as one would imagine was most deeply concerned in the Success of it should upon a trifle break with the French King and not only desert his Party but most cordially espouse the opposite side And that the King of France who never before struck at any thing when Interest was in the case upon the Worlds counting it base or wicked should refuse his Ghostly Father common Justice in Matters of so little moment as the Regale and Franchises It is plain that the Pope has Right on his side on both these and that the French King was not much concerned either in Profit or Honour to defend them The Regale being a new Usurpation and the Franchises an ancient Nusance Yet so obstinate have both sides proved in the Contest that we hope 't is become irreconcilable Now if this had not happened the counter-Counter-League of the Princes of Europe to the French Conspiracy could hardly have been entred into or continued 'T is this takes off the Odium from the Emperor â—nd King of Spain of assisting His present Majesty to redeem England and deprives the French King of the Advantages he proposed to himself by declaring this a War of Religion It being ridiculous to pretend a Holy War against the Father and Head of his Church This aversion of the Pope to the French designs is an Obstacle in the way that neither Lewis nor James can yet get over tho' the one begs hard and the other offers fair to remove it Having proffered the Pope all that he desired at first and to oblige the French Clergy to own his Infallibility into the bargain Thus God shews that the Hearts of Kings are in his Hands that he can make them stoop and do mean things when it will do them no good and obstinate when yielding would be serviceable to them It cannot but be esteemed a further Providence that two Popes should succeed one another of the same humour which is not common and should persevere in the same Enmity to France But 2 dly It must be owned as a signal piece of Providence in God to have raised up a man endued with the Courage Closeness and Activity of his present Majesty who durst attempt so strange and in human probability such an impractical thing as our Deliverance 'T is a rare thing in the World that one man should have the Dexterity to Engage and the Wisdom to Manage so many Different Interests into a Confederacy and argues a particular Providence 3. It was another piece of Divine Ordering that His Majesty should be so particularly interessed and engaged to undertake this Work before it was too late and our Destruction unavoidable If we had gone on a few years in the course in which we were in all probability our Condition would have become altogether desperate But the eagerness of the Conspirators to cut off Their present Majesties from all hopes of Succession to the Crown made them introduce a Prince of Wales two or three years sooner than they were ready for him They knew very well when he appeared the Persons concerned would be provoked to the height and that then if ever Their present Majesties must appear for their Right and the Kingdom for their Deliverance against which They were not as yet prepared For they had not yet sufficiently trained the Irish nor filled the Army in England with Papists for want of which they were not able to make any Resistance against the Prince of Orange having awakened him before they were prepared for him and necessitated him to make his Descent into England whilst the Arms were still for the most part in the Protestants Hands and the Papists in no capacity to awe them 4 thly The very pretended Birth of the Prince of Wales was so ill managed that it was not so much as a well-contrived Cheat. The very Papists complained of it and that publickly in print There was published here amongst many others under the late Government a virulent Paper against His present Majesty entituled England's Crysis or the World well amended To give it the greater Credit the Author pretends to be a Protestant and the Evidence of Truth forced from him this following passage One Reason of his the Prince of Orange's Expedition had at least a shew of Justice in the Quarrel I mean the business of the Prince of Wales which I cannot but confess some People managed as if they designed either that we should not believe at all or if we did our Belief should be as implicit as to Successions and Inheritances here as that of the Romanist is in his expectation of Inheriting the Kingdom of Heaven hereafter This it is true they imputed to the Treachery of Councellors and Managers But when their Zealots writ and King James permitted such Accounts of that matter to be published 't is a sign the business needed an Apology and that by God's just Judgment on them their usual Dexterity failed them in it 5 thly It was a Peculiar Providence in this Affair that King James did not adhere determinately to any Counsels or Counsellors but did things irresolutely and by halves I find Papists in their Letters to him complaining of this and cautioning him against it One entreats him for Gods sake not to listen to Trimming Counsellors whose Aversion to his Religion and cunning design of spinning out his Life with their Pian Piano put them upon urging to him that great Alterations are dangerous when carried otherwise than by slow and imperceptible degrees The same tells him That nothing causes Irresolution more than a Medley of Councellors of a Different Religion from their Prince Yet King James could never free himself from this Medley And that is the Reason that his Actions were never of a Piece and that he commonly spoyled his Business by doing too much and yet too little Thus he ought either not to have brought any Irish or French into his Army or made the whole entirely Papists he ought either to have accepted the French King's Assistance and Fleet without Reserve or else broken with him altogether and declared against him But by hanging between both he lost the Affections of his own Subjects which might have supported him and the Benefit of Forreign Assistance His doing and undoing things had the same effect In whâ—ch and many other particulars his not sticking entirely to one sort of Counsellors was to us a great Providence I must reckon it as a Sixth that the States of Holland should without scruple trust their All into His Majesty's Hand and be content to run his Fortune Which they plainly did in his Expedition We all know that the United Netherlands are a Free People most Jealous of their Liberty and who have done and suffered more to maintain it than perhaps any Nation in the World And as they are jealous of their Liberty so they are close and wary and not apt to venture too much at one stake Now that such a People should commit the Absolute
Collonel Talbot dated July 1671. Supposed to be drawn up by his Brother Peter Talbot then Titular Arch-bishop of Dublin and accidentally dropt about that Time Several Copies of which have for many years been in Protestants hands In this Paper are proposed the Modelling the Army the admitting Papists into Corporations the bringing them to serve in Civil and Military Employments and the raising a vast Army of them to be transported into England on occasion One Particular in this Paper is Remarkable 't is in these Words The Toleration of the Roman Catholick Religion in England being granted and the Insolency of the Hollanders taken down a Confederacy with France which can influence England as Scotland can also will together with God's Blessing make His Majesty's Monarchy absolute and real Where we see that the Design was to make the King absolute And the Means proposed Toleration of Popery a War with Holland and a League with France all which were at that time put in practice and have been prosecuted vigorously to this day But 2 dly We shall better understand the Depth of this Design against us if we reflect on the Power Policy and Number of the Persons engaged The Power and Money of France the Cunning and Craft of the Jesuits the numerous and bigotted Roman Clergy the Wealth and Arms of England were all to be employed to our Ruin The indigent and desperate Papists of Ireland were to be Armed and let loose upon us The common Enemy of the Christians the Turk and Ravaging Tartars were called into Christendom to promote this Design and their destructive Methods of managing Wars by universal Slaughters Havock and Burnings brought into Practice by the more Vnchristian French And to Crown their Design for the general Slavery and Desolation of Europe Protestants were cajolled bribed or compelled to fight against persecute and devour one another All which might be proved by undeniable Instances if this Sermon were designed for a History But 3 dly We may have a further Idea of the Depth of this Contrivance from which God has hitherto delivered us if we consider the Methods used for effecting it Had it been hatched in Hell it could not have been more a Mystery of Iniquity than it was more Black and Villainons Means could not have been applied to bring it to Perfection For 1 st We find Wicked and Treacherous Leagues and Conspiracies entred into in order to carry it on One of which is more especially Notorious and Remarkable for its Folly and Falshood A League so contrary to all Sence as well as Faith that the great Princes concerned in it are yet ashamed to own it a League so mischievous to Europe in general and so destructive to England in particular that it has brought them to the very Brink of Destruction And it is only God's Miraculous Providence that could or yet can preserve them a League that broke the Ballance of Europe so carefully preserved by our wise Fore-Fathers and by that means has advanced one by depressing and sinking all the rest This is that Fatal Confederacy with France proposed in the Fore-mentioned Paper These are the Engagements of Friendship and Alliance which Monsieur D' Avaux the French Ambassador tells the States of Holland in his Memorial of September the 9 th 1688. The King his Master had with the King of Great Britain This is the secret Treaty Abbot Primi tells us His Britannick Majesty signed in the Year 1670 whereby he should have secured to him an absolute Authority over his Parliament and the Re-establishment of the Roman Catholick Religion in his Three Kingdoms This is the Alliance with France which Moloony the Popish Bishop of Killaloo in a Letter of his to Bishop Tyrell of March 8 th 1689. the Original whereof was found amongst the Bishops Papers and is ready to be produced is so very angry that some Trimmers as he calleth them obliged King James to disown and this is the very Source and Fountain of all the present Calamities of Europe but more particularly of ours A second Method of carrying on of this Conspiracy to Ruin us was by corrupting Ministers by granting large Pensions and multiplying Bribes I wish this means of promoting this wicked Design had stopped at Ministers and that the Honour of Princes had set them above the Suspition of taking Bribes for we are willing to think that it should be below the Majesty of a Crowned Head to turn Pensioner or to sell his Crown or People for Lewis d' Ors. A Third Means for carrying on this Contrivance against us was Murthering and Poysoning An Art too much practised of late in some Courts And 't is observable that wherever the Life of a Protestant stands between a Papist and an Inheritance it is of no long continuance nor doth any Prince begin to appear vigorous or terrible to France but he is in danger to be taken off in the Prime of his Age and that not without Suspicion of Foul Play witness Prince Lewis of Brandenburgh and the Duke of Lorrain There is much Gold in France and there are every where wicked Men ready to be bribed to do any thing and 't is not supposed of some that they scruple much to make the Experiment what it is able to do But 4 thly Where they could not Murther Protestant Princes it is hard to say where they have not attempted it they endeavour to defeat them of their Succession We all are satisfied that this was the only Womb that conceived a Prince of Wales for us and gave him a Birth There was an Attempt of the same kind in the days of Queen Mary which did not succeed to their mind but Time and Experience make Men wiser Hence it is that the Contrivance that proved abortive then did with us come to Perfection but in such a manner that at the same rate if allowed we might be sure never to fail of an Heir to defeat a Protestant Successor A 5 th Means of promoting this Design was by calling the Turk into Europe and by supporting that common Enemy of Christianity to the Ruine of those that profess the Holy Name of Christ. And the French King that he might embroyl Christendom by Sea as well as by Land has made his Pride stoop to his Interest and condescended to buy a Peace with the Algerines Covenanting with them to assist them in their Pyracies and their Enslaving Christians A Man and his Designs are known by his Friends and Confederates Now the French King's Allies are the Banditi of Italy the Pyrates of Algiers the Turks and Tartars of Asia and the Tories of Ireland What a Mercy of God is it to give us a Deliverance from the Conspiracy and Designs of such Monsters The Depth of this Design appears from a sixth Method used to Effect it and that was to stir up and Animate one Party of Protestants to Bite and Devour another 'T is not bare difference of Opinion that makes Men of different Sects
so strange and unsociable to one another as we commonly observe them to be but their Strangeness and Enmity proceeds either from Interest or from some peculiar Principle that obliges them to Persecute and Destroy all that differ from them tho' in a Trifle Where neither of these happen or where Men of different Opinions are not Encouraged or suffered to hurt one another we see they live very easily and lovingly together Of which Holland is an undeniable Instance And likewise this City under our Late Common Sufferings in which the Generality of Protestants notwithstanding their Difference in Judgment lived with much Mutual Confidence and Friendship But it is a Principle of the Roman Church that every Prince within his own Dominions is obliged to Extirpate and Destroy all Hereticks And that under no less a Penalty than Deposition This is required of Princes by the Councils of Lateran and Constance and all Popish States and Princes have been so True to it in their Practice that I do not remember that there has been nor believe that there is at this present any Prince or State of that perswasion who doth Tolerate any Religion besides their own in their Country where they are able to suppress it with safety to themselves And they have generally been so eager upon it that many have attempted it to their own destruction No wonder therefore if their Persons and Religion be very Odious to Men of different perswasions since Every body Naturally hates one that is always ready to do him a Mischief But I wish that they had kept this Principle to themselves and not industriously sowed it amongst Protestants among whom they first by their Emissaries sow False Doctrines and raise Schisms and then set up others to Persecute and Destroy those whom they themselves have seduced And when they have prevailed with one party to Bate Worry and Exasperate another to the Height they then take them off for a time put the Rods and Axes into the Hands of the Oppressed and whilst they yet smart under their sufferings they stir them up and Encourage them to Revenge themselves on their Persecutors By which arts they make the breach irreconcilable and the difference tho inconsiderable in it self to become the ground of an Eternal Schism and Feud between the Parties whom they have thus Dashed against one another We all know that these were the Methods used to set us together by the Ears ever since the Reformation and in the Two last Reigns 't was particularly observable that Toleration and Persecution succeeded one another by turns and were timed just as they served most effectually to set People a madding against one another One day the Laws must all be put in execution and none must be a Favourite that would not be forward to execute them the next day the Persecution must not only be stopped but the instruments of it exposed to the revenge of those they had exasperated and forced to take their turn in suffering by the Actions and Law-Suits of such as they had wronged Thus the common Conspirators against our Peace Liberty and Religion blew the Coals and kindled a flame amongst us that was like to devour us all And 't is God's great Mercy that we have escaped it These are a few of those considerations which might be offered to shew the depth of this Design from which our good God has graciously redeemed us II. But I haste to the second Head of my Discourse whence we may have occasion to magnifie God's goodness in our Deliverance and that is from the extent of the design against us which was equal to its Depth it being of a vast and comprehensive Nature The true and great Design was to satisfie the Ambition of the King of France by advancing him to the Vniversal Monarchy of the West England might be cullied and wheedled with the imaginary pleasure of Mastering his Parliament of getting his will of his People and settling Popery Holland with the hopes of Gain and free Trade the Pope and Emperor with the specious pretence of re-establishing the Catholick Religion but the true and bottom design was to enslave Europe and to make the French King as great and as pernicious to the Western Princes and States as the Turk has been to the Eastern And they did not miss the matter who in the Emblem represented these two as sawing the Globe a sunder whilst the King of Englands part was to pour in Oyl to make the Work more easie for them A thing so destructive to the true Interest of his Crown that it is a Miracle how he could be prevailed on to accept of the Employment much more how he should be able to prevail with his Subjects to assist him in it Whatever he pretended of the Stubbornness or Vngovernableness of the People of these Nations it certainly argued a very Passive and Submissive Temper in them to give Money so liberally and to Fight so fiercely as they did to destroy themselves and their Fellow Protestants to make sport for their common Adversaries and serve the Interests of their most inveterate and most dangerous Enemy the French King Secondly The Design was Vniversal and aimed at the destruction and enslaving all the Kingdoms and States of Europe no Distinction of Protestant or Papist Enemy or Ally All were equally devoted to Destruction in it The Duke of Lorrain was actually turned out of his Dukedom the Prince of Orange His Present Majesty was deprived of his Principality of Orange the Empire was partly to be given up to the Turk and the remaining Princes were to apply themselves to France for Protection and to chuse his Son King of the Romans the Dukedom of Savoy was to be brought in under the Notion of Pupillage the Princes of Italy were frightned bought or wheedled out of their strong Holds and the Keys of their Country such were Cassal and Guastale put into French hands Scicily was perswaded to Rebel and sollicited to serve the Spaniard as they had done the French before in the famous Vespers Genoa was to be bombed England bought and Holland drowned Spain had a barren Queen designedly made so as many believe put upon him that his Crown might fall to France by Succession the Northern Kingdoms whose Cold and Distance secured them from immediate Attempts were yet taken off from assisting their Neighbours and brought into something worse than a Neutrality The great Contrivers and Managers of these were the French King the Great Turk and I need not name the Third in Triumvirate 'T is too much that we groan yet under the Mischievous effects of their Conspiracy which has been no less pernicious to all Europe than that of Anthony Lepidus and Augustus was to the Roman Common-Wealth There is no doubt but all these have been designed attempted and almost brought to Perfection within these Twenty Years by strength of this Confederacy· And there is not one Prince or State in all Europe that has not