ever set out in Great Britain under St. Peter's Banners since Queen Mary's days These were the Actions of Pope Innocent the XIth against Lewis the XIVth and such were the Remonstrances and Advices both of his Nuncio and the Spanish and Imperial Ambassadours in England to the late King James Which His Imperial Majesty afterwards in his Letter to the Late King in Answer to one from him relating the Doleful Story of his Abdication hints at and tells him Had they been followed he might still have been upon the Throne with all the Advantages of a Great English Monarch The obstinate neglect of which Councils the most safe and prudent that could be given to a Popish King of England at that time of the day together with the formidable growth and the aforesaid Insolent Proceedings of the French King caused both the Pope and the Ancient and Potent Houses of Austria and Bavaria not onely to League themselves together but also for their Common Defence both against French Popery and French Power which were advancing hand in hand to attack them And which if suffer'd to fix footing in England would shortly become altogether irresistible to Confederate Nay even with the Protestant Princes and Powers the one viz. the Temporal Princes of Austria and Bavaria Immediately and the other namely the Pope Mediately and Covertly by abetting and underhand promoting the Intrigues and Attempts of the others for the carrying on such Designs as should divide England from the French Interest though it were by the Dismounting a Prince of their own Religion and placing a Protestant upon the Throne They being very well satisfied it was much safer for Popery in General as well as for their particular Temporal Interests to see a Protestant wear the Crown of England though to the seeming disadvantage of the Popish Religion in that particular Kingdom that would help them to balance the excessive Power of France than to suffer a Popish King of Great Britain of the French Stamp to assist the French Monarch to enslave all other much more Catholick Princes depress the Papal Power it self and impose a Popery worse to them than what their erroneous fancies teach them to call Heresie But that which clincht the Nail home and which not only confirm'd them in those Resolutions but hastned them to a speedy execution of them were three very dangerous Attempts of the French King the one was the powerful Interest the French had made to get their Devoted Creature that Arch-Traytor to his Countrey the Quondam Prince William but now Bishop of Strasburg and Cardinal of Furstemberg to be chosen Elector of Cologne that he might be the more able to back his old Benefactour Lewis the 14th in all his Encroachments upon the Empire in awing the rest of the Electors on the Rhine and by them influencing the whole Electoral College to deprive the House of Austria of the Imperial Dignity by choosing Lewis the French Dauphin for King of the Romans or Successor to the Emperor instead of the Arch-Duke Joseph c. The second was his breaking so perfidiously the new made Truce though sworn to for twenty Years and under the pretence of backing the Election of his dear Cardinal and pursuing some extravagant Demands he was pleased to make in the name of the Dutchess of Orleans of the present Prince Palatine to besiege and surprise Philipsburg and committing a thousand Outrages and Hostilities elsewhere at a time when the Emperour trusting to the security of the twenty years Truce was employing his Arms to repell the Turks the sworn Enemies of Christianity in the remotest borders of Christendom The third was his declaring War against Holland because they seem'd to oppose his base illegal violences in endeavouring to force an Election which ought to be free and that in a Country where the proud Tyrant had no right to meddle and which was so near their Frontiers and that too being not content with that as if he had had the late King James's Head under his Girdle he was pleased to threaten that England should do the like and as a forerunner of it perswaded King James abruptly and without any reason given to recall his Subjects out of the Dutch Service at a time when he had no visible occasion for them These Reasons all put together made the Roman Catholick Princes to league with Holland and the Protestant Princes of Germany and to favour the Blessed and Glorious Design of our present Sovereign Lord King William c. to endeavour to break the strong Chains that were preparing for all Europe by first breaking those of England and by seizing before hand of the Reins of Government over those most willing Nations that were so exceeding glad of his seasonable help in time of Need the Succession of which should he delay a Moment was visibly going to be most unjustly alienated from him by the means of a supposititious Child brought upon the Stage only for a blind and to be consign'd unto the Tyrannical hands of the French Monarch And lastly that which made an end of giving a through alarm to the Pope was the French King 's insulting and insolent proceedings by his Ambassador at Rome it self his invading of Savoy and Piedmont and carrying thereby the War into Italy which by the bye is now one of the most troublesome Thorns that he has in his foot and which he would most fain be rid of it having proved notwithstanding his Successes the most chargeable and incommodious War to him next that of England of any of the rest Which considerations made the Pope and the rest of the Roman Princes and particularly the Spaniards employ sundry Priests devoted to their interests but as so many Spies about the late King James to fish out the secrets of the Frenchified Cabal and to communicate the same from time to time to the late Spanish Ambassadour who failed not to advertise the King his Master the illustrious Prince of Orange and all the Allies nor yet to communicate them to the Nobility Gentry and qualified Citizens of England to whose secret advice thus obtain'd next to God Almighty we owe all the satisfactory light we have had into the dark Intrigue of the pretended Prince of Wales which above all things gave the last and most powerful Impulse to those Motions that brought about the late Happy and wonderful Revolution Having thus seen how the French King by catching too eagerly at Vniversal Monarchy and his Ally the late King James by adhering to the French Counsel more than to his own English Subjects stirr'd up the most zealous Princes of the Roman Communion and even the Pope himself to side with the Protestant Powers against them and readily to concur with these last even to the suppression of all hopes of their own Religions becoming predominant in England and rather than see it planted there by French hands We cannot therefore at all wonder that the Protestant Foreign Powers and the people of
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
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
undaunted Courage and indefatigable Industry deserved However all relations agree in this That he performed all that was possible to be done with such a small Army and in such a place and juncture against such a puissant Enemy by the most Prudent Courageous and daring Leader in the whole World And that in the main Battel were he himself commanded in Person he did Wonders leading on his Men at the very head of his Troops to the Charge and hazarding himself to that degree that he received two Musket Shots in his Armour After the end of this Campagne Heaven determinating to lay the Foundation of his present Grandeur and Glory by giving a very precious Gage and Pledge of the Possession of those Crowns it intended as the due reward of his truly Royal Vertues and indefatigable pains for the weal of Christianity so influenced the heart of our late King Charles the second of England that in spight of the French Intrigues and the secret Inclinations of the then Duke of York her Father to the Contrary and to the surprisal and mortification of the French King he bestowed upon Him in sacred Marriage the no less Virtuous and Accomplished than the beauteous Princess his Niece the Presumptive Heiress of the British Monarchy an alliance of a much more dreadful prospect to the Aspiring Monsieur than the loss of all his late Conquests in Holland Flanders Brabant and elsewhere and which threatn'd France it self with an unpleasant Retaliation in due time for all her notorious Violences This illustrious Alliance was solemniz'd on the 4th day of November 1677. being the joyful Birth-day of his illustrious Highness at eleven at Night but so privately that the People not knowing till the Morrow or next Day being the Anniversary of the Gunpowder Treason made it a double Holy-day And since that he hath made it a threefold Holy-day or day of Rejoying by his most happy Landing at Tor-Bay c. as well upon the usual occasion as to testifie their Joy for so Blessed and Glorious a Match from which even then the whole Protestant Church throughout Europe began cheerfully to hope for the crushing of the Popish and French Power as if the Protestants had known by some Prophetick Instinct that Heroick Prince unfeignedly espousing their Interest as well as their religious Princess would one day become their most wellcome and glorious Deliverer and Defender and make the memorial of the famous 5th of November once more sacred and dear to them by publick Benefits no less signal than those by which it was first ennobled above the common days After which the Prince well remembring how very necessary his presence would be in Holland return'd thither with all the haste he could with his most rich and gracious Acquest that since has produced so much good to the common Cause and the benefit of the Confederates as well as of the two most potent Sea-Nations of Europe where both He and his Royal Bride were received with a Magnificence suitable to their High and august Quality and with all the expressions and Demonstrations of Joy that could be expected from a People sensible of their great Happiness in so illustrious and powerful Alliance Upon their first publick entrance into the Hague the Bridge was crowned with Garlands of Triumph and an Arch was builded through which they passed and on it was written Vxori Batavis vivat Nassovius Hector Auriaco Patriae vivat Britannica Princes And another Arch with another Motto Auriaci his Thalamis Batavis dos Regia pax est Soon after his return the French King being alarm'd at this Alliance and the consequent preparations made by the King and Parliament of England to oblige him to a just and reasonable Peace with his Neighbours he himself with all speed dispatcht away a project of Peace to Nimeguen and getting it after some Demur consented to by the States of Holland by the influence of a Party that still covertly opposed the Prince and by the discouragement the then posture of Affairs in England really gave the States occasion'd by the Disturbances raised and fomented there by the same French intrigues to prevent the dreaded effects of the late Marriage a Treaty was concluded soon after that gave some respite to our renown'd Prince for several years from his military Fatigues and wearisome Nights And now to signalize himself no less by the Prudent and advantageous reformation of abuses and regulation of things relating to the Civil State of his Countrey than he had been vigorous and successful in the maintenance and defence of its Territories but however before that work was perfectly finisht the delays and new difficulties made by the French King to sign the Treaty though according to his own proposals caused a new League to be made between the States and King of great Britain and gave the Prince opportunity once more to shew his wise Conduct and matchless Prowess against that insolent and powerful Enemy in a more glorious and successful manner than ever before and well near to have made the French King pay dearly for his over refined and ill timed Politicks with the loss of his now darling General Luxemburg's whole Army for the strong City of Mons having been long blockt and very much distress'd by the French and the Duke of Luxemburg having taken his march that way to hinder all Succours from it his Highness made haste to the Army then near the Canal of Brussells where the rest of the Confederate Forces had newly join'd the Spanish and Dutch Troops and pursuant to a resolution taken for that Effect in a council of War march with an intention to attack and dislodge Luxemburg after he was joined a little beyond Brussels with a re-inforcement of 6000 Brandenburghers and Munsterians but upon Advice of the Princes March Luxemburg quitting his Camp took up his head Quarters in the Abby of St. Denys which was a Post he thought inaccessible there being no coming at him but through Woods and Defiles surrounded with Precipices yet for all this our redoubted Prince advanced to that Abby with his left Wing and with his Right faced Casteau which the French likewise were posted in and which was as difficult to force as the other and as soon as ever he had ranged his Army he first of all drove the Enemy from a certain Hillock and then with some Canon played upon another Party of them briskly that endeavoured to maintain themselves on one side of a Cloister near St. Denys who not being able to resist the vigour of the Confederate Dragoons who drove them from their holds and mastered the Cloister whilst Adjutant General Collyers back'd by General Delvick filed his men silently and speedily through the narrow Passages and sliding with an undaunted Courage down the Precipices repulsed the Enemy in spight of all the resistance within their own lines In the very midst of which our renowned Prince with eager warmth and spirits enflamed cryed out aloud
imginable were made to conspire and concur with as much Union and Harmony as if they had been all 〈◊〉 one and the self-same Soul or 〈◊〉 who is Ens Entium as well as 〈◊〉 Causarum for even Enemies Friends Papists Protestants Winds and Seas all acted towards and promoted proportionably this grand and glorious design of Providence even while they contended most against it Because therefore it will not be a little edifying and instructive to us of these Kingdoms not only in our Religious but also in our Politick and civil Concerns to understand rightly and comtemplate in some measure the most miraculous method used by the Divine and over-ruling Power in producing this happy and never to be forgotten Revolution of great Britain and Ireland Before we proceed to give you any account of that we shall as far as we in a private Station could or think fit for particular Persons to prie into give you a short view of the several steps that were made on all sides towards it till at the last they were all deceived some very happily as being carried on far beyond their first proposed ends and the utmost of their hopes and the others with a more Melancholick Surprize finding themselves defeated of their Giant-like expectations and driven upon such Rocks as they thought they had steered the surest course to avoid And first we will begin with the French King his illustrious Highness the Prince of Orange's most inveterate and irreconcilable Enemy ever since the refusal of his Overtures for betraying his Native Countrey and shew what steps he himself though a great Master of Politicks made to this great and blessed Revolution which may by God's blessing prove in due time a means to bring him to Subjection to this ancient and imperial Crown of England again In order to secure the success of the mighty Project which has been so eagerly pursued and carried on by Lewis the 14th for some Years past of attaining the universal Monarchy of the West it is not at all doubted by any well versed in Politicks but of all other things it was most highly necessary that his surest Alley the late King James should be fully and absolutely Master of his Kingdoms and till that were effected and put out of all danger of being Travers'd that it was no less needful for him namely the French King to treat his Protestant Subjects at home well nay rather better than ordinary to keep up a good correspondence likewise with the Pope and other Roman Catholick Princes to have religiously observed the Truce with the Empire to have dissembled for some time at least his resentments against the renown'd Prince of Orange to have restored him the Principality of that Name which he most unjustly extorted from his noble Ancestors to have perswaded his Uncle to have caress'd him to have kept fair with the Hollanders to have terrified no body with Arms of Cruelties but only to have supply'd his faithful Ally of great Britain constantly and privately with sufficient Moneys and carried on all his Intrigues elsewere only with the underhand and potent charms of Gold to have perswaded King James to have let alone the Intrigue of the pretended Prince of Wales to have abstain'd from multiplying Popish Chapels and publick toleration of Jesuits and Priests to have forborn the planting a Jesuitical Crew in Magdalene College to have abstain'd from sending Mandamus after Mandamus to violate the ancient Privileges of that Loyal and Famous University of Oxford to have forborn the sending of the most Reverend and right Reverend the Bishops those Pillars of our true Reformed Church of England into the Tower In a word to have contented himself only with new modelling Corporations and insensibly new regulating his Army and Court till all had been sure Had he been duly cautious and circumspect in these particulars it had been shrewdly probable if not an assured thing that a great part of the Clergy Nobility and Gentry of England would not have seen through the late king James's Designs nor at least have believed them till perhaps they had felt the Chains about their Necks that his Army would have stood by him till at last when things had been full ripe for it they had seen the greatest part of themselves ship'd off upon some suddain Foreign Quarrel and their places supply'd at home by Soldiers in French pay And this might have been peradventure so politickly managed as not to have alarm'd the illustrious Ancient and Warlike House of Austria the Hollanders perchance would have unconcernedly lookt upon it being so exceedingly busied about the Indian Gold and Treasures and the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland might perhaps have been lull'd fast asleep by their present Peace vast Trading and Plenty And this step once gain'd the subtil Monsieur could have securely oppress'd the Spanish Netherlands once again over-run Holland and have invaded the Empire when the imperial Forces should have been perhaps as dreaming of no danger from the Rhine employed as far as Bulgaria or Romania in chasing the Turks and these were the Counsels of his wisest Ahitophel the late famous Louvois But he that taketh the wise in his own craftiness and maketh Diviners mad and brings good out of Evil caused that vulgar Proverb here to prove an Oracle That Quos perdere vult deus prius dementat God first blinds or renders foolish those whom he hath resolv'd to destroy for the deep and most surely laid Counsels of that great States-man were providentially over-rul'd by the fawning influence of Jesuited Heads whereof some were on Mens and some more advantageously placed on the necks of the charming and seldom failing Sex who working upon the French King 's unmeasurable Vanity and unlimitted Ambition very easily perswaded him that his Power was now grown so Formidable and all his Forces for Sea and Land so well disciplin'd that he needed not to be so much inslaved to those cautious Measures proposed by his Ministers of State as he had been hitherto but leaving those flow paces to the Sages of the House of Austria who placed most of their Majesty in deliberate Counsels and more slow Executions he might now resume his natural briskness and advance securely the nearest way to Glory especially since England was then under a Roman Catholick Prince entirely at his Devotion upon all occasions And with all seeing things at that time were in such a posture that the imperial Force was so wholly taken up in a War in the remotest Frontiers of Christian Europe there was no other Power that either durst or could timely and effectually oppose his Attempts either in Religious or civil Matters and that the most active Spirits that were best able or most disposed to obstruct the course of his prosperous advance were many of them as well Princes as their Ministers now become wonderful docile and disciplinable without word of Mouth or beat of Drum only by the bare Lustre and Loadstone of
his power and a great favour too they that will be Protestants or will not be Papists thus Alamode de France being both equally destituted to utter Destruction And to convince you further that these were the real and unfeigned Designs of Lewis the 14th King of France a Friend of mine that intimately knew the Person assured me that when the French Clergy were assembled in the year 1682. he sent a skillful Antiquary into England to search diligently and most accurately our Records in the Tower and at Westminster to see and learn what steps King Henry the 8th had made in his Rupture with Rome and which of them might most effectually be put in practice by him in order to accomplish his foresaid ends But what followed from this Conduct of driving on so very furiously at one and the same time two such contrary designs as these were one towards the other to bring about the same self purpose Why the same that 's reported to have happen'd to the famous Wrestler Milo who in ostentation of his great strength endeavour'd to rive a sunder with his Arms the main Limbs of adouble bodied Tree He made a shift indeed to split them in part but not being able to go through perfectly with the Work was by their recoiling Force catch'd so fast himself between them as to be made a defenceless prey to the wild Beasts Thus Lewis the 14th by first persecuting the Protestants and attacking the Pope's Authority has reduced himself into a Labyrinth and brought a general War upon his Dominions c. By his most severe Persecution and endeavour absolutely to exterminate the Protestants he berest himself wholly of some hundreds of thousands of his wealthiest and most useful Subjects consisting of many of the most trading Merchants best Officers and expert Mariners and Seamen to the strengthening of his Enemies round about in the adjacent Countries and the utter ruin of many Roman Catholick Families their Creditors or that were of their Dependance and fill'd his Kingdom with Hypocrites and Malecontents who required as many Troops to watch over their Conduct which gave and will give continual Jealousies and Alarms as would have served him to compose a good Army to defend the largest of his Frontiers and that which was more fatal to him than all the rest these cruel and most barbarous proceedings of his exasperated the Spirits of the warlike and valorous English and thereby made it altogether impracticable for his great Ally King James to make himself Master enough of his People to be so serviceable to him in his Attempts towards universal Monarchy as he perhaps might have been is to sweeten the minds of the undaunted British Protestants Monsieur Lewis had politickly at the late King James's first accession to the Crown and voluntarily restored the French Protestants their old Liberties and Privileges which he solemnly swore to maintain at his Coronation For it must be acknowledged on all hands that they namely the Protestants were his faithfullest Subjects who put the Crown on his head out of a feigned or pretended difference to the late King James's intreaties and respect to the intercession of the English Church and Nation To have been thus before hand with us in Civility what savours would it not have extorted from the English Protestants towards the Papists here And what Jealousies would it not have suppress'd And how much more easily might we have been catcht by tickling than by scratching especially had he at the same time kept Quiet and justly observed the last concluded Truce with the Confederates But acting the quite contrary it made the late King James's Conduct by far the more narrowly inquired into and rendred all people both Jealous and Affraid even of his favours and made them justly suspect the sincerity of such a Prince though at the same time declaring himself for liberty of Conscience whom they saw so visibly and amicably to correspond with a notorious Tyrant of the same Religion so very eager upon Persecution as daily to fill his greatest and best Friends Dominions at so unseasonable a nick of time with whole Shoals or multitudes of Exiles in such a miserable plight as he knew could not but stir up the resentments of the hardy English Protestants against both Princes and thereby as we have said disabled his Ally from getting that power into his hands which was so necessary for his assistance in the accomplishment of those Ambitious projects he since unprosperously pursues And on the other hand by acting as we have instanc'd against the Pope and offering so plainly at a new Model of Popery yea and making such brisk attempts upon the temporal Dominions and Territories of the Pope himself and that in his own Capital City of Rome as he did by his Ambassador the Marquess of Laverdine who not only exasperated the then Pope Innocent the 11th a person not of a temper either to be hectored or to be wheedled out of the Rights and Respects he thought due to him from a Prince pretending to the Titles of Most Christian and of Eldest Son of the Church one who not only very well understood his own Interest and the whole drift of Lewis the 14th But likewise first of all gave the alarm to all other Princes of the Roman Communion who thereby plainly seeing that not only their Territories but their Religion also was in no small danger from such designs and that the French Sultan intended Mahomet-like to have exterminated Popery properly so called as well as Protestantism and to have introduced by the Sword a third Religion hateful to both which was to have been Franco-Catholick more than Roman Catholick and to have been new Christened by that Name assoon as Paris by the prevailing Arms or more availing pieces of Gold of Lewis Le Grand should have been made the Metropolis General of all Christendom Hence he permits his Statue to be erected and adored by his Subjects in the posture of Prosternation he permits Holy-days to be Dedicated to them and Harangues to be made to them as if they were really so many Deities so that upon the Basis of these base Idols you may see these Inscriptions in Capital Letters TO THE IMMORTAL MAN Upon this Alarm of Pope Innocent the XIth all Europe began to look with a Suspicious Eye upon the Proceedings of the French Monarch and his Ally of Great Britain and minded more sharply every passage between them And though Lewis the XIVth endeavoured extreamly to throw dust in their eyes by extirpating and destroying the Protestants in his own Dominions out of a zeal as he feigned or profess'd to the Holy See yet they could not comprehend how that could possibly consist with his continual abetting and corroborating the Turks and supporting Count Teckely and his Protestant followers in Hungary and much less with his most Undutiful and Insolent Carriage to the Pope and with such formal Decisions as struck at the very Foundations of his Authority
Great Britain especially who had much greater obligations to it both from their Civil and Religious Interests should willingly unite to the same purpose and take the opportunity of entring into so potent a Confederacy to preserve their Religion and secure their Posterity and all that was near and dear to them in reference to both Worlds when they saw the very Popish Princes and the head of that Communion so hotly take the Alarm though nothing so nearly nor so deeply concern'd in the danger as themselves and by their diligence in being so ready to join with them Tacitly to reproach their Dulness and awake them timely and vigorously to second the noble Efforts of such a Wise and valiant Prince whose known injurious Treatment by both Kings and very legal and rightful pretentions to the succession of the British Throne as well as his Exemplary and Military virtues had now gotten him so large a share or interest in the hearts of all the oppress'd People of the three Kingdoms and gave them and all their Foreign Friends such fair dawning hopes of a most happy and glorious Success As for the Hollanders they were moved to assist in this great Enterprise not only by the consideration of their general Interest as one of the chief Parties in War with France nor yet wholly and solely out of gratitude to the courageous and illustrious Prince who had so lately rescued them from imminent ruin and restored them to as great a Beauty of Order and formidable Strength as any other Republick though no doubt these Motives swayed them very much But being particularly prick'd forward and provoked by daily menaces from France and appearing and most convincing Mark from England that the late King did not they first prevent him would certainly declare War against them having for that purpose already recall'd all his Forces and made several other steps that way by his Envoy Marquess D'Abbeville they could not chuse but think it great Prudence as well as Gratitude to close with their renowned Prince and our mighty Deliverer and answer the calls and intreaties of their sore oppress'd Neighbours the English Who in former Ages had given them a lift and partly delivered them from Bondage and who being now once assisted and freed by them would in all probability contribute most effectually of any of their Allies to the repulsing of that subtil encroaching Foe that threaten'd them with a second Slavery and in order to prevent the fatal Stroke intended against them as the chief Obstacles of erecting Despotick Power and Arbitrary Government in Great Britain and from thence inforcing it upon all Europe by lending a powerful timely and hearty Assistance to his Highness Add to this the Sympathy and feeling compassion which the horrid sufferings of the poor Protestants in France many thousands whereof wearing the cruel Marks and Badges of French Barbarity were daily objects of their Eyes moved their Christian hearts which last consideration as well as that of their civil Interest of which the Spanish and Dutch Netherlands were the great Barrier and Bulwark as likewise the Design they had discovered to be Hatched by France to devour them all one after another and to extirpate the Protestant Name scurrillously nick-nam'd by the scoffing Enemy the Northern Heresie from under Heaven prevail'd likewise with the rest of the German Protestant Princes especially the most wise and experienc'd Prince the then Elector of Brandenburg his Heroical Highness's illustrious Kinsman and the Princes of the Houses of Saxony Lunenburg and Hesse to contribute their best Helps as well as Wishes to the accomplishment of that great Heaven-inspired Enterprise Next the Causes that moved the illustrious Prince of Orange besides all the former considerations and motives common to him with all the rest were so visibly sensible and most just and of so very cogent a nature that to resist them had been to resist both Sense and Reason and God himself who now seem'd to give him a Commission to rescue his Church and oppress'd People He saw the State in which he first drew his Breath which his warlike Ancestors founded and which he no less gloriously and miraculously had newly raised again into a stronger and more beautiful Structure than before out of in a manner a confused heap of Rubbish menaced afresh by the same crafty and powerful Enemy back'd with another potent Popish Ally in a more formidable manner than ever he heard from a far the dismal Groans of the miserably afflicted and tormented Protestants in France and especially of those of his own Hereditary Principality of Orange most unjustly wrested from him and what infinitely more sensibly touch'd him the Slavery and more than Aegyptian oppression of his natural Subjects crying to him for Justice and saying Help O thou mighty Prince of Valour and nursing Father of God's true reform'd Church it is high time for to lay to thy powerfull and blessed hand for popish Judges and Seminaries have made void our Laws Rights and Privileges He found the ruine of his Country levell'd at through his August sides and that the Gallick Tyrant would never pardon him the unexpected ravishment of his stollen and perfidious Conquests nor the truly generous and Princely refusal of purchasing a Sovereignty by the betraying of his own Country nor the terrible smarting and disgracefull blow he received from him before Mons nor his obstructing an uncomely peace at Nimeguen nor finally his happy Match with a most accomplisht and amiable Princess of his own Blood when the subtil Monsieur least thought on 't and whom he had laid close Intrigues and subtil Stratagems had not they been Providentially prevented by a speedy conclusion of that blessed Marriage to have spirited or stollen away and made a Sacrifice to the black Interests concerted between him and her Father which was to have been the great Issue of that numerous and splendid Embassy of French Lords not long before preceeding had not God in his Mercy to our Nation prevented it by making the late King Charles as much inclin'd as he was otherwise to favour them to balk all their Projects by that sudden and contrary jerk of Policie which put them for the present quite out of countenance and which all their Juggles knew not how to prevent He likewise saw plainly that whereas besides the unpardonable crimes against the greatness of Lewis the 14th and the bigotted Inclinations of his Uncle and Father-in-law he was sensible he had committed a Third which was greater than all the rest viz. Obstinately refusing to give his Assent and Consent to take off the Test and Penal Laws and give a new Magna Charta of Liberty to the Papists of England to supplant and overthrow the Rights and Liberties of all others He was therefore by those whose threatnings were never vain when in full power to execute them menaced that he should pay dearly for it and he saw they were going in down-right earnest to be as good as
their Words by popping up a Child all on a sudden to act the Prince of Wales and put him and his Royal Princess by the Succession of these Crowns of which they were the true undoubted presumptive Heirs no less unjustly than they had depriv'd him of his other possessions and all this only to put him out of Power and make him uncapable to vindicate his own and his poor Subjects former wrongs to protect any longer with success the Re-publick he had hitherto so prosperously defended to revenge the unspeakable oppressions of the people in France or support or retrieve the Protestant Religion and civil Rights and Liberties of the ancient and warlike people of Great Britain whereof he appeared a kind and powerful Defender and who were his undeniable Subjects in Reversion and whose Interests he seem'd resolv'd zealously to espouse and as stiffly to defend as his own And when he saw the people of all Ranks and Qualities and of all Religions and Interests in the three Kingdoms but one to wit the Papists with one common and earnest mind and voice call to him as next undoubted Heir at Law to take care no Damage might be done by the present Possessour in the Lands of his Succession to resist the most unjust Usurpation or Alienation intended by a Supposititious Child and the malicious Intrigues of a Jesuited Step-Mother and in a word to redress all the manifold Wrongs and Oppression of the Subjects to save the Protestant Religion and the civil Liberties of all Europe which depended chiefly in that dangerous Juncture upon the Preservation of Great Britain to 〈◊〉 Confederacy from becoming a Pâ—ey to the overgrown Monster of France Of the loss of all which and of the vast Detriment that would have thence happen'd to so many millions of precious Souls and to the publick Weal of all Christendom he would have been undoubtedly thought highly guilty had he neglected so many forcible Calls and indispensible Obligations both of Nature Duty and Interest And lastly when besides all these irresistible Motives he considered that the danger was extreamly pressing that Ireland was already Haltered and bound as a Sacrifice ready to be offered Scotland strongly manacled and the intolerable Chains just ready to be thrown over England's Neck and the terrible glittering Sword drawn out and ready to be Brandish'd against himself and his Republick and that unless he would resolve to strike the first Blow it would be too late to strike at all And Finally that unless he made an attempt upon England while his Allys had Forces and time to spare for his assistance and the Armies in England as well as the people of all sorts were in a Condition as well as Disposition to second his noble and excellent Efforts that the very next Spring perhaps some of the Allys might find an English Army upon their Frontiers intermixt with French and an Army of Frenchified Switzers and Irish Tories in possession of England and the English and French Fleets masters of the Sea asserting the Greatness of Lewis the 14th and Holland and the Spanish Netherlands swallow'd up by a sudden inundation breaking violently in upon them on all sides before they were aware or that their nearest and most powerful Allys could come up within sight much less within reach enough to give them any Assistance I say when our wise and presaging Prince now his most Excellent Majesty saw and duly weighed all this how loath soever he were to do any thing that might bear the least Shadow or Semblance of ill or that might seem to violate that Tenderness and Respect he had naturally for an Uncle and a Father-in-law of that great Quality Yet now when not only his private Interests lay at stake but the publick Happiness and Well-fare of so many Myriads of Souls so many Kingdoms and Territories some of which he had such an indispensible Obligation to take care of were in such extraordinary pressing Danger and Honour of Conscience even of King James himself basely beslur'd and abused by so gross a Cheat put upon him by the subtil Intrigues of Jesuits and his Jesuited Consort in prejudice of his own Natural and undoubted Issue in order to the inslaving Him as well as his Subjects every whit as much to the Caprices of France as he is now and to the manifest greater peril of his Life than since has happen'd by the attempts his people would have made against the Intrigues of his Deluders had not they found a far more regular and legal Assistance otherwise And considering that there was no other remedy but breaking the neck of their mischievous Proceedings by some sudden and surprizing Master-stroke of Power and Policy He now stood no longer consulting with Flesh and Blood and parling with the unseasonable reasonings of the tenderness we have been speaking of but fully resolve with all Expedition to prepare for the prevention and happy redress of so great a storm of Evils as otherwise he foresaw would most inevitably fall upon England Scotland and Holland Yea on all the greatest part of Europe But leave we our Gracious Prince a while making his war like Preparations and stuffing his stately Wooden Horses with fierce courageous Troops not to Burn but to save our otherwise lost Troy and make a step back to England to see how all things there concurr'd and worked together to meet his most noble Endeavours and Crown his so glorious and heavenly Enterprises with a bless'd Success beyond all Expectation If we come then to examine things there likewise we shall still find that our Royal Heroe's Enemies whilst they were plotting his Destruction and the enslaving of these Nations under a double Yoak of Popery and Arbitrary power which were both to Centâ—â— in an entire Subjection to the Tyrâ—nny of the French King made Tools of themselves by an Over-ruling Providence not only to save but to exalt them whose utter ruine they really design'd and even lift them up to such a Power as to be able to throw down their New Erected Babel in England and to shake the very Foundations of their Old one so long setled even in France it self For the late King James besides the Mistakes and Faults which he had all along fallen into and daily persisted to commit for want of discerning his own true Interests from those of France and for lack of seeing the Bottom of the French King's Designs made all other steps that his Enemies could have wish'd him to take towards the bringing upon himself Swift Destruction and the Advancement of that Warlike-Prince to the Throne of Great Britain which against the strong Obligations of Nature and without any sense or regard of his own highly injured honour thereby his late Majesty shamefully went about by the subtle Stratagems of Jesuits and Priests to bereave him and his Royal Consort of For besides his â—â—â—ing so openly with France and most highly disobliging thereby the rest of the Roman Catholick Powers as we have
Stratagems laid against the Rights of those Dear and Heaven-beloved Princes the hope of the Protestant Church throughout Christendom as well as against their own present Civil and Religious Liberties and especially receiving perfect intelligence of the whole process of that Imposture of putting upon them now a Supposititious Heir and had not King James himself and his too precipitate Councellors taken very much pains to convince them that the Spanish Intelligence was very true to a Tittle in all particulars and had not the League with France to destroy Holland and the manifest steps made then by our Court towards its Execution beyond all Contradiction demonstrated to them that such Chains were of a truth prepared for them as would not be of a few years continance but would be very lasting and impossible to be shaken off if once wholy put on And that they were just going to be thrown about their necks if not prevented without further dallying in that very Nick of time For at the same time a pretended Prince of Wales was started up they found their Pillars of the Church namely the Reverend Bishops and the main Body of their Clergy fiercely attack'd Ireland and the Protestants there put wholly under Despotick Power Arbitrary Dispositions and the merciless Mercy of cruel implacable Irish Papists Scotland wholly subjected allready under an open faced Despotick Authority the brave English Protestant Nobility those Ornaments of our Kingdom for the most part slighted and their Sage advices not at all heeded in Council but all ruled by a Popish French Cabal headed by P. Petres and Mr. Barillon and all Church of England-men already displaced or going to be removed not only from Civil Employments but as we have shew'd from Military ones too both in the Fleet and Army and when the Army it self which was to have back'd all these proceedings saw that for only opposing the foisting in of Irish and French Papists among them their most Eminent Captains and Officers though highly deserving in the late time of need against the Duke of Monmouth were treated no better than the Bishops That the illustrious Princess Ann of Denmark her self was so imperiously and disdainfully handled and neither she nor any Person from their Serene Highness's the Prince and Princess of Orange though so very highly concern'd suffered to be present at the Birth of the pretended Prince of Wales But that on the contrary War was plainly preparing against the Hollander in pretence forsooth but in reality and indeed against the precious Persons of the Prince and Princess of Orange whom they lookt upon at least as their Sovereigns in Reversion and that they were to be sent over Seas they knew not where to fight French and Popish Quarrels never more to return whilst their places were to be supplyed here by French and Irish and other Popish Forces I say when the Army saw themselves thus treated and were convinced there were further designs laid as deeply and maliciously against them as against any other body of men in the three Kingdoms and saw an Image of their future fate by what they beheld already done to the late standing Army in Ireland and to some of the best of their own Officers and when they saw they began already to be distrusted and yet that the Court had gone so far in the affairs of the Bishops and the body of the Church of England both Clergy and Gentry that in all appearance the Lawyers having refused to do them the Justice pretended in the Tryal of the Right Reverend Prelates they would now have recourse to a French Army assoon as ever they had seen but a good part of the present one gone away and the Post new Modell'd They viz. the English Army readily concurr'd with the rest of the Nation that is to say Those of the Clergy Nobility and Gentry in sending intentionally if not actually to the Heroick Prince of Orange to come and immediately under the Lord of Hosts to undertake their Relief and Deliverance and thus a good part even of the whole Nation and of the Army and Fleet too even by the very proceedings of their Enemies though much contrary to their Intentions disposed to wish success to the most generous undertaking of our modern CONSTANTINE who in Compliance with their hearty desires and the powerful Call of Self-preservation as well as the Defence of his own Rights with the zealous Assistance of the States of Holland and of the most Serene Prince the Elector of Brandenburg and some other generous Allies provided a brave Fleet consisting of Sixty five Men of War five hundred Fly-boates ten fire Ships sixty Pinks and as many Scheling Boats c. A good Army to be before hand with the French and their Creatures in England too set sail in the midst of Winter from the Brill and whilst he was coming and after his first Landing was still further favour'd by the following Actions and Behaviour of his Enemies I. For upon the News of his Highness's intended coming King James to augment his Army sending for considerable Numbers of the Irish Papists and some Scotch Highlanders and visibly shewing more confidence in them than in his own Native English made an end perfectly of alienating the hearts of his English Army from him and gave them most just grounds to fix their affections on the expected and blessed Prince the hope of England's best People nay caused thém now to believe entirely all that had been told them of the late King James and his Jesuits Designs and Frenchified Priests Intrigues against them II. When our mighty Prince had set sail the first time and was repuls'd by a grievous Tempest the good Providence of the Lord turn'd even that to his Advantage for having had the Prudence to publish in the Harlaem and Amsterdams Convent that his losses and detriment by that grievous Tempest were greater much than they in reallity were And making a face of things as if his grand Design was thereby quite balked it was very eagerly and readily believed especially by the Court Cabal of Jesuits and Priests nay they imagined them still greater than was reported and thereupon became so very secure in their own thoughts that they concluded all danger past and thereby still more and more alarm'd the whole Nation and kept their inclinations the more firm and close unto their Great and Heaven inspired Deliverer For that hot headed party now as openly bragg'd in every Coffee-house that God had defeated the Hereticks and that the Noise of that Expedition had only given the King a fair opportunity to increase his Army wherewith he would now make himself Absolute and by the help of them and the French together chastice the proud Bishops as they foolishly call'd them and the whole Church of England and their Abettors the Lawyers too rout out the daring Prince out of the Netherlands and exterminate the States of Holland as an unsufferable President of prosperous Rebellion and of pernicious
forced a while to stay on this side the Seas till Matters in the Two Kingdoms of England and Scotland were so composed that it might not be unsafe to leave them And so could not appear for some time in Action against the Common Enemy Yet he defeated the Gallick Tyrant of his Two great Expectations viz. 1. Of seeing the Force of England once more turn'd against Holland And 2dly Of seeing a Civil War ensue in England which might give him a fair opportunity under pretence of Assisting King James of throwing in such a Force that might in the sequel Enslave us all Which disappointment made the Monsieur to fret in his Grease to think that by his neglecting when time was to Alarm the Dutch Frontiers with his Army he had thereby given scope to his most dangerous Enemy to take free and full possession without hardly any Resistance on the Kingdoms of his most Devoted and Powerful Ally and now at best he could no way possible divert him from turning his Force directly against France but by Fomenting a War in Ireland which would be more difficult and expensive to him to maintain at that Distance than to King William Yet still he had Giant-like hope to keep him in play at least some years till the Confederates should be wearied out on the other side and he might by that means retrieve all again in England and Re-establish his Ally King James with the higher hand But even here too Providence deceiv'd him and did that Work as it had done the others before For our Victorious King William much Quicklier and by more effectual and successful Means than our Great Heroe himself or any of us all did or could in Humane Reason or Prudence expect But though the Almighty Creator was pleased generally to give a most surprizing Success to all that our truly Pious and Valiant King enterprized in Person Yet least those Prosperities should lift up our hearts too high and make us Attribute too much to our own Strength they were allayed by some Rubs in some other Rancounters where His Majesty was not nor could be present As were sufficient to convince us That though God did indeed favour the Just Cause and Well-intended Designs of our Gracious Prince whom His own Arm had placed over us Yet he was still Angry both with us and our Allies since neither their nor our Arms were ever observ'd to prosper so well under any other Chieftain as that Great Prince whose Exemplary Vertues we might as safely Imitate as His Civil and Warlike Qualifications England 't is true had now by this time excepting a very inconsiderable and disarm'd Party unanimously Ranged it self under the Willing Obedience of Their present Majesties happy Government But Scotland was still disturb'd by the Influence of the late Viscount Dundee And poor Irelrnd was in a manner totally under the Enemies Power and provided with such an Army of Disciplin'd Natives â—nd so well-furnish'd with Warlike Necessaries and Officers from France that it perhaps could never boast the like and they seem'd at least irrecoverably to have Rent that Kingdom from the English Empire When it pleased Allmighty God to animate a handful of Men inconsiderable for all things but Undaunted Courage and Zeal to their Religion and Ancient Liberties when all the rest of the Kingdom was already Subjected to shut their Gates against a Power which then ruled every where else about them And even at a time when they could have little or no hope of Relief from England or elsewhere vigorously to Defend a Town but meanly Fortified and worse Provided with a kind of Supernatural and Wonderful Valour against a Numerous and Well-furnisht Army headed by their King himself and able General-Officers from France Renown'd for their Conduct and to hold it out against all Disadvantages to the Amazement of the Whole World till Relief though very strangely by many causes delayed much longer than 't was thought possible they could stay for it was brought them and by that means a Way open'd to deliver that very Kingdom from the Oppressours when they thought themselves most secure and firmly Posted And indeed whosoever well considers the Vigorous Actions of the Men of Derry and of those of Inniskilling who took Arms about the same time cannot but think they were influenc'd by something more than Humane Courage Whilst their Enemies at the same time were not only Infatuated in their Councils but palled in their Valour though they had some very good Troops among them both English Scotch and French by the unexpected daring Magnanimity of a few true Zealots for Religion and Liberty whom looking upon as Desperado's they durst not fight with and yet were as much afraid to let alone They were Infatuated I say in their Counsels For by the very best Relations it appears That if they had Besieged Derry with their whole Army and employed their best Disciplin'd and most Warlike Troops to make the Attacks they might easily have taken it before any succour had come Or if they had altogether let it alone or contenting themselves only with keeping a Blockade before it and had sent a good part of their Army into Scotland to the Assistance of the late Viscount Dundee who was a Commander both of Courage and Conduct and who had by his Great Interest in the Highlands and other parts Raised no despicable Opposition against the Government I say 'T was the sense of very Understanding Men as well of our Own as the Enemies side That if they had in stead of Amusing themselves before Derry sent Timely Assistance to Dundee as he often and earnestly press'd the Lord Melfort they had at least removed the Seat of the War out of their own Countrey and found so much Work for King William nearer home that it had been impracticable for Him to send any Succours at least that year to the Protestants any where in Ireland So that Derry and the Iniskillingers too must needs have been Reduced at last of Course and by Necessity with little or no Fighting But some of the Irish Officers forsooth must needs in their profound Wisdom Advise the late King James to a Medium by making a slow and regular Siege with his worst Troops under pretence of teaching these Men to be better Soldiers thereby till by it he quite balkt and spoiled his poor Teagues at first dash and lost his Opportunity of Assisting so brave a Servant as Dundee was and carrying the War into Scotland if not into England it self Which must be confess'd by all sober Christians was another Instance how the Divine Providence as it had begun so continued still to Over-rule the Actions and Councils of the Enemies of our Blessed Joshua and Mighty Deliverer and to make them all Contribute to the Accomplishment of that Great and Glorious Work it design'd by him in such a Manner that the Finger of God might appear in it of more clear efficacy than the Power and Policy of Man
he sent counter Orders when it was too late I shall mention but two more Observations and then follow His Majesty to another Scene Another great Blunder the French committed was That following the Irish more than their own Interest which must be acknowledged a fault not very usual with them they neglected to fortifie Kingsale one of the most commodious Havens for the convenience of their Fleets in the World and whereby they might have extreamly annoyed our Western Trade and secured their own Ships of War upon all Accidents and amused themselves with fortifying Limerick which could be of very little or no use to them in that Juncture And secondly after so much cost and pains bestowed upon Limerick they neglected to send the necessary supplies to it till 't was too late and thereby left King William at full Liberty to turn all his whole Force towards themselves in Flanders as he has done since These I conceive considering all circumstances are most convincing Marks of an Almighty and Over-ruling Power that directed the Counsels of the most Politick Court in the whole world upon those occasions to our magnanimous Prince's advantage and even made them contribute very much to the speedy Reduction of a Kingdom they had the greatest inclination and interest in the World to preserve sure footing in The next year being 1691. His most Excellent Majesty met and faced them in Flanders and though he was not so Fortunate as to hinder them from taking Mons yet he acted so Wisely and Valiantly as to let the whole World see 't was none of his fault that as brave and bold a stroke was not struck there in Defence of that as at the Boyn and he kept the formidable Enemy all that Campagne in such Awe and Terrour that their old Fox Lnxemburg as able a General as he is accounted durst not venture Battel so long as he continued with the Army though it were several times offer'd him with advantage but only to save his Credit indeed when King William was gone at the close of the Campagne he fell briskly upon the Confederates Rear though he got nothing at all by it That his haughty Master might have at least some shadow of a Pretence to keep up his desponding Peoples sinking Spirits with the Noise and empty Sound of a pretended Victory But to pass by that unactive year when they would not let His Majesty come at them neither by Sea nor Land and come we to this last Campagne of 1692. which was remarkable for the Enterprises of three Kings all stiling themselves Kings of France viz. William King of Britain and Ireland in Flanders at the head of the Confederate Army Lewis the French King before Namur with an Army of about 130000 French Irish and Swiss and the late King James at the head of 15 or 16000 French and Scots on the Coast of Normandy with a Popish Plot in England to favour them Flanders was now filled with above 300000 armed warlike Soldiers and 100000 Horse and the Sea covered with two of the most Numerous and Glorious Fleets that ever bespread the Ocean consisting of above 150 great Men of War the most Beautiful and Magnificent that ever were especially the French Royal Sun The great Sea-wonder of the Age admired by all for the Beauty of her Shape and Proportion the curiosity of her Painting and Carving the Number Size and Quality of her Guns and the incomparable richness of her Gilding which made her of very great value and emboldened her presumptuous Master to inscribe on her this proud Motto Je suis L'unique sur L' Onde Comme mon maitre est dans le monde i. e. I only on the Sea command as my Master doth on Land And both the French King and the late King James trusting to such vast Forces by Sea and Land but more to their dark Contrivances thought they had taken such sure and infallible Measures not only to reduce England to King James or rather to the French Power but even to have blown up the whole Confederacy with one Summers Effort that they bragg'd of it publickly before all the World as of a thing done and declared by their Ministers in the Northern Courts that their designs were so surely laid that nothing but God could defeat them Which Arrogancy the King of Kings and Lord of Lords not suffering by the sequel shewed them and us too that his own omnipotent Arm defeated them of the main and most wicked aims they levell'd at leaving to men only to do the remainder of the Work that had been insignificant without those happy intervening Providences For whereas the French King trusted indeed something upon the intrigues of some Traytors in Namur and among the Spaniards and very much upon his puissant Force by Sea and Land Yet he reposed much more considence in the Execution of these four following Projects for which he thought he had taken infallible measures if any of which and much more if all had taken effect he had most certainly compass'd his most pernicious ends either in whole or in great part I. The first was to get out his Fleet before the Confederates Fleets were joined if it were possible and land an Army of 15 or 20000 Men in England to join with the Jacobites here II. If they could not do that time enough at least to debauch a part of our Fleet to desert and come over to them and then to beat the rest and land their Army and at least to raise a Civil War here that should detain King William till they should subdue the rest of the Spanish Netherlands III. To seize our most gracious Queen Mary by the help of the Party form'd by them here in order to that end and transport her into France to be made a Sacrifice to that Tyrant's Interest or if they could not otherwise secure her most Barbarously to assainate her IV. And lastly most barbarously to kill our gracious Deliverer King William any manner of way The first of these viz. Their getting out their Fleet and landing an Army before ours could get to Sea was only all men know hindred by God himself who sent not only contrary Winds in the Chanel which hindred the Fleet they had in the Ocean from approaching us but even shattered their other Fleet in the Mediterranean with such an horrible Tempest That two of their biggest Ships were miserably wreckt and the others kept back that they could not come in any time to join the rest in the Channel to prevent the dismal overthrow they afterwards received The second was disappointed by their failure in the first and stedfast fidelity of our Officers and Seamen but the discomsiting or overthrow of our Enemies at Sea though the Courage and Conduct of our brave Admirals and Seamen had it must be own'd no small share in the Execution of it was in some measure caused by a lying Spirit which entred into the Mouths of the Jacobite
Correspondents of those two Roman Catholick Kings and by telling them what Sea-officers they had gain'd and how generally the English Sea-men were alienated from their Majesties King William and Queen Mary for want of Pay c. which perswaded them to send Express Orders to their Fleet though scarce 50 Sail of Capital Ships without staying for their Tholoun Squadron to fall upon ours which was much superiour in Number and much more in Quality of Experienc'd and Courageous Officers and Seamen which proved an almost incurable Blow to their power at Sea and dasht all their Projects upon England into pieces losing them 25 of their biggest Ships some thousands of their best Sea-men and particularly their gawdy Sea Idol the Golden Sun that had been the work of twenty years and had cost more than the Revenues of some Kingdoms which was Sacrified to the Flames in a few Minutes as an earnest perhaps of the Future Fate of that presumptuous Phaaeton its Master who so injuriously to the Bright Sun in the Firmament and its most glorious maker has so long usurp'd the Title and Character of the Sun though like the youngster he imitates he has been Famous for nothing but setting the World in a consuming Blaze and laying stately Palaces and Cities into ruinous heaps And lastly as for the Plots against both Their Sacred Majesties Royal Persons which had they succeeded had proved more fatal to these Kingdoms nay to the Common Interest of Europe than all the rest Can we pretend to have detected them by any foresight of ours If any of us do it is more than I am confident Their Majesties themselves will who thankfully own that even when they thought of no such matter the Execrable Design and Diabolical Plot against His Majesties Royal Person was very Providentially Discovered by one of the Accomplices I pray Who detected it but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the All-seeing-Eye and Searcher of the Heart when 't was so very nigh its Execution That it strikes a Great Horrour in good and honest Men and makes my hands to shake and joynts to tremble but to think of it So that the French Nero had some reason to brag his Measures were so surely laid that none but Almighty God could defeat them For I conceive 't is plain and without Controversie That none but the Almighty Being could Mollifie one of those Obdurate Sons of Violence and bring him to so much Remorse or Compunction as generously to detect his Comrade in Iniquity Who to the shame and eternal Ignominy of that Grand Engine of Satan the French Tyrant sufficiently proved by his Chief Minister of State 's own Hand who set them on Work And had not this Discovery so closely laid as 't was been timely made Alas What would our Fleets or Armies have signified but to Contribute the more to our Swift Destruction by the Mutual Jealousies and Divisions attended with Confusion that would have ensued among them upon so very Dismal an Accident The same Providence is no less Remarkable in the Detection of the other Plot against our Vertuous and Pious Queen and the Government here Yet so very Gracious and Merciful have their Majesties been even to a kind of Crime That none but their Princely Hearts would Pardon c. That none but Granvale himself that Hell-hound who was to have Assassinated our Sovereign King William was Executed for all these Horrid Contrivances And therefore as we are in Duty bound to Pray So we may with Assurance hope from thence That those Darlings of Heaven who are so very averse to all Cruelty will never fall by it But that the Angel of the Lord will still Encamp round about their Sacred Persons to Protect them from all Dangers c. Thus all these Four Fine Projects to the Great Grief of that False Court were rendred Abortive by the Care of Heaven However the French King what by the help of his Golden Lewisses and Intestine Treachery And the unseasonableness of the Weather hindring our Great Prince from approaching to Attack him took Namur God not being willing perhaps to destroy this Grand Enemy of His Truth and Peace at once for Reasons known to himself but to let this Proud Pharaoh have some encouragement still to venture upon some other Enterprise till the Harvest of his Abominations is full ripe for the Sickle and to make his final Ruine and Destruction so much the more Remarkable as it is longer deferr'd However that very same year at the ensuing Battel of Steenkirk Our Heroical King shewed Monsieur Lewis's General Luxemburg That neither Hedges nor Ditches or any other Fences were always sufficient Obstacles against True Valour once Resolv'd and fully Provoked and made the French feel that day that He was Born on Purpose to be a Scourge to their Insolence and beat down their Pride Since with but a part of His Army he had put them so much in danger of a Total Defeat that had not some Accidents or Mistakes hindred the coming up of the rest of the Confederate Forces the Date of the Greatness of Lewis the XIVth had in all probability Expired with the end of that fierce and Bloody Battel Which by the loss of so many Officers Nobility and Gentry as were there slain made the Drapers of Paris regain no inconsiderable part of the loss of Trade they had suffered by the War and secretly Sing Jubilate to the Courageous King William of Great Britain their Benefactor whilst their Lordly Customers Sung a Melancholick De profundis Neither was Providence in this hot Action one of the Bloodiest and Fiercest since the War less mindful of His Majesties Royal Person so dear to a Multitude of Nations than it had been upon all other Occasions tho he was exposed to the continual Fire both of the Great and Small Shot of the Enemies and was as deeply as any Engaged in the Warmest part of the Medley from the Beginning to the end And now His Majesty with a Victorious Navy and more Powerful Army than ever yet already â—â—usht in French Blood and Fired with Indignation because they were last time so unluckily Robb'd of their Victory that was before them had not some of the Confederates made a False Step is Prepared once more to March against the same Enemies and to Attack them briskly in their most sensible part even in their own Countrey of whose Heroical proceedings if any Prognosticks may be made without offending the Most High God I think in Humane probability we may promise our selves all prosperous Success if the National Crying Sins do not hinder it since Providence has already been pleased to give us some Earnests and Pledges of the Continuance of her usual Favours that seem to me to Promise Greater Prosperity than ever to our Mighty Monarch's Vigorous Endeavours for the Common Good Since the Monsieurs have been terribly baffled at Rhineberg by the Excessive Rains that gave time for Succours to advance and the Troops of Hesse to come up And the rest of their Winter-Work in Flanders has been utterly spoiled by the sudden and Prodigious fall of the late Snows And their Detestable Plots the one upon Piedmont and the other upon the Spanish Fleet in the Post of Naples most strangely discover'd just in the Nick of Time The one by false steps of some of the Plotters and the other as we hear and are inform'd by Advice from the Pope Himself as much Frenchified as some report him to be but six bare hours before the French Squadron appeared there And their Mediterranean Fleet almost as roughly handled and as much Damag'd by another late Dreadful Tempest as 't was the last year by our English Navy being now driven back again in a very ill Plight to Thoulon Where it must Refit before it can Rejoyn their Fleet in the Ocean to the Great Retarding and I Hope and Pray to the Total Defeating of their Principal Designs at Sea this year And their Land-Forces are in such ill-plight by the Foresaid Disappointments that through God's Mercy to these Nations they never were so backward in the Field as now And therefore having lost the Sole Advantage almost they had always over us of taking Places as well as the Field before us We may justly hope that the French Pharaoh and his Armies are near an Overthrow and their Prosperities not far from a Period And that the Eternal God whose Eyes run too and fro throughout the whole Earth will still be pleased to shew Himself Strong in the Behalf of our Gracious King whose Heart no doubt is perfect towards Him and make all His Noble Enterprizes to Succeed till He hath once more added the Ancient Crown of France to the Three British Ones which He already has Given Him Or at least that God of His Great Goodness will lower it so that it may pay Due Homage to England again And be out of a Condition any more to Disturb the Tranquility of God's Church and the Civil State of Europe GOD Save KING WILLIAM And QUEEN MARY AMEN FINIS