slakely this duty hath been performed the great losses and wofull sufferings of that poor Countrey can now tell of which inconveniencies and evils they had been free at least to this present if they had not joyned with their Friends in England I know it will be said When the Enemy had done with England his designe was with all his power to go into Scotland But human reason tells you That it is wisdom to put off an evil if we can for a time for he that hath time hath life as it is commonly said and the mean while God will provide some means or other to return the evil from his people And so human Policy would have taught the Scots to look to themselves and be quiet but their zeal to the Cause of God could not suffer them and for it they have undergone all this hardship who can and will deliver them in his appointed time And if those for whom they undergo this Service do not requite faithfully their kindnesse God will by some means or others not forget but recompense them according to the sincerity of their intentions But if any of the Scots as I doubt not but there be some who had or have some by-ends in this Work God will punish them for it and shew their vanity for mixing their own interest with his Service who requires the whole of man which is so known to the Enemy of God and of his people that he cares not what good a man do providing he can nourish in him any little evil being sure to catch him at last if he do continue in it Then the Brethren of England are bound not onely by reason to make the Scots no worse then they have found them that is then they were before their late conjunction for it stands against the Laws of all human Society and partnership that one party being preserved from totall ruine and reaping a seen benefit by the Society through the hazard and great losses of the other party not to make the party at least in the same condition he was before the Society far more is it against Justice to see the party undone and perish for us above all if we can afford him help or comfort least of all to rejoyce and make our own advantages of his losses who hath lost himself for us If the thing be so among particular Societies of men Why not so betwixt State and State who are nothing else but a Congregation of lesser Societies And if Justice is to be done by the lesser Why is not the greater far more tyed to it For the most part particular men are either punished or cried out upon as cheaters if they cozen or deceive their fellows And shall States escape free not onely from censure but be thought wise and prudent men for their deceits And shall circumvening in publike affaires be not onely not thought evil but esteemed as a vertue Hence cunning deceitfull man is called Politick and deceit is called Policy To such hight of wickednesse are we now come that vice must go under the name of vertue for Policy is the honest just and prudent carriage of publike affaires and not deceit and guile in them If it were onely to give sin a term lessening the shame of the crime it were to be born withall as for example to call stealing robbing and spoiling plundering as now adayes we do But to call vice vertue is intolerable Next We may see if this stands with the Treaty by this sole instance which is here inserted as it is in the first article And in case that notwithstanding the monethly sum of Thirty thousand pounds payed as aforesaid the States of Scotland shall have just cause to demand further satisfaction of their Brethren of England when the Peace of both Kingdoms is setled for their pains hazards and charges they have undergone they shall have due recompense made unto them by the Kingdom of England Now if the Scots for their pains hazards and charges be not payed of their monethly allowance How is the Treaty observed But the necessity of the times may excuse if there be not a full payment when there is willingnesse to perform if there were capacity But to give reproaches and injuries with threatning and to send men home with shame and without satisfaction who have done and undergone so much for thy good and to save thee from perdition is doubtlesse far from gratitude I pray thee What is it and how far is it from recompense Not to allow men to run home and quench the fire in their own house left having devoured the one it should destroy the other which it would do if it were not quenched in time Yea so long as the fire was but burning in one end of the house in respect of the ingagement it was in a manner little regarded but when it came to shake the very foundations of the building and deface it quite then it was full time to look to it And yet it cannot be approved by some because forsooth There was not a formall warning given as in decency was fit yet it was done with such order as could be expected upon such a nick of time But here it may be said What needs all this to speak of the Treaty Hath ever been any Treaty made betwixt two Nations or States but each have made their best advantage of it and ordinarily the Southern Nation hath been too cunning for the Northern as may be seen in all the Treaties betwixt Spaine and France Spaine hath outcunning'd France and so in the Treaties betwixt France and England France hath over-reached England and so of such others for the most part But as the Southern Nation hath over-reached the Northern by slight and cunning so the Northern oftentimes hath surpast by Field-action the other The reason of this is from the constitution of the body in the Northern people vile domineerers whereby they are inclined to do things rather by a strong hand then otherwise In the Southern people melancholy reigneth whereby they are inclined unto devises to compasse things with lesse force and hazard for where there is most wisdom there is least hazard The more North or South that a people be the more or lesse they have the one of the other But since the Treaty betwixt the Parliament of England and the State of Scotland runs upon other principles to wit of Religion this human over-reaching cunning or surprising is not and ought not to have any place but all is to be guided by conscience according to equity before God and as weare sworn to in our Covenant Wherefore now let us see how this agrees with the Covenant whereby we are all solemnly sworn to promote and advance the setling of a through Reformation in the Church according to the Word of God and the example of the best Reformed Neighbour Churches and if these reproaches injuries and hard usage of the Scots who have contribute so much to bring
this Kingdom to such a posture do not proroge the compassing the same end let God and the World judge And then Are not these things flatly against the third article of the Covenant whereby we are all sworn to defend one another in this Common Cause which how do we perform when we deny assistance to our Brethren in distresse and will not allow them to help their own selves yea we rejoyce at our Brethrens sufferings Are we not bound also by the fourth article not onely to stop and remove any thing which may or might give any wayes occasion of mistake and consequently of division betwixt the two Nations Yea we are sworn to discover those who endeavour any such action and so according to Oath I here declare That it is those incendiaries and factious ones who contrary the ends expressed in the Covenant phancy to set up their evil opinions and invent all means they can to hinder the setling of Government in the Church and consequently as appears by all symptoms to bring Anarchie in the State promising to set down a Seraphin-Modell of a Church which they after so long forbearance will not nor cannot agree among themselves to set down onely they are resolved to stop the setling of the Church-government according as aforesaid to the end that all heresie errour licence libertinisme and corruption may creep in the House of God this is their main drift after their own interest Then Is not the dealing of these factious men with the Scots against the fifth article of the Covenant wherein we are all sworn not onely to keep a good correspondency betwixt the two Nations but also to keep a fair Union for ever Here these factious men will say That the Scots deserve to be thus dealt withall for not doing more Service then they have done this Sommer and not following the desire of the Parliament To which is answered First Let it be seen what the Scots have done and if that which they have done be not as much important to the Common Cause as any thing done elsewhere by any Then If they have not done more let it be seen where the fault lieth whether in them that would not do or in others who have stopped them from doing by hindering them to be furnished and provided for further action More Let it be seen whether or no it were not out of good reason and not by chance that they have not instantly followed the course they were desired to do and whether or no it had been better for the Service of the Common Cause to have so far complied with the designes pressed by those who either would not or did not see and foresee what is most advantagious for the Common Cause or whether or no there was a set Plot to undo the Scots Army Then The Scots are accused To lie heavily upon the Countreys where they come and that they have done many things against the Liberty and Right of the Subject of England I answer As for their burdening or wronging the Subject in the least kinde it is not their intention being come in into England for the relief and righting of the Subject from the oppression and injury of the Common Enemy and if any Souldiers or Officers of theirs have exceeded in any kinde upon just tryall of their faults they are to suffer and to be punished for it besides all things taken by wrong are to be restored and reparation is to be made to the full by the judgement of honest and understanding men upon the place to the end that all mistakes may be taken away and the Union kept betwixt the two Nations in spite of faction and malice against upright men Further Let it be known how the Scots are payed and how they offer to repay ten for one for any thing taken by extortion if they could have the half pay that others have employed in the same Service For this the Scots have frequently sollicited If the Committees of York-shire set a work by some secret Enemy had not gone so high and published at every Parish-Church their orders against the Scots as the Prelats did in former times with their bloody thunder-bolts of excommunication and if they had remembred in whose hands the Liberties and Rights were when the Scots came in to help or where their Committees were then sitting and how far their orders had been obeyed then they might have thought whether or no they had ever had a Parliament given to authorize them if it had not been for the Scots and the Parliament being assembled whether or no sitting this day Till these factious men did rise who besturre themselves so much now of late it was said ordinarily for any Reformation obtained either in Church or State and for stopping any evil to the Publike or to any private men Gara mercy good Scot As this is now forgotten by divers private men to their shame and discredit so these factious men would have it to be out of memory by the Publike but they strive in vain for neither Parliament nor People Synod nor Church will ever nor can forget what they owe to the Scots for the good they enjoy at this present and hope to enjoy hereafter in Gods Mercy Then It is reproached to the Scots to their great grief That they pursue too rigidly the setling of the Church which may be done at leasure when other things are ended and must be performed with ripe consideration for fear of mistake And That they presse too much for Peace when it is apparent none can be made but by the overthrow of the malignant party As also That they stand so much for Royaltie when God knows the King deserveth but little at their hands they being the men he hath the greatest splen against and whom he haâ—es most as he declares himself by all his expressions To all this they answer First That they are obliged in the first place to see the House of the Lord setled and then to look to temporall things for this they have not onely Law and reason to begin at God but also example First out of the sacred History where we see that all true Reformers of the State of Israel and Judah did begin at the Reformation of the House of God Then we see the same in the Ecclesiasticall History practised by the Ancients And of late Hath not the same been done in our Neighbour-Countreys yea in our own by our Fathers And is it not full time after so long and so tedious a debate since it is agreed upon how what it should be by the full consent of Divines assembled for that purpose except of some few of a private spirit for self-conceit and by-interest who having nothing to answer unto the demonstration of the Truth and the reasons for it made known unto them yet with obstinacy do oppose the setling of the Church and so way is given if not countenance to all kinde of heresie errour and blasphemy
this time come to a great hight had been in little consideration and they whose valour and wisdom are so much questioned at this time surely in their own businesse they did shew themselves to have both to the admiration of their Neighbours and their valour and wisdom were never questioned till they were joyned with England and although they have shewn do shew daily both as much as men can do for the carrying on the Work wherein they are ingaged unto the content of all impartiall men although not to the mind of self-conceited phantasticall and by-ended ones who gave out That the Scots will destroy them and themselves Surely I am perswaded had the Scots framed their courses according to the desires altogether of some men they had long ere now both been destroyed and had they not so far complied with the humours of some men the Publike Service had been in a better estate in all probability In this I blame the wisdom of the Scots for otherwise they had not suffered their own Countrey thus to be spoiled in compliance to some when they might have helped it in time As for their means Although in the eyes of the superabondants they be not so considerable yet they were such that they lived well upon them and they could wish with all their hearts to have no more then they had when they joyned with England for the Service of this Common Cause And if they reproach the barrennesse of the soile in Scotland It is the fault of the Climate which lieth so Northerly and not of the people and the soile if it be not so fertile of fruits as hotter grounds yet it abounds in men of valour and wisdom as much as any Countrey whatsoever of its compasse And these despicable ones of old and of late have obtained Victories against great and considerable Enemies by valour Perhaps if the Scots were more enclined to husbandry or improving their ground and other things which nature affords them by the goodnesse of God they would be in a kinde more plentifull of conveniencies for the life of man then they are As to the Garison-Towns which the Scots have rescued from the Enemy for the good of this Church and State with hazard hardship and losse of divers brave men and which are still in the Scots hands for the publike Service it hath ministred one convenient occasion unto those factious ones to make a great deal ado yea to strive to bring things to a breach betwixt the two Kingdoms if it were possible and they have proceeded so far as to cause the Towns and Places to be demanded from the Scots betwixt such and such a day without any consideration unto equity Whether or no it is just that the Scots have some places of retreat so long as they are in the Service of the Common Cause wherein they are obliged by Common Interest and bound by Treaty to continue till the full setling of things in Church and State Next Without consideration if it be or not for the benefit of the Service now in hand that these Garison-Places should be left by the Scots since we have seen by divers passages and occurrences of affaires that it hath proved very usefull for the said Service that those places were in their hands for a time namely in the enterprise of Digby with his associates towards Scotland Then When we cast our eyes upon those who have an aim particularly at the having of those places we shall finde it to be fit for the Service of the Cause which we fight for that those Garison-Towns should remain with those who now have them for a time who are both constant and trusty to their true principles of the Covenant and the others altogether against the good of the said Service Yea It is most prejudiciable to the Cause we have now in hand to put those places in the hands of those who either side with the Common Enemy still in their affections as they have been serving him openly by their actions formerly or of those who underhand with cunning stop the setling of things amongst us as we are sworn to by the Covenant and so frustrate so far as in them lies the intention of it Further Those men who are so little faithfull to the Covenant cannot from their heart mind the good of the State or people more then they do the welfar of the Church As the Scots took Arms for the publike Service they neither pretended nor did intend to hold the places they have taken any longer then the said Service shall require for the setling of the ends of the Common Cause expressed in the Covenant no more then they did formerly witnesse their returning so quietly home and their refusall of those Seigneuries Towns and Counties adjacent from the King to joyn with him against the Parliament and that more then once Me thinks that after all this all rationall and unprejudiciall men should speak clearly for the Scots fair and honest intentions since they are entred into so solemn a League and Covenant for which they have undergone and do to this day undergo so much hardship hazards and losses Men may talk and babble yea devise tricks and fancies for a time but it is honesty and truth that holds out to the end and it stands with Gods Justice to make lyes and double dealings fall to the ground Before I conclude I will adde this short ensuing discourse First There hath been a great busling raised by those factious men who trouble both State and Church about the publishing of some papers given in to the Houses of Parliament by the Scots Commissioners Those men had prevailed so far with some of their Friends in authority as to make an exact scrutinie by whom these papers were first printed and by whose order as for the second impression they had nothing to say which the Commissioners caused to be made upon a nicety for some faults of the Printer committed in the first impression thinking themselves wronged namely because it was not corrected according to their mind and the thing to have been done without their expresse order but since it was done it could not be ret called Next Those factious men moved their Friends in authority to draw up a Declaration against the Scots for those papers with very tart expressions as we are informed but after riper deliberation the fume of anger being setled the thing was left off a time for they did clearly perceive that no Declaration satisfactory to the people could be made against the Scots or their papers since it could not be demonstrated that full satisfaction in reason had been given to the Scots upon their severall papers from time to time given in Now Let the Scots Commissioners confesse that they have failed by their silence in not making known unto the world from time to time the papers of greatest concernment which they have given in to the Houses and what satisfaction they have received upon