Life Then they procured King Charles to take away my Maintenance and Protection and this angry Duke he Sued me for charging him to be reconciled to the Church of Rome and then Suborned Witnesses against me and procured me in his Brother's Reign to be Indicted of two pretended Perjuries but he being impatient in his Expectation he snatched the Crown from his Brother's Head and mounted the Throne and then he and his Popish Witnesses his Packt Juries and Impudent Lawless Senseless and Mercinary Judges compleated my Ruin and I must have been destroyed had not God by your Majesty's coming to England rescued me beyond all Expectation Give me leave Sir with the humblest Submission to your Majesty to observe that where there is a Subject of such Credit with the King of such Authority with the Court and such Power in every County of the Kingdom as the Duke of York had when he was a Subject and to have such an Interest in the Church and Civil Government and Military Employments and Naval Preferments Could it be possibly hard or difficult for him to insult over and suppress those Truths I then Revealed for the service and preservation of the Religion Laws and Liberties of my Native Country against him and his numerous Party And how much more was it easie for him to destroy me when he had the Crown it self upon his own Head But above all Great Sir how can it be that such a Subject perverted to such a Villainous Religion should not be most dangerous to his Prince and Country And to what a lamentable State and Condition he brought it when he had Possession your Majesty well knows It was therefore high time for the Protestants of this Kingdom to implore your Majesties Aid and Help in that Hour of Distress that the Nation was brought to by that unhappy Person and his wicked Accomplices and blessed be God for putting it into your Royal Heart to come over to us and to bring along with you a Force sufficient to defend your Person from him and his Conspirators and tho he and they would have insinuated that your Majesty came to Conquer us and Enslave us and notwithstanding the villainous Scribling of some that would to this day assert your Majesty's Title to be by Conquest We that are Protestants do from the bottom of our Hearts believe That your Majesty had no other design in your Royal Undertaking but to procure a settlement of Religion Liberty and Property of the People of this Nation on so sure a Foundation that there might be no danger of this Nation 's Relapsing into the like Miseries at any time hereafter And for the Justice of your Cause your Majesty may appeal to God and to all Protestant Kings Princes States and People in bringing a Force sufficient to suppress the Conspirators and their damnable hellish Conspiracy And with the like Justice your Majesty then might require and adjure all English Protestants to assist you against those Enemies of God his Christ his Gospel and the Rights of this Nation and Liberties of Mankind And your Majesty might with the like Justice have Punished those as Banditi and Free-booters and common Rogues and Traytors to their Country that should have appeared to Oppose your Majesty in so Glorious a Work you had undertaken for the Rescuing three Kingdoms out of the Jaws of Hell Rome and France Since God engaged me in asserting the Laws and Liberties of England and the Protestant Religion and in discovering the Malicious and Hellish Designs of the Popish Party against us the Opposition of that Party and the Passive-Obedience and Non-Resistance Clergy-men grew strong and thick upon me and how those Varlets run in with the Popish Party together with their Guide Sir Roger L'Estrange to decry the discovery of the Popish Plot and would to this day decry by the very same Method they then used the present Discovery of this Hellish Design against your Majesty's Royal Person and the Religion and Government of this Nation if they had but hopes to go off with Impunity and by your Majesty's leave I dear challenge any of these Men to tell me what particular there was by me discovered that did not in process of time come to pass It will be to tedious to recite all particulars of the discovery of the Popish Plot that did come to pass and from the dismal and sad Consequences of that Conspiracy your Majesty under God hath delivered us or else these Villainous Traytors would insult and ask why and to what end your Majesty exposed your Royal Person in your late Glorious Undertaking in the Year 1688 The evil usage I have had from our Popish high Church Non-juring Conspirators hath so hardened and inured me to suffering that I praise God who hath taught me some weak Rudiments of his heavenly Art of drawing Light out of Darkness for mine own use I have not been trampled upon for so many Years to so little purpose as to remain yet either ignorant or insensible of mine own Vileness and to what Element I am nearest allied or so tender or querulous as either to complain of the weight of those who still go over me as the Stones in the Street or to project the suffering of any Man in order to please or solace my self my long Deprivation and want of respects from some that should have treated me as a Christian a Gentleman and a Presbyter of the Church of God is now turn'd into an Athletique habit some what after the manner of those who through long Fasting lose their Appetites and withall either Contract or find an Ability or Contentedness of Nature to live with a little or no Meat afterwards I can through the Strength of Christ suffer my self to be oppressed and from my poor Dunghil whereon I sit behold both Friends and Enemies that with much Contentment and sufficient Enjoyment of my self partaking of the good Things of this Life the more because that God still preserves your Royal Person from the Attempts that the Trayterous Conspirators have so often made to destroy You and the Nation from the intended Invasion by our implacable Enemies that would destroy and enslave us Next to Christ and this Truth I shall with the utmost Breath and Power I have according to my Oath and Duty in what Place and Station soever I am endeavour to be found Loyal and True to your Majesty as my Rightful and Lawful Sovereign Lord and King as all good Subjects and Christians ought to be and I cannot forbear out of the great and sincere Zeal and Affection that I bear to your Majesty bless God for the great Concord there is between your Majesty and Protestant Subjects which your Majesty hath found to have turn'd to a good account to your Ease Comfort and Peace in the managing your Affairs of Government both in Church and State and it is a great Comfort to your good People to see your Majesty relying upon your two Houses
in that Kingdom and some of them were Commanders to others Instructions were given from Richard Talbot then your Agent there by your Order for those of the Roman Catholick Party to furnish themselves with quantities of Arms and this your Conspirators said were to keep the English in order This Sir can be proved whenever there is occasion No Man can think that Sir Ellis Leyton a Papist that was Secretary to the Government by your especial Grace and Favour should not pursue the same Instructions that your Agent Talbot had received Nay give me leave to tell you That your dear Brother was highly engaged to reduce that Kingdom to a Popish Establishment according to the Agreement he had made with Madam your Sister to whom he had promised to begin the Establishing the Roman Catholick Religion in Ireland and that High-Mass should in a short time be sung at St. Patrick's in the City of Dublin the Metropolis of that Kingdom It is true Sir Ellis Layton was a lewd Fellow but there was none that did your Business in jest so well as he did for the time of his residence in Ireland For under the Notion of Ridiculing the Irish he promoted every Man that was a Papist if he had but common Sense and a Place open And it is well remembred what vast Quantities of Arms and Ammunition were daily sent from England to that Place and considerable Quantities both from France and Spain which your Party used to say would do more good towards the Establishing the Catholick Religion than so many Bibles And great care Sir was taken by you to secure the poor Irish Catholicks in the North that the Planters of Ulster and the Scotch should give them no disturbance that is in plain English they should themselves stand still and be peaceably murthered by your Irish Cut-throats 3. How many Popish Judges Justices of the Peace Sheriffs Coroners Mayors Sovereigns and Portriffs were made by your Princely Care in that Kingdom And was this for the Preservation of the Protestant Religion and the English Interest there No certainly it is well known by several Letters of yours to Richard Talbot and Sir Ellis Layton that the Reason why you gave such Instructions was to crush and ruine the Protestant Religion and the English Interest in that Kingdom for you having Popish Judges and Popish Sheriffs you would quickly find Popish Juries and Irish Witnesses to swear any thing against the Protestant Nobility and Gentry that stood in opposition to your Proceedings in that Kingdom Then Sir what Security had a Gentleman of his Estate when Judges Sheriffs and Witnesses were against him The many Instances of the Wrongs and Oppressions done to the Protestant English Gentlemen the Records of your Villainous Court of Claims can tell how they were sworn out of their Estates and Fortunes by your Rogues and Banditti I am certain that this Point being gained by You and your Conspirators it proved very Fatal to Ireland 4. You took great care of the Church too not of the Protestant Church but of your Popish Titular Archbishops Bishops Vicar-Generals Abbots and others that had Power from Rome to exercise Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction that they should be established in particular Sir your old Friend Peter Talbot the pretended Archbishop of Dublin and your old Friend James Lynce Archbishop of Tuam both of them had been notoriously disloyal to the King your Brother in that they had long lived in Disobedience to him and in Contempt of his Laws But to cure that you procured a Pardon for them both which Boyle the Chancellor passed under the Great Seal by your special Command and Direction nay you hectored your Brother when he was unwilling to pass Talbot's Pardon and challenged his Promise and Agreement made at Dover at the Interview with Madam his Sister and yours And Sir that all things might appear with some Face of Grandeur a Meeting of all the Popish Archbishops Bishops Vicar-Generals Abbots Priors and Priests for the settling and establishing their Clergy both secular and regular which was connived at by your Tool of a Lieutenant upon which the Popish Party grew so insolent that a Protestant went in danger of his Life amongst them nay to preserve their Stock in many Places they were forced to pay Tythes to the Popish Priest as well as to the Protestant Minister But when the Earl of Essex was sent over with much difficulty some small Check was put to these insolent Carriages of the Irish Papists Tuam fled and Talbot withdrew for a while or rather absconded themselves and the Publick Popish Schools were put down and many secular and regular Priests did depart the Land For which Sir you hated the Earl of Essex and Plunket you also despised because he said It was not Prudence for Catholicks to live in Contempt of Law and therefore you may remember how and by whom his end was promoted and with what zeal you and your Party sent him out of the World he was of the same Opinion with Cardinal Howard that in whatsoever Business Talbot was engaged he ever spoiled it and he was impudent and false to his Party for which the Jesuites turned him out of the Society but that he might not in discontent leave the Church of Rome the General of the Jesuites procured of the Pope that he might be made a Bishop But this Sir I will assure you That if Talbot when he was taken in Ireland had been taken in England he would have done You and your Party a signal Piece of Service for Coleman had certainly given Evidence with him against you So that your traiterous Correspondency with France and Intentions to destroy the Prince of Orange and the Protestant Religion within these Realms and all over Europe would have been so fully detected that it had been almost impossible for you to have escaped the hand of Justice Of this Sir I can give a particular Account if ever there should be occasion And Plunket himself gave you such an Item of Talbot's Intentions in that Point that Coleman's Death was hastened and Talbot dy'd strangely in Prison and so you escaped to do more Mischief And how well you rewarded Plunket for his Good will towards you is well known and all to oblige your Cut-throat Jesuits to whom they were mortal Enemies 5. On the 26th of Febr. 1671. It is remembred that for the better Encouragement of the Irish Papists and that they might many of them live in greater Bodies together you procured Letters from King Charles your Brother and a Proclamation to give Liberty in General to all Irish Papists to live in Corporations against the Act of Settlement and to be excused from all those Oaths that were required from those who were duly licensed according to the true intent and meaning of that Act And your Agents Siâ— Ellys Leyton and Richard Talbot were very vigorous to see those Letters and Proclamations put in Execution Then the Irish flocked into Towns
or the thing real when I think on a Prince in such an Age as we live in to be converted to such a degree of Zeal and Piety as not to regard any thing in the World in comparison of Christ These are the Discoveries of your Old Servant Mr. Coleman but to rivet the Matter I pray consider what Discoveries you were pleased to make of the Union of your Interest with that of the French King which Sir will put the Matter out of dispute Give me leave to put you in mind of your Letter you wrote to the French King's Confessour wherein you were pleased to own that the Interests of the French King and yours were so clearly linck'd together that those that opposed the one should be looked on as Enemies to the other and that the French King had told you that he was of the Opinion that neither the Lord Arlington nor the Parliament were in his Interest nor yours 2. As it is as clear as the Day that your Interest is not an English but a French Interest so now I must tell you in the second place that your Interest being a French Interest it will render your return impossible and the attempt in order to it very foolish and irrational You know that the English Nation is never safe unless a check be put upon the growing Greatness of France Therefore do but observe the Address of the House of Commons March 10. 1676 they put the King your Brother in mind of the great Danger that the Nation was exposed to by reason of the growth of the French King's Power and Greatness Now any Man that is in the Interest of the French King his Interest is no ways reconcileable to the Interest of England 1. As to its Peace 2. As to its Trade And the Consequence of both these are the Riches of the Nation which must be consumed by a Prince that is of an Interest different from that of the People 't is true the present War with France hath proved very chargable to the Nation but here is our Happiness that we have a King that advanceth the Interest of our Trade his People and He go Hand in Hand Their Interests are the same with His and His the same with Theirs which to me is an Argument that when it shall have pleased God by His Arms to reduce the French King to Reason that then no Nation under the Heavens can or will be more happy than the English Nation But if a Prince shall instead of pursuing the Interest of his People pursue their Destruction by setting up and advancing the Interest of a Foreign Power his Government cannot stand This Sir was that which lost you your Crown And can you then expect by that Interest to regain the Crown of England by which you strangely lost it Therefore to conclude this Head let not your Conspirators think that it is either probable or possible that ever the People of England will ever be brought into a French Interest or ever admit you to resume the Throne and Government since that you purely lost it for the sake of that Interest Your Scoundrel Abettors here at Home are such a sort of Animals that the Reformed Nations Abroad are at a stand and cannot tell what to make of them their Carriages of late Years have been so unaccountable and since it hath pleased God to put it into the Hearts of most of the Princes of Europe though of the Romish Communion heartily to embrace the late Revolution in England as the last Effort for the Common Liberty of Europe and have entered into the strictest Alliance with our King though of a different Religion to support it it looks like a Dream to meet with Men that call themselves English Protestants embarqued in your Interest in opposition to the Interest of their Native Countrey A little Priest of the Church of England in a Sermon of his on the Day your Father made his Exit was pleased to threaten us with an endless War that would be entailed on the Nation he is a mighty Votary for your Cause and Interest notwithstanding his Oath to King William to the contrary But Sir a thousand such Fellows can never reconcile your Interest with that of England nor would your Restoration put an end to his supposed War for it is not reasonable to imagine that so many Noblemen and Gentlemen who have associated and by their Association have engaged to support the Interest and Cause of our King will tamely submit to your Restoration Or that King William will ever abandon his Throne or that its possible that the Common Cause of Europe will ever be suffered to sink in such a manner as to comply with the Pride and Ambition of your Self or of him whose Cause you have espoused and whose Interest is the very same with yours When you were upon the Throne your Aim was to destroy the Interest of England but we have been too many for you and the Throne is filled up with one that will maintain and support our Interest notwithstanding the vain Efforts of your Crew both at Home and Abroad to the contrary And therefore that Loggerhead of a Cathedral Priest hath not made one single Convert to your Cause and Interest by the Noise he made of disputed Titles and endless Wars I will observe this to you that the Rascal hath more Preferment than Learning or Honesty but what can we expect of an Apostate 4. We are Freemen and therefore we can never be supposed ever to admit you who have always been a Person of Arbitrary Principles to govern this Nation You cannot but remember that the English Nation hath a very great Security for its Liberties and that is the Government it self with a good King at the head thereof and that is our present Happiness for our King Rules not upon the same Terms as your Brother of France doth for he by Force Usurps that share which his People ought to have in the Government and for several Ages past hath been in possession of an Arbitrary Power which yet no prescription can make Legal and he exerciseth it over the Persons and Estates of his People in a most Tyrannical manner And this your loving and kind Brother and you aimed at Witness your Dispensing Power that you took upon you when you ascended the Throne But our King hath so ordered it that his Subjects shall retain their Proportion in the Legislature the very meanest Commoner of England is represented in Parliament and is a Party to those Laws by which our King is Sworn to govern himself and his People 'T is true you Swore but you made no Conscience of your Oath nor did you in the least boggle at the Violation of our Laws you hated that way of Government which you had solemnly promised to maintain and defend Witness the Names you used to give the Parliament of England Now according to the Laws of the Realm no Money is raised but by
Qualities than Popery The Pagans are excusable by their natural Darkness without Revelation The Jews are tolerable who see not beyond the Old-Testament Mahomet was so honest as to own what he would be at That he himself was the greatest Prophet and that his was a Religion of the Sword So that these were all as I may say of another Allegiance if they were Enemies yet they were not Traytors But the Romish Beast avowing Christianity by Profession doth in Doctrin and Practice renounce it and presumeing to be the only Catholick doth presume to prosecute those to death who dare Worship the Author of their Religion instead of his pretended Vicegerent And yet there is nothing more manifest notwithstanding all his most notorious Forgeries and falsifications of all Writers than that the Prelate of Rome was for several hundreds of Years an honest Bishop as other Men are and never so much as dreamed of the Seven Hills of that Universal Power which he is now come to Nay he was the first that opposed that Pretension But some of them at last growing Wiser by foisting a Counterfeit Donation of Constantine and wresting another Donation from our Saviour advancing themselves in a Weak Ignorant and Credulous Age to that Temporal and Spiritual Principality that they are now seized of Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church Of this I may say to your Majesty That never was a Bishoprick and a Text of Scripture so Improved by good Management thus by exercising in the quality of Christ's Vicar the Publick Function under an invisible Prince the Pope like the Maiors of the Palace hath set his Master aside and delivered the power over to a new Line of Papal Succession But who can unless wilfully be ignorant what wretched doings what Bribery what Ambitions there are how long the Church is without a Head upon every Vacancy till among the filthy Crew of bandying Cardinals the Holy Ghost hath declared for a Pope of the French or Spanish Faction Surely Sir your Majesty will judge it one of the greatest Miracles of the Synagogue of Rome that it should still continue and that in all this time the Gates of Heaven should not prevail against it Give me leave Great Sir to observe to your Majesty that it is almost inconceivable how Princes can yet suffer a Power so pernicious and Doctrins so destructive to all Government that so great a part of the Land should be alienated and condemned to Pious Uses as they call it That so many Thousands of the People that are Clergy should by remaining unmarried either frustrate Humane Nature if they live chastly or if otherwise adulterate it that they should be privileged from all Labour and publick Service and exempt from the power of all Secular Jurisdiction that they being all bound by strict Oaths and Vows of Obedience to the Pope should evacuate the Fealty that is due to the Sovereign nay that not only the Clergy but the Laity too if of the Cursed Communion of that Synagogue should be obliged at any time to Rebel at the Pope's pleasure And yet how many of the Neighbouring Princes are content or do choose to Reign upon those Conditions which being so dishonourable and dangerous surely some great and weighty Reason does cause them to submit to whether it be out of personal Fear having heard perhaps of several attempts which the blind Obedience of Popish Zealots hath executed against the Princes or whether aiming at a more absolute and tyrannical Government they think it still to be the Case of an Usurping Emperor and an Usurping Bishop and that this as other Cheats is to be managed by Confederacy But Sir as far as I can apprehend there is more of Sloth than of Policy on the Princes side in this whole matter and all that pretence of enslaving Men by the assistance of Religion is neither more nor less than when the Bramine by having the first Night of the Bride assures himself of her Devotion for the future and makes her more fit for the Husband This Reflection upon the state of our Neighbours in respect to Religion doth sufficiently illustrate our Happiness we enjoy by your Majesties Accession to the Crown of ours Therefore it spares me the labour of describing it further than by the rule of Contraries our Religion and Interest standing upon all points in a direct Opposition to the above-mentioned Errors our Doctrin being true to the Principles of the first Institution of Christ the Ministry being formed upon the Primitive Model and no Ecclesiastical Power justling with the Civil but all concurring in the Common Obedience to the chief Magistrate Nor therefore is there any whether Prince or Nation that can at this time with less probability be reduced back to the Romish Communion than the Protestant Interest here in England For if we respect our Obedience to God what appearance is there that after so durable and general enlightning of our Minds with the sacred Truth of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ we should again put out our own Eyes to wander through the palpable Darkness of that Gross Superstition But for as much as many Men are less concern'd for their Interest in Heaven than on Earth this seeming the nearer and more certain also on this account our Alteration from the Protestant Religion is the more inconsistent with temporal Advantage when besides the common ill Examples and Consequences observable Abroad whereby we might grow wise at the Expence of our Neighbours we cannot but reflect upon our own Experiments at Home which would make even Fools docible The whole Reign of Queen Mary the First in which the Papists made Fuel of the Protestants the Excommunicating and Deprivation of Queen Elizabeth by the Pope pursued by so many Treasons and Attempts upon her Person by her own Subjects and the Invasion of Eighty-Eight by the Spaniard The two Breves of the Pope in order to exclude King James the First from the Succession to the Crown seconded by the Gunpowder-Treason In the time of K. Charles the first besides what they contributed to the Civil Wars in England the Rebellion and Horrid Massacre in Ireland which ended in the Ruin and Destruction of the Person and Government of that King In the time of King Charles the Second we saw several visible Effects of the same Spirit as the Firing of London the Popish Design carried on against the Person and Government of that King not that he was a Protestant but because he came not up to the Measures of the Jesuits and his Brother the late King James But as for him his whole Life was nothing else but a Contrivance or a Plot against our Religion Laws and Liberties But this Horrid Conspiracy against your Majesty's Person and Government being so happily discovered we cannot but hope that the Discovery of such a tremendous Villany will so rivet the Protestant Interest and Religion that it shall stand so sure that
absolute Dominion and both are inveterate Enemies to your Majesty and this Protestant Kingdom and the French King is in all respects the most likely to support maintain and uphold them in those Attempts they being so exactly suitable to the inclinations of his Soul yea and of the Late King's Soul too notwithstanding your Majesty's being his Nephew and Son-in-Law into the bargain Sir these Conspirators have made it their business to asperse your Majesty's Government because of the great Taxes that are upon the Nation but I never find them to take notice of the Treasure that K. Charles II. wasted It 's true he was engaged in two most impious Wars against the Dutch and these Wars were very chargable to the Nation But besides those two Wars he spent abundance upon his Whores Pimps and Bauds under the notion of secret Service and yet we find nothing to be said of that Our Taxes are greater than ever the Nation paid but your Majesty's Loyal Subjects do not believe them so heavy but that they can and will hold it out many Years In a word there are none that retain their Loyalty and Duty to your Majesty but are highly pleased with your Majesty's being fully supplied to carry on so necessary a War and there is no good Man but will rather hazard his Person to keep the Enemy abroad than see either a French or Irish Army within your Kingdom of England destroying our Substance burning our Habitations and committing those Barbarities that were done in the Palatinate by the one or in Ireland in 41 by the other so that your Majesty may see that we that are English Men are not so much concerned at our Taxes as at the imminent Dangers your Majesty is daily exposed to both at home and abroad And being more confident than perhaps becomes me to judge the thoughts of Men I believe the Conspirators are more concerned that your Majesty is yet in the Land of the Living than at any of these Taxes of which I suppose their proportion is but small But your Majesty is not the first and only Prince that Fugitive Conspirators have traduced as these have filled the Ears of the French King and the Late King with monstrous Stories of your Majesty's Oppressing the Nation with unheard of Taxes thereby insinuating to him and his chargeable Guess how easy it would be to reduce the Nation that they might have farther opportunity of revelling and surfeiting upon his Treasure So the Fugitive Conspirators in the time of Q. Elizabeth were perpetually whispering in the Ears of the then King of Spain with prodigious Stories as false as Hell thereby to Exasperate that then great and Powerful Monarch against the Kingdom and did disparage the Forces of the said Queen and the posture and conduct of her Affairs in order to make him believe that the Conquest of England to be a matter of no great difficulty They did calumniate that Queen's Justice and blamed her proceedings against Seminaries and Romish Priests and for having a jealous eye upon those of their Communion for receiving those Priests and Jesuits thus sent into this Realm to seduce her Subjects and to withdraw them from their Obedience but our Conspirators could not traduce your Majesty or blacken your Government with those Points none might have been more easie and quiet under your happy Government than they if their Villainous Principles would have suffer'd them and not only so but they might have had Preferments too whilst poor Sufferers and your hearty Friends were Starving had not their damnable Insolencies and implacable hatred of your Majesty's Person and the welfare of the Kingdom been an obstacle in their way but that which I shall observe to your Majesty that they traduced that Queen with overcharging her Subjects with heavy and unaccustomed Taxes But it was then well known that no Prince could maintain such a Fleet at Sea and such an Army at Land without great Expence and Charge for her main end was to prevent a Foreign Invasion by which that wise Queen certainly knew would be more Expensive and Chargeable to the Nation than a Maintenance of a Force at Sea and Land would be to prevent it It is not unknown that your Majesties Prudence and Conduct hath appeared that tho your Majesty found the Nation in a Lamentable Condition the Trade Sunk Liberties Seized the People in a Ferment the Ensigns of the many Murders committed in the Reign of the Late King upon the Gates of the City and upon your Majesty's accession to the Throne a necessary War to be commenced yet the Trade hath in some measure been preserved Liberties restored the condition of the Nation much mended and like to be more and more improved both as to its Honour and Interest the People Quieted and Reprizals about to be made for the Murder of our Friends Your Majesty hath Reigned now Seven Years and never raised one Penny without the consent of Parliament and by the Authority of the same and the Late King had not Reigned seven Hours but he Levied Mony without Parliament But I would fain have these Fugitive Cut-throats that envy and malign your Majesty's easie Government to compare the necessities of Queen Elizabeth with the urgent occasion your Majesty hath of greater Taxes than ever that Princes could pretend to for it is most plain beyond all contradiction First that Wars are now more chargeable in this Age than in that which she Reigned Then it is plain your Majesty hath had but little or no Assistance the Dutch excepted from any Protestant Prince or any other Prince of the Confederacy but you have been rather necessitated to help them in the last place your Majesty hath every year of your Reign been obliged to have great Forces both at Sea and Land the Charges of your Majesties Predecessors have been for the most part Voluntary their Soldiers fought upon these Terms no Purchase no Pay and therefore the Subjects were not so much burthened by Foreign Wars but they went forth to Conquer Now its plain that for a King to defend his own Realm and the Liberties thereof is more Expensive than to Conquer other Princes Countries for the Conqueror would always pay himself and Army in his new Conquest But Sir that which is a wonder to me is this that they should complain to King Lewis and King James of the greatness of the Taxes here caâ—â—hey think that although he should comply with them once more to Invade us yet at the same time to charge your Majesty with that thing as a high Crime must be an unmannerly Charge since the French King himself doth the same every Year by his own Arbitrary Despotick Power that your Majesty hath only done by the Advice and Consent and Authority of a dutiful and loyal Parliament But truly Sir I must here acquaint your Majesty that some People have condemned the French King and King James too for giving Credit to these Conspirators for first they
Hell shall prevail he hath secured us our Liberties Laws and Religion he hath brought himself and Government to that Perfection notwithstanding the vexatious War which lies hard upon us that he is capable of doing good to all Mankind and he hath totally disabled himself from doing hurt to any he wants not the French King's Purse nor his Friendship he wants not his Interest for his Interest is his Peoples and his Peoples his by which they are so united that the attempts of your Scoundrel Crew for your Restoration will be in vain the Hearts of the Nation are set against you and for your perfidious dealing both in Church and State the People of England will trust you no more Sir We have Sworn Allegiance to this King we chose in your stead and we are bound to stand by him our choise of him was from a Principle of Love to God and the Protestant Religion which he hath asserted You kept not your Faith with us and therefore our Allegiance ceased to you your Actions have been very plain and open and so pernitious that it was a Wonder of Wonders thaâ— we and our Religion have been delivered from Blood and Oppression And Sir I would let you know that we are not afraid of you and your Adherents for I believe the Protestant Religion and Protestant King will stand notwithstanding alâ— your Attempts and if you had brought your French Dragooning Apostles oâ—er to us yet we would and should have maintained our Ground and destroyed â—â—em and you We value not your little Two-penny Stuff that you have left â—â—hind you to plead your Cause your impertinent ignorant Non-juring Clergy-men can never preach us out of love to that Loyalty that we owe to K. William â—e have scarce a Williamite Cobler but can baffle them all These things consiâ—ered How can you ever expect any thing less than that Judgment the Psalmist â—rays for to be inflicted upon his Enemies Hath not God already set a wicked Tyrant over you Have you not been Judged by the Lords and Commons of England and Condemned Was not your Reign short And hath not another taken your Office In time Sir the Judgment may be compleated upon you There is of your Issue that have had no Hand in our Miseries and for this Cause our Eyes are set upon them for good and we shall pray for their long Life But as for you that God would cloth you with Shame and Confusion of Face and that he would upon the Head of our Protestant King let the Crown long florish And I do not question but God will hear the Prayers of his Faithful Subjects and will by his means bring the Nation to such a Settlement that our Allegiance will be firm to him and his Successors notwithstanding all those villainous Attempts that you and that Monster of Mankind your Brother of France by his and your Traiterous Accomplices have made to deprive us of so great a Blessing Which brings me to a Sixth Consideration 6. The last Reason I shall give you why it will be impossible for you to return to the Administration of the English Government and that all Attempts of that nature will be in vain because of your late barbarous and villainous Attempt you by your Conspirators have made upon the Person of our King and your purpose of backing that intended Murder by an unnatural Invasion you had some that pittied you but now our Hearts are shut up against you and are hardned against all your Cursed Adherents For now your Plot is discovered and it is a Plot and a Villainous One nothing can be plainer no Man of Common Understanding but must see your Conspiracy to bring in Popery and Slavery and to destroy the Protestant Religion and the Liberties of England We know Sir the Doctrine of your Popish and Non-juring Priests too well and your wicked Practices and we are now assured that you will not stick at any thing that may bring your wicked Designs about You must excuse me if I am plain with you I would not asperse you with hard Words if they were not very true I should not have been so Hot if you had not been concerned in the late wicked Design of murthering our King but if you had succeeded it would have been no more than you did to your Loving and Kind Brother but all this as well as the other is owing to you and your Popish Traiterous Crew who have debauched Mens Understandings overturned all Morals and destroyed all Divinity What shall I say of you and your villainour Party What is your Charity such as to destroy Kings And where was the Humility of insulting over the Nation The Mystery of Iniquity is revealed and you are disappointed The Nation sees that you are no Changeling as to yâ—â—r Vices and you will find that English-men are no Changelings Therefore it wâ—ll be in vain to make any more attempts to be Restored again for the future To conclude this Memorial Sir give me leave to tell you that I have thus fâ—â— laid open the Conspiracy against our Religion and Government and indeed it waâ— more than time it should be discovered for I think here hath been nothing asserteâ— but what hath been and can be made out we see how the French have been courted by you and your Party with what Ease have they been assisted and witâ— what Difficulty the Dutch both in your Brothers and your Reign We see your Brother and you abandon the Prince of Orange now our King in compliance with his and the Nations Enemies How can any Man think upon the French Depredations and Cruelties exercised at Sea upon the Subjects of England without Regret Call to mind your notorious Treacheries in that Affair Remember the constant Irregularities and Injustice from term to term of those who should have administred Justice between King and People Remember the search you made throughout the whole Kingdom to find Men of Arbitrary Principles that would bow the Knee to Baal in order to their being promoted to all publick Commissions and Employments and disgracing and displacing all those that durst in so universal a Depravation be honest and faithful in their Trust and Offices We saw to our great Grief the Defection of considerable Persons both Male and Female to the Popish Religion as if they enter'd by Couples Clean and Unclean into the Ark of that Cursed Synagogue not more in order to their Salvation than for their Temporal Advantage and Safety Sir the State of Ireland managed by your Brother and you would require a Volume to represent it and in your Time we could not but observe that all your Affairs and Councils in the Nation tended to a Popish Revolution And by the Foresight and Civility of the Man of Sin there was an English Cardinal prepared like Cardinal Pool to give us Absolution Benediction and to receive us to the Obedience of the See of Rome It is true your Conspiracy had taken effect had you not met with many Disappointments but the last Disappointment was the overturn of all your Designs at once which was occasioned by the Arrival of the Prince of Orange Guilt made you to flee The Sense the Nation had of your wicked Intentions against our Laws and Liberties caused the People of England to make choice of our Deliverer to reign over us He is anointed our King and as God hath set a Crown of pure Gold upon his Head so we question not but the same God will satisfy him with long Life and Happiness and that he will give him the Spirit of Wisdom Knowledge Zeal and Faithfulness to do what in him lies to the bringing on the New Heavens and the New Earth wherein Righteousness and Peace shall dwell by repairing the Breaches and decayed Places that you have made and caused amongst us And from hence Sir remember that though Hand join in Hand yet the Wicked shall not go unpunished they are Gods own Words who hath also declared with the greatest Solemnity that there shall be no Peace to the Wicked Isa 57.21 You have leisure to consider of these things and so Farewell FINIS
common Consent But you were pleased to raise Money upon the People by your Proclamation The very Day after you had promised to invade no Mans Property Now no Man is for Life Limb Goods or Liberty at the Sovereigns Direction but how soon it would have been had not a period been put to your Tyranny For your Sycophant Parasites were very zealous to have delivered up those Priviledges in to your Hands judging it would not be well with England till you were as Absolute as the Monster of France by which we might easily understand your Intentions For Sir who knows not that the inclination of a Prince is best known either by those that are about him and most Favour with him or by the current of his own Actions Those who were nearest to you and most your Favourites were your Irish and French Courtiers and your Popish Priests and Prelates who these Men stood affected to Your Discretionary Dispotick Power can never be forgotten No Man but may remember that in their common Discourse were for advancing your Will and Pleasure over your Subjects to be equal with that of the King of France is over his This was but a Copy which those Villains had industriously taken from your own Words and Actions In Scotland you did publickly set up for that Power and openly declared you would be obeyed without reserve The attempt you and your Conspirators made in the time of the Lord Chancellor Hyde upon our Liberties is never to be forgetten a Bill was prepared to enable the King your Brother in the time of any interval of Parliament to raise what Money he pleased upon an extraordinary occasion as the Dutch War was pretended to be This had taken its much desired effect had not that Lord Chancellor been awakened by an intimate Friend of his who understanding what was doing in the House of Commons came to him and shewed him what the Consequences were which such an unheard thing would produce and he using one Argument above all the rest in telling him he came to his Honour and Greatness by the Gown and not by the Sword and if that Bill passed he advised him to consider what his Gown or all the Lawyers Gowns in England were worth which that Lord Chancellor though one of the Actors with you to enslave the Nation being a Man of Sense had that Honor as to think it no Dishonor to retreat from that Devilish Invention which he to comply with your Ambition and Pride had set on foot to destroy us at once So that Bill though once read in the House for enabling the King your Brother to raise Money at pleasure was by the Providence of God and the Prudence of that Noble Penitent Lord droped so far as that it dwindled into a Bill of 75000 l. not exceeding a Months Tax No doubt but you had procured this Bill to be dressed in the French Mode for emergent Occasions yet had it passed in the same manner as you and your Accomplices designed there would not have wanted emergent Occasions and extraordinary Services to have given Colour for keeping that Power on foot until Dooms Day in the Afternoon The French King whose Example you followed in this particular got his Power by such a villainous Stratagem but he hath not been at leisure yet to call his Parliament to dispute that Point I question not but that your loving Brother and you would have found other Matters of moment to have diverted you from that way of raising Money so England must have taken leave of Parliaments for ever and we must have submitted all we had to your French Discretion But through the Blessing of Heaven and the Care of our Legislators we are delivered not only from your Government and your intended French way of Governing for we continue to have the same Right modestly understood in our Propriety that our Prince hath in his Royalty and in all Cases where the King himself is concerned we have our just Remedy as against any private Person in the Nation in the Courts of Westminster-hall or in the High Court of Parliament for his Prerogative is not like that you would have usurped but what the Law hath only determined His great Seal which is the legitimate Stamp of his Royal Will and Pleasure yet it is no longer currant than upon the Tryal it is found to be according to Law and Justice The King cannot commit any Man by his own particular Warrant he cannot be himself a Witness in any Cause whatever tho your Brother would have been one against me The Ballance of publick Justice being so delicate that not the Head only but even the Breath of the King would turn the Scale nothing is left to the Win of the King but every thing is subject to his legal Authority by which means it follows that as he can do no Wrong nor can he receive Wrong But you by your Dispensing Power put your self in a state of Wronging the Nation and destroying your self and Government but had you kept to the Measures of an English King you might have remained to this Day to have been the only intelligent Ruler over a rational People your Person had been Sacred and Inviolable and whatever Excess had been committed in your Reigh would not have been imputed to you as being free from the Necessity and Temptations Your Ministers would have been only accountable for all and must have Answered it at their Perils You had a vast Revenue and if any emergency of Affair should have appeared you had at your Call a number of Men to have advised with a supply would have been readily granted You were the Fountain of Honour the disposer of many profitable Places both in Church and State but this would not serve your turn for you would not be abridged the Power of injuring the People of England but against all Law invaded our Rights and designed nothing so much as enslaving us and our Posterity for ever And we that have tasted so much of the sweetness of Liberty and on the other hand have smarted under your short but cruel Tyranny will never be intangled again with the French Popish Yoke of Bondage but stand in defence of the King we have chosen and the Liberty we have recovered as long as we have a Being in this World Therefore consider with your self the impossibility of your return to that Government you abused to the Administration of those Laws you violated to a Nation that you made a Field of Blood and if you had remained for ought I know England might have been a Howling Wilderness In fine then I am sure if you should make any attempt to return it will be in vain and appear very rediculous 5. We have Sworn Allegiance to King William who is of the same Religion and Interest with us who delivered us out of your Hands and the Hands of your villainous Conspirators and hath fixed us upon those Foundations against which France Rome nor