some choice golden Lewis's Art fully brandisht before their Eyes by a French Emissary And these plausible advices which so tickled him in his most sensible part prevail'd on him to Act in all things just the reverse of what he had sometime before been counsell'd by those who best understood and had all along when believed most successfully pursued and carried on the interest of that universal Sovereignty which they would have perswaded him to court gently but his hot Jesuited Councellors would needs have him attempt to ravish which impotent and ill tim'd Essay has now so much alarm'd the Coy Lady Vniversal Monarchy that if we mistake not having providentially untwisted her self out of his Arms and got clearly out of the reach of his violence she will not admit his cringing Addresses any more For looking not without cause upon both the Protestant and the Pope though most opposite in Principles to be most mighty obstacles in his way to universal Sovereignty the one as being perfectly inform'd in the knowledge of the truth in Jesus Christ and zealously affected to the Defence both of their Natural and civil liberty as Men and Subjects and of their Spiritual privileges as Christians and the other pretending not only a kind of Sovereignty over a great part of all Princes Subject of the Roman Communion namely the Clergy both Secular and Regular and all religious Persons and by them a dangerous rivalling influence over all the rest of their people But also holding as t' were the Balance of power in his own hand even in temporal matters between all Popish Princes and States and being no less intress'd for maintenance of himself and successors in that Power and Figure to hinder the growth of any one Prince to an excessive Grandeur than the Protestant were for the preservation both of their Civil and Religious Liberties and therefore having agreeably enough to the rules of Policy resolv'd equally upon the removal of both these dangerous adversaries by totally destroying the Protestants and casting Popery it self into a new Model that might dispose the whole body of Christians both Clergy and Laity to such a tame and supple temper as might make them alike susceptible of his intended universal Yoak Thus it pleased the Almighty Being to make him the very chiefest instrument himself in breaking the neck of these his greatest and ambitious Designs by leaving him to the infatuating delusions of new Jesuited Advisers whereby he forsook the more sure Maxims of his old sagacious Counsellors Richelieu Mazarin and the Le Telliers and to drive Jehu-like and rashly to attempt to do all at once what should have been enterpriz'd at very different Seasons and those wisely tim'd one after the other For at the same time the poor Protestants were so hotly persecuted and barbarously handled the Pope's Authority was then as briskly attack'd not only in the business of the Ragalia but in several other more fundamental points importing no less than the utter ruin of the whole Machine of that Ecclesiastical Monarchy insomuch that this great haughty Monsieur thought himself doubtless some prodigious Giant that could reach both poles at once with each arm one viz. That of the Northern Heresie as they term it and the Southern Supremacy and snapping them off short to make the World turn thence forward upon the sole Axle tree of his Arbitrary and imperious will as sufficiently appeared not only by the proceedings of the Sorbonne of the Assembly of the Clergy of Paris and of the French Kings chief Advocate Mr. Talon and by the strange acting of Mr. Lavardin at Rome it self and the writings of Mr. Maimburg The Writings and Actings of all which against the Authority of the Sea of Rome were hardly ever out-done by those they vainly call'd and at the same time persecuted as Hereticks but also by many odd Theses and Positions then maintain'd in several places up and down that Kingdom whereof these were some viz. I. That as Princes had the Power of nominating other Bishops to the Sees vacant in their Dominions so the greatest Prince in Christendom had a right of â—â—â—â—â—inating the greatest Bishop namely the Pope II. That the Election of a Pope by the private College of Cardinals was an Innovation III. That the Kings of France having some time delivered the Popes from the oppression of the Lombards and founded the new Empire of the West acquired thereby not only a right to chuse future Popes but that they are thereby still the only Rightful Emperours the eldest Sons of the Church and the greatest of Christian Princes Which by the way would be a stronger Argument to prove both the Empire Kingdom of France and the Election of the Pope c. to belong to the young Duke of Lorrain than to Lewis the 14th that young Prince being Lineally descended from Charles the great whose race that of the present French King supplanted IV. That the residence of the Pope is not fixed any more to Rome than it was formerly to Antioch but that it ought to be in the capital City of the greatest Christian Prince pro tempore or in such other place as he shall approve of V. That the French King in his Right may if he please divest the Cardinals of Rome of the right of Election of Popes or disown such as they shall choose and make an Arch-Bishop of Paris or any other prelate Pope that such Pope so nominated would be a true Successor of St. Peter though he should dwell at Paris or elsewhere and have no temporal Dominions and that he ought to be own'd as such by all other Roman Catholick Princes because nominated by the Successor of Charles the great and a Prince no less great in Power than he who was the restorer of the Papal Authority VI. That as the Temporal Dominions of the Pope were at first given him by French Kings they may be forfeited and taken back again and that for the peaceable enjoyment of them the Pope ought to grant freedom of Quarters to the French Kings Ambassador at Rome as an acknowledgment of the Sovereignty of him of whom he holds them and that he ought not to grant the like privilege to any other Ambassador These and many other such like Theses there were about the Pope's Power and Authority in Spirituals as well as Temporals whereby they allow'd him little more than what is granted by some Protestants and what any other Patriarchs do enjoy as is deducible from their own Writings in this you may see an Image of the new Popery intended by the French King who by this appears to be only so far for Popery as will serve his own turn to make both Pope and Papists his Vassals or Slaves what other meaning had he when he treated the Nuns of the Society so severely called the Nuns of the Infancy of Jesus and threw Madam Mondeuville into Prison for mediating c. Such is the favour he designs to afford them if ever in
they had out of an Excess of Respect to the Late King born till a Remedy was within an Ace of being too late the Insolences of a few despicable hot-headed Jesuits and Monks influenc'd by the French Father la Chaiese whose blind Unthinking Passive Tool P. Peters was to call for Assistance to the Next Presumptive Heirs of the Crown These then were their further Designs upon the Clergy I. To New-Rate all Ecclesiastical Preferments and make them pay First-fruits Tenths c. according to their present yearly value and not according to the old Rates II. To examine at their Ecclesiastical Commission the ways and means used by Clergy-Men possess'd of Benefices to come into them and if they could be charged with the least appearance of Simony to deprive them and give their Livings to Popish-Priests or formerly depriv'd Nonconformist Ministers or others devoted to their Interests to hold by Dispensation or otherwise III. To Nose the Conformable Clergy by allowing a Right to Papists and Dissenters to keep publick Registers and to pay but half-Dues to the Parish Ministers for burying IV. To nominate no New Protestant Bishops or other Ecclesiastical Dignities in place of those that should die and to foist in as many Popish Priests and Dissenting Ministers as they could into all Ecclesiastical Benefices that should be vacant from time to time who were to hold them by Dispensation and supply them by conforming Curates till they should be strong enough to establish Popery by open Force V. To have the Jurisdiction of vacant Bishopricks administred by Commissioners and their Revenues employed for maintenance of Popish Bishops Priests or Seminaries c. As likewise the Revenue of all vacant Deaneries Prebendships c. And to obtrude as many Popish School-masters as they could into all vacant Free-Schools with several other projects VI. To remove all Causes from the Bishops Courts to their Ecclesiastical Commission VII After some time to sieze the Cathedral of St. Paul's when it should be Built and the Abby of Westminster for Popish use allowing only the Dean and Prebends in case they quietly abandoned the possession of them their full Revenues during life These things were really intended against the Clergy over and above what was actually already done but then to Curb the Laity of all Degrees these further Measures were concerted to put in Execution as fast as they could I. A new Court like that of the Star-Chamber though under a disguised name was to be erected II. To Awe and Balance the Power and Interest of the Metropolitan City of London without the rougher Methods of a Tower or Garrison c. It was resolv'd to erect the City of Westminster into a Corporation like to that of London to be govern'd by a Lord Mayor Aldermen common Council c. with as ample Privileges Immunities and Freedoms as the ancient City of London enjoys in order to invite People of Wealth and Trade as great Merchants c. to settle there as well as in London and thereby to cause an Emulation between them that might keep both Cities tight to the Crown or at least to keep that of London from being potent enough alone to contest any more with their King or make too strong a party against him III. The Militia when they durst were to be all Disarm'd and the Money levied for the maintenance of them applyed for that of a standing Army IV. In case the Parliament to be call'd after the new model of Corporations and Counties that then was endeavouring was finished answered not expectation Then a Parliament was to be packt after the method of those of Cromwell's composed most of Army Officers Courtiers and such others as they knew were disposed vigorously to concurr with all projects to the ruining of the publick Liberty V. After things were come to perfection the House of Commons was to be declared unnecessary and pernicious and all Legislative Authority to reside in the King and a select Council of Lords and Gentry VI. In order to this the Army was by degrees to be new Modell'd and stuft with English French Scotch and Irish Papists or Persons indifferent in Religion or of none at all with some Dissenters c. And all Church of England Men by little and little put out of the Council and out of all places of Trust both Civil and Military VII That most of the English Forces should be on some suddain pretence shipt over into French Service and reimplac'd by as many French who with something a greater number of English Scotch Irish Papists and Popish Swissers were to constitute the King's Guards and the standing Forces of England And Scotland and Ireland were to be guarded by natural Irish and such others of English or Scotch extraction that were Papists VIII A new Court of Wards was to be Establish'd by virtue of which all Minors and Infants being brought under the King's Tutelage should be brought up in the Romish Religion as was already begun to be practised in Scotland But notwithstanding all these Attempts upon the Rights and Liberties of the Subject contrary to positive Law his own Solemn Promises and his Coronation Oath so extreamly affectionate were the best part of the Nation to the person of their Prince and so wholly averse to the contributing any thing to the embroiling these Nations a second time in Civil Wars as being so very sensible of the miseries of the last whose deep Scars scarcely well healed yet remain'd in view not without horrour before their Eyes and reluctancy on their Spirits That they were very hardly and with much difficulty induced to believe any thing of their King that savour'd of an ill design and when they were convinc'd of it by infallible Proofs and the undoubted Testimony of their own Senses together with Church and State now smarting under the Burthen Yet would they have thought it their most dutiful safe and wisest Course tamely to suffer almost any Inconveniences and Insults from him rather than to involve the three Kingdoms in fresh dangers by any active Resistance especially considering that he was already well stricken in Years and could not Reign long Had not they seen those very Princely Heirs and Nursing Parents to the Church in whom they reposed all hopes of Redress treated after the same Injurious manner as the Subjects and not only Menac'd but plainly going to be both for ever excluded of their Succession by a Jesuitical imposture or a supposititious Prince of Wales and driven even from their present possessions both in the Netherlands and Germany as they had newly been already from those in France by a formidable Invasion and that they namely the Subjects were to be made Tools of both for their own Destruction and that of those pious famous and most gracious Princes from whom only under God they hoped for Relief and Deliverance And had not they had perfect Information by means of the Spanish Ambassadour as aforesaid of all the Intrigues and
other Circumstances but such only as shall be purely necessary to set forth in Chrystal Characters how wonderful careful the good Providence of the Almighty has been all his whole life long to present him with fair Occasions in order to Signalize his most illustrious and incomparable Qualities How very industrious he hath been alwaies to cultivate those Divine Favours not at all for his own private Ends but meerly for the Publick Good and how he hath been commonly attended with Successes much beyond the Hopes of his greatest Friends or Fears of his grandest Enemies and the opinion of indeed the whole World Quid gaudium fando c. To proceed then though by the watchfulness he was obliged to have upon the Motions not only of the Armies of the Prince of Conde and Duke of Luxemburg but likewise of the English themselves who at that Juncture threaten'd a Descent he was hindred from affording any relief to Maestricht besieg'd the next Spring by a very powerful Army headed by the French King himself in Person yet upon Lewis the fourteenth's retreat after the taking of that place and upon the returning home of the English Fleet after the last Engagement on the Coast of Holland he soon repaired that loss by the retaking of Naerden which although it had in it a Garrison of two thousand nine hundred and thirty Men and was very well Fortified and abundantly stored with all manner of Necessaries yet he took it in the space of four daies maugre all Luxemburg's opposition and that again even contrary to the usual fortune of Sieges with much less loss to his own Men than to the besieged And not long after that carried the great stroke in the no less speedy and successful Reduction of the strong and famous City of Bonne the Seat of the Elector of Cologne then in the French confederacy which was no sooner taken but that famous old General Montecuculi who was a proper Judge of Martial Conduct having left with him the command of the Imperial Army to join with his own He with them both made so formidable an Expedition towards the main Posts possessed then by the French upon the Rhine the Meuse and the Moselle that the French who wanted Men to re-implace those multitudes of good Soldiers they had too profusely squander'd away in their late rash and inconsiderate Enterprizes not being able to maintain Garrisons and Armies in both Frontiers as the State of Affairs then required rather than venture the loss of the places that composed the main Barrier of their Country towards the Rhine in this juncture of Distress and Consternation abandon'd immediately Woerden Herderwick Crevecoeur Bommel the City and Province of Vtrecht and most of all the rest of the places they had then taken in the united Netherlands whose Example was soon followed by their Allies the Munsterians And thus his Highness in some sence out-did Coesar himself vanquishing his Enemies even at a distance where he neither came nor saw and forcing them willingly to submit by the onely terrour of his August Name and made them with a very mortifying reverse of Fortune behold the period of their Victories in his bright and rising Glory which the most florid copious Pen can never sufficiently delineate to the Life In consideration of which most great and unexpected turn of Affairs from the very brink of irrecoverable Ruin and Destruction to a formidable State of Power Grandeur and Prosperity effected next and immediately under God chiefly by the Policies and extraordinary valour of the Prince The States General as in Gratitude strongly bound not only confirm'd the Charge of State-holder of the Provinces of Holland and West-Friezland in the person of his renown'd Highness during Life but setled it likewise in the Heirs-male of his Body begotten in lawfull Marriage by a publick Decree Dated the 2d of February 1674. The tenour of which being so signal and glorious a Demonstration of his high and Unparallell'd Merits we thought it would be a piece of Injustice not to insert and no small satisfaction to the Candid and Impartial Reader to Peruse Friday February 2d 1674. HAving taken into Deliberation by way of Resumption what the Lords Deputies of the City of Haerlem Proposed to the Assembly the 23d of January last past Whether it would not be expedient that the Charge of State-holder and Captain-Admiral of the Provinces of Holland and West-Friezland and Captain and Admiral-General of the Vnited Provinces should descend upon the Heirs-Males of his Highness the P. of Orange begotten in lawful Marriage as by the Rolls of the same Date more amply may appear We the Body of the Nobility and the Deputies of the Cities in the Name and in the Behalf of the Burghers and Commonalty of the said Cities have Declared and do Declare by these Presents that having deliberately Considered the State and Condition of the Government of these Countreys as it was in former times by the blessing of God under the Most Illustrious Princes of Orange of Glorious Memory his Highnesses Predecessors and particularly what has befallen this Republick for these 23 or 24 years last past till now we have observ'd that this Republick has been afflicted with several Calamities and Disasters as well Domestick as Foreign ever since the sad and unfortunate year 1650. That as to our Foreign Calamities we have never been without Wars or the Fears of Wars More particularly One most dreadful War between the Kingdom of England and these States which shook the very Foundations of the Government of these Countreys So that it hardly has recovered Breath ever since the said War and another against the Crown of Portugal in the years 1656 1658 and 1659 and another occasion'd by the Interest of the Northern Wars That in the year 1664 they had another New War with the King of Great Britain and now this present War more sad and fatal than all the rest And that during the whole Course of the said War this Republick has been forc'd to suffer many Affronts from her Neighbours to whom she was before a Terror That as to our Domestick Affairs we have been overwhelm'd with Intestine Divisions and Factions That from the year 1650 to the year 1660 several Members of this Republick have had a particular Aversion to the Person of the present Prince of Orange the only Son of that Illustrious Family and that Others on the contrary have zealously maintain'd that the said Prince ought not to be so ungratefully abandoned That the King of Great Britain being recall'd to the Government of his Dominions and passing through these Countreys in order to his Embarking for England this Republick testified as well to his Majesty as to the Princesses Royal and Dowager that they would take particular care of the Interest and Education of his Highness and to Restore him to the Dignities which his Illustrious Ancestors of Glorious Memory had enjoyed But that after the Death of the said Princess-Royal
all Good will and Affection towards his Highness was lost and no further notice taken of him till of late that some Care was taken of his Education and that at length towards the end of 1671 or 1672 Great Contests arose about the Election of His Highness to be Captain-General of the Militia of this Countrey That we have found by sad Experience that the said Intestine Divisions and Factions have given an Occasion to the Enemies of this Republick to Affront us every moment as knowing well that they render us uncapable to mind our Own Defence by the Violation of that Union which laid the Foundation of this Republick and which God hath so Miraculously blessed And that the Differences which arose every day about the Election of Captain General of the Militia and these Discords which happen'd among the Principal Members of this Republick were the Occasions that Retarded and Hindred these Deliberations and Resolutions Which of necessity ought to have been taken to Repel Foreign Force and made us spend in Idle Disputes that precious Time that ought to have been better husbanded That the said Divisions were the Reason that towards the year 1671 when the King of France openly declared That he would make a War against this Countrey we consumed whole Months together in Deliberating about the Election of a Captain-General and whether to pitch upon his Highness which time ought to have been spent in providing for the Defence of the State And that for the same Reason it was that the King of France invaded this Countrey by Force of Arms in the Year 1672 and reduced us to the last Extremities and hazard of Total Ruine That therefore the Lords and States of Holland have deemed it necessary as the only Expedient that they can imagin or hope for utterly to pluck up by the Roots the Occasions of the said Factions and Divisions to prevent their falling any more into those Misfortunes and Miseries to which they have been hitherto exposed And on the other side to acknowledge the Great and Glorious Services which the most Illustrious House of Orange has from time to time perform'd for the Preservation and Establishment of this Republick For these Reasons the Lords of the Body of the Nobility as also the Deputies of the Cities have Unanimously Conferr'd and by these Presents do Confer in the Name and on the behalf of the Burghers and Commonalty of the said Cities upon His Renown'd Highness and his Heirs male begotten in lawful Matrimony the Charge of Stadholder Captain and Admiral General of the Provinces of Holland and West-Friezland with all the Dignities Preeminences Prerogatives Rights and Privileges thereto belonging without any exception or reservation in as ample and in the same manner as the same Charge is at present executed by His Highness the Prince of Orange And consequently that after the decease of his said Highness to whom nevertheless the States of Holland wish a long and happy Life in all health and prosperity the said Charge of State-holder Captain and Admiral-General of the Provinces of Holland and West-Friezland with the Dignities Preeminences Prerogatives Rights and Privileges thereunto belonging without any exception or reservation shall devolve and descend upon his Heirs-males begotten in lawful Wedlock In pursuance of which resolution the said Lords of the Body of the Nobility have ordered Letters-Patents to be drawn up and Sealed with the Great Seal of the Provinces c. Upon the same day likewise the States of Zealand conferred the same Dignities upon him and made him Hereditary Noble of their Province upon which ensued the recovery of all the rest of the Places and Countreys yet remaining in the Enemies hands which our Magnanimous Heroe shewed as much Prudence and Policy in clearing from Abuses and Remodelling to their Antient Form and Order as he had before shewn Courage and Conduct in their Recovery Thus did both the French and the De-Wits and their Upstart-party by those very Designs that struck at the Ruine both of Him and his Countrey by a strange over-ruling turn of Providence advance him to sudden Greatness of a much higher pitch than that they attempted to dismount him from And his unjust Deprivation of all his Hereditary Honours and Dignities became the occasion of his being afterwards invested with more abundant Honour Which he always studied to make redound to the advantage and prosperity and not like his French Tyrannical Neighbour to the Misery and Oppression of his Countrey After this the King of France to repair his late Loss in the United Netherlands by regaining fresh Ground in the Spanish Provinces falling down with his Power into La Franche Comté and Mastering that whole Province before any sufficient Force could possibly advance to hinder him and being returned for Paris leaving that experienced and Renowned General the Prince of Conde in the Low-Countreys with a Powerful Army of his Choicest Forces to watch the Motions and thwart if poâ—â—â—le the Designs of the Confederate Arâ—â— which now consisted of the United Forces of the Imperialists Spaniards and Hollanders amounting in all to 60000 Men under the Command of Three great Chiefs viz. General Souches His Highness the Prince of Orange and the Count de Monterey whereof the Prince Commanded the main Battel and the other Two Generals the Van and the Rear There happen'd soon after between those Two Potent Armies the most fierce and furious fight of Seneffe wherein the Great Prince of Conde's Valour and Courage was every way Matcht and his Conduct and Prudence in several respects out-done by a General who was yet but a Young Beginner in War By which means he put a check upon that Fury which guided as it was with so much skill in a General equally fiery and experienced and back'd with a numerous Army of veterane Soldiers flush't and bouyed up with continual Victories Had it proved successful as but for the extraordinary Prudence Courage and Diligence of the Prince of Orange it most certainly had would have overwhelmed Holland and all the Low-Countreys with a Second Inundation of French Violences much more dangerous and remediless as all Relapses commonly are than the First For not to insert here all the particulars of that Dreadful Battel of which there are so many well-penn'd Relations extant it is certain on all hands That the Prince of Conde tho he before were averse to a Fight as being very loath to expose the Glory and Honour he had won in so many Battels by encountring an undaunted and vigorous young Prince of Twenty three years of age and knowing his Eagerness even in that early beginning of his Mighty Career by making his first Trial of a pitcht-Battel against so famous a Chieftain as the Prince of Conde and by Victory over him to open himself a secure and easie passage into the very Bowels of France in order to revenge the Grand Injuries both his Native Countrey and his own Hereditary Principality and other Patrimonial Lands
and so wholly and perfectly resign'd to the Exigence of the Common Good as was this Great and Incomparable Prince even from his very Cradle Whose Right-Noble and Unparallell'd steps having traced through the various and strange Revolutions of Holland Let us now further pursue in his more Glorious Advances in the most Memorable Revolution of Great Britain where his Gratuitous and truly Heroical Charity and not his Ambition have raised Him to a Throne He never sought for but in Vindication of these Nations Rights more than His own private Ends. Thus our Constantine had hitherto been chiefly on the Defensive part and at the Heads of Armies He was not the absolute Sovereign of yet notwithstanding all the many Intrigues and Factions devis'd and form'd against him Maugre all the Malice of his open and secret Adversaries He restored a Torn and tottering State or Republick to its former Peace and Prosperity and forc'd his own and his Countreys grandest and most Politick Enemy in the very midst of his Triumphant Career to give back and even quit all his Encroachments in the Vnited Netherlands with far more Precipitation than he had at first seized them with Celerity Though it was such as had at that time surpriz'd the whole World But blessed and for ever blessed be God now a more glorious and delightful Scene opens it self And to put him in a fair or suitable condition to attack that proud and insulting Adversary in his turn as well as tamely to ward off his furious and cunning passes Kind Providence leads him on with a much more wonderful Career and Success even swifter than Fame it self to seize the Enemies strongest Bulworks As was Great Britain to the French Monarch at that time If I may without offence call it so by the General Consent and Invitation of his Nobles Ministers and Friends made privy to it And there drops two Crowns with a glorious and happy Reverse of things and an unexpected Liberty to all his Subjects upon his Heroical Head shortly to be further Graced and Guarded by the addition of a Third to make him the fitter Match both to Grapple with the Tripple Crown of Rome and the Iron Scepter of France And in order to bring about this great and astonishing Design which Heaven seem'd to have promised him sometime before by those no less than Miraculous Phoenomena's or Apparitions of Glorious Crowns in the Air over the City of Orange in two different years As is related in two Narratives of Authentick Credit to which as well known to the Curious I referr The Great and Almighty Disposer of Kingdoms and Just Governour of the whole World seems to have employed a Chain of Causes all composed of Miracles from one end to the other or at least of Incidents and Events as much beyond the Comprehension as the Expectation both of Friends and Enemies For as when the Tyrant Maxentius and other Pagan Persecutors had filled up the measure of their Cruelties God in his infinite Goodness and Mercy was pleased to make not only part of the Imperial Authority to devolve upon Constantine the Revenger of all his Churches wrongs and Restorer of her Liberties by the death of his Father and unanimous Election of the British Legions But to order and dispose of all things so as most strangely to concur to the elevating him to such a further power although he was but the least amongst the Seven Sharers of the Roman Greatness as to trample upon the rest and even throw them all down and set himself up unrivall'd in the Throne Where fearless of the Attempts of any future Opposers he might most effectually protect and propagate the true Religion according to his pleasure So the most Barbarous Maxentius of our present Age or Common Enemy of Truth and Oppressor of Peace and Religion in Europe viz. the Gallick Tyrant having now carried on his Fury to the greatest Extremities that either his hellish Hounds or blood thirsty Dragoons could Act or humane Nature possibly suffer both against his own innocent Protestant Subjects and against those of all his Neighbour Princes and States of what Religion soever that durst presume to dispute his most imperious Orders And having like the Dragon in the Apocalypse already beaten down with his Massy Tail some of the supream Powers next him which are the lesser Stars of Europe's bright Heaven and being in a fair way to sweep down all the rest sometime ago and bring them at least under Subjection it pleased Almighty God in his due time for to raise up another Michael or another Constantine many learned Expositors thinking that by Michael in that place of the Revelation of St. John 12. is meant Constantine to stop the rage and fury of this French Dragon who with his long Train of bloody Miscreants hath so very much infested Christendom of late Years and totally to rout this new Maxentius and restore Peace Justice and Liberty to the Church and People of God even out of that most ancient as well as illustrious House of Nassaw A House that once before had stopt the dangerous Torrent of the Spanish Power and redeem'd the Captive Netherlands from its Yoak and Thraldom And to let the World know that the All-wise Governour and most righteous Judge of the whole Earth intended to make use of him not only to retard the Progress of the French Tyranny for a while but we hope even totally to destroy it and that as the Tyrant himself had begun his own ruine so like the Champion of the Philistines he should go on and continue to compleat it and make every Man's Sword in his Idolatrous Army to be against his Fellow insomuch that our happy Joshua's men may with Triumph trample upon their Necks The Almighty Avenger of the Injuries of his Elect which cry day and night to him in compassion to his suffering Saints was not content to use the Valour and Conduct of our warlike Prince only to rescue the united Provinces but even the whole Protestant Religion and the civil State of all Europe from the same Bondage and Oppression And therefore that he might no longer at so great a disadvantage combate with such an over-grown Monster he resolves to exalt him to the sublime and sacred Station of Royalty and that too in those Ancient and Warlike Kingdoms which he was most rightfully intituled to not only by Consanguinity but Affinity and which had before been happily instrumental to lower the Spanish pride on the one hand and so often to chastise the insolency of the more formidable and crafty French on the other And if this work was great enough to amaze all beholders and to put the Historical Faith of all succeeding Generations to the very uttermost proof the manner by which it was effected must of necessity appear much more wonderfull since towards his mighty and glorious effect even the most contrary Interests Inclinations Accidents and Events and in a word all the most opposite Causes
Consequence to all Princes And among other Troops they just now raised a new Regiment of Horse-Guards all notorious Papists for the pretended Prince of Wales and committed the custody of his Person to them only and to the Irish III. After the renown'd Prince of Orange and his Forces were happily landed at Tor-bay and had given Directions for the speedy landing the rest and the Canon to be unship'd for the more conveniency at Topsham the late King James's Council as influenc'd by the French advised him to neglect sending the body of Scotch and Irish Soldiers in which he confided to attack the Princes Force while they were so fatigued and disabled with the bitter Voyage they had undergone and were not as yet re-inforc'd by any Refreshments or Rest or join'd by any Male-contents as they call'd them out of the Countrey or from the late King 's own Army and rather to stay till he could assemble his whole Army and provide a sufficient train of Artillery store of Ammunition c. and be ready to March against them in Person to give them a formal Battel which must be acknowledged gave our renown'd Prince a convenient opportunity to refresh his Men and Horse and recruit what were wanting and likewise to such as were well affected to him in the Countrey and in the King's Army to go over to him IV. King James by a strange Fate though so much Frenchified yet being over perswaded not to become too much dependant of the French King refused till it was too late to receive a French Army though often press'd to it by Barillon insomuch that the French King finding he could not have his Will to have a French Force admitted strong enough to Master both England and its King and to have the English Forces instead of his own to fight his Quarrels on the other side gave the aforesaid Counsel to the late King James not to detach his Scots and Irish against the Princes wearied Forces for fear his English Army taking exceptions thereat might Rebel and seize his Person in the mean time but to march with his whole Army against them in Person where one Nation might awe the other and the English might have less cause of Exception seeing some confidence still reposed in them and the Kings presence might keep them all in due Decorum and Obedience The French though fearing some would desert him yet thought that enough would still stay with the King to keep up a Civil War which would deprive the Hollanders and Confederates at least of the Forces they had lent for that Expedition and which was more of the Conduct of so great a General as the Prince of Orange and force King James the next Summer to admit what number of French to help him he should please to offer and which he thought he could easily send him by his own Fleet with that part of King James's that should remain firm to him and so he should have his long desired ends at last V. Because King James had so stiffly refused a French Army for that present and to part with his English the French King in hopes that the late King would however find Friends enough to keep the valiant Prince of Orange and his Forces employed for some years without being able to assist the Confederates and make both England and Holland the eager Prey to him at last though he were in actual War with Holland and had a numerous Army near their Frontiers yet forbore to make any Attempt upon them for fear it should hinder the Prince and his Forces from going for England and so deprive him of the sundry advantages he hoped to reap by that Diversion So true a Friend was he at the Bottom to his poor deluded Ally's Interest and so very much mistaken in true Measures for promoting his own by an over-ruling hand of Providence VI. And lastly the strange unmanly fear and unsteadiness that appeared in the late King James when he had the greatest occasion to shew that Courage and Conduct he had alwaies before pretended to in not appearing firm to stand by those that otherwise in all probability would have stood to him even among the English Forces as well as among the Nobility Clergy and Gentry and his actual deserting them afterwards gave the last finishing Motion to the mighty and memorable Revolution that followed Thus you see all these several steps of the Prince of Orange's very Enemies though directed as they thought by the best safest and rightest measures of Prudence and Policy against him were all made by the Providence of Almighty God who taketh the Wise in their own craftiness and will suffer no enchantment against Jacob nor divination against Israel to contribute to the more assured and speedy success of our noble Prince Enterprise so very justly and lawfully undertaken by a loud Call and Commission from Heaven in his own Defence and likewise in the Defence and Safety of the People Church and Cause of God And by these strange means it came to pass that the magnanimous Prince setting sail a second time from Hellevoet-sluys with a prosperous Gale though he suffer'd much again with his people afterwards by rough Weather and the incommodities of Landing in such a place and his first uncouth Marches yet Landing upon the 5th of November in the famous Year 1688. just 100 years after the Spanish Invasion and on the Anniversary of the Gun-powder Treason as if design'd and ordain'd by Heaven to deliver us both from the intestine Contrivances of a Faction within us and the approaching inundation of the French without us now much more formidable than Spain was then in less than six Weeks time entred Triumphâ—â—ly into the Palace of our Capital City 〈◊〉 by almost universal Consent of the exceeding joyful Nation of all Orders Ranks and Degrees invested on the Anniversary of the Nativity of our Lord with the Administration of the Government as if by Divine appointment preordain'd to be a temporal Saviour to these Nations and to all his chosen People and by the peculiar Deligation and Commission of that King of Kings and Lord of Lords that Rules over the Kingdoms of Men and gives them to whomsoever he will And then after he had by the general desire and humble importunity of the Subjects called a Convention of Estates was by them on the 13th of February 1688. conjointly with his Royal and virtuous Princess declared the Rightful and undoubted King and Queen of England France and Ireland and soon after of Scotland The late King James by sending his Queen and pretended Son into France into the hands of a known Enemy of these Nations and who had been the cause of all their manifold grievances and by retiring thither afterwards voluntarily of his own accord himself having given infallible Evidence to all the sober part of the Nation that the Birth of that pretended Prince was too dark a Contrivance to endure the clear light of a publick