Note 476 — CCCXXX.—To Mr. William Guthrie, when the army was at Stirling, after the defeat at Dunbar,[475] and the godly in the West were falsely branded with intended compliance with the usurpers, about the time when those debates and that difference concerning the Public Resolutions arose.[476]

After the battle of Dunbar, it was proposed that the restraints by which such as had, by various Acts of Parliament, been excluded from places of power and trust in the army and state, on account of their Malignancy, or opposition to the Covenant and liberties of the nation, should be removed. This was at first refused; but after the defeat at Hamilton, the Commission agreed to certain resolutions, for admitting into places of power and trust in the Army and State such as had been excluded by the Acts of Parliament referred to. These were called "Public Resolutions," and they became a source of much dissension in the church. At last they were formally approved of by the General Assembly held in July 1651, at St. Andrews, and adjourned to Dundee. At the last sederunt at St. Andrews, Rutherford, who was strongly opposed to the Resolutions, gave in a protestation against the lawfulness of that Assembly. It was subscribed by twenty-one besides himself. Hence those opposed to the Public Resolutions were called "Protesters," and those friendly to them, "Resolutioners."