being disputed with by any fight of importance I remember Drake in the vaunting stile of a Souldier would call this Enterprize The Cingeing of the King of Spains Beard The Enterprize of Eighty Eight deserveth to be stood upon a little more fully being a Miracle of Time There armed from Spain in the year 1588. the greatest Navy that ever swam upon the Sea For though there have been far greater Fleets for number yet for the Bulk and Building of the Ships with the Furniture of great Ordnance and Provisions never the like The Design was to make not an Invasion onely but an utter Conquest of this Kingdom The number of Vessels were one hundred and thirty whereof Galliasses and Gallions seventy two goodly Ships like floating Towers or Castles manned with Thirty thousand Souldiers and Mariners This Navy was the Preparation of five whole years at the least It bare it self also upon Divine Assistance For it received special Blessing from Pope Zistus and was assigned as an Apostolical Mission for the Reducement of this Kingdom to the obedience of the See of Rome And in further token of this holy Warfare there were amongst the rest of these Ships Twelve called by the name of the Twelve Apostles But it was truely conceived that this Kingdom of England could never be over-whelmed except the Land-Waters came in to the Sea-Tides Therefore was there also in readiness in Flanders a mighty strong Army of Land-Forces to the number of Fifty thousand veterane Souldiers under the Conduct of the Duke of Parma the best Commander next the French King Henry the Fourth of his time These were designed to joyn with the Forces at Sea There being prepared a number of Flat-bottom'd Boats to transport the Land Forces under the Wing and Protection of the Great Navy For they made no account but that the Navy should be absolute Master of the Seas Against these Forces there were prepared on our part to the number of near one hundred Ships Not so great of Bulk indeed but of a more nimble Motion and more serviceable Besides a less Fleet of 30 Ships for the Custody of the Narrow Seas There were also in readiness at Land two Armies besides other Forces to the number of Ten thousand dispersed amongst the Coast Towns in the Southern Parts The two Armies were appointed One of them consisting of Twenty five thousand Horse and Foot for the Repulsing of the Enemy at their landing And the other of Twenty five thousand for safeguard and attendance about the Court and the Queens Person There were also other Dormant Musters of Souldiers throughout all Parts of the Realm that were put in readiness but not drawn together The two Armies were assigned to the Leading of two Generals Noble Persons but both of them rather Courtiers and Assured to the State than Martial Men yet lined and assisted with Subordinate Commanders of great Experience Valor The Fortune of the War made this Enterprize at first a Play at Base The Spanish Navy set forth out of the Groyne in May was disperst and driven back by Weather Our Navy set forth somewhat later out of Plimouth and bare up towards the Coast of Spain to have fought with the Spanish Navy And partly by reason of contrary Winds partly upon advertisement that the Spaniards were gone back and upon some doubt also that they might pass towards the Coast of England whilest we were seeking them afar off returned likewise into Plimouth about the middle of July At that time came more confident Advertisement though false not onely to the Lord Admiral but to the Court that the Spaniards could not possibly come forward that year Whereupon our Navy was upon the point of Disbanding and many of our Men gone ashore At which very time the Invincible Armada for so it was called in a Spanish Ostentation throughout Europe was discovered upon the Western Coast. It was a kinde of Surprize For that as was said many of our men were gone to Land and our Ships ready to depart Nevertheless the Admiral with such Ships only as could suddenly be put in readiness made forth towards them In so much as of one hundred Ships there came scarce thirty to work Howbeit with them and such as came dayly in we set upon them and gave them the chase But the Spaniards for want of Courage which they called Commission declined the Fight casting themselves continually into Roundels their strongest Ships walling in the rest and in that manner they made a flying march towards Callis Our Men by the space of five or six days followed them close fought with them continually made great slaughter of their Men took two of their great Ships and gave divers others of their Ships their Deaths wounds whereof soon after they sank and perished And in a word distressed them almost in the nature of a Defeat We our selves in the mean time receiving little or no hurt Near Callis the Spaniards anchored expecting their Land-Forces which came not It was afterwards alledged that the Duke of Parma did artificially delay his Coming But this was but an Invention and Pretension given out by the Spaniards Partly upon a Spanish Envy against that Duke being an Italian and his Son a Competitor to Portugal But chiefly to save the Monstrous Scorn and Disreputation which they and their Nation received by the Success of that Enterprize Therefore their Colours and Excuses forsooth were that their General by Sea had a limitted Commission not to fight until the Land-Forces were come in to them And that the Duke of Parma had particular Reaches and Ends of his own underhand to cross the Design But it was both a strange Commission and a strange Obedience to a Commission for Men in the midst of their own blood and being so furiously assailed to hold their hands contrary to the Laws of Nature and Necessity And as for the Duke of Parma he was reasonably well tempted to be true to that Enterprize by no less Promise than to be made a Feudatary or Beneficiary King of England under the Seignorie in chief of the Pope and the Protection of the King of Spain Besides it appeared that the Duke of Parma held his place long after in the Favour and Trust of the King of Spain by the great Employments and Services that he performed in France And again it is manifest that the Duke did his best to come down and to put to Sea The Truth was that the Spanish Navy upon those proofs of Fight which they had with the English finding how much hurt they received and how little hurt they did by reason of the Activity and low building of our Ships and skill of our Sea-men And being also commanded by a General of small Courage and Experience And having lost at the first two of their bravest Commanders at Sea Petro de Valdez and Michael de Oquenda durst not put it to a Battel at Sea but set up their rest wholly upon the Land-Enterprize
the War carrieth the Defendant to affail and invade the Ancient and Indubitate Patrimony of the first Aggressour who is now turned Defendant Shall he fit down and not put himself in Defence Or if he be dispossessed shall he not make a War for the Recovery No man is so poor of Judgement as will affirm it The Castle of Cadmus was taken and the City of Thebes it self invested by Ehaebidas the Lace demonian insidiously and in violation of League The Process of this Action drew on a Resurprise of the Castle by the Thebans a Recovery of the Town and a Current of the War even unto the walls of Sparta I demand was the Defence of the City of Sparta and the Expulsion of the Thebans out of the ancient Laconian Territories unjust The sharing of that part of the Duichy of Millain which lieth upon the River of Adda by the 〈◊〉 upon Contract with the French was an Ambitious and unjust Purchase This Wheel set on going did pour a War upon the Venetians with such a Tempest as Padoua and Trevigi was taken from them and all their Dominions upon the Continent of Italy abandoned and they confined within the Salt Waters Will any man say that the Memorable Recovery and Defence of Padotia when the Gentlemen of Venice unused to the Wars out of the love of their Countrey became Brave and Martial the first day And so likewise the Readeption of Trevigi and the rest of their Dominions was matter of Scruple whether just or no because it had fource from a Quarrel ill begun The War of the Duke of Vrbin Nephew to Pope Julius the second when he made himself Head of the Spanish Mutineers was as unjust as unjust might be A Support of desperate Rebels An Invasion of St. Peters Patrimony and what you will The Race of this War fell upon the loss of Vrbin it self which was the Dukes undoubted Right Yet in this case no Penitentiary though he had enjoyned him never so strait Penance to expiate his first Offence would have counselled him to have given over the pursuit of his Right for Vrbin Which after he prosperously re-obtained and hath transmitted to his Family yet until this day Nothing more unjust than the Invasion of the Spanish Armada in 88. upon our Seas For our Land was holy Land to them they might not touch it Shall I say therefore that the Defence of Lisbon or Cales afterward was unjust There be thousands of Examples Vtor in Re non dubia Exemplis non necessariis The Reason is plain Wars are Vindicte Revenges Reparations But Revenges are not infinite but according to the measure of the first Wrong or Damage And therefore when a voluntary Offensive War by the Design or Fortune of the War is turned to a necessary Defensive War the Scene of the Tragedy is changed and it is a new Act to begin For though they the particular actions of War are complicate in Fact yet they are separate and distinct in Right Like to cross Suits in Civil Pleas which are sometimes both just But this is so clear as needeth no further to be insisted upon And yet if in things so clear it were fit to speak of more or less clear in our present Cause it is the more clear on our part because the Possession of Bohemia is setled with the Emperor For though it be true that Non datur Compensatio Injuriarum yet were there somewhat more Colour to detain the Palatinate as in the nature of a Recovery in Value or Compensation if Bohemia had been lost or were still the Stage of War Of this therefore I speak no more As for the Title of Proscription or Forfeiture wherein the Emperor upon the matter hath been Judge and Party and hath justiced himself God forbid but that it should well endure an Appeal to a War For certainly the Court of Heaven is as well a Chancery to save and debar Forfeitures as a Court of Common Law to decide Rights And there would be work enough in Germany Italy and other Parts if Imperial Forfeitures should go for good Titles Thus much for the first Ground of War with Spain being in the Nature of a Plaint for the Recovery of the Palatinate Omitting here that which might be the Seed of a larger Discourse and is verified by a number of Examples That whatsoever is gained by an Abusive Treaty ought to be restored in Integrum As we see the daily Experience of this in Civil Pleas For the Images of great things are best seen contracted into small Glasses We see I say that all Pretorian Courts if any of the Parties be entertained or laid asleep under pretence of Arbiterment or Accord and that the other Party during that time doth cautelously get the start and advantage at Common Law though it be to Judgement and Execution Yet the Pretorian Court will set back all things in statu quo prins no respect had to such Eviction or Disposition Lastly let there be no mistaking As if when I speak of a War for the Recovery of the Palatinate I meant that it must be in lineae rectae upon that Place For look into Jus faeciale and all Examples and it will be found to be without scruple That after a Legation ad Res repetendas and a Refusal and a Denunciation or Indiction of a War the War is no more confined to the Place of the Quarrel but is left at large and to choice as to the particular conducing Designs as Opportunities and Advantages shall invite To proceed therefore to the second Ground of a War with Spain We have set it down to be A just Fear of the subversion of our Civil Estate So then the War is not for the Palatinate onely but for England Scotland Ireland our King our Prince our Nation all that we have Wherein two things are to be proved The one that a Just Fear without an Actual Invasion or Offence is a sufficient Ground of a War and in the Nature of a true Defensive The other that we have towards Spain Cause of Just Fear I say Just Fear For as the Civillians do well define that the Legal Fear is Justus Metus qui cadit in constantem Virum in private Causes So there is Justus Metus qui cadit in constantem Senatum in causa publica Not out of Umbrages light Jealousies Apprehensions a far off But out of clear Foresight of imminent Danger Concerning the former Proposition it is good to hear what time saith Thucydides in his Inducement to his Story of the great War of Peloponnesus sets down in plain Terms that the true Cause of that War was The Overgrowing Greatness of the Athenians and the fear that the Lacedemonians stood in thereby And doth not doubt to call it A Necessity imposed upon the Lacedemonians of a War Which are the Words of a meer Desensive Adding that the other Causes were but specious and Popular Verissimam quidem sed minime sermone celebratam
arbitror exitisse Belli Causam Athenienses magnos effectos Lacedemoniis formidolosos 〈◊〉 illts imposuisse Bellandi Quae autem propalam 〈◊〉 utrinque 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fuerunt c. The truest Cause of this War though least voiced I conceive to have been this That the Athenians being grown great to the terrour of the Lacedemonians did impose upon them a Necessity of a War But the Causes that went abroad in speech were these c. Sulpitius Galba Consul when he perswaded the Romans to a Preventive War with the latter Philip King of 〈◊〉 in regard of the great Preparations which Philip had then on foot and his Designs to ruine some of the Confederates of the Romans confidently saith That they who took that for an Offensive War understood not the state of the Question Ignorare videmini mihi Quirites non utrum bellum an pacem habeatis vos consuli neque enim liberum id vobis permittet Philippus qui terra marique ingens bellum molitur sedutrum in Macedoniam legiones transportetis an hostem in Italiam recipiatis Ye seem to me ye Romans not to understand that the Consultation before you is not whether you shall have War or Peace for Philip will take order you shall be no Choosers who prepareth a mighty War both by Land and Sea but whether you shall transport the War into Macedon or receive it into Italy Antiochus when he incited 〈◊〉 King of 〈◊〉 at that time in Leagne with the 〈◊〉 to joyn with him in War against them setteth before him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fear of the over-spreading Greatness of the Romans 〈◊〉 it to a Fire that continually took and spread from Kingdom to Kingdom Venire Romanos ad 〈◊〉 Regna tollenda ut nullam usquam orbis terrarum nist Romanum imperium esset Philippum Nabin expugnatos se tertium peti Ut quisque proximus ab oppresso sit per omnes velut continens incendium pervasurum That the Romans came to pull down all Kingdoms and to make the State of Rome an universal Monarchy That Philip and Nabis were already ruinated and now was his turn to be assailed So that as every State lay next to the other that was oppressed so the Fire perpetually grazed Wherein it is well to be noted that towards ambitious States which are noted to aspire to great Monarchies and to seek upon all occasions to enlarge their Dominions Crescunt Argumenta justi Metus All particular fears do grow and multiply out of the Contemplation of the general Courses and Practice of such States Therefore in Deliberations of War against the Turk it hath been often with great judgement maintained That Christian Princes and States have always a sufficient Ground of Invasive War against the Enemy Not for Cause of Religion but upon a Just Fear For as much as it is a Fundamental Law in the Turkish Empire that they may without any other provocation make War upon Christendom for the Propagation of their Law So that there lieth upon the Christians a perpetual Fear of a War hanging over their heads from them And therefore they may at all times as they think good be upon the Prevention Demosthenes exposeth to scorn Wars which are not Preventive comparing those that make them to Countrey Fellows in a Fencing-School that never ward till the Blow be past Ut Barbari Pugiles dimicare solent it a vos bellum geritis cum Philippo Ex his enim is qui ictus est ictui semper inhaeret Quod si cum alibi verberes illo manus transfort Idum autem depellere aut prospicere neque scit neque vult As Country Fellows use to do when they play at Wasters such a kinde of War do you Athenians make with Philip For with them he that gets a blow streight falleth to ward when the blow is past And if you strike him in another place thither goes his hand likewise But to put by or foresee a blow they neither have the skill nor the will Clinias the Candiaen in Plato speaks desperately and wildly As if there were no such thing as Peace between Nations But that every Nation expects but his Advantage to War upon another But yet in that Excess of Speech there is thus much that may have a Civil Construction Namely that every State ought to stand upon his Guard and rather prevent than be prevented His words are Quam rem fere vocant Pacem nudum inane Nomen est Revera autem omnibus adversus omnes Civitates bellum sempiternum perdurat That which Men for the most part call Peace is but a naked and empty Name But the truth is that there is ever between all Estates a secret War I know well this Speech is the Objection and not the Decision and that it is after refuted But yet as I said before it bears thus much of Truth That if that general Malignity and Pre-disposition to War which he untruly figureth to be in all Nations be produced and extended to a just Fear of being oppressed then it is no more a true Peace but a Name of a Peace As for the Opinion of Iphicrates the Athenian it demands not so much towards a War as a just Fear but rather cometh near the opinion of Clinias As if there were ever amongst Nations a Brooding of a War and that there is no sure League but Impuissance to do hurt For he in the Treaty of peace with the Lacedemonians speaketh plain language Telling them there could be no true and secure Peace except the Lacedemonians yielded to those things which being granted it would be no longer in their power to hurt the Athenians though they would And to say truth if one mark it well this was in all Memory the Main Piece of Wisdom in strong and prudent Counsels To be in perpetual watch that the States about them should neither by Approach nor by Encrease of Dominion nor by Ruining Confederates nor by Blocking of Trade nor by any the like means have it in their power to hurt or annoy the States they serve And whensoever any such Cause did but appear straightways to buy it out with a War and never take up Peace at Credit and upon Interest It is so memorable and it is yet as fresh as if it were done yesterday how that Triumvirate of Kings Henry the Eighth of England Francis the First of France and Charles the Fifth Emperour and King of Spain were in their times so provident as scarce a Palme of Ground could bee gotten by either of the Three but that the other Two would be sure to do their best to set the Ballance of Europe upright again And the like diligence was used in the Age before by that League wherewith Guicciardine beginneth his Story and maketh it as it were the Kalendar of the good dayes of Italy which was contracted between Ferdinando King of Naples Lorenzo of Medici Potentate of Florence and Lodovico Zforza Duke of Milan designed chiefly against
Forces thorowout all Ireland from the Plaees and Nests where they had setled themselves in greater strength as in regard of the natural Situation of the Places than that was of Kinsale Which were Castle haven Baltimore and Beere-haven Indeed they went away with sound of Trumpet For they did nothing but publish and trumpet all the Reproaches they could devise against the Irish Land and Nation Insomuch as D'Aquila said in open Treaty That when the Devil upon the Mount did shew Christ all the Kingdoms of the Earth and the Glory of them he did not doubt 〈◊〉 the devil left out Ireland and kept it for himself I cease here omitting not a few other proofs of the English Valor and Fortune in their later times As at the Suburbs of Paris at the Raveline at Druse in Normandy some Encounters in Britanny and at Ostend and divers others Partly because some of them have not been proper Encounters between the Spaniards and the English and partly because others of them have not been of that greatness as to have sorted in company with the Particulars formerly recited It is true that amongst all the late Adventures the Voyage of Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins into the West-Indies was unfortunate Yet in such sort as it doth not break or interrupt our Prescription To have had the better of the Spaniards upon all Fights of late For the Disaster of that Journey was caused chiefly by sickness As might well appear by the Deaths of both the Generals Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins of the same sickness amongst the rest The Land-Enterprise of Panama was an ill measured and immature Counsel for it was grounded upon a false account that the Passages towards Panama were no better fortified than Drake had left them But yet it sorted not to any Fight of importance but to a Retreat after the English had proved the strength of their first Fort and had notice of the two other Forts beyond by which they were to have marched It is true that in the Return of the English Fleet they were set upon by Avellaneda Admiral of 20 great great ships Spanish our Fleet being but 14 full of sick men deprived of their two Generals at Sea and having no pretence but to journey homewards And yet the Spaniards did but salute them about the Cape de los Corientes with some small offer of Fight and came off with loss Although it was such a new thing for the Spaniards to receive so little hurt up on dealing with the English as Avellaneda made great brags of it for no greater matter than the waiting upon the English a far off from Cape de los Corientes to Cape Antonio Which nevertheless in the Language of a Souldier and of a Spaniard he called a Chace But before I proceed further it is good to meet with an Objection which if it be not removed the Conclusion of Experience from the time past to the time present will not be sound and perfect For it will be said that in the former times whereof we have spoken Spain was not so mighty as now it is And England on the other side was more afore-hand in all matters of Power Therefore let us compare with indifferency these Disparities of times and we shall plainly perceive that they make for the advantage of England at this present time And because we will less wander in Generalities we will fix the Comparison to precise Times Comparing the State of Spain and England in the year 88. with this present year that now runneth In handling of this Point I will not meddle with any Personal Comparisons of the Princes Councellors and Commanders by Sea or Land that were then and that are now in both Kingdoms Spain and England but onely rest upon Real Points for the true Ballancing of the State of the Forces and Affairs of both Times And yet these Personal Comparisons I omit not but that I could evidently shew that even in these Personal Respects the Ballance sways on our part But because I would say nothing that may favour of a spirit of Flattery or Censure of the present Government First therefore it is certain that Spain hath not now a foot of Ground in quiet possession more than it had in 88. As for the Valtoline and the Palatinate it is a Maxim in State that all Countreys of new Acquest till they be setled are rather matters of Burthen than Strength On the other side England hath Scotland united Ireland reduc'd to obedience and planted which are mighty augmentations Secondly in 88. the Kingdom of France able alone to counterpoize Spain it self much more in conjunction was torn with the Party of the League which gave Law to their King and depended wholly upon Spain Now France is united under a valiant young King generally obeyed if he will himself King of Navarre as well as of France And that is no ways taken Prisoner though he be tyed in a double chain of Alliance with Spain Thirdly in 88. there sate in the See of Rome a fierce thundering Fryer that would set all at six and seven Or at six and five if you allude to his Name And though he would after have turned his teeth upon Spain yet he was taken order with before it came to that Now there is ascended to the Papacy a Personage that came in by a chaste Election no ways obliged to the Party of the Spaniards A man bred in Embassages and Affairs of State That hath much of the Prince and nothing of the Fryer And one that though he love the Chair of the Papacy well yet he loveth the Carpet above the Chair That is Italy and the Liberties thereof well likewise Fourthly in 88. the King of Denmark was a stranger to England and rather inclined to Spain Now the King is incorporated to the Blood of England Engaged in the Quarrel of the Palatinate Then also Venice Savoy and the Princes and Cities of Germany had but a dull Fear of the Greatness of Spain upon a general Apprehension onely of the spreading and ambitious Designs of that Nation Now that fear is sharpned and pointed by the Spaniards late Enterprises upon the Valtoline and the Palatinate which come nearer them Fiftly and lastly the Dutch which is the Spaniards perpetual Duellist hath now at this present five Ships to one and the like Proportion in Treasure and Wealth to that they had in 88. Neither is it possible whatsoever is given out that the Coffers of Spain should now be fuller than they were in 88. For at that time Spain had no other Wars save those of the Low Countreys which were grown into an Ordinary Now they have had coupled therewith the Extraordinary of the Valtoline and the Palatinate And so I conclude my Answer to the Objection raised touching the Difference of times Not entring into more secret passages of State But keeping that Character of Stile whereof Seneca speaketh Plus significat
after full Age the Sons should Expulse their Fathers and Mothers out of their Possessions and put them to their Pensions For these Cases of Women to govern Men Sons the Fathers Slaves Free-Men are much in the same degree All being total Violations and Perversions of the Laws of Nature and Nations For the West-Indies I perceive Martins you have read Garcilazzo de Viega who himself was descended of the race of the Incaes a Mestizo and is willing to make the best of the Vertues and Manners of his Country And yet in troth he doth it soberly and credibly enough Yet you shall hardly edifie me that those Nations might not by the Law of Nature have been subdued by any Nation that had only Policy and Moral Vertue Though the Propagation of the Faith whereof we shall speak in the proper place were set by and not made part of the Case Surely their Nakedness being with them in most parts of that Country without all Vail or Covering was a great Defacement For in the acknowledgment of 〈◊〉 was the first Sense of Sin And the Heresie of the Adamites was ever accounted an affront of Nature But upon these I stand not Nor yet upon their Idiocy in thinking that Horses did eat their Bitts and Letters speak and the like Nor yet upon their Sorceries which are almost common to all Idolatrous Nations But I say their Sacrificing and more especially their Eating of Men is such an Abomination as methinks a Mans Face should be a little confused to deny that this Custom joyned with the rest did not make it lawful for the Spaniards to invade their Territory forfeited by the Law of Nature And either to reduce them or displant them But far 〈◊〉 from me yet nevertheless to justifie the Cruelties which were at first used towards them which had their reward soon after There being not one of the Principal of the first Conquerors Lut died a violen Death himself And was well followed by the Deaths of many more Of Examples enough Except we should add the Labours of Hercules An Example which though it be flourished with much Fabulous Matter yet so much it hath that it doth notably set 〈◊〉 the consent of all Nations and Ages in the approbation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and debellating of Gyants Monsters and Foren 〈◊〉 not only as lawful but as Meritorious even of Divine 〈◊〉 And this although the Deliverer came from the one End of the World unto the other Let us now set down some Arguments to prove the same Regarding rather Weight than Number as in such a Conserence as this is fit The first Argument shall be this It is a great Errour and a narrowness or straightness of Mind if any Man think that Nations have nothing to do one with another except there be either an Union in Soveraignty or a Conjunction in Pacts or Leagues There are other Bands of Society and implicite Confederation That of Colonies or Transmigrants towards their Mother Nation 〈◊〉 unius labii is somewhat For as the Confusion of Tongues was a mark of Separation so the Being of one Language is a mark of Union To have the same Fundamental Laws and Customs in chief is yet more As it was between the Grecians in respect of the Barbarians To be of one Sect or Worship If it be a False Worship I speak not of it for that is but Fratres in Malo But above all these there is the Supream and Indissoluble Consanguinity and Society between Men in general Of which the Heathen Poet whom the Apostle calls to witness saith We are all his Generation But much more we Christians unto whom it is revealed in particularity that all Men came from one Lump of Earth And that two singular Persons were the Parents from whom all the Generations of the World are descended We I say ought to acknowledge that no Nations are wholly Aliens and Strangers the one to the other And not to be less charitable than the person introduced by the Comick Poet Homosum Humani nihil à me alienum puto Now if there be such a Tacite League or Confederation sure it is not idle It is against somewhat or some Body Who should they be Is it against Wild Beasts Or the Elements of Fire and Water No it is against such Routs and Sholes of People as have utterly degenerate from the Laws of Nature As have in their very Body and frame of Estate a Monsirosity And may be truly accounted according to the Examples we have formerly recited Common Enemies and Grievances of Mankind Or Disgraces and Reproaches to Humane Nature Such People all Nations are interessed and ought to be resenting to suppress Considering that the Particular States themselves being the Delinquents can give no redress And this I say is not to be measured so much by the Principles of Jurists as by Lex Charitatis Lex proximi which includes the Samaritan as well as the Levite Lex Filiorum Adae de Massâ unâ Upon which Original Laws this Opinion is grounded Which to deny if a man may speak freely were almost to be a Schismatick in Nature The rest was not perfected AN OFFER To our Late Sovereign KING JAMES OF A DIGEST To be made of the LAWS of ENGLAND LONDON Printed by J. M. for Humphrey Robinson and Sold by William Lee 1670. TO THE KING OF A DIGEST To be made of the LAWS of ENGLAND Most Excellent Soveraign AMongst the Degrees and Acts of Soveraign or rather Heroical Honour the First or Second is the Person and Merit of a Lam-giver Princes that govern well are Fathers of the People But if a Father breed his Son well or allow him well while he liveth but leave him nothing at his Death whereby both he and his Children and his Childrens Children may be the better Surely the care and Piety of a Father is not in him compleat So Kings if they make a Portion of an Age happy by their good Government yet if they do not make Testaments as God Almighty doth whereby a Perpetuity of Good may descend to their Country they are but Mortal and Transitory Benefactors Domitian a few days before he died dream't that a Golden Head did rise upon the nape of his Neck Which was truly performed in the Golden Age that followed his times for five Successions But Kings by giving their Subjects good Laws may if they will in their own time joyn and graft this Golden Head upon their own Necks after their Death Nay they may make Nabuchadonozors Image of Monarchy golden from Head to Foot And if any of the Meaner sort of Politiques that are sighted only to see the worst of things think That Laws are but Cobwebs and that good Princes will do well without them and bad will not stand much upon them The Discourse is neither good nor wise For certain it is that good Laws are some bridle to bad Princes And as a very Wall about Government And if Tyrants sometime make a breach