knowing that to kings, princes, rulers, and magistrates, appertaineth the purgation and preservation of religion, and that nothing can contribute more unto the preserving and promoting of religion and the work of reformation, than that all places of power and trust be filled with men of a blameless and Christian conversation, approven integrity, and known affection to the cause of God,-we, your Majesty's most humble supplicants and subjects, with bowed knees and bended affections, humbly supplicate your Majesty, that you would employ your royal power unto the preservation of the reformed religion in the church of Scotland, in doctrine, worship, discipline, and government; and for the reformation of religion in the kingdom of England and Ireland, in doctrine, worship, discipline, and government; and to the carrying on of the work of uniformity of religion in the church of God, in the three kingdoms, in one confession of faith, form of church government, directory of worship and catechising; and to the extirpation of Popery, Prelacy, superstition, heresy, schism, profaneness, and whatsoever is contrary to sound doctrine and the power of godliness; and that all places of trust, under your Majesty, may be filled with such as have taken the covenant, and are of approven integrity and known affection to the cause of God. If, in a matter that so much concerneth the honour of God, the good of his church, and your Majesty's honour and happiness, we be jealous with a godly jealousy, we know your Majesty's wisdom and lenity to be such as will easily pardon; and the sense of our duty to God and to your Majesty, and the fear of these kingdoms' transgressions, by building up again the things that were destroyed, constraineth us to be petitioners against the same, and earnestly to entreat that any beginnings of stumbling which already have been given in those things, especially in the matter of Prelacy, and ceremonies, and the service book, in your Majesty's chapel and family, and other places of your dominions, may be removed and taken away; and that there may be no further proceeding in those things which grieve the Spirit of God, and give offence to your Majesty's good subjects who are engaged with you in the same covenant and work of reformation; and that your Majesty, for establishing the hearts and strengthening the hands of those who are faithful in the work of the Lord, and for quashing

the hopes and endeavours of adversaries, would be pleased to give public signification of your approbation of the covenant; and of your purpose to adhere unto the same, and to carry on the work of God in these kingdoms according thereunto; and that your Majesty's eyes may be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with you. We hope your Majesty will not take offence if we be the Lord's remembrancers to you, that you were pleased, a little before your coming to this kingdom, and afterwards, at the time of your coronation, to assure and declare, by your solemn oath, under your hand and seal, in the presence of almighty God, the searcher of hearts, your allowance and approbation of the national covenant, and the solemn league and covenant, faithfully obliging yourself to prosecute the ends thereof, in your station and calling; and that your Majesty, for yourself and successors, should consent and agree to all acts of parliament, enjoining the national covenant, and solemn league and covenant, fully establishing presbyterial government, directory for worship, confession of faith and catechisms in the kingdom of Scotland, as they are approven by the General Assemblies of this kirk and parliaments of this kingdom; and that your Majesty should give your royal assent to acts and ordinances of parliament passed, or to be passed, enjoining the same in your Majesty's dominions; and that you should observe these in your practice and family, and should never make opposition to any of these, nor endeavour any change thereof. And we desire to be persuaded that no length of time hath made your Majesty forget, or weakened in your Majesty's heart, the sense of the obligation of the great and solemn oath of God in the covenants; yea, that the afflictions wherewith God hath exercised your Majesty these years past, the great and wonderful deliverance that of late he hath granted unto you, hath fixed deeper impressions upon your heart and spirit; and that among all the kings of the earth, reformation of religion shall have no greater friend than your Majesty; yea, that as you are more excellent than the kings of the earth in regard of the purity of profession and solemn engagements unto God, and long exercisedness with manifold afflictions, and in the Lord's setting you over these kingdoms, which are not only, through grace, the first fruits of the Gentiles, but also are, among

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all we know in the world, the most eminent for the power and purity of the gospel, so shall your Majesty, in your princely station and dignity, excel them in the zeal of God, and for the kingdom of Jesus Christ; and that by how much more your Majesty, by the constitution and good hand of the Almighty, is lifted up above the sphere of your subjects, by so much more shall your motion be more vigorous and active unto the carrying about, by the influence of your royal head and by your example, all the orbs of inferior powers and persons, in these kingdoms, in subordination to God and your Majesty, in the practice of godliness and virtue. It is the desire of our soul that your Majesty may be like unto David, a man according to God's own heart; like unto Solomon, of an understanding heart, to judge the Lord's people, and to discern betwixt good and bad; like unto Jehoshaphat, whose heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord; like unto Hezekiah, eminent for godliness and integrity; like unto Josiah, who was of a tender heart, and did humble himself before God when he heard his word against Jerusalem and the inhabitants of Judah, and not only made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and keep his commandments, with all his heart and with all his soul to perform the covenant, but also caused all that were in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it, and took away the abomination out of all the countries that pertained to all the children of Israel, and made all that were present in Israel to serve, even to serve the Lord their God so shall your Majesty inherit the honour and blessing of these kings upon the earth and their happiness in heaven; so shall your Majesty's person be preserved, and your government established over these kingdoms, which is the unfeigned desire and fervent supplication of your Majesty's most humble and loyal subjects."

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Now the reader, having considered this humble address and supplication, may judge if there was anything therein either treasonable or seditious, reflecting on his Majesty and on the government of the kingdom of England, or the constitution of the present committee of estates, or anything tending to the raising of new tumults, and rekindling a civil war among his Majesty's good subjects, as their enemies were pleased to give it out, or which did deserve imprisonment; yea, whether it was not their

duty, and the duty of all the ministers of Scotland, to be thus faithful in giving timeous warning and faithful exhortation unto their prince, that they might have prevented, as much as lay in them, the sad defection which was then feared, and indeed followed thereafter. Neither let any say that such things might well be gathered from their other letters, for they had nothing beside that letter, save some scrolls of a letter, and some instructions to one of their number, for no other purpose than for the communicating of the supplication unto the ministers of their judgment in several presbyteries within the synod of Glasgow, and for desiring their approbation thereof and concurrence therein. This is one sad dispensation, but it is only the beginning of sorrow and of much woe following.

SECTION IV.

THE SUFFERINGS OF THE NOBLE MARQUIS OF ARGYLE, WHO WAS EXECUTED THE 27TH DAY OF MAY 1661, EXAMINED BY LAW.

While the parliament is in hand with reverend Mr Guthrie, who had been a prisoner since the 23d day of August 1660 (of whom mention shall be made in the next section), they have also the worthy and renowned Marquis of Argyle among their hands; who, though he had a main hand in bringing home the king, and closing the second treaty at Breda, yet, while he is going up to London after the king's late return from exile, to congratulate his Majesty's return, is made prisoner in the tower of London, and thereafter is sent down to Scotland, and indicted of high treason before the parliament, and at length is beheaded, and his head is stuck up on the tolbooth of Edinburgh. Questionless strangers will think it behoved to be some great matter for which the life of such an eminent and famous nobleman, who had been so renowned at home and abroad for his faithfulness and constancy in carrying on the work and cause of God, was taken; but the very truth is, whatever was pretended, the true cause was that which made him so famous, even his zeal and activity for the work of God in his generation; for whatever else they had to lay to his charge, if he had either opposed the

work of God, or done as little for it as many others of the nobles, his life would not have been taken now more than the life of others. It is true other things were sought to colour this business, and, failing one, another, and, failing that, a third, but in the end there is a comprehensive general set down as the ground of the sentence, to this purpose: That he had been an enemy to the king and his interest these twentythree years or more by-past; which, in effect, is as much as to say, he had been an active friend for the interest of Christ. But, because generals cannot well be proved, they condescended on several particular actings of his, in carrying on, in his place and station, the work of reformation; and when all these failed, they fix upon his compliance with the English (after they had subdued the land in battle and forced the king out of his dominions, had garrisoned the whole land and used it almost as a conquest), by sitting in their parliament when chosen by some shire, and when the rest of the shires of the land had sent their commissioners thither. This his compliance with them at that time, by sitting in their judicatories, and their concurring with his advice and counsel for the good of the land that was now under their feet, is the only particular ground upon which his sentence is founded, and the particular special cause pretended for which he was condemned to lose his head as a traitor, and to have his head put up on the top of the tolbooth as an eminent traitor. A sentence which, questionless, at first view, may make all men of understanding astonished, and to wonder, how ever it could have entered into the mind of the parliament of Scotland to sentence unto death such a peer of the land, such an useful member of the kingdom, and an ornament, upon such a ground, and for such a cause. But if these four particulars be considered the matter will yet appear more wonderful :—

1. The matter of compliance with the English at that time was so far from being accounted treasonable that several of the lawyers (among whom was one Sir John Fletcher, who was now advanced to be his Majesty's advocate, and did accuse this worthy nobleman of treason) did swear and subscribe an oath to be faithful unto the government as it was then established without king and house of lords. Now if there had been treason really in this deed, either

by the civil laws, or by the municipal laws of the land, would not the lawyers have perceived it, whose daily work and study the laws are.

2. If this had been the deed of this nobleman alone, the matter had been less to have been wondered at, but it being such a deed whereof few of the nobles of Scotland were altogether free, yea, whereof many of the members of parliament, his judges, were guilty, the matter is beyond a parallel. It is hard to make socios criminis sit as judges, and condemn the accused: reason would require that the table should be purged. Is it not strange for a parliament to condemn one for such a fault for which many of their own members might, with as much justice and equity, be condemned? and is it not strange how they, being, by their own confession, traitors in the highest degree, could sit and judge others? It is true, it will be replied, that his Majesty might pardon whom he pleased; but then it will abundantly appear that not this, but something else was the cause of this worthy nobleman's death. Whatever may be said in point of law, yet it will be a dispute in point of conscience, if kings may pardon such crimes as do deserve death by the law of God, or if such crimes which kings may pardon, of their own accord, and according to their own good pleasure, do before the Lord deserve death.

3. If the parliament had thought this particular worthy to bear so much stress, why would they have spent so much of their time in searching for other grounds to go upon? and why did they not make use of this at the first? but it is like this had never once been mentioned if they had been able to fasten treason upon any other of his actions; and this makes it so much the more to be wondered at, that they would condemn such a nobleman for such a particular, which they would never once have named if they

could have done their intended work otherwise.

4. Is it not strange, that of all the compliers of Scotland there was not one, except this nobleman, impannelled upon this account, let be put to death; yea, is it not strange that those noblemen were never once questioned who, being desired by General Monk, when he was entering England with his army, to rencounter Lambert, did abjure King Charles and his interest; and this nobleman must die. Yea, is it not more strange, that one William Purves, who, by

complying, had occasioned almost ruin to many noblemen, burghs, and gentlemen, should have been absolved by act of parliament (as might be cleared if there were a table of the unprinted acts set down after their acts, as is done always in other parliaments); and yet this nobleman must be sentenced to death for complying for the good of the country.

But to speak unto the business in point of law, let these four or five particular queries be considered, and then any shall be able to perceive the iniquity of this sentence :

1. By what act of parliament is such a deed as this condemned as treasonable? By what municipal law can any member of the kingdom be challenged, upon the account of treason, for treating with a conqueror for life and liberty, and for sitting in his councils, for the good of the country, after that he, with the rest of the body of the land, had fought in the defence of king and country till no more could be done,-after the whole land had been overcome at several battles, and wholly overrun, and had acted nothing for the advantage of the enemy and disadvantage of the king and country before the victory obtained, but in all points had carried as became a loyal subject, contributing all the help, by arms and counsel, which was required; what act of parliament declareth such a deed as this treasonable, and such a subject to deserve death as a traitor?

2. Was there ever such a practice in Scotland since ever there was a king in it? Several times was the kingdom of Scotland overrun by the kingdom of England, particularly in the days of Baliol, and at that time King Edward caused the nobles of Scotland swear allegiance unto him. But when Bruce came to be king, was there any of the nobles questioned for treason upon that account? And seeing there can no instance be produced out of the history of Scotland since ever it was a kingdom, that any subject, nobleman or other, was accused of high treason for such a cause, surely this nobleman's case was unparalleled.

3. Is not this strange, considering what the principle of royalists is? They say that conquest giveth a just title to a crown;" so saith D. Ferne, Arnisæus, and Maxwell, in his Sacro Sancta Regum Majestas, cap. 17. And by this principle Cromwell was the lawful supreme governor of the kingdom of Scotland, and had just title

and right to the crown thereof, having now conquered the same; and if this principle of theirs be true (which is much questioned by their opposites) no compliance with him could, by any law in the world, be treason against any prince whatsoever, for obedience unto, and concurrence with a lawful supreme magistrate, can be treason against no man living. How then could this nobleman be challenged upon the account of treason for compliance? Let all the royalists answer this, without contradicting themselves, if they can.

4. Is there any lawyer who can produce such a definition of treason against a prince or a supreme magistrate, out of the civil law, as will condemn the deed of this worthy nobleman, and make compliance with a conqueror, for the good and safety of the country, after all means of defence are broken and lost, an act of treason? And since the civil law can condemn no such deed as treasonable, the sentence given out against this nobleman must be without all warrant of law.

5. Are there not many countries, kingdoms and cities, that have been overrun by their enemies, and have had their own lawful governors put from them, and so have been forced to live under the feet of strangers; and hath it not been usual for them to comply with such as had the present power in their hand, for their own safety, and the good of the place? And was it ever yet heard that such were accused and condemned of treason against their own lawful governors, thrust from them sore against their wills,-for any such compliance? And is it not wonderful that this eminent nobleman should become a preparative unto all the world?

So then, to put a close to this, let an appeal be made to all governors of commonwealths, statesmen, lawyers, casuists, politicians, canonists and quodlibetists, yea, and royalists, if they will speak consonantly to their own principles, and their answer and interlocutor be had in point of law unto this question, Whether or not, when a land is overcome in battle, once, again, a third time, and a fourth time, so as they are forced to lie under the feet of the conqueror and expect his mercy, their own supreme magistrate is forced to flee away for his life, without all hope of returning, and so they left without all government but what they have from the conqueror; and when it might

have been expected that he would have ruled them and disposed of them (jure conquestus, as conquered) according to his own pleasure, yet he did admit such as they thought fit to choose to sit in his supreme council, for giving their advice for regulating the affairs of that kingdom and commonwealth which is now conquered and subdued, can it be treason in any, when chosen by the country, to sit in these councils, and advise what they think best for the good of the country? Or can they, or any of them, be challenged, or accused, and condemned as guilty of high treason, when providence bringeth back the prince, after ten years' absence, for acting so under the conqueror, for the good of the land, to prevent its utter ruin and destruction? And if the answer shall (as certainly it will) be negative, then it is beyond all question that the sentence and execution of this worthy nobleman, upon this sole account, shall be matter of astonishment to all that hear of it and know the cause thereof.

Thus a great prince falleth; and, within five days thereafter, a great prophet falleth, as shall be shown in the next section.

SECTION V.

THE GROUNDS OF THE SUFFERINGS OF MR.

JAMES GUTHRIE, MINISTER AT STIRLING,

WHO WAS EXECUTED the 1st day of JuNE 1661, EXAMINED.

After the parliament is assembled, Mr James Guthrie, minister at Stirling, who was one of those ministers who was incarcerated for the cause above mentioned, sect. 3, and who, after some weeks' imprisonment in the castle of Edinburgh, was carried thence and imprisoned in Dundee, from thence is sent for by the parliament, and impannelled before them, being accused of high treason. He was a man who had been honoured of God to be zealous and singularly faithful in carrying on the work of reformation, and had carried himself straightly under all changes and revolutions; and because he had been such an eminent one he must live no longer, for he is condemned to die, and most basely handled, as if he had been a notorious thief or malefactor: he is hanged, and afterward his head is stuck up upon one of the ports of

the city of Edinburgh, where it abideth unto this day, preaching the shameful defection of those who dealt thus with him, and calling to all who go out and in at the gate of the city to remember their covenant with God, for which he died a martyr. But it is like many will think it behoved to be some great crime for which this eminent servant of the Lord was thus handled. But what if it be no such crime? yea, what if it was a duty for which he was thus put to suffer? Reader, thou shalt hear it, and then thou mayest judge: Some ten years before, he was challenged by the king and his council for a doctrinal thesis which he had maintained and spoken to in sermon; and because he found them incompetent judges in matters purely ecclesiastical, such as is the examination and censuring of doctrinal points primo instanti, he did decline them upon that account. This is his crime, and for this he is condemned as guilty of high treason; and this will be the more wonderful if thou consider how, as thou hast heard, many worthy and precious servants of Christ did decline the king and his council in the days of King James, such as Mr Balcanquhal, Mr Melville, Mr Blake, Mr Welsh, Mr Forbes, and others, as incompetent judges in matters purely ecclesiastic, and yet there was never one of them put to death. It is true there was an act of parliament, anno 1584, discharging such declinatures under the pain of treason; but the very next year, 1585, King James himself did emit a declaration, showing that "he, for his part, should never, and that his posterity ought never, to cite, summon, or apprehend, any pastor for matters of doctrine in religion, salvation, heresies, or true interpretation of Scripture, but avoucheth it to be a matter purely ecclesiastical, and altogether impertinent to his calling;" which, though not equivalent to an act of parliament, yet whether it may not be a supersedeas to an act, and a ground of exemption to the subject from the rigour thereof till the law be revived by a posterior act, which was never yet done, lawyers may judge. But, which is more, there is an act of parliament, anno 1592, declaring that that former act" shall nowise be prejudicial, nor derogate anything to the privilege that God hath given to the spiritual officebearers of the church concerning heads of religion, matters of heresy, excommunication, collation or deprivation of ministers, or any such like essential censures, specially