March 19, 1649.—You are not disappointed of your hopes of noble Lauderdale and Lanerk, and I assure you of the Earl of Callender, who told me, in plain terms, that the King may with greater assurance confide in these who now rule with you than in others; ye know whom I mean. If ye come hither, and do not bring a full rescinding of what the parliament has decreed against them, ye will be looked upon as most ingrate men; and none would be more glad of your misery than the English malignants and James Graham, because they do and have so opposed their plots. Likewise, it would be needful that ye remitted much of that rigor which, in your church-assemblies, ye use against ministers who have proven your great friends ever before. It will be better to let your sails fall somewhat lower in time, before a storm compel you; or ye, who think God so highly glorified by casting out your brethren, and putting so many to beggary, making room through such depositions to young youths, who are oft miscarried with ignorant zeal, may be made, through your own experience, to feel what it is, which now, without pity, is executed upon others. Generally the great power which the commission of the kirk exercises, displeaseth all. It is but an extraordinary meeting, and yet sits constantly and more ordinarily than any synod; yea and without the knowledge of provincial synods and presbyteries, deposes ministers, injoins pro auctoritate, what writs they please to be read, inflicts censures upon those who will not read them. If the kirk of Scotland look not to this in time, we will lament it when we cannot mend it. They say four or five rule that meeting; and is not the liberty of the kirk come to a fair market thereby? We have an act, that nothing shall be brought to a greater meeting which has not first been treated of in a smaller; but now your compend of the general assembly, or deputes of it, at the first instance, judge of matters which might be better handled in lesser meetings. For God’s sake, look this course in time be stopped, else the commission of the kirk will swallow up all other ecclesiastick judicatories, and such ministers who reside in and about Edinburgh, shall at last ingross all church-power in their hands. I know their is a piece of prudence hereby used, to get the power in the hands of those who are good; but what assurance, have we but what they may change, or others, following this course, creep into their places? We meet with daily regrets that the ancient ministry are condemned, and the insolence of young ones fostered, the very forerunner of Jerusalem’s destruction. The Lord make us wise in time.
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You will do well to consider of the letter, which anno 1646, the assembly wrote to our late king; for the Independents make it a part of the rule they walked by. And, 2dly, They say, that in your last assembly, you have declared that these words of the covenant, where ye speak of defending the king’s person and authority, in defence of religion and liberties, are explained to be a limitation and excluding your obedience to him, except in such acts. And what say these bloody Independents? “Their putting the King to a violent death is not against the covenant: for they have put him to death, not for his defending religion, and the parliament’s liberties, but for going about the overthrow of both.” Think of this.
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The Commission’s letter to the King, with Sir Joseph Douglas. Edinburgh, February 7, 1649.
May it please your Majesty,
As we did always acknowledge your royal father his just power and greatness, and poured forth our supplications and prayers to God on his behalf, and do abhor these unparallelled proceedings of sectaries against his Majesty’s person and life, so we do willingly and chearfully acknowledge your Majesty’s most just right of succession to reign as king over these kingdoms; and do resolve, in the power of the Lord’s strength, to continue in prayer and supplication for your Majesty, that you may fear the great and dreadful name of the Lord your God, and reign in righteousness and equity, and the Lord’s people under you, live a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty.
These kingdoms, now for many years past, have been involved in many calamities and confusions, by which the Lord’s work hath been obstructed and retarded, and the blood of his people shed as water spilt upon the ground; and we cannot but look upon the counsels of the ungodly as a main cause of all these evils. It hath been the cunning of the Popish, Prelatical, and malignant party, to traduce Presbyterial government, and the Solemn League and Covenant, as destructive to monarchy, and with so much wit and industry they manage those calumnies, that your royal father, to our exceeding grief, was kept at a distance, in his judgement, from these things that do much concern the kingdom of Jesus Christ, the peace and safety of these kingdoms, and the establishing of the king’s throne, and was estranged in his affection from them who tendered his person and authority.
And seeing the Lord now calls your Majesty to succeed to one of the greatest and most important employments upon the earth, which is much heightened by the present condition, it is our earnest desire your Majesty, in the name of the Lord Jesus, whose servants we are, that you would not only shut your ears against calumnies, but avoid the company, and shun the counsels of the ungodly, who study to involve your Majesty’s interest, and that which concerns the preservation of your royal person, and the establishing of your throne with their private interests and ends, and to make your loyal subjects odious, that they only may be gracious; and that your Majesty would avoid all the temptations and snares that accompany youth, and humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, and seek him early, and labour to have your senses exercised in his word; and that your Majesty would establish Presbyterial government, and allow and injoin the Solemn League and Covenant, and employ your royal power for promoting and advancing the work of uniformity in religion in all your Majesty’s dominions. It is by the Lord, who bears rule in all the kingdoms of the sons of men, that kings do reign; and whatever carnal policy suggest to the contrary, there is nothing can contribute so much for securing the kingdom in their hand, as being for his honour, and studying to do his will in all things. Therefore we know not so sure and speedy a way for securing of government in your Majesty’s person and posterity, and disappointing all the designs of enemies, both on the right hand and on the left.