A DECLARATION FROM THE COMMISSION OF The General Assembly.  
Wherein The stumbling blocks laid before the people of GOD by their enemies are removed; Compliance with these enemies is reprehended; And Courage and constancy in the Cause of GOD against them, seriously recommended and enjoined.  
EDINBURGH: Printed by Evan Tyler, Printer to the Kings most Excellent Majesty. 1646.   

St Andr. 26. Decemb. 1645.  
THe Estates of Parliament now convened in the fift Session of this first triennall Parliament, Having heard the Declaration presented unto them by the Commissioners of the General Assembly read in their audience, received the samen cheerfully as a seasonable Declaration, and appoints the samen to be Printed and published, and ordains the Earl of Cassils' Vice Precedent of Parliament, to give thanks from the Parliament to the Commissioners of the General Assembly for their care, pains, and vigilancy expressed thereintill.  
Alex. Gibsone Cler. Registri.   

St Andr. 11. Decemb. 1645.  
THe Commissioners of the General Assembly Do Ordain this Declaration to be forthwith Printed and published, and sent to Presbyteries with all diligence, and requires each Presbytery immediately after the receipt thereof, to take speedy course for the reading of it in every congregation within their bounds upon the Lord's day after the Forenoon Sermon and before the Blessing; And that they report account of their diligence herein with the first conveniency.  
A. Ker.   

St Andrews 11. Decemb. 1645. A Declaration from the Commission of the General Assembly.  
IT hath been our constant custom and continual care, from the sense of the trust committed unto us, to give warning unto this Kirk and Kingdom of their condition and duty; and it cannot be but very seasonable and necessary at this time, to declare and make known our judgement of the carriage of the people of the Land, in the day of darkness and hour of temptation, that they who have stood may find matter of encouragement and praise, and such as have fallen may recover themselves and repent.  
We were void of understanding if we should not observe, and more than ungrate if we should not acknowledge the loving kindness of the Lord towards us, in the midst of our confusions and fears: Temptations were many and fierce, because of the power and pride of an insolent enemy, whose blasphemies and cruelty is matter of abomination unto this, and shall be a wonder unto the following generation, yet was there a remnant who reserved their integrity, entertaining all thoughts of backsliding and complying with the adversary with indignation and detest, patiently suffering the spoiling of their goods, the loss of their friends, and expense of their blood, standing to the Cause of God in the midst of difficulties and straits, neither fearing the threats nor regarding the promises of such as oppose the famine: These, as they be for a name of joy and praise unto the most high, the excellency of whose power is perfited in weakness; so for a witness unto the Truth and to the work of Reformation, and for a shame and reproach unto the haters of Zion, whose subtlety and violence is more than conquered by the faith and patience of the Saints. We cannot but think that unto such the testimony of integrity from within must needs be more comfortable, than the remembrance of any sufferings or losses from without can be grievous; and are persuaded, that as their name is precious amongst men, so shall their reward be great in heaven.  
Yet is it matter of much sorrow and astonishment unto us, that in the land of uprightness so many should have done foolishly, and notwithstanding of all that work of power and mercy which their eyes have seen, and of their own vows and promises fallen from their excellency, and turned aside unto corrupt and crooked ways with the workers of iniquity. The bond of the Covenant is such, as every religious heart cannot but remember the violation thereof with horror and trembling; yet hath the Oath of God been forgotten and despised by many. It were but the renewing of our grief, and tedious unto the hearers, to reckon up all those things wherein men miscarried in the day of trial; neither can we attain the knowledge of all the hidden things of dishonesty, which hate the light, and love to veil themselves under a shadow of secrecy and darkness: We desire every man to turn his eyes upon himself, and to read in his own conscience whether his carriage hath been in all things answerable unto that which he swore unto the Lord. It beseems our compassion, and is worthy of our care, to lay open the causes and evil of this defection, that we may with meekness instruct those that have fallen or opposed themselves, if God peradventure will give them repentance unto the acknowledging of the truth.  
It is the admirable way of the working of the wisdom of God, to overrule all the purposes and actions of the sons of men unto his own ends: He whose ways towards us have all been mercy and truth, meant a discovery of those whose indifferency or treachery would ere long have procured a sure and sensible ruin unto us; and now hath he brought his purpose to pass. This is a mercy which being rightly managed may countervail all our sufferings and pains, and prove very wholesome unto the Land and advantageous unto the Cause of God.  
It is not any strength of reason on the side of our adversaries that could have shaken so many; their pretexts of the King's service, our Rebellion, and such like, as they are poor and void of truth in themselves, so do they easily vanish before every discerning and rational man. The service of Kings is not to cut down thousands of their faithful and loyal subjects, whose multitude is their glory and strength; but to do those things which the Laws of the Kingdom prescribe, and that are consonant unto the will of God, and unto the wealth of the people, whose safety is the supreme Law and main study of every King ruling in righteousness and judgement. Our souls are not privy unto, and our actions plead us innocent from the guilt of Treason and Rebellion; our witness is in heaven, and our record is on high, that it was never our purpose or intention to subvert lawful Sovereignty, nor to encroach upon any of the due rights and privileges of the same; and we trust that whiles we live nothing shall escape us to the contrary.  
We are able to justify our union with England, as ane undeniable testimony of our duty unto our brethren in the time of their straits by the Popish and Prelatical party, as a necessary mean of our own defence, and of the preservation of Religion in its purity and power in this, and of its Reformation in the neighbour Lands, and surest bulwark of a stable and continuing peace betwixt the Kingdoms. The League and Covenant with England, as it was studied and set on foot in the days of our fathers at Barwick in the year 1586; so was it from the beginning of this glorious work of Reformation endeavoured by ourselves, as stands upon record in the Articles of the large Treaty, unto which some of those who have now fallen to oppose it, were then neither strangers nor adversaries. Both Covenants, in regard of the principals whence they issue, the heads which they contain, and the ends which they pursue, are one and the same: And that the extent of the last unto our dear brethren in England should procure enmity to the intentions and substance of the first, seems to us to be a riddle, which none can resolve but perfidious Rebels who have made shipwreck of a good conscience.  
Who can but be amazed to hear the treacherous designs and bloody practices of perjured men, palliate under a pretence of the prosecution of the ends of our national Covenant: We know that James Grahame then Earl of Montrose, now an excommunicate and forefaulted Traitor, did with tears in his eyes, and both his hands lifted up to heaven, swear unto the Lord in the public assembly of his people to build those things which he now destroys, and to destroy those things which he now builds; though the King's Majesty, of whose authority he now pretends to be so zealous, had not then given his royal consent and approbation unto our affairs: But we do as well know that he proved unstable, and light as water: His ambition, as it made him impatient of his own condition, and of the estimation of those of better deserving then himself, so to hearken to the promises of the Court, and to study a faction within, and to entertain secret correspondence and intelligence with the adverse party without the Kingdom. And though those his base and treacherous ways were divers times discovered, yet did he still drive his own crooked designs, until at length he was shut up in prison, where if he had not met with more mercy than justice, the due reward of his iniquity had anticipate all that mischief which he now acts.  
Not long after his enlargement (contrary to his own promise and Act of Parliament thereanent) he betook himself to Court, where to the utmost of his wit and power he did foment and maintain that unnatural and bloody War, set on foot by the malignant party in England, against his Majesty's loyal subjects there, contrary to the Articles of the large Treaty betwixt the Kingdoms; and laboured to beget and increase jealousies in the King's mind concerning the intention of his subjects in this land: Neither did he satisfy himself with private whisper, but was so impudent as to present to his Majesty and the pretended Parliament at Oxford, a railing Libel, wherein he accuseth our Parliaments and Committees (which have been in all things most tender of the King's just greatness and authority) as treacherous in their proceed, and the solemn League and Covenant (which hath been a mean of many blessings and much consolation unto the Lord's people) as damnable, Offering himself and the utmost of his endeavours against the same; And never did he cease until he obtained a Commission for invading his native Country, and came within the confines thereof in an hostile way; whence he was shamefully repulsed and forced to flee back into England, where he found cold entertainment of his own party, because his success had not answered his undertake.  
Whilst himself was now despised, and his hopes forlorn in both Nations, this Kingdom was invaded in the North by a base and barbarous Crew of Irish Rebels, drunk with the blood of our Brethren in Ireland, and sworn enemies, not only to our Covenant, but to our Profession itself: yet so strongly did the spirit of Satan (to whom he was now delivered) work in that wretched Man, that he did rather choose to associate himself unto those, than to fail in the attaining of his mischievous ends. With those, and some of our unnatural Countrymen, void of Religion and humanity, hath he eaten the flesh, and drunk the blood of that Land that gave him life, spoilt that People with whom he was in Covenant, and preyed upon that Church in which he was baptised: neglect of the worship of God, countenancing of Idolaters, complying with Papists, burning of Houses and Corn, imprisoning and killing of Ministers, ravishing of Women, murdering of old and young, and contemning the highest censures of the Kirk, are but things of small consequence and care with him: This is the Man who would make the world believe, that he stands for the Nationall Covenant: Every one whose eyes are not blinded by the god of this world, cannot but entertain this his Profession, so contrary to sense and reason, with derision and contempt.  
Success, as it argues not the equity of our adversaries cause, so neither the iniquity of ours: No man knows either love or hatred by that which is before him: Success is not the touchstone of Truth, but Truth of Success: Israel may fall before the Philistims; yea, the Ark may be taken by the Philistims: And what wonder though we have fallen, & been smitten by the basest of men? they were the rod of the Lords anger, and the staff in their hand was his indignation; because of our contempt of the Gospel, ingratitude, confidence in the arm of flesh, murmur and repine, delaying of Justice, walking unanswerable to the Covenant, and the like, were such instruments armed against us, to correct us, and harden themselves unto the day of their just destruction.  
For these transgressions also of Jacob, and for these sins of the house of Israel, did the Lord shut out our prayers, and cover himself with a cloud of indignation, that our Petitions could not pass through; and not for meddling with the King's Castles and Rents: His Castles have always been employed for the safety of the Kingdom; his Rents have not been meddled with since the Pacification, neither yet before it, but for a public use, which was afterward approven by the King himself. And they who would now fasten this upon us, as a cursed thing, may remember that themselves were accessory thereunto. Neither yet were our Prayers without a return of mercy in the day of our deepest distress: The Work of Reformation (which is of greater esteem with us than our own things) did prosper in the hand of his servants; and we trust, that even these Prayers which were derided by the wicked, shall in due time return in showers of vengeance upon the heads of our enemies, whereof we have already comfortable experience.  
It is our hearts desire and hope, that all this course of providence, thus abused by men void of understanding, may be improven by ourselves as a mean of serious and sound humiliation, that we may search and try our ways, and turn again unto the Lord, who will do good unto us, because of the railing of our adversaries; notwithstanding of all calumnies and reproaches, the righteousness of our cause shall be counted of us our glory, and in regard of it, we will not remove our integrity from us: our righteousness we will still hold fast, and not let it go, and our heart shall not reproach us so long as we live; yea, though our adversaries would write a book against us, surely we would take it on our shoulder, and bind it as a crown unto us.  
The true and real causes of our back-sliding are to be sought amongst ourselves. If all the Watchmen of the house of Israel had been faithful & zealous in discharge of their trust, than had the Lords people better known the excellency of the Gospel, & stuck closer to the profession of the same; because of the negligence and perverseness of some of those, have many halted for want of instruction & lack of knowledge; but from the corruptions which men have harboured in their own breasts, hath mainly issued all the degrees of their declination.  
There be amongst us many rotten and hollow hearts, who though they joined with us through subtlety or fear, did still abide in the gall of bitterness, and bond of iniquity, and wished nothing more, than the subversion of our cause: What wonder though such took advantage of a prevailing party, to disclose their envy, wherewith they were now grown big, almost unto bursting: And there is a generation whose ignorance and sloth hath detained them, that they have not sufficiently examined, nor rightly considered Zions' controversy with those that plead against her, because of her love to the Truth: They conceive the debate to be about things civil; at least, not to go so high as the hazard of any thing important in Religion. And such is the negligence of those, that they despise the means of instruction, largely offered and holden forth unto them in many Warnings and Declarations, which they will not be at the pains to peruse: Love to the things of the world, hath stumbled men of earthly minds, who had rather choose to endanger their souls, and make shipwreck of a good conscience, than to suffer the spoiling of their Goods, and ruin of their Estates: And Atheism prevails in many, which as it is not acquainted with the excellency of JESUS CHRIST, nor with the preciousness and sweetness of his ways, so hath it no regard to his Commandments to obey them, nor respect to his Gospel, to suffer any thing for it. And seeing formality and profanity abounds, is it not just with GOD to send them strong delusion to believe lies, who do not receive the Truth in love. And what if some being puffed up in mind, have trusted to the power of their own strength, and neglected to employ that mighty One, upon whom our help is laid.  
Though we cannot but think, that all such as are not given up to delusion and hardness of heart, have already begun to consider the evil of their ways, and to remember their inconstancy with detestation and sorrow; yet, for convincing of the obstinate, reclaiming of the more flexible, and increasing of the repentance of those who desire to loathe themselves, because of their back-sliding, we cannot but discover the guiltiness that many involved themselves into, in the hour of temptation that came upon the Land. As there be degrees of duties in the Covenant, so degrees of offences against the same: We would have none so gross to plead innocence, because they have not broke forth in open opposition: Indifferency and neutrality is no less against our Oath, than professed enmity: And what also if it be as odious in the sight of GOD, who spews the lukewarm out of his mouth? How then shall we judge of back-sliding and express malignancy? Surely disobedience unto public order, or prevarication in the same, commending of adversaries their purpose, power, or carriage, traducing the Instruments and Work of Reformation, be but the bitter fruits of an evil heart, dis-affected to the truth, & cleaving to the love of the paths of those, who study the obstruction and dis-appointment of all those ends designed in the Covenant: Silence when we had a calling to speak: Setting on of Bonfires: Preparing entertainment for the Rebels, and receiving them into our Houses, are but at the best sinful temporising in an evil time, a betraying of our zeal for the Lord, a strengthening of the ungodly in their wicked courses, and yielding unto them a ground of hope for further complying with them, and an high contempt of the dreadful sentence of Excommunication, if any of those with whom fellowship was kept, were under the same: Intelligence and correspondence with the Enemy, furnishing them with Men, Money, Horses, Ammunition, or , seducing of the people, receiving Commissions, or executing the same, and joining in actual service. Those things if done out of affection, and not through fear, as some of them hardly can be, are sure tokens of a heart desperately perverse, and wholly malignant, which esteems it but a light thing to hazard upon express perjury, and howsoever done, draw upon the doers a manifest breach of Covenant, and fearful guilt of helping those whom the Lord hates.  
What though it be lawful in some cases to capitulate, yea with Turks or Pagans; shall it therefore be lawful to do that which may argue subjection and imply submission unto a perfidious Rebel, and the sworn enemy of the League and Covenant with England, going about to drive the people of the Land from their duty for the Covenant, to a compliance with him against it. In this case, all & every one are called unto the asserting of the confession of their Faith, and of their own innocence and righteousness in joining with England; Both which they do betray and condemn, and take with that guiltiness of Treason and Rebellion, which the Adversaries would fasten upon them, when they capitulate to do any thing inconsistent with open and professed enmity, or that tends unto the disserting of those duties to which the Covenant doth oblige them: Such Capitulations must needs be very sinful, and contrary to the Covenant. Neither can we judge any better of Protections from such an Enemy because they do imply the authority of one who is forfeit by the State, and excommunicate by the Kirk; and do either expressly or tacitly engage the Receivers, if not to join, yet not to resist; they lay a stumbling block before all the Inhabitants of the Land, to make them forbear action, or decline suffering, by following such a course: If all had done so, it may soon be foreseen what should have been the end; Though haply they who were the doers, were not so apprehensive as to reach the depth of the evil, yet the end of the work in itself, and in the intention of enemies, was to make them Masters of all the lives and estates within the Land.  
Capitulations and Protections, howsoever accounted of by those who walk after the wisdom of the flesh, are destructive to our Covenant, almost in all the Heads and Articles thereof: They tend unto the corrupting of Religion in this Land, and obstructing the Work of Reformation in England, unto the countenancing and strengthening of the Popish and Prelatical party, unto the subversion of the due Rights and Privileges of the Parliaments, and diminishing of his Majesty's just greatness and authority, unto the withdrawing of Incendiaries and Malignants from condign punishment, unto the overthrow of the Union betwixt the Kingdoms, unto the deserting of our Brethren, following of divisive motions, and denying to hazard or suffer the loss either of lives or estates in the defence of the Cause, and them that adhere thereunto. We see not any strength of reason in that seeming necessity, unto which many pretend themselves to have been redacted: If men could not have retired from the fury and violence of the Enemy, or had not some probable way of resistance and defence against the same, they should have taken it as an evidence of the will of GOD, calling them to suffer and give a testimony unto his Truth. Our Covenant doth no less oblige us to suffering, than to doing; and it is the ignorance or ineffectual consideration of our duty that makes us thus to wipe our mouths, as if we had done nothing worthy of rebuke: Neither yet doth it excuse, that some were not active to obtani Protections, the receiving of them was to prostitute the chastity of that affection which we own unto the Cause of GOD, and could be no better than a bribe that blinds the eyes of the wise, and hinders from doing judgement unto the afflicted.  
The deep apprehension of their souls danger, moves us seriously, and in the bowels of JESUS CHRIST, to entreat all Temporizers and Backsliders to remember whence they are fallen, and to repent: Let it not be a light thing unto such, that they have despised the Oath of GOD, undervalved the precious Truth of the Gospel and drawn upon themselves the guilt of their brethren's blood, by forsaking them in their just defence. If the due sense of their sin shall bring them to lament after the Lord, they may hope to find him gracious and merciful, to forgive their iniquity, and heal their back-slidings: But if they shall harden themselves, and continue in their provocation, they have cause of fear that the Lord of Hosts shall avenge the quarrel of his Covenant upon them who have sworn falsely by his Name.  
Yet is it not that those alone have cause to mourn; All the Land have done foolishly, and provoked the holy One of Israel unto wrath: The Lord hath been glorious in the midst of us, but who hath regarded his work, or considered the operation of his hands? Though he hath been liberal in the offer of his love, yet few have believed the Gospel, and studied to walk worthy of the name: JESUS CHRIST hath neither been known nor honoured; who hath valued him in the excellency of his Person, or employed him in the virtue of his Offices? Holy duties have been neglected, and piety and godliness reproached: Is there not cause to lament for the Atheism, ignorance of GOD, blaspheming of his Name, swearing by them that are no gods, intemperancy, uncleanness, deceit, and oppression that prevails amongst many? And should not our eyes run down with tears, because of jealousies, self-seeking, and obstructing of Justice amongst our Judges, because of rioting and excess, spoiling and oppressing amongst our Soldiers, because of negligence and profanity amongst Ministers, because of murmur & grudge, deep securitiy, carnal confidence, neutrality, & lukewarmness almost amongst all. The Covenant which hath been attended by a stately work of more than ordinary providence, and sealed with many rich and precious blessings from Heaven, is by many undervalved and set at naught; nay, by some blasphemed, as an accursed and unholy thing. Because of those things, thousands have fallen by the Sword, and ten thousands by the Pestilence, our highways are desolate, and our Cities left without inhabitants, the like hath not been heard in our days, nor in the days of our Fathers: And yet the wrath of the Lord is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. O that men were wise to hear the voice of the rod, and who hath appointed it! Shall we continue to tempt the most High, and strive with our Maker until he make an end of us? Let us confess our iniquity, and be humbled for our sin, let us sow to ourselves in righteousness, and reap in mercy, let us break up our fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, until he come and rain righteousness upon us.  
We cannot but from the sense of those judgements that lies heavy upon the Land, and from that wrath that still threatens us, warn every man to repent and set on to duty. Let Rulers and Judges do judgement, and execute Justice without respect of persons: Let Officers and Soldiers live soberly, do violence to no man, and more mind the Cause of GOD, than their own advantage: Let Pastors feed the flock of CHRIST in love, be zealous in advancing the Work of Reformation, and purging of the House of GOD: And let every one in his station, mind those things whereunto the Lord hath called him. Though we be afflicted and sore broken, yet if we return unto the Lord, he will have mercy on us, and heal us; Hath he not already begun to revive us, and to raise us up?  
It is a mercy worthy to be had in everlasting remembrance, that in the day of the power & pride of our cruel and insolent Enemies, the Lord should have showed himself glorious & mighty, to give victory & salvation to his people, when our hopes were near gone: We were in a low condition, not only at the weakest, but even at the worst, under the guilt of many provocations, repining against the Lord, and hasting to the paths of the Destroyer: yet the Preserver of men had regard unto us, to keep us from destruction, and to ease and avenge us of many of our adversaries, whose carcases he made as dung unto the earth in the day of his fury and indignation. If after so great a mercy, any should be found amongst us to turn away from the Lord, and again to submit unto, or comply with the Enemies of his Truth, they could not but sin against their own souls, and provoke the eyes of his glory until there were no remedy. We beseech all the Lords People throughout the Land, nay we Charge them before GOD and the Lord JESUS CHRIST, who shall judge the quick and the dead, to hold fast the Truth in love, to have regard to the glory of the Son of GOD, the excellency of the Gospel, the sacred and inviolable Bond of the Covenant, the beauty of the Work of Reformation, and the worth of a good Conscience, above all earthly losses and advantages; and from the due sense and apprehension of those things, to arm themselves with strong resolutions against all the degrees of back-sliding or complying with the Enemy; That they be no more as Reeds shaken with the wind; but that they may give a proof of their Faith, Patience and Courage, in the midst of all the difficulties and straits which they shall meet with. Every one who knows the Lord, will cleave to their duty, and wait for his salvation: He is faithful, and will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that we may be able to bear it. The rod of the wicked shall not rest too long upon the lot of the righteous. But when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and upon Jerusalem, he will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the proud Enemy, and bring down the glory of his high looks: Then shall all the haters of Zion be astonished and confounded, but the Lords People shall be glad and rejoice in his salvation.  
A. Ker.  
FINIS.