TO THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY. THE HUMBLE PETITION OF THE COMMISSIONERRS of the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland, met at Edinburgh january, 4. 1642. And now lately presented to His Majesty, At OXFORD. WITH HIS MAJESTY'S Gracious Answer thereunto March 16. 1642.  
Printed by His Majesty's Command at OXFORD, March. 20. By LEONARD LICHFIELD, Printer to the University. 1642.   

TO THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY. The humble Petition of the Commissioners of the general Assembly of the Kirk of SCOTLAND, met at Edinburgh, jan. 4. 1643.  
Our silence and ceasing to present before your Majesty our humble thoughts and desires at this time of common danger to Religion, to your Majesty's sacred person, your Crown and Posterity, and to all your Majesty's Dominions, were impiety against God, unthankfulness and disloyalty against your Majesty, and indirect approbation and hardening of the Adversaries of tru●h and peace in their wicked ways, and cruelty against our brethren, lying in such depths of affliction and anguish of spirit. Any one of which crimes were in us, above all others, unexcusable, and would prove us most unworthy of the trust committed unto us. The flame of this common combustion hath almost devoured Ireland, is now wasting the Kingdom of England, and we cannot tell how soon it shall enter upon ourselves & set this your Majesty's most ancient & native Kingdom on fire: If in this woeful case & lamentable condition of your Majesty's Dominions all others should be silent, it behoveth us to speak; and if our Tongues and Penns should cease, our Consciences within us would cry out, and the stones in the streets would answer us.  
Our great grief and apprehension of danger is not a little increased, partly by the insolency and presumption of Papists and others disaffected to the Reformation of Religion; who although for their number and power they be not considerable amongst us, yet through the success of the Popish party in Ireland, and the hopes they conceive of the prevailing power of Popish Armies, and the Prelatical Faction in England, they have of late taken spirit, and begun to speak big words against the Reformation of Religion, and the work of God in this Land; and partly, and more principally, that a chief praise of the Prot●…ant Religion (and thereby our not vain, but just gloriation) is by the public Declaration of the Earl of Newcastle, General of Your Majesty's Forces for the Northern parts, and nearest unto us, transferred unto Papists. Who although they be sworn Enemies unto Kings, and be as infamous for their treasons and Conspiracies against Princes and Rulers, as for their known Idolatry and spiritual Tyranny; yet are they openly declared to be not only good Subjects, or better Subjects, but fare better Subjects then Protestants, which is a new and foul disparagement of the reformed Religion, a notable injury to your Majesty in your honour, a sensible reflection upon the whole body of this Kingdom, which is impatient that any subjects should be more loyal than they; but abhorreth & extremely disdaineth that Papists who refuse to take the Oath of Allegiance, should be compared with them in allegiance & fidelity, & (which being a strange Doctrine from the mouth or pen of professed Protestants) will suffer a hard construction from all thereformed Kirks.  
We therefore Your Majesty's most humble and loving Subjects, upon these and the like considerations, do humbly entreat, that Your Majesty may be pleased in Your Princely wisdom, First to consider, that the intentions of Papists directed by the principles of their Profession are no other than they have been from the beginning, even to build their Babel, and to set up their execrable Idolatry and Antichristian Tyranny in all Your Majesty's Dominions, to change the face of your two Kingdoms of Scotland and England into the similitude of miserable Ireland: which is more bitter to the People of God, your Majesty's good Subjects to think upon, than death: and whatsoever their present pretences be for the defence of Your Majesty's Person, and Authority; yet in the end by their Arms and Power, with a displayed Banner, to bring that to pass against Your Royal Person and Posterity, which the fifth of November (never to be forgotten) was not able by their subtle and undermining treason to produce; or which will be their greatest mercy, to reduce Your Majesty and Your Kingdoms to the base and unnatural slavery of their Monarch the Pope.  
And next, that Your Majesty upon this undeniable evidence, may timously, and speedily apply your Royal Authority for disbanding their Forces, suppressing their power, and disappointing their bloody and merciless projects.  
And for this end we are with greater earnestness than before constrained, to fall down again before your Majesty, and in all humility to renew the supplication of the late general Assembly, and our own former Petition in their name, for unity of Religion, and for uniformity of Church government, in all your Majesty's Kingdoms, & to this effect for a meeting of some Divines to be holden in England; unto which according to the desire of your Majesty's Parliament some Commissioners may be sent from this Kirke, that in all points to be proponed and debated, there may be the greater consent and harmony. We take the boldness to be the more instant in this our humble desire, because it concerneth the Lord Jesus Christ so much in his glory, your Majesty in your Honour, the Kirke of England (which we ought to tender as our own bowels, and whose reformation is more dear unto us, than our lives) in her happiness, and the Kirke of Scotland in her purity and peace; former experience, and daily sense teaching us, that without the reformation of the Kirk of England, there is no hope or possibility of the continuance of reformation here.  
The Lord of Heaven and Earth, whose Vicegerent Your Majesty is, calleth for this great work of Reformation at Your hands, and the present commotions and troubles of your Majesty's Dominions, are either preparation in the mercy of God for this blessed reformation and Unity of Religion (which is the desire, prayer, and expectation of all Your Majesty's good Subjects in this Kingdom) or which they tremble to think upon, and earnestly deprecate, are in the Justice of God for the abuse of the Gospel, the tolerating of Idolatry, and superstition against so clear a light, and not acknowledging the day of visitation, the beginning of such a doleful desolation, as no policy or power of man shall be able to prevent, and as shall make Your Majesty's Kingdoms within a short time as miserable, as they may be happy by a reformation of Religion. God forbidden, that whilst the Houses of Parliament do profess their desire of the reformation of religion, in a peaceable and Parliamentary way, and pass their Bills for that end in the particulars, that Your Majesty, the Nursefather of the Kirk of Christ, to whose care the custody and vindication of religion doth principally belong, shall, to the provoking of the anger of God, the stopping of the influence of so many blessings from Heaven, and the grieving of the hearts of all the godly, frustrate our expectation, make our hopes ashamed, and hazard the loss of the hearts of all Your good Subjects, which next unto the truth and unity of religion, and the safety of Your Kingdoms, are willing to hazard their lives, and spend their blood for Your Majesty's Honour, and Happiness.  
We are not ignorant that the work is great, the difficulties and impediments many, and that there be both Mountains and Lions in the way: the strongest le●, till it be taken out of the way, is the Mountain of Prelacy, and no wonder if Your Majesty consider how many Papists, and Popishly affected, have for a long time found Peace and ease under the shadow thereof, how many of the Prelatical Faction have thereby their life and being; how many profane and worldly men do fear the yoke of Christ? and are unwilling to submit themselves to the obedience of the Gospel? and how many there be whose eyes are dazzled with the external pomp and glory of the Kirke, whose minds are miscarried with a conceit of the governing of the Kirke by the rules of humane policy, and whose hearts are affrighted with the apprehensions of the dangerous consequences which may ensue upon alterations. But when Your Majesty in Your Princely and Religious Wisdom, shall remember from the Records of former times, how against the gates of Hell, the force and fraud of worldly and wicked men, and all Panic fears of danger, the Christian Religion was first planted, and the Christian Kirke thereafter reform; and from the condition of the present times, how many from the experience of the tyranny of Prelates are afraid to discover themselves, lest they be revenged upon them hereafter? whereas Prelacy being removed they would openly profess what they are, and join with others in the way of Reformation. All obstacles and difficulties shall be but matter of the manifestation of the power of God, the principal worker; and the means of the greater glory to Your Majesty the prime instrument.  
The intermixture of the Government of Prelates, with the civil state, mentioned in Your Majesty's Answer to our former Petition, being taken away, and the right government by Assemblies, which is to be seen in all the reformed Kirkes', and wherein the agreement will be easy, being settled; the Kirke and Religion will be more pure and free of mixture, and the civil Government more sound and firm; that government of the church must suit best with the civil state, and be most useful for Kings and Kingdoms, which is best warranted by God, by whom Kings do reign, and Kingdoms are established: Nor can a reformation be expected in the common and ordinary way, expessed also in Your Majesty's Answer; the wisest and most religious Princes have found it impossible, and implying a repugnancy, since the Persons to be reform, and the reformers must be divers, and the way of reformation must be different from the corrupt way, by which defection of workmen, and corruption in Doctrine, worship, and government, have entered into the Kirke. Suffer us therefore, dread Sovereign, to renew our Petitions for this unity of religion, and uniformity of Kirke government, and for a meeting of some Divines of both Kingdoms who may prepare matters for Your Majesty's view, and for the examination and approbation of more full assemblies; The Nationall assembly of this Kirke, from which we have our Commission, did promise in their thnkesgiving, for the many favours expressed in Your Majesty's Letter, their best endeavour to keep the people under their charge in unity and peace, and in Loyalty and obedience to Your Majesty and Your Laws, which we confess is a duty well beseeming the Preachers of the Gospel.  
But we cannot conceal how much both Pastors and People are grieved and disquieted, with the late reports of the success, boldness and strength of Popish forces in Ireland and England, and how much danger from the power of so malicious and bloody Enemies is apprehended, to the Religion and Peace of this Kirke and Kingdom, conceived by them to be the spring whence have issued all their calamities and miseries: Which we humbly remonstrate to Your Majesty as a necessity requiring a general Assembly, and do earnestly supplicate for the presence and assistance of Your Majesty's Commissioner at the day to be appointed, that by universal consent of the whole Kirke, the best course may be taken for the preservation of Religion, and for the averting of the great wrath which they conceive to be imminent to this Kingdom. If it shall please the Lord, in whose hand is the heart of the King, as the rivers of waters, to turn it whither soever he will, to incline Your Majesty's heart to this through reformation, no more to tolerate the Mass, or any part of romish superstition, or tyranny and to command that all good means be used for the conversion of Your Princely Consort the Queen's Majesty (which is also the humble desire of this whole Kirke and Kingdom) Your Joint comforts shall be multiplied, above the days of Your affliction, to Your incredible joy, Your glory shall shine in brightness, above all Your royal Progenitors to the admiration of the world and the terror of Your Enemies, and Your Kingdoms so fare abound in righteousness, Peace and Prosperity, above all that hath been in former Generations, that they shall say, it is good for us that we have been afflicted.   

His Majesty's Answer to a late Petition presented unto Him by the hands of 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 Kiingdom, 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 Ministers 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 becoming 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 Rebellion, by passing the Bill of pressing, and 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 Adventurers, 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 neibouring 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 Papist 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 the 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 consent 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, otherwise then to such an Act for the case 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 Synod 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 acquisce, 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 expelld or imprisoned 〈◊〉 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 not now speak, they being a part of those Articles upon which We have offered and expect to Treat; But cannot but wonder by what authority you prejudg 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 regns of Queen Elizabath, and Our father of blessed memory, and the acknowledgement of them by all Protestant Churches to have been careful Nurses of 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 U●, for not consenting to new Laws, which by the law of the Land, they know, We may as justy reject if We approve not of them, as either House hath power to prepare for, or both to propound to Vs. 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 let 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 calm 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 ano 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 Reform 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 Vs.  
But We might well have expected from the Petitioners, who have in their solemn Nationall Covenant literally sworn so much Care of the 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 Newcastle, 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, and 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 Kingdom 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 Governmenn 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 Brotherly 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 other, and both of Us a great measure of Happiness and Prosperity to the whole Nation.  
FINIS.