A LETTER CONTAINING An Humble and Serious Advice to some in SCOTLAND, IN Reference to their late Troubles and Calamities.  
By a Person of that Nation.  
But they that escape of them shall be on the Mountains like Doves of the Valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity,  Ezek. 7.16. 
Take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the dayes of thy life: But teach them to thy sons, and to thy sons sons,  Deut. 4.9. 
My son, fear thou the Lord and the King, and meddle not with them that are given to change, for their calamity shall rise suddenly,  Prov. 24.21, 22. 
Printed, 1661.   

An humble and serious Advice to some in SCOTLAND, In reference to their late Troubles and Calamities.  
IF there be any of you, who have not as yet seriously reflected on that deplorable condition your poor country have laboured under for these many years past; Wherein, in one or other capacity you have been Actors or Witnesses: It would seem to be an indispensible duty lying upon you to look back, and bestow some of your deepest thoughts on so sad a subject; To the end, that accordingly as you shall find yourselves to have had accession, less or more, to the horrid sins, and iniquities of those late times, you may mourn for it, and by repentance obtain mercy. It is not denied, much wickedness hath been committed in the very sight of the Sun, and with a high Arm, but most are ready to wash their hands, and to clear themselves because of those plausible ends they perhaps had in their eye, not considering that good Intentions can never justify bad Actions: others are apt to extenuate, and lessen what they have done amiss, or consented unto, by excuses drawn from Ignorance, Example and Simplicity. So as to this day, it is doubtful( notwithstanding of all the dispensations they have seen) whether the Mask yet be taken off, or that Paint washed away under which much Deformity was covered, or the Principle changed, those transactions which were Criminal, may, perhaps, by some be still owned, as Characters of Duty, and a multitude may yet be ensnared in the mire of delusion and error, nevertheless that many ingenuous persons long ago have been undeceived upon foresight of those sad events that came to pass thereafter, disowning such courses as 〈…〉 been entangled in, knowing it was humanum errare, but worse to persevere.  
Upon this account I hope it may not be judged Arrogance, or Presumption for us to excite one another to so necessary a duty, so much importing that Peace of Conscience, and that eternal Felicity we all look for.  
In order whereunto, it may be useful to present to your view a short emblem of that which your own more exact observation must needs suggest to your memories and apprehensions, in deeper and more lively colours, being so recently acted amongst you.  
In the year 1637. such a feverish distemper seized upon the animal spirits of a great many of the Kingdom, as that by degrees the natural constitution of the body politic was altered, the humors infected, the vital parts and blood inflamed and corrupted. Whether this pestilentious air had its original from the malign influences of the Stars, or insinuated by the artifices and malice of Men and Devils, or inflicted by the Almighty for punishing a sinful and unthankful Generation, as the first and supreme cause over-ruling all other to serve his purposes, I leave to your own disquisition: However, certain it was, the Contagion became universal, persons of all Ranks and Degrees were taken with it, and most dangerous symptoms more and more appeared: Those who had lived in the enjoyment of a long Peace, and were full of the fruits of it, Riches and Plenty, but more happy in being under the Government of the most Religious and best Prince in the World, in the violence of their distemper, threw away their mercies, and disturbed a well settled Church and State, gradually descending from Duty to Faction and Rebellion: first, suffering themselves to believe aspersions, and false representations of their Dread sovereign; thereafter limiting, prescribing and imposing upon the Royal Authority to serve their ends and interests: and last of all, by Arms invading it, assumed it unto themselves, following that Maxim, Scelera sceleribus tuenda sunt. And all this done( as either they did believe, or would have the people to believe, 〈…〉 or necessary Duties, Reformation of Religion, Extirpation of heresy, Superstition and Arbitrary Government, Notions and Terms frequently used by Rebellious and factious Innovators, whereby many were deluded, and made to promote( as is to be feared) the ambitious and covetous ends of a few. Thus all at last was involved into one abyss of misery, distraction and disorder: Whereunto contributed not a little the concurrence of those who should have been guides to the peoples Souls, and lights to have shown them the paths of Peace and Obedience; I mean Gospel Ministers, who should have brought Water to quench, and not oil to increase the fire; but some of them, in stead of sounding a retreat to popular fury, were( if not kindlers) fomenters of the flamme, by the Interest and Reputation they had with the people.  
The Kings most Gracious Majesty, though he could not approve of such irregular and tumultuous Combinations as then were afoot, without danger to himself and his people, was pleased, by many indulgent Concessions, to endeavour to quiet their spirits even to the height of their professed desires, especially in the year, 1640. and 1641. by His own personal presence; but nothing could prevail, the more His Majesty complied, the more exorbitant they became in their demands, until at last they would interpose in the Affairs and Government of His other Kingdoms also, dictating models in Church and State there as well as at home, to serve their beloved Interests; unto which His Majesty could not condescend being inconsisting with His honour and safety of His people: So hard a matter it is, if not impossible, for men engaged in precipices of defection to retreat, like all motions downward, facilis est descensus averni; and whom the wind of Ambition drives, non respieiunt, forward they must go though to their utter ruin.  
What blood and confusion attended their Counsels and undertakings in all the three Nations is well known, and may be remembered with horror and trembling: they were the first movers of the ston, setting all on fire at home, and by Correspondencies and 〈…〉 spirits of their neighbour Kingdom of England, until all was in Combustion together. And in fine, the total issue of the whole( though, as may be supposed, not designed at first) proved Tragical to King and Kingdoms.  
Nobibitas cum plebe perit, Lateque vagatur  
Ensis, & a nullo revocatum est pectore ferrum.  
The Wheel at last came to turn upon themselves, and they to drink of the Cup they had made others drink of, when they were big with hopes, and high in the imaginations of their hearts, in that Battle of Dumbar in the year, 1649. After they had disowned the cause of their Prince, though He had trusted His Person amongst them: this their fatal blow they had by a party of their own forming, not only equally, but more guilty than themselves, as to the horrid murder of their Dread sovereign, yet raised up by them, and whom they had for a long time assisted in Arms upon foundations of Treaties and Covenants: but what hath its establishment on wicked Counsels shall not prosper, fides quae scelere pacta est, scelere Rumpetur; Divine Justice punishing them by a Generation no better, but worse than themselves. What was then the product of all their Combinations and Conspiracies against their King, Laws, and fellow Subjects? Nothing but ruin to themselves, and with them to a poor Kingdom, whose blood and Treasure they had misemployed to serve their ends, and so exhausted it, that when the people were willing to Sacrifice their lives and fortunes, for the service of His Majesty that now is, in the year, 1650. and 1651. what they could do, proved insignificant to effect so great and good a Work; and thereupon the Nation was subdued, and subjected to the power of a Rebellious sword, The Kings Majesty expelled His Kingdoms, the most Eminent of His Subjects slain in the field, imprisoned, or banished, others of them who had been faithful to Him, and active for Him, forced for their preservation and subsistence, and preventing the final ruin of a poor Country designed to destruction upon the least pretence, to comply, own and act, under a Tyrannical and unjust power.  
— Tot rebus iniquis  
Paruimus victi, haec venia est sola pudoris,  
Degenerisque metus, nile jam potuisse negari.  
Which forced Compliance, did exceedingly add to all their former Sufferings and Calamities; but the hope they had of seeing that day they now behold, made them bear all with Patience.  
This is a short and rough draft of what you have been Actors in, or Spectators of; a sad and tragical Scene, and a bloody Stage these Kingdoms have been. No doubt, you are able to add to this, both light and colours, and so give life unto it; you have here only some lineaments offered for your improvement.  
Consider, I beseech you, how many thousands have lost their lives in the field, most whereof by a mis-guided zeal, or implicit adherence to a Party, were induced to believe that therein consisted their duty to God and their country, Tantum potuit Religio suadere malorum. But alas! it was but Delusion and Error; you are a remnant left, you have outlived a long age of War, and seen the wonderful Work of the Almighty, the Restauration of His Majesty to His Crowns and Kingdoms. Should not this mercy you have above others no more guilty than yourselves, oblige you to a serious review of these things, impartially charging your souls with what accession you have had to the sin and iniquity of them? You have to do on the one hand with a God whose Mercy is above all His Works; many of you, no doubt, will have St. Paul's plea, what they did was in Ignorance; those who you looked upon as Guides, caused you to err, by advice and example; on the other hand, you have to do with a most Gracious King, whose glory it is to be merciful, in imitation of that eternal goodness: He hath mercy not only for such as went astray from their duty through the simplicity of their hearts, but for bitter enemies also. Improve then the opportunity you have yet in your hands, to the Glory of God, the satisfaction of other Nations, the comfort of your own souls, and the benefit of your Posterity; let not pride of heart( to 〈…〉 constant, though in a bad Cause) keep you back. Be not ashamed to disown and declare against such Methods and Courses, as formerly lead you to that ruin you have beholded with your eyes, no less than the subversion of your ancient Government by blood and Desolation; Inform your children to beware of your sins, lest they partake of your Judgements; This will evidence true Repentance, this will purchase you Serenity of mind, Peace with God, and Peace with man. For the carrying on this Work, I shall make bold to mention two or three particulars, that seem to be of as deep a dy as any you have been guilty of, and therefore specially to be mourned for, though perhaps you have not as yet taken notice of the wickedness of them in that latitude you ought.  
In the first place, I shall begin with those Covenants, and Oaths you took, the grand Engines of drawing you away from your Duty at first, and the very womb that impregnated all the Treasons, wars and Calamities you have acted, seen or felt; sinful in the manner, as entred into, and imposed upon others over whom you had no authority; sinful in the matter, as obliging to Injustice, breach of Duty and former Oaths, to the abetting and maintaining Rebellion and War, against your Sacred sovereign His Person and Authority; by which Oaths God was highly provoked, your King's Just Rights trampled on, and obedience to him subjected, and made subordinate to inferior ends.  
In the next place, you would not forget that great imposture( if you had any hand in it) those mock Repentances many Loyal and faithful Subjects were enjoined to make, before they could be admitted to serve their King against a common Enemy, for no Crimes but performing good and necessary Duties; You called evil good, and good evil, Loyalty a sin, and a Rebellion a virtue. Surely the thoughts of this must ly heavy upon the spirits of some: dayes of Fasting and Humiliation were kept, that we might be more wicked; in this was the Iniquity even of your holy things. And lastly, remember that which did much aggravate all, you suffered yourselves all along to believe the Reproaches, Lies and Calumnies, that by malice were cast upon your sovereign and His Government, not considering that Rumer res sine teste, sine Judice maligna, fallax, and such a sovereign as was the best of Men and Kings: And this notwithstanding all the demonstrations of love and tenderness He had from the beginning of His Reign manifested to you; He was always more ready to exercise a Fatherly love in pardoning insolences and encroachments, looking upon them as proceeding from mispresentation you had of Him, and the peevishness of disposition, than as a King to punish them as proceeding from contempt and malice; you hardened your hearts to the very last, still conceiving of Him as of an Enemy to Religion and the good of the People, for both which He died a Martyr, you standing by, as it were, with dry eyes until He was unhumanly murdered in the sight of the Sun: Nay, you opposed and weakened their hands, who in the year 1648. under the conduct of the Duke of Hamiltoun, a person of Honour, known Integrity and Constancy to his King and Country, went to hazard their lives for preventing that fatal blow that shortly thereafter ensued.  
These things are not mentioned to render you odious in the sight of man; but that you may humble yourselves for them in the sight of God: If once a repenting spirit be powred forth upon you, none can be so rigid and severe to you, as you will be to yourselves; none will need to excite you to Repentance, you will long and wait for opportunities to demonstrate it to the World; you will be far from extenuating Crimes by false comments and glosses; No, you will desire to show them in the worst colours, that when Divine goodness hath vouchsafed you mercy, His infinite Grace and Love may appear more abundant; and that when your gracious Prince hath forgot and forgiven all, His transcendent meekness and clemency may be more manifest to all the World; There will be no need to invite you to hate and abhor such deluding ways; as like Syrens, first enticed you to turn out of the Road of your Duty, you yourselves will be mindful to set a mark upon them, that all may be ware of ever going again in these paths; you will with joy drink-in principles of true Piety, Duty and Obedience, which will quickly speak forth themselves in a willing and sweet Conformity to the commands of your sovereign; as it was your great unhappiness once to be patterns of Disobedience to others, you will have an Ambition to go now before them in Order and Devotion, even( if it were possible) to supererogation. We have at present( and long may He reign) a King set over us, whom God hath owned in a most Signal manner, confirming His Title of late as by a voice from Heaven; When he was a Stranger in a foreign Land, shut out of His Kingdoms by force and malice, did not the Almighty himself appear, and break those Gates of brass and Iron, by most remarkable Providences, confounding the Counsels of His Enemies, dividing them among themselves, breaking them into pieces, in a Divine method, preparing the way without Blood for His Restitution? He returned to us not only upon the account of His Title and Right, but as the desire of our Souls, few but were sensible His return would be unto them a greater happiness than many Crowns could be unto Him. Can any be so dim-sighted as not to see the eminent hand of the Almighty in this great Work? No surely, none can, but such as are given up to blindness of understanding, to a deluded or bitter spirit: Can any think that Fortune, Time, Craft, or Industry did effectuate it? No, Christians ought, and will conceive otherwise, and that there is a secret and eternal Wheel, the Spring of all motions and revolutions.  
There was indeed a complication of Craft, Dissimulation, Perjury, Blood, Force and Combinations, Hellish Instruments and Arts made use of, in expelling of Him; but God, who is Omnipotent, and hath the hearts of men in His hand, needs no such to bring to pass the council of His will.  
The most implacable of His Majesties enemies themselves being Judges, must and do confess, that God hath owned Him and His Cause: Doth not all this speak aloud to the people of these Nations to Receive, Love and Obey Him? If Rebellion and Disobedience be capable of degrees, Surely to disobey His Commands, to oppose His Authority, would be Rebellion of the first Magnitude.  
If there were any of those Vicious Humours yet remaining that were the fuel of our first Distempers( as I hope there are none) I would recommend to such as an Alexiterion, to present often to their mind the beginnings, progress, and doleful Issues of such Counsels and actings as we have been engaged in, which were not only the naked Events, but the proper, and natural effects of Faction and preposterous Zeal, this would be in stead of all other Antidotes? If the Errors of others should make us wise, how much more should we be instructed by our own? The care we have to preserve our bodily health, cautioneth us not to taste such meats as once proved Destructive, how much more wary should we be in meddling or tampering with any thing that occasioned such a mortal sickness of the body politic? If such Humours be spent it will be known by the introducing of the contrary. The Physicians say, that so long as the natural, vital, or animal faculties, do not perform, or perform amiss their proper functions and actions, the body is not in health; but if there be good blood, and spirits generated, a sound habit of bodies attained, it denotes all is well. It is so in the State, when the people breach forth Obedience, Peace and Love, it is a diagnostic sign they are in a good temper. Search yourselves, you are best acquainted with your own Constitutions, and see that the Disease be eradicated and not palliated; if all be right with you, you will desire to make it known to all the world, that you are recovered from such a dangerous and long sickness: you have been of late the Reproach of the Protestant Religion, and the scorn of Nations, begin now to be Exemplary unto them in Piety towards God. Devotion to your sovereign, and Love to your country, thus God will rejoice over you to do you good, the King will delight in you as in faithful Subjects, and others will be provoked by you to exceed you in Loyalty and Duty. Thus will you make up the Breaches you broken down in some measure, and wash away those spots and stains you have brought upon yourselves and the Nation.  
In time coming beware of disputing, or questioning the Commands, or Authority of your sovereign, that was the first step that lead out of your way formerly, and will again led you into a Relapse, Principiis obsta Believe, and be satisfied He rules over you for your good, and that your peace and tranquillity, is wrapped up in the safety of His Royal Person and Authority, as in a public and Sacred Thesaury: He is Parens Patriae, study to behave yourselves as obedient children, and entertain no thoughts of owning Interests distinct from what are His; if you be divided from Him, you must whither as a branch cut off from a three: therefore if you love yourselves you must love Him: Salus Populi Suprema Lex, was a misleading Principle as it was of late understood; if it had been rightly, these unhappy Wars had never been: for if you had looked upon your King as Salus Populi, in whom your being consists, you would never have espoused Quarrels and Ends opposite to Him: He is the head that sends forth animal spirits unto the whole body, without which the body cannot subsist; He is as the Sun in the Firmament who enlightens and quickens the creatures below. Be careful then, lest you deprive yourselves of those influences of love and goodness; He is ready at all times in the beams of light and warmeth to sand down upon you.  
What Order in Church or State He in His wisdom shall establish, embrace and receive with cheerfulness, He knows best what is most for your good and peace, and what is fittest and most consonant to His Government, in which all your concerns are included; Have no desires eccentric to His, no motions of your own, for then you will wander; suffer yourselves to be carried gently with the motion of Him as your Primum Mobile.  
If the Government of the Church by Bishops be restored, remember you lived happily under it, the casting it off was as the opening of that Box of Pandora, from whence issued those Miseries and Calamities you have laboured under for more than half of the time the People of Israel wandered in the Wilderness, and besides you must needs have observed that their loins were not so heavy as the finger of that Presbytery you have been under; in stead of fourteen Diocesian, you have had one thousand Parochial Bishops, and every one of them exercising a Coercive power over you, besides that constant Conclave, the Commission of the Kirk, and other Superior Judicatures, who Lorded it over Kings, Parliaments, People, and their Brethren also: the sad effects whereof the King and Kingdom were sensible of in the year, 1648. by their Magisterial opposition at that time to the Parliament who were carrying on a most necessary Duty, in order to the Delivery of His late Majesty from the Barbarons Imprisonment He was under in the Isle of Wight; for which it is to be supposed, all good men of them that had any hand in it( all had not) have mourned; and if God and His Majesty have cast a Mantle of Mercy over them, it is no more to be mentioned, nor made use of, but as Pilots in a storm do of a Rock where there hath been a shipwreck.  
Other passages might be instanced to evince of how dangerous a consequence the continuing of an Unlimited Power and Authority, Coercive and Independent on the Civil Magistrate would be in any Society of Men whatsoever, and is no less monstrous than a Body with two Heads; but the truth of this being apparent to all unbiased persons, that have observed but a small part of what hath been done, I shall not insist.  
Some will perhaps answer, that their Authority is Divine, and the object of their Power Spiritual; As the one in reference to the Government of the Church Originally and Authoritatively will never be made appear; So for the other, how far in all times they have transgressed their limits, at least in ordine ad spiritualia, is but too well known.  
Peradventure some will say, that the Nation is oblige'd by Convenants and Oaths to maintain presbyterial Government, and to abjure Episcopacy: This were petere principium, as the Logicians say; These Covenants and Oaths were unlawful from the beginning,( as hath been formerly hinted) and to pled a Sinful Act to justify the Superstructure, is Divinity that will not be allowed. Such Oaths could never oblige but to repentance, it is that only must absolve you from the sin of them in the sight of God; as for any stamp of Law was put upon them in these tumultuous Times, is now made voided by a subsequent:  
If you will have recourse to the Scriptures and Primitive Times of the Church, Bishops will be found there warranted, and since the Church hath had Christian Kings to be nursing Fathers to it, they have been continued, and further degrees of Honour and Power placed upon them, for the good of the Church and propagation of the Gospel, and serving those great ends of Government, in which consists the well-being of a People as Men or Christians.  
Wherefore be encreated to lay aside Prejudice, arising from ends of your own Pride, Ambition or Advantage, and stumble not at names. Whether the care of the Church be primarily lodged in many, or in a few( where there is no Divine explicit or implicit command in the matter) the Gospel may flourish; what hath the greatest tendency to Order and Peace, in extrinsic things, none will deny but it ought to be followed: every constitution doth not svit alike with all Governments, in all times and in all places: Monarchical Government is natural to you, none can boast of such a long succession of Kings, in one Royal Family, as you may, and it is your glory. Since Episcopacy is most suitable to it, and no Divine prohibition to the contrary, embrace it with honour and reverence, as bearing a Divine Impression, and the will of your Prince; expect more of Moderation from it, than ever you found from the other; mind the essentials of Religion and godliness; let your Zeal be employed that way, Zeal for things not necessary is a moth to all real duties, like the tithing of Cummin-seeds, forgetting the weightier matters of the Law.  
Whilst you entertain this frame of spirit, you may expect the blessing of God, the favour of your King, and eternal felicity to your souls; whereas a turbulent and unquiet mind is like the raging of the Sea, casting up nothing but mire and dirt, and whereby you neither have, nor ever can reap any thing but dis-appointments, miseries, and the hatred of all the Christian World: If you do not stand in the way of your own mercies, you may be confident your Gracious sovereign, though in Person He be remote from you, will, like the Sun, refresh you with influences of his Love and Care, as his Royal Ancestors have done before Him: He hath begun already to communicate to you the sweetness and moderation of his Government by persons of Honour and Wisdom, Integrity and public Spirits, He will by them have an ear open to your Grievances, to make every Burden light, and every yoke easy, and you will quickly perceive what a difference there is, between the fruits and effects of Faction and turbulence, and these of humble and cordial Compliances.  
All I have further to recommend to you, is, that you receive this as you would do a very ordinary Box, wherein there are some things of value, if they be well improved. The persons Name who sends it, is concealed, lest some might judge he intended his own advantage by it; as for the particulars that are offered to you, they are able to abide the test and trial of any that will but consider them without partiality and anticipation: they could not be clothed in a more simplo or vulgar Dress: It is the truth, plainness and reason of things must carry your approbation. You have only some short hints of Duties held forth to you, and as it were some short notes delivered into your hand for your enlargement and application, there is no more pretended unto: if they be unnecessary, dispose of them as you would do of physic, the cure being already perfected. farewell.  
FINIS.