and States that are about him especially if their administrations be slow weak and remiss And it is commonly seen when a great man rises in the World either that he is alone or that the magnificence of his actions swallow up the weaker efforts of others as the Sea does the Rivers And secondly That when a wise and Martial Prince rises and is succeeded by one or two Princes of equal condition to himself without a pusillanimous interposed they may do very great things in the world since the succession of two such Princes alone Philip and Alexander in the Kingdom of Macedon was sufficient to Conquer the World I conclude therefore That if the present King of France should be succeeded by a Prince of equal Vertue to himself they would swallow up the greatest part of Europe But because the great things of a Monarchy begin and end with one or a few Princes and it is rarely seen that three sufficient Princes immediately succeed one another without some effeminate or ill-consulted Prince between I am of opinion that Monarchy will sink with its own weight Now having taken a view of the force and strength of this Monarchy and the sufficiency of her present King let us next consider what their next attempts are like to be In general they will do these two things What they begun by War they will pursue in Peace for they had no other design in making Peace than to disarm their Enemies break their Confederation and hinder England from coming into it that they might insult over the world by a Peace more tyrannical than the War of a Gallant Enemy And then when the injur'd World can bear their insolencies no longer out of the elements of this Peace they will raise up a new War For that Prince that would make great Conquests must make short Wars and renew them often Holland they will not attaqne at least not this year for two important reasons Because Flanders lies between that and France And besides they will go as softly as they can till towards the latter end of the Summer for fear of awaking them out of that sleep their wasted Spirits and trading Humour have cast them into And England their stomacks do not serve them to meddle with For though it be true that whosoever he be that shall attempt to set up an Universal Monarchy in Europe will first or last find England the strongest bar in the way I say England which is not only the strongest but now the only strong Kingdom that is in Europe next to France And therefore Philip II. of Spain after al his vain attempts and pursuit turned himself upon England in which though he miscarried yet he maintained a long War in Ireland Yet the French will think to serve themselves of the supine negligence of England and still hope that they may have Prorogations therefor their mony till they have â—ateâ— up the rest of Europe as they eat bread And besides they wiâ—◠〈◊〉 a better way to distress England and more effectual than by any point blanck attaque which they can make upon it as we shall see anon Lastly there is yet one very important reason and that is they are afraid of England and truly if God had not placed in man the irascible affection of fear he would be much a wilder creature than he is But lest the truth of this should be doubted it will not be amiss to call a Foreign Witness and that is Machiavel whose own words are The French are in great fear of the English for the great inroads and devastations which they have made anciently in that Kingdom insomuch that among the common people the name of English is terrible to this day But he adds There was not then the same reason for it it is true there are not so strong reasons why they should fear us so much now as they did formerly our advantages which we had over that Kingdom being most of them soft and that Monarchy come to its full strength and the greatest perfection it is ever like to see And yet there be very strong reasons why they should yet fear us and if they do not apprehend them it is no bodies fault but our own And I say that both the Spanish and French Monarchies inherit such a remembrance of the English as the Romans did of Hannibal Nay I think it may be truly affirmed That France is more afraid of the Parliament of England that is the King and the Estates of Parliament for they are all comprehended under the word Parliament than of any one if not of all the Princes and States of Europe But if France will do neither of these what is it then that they will do I answer We must not take our measures by those reports they cause to be given out up and down the world to cast a mist before the eyes of their Neighbour-Princes and States as Jugglers do nor when they seem to look far abroad must we regard it but consider by the exact Rules of Prudence what is sit for them to do and what we our selves would do were we in their case I say then that the greatest and wisest thing which France can do next is to make himself master of the residue of the Spanish Netherlands and particularly to seize upon Ostend and Newport And when he has don that to turn his whole force upon the Empire not omitting in the meane time to attempt all that he can do there as well to amuze and divert them as to open his way to the compleat Conquest of that branch of the miserable house of Austria To demonstrate this I know no better way then a little to consider and discourse upon the consequences of this with respect unto England and Holland For England If the French be permitted to become masters of the Spanish Netherlands and to possess Ostend and Niewport then England will not only not have a footing on the Main but all the Sea-coast opposite to the whole body of it will be in the hands of the French always Enemies to England in Interest and Humour And if he pleases to look over the Sea he may seize upon Ireland when he pleases which will always lie open to him and where he will find Papists enough to entertain and joyn with him And let it be remembred that Ireland is in a manner already cut off from England by the Irish Act. And what would England then be but an Island hemm'd in by the Sea and their Enemy its master and shut out of the world By this means they will be precluded from sending any succours to the rescue or relief of those Provinces And by this means also it must necessarily come to pass which is worst of all that England must lose both the Dominion of the Sea and their Trade and in time will not be able either to build or sail Ships out of their own Ports without the License of France And so will be
in a fair way to become a Feudal Province of France And thus we see England may be distressed without warring directly upon it It is the greatest blemish in the Reign of Henry the Seventh celebrated in our Histories for one of the wisest of all our Princes that he suffered Britany to be lost and annexed to the Crown of France a soul spot in so beautiful a Picture as he is taken by the Pencil of my Lord Bacon And the more I think of these things the more I am confirmed that we shall stir up the just indignation of those that are to come after us against our memories and it will be the wonder of succeeding Generations that so great a King as the King of England in a War that had for its ends an Universal Monarchy for the most Christian King and the subversion of the Protestant Religion and Interest The one as foolish and impossible to be effected as the other is full of monstrous and detestable impiety towards God And to which ends our Enemies have been travelling through a Sea of Blood and all those crooked ways the first attempter against God beat out to those that travel with Pride Ambition and Impiety I say that such a King in such a War and such a Peace as followed it should sit still and suffer himself to be as it were besieged in his own Kingdom whilst he suffered France not only to grow to an over-ballance to England in Naval force but to plant himself all along on the opposite shore of the main Continent and in the mean time to suffer the greatest part of Europe to be consumed with the flames of an unjust War and be sacrificed to the ambition of France An aggravation greater by how much England has been famous for holding and casting the Ballance of Europe and protection of the Protestant Religion Since therefore it is a royal vertue in Kings not only to avoid Flatterrers as a Pest but to encourage some body to tell them the truth roundly still preserving the dignity of their persons and the majesty of their state I think a man cannot do better than to bring things home to them for if Princes would but a little reflect and look back upon the times past where they might see the beauty that is upon the memory of good Princes and the deformity of that of the bad they would see the excellency of plain dealing and the odiousness of pernicious flattery For Holland It will be enough to say That if they suffer the Spanish Netherlands to be lost France will not only claim by a Title prior to theirs all the Conquests and Dominions of this State in Flanders and Brabant but may set up the Title of the House of Burgundy to the whole Seventeen Provinces and finally that they will have a very bad Neighbour I conclude therefore That it is the interest of England and Holland by all means not only to preserve the rest of the Spanish Netherlands from falling into the hands of France but to make him vomit up what he has already swallowed of them For besides what I have already said If France once becomes master of those Provinces Holland and the rest of the Provinces of the League will become an easie and cheap prey to him which concerns England not a little in point of Interest And to keep those Netherlands in the hands of Spain is I think more the advantage of England and Holland than it is of Spain it self For of Spain we are secure because he is weak at that distance and neither will nor can incroach upon his Neighbours and so we preserve the greatest Bank of security to both against the Inundations of France To conclude this part For the most Christian King we are no doubt to look upon him as the minister of Gods indignation howbeit he meaneth not so but has done all these things in pride and cruelty and attributed their success to his strength and wisdom For the power both of Satan and wicked Kings is from God but the will and malice is their own Therefore the French King has made use of all these powers and advantages to do evil evil I say than which the most merciless Tyrants and destroyers of the earth whom God has said he will destroy have not in any the most barbarous age of the world committed greater or more crying to the righteous God for vengeance And a Prince affected with so vast and wild ambition is to be looked on as an enemy to mankind as a proud attempter to destroy the bounds which God has set And therefore if so excellent hope that God will stop the way against our enemies if we return to him if the preservation of the true Religion the liberties of our Countreys the great interests of mankind or whatsoever other excellent consideration we can propose to our minds will move us let us behave our selves like men and do some great thing worthy our remembrance And this brings me to the second part of my discourse In the first we have seen the mischiefs let us now consider of the remedies Now because there is no separate Kingdom or State in Europe sufficicient to ballance the weighty Body of the French Monarchy nor any of their strengths in disjunction competent to be opposed against so formidable force therefore there must be a new fond of Power and Interest raised up sufficient to keep the ballance of Europe from being called back into a Chaos out of which the French may form an Universal Monarchy according to the Idea they have conceived thereof And this can by no means better be done than by England and the United Provinces entring into a new League for the mutual and reciprocal defence of themselves and their Confederates that shall be admitted into such League and for preservation and defence of the Spanish Netherlands and for restraining the further growth and increase of the French Monarchy and hindering their incroachments upon the rest of Europe The excellency of which League will appear by this That the ends of it are in a manner common to all Europe For though the preservation of the Protestant Religion be most the concernment of England and Holland yet the special and immediate end of the preservation of Flanders and the general end of holding the Ballance of Europe is Universal Upon occasion of the beginning of the War between the Latins and the Romans Machiavil has delivered this Rule That in all Consultations it is best to come immediately to the point in question and bring things to a result without too tedious a hesitation and suspence And the reason of this is founded upon divers observations which he gathers out of several parts of the Roman Story as That weak Commonwealths are generally irresolute and ill-advised as taking their measures more from necessity than election That 't is the property of weak States to do every thing amiss rnd never to do well but in spight
of their teeths for there is no such thing as prudence amongst them That weak and irresolute States do seldom take good Counsels unless they be forced for their weakness suffers them not to deliberate where any thing is doubtful and if that doubt be not removed by a violent necessity they never come to a resolution but are always in suspence And that it is a fault peculiar to all weak and improvident Princes and Governments to be slow and tedious as well as uncertain in their Counsels which is as dangerous as the other With divers more of the like nature Wherefore thete may seem to be but one thing that may perplex us and that is Whether this course may sort to the nature of the times and our circumstances Touching this point the same Author gives this Rule That the occasion of every mans good or bad fortune consists in his correspondence accommodation with the times The wary course that Fabius took against Hannibal was good because the times and the condition of the Romans suited to it But had the same course been holden on when Scipio undertook the War Hannibal might have staid in Italy but the times being changed they also altered the method of the War And it is certainly true That to every purpose there is a time and a judgment therefore the misery of man is great upon him because the time is hard to be discerned for if the time be missed things cannot succeed for man knoweth not his time If a man chuses a wrong time he may labour and travel not only in vain as to the issues designed but may bring forth his own destruction for the universal influence and concourse of the first Providence is wanting But when we shall seriously consider that there is no other way left that the French King will neither be quiet himself nor let any body else alone and that we must either throw up the Cudgels and let him domineer as he pleases or do something that may either deter him from attempting further or if he does may shew him there is as good iron in the world as any he has in France I say things being thus I can foresee no objection of weight against the proposition That State that will defend it self must be in a condition to offend its enemies And so long as this State shall give occasion to France to apprehend that they are afraid of him he will use them as Dogs Therefore since this is like to be a League of as great importance as has been made in the world a good while to render the same secure to the parties to add majesty and grandeur to it to render it more sacred and to give it weight and reputation in the world it will be necessary that the same be approved ratified and confirmed both by the Parliament of England and the General Estates of the Seven Provinces in an extraordinary Assembly I confess the thing is both very extraordinary and magnificent and will make the times famous But the arguments that inforce the necessity thereof are irrefragible the demonstration whereof I shall leave this whole discourse and the dignity and weight of the matters themselves to give evidence unto and shall say no more in this place Than that there is nothing that Princes and States may more justly value themselves upon than Faith and Sincerity in their Leagues and Treaties and Negotiations with other Princes and States and insincerity or Stare-hypocrisie less becomes the majesty of State than it does private persons in moral and civil actions But before we go any further it will be but necessary to answer an Objection that may be made on the part of England and that is That to confirm a League by the Parliament will weaken the Kings Prerogative To which I answer 1. Ad hominem That which has been don in the time of former Kings and those the greatest and wisest of our Princes and did not lessen their Prerogative may be don again without weakening the Prerogative of the present King But this thing has been often don in former Parliaments as our Rolles of Parliament Records Law Books and Histories shew But I shall content my self to name two or three of the most Principal as sufficient A League and Alliance was made between King Henry 5. his Heires and Successors and Sigismond King of the Romans his Heires and Successors Kings of the Romans and was confirmed by Act of Parliament Coke Inst pars 4.156 Rot. Parl. 4. H. 5. N o. 14. That illustrious Peace 9. H. 5. made between Charles the 6. of France and the said Henry 5. of England who was the very Alexander of the Kings of England for magnificence by which the King of England had confirmed to him the Regency of the Kingdom of France during the life of Charles and the succession of the Crown after his death was ratified by the three Estates of France and sworn to by the King of England in Parliament and by the same Parliament ratified And 11. Henry 7. the same case happened again The three States of the Kingdom joyned with the King in the ratification of a Peace with France in the same manner This King was a Prince of great wisdom and sufficiency as I said before He invaded France with a Royal Army made them buy a Peace of him and pay him Tribute which continued yet in the times of Henry 8. his Son nevertheless he ratified a Peace by the Parliament So you see two Kings one the greatest Conqueror as the other was the greatest Polititian of the Kings of England ratifying their Leagues which nevertheless they purchased with their own swords by Parliaments And so sacred were our Leagues and Truces held to be in those times that 2. H. 5. c. 6. It was enacted by Parliament That the breaking of Truces should be High Treason in the subjects of England But 2. I answer ad Rem It is said the Kings Prerogative is to make War and Peace If the King then make a League and the Parliament confirm that League it is so far from lessening that it confirms that Authority That there must be a New League and that it must have not only more but larger dimensions then the present League in being is evident Because the House of Commons in the late long Parliament voted That the League offensive and defensive between his Majestie and this State is not according to their Advices given to his Majestie nor pursuant to the ends by them proposed Which vote has blasted the present League And if you should call twenty Parliaments they would all be of the same opinion And because all humane Providence is short-sighted there may be a provisional clause added That where the ordinary provisions and remedies of this League shall fall short or disproportionate the Parliament shall be called to deliberate of supplemental complements of provisions that may be adequate to the force that shall attacq the League which
constrained shamefully to prevaricate to make strained constructions of their Leagues to violate their Faith and to pass over all whatsoever respects of honour to travel to the ends of their ambition Whereas the English never can have any interest to propogate their Empire upon the body of Europe beyond those bounds which God by nature his instrument prescribed to them The most they pretend to is to be Arbiters between the Princes and States of Europe as we may see in the example of Henry 8. who living in an active time when three such great spirited Princes met as himself Charles V. and Frances I. of France might have made his own markets yet sought no more than to keep the Ballance equal between those two England then in Peace has been famous for the excellent vertue of loyalty and faithfulness and in all times for keeping close to that righteous Maxim of holding the Ballance of Europe steady a Maxim they took up above six hundred years ago In War they have been renowned for their courage redoubted strength and great atchievements In a word in War they have been just as well as valiant in Peace kind and in both sincere And for the profession of the true Religion without which all other things are either nothing or as good as nothing they have been celebrated above all the Nations of Europe It began there early and continued in the worst of times and since the Reformation her Divines has been the most learned and pious of the Christian world as all Forreign Divines will be ready to testifie These methinks should be powerful encouragements to this State to joyn with England England in whom the publick vertue of true meaning is inherent from whom both in Peace and War we may expect not only Justice but even generous goodness to allude to the most ancient distinction of the Jews and who against all other Nations are zealous against Popery But that it may appear we do not lay our stress upon general and rhetorical discourses there are other considerations of a more particular nature which must not be passed over England has been the principal instrument of saving this State twice from destruction once in the Infancy of their Common-wealth in the time of Queen Elizabeth against the Spaniard and now again in the late War from the French Again nothing can secure this State for the future against the mischiefs impending from France but the friendship of England And that England in conjunction with this State is able to ballance the French Monarchy I shall thus demonstrate France is larger than England but England will always afford more Souldiers than France I mean Foot and the strength of all Armies consists in the Infantry The reasons of this are these two 1. The division of the people In France and generally in all other Countreys there are but two divisions of the people the Nobless and the Peasants but in England we have three 1. The Nobless that is the Nobility and Gentry competent to furnish a sufficient Cavalry 2. The Yeomanry or middle sort of people which make up the great Body of the Kingdom and who are sufficient to furnish the greatest and strongest Infantry of any Kingdom or State in the Christian world And 3. the inferior sort or Servants I mean such as work for day-wages which are very inconsiderable in number to the Yeomanry The division of the people is one of the principal foundations of Empire and the division of the people in England being the best and most perfect of any other in all Europe it must necessarily follow that England is capable to endure stronger shocks than any other Kingdom or State founded upon the same ballance of Government and is the most perfect Government of its kind in Europe 2. In England the People that is the inferior Gentry and Yeomanry are an over-ballance both to the King Nobility and Church which is a defect in Monarchy and tends to the generation of a Commonwealth In France and Spain the King and the Nobility have destroyed the People but in England the King and the People have destroyed the Nobility I say then the strength of the Kingdom of England is in the inferior Gentry and Yeomanry and these exceeding all other Kingdoms in number strength and courage it must needs follow if the business should come to be tried where blows must decide that England would be found an over-match even to France it self if Demonstration be Demonstration But the cause and occasion how these two things come to be so that is why the Nobility of England are so depressed and the people become so formidable as you may see they are if you look but upon the House of Lords and the House of Commons in our present Parliaments I say the cause is those popular Statutes of Population against retainers of the Nobility and for Alienations of their Lands made by Henry 7. the Romulus of the English Kings which shews the unwariness of that politick King who in seeking to cure that dangerous flaw in the Government of the Nobilities being an over-match to the Prince made a far greater of making the Commons formidable for the one strikes only at a King they dislike the other at the Throne it self although it be true those effects came not to manifest themselves till above one hundred years after his death Therefore a wise Prince indeed he was but not long-sighted To the second The French have beaten and baffled the greatest part of the Christian world without fighting and have oppressed them at their own charge But if ever they should come to deal with an Enemy that would force them to fight they would shew themselves to be Frenchmen that is would suffer themselves to be perswaded to submit to more reasonable terms If you look upon the carriage of this whole War you may presently see that the wisest thing which the French thought they could do was ever to avoid fighting supposing surely that therein they imitated the wisdom of Fabius Maximus But this is most certain as the discourses upon Livy proves That a General who desires to keep the Field cannot avoid fighting when the Enemy presses and makes it his business to engage him For in such case there are but one of three ways The first is the way of Fabius of standing upon your guard and keeping your Army in places of Advantage and this is laudable and good when your Army is so strong that the Enemy dares not attaque you as it was in the case of Fabius and Hannibal for if Hannibal had advanced Fabius would have kept his ground and engaged him The second way to avoid fighting if your Enemy will needs attaque you is flying and fight or fly you must Philip of Macedon being invaded by the Romans resolved not to come to a Battel and to avoid it he took the way of Fabius encamped his Army upon the top of a Mountain and intrenched himself so
greatest perfection in respect of Domestic Empire it is capable of For 1. whereas heretofore the body of that Kingdom was not intire but subject to several great Barons who were able not only to expostulate but to contend with the King the are all brought now to a dependence on the Crown and becom most obsequious to it And besides many of the richest and most potent of them are of the blood Royal so that upon the failer of those who are before them they or their posteritie may succed to the Crown which keeps them firm to it 2. All those mighty members into which that Kingdom was formerly divided are now annexed to the Crown So that for largeness of Territory and compacted and united strength it is becom the most formidable Kingdom in all Europe And as by the former of these they have secured themselves against all intestine Wars which many times through the interests and feuds of those Barons shook the whole Frame of that Kingdom So by the latter they have fenced themselves against all Forreign invasion For heretofore all the neighbouring Princes were ready upon every occasion to invade the Kingdom of France The Dukes of Burgundy Britannie Guienne or Flanders being alwayes tempting them thereunto and giving them accesse passage and reception By this means England made two Conquests of France and at other times forced them to buy Peace of them and pay them tribute But now whosoever would invade that Kingdom shall not only want these for their confederates to invite and assist them but shall have them for their enemies Thus far Machiavel has observed for substance 3. By abrogating the Convention of Estates that King has spoyled the people of that power and share in Government which they have originally had in all the mixt Monarchies of Europe and made himself absolute even in the point of raising money which is the blood that fils the veins of that mighty Body By this meanes he has changed the constitution of that Kingdom from mixed to absolute Monarchy for the kind of it which is the Form that inables a Prince to do most mischief bot at home and abroad 4. Buth that which is the Crown of this perfection and may be the strongest stay of it is the Naval force now added to the other strengths of that powerful Monarchy wherein it now equals if it be not an overballance to either England or Holland For this is a maxim That the power of a Prince whose Dominions border on the Sea cannot be perfect without a force in Shipping able to command the Sea Wherefore in my opinion which nevertheless is exceeding weak one of the greatest mischiefs this War has produced is That it has given occasion to France to becom mighty in Naval power And that mischief can never better be demonstrated then by this consideration That there was never before any example upon Earth of a Triumvirate of mighty Nations in a vicinity of neighbourhood one to another and bordering upon the same Seas equally powerful in Naval strength The consequence of which must of necessity in time to com be a perpetual emulation and jealousy greater by how much either an Union or division of three is more perfect then of any other number Whereby it must necessarily com to pass either that som two of the three shall alternatly or by turns fight against the third Or that two of the three shall agree to extinguish the power of the third that themselves may remain in indifferent terms without jealousy one of another It is now long since France wanted but one of three things to help them to drive on that huge designe of ambition for the universal Monarchy which has so long swelled their hearts To bring Holland under a kind of feudal protection of that Crown by which means they might serve themselves of their Ships and Seamen Or to make themselves masters of the Spanish Netherlands Or lastly to grow great in Naval strength at home For France has been dangerous enough to the rest of Europe whilst they were in a manner without shipping Insomuch that those two things were observed of them in the time of Queen Elizabeth That France could never abstain from War for above two or three years together And that they could never be poor 5. and lastly To all these may be added the new Conquests and acquisitions of the French But nevertheles it may be doubted whether that Monarchy has received any real accession of strength by those Conquests in case it should com to feel the shock of a powerful and vigorous Enemy It is true indeed what Machiavel has said That the Conquests of Common wealths that are ill Governed and contrary to the Model of the Romans do conduce more to the ruin then advancement of their affairs But when we shall a little penetrate what he elswhere sayes That when we have observed the Histories of former times we shall find that Common-wealths had generally but three wayes of enlarging their Empire One is that which was observed by the Tuscans of old who entered into a League of Confederacy with several other Common-wealths with condition of equality that no particular should have any degree or authority above the rest and that comprehension should be lest for all their new Conquests to com in not much unlike the practice of the Switzers and the Hollanders of late and the Achaians and Aetolians of old Another way of extending your Empire is by associating with several Cities but so as that the dignitie of the Command the seat of the Empire and the honour of the enterprise may remain with you which was the way observed by the Romans and it was peculiar to them no other people has observed it and certainly no better is to be found The third is the way of the Spartans and Athenians who entertained no Confederates but whatever Territories they conquered they annexed them to their own Which way is undoubtedly the worst of the three as appeared by the two said Republicks who were ruined upon no other accompt but because they had grasped more Dominion then they were able to hold I say these things distinctly considered and the last way being that which the French practice in their Conquests it makes the doubt yet greater From that of the State if we descend to the consideration of the person of the King it gives us these two momentuous Observations 1. It shewes us how necessary a thing it is for a Prince that would either defend or enlarge his State to excel in practical Wisdom which consists in application conduct and pursuit For by that meanes he shall alwayes be served of wise and excellent men For it ever was and ever will be true as the Prince himself is so are his Counsel and those that are about him A weak Prince will never endure wise men nor can wise men ever be safe under an inadvertent Prince And it gives him mighty advantages over the Princes