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
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
Courageously forces His Passage over the Boyn and gives such a sudden Defeat to the Enemy though Posted with all manner of Advantages on the other side That while History shall at all Subsist will never be forgotten neither by Friends nor Foes I shall not here Describe that Famous Battel which is so well Related by other Pens whose Writings are now in every ones hand but shall onely Remark the Chain of Providences that seem'd still continuedly to run through that whole Transaction as well as the precedent ones It is enough to say that in it the King behaved himself as always on the like occasions both as a valiant Soldier and a wise General And though some out of pure Tenderness to his Royal Person have presum'd to accuse him of Rashness in exposing himself both to the Accident of the common Shot and venturing upon so desperate an attempt as the passing such a scurvy River as the Boyn at such vast disadvantages yet when it shall be well weighed that the French at that time had given a very smart blow to the Confederates at Flerus in the Netherlands that by Treachery or Cowardice or both among our selves they had in some sence beaten the English and Dutch Fleets so that they hover'd daily about our Coasts That Scotland was not quite appeased and England at that time big as was strongly presumed of a horrible Plot ready to break out upon the landing of any number of the Enemy who were now as 't were Masters of the Seas and were thought in a posture after Flerus Battel to have been able to spare Men enough for such an Exploit and when all Holland was in an Uproar at the supposed foul Play they believed they had received from the English in the late Sea Fight and the all of the whole Confederacy seem'd to depend of some fortunate stroke from him Instead of taxing our Valiant and Politick Prince with Rashness we ought rather to admire and adore God's goodness in inspiring him with so much Courage fit for such an extraordinary Occasion at that critical time And impute the strength and laudable warmth of his Faith in God and Zeal for his glory and servants good in his victorious Majesty in taking a Resolution to fight at all Hazards on that pressing occasion to be a call of Providence which for the common interest he most willingly obeyed relying confidently upon the Protection of the Almighty alone to go through with his undertaking Most certain it is that he thereby recover'd both us and the whole Confederacy from another very low ebb of Fortune the publick Enemy would else once more have reduced us to and put himself and them in a condition the next year to carry back Terrour to the Triumphing Foe But there was still as I find by very credible Evidence another main reason that urged a necessity for this Battel For that upon the News that Sir Cloudsly Shouel after he had landed his Majesty was order'd to sail immediately with his Squadron to join the Grand English Fleet and that all our Ships with Provisions and other necessaries for the War were left in Carrick-Fergus Bay with little or no Convoy The French were sending ten small Frigats and ten Privateers into the Chanel to burn them which if it had been done then all our Communication from England had been cut in a manner off and our Army forced to subsist upon the small pittance they could find in a wasted Countrey or else starve or at least we had been debarr'd of those necessaries without which we could not have made any Defence nor Offence in War And this design of the French being made known to His Majesty who wanted not good intelligence and that the French and Irish Officers as trusting in the Success of that Stratagem unanimously agreed to retreat towards Athlone and Limerick in hopes that they should have King William and his Army a much cheaper Penni-worth when they were half starv'd than at that time and though King James was against that motion yet for fear they should over-rule him and be gone and the French should in the mean while execute their Exploit His Heroical Majesty is supposed upon that as well as other Considerations to have hasten'd the Battel in which these following things seem further very much resembling peculiar effects of Providence the one was That in the Fight out of an imprudent complaisance to the Irish who would have the Post of Honour the Irish foot were set to guard the chief Passes whereas had the English Scotch or French been put in their places 't is generally thought the attempt would have been much more doubtful And the second was that the late King without staying to rallie his Forces who were many of them still entire made hast to Waterford where meeting with some of the French Ships design'd to burn our Provision and Ammunition Vessels he told them 't was too late for all was lost and so put them quite off the design whereas had he let them have proceeded they might still have done us that mischief That together with the news of the defeat at Flerus and the French being masters at Sea that presently after arriv'd among the Irish and French too after he and those Ships were gone might have struck fair to have put them in a Condition to recover their Losses and repay themselves doubly In fine the sudden and unexpected arrival of King James in France after the French King had just before raised his depress'd peoples Expectations so high as to make them believe King William was dead quite slurr'd the mighty Monsieur and made him appear very sneakingly and little to his own people and most ridiculous to Foreigners and every way much broke his measures After which last pusillanimous and shamefull fight the late King fell into as great Disreputation among the Irish as he had before gain'd upon his first Desertion among the English Army Sarsfield not long after speaking of the Action at the Boyn said thus much to the Honour of King William and contempt of King James That if we would change Kings they would fight it over again and beat us Again at the first seige of Limerick as his gracious Majesty was riding softly towards Cromwel's Fort had not his usual good Angel by God's Commandment preserv'd him he had been like to have been taken off by another fatal stroke The aforesaid sudden arrival of the late King James in France and the ill Character he gave of the posture of affairs there and of the Irish as Men that would not fight was the cause that the French King even after King William had raised his Siege before Limerick and was departed for England sent positive Orders to Count Lauzun with all his French to quit Ireland and return home whilst there appeared fresh hopes of recovering in part their former loss and of protracting the War at least defensively in Connaught though afterwards upon better Information
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
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
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