Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A60496
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The narrative of Mr. John Smith of Walworth ... containing a further discovery of the late horrid and popish-plot ...
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Smith, John, of Walworth.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing S4127; ESTC R15413
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45,689
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42
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mind after I became settled at Mr. Jenisons heightned my Abhorrency of them For it is an easier thing to divest a man of the Principles of Supernatural Revelation than to eradicate out of him the Principles of natural Religion We may be sooner brought to Renounce the Doctrines of Faith than the measures of Justice betwixt Man and Man And there are some who would more easily let go all the Articles upon which future Happiness depends then bid farewell to those Dictates of Natural Light upon which the Government of Kingdoms and the peace of Societies hang and bear And to deal freely as I sooner observed the falshood of the Romish Doctrines which relate to Magistrates than of those which concern Jesus Chrìst and Salvation by him so the conviction I was under of the Erroneousness of the former was that which led me first to examin then to doubt of and at last to renounce all the latter For as I plainly perceived that no man can be loyal to his Prince and faithfull to the Government he lives under and withall maintain the Universal Jurisdiction of the Pope viz. his right to Depose Kings and Absolve Subjects from their Allegiance so I suddenly came to understand that no one can be a Papist but he who holds them For to disclaim them is to disclaim both the Infallibility of the Pope and the Authority of General Councils which is in effect to abjure the whole Popish Religion as having no other foundation but the Decrees of Popes and Canons of Councils Being then settled as I intimated at Mr. Jenisons House and having called over all the Traiterous Positions I had heard the Jesuits teach and having found them agreeable unto and justified by their publick Writings I thereupon made it my business to exclude both all Jesuits and all other Priests Jesuitically inclined from coming to the said House or wheresoever else Mr. Jenison had to do For though I was not yet so far enlightned my self as to think of Converting that Family from being Papists yet I was resolved to preserve them from being Traytors and accordingly to hinder all such from coming among them who might infect them with Disloyal Principles section XXI Now during my abode there and my Converse with the Countrey about the first suspition I received of the Plot was an Vniversal Collection of Moneys which I observed to be made among the Papists I was my self sollicited by Mr. William Gascoyne and other Secular Priests to assist in it but I not only declined Cooperating in such a business but diswaded Mr. Jenison and all others I had the Conduct of from contributing Money upon any occasion 'T is true the Pretence was to repair the College of Doway which is penall by the Law should it be granted that the Money was so applyed but I have reason to apprehend that under the Umbrage of repairing a College they were providing for the Ruine of a Kingdom For the Collections were Universall in all the Northern Parts and not only the Gentry but most others of the Popish Religion in those Counties contributed their Proportions some to Five pounds some to Ten pounds and some to Twenty pounds He must be of a very shallow Understanding that can once imagine that so great Treasure as this would come to should be all sacrificed to the Repair of a College No it must have been some greater Design that so large a supply of ready Money was intended for I grant that my own refusing to assist in that Affair together with the Jealousies they had conceived of me for excluding all the Jesuits and such other Priests as were tainted with their Principles from admission into Mr. Jenisons House gave them sufficient reason to conceal the disposal of it from me But this I know that all the Moneys which were collected were either paid or to be paid to Mr. William Stephenson a Priest Though the many foregoing passages which I have truly reported section XX gave me full assurance of a Conspiracy against His Majesties Life and the Protestant Religion as by Law Established in these Nations yet I knew that it would have been morally impossible through the interest which the Papists had in Persons near His Majesty to get the Jesuits and much less the Romish Party Convicted upon this General and withall single Evidence And therefore I found it necessary for a season to conceal these things lest I should not only miscarry my self upon attempts to Detect them but withall enrage the Papists to precipitate their Designs upon the Sacred Life of the King However I resolved to be watchfull over all Opportunities whereby I might attain a more perfect insight into their Hellish and Mysterious Conspiracies And as in this interim the Plot came to be discovered by Mr. Oates so an occasion presented it self in a Conference thereupon betwixt Mr. Robert Jenison and me which not only contributed to my own more perfect satisfaction in reference to their Bloody Designs but hath given rise to Mr. Jenisons own Discovery And as it is convenient that the World should know the sense and tenor of that Discourse which past betwixt Mr. Jenison and me so I think it fittest to deliver it in the words of the Information which I gave in to one of His Majesties Justices of the Peace Middls West ss Part of the Information of John Smith of Walworth in the County Palatine of Durham Gentleman taken upon Oath the 8. day of September 1679. before me Edmund Warcup Esquire one of His Majesties Justices of the Peace in the said County and City THis Informant saith that Mr. Robert Jenison came to his Fathers House in September 1678. where after he had been some days Sr. Edward Smith came to Walworth and produced a Letter signifying a Discovery of a Popish Plot in London and upon enquiry who were in it Ireland and Whitebread were named About three or four days after which Mr. Robert Jenison before his Father Sisters and this Informant said he believed there was something of a Plot for that he had heard Mr. Ireland say 't was an easie matter to take off the King Whereupon this Informant asked him what that Ireland was Who answered he was a Jesuit and his Cousen And Mrs. Katherine Jenison his Sister asked when he saw Mr. Ireland Who answered a little before he came out of Town at his Lodging in Russel-street which was on the Day that himself came from Windsor and the same Day that Mr. Ireland came Post out of Staffordshire and that he then found him pulling off his Boots Mrs. Katherine Jenison then asked him how her Aunt in Staffordshire did Who replied Mr. Ireland said she was well and that he had been with her in Staffordshire at that time This Informant then asked him what a kind of Man Mr. Ireland was Who answered that he was a fine countenanced smiling Man and swore if he be Guilty of this Plot I will never trust a Smiling Man again Thereupon
the manage of publick Affairs which they not only aspired after but stood recommended unto Yet give me leave to say that there are some that have taken these Tests who notwithstanding continue still Votaries to the Church of Rome and are only Protestants in Masquerade For as it was for the Credit of the Roman Church that some should rather resign their employes and places than renounce the Papal Jurisdiction or any part of the Tridentine Faith so it being their interest at least for a while to have it concealed what persons universally were Papists and it being also for their advantage to have some of their Party continued in publick Offices without suspicion of their Religion the better to promote their further designs they have accordingly made provision for the one as well as the other And as the losses which some of the party have appeared willing to undergo upon the Foregoing occasion have served to enhance the reputation of their Church so others being best qualified by their taking the Tests for the enjoying Preferments and Revenues under the present Government are not only Spies upon the Councils of the Nation but Vipers nourished with the profits of the Land to betray and undermine the Government And whereas some may think that no person cordial in any Religion should for Secular accommodations and worldly Advantages offend against God and indanger their own Souls by Renouncing their Faith and forswearing that upon which they superstruct all their hopes for Salvation The Church of Rome hath by more methods than one secured such not only from all fear and hazard of future wrath but from all danger of sinning against God by so doing And as to this purpose the Doctrines of Papal Absolution and Indulgence are admirably suited supposing their should be sin in such a case so the Doctrines of Equivocation Mental Reservation and Authoritative Dispensations are no less calculated for preserving them from all Guilt notwithstanding their taking the Oaths and making the Declarations which the Law requires Having now made these happy proceeds as they thought towards the section XI overthrow of the Protestant Religion and the Established Government there remained only for the Accomplishment of these and all other their Execrable Designs but the destroying the Life of the King And there are these ensuing Reasons which not only justifie such endeavours in all that are furnished with Evidence for the making a further detection but which do indispensably oblige them not to conceal any thing that may serve to unravel and unvail the Conspiracy 1. The vindication of the Justice of the Nation on those Traitors that have suffered doth bespeak and require this at every mans hand For though the utmost Candor imaginable was extended to the Criminals and the stricktest scrutiny by interrogations in favour of the Malefactors exercised towards the Kings Witnesses and the several Juries that were Impannelled for their Tryal were of the most knowing honoured and Impartial Persons that either the City of London or the neighbouring County could afford yet all these have not been sufficient to prevent the arraignment of the Justice of the Kingdom for Condemning those Conspirators For not to mention what their surviving Friends do as falsly as reproachfully give out in favour of their Innocency in all Companies the very Press almost to the Ignominy of the Government that suffereth it hath swarmed with Pamphlets in justification of their having died Guiltless Such Pamphlets are the Letter to both Houses the sober and seasonable Queries in order to the Choice of the New Parliament the second Edition with Additions c. The Jesuits Plea in answer to a Letter entituled Lying allowable with the Papists to deceive Protestants The Plot of the Papists to transform Traitors into Martyrs The Compendium of the late Tryals in relation to the present Plot besides divers other Prints equally scurrilous as well as filled with pernicious Reflections upon the Honour and Justice of the Nation so that every man of Sense is surprised at their impudence and every person of Loyalty roused to a zeal of vindicating the King and Kingdom from the obloquies of Injustice cast upon them And though the Kings Witnesses do intend publickly to vindicate themselves from the Calumnies with which they are aspersed and will I doubt not perform it both to the universal satisfaction of the Nation and the utter confusion of their Adversaries yet let me offer these two or three Remarks upon the foregoing Pamphlets which I judge not only sufficient to baffle them but eternally to expose them to contempt as so many infamous Libels First then what credit ought to be given to him that shall dare publish in the view of all the Nation That not one Person accused in this pretended Conspiracy did either fly or abscond except only the Priests who were obnoxious to the Law for their Priesthood when in the mean time besides many others of all ranks and qualities who upon their being some of them accused and others suspected have withdrawn themselves the four Villains who are charged for conspiring to Assassinate the King do notwithstanding his Royal Proclamation requiring their appearance either by flight or concealment absent themselves Secondly who pretending to be either a good Christian or a faithfull Subject can have any Faith for such a person who is not afraid no more than ashamed openly thus to slander the King himself namely That though he be both most concerned and has had the best opportunities of examining the Discovery of the Plot yet he is so far from believing it that he openly laughs at it Vile Impostor that dares thus accuse the King both to the World and his own People How often hath His Majesty told us in his Royal Proclamations that he is fully convinced of a Hellish and Popish Conspiracy against his own Person the Protestant Religion and the Government And yet this impudent Generation of Romish Votaries do not blush to affirm that He laughs at it as a fabulous and Romantick Story Doth not the King in his Proclamation Octob. 30. 1678. call it a Bloody and Traiterous design of Popish Recusants against his Majesties Person and Government and the Protestant Religion And doth he not by his Proclamation Nov. 20. 1678. declare that the Popish Priests and Jesuits lurking within this Realm have contrived and set on foot divers traiterous Plots and Designs against His Majesty his Government and the Protestant Religion by Law Established And doth he not also by his Proclamation for a Fast March 28. 1679. declare that through the impious and malicious Conspiracies of the Popish Party there is a Plot not only intended to the Destruction of his Royal Person but the total Subversion of the Government and of the true Protestant Religion within the Realm by Law Established And doth not my Lord Chancellor in his Speech to both Houses of Parliament March the 6. 1678 9. assures us That his Majesties Royal Person hath been