Your most assured constant Friend,
Charles R.
Oxford, December 29ᵗʰ, 1642.
Postscript.—You cannot take to your self, nor express to your Brother, better thanks than I mean to you both, for the Service you did me the last Council-day.
1643.—January.
11. The Cross Petition.[314]
May it please your Lordships,
That whereas His Majesty, with Advice of his Great Council the Estates of Parliament, hath been pleased to select your Lordships to be His Councellours, and hath, by an Act of the late Parliament, committed to your Lordships the Administration and Government of this Kingdom, in all Affairs concerning the Good, Peace, and Happiness thereof; and in regard of that great Trust reposed by His Majesty, and the Estates of Parliament in you, your Lordships have been and will continue so careful to acquit your selves of that weighty Charge, as you may be answerable for all your Actions and Proceedings to his Majesty, and the Estates of Parliament, to whom, (as we conceive) you are and can only be accomptable: And now we being informed of a Petition presented by some Noblemen, Gentlemen and others, to the Commissioners, for conserving the Articles of the late Treaty, upon pretext of your Lordships not Sitting at that time, wherein it is represented, that your Lordships late Warrant for Printing his Majesties Letter hath occasioned great Grief and heavy Regrate, of all who tender the Glory of God, His Majesties Honour, and procuring Unity of Religion, and Uniformity in Church-Government, the continuance of Peace, and Union betwixt the two Kingdoms, and fearing if at this time, we should be silent, your Lordships should conceive us, and the rest of the Kingdom, to be involved with them in the like Desires, Judgements, and Opinions, and lest by our silence our Gracious Soveraign the Kings Majesty should believe us wanting in the Duty and Allegiance, which by so many Tyes and Obligations we owe to Him, our Native King, or that our Brethren of England should apprehend the least Intention, or Desire in us, to infringe, or any ways encroach upon the Brotherly Union of the two Kingdoms, to happily united under one Head; We presume in all Humility to clear our selves, and our Intentions to your Lordships, and to all the World, and therewith, to represent our humble Wishes and Desires, for Establishing His Majesties Royal Authority, and continuing that happy Union betwixt the two Kingdoms, which can never truely be conceived to be intended to weaken the Head, whereby it is knit together, and without which it can have no subsistence.
The happy Union of the two Kingdoms under one Head, our King, doth so much add to His Majesties Greatness, and Strength of both Kingdoms, that we British Subjects cannot choose but wish that the said Brotherly Union be heartily entertained, and cherished by all fair and reasonable means, to which we conceive no one thing will as much conduce, as that the late Articles of the Treaty of Peace, and Conclusions taken thereupon about Unity of Religion, may be carefully and timeously prosecuted: wherein as our Commissioners then, so we now without presuming or usurping to prescribe Rules, or Laws of Reformation to our Neighbour-kingdom (Civil Liberty and Conscience being so tender that it cannot endure to be touched, but by such as they an wedded to, and have lawful Authority over them) notwithstanding, seeing the duty of Charity doth oblige all Christians to pray and profess their Desires, that all were of the same Religion with themselves, and since we all acknowledge that Religion is the base and foundation of Kingdoms, and the strongest Bond to knit the Subjects to their Princes in true Loyalty, and to knit their Hearts one to another in true Unity, we cannot but heartily wish, that this work of Union so happily begun, may be crowned end strengthened by the Unity of Church-Government; and that your Lordships with us may be pleased to represent it to His Majesty, and Both Houses of Parliament, as an expression and Testimony of our Affections to the good of our Brethren in England, and of our Desires to make firm and stable our Brotherly Union by the strong chain and Bulwark of Religion; but, as we have said, no ways intending thereby to pass our bounds, in prescribing, and setting down Rules and Limits to His Majesty, and the Two Houses of Parliament, their Wisdom and Authority, in the way of prosecution thereof. The sense we have of the great Calamities, and irreparable Evils, which upon occasion of these unhappy Distractions and Mistakes betwixt the Kings Majesty and the Two Houses of England, (which if not speedily removed cannot but produce the tearful and prodigious effects of a bloody and Civil War) obligeth us in the duty of Christians, and as feeling members of what may concern our Common Head, the Kings Majesty, and the Good and Happiness of our Brethren of England, humbly to represent to your Lordships, That as we will not be wanting with our Prayers, and our faithful and best Endeavours, to assist in the removing of these Unhappy Mistakes and Misunderstandings: so we heartily wish, and humbly Petition your Lordships, that from the deepness of your Wisdom such happy Motions may flow, as upon that tender care of our Soveraigns Person and Authority, Peace and Truth may be settled in all His Majesties Dominions. Although we will not presume nor take upon us, to prescribe Laws and Rules to your Lordships, yet in all Humility we intreat your permission, to represent such Particulars as we conceive, and are very confident, will conduce much to the removing of all these Mistakes betwixt His Majesty and His Two Houses of Parliament, and be a ready mean to facilitate a happy and wished Peace, and continue the Brotherly Union between the Two Kingdoms.
And first, that in answering the foresaid Petition your Lordships may be pleased to do no Act, which may give His Majesty just occasion to repent him of what Trust he so Graciously expressed (in his letter of the Date the fifth of December) He reposes in us His Subjects of His Ancient and Native Kingdom; for we cannot think, that our Brethren in England, or any other, can believe, that the ground of this Mutual Union of the two Kingdoms, by the several and respective Unions to our Prince and Head, should weaken the strong Bond, whereby it is knit, and by which we are so firmly tied, by so many Ages, and unparalelled lineal descents of an hundred and seven Kings. Neither can we suppose, that any good Protestant, or true member of our Church, can imagine, far less seduce others to believe, that by the late Treaty of Peace, or Act of Union, we as Scotish Subjects are in any sort liberated from the Dutiful Obedience, which as Scotishmen we owe to our Scotish King, or from that due Loyalty, which as Scotish Subjects we owe to our Native Soveraign, for Maintenance of His Person, Greatness and Authority; or that thereby, we are in any other Condition in these necessary Duties to our Soveraign, than we and our Ancestors were, and have been, these many Ages and Descents, before the making of the said Act, or before the Swearing and Subscribing of our late Covenant, by which we have solemnly sworn, and do swear not only our mutual Concurrence, and Assistance for the cause of Religion, and to the utmost of our power, with our Means and Lives, to stand to the Defence of our Dread Soveraign His Person and Authority, in the preservation of Religion, Liberty, and Laws, of this Church and Kingdom; but also in every Cause, which may concern His Majesties Honour, we shall according to the Laws of the Kingdom, and Duty of Subjects, concur with our Friends and Followers in quiet manner, or in Arms, as we shall be required of His Majesty, or His Councel, or any having his Authority.
Secondly, That if your Lordships think it fitting, to make any answer to the Parliament of England their Declaration, your Lordships may be pleased not to declare, enact, or promise, any thing which may trouble or molest the Peace of this Kirk and Kingdom; which by Gods special Grace, and His Majesties Favour and Goodness, we enjoy and have established unto us according to our Hearts desire, by the Laws Ecclesiastical or Civil of this Kingdom respective, and which His Majesty since, by so many Declarations and deep Protestations hath Sworn to maintain inviolably.