June 20. Production of the Treaty anent Ireland.
October 18. Act for subscribing the Mutual League.
November 2. Covenant subscribed (Solemn League and Covenant) by Councillors.
THE
GENERAL ASSEMBLY,
AT EDINBURGH, 1644.
The Acts of the General Assembly of 1643 having now been presented to the consideration of the reader, not only in the most approved record of them by that Assembly itself, but illustrated by the hand of Baillie, we now proceed to notice the political and military events with which they were connected, and which, indeed, derived their chief characteristics from the spirit that animated the Church Assemblies of the period.
The most important document that emanated from the Assembly of 1643 was the Solemn League and Covenant, which became thenceforward the grand pivot on which all the affairs in Church and State of both kingdoms turned. Immediately after being sanctioned by the Assembly, it was carried to London for the concurrence of the English Parliament and Westminster Convention of Divines, which had been convoked without the Royal sanction. It was presented to both Houses of the English Parliament on the 28th of August, and to the Assembly of Divines; and, after some discussion, it was approved by the Westminster Assembly, and by the House of Commons, the members of which were ordained to subscribe it, and all the people required to sign it, under the penalty of being deemed “malignants.” It was subsequently, on 25th September, 1643, signed and sworn to by both Houses of Parliament, the Westminster Divines, the Scotch Commissioners, and a multitude of others, with circumstances of great ceremony and religious manifestations, in St Margaret’s Chapel, Westminster, and with this sanction returned to Scotland, where it was hailed as a symbol of national triumph. The 13th of October was appointed for its final adoption; and the Commission of the Church, the Committee of the Estates, and the English Commissioners assembled in one of the churches of Edinburgh, and, with the usual devotional solemnities, and many indications of gladness, it was signed and sworn to by these parties. On the 22d of October, the Committee of Estates issued an edict, requiring all the subjects of Scotland to subscribe, and threatening the recusants with punishment as enemies of religion, of his Majesty’s honour, and of the peace of the kingdoms. The Lords of the Scotch Council were imperatively commanded to appear on the 2d of November, and take the new Covenant; and Hamilton, Lanerick, and others, having failed to give obedience to these mandates, they were proclaimed enemies to God, to the King, and to the country; their estates were confiscated, and soldiers sent to seize their persons, and put to death all who might oppose them in the performance of this task. The proscribed parties, in some instances fled, but many were constrained to comply with these ordinances.
In pursuance of this League, the Scotch proceeded to aid by the sword in the extirpation of Popery and Prelacy in England; and before the end of November, 1643, the Scottish army was again in full force under the command of old Leslie, now Earl of Leven, as General; Baillie, Lieutenant-General of foot; and David Leslie as Lieutenant-General of horse. On the 19th of January, 1644, this army, consisting of 18,000 foot, and 3,500 horse, raised their camp at Hairlaw, near Berwick, and once more crossed the Tweed and entered England. It is unnecessary to follow the course of military operations in England; but, on the 30th of January, 1644, a manifesto, in name of both kingdoms thus united in arms against their sovereign, was promulgated, declaring that their armament was sent to the field in defence of the religion, liberties, and laws of both kingdoms, against the Popish, Prelatical, and malignant party.[327] And thus had the Presbyterian clergy of Scotland, with the co-operation of a large portion of its aristocracy, and the Puritans and Republicans of England, attained such an influence, by means of their League and Covenant, that they may safely be affirmed to have swayed the destinies of these kingdoms in the beginning of the year 1644; and the Commissioners from the Kirk to the Assembly at Westminster were enabled to transmit accounts, on the 20th of May, to the General Assembly, which met at Edinburgh on the 30th of that month, that could not fail to gratify their most sanguine wishes with respect to the extirpation of Prelacy, and all its appurtenances in England.[328] Baillie’s “Confidential Letters,” too, throw much light upon the arcana of the arrangements in the Westminster Assembly—the doctrinal standards of which are deserving of record, as still forming a part and parcel of the constitution of the Church of Scotland at the present day.
The Scottish Estates met in a few days after the Assembly convened, viz. on the 4th of June; and an abstract of the civil statutes applicable to our subject and the period, will be found among our illustrative documents.