been concerned in the fatal effects thereof But 3 dly This Design was levelled more immediately at the Destruction of the Protestants of Europe the Extirpation of the Pestilent Northern Heresy has been long known to be the principal Article in it and was probably the Pretence and Bait that induced His late Majesty to espouse it He was not fonder of being obeyed without Reserve than of propagating his Religion and perhaps he chiefly desired an Absolute Authority over his Subjects that he might compel them to come into the Bosom of his Church What business had he with a standing Army or numerous Troops of Dragoons but to employ them as Missionaries to Convert his Heretical Subjects The Example of France had taught him their use and that Dragooning was a much more effectual way to Reconcile Men than Sermons or Arguments In short by this Conspiracy the Protestants of France are already destroyed those of Savoy turned out of their Country those of Holland have been invaded and forced to cover themselves with their Waters and as for us in Ireland I need not tell you how we have been used the least hint is sufficient to refresh your Memories and the Danger we have escaped is yet so near that it supersedes all Necessity of a Description It has been said of some that when they have been shewed the next morning the Danger they escaped in the night they have dyed with Apprehension I am sure no Precipice can have a more dreadful prospect to those that have escaped it than our Danger ought to have and will have to all that duly consider and look back on it But God has Redeemed and Saved us out of our Enemy's hands He has brought us back into our own Land and we are now before him this day to magnifie him for our Deliverance Let us therefore join in that which is the Chorus of this Psalm O that Men would praise the Lord for his Goodness and declare the Wonders he doth for the Children of Men. But 4 thly This Conspiracy had a peculiar respect to the Free States of Europe 'T was about the time of the entring into this League that famous Saying was applied to Holland Delenda est Carthago it was pretended to be of ill consequence to Princes and Crowned Heads to let a Common-Wealth be their Neighbour lest the sight and example of Liberty might influence their People they combined therefore to destroy them that the Slaves of France might not understand that there was a milder Government in the World than the Tyranny of their Master If His present Majesty could have been prevailed on to come into the Confederacy he needed not have ventured his Life to rescue England and merited a Crown by such hazardous Undertakings He might have been a KING out of hand in his own Country and secured of his Succession to the English Throne but he scorned Crowns of Lewis's giving much more one that he could not take without injuring his Country the Liberty of which is due to his Ancestors and the Preservation of it to Himself But when they could not corrupt they resolved to destroy him and that more particularly because they look'd on him as the Patron and Defender of the Liberty of Europe to which they on all occasions declared their Enmity 'T is not imaginable with what Passion and Zeal their whole Party here used to enlarge on the Praises of an Absolute Government how impatient they were to hear any one name to them the Laws the Liberty of the Subjects or a Common-wealth No the King's Will was the only Law they could endure to hear of and they mightily admired and praised the submissive Temper of the Mahometans that counted themselves happy to be under a Power which when it pleased might present them with a Bow-String They did not mince the Matter but only professed That they designed to free the King from the Chains of the Laws and the Pupillage of Parliaments Or as the Irish Proposals I mentioned before word it Make his Monarchy absolute and real The very Terms of the League according to Abbot Primi were to secure to the King an absolute Authority over his Parliament and the Re-establishment of the Roman-Catholick Religion in the Three Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland But 5 thly This Confederacy or rather Conspiracy had a peculiar relation to Ireland The great Body and Magazine of Men whose Hands were to perform this Work in these Kingdoms were to be raised out of Ireland the Irish Proposals I have so often mentioned promise 150000 part of them were to be the King 's immediate Guards part of them the standing Army of England and all of them the Instruments of our Slavery In order to make them considerable and to hire them to do their Work cheerfully Ireland was to be separated from the Crown of England and made independent on it The English Interest in it was to be destroyed and the Protestants under the Notion of Whigs Fanaticks Cromwelians rooâ—ed out of it How near these things were to taking effect you can all witness They were not only designed and attempted but actually for the most part executed upon us our Estates were taken away and this Kingdom cut off from England by Acts past in their late pretended PARLIAMENT our Houses were filled with Souldiers and Dragoons our Churches possessed by Romish Priests our Persons shut up in Prisons and our Religious Assemblies interdicted Our Friends and Relations our Nobility Gentry and Clergy driven for the most part out of the Kingdom attainted for Life and Estates and an Army ready to be transported into England if God had not put a stop to their Designs and confounded their Devices 'T is by His mercy we are redeemed from the Lands from the North and from the South and therefore let us give Thanks unto Him and Praise Him You see then the Extent of this Design that it took in all the Princes and States of Europe that it struck at our Estates our Liberty our Lives and above all at our Religion that it was carryed on by many and powerful hands and by the most secret and efficacious Methods And who else could defeat such a Contrivance or put a stop to it but the same God that bounds the Sea with a Heap of Dust and says to the Waves thereof hither shall you come and no farther III. Which is a proper Introduction to my third Head The Miraculous Concurrence of Providences for our Deliverance in breaking this Design so deeply laid and vigorously prosecuted These were so many and so remarkable that I doubt whether ever any Revolution was accompanied with a Chain of such strange and unaccountable Accidents I shall mention only a few that every body must have observed and leave you to judge whether the Finger of God must not be acknowledg'd in them First therefore it was strangely unaccountable that the Pope who seemed to have a great Stake and Interest in this Design and
Collonel Talbot dated July 1671. Supposed to be drawn up by his Brother Peter Talbot then Titular Arch-bishop of Dublin and accidentally dropt about that Time Several Copies of which have for many years been in Protestants hands In this Paper are proposed the Modelling the Army the admitting Papists into Corporations the bringing them to serve in Civil and Military Employments and the raising a vast Army of them to be transported into England on occasion One Particular in this Paper is Remarkable 't is in these Words The Toleration of the Roman Catholick Religion in England being granted and the Insolency of the Hollanders taken down a Confederacy with France which can influence England as Scotland can also will together with God's Blessing make His Majesty's Monarchy absolute and real Where we see that the Design was to make the King absolute And the Means proposed Toleration of Popery a War with Holland and a League with France all which were at that time put in practice and have been prosecuted vigorously to this day But 2 dly We shall better understand the Depth of this Design against us if we reflect on the Power Policy and Number of the Persons engaged The Power and Money of France the Cunning and Craft of the Jesuits the numerous and bigotted Roman Clergy the Wealth and Arms of England were all to be employed to our Ruin The indigent and desperate Papists of Ireland were to be Armed and let loose upon us The common Enemy of the Christians the Turk and Ravaging Tartars were called into Christendom to promote this Design and their destructive Methods of managing Wars by universal Slaughters Havock and Burnings brought into Practice by the more Vnchristian French And to Crown their Design for the general Slavery and Desolation of Europe Protestants were cajolled bribed or compelled to fight against persecute and devour one another All which might be proved by undeniable Instances if this Sermon were designed for a History But 3 dly We may have a further Idea of the Depth of this Contrivance from which God has hitherto delivered us if we consider the Methods used for effecting it Had it been hatched in Hell it could not have been more a Mystery of Iniquity than it was more Black and Villainons Means could not have been applied to bring it to Perfection For 1 st We find Wicked and Treacherous Leagues and Conspiracies entred into in order to carry it on One of which is more especially Notorious and Remarkable for its Folly and Falshood A League so contrary to all Sence as well as Faith that the great Princes concerned in it are yet ashamed to own it a League so mischievous to Europe in general and so destructive to England in particular that it has brought them to the very Brink of Destruction And it is only God's Miraculous Providence that could or yet can preserve them a League that broke the Ballance of Europe so carefully preserved by our wise Fore-Fathers and by that means has advanced one by depressing and sinking all the rest This is that Fatal Confederacy with France proposed in the Fore-mentioned Paper These are the Engagements of Friendship and Alliance which Monsieur D' Avaux the French Ambassador tells the States of Holland in his Memorial of September the 9 th 1688. The King his Master had with the King of Great Britain This is the secret Treaty Abbot Primi tells us His Britannick Majesty signed in the Year 1670 whereby he should have secured to him an absolute Authority over his Parliament and the Re-establishment of the Roman Catholick Religion in his Three Kingdoms This is the Alliance with France which Moloony the Popish Bishop of Killaloo in a Letter of his to Bishop Tyrell of March 8 th 1689. the Original whereof was found amongst the Bishops Papers and is ready to be produced is so very angry that some Trimmers as he calleth them obliged King James to disown and this is the very Source and Fountain of all the present Calamities of Europe but more particularly of ours A second Method of carrying on of this Conspiracy to Ruin us was by corrupting Ministers by granting large Pensions and multiplying Bribes I wish this means of promoting this wicked Design had stopped at Ministers and that the Honour of Princes had set them above the Suspition of taking Bribes for we are willing to think that it should be below the Majesty of a Crowned Head to turn Pensioner or to sell his Crown or People for Lewis d' Ors. A Third Means for carrying on this Contrivance against us was Murthering and Poysoning An Art too much practised of late in some Courts And 't is observable that wherever the Life of a Protestant stands between a Papist and an Inheritance it is of no long continuance nor doth any Prince begin to appear vigorous or terrible to France but he is in danger to be taken off in the Prime of his Age and that not without Suspicion of Foul Play witness Prince Lewis of Brandenburgh and the Duke of Lorrain There is much Gold in France and there are every where wicked Men ready to be bribed to do any thing and 't is not supposed of some that they scruple much to make the Experiment what it is able to do But 4 thly Where they could not Murther Protestant Princes it is hard to say where they have not attempted it they endeavour to defeat them of their Succession We all are satisfied that this was the only Womb that conceived a Prince of Wales for us and gave him a Birth There was an Attempt of the same kind in the days of Queen Mary which did not succeed to their mind but Time and Experience make Men wiser Hence it is that the Contrivance that proved abortive then did with us come to Perfection but in such a manner that at the same rate if allowed we might be sure never to fail of an Heir to defeat a Protestant Successor A 5 th Means of promoting this Design was by calling the Turk into Europe and by supporting that common Enemy of Christianity to the Ruine of those that profess the Holy Name of Christ. And the French King that he might embroyl Christendom by Sea as well as by Land has made his Pride stoop to his Interest and condescended to buy a Peace with the Algerines Covenanting with them to assist them in their Pyracies and their Enslaving Christians A Man and his Designs are known by his Friends and Confederates Now the French King's Allies are the Banditi of Italy the Pyrates of Algiers the Turks and Tartars of Asia and the Tories of Ireland What a Mercy of God is it to give us a Deliverance from the Conspiracy and Designs of such Monsters The Depth of this Design appears from a sixth Method used to Effect it and that was to stir up and Animate one Party of Protestants to Bite and Devour another 'T is not bare difference of Opinion that makes Men of different Sects
as one would imagine was most deeply concerned in the Success of it should upon a trifle break with the French King and not only desert his Party but most cordially espouse the opposite side And that the King of France who never before struck at any thing when Interest was in the case upon the Worlds counting it base or wicked should refuse his Ghostly Father common Justice in Matters of so little moment as the Regale and Franchises It is plain that the Pope has Right on his side on both these and that the French King was not much concerned either in Profit or Honour to defend them The Regale being a new Usurpation and the Franchises an ancient Nusance Yet so obstinate have both sides proved in the Contest that we hope 't is become irreconcilable Now if this had not happened the Counter-League of the Princes of Europe to the French Conspiracy could hardly have been entred into or continued 'T is this takes off the Odium from the Emperor â—nd King of Spain of assisting His present Majesty to redeem England and deprives the French King of the Advantages he proposed to himself by declaring this a War of Religion It being ridiculous to pretend a Holy War against the Father and Head of his Church This aversion of the Pope to the French designs is an Obstacle in the way that neither Lewis nor James can yet get over tho' the one begs hard and the other offers fair to remove it Having proffered the Pope all that he desired at first and to oblige the French Clergy to own his Infallibility into the bargain Thus God shews that the Hearts of Kings are in his Hands that he can make them stoop and do mean things when it will do them no good and obstinate when yielding would be serviceable to them It cannot but be esteemed a further Providence that two Popes should succeed one another of the same humour which is not common and should persevere in the same Enmity to France But 2 dly It must be owned as a signal piece of Providence in God to have raised up a man endued with the Courage Closeness and Activity of his present Majesty who durst attempt so strange and in human probability such an impractical thing as our Deliverance 'T is a rare thing in the World that one man should have the Dexterity to Engage and the Wisdom to Manage so many Different Interests into a Confederacy and argues a particular Providence 3. It was another piece of Divine Ordering that His Majesty should be so particularly interessed and engaged to undertake this Work before it was too late and our Destruction unavoidable If we had gone on a few years in the course in which we were in all probability our Condition would have become altogether desperate But the eagerness of the Conspirators to cut off Their present Majesties from all hopes of Succession to the Crown made them introduce a Prince of Wales two or three years sooner than they were ready for him They knew very well when he appeared the Persons concerned would be provoked to the height and that then if ever Their present Majesties must appear for their Right and the Kingdom for their Deliverance against which They were not as yet prepared For they had not yet sufficiently trained the Irish nor filled the Army in England with Papists for want of which they were not able to make any Resistance against the Prince of Orange having awakened him before they were prepared for him and necessitated him to make his Descent into England whilst the Arms were still for the most part in the Protestants Hands and the Papists in no capacity to awe them 4 thly The very pretended Birth of the Prince of Wales was so ill managed that it was not so much as a well-contrived Cheat. The very Papists complained of it and that publickly in print There was published here amongst many others under the late Government a virulent Paper against His present Majesty entituled England's Crysis or the World well amended To give it the greater Credit the Author pretends to be a Protestant and the Evidence of Truth forced from him this following passage One Reason of his the Prince of Orange's Expedition had at least a shew of Justice in the Quarrel I mean the business of the Prince of Wales which I cannot but confess some People managed as if they designed either that we should not believe at all or if we did our Belief should be as implicit as to Successions and Inheritances here as that of the Romanist is in his expectation of Inheriting the Kingdom of Heaven hereafter This it is true they imputed to the Treachery of Councellors and Managers But when their Zealots writ and King James permitted such Accounts of that matter to be published 't is a sign the business needed an Apology and that by God's just Judgment on them their usual Dexterity failed them in it 5 thly It was a Peculiar Providence in this Affair that King James did not adhere determinately to any Counsels or Counsellors but did things irresolutely and by halves I find Papists in their Letters to him complaining of this and cautioning him against it One entreats him for Gods sake not to listen to Trimming Counsellors whose Aversion to his Religion and cunning design of spinning out his Life with their Pian Piano put them upon urging to him that great Alterations are dangerous when carried otherwise than by slow and imperceptible degrees The same tells him That nothing causes Irresolution more than a Medley of Councellors of a Different Religion from their Prince Yet King James could never free himself from this Medley And that is the Reason that his Actions were never of a Piece and that he commonly spoyled his Business by doing too much and yet too little Thus he ought either not to have brought any Irish or French into his Army or made the whole entirely Papists he ought either to have accepted the French King's Assistance and Fleet without Reserve or else broken with him altogether and declared against him But by hanging between both he lost the Affections of his own Subjects which might have supported him and the Benefit of Forreign Assistance His doing and undoing things had the same effect In whâ—ch and many other particulars his not sticking entirely to one sort of Counsellors was to us a great Providence I must reckon it as a Sixth that the States of Holland should without scruple trust their All into His Majesty's Hand and be content to run his Fortune Which they plainly did in his Expedition We all know that the United Netherlands are a Free People most Jealous of their Liberty and who have done and suffered more to maintain it than perhaps any Nation in the World And as they are jealous of their Liberty so they are close and wary and not apt to venture too much at one stake Now that such a People should commit the Absolute