n previously invaded from Scotland; that the
presbyterian party was friendly to monarchy; that that party had
interfered with their attempts to reform the government of England, and
declared against them as sectaries; and that a second invasion of England
by the Scottish nation was known to have been contemplated. On the other
hand, it was affirmed that the invasion of England, by the Marquis of
Hamilton, had been always disapproved of, and opposed by those who were
now in power in Scotland; that in taking up arms against the people of
Scotland, the English were proclaiming themselves the enemies of those who
had formed a covenant with them, and helped them in the day of their
distress; and that although the necessity or lawfulness of a war with
England, in present circumstances, had never been determined upon, nor
been even discussed either in parliament or in the assembly, there could
be no doubt a design was formed to overturn both the civil and
ecclesiastical institutions of the northern part of the island, and make
it a mere province of England.

Richard Baxter felt the warmest sympathy at this period with the Scottish
people, and with his usual intrepidity and honesty, openly arraigned the
conduct of his countrymen for invading Scotland. Binning, and the ablest
of his friends, could not have pled their own cause in the presence of
Cromwell, and his officers, with greater power and eloquence, than he did
for them, with the parliamentary soldiers and others, over whom he
possessed any influence. "When the soldiers were going against the king
and the Scots," says he, "I wrote letters to some of them to tell them of
their sin, and desired them at last to begin to know themselves. They were
the same men who had boasted so much of love to all the godly, and pleaded
for tender dealing with them, and condemned those that persecuted them, or
restrained their liberty, who were now ready to imbrue their swords in the
blood of such as they acknowledged to be godly; and all because they dared
not be as perjured, or disloyal, as they were. Some of them were startled
at these letters, and thought me an uncharitable censurer, who would say
that they could kill the godly, even when they were on the march to do it;
for how bad soever they spoke of the cavaliers (and not without too much
desert as to their morals), they confessed, that abundance of the Scots
were godly men. Afterwards, however, those that I wrote to better
understood