THE DECLARATION Of Major General MASSEY.  
AND Eighty other English Officers and Commanders Engaged with the Kingdom of SCOTLAND, in behalf of their Presbyterian Brethren, in ENGLAND, IRELAND, and the principality of WALES.  
Declaring the Grounds and Reasons moving them to take up Arms in the Kingdom of SCOTLAND; admonishing all conscientious Presbyterians not to apostize from their first Principles, nor Adhere, Engage, or take up Arms with the Rebels at Westminster.  
Dated at Orkney Island, March 29. 1650.  
Printed in the Year, 1650.   

A DECLARATION Of Major General MASSEY.  
AND Eighty other English Officers and Commanders Engaged with the Kingdom of SCOTLAND, in behalf of their Presbyterian Brethren, in ENGLAND, IRELAND, and the principality of WALES.  
Dear Countrymen,  
AS we are all Members of one Body, so we ought all to be governed by one Head, and made capable of one another's sufferings; You cannot be ignorant what pestilent Humours have got predominance in the Body Politic of our native Country, corrupting the very heart of all good Government, and causing a Bloody issue to be made in the very bowels of a Flourishing land, by unhapy emulations and civil dissensions arising rather from a surfeit, and oppulency of abundance of Peace, and blessings, then from any just cause of our own; I hope there is none amongst you so forgetful as not to remember your Solemn League and Covenant made with so many imprecations, and ratified, sealed and delivered in the presence of God and his Angels, besides all other our Oaths and Protestations, as so many sacred bonds and Obligations binding our Consciences to the preservation of the true Protestant Religion, the King's Person, the Rights and Privileges of Parliament, and Liberty of the Subject, all which we ever have done, and still will by Gods help preserve with the same care as we do our own souls; yet we are not unsensible of the many calumnies of our reproachful enemies, that unjustly brand us, for at first managing an ungodly design for the Eradication of Monarchy, and rooting out the KING and his Posterity, the better to subvert all good Government both in Church and Commonwealth.  
To clear ourselves from these foul-mouthed aspersions, and notoriously known scandals so wickedly fathered on us and our Brethren, we have thought it necessary to manifest our real Intentions in this our Declaration to the whole world of the integrity and uprightness of our hearts, to show what loathing and detestation we have of all such Hypocrisy and deep Dissimulation, lest by our silence we might be thought guilty, or to have fellowship with these ungodly workers of iniquity, whose desperate, rebellious, pernicious and destructive Principles we are so fare from owning, or siding with, that we have taken up Arms against them, and are resolved, to the last drop of our bloods to oppose that Tyrannors Army now under the Conduct of the Lord General Fairfax, or Lieutenant General Cromwell, or any with whom they are associated or combined, falsely styling themselves The supreme Authority of the Nation, the Commons of England in Parliament assembled, or any of their upholders, Aiders or Abettors that now assume the Ligistitive Power of the Kingdom; have murdered the King, and disabled the House of Lords from their right of sitting as a House of Peers, or for ever having any Voice or Votes in Parliament, any more than as Members of the Commons House; having by their pretended Power constituted a Tyrannical Counsel of State, and to enslave and vassalage the whole Nation, have since erected a High Court of Justice, thinking by that to fright Free People into ●u● mission to their new mock- Authority, by which illegal Court they intent, (by the same way as they before murdered their lawful King, now to gorge their libidinous and murderous appetites with the blood of his best subjects, that so they may die their black souls (if it were possible) into a deeper dye of innocent blood, to uphold their wicked Tyranny, Democrasy, and Annarchicall Government; Neither are they content with the blood of their King, but they have disinherrited the Prince from his unquestionable and hereditary succession to the Crown, and enacted all those Traitors, and to die without mercy, That shall Proclaim, Relieve, repair to, aid or assist Him either with men, money or Ammunition, or so much as hold Intelligence with their Liege Lord and Sovereign, for which they have direct warrant from God, and are bound to that duty by their several Oaths, and the laws both of God and man; Neither hath their malice anchored here; but they have forced upon the People a most dangerous and sinful Engagement, To be true and faithful to a Government that they shall never know any bounds to, and to bind them to yield Fealty and Homage to them that are but their fellow Subjects, and by the Laws of God, and the Land is due to the KING only, and to none but such as derive their Authority from him, and therefore cannot be subscribed without wilful perjury to God, and wilful Treason to the Law; abolishing a long settled Government, that we were to submit to for the Lords sake, not in stead of reforming to be abolished, but prayed for; that under it we may lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty: Wherefore myself and about 80 English Officers more have in prosecution of our Covenant, and several Oaths, (not only in behalf of our own Nation, but the Kingdom of Scotland also,) have received our Commissions from King Charles the Second, in whose Right, as well as restoring the People to their ancient Government by KING, LORDS and Commons from any Tyranny in either, we have all drawn our swords, and vowed never to put them up again (unless His Majesty command the same) until we have Restored our King to His Rights, the Parliament to its lost Privileges, and the Subject to his Liberty, and taken off the scandal laid on us and our Religion, by bringing all Traitors and Tyrants to Justice for what Treasons they have committed against either; which is the sole cause of our Undertake.  
Therefore we desire all our Presbyterian Brethren, and the rest of our friends and Allies in England, not to be discouraged by any threats or force of the Enemy, but courageously prosecute their first Principles, and rather suffer with patience, and bear Christ's Cross with joy, and a good Conscience, then to suffer themselves to be subborned by a crew of cruel Tyrants, that rule by their own Wills, and seek to load the shame and guilt of their own sinful actions upon your Consciences, that so you might become copartners with them in their Trade of wickedness, and so to be made Heirs to such Punishments as necessarily fall to be the portion of such children of disobedience; But we hope better of you (Brethren) and wish you not to pretend ignorance in these things, lest you thrust yourselves wilfully out of His Majesty's Protection; but relying on your Covenant, His Majesty will be as tender of your welfare, as of his own life; knowing, that to destroy his own subjects, is to diminish his own strength; assuring his good People, that it is not his intention to yoke them to a Tyrannical Government, nor to make use of Foreign Aid a jot longer than he is necessitated for the recovering his just rights, as well as his People's Liberties, and to administer Justice on the inhuman Murderers of His dear Father, whose blood cries to us all for revenge on the Actors of that bloody and inhmane Tragedy; which are the sole ends of his taking up Arms, and of our assisting Him.  
Wherefore (in his Majesty's behalf) we are commanded to declare;  
That whosoever of you (that have stood to your Covenant) and shall come in unto us at the Approach of His Majesty's Armies into England, shall not only obtain an Act of Oblivion for what is past, but shall have Protection for themselves, and all such money or goods they shall bring with them; and whoever shall employ any Horse, Men, Arms, or Warlike provisions whatsoever, shall receive such full assurance of real satisfaction, as other his Commanders and soldiers have, with an addition of such Honours, and other rewards from His Majesty, as your several merits, or services shall deserve; And in this our so Just and Pious Undertake we make no doubt we shall not only be seconded with the blessing of God, but have the Prayers, as well as Aid and Assistance of all honest men, to recover His Majesty's Rights, establish true Religion, the Privilege of Parliament, and the Subject's Liberty, against the opposition of men or Devils; and as we really and cordially (according to our Covenant, and all those sacred bonds that are upon us; intent the same, without any other self or by-ends soever, tending to the least prejudice of our Brethren, so we pray the Blessing of God may attend us, and if otherwise, That all the Curses in his holy Book may be the Portion of us, our Wives and Children for ever.  
From Orkney Island in the Kingdom of Scotland March 29. 1650. I remain Your affectionate friend, and lover of the Kingdom's Peace, and Subjects Liberty, MASSEY.  
For. Mr. J. G. 123. to be Communicated to our Friends in London and elsewhere.  
Signed by 80 English Officers, who have all taken up Arms for his Sacred Majesty.  
FINIS.