WHereas it hath been our constant custome and conti­nuall care, from the sense of the trust committed unto us, to give warning unto this Kirk and King­dom of their condition and duty; so it cannot bee but very seasonable and necessary at this time, to declare and make known our judgment of the car­riage of the People of the Land, in the day of darknesse, and houre of temptation that they who have stood may find matter of encou­ragement and praise, and such as have fallen may recover themselvs and repent.

We were void of understanding, if we should not observe, and more then ungrate, if we should not acknowledge the loving kind­nesse of the Lord towards us, in the midst of our confusions and fears: Temptations were many and fierce, because of the power and pride of an insolent enemy [both to God and out dread Soveraign the King] whose proceedings is matter of abomination unto us, & shall be a wonder unto the following Generation; yet did the body of the Kingdom keep their integrity, entertaining all thoughts of backsliding and complying with the Kings enemies, with indigna­tion [Page 2] and detest, patiently suffering the bloud that hath been spilt, & firmly standing to the Cause of God in the midst of difficulties and straits, neither fearing the threats, nor regarding the promises of such as oppose the same.

These, as they be for a name of praise and joy unto the most high, the excellency of whose power is perfected in weaknesse; so for a witnesse unto the truth, and to the work of Reformation, and for a shame and reproach vnto the haters of Sion, whose subtilty & violence is more then conquered by the faith and patience of the Saints.

Yet is it the matter of much sorrow and astonishment unto us, that in the Land of uprightnesse so many should have done foo­lishly; and notwithstanding of all that work and power which their eyes have seen, and of their own vowes and Protestations, fallen from their excellency, and turned aside unto corrupt and crooked wayes with the workers of iniquity. The bond of the Covenant is such, as every religious heart cannot but remember the violation thereof with horrour and trembling; yet hath the Oath of God been forgotten and despised by many.

It is the admirable way of the working of the wisdom of God, to over rule all the purposes and actions of the sons of men unto his own ends. He whose wayes towards us have all been mercy and truth, meant a discovery of those whose indifferency or treachery would ere long have procured a sure and sensible ruine unto us, and now hath he brought his purpose to passe. This is a mercy which bring rightly managed, may countervaile all our sufferings and p [...]os, and prove very wholesome unto the Land, and advantagious unto the Cause of God.

It is not any strength of reason on the side of our adversaries that could have shaken so many; their pretexts of the Kings service, our Rebellion, and such like as th [...] are poor and void of truth in them­selves, so do they easily vanish before every discerning and ratio­nall man.

The service of Kings is not to cut down thousands of their faith­full and loyall Subjects whose multitude is their glory & strength; but to do those things which the Laws of the Kingdom prescribe, and that are consonant unto the will of God and unto the wealth of the people, whose safety is the Supream Law, and maine study of e­very [Page 3] King ruling in righteousnesse and judgment. Our soules are not privy unto, and our actions plead us innocent from the guilt of disloyalty; our witnesse is in heaven, and our record is on high, that it was never our purpose or intention to subvert lawfull Soveraignty, nor to encroach upon the due rights and priviledges of the same; and we trust, that whilest we live, nothing shal escape us to the contra­ry.

We are able to justifie our union with England, as an undenia­ble testimony of our duty unto our Brethren in the times of their straits by the Prelaticall Party, and of the preservation of Religion in its purity ane power in this, and of its Reformation in the neigh­bour Lands, and surest Bulwark of a stable and continuing peace betwixt the Kingdoms.

The League and Covenant with England, as it was studied and set on foot in the days of our Fathers at Barwick in the yeer 1586. so was it from the begining of this glorious Work of Reformation endeavoured by our selves, as stands upon record in the Articles of the large Treaty, unto which some of those who have now fallen to oppose it, were then neither strangers nor adversaries. Both Cove­nants, in regard of the principals whence they issue, the heads which they contain, and the ends which they pursue, are one and the same: And that the extent of the last unto our dear Brethren in England should procure enmity, to the intentions and substance of the first, seems to us to be a riddle, which none can resolve but perfi­dious persons, who have made shipwrack of a good conscience.

Who can but be amazed to heare the treacherous designes and bloudy practises of perjured men, palliat under pretence of the prosecution of the ends of our Nationall Covenant, as appeareth by divers who have lifted up their hands to Heaven, swearing unto the high God in the publike Assembly of his people, to build those things which they now destroy, and to destroy those things which they have lately set up; [meaning the dissenting party of Scotland] though the Kings Majesty, of whose Authority they pretended to be zealous of had not then given his royall consent and approbati­on of our affairs.

It is our hearts desire and hope, that all this course of providence thus abused by men void of understanding, may be improved by our selves, as a meanes of sound and serious humiliation, that wee [Page 4] may search and try our ways, and turn again unto the Lord, who will do good unto us, because of the disloyall actions of his Maje­sties enemies; Notwithstanding of all calumnies and reproaches, the righteousnesse of our cause shall be accounted of us our glory, and in regard of it, We will not remove our integrity from us, our righteousnesse we will still hold fast, and not let it go and our heart shall not remove us so long as we live.

The true and reall causes of our backsliding are to be sought a­mongst our selves. If all the Watchmen of the house of Israel had been faithfull and zealous in discharge of their trust, then had the Lords people better known the excellency of the Gospel, and stuck closer to the profession of the same, because of the negligence and perversnesse of some of those, many have halted for want of instru­ction, and lack of knowledge; but from the corruption which men have harboured in their own breasts, hath mainly issued all the de­grees of their Declnation.

There be amongst us many rotten and hollow hearts, who though though the joyned wit us through subtility, or fear did still abide in the gall of bitternesse, and bond of iniquity, and wished nothing more then the subversion of our cause: What wonder though such took advantage of a prevailing party, to disclose their envy, wherewith they were now grown big, almost unto bursting: And there is a ge­neration whose ignorance and sloath hath detained them, that they have not sufficiently examined, nor rightly considered Zions con­troversie with those that plead against her, because of her love to the truth: They conceive the debate to be about things Civill, at least, not to go so high, as the hazard of any thing important in Re­ligion.

And such is the negligence of those, that they despise the meanes of instruction, largly offered and holden forth in many Warnings and Declarations, &c.

What though it be lawfull in some cases to capitulate, yea with Turks and Pagans, shall it therefore be lawfull to do that which may argue subjection, and imply submission unto a perfidious ene­my, who are going about to drive the People of the Land from their former duty, &c. In this case, all and every one are called unto the asserting of the Confession of their Faith, and of their owne in­nocency and righteousnes touching the Realm of England. Neither [Page 5] can we judg any better of protections from such an enemy, because they do imploy the authority of one who is forfeit by the State, & excommunicate by the Kirk, and doe either expresly of taci [...]ely in­gage the Receivers, if not to joyn, yet to resist: they lay a stumbling block before all the Inhabitants of the Land, to make them for­bear action, or decline suffering, by following such a course: If all had done so, it may soon be fore-seen what should have beene the end: though happily they who were the doers, were not so appre­hensive, as to reach the depth of the evill, yet the end of the worke in it selfe, and in the intention of enemies, was to make them Ma­sters of all the lives and estates within the Land.

Capitulations and protections, howsoever accounted of by those who walke after the wisdome of the flesh, are destructive to our Covenant, almost in all the heads and Articles thereof: They tend unto the corrupting of Religion in this Land, and obstructing the Work of Reformation in England unto the countenancing and strengthning of the Popish and Prelaticall party, unto the subver­sion of the due rights and priviledges of the Parliaments, and dimi­nishing of his Majesties just greatnesse and authority unto the with­drawing of Incendiaries and Malignants from condigne punnish­ment unto the overthrow of the Union betwixt the Kingdoms, unto the deserting of our brethren, following of divisive motions, and denying to hazzard or suffer the losse either of lives or estates in the defence of the cause, and them that adhere thereunto. We see not not any strength of reason in that seeming necessity, unto which many pretend themselves to be redacted: If men could not have retired from the fury and violence of the Enemy, or had not some probable way of resistance and defence against the same, they should have taken it as an evidence of the will of God calling them to suffer and give a testimony unto this Truth. Our Covenant doth no lesse oblige us to suffering, then to doing; and it is the ignorance or ineffectual consideration of our duty that makes us thus to wipe our mouths as if we had done nothing worthy of rebuke: Neither yet doth it excuse, that some were not active to ob ain protections the receiving of them was to prostitute the chastity of that affecti­on which wee owe unto the cause of God, and could be no better then a bribe that blinds the eies of the wise, & hinders from doing judgement unto to afflicted.

The deep apprehension of their souls danger, moves us seriously and in the bowels of Jesus Christ, to intreat all Temporizers and Back-sliders to remember whence they are fallen and to repent: Let it not be a light thing unto such that they have dispised the Oath of God, undervalued the pretious Truth of the Gospell, and drawn upon themselves the guilt of their Brethrens-bloud by for­saking them in their just de [...]ence. If the due sense of their sin shall bring them to lament after the Lord, they may hope to find him gratious and mercifull, to forgive their iniquity and heal their back-slidings: But if they shall harden themselves, and continue in their provocation, they have cause of fear, that the Lord of Hosts shall avenge the quarrell of his Covenant upon them who have sworn falsely by his Name.