in the fourth year of the Reign of James the First your Grandfather which intended the better abolition of all memory of Hostility and the dependencies thereof between England and Scotland and the better repressing the Occasions of Discord and Disorders for time to come and of a like Act passed about the same time in Scotland by the force of which said late Acts there was a Militia setled in that Kingdom of Twenty thousand Foot and Two thousand Horse who were obliged to be in a readiness to march into any part of the Kingdom of England for any service wherein your Brother's Honour and Greatness might be concerned and they were to obey such Orders and Directions as they should from time to time receive from the Privy Council of that Kingdom By colour of which general words the then Parliament did conceive that the Kingdom of England was liable to be invaded upon any pretence whatsoever And this was done by the procurement of that Lauderdale he having been all the time of those Transactions Principal Secretary of that Kingdom and chiefly intrusted with the administration of the Affairs of State there and he being Commissioner for holding the Parliament at the time of passing the latter of the said Acts whereby the providing the said Horse and Foot was effectually imposed upon that Kingdom and that extraordinary Power vested in the Privy Council there so that the Commons of England conceived they had just reason to apprehend the ill Consequences of so great and an unusal Power especially since at that time the Affairs of the Kingdom of Scotland were managed by the said Duke who publish'd himself to be a Person of such pernicious Principles thereupon they pray'd the King your Brother to dismiss him from all his Employments and forbid him his Presence and Counsels for ever as a person obnoxious and dangerous to the Government This Sir is the Character and these are the Qualifications of a person that your Conspirators judg'd meet for a man to serve your Cause and Interest and how near he brought the People of Scotland to the French Government and Interest I must leave an impartial Reader to judge he wanted nothing but a King to make an Example of him and all such profligate Monsters of Mankind But I will give you a second Instance of the good Opinion that the Commons of England assembled in Parliament had of this Varlet and that is as follows 2. Upon the 10th of May 1678 the Commons of England assembled in that Parliament represented to the King your Brother the deplorable condition the state of the Kingdom thro' evil Counsellors which Sir you know were your Conspirators and were designing to overthrow the Protestant Interest in both Kingdoms and were the Cause why the King your Brother follow'd not the Advice of his Parliament for the redressing of Grievances amongst whom they reckon'd John Duke of Lauderdale and pray'd that the King would remove him from his Council and Presence for ever 3. I hasten to a third Instance of the Opinion that the Commons of England had of the said Duke of Lauderdale and that was in a Parliament held in May 10th 1679. They tell the King in their Address That they found the Kingdoms involv'd in imminent dangers and great difficulties by the evil designs and pernicious Counsels of some who had been and were then actually in high Places of Trust and Authority about the Person of the then King who contrary to the Duty of their Places by their arbitrary and destructive Counsels tending to the subversion of the Rights Liberties and Properties of the People of Great Britain and the alteration of the Protestant Religion did endeavour to alienate the Hearts of the People from the then King and his Government amongst whom they had just reason to accuse the Duke of Lauderdale for a chief promoter of such Counsels and more particularly for contriving and endeavouring to raise Jealousies and Misunderstandings between the Kingdoms of England and Scotland whereby Hostilities might have ensued and might have risen between the two Nations They took notice of the many repeated Addresses of the immediate preceding Parliament and were much concerned that notwithstanding those Addresses they found that Duke Lauderdale with all his Qualifications continued in the Councils of the then King for that the Affairs of the Kingdom required that none should be put into such Employments but such as were not only of known Abilities Interest and Esteem in the Nation but also were without all suspicion of mistaking or betraying the true Interest of the Nation Upon these Considerations a new Parliament pray'd the then King to remove him the said Duke Lauderdale from his Employments and Person and Councels for ever You well know that in the Month of February 1678 you were banish'd into Flanders before the meeting of the new Parliament for the good King your Brother parted with his old Pensioners who lowed very loud for want of Fodder and to save Charges that stale Parliament was dissolv'd and a new one call'd whom your Conspirators by the insight they had in the Elections knew it would be such a Parliament as was not for their turns therefore a deep Consult was held how to make the Nation to believe that they were in earnest they resolv'd to discover the Plot and discourage Popery tho' in truth it was the two things you and your Conspirators aimed at to be still supported However to blind the Eyes of Mankind it was resolved that all imaginable symptoms should be publickly professed both for the discovery of the Popish Plot and leaving you and your Conspirators for you were to absent your self from your Brother and go beyond Sea for some time upon these Considerations the one was That you being out of the way might stop the further examination of the Popish Plot then newly discover'd to the King who was in every bit of it but that of his own Life and it had a near relation to your self And by this means your Conspirators thought to preserve the Chief Conspirator alive and safe The other was for a gloss to make Mankind to think that the King your Brother and the Court were such mortal Enemies to Popery that he would not endure you his Popish Brother near him for fear of being influenc'd by Popish Councels But Sir you may remember that your self and Conspirators at St. James's were of a different Opinion some of your Partisans with all their might and skill opposed your leaving the Kingdom for that it would weaken your Party extreamly and make persons more bold to come in and give Evidence against you when you were absent than if you were present and that if you were absent tho' by the Royal Command of your Brother the King yet the People would be ready enough to say you flâ—d for fear and that it was in effect to own your self guilty Such Arguments as these were used by your Conspirators but the Whore Portsmouth
Parliament you used great Endeavours for a standing Army under the notion of securing the Peace against those Dissenters and Field Meeters but tho' you had labour'd hard in that point yet the Success did not answer your expectation so fully as to give you content Well Sir what becomes of old Lauderdale your faithful Servant and dearly beloved Favorite for I do not find him in this Parliament No he 's forced to stay in England not daring to appear in Scotland for his Hell hounds were not able to weather the Point because the Stream run so strong against him not that you had made any change of his Measures in the Conspiracy against the Protestant Interest and Religion unless it were for the worse and very desirous you were of getting him into Scotland and no doubt you would have served him a Scotch Maiden Trick Why so Because that Old Dog had been heard to say that all you had done in Scotland was nothing in regard the Oaths were omitted and that the Parliament was but a Convention and what you had done was in it self void and of no effect These were bloody words and highly resented by you and afterwards you had an Eye upon Argyle who began to snort at the Test and though he had been a Dog in a String to your Brother and your self some Qualm came cross his Conscience He therefore began to make his Interpretations upon it which were such as cut the Throat of the thing it self And altho' the Interpretation he gave could be no other than the genuine sence of the thing and plain to be understood that it could mean no other than what he intended to take it in yet it was so much disliked that he was then to have been made a Sacrifice under the notion of being guilty of High Treason only for explaining the Test he was accordingly seized and libelled against and found guilty of the Fact and he was then in a fair way to have lost his Life for his Ingenuity but he with a great deal of dexterity made his escape and so saved himself for that time from being murder'd by you and your Cut-throats there Scotland Sir you bridled and saddled and brought the Government there to be something like the French Mode differing nothing but that you had made the Scots the greater Vassals of the two And the People of that Kingdom caressed you highly for the grace and favour of their Vassalage notwithstanding which you were not willing to stay any longer there your Friends advising you by all means to return to England to secure your Interest in England you having setled Scotland to your content And this remember Sweet Sir that the Whore Portsmouth with her Bastard Son was by your Royal Brother sent to France to renew the Dover Treaty in which she was more successful than your Sister of blessed memory for she was caressed by the French King and her Bastard honour'd as a Prince of the Blood and she setled a firm Correspondency between Lewis of France and Charles of Great Britain pursuant to the Treaty at Dover This you heard of and you judged the Strumpet was undermining you and obtaining the Succession for her son which made you after your arrival at Whitehall more unwilling to return again for Scotland than before and you pressed the then King your Brother for your stay here but you were told that you must return to Scotland where your stay should be but short you obeyed and went by Sea with your chief Favourite Mumper who with you was like to have been lost but you saved your self and the Curr and lost some Treasure with a great part of your Retinue who drank your Health and went to the bottom But you arrive in Scotland and the Mony being lost your Intentions of having a standing Army there were sunk also Your stay was to be short in Scotland and so shall mine therefore since I have put you in mind of your bridling and saddling that poor Kingdom as a Subject and a High Commissioner for King Charles give me leave to remember you of your Carriage when you pretended to and usurped that Crown as King of Sâ—otland for by the Laws of that Kingdom all Popish Princes were uncapable of that Crown And because of your Omission of the Oaths that were to be by you taken all that you did in repealing them was null and void and to no effect so that those Laws were still in force against you notwithstanding the aforesaid pretended Repeal for without those Oaths the meeting together of Lords and Commons was no Parliament but a Convention which cannot repeal any Statute there Upon your taking that Crown the Earl of Argyle upon the 20th of May 1685 well knowing how the Protestant Religion must suffer in Scotland lands in Scotland near a place called Kentire and on the 21st sent forth his Declaration wherein he tells the Scots That the End of his coming was the defence of the Protestant Religion the Laws and Liberties of the Protestants of Scotland against Popery and Arbitrary Government and therefore he required all persons from sixteen to sixty to come and joyn with him with Arms and Provisions necessary One of his sons sent Letters to several Gentlemen upon the same account so that in few days his Army was encreased to 2500 Men. But Sir your Trappan that betray'd the poor Protestants at Bothwâ—ll bridge 1679 escaping the Gallows lived to betray this poor Gentleman in the year 1685. for instead of shewing him the true way wherein he should have marched provided Rogues who led him into a bogg from whence he returning towards Glyde was fallen upon by some Scots and taken and Sir by your Arbitrary Order he was basely murder'd at Edinburgh on the 30th of June following This man had all along fought in your Brother's Cause and Quarrel and was an Instrument to betray his Father to your Brother and was murder'd in the beginning of his Reign after his Return This man had served your Cause and Interest in Scotland many years and had run in the same excess of Riot with your Conspirators but God opened his Eyes to see your base Designs against the Religion and Liberties of his Country and therefore nothing would satisfie you but his Blood and the ruine of his whole Family Well he is dead but I must say of him he deserved better Fortune in the World and more Favour from your Hands and his that is gone to his place Scotland did another time become a Field of Blood and till it was you were not contented But the Scots being weary of these perpetual disappointments they submitted to your Government and you then declared by the Advice of your Villanous Conspirators especially the damn'd Bishops that you were clothed with an Absolute Power and that all your Subjects of that Kingdom were bound to obey you without reserve upon which you did assume an Arbitrary Power both over the Religion and Laws of that
notwithstanding their Quality and the signal Services performed for their pretended King Many Instances might be given of this nature and a reasonable Man might have judged that the many Instances of those Slights and Contempts that have been put upon them should have convinced them of the Folly and Madness of any of those that pretend to the Protestant Religion and Church of England who should Espouse the Cause of a Man that hates their Religion and Liberties Can they think that the present Misfortunes that the late King James lies under would if he should be re-invested with Power frighten him to alter his Measures and Resolutions of invading our Laws and Liberties for time to come seeing that neither the abandoning of Wives Children and Estates nor the hazarding nay loss of Life in his Service can render him just and favourable to those Protestants who have made a Sacrifice of all these things to follow him and yet that these Men should be found in so Villanous a Conspiracy to Murder him that delivered the Nation What Tongue can speak for such brutish and sensless Wretches I must leave to the Judgments of wiser Men than my self And what can they expect from a Man whose Father's Misfortunes his Brothers Exile wherein he himself was a sharer have not wrought a Reformation in him Can we expect that ever he will be more cautious of violating our Laws intrenching upon our Liberties or subverting our Religion or that ever he will be made more pliable For if he denies Men that have followed him into France the Exercise of their Religion what hopes have they of obtaining and enjoying it whenever he shall return Nay what then must your Majesties Protestant Subjects expect who have renounced him and associated to defend your Majesty as our Lawful and Rightful King against this pretended King and all his Wicked and Trayterous Adherents But Sir give me leave a little further to plead with your Majesty concerning these People that certainly never give themselves leisure to think I am sure no Man in his right Wits but must judge it the highest degree of Stupidity and Folly that these very Men should expect good Terms from a Person who doth not only treat his Protestant Adherents very ill who have followed him in his Misfortunes but also whose Religion lays him under the necessity of using them thus What Obligations did our Church lay upon him when he was a Subject Did she not like a Prostitute save him from being Prosecuted for the Popish Plot and from being Excluded from the Succession to the Crown Who were so Hot in that point on his behalf as the then Prelates in the House of Peers and afterwards from being driven out of the Kingdom by the late Duke of Monmouth yet all those Obligations were of no more value with him than his Coronation-Oath which he violated without the least regret and spared not to invade the Protestant Religion in general but the Liberties of the Church of England in particular What wicked Traytors are these wretched Men that shall assist the Popish Party in their attempts to pervert the Church and to bring that about in effect which even to mention makes every Loyal Subject of your Majesties to tremble For certainly had these Conspirators been all of them avowed Papists your Majesties Person and Government had not been in that danger but some of them that have undertaken this Horrid Design are such as lye under no Temptations of Religion Men thought to be secure that these now the Mystery of Iniquity is revealed are found Men obliged by all the Sacred Ties of Malice and Ambition to assist in the advancing your Majesties Ruin and the Ruin of the three Kingdoms and much better qualified than others under the Name of Good Church of England Men nay Preachers of Passive Obedience and Non-Resistance will not be shut out of this Hellish Conspiracy for Wranglers but will have a hand against your Majesty's Person rather than so Eminent a piece of Service shall go unperfected Give me leave therefore Sir with the greatest Duty and Submission to observe to your most Excellent Majesty the Excellency of that Religion they would subvert by shewing the Vileness of that they would introduce and the happy Government they would destroy in the attempt they have made upon your Majesty's Person These Conspirators that say they are Protestants cannot but own that we are exceeding happy in relation to our Religion since by your Majesty's happy Accession to the Throne that we are once more freed from the Romish Yoke which so great a part of Europe do yet draw and labour under that Popery is such a thing as cannot but for want of a Word to express it be called Religion nor is it to be mentioned with that Civility which is otherwise decent to be used in speaking of Differences of Humane Opinion about Divine Matters were it open Judaism or plain Turcism or honest Paganism there is yet a certain Bonafides in the most extravagant Belief and the Sincerity of an Erroneous Profession may render it more pardonable But this Popery is a Compound of all the three an Extract of whatsoever is most Ridiculous and Impious in them incorporated with more peculiar Absurdities of its own in which those were deficient and all this deliberately contrived and knowingly carried on by the Rascally and Villainous Clergy under the Name of Christianity The Wisdom of this fifth Religion in this last and most Insolent Attempt upon the Credulity and Conspiracy against the Liberty of Mankind seems to all Understanding Men principally to have consisted in their owning the Scriptures to be the Word of God and the Rule of Faith and Manners but wickedly prohibiting at the same time their common Use or the Reading of them by those of their Communion there being no better or more rational way to frustrate the very design of our Lord Jesus Christ who first planted by the miraculous Power and extraordinary Gifts of the Holy-Ghost than to forbid the use of them in such a Language as the People could understand for having the Scripture which by all Christians are avowed to be of Divine Authority but appointing it to remain in such hands as were intrusted to undertake and carry on their holy Cheat they had the Opportunity to vitiate suppress or interpret to their own advantage for the support of their Villainous Priestcraft those admirable Evidences by which the common People hold their Salvation and they having by this Fraud gained their Point there was from that time nothing so monstrous to Reason and so abhorring from Morality or so contrary to Scripture which they might not in prudence venture on The Idolatry of Adoring and praying to Saints and Angels and worshipping Pictures Images and incredible Miracles and palpable Fables to promote that Veneration The whole Liturgy and Worship of the blessed Virgin the saying of Pater Nosters and Creeds the Honour of Saints and Ave-Maries too not to her
your self in a different stile In some of your Papers you write your Heart and Soul in words at length and not in figures then it 's your pleasure that we are to know to what we are to trust when ever you shall return to your Native Countrey and enjoy your pretended Right Sometimes you intimate as if England were to be the Field of Blood and that Man Woman and Child should be a Sacrifice to your Revenge which made your little scoundrel Party here to prick up their Ears and look as if a Leg or an Arm were not sufficient to appease your Wrath or a Carts Arse or a Pillory could not make satisfaction to your self and Party for the wrong you and your Friends have suffered from us nothing less than death and damnation of the Honest Nobility Gentry and Commons of England can attone for the delivering themselves from your Tyranny and the Oppression they suffered from you and you Insolent Party Nay the poor Fishermen men of Feversham must not escape your Fury and Vengeance But in your latter Papers you are pleased to express your self in softer terms and the Vengeance threatned in one Year's Papers is hushed up and fairly laid to sleep and I remember in the last you are pleased to give us a French Grimass and smile upon us as if you were made up of nothing but Grace Mercy and Peace and unparallell'd Humility in order to create in us a good thought of the bitterness of death being past notwithstanding you have in some of your former Papers given us to understand That in regard you have sustained such Affronts from the People of England you might justly have proceeded severely with us yet in your younger Papers you think fit by a more gentle Method to use means to regain us to your self which is the first Born of all the Cunning you and your Friends at St. Germains have been pleased to bless this Nation withal But Sir it hath been your will and pleasure not to give your self the trouble of emitting any more Declarations of your good Intentions towards us for these two or three Years last past therefore I do think fit to acquaint you and your Trusty Friends and Councellors at your Court at St. Germains that are now with you for I understand some of your old Partisans have sometime since left you that you must have but a very mean and low opinion of the English Nation if you think ever to return hither again upon the strength of your last Bantering Paper called A Gracious Declaration to all your loving Subjects For the People of England have not forgot but very well remember That for divers Years in the Reign of King Charles the Second your dear Brother that there was a horrid Design carried on by him your self and your Party to change the Lawful Government of England into an Absolute Tyranny and to convert the Established Protestant Religion into down-right Popery than both which there can be nothing more destructive and contrary to the Law and well-being of this Nation And whilst you your self was pleased to usurp the Throne these Three Kingdoms were highly sensible with what violence you and your wicked Party overthrew our Laws Liberties and Religion and what Ruin and Vengeance attended these poor Nations notwithstanding all your Oaths and Promises made to the contrary in Council and in a Packt Parliament that met in May 1685. which as bad as it was it could not keep pace with you and your Popish Cut-throats in your Intentions of enslaving the People of these Kingdoms and of totally overturning our Laws Liberties and Religion Before I begin my designed Method of laying before you yours and the Practices of your Accomplices to put you in mind of some Passages in your Brother's Reign of which the Parliaments of England had just cause to complain as worthy of your Consideration and when they did address they found it was to very little or no purpose for no redress could be obtained from him And by whose Advice and Counsel such Misdemeanors were committed your self can best tell that it was your self King Charles the Second was no sooner restored but contrary to the Expectation of all those good men that were the Instruments of his Restauration they found to their sorrow 1. That Justice was corruptly administred and Offices appertaining to Justice dearly bought and sold 2. Benefices and Ecclesiastical Dignities unworthily collated upon Men that deserved no other Titles than of common Rogues and Cheats Men that were many of them unskilful in the Word of Righteousness and others that were Persons of unsound Principles and of worse Morals their Doctrines tending highly to enslave the Nation and their Morals to debauch it This was the Advice of an old Friend of yours and a great-Prop of the Church of Rome Cardinal Mazarine whose Counsel and Advice it was To debauch the Kingdom of England and make them Atheists and then they would be soon good Papists This was in the Year 1654. at which time you and your Party were but at a low ebb but how much you pursued the Counsel of the old Cardinal I leave all reasonable and unbyassed Men to judge and how your sneaking Eccleastical Parasites contributed towards it It is plain enough to any man that will look back into those Times There was one Jones your Chaplain who you ruined because he would have contributed to the advancing the Protestant Religion in your Family according to his Office and Calling of a Minister in the Church of God You may remember by whom Bishopricks and other Ecclesiastical Dignities were thus procured truly by your Popish self and Popish Whores Popish Pimps and Popish Bowds and not without Money or some Promise to favour your Catholick Designs and how they suffered your quondam Consort to apostatize to the Church of Rome it is well known But they poor Prelates are gone to their Places and there let them remain till God shall reckon with them and others of that Oorder for betraying of God's Cause which they pretended to espouse tho in truth they were Enemies to him and his Gospel 3. In the third place They saw new Impositions daily invented and levied and the Publick Treasure of the Nation and the Revenues prodigally consum'd Sir you know how 200000 l. was spent and in order to what and the Parties that receiv'd the same were in a Conspiracy against our Laws Liberties and Religion And did not you your self join in the wasting of the King's Treasure and procured great Summs of Money to be issued out of His Majesty's Exchequer to keep your Priests Jesuits Monks and to find your Irish Officers with Subsistence-money till that you should have occasion to make use of them for those Ends and Purposes that might advance your Cause and wicked Purposes against the English Interest and the Protestant Religion Well therefore might you in your Speech to the Council Feb. 6. 1684. call Charles the Second your
carry'd it for your going therefore a Command was sent to you all of a sudden That it was your Brother's pleasure you should be gone This Sir fill'd many with amazement who knew not for what ends such Counsels had been taken and it filled others with great Joy they now believing that the King your Brother and his Court would have been purg'd from Popery and his Popish Councels and the Popish Fabrick which had been so long a building would again tumble down when they saw you that were the chief supporter of it had left your station Well Sir away you go for Flanders as if you had been going into another World but your Conspirators were not a whit daunted but resolv'd to stick as faithfully to you as you had done before to them And tho' by this departure of yours many of your Conspirators for whom the Kingdoms were too hot and who ought to have danced a Gambrel at Tyburn under the pretence of being your Servants yet notwithstanding the hardiest and boldest of your impudent Crew staid behind and watch'd Affairs at home letting nothing be done that was material but what was done by your Advice and Direction and theirs and by your being abroad they had the opportunity of studying and advising what was fit to be done at home This Sir I must observe to you by the way that before you could be prevail'd upon to go you were faithfully promised that nothing of value or moment should be done or acted without you nay the Speech that was to be made at the Opening of the Parliament was concluded on before you went Yet for all this at the Meeting of the New Parliament which was now become almost a Wonder in this Nation a great panick Fear was struck in all or most of your Crew and they certainly had so much Fear upon them from the least to the greatest that they were even ready to cry Quarter or at least to offer terms of accommodation the Nation being in a very great ferment and your Party that had rely'd so much upon the mighty Mind of the French King for Mony began to curse him for driving them upon these Extremities nay you your self did not spare to revile him for the same The King your Brother happening to be indispos'd at Windsor which being posted over to you you return with all speed and unexpectedly and being here you had but a little inclination to return to Flanders again but the King pleasing you with some private Resolutions of his you did submit to return again to Flanders where you was as coldly received as at first but your stay was not long there for the Coast being then clear you resolved upon returning home and did accordingly return and the design you know was then to fix the Sham Protestant Plot you and your Conspirators had contriv'd But that would not keep you in England for it was resolv'd that you should go to Scotland to settle the Protestant Religion there where you receiv'd the sad News of the baffling the Sham-Plot that you and yours had thought to charge upon some Protestants which made you take new Measures and you resolv'd to part with a small spell of Mony to get the Parliament prorogued for some longer time and a greater Sum was pressed from France but without success for the Duke of Bucks spoil'd that Design for which piece of service you owed him a Cake and was resolv'd if it had not been timely prevented you would have bestow'd upon him a whole Loaf But that by the way Well you arrive in Scotland I pray how were you receiv'd with great Joy to your Banditti there Nay the most excellent Protestant Bishops receiv'd you with tokens of Welcome and highly resented the Affront that the Parliament of England had put upon you when they went about to exclude you and very honestly declar'd against it and tho' the Commons of England were so dim sighted as not to see that the only way to settle the Protestant Religion was by a Popish King yet they could see it and declare it as an undoubted Truth Now Sir it was expected that you should admire the Fabrick that your old Friend Lauderdale had so delicately contrived and in reward of his good Service advance his Interest No no you no sooner got into Scotland but you were designing against Lauderdale he being the great Instrument of sending you thither for you never forgave him that Affront so that after your arrival in Scotland his Interest much dwindl'd away Thus you rewarded one of your old Friends who had sold Body and Soul and all to the Devil to serve you and your Cause he is gone to his place I fear in sure and certain expectation of Wrath and Vengeance for the many Villanies he had committed against the Religion Laws and Liberties of his Country Whilst Sir you were in Scotland you and your Conspirators made your Designs to go on to your full content tho' much diligence was us'd and pains were taken in the point and to give you and your Accomplices that which is your due you never did spare your Pains for the bringing on your wicked Devices to perfection and you thought it good Policy and your best way to make sure of something that if England should be too hard for you yet you resolved to make sure of Scotland And to repeal those Laws that were in force which did debar a Popish Prince from inheriting that Crown therefore you got a Parliament call'd and your self made High Commissioner Upon this you labour the Point for the choice of the Commoners that should be fit for the purpose and to cajole some of the Lords you entice Hamilton to come into your Interest You mounted the Throne as High Commissioner without regarding the Law or due Qualifications necessary in taking the Oaths for that was below you And the King having furnish'd you with Letters you are admitted into the Council without taking the Oaths But being got into the House you carried all before you and got your Succession to the Crown of Scotland secured by an Act and you got a Test passed by which all were to swear not to endeavour to alter that Government either in Church or State and all such as refused were to lose their Employments In a word you made every thing to pass that you and your Crew had a mind to As you were a Privy Councillor in that Kingdom you wheedled in the Duke of Hamilton and admitted him one of the Council who was very zealous for the Protestant Religion formerly but then began to be very cool And so were the rest of the cajoled Lords they all put on the Temper that Scotchmen usually are attended withal that is to be false to the Cause that is persecuted for upon the rising of the Parliament they suffer'd the poor Dissenters to be squeezed to death and suffer'd all imaginable Severities to be used towards them You succeeding so well in
Kingdom From all which it 's apparent what you did when you were Duke of York was in order to compleat the Work when you came to be King James These great and insufferable Oppressions of the poor Protestants of that Kingdom and the open contempt of all Law Justice Sence and Reason together with the sad Consequences that most certainly followed upon it did put those poor People under great and just Fears and did thrice make them offer at such lawful Remedies as were Allow'd by the very Law of Nature tho' it was not with that effect that was desir'd Lauderdale and your other Conspirators did endeavour to make all men to apprehend the loss of their Lives Liberties Honours and Estates if they should go about to preserve themselves from your great Oppressions by Petitions Remonstrances or other means the Law did allow of So you did by several Scotch Noblemen and Gentlemen to their utter ruine therefore what Obligation you have laid upon the Kingdom in general or any one Protestant in particular both before and since your pretended Reign there I leave it to your self and Conspirators to judge And therefore blessed be God for delivering that Nation from your Tyranny and Oppression IV. ENGLAND NOW we have seen your particular Projects that you and your Conspirators pursued to ruine Holland Ireland and Scotland I think it will not be unnecessary to put you in mind of the Pranks you and your Party play'd both before and since you usurped the Imperial Crown of this Kingdom and then you will see whether you can expect that any honest Englishman should ever engage for your return again in Peace to this Nation Therefore I shall use this method 1. I shall shew you how far you were engag'd in the Conspiracy of turning the Civil Government into downright French Slavery and our Protestant Religion into Popery before you took the Crown And 2. I shall shew you what you contributed to it after 3. I will shew you the unreasonableness of the attempting your return hither On which Particulars I hope you have leisure enough to reflect and advise about with your worthy Ministry you have attending your person at St. Germains I. I will shew you how far you were engaged in the Conspiracy of turning the Civil Government into downright French Slavery and our Protestant Religion into Popery before you took the Crown When God was pleased to restore you and your Brothers you may remember that you came into a Land flowing with Milk and Hony for its Plenty and a well-govern'd Country for Religion and Virtue But this agreed not with the Complexion of your Souls you had another Game to play and this I found in a Letter of yours from Breda to old Courtney the Jesuite That you would follow the Directions that Mazarine had given you and then you question'd not but to bring the People to receive the Roman Catholick Religion This Sir was your Project and how you pursued it let all the World judge Therefore 1. Your Conspirators were resolv'd to remove all those who had been eminent in Virtue and Sobriety from any Command or Place of Trust in the Government I must not forget the Usage of those who had been great Instruments in that Work viz. Two thousand Ministers in one day laid aside that room might be made for those whose Doctrine should enslave the People and whose profligate Lives should render Men Atheists enough to be of any Religion but of that which was according to Godliness Make them Atheists said Mazarine aad you will soon make them Papists Nay the love of Debauchery created such a Prejudice in your Brother the King against the Marquiss of Argyle that it was the chief Obstacle to his being pardon'd for he had reprov'd Charles for offering Violence to a sober Lady in Scotland in the year 1650 for which Reproof he never forgave Argyle to his dying day Nay give me leave to remember you that when that unfortunate Lord was in Custody and humbly requested but to speak one word with the King before he was carried for Scotland to be murder'd you took upon you to reprove any that should move the King with this Jeer. That Argyle was one of the Godly Party it was not for such fellows to see the King Or to that purpose and the King your Brother was pleas'd to say Let my Lord Argyle be content he shall see the Maiden e're long his own dearly beloved Invention And nothing was a greater Argument for his Destruction than his Piety Sir I can prove that those men who were concerned in Judging and Condemning your Father to death tho' that was the Pretence or handle you took to have them cut off yet the great reason why they were not spared was that if they lived and as long as they lived they would have been great Obstacles in your way of debauching the People and that was the reason of their being cut off for old Courtney being at London and admiring their demeanour and deportment in their Confinement gave you an account of their Piety and Devotion And so did old Hitchcock the Monk but what Answer you made them was remarkable your Brother and your self would never have had them excepted had you not been fully satisfied that as long as they lived you could have no manner of prospect of settling the Government and advancing the Catholick Religion both which have told me of their stedfastness and resolution to the last degree and could not forbear shedding of Tears when they discoursed that matter to me and if you remember it was the weaker part of those men that had their Lives given them not but that some of them were worthy persons but they had not arrived to those Experiences of God and true Religion as the others had done that laid down their Lives in that Cause But the truth is I never found many of them had so little Grace as to repent of what they had done Nay your Rage did not cease here for you by all the Wrong imaginable pack'd a Parliament together of greenheaded young Gentlemen the Sons of some Cavaliers whose Parents suffer'd in the late War and so were haters of Dissenters from whom an Act was obtained to empower Commissioners to displace all Officers that they should judge not to be firm to the King's Interest and Proceedings By this Knack you had all Justices of the Peace and Corporation Magistrates that had been forward in punishing Prophaneness and Ungodliness in their respective Places and had been great Promoters of Religion and Holiness of Life turn'd out and in their rooms were put all profane and ungodly Wretches Swearers by and Blasphemers of the Name of Almighty God these being Men for your Turn that you might the more easily enslave and so pervert the People And it was come to that pass that none could have any Employment unless he could swear and damn for the Church tho' they never came within the inside of
this Nation which I prove to you and your Villainous Crew both at home and abroad For did you not try the Members of the pack'd Parliament that sat down in the Year 1685 to gain them to consent to the repeal of the Test and Penal Laws And did you not dissolve that Parliament when you found that you could neither by Promises nor by Threatnings prevail with these very Members to comply with your wicked Designs and those who would not comply were branded as if they were Disturbers of the publick Peace For you may remember that though the Prince and Princess of Orange did endeavour to signifie in terms full of Respects and Duty to your self the just and deep regret all your wicked and ungodly Proceedings had given them and in compliance to your desires they had signified their Thoughts concerning your Repealing the Penal Laws and Test which though they did it in such a manner that they had just Ground of hope that they had proposed an Expedient by which the Peace of England Scotland and Ireland and a happy Agreement among the Subjects of all Perswasions might have been certainly settled You and your Hellborn Crew put such Villainous Constructions upon their honest and sincere Intentions as that you were not ashamed to condemn them both as persons that designed to disturb the Quiet and Happiness of the Kingdom But Sir the people of England always Testified a most singular Affection and Esteem for the Prince and Princess of Orange as persons zealously Affected with and concerned for the Advancement of the Protestant Religion and Interest and therefore many of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and many Gentlemen and other persons of Note laid our miserable Case before them and beged their Aid and Assistance The Prince of Orange upon due consideration of our deplorable State to which we were brought by you and your wicked Accomplices found that in point of that Duty he owed to God and in return of the great Value the people of England had for him that he could no way excuse himself from espousing our Cause or Quarrel in a Matter of such high Consequence and from Contributing to the utmost of his Power for the maintaining both of our Religion and our Laws and our Liberties and to secure us in the perpetual Enjoyment of all our Rights Therefore he came over with a Force sufficient which through the Blessing of the Great God was sufficient to suppress you and your villainous Conspirators You know Sir that as you and your Conspirators were not only full of Cruelty and Guilty of the greatest Inhumanities and Barbarities So you and they were full of lies and deceit for upon the coming over of this Great Prince you were sensible of the Greatness of your Guilt and had no great Confidence in your own Forces which induced you to offer to the City of London some seeming Relief from their great Oppression you hoping thereby to beguile us of a firm Establishment and full Security of our Laws Liberties and Religion and finding that the Kingdoms Eyes were fully opened then you and your Hellborn Crew gave out with as much Mallice as Falseness that the Prince of Orange intended to Conquer and Enslave the Nation No Sir the Design of that mighty Deliverer was the security of our enjoying our Religion Laws and Liberties and that there might be no danger of the Kingdoms relapsing into the like Miseries for the time to come Well Sir you remember that the Prince arrives and you fled before him He no sooner comes but he was bid welcome by all True Protestants You run away A Convention was called and he to our great Joy was chosen our King A Parliament sits down and his Majesty joyned with them in making such Laws as have secured us and our All he Fights our Battles he Loves our Nation and we Love our King and we shall not refuse any thing that may be for his Honour Greatness and Content You are deposed as useless in the sight of God and driven from amongst Protestants to graze at St. Germains where you may take your ease till the French King shall be as weary of your Company as we were of your Wicked and Tyrannical Government You have made many attempts to be restored sometimes you Threaten us at other times you would Flatter us to a second Entertainment but that is but a foolish thought of your Counsellers at St. Germains which brings me to the last point of my Memorial which is to shew you 3. The Unreasonableness of your attempting of your Return hither on which particulars I hope you have leisure enough to reflect and to advise about with your worthy Ministry you have attending your Person there but least they should not have Honour and Honesty enough to deal plainly with you I will lay down Six undeniable Arguments why it is morally impossible that you should be ever readmitted to reign over us 1. Because we cannot bind you by the most Solemn Oaths 2. Because we are Protestants 3. Because we are English-men And 4. Because we are Free-men 5. Because we have a King of our own Religion and Judgment to whom we have sworn Allegiance who goeth out and in before us and fights our Battles for us 6. Because of your Attempt upon the Person of our King in employing your Traiterous Assassins to murder him 1. Because we cannot bind you by the most Solemn Oaths we saw our Laws over-turned our Liberties seized our Religion corrupted and subverted and you Forsworn The Laws of Nature taught us to provide for the defence of our All which was at Stake And can any Man think it hard that the Kingdom laid you aside And we laying you aside for the Breach of your Contract and Oath made to the People of England Can you expect that we should in the least be guilty of so base a Compliance as to submit our selves to the Government of a Man that by his Abominable Perjury dissolved his own Government You have time now to consider that Perjury in a King is a most Grievous Offence against God and his Own Crown and Dignity but much more Grievous when it is volantarily committed And when a Prince committeth Perjury willingly when he doth any thing willingly against his Coronation-Oath taken not by Force but by Free-will not unadvisedly but with great Consideration not to his Hurt but to his Advantage not to perform a Thing Dishonest or Impossible but that which is both Possible and Honest For when a Prince not being forced thereunto by just Fear or irrisistible Necessity breaketh such an Oath as there can be no colour to excuse his Perjury it arguing him and convincing him of Fraud and Deceit and gave occasion to all thinking Men that you had no manner of regard to your Coronation-Oath so it puts you under an absolute Incapacity of being Restored since the both Houses of Parliament upon the breach you made of your Contract have thought
Member of the Romish Synagogue You in the time of your short Tyranny made a sad Havock with the Protestant Religion and can we expect better usuage from you seeing you having Seven Devils more within you rageing against the Protestant Interest than you had before you left us What I say to you in this particular I speak not without Witness for it is most certain that you have and do to this very day entertain a very great aversness to any Man that bears the name of a Protestant Therefore since by your late behaviour to those whose Principles have led them to espouse your Interest and have followed you into France if they have any Sense of their English Liberties and of the Protestant Religion will abhor the thoughts of your return hither For if you appear so violent against our Religion now you are under so great an estate of Sufferings What will your declared Hatred be against Protestants here in England if we should admit you to reign over us For if you can presume to that degree of Malice as to deny your Protestant Tools your Grace and Favour at St. Germains What can we that are Protestants expect from you whenever you shall return Do you think that any of us should be so stupid to expect fair Quarter from you since your very Religion lays you under the necessity of Converting us with a Fagot and bringing us to your Obedience with the dint of a Dagger Nay Sir your Passive Obedience Curs fare not much better though they saved you from your being prosecuted for your being deeply interested in the Popish Plot and from being excluded from the Succession to the Imperial Crown of this Realm and also from being beaten out of the Kingdom by the late Duke of MONMOVTH What reason than have we not to believe that you will not only in general invade the Protestant Religion but also once again attempt the depressing the Church of England In your short Reign you sent Seven Bishops to the Tower but if ever you should return I will not excuse the whole Twenty Six from being more hardly used Upon which consideration I will appeal then Sir to your Judgment or the Judgment of your Friends here or those with you at St. Germains whether or no it is impossible for you to gain so great a Point as to be received again as a King And whether it would not be the greatest Folly or Madness in you or any of your Party to attempt it For have you any that are with you that are Protestants upon a Principle of Conscience How have you used and treated them and if they have no better usage from you since they follow you in their Afflictions and are contented to share with you in your Hardships as not to enjoy the Liberty of serving God according to their Dictates of their own Conscience How must it fare with them if you should arrive to that State and Condition in which you should stand in no need of them And if so What can we expect from you that have hated your Person and do hunt down your Cause and Interest out of the Nation Therefore the Duty that we owe to Almighty God and the Affection and Zeal we have for the Protestant Religion will oblige us to pursue you as a Murderer and an Assassin of the People of England and a Traytor to the Nation and those who shall be found fighting under your Banner will be used as Banditti and Robbers and Protestants that shall not have the benefit of Repentance 3. Consider we are English Men and that very Consideration might satisfie any Man that will but consult his Reason of the impossibility of your being restored to your pretended Right and of the folly of your many attempt in order thereunto Had your Interest been an English interest than your Conspirators might have had some colour for their attempt of this Nature but your Interest is a French Interst and therefore your Interest that you have espoused is incompatible or inconsistent with your being restored Here are two Points that must be considered 1. That your Interest is a French Interest 2. That a French Interest is not consistent with your Endeavours after a Restoration and both these Points fairly proved will justifie the refusal of the Kingdom of Englands admitting you to act and execute the Office of a King here again amongst us 1. Your Interest is not an English but a French Interest for as you followed your loving and kind Brother in most of his Vertues so you persued the same Interest that he pursued For was not the Interest of your Brother and the Interest of the French King and yours inseperably united Knowing saith your Quondam Secretary the Interest of our King and in a more particular manner of my immediate Master the Duke and his Most Christian Majesty to be so inseperably united that it was impossible to divide them without destroying them all Again his Majesty the French King was pleased to give Order to signifie to his R. H. my Master that his Majesty was fully satisfied of his R. H's good Intentions towards him and that he esteemed both their Interests but as one and the same and that my Lord Arlington and the Parliament were both looked upon as very unuseful to their Interests And again Father Ferier begged his R. H. to propose to his Most Christian Majesty what he thought necessary for his own Concern and the advantage of Religion and his Majesty would certainly do all that he could to advance both or either of them I communicated it to his R. H. to which his R. H. commanded me to answer as I did the 29th of the same Month. That his R. H. was very sensible of his Most Christian Majesty's Friendship and that he would labour to cultivate it with all the good Offices he was capable of doing his Most Christian Majesty That he was fully convinced that their Interests were both one That my Lord Arlington and the Parliament were not only unuseful but dangerous both to England and France and therefore it was necessary they should do all they could to dissolve it I did communicate this Design of mine to Monsieur Ravigney who agreed with me that it would be the greatest Advantage to his Master to have the Duke's Power and Credit so far Advanced Again If we can advance the Duke's Interest one step forward we shall put him out of the reach of Chance for ever Then would Catholicks be at rest and his Most Christian Majesty's Interest secured with us in England beyond all apprehensions whatsoever Our prevailing in these things would give the greatest blow to the Protestant Religion here that ever it received from his Birth If the Duke should once get above them after all the Tricks they have plaied with him they are not sure he will totally forget the usage he hath had at their Hands For my part saith he I can scarce believe my self awake
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
ought to have considered That none of the vain Pamphlets that either Ferguson or L'Estrange or any of that rascally Crew ever writ were ever able to shake the natural and dutiful Affections of our English Nation to your Majesty and of this I am sure they have had sufficient Experience In the next place many of these Conspirators are Priests and Jesuits more fit to manage a Pen than a Launce to dispute of Philosophy than to discourse of War to have a low opinion of their own Parts than to be prodigal in their Assurance and let them say no more than what is true and judge that to be the great truth that is best made out In the last Place if that those have not been of the Tribe of Levi yet then they have been Fellows of desperate Fortunes which they are ambitious to advance by Lies and the ruin of their Country I do not wonder why they traduce and asperse your Majesty's Government for they are and have been for many Years plotting your Ruin and Destrâ—â—tion both before and since you were our King and the business is plain that they can never hurt your Person till they have destroyed your Interest and have withdrawn a considerable Party from your Majesty by which they may make a Stand then they may possibly if not discovered make an attempt upon your Person which they cannot do till your Interest is destroyed by their many traiterous Aspersions and they believed thrown upon your Majesty Nay tho King Charles the Second did comply with them in many things yet because he did not comply in every thing they spared not him but made it their business to traduce him it is true his Government was Censurable because he complied not with the Terms and preserved not the fundamental Constitutions of an English Monarchy therefore his Government was exposed to the Censure of some that opposed even his proceedings when they had liberty as they were Members of Parliament for they had just Ground to believe that he closed with the French Interest against that of his own Kingdom and with the Popish Party in order to betray the Protestant Interest both at Home and Abroad and the Conspirators they let lose their Tongues against him because he was not wholly theirs but ever and anon gave them the slip by which they were disappointed in their Designs therefore in a Letter of theirs to their Party in Scotland they plainly say That he was so addicted to his Pleasure that he was not fit to Govern and in another Letter they charge him with unsteadiness in his Resolutions as to Religion and when they had a design to hasten his Exit then they charge him with all the Falseness and Vileness that might be imagined to be in the worst of Men so that your Majesty is not the only Prince that these Miscreants have Traduced And truly it filled me with great Horror when I saw their Industry in dispersing their filthy and scandalous Libels against your Majesty and Government it being the method of those Men first to beget a disaffection in your Subjects against your Majesty if it were possible that your Destruction might be the more easily accomplish'd by them but your Majesty hath been very happy for nothing these Villains could either Write or Speak ever made the least impression upon the Hearts of your Loving Subjects but on the other hand it filled them with Zeal against that party of Men especially since they were so highly sensible of that Grace and Clemency by which their Lives had been continued to them for we all know that this was not the first Conspiracy that they have been engaged in against your Majesty I pray God it may be the last Give me leave to put your Majesty in mind of a Passage in one of Mr. Coleman's Letters to the French King's Confessor which is this he saith there The Design prospered so well that he doubted not but the Business would be manaaged to the utter ruin of the Protestant Party So the design of these Cut-throats prospered so well that they did not doubt but that in a little time their Business would be managed to the Destruction of your Majesty and your Protestant Subjects for they carried on one Design to Murder your Person and another to Invade your Kingdoms with a Foreign Force and they were much in the right for it would have been impossible for them to have Restored the Late King by an Invasion and to have set up Popery and Slavery without destroying a Protestant King and the Protestant Interest in England All good Protestants I hope will find to their great Satisfaction that these Traitors have brought Destruction upon themselves and their Party and that not a Man of them shall Escape for your Majesty's Proceedings with such will be as quick as their Gunpowder and much more effectual So that your humble Subjects may rejoice in your Majesties Justice upon these Men since Grace and Clemency could not Reform them Sir I was a Discoverer of a Conspiracy carried on by the Popish Party for the Destruction of King Charles the Second and your Majesty when Prince of Orange and for the Subversion of the Government and the Protestant Religion in England and all over Europe but it was my Misfortune to discover a Conspiracy to a King that was engaged in every part thereof but that of his own Life and I met with such Opposition from the then Duke of York and his Conspirators that it was scarce possible for me to have withstood it had not I had a more than an ordinary Presence of Mind to have supported me This Sir I say was my Case yet notwithstanding all the Opposition I met with all I gave the Popish Party such a deadly Wound that they could not be cured of it no not in the Reign of the late King though they had all the Incouragement that Men could have because the Villany of that Party of Men stuck so upon the Minds of the People of England that no Stone was left unturn'd to rid our Hands of them and their Popish King which was effectually done when your Majesty undertook and compleated the Deliverance of this poor bleeding Nation Many Men have wondered that the late King when he was Duke of York should have such an Ascendency over his Brother King Charles the Second since it is well known that when King Charles was upon his return Home to enjoy his Crown that the Duke of York with the Queen Mother was in a Conspiracy to have destroy'd King Charles to the end that he the said Duke of York might have return'd Home and enjoy'd the Crown himself the Lord Arlington discover'd the same and so the design was baffled yet no Man was so much in favour as the Duke of York and as a Testimony of the King's Grace and Favour He was made Lord High Admiral of England and held that Office till he openly refused the subscribing the Test
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
kind and loving Brother for he joined with you in those wicked Designs and Purposes which you were carrying on to destroy and enslave us and too often took your Faults upon himself to screen you from the publick Justice of the Nation 4. They saw old Officers unjustly displaced and men of base Quality unworthily advanced by which Contrivance you Sir may very well remember you created a great disaffection in the King 's best Friends both of the old Nobility and Gentry and others that had espoused the King your Brother's Quarrel upon just English Principles and chose rather to advance a parcel of base Irish Papists and vile Frenchmen to the great discouragement of the English and those that heartily would have served the King your Brother upon English Protestant Principles It is well known that some of those you preferred were so insolent that when they came to have and enjoy great Places in the Ministry of King Charles the Second's Government that they assumed to themselves by your direction the Regal Power treating in Matters of War and Peace with Foreign Ministers and Ambassadors giving Instructions to the said King Charles's Ministers abroad without communicating them to those that ought to have been privy to the same contrary to Law and all this I can prove hath been done by your direction How many honest Old Servants were displaced by the influence you had on the King your Brother some are yet alive to tell especially those who were well affected to the Protestant Religion and in Parliament had appeared for the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom in opposition to Popery and Slavery 5. They saw King Charles the Second carried away with Vanities and wholly governed by his Whores You may remember that some of those Whores you your self put upon him as Jenny Roberts who was in part kept by you as a Spy upon him and for this end at your Command she turned Papist and when she could be of no use to you nor was constant to King Charles you and he put her off and left her to starve Cleveland and Porismouth two Metropolitan Whores that governed him as they pleased and what Sums of Money through the ascendency they had over him they obtained from him I shall not need to tell you and how many Bishopricks they disposed of we have not forgotten And in all this Sir it is plain you promoted them to advance your Cause and Interest 6. He entred into a League with England's mortaâ— Enemies the French and such strong Alliances were made with that Savage Prince and Nimrod of Europe by which means we were hurt in our Trade and impaired in our Riches and Greatness and to effect this Work what Arts and Contrivances you and your Conspirators did use by introducing French Whores French Fashions and Customs and French Officers and French Servants whom we have nourished and cherished with all the Caresses imaginable and to the meanest Valet de chamber or Contemptible Lacquey or Fidler who pretended to be but alamode de France your Parasites paid more respect to than to our brave Englishmen nay so amorous too had your fine but debauched Ladies been of a French Kick shaw that they have even hugged them in their very Bosoms and have lamented the loss tho but of the meanest French Skips witness the Tears that fell from divers great Personages of the Feminine Sex that on their Knees made supplication for that insipid High way-man Du Vall who at last though with great difficulty was hanged at Tyburn for Robberies committed on the Highway It is true he was a man of excellent Parts and singular Learning only he could neither Write nor Read But had this been all I should not have mentioned this Particular There wae more in this then some unthinking men at that time were aware of for you and your Accomplices made further steps to maintain this strong Alliance with the French our mortal Enemies for you did not only introduce the Modes and Customs of France amongst us but the Yoke of France that must be put on too I have heard of a cer certain Knight called Sir James that in a Coffe-house was heard to say That it would never be well in England till our King was as Absolute as the King of France He was an Alderman of London and Sir your very humble Admirer and at that time you had made a very gracious promise to him of obtaining of your Brother the great Park near Dublin for him for the great Services he had done your self and the French Interest And truly Sir he hath deserved that Boon at your hands were it but for the aforesaid wise Saying of his and had that Rascal had but Brains suitable to his Impudence a man might easily have taken him for one of the Chief of the Conspirators with your self against the Religion Laws and Liberties of the People of England This Fellow I say was an Alderman of London and his Residence was in the City but by his Discourse a man would have sworn he had always lived with your Conspirators at St. James's or at Whitehall or with the French Taylor an old Companion of yours who thanked God That his great King of France could send for his Head and his Estate when he pleased Blessed be God Sir your Residence is in that sweet place of St. Germains where you enjoy your self and Friends in a most comfortable manner and you have your health as well as if you had 100 Sail of Ships at your Devotion and an Army of 50000 men which is a mercy I pray let me ask you What sort of People are your French Neighbours Is there not such a slavish temper in those poor Wretches as is astonishing Just to such a slavish and knavish Temper you were about to bring the People of this Nation to your Conspirators had made a considerable progress in this mighty Work and had not Divine Providence interposed you had compleated the same Your Party to compleat this Work found out the only true way which was first to enslave our Souls by subjecting them and our Reason to the blind Superstition of the Church for that Priest craft having once so far won upon Englishmen as to make them trust and pin their Faith and Reason upon their Sleeves they may after that bring them to any thing that they shall direct and therefore as in your Day so in all Ages heretofore nothing did shew more the Cunning of your Banditti than to drive on these two together Popery and Slavery only sometimes they have driven on the one by the other sometimes Popery led the Van to bring on French Slavery and sometimes French Slavery led the Van to bring on Popery Your Friends well knew that Popery and Slavery like two Sisters they go hand in hand sometimes one goes first and sometimes the other In England your Council resolved that Popery was to bring in Slavery in Scotland Slavery was to have brought in
Popery and this was done by our Priests blind admonition to the people of obedience to our Governors be it good they command or be it evil whatever they command it must be obeyed And what Nation soever came under the misfortune of being robb'd of their Rights and Liberties it was chiefly brought to pass by Priest-craft in preaching up blind obedience and extolling Vicious Kings and calling them excellent tho the vilest of Tyrants who were riding Post to swallow them up This was the Practice of our Pulpit-hunters in the time of the Reign of your Brother and in the beginning of your Usurpation of the Government and so they would have done to this day had not the Tythe-pig been in danger Nothing I say contributed more to the confirming and establishing the late King your Brother's Alliances with France as that progress your Priests and Jesuits made in perverting the people as to their Religion and our Ecclesiastical Brokers debauching their Morals by their immorality and looseness of living and enslaving their minds by their damnable Doctrines of Passive Obedience and Non-resistance and the Divine Right of Succession to the Imperial Crown of the Realm 7. He being fully resolved to follow his Pleasure he left the Administration of the Three Kingdoms to your self and Cut-throat Party who were Enemies to the people of England and were in a damnable Conspiracy against his person and Government and the Protestant Religion That he was resolved upon his Pleasures you nor no man can deny and that you had the ascendency of him it is too plain and manifest to admit of the least doubt or scruple But that which was most wicked you kept him plied with those vile Wretches who promoted that Vice in him And tho he was the vilest of all the Kings that went before for his many Immoralities yet how did his Ecclesiastical Parasites flatter him and admire him as a Prince of the greatest Virtues a King of Peace they called him and a King of Righteousness I am sure he engaged the Government in two unjust Wars against the Dutch and thanks be to God he was by them worsted in both those Wars and it proved fatal to the Conspirators for the great Design of ruining the Dutch was the advancement of Popery and Arbitrary Power here in England which you durst not attempt till they were weakened you fearing their joining their Forces together to rescue us from your damnable Designs against our Religion Laws and Liberties as you know they did and that to very good purpose the effects of which will not be gotten out of your old Bones as long as you live Before I conclude this Head give me leave Sir to observe that whilst the King your Brother was swallowed up in his Pleasures you and your Minions did make it your business to beget in the people a low opinion of the method of Governing and by your Priests you taking opportunity by reason of our then villanous Caterpillars of the Church countenancing it in a very high manner to beget in the people a mean opinion of the Protestant Religion and Interest and you may remember you gained not a few to your Party Therefore when we consider our danger we cannot but be astonished at our deliverance For had your Banditti been avowed Papists our danger might more easily have been conquered for some nay the most of them when the Test came in force quitted their Imployment at Court amongst them Sir your sweet self quitted the Office and Title of Lord High Admiral of England but Sir you had gotten a Crew about you that did undertake with you to ruin and destroy the Government which lay under no temptation of Religion these joined their Forces and Interest against King and Kingdom and truly I think our greatest danger was from them You having this fair opportunity of your Brother's being so addicted to his Pleasures and he leaving the Administration of Affairs to you and your Hellborn Crew it was a great wonder you did not strike sooner and leap into the Chair an Age or two before the time you did It 's certain you came not in without Murther and Murther would have been but Murther if it had been done ten or a dozen years before Truly tho you had Villains that one would have thought were bad enough yet you had not enough for so black a Design as the overthrow of the Government and the Protestant Religion they were not I say ripe enough your Popish Party at home were keen enough but they wanted a good back to their edge therefore Sir you fearing your strength at home you applied you self abroad to the French King he being indowed with all those Qualities which in a Prince may pass for Vertues but in any man of a private Station they would be capital He being a Champion for Popery and Arbitrary Power with him you joined to ruin the Government and the Protestant Religion your damnable Conspiracy being a Project every way suitable to the Inclination and Interest of that Bloody Monster of Mankind You may remember the Trayterous Correspondencies you maintained with him and he with you by your most Excellent Secretary Coleman who you honestly left to be hanged for that great piece of secret Service he did you in that time 8. We well remember how careless he was in the maintenance of our Religion Truly when Princes are given up to their Pleasures it is no great matter what Religion they profess you may well call to mind what breaches you and your Party made upon our Religion through his carelesness and remisness how you advanced the Popish Interest and discountenanced the Protestants and as your Secretary Coleman observed that you would not forget the Tricks the Parliament of England had playd with you so we cannot but remember what Tricks you plaid with us for it is plain that there was not a considerable Preferment in the Church that fell but either he that was preferred was one of no Religion or else that which was worse he was a person that engaged in your unrighteous Cause and Quarrel Sir by your means and the means of your Partisans such men were made use of in the Church that through the ignorance and insufficiency of some of them and oscitancy and remisness of others to whom the Guardianship of her was committed our Religion and Worship became lamentably dismantled misfigured and defaced and this well nigh in all the integral and principal parts of it more or less insomuch that a man that understands the Doctrines and holy Intentions of our first Reformers from the Synagogue of Rome and shall compare things with things could nor yet can hardly be able to say this is the Protestant Religion But how can any man wonder that King Charles the Second should be careless in the support and maintenance of our Reformed Religion since that he was in his heart and soul engaged to the Doctrines and Communion of the Church of Rome
Was this Sir to carry on the War or to go on in making of Alliances you know it was that Popery and the French Government might be advanced both at one and the same time so that Sir I have justified that head the unwillingness of King Charles's entring into and keeping League with those who would uphold and maintain the Protestant Religion but chose rather to make Alliances with France yea and keep them too with a King that had a mighty mind to destroy it 11. I come to the last Passage that I proposed in the beginning of this Memento to treat about and that is this That as long as King Charles lived what a dismal and difficult task had this Nation to suppress you and your wicked Popish and Popishly affected Accomplices and that when he died you were like to be his Successor and therefore the Commons took this into serious consideration and upon the whole that the state of Religion was desperate and that the Popish Conspirators would certainly be advanced and that there would be nothing less than the Nation to all intents and purposes ruined therefore I pray Sir remember the Vote passed Ap. 27.1679 Resolved Nemine Contradicente That the Duke of York being a Papist and the hopes of his coming to the Crown such hath given the greatest incouragement to the present Conspiracy and designs of the Papists against the King and the Protestant Religion Sir This Vote would have ground and beaten an ordinary Subject to Powder but it had not that effect upon you and your Party your Party was so prevalent at that time your Popish Party I mean that you and your Conspirators threw off all these Difficulties with scorn and impudence enough for it is plain enough that the Popish Party had such an influence upon King Charles as to favour them notwithstanding the notoriety of those Crimes both they and you stood charged withal For 1. The Popish Party had a great interest at Court upon the pretence of their pretended Loyalty in the time of the Civil War between Charles the First and his Subjects And again some few of them were instrumental in the escape of his Son Charles the Second from Worcester and the seeming readiness that was in that Party for the Restoration of the said Charles the Second in the Year 1660. this gave them not only a share of peace and Quiet under Charles's Government but procured from him a farther degree of respect unto them by this means they had a very great advantage of carrying on their Designs against the Interest of the Nation and Peace of the Government and this was the Argument Sir that you used for that part of your Banditti in order to join your Forces and strengthen your Party Give me leave Sir to observe to you how wicked a thing it was in you to embolden such a party of Rogues to ruin the Nation you used to say they were always loyal and therefore how many times did you procure great Indulgences from the Government against the express Letter of the Law for them while the rigor of the Law was let loose upon other Dissenters who yet continued more quiet and loyal under their Pressures and Provocations than those under Favours and Caresses and did not the King your Brother hazard the Hearts and Affections of his best Subjects and much of Royal Honour if ever he had any in appearing for his Indulgence of March 15. 1671 2 with frustration to engage if possible these everlasting holy Cutthroats but where was the Loyalty of these your Popish Conspirators For 1. Was it not at their instigation when they were in a Conspiracy against the Peace of this Nation with that Arch-Traytor Laud that was sometime Archbishop of Canterbury that the Uniformity of Service that was in England was against all Law Justice and Conscience pressed upon the Kingdom of Scotland which occasioned that breach with that Nation that was not without great difficulty and vast expence made up to the dishonour of King Charles the First and the English Nation You cannot but remember you have been informed who were the Prime Sticklers upon the occasion of that Service-book and other strange Impositions laid upon that people to foment the War between the two Kingdoms For in your Letter to Ashby the Rector of the English Colledge at St. Omers dated March 17 1676 7. to supply you with a dozen of such men as were used in Scotland in 1637 1638 1639. that would not stick at any thing to carry on the Catholick Cause in which you said that his Majesty of France your Brother and your self were ingaged for you then did want them and upon the receipt of your Letter the Scotch Colledge at Doway was consulted and 12 men were dispatched over for England for what Ends and Purposes you know well enough But to return to the Point in hand The Priests that were sent into Scotland in the time of your Father Charles the First you have been informed that they were sent by Cardinal Richlieu into that ancient Kingdom to enflame the Differences between the two Nations and the Motives upon which that great Incendiary was so earnest to kindle a War in the Dominions of your Father were sufficiently understood by those that lived and were actually engaged in publick Negotiations who have been so just as to leave them upon record to future Generations and they were the very same Motives that you and your Party made the grounds for the subversion of the Protestant Religion and our English Government these were your loyal Men that would have brought in a Religion upon us by a conversion of us with Blood and a Baptism with fire but the Good Lord I hope will keep the Land from the one and this great City from the other 2. Your Conspirators were men of undoubted Loyalty and this Englishmen will believe if you can make them because of their great zeal in commencing and carrying that never to be forgotten bloody Massacre in Ireland wherein so many thousand Protestants lost their Lives and were by your Hell-born Cut-throats basely and barbarously murthered Nay as a testimony of their Loyalty they renounced your Father's Authority and the Authority of his Lord Lieutenant of that Kingdom and assumed the Royal Authority to themselves owing only a dependance upon the Pope and his Nuncio yet these men for that piece of barbarity were by you and your Brother recommended to several Princes as men that had ventured their Lives and lost their Estates for promoting the Catholick Apostolick Religion in Ireland by the direction and express Command of your Royal Father of blessed Memory and many of them in their old age were at your Brother's request and yours made Priests to get Bread for that piece of Service 3. The Loyalty of your Conspirators did highly appear in that accession they had to the Death of Charles the First they did contrive it and this hath been made appear to their
between the King your Brother and his Most Christian Majesty and your self which you say Arlington and his Party endeavoured by a thousand Deceits to break to the end they might supplant all three of you but Arlington's Design was to establish a good Understanding and Intelligence between the Parliament the Prince of Orange and the States-General You say that Arlington and his Party had used a thousand Deceits to carry on his Rogueries to betray the Councils of France and England and you and your Party used Ten thousand Rogueries to betray England Holland and the Prince of Orange to the French King You said through the Deceits of the Lord Arlington your Designs succeeded not but through your Violence and Folly his Designs succeeded to the Honour of God and the Happiness of the three Kingdoms and you are living upon the Charity of that Monster of Mankind whose Interest you advanced whilst you were here But you will say what is all this to the Purpose Yes it is much to the Purpose You may see that the Nation knows well how you interested the French King in all your Councils to change the Protestant Religion into down-right Popery and the well established Government into French Arbitrary Power and were not your Party grown to such a height of Insolence that they boasted openly of the Aid and Assistance the French was to give for the setting up the Romish Religion 3. A Third Step you took to ruin the Protestant Religion and the well established Government of England was your unhappy Match with the Daughter of Modena I must put you in mind what the Opinion of the then Parliament entertained of that Match and that you may see in these following Particulars 1. That it would disquiet the Minds of the Protestants at home and fill them with endless Jealousies and Discontents and would bring the King your Brother into such Alliances abroad as might prove highly prejudicial if not destructive to the Protestant Religion it self Now Sir it was your main Design to inflame the hearts of the People and put them upon a Ferment And you engaged the King in the said Marriage as might put him upon those Alliances as might weaken his Esteem with his People and strengthen you and your Popish Cut-â—hroats in your Conspiracy against the Peace and Tranquility of the Nation For Sir in a Letter of Coleman's to Ashby the Rector of S. Omers he saith you commanded him to let the Fathers know that that Match was to strengthen the Catholick Cause and Interest and that now the King your Brother who had ingaged in it would be engaged to unite himself in a more near Alliance to his Majesty of France and the Princes of Italy Apr. 2. 1674. 2. That they had found by sad experience that such Matches had encouraged Popery within this Kingdom and had given Opportunity to Prieists and Jesuits to propagate their wicked and devilish Doctrines and to seduce great numbers of the King's Protestant Subjects You that had such a mighty Work upon your hands as the Conversion of three Kingdoms and the Subduing of a pestilent Heresie which had so long domineered in these Kingdoms and it being a great Work and the Labourers in your great Harvest being but few and you being like to meet with mighty Opposition as indeed you did and an effectual one too so that it did import you to have all the Assistance you could that your Labourers might not be out of breath and tho' next to Gods or rather the Devil's Providence you did rely on the mighty Mind of his Most Christian Majesty whose Generous Soul had inclined him to many Barbarous and Traiterous Undertakings and tho' his Temper was in that very much like your own yet three or four Strings to your Bow were more than one for the more Alliances abroad with Catholick Princes would increase the Number of your Labourers in the Devil's Harvest Therefore in order to this what Alliances you were engaging your Brother in you well know and you cannot forget how all that Design was dashed and by whom But Sir you must be stone-blind and so must your whole Party if you did not see that Experience had taught my Lord Arlington and the Parliament how such Matches had been fatal to this Kingdom and to their Designs The Match of the King your Father with the Daughter of France was the first Step that was taken to advance Popery and the French Interest in England and when she came over what a Swarm of Priests and Friars followed her and what Numbers of Priests and Jesuits she protected and what Numbers were seduced in hopes of Employment under her or of Preferment by her Grace and Favour and how that unhappy Prince was influenced by her Councils till she had promoted a War in Scotland by the Influence of that old Incendiary Cardinal Richlieu and the Rebellion in Ireland and the bloody Civil Wars here which terminated in the Ruin and by the Just Judgment of God in the untimely end of your Father 2. The Match of the King your Brother with the Daughter of Portugal by whom he could through the Blessing of God have no Issue This Lady what she wanted in Understanding to be a Councellour she had made up to her in the blessed Gifts of Malice and Treason and Revenge which she exercised to the utmost And what Swarms of Priests Jesuits Monks and Friars were by her protected and with what Zeal she promoted the Romish Religion and protected Men that were in a Conspiracy against our Religion Laws and Liberties and how great Numbers were by her Priests perverted to the Romish Faith to the great disquiet of the Government the Parliament well knew And therefore Sir you must know that the Experience they had of these two considerable Matches how fatal they had been to these Kingdoms was a sufficient Motive for to interpose in yours 3. The Parliament observed how your Devilish Popish Party were animated by the hopes of this Match before it was consummate which were discouraged by the King's Concessions at the last meeting of that Parliament you know what they were the Breaking the Indulgence and the Passing the Test Bill My Lord Arlington and the Parliament were very prosperous in their Rogueries as you called them those Sons of Zerviah were then too many for you and your damnable Crew It is remembred upon the hopes of this Match that a Protestant could scarce come within your Court at S. James's but he was affronted by your Popish Crew and scarce a better Word than Damn you for a Heretick Dog and when Complaints were made to you of these Insolencies the Complainer found no other Redress than What Business had you there insomuch that this sort of Carriage was observed by the Parliament and upon this Consideration they interposed with all their Might to hinder if possible the Consummation of the intended Marriage to that Italian Princess 4. They did greatly fear it would
to the French Interest which Letter Sir I saw and the Instructions were followed to a Tittle by the Fathers at S. Omers In those Letters the States-General were to be acquainted with this Now Sir it is well known that the King your Brother's being ingaged in the French Interest was no Secret at the Court at Vienna nor with the States-General but that the Prince of Orange was drawn into that Interest this must be surprizing Therefore Sir we might easily see the secret Hatred you conceived against the Prince and his Cause and Interest You and your Conspirators could have been heartily glad of being blest with such an Ally but because he was true to his Cause and Interest you by your lying Jesuits did what you could to create a Jealousie in the then Confederate Princes of the Sincerity of the Prince to the Confederacy and to the Interest of the United Provinces in order to his Ruin These Letters that were sent to the Emperor's Confessor bore Date Jan. 4. 1678. Stilo Novo Sir You may not forget the 12 Jesuits that Whitebread the Provincial of the Jesuits sent into Holland to create a Belief in the Dutch that the Prince of Orange designed no less than the Subversion of the Government of the United Provinces by procuring his Party to receive and own him as their King and that it was the Design of the said Prince to assume the Title and Crown of a King and change their Government and make a Seisure of their Freedoms These Jesuits were sent by Virtue of Letters sent from Coleman in your Name and Money was sent over to be received at Dunkirk the Sum was 4000 Crowns to bear the Charge of the Mission into Holland and the Bills were signed by one Busby a Merchant here in London the Money being paid in by Sir Allen Apsley therefore Sir it may well be concluded who was at the Head of this Piece of Villany In a word Sir you see what means you and the rest of your Popish Incendiaries used to beget in the Dutch an ill Esteem of the Prince of Orange and to widen the Difference between the Lovistein Party and his Friends and if possible to seduce his Friends and destroy his Interest and the Interest of the Protestant Religion and the best Title the Jesuits of St. Omer's us'd to give him was Apple-tree Will at which you were pleased in the multitude of your witty Thoughts to laugh as Coleman us'd to tell us when ever any Discourse happened concerning the Prince of Orange But Sir you may say That he was your Sister's Son and that at that time you had married your Daughter to him so that he was not only your Nephew but your Son-in-Law What then How you and your Party used him when he was your Nephew the Princes of Europe saw and the Honest Party of England resented his Usage and had Thoughts of you accordingly yea and of your Brother to but you pretend that you had married your Daughter to him No Sir it was neither you nor your Brother married the Lady Mary to the Prince of Orange it was something else I had almost said the Siege of Charleroy and the Advice of a worthy Minister of State upon the same But suppose you had married your Daughter to the Prince of Orange and that it was your own Inclination to which I cannot yet be reconciled in my thoughts but that after the Marriage you pursued his Ruin with as much vigour as you did before give me leave to sum up the whole in a few words You and your Accomplices resolved That the Prince of Orange should not become Great therefore he must be destroyed and in order to effect so mighty and so great a Work all means are used to stir up the Dutch to mutiny against him upon that Diabolical Suggestion of your Conspirators That he had designed and was resolved to subvert their Government and usurp a Crown and Title of a King the Emperor is also instigated to create a Belief in the States-General That the Prince designed the making himself Absolute and oh how did you and your Party hug your selves with the Expectation of a Breach between him and the States-General so that his and the whole Protestant Interest might fail in Holland In truth when a Man reflects upon this Affair he would wonder at your Barbarity and naturally ask this Question Why should this Prince aim at the Destruction of the Prince of Orange Was he not his Sister's Son his Son-in-law What profit would it be to you to destroy him An honest-thinking Man would hesitate at these things but when he considers who it is attempts this and for what cause then it naturally follows there was a pretended Cause for such Diabolical Suggestions and such Barbarous Designs You that was his Uncle was converted to such a degree of Zeal as not to regard any thing in the World in comparison of the Conversion of Heretical Kingdoms and so your Interests we know were inseparately united to the French King that it was impossible to divide them You know that you used all means to secure His Most Christian Majesty's Interest in England and that for many weighty Reasons one among the rest was That his and yours prevailing would give the greatest Blow to the Protestant Religion that ever it receiv'd from its birth then undoubtedly the Prince of Orange through God's mercy now our Gracious King at that time stood within a step or two of the Throne and being a Protestant ought in all Policy to be removed notwithstanding his being your Nephew and Son-in-law For what do Men talk of natural Affection amongst Popish Princes Was you not in a Conspiracy against Charles the Second when he was at Bruxels though he was your own Brother or else he is basely bely'd And was not the Queen his Mother zealous in the same Conspiracy notwithstanding he was her Son Why then should any Man talk of natural Affection Sir you cannot forget that you had a mighty Work upon your Hands that was The Conversion of these Kingdoms and subduing the Northern Heresie and that your hopes of it were very great and that you were zealous to a miracle of being the Author of so Glorious a Work Your mighty Mind and the Mighty Mind of the French King were relied upon by the Conspirators for that also that the Interest of the French King was highly attracted to that of yours Why then should any wonder at your Passing a Bill of Exclusion upon the Prince of Orange who the World knew notwithstanding all your Hellish Suggestions both to the Emperor and States-General stood ready with all his might to Baffle You and the French King and all your mighty Undertakings Consider further That the Interest of the French King was highly attracted to your Interest and this pleased you and your Party and so you thought your selves secure But here was your Nephew and Son-in-law his Interest was as highly attracted
neither pay'd by him nor yet receiv'd by them and not only so but that the Protestants in the North of Ireland were much alarm'd at those Quantities of Arms and Ammunition that were put into the Hands of the Irish Catholicks 10. Your Conspirators Coleman and the Jesuites in London receiv'd Letters from St. Omers written from Father Ireland not he that was hanged for his own Name was Ironmonger but this Man 's own Name was Saltmarsh That Care was taken for the Destruction of the Duke of Ormond in Ireland he being then Lord-Lieutenant there And for what Reason Because he had refused Sir to join with you in Breaking the English Interest in that Kingdom though Sir you may remember that the said Duke was a Person very Obsequious to your Brother and your Self and the Reason why you could not get him to engage with you in Omnibus was his own Safety and Ease Yet when you acted by the King's Command the said Duke never failed you nor did his Son the Earl of Ossory which cost that good Gentleman many a Sigh when he came to dye for the Business of the Smyrna Fleet and the Wicked War against the Dutch stuck upon his Soul to the last Minute of his Life But I say Because the Duke of Ormond would not push on every thing you put upon him he was not for your turn though give him his due he had gone farther than his Inclinations lead him to please your Mind 11. In the last place when you took the Crown you in a short time put the whole Government into the Hands of the Irish Papists by which means the English Protestant Interest was in great danger to be lost and the Protestant Inhabitants were under the daily Fears through your Grace and Favour of having their Throats cut nay many daily by your Cut-Throat Teagues were by your especial Direction basely inhumanely and barbarously murthered So that some tasted of that Cruelty which others justly apprehended from the Arbitrary Power you set up there Some of them left the Kingdom and abandoned their Estates calling to mind that Cruel and Bloody Massacre which fell upon their Fathers in that Kingdom in the year 1641. And to crown your Work you traiterously invaded that Kingdom and called a Number of your Villains together and christened them by the Title and Name of a Parliament and what you did by their countenance many yet alive can tell But Doctor King an old Passive Obedience Friend of yours hath painted you out at large in those particular Carriages of yours when you with your French Mirmidons invaded that Kingdom But Sir let me tell you That Great William our King hath endeavoured and doth still study to bring Ireland into such a State that the Settlement of the Protestant Religion may there be religiously observed and the Protestant English Interest may be secured against any Effort of yours or your Irish Teagues to the contrary notwithstanding III. SCOTLAND You having play'd your Game so well in Ireland it will not be amiss to cast our Eye upon that Quondam Ancient Kingdom and see how you managed there for as you managed Ireland by a Tool that succeeded the Lord Roberts so in Scotland You and your Brother acted by Lauderdale for he brought all the Laws and Liberties of Scotland to the Council-Chamber bringing all Persons and Causes of any moment to your Arbitrary Council who acted as Lords Paramount without controul and so zealous were you by him to promote and support the French Interest there that continually new Levies were making in Scotland for the Service of the French King tho' at that very time we were pretending a French War in England You remember Sir that by your Influence upon the King your Brother and on the Council of Scotland you make them use all the diligence that was possible to get an Army there to be a standing Army in the room of the Militia of that Kingdom the Militia being not thought fit for your Popish Designs And the means to effect the same you pitch'd upon those you judged to be the most effectual which was first to Oppress and Enrage the Dissenters and this could not be better accomplished than by disturbing and prosecuting their Meetings and Religious Assemblies for the Worship of God which You and your Conspirators did with all imaginable diligence And you having found out a new way by caution your Conspirators devised a Bond should be imposed upon every Man they marked out for Ruine as being Enemies to their Arbitrary Proceedings which Bond was That the Landlord should be bound for his Tenant the Master for his Servant and the Husband for the Wife and Father for the Children not to go to Conventicles Which you knew many would not do for that the People of Scotland generally hated Praelatical Government But this way they thought would so enrage the People whom they fore-knew would not part with their Meetings that they doubted not but to force a Rebellion and thereupon have a fair Pretence to raise Forces for the Security of the Kingdom against restless Meeters and Meetings Which Design Sir You and your Party in that Kingdom did at last effect Another Device you and your Conspirators had of seizing the Field-Meetings by the armed Forces and destroying them both in Bodies and Estates and dragging them to Gaols and then by whole Ship-loads selling them to the Plantations as Condemn'd Men and Ship-loads coming here for London they by one way or another got their Liberty Was this of the Bond all And was the Selling of them all No For You and your Conspirators found out another way by the Tyranny of Duke Lauderdale and that was this There was a Warrant procured from the Council of Scotland to disarm divers Shires and Low-lands of that Kingdom and when that would not exasperate them then another Order was procured to order the High-landers a sort of barbarous Papists to be armed and by whole Regiments to come down upon the Inhabitants spoiling and destroying the whole Country living amongst them at discretion and these very High-landers thus armed under the pretence of keeping the Peace had in their Commission from your Brother's and your Council in Scotland Authority to live at Free Quarter upon those Inhabitants which they did divers Months together to the destruction of the poor People And all this was to procure a Rebellion at any rate But least this should be too general I will descend to some Particulars that the thing may be plain to your Ragged Regiment at St. Germans and your Hell-born Cut-throat Crew here in England I. I will shew you in several Particulars how your Brother and You invaded the Rights of the Good People of Scotland in general II. I will give you to remember some Instances of your Brother's and your Barbarity to particular Persons III. Your Brother's and your way of using your Prisoners I. Give me leave to put you and your Conspirators in mind of
long and large Attestations therein made against the Merchants of the several Factories concerning the Matter of Fact before mentioned and other Letters were dispatch'd to Daniel Armstrong at Valladolyd and John Cross then at Madrid in which they were order'd to confirm this Attestation made or to be made by the Fathers in England and of the English Seminary at St. Omer's and of the said Stapleton together with that of the said Fonseca the abovenamed Spanish Agent who then lived at Bruges in Flanders Therefore 1. In this Villanous Contrivance to disturb the Nation in the Spanish Trade your Servant Coleman was very active in your Name and on your behalf and engaged that your Letter to Villa Hermosa should be procured 2. It is well known that your Brother and your self were so engag'd with the French King that it was all one to you what became of the King of Spain's Concerns in Flanders but you were both grieved to see the English Nation enrich'd with the Trade it had with Spain for during the time of the Riches and Plenty of England it would be very difficult for you and your Conspirators to bring in Popery and Slavery upon us 3. What Agents you make use of to carry on this Wicked Design to ruine Trade Even Fonseca that hated the English Nation and much envied her Greatness and that she might be in a condition to be brought under the French Yoke you tamper with him that tho' a Spaniard by Nation yet he was wholly in the French Interest 3. A third Instance that I shall remember you of by which you intended to ruine our Trade and that was in the adulterating debasing and clipping the Coin of this Kingdom It may be said by you and your Partisans That it is very hard you should be charged with this vile Act but Sir it can be prov'd that the Merchants Goldsmiths Brokers Bankers and the other Traders that the Jesuites dealt with all was by your Advice and Direction and that your Servant Coleman had in your Name promised them the management of the Mint So that your Conspirators were to be the Judges of good and bad Mony and were to manage the same to the best advantage for your Cause and several Materials for Coining was provided by Smith your Agent and lodged at Mr. Longhorn's Chambers in the Temple And this Sir I must observe to you for publick Good that there hath been few or none that ever hath been executed but hath been of your Religion or Interest That our Mony hath been abused is notorious And all this you did in order to impoverish the Kingdom and destroy its Trade 4. A fourth Instance of you and your Traytors to disturb the Trade of the Kingdom was the Fire of London I have treated of that already As it was the Habitation for several Thousands of good Protestants that stood in opposition to Popery and Slavery and as by the destroying this City you endeavoured to weaken the Protestant Interest so now give me leave to tell you it was with this design to ruine the Trade of the Nation for you know that London was the Metropolis and Fountain of Trade and when she was destroy'd you could not but conclude that the Trade must be disturbed with which the other parts of the Kingdom were made happy through the great devastation that the Fire that was carried on by your Wicked Instruments had made IV. A fourth Project that you had to accomplish your Wicked Designs was the Attempt of maintaining of a standing Army contrary to the Laws and Liberties of England in the times of Peace and labour'd that point much with the King your Brother to lay down the legal Force of this Kingdom viz. the Militia as useless to the Government and therefore you and your Party advis'd him to lay them down and to have Forces in every County under Pay and they were to be your Conservators of the Peace And Sir had the Revenue of the Crown been able to have born the Charge you your self projected a standing Army to keep the People in due Obedience Now what that due Obedience was I shall not need to explain to you for it was a standing Army alamode de France nay they were to have the Power of the Civil Watch in the Night which you said would excuse many ancient useless Men from that Service And for the accomplishment of your wicked Enterprize you advis'd that the greater part of the Army should consist of French and Irish and that the Officers of this Army should consist of as many Roman Catholicks as could well be gotten to serve in that Army and you had several of that sort of Cattel that you kept in half-pay in readiness whenever your Brother should have agreed to your Advice It was not for want of Good will but for want of Mony that your Design did not then take 5. A fifth Project that you had on foot to enslave the Nation and that was the advising and contriving with your damnable Conspirators the seizure of the Charters Franchises and Liberties of the Cities Towns and ancient Corporations of the Kingdom It was Sir your self and your Conspirators that invaded the Privileges and seized on the Charters of most of the Towns that had a Right to be represented by their Burgesses in Parliament and by over awing some of them you procur'd Surrenders of them to be made to the King your Brother by which the Magistrates deliver'd up all their Rights and Privileges to be dispos'd of at his pleasure and the pleasure of your self and Conspirators Upon this you procur'd new Magistrates to be placed in those Places as would carry on your wicked designs and purposes of advancing Popery and Slavery 6. It was your Advice together with your Conspirators that put the late King your Brother to turn out of the Commission of the Peace and the Lieutenancy of the Counties all such who had been zealous for the defence of the Protestant Religion and Liberty and had appear'd vigorously against Popery and Arbitrary Power as persons disaffected to the Government both in Church and State and represented them as Fanaticks and Favourers of such by which means you got in Men of Villanous Morals and such heartily joyned in with your Conspirators to ruine the Protestant Interest and to overthrow the Laws and Liberties of England This was done in the year 1679. 7. Notwithstanding some of your Conspirators represented you as a person whose Judgment was for Liberty of Conscience yet because the Protestant Dissenters appear'd earnestly in the asserting the Laws and Liberties of England and gave Countenance to the Discovery of the Popish Plot to King Charles your Brother who was in it in every part and particular thereof excepting that of his own Murther you and your Conspirators stirred up that King to raise a terrible Persecution against those men by which means you were the ruine of some Thousands of Families who by the severity of
the said Persecution were reduced almost to Beggery or to live upon the Charity of Friends Some were forced to fly the Nation and yet were more loyal under their Pressures and Provocations than your Cut-throat Papists were under their then Caresses and Favours received from your Brother and your self Nay a reverend Minister of the Gospel of Christ who had been very instrumental in your Restauration yea and ventur'd his Life for your Brother's Restauration in the year 1650 you suffer'd to perish in Newgate as a Reward for so great a piece of Service to your Brother and your self and Family and for no other reason but because he could not comply with some Rascally Ceremonies that our Ecclesiastical Vermin had borrow'd from the Church of Rome to Adorn our Protestant Worship and because he would not take the Oxford Oath lay'd upon the Nation to enslave it 8. Another Project you had for the ruining the Interest of the Protestant Religion and the Interest of England was the Advancing of Men that were Enemies to the Protestant Interest into the greatest Places of Trust As What a Sett of Villains had you made Judges of the Land by which means you brought all the Matters of Civil Justice into great Uncertainties by reason of the Tenour of their Commissions and the Ignorance of the Rogues you employ'd Therefore how miserable was the Nation who were obliged to Answer to such Judges that were forced to comply in all things with the Directions that were given by you and your Wicked Cut-throats or else to be turned out at yours and their Pleasure If we look further you had in your Brother's time the disposing of all Military Employments And how you did shew your Hatred to the Protestant Religion and the English Interest You did in his time raise a great many Persons to the greatest Military Trusts both by Sea and Land Strangers as well as Natives so that by these measures your Conspirators became Masters of the Affairs of the Government of the Nation and of the course of Justice and you had all the Church Vermin engag'd with you to subject the whole Kingdom to a despotick Arbitrary power and all these joyn'd together to execute your wicked Designs to enslave and debauch the People of the Land 9. To compleat the Work that nothing might stand in your way of Establishing your Popish Religion you murder'd your Brother who was uncertain in his Engagements in the Conspiracy for when he found it was not safe for him to appear in promoting Popery he soon left you Or if a Sum of Money could be gotten from a Parliament he commonly bless'd the Nation with a Proclamation or two against Popish Priests Jesuites and Popish Recusants or pass a Bill or so to the prejudice of the Popish Party as he did in 1673 when the Test-Bill passed as also another in 1678. This obliged you and your Conspirators to hasten his destruction which you had long contrived You found a fit Tool and as fit a Dose to do the Work in it you had your desired Ends and so you mounted the Throne Which brings me to the Second Point What you did in order to the Ruine of the Protestant Religion and the Government after your accession to the Crown II. Your Tyranny was very cruel but short yet full of strange and surprising Circumstances It was highly astonishing to see a Popish Prince ascending the Throne to rule a Protestant Nation and defend a Protestant Church but Sir you had no such Designs in your Head for you shew'd what you would do with our Laws when you could engage your Conspirators to dispense with part of the Oaths that you should have taken It is manifest and notorious that when you were upon the coming to the Crown you was receiv'd by all the People of England Scotland and Ireland as King without the least opposition for our Ecclesiastical Vermin had made your way clear by their Doctrine of Passive Obedience and Non-Resistance and the Divine Right of Succession and the possibility of preserving the Glory and Grandeur of their Church of England by a Popish Prince and that there was more danger from Fanaticks than from Papists and such-like scoundrel Notions You cannot but remember that King Charles your Brother having received the deadly Dose your Conspirators had prepar'd for him on February the 6th 1684 5 he went to his Place that very day Sir you were proclaim'd King to the sorrow of all that wish'd well to England and its Religion Liberties and Laws you then appear'd at the Council-Table as King and by all your Conspirators you was owned and saluted as such to whom you were pleas'd to make a sort of a Speech in which you were pleas'd to declare your self to this effect THat Since it hath pleased Almighty God to place you in that station and that you were now to succeed so Good and Gracious a King as well as so Kind a Brother you thought it fit to declare That you would follow his Example and more especially in that of his great Clemency and Tenderness to all his People That you had been reported to have been a man for Arbitrary Power tho' that had not been the only Story that had been made of you That you would make it your Endeavour to preserve Government both in Church and State as it was by Law establish'd That you knew the Principles of the Church of England were for Monarchy and that the Members of it had shewn themselves good and loyal Subjects and therefore you would take care to defend and support it That you knew the Laws of England were sufficient to make the King as great a Monarch as you could wish and therefore as you would never depart from the Just Rights and Prerogatives of the Crown so you would never invade any Man's Property And that you had ventur'd your Life very often in the defence of the Nation And that you would go as far as any Man in preserving it in all its Just Rights and Liberties This Sir is the sum and substance of what you were pleas'd to say at the Council board and one would have sworn that you would have taken up the Trade of being Speech wright-general to the whole Band of your Conspirators I am confident your old Friends the Jesuites that had been hang'd but a little before could not have outdone you though it had been to have saved their Lives Well it was a Speech and how true you were to this Speech you shall judge and your Conspirators too if you will but consider 1. You said You would not invade any man's Right and Property and that you would preserve the Nation in its Just Rights and Liberties And so you did for you the next day after your accession to the Crown publish'd a Proclamation for the continuing the payment of the Custom and Excise which were expir'd by the death of the King your Brother for several weeks after Did not this shew
of what they had confess'd against themselves others that had been in actual Arms hundreds of them were hang'd in the principal Towns and their Quarters hang'd up in the Highways as lasting Monuments of your Grace and Compassion And you being glutted with Blood you then thought of other Punishments for some other of those Offenders many Men and Women were order'd to be whip'd publickly in the Market-Towns others had their Estates seiz'd and a great number were sold into America to serve all days of their Lives so that there was nothing but the Voice of lamentation and weeping to be heard In a word your Grace Clemency and Tenderness was such that several of the Western Counties were made so many Fields of Blood and Butchery Nay Sir those who escaped your Mercy by vertue of your Proclamation were forced to retire to the Woods and desolate places their nearest and dearest Relations not daring so much as to harbour or relieve them so that several starved to death or perish'd with cold for want of things necessary for the preservation of Human Nature Some fled to the Dutch for shelter and were not only kindly receiv'd but as civily entertain'd till you began to have some Shame in you and pardon'd some in hopes that they would be of use to you and others came over with the Prince of Orange who by the Just Judgment of God upon you and your Adherents banish'd you the Kingdom and the Lords and Commons of England deposed you as useless to God and Man But Sir this is notorious that you never entertain'd the least Remorse of Conscience for the murther of these men in the West for those you pardon'd paid a Price sufficient for their Pardons or if you gave them Pardon freely it was to prevent their setting up their Trades in other Countries And Jefferies your Tool that you ought to have hang'd you let him go off with no other Punishment than to be made Lord High Chancellor of England who also did enrich himself with the Sum of 15000 l. extorted from one person who wanted a Pardon for nothing else but the not delivering his Country which he might have done for half the Mony I am more sorry that Jefferies got the Mony than for that Gentleman 's losing that Sum. Truly Sir I was in hopes that the Time of that Villain Jefferies had been come in which he should not only have paid his Debt to Nature but to his Faults too but he is gone to his Place and thereby he hath sav'd the Hangman a Labour but had he liv'd he would in my opinion have been made an Example for all his Villanies that he had committed both as a corrupt Judge and a trayterous Chancellor 3. You were pleased in the years 1687 1688 to publish a Declaration for Liberty of Conscience and professed in both the said Declarations That it was always your Judgment that no man's Conscience should be restrain'd in Matters of Religion Now Sir if that were true why then did you persecute the Protestant Dissenters for their Conscience from Feb. 6. 1684 till the latter end of the year 1686 And if it were not your Judgment why then did you proclaim Liberty of Conscience as your Judgment But Sir to deal truly in the point you had a Popish Fabrick to erect and you wanted Liberty of Conscience to be the Scaffold and when you had done your business of settling Popery you would have laid Liberty of Conscience aside as your Brethren abroad of the Popish Religion have always done And this was the Clemency your Brother was pleas'd to shew to Dissenters and afterwards he and you could with great Tenderness suffer them to perish in Prison and you your self when you were in the Chair persecuted them to the ruine of some Thousands of Families you surfeited your self and Party with the murder and ruine of so many Men and yet you pretend to Clemency and Tenderness To conclude this particular your Brother and you made two Declarations for Liberty of Conscience for no other intent but to cheat the People of England into Slavery and Popery to the end that you might damn the Body and Soul of the Nation at once From such Clemency and Tenderness I trust God hath deliver'd this Nation and will preserve her under the present Government all your pretences to the contrary notwithstanding 4. What shall I say of those worthy persons that you kept in Jayl for the pretended Damages of 100000 l. and others of 10000 l. and others for one Fine or another What shall I say of the Murther of the Lady Lisle and Alderman Cornish Mr. Ayliff and Mr. Nelthrope and poor Disney These were Monuments of your Clemency and Tenderness 3. You promis'd in your Speech to the Council That you would maintain the Church of England as it was establish'd by Law Nay I think if you had not wrong done you you swore it too at your Coronation And Sir if you please call to mind how you kept your Promise and Oath in relation to the Church of England and the Protestant Interest nay you gave a reason for your Promise it being the only Reason that you ever gave in your Life I will put you in mind of it Because said you Her Members had shew'd themselves Loyal Subjects and that the Principles of the Church of England had been for Monarchy Therefore 1. How did you maintain the Church of England as by Law establish'd Were there not Laws in force for the preservation of the Church of England that had been enacted in the Reigns of several Princes that were your Predecessors amongst which Laws as a security of the Church of England against Popery That all persons whatsoever that were advanced to any Ecclesiastical Dignity or to bear Office in either University as likewise all Civil and Military Officers should declare they were not Papists but of the Protestant Religion and that by taking the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and the Test yet you and your Conspirators annulled all those Laws that were made to secure the Protestant Religion against Popery Was this to defend the Church of England and to maintain Her Laws I leave it to all men to judge But you and your villanous Commissioners thought your selves so wise as to reconcile Contradictions and therefore you were resolv'd to try your Skill upon the Church and the Nurseries of Learning which prov'd fatal to you and your Party by the Just Vengeance of Almighty God 2. Did you not against express Law and against the Promise of your maintaining the Church of England set up an Ecclesiastical Commission and impower the Persons named in that illegal Commission to take cognizance and to give arbitrary directions in matters Ecclesiastical in which Commission there was one who profess'd the Popish Religion and others that were Abettors of Popery and Popish Superstition therefore to what deplorable condition was the Church of England reduc'd that a Commissioner for the Church