action of the massacre of Glencoe.  Which waste and destroy the kingdom, by levying men and raising money for maintaining a long and expensive war, undertaken neither for the advancement of the true religion, nor for the advantage and safety of the nation; but in favour of the house of Austria, which hath been, and yet continues to be, one of the strong pillars of Antichrist’s kingdom, and inplacable enemies to the true reformed religion, as appears by the persecution of the Protestants in Silesia, Hungary, &c.  And yet notwithstanding of all this, many in the land of all ranks have sworn to bear true and faithful allegiance to them, without any conditional restriction or limitation; so that it is not possible for them, in a consistency with their oath, to disown their authority, and deny them subjection, or refuse to defend their persons and government, albeit they should proceed to the greatest pitch of arbitrariness; which is very far from the defence promised to Magistrates in the Covenant:  the whole land (almost) hath complied with them in all the forementioned particulars so diametrically opposite to the Covenants, and supported, strengthened and encouraged them in these evil courses, by paying them cess and other subsidies; and ministers have minded so much to be loyal to their government, that they have forgotten to be faithful to their souls, in that they have not discovered to them the sin and danger of patronising Prelacy, and exercising Erastianism over the church; but in order to obtain their favor, have clapped their hands in these sins, which certainly is most opposite to that loyalty which we ought to maintain towards Princes, and tends rather to diminish their just power and greatness, than to increase and preserve it; and, instead of being a proper way of defending their persons and authority, is rather a mean to bring the wrath of a just and jealous God upon them, and those who defend or connive at them in these unlawful courses.

“Our own consciences within, and God’s judgment upon us without, do convince us of the manifold, wilful, renewed breaches of the fourth Article, which concerneth the discovery of malignants, consonant to the Scriptures.”

2 Sam. xxiii. 6; Esther vii. 5. 6; Psalm xxvi. 5; Psalm ci. 8; Prov. xxv. 5.

“For their crimes have not only been connived at, but dispensed with and pardoned, and themselves received into intimate fellowship, intrusted with counsels, admitted into parliaments, and put in places of power and authority for managing the public affairs of the kingdom; whereby, in God’s justice, they got at last into their hands the whole power and strength of the kingdom, both in judicatories and armies, and did employ the same unto the enacting and prosecuting an unlawful engagement in war against the kingdom of England, notwithstanding the dissent of many considerable members of parliament, who had given constant proof of their integrity in the cause from the beginning;