_Containing the Testimony for the last Reformation from Prelacy, in all
its steps, from the year 1638. to 1660._
The following period, from the year 1638, to 1660, continues and
advances the testimony, to the greatest height of purity and power, that
either this church, or any other did ever arrive unto, with a gradation,
succession, and complication of wonders, of divine wisdom, power,
justice and mercy, signally and singularly owning and sealing it, to the
confusion of his enemies, comfort of his people, conviction of
indifferent neutrals, and consternation of all. Now after a long winter,
and night of deadness and darkness, the sun returns with an amiable
approach of light and life; now the winter was past, the rain was over
and gone, the flowers appear on earth, and the time of singing of birds
is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. Now the
second time, the testimony comes to be managed in an active manner, as
before it was passive: as the one hath been always observed to follow
interchangeably upon the other, especially in Scotland, and the last
always the greatest; which gives ground to hope, though it be now our
turn to suffer, that when the summer comes again after this winter, and
the day after this night, the next active testimony shall be more
notable than any that went before. The matter of the testimony was the
same as before, for the concerns of Christ's kingly prerogative, but
with some more increase as to its opposites: for these grew successively
in every period, the last always including all that went before. The
first period had Gentilism principally to deal with; the second Popery;
the third Popery and Tyranny; the fourth Prelacy and Supremacy; this
fifth hath all together, and Sectarianism also, to contend against. The
former had always the opposites on one hand, but this hath them in
extremes on both hands; both fighting against one another, and both
fighting together against the church of Scotland, and she against both,
till at length one of her opposites prevailed, viz. the Sectarian party,
and that prevailing brought in the other, to wit, the Malignant, which
now domineers over all together. Wherefore, because this period is in
itself of so great importance, the revolutions therein emergent so
eminent, the reformation therein prosecuted wanting little of its
perfect complement, the deformation succeeding in its deviation from the
pattern being so destructive; to the end it may be seen from whence we
have fallen, and whether or not the present reproached sufferers have
lost or left their ground, we must give a short deduction of the rise,
progress, and end of the contendings of that period.
In the midst of the forementioned miseries and mischiefs, that the pride
of prelacy and tyrannical supremacy had multiplied beyond measure upon
this church and nation, and at the height of all their haughtiness, when
they were setting up their Dagon and erecting altars for him, imposing
the service-book, and book of Canons, &c. the Lord in mercy remembred
his people, and surprised them with a sudden unexpected deliverance, by
very despicable means; even the opposition of a few weak women, at the
beginning of that contest, which, ere it was quashed, made the tyrant
tumble headless off his throne. The zeal against the English popish
ceremonies, obtruded on Edinburgh, did first inflame some feminine
hearts to witness their detestation of them; but afterwards was followed
out with more masculine fervor, accosting King and Council with
petitions, remonstrances, protestations and testimonies against the
innovations, and resolving upon a mutual conjunction, to defend
religion, lives and liberties, against all that would innovate or invade
them. To fortify which, and conciliate the favour both of God and man in
the resolution, all the lovers of God, and friends to the liberty of
the nation, did solemnly renew the national covenant, (wherein they were
signally countenanced of the Lord,) which, though in itself obliging to
the condemnation of prelatical Hierarchy, and clearly enough confirming
presbyterial government, yet they engaged into it with an enlargement,
to suspend the practice of novations already introduced, and the
approbation of the corruptions of the present government, with the late
places and power of church men, till they be tried in a free General
Assembly. Which was obtained that same year, and indicted at Glasgow:
and there, notwithstanding all the opposition that the King's
commissioner could make, by protestations and proclamations to dissolve
it, the six preceeding Assemblies establishing Prelacy were annulled,
the service-book, and high commission were condemned; all the bishops
were deposed, and their government declared to be abjured in that
national covenant; though many had, through the commissioners
persuasions, subscribed it in another sense without that application: as
also the five articles of Perth were there discovered to have been
inconsistent with that covenant and confession, and the civil places and
power of church men were disproved and rejected: on the other hand
presbyterial government was justified and approved, and an act was
passed for their keeping yearly General Assemblies. This was a bold
beginning, into which they were animated with more than human
resolution, against more than human opposition, hell as well as the
powers of the earth being set against them. But when the Lord gave the
call, they considered not their own deadness, nor were daunted with
discouragements, nor staggered at the promise through unbelief, but gave
glory to God, outbraving all difficulties. Which in the following year
were much increased, by the prelates and their popish partakers
rendezvousing their forces under the King's personal standard, and
menacing nothing but misery to the zealous covenanters; yet when they
found them prepared to resist, were forced to yield to a pacification,
concluding that an Assembly and Parliament should be held, for healing
all grievances of church and state.
In which Assembly at Edinburgh, the covenant is ratified and subscribed
by the Earl of Traquair commissioner, and enjoined to be subscribed by
the body of the whole land, with an explication, expressly condemning
the five articles of Perth, the government of bishops, the civil places
and power of churchmen: but the sons of Belial cannot be taken with
hands, nor bound with bonds of faith, humanity, or honour, for in the
year following, king and prelates, with their popish abettors, go to
arms again; but were fain to accommodate the matter by a new
pacification, whereby all civil and religious liberties were ratified.
And in the following year 1641, by laws, oaths, promises, subscriptions
of king and parliament, fully confirmed, the king, Charles I. being
present, and consenting to all; though in the mean time he was
treacherously encouraging the Irish murderers, who by his authority made
a massacre of many thousand innocent protestants in Ireland. But in
Scotland things went well, the kingdom of our Lord Jesus was greatly
advanced, the gospel flourished, and the glory of the Lord did shine
upon us with such a splendour, that it awaked England, and animated the
Lord's people there, then groaning under those grievances from which
Scotland was delivered, to aspire to the like reformation. For advice in
which, because though all agreed to cast off the yoke of prelacy, yet
sundry forms of church government were projected to be set up in the
room thereof, chiefly the Independent order, determining all acts of
church government, as election, ordination, and deposition of officers,
with admission, excommunication, and absolution of members, to be done
and decided by the voices of every particular congregation, without any
authoritative concurrence or interposition of any other, condemning all
imperative and decisive power of classes, &c. as a mere usurpation.
Therefore, the brethren in England wrote to the Assembly then sitting at
Edinburgh, who gave them answer,----'That they were grieved, that any of
the godly should be found not agreeing with other reformed churches, in
point of government as well as doctrine; and that it was to be feared,
where the hedge of discipline and government is different, the doctrine
and worship shall not long continue the same without change; that the
government of the church, by compound presbyteries and synods, is a help
and strength, and not a hindrance to particular congregations and
elderships, in all the parts of government; and are not an extrinsical
power set over particular churches, but the intrinsical power wherewith
Christ hath invested his officers, who may not exercise it
independently, but with subordination, unto presbyteries, &c. which as
they are representative of particular churches, conjoined together in
one under their government; so their determination, when they proceed
orderly, whether in causes common to all, or brought before them by
reference in case of aberration, is to the several congregations
authoritative, and not consultatory only. And this subordination is not
only warranted by the light of nature, but grounded upon the word of
God, and conform to the pattern of the primitive and apostolic church,
for the preservation of verity and unity, against schism, heresy and
tyranny, which is the fruit of this government wheresoever it hath
place.' So from henceforth the Assembly did incessantly urge uniformity
in reformation with their brethren in England, as the chiefest of their
desires, prayers and cares. And in the year 1643, prevailed so far, that
the English parliament did first desire, that the two nations might be
strictly united for their mutual defence, against the papists and
prelatical faction, and their adherents in both kingdoms; and not to
lay down arms, till these implacable enemies should be brought in
subjection; and instantly urge for help and assistance from Scotland.
Which, being sent, did return with an olive branch of peace, and not
without some beginnings of a reformation in England. And afterwards, a
bloody war beginning between the King and Parliament, with great success
on the King's side, whence the papists at the time got great advantage,
(witness the cessation of arms concluded in Ireland,) commissioners were
sent from both houses to Scotland, earnestly inviting to a nearer union
of the kingdoms, and desiring assistance from this nation to their
brethren in that their great distress. And this, by the good hand of
God, produced the solemn league and covenant of the three kingdoms,
first drawn up in Scotland, and approven in the Assembly at Edinburgh,
and afterward embraced in England to the terror of the popish and
prelatical party, and to the great comfort of such as were wishing and
waiting for the reformation of religion, and the recoveries of just
liberties.
The tenor whereof did import, their sincere and constant endeavours, in
their several places and callings, for preservation of the uniformity in
reformation, in doctrine, worship, discipline, and government: the
extirpation of popery, prelacy, error and profanity; the preservation of
the rights and liberties of the people; and of the magistrates
authority, in defence of the true religion and liberty; the discovery
and punishment of incendiaries; the retaining of the peace and union of
the kingdoms; the mutual assistance and defence of all under the bond of
this covenant; and the performing all duties we owe to God, in the
amendment of our lives, and walking exemplarily one before another. This
is that covenant comprehending the purpose of all prior, and the pattern
of all posterior covenants, to which Christ's witnesses did always
adhere, for which the present witnesses do suffer and contend; that
covenant, which the representatives of church and state in the three
nations did solemnly subscribe and swear, for themselves and posterity,
of which the obligation, either to the duty or the punishment, continues
indispensibly on the generation; which for the moral equity of its
matter, the formality of its manner, the importance of its purpose, the
holiness of its solemn engagement, and the glory of its ends, no power
on earth can disannul, disable, or dispense; that covenant, which the
Lord did ratify from heaven, by the conversion of many thousands at
their entering under the bond of it, securing and establishing unto
them, and all the faithful, the blessings and privileges therein
express, and avouching himself to be their God, as they had avouched
themselves to be his people; that covenant, which, in all the
controversies it hath occasioned, did never receive a greater
confirmation than from the malice and opposition of its adversaries;
that covenant, which malignants do malign and deny, and sectaries scorn
and lay aside, as an almanack out of date; which hath been many ways
traduced and reproached by enemies, and yet could never be reflected on
by any serious in this land, without an honourable and fragrant
remembrance: especially that retortion of adversaries of the rigour of
its imposition upon recusants, to justify their cruelty upon its
asserters now, is to be refelled, not with confutation of its
importance, but with disdain of its impudence. For who were the
recusants; but wicked enemies to God, and church, and nation, who for
their malignancy were then to be prosecuted, not for their scrupling at
a covenant, but for their contumacious contempt of a law? This was no
violence done to their conscience; for as they had none, and could not
pretend to any, so they were never troubled for that, but for their
opposition and conspiracy against the common cause. However, it went
through at that time: and that the covenanted reformation, in a nearer
conjunction betwixt the united churches, might be promoted, the
parliament of England called an Assembly of divines at Westminster, and
desired the Assembly of Scotland to send thither their commissioners;
which accordingly nominated and elected Mr. Alexander Henderson, Mr.
Robert Douglas, Mr. Samuel Rutherford, Mr. Robert Balzie, Mr. George
Gillespie, ministers; John Earl of Cassils, John Lord Maitland, and Sir
Archibald Johnston of Waristoun, ruling elders; to propone, consult,
treat, and conclude in all such things as might conduce to the
extirpation of popery, prelacy, heresy, schism, superstition, and
idolatry; and for the settling of the so much desired union of the whole
island, in one form of church-government, one confession of faith, one
common catechism, and one directory for the worship of God. Forces were
also sent to assist the parliament of England: which were favoured with
great success in their enterprizes, till that war was ended by the total
overthrow of tyranny at that time, and all its upholders. But that
popish, prelatical, and malignant faction, being brought much under in
England, attempted (not unlike the Syrians, who thought the God of
Israel was not God of the hills and valleys both) to try the fortune of
war in Scotland, under the conduct of that treacherous and truculent
traitor Montrose, gathering an army of wicked apostates and Irish
murderers: who prevailing for a time, did punish in the justice of God,
the hypocrisy and self-seeking of such in this land, whose hearts were
not upright in his covenant; at length was defeat at Philiphaugh, in the
year 1645. Yet certain it is, that they had commission and warrant from
the King; as the Assembly that year, February 13. remonstrates it to
himself? warning him, in the name of their Master, the Lord Jesus
Christ, 'That the guilt, which cleaved to his throne, was such, as
(whatsoever flattering preachers or unfaithful counsellors, might say to
the contrary) if not timely repented, could not but involve himself and
his posterity, under the wrath of the ever-living God, for his being
guilty of the shedding of the blood of many thousand of his best
subjects, for his permitting the mass and other idolatry in his family
and dominion,' &c. At the same time also, the Assembly did zealously
incite the Parliament to a speedy course of justice, against these
incendiaries and murderers, as the only mean of cleansing the land from
that deluge of blood then current, and of appeasing the wrath of God:
and solemnly and seasonably warned all ranks to applaud the glory and
righteousness of that judgment of the sword, in the hands of these
apostates, and murderers, and to search to understand the language of
that dispensation; wherein many public sins and breaches of covenant are
pointed at, as the causes of that desolation; and the covenant itself is
there very encomiastically vindicated. 'We are so far from repenting of
it (say they) that we cannot mention it without great joy and
thankfulness to God, as that which hath drawn many blessings after it,
and unto which God hath given manifold evident testimonies: for no
sooner was the covenant begun to be taken in England, but sensibly the
condition of affairs there was changed to the better, and our forces
sent into that kingdom, in pursuance of that covenant, have been so
mercifully and manifestly assisted and blessed from heaven, that we have
what to answer the enemy that reproacheth us concerning that business,
and that which may make iniquity itself to stop her mouth; but which is
more unto us than all victories, the reformation of religion in England,
and uniformity therein between both kingdoms (a principal end of that
covenant) is so far advanced, that the government of the church by
congregational elderships, classical presbyteries, provincial and
national assemblies, is agreed upon by the Assembly of Divines at
Westminster, and voted and concluded in both houses of Parliament.'
After this the malignants in England being crushed in all their
projects, the King renders himself to the Scots in Newcastle: by whom
(because by covenant they were not obliged to defend him, but only in
defence of religion and liberty, which he had been destroying, and they
defending, because in this war he did directly oppose and oppugn these
conditions, under which they were only to defend him; and therefore they
had all along carried towards him as an enemy, as he to them; and
because, by the same covenant, they were obliged to discover, and render
to condign punishment all malignants and incendiaries, of whom he was
the chief, and to retain the peace and union of the kingdoms, which
could not be retained in maintaining their destroyer, and to assist
mutually all entred into that covenant, which he was fighting against)
he was delivered up unto the English, and kept under restraint in the
isle of Wight, until he received his just demerit, for all his
oppressions, murders, treachery, and tyranny; being condemned and
execute January 30th, in the 1648-9. Which fact, though it was protested
against, both before and after, by the Assembly of the church of
Scotland, out of zeal against the Sectarians, the executioners of that
extraordinary act of justice; yet it was more for the manner than for
the matter, and more for motives and ends of it, than for the grounds of
it, that they opposed themselves to it, and resented it. For they
acknowledged and remonstrated to himself, the truth of all these things
upon which that sentence and execution of justice was founded. And when
a wicked association, and unlawful engagement was on foot to rescue him,
they opposed it with all their might: shewing, in their answers to the
estates that year 1648, and declarations and remonstrances, the
sinfulness and destructiveness of that engagement; that it was a breach
of the commandments of God, and of all the articles of the covenant;
declaring withal, they would never consent to the King's restitution to
the exercise of his power, without previous assurance, by solemn oath,
under his hand and seal, for settling of religion according to the
covenant. By which it appears, they were not so stupidly loyal, as some
would make them. Yet indeed it cannot be past without regret, that
there was too much of this plague of the king's-evil even among good
men: which from that time forth hath so infected the heads and hearts of
this generation, that it hath almost quite extinct all loyalty to
Christ, and all zeal for religion and liberty.
Then it began to infuse and diffuse its contagion, when after the death
of Charles first, in the year 1649, they began, after all that they had
smarted for their trusting these treacherous tyrants, and after that
grace had been shewed them from the Lord their God, by breaking these
men's yokes from off their necks, and putting them again into a capacity
to act for the good of religion, their own safety, and the peace and
safety of the kingdom, to think of joining once more with the people of
these abominations, and taking into their bosom these serpents which had
formerly stung them almost to death. Hence these tears, lo the origin
and spring of our defection! There was indeed at that time a party
faithful for God, who considering the many breaches of the solemn league
and covenant, and particularly by the late engagement against England,
did so travel, that they procured the covenant to be renewed, with the
solemn acknowledgment of sins and engagement to duties, which was
universally subscribed and sworn through all the land; wherein also they
regret this tampering with malignants. And therefore the Lord did
mightily save and defend them from all their adversaries, subdued them
at Stirling, and in the north. They did also give warning concerning the
young King, 'That notwithstanding of the Lord's hand against his father,
yet he hearkens unto the counsels of these, who were authors of these
miseries to his father, by which it hath come to pass, that he hath
hitherto refused to grant the just and necessary desires of the church
and kingdom, for securing of religion and liberty: And it is much to be
feared, that these wicked counsellors, may so far prevail upon him, as
to engage him in a war, for overturning the work of God, and bearing
down all those in the three kingdoms that adhere thereto. Which if he
shall do, cannot but bring great wrath from the Lord upon himself and
throne, and must be the cause of many new and great miseries and
calamities to these lands.' And, in the same warning, by many weighty
reasons, they prove, that he is not to be admitted to the exercise of
his power, without security for religion and liberty. And when the
bringing home of the King came to be voted in the Assembly, there was
one faithful witness, Mr. Adam Kae, minister in Galloway, protested
against it: foreshewing, and foretelling, what mischief and misery he
would bring with him when he should come. These things might have had
some weight, to demur the nation from meddling with that perfidious
traitor. But all this serves only to aggravate the sin and shame of that
distraction, which hath procured all this destruction, under which the
land mourns to this day: that notwithstanding of all these convictions,
warnings; yea, and discoveries of his malignancy, treachery, and
inclination to tyranny; they sent commissioners, and concluded a treaty
with him at Breda. During which treaty, the commissions which he had
sent to that bloody villain Montrose, and his cut-throat complices, to
raise an army, and waste, and invade the country with fire and sword the
second time; were brought to the Committee of Estates, discovering what
sort of a king they were treating with. Whereupon, after serious
consulting, not only together, but with the Lord: and after many debates
what to do in such a doubtful case, wherein all was in danger, the
Estates concluded to break off the treaty, and recal their
Commissioners. To which intent, they sent an express with letters to
Breda; which, by providence, falling into the hands of Libberton, a true
libertine, and false betrayer of his trust and country, was by him,
without the knowledge of the other Commissioners, delivered unto the
King; who consulting the contents of the packet with his jesuitical and
hypocritical cabal, found it his interest to play the fox (being
disappointed at that time to play the tyger) and dissemble with God and
man. And so sending for the Commissioners, he made a flattering speech
to them, shewing, that now after serious deliberation, he was resolved
to comply with all their proposals. Whereupon the poor cheated
Commissioners dispatch the post back with letters full of praise and joy
for the satisfaction they had received. The Estates, perceiving
themselves imposed upon, consulted again what to do; and in end, being
overswayed more with respect to their own credit, (which they thought
should be impeached, if they should retract their own plenipotentiary
instructions, to conclude the treaty, upon the King's assent to their
conditions) than to their reclamant consciences, they resolved to bring
home that pest, and thereby precipitated themselves and us into
eluctable misery. Yet they thought to mend the matter, by binding him
with all cords, and putting him to all most explicit engagements, before
he should receive the imperial crown. Well, upon these terms, home he
comes, and, before he sets his foot on British ground, he takes the
covenant: and thereafter, because the commission of the General
Assembly, by the act of the West-kirk, August 13th, 1650, precluded his
admittance unto the crown, if he should refuse the then required
satisfaction, before his coronation, he emits that declaration at
Dunfermline; wherein, 'Professing and appearing in the full persuasion
and love of the truth, he repenteth (as having to do with and in the
fight of God) his father's opposition to the covenant and work of God,
and his own reluctances against the same, hoping for mercy through the
blood of Jesus Christ, and obtesting the prayers of the faithful to God
for his stedfastness. And then protesteth his truth and sincerity in
entring into the oath of God, resolving to prosecute the ends of the
covenant to his utmost, and to have with it the same common friends and
enemies, exhorting all to lay down their enmity against the cause of
God, and not to prefer man's interest to God's, which will prove an idol
of jealousy to provoke the Lord: and he himself accounteth to be but
selfish flattery.' A declaration so full of heart-professions, and high
attestations of God, that none, considering what followed, can reflect
thereon, without horror and trembling from the holy jealousy of the
Lord, either for the then deep dissimulation, or the after unparalleled
apostasy. I know it is objected by court-parasites, that the king was
then compelled to do these things. To which I shall only say, it would
have cost any of them their head at that time, to have asserted, that he
did upon deliberation and choice mock God and man, and entered into
these engagements, only with a purpose to be thereby in better capacity
to destroy what he swore to maintain, only because he could not have the
crown without this way, which, in the confession of the objectors
themselves, was only deliberate and premeditate perjury. Next, if it
should be granted he was compelled; let it be also considered, who
compelled him; and these will be found to be the deceitful courtiers.
For, let it be adverted, what Mr. Gillespie declares of the case, who
put the pen in his hand when he subscribed that declaration: he,
perceiving there was sufficient ground to jealouse his reality, and
seeing evidently that the courtiers prevailed with the king on a sudden
to offer to subscribe the declaration (when they observed that the
commissioners of church and state were resolute, and ready to go away in
a fixedness, to leave out the putting of his interest in the state of
the quarrel) and being afraid of the said consequences of it, spoke his
mind plainly to the king: 'That if he was not satisfied in his soul and
conscience, beyond all hesitation of the righteousness of the
subscription, he was so far from over-driving him to run upon that, for
which he had no light, as he obtested him, yea, he charged him in his
master's name, and in the name of these who sent him, not to subscribe
this declararation, no not for the three kingdoms.' Whereupon the king
answered,--Mr. Gillespie, Mr. Gillespie, I am satisfied, I am satisfied
with the declaration, and therefore will subscribe it. Upon which some
of the courtiers swore that Mr. Gillespie intended simply to dissuade
the king from subscribing it, that so church and state might professedly
lay aside his interest; which would have defeat their hopes to make up
themselves, as now they have done, upon the then designed ruin of the
interest of truth. Then at his coronation, we have his again reiterated
confirmations of that covenant; first, he is desired in name of the
people to accept the crown, and maintain religion according to the
national and solemn league and covenant; whereunto he gave his
apparently cordial consent (the words are in the form and order of the
coronation with the whole action.) Then next, a sermon being preached
upon 2 Kings xi. 12 and 17. the action commenceth, with his most solemn
renewing of the national and solemn league and covenant, by oath. Then,
he is presented to the people, and their willingness demanded to have
him for their king on these terms. At the same time, in the next place,
he took the coronation oath. Then on these terms he accepted the sword.
And after the crown is set upon his head, the people's obligatory oath
is proclaimed on the terms foresaid, otherwise he is not that king to
whom they swore subjection. Then being set upon the throne, he was by
the minister put in mind of his engagements, from 1 Chron. xxix. 33. And
then the nobles of the land came one by one kneeling, and lifting up
their hands between his hands, swore the same oath. These things done,
the whole action was closed with a most solid and severe exhortation
from several instances, Neh. v. 13. Jer. xxxiv. 18, 19, 20. &c.
Thereafter in the year 1651, followed the ratification of all these
preceeding treaties, transactions, and engagements, concluded and
enacted by the king, and the parliament then fully and freely conveened;
whereby the same did pass into a perpetual law. And this covenant, which
from the beginning was and is the most sure and indispensible oath of
God, became at length the very fundamental law of the kingdom, whereon
all the rights or privileges, either of king or people, are principally
bottomed and secured. This might seem security sufficient, but
considering the former discoveries and experiences they had of his
treachery, and the visible appearances (in the mean time) of his
refusals, visible reluctances, manifest refilings, open counter actings,
and continued prejudices against the covenant, and his following
unprecedented avowed perjury, every thing doth indelibly fasten upon
them the weakness at least of an overweening credulity, and upon him the
wickedness of a perfidious policy, in all these condescensions. After
this it came to pass, that zeal for the cause rightly stated was
suddenly contracted to a few, and the flame thereof extinguished in
many, and court wild-fire substitute in its place: whereby a plain
defection was violently carried on by the public resolutioners, who
relapsing into that most sinful conjunction with the people of these
abominations, so solemnly repented for and resolved against, did
notwithstanding bring in notorious malignants, into places of power and
trust, in judicatories and armies, in a more politic than pious way of
requiring of them a constrained and dissembled repentance, to the
mocking of the God of truth, and scorn of all our holy engagements.
Which defection did not only cause for a long time an incurable
division; the first of that kind, and most permanent of any that ever
was in the church of Scotland, by reason of the surcease of general
assemblies, stopped and hindered by the yoke of the sectarian
usurpation; but also was the spring and source of all our defections
since, all flowing from and fomented by that same spirit that fostered
that: and for that, since that time, the Lord hath been contending with
this church and nation, bringing us under the bondage of these malignant
enemies, whom we suffered them then to encourage and introduce. And both
at that time, and since that time, the Lord never countenanced an
expedition where that malignant interest was taken in unto the state of
that quarrel. Upon this our land was invaded by Oliver Cromwel, who
defeated our army at Dunbar, where the anger of the Lord was evidently
seen to smoke against us, for espousing that interest. And remarkable it
is, how in that very day wherein the public resolutions were concluded
in the assembly at St. Andrew's, the Lord then shed the blood of his
people at Inverkeithing; so as that the assembly, having in great haste
hurried through this approbation, were all made to run for it, and
adjourn themselves to Dundee, where they met and completed that step of
defection. And afterwards it is known, what a peculiar vengeance fell
upon that city, where this deed was done, beyond all other cities of the
nation. Next, an army being raised, according to these unhallowed
resolutions, and the Lord putting remarkable discountenance upon them in
their attemptings at home, as was manifest in their attemptings at
Torwood, &c. They march into England, and there did the Lord continue,
by his leaving our army to the sword, to preach that doctrine to the
world, Josh. vii. 10, 11, 12. ('Israel hath sinned and transgressed the
covenant--have taken the accursed thing--and dissembled also, and have
put it even amongst their own stuff, therefore the children of Israel
could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before
their enemies, because they were accursed: Neither will I be with you
any more, except ye destroy the accursed thing from among you.') An army
of near 30,000 was totally routed at Worcester, and the Achan, the cause
of the overthrow, was forced to hide himself in the oak, and thence to
transport himself beyond sea, where he continued a wandering fugitive
in exile, till the year 1660. In the mean time the sectarian army here
prevailed, till, after the usurper Cromwel's death, the false Monk then
general, with a combination of malignants and public resolutioners, did
machinate our misery, and effectuated it by bringing home the king to
England from his banishment: Wherein he was habituate into an implacable
hatred against the work of God. Yet, though since the king's first
reception into Scotland, our declensions were still growing, until they
produced this dreadful revolt from God, wherein the nation is now
involved; there was still a faithful remnant of ministers and
professors, zealous for the cause, keeping their integrity; who in their
remonstrances and testimonies witnessed against both their malignant
enemies, and their backsliding brethren the revolutioners, and also
against the sectarians their invaders; whose vast toleration and liberty
of conscience, which they brought in to invade our religion as they had
invaded our land, and infected it with their multifarious errors, was
particularly by the synod of Fife, and other brethren in the ministry
that joined themselves to them, testified against, and demonstrated to
be wicked and intolerable. Now to see how far the present testimony is
confirmed by the witnesses of this period, we may resume some
reflections on it.
I. They impartially carried on the testimony against prelacy, and the
popish, prelatical and malignant factions on the one hand, and the
sectarians on the other, without ever waving the testimony against
either, or at the least, winking at the one to weaken the other: both
which testimonies they thought of so great importance, that they could
not dispense with but faithfully maintain both, in their witnessings and
warnings. In that seasonable and necessary warning and declaration,
concerning present and imminent dangers, given at Edinburgh July 27.
sess. 27. they first say of the sectaries, 'That prevailing party of
sectaries in England, who have broken the covenant, and despised the
oath of God, corrupted the truth, subverted the fundamental government,
look upon us with an evil eye, as upon these who stand in the way of
their monstrous and new fangled devices in religion and government; and
though there were no cause to fear any thing from that party, but the
gangrene and infection of those many damnable and abominable errors
which have taken hold on them; yet our vicinity unto and daily commerce
with that nation, may justly make us afraid, that the Lord may give up
many in this land into a spirit of delusion to believe lies, because
they have not received the love of the truth. In that same warning they
say, We are not so to have the one of our eyes upon the sectarians, as
not to have the other upon malignants, they being an enemy more numerous
and more dangerous than the other; not only because experience hath
proven, that there is a greater aptitude and inclination in these of our
land to comply with malignants, than sectaries, in that they carry on
their wicked design, under a pretext of being for the king, but also
because there be many of them in our own bowels.' By which we may see
how impartially they opposed both; and that this cannot be condemned in
the testimonies of the present sufferers, except the assembly be
condemned. And because many now a-days have extenuating notions of those
debates, against prelacy and sectarianism, about the government of the
church, &c. and condemn these that would adhere to and suffer for the
punctilios of it, as rigid nicety: I shall, for seeing what account the
assembly had of them, cite their words in a letter to the assembly of
divines at Westiminster, dated Edinburgh, June 18, 1646. The 'smallest
(say they) of Christ's truths (if it be lawful to call any of them
small) is of greater moment than all the other businesses, that ever
have been debated since the beginning of the world to this day: but the
highest of honours and heaviest of burdens is put upon you; to declare
out of the sacred records of divine truth, what is the prerogative of
the crown and extent of the sceptre of Jesus Christ; what bounds are to
be set between him ruling in his house, and powers established by God on
earth; how and by whom his house is to be governed; and by what ways a
restraint is to be put on these who would pervert his truth and subvert
the faith of many.'
II. In the manner of maintaining this testimony, these famous fathers,
while faithful for God, gave us a perfect pattern of purity and
strictness, in opposition to all degrees of conformity and compliance
with the corruptions of the time; and laid down such rules and
constitutions, as might regulate us in our contendings about present
defections, and teach us what account to make of them, and how to carry
towards them: which if adverted unto, would evince how manifest and
manifold the declinings of many have been from the late reformation,
that yet pretend to adhere unto it, and how justifiable the aversation
and abstraction of the present reproaching suffering party is, from all
these defections and the daubings of them, because so much deviating and
declining from the attained reformation. I need not repeat how prelacy,
and all the parts and pendicles of that antichristian hierarchy, were
abjured in the national covenant, and condemned in the acts of
assemblies, and re-abjured in the solemn league and covenant, and in the
solemn acknowledgement of sins and engagement to duties, where also we
came under sacred and inviolable engagements, to endeavour the
extirpation thereof: Which doth clearly file the present countenancing
and submitting to the prelatic curates, in receiving ordinances from
them, among the grossest of defections; being altogether inconsistent
with these acts and constitutions, and covenant obligations to extirpate
them, as much as the countenancing of popish priests were inconsistent
therewith, being both equally covenanted to be extirpated. Next, though
in this period, tyranny being in its retrograde motion, erastian
supremacy was not so much contended for, and therefore not so much
questioned as formerly, being held exploded with execration out of doors
and out of doubt; yet the testimony was still continued against it, in
the uninterrupted maintaining of the church's privileges and freedom of
assemblies, against all encroachings of adversaries. And therefore the
embracing of the late detestable indulgences, were as contrary to the
actings of this as to the testimonies of the former period, against the
supremacy from which they flow. Yea many particulars, might be
instanced, wherein the accepters had declined from the covenanted
reformation then prosecuted; not only in their confederating with
malignant usurpers, for the pretended benefit of them (by which, if
there had been no more, they are obnoxious to the censure of the church,
standing registered in an act of assembly, ordaining all persons in
ecclesiastic office, for the like or lesser degrees of compliance, yea
even for procuring protections from malignant enemies, to be suspended
from their office and all exercise thereof at Edin. 1646. sess. 14.) Nor
only in their taking sinful instructions from them, restricting them in
the exercise of their ministry; but in admitting themselves, by their
patronage, to be by them presented to their prelimited and pre-imposed
congregations: which involves them in the iniquity of the abolished
patronages, condemned by the assembly; for that ministry of such so
presented, is made too much to depend upon the will and pleasure of man,
and such an imposition is destructive of the church and people's
liberties, obstructive of the gospel's freedom and faithful plainness,
and occasion of much base flattery and partiality; and in subjecting to,
homologating, and fortifying a sacrilegious supremacy, overturning the
intrinsic power of the church, contrary to the covenant obliging to the
preservation of the government, as well as to the doctrine of the
church, in the first article thereof; and in their suffering themselves,
either directly or indirectly, either by combination, persuasion, or
terror, to be divided and withdrawn from that blessed union and
conjunction, which they were obliged to maintain and promove, according
to the sixth article of the solemn league and covenant; and in their
strengthening the erastian usurpations of enemies encroaching upon the
church's liberties and Christ's prerogatives, against which we are
engaged expressly in the solemn acknowledgment of sins and engagement to
duties, where also we have these words article 2. Because many have of
late laboured to supplant the liberties of the church, we shall maintain
and defend the church of Scotland, in all her liberties and privileges,
against all who shall oppose or undermine the same, or encroach
thereupon under any pretext whatsomever. Next, we have many
demonstrations of the zeal and strictness of these servants of Christ,
in their synodical determinations of censures, to be past upon many
ministerial corruptions; which will condemn the present course of
covering and countenancing them, and commend the contendings of a poor
reproached party against them, in their conscientious abstracting from
them. Of which determinations, I shall rehearse some. Among the
enormities and corruptions of the ministry, in their callings, this is
one, sect. 4, 5. Silence in the public cause--some accounting it a point
of wisdom to speak, ambiguously--whereof the remedy is sect. 15. 'That
beside all other scandals, silence or ambiguous speaking in the public
cause--be seasonably censured, general assembly, at Edinburgh, June 13.
1646.' There is indeed an act against withdrawers from ministers: but in
the self same act they are charged to be diligent in fulfilling their
ministry, 'to be faithful in preaching, declaring the whole counsel of
God, and as they have occasion from the text of scripture to reprove the
sins and errors, and press the duties of the time, and in all these to
observe the rules prescribed by the acts of assembly, wherein if they
be negligent, they are to be censured, general assembly Edinburgh, Aug.
24. 1647. sess. 19.' Then there is that act, Aug. 3. 1648. sess. 26. for
censuring ministers for their silence, and not speaking to the
corruptions of the time; 'calling it, a great scandal, through some
ministers their reserving and not declaring themselves against the
prevalent sins of the times; appointing, that all that do not apply
their doctrine to these corruptions, which is the pastoral gift, and
that are cold or wanting of spiritual zeal, dissembling of public sins,
that all such be censured even to deprivation; for forbearing or passing
in silence the errors and exorbitancies of sectaries in England, or the
defections current at home, the plots and practices of malignants, the
principles and tenets of erastianism; and if they be found too sparing,
general, or ambiguous in their applications and reproofs, and continuing
so, they are to be deposed, for being pleasers of men rather than
servers of Christ, for giving themselves to a detestable indifferency or
neutrality in the cause of God for defrauding the souls of people, yea
for being highly guilty of the blood of souls, in not giving them
warning.' And in that seasonable and necessary warning of the general
assembly, Edinbugh July 27. 1649. sess. 27. we are taught how they
resented the unfaithfulness of ministers continuing in defections, and
how we are to look upon them and carry to them: where they say, it is
undeniably true, that many of the evils, 'wherewith this church and
kingdom hath been afflicted in our age, have come to pass because of the
negligence of some and corruptions of others of the ministry; and the
course of backsliding was carried on, until it pleased God to stir up
the spirits of these few, who stood in the gap, to oppose and resist the
fame, and to begin the work of reformation in the land; since which
time, the silence of some ministers, and the compliance of others, hath
had great influence upon the backslidings of many amongst the people,
who, upon the discovery of the evil of their way, complain that they got
no warning, or that if they were warned by some, others held their
peace, or did justify them in the course of their backsliding: we can
look upon such ministers no otherwise, than upon these that are guilty
of the blood of the Lord's people, and with whom the Lord will reckon,
for all the breach of covenant and defection that hath been in the land;
the priest's lips should preserve knowledge, and they should seek the
law at his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts, but such
as are departed out of the way, and have caused many to stumble at the
law, therefore hath the Lord made them contemptible before all the
people, according as they have not kept his ways, but have been partial
in his law, because they have lost their favour, he hath cast out many
of them as unsavoury salt.' Furthermore, to evidence the purity and
power of zeal burning and blazing in these days in their contendings
against public enemies on all hands, I shall instance some of their acts
and testimonies, clearly condemning the manifold compliances of this
generation and which may contribute somewhat to justify the reproached
preciseness of a remnant, standing at the furthest distance from them.
There is an act for censuring the compliars with the public enemies of
this church and kingdom, general assembly, June 17. 1646, sess. 14.
'where, they judge it a great and scandalous provocation, and grievous
defection from the public cause, to comply with those malignants (such
as James Graham then was) in any degree, even to procure protections
from them, or to have invited them to their houses, or to have drunk
James Graham's health, or to be guilty of any other such gross degrees
of compliance; censured to be suspended from the communions, ay and
while they acknowledge their offence.' And yet now, for refusing these
degrees of compliance, for not having the protection of a pass from the
wicked courts of malignant enemies, by taking a wicked oath, and for
refusing to drink the king's health, a greater enemy then ever James
Graham was, some poor conscientious people have not only been murdered
by enemies, but mocked and condemned by professors. There is an act
likewise, and declaration against all new oaths or bonds in the common
cause imposed without consent of the church general assembly, Edinburgh
July 28. 1648. sess. 18. 'Enjoining all the members of the church to
fearbear the swearing or subscribing any new oaths, or bonds, in this
cause without advice and concurrence of the church, especially any
negative oaths or bonds, which may any way limit or restrain them in the
duties whereunto they are obliged, by national or solemn league or
covenant.' Yet now, for refusing oaths, not only limiting in covenanted
duties, but contradicting and condemning many material principles of the
covenanted reformation, many have not only lost their lives, but also
have been condemned, by them that are at ease, having a wider conscience
to swallow such baits. It is known how pertinacious the most faithful in
those days were, in their contendings against associations, in any
undertaking for the cause, with persons disaffected to the true state
thereof. I need not give any account of this, were it not that now that
principle is quite inverted; and poor adherers to it, for their
abstracting and substracting their concurrence with such promiscuous
associations, are much hated and flouted; therefore I shall give some
hints of their sentiments of them. In their answer to the committee of
estates, July 25, 1648, sess. 14. the general assembly says, 'It was
represented to the parliament, that for securing of religion it was
necessary, that the popish, prelatical, and malignant party, be declared
enemies to the cause upon the one hand, as well as sectaries upon the
other, and that all associations either in forces or counsels, with the
former as well as with the latter, be avoided.' And in their declaration
concerning the present dangers of religion, especially the unlawful
engagement in war, July ult. 1648. sess. 21. they say, 'Suppose the ends
of that engagement be good (as they are not) yet the means and ways of
prosecution are unlawful; because there is not an equal avoiding of
rocks on both hands, but a joining with malignants to suppress
sectaries, a joining hands with a black devil to beat a white devil;
they are bad physicians who would so cure one disease, as to breed
another as evil or worse--we find in the scriptures condemned, all
confederacies and associations with the enemies of true religion,
whether Canaanites, Exod. xxiii. 32 and 24. xii. 15. Deut. vii. 2. or
other heathens, 1 Kings xi. 1, 2.' More arguments against associations
may be seen in that excellent discussion of this useful case, concerning
associations and confederacies with idolaters, infidels, hereticks, or
any other known enemy of truth or godliness, by famous Mr. G. Gillespie,
published at that same time: whereunto is appended his letter to the
commission of the general assembly, having these golden words in it,
words fitly spoken in that season, when he was a-dying, at the beginning
of the public resolutions: 'Having heard of some motions and beginnings
of compliance, with these who have been so deeply engaged in a war
destructive to religion and the kingdom's liberties, I cannot but
discharge my conscience, in giving a testimony against all such
compliance. I know and am persuaded, that all the faithful witnesses
that gave testimony to the thesis, that the late engagement was contrary
and destructive to the covenant, will also give testimony to the
appendix, that compliance with any who have been active in that
engagement is most sinful and unlawful. I am not able to express all the
evils of that compliance, they are so many--But above all, that which
would heighten this sin even to the heavens is, that it were not only a
horrid backsliding, but a backsliding into that very sin, which was
specially pointed at and punished by the prevalency of the malignant
party, God justly making them thorns and scourges who were taken in as
friends. Alas! shall we split twice upon the same rock? yea run upon it,
when God hath set a beacon on it? yea I may say, shall we thus outface
and outdare the Almighty, by protecting his and our enemies, by making
peace and friendship with them, when the anger of the Lord is burning
against them. I must here apply to our present condition, the words of
Ezrah, ix. 14.--O happy Scotland, if thou canst now improve and not
abuse this golden opportunity! but if thou help the ungodly, and love
them that hate the Lord, wrath upon wrath, and wo upon wo, shall be upon
thee from the Lord.' Whereunto is subjoined his dying testimony to the
same purpose; wherein are these words: 'But if there shall be falling
back, to the sin of compliance with malignant ungodly men, then I look
for the breaking out of the wrath of the Lord, till there be no remedy.'
This was the warning of a worthy dying man. Notwithstanding of which and
many other warnings and witnessings, a course of compliance was
commenced by the public resolutioners, and continued in to this day;
wherein that faithful warning of a dying servant of Christ is verified.
But before I leave this purpose, I must obviate an objection that some
make use of for strengthening themselves in their incorporations and
joining at least in worship, with the corruptions of the time, and for
condemning conscientious withdrawers; that the godly in those days did
not separate from the men of these compliances and defections, as many
do now, viz. the protesting party did not withdraw from the public
resolutioners and associators with malignants. I answer, first, many and
these the most godly and tender did withdraw, even from their own
ministers, and would have gone forty or fifty miles to hear a faithful
minister at that time: yea ministers themselves, in the case of
intrusion of the unfaithful, would have supplied the paroch, as if the
church had been vacant, and when they could not get access to the
pulpit, they preached in the fields, on purpose to witness against, and
professedly to withdraw the people from such an unfaithful intruder; as
might be instanced particularly for time and place, if need were. But
next, the church then, though broken by division, and under the
subjection of strangers deprived of her general assemblies, yet was in a
constitute case, enjoying the privilege, power and order of synods and
presbyteries, to whom the people offended with their ministers might
address themselves, for an orderly redress, and removal of these
scandals in an ordinary way; and so they needed not assume to themselves
that power to regulate their communion, that in a broken state, as now
is, must be allowed to them. And besides, both the ministers at that
time who were faithful, though they might have proceeded to censure and
silence the corrupt party as they were obliged, yet not only found it
difficult by reason of the injury of the times; but also thought it best
to spare them, and the people to bear them, as burdens; until, as they
were still in hopes, they should obtain a general assembly to take order
with them, but now it is not so. And then the defection was but
beginning, and people did not know and could not expect it would go such
a length, and therefore could not fall upon the rigour of that duty,
which such disorders call for at first: but if they had seen where these
beginnings would land them at length, I doubt not but they would have
resisted those beginnings, in such a way as would have precluded this
imputation of novelty upon our necessitated withdrawings.
III. We have in this period, not only an illustrious testimony for the
principle, but a continued and unintermitted putting into practice the
duty of defensive arms, in resisting the sovereign power, maleversing
and abusing authority to the destruction of the ends of it; which
resistance was avowed, encouraged, and furthered by the general
assembly, both for the defence of themselves, and for the help of their
brethren in England. Take one expression in their solemn and seasonable
warning to all ranks, Feb. 12, 1645, sess. 18.--'Unless men will blot
out of their hearts the love of religion and cause of God, and cast off
all care of their country, laws, liberties, &c. (all being in visible
danger of present ruin and destruction) they must now or never appear
actively, each one stretching himself to, yea beyond his power. It is
not time to dally, or go about the business by halves, nor be almost,
but altogether zealous: Cursed is he that doeth the work of the Lord
negligently. If we have been forward to assist our neighbour kingdoms,
shall we neglect to defend our own? Or shall the enemies of God be more
active against his cause than his people for it? God forbid.' In another
seasonable and necessary warning, July 27, 1649, sess. 27. they say,
'But if his majesty, or any having or pretending power and commission
from him, shall invade this kingdom, upon pretext of establishing him in
the exercise of his royal power; as it will be an high provocation
against God, to be accessory or assisting thereto, so it will be a
necessary duty to resist and oppose the same.' These fathers could well
distinguish, between authority and the person abusing it: and were not
so loyal, as now their degenerate children are ambitious to shew
themselves, stupidly stooping to the shadow thereof, and yet will be
called the only asserters of presbyterian principles. But we find, they
put it among the characters of malignants, to confound the king's honour
and authority with the abuse and pretence thereof, and with commissions,
warrants, and letters, procured from the king by the enemies of the
cause and covenant, as if we could not oppose the latter, without
incroaching upon the former. But here an objection or two must be
removed out of the way before we go forward. One is, from the third
article of the covenant; where there seems to be a great deal of
loyalty, obliging to defend the king's majesty, his 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 majesty's just power and greatness.' I answer, there is
indeed a deal of loyalty there, and true loyalty, because lawfully
limited, being qualified with, and subordinate unto the preservation and
defence of the true religion and liberties of the kingdom (as the makers
of the covenant do expound it, in the assembly's declaration against the
unlawful engagement, July _ult._ 1648, sess. 21.) not that reverse
loyalty, which makes duties to God conditional and limited, and duties
to the king absolute and unlimited, as our loyalists do now. And I wish
others were free of it, who have sworn oaths of unlimited allegiances to
maintain the king in any power unto which his force aspires; and to
justify this their loyalty, will bring in this article of the covenant
with a distorted sense, reading it backward, 'that we in the
preservation and defence of religion must preserve and defend the king:'
As if religion obliged to defend him, do what he will. It were better
such pretended covenanters denied the covenant, than to be such a
reproach to it, in wresting its genuine sense. But I have adduced the
sense of the best interpreters of it, the general assembly. Next when
they entered under the bond of this covenant, they did it with a purpose
to oppose all his invasions upon religion and the liberties of the
people, and to vindicate these precious interests from his usurpings,
into a state of liberty: And shall we imagine, that that very oath of
God did lay upon them or us an obligation to defend the person who is a
destroyer of all these, contrary to the very nature of the oath,
contrary to the hope of the covenanters, and contrary to their
subsequent practice? But then it will be urged, why then was that clause
cast into the covenant? I answer we have not the same cause to keep it,
as they had some cause to put it in, with accommodation to the present
possessor of the sovereignty. The owning of it in our circumstances
would be as great a reproach to us, as the want of it was to them in
theirs. They put in the words to prevent the world's mistake, and to
remove that odium industriously heaped upon the heads of whose hearts
were associate in the defence of religion and liberty, therefore they
would profess they would not be disloyal while he was for God. And a
defiance may be given to clamour, and calumny itself, to give one
instance of the defect of performance hereof, while he went not about to
ruin those things, incomparably more precious than his person or
authority, and in ruining whereof no person can retain authority.
IV. But now two things will chiefly be desiderated, which now we own in
our testimony, for which many have died, that seem not to be confirmed
by or consistent with the testimony of this period. One is, that we not
only maintain defensive resistance, but in some cases vindictive and
punitive force, to be executed upon men that are bloody beasts of prey,
and burdens to the earth, in cases of necessity, when there is no living
among them. This principle of reason and natural justice, was not much
inquired into in this time; when the sun was up, whose warmth and light
made these beasts creep into their dens, and when they, being brought
under subjection, could not force people into such extraordinary violent
courses when the ordinary and orderly course of law was running in its
right channel. Yet from the ground of their ordinary procedure, military
and civil, against such monsters, we may gather the lawfulness of an
ordinary procedure in a pinch of necessity, conform to their grounds: I
hope to make this evident, when I come _ex proposito_ to vindicate this
head. But there is another thing that we own, which seems not to have
been known in these days, viz. That when we are required to own the
authority of the present dominator, we hold sinful to own it. Yet we
find these reverend and renowned fathers owned King Charles I. and did
not refuse the succession of Charles II. I shall answer in order. First,
As to King Charles I. there was a great difference betwixt him and his
sons that succeeded; he never declared parliamentarily that neither
promises, contracts, nor oaths should bind him, as the first of his
perfidious sons did; it might have been then presumed, if he had engaged
so far for promoving the work of God, he would have been a man of his
word (for to say a king of his word, is antiquitate in a good sense,
except that it means he is as absolute in his word as in his sword, and
scorns to be a slave to it.) Neither professed he himself a papist, as
the second son hath done: Again it must be granted, that more might have
been comported with in the beginning, when there were some hopes of
redress, than after such process of time; whereby now we see and feel
beyond all debate, that the throne stands and is stated, not only in
opposition to, but upon the ruins of the rights and privileges both of
religion and liberty. But was not the equivalent done by the church,
anno 1648, when they refused to concur with that unlawful engagement,
for restoring of the king, 'till security be had, by solemn oath under
his hand and seal, that he shall for himself and successors, give his
assent to all acts and bills for enjoining presbyterial government, and
never make opposition to it, nor endeavour any change thereof? July
_ult._ 1648. sess. 21.' But it will be laid, that in their renewing the
covenant that year, they did not leave out that article. True, thereby
they stopped the mouths of their adversaries; and then they were not
without hopes, but that in his straits he might have proved a Manasseh
taken among the thorns. And the covenanters at that time, not being
clear that he had done that which _ipso jure_ made him no magistrate,
chused rather, while matters stood so, to engage to maintain him, than
simply to disown him (which yet our forefathers did upon smaller grounds
many times) in the hopes of being prevailed with at last. But when they
saw that this proved ineffectual, therefore at the coronation of the new
king they made the covenanted interest the sole basis upon which alone
authority was conferred upon him. For the second, though they did not
refuse the succession of Charles the Second (which was their blame and
our bane, of which we may blush this day) yet we find many things in
that transaction which justify our disowning of him, and condemn the
owning of the present possessor. (1.) In that seasonable and necessary
warning, July 27, sess. 27. 'whereas many would have admitted his
majesty to the exercise of his royal power, upon any terms whatsoever:
the assembly declares first; that a boundless and unlimited power is to
be acknowledged in no king nor magistrate; neither is our king to be
admitted to the exercise of his power, as long as he refuses to walk in
the administration of the same, according to this rule. Secondly, that
there is a mutual stipulation and obligation between the king and the
people, as both of them are tied to God, so each of them are tied to one
another, for the performance of mutual and reciprocal duties;
accordingly kings are to take the oath of coronation, to abolish popery
and maintain the protestant religion: As long therefore as the king
refuses to engage and oblige himself for security of religion and safety
of his people, it is consonant to scripture and reason and laws of the
kingdom, that he should be refused. Thirdly, in the league and covenant
the duty of defending and preserving the king, is subordinate to the
duty of preserving religion and liberty: And therefore, he standing in
opposition to the public desires of the people for their security, it
were a manifest breach of covenant, and a preferring the king's
interest to the interest of Jesus Christ, to bring him to the exercise
of his power. Fourthly, That it was for restraint of arbitrary
government, and for their just defence against tyranny, that the Lord's
people did join in covenant, and have been at the expence of so much
blood these years past; and if he should be admitted to the government
before satisfaction, it were to put in his hand that arbitrary power,
and so to abandon their former principles, and betray the cause.
Fifthly, That he, being admitted before satisfaction, would soon
endeavour an overturning of the things which God hath wrought, and
labour to draw public administrations, concerning religion and liberty,
into that course and channel in which they did run under prelacy, and
before the work of reformation. Whence they warn that every one take
heed of such a snare, that they be not accessory to any such design, as
they would not bring upon themselves and their families, the guilt of
all the detriment that will undoubtedly follow thereupon, of all the
miseries it will bring upon the kingdoms--And therefore whosoever
attempt the same, oppose themselves to the cause of God, and will at
last dash against the rock of the Lord's power, which hath broken in
pieces many high and lofty ones, since the beginning of the work in the
kingdoms.' 2. I shall here insert the act of the West-kirk, declaring
their mind very manifestly.
'_West Kirk, August 13, 1650._ The commission of the general
assembly, considering that there may be just ground of stumbling,
from the king's majesty refusing to subscribe and emit the
declaration, offered to him by the committee of estates and the
commission of the general assembly, concerning his former carriage
and resolutions for the future, in reference to the cause of God
and the enemies and friends thereof; doth therefore declare, That
this kirk and kingdom doth not own or espouse any malignant party,
or quarrel, or interest, but that they fight merely upon their
former grounds and principles, and in the defence of the cause of
God and of the kingdom, as they have done these twelve years past:
And therefore, as they disclaim all the sin and guilt of the king
and of his house, so they will not own him nor his interest,
otherwise than with a subordination to God, and so far as he owns
and prosecutes the cause of God, and disclaims his and his father's
opposition to the work of God, and to the covenant, and likewise
all the enemies thereof; and that they will with convenient speed
take unto consideration the papers, lately sent unto them by
Oliliver Cromwel, and vindicate themselves from all the falshoods
contained therein; especially in these things wherein the quarrel
betwixt us and that party is mistated, as we owned the late king's
proceedings, and were resolved to prosecute and maintain his
present majesty's interest, before and without acknowledgement of
the sin of his house and former ways, and satisfaction to God's
people in both kingdoms.'
'A. KER.'
'_August 13, 1650._ The committee of estates, having seen and
considered a declaration of the commission of the general assembly,
anent the stating of the quarrel wherein the army is to fight, do
approve the same, and heartily concur therein.'
'THO. HENDERSON.'
In the third place: It is specified in the Causes of Wrath, as one of
the steps of defection, Art. 9. Step. 5. 'That a treaty should have been
closed with him, upon his subscribing demands, after he had given many
clear evidences of his disaffection and enmity to the work and people of
God: That these demands, which he was required to subscribe, did not
contain a real security, a real abandoning of former malignant courses
and principles, and cleaving to the work of God; it was not a paper or
verbal security which we were bound to demand of him, but a real one;
and to entrust him without this, was but to mock God, and to deceive the
world, and to betray and destroy ourselves, by giving up all the
precious interests of religion and liberty unto the hands of one, who
was in a course of enmity to them: That both before, and in the mean
time of the treaty, he had given evidences of his enmity in many
instances there condescended upon particularly; that he authorized James
Graham to invade this kingdom, and encouraged him by letters to go on in
that invasion, even whilst he was in terms of a treaty with us, as
appeared by bringing into our hands the authentic commission itself, and
sundry letters under his own hand.' Next, in the same Causes of Wrath,
among the sins of the ministry, in relation to the public, sect. 10, 11,
12, 13. 'That they agreed to receive the king to the covenant, barely
upon writing, without any apparent evidences of a real change of
principle: That they did not use freedom, in showing what was sinful in
reference to that treaty, but went on therein when they were not
satisfied in their consciences, for fear of reproach, and of being
mistaken: That they were silent in public, and did not give testimony,
after a discovery of the king's commission to James Graham for invading
the kingdom: That they pressed the king to make a declaration to the
world, whilst they knew by clear evidences that he had no real
conviction of the things contained therein.'