Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	england_n	king_n	procure_v	2,367	5	9.8198	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

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

Romans whom they did acknowledge onely Civilli as Tacitus saith nor to any Directors Counts and Governors which were constituted by themselves The English have more then a thousand years been governed by Kings all sprung from the same Royal Stock to whom they have successively sworn Obedience and Loyalty The King of Spain after a war of almost eighty years hath in two solemne Treaties the one before the twelve yeares Truce and the other in the late concluded peace acknowledged the Vnited Provinces to be a Free State and that privative Whereupon his Catholique Majesty for himselfe and his Successors hath disclaimed all Pretences of Soveraignty here Whereas Charls the first that blessed Martyr whose innocent blood like that of Abels cries loud to the highest Heaven for vengeance against those who now sit upon his Throne not onely was but was ever by them acknowledged for their lawfull Soveraigne instead of disclaiming his Royalty over them as must be if the resemblance stand compleat was both devested of his power deprived of his life and his Princely Successor so far as in them lieth kept back and disenabled from the exercise of his undeniable power over them whereof let them find an absolute parallell from the Creation untill now In Israel King Ahab did tyrannize and as a man sold unto sin above others provoked Gods wrath against him In Rome there was Nero more like a Monster then a Man Amongst the Christans Christiernus in Denmark Wencelaus in Bohemia who was likewise Emperour behaved themselves so wickedly that it was said of them that they had east off humane nature Not much unlike to them was Richard the third called the Tyrant of England yet none of all these was ever condemned to die by the sentence of their subjects Insomuch that it is observed that the Israelites after they had deserted their King Rehoboam although an oppressor never enjoyed a happy hour but were infested with continual wars both civil and forraign til at last they were utterly destroyed and carried captives into Babylon Of Nero it was said primum damnati Principis exemplum I adde postremum non mactati tamen as in this case The Confederate Provinces were first forced in their Religion their persons and goods seized and 100000. of them killed The prevailing party in England after those insolent and high affronts done to his Majesty ere his constrained removal from his Court at White-hall took up Arms gave out Commissions levied men according to his Majesties last true and undeniable words and seized upon the Regalia before He once put himselfe into a posture of defence In the Low Countries their liberty was More Majorum fully restored to them without prejudice to any man In England Religion and Liberty are shamefully trampled under foot and the House of Commons so dismembred and its priviledges violated that the eighth part of ten were beyond all parallel cast out as the Declaration and Protestation of the secluded members Feb. 13. 1648. doth testifie The proceedings of the High and Mighty States are approved and justified by all the World on the contrary those of the English condemned and abhorred and by themselves confessed as irregular and unwarranntable a most pregnant proof and probatio probata of their wrong as is contained in the said Declaration of the Ministers The which premises the High and Mighty States being pleased to take into serious consideration according to their accustomed wisdome and justice and calling to mind those divers Treaties betwixt the Kings Royall Predecessors and their Lordships in his Majesties person yet firmly standing And seeing likewise divers of their Lordships resolved for a punctuall observation of a neutrality since the yeare 1642. betwixt the late King his Majesties Father of blessed memory and his Parliament the which by the partial confederacy with the one party now laboured for wil in all appearance be violated and infringed Therefore their Lordships are earnestly intreated not to hearken to the said Propositions as being prejudiciall to the King my gracious Masters interests and dangerous to this State likewise that the acknowledging them for a free Republick which possibly the condition of the times and benefit of Trade hath occasioned be not drawn into a further consequence much lesse an occasion given therby forge●ting Iosephs sufferings that the afflicted be yet more afflicted their Liberty retarded and their calamity lengthened His Majesties affairs God be praised are yet in a very good and hopefull condition farre better then some of his Royall Predecessors who have notwithstanding run through all difficulties and became considerable to their friends as formidable to their enemies King Robert the Bruce about three hundred years agoe being likewise by the Rebellion of his subjects and the disloyaltie of the Baliol and Cumming and their adherents fiercely assailed by King Edward of England who at once was possessed of most of the Towns and strengths in Scotland kept a Parliament in Saint Andrews took his Queen prisoner killed four of his brethren amongst whom were those duo fulmina belli defaced or removed all the Monuments and Registers of that Kingdom was constrained with one or two servants to hide himself among the Hills yet notwithstanding all this in a short time after recovered his whole Kingdom was Crowned with Honor and Glory and forced his insolent Enemie in confusion to fly from Sterling to Dumbarr and thence in a Fisher-boat Xerxes like escaped narrowly with his life I say Sterling Invictum fatale Scotorum propugnaculum Of which 't is said Hìc latium remorata est Scotia cursum His Majesties Royal Grand Father Henry the fourth King of France and Navarre yet of fresh memory was in a lower condition and had less power to resist those of the League and the powerfull King of Spain yet at last became victorious in the overthrow of his enemies to the great advantage and very considerable succour of the Netherlands The distressed condition of the Predecessors of the High and Mighty States General whom after so many changes the Almighty God hath to the admiration of the whole World brought into a safe Haven however Sirius a Spanish Writer jesting with those of Holland and their confederates did say What can the Hollanders do against the King of Spain as now some scoffingly aske how can the Scots stand against the powerfull English Is an eminent and visible example that it is all one with the Lord to help with few or with many and that when all strength and humane hopes do fail he will arise Gloriously for the deliverance of the righteous crowning them in the end with honor and good success I. Shal we then look upon the present successes and prosperity of that party as alone unchangeable for the which such strange grounds are by them pretended as are no where found being so Diametrically opposite according to the Declaration of the said Divines in and about London TO I. Gods holy word II. The instinct of nature III.

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

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 Propri●ty in what

yet most of their old Alliances and Contracts were renued still and retained in full force and vigour as well with the States and Princes of Italy as those of other Nations And as for the Hollanders though of late they boggled with us in the main yet they would gladly have renued so much of the old Treaties with the people of England as might have served their own turns not have ingaged them too far the reason why they kept off seems not to have been from any strength of Argument used by this Statizing Pretender but they had a stronger Argument of their own whose Premises and Conclusion lay a long time in Scotland from whence every Post they expected a resolution I shall close all with the testimony of that Learned Spanish Doctor Don Augustin de Hierro Atturney General of the Councel Royal in Spain c. produced by him in his late Charge against the Murtherers of Master Ashcam where insisting upon the point of Friendship betwixt England and Spain he proceeds thus That England saith he should be our Friend in statu quo nunc and that Peace should bee continued with her proceeds from right For Peace is not only made with the King but with the Kingdom also and though the first expires the last remains For put case that Peace be concluded with a Country without including the King either b● carelesness or some other accident yet the Peace stands good For so the Polish Magistrates answered the Emperour Ferdinand the second Faltando el Ray se conservan con el Reyno i. e. the King failing yet Peace is to be conserved with the kingdom So Bodin holds and urgeth a pregnant example to this purpose lib. de repub cap. 4. fol. 63. where he alledgeth the Answer which the Ambassadors of France made to Edw. the 4. King of England desiring aid from France against some rising subjects of his that had driven him out of possession and this desire he pressed by vertue of the League between them Which Answer was that the King of France could not help him in regard the confederations betwixt France and England were made betwixt the Kings and Kingdoms so that though King Edward was dispossessed therof yet the league amity remained stil with the kingd with the King Regnant Just so the Peace 'twixt the Kings and Kingdoms of Spain and England though Charles Stuart the King be wanting yet it may be kept intire with the Kingdom And his Majesty himself insinuates so much unto us continuing still his Ambassador in England For when a Peace is established 'twixt Kings and Kingdomes People Persons and Vassals though the King fail and the Kingdom receive a differing Form of Government yet the Peace holds good still because it aimed principally at the people and persons of both Nations and upon these terms the Peace was renued 'twixt Spain and England in the year 1630. as the French Mercury relates it The Result of all then out of the foregoing reasons testimonies and examples will be undeniably this that Contracts made betwixt States and Princes doe not relate singly and personally to themselves but are made Jure Populi in the behalf and for the good of the Community Though Governors and their Families may fail yet their Treaties are as eternal as the peoples interest which is their moving cause and their ultimate end And therefore as to our particular it must undeniably follow that those former Treaties made betwixt our Kings and the Vnited Provinces belong to us now of right if we please to claim or renue them having been ratified at first in respect only to the people of England No King can lay any claim of this nature but as he is an Officer of the people For that relation being once extinct there remains no Foundation for any future pretences CHAP. IV. THE two former Chapters being as the two Hinges whereupon hangs the main of the Controversie and having therein vindicated the principal points of the peoples interest in England our design in the next place is briefly to refute all the petty falshoods and insinuations which lie scattered here and there in the pretended Answer of our Scottish Pretender That which occurs in the first place is this where hee tells the States of the Vnited Provinces that the Predecessors of the present Governours in England were very inconsiderable in those days when the Treaties were made and that they had neither part nor participation in any of the favours and friendship afforded to the Netherlands This he saith by all circumstances may strongly be presumed A very strong presumption indeed it must needs be till he can name those Circumstances The Parliaments of England which were the Predecessours of our present Governours were not so considerable indeed as now they are and will be we shall easily grant because their glory and freedom was eclypsed by those unbounded Prerogatives which Kings and their House of Peers did usurp unto themselves over the Commons who naturally really and properly were to be esteemed the Parliament because they only sate and represented the people in their rights whereas the Lords sate only in their own rights or rather by vertue of that pretended right which Kings forgetting whose servants they are and for what end they were made had arrogated unto themselves in and over the people This was the reason why the Commons of England became more inconsiderable then by right they ought to have been Yet take them in their most inconsiderable state or in the lowest ebb of their Fortunes and we never see them so low but we find them admitted as partners in enacting of Laws and reputed as principal in granting Subsidies and other Supplies for the necessities and support of the Crown insomuch that no Aid-monies could be required of the people but by the Commons consent In Queen Elizabeth's time they were brought low enough as appears by her strange proceeding against Wentworth that was one of their Members which perhaps had not been so tamely taken from a Prince that had less influence upon their affections yet as low as they were the ancient Treaties betwixt Elizabeth and those Provinces were not made and renued nor were the favours and supplies both of men and money afforded unto that State but in the behalf of the Community out of the Purses of the Commons in whose name and right they were granted so that we leave the world to judge how nearly those Treaties did concern the the Commons and whether they being the undeniable Predecessors of the present Governours in England did not both partake and participate yea and were the Principall Party concerned in those tokens of favour and friendship which were then sont unto the Low-Country Provinces But to fright them from our friendship he tells them a strange Tale How big we are grown with monstrous mysteries of enlarging our Trade and Power 'T is more then probable that England in this new form will improve

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 Sophis●●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 ow● 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 populū 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

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