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
come to the Matter in hand the Design of this Essay in short is to shew the Triumphs of Providence over all Humane Prudence in the late Revolutions of Holland and especially of these British Kingdoms and how very visibly the finger of God has appeared in the Chief Transactions of His Majesties Life and of our Great Deliverance by Him by making so many contrary Causes to Concur to the producing that Mighty Effect and directing the Counsels of the Enemies to steer their Vessels upon those very Rocks which they had used all possible Endeavours to avoid And thereby to move all Good Protestants of these Nations especially Earnestly to Wrestle with Allmighty God in Prayer for a Long Preservation to them of their Blessed Deliverer by Acknowledging Him to be the Signal Instrument of the most High Lord more than of any mere Natural Causes or pretended Influence of the Stars For though the Author be absolutely perswaded that Miracles properly so called are at present ceased yet he cannot but Believe with all Reasonable Men That God Almighty by his Extraordinary Providence doth still oftentimes interpose between both his Friends and Enemies and bare natural Causes in order to bring about his just designs of punishing or favouring them and especially unusual Revolutions in Kingdoms and States And that these last Revolutions in the united Netherlands and England c. if well considered in all their precedent Concomitant and subsequent Circumstances are such very evident and infallible proofs of that undeniable Truth that it cannot possibly but be acknowledged by all modest Men who will give themselves free leave but to think This he verily believes any impartial and unprejudic'd Reader will be fully convinc'd when they shall make due Reflection upon some Passages particularly those which he has collected out of some very choice Memoires lent him by some Friends who had more than ordinary opportunity to enter behind the Scenes and view the secret Springs that set some of the chief Machines of those great Artificers on Work So that though they may perhaps have read the Story of the same Transactions elsewhere yet they will however be obliged to confess they never saw them before in the same Light manag'd with the same Method nor applied with the same Reflections and Observations One thing he will only add That if any well affected Person who is an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile shall think himself or his Party reflected upon when mention'd herein as intended to be made Tools of by some of the late French and Jacobite Intrigues that they would rectifie that mistake in themselves by considering well it is not any where here asserted that they consented to those Motions nor yet that they were actually put in Execution though it must be granted by all that it was partly done in CORPORATIONS but only that they were intended to be made Tools of as well as some biass'd Church of ENGLAND Men and to be plaied both of them one against another in order to make way for their mutual Destruction for the establishing of Popery and Arbitrary Power And why the affirming or proving of this should appear offensive to any sober Man that really believes there was a most true fair and justifiable cause for this blessed REVOLUTION the Author cannot well imagine And therefore hopes all sober and unbiass'd Men of what perswasion soever that are Friends not only in Tongue but in Deed and in Truth to this present GOVERNMENT will lay aside all prejudice and partiality and candidly accept his honest and well designed Endeavours which tend only to the laying open the Enemies INTRIGUES the cautioning Men of all sorts from being any more drawn in by them To alienate their hearts even from all thoughts of accommodation with the French Harpies till their Claws be cut close To shew the Moderate and equitable Carriage of our Representatives in re-setling the shaken Government the very Just and Lawful Grounds and indispensable Obligations their present Majestys moved upon in all the whole course of their Proceedings their Tenderness towards the person of the late King and their exceeding great Moderation and Matchless Clemency to all their dissatisfied Subjects To set forth His MAJESTIES indefatigable Care prudent Conduct eminent Courage noble Resolution and Constancy and happy Success in all these wonderful Occurances and to do just Honour to all other Instruments of our present LIBERTY and HAPPINESS and yet reserve and attribute to almighty GOD the due Praise and Glory of all As for those few Male-contents that are blinded by the God of this World and are Enemies to this blessed Government if any Expressions in this TREATISE displease them he is not at all concern'd at it let them look off it and withall know it was not calculated for their squeamish Palates the Author being very consident there are honest Williamites enough in the Nation to embrace heartily the whole Impression at least if 't were three times the Number And being no less assured they are with all so generous and kind that they will read this Essay for the sake only of the Authors good and honest intention how mean a conceit soever they may have of his performances ERRATA PAge 15. l. 2. Artificis for Artifices p. 49. l. 25. and fare r. of fare and. p. 91. l. 22. is for if to p. 99. l. 2. five r. fire p. 148. l. 15. Convent r. Convant p. 151. l. 6. Bavillon r. Barillon Constantinus Redivivus OR An account of the wonderfull providential Successes that have all along attended the Heroical Enterprises of his present Majesty King WILLIAM the III. Through the grand Revolution of Holland England and Ireland THE August and Glorious Heroe who is the principal Subject of all our following Discourse and also of the Love Veneration and Admiration of even the better part of the Christian World at this very Day as well those of the Roman Communion as of the reform'd Protestant Religion is lineally descended from the most Ancient and Magnificent House of Nassaw a House signally honoured and adorn'd with most potent and splendid Alliances throughout Europe and whose truly noble Branches have spread themselves in several parts of Germany that was graced about four hundred Years ago with the imperial Dignity in the person of Adolphus Emperor of Germany and Successor to that famous Rodolphus of Habsburg who when a certain Man came to Him to ask what he would give him to kill Octocarus King of Bohemia with whom he waged War answered Et si noster hostes Octocarus non tamen efficiet ut praetergrediar fines Justitiae atque Moderationis In fine whose illustrious Family has flourish'd in very remarkable and distinguishable Grandeur for above a thousand Years as is Chronicl'd of it How Prince Mauricius took the strong Castle of Zutphen and also the excellently well Fortified City of Breda March the 3d. Anno 1590. How his great Grandfather Prince William of ever glorious
and of the whole Fabrick of the Roman Catholick Religion as distinguished from the Protestant No they now scann'd every Period and Expression of Maimburgh's Works and presently smelt out whose Sense and in what view he spoke And that he depress'd the Monarchy of the Roman Bishop only to erect upon its Ruines an Universal Empire for his Master Lewis They thoroughly examined the Proceedings of the Sorbonne and of all the French Clergy Took good notice of the many odd Theses put up and maintain'd daily in that Kingdom And in a word let nothing pass of that nature without the strictest Observation nor without preparing under-hand an Opposition ready to be exerted in fit time and place The Pope though indeed for his part he could heartily have wish'd that the Protestant Name were utterly abolish'd and all Christian States as firmly subjected to his See as some Ages before and particularly would have unfeignedly rejoyc'd to have seen the Return of so important a Member of his pretended ancient Empire to his Communion as were the Brittish Dominions Yet he could not well brook to see them or the French Protestants either made but as Steps to raise the Throne of the French Monarch high enough to over-look his And of an Absolute Pope to make him but as a Precairous Mufti under a New Western Sultan He thought with himself that it would signifie very little for him to gain ground upon the Quicksands of Great Britain and Ireland where he could promise himself no sure footing Whilst he should lose his firmer Possessions in Italy and Rome it self And took but little pleasure whatever outward countenance he shew'd in the hopes that were given him by the French Tyrant of the Establishment of a Mock-Popery there whilst the true one should be ruin'd and totally blown up by the Crafty Engineers of France And the Apprehensions of a Prevailing French Popery were indeed to him far more dreadful of the two than that of the Triumphing of what they foolishly call'd the Northern Heresie And the Religious old Father thought as well he might that there was much less danger from an open and profess'd Enemy than a secret Traytor And that according to the Proverb Ira quae tegitur nocet There was less harm from an openly assailing Lion than a private Bosom Viper Neither was he ignorant of Lewis the XIVth's strict Confederacy with the Male contents in Hungary who are all Lutherans or Calvinists At the very same time he Persecuted his own Subjects at home and abolish'd the Foundation and ordered the Nuns of the Infancy because they sided with the Pope to go home to their Parents or wheresoever else they pleased Commanded that their Altars should be pull'd down the Ornaments and Holy Utensils carried away and those Consecrated Places to be most vilely prophan'd And yet at this very time he suffer'd himself in Publick Theams to be advanc'd above the Glorious Angels of God and to be look'd upon as a Proof of the most sublime Mysteries And those same words which were once spoken of the Holy Jesus the Son of God he allow'd to be apply'd to himself Yea in some sort Commanded it My Works are for the King Who is the King 'T is Lewis the Great the King of Glory Nay which is much more he suffer'd himself to be Worshipp'd like a Deity You might have seen this in the Five Works upon the Greeve under the Title of the Temple of Honour which was made to Solemnize the Erecting the New Statue that was set up in the Court of the Common-Hall of the City The Inscriptiono which was upon the Frize and upon the Four Fronts of the Temple was after the Jesuitical manner and no less Impious The City of Paris Pious Loyal Obedient Devoted by Publick Vows To the Divinity and Majesty of Lewis the Great the Father of his Country As a Monument of their Duty Dedicate And Consecrate a Temple The Pope who was not half so timorous as some of the other Temporal Princes of his Communion could not nor did not look tamely on these Proceedings but opposed them with all his Might and with a Vigour that shewed a Magnanimous Spirit and that waked all the rest of the Roman Catholick Princes out of the Lethargy they seem'd to have been laid into by the Charms of French Sorcery For he Wrote vigorously against the Severities used against the Protestants causing his Beloved Daughter the late Queen Christina of Sweden to Write to the same purpose He disapproved the French King's Dragoon Conversions loudly declaim'd against his Violences and Sacrilegious Usurpations Cloaked under the Name of Regalia Cited Father La Chaiese and Father Maimbourg to Rome to Answer their Disobedience and caused the latter to be actually thrust out of the Jesuits Society Takes away the Liberty of Quarters from the French Ambassadors at Rome which with all their Hectoring they could never yet regain Caused the Proceedings of the French Clergy to be Censured Denies to Preconize or Confirm any French Bishops stirs up the Illustrious House of Austria to act vigorously against the French King Fiercely opposes the Election of the Cardinal of Furstemburg to the Arch-Bishoprick and Electorate of Cologne and lets all the Popish Princes of Germany as well as the Protestants see their danger therein and even doth all he can by his Nuncio at London and the Remonstrances of the Spanish and Imperial Ambassadours there to draw off King James from the French Interest and from taking French Measures either in Religion or Politicks And to perswade him to forbear making use of Frenchified Jesuits or Priests of what Nation soever and use only those of the Austrian Party And to please his own People by minding the true Interest of England and holding the Balance of Europe stiff against France and for that end whatever Private Submissions he had made to His Holiness yet to have let matters in Religion throughout the British Dominions be in Statu quo prius at least till the present Great War with both the Western and Eastern Turk had been over when by the Favour of a profound Peace Reigning among all Catholick Princes he might have made use of their United and Concurring Assistance to have securely Re-establish'd not the French but true and Genuine Popery in Great Britain and Ireland without hazarding the Diminution of the Majesty of his Crown or of the Greatness and Independency of his Power or rendring himself to be but a Deputy or Tributary King as he must do if he went on to augment the already too formidable and insolent Power of France and to take French Measures and neglecting to use his own Eyes and the Advices of his own Agents Spies and Intelligencers to make use only of French Spectacles French Intelligences and the Dictates of French Ministers of State and Frenchified Jesuits or Monks to steer by which would at length but make him Split against a Fatal Rock a Ship fraught with the fairest hopes that
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
related And besides the Broad-Signs he had given of making War upon Holland on pretence of their having Assisted the Duke of Monmouth and Argile and of some other New-started Complaints of the Dutch proceedings against our Merchants at Musilipatan c. and in the East-Indies whilst the Injuries done our People daily by the French about Hudson's Bay and elsewhere and in the Insults they daily received by the French Privateers and Men of War almost every where were passed by unregarded and without any redress And besides the particular threats he had made against the Illustrious Prince of Orange he had Dissolv'd that Parliament that had so zealously stood by him against the late D of Monmouth not only because they would not grant him a Fund of Money to maintain a Standing Army above the Regulated number of Guards and Garrisons in time of Peace Contrary to the Constitution of the Government But rather because forsooth they would not let them be Mann'd and Commanded by as many Popish and Foreign Officers and Commanders as he pleas'd to stuff them with After this he continued and put in as many Popish Commanders and Governours into his Army Ships and Garrisons And as many Popish Justices of Peace into all Towns Burroughs and Cities all over England as he could And in favour of that proceeding so contrary to Law and Justice orders his Judges to Declare a Dispensing Power to be one of his Royal Prerogatives in prejudice to the Privileges of the Two Houses and even of his own Power in Parliament And deals with all the Artifices imaginable with all Qualified Persons both Clergy and Laity of the Church of England to induce them to Consent to the Repealing of the Penal Laws and Test to the Countenancing of his Dispencing Power and the keeping up of his Standing Army and putting down the Militia and when he saw them averse to it though he had but just before most highly incens'd the Dissenting party by his MOST BLOODY and Severe Execution of so many Hundreds of them that had been engaged with Monmouth and Argile and though he knew them all bred up in an Inveterate Aversion to Monarchy Yet he most Impolitickly Quits his Best Friends that had Set the Crown upon his Head because they would not humour him in things visibly tending to his own overthrow or destruction as well as theirs And has recourse by Fawning and most Unkingly Mean and Abject Sollicitations to those very Dissenters whose BLOOD he was still REAKING with Thinking to do by them his Sworn Enemies what he could not get done by his Friends and weaken both them and the other Party with Divisions till he could reduce them both by his Third Growing party of English Scotch Irish and Foreign Papists to be his Absolute Slaves To this end he New-models over again those Corporations both he and his late Deceased Royal Brother had but lately Modell'd before and taking away all the Old Charters gives out New ones by which all true Church of England Men who stood for the Penal Laws and Test were ungratefully turn'd out and Dissenters and such as had been turn'd out before were intruded in their places Thinking thereby to have such a Packt Parliament as would take away those Laws and Destroy the Church of England by laying it open in Common and Defenceless and make Room for the Introducing of Popery and Despotick Power when it should be least apprehended He Granted out Commissions for the vexing and calling to Account those that in the former Reign though really set on by the Intrigues of himself and his own Party had vigorously executed the Laws then in force against Dissenters and that not so much out of Righting the Dissenters for the Exactions that had been made upon them Or Reimbursing them or the Crown for what was pretended to have been extorted from the one and detain'd from the other but meerly to raise New Animosities between the two Parties and make the Dissenters though but for their own Ends willing to be his Tools in the Absolute Destruction which he intended to both And to this end of his own Single Authority by virtue of the Dispencing Power he procured to be invested in him by Eleven Judges though in spight of the Unanimous Sense of Parliament sufficiently declared against it in the time of his Late Royal Brother King Charles the Second he gratifies them by a Declaration for Liberty of Conscience which some of them though they accepted with seeming Joy and Thankfulness and being no less skill'd in the Art of Dissimulation than his Confessor F. Petres and imagining it good policy to flatter him as he flattered them according to that common saying Fallere fallentem non est fraus thereby to find the easier Means to work their Revenge both upon him and the Monarchy and Established Church Yet the Major part of them received it rather with Silence than any apparent Consent or Applause and several of them like true Christians and brave Englishmen express'd plainly their dislike of it and Renounc'd such an Opportunity of expressing their Resentments against the Ancient and True Reformed Church of England by any proceeding that was like to prove such a Tool for the Erection of Popery Slavery and Arbitrary Power and rather began then to have better thoughts of the Establish'd Church here than ever before When they saw her Chief Members so stifly to stand up and Defend the Protestant Religion against the Mines as well as the open Attacks of Popery and Absolute Power and to refuse all manner of Accommodation with the Church of Rome or any Complaisance though to their then King that might any way evacuate the Law or put them under any Suspicion of their being capable to give up their Common Interest and saw well enough that it was the real Effect of the Intrigues of a Court-party influenc'd and biass'd by designing Popish Emissaries and not the Body of the Church of England that had rais'd against them those Severe Prosecutions under which they had smarted so much Yet some Mercenary Men were gain'd among them and to the no small surprise of the World the old Monthly Observator that had stuck so close to Prerogative as to forget almost the Interests of his Church was now laid aside And the late Mr. Henry Carr that had formerly Written the Packet from Rome and had in the most invidious and provoking manner imaginable exposed all the Intrigues of the Popish Agents and all the Actions and whole Conduct of that King when Duke of York and had serv'd as a Trumpet to the whole Party of the Exclusioners was now Courted and Brib'd to Blazon forth the Graciousness of the New Declaration for Liberty and to Write in Exchange for their Observator The like Proceedings were acted in Scotland where Despotick Power and Absolute Authority was Assum'd with a more Imperious Air and then were our Gazettes stuff'd with those many Fulsome Addresses that Nauseated all
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