the kirk complained[a] that his presence led to ebriety and profaneness,
and he received a request,[b] equivalent to a command, to quit the camp.
The next day a declaration was made, that the company of malignants,
engagers, and enemies to the covenant, could not fail of multiplying
the judgments of God upon the land; an inquiry was instituted into the
characters of numerous individuals; and eighty officers, with many of their
men, were cashiered,[c] that they might not contaminate by their presence
the army of the saints.[1] Still it was for Charles Stuart, the chief of
the malignants, that they were to fight, and therefore from him, to appease
the anger of the Almighty, an expiatory declaration was required[d] in the
name of the parliament and the kirk.

In this instrument he was called upon to lament, in the language of
penitence and self-abasement, his father's opposition to the work of God
and to the solemn league and covenant, which had caused the blood of the
Lord's people to be shed, and the idolatry of his mother, the toleration of
which in the king's house could not fail to be a high provocation against
him who is a jealous God, visiting the sins of the fathers upon the
children; to declare that he had subscribed the covenant with sincerity of
heart, and would have no friends nor enemies but those who were friends or
enemies to it; to acknowledge the sinfulness of the treaty with the bloody
rebels in Ireland, which he was made to pronounce null and void; to detest
popery and prelacy, idolatry and heresy, schism

[Footnote 1: Balfour, iv. 86, 89.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. August 2.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. August 3.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1650. August 5.]
[Sidenote d: A.D. 1650. August 9.]

and profaneness; and to promise that he would accord to a free parliament
in England the propositions of the two kingdoms, and reform the church
of England according to the plan devised by the assembly of divines at
Westminster.[1]

When first this declaration, so humbling to his pride, so offensive to his
feelings, was presented[a] to Charles for his signature, he returned[b] an
indignant refusal; a little reflection induced him to solicit the advice
of the council, and the opinion of the principal ministers. But the godly
refused to wait; the two committees of the kirk and kingdom protested[c]
that they disowned the quarrel and interest of every malignant party,
disclaimed the guilt of the king and his house, and would n