must be greater and more sincere before we can be esteemed fit for to see a gracious deliverance and a blessed end of these publike miseries I should now in this place to illustrate this point relate these twenty opportunities or advantages omitted on both sides but I desire to be excused since they are already but too evident to ingenious spirits and therefore will leave them to be exposed to the publike view in the next succeeding age by some that may then relate them truly and unpartially without feare to offend any of the Parties And will conclude this point with this Christian admonition to the true Children of God that they are all obliged in the generall and every one in their particular to pray day and night unto the Lord that he will be pleased to indue his sacred Majesty the honourable Houses of Parliament the Generals of their Armies their Magistrates and all their subordinate Officers with such supernaturall Graces Wisedome and fore-sight that they may imbrace cheerefully all such opportunities and advantages that he shall be pleased to offer unto them to obtaine a blessed Peace with Truth and to give a happy Period to these Civill distractions jealousies and contentions that will by degrees if God in his Mercy and they in their care and Wisedome prevent it not reduce this Kingdome to an incurable consumption for all advantages and opportunities in warre except they aime and tend to that blessed end of peace above-said are commonly fatall to such as require it not when they have an advantage to doe it for so it fell out with the Samnites and with Hannibal as it doth appeare by the two first instances quoted in this Chap. for it is too late to entertaine Treaties of Peace when a Kingdome is so extenuated of meanes or abilities that it can no longer contribute to the charges of warre because such a peace can neither be profitable or honourable to any of the parties for Necessity hath no law and necessity will constraine men to hard conditions There is more honour and wisedome to give a Peace then to accept of it This was the t Maxime of Henry the fourth both with his owne subjects and with the House of Austria whereby he obtained great honour and restored a desolated Kingdome into a flourishing estate over-rigorous conditions to one of the parties makes a peace of no continuance It fell out so with u Charles the fifth Emperour of Germany by the rigorous peace he inforced upon Francis the first King of France because of the advantage he had the said King being then his prisoner but it proved fatall unto him for after he had consumed in warre thirty millions of gold and spilt much Christian bloud he wonne not a foot of ground in France for all his labour and charges God grant we may rather give an honourable Peace so it be with the continuance of his Truth and his Gospell then to accept of a Peace of no continuance with seeming advantages c. The fourth Secondary Cause is Our Contentions and Divisions APelles the famous Athenian Painter was not more excellent in his Art then in wit and ingenuity for to cast the beholders of his works into a greater admiration he used to place next to the Picture of his beautiful Venus when he did expose her to the view of the Athenians the picture of an old deformed and wrinkle faced woman that by her swarty complection grim favour and ill shape the excellent Symetry lineaments and rare feature of his Venus might seeme the more wonderfull Even so it will not be impertinent for me to set forth the deformity of Contention and the dangerous effects of this infernall fury before I describe the perfection of the Angelicall beauty of Concord and Unity that she may bee more cherished and admired and the other more abhorred in these times of civill divisions Contention proceeds from ambition pride and envie as we may daily see by experience that contentious persons are generally tainted with these vices that come from fulnesse of bread ease and a long and continued Peace Now contentions produce divisions and divisions breed factions and factions an intestine warre and all these an Antipathie of affections which never was greater in any Kingdome then it is in this at this present time for the father is divided against his sonne and the sonne against the father and the husband against the wife and the wife against her husband one brother against his brother and one servant against his fellow servant So that there is not a City Borough Towne Village Hamlet House or Family at this present in this Kingdome but is infected with this contagious disease or venome of Contention And this is not happened casually nor accidentally but by the speciall Providence of God for our correction and humiliation if we returne unto the Lord unfainedly but for our utter destruction if we remaine and continue in our impenitencie and hardnesse of heart But some may say From whence doth proceed this Epidemicall disease or this general division we that are but wormes cannot dive into the Counsels of God yet we may by his permission aime at the secondary causes of these our Civill divisions and antipathie of affections which I conceive to be these The long peace that we have injoyed in the time of Queene Elizabeth King Iames and for 16. yeares together under our Soveraigne King Charles his raigne hath increased this Kingdome in wealth and inured us to ease idlenesse vanitie and licentiousnesse riches hath bred in some of us ambition pride envie and self-conceitednesse the very incendiaries of contentions and divisions And ease and idlenesse have begotten in us lascivious desires stubbornnesse and obstinacie to doe and beleeve what seemeth good in our own eyes and so by degrees we have forgotten our Maker and like stubborne horses have kicked at and rebelled against our gracious God I meane that we are growne desperately sinfull and have despised his Ordinances erected a will-worship and gone a whoring after new Innovations And hereupon the ambition pride covetousnesse and profanenesse of the Prelacie seconded with the Loanes Conduct and Ship-money and the apparent approaches and inclinations to Popery by the bowing crouching and kneeling at Altars Railes have made us groane for a Reformation in Civill and Ecclesiasticall miscarriages The which to oppose the Prelacie and the Jesuiticall faction under colour to increase his Majesties Prerogative have withdrawne his love and his person from his most faithfull Parliament perswaded him to forsake his Royall Seat to goe to York to raise an Army under colour of a Guard for his Person to annihilate the Priviledges of Parliament the Laws of the Land and the Liberties of the Subjects and so formed the first partie in the North whereupon the honourable Houses were of necessity inforced to gather forces not to oppose his sacred Majestie but those that under his name endeavour as much as they can to undoe the
peace is when it is in a prosperous condition in Armes And notwithstanding this prosperity their propositions are to be equall and just that the peace grounded upon them may be of continuance For the first if the Carthaginians had required a peace of the Romanes after their victory at Cannes they had undoubtedly obtained a peace upon honourable conditions but because they delaid to require a peace till a Hannibal and Syphax with their Armies were utterly defeated and Scipio his Army advanced to the wals of Carthage they were inforced to embrace any conditions of peace If b Antiochus the great had required a peace of the Romanes when they had warre with Phillip King of Macedonia he had obtained honourable conditions of Peace but because he delaid to require a peace till he and all his Forces were driven out of Greece and himself with a potent Army defeated in Asia he was inforced to accept very hard conditions of peace which was to forsake all the dominions he had on this side the Mount Taurus to leave thē to the will pleasure of his victorious enemies For the second a peace cōcluded upon unequall cōditions is never of any long continuance The first c Punick warre was ended by a rigorous peace for the Carthaginians And therefore as soon as they had an opportunity they brake that Peace and began a more cruell war And the first Peace made between the Romanes and Philip the second King of d Macedonia was of no continuance because the conditions were too rigorous for the Macedonians The peaces that were concluded between Charles the ninth and Henry the third e Kings of France and their Protestant Subjects were of no continuance because they were not sincere but only varnisht over with dissimulation and proved rather snares to the poore Protestants then profitable Accommodations but on the other side the Peaces that f Henry the fourth concluded with his rebellious Subjects and with the House of Austria were of long continuance because it was the Maxime of that generous King to be rather too remisse then rigorous in his conditions of peace for when he had brought the Catholike g League upon their knees that had rebelliously proclaimed him incapable of the Crowne injured his sacred person and desolated his Kingdome by the forraigne Forces they brought in to dis-throne their naturall King yet did he grant unto them honourable conditions of peace and spilt not a drop of their bloud in vindication of their abhorred carriage towards him And for the House of Austria although it had hatched that Cockatrice of the Catholike League and fomented the Civill warre in France for three and thirty yeares together yet after he had recovered the City of Amiens out of their hands and driven back the potent Army of the Archduke Matthias into Flanders with great losse and dishonour and was advancing into Artois with his victorious Army he embraced the Propositions of peace that were offered him by Philip the second King of Spaine and was so just and equall in his demands notwithstanding he had the advantage in Armes that the Peace that was then concluded was of long continuance But the Emperour Charles the fifth by the rigorous conditions of Peace he imposed upon Francis the first King of France that was his prisoner against the wise counsell of that famous Politician h Cardinall Ximenez that counselled him to set freely the said King at libertie and to take no advantage at all of his imprisonment nor to require but equall and just conditions of Peace from him filled all Christen dome with war and brought upon himselfe such incredible charges that caused his hoary head to descend to the grave with sorrow and vexation of mind And the greatest Politician of our dayes the i Cardinall de Richlieu did counsell Lewis the thirteenth King of France to be in all the conditions of peace that he tendered to the Dukes of Savoy and Lorraine and to his owne Protestant subjects rather remisse thē too rigorous as being the safer way for to attain to a sure and a constant peace Now since it hath pleased God to infuse into the hearts of all the Members of the honourable Houses such an earnest desire to Peace as they are now ready to tender and to send Propositions of Peace to his sacred Majestie I conceive we are all obliged in generall in particular to addresse our fervent Prayers to the throne of Grace that God would be pleased to infuse into his Majesties heart a true desire to conclude such a peace as may tend to the advancement of Gods glory the good of his Church and to the reunion of his Majesties love with his most loyall Parliament as the onely meanes to make his sacred Person and all his dominions blessed and happy And that he may for ever hereafter have in his mind his Royall Fathers Motto Beati pacisici The sixth Secondary Cause is The want of Perseverance THe Perseverance in the wayes of righteousnesse is a supernaturall Grace and a free gift of God but in Civill Politike and Military actions it is a gift of nature or a property acquired by education or practise that doth oftentimes overcome the naturall instinct in men and in unreasonable creatures as it shall appeare by these instances 1. a Socrates that was reputed by the Oracle of Apollo the wisest the most temperate and the meekest man of all the Greeks was naturally inclined to inconstancie licentiousnesse and wrath as he did aver before his Disciples when they derided in their schooles one that affirmed by the Phisiognomy of Socrates that he was naturally addicted to these infirmities but he overcame them by a constant observation of the rules and of the Principles of Phylosophy 2. b Lycurgus to induce the Lacedemonians to a constant Perseverance in the austere diet and Military Discipline he had established in their Lawes caused a Masty a Greyhound a Hare and a Porrige Pot to be brought before them and having loosed the Dogs set down the Pot and let goe the Hare the Masty ranne after the Hare the Grey-hound to the Porrige Pot whereupon he spake thus to them this Grey-hound was reared in a kitchin and this Masty among a kenell of hounds and custome hath over-mastered their naturall instinct even so this austere diet and military Discipline that seemes irksome to you will be easie and pleasant in continuance of time Whereupon I observe that our want of Perseverance in Armes doth rather proceed from the long neglect of our breeding and practise in war then from our naturall inclination that was formerly addicted to c Martiall exploits But before I come to the particulars of this want of a constant perseverance in Military actions and to prove the necessity of the redresse of it by instances I desire to answer an objection that will be objected by such as are not acquainted with the degrees of
therefore it is by warre that so many Nations Kingdomes and Common-weales have been utterly destroyed and consumed and above all by an intestine and Civill warre for a Nation being weakned by her own hands it breeds an opportunity for forraigne Princes to fall upon it and subvert and conquer the same But forraigne warres are often profitable to Kingdomes or Common-weales so they be managed without the limits of those Kingdomes or Common-weales Carthage flourished as long as b Hannibal wasted Italy But when Scipio came with a great Army to their gates misery and destruction issued upon it c England flourished when war was maintained in France but when the English were driven home it was wasted and desolated by Civill commotions and an intestine warre And therefore it is a sound and a sure Maxime or Reason of State to entertaine warre abroad that a Kingdome may be freed from it at home And this Maxime was carefully observed by the Romanes for a long time but as soon as they neglected the same they fell into civill contentions and into intestine warres As long as the French Nation entertained warres in Italy to recover the right they had in the Kingdome of Naples and in the Duchy of Milan France did prosper and flourish but as soon as that fatall Peace was concluded between d Henry the second King of France and Philip King of Spaine by the procurement of the Constable of France that aimed more at his own ends then to advance the honour of his King and the good of his native Countrie And that Savoy Piedmont and the rest of the dominions that the French held in Italy were made over to the Duke of Savoy as an inconsiderate dowry of King Henries daughter that he tooke to wife then issued presently after the destructive Civill warres of France that continued three and thirty yeares and consumed above eight hundred thousand men of the French Nation and brought that Kingdome to the very brim of destruction But when it had pleased God by an unexpected mercy and by the wisedome valour and clemencie of * Henry the fourth to reunite the alienated affections of that populous nation and to keepe or observe the above-said Maxime and to drive this intestine warre into Artois and Flanders and to fire the dominions of the Incendiarie of the French Civill warres then began that Kingdome to flourish again for this diversion procured an honourable peace of ten yeares for the French in the which that politick King to entertaine the foresaid Maxime sent most of the licentious and contentious spirits of his Kingdome unto Hungaria and into the low Countries and by these meanes restored that desolated Kingdome into a most flourishing estate And his Counsellours of State that had the managing of the Military and Politick affaires of the Kingdome after his death during the Minority of Lewis the 13. his son perceiving that for want of forraigne employment the French Nobility began to soment Civill Commotions in the Kingdome aided by the Spanish faction they were constrained to embrace again this ancient Maxime which they have constantly observed to this day and have by it maintained the honour of their King and much increased their Dominions Even so out of this principle or Reason of State did Queene e Elizabeth undertake the protection of the Low Countries that the English Nobility might have employment abroad and exercise themselves in Military exploits that she might have alwayes ready some experienced Commanders and Officers of Capacity to leade an Army if her enemies attempted any invasion upon her dominions and this her wise and politick course succeeded most happily for she maintained thereby her Kingdome in peace and in a prosperous condition suppressed the rebellions in Ireland aided the French with her Treasures and with experienced Commanders Officers and Souldiers curbed the insolencie of the Spaniard by Sea and made the naturall colour of that element to be often changed into Crimson by the undaunted valour and the great experience of her Commanders Officers and Mariners in Sea-fights And by her warlike expeditions to Cales and the West India increased her Ships and Navies and all manner of Trade and commerce and left at her death England and Ireland in a prosperous peace and condition By these Instances and many more that might be produced to the same end it is apparent that forraigne warres are often times profitable in these foure cases so they be managed out of the limits of a Kingdome or Common-weale 1. It purgeth them of licentious men 2. It frees them of Civill commotions and intestine warres 3. It is a Nurcery for Commanders and experienced Officers 4. It increaseth commerce and trading and doth rather inrich a Kingdome then waste the same 1. The Romanes never inroled any souldiers for their forraign warres out of their inhabitants or Citizens before all the licentious and contentious men that are apt to breed Civill commotions had been f inroled and when they had subdued a Kingdome or Province they erected Colonies in it where they sent all the most licentious men of their City and their old souldiers to whom they appointed so much land as they might live with all 2. It frees a Kingdome from Civill commotions for if licentious and needy people find but some discontented Nobles to side withall they will presently foment a party and kindle the fire of a Civill warre but as the only way to quench a fire is to take from it the combustible matter that increaseth the same even so to prevent Civill distractions we are to purge the City and Kingdome of licentious and decaied men and to send them away into forraigne warres 3. Few or none are ignorant that the Germane and the Low Countrie warres have beene the Nurcery of the greater part of the experienced English French and Scotch Commanders and Officers that are now in these dayes It is true that of these three Nations the number of the English is the smallest because that in the peaceable Raigne of King James Commanders and Officers of experience in warre were not regarded yet those that out of a naturall inclination to Armes went thither to be trained up are not inferiour to any but the number of them is so small that they are now constrained to employ licentious Germanes for principall officers but Germany Sweden and England it selfe is beholden to the Scots for Commanders and Officers of warre And for the French the Maxime of Henry the fourth afore related hath much increased the Capacity of the French Nobility and of their foot souldiers in martiall exploits so that for seiges or battels they are not inferiour to any And therefore forraigne warres are the Nurcery of experienced Commanders and Officers of warre 4. For the increase of Trade and Commerce the forraigne warre that the French and the Hollanders have maintained these many yeares against the House of Austria hath much increased their trade and commerce and are now