Format 
Page no. 
Search this text 
Title:  An answer to a discourse intituled, Truth it's manifest, &c
Author: Babington, Abraham
Table of contents | Add to bookbag
cast durt upon his Countrey-men and blasted their reputations, that he confes∣eth himself, great murmurings did arise against them; and thus, saith he, the Scots were innocently traduced by Malignants; they that spake truth of them and of their carriages in these businesses, were indeed innocent, here by a mistake, be∣fore he is aware, he spake truth; he will have them Malignants, though they be innocent, if they speak against the Scots; but it was indeed an innocent traducing, to slander them with a matter of truth: Now he brings forth his common salve, to which he flieth when he hath nothing else to say, that will serve the turn to cure the sore, that is, they are all Malignants & traducers that speak any thing against the honest Scots; before I answer in particular to what he alleadgeth in their defence, let it be observed, that this is a threed which runs through the whole work, hardly a piece without it, the discourse for the most part consisting all along of complaints made against his Countrey-men, and his purgations of them, which what are they, but railings and devised tales, to slander those men whom he conceives to have reported, or do believe the things complained of, though never so true and apparent; this you find almost in every leaf; we use to say, So much smoak is not without some fire, and certainly, they are reputed to be of no great innocencie, whose fame is so bad, that they stand in cōtinual need of cōpurgators. Let us now see what the faults are, which they are charged with in these particulars, and how he clears them; the House of Parliament, he saith, press to know, what was become of the Scots, and why they had gone this unexpected way, why after so many earnest calls and Orders for it, they would not march Southward, the good of the publick service so much requiring it? He will not here hold up his common buckler in defence, and say they are all Malignants, Hereticks, Schismaticks, and such as love not the common cause of Religion; but when for the same things objected against the Scots, he will say this of other men, that in so using the Scots, they are to be rank∣ed in the number of Malignants, and that they are neither honest nor faithfull to the cause; through their sides, that complained but of the very same things the two Houses did, he strikes the two Houses of Parliament as much, for their being unsatisfied with the carriage of the Scots herein: he had said a little before, they were Malignants and traducers who found fault with the Scots, for running back∣wards, and leaving the whole burthen of the War upon the Forces of the Parliament in the South; is not this the very same complaint, which he here saith the two Houses make against the Scots for not coming Southward? therefore we see what, in his judgement, they are to be accounted; indeed hereby it may appear what account is to be made of those base slanders, and false imputations, he every where casts upon men of more integritie and sinceritie a great deal, both in re∣spect of Religion, and the common cause of just Libertie, than those he thereby labors to excuse: yet the two Houses of Parliament shall have another way found out to give them satisfaction, and to that end our comes his Scotch Manifest again, which, he saith, he had touched before; he had so, but this sore must have the salve often applyed, and all too little to cure it, except in the minds of those men who are of his simpler sort, who understood nothing of the truth of their carriage in this business; for whatsoever he boasts of the satisfaction these Papers gave to the Members of the House, who would hearken unto them, (it may well be many knew them not worth hearkening unto) it satisfied no man of understanding, that knew, or had a true Relation made unto him of this unexpected and strange 0