Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A36118
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Discourses upon the modern affairs of Europe tending to prove that the illustrious French monarchy may be reduced to terms of greater moderation.
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1680
(1680)
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Wing D1630; ESTC R24999
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20,174
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26
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constrained shamefully to prevaricate to make strained constructions of their Leagues to violate their Faith and to pass over all whatsoever respects of honour to travel to the ends of their ambition Whereas the English never can have any interest to propogate their Empire upon the body of Europe beyond those bounds which God by nature his instrument prescribed to them The most they pretend to is to be Arbiters between the Princes and States of Europe as we may see in the example of Henry 8. who living in an active time when three such great spirited Princes met as himself Charles V. and Frances I. of France might have made his own markets yet sought no more than to keep the Ballance equal between those two England then in Peace has been famous for the excellent vertue of loyalty and faithfulness and in all times for keeping close to that righteous Maxim of holding the Ballance of Europe steady a Maxim they took up above six hundred years ago In War they have been renowned for their courage redoubted strength and great atchievements In a word in War they have been just as well as valiant in Peace kind and in both sincere And for the profession of the true Religion without which all other things are either nothing or as good as nothing they have been celebrated above all the Nations of Europe It began there early and continued in the worst of times and since the Reformation her Divines has been the most learned and pious of the Christian world as all Forreign Divines will be ready to testifie These methinks should be powerful encouragements to this State to joyn with England England in whom the publick vertue of true meaning is inherent from whom both in Peace and War we may expect not only Justice but even generous goodness to allude to the most ancient distinction of the Jews and who against all other Nations are zealous against Popery But that it may appear we do not lay our stress upon general and rhetorical discourses there are other considerations of a more particular nature which must not be passed over England has been the principal instrument of saving this State twice from destruction once in the Infancy of their Common-wealth in the time of Queen Elizabeth against the Spaniard and now again in the late War from the French Again nothing can secure this State for the future against the mischiefs impending from France but the friendship of England And that England in conjunction with this State is able to ballance the French Monarchy I shall thus demonstrate France is larger than England but England will always afford more Souldiers than France I mean Foot and the strength of all Armies consists in the Infantry The reasons of this are these two 1. The division of the people In France and generally in all other Countreys there are but two divisions of the people the Nobless and the Peasants but in England we have three 1. The Nobless that is the Nobility and Gentry competent to furnish a sufficient Cavalry 2. The Yeomanry or middle sort of people which make up the great Body of the Kingdom and who are sufficient to furnish the greatest and strongest Infantry of any Kingdom or State in the Christian world And 3. the inferior sort or Servants I mean such as work for day-wages which are very inconsiderable in number to the Yeomanry The division of the people is one of the principal foundations of Empire and the division of the people in England being the best and most perfect of any other in all Europe it must necessarily follow that England is capable to endure stronger shocks than any other Kingdom or State founded upon the same ballance of Government and is the most perfect Government of its kind in Europe 2. In England the People that is the inferior Gentry and Yeomanry are an over-ballance both to the King Nobility and Church which is a defect in Monarchy and tends to the generation of a Commonwealth In France and Spain the King and the Nobility have destroyed the People but in England the King and the People have destroyed the Nobility I say then the strength of the Kingdom of England is in the inferior Gentry and Yeomanry and these exceeding all other Kingdoms in number strength and courage it must needs follow if the business should come to be tried where blows must decide that England would be found an over-match even to France it self if Demonstration be Demonstration But the cause and occasion how these two things come to be so that is why the Nobility of England are so depressed and the people become so formidable as you may see they are if you look but upon the House of Lords and the House of Commons in our present Parliaments I say the cause is those popular Statutes of Population against retainers of the Nobility and for Alienations of their Lands made by Henry 7. the Romulus of the English Kings which shews the unwariness of that politick King who in seeking to cure that dangerous flaw in the Government of the Nobilities being an over-match to the Prince made a far greater of making the Commons formidable for the one strikes only at a King they dislike the other at the Throne it self although it be true those effects came not to manifest themselves till above one hundred years after his death Therefore a wise Prince indeed he was but not long-sighted To the second The French have beaten and baffled the greatest part of the Christian world without fighting and have oppressed them at their own charge But if ever they should come to deal with an Enemy that would force them to fight they would shew themselves to be Frenchmen that is would suffer themselves to be perswaded to submit to more reasonable terms If you look upon the carriage of this whole War you may presently see that the wisest thing which the French thought they could do was ever to avoid fighting supposing surely that therein they imitated the wisdom of Fabius Maximus But this is most certain as the discourses upon Livy proves That a General who desires to keep the Field cannot avoid fighting when the Enemy presses and makes it his business to engage him For in such case there are but one of three ways The first is the way of Fabius of standing upon your guard and keeping your Army in places of Advantage and this is laudable and good when your Army is so strong that the Enemy dares not attaque you as it was in the case of Fabius and Hannibal for if Hannibal had advanced Fabius would have kept his ground and engaged him The second way to avoid fighting if your Enemy will needs attaque you is flying and fight or fly you must Philip of Macedon being invaded by the Romans resolved not to come to a Battel and to avoid it he took the way of Fabius encamped his Army upon the top of a Mountain and intrenched himself so