fitting in respect of Religion provided they do not broach Impieties or trouble the State with Factions and Cabals 2. The Spirit of Infallibility is so natural to Men that are Proud and full of self Love and is so linkt with the desire of advancing their own sentiments that we have no cause to wonder that the Reformed have retain'd some small remainder of this Leven as being sprung from a Church which holds Infallibility for one of its Fundamental Doctrins and conveighs it from the Head to all its Members But during the last Persecution the Protestants have written so many Treatises to destroy that wicked Principle they have testify'd such an Abhorrency of all manner of Persecution both in their private and public discourses they have demonstrated in such a convincing manner that truth perswades but never forces that God alone is the sole Lord of the Heart and that to attempt to force it would be an Attack upon the Prerogative of the supream Majesty that though Conscience and the Spirit of Religion should not encline them to support all others their fellow Christians the Honour of observing one equal conduct and the shame of contradicting themselves would perswade them to Toleration 3. Before we believe that Intelligent Persons are capable of committing those faults which they detest and which are contrary to their Principles we ought to examin whether there be any conceal'd motive of Interest which inclines them to such absurditys Thus though Pope Pelagius the fourth Lateran Council and several other Pontiffs and Assemblies of the Roman Church had not canoniz'd the Persecution of the Heretics though the Council of Constance had never declar'd it to be lawful to break faith with the Hugonots though the same Church of Rome had never put these Principles in Practice by Imprisonment Exile Proscription and torments of such Christians as were not within the pale of their Communion yet we had reason to suspect her guilty of this design because it is perfectly agreeable to their Interests The Roman Clergy is a Monarchical Body of which all the several Members are in a capacity of Aspiring not only to the highest employments both in Church and State but even to Soveraignty it self Now the more numerous these dignities and employments are the more reason have Private Persons to hope and as certain it is that extent of Empire encreases the Number of Preferments Therefore it is that in all Monarchies that incline to Tyranny the surest means to extend their dominion is to carry as high as may be the Soveraign Prerogative though at the expence of the Peoples liberty Then again besides the secular Ecclesiastics there are infinite swarms of Monks whose principal business it is to extend the bounds of the Pontifical Empire in regard the vaster it is the richer the more powerful and more respected their several Societies will be and the more the employments of Particular Persons Now the Reformed are the declar'd Enemies of this Church they not only refuse Obedience to the Head of it to acknowledge it's Ministers and Officers or to admit of it's Maxims but they also ruin the Foundations of its subsistance in Preaching down the Mass Indulgencies Purgatory they drain and dry up the very Fountains of its Wealth by contemning Images Relics Invocation of Saints Bulls and Dispensations from Rome they destroy the respect and reverence which the People have for it in rejecting it's Infallibility Transubstantiation Adoration of Saints and the refusal of the Cup to the Laity Who can doubt after all this but that the Pope the Monks and Clergy of Rome are mainly interested to extinguish the Reformation and extirpate the Reformed It is not so with the Protestants in regard that neither their Principles nor their Interest prompt them to Persecute the Catholics I must acknowledge that t is for the glory and reputation of the English Bishops that all the Subjects of the Kingdom should be Members of the Church of England But neither their Jurisdiction nor their Revenues would be much enlarged by the conjunction of the Roman Catholics As for the Presbyterian Ministers in other States all the profit which they get by the conversion of their Adversaries is to have a more numerous Auditory in some places and to be at more trouble in visiting their Parishioners 4. But what necessity of Physical Reffections where the thing speaks it self You shall never find our Bishops nor our Ministers rambling over Sea and Land and Vagabonding about the World to gain Proselites nor Besieging the Houses of the public Magistrates to obtain decrees against the Roman Catholics Our Princes and our Governors suffer them to live unmolested at the same time that they Persecute our Brethren In a word the Protestants are all a sort of Republicans whose Government is Aristocratical in England Democratical in Holland and composed of both among the Lutherans but no where Monarchical So that all they mind is to preserve themselves in Peace without giving any trouble to others Thus the Roman Catholics have no cause to mistrust us and it is long of them that we do not live together like Brethren at least like Christians and good Friends Therefore let them surcease to hate and Persecute us for we wish them no ill and we likewise offer to bury in Oblivion all the mischeifs they have caus'd us to suffer in favour of those who shall joyn themselves with us to extirpate Tyranny and reestablish the PEACE OF EVROPE This is that Summum Bonum that Soveraign Good the Perfection and Fountain of all the Rest which will naturally spring from the debasing and humbling the Power of France and this is that which they who understand the designs and Pretensions of that Crown will easily apprehend by giving never so little Attention to what we are going to say The Grand complaint against that Monarchy is for pretending to the Vniversal Monarchy Nor are they mistaken in their Accusation And I dare affirm that had it not been for the great Revolution in England that France was upon the Point of obtaining what she had been so thirsting after People will say perhaps that she had several Countries yet to conquer But I could answer that all the rest of Europe was not in a condition to make much resistance The Emperor and the Venetians engag'd in a War against the Turk Denmark ally'd to Lewis the XIV Spain exhausted and under the conduct of a Woman dead some weeks ago that had a kindness for her own Country Portugal and the Princes of Italy almost in the same condition the King of England embroyl'd and in confusion at home and Germany divided What could Sweden and the Vnited Provinces have done They would only have been glad to have been the last attacqu'd But it may be reply'd that we live not in those conquering times nor in those Ages when they were wont to bring all into the Feild that were able to bear Arms or when two or three Battels
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
their Offers They vainly flatter themselves to seduce the Hollanders during the Kings abode in England or to raise Disturbances in England while he remains in Holland 'T is true that feeble Affection which is supported only by Fancy or only grounded upon some Conformity of Temper and Humour is as frail as the Foundation is slight But when Religion Vertue and the public Interest are the Bonds of Union between the Prince and Subjects it is a Link inseparable which the absence of some few Months renders much the stronger Now the Affection which the two Nations bear to his most Serene Majesty William the III. is of the latter sort The English are a Warlike Nation that passionately Loves their Kings especially when their Inclinations are Martial Their Princes have for a long time enjoy'd both Normandy and Guyenne which oblig'd them frequently to cross the Sea but we never read in any History that their Subjects took any Advantage of their absence to rise up in Rebellion The Vnited Provinces ever since their first Confederacy having been almost continually engag'd in Wars are more accustom'd to see their Prince at the Head of their Armies then at leisure at the Hague So that both the one and the other will easily be contented that his Majesty should visit them by turns Besides that the English will have Queen Mary always present in their Capital City whose Piety and Vertue whose great Understanding and Mildness renders her equal to Elizabeth a Person to whom the Hollanders were so devoted that at her departure the chiefest of their wishes were that she might be but as well belov'd at London as she had been at the Hague to which her Royal Highness answer'd that she desir'd no more These are the greatest Difficulties that are propounded and buzz'd abroad by our Male Contents or which I have been able to think of Their weakness appears to me a certain presage of the felicity of the People under the Reign of William the III. and Mary the II. and of that Peace which the Union between England and Holland will restore to Europe The SECOND PART The Happy Consequences of the Union between FRANCE and HOLLAND The Means to preserve it entire AMong the happy Consequences of the Union between the Subjects of their Majesties of Great Britain and of their High and Mightinesses there are some which are particular to each of the two Nations and relate to the form of Government their Laws and Priviledges But it belongs not to a private Person to meddle with those sorts of Matters as being the business of Parliaments and Assemblies of Estates Other Consequences there are more general wherein divers Confederate Princes several Countries all the Protestants and all Europe find themselves interested and upon which we shall make some Reflections I place in the first ranck the bringing down the Power of France not believing that I could begin with a more pleasing Subject Since the Pyrenean Peace that Kingdom has mounted to a Degree of Grandeur and Pride which have render'd France insupportable to all her Neighbours so that it is neither the Wealth nor the Welfare of the French People that are envy'd for Men have more reason to be mov'd with Compassion at the sight of their Miseries 'T is against their blindness that Men exclaim and that indispensable fury that hurries them on to make others as miserable as themselves instead of complying with their good Intentions and permitting the release of those miserable People from the sad Condition wherein they are If France were enrich'd by Trade by Manufacture by a long Peace if it were aggrandiz'd by Marriages and Alliances by the free Concessions of Princes or by the vast Concurrences and Conflux of People to her Territories we should be so far from troubling her repose that we should do our utmost to imitate her Example But it is well known that her Conquests and her Riches are the Effects of Breach of Faith and her unjust Wars of her Vexations and Oppressions and the vast Contributions which she exacts from the People so that the generality of the Subjects are reduc'd by the Court to that Condition as not to be able to subsist but in the midst of the Rage of War by Pillage Robbery and Ransack The bare Duties of Humanity would oblige their Neighbours to redeem them from a Condition so opposite to the public good and the Salvation of their Souls nor is the particular Interest of other People an Obligation less engaging to the same Effect Since that under the pretence of Religion the Dragoons have ruin'd the best Families in the Kingdom wasted their Estates and disabl'd the Proprietors to make the best of their demeans and to continue their Trades since as an Accumulation of their Misfortune the Privateers being become Masters of the Seas Trade has undergon so sensible a decay that ten Years more like the three last will produce a far greater mischief then a general Pestilence for ten Months in regard they would be the ruin of an infinite Number of Families which by means of their Wealth and Industry are at present the support and glory of Europe Considering the present Constitution of our Western Parts the Wines the Strong-waters the Oyl and Salt of France are Merchandizes which Foreigners can hardly live without But the Inhabitants being impoverish'd and not able to burthen themselves with those things which would be given them in exchange they that want their Wares must be oblig'd to carry ready Money and to afford new Matter to feed the Extortions of the Collectors and the Insatiable Avarice of the Chief Ministers Add to this that if the War happen to spin out in length the great Number of Souldiers that must be rais'd throughout the Kingdom will be the cause that the greatest part of the Lands must lye untill'd and that the infinite Wealth accrewing by the profits of the Land would be all lost If it be so then some will say that it is so much the Interest of Foreigners to Labour the preservation of France it behoves them speedily to make a Peace with her 'T is very true that there could be nothing more advantageous then a general Peace but the mischief is that considering the present Condition of Affairs it is neither safe nor possible to conclude a Peace besides that it is also more uncertain and more difficult to be assur'd that it shall be of any long continuance Therefore before we talk of Peace it will be requisite 1. That Lemis the XIV Re-establish the Edict of Nantes and restore the Reformed to the same Condition wherein they were before the Death of Hen. IV. and make restitution of all the Damages which they have sustain'd since the Pyrenaean Peace but more especially since the Truce in the Year 84. It would be an eternal Ignominy to the Protestants to suffer the public Violation of the Treaties concluded with their Brethren without alledging any other reason but only that
decided the Destiny of Empires that according to the manner of spinning out a War now a days the lives of five or six Kings equally Prosperous would not suffice to Conquer all Europe To which I have another answer to make that the same methods are not taken nor the same ways us'd as formerly to gain the Vniversal Monarchy The People of Europe are so accustom'd to be rul'd by different Princes that there would be little reason to fear a King who should conceive a design to subdue them all and afterwards to govern them by his Lieutenants in regard his design would be no less fantastic then impossible A Vniversal Monarch then at present is quite another thing then an Absolute Prince at home and who has reduc'd his Neighbours so low that they are not able to enterprize any thing against him that they are constrain'd to brook his outrages and injuries and to suffer him to do what he pleases Now is there any Person of good credit that can deny but that France was almost arriv'd at this high Pitch of Grandeur and that in all outward Appearance he had attain'd to what he desir'd had James 11. his faithful Ally kept firm upon his Throne Now let the Confederates consider whether it be not their interest to humble the Pride of France and whether they will ever meet with an opportunity more Favourable Not that I would advise them to the Tryal of an Absolute conquest of France but if they can but regain what she has wrested from them restore the Duke of Lorain to his own and as occasion offers sever the Dukedoms of Normandy Britain and Guyen as formerly they were divided and which is no more then what is long'd for by the inhabitants at this day take advantage of the discontents of the People to re-establish the custom of calling free Assemblies of Estates and in a Word divide that vast Kingdom into several Principalities and reduce it to the same condition wherein it was toward the end of the Second Race and at the beginning of the Third before Philip the August at what time the Kings of France had something else to do then trouble their Brains about disturbing their Neighbours quiet Perhaps some French man will tell me I am a Traytor to my Nation and give that Advice which is enough to embroyl the Kingdom in Civil War But there is nothing of that in my design for I dare protest with a safe conscience that my Principal aim is only to asust my fellow Country-men in the recovery of their liberty Though if they cannot recover it but by a Civil War that may last for some Years is it not infinitely to be prefer'd before an eternal slavery But say my opposers these Petty Princes will be always quarrelling one with another And do not the great ones do the same Let the Counts of Foix and Armagnac fight it out as long as they please the rest of France takes no notice of their brawls But when Lewis the XIV Rendevouzes three hundred thousand Men he drains and depopulates a great Kingdom and strikes such a terror into all his Neighbours that they are compell'd to oppress their People to withstand his Invasions besides a War between two petty Princes can never last long for that in a short time they find themselves both so enfeebl'd that they are constrain'd to agree This is the only means to procure a general Peace and to prevent France from breaking the Treaties that shall be concluded with her THE REESTABLISHMENT OF THE PRINCES DISPOSSESS'D AND OF THE PROTESTANTS EXIL'D is another of the most happy and important consequences of the Union of the Confederates Wars are the Law-suits of Princes Battels and Conquests are their Judges and the mischeif is that these Judges are both blind and inconstant and there is always Appeal from their decrees so soon as the vanquish'd finds himself in a condition to come to a new Tryal And therefore that Christendom may be restor'd to a general and lasting Peace there is a necessity of fixing as far as lies in mortal Power the Fate and destiny of Armed Decisions by bringing the Protestants of Europe to such an equal Ballance that no one may be easily able to oppress the Rest We have sought in vain for this Medium ever since the Pyrenean Treaty for that the strength of Spain decay'd of a suddain and England which was only able to oppose the Progress of the French intended nothing less Now the medal begins to turn Great Britain is at liberty Germany is United the Empire grows powerful and it may be said without any injury to the valour of the rest of the Generals neither to his Highness the Elector of Bavaria that the Emperour is cheifly beholding for the Victories which he has gain'd over the Grand Enemy of the Christian Name since the Seige of Vienna to Duke Charles of Lorain It would be therefore a great peice of injustice if that Noble Prince should not Reap as well the Fruit of his Labours as the Honour of having so many times triumph'd over the Infidels Hangary being reduc'd and the Hereditary Countries of the House of Austria being secured for a long time from the terrour of the Ottoman Arms deserve without doubt that the Empire should do it's utmost to restore it's Preserver to the Inheritance of his Ancestors I dare affirm also that his Atcheivments are of that importance to the Glory and Repose of the Imperial Family that they ought to preserve the memory of this Victorious Champion and testify their acknowledgement to his Posterity if Fate prevent them from returning their Gratitude to himself Interest and Vertue are not always Enemies to one another they agree perfectly well upon this occasion The Conquests of France in the Low-Countries the Invasion of Lorain of Franche Conte and Alsatia have render'd her so potent and so near a Neighbour to the Empire that at length in the last Campaign she took Philipsbourgh and has almost made her self Mistriss of the four Electorats of the Rhine So that if the revolution in England had not hasten'd her to the defence of her own Country 't is very probable that she would have carry'd on her Victories with little or no Obstruction Crown'd the Dauphin King of the Romans and reduc'd in time the Electors of Saxony Brandenburgh and Bavaria the Landgraves of Hess and the rest of the Princes of Germany to the same condition as the Ancient Dukes of Normandy Guyen and Burgundy that is to say to nothing The Roman Catholics may imagin that the Re-establishment of the Exil'd Protestants does not concern them But it more nearly concerns them then they are aware of It is said that one of the Causes which hasten'd the ruin of the Reformed in France was this because the Court was sensible of their discontents and murmurings during the War with the Vnited Provinces They were accus'd of holding Intelligence which the Hollanders and of discovering to