contrary to League and Agreement Plundred and robb'd in the taking of our ships and goods that traded that way and to other places to great values Trod underfoot in their disgracefull dragging our English Colours after their Sterns when they had robb'd our ships Thus dared by the Commonaltie beyond measure in their belching out of Oaths Curses Slanders and by their Masters in preparing Fleets to infest our Coasts beating up of Drums for Voluntiers and endeavoured to be destroyed in Trump's late assaulting our Fleet in the time of Treaty and whilst there was Amity between us Greater Love and Assistance then by the English to them hath not been shown to a People Never was love so ill requited and abused never was patience so much provoked nor ever had people a juster ground to look them in the face in case of Engagement which they have now forced the righteous God will judge between them and us The People and Cause of God in this Nation is Holynesse to the Lord All that devour it shall offend Evill shall come upon them Scotland hath found it so with a witness Even the People of God amongst them who endeavoured its destruction Ireland is yet paying dear for it and upon France are the Vials powring out those of our own Nation that assisted this Cause in the beginning and were eminent therein in Godliness and honesty falling upon this stone afterwards have been broken in pieces so tender hath it been in the sight of God Even as the apple of his Eye Oh thou Belgia what will become of thee in the day when thy rage thy cruelty they malice thy scorne thy ingratitude thy opposition to this hallowed thing shall come into remembrance and is not that day already begun When every crying a aha every b clapping of thy hands every stamping with thy feet Every rejoycing in thy heart with despight every of thy taking c vengeance and revenge for the old hatred every of thy saying she is d broken she is turned unto me I shall be replenished she is laid waste Every of thy taking them up on the e Lips of talkers and making them the infamy of the People Every of thy f Blasphemies in saying they are laid waste they are given us to consume g when as the Lord was there Every of their h Reproaches and Revilings shall be remembred and carry with it a weight of vengeance for Recompence Every i evil neighbour will be visited in the day that God doth k avenge the Controversie of his Cause what then will become of you that have done more against it then all the ill Neighbours He hath begun it already the Kings and great ones of England Scotland and Ireland have drunk deeply of the l Cup they are become a desolation and their Cities shall not return The People have wallowed in their blood have m cursed their God and their King and looked upwards Even Godly men that have walked in this n craoked Path God hath led them forth with the workers of Iniquity God hath been o jealous for it with a great jealousie and out of the p mouth of the Lyon and the jaw of the mighty hath he pluck'd it and set it up on q high He hath lift up his r Banner upon it and advanced it as a Å¿ signe to the Kingdoms of the Earth whoever will not bow down unto it we may rationally expect according to the precedent series of divine Providence must be broken in pieces And who are you oh yeNeatherlanders that dare to set your selves against the Lord against what he hath done and is doing in these Nations to endeavour to strike out all the glorious Characters of his footsteps and presence what his Arm hath brought to pass for him and his mighty Power establish'd in these Dominions Who are you that dare to think that you can root out this Cause and give the lye to all the appearances of God the Prayer the Faith the Prayses of his Saints in these Nations Who are you that say their t Gods are Gods of the Hills therefore we will fight with them in the Valleys They stood against their own Forces but they shall not against ours The Land is given them in possession but the deep is ours and we will swallow them up as in the belly of Hell Our God is the same and so is our Cause on the Sea as well as the Land Spain found it so in the year 1588. and All others have since our late Wars and Troubles Take heed least Divine Power work revengeingly there as it hath begun upon you already and burie your Carcasses in the mighty waters and take heed least that though we would pass by yet God will not pardon what you have done against his Cause and us What is it that hath turned your hearts against your friends and set you to so ill requite their Love their bloud their hardships for you What is it that hath made you to affect and assist that cursed thing of Monarchy in these Nations which you before us saw to be a Plague and adventured your All to be rid of it and which hath confounded all its supporters and which God hath made to appear to be an accursed thing as clear as the Sun at noon day What is it that makes you retrograde to your Principles of a Free State that having known the benefit of Freedom through the Bloud of England you should endeavour the slavery of England Why should you be angry that we stand upon our Legs and honestly proceed to serve the advantage of our impoverish'd Countery and to improve what God in nature Providence and by the dreadfulness of War hath handed to us Why should you covet our Trade and Riches and not rather be contented with what God gives you though it were with a sparing hand Why should you rather delight to see us in our Blood our Cities and Habitations laid waste Our Bodies Wives Virgins prostituted to the mercy of the Bloody Enemies of God and us and rather then fail endeavour it with your own hands then that you should be disappointed of the sweetness of that gain you got by our Losses and Ruines Why should you be grieved at the heart that you did not fully assert the King of Scots interest when as you see God is against him and against his bloudy House And the Lord knows how much you are under vengeance for what you have done for him already Would you be thus measured to your selves Doe you think that the Cause here which hath in its weakest condition born down all before it like a mighty Torrent will not quit it self against your unrighteous Attempts Think you that this State who to do their People Right have not spared King nor Constitution Friend or Brother but have travelled through ten years bloudy Wars waiting upon God for such a day as this Even
THE Case Stated BETWEEN ENGLAND And the United Provinces In this present Juncture Together with a short view of those Netherlanders in their late Practises As to Religion Liberty Leagues Treaties Amities Publish'd for the Information of and a warning to England By a Friend to this Commonwealth They rewarded me Evill for Good Psalm 35. 12. And Joab said unto Amasa Art thou in health my brother and Joab took Amasa by the beard with the right hand to Kiss him but Amasa took no heed to the Sword that was in Joabs hand so he smote him therewith in the Fift Ribb 2 Sam. 22. 9 10. Who knowing the Judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of Death not only do the same but have pleasure in them that doe them Rom. 1. 32. For thus saith the Lord of Hosts After the Glory hath he sent me to the Nations that spoiled you for he that toucheth you toucheth the Apple of his Eye Zach. 2. 8. London Printed by Tho. Newcomb and are to be sold by Anthony Williamson at the Queens-arms in Pauls church-yard near the West-end M. DC LII The Case stated between ENGLAND and the UNITED Provinces in this present Juncture HAd it pleas'd the supream disposer of all things who changeth times and seasons and doth with the Nations of the World as he pleaseth to have continued the ancient Amity and friendship that hath been between the Commonwealth of England and the Vnited Provinces which on our parts hath always been endeavoured It would have been matter of great content unto us to have wanted the opportunity of discourses of this nature the English Nation having given for almost a century of years together the most unparalel'd Testimonies of their affections and love unto those Countreys but since they seem to chuse War rather then Peace in bringing their armed Fleets to our borders and there in a hostile manner assaulting and endeavouring to destroy part of our Navy whilst the Amity between them and us continued yea even when their Ambassadors were treating with us for a strict League and Vnion and notwithstanding the great tenderness of this State to avoid every thing that might lead to a Rupture saving the undoubted Rights and Dominion of this Nation and the Justice they ought to administer to their People thereby enforcing us to some engagement and seeing how necessary it is in such times as these that the People be rightly informed in the state of things I have briefly placed a few things together as the state of the Case whereby the People of England may know how much it concerneth them to look about in this present Juncture When the Spaniard was likely to have swallowed up the People of the Vnited Provinces their Libertie and Exercise of the Protestant Religion in the days of Queen Elizabeth and the sad groans of those then distressed States were by their Publick Ministers breathed forth to the State of England though the constitution then of this Nation was under Monarchy Though the Nation had but then abandoned the practise of the Popish Religion professed therein for many hundreds of years before which greatly dissetled the Peace thereof and caused many Rebellions Though this Nation was then engaged in War with Ireland and the Countreys about Though the chief Government thereof was by a Woman matter of encouragement to Enemies both abroad and at home to designe upon England Though all these were very great grounds wherefore England should have looked to her self and not empty her Treasures and weaken her Force for the preservation of others especially when that thereby she was likely to provoke the Spanish Powers against her self as it afterwards fell out in 1588 yet so open was the heart of the People of England to receive the cries of the Vnited Provinces so tenderly did they resent their Condition that as if it were not now the Dutch but the condition of England they willingly espoused their Quarrel undertook their Protection the Parliament of England advanced Queen Elizabeth several subsidies for this work and England enabled her to lend the Dutch eleven hundred thousand Pound Sterling which was a great sum of mony in those days and to them especially who could then hardly raise any considerable sum for the management of so great an affair in all their Provinces ship'd them over many thousands of English men when their own Countrey afforded very few Souldiers and all this when neither League Amity or Reciprocall kindness required them thereunto and which through the goodness of God put a present stop to the Spaniard who was breaking in upon them like the breach of the sea and in time helped them into that condition which hath occasioned them to give themselves the title of High and Mighty States and assisted their Nation so not for a year but for above four score years not in the beginning of their Wars only but till the last year that by Peace there was an end of War not when their condition had a probable dress of advantage upon it but when it was under the greatest improbabilities and this not with a thousand mens lives onely but with the lives of many thousands whose blood was shed in their Wars Nor did the necessity of our Engagements with Rebels within and the neighbour Nations round about cause us to withdraw our help from them but so dear were their Liberties and the profession of the Protestant Religion with them to us that it seem'd to be but one Nation one Cause and quarrel being entertained by us with the affections of Brethren the love of Friends and the respects of Neighbours and Allyes nor have we envyed at but rejoyced in their welfare and prosperity In process of time when the late King of England thought fit to put in execution what had been before contrived in his Father's days to wit the enslaving of England and to that end advanced his prerogative above the Law by which he ought to have ruled both by his oath and the constitution of this Nation and his power upon the consciences of his Subjects in the Injunction of superstitious Innovations in Religious Services which with his tolleration of Popery permitting of many Jesuits and the Popes Nuntio in England himself being sometimes seen at Mass were black symptomes of the Antichristian darkness coming upon us and to advance this end levied Arms against the Scots who then both saw and opposed those growing mischiefs when these things answered not his expectation but rather turned both Nations into union to withstand such proceedings he countenanced if not commissionated that horrid and not to be parallel'd Rebellion in Ireland the blood whereof is not stopt to this very day and yet when he saw the Parliament more resolved to oppose his wicked and Tyrannicall proceedings and that nothing would serve them but Justice on his evil Councellors and security for their Laws and Liberties being grieved that he had condiscended to any thing though it
was their due and what was forced from him that concern'd their Liberty and that he might recover all that the People of England had got of their own of him and his Predecessors at once by the Sword he set up his Standard at Nottingham bidding thereby defiance to the Parliament and the Laws of England whereupon the flames of War broke forth in every part and nothing but the levying of Arms and the sad calamities of War abounded in all parts of this Nation When the Parliament were thus enforced to wrastle with the powers of the King the Malignity and opposition of most of the Nobility and Gentry the whole Prelaticall and Atheisticall party the Court and Monopoly Dependants the name of a King which had then some awe amongst the people the Treachery and apostacy of many of their Members and Officers in Civil and Military Imployments The War of Ireland and the Powers of forraign Kingdoms who in point of Interest might be expected to ingage against them and that through the blood of the People and the hazards of War they were constrained to proceed for the obtaining of that Liberty which the King was in duty to have preserved From whom could they expect any affections but from the Dutch who in point of Interest being themselves a Commonwealth but even now torne out of the Jawes of Monarchy through a sea of Blood and millions of Treasure In point of preservation we being the Generations of those who took their Cause out of the dust and set it in the Throne and who ballanced always the late Kings envy and malice to that State themselves also having the designes of the Prince of Orange in their own Bowels working up towards the height of that Tyranny which the Enemies sword would have set up in England And in point of gratitude to those people who had chosen the Neatherlanders before their own safety in theirs and the Neatherlanders greatest times of danger were so deeply engaged One would think that their affections their bowels their money their force and their very souls should have been ready to be powred out for the Parliament whom God made formerly the very Instruments of their beeing and upon whom they might write the Foundation under God of their Prosperity at least that they should not maligne their Cause or advantage their Enemy But instead thereof their Envy to our Nation Malignity to our Cause assistance to our Enemy affronts and scorns to us and our friends in the day of our calamity have exceeded Shall I say any nay all our neighbours round about they became our enemies Treasury for Money their Magazine for Armes and Ammunition their Arsenall for Artillery and warlick provisions both by Sea and Land their refuge and shelter their place for counsell and advice and no doubt had publickly asserted our enemies interest had not the consideration of their great advantage in getting the Trade and Riches of England into their hands by our wars perswaded a seeming Newtrality Nor did these things satisfie them as if they thought they could never shew respect enough to our enemies and enmity to us Borrel and Raynswoold their Ambassadors in the year 1645. coming into England upon pretence of recōciling our differences besides other disservices in the then House of Commons assigned the Justice of the quarrel on the Kings side an unparaleld affront and every way unfit to be given by any especially by Forreigne States who were not concerned in our civill differences and which the Lords and Commons in Parliament then took notice of in their Declaration to the States Generall of those Provinces Afterwards Mr. Strickland our Agent had the Door of the States Generall shut against him for the space of about one year and a halfe and never admitted audience though at the same time Macdowell Agent for the King of Scots had admittance to whom when Dr. Dorislans was added he was assassinated in their Provinces and to this day not so much as a Warrant sent forth by the States General for the apprehending of those murtherers nor have they proscribed them their Dominions nor any thing done by them whereby their abhorrency of the Murther of a publick Minister might appear Nor have things rested here but when the Lord Saint Joh◠and Mr. Strickland were lately sent over Ambassadors after the death of the Prince of Orange upon whom as a cause some of the former injuries against us were laid how were they affronted and endeavoured to be mischieved by Prince Edward who called them Doggs to their faces and Apsley who designed to strangle the Lord Saint John in his chamber to say nothing of all the abuses attempted upon them by the ungoverned multitude on their followers and the assaults on their houses and though they were some days in their power after complaints and demands of justice made yet were not secured and brought to justice or proscribed to this day which being added to the former affronts and injuries and the delayes in the treaty though it provoked not the Parliament to a demand of present reparation so tender have they alwayes been of a breach with them yet they so ill resented it that it was one reason wherefore they recalled those Ambassadors It will be too long to reckon up the severall supplies of Officers Souldiers Arms Ammunition Artillery Money Ships and Provisions that have been issued from those Countries for the assistance of the late King and the then King of Scots his son in their warres against the Parliament of England in England Scotland and Ireland particularly the 20000 Arms 26 Field Guns and 250 Barrels of powder shipt aboard two ships at Amsterdam for England when the King of Scots was lately at Worcester with his Army and at the said Kings desire Likewise the many intollerable injuries depredations and Murthers committed on severall of the English Nation as in the case of Amboyna sufficiently known to the world which was perpetrated even when the people were alive that saw what the English had done for them in the dayes of Queen Elizabeth and soon after a solemn Treaty and Agreement made of all differences between the Nations in those parts The many high Insolencies and affronts given this Nation at Sea in dragging the Colours of England under the Sterns of their ships after they had most injuriously taken their ships and goods from them and caneing the Seamen for being as they call'd it against their King some of this practised on severall English but the last Summer and the robbing of the English Merchants of their ships and goods at Sea to very great values Such things being fitter for a Volume then a few sheets of paper It will take up too much time also to particularize their late securing our ships and goods severall times that were within their coasts there being no cause given by us for such proceedings The marching of their Forces to their frontier Towns beating up of Drums for
June 22. The Lords Commissioners accepted with all humble acknowledgement the tender of 3000 Horse but withal desired the loan of 3000 Foot June 29 following The Duke of Orleans by Captain Remond sent this answer wherein he granted their desire both of 3000 Horse and 3000 Foot provided that the Catholick Religion be allowed as aforesaid Made at Breda July 4. 1646. Signed Remond Whereupon the Lords Commissioners promised to the King of France and Queen Regent that the Town of Antwerp falling into their hands they would leave there the exercise of the Catholick Religion free and publick Made at Breda the 11 July 1646. and signed by the Commissioners and in explication of the said agreement the Churches left for that purpose shall be four But that it may appear not onely how the Dutch did one while Treat with the French and make a shew of Friendship and that they would not break their Leagues with the French yet did deal under-hand with the Spaniard for the conclusion of a Peace as I have shewed already I shall now shew you how unhandsomely they served the French after the grant of these supplies and how they might have taken Antwerp if they had pleased Upon the ratification of the former things the Army of the Prince of Orange advanceth towards Antwerp and he was with his Army the 26 of July at Stechen then at Loqueren the French Supplies came according to Promise Teemche Castle lying by the Schelde beyond Antwerp was taken in the people of Antwerp did as good as offer up the Town to the Prince of Orange The French in the mean time had taken Dunkerk Antwerp would have followed with ease But the Prince of Orange left Teemche Castle assoon as he had taken it though that was the time to have taken Antwerp and never besieged or assaulted the said Town but the design thereof soon vanisht and the 6000 Auxiliaries not made use of to the great discontent and dammage of the French who by sparing such a number were disinabled to undertake any considerable thing that Summer and to the ruine of the poor Protestants there as I said before and the Treaty of Munster with the Spaniard went on without the notice or consent of the French And the French Ambassador told the States that some of the State-Plenipotentiaries at Munster had been with the Spanish Plenipotentiaries and assured them that although the Army of the States General should march into the field yet they should only lie still and effect nothing to the prejudice of the Spaniards Also the French Ambassadors shewed the States several Letters which they had received from France making mention of some Letters intercepted of Pennerandas wherein â—ee writes That the Peace was agreed on without having any regard to the French Interest which was not so much as named by the Dutch and though the other Provinces should hee against it yet because Holland was for it they would soon bring the other Provinces to a compliance as it did appear afterwards But to proceed the War being carried on against the Spaniard conjointly from the year 1635. to the year 1647. It brought the King of Spain very low Who thereupon sent his Ambassadors The Lords Conde De Penneranda and A Brun to sollicit the Dutch to a Treaty of peace who notwithstanding all the forementioned Leagues and Treaties to be faithfully and religiously kept that no Peace or Truce should be made with Spain without the consent of both parties having entred into a Ligue Guarrantie several times for that purpose the French being thereby deeply engaged against the Spaniard and having begun these Allyances and War upon the desire of the Dutch yet they entred upon a Treaty of Peace without the consent of the French and notwithstanding the several speeches of the French Ambassadors the Letters of the King and at last the Ambassadors Protest the 30 Januar 1648. A Peace was signed sealed and ratified at Munster between Philip 4. of Spain and the States of the United Provinces I shall only give you a touch of the proceeds of the French Ambassadors with the States during this Treaty and the States to him and so conclude this long yet necessary and pertinent story The States General having taken their final resolution for a Treaty of peace with Spain Monsieur de Thuillerie theFrench Ambassador Extraordinary the 15 November 1647 presented a paper to the said States wherein hee told them That he understood that they were upon the point to send their Plenipotentiaries to Munster to conclude their Negotiation with Spain and that nothing was wanting to be done but signing that he thought it convenient to minde them that hee had spoken with them concerning the reciprocal obligations that were between France and them which invited them to stand firm to what hath been formerly agreed upon to which he had received no answer it being requisite that hee should have one to give to the King and Queen Regent that they might give their Plenipotentiaries advice at Munster what they may expect especially since that at that time the Spaniard flattered himself of the hope he had to separate that State from the Crown of France Therefore he desired them earnestly to consider what had been formerly agreed on between them and that he had good hope of their great wisdome and wonted loyalty not to send their Plenipotentiaries to Munster otherwise then with Orders conformable to those obligations aforesaid and the Ancient friendship they had alwayes with France Hague 15 Novemb. 1647. Signed De la Thuillerie The States resolution being once for all confirmed they answered this Paper with silence The Heer Van Nederhorst was the only man of the Plenipotentiaries that scrupled the signing of the said Treaty and his reason was because their League and Covenants with the French King were not yet abrogated and that Oath of Agreement by which they were tyed to him not yet taken away who being one of the Plenipotentiaries feigning himself not well desired leave of the States for his healths sake to come home but the true cause why he desired to come away was to avoid signing it being against his Conscience for the reasons aforesaid The King of France understanding that the Treaty between the Spaniard and the Dutch was agreed on and signed sent a Letter to the States dated 14 Februar 1648. wherein hee tells them That he had heard with the greatest admiration what had past at Munster the 30 Januar. where the greatest part of their Ministers and Deputies had signed a particular Treaty with the Ministers of Spain that he could not imagine that their Ministers had acted therein according to their Intentions and that he doubted not but that assoon as they should be informed thereof they would give those necessary Orders whereby they will remedy all what hath been done to the prejudice of so many solemn Treaties agreed on at several times between that Crown and them which did hold forth expresly