1643, August.
The General Assembly shewed how impressed it was with the idea that the visit now paid was no ordinary one. "We were exhorted," says our informant, in all these minute matters "to be more grave than ordinary; and so, indeed, all was carried to the end with much more awe and gravity than usual." With a punctilious formality, borrowed, it was said, from the like usage in the reception of their own Commissioners by the English Parliament, the Scotch arranged that the access of the delegates to the Assembly should be at first only that of private spectators; "for which end a place commodious above in a loft, was appointed for them." Then followed an interview between them and a deputation from the General Assembly, to whom were presented the documents brought from London. One paper, subscribed by above seventy English Divines, supplicating help "in a most deplorable style," as soon as it was read drew tears from many eyes. The loss of Bristol was reported, and fear was expressed lest his Majesty might march to London. Cautiously did the Scotch consult sundry times with the prime nobles, in the Moderator's chamber, before taking any decided step. One night all present were bent on peaceful mediation, proposing to act as friends between the belligerents, and not to espouse exclusively the side of either. Lord Warristone "alone did shew the vanity of that motion and the impossibility of it." Words now would come too late, and the Scotch must arm or do nothing; they must cross the Tweed with pike and gun, or leave English Puritans to their hard fate. The Assembly at length decided on recommending military aid on these grounds:—the war was a religious one; the Protestant faith was in danger; gratitude for former assistance required a suitable return; both Churches were embarked on the same bottom; the prospects of uniformity between the two kingdoms would strengthen the Protestant cause all over Europe; and, finally, the English Parliament stood in friendly relation to the Scotch, who felt that they could never trust King Charles.[363]
Commissioners in Scotland.
Terms of union now became the absorbing question, and hard debates ensued. The English Commissioners preferred a civil league, and the Scotch were earnest for a religious covenant. The former wished for a bond of reciprocal aid between nation and nation to maintain the interests of civil liberty; the latter longed for a holy confederation between church and church, for the maintenance of Protestant truth and worship, against papal and prelatic superstitions. As Vane and Nye belonged to a party in England which advocated religious toleration, and as the latter avowed himself an Independent, they would both be averse to the establishment of such uniformity as was advocated by Presbyterians, and would be anxious to keep a door open for the admission of congregational liberty. "Against this," Baillie states, "we were peremptory." What was to be done? Succour from the Scotch was indispensable, but the Scotch had determined not to grant it save on their own conditions. The English Commissioners therefore felt compelled to enter into a compromise; and stipulating that it should be a League to meet their own views of it as a civil compact, they yet allowed it to be a Covenant for the satisfaction of those who chiefly valued its religious character and bearings. Without impugning the motives of either party, we must say, now that the lapse of more than two centuries has hushed to silence the tempestuous controversy, that this modification of the compact seems very much like playing at a game of words, and that, after all this hair-splitting, the two contracting powers became equally bound to the whole agreement, however they might choose to interpret the phraseology. The English Commissioners, by accepting the Covenant, pledged themselves to the cause of which the Scotch Presbyterians regarded it as the symbol; and looking at the ecclesiastical opinions of Vane and Nye, we cannot defend their conduct on this occasion against the charge of inconsistency. The Commissioners believed they had accomplished an important object by what they had done; and when the Solemn League and Covenant came before the General Assembly, a hearty affection toward England was "expressed in tears of pity and joy by very many grave, wise, and old men," as the moderator, Mr. Henderson, after making an oration, read over the document twice amidst loud applause.
1643, August.
Three Scotch Commissioners, with Philip Nye, set sail on the thirtieth of August; but eight days before they started, the English had despatched a ketch, with a duplicate copy of the famous instrument, and on the first of September it reached the Westminster Assembly.
Some of the members, especially the Scotch Divines, were prepared to receive it exactly as it was, cordially sympathizing in all its sentiments, but others, particularly Dr. Twiss, the Prolocutor, Dr. Burgess, and Mr. Gataker, stumbled at the condemnation of prelacy. They were averse "to the English diocesan frame," and if that was meant by the word prelacy they could agree in the condemnation of it; nevertheless they were advocates for the ancient and moderate form of Episcopacy, with some admixture of Presbyterian rule, and could not agree to the use of any expression which, with regard to that rule, might seem to convey any censure. To meet this difficulty, a parenthesis was introduced describing the exact nature of the prelacy opposed viz., "Church government by Archbishops, Bishops, Deans and Chapters, Archdeacons, and all other ecclesiastical offices depending on that hierarchy."[364]
The Covenant.
Covenants were, of old, favourites with the nation of Scotland, and they present in their spirit, though not their form, a strong resemblance to that very noble Hebrew one, in the days of Asa, the king of Judah, when "the people entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul"—"and they sware unto the Lord with a loud voice"—"and all Judah rejoiced at the oath."[365]