be said that can better please you Many Churches rebuilt at your Charge others to which you have added more Maintenance to supply their wants Blasphemers severely punish'd the Poor relieved and many things of the like kind which for brevity's sake and not to be thought a Flatterer I do not mention are all convincing Testimonies that the Glory of God is your Majesty's chief care Though in this you have done no more than what all the World is bound to do yet I say 't is your Majesty's Duty more than another Man's not only because as you are a Soveraign you are oblig'd to give good Example to your Subjects but because you cannot omit the doing of it without being very ingrateful to God If your Majesty will but cast your Eyes on the Favours you have receiv'd from him you will see many things which require an Eternal Acknowledgement I do not speak of such things as are common to you with all men but reflect if you please on those Blessings which God's Providence hath in so particular a manner pour'd out upon your Majesty How are you bound to thank him for your Miraculous Birth his giving you Being to fill the noblest Throne upon Earth is one of the least of his Favours and to draw you doubly I may say out of nothing as he did after the Queen your Mother had been Barren three and twenty Years is a Blessing that cannot be forgot without double Ingratitude If you follow step by step what God hath done for you you will find his Protection over your Person hath been very singular Remember that almost universal Rebellion of your Kingdom that Confederation of the Parliaments against your Authority the insolence of your People and how easily you quell'd these Monsters You will then confess this was not the Work of Man but the Hand of God If after this you call to mind the Fidelity of your Commanders and Souldiers even to the prejudice of their Ancient Rights and that Victory still wedded to your side forc'd the Spaniards to yield to the Peace of the Pyrenees notwithstanding their great aversion to it You will see that this likewise was a Favour of Divine Providence which never forsook you How can you chuse but be thankful for the Miracle it wrought in recovering you from that terrible Sickness which I have already mention'd I know God made use of Natural Causes to which impious Men attribute all that is extraordinary but by their leave there was something more in that recovery for you were not only given over by your Physicians who I confess are many times mistaken but you were more than half dead as those that were present did verily think and can testifie I spoke Truth when I said your Curtains were drawn If your Majesty please let us follow the course of your Life and see whether that which happen'd after this be Natural Do you in good earnest believe that so regular and mature a Judgment as appear'd in you presently after the Cardinal's Death notwithstanding the ill Education he gave you was only the Gift of Nature 'T is to God alone you are indebted for it and to whom you are to return thanks 'T was not in your Power to make your self wise especially in a Court where you were suffer'd to do what you would and where none but Women had the care of your Education What shall I now say of the Wars wherein you have been engag'd by evil Counsel and if I may dare say so by your own Ambition And yet how happily are you come off All these Miracles are from Heaven God having sent you into the World that you might Glorifie him by your Actions and hath more particularly engaged you to praise him by many Obligations heap'd upon one another If you do not do that which God expects from you what will all the World say that know the Chararacter of a good Man is to be Grateful As it is your Majesty's Obligation so 't is your Interest to be thankful For if a Prince take no care to give to God that which is his due how can he expect his People should do their Duty to him whose greatest Glory is to be the living Image of God upon Earth If he thinks to be obey'd because as a Master he commands others and believes his Subjects must Love or fear him because Reward and Punishment are in his Hands he is much mistaken For the Power of a Prince be it never so great would quickly be brought to nothing if those that obey him did not do it for God's sake who is greater than he 'T is Religion that first made Subjects fear their King and still continues that Fear As a Tree which doth not continually receive Nourishment from the Earth grows dry and withers by degrees so take away Religion in a Kingdom the Respect and Fear of a Soveraign which Subjects suck in with their Milk insensibly decays till it be quite Dead whence follow a thousand Mischiefs greater than can be Imagin'd or express'd and then neither Hope of Reward or Fear of Punishment can prevail with Subjects to do their Duty A Wretch that doth not believe in God thinks there is much more to be got by Disobedience and Rebellion than ever he could expect from his Prince and what Effect can the fear of Punishment have upon him who believes there is no other World beside this and that one quarter of an Hour will put an End to all his Pain Not to give God his due is to open a Door to all manner of Wickedness and a Prince thereby exposes himself to the Hazard of being driven out of his Kingdom Look but upon the Ottoman Empire which is much more subject to revolutions than any other Kingdoms because the greatest part of its Subjects think the Religion they profess to be meer humane Invention and when a Man once comes to that Belief 't is a very hard matter to conquer his Prejudice and raise him up to the Knowledge of the true God Besides such an Opinion blinds and makes Men so brutish as to attribute all things to Nature and 't is extremely difficult for 'em to find the way out of their error Let us come a little nearer and see what hath been done in England the want of Religion in that Kingdom was the cause of all that happen'd there since the time of Henry the 8th the introducing of so many Sects brought the People at last to dip their hands in their King's blood Come we now to your own Kingdom where we may observe the same disorders in the reign of three or four Kings one after another If you would know the reason read but their History One was a Blasphemer instead of punishing that sin in his Subjects Another was an Atheist and so of the rest So that their Subjects who had very little more Religion than they attempted to dethrone ' em These Confusions lasted till the Reign of the Deceased
Majesty according to the Example of the King your Father and of Henry IV. of glorious Memory had assisted against the Spaniards made Peace with them Your Majesty notwithstanding all this maintain'd the War in Catalonia with a great deal of Reputation you rais'd the Siege of Flix which the Enemy had invested and made your self Master of Tortose in sight of the Enemy's Army Commanded by Mello who went out of Flanders thither and had it not been for the Rebellion of your Subjects to how great a pitch had your Glory been rais'd It was very much increas'd by the Victory your Navy had in the Mediterranean tho' it was much Inferiour to that of the Enemys for it consisted not of above twenty nine Vessels when they had Forty Two Notwithstanding this Inequality did not hinder you from sinking Three and had not Night came on they had reason to fear the loss of more So many Affairs and of so great consequence were enough to take up your thoughts and seeing they always tended to the good of your State you minded what pass'd in Poland where the Glory of your Name frustrated all the Spaniards Endeavours to have a King elected that should be a Friend to their Interest But they were baffled in their Design for Casimire Brother to the deceased was preferr'd before the Person the Spaniards propos'd for which he was wholly obliged to your Majesty CHAP. II. Containing what pass'd from the Paris War to the Peace of the Pyrenées THE Parliaments Attempts daily encreasing notwithstanding the continual care your Majesty took to suppress them it would have been weakness to have longer dissembled your Resentments which made you resolve to punish the Offenders You left the City of Paris ingag'd in the Rebellion and retir'd to St. Germains in Laye you caused Paris to be block'd up by your Flanders Army commanded by the Prince of Condé This punishment ought to have made the Mutineers return to their Duty but their Boldness equal'd their Disobedience and after they had stirr'd up other Cities of your Kingdom to take their part they rely'd on their own Strength to relist your Majesty Scarce one even the Coadjutor himself forgetting his Character but rais'd a Regiment against you The Duke of Beaufort who had escap'd out of Prison was likewise one of your Majesty's mortal Enemies the Prince of Conti Brother to the Prince of Condé also took Arms against your Majesty the Dutchess of Longueville his Sister with the Duke her Husband fell in with the Parliament and she by her Beauty drew in the Prince of Marsillae who had more mind to her than to signalize his Disobedience but this Passion LOVE which blinds Men to that degree that they know not themselves made him forget that respect he always had for your Majesty and in which he was better instructed than others because he had an infinite deal of Wit This was not the only mischief which Love did your Majesty the Jealousie which this Prince of Marsillac had against the Husband of the Dutchess together with the fear he had his Passion might be discover'd would not let him rest till he got into Normandy where he made that Province revolt being Governour of it We see what Springs Love sets a going which we often attribute to Ambition for want of searching things to the bottom but it is a dangerous Passion and very much to be condemned when a Mistress makes us fail in our Duty to our Soveraign to whom we are so closely ty'd that we cannot be unfaithful to him without being so to GOD. The Bloccade of Paris had not the Effect your Majesty expected and tho' that great City suffer'd extremely yet the Parliament continued so great an Aversion to your publique Minister that they were so Bold as to require his being sent out of the Kingdom before they would lay down their Arms. This insolent Proposition was accompanied with others of the same nature but since the Resolution of these Mutineers did not answer the Hopes they had of giving Law to your Majesty they had Recourse to the Enemies of the Kingdom to procure Bread which they very much wanted for your Majesty had shut up the City so close that it was at an excessive Price and without speedy Relief they were ready to fall into extreme Necessity Your Majesty cannot reflect upon these terrible Marks of Rebellion without being sensibly toucht with them and seeing it was of great Consequence to you not to suffer your Enemies in that unhappy Conjuncture to enter into the Heart of your Kingdom you did that which brought the Parliament again to themselves you sent a Herald at Arms to make some Proposals to them whereupon the Parliament being assembled they thought in some manner to repair what had been done in sending back the Herald without hearing him but at the same time assured your Majesty they had refused him Audience out of the profound Respect they had for you because they could not pretend to receive such a Person as was never us'd to be sent but to Soveraigns This returning to their Duty gave your Majesty occasion to exhort them to do better for the future than they had done at present and the Conjuncture requiring that you should seem not to resent the bold Attempts they had made on your Authority you granted a general Amnesty to the Parliament and to those that had follow'd their Party Your Enemies did not fail to take Advantage of these Disorders the Duke of Lorrain whom the King your Father had driven out of his Country for having often fail'd of performing the many Promises he had made him entred again into it and made himself Master of many Towns he was likewise almost assured of retaking Nancy from which Marquess de la Ferté's Avarice had diverted all manner of Provisions But when he saw that it might cost him his Head he quickly came and caus'd all the Harvest of Corn and Fruit thereabout to be carry'd into it and thereby made some amends for the Fault he had committed upon which your Majesty and all other Monarchs may make this Reflection That when a Subject prefers his own private Interest before his Prince's he is not only unworthy of any Favour but is likewise responsible for all the Evils the People suffer For 't is plain that what they do suffer is from such Men in Authority who care not how they Ruin 'em to Inrich themselves However your present Circumstances did not then permit your Majesty to take such Order in that Case as at another time you might have done Beside this Marquess behaved himself so Prudently on other Occasions that his Wisdom and Courage in some measure excus'd his Covetousness The Parliament did not cease to pursue their Designs tho' your Majesty had had the Goodness to pardon them yet they were not altogether so bad as the Parliament of England who were so wicked as to cut off their King's Head Your Majesty was never seen
Part for your Majesty commanded me to quit my Pretensions and gave that honourable Office to Monsieur Tellier The Prince of Orange's Marriage wrought a real Change in England it begot such contentious debates that the King of England was in a manner forc'd to sign a League against your Majesty He re-demanded his Troops which not being able to refuse you sent back to him But by so long a way about that Monsieur Louvoy had time to debauch the greatest part of ' em For instead of suffering them to imbarque at Calais or some Port near their Country he chose one that was farthest off pretending that his Britanick Majesty had no just cause to complain because no particular place was nam'd in your Treaty with him Which may serve for a Lesson to all publick Ministers when they treat with a foreign Prince For if the least thing be omitted in their Negotiation they may be sure it will be made use of against their Master and when a Fault is once done 't is too late to think of mending it This Change in your Majesty's Affairs oblig'd you to quit Messina where there was no longer any safety for your Troops For if the English joyned their Forces with the Dutch it was impossible to resist them This was what I long ago foresaw and I took the liberty to tell your Majesty that you would be necessitated to augment your Fleet by building more Ships but Monsieur Louvoy who would if he could have destroy'd the Marine Establishment always oppos'd it pretending two Reasons for it The First That no cause of Jealousie was to be given to England The other That your Kingdom was not able to support so great a Charge He made use of the same Pretence to dissuade your Majesty from the making a Harbour upon the Coast of Normandy which you will want in case you ever have a War with England For if your Ships at any time should receive much Damage where shall they find a Retreat 'T is a long way out of the Channel to Brest and Rochefort which ought to be seriously consider'd by your Majesty 'T is not long ago I gave you my Opinion concerning such a Port. The Bay of Colville seems a Place to have been expresly design'd by Nature for it I thought your Majesty when you had heard my Reasons was so well satisfied that you would presently have given order to begin the Work But I since understood that Monsieur Louvoy put by the Business tho' so absolutely necessary for the good of your Kingdom insinuating that the Place I have mention'd was not so sit as I represented it And that the Reason why I did so much commend it was because I was willing to oblige the House of Matignon to which my Son was ally'd whose Lands lying near the Place and they having the King's Lieutenancy in that Country it would both increase their revenue and augment their Credit What Poyson there is in Malice and what dangerous Effects it doth produce I leave your Majesty to judge But it seems very difficult for a great King who sees with other Mens Eyes to defend himself against the Artifice of those that would deceive him especially when they have done him such Services as may incline them to think their Intention is good I know but one way for a Prince to secure himself in such cases which is to trust no body but strictly to examine things himself and rather be upon the Place to see what is done than be deceiv'd by being too credulous for in trusting a third Person there are many Inconveniences There are few Princes but must rely upon a Minister in most of their Affairs and tho' it is not so in your Majesty's Court where there are two or three Persons who will not bend and submit to Monsieur Louvoy's Authority yet for certain there is a secret Jealousie still retain'd in the Heart which commonly works the very Effects that are fear'd Your Majesty's Prudence which never forsakes you in the reverse of Fortune seem'd to increase you were not at all daunted with the Change of his Britanick Majesty but on the contrary rather made it serviceable to you in bringing the Dutch to a Peace You put such Jealousies into their Heads that they wrote to their Embassadors they should endeavour to remove all Difficulties that would obviate a Peace Your Majesty knowing that the way to make them more desirous of it was to terrifie them by some new Conquest you besieg'd the City of Gand which made little resistance You knew so well how to blind your Enemies by pretending to attack some other Place that the Town was in a manner taken before they perceiv'd your Design You afterward made your self Master of Ypres and of Fort Lewen which by its advantageous Scituation was thought impregnable But was surpriz'd one clear Night by the Garrison of Maestricht and taken by Scalado Such prosperous proceedings should in all appearance have made the Spaniards as desirous of a Peace as the Dutch But they knowing that what had pass'd in England had already made your Majesty quit Messina and inferring from thence the League they had made with that Crown would do Miracles in their Favour they endeavour'd to keep the Dutch from making a Peace but your Maiesty remov'd all those Obstacles by a piece of Policy which Posterity will admire You concluded a separate Peace with Holland But before the Prince of Orange was inform'd of it he concluded if he fell upon your Army which then block'd up Mons and could give it a Blow he should hinder the conclusion of the Treaty he very furiously charg'd your Troops The Duke of Luxembourg who had heard the Peace was concluded and imagin'd the Prince of Orange likewise knew it relying upon it was not in such a Posture of Defence as he should have been so that he and the Intendant had like to have been taken The Spaniards and the Emperour were after this so happy as to come to an accomodation with your Majesty but the Northern Princes were unwilling to restore to the King of Sweden what they had taken from him Your Majesty oblig'd them to it by the Treaty you had sign'd in consideration of which you restor'd Maestricht to the Hollanders and several Places to the Spaniards from whom you had lately taken Puicerda Prince Charles of Lorrain who was this Year come again into Germany where he made no better a Campaign than he did the Year before because Mareschal Crequi not only prevented his design of retaking Fribourg but beat a party of his Troops in the Plain of Rhinfield took Sekinghem Offembourg the Fort of Kell burnt the Bridge of Strasbourg and did so many other Exploits in that Country as made him pass for another Turenne The Prince of Lorrdin I say was comprehended in the Emperour's Treaty by which your Majesty was oblig'd to restore to him his Country but under such hard conditions that rather than submit