be design'd against the Earl because he was earnestly entreated to pass from the Paper containing his Declaration before the Process should commence and after all the Captain of the Castle was allow'd not to keep him strictly and as it is undeniable That the King allowed the Earl's Estate to his Creditors and that his Children got a far larger share of it than if he had dy'd in his Bed so it can be prov'd it was fully resolv'd that he should not die nor did he die till he had Invaded his Native Countrey by open War whereby the Parliament being convinc'd by this Open Act that he had very clearly design'd by the former Caution in his Explicatory Declaration of the Test to reserve to himself a Power to rise in Rebellion when he thought fit as was argued in the former Process they therefore ratified the Process of Forfaulture nemine contradicente and added their Authority to that of the Iustice Court and because 't is wonder'd why he was not prosecuted upon this New Rebellion it is answer'd That by the Laws of all Nations and by the Laws especially of Scotland and England no Man can be try'd for the very same crime for which he stands convicted tho' he may for a crime which deserves a greater Punishment for the Law has exhausted its Revenge by the first Sentence but yet where a new Notorious Aggravation superveens which is so clear that it can admit of no Debate nor needs no Probation it were very unjust that the Law should not here be put in Execution tho' the first Sentence had been thought too severe to deserve it We conclude then this Process with this Reflection That a Government can in no sense be call'd Severe where the person accus'd has Liberty and is entreated to retract his crime where his Children and Creditors get all his Estate and where he himself does not suffer until he made it manifest by his Invasion of his Native Countrey that the design of his explaining the Test in a Paper under his Hand was to reserve to himself a power to Rebell and till he had aggravated highly his former guilt But why do they reproach us with this one Decision who do yet sustain those abominable ones that were executed without the least shadow of Justice against the Marquess of Huntley and Montrose President Spotswood Haddo and Seven hundred Gentlemen more who died by their Justice Court when their Covenant over-rul'd Law and Equity and against Four hundred and Fifty Gentlemen and Commons who died by the Justice-Court of Argyle beside the many thousands who died in the Civil War of which they must be guilty who raised it and who never yet made the least profession of Repentance for it The Parliament 1685 being inform'd of Monmouth and Argyle's Invasion and being convinc'd that Argyle had reserv'd that power in his Explicatory Paper of the Test meerly that he might Invade his Countrey and its Laws and reflecting on the Treasonable Principle of the Covenant of defending the King only in defence of Religion and the late limitations of owning no King except he had taken their Covenant They therefore not by a Recognising Act but in the Narrative only of the Act relating to the Excise offer'd their Lives and Fortunes without reserve which Clause was inserted by the Parliament not to introduce a blind Slavery as some maliciously pretend but meerly to exclude these Rebellious Limitations of Obedience invented by the Covenanters which were inconsistent with former standing Laws and by which the People had been highly debauch'd in the late Civil War for in that very Parliament they enlarged the Peoples Liberties and ratified all Laws in favours of the Protestant Religion and the very same persons in the next Parliament refus'd to take away the Penal Statutes whereas if an absolute Slavery had been design'd all the former Acts establishing our Liberty and Property and all the Concessions granted to us by our Kings for securing our Lives and Fortunes should have been expresly Enumerated and Abrogated and so the words in the Narrative of that Act could be no warrant for the Proclamation disabling the Laws against Toleration as some would have us believe and they who now complain were the only persons who then took the benefit of that stretch of the Prerogative We could wish that our Accusers would be careful that in being too rigid Censurers of us they do not expose all Governments and even the present to reproach for it would seem to some who are now by-standers as they then were that though they cry'd out against us for torturing when it was warranted by our uncontroverted Law yet the expediency of Government or some other reason makes them do it after they had declar'd it a Grievance and had rail'd against it as inconsistent with all humanity Nor do I see that the reserving it only to King and Parliament answers this Objection for the Parliament by their Authority cannot make that fit which is inconsistent with Humane Nature or that convenient which was declar'd to be incapable to produce the true effect for which it was design'd and the making Torture then only a Grievance when inflicted without a Cause as is pretended seems to satisfie as little since every Man can easily pretend that what he does is done upon just Motives The Imprisoning many and keeping them long can hardly be objected to us since the present Government find themselves obliged to do both and the last Parliament in their great Wisdom thought it fit to reject a Bill for Habeas Corpus when it was press'd as suitable to one of the Grievances Nor can we yet discover why the forfeitures of those should be rescinded by the current Parliament who were Sentenc'd for having taken up Arms at Pentland-Hills and Bothwell-Bridge or those who were forfeited for the Proclamations at Sanquhar and elsewhere wherein King Charles was declared to have lost his Right to the Crown for having broke the Covenant that Tripartit and Fundamental Contract betwixt God the King and his People and wherein it is declared a Duty to kill him and all who serv'd him and to throw off the Race of the Stewarts as constant Enemies to God As also how the Forfeiture of the Duke of Monmouth and all who adher'd to him and that of the Earl of Argyle were repealed in Cumulo for if it be lawful for Subjects to rise in Arms upon the single pretence of Conscience no King nor no Government can be secure If a considerable part of the Nation should now rise for Liberty Property and Episcopacy upon the same pretext would the Parliament find this defence good some are also found who reproach the present Government for suffering Ministers to be thrown out by the Rabble without any previous Tryal or reparation afterwards and many other things which afford but too great ground for Satyr and Complaint if I were inclined to either The Necessity of State is that Supereminent
extirpation of the Kingdom of Darkness and whatsoever is contrair to the Kingdom of Christ and especially Idolatry and Popery in all the Articles of it as we are bound in our National Covenant and Superstition Will-worship and Prelacy with its Hierarchy as we are bound in our Solemn League and Covenant And that we shall with the same sincerity endeavour God giving us Assistance the overthrow of that Power that hath established that Prelacy and Erastianism over the Church and exercises such a Lustful and Arbitrary Tyranny over the Subjects seeking again to introduce Idolatry and Superstition in these Lands contrair to our Covenants And in a word that we shall endeavour the extirpation of all the works of Darkness and the Relicts of Idolatry and Superstition which are both much enlarged and revived in our times and execute righteous Iudgments impartially according to the Word of God and degree of Wickedness upon the Committers of these things but especially Blasphemy Idolatry Atheism Sorcery Perjury Uncleanness Prophanation of the Lords day Oppression and Malignancy that being thus zealous for God he may delight to dwell among us IV. Seriously considering that the hand of our Kings has been against the Throne of the Lord and that now for a long time the Succession of our Kings and the most part of our Rulers with him hath been against the purity and power of Religion and Godliness and freedom of the Church of God and hath degenerate from the vertue and good Government of their Predecessors into Tyranny and hath of late so manifestly rejected God his Service and Reformation as a Slavery as they themselves call it in their publick Papers especially in these last Letters to the King and Duke of Lauderdale disclaiming their Covenant with God and Blasphemously inacting it to be burnt by the hand of a Hang-man governed contrary to all right Laws divine and humane excercised such Tyranny and Arbitrary Government opprest Men in their Consciences and Civil Rights used free Subjects Christian and reasonable Men with less discretion and justice than their Beasts and so not only frustrate the great end of Government which is that Men may live Godly Holily and Peaceably under them and might be maintained in their Rights and Liberties form injury and wrong but hath also walked contrary to it so that it can no more be called a Government but a lustful Rage excercised with as little right Reason and with more Cruelty than in Beasts and they themselves can be no more called Governours but publick Grassators and publick Iudgements which all Men ought as earnestly to labour to be free of as of Sword Famine or Pestilence raging amongst us and besides hath stopped instead of punishing the Course of Law and Iustice against Idolaters Blasphemers Atheists Murderers Incestuous and Adulterous and other Malefactors and instead of rewarding the Good hath made Butcheries and Murthers on the Lord's People sold them as Slaves Imprisoned For faulted Banished and Fined them upon no other account but for maintaining the Lords Right to rule Consciences against the Usurpations of Men for fulfilling their Vows and repelling unjust Violence which innocent Nature allows to all of all which and more particulars we can give we speak as before God innumerable and sure Instances Neither can it be thought that there is hope of their returning from these Courses having so often shewed their Natures and Enmities against God and all Righteousness and so often declared and renewed their Purposes and Promises of persevering in these Courses And suppose they should dissemble a Repentance of these Evils and profess to return to better Courses being put to Straits or for their own Ends for upon no other account can we reasonably expect it and though it might be thought that there might be Pardon for what is done which we cannot yet see to be without the violation of the Law of God and a great guiltiness on the Land from which guiltiness the Land can never be free but by executing of God's righteous Iudgements upon them for omitting of so greatly deserved and so necessarily requisite a Justice yet they cannot be believed after they have violated all Tyes that Humane Wisdom can devise to bind Men and beside there will be something of Folly found to think to bind a King that pretends to absoluteness And our Fathers or rather our selves at first judged it not warrantable to receive Him without consenting to and swearing of the Covenant And if so the renouncing and disclaming thereof we ought at present to judge to be a just and reasonable ground of rejecting Him upon these Grounds being assured of God's approbation and Mens whose Hearts are not utterly byassed and their Consciences altogether corrupted and knowing assuredly that the upholding of such is to uphold Men to bear down Christ's Kingdom and to uphold Satans and the depriving of Men of right Government and good Governours to the ruining of Religion and undoing of Humane Society We then seeing the innumerable Sins and Snares that are in giving obedience to their Acts on the other hand seeing if we shall acknowledge their Authority and refuse Obedience to their sinful Commands the endless Miseries that will follow and siding with God who we hope will accept and help us to a liberation from their Tyranny against his stated and declared Enemies do reject that King and those associate with him from being our Rulers because standing in the way of our Right free and peaceably serving of God propagating his Kingdom and Reformation and overthrowing Satans Kingdom according to our Covenant And declares them henceforth to be no lawful Rulers as they have declared us to be no lawful Subjects upon a ground far less warrantable as Men unbyassed may see and that after this we neither owe nor shall yield any willing Obedience to them but shall rather suffer the outmost of their Cruelties and Injustice until God shall plead our Cause and that upon these Accounts because they have altered and destroyed the Lord's established Religion overturned the fundamental and establish'd Laws of the Kingdom taken altogether away Christ's Church and Government and changed the Civil Government of this Land which was by King and free Parliament into Tyranny where none are associate to be partakers of the Government but only those who will be found by Justice to be Guilty of Criminals and all others excluded even those who by the Laws of the Land by Birth had a right to and a share in that Government and that only because not of the same Guiltiness and mischievous Purposes with themselves And also all free elections of Commissioners for Parliaments and Officers for Government are made void by their making those the Qualifications of admission to these Places which by the Word of God and the Laws of this Land were the cause of their exclusion before so that none can look upon us or judge us bound in Allegeance to them unless they say also we are bound in
the natural consequences of their Covenant and Principles by which we leave the World to Iudge whether Sir George Mackenzie has not treated them with all modesty and tenderness and whether any Form of Government can possibly subsist where such wicked and pernicious Fooleries are propagated THE Solemn League and Covenant WEE Noblemen Barons Knights Gentlemen Citizens Burgesses Ministers of the Gospel and Commons of all sorts in the Kingdoms of Scotland England and Ireland by the Providence of GOD living under one King and being of one reformed Religion Having before our eyes the Glory of GOD and the Advancement of the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ the Honour and Happiness of the Kings Majesty and his Posterity and the true Publick Liberty Safety and Peace of the Kingdoms wherein every ones private condition is included And calling to mind the treacherous and bloody Plots Conspiracies Attempts and Practices of the Enemies of GOD against the True Religion and Professors thereof in all places especially in these three Kingdoms ever since the Reformation of Religion and how much their Rage Power and Presumption are of late and at this time increased and exercised whereof the deplorable estate of the Church and Kingdom of Ireland the distressed estate of the Church and Kingdom of England and the dangerous estate of the Church and Kingdom of Scotland are present and publick Testimonies We have now at last after other means of Supplication Remonstance Protestations and Sufferings for the preservation of our selves and our Religion from utter ruine and destruction according to the commendable practice of these Kingdoms in former times and the Example of GOD's People in other Nations after mature deliberation resolved and determined to enter into a mutual and solemn League and Covenant Wherein we all subscribe and each one of us for himself with our hands lifted up to the most high GOD do Swear 1. THat we shall sincerely really and constantly through the Grace of GOD endeavour in our several places and Callings the Preservation of the Reformed-Religion in the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government against our Common Enemies The Reformation of Religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of GOD and the Example of the best Reformed Churches And shall Endeavour to bring the Churches of GOD in the three Kingdoms to the nearest conjunction and Vniformity in Religion Confession of Faith Form of Church Government Directory for Worship and Catechising That We and our Posterity after us may as Brethren live in Faith and Love and the Lord may delight to dwell in the midst of us 2. That we shall in like manner without respect of persons endeavour the Extirpation of Popery Prelacy that is Church Government by Archbishops Bishops their Chancellours and Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons and all other Ecclesiastical Officers depending on that Hierarchy Superstition Heresie Schism Prophaneness and whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to sound Doctrine and the Power of Godliness Lest we partake in other mens sins and thereby be in danger to receive of their plagues And that the Lord may be One and his Name One in the three Kingdoms 3. We shall with the same sincerity reality and constancy in our several Vocations endeavour with our Estates and Lives mutually to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of the Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdoms And to preserve and defend the Kings Majesties Person and Authority in the preservation and defence of the True Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms That the World may bear witness with our Consciences of our Loyalty and that we have no thoughts or intentions to diminish His Majesties Iust Power and Greatness 4. We shall also with all faithfulness endeavour the Discovery of all such as have been or shall be Incendiaries Malignants or evil Instruments by hindering the Reformation of Religion dividing the King from his People or one of the Kingdoms from another or making any Faction or Parties amongst the People contrary to this League and Covenant That they may be brought to publick Tryal and receive condign punishment as the degree of their Offences shall require or deserve or the supream Iudicatories of both Kingdoms respectively or others having power from them for that effect shall judge convenient 5. And whereas the happiness of a Blessed Peace between these Kingdoms denyed in former times to our Progenitors is by the good Providence of GOD granted unto us and hath been lately concluded and setled by both Parliaments We shall each one of us according to our place and Interest endeavour that they may remain conjoined in a firm Peace and Union to all Posterity And that Iustice may be done upon the wilful Opposers thereof in manner expressed in the precedent Article 6. We shall also according to our places and callings in this common Cause of Religion Liberty and Peace of the Kingdoms assist and defend all those that enter into this League and Covenant in the maintaining and pursuing thereof and shall not suffer our selves directly or indirectly by whatsoever Combination Perswasion or Terrour to be divided and withdrawn from this Blessed Vnion and Conjunction whether to make defection to the contrary part or to give our selves to a detestable indifferency or neutrality in this Cause which so much concerneth the Glory of GOD the Good of the Kingdoms and Honour of the King But shall all the days of our lives zealously and constantly continue therein against all opposition and promote the same according to our power against all Lets and Impediments whatsoever and what we are not able our selves to suppress or overcome we shall reveal and make known that it may be timely prevented or removed All which we shall do as in the sight of GOD. And because these Kingdoms are guilty of many sins and provocations against GOD and his Son Jesus Christ as is too manifest by our present distresses and dangers the fruits thereof we profess and declare before GOD and the World our unfeigned desire to be humbled for our own sins and for the sins of these Kingdoms especially that we have not as we ought valued the inestimable benefit of the Gospel that we have not laboured for the Purity and Power thereof and that we have not endeavoured to receive Christ in our Hearts nor to walk worthy of him in our lives which are the causes of other sins and transgressions so much abounding amongst us and our true and unfeigned purpose desire and endeavour for our selves and all others under our Power and Charge both in publick and in private in all Duties we owe to GOD and Man to amend our lives and each one to go before another in the example of a real Reformation That the Lord may turn away his wrath and heavy indignation and Establish these Churches and Kingdoms in Truth and Peace And this Covenant we make in the