A MESSAGE Sent from the KING of SCOTS, And the Duke of YORK's Court in Flanders; To the Lord Douglas, and Colonel BROWN; To be communicated to the rest of the Nobility and Gentry in the Scottish Nation.  
WITH Proposals and Overtures, for the composing of all Differences, the submitting to Counsel, and the preventing of a Universal Desolation.  
Printed at Aberdeen, by David Stranghan; And Translated out of the Original, for general satisfaction.   

A Message from the King of Scots, and the Duke of Yorks Court in Flanders.  
Right Honourable,  
Upon a serious reflect and discovery of the various Impostures in several parts, I cannot but suspect the integrity of your procedure, and deplore the sadness of your Condition, with as much regret of spirit as I do my own: But seeing we have been prostrated to the powerful indications of the displeasure of the most High, since many are apt to recriminate, and boast of the prosperity of their Cause; which if they did but look back to the source, and search the very principles; and then see, if ever any cause had like success; and whether it be a just reproach to your Enemies, that the judgements of God have begun with them, whilst you know not yet where they may determine.  
My Lord, Be pleased to look Northwards upon your Countrymen the Scots, who (being instigated by the crafty Cardinal Richlieu, to di●urb the growth of the incomparable Church of England, and so consequently the tranquillity of a Nation, whose Expedition at the Isle of R● gave error to the French) made Reformation their pretence, to gratify their own avarice, introduce themselves, and a more than Babylonish Tyranny, imposing upon the Church and State, beyond all impudence or example. I say (my Lord) look upon what they have gotten, by deceiving their Brethren, selling their King, betraying their Lord and Master his Son; and by all their perfidy, become only a conquered Nation for their Disloyalty, and an infamy as unparalled, as their Treason and Ingratitude. But behold (Sir) the Scene being changed, and sundry Models and Chimeras blown away, nothing remaining of them but empty Coffins; but which is yet less empty than the heads of those Politians, which so lately seemed to fill it. As for the product and success in the several Intervals, we shall not blot paper with a recital of such Interludes; for it is not the various Dispensations and providencens in your journey to that Holy Land of purchases and profits, which can serve as an appeal for the justification of your proceed.  
In a word (my Lord) it is the height of all impertinency to conceive, that a few Subjects who fall into an exorbitabitant contradiction to their own good, can ever constitute a well-ordered Government for the Thousands of true English men that are not clad in Red; let me therefore entreat you, to embrace a just Right to challenge submission to the precepts of Loyalty, and to endeavour the investing of a Lawful Authority and to recover and protect a Civil Government, according to the good old Laws of the Land: For if the essential end of Rulers be the common peace, and their Laws obliging as they become relative: restore us then to those under which we lived with so much happiness and tranquillity, as no age in the World, no Government under Heaven could pretend, or ever did enjoy the like. And now (my Lord) if after the greatest of injustice, and impiety on your parts, you have prosecuted that with the extremest madness, which you esteemed criminal in your Enemies, viz. For any, To arrogate the supreme power to a single person condemn men without Law, (witness the Marquis of Montross, and others) execute, and prescribe them with as little, violate Authority, dispense with your solemn Oaths; in sum, to mingle Earth and Heaven, as many have done by their unarbitrary proceed: All which actions do abundantly declare the Hypocrisy of some, and the Justification of others, pronouncing the Assertors of Regal Government the only honest which have appeared upon the stage, in Characters as plain, that he which runs may read, whilst there are some that would persecute them even to death. My Lord, When I compare these things together, I cannot but acknowledge it the very finger of God, mirabile in oculis nostris; and it is that which induceth me, to beseech you to re-enter into yourself, to abandon all false principles, to withdraw yourself from Seducers, to repent of what you have done, and to rise and promote the public Interest.  
And whereas many object, that the King is not to be trusted: judge not of others by yourselves; Did ever any man observe the least inclination of revenge in his Breast? Has he not besides the innate propensity of his own nature to gentleness, the strict Injunctions of a dying Father, to forgive all men, even the greatest of Offenders? Yes I dare pronounce it with confidence, and avouch it with all assurance, that there is not an Individual amongst you, throughout England, Scotland, and Ireland, whose Crimes are the most crimson, whom He will not be most ready to pardon, and graciously receive upon their repentance; nor any thing that can be desired of Him, to which He would not cheerfully accommode, for the stopping of that torrent of blood, and extreme confusion, which has hitherto run, and is yet imminent over several places. Do but reason a little with yourself, & consider sadl●, whether a young Prince, mortified by so many afflictions, disciplined by much experience, and instructed by the miscarriages of others, be not the most excellently qualified to govern and reduce a people, who have so successelesly tried so many Governments, and various Changes?  
As to the Objection that He has lived among Papists, is vi●iously inclined, and has a wicked Counsel about Him: What can be said more austerely? Have not many the Foreheads to declare, He has lived amongst Papists to his prejudice, who have proscribed him from Protestants, persecuted Him from place to place, as a Partridge on the Mountains? Whilst the Catholic King was an Ally to England, many there were that had nothing to do with Parists; it was then no crime: God is not mocked, away with this respect of persons: where is it you would have him to be? The Hollander dares not afford him harbour lest the English refuse him theirs: The French may not give him bread, for fear of offending others; and unless he should go to the Indies, or the Turk, where can he be safe from revenge? But suppose him in a Papist Country, constrained thereto by incharity to his Soul as well as Body; Would he have condescended to a toleration of Papists. He needed not to have wanted the assistance of the most puissant Princes of Christendom to restore Him, of whom He has refused such Conditions, as in prudence He might have condescended to, and the people would have gladly received; So that we may easily divine, who they are that transact & truck with the Jesuit, although at a far distant, and how firm ●nd near He is to the Church of England, from the least wavering in his Faith. But since there is a toleration of Religions, without exception; do not think it a sin in Him, to gratify those that shall most oblige Him.  
And further (my Lord) give me leave to introduce this assertion, That for his Virtues and Morality, I provoke the most refined Family amongst you, to produce a Relation of more piety and moderation; show me a Fratetnity more spotless in their honour, and freer from the exorbitances of Youth, than the King and his two Brothers, so conspicuous to all the World for their Temperance, Magnanimity, Constancy, and Understanding; a Friendship and Humility unparallelled, and rarely to be found amongst the severest persons, scarcely in a private Family.  
It is the malice of a very black Soul, and a virulent Renegado (of whom to be recommended were the utmost Infamy) that has interprered some compliances, to which persons in distress are sometimes engaged, with those whom they converse withal, to the disadvantage of a Prince.  
My Lord, I have but a word to add; and desire, that it may incline you to accept of your best Interest, and prevent that dreadful ruin which the Obstinacy of many doth threaten. Is it not as perspicuous as the Sun, that it lies in the power of the people to summon a Free-Parliament, and such Patriots and Representatives, to reform and nominate his Counsel, introduce themselves, receive what composition they can desire, have all the security that mortal men can imagine, and the greatest Princes of Europe to engage in the performance? This were becoming worthymen, & honourable indeed; this is ingenuous self-denial: And it is no disgrace to reform a mistake; but to persist in it lies the shame.  
Doth not bleeding England, Scotland, and Ireland require this? Doth not the Laws of God command it? If so: you cannot, you must not defer it. For what can you pretend that will not then drop into your Bosoms? The humble man will have repose, the aspiring and ambitious honours: The Merchants will be secure, Trades immediately recover, alliances will be confirmed, the Laws reflourish, render Consciences considered, present Purchasers satisfied; the Soldier paid, maintained, and provided for; the Seaman honourably employed: and what's above all this, Christianity and Charity will revive again amongst His, Mercy and Truth will meet together; Righteousness and Peace shall kiss each other.  
On the contrary, consider (I beseech you) the confusion which must of necessity befall Us if ye persist in your Obstinacy. For whilst there is no Order in the Church, no Government established, and that every man is abandoned to his own deceitful heart: whilst Learning is decried, and the Ministry reproached, what can ye expect, but the most direful expressions of the wrath of God, a universal desolation, and desperate Enthusiasm, with other miseries that attend and follow the coming in of Satan's crafty Emisaries, and impure Gnostics: besides, a universal animosity in the very Bowels of your Nations; the Patent against the Children, and the Children against the Parents, berraying one another to the death: So that the words which our Blessed Saviour has himself pronounced, doth exemplify the condition your once flourishing Kingdoms are reduced unto: A Kingdom divided cannot stand. The truth of which, doth not a little reflect upon him, who had rather be a sufferer with the afflicted, than enjoy the pleasures of sin which some possess for a season. Subscribing,  
Brussels, Novemb, 6. 1659. My Lord, Your Lordships very humble servant, C. CULPEPPER.  
For the Right Honourable, the Lord Douglas, to be transmitted to col. Brown, and the rest of the Nobility and Gentry in the ScottishNation.  
FINIS.