CONSIDERATIONS UPON the Present State of the UNITED NETHERLANDS Composed by a Lover of his Countrey For the encouragement of his Countreymen in this troublesom time Exactly translated out of Nether-dutch into English By a most cordiall Lover of both the Nations Printed in the Year 1672. CONSIDERATIONS UPON the present State of the UNITED NETHERLANDS WHosoever will take a narrow inspection into the beginnings of the State of the Vnited Netherlands and attentively observe the Histories thereof considering by what means the Structure of the said State is risen from the lowness of its original to it's present height must needs acknowledge that the Divine Providence which is not always evident before the Worlds eyes though it move all things by secret wheels and engins hath so clearly sparkled forth in the building up and heightening of this State that they may upon good grounds averr that God Almighty hath been apparently and manifestly the Builder of this praise-worthy Commonvvealth It is novv just an * 100. years Age ago since that vvhen the Land through the unhappy Government of that time vvas fallen into a lamentable confusion William Earle Vander Mark Lord of Lume Admiral of the Fleet of the Prince of Orange being through a hard and sharp order of the Queen of England refusing to permit his abode or the supply of his Mariners vvith necessaries in her Lands enforced to leav England vvas beyond his design through a contrary vvind but indeed a vvind of Gods direction brought before the Bril vvhich he took in vvithout much trouble not vvith intention to hold the place but onely to plunder it and leav it again Nevertheless being informed of the convenient situation and importance of that City He brought it into a posture of defence and kept it for his Principals and Commanders And on this wise is the first Stone of this excellent Building laid or rather cast by accident in regard of the outward instruments but in truth through the direction of the highest Master-builder in whose Almighty hands men are often as blind work-tools of his wonderfull determinations It is not my intention here to make a relation of the progress of our affairs and in what manner our Ancestours have wrestled through the mischiefs and misfortunes and mounted up to the height of the prosperity which we at present through the goodness of God enjoy but my design is onely in this short discourse to persuade my worthy Countrey men to trust that that God who hath raised us up from a low condition to such a State as hath now for a great while procured through its welfare so much envy as it did before compassion through it's misery will graciously preserve the work of his Almighty hand whereupon after the example of our Ancestors we do in this season jointly propose two things which are never to be separated That is a perfect resignment and yielding ourselvs up to the Divine providence and an undaunted mind valiant couragious resolution for the performance of so much in this troublesom time for our preservation as our Ancestours have don for their first deliverance And I desire my Countreymen that in comparing and likening our present incumbrances with the perplexitie of our Ancestours and the dangers which have been in our days they would look back into the Histories from the first times of our Ancestours and into their own knowledge of things since that time which to this day we have retained in our memory In the Histories they shall find that the affairs of our Ancestours were reduced in their first rise to such inconvenience that the consideration thereof prevailed upon the greatest Man of that time who had with an indissoluble bond linked in his own welfare with the lot of these Lands to give that hopeless counsel of breaking open the Banks and Damms to cause the Land to sink into an irrecoverable lake and casting themselvs on the meer mercy of God with the small remainder of a ruined Fortune to seek out some other Lands beyond Sea where they might either live more happyly or die less miserably We shall pass by how often that the Commonwealth after it was by the hand of God freed out of that desperate estate hath shak'd and trembled both through fear of an enemy from Without and of confusion from within The Histories will tell us that not alone the State of the Vnited Provinces but all the Netherlands who where engaged to each other though not in so strict a bond as those called The Vnited vvere sufficiently reduced to the utmost extremity by the unfaithfulness of the Duke of Anjou Brother of the King of France and that afterwards The Vnited Provinces were got into a heavy confusion and in a posture wholly deprived of defence through the artifices and ambitious designs of the Earl of Leicester sent hither for our defence by the Queen of England We shall also in silence pass over the time in which many of ourselvs have liv'd when the whole Land was through a sudden surprize upon the Veluwe and the taking in of Amersfoort so alarmed as Rome was when they saw Hannibal before the Gates And for so much as is within our own memorie we have yet a fresh remembrance of the Warr with the Protector Cromwel wherein we were by a certain fatality and an interest without our interest entangled in a time when the Land through want of ships and Canon was brought into a perplexity of which we cannot think without alteration of mind We are now through Gods grace wrestled through those difficulties and innumerable more and had wished by a long-during Peace which is the true and harmless Interest of our peace-loving Commonwealth to tast the fruits of our sorrowfull labour but it hath otherwise pleased God who by his righteous ever to be adored Judgements neerly approaching us makes us to see that we now stand need of his protection so much as ever seeing we find ourselvs at present put upon the necessity of resisting the utmost violence of the greatest power of Europe and that with a force which indeed is contemptible in comparison of that of our enemies by which ne'retheless we despair not of being able to subsist for that we trust that God will look upon the justness of our innocent cause with the eyes of his Righteousness and on our sins and weaknesses with the eyes of his Compassion And in truth if ever the sword were drawn for the necessary preservation and blameless defence of our worthy Countrey it is so at this time wherein the mighty Potentates of the World seem to have concluded the ruin of our Vnited Netherland in the councel of the powers of darknesse in which they have engaged with them all those who regard Christian bloud no more than the bloud of Sheep and Goats and who delight their eyes with the laying wast of Lands and Cities as they use to do at a Stage-play where themselvs are at once both Actours
and beholders And for as much as the fundamental knowledge of the righteousness of our cause as wel as the dreadfull intention of our Enemies may so much the more forcibly animate the inhabitants of our Countrey as the inward perswasion and the conviction of a well-informed mind yields more courage than the loossness of an ignorant or doubting Soul it will not be unusefull to the end that those of our Countreymen who live without encumbering themselvs with the publick affairs and therefore 't is likely live not the unhappilyer may have a little knowledge of what for some former years hithero hath passed between these States and other States to give them information of the justice of our dâ—fensive Arms. The King of France begun before May in the Year 1667. while we were yet engaged in the Warr with England strongly to drive on his pretences to a considerable part of the Spanish Netherlands devolved as he maintained upon his Wife the Queen of France being a Daughter and the onely surviving Child by the first Marriage of Philip the fourth with Queen Isabella causing a certain Treatise by his command compiled in the French and Latin Tongues for the justification of the said pretended right of devolution to be given over by the Lord Ambassadourd ' Estrades to the States Generall as also by his Ministers to many other Courts in Europe against which by printed Treatises also on the behalf of the King of Spain was shown before all the World that the right of devolution had no place in reference to Soveraignties Furthermore that when the Queen enter'd upon her marriage with the King of France she having in the most effectuall terms and with the seals of most solemn oaths for her and her Heyrs renounced all that whatever she at any time could or might pretend by vertue of inheritance of succession upon any State or Lands from the King of Spain her Lord and Father which renunciation was confirmed by the King of France himself by an oath upon the Cross and Holy Gospel with that fidelity and righteousness which ought in an especiall manner splendidly to appear in illustrious persons it could not be conjectured that such pretences against Word and Oath should be brought forth and for want of true reasons as they said upheld by the sword Mean while the King of France most forcibly driving on his written and printed Deductions with the strength of his Weapons which from elder times have been the most efficacious arguments of Princes and Monarchs falls with a considerable Army into the Spanish Netherlands and daunting the courage of the people with the terrour of his name and might in a short time carries the most important Cities of Flanders and that as he would make the Queen of Spain beleev without breaking the Pirenean peace The States of the Vnited Netherlands whose great interest is the tranquillitie and Peace of Christendom happy Interest of a Christian State not being willing to determin whether the foresaid pretences were grounded on right and reason or that they must be lookt upon as the specious pretexts of a Conquerour have from the inclination of a peace-loving mind and the apprehension of a dangerous neighbourhood used all possible endeavours to unite the high contending parties by way of accord and transferring their caâ—es and by that means to extinguish the flame of Warr which they feared would consume the Lands and Cities which laid neer them and singe those that were at a distance and laid further off And in this affair have the States Generall been so farr successefull that the King of France apprehending that through a jealousy grounded in the neighbouring Princes and Potentates they might cross and haply frustrate his designs presented that He should in reference to his pretences hold himself contented with the Cities and places which He had now during the Campaign or expedition of his army in the Year 1667. gained and possessed from the King of Spain or in exchange of them at the choice of Spain with the Dukedom of Luxemburgh or in place of that with the French Compte viz Burgundy together with Kamerick Kambresis Doway Aire St. Omer Bergen St. Winox Furne and Linck with their dependencies Nevertheless for as much as the Kingdoms and States herein interessed could not in regard of the altering and changeable will which in Princes and Potentates especially is moved upon the least appearance of Success be assured whether the King of France would continue in making the foresaid proffers or that Spain would incline by the accepting of the same and so by the chusing of one or both the alternative members included in the foresaid presentation to make peace the Kings of Great Britain and of Sweden and the States Generall made a contract together which from the number of the parties originally contracting is commonly called the triple league or alliance whereby they bound each other to work out the peace between France and Spain upon the forementioned presentation and by the said peace to ensure the rest and tranquillity of Christendom promising to each other for the faster establishment of the foresaid league That between themselvs there should always be and abide a syncere peace and correspondence for the promoting with all their heart and in all faithfullness the profit utility and dignity of each other and to do their best to keep of all that might be opposite against the same and in case it should come to passe that this their friendly undertaking should be in a contrary sense and ill interpreted and it should fall out that an untimely revenge or warr by one of the contesting parties or any one of their side should be acted upon any one of these confoederates that in such case they should faithfully assist one another This is the substance of the so called Triple League Et hinc illae lachrymae an alliance which France hath lookd upon as a bridle to the greatness of his desires and which the unbyassed part of Christendom beheld as the onelyest preserver of the Peace and rest of Europe an alliance whereby we in pursuit of our intention have stirred up the love of all peaceable-minded people and beyond our intention the undeserved choler of a mighty Prince who at present eyes us his old allies and confoederates as the chiefest objects of and persons designed to receiv his hatred and disdain but an alliance whereby we shall procure the alliance of the Prince of Peace who hath promised to the peacemakers the peaceble possession of what he hath affoarded them here on earth through which alliance being mightily supported we may esteem as a small matter the loss of the Alliance of the King of Great Britain who was the principal counsellour and directer of the foresaid Triple Alliance who in stead of affoarding us the assistance promised in the said league for the which onely we are threatned falls himself upon us that through the advanceing of a Warr he may
not onely free himself from performing to us the limited succour which by the force of the defensive Alliance and the unlimited assistance which in pursuance of the aforesaid Triple league he is obliged to do but moreover with the help of a Prince mightyer than himself may overpower and tread us under foot We shall not measure out the injustice of these dealings according to their merits not onely for that we desire to contain our selvs within the bounds of moderation and modestie but also because we deem that evill-speaking is a wrong way of requiting evill-doing and a defence which will not secure us from the sword of our enemy This how ever the truth enforceth us to say that there can no example of a breach of trust be brought out of any histories that can parallel the example of the forementioned illustrious King in this case We have with him and by his persuasion and the King of Sweden made the abovesaid Triple Alliance whereby we have promised each other to help to bear off all the mischiefs which thereupon might fall upon us and making a difficulty of engageing ourselvs to Sweden in regard of the subsidies without an assured indemnitie on the side of Spain we yet upon the instances of the King of Great Brittain stepping over all scruples concluded the Triple league Now the King of England knows in his heart though he dissembleth and clokes that knowledge by his words that we are threatned for the Tâ—iple Alliance with a danger which he ought to help to defend us from And all the world knows that all that France pretends besides the foresaid league is but a disguise of the right cause of his anger which he hath by his Ministers clearly discover'd to all Courts No man that hath with due observation read the Contract between France and this State can be ignorant of this that we might as freely forbid the bringing in of French Wine and Brandewine as the King of France might surcharge and overburden our wares as the prohibitions of those are extended and stretched out and so indeed the said prohibitions are the same obliging our inhabitants as wel as the French so that the inaequality alone being forbidden by the foresaid contract the contractors in regard of the foresaid extension have preserved their naturall freedom And considering this every one can easyly apprehend that as the impositions and prohibitions of the foresaid extended things were not done against the forementioned contract so there do really cross it not onely the gratifications done by the King of France to the Northern Companie whereby with a subtilty and artifice the foresaid Contract in respect of the aequall burthening is eluded but also and especially the prohiâ—â—tion ordered by the King in reference to our inhabitants against the bringing in and carrying out of any wares in and out of his Kingdom And indeed the threatnings that France made against us before the conclusion of the foresaid Triple Alliance With no other design than to smother it in the birth suffer us not to be ignorant of the true subject of the indignation of the King of France And if it were so that the King of England should be unacquainted Which yet he is not with the right cause of the displeasure of the King of France he nevertheless knows that by vertue of the defensive Treaty made with this State in the Year 1668. he is bound when the States Generall shall be attacqued by any Prince or State upon whatsoever pretence it may be to furnish them with forty Ships of Warr six thousand footmen and four hundred horsmen upon promise of refusing to accept any thing of charges for performing the said assistance three years after the ending of the Warr. The King of England now well knowing that he should in case of an hostile onset be summoned by the States General to perform the said Treaty and accordingly the promised relief hath in a wonderfull manner undertaken to free himself from the band of the foresaid Alliance so ordering the matter that when France should fall upon us He should not stand in a state of confoederation and alliance with us which is by the foresaid Treaty praesupposed but in a state of Warr which for that very reason he hath advanced and hastened imagining with himself that he thereby had found out two great things to wit to dissolv the Sinews of the foresaid obligation and withall by conjunction with the redoubted and terrible might of France utterly to rout us out Honest and honourable designs indeed of a Christian Prince of a defender of the Faith of a man who having been disciplined by the correcting hand of God Almighty might have been taught not to wrong a man as himself nor to trouble the world to break his Alliance before the time of performing it be come and of a confoederate to make himself an enemy that he might not be bound as a friend to take hold of an occasion to ruin his former allies upon the rubbish-heap of their ruin to sett up the structure of an unbounded Dominion to offer up the bloud of his subjects upon ambitious designs and to stirr up tumults in the world he that can reconcile all this with the duty of a Christian and Evangelicall Prince must have another Gospel than that of meekness and Peace And that our inhabitants and the unbyassed World may clearly see that the Warr which the King of Great Britain at present maketh upon us ariseth from no other cause but the above-mentioned inclination it may be serviceable that we discover the mind of the King out of his own Manifesto which consists of nothing else but an unto ward dissembling of a wicked design We shall for some reasons dispense with our thoughts about the introduction to the said manifesto not spending many words upon that which contains nothing but the Kings boasting of his peace-loving mind and scrupulous conscience of which because he calls the world to witness we shall leav the judgement thereof to the impartiall world beleeving that there shall not be one found among that innumerable number of unbyassed witnesses who having knowledge of the affairs of the world shall not acknowledge that the King of England is one of those peaceable men who calls that Peace when they lay all wast and so desire the World that they may have no body to contend with but to live in outward Peace without any enemy if they could but otherwise live in Peace who have their own conscience for their Enemy so that the little World that is themselvs becomes too straight for them Neither shall we at this time rip up what passed before the Warr of the Year 1665 and who gave the occasion of and begun the same for that it is sufficiently known to all the World that the subject of that Warr was on the King of Englands side as unrighteous as it 's beginning was in a way of piracy without any other denunciation
of it than what was don by the Canon We shall also not speak of the successes of that Warr over which the King of England so highly vaunts on his side but concerning that we shall onely say that we should have matter enough to give thanks to God Almighty for if the conclusion of the present Warr should not be unhappyer for us then was the end of that in the time aforesaid Proceeding then to the examination of the substance of the Declaration itself if there can be any substance in sensible untruths evil-minded surmisings and gross impertinencies we shall briefly run over all the points over which the King of Great Britain shows or at least feigns his discontents and for the satisfaction not onely of our inhabitants and all unbyassed persons but of those of his own nation also we shall demonstrate that the foresaid pretended reasons have not been the moving cause of this Warr but onely pretexts and ill cemented covers of an intention which is older than the invention of the pretended motives which are no causes but contraryly are effects and products of the design of making warr upon us First the King complains to wit feignedly as we have formerly said that the States Generall by force of one of the Articles of the Breda's treaty as he holds it forth being obliged to send Commissioners to London there to regulate the trading in East-India should so farr have failed therein that they could not by a three years urgency of his Ambassadour be prevailed upon to acquit themselves of their word and promise given on that behalf and further to give the King satisfaction for the injurie which those of his nation in East-India should have suffered from ours Whereunto we shall not otherwise answer than shortly thus That we most exceedingly wonder that the pennner of the manifesto who doubtless is no small perswader of the Warr should set forth a Declaration which must come under the eyes of all the World having not once beforehand taken the pains to look over the treaty in which there is not found one article that obligeth the States General to send Commissioners to London for the end aforesaid but an article indeed there is viz the third of the appendix of the said treaty mentioning the commerce and navigation whereby it is set down that the King of England and the States General should with all speed by Commissioners on both sides form an expedient for regulating the navigation and Commerce and that mean while and by provision they should be ruled by that which was agreed on by the King of France and the States General on that behalf the Maritin treaty between the King of England and this State being principally since that concluded in the Year 1669. Hence now can the World see haw farr the desire of Warr an affection of all other the most irregular the most inhuman the most accursed darkeneth and destroyeth the understanding but praised be God Almighty who through his All-wise direction confoundeth and ashameth the wickedness and clearly discovers that the Authors of this Warr are inspired and blown up by the Spirit of him who is a Liar and a Murtherer of mankind from the beginning That which is said of the wrong that the English nation should have suffered by ours in the East-Indies is of the same nature that is untrue and Calumnious and should there also be made a specifical and particular expression of the said unjust things as they call them 't would make the dictatour of the manifesto ashamed who makes his complaint in General terms to deceiv the World which the English Courtiers I speak of those who are councellours of the Warr judge to be as sottish as themselvs are both sottish and wicked Touching the work of Syrinam Which is the second pretended grievance in the foresaid declaration 't is in the first place very remarkable on that behalf that the said work concerns the King wholly not at all but is onely taken up by him to stretch out a matter of quarrell which that the Reader may so much the aptlier apprehend be pleased this to know that the foresaid Colonie of Syrinam having been in March in the Year 1667. overmasterd by one Abraham Crijnsen of Zeeland with the Weapons of the State and in this manner by a certain capitulation brought under the subjection of the same was by the English in the month of May next following retaken but that it was by vertue of the 6th article of the treaty of Breda requiring that all Lands Cities strong holds and Colonies taken by one of the contesting parties from another during the Warr and retaken after the 10 20 of May 1667. should be restored to the first taker again put into the power of the State After the said restitution complaint was made by the King of England that the effect of the capitulation made with the forenamed Crijnsen was not made good to the inhabitants of Syrinam for that the in-dwellers of the said Colonie as they gave it out were denyed permission to depart with their persons and transportable effects otherwhere Now what right was the King of England ever born to to capacitate him with any reason to further the accomplishment of the capitulation made with the inhabitants of the said Colonie who by the right of the Warr are become subjects of the State What doth the foresaid Capitulation concern the King of England more than the King of Spain Do the inhabitants of Syrinam even after the conquest of the said place by vertue of the capitulation continue subjects of the King of England Hath any man ever heard that by a capitulation the jus imperii and the old right of the first Lord is continued over those who are conquered by Weapons onely because they capitulate and make conditions upon their giving over it is certainly notorious and beyond all controversie that conquering is a lawfull title which altereth the places and goods from the owner and the subjects from the Soveraign which right is especially established by the 3d. article of the Breda's Treaty whereby it is agreed that each party should with an absolute right of lordship propriety and possession continue to hold all the Lands Islands Cities Colonies and other places by them taken in and mastered during the Warr. 'T is indeed true that through the capitulation the right of the absolute disposition of the conquerour is circumscribed but no â—ound reason can be brought that the jurisdiction of the former â—ord should thereby be preserved over the capitulating subjects Is â—t ever com'd into the thoughts of the King of Spain that the inhabitants of Mastricht the Bosch and Breda who with their Cities by the right of Arms were renderd upon capitulation to the States General should by that capitulation continue to be his subjects Or pretends the King of England the right aforesaid in reference to those of English Colonies because of the nation and their birth as
which draws nigh to you We wage no Warr with the Nation but with your King and his Courtiers who have valued your bloud at six Millions a sorry price of the bloud for which our and your Saviour hath shed his dearest Bloud We sigh over our common miserys and from henceforward dread when we consider what may be the success of an enterprise which goes further than to the destruction of our temporall welfare Your King a defender of the Christian Faith hath made peace with the Turk that he may make warr upon Christians and to have his hands free against those who hold the Prince of Peace for their Saviour and Messias Pour out your Prayers to God that his Goodness would either change the Heart of your King or disappoint his undertaking and let us jointly pray for the prosperity of our common cause which we judge to be the cause of God We doubt not but God will graciously hear our Prayers and by his Divine power show that he is our common Father unto which hope we are born up by the fore-tokens of his Divine goodness who hath not been pleased that the Ships which were commanded home from the coasts of Barbary after a scandalous Peace with the unchristian for the plaguing of the Christians should have their share in the last robberie of our Merchant-men who could not imagine that they should meet the rovers of Tunis and Algiers in the Channel And although the World might not be apt to be moved as indeed the greatest part is not either through a fearfull affrightedness or through a deep sleep yet must not we for all that be insensible in this troublesom time We dwell in a Land a little but a blessed part of the World a Land full of plenty overpoured with the fulâ—ness of God Love a true Canaan and a Land of Promise And in this so worthy a Countrey we enjoy above the abundance for our body so much for our Soul the immortall part as we could desire of God to wit the food of his word whereby we refed to a never-failing life of which we may here in our Countrey enjoy the fore-tast with so much ground of contentment as a Man can desire who seeks not a Heaven here upon the earth The freedom that unvaluable good the reward of the labour of an Age the recompence of much Bloud-shed do we enjoy under our free government an Enemy of tyranny and tyrants in such perfect quietness and satisfaction of our Soul that we cannot without the movings of our affections think upon the greatness of our happiness Happy people if we rightly understand our welfare and seriously bethink how unhappy we should be if we were bereaved of all these advantages and benefits Our Countrey hath hitherto been a refuge and a Harbour for all banished and miserable ones and as God hath richly poured out the treasures of his goodness upon our inhabitants so have they of their abundance bountifully dealt out to those whose part and lot was unfortunate in the World but worthy Fellow-Citizens where would be our Harbour if we were banished Where should be our abode if we must forgoe our Countrey Where should we find our subsistence the freedom of our mind Dear God how unhappy should we be if we were unhappy The serious meditating on all this must double our zeal for the preservation of our welfare what say I double yea make it so great as our misery would be great by the overturning of our happy state Two things must help us Confidence and trusting upon God and Vigilance Vigilate Deo confidentes Watch trusting in God The confidence on God must be upheld by the amendment of our lives for that God hears not sinners And truly we must confesse that we have deserved the wrath of God because we have neglected his grace a mercy which he hath not shown in so high a measure of love to any nation that ever the Sun shone on We must all with sighs acknowledge that the luxury the pomp the grandour of the World and all what ever the abundance and plenty brings sliding in with it when the fear of God and the apprehension of the slipperyness of wordly prosperity bridle not the souls have provoked the indignation of God and the jealousie of our Neighbours In respect of our manners we are gone at least ten Ages from the first time of our ancestours if we go on accordingly then are we neer the end Let us turn betimes and reduce all again to our first beginnings to wit to the frugalitie and lowliness of our fore-fathers vertues which are the more acceptable to God when they proceed from the motions of a Christian Soul in the midst of abundance and plenty â—et not the wind of prosperity make our minds swell but let us always think of the uncertainty of outward happiness lighter and unsteadyer than the wind and with such thoughts arm our Souls against the overturning of the affairs of the World Let us further to our Confidence joyn Watchfullness and sith God works not here on Earth without means use the means which his goodness hath given for our defence with a certain expectation that he will help us if we trust in him and set all a work which may in reason be expected of those who have so much to lose Our money and goods which we ow to the Blessing of God and the Welfare of our Countrey must we plentifully bestow to the preservation of the same and for the present root out of our hearts the niggardlyness which is the weakness of our nation and a fault in our temperament let 's come forth to help the present necessity of our Land with these thoughts that what we give thereto is spent for securing of the rest which can in no part of the World be so secured as in this our Land where every one hath the peaceable and assured possession of his honest part The Rulers must go before the subjects in this case and give double out of a double obligation The Union must further bind our Souls to a joint-defence of our honest cause faction which unluckyly parts and divides affections must be banished Concordiâ res parvae crescunt Where Concord is things grow from small beginnings Union makes strength The subject of the division is out of our Land and at present we fee as the Head of our Army a descendant from that great William that great instrument of our precious liberty We expect from him all that we can in reason from one of the posterity of such an illustrious Man and we trust that he shall not onely fulfill our expectation but even exceed it and make account of no kinship with the Kings of France and England to the prejudice of the State the first proofs of his courage will double the affection towards his person and the evidence of his upright inclination for our State shall give to them who have otherwise judged and spoken a generous and honourable occasion of self-contradiction Here is matter of glory for him and an assured means for eternizing his name and for being known to posteâ—ity by the glorious Title of Preserver of our Liberty as his Great-Grand-Father deserv'd to have the name of the Founder of our welfare Against the Manifesto or the Declaration of the King of France which is com'd to my hand since these considerations were fully composed I shall say nothing else but that it is from thence visible that the Warr of the fore-mentioned Illustrious King proceeds not from any thing else save a formed design for to stretch out the bounds of his command so farr as is his ambition extended but that we hope that God Almighty by the same arm by which he hath hitherto preserved us will frustrate the undertaking of the King THE END