THE KING'S MAJESTY'S ANSWER, To a late Petition presented unto him by the hands of Mr. ALEXANDER HENDERSON, from the COMMISSIONERS of the General ASSEMBLY of the Kirk of SCOTLAND.  
WITH Their humble REMONSTRANCE and renewed PETITION to the Kings most Excellent Majesty, from their meeting at EDINBURGH, June 2. 1643.  
EDINBURGH, Printed by ROBERT BRYSON. 1643.   

His Majesty's Answer to a late Petition presented unto him by the hands of Mr. ALEXANDER HENDERSON, from the Commissioners of the general Assembly of the Church of SCOTLAND.  
WE received lately a Petition from you, by the hands of Mr. Alexander Henderson, To the which we intended to have given an answer, as soon as we had transacted the business with the other Commissioners addressed to us from the Conservators of the Treaty of that our Kingdom. But finding the same to be published in Print, and to be dispersed throughout Our Kingdom, to the great danger of Scandalling of Our well-affected Subjects, who may interpret the bitterness and sharpness of some expressions not to be so agreeable to that regard and reverence which is due to our Person, and the matter itself to be reproachful to the honour and constitution of this Kingdom, we have been compelled the more strictly to examine as well the Authority of the Petitioners, as the matter of the petition itself, and to publish our opinion of both, that our Subjects of both Kingdoms may see how equally, just, and sensible we are of the Laws and honour of both Our Kingdoms.  
And first, upon perusal of the Petition, We required to see the Commission by which the messenger who brought this Petition, or the persons who sent him, are qualified to intermeddle in Affairs so foreign to their jurisdiction, and of so great concernment to this our Kingdom of England. Upon examination whereof, and in defence of the Laws and Government of this our Kingdom, which we are trusted and sworn to defend, We must profess that the Petitioners, or the general Assembly of Our Church of Scotland have not the least Authority or power to intermeddle or interpose in the affairs of this Kingdom or Church, which are settled and established by the proper laws of this Land, and till they be altered by the same competent power, cannot be enveighed against without a due sense of Us and this Nation, much less can they present any advice or declaration to Our Houses of Parliament against the same, or to that purpose to send any letters, as they have now done, to any Minister of Our Church here, who by the Laws of this land cannot correspond against the same. Therefore we do believe that the Petitioners, when they shall consider how unwarranted it is by the Laws of that Kingdom, and how contrary it is to the Laws of this, to the professions they have made to each other, and how unbecoming in itself for them to require the ancient, happy and established government of the Church of England to be altered, and conformed to the laws and constitutions of another Church, will find themselves misled by the information of some factious persons here, who would willingly engage the Petitioners to foment a difference and division between the two Kingdoms, which we have with so much care and industry endeavoured to prevent, not having laboured more to quench the combustion in this Kingdom, than we have to hinder the like from either devouring Ireland, or entering into Scotland, which if all others will equally labour, will undoubtedly be avoided. But we cannot so easily pass over the mention of Ireland, being moved to it by scandalous aspersions, that have been often cast upon us upon that subject, and the use that hath been made of the woeful distractions of that Kingdom, as of a Seminary of fears and jealousies to beget the like distraction in this, and (which lest they may have farther influence) We are the more willing to make Our innocence appear in that particular.  
When first that horrid Rebellion began, We were in Our Kingdom of Scotland, and the sense we had then of it, the expressions we made concerning it, the Commissions (together with some other assistance) we sent immediately into that Kingdom, and the instant Recommendation we made of it to both Our Houses of Parliament in England, are known to all persons of quality there and then about Us. After Our return into England, Our ready concurring to all the desires of both Houses that might most speedily repress that horrible Rebellion, by passing the Bill of pressing, & in it a clause which quitted a right challenged by all, and enjoyed by many of Our Predecessors, by parting with Our Rights in the lands escheated to Us by that rebellion, for the encouragement of adventures, by emptying of Our Magazines of Arms and Ammunition for that service (which we have since needed for our necessary defence and preservation) by consenting to all Bills for the raising of money for the same, though containing unusual clauses, which trusted both Houses without Us with the matter of disposing it, Our often pressing both Houses, not to neglect that Kingdom, by being diverted by considerations and disputes less concerning both Kingdoms, Our offer of raising 10000 Volunteers to be sent thither, and Our several Offers to engage Our own Royal person in the suppression of that horrid rebellion are no less known to all this Nation, than Our perpetual earnestness by our Foreign Ministers to keep all manner of supplies from being transported for the relief of the Rebels, is known to several neighbouring Princes. Which if all Our Subjects will consider, and withal how many of the men, and how much of the money raised for that end, and how much time, care, and industry have been diverted from that employment, and employed in this unnatural war against Us, (the true cause of the present misery and want which Our British armies there do now endure) they will soon free us from all those imputations so scandalously and groundlessly laid upon us, and impute the continuance of the Combustion of that miserable Kingdom, the danger it may bring upon our Kingdoms of England and Scotland, and the beginning of this doleful desolation, to those who are truly guilty of it.  
For unity in Religion: which is desired, We cannot but answer, That we much apprehend lest the Papists may make some advantage of that expression, by continuing that scandal with more authority, which they have ever heretofore used to cast upon the Reformation, by interpreting all the differences in Ceremony, Government, or indifferent opinions between several Protestant Churches, to be differences in Religion; And lest our good subjects of England, who have ever esteemed themselves of the same Religion with you, should suspect themselves to be esteemed by you to be of a contrary. And that religion which they and their ancestors have held ever since the blessed reformation, and in and for which they are resolved to die, is taxed and branded of falsehood or insufficiency, by such a desire.  
For uniformity in Church Government, We conceived the answer formerly given by us to the former petition in this argument, would have satisfied the petitioners, and is so full, that we can add little to it. viZ. That the government here established by the laws, hath so near a relation and intermixture with the Civil State (which may be unknown to the petitioners) that till a composed digested form be presented to us, upon a free debate of both Houses in a Parliamentary way, whereby the consert and approbation of this whole Kingdom may be had, and We and all our subjects may discern, what is to be left in, or brought in, as well as what is to be taken away, We know not how to consent to any alteration, other wise then to such an act for the ease of tender consciences in the matter of Ceremonies, as We have often offered and that this, and any thing else that may concern the peace of the Church, and the advancement of God's true Religion may be soberly discussed, and happily effected, We have formerly offered, and are still willing that debates of that nature may be entered into by a Syned of godly and learned Divines, to be regularly chosen according to the Laws and Customs of this Kingdom. To which we shall be willing that some learned Divines of our Church of Scotland be likewise sent, to be present and offer and debate their Reasons. With this answer the petitioners had great reason to acquiesce without enlarging the matter of their former petition only with bitter expressions against the established government and laws of their neighbour Nation, (as if it were contrary to the word of God) with whom they have so lately entered into a strict amity and friendship.  
But we cannot enough wonder, that the petitioners should interpose themselves, not only as fit directors and judges between Us and Our two Houses of Parliament, in business so wholly concerning the peace and government of this our kingdom, and in a matter so absolutely entrusted to us, as what new laws to consent or not to consent to, But should assume and publish, That the desire of reformation in this kingdom is in a peaceable and Parliamentary way, When all the world may know, That the proceed here, have been and are not only contrary to all the rules and precedents of former Parliaments, but destructive to the freedom, privilege, and dignity of Parliaments themselves: that we were first driven by tumults, for the safety of our life, from our cities of London and Westminster, and have been since pursued, fought withal, and are now kept from thence by an army raised, as is pretended, by the two Houses, which consist not of the fourth part of the number they ought to do, the rest being either driven from thence by the same violence, or expelled or imprisoned for not consenting to the treasons and unheard of Insolences practised against us, And if the petitioners could believe these proceed to be in a peaceable Parliamentary way, they were very unacquainted with the order and constitution of this Kingdom, and not so fit instruments to promote that reformation and peace: they seem to desire.  
We cannot believe the intermixture of the present Ecclesiastical government with the Civil State, to be other than a very good reason, and that the government of the Church should be by the rules of humane policy, to be other than a very good rule, unless some other government were as well proved as pretended to be better warranted by God.  
Of any bills offered us for reformation, we shall not now speak, they being a part of those articles upon which we have offered and expect to treats but cannot but wonder by what authority you prejudge our judgement herein, by denouncing God's anger upon us, and our hazard of the loss of the hearts of all our good Subjects, if we consent not unto them. The influence of so many blessings from heaven upon the reigns of Queen Elizabeth, and our father of blessed memory, and the acknowledgement of them by all Protestant Churches to have been careful nurses to the Church of Christ and to have excellently discharged their duties in the custody and vindication of religion, and the affection of their Subjects to them, do sufficiently assure Us, that we should neither stop the influence of such blessings, nor grieve the hearts of all the godly, nor hazard the loss of the hearts of our good Subjects, although we still maintain in this Kingdom the same established Ecclesiastical government, which flourished in their times, and under their special protection.  
We doubt not but our Subjects of Scotland will rest abundantly satisfied with such alterations in their own Church as we have assented unto, and not be persuaded by a mere assertion, that there is no hope of the continuance of what is there settled by law, unless that be likewise altered which is settled here, And our Subjects of England will never departed from their dutiful affection to Us, for not consenting to new laws, which by the law of the land, they know, We may as justly reject if we approve not of them, as either house hath power to prepare for, or both to propound to us. Nor are you a little mistaken if either you believe the generality of this Nation to desire a change of Church-government, or that most of those who desire it, desire by it to introduce that which you only esteem a reformation, but are as unwilling to what you call the yoke of Christ and obedience to the Gospel, as those whom you call profane and worldly men, and so equally averse both to Episcopacy and Presbytery, that if they should prevail in this particular, the abolition of the one would be no inlet to the other, nor would your hearts be less grieved, your expectations less frustrated, your hopes less ashamed, or your reformation more secured. And the petitioners, upon due consideration, will not find themselves less mistaken in the government of all the reformed Churches, which they say is by Assemblies, than they are in the best way of a reformation, which sure is best to be in a common and ordinary way, where the passion or interest of particular men may not impose upon the public, but alteration be then only made, when, upon calmed debates, and evident and clear Reason and convenience, the same shall be generally consented to for the peace and security of the people, and those who are trusted by the Law with such debates, are not divested of that trust upon a general charge of corruptions pretended to have entered by that way, and of being the persons to be reform, and so unfit to be Reformers And certainly the like Logic with the like charges and pretences might be used to make the Parliament itself an incapable Judge of any Reformation either in Church or State.  
For the general expressions in the Petition against Papists, in which the petitioners may be understood to charge Us with compliance and favour even to their opinions, We have taken all occasion to publish to the world Our practice and resolution in the true protestant Reformed Religion, and we are verily persuaded there is no one Subject in either of our Dominions, who at all knows Us, and hath observed our Life; but is in his soul satisfied of our Zeal and unremovable Affection to that Religion, and of our true dislike of, and hearty opposition to popery, And as we willingly consented, at our being in Scotland, to all acts proposed to Us, for the discountenancing and Reforming the Papists in that our Kingdom, so by our Proclamations for the putting of all Laws severally in execution against Recusants, and by not refusing any one Bill presented to Us to that purpose in this Kingdom, and by our perpetual and public professions of Readiness with the advice of Our two Houses of Parliament prepared for Us in a deliberate and orderly way, to find some expedition to perfect so good a work, or conceived we had not left it possible for any man to believe Us guilty of tolerating any part of the Romish Tyranny or Superstition, or to suspect that the Conversion of our dearest Consort, was not so much our desire, that the Accession of as many Crowns, as God hath already bestowed upon us, would be more welcome to us then that day: A blessing which it is Our daily prayer to the almighty to bestow upon Us.  
But we might well have expected from the Petitioners, who have in their solemn Nationall Covenant literally sworn so much Care and safety of Our Person, and cannot but know in how much danger that hath been and still is by the power and threats of Rebellious Arms, that they would as well have remembered the 23 of October, as the 5 of November, and as well have taken notice of the Army raised and led against Us by the Earl of Essex, which hath actually assaulted and endeavoured to murder Us, which we know to abound in Brownists, Anabaptists, and other sectaries, and in which we have reason (by the prisoners we have taken, and the evidence they have given) to believe there are many more Papists (and many of those foreigners) then in all our army, as have advised Us to disband out of the army of the Earl of New castle, which is raised for Our defence, the Papists in that Army, who are known to be no such number as to endanger their obtaining any power of building their Babel, and setting up their Idolatry, and whose loyalty he hath reason to commend (though he was never suspected for favouring their Religion) not before that of Protestants, but of such as rebel under that Title; And whose assistance is as due to us by the law of God, & man, to rescue Us from domestic Rebellion, as to defend us from foreign invasion, which we think no man denies to be lawful for them to do. But we do solemnly declare and protest, That God shall no sooner free us from the desperate and rebellious arms taken up against Us, but we shall endeavour to free ourselves and King doom from any fear of danger from the other, by disarming them according to the laws of this Land, as we shall not fail to send our Commissioner to the Assembly at the time appointed for it by the laws of Scotland.  
To conclude, We desire and require the Petitioners (as becomes good and pious Preachers of the Gospel) to use their utmost endeavours to compose any distraction in opinions, or misunderstandings, which may by the faction of some turbulent persons, be raised in the minds of Our good Subjects of that Our Kingdom, and to infuse into them a true sense of Charity, Obedience, and Humility, the great principles of Christian Religion; That they may not suffer themselves to be transported with things they do not understand, or think themselves concerned in the Government of another Kingdom, because it is not according to the customs of that in which they live; But that they dispose themselves with modesty and devotion to the service of Almighty God, with duty and affection to the obedience of us and our laws (remembering the singular Grace, Favour and Benignity We have always expressed to that Our Native Kingdom) and with brother-therly and christian charity one towards another; And We doubt not but God in his mercy to Us and them will make us instruments of his blessings upon each others, and both of us a great measure of happiness and prosperity to the whole nation.  
FINIS.   

To the Kings most excellent Majesty. The bumble Remonstrance and renewed Petition of the Commissioners of the General Assembly of the Kirke of SCOTLAND, from their meeting at Edinburgh the 2. day of June. 1643.  
AS the manifold and pressing necessity of the duty of our place and trust did constrain us, in these distempered and dangerous times, in most humble manner, To direct our earnest supplication to your Majesty, for such remedies as we conceive to be most fit for us to propone, And being applied by your Majesties own hand, might both for cure and prevention prove most effectual: So are we enforced by the same necessity growing daily to the greatest extremity; In all humility and earnestness, To renew not only our prayers to God, but our Petitions to your Majesty. For Zions sake can we not hold our peace, and for Jerusalem's sake we will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as alamp that burneth. But because in your Majesty's answer to our former Petition we meet with a multitude of prejudices and exceptions against us and our humble desires, we will crave leave, first to remove these out of the way: Acknowledging the full expression of them by your Majesty to be no small favour, and being confident, after we have expressed ourselves in the truth and integrity of our hearts, both to give unto and to receive from your Majesty's Justice and goodness the greater satisfaction.  
And first, although there be good reason for printing of Answers and Replies, the Petition being before printed, yet we acknowledge that your Majesty hath just cause to find fault with that publishing of our Petition in print (which is mentioned in the introduction to your Majesty's answer) And if it had been done by our Commandment, counsel or knowledge, we had not only given your Majesty just provocation, and fallen in an error contrary to the nature of a Petition, and to the right disposition of Petitioners, but also had used means contrary to our own ends, in publishing a programme of our diffidence of obtaining our desires, or in giving a public testimony that we were aiming at some other thing then what we professed to seek, And therefore we are so far from excusing that form of doing, that we judge ourselves to be wronged thereby.  
Another fault much more intolerable is objected against us: The bitterness and sharpness of some expressions which may be interpreted by your Majesties well affected Subjects not to be so agreeable to that regard and reverence which is due to your Majesty's person, and the matter itself to be reproachful to the honour and constitution of that your Majesty's Kingdom. Whether the matter of the Petition be reproachful shall aferwards in the particulars appear: But for the expressions we have examined the whole Petition and can find no word of that kind. We rather did fear the censure of fawning and flattering words, which your Majesty may remember were sometime put upon our supplications. Our desire was to keep within the bounds of that liberty which beseemeth the Ministers of Christ, and if any word have escaped us which we cannot see, it was contrary to our intention: for we know that we should neither speak evil of dignities nor unreverently unto them. The like report hath been made to your Mejestie of our preaching and prayers, but when the de. lators are tried, they will be found either malicious against us for reproving their faults; Or having no other way of insinuation, too officious to your Majesty, or to others whom they desire to please, or so blinded with self-love, that they think Preachers should speak like Parasites; or so undiscerning, that when we profess our desire to the reformation of Religion in England and Ireland, we are fancied by them to preach or pray against the King and his royal authority. We fear God, and honour the King, And have learned not only to put a difference betwixt God and the King, but also (against the old sophistication now revived) betwixt the pictures of the Emperor and the images of the false gods, craftily insert into them, and know the way how to honour the King without such a mixture and confusion. Slowness to believe an evil report and the constructing of things doubtful is one of your Majesty's royal praises, of which the faithful Ministers of this Kirk desire, against slanders and suspicions to have the experience: which will prove profitable for your Majesty's honour and obedience, and our peace and quietness. As the north wind driveth away rain: So doth an angry countenance a back biting tongue. Righteous lips are the delight of Kings: and they love him that speaketh right.  
Concerning the interposing of the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland, and our intermeddling by commission from them in the affairs of the Kirk of England, We humbly entreat your Majesty, to consider of the reasons of this our doing. 1. Although the Kirks of one Nation be distant in place from the Kirks of another Nation, yet are they united in heart and spirit, and are generally but one body and Kirke and must as Sisters of one Mother keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace: whence ariseth the communion of all God's graces and blessings amongst the Kirks, that they may not only help, comfort and refresh: but advise, admonish, exhort, warn and reprove one another, so fare as need requireth and their Christian love and ability reacheth. Yet avoiding both ambition and confusion: there being a coordination between Kirkes' of divers Nations, but no subordination: We have not presumed to pass the limits of this Christian communion: having proceeded by way of charity, and in a ministerial or rather brotherly manner, not by authority or Magisterially: by way of humble supplication to your Majesty, Declaration to the house of Parliament, and advice and exhortation to such of our brethren of the Ministry as were best known unto us: very fare from usurpation or jurisdiction. 2. Our humble petition to your Majesty and our Declaration to the Parliament, were nothing else, but a prosecution of the demand made by the Commissioners of this Kingdom, and a pressing of the answer given by your Majesty and the Parliament, in the last treaty; which filled us with hope of what was then demanded, since followed by divers Declarations and now again desired. 3. The experience of the sufferings of this Kirk from the doctrine, for me of worship and government of the Kirk of England, Doth beget fears of the like hereafter, which maketh our petition to be unto us a necessare mean of self preservation. 4. Our encouragements from your Majesty's Letter to the General Assembly and the Declaration of the house of Parliament desiring them to concur in petitioning your Majesty for settling one confession of Faith, one directory of the public worship and one Catechism in all the three Kingdoms as a mean to advance the honour and service of God, enlarge the greatness power and glory of the King, confirm the peace, security and prosperity of all his good Subjects, make way to the relief and deliverance of the poor afflicted Kirks abroad and to the total abolishing of the usurpation and tyranny of Rome. 5 The pattern we have of this Christian duty both by word and writing in the Kirk at Jerusalem and the Kirk at Antioch, which was first crowned with the name of Christians, The one of which were Jew's, and the other Gentiles; And in divers other Kirks recorded in Scripture. many Precedents also in antiquity before the Kirks did contend for primacy, or knew any pre-eminence one over another Many examples of other reformed Kirks; And the practice of the Kirk of Scotland divers times after the Reformation writing into England against the ceremonies and for union against the Papists and their confederates banded together by the bloody league of Trent. These and the like reasons we conceive did sufficiently authorise us in all that we have done, not as Directors or Judges but as supplicants and humble advisers. In that day shall there be a high way one of Egypt into Assyria (from one Kirk and Nation of the Gentiles to another) And the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians, whom the Lord of Hosts shall bless.  
Upon this and the like grounds, have letters been sent professedly, between some godly loyal and peaceable Ministers of the Kirk of England and the General Assembly here, and their Commissioners: One of the means intended for the good of Religion in both Kingdoms against Sects and Shismes, admitted and approven by your Majesty's Commissioners, in the General Assembly, and which for the form of doing is innocent and may be profitable, unless the matter be nocent and hurtful and thereby deserves censure. We wish we were able by our Letters, Declarations, or Petitions; To reduce all the reformed Kirks to a perfect conformity, to suppress all the Heresy, Superstition and Tyranny of Papists, and the Paganism of Turks and Insidels, and would not doubt of your Majesty's Roy all approbation not withstanding all the Laws standing to the contrary, and pleas, could be made for their antiquity, happiness and stability, Common arguments and colours pretended for every Religion, and of late answered to the full in the point of Episcopal government, from the verity of Scripture which is true antiquity and the only  ground of the happiness and stability of Religion and government of the Kirk.  
The Petitioners were far from laying upon your Majesty any Imputation of the Irish-rebellion beseeching God to manifest your Sacred Majesty's innocence to all the world. They made mention of the miseries of Ireland for no other end, but to represent the danger of your Majesty's Kingdoms through the prevailing power of the Popish faction, The British Papists at this time being animated by the same spirit, working upon the same principles, enraged with the same furies, breathing out the same threaten and slaughter, aiming at the same ends, and emboldened with the same presumptions, with the Papists of Ireland, their confederates. And withal to present our earnest desires for a pacification, that both the armies may be sent against that horrid rebellion, and peace restored to all your Majesty's Dominions.  
The expression in our Petition of Unity in Religion, we have borrowed from the Article in the Treaty accorded unto by your Majesty; from the Declarations of the Parliament; and from the General Assembly: By which is meaned no other thing but one Confession of Faith, one common directory for worship, and one Gate chisme. The Papists may know that the true Kirk in all ages hath been troubled with differences and contentions as great as any now against the reformed Kirks, which many of the godly have lamented and studied to compose, and (as it was written of some heretics of old) They themselves sacrifice in schism and dissension, and greet the world with the name of peace, whom they drive from the peace of their salvation. They therefore cannot hence authorise their scandal against the reformation: yet the smallest differences of practice and diversity of the expressions, are matter of strife to the contentious, of hindrance of edification to the ignorant, of stumbling to the weak, and of grief to the godly, when thereby they see against religious Unity and Christian love, the bowels of the Kirk rend asunder, and people scandalously divided in some parts of the worship of God: All which evil, might be perfectly cured in all your Majesty's dominions the mouths of Papists scopped, schism and separation hereafter prevented, and the face of the Kirke filled with true beauty and splendour to your Majesty's greater glory and the greater terror of all your enemies, by this blessed and never enough desired Unity in Religion: Without which tender consciences being freed from constrain may be in some degree eased by your Majesty, but shall never have rest and be satisfied; nor shall the rent of the Kirk arising from different or contrary practices be cured, but shall from time to time increase.  
Concerning uniformity in Kirk government, our hopes thereof and of the unity of Religion grounded upon the Article of the Treaty, made this Kirk and Kingdom to enter into the more strict amity and friendship with England. And that the amity and friendship builded upon such a foundation might be the more firm and durable, they have since pressed the same by their Petitions and Declarations, in all humility and love without any bitterness of expression: Only they have declared the government of the Kirk by Assemblies in their strong and beautiful order and subordination to be by divine right, and that as Prelacy is confessed in this your Majesty's answer to be by the rule of humane policy, so to be almost universally acknowledged by the Prelates themselves and their adherents to be but a humane institution, introduced by humane reason, and settled by humane law and custom, for supposed conveniency; which therefore by humane authority, without wronging any man's conscience, may be altered and abolished upon so great a necessity, as is, a hearty conjunction of all the reformed Kirks, a firm and well grounded peace between the two Kingdoms, formerly divided in themselves and betwixt themselves by this partition wall, and a perfect Union of the two Kirks in the two Nations; which although by the providence of God in one Island, and under one Monarch, yet ever since the Reformation have been at greater difference in the point of Kirk government (which in all places hath a powerful influence upon all the parts of Religion) than any other reformed Kirks, although in nations at greatest distance and under divers Princes. Papacy is the greatest cause of schism in the Christian Kirk, and Episcopacy devised by man to be a cure, the greatest cause of schism in the reformed Kirks.  
As the mutual relation and conjunction of true Ecclesiastical and Civil government is a corroboration of both, so do we conceive that both are much weakened in their proper functions by that intermixture of the Ecclesiastical government with the Civil State. And as we know the principles of Prelacy to be Popish, and contrary to the principles of Reformation: So have we reason to believe, That such an intermixture is not for your Majesty's honour, while they maintain and profess that Monarchy cannot subsist without Prelacy: And that Prelacy had not been cast out of the Parliament if it had been profitable there; And thought fit to be altogether abolished, if it had not been an unprofitable burden to the Kingdom, and pernicious to the civil State and common wealth, As is contained more fully in the Declaration of both Houses of Parliament to the General Assembly.  
The following of humane inventions, without and against Scripture and the ambition and covetousness of Kirkmen were observed of old to be the corruptions which made many to call upon the Pope and the chief guides of the Kirke at that time for a reformation: but all in vain, for that had been their own ruin, to which in humane reason, they would never willingly have consented. That upon the same causes and corruptions there is a necessity of the reformation of the Kirk of England, Is as unanimously confessed, as it is universally acknowledged, that it is unlikely if not impossible; to be obtained in the regulate and ordinary way: Upon the reason expressed afterward in your Majesty's answer. Because in the common and ordinary way the passion or interest of particular men will impose upon the public: For what greater private interest than benefits and dignities? Who more interessed in these then Bishops, Deans, Arch. deacons' and such ordinary members of the convocation? And ho can be more sueyed and byassed with passion than such as have this interest? Whether this be appliable to the Parliament whose places and dignities are uncontroverted and unquestionable, it is not for us to judge: but this we know when the corruptions of the Kirk are grown to such an height, that she can neither bear her diseases, nor endure the remedies, it is the duty of the magistrate and civil authority, by the advice of the more sound and sincere part of the Kirke and Ministry, to endeavoure a reformation, since no reformation, worthy of that name, can be expected from the corrupt Clergy, nor hath at any time Religion been that way in any tolerable measure reform: When the evils are extraordinary, the remedies must be other then ordinary. Scripture, reason and experience of the Kirk teach in such an exigence of reformation and extremity of debates and contentions, to call a Synod of the best Divines, best acquainted with the will of God in Scripture freest of humane inventions and innovations, and farrest from pride and avarice; which are the evils to be purged out, and for afterward prevented; And who against all Sects and Shismes unfeignedly seek the peace and unity of the Kirke which by all good means both for itself and for the truth's sake is to be procured and preserved. When by this remedy faithfully applied and accompanied with prayers and tears of repentance; the worship of God and the government of the Kirk are settled, not after the rules of humane policy but according to Scripture, there is hope that God will end his controversy with England and bliss the treaties of peace betwixt your Majesty and your Parliament; which is now our humble desire and when it cometh to pass shall be the universal rejoicing of all your good people.  
We should be not only unchristian but disloyal and unnatural, if we were not affected and afflicted with your Majesties many sufferings and the troubles of your Kingdoms, and did not hearty wish that your Majesty were present in your parliam. assembled in the most peaceable and Parliamentary way, to your Ma. greater glory and their greater strengthening for the good of the Kingdom. For the present the houses of Parliament have professed in their Declaration to the General Assembly, their desires and willingness to settle such a reformation of the Kirk; as shall be most agreeable to the word of God, and most apt to procure and conserve an happy union with the Kirke of Scotland in a peaceable and Parliamentary way; And have passed their bills in both houses without contradiction against Episcopal government, and offered them to your Majesty for obtaining your Royal consent This is the peaceable and Parliamentary way meant by us and mentioned in our Petition, which we trust can give your Majesty no just offence.  
Although the Ministers of the Gospel have authority in some cases to preach and writ not only exhortations and blessings but also threats and sentences of judgement against Kings and Kingdoms, which howsoever they be bitter and unpleasant for the present (and therefore seldom ministered to Princes) may prove very profitable and cordial afterward: Many had perished in their sins if it had not been told them that they were to perish; faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful: and he that rebuketh, afterwards shall find more favour than he that flattereth with the tongue Yet upon good reason have we abstained from this strain of denuncing of judgement against your Majesty, having only from the conscience of our duty in anguish of our souls, faithfully represented the duty and danger with our earnest deprecation of the wrath not only now incumbent, but yet seven times more imminent to your Kingdoms, which we daily more and more apprehend; shall ensue, unless by a through reformation of Religion and manners it be timeously prevented. By this our liberty we have delivered our own souls and endeavoured to deliver your Majesty and your Dominions from the present and future judgements, which both love and fear constrain us now again; To entreat your Majesty to hearken unto.  
As we cannot deny, but do reverently acknowledge the influence of many and great blessings from heaven upon the reign of Queen Elizabeth and your Majesty's father of blessed memory: So do we not doubt but your Majesty in your Christian and Royal wisdom will consider: that the supreme providence which hath set your Majesty after them upon the throne, hath appointed a time for every action. A wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgement, and where it is not discerned, the misery of man, wrestling with invincible providence, is great upon him. The many blessings upon the Kings of Egypt, Babylon and other Princes, were interrupted in the time of their successors, which opposed the deliverance of the people of God from the Egyptian bondage, the Babylonian captivity, the foolishness of Paganism and the tyranny of Popery, when the time of their deliverance was come. Many of the godly before your Majesty's reign have desired and supplicated the Parliament for a reformation but the desires were never so universal as now; Prelacy never so insolent nor the evils thereof so well known and so deeply felt; nor was it ever voted out of the Parliament, nor agreed in Parliament to be abolished in the Kirk; nor stood merely upon the Royal consent of the King, till this time. Arminianism hath entered, Papistry hath increased, Sectaries have multiplied, sufferings have abounded, Tender consciences disquieted with old and new ceremonies, much more of late then before that all eyes may see how many things concur now to make a necessity of reformation. It is the never dying honour of your Majesty's late Progenitors above others that were before them that they did begin, continue and preserve reformation, and shall be your Majesty's greatest and immortal glory to perfect it, with Josiah leaving nothing to imped or obscure the glory of God: An happiness which the people of God in this Island have long waited for, which God calleth for at your hands and we trust hath reserved for our times, as a special and incomparable honour to your Majesty above the best princes, and matter of joy to your people above all other in former ages.  
As the continual comfort and daily sense of the inestimable benefit of the reformation of this Kirk in worship and government should stir up our hearts, to the love of God, whose hand principally did bring it about, in a way full of marvels and full of mercies, And thankfulness to your Majesty whom we look upon not as a naked assenter unto alterations, but as a prime instrument of settling a blessed reformation in this Kirke; So doth the same comfort and sense excite in us a fear to loss that which we so much love in a way wherein it hath rune hazard before. Our fears are not counterfeit to bring any design of our own, nor politic or created in us by the authority of any assertion of others to bring any design of theirs to pass, nor panic or maginarie to torment ourselves without cause; But are true and real, grounded upon reason which teacheth to beware of contagion in so near a vicinity and where there is so frequent commerce and conversing, upon by past experience of evils from English Prelacy ever since the beginning of reformation and upon present and daily tasting of the fruits which partly of its own corrupt nature, and partly through the corruptions of men, It hath brought forth and fomented. And though the Petitioners cannot judge nor should intermeddle with questions about your Majesties and the Parliaments power, yet may they well profess from that which every one may understand that the denying of the people their earnest desires may quench that fervour of affection which is due from a people to their Prince.  
Whether the generality of the Nation desireth a change of Kirk government, cannot be better known then by the desires and Propositions of the representative hodie of the Kingdom, nor can it be better defined what gogovernment shall be established than in a Synod of learned and godly Divines. Our part is to wish the pattern is Scripture and the example of the best Reformed Kirks to be followed, and to pray that God by his Spirit may lead them into all truth: being confident that reformation having begun by your Majesty's authority at the head and chiefest parts, all sectaries, and all the inferior members may be quickly by a Synod brought to such order as may consist with truth and with the peace of the Kirk.  
It was far from our intentions by the general expressions of our Petition against Papists, To charge your Ma. with compliance and favour to their opinions. We do from our hearts bless God for all that your Majesty hath done both here and in England against them, and for so free and ample a testimony of your Majesty's desires of the Queen's conversion. Jealousies of that kind, and hopes in the hearts of such as are popishly affected, of their prevailing power, proceed from the power of Papists in Ireland, the present posture of Papists armed about your Majesty in this dangerous time of combustion in England, and that for so long a time through the connivance or compliance of the Ministers of estate, laws, have not been execute against them, nor any means at all used for the Queen's conversion. A necessary and essential duty, from which no oath to the contrary can more give dispensation, than any oath of old or late, public or private, can bind your Majesty to maintain Episcopacy or any corruption in the worship of God, or government of the Kirk, when God by his word giveth light and by his providence calleth for a Reformation. All which had need to be seriously and tymously considered. And if the Papists be not speedily disarmed, the danger is that both in their own project, and upon the hearing of your Majesty's Declaration to disarm them, when there shall be no more use of their service, they band together and bend all their wits against a Pacification, till by their gathering and growing to greater strength, they be able to plead in equal terms for themselves, for their share in the places and honours of the Kingdom, at lest for peace and toleration, as a reward of all their pains, charges and hazards, pretended to be for your Majesty's honour and safety, but really intended for themselves and their superstition. We cannot conceive that loyalty can be without allegiance, or that Papists refusing to take the oath of allegiance, do fight in loyalty and allegiance to your Majesty, but for their own ends, nor can it be safe for Protestants to trust them upon the principles of their profession, in any whether intestine or foreign war. In the time of the greatest foreign invasion year 88 It was not thought safe to arm the Papists in defence of the Kingdom. We did not take notice of Papists in the other army, in our Petition to your Majesty, but did in our Declaration to the Parliament, that although they had professed in their Declarations that they had not known Papists in their Army, yet if any were found to be, we desired they might in like manner be disbanded. Brownists, Anabaptists, and other sectaries which are the fruits of Prelacy one way as Papists are another, are neither so easily known as Papists nor so much to be feared: and although they be enemies to Religion and to the peace of the Kirk, we know not whether they have been so considerable that the law hath taken so far notice of them as to disarm them.  
We have so sincerely and from the inward of our spirits, with our hearts and hands lifted up to the most high God the searcher of hearts, sworn the care of the safety of your Majesty's person, and of your greatness and authority, which we have also witnessed in our Declarations to the Houses of Parliament, that our hearts within us were wounded when we did hear of the danger your Majesty's person was in the 23 of October. And as we do with the Houses of Parliament (as is expressed in their Declaration) rejoice and hearty praise God for your safety, So do we not cease to pray for your Majesty's preservation in the midst of so many dangers, and for a speedy deliverance by a happy peace, which we trust shall bury that black and unnatural day so unhappy and dangerous both to you: Majesty and your people in eternal oblivion, And therefore not to be paralleled by us with the unparalelled plot of the 5 of Novem. never to be forgotten.  
We have detained your Majesty longer than your great affairs of governing Kingdoms in the time of war could well permit, but not so long as the charge committed to us by the General Assembly, and the importance of our Petition, which is of religious and public concernment doth require. The cry me of bitterness and want of reverence to your Majesty, the challenge of usurpation, the aspersion of so much and manifold mistaking, we would bear the more patiently if we were to be considered as private and particular persons, and not as Commissioners of public trust: And yet do bear the more patiently, because we take them (and in this no man shall persuade us that we are mistaken) to proceed from the pen of the writer, and not from your Majesty's justice and goodness, unto which we are bold to appeal from his unjust censure, and from such slanderous tongues and pens as by traducing the preaching and prayers of the ministry here of disloyalty or sedition, do much wrong us, your Majesty much more, and truth and peace most of all. Your Majesty in your wisdom will consider what such Sycophants are seeking, and in your justice will rather believe our public testimony, in things best known to ourselves and to our ordinary hearers, than any private information flowing from the malice of some, or the weakness of others. And now in your royal goodness will be graciously pleased to suffer us your Majesty's most humble and faithful Subjects to fall down at your feet, and with all earnestness to renew our Petition, especially that of Unity in Religion, and uniformity of Kirk Government in all your Majesty's Dominions, which we conceive to be principally intended by divine Providence in these unhappy distractions and troubles of your Majesty's Kingdoms; And to this effect for such an Ecclesiastical Assembly, as hath been formerly described and desired: A mean so pious, so just and so ordinary in such cases as malice itself can have no colour to object against your Majesty for using it. And which shall speedily bring on a firm and well grounded peace, and with peace all other blessings spiritual and temporal upon your Majesty and your Kingdoms.  
A. Ker. Cl: Commiss. Gen. Ass.