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
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
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