THE MEANS To Free EUROPE From the French Usurpation AND The ADVANTAGES which the UNION of the CHRISTIAN PRINCES has produced to Preserve it from the Power of an Antichristian Prince LONDON Printed for R. Bently in Russel-street in Common-Garden 1689. THE MEANS To Free EUROPE From the French Usurpation THE Civil Wars in a State have always been considered as the greatest and most dangerous evils they are like those internal Diseases of Man which for the most part after a languishing Life are terminated by Death If we pass from Particulars to the generality of Europe is very likely that that part of the World had not found it self ready to perish under the cruel Power of the Capital Enemy of Christendom as it was very near during the last Siege of Vienna if all the Princes of Christendom had been in good Intelligence and in a sincere Vnion and had uananimously endeavour'd to Repulse their Common Enemy who then durst not to have advanc'd so far in Europe if he had been drawn in only through the misunderstanding of the Christian Princes and not Invited into it and push'd on by a most Christian Prince the Eldest Son of the Church who to facilitate hiâ— Passage has made him a way through Rebellion in Hungary which he has fomented to thaâ— very end and maintain'd by mony and Officers that he has sent thither in the Design after the takinâ— of that City the Imperial Seat to share for a Beginning with the Grand Seignior his Ally all Germany which the Sultan had agreed to as freely as Lewis the XIV did seek after it with a design however to deceive one another and in the end prevail over his Companion and the French King to do afterwards that which the Emperor does at this time to drive the Turks back to Adrianople But before we pass to the Deliverance of our Europe let us mention the Dangers it has been in these late years and let us lay down for a sure Foundation and an indisputable Truth that the Christians Disunion has given opportunity to the Infidels to render Tributary Valachia Transilvania Moldavia and divers other Territories and in the last place to Invade Hungaria which has oblig'd a great number of poor miserable Christians not only to fall into slavery but to make Shipwrack in the Christian Religion and I dare assert that had it not been for the pressing Offers of France by the means of Teckeley the Sultan had never broke the Truce nor durst to have come to set up the Standard of the Imposter Mahomet before the Capital City of Germany as he did in the Year 1683. while his Ally was in Alsatia with an Army of 40000 Men ready to Invade the Empire which the Grand Seignior for his part had favour'd either to make himself Master of the whole or to render Tributary that which he could not have kept and by that means mount step by step to the Monarchy of Europe little troubling himself about the Evils which Christendom had suffer'd neither by the barbarousness of his Army or of those of the Turks so that Lewis the Great had but gratified his Ambition and his Passion of Ruling solely Thus on all sides Europe did see it self on the Edge of the Precipices and in an Abiss of Evils whence it could not be got out of again but by a stroke from Heaven not knowing which Condition to chuse the Ambition of the one or the Interest of the other the French Tiranny or the Mahometan slavery finding them hoth equally Unjust Barbarous and Inhumane and very opposite to Christianity There are but few Persons in Europe never so little Rational but have been inform'd of all the Advances of France of Lewis the XIV's Proceeding of his Ambition and of his Passion to Rule over his Equals and to render the Kings and Princes of the Earth his Tributaries and to speak it in plainer Terms to become the sole Monarch of the World As there is but one Son boasting already of giving Peace to whom he pleas'd and to Exterminate or Bomb all that should oppose themselves to his good Will and Pleasure and like to another Jupiter cast his Thunder-Bolts on all that durst raise themselves against him designing like God to Rule over Consciences as well as over the Inheritances But the Ambitious Man who raises himself on high and dangerous places not considering much how to get down again never turns his Eyes on the side of the Precipice he runs to his desire as if he were in good Intelligence with Fortune and as if the World was conducted by Fate in lieu of Divine Providence Mean time we see that God confounds his Designs and stops him frequently in the midst of his Career forcing him with shame to quit a way in which he thought to have continu'd with Glory Lewis the XIV had resolv'd within himself to mount on the Imperial Throne in the strange imagination he had that having attain'd thither not only the Empire but all the rest of Europe would bow under his Orders and at the approach of his Armies in effect he spar'd nothing to compass it with a Resolution to Sacrifice all to his Passion and to destroy all that should oppose it self to his Grandeur To this purpose he began to oppress the one to deceive the other and to entertain a third by fair and deceitful Promises sparing neither specious Titles nor Pensions to those which he thought might be useful to him by those means giving to some an Apple to play with while he made himself Master over the others and in a manner separated Europe from it self and every Prince from his Ally as well as from his true and real Interests which has ever been by all means to maintain an Equality amongst the Princes of Europe that their Forces being equally distributed Christendom might be preserv'd in good Peace and every State in its own Rights and Liberties Seeing that from the abasing of the one follows the elevation of the other as we have seen since when Charles the First weaken'd his Power by the division of his Kingdoms and after that his Son Philip permitting part of those Provinces which had been left to his share to be taken from him so was his Fall the Rise of the French Kings who have insensibly got the start of their Equals and have got step by step up to the Supreme Degree which we have seen in this last Reign of Lewis the XIV who during a long time has not ceas'd from gaining Victory on Victory taking of Town upon Town and as a boundless Torrent carry all before him which oppos'd his Course his Violence not being to be stopp'd but by a Stroke from Heaven and by a Voice issuing from the Brittish Throne crying out Nec plus ultra Lewis the XIV who had already in his hopes devour'd a good part of Europe which lay groaning and as it were overcome by the evils of a continual War has been
as it is not to be doubted extremly surpriz'd to see himself stopp'd on the sudden by that surprizing Change which has so lately happen'd in England and who can doubt but that this change of Soveraigns has been a Mortal Blow to him seeing that by that means he not only sees his Great and Ambitious Designs overturn'd and in lieu of a near Ally and intimate Friend he finds on the Throne none but an unreconcilable Enemy burning with Zeal for the Preservation of Europe and with a desire of Punishing the Usurper and that which is yet more sensible to France is that this New Monarch will not fail of being Seconded by all the Christian Princes We have seen England in changing of Master to make the face of the Affairs of Europe change also especially in the Low-Countries the decree of their Ruine having been determined between the Two Kings Lewis the XIV and James the II. after that France had long consider'd the United Provinces as the only Obstacle that could prevent it from Conquering the rest of Europe well knowing that those States would at all times Oppose themselves to the Ruine of their Neighbours push'd on by a Motive of Generosity of Equity and of Interest also Therefore the King of France could not perceive which way he should go about to overcome his Opponents but in mining and in destroying totally those Provinces thereby shutting them out of the power of hindring him or of opposing his Design and that he could not do without England's consent Wherefore after the death of Charles the Second he so dextrously did embark King James in his Design and set him at variance with his Parliament through Religious Motives by ridiculous demands of the abolishing of the Test and Penal Laws which had been established for the support of the Kingdom and the preservation of the Establish'd Religion France was assur'd that by that means it should set the King and Parliament out of power of reuniting again and that by those means Lewis the XIV should oblige that Prince whom he led by the Nose to apply himself to him for Mony which he certainly knew the Parliament would refuse him that in case they should grant it to him it should be on such conditions which the King would not accept And thus that ill advis'd Prince would not fail to turn himself towards France as he has done and to let himself be obseded and won by fair but false Promises to render him absolute Master over his People and his Parliament with which Lewis the XIV has so long fed and entertain'd with dexterity the weak Imagination of his Ally that he has lull'd him asleep into a Lethargy very opposite to his right Interest to that of his People and even to that of all Europe of which it may be said That England holds the Scales In the year 1672. France was already working on her project against the United States through the means of England if we consider with what weakness Charles the Second permitted himself to be ty'd up by those Treaties he made contrary to so many Obligations which he had to the said States and of his particular Interest feeding himself with hopes of a share in those said Provinces before they were taken With what weakness did the same Prince sell to France the Town of Dunkirk and behold with his Arms folded Lewis the XIV take the principal places of the Spanish Netherlands not only Cambray Valencienne S. Omers Erre but so many others al-also which were as so many bulwarks to stay the fury of Lewis the XIV And ever after the Peace of Nimeguen have not whole Provinces submitted to the French Yoke And while that under the shelter of that Peace other Soveraigns had disbanded their Forces France alone kept his Arms because it knew what it was hatching and what it design'd to do The Town of Luxembourg was a Thorn in its side and it would be Master of it and Charles the Second was as little mov'd at it as if he had been pay'd to let him do and say nothing and behold unconcern'd that place taken from the Spaniard Free Europe which little by little saw one Province after another and one Town after another submitted to France did frequently cast its Eye towards the Parliament of England in hopes to receive some relief from that part but France had so well taken its measures there that before that Illustrious Body was assembled divers Lords at the sound of Louis d'Ors were become deaf to the Complaints of the generality and some amongst them had even lost the use of Speech and were become motionless for the publick good and that of the Nation and so soon as the House of Commons began to harp on that string the King made use of his Authority to prorogue them to another time and so business run in the same course again and gave leave to France to continue its way to gain Conquest on Conquest In the mean time the true English-men who are the most jealous of their Liberties of any Nation were forc'd to be silent and quietly behold themselves hedg'd in on all sides without opposing it nor daring to complain Those that were lukewarm would frequently ask Why the Spaniards and the Imperialists who had most interest in it did not oppose themselves to that Torrent and to those French Conquests I confess that if they could have done it alone they ought to have gone about it and they can never be excus'd for having neglected it but those who know a little the Affairs of the World are not ignorant of the misery Spain is fallen into during the minority of a King and that the Netherlands are far remote from the Empire which has many Heads and which of truth cannot assist them without its Allyes that are nearest to those Provinces who are the King of England and the States of the United Provinces The Emperor has continually the Turks at his doors over which he is to keep a strict watch at all times Besides as I have already mentioned the Empire 's compos'd of divers Members who have each their Soveraign and their different Interests and therefore a long time is required and divers Springs must play to set so great a Machine going and frequently before the resolution of it be taken France has done its do and then it speaks of Peace and of Accommodation by which means Lewis XIV has for the most part kept his Conquests if they deserve that Name after which every one retires home disbands France makes shew to do the same and if it acquiesces so far to disband some Troops in one part of the Kingdom it raises others in another and thus remains still in the same posture to do mischief ready to attempt some new thing so soon as it finds any favourable opportunity In that interval France did not remain quiet it had its Emissaries in all the Courts of Germany who using the slight of
only alienated from him the Heartâ— of his Subjects but has struck an Horror in all Christendom he has depriv'd the Most Christiaâ— King of all his Alliances and haâ— reduc'd him to see himself oblig'd to have recourse to the Sworn Enemy of Christianity the Turk All these Advantages are founâ— in this present juncture more over Lewis the XIV the borâ— Enemy to the House of Austria is now at Wars with all Christendom If his Imperial Majesty takes not advantage of those Conveniences which the Heavens seem to present him with he ought not to expect any Acknowledgments from France for it nor that the King will think he hath done him a kindness in sparing him for as he has the gift of Usurpation by Inheritance if he can but raise himself up again from that Mortal Wound he has receiv'd he will come as did the Grand Visier after he has if he can disunited and ruin'd the Empire and Encamp his Army before Vienna That Itch has held him a long time and Lewis the XIV has Inherited it from his Predecessors for since the Death of Ferdinando the III. those Kings that have Reign'd in France have always endeavour'd to possess the place of Charlemain and in 1683 His Most Christian Majesty who was very well Instructed of Mahomet the IV's Designs and who had instigated Teckeley to Rebellion did think then that he had obtain'd his Hearts Desires and that he had got the Wind of the Emperor for he thought it impossible but that Vienna should fall under the Power of the Grand Visier's Forces The King had Forty Thousand Men ready on the Borders of Germany in the Design to put himself at the Head of them and to enter into the Empire to have himself Proclaim'd Emperor as the ancient Romans did at the Head of his Army His pretence had been That his Imperial Majesty not being in condition to preserve Christendom he was come to supply his Place and as the Deliverer of Europe free it from the Oppression of the Infidels though he himself had Invited them in and had design'd to put it in Irons To make good the Truth of what I alledge I must say that this Monarch who thought himself assur'd of the taking of the City Vienna by the Turks and himself consequently of the Imperial Crown had already caus'd the Imperial Eagle to be plac'd over his Effigy in his own Coin publickly declaring before his whole Court That the Empire had remain'd already long enough in the House of Austria and that it was high time it should return into his Family The French Mercenary Pens and the French Flatterers had already set forth divers Pieces in that Kingdom which tended to that purpose some were Intituled The just Pretensions of the King on the Empire others The Decay of the Empire These were the fore-runners of what the King design'd to do that when it should come to pass Europe should not be surpiz'd at it and the Blow not so much felt by the House of Austria It is a Maxim that has been practis'd in France during this Reign when the Council had a design of Oppressing the Subjects by any Imposition or to tread them down by any Declaration the noise of it was spread abroad Six Months before that when the Blow should fall the People might be prepar'd for it and so found not the Evil so great as it really was because it was expected All the French Kings Pretensions derive from Charlemain who though King of France was Elected Emperor but Charles being Dead the Electors were in right of Electing another capable to Govern the Empire and to Defend Christendom without being oblig'd or wedded to the Person of the French King. But I find without Dispute that the Emperors have much more Right to the Kingdom of France and that it is better grounded than that of the French Kings on the Empire of which the Three Bishopricks of Thoul Metz and Verdun are dependences which France has Usurp'd and to obtain peace and quiet the Emperor has been forc'd to bid them an eternal Farewel All Histories shew us that formerly the Gauls did depend of the Empire and was look'd upon by the Emperors of the West as an Imperial Dependency and feudatory to it in effect the Archbishops of Treves did take upon them the Quality of Imperial Chancellors in that part and Charles the VIII King of all France as he was was not asham'd to take upon him the Quality of Vicar General and Perpetual of the holy Empire Moreover Conrad being come to Paris caus'd himself to be receiv'd there as Superior by King Charles Sir-named the Simple and the Emperor Sigismond in the Reign of Lewis the XI made his Entry in that Capital City with all the Marks of Soveraignty preceded at Noon Day in imitation of the ancient Roman Emporors by a great number of Torches of White Wax Lighted took his Seat in the Presence of the King in the Parliament Created Knights and there it was that he Erected the County of Savoy into a Dutchy and acknowledg'd that Duke as Prince of the Empire The Emperors no more than the Crown of France ever lose their Right and I think they should have the same Prerogatives as such Kings who always own themselves Pupils and can never lose any thing alienate engage nor sell But we are not here to rake up the Ashes of the Empire 's ancient Rights but only to prevent the French King from making new ones and afterwards to possess them seeing that his Generals do publickly declare That they know no other Right but Power and the only pleasure and good-liking of their Monarch of whom they make a God on Earth Viro immortali At this present the French King beholds all Europe in Arms against him and he finds he cannot well parry that Blow that England's lifted up Arm threatens him with a total Ruine and because he cannot easily withstand all those Powers that are United against him he endeavours at least if he cannot win them to his Party to divide them from the other by that Neutrality which he proposes to them in design of accomplishing two things if he obtains it The First is to diminish the number of his Enemies and the second that by that means he may gain a free access near to those separated Powers flattering himself with the hopes to draw them afterwards to his Party through advantageous Offers but much sooner if he can but never so little rouse himself up again from that Apoplexy in which he is fallen But the Emperor and his Allies to break his Measures and destroy his Designs ought not to allow of any Neutrality to any Prince State nor City of the Empire but to hinder him if possible from soliciting the Switz-Cantons on the contrary to get them to join to the Empire and if they cannot be prevail'd with so to do oblige them to call home those Forces which they have in the French Service or
that in conjunction with that of the States-General he may be Master of the Sea and not only give an Allarm on the Coasts of France but make a descent also in Two different places so soon as possible it can be done then will that Kingdom be in a Combustion and the King of it will lose the North not knowing what place first to Succour as a City that the Fire seizes in all Places and those that shall Land there may be assur'd to be Seconded by a great number of the Inhabitants all along that Coast and from the Neighbouring Provinces William the III. now Reigning ought to be certain that his Predecessors have not for nothing preserv'd that Title of King of France the Rights of Kings never grow out of Date they are always Pupils and at liberty to claim what has wrongfully been taken from them So long as England shall subsist the Kings will have a double Right to France which will never be lost so long as Henry the V. shall have any Successors to the Crown of England he was Son to Margarite of France and she Daughter to Philip le Bell whose Sons deceas'd without Successors to the Crown of France and that Henry as a further Right Married the Daughter of Charles the VI. Being come to France it was decreed by the States of the Kindom that he should be their King after the Death of Charles the VI. and in that Quality the Queen his Mother in Law made him Heir of all her Means and of the Crown of France I am perswaded that there would not need any thing near so much to Lewis the XIV to frame an irrevocable Pretension on England and that the Royal Chamber of Metz would very readily confirm it without the least trouble but there is no such thing on the contrary there has happen'd a time in which all the deceits and subtleties of France begin very much to unstitch and to be thread-bare William the III. has overturn'd the Bankers Tables which the French King's Emissaries had set up in all places their false Coin is no longer currant their Money is cry'd down their Lewis D'Ors which were Worshipped as the Heathen do their Puppets are grown odious to honest People at least the occasion of their Distribution and they are no more capable to corrupt at this time than is the Copper of Sweede Thus France beginning to be cried down by all Christendom and to be slighted in all the Courts of the Princes of Europe it has chang'd its Game and endeavours to imitate those ancient Curtisans who being grown old and wither'd are cast off and abandon'd by every body who alter the Passion once had for them which obliges them also to an alteration in turning Biggots and Superstitious endeavouring to counterfeit Mary-Magdalen thereby to regain that esteem of the People which they had lost by their debauched Lives Thus Lewis the XIV to draw on new Friends and Allies the better to oppose himself to the King of Great Britain and perceiving that all his Credit with the Catholick Princes is at an end that none will any longer confide in him and that his Maxims are cried down he has taken in hand other Means much more subtle than the precedent were he no longer speaks to them of his own Interests but he now Proclaims to them That they must come to the Assistance of the Catholick Religion That it was aimed at when King James his Ally was Attack'd and that he has no other design of making War but for the support of that dear Religion especially by the re-establishment of that Prince on his Throne that if all the Catholicks would but join with him or remain Neuter that he alone will undertake to Re-establish him and at the same time the Catholick Religion in England and Scotland and after that beat down Heresie in its very Center But all this while Lewis the XIV is far from telling what he conceals under those specious Pretences which would be that after he had pull'd down William the III. overcome the Protestant Princes he would do the like to all the Roman Catholicks one after another and thus become Master of Europe It is certain that the diversity of Religion has always been as a large and vast Abiss betwixt the Catholick and the Protestant Princes but the Cruelty and Perfidiousness of the French has fill'd up that Abiss and levell'd the way between them and all difficulties are at present laid aside Even the French King himself unknowingly has given a help in hand to the Business with all his Power for while he endeavours to perswade all the World that he has no other aim than to promote the Catholick Faith and that he Preaches in all places his Conversions that he importunes the Pope to join with him for the Defence of the Church and just in the height of such a fair Mission in all appearance he orders his Troops to enter into the Territories of the Catholick Princes to Attack those of the Prelates of the Church and even to insult the Pope though Head of that Religion which he protests he would defend burning and destroying all over Germany where his Troops but set their Foot without exception of Religion nor of Persons Sacrificing to their Rage the most Sacred Places their Insolence not sparing so much as the Monasteries of the Virgins devoted to the Service of God nor their impiety the Image of our Saviour and that of the holy Virgin his Mother which they have Treated with the greatest Indignation and irreverence that any Atheist could have been guilty of acting in all places like Men that had no Faith and that acknowledg'd no God and all this too as the whole World knows against the promis'd Faith of Treaties and Capitulations which they own they have agreed to but to enter the further and with more ease into Places and to put in Execution their Wicked and Pernicious Designs the King threatning to Cashier those Officers that should not execute with all barbarousness and exactly with the last extremity the Orders of the Court as if they had been sent to put an end to the World by Fire before the appointed time by Divine Providence After all this how can so cruel and so inhumane a Prince take upon him the Title of Most Christian and while that by an over-plus of Crimes he joyns with the Turks to exterminate and ruine Christendom assuring those Infidels that he has not taken up Arms but to come to their Assistance and to procure them the means to recover what they have lost in Hungary and to return before Vienna It is no small trouble to that Most Christian King to have mist his oportunity during the last Siege of Vienna not to have advanc'd with his Army which was ready at hand into Germany without expecting as he did the taking of Vienna but he then believing the loss of it inevitable he thought he should deferr his March but a