Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	earl_n	king_n	warwick_n	4,634	5	11.6699	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75357	Anglia liberata, or, The rights of the people of England, maintained against the pretences of the Scotish King, as they are set forth in an Answer to the Lords Ambassadors propositions of England. Which ansvver was delivered into the Great Assembly of the United Provinces at the Hague, by one Mac-Donnel, who entitles himself Resident for his Majesty, &c. June 28/18 1651: and is here published according to the Dutch copy. Whereto is added a translation of certain animadversions upon the answer of Mac-Donnel. Written by an ingenious Dutch-man. As also an additional reply to all the pretended arguments, insinuations and slanders, set forth in the said Scotish answer written a while since by a private pen, and now presented to the publick.	MacDonnell, William, Sir.; Ingenious Dutch-man.	1651 (1651)	Wing A3178; Thomason E643_7; ESTC R18922	48,537	72

concluded with a factious Commonalty here and that they might at pleasure disturb the Republick and turn matters upside down what an Anarchy and wofull confusion would ensue as now alas we see too plainly followes in England Truly if that people had been so inclined and governed as they now are by those who Regni causa have violated the rights and to make purchase of the Lords Vineyards have murthered him and oppose with their utmost power and malice the enthronement of his lawfull Heire their undoubted Soveraigne the Low Countries should not have obtained such reall friendship and advantage from them Besides that the now prevailing Party is not the hundreth part of the people in England in comparison of those both of the Clergie Nobility Gentry and Commons who cordially adhere to the Kings just interest and passionatly groan to be delivered from the continued oppressions of those cruell Taskmasters whose little finger lies heavier upon them then all their Kings whole loins And an eminent Member of the late House of Commons formerly a sufferer in his Memento affirms that there is in the three Kingdomes ten thousand to one who firmly and affectionatly cleave to his Majesty In Kingdomes and Republicks as Polititians speak it is the very same people now as those that lived an hundred years agoe as likewise that it is the same ship although all the planks be renewed but if the Keel be destroyed and the form of Government and Fundamentall Lawes be utterly abolished non idem populus nec eadem navis it is not the same people nor the same ship Moreover by all proofs it is sufficiently known that the Predecessors of the now prevailing Party in England were then so mean and inconsiderable among the people that they were thought utterly uncapable of having the least hand in the former favours shewn to these States II. Trade and Traffique which they call the Common interest of a State are Juris Gentium common to all Nations consequently not to be carried on by Monopolies and dammage of a third party especially the eldest and sometime the most considerable allye of this Estate Amicitias faith Polybius it a institui par est ne qua vetustior amicitia societas violetur It is remarked by most of the Authors of the Netherlands History that their Lordships Predecessors upon a time being more moved by the Impositions of the Duke of Alva of the 10. and 100. penny respectivè then for the violence offered to Religion and therefore compared to the Gargasens who proferred their swine before their Saviour were the more severely punished by God And shall the High and Mighty States now hazard their religious and high esteem in the savour of those who in regard of Commerce inlarging of their limits and usurped power are big with such monstrous mysteries and of whom it was said long before their troubles Gens tacit is praegnaus arcanis ardua tentans Who derive their power and authority meerly from themselves as formerly hath been said in the dominion of the Chaldeans over the Iewes and of Cinna and Carbo amongst the Romans who in the time of Sylla made themselves Consuls without any Court election Violenta imperia saith one to Caesar sunt magis acerba quam diuturna The rather because no Nation under the Sun is so subject to a change as England even while they lived under their lawfull Soveraignes The Earle of Warwick called the Titular King in eleven days Edward the fourth in twenty Henry the seventh in one day as a Caesar veni vidi vici brought the English successively to their obedience Commerce and Traffique are plausible pretences but often accompanied with great jealousies especially betwixt neighbouring Republiques the which like Twins strugling for the primogeniture are in a continuall emulation for profit and preheminence And therefore compared to an Alluvie where the increase of one is the decrease of the other Insomuch that grave and judicious Statesmen have judged it would he more safe and profitable to these States that England continued a Monarchy then to be tumbled into a Common-wealth confirmed by a Prognostication of a person of credit with them living at London given out the 16 of October last alledging and applying with much confidence against the Vnited Provinces Ierem. 51. vers 13. III. Concerning the pretended conformity in Religion in the third place which under the blessed and glorious Government of Kings as a Palladium and Lamp did out-shine all other Nations is alas now become a Pandora out of which tanquam ex equo Trojano do issue so many monstrous Sects Heresies and Blasphemies and is consequently so deformed as being utterly destitute of Discipline and differing in most points of Doctrine that it is nothing like the Religion here professed nor indeed Religion it self A good Religion as an upright and lively faith issues forth into good Works insomuch that in the Primitive Church the Christians were discerned from the Infidels onely by their holy life according to the proverb Christiani non sunt Cassiani but alas how many not onely Cassii but also Albii and Nigri are now adayes to be seen witnesse besides the Treaties intituled Defensio pro Carolo Rege Vindiciae pro capite Regis Angliae Elenchus motuum Master Prinns Memento Theatrum Tragicum Vox Veritatis and others two Declarations also of the 18. of Ianuary 1648. long before that lamentable Catastrophe by divers Preachers and learned Divines in and about London subscribed by 126 of them mourning over and complaining of horrible and scandalous abuses as in the Church so in the Civill or rather Military Government and strongly refuting their flattering of themselves in their continued successe which may next be considered of IV. For as Solomon saith That there be just men to whom it happeneth sometime according to the work of the wicked So again there be wicked men to whom it happeneth according the work of the righteous Successes often are a punishment as sometimes given for a blessing where onely those are to be valued whose principall aim appeares to be the true advancement of Gods revealed will in his word which as it strictly commandeth obedience to Kings and those in authority under them so it doth severely punish sedition and rebellion against them not sparing the curse of condemnation to those who comply with and adhere unto them Neither hath the great Turk come far short of that undoubted blessing good successe the now prevailing party justifie their cause and measure its righteousnesse by though they may seem to disavow him Finally the resemblance made from the manner of the recovered liberty of both States to use the expression of a great personage is not more different then Mike and Ink both in regard of the ancient condition of the people on both sides and the way of attaining to it The Law Countrey men especially the Batavi have been reputed by all ancient Writers for a free people neither subject to the

shine forth under the Kingly Government How comes this Answerer to praise the Kings Religion when as himself as well as the rest of his Scots Countreymen have not onely made the first insurrection against the Kings Religion but entred into a Covenant and raised war and at last sold the King for money according to the Kings own published profession Principally against the Kings Religion or against the innovation thereof at least And what the King said further of the Scots Religion and consequently of the Answerers Religion you may read at large in the 14 and 16 Chapters of his printed Book It is well known what harsh and bitter Sermons and Books were made but lately at Breda and the Hague against the Reformed Religon whom they still hatefully termed Calvinists Are there in England divers Sects there are here also not a few God mend it and even as the Governors here would gladly see it otherwise so likewise those in England in the mean time we are assured that in England divers books are forbidden and were burnt by the Hangman which here passe up and downe yet every where The Ambassadors have in the Name and behalf of the whole English Government declared the Conformity of their Religion with ours They tolerate some others and so do we onely we allow more and greater toleration then they Neither we nor they approve of a Spanish Inquisition They do not allow the Church an absolute power of Excommunication no more do we and the Scottish Kirk also was fain to remit it now themselves So that the Presbyterians rage and roaring against Sects and Sectaries is groundless for between themselves and the Independents so named there is not difference in the main of Religion or profession besides Discipline but it should seem the Presbyterian Boutefeus aim at a Papall Power to administer the Jus Clavium at pleasure as the Scots have But their young King hath already taught them another Lesson disapproving thereby also the English Presbyterians It were much to be wished indeed that all men were of one minde that there were but one Religion Our Answerer I believe knows as little how to advise or compass it as others Nay he himself refusing to go to the same Church where the King went during his abode here and the Queen of Bohemia and the Princess Royal and all the Royalists doth thereby sufficiently evidence that there are sects and divisions as well between his party and the Kings as there is between the English and the Presbyterians That which he mentioneth of the good life of his Royal Christians I profess I understand not If by a good life he means a merry joviall life dum vixit vixit bene I yeild that at Court they live more merrie and frollick then elsewhere and thence it is that at London they have put down all the Play-Houses and such like places and practises of profane and scandalous recreation That otherwise the life and fruitfull Conversation of the Royalists should be more holy and exemplary then that of the English Independents as they call them I never heard of before Were they not the Kings evil Councellors his flatterers and seducers whom I return to the Answerer for his Albii Cassii Nigri that made as well the Presbyterians as the rest complaine so much against him from time to time And I pray were not the Presbyterians the first and the onely men that took the King to task The Answerer himself was one of them and of those Covenanters that supplanted the King for his maintaining the Episcopal Hierarchie And when the Presbyterians afterwards went about to introduce the Presbyterian Hierarchie changing onely the Name and maintaining the Substance then said the others whom he calls Independents Soft my Masters we have freed our selves from the Bishops Yoke shall we put our necks under the Presbyterians The Answerer alledgeth some other books which make for him How many other blew books might easily be produced against the same and to his prejudice The King himself complains in his book ch 15. and 21. how much hurt these books did him so that I know not why the Answerer so highly esteems these blew books and that publickly in print too now as well as in the Generall Assembly odiously checking the Soveraign Government here for having begun to treat with the English and presumptuously spreading the same abroad among the Commons as though the Magistrates were regardless of their Office and as if he intended to incense and raise the Commons against the Governors contemning the publick O●dinances in this behalf As for the Successes the Answerer knows well enough that several other Kings Republicks Princes and Potentates had beforehand acknowledged the Republick of England and honored the same with their Ambassies and Credentials And England also sent first unto this State before this State sent to England We have not looked upon the successes but upon the Example of others The Answerer saith that the English th●mselves do disavow the great Turk Again the Gentleman throwes it beyond my reach or he knows not what he avers himself I never heard of any such Disavowing but this I know well on the contrary that all Christian Potentates acknowledge the Turk for what He is and accordingly honor him with their Ambassies The Answerer's King himself scrupled not to send to the Turk no more doth the English Republick Men Laws Governments must every where be taken and used as they are As long as the Answerer and his King are forced to let the Government remain as it is so they must give us leave to do the same The Answerer saith that there is as much difference between the English Government and Liberty and that of ours as there is between Milk and Ink according to the saying of one Salmasius calling him a great Personage Sure the Answerer knows well that Salmasius his Book where he had this crotchet is publickly declared a Libell and scandalous here Do great Personages use to write Libells Furthermore He saith That the Batavians or Hollanders have been a Free Nation from all ages and under the subjection of none Certainly he is a dreaming or else he hath the art to make white black and black white at pleasure or Milk and Ink is all one to him What hath not Holland been under Earls above eight hundred years And lastly under the House of Burgundy Austria and Spain Indeed the Earls were tied to Laws and so were the Kings of England if he say an Earl is no King I answer England is divided in more then fifty Counties or Earldomes so France is divided into many principalities and Counties He that gets the command over them soon gets a Title King Prince Earl or Lord it comes all to one if they have no Superiours But all of them are bound to their Oaths and the Laws Neither in France nor in Spain nor anywhere else are Kings allowed an unlimited power The Examples in France are too fresh

to rehearse them The Kings of Spain have been Earls of Holland and acknowledged no superiors now being freed from Spain there is none appearing that pretend any right to Holland Neverthelesse he was bound to the laws by an oath So that King of England was Earle of Essexshire Sussex Yorkshire and of all the rest compendiously called King of England Scotland Ireland but bound to the Lawes They of Holland perceiving their King had infringed the Laws thereupon they opposed him and fought themselves free Bene feliciter saith the King of Spains Embassador Count Pigneranda pro libertate pugnastis ea vobis debetur The English in like manner perceived their King had trespassed against the laws and falsified his oath whereupon they opposed him til they fought themselves into the same condition of Freedom I could say somewhat more here That the King of England out-did Spain He of Spain had sworn to the Roman Religion and conceived himself bound to protect it according to his Oath but the King of England being sworn to the Protestant Religion is charged to have acted against it innovated it and had he gotten the mastery would have changed it That this Assertion owned as well by the Scots as the English is most true appeares by the Covenant first made by the Scots and afterwards embraced also by the English Look upon Chapt. 14. of the Kings Book see what he saith there himselfe of the Covenant Again the Covenant very expresly shewed that the King had an intent to alter Religion and Laws The Answerer himselfe was a Covenanter and Parliamenteer and blew as fiercely and zealously as any against the Kings designe of Innovation as they termed it The second and third Article of the Covenant speaks very plain And there have been a thousand books written both by the Scots English Presbyterians on that subject Nay the Scots themselves have even since the late Kings death excommunicated all that had and did adhere to the King calling them Engagers and declared them Given over to the Devill And for this cause they put poore Montrosse to death and refused him Absolution And what afterwards the King himself and Hamilton Middleton Lauderdale others of this party have suffered is notorious to all the world Also how this King was fain to do penance and to confess the bloud guiltiness of his Father's House How ever all the difference betwixt the Kings of England and Spain was only this that He of England did more and He of Spain less against the Religion that each of them was sworn to It is well known that the Scots were the first that made a Covenant and thereupon took up arms even as the Nobility heretofore in the Netherlands made a League or Union and took up arms to defend it The Scots having cleared their own Land of all the Royall designs and adherents were not content therewith but proceeded to assist the English who were as eager to be rid of the same incumbrances Which being effected and the King brought to this pass that he saw no remedy left him then he betook himself to the Scots at last his own Country men as confiding more in them Why did not the Scots then take him home along with them They said it was not expedient the King might easily put Scotland into new broils as the English found afterwards among themselves for then broke first out those differences betwixt Presbyterians and Independents the former would have a new Hierarchy introduced like that of the Scots the later would have the Reformed Religion maintained as it now stands among them only they would bear with tender consciences and some others as wee doe likewise here The King of Spain hath given up his Right and acknowledged this a Free State had the King of England done the like or would this King content himself yet with the Scottish Crown as his Fore-fathers did the war would soon be at an end And herein Philip shewed himself more reasonable and righteous then Charls whom nevertheless hee styles that Blessed Martyr so highly wronged and persecuted not remembring at least concealing that they were the Scots who began this violent dealing with him But none of this concerns us not can we help it If the Scots vvill begin troubles and war and the Neighbour Kings and Potentates will wink at it vvhat is that to us What is farther said by the Answerer about the Kings death concerns not us of Holland at all If a King wageth war with his subjects he must needs resolve to run the hazard Kings and Princes are flesh and bloud and mortal as well as others As much might have been done in a Charge by the Sword of a private soldier as was afterwards by the hand of the Executioner The Quality or Majesty of a King or Prince is of no consideration to the steel or lead of the meanest soldier nostro sequitur de vulnere sanguis Majestate nihil contemtius nec infirmius si sint qui contemnant A living Dog is better then a dead Lion A Pesant owner of some Land is better then a King vvithout Land He that vvill not submit himself to the Discretion of a Conquerour should not runne the hazard of being conquered The Conquering party saw no other Expedient no farther trust given even during the Kings restraint there was faction upon faction division upon division insurrection upon insurrection raised The meanest creature the poorest worm seeks for self-preservation How much more a Man If there had been any means left under Heaven whereby a firm confidence could have been recovered it is very probable the Prevailing party would have yeilded to it But to put all their Fortunes Reputation Freedom Life and Being upon a new hazard again no Reason could advise them Now as to the matter of deposing and destroying of Kings it is so common both in England and Scotland that I admire why the Answerer makes it so strange and prodigious But all these things are so largely set forth in printed Boooks and Pamphlets that the Answerer hath little reason to make a wonder of it Omnia jam vulgata To make an alliance with England were unnecessary if our Commerce and Liberties were not in danger We are bound to look to their preservation The Depredations are unsupportable We do not afflict the afflicted but those whom he calls the afflicted afflict us As for the affliction of Joseph we know not what it means unless he make Joseph a Cavalier and under that notion the Scots themselves were the first that persecuted him And that party in Scotland which the Answerer himself doth esteem the honester viz. the kirk party they abhor the Royalists calling them Malignants The English Ambassadors have declared here in their first Proposition they came not out of necessity but to shew they were willing to choose this State for their best friends They have not desired to ingage us against the Scots But it is well known

Christ and the tenor fo his Gospel which teacheth us to gather Believers into Congregations by the power of the Word and not force men promiscuously into a pretended Church-relation by the power of the sword or commands and constitutions of any worldly Power This together with a prudent Toleration of different opinions is the present state of Religion in England so that whosoever takes a view of the practises of both Nations will easily grant a conformity of profession betwixt us and our neighbours of the Vnited Provinces He alledges farther It would be more safe and profitable for the States that England should continue a Monarchy than become a Republick for that the increase of England in a free State would be the decrease of the other See here O ye people of England what a Confession here is out of the mouth of the Common Enemy of the possibility of that increase both in wealth and honour which our Nation may expect in the settled Form of a Free State or Commonwealth And if so then by consequence it follows that all this stir for a Royal Family and Monarchy is not out of any respect to the increase of the publick weal but only to satisfie the ambition of a single Tyrant and his Followers And rather than not be so satisfied he here by the mouth of his Orator Mac-Donnel offers up the future interest and glory of England as a prey unto the Dutch in hope to allure them unto his party for the restoring of him into a Tyranny so that you see clearly it is a thirst of Dominion and Revenge not the people's benefit that transports him in all his undertakings It is here acknowledged by himself that his own restitution will be a means to keep England from growing richer and greater the fear whereof he useth as an argument to provoke the jealousie and emulation of Holland The inference therefore is natural and easie out of his own mouth that the interest of himself and family is inconsistent with the increase and interest of the English Nation In the next place he indeavors to darken the glory of God in our many wondrous successes saying they are no good argument to justifie a cause because the Turk hath had as great successes as any But what ever this Babler saith we cannot be so ignorant of the good hand of God upon us as to let those glorious works of Providence whereby he hath pleaded the Cause of this Parliament and Commonwealth pass under the common title of Fortune de la guerre The Lord having caried on this marvellous work for time and place with a concurrence of such remarkable circumstances that the very enemies have at length acknowledged it to be digitus Dei as did D. Hamilton before his death and others who saw the stretched out arm of God in the late defeat at Worcester We justifie not our cause by successes but only behold them as the effects of Gods mercy and goodness owning us in a just ingagement against the enemies of himself and people The Turks design was to propagate Tyranny in Christendom ours to pul it down His only to increase his own Dominion ours to exalt the Dominion of Jesus Christ What he did was by main strength multitudes and help of human policy What we have done hath been by a despised remnant inconsiderable both for knowledg number against all the wise and mighty men of this generation who to their power wisdom have had so many great advantages from time to time that the decision of every success in our behalf hath been so manifestly written with the finger of God that all must confess it could be no other hand but his that did it witness the great advantage the Enemy had of us at Naisby the miraculous sally at Dublin with the many glorious defeats that followed in Ireland the great deliverances wrought in 1648 when by a small army divided into two handfuls we with one part quieted South-Wales and vanquisht Hamiltons galiant army and with the other part suppressed the many numerous Insurrections in Kent Essex c. Witness also that glorious deliverance beyond all reason given last year at Dunbar when by a poor handful of sick men wearied out with watchings hunger and incessant marches in tedious weather at length impounded within a narrow neck of Land surrounded by the sea they did notwithstanding in the strength of God defeat the numerous Scottish Army it being accommodated with all necessaries and advantages and one of the best accomplisht armies that ever appeared in Scotland Add to-these omitting many other the late memorable defeat at Worcester attended with a series of many other wondrous successes and it is so much the more observable in regard of that miraculous power of God upon the heasts of the people fastning them to the Government in a most notable time of trial to the shameful confutation of this shameless Resident who had the impudence to affirm that not the hundreth part or as he saith a little after not the thousandth part of the people but do cordially adhere to the Royal Interest and passionatly groan to be delivered from the prevailing party in England as he is pleased to call the Parliament whereas all the time of the Scot's King being among us which was about 28 days courting and wooding the people with all manner of insinuations intreaties and pretences he was not owned by any considerable number of his old friends or his new-reconciled Enemies of the Presbyterian party From all which particulars what ever other men may deem we cannot but see the hand of God reached out unto us for the upholding of this Government in a peculiar manner contrary to all the expectations and reasonings os worldly wisdom Since the drying up of the red sea with the wonders that were wrought in Aegypt and in the Wilderness never have there been more glorious appearances of Gods presence than among his people in England And therefore none but a profane heart will presume so much to detract from the glory of these dispensations as to rank them among the ordinary passages of a permissive or Turkish Providence The last that we shall take notice of is one of the principall arguments that he useth to hold the Dutch to his young Master's party hinting unto them by way of insinuation that no Nation is so subject to change as England that the Earl of Warwick in 11 days Edw. 4. in 20 and Hen. 7. in 1 day successively subdued the English Nation T is true England hath received many a sudden change but never such a change as now Heretofore the poor people toiled themselvs in shifting one Tyrant out of the saddle to set up another but now they have driven out not only the Tyrant but Tyranny it self and cashiered not only a single King but all Kings for ever It is an easie matter for particulars to supplant one another in Government because the interest stands deposited in a single hand but when the whole frame of Government is altered from what it was and the interest of State lies diffused in the hands of the people it is almost impossible to alter it again without such a tract of time as may produce new dispositions and opportunities for the effecting a new alteration Besides it is very rarely observed in the whole course of History that ever Kingly Government was suddenly restored in any Country after it had been once cashiered by the people As for Robert Bruce his recovery of all Scotland 300 years ago out of the hands of the English you know it could not be effected as long as Edw. 1. lived but advantages being taken the infirmities debaucheries and civil broils of Edw. 2. the Scots made a shift to shake off the yoak wherein they were more beholding to that Prince's vanity than the valour and vertue of their own Nation And whereas he calls Sterlin the unconquered and fatall Bulwark of Scotland and tells us that there they stopt the current of the Roman Victories yet their own Historian Buchanan confesseth that both Edw. 1. and 2. were possest of Sterlin by force of arms and both their and our Historians will be able to relate in time to come how that the Commonwealth of England hath done more than Rome and made another Conquest not only of Sterlin but far beyond it which I dare be bold to second with this Omen That as Scotland's happiness will be promoted by a subjection to England so now it is the design of God for the better carrying on of his great work and the good of that people to bring them into an universal submission to the Laws and Government of the English Nation Nec sit Terris Vltima Thule FINIS

its self fat beyond its wonted wealth and interest forasmuch as for these many hundred years it hath continued labouring and strugling under the yoak of a Tyrant so that it could not possibly arive to such a height and measure of happinesse as it may now attain in a condition of Liberty But why should Englands happinesse be counted an eye-fore to the Netherlands as our Scot would have it Surely the world is wide enough for them both and questionlesse if England shall thrive as the enemies of it feare in this new form the Dutch will then see it much more concerned them both in honor and interest to have settled with us in the relation of a friend then remain in a state of neutrality 'T is but a crude supposition that they shall lose any thing by our Amity but very probable they may lose much without it Yet in another place he alledges to the States that their Lordships having no enemy at present will by uniting with us involve themselves in a labyrinth But their Lordships may be pleased rather to consider it were a strange Wild-goose-chace to be led about by the way of Scotland to settle an interest for themselves in England upon the uncertain favour of a subtile Tyrant and his followers who in times past at Court here were wont to dart the name of Rebell as freely at them as they doe now against us being men of opposite principles to Freedom such as hated the very name of the Vnited Provinces And if the States please to remember the carriage of King James they will find that he himself was of the same humor and opinion and the first that set an edge upon the tongues of the Courtiers In vain therefore doth this Resident tell them that their Lordships have no Enemy at present For however our English Fugitives and Desperado's for present ends may seem to court them yet if they had a while since regained possession in England and should the young Prince of Orange have lived to see it it would have appeared to purpose that they are the very worst of all their enemies How much more secure then had it been for their Lordships to have embraced the late offer of England in its present establishment as a sure friend then to depend upon the good will of a deceitful Enemy And whereas it is insinuated that a League with us would draw enmities upon them elswhere they having no enemy at present it will concern them to remember what a friend they have of the French who onely gives faire words but hates them mortally in heart as appeares by the continuall depredations made upon them at Sea by those of the French Nation Also it were worthy consideration upon what ticklish termes they stand with Denmark and Sweden and in manifest discontent especially with Portugall Not any of these will or can be more a friend or enemy for the sake of the King of Scotland they are all swayed by their own interest and accordingly measure both their love and hate not out of respect to any single Person or Family Therefore it wil concern the States more rationally to weigh what advantages they might have reap't by an union with England which had it been concluded upon such terms as were offered would have rendred them so considerable in the eyes of the world that not any of all the Friendly Pretenders round about but would have been the more inclined to continue their Pretences and the lesse apt to break them Most absurd therefore is that affirmation of the Scotish Resident in saying The States may promise themselves more profit repute and security in Commerce England abiding a Kingdom then being transform'd into a Republick For as a Kingdom the actions both of James and Charls will tell them Kings were no cordiall friends nor indeed can they be whereas being in the form of a Republick the Provinces had they embraced our offers might have been admitted into a neerer union and complication of interests then ever they can hope for from a Monarchy He tells us farther there is a wide difference betwixt the Hollanders and us in the manner of acquiring our Freedom The Hollanders saith he were a free people time out of mind but we in England have been under Soveraign Kings for a thousand years and were bound to them by oaths Besides he saith the K. of Spain after a tedious warre of 80. years hath declared the Provinces free c. But the case is otherwise with us in England To this we say If the Hollanders have of old been a free people so have we been in England and both they and we in the same manner They were of old under Earls or Princes but such as were limited by the laws Auctoritas Principum er at plurimis pro libertate legibus repetitis definita saith the Author de Statu Belgii 1650. So were we in England under Princes called Kings but such only as were limited by lawes It was a Politicall Kingship not Despotick or Tyrannick as may be seen in all our Law-books Let one or two old instances serve for all Bracton l. 2. c. 16. Fletal 1 c. 17. say that the King of England hath the Law and the Parliament for his superiors and therfore if the King have the reins loose and be without a Bridle they ought to bridle him For as Bracton saith again l. 3. c. 9. The King can do nothing but what the Law permits him Thus only and with this limitation implied wee we sworn to our Kings as the Hollanders were first to their Earls and afterwards to the King of Spain but finding the Spaniard to oppresse them contrary to Law and Liberty therefore they conceived themselves acquitted of their former Oaths Et Philippi simul omnium Principum Imperium ejuravere and as our former Author saith bound themselves by a new Oath to abjure the Government not onely of Philip but of all Princes for ever which cours exactly parallels our case here in England all the difference now then is onely in a circumstance of Time We have not had 80 years Warre to make good our Freedom but alas this alters not the verity of the thing For as the Freedom of the provinces being really free from the very first moment wherein they drave out Philip did not depend upon the Spaniards acknowledgement so neither doth ours upon the acknowledgement and declaration of Charls or any future Pretender of the Family Yet notwithstanding this the Resident saith our case in reference to the recovery of our Freedom is no more like to the Hollanders then Milk is like Ink. But for illustration take this farther were they oppressed in matter of Religion So were we tied up to strange forms and innovations Were they crucified with an Inquisition So were we with a High Commission Were they squeezed with Impositions So were we such as Ship-money Privy-seals Coat and Conduct Monopolies and a thousand other devices Besides the Priests