HISTORY OF ENGLAND

50 CHARLES I1 AND CROMWZLL IN SCOTLAND. XI. 3.A.D. I 650.at the sight, ' let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered.'Among the Independents the old thirst for battle, stimulatedby success, was redoubled by a sense of the dangers in whicha defeat would have plunged them, The Scots too were fullof determination and zeal. But as the regiments of the leftwing were set in motion to go to the assistance of the right,they found themselves ill disorder on the narrow space betweenthe heights which they had first occupied and thenleft, and the ravine. If they tried to turn aside to the hills,the victorious English troops at once broke through theirranks. They were unable to form into a compact body ; andso it happened that panic retreat and rout spread along thewhole line, now attacked on the other side as well. Menusually brave were seen throwing away their arms ; theydispersed in the most opposite directions, not only to Haddingtonbut to Dunbar. As many as 3000 were killed, andgoo0 taken prisoners. 'But we,' writes Hodgson, 'returned backto our tents, like Issachar, to return thanks for the deliverancevouchsafed to us on this day by God.'Very remarkable is it how completely these races of WesternEurope have made their own the records of the ancientEastern world. Their Celto-Germanic traditions and legendsare forgotten. For those Eastern records contain at once thehistory of religion and the history of the human race, beforewhich national differences fade into nothing. Nowhere havethe books of the Old Testament exercised a more powerfulinfluence over individuals. The God of Israel is for themtheir own God, under whose eyes they believe themselvesto fight as a second chosen people.After the battle, Leith, Edinburgh and Linlithgow fell intothe conqueror's hands. Edinburgh Castle was then for thefirst time reduced by a hostile force. Cromwell consideredthat by this success the great contest was decided theoreticallyas well as actually. Both sides had appealed to God,who had now manifested himself through the issue of thebattle. He required the Scots to recognise the mightyhand of God, and to bow to the decision that had beengiven.The Presbyterians maintained consistently that religiousXI. -3. CHARLES N AND CROMWELL IN SCOTLAND. 5 iA.D. I 650.truth is not discoverable by a contest with sword and pistol.In the pulpits the preachers were heard remonstrating with-God, because he had given the bad cause the advantageover the good, which yet was his own. Still the event hada great effect on the religious opinions of the Scots. Itcaused a fresh division among them. There were many tooamong them who, while searching for the causes of the defeat,found no other than their alliance with a hypocritical King,a malignant at heart, and with his adherents. It was preciselythe ministers of the strictest Covenanting opinions, suchas James Guthrie and Patrick Gillespie, who were generallydiscontented at the calling in of the King1. They set on footin the western counties an armed association, at the headof which appear some zealous officers, such as Strachan andKer, who refused to serve any longer under David Lesley.It is possible that there may have been adherents of Cromwellamong them, but generally they were but little inclinedto him, and their troops were dispersed by Lambert in a fewweeks. In their Remonstrances, from which they derivedthe name of the Remonstrants, we meet with sentimentsin which they agree with Cromwell. For instance, it didnot satisfy them that hitherto the Scots had resolved tobe content with the King's taking the Covenant beforehis recognition by the nation. Their wish was that heshould be required to have given trustworthy proofs of repentanceand inward agreement before he could be obeyed :and this they demanded on the same religious grounds thatCromwell had put forward. And if, they added further, thereis already sin even in recognising such a King, how far moresinful is it to wish to force him upon another nation overwhich they have no authority2. They withdrew from theprinciples of the old League. England they wished to leaveto herself. Scotland was to be ruled indeed in the King'sname, but by the Committees of the State and the Church,' From Livingstone's Memoirs (Tweedie's Select Biographies i.) it is clear thathe took part in the first assembly at Kilmarnock.' The remonstrance of the gentlemen, commanders, and ministers attending theforces of the West. Balfour iv. 141.