all laws, all liberties; a power to tyrannize
as they pleased without control. But, as it was their sin who
inaugurated Charles II. after such discoveries of his hypocritical
enmity to religion and liberty, upon his subscription to the Covenants,
so when he burned and buried that Covenant, and degenerated into
manifest tyranny, and had razed the very foundation upon which both his
right to govern, and the people's allegiance were founded, and remitted
the subjects' allegiance by annulling the bond of it: it was the land's
sin that they continued still to own his authority when opposite to, and
destructive of religion and liberty; and of those who appeared in arms
at Pentland and Bothwell Bridge, that they put in his interest (with
application of the words of the Covenant to him, though stated in
opposition to it) into _the state of the quarrel_, in their _declaration
of war_, for which (so far as the godly could discern) the Lord put them
to shame, and went not forth with their armies. It was likewise the sin
of the land, and a great breach of Covenant, when the Duke of York was
admitted to the exercise of the royal office against the laws of God and
man; being incapable of the Covenant qualifications of a magistrate, and
being a Papist, and so incapable of taking the "oath of coronation to
maintain the true Protestant religion, and gainstand and abolish
Popery;" which, for the preservation of the true religion, laws, and
liberties of this kingdom, is stated by the 8th Act of Parliament, I
King James VI, "That all kings, at the reception of their princely
authority, shall take and swear;" yet this authority, though
inconsistent with, and declaredly opposite to religion and liberty, was
owned and upheld, by paying cess and supplies, expressly exacted for
upholding tyranny in the destruction of religion and liberty; and though
the Lord did, for a long time, by the tyranny of Charles II. and James
VII., chastise these covenanted lands, yet there has not been a turning
to him that smiteth: but these lands have again transgressed the Lord's
commandments, and broken this part of the Covenant of the Lord, by
receiving, admitting, supporting and subjecting to such, for Kings and
Queens over these realms as want the qualifications required in God's
word, and enacted by the righteous and laudable laws of the land to be
in magistrates, superior and inferior: which were not brought under
Covenant ties and obligations, to be for God a