of Sobriety and Decorum in respect of his Lordships State and Condition There are several Dashes besides too that seem to be Influenc'd by the same Genius and Written and Publish'd with the same Design and with no more Regard neither to the Case of the Person or to the Pretence of the Paper I wish with all my Soul says the Paper All our Unhappy Differences were Removed and that All sincere Protestants would so far Consider the Danger of Popery as to lay aside their Heats and Agree against the Common Enemy and that the Church-men would be less severe and the Dissenters less scrupulous for I think Bitterness and Persecution are at all times Bad but much more NOW 'T is true My Lords Hand makes This Clause my Lords Act again But He that Penn'd it thought of nothing less upon the Drawing of it up than my Lords Bus'ness For what 's a publick Reformation to a private Confession Here 's a Gentleman Agonizing in Extremis brought-in with an Expedient in his Mouth against Popery What 's Toleration Comprehension Association for that 's his Proposal to a Man that 's brought to his last Miserere and upon the Critical and Final Discharge of his Soul to Almighty God Here 's a Christian under the Instant and the Indispensable Obligation of Forgiving all Mankind brought in with his last Gasp betwixt his Teeth Arraigning both Church and State with Cruelty and Persecution And what 's the Severity of the Church-men that He Complains of And what 's the Persecution but the Executing of the Laws upon Others And living in a Dutiful Obedience to them Themselves Persecution he says is ever Bad but much more NOW What an Emphatical Note is it that This Critical NOW should be pitched upon for the Season of Indulging the Dissenters which They have chosen out for the Season of taking Possession of the Government But the Humour is Carried on and there 's a great deal more of the same Stuff still For Popery I look on it as an Idolatrous and bloody Religion and therefore thought my self bound in my Station to do All I could against it and by that I foresaw I should Procure such Great Enemies to my self and so powerful Ones That I have been now for some time Expecting the worst and blessed be God I fall by the Axe and not by the Fiery Tryal The First Period has in it the very Style as well as the Doctrine of the Old Covenant There 's the Doctrine of Resistance in 't with an Allowance nay and an Obligation for every man to be Seditious in his Station The Second Period MEANS That my Lord Russel fell under the Revenge of the Duke of York for Promoting the Bill of Exclusion This Clause had my Lords General Assent as well as the Rest but in Conscience and in Charity I do firmly perswade my self That it was gain'd by a Surprize when the Disorder of His Lordships Thoughts and the shortness of Time perhaps would not bear much Deliberation For whereas the Death of This poor Gentleman is Invidiously Charg'd upon the Duke for his Opposing Popery the Duke Himself was to have been Murder'd nay and the King too by the Pretending Anti-Papal Party and it was my Lords heavy Lot to Fall under the Fate of That Conspiracy And the Bare Murder was not All neither for Those that call themselves the True Protestants were to have Done the horrid Fact And according to the Vote to have reveng'd it upon the Papists The Pen-man after This makes the Unhappy Gentleman to Bless God That he fell by the Axe not the Faggot when yet at the same Time so far was the Faction from dreading the King the Duke and the Government that Those very People that made the Greatest Noise with their Fears Iealousies and Apprehensions were themselves United in a Conspiracy to Blow up All in one common Ruine Now for the matter of Foresight and Expectation of Mischief it is no wonder for Men that run desperate Courses to live in the Apprehension of Dangerous Effects I did believe says the Paper and I Do still That Popery is Breaking-in upon the Nation and that Those who Advance it will stop at nothing to carry on their Designs I am heartily sorry that so many Protestants give their Helping-Hand to it Was there ever such a Reckoning cast up betwixt the Great God and a miserable Sinner and not One Moment left to set things Right in betwixt That and his Appearance at the last Tribunal Here 's not so much as One Syllable all this while to my Lords Case but only Clamours for fear of Popery Invectives against the Pretended Bringers of it in Legal Protestants turn'd over into the Popish Calendar and all this while the Persecuted Persons are the Aggressors God forgive the Man whoever it was if he has not sinn'd unto Death that wrought upon my Lord to Own this Enflaming Paper And I cannot but hope in Charity yet that betwixt the Delivery of it and the Stroke his Lordship Repented of the Temerity and found a Place for Mercy But to spell a little upon These Words I Did Believe and I Do still c. He does not say upon what Grounds He Propounds no Remedy Offers no Proof We hear nothing by whom it is to be brought-in or by what means But it seems there are both Papists and Protestants in the Confederacy Why does he not tell us who they are of Both Sorts Or if it be only a bare Conjecture methinks the King and his Councel should be able to see as far into This Bus'ness as the Prevaricator Or let it be as it will I challenge the World to shew any One Colourable Reason for the Printing of it that 's Honest To give the Adviser his due This Paper was never Calculated either for my Lords Cause or Service any further than to make use of his Name as a Vehicle to convey the Spirits of this Venom into all the Corners of his Majesties Dominions But he goes forward I hope God will preserve the Protestant Religion and This Nation Though I am afraid it will fall under very great Tryals and very Sharp sufferings And indeed the Impiety and Profaneness that abounds and appears so scandalously Barefaced every where gives too just Reason to fear the worst things which can befall a People I pray God prevent it and give those who have shewed concern for the Publick good and who have appeared Hearty for the True Interest of the Nation and the Protestant Religion Grace to live so that they may not cast a Reproach on that which they endeavour to Advance God deliver me from a Confessour at my last Hour that when I have but one Moment left to make my Peace with God in shall put me upon employing that very Instant in casting Fire-Balls into a Nation to set Three-Kingdoms in a Flame And instead of shrifting my own Conscience to be Raking in the Puddle of the Iniquities of my Neighbours
and Particular a Limitation to Those Two Articles if it were not to Accommodate That Popular Cover to some Hidden Meaning But the Fallacy that 's Couch'd under The Kings Life and Altering the Government is expos'd already It is said here That my Lord had no Design against the Life of any man whatsoever 'T is hard to imagine a War and no body to be Kill'd in 't But there 's a Salvo for That too That the Individual Person was not thought of Neither do I believe that my Lord ever Design'd to take away the Life of Dr. Hawkins though he said in his Passion that he hop'd to live to see him Flead and Hung up That which follows next speaks my Lord Privy to a Great many Ill Things And it is not enough to say that he could not Repress them For they were of such a Quality that his Lordship was Bound both by Oath and Duty to Discover them Or at the least In Honour and in Conscience to have avoided a Conversation that carried on such Dangerous Designs And now to speak one word to that which passes for his Lordships last Prayer We have his own Acknowledgment of a Misprision of Treason And yet not one syllable upon that Subject in his Parting Confession But he that wrote this Paper is a Profess'd Enemy I perceive to the Christianity of a Clear Confession I hope no body says the Paper will imagine that so mean a Thought could enter into me as to go about to save my self by accusing others The Part that some have Acted lately of that kind has not been such as to invite me to love Life at such a Rate A Man shall not need to Guess twice who was the Author of this Sentence for 't is written with the very Spirit of a Carguelite that makes Treason a Virtue and Repentance a Mortal Sin And my Poor Lord in the Anguish of his Thought is left here to Answer for the Lewdness of Another man who Notwithstanding the Justness of my Lords Sentence is Incomparably the Greater Criminal If he ever was or Pretended to be a Minister of the Gospel For there are Julians in Black-Coats and more Julians then One too what could be more Luciferian then to turn Penitence into a Scandal And to Preach it for a Point of Religious Honour in a Christian not to Discover his Complices in a Rebellion Surely the Author of this Paper was afraid of being Discovered himself And therefore Inculcates the Principle and Recommends it Is it such an Indignity for a man to Save himself by Accusing Others What is it then for a man rather to Damn his Soul by the Perjurious Concealment of a Traytor then by Discharging his Duty both to God and to his Prince to lay down This Life in hope of a Better through the Merits and Intercession of a most Mercyful Saviour The Pen-man's Savin of Himself by Accusing Others is only the False Gloss of a Reprobated Seducer upon the Text. And then the Instance of his Reproach upon the Kings Witnesses in this Matter is a Farther Discovery of the Venom of him that gave the Dictate This is a way chalk'd-out not only for the Encouragement but almost the Canonizing of Conspirators Here is an Acknowledgement however that my Lord Could have Accused Others if he Would We shall come now to the Matter of Fact As to the Conspiring to seize the Guards which is the Crime for which I am Condemned and which was made a Constructive Treason for taking away the Kings Life to bring it within the Statute of Edw. 3. I shall give this true and Clear Account I never was at Mr. Shepheard's with that Company but once and there was no undertaking then of Securing or seizing the Guards nor none appointed to View or Examine them Some Discourse there was of the Feasibleness of it And several times by Accident in General Discourse elsewhere I have heard it Mentioned as a thing might easily be done but never Consented to as Fit to be done And I remember particularly at my Lord Shaftsburys there being some General Discourse of this Kind I immediately flew out and Exclaimed against it And ask'd If the thing succeeded what must be done next but Massacring the Guards and killing them in Cold Blood which I look'd upon as so Detestable a thing and so like a Popish Practice that I could not but abhor it And at the same time the Duke of Monmouth took me by the Hand and told me very kindly My Lord I see you and I are of a temper Did you ever hear so horrid a thing And I must needs do him that Justice to Declare that I never observed in him but an Abhorrence to All Base Things My Lord was charg'd by the Indictment of High Treason for Conspiring Compassing and Imagining the Death and Destruction of the King And the Raising of a Rebellion within the Kingdom Now this was a Consultation in Order to that end And for that which is here call'd a Constructive Treason It was much a Plainer Act of Treason then any thing in the Articles against my Lord Chief Justice Scroggs And yet That pass'd for a very Current House-of-Commons-Treason The Paper says that my Lord was but once at Mr. Shepheards with that Company Mr. Shepheard swears it Twice with the same Company But that Slip of Memory shall go for Nothing There was No Vndertaking to seize the Guards it seems nor any Appointment to View or Examine them That 's because it was not yet come to a Resolution But here 's no Denyal at all of a Debate or Consultation toward it The Exploit was found Feisible and several Discourses about it But said only to be in General and by Accident Is it meant that they Mett by Accident and so fell upon Discourse only by Accident And that This Particular of Seizing the Guards fell in only as an Accidental Discourse This way of Disguising the Truth is as Clear to any man that has Eyes in his head as if it were a Plain Confession of it for if it were meant Good Faith the Author would have strain'd himself for another Invocation of the Great God the Searcher of Hearts and Judge of All Things to bear Witness to the Explicite Truth of the Case But it was never Consented to as Fit to be done Now That Fitness may referr to the Time the Means the Ways the Instruments They had not yet Pitcht upon a Safe and Effectual Way perhaps for the doing of it But there was More General Discourse now of the same Kind at my Lord Shaftsbury's And This was a Terrible General Discourse for it made my Lord immediately Fly out and Exclaim against it I wish the Paper had set forth what this General Discourse was And what the Other was too that fell in by Accident And whether that General Discourse and This General Discourse were not as good as all one But in short Such General Discourse it was that it wanted
What 's the End of these Terrifying Alarums but to Gall and Teize the People without any hope of Remedy unless by flying to that Damned Principle of Conditional Obedience to Embrue my hands in the Bloud of my Soveraign What 's the English of this same Publick-Good here Appearing Hearty The True Interest of the Nation and the Protestant Religion What is it but the Old Cause in a New dress And the direct Encouragement of a Schism and Sedition against the Authority both of Church and State And then here 's still the never-failing Topique at hand of Impiety and Prophaneness with a Characteristical Note of the other Party As men Concerned for the Publick-Good Hearty for the True Interest and the Protestant Religion under which Notion the Shammer of this Paper upon my Lord did beyond all controversy Intend the Conspirators For it does not only Answer his Ordinary Description of them but he would have told us in Plain Terms if he had meant otherwise or at least he would have cast in as much Schism and Rebellion into the other Scale as would have kept the Ballance Even Not but that the Sedition and Prophaneness are now God be thanked for it come to be both of a side And here again What ever Apprehensions I had of Popery and of my own severe and heavy share I was like to have under it when it should prevail I never had a thought of doing any thing against it Basely or Inhumanely but what could well Consist with the Christian Religion and the Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom And thank God I have Examined all my Actings in that matter with so great Care that I can appeal to God Almighty who knows my Heart that I went on Syncerely without being moved either by Passion By-end or Evil-Design We are still upon the same Train of Uncertainties and Generals Why should My Lord have these Apprehensions by reason of His opposing Popery When the King the Church and the Laws of the Land are against Introducing the Religion of the Church of Rome as much as His Lordship But if the Paper means One Popery and the Law Another As 't is clear by the Context of it that the Church-Protestants and the Papists are to be blown up into the Air Together the Pretext of Religion is Degenerated into a Point-blank Sedition And every man that Suffers for Treason shall presently at this rate be made a Martyr for the Reformation And again will the Composer of this Paper have my Lords Suffering in this Case to be an Argument that Popery prevails because his Lordship foresaw the Hard Measure he was likely to have in Case it should prevail Neither will the Lawfulness of opposing Popery in any sort Excuse the Doing of it by Unlawful means There must be no Seizing of Guards in the Case The Fear of a False Religion is no Defence either before God or Man for the Violence of an Actual Rebellion How much more Forcible then is the Condition of Our present Instance where the very men that pretend to Fear Popery are so far from Fearing it Indeed that it is one Branch of the Conspiracy to say they Fear it A Second to give it out that the Papists are about to Kill the King And at the same time to Resolve to do it Themselves And the last Round of the Ladder is by Consent so soon as ever they have Executed the Villany to make Proclamation that the Papists did it But now we come to the Deplorable Nicety of my Poor Lords Case which in Appearance seems to be well nigh the Single Proposition wherein the Confessour and the Penitent agreed And this was it which cost both Himself and that Noble Family so Dear Popery was to be Opposed it seems but not Basely or Inhumanely The Guards were not to be Massacred or Killed in their Beds But if the same thing in Effect might have been done Bravely and Sword in Hand I see nothing in this Paragraph to the contrary but that in substance it might have been Justifyed for BASELY and INHUMANLY are the Two only Exceptions that I find to the doing of it And they do Tacitly Imply a kind of Approbation of the Thing Provided it might have been done in a way of Reputative Generosity and Honour for here 's no Regard either Had or so much as Intimated in That Particular to the Laws either of God or of Man There follows indeed a kind of Restriction by way of a Salvo That the Proceeding ought to hold a Consistence with the Christian Religion and the Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom And where are we then If Julian the First and the Second If Apostates and the Common Bretrayers of Kings Masters and People shall be made the Judges of That Christian Religion Or Hunt and Ferguson the Arbitrators of our Common Rights Oh how I curse the First Minute that ever gave Admittance to any of these Mutinous and Sanguinary Levites any of these Popular or Seditious Boutefeus under the Roof of that Honourable House Hinâ— ille Lachrimae for That mistaken Principle was the Root of all this Evil And the Main Incentive I perswade my self to the doing of Many ill things by the Impulse of That Delusion Had not a Man better have a Cloven Foot in 's House then one of these Cloven Tongues The Devil Barefac'd puts a Man to his Prayers He Summons up his Resolutions and Implores a Powerful and a Merciful God for his Assistance with a Horrour all this while for the Character and the Company of his Seducer But in the Other Case a Man Abandons himself to the Impostor Consults no other Oracle but takes his Enemy into his Arms and Opens his Heart for the Spirit of Errour to Enter in and take Possession of him Pins his Faith upon the Sleeve of his Guide and Swallows the Ruin both of Body Soul and Estate with Greediness He takes the Broad Way for the Narrow c. God Deliver all Honest Men out of the Clutches of these Parasitical and Rapacious Hypocrites The Dictator of this Paper says that My Lord Examined all his Actings And truly so much the Worse if they were Examined by Applying them to False Rules and Measures And then he Vouches for the Syncerity of my Lords Heart which Syncerity avails little too if it be founded upon a wrong Principle And no Purgation at all neither of his Innocency in case of an Erroneous Judgment Now to Close this Remarque the whole Paragraph is Mystery and there may be Wrapt under it what Meaning soever the Reader shall find Reasonable to Impose upon it for a thing may be Contrary to the Laws both of Heaven and Earth and yet in His Sense neither Base nor Inhumane Julian and Hunt make that which the Law calls Rebellion to be Consistent with our Laws Liberties and Religion And then for the Examining of his Actings My Lords Monitor knows that Ravillac did as much and in his own Private