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
them in point of Trade in the East Indies and other parts which occasioned severall Treaties between them and us and in the year 1619 all things were concluded Notwithstanding which in the year 1622. was committed that barbarous and wicked murther on our English in Amboyna and the dispossessing us of those Islands of Spices to this day without making any satisfaction for the blood then shed the spoils then committed the breach of the Treaty then made and the Merchandize then and since taken from the English though it amounts to great sums and should have been perfected in the year 1625 or before it to say nothing of any other particular Certainly the Judgement of God and the Justice of Man will have a time to purge such blood from the Earth which it hath defiled and render unto them according to their deserts But paramount to all was Van Trumps late assault when we were in Amity upon their own offers treating for a more strict Union as is elsewhere mentioned at large in the Parliaments Declaration from the mischiefs and sadeffects of which God alone by his great mercy and providence hath delivered us And to all this let it onely be added That they are already in a League Defensive and Offensive with France a League de non offendendo with Spain a League Defensive with Sweden against Denmark and Defensive with Denmark against Sweden and all other Nations To sum up all If so be by the instances mentioned and what else may be brought of the same nature those of the Vnited Provinces have made it to appear as it seems to be very clear that they have been so far from asserting though they pretend nothing more the true reformed Protestant Religion and Liberty that they have not onely deserted strangers that have professed and contended for the said Principles but their own Flesh and Blood contrary to their holy and perpetuall League and Union called the Vnion of Vtrecht in the year 1579. as in the case of Antwerp Gant Bruges but have assisted the Popish Princes in the warres against their Protestant Subjects as in the case of Rochell and tyrannicall Princes in their warres against their Protestant Parliament and People contrary to the fundamentall Lawes of their Kingdoms as in the case of England and furnisht bloody Rebels with Arms and Ammunition and all other provisions to commit the most hellish massacres upon the Protestants as in the case of Ireland If so be that their sole businesse is to be free themselvs and to have all the world their slaves as they are able as is manifest by the whole proceed of their affairs and to shut up the commerce of the world from any but themselves as in the case of the Sound East Indies Amboyna Antwerp Flanders c. If so be the strongest and most sacred Stipulatious and Leagues solemnly sworn before God and oftentimes renewed upon the same sacrednesse made upon their own desires and necessity and grounded upon old and new curtesies and friendship and upon their own interests others have quitted Peace for their sakes onely and weltred in blood to effect their requests have been broken as two before the fire and of no validity as in the case of France Sweden and England and where they have made shew of tendernesse and affection to help up a Kingdom rising from the ground and yet design it onely as a cover to possesse their strength and riches as in the case of Portugall If so be they can easily swallow down Leagues contrary one to another as Earth is to Heaven as in the case of Sweden Denmark France and Spain If so be that when they seem mostly to desire Peace and strict union they intend it as a disguise to cover their designs of treachery and surprize as in the case of Trumps late assault If so be the Basis of their actions Divine and Humane and the whole of what ever they do attempt be advantage and profit and that Religion Liberty Principles Leagues Treaties Friendships Assistance must serv as oft as they judg it fit and think themselves able to accomplish it though never so contrary to the being of Humanity and all the Rules of Honesty and Faithfulnesse in the world as in the instances aforementioned And lastly if so be we of this Nation of England do believe that there is such a Cause of God this day amongst us that wil take off the a Burthen and the Yoak and cause b Justice to be administred equally to all and c establish Righteousnesse and Judgement in the Earth And that as it hath done much hereof in England already so it will perfect it and that God his will herein will cause to be declared and to proceed to other Nations till the whole d Creation that is now groaning under the exorbitant and wicked lusts of Kings and great ones whether in Monarchies or States be delivered into freedom and that this Cause will e Chastise every one that hath opposed it or born evill will unto it Then I say let England judge things rightly and take heed how they make Leagues and Union with such a people How they forbear to mind what the f voyce of Providence saith to them or neglect to take the opportunities that such a signall hand of God as hath lately appeared hath put before them to secure themselves do justice to their people and maintain the Reputation of that Cause amongst them which God hath written his Name upon both at Sea and Land in such unparalleld and glorious Characters And let every man take heed how he g seeks to bind the Hand of God when he is shaking his Rod over a people especially when they have upon them the symptoms of Displeasure and how they stand in the way of Gods designes in the world and how they expresse more tendernesse to such a people then to the security Blood and right of their Countrey-men and the will of God which we ought to pray to be done in earth as it is in Heaven For when the Lord is moved from his Throne to doe his great works in the world in routing Antichrist making of his name glorious in the relieving the h oppressed delivering the i captive helping him to k right that hath no helper throwing down the unrighteous Powers and Kingdoms appearing as the righteous Judge of all the Earth And lastly in setting up his l King on his holy Hill of Syon which he hath said shall be done and we believe and expect it to be done in these later times of the world Let all men yea the people of God take heed how they stand in his way For if his m Wrath kindle but a little happy are all those that trust in him FINIS 1622. O d. Lords and Commons in in Parliament April 5. 1643. Jer. 2. 3 Zach. 2. 8 a Eze. 25 3. 26. 2. b Eze. 25 6. c Eze. 25 12 15. 35. 5. d Eze. 26 2 e Eze. 36 3. f Eze. 35 12. g Eze. 35 10. h Zeph. 2. 8 i Jer. 12. 14 k Jer. 46 10. Isa. 63. 4 l Jer. 46. 15 16 18 22 27 28 29. m Isa 8. 21. n Psalme 125. 5 o Zac. 8. 2 p 1 Sam 17. 37 q Deut. 28. 1. r Is 13. 2 Gant 2. 4. Å¿ Isa. 55. 13. Zac. 9. 16 t 1 Kings 20. 23 Isay 16. 4. 5. 2 Pet. 3. 9. 1575 1609 100000. l. Sterling 200000. l. Sterling sterling 120000l Note Pennerands Letter intercepted saith that the French were not so much as named in the treaty by the Dutch 1640. a Isa. 9. 4. 10. 27. 14. 25. 58. 6. b Jer. 23. 5 6. Ezek 45. 9. Isa. 56. 1. Gen. 18. 19. 2 Sam. 8. 15 c Isa. 9. 7. 16. 5. 42. 4. Ps 99 4. Dan. 7. 22. d Rom. 8 22. e Jer. 12. 14. 46. 10. Ezek. 28. 24. f Mich. 6 9. 1 King 20. 42. 2 King 13. 19. g Jer. 7. 16. 11. 14. 14. 11 Gen. 19. 16. 17. 26 14. 12. 14 16 1 King 22. 28. 30. 32. h Ps. 103 6. 146. 7. i Isa. 61. 1. k Psa. 72. 12 l Psal. 2. 6. m Psal. 2. 12.
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
Voluntiers to man 150 sail of ships of Warre which they declared to us they were providing their people calling for Arms against us and raging after such a manner as the English Merchants went not without danger in their streets and all this when their Ambassadors were treating with us here for a strict League and Union and when we had no thoughts of engaging against them or began any preparations to reinforce our Navy though it was high time after such alarms as those for the Parliament of England to provide for the security of their Seas and Traffick And that they might indeed shew their good will to this Commonwealth after much time had bin spent in treating for a more strict Union and things were drawing to some conclusion is it not manifest that they meant nothing lesse then a peaceable accommodation and intended their treaties as the disguised Ushers of treachery and warre in that Trump on the 19 of May 1652. with 42 ships of warre came up to the Downs and there assaulted our Generall Blake who riding neer Foulstone with fourteen ships only was enforced for some time by himself and afterwards with the rest of his Fleet to maintain four hours sharp fight till night parted them In which the providence of God mightily appeared in preserving our Fleet and repelling the enemy to his losse dishonor and therby delivered this Island at that time from the design treachery domination and cruelty of those people who when their tongues were smoother then oyl prepared war in their hearts and with their hands put it in execution Nor can it be otherwise understood then a designed engagement if so be his anchoring in Dover Road with his Fleet when extremity of weather did not enforce him his refusing to strike when Dover Castle by their shot summoned him thereto the denying the Merchanrs of Dover the night before the fight to perform their accustomed civility to visit their Fleet his sending two of his ships to Major Bourn who lay there onely with eight sail of ships the striking of those ships and their endeavours seemingly to excuse Van Trumps coming so neer and alledgeing the reason why he came no neerer viz. to avoid giving offence in regard of the controversie as he called it of the Flag and that he intended no injury to the English Nation which made Major Bourn jealous that they intended some mischiefe therefore he commanded out two ships to attend their motions and sent Generall Blake notice of their being there His moving the next day towards the French Coasts when Generall Blake came in sight of him and upon speaking with a Dutch Vessell which made all the sail she could to him and wafted her Flag to signifie as much his comming up presently with full wind and sail to Generall Blake who rode alone from his other ships his refusing to strike the ancient and undoubted acknowledgement of the English right and soveraignty in the adjacent Seas when Generall Blake summoned him thereunto by a Gun without a Ball another with a Ball his fiering through Generall Blakes Colours and falling upon him with a broad side immediatly without any parly before Generall Blake gave him a broad side his setting up presently a red Flag which being the signe before given the rest of his ships fel on our General and maintained with him his other ships a very hot fight as aforesaid and as by the narrative of the engagement and the examinations of his own Officers and letters relating thereunto printed by order of Parliament and ordered to be given unto their Ambassadors as an answer to their Papers and Desires for the proceed of the Treaty doth appear Together with his being angry with one of the said Captains in Holland because he struck sail to our Friggats as he came from the Streights as the said Captain and the Lieutenant now taken prisoners upon their examinations acknowledge besides what other accounts we have received of their debates and preparations to engage our Fleet Now what hath England done to these people that might occasion any such disingenuous and hostile proceedings Oh that they would produce their cause that we might answer thereunto and leave it to the world to judge Certainly had they any reall cause to assign that might bear weight in the ballance we should have heard thereof ere now for they are a people that are seldom wanting in things of that Nature Only we heard that the granting of Letters of Mart by us hath been made use of to incense those people against this State and by making of them mad under that pretence to shed their blood in an unjust war and to hasten their own and the destruction of their Countrey There is nothing more clear then that the granting of Letters of Mart in cases where Justice is denied to be done after it hath been duely sought as is our case is a necessary lawfull and just way according to Reason and the Laws of Nations practised throughout the world and by themselves and that such Letters of Reprisall are so far from being the occasion of War that they are in such cases the ultimate Preservatives against Nationall Engagements otherwise for Injuries done to the Subjects of any Nation by a Forraign People War must effect the satisfaction or it may be lawfull for any to rob and spoyl on the Seas that are enabled with power so to do it might occasion some discourse of that nature at large and the quoting of their own as well as the practises of other Nations for Instances but thus hath been the case with us that for very great Injuries and Blood and after above twenty years waiting in some cases for Justice of them which being denyed the Justice of this State renewed but one Letter of Reprisall upon them in the case of Mistriss Paulet granted by the late King for recōpence of 20000 l. principal besides charges of 20 years standing her self and Family being brought thereby to a morsell of bread yet when that was understood to be made use of by some Malignant spirits to prevent that Union which was said to be endeavouring by their Ambassadors in their Treaty that all occasion might be taken from those that sought occasion of difference this State suspended that Act before it was fully satisfied and not only so but all Letters of Reprisall upon the French who had so notoriously and to very great damages injur'd the Merchants of England notwithstanding that these wronged men had been at a great deal of costs to set out ships for recompence and had not accomplish'd it being thereby enforc'd to sit down by the loss of those charges also And all this to remove any occasion of clamour that might unduely happen upon the searching of Dutch Ships for French Goods though it is a known thing that the French covered their Goods in Flemish bottoms to avoid giving the English satisfaction and this we did notwithstanding that we paid the
Dutch for the fraught of the French Goods found aboard them without taking any of their goods at any time the contrary whereof our Merchants have found when as the Dutch have taken not only the Portugall Goods found aboard the English but such English Ships and Goods also without making of satisfaction to this day of which we have pregnant testimonie yet the searching for French Goods aboard their Vessels is so equitable and necessary that it is impossible unless we land Armies in France to have any reparation so long as the French may wholly manage their Trade in Dutch Vessels But to any rationall man this cannot be the cause of the late transactions of those people to us for first a long time before any Letters of Reprizall were granted they performed all those evil Offices aforementioned in the generall and since those Letters of Reprizall both on themselves and French for their sakes have been suspended their Admiral with his Fleet came to our Borders and whilst we lay securely in a time of friendship and Treaty came upon and assaulted part of our Navy as is formerly mentioned at large whereby it appears that as they formerly helped on our destruction so far as it concerned their profit and to lay us and our Liberties at the feet of a bloudy Tyrant so it is now their resolution as they are able to bring down this Nation to serve their Lusts and Cruelty and this as a reward for our saving of them from the sword of Spain and spilling our blood and money on the ground to lay the Foundation and secure the structure of their Riches and Prosperity The Blood of Amboyna shewed formerly how such things relished their Pallats and the clapping Captain Green and his men in Chains of late together with the outrages committed on our Ambassadors and several English people in their Territories their severall Arrests on our Ships and goods in their Ports and the late Engagement of Van Trump do now clearly demonstrate Though every weeks occurrences fild our ears with the noise of their preparations and the ranting and vile expressions against this State the abuse of the English there and their Ambassadors giving our Councell of State and Parliament Papers of their Resolutions of setting forth one hundred and fifty ships of War extraordinary which we might then very well conclude and have cause now to be assured were intended against us yet till those Papers came the Parliament moved not at all in any extraordinary preparations and then how requisit it was for this State to prepare for the security of their Seas and of that part of the ancient and undoubted Dominion of England let the world judge Yet so did they prepare as only to secure their own Right and what high time it was so to do the forementioned insolent and hostile behaviour of some of their ships to Captain Young for which the States gave one of the Captains a chain of gold and of Van Trump to our Navy whom they continue still in his Imployment thereby owning his late action is evident to all men It is worthy observation to consider unto what a height of Ingratitude Injustice and forgetfulness the pride of these men hath lifted them up It is not unknown to the world and to themselves though they would willingly forget it what was their condition when England first undertook their protection and what England hath done for them how they have permitted them to pass through their Seas to manage their Merchandise and required only their striking to our ships and Castles in acknowledgement of our Soveraignty And to fish in our Seas sometimes upon the requiring of a certain Tax sometimes freely and yet so bold are they upon our former Indulgence and condiscentions as to come up to our very dores and by treachery and force endeavour to snatch the Dominion thereof out of our hands though they cannot assigne one particular wherein the English hath designed or attempted any incroachment upon their Rights and Priviledges but have maintained them against all their opposers And no doubt but those men who with so much impudence and wickedness have attempted to dispoyle us of so antient and Indubitable a Right whereby our very defence for those Seas and our Ships are the outwalls and Bulwarks of this Island is endeanoured to be broken will also as they have oportunity labour to dispossess us of our Land Inheritance But as the former Kings of England took a severe course to chastise and cut off such luxuriant Exorbitances and as the Providence of God hath in their late Engagements given them a very great check so we doubt not but the Wisdom and Justice of the State through the assistance of God will so effectually proceed in the vindication of such wrongs as shall let them know what Right of ours they have encroached upon and by effectual ways perswading them from attempting such usurpations for the future What high time it is to take order with such men and reduce them to their proper bounds let the World judge and if that hereafter this State exerciseth a more strict Command over their own Jurisdiction in letting those men know at what rate they shall buy their Intrenchment on our Liberties they may thank themselves for such experience It is not the bare Complement of striking the Flag that hath been the occasion of these late contests as they would seem to pretend to gull and cheat well minded people as if so be for such a slight thing as the putting off a mans hat or the not putting it off were the ground of the late engagement or of what shall ensue thereupon In vain is such a snare as this set in the sight of England But it is the absolute and substantial Soveraignty of the narrow Seas which on our parts by such a deportment as the striking of the Flag or Topsail to our ships on those seas is required to be acknowledged and so hath been for many hundred years understood agreed unto and acknowledged by the Nations of Eruope which the Dutch by refusing to strike would deny A thing of such high importance that the former Kings would never endure but in their Commissions to their Captains at Sea commanded them to require obedience thereto by all or to fire sink or destroy them and which both Houses of Parliament in their Ordinance to that purpose commanded their Maritin Officers Now the Dutch refusing to strike do deny our Title and by their armed Fleets endeavour to take possession of our Inheritance therefore though to extenuate their hostility and cover their designes they would fain make the striking of the Flag a frivolous thing yet it is of as much concernment to us as the Dominion of those Seas and therin of our defence and the commodity of Fishing which those Seas yeeld in abundance and which themseves have found to be of so vast an advantage as that they know it to be the great staple
in the way of his Judgments which he hath brought forth Ought or can with a Salvo to their Duty and a due regard to the presence of God with them in pursuing Right and the Reputation hee hath put upon them permit the People of England to be so grossely injur'd No no should they which I trust never will be the Lord will finde a way to preserve his Cause amongst Us and right Us on our Enemies for it is God that manageth our Cause and Interest whose wonted Presence as we found it upon your late Assault So we doubt no but that he will Signally manifest that he is with Us upon our future Engagements In the humble confidence of which we go forth and wait upon him for a Blessing on our Undertakings I had thought here to have concluded but sithence the States of the United Provinces and their Abettors talk so much of the Reformed Protestant Religion and of Liberty and endeavour to insinuate some Indearment upon the hearts of many upon that account It seems to mee to bee worth the while and very necessary a little to discourse how far those States have by their Actions appeared considerable at to those two grand and noble Interests and those things being well weighed together with the Cause now on foot in England their Carriage to other States in point of Leagues Treaties and Amity and particularly with this Nation how far it is safe for England to enter into a strict League and Union with those People Interest is the true Zenith of every State and Person according to which they may certainly be understood though cloathed never so much with the most specious disguise of Religion Justice and Necessity And Actions are the effects of Interests from whom they proceed and to whom they tend naturally as the stone doth downward So that unless it be in some things seemingly contrary Acted now and then the better to work about the grand End for the Devil himself mostly deceives when he appears as an Angel of Light and in cases of necessity where force and power constrain another Course which will return into the old Channel the first opportunity thereby the measure of every state and person may be taken and determined Therefore it will be requisite to instance in some of the practises of the United Provinces in reference to the things proposed where by some Judgment may be given therein And if such Presidents be not according to what they do pretend yet it is but their own Picture by which if they would not have themselves known they should have forborn by such Practises to have set it forth to the world or by their late Actions to necessitate Us in point of our safety and intimate concernment to set forth any thing of that nature for a warning to England It being so farre from us to delight in the uncovering of their nakednesse that we wish if the Lord had pleased that there had been no such things done or any occasions offered us to take notice thereof since we have wished so well to and done so much for their advantage First concerning the Interest of the Protestant Religion True it is that it hath been there for many years professed and exercised and with the fruit of the power of Godliness in many afore time and wee hope at this present that some are there eminent for the profession thereof and they have been a place of Refuge to many precious Saints from the bitter persecutions of the Enemies of God and true Religion which God hath always taken well even of Moab and hath rewarded it with long and many kindnesses and for his peoples sake and the hiding of his out-casts hath lengthned the tranquillity of places who otherwise have been the people of his wrath And if any thing prevail with God to save them from destruction certainly this will be a chief one but withall it is to be considered 1. That all other Religions have had their professions there as well as the Protestant and the Exiles thereof received and protected even of what is most contrary to the Doctrine of the Gospel of Christ and the Scriptures 2. The Exercise and Protection aforesaid is upon a State principle of advantage not upon a principle of true Religion whereby they not only keep quiet at home but draw all such people to their quarters It being the only place of such priviledge in the world and thereby have been possessors of their Vertues Ingenuities Friends Occupations Persons and Estates 3. In the 36 Articles that themselves proposed to England as the matter of a Treaty for a strict Union formerly and in their late Treaties here they have neither mentioned nor proposed any thing concerning Religion 4. In point of gain they have not only deserted the opportunities of effecting the liberty of the true Protestant Religion in other places which they might have done by their power and interest and particularly their own flesh and bloud Contrary to their holy and perpetual Union as it is styled but have assisted Popish Princes against the poor Protestants when they have been contending in bloud for their Religion and Liberty as by the following instances may appear In the 13 Article of the Union of Vtricht in the year 1579. it is said That what concerneth the point of Religion Those of Holland and Zealand shall dispose of it according to their pleasure and the other Provinces of this Union may regulate themselves according to the intention of the Treaty of Peace about Religion made between Archduke Matthias Governour and Captain General then of these Lands with those of his Councel of the States General in the year 1558. In the first Article of the said Union is promised an Eternal Union and never to separate consequently never to forsake the members that have signed the said Union Amongst those that signed the said Union are also those of Antwerp those of Gant and those of Bruges Contrary to this Union those of Holland and Zealand made a Truce with the Spaniard in the year 1609. for 12 years and a peace in the year 1648. and left out the said Towns of Antwerp c. notwithstanding that there was all likelihood that they might have delivered those Towns from the yoak of the Spaniard and have obtained freedome if they would for those of the Protestant Religion in those Towns especially for Antwerp as by what follows may appear For the Town of Antwerp 't is true it was taken by the Duke of Parma and in the Spaniards possession but how easily it might have been re-taken will appear when as it is considered that upon a new League and Agreement made with Lewis 14. King of France and the States of the United Provinces to pursue the War against the Spaniard conjointly the said King drew 20000 Foot and 4000 Horse into the Field in Flanders according to the third Article of the said League infesting the Spaniard on the one hand