Selected quad for the lemma: enemy_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A85915
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A letter sent from a gentleman in The Hague, to a noble and loyal earl in Scotland.
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R. G.
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1649
(1649)
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Wing G55; Thomason E532_36; ESTC R204628
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9,453
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12
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wondrous sorry to see the old but pregnant Mother of truth delivered of more Monsters and prodigies I feare all will miscary if there appear no likelihood of quick sudden action our big expectation and seeming hopes will conclude in a tympany I feare ill designes and worse intendments when tedious advise and lingring counsell serve for no other end then to retard execution when long deliberations prevent necessary performances and give his Majesties enemies who are not wanting in Scotland opportunity to strengthen and corroborate themselves and oppose him with greater advantages principiis obsta is sound advise when we sensibly find sero medicina paratur The continuation of there practises wants nothing but continuance of time to cement those deadly conspirators of both Kingdoms to strongly that I know not how many ages will suffice to dissolve them They will be so firmly linckt together the King will find it a difficult work and an uncouth labour to unrivit and break them in peeces the Kings flownes when danger and necessity urge will adde to them and take from himself How providently do they begin to secure themselves by either securing the Royall party or forcing those whose loyalty they suspect and of whose disloyalty they have not a perfect assurance to give caution good security nor to disturbe the peace of there Sion We may vainly flatter and fondly deceive our selves with hopes from those Men who have taken off the heads of so many gallant persons for no other cause then that of the Kings and there faithfulnes to his commands and service And which is the most inhumane and savage thing sold there King into the Land of Bondage to be cruelly opprest and basely suffered him to be butchered where a profest Hangman in that then themselves more noble disdaind the base employment And both are rendred to posterity memorable only the Hangman takes place as justly deserving the preheminence and I am confident there would arise a contention about his were some of them to be exalred My Lord I wish it were as safe as necessary for the King to appeare there in his Royall Person and indisputable right Or that there were not a necessity for one of the Royall line Certainly the presence and Majesty of a King hath at least such influence on rebels that if it terrify them not it abates much of their pride and malice many will readily rise in armes to assist him that will not stir a foot to follow though the best of their fellow Subjects Carry what vertue soever a Commission can it is their vice among many others they foolishly distinguish his Person and his power and fondly beleeve to justifie there resistance that they rebell not against the King when they fight against his authority And albeit they cannot deny in the word of a King against whom there is no rising there is Power many of them will oppose that power derived from him that will not dare to affront his person So unwisely doe they argue and dispute his personall and politick capacity a costly distinction But how shall the King be entertained in Scotland by those that so earnestly invited and gave so full and hearty a welcome to his most cruell enemy would they not entreate the second time there coming to keep him company False people in common civilities out done by a Hangman who in that one act the not doing it exprest lesse of the slave and more of loyalty to the King then ever they had done in there counterfet pretences And ignoble shadows of faith and Allegiance This is the reason why many declare there dislike to that Nation and anaversion to the Kings going into Scotland providing meerly for his safety and their owne they are extreamly unwilling he should adventure his Person and imbarke with those that had shipwrackt your Royall Soveraigne he is an unskilfull Mariner or too bold and hardy that hazards the splitting of his vessell against a discover'd Rock or running on ground on shelves and knowne quicksands where he is swallowed up unpittied Really it is a high adventure and his Majesty enterpriseth a dangerous and desperate voyage when he goes to harbour in Scotland But when we discourse of crowns and Scepters and regaining of revolted Kingdomes and when he hath nothing left him but his life which Heaven preserve to make himself and his Subjects happy who will not hazard that which will otherwise be spent under the degree of a Prince heire apparent and undoubted Successor to three potent Kingdomes In the persuit of private affaires let who will stop or desist at pleasure as they find it most conducing to their advantages and the attaining of their proposed ends in the progres to the recovery of an Empire there is no meane between the death of an enemy and the life of a Prince It was the Devils doctrine all that a man hath he will give for his life The gallant man returns him the lye who to save that life will not loose his honour For the King of Great Brittaine France and Ireland to reside in Holland ubi precario regnatur aliena vivitur Quadra is to goe lesse then himself when his high attempts and mighty Actions should proclaime to the whole world from what Royall and most renowned Ancestors he is lineally descended My Noble Lord how should we joy to view him on the head of a Puissant Army confronting the Eenmy in that bold posture Lucan draws Caesar when he courts his metal'd Souldiers Steel'd with courage and resolution Ita per ignavas gentes per inhospita Regna Atque uno ferri motu prosternite Mundum I have as great regards to his Royall Person as who bears the most but I know Non jacet in molli lecto veneranda Corona The Gods sell all things to us Mortals here below at the price of labour and sweat and sure they set Crowns at a higher Rate I would see him make the tributary earth his couch and the auspicious Heavens spreading there embrodered and spangled Cannopy over his sacred Head And when the busy Traitor and too troublesome Enemy will spare him so much leave and leisure as to refresh himself make the grasse his Carpet and the ground his table that was lately both his pillow and bed I would see him cut out a way to his Crown through the bowells of his proud and rebellious Foes Heap up Piles of slaughtered Bodys and make there bleeding necks the steps by which he should ascend into his Royall Throne I would see him run the hazard of a War and trust the propitious heavens with the successe I know what share Fortune challengeth to her self in every Battaile and I would allow that Blind Chance better Christians call it Providence no more then what cannot be denyd Not to trust were to disparage providence not to beleeve it were a peece of Atheisme It were absolute madnes to imagine and beleeve that the justly provoked deity against which the
the reall condition of that Kingdome and happily prevented the ensuing calamities of all If not impossible it is very improbable that ever the King shall come to a full knowledge of Scotland while he imployes Scotchmen into there native country where there proper and indeed all there interest lyes Which very few men doe and those find it very hard too to divest themselves of their own interests and lay them aside There Allyes there Estates there Friends there one thing or another abates there Zeale to his Majesties service what earnestnes soever they put on for a disguise But this is that which most dwels with me I am so blind I cannot see how it is safe for the King to trust men that are privy to his designs here and have so great relation to Scotland whither or no for fall back fall edge they will provide for their own preservation will not they which hitherto hath been constantly practised conceale something from both that neither the King nor his Subjects of Scotland shall come to a right understanding of each other they themselves shuffling and dealing will know how the Cards goe and will suit their game accordingly This benefit the King will receive by imploying English He shall be certaine to know faithfully what he must trust to and in extremities it is a singular good to know the worst of ills Which way soever his Majesties Counsell shall incline the sending to them will be no Remora to his other resolutions for he may and must prepare for action howsoever If the King resolve as I know not how he better can to make use of his power and force them to the obedience from which they are fain My Lord you understand well who must doe his businesse and beate their Apostacy into duty and performances not they who Traiterously presumed to take the Crown from hiâ— Maâ—esties head and Rebelliously entrencht on his Sacred authority but those who would have set and held it on Not they who to prosecute I know not what private sinister and unhansome ends publikely repented of having served the last Sainted King of Sacred memory in the just preservation of his Royall Person and duest Prerogatives not they who in his Majesties greatest exgencies and necessities not only deserted his imployments but as if that had not been enough entered into a confederacy with his severest and most Barbarous enemies Not they who to show their power in one kingdome weakened and ensebled the strength of two and empoverished the Kings friends to enrich his enemies Not they who led out Freemen in Scotland to render them Prisoners in Englaâ—d and slaves to Forraign Countries I have no Fâ—â—th â—n Covenants nor will I ever more trust the Oaths of perfidious and Perjurd meâ— I will â—epose more confidence in one excommunicated Christian then in a legion of Heathnish Covenanters Till this time I never thought excommunication a blessing When Allegiance is there crime and obedience the cause why they are excluded the Pale of there reformed Church I shall look and hope for salvation without it and a little doubt theirs that are within Let me live and dye with those noble Soules that to save their honors have with those bad bold men lost there Titles They are rich and happy though robd of all it was possible to take from them They are honorable although degraded and have good right to there Coates and Honors what usurping Covenanter soever and unjust pretender swell in the borrowed robes of their untainted Titles My Lord iâ— did not a little please me after their severall mockfasts in Scotland to see the very common people as if they were undeceived entertain the Covenant with scorn and laughter in the very Churches so ridiculous and horrid a thing did it seem to them for any to offer that again which they had broke the first time and intended nothing lesse then to keep the second I pitty there present and sad condition which comming but lately from thence I cannot so soon forget which to repaire I am confident they would now prefer the Kings interest to any whatsoever My Lord Your Lordship knows that I know their severall Factions and their Fractions Kind Heaven multiply their divisions Divide impera was said of old and I could wish upon as good grounds the Heads of those Factions were more heartily together by the Ears that they were at that distance I could from my heart wish their heads from their shoulders Till some of their heads shall be divided from their bodies it will be hard to divide the body of that Kingdom from those Heads I fear Combination and suspect Conspiracies amongst those Covenanters It was much the discourse before I left those parts there had been meetings in the night the aptest season for dark intentions between the greatest seeming adversaries and irreconcileable Let them designe in Hollowest Caverns of the Earth and plot in deapest Hell from whence they borrow there black Counsels whose Actions will not indure the light whose professions differ from their Actions who draw neer to the King with their lips when their hearts are far from him I dread that Monster worse then the Night-mare which these Nocturnae lucubrationes valde pâ—riculosiores will in time if not prevented unseasonably produce when they blush not to fit in Counsell by night that are ashamed to be seen converse in the day when the Sun would blush to discover them together My Lord Were it not strange for me to tell and you to beleeve that yet the Covenant is urged to the King That fatall Covenant which his Glorious Father of ever blessed Memory with honour unexampled and a conscience inviolable rejected and contemned Away with the Covenant that meer stalking Horse trained up to betray and make a prey of poor innoeent and unwary simplicity What vizard must they put on what confident face that offer to the King or expect he should keep what they themselves have most wilfully violated I blush for them that they are no whit out of countenance to present so unsavory a dish to his Princely Pallate of which many having furfetted they disgorged it before and have not themselves tasted in the second course who having been in the unlawfull the dismall engagement are debarred from participating without publik repentance made Well may they give satisfaction to there Kirke and retake that pretious morsell the Covenant it self can give none to the King when he shall consider the ruins of his Kingdoms reflect on the losse of his Crown and meditate on the Barbarous murther of his innocent Father sadly occasioned by their damnable league and cursed Covenant against which he is neither Loyall nor Religious that enters not his protestation My Lord their remains one thing I shal acquaint your Lordsh with which seâ—iâ—usly I grieve to write there are who whisper unprofitable dangerous delays in the Kings care insinuating what a longer time may bring forth I should be