upon the first sight of me required of me Whether the Catholick Religion was established in England this was in the Year 1674. in the Month of April and I told him No Why then said he the Dutch War is to no purpose Why said I was our engaging in a War against the Dutch to bring in Popery Well well saith the Friar you will see in time In some few Days we had notice of a Peace with the Dutch What then said he our great King of France is not at Peace with them and he must do the Work In the Year 1675 I had obtained an Interest with Henry Duke of Norfolk then Earl of Norwich and Earl Marshal of England who was very kind to me upon the Account of my contending earnestly for his Right of Presenting to a Living in the Diocess of Chichester to which Living the then Bishop a turbulent Man pretended a Right of Collating And in the Year 1676 I was made his Chaplain and I call the whole Family of the Norfolk Howards to witness to my Fidelity to him and to his Children tho I am but churlishly used by some of them for my Truth and Fidelity to my Lord and Master but God forgive them for their Ingratitude to me especially Charles Howard who owes me more than I shall mention here but I always had a Thought that Popery rendred a Man incapable of being grateful to his Friend I in the Service of the Duke of Norfolk came acquainted with several Priests and being then resolved upon a strict Inquiry into their Designs against us and our Religion and Laws and Liberties I met with one Berry a Priest that had been a Jesuit but had left that Order through some Discontent and Madness that had seized the poor Wretch as he hath told me He was a Scholar in Cambridg was a Minister in England if he told me the Truth then turned Jesuit and then as before left that Order and became a secular Priest and then came to the Church of England and was a Curate at Berking and since is gone to the Church of Rome again This Berry I found a poor zealous Man whose Zeal was far beyond his Knowledg and he fell upon me to come over to their Church and he brought me acquainted with Mr. Langworth a Jesuit who since is dead as he the said Berry hath told me and with Mr. John Keins a great Jesuit and one Mr. Morgan a Jesuit that lived with the Lord Powis in the Year 1676 1677 1678. till the Plot was discovered where he is now I know not I was by Langworth reconciled to the Church of Rome he was then Confessarius to the Ld Petre and his Family and upon my being reconciled I was brought to Mr. Strange the then Provincial of their Order who admitted me into the Society of Jesus when I was admitted it was resolved by the Jesuits that I should pass the time of my Novitiate abroad in dispatching Business for the Society which I chearfully accepted and therefore accordingly they provided for me When I had paid Mr. Luke Roch Commander of the Biscay Merchant Earnest for my Passage to Bilboa the said Strange then Provincial of the Order gave me 100 Pistols for my Supply in order for my Passage into Spain and for my necessary Expences there and ordered me what Money I should need exhorting me to be as good a Husband as I could for they had great Occasions for Money What Letters they sent by me I have set forth in my Narrative but when I had got a competent Knowledg of the Design I found the great Reason why they would murder the late King was because he had deceived them and in Spain they assured me he had been reconciled to their Church and that upon his Reconciliation the Society in Spain had contributed 3000 Pistols to his Support which was paid in by Father Courtney sometime Provincial of the Jesuits in England I say several Letters written to one Father Knot in which the late King did testify his Zeal for the Catholick Religion and promised to restore it whenever he should come to the Enjoiment of his Right in England and that till he had an Opportunity to do it they should have all the Connivance in the World and if the Case should be so hard with him when he came to the Crown that he could not bring about his Desires to make their Religion to be the Religion of the Government yet they should have an Indulgence that should be equivalent however they should not be excluded out of Offices and Employments under him and that they had his Heart and Soul When I found the late King not inclined to believe that he was to he murdered I did in private tell him these things and that the only reason why they did design to take away his Life was because that he had made such Promises to them and assured them he was theirs and that he was reconciled to the Church of Rome when beyond Sea as I had seen by his own Letters The King commanded me to take no notice of his being reconciled to the Church of Rome and declared to me upon the World of a King that now he did believe they had a Design to murder him acknowledging be had written those Letters I had intimated to his Majesty and withal told me if I had come to him privately and acquainted him with the Plot he could of himself have dashed it and though I designed well yet the Discovery of it had created a Jealousy in the People of him Then I acquainted him with his Letters to the Nuns of Ghent when he borrowed Money of them which they waited for several Years here in England now he in that Letter did declare to them he would restore their Religion when he came to his Right and that was another Reason that provoked the Party against him and that St. Germane a French Jesuit had a hand in the Murder of Killigrew's Man when he lay upon the Couch in his Majesty's Cloak Here the King interrupted me and commanded me to take no farther notice of that Business declaring he knew more than I could tell him in that Affair of Killigrew's Man but withal again repeated the great Jealousy the People had of him and that it was much encreased by ill Men that did labour to possess Peoples Minds against him and said unless an extraordinary Care were taken the Phanatick Party would rebel and very much inveighed against the Dissenters and thought himself in as much danger from them as from the Popish Party That upon the Discovery of several Papers found about January 167 8 9 at one Jolliff a Taylor 's I did observe that the late King Charles the First unless his Hand was counterfeited had commissioned several Irish to rise and withal I saw Instructions given to them to give the English no Quarter and I saw a Letter of his to a Titular Bishop the Bishop of Cassal as
dangerous Parliaments whatever ever the fawning Addressers pretended to think together with the Parliament threw off the Doctor and the Popish Plot and taking Sir Roger to his aid made another much more grateful to him in which having served the Interest of the French King and his Brother as long as they had occasion for him he himself at length was removed as useless A Copy of Dr. Oates's Letter to King Charles the Second Nov. 10. 1678. May it please Your Majesty I Understand by Mr. Rogers that it hath been reported to Your Majesty that I should in a certain Company declare that your Majesty was a Papist and that your Majesty was resolv'd to order Mr. Attorney-General to proceed against me for those Words that were reported to your Majesty to be spoken by me viz. That Your Majesty had been reconciled to the Church of Rome ever since your escape from Worcester which I hope your Majesty will not do for your own Honours sake For your Majesty knows that to be true that you were reconciled to the Church of Rome by Father Richard Huddliston that was Uncle to John Huddliston who is excepted in all your Majesty's Proclamations that are issued out against Papists and Priests And also it 's not unknown to some that Your Majesty receiv'd the Sacrament according to the Vsage of the Church of Rome in the Dutchess of Portsmouth's Lodgings by the Hands of Father Ireland and I my self served then at Mass which I have not made Publick because I would preserve your Majesty's Reputation And what Care your Majesty took of the Jesuits when St. Omers became subject to the French King by Conquest as Men on whom the Hopes of England did depend in your Letter to the French King's Governour hath not been made so publick as I must make it if your Majesty continue your Resolution to have me prosecuted As also the Gracious Promise you made to your Royal Sister of restoring the Catholick Religion and not only that but the most Gracious Memorial your Majesty put in to the King of Poland by your Envoy there Your Majesty may judg that the Statute made in the Thirteenth Year of your Reign was only made to bridle the Tongues of your People that they should not dare to say you were a Papist but Sir give me leave to tell your Majesty that there was something else designed in that Act than is there expressed for the late Earl of Clarendon then Lord High Chancellor who was afraid of your declaring your self to be of the Church of Rome procured that Act to pass and that not without Difficulty on purpose to prevent you that you might not declare your self to be of that Communion well knowing that if you did it would tend to the breaking all his Measures and Projects then on foot to serve the Duke of York who had married his Daughter So that if I am prosecuted it 's for speaking the Truth supposing that I had spoke the Words But to undeceive your Majesty I did not speak them but it was that Fellow Blood who will confess to your Majesty that it was he that spoke the Words on purpose for me to second him and you know it was by your own Appointment that he was so bold with your Name and Honour in that particular Sir I must say further hat when I communicated his Traiterous Letter he wrote to me to Secretary Coventry he was brought before that Secretary and confessed he wrote the Letter by your Royal Command to lay a Snare for me and that by your Command he did say the Words that you were reconciled to the Church of Rome And when this came to be publickly talked of Blood was children by your Majesty and went off with the sorrowful Present of 500 Guineas given him by your Majesty as a mark of your Royal Displeasure for such unhand some Carriage to your Majesty and for such a Knavish Trick he endeavoured to put upon me I leave it to your Royal Consideration and shall approve my self Sir Your Majesty's Faithful and Dutiful Subject Titus Oates Novemb. 10. 1678. A Copy of Dr. Oates 's Letter to King Charles II. Oct. 14. 1680. May it please Your Majesty BY Your Majesty's Command Sir Philip Floyd was with me and tells me that your Majesty takes great Offence at my keeping Company with Republicans at the first I did not understand who Sir Philip meant by Republicans which he was pleased to explain to me they were a sort of Discontented Men that were Enemies to Monarchy in general and in particular Enemies to Your Majesty's Royal Person and Government I protested to him I did not keep Company with any such Persons and urged it to him that it would be very ingrateful in me if I should keep Company with Men of those Principles For Sir it 's my Judgment that the English Monarchy as established by Law is that which not only my self but all those I converse withal are for and not only so but are ready to defend with their Lives and Fortunes But this is my Misfortune that because I converse and heartily join with those that are for Liberty and Property and for the Old English Government in opposition to Popery and Slavery and assert the Protestant Religion with that Courage that becomes English-men I and my Friends are judged and deemed by your Majesty to be Men aiming at a Common-Wealth in opposition to Monarchy and your Majesty's Government But for my farther Information I begged of Sir Philip to know who they were and what they were that were thus represented to your Majesty who was pleased to tell me it was Mr. Jenks his Club that I did frequent who met at the Angel and Crown in Threadneedle-street and Mr. Bethel's Club that met at the Queen's-Arms in Newgate-street Your Majesty knows that Mr. Seely a Major of the late Protector 's Army hath oft met there by your own Appointment tho for other ends than I met with that Club at the Angel and Crown at which Club I have been several Times for almost these two Years last past and as I expect to see the Face of God I did neither directly nor indirectly hear any one Word spoken against your Majesty's Government and that the Major can tell if he hath the least Grain of Honesty and Truth left in him Your Majesty knows the end of his coming and we found him out at last to be put upon us to abuse us to your Majesty But blessed be God we never gave any just Occasion to merit that Pension your Majesty was pleased to order him for so great a piece of Service as to be a Spy upon a Dozen or Twenty Honest Men that met together to spend one Hour after they had been wearying themselves in their Callings all the Day and their Discourse usually hath been nothing but about Common Things that Major Seely doth indeed lose his Time and spends your Majesty's Bounty to very little purpose For our
become may I say to a Miracle zealous of being the Author and Instrument of so glorious a Work ☞ That which we rely upon most next to God Almighty's Providence and the Favour of my Master the Duke is THE MIGHTY MIND of his most Christian Majesty I must confess I think his Christian Majesty's TEMPORAL INTEREST is so much attracted to that of his R. H. which can never be considerable but upon the Growth and Advancement of the CATHOLICK RELIGION that his Ministers cannot give him better Advice c. Now Gentlemen might not a Man have concluded that what you then read and find here repeated ought to have weaned your Party at least such of you as pretended to be of the Church of England for I well remember you scoffed at the Name of Protestant from your idolized Popish Successor What I could no King please such Churchmen as you but such AZEALOT as would not regard any thing in the World in comparison of overturning our Religion Could no one content you but a Prince whose Interest was avowed to be inseparably united to that of the Grand Tyrant of the Earth Who declared himself fully convinc'd that PARLIAMENTS were not only VNVSEFVL but very DANGEROVS to the JOINT INTEREST both of England and France None but him by whom the French King's Interest was to be secured in England None but him who undertook to give the greatest Blow to the Protestant Religion here that it ever received from its Birth None but him who should he once get above us after the Tricks we had then plaid him by the way he remembers we have plaid him a worse since WOVLD NOT TOTALLY FORGET the Vsage he has had at our Hands Finally could nothing please you but a King whose MIGHTY WORK as you were forewarned was to be no less than the Destruction of the Nations under the Notion of converting them and who was utterly to subdue our Religion as a PESTILENT HERESY One of whom our inhumane Enemies promised themselves greater Hopes than ever they had since the Death of cruel Queen Mary A Prince whom they boasted was become to a Miracle zealous of being the Author and Instrument of so glorious a Work as that of razing the Foundations of the Church of England Could I now believe that I discourse to rational Creatures and not to Brutes void of all Understanding I should hope to make you blush at your past Frenzies if not perswade you to cease doting on your old Bondage and hankering after the Flesh-Pots of Egypt to give over your Murmuring and no longer to foment Jealousies between the King and his People no longer to be throwing in Sparks of Discontent and endeavouring to blow them up into Flames of Mutinies and Rebellions Allow me to remember you in the Words of a loyal and learned Person that God has given our King a People who tho they may sometimes be practised upon to run into Vproars yet Loyalty is so inlaid in their Tempers and annealed to their Souls that the secret Enemies of our King and Peace could never yet make their Earnings out of them nay that God has converted our Danger into our Security that he has made the People not the Terror of the Government but of its Enemies That some ill Men have an ill and envious Eye upon the Throne but they fear the People Mr. Alsop's Thanksgiving-Sermon at Westminster 8 Sept. 1695. Run not then I caution you headlong to Destruction but be advised to consider what you are doing why will you be helping forward your Countries Ruine by labouring to subject it to that mighty Nimrod the securing whose Interest in England was the wicked Design so long since on foot 'T is evident to all the World that you under the Name of TORIES in which you gloried brought Church and State to the very Door of Destruction gave us the dismal Prospect of Slavery in our Persons Consciences and Estates and by your Procurement we beheld every thing that was dear and valuable to us upon the Brink of Subjection to a foreign Power and all by pleading for and adhering to your darling Popish Successor Nay 't is beyond Contradiction clear that you were blinded deluded and beguiled in that Point by the subtile Jesuits those Firebrands of all Europe Now seeing it has pleased God to bless us with the grateful Surprize of a Deliverance from such great Evils will you be perswaded to become a loyal quiet People disposed to Obedience To inforce this upon you as 't is your Interest as well as Duty I shall recount to you what was in vain laid before you when you first ran a madding after Popery and Slavery A sincere Lover of his Country then argued with you to this Effect You were then truly told that those who were for the Duke of York 's Interest were most certainly for these three Interests viz. 1. For the Popish Interest 2. For the French Interest 3. For Tyranny or Arbitrary Government term it as you will and by Consequence against these other three things 1. Against the Interest of the Church of England and the Protestant Religion 2. Against the Interest of England your native Country 3. Against the Interest of Parliaments and so against your own Freedoms as you were Englishmen You were then exhorted seriously to consider these things your Religion your Lives your Liberties your Estates your All being deeply concerned therein 1. You were rightly admonished that if you stood for the Duke's Interest you did undoubtedly so far stand for that of the Pope and would thereby give the greatest Blow to the Church of England it ever had since it was a Church The Matter was thus expostulated with you Can you once imagine that by bringing in a Popish Successor you will not inevitably set up Popery Will such a King think you have so great a Love for another Religion as his own or for those of another Profession whom he esteems Hereticks as for those of his own Nay then will it not naturally follow that he will advance the one and discountenance and depress the other Will it not be the only way to get into Office or Preferment to turn Papist What will the Effect of this be in a little time think you Will it not be a great weakning to the Church of England to have her Members allured and seduced from her and turn'd and kept out of Places of Trust Profit and Honour whilst her Enemies are placed in them Consider further whether in endeavouring to make a Papist Head of the Church of England you do not labour to make her a Monster for if our Head reckon us his Body rotten Hereticks where 's our Body Where will our Church be What Agreement between the Head and the Body Will it not inevitably run into Confusion Shall we have a Father of our Church who by his own Faith stands obliged to destroy her and is bound by the Romish Principles to deal with her
of all Supream Powers to suppress Vice and encourage Vertue which is best done abroad when first and effectually begun at home in your own House and Family by banishing all vicious Livers from your Presence and Converse and advancing the Vertuous in their stead By the neglect of which principal Part of their Royal Trust and Office Princes depose themselves as useless before God and their own Consciences whatever may be their State or Glory in Fact and by humane Laws and Power before Men. Our Royal Patron being thus dismiss'd we are now got to the Narrative it self of which you my kind Reader still may or may not as you choose run over the Heads They are these The general Design in this Plot was the Reformation that is in their Sense the Reduction of Great Britain and Ireland by the Sword to the Romish Religion and Obedience And Besides the Papal there was also a French Plot carried on by Sir Ellis Leighton Mr. COLEMAN and others The King's Person they more especially resolved to remove and that with all possible speed by Dagger Pistol or POISON The Prince of Orange is to be cut off He was designed against and condemned by Name and 12 Missioners sent into Holland had it in charge to put that People in Mutiny against him On the 4th of January stilo novo Letters were sent by Richard Ashby and others Jesuits of the English Seminary at St. Omers to the Father Confessor of the Emperor to advise him that his Majesty of Great Britain had treacherously plotted the Ruine of the Confederates and that his Design was not to keep any Alliance with his Imperial Majesty but only in shew that he might advance his Nephew THE PRINCE OF ORANGE and make him absolute and therefore prayed that the States of Holland might be acquainted with it Letters arrived at London bearing Date Aug. 5. 1678 from Whito alias Whitebread Provincional to John Fenvick from St. Omers in which he did inform the Fathers that he had ordered 12 Jesuits to go for Holland and to inform the Dutch that the Prince of Orange did intend to assume the Crown of a King and that he resolved to bring them under another Government which was designed to beget in the Dutch an evil Opinion of the P. of Orange and to procure a Commotion there against him On the 11th of Aug. John Keines a Jesuit declared that all means were now used to beget a difference between the Dutch and the P. of Orange and if that could be effected there was no question to be made but that the Protestant Interest would fail in Holland On the 12th of Aug. a Pacquet arrived in London from White alias Whitebread the Provincional and other Jesuits to John Fenwick intimating that the twelve Jesuits were got into Holland and would use all their Skill and Interest to make a Commotion there and that APPLE-TREE WILL. meaning the P. of Orange SHOVLD NOT BE GREAT And that they hoped the Fathers in London would follow their Business closely there In order to the Reduction of Ireland it was resolved that the D. of Ormond must be put out of the way and that then the Protestants should be cut off as in 41 and to that end Arms and Money were sent over and the Pope contributed 800 Thousand Crowns and to make all sure the French were to send Forces over to join 25 thousand Irish On the 11th of Aug. John Keines the Jesuit declared that the Provincional had taken great care of keeping alive the Difference between the disaffected Scots and D. Lauderdale and that the Affairs in Ireland went on with great Expedition and that fourty eight would not last long in England for it was high time to hinder fourty nine from being effected That Barly-broth should grow dead and Twelve would be cut off and that Mum and Chocolate should be put down and the Order of Magpyes should be turned into their Primitive Institution and Habit now the Deponent saith that the Words hinder 49 from being effected is an Expression that is used amongst them for cutting off the King that he may not live to be compleat forty nine Years of Age and by Barley-broth is meant the House of Commons which shall be turned out and sit no more and by Mum and Chocolate is meant the Protestant Peers who if not destroyed shall never have any Vote in the House of Peers more after the Death of this King and by Magpyes they understand the Bishops whose Habit in Parliament is Black and white which shall be changed into Purple and by Twelve is meant the Duke of Monmouth Keines on the 12th of August determined to go for Windsor in order to settle some Business there towards the dispatching 48 and told the Deponent that he might chance to fall short of his return again In July 1678. Richard Strange the last Provincial of the Jesuits did encourage the Deponent to go on in assisting the Society in carrying on the Design and told the Deponent that they got 14000 l. in the Fire of London in 1666. The Deponent ask'd Strange how they came to effect that great and famous Business He replyed that himself and Gray Pennington and Barton Jesuits with some others together with Keimash a Dominican Fryar join'd with one GREEN and met at one West's House the Green Dragon at Puddle Dock and there debated about the manner of firing the City and where they should begin and did attempt it in February 1664 5. In January 1665 6 they met with this Green again who closed in with them in the Design and that they might ingratiate themselves with Green they Man and fit for their Purpose And the more to engage him they pretended to bold many of the Fifth-Monarchy Principles which when Green perceived judging them to be real he brought them acquainted with eight others who were zealous in the Business The Jesuits were earnest to have it done in February but Green prayed them to suspend that Resolution because the King would not be much in Town if at all till the Plague was more abated who Green did say must be cut off too when the People were in a hurry by reason of the Fire and this Motion well pleased the Jesuits and Dominican and so it was put off That in a very little time after Green and the rest of those Fifth-Monarchy-Men together with the Jesuits and Dominican were suspected by West and forewarned his House And presently after Green and his eight Acquaintance were clapt up in Prison and upon their Imprisonment the Jesuits and Dominican got away to St. Omers and there remained till the May after the Execution of 8 of these Persons Green dying in Newgate That in the beginning of June being returned to London they began afresh to consult about this Fire which was still carried on by the Society in their absence and they determined to cut off the King in the time of the Fire that the Number of the
will be so foul a Consequence that a Loyal Heart must tremble to consider it I should not have trotbled your Majesty had your Ministers taken my Complaint into Consideration and tho I was not thought worthy of being heard by them yet by their leaves I humbly conceive your Majesty's Proceedings have been so just and good in the executing of those that were in that Hellish Conspiracy that they deserve to be vindicated from these foul Aspersions cast upon them by Roger L'estrange and his Popish Crew and altho by unjust Reports and Misrepresentations I am out of your Majesty's Favour yet I may say if Oates had not been Loyal your Majesty had not been in the Land of the Living whatever the Popish Crew have suggested in their scurrilous Pamphlets against me for discovering their impious Designs against your Majesties Person and the Protestant Religion I sent a Petition to Mr. Secretary Jenkins but could not be heard and I have written to several of your Council but can have no Effects of my just Complaints though I am left to starve yet I may say I have deserved better of the Government than to live in danger of being knockt of the Head as I go along the Streets and for no other Crime but that of the 28th and 29th of September 1678 if I must perish for serving your Majesty and the Government I humbly pray that I may perish quietly and starve in Peace and not be put into a Bear 's Skin in order to be worried to Death by Popish Dogs whose Religion is nothing else but a Cistern of Immorality and their Immorality Treason in the highest Degree Therefore let any Man shew me a Papist and I can shew a Man that is or must when commanded by his Priest be a Traitor especially such a Papist who hath been bred and instructed in the Protestant Religion and is reconciled to the Synagogue of Rome such a Papist I hate and I trust in God to see such ruined unless that Vengeance be prevented by timely Repentance None Sir hath been used like me and this L'estrange hath as I am informed threatned to write against me till he hath writ me out of the World what the meaning is of such an Expression I humbly leave to your Majesty to consider I have in this inclosed a Petition to your Majesty and question not but you will be graciously pleased to take my sad Case into serious Consideration Sir from my Heart and Soul I love your Majesty and the Government established by Law and have I am sure given your Majesty as great Demonstration of my Loyalty and Duty as any one Subject you have in your three Kingdoms and therefore be pleased to give me leave to put your Majesty in mind of the sad Fate of Alphonso the late King of Portugal and how his Ruine was brought about your Majesty knows the Story better than I can express it and a Word is enough to so wise a Prince as your Majesty hath appeared to be I will not trouble your Majesty any farther but that God the King of Kings may bless your Majesty with a long Life and a happy Reign over us is and ever shall be the daily Prayer of SIR Your Majesty's most Dutiful Loyal and Obedient Subject and Servant Titus Oates London April 12. 1684. A Copy of Dr. Oates's Letter to King James the Second Aug. 12. 1688. May it please Your Majesty I Have no Friend that can attend your Majesty with my Petition or else I should not have made my Application to you in this Way it not being usual for Subjects to address themselves in such a Manner to their Prince Necessity drives me to it for contrary to all Law and Humanity I am miserably oppressed by Mr. Ellis the Marshal of your Prison of the King's-Bench who hath within a few Years last past declared himself to be of the Communion of the Church of Rome upon which together with his Authority I humbly conceive he takes Liberty thus to oppress me to revenge himself and those of that Communion upon me He kept my Servant from me tho it 's well known that by reason of my long and miserable Imprisonment I am lame and not able to help my self He stops all People at the Gate from coming at me by which means I must perish because no Succour can come at me unless Care be taken by your Majesty that a stop be speedily put to his Arbitrary Cruel Usage of me I humbly conceive the Causes of my Imprisonment do not lie before him His Business is to keep me in safe Custody and not to oppress me He demands Ten Guineas of me for Civility-Money which is not his due to receive nor in my power to pay for which he threatens me with Irons the Truth is the whole City crys out Shame of his manner of dealing with me and the more because of his Religion I am certain those of the Communion of the Church of Rome pretend to more Humanity than any other People but his Usage of me shews him rather a Turk than a Christian there will be loud Crys against him either at Term or in Parliament for his many Extravagancies in the Execution of his Office What the Causes of his base Usage of me are I humbly beseech your Majesty may be heard Face to Face before Sir Richard Allebone or in such a way as your Majesty shall think fit for at the present I am under great Apprehensions of being murdered by him which you may prevent if you please All which is humbly submitted to your Majesty by Your poor Prisoner Titus Oates Aug. 12. 1688. I am much impaired in my Health and I have done that which a good Subject ought to do so that if I am murdered my Blood will not lie at my Door but at their Doors that should do me Justice for Favour I expect none nor would I be so Ill a Man as to desire any but I cry aloud for Justice that I may not be murthered by a Man who imagines he may do good Service to those of the Romish Church to ruine me while I am in his Custody Therefore once more I pray for Justice POST-SCRIPT HAving affirmed in the foregoing Tract that both the Juries which found Dr. Oates guilty were Men of the same Gang and Kidney to explain my meaning therein I say that most if not every of them were Disciples of L'Estrange and by consequence Tories Children of Passive Obedience Abhorrers of Parliaments Addressers against them Betrayers of Charters and Anti-Exclusioners Nor could it possibly be otherwise for there was at that day a select List of about 200 such Men and no others packt to do the Court's Drudgery as will evidently appear by reading over the Names of the Grand and Petty-Juries which pass'd upon the never-to-be-forgotten Lord Russel Alderman Cornish and Mrs. Gaunt in the second Part of the Display of Tyranny I observe there is not found amongst them one of the Jury which was returned by our Bethel and Cornish and which brought in that honourable Ignoramus upon the Indictment against the Earl of Shaftsbury and I may well say that was in every respect the greatest Jury that was ever returned in England Out of this List were every of the Doctor 's 24 Jury-men pickt and every Man of the first Jury were in the Pannels which North and Rich packt upon my Lord Russel and nine of them were also return'd upon Alderman Cornish and Mrs. Gaunt of the second Jury four were returned upon my Lord Russel Alderman Cornish and Mrs. Gaunt three more upon my Lord Russel singly and the other five upon Alderman Cornish and Mrs. Gaunt divers of them actually served on those Juries and most of those who did not were challenged That I may now set the bloody Tragedy of that day in its true light and shew whence this accursed Practice of packing Juries sprang I shall transcribe a noted Prediction of one of the Guides of the hair-brain'd Tories Heraclitus Ridens who foretold soon after the unhappy Election of Sir John Moore to be Lord-Mayor that at or before 1683 they should have Juries for their turn And then talking to the Whiggs about Hanging told them They must come to 't and they should come to 't I conclude with another very remarkable Prophesy of the Guide of the Inferiour Clergy he at the very Juncture when it was resolved that North and Rich must be Sir John Moore 's Sheriffs foretold the direful Consequences thereof in his Observator of May 20 1682 Number 140 in these words If it should please God to send us SEASONABLE SHERIFFS and fair play for OVR MONEY there are set a foot so many Titles in competition for the Gallows that it would be a hard matter to settle their Claims and say who should go first And in his Observator of May 27 1684. he told us whom he esteemed his Seasonable Sheriffs He says Prithee Whig wilt thou set THEIR CORNISH and BETHEL THEIR PILKINGTON and SHUTE against our NORTH and RICH our DANIEL and DASHWOOD and say which of these Sheriffs are the likelier Men to juggle Protestants out of their Lives Had the poor depressed Whig in that day answer'd the Trepaning Tory this ensnaring Question it had been at the hazard of his Head But now being warranted by Parliament so to do I say that my Lord Russel and Alderman Cornish were barbarously murdered as was good Mrs. Gaunt under pretence and colour of Law which as my Lord Russel well observed is the worst sort of Murder and this I think was juggling Protestants out of their Lives with a witness I also say by the same warrant that the Prosecution of Dr. Oates for Perjury was a Design to stifle the Popish Plot and that the Verdicts against him were corrupt and the Judgments cruel and illegal and all this was accomplished by the same Set of Jury-men Thus to gratify Sir Roger to whom I pay no small deference I have set our Bethel and Cornish our Pilkington and Shute against their North and Rich their Daniel and Dashwood and shew'd him not only who were the likeliest Men to juggle Protestants out of their Lives but who they were that actually did it and so I bid him adieu Imprimatur R. L'S FINIS