some choice golden Lewis's Art fully brandisht before their Eyes by a French Emissary And these plausible advices which so tickled him in his most sensible part prevail'd on him to Act in all things just the reverse of what he had sometime before been counsell'd by those who best understood and had all along when believed most successfully pursued and carried on the interest of that universal Sovereignty which they would have perswaded him to court gently but his hot Jesuited Councellors would needs have him attempt to ravish which impotent and ill tim'd Essay has now so much alarm'd the Coy Lady Vniversal Monarchy that if we mistake not having providentially untwisted her self out of his Arms and got clearly out of the reach of his violence she will not admit his cringing Addresses any more For looking not without cause upon both the Protestant and the Pope though most opposite in Principles to be most mighty obstacles in his way to universal Sovereignty the one as being perfectly inform'd in the knowledge of the truth in Jesus Christ and zealously affected to the Defence both of their Natural and civil liberty as Men and Subjects and of their Spiritual privileges as Christians and the other pretending not only a kind of Sovereignty over a great part of all Princes Subject of the Roman Communion namely the Clergy both Secular and Regular and all religious Persons and by them a dangerous rivalling influence over all the rest of their people But also holding as t' were the Balance of power in his own hand even in temporal matters between all Popish Princes and States and being no less intress'd for maintenance of himself and successors in that Power and Figure to hinder the growth of any one Prince to an excessive Grandeur than the Protestant were for the preservation both of their Civil and Religious Liberties and therefore having agreeably enough to the rules of Policy resolv'd equally upon the removal of both these dangerous adversaries by totally destroying the Protestants and casting Popery it self into a new Model that might dispose the whole body of Christians both Clergy and Laity to such a tame and supple temper as might make them alike susceptible of his intended universal Yoak Thus it pleased the Almighty Being to make him the very chiefest instrument himself in breaking the neck of these his greatest and ambitious Designs by leaving him to the infatuating delusions of new Jesuited Advisers whereby he forsook the more sure Maxims of his old sagacious Counsellors Richelieu Mazarin and the Le Telliers and to drive Jehu-like and rashly to attempt to do all at once what should have been enterpriz'd at very different Seasons and those wisely tim'd one after the other For at the same time the poor Protestants were so hotly persecuted and barbarously handled the Pope's Authority was then as briskly attack'd not only in the business of the Ragalia but in several other more fundamental points importing no less than the utter ruin of the whole Machine of that Ecclesiastical Monarchy insomuch that this great haughty Monsieur thought himself doubtless some prodigious Giant that could reach both poles at once with each arm one viz. That of the Northern Heresie as they term it and the Southern Supremacy and snapping them off short to make the World turn thence forward upon the sole Axle tree of his Arbitrary and imperious will as sufficiently appeared not only by the proceedings of the Sorbonne of the Assembly of the Clergy of Paris and of the French Kings chief Advocate Mr. Talon and by the strange acting of Mr. Lavardin at Rome it self and the writings of Mr. Maimburg The Writings and Actings of all which against the Authority of the Sea of Rome were hardly ever out-done by those they vainly call'd and at the same time persecuted as Hereticks but also by many odd Theses and Positions then maintain'd in several places up and down that Kingdom whereof these were some viz. I. That as Princes had the Power of nominating other Bishops to the Sees vacant in their Dominions so the greatest Prince in Christendom had a right of â—â—â—â—â—inating the greatest Bishop namely the Pope II. That the Election of a Pope by the private College of Cardinals was an Innovation III. That the Kings of France having some time delivered the Popes from the oppression of the Lombards and founded the new Empire of the West acquired thereby not only a right to chuse future Popes but that they are thereby still the only Rightful Emperours the eldest Sons of the Church and the greatest of Christian Princes Which by the way would be a stronger Argument to prove both the Empire Kingdom of France and the Election of the Pope c. to belong to the young Duke of Lorrain than to Lewis the 14th that young Prince being Lineally descended from Charles the great whose race that of the present French King supplanted IV. That the residence of the Pope is not fixed any more to Rome than it was formerly to Antioch but that it ought to be in the capital City of the greatest Christian Prince pro tempore or in such other place as he shall approve of V. That the French King in his Right may if he please divest the Cardinals of Rome of the right of Election of Popes or disown such as they shall choose and make an Arch-Bishop of Paris or any other prelate Pope that such Pope so nominated would be a true Successor of St. Peter though he should dwell at Paris or elsewhere and have no temporal Dominions and that he ought to be own'd as such by all other Roman Catholick Princes because nominated by the Successor of Charles the great and a Prince no less great in Power than he who was the restorer of the Papal Authority VI. That as the Temporal Dominions of the Pope were at first given him by French Kings they may be forfeited and taken back again and that for the peaceable enjoyment of them the Pope ought to grant freedom of Quarters to the French Kings Ambassador at Rome as an acknowledgment of the Sovereignty of him of whom he holds them and that he ought not to grant the like privilege to any other Ambassador These and many other such like Theses there were about the Pope's Power and Authority in Spirituals as well as Temporals whereby they allow'd him little more than what is granted by some Protestants and what any other Patriarchs do enjoy as is deducible from their own Writings in this you may see an Image of the new Popery intended by the French King who by this appears to be only so far for Popery as will serve his own turn to make both Pope and Papists his Vassals or Slaves what other meaning had he when he treated the Nuns of the Society so severely called the Nuns of the Infancy of Jesus and threw Madam Mondeuville into Prison for mediating c. Such is the favour he designs to afford them if ever in
Memory after having furmounted numbers of sundry Obstacles thought indeed to be insurmountable and with a prodigious and undaunted Resolution Conduct Prudence and Constancy laid the Foundations of a flourishing Republick that now sends forth Ambassadors daily upon equal terms to the most puissant Kings in the habitable part of the Earth and even to the King of Spain himself who accepts the alliance and assistance of those his quondam Subjects whom not content to rule as such his haughty and impolitick Progenitors sometime treated as Slaves and Abjects And how his Warlike Great and Famous Uncles and Grand-fathers by the continued course of their Victories fixt and established the dear-bought liberty and greatness of their Country by the hazard of their Lives and Fortunes and the vast expence of their Treasures is amply set forth by many florid and learned Pens Nor have even the Writers of their very Enemies side been able to be silent of their Praises and noble Acts so manifest to the whole World And therefore we judge it altogether superfluous to say any more here on this Subject Nam Genus proavos quae non fecimus ipsi Vix ea nostra voco Our main and chief design in this small 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being only to show how our present illustrious Prince after that he had no less miraculously retrieved not only the very Being but even the prosperity and greatness of the same State when through the Treachery and sottish negligence of its then Governours it seem'd as t' were to the World's eye to be tumbled down to the very Foundations and laid all in Rubbish by the thundring and surpassing fury of a more powerful Monarch than the former Roboam of Spain has still providentially advanced by most glorious and successfull steps against that formidable and too much prevailing Nero of the West and alone given life to almost if not all the efforts that have been made against his uncontrollable power which else would like an irresistible Tyde or Sea where the Banks are broken down have deluged even all Europe And how at length in recompence of so many hard Toils and Perils of his precious Life for the Publick Good the almighty Lord of Battels particularly for the glory of his holy Name and the well-fare of his suffering Church hath by a series of Providences more wonderfull than all the rest exalted Him to a station that 's above many of his noble Ancestors and placed Him on the Sovereign Throne of the most Military and Formidable Kingdoms of the West and bestowed upon him yearly still new and fresh earnests or specimens of his having really elected Him to compleat like the great Constantine whose Sovereign power likewise had its first rise in the warlike British Isles the full deliverance of his oppressed Children and the Re-erection of his Church in a Triumphant State both of Purity and Prospirity by at least the crushing under if not the utter subversion of that Babilonish Power and Authority which has been so long the Bar which letteth the growth of the Truth of the Gospel and the right understanding of the great Mysteries of Godliness as well as the Plague and Terrour of all quiet and peaceable Christians This glorious Prince I say as if indeed God of his great Mercy and Goodness had removed all humane Tutelage and Protection on mere purpose that he might shew us and all the World that he himself took Him under his own immediate and peculiar care and Guardianship as a mighty Heroe by whom he graciously intended to work or bring to pass some Signal and Extraordinary Deliverances to his own Israel was most unhappily deprived of his Father a Prince of a truth of most hopeful and surpassing Courage Prudence Piety and all other very noble Endowments even before he was brought forth into the World Being taken off by that common Distemper the Small Pox in the very Spring of his Days or flower of his Age being but twenty four years Old when he died And our blessed Prince coming into the World not till some few days after his renowned Father's decease viz. on the fourth of November Anno 1650. He was verily observed in his tender Years or youthful Days to discover a Discretion Moderation sweetness of Temper and a Reservedness much beyond or above his Age. And his Prudence Valour and other Princely Virtues increasing daily with his Stature He gave his Relatives and Friends as well as those about him all the Appearances of an extraordinary share of Courage Conduct and all other Dispositions that could possibly be desired in a Prince in order to qualifie him As for an affectionate Father so also for a most powerful Defender of his Rights and Country And it is most peculiarly observable that though God hath permitted sundry mighty endeavours to have been made by Domestick Factions even from his very Cradle in order to have opprest his growing Greatness and several horrid and execrable Plots and Devices to have been carried on with great Secresie both by them and the Intrigues of Foreign Princes to defeat his grand Designs and to bereave him of his most Just Lawful and Hereditary Rights and Honours or of his precious Life it self Yet still thanks be to God for it and adored be his holy Name the many oppositions and hellish Machinations of his implacable and undeserv'd Enemies have been by good Providence made to serve even against their original intention only to his far greater Glory and Exaltation causing his noble Virtues to be more seen in the World as the Stars shine brightest in the darkest night For though the Faction of Barnevelt continued and upheld afterwards by the De-wits prevail'd upon the States General in those daies most ungratefully and ungenerously to deprive our accomplisht young Prince of all his Hereditary Dignities and Employments yet at the same time they thus took care to depress the Prince they were so infatuated and blinded with inveterate malice against him that they minded not at all to what Dangers they then exposed their State or Country To which end they committed the greatest Blunders imaginable in Politicks for after the Peace of Munster foolishly believing they had no more Enemies to fear but the Ancient and Warlike House of Nassau whose greatness they conjectured if not timely depress'd would be a perpetual Obstacle to their unjust and ambitious designs of grasping the Government entirely into their own hands they therefore rashly and without any consideration disbanded all their hardy Veteran Forces and well experienced Commanders by whose valour and hard toil their Country had been raised to that flourishing condition it was then in only for that very reason because they looked upon them as too much affected to his Highness the Prince of Orange and this was done too without the least care to procure or provide any other old experienc'd Troops in their Room Moreover they gave the chiefest Employments in their Armies and Garrisons at that
imginable were made to conspire and concur with as much Union and Harmony as if they had been all 〈◊〉 one and the self-same Soul or 〈◊〉 who is Ens Entium as well as 〈◊〉 Causarum for even Enemies Friends Papists Protestants Winds and Seas all acted towards and promoted proportionably this grand and glorious design of Providence even while they contended most against it Because therefore it will not be a little edifying and instructive to us of these Kingdoms not only in our Religious but also in our Politick and civil Concerns to understand rightly and comtemplate in some measure the most miraculous method used by the Divine and over-ruling Power in producing this happy and never to be forgotten Revolution of great Britain and Ireland Before we proceed to give you any account of that we shall as far as we in a private Station could or think fit for particular Persons to prie into give you a short view of the several steps that were made on all sides towards it till at the last they were all deceived some very happily as being carried on far beyond their first proposed ends and the utmost of their hopes and the others with a more Melancholick Surprize finding themselves defeated of their Giant-like expectations and driven upon such Rocks as they thought they had steered the surest course to avoid And first we will begin with the French King his illustrious Highness the Prince of Orange's most inveterate and irreconcilable Enemy ever since the refusal of his Overtures for betraying his Native Countrey and shew what steps he himself though a great Master of Politicks made to this great and blessed Revolution which may by God's blessing prove in due time a means to bring him to Subjection to this ancient and imperial Crown of England again In order to secure the success of the mighty Project which has been so eagerly pursued and carried on by Lewis the 14th for some Years past of attaining the universal Monarchy of the West it is not at all doubted by any well versed in Politicks but of all other things it was most highly necessary that his surest Alley the late King James should be fully and absolutely Master of his Kingdoms and till that were effected and put out of all danger of being Travers'd that it was no less needful for him namely the French King to treat his Protestant Subjects at home well nay rather better than ordinary to keep up a good correspondence likewise with the Pope and other Roman Catholick Princes to have religiously observed the Truce with the Empire to have dissembled for some time at least his resentments against the renown'd Prince of Orange to have restored him the Principality of that Name which he most unjustly extorted from his noble Ancestors to have perswaded his Uncle to have caress'd him to have kept fair with the Hollanders to have terrified no body with Arms of Cruelties but only to have supply'd his faithful Ally of great Britain constantly and privately with sufficient Moneys and carried on all his Intrigues elsewere only with the underhand and potent charms of Gold to have perswaded King James to have let alone the Intrigue of the pretended Prince of Wales to have abstain'd from multiplying Popish Chapels and publick toleration of Jesuits and Priests to have forborn the planting a Jesuitical Crew in Magdalene College to have abstain'd from sending Mandamus after Mandamus to violate the ancient Privileges of that Loyal and Famous University of Oxford to have forborn the sending of the most Reverend and right Reverend the Bishops those Pillars of our true Reformed Church of England into the Tower In a word to have contented himself only with new modelling Corporations and insensibly new regulating his Army and Court till all had been sure Had he been duly cautious and circumspect in these particulars it had been shrewdly probable if not an assured thing that a great part of the Clergy Nobility and Gentry of England would not have seen through the late king James's Designs nor at least have believed them till perhaps they had felt the Chains about their Necks that his Army would have stood by him till at last when things had been full ripe for it they had seen the greatest part of themselves ship'd off upon some suddain Foreign Quarrel and their places supply'd at home by Soldiers in French pay And this might have been peradventure so politickly managed as not to have alarm'd the illustrious Ancient and Warlike House of Austria the Hollanders perchance would have unconcernedly lookt upon it being so exceedingly busied about the Indian Gold and Treasures and the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland might perhaps have been lull'd fast asleep by their present Peace vast Trading and Plenty And this step once gain'd the subtil Monsieur could have securely oppress'd the Spanish Netherlands once again over-run Holland and have invaded the Empire when the imperial Forces should have been perhaps as dreaming of no danger from the Rhine employed as far as Bulgaria or Romania in chasing the Turks and these were the Counsels of his wisest Ahitophel the late famous Louvois But he that taketh the wise in his own craftiness and maketh Diviners mad and brings good out of Evil caused that vulgar Proverb here to prove an Oracle That Quos perdere vult deus prius dementat God first blinds or renders foolish those whom he hath resolv'd to destroy for the deep and most surely laid Counsels of that great States-man were providentially over-rul'd by the fawning influence of Jesuited Heads whereof some were on Mens and some more advantageously placed on the necks of the charming and seldom failing Sex who working upon the French King 's unmeasurable Vanity and unlimitted Ambition very easily perswaded him that his Power was now grown so Formidable and all his Forces for Sea and Land so well disciplin'd that he needed not to be so much inslaved to those cautious Measures proposed by his Ministers of State as he had been hitherto but leaving those flow paces to the Sages of the House of Austria who placed most of their Majesty in deliberate Counsels and more slow Executions he might now resume his natural briskness and advance securely the nearest way to Glory especially since England was then under a Roman Catholick Prince entirely at his Devotion upon all occasions And with all seeing things at that time were in such a posture that the imperial Force was so wholly taken up in a War in the remotest Frontiers of Christian Europe there was no other Power that either durst or could timely and effectually oppose his Attempts either in Religious or civil Matters and that the most active Spirits that were best able or most disposed to obstruct the course of his prosperous advance were many of them as well Princes as their Ministers now become wonderful docile and disciplinable without word of Mouth or beat of Drum only by the bare Lustre and Loadstone of
ever set out in Great Britain under St. Peter's Banners since Queen Mary's days These were the Actions of Pope Innocent the XIth against Lewis the XIVth and such were the Remonstrances and Advices both of his Nuncio and the Spanish and Imperial Ambassadours in England to the late King James Which His Imperial Majesty afterwards in his Letter to the Late King in Answer to one from him relating the Doleful Story of his Abdication hints at and tells him Had they been followed he might still have been upon the Throne with all the Advantages of a Great English Monarch The obstinate neglect of which Councils the most safe and prudent that could be given to a Popish King of England at that time of the day together with the formidable growth and the aforesaid Insolent Proceedings of the French King caused both the Pope and the Ancient and Potent Houses of Austria and Bavaria not onely to League themselves together but also for their Common Defence both against French Popery and French Power which were advancing hand in hand to attack them And which if suffer'd to fix footing in England would shortly become altogether irresistible to Confederate Nay even with the Protestant Princes and Powers the one viz. the Temporal Princes of Austria and Bavaria Immediately and the other namely the Pope Mediately and Covertly by abetting and underhand promoting the Intrigues and Attempts of the others for the carrying on such Designs as should divide England from the French Interest though it were by the Dismounting a Prince of their own Religion and placing a Protestant upon the Throne They being very well satisfied it was much safer for Popery in General as well as for their particular Temporal Interests to see a Protestant wear the Crown of England though to the seeming disadvantage of the Popish Religion in that particular Kingdom that would help them to balance the excessive Power of France than to suffer a Popish King of Great Britain of the French Stamp to assist the French Monarch to enslave all other much more Catholick Princes depress the Papal Power it self and impose a Popery worse to them than what their erroneous fancies teach them to call Heresie But that which clincht the Nail home and which not only confirm'd them in those Resolutions but hastned them to a speedy execution of them were three very dangerous Attempts of the French King the one was the powerful Interest the French had made to get their Devoted Creature that Arch-Traytor to his Countrey the Quondam Prince William but now Bishop of Strasburg and Cardinal of Furstemberg to be chosen Elector of Cologne that he might be the more able to back his old Benefactour Lewis the 14th in all his Encroachments upon the Empire in awing the rest of the Electors on the Rhine and by them influencing the whole Electoral College to deprive the House of Austria of the Imperial Dignity by choosing Lewis the French Dauphin for King of the Romans or Successor to the Emperor instead of the Arch-Duke Joseph c. The second was his breaking so perfidiously the new made Truce though sworn to for twenty Years and under the pretence of backing the Election of his dear Cardinal and pursuing some extravagant Demands he was pleased to make in the name of the Dutchess of Orleans of the present Prince Palatine to besiege and surprise Philipsburg and committing a thousand Outrages and Hostilities elsewhere at a time when the Emperour trusting to the security of the twenty years Truce was employing his Arms to repell the Turks the sworn Enemies of Christianity in the remotest borders of Christendom The third was his declaring War against Holland because they seem'd to oppose his base illegal violences in endeavouring to force an Election which ought to be free and that in a Country where the proud Tyrant had no right to meddle and which was so near their Frontiers and that too being not content with that as if he had had the late King James's Head under his Girdle he was pleased to threaten that England should do the like and as a forerunner of it perswaded King James abruptly and without any reason given to recall his Subjects out of the Dutch Service at a time when he had no visible occasion for them These Reasons all put together made the Roman Catholick Princes to league with Holland and the Protestant Princes of Germany and to favour the Blessed and Glorious Design of our present Sovereign Lord King William c. to endeavour to break the strong Chains that were preparing for all Europe by first breaking those of England and by seizing before hand of the Reins of Government over those most willing Nations that were so exceeding glad of his seasonable help in time of Need the Succession of which should he delay a Moment was visibly going to be most unjustly alienated from him by the means of a supposititious Child brought upon the Stage only for a blind and to be consign'd unto the Tyrannical hands of the French Monarch And lastly that which made an end of giving a through alarm to the Pope was the French King 's insulting and insolent proceedings by his Ambassador at Rome it self his invading of Savoy and Piedmont and carrying thereby the War into Italy which by the bye is now one of the most troublesome Thorns that he has in his foot and which he would most fain be rid of it having proved notwithstanding his Successes the most chargeable and incommodious War to him next that of England of any of the rest Which considerations made the Pope and the rest of the Roman Princes and particularly the Spaniards employ sundry Priests devoted to their interests but as so many Spies about the late King James to fish out the secrets of the Frenchified Cabal and to communicate the same from time to time to the late Spanish Ambassadour who failed not to advertise the King his Master the illustrious Prince of Orange and all the Allies nor yet to communicate them to the Nobility Gentry and qualified Citizens of England to whose secret advice thus obtain'd next to God Almighty we owe all the satisfactory light we have had into the dark Intrigue of the pretended Prince of Wales which above all things gave the last and most powerful Impulse to those Motions that brought about the late Happy and wonderful Revolution Having thus seen how the French King by catching too eagerly at Vniversal Monarchy and his Ally the late King James by adhering to the French Counsel more than to his own English Subjects stirr'd up the most zealous Princes of the Roman Communion and even the Pope himself to side with the Protestant Powers against them and readily to concur with these last even to the suppression of all hopes of their own Religions becoming predominant in England and rather than see it planted there by French hands We cannot therefore at all wonder that the Protestant Foreign Powers and the people of
their Words by popping up a Child all on a sudden to act the Prince of Wales and put him and his Royal Princess by the Succession of these Crowns of which they were the true undoubted presumptive Heirs no less unjustly than they had depriv'd him of his other possessions and all this only to put him out of Power and make him uncapable to vindicate his own and his poor Subjects former wrongs to protect any longer with success the Re-publick he had hitherto so prosperously defended to revenge the unspeakable oppressions of the people in France or support or retrieve the Protestant Religion and civil Rights and Liberties of the ancient and warlike people of Great Britain whereof he appeared a kind and powerful Defender and who were his undeniable Subjects in Reversion and whose Interests he seem'd resolv'd zealously to espouse and as stiffly to defend as his own And when he saw the people of all Ranks and Qualities and of all Religions and Interests in the three Kingdoms but one to wit the Papists with one common and earnest mind and voice call to him as next undoubted Heir at Law to take care no Damage might be done by the present Possessour in the Lands of his Succession to resist the most unjust Usurpation or Alienation intended by a Supposititious Child and the malicious Intrigues of a Jesuited Step-Mother and in a word to redress all the manifold Wrongs and Oppression of the Subjects to save the Protestant Religion and the civil Liberties of all Europe which depended chiefly in that dangerous Juncture upon the Preservation of Great Britain to 〈◊〉 Confederacy from becoming a Pâ—ey to the overgrown Monster of France Of the loss of all which and of the vast Detriment that would have thence happen'd to so many millions of precious Souls and to the publick Weal of all Christendom he would have been undoubtedly thought highly guilty had he neglected so many forcible Calls and indispensible Obligations both of Nature Duty and Interest And lastly when besides all these irresistible Motives he considered that the danger was extreamly pressing that Ireland was already Haltered and bound as a Sacrifice ready to be offered Scotland strongly manacled and the intolerable Chains just ready to be thrown over England's Neck and the terrible glittering Sword drawn out and ready to be Brandish'd against himself and his Republick and that unless he would resolve to strike the first Blow it would be too late to strike at all And Finally that unless he made an attempt upon England while his Allys had Forces and time to spare for his assistance and the Armies in England as well as the people of all sorts were in a Condition as well as Disposition to second his noble and excellent Efforts that the very next Spring perhaps some of the Allys might find an English Army upon their Frontiers intermixt with French and an Army of Frenchified Switzers and Irish Tories in possession of England and the English and French Fleets masters of the Sea asserting the Greatness of Lewis the 14th and Holland and the Spanish Netherlands swallow'd up by a sudden inundation breaking violently in upon them on all sides before they were aware or that their nearest and most powerful Allys could come up within sight much less within reach enough to give them any Assistance I say when our wise and presaging Prince now his most Excellent Majesty saw and duly weighed all this how loath soever he were to do any thing that might bear the least Shadow or Semblance of ill or that might seem to violate that Tenderness and Respect he had naturally for an Uncle and a Father-in-law of that great Quality Yet now when not only his private Interests lay at stake but the publick Happiness and Well-fare of so many Myriads of Souls so many Kingdoms and Territories some of which he had such an indispensible Obligation to take care of were in such extraordinary pressing Danger and Honour of Conscience even of King James himself basely beslur'd and abused by so gross a Cheat put upon him by the subtil Intrigues of Jesuits and his Jesuited Consort in prejudice of his own Natural and undoubted Issue in order to the inslaving Him as well as his Subjects every whit as much to the Caprices of France as he is now and to the manifest greater peril of his Life than since has happen'd by the attempts his people would have made against the Intrigues of his Deluders had not they found a far more regular and legal Assistance otherwise And considering that there was no other remedy but breaking the neck of their mischievous Proceedings by some sudden and surprizing Master-stroke of Power and Policy He now stood no longer consulting with Flesh and Blood and parling with the unseasonable reasonings of the tenderness we have been speaking of but fully resolve with all Expedition to prepare for the prevention and happy redress of so great a storm of Evils as otherwise he foresaw would most inevitably fall upon England Scotland and Holland Yea on all the greatest part of Europe But leave we our Gracious Prince a while making his war like Preparations and stuffing his stately Wooden Horses with fierce courageous Troops not to Burn but to save our otherwise lost Troy and make a step back to England to see how all things there concurr'd and worked together to meet his most noble Endeavours and Crown his so glorious and heavenly Enterprises with a bless'd Success beyond all Expectation If we come then to examine things there likewise we shall still find that our Royal Heroe's Enemies whilst they were plotting his Destruction and the enslaving of these Nations under a double Yoak of Popery and Arbitrary power which were both to Centâ—â— in an entire Subjection to the Tyrâ—nny of the French King made Tools of themselves by an Over-ruling Providence not only to save but to exalt them whose utter ruine they really design'd and even lift them up to such a Power as to be able to throw down their New Erected Babel in England and to shake the very Foundations of their Old one so long setled even in France it self For the late King James besides the Mistakes and Faults which he had all along fallen into and daily persisted to commit for want of discerning his own true Interests from those of France and for lack of seeing the Bottom of the French King's Designs made all other steps that his Enemies could have wish'd him to take towards the bringing upon himself Swift Destruction and the Advancement of that Warlike-Prince to the Throne of Great Britain which against the strong Obligations of Nature and without any sense or regard of his own highly injured honour thereby his late Majesty shamefully went about by the subtle Stratagems of Jesuits and Priests to bereave him and his Royal Consort of For besides his â—â—â—ing so openly with France and most highly disobliging thereby the rest of the Roman Catholick Powers as we have
they had out of an Excess of Respect to the Late King born till a Remedy was within an Ace of being too late the Insolences of a few despicable hot-headed Jesuits and Monks influenc'd by the French Father la Chaiese whose blind Unthinking Passive Tool P. Peters was to call for Assistance to the Next Presumptive Heirs of the Crown These then were their further Designs upon the Clergy I. To New-Rate all Ecclesiastical Preferments and make them pay First-fruits Tenths c. according to their present yearly value and not according to the old Rates II. To examine at their Ecclesiastical Commission the ways and means used by Clergy-Men possess'd of Benefices to come into them and if they could be charged with the least appearance of Simony to deprive them and give their Livings to Popish-Priests or formerly depriv'd Nonconformist Ministers or others devoted to their Interests to hold by Dispensation or otherwise III. To Nose the Conformable Clergy by allowing a Right to Papists and Dissenters to keep publick Registers and to pay but half-Dues to the Parish Ministers for burying IV. To nominate no New Protestant Bishops or other Ecclesiastical Dignities in place of those that should die and to foist in as many Popish Priests and Dissenting Ministers as they could into all Ecclesiastical Benefices that should be vacant from time to time who were to hold them by Dispensation and supply them by conforming Curates till they should be strong enough to establish Popery by open Force V. To have the Jurisdiction of vacant Bishopricks administred by Commissioners and their Revenues employed for maintenance of Popish Bishops Priests or Seminaries c. As likewise the Revenue of all vacant Deaneries Prebendships c. And to obtrude as many Popish School-masters as they could into all vacant Free-Schools with several other projects VI. To remove all Causes from the Bishops Courts to their Ecclesiastical Commission VII After some time to sieze the Cathedral of St. Paul's when it should be Built and the Abby of Westminster for Popish use allowing only the Dean and Prebends in case they quietly abandoned the possession of them their full Revenues during life These things were really intended against the Clergy over and above what was actually already done but then to Curb the Laity of all Degrees these further Measures were concerted to put in Execution as fast as they could I. A new Court like that of the Star-Chamber though under a disguised name was to be erected II. To Awe and Balance the Power and Interest of the Metropolitan City of London without the rougher Methods of a Tower or Garrison c. It was resolv'd to erect the City of Westminster into a Corporation like to that of London to be govern'd by a Lord Mayor Aldermen common Council c. with as ample Privileges Immunities and Freedoms as the ancient City of London enjoys in order to invite People of Wealth and Trade as great Merchants c. to settle there as well as in London and thereby to cause an Emulation between them that might keep both Cities tight to the Crown or at least to keep that of London from being potent enough alone to contest any more with their King or make too strong a party against him III. The Militia when they durst were to be all Disarm'd and the Money levied for the maintenance of them applyed for that of a standing Army IV. In case the Parliament to be call'd after the new model of Corporations and Counties that then was endeavouring was finished answered not expectation Then a Parliament was to be packt after the method of those of Cromwell's composed most of Army Officers Courtiers and such others as they knew were disposed vigorously to concurr with all projects to the ruining of the publick Liberty V. After things were come to perfection the House of Commons was to be declared unnecessary and pernicious and all Legislative Authority to reside in the King and a select Council of Lords and Gentry VI. In order to this the Army was by degrees to be new Modell'd and stuft with English French Scotch and Irish Papists or Persons indifferent in Religion or of none at all with some Dissenters c. And all Church of England Men by little and little put out of the Council and out of all places of Trust both Civil and Military VII That most of the English Forces should be on some suddain pretence shipt over into French Service and reimplac'd by as many French who with something a greater number of English Scotch Irish Papists and Popish Swissers were to constitute the King's Guards and the standing Forces of England And Scotland and Ireland were to be guarded by natural Irish and such others of English or Scotch extraction that were Papists VIII A new Court of Wards was to be Establish'd by virtue of which all Minors and Infants being brought under the King's Tutelage should be brought up in the Romish Religion as was already begun to be practised in Scotland But notwithstanding all these Attempts upon the Rights and Liberties of the Subject contrary to positive Law his own Solemn Promises and his Coronation Oath so extreamly affectionate were the best part of the Nation to the person of their Prince and so wholly averse to the contributing any thing to the embroiling these Nations a second time in Civil Wars as being so very sensible of the miseries of the last whose deep Scars scarcely well healed yet remain'd in view not without horrour before their Eyes and reluctancy on their Spirits That they were very hardly and with much difficulty induced to believe any thing of their King that savour'd of an ill design and when they were convinc'd of it by infallible Proofs and the undoubted Testimony of their own Senses together with Church and State now smarting under the Burthen Yet would they have thought it their most dutiful safe and wisest Course tamely to suffer almost any Inconveniences and Insults from him rather than to involve the three Kingdoms in fresh dangers by any active Resistance especially considering that he was already well stricken in Years and could not Reign long Had not they seen those very Princely Heirs and Nursing Parents to the Church in whom they reposed all hopes of Redress treated after the same Injurious manner as the Subjects and not only Menac'd but plainly going to be both for ever excluded of their Succession by a Jesuitical imposture or a supposititious Prince of Wales and driven even from their present possessions both in the Netherlands and Germany as they had newly been already from those in France by a formidable Invasion and that they namely the Subjects were to be made Tools of both for their own Destruction and that of those pious famous and most gracious Princes from whom only under God they hoped for Relief and Deliverance And had not they had perfect Information by means of the Spanish Ambassadour as aforesaid of all the Intrigues and
Consequence to all Princes And among other Troops they just now raised a new Regiment of Horse-Guards all notorious Papists for the pretended Prince of Wales and committed the custody of his Person to them only and to the Irish III. After the renown'd Prince of Orange and his Forces were happily landed at Tor-bay and had given Directions for the speedy landing the rest and the Canon to be unship'd for the more conveniency at Topsham the late King James's Council as influenc'd by the French advised him to neglect sending the body of Scotch and Irish Soldiers in which he confided to attack the Princes Force while they were so fatigued and disabled with the bitter Voyage they had undergone and were not as yet re-inforc'd by any Refreshments or Rest or join'd by any Male-contents as they call'd them out of the Countrey or from the late King 's own Army and rather to stay till he could assemble his whole Army and provide a sufficient train of Artillery store of Ammunition c. and be ready to March against them in Person to give them a formal Battel which must be acknowledged gave our renown'd Prince a convenient opportunity to refresh his Men and Horse and recruit what were wanting and likewise to such as were well affected to him in the Countrey and in the King's Army to go over to him IV. King James by a strange Fate though so much Frenchified yet being over perswaded not to become too much dependant of the French King refused till it was too late to receive a French Army though often press'd to it by Barillon insomuch that the French King finding he could not have his Will to have a French Force admitted strong enough to Master both England and its King and to have the English Forces instead of his own to fight his Quarrels on the other side gave the aforesaid Counsel to the late King James not to detach his Scots and Irish against the Princes wearied Forces for fear his English Army taking exceptions thereat might Rebel and seize his Person in the mean time but to march with his whole Army against them in Person where one Nation might awe the other and the English might have less cause of Exception seeing some confidence still reposed in them and the Kings presence might keep them all in due Decorum and Obedience The French though fearing some would desert him yet thought that enough would still stay with the King to keep up a Civil War which would deprive the Hollanders and Confederates at least of the Forces they had lent for that Expedition and which was more of the Conduct of so great a General as the Prince of Orange and force King James the next Summer to admit what number of French to help him he should please to offer and which he thought he could easily send him by his own Fleet with that part of King James's that should remain firm to him and so he should have his long desired ends at last V. Because King James had so stiffly refused a French Army for that present and to part with his English the French King in hopes that the late King would however find Friends enough to keep the valiant Prince of Orange and his Forces employed for some years without being able to assist the Confederates and make both England and Holland the eager Prey to him at last though he were in actual War with Holland and had a numerous Army near their Frontiers yet forbore to make any Attempt upon them for fear it should hinder the Prince and his Forces from going for England and so deprive him of the sundry advantages he hoped to reap by that Diversion So true a Friend was he at the Bottom to his poor deluded Ally's Interest and so very much mistaken in true Measures for promoting his own by an over-ruling hand of Providence VI. And lastly the strange unmanly fear and unsteadiness that appeared in the late King James when he had the greatest occasion to shew that Courage and Conduct he had alwaies before pretended to in not appearing firm to stand by those that otherwise in all probability would have stood to him even among the English Forces as well as among the Nobility Clergy and Gentry and his actual deserting them afterwards gave the last finishing Motion to the mighty and memorable Revolution that followed Thus you see all these several steps of the Prince of Orange's very Enemies though directed as they thought by the best safest and rightest measures of Prudence and Policy against him were all made by the Providence of Almighty God who taketh the Wise in their own craftiness and will suffer no enchantment against Jacob nor divination against Israel to contribute to the more assured and speedy success of our noble Prince Enterprise so very justly and lawfully undertaken by a loud Call and Commission from Heaven in his own Defence and likewise in the Defence and Safety of the People Church and Cause of God And by these strange means it came to pass that the magnanimous Prince setting sail a second time from Hellevoet-sluys with a prosperous Gale though he suffer'd much again with his people afterwards by rough Weather and the incommodities of Landing in such a place and his first uncouth Marches yet Landing upon the 5th of November in the famous Year 1688. just 100 years after the Spanish Invasion and on the Anniversary of the Gun-powder Treason as if design'd and ordain'd by Heaven to deliver us both from the intestine Contrivances of a Faction within us and the approaching inundation of the French without us now much more formidable than Spain was then in less than six Weeks time entred Triumphâ—â—ly into the Palace of our Capital City 〈◊〉 by almost universal Consent of the exceeding joyful Nation of all Orders Ranks and Degrees invested on the Anniversary of the Nativity of our Lord with the Administration of the Government as if by Divine appointment preordain'd to be a temporal Saviour to these Nations and to all his chosen People and by the peculiar Deligation and Commission of that King of Kings and Lord of Lords that Rules over the Kingdoms of Men and gives them to whomsoever he will And then after he had by the general desire and humble importunity of the Subjects called a Convention of Estates was by them on the 13th of February 1688. conjointly with his Royal and virtuous Princess declared the Rightful and undoubted King and Queen of England France and Ireland and soon after of Scotland The late King James by sending his Queen and pretended Son into France into the hands of a known Enemy of these Nations and who had been the cause of all their manifold grievances and by retiring thither afterwards voluntarily of his own accord himself having given infallible Evidence to all the sober part of the Nation that the Birth of that pretended Prince was too dark a Contrivance to endure the clear light of a publick
Examination in Parliament and made all other expedients of resetling the shaken Government redressing the multiplied grievances of the Subjects and doing right to the most undoubted Presumptive Heirs of the Crown altogether impracticable I forbear to insert here all the particulars of his advances towards the effecting so great and happy a Revolution because they are fresh in the memories of all and are known even to such as are but only mere strangers to us in these daies And because I have already exactly enough related them in my late Diary of that Memorable Expedition Printed for Richard Baldwin 1689. To which for those points I refer my Readers The conclusion of all was that Their Majesties were on the 11th of April following most Solemnly Crown'd at Westminster by the Noble and most Reverend Father in God the Bishop of London assisted with other Bishops to the great and inexpressible Joy and Satisfaction of all their People the Terrour and Amazement of their Enemies and the Wonder and Surprise of the whole World A Revolution which if it were miraculous in the Concurrence of so many seeming contrary precedent and concomitant Causes as we have shewed was no less wonderful for the Laudable and Angel-like moderation of the chief instruments of it namely of the People and of the Gracious and Heavenly devoted Prince and Princess to whom they humbly and earnestly Address'd For the People had so much Affection and Respect to their late King that they suffer'd so much till they were almost reduced beyond Remedy before they would seek one and when they sought and obtain'd one sought such a one as was the most Natural and Consonant to the Duty and Respect they ow'd their King that could be Imagined For they sought to the next presumptive Heirs of his own Flesh and Royal Blood against the false Game put upon them and the people and even upon King James himself by the Intrigues of a Foreign Prince and a Subtil Popish Designing Step-mother and Second Wife together with the Help of Jesuits and Priests And that was done not Tumultuously or by a Faction but by the Main Body of the Nation in the persons of their Chiefest Men of all Orders Degrees and Interests and by as Legal Representatives as the Juncture of Time and Affairs would permit nay I may assert that that Most Honourable and August Convention were as Lawful Representatives and as Able Men as the whole Kingdom could afford And by their Now Most Excellent Majesties with so much Softness Care and Veneration to the Person of the Late King as infallibly declared to all Mankind that they yet had preserv'd no small share of Affection and Respect for him So much as it plainly appeared since he would not have reserv'd for them had he but prevail'd or got them within the Verge of his Power For as our present Gracious Queen then Princess of Orange had earnestly intreated Her dear Lord and Husband the Prince to be very careful in all the Course of His Expedition of the Person of Her Father which was back'd with the Instances of the Confederate Roman Catholick Princes Those Counsels and Intreaties were verily so very consentaneous to His own Sentiments and Innate Inclinations that he most readily and punctually observed and performed them For when the Late King was seized and insulted by the Mobb at Feversham as he attempted in Disguise to have made his Escape and pass the Seas He was very sensibly Concern'd at the Affronts and Indignities done him and took special care he should be safely Re-conveyed out of the dangers of the then Exasperated People by his own Guards to Whitehall And when he saw him so fully bent to Retire for France Though it were in many Respects against his Own and the Publick Interest yet he would not cross him in it And since he was so eagre upon it had him Safe Conducted by his own Dutch Guards to Rochester and from thence to a Vessel he had himself underhand provided to Waft him safe where he would be with private Command He should not be Molested or Insulted in his Passage either by Sea or Land Thus the Late King ABDICATED the Throne and Retired to France and so laudably and gloriously concluded this most Happy and Wonderful Revolution An Appendix Containing the Remarkable Providences that have continued to Bless and Protect their Excellent Majesties King William and Queen Mary since their first Happy Exaltation to the Imperial Throne of GREAT BRITAIN THE Divine and Unsearchable Wisdom and Justice having through Two Mighty and Unparallell'd Revolutions safely Conducted His present Majesty to the Sovereign Throne of Great Britain And made even the Oppositions and Stratagems of His Implacable Enemies of the Roman Faction as he had formerly made those Intrigues of the Great Constantine's Adversaries and Competitours the most Operative and Instrumental of any other Causes to the Exaltation of him to be a Caesar that he might be the better able to Combate and Subdue the Enemies of his Church Has since by so many Stupendious Proofs shewed it self so particularly careful as well of the Safety and Protection of Both their Majesties Sacred Persons as of the Prosperity of their Designs which as they are without Contradiction Just in their Causes have been all along no less Just and Glorious in their Ends As being without Controversie in their whole Aim directed purely to the Glory of God and the Common good of Mankind So that we may from thence without any great Presumption hope That the Supream Soveraign of the World whose hand is not shorten'd will not stop here But has intrusted so much Clemency Power and Prudence in the hands of a Prince of such Matchless Moderation Vertue and Integrity that it might effectually be made use of to the utter Defeating and Suppressing of that Monstrous Tyrant against whom He hath begun to give us such a Signal and Remarkable Deliverance And we trust and pray That this All-wise and inscrutable Being will never leaâ—e presiding in His Royal Councils noâ— going forth with His Fleets and Armies till he hath by him as another Cyrus or Constantine perfected our Deliverance both from the French and Roman Tyranny and placed the state of these Three Nations and of all Europe upon so firm and even a Balance That no One Power on the whole Earth may ever be able to shake or disturb its Tranquility in a long Series of years And till like His Renown'd Predecessor in these Islands the Matchless Constantine He has to the full deserved the Title of Restitutor Humani Generis or Restorer of Mankind To proceed then The first thing His present Majesty did after His Happy Accession to the Throne was by the Unanimous and Deliberate Advice and Desire of His People to Proclaim War against the French King and enter into a strict Engagement with Holland and the rest of the Confederates for the Common Defence of the Liberties of Europe And though His Majesty was
forced a while to stay on this side the Seas till Matters in the Two Kingdoms of England and Scotland were so composed that it might not be unsafe to leave them And so could not appear for some time in Action against the Common Enemy Yet he defeated the Gallick Tyrant of his Two great Expectations viz. 1. Of seeing the Force of England once more turn'd against Holland And 2dly Of seeing a Civil War ensue in England which might give him a fair opportunity under pretence of Assisting King James of throwing in such a Force that might in the sequel Enslave us all Which disappointment made the Monsieur to fret in his Grease to think that by his neglecting when time was to Alarm the Dutch Frontiers with his Army he had thereby given scope to his most dangerous Enemy to take free and full possession without hardly any Resistance on the Kingdoms of his most Devoted and Powerful Ally and now at best he could no way possible divert him from turning his Force directly against France but by Fomenting a War in Ireland which would be more difficult and expensive to him to maintain at that Distance than to King William Yet still he had Giant-like hope to keep him in play at least some years till the Confederates should be wearied out on the other side and he might by that means retrieve all again in England and Re-establish his Ally King James with the higher hand But even here too Providence deceiv'd him and did that Work as it had done the others before For our Victorious King William much Quicklier and by more effectual and successful Means than our Great Heroe himself or any of us all did or could in Humane Reason or Prudence expect But though the Almighty Creator was pleased generally to give a most surprizing Success to all that our truly Pious and Valiant King enterprized in Person Yet least those Prosperities should lift up our hearts too high and make us Attribute too much to our own Strength they were allayed by some Rubs in some other Rancounters where His Majesty was not nor could be present As were sufficient to convince us That though God did indeed favour the Just Cause and Well-intended Designs of our Gracious Prince whom His own Arm had placed over us Yet he was still Angry both with us and our Allies since neither their nor our Arms were ever observ'd to prosper so well under any other Chieftain as that Great Prince whose Exemplary Vertues we might as safely Imitate as His Civil and Warlike Qualifications England 't is true had now by this time excepting a very inconsiderable and disarm'd Party unanimously Ranged it self under the Willing Obedience of Their present Majesties happy Government But Scotland was still disturb'd by the Influence of the late Viscount Dundee And poor Irelrnd was in a manner totally under the Enemies Power and provided with such an Army of Disciplin'd Natives â—nd so well-furnish'd with Warlike Necessaries and Officers from France that it perhaps could never boast the like and they seem'd at least irrecoverably to have Rent that Kingdom from the English Empire When it pleased Allmighty God to animate a handful of Men inconsiderable for all things but Undaunted Courage and Zeal to their Religion and Ancient Liberties when all the rest of the Kingdom was already Subjected to shut their Gates against a Power which then ruled every where else about them And even at a time when they could have little or no hope of Relief from England or elsewhere vigorously to Defend a Town but meanly Fortified and worse Provided with a kind of Supernatural and Wonderful Valour against a Numerous and Well-furnisht Army headed by their King himself and able General-Officers from France Renown'd for their Conduct and to hold it out against all Disadvantages to the Amazement of the Whole World till Relief though very strangely by many causes delayed much longer than 't was thought possible they could stay for it was brought them and by that means a Way open'd to deliver that very Kingdom from the Oppressours when they thought themselves most secure and firmly Posted And indeed whosoever well considers the Vigorous Actions of the Men of Derry and of those of Inniskilling who took Arms about the same time cannot but think they were influenc'd by something more than Humane Courage Whilst their Enemies at the same time were not only Infatuated in their Councils but palled in their Valour though they had some very good Troops among them both English Scotch and French by the unexpected daring Magnanimity of a few true Zealots for Religion and Liberty whom looking upon as Desperado's they durst not fight with and yet were as much afraid to let alone They were Infatuated I say in their Counsels For by the very best Relations it appears That if they had Besieged Derry with their whole Army and employed their best Disciplin'd and most Warlike Troops to make the Attacks they might easily have taken it before any succour had come Or if they had altogether let it alone or contenting themselves only with keeping a Blockade before it and had sent a good part of their Army into Scotland to the Assistance of the late Viscount Dundee who was a Commander both of Courage and Conduct and who had by his Great Interest in the Highlands and other parts Raised no despicable Opposition against the Government I say 'T was the sense of very Understanding Men as well of our Own as the Enemies side That if they had in stead of Amusing themselves before Derry sent Timely Assistance to Dundee as he often and earnestly press'd the Lord Melfort they had at least removed the Seat of the War out of their own Countrey and found so much Work for King William nearer home that it had been impracticable for Him to send any Succours at least that year to the Protestants any where in Ireland So that Derry and the Iniskillingers too must needs have been Reduced at last of Course and by Necessity with little or no Fighting But some of the Irish Officers forsooth must needs in their profound Wisdom Advise the late King James to a Medium by making a slow and regular Siege with his worst Troops under pretence of teaching these Men to be better Soldiers thereby till by it he quite balkt and spoiled his poor Teagues at first dash and lost his Opportunity of Assisting so brave a Servant as Dundee was and carrying the War into Scotland if not into England it self Which must be confess'd by all sober Christians was another Instance how the Divine Providence as it had begun so continued still to Over-rule the Actions and Councils of the Enemies of our Blessed Joshua and Mighty Deliverer and to make them all Contribute to the Accomplishment of that Great and Glorious Work it design'd by him in such a Manner that the Finger of God might appear in it of more clear efficacy than the Power and Policy of Man
For our Good Theodosius was always prevalent with God in Prayer And Vbi Deus ardenter invocatur victoria stat a Bona causa Therefore as Marcellinus and Claudianus Spake or Sang of this Battel we may of this Irish War c. O nimium dilecte Deo cui militat aether Et conjurati veniunt ad Classica venti At last the Irish had strongly Fortified and Barricado'd the River leading to it But notwithstanding all that Distress'd Town was Reliev'd by Major General Kirk after the Dartmouth Frigat had forced her way to it over all those Impediments and the Siege was effectually rais'd The day before which by another Strange Accident inconsiderable in it self But by the Guidance of Heaven made Instrumental to the further Mortification of our Enemies A choice Body of about 6000 Irish Commanded by one of their best Officers Major General Mackarty were defeated by about 2000 Inniskillingers by occasion of a mistake of the Word of Command among the Irish For it seems Mackarty perceiving the Courageous Inniskilling-Men Charge the Right Wing of his Irish very desperately ordered some of his Choice Men to Face to the Right and March to the Relief of their Companions but the Officer who carried the Orders mistook and Commanded the Men in stead of Facing to the Right To Face to the Right-about and so March upon which the Irish in the Rear seeing their Front look with their Faces towards them and move thought they had been running and so immediately in a Terror threw down their Arms and run away which the rest seeing run after them for Company and so were most of them cut off or Drown'd in Lough's and Bogs and Mackarty himself taken Prisoner Afterwards when Duke Schomberg went over but with a small Army of new raised Men though as it usually happens to English Armies new-raised when they first came into a strange Countrey many of our Men died and the whole Army was brought into a low condition by bad Weather Lodging and Diet nay and by their own Laziness in great part in not Hutting themselves like Men more used to War Yet the Enemies had not the Policy or Courage to make use of the many advantages they had over us in that long time that our Army was thus languishing But trifled away their opportunity in hopes of the effect of a Plot laid by some French Traitors among us which God seem'd to have permitted in order to encourage them for to flatter themselves with vain hopes and to make them pass over or slip those other seasonable and likely opportunities they had to have destroyed us Would they have been contented to use fair Force rather than Treachery odious to God and Man But to pass by all those lesser events and hasten to the main Action in which His Gracious Majesty was present And which gave the Great Turn of the Scale towards the Reducing of that Kingdom The next year being 1690 His Majesty King William being fully resolv'd to push the Irish War to an end or fall in the Attempt that so he might have liberty solely and wholly next year against his Capital Enemy the French Tyrant who had brought so many Miseries upon all Europe and had occasion'd all the Misfortunes of his Deluded Ally King James and having by the Death of Dundee supprest in great measure the Insurrection or Stirs in Scotland left Kensington the 4th of June 1690 and Embarking at Highlake on the 12th arriv'd on the 14th safely at Carrickfergus And on the 27th of June following assembled a Royal Army of about 36000 as Brave Men as Europe or the World could shew of English Dutch Danes Germans and French provided as well with all Necessaries both for the Mouth and War as could be desired So much of Life and Circumspection had his Excellent Majesty's Presence given to all Needful Orders for that purpose When he was arrived at his Army he was continually in action and observing the Goodness of the Countrey as he rid along he admired the Fertility of its foil and pleasing Aspect of its Landskips and said it was well worth fighting for And now understanding that the Irish Army was retired over the Boyn He Marched with all speed and diligence after them And being advanced near the River hard by a Pass called Old-Bridge he was so Adventurous as to stand on the side of a Bank within Musquet-shot of the Ford to observe the posture of His Enemies Which though he saw well-fenced and a River not easily passable and that was well-fortified with Canon and other strong Defences against him Yet knowing that the safety of Europe in great Measure at that Juncture depended upon some bold Master Stroke in that Countrey without which all that he had hitherto done and ventured for our Rescue and Security would be but lost He resolv'd therefore to venture through all Difficulties whatsoever obeying the Great Call of Providence rather than that so Noble and Happy a Revolution should fail for want of Courage in him Who is acknowledged by his Enemies to be a Prince of no small Spirit and Valour and had made it appear to the World in all the Course of His Life After he had with those Intentions viewed them a while he was pleased to sit down on the Ground to Refresh himself which some Principal Persons of the Enemies side having observed they caused a small Party of Horse to advance flowly upon a Plowed Field over against where His Majesty was and slily to drop two Field-pieces undiscover'd by a Hedge in the same Field and so retired leaving only some Gunners to Manage them who lay sculking still and quiet till His Majesty was Re-mounted and Dreaming of no Danger at all was Riding softly back again But then the Rogues Fired furiously and at the first shot killed two Horses and a Man about 100 yards from the King and at the second had like to have given a very fatal Stroke both to these Kingdoms and the whole Confederacy by Quenching the Light Joy and Hope of our Israel the Bullet Grasing upon the Bank of the River and thence Rising towards the King with a slanting Motion glanced over His Right Shoulder taking off a Piece of His Coat Tore part of the King 's Anointed Body But being turn'd off short by the hand of some Guardian-Angel Commission'd by the Lord Jehovah touched not His Precious Life nor so much as gave him any wound grievous enough to hinder Him from continuing with His Army and Ordering the Remarkable Action that soon followed For as soon as he had changed His Coat and had His Wound dressed He spent the most part of the remainder of that Day in Disposing His whole Army for the next day's Work and then on the Morrow being Tuesday the first of July following early in the Morning with full Trust in the Protection of the Lord of Hosts Himself which He had found so signally attended His Royal and Sacred Person He very