Spain expand themselfs further The Sun doth perpetually shine upon som part of the Phillippean Monarchy for if it sets in one clime it then riseth in another He hath dominion on both the Hemisphers and none of all the four Monarchies could say so much nor any Potentat now living but himself Therfore he may well joyn the Sphear of the world to his armes and better share Empires with Iove then Augustus Caesar could his Scepter points at the four Cardinal corners of the world East West North and South for of those 360. degrees in the Aequinoctiall Portugall alone is said to occupie 200. Iupiter in coelis in Terra regnat Iberus Most Illustrious Auditors you have hitherto heard the magnitude of the Spanish Monarchy but that which tends most to the glory of Spain is her policy and prudence in governing so many distinct Regions so many squandred Kingdoms so many millions of people of differing humours customes and constitutions To be able to Rule so many Nations is more then to raign over them the one is imputed to the outward strength of bodies the other to the Sagacity of the brain but for Spain her self ther is that sweet harmony twixt the Prince and peeple the one in obeying the other in bearing rule that it is admirable and here the Spanish King hath the advantage of all other Imperando parendo He is neither King of Asses as the French is nor the King of Devills as the English is nor the King of Kings as the Emperour glories to be but the King of Spain is Rex Hominum the King of Men he may also be termed the King of Princes according to the Character which Claudian gives Spain that she was Principibus faecunda piis There also as he signs Fruges aeraâ—…ia Miles Vndique conveniunt totoque ex orbe leguntur Haec generat qui cuncta regunt Therfore let Candy the Cradle of Iove let Thebes the Mother of Hercules and Delos the nurse of two Gods yeeld to Spain It was she who brought forth Trajan to the world who was as good as Augustus was happie she gave Hadrian the Emperour she gave Theodosius the first and the first of Emperours for Morality and Vertue who rays'd and rear'd up again the Roman Monarchy when she was tottering Ferdinand the first who was an Infant of Spain a Prince who for liberty and justice for mansuetude and munificence for assiduity and vigilance for piety and peace was inferiour to none of his progenitors and to this day they keep in Spain the Cradle and Rattles he us'd when he was a child in Complutum where he was born which Town enjoyes to this day some speciall immunities for his Nativity there But Spain gave all these Princes to other Nations how many hath she affoorded her self she gave Ferdinand of Aragon a Prince of incomparable piety and prowesse who first lay'd the foundation of the Spanish Monarchy by matching with Donam Isabella Queen of Castile a heavenly Princesse she gave Philip the second call'd the prudent and so he was to a proverb how cautious was he in administration of Justice how circumspect in distribution of Offices how judicious in rewarding of Men c. how wary in conferring of honors for he was us'd to say that honors conferred upon an unworthy man was like sound Meat cast into a corrupt Stomack What a great example of Parsimony was he yet Magnificent to a miracle witnes the eighth wonder of the world the Escuriall which stupendous fabrick he not only saw all finished before his death though the building continued many yeers but he enjoy'd it himself twelve yeers and carried his own bones to be buried in the Pantheon he had built there He was so choyce in the election of his Servants that he had no Barber for his Ambassador nor Taylor for his Herald nor Physition for his Chancellor as we read of Lewis the XI of France nor a Faukner to his chief Favorit as the last French King had But that which was signall in this wise K. was that he never attempted any great busines but he wold first refer it to the Councel of Conscience And before the Acquisition of Portugall he shewed a notable example hereof For King Sebastian being slain in a rash War against the Moores and Henry dying a little after ther were many Candidates and pretenders for the Lusitanian Crown first Philip himself then Philibert Duke of Savoy after him Farnessius Duke of Parma then Iohn Duke of Bragansa and lastly Katherine de Medici King Philip though t was in vain to compasse this businesâ—… by Legations therfore he did it with his Legions yet he paus'd long upon the busines referring it to the debate of the learnedst Theologues and Civill Doctors where it was eventilated and canvas'd to and fro with all the wit and arguments the brain of man could affoord pro con At last the title and right being adjudg'd for him and having fairly demanded it in a peaceable way and being put off he raiseth an Army answerable to the greatnes of the work and yet being advanc'd to the borders he made a halt and summons again both Divines and Civillians to deliver their knowledg and consciences herin conjuring them by God and the sacred Faith to do it with integrity and freedom Herupon they all unanimously concur'd in the confirmation of their former judgment as Ripsius doth testifie After this great transaction he sends the Duke of Alva with an army to take possession of his right wherin he was so prosperous that he invaded survay'd and subjugated the whole Kingdom of Portugall in a very short time utterly defeating Don Antonio whom though King Philip might have surpriz'd a good while before lurking in a Monastery yet he would not do it Besides he caus'd the Duke of Bragansa's Son being Captif among the Moores to be redeem'd at his own charge and when he could have detained him yet he suffer'd him to go where he would Now having debell'd and absolutely reduc'd the Kingdom of Portugall among many others who were his Opposers the Doctors of Conimbria were most busy yet he sent them not only a generall pardon but encreased the exhibitions of the University This mighty King was also a great Lover of his Countrey preferring the publick incolumity therof before his own bloud his only Son Charls who being a youngman of a restles ambitious spirit and being weary of the compliance he ow'd his Father was us'd to carry Pistolls ready cock'd about him in the day and put them under his pillow in the night He confest to his ghostly Father that he had a purpose to kill a Man and being denied absolution from him he desir'd that he would give him unconsecrated bread before the Congregation to avoid publick offence King Philip being told of this confin'd his Son and put him over to the Councell of the Inquisition The Councell deliver'd their opinion and humbly thought that since his Majesty
greedy of Wine so are the Spaniards greedy of another mans wealth and so to interdict the German his wine were the same as to prohibit the Spaniard he shold not robb which was one of the ten Commandements of God Almighty where you shall not find any against drinking And as the peeple of Spain are such robbers so the Kings of Spain are the greatest of all They are Robbers of whole Kingdoms and Countreys they are the Harpies of the earth for whersoever they confine they cast about how to devoure their Neighbours using all artifices and picking any quarrell to that end in so much that those Virgilian Verses may very well quadrat with their practises Armati Terram exercent semperque resentes Convectare juvat praedas vivere rapto The greatnes of this Nation is but Modern and upstart when the fortune of France was a little wayning Spain began to shine first under Ferdinand King of Aragon Grandfather to Charles the V. so that as one sayd Ubi Galli desierunt Rerum potiri ibi Hispani inceperunt This Ferdinand the first Catholique King vail'd and varnish'd all his Enprizes with the plausible pretext of advancing Religion yet were his pen and his tongue double in doing this he carryed oftentimes two faces under one hood and played with a staff of two ends in his greatest negotiations specially in the performance of Articles 'twixt him and the French King Lewis the XII about the division of the Kingdom of Naples that he shold have Calaba and Apulia and the French Naples and Campania But afterwards he sent his great Captain Gonsalvo who conquer'd both He got also the Kingdom of Navarr by a trick for when an English Army who was sent from Hen. the 8. of England for his assistance was to passe from Spain to Aquitain and the King of Navarr who t is tru was then under Excommunication together with the King of France desiring his English son-in-lawes Forces leave to passe through his Country Ferdinand took his advantage hereby with the help of the English to seaze upon the Kingdom of Navar and thrust out Iohn Labretan who was then lawfull King And to make his cause more specious and pretend som right he insisted upon the censure of the Pope saying That they who were enemies to the Holy Father might be assaulted by any Christian King and that his Holines was to give the Countrey to the first Conquerour Now touching the East and West Indies the Spanish title is unquestionable there you will say but let us examin the busines a little The right which the Spaniards pretend to these two Indies is Right of Discovery For the East Indies it hath been so celebrated by ancient Pagan Writers that to hold the Spaniard to be the first De tector therof were to maintain the grossest paradox that ever was For Pliny relates how Hanno the Carthaginian being carryed about from the feet of Gibraltar to the farthest end of Arabia was the first discoverer of India by twice crossing the Equinoctiall And 't is easie to finde in antient Authors that Malacca was call'd Aurea Cherchonesus and that huge Iland Sumatra was known formerly by the name of Tatrobana what is he who is never so little vers'd in Antiquity but hath read the Orientall Brachman Philosophers and of the Sinenses the peeple of China Touching the West Indies they were not unknown to Plato for whereas he placeth Atlantidis at the mouth of the Gaditan Frete which is the mouth of the Mediterranean he sayeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ther is from Atlantidis a passage to other Ilands and from them to a great opposit Continent What doth he intimat herby but the great Canarie with other Ilands in the Atlantique Sea and by the other Ilands Cuba and Hispaniola by the opposit Continent Peru and Mexico Moreover the Spaniards themselfs confesse that in a valley call'd Cautis in the Province of Chyli they found among the Sauvages many pictures and formes of two-headed Eagles in midst of their houses therfore the Spaniards call that part of AMERICA The Imperiall Province to this day because the Armes of the Roman Empire were found there There is a greater evidence then this that the Spaniards were not the first discoverers of America for ther was a Welsh Epitaph found there upon Madoc a British Prince who it seems flying from the fury of the Saxons in England put himself in som Bark to the fortune of the Sea and landed in America And that the old Britains or Welsh were there it may be confirmd further in regard ther are divers British words found amongst them to this day But what shall we wander so far in the Indies We will come neerer home We know well that Solyman the Turk denied Charles the V. the title of Roman Emperor alledging that he himself was the tru successor of Constantin the Great who was Emperour of East and West And that consequently the City of Rome belongd to the Ottoman Empire and Selim Solymans son urgd such an argument when he took Cypres from the Venetians for he sayed that the sayed Ile appertained to the Soldans of Egipt which was now under his dominion But the Apostolicall concession and bounty of Pope Alexandor the VI. entitles the King of Spain to America touching that I pray here what Attabalipa a wild Pagan King sayd when he heard that his Kingdome was given by the Pope to the Spanish King surely said he that Pope must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 foâ—…l or som injust and impudent Tyrant that will undertake to bestow othâ—…r mens possessions so freely But his title may be just you will say for the propagation of Christian Religion yet Christ enacted no such Law that any free peeple shold be made slaves much lesse murther'd and tortur'd either for refusing the Gospell or continuing in their former Religion ther was not any of the Apostles claym'd a Kingdom for his preaching Saint Paul preaching to the Romans did not demand the Empire Our Saviour sayd Go and preach the Gospell to all Nations The Spaniard's lesson is Go and preach the Roman Religion and the Spanish Empire to all Nations and keep under you or kill whosoever shall resist For the first Doctrine which the Spaniards were us'd to vent in any place was Vos Indiani hujus loci Yee Indians of this place we make known unto you All that there is but one God one Pope one King of Spain which you must all obey Thus Motezuna King of Mexico and Atabalipa Emperour of Peru were brought under the yoke though they gave a house full of Gold for their ransome But the Indians did more upon the Spaniards then the Spaniards could do upon them for they brought more Spaniards to adore the Indian Gold then the Spaniards brought Indians to adore Christ Herupon a company of Indians being ready to fall into the Spaniards hands carryed som Gold into the Market place saying This is the Spaniards God le ts dance
Low-Countrey Opificers who brought whole Colonies into great Britain and made that Nation such able Workmen in this kind of comodity who were given altogether before to Agriculture and grasing of Cattle for the fury of the Duke of Alva drive many Families of Flemins thither where they peepled many Townes which were very thin of Inhabitauts before as Norwich Colchester Maidston Sandwich Canterbury Hampton and others teaching them the art of making Bayes and Serges with other such like woollen Manufactures yet the Belgians still florishd by this industry and the Drapers of Wooll began to lessen among them ther was a compensation made by making Linnen cloth wherin they are so exquisit and herin the Batavians or Hollanders bear the Bell who are arrivd to that perfection of making fine Cambricks and other Cloth that Holland hath given the name to the thing it self which is commonly calld Holland and their dexterity is such herin that their Loomes may be compard to Arachnes webb for finenesse as if they were woven by Pallas her own hand for they may be sayd to equall the Snow in whitenesse Lawne in thinnesse Silke in softnesse and value Cambray is also famous for this and growes rich from what it was beyond beliefe For Thuanus reports there are 30000. Clothes made in that Town alone every yeer which at four pound Sterling a peece come to a vast Somme Flanders also excels in woven Pictures specially Holst and Oudenard fit for the Pomp of Princes I know the Ancients have been Admirable for the Needle the Phrixian Gownes the Istrian Cadowes the Attalicall Hangings and the Babylonian Cutwork were very famous according to that of Martiall Non ego praetulerim Babylonica picta superbé Texta Semiran it quae variantur acu But all that Curiosity by a kind of transmigration is remov'd to Germany The thing exceeds faith no Colour is wanting here think upon what you will The Peacock is not adorn'd by nature with more gay colour'd Feathers then Art makes Tapistry here to delight the Optiques with such changable and various Objects insomuch that no Nation exceeds them herein or produceth more inventive Spirits Among others the Quintins the Florians the Brugelians the Clerians the Brillians the Mabuseans the Mores the Schoorelians the Hemskirkians the Pourbusians the Barensians the Winghians the Hofnalians are most famous specially Iohn Eckius who first found out the way of mingling Oyle with Colours And Albert Durer of Norimberg came to a wonderfull height of perfection herein which extorted a confession from the Italians themselves who using his name in vaine would father their workes upon him to make them more vendible And now let all those Limmers and Painters who have gain'd immortality by their rare peeces come and appeare let Apelles Zeuxis Protogenes Parrhasius and the Theban Aristides com let the most renowned Architects appeer let Ctesiphon Gnosius who erected the Ephesian Temple to the honour of Diana let Dinocrates who trac'd Alexandria let Philo the famous Athenian com let all the choicest Sculpters Leochares Alcamenes Briaxis Scopus Pythis com let the most celebrous Statuaries appeer as Polycletus Praxiteles Ctesias Lysippus Let the ablest Artificers and Opificers the World ever affoorded appeer and they shall find that Germany hath their equals and as great Masters as they in every thing But they will be transported with wonder when they meet our Albertus Magnus who made a Statue so neer the life that by the motion of certain wheels and ginns latent within made the tongue move prolate articular sounds which Statue when Albertus had got Tho Aquinas the Angelicall Doctor into a Chamber where it was and making it speak with an audible voice Aquinas being suddenly surpriz'd with amazement struck it with a stick and broak it whereupon Albertus in as great amazement sayed Ah Thomas what hast thou done Thou hast destroyed in a moment the work of thirty yeers Could any of these old Artists make an Eagle of wood such a one as Regiomontanus upon the Emperours entrance into Norimberg making her to flye in the Air and welcome him to Town But these are triviall things most Illustrious Auditors they are Stars of the least magnitude in comparison of others that shine in this Firmament What think you of the invention of Gunns and Printing the first for Mars the last for Mercury two mighty things worthy of German Inventors whereby Armes and Arts are so much advantag'd The Bow the sling the Roman Ramms the Scorpions and Engines of Battery were nothing compard to the Canon which doth such Execution and destroyes men and horses at such a distance If any thing can compare with Thunder t is the sound of a Culverin in noise and terriblenesse Witnesse when at the three yeers Siege of Osten the report of the Canon was heard at Lovain and when the Duke of Guyse surpriz'd and took Calis from the English the noise of the great Gunns reach'd as far as Antwerp having the wind favourable for its transport which made Scaliger say Pace tua dicam Iupiter fulmina nostra sunt terribiliora tuis Age coge nubes ut tonare queas nos etiam te tranquillo iratum Regnum tuum faciemus By your good leave oh Iove our Thunder-bolts are more terrible then yours Go gather Clouds that you may thunder and teare the Air when you are quiet we also can make your Kingdom angry And Berchtoldus Scharwarzius was the first Inventor of this Miracle a Franciscan Philosoper But the finder out of Typography or Printing was a German Knight Iohn Guttenberg of Mentz though Winphelingus sayeth he projected it first at Strasburg and perfected it in Mentz The greatest advantage that ever the Common-wealth of Learning receav'd which made Beroaldus the Italian break out into a kind of admiration and this lyric Verse O Germania muneris Repertrix Quo nil utilius dedit vetustas Libros scribere quae doces premendo What a toyl it was to exscribe Authors before and preserve them from the injury of time What a care the Emperour took to keep Tacitus commanding him to be written out ten times every yeer yet this Golden Author had been like to perish had he not been found in Corbe Monastery in Westphalia whence after many ages silence Tacitus was brought to speak again Besides the negligence of Scribes in former times used to fill the Books with errors as Cicero witnesseth in his time Viz. That Latin books were so falsly written in his time and adulterated that he knew not what to do whereupon Christian Authors thought it fitting that Booksellers shold be sworn to divulge none but tru examind Coppies which made Irenaeus in the end of his Worke to adjure the Transcriber by the name of Christ and the dreadfull day of Judgment that all coppies therof shold be examind and made concordant with the Originall Typography may be sayed to cast a Bridle in Times mouth that he may not devoure so much and bring things under
I could wish it were still in force we should not then have so many treasons and transgressions of Imperiall sanctions the Majesty of Caesar the balance of Dollars the decrees of Diets would be more regarded and Justice would not be so frequently baffled and affronted It is an odd character that Velleius Paterculus gives of our Countreymen Esse Homines qui nihil praeter vocem et membra haberent hominum in summa feritate versutissimi natumque mendacio genus The Germans were men who had nothing but the voices and Members of men yet they had a great deale of wilinesse in their wildnes a Race born for lies Witnes their perfidious carriage in Great Britany towards the old Inhabitants therof when at a solemn meeting and Treaty they carried Knifes hid in their Stockins wherwith in the midst of their salutations they murthered the ancient nobility of the Britons who had come armeles into the field according to the Capitulations of agreement between them that none should bring with him any offensive or defensive Weapon Then when those Saxons which were tru Germans for they came from the lower circuit of Saxony and to this day are calld Saxons by the Welsh and Irish had taken firm footing in Britain what a World of spoiles and devastations did they commit both by Land and Sea In so much that Sidonius complaines of them Quot remiges videris Saxones totidem decernere putes Archipiratas Ita simul omnes imperant parent docent discunt latrocinari Hostis est omni hoste truculentior est ijs quaedam cum discriminibus pelagi non notitia solum sed familiaritas As many Rowers you see of the Saxons you discern so many Rovers and Arch-pirats They all command and obey they learn and teach how to robb An enemy more truculent then any enemy They have not only knowledg but a familiarity with the sea c. I beleeve ther is none here who is ignorant of the story of Hatto the first Archbishop of Mentz who so basely betrayed Albertus Bishop of Bamberg who had casually slain Conradus the Emperours brother who having besiegd him in Therussa castle the sayed Albert was perswaded by Hatto to go and submitt himself to the Emperour and he promised to bring him safe back to his Castle which he did but Albert had his hand tied behinde and so as soon as he returnd his head was chopd off but Hatto sayed to excuse himself that he had only promisd to bring him back to the place from which he had fetchd him and no more What a horrible story is there of another Hatto an Archbishop also of Mentz who was devoured and eaten up alive by rats for his uncharitablenesse to the poor in a yeer of famine whom he had lodgd in a great barne and putting fyre therunto in the dead of night he burnt them all saying that those were the rats which devourd his corn And that this story may be upon perpetuall record the castle where he was eaten is called Rat castle to this day being scituated in the middle of the Rhin whither the Rats swomm after him and never left him till they had bin the executioners of divine vengeance upon him Another such a horrid story as this was that of the devill who appeerd at Hamelen in the shape of pied piper which towne being very much infested with rats the sayed piper did covenant with the Burgers to free them of that Vermin for such a reward which he was to receave a yeer after they saw themselfs freed Hereupon the Piper playing upon a kind of bagpipes that he had all the rats followed him to a great lough hard by where he drownd them all but returning at the yeers end for his reward the Burgers wold put him off with a small matter thereupon playing upon his pipes one evening all the children of the town followed him to the mouth of a hill where he and the children vanished There is a great stone piller stands in that place whereon there is mention hereof and the people of the town to this day in all their publick writings draw their Epoches and computation of yeers from the going out of their children And as the devill appeerd here in the shape of a piper so nere Bremen he gott into a Butcher who being inraged one day with his wife that was bigg with childe he took her into a stable and ripping up hir belly took out the embryon ther being a sow hard by big with pigs he killd the sow also and taking out the piggs he sowed them up in his wifes belly and the childe in the sow's Can the witt of man run upon a more nefandous thing But Germany is full of these bloody stories And whereas you know we have a custom when any notorious theef is hangd to stick so many pegs in the gibbet as he had killd men it is ordinary to finde in Moravia and other places such gibbets som with twenty som with thirty and I heard lately of one that had sixty three peggs stuck into it denoting so many murthers by one man Now if we descend to Low Germany we shall find hir litle inferiour to the Higher in strange kindes of immanities What an inhuman thing was that in Gant when the father and the son being condemnd to die for one Fact it was adjudged they shold draw lotts whither the father should hang the son or the son the father and it fell to the son who accordingly thrust out of the world him who brought him in But now I speake of the Citty of Gant which is held to bee one of the most mutinous and inconstant Cities of Christendom and therfore no wonder that she hath so many windmills within her walls what nation I say hath shewd more arguments of instability then Allmain Go first to Religion since that Shaveling Monke Luther fell in love with the Abadesse to enjoy which he made Religion his bawd I pray you how many new Sects have crept in since Iohn Calvin came apace after him he usherd in the Anabaptists then what a swarm of Swenkfeldians Osiandrians Huberians Oecolampadians and Arminians have we and if you desire more you may go to Amsterdam Where you shall find as many sorts as ther be of Venice glasses in Murano What a scandall to the German Nation was Iohn of Leyden that frantique Rascall what an opprobry to Christianity is that Amsterdam wher such a confusion of Religions is allowed no wonder for she is one of the nearest to Hell of any town upon earth And as in the reign of Nimrod there fell a curse upon those that would dwel so high by a confusion of tongues so a confusion of beliefs is fallen upon these men by dwelling too low and cosening the fish of their inheritance for indeed the Fish shold inhabit that Countrey which they have forced out of the jawes of the Sea and thereby may be called tru Usurpers But touching religion the
could pardon those whom he hated most he might well pardon him whom he lov'd most And so made instance in Charles the Great who pardon'd his Son Pepin for a conjuration against his person and having attempted it the second time only committed him to a Monastery The King herupon answer'd that by the Law of Nature he was to love his Son but he lov'd Spain better therupon he put a question to them whether the pardon he shold give his Son would not prove a Sin rather then an Act of Mercy considering the publick calamities that might thence ensue therfore he asked them which was to be preferr'd the peoples good or his Son's They answered certainly the peoples So he transmitted him to that Councell conjuring them in his name who is to judg the Angells one day and will make no distinction twixt Kings and Coblers to do justice herin So the young Prince was adjudg'd and Sentence of Death passed upon him Good God! what passions did struggle in the Father when he was to sign the Sentence and t is his paternall affection to the chaire of Justice he was a Father therfore his affections could not grow to such a hatred but they might returne to their own nature But after many such conflicts he chose rather to be Pater Patriae then Pater Caroli to be Father of Spain then Father of a Son and make naturall respects yeeld to prudentiall So the young Prince dyed yet not by the Executioners hand but as 't was rumor'd by Poyson Thus to the consternation of all the world the Phosphorus of Spain fell to the West and suddenly set and divers of his Favorites with him if you desire to know the yeer this Cronogram will tell you fILIUs ante DIeM patrIos InqUIrIt In annes This Phillip was also famous for his Piety as well as Iustice which made Gregory the 13. to break out in these words The prolongation of my life can little availe the Catholick Church but pray for the health of King Philip for his life concerns her more He was wonderfully constant to himself he was always without passion and somtimes above them of a marvailous Equanimity and Longanimity witness his patience in his sicknesses wherof he had many but that which brought him to his grave was the Pediculary disease which though nasty and gastly yet he endur'd it with invincible patience When he found his glasse almost run out he sent for his Son and Daughter and upon his death-bed told them In this small afflicted body you see to how small a threed the pomp and splendor of all Earthly Magnitude doth hang my Mortall life is upon departing the care of my Sepulchre and rites of exequies I commend unto you with my blessing Among many other ther is one remarkable passage in this Kings life when the Duke of Alva was upon point of going to Portugall he had a great desire to kisse the Kings hand but to the amazement of all the world he was denyed at that time which made the Duke to say that his Master had sent him to conquer Kingdoms being tyed with chains and fetters His Son Philip the second did equall him in Piety and in nothing els we know what a Saint-like man he was having his Beads alwayes either about his neck or in his hands I will hold you no longer only I will tell you that the Kings of Spain more then any other have don miraculous and immortall things For as God almighty when he builds creates no lesse then a world When he is angry sends no lesse then an universall deluge When he conferrs grace to mankind sends no lesse then his own Son When he rewards gives no lesse then Paradise when he warrs employs no lesse then Legions of Angells and makes the Elements to fight the Sea to open and the Sun to stand so if finite things may beare any proportion with infinity the Kings of Spain are borne to do no petty things but mighty matters When they build they erect no lesse then an Escuriall If they are angry they drive forth whole Nations as the Moores and the Iews If they reflect upon the publique good they sacrifice no lesse then their own Sons If they desire to oblige any they restore Kings as Muleasses to Tunis and make Popes of their Schoolmasters when they take armes then they conquer not only whole Kingdoms but new Worlds Therfore my dearest Brother Frederique Achilles and you most Illustrious Cosens and Auditors I think I shall derogat from no other Region if taking King and Countrey together I preferr the Spaniard for glory and amplitude of Dominions for fulgor of Majesty for the longest arm'd Monark for Men and Mines for Iles and Continents I say I do no wrong to any if I prefer him before any other Prince or Potentat upon the earthly Globe DIXI THE ORATION OF The Lord GEORGE FREDERIQUE Baron of LIMBURG and Hereditary Officer to the Sacred Roman Empire and allwayes Free Against SPAIN Most Illustrious Prince and President c. WE have hitherto delivered sundry opinions wheron ther have been many learned and Rhetoricall descants I observe allso ther are som divorcements and discrepancies in the said opinions But for my particular suffrage I will preferr France before any Province of the Europaean world and if I shold attempt to speak more then hath bin presented by that high-born Prince Duke Ioachim Ernest upon this subject it wold be an argument of rashnes in me and so I shold incurr no small hazard of my reputation Me thinks I see Ciceno before me and saying Illam Orationem solùm populus Gallicus parem Imperio suo habet France hath that Oration alone equall to her Empire But though ther was much spoken of Spain by that noble Prince Duke Magnus of Wirtemberg yet I will endeavour to shew that Spain doth not deserve either the Elogium or love of so great a Prince in so high a degree For as shadows use to make bodies bigger then they are really in bulk so it seemes his affection hath made Spain more then she is in intrinsique value For truly unlesse I be stark blind I find Spain to be the most unhusbanded and the sterillest Country of Europe the thinnest of peeple the fullest of fruitlesse Hills which they call Sierras and are indeed no better then Wildernesses In so much that though she be so scant of Inhabitants yet hath she not Bread enough to put into the mouths of the sixt part of them So that unlesse she be very ingratefull and impudent she must acknowledge Germany and France to be her Nources and Sicily her Barn as she was somtimes to the Romans And among these ther was a computation made once of foure millions of tresure that France receav'd that yeer from Spain for Corn in Pistolls and Patacoons which made Henry the fourth say that the great store of tresure which Spain hath discovers her necessity as well as her plenty because she