of the Spanish Low Countries had in the Prince of Orange's Enterprize against England but not believing what he did was done by his Master's Command his Majesty was in good hopes to have persuaded his most Catholick Majesty to have joined with him for the Restoration of the lawful King of England c. To which purpose he made several Proposals that were all received whilst the Success of the Prince of Orange continued doubtfull but when 't was known at Madrid that the King of England had left his Kingdom then nothing was thought of but War with France That his Majesty was also farther informed that the Spanish Ambassadour in England visited the Prince of Orange every day and importuned him to declare War against France c. But finding that his most Catholick Majesty was resolved c. Gen. Hist of Europe Vol. 1. Month Apr. 89. As to this last passage I am sensible many prejudiced persons will be ready to object the little Reputation the French King and his Ministers have had for their Veracity these many Years but if we reflect on the vast Charge he is constantly at for Intelligence in all places where he is concerned and how much it imported him to find out the Mystery of the Confederacy it ought in some measure at least to incline us to credit him especially when it 's notoriously known he had intimated to King James some considerable time before he could give credit to it the Design of the Prince of Orange and the States General against him and proffered him such Assistance that if he had complied with it would have effectually prevented this late Revolution in Great Britain and consequently this bloody and desperate War which has been the sad Effect of it And there are some persons now living of unquestionable Integrity and sufficient Interest to know the truth of it who assert that Don Ronquillo the late Spanish Ambassadour plainly told King James that if we would not be induced to join in the Confederacy with the Empire and Spain against France he would run the hazard of losing his Crown so certain it is that the Revolution here was an immediate Effect of the Consultations and Resolutions of the Confederacy though not publickly enough hitherto understood to the great injury of the King and perversion of his Subjects These Passages out of a publick Account of the Affairs of Europe allowed to be published and as we are obliged to suppose approved by the States General for the present till something more material be offered by more capable and intelligent Persons may seem to any reasonable man a sufficient Proof of my Assertion that what the Pr. of Orange has lately transacted there was not managed by him alone against the Intentions of the rest of the Confederacy If so why did not they remonstrate against his Proceedings by their Ambassadours to King James and the Prince of Orange too and as in Honour bound contribute their Assistence when especially requested to it towards his Restoration Nay why did they on the contrary by their respective Ambassadours and Envoys congratulate the Prince and Princess of Orange's Accession to the Throne and by this means virtually declare to all the World that King James was justly deposed and that the Prince and Princess of Orange were become the lawfull and rightfull King and Queen of England So that the more nicely we examine the methods of the Prince of Orange's Proceedings the greater reason we have to conclude this Objection to be a meer Sham and Excuse His charging his Father in law with Male-administration Violating the Fundamental Laws of the Realm with setting up the Roman Catholick Religion imposing a Supposititious Heir upon the Three Kingdoms in order to put by the Succession of his own Children meerly on the account of Religion c. What was all this to the business of France and the Confederates The only thing in the Prince of Orange's Daclaration that makes for the business pretended is the Private League Offensive and Defensive between King James and France which notwithstanding could never be produced and exposed to the view of the World and if it had been so could never be any just pretence for their assisting to invade him unless it had been contrary to former Alliances between him and them none of which appearing it is altogether as frivolous as many other Shams in that Master-piece of Villany the forementioned Declaration Upon these Suppositions then 't is apparent that that which was to give Life unto the Confederacy and bring it into Act was the pulling down King James and setting up the Prince of Orange so that before all this was accomplish'd the Confederacy was but an Embrio and no better than a Conditional Stipulation and upon the unsuccessfulness of the Prince of Orange would have been stisled and vanish'd into nothing There was no War declared before this Gentleman was most Traiterously Proclaimed King but by the Duke of Bavaria Nov. 10. as you may see in the London Gazette The Emperour and Dutch did not till March 89. and in all probability it had not been done afterward on the Confederates side if this Praeludium to all the rest had miscarried To this effect we may remember that the Dutch Ambassadour when charged by King James in the behalf of his Masters the States General with assisting the Prince of Orange with Men Money Arms c. for his Expedition against the express Articles of Peace and Alliance made between King Charles the Second of blessed Memory and the States of the Vnited Netherlands 1667. particularly the 11th Article wherein it was agreed That the said King of Great Britain and the said States General remain Friends Confederates united and allied for the Defence and Preservation of the Rights Liberties and Immunities of either Allie and their Subjects against all who shall endeavor to disturb the Peace of either by Sea or Land And Artie 13. That neither the said King nor the said Common-wealth nor any of the Subjects of either inhabiting or residing within their Jurisdiction shall cherish and assist the Rebels of either party with any Succour Counsel or Favour whatsoever but shall expose and effectually hinder all persons abiding residing or dwelling in either of their Dominions from supplying or furnishing any of those foresaid Rebels by Sea or Land with Arms Succour or Assistance either in Men Ships Arms or Warlike Furniture c. And Article 14. That the King of Great Britain and the said States General shall Mutually Sincerely and Faithfully as there is occasion assist each other against the Rebels of either by Sea or Land with Men Ships c. Article 15. That neither the said King nor the said Commonwealth nor the Subjects of either shall in any of their Jurisdictions Countries c. receive any Rebel or Rebels Fugitive or Fugitives declared or to be declared c. pretended to know nothing of it which is a plain Indication they would have insisted
the rest of Flanders in a tottering Condition the Palatinate Territories of Liege and the Dutchy of Wertenberg most miserably harassed and impoverished In a word the State of the Confederacy so feeble in all parts that although they had exerted their utmost this last Campaign and given out strange Reports of grand Attacks to be made upon France nay in the sensible part too they have been able to doe just nothing So that instead of carrying on a vigorous War against France and humbling her they have stood merely upon the Defensive which is only to suffer and endure the Evils of War Waging War implying assaulting attacking or offending but nothing of this hitherto unless lately in Dauphine which has been sensibly retaliated in Germany Liege and the Palatinate and without all peradventure in Piedmont unless prevented by a sudden Compliance But what shall we say to poor England What Advantages will she get by engaging her self into the Confederacy and by the late Revolution Why truly I believe it would puzzle Men and Angels too to name one at present but since we are taught to call things by false names I shall mention that presumed and most celebrated one The Happiness of having a Prince of the greatest Reputation in the whole World for Justice Religion Valour Conduct and an indefatigable Studiousness in promoting the Good of his natural-born Subjects This is an Advantage indeed and no doubt worth the purchasing at the dearest Rate These are great Characters I confess and would be extremely charming if as true as easily said If his Invading his Father's Throne was rather owing to the Contrivance of the Confederacy than the Pretences he made in his Declaration then it 's manifest to all Mankind that he acted such a Master-piece of Injustice as can scarce be parallel'd and beyond all Apology To name some he charged his Father and Mother with imposing a supposititious Heir upon the three Kingdoms which himself never made the least doubt or scruple of before he published his Declaration and he had invaded the Kingdom upon whose Birth he congratulated the King and Queen and caused him to be prayed for by name in his own Chapel at the Hague till a little before his Expedition hither and although in the aforesaid Declaration he promised the Nation he would refer the Enquiry into the Birth of the Prince of Wales and all things relating to it and to the Right of Succession yet it 's notoriously known the Parliament never so much as went about it nor himself ever moved it to them neither could the reiterated Petitions and Desires of a great many Persons of Quality ever procure any such Favour from them or him to the great Dissatisfaction of no inconsiderable part of this Kingdom Besides let any one compare his Declaration with the Original Contract with him or Instrument of Government since and I chalenge all the World to produce such an Instance of Injustice and Violation of Promises as this pretended Saint and Mirror of Justice has afforded us And though three preceding Kings have been blackened by a set of Villains and Profligates that are a scandal to all the rest of Mankind as Neroes Julians and Imps of Hell to set off their dull gloomy Hero yet we may with truth defie them to produce such Instances of Arbitrariness and Violation of Property since Henry the VIII as his four Years Tyranny have produced It may be said I own he is a severe Punisher of Thieves and Clippers but then if we do but reflect what a necessity he has reduced some thousands of People unto for want of Trade and the ill Example he has given himself by invading three Crowns and sending the Wealth out of the Nation never to return again and notwithstanding cried up by the Theologo-Politicoes for a Saint a Saviour a Deliverer c. he has contributed exceedingly towards the taking off the edge of all religious Restraint and the searing Mens Consciences and confirming them in Wickedness so that nothing but the Terror of civil Punishment remains to put a stop to all manner of Injustice And since it 's undoubted that by the severe Infliction of Punishment in such Cases he chiefly aims at his own Interest as Vsurpers and Tyrants seldom doe otherwise I am affraid notwithstanding such pretended Justice he will hardly avoid the imputation of being guilty of their Bloud as well as in a great measure accessory to their Crime And I believe it will not be forgotten in haste how one poor Fellow laid his Death to his Charge at the very Gallows as being the sad occasion of it and prayed for his true Master intimating that if he had not been driven away in all probability he had never come to that dismal end Again let us call to mind the many Sham Plots that have been forged by his Mirmidons to keep up the Rankour and Malice of the People against their King and his Friends the illegal sining of Persons beyond their known Abilities contrary to the Instrument of Government be subscribed as the Condition of his having the Crown for meer Trifles as drinking K. James's Health or praying for him in murthering that worthy Gentleman and excellent Christian Mr. Ashton the poor Chair-man and Mr. Cross in suborning and protecting from Justice those bloudy Rascals Blackhead Young and Fuller Fellows that were elected out of all the Gaols in Town by one Pearson and at his Expence no doubt discharged of their Debts c. and afterwards allowed Salaries on purpose to swear all that he hates or fears out of their Lives when he thinks it expedient the frequent illegal Imprisonments of Persons of the greatest Quality as well as others and by all that does appear to the contrary himself alone being the Evidence Accuser and Judge his shamefully detaining the Soldiers and Seamens Pay by misapplying it contrary to the very Acts of Parliament that granted it his vast Debts to the Transport Ships ever since the beginning of the Revolution the frequent Embargoes the refusal of Convoys to secure the publick Trade of the Nation notwithstanding the Custom and vast Taxes granted upon that as well as any other Account the ordering the publick Monies to contrary uses in general than originally design'd against the frequent Promises in his Speeches to both Houses of Parliament These are such notorious Violations of Justice that we may with as much Truth give him the Reputation of the handsomest Man in the World as the Character of just Then again for his Religion According to the Rules of Method I should have mentioned it first but it 's no great matter whether it be considered first or last or indeed at all What mortal Wight can tell what Religion he is of or rather Is it not a contradiction to say he has any It 's impossible he should be of the Communion of the true Church of England which he found established by Law because he persecutes those with the utmost Violence
he can whose Defence he made one of the most specious Pretences in his Declaration Decl. Parag. 15. and so readily consented to the rooting out Episcopacy in Scotland settled by several Acts of Convocation and Parliament and though he with his usual Arts of Dissimulation seemed to be very squeamish when he came to that Clause of the Scotch Coronation Oath We shall be carefull to root out Hereticks by declaring he did not mean by those Words that he was under any Obligation to become a Persecuter yet never made any scruple to set on foot and encourage one of the most violent Persecutions we ever read of against the Episcopal Clergy there Neither can we indeed with any certainty determine to what side he is really most inclined whether the Presbyterian or Episcoparian he constantly varying his Favours to either according to the Emergencies of his present Interests in Scotland itself Sometimes he would seem to have good Inclinations towards the Episcopal Party when he has any just reason either to fear them or caress them for we are all sensible enough that the main Body of the Nobility and Gentry and the better sort even of the Commonalty of that Kingdom are most addicted to them and though in the hurry and Confusion of Affairs there in the beginning of the Revolution to gain the Presbyterians and other Sectaries he under hand encouraged them to fall upon the Bishops and regular Clergy in a tumultuous manner which was the most blessed juncture they could wish to vent their innate Malice and over boiling Zeal against a Party they hated if possibly more than the Devil himself that he might have an opportunity to make good his Engagements to those their Agitators who had been for some years plotting and juggling with him in Holland to bring about this Great Deliverance yet finding at length the impossibility of maintaining his Interest there upon that foot he has several times endeavoured by his Letters c. to procure an Accommodation between them by settling some of the Episcopal Clergy in Livings c. resolving no doubt assoon as he can conveniently to determine himself for that Party which he can most safely rely upon Neither has his Management here in England been much different he found the greatest part of the Nation addicted to the Principles of the Church of England as established by Law and some of their Principles and Doctrines opposite in the highest degree to his Designs therefore like a true Machiavelist he found it absolutely necessary to bring those Principles into Disreputation and extirpate them if possible right or wrong and to this purpuse set up the noted Latitudinarian Gang by the easie Allurement of his Favour and the assurance of the best Preferments to decoy the rest of their Brethren into a ready Compliance with him who immediately in their Preachings and Writings confessed and owned their former Errours to the People and in a short time rendred their so much celebrated Passive Obedience and Nonresistence the most ridiculous Doctrine and dangerous Error in the World gave us new Comments on Rom. 13. telling us that higher Powers must be obeyed without any regard to lawfull or unlawfull that Allegiance and Submission were all one that in some Cases it is lawful to violate the Commandments of God that Religion and the publick Good knew no Relations that it is lawful to swear with Reservation or to take publick Oaths in private senses that an Oath to the present Government did not interfere with the former to K. James c. Nay any Pretences in the beginning were allowed and admitted of provided they could but hook them into the interest of the Government and bring them off in some measure from their former Principles so firmly had it been resolved by this Gentleman and his Cabinet to ruine the old Church of England and let loose her Discipline and by all imaginable Arts and Devices to render her odious and contemptible Neither has this wicked and atheistical Project wanted its Success in a moment of time her Face was so altered and scarce to be known again her Priesthood perjured and turn'd schismatical and like Renegades their new Zeal and Malice boil'd up to that degree that the Liturgy must be alter'd her ancient Creeds expung'd her Ceremonies lest at liberty or laid aside and a Comprehension established for bringing all their Reverend Brethren the Gifted Coblers Tirkers Taylors c. with the Foreign Reformed Schismaticks into Church-Preferments all the Fences and Hedges must be pull'd down in order to unite these Brethren in Iniquity against the common Enemy tho' indeed the only design was to extirpate and run down those Principles which whenever it pleases God Almighty to pull off the Scales of the Eyes of the honest and well meaning tho' deluded People of this Nation would set his Worship a packing notwithstanding that Security which he has promised himself from those horrid Perjuries he has been the occasion of and which themselves in all their common Discourses own to have so little Obligation and shamefully call Garrison Oaths Thus having as far as possible he could dissolved the True Old Church of England and erected a new One upon a mere civil Basis such as 't is of Rebellion Perjury and Usurpation and rendered it impossible to retrieve the Discipline of the Church and her Sacred Offices during his Government here the next thing he endeavours is to profit himself of all Parties in Religion notwithstanding his popular Pretence of uniting them all against the common Enemy viz. Popery to this purpose he studies privately to dash them one against the other by reviving old Stories under the former Reigns and to keep up some necessary Feuds amongst them for fear of a good Understanding and Uunion perhaps in time to throw him out of the Saddle when once they perceive their true Interest and therefore never omits to caress them as his only Friends he can rely upon when he has a prospect of making a particular Advantage upon them as in the management of the Election of Mayors Sheriffs and Aldermen in the City of London and in the Elections of Burgesses for Parliament all over the Nation is too notorious to be insisted upon in order to oblige them to lend or grant Money c. When one Party begins to grow cold and indifferent by Disappointments c. then he underhand applies himself to another and by stirring up Animosities and Quarrels among them casts Mists before their Eyes that being intent upon their private Revenge and little Plots and Contrivances one against another they may take the less cognizance of the more publick Concerns and be the more eager and emulous of serving him in hopes of drawing him in to favour and assist their Party Thus he plays Tricks and juggles with Religion and that is the most Orthodox which conduces most to the establishing himself in the Government and is always ready to vary his Religion with his