55 of religion in Scotland, which made the neighbouring idolatrous princes to feare them of the same faith. About the same time l-ikewise, the provinces of the Netherlands united themselves in a re- . sistance of the ·King of Spaine, and cast of that yoake wherewith he had most barbarously gall'd them. The King of France, persecuting his protestant subiects with much inhumane violence; forc'd them to defend themselves against his unsanctified league; and much blood was shed in those civil! waJTS, 'till at length those who had had so much experience of God's providence in delivering them from their cruell princes, were perswaded to make up an alliance with the enemies of God and religion, and by the treacherous foe drawne into his snares, where they were most wickedly and barbarously massacred.' Now, although religion were the maine ground of those bloody quarrels, yet there were, iri all these countries; many disputes of civil! right, which for the most part bore the face of the wmTs; whereat I have· only hinted in this survey of the con· clition of other states, and their interests in those days and since; which is something necessary to be knowne for the better understanding of our owne, with which I shall now proceed. The civil! government of England, from the time called the Conquest, had been administer'd by a King, Lords, and Commons, in a way of Parliaments; the Parliament entrusted with the legislative, and the King with the executive power; but severall of the kings, not satisfied with their bounded monarchie, made attempts to convert it into an absolute soveraignety, attempts fatall both to themselves and their people, and ever unsuccessefull; for the generous people of England, as they were the most free and obsequious subiects in the world to those princes that manag'd them with a kind and tender hand, commanding them as freemen, not as slaves, so were they the most untameable invincible people, in defence of s The famous massacre on St. Bartholomew's d·ay at Pans. L
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