Opposition from any Person whatever Generally before such Revolutions can be brought about Slaughter Executions and Banishment depopulate the Land here was no such thing to be heard of 'T is true the French News Books tell us of several English Fugitive Lords But what is it drives them out of the Land either their own pannic Fears or the remorse of their own Consciences The Roman Catholics live as much at ease and undisturb'd under the Regency of William Henry as under the Reign of James the II. And I dare say 't will be their own fault if they do not enjoy a greater Tranquility then yet they do The English are as good natur'd and compassionate as they are constant and couragious so that there needs no more then to be an Object of Pity to disarm their Fury Tho' we had no more then this general knowledge of the Life of the Prince of Orange we ought not to wonder that Heaven has so signally prosper'd his Arms or that the English have Proclaim'd both him and his Illustrious Consort King and Queen But there would be sufficient Cause to be surpriz'd that England or Holland either should enclose within their own Bosoms Persons so distrustful or such aligning and ill minded Malecontents that should refuse to rejoyce sincerely at this Happiness It will hardly be believ'd there are any such at least among the Protestants of the two Nations and what is here said is only to confirm and fortify those whom the Fallacious Arguments of our Enemies may cause to waver and sit loose for a time But when it shall be consider'd that their most Serene and Sacred Majesties have undergon so many severe and tedions Tryals that they have all their life time observ'd an equal Conduct and that they are arriv'd to Years of mature deliberation without derogating from themselves 't is a sign that their Souls and Minds are sufficiently endu'd with constancy and that it is imposible they should be deprav'd by Prosperity It signifies nothing to say that a Powerful King is always formidable to a free People for he is only so to the Enemies of his Dominions He must be a very Feeble Prince as well in Mind as in Body whom the Grandees govern as they please themselves and according to their different Interests while they buz him in the Ears sometimes with the noise of one Faction sometimes of another and make use of his Sacred Name as the Shuttlecock of their own Passions and of the Royal Authority to the Ruin of the Subject He must needs be a very Superstitious Prince that suffers his Head to be fill'd with the Dotages of an Idle Monk and believes he offers a pleasing Oblation to God in Sacrificing to the Avarice of an insatiable Society or by abandoning to the fury of the Souldiery the most sound and solid Party of his Kingdom He is but a faint and impotent Prince who is scar'd and frighted at the sight of the slightest danger and has neither Credit nor Authority to suppress the threatning disorder He is a Vicious Fantastical and for the least Offence implacable Prince who in the Transports of his Anger or the furious Heat of his Wine permits his hands to be clear'd of his most Faithful and Prudent Servants He is a Prince addicted strangely to his Pleasures who suffers himself to be guided by his Confidents and his Mistresses and oppresses his People with exactions to gratify their Vanity These are the Princes of whom the People are to be afraid But I would fain know what cause they have to fear a Wise a Prudent a Laborious Indefatigable Prince Religious without Superstition who has almost an equal esteem for all the Societies of Protestantism nor any bigotted hatred against the Roman Catholics A daring couragious Prince who understands how to shun Danger and yet ready to expose himself when necessity requires a Prince so regular in his Manners and in all the Conduct of his Life that the Word Intreague is hardly known at his Court Such a one according to the public Voice of General Fame is William Henry Prince of Orange now King of England Scotland France and Ireland But this Prince is too Powerful they cry as if a Prince could be too potent when he only makes use of his Authority to do good Since the ruin of the Roman Empire in the West never was Monarch more Powerful then Charlemain yet never did Europe Flourish more never was it more happy then under his Reign he it was that converted and polish'd the Government of Pagan and Barbarian Germany who tam'd the Pride of the Lombards and set bounds to the Ambition of the Saracens and by his Victories gave an Opportunity to the Christians who were retir'd to the Mountains of Biscay and Asturia to enlarge their Dominions in the Plains and by degrees to chase the Infidels out of Spain He it was that restor'd Learning and the knowledge of the Liberal Sciences and made the greatest part of those Laws which to this day uphold Justice and good Order in the Western Parts Nevertheless this Prince whose Empire extended from the Brittish Ocean and the Frontiers of Navarre to the Danaw and the Tuscan Sea never undertook any considerable Enterprize without the Advice of his Parliaments and Counsel of his Barons and the consent of the Assembly of his Estates Being fully perswaded that the greatest Power of a King and the strongest Bulwark which he can oppose against his Enemies is the Affection of his Subjects and that then they are to be govern'd with least trouble when he suffers Equity and Justice to Reign Had the Successors to Charlemain but had wit and courage equal to Him his Empire had not been dismember'd into so many peicemeals of which not any one having force sufficient to repel the Irruptions of the Northern People Europe was soon after cover'd with Blood and over-run with Ignorance and Barbarism Therefore it is Apparent by what has been said that a Prince is not to be fear'd by his Subjects for that reason only because he is Powerful and that there is very little Probability that ever King William the II. should ever make a wrong use of his Authority how great so ever it be that the Parliaments of Great Brittain and their High and Mightinesses intrust him withal However though there be nothing to be fear'd on his side yet perhaps the Constitution of the two Estates which now he governs with Supream Controul is of such a Nature that they can never remain United Which is that which we are next to examin It is objected that People of the same profession rarely agree that the English and Hollanders are addicted to Navigation that the Sea is the common Fountain and Source of their Wealth that the two Nations have been at Wars for above these twenty or thirty Years as well in the Old as New World and all upon the score of Trade that it is very improbable they should forget their
Animosities all of a suddain and that each should be willing to make concessions on their own part to Unite more firmly against their mutual Enemies that the differences about the Flagg about Fraight the Herring-Fishery and the Affairs of the East-Indies are too great and recent to be soon made up This is the Language of our Enemies who make us sensible of the mischeif they have done us but conceal the Cause from us on purpose to put us out of hope But let us endeavour to find it out our selves and then it will be easie to apply the Remedy It is a real and undeniable Truth that time out of mind the English and Flemings have liv'd together in perfect Amity and their Antipathy against the French has still been the same and indeed a very slender knowledge of the History of the three Nations will serve to convince any Man of the truth of what is here asserted During the greatest part of the Wars between England and France from the Reigns of Philip the August and Richard Ceur de Lyon till the time of Charles the VII and Henry the VI. the Flemings though Vassals to the French always took part with the Ilanders They were the first who acknowledg'd Edward the III. King of France to the prejudice of Philip de Valois They have several times made War with their Counts because they were too much inclined to the Interest of France And though the House of Burgundy was always so very sparing of their Subjects that they never kept any disciplin'd Forces in constant Pay nor Garrisons in their strong Holds believing that Subjects gently used would be a suffieient Guard of their Country themselves Nevertheless at the time when the English through the Divisions between the Houses of York and Lancaster had almost lost what they possest in France they attempted to rise in Favour of the English against Philip the Good Duke of Burgundy one of the best Princes in the World And the reason which Mezerai alledges for it is very remarkable It was says he not only because the Flmeing were at that time in a close Friendship with England upon the score of Trade but out of the particular hatred which they bare the French The Cittizens of Bourdeaux revolted against Charles the VII for the same Reason having let the English in among them And the same Historian assures us that to keep in Subjection that City which the interests of Commerce and reciprocal Marriages had link'd with England the King was constrain'd to banish Forty Gentlemen and Citizens whom he most suipected and to build two Citadels besides the better to keep the Town in awe Moreover in the Year 1528. Henry the VIII having made an Agreement with Francis I. that the King of England should attack the Emperour Charles the V. in the Low-Countries Mezerai observes that the King perceiving that his Subjects had an Aversion to any War against the Flemings because it would ruin their Trade chose rather to lend his Consederate Thirty Thousand Crowns a Month and for the renewing of Trade negotiated a Truce between the Low-Countries France and England It would be an easie thing to find more examples of this Union in all Ages but to spare our selves the trouble of searching so far off it shall suffice to observe that the Vnited Provinces did not arrive to that high degree of Puissance which renders them now a Terror to their Enemies but by the means of their Trade nor did they begin to Flourish in Trade till they had shaken off the Yoke of Spain and that they came to be strictly in League with England And it was chiefly by means of the succour which Queen Elizabeth sent them that they supported their growing Union against the Formidable Forces of the House of Austria and though James the I. did not second them so Vigorously whether it were that he had too much business at home or that the Valour and Alliances of Prince Maurice supply'd that defect nevertheless it may be said that if England had been their Enemy instead of being their Ally that Valiant Prince would have found it a far more difficult task to have supported himself and defended his Country against Strangers abroad and Factions at home Although Great Britain no way depends upon the Vnited Provinces as being an Island that is able to subsist of its self without borrowing from her Neighbours yet I think she has no wrong done her in averring that the succour which she afforded Holland turn'd to her own profit For as the Hollanders utterly expell'd the Portugueses and Spaniards out of the Indies so the impairing the Power of the latter did not a little contribute to aggrandize the English in America and to cause their Trade to Flourish in Europe It is also very probable that if Philip the II. had not been so embroyl'd as he was with the Vnited Provinces he would have ventur'd a Second Invasion of England Nor would Queen Elizabeth been able to have reform'd and govern'd her Kingdom so peaceably as she did after the Destruction of the Invincible Armada and indeed never was the Trade of the Island in a more flourishing condition then under the Reign of that Queen James the I. confirm'd the Alliance and found the benefit of it as long as he liv'd And Charles the I. was so far from being ignorant of how great consequence it was for the two Nations to continue inseparably United that he gave one of his Daughters to William the II. Father to his present Majesty After all the English have experienc'd the importance of having good Neighbours and indeed according to all outward Appearances had there been no Hollanders nor any Prince of Orange in the World the Religion Laws and Liberties would have run a great hazard of being utterly abolish'd or at least the strugling for them would have cost a vast Effusion of Blood The first that broke the happy Union of these two Nations was the Vsurper Cromwel out of his hatred to the House of the Stewarts The two Brothers Sons of Charles the I. during their Exile suffer'd their heads to be intoxicated with a necessity of Absolute Power looking upon it as the only Remedy to prevent the frequent Revolutions in England Now when this Fancy had taken deep root it was easie to perswade them that the Protestant Religion or New upstart Opinions as the Roman Catholics call them nourish in the People this same Spirit of change and inconstancy For that they who will be troubling their heads to examine whether their Bishops and Pastors do not delude and mislead them will as soon take the same Liberty to enquire into the Actions of their Kings and will not suffer them to invade their Priviledges nor to violate the Conditions of their Coronation-Oath That the only means to bring about their ends upon the English and to free the Crown from depending upon Parliaments was to introduce Popery by degrees into the Island for
lessen the Authority of the Church of England 'T is a strange thing that the Roman Catholics who hardly know their own Religion should pretend to teach us ours They have been told a thousand times that the Bishops and Presbyterians of England differ only in so slight Ceremonies which are nothing to the Essential part of Divine Worship and that there is more of Obstinacy and Misunderstanding between them then of real Cause of Dispute We have seen at the Hugue for this ten or twelve Years the Princess of Orange now Queen Mary of England repair indifferently sometimes to the Dutch or French Church and sometimes to her own Chappel The Prince no sooner arriv'd at London but he receiv'd the Communion in an Episcopal Church and gave a favourable Reception to the Presbyterian Ministers who went to Congratulate him We see every day several of the Episcopal Party Communicate with the Reformed on this side the Sea and our French and Holland Protestants joyn themselves with the Church of England Yet maugre all this the Romish Doctors would make us believe we are of two Religions And upon the same score because their Religion properly consists only in exterior Pomp in Images Relics Beds Rosaries Holy-water Monks of several Colours and such like Superstitious Exercises and Institutions and that those other things wherein they differ from the Protestants are only the Inventions of Italian Policy they imagin it to be the same with ours Whence it comes to pass that all the Speculative Opinions of our Divines are by those Gentlemen lookt upon as so many All the Confessions of Faith the Liturgies the Ceremonies in the Administration of the Sacraments the Varieties of Discipline the Orders and Habits of the Preachers if our Adversaries were so to be believ'd among us make so many different Sects For this reason it was that a certain Prelate who believ'd himself to be very witty has made a History of the Variations of our Churches and he had so great a desire to augment the Number that he bethought himself of ascribing to us as many Relics as he found Systems of our Ministers upon the Apocalyps the most obscure Book of all the New Testament Nevertheless we must acknowledge that the Headstrong Obstinacy of some of Ours and the remains of Ignorance and the Spirit of Antichristianism that will not yet out of the Bones of some that Envy our Unity have given occasion to these Calumnies The Western Church has mourn'd for above these ten Centuries under the Darkness and Yoke of Popery During which time there was Opportunity and Advantage enough to deepen the Superstitions and Impressions of Popery under so wicked a Master Add to this that since the Reformation we have not had a Prince whose Knowledg Piety and Puissance have been able to reconcile our Differences The Great Gustavus had conceiv'd such a Design in his Mind but he vanish'd like a flash of Lightning in the midst of his Victories It seems that God has reserv'd this Honour for William the III. and this Happiness till our Time God has sent this Prince into the World in a Country where the Spirit of Toleration has pass'd from the Magistrates to the most Learned Ministers He has call'd him to a Kingdom replenish'd with Learned and Pious Bishops who have for a long time preserv'd their Flocks in Peace by their gentleness and moderation The Prince at hi first Coming to the Government found Factions in the Church as well as in the State He has appeas'd both the one and the other The Persecution of the Reformed in France has open'd the Eyes of all their Brethren and has shew'd them the necessity of guarding themselves from the Fury of the Jesuits All these Conjunctures in my Opinion presage a happy Union of the Protestants As to what is said that the Prince of Orange is more absolute in the Vnited Provinces then any of his Predecessors is an Equivocation For ever since the Establishment of the Commonwealth the Hollanders have always born a very great Affection to the House of Orange but true it is that ever since William the Silent who laid the first Foundations of their Liberty this State never had a Prince whom they lov'd more then William Henry The reason is because he enter'd upon the Government at a time when the Hollanders seem'd to be ruin'd beyond recovery and yet he restor'd them to their former Grandeur However notwithstanding this signal Service done them the dread of War and certain vain Suspitions were the Cause that there was great Opposition made against a Levie of sixteen Thousand Men which the Prince most earnestly press'd for as better understanding the Designs of France then any of the Burgomasters of Amsterdam The Event demonstrated that never was any Opposition made upon such bad Grounds nor more Prejudicial to the State For Lewis the XIV boasted in the Edict which revokes that of Nantes that he had not made the Truce but to Exterminate the Protestants out of his Kingdom James the II. took that time to perplex the Church of England and to invade the Liberties of his People At length France threw off her Mask and broke the Truce as soon as she thought she could do it with Advantage That long Train of Delusions justify'd the Prince's Innocence shew'd that he had no other Aim in all his Designs but the Preservation of Liberty and the Protestant Religion and gain'd him the Hearts of all the Hollanders And I would fain know how long it has been a Crime for a Governour to win the Love of those who are under his Conduct Thus you may see how the first Prince William render'd himself Absolute and how the same Power came to be transferr'd to his Successors not by Usurpation but by preserving the Liberty of the Republic The form of Government is still the same the Elections are made by the usual Suffrages the Resolutions taken for the raising of Money making Peace and War Affairs of Trade Justice and Civil Government are all determin'd in the Assembly of Estates according to the Ancient Customs and we are ready to make it appear that for these fifteen Years last past that William Henry has sate at the Helm he has acted nothing but according to the Laws and by vertue of the power annex'd to his high Authority and Command As to what is reported that the Prince engag'd the States General in his Expedition for England without imparting to them his Design is a Calumny of his Enemies which has no other foundation but the Malice of those who are enrag'd that he did not make a discovery of that Fortunate Enterprize at such a time that they might have had more leisure to prepare to obstruct him And it is an easie thing to convince all Intelligent Persons of the Folly of this Objection Suppose this Revolution had been the Effect of long deliberation it was necessary before all other things 1. To be assur'd of the Inclinations
the Hearts of his People so that when a Prince and his Ministers are become Odious the Government can never be said to be strong A clear Example of which we see in James the II. But if that be not a proof sufficient because England is altogether Protestant let us call to mind the lustre of the House of Guise which the League reduc'd so low the downfal of the House of Austria after the Union between the Vnited Provinces and Gustaphus Adolphus Let us compare the Reigns of Mary and Elizabeth of Charles V. and Philip II. of Charles the IX and Hen. III. of Hen. IV. and Lewis the XIII Therefore the shortest and surest means to stifle the Spirit of Persecution is to procure the REUNION OF THE PROTESTANTS who living in the same Communion would make a Body so considerably Puissant that the Roman Catholics would not so much as think of disturbing them Thus we have set forth the Original of our Divisions the causes that have fomented them and the hopes that we have of an approaching Union We are not to shew that this reconciliation is not so difficult as People believe All our Controversies roul upon the same form of Ecclesiastical Government upon the manner of Christ's being present in the Eucharist and upon the Idea of Predestination As to the Ecclesiastical Government I do not believe that any Protestant will deny me the following propositions that seem to be unquestionable and of which there are some that are the foundation of our Reformation 1. That a Church is a Body or Society of several Persons that agree together upon certain Points of Doctrine and upon a certain form of public Worship 2. That every Church in the Quality of a Body makes up a Part of the Civil Society and every one of its Members is a Member also of the State and consequently that in that respect they are under the Soveraign Jurisdiction 3. That it is in the Power of the Magistrate to regulate the exterior Government of growing Societies or of such as are not yet Establish'd by public Authority and so grant them Laws and Priviledges 4. That he cannot change the Government of those which he finds already form'd nor deprive them of their Rights and Priviledges unless perhaps in some extraordinary Cases 5. That the Soveraign is Born Head of the Church he is a Member 6. That there is no precise Form of Ecclesiastical Discourse or Exterior Government prescrib'd in History or in the New Testament Indeed we find there general Precepts to avoid Tyranny Anarchy and Superstition to do all things with Decency and in Order and to turn all things to Piety and the Edification of the Faithful 7. That tho Episcopacy be the most Ancient of all Ecclesiastical Governments because the Roman Empire where the Gospel was first divulg'd was a Monarchy Nevertheless the Form of Government is a thing indifferent of it's self and the best Discipline is that which best agrees with the Nature of the Gospel with the natural Dispositions and Customs of the People and the Constitution of the Government 8. After the Roman Empire came to be dismember'd the several Soveraigns that shar'd it between them have as much right to regulate within their own Dominions the Discipline of the Church as the Christian Emperors had So that the Order of Presbytery cannot be Condemn'd in a Republic where the Magistrate has made choice of it as the most conformable to the Government of the Country 9. The last proposition includes certain Consequences which require explanation 1. That considering the present Constitution of Europe a Universal Bishop is a kind of a Monster and that it is also of dangerous Consequence that a Bishop an Abbot or other Prelate should have a Jurisdiction over any part of the Clergy belonging to Neighbouring Princes 2. That Oecumenic Councils are no more to be held but by the Consent of all the Christian Princes because those Councils were no more then General Assemblies of the Clergy of the Roman Empire which is now no longer in being 3. Supposing such an unexpected Happiness that all the Princes of Europe or the greatest Part should agree to call a General Council it would not be their business to handle Matters of Government nor of Discipline of which it would be in vain to seek for a Uniformity only to apply themselves to examin the Differences among the Christians about the Points of Doctrine and to regulate if it may be done the Number of the Fundamental Articles to determin what we ought to believe thereupon and so to order it that the Christians notwithstanding some few Controversies of little Consequence among them may always stand their ground look upon each other as Brethren and Communicate with the same willingness upon all Occasions together as they obey the several Magistrates of the several Countries through which they Travel 10. Schism is a separation occasion'd by particular Persons that forsake the Communion of a Church Authoriz'd by the Laws of a Kingdom to set up particular Congregations and that only for some defect which they find in the Discipline of the Church for some Ceremony or for some Point of Doctrine not Fundamental Thus the Labadists and the Anabaptists of Holland who differ from the rest of the Reformed only about the time of the Adminstration of the Sacrament of Baptism are Schismatics The Protestants of France of Poland of Hungary are not so but would be Hereticks if the Doctrine of Rome were true The Catholics of Spain and Italy who accuse the Protestants of England Germany and the Low Countries of Schism are Ridiculous for that the Magistrates of the North have as much right to regulate the Exterior Government of Religion as those of the South 11. Schism is very dangerous they who are the Promoters of it will have much to answer for at the last day and they who Harbour and Entertain it are no less Guilty It is the Original of many Quarrels between private Persons and of Factions in the State Add to this that many times it happens that the Ringleaders of the weaker Party for fear of being forsaken by their Followers they fill their Heads with Opinions which cause them to forsake in good earnest the Communion of the lawful Church We know what has happen'd to one Sect which has made a great noise in the World only because a few Learned Men embrac'd their Party 12. Ceremonies of themselves are indifferent as to Religion Nevertheless it is good to observe 1. That the most Ancient are the best and that they ought to be held in Veneration tho they may be alter'd upon weighty and considerable Reasons 2. That all those which have been reduc'd into the Church since Constantine are extreamly suspected because of the Spirit of Paganism and Tyranny which began then to Reign 3. That the Miseries which the Protestants have suffer'd from the Church of Rome have inspir'd them with an utter Abhorrency of all that