THE HISTORY OF THE DESERTION, AND An ANSWER to a DISCOURSE, Intitled, The Defertion difcufs'd: In a Letter to a Coun try Gentleman. HE late Tranfactions of that part of our Nation, which have efpoufed the Interefts and Principles of the Church of Rome, are fo full of Wonder, that I perfwade my felf, pofterity will look upon the Story of the laft ten years, as a meer Romance; and will very hardly believe fo fmall a Party durft attempt,or fo great a Body would ever fo long foffer what we have born with a Stoical Patience, I had almoft laid Infenfibility. But then this Alurance was not owing either to their Courage, or their Cunning, but a ftrong Perfwafion, that how ill foever they ufed us of the Church of England,the Doctrine of Non-refiftance would keep us in awe; and if the other part of the Protefrants fhould offer to refcue the Nation out of their Claws, our Zeal for the Monarchy, and the Royal Family would have the fame effect it had in the Monmouth Invafion, and end in the Ruin of them. " However, to prevent the worft, they refolved to keep up a numerous Army to fupprefs betimes any Party that might ftir in the Nation; and to fix them the more to their Intereft, they not only exempted the Souldiers from the Civil Jurifdiaion, but fuffer'd them to out-rage and injure whom they they pleafed almoft without reftraint. B To To divide us yet more, they procured a Toleration for the Diffenters, and made fuch fulfom Applications to them, and they again returned the Complement in fuch Rhetorical Addrefes, that it was verily thought the Church of England Party would very easily have been given up for a Sacrifice to the kind, fincere, well meaning Catholicks. But our Diffenters were not fo easily wheedled into a forgetfulness of what they had fo lately fuffered; and altho' they gave the Fathers many good words, and fair Promises, yet when they had opportunity, they gave fuch bold hints of their Refolution to defeat the Expectations of thefe Gentlemen, that I proteft I wondred at nothing more than to fee them fo far infatuated, as to believe they should ever reap any Advantage from our Non-cons. They were however ingaged, and therefore they muft go on, be the Event what it would; and finding it would be a work of time; and that it was not poffible James II. fhould live to see it effected, and that after his death the Succeffion of the then Princefs of Orange would put an end to all this Babel of Confufion they had with fo much Labour and Hazard erected. They refolved in the next place to take care for a Catholick Succeffor to finish this great Work. And in truth it was a Project worthy of fuch bold Undertakers, if they could have as easily deluded the English Nation, as they frequently do those who have a mighty fondness for Miracles, and had rather be deceived than find out the Legerdemains of the Priesthood: But then this was fo highly improbable, that I wonder they ever entred into it; and that none of the Fathers have yet told us, that we ought not to think it poffible for them to be fuch Fools as to attempt to impofe in a matter of that Confequence upon fo learned, fo curious, so distrustful and fierce a Nation as this of England is: Iaffure them this Argument would have more force than all the Depofitions they have printed in that cafe, and engage many to efpouse their Quarrel out of pure Piquantry. How far they might yet have gone, and what would in the end have been the confequence of this formal Plot upon our Lives, Liberties, and Religion, is known to none but God: They looked upon the Proteftant or British Intereft in Ireland, as wholly at their Mercy: Scotland was in such a condition, that that nothing could be begun there, which would not termiin the ruin of the Undertakers: And England was fo divided in Intereft and Religion, that they expected a confiderable Body of the Proteftants would lend them their affiftance to ruine the reft, and therefore call'd them their Scaffolds. France, the most Potent of our Neighbours, was apparently engag'd in the fame Defign; Denmark and Sweden engaged against each other in the Quarrel of the Duke of Holftein. The Proteftant Princes in Germany were either awed by the French, or divided between the Northern Crowns: Spain was weak, and unable to defend it felf, and too Catholick at laft to espouse heartily the Interefts of a Proteftant Nation against a Roman Catholick Prince; fo that they had nothing to fear but the States of Holland, and the Prince of Orange: And they looked upon the States as a knot of Merchants, more intent upon their Trade, than concern'd for the Fate of England; and yet if they fhould attempt any thing, England and France by Sea and Land would easily reduce them into the fame ftate they were in in the year 1672. Now fuppofing the French King who is fo zealous a Roman Catholick, had not fo vigorously (and as far as I can fee) fo impolitickly carried on the Controverfie with the Pope about the Franchifes of his Ambaffador at Rome; and that he had had the patience to fuffer the Emperor to recover what his Ancestors had loft to the Turks, and left the Controverfies between the Elector Palatine (who is a Roman Catholick) and the Dutchess of Orleans, to the determination of the Pope, what had France loft in all this? And who then could have made one ftep to the Recovery of England? I know very well it is faid, the Emperor would certainly begin a War with France fo foon as ever he had ended this with the Turks to his mind: And in truth he had juft reafon fo to do. But it is more probable he would have spent firft fome years in fortifying,peopling,and fetling his new Conquefts to fecure himself on that fide against his moft formidable Neighbour,ra ther than that he would prefently transfer his Arms and viccrious Armies from the Eaft to the Weft, and pass fo fuddenfrom one long and ruinous War to another of no lefs ha zard and expence. And yet if he had done fo, the Princes B 2 of of the Empire would never fo heartily and generally have joyned with him against France, if he had been the Aggref for, how juft foever his caufe had been, as it might eafly have been forefeen they would, when they were first attack'd, and as it were forced to flie to the Emperor for his Protection. So that it was apparently the Intereft of France to have fate ftill, and to have taken the firft opportunity had offered it felf to have enflaved the firft of his. Neighbours that had call'd him to their affiftance; and our English Jefuirs did not doubt but that he would. In the Interim it was well for England, that the French King acted as he did; for to him, in a great measure, our Delivery is owing (tho' he never intended it) his Breach with the Pope and the Empire, having not only given the Dutch a pretence to arm by Sea and Land, and fo blinded the Eyes of our English Court, that they never faw, nor would believé themfelves concern'd in it, till it was too late to help it: But' it also united not only all the Proteftant, but all the Catholick Princes too (except France) in the Project of delivering us for their own fecurity, that we might be in a condition to unite with them again for the prefervation of Europe, from following the triumphant Chariot of France in Chains. His late Majefty feems to have been the only Prince-in Christendom, who made it his great, and almoft only defign to advance the Interefts of the Church of Rome, without, and against his own temporal Intereft. The reft of the Princes and their Council look in the first place to their own Concerns at home and abroad, and make the Affairs of Religion fubfervient to their other Defigns. The Pope is not fo fond of his old Mumpfimus, or of the Decrees of the Council of Trent it felf, as to fuffer France to conquer Italy, Spain, or Germany, no nor England, nor Holland neither, how much foever it might feem to facilitate their Reduction to the See of Rome; because he knows very well the firft Prince that fhall make himself the Univerfal Monarch of Europe, or gain fuch a power over the reft, as is not to be difputed or oppofed, will certainly put an end to the Soveraignty, Wealth, Grandeur, and Independency of the Court of Rome; and the Pope will become as fubject to him (notwithstanding his Infallibility) as the Mufty is to the Grand Signior, who never makes any Scruple to depofe, or bow-ftring the Infal- This was very near the ftate of Affairs at home and a broad, when Monfieur the Comte d' Avaux, the French King's Ambaffador at the Hague the 9th. of September laft published N. S. this Memorial, which firft opened the Eyes of our finall States men here in England. My Lords, 1688. He fincere defire the King my Master has to maintain the October 30. Tranquility of Europe, will not fuffer his Majesty to fee the great Preparations for War, both by Sea and Land, made by your Lordships, without taking the meafures that Prudence (the continual Companion of all bis Actions) inspires him with, to prevent the Mifchief thefe War like Preparations will certainly draw after them.url 1 And altho' the King perfuaded of the Wisdom of your Councils, would not imagine that a Free state should fo easily refolve to take up Arms, and to kindle a War, which in the prefent Functure can not but be fatal to all Christendom's Nevertheless his Majesty cannot believe your Lordships would engage your felves in fo great Ex pences both at home and abroad, to entertain in pay so many For reign Troops, to put to Sea so numerous a Fleet fo late in the year, and |