most of his Holds he should take Sanctuary in the Scots Army and they to keep him not onely in the place where they first met him but to convey him away so far from the Parliament and that by the alone authority of their Army which afterwards they condemned in our Army though what they did was upon more special Reasons all the world must needs judge that there was something in it more then ordinary and some great change not in the King who knew his own principles and was too much indeared to them but in the Scots who were so glad of his coming unto them But the truth is by this they thought to undermine the Army and that party they had their eyes on in Parliament to have frustrated all triumphs of our Conquest having got the prime Standard or at least to have so puzled and altered all our affairs that they might be looked upon once more as the first and last causes of our salvation The King was not all this while unmindful of his Interest neither were his Agents idle everywhere for after the Scots had conveyed away Ashburnham and Hudson lest they should discover the secrets and spoil the play The French Embassador and their Agent Montril ply the Kings business with the Scots and improve the interest of that Nation which with Scotland is most powerful all things had been done at that time which was promised in the next Expedition but that some of the wiser and men of greatest interest saw that it was not now time the King was so fast and stiff to his principles that they could make him do nothing in order to the Covenant which must have been their greatest pretence and the thoughts of espousing such an interest so soon and publikely standing for him ere he had given any delusive satisfaction would have been too gross as being a renewing of the old Cause which would make all men suspect the design ere it was ripe or handsomely veil'd and they knew well enough our Army had been all
for it whether to regain their lost Honor in delivering up the King at Newcastle and vindicate themselves of these aspersions of selling him for two hundred thousand pound or to make good their secret promises at his departure from them it s no great matter to be informed in but all the world may know they negotiated that affair more like the Kings authorized Commissioners for that purpose then the Commissioners of the Covenant and Nation of Scotland For when the Parliament stood on the way of Propositions wherein the Fundamental principles of both Nations should have been stuck unto and the absolute necessaries of our peace without restriction insisted on nothing would serve the Scots but a Personal Treaty which in effect was no more but this That we must yet be at the Kings mercy for what we had by the sword wrung out of his hands that this was a dangerous design that the Scots had a chief hand in it I shall demonstrate in these particulars For the first That it was not the right way but a by path found out on purpose for to act some other affair by is evident if we consider First that the way of Propositions was judged at the utmost pinch of our affairs to be the safest and fairest by both Nations and though the King often desired it when he had an Army as an argument it would not be granted knowing the influences of Royal aspects and respect 2. Any other way would be most useless for what could not be done by Propositions could not be by a personal presence for those Propositions were not as Ceremonial and State Complements which can be omitted without danger but of that consequence and Fundamentalness to this Nation and so connected together that we could not lose one without hazard of all Besides our affairs were not in that equal ballance at that time we having the King as our prisoner to Treat with him upon equal terms or to admit his person to explain or dash out our demands Yea the way of Propositions was most serious as safe for if the King refused to grant our desires in cold bloud when he had time to peruse them so long and to know his own heart towards them and yet refused to sign them and we durst not recede from them how could we expect by debate and conferences where men are many times surprized and lie under strong influences and have not time of looking so round about them to have got any thing by such a Treaty but these things have been in other Manifestoes more fully spoken unto That the Scots have been the prime instruments in it it s a Record in their own Remonstrances And their carriages too gross in it to be kept private they protested against the Parliaments way of Propositions and when they had nothing against the matter they carp at the method and cry out upon them for not putting the Covenant in the fore front while the Parliament intended nothing but to secure it in the middle and make it the center in which all things should rest and by which they should be determined this was judged a little politick Superstition in the Scots to make the world believe they had the onely care of the Covenant and the Parliament of themselves the high incroachments of these Gentlemen on the priviledges of England and the Parliament though it might give us a full discovery of their designs on us yet it is not to be paralleld by any Ministers of State in the Christian or Heathenish world for still wrapping themselves up in the Covenant they peremptorily take upon them to determine what proposals we shall make concerning our peace and when they have granted the substance will take on them to hold our hands in the writing of them that we must not place a letter or syllable in any order but what these Commissioners would have us nor could we have liberty to point our own words or add an accent without a severe check from them And when we had profest our selves proper Judges of our affairs and not to meddle with any proposals that immediatly concerned their Nation the Scots Commissioners ride post presently to the Isle of Wight and protest against all those things that our Parliament thought most fit for setling the peace of this Nation That all English men may see the aims of that Nation for power and domination in England and I may say it without partiality the Spanish Faction never had more power in the conclave at Rome then the Scots had at that time on the most of the English Nation And so strenously do they follow this affair that a personal Treaty is obtained at last but least it should not have been effected to bring the Parliament low and ballance the Kings power with theirs an universal insurrection is designed in all Counties in England and the Scots to come in on the back that the Army might be divided and broken and the Scots might back their papers with their swords this was the deepest and most dangerous design that ever was set on foot and the greatest power of God was maifested in preventing the efficacy of it which did not onely make a new War but would have utterly undone all former hopes For upon a suddain they revolt in Wales under Poyer Powel and Laughorn get together a great Army in Kent and Essex afterwards in Surry had all been as ready as these Counties and the word so fully given it had been a blow indeed unto this Nation as never was yet given the poor discountenanced Army is now fain to divide and to go into several corners to fight and suppress their new enemies among whom had not God appeared by an extraordinary presence we had not known the wonders we now see That the Scots were the great occasion if not the prime causes of this new and desperate plot will not be very difficult to discover though they seemed to veil it never so secretly for all these things fell out upon their Declarations against the Parliament and Army and were but the result of their transactions with the King and doubtless formed especially in the I le of Wight Their great endeavour as you may observe hath been since the work was done without them to destroy the Army the onely bulwark God hath given us to preserve our selves from the designs of the King and them and to disaffect the people from the Parliaments power and actings many strange things being blown up and down and kindled in the Nation by their Papers to this end it now breaks out into a flame besides all the pretences the new Mutineers make as the utmost of their desires is for the disbanding the Army for a personal Treaty and to suppress Sectaries and though the King lay close all this while and was glad of his Prison while his Agents were so instrumental yet he had his predominant influences and as they raised men he put Commanders
over them especially in Essex and Surrey and Scotland but to make it without question that the Scots had the first hand in this business let us but look back and remember with what discontents and contempts of the Parliament and Army and with what complements from the King the Scots Commissioners parted when their Secretary was made Sir John Chiesly a dangerous Omen in such a juncture and with what respect notwithstanding the complaints and charges of our Parliament against them which were sent after them they were re-ceived by their Parliament and what thanks were given them as if they had fully exprest the hearts of that Nation towards us But that which puts all out of doubt that the Scots were principal and trump in this work is that just at the same time to a hair Duke Hamilton invades England with a mighty Army by the authority and commission of the Scotish Parliament as knowing his time and how things were formerly agreed upon For the Commissioners of Scotland having laid fuel enough for the hottest flames to break out and took their last leave of his Majesty and Hamilton having over and above private instructions they withdraw to Scotland to receive thanks and prosecute the remainder of their work in preparing all things for it in Scotland which was fully done to the utmost advantage And had not God who hath not yet failed to prosecute this Cause and help his instruments in all their perplexities made bare his own Arm we should have had England peopled with that Nation at least morgaged to inrich them but God which out of abundant mercy was pleased to bless our Army in every corner where any opposition was made did specially help them to beat that Army which was like to an overflowing land-flood threatning ruine to every Countrey and to make use of this Army both to help some particular dissenters into that power which they now use against them and at last to cut off the root that no more influence might be from such a malevolent conjunction Thus the Reader hath had a faithful and plain relation of the secret and open designs of the Scots to be Conquerors of this Nation or to be joint-Rulers with us whereby we may look about our selves and remember what it is to be too much ingaged with poor and prying neighbours where so many advantages are to be had on the one side to tempt and so little on the other to provoke and at last to learn how dangerous it is for States which are like Sphaerical bodies to touch but in a point But things stay not here when the Scots saw themselves ferreted out of all their holes and the Parliament assisted notwithstanding all designs to remove out of the way the great stumbling block and to do Justice on the head of all our misery the late King that there was no more now for the Scots to do in England the Parliament having wisely changed the Government to a Commonwealth and cut off that hereditary usurpation of Monarchy which was never either justly begun or continued the Scots presently to make new divisions and that they might both continue the war and renew the old advantages proclaim his Son King of England as well as Scotland by the name of Charls the Second and afterwards without our consent nay in contempt of this Commonwealth treated with him at Breda by themselves both for England and Scotland and did engage to him to endeavor to advance him to the English Throne all this but to incense and provoke us to a new war with them and to make themselves by our ruines I am now come to the rational part of this Discourse and to capitulate with them about our entrance of Scotland No man I know of any disingagedness from that interest after all these passages will wonder that the Parliament of England should send an Army into that Nation who have invaded us so often both by their Armies and deceits especially when they have now taken our greatest enemy into their bosoms and have never given us satisfaction for all their former injâ—ries Though the grounds of this have been cleared fully by the Parliament and Army yet I shall take the boldness to vindicate this overture by some further reasonings and taking off their objections against our persons and actions In General no man can imagine and retain in his understanding that our entrance of Scotland could be out of any by-end either to inrich our selves or enlarge our Common-wealth all the world know that Scotland hath not so many temptations to make English men to lose all their accommodation to forsake their wives and children and venture their lives to injoy them without poverty and penury cold and hunger could allure them in which they have sadly experienced since they set their feet on that ground neither could power and domination be their ground seeing it would cost us more to gain such a power then ever we could get by the most intire communion in it and it would be a sad exchange for English men to remove from such a fertile and flourishing Nation to make a plantation in the fag end of the Creation Neither can it be imagined that the Parliament hath so much money to spare to keep an Army to plow up the fallow and barren mountains of another Nation or that they are so unfaithful to this Commonwealth as to hazard their most faithful and active instruments in a meer bravado against hunger and cold as well as Swords and Canons All men must needs conceive its a matter of greater consequence and built upon higher grounds then meer pettishness or envy seeing the subject is incapable of any such working distempers Our great desire is nothing else but satisfaction for their invading of us and security against the next terms most reasonable especially when we consider the wrongs and damages done to this Nation by their means and the grounds of more then fear and jealousies we have reason to entertain concerning their thirst after the power and priviledges of this Commonwealth yet I do not doubt but the concession of the latter would serve us though we have just ground to stand on the first We appeal to all the world whether we have not put it to the last and deferr'd it to the utmost period it will be a wonder to all Kingdoms and States if it were once fully known with what patience the Supream Authority of this Nation hath born their affronts from time to time with what ceremony and affection we have courted their favours desired a fair understanding a hearty compliance with us in friendship and that Commissioners might be appointed on each side to give and take satisfaction but as if we were already designed to ruine we could neither get money nor good words and as if they meant to hold out the blackest flagg of defiance they return all our endeavours for Peace with the dirt of reproach and slanders in
our faces what can be done next when Treaties are refused offers of Peace slighted must England bear all burdens like Issachar and stoop under them shall all the providences of God for this Nation be still darkned by a Scottish Mist must we let them do what they please to undermine overthrow all the happy issues of divine actings and yet we sit still shall they without rebuke and out of conscience be left alone to abuse our Parliament and Army enter into confederacies with all the enemies of this Nation and take upon them to impose a yong and raw Stripling as a King on us and yet no remedy to relieve our selves doubtless neither God nor the Scots would ever thank us for acting such a piece of folly There is a necessity of preventing a necessity and it is as lawfull for us to anticipate a mischief as to extricate our selves out of it when we are involved in it But that I may go on distinctly and by degrees let it be pondered in the weights of Justice and Equity what reason we have to enter Scotland to require satisfaction for their invading us whereby the Kingdom of England was endangered in the whole and many Counties were so much ruinated is it not enough that we have forborn all this while must we lose our Debts for want of demanding them and must we be slighted for our patiences and had not we need to ask satisfaction for the one when they are preparing for another that we may not trust too much where there is little to pay at last These questions are not in vain when we consider all things But whereas they say Its enough they have protested against that Invasion and that may be sufficient satisfaction It s easily answered if we reflect on the former Transactions and preparations to it who were the authors of it even these that protested against it who rather protested against the leaders then the Covenant and the person then the thing it self for the truth is these Gentlemen who had plaid their Cards so well in the South were cheated by Hamilton in the North who made use of all their preparations to ingross the power into his own hands Hamilton used the same arguments and profest the same principles which the Ministers had preacht used the same words for the Covenant and personal Treaty to reduce the Sectaries c. all these good words that they themselves now use and we have no reason but to belive with as true a heart Neither did ever the Kirk disavow a War with England upon these grounds until they saw their General and so we caught in their own snare for having by all their zealous agitations in Pulpit and Press made ready all things for a War they found they had unawares raised up a blacker Divel then they expected which they could not conjure down until God met him in the height of his progress by that Army which both he and they still make the Butt of their designs Besides grant all this to be a truth what is the protestation of private and particular persons to make satisfaction for National Dammages That invasion was by the Authority of a full Parliament after long and serious debates it is not for us to pry into their constitution if every party must be judge of the whole the Scots will soon lose all their pleas against England and their pretences against all our proceedings They may well remember how we acted to them in a far different cause at first when but a party in England and at Court acted against them and made a War to overthrow that Nation and infringe their Rights and Liberties as by Canterbury and Strafford though our Parliament abhorred the thoughts of it yet they would not out of England untill they had satisfaction for all their charges and gratuities to boot for preserving themselves which our Parliament freely and conscienciously gave them and yet it must be a crime in us to demand satisfaction for an actual and ruinating invasion by the absolute authority of their Parliament onely because some few private men who were as deep in the design as the invadors have out of some selvish reasons protested against it let our Brethren give us leave to reason would not the Protestation against all Transactions undertaken against the Scots by some few men in England by a full Parliament and all good peoples disaffection prevent the Scots from craving satisfaction of England who was innocent of any precedent missdemeanor but they must have full satisfaction onely for giving them occasion to form and raise an Army by these private designs without any actual ruin to that Nation and shall a discontented protestation against persons not the thing it self by some particular dissenters who laid the plot first of the same invasion for themselves be thought a just plea against our demands of satisfaction for the actual ruins of many of our Counties besides the Act of Oblivion of all the rest of their personal mis-behaviors we shall still appeal to Heaven if men will not hear us Had God permitted it That England had seen that miserable day that Hamilton had prevailed we should have had farther demonstration of their secret intentions it s now sufficient that we had an invasion to a very vast dammage to this Nation by the Commission of the Supreme authority of Scotland in that Act and no satisfaction but a bare protestation and a continued inveterate prosecution of the same design by these particular persons who are now the chief men in the Royal Covenant Engagement against England if God hath given us so much before hand as to forbear the paiment yet we should not be abused for the demands of our just debts and it s most hard and dis-ingenuous that we must be forced to pardon all former mis-carriages because of their words who are now ready on the same principles to cut our throats but let us not daub that Engagement against England as it was laid by Ecclesiastical principles and agitations so if God had not defeated and over-reached the layers of the Foundation or had but prospered Hamilton in that undertaking you would soon have seen the bottom of the business for either had the old design been headed by their Commanders or had the new been victorious we should have seen to what use the Covenant would have been put unto a full demonstration we have now if we do not want eyes But that the world may see how tender we were of that protesting party though we knew their principles and ends were the same as men forgetful of their own losses we did not onely by Gods strength beat that Army for them and take away their great eye-sores but never left upon a small intreaty until we had set the protesters in the Committee of Estates in Scotland and had disbanded our enemies though unto this day we never had either pay or thanks yet these very men that you may know
of Estates with whom they left their power which was the only lawful power our Army having beaten Hamilton in England by the invitation of some private men prosecutes the remainder of that Army in Scotland where they make them lay down Arms and come to an agreement and set up the former Committee of Estates then accounted more honest and dissolve that Committee of Estates who sate by the full authority of the Supream power and besides whom all were but private persons this Committee hath ever since called Parliaments ordered all affairs as the Commission of the supream Authority of that Nation and yet they will have us to be no authority though the main of the body of the Commons of England in the same Parliament remain only because they have purged out many and predominant and Malignant humours which disturbed the health and marr'd the beauty of the whole and have cut off some rotten Members which were like to gangrene the Scots themselves also confessing in their Answer to the Armies Remonstrance that there was a party in Parliament which did betray their Trust and is it a destroying of the Authority to remove such a party And who are to be the Judges but these they call the prevailing party Were not the Scots drunk with malice and venome against this Nation they must be ashamed to deny us to be a lawful Authority when they remember themselves who did not only act without King or Parliament but got their Authority by dissolving the only lawful Parliamentary Power and courting the Royall which Committee of Estates was a meer non-entity untill our Army formed them in that Estate All that ever hath been acted in England need no other demonstrations to make them legal if examples may be arguments than the Scottish pattern but these pleas are grown too common and stale to have any efficacy on discerning and impartial spirits and if the Scots be admitted once as competent Judges of the Authority of our Parliament we may be sure they will judge according to their own sence and interest we have reason to bless God we have yet power to maintain our just Authority only we must observe to what end these men meddle so much in our affairs who have enough to reform at home and how unsutable is it to our carriages as to their Kingdom When did England ever send Commissioners into Scotland to tamper with parties or to print Declarations against any of their proceedings to divide the people from them when did we take upon us to say that Scotland did do ill in dissolving and annihilating the acts of a whole Parliament and by force set themselves in their places we know not their reasons of State as to their special actings neither care we to pry into them its fit they should be their own Judges and take their own advantages for their safety and security neither would England ever have been angry for their taking a King in among them or askt them why they did so if they had not proclaimed him K. of England also and agreed with him about imposing him on us especially when he is the common Enemy to both Nations I will add no more to this let actions speak if judgement belongs to them Justice and vengeance I am sure belongs to God who will judge his people and discover and punish the Tyrannical Government of men for the base and deceitful intentions of plausible and designing Neighbors We are now come to the last and most fiery Dart which is shot against us especially the Army which amounts to no less than a charge of Heresie and Schisme words of the saddest import to terrifie Christian spirits which is as bad and worse in a Church sence than Treason and Rebellion in the States for as they have used all mediums both Ecclesiastical and Civil that might hinder or destroy this Parliament and Army so they have invented all sorts of names which might make them odious in the eies of good and honest men to effect which no terms could be more proper and effectual than these something must needs be therefore spoken as to the charge and then of the application I am no pleader for any that are justly branded with these characters I have learnt the Doctrine of the Gospel better than to be an Heretick and have tasted so much of Gospel-love that I abhor to be a Schismatick but as these are names of the ugliest visage in Religion so they ought to be most warily and with great demonstration fixt on any who profess Religion or that are not obstinately opposite to all wayes of sound Doctrine and peace but when such horrid and black marks are fastned on men at a distance from converse and out of politick and particular ends it commonly either makes Hereticks or forces them to be Schismaticks ne'r to look after cōmunion with that party It would be wel ere men make use of such names they knew how to define them what a Heretick what a Schismatick is hath took up many debates among learned men when a man is proper to be called a Heretick not every error is Heresie nor every withdrawing from some particular acts a Schisme but we need not wade further into this controversie the Scots Heresie is not to take the Covenant and their Schism is not to follow the rules of the Kirk of Scotland for else we bless God setting aside some particular private desperadoes we have their marks we hold to the fundamentals both of Doctrine and Discipline though we cannot yet see all the particularities of either as we long after but especially we must confess we want eyes to see into the divine right of a Scotish Uniformity As for the Army on whom they lay the weight of both these expressions which they epitomize in the word Sectaries I shall not undertake to clear every particular person from many errors but this I must say if they have miscarried I hope they have repented and for the most of the Officers they have publikely profest their hatred of any that can really be called by such names It s true they had long since some subtle and windy spirits who vapoured in some high notions and for the present took frothy and active fancies among them but as they soon vanished so since they have seen much of the vanity and unsavouriness of such opinions and it hath been a cause of great humiliation among them and like the shaking of well planted trees it hath strengthned many of them more in the root and I hope these delusions of some among them hath but furbished and brightned the understanding of others who kept always the root of the matter in life and vigour in their hearts Yet if things were sifted to the bottome the Scots were great occasions if not causes of such opinions among them For they who minded nothing but their own design did so imprison and circumscribe all Religion in the Northern Model and
in a particular Discipline with such rigid and unlimited severity against any that had but a conscientious scruple that it made them believe that either there was no form Jure Divino or certainly that was not that which came so nigh Episcopacie and had no mixture of the tenderness and love of the Gospel in it thus many went to seek the Church in the wilderness and imagined the Dragon to be pouring out a flood after her besides had not the violence of the Scots design hindred it whose end was to destroy them not reform many fair and Gospel courses had been used to have shewed them their error and make them confess but no way or course did they ever take or prompt any unto to convince them or hear them ere they condemned them These things blessed be God are in a good measure reformed execution done on many and both the Parliament and Army have protested against owning any such errors yea have made exact and severe Laws unto which the utmost punishments the Word of God requires are annexed and yet still they are the Sectarian Army and Parliament and so they will be accounted though they should be never so refined in Doctrine and Discipline if they come not fully up to that pattern which they have set to us whereby they may have their influences on our consciences and Estates It is wonderful to consider how any men can be deluded with such names which are only coined on purpose to make some contrary design Orthodox and godly words which are fit for any party and made use of as ordinary for designs as common places are to help dull and crazie memories The Papists have made much use of them against the Protestants the Lutherans against the Calvinists the Bishops against the Non-conformists and Anti-ceremonialists calling them Hereticks and Schismaticks and now the Scots against the Parliament and Army so that it s no unusuall strategem to put strange names on those which men have a mind to make odious or destroy Yet if we compare the Army under this desperate censure with that Army which was in England under the banners of the Covenant we shall find that if the Scots had looked better at their own Army they would have found little reason to fall so foul upon ours for while our Army were debating and controverting about Religion a rare thing among Souldiers and professing to be above all outward forms which though many were very erroneous in the Officers of the Scots Army were carowsing in every Tavern and Ale-house in the Countries and drinking Healths not only in Ale and Sack but Aqua vitae and other strong waters to an incredible proportion and when the now Lord General Cromwel who was particularly pitcht on by their malice for the blackest mark was exercising his gifts to benefit his Souldiers which God hath given him a special faculty in David Lesley then their Lieutenant Generall of Horse was jovialling up and down Yorkshire with a Gentlewoman which should be of kind to that County by her name leaving some fruits of his love behind him I could tell many such stories but that I am loth to rip up too much of their failings and had not done this but that you may guess at the difference between the English Sectarian and the Scotish Army who pretend to have kept the Covenant Is it a greater offence to have a working and elevated fancy beyond the setled Rule in Religion which may soon be brought down and consolidated by rational converses than to walk in all excess of riot Are speculative errors more sinful than practical abominations I plead no excuse to any error I only wonder how the Scots can so clearly discern motes in the eye of our Army and stumble over such visible beams in their own we have reason to prize them as much as the Scots to hate them and had they or any Nation an Army of such faithfulness and instrumentalness they would be loth to part with them upon the envious and false aspersions which a Neighbor Nation out of particular disaffection to the State and them can cast upon them We have much cause to bless God for what he hath done by them and what he is still doing in them humbling them for former errors and engaging them afresh in spiritual duties and I could wish now that they are in Scotland the Kirk would use all good means to convince them further and win them from the error of their wayes by an amiable and powerful discovery of truth in love The Reader hath by this time seen a coarse yet true Relation of the Scots designs in England and how nigh they have come to a full communion in our privileges what friends we have made them and what Neighbors they have been and are like to prove to England how cunningly they have shuffled the Cards that they might Trump I need make no observations on the whole wise men may see honest men have felt enough already especially in the North And I have nothing else to add but a Paraenetick to all English men to learn at last how they trust such pretenders It s high time for us to look at home and preserve our own interests when we have such needy and crafty Neighbors to deal withall God hath by a wonder of mercy and providence freed us from the advantages of that Nation and brought us to an even standing upon our own legs let us keep our own distance and we may be kind enough to them too much friendship will but tempt them and ensnare us Kingdoms and Commonwealths of different tempers and interests have need to be wary in their conjunctions and unions neither to be too strange nor too dear especially where the one must suffer all the other act all It s with States in their friendship as with bodies in a different complexion and constitution they will never agree but in a transient and remote converse the disproportion between our Nation and Scotland in our enjoyments and priviledges is so great that we cannot but lose by any other neerness than what may exactly be fit to distinguish the two States and yet unite them against a common Enemy what ever nigher approach we have to each other will but enforce us daily to wariness and observance and them to design and temptation for we can get nothing worth our labour and cost in Scotland they may too much soon in England ere we are aware What a sad and miserable business will it be for England to beg of Scotland to provide us a King and to give way to the greediness of that Nation to make their own ends upon us by new pretences God hath gloriously owned our actings notwithstanding all the strategems of all sorts of enemies and hath followed us with more than fortunate events in all our actions and while we keep up the sence of Gods glory and the distinct Gallantry of English Spirits and avoid mixtures with that deceitful people we shall regain soon our ancient generousness and be the most flourishing and free people under the Sun yea and be the first provocation and pattern to all the world to prize Liberty and Freedom But if ever we suffer the Scots out of what pretence soever to bring in a King on their backs to England we may never expect to know what English names or freedoms were but may write our names before-hand in brass and lay them in some dark and stinking Vaults for no other memory of our names or persons or priviledges is like to be preserved with honour and respect FINIS