the Guises and get Navar and Conde to be Governors to the KING This Plot was carryed so far that they mutined in most Towns against the Magistrates and the Prince almost had made himself Master of Lyons but his Project being discovered he was made Prisoner at Orleance his process form'd himself condemn'd and had as certainly been executed too had not Francis the Second at the same time dy'd and so altered the Constitutions of the State and the Measures of the Court for the Queen Her self now began to be as much afraid of the growing Greatness of the Guises comes to an Agreement with the King of Navarr that She shou'd be Regent and himself Lieutenant of the Realm that all Prisoners for Religion shou'd be releas'd all Prosecution forborn but these Favours to these Reformers made them more rebellious insomuch that they set upon the CATHOLICKS at their Sacrifices pull'd them out of their Pulpits insomuch that at last the King of Navarr could not find in his heart any longer to defend them and so it was resolv'd in a general Assembly at Paris that their Ministers should be expell'd and none but the Catholick Religion allow'd after this they prevail'd at last at Poissy for a Dispute tho' the Council of Trent was then a foot for deciding any Differences which as fairly as it is represented and perhaps impartially by Father Paul and as fouly by some that were more zealous and concern'd yet certainly was a much better expedient for setling the Disputes in the Church then a private Assembly amongst themselves where the Objection of pact partiality contrivance the Clamours against that Council must needs with Aggravation recoyl upon themselves but the Result of this Divinity Disputation was what usually attends such Polemical Debates like a tryal of Skill both sides boasted they had the best but certain it is the King of Navarr upon seeing the Differences among the Reform'd some favouring the Augustan others the Helvetian Confession was the more confirm'd in the Catholick Faith but the other side by their Boastings growing so popular insomuch that it was thought dangerous almost to disturb them another Edict was granted or forc'd for a Pacification which juncture of Affairs made the cunning Queen fall to favouring of them too that even as the sense of a Protestant Author observes a dignify'd Member in the Church of England this Prosperiny of the Reformation was the Cause of all the Miseries and Misfortunes that befel the Kingdom of FRANCE to the Ruine almost of the Realm their encreasing in strength encreas'd so far the Power of the Prince of Conde that his former Partner the King of Navarr made no Figure at all which made him call in the Duke of Guise for his Assistance and the Duke coming up by the way a Fray was commenced by some of his Servants at a Protestant Sermon the Duke coming to interpose and part was wounded by them himself which so enrag'd some of his Souldiers and Followers that about Sixty People were kill'd the rest put to Flight their Ministers being much of Dr. Burnet's Make gave this out as a Design and in all their Representations made it a Massacre and for this occasional Fray the most furious Out-rages must be justifyed Monasteries pull'd down Altars and Images defac'd and the whole Land fill'd and polluted with blood and it may be also observ'd here that this too is made by Meteran a design'd Slaughter and that the Duke came purposely to disperse and destroy them but this Author confessing in his Preface his Prejudice against this most Catholick cause it had been more consistent with our Authors sincerity in these Matters not to have medled with him And now both Parties labour to keep or get the KING into their Power the Prince of Conde took Orleance and the Catholicks the KING and the Protestants in their New Conquest Spoil all the Churches in the Town but upon none more furious than that of St. Cross as if the Badge of their Profession were the Scandal of Christianity then this Religious Violence must be justifyed with a Manifesto criminating the Catholick Lords for detaining the King and Queen when both of them declared they did them no Violence but assisted them with their Service and Duty tho' the forementioned Author in the same place represents the Queen in the name of the young King writing Letters to Conde that they were under Restraint and Confinement and that he should come in and relieve them when it is known too that She exhorted them to come in and return to their Obedience and so far complying they were that the Duke of Guise offer'd himself to a voluntary Exile if they would but return as the Queen desired to their Obedience and for that they had their Pardon offer'd and Favour too but for all this the Reformers go on seise most of the chief Towns sack the Churches for Silver for their Mint and thus defac'd made them fit for their Stables and Magazines insisting upon insolent Demands they were declar'd Traytors if they did not desist by such a day The Queen that had no such abhorrence of them before now detested them and began to think how She might break and dissolve them for this She prevails with the Constable and Duke of Guise to go and retire from the Court they so did and Conde having promised the Queen to return to his Obedience if ever they did so was now as much confounded at their unexpected Retreat advis'd with his Casuists the Calvanist Doctors what to do in the case who honestly told him That he having made himself Head of their Vnion and League no Obligation could bind him to any Promise that Promises were not to kept that did hinder the Preaching of the Truth the Queen not bringing over the King to him as She promis'd he was bound to keep none of his Promises to Her and so could not be said to violate his Faith These I think are Promises too not very well kept or as ill expounded the Dr. might spare us for it some of his Animadversions on the Reserves of the Society and the keeping no Faith with Hereticks for they found out the best expedient of Aequivocation that the Duke might seem to keep his Promise they ordered him to meet the Queen and surrender himself but withal that the Admiral by Ambuscade should be ready and surprise him and so bring him back to the Camp. They resolv'd it too that for the Reformation sake no regard was to be had to their Country and so invited in our English Aid of Queen Elizabeth who had nearly made her self Master of Normandy About this time the Duke of Guise was treacherously murder'd by Poltrot one of the Reformers that had insinuated himself into his Service and Family and after another Edict granted in their Favour they tumult again to come up to the Pacification of Ianuary and so fall again to their seising of Towns and
some and I think now is so to all My self knew and still do many of those Members most falsly to suffer under that malitious Imputation whom the Dr. has no reason to reproach for the Selling of their Country and betraying their Trust when they truly serv'd both that and the King but sure it is but a bad Return he makes them when I am sure it was all the same Peers if not the same Parliament that Complemented Him for His Mighty Performances which perhaps they might have omitted had they known what Amends He would have made them or thought him so good at Commending of Himself but this is a Kindness He kept in Reserve and a Sublime acquir'd since his Travels and Accomplishments I can't call this a Controversy with the Dr. when he gives up the Cause when he seems to take pains to appear on my side He shews us how the Late King was continually inclin'd to a Liberty of Conscience he declares the Act of Vniformity a severe Thing the Terms of Conforming Rigidity and those that required it Angry Men Was the Dr. alway of this mind Why then it seems he only Conform'd fell in with the Church for the sake of her Benefices for officiating at the Rolls just as he fell out with the State because he lost it but this cannot credit much the Reputation and Integrity of such a Celebrated Writer and the Church of Englands Chief Men are just as much oblig'd to him for his Characters as the Loyal Members of the long Parliament he has sufficiently attainted their honesty and so most modestly taxes the Indiscretion of all his Clergy that so the State both Civil and Ecclesiastical may more handsomely make up that excellent Composition of Knave and Fool 'T is strange that no party can escape the Fury of his enraged Pen this doughty Wight may make a good Champion for the Truth but will a much better in the Rehearsal The Character of that Hero as high as it is may be more naturally applyed to Dr. B than it is by him to the Late Bishop of Oxford If you consider him elevated to such an Hogen or naturaliz'd for hectoring of KINGS invading of Kingdoms fighting of France combating England defying of Papists Presbyterians Dissenters Church-men and almost all Mankind but if the Loyal Parliament as he calls it in derision were such arrant Knaves for if he is in earnest then their Compliance with their KING is the best Test of their Loyalty and it would be well His Present Majesty had more proof of it and the Chief Men of the Church were such infatuated Fools as he makes them to be wrought upon by the Roman Catholicks for introducing their Religion why here then was a perfect Conspiracy for four and twenty Year of the whole Kingdome some poor supprest Dissenters excepted for bringing us back into Popery and what is more strange could never bring it to pass All our Power Civil and Ecclesiastical was concern'd all our Forces by Sea and Land King and Successor on their side and in his own dreadful Description A Parliament of chosen Creatures all depending upon Himself and this for near Twenty Years together and yet not one step toward Popery unless what appear'd in Andrew Marvels Growth of it but on the contrary in this very Interval of Time the Two severe Tests set up to prevent it and that by this Parliament of Creatures and this Treacherous designing King of his that he makes alwaies to the very last contriving to betray the Protestant Religion from his own meer Motion Marrying that he may see I can use the Word his two Neeces to two Renowned Princes of the Reformed Religion the greatest Security they could desire of his Sincerity to preserve and protect it and if I might add one thing more which I wish as well as the Dr. might be forgotten prevail'd upon from the tumultuous Proceedings of a Parliamentary Power to part with a Brother that had done nothing but to be more dear a palliated Exile that even the necessity of State could not so well excuse and if neither Councells Force Interest Time nor Religion it self could hitherto bring about all this Formidable Revolution I must confess notwithstanding the Discoveries of Dr. B to sober Men and honest this Late King cannot be suspected so false or any Catholicks so designing The Reformations in Henry 8 th Time King Edward Queen Mary Queen Elizabeth were certainly Four as great Changes and Revolutions as any we now fear and as I think somewhat like the same and yet we find they were not working for it under-ground for above Four and Twenty Year together to confine it only to his Reflections on the Late King and if we must credit all such Historians Plot we must add above an Hundred more marching their Invisible Army and Ammunition in the Air on the Sea under Earth PLOTS That Our Selves have blusht at and even judicially baffl'd their Belief But we still saw then that assoon as there was any new Succession to the Throne or any Prince of a different Sentiment that design'd to make any Alterations in the Church or State they were sooner compast with Ease and Expedition certainly these plotting Papists have been a long time very unlucky or very innocent when our happier Protestants had ever better Fortune and could Reform here more easily and openly in some few Years in the face and in the sight of the Sun and this I think is as clear too as some Peoples Designs which even at a season when they need not fly the Light the Dr. says we must still suppose in the dark His secret of the Dissenters having been encourag'd to stand out against Nonconformity even by the Court that pursu'd them with such Rigidity for not Conforming I am perswaded is another peculiar among the many Mysterious Intelligences of the Dr and not much inferiour to his wonderful Discoveries of the Conference at Dover his forreign Negotiations and His Majesty's being so nearly ally'd to the Society when he might so well prove him from the same Evidence A Priest in Orders for the Authority of his Liege Letter lies only at that Authors door who fram'd the other from Father Petre to Pere le Chaise both which will appear to those that have not abandon'd themselves to folly as entire Fictions he ought to discover him for once a Prophet too that having been essential of old to the Kingly Office and then he 'l have the better security for his Religion and may take his Word for an Oracle but the Dissenters will not thank him for thus making out their secret Correspondence with the Court and Iesuites but rather believe that he searcht no other Records for it than the Original Manuscripts of Dr. Oates his Evidence If this Advice to their standing out was only in order to introduce a Toleration how came it to pass that when they had one actually granted that those who
not without as great a disturbance to the State for Innovations tho' introduc'd for improvement and Reformation must unavoidably create Troubles and Confusions nay tho' there be nothing really new but only some alteration of Old Customs by bare Omission and receding from former Opinions hitherto receiv'd these sorts of Mutations being look'd upon as Novel attract the consideration of those whom it may Concern forms imediately a Party or a Sect which sets up in opposition to that which is Establisht and political bodies like to those that are truly natural having this common principle to endeavour for their own preservation there must unavoidable be great conflicts between that Party that would retain its Power and that which in spite of it would aspire to it our Henry the Eighth in 's Reign the first great Example amongst us of such a scene of Change and Animosity did himself best experience and describe it too and had some occasion to say that some peoples standing so stiff to their old Mumpsimus and others so Zealous for their new Sumpsimus had occasion'd a great deal of confusion in his Kingdom and I think so too tho' himself too was the most improper person in the world to pass the Animadversion for certainly if any Party can be answerable for the Ill consequences that attend an Alteration tho' the pretence be never so good it must in Justice be charg'd on that which gives the occasion to the Change there can be no Innovation either in a Church and State without Invading somwhat of a right either of Antiquity and Prescription Possession and the Law now I never met with a Legislator yet but what did allow him to be always in the wrong that invaded another mans Right and the Notion we have got in our Noddles of our Parliamentary power being able to do all this and almost any thing I believe some people will at present be loath to allow tho' very well pleas'd with the Latitude it took in our Original Reformation our Common Law did ever justify a Lay-man in the defence of his Inheritance and his House and if I mistake not our Magna Charta made That Church to have her Priviledges and Patrimony too and provides especially that they be kept unviolate when a strong man Armed keepeth his Palace his Goods are in peace but when a stronger man shall come upon him and overcome him he taketh from him all wherein he trusted and divideth the Spoil and I wish I could not apply it here to the Revenues of our Church And this perhaps you 'll find was like to have been the Case in France too Francis the First of that Kingdom having a mind to be Famous took the wisest way to make himself so by sending abroad for Men of Learning whose Pens might transmit his Fame with more advantage to Posterity expecting I suppose no Authors could then be met with that would write the Memoirs of their Monarch only to vilify him to Future Ages this encouragement you may be sure drew a great concourse from all Countrys upon promise of being incorporated too into a University at Paris Luther was then a Reforming in Germany where already they had fallen out amongst themselves as well as with the Emperor He takes this occasion to send Bucer and some of the best of his followers thither to propagate the Doctrine where for about ten Years they Flourish'd under the countenance of the Kings Sister and Wife to the King of Navar who you may be sure could have no kindness for the Pope that had depriv'd her Husband but the troubles these Innovations created to the Kingdom and the contumacious carriage and attempts they shew'd against the Church from the Countenance of that angry Queen provok'd the King so far that even her Power could not protect them from feeling his Resentment so that by several Edicts their Preachers were expel'd the name of Luther very nearly lost exstinguish'd but Calvin comes on and had better success for he being so debonair as to be able to write to them in French their own idioms the Vulgar tongue and it could not but tickle the common sort from hardly understanding it to be made Iudges in Religion so that all his doctrines could not but go down as indeed they did and spread so fast that Hen. the Second was alarm'd at it as any Prince would to find a Party become so formidable as to oppose the Church that was then establish'd by Law This made him endeavour to suppress them Amidst these Troubles the King dies and the Minority of his Son Francis soon rais'd them again to their former Vigor and that the whole Kingdom did afterward sufficiently feel for in this Conjuncture the Greatness of the House of Guise animating that of Bourbon to Rebel the Duke of Vendosme and Prince of Conde disgusted and slighted drew in the Two Chastilions Admiral Coligny and Mr. D' Andilot these discontented Courtiers Consulting together found no expedient so agreeable to promote their Designs as the drawing in of the Hugonots into the Conspiracy and by making themselves the Head of them and though the Duke de Vendosme did for a long time dislike it it was so carryed on by Conde Coligny and his Brother that in short the Hugonots were drawn in to Vnite and League themselves under the Princes of that House and this is that League or Vnion our Author shall call it which he pleases that by me was plainly meant into which the Protestants enter'd and not that of the Papists which was long after and I wish Dr. B. only more foresight when he would Libel and Invade my Sincerity they rais'd Men Monies and Ammunition come to Blois with Petitions in one hand and Swords in the other with an intent to seise the King and Queen and put the Guises to the Sword this would have been a little Massacre too but the Court having intimation of it was remov'd to the strong Castle of Amboise there they come too to pursue the design but the D. of Guise being made Lieutenant ordered the matter so that they were all routed and Renaudy the chief of the Rebells kill'd this tho' of their own seeking set all the rest of the Neighbouring Provinces in a flame they seiz'd upon Catholick Churches by force w ch if Calvin himself could call rashness the Romanist's might well Rebellion the same outrages they committed at Avignon so that at an Assembly at Fountainbleau it was thought best to make some favourable Edict in their behalf but this I hope will not excuse them from the blood that was spilt before or the Insurrection that was made since they prided themselves in it and glory'd in the Consternation they had cast on the Kingdom and without considering their Obligation to the Edict presently after concluded to seise upon some of the most considerable Towns in France and even Paris it self to depose the Queen remove
Iohn and his exercising such a severe Authority over the Church Fining severely for suppos'd Crimes I suppose our Author thinks should be least mentioned because it produc'd the Barons Wars but no one will say they were the better Subjects whatever were the King's Excesses Henry the Third some say was so like his Father that he succeeded him if they must be call'd so in his Excesses too in resuming alien'd Lands in Fines in making advantage of the Vacancies of the Church The Proceedings of Edward the First against his Clergy putting them out of his Protection seising upon their Goods and Edward the Second's Confiscations after the Defeat of the Earl of Lancaster this Author will call Excesses too though I cannot see why they may not all have the more moderate Names of the King's Proceedings as well as when all things were so warranted in the Reign of Edw. 6 th As we had begun with these Observations on our King 's antiently Exercising of an Vnlimited Power which in other Treatises I have shewn and which our Author if he will shall call Absolute from the Reign of Edward 3 d. So here the Dr. may observe these Presidents deduc'd down to that Time too and so cannot but see that such Excesses are inseparable from the Government and perhaps a Prerogative that Soveraignty cannot well or will not be without and if Subjects must be allow'd to Censure and Reflect on their Princes Proceedings it is morally impossible that they can provide against all their Clamours and Complaints the Necessities of State will many times force them to some Excesses and Diversities of Opions and Parties and now the too much to be lamented Divisions in Religion will ever make those Proceedings seem just to one side that are look'd upon as injurious by the other Our Author will oblige the Roman Catholicks very much if he will justify for Law all the Proceedings of Queen Eliz. and I 'le engage he shall have the Thanks of the Society as heartily as he had that of the House for in the First Year before any Act of Parliament had past for Alterations Images were defac'd and Altars demolish'd by Her Proclamations She put down all publick Preachers but such as were Licens'd by Her Authority the business of the Reformation and Altering of Religion if we believe Baker was Carryed in Parliament but by Six Voices and will give Catholicks occasion to say That notwithstanding the present Clamours about Regulating Elections great Artifices were us'd then too to bring it about and but by Six Votes at last the Weighty Cause of Religion was over-ballanc'd 'T is certain that Excesses were then Complain'd of too and it was murmurred about even in the Lower House it self that the Parliament was pack'd that the Duke of Norfolk Earl of Arundel and Sir William Cecil for their own Ends had sollicited Votes and made a Party These Irregularities may serve to silence some Peoples unreasonable and indiscreet Clamors at present since they can be so soon retorted and which I urge only to shew the Consequence of such ill-manag'd Objections and not to justify and defend them SECT X. ANd now that I may be grateful in my Acknowledgments as I shall ever be for any Favours I must confess this Author has assisted me with one President more and the Dr. would do well to be so fair in some of his Writings as to own his Authorities It is the Case in the Late King's Time where he repeals an Act about the size of Carts and Waggons To Answer this our Author Appeals to the Lawyers and the Gentlemen of the Long Robe though he will not stand by the Judgment of the Twelve Men in Scarlet that to their knowledge some Laws are understood to be Abrogated without a special Repeal when some visible Inconvenience enforces it when this comes to be impartially considered it will be a granting of all that he contends against and the Tests and Poenal Laws will expire of their own Accord by this Authors inconsiderate Resolution It is one of the very Arguments of a late Catholick Lawyer upon the Dispensing Power and so as the Dr. wisely appeals to them they as civilly answer him that he is in the right The Dr. did not foresee the Dangerous Consequence amongst Lawyers of his visible Inconvenience for the Law has such an Aversion to this Inconvenience that it maintains as a Maxim that a Mischief is better suffered than an Inconvenience now putting the Case thus That a Legislative Power may possibly pass into Law what may prove a visible Inconvenience to the whole Kingdom or a great Part of it that a great part of the Kingdom and the King himself do judge the Test and Poenal Laws very inconvenient that they have been really found so to the Subject that the KING has in this Case too declared Himself satisfy'd of this Inconvenience and the People address'd against it as intolerable then from his own President and Concession it must be concluded that either these Laws must expire of themselves that there must be some Soveraign Power such as the KING 's to dispense with them and that it is very fit for a Parliament to repeal them for certainly it must conclude a Fortiori that the Inconvenience that is found in forcing of a Conscience is of a greater Consideration than an inconvenience in a Cart Wheel neither does that abrogating of his without a special Repeal make any difference for their expiring by disusance is indeed the self same thing as the Royal Disspensation for in Laws once made the Soveraign Authority is solely entrusted with their Execution and where the KING does not command the Iudges to execute or expresly forbid it no man of sense but will say that this is a perfect Dispensation Our Author is very unlucky in touching upon some Instances that do him some Disservice and in this more especially since I cannot but observe that when these Poenal Laws about Carriages and Encouragement of Navigation were so erroneously made and People solicitous about the repealing them one of the designs of the greatest Ministers of State that they then had in Holland was for embroyling us at home upon the same Account that they might appear the more formidable abroad as well as we weaken'd by those Severities that occasion'd our Divisions which visible Inconvenience was then too in the same manner upon the same Maxims dispenss'd with and prevented only 't is somewhat strange that this darling Liberty of theirs by which they were so gloriously founded and for so long time have so finely Flourish'd should seem so dangerous in our Country and from the goodness of the Soyl could only prosper in theirs but where Trade seems a sort of Religion 't is time to be jealous of such Neighbours that would also learn this Ecclesiastical Policy to make of their Godliness a Gain too Our Author says it is our saying that the KING 's Dispensing Power
much an Allowance of the State as any Licence from one of our Secretaries or the Lord President himself especially when Reparation for such Injuries has been demanded in a publick memorial and manifesto and instead of punishing such Offences the Offenders are encourag'd to farther and severer Reflections and that perhaps with a promise of Impunity Since this Author will make his Quarrel a National one which I should think a wise People would not suffer to gratify but a single mans Malice It is but just that we shew too what Party were the first Aggressors and how easy 't is for our English to make their Iustification I must profess that while our Author is permitted there so scandalously to reflect upon His Majesty's Proceeding Common Justice will oblige us to return the same Animadversions while no Memorial of theirs can with any Modesty represent it as Injurious In the mean time I shall confine my self to these more particular Vindications of the KING and Kingdom where the Calumnies of his most malitious Papers have sufficiently affected both and let him know that I as little fear the Resentments of his States as he seems to do the juster Indignation of the King of England To put us in mind of the Circumstances of our State before the beginning of the Dutch War and to parallel it with the present time is another unlucky Topick of our Authors and a wise man would think might have been better let alone It will make us recollect that indefatigable Industry of one of their Greatest Ministers against the slackning of these Laws that our Divisions amongst our selves might the sooner sacrifice us a Prey to our Neighbours and the more secure some of them from His Majesty's asserting of His just Rights I hope our Author has no Commission for the denouncing War nor any design upon the Chain at Chattam that he talks of Invading a State and threatens us with their Resentment and Preparations If Time must shew that 't is time too to look to our selves but I dare not detract so much from the Wisdom of their Lordships his new Masters as not to think they will not call him to an Account now for abusing themselves though with greater Decency they might suffer it against his Soveraign this is intermedling with Peace and War nay even a denouncing it before the States Generals I am confident have taken it into Consideration we do not hear yet they have agreed to any extraordinary Contributions for it there has been no Pole yet nor the hundredth Penny nor any Imposition upon Travellers but as formidable as our Author would make them whose Interest it is to magnify his Protectors this Historian must remember too that the Valour of his repudiated English has heretofore as victoriously engag'd them and that when assisted with two Crowns in Conjunction and in that juncture too when we had more merciless Enemies at home when the Almighty made himself indeed a consuming Fire and the Destroyer walk'd before it in darkness and a devouring Plague Two entire Victories were return'd us from the Sea to triumph over the Misfortunes that the land lay under and in the third Attack as unequal as we were in strength was by the weakness of both sides left undecided an Action in which 't was Glory enough only to have been the Aggressors The Courage of the Dr's deserted Nation was then confess'd by some of their great Ministers that would have so fomented our Divisions and found too much the Effect of the slackning of these Laws one would think that the Iealousy of such Neighbours should weigh with Men of Sense that it is a sincere Design to establish and continue with us both Liberty and Religion since it appears so much a visible Interest almost an unavoidable Necessity If a visible Inconvenience will warrant a Repeal why will not an Interest as visible secure us after it 't is strange that a Protestant People can make no difference between an invisible Establishment of the Catholick Religion and a visible Necessity that the Papist have to preserve themselves from a threatned Ruin. It is such a peculiar Confidence that it becomes none but our Author or is no where but in him to be found to tax us so unreasonably for Reflecting on a State to which we have nothing of Relation and that only in Matters of Tradition and Truth at the same time that he vilifies a Crown'd Head to which he owes an Obedience and that with Forgery and Falslehood The Defence of KING and Country I think is every Subjects Concern by Nature if it were not commanded also by municipal Law and that leads me to justify our selves both in the Tripple Alliance and the Business of the Smyrna Fleet both which he upbraids us with as naturally as if he had been a Native of Holland and no need of being naturaliz'd though I cannot but think that those that revile their Allyes for old Breaches betray too much their willingness to make new That Allyance that was between Them Vs and the King of Sweden had in it this Conditional Clause That the Confederates were to assist one another if for the sake of their entering into such a League they were at any time by any other Party invaded the King of France declares a War soon after against the Dutch it did not appear from his Declaration that their entering into this Allyance was the Reason he declar'd it and that it was therefore his revengeful War which are Words express'd in the Articles for then he had the same Revenge to take against the rest of the Allyes against whom he denounc'd no war at all and it is a Rule in such Leagues as well as a Maxim among the Civil Lawyers that an Obligation that is conditionally specify'd must not extend as if it had no condition and were unlimited and for this Reason did the Dutch insist so much upon that Point that the War which threatned them from France was only upon the Account of that Allyance which as it did not appear either from any Discovery that could be made or the Declaration that was publish'd so it could not oblige England unless she would have been so forward to have engag'd in the War upon presumption and that the Swedes were of the same opinion appear'd from their neutrality and indifference This is that famous Violation for which we must be so much reflected on this is what the Dutch were pleas'd to call a Breach and which if it were in the least to be look'd upon as such they were only oblig'd for it to their fam'd Friend that fled to them too for Protection who was naturaliz'd also after the deepest Conspiracy detected against our KING and who was celebrated for the only Author of that uncharitable Aphorism Delenda est Carthago SECT XI IN the next place for his Heroical Attempt as he calls it on the Smyrna Fleet it seems his