English have don Among the Barbarians and Savages it is confest indeed that their Kings wil be bound to no Laws though oft-times they fare accordingly For how many have there been even in our times of Turkish other Heathen Emperours Kings made away But among Christians no King or Prince was ever heard of but he must swear to maintain the Laws If any Prince prove perjured and break them so soon as the breach is made the people are freed from their obedience The supply both of men and money which the Queen sent for our reliefe came from the people themselves and out of the peoples purse the people did consent unto it and grant it Vntrue therefore it is which the Answerer affirmes that the said succour and assistance was sent without the co-operation or consent of the people of England If the people of England had any Monarch at this instant to whom they had given up the power of Treating then our addresses of Treaty should be made to him but there being no such thing and we not able to subsist without the friendship of England therefore we must treat with England as it is now governed And truly the late Summers proceedings and attempt in this Countrey when our own Freedom ran greatest hazard may well awake us to circumspection and cause us to rejoyce that England is no Monarchy now but a Free State of the same constitution with ours and to wish that thus it may continue For all the dependants and kindred of the young Prince of Orange maintain still we ought must are bound both by the merits of the House of Nassau and for our own subsistence sake to take the young Prince again for our Head Generall and Governor And were the King of Scotland master of England he would maintain it as strongly as any and seek to force the child upon us As for the favours and assistances that King James and Charles afforded us they doe not merit naming we had more hurt then good by them And King Charles never kept touch with us as is well known If in those times the people or Parliament had been in Government as now they are they would have better managed the Revenews of England which Kings waste or play away to procure our effectuall liberty such as now both England and we enjoy but not after the method that Leicester intended The Answerer saith that the prevailing party make not up the hundreth part of the people of England Why truly then the Ninety-nine Royalists that suffer one Parliamenteer to domineer it over them must be very notable Cowards I am sure there were seven or eight Royalists at the hague made a shift to dispatch one Dorislaus and at Madrid onely five or six did murther Ascham but an hundred to be overcome and kept under by one how is it possible This Tale hath for these many years been pin'd to our sleeves yet still the Parliamenteers get the better and keep the better Englands greatest Power the flower of the Parliaments Forces is now in Scotland I marvell the ninety-nine to one are so tame and quiet still in England as nowhere to shew themselves The comparison of England with a ship doth hold as good a proportion as the ninety-nine to one The English people and Nation is and abides the same it was the individuals decay the species remains A Ship and a People fit as well as a Cat and a Duck but I conceive the Answerer means the Trees whereof the ship is built for they do propagate and multiply according to their kind like men and that is more sutable to the opinion of some soothing Court-Parasites such as our Answerer proves himselfe that subjects are no otherwise then trees others compare them to beasts as if a Prince were so much better then the subjects as another man is better then a beast that is to say The beasts are beasts to men but the subjects are their Princes beasts A beastly opinion The entercourses of Commerce saith the Answerer are common to all Nations Why then the King of Scotland doth very ill in stopping and molesting the free and common commerce of all Nations from the Sillies Iersie Ireland Dunkerk c. to so great prejudice of the Seamen that the dammage in this kinde can no longer be endured The English have the same aim with us for clearing of the sea I cannot tell what he means by his Gargazens Trade Navigation is the life of this State Religion and Trade doe not destroy one another as it seems he would inferre and how doth he talk of Religion He himselfe is professedly against the Episcopall way which all the Royalists and the Princesse Royall and the Queen of Bohemia are still addicted to and holds with the Presbyterians with whom our own people for matter of Excommunication and Discipline do not agree He saith farther Violent Governments are not lasting By that rule no Monarchicall Government should be lasting for their Sword onely doth support them He saith England is subject to great alterations yea more than any Countrey under the Sun He means under Kingly Government But by and by he sowes jealousies by saying that England continuing a Commonwealth it is like to increase mightily in Trade and Navigation and that the increase of Trade in England will make ours to decay in Holland These assertions do mightily thwart one another First he says There is 100 Royalists to one Parliamentier then England is extreamly subjects to changes and alterations within the space of 11 or 20 days it hath been lost and won and then presently after he saith England continuing a Republique will make our Trade decay Ergò his minde and fear prompts him that the English Republique may well endure somewhat more then 11 or 20 days These Passages of his contradicting each other are an Argument of a short memory or that he goes about to abuse us with flim flam tales For how doth it appear that our Trade shall be spoiled by the English They send and offer us reall assistance and protection against the manifold depredations we suffer by others If both these Republicks were well united yet the number of Monarchies round about them will finde work enough for both to maintain their Negotiations jointly How much less then is England alone like to get all the Trade to themselves The English may be strugling a good while yet before a secure setling they will not want enemies at home and abroad to make attempts upon them as the Answerer himself confesseth The Prognostick of October 16 which he speaks of is an insinuation of the same nature with those Victories successes and advantages which he daily forged and printed here last Summer which by the Blow at Dunbar evaporated all immediately Those that tell us of Almanacks and Prognosticks shew they have but few and slender Reasons left them to produce I could reply to him out of Spinrock's Gospell Religion saith he was wont to
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
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 Vnited 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 London Printed by T. Newcomb for Richard Lowns at the White Lion in Pauls Church-yard near the West end 1651. The Publisher to the READER THou hast here first the Answer of Mac-Donnel whom in the Dutch they call Mac-Dowel to the Propositions of our English Ambassadors as it was delivered by him in the Great Assembly of the United Provinces which having been published beyond Sea in Dutch and translated since into an English Print is here presented to a more publick view with a few Correctives added thereunto to prevent the poison And therefore in the second place thou hast also a Transcript of certain ANIMADVERSIONS upon Mac-Donnel's Answer written by an honest Dutchman in his own Language and now translated into English Those ANIMADVERSIONS are indeed very pithy pertinent and ingenious but because they are only the Hints of Things and not Discourses so drawn at full as to convince such as are not easily perswaded of the Truth of matters in Controversie therefore it was thought fit in the third place to bring up the Rear with an Additional Reply partly to discusse the main points more fully and partly to touch upon many other particulars of Mac-Donnels Answer wholly neglected by the Dutch Animadvertor The truth is these Papers have lain by for some time by reason of the late disturbances they having been all ready prepared for the Press before except the latter part of the fourth Chapter of the Additional Reply which was lickt up upon the close of this last grand determination of Affairs at Worcester Perhaps some expressions therein touching the Power of the Sword at the first sight may not please all but that all may be pleased let them know the Rights of the people are no way wronged as long as the Sword is asserted and acknowledged to be in the hands of the Parliament who by the Law of the Sword have so nobly over-turned the Law of the Prerogative and recovered the good old Laws Liberties and Priviledges of the people And whereas it is here indevoured to prove our English Relation to the old Treaties made withour Neighbours of Holland know the intent is not in any wise to court that Nation to maintain Amity but onely to refell the futility of those Arguments of the Royal Party who pretend to prove that by vertue of those Treaties the Dutch are tied still to the late Kings Family as if they stood radicated in full force in the person of the present young Pretender If there be any fault then in the Author of the Additionall Reply it is only his presumption that a private Pen should meddle with matters of a publick Import But the henest Dutch man having shewn him the way he could not chuse but follow him and lay hold upon this opportunity throughly to canvasse the princpall Points Parts and Pretences that pass up and down by Tradition to support the cause and interest of the Common Enemy Perhaps they may at present seem as dead to some having been Thunder strook by the late fatall blow at Worcester and therefore this Piece by way of Reply may be supposed now also to be of the less use and consideration But let such consider that though the Cause and many of its grand Abettors be laid flat yet as long as so many Pretenders of the Family are in being they will be always upon every opportunity reviving and setting on foot the same pretences so that if we subdue these by Reason as well as their Persons and Partisans by Force they will be the less able to drive on future designs and draw Parties either here or abroad to the disquiet of England AN ANSWER TO THE PROPOSITIONS MADE BY THE ENGLISH AMBASSADORS as they stile themselves the 30 20 of March In the great Assembly of the High and Mighty Lords the States Generall of the United Provinces AS ALSO To their Memorials of the 27 17 of April and 20 10 of May 1651. respectively And likewise To the 36. Articles of the desired Treaty As it was delivered by the Honorable Sir William Macdowel Knight Resident for his Majesty of Great Britain after his return to Holland in the said Great Assembly June 28 18 1651. Prov. 24. verse 21 22. My Sonne feare thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change For their calamity shall rise suddenly and who knoweth the ruine of them HAGH Printed by Samuel Brown English Book-seller 1651. AN ANSWER TO the Propositions THe said pretended Embassadors have offered and withall required a strict Confederacy Holy League as they term it betwixt the Commonwealth of England and the Vnited Provinces alledging to that end I. The ancient and successive Contracts and mutuall Friendship betwixt both II. The advancement of Trade and Traffique III. A Conformity in the Reformation of Religion IV. The like Successe and Blessings upon both V. An answerable change in the condition of both States as likewise in the restored Liberty of the People Hinc inde Which specious motives and inducements viewed aright and laid in a just ballance will appeare by their favours to have no warrantable ground For the clearing of which the High and Mighty States are desired to look back and consider I That formerly all Contracts have been made betwixt the successive Kings of England their lawfull Heires and the High and Mighty State Generall and not with England as is alledged Not to look further back the Soveraignty of these Countries was offered to Queen Elizabeth of happy memory in the year 1585 which she in wisdome thought fit to decline but withall assisted the States with 5000. Foot and 1000 Horse as likewise advanced to their Lordships before the yeare 1596 in the space of eleven years eleven hundred thousand pounds Sterling according to the calculation of her Majesties Councellors and high Treasurer for the time Her Royall Successors James and Charles of Immortall memory in the years 1608 1614 1635 respectively have not onely assisted these States in their great straits in a very considerable way but also engaged with their Lordships offensivè and defensivè and that without the least communication had with the people of England concerning it And if a ratification of such an alliance should be
Natural reason IV. The Laws of all Nations V. The constitutions particularly of the Kingdome of England who above all other people most obsequiously and affectionately regard and reverence their Kings as in those maxims of their Law Rex non moritur Rex nulli facit injuriam c. VI. The Judgement of all Casuists VII Their Oaths of Fealty Supremacy and Allegiance repeated particularly at the admission of every Member into the House of Commons their Protestation their Covenant their Solemn League and Covenant and an hundred Declarations besides the Pulique Faith of the Kingdom of England solemnly given to the Commissioners of the Kingdom of Scotland upon their receiving his Majestie at New-Castle in all which they professed to the world that they would maintain and preserve with their lives and Estates the Kings Person Honor Rights and Royal Posterity II. Or shall we rest satisfied in the Sophistry of those Sectaries who out of Christs answer to the subtil question of the Herodians and Pharisees if it were lawfull to give tribute to Cesar answered ostendite mihi numisma cujus habet imaginem inferre that fide implicitâ the party now in England is to be acknowledged without any further enquiry or examination since our Saviours answer speaks nothing for their advantage But on the contrary his commanding Tribute to be given to Cesar whom the Jewes formerly acknowledged to be their King confirmeth and establisheth lawfull power and consequently condemneth sedition and rebellion else David should have submitted unto and acquiessed in the usurped power of Absolom who was possessed of all the land even unto Iordan and carried away all Israel after him and Solomon in the power of Adonijah Iehoiada in Athalia's and the Machabees in the power of Antiochus Epiphanes the grand enemy of the Iews yea the Estates of the United Provinces should have then obeyed the force of the Duke of Alva who by the emblem of his Statue formerly set up in Antwerp did signifie that he had invested himself with the absolute power It is well said by one of the Ancients Omnis potestas est à Deo sed acquisitio potestatis furto raepina incendio aut perduellione non est à Deo sed ab hominum affectibus Satanae malitiâ III. Or may we suffer our selves to be abused by the examples and presidents which the said Sectaries alledg of the Kings Edward the second and Richard the second who by reason of their incapacity were forced to resigne their Crowns the one to his son the other to his Competitor King Henry the fourth but neither of them to an inconsiderable small remainder of an house of Commons or the People Onely in a full Parliament both their resignations were confirmed and neither executed but were alway afterwards honorably entertained yea one Roger Mortimer which is worth the observing the chief Author and actor in deposing of Edward the second and Crowning his son Edward the third in his fathers place according to which President his Majesty Charls the second ought by these to have been Crowned was by a Parliament four years after together with his fellow-murtherers condemned as a Traytor and enemy to the King and Kingdome because he killed the said deposed King in Berkley Castle Besides the now prevailing Party by Solemn Protestations did publish and declare to all the world that they did not intend to follow those accursed Presidents although they should suffer never so much by the King and his Party Exact Collect. p. 69. IV. Should we not rather deeply apprehend and with fear look upon those exemplary punishments inflicted upon perjury and Covenant-breaking in Gods holy word as may be seen to omit others in the person of Saul who together with his posterity as also the whole Kingdome of Israel was so severely punished because he destroyed the Gibeonits against the Covenant made with Joshua above 200 years before notwithstanding they procured the same deceitfully As likewise in the History of England and other Kingdoms many pregnant examples to that purpose might be alleadged particularly that of William Thorpe Chief Justice of the Kings Bench in that Realm who for taking a bribe of 80 pounds Sterling was put to death and all his goods confiscated to the Kings use in regard that in so doing he violated the Oath of a Judge as the words run Quod Sacramentum Domini Regis quod erga populum habuit custodiendum fregit malitiose falso rebelliter Parl. 23. Edw. 3d. An Answer to their Memorials .. THe Memorials I pass over as monstrous and which by inevitable consequence not onely tend to cut off all Treaties and alliances betwixt the Kings Majesty and this State and all commerce with his loyal and faithfull Subjects but likewise in some cases to the not suffering of them to dwel or reside in these parts A demand which is against the band of common society amongst men the Soveraignty of the united Provinces and Liberty of the same which have ever been a Sanctuary for honest men and a receptacle of all Nations whatsoever In a word such quale victor victo dare non socius socium rogare solet The cruelty of Tiberius Nero Domitian and others hath for the most part been confined within the walls of Rome or the borders of Italy without persecuting their opposers in a strange land as an omnibus umbra locis adero Concerning the thirty six Articles of the Treaty The thirty six Articles evidently bend I. TO hinder his Majesties Just Right and Restitution to his hereditary Crown and Kingdom of England II. To involve the High and Mighty States Generall in a Labyrinth and great inconveniencies who at present have no enemy III. To encourage and strengthen the Kings irreconcilable enemies and Rebels as the 4 5 6 and 31 Articles doe import IV. Against the forementioned resolutions of the High and Mighty States in the year 1642 concerning the keeping a Neutrality betwixt his Majesties Father of blessed memory and his Parliament of England namely those of the 1 of November and 30 of December 1642 and the 6 of November 1648. V. Against a Declaration and Protestation of the Noble and Mighty States of Holland and West-Friesland dated the 6 of November 1649 to the same purpose VI. Against all former Treaties and Alliances betwixt his Majesties Royall Predecessors and this State As amongst others that of the 14 of February 1593 likewise consisting of 36 Articles betwixt King Henry the 7 of England his Heirs and Successors made in his name and by his Authority as the words of the said Treaty do bear and Philip Arch Duke of Austria and Duke of Burgundy which binde and obliege to this very day divers of the United Provinces and the chief Members and Towns thereof to assist the said King Henry the 7 and his Heirs which unquestionably pleadeth for my Master Charls the second he being the sixth from him in descent in linea recta and to afford them all favour and
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 Oâ—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 thâ—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
both to them and us what practices and mighty indeavours the Royal party hath used these many years to ingage this State against the Parliament now the Common-wealth of England What partial proceedings were there a foot All that came from the King had audience at pleasure the Parliament none The States-men of war were though mostly besides the States knowledge imployed in the service of the King and his Party as if they had been his own What would have been the issue think you if they had ingaged us to make war against the Parliament but to sacrifice our Power our Treasure our Freedome for the inslaving both the Parliament and our Selves Is it forgotten already what past here among us last Summer Had Amsterdam and the Bank of Amsterdam been but surprised once nay had but one man continued alive we should have been in a case sad and bad enough After that this danger was over and we had called the Grand Assembly together for the settlement of our Freedom they acknowledged the Common-wealth of England and resolved to send an Ambassador to them the Parliament shewed themselves so honourable and civil that they prevented us concurring with our own desires of settling both these Republicks in a posture against all that should at any time attempt ought against them They considered who was their present Enemy and how near the King of Scots was allied to him that by his late practises disclosed so much of his Designs against Holland Amsterdam and the whole State Also what special correspondence there past between these two to reduce both Republicks to a plenary Subjection Afterwards when the English had gotten the start of their Adversary by the great Victory at Dunbar Then it is to be observed that they came out of a cordially zeal and affection to deliver us likewise and to further the settlement of our State and by an union with them render us secure at home and feared abroad How and by whom the effect thereof hath been protracted hitherto is well known namely by those who still are Preaching to us that we should submit our selves under the young Prince of Orange that is to say under the sister of the King of Scotland the Guardianess of him whom they would fain force upon us for our Head and Guardian The following both Scripture and prophane Allegations and Histories registred by the Answerer are to no purpose being a thousand times refuted Gods holy Word the instinct of Nature right reason the Laws the Judgements of the Casuists the Oaths Covenants and all these are things the Parliament alledge for themselves with more reason and advantage then the Royalists Those sayings Rex non moritur Rex nulli facit injuriam are known to be rank flatteries and neither in England nor in any other Kingdome allowed of I wonder how this man durst avert such things in the face of this Republick As also that he durst call that a Sophisâ—â—e which the States of Holland had made use of to induce the rest of the Provinces to the Acknowledgment of the English Republick viz to give unto Cesar that is the present Possessor or Incumbent that which is Cesars Why did he not first make known this subtle solution of that Sophism to Spain Portugal Venice Florence Genua France would fain come on too Did they understand the Date Caesari thus we had more reason for it As for those other allegations taken out of several Sermons I shall direct him to infinite other Sermons that were and are daily made in the behalf of the Parliament The Answerers and others wresting of the Scriptures like a Nose of wax to serve their turns is a kind of Prophanation The Memorandums he calls Monstrous things A bold expression They contain the very words set down in the Treaty of Anno 1495. and consequently the States own words delivered unto the English Ambassadors May 2 last which are not monstrous but grounded on very weighty Reason For we do plainly find that for divers years now all along the English and Scots Malignants do not only seek to imbroil us in war but labour likewise daily here to reduce us again under the subjection or Guardianship of the young Prince of Orange that needs a Guardian himself So that it seems Lex Julia de ambitu lies asleep Otherwise this State ought to rid themselves of those strangers that seek to obtrude a new Domination upon us And the English deserve our thanks for having reacht forth their helping hand thus unto us In the Rear now our Answerer falls upon the thirty six Articles and says That the same do prejudice or hinder his Kings Right to the Crown of England All the Kings and Potentates which acknowledge England a Republick do in effect the same thing But indeed neither any of those Kings and Potentates nor we our selves but the Kings owâ— evill Councellors or Proceedings are the cause of all this When the Anserer the rest of his partners the Scots and Covenanters have hurried their Waggon into precipices of ruine it is past our redress To enter into alliance against those that go about to ruine our Commerce and bereave us of our Freedom as much as in them lies is both necessary and commendable If some will needs live under a King let them as for our parts we are resolved by Gods help to maintain our Freedom A League with England will not bring us into a Labyrinth nor make us subjects of Depradation and Slavery but free and secure us from both The Resolutions of Neutrality which he mentioneth are limited with conditions in case the Scots Irish and other Pirats perform Neutrality to us also All the former alliances are between the Nations so their Lord ships the States understand it so also do all the Kings and Potentates understand it that Treat here with the States upon the ancient Treaties as made in those times under the name of the Duke of Burgundy and Austria The Answerer himself implies as much above where he takes the Treaty vvith Duke Philip Anno 1495. as made with their Lordships the States and so likewise the renued Treaty with Scotland in Anno 1594. which Queen Mary had made as Governess in the Netherlands and the King of Scotland notwithstanding renued it with their Lordships Non populi propter Regem sed Rex propter populuÌ„ Kings Princes enter into Treaties as Representers of the People for the peoples sake This Kings forefathers were contented with the Crown of Scotland It grieves the Scots to see themselvs involved in war about a quarrel that doth not concern them but only for the Kings sake who by Pr. Rupert and by other Pyratical ships and other ways plaguing and provoking the English did force them at last to fall with an Army into Scotland for to prevent that Kings falling into England Even so did the great Gustave of Sweden he came with an Army into Prussia and forced the King of Poland his Cousen to
way and those that are un-armed resolve another then there can be no Government at all but all will be left at random to a continued succession of discontents contests and confusions which must needs end in the ruine of the unarmed party Wherefore it is a Rule with them That the ancient Majesty of a Kingdom or Commonweal continues no longer if it be changed either by a greater Power or by consent of the People where you see Force and Power are put in equall ballance with popular consent in relation to Government And as if it were the best pedigree of Supremacy they define the Supream Authority to be that which holds claim from God and the Sword and therefore is as it were the Authour of its own Original without dependance on any other so that say that every Commonwealth be it never so small which acknowledges no Superiour but God and the Sword hath a right of Majesty or Political Supremacy So saith Besoldus de Juribus Majest cap. 1. Arnisaeus de Majest cap. 1. and Cammonus de Majest Disput 1. Thes 70.75 c. with many others Seeing therefore that an uncontrolable Power of the sword in plenary possession of any Nation instates him or them whos Sword it is w th all the rights of Majesty much more then may they be claimed by the Parliament of England to whom God hath given a commanding Sword which they lawfully hold in the behalf and by consent of the people And therefore questionless no State or Prince where he seeth such an established Power can in reason question those rights or pretend ground not to own the Power as in all other rights so more especially in the right of Ambassy which is one of the fairest Flowers in the Garland of Majesty For as it hath been observed by the Oracle of our Laws 4. Instit c. 26. they and none but they who enjoy the rights of Majesty or Supremacy have a right of Ambassy It must be from a Soveraign to a Soveraign Power and Authority Thus far now our Assertion stands unquestionable therefore for illustration it must needs be much more clear if we consider that the benefit of Ambassy hath been often allowed even to such as were not solely Supream nor in the plenary possession of any Nation Thus in a Nation divided by Civil War where the Supream Power is in Controversie both the Parties are allowed an equal right of Ambassy by Hugo Grotius l. 2. c. 18. Thus in a popular division at Syracusa the one Party within the City sent an Ambassage to the other Party without under the command of Andronodorus The like was done by Caius Manlius one of Catiline's Fellows to Q. Martins and by Brutus and Cassius to Lepidus and Antony Livius l. 14. Salust Catil who give them that were sent the name of Legats which were the same that we now call Agents and Ambassadors Also according to this Rule during the late Contest here betwixt King and Parliament it was that the Hollander made no scruple to entertain Agents equally from both the Parties Nor hath this Priviledge been allowed those only who in National sidings have had some tolerable pretence to a formal Authority but hath been indulged also to meer Out-Laws such as the Montaneers in the Alps the Assassins of old the Pickeroons in France the Banditi in Italy the Tories in Ireland and the Mosse-Troopers in the Marches between England and Scotland Q. Curtius lib. 7. tels us of twenty thousand such Fellows that were got into a Body to make Head against Alexander the Great and it came to a Fight in which Alexander himself being wounded in the Forlorn it came to a Parley Itaque postero die miserunt Legatos ad Regem Whereupon the next day they sent Ambassadors to the King who received them with all Ceremony and caused them to sit in his presence This were the more to be admired but that we find Cesar himself lib. 3. bell civ giving the like honour to those Fugitives that lurked in the Straits and Passes of the Pyrenaean Mountains and affirming it lawful Yet questionless these instances are not to bee drawn into custom but may be imitated and approved only upon the like occasional accidents and emergents of necessity How ever in regard some have openly in Print indeavoured to abridge us in England of our right and interest in this particular it is requisit we should draw the Lines of Ambassy in its utmost Extent and Latitude that our Inferences and Inductions may arise the more easie For if they who upon the occasion of a National Rupture can at the most lay claim to no more but the name of a Party have been and are admitted into a participation of this right by States and Princes and if so bee that an irregular number of Out-Laws and Renegade's formed into a formidable Body have been received likewise into the same Priviledge by the greatest Monarchs then à minori ad majus the Argument must needs hold good as to those in England who are actually and justly invested with the Supream Power and setled in the Noblest form If scattered Recollections of Fugitives Male-Contents and frighted Remnants have assumed this honour to themselves much more may this Noble Nation of England who though she grew old crooked and deformed under the pressures and oppressions of successive Tyrants yet having shaken them off baffled them beyond recovery and setled her self in the condition of a Soveraign Free State seems now to renue her Age again like the Eagle under the sweet Influences of Liberty She is now her self in full possession of her own therefore let the world know in this case she understands that Possession is more then eleven points of the Law For why was it that the late King of England as one observes having sworn a League with the King of Spain expresly also as he was King of Portugal did notwithstanding receive divers Ambassadors from the new King of Portugal yet was not judged either in England or Spain to have broken his former Oath and League Why was it I say but only to shew that Contracts and Oaths made betwixt Political persons are made in a Political sense viz. with a tacit condition of holding their Possessions These being gon their Publick Relations and Concernments immediatly expire How came it to passe that the Spaniard being driven out of the Vnited Provinces and they by him declared Rebels that yet they assuming to themselves a right of Ambassy had their Ambassadors so readily received by Henry of France and Elizabeth of England but that both those Princes well understood the lawfulness of the action and that they had Jure Gentium a right so to send the Spaniard being dispossessed there It was the same reason too that moved the Hollander to entertain Agents and Ambassadors from this State before the death of the Tyrant for that part which we then possessed and since his death for the whole now in possession
in this acknowledging possession a sufficient ground for us to send as for themselves to receive our Ambassadors The acknowledgements given us likewise by the Ambassadors and Agents of Spain Portugal Venice Florence and Genoa do declare the same How then comes it to passe that the name of a King of Great Britain hath been so rife among the Provinces when they know the young Scot is so farre from having a Foot in the Noblest part of Britain England that he is in a manner outed too in Scotland What face too but that a Scot can face any thing had this Scot to deny our Embassadours the name of English Embassadours and dubbe himself with a Title including a Right to England where his Master is never like to take the Air again if he have his due unlesse it be upon a Scaffold But well may hee own the Title when some of the Dutch have been so forward to give it yea and under that name doe more then give him Audience in their great Assembly Though they have many Bodies of Supremacy in the Netherlands yet we can acknowledge but one Supream in England which is the Parliament who being seated with full Power in the Peoples Right can admit of no Competitor nor permit any other Nation to impose one upon them or dispute their Title but have reason to expect the same acknowledgements that ever have been given to all Supream Powers in possession according to the Custom of Nations which if any Nation shall deny or take occasion to prevaricate in this point they may in time understand that England established in this new Form stands fully possest not only by Right of Warre but also according to the Right of Nature and the ancient Laws and Customes of the Nation being eminently adorned with all the Rights and Priviledges of the People And that she may now have as great abilities as ever to assert her own Independency upon other Powers and make her self as considerable either in enmity or friendship as the proudest of her enemies CHAP. III. That Contracts and Alliances made betwixt States and Princes doe not relate singly and personally to themselves but are made Jure Populi in the behalf and for the benefit of the People VVHere as it hath been alledged by the Resident of the King of Scots that the ancient and successive Contracts and Friendships betwixt England and the Vnited Provinces were made between them and the successive Kings of England and not with England otherwise considered wherby he seems to affirm that the validity of such Contracts depends upon and expires with the persons of the Kings of England or with the Kingly Government excluding the interest of the People from being Principal in them therfore it cannot be inexpedient in that point to manifest the ignorance of this Scot with the absurdity of his Pretence which so highly reflects upon the Majesty and main Concernments of the People For without question it is to be understood that as all the acts of Government ought to tend so Governours themselves by what names on titles soever they be called are erected and intended only for the behalf and benefit of the people Even Kings themselves notwithstanding all their flourishes can arrogate nothing to their Persons or Families separate from the Peoples Interest For a King is no more but a Creature of the People by them created for their good He is their servant for which they give him a Salary or Revenue adorning him with splendid Titles of Majesty and with all the Immunities Priviledges and Prerogatives of Government which are no way inherent in his own Person or Family but Ornaments bestowed upon him as the Peoples Livery in reward of his service The truth of this very evidently appears in the Coronation-solemnities of Kings which all the world over are the same in substance and here in England the custome was thus First the agreement was made between the people and him that was to be entertained as their King he was made acquainted with the work and service of the Commonwealth which was to regulate himselfe and his Charge according to such Lawes that is such Rules and Direction as were or should be appointed by the people and for the true performance of this an Oath was given him Then the peoples consent being asked and had which in old time here was wont to be demanded thrice he was immediatly taken into the service and his Livery given him viz. The Royall Robes the Sword the Ring the Scepter and the Crown This hath been the manner of admission in England most solemnly performed in receiving all the Kings and Queens from the days of Edward the Confessor and long before So that you see the relation wherein a King stands to the Commonwealth or Kingdom is the same with that of a Servant to his Master onely here is the difference betwixt Kings and privat Servants That those publick honorary Servants having great honour confer'd upon them by the service are necessitated to maintain a large retinue and hold many in pension and imployment for which purpose they are allowed an extraordinary proportion of wages for their pains and expence in the performance of their duty with a surplusage of Subsidies or Supplies many times upon emergent occasions of necessity This will further appeare if we consider that Kings hold not the possession of a Kingdom by the same right as privat men doe their patrimonies But yet it is not meant as if Kings might not have possessions as other men have for that is allowable and hath been known here in England as may be seen in the time of Henry the fourth who from the Title of Duke of Lancaster arriving to that of a King enjoyed still an inheritance in his own rights as Duke of Lancaster distinct from that of the Crown and fearing the return of Lex talionis upon himself and Family that as he had dispossessed others of the Kingdom so his heirs might in time be dispossessed again therefore out of a prudent forecast he so ordered the matter as to keep the Revenues of his Dutchie entire and setled them in such a way as might preserve them distinct from those of the Crown that in case any new Turn should happen his posterity might if they lost the Kingship know where to lay claim unto their ancient Patrimony So then we doe not deny but Kings may have possessions of their own as well as other men by inheritance or purchase but those which they hold in the right of the Kingdom or Kingship are none of their own The Patrimony of the Publick Exchequer is one thing that of the Prince another Henry the fourth held the Dutchy of Lancaster as he was Henry but the revenues of the Crown as he was the King or publick servant of the Kingdom not out of any peculiar propriety that he had in them Nor can it in reason be imagined that Kings should have any thing of Propriâ—ty in what
question when this Officer the King shall either for male-administration or treachery in his trust be put to death or banished with his whole family the Treaties Contracts and Alliances made in his name with any Forain State must needs continue in full force and power to all intents and purposes as long as the People and Community are in being whose Contracts they are To this accords that of Grotius likewise l. 2. c. 15. Si cum Rege contractum sit non statim personale erit censendum foedus i.e. If a League be made with a King it must not be presently looked upon as a personal League For as he saith in the same place after Pedius and Vlpian plerumque persona pacto inseritur non ut personable pactum fiat sedut demonstretur cum quo pactum est The person of the Prince is usually mentioned in the League not that the League should become personal but only to shew with whom it was made But it may be objected that the League with Holland extends not only to the King but to his Successors also 'T is true it doth hold as to the succession that is as long as the succession holds for Leagues must hold to the persons of Princes and their successors as all other Political Compacts between them do viz. with a tacit condition of holding their possessions If the King of Scots can with the peoples consent make good his succession in England then he may lay claim to the Treaties made betwixt England and Holland but in the mean time Hee and his Family being driven out for their Tyranny all the Right to those Contracts is to be exercised by another Succession and Form of Government that is established in the Right and by Authority of the people Nor can this Alteration of Government any whit alter the Case it being a right naturally inherent in all Nations to alter their respective Governments upon occasion into what form they please As long as the people remain the same specifical I do not mean the same individual people of England that they were when the right of Treaty was used and the Treaty with Holland made and ratified by the King in their behalf so long the effects of the Treaty or Treaties are in force to the same ends and purposes that they were at first intended Seneca saith by way of comparison Manet idem flumen aqua transmissa est the River remains the same though the water pass away and Aristotle 3. lib. Pol c. 2. traceth him in the same quaint way of allusion likening the People to a River which retains its old name and is said to be the same that it was long since though a continued succession of new waters doe flow in the Channel so the People that is now is the same in specie that it was an hundred or perhaps a thousand years since and is so called and reputed except it lose the name and estimate of a Nation by being captivated and caried away from their Countrey as the Jews were all in time from Jerusalem and the Holy Land or inslaved in their own Countrey by some Forain Power that holds them in Vassalage as the Olynthians were under Philip the Thebans under his son Alexander the Capuans under the Romans or as the old Britains were under the Saxons the Saxons under the Danes and afterwards under the Tyranny of the Norman Conquerour When their National Power and Authority is once extinct they no longer retain their former interest priviledge or dignity But none of these exceptions blessed be God can be verified upon the people of England who are seated pleno Jure in their own fortunate Island and established now in a greater measure of Honour Power and Freedom then ever we enjoyed for many hundred years before Foelices nimiùm bone si sua nôrint And therefore of necessity they must be accounted specifically the same Nation or people that they were when the Treaties were made and concluded betwixt England and the Netherlands though they be not the very same Individuall People and Government No matter saith Grotius l. 2. c. 9. how the Nation be governed whether by a King or by many or by the multitude For the people of Rome remained the same still in the various changes of Government under Kings Consuls and Emperours When the former is extinct a new form ever succeeds with power to govern act and transact in and for the behalfe of the people who being still the same not tied to Forms nor altered by Time over-look all Circumstances and lay hold upon the Substantials of their Interest and Government as they stand qualified and related both at home and abroad And truly it is very pleasant to observe in this particular how even Princes themselves acknowledge as much in their Practises towards each other in the changes of Government For the Duke of Burgoin having concluded amity with England in the person of Henry the 6. no sooner was Henry dispossessed and Edward the 4. invested but he immediatly renues the same League with England in the person of Edward Afterwards Edward hapning to be driven out it was so brought about by Burgoin that the Truce formerly concluded betwixt him and King Edward should in all things bee ratified and confirmed the King's name onely changed to Henry At length Edward made shift to recover all again and then Henry was once more dethroned which was no sooner done but Burgoin sent again a solemn Embassage to renue the Treaty and establish a firm League with England in the person of Edward It is to be observed likewise that during all these Changes Ambassadors went to and fro and all Forain Contracts and Alliances were kept entire without the least question on either side which may serve to inform us of these two particulars That in National quarrels about Title to Government Princes use not to dispute who is in the right or wrong but apply themselves without farther scruple to the parties in possession And secondly that however the Governours of a Countrey may be changed yet all the points of Alliance and Contract being centred in the right and benefit of the people continue unchangeable and entire under every alteration It were endless to reckon up all the examples that might be derived from the practises of States and Princes to confirm this particular we might shew you how the matter of Government being in dispute betwixt Queen Mary and her son James or rather his Guardians though Mary were dethroned and her Sons Guardians got the better yet the amity betwixt us and Scotland continued firm notwithstanding the deposition of the person of Mary But because the Scottish Resident seems to grant that Leagues may hold entire in State-Ruptures though a particular Prince be laid aside but not so if the frame of Government be altered therefore he may be pleased to consider that in the various revolutions of the Florentin Government when the whole frame was changed
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