We, therefore, the Under-subscribers, for discharge of our Duties to God and to the Church, committed to our Government, under our Soveraign Lord the Kings Majesty, Protest, as in our former Declinatour, as well for our Selves as in name of the Church of Scotland, and so many as shall adhere to this our Protestation, That the present pretended Assembly be holden and reputed null in Law, as consisting and made up partly of Laical persons that have no Office in the Church of God, partly of refractory, schismatical, and perjured Ministers, that, contrary to their Oaths and Subscriptions, from which no Humane power could absolve them, have filthily resiled, and so made themselves to the present and future Ages most infamous; and that no Churchman be bound to appear before them, nor any Citation, Admonition, Certification, or Act whatsoever, proceeding from the said pretended Meeting, be prejudicial to the Jurisdiction, Liberties, Priviledges, Rents, Possessions, and Benefices belonging to the Church, nor to any Acts of former General Assemblies, Acts of Council, or Parliament made in favours thereof; but to the contrary, That all such Acts and Deeds, and every one of them, are and shall be reputed unjust, partial, and illegal, with all that may follow thereupon. And this our Protestation we humbly desire may be presented to His Majesty, whom we do humbly supplicate, according to the Practice of Christian Emperoeurs in Ancient times, to convene the Clergy of His whole Dominions, for remedying the present Schism and Division, unto whose Judgement and Determination we promise to submit our Selves, and all our Proceedings.
Given under our hands at Morpeth, Berwick, and Holy Island, the tenth and eleventh of August 1639.
| Signed, | St Andrews, | Wal. Brechinen, |
| Da. Edinburgen, | Ja. Lismoren, | |
| Jo. Rossen, | Ad. Aberdon. | |
| Th. Galloway. |
1639.—August 20.
65. Letter from the King to Traquair.[228]
Charles R.
Right Trusty,
We have hitherto commanded Hamilton to answer several of your Letters; but that of the 16ᵗʰ of August being of more weight than any of your former, We have thought fit to answer it Our Self.
And whereas you say, that nothing will satisfie them, except in terminis the last Assembly be named and ratified, or that way be given to the discharging Episcopacy as abjured in that Church, as contrary to the Confession of Faith 1580, and the Constitutions of the same, you being yet in some hope, that the word Abjured may be got changed, and that in drawing up the words of the Act it be onely condemned, as contrary to the Constitution of that Church; We in this point leave you to your Instructions, they being full, if you consider what We have said concerning Episcopacy, and subscribing the Confession of Faith 1580: We thinking it fit to declare hereupon unto you, that let their Madness be what it will, further than We have declared in Our Instructions in these points, We will not go.
For the Service-book and Book of the Canons, though We have been and are content it be discharged; yet We will never give Our Voice nor Assent, that they be condemned as containing divers Heads of Popery and Superstition. In like manner, though We have been and are content, that the High Commission be discharged; yet We will never acknowledge that it is without Law, or destructive to the Civil and Ecclesiastical Judicatories of that Our Kingdom, nor that the Five Articles of Perth, though discharged with Our Approbation, be condemned as contrary to the foresaid Confession. As concerning the late Assemblies, We cannot give Our Consent to have them declared null, since they were so notoriously Our Father (of Happy Memory) His Acts: It seeming strange, that We having condescended to the taking away all these things that they complained of, which were done in those Assemblies, they will not be content therewith, without laying an Apersion on Our Fathers Actions. Wherefore if the Assembly will in despite of your Endeavours conclude contrary to this, you are to Protest against their Proceedings in these points, and be sure not to ratifie them in Parliament.
Concerning the yearly indicting of General Assemblies, and the Confession of Faith, We commanded Hamilton in his of the 16ᵗʰ to answer that point to this effect: That We think it infinitely to our Prejudice, that We should consent to tie Our Self for the keeping yearly of their Assemblies, not needing to repeat the Reasons, they being well enough known to you; seeing at Berwick it was conceived upon debate of that Point, that your having Power to indict a a New one within the Year, would save that dispute, which you are by all means to eschew. But if this will not give satisfaction, you are by no means to give your assent to any such Act, nor to ratifie the same in Parliament.
The Article in your Instructions, which is onely, That the Covenant 1580 shall be subscribed, you must have an especial care of, and how you proceed therein: That the Bond be the same which was in Our Fathers time, mutatis mutandis; and that you give your Assent no other ways to the Interpretations thereof then may stand with Our future Intentions, well-known to you: nor is the same otherways to be ratified in Parliament.