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
Scotlands holy War A DISCOURSE Truly and plainly remonstrating How the SCOTS out of a corrupt pretended zeal to the COVENANT have made the same scandalous and odious to all good men and How by religious pretexts of saving the Peace of Great Brittain they have irreligiously involved us all in a most pernitious Warre Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum Curs'd man what canst Thou hope for what desire To Thee Christ brings a sword his Gospel fire Be man no more abjure thy wretched kinde Lest Mannah poizen Sun-beams strike thee blinde By H. P. Esquire LONDON Printed by Fran Neile in Aldersgate-street 1651. READER I Have lately seen in Print an Apologie for such Ministers and people as out of conscience did not observe the Thanksgiving-day dedicated by the Parliament to Almighty God for giving us victory against the Scots and the Apologist had prefixed this Title in his Front Sad and serious Politicall Considerations touching the Invasive Warre against our Presbyterian Protestant Brethren in Scotland their late great overthrow and the probable dangerous consequences thereof to both Nations and the Protestant Religion As soon as I had read it over I saw heavy and bitter charges in it against the Power now Governing and by consequence against our Nation and Religion but all was built upon such premisses as were left utterly unproved I doubt not therefore but all Schollers will deride the Author as void of wit and ingenuity and will think that Pamphlet unworthy of an Answer which can challenge nothing besides a flat denyall But when I consider the multitude who scarce discern betwixt Arguments and Invectives or points that require solid proofs and such as sometimes are not worth prooving when I consider this multitude may be dangerously imposed upon by confident writers indeed such as have effrontery enough to grant themselves any thing under dispute I dare not be wanting to a distressed Cause and vitiated Truth What the Apologist though affirmant has left unproved viz that the Parliament has broken Covenant with the Scots and made an Invasive warre upon the Presbyterians the same I though respondent shall endeavour to leave disproved And I hope I shall remonstrate by something more then Averments my Antagonists best arguments 1 that the Covenant was first violated by the Scotâ— and 2ly that this warre of great Brittain was raised by the Presbyterians Of the Covenant ABout 11. or 12. yeers since the late King began to take Arms against the Scotch Nation upon Ecclesiastical quarrels but his successe was so ill therein that He could neither hopefully pursue nor yet handsomly compose those broils The reason was because his Popish Subjects could not and his Protestant Subjects in England would not support him with their effectuall assistance in that causless warre So this Parliament was then convened to extricate the said King out of those difficulties and had â—here been any other remedie that possibly could have releasd him so intangled as He then was either by pacifying the Scots without force or forcing them without pacification this remedie had never been thought on for there was nothing in the world more adverse to his Tyrannicall ends then the freedome and controuling authority of that high Court Long it was not therefore after the sitting of our great Councell before the said King gave open testimonies how odious it was to Him to see his boundles Prerogative so checkt nay many months had not elapsed before disgusts had hacht ripend bloody dangerous plots against the whole representative bodie of our State 2. Armies were now in the North out of all military imployment and this put the King in some hopes that either one of them or both might be woone to his partie and so help to rid him of his loathed rivality Strong endeavours were used accordingly but God blasted them all the Scotch Army thought it too horrid a thing to attempt the ruin of that Court which was so true to their preservation and so assured to the ends of their late Declaration and the English Army durst not attempâ— any thing having the power of London to mate them before and the Scots behinde yet the Parliament truly apprehending danger from these and other like machinations to forâ—ifie themselves the better frame a Protestation for all the people to take and whosoever should refuse the same He was voted unfit to bear Office either in Church or Common-wealth This Protestation was taken in 1641. and the Protesters did thereby in the presence of Almighty God binde themselves to defend Religion the King the Parliament publick Liberty the Union and peace of the three Kingdoms with a clause to be assisting to all that adhered to this Protestation and to be at enmity with all its opposers The King stomacht much this new way of imbodying the people in leagues and parties and knew well that the contrivers of it intended it for a combination against his unlimited pretensions but seeing his interests were here as specially provided for as any other without any insinuated subordination and that it left his pretensions as unprejudiced as they were before he smothered much of his distaste against it Ordinary affronts and misadventures did rather quicken then quash this Kings resolutions wherefore upon this Account He made the more haste into Scotland upon some concealed reasons of State and his hope was that by his passing through both the Armies in the North He should finde an opportunity to be his own negotiater with all the chief Commanders All these royall arts neverthelesse miscarried and were not able to debosh the Armies for either the Commanders were jealous of the soulderies integrity or the Souldiery of one Army suspected the sincerity of the other or else the Parliaments sollicitations proved as efficacious as the Kings somthing there was that concurred to the abortion of that mischief The King therfore speeds away to Scotland with superâ—etations of further plots in his unquiet head but his old fate still accompanied him for there He was soon disburthened of some of his monstrous conceptions to the great detriment of other men but He scarse ever prospered in any one designe for the advancement of himself Some Noblemen that were invited to a bloodie supper got timely advertisement of the royall assassinators and so by flying privily out of Edenburgh secured themselves but that ever to be execrated insurrection in Ireland by the Irish Papists against the British Protestants came to effect at that time and t is known well enough that the chief actors in that tragedie alledged a Commission from the King under the great Seal of Scotland to justifie all that they then perpetrated Here was an issue of blood spent that is not stanched to this day little lesse then 500000 Christians were sacrificed and devoted to slaughter by that Commission and the King himself never took any effectuall course to wipe off that stain but what prosperity has that dismall deluge of blood brought at
are not qualified by the Covenant to do these honorable things in England Alas if the Covenant does not add any new qualification to us to serve Religion and our King I hope no man will suspect that it takes away any such qualification from us as we had before And I hope ther 's no man here but thinks before any Covenant taken he had a warrant and capacity good enough to do honorable service to his Religion and his native Prince Let me speak plainly and bluntly I doubt these scruples do not arise against us as we are Scotch men and so have no power of judging in England but rather as we are of such a party in Scotland that the Kirk dares not confide in us this is lamentable halting before God Let us not therfore be driven into any unmanly irresolution by logicall nicitiâ—s and School-puntilioes let us beleeve that such just ends as we aime at inservingour God and Prince have just avenues belonging to them and that God ha's not hedgd in or inscons'd goodnesse from the approaches of men as he did once the Tree of Life My Lord and Gentlemen shall pure reformed Religion want an Advocate in this presence no it were labour lost here to recommend the excellencies of her you all are confident you cannot but be certaine that God hath rather sent a Cherubim to invite and wast you to her assistance in England then to affright you and drive you from her embraces with a flaming Sword Then as for the King you have a greater interest in him then the English have and he ought to have a greater interest in you then he has in the English Let me tell you if you should prove oblivious of his favours he might upraid divers of you with your Fields and Vineyards as Saul did once his Benjamites Do we not all know that his graces towards us ha's made him the lesse acceptable to the English and does not the whole world taxe us of our ill requitall at Newcastle I speake of that in your ears what can be said then either we must requite him better and acquit our selves better now or all generations to come will call us ungratefull and unjust and for my part I cannot ever construe the Covenant as that it intends to render us ungratefull or unjust T is true the enterprise we goe upon must cost blood and fall heavie upon some of our fellow Covenanters in England it were else impossible almost it should be great and honorable let this be our comfort the work is great and honorable and being so it must be acceptable to God and that which God accepts cannot but be feaâ—able for Qui dat finem dat media Let the justice of this war fix our resolutions upon the pursuance of it and when we are upon its pursuance let us pursue it wisely and strenuously as becomes Souldiers let no scruples defraud us of the opportunities and advantages that attendit for such in war are irrecoverable pretious to be brief let us not be held up with Treaties by the English Commissioners let us not wave Langdale nor leave Berwick and Carlisle to the Enemy when we are in peace let the laws of peace order us when we are in war let the Maxims of war sway c. the rather for that advantage lost in peace may be regained but an error committed in war can never be redeemed The next Gentleman was of a different opinion from either of these and you may suppose his Oratory was as followeth My Lords and Gentlemen YOu have heard how much may be said for a present war with England and how much may be said against it you have heard in what extreams the arguments both of a meer Souldier and a meer Scholler run and now having heard both and compar'd both you may the better extract out of both that which is truly counsellable at this present and that doubtlesse teaches warily to decline both extreams The Gentleman that spake last maintained well the justice and necessity of the worke that is to be done such a service to God and the King cannot but be just and necessary and our Covenant cannot obstruct any thing that is of it self just and necessary therefore to oppose our Covenant against this war is to undervalue our Covenant and to entangle our selves in such nicities as are more fit for the Schools then this Senate On the other side the Gentleman that spoke first interposed some necessary advertisements about the manner of our prosecuting this high undertaking not fit to be neglected for doubtlesse it concerns Gods honor the safety of the King and the perpetuall peace and safety of these Nations that this affair be wisely managed as well as it is religiously intended We all know that the taking of some advantages in war if they be at too far a distance with Religion may prove our disadvantages and so the parting with some opportunities in some cases may be a gayn of better to us hast ha's overthrowne some undertakings as well as delay others Wherefore I desire leave to counterpoise with a little moderation that which hath been pressed by both the Gentlemen that spoke before me And First t is my humble motion that the Kirk here may have all possible satisfaction given them in the forming and heading of this Army and in the conduct and steering of the great designe forasmuch as without this condiscention we cannot expect their concurrence and without their concurrence we cannot expect that readinesse or confidence in our Friends at home nor that stupidity consternation in our enemies abroad as is to be desired Secondly That if wee admit not the English Commissioners to treate and then allow three moneths warning after the end of that Treaty yet we may instantly dispatch away an Expresse to the Parliament of England with particular demands and a cleere denunciation of warre within a moneth if those particulars be not instantly agreed to Thirdly That some reasonable space before wee march a Declaration may be emitted to satisfie our Friends in England with our sincere intentions towards them and that the buisines of the Kirke being setled and the King reinthroned wee have no intention to intrench upon the priviledges of the Parliament there or to breake that bond of confederation and union that was intended to be confirmed by the Covenant Fourthly That Langdale may be countenanced at a distance and with much reservation and that no other use may be openly made of Him then of a Forlorne Hope to seize the English frontire Garrisons for our use and to ingage upon other the like hazardous services How well these things are calculated for the Meridian of Edenburgh I leave every man to guesse freely but this is certain there were few in the Scotch Parliament who gave their judgements the first way many went the second way and all went the third way except onely in complying with the Kirke and if there be
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
worse use they made of all that was or could be given them So all jealousies could not long be supprest for in time some of our Lords and Commons saw cause to conceale some things concerning this State from them and this was extreamly ill taken and indeed no otherwise then if it had been a reall piece of injustice to the Kingdom of Scotland but moderation as yet kept both within reasonable bounds Mr. A. Henderson was then living and conversant in those businesses and surely he was a man of an Apostolicall spirit and though a great lover of his Countrey yet He knowingly durst not interpose in an ill action for his Countreys advantage and I am perswaded He did very good offices and kept us from further jars during his life and if He had lived longer would have prevented much of what has hapned since Besides Presbytery the Scotch Clergies darling seemd plausible at first to the English and soon grew indeared to our Synod and for a good space it got such footing in England that the Scots had no cause of dissatisfaction in that behalf The King also the other darling of the Scotch Nation till about the latter end of Summer 1645. prosperd so that He more slighted the Scots then He did us and so about him there was no great cause of animosities and if any did appear they were more easily to be digested But when the English Army under the Lord Gen. Fairfax had in one Summer defeated and utterly broken two very great Armies of the Kings and taken in divers other considerable Cities and strengths without any help at all from the Scots many emulous considerations began to breed strange alienations in the hearts of our brethren The easie warfare of the Scots all this while had afforded them besides good store of pay and plunder an absolute signiory over the Northerne Counties our Northerne men tell us wofull stories till this day and now they saw that rich service or rather absolute dominion was likely to come to an end they thought sit to strengthen themselves in Berwick and Newcastle and they got Carlile also by very foul play in spight of our Commissioners as if they were resolved and certain to have a dispute with us Likewise in 1646. when Oxford grew straitned and unsafe to the King and when it was visible also that Presbytery after so many years experience did not altogether rellish with the English the Scots presently resolved as was related before to expound the Covenant in favour of the King at least for setling and securing their arrears and making a commodious retreat out of England Accordingly that Article which provided for the Kings interest served their interest wel enough and war so well commented upon by them that it held us at a bay till their contract was perfected and then after a long dispute very chargeable to our Nation at the instance of an Army and 200000 li. they delivered up Newcastle Barwick and Carlile and took time to study the Kings Article a little longer In the year 1647. there was no notable businesse for the Souldier England took a little breath having nothing to do but to squench the few remainders of war and Scotland kept at home to share the late gotten spoiles of England yet this year there past some new cajoleries betwixt the Scots and the King and some contests betwixt the Scots and us about the King and no doubt the next years action was now in forging and all preparatory hammers were on working And now enters the memorable year of 1648. a year never to be forgotten by the English in regard of the unparralleld dangers that then overspread it and the unspeakable mercies of God that then protected it All the enemies of this poore Common-wealth were now in a solemn conjuration against it In Ireland all was held past recovery Ormond the Parliaments revolted servitor was complying with the bloody Irish and betraying his own Religion into the bargain to get some of their forces into England in Wales in Kent in Essex in Surrey great bodies of men rose up some upon the old Royall account some upon a new whilst many also of the Navy fell away from the Parliament to make the case the more desperate No lesse then 40000 English did their endeavours this Summer to make way for Hamilton from whom by good intelligence doubtles they expected 20000 Scots Great was the goodness of God that all these confederates could not be in a readiness at one and the same time and that all the Forreign Princes round about us which favoured them could not be assistent to them that yeer God had so ordained it that the Welsh should be reduced before the Scots entred or else our condition had been altogether hopelesse in the eye of reason But to the Scoch businesse The Solemn League and Covenant was now brought under a new debate in the Parliament of Scotland and the main matter in question was how they could be absolved of that holy stipulation if they did not imploy all their power to reform Religion and to restore the King in England and for the fuller agitation and ventilation of this matter severall grave harangues by persons affected severally were drest and we may well imagine to what effect Agent of the Kirks party seeing the Parliament filled with so great a party of the Hamiltonians is supposed to begin My Lords and Gentlemen The Covenant presses us all to endeavour the reformation of Religion and the restauration of the King in England by a brotherly way of Assistance in our severall places and callings and so as that these ends of the Covenant may stand and agree with all the rest But withall it behoves us to use a great deal of caution and circumspection in a matter of so high importance wherein the honour of God and good of the Nations is so religiously involved not to be mistaken either in the mark we all shoot at or in the arrows we are to shoot As for the point of Religion I am perswaded it wants reformation in England and I beleeve I dissent not therein from any here but this scruple sticks by me I doubt whether I am so properly a Judge in England of Religion as I am in Scotland and if I am not then I fear I step out of my place and calling whilest I take upon me there to reform by force which sure the Covenant requires not but excludes in expresse terms The account of my scruples I give thus first if we are now judges of matters Ecclesiasticall in England we are so constituted by the Covenant for before the Covenant we pretended to no uch thing and in the Covenanâ— it self I finde no such constituting words 2ly if the Covenant creates us Judges in cases Eccles it creates us the same in all other things civil military and judiciall for all the interests of the King and Subjects in Parliament and out of Parliament are inclosed within the
verge of the Covenant and yet no man here supposes himself bound by any words of the Covenant to look after the whole administration of justice and the whole managery of the government in England or els to stand answerable for all abuses whatsoever that are not there redressed 3ly If the Covenant give us a power so large in England it must by the same reason give the Eng the same in Scotland for the bonds are equall and reciprocall and so here are discords raised betwixt us contrary to the principall drift of the Covenant such as never can be pacified the sword it self can never give any decision in the busines victory may take away equallity betwixt 2. brethren but meer victory can never take away the true right of equallity 4ly The Covenant injoynes us precisely to assist one another in reforming now the word assistence intimates a concurrence with the party covenanting against some joynt opposer it cannot be forced to intimate any violence against the party covenanting 5ly Not onely the tenor of the whole Covenant but also the particular clear purport of the fifth Article in the Covenant mainly intends to tye a firmer closer knot of union and conjunction betwixt the Nations then ever was before and therefore to rescinde a knot so manifest upon expositions and glosses of things not manifest seems to me to be a wilfull violation of the Covenant As to the other point about the Kings inlargement much may be resumed of what I said before against our judging in England but I forbear that the scruples that here suggest themselves to me are these 1. If the Kings liberty may not be restrained then neither any other of his royall prerogatives honours and powers and yet we our selves hold all these here under sequestration and for divers yeares of late we have entred upon and administred the whole royalâ— Office ourselves shall we then maintaine that the K has a right to that in England to which He has no right in Scotland 2ly If the K has a right now to his Liberty being amongst the English it will follow upon the same reason that He had a right to the same two years since when he was in our Quarters at Newâ—rk and Newcastle yet all men will sâ—â— amongst us He had no command at all but was under such a guard as had a strict charge of his person and were as rigorously answerable for the same as any Jaolers whatsoever Besides all men know He was by us delivered up to the English against his will and that upon contract and valuable considerations and that we could not have justified if we had thought he was at full liberty and could not be thereof abridged Thirdly A speciallâ— Article in our Covenant obliges us to bring all enemies of the Covenant to condigne punishment and we do punish daily capitally such of the Kings adherents as have offended against us by his Commissions and shall we think that death is due to the Actor and instrument when imprisonment is not due to the Author and principall Fourthly If we dispute not about the Kings imprisonment but as it is such that is as he is imprison'd by the Souldiery in England without consent of the Parliament there then do we take upon us to vindicate the consent of that Parliament without consent of that Parliament And since we hear not that there is any change of the Kings restraint save onely of the persons under whom he is restrained nor do the Parliament in England think fit to use force nor to desire our assistance therein I doubt if we should obtrude our force therin without any call we should offend against another proviso in the Covenant by intrenching upon the Parliaments priviledge there and by invading the Subjects property likewise which the charge of this war must necessarily draw after it These things deserve a sober deliberation before we resolve upon the justice of this war but then the justice being cleered yet I conceave we are bound to all mankind much more Christians and brethren in Covenant to give what evidence we can of the justice of our cause that if possible they may be convinced and do right before bloud be shed And since the Parliament of England upon reports of our preparations ha's dispatcht Commissioners hither to treat about all points in difference and we specially by Treaty were held to send the like to them and after all to give three months previous warning before we could have recourse to the Sword I hope no man here will offer any thing against a Treaty with the English Commissioners that satisfaction before blood may be either given or taken and if not yet the due space of warning may be observed if we should faile herein I fear we should proclaim our selves to the world abusive simulatory pretenders of the Covenant only to prophane the high Gods Name to whom we have all lifted up our false hands Next since the English in observance of their faith to us ingaged freely for our better assurance in them have left their Frontire Towns Berwick and Carlisle ungarrison'd notwithstanding the notice they have of our present posture I hope we shall scorne to make their plain dealing with us a â—nare to themselves and thinke to chastise their fidelity with our infidelity at such a time as this is when we wage war with holy thoughts and only for religious purposes And lastly since we are to engage out of pure conscience to the ends of the Covenant one whereof is to bring all enemies of the same Covenant to a legall triall I hope we shall not receive Langdale and the rest of the English Fugitives whose Swords have drawne much bloud of Covenanters to fight under our Covenanters banners This will convince us of insincerity before men this will provoke the eyes of Gods jealousie against us in the day of Battail God must be served justly as wel as in just actions and when bloud is the meane and holinesse the end God uses to be more jealous and expects more exactnesse then ordinaâ—ily Oh let not any occasion be given by a Parliament of Scotland to lay stumbling blocks before others let not the world say we wrest the Covenant to what sence we please and use it as the Papist do the word of God the case is of grand consequence it may concerne us and our posterity for ever I pray let it be throughly scand and sifted Hereunto a Gentleman of Hamiltons party may be supposed to answer My Lords and Gentlemen YOu have heard it granted that Religion in England wants Reformation and that the King ought to be set free from his forced durance under the Souldier you have heard likewise granted that our Solemn League and Covenant requires these things to be done but divers scruples have been cast in withall about the manner of doing these things in regard that a juste is required as well as a justum The main thing is that we